craftydabbler

Sunday

2010-09-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in the car with the window open when I felt something fall down my blouse. It was a lady bug. Her legs were tight up against her body and she wasn't moving. I sat there holding her and looking at her for about 4 minutes then she suddenly got up. She wandered around on my hand and shirt, but she seemed a bit out of it. I know they eat aphids, but I gave her a crumb of cookie. She sat there with her mouth attached to it for the longest time. I couldn't tell if she was eating or not. After about 15 minutes she seemed steady on her feet. I put her and her crumb on a leaf and drove away.

She needed a safe place and I just happened to be there at the right time. There has to be a word for that, but right now I am drawing a blank.

Homemade Pasta

2010-07-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever, I made homemade pasta. I was inspired by a post on the blog SouleMama. I then looked around online and watched a few youtube videos, like this one, this one, and this one.

I prepared it and served it as part of the recipe for Spaghetti with Zucchini and Lemon from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook.

The pasta was incredible. I have never had anything like it.

How did I do it?

I put approximately 3 cups of flour on my table, made a depression in the flour, then cracked three eggs into the flour. I sprinkled about a teaspoon of salt over the eggs. Using a fork I broke up the yolks and and whisked them in flour. Slowly more and more flour was incorporated into the mixture until it was doughy. Then I started kneading flour in until it wasn't sticky anymore. For twenty minutes I let the dough rest under a bowl. Next I kneaded the dough a bit more and then divided it into three sections. I did this because my work area is not big and neither is my rolling pin. I then rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled. I made sure that the dough was lightly floured on both sides and rolled it up like a jelly roll. I cut 1 cm wide slices off the roll. Next I hung the pasta to dry for an hour. Thank goodness for my clothes drying rack from IKEA! I brought a large pot of water to a boil. I cut the long stings of pasta into pieces about 2.5 inches long and dropped them into the boiling water. They were done in about 3 minutes.

I also rolled out some dough just for my daughter. She used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make her own pasta. The best part was when my daughter said she would make pasta just like this for her kids, whenever they wanted pasta.

Love.

Mittens!

2009-10-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

Thumb in the thumb place,
Fingers all together,
This is the song
We sing in mitten weather.

Basic Mitten pattern from Knitting for Peace. Knit in Noro Kureyon using US 5/3.75mm Brittany dpns. Cast on 9 days ago. The mitten string is about half done.

I am a crazy lady

2009-07-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so last night I started watching the second season of Dexter on Netflix. I kept watching, and watching, and watching, and finished the whole season just after 6 this morning. I am not 20 living in a dorm somewhere. At almost 40 years old with child and other responsibilities, what was I thinking? I wasn't, I was just really enjoying getting wrapped up in something.

Father's Day Interview

2009-06-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading the blog Wisdom of the Moon and saw that she had interviewed her child about her parents. I thought it might be fun for Father's Day to interview Fiona.

1. What is something your dad always says to you?

I love you.

2. What makes your dad happy?

When I hug him and kiss him.

3. What makes your dad sad?

When I hit him.

4. How does your dad make you laugh?

Tickles me.

5. What did your dad like to do when she was a child?

Play.

6. How old is your dad?

I don't know.

7. How tall is your dad?

Stand up. He can touch the ceiling.

8. What is your dad's favorite thing to do?

Be silly.

9. What does your dad do when you're not around?

Watch movies.

10. If your dad becomes famous, what will it be for?

Painting.

11. What is your dad really good at?

Being silly.

12. What is your dad not very good at?

Being serious.

13. What does your dad do for his job?

He works.

14. What is your dad's favorite food?

Doughnuts.

15. What do you and your dad do together?

Go places with him.

16. How are you and your dad the same?

My hair is kind of blondish.

17. How are you and your dad different?

I'm not as tall as him.

18. How do you know your dad loves you?

Because he hugs me.

19. Where is your dad's favorite place to go?

The zoo!

20. What is your favorite game to play with your dad?

Puzzles.

Peony

2009-06-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

My first peony blossom.

Crabby

2009-02-06T09:58:00.001-08:00

Building near the elephants at the Woodland Park Zoo

Today I am feeling crabby. I have that pushed and pulled in many directions feeling. Part of it is because I want to "accomplish" things and having a child at home works against that. Look at this, look at me, what is this, I'm done, mom, look it disappeared, why aren't you getting me my snack.

I yelled.

It is all about my expectations and setting the expectations of those around me. That is cognitive behavioral therapy, my friends

Twenty-Five Random Things

2009-02-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

I'm cheating and reposting a Facebook meme.

Everyone who reads this is tagged!

1. I attended 14 schools between Kindergarten and high school. I went to the one high school for 3 years.

2. The longest that I have lived in any one house has been 5 years. I was an adult.

3. I hope to soon surpass that in Aug 2009.

4. Some day I want to wear a dress like Marie Antoinette wore, and I mean the real deal with the crazy corset, hoop skirt and goodness knows how many layers of petticoats etc.

5. I am never one hundred percent sure if I really want something because I like it or because someone else does.

6. I love cats. They are one of the very best things in the world. (Yes, one is sitting on my arm as I type this.)

7. When I die, I want to be buried in the earth wrapped in cloth, no coffin, no embalming, just breaking down back into the soil.

8. When I lose an eyelash, I blow it out of my hand and wish for happiness.

9. I've always thought of Orion as "my" constellation.

10. I want to do things perfectly. If I can't do them perfectly then I don't want to try.

11. I'm working on changing number 10.

12. I love the smell of horses.

13. I am a world-class procrastinator.

14. I talk out loud to birds, cats, dogs, plants, inanimate objects and occasionally myself.

15. My daughter loves me and it blows my mind.

16. I can't cook in a messy kitchen and my kitchen is always messy.

17. I love hosting and providing everything anyone might want or need.

18. I often make myself re-invent the wheel. I know someone else has figured out a way, but I want to try it myself, then I get bogged down.

19. I believe that everything natural is alive or has life in it and deserves respect and love.

20. I still remember very clearly what meat tastes like and occasionally the taste of prime rib sounds good.

21. Death does not scare me.

22. Don't get me wrong though, pain, long drawn out illness etc, those things all suck.

23. Practicing is hard.

24. I wish I had a mom.

25. I love color. Some reds almost hurt my eyes they are so amazing.

Crafty Crow is very cool!

2009-02-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Crafty Crow is fun to read. Go comment and you can have a chance to win a subscription to this cute Book of Days published by the family at Blue Yonder Ranch.

The Louvre

2009-01-29T18:23:00.001-08:00

It was so beautiful.

Palais de Justice - Paris

2009-01-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

We went to Paris in 2002. I've been looking through old pictures. The picture of the sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace was also taken by me. I wish we had had our good camera back then.

Your whole self

2009-01-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

I was talking with someone the other day about the health of a close, aging relative who has actively ignored his mental health resulting in, I believe, a greater number of physical problems. "If only he had taken care of his mental health and his physical health, he wouldn't be where he is today." The next day, I was replaying this in my head, when I realized I am not practicing what I preach at all.

I do take care of my mental health, and to some extent my physical health, but I have some big illnesses looming in my future if I don't actively work on my physical health (type 2 diabetes, heart disease and diverticular disease). This got me thinking about what a whole person is, and what would one have to do to take care of my whole self. What does that mean and how is it defined? Some would say taking care of your emotional and physical self and some would include spiritual as well. Then I feel like I fall down the rabbit hole finding all sorts of little niches to take care of to prevent a precipitous decline. Of course I'm just running away from the fear of what changes I need to make in my life.

I need exercise. I need to eat more fiber, more vegetables and fruits, and fewer pastries, lattés and pints of Ben & Jerry's. I need to get more consistent rest.

I've started working on the fiber by eating more oats, adding flax seed meal to things and remembering that the fruit on the table isn't just for Fiona's benefit. I haven't been to a Starbuck's for five days (and before that it had been weeks since the last time). I've practically bankrupted my family with my stupid latté and pastry habit. Really. I'm just throwing this out to the world that I am thinking about this and trying.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

2009-01-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

One of the gifts I gave Fiona for Christmas was a book of poems by Langston Hughes. It is called Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes.

The poems are powerful. Fiona keeps coming back to this book over and over again. It is difficult though, because the book has made me have to explain segregation to my five year old, to talk about the pain that people feel because someone thinks they are different. My husband explained what the word "negro" means and why we don't use that word. She is just five years old, and yet the son of one blogger I read was called the n-word when he was five.

Barack Obama has called for a national day of service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In the morning, Fiona and I are going to go and buy some groceries to donate to HopeLink. There will probably be several boxes of mac and cheese that will go in, because that is Fiona's favorite thing to donate. We are also going to each go through our clothes, books, etc, and find items to donate to a shelter or Goodwill. I asked Fiona to think of something we could do to help people or to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. She thought for a moment and then said, "I know, we could draw a bus, and in the front would be a person with a dark face and a person with a light face and in the back we could draw a person with a dark face and dark hair and a person with a light face."

A snowy Solstice and Christmas

2008-12-27T11:19:00.000-08:00

We had so much snow over Solstice and Christmas. This is only the second white holiday season of my life. The last one was last year. Crazy weather.

We postponed getting together with family (we host) until tomorrow, so that everyone would be able to come. I just hope the snow melts enough.

On the crafting front, I'm working on a long sleeved sweater for Fiona. It is the Joseph sweater from Knitty.com. Fiona chose Cascade Lana Grande in a plum shade. She also wanted the sweater to be long, so it should fall to just above her knees if I measured everything correctly.

We made a gingerbread house from scratch for the first time. I will try to post a picture later. We didn't actually take any pictures on Christmas. I feel kind of bad about it. We had such a nice relaxed time though. Lots of yummy foods, including sticky buns for lunch.

Here are a couple of pictures from Fiona's first Christmas (five years ago).

Yes We Can!

2008-11-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

My husband, Fiona and I watched Obama's speech from Chicago. I cried. Fiona will grow up with him as the first president she remembers. I cannot express how happy, how hopeful, how everything I am right now.

Thank you Barack Obama, and thank you to everyone who worked, volunteered and voted for him. What an incredible day.

Happy Birthday to me...

2008-11-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

My husband asked me a few days ago what I wanted for my birthday. I told him yoga lessons. I found a place that will be perfect, but they are in the middle of a cycle and I won't be able to join until January. So, I will get yoga lessons for Christmas. That then puts us back at square one, what would be a good birthday present. Something would present itself.

We went out to breakfast and then took Fiona to a friend's birthday party. I decided to continue the tradition I had started the year before of visiting the cat adoption center and playing with the kittens. Last year I had such a nice time. Who doesn't like playing with kittens.

We had to fill out paperwork about our home situation and such before they would let us play. I went and petted the senior cats first. Buddy was a sweet old guy who wanted all the love and scritches I could give him. Then there was Sweet Pea. She was hiding on top of some boxes under a counter. Fiona didn't have much patience with Sweet Pea, she wanted to go into the kitten room. We walked in and I kneeled down to watch a couple of little black kittens that were in full play mode. One of them, a short haired black kitten stopped playing, came over and climbed up onto my lap. He sat for a moment and then he climbed to my shoulder and just stayed there. His long haired brother was waiting to play. I have a very soft spot in my heart for long haired, black cats. I tried to engage the long haired one. He wasn't interested. The whole time the little short haired guy was just snuggling away. We had to leave the kitten room because some other people wanted to come in so we went back to the adult cats.

When someone opened the door to the kitten room a little short haired black cat ran out, and the volunteer said, "He really wants to be with you." He was acting differently. I thought it was kind of strange. A few minutes later I went back to the kitten room. It turned out that the kitten that had run into the other room was not the same snuggly short haired kitten. As soon as I was in the room, he came over to check me out, there were other people there, lots of toys, lots of kittens, but he came back to me. That was when I realized how lucky I was, and I started to think I might not be able to leave him there. My husband wasn't really pleased. "We have enough animals." Fiona wanted to hold the kitten. I set him in her lap. She petted him and petted him. He closed his eyes. A little kitten that comfortable in the lap of a five year old is incredible. Fiona started begging, "Please can we take this kitty home!" Her dad relented.

