Growing Traditions

2012-01-25T07:29:00.000-05:00

I am spread too thin and I am having trouble eliminating because I love so much of what I do.

I am still in love with my scarf even after the halfway point

I hate self portraits, I need something creative to do for them

I miss flowers
I miss family

There is no true substitute for either and the fake/virtual attempts are fun, but nothing like the real thing

Despite all early indications I believe I am a morning person (relatively speaking). This will be an entire post sometime soon.

I hate tracking (which is different than documenting) stuff (food, spending, exercise, earnings) it is tedious and no matter how effective I know it is, I hate it.

I am sick of my cold. I’ve been diligent with handwashing, but I continue to go out in public so I have caught a second one this year

I need strengthen my ankles, especially the left one

The clearing, and obtaining

2012-01-18T07:15:00.000-05:00

I have been clearing out the rooms of my house, but I've also been thinking of a couple of things that I would find enjoyable to own.

This year I want a basket. I've been trying to find the exact thing, but it's tough to define. First, I would use it to walk out to the garden and pick lettuce, and then later in the year it would need to hold tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and all sorts of other vegetables.

For this garden basket it want a basket with a handle that I can hold in the crook of my arm and it needs to be big, but not super huge.

A couple of types that I have found that I like so far

This is a metro basket, I have one already (without the weird scrunching top, it's just open) that I currently use for yarn. It's nice, modern (maybe to modern), but it's sort of huge, plus I'm not sure the fabric is the best plan for a garden basket.

Something like this looks pretty good, but I'd have to hold it to know if it is comfortable (plus the price is pretty steep). I would probably take the fabric out.

Then there are the other things I want use the basket for. Bread and such. oh man so many uses, but I don't want a house full of baskets I just want one that works perfectly for the garden and sufficiently for the rest of it.

I think my best bet is to start looking at thrift shops where I can try a basket out and then not pay through the nose when I find one I like.

Where do you find garden items that they don't sell at the big box garden shops?

Dough, week 2 blueberries in the middle of winter

2012-01-16T07:15:00.000-05:00

This week in the kitchen I attempted some crusty/artisan style bread, it was a GIANT failure. I did make more pizza dough, and this time I remembered the salt! I also made one of the few things that my husband requests from my repertoire of recipes: Blueberry Muffins

This recipe starts every summer when I go blueberry picking. I drag my husband along and we pick 3 gallons or so. I freeze wash and dry the berries and then lay them on a single layer on a sheet pan, then I stick the pans in the freezer. Once the berries are completely frozen they go into zip-top bags. These blueberries are so fantastic in oatmeal (more on my personal oatmeal transformation later) and they also serve perfectly in muffins.The frozen berries are not quite as perfect as fresh, but they are really close, and closer than I could find anywhere in the middle of winter.

The wet and dry in my muffin bowl

I always use some of the dry ingredients to coat the blueberries

Waiting for the oven

Perfectly Blueberrian

The all time best blueberry muffin:

2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar (I would not cut this amount if you can avoid it)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 stick butter
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 F
Put your favorite muffin pan on the count and spray liberally with non-stick spray.

Put the blueberries in a cereal bowl
Put the flour, sugar, b. powder, b. soda, and salt in your favorite mixing bowl. Mix with a fork, then scoop a couple tablespoons out and sprinkle on the blueberries. In another bowl mix the yogurt, egg, and vanilla. Melt the butter and add it to the yogurt mixture. Mix with a fork. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture and stir enough to fully incorporate. Toss the blueberries a bit then add them to the batter bowl. Fold together.

Use a 1/3rd measuring cup scoop the batter into the muffin pan.

Bake at 400 for 20+ minutes or until they look barely golden on top.

I suggest that you take the muffins out of the pan as soon as you can and place on a cooling rack. I sometimes just flip them out onto a cooling rack, but then you end up with little lines (you can see that on the center muffin in the picture above) on top of your perfect muffin. The other option is do a fun little twist/lift with each muffin individually. If you do it fast you won't even burn your fingers.

Dough, Week 1 - Don't forget the salt

2012-01-09T07:14:00.000-05:00

To build tradition 2 I have set aside some time for cooking. My house feels more like my home if I cook, it’s just something that I connect with. I typically get up before my husband on Saturdays, which means I can accomplish some chores before we get going for the day. I’m hoping that every other week (or so) I can make dough on the weekends. To start the new year I made Pretzels and Pizza dough. I’m also trying to find some really good recipes to add to our normal rotation.

The pizza dough I made was an amazing texture and it would have been the most perfect dough ever if I had remembered to add the salt. We typically buy dough from the store and freeze it anyways and though I won’t save any money making it myself, it’s only a few cents more and the texture is way better. Plus I will be able to add some whole wheat flour to get a few more nutrients from a nutrient light meal. I’m using a recipe from King Arthur Flour, but instead of freezing the dough after cooking I froze the dough before cooking.

Here’s the recipe I used, it made enough for three crusts
3.5 Cups All purpose flour (I use King Arthur, unbleached)
2.5 Cups semolina (I used bob’s because that’s the only kind my grocery store carried)
2 teaspoons yeast
2.5 teaspoons salt
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2.25 cups warm water

I did not have instant yeast so I actually bloomed mine in the warm water with a sprinkle of flour, it worked just fine.

Beat everything with paddle attachment for 2 minutes, switch to dough attachment and knead for 7 minutes. Let rise for 1 hour, put in fridge for 6 hours.At this point I split the dough in thirds and wrapped two hunks individually in plastic wrap, then stuck them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer. The third chunk I left in the fridge for awhile (maybe another couple of hours) and then spread it on a greased (with crisco) pizza pan and baked it with toppings.

When setting about to use the frozen chunks, defrost them over night or during the day in the fridge. If you forget to pull them out of the freezer before dinner put the zip-top bag in a bowl of warm water, it will probably take about a half hour if you keep refreshing the water when it gets cold. The dough will be sticky, just put a tiny bit of oil on your pan, and use your hands to get it on all sides of the pan, then work with the dough. We topped our second pizza with broccoli and cheese. It was yummy (and again, would have been perfect if I remembered the salt)

The original recipe can be found here and it calls for baking the crust before freezing (or topping)

2012 New Tradition #3 Creation

2012-01-07T11:49:00.000-05:00

So the first two traditions really spurred or defined a third for me this year. In the process of clearing out and documenting I want to make. I want to knit more things from yarn I have and I want to decorate with some handmade items.

I have a friend that set about creating a flower every day and that is probably a bit more defined than I want to be, but I do want to make more. I got a whiteboard of sorts for my birthday and I put it up in my kitchen. Every day I write a note or draw a small picture. It’s something that takes almost no time, but I enjoy the short burst of creativity.

I also want to make more useable knitting items. I defined a whole list of things I want to make this year and while it borders on a goal/resolution I’m trying to be flexible enough to just focus on the tradition of creating. I want to be known as a person who creates and I think as I continue to expand some of my current traditions (knitting, sewing, etc) it will happen, and hopefully the tradition becomes a bit more permanent.

What are you making this year? Any epic shawls?

2012 New Tradition #2 Clearing out to build

2012-01-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

Now that some things outside of my house (job, etc) are not eating my soul I have noticed the how un-homey my house feels. I want my house to feel like mine, to feel like OUR house and I want it to be comfortable to live in. So this tradition includes making my house into my home. To start the tradition I’m focusing on some concrete, definable actions: Adding more real food to our pantry and less packaged/processed food and deep cleaning/de-junking

There are other ways in which I’m clearing out as well. I’m not going to spread myself thin across a bunch of different social engagements. I love being social, but once social engagements become a burden instead of an inviting activity I know I need to clear out my calendar. I’m hoping by being smarter with my social engagements I will make the effort to talk to everyone at the events and to really develop friendships through conversations.

What are you building this year? Are you ridding yourself of anything?

2012 New tradition #1 Documenting the Noticed

2012-01-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

Last year I worked on including a moment of happy in every day. This was super successful and has now become a part of my life in a traditional way. It’s something I do most of the time without thinking or questioning, and I’m a more complete person because of it.

This year I want to add and expand it just a little. I want to document. I want to document my moment of happy, but I also want to document the things that happen in my life. I recently purchase a small journal that I have tucked into the pocket on my car door. I take 1 minute every day to write in it either right when I pull into my office, right before I head home or when I get home and have a silent moment in my garage. Some days I write about what I eat, some days I write about what I did, some days it is just general notes or thoughts from the day and some days it’s what made me happy. This is the sort of documentation I want. Generic, not exciting, not worth sharing, but it brings a focus to a day that can be otherwise quite chaotic and disjointed. Then there are the pictures. I want pictures, I want to stop and take all the pictures I didn’t take during my commute this year and I want to edit them. A daily photo-journal is not my thing so I’m going to be semi-concrete about the whole thing and see how it plays out.

3 photos per week, one of which must be a self portrait of some kind and one photo must be blogged per week.

My desk turtle reminding me to wear my glasses

Any ideas for photos you want to take this year or think I should take? What are some of your favorite self-portraits?

Crafty Wrap-up 2011

2012-01-03T18:32:00.000-05:00

Before I start explaining how the new traditions for the year I should finish up the craftiness of 2011.

This year I was determined to not stress myself out by making Christmas gifts. I knew that the shawl would not be finished until at least November and getting things done and shipped is nerve wracking. Of course then all anyone wanted was homemade stuff so I made a couple of exceptions

1) My little sister is off to college in a cold place and requested handkerchiefs. She is a genuinely environment conscious person and seems to attempt a lot of the little things that I never think about, like replacing the everyday Kleenex with a better choice. So I bought some cute flannel and cut out 10x10 squares

then, turned the edge and blanket stitched it with some bright yarn I had left over from socks.

2) Back in October my older sister asked me nicely if I could possibly make my Nephew and Brother in law matching hats. I knew immediately what to do and then I decided that my sister needed one too. I was going to make hers more girly and not exactly the same, but every hat I tried was a disaster. As I ran out of time I realized that she could have the same hat too. So, a family of hats!

I have no idea why my sister looks like a monster, but maybe it fits her personality? (j/k I love her)

3) That same sister also has a birthday near Christmas. This time, I wasn’t making her anything at all. Then I started a cowl for myself using some yarn I had bought on my first business trip (to Indianapolis). It was so soft, gorgeous and I had the perfect buttons! I was going to love it. Then I was at a knitting group where a mother with a young child was mentioning how much better a cowl was than a scarf. It stays in place, no one tugs one end and strangles you, it doesn’t get somehow wedged awkwardly when you get in and out of a car. Since she has a young child (a cute little ginger-headed 1 year old) I thought my sister could use it. It doesn’t match the hat, but I hope she will wear it just the same.

That's me looking scaryville before sending it off to her

So that’s how I started making 0 gifts for Christmas and ended up making 5!This year one of my traditions will definitely be crafty-focused that way I may be able to give ALL handmade gifts that people genuinely love and hopefully I can do so without losing my cool.

On to 2012

2011-12-31T23:36:00.000-05:00

A new year, time for new traditions

My opinion of resolutions and goals has not changed in thepast year, so once again I’m going to work on building traditions. I haven’t solidified my list, but I havesettled on a theme for the year: More and Less.

More good food, less rushed dinners

More internalization, less socialization

More creating home, less living in a house

More projects, less lifetime achievements

More acceptance, less confrontation

More saving, less spending

More responsibility, less ignorance

More planning, less making do with the unsatisfactory

More engaging, less passive watching

You get the idea. I will have to really focus my traditionsthis year, but I think the theme is a fantastic one for me, right now. What is2012 about for you?

Finishing the Caterpillar for 2011

2011-12-30T18:27:00.000-05:00

I had tons of free time at work at the end of the year so I poured through a couple more books. This means I met my goal of 30 books for the year.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - No idea how this has been such a major part of popular culture and I still didn't know it was about a real event. For some reason I thought it was just a normal, fictional novel. I was wrong. I enjoyed it a ton, sort of reminded me of books by Ann Rule that I liked as a teenager
Tinkers by Paul Harding - Weird book. It was fragmented, bouncing between different generations of the same family. I really liked it by the end, but found some of the chapters a bit confusing and out there.
The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg - I enjoyed this book, though it was frustrating and annoying at times. It got me thinking of a speech given by one of my favorite chefs awhile ago.
Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor - This is by the author of Mama Day and is a completely different novel, with some of the same things I loved about Mama Day, but with more dark stuff of life. This novel did completely surprise me on the last two pages with a small detail that alludes to another book. It was sort of a prize for reading books and I loved it.

What books did you read to finish out the year?

Last Tradition for 2011

2011-12-29T19:34:00.000-05:00

The last tradition that I worked on in 2011 was Religion expanded. I will not call this a success I will say I attended more meetings, felt slightly more included and realized (as usual) that religion works for me in a doctrinal way, but not in a social way and that is ok with me. I'm not sure this tradition will continue in the "expansion" that I worked on in 2011, but religion will always be part of my life.

What did you learn in your resolutions or traditions in 2011? What was your favorite part? What was your least favorite part of the year or your traditions?

Caterpillar and Time Out

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

This set of traditions really suffered this year. Between January and April (when I changed jobs and lost my commute) I read about 15 books in the other 8 months I have read only 10. My reading has definitely tapered but I am allowing myself to stay motivated through bookclub and perusing my local used book shop. I even got to go back and read Mama Day which I didn't read last year, even though I try to read it every year.

My latest additions to the Caterpillar

60. Unbroken - for book club. read like an encyclopedia, not in love
61. Mama Day - still love this book, find something new to focus on, this time it is the description of the marriages throughout the book.

Time Out really fell off. I love the theory of this and there were many days when I did not watch TV or work on the computer after work, but those were usually the days that I did not get home before bedtime. We did take time to do other things, but it was definitely not what I wanted when trying to imagine this new tradition. I don't think I'm going to keep investing energy into this tradition, it didn't work and I need to figure out a better way to get what I wanted from this.

Was there anything (goal, tradition, or god forbid a resolution) that you are going to give up on in 2012?

Garden and Time based on RoI

2011-12-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

Super picture heavy post, I love my garden what can I say?

Zinnia from my garden, photo edited in instagram. I want this on a pendant

The garden served us well this year. We are still using up the pasta sauce and salsa and we still have beans in the freezer. We had a long temperate fall so we still had lettuce growing until a couple of days ago.

Garlic scapes, radishes, carrots and sugar snap peas

Cucumber (which was eventually made into a pickle

Summer squash - will not grow next year, zucchini instead

I had amazing nasturtiums that I just can't describe. I could see the color from my house and every time I walked out to the garden there were more and more of them. There was one that was a coral color, and it opened so wide it looked like a hibiscus. Unfortunately I can't find that picture

Planted in with the tomatoes

Such vibrant colors

Wide variety of colors too

Reminds me of a viola

They bloomed all summer

We had a plethora of sunflowers and that made me so happy!

Volunteers

sun setting behind a super tall one

Sunflower bud, I'm in love with this picture

Red sunflower with a bumblebee

Happy, traditional, sunny sunflowers

Awesome sunflower about 4' tall, but the "petals" are little tubes. SO COOL!

Funky one I tried this year, it stands almost 4' tall but the flower itself looks like a giant dandelion

GIANT leaves oh man they were huge!

Better look at the tubular "petals"

Next year I want to plant even more flowers, even though we had a ton this year.

Zinnias, color was so bright I couldn't get my phone to not make them so crazy looking

These remind me of a toy I had as a kid

Hosta flowers are so short lived I can't usually catch them during daylight when they are all open

Our hostas doubled in size this year, we'll split them in 2012

Balloon flowers are so fun! Looking like little square balloons before they bloom

Lilies at night. These were awesome I wish I had a daylight picture

More perennials

Salvia at the edge of the perennial bed

These bloom like cuh-ra-zee

weeds, a turtle stepping stone, groundcover and some first year plants

overexposed, but one of my favorite views of the perennial bed. Such a fun section of my backyard

I haven't decided if we will do a whole other raised bed garden dedicated to flowers, but I did plant even more bulbs this year, including Queen of the Night tulips, my favorite flower of all time.

Time Based on RoI
This one is going to be a long one. As I explained at the beginning of the year I spent a ton of time on work and work related (read commute) stuff. This was completely dissatisfying. My job was not going to get better and the commute was not going to change. I had two choices, work harder to make the job what I wanted or find a better job. I started looking and interviewing almost immediately, while at the same time attempting to figure out what opportunity I could make at my company. Then I had a meeting that made clear how little opportunity was going to be available to me. Thankfully my applications and interviews finally panned out and I was able to leave and cut my commute by 2 hours per day.

This singular change has had a huge impact. First, I get to sleep enough, I can get up early and accomplish something whether that be chores or attending bootcamp. I get home about the same time, but I have so much mental energy left it is amazing. My mood is better because I don't hate 1/2 of my day and my commute is amazing. I drive by a wall of lilacs and then a perfectly New England field with an adorable farmhouse at the other side. I'm hoping that next spring I can take a weekend and drive my commute, stopping to take pictures along the windy hilly road.

I also crossed something off of my life list. I made the epic shawl in less than one year and even though I was sick of it by the time I finishsed, I am so glad I did it. In every stitch there is the progression of this year. The year when I built my life as my own. There have been no regrets this year and that's because I focused my time on what I knew to be the best investment. Absolutely going to continue using this mentality as I go forward

Running and Moment of Happy

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

We are still running, though in the month of December I felt the need to mix it up a bit. I have started going to a bootcamp workout class ever Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. I love it. Even in just the first two weeks I have made major improvements in strength and tone throughout my entire body so I'm pretty psyched. I am not sure that the monthly cost going forward will be feasible, but the amazon local deal made it worth trying. We'll see come January if I keep going for a month or two.

