Sonya Cheney

Writer. Witch. Creatrix.

bread baking | eight-hour no-knead bread

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Months ago, I started following Jenna Fischer on Instagram only to discover that she is obsessed with baking bread. I’m not sure how I didn’t know that beforehand, but whatever. My status of being behind the times is not the point of this post. The point is to share the fact that Jenna’s obsession quickly turned into my obsession, and maybe a week or two after following and binge watching all of her bread-related Instagram highlights, I ordered a few supplies for myself and got to baking.

Sort of.

I ordered Bonnie Ohara’s Bread Baking for Beginners in late November, and since then I’ve made exactly three (3) loaves of bread–and two of them were the same recipe. Yes, having a small child in the house who often demands my undivided attention is a pretty good excuse, but still–I want to bake all the bread, dammit! Even if he can’t quite eat it yet, Dan and I sure as hell can, and when I do get around to baking a loaf, boy do we. One of our favorite dinners lately has been a good loaf of bread, fig jam, and goat cheese. That’s it, unless we decide to go really wild and add some olives and salami. But just those three keep me perfectly content.

Anyway, I recently finally had the chance to try my second recipe in the book, the eight-hour fermentation no-knead bread. What I love about the book is not only how much I learn, but how much it focuses on precision to get your loaf just right. I’ve made a pretty good amount of bread over the years, but I’ve only recently really committed to not only weighing my ingredients but also checking the temperature of them. Doing this in the winter in a somewhat drafty house can make it a little challenging at times, but it’s still amazing the difference it makes and the results that I’ve gotten so far.

Dan suggested after the first loaf that I should make a scrapbook for the breads I bake throughout the book–especially since I’m just baking my way through in a linear fashion, building foundation skills to add to as I go–and I definitely think I’ll be doing just that. I’ve become so enamored of travelers notebooks lately, and along with that, one of my goals this year is to get back to using my dSLR camera again, so I think it’s a great way to combine all of these loves.

I’ve got this funny little dream of a very rustic life, being a writer with a farmhouse and a good-sized garden to feed us. Baking bread is a big part of that dream; it’s simple, but it’s wholesome. It is, in fact, very hygge. Basically, I just want to be a hobbit.

a quilted christmas gift.

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About a year and a half ago now I started learning how to quilt thanks to my friend Lydia, and for this past Christmas I made my third completed quilt as a gift for my friend Katie.

One thing I love about quilting is the creative opportunity that it presents. Each quilt that I’ve completed so far has started with the same general idea, the half-square triangle, and each one has turned out completely different in the end. Learning that approach alone creates so much possibility for design, and half the fun for me is in sitting down with a handful of HSTs and moving them about like a puzzle to create a design that really jumps out at me for the current project. It’s just so cool! And it’s beyond satisfying when I find something I like and stick with it.

I actually haven’t used a pattern to make any of my quilts yet, and on the one hand that is so much fun because I get to put my creative muscles to use–but I’m also looking forward to the day that I find a pattern I love (or that I think someone else will love) and trying my hand at something more than winging it. The funny thing is that I’ve been knitting for years and have never made a pattern of my own from scratch. I’ve never really had the patience or the desire for it. But with quilting, I haven’t much bothered with patterns, besides the occasional bit of browsing, because it’s an entirely different kind of satisfaction when I’m quilting without that kind of guidance or restraint.

So much of this quilt came together as I was working on it: the square patterns, the addition of the black space, the quilting pattern. I even chose the quilting thread in the middle of the project, debating between black or purple for the top. When I went to Joann Fabrics to browse thread colors, ultimately deciding I’d be choosing a purple, not only did I get a purple but I got a variegated thread with beautiful shades. It added such a cool dimension to the quilting design that I never would have thought of if I hadn’t given myself the freedom to just browse thread colors halfway through the project. (And, no surprise, I am now more than a little obsessed with variegated thread.)

