Yummy Food and a Yarn Crawl

Yesterday, we had a little adventure -- a little yarn crawl followed by a yummy lunch at a raw vegan restaurant (105 Degrees). The yarn crawl included two stores which actually turned out to have very nice selections and yes, there was some buying done. I swear I am swearing off buying sock yarn next year but since there are still a few days left till next year, I bought some more. I also got some cool odds and ends.

Well, all that shopping works up an appetite and we headed over to what was a special treat for me: a return visit to 105 Degrees. I neglected to get pics of everything we ate, but did manage to snap a few:

This is the "BLT" salad -- instead of bacon, they season coconut and dehydrate it. Maybe if you've never had real bacon, you'd think it was bacon. But, it did taste good and as you can see, it was a big salad.










I spaced out and didn't take a picture of my first course or my lasagna, but remembered in time to get pics of dessert. This is the chocolate tart that I ordered and took home half of -- and it was very good.











And, this is the brownie sundae that SO had. He said it was good but the brownie was hard.









We also had a couple of alcoholic beverages which were very nice and overall, it was a great lunch...except for the embarrassing part where I threw my gum out in the bathroom into the can of dirty cloth hand towels instead of the trash can.

Later, we went out with the fam for a birthday dinner and then to see "True Grit". Here is SO holding my hand in the movies -- notice the spiffy gloves he is wearing. They are made from buffalo yarn -- we bought them at the second yarn shop where they had a nice selection of yarns from bison, yak, etc. What a treat to see the yarns in the stores instead of just drooling over them in magazines or online!!!

Exciting News!

It was a year in the making, but our little book of illustrated recipes arrived last night!!!



Probably for twenty years I've thought about writing my own cookbook. You know what? It's harder than I thought! Our little book has a recipe with a drawing for each month of the year -- recipes by moi and drawings by SO. We will be distributing them as little gifties this season.

We have lots of ideas for a sequel, too!

I guess this is my last post before Christmas...so Merry Christmas to my faithful blog readers! XO, TBD

You Better Watch Out...

You know who is coming to town!!!!

Who knew Santa liked to tool around on a chopper on Saturday nights in Baltimore? Take that, West Coast Chopper!











We braved the cold Saturday night to embrace a local tradition of going to see the lights on the homes of a short city block in downtown Baltimore on 34th Street. I'm not sure how many years this has been going on (I've gone for the last seven years), but it's really quite the scene. From Thanksgiving till New Years, this little street hosts thousands of people who walk the street to see the Christmas lights. It's hard to do it justice in the photos and there's no conveying the true ambiance, but this is pure Baltimore: kitschy, sentimental, and do it yourself. No money for Christmas lights? No problem -- build yourself a Christmas tree out of hubcaps or tin cans -- no problem for me -- after all, I'm the girl that has a crocheted tee pee!!











































This year it was about 35 degrees out for the the outing -- no too bad-- and there were a group of Mennonites singing Christmas carols and a burrito truck.

I will have very exciting news in my next post...just in time for Christmas, but you better watch out, you better not pout...

Knitted Gifts: Blessing or Curse?

I can't decide what people really think when I give them something I've knitted. I'm gaga for it, but I haven't lost complete touch with reality so I know that maybe these treasures feel like traps to some people.

But, I still can't help myself. Here's another Xmas gift ready to go:












In fact, I'm now officially done knitting for the holidays. The self-imposed pressure I put on myself about these gifts makes me want to start immediately in January stock-piling finished objects so there is no crunch come late in the year. I actually do start fairly early, I think, in August but maybe it's better to start right in January...or maybe it's not. Why change?

This scarf was knit on huge size 35 needles and I was finishing it up on Saturday while sitting at an estate auction. I plodded along till the end. After a short break, I took out something else I'm working on that's brown/pinks/reds and on much smaller needles and after about an hour, the man in back of me asked me what happened to the large needles. He thought I was still working on the same thing. I thought it was funny that he noticed it at all -- he noticed the change in the needle size but not the difference between the green scarf and the brown/pink/red shawl.

