Adventures in Baking

Babka is such a perfect treat, a great bookend to a hearty dinner or a tasty breakfast to enjoy with a good cup of coffee. For those of you who don’t know what babka is please watch the Seinfeld episode “The Dinner Party” and you’ll fully understand. Ok, maybe you’ll only understand that cinnamon babka is the “lesser babka.” 

If you do a quick search for babka you’ll find a million and one things, including it's various origin stories. Well the babka I know and love is of Eastern European Jewish origin. It is a yeast cake that is often filled with chocolate, rolled up and twisted into a loaf pan. For the last few years I have gotten my babka fix with Trader Joe's Brooklyn Chocolate Babka. Though if you go to any Jewish bakery (and probably many NYC bakeries in general) you'll find some babka like pastry.

I honestly have never even thought about making my own babka. It looks like one of those complicated things you should let the pros do. But I recently got the book Modern Jewish Baker by Shannon Sarna. And her recipe for Babka looked surprisingly easy.  Not to mention she has a dozen ideas for variations including sweet ones like s'mores or tropical Babka, and even some savory ones.

So I decide to give it a shot. Below is my process and final bake.

The dough has risen.

Spreading the chocolate.

After you roll the dough and filling you split the rolls in half.

Twisting the dough and placing into a loaf pan.

All three ready to go in the oven.

The finished product.

Since this first batch I also added crumble on top and made a s'mores version.

Giraffic Adventure

I. Love. Knitting. Last month I went to the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival, and was pleased to see so many knitters and crocheters from all walks of life.

Knitting is my passion, but since I don't often try to sell my knitting I haven't really talked about it here. I knit LOTS of gifts. And this time of year is when I am furiously working to finish them in time for Chanukkah and Christmas. I have such a fun time knitting, and hope to share some of what I've done with you. So for today, let us begin with a look back on my Giraffic Adventure.

This is Gerry Giraffe, my first try at a knit stuffed animal. My friends had an adorable baby boy this past year, and I wanted to make them something special for him to go with their safari-themed nursery. I was a little nervous when I started. It was a new pattern and all the pieces are so small. I used Sirdar's Noah's Ark Giraffe pattern as my starting point. They tell you to knit all the pieces flat and sew them up. You start with the body, and are supposed to embroider the dots on top. But I guess I don't like following instructions.

I volunteer with New York Cares in Manhattan, and we taught our clients how to do intarsia knitting and crochet. So I thought, why not? I made myself a little pattern that followed the size of the body and went for it. It was difficult, but it definitely worked and was less difficult than going back over it later. It was after doing the front and back that I thought this pattern would be so much easier in the round. I plan to make another giraffe in the opposite color scheme and I would definitely do the body in the round using the fair isle technique.

Thankfully I came up with a way to do the other limbs in the round which saved myself some work. Though they did end up a little bigger than the pattern's picture. I also may have overstuffed them, you can see the stuffing a bit. But it's homemade! So no complaints.

All in all I am happy with how it came out, and I hope it will last this little guy a long time.

Check out some of my other knit and crochet work on Ravelry.

Craft Fair Season

According to every store I walk into, the holiday season is upon us. That also means that craft fairs are in full swing. I decided to sign up for a few, and am excited to be apart of two this coming week.

That means I have been busy working on building up enough inventory to sell. So here are some old and new things I have been working on. Starting with my boxed full of Onesies! Still trying to figure out the best way to keep and organize them all. This seems to be working and gives me a chance to see all of the colors. And means I need to start adding some more colors.

I wanted to do some colors I haven't tried before, including the glittery silver. I. Love. Glitter! The glitter HTV is fun to work with and was actually a little easier than the standard HTV.

Since this is my first real craft fair I have also been working on ways to display my items. My husband was looking for a project and built me some awesome display stands. Some for onesies, mugs, and scarves. They are all similar in design, so here is the onesie display in the works.

Working on some signage too. Created a stencil of my logo for the wood, and edged it in the same plum purple.

Revisiting some old designs, I've added to my onesie repertoire. This "Born to Kick" soccer onesie is one I made for a friend last year. Then there is the "Freshly Brewed" for my love of coffee. Lastly, in time for Chanukkah we have "This is how I roll."

If you are in Essex County, NJ this week please come check out my shop. Will be set up Thursday, November 2nd at Vendors & Vino. It is a fundraiser and craft fair for the Beth El Preschool.

And Sunday, November 5th we will be set up at the Short Hills-Millburn Street Fair and Crafts Show. I'm sharing a tent with Boop Loops Crochet.

