If you don't already watch this show, proceed immediately to Blockbuster, Netflix or my living room and watch the whole enchilada, from the Pilot to last nights Slaptackular.
Happy Slapsgiving!
Things I love: Pincushions
I am besot with pincushions.
They are just so adorable and small and fantastically useful! After stumbling upon the Flickr group, I discovered some great vendors of handmade pincushions:
- Kup Kup makes the most fantastic scenes with them
- MoJo has Poo
- CrazyCakes has, well, cupcakes!
edited to add: All of those pincushions inspired me to try my hand at my own. 
I used Purl's tutorial...but only as a rough guide. I cut the fabric a little too small, and my pincushion is minuscule.
The dog added himself for scale, but keep in mind, he's little!
I used Purl's tutorial...but only as a rough guide. I cut the fabric a little too small, and my pincushion is minuscule.
The dog added himself for scale, but keep in mind, he's little!What I love: Sleeping
I've overslept the last two morning because my alarm has failed to come back on after hitting snooze. I'm so frustrated that I'm not waking up on time.
Saturday I slept in later than I have in..years? And we spent all day Sunday like this:
Just thinking about it makes me ready for a nap.Things I love: Websites and Pumpkin Loaf
breakfast with StephanopoulosOk, so even though I'm in a new job that I'm pretty happy with, I have thoroughly enjoyed wasting my time at Working for the Man this week. I'm also a big fan of Felicia Sullivan (it was from her site I found the recipe for the pumpkin bread pictured above). Each week I download her show Writer's Revealed...so you can imagine my delight when I opened my email to learn that she used my question in her interview with Jeffrey Yamaguchi. Yeah, I'm so excited: further proof of my geek-dom.
But it paid off: I won the book!
I love that website because it's more interesting than just: here's my book, blah. It's more of an experience. Which is great for times you can't be whipping out a book (like at work) . For me, I'm always feeling this tension between wanting to spend my time with "real reading" (books) and the time spent with "less-real reading"(blogs and Slate) which is, honestly many more hours/week than I spend with any book. Book websites, no ANY website with real content or a novel approach lessens that tension a bit.Another "experience" book-related website that I just love is Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You. Actually, any of her websites. I fell in love with Ms. July after seeing Me and You and Everyone We Know (watch out that website opens with audio).
Oh, and the pumpkin loaf, it is DI-vine. I altered it a bit (because that's how I roll) and so this is my take on it:
INGREDIENTS
2 cups white sugar (I will be using cane sugar)
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup fresh ground flax seed (it substitutes 1:1 for oil, did you know that? I didn't!)
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (actually, I might have forgotten the 1/2 cup, I got distracted)
1 cup wheat flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips (After I measured 1 cup, there was just a bit more left, so I tossed it all in...and really, it could have used even more!)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (the original recipe said 3, but I found it just made 2, sort of flat, not filled to the brim loafs...next time I'm gonna make it in just one, so it has that puffy, super-full look)
In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, flaxseed, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill loaf pans 1/2 to 3/4 full.
Bake for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans. (I never wait this long, we dug in about 15 minutes after it came out of the oven)
Slice and eat. Or warm up and spread some cream cheese on top. Or some peanut butter. I like it for breakfast (the chocolate chips don't count due to the healthful benefits of canned pumpkin!)
Let me know if you make it!listing
After a few baseball-filled nights (yay Red Sox!) and hours of hot tea-fueled picture taking, I feel like I'm finally catching up to my goals. So much has been accomplished in the last week and so much is changing in the coming week, I have to resort to lists:
Finished: Knitting: Hub's Red Sox Socks : : writing: pattern for the Sox Socks : : posted: my handspun/handdyed yarn for sale : : reading:Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Thinking about: eating locally::new job on Monday::buying a new camera:: spinning more yarn
Learning: Microsoft 2007 Access (for new job)::bread machine recipes::Etsy
Baking: Bread, Apple pie, cobbler
Woolen inspiration
Fall must surely be here, because I'm aching to knit some warm woolens. When I first flipped through the Fall 2007 IK, I was immediately smitten with yoke on Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardigan.
I love this so thoroughly. I am just smitten. It seems so different from everything else I've ever seen. I planned to knit it (when I can afford to buy the yarn) and have something so unique and original.
And then I went in Old Navy:
Certainly not the same (I like Eunny's better), but the same idea: a cable wrapped around the yoke. Seeing it in person actually gave me a clearer idea of how I could execute this myself.
And of course now I'm seeing it everywhere:
Emily unkowingly pointed me to Tulle and this fantastic number. And that cable pattern keeps popping up everywhere too. I loved it when Alicia attempted it and here it is another sweater.
And you know it's a good idea when Anthropologie jumps on the wagon:
Something very different, but seems like a similar construction (yoke knitted side to side and then attached to body), see the details here.
I definitely plan on knitting a cardigan like this sometime this winter (maybe for NaKniSweMo?)!
My trolling for clothing I can't afford also turned up these Anthro-lovelies:
Ok, so I'd never wear this one, but it fascinates me.
Ok, so I'd never wear this one, but it fascinates me.
I'm actually knitting a sweater in a similar shape, in this very shade of pale natural gray. This sweater has given me a clue as to the issue of button bands (which I never to decide until the last minute) and look at that, it's on sale!
This is probably too frilly for me, but I love the gorgeous back.
Authentic
Last weekend I was with friends. Longtime friends that I can feel silly and free with. And I came to an acute realization which has unleashed a barrage of self-inspection/self-discovery this week:
I have, for these past 7 years, considered myself one in a quartet. Met freshman year, in the dorms and lived together for the 4 of college. Roommate Trip every summer. Sometimes I can’t remember why we’re friends and other times I ache at the distance between us. And while we don’t talk often, I still feel part of the larger whole of “roommates”.
After spending the weekend with 2 of my quartet, a weekend in which I noticed all of our dissimilarities and felt acutely out of place…in the car my dear friend pierced me with her observation, “You know, Tara, we’re not surprised, because you’ve always been…different from the 3 of us. It’s a matter of priorities, and we all know that you’ve made…different…decisions”. It was said with such kindness and genuine acceptance that I suddenly felt…free.
I am different.
For years we’ve all chalked it up to Hub; my honest and involving courtship and subsequent marriage as the others went through crushes, boyfriends, elopements and breakups. But the truth is, I’m just different, with or without the Hub.
I’m committed to in season and organic food when I can find it. I unwind with knitting or baking. I fantasize about having children on a farm with some sheep, fresh eggs and a my own studio. I do not care for shoes or bags or sunglasses, any more than that they must be cute and feel good. I love being frugal.
It’s somewhat disconcerting to no longer feel part of that quartet, to know that I really never was; but also honest and authentic.
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