If you’ve read through all of your books and are looking for something else to feast your eyes on, yet are in the same boat as everyone else — can’t afford to buy books and the libraries are closed, I have a list of classics for you. The beauty, you can read them for free. Another hint for library card holders, most libraries have an app you can log into to read ebooks.
Yes. I know this title can sound one of two ways… a bit sexy time with yourself or a bit hippy dippy. This blog post is leaning more to the latter. Sorry to disappoint those who were hoping for the former. You do what you gotta do!
Yoga Yes, I’m talking about yoga… again. Seriously, if you aren’t already doing it, do it! There are so many benefits to doing yoga every, single day. Your health improves, you get physically stronger, you tone your body, build muscle and flexibility. On top of that, it is really good for your mental well being.
Yoga With Adriene has amazing beginner videos. I’ve been doing yoga for years off and on (now permanently on) and every once in a while, I will go back and do some beginner yoga videos to make sure I’m doing the basics right. Here is a great video I did today.
Mediation A great way to ground yourself, to start to clear the cobwebs out of your head and to help move out those negative thoughts. It can be hard in the beginning to concentrate, but trust me, it gets easier.
Learn Tarot I have friends that do a card pull every single day. It helps to ground them. They also use the cards for meditation. Some of them do readings online (professionally) and if you want to get in touch with one of them let me know. Otherwise, you can learn how to do Tarot basics on your own. You can try free online courses or do a paid course by a Tarot professional such as Liz Worth. I have links below for both.
Journal A great way to relieve stress and get things off your mind or chest is to journal. You could do it old style and get one with a lock and key (anyone getting flashbacks of catching your little brother or sister trying to open your diary), or just use one of the many journals you have laying around. You know, the ones you keep buying because you have always planned on writing a journal and you did it for two days and stopped. Did I call a few of you out. 😉
If you aren’t comfortable writing about how you are feeling, you could also make it about the things you are observing around you. Or, just use it as a way to put down a flowing of words. Write poems, dirty limericks. Just write something.
Kindness and Mindfulness We go through life being conscious (I hope you are) that we need to show kindness and mindfulness to others, yet, we tend to forget to do this for ourselves. Before this Twilight Zone episode that is now our lives started, most lived fast paced lives, never taking time for themselves. Now that everything has come to a halt, we have no choice other than to slow down. That however, doesn’t mean spending all of your time sitting on a couch watching Netflix. Do one or all of the things I listed above and in addition to that, take a long bath, start reading through that pile of books you keep meaning to get to. Give yourself a home spa day. Paint your toenails. Take an actual shower and dress-up! Sing a song at the top of your lungs, even if you can’t sing. Do good things for yourself.
Sewing has always been a skill I am really glad I have. I’ve went through phases of doing it as a hobby or doing it as a way to make extra money. These days a lot of people are pulling their machines out of the closet, dusting it off and putting it to work. But, and there is always a but, some of those machines have been sitting there for years and that means, before you use it, it needs to be cleaned and oiled! In a regular situation, you would take it to a sewing machine repair person and have it done, but in times like these, you are going to need to do it yourself. Additionally, you really should be cleaning your machine every time you use it.
Now, before you start yelling at me, there are three levels of cleaning. The every time you sew cleaning is basically blowing the lint out of your machine and can be done with canned air. I do right before I sew. All kinds of lint from your thread and material get inside the presser foot and throat plate and bobbin case and can cause issues.
Then there is level two. In this level, you remove the presser foot and throat plate and the bobbin case. You again give it a good cleaning with canned air AND oil all accessible moving parts with sewing machine oil.
Level three is when you take it in for yearly maintenance.
For level one and two, I am including links below for tutorials on how to do it yourself. Everyone’s machine is different and because of this, please also refer to your machines manual. If you don’t have the manual try looking for it via google. Unless your machine is a hundred years old, then… I don’t what to tell you. Though in those cases, it will likely be a treadle machine and I know there are specialists out there for that too!
Yeast. Another unicorn. Especially fast acting yeast. Along with flour, it has disappeared from shelves. However, there is a solution, you just need to put a wee bit of work into it. But once you have made the initial yeast, you will always have yeast. What the hell am I talking about? This wonderful thing called a sourdough starter/wild yeast.
How To Make A Sour Dough Starterand How To Maintain It
This is a really good article on how to make your own starter/wild yeast. The one thing I would change about this recipe is use rye flour. You will end up with a much stronger starter and a better flavour. I originally tried using all purpose flour when I originally tried to make my own starter and it didn’t work. You really need a good whole grain. Spelt also works well, but rye has produced the best starter and bread for me.
In a world where the things we need, especially food, are no longer readily available, I thought I would start a second series called Hack It. Today I am going to post about flour.
