The Flying DiVincenzos

Mmm... Hubris, fresh from the oven

2012-01-10T21:34:00.001-07:00

I am one of those cooks that, for the most part, must stick to a recipe. I can ad lib on a few dishes, but I'm just not comfortable cooking that way.
That being said, you give me a recipe and I'll give you awesomeness (except cake and sometimes bread).
But out of all recipe types, I have mastered the cookie.
So when Laura, who is coming for a visit (YAY!), asked if I could make her cookie bowls,

Cookie Bowl

I said absolutely. No doubt in my mind that I could do this and it would be amazing.
I've seen on Pinterest that others have used the wrong side of muffin pans to make the bowls.
I'll just bust out my muffin pan and whip up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and, BAM! Cookie bowls.
Yeah. Not so much.

The horror!
Yeah, so apparently you need some kind of special recipe to avoid this situation.
At first I thought I could just cut around the bottom of the muffin mold to pull up the "bowl." I let the blob cool for awhile, thinking the bowls would come up easier.
Wrong again. They will not be coming off in one piece.
Fortunately, there was dough left over so I made normal cookies. Stick to what you know, Allie.

Perfect

Would you believe that these taste good?

This is how lazy procrastinators blog

2012-01-07T20:30:00.001-07:00

Breaking radio silence here to ask if it's cheating to fudge the date on blog posts?
You see, I have tons of blogs I'm ready to write and pictures to go with them - I just never sat down to write about it.
Maybe it is cheating, but it's my blog and you're not the boss of me. :)
So let's pretend that one of the awesome crafts I've been working on is a time machine and we'll go back to August. I'll bring you right back to January, and it will seem to those around you that you've only been gone as long as it takes for you to read all my make-up blogs.
There are a few, because between bouts of work-related sadness and some pretty epic tantrums, I've managed to do a fair bit of crafting and blog-worthy stuff.

WHOOSH! *cue time travel sounds and music (I imagine time travel would have some kind of techno-music soundtrack, but imagine what you feel is best).
Now scroll down to the Merry Pottermas post.
What? Didn't know time travel was so easy?

It's Christmas. You know the drill

2011-12-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

I started out without any inspiration at all for handmade Christmas presents. I was very happy with that situation. Nearly all the Christmas presents were purchased this year. I'm not sure if that's a good or sad thing. It did make for a less stressful holiday.

I finished the Hermoine hat for Stina.

What a slog that project was. The yarn was terrible. I wish I could remember what brand and type it was so I could tell you to avoid it like the plague. It was bamboo, so now I will forever hate that fiber. So splitty it was infuriating. Knitting splitty yarn with rosewood dpns with a tiny crack on one side that kept snagging the splitty yarn makes for a very unhappy knitter. It turned out nicely, but I am so glad to be done with it.So glad that I forgot to photograph it when it was done. Oops.

I made a braided hex-nut bracelet for Laura.

She's not a very girly girl, but she does like jewelry, so when I saw it on Pinterest, I knew it would be a perfect gift for her.

I did go a bit craft crazy on gifts for Sean. He puts lots of expensive things on his Christmas list, leaving me with few options within our budget.
I made him a remote caddy to go over the arm of his recliner, a pillow for his office chair, an iPad cozy, and a steampunk Nerf gun.

I did such an awesome job on this, I still can't believe I did it
To fully illustrate how awesome my work is, this is what it looked like originally:

The bracelet and the gun go into the very small category of crafts that turned out exactly as imagined.
Yay, me!

May the bridges I burn light the way

2011-12-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

I sat there listening to everyone suggest efficiency ideas for an hour. They all seemed to care, not just because it had to do with their jobs, but because they care about the product.
The copy desk may be fewer in numbers, but that's not going to stop them from putting out the best damn paper every day. I respect that, and them, but I no longer share their interest.

I worked at The Arizona Republic for 14 years. I started in circulation, where it was my job to listen to angry, screaming subscribers. I worked, whether as a newsroom assistant, copy editor, or page designer, in every section of the newspaper. I even got to do a bit of reporting.

I had those opportunities because I had a series of excellent bosses and one deputy managing editor who looked out for me. (Bill Hill, Jim Fickess, Chad Snow and Tracy Collins - two of whom have been laid off.) Because of those people, I was able to learn new things, develop my skills, and become a more marketable employee - equipping me to get new job and leave what had become a soul-crushing experience.

I am a person who genuinely likes to help, a creature of habit who fears change, and a complete Pollyanna. I am ridiculously good at finding good in any situation. The only thing I could think of toward the end was, "At least you still have a job," and that still wasn't enough to placate me, leaving me no choice but to face my fear of change and find work elsewhere.

In the current economic climate, layoffs and furloughs sadly are commonplace. But when it became apparent that they were being used as a means to ensure ridiculous bonuses, I couldn't stomach the place any longer. I get so angry and sad thinking of all the people who were laid off, not to make the product better and ensure we stay in business, but to make sure that corporate goals were met and shareholders are appeased.

The anger was so much, it was unhealthy.
The situation is pretty ugly for the night copy desk, and many other departments, for that matter. As much as I want to help those who have been spared in the latest round of cuts, I just can't take the stress of waiting for word of the next quarterly furlough and the annual layoffs - because they are coming.
I felt guilty for leaving but it is the best decision for me.

I've made a complete career change. It is scary and exhilarating at the same time.

Rising to the challenge

2011-11-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

I have done it. I have made bread. This time without a recipe that can be perfected by children.
I have ended my long struggle with bread failure.Under Thanksgiving pressure, no less.
Look at how high this dough rose!

Fantastic!
The smell of these rolls coming out of the oven reminded my dad of his mom and grandma - both excellent bakers of bread and all other things. It nearly brought him to tears.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it happened. Dad told me my rolls were better than grandma's. Now I don't know if he meant my grandma or his, but does it really matter?
His grandma was a Home Ec. teacher who wrote her own cookbook. My grandma could literally go into the kitchen and grab handfuls of random ingredients and make deliciousness without fail.
Now there's all this pressure to repeat this performance.

New Yorker by blood

2011-11-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law is pregnant, so I am, of course, in a crafting tizzy.
Knitting projects have been contemplated, but it was the ever elusive finished quilt that I decided on.
You may remember my first attempt.

Sloppy at best and still incomplete. The baby this quilt was intended for turned 1 in October.
My powers of procrastination are strong.

This time, I had my own design in mind and was inspired to get started.
Aubrey wants to raise her son knowing that even though he was born in Virginia, he is a New Yorker by blood. So I took two New York icons and made quilts.
I give you the Yankees jersey

and the subway sign.

I tacked down the Yankees symbol with red thread using a stitch that reminds me of the stitching on baseballs.

There are actual subway lines to match up to Aidan's initials, so I used the lines' real colors. They may not be very babyish, but New Yorkers don't have time for kid stuff.

When working on my first and still incomplete quilt, I learned that making squares out of fabric is hard. Go figure. This time I decided to go with a single piece of fabric for the backing. The top sheet was hard enough, so I sawno need to add extra aggravation and time in the production of these quilts.
I finished machine quilting the subway sign quilt and now only have the binding left to finish on that one.

I am so excited about how they look so far. I'm not saying that they should be entered into contests or anything. I would be lying if I said there was a single straight line of stitching except where it should be curved. Still I think they look good and will call them a success - once they're finished anyway. And at the rate I have worked on quilts in the past, these will likely be completed sometime around his 5th birthday.

It's so orange

2011-10-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a wreath person outside of the Christmas variety, but taking a cue from Martha Stewart, Sean and I made this.

I think I like wreaths as long as their not schmoopy. You know what I mean? The ones that are so sweet you get a toothache just looking at them. Yeah, I can't hang those on my house.
I can, however, hang giant spider webs made from yarn on my house. There is no way to know what I find acceptable, just go with it, OK?

I stocked up on a ton of pumpkins to puree for pies and all other manner of pumpkin yumminess. But some of them were to make another Martha inspiration - pumpkin minions.

Sean's craftiness

I love this town

2011-09-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

Great hosts can make a vacation.
On our trip to New York, we were made to feel comfortable and welcome by Laura and New York City.
Laura invited us to stay with her, and knowing how she is, I knew she would go overboard to make us comfortable. She's very sweet like that.
But the city had plans for us as well.
Sean was a NYC EMT, so we went for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, making our trip emotionally confusing. The purpose of our visit was sad, but we both love visiting the city, so we were excited.

I love flying into New York at night - dropping out of the clouds into a sea of glittering lights. It reminds me of driving alongside rows of crops - seeing down long narrow streets illuminated by brake lights flanked by skyscrapers.
Laura met us at the airport with slices of pizza. Not even NY pizza could stop Sean from rolling down his window to yell at people - mind you, we had been driving for about 15 seconds and were still at the airport. You can take the boy out of New York...

Our first full day took us to the beach where we saw massive post Hurricane Irene waves.
You can't really tell here, but the waves were enormous.

Next we took a tour of Laura's theater, where she was kind enough to give me the full theater experience with lights and curtains drawn during my triumphant return to the stage (in front of a two-person audience).

I'm the blur in the white shirt

I sang "I Could Have Danced All Night" and my theme song, "Tomorrow."

Sean and I spent all of Saturday together wandering around the city. We took the Staten Island Ferry for a free, close-ish look at the Statue of Liberty and the huge security force surrounding the island.

We went to Washington Square (where I was mistaken for a local and asked for directions),

Wall Street,

the Flatiron Building,

Central Park,

the church the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man smashed in "Ghostbusters,"

and all kinds of stuff along the way.

Cobblestones

Fashion Week?

We walked for most of the day - a good plan as we were shoving tons of food into our faces. One of my favorite stops for the day was The Donut Pub. There is nothing I don't love about that name.

Before going to Ground Zero on Sunday night, we stopped off in Little Italy where they were gearing up for the Feast of San Gennaro.

Damn fine cannoli!

On Monday, we met up with Sean's dad, a former NYC cab driver and a current truck driver. He drove us around the city in his Super Van. If you've ever taken a cab ride in NYC, you know that it is intense. Nothing like catching up with family as you cut off other drivers, honk and listen to Sean and his dad yell at other drivers. This goes down as one of my favorite family gatherings of all time.

Another favorite New York moment was Laura getting schooled in a Chinatown restaurant for asking for American-style Chinese food.
Never ask for scallion pancakes or lo mein noodles in Chinatown - the answer is "NO!"

Filling a hole with music

2011-09-14T10:38:00.001-07:00

The weekend of our visit to New York City was not only the 9/11 anniversary, but the start of Fashion Week, so the city was super packed.
We planned to have drinks at the rooftop restaurant at the Empire Hotel on Saturday, but there was some sort of model convention going on, so we opted to check out what was drawing a crowd at the Lincoln Center across the street.
It was "A Concert for New York," a free performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, by the New York Philharmonic. For those who didn't get tickets, like us, seats were set up in the plaza.

I think those who sat outside heard a richer performance. Those sitting inside didn't get to hear the sounds of New York - traffic, car horns, sirens - complete the score. It was the most amazing musical experience of my life.
Sunday was somber, as expected, but so good in many ways.
That night we headed down to Ground Zero. We emerged from the Wall Street subway station into an eerie scene. The sad and beautiful Towers of Light bounced off an overcast sky casting a strange pall over the city.

After taking some pictures, we started back for the subway. As we walked down a narrow alley, I stopped. I could hear something, but couldn't make out what it was or where it was coming from. It was the wail of bagpipes that seemed to come from the very bricks in the buildings surrounding us. We followed the haunting sound that floated over Trinity Church in search the source of the sound. We were drawn to another alley, where two NYC firefighters in their Pipes and Drums dress uniforms were playing in the city's eerie light.

The city is always busy, filled with busy, sometimes grumpy people who sometimes honk and yell at you - but there is beauty in this city, even when it's grieving - if you stop to listen.

Merry Pottermas

2011-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Remember the Harry Loves Hermoine hat I was knitting for my niece? Yeah, well that's still not done. But to demonstrate my full support for Team Harry over all things "Twilight," I decided that while she was in town for the family's annual summer visit we would have a Harry Potter party and then go see the final movie together (completely awesome, by the way).
I made treacle tarts,

rock cakes that won't break your teeth, Bertie Botts Every-Flavor Beans (Jelly Bellies in plastic wrap),

licorice wands,

and butterbeer (not pictured anywhere because it was so good there wasn't an opportunity to get a photograph).
Sami and Stina agreed to act as my house elves and helped finish making the pumpkin pasties.

There are so many knitting references in the "Harry Potter" series that there is a book of patterns, so with all the mentions of food, it should be no surprise that there are a TON of recipes to be found online. I was first inspired by this party. I used some of the recipes featured on that site and others from this site.

This was so much fun, and licorice dipped in chocolate is so much better than you'd think.

All the romance you can stand

2011-06-14T11:56:00.001-07:00

A friend asked me if I am a romantic.
The honest answer is that I am rarely romantic, but very much enjoy romance - sort of.
Romantic moments, movies and stories, yes please, but only to a certain point.
One of the reasons Sean and I are such a good fit is that our romance-tolerance level is about the same. He knows the precise moment when the romance is reaching a level neither of us can stand, which is usually when he will punch me in the arm or tell me to shut up.
Now that you know that, you'll understand a little better why I love this quote from "30 Rock" character Jack Donaghy: "They're Boston Irish Catholic, they mate for life, like swans ... drunk, angry swans."
Weird, I know, but there it is. This quote inspired a picture in my mind of something I would like to try painting. Recalling my attempts at painting in the past led me to just forget the idea all together.
So the same friend who asked if I'm a romantic is in that magical time at the beginning of a relationship when the man is trying to woo and win his lady. Ah, so romantic. Hearing bits about their dates and how happy she is reminds me of when Sean and I were first dating.
Inspired by all this sap, I decided it was time to try creating the painting.

I am so pleased with how it turned out!
As with most crafts I attempt, if I keep it simple I succeed.
Artists name their paintings, so I've decided to call this "The Headbutt" because calling it anything mushy would make me dry heave at the sight of it.

Heat Stroke Evasion Part 5: Gateway To Organization

2011-05-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

The big blue cabinet is not my favorite piece of furniture.

Jack thought he would spice up this photo by standing on his hind legs. Mission accomplished.

I've wanted to refinish it since the day I got it, but didn't have a vision for it. So it sat, big and blue, taking up space and holding a whole lot of junk.
Other than cramming as much stuff into the blue cabinet as it would hold, there wasn't much of an organizational system in my craft room.
I didn't really know how I wanted to organize the room so I figured it was best to leave it a disaster until I figured it out instead of buying a bunch of stuff that I would later want to get rid of.
I knew I needed shelves and some kind of drawers or bins, but wasn't inspired until I saw this.
Our neighbor gave us two of his gates that were replaced after the hail storm. I've been thinking of what I wanted to do with that wood for awhile now, and this is a perfect.
I got a metal shelf and instead of using the plywood that came with it, I used the old fence wood. Sean, my handy hubby, helped me cut the wood and customize the height of the shelf to fit in the closet.

A little bit industrial, a little bit rustic, completely awesome and totally me.
I'd still like to make the organization a little nicer with some pretty bins or something, but much better than it was.
Bye bye, big blue cabinet!