The new tradition I wanted to build in 2011 was a Moment of Happy. I think the general idea was a huge success. The little things became even more enjoyable, I laughed with friends and family. I noticed the small things that were worth a smile. I also found some silly jewelry and accessories that make me smile!

This one is courtesy of my friend Christina

Since this was such a success I've decided that I am going to keep this tradition going, but next year I think I will focus on documenting a little bit better. I haven't figured out how I want to document, but hopefully I'll figure it out come January

Winding up 2011

2011-12-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the year I set out to incorporate some new traditions into my life. Over the next month I’m going to review them, determine how I think they are working out and whether or not I think the tradition should be continued going forward.

I’ll start with the theme of the year: Get To It I have a self-sufficient opinion on happiness and the pursuit thereof. I think that most people know the things they need to do and most people find excuses not to do those things. I am most assuredly one of those people. I re-recognized this at the beginning of 2011. So much had happened in 2010 that made me sad, angry, etc.So back in January when I wrote the theme Get To It, I knew what I needed to get done to be a happier more complete version of me. I also knew I was the only one who could make these changes.2011 was not perfect, it has had happy things, sad things, fun things, hard things, but it is ending with the Britt I have lived my whole life for. It is cliché to say that I have been waiting for a year like this my whole life, but I have. It was a year that was full of me dictating actions, plans and filling my days with the things I needed to be doing. There will be more long winded explanations as I go through each tradition in the next week or two.

Old: Running
New in '11: Moment of Happy

Old: Garden
New in '11: time based on ROI

Old: Caterpillar
New in '11: Time Out!

Old and New: Religion expanded

Nine Months

2011-12-04T17:00:00.001-05:00

9 months. Some people use 9 months to make a human being. I would not do such a life changing thing, but I did use 9 months to create this

The Whole Kit and Kaboodle

This would be the epic shawl. Let me give you a closer look


Center Celtic Knot

Edging 1


Edging 2, the Second Celtic Knot


Gratuitous Close-up Shot

The shawl called for 3800 yards, I bought 4125 yards, but still ran out and had to buy a partial skein off of someone from ravelry. I ended up using an extra 5 grams. The dye lot doesn't match so the color is more of a true grey than the rest of the shawl (which is a brownish grey). You can see the color difference in the first picture (upper rightish)

The blocking was tough. I pinned out just the center, sprayed it with water and let it dry. Then I folded the shawl in half and pinned out just the edging. I could have done a better job with that, but It still worked out. The biggest problem is that I could have stretched it a bit bigger if I had tried and maybe I should have, it would made it even bigger, but believe me when I say it is big enough. i would guess that mine is about 6.5 ft across.

There is so much more to write, everything else that happened in my life as I was knitting, but I'll save that for my traditions posts to wrap up the year.

Being hip and cool

2011-11-24T15:30:00.000-05:00

We are trying to do some lower cost home improvements in our house. The kitchen is first, we are slowly sanding and re-staining our kitchen cabinets a gunstock color from Cabot. We did a couple of coats so it's darker than the sample appears

Once that is done we will get a new FLOOR! The floor is something we have needed since we moved in and due to some crazy normal life stuff we haven’t gotten around to it. This is the flooring I want, it's a laminate flooring that looks like slate rather than wood floor.

As the improvements are made I’ve been spending an excessive amount of time on pinterest looking at all of the great ideas that float around the internet.

In my kitchen I want to paint a chalkboard wall (like the one I pinned here), but Jim is not a fan so we’ll have to compromise on that one.

In the hallway between my front door and my kitchen I am totally hopping on the bandwagon of all those people with a wall of photos. We don’t have tons of family photos so I was thinking we would put 1 picture of Jim and me, then we would fill some with pictures of my family and a couple pictures of the tortoises. I also want to scatter a few fun/funny/sweet phrases in a couple frames as well. I will even write/modgepodge a couple on the matting of some of the pictures.

Here are some of the quotes I’m going to use
-I like who we are when we are around us (on the matting around the picture of us)
-The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things
-Life isn’t about finding yourself life is about creating yourself
-Carpe the Hell out of this Diem
-Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (thinking of knitting a piece of lace and pinning it under some matting that has this quote)

The only thing I haven’t figured out for this wall is the color. I definitely want to paint, but I have no idea what color. Purple is out because as much as I try to convince Jim that purple would be awesome, he keeps vetoing that idea.

What little changes have you been making around your house?

Second Best Day of the Year

2011-11-23T17:33:00.000-05:00

I love my birthday. It’s my second favorite day in the year. I don’t need presents, I don’t need cake, I don’t need much other than some birthday phone calls and the permission to do whatever I feel like that day.This year my birthday was fantastic. I got flowers from my husband and awesome presents that made it abundantly clear how well Jim knows me.

Note the Big Cheez-its which I think are 120% better than normal cheez-its. See the “as seen on tv” item? Jim always gets me an as seen on tv item and this year I had a very specific request. It’s a windshield cleaner. I love the packaging it has a Wonder Handle! What would I do without a wonder handle? Then there are dumbbells which I need for bootcamp next month. Finally a turtle with gem eyes that my dad got me in Malaysia. It’s so sweet!

After work I went to trivia where they surprised me with a cake and candles. Jillian even gave me a bag of awesome goodies. A flower slap bracelet, some matte nail polish and manicure/pedicure kit. She even drew a turtle Zentangle for me. It’s so awesome! I even got a balloon. I can’t remember the last time I got a balloon for my birthday! It’s awesome in so many ways.

After trivia (where we placed third!) I made oreo cheesecakes in my muffin pan. They were cute, yummy/tangy and awesome. I stole the recipe from some other blog, but I think they mentioned it came from elsewhere

2 blocks cream cheese
1/2 Cup sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 Cup sugar (I would add a bit more next time, this was still tangy)

All ingredients should be at room temperature before you start. Beat atogether until it can be beat no moreLine your cupcake pan with cupcake papers. Place 1 oreo at the bottom of each one (I ended up with enough filling for 16)Crush up 6 oreos and fold them into the filling. Fill cupcake holders with filling. Bakeat 275 for 22 minutes. I think a little extra time is fine. What you end up with is a philidelphia (rather than a new york) style cheesecake with an oreo as the crust. They were delicious and people at my office gobbled them up!

I did have to work on my birthday, but I didn't have to do any chores or clean up after turtles, so it was fantastic. This week, I went out to dinner with my BFF Amy who shares a birthday with me. It was sooo much fun and she gave me a couple of adorable things. I hope everyone has as much fun on their birthday as I did on mine!

Quilt-y fun

2011-11-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

You may or may not know that I am part of a quilt guild near where I live. It's a non-profit and we host a Quilt Show every other year in May. This year it is on May 11 and 12. We show off quilts from people in the guild, there is a little boutique and all sorts of amazing talent to see. One other thing we do is a Raffle Quilt.

It's made by the guild, raffled during the year culminating at the quilt show

The money goes to the guild AND to another non-profit organization.This year the quilt is slightly more modern and I love it.

The raffle tickets are $1 or 6 for $5

Even if you aren't interested in buying a raffle ticket I encourage you to attend the show. It's so fun to see the talent that these guild members have. It's a great inspiration for color and patterns even in knitting.

If you aren't in the area, but want a raffle ticket shoot me an email pigbook1 at gmail and I'm sure I can get you some.

What has inspired you lately? What events do you attend for inspiration whether it's knitting, quilting or house decorating or something else?

Spectator Fun

2011-10-13T17:51:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Spectation

Story: I have learned to love watching sports. Some of thiscomes with being a part of my family where you cheer each other on duringraces, games, performances, etc. The result of all of this cheering is that I getjust as emotionally involved watching a close championship hockey game ortriathlon. Over the years I have found athletes and famous people that I refer to as my boyfriend. Boyfriend really just means a good looking fellow who is pretty good at his job as a famous person or athlete.

There is the movie boyfriend

The hockey boyfriend

He really has the best smile ever

The marathon boyfriend who you can vote for athlete of the year!

Ryan (left) running Boston 2011 I took this pic

The football boyfriend

pic from wikipedia

My baseball boyfriend

I couldn't find a better pic, but this one's decnt

I have dubbed a boyfriend in all the sports I enjoy watchingexcept Triathlons, where I have dubbed a triathlon girlfriend instead.

Over the weekend there were two big sporting events going on. Neither of them were available on TV (at least not my tv) so I watched part of them online.

The first was the Chicago Marathon where my marathon boyfriend was running and placed 5th. Then there was the Kona ironman championships where my triathlon girlfriend worried me a bit with her swim, but made up time on the bike and then passed people like they were walking on the run. She is amazing!

What sporting events have you watched and who have you cheered for lately?

A great deal

2011-10-11T17:45:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we went leaf peeping. When we drive around new England jim is the driver. We do that for a bunch of reasons, but most importantly I want to knit while we drive. I finished Jim’s hat while I was ogling leaves.

The first version of this hat was too short, too pointy and generally not what I wanted. Then I realized that what I really wanted was a stripeless turn a square. The yarn I used is some Peruvian alpaca that I got at NHS&W this year. I have two skeins and it’s relatively thin.

What I ended up doing was cast on with one strand, knit the ribbing (120 stitches 3x2 rib) on the last row of the rib I decreased every 10 stitches. 10 being the magic number because that means every other 3 (of the 3x2 rib) had a decrease. Then I knit a row and then I did decreases again (offset to match up with the other 3 of the 3x2 rib below). I ended up with 96 stitches. Then I knit another two rows. At that point I added a second strand of yarn and knit four rows, dropped to one strand knit four rows. I repeat that stripeless stripe for the whole hat.

The original pattern calls for about 5 inches before starting the decreases. I have a couple fewer stitches for the main section and I wanted the hat to fully cover Jim’s ears so I ended up knitting almost 7” before I started the decreases. The reason I did the stripeless stripes is because I felt the hat was a bit thin so I wanted to add some bulk, plus stripes were not going to happen, Jim would never wear those.

In the end I had to knit the thing a few times. First there was the pointy failure, then there were a couple of turn a squares that were too short, and finally SUCCESS

Perfect ear warming alpaca goodness

More pictures of the leaf peeping later, but first, are you in the market for a spinning wheel? Have you ogled a journey wheel from the Bosworths? Do you hate that the waiting list is multi-year at this point? I have the solution for you! My friend (first online then in real life, she is pretty awesome) is selling her journey wheel so you can skip the long wait! Take a look at her blog

Caterpillar

2011-10-10T05:09:00.000-04:00

It's been a long while since I have added to the caterpillar. I haven't read that many books because I read a book for my bookclub that was AWFUL. It was long, drawn out, pointless, painful and I really had to work to read it. Oh man I hated it. Then I read a couple of fluff books and now I'm looking for a good sink-your-teeth-into-but-don't-get-bored-or sick of book. I'll probably end up reading Mama Day again

57. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - awful, pointless, hated
58. Have a Little Faith By Mitch Albom - fits the formula of all of his books. Not a huge fan, felt this one was missing a focused point, but it was fine, fast and an easy read
59. Deadlock - by Iris Johansen - the Doritos of literature. trashy, suspenseful and fun to read

Finally Hitting the Wall

2011-10-07T17:53:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Hitting a wall – a term used to describe breaking down at some point in a marathon.

Story: I think I have hit the wall with my epic shawl. How do I know?

1) I cast on something else
2) I finished that something else before I did much on the epic shawl
3) I started re-knitting that something else before making progress on the shawl
4) I start the list of things I want to knit next
5) I plan what to make next (match yarn to pattern, determine how long it will take)
6) I Repeat items 3&4 for multiple projects

This behavior probably seems rather normal to many knitters, but I only knit one thing at a time. I don’t like knitting more than one project unless something isn’t portable (my definition of portable is pretty wide) so when I start adding more than one project I am clearly annoyed/bored/done with whatever I'm working on.

Item 3

The solution of course, is to convince myself to work on the shawl. I’m on the outer edging, but after the first quarter the edging is sort of boring.

Can you sort of see the trees and then the last celtic knot section?

The other problem I’m having is this fear that I will run out of yarn. Every time I look at the amount I have left I have a flutter of fear in my heart. How not knitting will save me from running out of yarn for the shawl is a mystery.I bought WAY more than the pattern called for, but I'm not confident at all. We'll see if I get through it before I'm done.

Will this be enough?

Injury Treatment the make at home way

2011-09-30T18:18:00.000-04:00

I have been recruited to teach the 8-11 year old girls at church. Thankfully I don't have to teach the sunday lesson, I teach the midweek lesson. This means i have the blessing and curse of having no manual to teach from. The goal while I'm the leader is really to have fun, let the girls do and create some fun things without making everything super important, but having stuff to show for it.

This week we are doing a injury recovery/first aid sort of lesson. We'll cover some basic stuff but we are also going to make our own heat pads and ice packs. How? Here are the recipes

Things you need:
tube sock
sandwich sized zip-top bags
rice
rubbing alcohol

optional:
food coloring
sewing machine

For ice packs mix 2 cups water 1 cup of rubbing alcohol and a couple drops of water. Pour the mixture in 1 zip-top bag and zip. Then slip that bag into the second zip-top bag and zip that one. Put into freezer.

For heat packs pour rice in clean tube sock, sew up open end. Heat in microwave for 30 seconds, then squoosh around, put back in for 30 more seconds. Continue until you are happy with the temperature.

Summer highlights

2011-09-26T17:42:00.000-04:00

Summer is over so I'm going to spend a couple posts explaining the highlights of my summer

Back on the fourth of July my little sister came to visit and we

Did puzzles

Played on the Tractor

Goofed around with Jim while waiting for

Fireworks

Played with bubbles while waiting for

Fireworks in Wakefield


Bash Bish Falls


Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden

Eric Carle Museum

Staying Young

2011-09-23T17:20:00.002-04:00

Tradition: Young at heart

This picture has nothing to do with the post I just love the first leaf of autumn every year

Story: I am young in age only. My personality does not and never has matched my age. I joke that I’m a 90 year old stuck in a 20 something body, and my dad tell sme I was born old. The only person who thinks I may still have some young child personality left is my husband who often points out that something I do is like a little kid. Here’s my list of ways I keep my personality young, so I don’t take life too seriously

1) Enjoy colors. Don’t shy away from clothes or shoes just because they hae a splash of some crazy color.

2) Dance – we all have a dorky dance, use it. Use it when you’re happy, when you’re celebrating a win (in trivial pursuit beating my husband or Mario kart beating my sister). I actually dance most often while I’m in the kitchen doing chores and such. A little hip swiggle goes a long way.

3) Puddle jump – it’s rainy, the puddles are growing and no one goes outside. Buck the trend. Head out in light clothes and splash in some puddles. Nothing beats the joy of puddle jumping with a pal to see who can splash who the most

4) Try kid flavors – bubblegum ice cream or dr pepper chapstick, cotton candy, etc. It’s a treat I’m not saying eat it every day, but remind yourself every now and then that as fake as the flavors were/are they are still kind of fun

5) Dress up – Halloween is a great time, but I think sometimes just putting on pretty shoes and maybe a touch more makeup or jewelry than usual is an awesome way to play pretend

6) Dream – the impossible, the improbably, orange zebra’s and neon pink turtles, whatever you can think of there is no need to stop yourself from seeing in your mind’s eye all the silliness that you hide while working.

7) Jump in leaves – raking is not fun, but if you rake and leaf jump and again and again it’s tons of fun. Have a leaf fight, enjoy the crisp autumnal air

8) Laugh – no really, if it’s silly laugh, don’t think of it as below you to let out a chuckle

9) Buy dresses/skirts based on twirl factor- it’s not just for princess dresses

10) Nicknames – make up nicknames for your pets, your friends, your loved ones. Not just pet names but actual nicknames

How do you stay young?

ToT- Things to make this fall/winter

2011-09-06T09:39:00.002-04:00

Carole’s topic was knitting specific, but I couldn't come up with 10 things to knit in the next few months, so I made it a bit broader and including sewing/cooking

1. Finish my epic shawl – I am on the final border at this point, just ~1,096 rows to go
2. Hat – Jim asked for a hat, I have the yarn, just need to determine the pattern
3. Scarf – for my dad, the most used handknit I’ve ever made was for him so I think he deserves another
4. Wisteria – I think my next reward point will be yarn for the wisteria pattern, I’ve started it before but this time I want to finish it!
5. Socks – I can always use another pair of socks
6. Scarf/mitten/hat – for me, it’s tradition after all
7. Baby items – quick, simple knits to have on hand as more of my friends have babies
8. Cheesecake for my birthday
9. Piece the quilt I’ve had cut out for 2 years
10. Chicken with pop, my all time favorite recipe

As always you can find more ideas using the links on carole's post

The state of things

2011-08-29T18:55:00.000-04:00

What am I working on?

The grey blob. The epic shawl is still growing. I am racing toward the end of the second skein of yarn. I’m not sure if I will finish before I complete the first border.

The construction of the shawl is like this:

Center: normal back and forth creating a celtic knot

Then the first border (which looks like fir trees to me) is knit in the round after picking up stiches all the way around the center

Then, the final border (which is another celtic knot) is knit perpendicular to the first border so each row binds off 1 stitch

The charts get smaller with each section as well.

Center: 1 giant 4 page chart. Every other row is charted and the uncharted rows are knit. Every row of the chart is knit 1 time, no repeats across the rows

1^st border: single, smaller, one-page chart which charts every other round. The uncharted rounds are purled. The chart is repeated 8 times each round, but each round is only ever knit once

2^nd border: super small , only one instance of the chart per row, but the full chart is knit roughly 8 bagillion times.

Basically the shawl is 3 different sections of ridiculousness and yet I still love it. It takes me just about 2 full episodes of LOST to finish a round (80 minutes or so) at this point. At the end of this section there will be 1,096 stitches on the needle. Crazy pants, I know.

