Filed Under Reasons I Love my Mom

She laughs at my stupid jokes. 

(to set the stage, we are talking about recipes, things we are making for dinner, etc over facebook chat)

Mom: Yum! You can also fry it with onions, broccoli and make a mustard rue

Me: What's a mustard rue? Similar to a white sauce rue?

Me: Rue? Rioux?

Me: I RUE THE DAY I MADE YOU, MUSTARD SAUCE!!!!

I think I did not get enough sleep last night, because I seriously laughed at my own joke for about ten minutes. Decided to share my awesome jokes with the world.

Projects in Progress

I've been working on some general projects and list items recently that I've been wanting to blog about, but have found that I haven't had the time. It's not so much that I don't have the time for the actual blogging, but I seem to not have enough time to finish the projects I'm working on. I keep thinking, "I am sure I will finish this weekend! And then I can take photos and update my blog!" And yet...not so much.

The biggest of these projects is setting up a little "craft nook" in the new place.  Our bedroom is much larger, and we have enough room for me to set up a sewing table and organize all my yarn and other crafty goodness. I bought a bookcase/cubby thing for yarn storage, and assembled it, two weekends ago. Then I realized in order to have enough space for the craft nook I would need to rearrange the current furniture set up. I measured the room and all the furniture and then broke out the graph paper, cutting out little miniature furniture squares to move around. I figured out an arrangement I was happy with and that wouldn't require a lot of moving.

Impressed with my cunning skill, I headed off to the bedroom to rearrange! I was then reminded that the bedroom had been a storage space for unpacked boxes. Unfazed, I figured I could move those boxes to the laundry room...which happened to be full of more unpacked boxes, and was completely unorganized so that nothing else could fit. I spent the rest of the weekend unpacking things that could be unpacked, reorganizing the laundry room, and finally moving the bedroom furniture. 

This past weekend my goal was to finish setting up the craft nook: setting up the sewing table, organizing my yarn/needles/everything else, and overall neatening up the rest of the bedroom. While I was able to start this process, I was foiled by the nasty cold I've been fighting since mid-week. I took Wednesday off from work and spent the day on the couch watching the second half of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 5. By Saturday I was feeling much improved and went to yoga, followed by brunch with a few friends.  Feeling awesome and productive, I returned home knowing that I would finish that craft nook. I got about halfway done before I felt exhausted. So, it remains not quite finished yet. 

My new goal is to be able to do small bits here and there throughout the week, as this weekend is already pretty busy. Friday my husband's band is having their CD release party during Tucson's Brootal Sun Fest. Saturday, we will be driving up to Ikea for some bookcases and then going to an uncle's 50th birthday party in the Phoenix area. Sunday we are spending some more time with family who are in town from North Dakota for the 50th birthday celebration.  After all that excitement, I'm sure I'll have more time to finish the nook if I need to (and spend more time updating here!)

Hey, I'm famous!

Ok, not exactly famous...but Lee Meredith did link to my Betiko post on her blog! That's right, the designer of the pattern herself said my shawl was beautiful! Definitely feeling pretty cool right now. She also linked to a few other Betiko projects, so go check those out!

While basking in the glow of internet fame-dom, I remembered I had one other brief moment of awesome that I never mentioned here exactly. Last year I knit my husband a cozy for his bass guitar which ended up being featured on knithacker. Woo, 15 minutes of internet fame!

Chocolate Covered

This past Christmas, one of David's aunts sent us a package from a specialty sweets shop in North Dakota (where she lives). Inside we discovered the wonder of chocolate covered potato chips. Sounds...strange, but sooo delicious. I definitely enjoy the sweet and salty combo (salted caramels are another favorite) so I decided to try my hand at making my own.

I chopped up some Hershey's nuggets we had on hand and combined that with some chocolate melting chips. I melted the chocolate in a (homemade) double boiler, dipped the chips (I chose ridged over plain), and laid them on some wax paper. I put them in the fridge for about an hour and then voila! Perfection!

