iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I've been teaching myself simple band weaving with the help of various blogs and YouTube videos. So far I've just made a couple of simple headbands to hold a veil, but I'm enjoying it and I'm going to tackle something larger next. #sca #mysca #weaving

Green white teal small woven band about a finger width

Green white teal band on an easy Weaver loom partially completed

Blue white red band about a finger width

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Getting my visualizations out there to make a trip to Japan, a lifetime bucket list item, happen in 2026 in the fall! Let's see if we can do this! #watercolors #japan

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Hummingbirds like to visit the scarlet runner bean flowers, and one posed for a picture this morning! 🌱

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Finished harvesting and shelling the Carlin peas. Got a little over two cups, which is great since I started with 25 peas and only 15 to 17 of them turned into plants due to germination failure and predation. Medieval recipes await! Also saved some seed for next year. 🌱 #sca #mysca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

A few more small cups. These were turned from 1 lb lumps of clay, which I found much harder to center than the 1.5 lb that I've been using earlier. I think they came out pretty decently, not fabulous but decent. #pottery

Three clay cups ready to be fired as greenware

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Making art. Alcohol markers, metallic pens, glitter pens.

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

About half the Carlin pea harvest is in! Not bad for starting with only 25 peas, of which only 18 sprouted and 15 made it past the snails. This medieval style starch pea will be the source for some pottage experimentation. #sca #mysca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

cherry clafouti, baked this morning before it gets too hot to turn the oven on! #whatscooking

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Harvested all my onions today and set them out in the pop up greenhouse to dry out a bit. Unfortunately I won't be able to store them for months like last year. The cold snap we had this spring tricked them into thinking it was their second year and they all sent up flower stalks. 🌱

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Had a great time at the W7PXL Valley Radio Club field day operation yesterday. I made my first contacts on 20m! My husband's radio trailer was the 15m station. #hamradio #fieldday

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Snipped some summer herbs to dry in the garage for fall. 🌱

Basket of herbs each to strings on clothespins

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Carlin pea update: we have lots of pods! I'm hoping for a good harvest, enough to try some traditional pottage recipes this fall in combination with my potherb garden. #sca #mysca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Pretty happy with these cups, trimmed and ready for bisque firing. #pottery

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Traditional medieval field/starch pea, the Carlin pea. They grow like no other pea I have seen, with the leaves on the central stalk and crazy vining tentacles on the sides. These are only a month old, let's see what they look like as they mature! 🌱 #mysca #sca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Coffee shop art. My new sets of washi tape came in!

Our reach is as long as our roots are deep.

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Super quick and easy dinner: quiche with sun-dried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and wilted spinach! #whatscooking

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Had a lovely hour walk on the loop trails at Dorris Ranch a couple of days ago. The meadow areas are blooming with camas lilies and the forested trails have larkspur and columbine.

Larkspur or Columbine I'm not sure which

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Coffeeshop art. Ohuhu alcohol markers on mixed media paper. #art

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Taking a few minutes to just sit in the sun and listen to the wind chimes. There's a chicken in the smoker, I just checked the moisture level in all my planters and they're all okay, and there's nothing I have to be doing right this very second except enjoying the smell of the lilacs. 🌱

Peaceful garden scene, kind of cluttered but that's just how we roll

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

This year I'm trying to grow Carlin peas, a medieval starch pea that's been used for centuries. I'm really impressed by how different and weird they look compared to normal snap, snow, and shelling peas. I feel like I'm growing little aliens in the garden! 🌱 #sca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Having fun at the Albany Oregon carousel. What an amazing project this is! All of the animals have been made from scratch by volunteers and the whole operation is run by volunteers! The mechanism is donated by a member of the Dentzel family and was restored by volunteers.

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

The lemon balm is really starting to take off, so I snipped a small bunch for my first tisane of the 2025 garden season. Fresh lemon balm tisane is lovely either hot or iced! It's still a nice tea herb when dried, but the fresh flavor is really special. 🌱 #whatscooking #tea

A small bundle of lemon balm sticking out of a whimsical teapot

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

I am super excited, the mad science is working! It's day four of conditioning my straw bales and the temperature 3 inches below the surface of the bale is over 100°! Wow! 🌱

Pen digital thermometer stuck in a straw bale; reads 107F

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Started my straw bale garden yesterday-- got bales and started 12 days of conditioning them with water and fertilizer. Meanwhile, strawberry towers are doing well, and so are the annuals hardening off in the pop-up greenhouse: calendula, cosmos, alyssum, viola. 🌱

pair of straw bales at the head of a raised garden bed

two strawberry towers and a long skinny planter of daylilies

10x20 garden tray with pink 6-packs of annual starts

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Made a little "mother ocean" mermaid stuffie at the retreat.

purple-haired mermaid small felt stuffie

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I stopped using fun color in my hair about 14 years ago when I started doing more corporate work and shut down my consulting company. It's only taken me a year and a half of retirement to realize hey, I can go back to having fun! Just a few purple streaks to start with, more later.