Not a great picture, but you can see how big it is

I’m working on another project, but it’s for my sister and it’s sort of a surprise. I will tell you it involves a needle and a hoop. I love it so far. I’ve finished half of it and hope to finish the rest this week. I might post

Quick Flowers

2011-08-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Just popping by to post a few flower pictures from my garden.

This one is little it is a cute little surprise

This one looks like a sunrise to me

Marigolds

This flower was super close to the ground so I had to play a guessing game to get a good pic

Hide and Seek Nasturtiums

Chopped!

2011-08-17T09:57:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Haircuts

Story:
I am not one to go get my hair done. I don’t spend a lot of time doing may hair, so the fact that it had been almost two years since my last haircut is not surprising. What is surprising is how long my hair had actually become.

Growing up my mom had a semi-rule (more of a precedent than an actual rule) that if you didn’t want to take care of your hair it had to be kept short. This did not mean my mom chopped our tangled hair off in the middle of the night in some traumatizing act of parental craziness (though with 5 daughters you couldn’t blame a woman for going a little crazy). It just meant that if we had super tangly hair because we (ok just me, I was pretty much the only one with this issue) refused to brush it, then she would encourage us to keep it on the shorter side. So growing up I kept it short. Sometimes it was super short and I would be mistaken for a boy, sometimes it was super short and I wouldn’t style it and I would look ridiculous (oh the pictures!)

Now that I am a pretend grown up and don’t have to follow my mom’s rules about hair brushing I find medium length hair to be perfect. I can pull it into a pony tail or I can just part it and still look presentable. The other benefit is that if I want to style medium length hair it is not so long that it take numerous clips/ties/pins to keep it in place, but it is long enough to do something with it (on the extremely rare chance that I want to do such a thing).

Last time I got a haircut, my cousin was just finishing up at a great cosmetology school out west. I was in the vicinity so I stopped in and let her use some of her practical hours on someone she knew. She gave me an adorable bob shorter in the back than the front. It was super cute and I didn’t think about getting another haircut for ages.

Eventually, though, my hair did what hair does and it had grown to halfway down my back. The ability to style it was becoming limited. I couldn’t wear a normal ponytail because it was too long and annoyed me. So when I reached a reward point I chopped it off.

The pictures make me look grumpy, but I was quite happy actually

Before

Long hair in a low pony tail

After


Shoulder Length, being held back slightly by my sunglasses. Also wow giant nose and I should have worn makeup

Rewarding the work

2011-08-10T17:55:00.001-04:00

Today I am going to focus on rewarding milestones or recognizing something that has become a real tradition, a habit, something that defines you in the way you want to be defined. If you set goals for yourself then this is an idea similar to mini goals or short-term goals.

I do not set goals but rather define myself more fully through traditions and thereby have a general path to travel. Along the path I place reward points. If I am continuing to move along the path I am going to pass each point. At each point I can continue moving forward or I can redefine the path.

The one thing that makes these points special is that I reward myself. The reward may be small at each point or maybe because of the progression and general difficulty of the journey each reward is slightly bigger or more exciting than the one before culminating in a grand reward. Either way is great, but I think for some journeys they are crucial. Crucial because the progression is slow, and it is easy to focus on the future while ignoring the past. It is smart thing to take the time to see how you have progressed, changed and become more deeply you.

I recently reached one of those reward points and once I was there the reward was easy. I cut my hair. Such a minor change and yet it felt like a brand new start or platform to begin the rest of the work I need to do for this tradition.

Unfortunately, I have defined my next reward point, but have not figured out what the reward is going to be. Some things I really like to do as a reward:

Take a day trip somewhere you always mean to go, but have yet to make. If you need ideas look for state parks near you, search for a hike nearby or hit up a beach on a weekday
Indulge in your hobby – buy that special tool that you don’t need, but have been eyeing for years
Take a day off – some traditions take so much energy before they become a real tradition that giving yourself a break is the only thing needed to rejuvenate the plan
Get pretty – get your nails done, get a facial, get a haircut or buy a cute new top, a pair of shoes or a new pair of earrings
Do something different or new – this one works especially well for “traditional” goals (think saving money or losing weight) – the basic idea is to take what you are already doing and do something different and fun, something slightly outside your comfort zone. If you are saving money, use your entertainment budget to see a movie you would otherwise never see. If you are into mainstream movies maybe venture to an artsy theater this time instead of your standard Hollywood release. If you are losing weight try a new exercise. If running is your thing try a class, if you normally do classes maybe join a different class. Try yoga instead of zumba or try hip hop dancing instead of pilates. Just mix it up without committing to a long-term change in your routine

What are you going to do to reward yourself?

More on My haircut next time

Story Time

2011-07-21T18:17:00.009-04:00

Tradition: Reading/books/stories

Story:

In elementary school I had some really good teachers. I remember all of them reading to the class, while also allotting some personal reading time. Each teacher had their own unique twist. In second grade my teacher read us books that I considered easy, but I’m sure those students who were learning English right along with normal classroom work really appreciated a period of slow, easy to follow along reading.

In third grade my teacher was the best at voices. I could distinguish every character in a book just based on her voice. I don’t’ know if she took classes/workshops to learn that skill but it made listening to stories so much better.

In fifth grade, my teacher read some books aloud, but my favorite stories were the lectures he gave on history. Every history lesson started as a story and he was a master story teller, he drew me in from the beginning and by the end I was so invested I didn’t even need to study for the test unless there were dates to memorize. I still think this is the best way to learn history.

As great as all of my teachers were, there is one who was better than the rest. She was one of those teachers that might have scared you as a first grader because she seemed strict, but once you made it to her class she was the best teacher you could ever have. She taught me in fourth grade and that year my class was the best behaved out of all 12 years I was in school. I credit this miracle of child-wrangling to my teacher. She just didn’t take crap. She went over the rules at the beginning of the year. She told you what she expected and she never talked to you like you were too young. It was an instance where an adult expected more of us than anyone ever did, and yet never expected too much.

I can’t explain how big of a difference it made that she just talked to us like adults and yet maintained the balance of power. Another thing I remember that year was a book, a story she read aloud to the class a story so uncomplicatedly poignant that I think all (or at least most) of us understood it.

The book was Maniac Magee. I read it most recently with my little sister for CCSBC, but before I read it I tried to remember as much about it as possible. Here are some themes and scenes I remember about the book.

1) It takes place in a segregated town, though the main character exists on both sides of town as if both are normal

2) The main character is a runner and the description of him running with worn shoes is the best description I have ever seen

3) The main character unties an “impossible” knot – in my head this was a long or large portion of the book. Actually I thought of it almost as the pinnacle of the book.

4) The main character lives in the storage area for a little league field

Here are some things I learned or re-realized after the most recent reading of the book

1) The book does not really address the racism and yet it does at the same time. Bullies exist on both sides, good families exist on both sides and both sides are what they are in such a way that they could exist on the same side.

2) I remember the description of him running exactly as it is written

3) The impossible knot is actually a super short part of the book

4) The main character lives in a bunch of strange places in this book, including the storage area of a little league field.

5) The author of this book so perfectly writes for and as the age-group this book targets. The sentences are long enough and they flow, but there are no big words, there are no long paragraphs, but the descriptions are still phenomenal.

6) There is death in the book. Death of an old man, a man who has a great relationship with the main character. There is no gruesome description, no dark attitude, but the death is there and the mourning is there. It’s almost as if the author felt the need to make death real, without sugar coating and without sensationalizing it. Absolutely the best presentation of a very hard topic.

7) I didn’t realize how many nicknames were in the book and how the protagonist was bothered by the nickname he was given

This book won the Newberry Medal in 1991 and a bunch of other awards as well and I truly suggest you read it. It's quick (since it's written for young readers) but absolutely worth reading. Drag it out to read with your kids or start a book club with a kid you know.

Caterpillar May/June

2011-07-15T17:45:00.001-04:00

49. Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli – I will have a full post on this later, but this was a CCSBC selection

50. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare – Book club book, wasn’t a fan but I probably would have loved it in fourth grade

51. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand – Hated! It was so full of preaching. There would be a conversation between characters and it would be all preachy mcpreachypants for a chapter, a quick, short, change in scenery or a small movement in the story and then another chapter of preaching.

52. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen – Loved the beginning, because I love old people and I thought the storytelling through the middle was great. The ending was super ridiculously cheesy and sort of ruined the book for me, but I think it was still worth reading

53. The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold – De.press.ing. lady kills her mother then spends the rest of the book dealing with it before the cops bring her in for questioning the next day

54. The Used World: A Novel, Haven Kimmel – I enjoyed this novel, but it wasn’t amazing, but a great summer read.

55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls – this was a well written memoir. It criticized without making the author’s parents out to be completely incompetent or psychotic (though their mental health could be questioned). The thing I really liked about this book was that it made me think about all the things that were normal in my family but when I mention them some people find them to be completely odd. Kids don’t know anything is abnormal and as an adult I look back fondly to those things which were normal back in the day

56. Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris – I love david Sedaris, but I think his stories are 10 times better if he is reading/telling them.

The State of Things - Garden

2011-05-06T07:31:00.000-04:00

I’m going to attempt a weekly segment where I review the state of things. Not the state of things that the international/national/local news covers, but a more personal look at the state of things. Some weeks I’ll focus on the traditions I tried to establish in 2011, some weeks it might be a short blurb about the state of crazy I exist in, but mostly I just want documentation that there is progress in my life.

It is so easy to blow through a week and not take a moment to acknowledge the time that has passed or the things I have done. I am trying not to do that.

This week we will talk about the garden.

Veggie Garden

The garden is one of those things that I enjoy, but it requires so much work. We have planted beans, lettuces, carrots and such. I really think if we had a cold frame of some sort we would have had salad by now, but this spring was cold and long so our lettuce has been stuck in the sprout stage forever.

Silly sprouts

Nevertheless, the patio garden is coming up, weeds have been pulled, mulch has been applied and pictures taken. The first bulbs of the year are the crocuses, I’m not sure if something got to them before they bloomed or if a bunch of them just didn’t flower this year, but they were not as stellar as I had hoped. Then there are my “dwarf tulips” I don’t’ know what variety these tulips are, but they bloom as low as the crocuses, and this year they continued to grow taller until something (Dennis?) nibbled the blooms right off.

Right now (and by now I mean this past weekend when I wrote this post) the other tulips are up, blooming beautifully. The bright yellow ones are so cheery and they have the thinnest line of red outlining the petals. They open WIDE during sunny days inviting bees and butterflies to stop by for a visit.

Open Sesame

Can you see the red outline?

Closed in the evening

There are also a couple purpley/pink ones. They have a much smaller flower, but bloom at a normal height just a day or two behind the yellow ones.

Love this picture

Closed in the evening right after I watered

Around our patio we have three lilac trees which I hated the first year we lived here, but now I love them. The fragrance alone won me over. They are also blooming late this year and haven’t produced a single flower yet, but I expect they will appear sometime between writing and posting this entry to the blog.

Purple Lilac

Then there are just some other random plants coming up and starting to bloom around the garden

Phlox

Ground Cover (Macro setting)

Weddings

2011-05-05T07:13:00.000-04:00

Friday I did not get up and watch the wedding of the royals over in England. I recognize that it is a big day, but I have always considered weddings so personal and since I don’t know either people getting married it feels invasive. That doesn’t stop me from looking at pictures (mostly of Kate’s dress and veil, I love her veil)

When I got married my goal was to wear a pretty dress, kiss a cute boy and make sure I had my parents there. Then I wanted to celebrate with friends out in Oregon. I did it all. My dress was adorable, my parents were there, no tears were shed and a cute boy kissed me. There are some tiny things I might change if I did it over (different veil), but basically it was perfect even if it was four years ago.

My hair jewelry

My Veil, not as Pretty as the Princess's

My little sister is getting married in September and I am really excited for her. I won’t attend her actual ceremony, but I will (job-willing) be there for her party back home. I hope she has as much fun as I did, but I worry too. She is the opposite of bridezilla and I hope it doesn’t end up being a wedding where decisions are made to appease others. I hope everything ends up as close to perfect as possible. I recognize that a wedding (single event) is not as important as a marriage (life long journey), but it is something that you look back to and I want her to look back and smile. I want her to look at her wedding pictures and laugh because it was a wonderful day.

What do you think about weddings?

Our Anniversary

2011-05-04T07:02:00.000-04:00

If I had to describe my husband and I as a couple I would say best friends who are sort of adorable in a teenage-couple sort of way. Our anniversary has its own history of on again off again fun. At least once, Jim was thousands of miles away, I often forget the actual date and we aren’t into big gestures, so this year we made a small effort and I found it to be practically perfect. I had thought about a weekend away, but our anniversary falls during that unpredictable spring season where you can have any kind of weather imaginable and I didn’t want to waste a getaway on a weekend with crummy weather. So we stuck around home and celebrated on the actual anniversary date, which fell during the week.

I came home, cleaned up after the boys and just as I was finishing up jim arrived home with groceries. After putting all the food away I set about arranging the four bunches of flowers (for 4 years of marriage) into vases. Jim picked up a couple bunches of my favorite flower (Tulips) in lovely white and light orangey-peach colors. I placed those (with a penny) in a lovely faux crystal vase next to the sink in the kitchen.

The other two bunches were brightly dyed daisies that I added to a separate vase and placed on the counter in between the kitchen and eating area. Flowers may not last forever, but I do love them and they make me smile every time I enter the kitchen.

After the chores were done we figured a restaurant would be a good thing for celebration. The first thought would be to go to a restaurant that we had eaten at while dating. The only one that really fits the bill is mostly a pasta place and we had already eaten pasta multiple times that week, so that was nixed almost immediately. Instead, we went to the hibachi/Japanese Steakhouse place in our town. This restaurant also serves sushi, but since this was a celebration of us and Jim doesn’t like sushi I decided to stay with the hibachi specials exclusively. It was excellent fun and delicious food.

We rounded out the evening in tradition Jim-Britt style with some Jeopardy, knitting and hanging around. It may not have been the biggest deviation from our normal routine, it was enough to be special and celebratory and since it was with my husband it was exactly perfect.

Easter Dress 2011 Edition

2011-05-03T06:48:00.000-04:00

Easter was well over a week ago, but with the new job my schedule is still not quite settled. I wrote about this before, but the tradition continues. This year my little (ok so she’s 20, she’s still little to me) told me that she thinks I should not call them Easter dresses because I wear them more than just on Easter. She believes that Spring dress would be more appropriate and less juvenile.

I don’t completely disagree, but enjoy the thought of an Easter dress so much more than a seasonal dress so I’m still going to call it an Easter dress.

This year, I got to go easter dress shopping with my mom because she was in town. We hit 3 stores even though I found the dress at the second one.

adorable, bright pink and flattering. I am loving it.

Caterpillar - April Edition

2011-05-02T06:45:00.006-04:00

The Lace Reader, Brunonia Barry – Exactly the kind of book I like to read, underlying mysticism, enjoyable plot, conflict, etc. Loved it. Not life changing, nor would I read it a second time, but I would recommend it.

The Mark of the Angel: A Novel, by Nancy Huston – I felt this book boring, and non-climactic

Love Means… Courage , by Andrew Grey– First audiobook from the library. I didn’t read the blurb to know what it was about and had I, it would have never been downloaded. First, the premise isn’t that interesting to me. Second, the author went to great detail to explain how the main character walked into his office, but when someone in the book dies there are no details. Not about the death, not about how characters react, nothing. No delving into emotions. There were love scenes a plenty (which I really don’t need in a book) and the writing was poor. I do not recommend it.

Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up, by Dave Barry – Another audio book for my commute. Fun collection of some of Dave’s articles.

Flying Changes, by Sara Gruen – This was a fun book, relatively predictable, but the main character was neurotic enough that she was relatable.

My reading has most definitely slowed down since my commute was chopped short, thankfully the audiobooks add some literature to my life and I am using the extra time to make some much needed improvements. I still get a couple of minutes of reading before I fall asleep, but nothing extreme.

ToT - Family

2011-04-19T08:11:00.001-04:00

Carole had a great topic this week for Ten on Tuesday and it's all about the awesomeness of family

Why my Family Rocks Socks

1) We are weird, every single one of us is a weirdo in their own way
2) We can make fun of one another and laugh at our own oddities
3) We are supportive - my mom never missed a recital and my dad made it to most of them. We watch each other's sports games, support each other's hobbies and otherwise just enjoy the success and happiness of other people in the family
4) We play games - For Jim and I it's mostly trivia, for the rest of my family it's anything and everything
5) We eat together - Until I hit the teen years (where I missed a few due to other commitments) my family ate dinner as one big group almost every day. Sitting down at a table and discussing your day forces you to learn all about the people around you.
6) We are friends - I never realized that so many people were not friends with their siblings. Yes, we did and do fight, bicker and annoy the hell out of each other, but in the end we are still friends.
7) There are tons of us. My parents and siblings make up 7 people, a couple of us are married or almost married and our extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, their spouses and children a is huge. Get us all together and hilarity ensues!
8) We marry good people. My older sister is married to a great guy and I am married to a sweet guy and my little sister seems to have found a good fit. None of us have brought a psycho into the family and that makes it easier to welcome the newcomers with open arms
9) We are different - my sisters and I look a little more like each other as we grow up, but as children we looked as if we could have all come from different parents. We have some of the same hobbies, but mostly they're different, we are all interested in different scholastic areas and all of that difference makes my family a human set of encyclopedias
10) We are Dorks - my parents and I went to the 5k in Boston this weekend and then headed over to nike town where they had a photo booth set up. We hammed it up for the camera and left laughing

Dad

Mom and Dad

ToT - Snack Edition

2011-04-12T07:52:00.000-04:00

Favorite Snacks (mostly completely unhealthy, over-processed deliciousness), in no particular order:

1) Oreos - I was having them too often so I gave them up for Lent
2) Big Cheez-its - Yes, they are better than normal cheez-its
3) Homemade Cookies
4) Brownies, undercooked
5) Chips and Salsa - add a touch of cream cheese to the salsa for my mom's version
6) POP! - I know pop is bad for you and blablabla, but I love it and have really cut back to just a couple a week. I'm sure I will cut back even more as time goes on, but I will never give up coke and dr. pepper entirely
7) Potato Chips - Lays has a new tomato basil variety that I find addicting
8) Veggies - raw with hummus or a little ranch dressing
9) Ice Cream - now that the local ice cream stands are open I can get any flavor I want!
10) Squeaky Cheese - we used to get this while at the cabin or grandma and grandpa's house

More snacky ideas? Check out the links on Carole's Post

The Good, The Bad, The Possibilities

2011-04-07T17:12:00.007-04:00

With a new job come many new traditions, new routines and new challenges

What I'll Miss

Proximity to China town – cheap bahn mi, grocery stores with just the ingredients that I need to make a relatively exotic dish. It was always a good destination for a quick walk when I need to get away from my desk

Art in the Channel – fort point is considered somewhat artsy and every year there is some form of art placed directly in the channel. One year it was a house made of supersized playing cards. Last year it was an interesting array of large flowers that were made from laundry detergent bottles.