I went out to the volunteer and said we had decided to take Black Ranger. She went and grabbed his folder. Her supervisor was on the phone. She held out her finger to say wait. When she got off the phone she said that they had just received a call that the kittens had been indirectly exposed to panleukopenia and that the adoption center is required to put all of the cats into quarantine for two weeks. I was so sad, but that was nothing compared to Fiona's reaction. If he makes it through the quarantine without getting sick, he is ours. Any cats that get sick during the quarantine will be euthanized. This is a terribly sad thing for all of the cats and the volunteers.

There is one more impact on the adoption center from this exposure. All of the furnishings, e.g scratching posts, tents, kitty condos, must be destroyed. One of the volunteers had just that week donated a brand new multi-level kitty condo. If you can spare a few dollars I am sure that the cats and the volunteers at the PAWS Cat City would be very grateful.

And please keep your fingers crossed for Black Ranger.

Where are the crafts?

2008-09-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Oh, yeah, this blog is called craftydabbler. Here is the long story, uh, long (interspersed with creative commons pictures from flickr that I like but have no real connection to this post).

Open Gate to the Beauty by Hamed Masoumi

I have been on a craft vacation for quite a while. I over did it a bit last year and had a hard time maintaining interest long enough to complete, well honestly, to start projects. I've bought fabric, thread and yarn, but for the most part they are all spread around the house in different piles.

Recently, a friend was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She put out a call for some lovely knit hats. She was told that she would lose her hair during chemotherapy. I offered to knit Shedir for her. I've never done cables before, so I was a little nervous but thought I could do it.

Around the same time I started having trouble with arthritis, which used to be very troublesome, but a six month stint of acupuncture about five years ago seemed to have put it in remission. It took me a while to realize that I had also started drinking Coke around the same time that the pain in my hands had started. I've stopped the Coke. I believe I have a sensitivity to the high fructose corn syrup, because I have had sodas that are made with cane sugar or are sweetened with fruit juice without feeling ill. My hands are still stiff, but not very painful. I am hoping to get in to see an acupuncturist soon for some help in clearing this. The upshot of all of this is that I have made very little progress on Jenna's hat. Luckily, Jenna has not lost her hair, which is amazing. She loses more than average in a day, but she still has a full head of hair. I am still working on the hat in bits and pieces. It is being worked in garnet (shade 492) Rowan Calmer on US3/3.25mm needles.

Quiet Beauty by JumpinJimmyJava

There is one project that I finished recently. Fiona had wanted a bathrobe for over a year. Last fall she and I went to JoAnn's and she picked out some lavender fleece. I decided on Simplicity 9853 for the pattern. It was all put in a drawer and a storage box and put off for many, many tomorrows. About three weeks ago it was very chilly one Saturday morning and I decided it was time to make the bathrobe. I found the bag with the pattern and the matching thread. The fleece was in the box. Much tracing, cutting, pinning and sewing later, and there was a comfy bathrobe, just the right size. Fiona is still so pleased with it that she keeps asking to wear it out of the house.

The Texture of Beauty, Or the Beauty of a Texture! by Hamed Masoumi

The last crafty thing that has been interesting me lately is embroidery and most specifically Chicken Scratch embroidery (see here and here). Fiona is getting impatient with me, she wants to go to the zoo, so I shall have to fill you in another time on that endeavor.

ps The other day I listened to Mozart's Requiem Mass for the first time in eons, it is my absolute favorite piece of music. (To call it a "piece of music" seems sacrilegious, it is much more than that.) Let me tell you, it is nice to have that popping up in my head through out the day instead of the theme to The Backyardigans.

pps Don't get me wrong, I like The Backyardigans.

Quote from Goethe

2008-09-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
–Goethe

Thank you Jen Lemen.

Yet another quote...

2008-09-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded."

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

That's mighty neighborly of you

2008-08-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

My neighbor across the street had just finished pressure washing her aggregate driveway when I got home from an errand. I stopped to say hello. She said, "We could pressure wash your aggregate steps and path and get rid of all of that moss."
"Oh, yeah, we should do that sometime," I said, thinking nothing of it really.
"What are you doing right now?" she asked.

My front steps are beautiful. They didn't look this good four years ago when we bought the house. My husband who doesn't really notice much noticed the difference right off. Pressure washing was also kind of addictive. The back spray felt good because it was about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. We ran out of gas, but I think in the next day or two I might borrow it again and do the driveway and the curb. Fun, fun.

Afterwards we all had big glasses of iced tea.

I love getting to know my neighbors. They are really all very kind people. I feel blessed.

Another quote that resonates with me

2008-08-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

"I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters."

From Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau

Silly life getting all complicated and topsy turvy.

2008-08-02T20:59:00.001-07:00

I don't know that I will be keeping this blog anymore. We had a vacation for a week (a while ago) and had no cell phone access and no computer access. I was jonesing the first day or two and then afterwards it seemed easier and better. I'm back to my old ways with the cell phone, but I'm trying to keep some distance from teh internets. I get sucked in too easily, like TV. I also need to go back to work. We finally figured out why we always have credit card debt. It is because we are running a deficit. I'm going to pursue being a doula. I've done doula work for friends, but now I'm going public. It is exciting and scary. My husband is being really supportive. I have to get a business license and everything.

Here is a lovely quote from a poem by W.B. Yeats.

May we two stand,
When we are dead, beyond the setting suns,
A little from the other shades apart,
With mingling hair, and play upon one lute.

Karma for snarkiness

2008-06-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

So, my last post was a little snarky with regards to the weather. I have paid for it, or at least my little basil seedlings did. I forgot to water them and then they baked to death in the whopping 68ish degree heat wave we had. All right universe, lesson learned.

Watch out for that nasty heat!

2008-06-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Here is something I saw today on weather.com. Please note the part in red type. It is a link on protecting your plants from heat. Considering the anticipated high and low temperatures for the day, I don't think we need to worry about the "heat" impacting the plants. We often have what we call June Gloom here in the Seattle area, but the temps have been lower than normal this June.

One Local Summer

2008-06-08T04:21:00.000-07:00

My family and I are participating in One Local Summer. It is a commitment to eat one entirely local meal every week throughout the summer.

For our first meal we had a goat cheese and sorrel omelet with raw spinach. The eggs came from Yelm, which is 74 miles away. The goat cheese came from Bainbridge Island, about 20 miles away. The sorrel and the spinach came from our garden. The only non-local ingredient was butter. I haven't found an organic local source yet.

Next time I will take pictures.

Mosaic meme

2008-06-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Credit where credit is due: 1. Evelyn Genevieve Sharp, 2. Scone Medicine, 3. Black and White, 4. yawn, 5. Dreaming............., 6. Sparkling rain in the city of Champagne, 7. HPIM6045, 8. calce e mattoni - bricks and cement, 9. Day 3 - I write, 10. Chicken A Go-Go, 11. sunday shower, 12. Fi-and-Rebecca

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

You can play too. Found at Pea Soup.

Something learned

2008-06-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

I am in my late thirties, my very late thirties, and I think that I have finally learned something very important. Planning is the key to success. What do I mean by success? Well, I mean actually paying bills on time, paying off debt, eating healthful homemade food, getting places on time, having savings, having a garden, and the list goes on. I admit that I am somewhat adverse to planning, and I have found that that attitude makes things very difficult at times. It actually makes things rather chaotic.

When I was young I was surrounded by chaos and to combat that I became very regimented about how I did things. I would even go so far as to say I was obsessive-compulsive about "a place for everything and everything in it's place." I broke with that chaos in my mid-twenties and ever since then I haven't been regimented about anything. It is so strange; with chaos, I imposed order, without chaos, I impose chaos. Recently I've noticed, time and again, that planning seems to be the only way to accomplish the things I want to accomplish.

When I started the Riot for Austerity I was quite good at planning in order to meet goals, but it fell by the wayside. I tripped up and became discouraged and fell farther and farther behind, and felt guiltier and guiltier. I will work on starting again after I fall. I read on a quilting website once that you should "Never try to catch up, just keep working." I think that is something good for me to remember. I am currently impressed with Celtic Mommy and her 101 things in 1001 days. I've started a list for myself based on hers, but I'm focusing on things to do within the next year.

Anyway, I am going to try adding more planning into my life. (My internal editor is screaming at me that I am a joke and this is a joke and I am pathetic, etc. Well, I say, f*ck off.) I have committed to posting to my What Grows There blog twice a week because it is pretty easy. I will commit to posting to this blog once a week.

So, I have figured something out, but now I have to figure out how to incorporate it in my life and keep it there.

Some facts about me! Meme

2008-06-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

I tagged myself, via Our Red House.

Some facts about me!

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their name, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was living in a nice one bedroom apartment in one suburb of Seattle and commuting by bus (I had no car) to another suburb to work. I had a lovely cat and my fiancé had just moved in with me.

Five snacks I enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world:

First I must state for the record that I do not avoid snacks because of their caloric/fat/sugar etc content, so I will list my first five favorite snacks and go on to my second set of five favorites in the following category.

1. Oat Scones
2. Plain scones with clotted cream (I have only had these a few times in my life, but they are so very good.)
3. A Latte or Mocha, depending on the mood
4. Ice Cream, specifically Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby
5. Dill pickles

Five snacks I enjoy in the real world: (or really my favorite snacks 6-10)

1. Coca Cola
2. BBQ potato chips
3. String cheese
4. Cashews
5. Apples

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. I would provide education for as many people as I could.
2. I would build a room in my house that would be just for cats, it would have ramps and sunlights and caves and innumerable cat toys.
3. I would never clean my house again. It would be someone else's job.
4. I would travel and stay places months on end so that I would really get to know them and the people who lived there.
5. I would have another child or two.

Five jobs that I have had:

1. Raspberry picker
2. Veterinary Asst
3. Army linguist
4. Customer care representative in a call center
5. Software quality engineer

Three of my habits:

1. Read everyday. I love books.
2. Open all of the blinds and curtains in the house (if I am feeling good, if they are all closed that is generally a bad sign.)
3. Turn off the lights. I prefer daylight (no matter how dim) to lamp light any time, plus I try to conserve energy.

Five places I have lived:

1. Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan
2. San Diego, CA, USA
3. Encinitas, CA, USA
4. Monterey, CA, USA
5. Seattle, WA, USA

Five people I want to get to know better: (A nice way of saying TAG!)

1. a garden of nna mmoy
2. secondhand gods
3. Franny Kate's Creative State
4. The View From Elsewhere
5. don't wake the pretty

I can't remember if some of the above do not do memes. No worries if you don't want to do it. I also invite anyone who would like to do the meme who is not on the list to join in and give it a go. Please leave a comment if you do, as I would like to read what you have to say.

What Grows There?

2008-05-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Just a note to let you know that I have started an additional blog. It is called What Grows There? I wanted to document, in word and pictures, all of the plants and animals that share my suburban lot with me.

Pop over if you get a chance.

I think it is time to clean the house...

2008-05-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

Last night as Fiona (4.5 y.o.) was lying in bed trying to fall asleep she picked up a couple of her dolls and started playing.

Woman doll: Hi! Do you want to get married?

Man doll: Um, I'm already married. I could ask my wife.

Man doll to Wife doll: Wife, um, there is, um, like, this woman who wants to marry me. Can we get married?

Wife doll to Man doll: Of course you can! If she cleans the house.

Man doll to Woman doll: She said yes, if you clean the house.

Woman doll: Sure, I'll clean the house.

---------

My daughter thinks that polygamy is a good way to get a clean house. Hmm, I think it is time that we started cleaning up a bit more around here.

Did you know?

2008-04-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

Did you know Australia's rice production is down 98% due to the drought they have been suffering through for years? Link.

Did you know that there are people eating mud pies made from dirt, oil and sugar in Haiti, because there is nothing else? Link.

Did you know there are bread riots in Egypt? Link.

Greenpa has written a post that is a call to action. Please read his post.

Anyone?

2008-04-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

No one has claimed their prize yet. If you would like to, please email me at craftydabbler [at] yahoo [dot] com.

So Many Different Ways To Look At Something

2008-04-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of a gauge swatch in the round of my first attempt at Fair Isle or stranded knitting.

