Happy Holidays!

Sorry to go all MIA. It's amazing how much time and energy the holidays consume, yes?

We went into a baking frenzy early last week before heading down to Kentucky to spend the holidays with my family. The marshmallows turned out remarkably well!

I do agree with Angry Chicken, though. Homemade marshmallows taste best when they've been "aged" a bit. We also made candied Buddha's hand, pumpkin loaf, and fudge. Half of all that was shipped off to Mr. Crafty's family in Arizona, but we were still left with more than could be eaten, especially when my grandmother's amazing coconut cake was added to the mix!

One of my favorite things about going home is loading up on the local confections. Kentucky offers up the most sinful, tasty things. I mean, there's bourbon and horses, of course, and then there's marijuana (purported to be the state's #1 cash crop) and tobacco. I go more for the candy, myself.

These, for instance, are bourbon balls.

They are the best of their kind, too, made from Woodford Reserve, bourbon distilled a mere three miles from my rural childhood home. For those adventurous souls wanting to sample some bourbon balls, I'd like to warn you that some are sickly sweet and soupy. These pictured above happen to be a wonderful anomaly.

I'm also fond of Ale81, a local ginger ale-type soda. The bottles are too cumbersome to transport home, though, so I make do with these Ale81 lollipops. Yum.

I didn't get as much work done over the week in Kentucky as I might have liked, but I did brighten up a very green gingham shirt:

This here is a tufted ear squirrel with only one ear tuft. The other one's coming just as soon as I wrap up this post.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and wish you all the best for 2010. It's gonna be a good one, I'm sure!

Winter Wonderland, Etc.

Mr. Crafty's coming home with me for Christmas, and in honor of this I had to fix his pajamas. We always spend Christmas in our most ridiculous pajamas (and I think you can agree that ain't much more ridiculous than flannel robots and monkeys in tandem) , eating yummy food and drinking mimosas whilst opening presents. It's pretty awesome. It'd be less awesome if Mr. Crafty had to spend the day with his underpants hanging out of his fancy custom-made jammie pants. That would just be awkward, yes?

Mr. Crafty very tall and slim, you see, and requires custom jammie pants. They don't make much loungewear for the 32x38 dude. It would seem that I don't make them fast enough. He's forever tearing them down the front. I'm sure that his doing Tai Chi in them doesn't help matters. He's promised to be extra careful with these until after Christmas day, just in case!

I can't believe Christmas is only a week or so away! During a walk through an industrial district on a Christmas shopping jaunt I came across these lights. Just a little bit of festive in a tucked away corner where not many would see it.

Then the temps. dropped to -14. Whenever that happens our windows ice over. It's not just frost, it's full on ice. I love watching the sun rise when that happens. See why?

And speaking of pretty and interesting things, Mr. Crafty made a cranberry sauce using part of a Buddha's Hand as seasoning. Have you ever seen such a thing?

Pretty cool. It seemed to demand an impressionist background, though goodness knows what the impressionists might have thought of it.

What do you all have planned for the holidays?

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'Tis the Season

I have so many super secret projects at the moment that I'm almost at a loss as to what to share! I hope you'll be satisfied with some of my rambles through the holiday season thus far.

First, I made out like a bandit at the winter Renegade fair:

The little birdhouse is one of three I bought off my friend Amy, of Red Raven Studios. My gorgeous new necklace was made by the amazing Faryn Davis, of of Fernworks. My yummy new yarn - soon to be part of a pattern for sale - was made by Hands and Notions. And, finally, my lovely headband was made by Heart Felt- I heart that punny name!

Snow has fallen on Chicago at last. I am such a fan, and it marks the moment when I bring out my hot chocolate cup. Forgive me y'all - I know I show you a picture of this cute thing every year. Still, I love it so.

I came across this wall of pastels whilst Christmas shopping:

Pretty, yes?

And doesn't this bit of construction look like an art installation piece?

I, unlike many, am fond of the Chicago winters. I love the palate, and the dramatic weather.

What are you all doing to celebrate the season? How's your weather?

Return and Report

This all begins long, long ago. Not really that long ago; I just used that as a hook. Really, it began three years ago when right after graduate school I got an awesome job at a private school in Jackson, Mississippi. I rented a house in a cute art district, settled in, and got to know the neighbors' cats. Little did I know I'd moved into a neighborhood a person such as myself really shouldn't have been living in. I should have perhaps ascertained this earlier, when one of the neighbors saw me walking around and approached me, very concerned, asking if I had a large dog as a pet. "You don't? You should get one."

Yes, that should have been all the clue I needed. Anyway, to give you the short version, I met this wonderful woman when I bought a second hand table from her awesome (now defunct) store. She offered to take me out to dinner and, once she found out where I was living, move me out of my little house on the wrong side of the tracks. Or the wrong side of Fondren street, as it were. I felt a bit odd shoving all my belongings into a stranger's Tahoe in the middle of the night, but I left that little moment of turmoil with some wonderful friends. It was more than worth it.

