Found on Flickr

tinned balls

Very cool looking!

Found on Flickr

Sheep

Adorable! I love how the locks are done. :)

Found on Flickr

Boat on a Loch II

Pretty. :)

Found on Flickr

A funny thing happened while I was trying to learn reverse applique...

I love the punches of bold colour framed by the white-by-white borders. :)

E is for Earth

Climbing Tree

E is for Earth, my favourite planet. Let's not mess it up, okay?

I did F last time, since I couldn't think of a good photo for the E I wanted. I ended up just going through my past photos. This is the "climbing tree" near my family's cabin that my grandpa cut and debarked branches a long time ago so that you could climb up higher for a better view.

Posting this E today seems extra nice, since Earth Hour was today. (Not that I remembered until after Earth Hour was over... and well before it started. *sigh*)

New Potholder

I love how felting even something as simple as a potholder can go from "what on earth am I thinking?!?":

to "I knew it would work out all along":

(Beige potholder there for scale. It's a bit narrow, but other than that a reasonable size.) The blue one is a bit wavy, but other than that, great. (Perhaps had I blocked it, rather than tossing it in the dryer, it would have dried flat.)

My Former Home

How sad... the owners of my former "apartment" complex (more like townhouses) wants to tear it down. :( My former roommate sent me the following links that were sent to her:

News 14 story:
http://news14.com/Default.aspx?ArID=594289

News & Observer articles:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/984973.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/264/story/1012211.html

In my opinion, Glen Lennox was the best place to live in Chapel Hill, both in terms of location and the layout of the buildings. I'm sure the new place will be nice, but it won't have the character of the old place with the real hardwood floors, no one above or below you, and your own little patch of grass. The new development will also likely be considerably more expensive. I hope they don't go ahead with it.

Contest Alert!

Click

Wee Tiny Sock Swap!

Hurry, sign-ups end today! All you send is a wee, tiny sock that you knit over the weekend. Nice and low key!

Found on Flickr

Handspun Cumulus Yarn

Neato!

Contest Alert!

I'm going to bed while I think up my entry, but you can enter the contest now. ;) (And wish Sara a happy belated blogiversary while you're at it.)

Found on Flickr

more wool buttons007

Wool buttons? Wool buttons!!!! Wool buttons...

Apartment Art

Albert is happy in his new wall space:

and the "Jesus Nook" (so christened by my brother... it's actually meant for a telephone back in the old days, but there's no electrical outlet nearby for a cordless phone) now has an Asian/Zen theme:

Iranian New Year Table

Iranian New Year Table

I learned something new today:
• It's the Iranian New Year.
• Some of the traditional items on the table include: a dish of sprouted wheat (or other grains I can't remember), a bowl of goldfish, vinegar, and painted eggs. There were a bunch of other traditional things, but I can't remember them all.

The Manitoban (student newspaper) has an article on Norouz.

Painting WIP

Painting WIP

Tonight: Shadows on the peach field, and I painted the foreground olive, just so that it wasn't black. (It had reached the "intimidating blank canvas" status, so I needed to do something.) There will either be a rose hedge in the foreground, or something else. I may just bring the lavender rows all the way forward, and eliminate the foreground field. At any rate, I'm playing.

Found on Flickr

as the crows fly

Cool quilt!

Memories

lost chair

This photo in an online-friend's photostream reminded me of someone from my past. I thought about e-mailing, saying hi, asking if it had been long enough that we can be friends again. But then the memories started flooding in, and the tears started pouring out. I guess it hasn't been long enough yet. I'd probably end up saying something stupid again, beginning the long silence anew.

I had planned on being productive tonight, but I think I'll curl up in a blanket and read instead. I need to escape my memories.

Don't worry, I'm okay. It's just that the mourning I thought was over, isn't. It will be, though, given enough time. One day the grief will have run it's course.

Contest Alert!

This one is in French, but the eggs are adorable. :)

Found on Flickr

IMG_0546

Adorable!

Birthday Presents

One last quick post before I head off to my folks for dinner... here are some of the great birthday/housewarming presents I got:

H gave me an awesome iron and ironing board:

(You can see the board in the hall photos in the last post.)

Knittah sent me some lovely yarn and a journal, plus a funny card:


I also got my dream set of measuring cups from L, and a $10 gift certificate to Ram Wools from MrsFife. Thanks everyone!

Apartment Photos

Back on March 9 I took a bunch of photos to show you how things were shaping up in my apartment. (I had just made a big clean-up and unpacking effort for friends coming over.) There haven't been huge changes since then, so I'll just post them all now. ;)

March Frost Photos

The frosty season is nearly over. I did have frost last night, but days with frost on the windows is getting to be rare. Here are some of the photos I took this month:

I'm sure I'll be posting more next winter. ;)

Christmas Cactus

Christmas Cactus

My Christmas cactus *loves* this apartment! Back at the beginning of March it was absolutely *covered* with flowers.

Now that I'm blogging about it, they're all gone, of course. ;) They'll be back, though.

My Grandmother's Cutting Board

My Grandmother's Cutting Board

This is my grandmother's cutting board. Dad brought it back after she passed away. There's a deep dip in the top (and a less deep dip in the bottom) from where she cut all the time, and some brass strips on the ends to repair the crack. Dad doesn't know if there's a story to it (beyond the fact that it was hers), but we both suspect that grandpa made it for her. I would guess it's oak, and I think there is a wax finish on it, given how it looked when wet. The small hole in the upper right hand corner is about the size of a nail hole. I don't know if there was originally a strap or string or perhaps a loop of wire there, or if it was hung directly on a nail... or even if the hole was there from before the wood was a cutting board.

