Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Ugly Brown Sweater

Seinfeld makes a reference to having the perfect shirt and his "golden boy" shirt is the one he likes the best, wears first, and is always in rotation. This is a post in homage to my "golden boy" sweater, also known fondly as The Ugly Brown Sweater!

Have you ever had a perfect piece of clothing? One that you just love to wear? I have the perfect sweater. It's sleeves are just the right length. When it comes out of the dryer the cuffs are the perfect width and when I push them up they stay up. It's weight is perfect. It's texture is perfect. The way it feels on a brisk morning, rainy afternoon, or chilly evening is perfect. The size of the knit is perfect, not so dense that it's too heavy but also not so loose that it catches on things. The way it feels when I put it on is cozy and comfortable. It has a v-neck which I love! Some of my fondest memories were made while I was wearing this sweater. About 4 years of my life have been lived in this sweater. In essence, this is the one thing that I feel most comfortable in and if I could wear it all day, every day I would. If I could change only one thing about it I would change the color...it unfortunately was the color of baby poo. I say "was" because this sweater has been through the literal wringer and with so much love it has been every color from Hershey squirts to day-after-Pepto-black-poop to newborn diarrhea yellow.

Here is a little pictoral timeline through the colors and styles of The Ugly Brown(ish) Sweater. Enjoy!


The Early Days:
Enjoying the desert flowers with a milk chocolate sweater to ward off the mountain breezes.


At the tide pools and trying unsuccessfully to look intelligent,
not to worry though The Sweater is saving me from unpleasant seawater.


With a sweet friend in a poop brown sweater, luckily she rocks the outdooor chic much better.



Transitional Stage:
This is really the height of the ugly brown color


By the time this picture was, I have loved it so much that it has faded into a light khaki.



Mid-Life Crisis:
Don't worry! I dyed it brown again.


The brown stayed for about a year and then started to fade again.



The Dark Ages:
About a year later, I dyed it black for a change.
My students were amazed that I had two ugly sweaters in different colors....fifth graders a awesome fashion critics.


By this time this picture was taken, the black had faded mostly, expect out of the sleeves and the bottom.
This picture was about a year ago, after that The Sweater took a turn for the worse, it had begun to fade rapidly and not in an even pattern. It turned into a horrible striped pattern between khaki poop, poop, and dark poop. It was at this point my friends had an intervention, their bottom line was that I could no longer wear it in public but they also wouldn't purposely try to assassinate it (I think there was a foul plot afoot involving an accident and a sharp pair of scissors).



An Oldie but a Goldie:
In a last ditch effort to save the love of my life I used Rit Dye Remover and it turned into this odd color. I was expecting it to go back to brown but instead it changed to what I like to call "Prairie Meadow Gold" but what is now know to most as The Ugly Yellow Sweater.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Blood Orange Marmalde....errr I mean Blood Orange Ice Cream Topping

Blood oranges were 88 cents a pound at Henry's the other day. I was inspired to once again undertake the madness that is making blood orange marmalade. I can't describe why I like it so much...I think it's the color and the novelty.

As with most jams, jellies, and marmalade love is the first ingredient....here is the recipe I followed (http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/surejell-orange-marmalade-52014.aspx). What I mean by followed is read it once and then tried it from memory...hence the syrup and not the marmalade. Apparently sugar and pectin are not interchangeable.

I took some pictures of the process...I got a little busy towards the end and didn't take many pictures during the exciting parts (not to worry I have 2 more batches to make in the freezer and will not be so distracted that I forget the most important part...the pictures!)


The worst part is sterilizing the jars and lids...I always a third degree burn that melts flesh off.


Here are the cute little oranges and some lemons ready to be sacrifice to the marmalade gods.


Cover your eyes...they're naked!


The carcasses that are to be discarded.


The rinds ready to be cut up.


After a long nights work-such little slivers of peel.


How mesmerizing....the swirl of deliciousness.


Looks disgusting, but it smells awesome.


This is when the smell is out-of-this-world!
I just want to bottle it up and save it for gloomy days....it smells like happiness.


The chopped up fruit bits ready to go for a swim in the rind jacuzzi.


Finally all together and simmering for quite a while.
This makes the fruit/pulp mass that you mix with pectin and sugar (in that order!)


If you have read to here then you deserve a treat! E-mail me or facebook me and you could be the proud new owner of your very own jar of blood orange ice cream topping/pancake syrup/whatever else you could use a slightly runny version of marmalade for!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Layoffs, Ides of March, and Another Happy List

Bottlebrush with dew taken at my school

I was laid off today or as my dad calls it, "Liberation!". Either way I am fine with it. I like being a teacher but it isn't the beginning or end of who I am. I decided that there would be no better time to stop and make a list of the things I am in love with right now then, well...right now! Here goes nothing (also you should stop reading now if you are tired of my happy lists because clearly your heart is three sizes too small!)

A Happy List for Being Laid Off:
-The new, improved, enlarged garden!
-The little baby poppies coming up everywhere I turn around
-When I hear tiny, little, 2nd grade voices saying things that I say, like: "Is that helping our class?" "We're not talking about dinosaurs right now, we are talking about fractions-that is irrelevant." "Whose jacket is this, I am not your mother!" (all of these hilarious when said dead serious sometimes accompanied by hands on hips).
-Early morning hikes in the desert
-Camping with friends
-Cheddarwursts over a fire with some hard apple cider
-The tadpoles finally turning into frogs
-Blood orange ice cream syrup (heads up for a blog about this disaster)
-Krakatoa's fresh squeezed orange juice
-Playing Puerto Rico with friends
-Daydreaming about my upcoming Costa Rica trip and all the photographing that will be done
-Tiny Wings app on my iPhone
-Students moving up reading levels...how exciting to see kids go from struggling readers to fluent readers!
-Blood orange cosmos
-The little baby asparagus that are starting to grow
-Sugar snap peas straight off the vine
-My Etsy account (http://www.etsy.com/shop/PepperTreePrints?ref=si_shop)
-Working in Adobe Lightroom 3 with some photos...see them at the Etsy store (is this shameless self-promotion?)
-Shameless self-promotion :)
-Brisk morning and warm afternoons
-Another hour of daylight to play outside in
-Playing Words with Friends with far away friends
-The Hillcrest Farmer's Market and the people watching opportunity it presents
-Daydreaming about what my next career will be

I added a few pictures of my favorite things too!


A funny little eraser face I found in a pencil box...
I wonder who was doing this and not paying attention to my droning on and on?


The logo for my Etsy store that I painted myself!


The daisies by our mailbox.


A letter one of my students wrote. Translation below:
Dear Ms. Aldrich,
A love you, and
you are so pretty.
And (your) eyes are pretty.
And (your) hair is so pretty.


Possibly the worst picture of the digestive system ever...
I'm not sure how the small intestine attaches to the heart
or why there are no veins/arteries in the legs.


A ranuncula in our garden


A picture on my drive home from camping



A poppy from the Hillcrest FarMar