Years later, neither of us live in Jackson. (Really, in the spirit of full disclosure, I never did, but that's a story for another time.) She and her husband live in lovely Charleston, South Carolina, and I live in Chicago. As winter began to settle in over my city, they graciously offered to share their holiday with me. Can we say beach vacation in November? Woot!

Let me tell you, Charleston has the best food. Like, for reals. Goodness gracious, kittens in skates. Take a look at this:

That's a pimiento cheese and fried green tomato sandwich. Dude.

And this?

This is a fried pickle. So. Good. These are both from Boulevard Diner. And just to toot my own horn: aren't those food photos awesome? I've been working on them. Maybe I can make my dinner look better for y'all in the future.

In keeping with this food report, I ate a rosemary apricot shortbread cookie from Bite and damn near died from the awesomeness. They have a book, which I would have bought right there on the spot had I not known there was no way it was going to fit in my already stuffed luggage. My luggage was most definitely as stuffed as I was. At least. Our Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, too, and can be seen here. I'm kicking myself for not better capturing it.

Like all good knitters (though I do cross-identify with other crafts, as y'all know), I made a pilgrimage to the favorite LYS. That's Local Yarn Store, for those of you not "in the know."

Oh my goodness, folks! Commentary and lengthy introduction aside, Knit is an amazing place.

Seriously, would you not want to just sit in that room and work on whatever, like, for forever? Look at all those buttons.

It goes without saying that I went to the beach. I met a lovely dead crab and fell so in love again with the Atlantic that I almost didn't want to return home.

Did I make you jealous? Sorry, I tried not to rub it in too much.

What a Saturday in November Should Look Like

Oh, we had the loveliest of Saturdays. The memory of it is warming a small corner somewhere as it rains and is very Tuesday-ish here in Chicago.

We spent the day wandering more or less aimlessly. We left the house in search of free cupcakes that had been advertised earlier in the week. We never found them. We didn't care. We saw the last dandelion of the season:

Then we ate a hearty lunch:

Mr. Crafty learned to knit. Sort of. His reaction to starting out with 54 stitches and myseteriously ending up with 72 was priceless. You all remember those days... the days of the accidental YO and the magical quasi-stitches. The days when you knit 4 stitches/minute.

And I embroidered a shirt:

I'll show you the finished product soon. I'm worried I made some of the woodland creatures too fat. I'll be asking y'all for your opinions later on.

I'm soon off to South Carolina for the holiday weekend. If I don't get a chance to post before then, much love to you all, safe travels, and happy T(of)urkey Day!

It's Autumn...

... and I haven't been up to much but working. I've been tech editing, teaching, and studying, which hasn't left much time for crafting. I have a half-finished skirt waiting for a hem and buttonholes, and a 1/3 of a sweater waiting for arms and the rest of its body.

I have had time to do some fun things, though. Things like updating my kitchen with awesome new measuring cups:


The predecessor to these gorgeous things was a mismatched plastic set from Goodwill - a product of our college days. We've spent the last year using a cracked 1cup and a creepily stained 1/4cup. 1/3cup got lost along the way. Every time we encountered newer, nicer measuring cups we'd consider buying them, and then just decide we could make do with what we had. Well, no more of that! I love these. They're from Anthropologie, if any of you want to hunt down some of your own.

I've also found time to pose around in masks for my 365 project:


And, finally, there's been a lot of duck feeding going on:


One thing I love about Fall in Chicago is the great goose and duck migration. In Flagstaff we had a hummingbird migration, which was also awesome. There's something cozy and comforting about the ducks, though, and they're so interactive. They love people. It's because we feed them, I'm sure.

I hope this finds you all well. What have you been doing to celebrate the season? <3

Acorn Squash with Cranberry Sauce and Peanuts

This is a great, cheap autumnal treat. Mr. Crafty and I make it a few times every year. The squash is cooked in such a way that it allows you to eat the skins, if desired. The cranberry sauce is hand made. The stuff from the can could certainly be used, but this sauce is a quick make that can be doubled and used for other elements of the meal if desired.

Sorry for the sad photograph. It's hard taking pictures of dinner this far north, this late in the year.

Acorn Squash:

1 medium acorn squash

1 tbsp olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 450. Cut squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and stringy bits. Place squash flat-side down in a medium sized glass casserole dish. Rub olive oil into skin. Now put one inch of water in the casserole dish, and place on the oven's middle rack. Cook for 30 min., checking in to make sure the skin of the squash isn't blackening. A little browning and blistering is fine, should that happen. After 30 min., or if the skin is starting to blacken, cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for another 15 min. This cooking method creates a soft, healthy, vitamin-laden veggie.

Cranberry Sauce:

3 cups cranberries

1/4-1 cup sugar

1 cup orange juice or water

Put orange juice or water in pan and dump three cups of cranberries in, too. Warm on high/medium heat until at a slow boil and cranberries start popping open. Add desired amount of sugar. It is more than fine to add slowly and test taste as you go. Cook until sauce reaches desired thickness: usually between 15 and 20 minutes.

To serve: Place squash on a plate and put cranberry sauce in the hollow. Garnish with peanuts. Trust me, this addition is awesome.