Heat Stroke Evasion Part 4: Swooning Bibliophile

2011-05-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Sean and I have moved five times in four years.
That kind of nomadic life makes you evaluate your belongings in a totally different way: Do I really need to pack this, lug this to my new home and then find a new place for it there?
This made it a little easier to get rid of a lot of shoes and purses, but when it came to books I remember crying when I had to get rid of some.
When we moved into the apartment, all of my books had to fit into one little cabinet. I shoved as many as I could in there and got rid of what didn't fit that I could part with without sobbing uncontrollably.
Because they were stacked in there, there was no real organization, so when we moved to the house, I found books I had forgotten about.
I had room for more books at the house, but still didn't have a bookcase, so I had to shove my books into the bottom of the big blue cabinet in my craft room.

Saturday morning, I bought a bookcase.
Sunday night, I put all my books on the selves. Monday morning I organized them and stood them up properly with the bindings showing.

Ahhh. Such a simple thing, but it's so wonderful.
Have you ever felt your heart smile?

Heat Stroke Evasion Part 3: A Refinishing Revelation

2011-05-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

I love me some hand-me-down furniture.
My parents gave me a couple of old night stands at the beginning of the year.

Last weekend I finally got around to refinishing them.
The only part I was a little sad to see go was what may be the only act of vandalism I ever committed.

Apparently, this end table was in my room as a kid. Yeah! Carve your name into your parents' furniture, you rebel!

I have been partial to using latex paint and paint brushes for refinishing, but decided for this project I would try spray paint.
If I work on my technique, this may have changed my life. It is SO easy. If I had chosen to paint them with a brush, I probably still would be working on them.
No brush strokes! Done in hours rather than days! HALLELUJAH!
Since this was my first time using spray paint on furniture, there were a few problems which made completing this project take a little longer it would normally. I had to sand down a few drips and repaint, but the same problem arises using latex paint, but fixing it with spray paint was so much easier.

The color is perfect, but I felt it needed just a little something extra. I've seen decorative paper Modge Podged to furniture and thought I would give that a shot.
I got some black and white striped wrapping paper and stuck it to the back of the night stand and the bottom of the drawers.
Again, with practice this will be awesome.
I wasn't able to work out all the bubbles, but oh well.

This was the perfect project to try out this stuff - the night stands go under the giant drafting desk, so the flaws in the paint job and the bubbles in the paper can't be seen, but the pop of yellow and the awesome stripes can be seen when entering the room.
Another success from far away!

Heat Stroke Evasion Part 2: As God As My Witness

2011-05-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

The house came with curtains in every room.
Some of them are nice and will stay. Some of them aren't awful, but a suitable replacement is being sought. Others were so bad - like the piece of fabric that was sewn into a giant loop and thrown onto a tension rod - they were immediately removed.
I kept all the curtains we took down so I could use the fabric for sewing practice.
After tailoring Sean's roman shades, quite a bit of the fabric was left over - enough to make a tote bag.
I found a tutorial and got started.
Everything was going really well until I ran out of thread which threw me off until Sunday night when I finally finished it.
I call this bag Tara. It is made from the remnants of Sean's roman shades and lined with fabric from the giant loop curtain.
Here is my honest, yet not too harsh, assessment of my work: It's an excellent finished project for a self-taught sewist (I know the actual word is sewer, but really who wants to call themselves that?).

My stitching is atrocious, but it's held together well and should last me for quite some time.
I'd post some close ups of the stitching, but why ruin it? From far away, it looks like a complete success!
I'm proud of my first sewn bag.
I would like to try making some kind of clothing, but after seeing that I can't seem to sew a straight line, I should probably practice a bit more before trying anything more complicated.

Heat Stroke Evasion Series Part 1: They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

2011-05-17T00:29:00.000-07:00

Productivity is at an all-time high.
In the past two weekends, I have done more than I usually do in three months - possibly even longer.
The temperatures are on the rise, so Sean and I decided to take a look at all the projects we've been planning that can reduce our cooling bills or that require outdoor work so we can finish them up before going outside for more than five minutes can suck all the moisture from one's body.

Remember learning about interchangeable parts in elementary school? I recall thinking how inefficient life was back in ye old days of yore.
I don't know when exactly, but it appears that at some point builders got the brilliant idea of making windows a standard size so people could enjoy the convenience of buying pre-made draperies and shades.
After measuring all the windows we wanted to install new coverings on, we discovered that our house was built before this landmark moment in home-building history.
We did find that the house does have a couple of standard-size windows, and finding roman shades Sean liked that were in our price range felt like winning the lottery. That is until Sean tried to install them.
It was a twist on a previous lesson learned: Plaster walls are pretty, but they suck.
I now know not to even look at the walls while holding a nail and hammer unless I'm interested in causing a home-improvement project. The new twist in this lesson has me now measuring the width of our windows at four different spots.
The standard-size window in Sean's office is 36 inches wide at the bottom and 34 inches wide at the top.
The plaster at the top is thicker than the bottom. Yay.
Now I had two roman shades to tailor for Sean's office.
I started tweaking the shades before Christmas and forgot they existed until it started heating up and picked them back up.

They are a nice heavy, thermal lined canvas that have noticeably made Sean's office cooler during the day - results that have really inspired me to select fabric so I can make curtains for the rest of the freakishly-sized windows in the house.

Someone call Guinness

2011-04-23T11:12:00.001-07:00

Medford is a biggish city in southern Oregon, but really small compared with Phoenix, so I was very excited to hear that we were in town in time for the Pear Blossom Festival.
I pictured some quaint, small town festival like the Squash Festival in "Doc Hollywood."
I didn't let Sami's description of the parade - a bunch of tractors, awful floats and random people in average cars - distract me from the ideal I had in mind.
Unfortunately, had her description mentioned that there would be a few high school marching bands sprinkled in, she would have been spot on.
Early in the parade, a Toyota Camry drove by with a sign on it stating the area's congressman's name. That's it. No congressman, just a guy driving a Camry with a congressman's name on it.
Now imagine that, and add in every tractor owner, news and radio station, high school band, community group and martial arts, gymnastics and cheerleading school in the area and you've been to the Pear Blossom Parade.

The parade started off strong with a bunch of fire trucks.

Float for festival's royalty - pulled by a tractor

Party on, City Automotive!

The dancing yogurt cone really made this entry

No parade is complete without the Red Hot Grandmas entry

Sounds like an average parade, right? Yes, except this one just kept going with no end in sight.
At one point, we wondered if the parade was on a loop and we were seeing groups that had already passed go by again.
It seemed as if every resident in the city was at this parade: Half sitting along the street, the other half walking down the center of it.
I've never left a parade before it was over, but my legs were starting to go numb from sitting so long.
From what I understand, this is the area's only parade, so everyone wanting to participate is natural. I would just recommend a limit to the number of entrants or perhaps instituting some kind of requirements - like entries must be more than a guy driving a car with a sign on it. Just saying.
One redeeming thing about the parade was that nearly every entrant walked by and handed out candy to the kids. Christina, Judah and Benjamin walked away with a decent haul of goodies.
Not to be deterred by the unending dullness of the parade, I convinced everyone to go to the festival that followed the parade, hoping to find the quaintness there.
We walked into a wall of people standing in lines as long as the parade to buy food from stands.
I ended up waiting in a deceptively shortish line for a cheeseburger. I didn't time it, but it easily could have been 30 minutes.
By the time I had eaten, we were all pretty sick of being there, so we skipped looking at the small number of vendor booths.
There was one big, overly crowded tent dedicated to all-things pear, but we were all very ready to go home.
Next time, I will listen to the locals and avoid imagined quaintness.

The hills were alive with the sound of panting

2011-04-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

On our first full day in Medford, David, Stina, Sean and I hiked Table Rock.
In a valley of high, snow-capped mountain peaks, a long flat mesa is a pretty noticeable landmark, and is therefore kind of a big deal in the area.

I've always wanted to hike it, but never had the chance.
I thought to myself: "It's a good thing I've been working out. I won't be out of breath and embarrassed at my inability to do a simple hike."
Well, I wasn't totally embarrassed, and I think we did pretty well, but I am starting to question the effectiveness of my workout regimen. We didn't die, or want to die on the mountain, but there were a few stops along the way in which I may have faked admiration for the view so I could stop and take pictures (read: catch breath).

SQUIRREL!

The view at the top was well worth the exertion.

David and Christina

Kindred spirit

2011-04-20T17:22:00.001-07:00

There are so many reasons I wish my sister and I lived closer to each other.
For starters, it would save me from 17 hour car rides to visit, but also, so I can watch how Christina, Judah and Benjamin grow into people.
I know I'm biased, but David and Sami have some seriously awesome kids. It gets harder and harder to part every time we see them.
Their budding personalities are already some of my favorites.
Stina, at 11, is one of those rare kids who knows what she likes and doesn't care if it's not cool, something I wish I had learned so early. She's a fan of country music in a sea of Justin Bieber lovers.
She's a very smart girl, which is why I was puzzled when she told me how much she loved the "Twilight" books. I quickly challenged her to read the "Harry Potter" series to see which she preferred.
She quickly challenged me to read the "Twilight" saga. Ugh.
Before she made this request of me, I had tried to read the first book of the series and had to stop after about five pages. I've never read anything that made me want to edit more. If half of the superfluous adjectives were deleted, I would guess the whole book would be about 100 pages long.
Needless to say, I have not been motivated to start reading those books and I didn't expect that Stina would have started reading Harry Potter.
I decided that I would try to pique her interest by knitting her a hat based on one of the movies and giving her a copy of the "Sorcerer's Stone."
I chose a lovely minty green colored bamboo/acrylic yarn to make Hermoine Hearts Ron while driving up for our visit.
Turns out that I am a very slow and unmotivated car knitter. I didn't get much of the hat done by the time we arrived at the Choates'. Fortunately, it didn't matter - she had already read all the books and was half-way through "The Goblet of Fire" on her second time reading through the series.
A girl after my own heart.

She hasn't seen any of the movies, so by the time I finish the hat and send it to her, she may have watched some of them and will appreciate the hat even more - although, if she's anything like most Harry Potter fans, she won't be all too by impressed with all the changes the movies make to the stories.

Drive me to distraction

2011-04-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think that I deliberately push myself to the brink of insanity while preparing to go on vacation so no matter what crazy thing I do while on my trip - such as stuffing myself and nearly everything we own into the car and driving to Oregon - I will enjoy myself and relax because I'm not doing laundry and sterilizing the house in case our house sitter gets snoopy.
No matter how many well-thought-out lists I create, I always end up staying up until 3 a.m. doing laundry and cramming clothing fresh from the dryer into my bags.

The prep work, though daunting, was well worth it. Sean and I had a lovely time in Medford, Oregon, spending time with my sister and her little family and on our two-day side trip to Portland.

The drive was epic at just over 17 hours one way. Sean did most of the wheel work while I napped and knitted.

A few things I noticed while on the road:
California has the worst roads I've ever driven on.

California has ridiculous gas prices - mostly due to taxes which are obviously not spent on road improvements and a special blend of gasoline meant to reduce pollution. If that blend is helping the pollution problem, I'd hate to see what it's like without it, because the air through much of the state was thick.

The rolling hills in California look like they are covered in a lovely green velvet, polka dotted with cows.

There are a lot of cows in California. Many dairies are right beside the highway. This means you should not drive with the vent open through California unless you want your car to smell like cow butt.

It is decidedly not summer or even spring outside of Arizona right now. It snowed on us near the California/Oregon border as we scaled Mt. Shasta and as we approached the Siskiyou Summit in Oregon.

iPod playlists can reveal much about a person you think you know. I found something new to adore Sean for while listening to one of his playlists on our odyssey. Going from Michael Franti and Spearhead's "Yell Fire," to Bon Jovi's "Bounce," to Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" defines his quirkiness.

Oh stow it

2011-03-29T22:21:00.001-07:00

The hailstorm of 2010 struck the day before I finished patching and painting the floor, which was the last planned interior home-improvement project.
Five months later, our air conditioner has been upgraded, the roof has been reshingled and a new patio covering and fence have been installed - all work done by someone else at no expense to us.
That's my kind of repair work.
The only thing damaged in the storm that our contractor wouldn't handle for us was the installation of a new shed, which I thought was strange.
I now understand why.
Sean and I started looking at what was available in our price range. We quickly learned that Tuff Sheds were the best and were professionally installed. They were also the most expensive I saw.
When telling the Home Depot employee that we were looking for something a little less awesome and a whole lot cheaper, he said metal sheds are much less expensive, but warned us strongly against getting one. I don't remember exactly what he said, but his description of building a metal shed gave me the impression it would take at least a month or five to complete, cause serious emotional strain, come close to killing us and that it would bring us to the brink of divorce.
We assured the man that we would do no such foolish thing as buy a metal shed, and went on searching for that mythical mid-range, low-priced, easily installed, durable storage shed.
Weeks later I had discovered that we could afford a lovely nearly hail-proof resin shed the size of a cupboard, a vinyl-coated metal shed the size of a coat closet or a decent size plain ol' metal shed.
I looked at so many sheds and got so sick of searching that I disregarded the helpful employee's anti-metal-shed warning.
We bought a 10x8 metal shed for $350 - what I now know to be a bargain.
It took us two and a half days to assemble.

The shed, or as we affectionately call it, the Storage Turd 5000, has brought two old adages home for me:

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Sean and I made an awful project fun. Toward the end, there were definitely a couple of snippy builders, but we made it through without too much name calling or throwing any real punches.

You get what you pay for.

The old shed may have been rusty and leaky prior to being pummeled by hail, but it was still usable and structurally sound after the storm. I'm pretty sure the new one would have crumpled like a soda can under the same conditions. And while I think we put it together better than the instructions led us to, I wouldn't be surprised if it leaks like a sieve.

The moral of the story:
Home Depot employees really know their stuff. You're an idiot if you don't listen to them, and you deserve whatever home-improvement hell you put yourself into by ignoring their advice.
Seriously.

Spring arrives at Mulberry Park

2011-03-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Since the day we bought our house, I've wanted to paint the trim red.

Especially these shutters.

It's almost as if the house told me it was supposed to have trim that color.
With the new roof and paint, the house looks happy and complete just in time for spring.

The leaves are filling the branches

and casting thicker shadows on the weeds and the giant bald spot in the front yard.

The mulberry trees are in full bloom, sending pollen steaming through our home.

I'd complain (more and louder), but in about three days it'll be a miracle the dead, dry yard doesn't spontaneously combust in the heat.
So here's to enjoying yard work and allergies before going into hibernation for the summer.

I'm a sucker for a bit o' blarney

2011-03-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Last year I stumbled upon a Facebook page dedicated to promoting the only real way to make Irish Soda Bread.
I had no idea people were so militant about soda bread.
I just like to make it because all the myriad recipes out there are super easy and yield a nice dense bread.
The militants' recipe for soda bread is the simplest I've come across so I gave it a shot. It produced a bread that garnered some of my highest non-family praise.
The wife of my newspaper's food critic told me my soda bread was the best she'd ever had, and the texture is perfect.
A couple of weeks ago another reporter told me that she was looking forward to my soda bread on St. Patrick's Day.
It is that memorable, people.
Overt flattery? Very possible. But because that kind of devotion (real or not) deserves more than just a few slices of the communal loaf, I made her a loaf all for herself.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Didn't take a pic of the bread, but I did snap one of the loaves all packaged up

FIRE EVERYTHING!