I see so many more quilts in my future–I’m pretty sure we’re going to be buried under throw blankets in our next house. If at some point you no longer hear from me, just know that I went in one of the best ways possible: comfortably wrapped in an endless blanket burrito.

jan 2020 | current favorite podcasts.

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In an effort to keep the TV off a little more often, I would say the majority of my time is spent on Spotify listening to either any of a million playlists or, more likely, listening to a podcast. Right after Finn was born, I would keep track of the days of the week by checking what podcasts were updated when he would wake up at 4am. Of course, it seems like most of what I listen to updates on Wednesdays, but still–it was a rough estimate.

But since so much of my time consists of listening to podcasts with him most days, I thought I’d give a little update on some of my favorites at the moment.

Bigfoot Collectors Club // I’ve been listening to this one since August 2018, and when I first discovered it you know I binged those back episodes like it was my job. I’m always on the lookout for new paranormal podcasts–especially when I’m caught up on my usual listens–and I am still so glad to have found this one. Each week, Bryce Johnson and Michael McMillian (with the aid of Super Producer Riley Bray) speak with guests about their personal paranormal experiences and follow up with a high strangeness story of the week. I feel like I’ve learned about so many new, weird cases from this podcast, and I definitely wait not-so-patiently for a new episode on…Wednesdays.

Office Ladies // This podcast consists of The Office ladies Jenna Fischer (Pam) and Angela Kinsey (Angela) doing a rewatch of every. episode. ever. of The Office and providing behind-the-scenes commentary on each episode. If you’re a fan of The Office, this is a must listen–especially if, somehow, you haven’t heard of it yet. My only complaint is that it’s pretty much impossible to watch one episode at a time, so I can’t quite do a watch-along with the ladies. But it’s totally worth it to get the experience of hearing Angela laugh for what feels like the first time.

Good Mourning, Nancy // Um, yeah, so I subscribe to a fair number of horror movie podcasts, and this is my latest. I love a good horror film analysis, and if you give it to me with a healthy dose of feminist commentary, all the better. Abbey and Gracie are long-time friends with a love of horror, and I enjoy their dives into the backgrounds of various films–including Black Christmas, Misery, and The Conjuring. A personal favorite so far is the deep dive special episodes on Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson. I learned so much from those episodes, and I even placed an immediately library hold on a few recommended books from them.

Please let me know if you have any other podcast recommendations for me based on these three. Do I need to add more to my roster? Of course not. But do I want to? Absolutely.

favorite books of 2019 mini book.

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Last summer, I joined rukristin’s Awesome Ladies Project online community to help on my scrapbooking journey, and one of my favorite projects that I’ve done so far as part of the site is her “Best of…” course. It’s quick and simple to fill out the sheets she provides (although choosing favorites isn’t exactly easy), and when I had my list narrowed down, I went through the paper books I already had from zine making, picked a few pieces I thought coordinated, and started putting together my first mini book.

I decided to go more with favorites than “best”–which there was a great conversation about on the ALP site, actually–because most of the time I’m reading purely for entertainment or to learn something. I don’t always read critically and can sometimes be pretty easily pleased with something even if it’s not objectively “good.” I’m trying to be better about that this year, in fact, by writing more reviews on Goodreads after I finish a book rather than just rating it, which maybe I’ll talk about in a later post.

Anyway, my list turned out as so:

10. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

9. Sadie by Courtney Summers

8. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

7. Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes

6. Inspection by Josh Malerman

5. Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

4. The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

3. Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

2. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

1. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum

For my first try at anything resembling a mini book, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I like the size, I like the way I included the covers, and I really like the fact that I managed to use a lot of scraps to do it; I didn’t buy anything new for this. Even the yarn on the binding is leftover from an old sock knitting project.

I’m already planning a second mini album, this time with my favorite horror movies of the 2010s. I think that one will be a bit more challenging, mainly because I don’t keep track of the movies I watch quite like I do the books I read, but I think it’ll be fun nonetheless. Plus, it gives me an excuse to use the Halloween paper pack I got last year.