countdown - 5 hours to bird time

okay, so i'm up a little later than i expected.

the turkey is in the brine bath, which will get flipped at three a.m., then the bird gets rinsed and put in the oven at 6 am, because dinner's at eleven!

herb butter is ready.

sweet potatoes are mashed, rosemary/mascarpone is mixed....

can't do anything else until tomorrow morning.
oh, wait.

clean the stove-top
clear off the chair
clean the bathroom
dust the living room
put away all my shoes
put away all my laundry
hang pictures in the bedroom

nine hours.
four of which i plan to spend sleeping, which means i have, oh, 45 minutes for each task if i'm going to be ready by the time everyone shows up.
oh, wait.
i have less than that, because i also need to finish cooking, and at some time or other, shower and make myself presentable.

here, look at some pretty pictures:

that would be a BAZINGA cross stitch, a basketweave scarflette, and honey-bourbon barbecue sauce.
christmas crafting proceeds apace.

time for sleep!..... ZZzzzzz.... ZZzzzzz

turkey tango

somehow, i got stuck hosting thanksgiving this year. i've heard and read so many horror stories about "the first holiday" after couples get married and try to cook for the families, and i'm a bit freaked. not really, because i actually cook for my family a lot, but i've never done a turkey before, so i'm just a teensy bit nervous.

i have an idea for a fabulous turkey though. i'm going to gently slit the skin, and rub in butter, sage, rosemary, garlic, pepper and a teensy bit of orange zest, and i'm going to put a bit of chicken broth in the bottom of the roaster to keep the turkey from drying out. oh, and i'll be brining the turkey the night before.

potatoes are also on my list, and i'll be making two small potato dishes - mashed sweet potatoes covered with a rosemary-ricotta spread and toasted frosted flakes on top, and roasted sage/pepper sliced new potatoes. and of course, we have to have the classic green bean casserole. i might also do some baby carrots, because i like carrots.

holiday season is tough because it means blogging without pictures. i have several super-secret projects in the works, and i was very fortunate this year to find enough material in my stash for things that i hardly had to buy anything. maybe a yard of fabric here, or a special hook there (yes, i needed it to do a special technique), but that's really it. i think almost everyone is getting homemade gifts this year, baked or hooked or sewn or knit or somehow otherwise crafted.

i'm blogging right now, even though i'm super busy, because the laundry is going mid-cycle and the paint is drying on my dotee. i still have to finish one last dotee for my swap, but i thought i'd show you what i crafted so far.

this is na'tuin (points if you get the reference, and bairloch, you don't count) - she has trouble keeping her elephants on her back. here she is in her new home:

and here's another version of the op-topus i made for the last dotee swap i was in, but this one isn't a creepy eye-ball octopus, just a regular little blue one.

i still did all the sequins and beading on the tentacles like i did last time, and look! there's lunch under there!

this is the one that's still in progress. i plan to absolutely cover the back of this one in sequins.

darn. washer stopped. time to get back to work!

i've been gone awhile....

so, here's some stuff i've been working on since august:

wedding afghan #1:

 homemade macaroni and cheese recipe:

wedding afghan #2:

commissioned necklaces:

scarf recplica (crocheted): it's a christmas present for someone, but i'm not telling who!

homemade meatball and cabbage soup recipe:

coca-cola sleep shorts!

crochet owlets (that's a quarter for reference):

mi frist amigurumi! link from zelda (he got sent away in a craft swap and has a happy new home now):

another in a long line of christmas presents - a cutesy fuzzy hat for a friend's daughter:

i've got about a dozen projects in the works right now, and for today, i cleaned the kitchen so i could cook, put on a roast, started the laundry, and i'm in the process of cleaning our bedroom so the laundry clothes can migrate from the hallway, clearing up the hallway for the as-yet-unpacked boxes from the game room, so we can get the old couch out of there, so the boxes can go back in and hopefully be unpacked, so we can move the big green chair in so the new loveseat can come in from my parent's garage.

i'd rather be knitting.

plus side is we had some $ for furniture as a wedding present from my parents. my brother and his wife chose to get a leather sectional couch, but we waited until we saw a store going out of business and we got a new coffee table, 2 matching end tables, a couch, a loveseat, and a dresser and mirror for the same price. it was pretty awesome. the one end table and the mirror is in storage right now, but we managed to find room for the rest. we got rid of the old tables and gave the couch to a very deserving family we know. the old couch from the game room and dresser are on their way to being sold - we might even turn a profit on the little couch.