2011-03-09T20:42:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, Sean and I took my parents out to the middle of no where to blast the crap out of junk.
We took the trusty ol' shotgun up to the road leading to Crown King to do a bit of target shooting.
This was my first time firing a shotgun.
I was a bit nervous about it after I saw how badly it bruised Sean and my brother-in-law, David.
I fired it using the stock a couple of times and then switched to the pistol grip, which I preferred.

Turns out, I'm a pretty good shot.
I came home with a bruise, not on my shoulder as I expected, but on my hip from hip firing with the pistol grip and a sunburn on the left side of my face, neck and shoulder - what Sean calls a "Close Encounters" burn.
Lovely.

Dad and mom showing off their war faces

I like this pic of Sean, because if you look closely, you can see he was giggling.

Hairdo(n't)

2011-03-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

The other day I was looking through a slide show of celebrities at Oscars parties when I stumbled upon this photo of snowboarder Shaun White.

Getty Images

Um, that's totally my hair.
To illustrate this, I looked for a recent photo of me that I wouldn't mind posting, but couldn't find one, but just imagine my face photoshopped over his, as this could easily pass as a photo of me in a suit - on a good hair day.
Telling myself he can afford expensive hair products that keep his hair from getting frizzy like mine, didn't help much.
I have dude hair. Or he has chick hair... Whatever. I don't want to share a hairstyle with a guy.
So I gave myself bangs. (I would have taken a picture of this, but why bother? It's the same hairstyle I have in my profile picture.)
I am no longer a Shaun White look-alike, and as a bonus, a co-worker told me I look 10 years younger.
Excellent! I'm definitely OK with looking the same age as Shaun White.

Rockin' the straight-pin pose

2011-03-01T21:59:00.003-07:00

I started yoga class today.
I am the only student younger than 50.
I am also the only student who can't touch her toes.
Not a banner day for the ol' ego.

Bette Calman

I joined the A Team

2011-02-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

I just accepted a job as a page designer at my paper.
I'll be designing pages inside the A section of the newspaper, and I'll be learning how to do more design stuff later.
I'll still work nights, but I'll have a Monday through Friday schedule. It's been four years since I've had a remotely normal work week.
I'm very excited and so is Sean, although a little less so after hearing I probably won't get to drive the van. It's a cool job, just not that cool.

Credit

Quick random moment

2011-02-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

I know I'm craft obsessed when this sentence in a story about Libya: "Britain's elite Special Air Service, or SAS...," makes me think of SAS fabric store.
For an added bit of weirdness, I'm totally craving a jelly doughnut (or four). I don't think vending machine cookies are going to curb this craving.

I've got the fever

2011-02-24T12:34:00.002-07:00

I need to make something. I don't know why it feels like ages since I've made something, but it does. Maybe it's because I've had to cook every day this week - not something I'm used to, or particularly fond of doing. I like to cook, but I enjoy it most on weekends when I have time, unlike on work days in which it's a mad dash to get dinner and myself ready all before I need to catch the train.
The problem is, I have so many project ideas, I don't know where to start.
Do I start by refinishing furniture for my craft room?

I've shoved these end tables under my giant craft table for some extra, out-of-the-way storage, but they're not exactly the prettiest objects in the room.
I could go find a couple of bookcases to put in my closet so I can refinish and sell "Ol' Blue."

Jack and Sean aren't the best photographer's assistants

I'm actually really looking forward to working on this cabinet. I have a vision and I think it will turn out really nice.
I could get some freezer paper and try using a bleach pen to paint designs on some old T-shirts.

I could resume work on Sean's roman shades. Christmas crafts put that project on hold and the paper shades he has in there now are awful.
But in order to sew, I need to get a bar stool to sit at my craft table. Maybe I'll see if I can find one this weekend.
I didn't have much time today before work, but I needed to do something before I go sit at my desk for eight hours and am unable to concentrate on anything but all the stuff I have to play with at home.
So I unraveled a too-small hat I made last year.

It was, as most of my knitting projects are, a learning experience. Checking for gauge and swatching isn't just for those really excellent knitters who blog about the colorwork sweaters they knit in their sleep. It's also for mediocre knitters who have trouble believing the cold, hard truth spinning around in their hands for hours: This is far too small for you. Don't bother finishing this, it will not fit.
I normally counter such logic with, "You're a mediocre knitter. What do you know?"

Rainy-day madness

2011-02-20T11:15:00.003-07:00

The sky is gray, the clouds are low and heavy with rain, the back yard is full of puddles and the boys are completely stir crazy.
For a knitter, rainy days are a lovely excuse to park one's behind firmly on the couch to work on destashing a bit while reducing the queue on Ravelry and Netflix. Rainy days are often productive.
But it seems that rain over an entire weekend is more than Sean and Jack could handle.
Jack, who wants nothing more than to have someone pet him 24/7, was a complete noodge this weekend.

Sweet puppy face in your lap. How can you say no?

If this weren't so cute, it would have been insufferable.
I was knitting, so I wouldn't always give in, so he would go to Sean, who Jack knows is a sucker for puppy cuteness. Once Sean stopped petting him, he would come back to me. Back and forth. Back and forth
I'm glad we have concrete floors - he would have worn a path on a carpet with all his attention-seeking efforts this weekend.
If no one would pet him, he would see if anyone was interested in playing a bit of fetch.
This would lead to several minutes of Bozo the Dog antics - Jack running around the house squeaking his chew toy.

Care for a game of squeak?

Watching TV and napping was acceptable for a day and a half and then Sean lost it.
By the end of Saturday night, Sean was playing hide-and-go-seek with Jack.
If this rain doesn't stop soon, I don't know what these two are going to do.

When wrestling turns ugly. Yes, they're having fun biting each other.

Things are getting desperate over here.

Bitter? Yeah, a bit.

2011-02-14T14:33:00.001-07:00

I am not a big fan of Valentine's Day.
I think it stems from being the female Charlie Brown in grade school.
I think around third grade I gave up on Valentine's Day.
I remember the excitement of making the big envelope that attached to the back of my chair that all my classmates would put their cards in for me.
I remember picking out the little boxes of cards and carefully deciding who would get what and what candy-heart message to give them.
Except for the cards I received from my friends, I noticed a rather sad pattern - I was getting the a lot of the generic, "You're nice. Happy Valentine's Day" message I put on cards for those I didn't care for.
I guess it's better than not getting any.
So I never developed a fondness for the "holiday" and chose to become bitter toward it.
This is good news for Sean, who also doesn't like it, but understands that if I were into it, he would need to get me something.
Early in our relationship we decided that we wouldn't do anything to celebrate Valentine's Day. The only problem is, we had our official first date on Valentine's Day.
See, I picked a Wednesday as a good day to have dinner together. I didn't know that that particular Wednesday was Valentine's Day. When I realized what I had done, I was horrified. I called Sean to explain I wasn't expecting anything and that I wasn't one of those crazy girls who was plotting some romantic story to tell our grandchildren.
The only thing we typically do on Feb. 14 is go to The Cornish Pasty Co. in Tempe where we went on our first not-a-Valentine's-Day date.
I have to work this year, so pasties aren't possible. But to continue my tradition of shunning Valentine's Day, I chose to celebrate Statehood Day with a cake frosted to look like the Arizona state flag.
As I was preparing to frost the cake, Sean asked me if this was going to show up on CakeWrecks.
The thought had crossed my mind. Thank God, Bon Appetit is the only entity that considers me a professional.

Despite all that, this Valentine is too good not to share.
I love you, Sean.

Saturday satisfaction

2011-02-12T23:02:00.002-07:00

The VNSA book sale is sort of like an annual pilgrimage for book lovers.
I waited in line for probably a little more than an hour with hundreds of people to get into an exhibition hall at the fairgrounds to pour over thousands of books, many on sale for $1.
Sure the exhibition hall is packed with rabid readers who treat the sale as some kind of literary version of "Supermarket Sweep," and the whole area smells as if it has been used to show livestock, and very well may have, but you can't beat the prices and the finds.
I got a big bag full of books for $25.

When I got home, Sean and I boxed up all of last year's bills, receipts and paperwork and started new files for this year.
I think I was born to be a bureaucrat. I love filing, paper work and organizing. Give me a giant stack of papers to organize into a spreadsheet and then file, and I'm in heaven. I know, it's sick.

After playing a few rounds of Call of Duty: Black Ops combat training online with my parents, Sean and I put the bed in the shed and set up the drafting table in my craft room. Things are really starting to look put together in there. I really like it.

The table top isn't very pretty so I need to do something about that, but I'm really happy to have such a big work space now.

I also made the best pot roast I've ever made tonight.
So what if I put it in at 6:30 not knowing the recipe said to cook it for four and a half hours. I learned a very valuable lesson: More than the ingredients list is important to read before setting out to make something.
It's a very good thing it was worth the wait.

Look what I have created!

2011-02-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

Easy to put together, a serious time investment, but one excellent loaf-like thing of bread.

First rise

After "kneading"

Second rise

Ready for oven (finally)

The crust made a wonderful cracking sound as we cut off the first hunk of warm, light and airy bread.

Delicious
If you have about 24 hours, I highly recommend trying this recipe.

Time to check the bread dough

2011-02-11T08:48:00.001-07:00

Holy crap!
This is looking like it's supposed to and it's actually risen a bit.

There is still much I can screw up, but getting yeast to work for me is a big step in the right direction.

The bread experiment

2011-02-10T23:49:00.002-07:00

After reading about my bread-making misadventures, Penny sent me a link to a New York Times article featuring a baker's recipe for No-Knead Bread.
The baker calls this "minimalist bread making" so simple "a 4-year-old could master it."
Sounds good. This could be a total success or a completely humiliating failure - I mean if a 4-year-old can do this and yet I can't, what will Bon Apetit think of me? The stakes are high.
So far this is the easiest bread-making experience ever.

Combine flour, dry instant yeast, salt and water.

Cover and let rise for 20 hours. That's right, 20.
Meet you back here sometime tomorrow afternoon when I pour this mound of gooey "bread dough" out onto towels for it's second rise.

The Internet kills the thrill of the hunt

2011-02-10T12:08:00.001-07:00

Buying stuff online is scary for me.
The only thing I've been comfortable buying online are books, airline tickets and hotel reservations. I've purchased other things, but it wasn't a comfortable experience.
People tell me and I've read about all the good deals on yarn, fabric and knitting needles they find on eBay and Amazon, but I just can't get over my love/need for going to the store, picking what I want and going home with it that day. No shipping charges that way.
Etsy may break me of my brick-and-mortar shopping habits. Most of the stuff on this site can't be found at stores. It's all handmade or vintage.

I somehow got Sean to go fabric shopping with me awhile back (why I didn't buy a lottery ticket that day, I don't know) to see if we could find anything we liked for kitchen and craft-room curtains and to cover the seats of the kitchen chairs.
The kitchen is a gorgeous butter yellow with off-white cabinets. Someday I will replace the hideous Brady Bunch yellow counter top with a butcher block. Because the room is somewhat muted, I really want the curtains' fabric to have a pattern in bold colors. Basically the opposite of the baby blue gingham curtains left by my home's previous owner.
I'd also like to get enough fabric to cover the entire window.

What we found at JoAnn Fabrics were a lot of choices to recapture the look of your grandma's couch.
In comparison, there are so many awesome fabrics on Etsy, I have a hard time choosing which one I want to go with. But I can't touch the fabrics, see what they look like against the light or how they drape. I don't know why, but that bothers me.

This may be a bit kitschy for a craft room, but I like how colorful it is.

I think I might go with this one for my craft room.

Well, I guess it is a definite possible maybe.Why does this feel like a major commitment? I don't have to love, honor and cherish this fabric for as long as I shall live. If I get sick of it I can *shudder* go online and buy something new.

I want to cover furniture or make something with this. I love it. But will I buy it? Probably maybe no.

This should be used to make throw pillows. I'm sure someone else will think of that and save me from buying it and making them myself.

Then there's all the hand-spun yarn. Nothing like the stuff available at the big craft stores.
*Sigh*
I'll probably have to give in.

Sorry, miles away dear

2011-02-06T23:49:00.005-07:00

I got absolutely nothing done this weekend.
Sure, the laundry is done and food was prepared (Italian Chicken Wraps, Smoked Paprika Roasted Chicken Breasts, Braised Green Beans and mashed potatoes), but I didn't even start on any of the things I had planned to do.
No knitting.
No furniture rearranging.
No baking.
The cause wasn't so much procrastination as it was a loss of focus at the sight of shiny things, peer pressure and general spaciness.

Friday we slept in (so wonderful), went to the gym, did some mindless Internet surfing and then remembered that we were supposed to look for a new shed. That turned into random wandering at Lowe's. We didn't get a shed, but we did get new water bottles.

Saturday we remembered that last weekend we wanted to look at bicycles. We went to Landis Cyclery and learned a lot about bikes best suited for giants like Sean from a really knowledgeable salesman. The prices there are on the high side for us, but you don't get that kind assistance at Walmart.

Landis is next door to Zinnia's at Melrose, a big vintage junk mall.
I really did go in with the intention of looking for vintage fabric as I can’t find anything at fabric stores that matches the picture in my head of how my kitchen and craft room curtains look.
I didn't find any fabric I liked that didn't have holes in it or wasn't stained. I may have to resort to -gasp- online shopping.
We left Zinnia's with an index-card file cabinet, three film reels, an old fan and a couple of other new items for me to dust.

I LOVE the little file cabinet.

I have been reluctant to start organizing my office because I really see creating my own closet organizer by stacking lots of these in various colors and sizes. Old and funky suits me much better than brand new press board from Ikea. The only problem with this plan is that finding lots of these will take a lot longer than buying the Martha Stewart closet organizing system at Home Depot.
Oh well, one down, lots left to go.

All of these outings were punctuated with some very irresponsible video-game playing with family.
Twice this weekend, as I started to sit down to watch a movie and knit a mate to the awful "slipper" I made last weekend, my family coerced me to play Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Yeah, you know I think I'm gonna blame my family for this weekend's lack of productivity. Sorry, guys.

Brrr! Isn't this weather lovely?

2011-02-04T12:29:00.001-07:00

Weather is one of those go-to socially acceptable topics one can bring up while riding in an elevator.
And here in Arizona, weather is a very important subject.
Winter temperatures are something to brag about, and for many, it's the reason they live here.
But when temperatures move above or below the 70 to 80 degree comfort zone, people start complaining.
When it's so hot that it is hard to breathe, I wholeheartedly join in on the complaining. I'll even complain when it's 90 degrees. I am not a fan of Arizona's extreme heat.
But when it's cold, like right now, I have to fight the urge to just "Uh-huh" as my fellow elevator passengers whine about their noses bring cold. As long as I am properly outfitted for the temperature, I enjoy cold weather. It's so rare here. Why not soak it up? It's only a matter of time before we reach the point that air-conditioning can no longer alleviate our discomfort and we can't take enough clothing off to get comfortable.
Pull out the hats, gloves and scarves you have tucked away in your closets for when you go up to Flagstaff to play in the snow. We finally have a reason to bundle up and not look like a bunch of weather wimps.
Revel in the cold. We'll all be melting soon enough.

Think of this as boot camp

2011-02-01T11:55:00.001-07:00

Countries in the Middle East are collapsing like dominoes, which according to "Collapse," a documentary on Michael Ruppert, will bring the end of civilization.
Scientists say Yellowstone, a supervolcano, recently "took a deep breath." According to Woody Harrelson's character in "2012," this is a huge deal and soon it will erupt and wipe out life as we know it in North America.
And we're approaching December 2012, which according to the Mayans is when the world will end.
There's no telling when this is all going to fall apart.

