Glanalaw - delighting in pure song

Finally

2012-01-31T10:32:00.008-05:00

I thought for a while that my hair was going crazy, but it appears that I actually just have a tree growing out of my head.

It's been six months since I made this dress (it is the one I wore as a bridesmaid in my best friends' wedding), and I finally got some decent photos of it. I've been a bit at a loss as to how to get good pictures of things I make for myself -- I haven't any family members handy to recruit. Sunday afternoon though I went for a walk with the camera and found a useful fence post.

The pattern is Butterick 6582, which I have used previously (but apparently never blogged about). It's very comfortable and fits well. The pattern has a slim pencil skirt option as well; I made that version last time I used the pattern.

The weather was utterly gorgeous -- crisp but warm enough that I was comfortable in a light sweater as long as I kept moving. There was a glorious sun and quite a brisk wind.

The dress is made of black dupioni silk, which I bought at Hancocks Fabric last summer. The bodice neckline and arm openings are self-faced, and the dress is unlined.

It weighs absolutely nothing and moves like a dream.

I want several of these in lightweight floral prints for summer! So easy to wear and the skirt has such lovely movement.

(Dress: made by me. Sweater: Old Navy. Earrings: thrift shop. Shoes: Payless. Hair holder: craft fair years ago gift from my aunt and uncle. Thanks to Katie for setting me straight on that!)

In which Conrad goes adventuring and finds a lot of dust

2012-01-30T09:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon I was standing in the kitchen holding the cat when he showed a decided desire to climb on top of the fridge. All right, I thought, and let him up. From thence he found his way onto the kitchen cabinets, which end about a foot below the ceiling.

He had a grand time for a while, wandering up and down and exploring.

Also, collecting a great deal of dust.

Then he decided he wanted to come down and realised he didn't know how. At this point he got a little worried, and looked at me anxiously. But when I climbed on a chair to help him down he swatted at me and wouldn't let me touch him.

He had to be coaxed with a treat.

He was absolutely covered in dust.

And as soon as I got him down, he was sitting on the dog food box, staring longingly upwards. Apparently he has acquired a taste for heights.

Not my best effort

2012-01-29T19:36:00.000-05:00

This weekend I attempted to make cookies. I'd found a recipe for peanut-butter-and-jelly cookies, which sounded and looked delightful, so I gave them a try.

The dough was supposed to be "stiff and crumbly". After adding an extra half-cup of flour, and after thirty minutes in the fridge, they were finally firm enough to shape into balls... almost...

The texture, when baked, is most peculiar. They're a bit like trying to eat sand cookies - they have that same fine, crumbly quality. I used the remains of a jar of homemade strawberry jam which was floating around the fridge. It's good, but it "bled" into the cookie. They look sort of like the Death of Marat.

The only thing which can be said for them is that they're edible. I'm still confused why they didn't turn out - I followed the recipe! - but we ate them all, so I guess they're not a total loss.

This Just In

2012-01-26T14:38:00.001-05:00

I've been waiting for this package for weeks. I put in the order before Christmas, but I paid in two installments and it takes a month for things to come from New Zealand (unless you pay ridiculous amounts of extra postage. I would rather wait.)

Did I say New Zealand? Yes, I did. I mentioned this on Facebook last night and solicited ideas... the suggestions included sheep, hobbits, tea, a "handsome New Zealand guy", and Kiri Te Kanewa. (Any of those would have been fine with me, although I'm not sure what Conrad would make of a sheep. Or a hobbit.) Less happy suggestions included a tazmanian devil, a kiwi, and my personal favourite: "Umm, if it's a ring... GET RID OF IT!"

Out-of-focus = artsy, right?

Instead, it was this.

Yes. I am now the very excited owner of a spinning wheel! An Ashford Traditional, to be precise. People who guessed wool and sheep, you were on the right track. (And actually partly right, since included in the deal was a bag of wool.)

This is a slightly older model. She's clearly been used, but she's in really excellent condition. I believe her to be the 1975 model; looking at the timeline on Ashford's page, mine has the single-bump wheel spokes, and the tension ball is on the outside back corner of the maiden bar, rather than on the inside front corner as it is on newer models. (This caused me quite a lot of confusion as I assembled the wheel, since the directions I have show the tension ball in its newer location. I had a moment when I was convinced my wheel was defective! I'm still not sure I have the brake band set up correctly, but it seems to work, so until someone tells me better, there it shall stay.)

She treadles and spins like a dream. And she's going to star in Riders to the Sea later in the semester. She needs a proper photo shoot on a day when there's actually some light (it's raining and gloomy today) but I couldn't wait to show her off :D

Conrad has claimed her for his own and I have a feeling he will be sorely in the way. He keeps trying to sleep on the treadle. The real trick will be keeping him from killing my wool batts, since he seems to feel that they are an infestation of small furry animals from which he must protect me.

