Snow (&) owls

We finally got our snow! Yep, snowed almost all day yesterday. We got our first day off. Then it iced and freezing rained last night so we have a second day off today! Snow days are such a nice and unexpected little break from life. Since it was actually quite treacherous driving yesterday (dropped T off at le Metro and then went to get Sneetch from home), we basically stayed in and I got to finish my owly sweater! I suppose snow days are the benefit of living in a place that gets so cold, as opposed to living in Hawaii or somewhere else where it's warm and sunny year round.

Anyway, I finished the sweater! My little owl friends just need button eyes now. I am leaning towards finding some nice little wooden ones. That would look cute and not too scary, right? I also still have a little more than half a skein left. Not sure what to do with it. Since this sweater only used a skein and a half, I'm thinking I might just knit up another and buy another skein. It's quite nice yarn; a little itchy since it is 100% wool, but it's bulky so it knits up quickly. The best part is that it doesn't untwist. I hate it when yarns do that and your needle points get all tangled.

I have decided that my next project is going to be knitting little bear sweaters with all my tiny balls of stash yarns. Then, I'll sew some little bunnies to wear the sweaters. :) I'm starting with this really pretty forest green handspun yarn that has pretty sparkly gold thread spun in it. I got it in a swap on Craftster and haven't been able to come up with the perfect thing to make with it. I think sparkly sweaters for (yet unmade) bunnies will be perfect.

Don Quixote

Last night, T, Flea and I went to the Kennedy Center to see Don Quixote performed by the Mariinsky Ballet. We had quite good seats (thanks Daddy!), and it was wonderful. We didn't know it, but it was opening night, so it was a full house. The dancers were amazingly beautiful and so precise it was unreal. The orchestra was perfectly in time with the dancers, and the dancers were perfectly synchronized with each other.

Of course, we were not allowed to take photos, (and I forgot my camera anyway), but I was able to find this photo from the San Francisco Gate). Look at that point and arch! Every time I see a ballet on tv or live, I wish I hadn't quit. But then, I was never aiming to become a ballerina anyway. Flea and I have decided to look into taking a ballet class together next year. Now, I am just waiting to see if T and I will have a chance to see Swan Lake performed by the Washington Ballet next month!

Still no snow. It's been getting progressively colder, and we are supposed to be getting the coldest air of the season this week, but no snow. We're hoping for "flurries" tonight and "possible light dusting on Sunday." But no real snow. Meanwhile other parts of the nation are being buried in snow and can't seem to shake it. Too bad there's no giant blower device that could blow the snow clouds our way.

In other news, T and I invested in a new bed which has been absolutely wonderful. It's got a 3" pillowtop and we bought 2 sets of new, super lovely sheets. Getting into bed is like climbing onto a cloud. Even T agrees that it's worth every penny. Since getting the new bed last week, we have spent 90% of our time at home in it. The other 10% is reserved for showering and occasional cooking. We've gotten hooked on the show NCIS which has only compounded our desire to never get out of bed. The show itself is pretty good, but the fact that we were able to watch almost all of season 6 on Netflix instantly helps a lot. Speaking of tv, we got a new one to go with our new bed. With the bed being taller and all, we needed a bigger tv so we'd actually be able to see it. SO, now we have a new tv to watch from our new bed. And, since we've figured out how to hook up our wireless speakers to the computer which can be connected to the tv, good luck getting us to do anything outside of the bed from now until... until we finish watching every episode of NCIS I guess.

Not to worry, though. I am still being crafty and productive. I finished my awesome mittens using the pattern and beautiful yarn my sister (Flea) gave me for Christmas. One of these days, I will get a decent photo of them for you. I have knitted 2 presents and am working on a third. I have organized my entire yarn stash (minus some leftover pieces I brought home from work yesterday - working on it) and have been cleaning up photos to be uploaded to Etsy any day now. All I need is to be able to continue along in this mode of relative stress-free crafting for about a month and I think I'll have all my crafting loose ends tied up! Cross your fingers...

Merry Christmas!

We are enjoying the holidays in sunny Florida. We've been watching the Weather Channel each morning, and observing the wrath of Old Man Winter on the rest of the nation. Luckily for us, it's been in the low 80s and mostly sunny here. :)

Sick day

I'm back in Blogland! Yep, sick again. The same thing I had before, but I went to the doctor earlier this time. Hopefully, that means that I'll get better sooner! Actually, it better mean that I am healthier sooner, because now is not the time to be sick!

I've got 2 parties at work this week, (one of which I am helping to organize), the Downtown Holiday Market and Celebration of Mrs. Wiechelt's Life this weekend. Then next week is the home stretch to Winter Break which means I have to get cracking on the babies' presents! At least I think I have finally decided on what to make for them.

I have had a hard time concentrating recently. I think it has been the excitement for Thanksgiving and now the winter holidays coupled with the overwhelming sadness and unfortunate surprise of Karen's death. It was really a reality check for me; things don't just keep going so that you can go to bed and wake up tomorrow. She always encouraged everyone to enjoy life the way it is and savor every moment (and every bite of chocolate). I need to work on that.

In the meantime, I'll share a recipe I made up all on my own! This dashi based soup is great for the freezing cold days we've been having. It's filling, warm, healthy and delicious! Even T agrees and is willing to have it for lunch the next day. :)

Ingredients:
3 T Dashi soup base (available in most Asian food stores; look for one with no MSG or where MSG is at least towards the end of the ingredient list; this can be substituted with chicken broth)
4-5 cups water (depends on how much soup you want, you can always add more)
1 lb. pea shoots (tou-miao in Mandarin Chinese)
1 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced kamoboko fish cake
1 cup firm tofu
1 lb. somen noodles

1. Wash the pea shoots very throroughly (there are often little teeny bugs). Peel off the leaves and discard the stems.
2. Heat the water on medium high heat, it doesn't need to be boiling and stir in the dashi to dissolve. It will look like miso soup broth.
3. When the water is hot, add the noodles and pea shoot leaves.
4. While the noodles and leaves are softening, slice the tofu and fish cake. I like to cut them small, but still arge enough to be picked up easily with chopsticks.
5. Add the celery, fish cake and tofu.
6. When everything is heated through, serve and enjoy!

For extra deliciousity, T and I enjoyed this "fruit salad" as our dessert after our soup for lunch today:

1 apple, diced
1 pear, diced
1/2 a pomegranate's worth of seeds

A community of love

I've been feeling intermittently crafty. I always feel like I want to make something, but when I have the time, I'm not sure what to make. I've been working on a new project, which is going well. Hopefully I'll have some photos to post tonight at least. I've also started (finally) on Christmas gifts, which is a good thing.

I'm distracted because the world lost a wonderful person this past weekend. A friend and colleauge, Karen suffered a series of strokes and was unable to recover. Young, vibrant, colourful (and colour coded) and an embodiment of the school's spirit, we're all missing her very much. Knowing that she never wanted to see anyone unhappy or upset, we are trying to take strength in growing through this together and keeping her spirit alive. She was always so proud of my projects, I'm sure I'll think of something good soon. You should have seen that rainbow this weekend. It was a triple decker and the brightest I've ever seen.

Shop updated... finally!

Yep, it's true. After all of this time, I have finally added new goodies to the shop. Go over and check it out. Speaking of shop(ping), T and I have been working on our Holiday Wishlists, as requested. This year, we are both creating Wists (Wish + List = Wist) over at wists.com. You can see photos of my "wists" scrolling in the side bar over on the left of the page. You should start a Wist - it's quite easy. Let me know if you need help.

In other news, my sewing machine is back in the shop. This time it's in for a good cleaning. So I'll be working on cutting and carving again this week. I'll be able to pick it up on Thursday, but there will be photos of my other adventures until then!

If you're wondering, that's a Hot and Cold Apple up there. I made them Friday night before the fair, and am I glad I did! They were a huge hit. I only have one left. They are cute and compassionate too. You can store them in the freezer for use on bumps and bruises or you can heat them up in the microwave to warm your fingers and soothe sore muscles. I'll be working on a pear pattern once I get my machine back.

Not bad

This weekend was not bad. It wasn't great, but not much to complain about. My craft fair on Saturday was alright. There wasn't a particularly good flow of shoppers, but that meant that I had time to do other things. I finished up some animals and got to walk around and actually talk with the other vendors. It was a mix of vendors and crafters; probably about 70% to 30%. So I made a point of stopping at the other crafters' tables. I met AggieBag, WoosWoodLG and another lovely lady who has a long arm quilter. In the end, I still ended up reaching my goal profit which is more than enough to pay for my sewing machine getting its much overdue tune up.

After the fair, T suggested that we could stop at my favourite quilt shop, since we were nearby. The place was hoppin'! Turns out that they were part of a quilt shop hop so people were there spending money to collect a unique quilt patch from each store. If you visited all 12 stores in the hop, you were then entered into a drawing for some quite nice prizes. Apparently, few people get to all 12 stores (not many significant others are willing to spend a whole weekend perusing quilt shops I assume) so the chances of winning are high. Even so, I wasn't about to go running around DC, Maryland and Virginia to get a chance to enter into the contest. But I did have fun picking out some more new fabrics! Plus, I think I can cross another person off of my Christmas list.

Sunday, we went to the Green Festival with Madre. We spent several hours perusing and gathering the latest on what's going on the environmentally friendly community. I made a point of only collecting information (handouts, business cards, etc.) from people I genuinely think I might find useful. Now I just have to go through the bag and organise all that info!