Because I don't imagine there will be much sitting on the couch enjoying ice cream during the apocalypse, especially if zombies are involved, regularly going to the gym is probably a good idea.
Sean and I have started with Rule No. 1: Cardio.

I feel that getting in shape early is key, as all the other rules can be learned or the necessary equipment can be acquired later. Clearly, cardio is important now.
If I can't run on a treadmill for 15 minutes, how can I possibly expect to outrun a hoard of zombies? This is a problem that must be addressed immediately.
For these reasons, Sean and I have committed to going to the gym on a regular basis.

Is this crazy rationalization for spending time in the gym? Sure. But when I'm sore after a work out and I start to question why I'm doing this, telling myself I'm making sure I will survive the zombie apocalypse sounds way better than I have to go to the gym because I've turned into Mrs. Tubbolardi and my butt is a daily test of the stitching strength of my jeans.

Olympic cooking

2011-01-31T14:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why, but I appear to be on a Greek recipe tear.
Well, I suppose two meals and a steady stream of hummus doesn't constitute a tear, but that's a lot of Greek food in a month.

First, in an attempt to rid myself of excess yogurt, I made Greek Bifteki. It's just a seasoned hamburger stuffed with feta. Not my favorite, but Sean loved it. I was in a hurry and threw them on the ol' George Foreman grill. The meat cooked too fast to melt the feta inside, so I think they might be much tastier cooked on an actual barbecue grill.

The next dish was one that reinforced my anxiety over trying new things at restaurants: Pastitsio.
My Big Fat Greek Restaurant described it as Greek lasagna, which didn't sound scary or remotely yucky. But they use cinnamon to season the meat, which reminded me of Skyline Chili - possibly the grossest thing I've ever eaten.
The new issue of Cook's Country features a recipe that looked like it could be yummy by omitting the cinnamon.
The sauce is really good and would work well on pasta without the bechamel.

It looked so good right out of the oven that Sean and I took a few bites of it. Turns out that was a very good thing because had I judged the flavor while eating it for dinner at work, I probably wouldn't have been impressed. Pastitsio does not reheat well in the microwave. The creamy pillow of bechamel became crumbly and dry. The taste is OK, but not as good as it was fresh.
This is often a problem for me as I must cook most of our dinners before I go to work and reheat it. Sometimes it works out great. Other times, yuck.
I'll give it another shot to see if having grabbed a piece before it was properly set was the problem.
Know of any microwave friendly meals or microwaving tips? I'm sick of the microwave sucking out all the moisture and flavor, leaving me with something reminiscent of the Griswold family Christmas turkey.
No thank you.

Weekend accomplished

2011-01-30T22:47:00.001-07:00

Why do the good weekends go by so fast?
I finished my hat. It isn't as slouchy as many of the finished projects pictured on Ravelry, but it's still really pretty and warm - just in time for some real winter weather this week.

Real winter weather in Phoenix is a high of 50 and rain, for which I will have to wear a wool sweater, my big pea coat and possibly tights under my jeans to stave off hypothermia. This after contemplating wearing capri pants and flip flops on Saturday. Weird.

I finished one slipper and upon trying it on, I realized just how confusing the pattern was. I can't even explain what I did or why I did it. The pattern is a bit of a narrative on how to make slippers in 47 different ways rather than just a list of how to stitch each row. The slipper isn't really wrong, as it did end up in a slipper-like shape, but it was rather large and well, just off.
It fit Sean better, so I'll make another one for him - that is if I can manage to figure out how to screw up the second one in the same manner as the first. Maybe I'll end up with a mitten this time...

A short break from under the bus

2011-01-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to my weekend.
I plan to do a lot of stuff I love in the next two days.
I need a couple of days of knitting and watching chick flicks in my pajamas.
I think I've earned two days of quality time on the couch with some lovely, super squish yarn.
I may even buy some. I do love me some retail therapy.
By the end of the weekend I hope to have my hat finished and some slippers started or, dare I dream, completed.

While the concrete floors in the house are beautiful and easy to clean, it's rather like an ice rink at times. So I need some nice thick slipper socks.

Hope your weekend is as good as my plan.

Off of the couch, back to the frying pan

2011-01-26T23:00:00.001-07:00

Having days filled with stuff to do is refreshing after sitting around long enough to leave a butt print on the couch.
It hasn't been a week yet, but I have been good about going to the gym every other day and I don't hate it yet. This is a good sign. Usually, I start coming up with excuses as to why I can't possibly find time to go ever again.
After an extended workout on Wednesday, I did the weekly grocery shopping and made dinner.

The new issue of Cook's Country is full of yumminess.
I made Balsamic Steak and Paprika Potatoes.

Smoked paprika rocks. If you see a recipe that calls for it and think, "Paprika is paprika. I'm not spending $6 on paprika," you're wrong. Smoked paprika has a completely different flavor that is worth shelling out some extra cash - and that's saying a lot coming from the girl who thought $4 for a pincushion was a bit pricey.
The smell... the flavor... and put it on potatoes - the best food on the planet - and I've found a dish I can live on.
The steak is tasty, but to me, it is the side dish.

Whining about the consequences of pouting

2011-01-23T22:50:00.001-07:00

When I am in a foul mood, I am rather unmotivated to do little other than sit on the couch and eat ice cream while staring at the TV. Even that is wholly unsatisfying sometimes.
This situation has caused things to spiral out of control at home.
After choosing not to hold back on enjoying nearly every treat I saw and made over the holidays and my extended bad-mood binging, I now fit into only three pairs of pants, and loose-fitting shirts aren't chosen to create a look, but to avoid looks of disgust cast in my direction. My new wardrobe requirements have created a laundry situation, you may well expect, that I don't care to deal with.
Cooking is a lot of work, which is why poor Sean, who is dealing with a neck injury, has been living off of cans of soup and McDonald's.
I don't know if he didn't complain because he knew I was dealing with something or if he was afraid. I'm guessing it was a combo.

So after about three weeks of a slowly intensifying general disgust, imagine my shock when the first thing I found more appealing than ice cream is going to the gym.
Very good girl, Allie! You're a delightful surprise.
Please understand that this is not some overachiever weight-loss resolution - my goal is to fit into my pants. That's it.

The house was in an intolerable state - meaning I couldn't bare to sit around and stare at the filth - so while not really motivated, I cleaned the house and resolved the Fatty McButterball laundry crisis.

I am feeling much better and I'm not nearly as scary anymore. I expect to be fully operating in Pollyanna mode again sometime tomorrow.
Happy posts of crafts and food shall resume shortly.

On the schedule:

No-Knead Bread featured in the New York Times.
Finishing my slouchy cabled hat.

Jesus floatees

2011-01-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

As I was writing my last post and thinking of titles, I thought about doing some lame play on Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be."
I looked it up to refresh my memory, and I got a little something out of it that can apply to my life.

"But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."

Fear of death and what happens after we die makes us carry on with the tedious, sometimes painful lives we live. The situation he was talking about was far more dire and bleak than my own, but I have a paralyzing fear that's keeping me in a loop, too: fear of failure.

I was listening to an Andrew Wommack teaching yesterday on learning to follow God's will. He was talking about the story of Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee. He said at some point, like Peter, we need to jump out of the boat. He said that shouldn't be such a scary thing to contemplate. Not because it requires an incredible amount of faith, but because the boat the disciples were in was being tossed about in a storm and in danger of sinking.
I either sink in the boat, or jump out and trust God.
Why cling to a tedious life in a sinking boat?

So the answer is, I will be out of the boat ... now, what exactly I will be, I'll let you know when I find out.

"I'm not getting you down at all, am I?"

2011-01-18T23:33:00.001-07:00

I'm reading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and all its related books and I'm really enjoying it.
I gravitate toward classic literature, so chuckling regularly while reading is a fun change.
With most books I really enjoy, I find characters with whom I can relate.
Right now, I totally get Marvin the paranoid android.
Depressed, cranky, irritating and a personality that can suck the life and fun out of any situation.
Yes, I am currently a total drag.
I consider staying depressed, angry, sad, etc. a choice (for myself, not casting judgment on anyone out there), so it's very annoying when I can't shake it off. Long-term emotional issues usually indicates that what I'm dealing with is a real problem.
So I'm trying to spend a lot of time in prayer to find out God's will for my life so I know what I'm supposed to be when I grow up.

As I work on figuring that out, I'm trying to do stuff I know makes me happy.
Right now, I'm working on making this hat for myself. I'm using some of my squishiest yarn and it is lovely to work with.

In the meantime, if anyone hears of someone looking to hire a person to bake cookies, craft, read and play video games, let me know - I'm their girl.
I promise to be in a better mood.

Knot quite right

2011-01-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Quick breads like pumpkin, banana and zucchini are pretty similar to muffins and therefore don't pose a problem for me.
Anything requiring yeast and time to rise and then rise again, I've never had much luck with, and are therefore lumped in with cakes - I might get lucky, but don't count on it.

After seeing doughy bits in my fresh-from-the-oven garlic knots last week, I started to wonder if it really was the defective oven at the apartment that was to blame for the failure of my Swedish cardamom bread.
Maybe it was me.

I figured I had a problem when the garlicky dough didn't rise at all, let alone double in size, as the recipe said it should during the first rise. When they didn't rise at all after being arranged in knot form, I knew they weren't going to be right.

The garlic knots, unlike the cardamom bread, were edible and quite tasty, so they weren't a failure.Maybe I should look into cooking class. I shouldn't be stumped by cakes and bread.

Cracking the journal code

2011-01-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

My return from the brink of a cake wreck is not the only disaster from which I haven't backed away.
A few months ago, I tried making my own fabric-covered journal.
I followed the directions on a tutorial and consulted others to make sure I was doing everything right, and yet it still didn't turn out quite right.
The directions called for box-type cardboard and regular craft glue which made for a rather wobbly looking journal.

As another Christmas gift for Laura, who is a writer, I decided to print out and bind some of her poems and stories into my second attempt at journal making.
For this one, I bought chip board for the cover and used spray mount instead of glue for the fabric cover and cover pages, hoping it would produce a stronger cover with less warping.

It's still not perfect, but it turned out much nicer than my first attempt. The spray mount made for a much crisper fabric cover and cover pages, and my page stitching improved.

On the next one I think I will sew the ribbon to the fabric cover first and trim the fabric a bit in spots to make nice, tight corners as well as use a recipe for wheat paste I found on a book-binding site to attach the pages and fabric.
I'm close to cracking the code on journal making.

A modern romance

2011-01-16T08:00:00.005-07:00

On this day four years ago, a handsome, single man was slacking off at work.
He was sort of new to the Phoenix area and didn't have many friends, so he started browsing MySpace profiles to see if there was anyone worth meeting, when he stumbled upon this:

How could he resist?
He wrote me an e-mail that made me laugh.
I decided to keep him.
Thanks for picking me, Sean. You're my favorite.

Cake conqueror

2011-01-14T18:52:00.002-07:00

As I was thinking about demolishing the cake yesterday, I had a stroke of genius that had the potential of being a very stupid idea.
The thought of smashing the cake made me rather happy and reminded me of Bakerella's cake balls.
To make cake balls you crumble up cake, combine it with frosting, roll them into balls, freeze them and then cover them in chocolate.
This is a genius way to salvage the useless, ugly cake while taking out some aggression on it.
However, I have tried, and failed horribly, at making these before, which is why trying to convert a failed cake into cake balls could only further exasperate the situation. Instead of the roadkill scene, I was now picturing myself angrily throwing chocolate covered balls of cake at my kitchen walls.
I decided to forge ahead and try - I was not going to be bested by a cake.

The one thing I didn't mess up was the frosting.

That's some good-looking and seriously tasty frosting.
Recalling my last cake-ball foray, I figured not freezing the balls long enough was where I went wrong. This time I let them get nice and hard before dunking them in the melted chocolate.
It worked. Hallelujah.

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting covered in chocolate is all sorts of awesome.

I've decided to call them "Death By Chocolate Cake Balls."

In a pile, they are "Mount Doom."

I win, cake. I win.

Yeah, my cake sucks. What's it to you?!

2011-01-13T15:39:00.002-07:00

I don't know if I just haven't been getting enough sleep or work issues are really starting to creep into my attitude at home, but I learned something today - never attempt making something you've struggled with in the past when you're cranky.
Cake and I are friends when it is made by someone else, otherwise, cake hates my guts with the fire of a thousand suns. The feeling is becoming mutual.
Someday, I hope to crack the cake-baking code, but today was not that day.

First, I started at a disadvantage.
The recipe calls for three 8-inch cake pans. I have two 9-inch cake pans. Sean was nice enough to go to the store to get the right size for me. He called me from the store to tell me they didn't have that size, only a two pack of more 9-inch pans.
Why, God can't I find the proper equipment to bake a cake?
If they make 8-inch pans a requirement in a cookbook such a thing must exist.
I am not in search of the unicorn of bakeware.
I had Sean buy the pans anyway, knowing from past experience that dumping cake batter meant for three pans into two is a baking problem. It will require baking at a different temperature for a different amount of time. I have no idea how one would figure out this problem. Knowing my ineptitude with math, I liken such a problem to rocket science and decided not to attempt such a calculation. The 9-inch pans would make for thinner cakes and would need less time to bake - that much I know and was comfortable with. It's a three layer cake, so it doesn't matter that the layers are skinny.

Using America's Test Kitchen's "Baking Illustrated," I was able to avoid my past cake mistake - over mixing.
Instead of dense and crumby cakes, or uncooked in the middle (as has happened in past attempts) these were perfectly baked, moist and light cakes.
It's too bad I learned that I nailed the execution by tasting the chunks of cake that were stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Massive separation failure. All three cakes stuck to the pan and refused to come out without a fight.
As Sean and Laura so sweetly suggested, "It will be awesome cake fondue."
Now I remember why I have cupcake pans.
If I were home alone at the time, I would have put the cake in the street and driven over it about 14 times.
Having another cake debacle has not helped my attitude problem. Cake totally ruined my day.

I may post pictures of the monstrosity later.

Oh dear.

2011-01-08T14:29:00.001-07:00

Christmas was not kind to my barely organized craft room.
My bin of wrapping paper appears to have exploded, boxes of Christmas decorations multiplied, and it seems I was in such a rush to finish crafts, I couldn't be bothered to clean up messes from the ones I had finished.
As I've worked on more and more crafts in this room, its lack of functionality has become more obvious and increasingly irritating.
Not having much room to work and few places to put things, I ended up putting a lot of stuff on the floor - which I apparently didn't remember or have time to pick up when I was done.

Hmmm... do you think Laura would mind if I put her bed in the middle of the room on top of that pile of... uh... whatever that is?
Cleaning the room was the easy part. Deciding how to organize it is a challenge I intend to take on this year.
I started organizing by moving a bunch of crap from the closet out into the laundry room to make room for one of the desks, the other table has become my computer desk and, after Laura's visit, Sean's giant drafting table will be my work table.
Since I'm not sure if all that furniture will fit in the room, I'll wait until I don't need to try to cram a bed in there, too, before really trying to get things set up.
Sean rearranged some of the remaining furniture and set up the bed.
The room is now ready for our first guest.
Whew.

Anyone need a vat of yogurt?

2011-01-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

Why does my grocery store select random items, mostly perishable foods, to make only available in mega-mondo size?
I don't scale down my recipes to make just two servings. We live on leftovers for days.

