Miscellaneous stuff I like right now

My Kindle. We bought it right before our huge roadtrip. I actually didn't use it very much until we got back (I'd rather knit than read it turns out). However, when we got back I started using it more often. I'm still not 100% sold on it for all my reading needs but I enjoy the convenience of it. As of today I have read since late-June: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (good but bizarre story), Bossypants by Tina Fey (loved.it.), The Help by Kathryn Stockett (hated it), Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner (liked it okay) and I'm in the middle of Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff and yesterday, thanks to a friend's recommendation, I downloaded two John Green books, Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns. Since I go through books so quickly I like that I can have a new book almost instantly. It is hard getting used to not having an actual book to look through though.

This yarn (Madelinetosh Merino Light in Mineral)

I have cast-on-itis, I'm going to use it to make this sweater but I'm not letting myself cast on until I finish the other half-dozen items I have on the needles. The color makes me extremely happy.

Salads, my current favorite salad is baby greens, toasted almonds, dried cranberries, goat cheese, turkey and balsamic vinaigrette. I can't say it's super healthy but it tastes good.

Mad Men, we are so behind on this. I know everyone has talked about how great this is forever but we're just now getting around to watching it. We just finished the first season and both of us love it. I told Doug it's like candy, not only is the storyline completely addictive, the set design/wardrobe is so fun to look at.

The most recent Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) record. Beautiful and eerie. 

He's also doing this with James Blake:

Rebekka Seale's Dear Friend, blog. She lives in Nashville, takes very lovely pictures and is also a very talented artist.

I'm obsessed with these chairs. I would love a set for the dining room, maybe with a long wooden table.

From my favorite book

Wednesday was the birthday of Betty Smith, the author of my favorite book ever, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I have read and re-read that book countless times. One of my most treasured possessions is a well-worn first edition of the book. Over at The Writer's Almanac they reprinted a small portion from one of the chapters, especially relevent during this holiday season:

At midnight on the Eve of our dear Saviour's birth, the kids gathered where there were unsold trees. The man threw each tree in turn, starting with the biggest. Kids volunteered to stand up against the throwing. If a boy didn't fall down under the impact, the tree was his. If he fell, he forfeited his chance at winning a tree. Only the roughest boys and some of the young men elected to be hit by the big trees. The others waited shrewdly until a tree came up that they could stand against. The little kids waited for the tiny, foot-high trees and shrieked in delight when they won one.

On the Christmas Eve when Francie was ten and Neeley nine, mama consented to let them go down and have their first try for a tree. Francie had picked out her tree earlier in the day. She had stood near it all afternoon and evening praying that no one would buy it. To her joy, it was still there at midnight. It was the biggest tree in the neighborhood and its price was so high that no one could afford to buy it. It was ten feet high. Its branches were bound with new white rope and it came to a sure pure point at the top.

The man took this tree out first. Before Francie could speak up, a neighborhood bully, a boy of eighteen known as Punky Perkins, stepped forward and ordered the man to chuck the tree at him. The man hated the way Punky was so confident. He looked around and asked, "Anybody else wanna take a chance on it?"

Francie stepped forward. "Me, Mister."

A spurt of derisive laughter came from the tree man. The kids snickered. A few adults who had gathered to watch the fun, guffawed.

"Aw g'wan. You're too little," the tree man objected.

"Me and my brother — we're not too little together."

She pulled Neeley forward. The man looked at them a thin girl of ten with starveling hollows in her cheeks but with the chin still baby-round. He looked at the little boy with his fair hair and round blue eyes — Neeley Nolan, all innocence and trust.

"Two ain't fair," yelped Punky.

"Shut your lousy trap," advised the man who held all power in that hour. "These here kids is got nerve. Stand back, the rest of yous. These kids is goin' to have a show at this tree."

The others made a wavering lane. Francie and Neeley stood at one end of it and the big man with the big tree at the other. It was a human funnel with Francie and her brother making the small end of it. The man flexed his great arms to throw the great tree. He noticed how tiny the children looked at the end of the short lane. For the split part of a moment, the tree thrower went through a kind of Gethsemane. 

