Friday Unrelated Information

1. Storm sewer spleunking. It happens. It sounds cool. The accompanying photographs are gorgeous.

2. I'll be enjoying a long weekend not camping, because the rest of the state beat me to the campgrounds.

3. The Nigel Slater cookbook had to go back to the library yesterday. I'm suffering from Nigel withdrawal.

4. I've been meaning to start my next knitting project, but haven't had a chance to just sit and work out the math (knitting involves lots of math! I was never warned!)

5. My next project will not, however, be a tree sweater.

State Fair

No, not the movie--although it would be seasonally appropriate to watch it right now, just like Picnic--but the actual event. I'm entering the happy dress and the vortex of craft top and I'm tempted to tell the ladies who take your entry that both my projects are named.

Woody, Cooper, And Mimi

Your cute alpacas for the day.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch Edition

This is the bottom half of the vintage dress with no instructions that obviously did not work out as a dress. It makes a pretty dashing skirt, though; the plaid and the big pockets make me think it would be something the boss lady would change into if she got her dress dirty rounding up the cows.
In other sewing news, my new favorite tool is the rotary cutter
which means I can roll-cut on a mat at counter height rather than kneel on the floor with scissors. If you put a pinking blade on said cutter you don't have to worry about finishing any raw edges, either.Although if you drop the pinking blade on your foot you get a zig-zag shaped cut. I speak from experience.

What Wallace Thinks Of It

Last night I was trying to find the attribution for a Wallace Stevens quote ("God is in me or else is not at all," quoted in The Little Zen Companion) (oh yes, I succumbed to the mid-90's trend for miniature inspirational books)(and just don't ask why I was reading The Little Zen Companion again)--anyway, I looked up the attribution for that quote and found this quotes from his letters, as well.

They talk so beautifully about work and having a family and a home (and I do, too, sometimes) — but it’s all worry and head-aches and respectable poverty and forced gushing.... Telling people how nice it is, when, in reality, you would give all of your last thirty years for one of your first thirty. Old people are tremendous frauds.

So much for encouragement and inspiration! Where's my mini book...

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Have you ever thought, "It just takes too long to cut out all those newspaper letters for my ransom note?" Then you'll be delighted to hear about the ransom note generator, with choice of white or yellow paper background.

2. Similarly, are you stuck coming up with a title for your literary work? Go to the title generator!(Warning: seizure-inducing website. But still fun! Seizures are fun!)

3. What your food cravings really mean. I don't know if this is really based on science, but it temporarily made me want to eat better.

4. Also, take your vitamins this weekend.

Better Living Through Nursery Rhymes. Also: Pumpkins.

Yesterday a request for someone to recite a poem came up, and I was the kid saying “Pick me! Pick me!”—until I realized the only thing I have memorized in its entirety is “The Owl and the Pussycat.” (I do have big pieces of a lot of real poems, but it just spoils a dramatic recitation to fill in the gaps with “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…something, something…”) So much for being so literary.

But why devote your life to memorizing poems when you can do THIS: www.extremepumpkins.com. You kind of know what you’re getting with a URL like that, but I was still surprised. Especially by the one that uses kerosene-soaked toilet paper.

He's Old! (Officially)

My dad turns 60 today, after another year of building furniture, making model ships, raising barns (no, really), remodeling bathrooms, reading books, putting in fences, helping with moves, wearing Hawaiian shirts, and overall continuing to be tough and handy, all while singing songs from the Golden Age of Broadway. And Dad, I hope you know I'm planning on writing one of these for the next twenty years, so keep it up.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Invisible Project Edition

Look, invisible project!

Also:

Monday Unrelated Information

I missed a post on Friday, so here's some things to think about this morning:

1. My friend's wedding dress pwned the County Fair

2. Watching "Picnic" with a gay man who's been prescribed Percoset is mighty entertaining.

3. Remember my favorite Robert Hass poem, "Meditation at Lagunitas," which ends "There are moments when the body is as/ numinous as words, days that are the good flesh continuing./ Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings,/ saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry."? I had that sort of day on Saturday, and while there was Betos instead of actual blackberries, it was really close to perfect.

4. Another baby at Blue Moon Ranch--Hamilton! (He's the grey one.)

Introducing Captain Morgan

Captain Morgan the alpaca! (That's really his name.)
Cap'n Morgan be livin at Blue Moon Ranch until he finds himeslf a crew, arrr!

It’s 100 Degrees. Guess What I Want To Make Next?

1. Bulky wool cardigan

2. Flannel skirt

3. Wool jacket

4. Slippers

Yeah. Wasn’t the heat supposed to be over?

Tuesday Project Roundup: It Looks Like I Feel Edition

A little disconnected, maybe?