T and I enjoyed a nice dinner at La Madeleine and then went for a walk around Reston Town Center. It must have dropped about 10 degrees over the course of our walk and I started to get pretty cold. Fortunately, there's a new Anthropologie there (next door to Paper Source!). I am liking that store more and more every time I visit. I still don't feel brave enough to wear most of the things they sell, but I can almost always find something I must have. This time, I found 2 things; a little birdie on a grapefruit sugar bowl, complete with a little blue spoon, and a toasty, pink wool coat - which was even on sale! See? Not too bad. :)

Carving away my time

My sewing machine is sad. It's been doing such a lovely job helping me with all my crazy projects. But all of a sudden yesterday, the top thread tension got all out of whack. No matter what stitch I use or which way I turn the tension dial, the top thread is always too tight. As a result, my trusty friend is going to the shop this afternoon, for the first time ever. Fortunately, wonderful Tran has already called the shop to explain that I have a craft fair this Saturday, so I need my machine back as soon as possible. He explained the problem and it seems we should be able to drop it off this afternoon and pick it up tomorrow! How swell!

So, since my friendly machine is out of commission, I needed something else to occupy myself last night. I recently ordered some new Japanese crafting books. One of them is full of hand carved stamp designs. I love those sorts of books for the inspiration! So I spent the evening last night carving some stamps. I carved a happy cloud, an envelope (sealed with love), the little penguin above and a Silver Lining return address stamp. I did the three little ones first to practice and get myself "in the groove." The return address stamp is pretty awesome also, if I do say so myself. But the penguin one saved me money. I saw this little guy on Etsy a while ago, but decided to wait to buy it. Of course, it sold. So last night, when I was feeling like carving, I knew I had to make him.

Wishing I could take a nap

Phewf! What a weekend. T and I felt like quite the social butterflies with a social engagement each day. It's hard to believe we were ever more social in college! It was wonderful to be able to spend time with friends and re-connect with people we hadn't had a chance to see for a while. Now if we could only get up to NYC...

In other news, I have had some lovely feedback about the goodies I made (with help from T and Sneetch, of course) for the babies. A couple very nice emails and comments in the hallway. How nice it is to know that your hard work is truly appreciated. Here's a picture of the owl bags which caused much glee and excitement on Friday:


Elsewhere in the blogosphere, See Katie Sew is having a fantastic fabric give away. Even though I'm sure very few people are reading this, I said I'd post about it to spread the word and get myself entered in the contest for an extra 5 entries. :D

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is actually my least favourite holiday. I dislike all the scary and often disgusting things the stores sell. Halloween as we know it now is so far removed from the way it was originally celebrated generations ago. Perhaps it's because I work with younger children and I worry about them getting truly scared by the stores and the masks and the older children. Or maybe it's just because those things scare me still.

Anyway, I prefer to celebrate Haloween with fun, cute things. So my students are getting little "Boo Boo Bumpkins" in Owl Bags this year. The Bumpkins are just an adapted simple ball pattern with faces, leaves and stems. They're filled with flax seeds and fabric scraps. This way, they can be hot/cold packs. I enclosed a little note inside each owl bag letting the parents know. Also, I wanted them to know that being handmade, the pumpkins should be handled nicely (and not thrown around). I gave away several at the noon time dismissal for the children who would not be staying today, and already heard squeals of excitement. I do love to craft for people who truly appreciate it. :)

Warm wishes

I've had quilts on the mind recently. A month or so ago, Robin (my friend and co-worker) was telling me about some wonderful glass mosaic classes she's been taking. She even brought one of her works in progress for me to see. I don't think it would be good for me to get into yet another craft. Not only because mosaic-making can get expensive (as with all crafts, I suppose), but because I don't have any more space in my crafting room. So of course, my mind turned to the fabric alternative to glass mosaics; quilts.

I've never made a real quilt before. Mom used to help me construct little "comforters" for my Barbies. They were just little square fabric scraps all sewn together to make something which looked like a mini quilt. But I never did any actual quilting on them; machine or by hand. I suppose that since the weather has been (unseasonably?) cold, I've also been feeling like quilts would be good projects.

Then, an unfortunate but good reason for making a quilt came along. My friend/co-worker/mentor suffered a stroke on Sunday. She has known me since I was 5 or 6. For better or worse, my way of dealing with sad news is to make things. I've been cooking, baking and sewing pretty much all of my free time. I've decide to make her a lap quilt which I think I will try to get all the faculty and staff to sign on the back. I want it to be a reminder to her that we are all thinking of her all the time and miss her very much. I want it to keep her warm while she's recovering and help her to feel more comfortable. I wanted to finish it tonight, but I'm 2-3 hours away from being done, so blogging about it and taking photos will have to do for now.