Starting next week, I will be travelling and in sock mode till the New Year. I'm looking forward to having a couple of new pairs of socks to parade around in.

Cookies Ka-Pow!

Presents, done.
Decorating, done (ok, that consisted of pulling out SO's wooden Xmas tree and hanging a wreath on the door).
Therefore, yesterday was dedicated to COOKIES.

This year we kept it simple -- just four good sturdy, but yummy types: Peanut Butter Balls, Lemon Bars, Chocolate Chips, and Iced Butter Cookies. Still, it takes all day and three people to pull it off, especially when there was a double batch of chocolate chip involved and the peanut butter balls seem to go on forever. But, of course, yours truly has a system for such things and I'd made the butter cookies the day before so they were perfectly ready to receive their icing and put together dinner in the slow cooker in the morning (Beef Burgundy -- pretty good).

And, I've decided that I may possibly be the world's worst food photographer. Frankly, it's the last thing I think of and I do it at the end of the whole process when I'm tired, but still I push myself to click the button because, afterall, Monday does come and there is need for a blog post. Now, onto the cookie pics --


First up, here are some peanut butter balls. Don't be fooled by the scant number. We made a big pile of these because, well, what is Xmas without chocolate and peanut butter?














Here are the Lemon Bars and some of the Chocolate Chips. This year and last, I used a recipe straight off the flour bag for the chocolate chips and I think they are as good as they come. Also, I treated us to some new cookie sheets a few weeks ago when they were on sale and it made life pretty nice.













Now, the Butter Cookies series of pictures featuring the festive designs of myself and my two cookie elves: SO and Daughter of SO.


These are my "creations". Personally, this proves I should stick to the cooking part. I believe these look like they were made by a first-grader or possibly kindergartner.










These are Daughter of SO's. I think they look very nice.













And, finally, we have SO's. Notice they are works of art. I fancy myself as his muse...:-)

Christmas on a $1!

Hey, calling all you budget-minded readers, let me introduce you to Christmas on a $1! Yes, you heard correctly: one dollar!!

This year, SO and I started the tradition that one of our gifts to one another had to cost a dollar or less. This sort of started out as a little joke, but then turned into a competition to see who could come up with the most spectacular $1 present.

The history of this goes back a few months ago when we went to an estate auction and I bought a set of three paint by numbers paintings for $1. There were two small ones and one large one -- all winter scenes. I knew immediately that I wanted to small ones for my guest bathroom and that I was going to set aside the large one for SO because he's been aiming towards decorating one of his bedrooms with a winter theme (old skis, ice skates, etc.). I figured it would be kind of funny to hide it away till Christmas and then spring it on him. Unusually, he forgot all about the third painting when he was hanging the two little ones for me.

Then, before Thanksgiving, we were putting up all the winter stuff and there was the need for the picture. I said, "OK, I guess I will give you one of your Christmas presents early." SO protested, thinking I was giving up something of great value before the big day. I sheepishly replied that he was getting his 33 cent present and reminded him of the picture.

At that point, we looked at each other and decided that there should always be a present for a $1 or less at Christmas.

Here is SO's 33 cent picture:














Now, SO was not to be outdone! Yesterday we were at an auction and he scored my $1 Christmas present:



This mirror is huge!!! It hardly fit into the Mini. I don't know how I will top this next year, but luckily, I can get started hoarding a year in advance.

Chipping Away at Projects

How can a mountain of yarn be called a "stash"? Isn't a stash supposed to be something that you can kind of hide??

My so-called stash isn't hideable at present. Perhaps it's the six antique suitcases piled up in my spare room that is the giveaway. In any event, any completed project feels like such a triumph because it feels like I'm getting the stash "under control". Ha. Ha.

I recently completed this cute hate out of Cascade Magnum.



It's a Christmas gift for SO's sister who rescues turtles -- thus, the pin.









