emlocke

Category: Crafts & Projects

  • How to Clean Your Stainless Steel Flask

    . . . That You Really Love Because You Got it in New Zealand

    1. Text your friend, Lil’ Jay, with whom you have been discussing flasks: My flask smells revolting. How do you clean a flask?

    2. Wait for her reply: [My fiance] says, “What do you mean ‘how do you clean a flask?’ You Google ‘how to clean a flask!”

    3. Wait for the addendum: He Googled it for you.  Salt water or a little bleach in water.

    4. Leave putrid flask out on the kitchen counter for one week, or until your roommate asks if there is any particular reason that your putrid flask is out on the kitchen counter.

    5. Poke around in the cabinets, trying to remember what Lil’ Jay’s fiance’s Google search results suggested, until you find some white vinegar and baking soda and think, “Oh, yeah, that might have been it.”

    7. Dribble some vinegar and a little bit of warm water into the flask.

    8. Use the heart-shaped teaspoon your grandmother gave you for Valentine’s Day to scoop 1 tsp. baking soda into the flask.

    9. Screw the cap closed and shake vigorously.

    10. Listen to the fizzing.

    11. Shake vigorouslier.

    12. Listen to more fizzing.

    13. Empty the flask. Rinse thoroughly with warm water.

    14. Check old text messages and see that Lil’ Jay’s fiance actually suggested salt water and bleach, not vinegar or baking soda.

    15. Google it yourself and find these great instructions for cleaning a stainless steel travel coffee mug (almost the same thing, yes?) with baking soda, boiling water, and white or cider vinegar on Good Housekeeping‘s website.

    I bet Lil’ Jay’s fiance hasn’t even heard of Heloise and her hints, hmpfh!

    flaskpjpocket

    16. Take a picture to show how well your sparkling and squeaky clean flask fits in the pocket of your pajama pants!

    17. Feel silly.

    18. Post it on the internet anyway.

  • Compliments of The Elves

    I couldn’t believe what a challenge it was to find a photographic image of a Santa Claus hat with a transparant background to edit on to the heads of family, friends, pets, or celebrities in digital pictures, so I’d like to share the one that I created for just that purpose.

    (more…)

  • This is what I see on the way out of my bedroom

    One thing I have tried to do in my apartment, both out of necessity and desire is decorate and accessorize with objects and images that look beautiful to me even if they aren’t high art.

    This is the north wall-lette of my bedroom. It’s pretty narrow (the door is just to the right) and impeded by both the radiator and the light switch. It also gets a lot of sun through the three large windows on the front wall.

    I didn’t want to hang a print here because it might fade from exposure. It would have been awkward to place one individual item with the light switch in the way of any symmetry.

    The first thing I did was change out the switch plate. The gold one that was here when I moved in clashed with the silver coating on the radiator. I don’t think my landlord thinks himself an interior designer, but hello! That’s a catastrophic aesthetic error. I bought the matte white switch plate at Target or Home Depot for less than three dollars. I couldn’t have any distraction from the aged Victorian radiator.

    The zinc letter E is from, yes, Anthropologie‘s monogram collection (8″ high, $18; 25″ high, $98). I staked out two different stores for two weeks until I found one with perfect texture imperfections. I really like the “drop-shadow” it casts on the wall in the early afternoon.

    I got those four silver frames on clearance at Urban Outfitters last winter. They were meant to be magnetic, but the tiny disc magnets on the back had all popped either out or in leaving holes—which happened to be perfect for hanging on flathead nails. I think I spent about $10.82 on two sets of two. They are very lightweight and I wouldn’t want anybody from Antiques Roadshow to see how faux they look up close, but I love the baroque-y shape.

    I’m really crazy about what’s in the frames, though, and this is where the “use whatever looks beautiful” philosophy comes in. I replaced the halftone portraits of Ghandi with images clipped out of catalogs. You can decorate more than the coffee table with junk mail!

    On the left is a deep purple velvet tufted chair that I saw in an Urban Outfitters catalog. I cut it in two, so it’s pretty obvious what’s in the photo if you look at just the top half, but the bottom half is meaningless without it’s mate. On the right is a scrap from a J. Crew catalog. They did a photoshoot with lots of distressed furniture in a pristine living room, and one model posed beside this slender, white table with peeling paint and a chandelier on its side on the table top.

    On their own, none of the framed clippings would mean much. Even as a set they don’t really convey a distinct message other than, “This is Emily’s aesthetic style, and since she can’t afford any upholstered furniture or a chandelier and she doesn’t have room for furniture that serves only one purpose, she decorates with pictures of all of those things.”

  • Brewing

    My cousin is in town this weekend and we have spent our time seeing 27 Dresses, discussing the power of positive mental attitude coaching from The Secret, and confessing the crowning indiscretions of our youth. Marie is always on my side—she commends my strength but validates my weaknesses. We high-five each other all around.

    She told me this whole gossipy narrative about me as filtered through my mom, to our grandmother, to her mom and back to us. She said that the moral of the story came down to, “it was all on Emily’s terms,” and Marie said, “Well I’m sure it was!” Like, tell her something she doesn’t know. High five for that.