"Oh, Jesus Christ," his soul agonized, "why don't I just give 'em the tree, say Merry Christmas and let 'em go? What's the tree to me? I can't sell it no more this year and it won't keep till next year." The kids watched him solemnly as he stood there in his moment of thought. "But then," he rationalized, "if I did that, all the others would expect to get 'em handed to 'em. And next year nobody a-tall would buy a tree off of me. They'd all wait to get 'em handed to 'em on a silver plate. I ain't a big enough man to give this tree away for nothin'. No, I ain't big enough. I ain't big enough to do a thing like that. I gotta think of myself and my own kids." He finally came to his conclusion. "Oh, what the hell! Them two kids is gotta live in this world. They got to get used to it. They got to learn to give and to take punishment. And by Jesus, it ain't give but take, take, take all the time in this God-damned world." As he threw the tree with all his strength, his heart wailed out, "It's a God-damned, rotten, lousy world!"

Francie saw the tree leave his hands. There was a split bit of being when time and space had no meaning. The whole world stood still as something dark and monstrous came through the air. The tree came towards her blotting out all memory of her ever having lived. There was nothing-nothing but pungent darkness and something that grew and grew as it rushed at her. She staggered as the tree hit them. Neeley went to his knees but she pulled him up fiercely before he could go down. There was a mighty swishing sound as the tree settled. Everything was dark, green and prickly. Then she felt a sharp pain at the side of her head where the trunk of the tree had hit her. She felt Neeley trembling.

When some of the older boys pulled the tree away, they found Francie and her brother standing upright, hand in hand. Blood was coming from scratches on Neeley's face. He looked more like a baby than ever with his bewildered blue eyes and the fairness of his skin made more noticeable because of the clear red blood. But they were smiling. Had they not won the biggest tree in the neighborhood? Some of the boys hollered "Hooray!" A few adults clapped. The tree man eulogized them by screaming, "And now get the hell out of here with your tree, you lousy bastards."

What I accomplished this weekend

Taught my 7.5 year old niece to knit (I hope it sticks!)

My favorite thing was when my brother came to pick her up and we were getting her things together I asked her if she wanted to put her knitting in her bag and she said "No I'm going to knit in the car." A child after my own heart.

Made the same niece a little elastic waist skirt with fabric she picked out. 

Finished the increase portion of my Damson shawl. The yarn is Malabrigo sock and the color reminds me of honey.

Wound one skein of yarn and made a giant mess with two other skeins after my swift fell apart.

Got Golden India takeout for dinner Saturday.

Went to the movies with Doug (saw this)

Read some of this Mary Gaitskill book.

Drank several glasses of iced Vanilla Chai from Memphis-based Ugly Mug while watching Lucas on the Indie Channel. Noted while watching said movie, Jeremy Piven in 1986 looks pretty much just like Jeremy Piven in 2010, but Charlie Sheen was way hotter in 1986.

Roasted okra from my garden (just a little olive oil, salt and pepper - yum!) 

New hair, new book

I did plenty of things this weekend that warranted taking pictures, but did I take any? Nooooo. Bad blogger.

Friday afternoon I got a haircut with bangs! I have a big round face and across the forehead bangs make my head look even rounder but side bangs seem to work.

Friday night I volunteered to stuff envelopes for a few hours at WEVL and then planned to go to dinner. Unfortunately (and due to my own stupidity), I had only eaten an energy bar and a fruit smoothie over the course of the entire day so by 7:30pm I developed a mammoth headache. So Doug and I aborted our dinner plans, he brought me food and I curled up in a ball in bed until Saturday morning.

Saturday we had breakfast at Blue Plate and then did a little shopping. I caught the end of an interview on NPR with the author of this book. It peaked my curiosity because the author teaches at the University of Memphis. After Doug finished buying fly fishing supplies we drove over to Davis-Kidd and I picked up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I'm halfway through it right now and it's a really engaging story. Especially considering my recent interest in cytology and microbiology. The chapters alternate between telling the story of Henrietta Lacks and the story of an immortal cell line taken from Mrs. Lack's (without her consent). I haven't been reading as much as I have in the past, it's harder when your hands want to knit instead of hold a book and audio-books just aren't the same.