Farmers’ Market in Dewey Square (aka south station) – great farmers market where I could buy fresh, local produce, flowers and even yarn

Walking – I was forced to walk every day. Since my commute will be more of the couch to car to parking lot right outside building all of that free exercise is lost.

Reading/knitting – when traveling by train reading and knitting is an obvious choice to fill time, I will be driving to my new job so that free knitting/reading time will be lost

Some of my coworkers – I have worked with some amazingly nice people for the past three years. I'll miss the conversations about gardening, sports and other shared interests

What I won’t miss

3 hours of commuting a day – commuting that costs 3 hours and roughly $11/day not including gas or mileage or whatever is needed to make it through the New England weather. Not to mention if I leave work in the middle of the day (when trains run sporadically) due to sickness/emergency it still takes me 2 hours just to get to my car. New commute is 1 hour/day thank goodness

Walking over the summer street bridge – the wind is strong and freezing cold for 2/3 of the year. When other people have left behind their scarves and mittens for a month I am still wearing them to guard against frostbite for that 1 block of my commute

The company – not the worst company on the planet, but they were really good at discouraging growth, new ideas and efficiency.

My freezing cubicle – I don’t know if my new cube is warm and wonderful, but I won’t miss the drafty windows that forced me to wear fingerless gloves year round just so I could feel my fingers

Some of my coworkers – if you treat me like the gum on the bottom of your shoe I’m likely to forget you as soon as I walk out of the office on my last day

What I look forward to

New people - getting to know the personalities and interests of my new co-workers

Music - I sing along with music, all the time. It is one of my most endearing qualities (unless you have to listen to it) More time in the car means more singing

Missing the sunrise - sunrises are gorgeous, but they are early. I will not miss seeing the sunrise in the middle of April.

Getting Back - doing work closer to what I used to do, work that I won't master in 3 weeks and hopefully work I don't feel stuck in.

Cute Shoes - I used to wear a large variety of shoes, but that changed when I worked in Boston. Shoes had to carry my chunky self and not kill my legs, feet or back through all my walking. This meant wearing tennis shoes pretty much every day, I can't wait to wear some cute flats and sandals!

New happy moments

2011-04-06T18:05:00.017-04:00

Recently I downloaded the NPR app for my phone. Crappy App, I do not suggest its use. Thankfully some good came of the purchase! I found some programs that I enjoy and was able to sample some of them. My favorite turns out to be something that I have seen before, but never paid too much attention to: Pop Culture Happy Hour

It's this great combination of people who are connected to pop culture in unique ways. The podcast/radio show has a great variety. They discuss movies, opera, theater, sports, tv, comics and all sorts of things without the "I'm all knowing" snobbery that I find when some people discuss movies or tv or sports. I think because the group is made of individuals with individual areas of interest (read nerd obsession) they balance each other really well. I love it. I also love that they are the first to admit that what they discuss is not life and death and yet can have a serious discussion about pop culture. They can also have the silliest discussions of all time and in this way they remind me of hanging out with my best friends. I suggest you check it out, just don't bother using the NPR app it is awful. Download episodes directly from the site and read the associated blog

Some of my other favorite public radio shows (NPR and otherwise)
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me
This American Life
Planet Money is good, but gets a bit... accountant/financial analyst-y for me sometimes

Also making me happy recently is a comic
Most specifically this one from last week I complain about small state people all the time and someday I will post my rant/thoughts on why they are forced into their oddly-scaled life

Caterpillar Time

2011-04-05T17:39:00.004-04:00

This month’s circles are rather bland some of them are already off my bookshelf and onto someone who wants them via the swap feature on Good Reads.

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton – Troublesome story about a troublesome family in the Midwest told from the perspective of a slow, but smart girl.

What Girls Learn: A Novel by Karin Cook – Story about a family where the matriarch suffers through breast cancer. The story is told from the perspective of one daughter. Decent read, moved quick enough and left me feeling wanting which is the point I think. The characters are left wanting and the reader can connect with that.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Really fun book. I had a hard time determining what age this was written for. The writing was not difficult and I would suspect an 8 year old who is a good reader or a 10/12 year old right on track could understand everything that happens. Unfortunately I think some of the scenes are too vivid for children of that age. Then again, I’m not a parent so I don’t have to worry about whether it is appropriate for my kids. I am looking forward to reading the other two books in this series

The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian – I had higher hopes for this book after reading Midwives. The writing was smooth, but the story was ridiculously predictable and yet unrealistic (apparently that’s possible). One positive thing was how connected I became to the characters and their stupidity.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – Good enough, predicted the ending and just about every “twist” in the book from the second page. I guess I can watch the movie now.

These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner – Book club book. I don’t think it is amazing and it seemed rather long to me. I’m not sure what I am supposed to walk away from the book feeling/knowing, but it had some of the things I love about historical fiction so that's good enough. I am looking forward to book club and everyone's reactions

What have you read lately? Should I add anything to my list of books to read?

March is Over

2011-03-31T09:34:00.000-04:00

It's the end of another month and March was a month of changes. Good and bad. Some things that have made me happy this month

Keeping up with my attempt to drink more water than pop

Fun Close Up

Laughing so hard I cry. Some of these moments I can't share because they are "you had to be there" moments. The one I can share is from the movie Due Date. It's the coffee scene. You can find it online, it is funny, but it's even funnier if you watch it in the context of the movie.

Moving out of my cubicle, into a new company and space. The last things I will remove from my current cube are my mug (for cocoa or tea), my glass (for water) and my silverware. This was a small change I made for the environment about a year ago. I no longer use disposable silverware or cups/bottles while at work. Something very small but so easy to do, I encourage everyone to do it especially if you get take out for lunch on a regular basis.

What has made you happy this month?

The Hats

2011-03-30T07:11:00.001-04:00

Since the budget has been more limited my ability to afford any luxurious yak yarn for a sweater I decided to instead purchase a yummy yarn for a hat. The hat is out of my new knitting book and I bought the yarn it called for Malabrigo Worsted.

I bought a slightly variegated Navy Blue color. The hat was a super fast knit that starts by knitting the band, then picking up and knitting the top of the hat. The first one I made was TOO BIG!

The pattern calls for 3 repeats before decreasing, but that makes a hat much too big. Yes, I could have avoided this by knitting a swatch, but since that part of the hat is barely bigger than a swatch, it seemed a bit useless. So I knit it up and it is squishy and soft and warm. It will be a great hat for next year's winter hand-knit set. I'm planning on undoing the top and re-knitting it to a better fit

I used Malabrigo Worsted for some hats that I made this Christmas. My youngest sister and my mom both got hats and it only took 1 ball of the yarn plus about 6" of the second skein. The yarn was bright pink and I received it in a yarn swap last october. Since I have about a full skein I'm going to use it for my next hat. The changes I'm making it this time around are the following

For the band, bind off LOOSELY and undo it later in the pattern instead of binding off and then going back and picking up stitches on the bound off end.
Knit the top of the hat on a slightly smaller needle
Only do 2 repeats (instead of 3) before decreasing

Of course these hats need buttons to finish them off. I searched JoAnn's this weekend and did not find anything that I loved but I will try a little harder and hopefully have something soon so it can be a finished item, just in time for spring!

ToT - Library Edition

2011-03-29T07:36:00.006-04:00

10 reasons to use your local library

1) Free Books - if you can get the books back to the library on time you don't have to pay a dime for an unlimited number of books
2) Free Movies - Many libraries (mine included) have a good collection of tv shows and movies that can be checked out just like books
3) Free Music - some music is available for free downloads through the library, also you can check out compact discs as well
4) Meeting space - Both of my quilt guilds have used the library conference rooms for meetings, but it was cheap/free and quiet space.
5) Museum Passes - I can get discount and free passes to local museums which helps offset the high cost of driving and parking in the city
6) Community Events - This should really be my entire list. My library hosts events for teens, children and adults. There is information available about local, community events and ours even hosts a fun scavenger hunt for anyone that wants to participate
7) Town History - you can find more information about your own town at the library than you can just about anywhere outside of your local history organization
8) Book Club - One Book, One (town) is a program that my town participates in. The library selects one book per year and it is available for free at the library. You can pick up a copy and then pass it to a friend. It is a great way to create common ground for the whole community
9) Lectures - more than just authors give lectures at the library, you might not be interested in every single one, but I'm sure you can find something to attend
10) Study - whether you are studying for a test or planning a presentation the quiet, low distraction nature of libraries makes them perfect study locations

You should read all of the other reasons to visit your local library by visiting the links at the bottom of Carole's ToT Post

Recent Acquisitions

2011-03-28T17:37:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I joined local knitters on a yarn crawl to yarn stores in north of Boston. I was able, over two days, to make it to ten out of the twelve shops. I had so much fun, but didn’t have much money to spend. Since I had a gift card at one of my favorite yarn stores I spent $50 on some malabrigo worsted in a dark blue and a book full of amazing patterns, New England Knits along with a package of lace stitch markers. I also bought a few other small things at some shops, but in the end I stayed under $20 of non-gift card money. I also had an amazing time driving around New England with my friends Amy and Jillian. So much laughing cannot be a bad thing

I do not buy many knitting books because they are usually over $20 and I typically only want to knit one of the patterns in the book. New England Knits is the exception. This book is so full of gorgeous sweaters. There are a couple of details that make me wonder, but they are easy enough to leave off. I hope that I can make one of these sweaters sometime soon. The cost of a sweater in my size is pretty high so I’m saving pennies and staying active in hopes that eventually the saved money curve going up will meet the cost of yarn curve going down. This book has so many wonderful sweaters so it was hard to make first choice, but I think right now my top 5 are

Augusta Cardigan

Providence Hoodie

Old Port Pullover

Greenfield Cardigan

Hampton Cardigan

If I was handed enough yarn to make any one of those I would be in love with it. Until that miracle occurs I have made one Brattleboro Hat and I have one on the needles. More on those in a later post

My other acquisition this week was a skein of yarn from someone I would never have been exposed to. Anzula Luxury Fibers was featured in a post on the Yarn On The House blog a couple weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be a runner up and received a free skein of yarn. I am having trouble describing the color but I can tell you that the feel is awesome. Stiff enough to feel substantial, but soft and drapey. I do not know what I’m going to do with it. It is fingering, but I don’t think I want to make socks. I might try a scarf or cowl, but that seems predictable. What would you make from a charcoal blackish/grayish/brownish fingering weight yarn?

Flowers

2011-03-25T07:50:00.001-04:00

Winter here is living with death out your window for months at a time so by the time march rolls around I need some color, and some life. I start buying myself flowers at the end of February/beginning of March. Daffodils, dyed daisies, tulips, anything I can find at the grocery store without going over my grocery budget. Sometimes Jim even catches on and buys me a bouquet to tide me over until my tulips and lilacs bloom

I’m in a zone where no flowers have bloomed except maybe a crocus here or there. Mine are just starting to shoot up.

Shortly after the crocuses my early tulips also poke out from the earth

Soon enough my lilacs will bloom and I can bring them into my kitchen and fill my house with nature's natural perfume. After a long day in the city I love walking in the door where I am welcomed with the scent of lilacs in every room of the house. No need for air freshener when lilacs are blooming

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-24T07:51:00.002-04:00

Every spring and fall I like to do a big clean of the house. Take out all of the bags of clothes and shoes that don’t fit and donate them to a local charity. Do a deep clean - dust, wash walls, wash base boards, vacuum and clean the carpets - of the whole house. This is not a small feat and thankfully my mom taught how to do a real job of cleaning the house. The difference between my mother and me is that my mom is good at controlling clutter, keeping things generally picked up and clean throughout the weeks and months between deep cleans. I keep things clean but the clutter and organization slips quickly at my house.

Since I’m a BzzAgent I received a perfectly timed package of cleaning products to try out, review. I got some scrubbing bubbles super foaming cleaner and some pledge and some candles and one item I was super excited about. You’ve probably seen the last item in commercials and I have been tempted to buy it, but I’m cheap, think it’s a wasteful product and the difficulty of cleaning 2 toilets doesn't really justify it. The last item? Scrubbing bubbles toilet cleaning gel.

Do I love it? Yes! Will I ever purchase it? Maybe with one the coupons that came with the products (if you want a coupon let me know), but I will probably go back to my cheap ajax that takes only 60 seconds more effort.

Cleaning in general is one of those things that I connect to my tradition of Time based on ROI. I don’t find the ROI is very high when doing short/normal/maintenance cleaning. I can’t find satisfaction in a clean bedroom if I know the dresser drawers are a cluttered disaster or the shelves are dusty. So the ROI for a deep clean is probably low, but it at least beats the deficit I feel with normal cleaning chores

Life - Animals

2011-03-23T07:57:00.001-04:00

I’m not a mom, and won’t be a mom, but if I were to plan a pregnancy I would try to have the baby in spring to coincide with the new life that shows up in nature. Spring is inspirational as bulbs send shoots up out of the barely unfrozen earth into the barely warm air.

The groundhog with whom I have a bi-polar relationship crawls out from wherever he hunkered down this winter. He stretches, nibbles and starts the next year in my backyard. Dennis is such a welcome site and we saw him for the first time this season last week!

Bunnies (baby bunnies) are all over tucked in, almost unnoticeable little holes around our yard. I’m getting better at noticing their burrows. The small caves are typically where grass grows a bit long (at the edge or right next to the building). The grass is sort of bent into a small cave and inside are tiny babies with gorgeous eyes breathing quickly and the entrance of the cave is stuffed with loose fur. I know bunnies recreate quickly, but I enjoy watching the tiny babies get big enough to run around on their own.

The bunnies and Dennis welcome other wildlife like owls and foxes. We don’t see the foxes often but we hear them making awful noises at night. I haven’t heard them yet this spring, but I can’t imagine it will be much longer before they cross through our backyard.

Running

2011-03-22T07:57:00.002-04:00

Running

Last year we started running outside in February. That was not going to happen this year since we still had 4 feet of snow on the ground in mid-February. We basically took the entire winter off. Not on purpose, but I couldn’t run on ice and we were both so stressed about work and making ends meet and everything so running got lost in the pool of life.

In February Pandora would play some of my running songs (the music that I think has motivating beats and use for running). When the songs came on I felt the need to get moving again. This year we started in March and have been doing better than expected, but I’m not sure I am ready to run a race in less than a month. Even if I’m not ready I’m glad that we are back on the roads because that means we will be back on trails soon!

I will never be fast and my husband basically laps me each time, but I’m enjoying the time with him more this year than last. I’m hoping that by the end of the summer I will be ready to try a bit longer of a run or at least a race-length trail run. Seems the plan to continue my tradition of running will be a success.

My running play list:

Country Grammar - Nelly

Numb/Encore - Jay-Z & Linkin Park

Love the Way You Lie - Eminem featuring Rihanna

Lose Yourself - Eminem

Still D.R.E - Dr. Dre

What's the Difference - Dr. Dre

Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas

Brick House - The Commodores

California Gurls - Katie Perry featuring Snoop Dogg

Mission Impossible Theme Song

C'mon C'mon - The Vond Bondies

Balance

2011-03-21T07:51:00.001-04:00

Spring means so many things to so many people. Spring is when Passover occurs, it’s when Christians celebrate Easter and when flowers bloom. Spring is a great time to clean up and clean out. The equinox is a time to reflect on our life balance as we balance light and dark in the day. As the earth tilts to gain more light in the northern hemisphere can we rededicate to finding more moments of happy in our life? How are your traditions for 2011 working out? Do you need adjustments? Take note of the things in life that are out of balance and find a way to make them balance

What is something that you have noticed slip out of balance lately? Are you making plans to fix that or are you adjusting to an unbalanced life?

I've noticed in the past couple of weeks that my tears and laughter are completely out of balance, desperately out of balance. So, I have been working on being a little more silly a little more fun and I am trying to stop taking everyone so seriously. I haven’t really decreased the tears (I’m a crier, I’m doomed in that department) but I have increased the laughter. I find nothing quite as wonderful as my kitchen full of the harmonizing laughter of my husband and me.

Spring is Coming

2011-03-18T16:05:00.000-04:00

Spring starts at the equinox which occurs on Sunday the 20th of March this year. I don't usually do anything special to recognize the beginning of spring, but this year is different. So each weekday next week I am going to post a special traditions of spring post.