One more down. When I look back over the photos of what I completed this year, I do feel that I accomplished a lot, but still there's so much to go...and of course, many beautiful yarns yet to be produced and bought...and then there's the yarn I'm now slowly producing myself. To be a little more specific, so far this year, I've completed 25 items. Not bad and 9 were pairs of socks. My goal was to complete 12 pairs of socks this year and I've got a pair on the needles right now that I'm sure I will finish this year and certain that I will finish another pair before the end of the year as well -- so, that will make 10. So, I will wind up a little short of that goal unless I stop everything else in my life and knit 3.5 pairs of socks in the next three weeks. If I manage to do that, you will have to scrape me up off the floor by the end. I may not even be able to stomach putting a pair of socks on my feet.

One of the people I follow on FB had a goal to knit 12 sweaters in 12 months and is coming pretty close. BUT, she works in a yarn shop. OK, I don't feel like a slacker given that.

Creative Cloudburst

All of a sudden...after weeks of no spinning...a microburst of activity...



Any guesses where the fabric strips came from???











Wish I would have used brown thread. There's always next time, right?









Time to start working on some new ideas.

How to Work Off Your Thanksgiving Dinner

You know how the fitness magazines always tell you to take a long walk after Thanksgiving with your family instead of sitting around watching football on tv? B-O-R-I-N-G!!!

Here, at The Broken Dishes, we have our own form of family bonding after a big, heavy meal -- we skip the stupid walk, wait till late, put on our dark clothes, gather up the flashlights and go yarn bombing.


As we headed out the door, I recalled a line uttered by Michael Corleone towards the end of the Godfather: Tonight, we settle all family business.


Without further ado, presenting our 2010 post-Thanksgiving neighborhood yarn attacks:



We've originally hit this sign in the summer and it was looking pretty lousy. We've been waiting for help. SO's son and daughter removed the old items and helped me put up the new ones. SO's son had to climb the sign to get the hat taken care of -- it was nerve-wracking...tons of cars going by...we had to keep ducking down into the weeds. We even got sore legs from all the ducking















We finished up the attack with a much less difficult installation:



Ah, the beauty of the hooked rug! I've been saving this one for a long time. We had scoped out the spot months ago.









Now, about the Christmas-themed attacks...

Is it OK to Eat Pie for Breakfast?

Pumpkin is a vegetable and apples and blackberries are fruits...so, I think it's ok.

These are the pies I made yesterday:




Coconut
Pumpkin
Blackberry (Cobbler)
Apple





Around here, it's one pie per person. Everyone gets the pie that they want.


Even though there will only be four of us today, we will have the whole enchilada: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, smoked turkey, cranberry sauce, etc. If there's something that makes it "Thanksgiving" to someone, I make it.

And, I've been cooking up a storm otherwise. Tomorrow some other folks will join us to help clean up the leftovers. Plus we are adding smoked salmon into the mix just for good measure. And, did I tell you we made some smoked cheddar cheese the other day? Yes, the smoker is getting a lot of use.

Little Green Suitcase Renovation Project

Can't explain it but I love old suitcases. I don't need anymore of them for stashing yarn in, but still when I find a bargain, I can't resist. So, last weekend, we happened upon the stray yard sale and I found an old Samsonite that was green with a putty colored trim. The seller wanted $4 but we hammered her down to $1 because the inside was atrocious.

The next day, we ripped everything out from the inside and found that the suitcase was stamped with "1950" on it. I had a small quilt someone had given me and we decided that would make a good lining and now I have a cute little suitcase for...I'm not sure, but I find something to put inside.

The pics:

Here's the inside after we stripped it down to the bare wood and went over it with bleach.













And, here we have the new lining!













And, now, the newly cleaned outside!










I'm most pleased with my $1 investment...

The CSA Chapter Closes

The farm shares are now over for the year (sigh of relief).

This did not work out very well this go round -- oh, sure, there were moments of culinary heaven when I had the time to really prepare the food well...but overall, the farm shares created a lot of problems.

