Beer and Crafts - a marriage (part 2)

I didn't stop with the chalkboard for Joshua. The chalkboard was part of how I envisioned the wall would look that our Keezer is on. Our dining space is essentially our brewery since we're living in such a small apartment. We started a coaster collection that my parent's helped us expand by finding a bunch of German ones at an antique store. If I'm being completely honest, the motivation for this project was just to have a place for them because I was sick of seeing them shoved in the closet. Our closet space is not plentiful so these babies needed somewhere to go. I used art paper from Michael's and bought frames at Joann's. These materials were stashed in the trunk since I knew Joshua wouldn't look there but like the chalkboard, there wasn't any time to work on it with out him home. I wasn't sure the best way to do this with out damaging one side of the coaster but luckily we had a lot of duplicates so I got over it. I used rubber cement on the paper and so far that has worked just fine.

The thermostat is on the wall that I wanted this on. It wasn't until I made everything that I noticed what an inconvenience that darn thermostat would be. I promise it doesn't look as awkward in person as it does in this picture.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how these look. Since they're older and from breweries that are less known I feel like it looks less like a college apartment. That is my goal at least. I'm finding it difficult to use our love of beer when it comes to decorating and still hope that classy could be used as an adjective for our choices.

Beer and Crafts - a marriage

For Christmas, I didn't do a whole lot of planning and didn't think much about what to make people until it was too late to execute or I had other projects to finish first and ran out of time. Joshua turned 25 in April. At the same time he had been sick for quite some time so he was home a lot of the weekends when normally he would be at work. The reason I say this is because I thought of his homemade birthday gifts quite awhile in advance but was not able to secretly execute with Joshua home all the time. So I ended up telling him what he would be getting and then he was home while I put it together. This turned out to be a very good thing for this project.

When we went to Colorado, one of the breweries had a chalkboard up with all of the stats of the beers they had on tap. So, now that we have a keezer with three beers on tap I decided it was the perfect time to make a small version of this chalkboard.

We have this poster from Joshua's coworker that I really like but that we don't really have a place for right now. So I decided to use the frame of the poster for the chalkboard. Not only did it save me money but it also allows me to safely store that poster until it could maybe be used in the future.

Through the blogosphere I found out that there is such thing as chalkboard contact paper. This stuff is so cool, I ended up using extra inside of our IKEA made pantry and use it for a Can Inventory of our Hurricane food stock. I found it on Amazon and could think of a ton more uses for this stuff!

The difficult part is using it over such a large space. Not having a lot of space and wanting to do this on a budget I think this was the best option for me but if I end up remaking this down the line I will most likely buy a large chalkboard or use chalkboard paint. The bubbles were hard to smooth out so I gave up on a few. It would have been a lot worse if Joshua wasn't around to help me lay it down.
I thought this would have been the best point to prime the chalkboard. With any chalkboard surface, you have to rub chalk all over it then erase to get it to work. It was probably unnecessary to do it at this point but it just made me get chalk all over myself, it didn't harm the finished product.

Now, the shape of the roll also prevented me from covering the entire surface. However, I realized this before buying it and planned to use the tape over the line where they would intersect. So I knew it might be a risk but it ended up turning out fine.

Now for the most annoying part of the whole thing. I used white electrical tape for the lines but it was twice the size I wanted it to be. I tried a few different things but could not halve the tape real successfully. Like the contact paper, it was more of a hassle than I expected but I'm still happier I went this route than painting.

I realized after starting to saw through it that it just wouldn't work. Luckily the score lines helped guide me when I gave up and used a scissors. Feel free to suggest a better way to do this for future reference. I could only find the white electrical tape as part of a set of different colors so I have a ton of the tape meaning I will need to figure out a better way to do this again.

I bought white paint to paint on the headings and our Yodeling Goat name at the top. So the day I made this I just wrote it all in to get the effect. I decided I don't really mind leaving it this way because then I can switch things out if they prove to be unnecessary. Also, I'm trying to find a good goat stamp to use at the top.

And here is the finished product.

A little sad it was not a surprise but like I said it was very helpful that he was around for laying the adhesive contact paper down.

Filling the Keezer 2/3

Keg #2

For our second beer in the keezer we kept up with the Irish theme and bought a Partial Mash Irish Red kit. A famous Irish red is Smithwicks which this beer is suppose to be a clone of. A side by side comparion shows our beer is nothing like Smithwicks, but we're okay with that. Our beer turned out to be more hoppy and drier. The color is a bit off too and since our beer is on CO2 instead of beer gas that will create some more differences.

Beer Stats:

Original Gravity: 1.053

Final Gravity: 1.013

ABV: 5.24

We used East Kent Golding and Fuggles for hops and a bunch of different malts. If any homebrewers want the recipe just ask.

Now for the beer pictures!

Really hard to tell with the poor lighting but it had red hues. This beer turned out pretty cloudy unfortunately.