*sigh* commercial break over. back to work.

ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

last time we checked in with our domestic operative, she was frantically trying to get things done before the big day. so, how is she faring now?

well, ok... i guess. i'm down to 17 squares on the one wedding afghan, the other one is started, progress is being made on the baby 'ghan, and all wedding crafts were completed in time! some of the other stuff has hit the back burner for now, but once i'm done with all these stupid blankets i'll be ready to just finish something off nice and quick already.

the move is, um, interesting. going from a 2-story, 4-bedroom house with separate kitchen and living areas to a small, 2-bedroom condo has been an experience. a good one, though. we got rid of $500 worth of stuff (through garage sales and resale) and used that plus some of our wedding money to upgrade a lot of our kitchen and living area things. i've got a quilt in the works for our bed, so we really didn't blow any of our money on that stuff. we got all new dishes and cookware (yay!) and a bunch of small appliances, and we bought an endtable for our bed, new lamps, pillows, blankets, storage... and i couldn't find a shower curtain i liked so i'm making one. seriously. the only damask-green shower curtain i could find was $90 from some online boutique. i bought ivory and green damask from joann's for $15 and a strip of mottled gray for the bottom for $4. now i just have to sew them together.

well, that and put away a ton of stuff. our dining area is currently invaded by a ton of boxes. i wouldn't be surprised if more of them hit the resale store, or, if they won't take it, goodwill, or barring even that, the garbage. downsizing is good for us. really, it is. funny thing is we got most of our furniture in, but it still didn't quite feel like home until all the books were unpacked and i started hanging things on the walls and cooking dinner in our new kitchen. tonight we had morrocan chicken and couscous.

Heat a burner to medium heat... coat a medium frying pan with a thin layer of olive oil. place in two thawed chicken breasts, sprinkle liberally with morrocan spice mix and sparingly with cinnamon (cardamom would really be better). drizzle with a bit of soy sauce, and spoon in 4-5 canned apricot halves and a few tablespoons of juice. when the chicken is done, remove them and the apricots to a serving dish and turn the burner up to high to reduce the juices down to a nice thick glaze. serve with couscous!

then, we were thinking the couscous was such a nice mix between breading, rice, and pasta, that it would be really good to stuff meat with. so now i really want to try stuffed pork chops with couscous, garlic, lots of fresh basil, pine nuts and a bit of olive oil. mmmmmm.

i've been itching to can lately, but i have shoes to put away. sort of a non-sequitor, but completely true.

something something something dark side...

double points if you get the reference.

today, i officially crossed over into the dark side.
look at me, i'm knitting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am so beyond thrilled at this point, but i'm also exhausted. i learned the long tail cast on, which was so much easier than i thought it would be, and to do stockinette stitch and garter stitch! it helps i had a good teacher, who also happens to be left handed :)

we also made dinner tonight! she grilled steak and i made salad: dried apricots cut small, walnuts, feta and dark greens with an Asian vinaigrette. yum.

next time we hang out i should teach her crochet. she want to make little amigurumis. not really my forte, but i know how to crochet in the round, so we're good!

doom update: after doing some quick math, i discovered that the afghan i'm making 80 squares for will only end up about four feet wide. yeah... i'll have to up the total to 120. which means i'm 1/12 of the way done. if i do three squares every day, i'll be done by mid july. this does not include soaking the damn red yarn until it doesn't bleed anymore, blocking, sewing, weaving in what will be something like 260-some ends, and adding a border. we're going to be cutting it close to the wire. i made 5 squares today.

picturific!

today i went to the yarn store. i didn't buy anything (there) and i made this:

this is one of the squares for one of the wedding afghans i'm doing. it's the good cause afghan from one of the crochet today mags, but i don't want to get up right now and dig out which one. please note that this particular picture is pre-blocking, and yes, it is acrylic, and yes, it still blocks.

and i also worked on this:

the dreaded tension curse!!! i don't know how to fix it, and i really don't want to rip out umpteen rows. i plan on adding a large ruffle border. do you think that will hide it? how do i get through the rest of the blanket???