Saturday night we saw the Memphis Roller Derby double-header with friends, Sunday morning we slept later than we meant to (stupid Daylight Savings Time) I had brunch with friends at the Hi-Tone (really good), went on a trip to Super Target and then had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner. The Memphis weather was a little less than spring-like but I'm enjoying the cool weather while it lasts.

Iced in

Alright Memphis folks, did you survive the ice? I got to go home a little early Friday, made it back safely and did not leave the house again until this morning. Friday afternoon I knit and we watched the ice/snow/sleet come down. I had gone to the store Friday morning before the icydeath started so we had supplies (toilet paper, cat food, chocolate chips, chicken).

Inspired by Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake (who lives in Nashville) I made a chocolate-chip skillet cookie. It was gooood but I always find it's a total PIA to clean my cast-iron skillet after using it.

By Saturday morning all the ice/snow had stopped and the left our street an ice-rink. So I slapped some pancake batter together and knit and knit and knit. In the afternoon I ventured out to take a few pictures. This tree that sits right between our driveway and our neighbor's fence got top-heavy and flopped over on top of the Jeep. It didn't damage anything and it needs to be trimmed back anyway. We were lucky nothing large came falling down, only some small limbs in the backyard and a few on the roof.

The rest of the weekend we spent housebound, watching bad television, knitting (Doug made lures) and reading. When we were in Nashville a few weeks ago I bought two other Betty Smith books I didn't own. I've read three of her books many times but it didn't stop me from picking up Maggie-Now and reading a few chapters.

Making and baking (but not making bacon - yet)

For Christmas I got a stack of books including: three cookbooks, a sewing book and a book on toxic plants. Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it was especially enticing because amongst the recipes/directions are those for curing your own bacon AND rendering your own lard. Not that I'm ready to do either of those things but I like that the option is there when I want to. I had not had a chance to make anything from the books until this weekend. I saw the recipe for homemade chocolate peanut-butter cups in Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it and decided to try it out. There was no actual cooking involved, just food processing and melting. First you make little disks out of roasted peanuts, honey and a couple of other things (processed until smooth) and then you melt semi-sweet chocolate chips. Once that's done you coat the cupcake liner with a thin layer of chocolate, lightly press in one of the peanut butter disks, add more chocolate on top and let them set for at least four hours. They were perfect and relatively simple to make. Plus as long as they're kept in an airtight container they're good for a week or two.This weekend I also made a favorite of mine, arborio rice pudding. I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, adding a little extra almond extract, using vanilla bean paste and subbing almond milk for the whole milk. The texture was perfect but I should have gone a little easier on the almond extract, especially considering I used almond milk.My Featherweight cardigan is making me crazy. My sleeve increases are all kinds of jacked up and it seems like each row takes forever, although I finally got to the point to pull off the sleeve stitches and put them on scrap yarn. So since that project was driving me nuts what do I do? Cast on another project of course. This is the Saroyan scarf/shawlette thing, from Feministy. It's a super easy pattern and with worsted weight yarn and size 10 needles, it's flying. I cast on last night and I'm already done with the first section. The yarn is Madeleine Tosh worsted in Tern bought in Seattle in December. I love this yarn, the color is exquisite and it's so flippin' soft with a hint of springy-ness. Adore!

I dusted off the sewing machine today and cut out the pieces to make a straight skirt (a Simplicty pattern) with a zipper. I didn't get around to sewing any of the pieces yet but I did cut them all out. The fabric is Anna Maria Horner I bought in Portland last summer. This year I really want to branch out and expand my sewing skills past elastic waist bands. Kind of like how I want to knit a sweater that's shaped for my measurements so it doesn't look like a sack.

Daytrip

Saturday we drove up to Nashville to spend the day, just to do something different.

We had lunch at Silly Goose, a little place in East Nashville. I had a couscous dish with olives, bleu cheese, red peppers, basil and balsamic. Highly recommend it.Visited the Sweet 16th Bakery and picked up a couple of things before they closed.