I encourage all of you to think of your traditions of spring and why you do them, how you celebrate them and how you can enhance them in 2011.

Can't wait for this little exercise!

Hacked

2011-03-13T12:54:00.002-04:00

Since my email (connected to this blog) was hacked you probably got an awesomely hacker-ish email from me. I'm sorry. Please don't click the link included

Booking it right along

2011-03-10T07:07:00.001-05:00

It’s been a couple weeks since the last caterpillar update, plus while I was perusing GoodReads the other day I realized that I forgot to include a couple of books I read awhile ago.

32 ) The Reader – I read this months ago, but it somehow missed the caterpillar posting at the time. Odd book, I’m still unsure what I was supposed to get from it. I might watch the movie, but I might skip it since I can’t imagine I will get more from it than I did from the book

33) Seriously by Lucia Nevai – Also read this ages ago, and it’s forgettable. Honestly I forgot the entire story in the time between reading it and finally adding it to the caterpillar.

34) Midwives by Chris Bohjalian – I really enjoyed this book. I found it predictable in that much of the plot was told to you from the beginning, but the result of the trial was sort of kept secret. I loved the explanations of the impact that her parents decisions had on the main character’s life

35) The Memoir Club by Laura Kalpakian – Another book that takes place in Oregon so it had an air of familiarity. This is the kind of book that rides the line between fluffy and serious and I enjoyed it

36) Life of Pi by Yann Martel – I honestly have no idea what people like in this book. It was boring, long, too long and extra boring. That is what I felt through the entire book

37) Loser by Jerry Spinelli – First book in the Cross Country Sisters Book Club. Interesting, I’m not sure I felt the book resolved anything, but the writing is a wonderful description of what it could be like to grow up on the outside of the cliques in school

ToT-Delicious Scents

2011-03-08T12:58:00.000-05:00

The prompt today is about my favorite smells. I haven't listed them in any sort of order other than to put my very favorite one at the very top.

My mom’s cooking – bread, soup, cookies, brownies, etc

Cotton - most bath and body works/body shop/other places that sell yummy smelling things have a scent that is fresh wash linen or cotton or Egyptian cotton. I Love it, currently I have an “Egyptian Cotton” linen spray from Kohls that I spray on my bed every day

Lime – real limes or lime flavored soap/body spray/body wash. Coconut lime verbena is one of my favorite bath and body works scents

Purex 3 in 1 – the most wasteful laundry product ever made and I would never purchase it, but I got a sample in the mail awhile back and I could have sniffed those clothes all day

Clean hair – most shampoos are scented but no matter the scent as long as my hair smells clean I like it

The beach – not the tide out rotting fish smell but the fresh, wet sand and salty ocean smell

Wet dirt – as I child I ate dirt, it was a weird habit/craving and while I don’t have any desire to eat dirt at this time I do love the smell of healthy soil. I think it’s the most hopeful smell on this planet

Tomatoes and basil – cooking, raw, fresh picked from the garden, any way

Baby – especially baby hair/head so fresh and soft (yes a smell can be soft)

Tulips – really any especially fragrant flower

Skirted!

2011-03-04T17:25:00.000-05:00

I made my sister sew on her own buttons because I didn’t want to make the skirt too big or too small, but first she had to get the skirt.

I stuck the skirt in a box and went to mail it and in my hurry forgot to put the apartment number on the box. Silly me. Thankfully this only delayed the delivery by a day or two. Once she received the skirt she put it on (no buttons or anything) and took some pictures.

Then she put on the buttons and sent me more pictures! I think if I made it again for her, which I won’t, but if I did, I would not have added the additional length. She is not exactly blessed with height so it’s a hits lower on her leg than I really wanted it to, but it still looks good.

Don't you wish you had her shoes?

My Favorite Picture she is so cute!

2011 Project Begun

2011-02-28T17:25:00.000-05:00

Tradition: Oversized Doily

Story:

I believe I have written about this project in the past, but let’s do a rehash of the details
I hate doilies. I despise them, but my mom likes them. She even had a gigantic doily-type table cloth for our formal dining room table. I love my mother, but I hate doilies. For my wedding we put after dinner mints, in cute containers at the reception. The containers weren’t really food safe so my mom was going to line them with doilies. I might have had a bridezilla level meltdown over it. Thankfully, the clear head of the non-brides in the room figured it was just as easy to line them with napkins. It worked and I was allowed to continue with my non-doily wedding.

With such a strong aversion you would think shawls, lacey drapey shawls would not be my thing. They are, after all, just giant doilies knit out of wool instead of cotton. You are WRONG. I live for shawls, I love shawls, I think they are possibly the most gorgeous items ever knit.

My friend Amy is an amazing and ambitious knitter. She bought the book A Gathering of Lace and knit the Tea shawl as her FIRST lace project. She made it out of Kauni which fades beautifully from one color to another. I am in love with that shawl. When she brought the book to knitting one week I flipped through and fell in love with a shawl with a huge celtic knot in the middle. Then I saw the chart. I can’t imagine there are that many people that have knit this pattern, but ravelry lists 6 finished shawls.

About 60 Rows

The chart for the center is 2 pages by 2 pages. Each right side row is charted and there are no repeated rows. Now, I do not consider myself ambitious like Amy, but this shawl had stolen my heart. I couldn’t get over it. I talked about it every time she had her book or her other shawl at an event we both attended. Inevitably I decided that I wanted to knit it. So I asked Amy and she was game, even though she had already started a second shawl out of the book.

Next step, of course, was to choose yarn. I have a plethora of lace yarn and I love all of it so you would think that I could pull something out of stash, but no. This project calls for roughly 3200 yards of yarn. Yes 3200. Now, I have well over 3200 yards of laceweight, but I don’t think I own 3200 yards of any one yarn. Amy found her yarn at Tess’s yarn in ME while on one of our knitting trips. She got a grey color that has a hint of blue and it is amazing and soft and single ply and small skeins and squishable.

I found my yarn online at yarn.com. It was beautiful, but I didn’t want to spend the money. On a whim one Saturday my friend Jillian and I drove out to webs and I found the yarn in the warehouse for cheap. They didn’t have the exact color I wanted (a very light grey) but they did have another color grey. I found 3 skeins and bought them. The yarn is almost everything that Amy’s was not. The yarn is two ply, on the brown end of the grey spectrum, came in large skeins and is almost stiff or sturdy. Nothing about my yarn is bad, in fact I love it and I already had one skein of it in another color. It’s just different from Amy’s and I can’t wait for the finished objects so we can compare.

A couple Sundays ago Amy came over and we marked our pattern and got started. I am using addi turbo size 1 needles because when I swatched I didn’t like the drape of the fabric on the recommended needle size (2).

100 rows

This is where I am so far, only a few rows in, already made 2 mistakes. Fixed one, left the other.

It's going to look about the same for the next couple of months as I make my way through the 500 rows of the center chart

Skirting Around

2011-02-21T17:20:00.000-05:00

In the first Fall knitty this year there was a cute skirt. The model in the picture looks a lot like my little sister (skinny, long dark hair, absolutely adorable) so I knew the skirt would be a perfect fit in Kinna’s wardrobe. When we discussed it we decided red would be the perfect color. Then I went to buy the yarn. NOT a success. I had a gift card for a yarn store where the selection of high quality yarn has been dwindling so the red options were gross. I made the executive decision to change the color to grey and wound up using Berroco Peruvia.

As usual I didn’t swatch, I just used the recommended needles. I like it, but the fabric felt rather stiff. So I undid the first couple of repeats and chose a different needle and went to town. It was a FAST knit partly because my sister is little and partly because the pattern is just quick. I knit to the specified circumference and then added the crochet. The crochet did it’s job keeping the waist from stretching, but I had done it so tight that it made the skirt too small for my sister. I ripped out the crochet and then the skirt sat for a few weeks while I decided what to do. Eventually I ripped out the buttonhole section and added a repeat to the skirt. This time I did extra tab at the top so there is an extra button. It looks adorable. I wasn’t going to bother blocking it, but the bottom edge liked to roll under so I did a quick block and pinned out the edge.

It is adorable and my sister will love it I am sure. She is friends with a woman who sells some amazing buttons so I’m going to let her work that connection to find a good button choice.

Basic Info:
Pattern: Carnaby
Yarn : 4 skeins Berroco Peruvia, dark grey
Adjustment/Modifications: Added 8 stitches in length, used a bigger needle and added a tab with an extra buttonhole

Caterpillar the February version

2011-02-17T19:35:00.001-05:00

I haven’t done an official caterpillar list in awhile, but after the most recent CCSBC post I figured I should

27) Best American Short Stories 2007 – the shorter the story, the more I liked it. It reminded me a bit of reading the Junior Great Books as a kid

28) It’s Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder – fun book set in Oregon, which made it even more fun to read with my little sister

29) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – liked it about as much as outliers which is to say, not much

30) Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout –I think the point gets missed because of the layout/style. I liked this book, but it was missing something. Many of the stories felt stilted and some seemed unfinished. I realize this leaves an opening for the reader but at least two just felt like cop-out endings

31) The Teammates: A Portrait of Friendship by David Halberstram – poorly written, felt like 20000 news articles with some repeating information from others and yet in no logical order. I like some of the stuff I learned just didn’t like the way it was written. Johnny Pesky makes me cry in real life and in every article and picture I see of him and this was no exception. I also didn’t realize how big of a jerk Williams was.

I also re-read previous Caterpillar book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Not only is it my favorite book of all time, it is also the book club book for our next meeting. I can’t wait!

What are you reading? What have you read lately? What’s up next?

Community Reading

2011-02-14T18:03:00.009-05:00

Tradition: Book club

Story:

I joined a book club with a bunch of women from my church. We don’t read specifically church books, we read some great books, some lame books, but either way the discussion is my favorite part. Last month we read Still Alice. I started the book just days after losing my grandfather (who had Alzheimers) which was poor timing on my part. I didn’t love the book, in fact I found it too clinical and even a touch harsh to read, but not harsh enough for that to be the point. So when I walked into book club I was ready to bash it. Instead we had some amazing discussions that opened my eyes to some things, but didn’t change my opinion. It was wonderful, the best kind of book club.

My family is full of readers. Growing up my older sister had a huge collection of boxcar children books and I had a huge collection of babysitters club books. We read all the time and my parents’ house still has more bookshelves than beds. Each of the kids in my family has come to love reading at a different age and through different books. My youngest sister is not a bad reader, but until recently I didn’t think she had that hunger for reading. This made me sad, so while I was out in Oregon for Christmas I tried to come up with ways to get her excited to read. I decided that while I was there we would take turns reading a couple chapters out of a book every day. She chose the book (I’m not real up on the current reading trends of 10 year olds). We read it and talked about it and laughed and it was a great time, plus she didn’t seem to mind it too much.

Then I came home and prepared to attend book club and it hit me. A cross country sister book club would be fun! Keep in mind, I don’t think the book club itself will make her love books, but I’m hoping she is hitting the point where she can learn to love them.

I live far away so we can’t share reading time, but we can read sections then email each other discussion questions. She gets to choose the book because I think that gives her a power over the process. She bought the first book while I was out in Oregon, then I took awhile to get it, but after a quick amazon purchase it arrived: Loser by Jerry Spinelli. Since she had already started it I have to catch up. She informed me of my pathetic performance with the following email.

I am about to finish chapter 10. So I am basically finished. Have you started to read it? Tell me when you have and send it with a summary (shortened version)

My favorite part of that exchange is the explanation of what a summary is, because I’m clearly clueless when it comes to reading terms. Nothing like letting your ten year old sister put you in your place. Do you have suggestions for the next book club selection? Do you have a book club with a kid in your life? How do you encourage discussion?

ToT - Winning Movies

2011-02-08T07:00:00.006-05:00

My husband and I do not go to movies in theaters. There are a zillion reasons I don't go, but with a great TV and a comfortable couch I prefer to watch them at home. That, combined with the fact that I can never remember what/who won what means that for this topic I had to go get a list of Oscar winning movies to determine what I had seen. Then I realized that the list of movies that have won best picture contained exactly 11 movies that I have actually seen. So, I may not love or hate these movies, but I have seen them! I included an extra just because the list didn't seem complete with 10/11

1) Sound of Music
2) Forrest Gump
3) Titanic
4) A Beautiful Mind
5) Chicago
6) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
7) Million Dollar Baby - I loved this film
8) Crash - I loved this film
9) No Country for Old Men - hated this film
10) Slumdog Millionaire
11) Hurt Locker - not as amazing as it was made out to be

Knit Race!

2011-02-03T11:07:00.000-05:00

Since so many people in my area had a snow day yesterday my friend Laurin decided to host a virtual knit race. Basically everyone knit as much as possible before 8 pm yesterday and then she awarded a prize. I had to work, so I knew I would not win, but like most races the fun is in racing, not in winning. I finished up the sock I was working on. This is by far the weirdest sock I have ever made. I had seen plenty of examples and determined the most interesting were those that used hand painted and/or self-striping yarn. So I pulled out some knitpicks felici that I had bought at a yarn auction last year.

Before starting the race

I started them with the recommended needles, but decided they were too large so I only increased to 68 instead of 72. Continued in pattern and finished the first sock last night. I think I might have done a few too many rows in the foot but I'll see if i can correct that in the second sock and if so I can rip the first one back. I really love these socks as odd as they are. They don't fit funny or anything they just look awesome!

Finished during the race

ToT - Bedside Table

2011-02-01T07:55:00.000-05:00

My bedside table is a disaster, it is the place I put the random things I forget until the end of the day which makes this picture more like an I Spy game than anything else.

1) My favorite bracelet (by the waterbottle) and another great bracelet
2) Glass (used to have water)
3) Water Bottle (used to have water)
3) Double Pointed Needle, I was probably wearing it in my hair one day
4) Medicine
5) Book
6) Remote for the window fan
7) 2 tubs of lotion (one is probably empty)
8) Kleenex
9) Tiny ziploc of sparkly makeup
10) empty wrappers from either cough drops or lifesavers

Coping

2011-01-31T16:54:00.004-05:00

Tradition: Comfort Food

Story:

Don’t we all go through times when we wish life would just stop throwing crap our way? I have no secrets to getting through it because in the end I can give suggestions for dealing with it, but you will still have to go through it.

When a day is especially hard I know that sitting and knitting is not going to occupy my body and mind enough to prevent me from dwelling/fuming/spiraling to the dark, so I try to do something that requires my attention. This week it’s food. I planned menus for the entire week, but unlike normal comfort food, my menus this week aren't all full of extra fat and cheese. The portions will be small and delicious without adding a stick of butter, but they won't be overtly low fat/sodium/etc

Monday – Stuffed shells basic filling of ricotta and veges, with a side dish of whatever vegetable is in the freezer

Tuesday – I go to trivia so dinner will consist of whatever I decide on at the bar

Wednesday – Fish. Jim doesn’t like fish, but I love it. I think it will be salmon, baked in a packet with light seasonings. My standard is a touch of mayo, pepper and a slice of tomato and lemon. Side dish for this will be tough. A basic salad or maybe some lentils

Thursday – Flattened almond chicken (Almond chicken paillard) Flatten a chicken breast then dredge it in flour, egg wash and then an almond/breadcrumb mix then cook. I can’t decide if I want to serve this with tomato salad or something else, but it will be basic and delicious.

I have started a new, long-term project. I'll tell you the story later this week, but one of my Moments of Happy might give you a hint.

ToT - Health and Beauty

2011-01-25T08:50:00.002-05:00

I am high maintenance in many ways, but needing time to “get pretty” is not one of them. There are few health and beauty products that I adore though. In no particular order

1) Bonne Belle Dr. Pepper chapstick. I have a giant tube, but it is almost gone
2) Last Blast Fusion Mascara. I got this for free, but it after using it I like it much better than my backup Maybelline
3) Suave Oatmeal lotion. I can only get this at wal-mart, so on the rare occasions I am going there I am sure to pick up 2 or 3 bottles
4) Cheap Conditioner. I buy the cheapest conditioner I can find on sale/with coupon and I use it for conditioner, but also as shaving cream
5) Eucerin for the days when eczema gets out of control
6) Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme wear it’s the only nail polish that (for me) will last a full 24 hours without getting chipped
7) Eye mask for bedtime it makes a big difference especially in the summer when the sun is up before me
8) Water drink often, drink lots
9) Off-brand scrubby face wash the best for getting rid of milia (harmless, but annoying tiny white dot/bump on eyelid)
10) Off-brand soap (equivalent to cetaphil) my standard for getting clean has pretty much no scent

As usual you can find more ToT lists linked at Carole's Blog

A break

2011-01-20T17:09:00.000-05:00

As part of my Moment of Happy tradition I have been trying to take a picture ever day. Often, the picture is part of my daily commute.

Since I don't carry a good camera with me my iphone camera is the best I can do, but there are some fun apps that I can use to futz with pictures.

The photos don't always make me smile, and I'm not going to join any 365 projects, but I'm enjoying the documentation of where I am every day.

Another great way to find something to smile or laugh at is to look at other people's lists. Today there was a tweet from NPR that I plan on working through this year. Knowing that the youtube videos and such will be worthwhile, makes it that much more fun.

50 Wonderful Things from 2010

ToT - Games

2011-01-18T08:10:00.000-05:00

The prompt this week is for games from your childhood, well I still love many of the same games I enjoyed as a kid. In fact, my family is a gaming family. My mom recently cleaned out and organized the game closet (an under the stairs coat+games area) and this is everything they had in there. I can't figure out how it all fit in the first place!

