Weekend Highlights

• Friday night we had a fussy, feverish baby. Doug picked up takeout from here and we (um, mainly me) watched bridal shows on TLC. 

• Saturday morning we still had a feverish baby so we had donuts and coffee before an 11:00AM doctor's appointment. Once at the pediatrician's office our baby was no longer feverish and seemed to be feeling much better. 

• The rest of Saturday we hung around the house, had one of our close friends over for a dinner of hot wings and fries (which I did not make) and  'boiled cookies', which I did make (that's what my Nannie has always called them). We had beautiful weather Saturday night after the rain cleared out so we ate on the patio. Newly covered with one of those cooling shade/sail things from Home Depot. It's a little low hanging right now but keeps the sun from bearing down on our heads. 

• Sunday morning we had scones and more coffee, and decided to skip our very late brunch reservations in favor of going to the zoo. Doug (and George) gave me two very awesome Mother's Day presents, a Kindle Fire HD and a box of my favorite chocolate-covered orange slices and salted caramels from a local candy company. At the zoo we realized everyone else had the same idea we did so it was pretty busy but not horribly so. George was more interested in watching the people than the animals (Doug and I were too). On the way home we had Yolo.

• Sunday night we again took advantage of the patio weather and had dinner outside. I made a shrimp recipe from Cooking Light (shrimp + lemon + red pepper flakes + white wine + butter) and George and I practiced sticking our tongues out. We were also pretty bummed about the end of the weekend.

Alpaca and angora

This past weekend my friend Kenan and I drove (will she drove, I rode) to nearby Oxford, Mississippi for a fiber festival.

There were promisesof real, live alpaca and we just couldn't pass up that opportunity. The festival itself was pretty small but there were two alpaca, not as friendly as the ones we met in Colorado, and angora rabbits. 

 

The rabbits were pretty much the cuter things ever. They're bigger than my cats and look like giant balls of fluff, we almost could find the eyes on one of them. I wanted to take one home with me, although Doug seems to have a strict policy on animals other than cats living at our current house. 

 

After wandering around the festival we walked around the square stopping at Amelia, a tiny but completely adorable shop. She had items from several Etsy artists as well as other things I hadn't seen before. I bought a Shanna Murray decal, which I had been coveting for awhile but never ordered, a printed tea towel and a coffee mug. 

 

Down the street was Bottletree Bakery they were serving lunch but were decidedly low on pastries. We each got something sweet and wandered back down the street to have lunch at Boure. After lunch we stopped at Square Books and then later had coffee at High Point (which used to be in Memphis before it went out of business here). 

Before we left town we went to Knit 1 Oxford, Oxford's only yarn store. The staff was super nice and they seemed to have an adequate amount of basics. K and I couldn't stop petting the Cascade Baby Alpaca yarn. It is so flipping soft that despite my promise to buy any yarn I bought one luscious little skein of Chunky Baby Alpaca. Very soon it will become a neckwarmer/cowl - even thought I don't need another one.

The Agony of Defeat

So as you know I bake - a lot. I thought it would be fun to enter some of my baked goods in the Mid-South Fair. This year the fair moved from Memphis to Southaven, Mississippi, about 25 minutes from my house, which was kind of sucky, but whatever. Last Wednesday I drove down to Southaven with brownies, chocolate marshmallows, brown sugar-almond cookies and blueberry muffins in tow for judging. I hadn't made it back to see the results until last night. Lynsey and I drove down to the 'haven to see the results and eat a Pronto Pup. Sadly, I did not win anything. Some other woman won almost every flipping category. Her stuff didn't even look appetizing at all. Blah.

The fair was really minimized this year since it moved from the fairgrounds to a site not really set up to accommodate a fair with rides and a midway. I still have dreams of attending an actual state fair.But Lynsey and I did get those Pronto Pups and grilled corn and pork rinds and fudge. Plus we got to pet some farm animals and who doesn't love to do that really?

Things I'm crushing on right this minute

• Little wooden chair we picked up at an estate sale a few weeks ago, $45. It's a little creaky but I think Doug can tighten the joints. Once I saw the seat cushion with the koi I had to have it.

• Bon Iver

• Snowglobe

• Haagen Dazs Five coffee flavor - best ice cream ever. EVER.

• Malabrigo Organic Cotton - I ordered two sweaters worth from Yarnzilla (it was on sale). I'm making the Ophelia cardigan from A Mingled Yarn, that's the very beginning of it. This colorway is Plata and it's gray with faint blue undertones. It was a little stiff but as I'm knitting with it it's softening up a bit.

• Savage Love podcasts, he's kind of fabulous. However be warned, he is not for the faint of heart. Or ears.

• Stitcher Radio app for my iPhone, I can listen to NPR shows like Car Talk, Fresh Air, etc. while I water the garden and get eaten by mosquitoes. If Doug could marry this app he would, mainly because he can listen to NBC Nightly News, 60 Minutes and Face the Nation.

• Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Smitten Kitchen via Gourmet, seriously I made this last weekend and it was gone almost instantly. And there was only two of us.

• Posie Gets Cozy, I've been a blog stalker of hers for awhile but her posts about her garden and the accompanying pictures make me want to move to Portland immediately.

• Handknit socks from my super-fabulous friend Lynsey. She's out of town for awhile and I miss her lots. She made these socks in honor of me learning how to ride a bike! (more about that later).