    Last night, we had dinner at Rice Thai Kitchen on 7th avenue, which is celebrating its twelfth anniversary with a 50% off special. We each ordered a glass of Thai Iced Tea, which is a sweet drink with a comforting spice. It’s served a little like a tequila sunset, with a creamy layer that hovers atop the crushed ice and tea.

    It would be easy to replicate with chilled black tea brewed strong, maybe with two bags, a little cinnamon and sweetened condensed milk or half and half. Twinnings makes a loose Ceylon Orange Pekoe (it comes in a dashing little tin) and a bagged black Ceylon tea. CurrySimple, a mailorder Thai food supplier, makes a real Thai tea syrup concentrate and has a pictorial of the process online.

    Apparently, the beverage is served in a plastic bag with a straw on the street in Thailand. I’m trying to picture how that would fly on the streets and subways in New York, where we really depend on our cans and cups and bottles.

    Whenever I have something with condensed milk, I think about manjar or dulce de leche, which means “milk candy.” It’s a creamy, caramel sauce that’s popular in Latin America. I spread it on pancakes, toast, sweet crackers and sometimes just my fingers when I went to Chile. It comes in a jar there, but you can make it on the stove top.

    1 quart whole milk
    1 cup white sugar
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1/4 teaspoon baking soda

    Bring milk, sugar, and vanilla extract to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and continue cooking, and continuously stirring until the milk has thickened and turned a caramel color, about 1 hour. Stir in baking soda. Continue cooking until the milk has reached a pudding consistency. Pour manjar into a bowl and cool completely in the refrigerator.

    I’ve heard that you can also whip this up with nothing but a can of sweetened condensed milk submerged in a pan of simmering water for three hours, but that sort of sounds like a science experiment and I’m not asking for any explosive disasters in my little kitchen.

  • Tulip

    tulip

    Tulip
    Originally uploaded by EmLocke12.

    This stuffed elephant, from an old, old, old book called Splendid Soft Toys, was my project for the week.

    This book is so old, it was published before there were copy machines to make pattern enlargement quick and painless. She was actually supposed to be larger, but I had to scale down because I didn’t have paper big enough to copy the pattern (on a grid).

    I embroidered her eyes –that was fun. And she has a ‘t’ on one foot. The foot pads were the hardest part.

    She doesn’t stand up on her own because her trunk is a little longer than her legs. Maybe she’ll grow into it! For now, she is good for hugs.

    My other project this week was to finish my applications to summer graduate programs in publishing. Now I’ll be hugging Tulip for good luck.

  • Giving Thanks

    At Thanksgiving, I remember one year in high school, eating cold creamed onions in my grandmother’s dark kitchen, sitting awake late into the night in front of AOL with my cousin Marie.

    This year, the day began with three inches of snow and ended with berry crumble from my grandmother*. In the middle, I ate Thanksgiving dinner in jeans that I haven’t been able to wear since the summer after I graduated high school.

    After I had folded white paper napkins neatly and lay them out on the table, my mom insisted on taking them back and sent me for the nice cloth napkins. The dark green did not go with the blue placemats I’d set out earlier, but I was not going to ask questions when the woman was brandishing the carving knife. When we sat down to dinner, my mom somehow managed to say grace even as she bit back fits of giggles at the motley table I’d set. My grandmother just kept saying, “This is the new style, nothing is supposed to match.” The dog stared at the leftover turkey without blinking for four whole minutes.

    * Not to be confused with this Applejack Cobbler recipe for a Thanksgiving themed cocktail, featured today in the NYT.

    November 23, 2005
    Adapted from the Pegu Club

    1 cup sugar
    12 ounces cranberries, washed and picked over
    1 orange slice 1¼-inch thick, cut in half
    2 ounces applejack
    1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
    1/2 ounce apple schnapps
    2 dashes of Angostura bitters
    1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses.

    1. For the cranberries: add sugar to 1 cup water in heavy-duty pot and simmer over low heat until sugar dissolves. Add cranberries, and stir frequently until berries are soft, about 10 minutes. Cool before making cocktails, which require about two tablespoons per drink. (The rest can be used as sauce or refrigerated for several weeks.)

    2. To make one cocktail, put two tablespoons of softened cranberries (about an ounce) and orange slices in a cocktail shaker and muddle together. Add ice, then remaining ingredients. Shake vigorously and pour into a cocktail glass.

    3. Garnish with something decorative, like an edible flower, an orange twist or a gooseberry with skin peeled back.

    Yield: One drink.

    Multiply recipe as needed for family events.

  • Maybe My Second-Ever Entry About Crafts


    Lamp Close-Up
    Originally uploaded by EmLocke12.

    I bought the lamp and shade at IKEA for about $11, and 30″ of beaded trim for around $3, and this is what I ended up with! The light really catches the faceted beads just like I wanted it to. There are a couple of spots where the ribbon didn’t stick smoothly along the edge. I’m going to have to fix that because the imperfections are distracting when I’m pretending to study.