Currently, buying flour is like trying to find a real life unicorn. Trying to buy specialty flours of any kind — good fucking luck! Seriously, good luck. I’ve come up with a list of ways to make your own. Read on!
As someone who has been making her own bread for years, both in a bread machine and traditional sourdough, I go through a lot of bread flour. Right now, because of the pandemic, everyone and their uncles cousin have decided to do the same and because of this, there is ZERO bread flour on the shelves. Until recently, even all purpose flour was hard to find. I have noticed it returning to grocery shelves. However, I still need bread flour. Solution, I will make it my own damn self.
I thought it would be helpful to not only add recipes and links to make specialty flours, I am also including how to make your own flour.
Bread Flour Recipe
If you plan on making sour dough or breadmachine bread, you really need bread flour.
Measure out 1 cup all-purpose flour (4 1/2 ounces or 129 grams).
Many biscuit recipes call for this kind of flour. The occasional cake recipe does as well.
1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Whisk or sift to combine.
How To Make Flour
Making your own flour is actually really easy, especially if you have a blender. You can also use a coffee bean blender, you will just need to do it in smaller batches. I’ve made my own flour before using wheat berries or oats, but you can use many different grains, depending on the type of flour you want. Here is a link to a really helpful article about how to do it yourself.
Place nuts, skins removed, into a food processor or a high speed blender blender with a pulse option. Pulse until it becomes a fine, flour-like texture. Make sure you don’t over-pulse, or you’ll end up with nut butter, which in my opinion is a win, win kinda mistake.
I can’t wait until the weather is warmer and we can finally break out the bat detector and head out for our nightly bat walks. I absolutely love bats and last summer I blogged about it when we went out. I also added information about bats in each post. I will do the same again this year. If you want to read about our adventures and learn about bats, I have provided all of the links below!
I’ve always been madly in love with Pre-Code movies and their sassy dames! I am channelling them right now, especially Barbara Stanwyck. These women were tough, innovative, creative, resourceful and sassy. The dialogue in these movies is magical and the stories intriguing and inspiring. They are a great distraction in a time where we need to take our minds off what is going on. Below are some of my favourite blogs and I’ve listed movies you can find on YouTube.
The time we are living in right now, reminds me of movies and documentaries from the Great Depression, up until the 1950s when families would all be around the large radio listening to radio plays together. I’ve always loved Old Time Radio shows and plays and have been listening to them so long that I actually don’t remember when I started listening to them. I also have a first draft of a radio play I wrote a few years ago. I need to dig it out, finish it and it might be time to start recording our own!
Here is a list of some of my favourite radio plays and channels.
Fermented food is good for you and especially your gut health. Additionally, it lasts for a long time, you can make large batches of it AND if need be, you can trade your extra jars for other necessities. Plus, you are creating a living food and it’s a hell of a lot of fun!
Being stuck at home, doesn’t mean that you need to spend 75% of your time on the couch and 25% of your time sleeping. Take this time to learn something new. The other day I saw a butterfly and now I’m reading up on butterflies. If you love bats, last summer I did several blog posts about going out nightly with my bat detector. You could also pick a historical figure and learn about them. Learn how to build a model plane, train or action figure. Read up on science type things. Keep your brain active! Below is are a few of the things I’m doing!
Butterflies One of the most beautiful things to see is a butterfly. It signifies hope, warmer weather and new life. Butterflies start out as caterpillars and after hibernating, because floating works of art. Below are a few links so you can also read up on them.
Nell Shipman was a Canadian actress, author, screenwriter, producer, director, and animal activist/trainer. Her works often had autobiographical elements to them and reflected her passion for nature. Recently, we watched her movie Back to God’s Country.It was glorious. She was glorious!
Cross-stitch isn’t really a new thing for me, rather I’m relearning how to do it. I want to make art with it as well as embellish the clothing I make. Also, it’s a lot of fun!
Container gardening is a great way to grow your own food, especially if you live in an apartment with a balcony. When I had a balcony I great a bunch of my own veggies and herbs. I loved planting them in the spring and watching them grow. Considering everything going on, learning how to grow your own food is a great asset and skill to have.
Soapmaking is a great way to make your own bath products, but a fun thing to do with your kids as well. Once upon a time I ran a small business that made bath products and bars of soap was one of the products. Again, this is a skill I am relearning.
Drawing Lessons After years of not drawing, (I used to sketch and draw everyday) I picked up the pencils again about a year ago. Recently, I did a 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge and man o man do I need to relearn a lot! I’ve been doing a few online tutorials to help me get better again.
Silk Screening is another skill I need to relearn for both art projects and to make merchandise! I used to make my own t-shirts for a feminist website I used to run in the late 90s and it’s time to get back at silk screening.
We’re just inviting you to take a timeout into the rhythmic ambiance of our breakfast, brunch and/or coffee selections. We are happy whenever you stop by.
Lizzie Violet 