Here is a close up. I was basically just experimenting. The topmost row of stitches was knitting with both yarns for each stitch. I didn't like how it turned out. I have to say that this was the most fun I've ever had doing a gauge swatch. I didn't want to stop.

Here is the whole swatch.

I just love the spaghetti-ness of the back of a gauge swatch in the round. It's messiness is of course compounded by having three different yarns.

Here is what the wrong side looks like. To badly paraphrase something I once read on the Yarn Harlot's blog, the back is as beautiful and interesting as the front.

The swatch is for a hat that I am in the process of knitting. It's the first thing I've ever knit for myself! I've added a bit of yarn that was the first and only yarn I've ever spun on a wheel. It is quite the work in progress as I keep changing everything.

I have to say that I am really enjoying this yarn though. It is Jamieson's DK Shetland Wool. The colors are Peacock, Sage and Plum if I remember correctly. I don't have the ball bands at hand. I'm knitting on Brittany birch 3.75mm/US 5 dpns. It just feels really good to hold these needles with this yarn.

Breakfast Rice

2008-04-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

My mother used to make this whenever we had leftover rice from the night before. Put your leftover rice (white or brown) in a sauce pan. Pour in milk. It is difficult to give measurements as this one of those things where you work with what you have. Generously sprinkle cinnamon on top. Turn the burner on to medium. Periodically stir the rice until the milk thickens and it is a temperature that you like. Dish it up and sprinkle with a bit of sugar. My husband doesn't care for it. He says that he is hungry before lunch if he has it for breakfast, but I haven't noticed that.

The first half of the 14th

2008-04-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

I decided to write everything that I did today à la Little Jenny Wren. It is not a complete accounting because I wrote in detail, maybe too much detail. I didn't edit it and about every sentence starts with "I" which drives me nuts.

I woke up around 7ish with an elbow or a knee in my back. Fiona had come in, during the night. As I shifted I realized that J's alarm clock was on very quietly. It was time to get up.

Fiona asked if it was a movie day, no, I said, it is Monday today. She cried that she wanted to watch a movie. I said no, but offered her her vitamins which she had brought into the bedroom a day or two before. She found a ribbon in the bed and asked her dad to tie up his hands. He did. Then she wanted their hands tied together. Then she wanted to be foxes living in a den. She crawled under J's comforter.

When I got up I noticed that it was a gray and raining out. I offered to make hot cereal for breakfast. I went downstairs to use the bathroom and when I came back up Fiona was a fox, J was a bear, and our little siamese bi-color cat was a monster. She is a monster, too, because she loves to knock things down, especially glassware.

J went down to have a shower and Fiona and I went off to the kitchen to make breakfast. I had to wash the pot because we are behind on dishes right now. I put the water on to boil for the coffee and measured out the water and cereal. Fiona played at the table with a book and the salt and pepper shakers. She was singing a little song of her own devising to herself. I washed the french press, measured out the coffee. I washed off the table, and cleared a couple of dishes that had been left there over night.

We needed three spoons, three bowls and three mugs. Fiona had a Hello Kitty bowl, an orange spoon and her favorite mug, the dragon mug. She likes warm milk to drink. Fiona poured the cereal into the pot while I stirred. The electric kettle clicked off and I poured the water into the french press. It smelled so good. I love the way the coffee grounds sort of bubble up and are such a dark, glossy brown. I set the timer for four minutes and stirred the cereal again. I used a soup plate for my cereal, because they allow everything to spread out and cool. J got a cereal bowl for his cereal. I had to wash a spoon for him. We are really behind on dishes, but it doesn't help that we only own a few spoons that aren't plastic kid spoons.

The cereal was ready. Five seconds later the coffee was ready. I dished some cereal for Fiona and brought out the milk and maple syrup. I splashed a little milk on her cereal and she stirred it around to cool it off, and then just a little bit of syrup. Yum. I called to J but he wasn't done getting ready yet. I dished up for myself. A bit more maple syrup for me, because well, I'm a naughty adult and have a well developed sweet tooth. J comes up just after I've a had a bite or two. He dishes up the remaining cereal for himself. It is quite a large mound of cereal. He has two cups of coffee. I have one.

Fiona finishes her cereal and starts pretending to be a dik dik. I am a sloth and J is David Attenborough. David Attenborough is surprised to find a dik dik under the table patting his knees. The sloth sits very still and drinks a cup of sloth coffee. That is coffee for sloths, not made of sloths, not slothlent coffee (play on soylent green) says David Attenborough. Then the dik dik climbs up into David Attenboroughs lap and snuggles. He then gets up to brush his teeth.

Fiona puts the maple syrup and the milk away in the fridge, then she sees a yogurt. She asks if she can have one. Of course. She chooses the Dulce de Leche flavor. Unfortunately she knocked it over on paper gingerbread man that she decorated two Christmases ago. Luckily there is a lot of yogurt still left and the yogurt rinses off the paper without much damage. She gulps down the rest of the yogurt. J picks out music for his iPod for the drive to work. I read my blogroll. I saved Little Jenny Wren's for last because I knew she was writing out her day, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to read it all. Fiona wanted to read some stories. J left for work. We read Little Bear, Frog and Toad All Year, Cinderella, The Paper Bag Princess and an issue of BabyBug magazine.

I went downstairs to the laundry room and picked out some clean clothes for Fiona. I brought them up with a warm washcloth. She got all washed up and dressed. She decided that she was going on a train and then a plane to visit her friend Amelia. I became her friend Amelia and I lived in the desert very far away. Seeing the images of Frog and Toad sharing tea and cake had made me wish for cake. Remember that sweet tooth I mentioned. We went back to the kitchen around 10:45 and I made black tea with a lot of milk and a mite of sugar. Fiona and I both had a piece of cinnamon toast as we didn't have any cake.

Fiona started playing with the ceramic chopstick holders that were in the back of the silverware drawer. She was building all sorts of things and making patterns, happily amusing herself. I sat down to read Little Jenny Wren's account of her day. I was inspired and so I started writing down what I could remember of my day.

Fiona wanted me to read to her. I explained that I had to finish writing first. She was mad. We went back and forth for a while. Her asking me to read to her or play cars with her. At one point she started driving her car down my shoulder and onto my breast. I told her not to do that, that it made me uncomfortable. She said she was just driving her car. I explained that just like she can tell someone to stop touching her body if it made her uncomfortable, I could do the same thing. She was not happy but she stopped.

She asked me to read a book again while she ate her toast. I suggested that she look at a book while she ate her toast. Finally she agreed, but she chose a paperback book that wouldn't lie flat and kept falling off the table. She came to me crying. I helped her choose a hard bound book with lots of pictures to look at while she finished her toast. I continued to write. She then asked for more toast. There were two small heels of bread left, so I toasted those for her. She asked for me to read to her, so I read to her what I had written so far. She smiled several times. Then she asked if she could type, too. You will find her work at the end of this post. She started playing by herself again. She changed into a pair of pajamas, then another pair of pajamas, and after a bit came to show me that she had found a pair of her scissors. She held them up like she was going to cut her hair. I said it wasn't a good idea if she wanted to have long hair. She said what if I cut this part just to here? I said it wouldn't be a good idea because then she would just have a chunk missing and that it wasn't a good idea for children to cut their own hair because they might cut themselves. She said she wanted paper to cut and went to her paper bin. She wanted to cut a heart. She got very frustrated. She begged me to do it. I helped her do it instead, but she wanted me to draw a line on the heart so I did, after much frustration.

I had planned on doing dishes this morning and tidying the living room, but time ran out. At noon I put in a load of whites to wash. Fiona wears fuzzy bunz to bed, so we do a load of whites every couple of days. Next I got in the shower, while Fiona cried because I wouldn't read to her. As soon as I was in the shower though, she busied herself with rearranging various things found in the cupboard in the bathroom. She put them in order from largest to smallest and then she would mix them up and laugh because they weren't in order any more.

I used the hair dryer because it was a cold rainy day. After getting dressed, I helped Fiona put her clothes back on again. I put a lemon yogurt in a little white paper sack and wrote Fiona's name in fuchsia ink with a little swishy swash underneath. It was her snack for school. I had a doctor's appt this afternoon, so she was going to aftercare at her school for the afternoon. She does have a cloth lunch bag, but when I went to grab it it had something in it from the last time it was used and we were in a hurry. I grabbed a couple of cloth grocery bags so I could run to the store later.

We went out to the car. Fiona had brought a magic wand with her. She pretended that our garden had no flowers and that she did some magic and now we had flowers. We got clicked into the car, which is lovingly called Gus. Off we went. We went through the drive though at Taco Bell to get a quick lunch and then stopped at Starbucks to get an organic milk for Fiona. I also got a peanut butter cookie. Trust me, I am so not proud of this. We arrived at her school at about ten minutes after one. We walked in and her best friend at school was right there inside the gate. They gave each other a big hug. I took her yogurt inside, then said goodbye. I made it all the way to the gate and Fiona just broke down. She didn't want me to leave. I held her and then took her inside. Her friend followed us. The teacher was still tidying up after lunch but said the two girls could play inside if they liked. I asked Fiona's friend to take care of Fiona and give her hugs if she needed them. She agreed and gave Fiona a big hug. Then the two of them were off playing.

I drove to my doctor's appt. I arrived about 20 minutes early, so I sat in the car and listened to NPR. There was a program on talking about the Dalai Lama's Seeds of Compassion event that was going on in Seattle. It started raining, again. As I walked up to the building where my appt was I saw a worm on the pavement trying to get away from the water. I thought about stopping to pick it up and move it, but I didn't, there was the weather, my appt and I needed to use the bathroom. Then I saw a piece of paper on the ground. I should've picked it up, but I didn't.

And on and on and on it went.

The following is Fiona's version of events.

twrwewrewr2dgeterddfdafsedddqaxazssweswdsdsdssasaewsesaadqsadqsdsdsdsdasdaszdas
dasdazaxxzadsdsdsadsasdawsrwesreasadsasASaSaSASASASasASASasSaSSASaSASASQSW
SDWSDSWDWSDADFGHJILOUYJHGFDDDFDFDSZXAAXXXXXAAAAAXXXXAAAAAA
ZZZZZZZAZAZAZSDFGHJFDFDFSDSSASADSFDFDFDDDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDDDDDD
FFFFFFFFFDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDFFFFFFFFFFFF
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAA
ZZZZZZZXXXXXXXXXXXXCVBNM,LLLLLLO1342

FIONAZXCVBNMLOQWERTUJHGFDSASDFGHJZXCVBNMAQWSWEDE
RFRFRFEFFFFFFFFFEFEASAZ

HJHJHJHJHJHJHHJHHHGSDDFGHJHGGGGGGFFFFFFFFDSSAAAAAAAASSASAAA

LOUJHNBVCXFWGHSFXGXFSXCSFXDSFXSSXXFZXAZXDSSX

ABCDEFGHIJKLPQRSTUVW

Answer to a complaint

2008-04-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

A few posts back I complained that you never knew which company owned which. My husband just found this. I thought I would share it with you. It doesn't cover all of them, but it does cover a lot of big names.

Oh boy oh boy

2008-04-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Who won the fabulous prize giveaway celebrating my 100th post?

Drum roll please....

Everyone! Because my audience is small and dear to me, everyone who posted a comment on my 100th post before today will receive a gift. Please email me at craftydabbler [at] yahoo [dot] com with your name and address and also tell me if there are any crafts that you like to do.

Thank you!

Starfish Stuffie for Teething Tot

2008-04-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

It reads like a newspaper article title.

Here is the Starfish that I made for Little M back in December*. So many chewy arms to choose from.

* I just realized I had forgotten to post pictures of it.

100th post

2008-04-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my one hundredth post! Sadly it has taken me more than a year to get here. Since you are here, leave a comment. In one week, I will use one of those random number generator things to pick a commenter who will win a fabulous prize. I don't know what the prize is yet. I will think about it. Thanks for coming by.

This is the saddest thing I've ever read

2008-04-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

According to an article in The Seattle Times, "The gloomiest outlook for the economy in 35 years may be forcing Americans to live with what they have and save up for what they want."

That's right, Americans are being forced to live within their means. The horror.

A Risotto for Spring

2008-03-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

On Easter I made a risotto with Asparagus, the juice of half a lemon and about a teaspoon of dried tarragon. Everyone said it was good.

Squash Risotto

2008-03-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

Over at Our Red House Kate was asking for recipes to use up her garden's bounty of pumpkins. Something that I make with some frequency is Squash Risotto. I usually use Butternut squash, because it is my favorite, but I bet pumpkin would be just as tasty. One of the best things about this recipe is that it can be vegetarian ( I use veggie broth), vegan (use olive oil instead of butter and no cheese) and gluten free. Here is the recipe I left in the comments, in case anyone is interested.

2 Tb Butter or Olive Oil
1 medium onion, chopped
9 cups broth
2 cups Arborio rice (short/med grain white Italian rice)
1 tsp dried Thyme (or more to taste)
1 medium size winter squash or pumpkin
Shredded parmesan or pecorino to taste

Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Lay cut side down in a baking dish with about 1/4 inch of water and bake at 400°F (200°C) until tender when pierced. Remove the skin.

Heat broth to a simmer. (My trick for this is I use my electric tea kettle to heat water because it is much faster, then I pour it in a large pot on the stove and add good quality bouillon cubes and just keep it simmering on the stove while I use the broth).

In a second large pot, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until it is translucent. Add the rice to the butter and onion and stir until the rice is partly translucent. You will see a little white dot on the rice grains, too. Then add a cup of broth and stir the rice until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth one-half to one cup at a time and stirring until the liquid is absorbed. As you get close to the end of the broth taste the rice and see if it has the texture you like. When it does stop adding broth. Stir in one teaspoon of thyme. Add the squash. Stir it in as much as you like. I've found that everyone who has tried it prefers some lumps of squash.

Serve with grated parmesan or pecorino cheese. This recipe makes enough for 4-6 adults.

Buon Appetito!

The Power of Kindness

2008-02-21T01:59:00.000-08:00

I found this book when I was looking for inspiration. It is not what I expected, but it is definitely what I needed. We all come from different places in our lives, so really, I can't expect everyone to get the same thing out of this book that I have, but read it, please. There is one caveat, I haven't finished it yet. I usually fly through books, but this one is for savoring and slowly digesting, for consuming when needed, to continue the metaphor.

Help is needed

2008-02-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

I stumbled onto Monkeyfister 's blog and read his call for help for the survivors of the terrible storms in the south. Even if you can donate only one dollar, it will make a difference to someone who is hurt, hungry or cold.

I donated to the Red Cross. Monkeyfister also recommends United Way.

Thank you.

Surprise snow

2008-01-15T11:08:00.002-08:00

Last night it was raining, then it was rain and snow mixed, then it was just snow and then the snow started to stick! I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning and took some pictures. If you have a good internet connection I hope you will click on the pictures to get a better look at them. The third and fifth are my favorites. The second is the small maple tree in our backyard.

Gratitudes and sleep

2008-01-12T23:05:00.001-08:00

There is a meme that caught my eye the other day. There are actually two that are related. I found the first one, a list of 25 things you can't get enough of, here. The second is a list of 25 things that shit you to tears (a phrase I've not encountered before but apparently means something along the lines of "bug the shit out of you"), here.

Generally speaking, I love doing memes. I think it may be that they are like those little personality tests you can take that will tell you all about yourself and what your career should be. Anyway, at first I was mostly interested in the negative meme. The first one seemed kind of smarmy to me, but later that night as I was trying to fall asleep it popped into my head. I started thinking of things, and I suddenly realized that thinking of a list of things you like, when you are trying to fall asleep does not cause anxiety! Stop the presses! What?! That's right. The reason this is earth shaking news is that I have trouble with initial insomnia, meaning it takes an age for me to fall asleep; a good night takes 30-45 minutes, a bad night 5-7 hours. The game I used to play in my head was "what if I won the lottery." For example, the lottery that week might be worth 20 million. Divide that over 25 annual payments, and multiply that amount by 60% to estimate the amount left after taxes and you have $480,000. Ok, so that is enough to pay off all bills and the mortgage and live quite comfortably, but what about your friends and family. So I could go on for quite a while figuring out who would get how much, how I would give it to them, how often they might get a stipend, etc, etc, etc. My aunt thinks of this as a sort of advanced counting of sheep. Money has been causing me anxiety lately, so thinking about winning the lottery just isn't fun any more. If I just lay there in bed with nothing to think about, I end up thinking about things like someone taking all the children in my daughter's preschool hostage, or the bridge I'm driving on collapsing in an earthquake while Fiona is in the car with me, etc, etc. You can probably see why I might be up for a while. So, I am rather excited that I have come up with a new way to relax and fall asleep.

Just in case you are curious, chocolate and coffee have become regulars on the list of things I can't get enough of.

p.s. If you have any sleep inducing ideas, I would love it if you would share.

p.p.s. It is also de-lurking week, so please leave a comment if you stop by.

A little dab of Martha

2008-01-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

I ironed some of my cotton napkins tonight. It took a couple of tries to figure out a trick to ironing them and not having them out of square. If I ironed the whole napkin and then folded it to press it again the sides never lined up because the shape of the cloth had been altered. So I tried just pressing the edges so they weren't rolled up and then folding the napkin in half and smoothing it with my hand so that when I pressed them they would be in a nice rectangular shape with all the edges lined up. Aren't I clever? No, it's just that I have never learned the proper way to iron things, probably because one hardly needs to iron anything now. As I was putting everything away I told my husband that I really like my iron (a newish Rowenta), but that if I had to use it everyday I probably wouldn't like it as much.

Matinee Jacket for baby M

2008-01-10T22:01:00.000-08:00

I knit a baby sweater in the Matinee Jacket pattern from Baby Knits Vogue Knitting On The Go (the book is out of print but still available at the library, etc). It is a lace pattern that is pretty simple really. I started in March and finished in July. It was knit with 2+ skeins of Dalegarn Baby Ull in white on US size 2 and size 3 needles. The reason I say 2+ skeins is there was a lot left of the third skein. I did modify the pattern somewhat. I did some fiddling so that the lace holes lined up from the bottom of the arm holes up, otherwise things would have shifted and looked wonky to me. I didn't graft the collar onto the jacket. I suck at grafting and have developed a great fear of it. I did a three needle bind off. I don't know if I would do it again. It made the neckline really rigid and the collar wants to flip up all the time, but who is looking at the collar when a cute baby wears the sweater, right?

This was my most difficult undertaking ever in the realm of knitting. There were times when I knit an entire row, that would be 203 stitches just so you know, incorrectly and I would have to go back and take them all out and redo them. Please note this happened more than once. The right front has an extra row in it. I didn't notice it until I was done with the left front. I looked at it and decided no one would notice.

The baby who received the sweater was a month old when it was done. The sweater was also given to him on the hottest day of the summer. Oh well. It fit him well, and he was able to wear it well into the beginning of fall. His mother and his grandmother both liked it very much, and that was what mattered to me.

I freakin' hate it that you can't tell which company owns what

2008-01-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

Here is an article from the NYTimes about the purchase of Burt's Bees by Clorox. I also found out in the article that Clorox owns Hidden Valley dressings, Glad trash bags and Brita water filters, of all things. 84% of Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive.

Yes, I'm happy that Clorox is going to try and green up a bit. I just think that things that are sold should have a provenance or something so we know who is ultimately going to profit by our purchases.

I'm still sick and I think it makes me crankier than usual.

Ugh

2008-01-07T13:48:00.001-08:00

I spent last night either freezing because of chills or sweating through my pajamas. Having a fever sucks.

A bit superstitious

2008-01-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit of a superstitious person. Superstitious may not be quite the right word. I've started making coffee again at home, which involves warming up a bowl of milk in the microwave until it is quite hot and then pouring an equal amount of french-press coffee into it. Every once in a while I heat the milk too much and a bit of skin forms. On New Year's Day when I poured the coffee into the milk a small heart shaped bit of milk skin was floating on top of my coffee. It is a little thing that means nothing, and yet it made me happy and I think of it as a good omen for the year.

It isn't flattering

2008-01-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

I was just over at one of my favorite blogs and the author wrote about the terrible time she has had over the last couple of weeks. She prefaced it with her thought that personal whining is annoying and unflattering. I have definitely taken to personal whining on here lately. Crafting has fallen off, and I don't carry a camera around with me. I've thought about trying to have a beautiful, peaceful blog like Little Jenny Wren or Love Forever or Ann Wood, but I am not those people and I don't have their lives or outlook. Please understand that I am not badmouthing the person who said she didn't like personal whining, I completely agree with her.

I am exceedingly happy about something today. First the sad part, my sewing machine died in November. It is a Pfaff 130, an heirloom from my grandmother. It came with the original warranty card with her signature and the date of purchase, June 1, 1954. I was so sad when it died. Most of the gifts I had planned to make for Christmas required sewing. The person who came out to service it last year said that it wasn't really worth fixing and that once the motor went it would be history. I had him go ahead and service it, replace the foot pedal, and the cord because the insulation around the wires was cracked. It all cost in the neighborhood of $200. Ouch. So when my well loved machine stopped, I was sure that it was beyond help. Today I wandered into a sewing machine store to get an idea of the cost for a new machine. They wanted to sell me something that looked very nice for $800. I do not have money like that sitting around. On the way home I passed by an old sewing machine and vacuum repair shop that I have passed a million times. I decided to call. I told the man everything about how it was old, and I thought it was the motor, and that the last technician said that it was not salvageable, etc. He laughed. He said that this machine is one of the most indestructible ever built and that getting a new motor was not a problem. He then asked me if the person who had worked on my machine before was so-and-so. I said yes. He then told me about some that persons questionable business practices. Oh, and the quote for repairing the machine this time is $79.

Here is a representation of my 30lb black beauty. I will take many pictures of her when she comes home.

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T00:02:00.000-08:00

I've been making a couple of lists lately. One is a list of things I would like to do/have/be in the future. I made a list several years ago and did/had/was a lot of the things on it. I'm not too keen on making resolutions as they seem almost made to be broken. Fiona and I worked on two lists today of things we like to do and places we like to go. On Friday we will go to the craft store and buy some card stock and brads so we can make a couple of spinning wheels that will have the list of things written around the edges. The idea came to me when I was thinking how some days I don't want to play princess for the 10,000th time that day, but I can't think of anything better to do. A friend recommended that I make a wheel of things that she can do by herself, when I am unable to or disinclined to play.

It has been a stressful month/month-and-a-half. There have been many nights when I've seen the clock tick over to 3AM. I received a prescription for Xanax about a week before Christmas. It helped me fall asleep perfectly. I also realized that I am a light sleeper. It wasn't until the second day that it dawned on me that I hadn't woken up when the cats climbed on me, or when I turned over and dislodged one of the cats, or when the dog scratched, or when my daughter cried out in her sleep (I know this sounds terrible, but it happens every night between midnight and 2AM, she has night terrors), or when my daughter climbed in bed with us. It has been amazing. I've actually woken up after eight hours of sleep and felt like getting out of bed. So, we are making changes, because I obviously can't take the medicine for ever. The cats are now shut out of the bedroom at night. It makes me sad, because I have loved having them with me. One would sleep between my feet and the other on my hips. We put a new door handle on the bedroom door, so that Fiona can open it without a lot of noise. We took the collar off the dog. I'm going to look into getting one that has the name and phone number stitched into the fabric of the collar. Of course none of this deals with the initial insomnia that I've had trouble with, but I've been visiting with my therapist rather frequently lately and things in general are doing a bit better.

I found this article on the New York Times* to be interesting. It is about how people deal with regrets.

I found this article on the New York Times to be utterly distressing. It is about companies creating virtual worlds for children to visit and pay money for etc, online. It makes me think of the writings of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson.

Here is a bit of fun. You can make a South Park character that looks like you. Here I am. My husband says the expression is just perfect, but that is only because he constantly says things that make me roll my eyes.

* If you don't have a login for the New York Times and it asks for one, you can use craigslist for both the ID and the password.

Prototype gift tags

2007-11-20T23:18:00.000-08:00

I spent this evening working up some rough prototypes for gift tags to make and hopefully sell. I'm sorry the pictures aren't great, but I think the tags came out well.

Matchy-matchy nerds

2007-11-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

My husband took the nerd test from the post below. We scored exactly the same except that he is slightly less nerdy than me when it comes to History/Literature (91% vs 99%). The funny thing about his Computer/Technology score is that he works for a software company, doing computery things all day. When he comes home he often does computery things until bedtime. I think if our friends had to choose who was most nerdy they would definitely choose my husband over me any day.

Uber Cool Nerd Queen

2007-11-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm even more than just a vocabulary nerd. According to this incredibly accurate test, I shall henceforth be known as Uber Cool Nerd Queen. I found this on The View from Elsewhere.

Am I insane? Maybe.

2007-11-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

So, back in October I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Amazingly enough, I have a plot/story that I think will work. I haven't told any of my friends, because there is a sense of a lot of pressure around trying to do this. Now that I have posted about it, everyone will know. It was killing me not to say anything, but I've been really nervous just thinking about talking about it with anyone. I also put off actually starting to write until today. So far I only have 547 words, so I only have to do what I did tonight slightly less than 100 times in the next 25 days and I will have won. Even if I don't win, I will have a lot written. I'm glad I signed up.

I am a vocabulary geek

2007-11-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

A friend sent this link to me the other day for Freerice.com. It is a game or a quiz, I guess. For every word that you correctly define, via multiple choice, they donate 10 grains of rice. The words are ranked into different levels. I made it up to level 50 a couple of times but seemed to mostly bounce around from 44-47. I loved it and played it way, way too long. I hope you have fun with it, too.

Accidental re-lactation

2007-11-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

This is the weirdest thing. About three to four weeks ago I started watching a friend's four month old baby, one day a week for five hours. Last week I noticed my breasts felt kind of achy. I thought, oh, it's my period. Sensitive breasts aren't usually my problem, but it does happen every once in a while. I kept feeling hungry, even after a big meal. I watched the little boy on Friday. Friday night I went into my daughter's room to lay down with her and rub her back until she fell asleep, and I had a let down!!! I couldn't believe it. I haven't nursed her since April of this year. I couldn't hand express at all for the last several months that she was nursing. Sure enough, after she fell asleep I got up and went and tried to hand express and there was colostrum. I looked around online and couldn't find any non-nipple-stimulation instances of re-lactation. Hopefully the little let down feelings I'm having and the fullness will go away after a while. What amazing things our bodies are.

Slipping

2007-10-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

My organization is slipping. I haven't done my weekly shopping this week, and only did a partial trip last week. I've gone to Starbucks several times in the last couple of weeks. We ordered pizza last week. Aaaahhh. It is ok. A little stumble and I know that I can recover.

One of the things I've been concerned about with having the thermostat set at 60° F is having mold/mildew grow in our bedroom. It is the coldest room in the house and it has the worst air circulation and we spend a lot of time in there. So, it has started already. I'm going to kill it with bleach and paint over the area with some left over Kilz paint and see what happens. I should also search around online. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Top 106 Unread Books from Library Thing

2007-10-06T13:56:00.001-07:00

I found this meme at Pretty Good on Paper.

It’s another book meme which lists books tagged as unread in Librarything. Bold what you have read, italicize your DNFs (did not finish), ~~strikethrough~~ the ones you hated, and put asterisks next to those you read more than once.

Jonathan Strange & M. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
*Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
*Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
*Pride and Prejudice
*Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad
*Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury tales
The Historian
*A portrait of the artist as a young man
Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
*Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
*Sense and sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Miserables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
* Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
*The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
*Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
*Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
* The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Hundred Books Meme

2007-10-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

My husband mentioned this meme to me. I'm a sucker for memes and books, so I had to find it. I did a Google search and grabbed this from the first result.

The idea is to review this list of 100 books, then mark all the ones you have read in bold, all the ones you want to read in italic, and leave the rest unchanged.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

If you would like to do this meme please do and let me know, because I find it so interesting to see what is on someone's bookshelf so to speak.

Out sick

2007-10-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

Ugh. Back to back illnesses. I'm feeling better though finally. My sinuses began to feel bruised on Saturday and I thought that surely antibiotics were in my future, but I visited a new naturopath and she dispensed some herbs/supplements and sold me a neti pot. I've done nasal irrigation before, but the pot makes it easier.

My hold for Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning by George Monbiot arrived at the library. I'm going to finish a couple of other books before I start reading it though. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a very good, but very disturbing book. Here are a couple of statistics that shocked me. One-third of American children eat at a fast food restaurant everyday. Fifteen to thirty percent of feedlot cows sent to slaughter have abscessed livers. Just as a reminder, "[The liver is] like a factory that makes vital substances (such as albumin and factors that help with blood clotting). It cleanses the body of toxins and bacteria. It produces bile that helps digest food. The healthy liver also gathers and stores important substances for your body to use later, such as sugar and vitamins." via USDVA

Ball gown gloves

2007-09-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

That's what she said they were. She was playing with her ink pads and stamps. It goes all the way up to her elbows. No, that is not a bruise on her face. Maybe she will be a make-up designer for the movies?

Riot to Austerity

2007-09-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

I realize I've never really talked about this group on the blog. It is a Yahoo group of people who are working towards reducing their impact on the Earth. The goal is to take what the average citizen of their country uses and cut back on that by 90%. The idea comes from a man named George Monbiot and his most recent book Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning.

When I first read that the people were cutting back 90% I thought, wow, they are amazing, it's too bad I can't join, because I would never make 90%. I kept reading some of the blogs of the participants (Casaubon's Book and green with a gun and Simple Living) and then I went and checked out the group page. It is for everyone who is willing to try reducing, even if they know that for whatever reason they won't make 90%. I decided to join. I love reading the messages that come through on the board. It is a great community with lots of wonderful ideas. I've learned quite a bit. There is an intro, a faq and rules for the Riot to Austerity on the Simple Living blog. Just take a peek, come on, I know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it. : )

Rioting to Austerity

2007-09-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

I am so happy! We got our electric bill that covers the last two months. We only used 212 kWh per month!!! Last year at this time we used 427 kWh. It is sooo nice to see some pay off for all of the changes we are making. The biggest changes were 1. using the drying rack instead of the dryer, 2. using a laptop instead of a desktop computer, 3. unscrewing all redundant light bulbs (our bathroom fixture has 6 bulbs and I unscrewed all but three then unscrewed all but one).

Gotta run!

Sittin' on the sofa with Fiona

2007-09-21T20:16:00.001-07:00

Fiona: Mama, are you going to die soon?

Me: What? No. Most people live until they are about 80 years old. Do you know how old you will be when I'm 80? You'll be 47! Why do you ask?

Fiona: I just wanted to know if you were going to die soon.

----------

Oh my goodness.

My first from scratch softie!

2007-09-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

A little lion in the tall grass.

Even though it has a wonky arm, it is quite special to me. I was rather frustrated with it when I had trouble with the arm, but as I was stuffing it I really had a sensation like it was coming into its own, almost coming alive if you will.

I made it for a friend's daughter for her first birthday. When Fiona woke up this morning and saw it, she was very excited and then very upset. She thought it was for her. She insisted that I make a different one for the one year old and that this one be hers. I promised her that I would make her one just like it. She said to make sure it had one short arm. That made me feel better about the arm. I think I sewed the wrist a little too tightly and I just couldn't turn it right-side out for the life of me. The little arm is kind of hard, because all the fabric is bunched up in there. It will be a perfect little teething lump.

Goodness, what a proud doll-mama am I.

A couple of things

2007-09-11T22:42:00.001-07:00

Miss Fi just started preschool today. She is only going a couple of days a week, but I think it will be a lovely change for her, and me, too. While I was lying on the sofa eating bon-bons and watching soap operas, oh no, wait, I was just eating breakfast and reading in peace and quiet, I decided to look and see if there was a way for me to take a bus to pick Fiona up from school. Her dad takes her on his way to work. After fiddling around with all of the trip planner settings I found a way to take just one bus and with total round-trip walking distance of 2.2 miles. I am so very happy! I'll probably bring her little umbrella stroller along with me. And no, I won't do it all the time every time, but every little bit helps.

I've noticed people talking more and more about gray water and reusing it. Gray water is water that goes down the drain from your sinks, showers and bathtubs. What is flushed down the toilet is called black water. Today I caught the shower water that ran while I waited for the hot water to come and used it to flush the toilet. It is silly, but it felt like a little victory. It was something so easily done.

Not having pre-packaged food in the house is the only thing that saves me from serving mac and cheese and the like seven days a week. I had a lovely time off this morning, but I missed lunch, which made me a bit grumbly in the afternoon. When dinner preparation time came and went, I wandered around the kitchen looking for, hoping for, something easy. I ended up making spaghetti sauce from scratch because that was the easiest thing left to make in my meal plan for the week. I didn't really want to, there just weren't any other choices.

Each week I choose 5-6 recipes (for a total of about 8-9 meals), but I don't assign them to specific days, that way there is a bit of flexibility. One of the meals is always something easy like grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup or gardenburgers. I also only buy the things on the shopping list unless a staple is on sale, then I may stock up a bit.

Ok, I'm rambling. Time for bed.

Just dropping by my own little blog house...

2007-09-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've been having a bit of a rough patch. I got to a point where it seemed like suddenly everything needed doing all at once and that I had no idea where to ~~stop~~ start. A couple of friends took me out for a beer. We sat and talked. Just getting it all off my chest helped me feel better. They also had some good advice to share with me.

I'm working on decreasing our family carbon footprint. It is exciting and empowering at times and at other times I just want to go to Starbucks and get a peanut butter cookie and a venti-no-whip-java-chip-frappucino.

We've had car trouble this last month. It has put a severe strain on our finances. In the past it all would've gone on the credit card without a second thought. Now we are struggling to not add to our debt and eat and pay for all of the "little" things that come up. This makes me want Starbucks more than anything. It is the stress of trying to figure it all out and the stress of saying no to things.

Maybe I mentioned it in the past, but I'm interested in studying medicine. It is so scary though to think about going back to school after all of this time. My daughter is starting preschool this week and will most likely be starting kindergarten next year. I will have the time to actually pursue school.

For all my complaining and sharing too much with the world, I have to say that I am so grateful for what I have, for my family, my friends, my home. We are so very lucky.

I'm going to vent...

2007-08-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

We forgot to put away the new stick of butter from the table after dinner last night. I found part of it in the hall. Thanks, dog.

We are very short on money right now. I went shopping to get just a few things to cover simple dinners for the next couple of days. I decided to splurge on one item. Challah bread, that we could snack on and have with soup for the next couple of days. When we got home Fiona had to go to the bathroom. When I get back to the kitchen only half of the loaf is left and it is covered with teeth marks. Thanks, dog.

I started making dinner. No onions for the soup. I added a couple of bouillon cubes and some hard cheese to add some flavor. I pulled out the greens I had just bought. I hadn't checked them when I bought them. I was rather distracted. There were THREE different kind of bugs all over the undersides of every leaf. I just couldn't handle it. I will throw some parsley in the soup for a bit of green and some flavor.

Now, I know that every one of these things is my fault, but I am so very, very frustrated. It makes it feel as if the day has been a waste. But it hasn't.

I was driving by a consignment shop and saw a toy organization shelf/basket combination. It was $30. I didn't know where the money would come from. Then I remembered we had a collection of coins sitting in the linen cupboard. We took them and turned them in at the store. There was $47. We went and bought the shelf.

The co-op we shop at gives a coupon once a month for 10% off. You can save the coupon and bring in the receipt with the highest value. I had neglected using these for three months. I turned those in at the grocery store and only had to pay $7 cash for the groceries I bought today.

My neighbor brought over some rhubarb bars she baked. So, we have something for dessert.

I told a friend that I was thinking of making a doll for a friend's child, and I asked if I could have her coupon for 40% off at the fabric store. She said she had some fabrics I could use. She brought them over. I mentioned I was thinking of going to the thrift store to try and find some funky fabric. She said she was going to drop a bag of stuff off. I offered to take it. When I went to put the groceries in the trunk, the bag had fallen over and I saw some cloth napkins that I liked. I called and left a message asking if it would be ok if I kept them.

So it was a bad day and a good day.