Although this is pretty easily fixed with a seam, a zipper, a hem, and three buttons. Then I'll look like the boss lady on a ranch, and then I can keep track of everything. Including the cows in the north forty.

Nigel!

Two weeks ago I wandered into Sam Weller's and checked out the cookbooks, where I discovered Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries, and discovered that Nigel is fantastic!

Nigel's recipes are delicious, Nigel's photographer is excellent (check out the site for an idea), Nigel's life sounds interesting in diary form, and Nigel's prose is delightful. Also, he's named Nigel. Really, what's not to like about him?

I like that there's a diary entry titled, "An altogether different ham." I like that he goes to the Chinese market and says, "Today I brought a duck home with me. I mean a dead one rather than one as a pet." I like that he directs one to fold in egg whites "firmly yet tenderly." I like his recipe for roast tomatoes, and the fact that he's named Nigel.

In fact, I'm so inspired I had to photograph the produce I got at the People's Market a la Nigel.(The tomatoes are going to be a Nigel recipe, and maybe the peaches, too.)

I'm sure Nigel would approve.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. My brother and sister-in-law celebrate FIVE YEARS of marriage this weekend. That's a long time--just ask them! (Ha!)

2. Quote of the week: "You say 'interpretive hippie dancing' like it's a bad thing."

3. Remember, you have this weekend to enter your sewing projects in the fair. And yes, there is a category for "everyday dress" and for "fancy party dress."

Another Cat-Themed Graphic Cop Out

You’re a kitty! Yes you are!

LOLCat Cop Out

LOLZ.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Let's Take Pictures Of Fabric Instead Of Actually Sewing It Edition

I've slowed down a little over the past two weeks, which, combined with the beginning of August and the realization that fall is five weeks away, is making me feel anxious.

I have patterns I want to make:
I have fabric with which to make them: (Can you tell I'm planning on yellow shoes for fall?)

I even have fabric cut out and ready to be sewn:
But lately there's been something else (farmers markets, Nigel Slater cookbooks, mindless fashion magazines that I read, thinking, "I could make that") that I'd rather do. I thought a sewing machine at home was supposed to make me more productive.

Flowers!

Look, I have some:
I have some flowers.

Friday Unrelated Information

1.. It’s getting to be county fair/derby season: Tooele’s is this weekend, Weber County’s is next weekend, and if you want to enter a baked good, sewing project, or wedding dress in the Salt Lake County Fair, you’d better have it ready on August 11 or 12. Then you can go see if you won a ribbon and watch the mayhem in the derby arena! Also, you can look at the fancy chickens. I love fancy chickens.

2. Here’s a link on how to predict the weather by observing the natural environment.

3. J. Crew, I don’t have your damn DVD.

4. How to tell if you’re a drunk astronaut:

J. Crew, I Am Over You

So I used to live and breathe J. Crew. Back in the days before the innernet, I'd devour the catalog and irritate my mother by falling in love with a sweater, without which future happiness was impossible. Then I got a job, and started buying my own J. Crew. J. Crew got a website! J. Crew stores came into Utah! I got a J. Crew credit card! I worked for J. Crew for about two months, where I spent about twice what I earned! You get the picture.

But now I can't look at a J. Crew catalog without wanting to fling it across the room, usually followed by some expletives. J. Crew, what went wrong between us? How did it get so bad? Is it because you are SO EXPENSIVE? Consider this dress, made of cotton corduroy:It's $120. I could make it for $12.

And while price is a big part of it, J. Crew, I started to realize something was wrong between us even before I became the cheapest woman in the world. I blame your prose style. There never used to be any copy in the catalog, other than the fiber content and the color name. Now, there are condescending "Did You Know" sections ("The secret is too good to keep to ourselves...so we're letting you in on what you might (or might not) already know") [note: what?] and useless bits like this: "Our head designer loves this design so much, we named it after her." J. Crew, I hate to say this, but I don't care.

So J. Crew, I'm afraid we're over. Even the shoes, J. Crew--even the shoes aren't quite what they used to be. I know this is hard, but it's better this way. For me.

(Now all I need to do is figure how to remove the link to J. Crew in the right nav here. I can't very break up with J. Crew and keep promoting it.)

Trial Marriages and Neopaganism

Today is August first, which I learned last year was Lughnasadh, a celebration marking the beginning of the end of summer. (Love those Druidic holidays.) And while I won't be doing anything Wiccan to celebrate, I do like to share:

Lughnasadh marked the beginning of the harvest season, the ripening of first fruits, and was traditionally a time of community gatherings, market festivals, horse races and reunions with distant family and friends. Among the Irish it was a favored time for handfastings - trial marriages that would generally last a year and a day, with the option of ending the contract before the new year, or later formalizing it as a more permanent marriage