    Some of the beads won’t hang straight either, depending on how tautly I pulled the ribbon in an effort to straighten it out. The fifth strand from the left is just a lone wolf. All of its neighbors hang in orderly rows, but that one warps out and curves at the end. It insists on defying gravity.


    New Bag
    Originally uploaded by EmLocke12.

    I have about two inches of the tail of the trim left over, with five strands of beads on it. I’m thinking about cutting off the faceted ones and sewing them on to my new ‘evening bag’ in place of the lame white doughnut beads, which totally don’t go with the gothic class of the gold stitching and emerald [faux] silk. Unfortunately, I need nine replacements, not five.

  • Grill Lines

    Feeling guilty for eating absolutely nothing festive yesterday, I was determined to grill vegetable kebabs for dinner last night. I used sliced zucchini and summer squash, chopped red and green peppers (capsicum, as they say in New Zealand), wedges of onion, and mushrooms to cap off the end of each skewer. Don’t cut any of the pieces too small, or they’ll dangle off the skewer and right into the fiery depths of the grill! I envision orange or yellow peppers and maybe some eggplant in the mix for future attempts at colorful and symmetrical patterns. It’s all about the marinade. Well, it’s about fresh veggies grilled over charcoal, but the marinade is runner up.

    Marinade:
    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    1 teaspoon chili powder
    1/2 teaspoon paprika
    1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
    1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
    3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
    2 tablespoons water
    2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
    2 tablespoons tomato paste
    1 1/2 teaspoons honey
    2 cloves garlic, minced
    Salt, to taste

    Brush it on to both sides of each skewer and grill ’em for 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they’re lightly browned, tender and you see those grill lines. Here are ours right after they hit the grill.

    “When somebody loves you, it’s no good unless he loves you all the way” – Sinatra

  • if summer were a fruit

    it would be a strawberry. i love those fragrant, fleshy fruits. this morning i made the most delicious strawberry smoothie (the french consider the strawberry an aphrodisiac, you know) for breakfast and i swear i could smell and taste summer even after i’d washed the blender. it got me thinking about vacationing in belgium (the world capital of strawberries) or mansikkala, finland (which means ‘the place of the strawberry’ in finnish) or in strawberry, ca. for those with watering mouths, the recipe:

    summer in your mouth – a delightful strawberry smoothie (4 servings)

    16 fresh strawberries, hulled
    1 cup skim milk
    1 cup vanilla yogurt
    1/4 cup white sugar
    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    12 cubes ice, crushed

    in a blender, combine strawberries, milk, yogurt, sugar and vanilla. toss in the ice. blend until smooooth and creamy. pour into glasses and serve. (em locke’s summer fun tip: sip it through a twisty straw)

    quote of the day: “pick out your favorite traveling music, ’cause we are headed for the sun…take me away, take me away” – flying lessons

  • fa-fa-fa-feeling crafty

    this week has been productive in many ways. domestically, i have washed, dried, folded and distributed enough laundry to clothe my family for two weeks, grocery shopped, post officed twice, and baked brownies. yeah, mom let me play in the kitchen, even though i was officially banished after i decimated two consecutive batches of slice & bake cookies. my brownies were so successful that i may consider attempting jello later on this week. watch yourself!

    organizationally, i have been inspired by my new favorite show, tlc’s clean sweep. catharsis is my middle name. i went through drawers and shelves and shoe boxes and suddenly discovered a new perspective on what ugly pants and skirts and shoes i have been collecting over the years. i had a couple of ‘what was i thinking?’ moments and sent it all off to goodwill. and then i put everything else on matching hangers. there’s nothing i hate more than the moral dilemna of giving away books. i used to cry for hours before our annual girl scout book exchanges. but i filled a whole shopping bag with old books to give away. and it just occurred to me, that only leaves room for new books, like the wonderful, treasured autographed copy of beloved that chelsea gave me for christmas.

    by far, my best project was tackling my photograph drawer. i bought two black photo boxes with silver label frame and started sorting through all those pictures. of course, there were plenty to throw away; people whose names i don’t remember or who i don’t care to remember, fuzzy pictures of nameless landscapes, and a few copies of the random portrait of the kitchen sink in my old house (this one seems to haunt me.) some of the best photos were early birthday parties, where my dad wore pointy paper hats, ballet classes and recitals and our first trip to long beach island. with a little help identifying dates (thanks to mom and to meryl!) i turned a whole drawer of scattered photos into a classy, chronological box. and while we’re at it, let’s reminisce about what an adorable baby i was.

    in crafts, i used leftover fabric from my duvet cover to reupholster a french memo board that i loved, but didn’t match my room. i got to use a staple gun, my hammer and nails, new ribbon and, best of all, the hot glue gun! and now it’s purple and glittery and is the perfect display spot for some old pictures of yours truly. what else?

    this weekend, my whole family sat down to watch lord of the rings. it was a two-night event here in the family room. dramatic, suspenseful, thrilling, yes. cinematographic and stunning, of course. scary? you’re telling me! so i haven’t been sold on the lord of the rings phenomenon yet. but i did discover that my elvish name is itarildë séregon. i can’t promise that i’ll answer to that.

    quote of the day: “in answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.” – edward p. tryon