1) Mall madness - we bought this at DI and it was missing the credit cards so my sister made some out of cardboard and paint. My sisters and I still quote the game. "Ewwwww a long line, try again later!" "There's a sale at the chitchen store"
2) Kings in the Corner - card game for a small group of people
3) Life - Somehow I always ended up with 2 cars worth of babies, clearly real life does not imitate fiction (or vice-a-versa) in this case
4) Muggins - a card game similar (if not identical) to Flinch, using Flinch cards
5) Trivial Pursuit - I play this more now than I did as a kid, but I love it
6) Clue - colonel mustard, in the conservatory with the rope
7) Bop-It - there are new configurations, still just as fun
8) Mad Gab - hilarious game especially for teams
9) Cooties - great game for kids
10) Risk - I consider this an awesome game though I haven't played it in years

New Caterpillar List

2011-01-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

The last books I read in 2010 were less than memorable, but fun.

24) Still Alice, Lisa Genova - Book about a middle-aged woman who is diagnosed and suffers through early onset Alzheimer's' disease. Good, not excellent, we'll see how book club reacts in January

25) Voyager - Third in the Outlander series. Good, the second is still my favorite thus far.

25) The Last Lecture - youtube sensation turned into a book. Well done, a few extra touches and background that was not in the video

26) Five quarters of the Orange - good book that moved along, nothing earth shattering, but a good read

Get To It #4

2011-01-07T08:29:00.002-05:00

Fourth and Final installment of the 2011 Traditions!

Continued Tradition: Caterpillar – Keep reading. Being part of a book club means I will be reading at least 6 books this year, but I really think I can read more than that. I’m hoping to double my caterpillar this year. This means another 20-30 books. Hopefully sprinkling a classic in there along with the more modern works, I also want to read at least one book of poetry.

New Tradition: Time Out! – This might be the hardest tradition for me to really invest in not because it is expensive time or money-wise, but because it is not part of my current being on a regular basis. The basic idea is to add some interactive entertainment to my life. TV and movies are not very interactive, but games and such are. I started going to trivia regularly and that has been a blast! So my goal and it might have to start small and grow through cultivation is to turn off the regular tv watching and play a game, read a book or have an in depth discussion one night a week. I don’t mind the game being a video game as long as it isn’t a video game every week. We have board games, card games and a never-ending supply of other fun to be had in and around our house. This year I want to take advantage of it. I am also going to focus on not stuffing my weekends full of necessities. I often leave all the chores for the weekend, but then try to enjoy the weekend and get chores done and I am rarely successful in that endeavor. So I’m going to take more time out from my rather stuffed schedule and use it to do something other than watch tv.

Get To It #3

2011-01-06T08:27:00.000-05:00

Third installment for 2011 tradition exploration

Continued and Renewed tradition: Religion Expanded - I should note that I have thus far avoided making my religion a regular topic on this blog. I love my religion and believe in the teachings, but that’s not really what this tradition is about, but rather the media through which it is expressed.

I believe the Spirit Is not a static thing, but rather something that responds by growing or shrinking away based on the energy and time invested in it. I often claim in a somewhat sarcastic way that certain rules/phrases are part of my personal religion, but for every time I joke about it, I have a similar moment where I truly believe that my personal spirit responds to such a belief. For instance, in the gospel according to Britt knitting is as important as running and seat belts are as important as music in a car. While my beliefs fit within an existing religious institution I also know it is easy to get lost in a religion by forgetting the basics. The past year I took the opportunity to attend meetings regularly because I was asked to teach for an hour each week. I taught an amazing group of individuals who helped me focus back on some basics. The idea that if something is worthwhile and good it does not have to be labeled for a specific religion. My class had better discussions than I have had in ages and I realized (and hope my class learned) how important love is. My religion should be lived through love, not judgment and negativity and if we can love more people for who they are we can make a bigger difference in their life because we can understand their needs better. When I say difference I don’t mean convert them to my religion, but rather get to know people for who they are. Laugh with them, cry, smile, goof off, and become friends. We can just love them as friends, neighbors and cohabitants of planet earth. That is enough, be friends who talk about everything even religion when appropriate, but we don’t have to always bring up our beliefs because that is weird (no really, weird if you have nothing but religion to talk about).

So this year, I’m feeding my soul, in hopes that I can recognize more good in the people around me and good in more people. More that I love about people and less that drives me crazy. My methods for feeding my spirit are clearly connected to my religion and my upbringing, and I can’t wait. More reading of scriptures, more reading of modern teachings, more sincere prayer and less complaining about the institution that I have chosen (because it is a conscious, and difficult choice to remain part of the religion I grew up in).

Get To It #2

2011-01-05T08:25:00.001-05:00

Second installment of the traditions for 2011

Continued Tradition: Garden – this year I want to continue with the vegetables and maybe even combine our crop with participation in a CSA so that we can put more away for the fall/winter. I would also like to add a few more flowers to the beds around the patio. I would really like to get a clematis to grow, I killed the one we bought last year when I planted it (not sure how I managed that).

New Tradition: Spend Time based on the Return on Investment - 24 hours is all you and I get every day. I learned long ago that I do need as close to 8 hours of sleep as possible to function at my highest level at work so that leaves me the (24-8=) 16 hours every day. I work for 9 (8+1 hr lunch) and commute for 2.5-3 hours per day. To make the math easy we’ll say that’s 12 hours per day that are work/work related so (16-12=) 4 hours per day to do what needs to be done. If I only have 4 hours per day I still have 20 hours per work week that is mine, all mine. The weekends are like bonuses. I don’t have to work or commute so I have the full (16+16=) 32 hours that is mine to invest. So that’s 36 hours of time to do chores or watch tv or run or do grocery shopping or just hang out with people I like.

I know what you are thinking… DITCH THE TV! Fortunately, I have no problem with TV, but I believe that TV, like so many other things should be used in moderation (more on that later this week). When I think about the zillion channels of 24 hour television I really enjoy a very miniscule percent of it. If I add knitting to my tv time I not only knit more (which is an investment of time with a return of a knitted item) but I have doubled up my investment in that same 30 minutes/ 1 hour time slot.

This is not an exercise to see how much I can multi-task, but rather to recognize where my time goes and what I get for it. The 12 hours I spend on work related stuff returns $$ to my bank account, which is necessary to pay bills, but is not the most uplifting time. Maybe 2011 should include some effort to change that either by cutting down from 12 hours or to find something that is less depressing for 12 hours per day. I spend an hour running and if it’s a good run I feel better physically, mentally and I am investing the time needed to obtain smaller pants. That’s like a multi-layered return on a single layer of investment.

Get To It #1

2011-01-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

First installment of the traditions for this year

Continued Tradition: Running – I still hate running. I like trail running, but I can’t go trail running every day, or even every week, but that’s ok. I’m still running and I might even try to reach a modest distance this year. 311 miles looks good. That is less than a mile per day and since I don’t run every day it is less than 2 miles every other day. At this point that is obtainable because even on bad days I do at least a mile.

New Tradition: Moment of Happy - I am not someone who is exceptionally gorgeous, but my smile is the exception to the rule. I love my smile because when my lips smile my whole me smiles. I got this from my mom. When we smile our mouth takes up more real estate on our face pushing our cheeks up and forward. Our forehead relaxes erasing the stress wrinkles that normally reside between our eyebrows and our hairline. This results in what I call Sunrise Eyes! My wordy explanation isn’t flattering, but the smile most assuredly flatters.
So this year I’m implementing a new tradition of smiling at, about or for something every day and I might even try and record my moment of happy in a journal or somesuch

New Year, New Traditions

2011-01-03T17:23:00.000-05:00

I have plenty of holiday excitement to catch up on and I still owe pictures of my scarf/mittens, but since it is a new year I decided it was time to address 2011.

I hate resolutions mostly because I think it is just one more way of saying goals, and I hate goals. I like traditions, I like creating, growing and developing new factors of my life. So instead of resolutions I am going to make a theme for 2011 and include some old traditions and new ideas for traditions, but first let’s review the bigs and traditions of 2010

2010 was rough for many people I know both in real life and virtually. While I was extremely blessed in 2010 I did not escape the year unscathed. My husband spent the entire year looking for a job and is still looking. His family had a soap opera worth of drama with a less than satisfactory finale. Work has been trying, with opportunities offered, rescinded, doing work without the appropriate compensation (monetary and otherwise) and general annoying work stuff. I lost my first grandparent which led to an unearthing of emotions I was not ready for. My car was crushed by a distracted driver (not a cell phone). I stressed over the lack of job and therefore lack of income that we lived with and I suffered through some periods of extreme doubt. Doubt about past choices and future consequences doubts about how to define myself and my life.

2010 also brought my parents’ first grandchild and he is a cutie. In 2010 I got to go back to Oregon two times! My dad hit a major milestone birthday and my mom continues to amaze me with her cooking, working, running marathons and triathlons, but most impressive is her ability to raise amazing women who make the world a better place. She still has two daughters who live at home year-round and they go 12 different directions, but my mom keeps the family from tearing itself apart. In 2010 I ran, I even ran a couple races. I ran enough that I could find exceptions to my “I hate running” rule (though not as many as you would think after a year) I found more things to enjoy this year on tv, but also in my surroundings. The garden expanded and the bounty helped food in our house taste better and provide nutrients that my body needed. I read more books, I attended my religious meetings more regularly and I enjoyed friends

2011 Theme: Get To It
- Get to the list of things I keep saying I'll try. Apply those skills I already have and continue to add
traditions to my life that are uplifting and worthwhile.

Current Traditions to be Included – running, gardening, caterpillar, religion

New ideas – Moment of Happy, Time based on RoI, Religion expanded, Time Out

I’ll be writing about each of the ideas (new and old) throughout the week so check back!

End of traditions

2010-12-20T09:08:00.000-05:00

Longer break than I expected I’m not sure that I can blame my life for it, rather I didn’t know if I should write about what had happened or otherwise so today I’m going to talk about a tradition I experienced lately. I don’t want pity, I don’t want apologies I want to discuss traditions. It’s how I roll

The day after Thanksgiving I received two phone calls from my dad. The first warning me of the second. The second informing me of the passing of my first grandparent. I recognize the blessing of having all four of my grandparents my whole life and I know he was ill, but it still caused a swarm of feelings and thoughts I was not ready for. I flew out west and had great conversations with my family and I have dealt, in my way with things.

So onto the tradition of funerals, specifically flowers. Flowers sent to the widow, the family, placed on the casket, flowers of all colors, types and all varieties of beauty. I think they are a conventional way of expressing the inexpressible. They indicate a love for those that are left. My grandmother seemed quite comforted with the bouquets and such that she received.

Maybe it’s because I am a girl, maybe it’s because I love gestures and traditions or maybe it is because I am cynical, but I hope to have no flowers at my funeral. I hope I get them all while I’m alive. Cheesy, I know but I love the act of someone picking up a bouquet just because they can. I love when someone who loves me brings them home after a trip to the grocery store where nothing but a passing thought initiated the purchase. I place them in a vase and leave them on my cluttered counter.

When I walk in my kitchen and see them sitting amongst the chaos that is my life I get to smile. When i bring in cuts from my lilac bushes my whole house smells like flowers. I love flowers. I specifically planted tulip bulbs all around my patio so every spring I can walk out onto my porch and see the buds and blooms of my favorite flower.

So instead a funeral, maybe there can be a flower planting party. Better yet, chuck a couple bulbs in the ground with me.

Skipping Thanksgiving

2010-11-18T14:26:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving is a personal holiday. It is pie, and it’s my mom.

My mother is a planner. Before thanksgiving my mom plans. She knows how much flour, butter, eggs, milk, turkey and potatoes she needs for the meal. There are multiple trips to the grocery store and cooking for days. These days are the real thanksgiving. These days contain all of the fun of the holiday. The fun is the work, though most of it is done by my mom. Mom makes most, if not all of the food.

All the while her daughters are fighting, running through the house. When we lived in our old house we would run from the kitchen to the dining area, to the living room, the entryway and back into the kitchen. I can still hear mom telling us, “This is not a racetrack!” as we zipped around and around. I’m not sure how often we got in her way and forced her to drop bowls, ingredients and otherwise, but I don’t remember her ever kicking us out of the kitchen. She is an amazing cook and we all want her food, but I also want to be a part of it.

There are a plethora of pies (more on that later), but there are also rolls. My mom makes rolls from her Mother-in-Law’s recipe. The rolls have to be made in a Tupperware bowl, but not any Tupperware bowl, a specific size, so they raise just right. When I was at home my mom only had one bowl, and it was clearish with a red lid. Now she has a couple, but when I think about the rolls I picture the red lid. I now have my own, it’s red with a red lid. Once they rise perfectly the dough is spread on the counter and cut into circles, often with a drinking glass. Each roll is slightly creased with a knife that has been dipped in melted butter. It is then folded in half. They are the most delicious rolls, perfect texture, with enough flavor to enjoy, but not overwhelm. My mom knows just how much to smoosh the dough, just how brown they should get in the oven and just how to finish them.

Now for the pies.

Dad gets a lemon meringue pie (with extra meringue), my older sister gets a chocolate pie, I get something different every year (my favorite so far was an eggnog cheesecake), the next daughter gets a lemon meringue-less (the extra meringue goes on dad’s) pie, the next girl gets pumpkin chiffon (not baked).
I realize now that she probably did this to avoid the tears that would come if one kid got their favorite pie, but the others did not. Inevitably the child without their favorite would whine about not getting a pie as well. I prefer to think of it as something she did because she wanted us to each to have a pie that was made especially for each of us. It was like a birthday cake, but on a different day of the year. This one act meant we were recognized as HER daughter, as an individual, someone that deserved their favorite type of pie. My family is an overwhelming bunch of people. It is sort of large, and completely crazy. Sometimes it felt like I was lost in this sea of people that I should know, and I should have something in common with, but in reality I was an important individual in an amazing group of individuals. Thanksgiving makes that point, every year.

Thanksgiving is a meal my mom puts more effort into than any other meal the entire year. It’s a day of Mom that follows days of family. Days when we don’t have to pretend, we don’t have to put on masks, we can just be ourselves, celebrating in our home. All of this is what makes November 25, 2010 the only day this year that I wish I could just skip entirely. I can’t have the family time, I don’t get recognized as an individual in a non-verbal, non-ceremonious way. I don’t get the benefits of the love my mom puts into a meal when I’m thousands of miles away and I would rather pretend that it doesn’t happen at all than acknowledge I’m missing it.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-17T11:17:00.000-05:00

Tradition: Picturesque Family

Story:
Thanksgiving is about the three F’s in my life: Food, Family and Football. If you asked my husband he would say that I come from the Cleaver (like Leave it to Beaver) family. They somehow appear to outsiders as polished and perfect. the truth is that my family is crazy with tons of insanity and fighting and lauging. The only time I think my family might actually appear perfect is on Thanksgiving, it really it so picturesque it is almost unbelievable

Once the food is ready we sit down at the table. Someone says a prayer, and then dad goes around the table and asks each of us what we are thankful for. Dad pulls out his power knife and carves the turkey. The plates are my mom’s fine china, the goblets are filled with something sparkly, most likely sparkling apple cider. We pass the food, which could feed 3 times the number of people at the table, and consume the food in record time complimenting my mom’s amazing skill.

There is general chatter and some laughter and teasing. It is exactly the sort of scene you would expect to see on some network TV show.

But all of that, every moment of it, makes up maybe one tenth of the reason the holiday makes me so homesick. Tomorrow I’ll tell the real story, the reason why every Thanksgiving spent in MA instead of OR is torture.

Disappeared

2010-11-05T11:34:00.001-04:00

Tradition: Halloween Grinch
Story:
I enjoy the dressing up, the Halloween parties, Halloween treats, etc but I HATE trick or treaters. I don’t know why, I’m not as cynical as my mom about them, but I just don’t want to answer the door. Unfortunately I live in perfect trick or treating neighborhood so unless we turn out all lights and leave the house we will get little dressed up kidlets at our door. This year I had a better idea

Over the summer Jim purchased some super cheap curtains lined with blackout fabric. They really helped with the sun over the summer and I’m hoping they help save some energy this winter as well. The biggest problem though, is not our windows, it’s our door. It’s ugly and desperately needs replaced (the result of deferred maintenance). I close the heating vents of most the house only opening those in the living room, kitchen and our bedroom closet. Our front hallway is super drafty and always cold in the winter, but I had a great solution. This year I purchased a couple of 3M hooks and hung a queen-sized comforter in front of the door. It covers the door, the little windows next to the door and covers the molding as well. This has made a HUGE difference in the draftiness of the house and I’m hoping to see our heat costs reflect this change.

More importantly, because I hung it up on Halloween we didn’t have to completely turn all lights off, we just turned out the porch lights, closed all the curtains and enjoyed a movie in dim lighting. It was successful and we received not a single trick-or-treater.

More Segments

2010-10-22T15:31:00.001-04:00

My book list is growing slowly, but it is still growing.

20 Outliers – November book club book. I hated it. I wanted to like it, I wanted to get the point and I wanted to understand it. What I got was that there is a general trend to “geniuses” and it is made of a bunch of factors. The person who has all factors will be successful and I think it is garbage. I think my problem is that he is making a point about the “outliers” those that don’t fit the standard, but instead he just says that they do fit a pattern. That combined with the lack of women in the book and I thoroughly believe the last chapter is not about his mother, it’s about himself. I have many other thoughts, but I will try and save them for bookclub

21 Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2) – This was a much better book than the first one. It’s not that I didn’t’ like the first one, but I liked the second one better. There was more action, but less fighting, less misogyny.

22 The Secret Life of Bees – I loved this book. It has the key to gaining my love, a subtle, underlying mysticism and an actual plot.

23 Lolita – My attempt to read some so called classics. Lolita is disturbing and yet in some weird, strange way I actually enjoyed it. The prose is amazing and walks right up to the line between wordy enough to convey and too wordy so it gets in the way.

