eat! craft! live!

wow

Wow. It's been so long, I don't even know what to say anymore! How is everybody enjoying October? *ahem* Well, I never intended to be absent from my blog for as long as I have been, so now it's time to play a little catch up! As you may already know, the main reason for my absence was our big move across the country. But we've been in Maine for about a month now, so why the prolonged silence? Many reasons, most of which I'll share with you now. Our life was turned upside down by the move and we still haven't fully recovered. We're staying with some very dear and generous friends, but most of our worldly possessions are in storage and not easily accessible. It's very hard to be productive when you don't have any of your "stuff" you need to be productive! No yarn dyeing, no Etsy shop to look after, no books to read... It's strangely freeing and yet horribly limiting at the same time. And odd to think of the entire material content of our lives being housed in an 8x10 storage unit.

But that in itself probably wouldn't have limited me as much as it has if I weren't nearly 17 weeks pregnant. That's right - we're adding a crafty baby to the crafty household! I won't lie - it's been a tougher road so far than I'd imagined it would be. I've caught several colds, which is very unlike me, and they've been hard to shake. I've also suffered from "morning" (ha, morning, as if it didn't last most of the day) sickness and am still struggling with that, though thankfully not as much as before. Most of all has been the creeping sense of lethargy and a desire to sleep nearly as much as the cats. The wee babe has stolen my knitting mojo, my cooking prowess (and my appetite as well!) and basically my desire to do, well, anything. I'm hoping the little rascal will surrender my motivation soon and I'll be able to get back to normal life!

Despite everything, it is good to be back in the north again. Autumn has been gorgeous and cool and I'm loving the chance to wear all my handknit socks finally!

big changes!

Excuse the long absence...there's been a lot going on at the crafty house lately. After much discussion and, finally, the decision to just do it, we're going to be eating, crafting and, most importantly, living somewhere new! That's right folks, we're moving! To Maine! It's been a dream of mine for a long, long time to finally get back to my home state and with our current (and pending) employment situations, it seems like there's no time like the present to get started on our new northern life. So out of the south we come, away from the most brutal of Texas summers, and into the north! Exciting times!

:: photo friday :: b & w

:: photo friday :: a random assortment

Just a random selection of images for sale over here... I'm looking forward to shooting some more film this weekend, I hope you are all looking forward to something this weekend too!

making the best use of hot weather?

My usual crafty pursuits and cooking adventures have been lacking of late. As such, I feel like I haven't had much to say here! And why have my hobbies been put on hold? It's hot. Really, really hot.

Adding to the suffocating heat from the great outdoors, our oven is terribly inefficient and makes the entire front part of the house into a sweltering chamber of doom this time of year. It's bad enough in the winter, but at least then the AC and the oven aren't fighting each other for world (or duplex, at least) domination! Tonight, for instance, we briefly baked some chicken breasts and sweated through our whole meal. It's an old oven.

So needless to say, there hasn't been a whole lot of cooking going on. And for that I apologize. We've been eating a lot of Jell-O (yes, really) and light sandwiches 'round these parts.

I did however, as you can see above, cook an egg! On our sidewalk. (I wasn't kidding about the heat!) It took a good three hours, but I also set it out in the morning, before the heat of the day had reached its peak. Here, the hottest part of the day is usually late afternoon. I've seen several different numbers, but apparently eggs solidify somewhere between 140°F and 170°F. So. There you have it!

I blame the heat for my lack of knit blogging too... It's not that I haven't been knitting - I have - it's that it's too darn hot to take photos of the finished projects! Because if it's hot enough to cook an egg on my sidewalk, the last thing I want to do is head outdoors in wool socks.

Anybody have any cool cooking and crafting ideas? I sure could use some...maybe I need to get into smoothies...

toot toot!

(That's me...tooting my own horn...)

I just had to share real quickly that I've got a photo on the New York Times website, here. It's #5, pop over and check it out!

Now if only I could make that a regular, paying gig...

o hai!

Maybe you've been wondering where I've been...maybe you hadn't noticed I was gone...either way, I'm here to tell you!

I'm still alive. The reason for my extended absence is my sorry excuse for a spine. I ruptured a disc just over two weeks ago, and had surgery shortly after. Now ten days post-op, I'm healing up fine and should be starting to get back into the swing of things in the coming weeks! I even did a little baking yesterday. (Of course, I had to lie down afterward...but still...baking.) And I'll have plenty of knitting to share!

See you soon!

April love!

Y'all, I have to apologize for not posting March's love. My excuse is that I was on vacation. And then I kept thinking I'd get to it...and then I never did. Oh well! Onward!

In honor of the season, the first on the love list: artificial sweeteners! Seriously, they get a bad rap, but they're so sweet! And sugar-like! Who needs the real thing?

You know what I else love? Unemployment. It's such a great idea - instead of slaving away at some boring office job, you get to stay home and eat ramen noodles! I'm so excited that I may get to join the ranks of the unemployed a mere 5 months from today. Can't wait.

Also, scrunchies. Damn. Now there is a fashion statement.

Acrylic yarn is another one of my all-time faves. To quote from Wikipedia, "Acrylic has recently been used in clothing as a less expensive alternative to cashmere, due to the similar feeling of the materials." It just holds up so beautifully and feels so nice. I can barely stand how awesome it is.

Also? April Fool's Day. Love it.

Earth Hour 2009

I only became aware of Earth Hour 2009 a few days before the actual event this year. (Though last year I didn't hear about it until after the fact, so I suppose a few days is better than nothing!) For those of you unfamiliar with the event, Earth Hour took place this past Saturday night at 8:30 PM local time. For an hour, beginning at 8:30, people around the world turned off their lights. Simple, right?

It's an initiative to bring attention to global warming. Without putting forth my own personal beliefs regarding global warming, I'll just say that I'm all about frugality. Why use unnecessary energy? Why use unnecessary anything? Having the lights off for that one hour reset my internal energy clock, I suppose you could say. I've noticed myself being more aware the past day or so when we have unneeded lights or other electrical appliances on. It saves energy, it saves money.

Jack's not quite sure about this whole candlelight business...

Personally, I loved having the lights off for an hour. I even did some knitting in the semi-dark! (Many candles shed a surprising amount of light...) It was cozy and intimate and comfortable. What about you? Did you participate in Earth Hour?

There's a Flickr pool set up over here so you can see photos from around the world.

I'm baaaaack...

I didn't get a chance to blog a single word while I was on vacation. And that's OK! (By me, anyway...) But now I'm back and feel like I want to catch up... My trip was both too long and too short, filled with frustration (especially the "getting there" part!) and joy and revelations and family and friends. There was a whole lot of food, some knitting, a bunch of snow, a few chilly beaches and a lot of driving. It was great but I was without my wonderful M and so I'm overwhelmingly glad to be back, despite the fact that it is currently eighty-three degrees outside.

Three of my favorite things from my brief stay in Maine: