Gamora Costume, Monster Wreath, and More Cross Stitch - Nikki's Craft Corner

I know these posts fall out of the scope of what people expect from my blog. Some people think of this as a food and wine blog. I think of this as a Nikki's Life blog with an emphasis on Nikki's food and wine. However, the other things I do play into that no matter how you look at it. If I'm spending all my free time sewing, I'm not going to be cooking much - something my boyfriend definitely noticed. I think it's important to show what else I can make besides food and why I haven't been so good about posts... because it's a pretty good reason.

Gamora Costume 

So the last picture I posted of my costume was a far cry from anything complete. I had an intimidating amount of work ahead of me but luckily I had Dan to really push me to get it done - that and an October 20th deadline for a Disney contest we wanted to enter. 

I had to push the procrastination demons aside and get cracking. After a couple of days, I had a solid base of my top (above) and a week later, I had everything sewed into place. 

Before the great reveal though - I got to do one of the more fun parts and dye my hair! I've loved having a streak of pink in my hair all summer and adding pink tips to the mix for the costume was a super fun addition.

All in all - it turned out amazing!!! I still need a few tweaks to make it fit and look better but all the work paid off - Dan and I were accepted for the contest and we will be cheering on the runner of the RunDisney Avengers Half Marathon!!

Monster Wreath 

I am a huge Pinterest user. I love pinning crafts especially and I actually try to do them. I pinned this Monster wreath a couple of years ago and decided (as another mode of putting off my sewing) to finally make it!

I thought it would be fun to put a little twist on the project and make Sully from Monsters Inc. I got 3 20 yd rolls of light blue tulle and 1 of light purple for this. I also bought foam sheets in white and light brown (for the horns), and of course Styrofoam balls for the eyes and the wreath itself. 

I followed the instructions in terms of tying on my tulle but strayed after that. Sully has normal eyes so I nestled mine into the tulle instead of on top of the wreath. I ditched the bow and added the horns instead. I also was careful to make sure my purple areas looks like spots. 

The horns are just glue gunned on. I still need to figure out teeth for my little Sully wreath (hehe I rhymed!). My previous attempts weren't great but Halloween is coming up so I might just hang him up and add teeth for next year.

More Cross Stitch

I finished the kitty from my last post! Dan was really trying to enforce costume work time so I waited about a week before starting another and got a lot of serious sewing in.

However, after about a week, a new project arrived in the mail and I needed a sewing break so I was excited to start on a new cross stitch. It was a jumble of colors but I made my own little cardboard thread organizers to help me get started. 

It's funny, cross stitch seems so similar to sewing but it's so much easier and more relaxing for me. I guess because with sewing, I don't have a plan. I don't know if it will turn out how I'm thinking. I just know what I'm shooting for and hope I hit it. With cross stitch, I have direction and a picture to go off - it's so much more straightforward. 

I also ordered some supplies for future cross stitch projects. I have a big plan for all of these and I'm excited to get them all done so I can share what it is!! Each one is a different size and difficulty so it's nice to have a small one that I can work on while commuting and a more complex one to do at home.

Well, that's it for craft posts for a while! This one had me finishing a lot of projects and the only thing on my plate for the near future are finishing all my top secret cross stitches. I'll definitely post again when those are done then so - if you hate these posts, you have a while until another one and if you love them, sorry, it's going to be a bit until there's another one. 

Wine Wednesday - Hosting a Primal Friendly Happy Hour

I clearly love wine. There's no question about that. I also love all of the snacks that go so well with wine - cured meats, dried fruits, and cheese. I love cheese as much as I love wine and bacon. Yes, that much.

However, these are all things that are typically served on bread. As someone who strives for a primal (paleo w/ dairy)/gluten-free lifestyle, that's not really an option. Bread and flour are things that I might occasionally indulge in outside the home but I never buy products for cooking or serving at home. So how do you serve happy hour finger foods without bread or crackers?

Clearly wine glasses for your favorite team are also necessary - Go Giants!!!

The biggest thing is to have some sort of paleo alternative to use as your bread alternative. My favorite are fruits. My favorite cheese is the creamy blue Cambozola from Trader Joe's or Safeway. It's not something you can slice up and just eat in pieces but the tangy flavor of the blue is amazing on dried apricots. Sometimes I also wrap this in prosciutto and have it as a snack when I get home from work. In terms of wine - blue cheese and dried fruits go really well with Moscato and other dessert wines so this could also make for a dessert alternative.

As for the rest of the snacks, I opted for some grass fed Kerrygold Cheddar, sliced apples, plantain chips, and salsa. This mix of snacks was great for accommodating a variety of diets from paleo to vegan. It's hard to make everyone happy but it's easy to provide at least some other snacking option for your guests. I also made some paleo/vegan cookie butter later in the night which was perfect for dipping the apple slices into. 

