Food Chart and Shoe Rubber

I signed up at the local food bank last week. They don't give you much. I got a lot of green beans, squash, some stale cookies, trail mix, peanut butter, canned beans, a box of cornflakes, and some other canned goods. I'm trying to save as much money as possible. This would be a lot easier if I had food stamps. (I'm working on it.) I managed to come up with a tentative plan for what to do with all of this food. In theory it is supposed to last me until Dec. 19. That is when I'm due to pick up more food from the food bank. I made a spreadsheet document:



So far I've bought:
1 pack of chicken drumsticks $2.68
bag of garlic                           $1.69
1 pack of mushrooms             $1.89
1 rutabaga                               $2.18
1 tomato                                  $0.72
1 onion                                    $0.62
1 butternut squash                   $2.02

A butternut squash and a rutabaga is a surprisingly large amount of food used in this manner. The file is mostly a list of ingredients to use for certain meals of the day. The creative process is simple. Diced veggies with or without meat sauteed as they are or as part of a sauce and eaten with or without a side dish. The key is to work with the inherent flavors of the ingredients and build a final taste based on what spices and condiments you have on hand. So far I've made:

Etsy Store

I opened an Etsy store this week. Let's see how this goes. Go to Etsy.com and search for TheFern. That's the name of my shop. You'll find all of the rings I've made as well as the bracelet and their prices. I've figured out that if this is the only thing I can make try and make money from I'll have to speed up production significantly. A temporary ambition is to produce about $300 worth of crafts a week unless my dressmaking skills manage to be decent.

Shoe Rubber

I bought a pair of $13 shoes at CitiTrends a while . I like them a lot. They're a pair of Lions Crest by English Laundry.

The problem is that the bottom is too slippery. When I drive with them on they tend to slip off of the pedals so I just drive with socks and slip them on when I get out. I found a solution or I hope.

The local high school once had an asphalt track for track and field. They recently topped it with rubber made from old tennis shoes. Some of the rubber is off to the side of the track in crumbles.

I picked some up and with some gorilla glue

Lets see how this goes.

Twisted Flattened Torus and Dress Material.

Twisted Flattened Torus

After I finished the ring with slant grooves I was inspired to do a more complex design. The original conception was a ring around a ring. That IS what it is technically. Upon trying to find a more accurate name I got close with a Google search for twisted torus.

It turns out a twisted torus Google search hit close to home -- I'm a physics major -- by having this 

as an image result. RELATIVITY! Relativity is perhaps the most difficult stuff I've ever studied (In my free time) notation-wise. I didn't get to take a course in Relativity while I was in college. Enough of that though. Here's the ring

You see the green stone inlay wraps around the ring. It goes at an angle around the inside and outside. I'm sure there is a more accurate mathematical description and much more mathematical and theoretical physics related implications of such an arrangement. (unbounded geodesics of a torus) I should look into this. The stone is a chlorite schist. I was lucky enough to find this in my mom's driveway.

THERE IS BEAUTY EVERYWHERE. THIS is how the person who represents himself with the AYA is able to subsist. Resourcefulness is born from creativity and the perception of beauty/usefulness everywhere. Hey! This could begin a philosophical treatise on the link between beauty and utility. But wait! Last post I painted myself as a child-like explorer of the world who loves cartoons. Ha! It is still the case. So after I write this treatise I can 

Dress Material

So in addition to my found wood carving I am trying to make dresses and possibly other clothes. This

is one of the dresses I designed. I picked up the fabric this week. Both are polyester. One is costume magenta and the other is satin black.

 My grandmother gave me a sewing machine ten years or so ago and so I figured I'd use it.

Okra In a Can

Okra In a Can:

One day this week I  wanted to have some fried okra with my meal but I was low on cooking oil. When I say low I mean low. I only had about a quarter cup of oil. So I took an empty condensed tomato soup can ( It was skinnier than the standard bean can. It was the 10 3/4 oz size ... very important ) and put the oil in it and fried a few okra at a time. Here's a picture:

I laughed a bit while cooking. So unconventional. It worked. 

SUCCESS!

Two Rings:

I made two rings this week. This one:

and this one

Both are made from sticks. The same one Evennnnnn ...

The first I stained with English Chestnut woodstain and did an inlay with citrine -- an orange quartz. ( I think its citrine I'll have to do more research to be sure.) I finished it with a clear satin polyurethane. The second is just one with slant grooves. It too is finished with a clear satin polyurethane. Here are some templates all from the same stick:

They'll fit ring sizes around 8 to 9. 

Plums, Black-eyed peas, & rice:

Lastly, I wanted a snack one day as I cooked some rice and black-eyed peas and made a plum sauce. The plum sauce had garlic, seasoned salt, pepper, and sugar. I drank some cheap red wine with it. Hey! Why does wine taste better warm?

Food & a Bracelet

Quality groceries are almost always scarce in these times. This past week though I was able to make meals from some unexpected ingredients. Examples include: Tacos & Meatloaf.

Tacos

I had sesame oil, used canola oil, Louisiana hot sauce, cheap chili powder, expired mixed salad greens, some mild cheddar, some cheap sausage patties, a can of corn, a can of Del Monte diced tomatoes, salt, and pepper. I had to defrost the sausage and chop it into cubes. I sauteed it in 50/50 sesame oil and canola oil. I added the seasonings along with the tomatoes and corn. I let the liquid cook off from the tomatoes. I filled my shells withe the result and topped it with the salad and cheese. The salad greens were still reasonably fresh. I gave them a quick rinsing before use. This is the result.

Meatloaf:

Before I begin here is a picture of the ingredients I used.

I used more of the sausage patties. I diced the sausage, mixed it with diced squash from a food bank, three eggs, some crushed sesame bread sticks and placed in an oiled pan. I had mashed potatoes also from a food bank, and canned spinach. Canned spinach is TERRIBLE and difficult to make tasty unless put in a soup of some kind. Anyway, for a gravy I cooked about a handful of lentils sauteed them in the canola sesame oil combo ... CAN YOU TELL I LOVE SESAME OIL ... added some chicken bouillon, flour and water. Oh the spinach was just seasoned with soy sauce.

Bracelet

I'm broke. I'm just being honest (in my Future voice) ... so what did I do? I found a possible way to make money. I figured well what do I have lots of? Sticks! Fallen lumber! I'll make things with a knife and a few other tools. So far I've made this bracelet you see. I'm gonna try and sell it on Etsy.