I feel that I ought to learn Gretchen am Spinnrade now, and watch Sleeping Beauty, and read Spindle's End. I also have an overwhelming urge to go buy an entire fleece.

I will try to restrain myself.

If at any point in the near future you can't find me, do not be alarmed. I'll just be upstairs, spinning.

Almost

2012-01-26T01:01:00.000-05:00

Today, this.

Soon -- full-blown blossoms. But the almost is as beautiful as the already here.

God must have such a beautiful mind.

Very Little Brain

2012-01-23T21:21:00.000-05:00

I'm not feeling so great today (I went to the doctor for something completely different and found out I have "acute sinusitis", so I'm on three kinds of medicine and I kind of wish someone would just tear my throat out so it would stop hurting already) so you're not going to get much of a post from me tonight. I thought maybe I'd share some links, for something a little different.

An interesting, honest look at what men really want (and should want?) from women (from a man's perspective).

Slightly related: "Ten ways to get the right guy to like you". It's not what you think - go watch it! This guy has a knack for saying really true things in really amusing ways.

I'm slightly addicted to this show now.

Why "Tangled" is better than "Twilight".

I love these bunk beds!

And finally, a song from one of my favourite youtube personalities, Nataly (of the duo Pomplamoose). I love her voice and her style (and her hair...)

I'm going to go curl up with my cat and a pot of tea and All Clear and try to nurse my sinuses back to health. Goodnight, lovely people!

I am not nocturnal

2012-01-20T14:04:00.000-05:00

I am sorry that all my posts lately seem to be about the cat. But when I don't have any new projects to show you, that's about all I have to write about! (Endless hours in the practise room are not particularly interesting to any but the person practising, I find...)

So anyway. I meant to get up at 6 AM this morning. I have a 9 o'clock class, which means catching the 8:15 bus, and I actually wanted to take the 7:45 bus so as to get to school a little early and warm up my voice. But Conrad had other plans.

First of all, he tends to get extremely hyperactive around 11 PM, just when I'm winding down and making my way to bed. Last night, that took the form of doing laps around the room - up the stairs to my loft room, down the right side - POUNCE onto the bed where I was reading - down the left side - down the stairs - and back again. This went on for a good twenty minutes. I have no idea why jumping on the bed was a necessary part of this cycle, but there it is.

Finally he wore himself out and curled up on my feet, and I read myself asleep. I'd been dead to the world for almost an hour - just getting to that really deep, almost drugged-feeling sleep - when a loud crash awoke me. And I mean awoke. It was one of those situations when you go from completely unconscious to sitting straight up in bed, entirely clear-headed.

Conrad had knocked one of my amarylis pots out of the windowsill. (I know it was Conrad, because he was all the way on the other side of the room pretending to be innocent and confused.) He's never touched them before, so why 1:30 in the morning seemed like a good time to him I will never know. But it was on the floor - bulb unpotted and soil everywhere. I spent ten minutes cleaning it up and trying to soothe the poor thing's nerves, and then another forty minutes reading myself back to a drowse again. It was well after 2 by the time I finally fell asleep.

I remember, vaguely, turning off the 6 AM alarm and telling myself I was getting up. I do not remember doing the same for the 6:30 alarm. Next I knew it was 7:30 and I was turning off yet a third alarm, and the cat was yelling for breakfast. (I'm not sure he deserved it.) I did catch the bus, but I did not have the leisurely morning I had planned on!

Tonight, all the pots are going on the floor. That way if Conrad knocks one over, at least it won't wake me up!

Lazy Morning

2012-01-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

I like Thursdays. Until I get my grad assistant schedule sorted out, I don't have to go anywhere until mid-afternoon. (Probably this was my last week of that, but oh well! I'll enjoy it while I can!)

Today I slept until about 9:30 (not counting answering a call from my doctor to move my appointment again). Then I woke up just enough to pull out my book of music and spend an hour still in bed, curled up with the cat, memorizing the words to Desdemona's "Willow Song" aria from the end of Othello, which I'm singing tomorrow for the Concerto and Aria Competition at school.

Not the music I was learning, but it's a picture of music and I took it. So. :-)

I don't know why I can't seem to memorize things until the last minute. Granted, I didn't even know the competition was tomorrow until a week ago, but still. I've looked at that aria every say since last Thursday and made hardly any progress. Today, the words fitted into my brain as if there was a Verdi-shaped slot just for them.

So it was a lazy morning, but it was still productive. The best kind!

(I'm taking a wee break from knitting - I think a four-day weekend spent almost entirely on knitting, following a three-week vacation in which I knit quite a lot, was a little hard on my hands. They're much better today after a complete rest yesterday, but I think I'll give them another day of recovery just to be safe.)