My hold on The Tightwad Gazette came in the other day, and I've been reading that the last couple of nights. I also joined the Riot for Austerity. I won't make 90%, but I'm working on reducing.

Change

2007-08-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

I was sitting here looking at my Bloglines feed and wanting to read more, but I've read everything. I realized that maybe I should post.

I've been very busy this last month. About a month and a half ago I found an article about plastic and just how awful it is for the environment and people. Amazingly, I was able to find it again to link to it here. I think I originally was pointed to the article by Causabon's Book via Little Jenny Wren. In one of the posts on Causabon's Book there was a mention of a woman who is trying to live plastic free for one year. The woman who writes Causabon's Book also writes a lot about peak oil. I had a general idea before of what it meant, but now have a much greater understanding. All of these things started me thinking about what I could do to change how we live so that the world would be better off.

I decided that we were going to avoid plastic as much as possible. I would occasionally forget my tote bags at home when I went grocery shopping in the past. I haven't forgotten since I've actively started working on eliminating plastics. I am not buying processed, prepackaged food if at all possible. We are vegetarians so, even though tofu, tempeh and seitan are all packaged in plastic I will still buy them. We used to go through two loaves of bread a week, but I buy only one now. I'm trying to bake bread, but I'm making lots of changes at once so I'm giving myself a break here and there. We are lucky to have a wonderful co-op grocery store that focuses on organic foods. They also have a great bulk foods section. We've been taking glass containers or plastic containers that we already have so that we can take advantage of the bulk foods. I've been doing meal planning for a whole week. We are also only going to the grocery store once a week. We used to go several times a week. We aren't ordering take-out. I'm not going to Starbucks three to four times a week. I still go once a week as a treat. We shop at the local farmer's market first then go to the grocery store. That way I know that we are supporting local organic agriculture as much as possible and filling in the gaps at the store. I bought a used deep freeze with the idea of freezing some things such as local organic fruits and vegetables for use through the winter and spring. I've been washing out our plastic milk jugs and filling them with water and putting them in the freezer. They will keep the freezer operating most efficiently and we will have an emergency supply of water if we ever need one.

The Idyllic

The Reality

More specifically on the energy saving front, Monday is a no drive day for me. We've also been hanging out the laundry to dry. I've only used the dryer twice in the last month and a half. This coming from someone who has never hung out a load of clothes to dry, except while on vacation in France, is a pretty big accomplishment.

I found a book at the library called Not Buying It. It is about a woman who didn't purchase anything but the necessities for a year. There were parts I liked and parts I didn't, but one of the things that popped out at me was that her friends kept asking her how much money she saved. One day when I was feeling down about all of this work I sat down to write in my journal. I decided to figure out how much we were saving. I was shocked. By week two, we had saved $274 by meal planning, not eating out and not going to Starbucks. I'm sure we are saving a bit more on gas because I'm not constantly going out and "running errands."

About a week ago I noticed that some of my pants felt more loose. I asked a friend if I could use her scale. I don't know exactly where I started weight-wise, but I've lost somewhere between eight and ten pounds. It is amazing, and it isn't. We used to have ice cream most nights for dessert and the multiple trips to Starbucks didn't help. In my new way of doing things, I have baked cookies at home and made homemade jam for the first time.

Let me tell you, homemade raspberry jam is so very incredible. I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I haven't necessarily cut back on the quantity of food, but I have changed the type of food I'm eating.

One day Fiona came out of her room with a random assortment of toys. She informed me that she was Mama and I was Fiona, and that I could help her bake tea cookies. After she finished baking the cookies and serving them all around she said she was going to make risotto for dinner. That made me so happy. She was emulating me and it was a positive thing.

I love that so many positives come out of these changes.

It has been difficult in one way I hadn't anticipated. Fiona and I stay home a lot more. She wants to be entertained and played with more than before. I know it is because we would hop in the car to go run errands at the drop of a hat. During the second week of all of these changes Fiona said, "Mama, let's go to the store." She didn't need anything or want anything. She had already figured out that when you are bored you go shopping. I guess it is being nipped in the bud, but it was pretty distressing to realize that I had taught her that.

Here are some photos to back up my last post!

2007-06-23T14:49:00.002-07:00

The first time I saw a passion flower I couldn't believe it was real.

The first little rose bud. It is a David Austin climbing rose called 'Mme Alfred Carrière.'

Three ripe little strawberries from a woefully neglected strawberry plant.

Ta da! Our first true leaves on some Thumbelina carrots.

A baby Limmony tomato!

Grow, Beefsteak, grow!

This is rather interesting. We have a crab spider that lives in our large lavender bush. The crab spider is mostly or all white and it doesn't spin a web. It sits in the same spot with its arms stretched out and waits for a bee to fly into them. She had this bee by a bite just above the eyes. The next day I went out and she had caught another, and it was still alive and kicking. She had a hold of it around its head and was biting in the same spot that she bit the one below. (I don't know why, but I think of most spiders as a she, but not all.)

Summer is here!

2007-06-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Solstice!

After two warm days, there are a couple of little baby tomatoes on the plants, three ripe strawberries, true leaves on many of the carrot seedlings and the passion flower vine opened! I also noticed the first rosebud on my new climbing rose!

What would a 50s housewife do?

2007-06-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Growing up, I didn't have a particularly good role model for keeping a neat house, unless of course, you count June Cleaver.

I have always idolized her and her perfect (TV) house, but never thought I could aspire to such perfection. Then yesterday, I read a post over at Little Jenny Wren and in her post she linked to another's post. I must say, I admire the woman who wrote it. She is doing more than I would ever consider doing towards keeping a June Cleaver home, but what really struck me was the pride she had in it all. I could really use a helping of that. Now, I am not going to get up before everyone, shower, dress, put on make-up etc, to put breakfast on the table, but I started thinking "What would a 50s housewife do?" or "Would a 50s housewife do that?" when I was going about my day. I felt like I was working on something positive. I started expanding that thinking.

I realized that a 50s housewife wouldn't have a pile of garbage sitting in the hall from the remodel, just because no one had taken the time to put it out at the curb. The bedroom closet in a 50s house wouldn't be filled with boxes. There would be clothes in the closet. (We have a garage where boxes etc could go, but it is in a pretty disastrous state, too.) I thought of our linen closet which has house painting supplies, a broken clock radio, a light fixture cover etc, and yet our towels are piled on a bookcase in another part of the house, albeit close to the bathroom, but not actually in a closet built for the purpose of housing them. If I start putting things where they belong, towels in the linen cupboard, clothes in the closet, and removing things that don't belong, paint supplies to the garage, broken clock radio in to the trash, we will be able to not only find things, but find places for all of the random things, even if that means donating them or putting them in the trash.

Reading back over this, I know what I have written would be obvious to most, but I am rather excited that I've found a new way to look at it all.

p.s. A friend of mine is working on getting her family's finances in hand. One idea she had that I thought was particularly clever was to have the homepage of her web browser set to her bank account, so that whenever she went to check email or whatever she would see it and be aware of what was going on in her account.

There have been a few drafts

2007-06-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

since the last time I posted but none have been posted. I haven't posted for a number of reasons. None of them are sinister. A bit of the energy I used to put toward blogging has gone to librivox.org. I've recorded a few things (I'm not saying which) and I've listened to a fair number as well. There have also been the usual hobbies, knitting, reading, gardening and life, that have gotten in the way.

There is a knit baby gift that is in the offing, but it is taking a long time. I'm quite pleased with it though. Soon I will be able to post a picture of it. The baby has been born, and I was lucky enough to be present. Can I tell you, there are few occupations more worthwhile than being at a birth and being useful. I have acted as a doula for several of my friends, but now I think it is time to branch out. I can't do it too often, but about four to six times a year will be just right.

My next knitting project will be Monica from the Spring edition of Knitty. Fiona and I chose Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece Cherry Moon and Prosperous Plum. Here is the color card. I'm going to take a chance and work this in the round. I just don't feel like doing all of the knitting then purling. I want something mindless and relatively quick. I'm setting her birthday as my finishing goal.

The garden. I've planted a passion flower vine in the front to climb up the wires from the utility pole that is on the property line. It looks as if the buds will open any day now. June weather is never particularly warm here, so I am waiting for July. The heat it brings will surely open up the flowers.

My husband helped me plant a climbing rose. It is looking a little pale, but I think I am just nervous about it. The trellis/arch for it to climb is laying in the front yard. It has been a bit challenging to get it up, just right. We will try again after the first of the week.

My brother built a lovely raised vegetable bed for me, and my husband moved 5 yards of dirt into it. So far I've planted four kinds of tomatoes and two kinds of carrots. The tomatoes are Sweet Million (cherry), Egg Yolk (cherry), Limmony (slicing) and Beefsteak (slicing). The carrots are Thumbelina and Yaya.

Our main bathroom has been torn apart for remodeling for ages, and recently we have started making some progress. We have a lovely tile floor now and a re-glazed bathtub. We've had one plumbing contractor in for a quote and we will be having another soon. Our kitchen sink drains into the same pipe at the same point as the bathroom sink. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, except there is a garbage disposal in the kitchen sink that shoots chewed up food bits and yucky water into the bathroom sink. Charming! So we are going to get it all magically rerouted so we can have the garbage disposal and a food-free bathroom sink. We also had an old toilet that used something like 5 gallons of water per flush. That will be replaced with a 1.6 gallon toilet. I'm hoping we can find a good price on a dual flush toilet.

Our house didn't really seem like our house until we started doing things to it. We painted the bedrooms and then the living room. That really made it feel like home. The more we do to it, the less I think of leaving it. When we bought the house we only expected to stay in it for 5 years, and then find something better. It's been three years and now I only think about staying.

Here is a picture from earlier this spring when we went out to the tulip fields.

Weaning

2007-04-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

This is probably more than you want to know, but I feel like sharing.

I have been lucky enough to be able to breastfeed my daughter. I decided before she was born that it was just going to work. I wasn't going to read anything about bottle feeding or formula or supplementation.

Breastfeeding was really difficult in the beginning. I would say that it took a good 8-10 weeks for it to be a comfortable thing for me. There was cracking and bleeding and then a period of pain only on latch that lasted for several weeks and then went away. From the beginning I talked about doing child led weaning. I wanted this to be a journey for the both us, and something that I could give her for as long as she needed and wanted it.

Then January of this year came and I felt so done. We were only nursing at night before bed. It had been like that for at least a year. I felt antsy and uncomfortable. Then the daycare she was in said they were going to close and I had to decide what to do. I quit my job at the end of January, and we continued nursing because of the tumult in our lives. I was fine. I began to be comfortable again, but at the beginning of this month I had that strong I'm done feeling again.

I talked to Fiona and told her that I felt that my body was almost done making mama's milk and that she was such a big girl that I thought it was time for us to be done. We talked about how I could rub her back to help her fall asleep. I suggested we celebrate her being such a big girl. She said she wanted a party with cake, apples and Pirate's Booty and that she wanted to invite all of the moms, dads, kids and babies (our group of friends). So I chose last Saturday as the day for the party. We invited our friends and some family. For the week before the party, every night as we went to bed I reminded her that after Friday night we weren't going to have mama's milk anymore and that I would rub her back. Friday night came. She nursed briefly on both sides and said, "I'm all done. Would you rub my back mama?" She went right to sleep. That night when I got into bed I cried. I even thought briefly that I didn't need to follow through, but there was a very strong voice in me that said "Oh, yes, we are done."

Saturday came and we had a great party. We ate yummy food and had lemon cupcakes with whipped cream frosting. There was lots of talking, laughing and playing. There was almost no mention of what the party was for. Fiona's grandma brought her a beautiful paper crown that said "The Queen" on the front. She had a great time.

That night as we were reading bedtime stories I reminded her that we weren't having mama's milk anymore. She said, "That's right and you are going to rub my back to help me go to sleep." That is just what we did.

Sunday we went out to breakfast and she was wearing her crown. Someone asked if it was her birthday. She didn't understand that they were asking because of the crown. I said no, that she had had a weaning party yesterday. I was nervous. I know the average person in our society doesn't advocate extended nursing, but this woman seemed genuine in her congratulations.