then i went shopping at ben franklin, but i didn't spend any money, because my honey got me a gift card for my birthday. i picked out these:

a cool tips cookbook and birch knitting needles. i'm slowly being drawn in by the dark side. though have you ever noticed that some crochet patterns tout "knit-look!" stitchery, but you never see knitting patterns bragging that they've achieved a "crochet-look!" ??

then i went home.

i baked.

yes, that's supposed to be orange frosting on brownies. it's the fifth graders last band practice tomorrow. if you're really observant you'll notice the little swatch i made to test my eucalan on the towel in the background.

then, while doing laundry, i worked on this:

tardis!!! which is part of this:

damn. i want to keep this one too. it still has to be washed with a load of whites. the great thing about doing bleach stencil on a black shirt?? you can touch it up with a black sharpie and no one is the wiser... heh heh. yeah, i hate spray adhesive.

i also attempted to tie-dye a green t-shirt, and that was an epic fail. i used a different kind of dye, and i was out of rubber bands, or at least i couldn't find any (not that i looked past the room i was in) so i used bits of yarn, and, yeah, it didn't work. then i couldn't get all the dye out so i said screw it and tossed it. it was a $2 goodwill shirt. however, that does mean that unless i get another one and give it another go (back to rubber bands and good ol' rit dye for me), i have to give up my brown-striped, crochet-embellished shirt. oh, and the cat got into the thread. i could only salvage half of it.

currently, the laundry is going, a&e pride and prejudice is playing, the fan is blowing (damn no air conditioning), and this is soaking:

i hope it works. it should... i don't know why it wouldn't. i would like to be able to wear it without wanting to scratch my arms off.

and, because i can, gratuitous kitty pic:

sometimes when she's being a real angel kitty she'll still curl up and sleep with me. aww.

damn. the soak timer and the laundry timer just went off. which one first??

curry! mmmm......

i found an Indian recipe i can cook! yay!

as per usual, i've personalized it. i added hot chili powder, substituted carrots for tomatoes, and i left out the potatoes, because there's already starch in it with the rice....

CHICKEN KORMA
(by the way, this is a great mild dish for an intro to Indian food. my hands smelled delicious for days, no matter how many times i washed them!)

3 tbsp. olive oil
2 carrots, sliced thin
1 onion, chopped
3 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick (3")
1 bay leaf (or 1/4 tsp. thyme in a spice bag (which is a tied loose weave cloth, no need for anything special))
1-2 cloves garlic depending on taste, minced
1/2 tsp. fresh minced ginger
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. hot chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1 lb uncooked chicken, cut into 1/2" cubes (about 2 medium chicken breasts)
1/2 cup light sour cream
Rice to serve (Basmati rice is really good but there's no need for it, really)

Saute the onion and carrots in a large saucepan with the oil, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaf. When onions are just beginning to turn clear, remove the cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves & add remaining spices and the chicken, stir until spices are evenly distributed. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until chicken is done, stirring a few times. Before serving, mix in the sour cream. Serve over rice!

delicious.

in other news, i made more earrings. and another bracelet. and a necklace. and some soap. and i'm getting ready to go crochet a jayne cobb hat for the firefly swap. excited!

i'll post pics later, when i get ready to send out all my firefly goodies.

check it!

http://gazetteonline.com/blogs/dish-it-out/2010/02/01/iowa-city-hy-vee-stores-host-souper-bowl

oh yeah, i made the local paper.

but how disappointing is this? "there were no chili entries" at the 1st ave store? you mean i win by default???

by default?!?!?

hey, i guess a win is a win... sort of...

finally! something positive

i think i've finally decided what to do with my life after this may, which is good. but that's not why i'm finally posting again.

i made chili! first time ever this week, three batches only. funny thing is, i haven't ever eaten chili in my life either.

long story, but i need some diversions, so here goes:

after a week where i had a complete nervous collapse (i'm not dramatizing this, either), i had been tentatively looking for things to set my sights on, to keep myself occupied; you know, little goals i could accomplish.

enter weekly grocery shopping. walking up to the store, i saw a huge yellow and red sign "calling all cooks! enter the first-annual souper bowl!" so i did.

