Recent Weekends- Part 1

Most weekends Patrick & I devote to housework, garden maintenance, and errands. But the last few, we've broken up the routine with several out-of-the-ordinary activities.

Saturday, October 22: we attended a coed baby shower for Patrick's coworker- Ryan- and his fiance, Alisa. We played some games, ate WAY too much food (at least, I did), and stayed a few hours longer to just hang out a bit with a small group from the university. After the party the guys mingled while the ladies dabbled with henna!

For those of you who don't know, henna is a dye made of crushed leaves that makes a temporary tattoo on your skin. It's traditionally worn during festive events in Middle Eastern cultures. Gayatri (holding the henna) was adorned in decorative patterns during her recent wedding. Alisa had hoped to imprint her belly during the "bachelorette" party (when the girls attending the wedding applied the henna) but since it didn't happen, Gayatri offered to do it for her baby shower.

Gayatri started with inspiration from a photo online, but improvised as she went along. Ryan & Alisa's names are woven within. It's pretty sweet (I love the peacocks) but unfortunately I didn't get to see it once the dried henna flaked off.

It took quite a while to finish Alisa's pattern, but once she was done, Gayatri offered to put some simple designs on the hands of any interested parties. I, of course, was fully compliant!

The finished artwork after I scraped away the caked paste. It remained fairly bright for about 4 days, then the lighter areas started fading away.

October 23: Our California Blackberry Ale was crafted by the formerly cut-up hands of my fine husband! Our abrasions from the thorny patches have long-healed, but I do have scars on the back of my leg from a particularly nasty bramble! It was so worth it though for the crumble desserts we've already eaten and the special libation on it's way!

Prepping our home-grown hops for brewing.

I gave Patrick a propane tank for his birthday so he could heat up the water more quickly. He finally got to test it out!

Steeping the grain filled sock is starting to darken the water.

Cooling it down with the wort chiller to add yeast and pour it in the pail for primary fermenting. Check out part 2 to see what else we've done lately while waiting for the beer!