They offer a smallish and large version for lots of dairy products: Buttermilk, heavy cream, vanilla yogurt etc. So why not small containers of plain yogurt?

I need about a cup of the stuff to make Beef Stroganoff.
I hate to let it go to waste, but what am I going to do with nearly two pounds of the remaining bland glop?
In my search for recipes using plain yogurt, I found that most of them are for some kind of smoothie.
We're not smoothie people, and I feel that buying a bunch of fruit is an expensive solution to using up excess sauce thickener.
Eliminating smoothies from the list of possible uses leaves me with few options. Greek hamburgers, yogurt muffins and more Beef Stroganoff. And lots of each to get rid of it all.

I have a similar problem with tortillas. Do you need a package of 12 or 337?
How 'bout like 20?
At least with extra tortillas I can make chips - homemade junk food is definitely something we will eat.

Oops... Merry Christmas!

2011-01-05T16:06:00.001-07:00

Laura's hat and mitts are done! I love meeting craft deadlines.
The hat is soft and squishy and the cables look really good.

But it just wouldn't be a gift from Allie if there wasn't a slight, or possibly major flaw.
For the mitts and the majority of the hat, I used a bulky yarn. To make all these items, I knew one skein wouldn't be enough, so while out shopping on Black Friday, I grabbed another skein.
As I switched over to the new stuff, I noticed the strand felt a little fatter, but didn't think too much of it because I was SURE I bought an exact match.
It wasn't until I noticed that the hat was now becoming slightly pointed and the cables less defined that I inspected the label.
Super bulky - ah, that explains it.Oh well. She'll probably never notice.
I barely did.

Day 1: Lovely

2011-01-01T23:56:00.001-07:00

Riddle:
When you're told to expect a delivery between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., under what circumstances can you expect to receive the delivery within that block's first hour?
Answer:
When you've stayed up until 4 a.m. the night before.

I spent New Year's Eve blissfully exhausted.
After staying up late finishing Laura's mitts while Sean killed zombies with the family, Home Depot called at 8:30 a.m. to let us know that the new range would be delivered at 9:08 a.m.
This is the first time we've ever had a repairman or delivery guy come at the start of their estimated arrival time. I was a little cranky with only four or so hours of sleep, but the oven was worth it.
It's beautiful and perfectly matches the kitchen.

For its first use, I made Sean egg salad

and some threw together some pesto pizza bites for myself for lunch.

Both turned out very well.
So far Ensign GE is working out well.

After ripping out my work and starting over, Laura's mitts were a fast and satisfying knit.
It's nice to get something done in one day and have it turn out perfectly. I can't find a single mistake. I'm very pleased with her mitts.

I started her hat, and at this rate, I should have all her stuff done before she arrives. Yes, I realize I've probably just jinxed myself.

I kicked off 2011 with a good start to what may be the only resolution I have for the year: Be more social.
Maybe that doesn't sound like a very tough thing to accomplish, but when you're the type of person who feels this silly need to have everyone like you, and you've experienced that not happening before, going out to meet new people or even hanging out with people you don't know very well is a bit scary. I recognize that this fear of mine is completely irrational, especially when nearly every time I do manage to force myself to go out I have a blast and really hit it off with the people I meet. As was the case last night at a neighbor's New Year's Eve party.
The host was playing Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, one of my favorite bands, so I automatically had something to talk about. Gathering a bit more confidence through a shot of tequila, a beer and a glass of champagne, I had good, easy-flowing conversations with several people and Sean and I ended up staying longer than originally planned.
A very good start to the year.

2010: Awesomeness brought to us by God

2010-12-31T16:28:00.002-07:00

The year started off pretty quiet and ramped up into something truly wonderful.
The blessings started when we got a big tax refund that went toward rent payments for most of the year, sending Sean to visit his mom and a couple of friends, and taking a trip to Oregon to see my family.
We then moved into the house-buying drama, then the remodeling saga, which led to settling into our wonderful little house.

I got a nice raise and have learned new skills at work.
Sean got work, which in this economy is a miracle.
We celebrated our third wedding anniversary and happy marriage -

and adopted Jack into the family.

I've done more crafting than ever before -

and my love for cooking is growing as my attempts at making new dishes and desserts are successful.

I have to admit there is a tiny part of me that is afraid to go into a new year after having such a good one.
I have to keep reminding myself of Jeremiah 29:11-13

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Verse 11 is pretty popular and well-known, but I think the following two verses are just as important to remember - always seek the Lord with all your heart and know that He is listening.
No matter what happens in 2011, the Lord is with me, He hears me and He has a plan for me.
If that isn't comforting, I don't know what is!

Flattery will get you at least $10

2010-12-29T11:12:00.001-07:00

"Cook's Country" is the first magazine to which I've ever subscribed.
I've had magazine subscriptions before, but nothing I ever wanted to pay for myself.
I like magazines, but can totally live without them.
That being said, when I saw that I had received a subscription offer from "Bon Appetit," I almost threw it out with the rest of the junk mail.
I figured that if I find recipes in "Cook's Country" to be a bit fussy then I would not get on very well with instructions from "Bon Appetit."
But I could feel that there was something more than just paper in the envelope.
Inside there was a magnet with a measurement conversion chart and two recipe cards.
Both very nice and the type of thing I would keep but still throw out the subscription offer.
As I was sorting through the envelope's contents to see what was keepable and what was tossable, a little yellow piece of paper caught my eye.
It said that they were offering me what really is a smokin' deal because, as a professional, I am their target audience.

I'm sorry, but did "Bon Appetit" magazine just call me a professional?
Whether I will find such a publication useful or not, such treatment must be rewarded by immediately subscribing.
I celebrated by prancing around the house singing "Bon Appetit" like Julia Child to myself.

Can't a girl have breakfast?

2010-12-27T23:56:00.001-07:00

Ah, Christmas vacation.
How do I love making pointless plans for thee?

Christmas Eve
The plan:
Eat a giant breakfast made by Sean, master of breakfast foods, after sleeping in till about 11 or so. I'd wrap the last couple of presents before going to church and then have dinner with my parents. We'd go home to play video games online with the family until we were ready to pass out.

The reality:
I was violently awakened by my dog barking like a maniac after the doorbell rang at 9:30 a.m. Bleary-eyed, I answered the door in my Let It Snow snowman Christmas pajamas and full Medusa bed-head hair to find one of my neighbors holding a container of homemade salsa and a bag of chips. So sweet.
I love living in Mayberry - even if they don't sleep in, even on Christmas Eve.

But as I realized that I hadn't made my neighbors anything, nor had I planned to, a scene from "The Ref" flashed through my mind. A drunken neighbor dressed as Santa is yelling at a family for never giving them anything when his wife always makes them fruitcake.

Not that I was worried that I would later have a drunken Santa on my doorstep, but I just don't want to be those neighbors - at least not right off the bat. I might not care after a few Christmases.

Breakfast was canceled as I now needed to run to the grocery store to get stuff to make and hold fudge for six families on my block.
I am not the most organized or prompt Christmas shopper, but until this year, I have been able to say that I have never had to shop on Christmas Eve.
The insanely crowded grocery store didn't have enough marshmallow creme to make all the fudge nor any cute containers to hold it.
As if stepping foot into a grocery store on Christmas Eve wasn't crazy enough, I was now going to have to do the unthinkable - I needed to go to Super Walmart.
I don't think I knocked anyone down, but I moved through that store so fast that it is entirely possible.

I rushed home and made six Christmas-tree shaped pans of fudge in record time (not the prettiest packaging, but the fudge rocks); rushed to get ready for church; left immediately after the service; helped my parents rush to make dinner so we could watch online as my brother-in-law gave the Christmas Eve message at his church in Medford, Ore. (which was excellent!); then rushed home to collapse on the couch and kill zombies with the family.
It's no wonder I woke up Christmas morning with the makings of a migraine.
Um, that's not what I asked for, Santa.

Although a bit more hectic than planned, I had a really lovely Christmas. Hope yours was, too!

Candy or accidental scientific breakthrough?

2010-12-23T16:23:00.003-07:00

Having a pretty severe fear of failure, I tend to stick to what I know.
So when baking, I generally stick to making cookies and pies because that's what I am best at.
I understand that one can't hope to improve without practice, and with each cake I make, I do improve. The reason I'm not afraid to keep trying to make cakes and cupcakes is because the end result is edible.
My one and only attempt at candy making scared me away from ever trying anything that must be heated to a hard- or soft-ball stage.

A woman participating in my church's Christmas choir (who I later found out is my friend's mom) brought in a giant plate of goodies to one of our practices. On this plate, was a pile of pralines - something I didn't know existed outside of pralines and cream ice cream, my favorite.
Figuring, it can't be hard to coat pecans in sugar, I immediately tried making this myself.
What resulted was awesome - not because it was tasty, but because I had created something harder than diamonds.
Had I not deemed it necessary to throw out the "sugarcrete" and the pan it had permanently affixed itself to, I'm pretty sure scientists would have been in awe of the product of my culinary ineptitude and still would be studying it and developing ways to reproduce it and use it for construction purposes.

It was with that disaster in mind that I set out to make fudge, and what could very likely further reduce my kitchen's sauce-pan population - pecan brittle.
I figured any failure could be blamed on Redshirt Tappan.

So last night, I busted out the Christmas apron, and just in case things got dicey, I spiked a bit of egg nog to help take the edge off.
The fudge was so easy to make, I don't understand why I've been so scared to try making it.
It turned out rich and creamy and just really, I have to say, perfect. This is a new holiday treat staple.
There was, however, a fudge-related incident. As I was cutting it up to put in a tin to take to work this morning, the knife broke - in the fudge. The denseness of the chocolate was more than the knife could handle.

After doing everything I could to put off starting on the pecan brittle, including a little side trip to save our neighborhood's subdivision sign (click the link to read about this on Sean's blog),

I set out all the measured ingredients and dove in.
I started to panic a bit when it seemed to take FOREVER for the mixture to reach 300 degrees, but like the fudge, I totally nailed it.

Maybe not exactly like my grandma's, but still pretty darn good.

Making fudge because I live on the moon

2010-12-21T22:29:00.001-07:00

Sean and I bought our very first brand new range on Friday.
It's not super fancy, but it does have a few upgraded features and we got it in bisque so it matches the kitchen.

We got the best deal on the fanciest range we could afford. I know we got the best deal for a fact because I dragged Sean all over the Valley to nearly every appliance store - only to end up at a Home Depot a few miles from our house.
Getting this deal presented me with quite the shopping dilemma.
When is a deal not worth it?
Home Depot sold every last one of this particular gas range in white and bisque in the state, and it will take two weeks to be delivered from the warehouse in California.
I'm pretty sure the International Space Station can get an oven faster than that.
It was almost $100 cheaper than anywhere else, but the absolute slowest delivery time.
We chose to go with Home Depot, despite the New Year's Eve delivery date, because the salesman at the store that came closest in price and offered the quickest delivery lied to us about another store's warranties in hopes of stopping us from leaving and making the sale. If you're not honest with me about little stuff like that, what else are you lying about? I'm already concerned that as this oven's owner, it is doomed - I don't want to buy it worrying that it was put together using IKEA-like pictogram instructions.
That jerk cost me Christmas cookies!
After a weekend of feeling a little deflated by my no-bake status, I've decided to try making fudge and other candies.
Take that Redshirt Tappan, lying Easy Bake Oven salesmen and ridiculous delivery schedules! You will not keep me from making Christmas goodies, eating most of them myself and gaining enough weight to kick me up a pants size thereby forcing me into a New Year's weight-loss resolution.

A poor, but amusing imitation

2010-12-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

Today's finished craft not for Laura reminded me of that age when the magic of Santa Claus starts to wear off. The pre-tween years when you ask for something kinda big and expensive, but are banking on a year of exemplary behavior to help get what you asked for. But then when all the presents are opened and that big expensive gift wasn't there, or you got a cheaper, knockoff version, you realize that Santa's gift budget isn't much better than your parents'.
So when Sean asked for just one thing - an iPad - for his birthday and Christmas, I knew the time had come for me to be the cheap Santa. Instead of just not getting him what he wanted and hoping that what he did get made him as happy as an iPad, I would try to curb any disappointment by making my inability to afford an iPad a joke.
This is the jPad - a $2 chalkboard.

It will update news stories as fast as you can write them and the graphics are as good as you can draw them with chalk.
Sean planned on making his iPad look like "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The jPad's serious lack of storage capacity makes it so it can only function as the Hitchhiker's Guide to Marlette Avenue, and even the advice for that is limited to: "Don't do it - they'll call the cops."
It is decorated with the the Hitchhiker symbol and the word "PANIC" on the back, as the jPad is sure to be less helpful than an iPad or the "Guide to the Galaxy."

Never turn your back on Christmas

2010-12-15T20:41:00.002-07:00

After the capes, the Trekkie ornaments and the R2D2 lamp, I was feeling pretty confident about the progress I was making on my list of Christmas crafts.

On Sunday, it dawned on me that I have only knitted one and a half mitts for Laura, and those must be shipped to New York. I checked to see when the deadline was to ship stuff by Christmas without having to pay extra - Dec. 15.
So today is the deadline, and did I get anything shipped? No, no I didn't. Worse than that, I didn't even work on any of her gifts.
See the problem is, the only thing I've wanted to do is eat ice cream and play video games after work. There's no time for crafting with those activities. And for the past couple of mornings, I've been staggering around the house until the last of the nighttime Theraflu wore off, and once I became a bit more coherent, I've worked on finishing off a few other gifts. Apparently I decided to give myself a cold for my birthday. I'm so thoughtful.

I think I'll blame my lack of motivation for these gifts on finding out that Laura will be visiting in January. I'll just make sure to have her mitts, hat and journal done by then.
In the meantime, I think I'll take my friend's suggestion of e-mailing her a picture of the finished gifts and telling her they're be here when she visits.
And I don't have to worry about the deadline to ship dozens of cookies to Rob, Roger and James because Redshirt Tappan has made that impossible. Depending on when Ensign New Range is delivered, New Year's cookies are still a possibility, boys.

This is the range that I hope to get and will inevitably destroy.
If I get this oven and kill it, it will be the first time I cry over a broken oven.

Ain't she a beaut'?
Pray for whatever oven I get. No matter what it is, it's not long for this world.

R2Blah2

2010-12-15T14:54:00.001-07:00

Dear Penny,
I'm sorry I put ugly blue stickers all over the pretty lamp I got you for your Merry Birthday present.
All I can say is I tried, and it's the thought that counts, right?
Love,
Allie

P.S.
Don't touch it. The blue rubs off. :(

Again, not how I imagined this craft would turn out.
From far away, it looks OK.

But close up ... YIKES!

Sharpie does not work well on contact paper. Making mental note.
The lamp used in the tutorial was a task lamp that attaches to a tabletop. I wanted to get Penny a floor lamp so she can see better while knitting. This one was the closest to the right shape, but it turns out the angle is way wrong.
The stickers don't lay flat.
At this point, I have no other gift ideas for Penny, so I have to go with it. I'm not sure how I feel about giving something so obviously handmade. The only thing that saves this gift is that the stickers come off easily without leaving any residue and the lamp is nice - without the stickers anyway.

I am the harbinger of death

2010-12-12T16:17:00.004-07:00

If Star Trek were life, I'm Capt. Kirk, my kitchen is the bridge and my ovens have been the Redshirts.
Sean would be Spock since he likes to point out that screaming at the broken oven and kicking it is not logical.