i had never eaten chili before because i absolutely despise beans. so my original idea was a beanless, beer-based chili. that's right, beer. stout beer, to be precise. and barbecue sauce and grape jelly. there are those that would be put off by grape jelly, but trust me, it's perfect.

of course, then 9 out of 10 people i talked to ("what do you think of when you think of chili?") said beans, tomatoes, meat and spices. so, in go the beans.

whatever. it worked! true, there were only two entrants in the chili division, but i still beat his nerdy twitchy white butt!

so, before the recipe becomes the property of the grocery store, i will share it here:

2 lbs. lean ground beef
6 stripts thick cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced fire-roasted tomatoes, drained
2 cans (4 oz each) chopped green chiles, drained
1 (12 oz) bottle Guinness or other stout beer
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
2/3 cup grape jelly
1 can (15 oz) red beans, drained
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
2 heaping tablespoons hot chili powder
1 teaspoons red pepper flakes

1. in large soup pot, combine tomatoes, chiles, beer, bbq sauce and jelly. let cook for 20-30 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, unti alcohol evaporates.
2. meanwhile, brown beef along with the garlic and bacon in a large skillet. drain of excess fat when done.
3. add beef/bacon/garlic to the soup pot along with all the extra ingredients. cook for 20 minutes on medium heat, then reduce heat, cover, and cook for an additional 40 minutes. this is also good made the night before and re-heated in the crock pot.
4. garnish with shredded italian blend (parmesan, mozzarella, asiago, romano) cheese and serve with crostini.

Crostini:
1 loaf italian or french bread, sliced thin
oilive oil
garlic salt

arrange bread slices in a single layer in a foil-lined cookie pan. brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt. bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or run under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until golden and crispy.

on to the final round! wish me luck!

CRAZINESS!

marching band is over! I can have my life back!!!!

our last game was friday night, followed by a great day at state festival on saturday (we brought home a 1! first time in 3 years!)

my life officially started back up today, instead of sunday, because mother and i spent ALL DAY sewing fleece sleepers for the preemie project. we also brought along hats and booties to be donated, just in time for those late-october babies... pumpkin hats!!

and little green booties to match (except the picture is muy sucky)... hopefully you get the idea.

to celebrate my first day of having a life again, i cooked supper, albeit at 8:30 pm (future-hubby has to work the night shift for a few days). i made these pear-and-prosciutto cups with croissant dough, brie, and mozzarella... i also made them on sunday, but i used phyllo dough, which by the way i hate. i still don't have the cups right for these... phyllo is too thin and difficult to cook evenly, croissant dough is tasty but too heavy....

amd as a side dish i whipped up a sweet potato casserole, minus marshmallows. we used golden sweet potatoes and mashed them with a little butter, spread ricotta on top and the sprinkled frosted flakes doused in more butter on top. baked it 'til the flakes were crispy, et voila!

i finally uploaded my shrug and a hat i just finished, but now i can't seem to find them on my computer. it's time for bed anyways, before i pass out in front of my computer.
life is good.

i'm back... whew....

after a much-needed hiatus, i have returned with crafty goodness!

The first batch of pickles came out, and apparently i didn't sterilize a few of the jars properly cuz two out of the original eight had some sort of weird sediment in the bottom of the jar.... yeah... i didn't eat those. the other ones were good though. especially the spicy pickles. yum yum yum.

tomorrow i'm making butternut squash soup so i'll let you know how that goes.

on the crochet front, i finished a shrug out of noro garden yarn, and i'm, well, mostly pleased with it. it's my first item EVER with sleeves, but i left it in my office where i was covertly working on it in-between classes, so i'll have to post pictures later.

i also started a hat with the last of my bernat cashmere, some fuzzy curly white yarn (recylced!), and the yarn pauraniente and i dyed with kool-aid last winter. i don't have pictures of that either, but i will when it's done.

but i do have pictures. i finally got bit by the dotee bug. nobody seems to know exactly what they are. i mean, objectively, yes, they are relatively palm-sized dolls, usually with a round face, a hanger, not much distinction in the way of body parts... but what, exactly, are they?

i almost think of them as little prayer dolls, or little goddess dolls, but i guess sometimes you could just have silly ones.