For starters, I got bok choy fifteen times. I've still got three heads of it in the fridge as I type this. Contrast this to only getting broccoli four times. And, remember I was in two different farms...I guess the bok choy is super easy to grow and really pest resistant and the broccoli is not. I got very little corn and that is not surprising because the yield is very low when you don't use chemicals to grow it.

I love to cook but I like to be in more control of what I have to cook. When you've got three heads of bok choy and over a dozen sweet potatoes on your hands, you've lost control.

Three times between June and now, I've been out of town and had to give the shares away so I have to factor in that there was some money down the drain there.

I also will not miss having to figure out every Thursday when/how I was going to get the stuff picked up. Sometimes that was a problem too.

Probably the worst of it was that I had to throw so much stuff away. I'd say I threw out at least 30%, if not more. I just cannot use a dozen cucumbers in one week or even over the course of two weeks. SO doesn't eat them at all so cucumbers are all on me.

I've considered cutting back to a half share from the farm that stood out as the better of the two but there will still be the problem of too many cucumbers, eggplant, kohlrabi, swiss chard, etc. There will still be the problem of having to make sure I find time to go pick it up and there still won't be enough of the basic stuff like carrots, onions, and celery (no celery at all this year).

One thing I failed to notice is that my cooking guru does not have a farm share. She used to but because of all the reasons I mentioned above, she does not. I should have paid attention to that!!!




If I want to support the farms, I think I will just make a donation next year!

New Local Finds!!!

Yesterday in our travels, we finally had a chance to stop by a winery that is within a stone's throw from SO's house. I say "finally" because finding it open has been rather elusive. The wine store has very limited hours but I happened to check the winery's website recently and saw that they were going to be open every Saturday afternoon for the next several weeks.

We made it just in time. The winemaker's father was working the store counter yesterday and he was just about to close when we walked up to the door.

But, we made it worth his while to stick around. This little place is pretty amazing. See here for the list of wines they produce. All these wines from a little estate of only two acres (of course, they do supplement with grapes they purchase). We tasted a good portion of what they offer and bought a case so we could get into the "case club" (= 10% discount). The wines for the most part are not very expensive and we got a nice variety which will be useful with the holidays coming up either for serving or giving as gifts.

This morning I decided to make a pork roast in the slow cooker and since the recipe called for red wine, it was a good reason to crack open a bottle of their Chambourcin:












After we finished the tasting and selecting our purchases, emboldened by the wine tasting, I asked for a tour of the wine-making operation and we were given the tour. It is a very small operation and the yield on each production is only about 500 bottles so this is truly a labor of love.

After the winery stop, we stopped into a farm that raises cattle without hormones, etc., and got their prices for beef which we will order after the holidays -- by then we will be mostly out of the beef from earlier this year. This farm has beef available more often so we won't have to order as much which I think will work out a little better.

It takes a little time to ferret out little places like this but they are worth their weight in gold to me -- These little operations take a lot of passion on the part of the people that own and run them and it shows in what they produce. They deserve our support.

Sick Day from Blogging

Dear All,

No fun posts today...have to take a break till my tooth gets better. Root canal yesterday and still in a lot of pain. Time to take enough pills to be able to go to work. :-(

Special Sunday Post: Double Knitting Issue!!!

I have a little time today and probably won't have much tomorrow so I'm getting a jump on the week and posting now instead of my regular Monday publication.

I have two special knitted treats to share!

One (lousy picture) is the cream wrap I finished up recently:



Made from some beautiful un-dyed Rowan wool -- very soft and squishy. This is a picture of the wrap while it was drying from its post-finishing wash. It's made using four strands of chunky yarn at a time...heavy!!!










And, now, finally presenting: The Zombie BBQ socks! At last...oh, man, it seemed like I've been working on these forever (6 weeks). Way too much sock yarn to knit in my stash to be taking so long on one pair. Bottom line is I need an extra pair of hands that does nothing but knit. That would be really, really helpful.





I had to hurry up and take a pic of the socks because I needed to wear them today as they totally match my outfit. This is important even though I am wearing boots and no one can see my feet. But, I know.

