The Highest Use of Scavenged Black Raspberries

Not to be outdone by all my pickling, Josh has found his own way to store up the good things of summer. All the wild black raspberries that were picked back in July are being put to use for tasty adult beverages to enjoy throughout the winter. Josh started making mead with friends last year and decided to branch out on his own this summer with supplies from Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply. The pictures above show part of the process for creating a black raspberry melomel (the fancy word for mead with fruit in it). He started with a plain mead (fermented honey), then transferred it and added black raspberry mash. After more fermentation, he transferred it again to clarify it and get out all the seeds and fruit mash. There's a bit more waiting and fermentation before bottling.

I joke that the mead is his new true love because upon arrival home from work in the evening he immediately goes down to check how it's faring. Of course, with that beautiful reddish purple color, he certainly picked a looker.

Origami Fairy Lights

I love origami. When I got married the first time and had the whole white-dress wedding shebang, I made 1001 origami cranes that decorated our reception hall at Union Theological Seminary. Some friends even hung them in the magnolia tree in the courtyard and other friends took pictures of my cranes in various places around New York City.

I've wanted to do another origami project for a while. I've also wanted to create a lighting solution for our porch so we could fully enjoy it in the evening as well as during the day. Originally, the only light on the porch was a single naked bulb that is strangely long-lived. Josh has never changed it once in the 15 years he has lived in this house. It is decidedly more horror movie than mood lighting:

So, when I saw that a friend had a string of fairy lights in her screen house with little origami shades, I thought, "I can make that!" And then had to wait months and months to finally have time to make 200 multi-colored origami balloons to fit over the bulbs of a couple extra strings of Christmas lights I had:

During the daytime, they add a cheerful splash of color to the white painted walls and trim:

At night they have a magical glow that truly lives up to the fairy lights name:

And create the perfect mood for sitting out on the porch sipping a mojito made with the fresh mint that grows right outside the door.

Would you care to join us for drinks on our porch some evening this summer?

Cyberspace Game

Ellis's other class at Leonardo's Basement was called "Raiders of the Lost Junkyard," which was essentially free range to make something with junk. After seeing some kids makings "civilizations out of computer chips," Ellis thought he'd make a game called Cyberspace. There are three levels: Sky, Land, and Sewer plus a bonus arcade level. At the end of each chapter, you have to beat a monster called a "Cyberzilla."

The Cyberzillas are mostly hybrid creatures like things out of some crazy plastic toy mythology. In the picture above you can see Polar Bear on A Plastic Thing, Monkey Guy and Native American-Headed Spiderman (not pictured: Spiderman-Headed Toy Soldier)

There's also Starfish Guy:

Man-headed Bear:

And let's not forget Bear-headed Man

There's Video Game Guy who runs the arcade bonus level and looks like some sort of cyborg Freddy Krueger:

Ellis spends most of his time in the world of imagination, and it's cool when he makes stuff because it's a window into the kinds of things going on in his mind. I'm always delighted by the way he manages to play around with reality.

Lemon Demon Chair

We like to make stuff in our family. This summer, Ellis is spending four weeks taking classes at Leonardo's Basement, which is a perfect place for kids who are into exercising their imaginations and monkeying around with junk. Last week he had two classes. The first one was "No Ordinary Chair." In the video below, watch Ellis describe the chair and his creative process:

P.S. It's a darn comfy chair for sitting out on the lawn reading while the kids play outside.