I don't know why, but the oven has either sucked or broke every place we've lived. And for some extra special reason they break or perform super poorly during the holidays.

The apartment in Mesa had a freakishly small oven that barely fit a good size roaster pan in it.
The oven at the house in Surprise wasn't level and baked everything in the back faster than the front. My turkey was embarrassingly half browned, half freshly plucked looking.
The oven in the downtown apartment nearly broke me. I had to work Thanksgiving, but decided I didn't want to miss out on making and enjoying all the tasty Thanksgiving goodness, so I made my own meal the day after. The evil oven faked me out by cooking the turkey perfectly on the outside, but about an inch in it was still completely raw. After this debacle, I stupidly tried to bake bread - TWICE - with the same results as the turkey - perfect on the outside, doughy goo on the inside. Boo.

So holiday season 2010 rolls around and I should have been ready for it, but instead I planned on making Sean a fabulous birthday meal and chocolate peanut butter pie.
Basically, I made the success of Sean's birthday depend on Redshirt Tappan.

Stove top operational? Check.
Oven operational? Uh... Scotty?
What do you mean it's not working?!?
Launch the torpedoes! FIRE EVERYTHING!

In my case, Scotty is a home warranty. I'm hoping the repairmen (if they ever come *shakes fist*) declare it dead and replace it with a new oven for me to destroy.
MMMUUAAAHHAHAAHAAAHAAA!!!

I'm sure some aliens are very nice, but...

2010-12-11T00:39:00.001-07:00

Thirty-three years ago today, my favorite person in the universe was born.
I know that I've never met anyone from anywhere but Earth, but I just know that no other being in the universe can match my Sean.

Before meeting Sean, I didn't really believe in soul mates. I figured there might be someone out there who would tolerate me whom I wouldn't find completely irritating.

But because Sean has far exceeded those simple expectations, I'm pretty sure God made him just for me.

He can make me laugh like no one else. But more importantly, when things suck, he can laugh through difficult situations with me.

He's intelligent and can beat me at Trivial Pursuit. My intelligence doesn't scare or offend him - even when I beat him at Trivial Pursuit.

He's a creative genius. The stuff he imagines and creates blows my mind.
He's faithful, not just to me, but to God. The depth of his faith astounds me.
He has the most handsome face I've ever seen and he grew, and has kept, a beard just because I love it.
We've been together for nearly four years, and every day I find a new reason to love him a little bit more.
Whether it's how he takes care of me when I get monster headaches; how ridiculously much he loves and dotes on our dog; how he giggles like a kid when he gets a good present, when I'm baking him chocolate chip cookies or because it's Tuesday; or how he launches into Captain America mode to fight the good fight, my love for him grows constantly.
So today, raise your glass and celebrate the birth of one of the good guys.
Sean, I'm so glad you were born. I'm the luckiest girl in the universe.

Slowly learning what so many have known before

2010-12-10T14:24:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving Day is one of the newspaper's highest circulation days, if not the highest.
I was scheduled to design the Valley & State section for that day.
Now, I can put together a nice looking page, but what they were expecting was well outside my ability. Leaving the design up to me would mean the look of the paper would suffer.
So I punted.
I asked the designer who trained me to design the cover. This was a huge deal for me. She had work of her own to do, but she totally bailed me out.

I was kicking around the idea of making this for a friend after seeing it on One Pretty Thing, before I remembered she is not a Christmas decorator.
It would, however, be a perfect "Thanks for saving my butt" present for Keri, with whom I discussed Comic-Con, Star Trek and lots of other geekery during my training.

I got the materials to make her "Trek the Halls" ornaments while out on Black Friday.
After discovering that I have much to learn about painting while attempting to make another Christmas present, I knew to steer clear of an attempt at painting the faces, or anything really, on these.
I decided Sharpies would be my best bet.
Everything was going well until I tried drawing on the faces. The wooden peg people are not sealed and the ink bled.
Poor Uhura looked like she had been in a brawl or had done some heavy crying.
I busted out the gesso. Primer probably would have been a better sealant, but that is way out in the shed, and at this point, as frustration was mounting, I couldn't be bothered to take such a long walk.
This worked well, only now, instead of the natural wood tone, which pretty closely matched skin tone, I had created a Star Trek kabuki crew.
This is where I had to step back, look at what I made and tell myself, "I know it's not perfect, but it looks good. Stop. Don't try to fix or change anything. You will only screw it up."
I had already ruined one peg person as I realized that my brown Sharpie was way too dark for Uhura's face. Now that I was a peg short, I had to omit a crew member.
My mistake killed Sulu.
Poor Sulu.

Christmas, Round One - A Learning Experience

2010-12-10T14:17:00.001-07:00

They loved the capes.
I'm not going to berate myself on how they look. I'm going to focus on the fact that Judah put his on right after opening it. He wore it all day, every day, everywhere we went. Ben wore his pretty constantly, but wasn't as in love with it as Judah.
My sister had to tell them they could not sleep in their capes.
Sunday we went to Castles 'n' Coasters, where, I'm told, kids were seen staring longingly, some even touching Judah's cape while waiting in line to get on rides.

Round One's crafts taught me that blasting through crafts that require a skill in which I have very limited knowledge is bad.
If I had slowed down and thought about what I was doing instead of assuming what I was doing was right, I could have finished much faster, with much neater results.

There are many holiday crafts left to make. Hopefully, I've learned to slow down.

Love for the annoyingly obscure

2010-12-03T10:30:00.003-07:00

When I was little, my favorite superhero was Firestar.

She was the trifecta for me: A redhead who could fly and fight the forces of evil by setting them on fire.
I wasn't big into comic books, so I only knew her from the cartoon, "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends." I don't remember ever trying to find action figures or Halloween costumes of her, a search I'm sure sure would have ended in failure, but I do remember the quizzical looks I would get when I would try to convince my friends of Firestar's awesomeness. They didn't know who I was talking about. Poor obscure Firestar, and poor Allie, alone in her adoration of a completely underrated mutant hero.

These memories were sparked after my sister sent me a photo of my nephew's favorite character.

Owlman is a completely random villain featured in a few Justice League episodes. Oh, and he dies.
The boy has set himself up for disappointment. An obscure villain that doesn't have the potential to appear in new episodes isn't going to get the merchandising play of a Batman or Wolverine.

But Ben's dedication inspired me to try my best at copying Owlman's cape even though it posed a bit of a problem for me.
The tutorial I was using to make the capes was already stretching my meager sewing skills to their limits. To make Ben's cape look similar to Owlman's I would have to tweak the design on my own.
I had so little confidence in myself, I called in my husband, who is an artist but has even less knowledge of sewing and pattern making than I do, to help me come up with a design.
With his help, we came up with a solution - I said a prayer and cut the fabric.

After overcoming many obstacles (mostly stupid amateurish mistakes) in the making of this semi-decent cape, I feel like a superhero to this fan of the obscure. In wearing this homemade cape - very loosely based on his beloved random villain - we are thumbing our noses at the mainstream characters and all those who cheer on the heroes who are easy to adore.

(If you're thinking that this cape doesn't look that hard to make, you're right. It should be pretty simple. This project perfectly illustrates my lack of skill.)

The perks of being an "adult"

2010-12-02T10:00:00.004-07:00

When you're an adult, you can have ice cream for dinner.
When you're an adult, you can stay up way past your bedtime to watch movies or play video games.
When you're an adult, if you can talk each other into it, it's OK to open birthday and Christmas presents from your spouse a month early.

Sean and I have not been able to wait until the actual holiday or occasion to give each other presents.
Like every other year, we exchange Christmas lists, set a budget, go shopping on Black Friday with the intention of bringing the gifts home to wrap and put under the tree where they will sit until Christmas morning.
We get home, pumped up from battling crowds and getting good deals on awesome stuff we know will be loved, and start bragging about how well we did and taunting each other about having to wait.
But do we HAVE to wait? We debate whether it'll ruin our birthday and Christmas if we don't have presents to open on the actual day. We quickly decide it won't. After going back and forth on it, we decide who cares? Merry Birthday!
We opened our birthday and Christmas presents Nov. 28. I think that's the longest I've ever held out.

Sean did his homework and got me fancy kitchen stuff from Sur La Table. I finally got a cake stand! It's so pretty. I'm not great with cakes, but I will fill it often with cookies, which are tastier than ever baked on my new baking sheets.

I also got a pizza stone,

some big copper cookie cutters

and a green marble mortar and pestle.

I also got pretty new numbers for the house. Yay!

Coming in the mail are a task lamp and a dutch oven.

Woo hoo!

Sean got a new hat, and a bunch of stuff for his shotgun. I don't really know much about the gun stuff I got him other than it makes it look really tough while making it more functional.
Bring on the zombies!

The way I like to look at our mutual weakness and impatience is that we have one more month to play with our new stuff than the suckers who torture themselves by waiting for Christmas Day.

Judge me if you want, I don't have time to care - I have new stuff to play with, sucker.

We're those people

2010-12-01T10:45:00.001-07:00

Sean is not big on holiday cheer, so when he offered to put up lights in the front yard I knew I had to take him up on that offer or it would never happen.

We are the first ones on the street with Christmas lights up. And the neighbors have noticed.
The next morning while taking Jack for his morning walk, everyone who was outside made a comment about us just having to be the first.
I really do live in Mayberry. Where else do neighbors talk to each other, take each other Thanksgiving leftovers and compete to be the first to decorate for Christmas? Love it.
I can't wait to see how decked out the street gets for the holiday.
Because we're STILL waiting to have our roof reshingled and the A/C and heat pump replaced, we just did the trees and some of the trim on the house that won't be in the workers' way.
Through our stained-glass front door, the lights sparkle like magic Christmas glitter.
As I gazed at the lights, with the space heaters at full blast and the smell of a bit of apple cider in the air, the gushing of holiday spirit began.

Christmas insanity

2010-11-28T15:04:00.001-07:00

I have a problem, and I don't really mean in a cute way.
I really think I have a craft problem - specifically my overconfidence in my crafting skills.
I see craft ideas with tutorials on blogs and I think, "Despite the fact that I've never tried welding before, I could totally do that."
OK, I've never considered attempting to weld anything (yet), but from now on I think I should consider most crafts to be on the same difficulty level as welding until I have a little more experience under my belt.
For example, just because I have a sewing machine and I saw a blog on how to make superhero capes for kids does not mean that I've magically turned into a seamstress and I can make capes in my sleep.
Yes, my dad has an easel, canvases, paint and paint brushes, but borrowing these items doesn't make me a painter.
Turn a plain silver IKEA lamp into an R2D2 lamp? That would be a perfect gift for my friend, and I'm sure I can easily figure out how to apply contact paper to a roundish surface so that it looks right! No problem!
I have fantastic gift ideas but lack the skill to make them as pictured in my head.
After working on the gifts I've planned and seeing that things weren't going quite as well as I had hoped, the gift-opening scene I imagined, in which the recipients react with jaw-dropping surprise was no longer out of delight, but of confusion and a touch of horror.
The capes came out looking goodish, and are acceptable only because they are for kids and are far superior to the pillowcases now serving as their superhero accessories. But the other project has gone so horribly wrong that if I can't make this last idea work I will have to figure out something else to give.
This year is shaping up to be like the past few - fantastic ideas poorly executed only to be abandoned and replaced with gift cards to save the recipient from the awkward moment of telling me that they love it, and me from embarrassment when they ask me what it's supposed to be.
I'm sure you've all heard the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
Will someone please remind me of that next Christmas when I announce that I'm planning on making a statue of John Elway for my brother-in-law because I saw a tutorial on some blog and all I'll need is a hammer and a 10-ton block of marble? Please?!

Code Word: Christmas

2010-11-09T23:32:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year when I start figuring out what I'm going to make everyone for Christmas.
I love lists, and having a gift idea next to everyone's name makes me very happy, indeed. It makes me feel as if I have some semblance of control over the holiday season - by the end of which, the list is tear streaked, filled with changes, scribbles and is generally a crumpled mess. But having it helps me now.
This year's gifts will be pretty fast and easy to make, but the best part is I know on some I've hit a home run.
Unfortunately, the few people who I know read this blog will be receiving some of the fantasticness I'm planning, so everyone will be in the dark until my family celebrates Christmas shamefully early. My mom is decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year. The Medford 5 will be coming for another visit Dec. 3-6 and since we're opening presents then, it has to look and feel like Christmas even if we are all still trying to get through Thanksgiving leftovers.
So posts will be pretty sparse for the next few weeks as I will be busy making Christmas gifts.

Pumpkin palooza and the Grillmaster's return

2010-10-31T16:21:00.003-07:00

It wasn't my intention to have a pumpkin packed weekend, but that's what ended up happening.
These fabric pumpkins have been on my list of crafts to attempt for quite some time. I planned on starting these at the beginning of the month, but it has taken me quite some time to get started.
Fortunately, they're so easy I finished them in no time at all.
After making a couple of fabric stems, I decided it made them look a little too cutesy, so I just stuck real pumpkin stems on them. Now they're just the right amount of cute, and they look good next to the felted pumpkins I knit a few years ago.
Since I've had horrible luck finding suitable pumpkin patches, I've made my own.

I made more pumpkin puree because I stupidly let the last batch sit in the refrigerator too long before freezing it.
I made pumpkin pie on Friday and today I made pumpkin bread and pumpkin seeds before work.

The pumpkin pie was the most from scratch I've ever made - in addition to the fresh pumpkin puree and homemade pie crust, I made my own brown sugar to save myself from having to go to the store for a third time that day. The sugar was so yummy, I may have eaten the leftovers. Brown sugar straight up is one of my secret snacks of shame. Yum.
Sean carved our pumpkin while we watched "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
Sean's a really good carver and I'm always so impressed with what he comes up with. Last year's reminded me of Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

This year he went a bit scary. He gave the pumpkin a mouth full of spiky teeth and a sarcastic look. The pumpkin looks like he's daring kids to mess with him.

Another thing Sean is good at is playing with fire and making good meat.
Last weekend Sean did some serious reconditioning on the barbecue to resurrect it from it's sad, rusty state after sitting unused for a year on my cousin's patio while we were living in the apartment.
The Grillmaster fired up his trusty smoker for the first time at the new house on Saturday and made burgers, steaks and shish-kabobs over charcoal and soaked mesquite chips. It was a lot of food, but those leftovers are definitely something to look forward to.

- Photos by Sean DiVincenzo

Well, isn't that handy?

2010-10-26T14:12:00.001-07:00

The wonderful people at America's Test Kitchen threw in a lovely gift for subscribing to Cook's Country - a magazine filled with 96 recipes for 30-minute dinners.

All the recipes are on cards that can be torn out and filed and each has a picture of the finished product.

So genius.
I was going to make Curry Chicken yesterday, but I have a huge bag of potatoes I need to use up before they go bad, so I made Chicken and Potatoes with Balsamic Vinegar.

I think the balsamic sauce tastes better on the chicken than it is on the potatoes, but still very tasty.
I look forward to dismantling this magazine one recipe card at a time as I bust out some more tasty goodness.
Well done, Test Kitchen!