My New Pride and Joy

I feel like a proud parent that is about to bore you to death with pictures of my newest offspring! But, I couldn't help myself by taking several pictures and then couldn't decide which one was the best for the blog. Why choose????

So, here it is -- art yarn that is inspired by spending a lot of time at the beach:



















I don't know the yardage and it's not important cause it's not for sale!!! It's mine, all mine...

Now, what next? I have an idea for mixing cream colored fleece with some vintage blue fabric and beads -- but not for about a week or so cause I will be focusing on knitting for the next few days.

Happy Halloween, 2010

Medusa, on her way to a party, in all her reptilian glory!

The Beach in Progress

Sorry for the lousy pic, but on the wheel you see the yarn I've been working on this week which has little elements of things from the beach in it: scraps of blue silk, shells, little pieces of rope, irridescent beads and nice big fat fake pearls from an old necklace. Spinning the base yarn was not a big deal but stringing all the add ins is taking a lot longer than I expected. I can't wait to see the finished product!!!

Spinning Under the Influence

I was dreading it. For a couple of months, I have known I had to have some dental work done -- Ok, I call it "oral surgery" and SO laughs at me -- but after, a horrible experience with getting my upper wisdom teeth out by a woman I call, "The Butcher", I've avoided anything other than routine cleanings like the plague.

So, Friday was the big day to get fitted for the crown I needed for a very painful cracked tooth and three other fillings scattered around my mouth. I dutifully took the pre-procedure medication Thursday night and it wasn't calming me down so on Friday morning when I was supposed to take some more...I took more than instructed just in case. I had had too many visualizations of getting in the middle of the whole thing and deciding I wanted things to stop and throwing the dentist and the assistant off of me before I ran out of the room.

With the additional help of laughing gas and my iPod to drown out the sound of the drill, the morning passed by while I laid in the dentist chair. Later in the day, all the lovely numbing medications wore off and the pain started and that necesitated some painkillers.

I'm not a fan of taking stuff like that. I don't like that wooziness.

But, I fought off the urge to fall asleep so that I could make some more art yarn:












Because I was spinning under the influence of Vicodan, this little batch took all night. Actually there were times, when I sort of dozed off while putting together the add-ins (beads and fabric). But, so worth it!!!

100th Post Anniversary!!!

Geez, in less than one year, I've posted 100 posts to this blog!!!

You know how it is when you hit a milestone. It makes you scan your memory bank for earlier times. I looked back to a blog I had a few years ago that was rather short-lived. I snagged this post from January 30, 2007 to repost here in honor of this blog's big birthday.

The title was "Belly Flops" and reading it now, I can only imagine how much time all of this took with very little to show in the end:

Not just little flops...major flops in the kitchen on Sunday.

(1) Broccoli, Cauliflower and White Bean Soup. The concept is that you cook the veggies in broth with white beans such as cannellini beans and then puree. Ate half a serving. Threw out the rest.

(2) Algerian Fish Soup. Seemed like a good use for some fish I had in the freezer that I wanted to get rid of. Called for potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, broth, and saffron. It was marginal at best. Ate one bowl. The rest goes out tonight.

(3) Cheese Grits. In endeavoring to make life more interesting on the WW Core Program, I ventured into the territory of garlicky, fat free cheese grits. Might have been ok without the garlic. Ate one tablespoon full. It was not true that the leftovers were better. Threw out the whole pan.

(4) Roasted Cabbage. Compliments of Mollie Katzen's "Vegetable Heaven" cookbook. Seemed like a good way to use up a head of cabbage that was getting ready to head south. It was not. Next time, I will just make coleslaw and forget about creative ways to use cabbage. Two bites and into the trash.

(5) Fried Bananas. Finally, a winner!!!! And, it was a big winner, at that. Yummy.

So, there you have it. All the food I planned on eating this week, down the tubes. Ended up making a big batch of hummus last night to tide myself over.


Wow...what was I thinking back then...this was before knitting captured me.