What have you read lately? What should I read next?

ToT - What's in my Freezer

2010-10-19T08:24:00.000-04:00

1) Black Beans – I cooked 3 bags of dried black beans a couple weeks ago. Once they finished cooking I split it up into plastic bags and stuck it in the freezer so that I can add it to dishes, hoping to stretch food with little $
2) Blueberries – We picked gallons of blueberries when they were peaking and froze them. Jim now gets yummy blueberry muffins all through the “off-season”
3) Chicken –
4) Ground flax – for my superhero muffins
5) Ice – I almost never put ice in my drink so this is mostly for ice packs that we use in our little cooler or on wounds
6) Jam – I’m down to my last container of freezer jam, but I will enjoy it
7) Fries – All varieties steak fries, tatter tots, etc Jim loves fries
8) Snow peas – from the garden we’ll use it for stir fry this winter
9) Eggplant Lasagna – Jim makes a great eggplant lasagna and then splits it up so I can take it for lunches during the week. Saves money, and keeps me from buying the most calorie filled item from the nearby cafe
10) Frozen peppers - we had so many peppers this year so jim chops and freezes them so that he can use them in fajitas, enchiladas, stir fry, etc

ToT - How to Have Fun on a Long Car Ride

2010-10-12T07:14:00.000-04:00

Every summer my family took a road trip from western Oregon to eastern Idaho and/or Utah so long car trips were a part of my life. That did not make this topic any easier

1) Sing along with the radio- Tupperware made a cassette tape called Tupper Tunes and while google will not help you find information about this tape, it did in fact exist. The best song was the first one. My little sister and I call each other to sing that song even now because we are awesome and a wee bit silly.
2) Books – I am not sure how many books I actually finished on these trips, but most of the reading was done in the car on the way to or from home
3) Cards – war is perfect, solitaire, kings in the corner
4) Sleep – Vans are perfect since they have long back benches where you can lay all the way down. Of course I had to fight with sisters so there was no laying all the way down on our trips
5) Follow the Scavenger Hunt – my dad would list a bunch of things we were going to pass on the trip and we had to check them off as we passed them
6) Argue – don’t touch me, don’t breath my air, etc
7) View the scenery – LEAF PEEPING!!!
8) Stop for food – if it’s a long trip there should be no drive-thrus, that is not enough of a break
9) Knit – right now it’s a double-knit scarf
10) Take a picture. I specifically take a picture of my feet on the dashboard of my car. I don’t know why, I have done it since Jim and used to spend every weekend getting lost in New England

Spectator

2010-10-05T08:29:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Watching Sports
Story:

I grew up in a family with a handful of children and we were encouraged to participate in all sorts of activities. Community service, sports, religion, music, fine arts and we all took advantage of these opportunities to some extent. This means I went to many of my own piano recitals and recitals for my siblings. I’ll be honest playing piano in front of people was awesome, I loved it, I was nervous, but confident and I remember attending state something or other (invitational maybe?) where I played Jungle River Flowing and thought it no more difficult than getting up to give a talk, speech or presentation. I loved it. I was a horrible spectator at similar piano recitals where my sisters were performing, but I attended because that was all part of being in my family.

Sports are another story. I played t-ball, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse and even did track for a bit. I was bad. I was not good, I was not average I was bad. I lacked (and still do) any and all grace and while I conceptually understood what is required to shoot a lay-up left handed there was no amount of practice that made it a reality. Even with my lack of skills I had fun playing sports and being active. I had even more fun watching those games that I didn’t play in. I could cheer for my little sister swimming the length of an Olympic sized pool for the first time and have more fun that swimming that length myself. I can absolutely watch football for an entire day every week, I can enjoy baseball for 9 months of the year and the Olympics are awesome. I am a natural spectator and I am good at it.

Last week my friend had a last minute ticket to the Patriots vs. Bills game. I jumped at the chance to attend my very first regular season NFL game. I had tons of fun and while it was a bit windy it wasn’t bad weather for football. When my dad was here last May we went into Boston to watch the Boston Marathon*. It was awesome! So after my dismal performance at the Race for the Cure last weekend I decided I am going to take a break from participating in races and go back to my real calling as a spectator.

I didn’t have to wait long. Jim decided that he wanted to run another race soon and by soon he meant Saturday. I gladly tagged along to watch. It was a small, local race that zigzagged through a local community college campus, a neighboring road and a connecting trail.

My only complaint is that the race wasn’t chipped so while times were close to “true” they weren’t exact. This means that Jim’s time was about a second slower than what I timed. I wouldn't expect them to chip such a small event, but maybe if it gets bigger. The event was very well organized; in fact it almost felt like there were as many volunteers as racers. Even with such a small race Jim got a little goodie bag with coupons and the like.

*If you are in a big race put your name on your arm, your leg, your shirt, whatever. The spectators want to cheer for everyone, but they often only know the name of the person they are specifically there for, give them some help.

ToT - Reasons to Love Fall

2010-10-05T04:29:00.000-04:00

1) It's cold enough to pull out jackets, gloves, mittens, but not cold enough to need long underwear
2) Hot Apple Cider
3) Cold Apple Cider
4) Pumpkin Butter (mixed with cool whip and cream cheese)
5) Pumpkin Carving
6) Jumping in a pile of leaves
7) Apple butter on a bagel or muffin
8) Cool nights, all the better for snuggling with your favorite pal
9) Football
10) Leaf Peeping

ToT - Things in My Fridge

2010-09-28T08:12:00.000-04:00

1) Hazelnut Coffee Creamer - Jim uses it in his coffee everyday and I put a tiny bit in my hot chocolate in the winter
2) Heinz Ketchup - there was much drama when I was in college and the cafeterias tried to save money by using an off-brand catsup instead of Heinz Ketchup. The cafeteria return to Heinz within weeks
3) Pickles - Jim has made countless batches, the spears are my favorite
4) Eggs - Until I can have chickens in my backyard we will have to get our eggs from the grocery store
5) Milk - possibly expired, we buy the smallest container, but we just don't use milk that often
6) Pop - I drink Coke, Jim drinks Diet Coke and Sprite Zero
7) Cheese - Colby Jack for me, Sharp (or extra sharp) Cheddar for Jim, Mozzarrella and a shredded mix
8) Butter, unsalted - which we go through faster than any two people really should
9) Sour Cream - I try to avoid eating this straight up, but it is my goto condiment. Mix it with salsa for a mild/creamy sauce. I refuse to buy Hood brand, we only buy the off brand (it could be the same stuff, but it tastes tangier than Hood to me)
10) Lettuce - supplementing the boys' grass diet

Head over to Carole's to enjoy more ToT posts

ToT - How to Have a Happy Birthday

2010-09-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

A great topic, my birthday isn't for a few months but here is my list of what I think makes a good birthday

1) Take the day off work - working on your birthday is lame even if you like your job
2) Do dinner - When I was little my mom let us pick what we wanted for dinner, when I was a bit older we got to choose a restaurant for the family to go to. I think I will get back to choosing something delicious to enjoy at home, that way I know it is made with love, plus I save a couple dollars (which I can use for dessert)
3) Sleep in - if you are taking the day off, you might as well sleep in
4) Dessert - Birthdays are one of the few days when I think dessert is required. Just don't give me cake
5) Pamper - a massage, manicure, pedicure, haircut/color are all fun things to try for your birthday
6) Friends - Celebrating with friends is so much more fun than celebrating alone
7) Drinks - the more sparkles the better! I like sparkling cider with a touch of pomegranate juice or OJ with 7-up
8) Family - If you can't spend it with friends, spend it with family, especially if you are friends with your family.
9) Fun - maybe pampering isn't your thing, do what you like! Go for a hike, play a game, ride a roller coaster, whatever it is that makes you smile!
10) Gifts - I don't think gifts need to be big or elaborate. A flower, a note of appreciation, or a small gesture can make a birthday extra special

What do you think makes a good birthday?

Caterpillar Update!

2010-09-17T09:33:00.000-04:00

It's been over a month since I added some circles to my caterpillar. My reading has slowed I think this can be attributed to the change in my morning commute. I used to read or knit every morning, but lately I haven't been sleeping well so I grab an extra twenty minutes of sleep on the way into work. I also read a relatively long book so that prevented me from finishing an extra two or three normal length novels

16. The Help, Kathryn Stockett - Read this for book club. A good story, in some ways I thought the author tried too hard, but it was still nice to read
17. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon - first in a series of historical/time travel/romance/sci-fi/adventure novels. I think I could have cut out roughly 1/3 of the book, but it was still fun to read, just not a quick book
18. The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd - Kind of fun, I thought some of the reasoning was contrived, but the book ended exactly how I wanted it to
19. Chocolat, Joanne Harris - My favorite of hers so far. I really enjoyed the mysticism influencing normal life in a small town in France

What have you read in the last month? Any recommendations?

Free Fall Finale of the Cursed

2010-09-16T12:26:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Lace, Curses
Story:

This starts at the 2009 New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival. I went alone, but met about with a bunch of friends. I spent the day walking around bouncing between groups, it was a fantastic time. Jim had just lost his job so I didn’t want to spend much money and set a very strict budget. My friend Amy came a bit later in the day and found some awesome 100% Tencel yarn. I love it. I even debated going a couple dollars over my budget to purchase a skein of the amazing yarn, but in the end thought I better stick to my budget and leave the yarn for someone else.

I had plenty of other yarn to use and while I continued to use my stash I lamented every time I saw Amy’s yarn. I loved it. So in November Amy knew exactly what to get me for my birthday (random fact, we share a birthday, it's great times). I opened a small box with a large (1000 yds) skein of 100% Tencel yarn. I was so excited!

The pattern was easy to choose. The Percy shawl attracted me with its three level design, but mostly because of the awesome second level full of these almost w shaped sections. It seemed a perfect fit with the mottled green colorway.

So now I had a perfect shawl, all I had to do was knit it. Nothing to it! The first slip from perfection was the needle choice. I didn’t have lace needles in the right size and therefore didn’t have a lovely sharp tip for working nupps or the flexible cable that seems almost non-existent while I knit. I could have worked around either of these problems, but not both.
Second mistake was the cast-on. I always have trouble with the garter tab method, too few stitches, too thin of yarn, it just never goes well. I improvised something else. It looks less than graceful.

Best color representation and look at those NUPPS!

Third mistakewas to add repeats to try and use all of the yarn, Stupid Idea. By the time I finished I was beyond sick of the shawl and I was ready to add nupps to my growing list of things that I consider cruel and unusual
If you asked, and you wouldn't dare, I could point out that there were at least 2 mistakes in my knitting and my gauge varied greatly on the right and wrong side rows. All around, not an item to be proud of..

There was one redeeming quality and that was the yarn. It knits up like silk, but doesn’t have the same stickiness in the final product, it is still quite slippery. After binding off I thought,"Well it’s bad, but not a complete disaster I could still give it to someone I love."

Right there I think the fates had a good laugh.
I pulled out the two lifelines that I had kept in the shawl (one right before the edge and one right before the last repeat of chart B). There it was the horror, the curse, the free fall finale. Suddenly, a huge hole appeared in the middle of my shawl. WHAT IN HEAVEN AND EARTH?!?! Apparently I didn’t catch a stitch when knitting 2 together on the row after the lifeline so it had been held nicely in place while I knit along having no knowledge o f a problem.

Blowing in the wind, Lacey and light

A normal person, one who took pride in their work, someone who maybe wanted this to be an heirloom of sorts would have ripped back to the mistake, fixed the problem and re-knit the last half of the shawl. I am not that person or this is not that shawl or both. I happened to have a bobbin of green thread sitting on my couch table. I quickly picked up the stitch from 3 rows below the decrease and wove it around a couple of stitches all the way to where it was supposed to be included in a knit 2 together. I took the green thread and tied it securely around the decrease and the picked up stitch. A double knot and a quick snip of the excess and now the mistake is invisible.

Still need some help to evenly block lace, maybe I should take a class

At this point we all realize that this shawl is cursed. So what do I do with it? I blocked it. I even wore it once. I can’t stop thinking of how it is cursed. I could frog it. I could give it away, but I don’t have anyone in mind that could really appreciate it, plus I am now convinced that it is cursed and the only people I would like to curse aren't worthy of a lace shawl. Maybe I can procure some holy water from a nearby Catholic church?

I just like this shot

ToT - Reasons to watch football

2010-09-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

1) Philip Rivers - I watch football for the game, I really do, but Philip is a nice bonus of yummyness
2) Boise State Broncos - It is always nice to see them crush an opponent who thinks they aren't worth playing (Oregon Ducks?)
3) Touchdowns - Back in the day Jerry Rice would do a little dance. Since he has a long neck he looked like a bobble head as his helmet wobbled all over the place
4) Impossible passes - there is the Flutie Hail Mary pass (before I was born), but there are also those perfectly executed passes that land in the arms of the receiver after slipping between two defenders with outstretched arms
5)Interceptions - There are also those passes that do not slip between the defenders but end up in the hands of the defender. If my team intercepts the ball and you are near my house you will hear an automatic, enthusiastic INTERCEEEEEPPPPPPPTION! ringing through the neighborhood.
6) Wes Welker - he should really take up weaving, he already zig zags around defensive lines
7) Snowy weather - the Patriots stadium is open to all the elements and is bound to have at least one game in horribly cold weather one more element to complicate the game. I'm glad I can watch from home, but love to see how weather impacts the game
8) Brett Favre - I want to hate him when he plays the "will I retire or will play?" game. Then I watch him play and he has more fun than anyone else on the field and I can't help but love a man who just wants the game for the game and the fun
9) Last second excitement - When the game is tied or the team that's losing is making a last second drive. The excitement is pretty much more than I can handle, but I love it
10) Knitting - football starts at the perfect time to knit some warm mittens, scarves and hats for winter

Read more reasons to love football by visiting Carole's post for today and clicking the links to other ToT posts

Busy

2010-09-13T14:01:00.000-04:00

Tradition: What do you do with all that time?
Story:
Outside of work (and the associated commute) I have very little time that is filled for me. This does not mean I am not busy, it just means that most of the time my busy is defined by the stuff I need to get done, not the stuff that needs to get done for others. This freedom comes with a cost, but that is not my focus today.
What kind of busy am I? Well this week it was running, cooking real food and finishing knitting projects. Last week it was running and cleaning and more cleaning.

Since I hate running and the weather is still relatively pleasant Jim and I have been trying to do a Saturday workout somewhere other than our neighborhood. A couple of weekends ago we went to Horn Pond in Woburn. There is a paved path (basically a road) that goes all the way around the pond, and there are tons of trails that stem off into some pretty terrain. Jim can usually get me to do an actual run there and somehow manages to take me up every hill in the park. Once my butt and thighs hurt too much the run turns into a nature walk. That is where our gadgets come into the picture.

Can you find the two swans?

We use a running app on our phones that allows us to take a picture and it will link the picture to the place we took it. When viewing our run online later we can see the pictures along our map

Example map from Halibut Point State Park

We didn’t take that many pictures at Horn Pond, but Saturday found us in Rockport at Halibut Point State Park. The park is a nice walk around an old quarry that is just a few hundred yards from the ocean. The weather was absolutely perfect and we did a relatively short hike with no running (imagine me doing a happy dance)

Jim by the ocean

I found an awesome rock that reminded me of the little mermaid, but I spared any and all eyes from witnessing me imitating a scene from the movie (you’re welcome). The view from the point overlook was amazing. So much blue

From the point

All of the pictures in the post thus far have been taken by Jim's phone and are linked to our hiking route on runkeeper. I took pictures with our regular camera, here are some fun ones

Quarry

Jim doing his signature "yoga" move called The Sherman Sunning

I have no idea what he is doing here, but obviously goofing around

My favorite:

Signature Britt shot of just our feet

The big C

2010-09-09T11:38:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Breast Cancer
Story:
I married an amazing man. Just as many other amazing individuals he got his amazing-ness from a strong foundation. This foundation was built by his mom. A mother who was encouraging and supportive of him along with his friends. A mother that he loves and adores and a mother he watched suffer through and die from breast cancer when he was in his twenties. This has had an obvious and huge affect on the rest of his life in both tragic and amazing ways.

A couple of years ago I ran the race for the cure with my sister and I ran it in memory of an amazing woman that I never got to meet. This year Jim is running the race for the cure with me. He set a goal not only to run the race in a certain amount of time, but also to raise a good amount of money in memory of his mom. I encourage you to visit our donation page and look at the adorable picture of Jim and Pat. If you can contribute any amount it would be greatly appreciated.

ToT - Things to do before summer is over

2010-09-07T09:06:00.000-04:00

This one is quick, and very personal I doubt anyone else will have these same things on their list

1) Pull weeds in the garden
2) Plant a bit more lettuce
3) Bish Bash Falls (short hike in western MA)
4) Finish mittens
5) Start matching Scarf
6) De-junk the house (some people do a big clean at the start of Spring, I like to do one at the start of fall as well)
7) Watch a sunset - this is on my list of things to do all the time. I LOVE sunsets
8) Wash Windows - hate this chore and almost never waste my time
9) Pull out the wool coats and accessories and air them out, wash if necessary
10) Start Christmas shopping - my family has a very specific set of gift-giving rules this year which makes it rather difficult to do any of the shopping at the last minute.

My own mitten pattern

2010-09-02T08:25:00.000-04:00

Instead of just finding a usable pattern to start my new tradition I decided to write my own.