Mischief Managed

Until recently, I had never read Harry Potter. I somehow convinced myself I must have read the first one, it was such a big deal in middle school. But when I finally sat down and started reading it in August, it was clear to me I had never read it. I thought I was a Harry Potter fan. I’d seen most of the movies, could recite some of the random spells used, and was told endlessly that I reminded people of Hermione. When my husband found out he couldn’t believe it. He owns all seven books and kept trying to convince me to read them. I wasn’t opposed to it, but I am 30 years old and there are so many things I could be reading.

It wasn’t until this summer that I was finally convinced. I was listening to Two Dope Queens and one of the hosts, Jessica Williams, is a huge Harry Potter fan. She told this story about sharing a birthday with the author J.K. Rowling and with the character Harry Potter. The joy with which she spoke about the books and being able to meet J.K. Rowling really left me wondering, why had I never read these books? I spent so much time looking up to Lisa Simpson (who I still believe is amazing), but what would it have been like to look up to Hermione too? So at the beginning of September when my school year started I began reading the books. Earlier today I finished Half-Blood Prince, so Deathly Hollows here I come!

I am definitely hooked, and regret not having read these books earlier. They really are amazing! So here are some of my Harry Potter inspired crafts, with more on the way!

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Watercolor & Vinyl

Trying out some new mixed media ideas. Worked on some watercolor backgrounds with vinyl phrases on top. Planning to collaborate with my friend Candi who is a brilliant painter. But here are my trials to test out the vinyl phrases.

Blogging Take... Onesie

Clearly I didn't do this whole website and blog thing very well. So here we go again! Once more with feeling. Did I mention I am also a big Buffy fan?

There will be many blog posts to come to chronicle some of the awesome things I've done since last November, but first and foremost let's talk crafts! My sweet sweet husband bought me a Cricut this last year and it has really opened me up to so many new and fun crafts. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is basically a cutting and drawing machine. You can cut a lot of different types of materials and it's very accurate. So you make a design, it cuts it out, and voila!

This past year so many of my friends have had babies, and I wanted to make them special gifts for their little ones. A friend asked if I could make her a "woke baby" onesie, and I was up for the challenge. After getting some ideas and working on the design I was able to get started with my cutting machine. It was a lot of fun to use after the initial setup. You create your design online, you let the machine cut it out, then you weed out the extra material and in this case iron it on. Below is my final product.

It has been a lot of fun to start playing with some other designs too. There is the Born to Model onesie, since all babies are photographed a million times a day now.

Since I am an avid coffee drinker I figured a coffee themed onesie was in order. Thus "Freshly Brewed" was created.

And I've even done a few other custom requests, including a dinosaur themed 1st birthday shirt. A soccer themed "Born to Kick" shirt. And The Nightmare Before Christmas themed ones. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm currently working on some more designs coming soon.

Hello!

Hello all! My name is Courtney and this is Mercury Made.

I am a high school Math teacher by day, and crafter by night. Though the two worlds often collide. I've always had a love for crafting. But in a tiny NYC apartment there wasn't much room for it. So one day I thought of a perfect way to make my hobby and lack of space work, by selling the things I make. My husband encouraged me to pursue my passions, and for that I am truly grateful. My blog and shop name come from a cute idea we had long ago of combining our last names. We ended up using the initials H and G, and after awhile realized Hg was the chemical symbol for Mercury. And as we are both STEM teachers, nothing seemed more perfect. Thus Mercury Made was born.

I want to devote more time to doing the things I love, so here it goes with my first blog post to chronicle my journey. Now I have spent the last few years really getting comfortable with crafting and trying new crafty things. My sister has been a big inspiration. She likes to send me things she likes and I always respond with "I can make that!" Recently someone saw my mugs and asked if I would be willing to sell at their pop-up holiday craft fair. YES PLEASE! I can't even begin to count the number of hours I spend at craft fairs and holiday markets each year. But to actually sell at one was something I never really thought I'd be able to do. This feels like the first page of a new chapter in my crafting career. So the last few weeks I have been working to create some good inventory and simple but elegant packaging. If you are in the NJ area it would be great to see some familiar faces!

Seton Hall Holiday Pop-Up-Shops Hosted by the Fashion Club
Saturday, December 3rd, 2016
11:00am to 5:00pm
400 S Orange Ave
South Orange, NJ

If you can't make it, please check out my Etsy site! I hope you enjoy my work.

Courtney
 

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