Peace, love and cookies

2010-10-21T20:22:00.005-07:00

I'm learning page design at work. I've been designing pages inside the main news section and the op/ed pages for awhile now, but started learning to do the entire Valley & State section last week.
First, I sat and watched. Next, my awesome trainer sat and watched me and basically told me how to do everything. Last night, I did it by myself.
It started off well, but I hit a snag around 7 p.m. that took me far longer to fix than it should have, which threw me off for the rest of the night.
When the page designer falls behind, the copy desk scrambles.
Not good. So as a peace offering, I made my co-workers Nutella cookies.
I substituted Nutella for peanut butter in this recipe for Peanut Butter Cookie s.
The result is a good cookie with a very very faint hint of Nutella. They smelled so good while baking, but the Nutella flavor just didn't shine through. Oh well, a cookie is a cookie, and judging from the nearly empty container, I'd say my co-workers didn't mind.

Feeling Scrooge-ish

2010-10-19T12:26:00.002-07:00

I'm starting to wonder if I'm upping my craftiness quotient or if I'm getting really cheap.

A couple of weeks ago I was standing in line at Jo-Ann's to buy stuff for one of the projects I've been working on when I saw a pin cushion. I realized at that moment that a pin cushion really would be helpful so I wouldn't have to stick (literally) my fingers in the little pin container, and so the pins wouldn't keep rolling onto the floor after pulling them out of my work while sewing and then panicking that my dog would find them for me.

But despite all that, when I saw that they wanted what would amount to more than $4, I put it right back on the little peg. It actually made me a little mad. Who charges $3.79 for a tomato pin cushion? That just seems exorbitant. I'll make my own, thank you very much!

I found a pin-cushion pattern on Ravelry of something that makes sense to have pins sticking out of it - a hedgehog!

Who puts pins in a tomato anyway?

This is Pokey.

He's a little weird looking, but still cute. If I make another one, I'd probably change colors a little sooner.

Still so stinkin' hot

2010-10-17T23:13:00.003-07:00

Home ownership may have killed my love of a good storm.
I don't think I will worry that every storm system will bring wicked hail like we saw a little more than a week ago, but I don't think I will enjoy them the same way I did.
The hail hit the windows so hard, I was sure they were going to break. Some of our neighbors' windows did break.
We didn't come out of the storm unscathed though. The hail flattened many of the fins on our air-conditioner to the point the repairman suggested we don't use it until it is repaired.
Nearly everyone in Arizona had some kind of storm damage, so the soonest an insurance adjuster can make it to our house is Nov. 8.
Normally this time of year the weather is cooling off and going without AC wouldn't be much of an issue.
Fortunately it's not in the 100s as it was days before the storm, but it has been in the mid 90s this past week and hovering at about 82 inside the house. It's pretty yucky.
So, using the range or oven is out of the question right now. We've run out of leftovers and are now surviving on microwavable foods. Mmmm.
Friday night, however, we grazed on homemade hummus while watching "Hot Tub Time Machine" in front fans on full blast as we tried to not sweat all over the couches.

And since I was in full bake and cook mode prior to the hail storm, I have a fridge full of eggs, butter, pumpkin puree and buttermilk and no oven to bake them in.
Why is it that my oven is unusable when all I want to do is bake? It's not fair.

While torturing myself by browsing through Allrecipes, I found a recipe for microwave lemon poppy-seed cake. Cake without turning on the oven - hallelujah.

With a little lemon glaze, this is surprisingly good (it's the picture that sucks).

Hummus:
1 (16 oz.) can of drained chickpeas (reserve liquid)
1 1/2 tablespoons of tahini
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup of liquid from can of chickpeas
1/2 tsp salt
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp paprika

Dump ingredients into food processor and run for three to five minutes until smooth.

Nesting

2010-10-14T11:32:00.002-07:00

I added birds to my yarn tree.

I will have to come up with names for these guys - because that's what I do.

I placed the two birds facing each other to remind myself of this:

One particularly grueling day scrubbing the vinyl and glue off of the kitchen floor before we moved in, I looked out the window and saw these guys. It helped me remember that all this hard work was so Sean and I would have a place to call home - a place we can be comfortable and together. That makes all the work totally worth it.

A tree grows in my craft room

2010-10-13T15:51:00.002-07:00

Since purchasing my house, I've been building a list of links to crafts and DIY decor projects I would like to try.
The list of links is so long, but I can finally check one off as done.
The string tree featured on One Pretty Thing was love at first sight.
What a perfect way to fill an entire wall and destash at the same time. Brilliant!

About 400 thumbtacks into the project, I realized I didn't have quite as much brown yarn as I thought.

I now have more brown yarn than before starting my destash project.
Less than brilliant.
The tree looks awesome, and I'm planning to make some leaves out of paper, birds out of leftover quilt fabric and a little wooden birdhouse.
Now, I just need to figure out what to do with all this brown acrylic yarn. Shrubs?

We're the lucky ones

2010-10-11T10:55:00.002-07:00

We didn't have anything planned for the anniversary vacation, but tackling the floor projects wasn't on the wish list.
So far, Sean and I haven't been big on giving extravagant anniversary presents. I think it's because every day together is a gift and, like Valentine's Day, to us it's just another day. Sappy, I know, but it's true.
We decided that the floors had to get done that week because it had been far too long since either of us has had a pet, and trying to seal and paint the floor with a dog roaming the house would make the process unnecessarily torturous.
I finished painting the floors Wednesday morning while Sean cleaned the disaster area that was our front yard after a monster hail storm slammed our neighborhood.

That afternoon we headed over to the Humane Society to see if we could find a new friend.
It's so hard to leave with just one. Every one of those dogs was adorable and deserves a good home and a human to snuggle.
Rock, a 1 1/2-year-old black Labrador mix with a splash of white fur on his chest, was in the very last kennel. We took him home. The worst behavior we've seen him display was pulling on the leash like a maniac to get out of the shelter. He's been nearly perfect ever since.
When I say perfect, I'm not exaggerating. This dog's training is at Dog Whisperer level. Have you ever seen a year-old dog sit patiently for his food bowl to be placed on the floor and wait to be told he can eat? Yeah, he's that awesome.
We named him Jack after characters in some of our favorite TV shows - "24," "30 Rock" and "Lost."

We won the puppy lottery.

Floored

2010-10-10T17:01:00.007-07:00

Ah, nothing like a vacation to completely wreck a girl.
I'm now feeling more pressure to finish as many house projects as possible so the next time I take a week off I can do nothing for more than a few minutes here and there.
Instead of taking a trip or something nice like that for our third wedding anniversary, we chose to finish the floors.
We kicked off my vacation by cleaning and sealing the kitchen floor on Friday and Saturday and then sleeping on my parents couch each night to avoid breathing in the fumes. So romantic.
Then I patched all the divots left in the concrete from ripping up the carpet tack strips, taped and painted a stripe to cover up the unsightly gray polka dots the concrete patch created.
I could have been done on Monday, but because I'm crazy, I didn't finish until Wednesday. I spent more time taping, priming and painting stripes on the floor because the end result of the single stripe didn't look right and reminded me of duct tape.
My knees hate me, I can barely walk from essentially doing squat thrusts for six days and I'm exhausted from waking up early to work on the floors.
I'd almost say thank God for having to go back to work, but I didn't get to a lot of things I planned to do while at home last week. Things that will now have to be pushed back onto weekends that could have been filled with lots of lovely lounging.
On the plus side, the floor rocks.

Nuggets of cooking knowledge

2010-09-27T15:45:00.001-07:00

For a little more than a week, I have been consuming massive amounts of food porn.
A friend of mine sent me a link to TasteSpotting, a website with picture after seductive picture of the most delicious looking food you've ever seen.
It makes me want to quit my job to stay at home and cook all day, every day.
Looking at this site has made me so hungry I've twice had to eat my dinner hours early.
The pictures on the food blogs this site features are so good it made me realize that maybe I need to do more with mine than just taking hundreds of crappy shots with my point and shoot, turning on and off the flash, pushing buttons for functions I have no idea how to operate, swearing and then choosing the picture that sucks the least.
So I've asked Sean, to whom all artistic things come naturally, to take pictures for me so I can stop swearing at my camera. I took these pictures, so Sean is not to be blamed for their crappiness.

I finally busted out the Cook's Country magazine this morning to try out their recipe for Crispy Chicken Nuggets.
Let me first say that the nuggets are good.
The amount of work, however, is a bit ridiculous for what it produces - you know, crispy chunks of chicken.
They are far superior to anything available at McDonald's or the frozen-food aisle, but wow, what a lot of work.

As I was patting dry the chunks of brined raw chicken, I realized that the last time I saw meat patted dry was when Amy Adams was making Boeuf Bourguignon in "Julie & Julia."
These are chicken nuggets.
To make chicken nuggets, it should not be necessary to preheat the oil in the oven. Heating the oil on the range will work just fine. So that's what I did.

Perhaps the Cook's Country version is tastier, but I don't have time to make gourmet chicken nuggets.
I'm pretty sure that's a silly thing to want to spend time on anyway.
So with my corner-cutting method, this recipe is a keeper.
Next time I will add some seasoned salt or perhaps some chili powder to the dry ingredients to spice them up a bit, as I found them to be a bit bland.

Pretty pleased

2010-09-27T00:47:00.002-07:00

OK, I know that making a shower curtain isn't that big of a deal. Every day I read blogs written by women who make dresses in the amount of time it took me to basically hem a couple of long pieces of fabric. But, I did it, and it looks really good. I'm so glad my first sewing project turned out so well - I might have let the sewing machine collect inches of dust, otherwise.
I made two thin grommet-topped curtains instead of one large one because 1) I bought the wrong size shower-curtain liner and 2) My fabric was just a little bit wider than the wrong-size liner and I didn't want a seam right in the middle of the curtain.

I like that it isn't a typical shower curtain shoved to one side or just blocking the lovely window in our bathroom. It does, unfortunately, highlight the old handy-bar in the tub. I'm really starting to wonder if that's something I can remove without damaging the tile.

While ironing the fabric, I realized it was about this time three years ago that I was frantically working to turn it into curtains to shade my reception area. October 6 is our 3rd anniversary. Aww!
Realizing that makes my first hand-made shower curtain even more special.
Other projects I planned to tackle this weekend went out the window when I wasted Friday by waking up late and driving all over the world to get stuff for my projects. I'll probably work on the roman shades while I'm on vacation next week.
I got all the ingredients to make the Cook's Country recipe for Stuffed Shells with Meat Sauce, but Sean opted for macaroni and cheese and corn bread. This recipe makes the best slightly sweet, crumbly corn bread ever. So yum.
I did finish the booties. They're very cute, but what a pain. I must have been doing something wrong because no one on Ravelry mentioned problems with the pattern. The first increase row called for more stitches than it said to cast on for each size. I eventually figured it out after several attempts. I'm glad to be done with them.

Geeking out

2010-09-23T15:49:00.001-07:00

Makenzie's kimono/sweater is done and it is super cute!
Making baby stuff is so fantastic because it's near knitting instant gratification. You sit down to make a hat or booties and a couple of movies later - TA DAH - finished project. Love it.

The sweater will probably be a little too big for Makenzie as a newborn but should fit when it starts to get really cold in Idaho - so it'll work out perfectly.
I looked at the pattern for the mary jane booties this morning and they look easy enough to get those taken care of tomorrow. And I'll probably use up most of the yarn, so yay! no leftovers.
Also, a co-worker brought in copy of Cook's Country magazine to show me its recipe for Guinness Irish stew. The recipe looks so yummy, but the whole magazine has me drooling. It's is so fantastic, I'm going to subscribe.
I am a really picky eater, and I would eat about 85 percent of the dishes featured. That's amazing.
I have been feeling stuck in a recipe rut recently, so I'm really excited to have new recipes to try out.
The magazine offers more than just recipes. It features unbiased product reviews, taste tests, helpful cooking tips (such as suitable ingredient substitutions) and stories about how they tested, failed and improved the recipes. Knowing how a professional screwed up a recipe will help me steer clear of making the same mistakes and become a better cook.
I can't wait to dig into this magazine.
So, needless to say, the day before my weekend I'm having a really hard time focusing on work.
My job is seriously getting in the way of my crafting and cooking habit.

I can't work in these conditions

2010-09-22T17:31:00.001-07:00

Having to go to work becomes completely irritating at this time of year.
Not because the work changes or my co-workers become jerks, but because I can think of at least a 101 things I would rather be doing at home.
When September rolls around it's finally cool enough to turn on the oven without bursting into flames and knitting becomes something practical.
This year is especially hard now that I have a house that still needs a bit of work and inspires me to do so many crafts.
I have nutella and three beautiful little pie pumpkins in my kitchen begging me to stay home and make them into something tasty, and a brand new sewing machine that desperately needs to be taken out of its box and tested.
How can they expect me to sit at my desk when I have so much to do at home?
It's almost rude.
I'm leaving the sewing machine in the box until I'm done knitting the stuff for Krystal's baby because once that thing is open I won't pick up my knitting for quite some time.

I'm nearly done with the the wee sweater. It's so cute, even Sean aww'ed at it. One more sleeve and a couple of ties to go and it's done. Then I'm going to make a pair of mary jane booties. I'd like to make her a pumpkin hat, too, but I'd like to be done with all of the knitting by Friday so I can concentrate on my next project - curtains.
I'm going to make a shower curtain for the hall bathroom and a formal roman shade for the little kitchen window.
Sean wants roman shades in his office, and I thought it would be good to test out an easier version on fabric I already have before just jumping in.
It's a gray, potentially rainy day - the best kind of day to stay home.
My house should smell like pumpkin bread and I should be knitting precious little baby things while watching TV on my couch.
Boo to work.

Filling my free weekend

2010-09-17T10:18:00.001-07:00

Sean has work - real work for a paying client - to do this weekend, so plans to clean and seal the kitchen floor this weekend have been put on hold.
Thank God.
So, I get the weekend off. I haven't had one of those since the Medford Five were in town.

Ah, nothing more relaxing than spending time with crazy people.
This weekend I plan to cook a bit and knit up some stuff for my friend Krystal's Miss Makenzie Marie. She will be making her debut soon, so I better get my needles clicking. I've made a hat and some mittens already, but that was before I knew Krystal was having a girl. Now I can get frilly, and I intend to.

The name they picked out makes me think of that song: "Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack/ All dressed in black, black, black..."
Anyway, I plan to watch a bunch of chick flicks while knitting, starting with "The Young Victoria." This is a big deal because back at the apartment Sean's office was in the living room, which made chick-flick viewing impossible. Not that he wouldn't let me watch them, but nothing takes me out of a movie more than intermittent groaning and questions like, "Are you crying? Seriously?"
I may go on a hunt for pie pumpkins to start this year's supply of fresh puree for baking. This bread is first on my list. Mmmm ... nutella. I might take the easy route and make it with canned puree. We'll see.
Have a lovely weekend!

Tapped out

2010-09-16T11:08:00.001-07:00

We finished painting the craft/guest room on Saturday. I haven't mentioned anything about it, not because I don't like it, but because I have no vision for it beyond the perfect color I picked.
Everything is still in boxes. The curtains are awful and I can't do anything about that until I get a sewing machine. I have no idea how I want to organize the room. I have very little furniture for the room and hardly any art to put on the walls.
In short, the craft room needs some craftiness and I seem to be fresh out.
Looking at pictures of a friend of a friend's well-planned, super-efficient and pretty craft room made me realize I should think about how I want to use this room before I buy anything. I mean just look at her ironing board. Genius! I wouldn't have thought of that, but now I totally want one.
I even decided to ditch the stripe wall.
Having a striped wall is a pretty bold design element. Bold prints or more stripes might confuse the look and end up just a jumbled mess. I don't want it to look like I've taken every idea I see on design blogs and forced them into a small space. And because I have no idea what I want to do with this room, I don't want a wall to limit my choices.
Also, and probably more importantly, I was so tired of painting by the time I finished the base coat, the idea of something getting screwed up and having to repaint was so heartbreaking, I abandonded the stripe plan.
Finally, at the end of the renovation process I learned to edit myself and apply realistic expectations to what we can accomplish. You're welcome, Sean.
I will unpack all the boxes and organize my stuff as best as I can and hope inspiration strikes.