like my Nessa. she's my first dotee! i had just finished reading "alone in the kitchen with an eggplant" and i happened to mention it to my fiance when we were riding in the car. he thought it sounded "quite sinister" and before we knew it, we were making up stories about a vengeful eggplant, in a british accent, with her "jaunty green cap."

so, here's nessa, my murderous eggplant.
she's made of felt with beaded accents and a sculpy knife. oh! and she has a friend, her pet spider leroy.

and here's a shot of her "jaunty green cap." ha, sometimes i crack myself up.

i don't think i'm done with her yet though. i want to add a bit more embroidery to the bottom, in-between the green beads, and also some more embroidery leaf detail on her cap. i have a word bead that says "green," and i'd like to try embroidery the "jaunty cap" phrase on the back, but i already tried once, got halfway through the word jaunty and tore it out because i mostly suck at embroidery.

tomorrow, along with butternut squash, we'll have the triplets, charlie, chelsea, and chester pea.

off to the doctor!

for a headache that won't quit. two days and three different kinds of medication, enough sleep and caffeinne, good diet and all, and i'm sitting in front of the computer with sunglasses on, feeling each tick of the keyboard reverberate inside my skull...

granted i'm only on the computer because i actually do need to work today, so through the wonders of e-mail and cell-phone correspondence i'm actually getting a fair amount done, just not at the office.

i wouldn't go to the doc either, i mean, it's just a headache right? who goes to the doctor for a headache? headaches nearly every day, though, sometimes accompanied by nausea and often with sensitivity to light, sound, and movement are not good. this one has all that and more! tell the lady what she's got: skull-splitting pain centered behind the eye, accompanied with a severe sense of vertigo and throbbing pain upon movement, sensitivity to light and sound, movement-related nausea and a constant ringing in her ears!

i'd rather be listening to bad trombonists.

i was feeling better for a brief spell yesterday and managed to cook like a mad woman for the two hours i was functional. there's something uppity-foodie feeling about cooking while casually watching a french movie. and no, it wasn't french cooking.

i made a hearty sausage stew and cornbread to go with it, a pie for dessert, and homemade peach-strawberry muffins for sectionals this morning. except my crock pot soup stayed on "warm" all night so it would be ready to go this morning, and the rice and barley kind of, well, turned to mush. the veggies are still firm though, so no loss really. sweet basil, thyme, and a pinch of hot chili powder... yum...

after the doc today i get to go home and be little miss stepford again and vacuum the house and clean the toilet, provided i don't get put on bedrest or something (can you say, "drama queen"? i know, i know, i eat it all up...). i did a massive round of dishes yesterday, but during my cooking binge, which i seem to have been trying to provide for all two of us for a week, i managed to fill the sink again. both sides. and a bit of the counter. scrubbing bubbles ahoy!

wow, my mood seems to shift precariously and precociously today between humorous and downright depressed.

maybe doc'll have something for that too.

school is sucking away my life...

it's really not that bad.

you know i exaggerate. as my future-hubby will say though, i'm not good for much once i've gotten home from work. it's that getting up at 5:30 every day thing... which means at this point, being the total sleep-hound i am, that i should be in bed instead of writing, which i haven't done much of lately either.

the pickles, while still not posted, all sealed except for the spicy-sweet variety, which should be okay sitting in the fridge to steep. three weeks left and i can try my first batch!

i've been floating from crochet project to crochet project... started an afghan as a present for someone next year, been picking away at my afghan, working here and there on the potential wedding shawl, trying in vain to work with this gorgeous red/brown fuzzy yarn, and in desperate need for something quick and easy pulled a cheap skein of caron's out of the cupboard and commenced a shrug, for which i have no pattern and turned out not to be quick and easy as i measured my foundation chain and soon found out the stitches took up more space. so i got about six inches into it and frogged it all.

something will come around eventually.

labor day was yesterday, and i took the opportunity of staying at home all day, while future-hubby was in the garage messing with the cars, to try a real, gourmet, at home recipe. it had mixed results. i made chicken mole (pronounced "mo-lay") using a recipe i synthesized after looking at various other recipes across the spectrum of the internet, from foodnetwork to allrecipes and about four other sites in between.