I wish I knew more of it's history, but it's kind of neat having my grandmother's cutting board. You can tell it was with her a long time.

Banana Muffins

Banana Muffins

The banana muffins were finally baked late on March 10th. (Technically March 11th.)

Observations:
• I think my oven runs hot.
• I don't know for sure because I apparently didn't bring my oven thermometer back with me.
• I have yet to find my kitchen timer (the microwave works... as long as I don't also need to microwave something).
• My recipe makes two dozen muffins.
• I only had one muffin tin (remedied last Tuesday).
• I should bake *earlier* in the evening.
• I finished eating all of these before I managed to blog about them
• They were tasty!
• I have yet to discover just how dead bananas have to be before they are no longer usable for banana muffins.

Spinning

For some reason that I can't remember now, I was feeling stressed out on March 12. Predrafting half of this Pigeonroof Studios roving helped:

The next night I was able to start spinning:

I haven't done anything with it since... I'll get back to it soon. It's *purdy*!

Tuscan Painting WIP

Tuscan Painting WIP

Update on my painting. I didn't paint last week because knitting night was on Tuesday... so this was last worked on on March 11.

I'm getting closer to finishing this thing...

I noticed that when the instructor put on the sketch lines, she put all the horizons on crooked. :P It's staying that way now. If anyone asks, I'll say the land is sloping that way. ;)

Things I did this weekend #5

I had another go at the tub.

The streaks are getting pretty faint, but the surface is still rough. I'm not sure if what's left is actually grime, or just a damaged surface. Next weekend I'll try either hydrogen peroxide or baking soda (with or without lemon). I haven't decided which, but I have both. I figure I'll give everything a try, and then declare what's left as permanent. (And then just try to keep the dirt from coming back.)

One nice thing about the "easy erasing pad" is that there's no chemical smell. It did seem to get everything off the shower walls (my first attempt at them, since I've been focussing on the tub until now). It's probably a bit pricey to use up an entire erasing pad per weekend, though. Then again, perhaps they'd last two if I didn't work so hard at the tub? Well, I'll see how baking soda or hydrogen peroxide work. Perhaps I can rotate through several non-smelly cleaning alternatives, and what one doesn't get, the next one will?

Other things I did this weekend:
• laundry
• grocery shopping
• vacuumed sand (I think from deteriorating bricks) and other detritus from between the sliding windows in both bedrooms and the kitchen (the living room would require moving the plants, and I still haven't gotten the bathroom window open... I haven't tried in a while, though, either)
• washed dishes
• finished a book I borrowed (several more to go)
• take naps

You'll notice there's no knitting in there... I've discovered that I like to watch TV or talk with friends while I knit. It seems wrong to knit when nothing else is going on... like I really should be doing something productive. Reading has felt frivolously decadent too, but I really need to read and return several books.

Mushroom Soup

Back on March 15th I made mushroom soup. I found the "mushroom medley" package this recipe called for (...aside... I just went looking for the recipe to link to, and discovered that although I made the one above, I think I meant to make this one... oh well, I'll try that other one another time!), but I couldn't remember the ingredients exactly. It turned out that one package was enough for a half batch, and I had nearly all the ingredients called for. Together with a bit of dry white wine and some rosemary from my folks, I got cooking!

Uh... I used a pot half the size called for in the original recipe, and I'm only cooking a half recipe...:

*phew*, this is better:

heavenly smells... wish I could share:

Mmmmmm!:

My Gorgeous New Pottery Mug

Pottery Mug

Last week Wednesday, H and I were on a chocolate run (both of us were sleep deprived, and I was having an "I've been asked to teach a third year course" freak-out) when we discovered the university pottery club was having another sale of items in the student union.

"Ooooo! Pretty!" I said.

"I'll buy it for you." H said.

I was going to buy it myself, but H paid for it. H is *sweet*! She bought herself a pretty bowl for her soup, too, but I don't have a photo of it.

Then we found chocolate. Mmmm!

Thank you again, H!!! I love it. :) It's *pretty*. I used it on Thursday... it works great. :)

Things I did this weekend #4

Recently I got a chair off Freecycle... I wanted a wooden chair that I can shorten to the right height to use as a spinning chair. (I have short legs. I could shorten one of my kitchen chairs, but it seems wrong to cut down a chair that's part of a set.) I didn't mind getting one that needed a bit of repair. Happily, someone posted a set of three wooden dining room chairs that needed repair, and didn't mind that I only wanted one! I got some strange looks taking it home on the bus. The driver didn't mind at all... in fact, he joked that I needn't have brought a chair, since he already had one. ;)

Dirty chair in need of repair:

The broken spot:

dang... I didn't know there was a chunk of wood missing... this complicates things a bit:

Dang, that's a lot of staples... I seem to be cursed with staples this weekend:

Another spot needing some repair:

All told, there were five locations needing gluing and/or screwing. Glued and screwed, waiting for the glue to dry:


The fabric seems to have washed up okay, so I plan to reuse it. It's a rather pretty blue. Now I just need to figure out which box my staple gun is in... I think it's in one of the boxes still packed from Chapel Hill, so hopefully it's labelled. (I labelled well at the start of that packing, but got rushed and lazy by the end.)