Fiona asked at bedtime if she could have mama's milk. I said, "Nope, but I can rub your back and if your thirsty you have your sippy." She was fine with that.

Tonight she fell asleep in the car on the way home. When I got her into bed, she just rolled over and said, "Mama, would you start rubbing my back."

Weaning has worked, I guess. It hasn't been traumatic. There have been no tears shed on her part. I wanted her to be in control, but it takes two to nurse. I think we have done ok. I'm proud that I was able to give her what I did for so long. I'm proud of who she is and of who she will become. She's my strong girl, and I love her so much.

It's seven minutes after 10pm

2007-04-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

on April the 17th and I am working on our taxes.

Now it is ten minutes past 11pm and I am done. Thank goodness.

I usually don't procrastinate doing taxes, but this year I decided to do them myself instead of going to H & R Block.

Please cross your fingers for me. I hope it will all be ok.

I'm an Intermediate Knitter (almost)

2007-04-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

I had signed up for an intermediate knitting class a couple of weeks ago. The first class was tonight. I wouldn't say that it was earth shaking, but it was so good to be in a room with knitters and be trying out a couple of things. I knit my first cable. Woo Hoo! You never know, I might knit an Aran sweater for someone now. We also learned to do the Suspended Bind Off. It was pretty smooth. I didn't like the Cable Cast On as much though. It just felt kind of awkward.

Next week we will learn about intarsia and fair isle. I'm rather excited about fair isle. I want to try to knit Eunny's Anemoi mittens and her Endpaper mitts someday.

I've been reading up a storm. I finished Monstrous Regiment and liked it. I re-read Mort and The Fifth Elephant. Then off to the bookstore, where I bought Lords and Ladies and Pyramids. I've finished Lords and Ladies and am about halfway through Pyramids. All of the above are by Terry Pratchett.

I also picked up Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser and The Islandman by Tomás O'Crohan. I'm enjoying both of them. There are sooooooooo many names to keep track of in the Marie Antoinette book, but it is nice to be reminded of the politics of the time, it helps to make things much clearer. The Islandman author's name caught my eye. I picked it up from the shelf and proceeded to read the first twenty pages while standing there. I can't explain what it is about it that is so interesting, maybe after I have read more I will have a better idea.

Hiatus

2007-04-04T12:59:00.002-07:00

I've taken a bit of a blogging and knitting hiatus. A week and a half ago I knit an entire row wrong. 203 stitches to undo. I finally undid them, but then half of them are twisted so, now I have to untwist them. It really isn't that big of a deal, but I've been reading a lot instead. I've read Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad and Hogfather. They are all Terry Pratchett novels, quick reads and very silly. I'm still listening to Vanity Fair when I do knit. Librivox.org is such a wonderful thing. Yesterday I started reading Monstrous Regiment, another Terry Pratchett and The Prestige by Christopher Priest.

The most exciting thing is that I have started spring cleaning/reorganizing. It is always daunting because we are not very good housekeepers and there are two cats, a dog, a 3 year old and two untidy adults.

I'm supposed to meet some friends at the zoo in twenty minutes, so I guess I had better go. Sometimes I find it easier to write the blog as if it were a letter or email to someone.

A question regarding hanging out the wash

2007-03-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Being raised around clothes dryers, I have never hung clothes out to dry on a clothesline. I'm going to put one in the backyard this spring/summer and give it a go. I've noticed when people have shared pictures of their washing hanging out on the line that socks are pegged by the toe. I've hung my wool socks up in the past, but always by the cuff. This leads me to believe that there are handy dandy tips out there for how to hang what so it isn't stretched out or damaged. So, to anyone who has any hints, please fire away.

Look what the postman brought...

2007-03-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

I joined Flibbertygibbet's fabric swap on something of a whim. My swap partner from London sent me these lovely things. Thank you Abi!

Fiona squealed with joy when she saw the fruit leather. She was even more ecstatic when I told her it was for her. It was promptly devoured. It is kind of hard to see, but there are some really cute buttons attached to the postcard. It was hard for me to stop at each step and take pictures, so I'm afraid the pictures aren't as good as they should be.

And for the grand finale...

I just don't know what I am going to do with it yet. For whatever reason I keep thinking of some sort of skirt for Fiona. There isn't enough of course for a whole skirt, but maybe I can incorporate some patchwork or something. Ponder, ponder, ponder.

Thank you for the fun Gail! Thank you Abi for being such a great swap partner!

Some lovely new life...

2007-03-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some things from my garden (front yard). I don't know what this plant is, it was here when we bought the house. This is the only time of year I like it, because of its sweet little flowers. Really, its only offense is that it is in a bad location, and I could certainly remedy that.

This was one of my favorite surprises when it bloomed the second year we lived here. Again, I don't know what it is, but it makes these lovely purpley-blue flowers that last for a long time. There are blue bells coming up around it. It was hidden in a hedge. The hedge started to die off and then we saw them.

Here are some of the crocuses that I planted last fall. I love this picture.

Here is my clematis (macropetala) that I thought for sure would not survive our winter as it was in a pot the whole time. Just look at that litte flower bud.

Here is a little fern frond. I believe it is a wood fern.

The lovely orange crocus with the crimson stripes up the side. I haven't been able to get a good picture of it open yet. I will keep trying.

Here comes a tulip, again planted last fall. I didn't mark where I planted what, so it will be a nice surprise.

Here is a little hyacinth just peeking its little head out. Come on out, the weather is fine!

Death, again

2007-03-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

The former co-worker I was knitting a scarf for died this past weekend. He was 36 or 37 and had cancer. The doctors had told him he had a year or two to live. I keep thinking "this sucks" and yet those words are so completely inadequate.

Reading leads to rambling

2007-03-11T12:08:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been on a classics kick when it comes to reading. First, I have to say that I have read most of these books before, but I have a memory like a sieve, so that often it is as if I am reading a new book, or a book that I keep having a strong sense of deja vu about. Anyway, it all started with the Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You quiz. I simply had to read Persuasion, then I moved on to Pride and Prejudice (which I really enjoyed), then Emma (I didn't like her a bit), then Northanger Abbey (it was ok). I felt as if I were getting into a rut with Jane. Now I am reading Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. It is interesting to me that the discussion of whether women should work outside the home, and what the benefits and the problems are, were being discussed back them. The problem of urbanization and industrialization and how that impacts society is still being played out today.

I have been working at being more environmentally conscious and remembering to donate food to those in need. Oh, that sounds so self-important, but that really isn't my intent. Fiona really likes to pick out things to put in the donation bin. It is pretty cute. She seems to pick out the things that are her favorites. This last time it was tomato and roasted red pepper soup, two kinds of macaroni and cheese and a jar of pickles.

One of the first times she noticed one of the people who stand at freeway on/off ramps asking for food/work/money she said that the construction people would come and help the person and build him a house with his own bedroom and they would build him a bed and they would build him a blanket and then he would have his own house and be warm.

Why doesn't it work that way?

A victory

2007-03-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

I was sure that this post was going to be about failure, and yet it isn't. I started knitting something a few days ago, I can't really say what though. It has some YOs in it. I forgot one. I didn't realize until I had finished the row, and of course it was at the other end of a lot of stitches. One imperfection isn't too big of a problem, so I decided to pick up the bar where the YO was supposed to be. I thought that would add the stitch back and things would be ok. It looked terrible after I finished another row. It needed to be fixed. To write it out, that I needed to make a YO, K1, YO and then purl those three stitches for the row above, sound easy and straight forward. It wasn't. I've never done anything like this before. First, I confused the which yarn was for which row and it was a tight, awful, twisted mess. The second time it wasn't as bad as the first, but it was still not right, then I realized I had forgotten to take out the stitch I had added to make up the for missing YO. I tried again. Third time's the charm. I wanted to have a glass of champagne afterwards.

Thank you

2007-03-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for the thoughtful, heartfelt comments you left regarding my cousin. He was very loved in his community. There were probably 400 people at his funeral. His parents are doing amazingly well, and I am sure it is because they are surrounded by so much love.

A slowdown

2007-03-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting for the last two weeks.

My 17 year old cousin commited suicide last week. Things have just been kind of chaotic all week. I hope to be back to posting at least twice a week very soon.

Thank you to everyone who still visits my blog.

I felt like Lucille Ball the other day.

2007-02-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

A friend gave me her breadmaker a couple of days ago. I decided to try it out right away. I had everything to make Yogurt Whole Wheat bread. Yum. I was adding the ingredients, being very careful while measuring them out. I picked up the flour bag with one hand to pour some flour into a measuring cup when the bag started to slip out of my hand. My reaction was to clap two hands together on the sides of the flour bag to catch it before it fell. A great cloud of flour shot up out of the bag all over my head and shirt. One nice thing is that it didn't hurt to get flour in my eyes, but it did make it a little hard to see.

The bread was quite yummy.

I finished my first sock!

2007-02-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

And I have already cast on the second.

The kitchener stitch looks like crap and I don't know why. I don't have anyone to ask right now, so it will have to stand as is.

As soon as Fiona put the sock on she said, "Mama, you have to make me another sock, my other foot is cold!" I think she was a little disappointed when I explained that I couldn't just make one right now it would take a little while. At least she likes it.

I don't think I'm Anne, but then again,

2007-02-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

I don't think I could possibly live up to any of Jane Austen's heroines. I read the book and watched the movie. I love to read, but I can read a book and have it go completely out of my head, even if I like it. As I was reading Persuasion, I would suddenly have an inkling of what was going to happen. I love the tension in Jane's, or should I say Miss Austen's, books. We all know that it will work out in the end, but the possibility of two people who really should be together, not getting together is almost too much to bear. I have to admit when watching Wentworth lean down to kiss Anne at the end of the movie, I got that tingly in my stomach feeling as if he was going to kiss me. I guess I got pretty wrapped up in it after all. The movie was a little disappointing, in that Anne's sister was a gross caricature of how I perceived her in the book. Anne also seemed to be rather mopey in the film, and I just didn't read her that way.

I read this article on green cleaning in the Guardian via The Worsted Witch. It was interesting, but mostly things I had read before. The one exception was the part where the person was cleaning her hob. I've never heard of a hob before. After a little googling, I found out that it is what I might call a stove top or cook top or a range.

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
--George Bernard Shaw

Nameless post

2007-02-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

There is a story that Fiona has that has a witch in it called Louhi and at one point she shakes the nameless finger at someone and it is the most powerful finger. I don't know which finger it is though, the picture isn't very clear.

This is a post for the sake of posting, with no particular intent involved. (What a strange choice of words. I can be kind of weird at times. The word weird, always looks misspelled to me.) I had some free time today and I went to my LYS. I wandered for over an hour. I walked out with only five ounces of merino roving. That's not too bad, especially since I was able to use a gift certificate for it.

On reading Elsewhere this evening, I decided to take the Jane Austen Heroine Quiz.

Take the Quiz here!

It has been a while since I have read Persuasion, so I honestly can't say if this is good or bad.

I'm finding it much harder now that I am home to keep up with all of the blogs I used to look in on everyday.

The scarf that I am working on is, after a fashion, a prayer scarf. The funny thing is that whenever I try to knit it while chatting, or watching a movie, I always make a mistake. My subconscious is probably trying to tell me to pay attention to what my initial intention was with this scarf, to focus on it and pour love and hope into it.

Oh yes, ostensibly this IS a crafty blog

2007-02-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

Pictures are nice, too. I apologize to anyone on dial-up.

First are the socks, and by socks, I mean sock that I have been "working" on for Fiona for a while now.

They are based on this pattern. The yarn is the Fig and Plum colorway from Yarntini. I absolutely love the yarn, love, love, love it! Anyway, I turned the heel, it went so well. I knit the foot. I thought at one point, I wonder if this is long enough and it was precisely the right length. There were no ladders. No holes in the heel. I was so happy. I thought, I'll just figure out how many stitches there are. I checked gauge. I had apparently gone from knitting 8 stitches to the inch to 10 stitches to the inch by the time I got to the foot. I did some math, I had knit 5715 stitches. Then I thought, Fiona should try this on before I graft the toe. The foot is snug. Not tight, but snug and I think it would be uncomfortable. The foot will have to be reknit. I'm hoping that if I go from US size 0 (2mm) needles to US size 2 (2.75mm) that it will be ok. So knowing all of this, the sock has just been sitting. I don't have the heart right now to rip back all of those stitches and start the foot over. Picking up such small stitches is a nightmare to me.