Big mistake.
The basic process thus far:

1) Start with an idea
2) Chart in excel instead of some nifty chart software because I get excel and want the chart NOW
3) Write chart
4) Email to Kinna tell her to fix
5) Make suggested changes, argue with Kinna about her lack of knitting knowledge which makes her some of her ideas impossible
6) Start knitting
7) Rip back because I don’t like the cuff
8) Rewrite pattern again
9) Knit cuff, move to hand, forget to start thumb
10) Rip back
11) Knit hand with thumb, get to last repeat and realize the mitten is too big for my itty-bitty-baby hands
12) Rip back
13) Go down a needle size, get through cuff, start thumb
14) Post a sneak peek using horrendous cellphone pictures

If they don’t fit this time I’m just going to make them and give them away

ToT - Ways to lighten the mood

2010-08-31T08:18:00.000-04:00

Whether you come home stressed out from work or you just finished a heated discussion with a family member, sometimes it's just time to lighten up.

my quick and easy list

1) Give a big hug - to someone else or yourself, either way is fantastic
2) Laugh at yourself or others - there are some great comedies on TV right now
3) Knit - Mittens are the project of the moment
4) Read - Add to the caterpillar
5) Light some yummy smelling candles and just think
6) Garden - pull some weeds, plant some seeds or just admire the awesomeness that comes from plants
7) Cook - chopping forces me to calm down and breath
8) Take a nap - I'm always sleep deprived and a few extra minutes means I wake in a good mood
9) Go for a run - I would never run to lighten the mood, but many of my family members find it beneficial
10) Attempt to watch a documentary with Jim - he will make fun of the ridiculousness and have you laughing too hard to watch the movie in less than five minutes

Start a new one

2010-08-26T14:49:00.000-04:00

What most people think of when I talk about traditions are ceremonial things that people do around holidays. Trees, presents, stockings, special food, etc. Many of these traditions can be traced in a historical manner to religion or cultural origins, but others don’t have such easily traced beginnings. This then becomes an open invitation for growing your own, no need for a real reason, cause or motivation, just think of something you really like to do, plan to do it on a regular occasion and call it tradition!

I have planted the seed for a tradition of my own. I want to make a new scarf and mitten set every year, or at least every year that I live in a location that necessitates such articles of clothing. Two years ago I made purple and black Egyptian mittens and I love them, they are warm and wonderfully functional and gorgeous. Last year I made a scarf that coordinated without being super matchy-matchy. I then promptly lost the scarf.
My plans for this year are another pair of colorwork mittens and a scarf. I made a chart for the mittens and used the same motif to create a scarf pattern. I picked up the yarn today and will be starting the project right after work. I can’t wait! When I am finished I plan on writing up the pattern and even posting it on ravelry (debating putting a price on it). What tradition do you want to start?

Onto finished knitting!
Earlier this year I knit a scarf for my little sister. I even sent it to her and since it was her birthday this week I thought I should finally blog about it.

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty.com
Yarn: 2 Skeins - Sereknity Yarn and Fiber Sock Options Shimmer (merino+bamboo) colorway floozy
Ravelry: Kinna's Scarf Redux
Thoughts: 2 skeins makes a really long scarf, but that is what she wanted I think she is happy with it

The best part? She looks ridiculously hot in it. She wouldn’t send me a great picture, but this cellphone/mirror in the bathroom pic is still pretty cute (all my sisters are drop dead gorgeous, I missed out on that gene).

ToT- Things to tell a college freshman

2010-08-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

Just some anecdotal advice I have gleaned from my own college experience, which was less than typical

1) Have fun, study - My dad always says work hard during the week and play on the weekend. You are in charge of your time, use it wisely.

2) Don't work during the school year - biggest mistake I made in school was working multiple jobs. If you want spending money put a cap on your hours I honestly suggest well less than 10 hours/week.

3) Work in the summer - Hopefully you can make enough money to pay for housing or books or maybe you can make enough to cover tuition. No matter what, the less you are in debt when you get out of school the easier it will be to live on a starting salary. Plus, you will already have work experience

4) Take the summer after you graduate off. It's going to be one of the few times in your life that you have 3 months to travel, visit, explore and enjoy the world you live in

5) Take advantage of cheap/free entertainment, arts, culture - I spent very little money to see mini-operas, baseball games, art exhibits, concerts and more. I wish I still had access to such cheap entertainment

6) Drop a class - If you hate it, it's not fitting in with the rest of your class and homework schedule drop it, take it over the summer or stay an extra semester, but don't make your other 4 classes suffer because of one class

7) Stay grounded - You are an adult now, fight your own battles, stand your ground and be humble enough to take criticism.

8) Have a purpose - Decide on a major, or decide that you want to accomplish something in the a certain time frame. Maybe you want to finish all of your gen eds in two years, or maybe you have something else in mind, but without a purpose you can spend a large sum of money on wasted time and effort.

9) Finish - Do everything you can to get that degree. People will take you seriously and after four years of money and time you want to be taken seriously

10) Go to class - It's easy to skip class, but the more you attend the easier the material will be and the less time you will have to spend studying it later.

Things I like

2010-08-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Me
Story:
There will not be a ToT post this week so I figured I would choose my own random list of things I like and post it on Monday.

I tend to enjoy the writing and explanation of other people. I like to hear about life, creativity and hardships. Many people have blogs like mine, an unfocused peek into real life, not the life you see on tv, not the life marketed by professionals. I connect to those blogs much like I connect to a really good book. They draw me in and make me wish I could spend an hour on the couch with the author. Even the least eloquent writer and least interesting topics will keep my attention because I somehow find a connection.
I also enjoy professional blogs -the blogs written to sell a product, to support an author and those who answer to the almighty dollar. They are fun and resourceful. I have never really admired pop icons of any kind or joined the throngs of “fans” at an event where famous people will present or be in attendance (one exception is Norm Abrams, but that is a story for another time). I don’t fit in with those who worship the yarn harlot or the pioneer woman, but I enjoy their blogs nevertheless.

In google reader I subscribe to a mere 300 sites/blogs. I try not to subscribe to those feeds which only provide a snippet of a post forcing you to click to their site to read further, but if I feel a strong enough connection or I enjoy a blog enough I’ll deal with it. Otherwise,I tend to add and remove randomly. Today I thought I would choose a few of the better known sites which I subscribe to in case you haven’t heard of them. Next time I will focus on some of the less mainstream blogs

1) Xkcd - a comic of pure genius. Each comic is funny, but the humor extends to the roll-over text box.
2) 1000 Awesome Things – Delightful reminders of everyday things that should make you smile
3) Catalog Living – humorous narration for catalog images
4) Sticks and String podcast – still the only podcast I listen to on a regular basis. I love David Reidy
5) Baker’s Banter – King Arthur Flour baking blog. Even though I know it is all marketing, the step by step instructions combined with the explanation of the texture and feel of a dough (things you can’t tell from a picture) make this blog better than any other corporate blog I have ever read
6) Pioneer Woman - her recipes are great and her attempts at humor are mildly amusing
7) Yarn Harlot - though I often find her essays as forced or overly dramatic I like her subject and she knits more in a month than I have knit in my entire life.
8) Brooklyn Tweed - Knitter, Photographer, Native of the Pacific NW
9) Twist Collective - Very serious knitter's magazine published online. Always great patterns though I have not finished a single one that I have purchased
10) Post Secret - New postcards are posted every week.

Documenting Life

2010-08-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Documentaries

Story: When I was in school my dad took me to a documentary call “What the Bleep Do We Know?” It was a cool look at quantum physics, neurology, etc in relation to metaphysics and spirituality. When I saw it the first time I thought it was weird. I know there is more I could gain from watching it again, but I have yet to revisit that particular documentary.

This weekend I was bored and lonely so I decided to turn on Netflix streaming. I made the mistake of watching a film that killed my soul. In an attempt to construct a new soul I turned to 2 different documentaries. The first one was about Origami and there was some interesting artwork, mathematics and creations, but nothing that changed my life. Then I turned on “Man on Wire”, a documentary about Philippe Petit and his extraordinary feat crossing between the two world trade center towers on a tight rope.

The documentary was interesting, but I didn’t think it was life changing until the end. There was a whole group of people who worked with Philippe to make the act a success (he did successfully perform for 45 minutes and is still alive today). One of them was a lady and at the end of the documentary she explained that after they finished the project she knew that Philippe was going in another direction and so was she. It didn’t seem mournful and it didn’t include an extreme falling away or a slow progression. I found this refreshing and then the film went back with Jean-Louis Blondeau. I bawled. Jean-Louis was struggling to keep composure as he explained that the friendship ended at the completion of the feat. Again, there very easily could have been a fight, but that wasn’t explained in the film. Throughout the movie it was clear that Jean-Louis thought the rigging of the wire was sub-par and that Philippe could have done more preparation, yet he expresses these opinions as facts with no malice. Jean-Louis’s breakdown represents to me the conclusion of both the epic high-wire experience and a friendship. Jean-Louis’s tears influenced my own and there I found an epiphany.

Relationships are traditionally treated as enduring, eternal, long-suffering, a burden, good, bad, wonderful, devastating, but mostly we talk about relationships as having a beginning, but no end. There may be a falling out, a slow drift apart or any other such thing, but usually no definitive ending. This leaves an opening for a reunion, a prodigal son moment or some other romantic notion. This movie made me contemplate the idea that there actually can be an ending. You can end a relationship without malice, without an argument, without dramatics. I immediately found peace, relief and general comfort in this idea. It isn’t that I have any friendships I particularly wish would end, I just love that the possibility exists to define an ending to a part of life without drama. This is not a new concept or idea to me, but one that I had never taken the chance to internalize, really apply to myself and my own relationships.

Caterpillar:
10) Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquival - It was like reading a Telemundo soap opera.
11) In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O'Brien - I prefer his novel The Things They Carried
12) Coastliners, Joanne Harris - Interesting, slow novel, great beach read
13) Holy Fools, Joanne Harris - Not a fan
14) The Ladies of Garrison Gardens, Louise Schaffer - Enjoyable, small twist in a predicable ending
15) Summer People, Brian Groh - Bland book

ToT - Reasons to love bacon

2010-08-10T08:14:00.000-04:00

1) BLT – must have mayonnaise and is even better with sliced avocado
2) Broccoli salad- my mom makes a a great recipe with bacon, broccoli, sunflower seeds, craisins and dressing
3) French toast – with a side of bacon. Drizzle syrup on the French toast and a touch on the bacon too for the best sweet/savory combination.
4) Carbonara – yummy pasta dish that I always forget about
5) Cowboy burger – if we go to dinner Jim orders a burger with bacon, cheese and BBQ sauce 90% of the time because it is a safe bet he will love it. One of the chain restaurants (applebee’s maybe?) calls this the cowboy burger on their menu so when we go out he orders it by the name on the menu, but when I ask “what are you ordering?” he inevitably calls it a cowboy burger.
6) Baked beans –One of these days I will actually make my own baked beans with bacon or ham hocks or some other deliciousness, but for now a can with some extra bacon works.
7) Salad – I love salads with bacon, hard boiled eggs and a small amount of ranch dressing
8) Baked Potato – two things that make a baked potato a delicious treat? Bacon and sour cream
9) Pioneer woman’s recipe - My dad LOVES jalapeno poppers and these are kind of similar but with added BACON!

That’s not 10 but it’s really all the ways I can think of that I love to eat bacon.

Marriage Secrets

2010-08-08T16:52:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Inside jokes

Story: Growing up I had a small group of friends that I loved to no end. I haven’t pinpointed exactly where I met all of them but some I know for sure

K- our families moved to the area around the same time and so we were all new to the church congregation at the same time. K and I were BFFs forever and ever
L- Pretty sure K met L in kindergarten and I met L in first grade when I skipped over kindergarten and K introduced me to L.
C- I think C was also in our first grade class
A- A is the mystery. I think that I met A in leadership during fourth and fifth grade, but I am not sure. I know that I knew her before middle school (6th grade) but I also know A was never in my elementary school classes.

I moved away from our high school in my sophomore year, but I still stay in close touch with L and A and to a lesser extent C and K. K doesn’t really talk to me at all and that makes me sad, but she just isn’t one for staying in touch and I was never as close to C as the others, probably because I missed all of those high school years.

The thing that made our friendship memorable was our inside jokes. Some are never-ending and when I look back they aren’t funny. I have no idea why I found them funny to begin with but they still make me giggle. I will never look at classical markers the same thanks to K’s comment on the similarities between classical markers and classical musicians. L will forever cross my mind on mother’s day and when I see a bottle of wine with a chicken on the label.

My best relationships have hundreds of inside jokes, including my marriage. Jim and I have some epic jokes. Today’s favorite? There are some awesome lines from tv shows and movies that are supposed to be romantic, but are really just the corniest things ever. Jim and I like to see who can say them with a straight face, pretending to be serious. I always lose. No matter the line, the reference, the moment or the conversation that precedes it, as soon as I open my mouth to say the line I giggle. We like to use lines that we have heard recently, but we also have a favorite line. My go to line? “I will be your bait” alternately “I’ll be your bait” (can you name the show/situation without google?)
Someday I will be able to say this without giggling, but don't hold your breath. I’m pretty sure Jim will put that line on my headstone just to make me laugh for eternity.

What is your favorite cheesey movie line?

It works for me, but maybe not for you

2010-08-06T12:58:00.000-04:00

Tradition: Path to perfection

Story: A friend of mine recently posted some amazing comments on Facebook about goals and such. I responded with the following

True, but also remember that we define our own perfection and the happiest, healthiest people are honest and confident even if they are shy of perfection. Progress without being consistently disappointed in oneself is not easy. Now if I could really take your point and mine to heart I could make progress.

Jess, being the amazing, smart and insightful person she is responded basically telling me she agreed except about that perfection stuff.

Why is it that I must define my aspirations in terms of perfection? It’s probably a combination of my general upbringing and my religious belief that perfection is attainable even if not in this life. Let me explain why that works for me, though. I know that perfection is unattainable, but MY perfection is MINE. I know what I want myself to be, I know what I need to do to attain that level of perfection and I know that my perfection is not perfection for anyone else. I also know that the path to perfection is to be enjoyed even if I am sometimes on the path alone.

I can point out the 12 thousand different ways I disappoint myself on a daily basis. I can tell you all about the goals that I did not achieve and my responsibility in that failure, but I have reached some sort of peace with it. I don’t mean peace in a hippy “life is what it is” way. I mean the peace that comes from knowing myself well enough to know how much I can gain from my own disappointment and how much is too much. I think there is something valuable in failure.

The most apt example from my life is running. I have been running regularly for 7 months now. I am nowhere near where I should be at this point. I should be able to run longer, faster and feel better doing it. I know this, but I can’t change it. Really. I can do nothing about where I am currently. I am currently failing, truly failing and it doesn’t feel good. I also know that there is value in my failure. I can evaluate where I veered off the path and I can backtrack. I can be currently failing without thinking I am a failure. I can also work to get back to success. I can succeed in the future and when I do I can do so knowing what it felt like to fail.

I had trouble expressing this point back in April when I ran a 5K. I did not meet my goal and I was disappointed. I felt good because I finished, but finishing was not the only aspect of my race perfection. I appreciate the thoughts from everyone who encouraged me with their comments, but it did not change the failure. Some people thought it would feel good for me to hear/read things like “you did better than most people” or “you finished and that is accomplishment enough” These people had their hearts in the right place, but missed the point. I set a goal and did not reach it, being sad about it was worthwhile. I had to be disappointed. Prolonged disappointment and self doubt is not healthy, but I think we often try to avoid any disappointment and we justify failure. There does not need to be justification. When we do that we miss so much that there is to gain from living.

So when I am focusing on the moment, the current feeling, my current place and existence I learn from the disappointment and I celebrate the successes. I haven't always been able to see life this way, but once I began to view it this way I have been much more confident in myself, who I am and who I am working to be. Just because I want to be perfect does not mean I hate who I am now. This statement alone is why this works for me, but does not necessarily work for anyone else.

Does perfection work as your goal or do you, like my friend Jess, find more success in defining goals differently? Why does it work for you? I am sure there is something I can learn from your methods

Growing Traditions

The clearing, and obtaining

Dough, week 2 blueberries in the middle of winter

Dough, Week 1 - Don't forget the salt

2012 New Tradition #3 Creation

2012 New Tradition #2 Clearing out to build

2012 New tradition #1 Documenting the *Noticed*

Crafty Wrap-up 2011

On to 2012

Finishing the Caterpillar for 2011

Last Tradition for 2011

Caterpillar and Time Out

Garden and Time based on RoI

Running and Moment of Happy

Winding up 2011

Nine Months

Being hip and cool

Second Best Day of the Year

Quilt-y fun

Spectator Fun

A great deal

Caterpillar

Finally Hitting the Wall

Injury Treatment the make at home way

Summer highlights

Staying Young

ToT- Things to make this fall/winter

The state of things

Quick Flowers

Chopped!

Rewarding the work

Story Time

Caterpillar May/June

The State of Things - Garden

Weddings

Our Anniversary

Easter Dress 2011 Edition

Caterpillar - April Edition

ToT - Family

ToT - Snack Edition

The Good, The Bad, The Possibilities

New happy moments

Caterpillar Time

March is Over

The Hats

ToT - Library Edition

Recent Acquisitions

Flowers

Spring Cleaning

Life - Animals

Running

Balance

Spring is Coming

Hacked

Booking it right along

ToT-Delicious Scents

Skirted!

2011 Project Begun

Skirting Around

Caterpillar the February version

Community Reading

ToT - Winning Movies

Knit Race!

ToT - Bedside Table

Coping

ToT - Health and Beauty

A break

ToT - Games

New Caterpillar List

Get To It #4

Get To It #3

Get To It #2

Get To It #1

New Year, New Traditions

End of traditions

Skipping Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Disappeared

More Segments

ToT - What's in my Freezer

2012 New tradition #1 Documenting the Noticed