Hot Ghetto Mess "Art" Yarn

Somehow this year, I've been fitting in learning how to spin yarn. I've taken some classes and bought all the stuff. I don't care to learn how to spin yarn to knit a sweater -- I'm only in this to spin visually interesting and electic but not highly useful art yarn.

Finally, things have settled down enough that I was able to spend some time last night to further this new passion.

I first organized a bunch of beads that I've accumulated along the way. I couldn't just spin without having all my supplies organized first...otherwise, known as a delay tactic.

Then, I looked at the pile of little bits and clumps of free fleece that I had -- none of it combed so not easy to spin and decided I had to run all of it through the drum carder first to smooth it out. Drum carding is fun anyway and my little drum carder is very light and easy to set up.

So, the fleece was ready, the beads were organized and without anymore reason to delay, I got going.

To my most delightful surprise, I was able to spin a continous strand without much trouble even though I haven't spun anything for about a month and a half and it was iffy then.

After I spun all I had of some muddy grey/brown fleece I'd carded, I went back and plyed it with some bright orange beads I threaded onto some yellow cotton thread. You have to know I was not going for beauty or any visual appeal -- just practicing with junk I had on hand.

This was the result:


















So, there's maybe a 1% chance you are thinking, "Wow!!!! What are you going to make with that unique, one of a kind, designer yarn? A hat, a scarf, a hat and a scarf, mittens, a bag?? The possibilities must be endless!"

All good questions, however, in the interest in full disclosure, I have to show you this picture taken at SO's suggestion:




Yes, after a night of devoting myself to doing this, I end up with a very small ball of yarn. I offered it to SO who wasn't quite sure what to do with it and suggested that I might regret gifting away my first successful solo attempt. I asked if he said that to his kids when they brought home their art projects from school. We then agreed that the first art yarn would look good in one of his jars of little odds and ends that he collects.



So, mark this post and let's see how my work looks a year from now.

There they sit.

Staring at me.

Peel me.

Dehydrate me.

Make me into applesauce, apple pie, apple dumplings, apple pandowdy (what is that anyway?), etc.



Now, in the aftermath of the Teepee Quest, it's time to get back to regular business. The apples, for example, were acquired at the Apple Festival a couple of weeks ago and though we did manage to get through peeling and dehydrating a half a bushel, the other bushel and a half are sitting in my den waiting for attention. I managed to get most of the den under control otherwise and back on track with getting some knitting done (wait till you see the next project that is coming off the needles!), but I'm still in a pretty big hole -- the produce coming in from the farm shares is still eating me alive...but not that many weeks left for that and in fact, yesterday I had two bags instead of three to sort through.

Oh, and let's not forget work -- the place where I go five days a week and can be a little demanding. The fall, in particular, is my busy time as I'm getting everything ready for next year (budgets, review process, technology projects).

And, yet, at the same time, my mind keeps wandering off to the land of trying to decide which next large item needs to be covered in crochet -- I think it must be some form of sickness.

At Last...Mission Accomplished!

The weekend of THE BIG Project has come and gone...

Many months ago, we conceived the idea of combining our two favorite hobbies -- for me, something involving yarn and for SO something related to Native American artifacts. The resulting idea was to create a teepee covered in crochet to take with us to an arts festival (Playa Del Fuego) last weekend.

I'm very proud to say that we pulled it off and it was a success, but getting there was quite the journey.

At the outset, because of our yarnbombing experiences, we knew that buying pieces from yard sales would be much better than me trying to manufacture the knitted/crocheted outer layer. So, we went on a three plus month tear buying things at yard sales. We learned a lot along the way -- for starters, don't pay more than $3 for large afghans! They are to be had for $3 or less.

We had no idea how much would be needed so I kept buying and buying and buying and I think by the time we entered the construction phase, I had accumulated something like 70 pieces or so -- afghans, baby blankets, some hats and scarves and some other odds and ends. In the end, we needed about half of what we had. Yes, there is enough leftover to make another one.