Here is a little magic, the color changed just as I was doing the short rows for the heel.

Here is a photo of the scarf I am working on for my sick co-worker. It is going slowly and I feel terrible about it.

The yarn is Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran. The pattern sort of evolved through swatching. It is reversible. I will write it up one of these days.

I've been interested in spinning lately. You may remember that a coworker invited me over to her house to try out her spinning wheel. Since then I have wanted to try out my spindle again. We didn't really do well together the first time. So I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and spun, and it/I worked. I think spinning with the wheel helped me understand. Anyway, I decided that I wanted to wind off what I had spun so I could practice plying sometime. Since I don't have a nøstepinde I looked around the house and used this instead.

The sad thing is the relatively well spun fiber is at the center of that little wad of yarn-to-be, so you will have to use your imagination.

For Christmas, I made a patchwork doll blanket for Fiona to go with a doll bed she received.

This is only the second time I've touched a sewing machine. Not bad, if I do say so myself. It is based on the tutorial at Happythings. It is backed with off-white chenille.

While reading Feministe I came across a post about this Face Transformer. It was really interesting seeing myself as an Afro-Carribean or West Asian. They also had a couple of artistic options.

Here I am as Botticelli might have painted me:

And here is a Modigliani me:

And the last picture is of little bird foot prints on my doorstep from when we had snow eons ago.

I love watching birds and have several feeders including one just to the side of my front door. This morning at breakfast we saw a Varied Thrush digging and pecking in the duff beneath the large firs we have in our backyard.

I quit my job

2007-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

Last week when I took Fi to school, I saw her teacher speak to several children in a way that was horrible. He obviously had favorites and ones he didn't like. He may have been having a bad day, but that isn't allowed (to the extent I saw) when you are the main adult around two and a half to four year olds. The secondary teacher didn't even react when he was talking to the kids, so to me that says that it is something that happens with some frequency.

So, the next day I quit my job and she is no longer in daycare. It is a relief. Of course, when it comes time to pay the bills next time it won't be fun, but we will manage.

Much better thank you

2007-01-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

As I said, I am doing much better. Fiona and I went to the park yesterday on a last minute whim. We had fun. Then there was grocery shopping, amazingly that was mostly fun, too. We belong to a co-op that offers all kids a free piece of fruit when you come in to shop. It is a lovely thing. As we were going through the store she kept telling everyone that her apple was a piece of candy.

She has been very interested in the story of Heidi. She has a Little Golden Book version, the full story and we recently checked out a movie version. When we were at the store I asked her if she wanted to buy some goat milk. Now, I have to say she likes goat milk, so I expected her to say yes, but with all of the Heidi influence she got more excited than I would if someone offered me a free vacation, alone, anywhere. "Goat milk?! I LOVE goat milk!! Hurray, goat milk! Goat milk, goat milk, goat milk, goat milk! People in the dairy section were either looking and and smiling or staring and confused.

I just finished reading the Unprocessed Child by Valerie Fitzenreiter. It is about how she unschooled her child, what their values were and how things turned out. She is a bit fanatical I think in her approach, but I came away with some things to think about. Specifically, that if you want to homeschool you have to really enjoy being with your kids and you have to respect them. I've been working on these two things. I often find myself tired at the end of the day and I don't feel like I have enough energy. At least once or twice a week I look at the clock and think, "Oh, thank goodness, only an hour til (her) bedtime." It makes me think of the times when I have read Thich Nhat Hanh's writings and practiced as I could. Maybe it is time again.

I keep seeing the Six Wierd Things meme. I don't know why I like doing memes, I just do.

1. Most people are quite surprised when I tell them that I was in the army

2. One of my favorite snacks when I came home from school (I was a latch-key kid) was a head of iceberg lettuce and a bottle of red wine vinegar. I would tear off a leaf, then pour vinegar into the bowl made by the leaf, drink it and then eat the lettuce. I really, really like the taste of vinegar.

3. I dyed my hair "Atomic Pink" about two years ago. I always wanted to have crazy colored hair, but I was too afraid to do it. I realized that as a stay at home mom I didn't have to worry about my job. I also figured out it would only look sillier the older I got, so at the ripe old age of 35 I dyed my hair pink.

4. I only had three wisdom teeth and they were laying completely on their sides inside my gums.

5. My husband and I worked together (while dating and married) at three different employers. We have finally figured out it isn't the best idea.

6. When my husband was a freshman in high school he visited my high school when I was a senior. We met for the first time in a different town 13 or 14 years later.

Food poisoning

2007-01-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

Yep. I ate at the company cafeteria and I got food poisoning. After I was sick the first time and feeling a little better, I thought, I might actually knit while I'm home from work. I'm afraid not. I have, however, read most of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It has been an interesting ride and read. I wasn't sure if I was really enjoying it until about a third of the way through. I would definitely recommend it.

I'm still "working" on the scarf for my co-worker.

Fiona's daycare is still closing. We haven't quite found the best solution yet. Thinking about a new place for care then rolls into pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. I don't want her to go through more changes than necessary. I went to 14 different schools between kindergarten and high school, and I went to the same high school for three years. I don't want that for my child.

I have lately been intrigued by unschooling/homeschooling. Am I a nut? I don't know. My husband doesn't like the idea one bit.

Be well.

I am here but...

2007-01-09T22:20:00.000-08:00

things are kind of crazy right now. Work is busy and my daughter's daycare decided to close in a month. Nice.

I just picked up some Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran in a lovely gray. I'm going to try and knit a scarf in the next two weeks (deadline is set by others at work who are also knitting) for a co-worker who had cancer a couple of years ago that has come back with a vengeance. The doctors say he has 1-2 years left. He and his wife of only 3 years, were in the process of adopting a child. He is on chemo and still at work. He says he keeps coming because every minute he thinks of something at work, he isn't thinking about dying.

We are so lucky

2007-01-02T20:03:00.000-08:00

When I was pregnant with Fiona I took a Birthing From Within childbirth class. There I met two wonderful couples (who also had the same midwives as we did). We all stayed in touch after the classes were over. All of the moms and babies went to this wonderful support group for new parents here in Seattle at the Community Birth and Family Center. The group was called First Weeks. There we made friends with a couple of other mothers. After First Weeks was over we decided to meet at a coffee shop and hang out with our babies. We picked up a couple more people along the way. Three years later we are all still friends. We don't get together as often, but it has been such a blessing for all of us. We found kindred spirits. These are people I expect to be friends with for the rest of my life. Here is a picture from our second annual Christmas party. There are the eight original children (all born between June and Sept of 2003) and now four second children join the ranks.

48 things meme

2006-12-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

1. FIRST NAME? Evelyn

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Unfortunately, I was.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? A couple of weeks ago, watching the Return of the King.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It's all right, not quite what I want, but I'm not a teenager anymore so I don't really have time to sit in my room and fiddle around with it.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Tofurkey

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Sometimes I'm a real pain in the ass, but I think I would be my friend.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? This is as close as it gets. I want to start a knitting journal though this year.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? If I were drunk, single and I didn't have a child, then yes, I think I might.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? My current favorite cold cereal is Autumn Wheat. My all time favorite hot cereal is Cream of Wheat.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Only if I have to, or I really care about the shoes.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby is just too good. I also really like vanilla Dove bars that are covered with chocolate and almonds.

14. SHOE SIZE? 9-9.5

15. RED OR PINK? Both.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I think it is my inability to do something if I don't want to do it.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I don't know.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Anyone who wants to is welcome to this meme.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Cropped blue jeans, black knit shirt and no shoes. I also have on my gigantic fluffy bathrobe from my mother-in-law, it is sooooo comfy.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Pagliacci pizza, cheese, black olives, mushrooms and tomatoes after bake with a San Pellegrino Aranciata.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Hubby and daughter re-enacting Madeline having her appendix out on Fiona's new Playmobile people.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? I think a kind of purply red. At least that is the crayon I always go for when I am asked to color.

23. FAVORITE SMELL? There are so many. The smell of a beeswax candle, lit or not, is right up there.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? The Pagliacci pizza order taker.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it. I like different people for different reasons, so it is hard to pick any one thing.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? This was the first time I visited her blog.

27. FAVORITE DRINK? With alcohol, Chateauneuf du Pape. Without alcohol, probably water.

28. FAVORITE SPORT? I love watching women's curling, some day I will have to give it a go.

29. EYE COLOR? Bluey-Greeny.

30. HAT SIZE? I don't remember, but it is on the big side if I remember correctly.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? I used to wear them.

32. FAVORITE FOOD? I'm pathetic, I love ice cream what can I say. If I had to choose just one food though to eat for the rest of my life, I would choose salad. I can eat salad everyday.

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I prefer happy endings to scary movies.

34. IF YOU COULD LIVE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD THAT BE? Same city, different neighborhood.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Both.

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Are we talking Hersey's or public displays of affection? Hersey's kisses and hugs for friends.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Ice cream.

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No one.

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Everyone.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Overheard in New York, Few Eggs and No Oranges and Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter. There are many more in queue, including Libraries.

41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Don’t have one.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Don't get TV.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Clicking of knitting needles, whir of a spinning wheel, sound of my daughter's breathing when she is asleep, my daughter singing, cats purring

44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? Japan

46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I'm a doula.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? In a hospital

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? No one.

It's funny...

2006-12-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

looking back over some of the posts I have written. There are so many ideas and things that interest me and most I don't end up pursuing. It is kind of sad.

Lots of people have been blogging about Christmases that are memorable and about letting go and not trying to make everything perfect, and not getting grumpy when it isn't perfect.

The Christmas that I remember most clearly from my youth was the year (one of the several) that we were very poor. My mom bought me a one gallon size jar of pickles with food stamps. I absolutely love pickles, so it was a great gift. That was also the year that the power went out. I don't know if it was because an electric bill hadn't been paid or if there was some storm or something. It was beautiful with all the candles lit and the tree with it's decorations glinting in the candle light. I think I was 10 that year.

The next year we went to get our Christmas decorations out of storage and someone had stolen them. I had had the same stocking from when I was born. It was red velvet with a white fluffy top and someone had used glue and glitter to make a big, cursive 'E' on the red part of the stocking. Every year I think of that stocking. It was perfect.

I love hosting Christmas. Having people over and providing for them and seeing them happy makes me happy. It makes me feel domestic and capable. (I spent the first part of my life trying to get away from everything feminine, believing that feminine equaled weak. Now I work to reclaim the fact that I am a woman, but I think I still have skewed ideas of what that means.)

Yesterday was the winter solstice here. I wanted to celebrate, but no one around me seemed interested. I feel the connection to the circle of life and the light going and coming back. I feel rooted in the earth when I think of the solstice. I read about someone having a bonfire. I think I shall try to muster the energy to do that next year. The bright light in the dark. The spark of life. Family and fun around a fire, showing that we keep going even in the dark.

I was going to post a horrible camera phone snap of the sock, but it just isn't going to work out.

A coworker is having me over sometime next week to try out her spinning wheel. It is exciting and scary at the same time. Hopefully it won't be too much fun, otherwise I will just be pining for my own wheel. I haven't had much practice with a spindle. I need to give it another go, and of course by that I mean just practice, practice, practice.

Knitting-wise, I am really looking forward to the beginning of the new year. There are so many things that I want to do. There are several lace projects and at least one pair of socks and a sweater in queue.

I'm not a big new years resolutions kind of person, but I'm thinking of some crafting and hobby related ones. Maybe if I set some goals, I can try some of the things that haven't come to fruition this year. More needlefelting, sewing and knitting. More reading.

Thank you for coming and reading my blog and especially for commenting on it. I just set up Google analytics. It has a map with litle dots (like pins) that show the city of origin of people who visit my blog. My favorite day so far was the one when there were pins in Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, France, the UK and a scattering in the US. I love love love how international this is! I have had visitors from 4 continents so far. I doubt that I will ever be visited by someone in Antartica, but I hope to be visited by someone in Asia and Africa some day.