Since this is a wine post, let's comment on that too. When you have a few people over, it's hard to accommodate every taste. I made sure to have a white and a red ready so at least in a broader sense, people can tell me what they are in the mood for. Luckily, I was hosting very close friends and I have a good feel for what they like in wine and it was easy to pick out bottles they would enjoy.

Sweet Potato Chips Recipe

Omg guys - it's been forever since I had a food or wine post. I'm the worst. I thought I'd toss a quick little food post your way. My plan is to have a Wine Wednesday post this week and another fun paleo World Eating Challenge post. I'll also update you on what I've been working on. As you might have seen, my last post was on crafting. I kind of fell down the craft projects well but I think I can pop my head out for a while. I finished my Gamora costume and a couple of other things so I'll have another craft post on all of that.

But for now, let's talk sweet potatoes!!!

Before anything - pre-heat your oven to 450. It takes a long time to get that hot so it's good to give it a head start.

I love buying sweet potatoes but I can be just awful about using them before they go bad. So what do you do when you have a bunch of skinny potatoes on the verge of going bad? Make chips!!!

If you don't have a mandolin - buy one. They are the best kitchen tool you could ask for. I had just gotten back from an awesome workout at the gym so I kept thinking of my Mandolin as my Mandalorian... not quite the same although they both come with their own risks. 

Anyways - I used the Mandolin to cut my potatoes into about 1/2 cm slices. This was thick enough to not burn but thin enough to get a little crispy. 

Once they were all sliced up, I tossed them with some olive oil and seasonings - sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sage (rosemary would also be amazing but I didn't have any). Try to make sure the oil and seasonings coats them evenly. 

Once they are coated, spread them out in one layer on your baking sheet. You made need to have a couple of trips in the oven. The chips above took 2 sets of trays. 

I baked mine for 20 minutes. This is a good time to shoot for but be sure to check on them as all ovens are differently. My oven even varies against itself - some were burnt and some were crispy but most were just a kind of baked but not mushy texture. They definitely weren't crispy like normal chips but I was ok with that. If you want them crispy, it might be worth trying to fry them. 

They pulled together wonderfully with a great dinner of slow cooked pork, kale & spinach, and wine (of course).

The dinner was also great fuel for the Warrior Dash we ran over the weekend. Remember - eat clean, train dirty! Like really dirty... 

Nikki's Craft Corner: Duct Tape Bust, Gamora Costume, Paint Nite, and Cross Stitch Kittens

Even though this blog is mostly about food and wine and adventures, I think the real root of my interests is that I like to create things. Food is an easy outlet for this as it's something so necessary and the time to create an awesome dish is much less than most art projects. However, this past weekend, I found myself with a lot of free time so I decided to catch up on lots of the projects I'm working on now. I thought maybe it would be fun to touch base every now and then and show my readers what I'm creating.

 Duct Tape Bust

One of my projects involves sewing a pretty intricate top. We'll get to that later but I was having trouble with my sewing - it's so custom that I was continually trying to measure and pin things on my own body. It was pretty cumbersome to say the least so when I asked Facebook for help with locating a sewing bust in my size, I was directed to a site on how to make one out of duct tape.

It didn't take long to find a friend eager to tape me up. Especially when I threw in some bacon and coffee. So I bought a ton of duct tape and we got started. We even decided to make a little hyperlapse out of it.

Basically, it turned out pretty well, but I do have some tips!

It's good to provide some nourishment for your helper. As fun as it is to duct tape your friend, it's still a lot of work. You can also help them peel and cut the tape, something I was pretty useless at.

Make sure you take plenty of bacon breaks. If you do it on the hottest day in your city like we did, you are going to be warm and have trouble breathing so it's nice to have some minor comforts.

Lastly, be sure to size your bust. With all the layers of tape, any awkward fidgeting, and some of the stuffing - my bust ended up being a good couple sizes bigger than me. I suggest measuring it before you stuff it so you can cut out a few inches from the get go. We didn't do this so we had to go in for some bust surgery. It definitely has helped but some of the incisions are literally bursting at the seems which means more duct tape... which inevitably leads to the bust getting too big again.

Mostly though - just enjoy your fun and random project!! I think I'll still end up buying a bust in the future when we have the space for it, but this was definitely a quick and relatively easy solution to a problem I had. Duct tape really does fix everything.