chicken mole sauce is a mexican dish consisting of chicken (easy) drenched in this fabulous chile pepper-chocolate sauce. it doesn't taste like chocolate. i didn't even know it had chocolate in it. anyway, when you order this stuff at a restaurant, it is dark, smooth, almost glaze-like. i procure all the needed peppers and proceed to de-stem, de-vein, and de-seed all dozen of them (yes, this recipe made too much sauce) down to the tiny, 2.5" serrano peppers, saute them with onion and fresh garlic, toast almonds and pine nuts, put together a heavenly blend of spices with tomatoes and melted bittersweet chocolate....

i have to say, the smell was fantastic.

schlepped it into the blender (which was a great mess, i tell you... it's a great thing i had made my rooster-apron the night before!)....

and it looked like runny cat poop. or mostly-digested vomit. i mean the color, the texture... imagine a vat of diarrhea... it was absolutely disgusting.

i worked for three and a half hours on this damn sauce... i cooked it down some more, adding water to thin it, added another brick of chocolate, scooped it back into the blender until i thought the little motor was going to run out... it improved the texture, but the color still looked like, well, nothing pleasant, lest i recount the horrifying descriptions above. i finally coated some chicken with it and stuck it in the oven to bake. you're supposed to put it in a crock pot for 2 to 3 hours, but hey, i didn't have that kind of time. i should have covered it... the way it turned out was a little dark and dry on the top, richer underneath...

it tasted pretty good, layered into cups with rice and monterrey jack cheese and guacamole, but somehow i still didn't get the texture quite right, and for having a dozen chile peppers of three different varieties (anaheim, poblano, and serrano) it was not very spicy at all.

turns out i should have used dried peppers instead of fresh, and i definitely need to buy almond paste instead of trying to use almonds, and put a really nice food processor on my wedding registration list. then, come to think of it, the only dried chiles i ever see in the store are the tiny little red ones; not habaneros, i can't remember what they're called. so i'd have to dry my own chiles. in a house with no air-conditioning.

come to think of it, they sell mole sauce in the next aisle at the grocery store.

pickles, second round

i don't have any pictures yet, but i needed to breifly blog my pickles before i forget what i put in them!

i went into all-out experiment mode, so some of these will probably be kinda nasty, but they sounded good at the time.... that being said, i also used small jars as to not waste massive amounts of cucumber. well, they were starting to get soft anyway....

sweet pickles - apple cider vinegar, cinnamon stick, cloves
spicy-sweet pickles - apple cider vinegar, cinnamon stick, cloves, and red pepper flakes
"scarborough" pickles - regular white vinegar, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
scarborough-dill: self-explanatory
asian(ish) - white vinegar, dill, ginger, garlic, and few drops of soy sauce
mustard pickles - white vinegar, mustard seed, celery seed
mustard dill - white vinegar, mustard seed, celery seed, and dill!

i'm sure some of these will come out more like "ick"les, but i needed to use up those cucumbers somehow! i'm a little nervous about the sweet pickles and the asian pickles... the ginger just smelled so good with the garlic and dill though, i couldn't resist! i'll post pictures soon.

i made pickles!

but i have to wait 7 weeks before they're ready. boo.

and i'm so antsy to see if they turned out or not!! i've never done pickles before, just jam, and fruit and sugar pretty much always tastes good, so no biggie there.

here we have, from left to right: 2 jars (spicy!) dill/garlic/peppercorn/red pepper, 1 jar dill/garlic, 3 jars dill/garlic/peppercorn, 1 jar dill/garlic spears and 1 jar dill/garlic/peppercorn spears.

so far, all but one of the jars has sealed. and my family really likes crunchy, garlicky pickles, and i definitely wanted to a try a spicy variety. i barely put in a pinch of flakes, but the jars are small, so i think it'll be enough. but what to call them....? "hickles" (hot-pickles) was quickly rejected... but 7 weeks!!!! that's so long to figure out if i've made a tasty pickle. and i don't have much patience!

one other bit of good news is that they actually changed the start of school by a week so it doesn't coincide with state fair. gotta love rural iowa...

and i learned how to spin on a drop spindle last weekend. haven't done it yet though, even though my man made me a bottom-whorl drop spindle. see, i took his parents (future in-laws) to the arts festival in amana and they had a tent where this guy was just sitting out front spinning on a wheel, and him and his wife showed me so much stuff! they raise these huge, fluffy angora bunnies and that's how they got started spinning. like i need another hobby....