Then, it was time to deal with the poles. SO figured out that bamboo would be a good material to use and we knew where some was, but that involved going up to some one's house and asking to cut it down and I couldn't imagine trying to explain this to a stranger. Luckily, the universe intervened and someone I was taking a class from back in September mentioned their backyard was overgrown with bamboo. I blogged about the adventure of getting the bamboo last month as you may recall.

With the bamboo under control, we were onto making the base skin. We had decided to sew together sheets and then attach the afghans. This was quite a bit of work also. Rather haphazardly we'd gathered sheets from yard sales too (they cost about $1 each). But, when we went to work with them, we discovered that there are good, sturdy old unfitted cotton sheets and then there are flimsy, stretchy polyester/cotton sheets. Luckily, the worst sheet ended up being only a small section of the skin.

From there, SO scaled up a small pattern from a book and built a paper model to test the design. After some modification, we marked up the sewn sheets, cut off the excess and then I hemmed the base skin for miles and miles.

Finally, it was time to attach the afghans! We started with the largest one and positioned it in the center of the back. This ended up being helpful later when we wanted to match the erecting pole to the center back. From there, we continued to apply and attach the afghans from largest to smallest. This was fairly time-consuming work and we worked on that step alone on and off for over three weeks. Poor SO had no dining room table during all that time! We attached the afghans like a tied quilt, using heavy, thick cotton thread which we tied in knots. Originally, we were taking the time to tuck the ends inside, but let that go in the interest of time.

We wanted the whole skin covered, but the bottom edge is round and the afghans are not -- what to do? Originally, I was going to piece in small things like hats, scarves, etc. However, one night, pretty late when we were toiling away, we discovered that the granny square style of afghan made in blocks could be taken apart and fitted pretty easily without compromising the integrity of the crochet.

Then, it was onto the raising of the teepee. The first time it went up so easily!!! But, the next day we had to rush and rip out down because of rain. A week before the event, we put it up again, but this time it took TWO HOURS and that discouraged us a little.

But, luckily, after getting to the festival, we had a relatively easy time of raising it and even slept inside of it two nights!
















The teepee was a hit. We received many compliments with my favorite being, "there's just so much grandmotherly love in it!" How true!! We were so gratified that our project was well-received.











Besides the magnificent teepee experience, the highlight of the festival was Saturday night which included amazing fire performances including burning hula-hoops and bull-whips






















and then, the burning of a wooden winged horse. The pictures cannot do this justice, but we offer up a few shots:


































So, if you read this blog often, you know I have a bit of a crazy streak which leads me to think that we should now tackle a Circus Tent! We'll see.

First Project of October

Ta-Da!

Finished this last night. It is a large cowl/scarf thing that extends down over the shoulders and made from 50% wool and 50% alpaca...soffffftttt. This was super easy and would be a great beginner project -- or a break from sock knitting and other somewhat complicated delights. I'm not keeping it but halfway through I was loving it so much I ordered more yarn!

Starting out the October knitting pile in grand style!!!

Love Letter...

Warning: This post is gushy and schmaltzy, you may want to skip this one.

I've been blogging at this and other blogs for some time now and have to resist the urge say to a lot about my dear SO. Early on in blogging, he indicated that he didn't want me to pour it on too thick about how great I think he is.

But, after all this time, I thought maybe I could slip in a little post about the one and only.

OK, so for starters, he gave me these boots:




How great is it that our feet are almost the same size and I can wear a pair of his cowboy boots that were a little tight for him? AND, he even took them to the fancy boot-repair guy in Texas and had them spiffed up for me on one of his biz trips last year!




Second, he'll wear a costume on occasion:


SO is on the left in case you were wondering.
















Third, he tolerates me taking over large portions of his house for my crazy projects:
















Fourth, he once helped me get home a green coconut we found in the streets of Miami. This involved negotiating with the TSA officer at the airport to let me take it on the plane and then hack-hack-hacking away at the thing to open it -- only to find there wasn't really much inside.









And, despite the fact that my cat is so jealous of him, she's often grouchy towards him, he's nice to her because he knows how important she is to me:














And, he makes amazing pizza!














I hope he will always be beside me...