Gamora Costume

Hopefully, by the next post I make, this will be done. I was one of the masses who fell in love with Guardians of the Galaxy so Dan and I are working on Star Lord and Gamora costumes respectively. This costume has had a few roadblocks for me already. First, many of my base supplies took forever to come in. Then, I had a lot of my own procrastination. Finally, I realized I had to buckle up and get it done.. only to realize that this was going to be really hard without a bust to hold up the costume. Now that the bust is done, I was able to battle a little procrastination and start making progress.

So far, I am really just working on piecing together all the things going on with the top. It's pretty intricate but I found some cool things to help. The bottom layer is a mesh top that I cut to fit appropriately. That's covered with a vest that is also cut. Her top matches her pants so I bought two pairs and I'm working on getting that layer pinned on. There is still a lot of embellishment to go on here and I'm not really sure how it's all going to fit together but it's getting there. 

Paint Nite Day

I am such a tiny person next to my boyfriend

One thing Dan and I really love doing when timing works out is Paint Nite. Basically, it's a happy hour where they show you how to do a simple paining. Each time we go, we wander away from the original painting more and more. As you can tell from above, we each came out with very different paintings. Both were pretty far from the original also. 

My favorite thing about it though - the further we get from the original, the more the instructors tell us how awesome our paintings our. I once I had an art instructor who gave horrible grades to anyone who couldn't recreate a Van Gogh  and the bad memory has stuck with me. It's really refreshing that Paint Nite gives you instructions on a paining but is supportive of anyone doing their own thing too. That's what art is supposed to be about.

Cross Stitch

Cross stitch is probably the nerdiest of all my crafting hobbies. That says a lot when the items above have cosplay costumes, duct tape, and Pac Man ghosts. I just love it though. It's something I'll do for a while and then forget and come back to it later. This kitty, in fact, is one that I started a long time ago and found recently. I'm almost done with it now and I have some more ambitious cross stitch projects to get to next. 

I'll be throwing another one of these posts up soon. Hopefully by then I'll have Gamora done, I'll be on another cross stitch, and I'll have some Halloween decorations going on. Happy creating everyone!

Wine Wednesday - Livermore Wine Tasting

I have some friends who live out in Livermore and have been constantly talking up visiting the wineries out there. It's definitely something I'd been wanting to do and with my recent series of "Lesser Known Wine Countries" I figured I could visit my friends, see some new wineries, and report back on one more county where you can try some amazing wines.

Fenestra Winery

I could probably right this whole post on Fenestra Winery. If Jackie didn't take me to so many amazing wineries, I probably would write this whole post on Fenestra. I might have to come back just to write a whole post on Fenestra. The fact of the matter is - they have amazing wines and a lot to choose from. I really love exploring wines that are unique varietals and made well. Fenestra excels on both fronts, offering a lot of Spanish and Portuguese grapes as well as a few Rhone varietals. There are few things I didn't like in their vast portfolio so I'm just going to mention a few of my favorites.

The 2010 Infared is the Fenestra GSM (43% Grenache, 39% Syrah, 18% Mourvedere). It was extremely well balanced and fruit forward. The wine also comes in a magnum size and they let you taste both. The magnum will develop slower and you can taste some more of the robust flavor since it hasn't settled as quickly. The magnum would definitely be what you would want to purchase if you are planning on aging the wine for a long time. 

The Dolce Francesca was another really interesting wine. This was a dessert wine but wasn't as syrupy as many I've seen. Instead the flavor was light and peachy with a hint of honey. 

And if you don't believe me in regards to Fenestra... they won an award or two!

Tenuta Vineyards

Well, it just wouldn't be a fun post without a gif. I really do love when Dan takes a bunch of pictures and Google gifs them for me because if a picture is worth a thousand words, a gif is worth a million. I'm sure there's some science behind that... yea... science!!!

Now that we're all happy about gifs, let's talk about wine! Tenuta has a wide portfolio of wines but they really excel in their blends. I always think blends are where wine makers have a chance to shine. Since you never know exactly how the grapes will turn out, a blend is a great way to bring together different varietals and a good wine maker will make the whole better than the sum of its parts. This was definitely the case at Tenuta and I suggest tasting straight to the blends if you visit. 

Tenuta was also the only winery that had a TV and sports playing in the background. This made the boys very happy. The owner's boyfriend even showed them to a room with a projector TV and beer tasting. It was definitely a great way for everyone to be happy!

Eight Bridges Brewery

I don't drink beer very often anymore. I used to go to beer tastings a ton but I noticed that it never sat well with me so I basically cut it out. However, Jackie planned a fun trip to a brewery so I thought I'd have a tasting as well. I loved the Twisted Red and the O’Beardsley’s Stout. The Stout especially had a wonderful chocolate and coffee flavor that was amazing.

We had a great trip to Livermore and I'd love to go back and check out even more of the great wineries out there.