Meet the Airedales

Fortunately, my in-laws don't read my blog, so I can post this without warnings.

As in-laws go, I'm extraordinarily lucky. My mother-, father-, and sister-in law are all warm, intelligent people I'm happy to know. Even the aunts, uncles, and grandmas are good company! My relationship with my Airedales-in-law is slightly less agreeable, however.

That's right, Airedales-in law, as in, plural. As in, more than one.

Imagine a dog with the ebulliency of silly string. Make it waist-high, with gangly legs and a piercingly loud bark. On its back legs, it can reach the countertop to eat freshly baked brownies. One shake of its tail, and wine glasses rocket off tabletops. Now, multiply by two.

Say you have one Airedale? Okay, you're slightly imbalanced, but maybe you have a ranch. Or a vermin problem.

Two? You're certifiable. Call the psych ward.

The antics of Fiona are the subject of this comic strip. She's only about two years old, and she has a whopping case of separation anxiety. When left to her own devices, she tears apart whatever's handy: sock, shoe, camera, seat cushion. Most famously, she ate the carpet off the stairs the day after it was laid down, which was, incidentally, the night before our wedding. So along with caterers, guests, and a burgeoning bridal party, there was a carpet repair guy there in the milieu, trying to fix the damage before the photographer showed up.

They're dogs that provide the plot to stories of great disaster you'll tell for years.

Attention Mom: GO AWAY!

Ahhh, okay, I can't resist posting a picture of this bag, even though I know posting pictures you don't want your family to see on your blog is definitely tempting fate. Hopefully the title will scare her off.

You may remember those little flowers from this post, back in August, and well, they grew up to be this purse. I'd had it planned all along. Mom commissioned me to make a "summer bag" for her shortly after the wedding, and after taking notes on her specifications (and searching through nearly every fabric store in central NY for appropriate fabrics) I found a match I was happy with.

The pattern is the Charming Handbag, from Amy Karol's awesome book Bend-the-Rules Sewing. I made some adjustments of course: pockets, mainly, but I also lengthened the handle eight inches, and pressed some iron-on interfacing to the back of the embroidery before continuing. It helps make things sturdy and bag-like.

I hope Mom likes it as much as I do. If she doesn't, of course, well, that wouldn't be such a bad thing, now would it?

Morning tea

Decaf green tea with lemongrass, a pumpkin muffin, a shiny silver spoon, and a pretty teacup. It's a slate-gray and gloomy sort of day, so this morning I had to sit in the pollen-yellow kitchen with the cheery tablecloth, and spend at least a few minutes pretending the day was brighter.

And about the pumpkin muffin. You may remember that my Thanksgiving centerpiece was a hollowed-out pumpkin with stew inside. And after the stew was eaten, did I heave the pumpkin onto the compost pile and leave it to deflate like a beach ball? No, I did not. I scooped out the flesh, about six cups' worth, and stashed it in the freezer.

Now. Are you as familiar with the ordinary pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins recipe as I am? Usually, it calls for some miniscule amount of pumpkin. A quarter cup, say. Given that I did not want to wait until 2020 to be rid of my pumpkin, I devised a recipe that actually features pumpkin. Lots of it. Here it is.

Pumpkin Muffins (or bread)

1 1/2 all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 ground cloves

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups mashed cooked pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray one muffin pan, and either a mini loaf pan or a few cups on
an additional muffin pan, with cooking spray.
Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and mix. In a separate smaller bowl, combine all the wet ingredients. Fold the pumpkin into the wet ingredients. You might want to use a potato masher for this; I find it helps to break up the pumpkin chunks. Gently add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until just moistened. Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full, then scrape the excess into your loaf pan or more muffin cups.
Bake about 20 minutes, until puffed and lightly browned on top.

If you close your eyes, these taste just like pumpkin pie. Enjoy!

Tree tour 2008

Our Christmas tree, 2008.

I love how every ornament on the tree tells part of our story. Everything's a piece of our history, even this early in our relationship. We've been married six months (as of yesterday!) and have been together for not yet three years, but we've got enough stories to fill our little tree right up.

There's a wedding cake, from last year, and also a "Just Married" ornament, for this year, both from my aunt. There's a packet of seeds from our first date, and a lucky stone from our second. There's the spoon man I made in pre-school, and the Sculpey rabbit Patrick made our first Christmas together. Looking at it, I can't help but feel warm and loved. I hope your own decorations make you feel that way, too.

And now, for your holiday pleasure, a Christmas Tree Tour:
Wee Wonderfuls
The Purl Bee
Black Apple
Bread + Honey
How About Orange
Posie Gets Cozy
Angry Chicken

If pressed, I would have to nominate Black Apple for best tree. Something about all those woodsy little creatures.

Olive in the sunshine

Here's some sweet furriness for you while I post this meme:

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched lightning at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown my own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught myself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Ridden an elephant

I like this one. It's a good, representative list of meaningful life experiences. Thanks, Jen, for this. I hereby tag MadSilence.

Have a good Saturday, everyone!

Home to roost

It was a vocabulary-expanding sort of afternoon. Not in the positive, word-a-day calendar sort of way. No. Today I explored new methods of conveying angst: the angst of having drilled a hole too deep, the angst of placing the eye-hook in the wrong place, the angst of having the fishing line snap repeatedly. Also, admittedly, the angst of someone who has never had, and probably never will have, a secure grasp on physics.

But! I prevailed. The project was surprisingly forgiving of missteps.

I love how the brown-and-green bird looks like he's whispering in the pink bird's ear.

Making a wreath

This was the scene at my dining room table this afternoon, as I worked to organize the pile of multiflora rose hips I'd gathered into a wreath. Gloves were important, and nippers. And lots of twisty wire. It was slow, mindful work. The good kind.

The rose hips were gleaned from a nearby river access and fishing area, called Rock Bottom. I'd visited there yesterday, searching for sticks to complete my bird mobile. Sticks I found, and great hedges of multiflora rose. I spent much of my childhood in love with multiflora rose-- it brightened our barnyards with its cheerful white flowers in early summer, carried rain droplets and dew drops aloft on its graceful arms, and held little sprays of red berries against the snow all winter. Conveniently (for me, at least) it's a non-native species. Free to harvest it with abandon, I returned to Rock Bottom today with gloves and nippers, and carted off a big bag.

Herein lies the intersection of the things I love best about crafting. There's the DIY aspect, and the freeing feeling of doing something for yourself, rather than paying someone else to do them for you. Check. There's the thrifty aspect: total outlay for this project, about $1.75 for the wire wreath form. Best of all, there's the ecology aspect. I used the land without diminishing it, and maybe even by bettering it. Multiflora rose has no business growing here, it's an alien species from a different habitat.

So, Rock Bottom gained some breathing room, some freedom from imposing invader species. And me? I gained a wreath.