This Picture shows the lacing we had with the beer. I am writing this as the sun is setting on the western part of the apartment building (our side) so again the lighting sucked. If you are unsure of what lacing is it is the rings you get around your glass from the head of your beer. Essentially if can show your a timeline of your beer. Larger spacings between the rings shows a larger drink small spacing show sips. Side note: The picture makes this beer look creamy I assure you it is the camera quality.

Cheers!

Filling the Keezer 1/3

When I graduated from college, Whit bought me a kegging system for our homebrew which consisted of a CO2 tank, regulator and three cornelius kegs. Since that May, 2009 we have yet to have all three kegs filled with beer! Until now...

First off, what the hell is a Keezer?! Keg + Chest Freezer = Keezer. It is basically a kegerator, except it uses a chest freezer rather than a refrigerator. A big problem with now having all three kegs filled was having the space to keep them cool. We preferred this method for our keg storage rather than a Kegerator because it would hold more kegs for the size of the appliance. We bought a 7.2 cu ft. Frigidaire that can hold the CO2 tank and 3 five gallon cornelius kegs.

Keg #1 (we need to name these kegs!)

Dry Irish Stout:

For our first beer for this project we got a Partial Mash (PM) Kit from our Local Homebrew Store (LHBS). Because it wasn't our recipe, I don't feel like naming the beer. Anyways, this is a dry stout that is lower in alcohol, similar to Guinness style. Side by side with Guinness they taste nothing a like. Our stout has a bit more hops you catch on the back of the tongue and it doesn't have the unique sour taste Guinness has. Also our beer is on pure CO2 where Guinness is on beer gas (CO2 + Nitrogen).

Now some Pictures!

Above is our Dry Irish Stout in the Fermenter. If I recall correctly this is about 2-3 day into fermentation. That brown color on top the called the Krausen which is bubbly gunk that foams up due to a rapid fermentation (mostly made up of proteins and hop particulates). Eventually this settles down and sinks to the bottom.

This is a tasting glass of the beer right before it was kegged. Tasted at room temperature and flat!

Here is the Finished Product:

Cheers!

Happy Easter!

Easter wasn't very eventful here since Joshua worked today and we don't really have anyone to host. In my opinion our apartment isn't ready for hosting yet since we've done a lot to it lately. I want it more complete before anyone sees it again. So Easter for us meant making a more elaborate dinner tonight.



I decided on a German theme because on a recent half price books run I found a book about Russian, German, Polish cooking. I was hoping for a pierogies or pel meni recipe but they didn't have one. I did see a recipe for Spaetzl that I decided I would try to reproduce. Besides family and friends, I think one of the things Joshua and I miss the most about Appleton is the Old Bavarian. We try to make our home versions but they will never be as good. So then to round out the Easter menu I decided on Joshua's pan fried Schnitzl and mom's Cheesy potatoes.

The Spaetzl was a lot harder than I thought it would be. First of all, the directions said to use a mixer and I really need to learn my lesson that if I'm making dough, I DO NOT USE THE MIXER. My hand mixers suck dough straight up the beaters. So the next time I'm feeling ambitious enough to try this recipe I will use the food processor. Also, it is really hard to make the spaetzl as small as the restaurant kind I'm used to. They ended up the size of chicken fingers and it really creeped me out. They looked like some type of sea creature the way they curled, like albino shrimp or something. I ended up cutting them into smaller pieces and then seasoning and the results were sufficient. Since no one in my family makes Spaetzl yet, I think I should probably work on perfecting it and then it can be my thing. :)

We also had a dessert of Black Forest Cake. I got in the baking mood last Sunday but only got as far as the cake layers because the grocery store I ran to after church did not have the right pitted cherries. I didn't have time to run elsewhere so I decided to wrap the cake layers up and stick them in the freezer until I could get back to them. Well, they fit the menu perfectly for today so I finished them up. Unfortunately, the cake layers did not freeze well. They are pretty dry. Live and learn. It did turn out better looking than it tasted at least.

This picture shows how level the cake turned out. I was expecting that to be a hassle but I think this is the first time I used these pans for a layer cake since I got them for Christmas a couple of years ago. I am very impressed by how evenly they bake.

And the final results! The recipe I followed did a piping of frosting around the top and bottom but I thought it looked nice enough like this with out the added work. Also, this recipe did not contain the traditional kirschwasser because I did not want to hunt down a bottle to only use a little bit of it. Since Joshua really liked the cake I think I may get a bottle since this will probably be made more frequently. Also, we decided we will probably get ice cream to eat the rest of it because then it's harder to tell how dry it is. The cherries and frosting helped that problem as well.

This Ain't My First Time at the Rodeo

... oh wait it was! Well, technically, I could say it wasn't because we didn't go to the Rodeo part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We just purchased tickets for the livestock part since we didn't plan to be there very long.

