Now I’m hanging by a thread – Everything Everything – Cough Cough
Starting a long term project today. One small crocheted granny square every other day for a year. I have 180 mini skeins to use up and I’ll see what I can make with them at the end.
Square one. One hundred and seventy-nine to go.
Honey, Shakin’ is the greatest thing
It’s Spring and I’m ready to get back out to my 3-season studio but MAN that space was a mess after a winter of neglect!
I spent all of last weekend rearranging the areas of my studio and cleaning out lots of bits and bobs that I don’t need anymore.
I have my cozy yarn corner where I can sit at my desk when doing the tech work of design and pattern writing and settle down in my comfy chair when making samples. (Not all of the yarn had been put away yet when this one was snapped – it has doubled since!)
And now I have a great sewing space with my sewing machine and serger on their own table, a bureau and cabinets full of fabric and a BIG table for laying out and cutting fabric (again, it hadn’t quite been assembled when this pic was snapped, it occupies that large open space to the left) which also doubles as a great space for blocking crochet and knit pieces.
I have a feeling I’ll be spending LOTS of time out there this year.
😉 – OMG! OMG! OMG!
Saebra decided she wanted a Double Rainbow Birthday. So, she got one.
We spent a week making a batch of ice cream each night, coloring it in sequence, and freezing it a spring-form pan. The whole thing was set on a crushed Oreo base.
Then we made rainbow cupcakes. A double cake recipe split into 6 portions, each colored and then spooned into cupcake papers in sequence.
The kids had a basket full of rainbow balloons to play with, faux tie-dying with markers and balsa wood gliders to toss into the sky.
She got lots of great gifts but my favorite is the dress that my sister made. She used a simple tank top and added a skirt, but what a skirt! Its made from this awesome rainbow fabric that she’s had in her stash for 15 years – I’ll try and get a pic of the girl wearing it 🙂
What did we get? One Happy Kid!
Happy 8th birthday baby-girl 🙂
Toots
😉 – Drawn to the fragile legs you walk on
So, I punctured my foot on Friday. Stepped on a garden rake, went almost all the way through my foot, ball of my foot, between the big toe and next. No major damage but major enough pain. I’m pretty much stuck in bed, I can’t quite walk on it yet, though I can drive short distances, and if the foot is below heart level for more than 10 minutes she swells like a puffer fish and throbs like you can’t believe.
Small things make me happy, like these awsome mugs that my SiL Jamie made for our anniversary.
They fit perfect in my hand. I love them.
Toots
😉 – I’m just a going over home
I want one.
No wonder she’s angry – she’s got a yarn shop full of crappy acrylics.
Toots
How many of you can reach for a snack from where you are sitting?
What is that outside my computer window?
Are those the black raspberries I have been patiently waiting for?
Why yes, yes they are!
Hello delicious, conveniently located healthy snack!
om, nom, nom
I relish the thought of the pies to come.
Toots
😉 – Lay here and watch the trees sway
How to have my Tuesday in 7 simple steps.
1:Wrangle with your insurance company and that of the other party involved over the fault of the rear-ending that you experienced 5 months ago and finally get them to come to the conclusion that it WAS NOT your fault and that you can now get your car fixed.
2:Drop your car off at the body shop which also has a rental place and drive off in a spiffy PT Cruiser.
3: Get a job teaching at WEBS so you meet awesome people who will bring you fresh Hadley Grass from their garden for NO reason, out of the blue, while you are happiily crocheting away at Drop-in. Thank you Joyce!! 😉
4: When you get home from work with the kids marinate the asparagus with some chives and oregano from your garden and a bit of the real balsamic vinegar that your sister brought snuck back from Italy almost 2 years ago that you totally hoard.
5: Fire up the grill and get it ready for some steaks and the super yummy asparagus.
6: Counsel, comfort and bandage your almost 7 year-old after she shatters the glass on your garage side door and scares the SH!T out of herself, her sister and you. (Breathe a sigh of relief when you clean up the Van Gogh worthy amounts of blood from the side of her face and ear and you only find superficial cuts. *sigh*)
7: Clean it all up and be ready to sit down to a delicious meal just as the hubby pulls in.
You could probably get away with steps 4, 5 and 7, or you could make up your own, but that would be simple and easy. The best things in life are more enjoyable if you toss in some drama, and a full belly.
SO full.
and no, that is not some secret allusion to me being pregnant, I’m just super full of asparagus.
Toots
The kids have been watching this movie like crazycakes the past month, not that I mind, I would rather spend hours with Gene Wilder than 10 minutes with Hannah Montana.
I bring up Willy Wonka because the name came up twice in my life this week.
First: We made jam on Sunday. I had gone to the Twist Fair on Saturday with Melissa, Kristen and her amazingly well behaved (you put me to shame) daughter and Rue and we had a lovely time, and a lovely lunch at which I mentioned wanting to go home and make violet jam, I have mentioned this in past years. Melissa loved the idea and demanded the “receipt!” Oh the calm repose and patience that woman has 😉 Then I went back to Twist with Annie and had a second loverly time. I ended up with not a lot of loot but good loot. I bought some super cute hair clips from Tina, got a beautiful necklace from Malea – I’ll shows you later, soap and lotion from Bunny Butt and I ran into all sorts of people I know and love. Now, if I could just get off my ass a little more and make some stuff I could maybe vend at one.
Oh the Willy Wonka thing, right, its because Violet Jam is an insane color and Saebra commented that it looked like a candy that Willy would make.
Second: My friend Matt picked cahsews this week, he’s in El Salvador with the Peace Corps for the next 2 years. He and his host brother went out to pick cashews and he’d never realized they came attached to fruits. He said, “…looks like something from Willy Wonka’s health food store.” Unfortunatly they don’t taste so good. And for those of you that followed his link, please ignore the mustache. Somewhere under there is the cutest boy in the world, I swear.
So what do you do with electric purple jam? you eat it of course! and it is delicious. Melissa says it tastes like spring and she is so totally right.
If you’d like the recipe, here you go:
Violet Jam – referred to by my husband as his brothers as violent jam
Makes 12, 4oz jars
3 C violet blossoms 5 C sugar
3 C water 2 – 1.75oz packets of powdered pectin
2 tsp lime juice
😉 – I’m for spare parts, broken up
(btw, the lyrics for this one are nsfw! or small children. Have I mentioned that I adore Thom Yorke?)
One last class sample is done for the summer run at WEBS.
Wanna make one? Sign up for the class 🙂
Toots
;)- There’s nothin’ there to hide
We watched the first 2 episodes of the BBC’s Robinhood last night – here’s a mini version of episode 1
Hated it. I haven’t said that a show sucked in YEARS – but this one did. The acting was horrible the writing must have been done with trained monkeys and the lead actor is just yucky. ew.
Good news is that I’m going to watch this BBC version of Robinhood next week. ( Holy crap Mom, remember watching this on PBS!!!?!!!) Oh and this youtube clip is set to one of my favorite 80’s one-hit wonders to boot! I’m sure it’ll be loaded with cheeseball 80’s stuff but just look at that man. woof!
And if you’ve never seen this, don’t bother. I only saw it 3 times in the theatre because I had a cruch on Christain Slater at the time, whaddaya want I was 16.
Toots
Chicken Betty 
