Vocabulary Volume #7

I finished The Best American Essays today ! A few were a little tough to push through due to obscure subject matter of only marginal interest to me, but most of the essays were incredibly thought-provoking and full of interesting trivia, humor, and well-written quips.

Here is the last of the new words I learned from the anthology.

excoriate: (v) to criticize severely, to damage the surface of something

neocons: (n) short for neoconservative, a term first used in the 30s

mendacity: (n) falsehood, lies
          (not to be confused with)
mendicancy: (n) state of being a beggar

encyclical: (n) papal letter sent to Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church

metier: (n) a talent or asset, forte

exiguous: (adj) very small in amount, scant, meager

emphysema: (n) disease of the lungs causing breathlessness

pugilist: (n) professional boxer

kippers: (n) a type of cured, salted, and dried fish

Vocabulary Volume #6

Some words taken from the anthology The Best American Essays, a book I purchased for a class, read one chapter out of, and never touched again. I've been trying to read one essay per day, and here are a few words I have gleaned from doing so.

sui generis: (adj) of its' own kind, unique in its characteristics

lacunae: (n) an unfilled space or interval, a gap

sisyphean: (adj) used to describe an impossible task, seemingly endless or futile

rood: (adj) another word for crucifix

appellation: (n) a uniquely identifying title or name

pleiad: (n) a brilliant and talented group, traditionally consisting of seven members (from the Greek Pleiades)

caliph: (n) an Islamic leader

sericulture: (n) the raising and breeding of silkworms for the production of raw silk

rubaiyat: (n) quatrains in poetry (in Middle Eastern writings)

schismatic: (n) one who engages in schism (breach of union in a religious group or sect)

DIY Rice Pocket Handwarmers!

My blog is undergoing an identity crisis again and today it is going to be a DIY/craft blog ! I wanted to show you an easy little sewing project I did over Christmas break, when I was able to engage in some quality bonding time with my sewing machine.

I wanted to do some crafting, while simultaneously using up some fabric scraps that have been sitting around in a scraps box since the beginning of time. I don't even remember what some of these fabrics were originally used for, and I didn't foresee them being used in anything specific in the future, so I went to work.

After some Pinterest browsing, I decided to make some handwarmers ! This was my first craft of choice for a couple reasons. 

- First off, it's really cold in northern California (compared to southern California... I can't even imagine how frigid it must be anywhere outside the Golden State). 

- Second, Lucas will soon be flying all over the country for medical school interviews, many of which are in cold locales like Pennsylvania, and I thought his skinny hands could use some pocket company. 

- Third, they are ridiculously easy to make... seriously. Too easy. 

I took some photos of my crafting process in case any of you wanted a step-by-step instructable :)

Step 1

Choose your fabric. Because these pocket friends will be zapped in a microwave, your selection has to be limited to pure cotton fabrics. Synthetics like polyurethane or acrylic will melt or worse, catch fire in a microwave, so stay away from fleece and opt for something like this flannel. 

Oh, your thread should be cotton as well, which was a bit of crafty oversight for me as these are made of polyester thread. I've just made sure to only microwave them in 15-second increments.

Step 2

Cut four identical squares of your fabric of choice. Put the patterned sides of the fabric together, facing each other, and stitch all around. Make sure you leave a small, finger-wide gap.

Step 3

Flip them inside-out via the gap, so you get this nice, rounded-edge pouch.

Step 4

Raid your pantry for some rice and grab about a cup and a half of it. I couldn't find a funnel so I just took a sheet of scratch paper and rolled it into a narrow cone. Ghetto-fabulous !

Step 5

Funnel your rice into the pouch, but only so it fills up to halfway. You need to be able to sew around the entire pocket, which is significantly harder if the pouch is stuffed entirely full.

Step 6

Stitch around the entire border of the pouch, making sure to close the gap in the fabric

(as well as to not run your needle over stray grains of rice, as this is not good for your machine)

finished !

Yay ! Lucas' are made out of plaid flannel from a pair of pajama pants I sewed in middle school, and mine are made of scrap flannel from a project I can no longer recall. I also made a larger version of the blue flannel ones for my brother (the size of the fabric squares can vary based on the size of the recipient's hands.)

To activate their cozy hand-warming magic just put them in the microwave for 15-30 seconds at a time until they're hot, take them out , and shake the rice up a little. They do a great job of heating up jacket pockets, and stay toasty for a good duration of time :) 

Some Words.

Fantasy- The XX

Sanctuary- Gareth Emery ft. Lucy Saunders

Chandeliers- Sleeping at Last

I like to put my entire iTunes library on shuffle sometimes, just to see what happens.