Now, this is one of the few craftless posts I get to share since we don't get out much and mostly just hang out with this guy:

Early last March, Joshua and I decide on sort of a whim to go to the show. One of the reasons we went to the rodeo was to eat dinner, seriously. Joshua got a Cowboy Burrito which consisted of potatoes, shredded beef, cheese and jalapeños.

I just got a shredded beef sandwich. Also - I was not very thrilled to have my picture taken while eating but I'm going to post it to the blog since we don't get out all that much. You don't get to see many action shots.

Following dinner sitting on a curb, we went into the stadium. The first thing we saw was a Texas Heritage Quilt exhibit. So I got a few shots to show mom.

How is this for a cowboy quilt?

The livestock portion of the show was much like the county fairs in Wisconsin. I have never been to the State Fair so I don't know how it compares but that is basically the point to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show. It operates just about the same as a fair.

Our first stop was the petting zoo. Working for my dad and having access to a petting zoo almost every Tuesday afternoon for several summers, I wasn't jumping to get in. I thought for sure Joshua would skip right past it as well since, well, he works at a zoo. However, he had as much enthusiasm as all the children that surrounded us.

I decided to be a good sport and thought, well I can't think of when I might have pet a deer so I (humanely) chased this little fella down.

We walked through the cow exhibits which I thought was really neat to see the huge longhorns that are more or less a symbol of our state. (I know my stream of consciousness blogging probably bugs some but I want to take a side note here. I'm loving the Texas Longhorns emblems that people put on the back of their car here. It is just a little silver longhorn head, very subtle. When I'm not driving, I'll try to get a picture of one). Anyways, with the cows they had births scheduled almost every day. Does that happen at State Fair? It was crazy! We didn't see any births but got to see the new little calves. It was also neat to read about the farming done in Texas. I didn't realize just how similar it would be to Wisconsin farming. So Agronomics students, can you guess the main difference between the two states? More growing seasons for wheat! There was also cases filled with hatching chicks.

So after we looked at the livestock exhibits we headed over to the shopping part. This was what differed from Wisconsin festivals/fairs I've been to. There was a lot more cowboy paraphernalia here than anywhere I've yet seen, including my time in Houston. On the way over to shopping we wound up going through all the different pens of the cows and pigs that were going to be shown at some point. These were some glammed up pens. I really wish I would've taken a picture.

Joshua and I decided we may end up slowly collecting a complete cowboy outfit. So I drooled over the boots and the belts and just took a few pictures.

A cow skin quilted rug. Mom - will this be the next quilting medium you get into?

As an early birthday present, Joshua picked up this nice Australian hat. It is a great water proof hat so we justified the purchase that it will be useful for hiking and camping trips.

So most of the show was similar to what I have experienced in Wisconsin but with a palpable Texas atmosphere.

And to prove that everywhere is as gluttonous as Wisconsin.... a variety of deep fried foods!

We had planned on going back and getting Rodeo tickets but between our work schedules and my classes it just never materialized. I really hope to get the Rodeo tickets next year and then buy a fancy belt and some fashionable boots.

What I did today instead of cleaning

So a few blog posts down is the picture of the Christmas wreath I made. Well it's about time to do something with it. I'm sort of proud I did something about it before August or Thanksgiving. Let's be honest though, I did it to procrastinate cleaning today.

So, I found a necklace tutorial (and I do want to make this necklace soon). http://lollyjaneboutique.blogspot.com/2011/03/interchangeable-felt-necklace.html

I ended up taking the flower part of the tutorial to use on the wreath. I cut up 4 sheets of felt. The instructions said to use 1/4 of 8 1/2" x 11" felt sheets. So since I wanted to try 4 different colors on the wreath I made 16 spirals.

Then I started gluing with the hot glue gun. The hot glue really intimidates me because of how much can come out and because I always burn my finger pads.

I glued as i went then flooded the bottom with hot glue just to make sure they wouldn't unravel.

I thought the roses on the necklace were going to turn out a lot larger than mine did. I like how the roses look lined up on the table but then it was hard to figure out how to arrange them on the wreath.

So I pinned the roses onto the wreath using sewing pins. I put the wreath on top of our new bookshelf. The bookshelf isn't really organized yet like it will be. I'm going to paint some of the photo frames to match and make the books more aligned. So don't judge me for this. Also, the photo is off center to avoid the bright sun that was coming in the window on the right. I didn't crop it because all of these pictures were badly taken with my camera phone. Gives me a chance to show off a little of Taylor's painting that was her wedding gift to us.

So what do you think? I think it would look nicer if the roses were a larger size. Luckily it isn't permanent. After I arranged the flowers I took Bernie out and thought that I would leave it like this until I could get more felt sheets. Then replace them with larger flowers and use these to make necklaces or as an embellishment for almost any other craft. Once I got back inside the wreath was already growing on me. I think I'll leave it this way.