Went vintage clothing shopping at the Hip Zipper.Got slightly freaked out by the huge Billy Graham statue downtown, at least I think it's Billy Graham.Saw an exhibit at the Frist Center. (no pics allowed inside so this is us outside looking dorky)Had a mocha at Crema, which is supposed to be the best in the city.Found two books from one of my favorite authors at Bookman/Bookwoman.Ate biscuits and country fried steak after waiting an hour at the Loveless Cafe.Then we drove home, or rather I drove for about an hour before Doug decided I should not drive as it was raining steadily and I was making him nervous because the 18 wheelers kept passing me and splashing water all over the window shield causing me to freak out.

Weekend sabbatical

I made a vow on Friday that after I got home from work Friday afternoon I wasn't going to leave the house again until Monday morning. I've been so busy lately that I really haven't had any time to relax and catch up. Most of the weekend I spent doing yard/garden work, knitting cooking, putting up our Halloween decorations, laying on the couch and catching up on all of our DVR-ed shows.

Friday night I made Spaghetti Bolognese using a recipe found here. I did skip the celery and added an extra carrot and two golden bell peppers from the garden. The sauce was good but I should have added a little more salt. The recipe made enough for me to bag and freeze a whole other serving. For dessert I made Apple Cobbler with Cheddar Cheese Biscuits, a recipe from Rustic Fruit Desserts I heard about at Angry Chicken. I bought myself a copy at Davis-Kidd and there's lots of delicious looking things I can't wait to try. The cobbler was very good and I was able to use up some of the apples I bought at the Farmer's Market last weekend.

Saturday we were the recipients of gorgeous weather, it was clear, sunny and the air had just the tiniest nip in it. Much of yard work (weeding, trimming hedges, trimming the ivy, etc.) had been neglected over the last couple of months so I spent the morning doing those things. In the afternoon Doug and I put up our Halloween decorations. The black silhouettes are from the Martha line at Michael's and were picked up at 40% off last week.

Sunday was the complete weather opposite of Saturday, it rained steadily all day and the temp was almost chilly. I made this week and next week's TWD selections, finished the second sleeve on my Francis sweater, watched more television and made Chicken Apple Curry for dinner (recipe here).

Not everything I wanted to accomplish this weekend got done but I did manage to have some much needed 'home time' for the first time in forever. Hope you had a great weekend!

A case of the Mondays

By 10AM this morning I was ready to throw in the towel for the whole week. I woke up not feeling well anyway and then I get to work and was bombarded with snarky emails and cranky phone calls.

At noon I put out all the immediate fires, sent my boss an email saying I was heading home, packed up my laptop and went on my merry way. Several things made me feel better.

A nap with one of my cats, Maggie, she's the best couch-napping cat there is.The realization that I leave for Portland in nine days. The last of my homemade vanilla bean ice cream.And some new books.Hope your Monday was miles better than mine!

More pictures than words

I've fallen down on the job of posting. I have things to say, just not enough time to say them. Also I skipped out on TWD this week. The selection was Mango Bread and I just wasn't feeling it.
Until I have time to write out more coherent thoughts here are some pictures to distract you.

Lovely egg cups (a birthday gift, lucky me!) from my sweet friend Melissa. The giant eraser was .25 cents at an estate sale last weekend, a vintage copy of my favorite book ever "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - $1.00 at an estate sale down the street from me two weekends ago and another vintage book - a Nancy Drew book I've had forever. My mom brought it to me Mother's Day weekend, my great-uncle sent me that book when I was a tween and really into Nancy Drew. A little collection of things I'm starting on the living room wall. I bought the 'B' at a big box craft store and painted it brown, the skeleton key and small framed print I bought at yet another estate sale last weekend and the embroidered 'Do Not Want' was made for me (birthday gift) by one of my awesome friends, Christiana. More estate sale find, lace trim, rick-rack, needles and some little embroidered squares "To Mother." When I saw those it made me a little sad and I had to buy them. A baking handbook from my other awesome friend Lynsey, recipes for all sorts of fabulous classic desserts in there. Oh and they spell cookie 'cooky'. Love!Finally, my knit group (Memphis Knit Mafia, we're on Facebook!) installed our first piece of knit 'graffiti' last week at our favorite hangout, Cafe Eclectic. It was so fun, this is me taking my turn at securing the pole cozy to the old telephone pole we put it on. These women are the best and they've Tuesdays my favorite day of the week.