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November 29, 2005

Weekend report

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Although there were no turkeys roasted in our house this holiday weekend, I did manage apple jelly, the tastiest buttermilk scones ever, crock pot chili, bread with Italian herbs, and Cajun shrimp--the full butter-and-olive oil Moosewood version.
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My little friends.
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Friday and Saturday were declared Official Pajama Days and spent on the couch. Idyllic, and complete with roaring fire in the fireplace.

Monday morning was not greeted with happiness.

Progress was made on Magickal Earth. I am almost halfway through the Celtic Knot motif and foresee actually finishing this someday. (Forgive the wrinkliness of the unicorn--I was too lazy to try to pin it out.)
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Tatting was pursued.
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Posted by missalicefaye at 10:00 AM | Comments (4)

November 21, 2005

Bread and bull riding

Did I work on Magickal Earth this weekend? Yes. Did I take pictures? Of course not.

I did take a picture of this cute little bread that I made in our bread machine:

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It has alfalfa sprouts in it. Nevertheless, it is fabulous. Bread machines are genius.

We also went to a bull riding event this weekend (The wife of one of Jon's co-workers works for the OLN, the network that brings you bull riding, hockey, shark chasing, and Ted Nugent's reality show.)

This was a fascinating cultural experience, my friends. Full of country music, the American flag, Ford trucks, cowboy hats, and fancy chaps with lots of fringe. Sponsored in part by US Smokeless Tobacco, which had girls clad in scanty Indian maiden costumes (the event was at the Mohegan Sun Casino) offering their wares in cordoned-off area next to the Jack Daniels booth. (I assume these wares were tobacco-related, but I didn't investigate.)

I must admit, I rooted for the bulls.

Posted by missalicefaye at 10:47 AM | Comments (2)

November 16, 2005

Evidence

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Still compulsively tatting. Still no idea what I'll do with it. The pieces is now twelve inches long. I can't stop. Actually, I haven't learned how to finish yet, so I really can't stop. I suspect it involves tying a knot of some sort.

Random cat hairs provided for scale.


As evidence that I do still knit:

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Sweater and tiny sock set for Amber's little one.


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The socks are from the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits. I used Dale of Norway Stork, which is a nice yarn, but cotton is not so nice to the hands while cabling on size 0 needles. Duh.


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One of Merike's gloves from Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia. This is the second time I've knit these gloves, having lost the first lovely made-in-Koigu version in a U-Haul truck this January. Very sad. This one is made from the Shelridge Farm yarn I bought in Rhinebeck--my only non-food purchase. Shocking and disturbing, no?

That's Lisette from Rowan 36 lurking in the upper left corner. More on that someday.

Dig that polar bear blanket. I am eternally cold.

I haven't abandoned the Magickal Earth Shawl, by the way, although it's been neglected for a couple of weeks. I will try to photograph it this weekend, when I am actually home during daylight hours.

Posted by missalicefaye at 10:28 AM | Comments (5)

November 11, 2005

Quack quack

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A bit more tatting to show. Another strangely addicting craft. And what, pray tell, will I be doing with my tatting? No idea.

So I was taking some pictures of the kitchen last night to add to Flickr. I won't bore you with those here(follow this link if you want to see them), but I felt that I had to show off its awesomely ugly rose border.

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Dig those cracks in the paint, too. Fabulous.

Naturally I took pictures of dinner.

The Swiss chard went from this impressive pile o' leaves (here seen posing with the World's Greatest Pepper Grinder):
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To these tiny bits:
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Crazy leafy vegetable.

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Jon carves the beast. I am not trusted with carving due to aesthetic and safety concerns.

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Roasted duck breasts, swiss chard, latkes

Posted by missalicefaye at 01:49 PM | Comments (3)

November 07, 2005

weekend tatting

This weekend, thanks to the back-tack kit from Carolyn, I continued my tatting adventures.

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As you can see, I can now string together my little rings, which aren't quite as misshapen as before. (I did switch to a much thicker thread, which takes away some of the daintiness, but preserves a bit of my sanity.)

This is all supposed to be sewn to a bit of fabric to make a doily. A doily. You can imagine how excited Jon is to see the introduction of doilies to the household.

Posted by missalicefaye at 09:34 AM | Comments (5)

November 02, 2005

my backtack

I haven't yet heard from my backtack partner, but I assume that the package has made it to Australia by now....

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The bag is based on this crafster tutorial.

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One of her crafty wishes was to learn crewel embroidery, so I bought a wool and hoop kit and assembled this little binder. The puffy thing on the clasp is a removable wrist pincushion.

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Much hot glue was sacrificed in the making of this project.

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Posted by missalicefaye at 09:13 AM | Comments (4)