52 New Things || February

Month two has already come and gone. Who said 2019 could whip by as quickly as it did? In February, I continued my 52 new things resolution with much support from my friends. People were constantly reaching out with ideas on new things to do and ways for us to do them together. A result I did not expect.

February was a bumpy month for me, but this resolution helped keep it light. I hope some of you have adopted this practice as I know it’s been a lot of fun for me. Its been a great way to keep me inspired. curious and excited.

#5: Homemade Noodles (Food)

I started this month making homemade pasta noodles. This was a difficult task that left me feeling a RANGE of emotions. I both felt successful and unsuccessful at the same time.

For directions and a recipe, I followed this one from the Pioneer Woman. It was simple enough, eggs and flour were the main ingredients and then, per a different recipe, I added a bit of olive oil, the good kind, not the kind that comes out of a plastic bottle.

I started with my flour in a pile on the counter, made a well for my eggs and mixed it all together. Eventually, I was able to knead it out, place it in a bowl and set it in the fridge while I made my bolognese sauce. kneading the dough isn’t all that hard and aside from grating my own carrots, the sauce was relatively simple.

Once the sauce was going I rolled out the dough and began slicing it with a pizza roller. This is where things went south. I don’t have a pasta maker. Pasta makers make pasta small and uniform. My unsteady hand made for unusually sized noodles. I figured I’d be okay (mistake number one) and popped my noodles into the boiling water to cook. Suddenly things became very clear to me.

My noodles were wildly uneven, and I should not have dumped three pounds worth of noodles into a pot all at once (mistake number two). After about three minutes the noodles were done and I served them up with my sauce. Regrettably, I don’t have a photo of the finished product, I was too exhausted and annoyed to remember to take a photo. My noodles were virtually inedible, although they tasted fine. Some were raw in the middle because of their impressive size and others were cooked perfectly but weirdly shaped and looked like alien food.

Luckily, a friend donated her Pasta Machine to my cause and saved my soul, thank you, Mary. On the last day of the month, after my pasta shame had worn off, I reattempted the homemade pasta and I WON! It was so much fun, I was such a happy little cook, and I be making more homemade pasta in the future. I used a similar recipe but this time I cut my dough into quarters before running it through the pasta machine to make sheets and then again to make the noodles. I enlisted Daniel to hold the dough so I could take the pasta machine photo! I’m in love with the pasta maker and homemade pasta.

#6 Macrame Plant Hanger (Activity)

I’ve never been a crafty person. I’m not very artistic, I’m not so great at drawing and painting, but I have always loved playing with rope. As a kid, I used to tie my bedroom and closet doors to each other or to other items in my room to either create a lock or make it so when you opened one door you’d also slam another door shut. I was constantly annoying my parents by doing so. Sorry, Mom and Dad.

This month I decided to convert my old, somewhat bothersome, habits into a productive one by trying my hand at macrame. I’ve always enjoyed macrame pieces, usually wanting to purchase one but then being deterred by the cost. So I hopped onto Pinterest, found a pattern I liked and headed to the craft store for materials. If you want to try this I’ll add some links to this portion of the story. I picked up some cotton rope for about 8 bucks at the craft store. I have since found Modern Macrame, a website that sells the rope in so many pretty colors. I may or may not be eyeing their range of pink ropes.

The pattern I found online is not in perfect English, but I really LOVE how the end product turned out. I did a lot of bouncing between the original poster’s blog and a knot guide that gave more detailed info on how to actually tie the knots. In the end, I made a few changes like adding a ring and using the ‘covering ring’ technique for the top of the planter and I made some of my sections shorter and others longer than the original poster’s suggestion just because I liked the look of some of the knots more than others.

The project took me a few days because my fingers got tired and sore after an hour or so of knotting each time. To work on my knots I hung my planter on my over-the-door purse hanger inside my closet.

Honestly, macrame has quickly become one of my FAVORITE crafting activities. I have so many more projects saved on my Pinterest board.

This is currently not hanging up in my room/house because I may have made it too long and heavy, and it pulled the hook out of my ceiling…oops. The bigger pot (the grey one) works better in the hanger than the smaller one but the smaller one is lighter and easier to photograph.

#7: The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

(Things to See)

For Number 7, I gathered two of my friends for a trip to The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH). The museum located across from the Grove in Pan Pacific Park, in Los Angeles and easy to get to if you park in the Grove parking and walk over. It’s free to visit however, I suggest making a donation at the door to help run the facility.

This is NOT the museum of tolerance. LAMOTH focuses on remembering and learning about the Holocaust. It’s filled with personal and family artifacts from the time.

From the LAMOTH website, “Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust presents the history of the Holocaust as objectively as possible. For this reason, our exhibits present many original artifacts, displayed in a way that allows them to tell the individual stories they contain.”

Audio tours are free and amazing. The museum is filled with audio stops, hundreds I’m guessing. I was honestly overwhelmed by the number of things I could listen to. My friends and I hurried through the ‘Rise of Naziism” and “Extermination” portions of the museum because it was honestly very hard to look at and read. I loved the section of the museum towards the end that focused on the resistance efforts during this time. I learned a lot about people who played an important part in the resistance movement, something I did not hear about in school.

Overall the museum left me feeling an array of emotions. I enjoyed looking at real artifacts from survivors and families however it’s not an easy museum to digest. I would love to visit again and attend a survivor talk though.

#8 Motorcycle Ride (Outside)

For my February outside activity, I went on a motorcycle ride. I happen to know someone who rides a motorcycle and he offered to take me on a ride through the Santa Monica Mountains. It was so much fun. I’ve never been on a motorcycle before, my mom FORBID it, and I had never been through the canyons.

We started with breakfast, then rode up to the top of the canyon and hung out taking in the view for a while before heading back down the canyon for wine at the most adorable wine tasting spot. This is where I took a photo on the bike and a group of strangers tried to encourage me, I’m not the best at taking photos in public, which resulted in me covering my face. We then stopped at a cafe and spent some time on the beach.

It was s beautiful day out. Thanks to the recent rain we had such amazing visibility while in the canyon, and it wasn’t too hot while we were out riding. Now I see why people ride. It was so much fun. I’m not sure if I’d ever get my own bike but I sure as hell loved riding on the back of one.

Additional New Things:

Here are some other fun new things I got up to this month!

Went to Dave and Buster’s for the first time, and then the second time in the same month. It was a lot of fun! However, both times we waited FOREVER to get a table, over an hour for me and my friend Kaitlyn and then over 3 hours for a group of us for my friend’s birthday. 5/10 for fun.
Enjoyed dinner with my dear friend Casey at a Cuban restaurant, Felix Continental Cafe in Orange. The service was great, the portions were HUGE and the food was tasty.
Had beef 7 ways with Yvette, my amazing longtime pen-pal. She and her BF took me out to enjoy Bo 7 mon, while they were visiting. It was really good and something I had never heard of before. I really would like to go again and bring more of my friends along with me.
Visited the Button Mash a “barcade” in Los Angles with friends. This is such a cool bar with vintage and new arcade games, great drinks and an Asian fusion restaurant all happening in the same space. It gets really crowded, but I stilled enjoyed myself and I have more tokens to spend, so let me know if you want to go!

What new things have you been up to this year? Let me know in the comments! March has some great things lined up for me!

The Great Big Wonder