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Stretch it Out

Last Saturday I went to my first ever yoga class. I remember doing some yoga in gym class my senior year of high school, and I've done some yoga dvds, but haven't ever really received proper instruction. As much as I love working out in the privacy and convenience of my living room, it did not seem effective to be craning my neck to see the TV while doing downward facing dog, and so I decided it was time to go to an actual yoga class.

A friend had mentioned being interested in checking out a specific studio a while ago (Yoga Oasis), so we and another friend made plans to check out their intro class. It was fantastic, and I'm planning on returning this weekend as well. I'm hoping to start going to a class consistently once or twice a week, and then hopefully learn (and remember) enough to practice at home as well (#7, here I come!).

About 3 years ago I was introduced to the Health at Every Size philosophy via random internet wanderings. HAES, in summary, is the idea that weight does not equate with health, that I as a 200lb woman am not inherently unhealthy, and that exercise and eating well are things that certainly can improve our health without weight loss being a direct result. The idea that exercise was something to do because it actually feels good and NOT purely as method of losing was weight was something I never thought would happen for myself.  Sure, I can see that some people enjoy torturing themselves through things like long distance running, but that wasn't me! I was more of a diet/exercise are really only good for changing the way my body looks, and since that's not something that seems to work real well, to hell with it all!

The more I read about HAES (and the fat acceptance movement in general) the more intrigued I became, and slowly began shifting my ideas around weight and health. I genuinely enjoy eating healthful foods, and cooking, so that piece was a little easier. I took ballet a few years ago and completely fell in love (another future list item is taking another class) but haven't really done a lot of other exercise that I really enjoy.  Although I've only taken one class so far, I love that yoga is very much about listening to your body, doing what's right for your body, and that the intro class is very much about just figuring that out.

Finished Betiko Shawl (#21 completed)

I had a little photo shoot with David this past weekend to capture some good shawl photos.  The pattern I used was Betiko by Lee Meredith of do stuff!.  The pattern is well written and easy to follow, and I loved to unique construction of the shawl. I have other projects in the works now that this one is finished, but I'm definitely considering making a customizable version of this down the road.



As you can see, the shawl I made is pretty sizeable! I was actually a little worried that it would be too warm for Tucson, but it has turned out to be just right! I used Knit Picks Merino Style for the main color, which is DK weight and light enough that the shawl isn't too heavy. The stripes are knit with Noro Silk Garden Sock.




The second photo is how I've been wearing it. Since the shawl blocks out into a u-shape, it's been very easy to wear and stays on without much fuss.

When I wrote my list, I had already knit myself a Swallowtail Shawl, which is triangular; when I wrote task #21 I was mainly thinking that I wanted to knit a non-triangular shawl, but forgot about the fact that there are indeed other shawl shapes besides triangular and rectangular. I'm considering that this might satisfy the spirit of the task, so to speak, if not the letter of the task exactly. I haven't officially crossed it off my list yet, but I'm definitely considering doing so. Opinions?

Rambly Life Update

Well, another month is nearly over and what a month it has been! My parents came to visit us here in Tucson, which was great! They got to see our new home, meet Zelda, and do some things they didn't have the opportunity to do while they lived here. My mom and I went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens and saw their butterfly exhibit. All of us went to the San Xavier Mission and the De Grazia Gallery in the Sun. I was also able to get my sewing machine set up and we fit in a quick sewing lesson! I didn't get a ton of photos, but the ones I did are here.

The rest of the month we've been slowly putting the rest of the house together. We're still not entirely done, but it's at least continuing to move forward. While my parents were here we got a new dining table and some more cacti and succulents, so hopefully I'll be more successful at keeping plants alive here.

I've also finished a new shawl! I tried taking some photos earlier tonight, but the lighting was crap and the dogs kept trying to take over the photo shoot. Got some cute dog pics out of that, so I'm not complaining! Once I get some good photos I'll be sure to upload.

I'm still working on the list items, and my awesome sister gifted 2 books for the list (The Brothers K and a Margaret Atwood for my 5 other random books) as well as the cutest address book. Can't wait to start using it-maybe for 2011's Christmas cards I won't have to randomly text my mom 80 times double checking people's addresses...