Before:

Nearly After:

Joy in functionality

2010-09-15T10:08:00.002-07:00

Have you ever felt your heart flip?
I know that out of of all the home renovation and decoration stuff we've finished in the past month or so, the addition of my kitchen island shouldn't really be the highlight. But it was.
The outdated kitchen made it a tiny bit difficult for me to unconditionally love my house. There is no dishwasher, garbage disposal or unused counter space. Working in such a limited, small space was frustrating.
I was excited and yet reluctant to move the island in because I thought it would be too big to put in the middle of the kitchen where the counter and storage space would be most useful, which meant it would have to be shoved into a corner. It would be another awkwardly placed item cluttering the kitchen.
But, with a bit of maneuvering, we managed to find a spot in the kitchen that allows it to be functional and not too crammed in and in the way.
Since moving it in, all I want to do is cook.
I made baked penne with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes yesterday and snickerdoodles after work.
I have a growing list of dinner and dessert recipes I want to try.
Knowing my kitchen is put together and is a place I can work with comfort makes me so happy.
There will be piles of cookies and other goodies. You've been warned.

There is no escape - just more painting

2010-09-09T00:21:00.003-07:00

When I find myself more motivated to do laundry and go grocery shopping in order to avoid painting my kitchen, it's a sign that I have hit the home-renovation wall.
I just haven't wanted to do anymore.
Unfortunately, I ran out of plausible excuses to procrastinate and was roped into painting the kitchen Tuesday night.
It looks wonderful - but mostly because I'm a total pain. I came up with the fantastic idea somewhere around 12:30 a.m. while painting the walls that the yellow ceiling needed to be painted white. While Sean agreed that it would look better white, he said he would prefer to leave it - but he painted it for me anyway. I'm starting to worry that I'm about to break my patient, hard-working Sean.
Before the kitchen, my share of the painting (not including the cabinets) has been the wood-paneled wall in the living room and I primered the trim in the master bedroom. That's it. Everything else Sean has painted by himself.
This weekend, however, I will add my craft/guest room to my list of painting contributions. I want to do stripes on one wall and Sean insists that I do that so if it gets messed up he can't be blamed.
I also hope to paint the table and chairs we got for the kitchen. Another Craigslist deal - a drop-leaf table and two chairs for $50. Sweet!

Before:

During:

After:

I just need new curtains and a new non-"Brady Bunch" countertop and this room is officially done. Yay!

Quite a lot of progress to report

2010-09-06T02:10:00.002-07:00

We've been in the house for a little more than a week and we're nearly done moving in and renovating the interior of the house.
The first four days at the house, we situated furniture, sorted and unpacked boxes.
After that, Sean painted the hall and bathrooms and hung up all the art in all the finished rooms.
A few purchases later, and I bring you the finished product of our hard work:

The living room:
Before:

During

After

The hall:
Before (I don't have a before picture, but it was the same as the during photo with carpet)

During

After

The master bedroom:
Before

After

The master bathroom
Before

During

After

The hall bathroom:

Before

During

After (just need a shower curtain to complete this room)

Sean's office:

Before (Sorry this photo is so awful - but it's just another unpainted, carpeted room, so you get the idea!)

After

We're hoping to have the kitchen and my craft room done this week. I'll post before and after pictures as soon as they're done.

I love our house!

Sean is crafty

2010-09-05T21:36:00.003-07:00

After spending a year at a desk crammed with equipment for two computers into a tiny space behind the couch in the apartment's living room, Sean decided he wanted a desk that spanned the entire length of his new office.
He planned to get two L-shaped desks like the one he had in his office at the house in Surprise. But on a trip to Ikea for light bulbs (those evil Swedes make you come back for light bulbs knowing you'll always leave with more), Sean was bitten by the craft bug.
Between painting every room in the house by himself and unpacking, he made his own desk.
He built it out of 8 foot-long boards he stained black (they were so long we had to bring into his office through the window!) and adjustable yellow metal sawhorses.
You can't buy stuff this awesome.

Settling in

2010-09-04T14:23:00.003-07:00

Sean asked an interesting question the other day: "How is it possible that the stuff we're moving from a one-bedroom apartment has nearly filled a three-bedroom house?"
He's right, and I have no answer.
The place is pretty full. It isn't as jam-packed as the apartment but there is little available space left.
We had one casualty. Apparently, they didn't have giant furniture in the 1950s because we cannot get our dining table into the kitchen. Our options are to wait to move it in when the kitchen door is being replaced and have the table built into the house, or search for something that will fit through the door.
I'm on the hunt for a drop-leaf table, and we now have a fabulous patio table. :(
All the rooms are painted and moved into except the kitchen and my craft room.
Before and after pictures coming soon.

It's happening

2010-08-25T09:33:00.002-07:00

The living room and master bedroom are painted.
I couldn't be happier.
We picked Ocean Pearl for three of the walls and Cottage White for the wood-paneled wall in the living room.

Are you asking yourself why I would keep the wood paneling? I briefly toyed with the idea of removing it, but after the contact paper in the cabinets and the layers of flooring, I've learned my lesson. There's no telling what kind of nightmare lurks behind that paneling. Sean said the wall is probably covered in linoleum. I'm convinced there are about four layers of hideous wallpaper back there. The paneling stays.

In the master bedroom we used Almost Aqua, which I can't find an image of on Google.
Sean did this room by himself in a day and it looks great.

My pictures don't really show the colors very well, but it's all I have to offer right now.

It's really exciting to see progress.
As the home-improvement process continues, I find that my standards are becoming more and more relaxed.
Here's an example of a typical conversation I have with myself:
"Uh-oh, I can see the brush strokes on the trim here and there," I say.
"Is it painted?" I reply.
"Well, yeah, but...," I say.
"If it's painted, it is good enough for me," I reply.
"OK, sounds good to me," I say.

Projects completed:
Kitchen and bathroom cabinets are painted.
Flooring has been ripped up and glue has been scrubbed away.
Living room and master bedroom are painted.

Projects on deck:
Painting Sean's office, my craft room, hallway and kitchen.

Moving day is Friday and I'm pretty sure we have no where nearly enough packed yet. I see this being a weekend-long move. Yay, my favorite.

What I did on my summer vacation

2010-08-22T23:47:00.004-07:00

On the first day of my vacation Sean and I woke up at 7 a.m. and headed to the house to strip the floors in the hall and kitchen. We accomplished our goal that day, but the floors were far from done. See, when you pull up vinyl and linoleum floors, you're just pulling up the top part - all the glue is still stuck to the concrete. I seem to have missed this information in all the HGTV shows I've watched.
After hours of the hardest work we've ever done, we left defeated knowing the floor still needed a lot of work. That night we went to pick up my sister and her family at the airport to start two weeks of no work on the house. A vacation, indeed.
We spent a few days up at my aunt and uncle's cabin in Forest Lakes where I got a cold. Lovely.
Toward the end of the family vacation, I managed to get Sean sick. Just in time for house work to resume. Perfect.
After dropping off Sami, David and the kids at the airport, I started on the floors again. My mom and dad came over and helped me scrub the glue off of the floor in the living room. It only took us an hour! I was elated and figured that the hall and kitchen would only take a few more hours. I don't know why I kid myself like this.
I think they used super glue in the hall and kitchen.
After two days of stripping and two days of scrubbing, the floor is now finished.
It's not perfect. There are still a few spots that need extra scrubbing, and we still have to patch all the divots left from the carpet tack strips and figure out how we're going to cover up the patchwork.
But I don't care. I will work on this slowly and fix it all in time. After all the work it took to get to this point, all I care about is that I can move in with the floors the way they are.
We're moving in on Friday so Sean and I have until Thursday to pack, transport boxes and paint as much of the house as we can.
I need another vacation.

Completed projects:
Floors.
Kitchen cabinets.
Master bathroom cabinets.
Hall bathroom cabinets.

Projects on deck:
Painting everything.
Patching divots in floors.
Touching up kitchen cabinets (they need a little help after the scraping and scrubbing).

Still in need of exterior door for kitchen entry.

If we don't sleep, this is all totally possible.

What lies beneath

2010-08-09T06:41:00.001-07:00

Sean started pulling up the carpets on Friday. The concrete looks great and we might be able to skip painting it and just seal it. He started in the master bedroom and as he pulled up the carpet in the hall on his way to his office, he found something unexpected.
Instead of finding the beautiful greenish brown concrete floor that was in the bedroom, Sean found nasty green and white checkered vinyl.

Why didn't we see this coming?
I should have known after scraping about an inch of contact paper from the cabinets - every layer representing the style of each decade - that the former owner wasn't one for pulling up worn and/or dirty stuff, she just covered it up with a fresh layer.

In a panic, we ran to the living room to see what was under the carpet there. Crossing our fingers and our toes, we lifted up a corner to find ...

linoleum tiles. Wonderful.

Instead of starting to paint rooms on Saturday, we spend the day scraping up the linoleum in the living room. Probably the most back-breaking work I've ever done.

Living room down, kitchen and hallway left to go.

Despite wanting to leave the carpet in to save us from having to do all this extra work we really don't have time for, Sean battled the linoleum with me. Despite wanting to leave the cabinets the way they were, he helped me prime, paint and hang them. He indulged his crazy wife's desire to do all kinds of work. I truly have the best husband in the world. Even though he thinks I may be trying to kill him slowly and I'm a bossy idealistic perfectionist, (the worst sort of person to do renovation work with) he still loves me. I won the husband lottery.

Completed projects:
Kitchen cabinets.
Hall cabinets.
Master bath cabinets.

Projects under way:
Stripping floors in living room, hall and kitchen.

Projects yet to have anything done:
Painting interior of entire house.
Exterior door for kitchen entry is still at large.

Yikes.

Week 1: Where do we start?

2010-08-02T16:11:00.014-07:00

Sean and I have trashed the place.
It feels like we haven't made much progress outside of making the place a total mess.
The kitchen cabinets have been de-contact papered, sanded, primered and now have their first coat of paint.

The bathroom cabinets have been primered and are on deck for painting tonight.

That's it.

Last night was a bit discouraging for me.
We're painting after I get off work for the next few days because the electrician is punching holes in the walls and kicking up dust in the mornings.
I walked into the kitchen last night, the only room that's remotely close to being done, to see that removing the lovely yellow backsplash to install two new outlets revealed dried orange glue used to hold up the hideous backsplash. Also, removing the backsplash ripped a huge chunk of the plaster from the wall.

Giant step backward.
Now we'd have to drywall the area and paint all the walls in the kitchen because I have no idea what color the rest of the walls are.
We still have all the trim, doors and rooms to paint and all the flooring to rip up. Did I mention the kitchen floor has a layer of vinyl and a layer of linoleum? What about the fact that all the tack strips for the carpet are nailed down instead of glued? Yeah. It should be fun.
Home ownership has been an exciting pain in the butt.
I really want to fast forward to when this is all done. Sean said we need an '80s movie montage. I could go for that.
I know it will turn out looking awesome and it will be totally worth all the effort and exhaustion.
How could a house with a front door like this be yucky inside?

I found this gem on Craigslist for $100. It's custom stained glass made by a local artist.
I so love this door!

Another name for home is...

2010-07-28T15:00:00.013-07:00

I have a thing for naming stuff.
My first car was Moby because he was a great white whale of a car. My last car was Chica because she was a red-hot mama.
When we lived in Surprise there was a jackrabbit that lived in this giant bush thing in our backyard, his name was Jack.
I have even named the lone freckle on the tip on Sean's nose. Fred the Freckle is my favorite freckle in the whole world.
I'm not saying the names I come up with are terribly clever, I just name a lot of stuff.
Maybe it goes back to my parents calling me George before I was born so they didn't have to refer to me as "It."
Since I've named freckles and cars, our house has to have a name.
The houses in all my favorite classic books have names so mine must as well.
One thing I love about our house is the mature trees in the yards.
The trunks are the kind you can wrap your arms around, not just your hand.
Their branches spread wide and cover the entire front yard. In their shade, I have been able to bear the scorching July weather while standing in the yard watering the plants.
I can't wait to see if the leaves turn colors in the fall - if they do, I might not mind having to rake them up.
I have tons of little white Christmas lights to put in them.
Hopefully they'll bear fruit in the spring.
So for all those reasons (and because it sounds pretty), I have decided to name our little plot of land Mulberry Park.
Doesn't that sound like such a happy place?

This proves it

2010-07-27T18:32:00.006-07:00

I woke up, started the coffee, sat down at my computer to check e-mail and read my favorite blogs when were called in to the title company to sign the paperwork for our home loan.
Still bleary-eyed and insufficiently caffeinated, Sean and I were ready to be a little surly.
We never got a chance to be grumpy to anyone.
It was so much faster than we expected. I didn't even get a hand cramp from all the signing.
Our closing costs were more than half of what we expected.
Our mortgage payments will be almost $100 less each month than we expected.
The house appraised for less than we offered and the seller agreed to lower the sales price by $4,000 (the house is perfect, but the value took a hit because of foreclosures in the area).
Man, I love a good deal!
God is good, and I have a 3rd degree black belt in shopping.

One craft begets another

2010-07-26T19:06:00.007-07:00

Our apartment building was built in 1964, and some of our apartment is still very groovy, baby. Floor-length mirrors in every room, fabulous back in the day, not so much now. I decided to use starch to get an old shower curtain to stick to one of the smaller mirrors in the living room.
It worked perfectly and the green and blue stripes added some color to my all-white rental.

Only problem is, now I need a new shower curtain. I plan on pulling out the white and silver fabric I used to make curtains for my wedding reception. I think it will look nice with my awesome pink bathroom.

As you can see, the shower curtain is only one of the problems I need to tackle in this room, but don't you just love that pink?!

No unsupervised quilting

2010-07-25T18:33:00.008-07:00

My friend is pregnant with her first child, and knowing how I take an eternity to knit anything huge and repetitious, I decided I would try my hand at quilting to make her a gift. I mean, how hard can it be to sew together squares of material?
Hard.
Not only is it hard to sew squares together, it's really hard to cut material into squares. Apparently there's a reason they sell all those quilting supplies at craft stores. I bought a rotary cutter and nothing else thinking a ruler would suffice. Only after stacking the patches did I realize I had made a number of square-like shapes.
Oh well, press on.
After figuring out how to thread my mom's sewing machine and how to sew strips of material with the seam on the same side (something I didn't do an embarrassing number of times), I put together decent-looking top and bottom sheets.
I finished the sheets just before breaking my mom's sewing machine. So I can't finish it until I get my own sewing machine, which is probably for the best, because from here the quilting process gets harder. Judging from how I struggled through the easy part, I don't think I'm up for basting, hand quilting and binding.
I did, however, really like shopping for fabric. I made the quilt before my friend found out she's having a girl, so I kept the colors gender neutral. I think the fabric combos look fabulous.
Knowing me, Krystal's baby will get this quilt for her high school graduation.