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Chicken and poblano pepper white chili over corn chips. I grew the poblanos last summer and chopped and froze a bunch of them for winter chili. #whatscooking

Bowl of chicken poblano and white bean chili

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Went over to Clay space, to participate in the make-a-thon for a future fundraiser sale. I threw four successful cups out of seven attempts. I've never worked with that small a ball of clay before, only a pound. Much harder to center! #pottery

A small bowl and three cups, or arguably two small balls and two cups. I don't have great control over form yet.

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

We took a nice walk at the Eugene Rose Garden yesterday lunch time. The huge heritage cherry tree is blooming, and so is the enormous magnolia. Gorgeous flowers everywhere!

Looking up through the blooming cherry tree

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

We both liked the Korleone's white lazagna blend best, the black cardamom really came through and gave it a very distinct flavor. #sca #whatscooking

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

My friend Stephanie and I are doing a little kitchen mad science SCA style: we have some Ida red apples here and four different medieval spice blends from Auntie Arwen's: poudre fine, poudre fort, poudre douce, and another blend from a 15th century Italian recipe. #whatscooking #sca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Did some wonderful hiking yesterday, China Creek loop at Washburn State Park in Oregon. About 275 FT elevation gain and I think most of it was packed into going up over the Ridgeline ouch. But I made it!

The path from the day use parking area to the campground

A rough skinned newt or possibly a California newt. Apparently you tell them apart by the eyes and I don't have a good look at them in this picture

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Had a lovely tea party at home for some of my local women friends. Welcome spring!

Nice China and tea snacks on a lace tablecloth

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Hello from the Barony of Adiantum Birthday Bash! Spirits are high and fun is being had indoors on this rainy Saturday. #sca

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

I collected all my cups and mini bowls that have come back from glazing and gifted them to my local Barony to use as largesse. They like to give a cup and a cap to newcomers to welcome them! #sca #pottery

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

More garden journal illustrations! I am still looking for people to give me feedback on the draft journal. Feel free to message me if you are interested! 🌱

Everything is part of the ecosystem, with an illustration of two leaves with aphids and a ladybug

Cultivation, loosen the soil that the air into your roots with illustration of a croton in a pot with little air molecules around it

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Busy garden day today. Potted up the Genovese basil into larger cells, and seeded alyssum, calendula, viola, and cosmos. Potatoes are greening up as they should, I'm planning on planting them in containers next week. 🌱

Pink six packs just seeded, plus some lettuce starts in the background

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Baking went very well today, made a gorgeous half white half wheat challah with sesame seeds. Gotta have the sesame seeds! #whatscooking

Big brown challah with sesame seeds, cooling on a wire rack

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Started a clay hand building class at ClaySpace a couple of weeks ago. Made this cute fish from a piece of clay slab this past Tuesday, looking forward to glazing it in bright colors! #pottery

flat clay fish with patterns pressed into it

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Glazed the last few cups I did on the wheel. Mistakes were made! Interiors and rim dips are purple rain. Exterior on two are tenmoku, woo's blue on the other two. #pottery

Bisque ware cups dipped in glaze waiting to be fired

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Did my up potting today of peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. Also wrapped my second plant shelf with chicken wire and put additional LED lights on it. Chicken wire because cats! 🌱

A bunch of 5-in pots with tiny seedlings in them

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

My fuzzy buddies are washing each other and being generally cute. #cats

Long hair black cat washing black and white short-haired cat

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Strata Chalup @strata.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

I planted snow peas and snap peas today. I learned a new thing, that the best time to plant them is when they are under 3 in tall. So as soon as they were fully up, I got them out there! 🌱

A long rectangular garden bed mulched with dried leaves. Along one side next to a trellis, the leaves have been scraped back and a row of pea plants just a few inches tall have been planted.

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