Knitter's Compulsion

2012-01-17T19:47:00.000-05:00

Most people, on finding that they are cold, go and put on another pair of socks, a hat, or perhaps a sweater. This seems reasonable to them. But knitters, faced with the same problem, are much more apt to go rummage through a drawer, pull out a pile of yarn, and cast on a pair of socks, a hat, or perhaps a sweater. If the knitter is particularly cold, she may find herself with all three on the needles. And this also seems perfectly reasonable.

It is probably not quite so reasonable as we knitters fondly believe.

It has been cold, and I had a long weekend.

A lot of knitting has happened.

This adorable hat is Cloche Divine, designed by Meghan Jones. It was started because my head was cold when I walked from the bus stop on Thursday morning, and knitting a new hat seemed the logical solution to that problem. It took me the duration of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, and the first half-hour of Goblet of Fire to knit. (It is hard to take good pictures of one's own head. Sorry about that.)

Then I knit a duo of tea cosies. Because a long weekend spent knitting and watching movies must necessarily have tea to go with it, and that reminded me that the tea pot was probably chilly, too. (These are up in the shop!)

The secret project is warm and wooly too and it got quite a bit of knitting love as well, but you still can't see it. Sorry.

I have almost finished off the latest in a series of Hogwarts-inspired scarves - a Gryffindor one. Also destined for the shop. Massive and warm. Pictures soon.

I'm also really wanting to knit myself a sweater. I found a sweater's worth of pale grey yarn in a box yesterday and it immediately started jumping up and down crying "Knit me! Knit me!" ... so perhaps that will be the next major project.

(Now, apparently just to be perverse, the temperatures are back in the 40s and 50s, and it poured rain all day. But I'm holding out hope that the cold weather will come back so as not to render my woolies superfluous!)

No Shampoo?

2012-01-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

So, last week I ran out of shampoo, and thought that circumstance would be a good time to try something I've been curious about for a while... a method of cleaning one's hair without relying on commercial shampoos, commonly referred to as the "No 'Poo Method."

Basically, you use a baking-soda paste to scrub the scalp, then use an apple cider vinegar rinse to condition and add shine. Other people have talked about the chemistry behind this... I don't understand it, but I thought I'd try it. I do know you're not supposed to wash as often, which means your hair doesn't over-produce oils, which means you don't have to wash as often... There are also all kinds of fancy but "natural" things you can do, like adding honey to the rinse or giving your hair a "mask" involving eggs, but I thought I'd stop at vinegar. I like my food on my plate, not my hair!

Anyway, I did the first such wash last Wednesday evening. I was really impressed with the results: my hair felt clean, and didn't smell weird -- in fact, it smelled clean. Also, no added scents, which is nice since I tend to get scent-related headaches a lot. It stayed clean for several days, also. Saturday it started feeling a little grungy and by Sunday evening it was definitely oily and getting itchy.

This is about par for the course for my hair. I haven't washed it every day since my freshman year of college - it's usually every other or every third day, but I've been known to go longer. Wednesday night to Monday morning is on the long end, though, for sure! I washed again today - same method - with slightly less pleasing results. My hair is clean, I think, but it feels heavier and smells a little "hairier", if that makes sense. Not unpleasant, but there. It does seem to have a little more body than usual, though, which is another alleged side effect of this method.

(One seems to have to describe one's hair in order to blog about this properly. So - mine is about midway down my back, naturally very straight, not keen to hold a curl, fairly thick but with very fine individual strands. Inclined to be fly-away and slightly frizzy, especially in humidity. I probably should have taken "before" pictures, which most of the people who have blogged about this have done, but I didn't. But you've all seen my hair before.)

I'll probably keep doing this for a while, partly because it certainly doesn't seem to be hurting my hair, and partly because I'm too cheap to buy shampoo ;-P I'll report back later, whether I end up liking it or not!

Bully

2012-01-13T11:22:00.001-05:00

I sometimes have the uncomfortable suspicion that Conrad is a bully.

But you would never know to look at him.

Take this morning for example. We woke up and stumbled downstairs, me to the bathroom, the cat to see whether the master bedroom (and therefore the food which he enjoys stealing) were open and available. They were not, and this seems to have put him in a bad temper.

I was in the kitchen making tea when my landlords' cat knocked to come inside. (Well, squeaked, really. He rubs his paws on the glass door, and if it's been wet outside he gets a sort of squeegee effect.) I went to let him in, but as I was pulling the door open, Conrad appeared out of nowhere and tried to pounce.

I shut the door again. I don't want Conrad getting outside, or either of them fighting. These two have never gotten along very well, and I didn't want to push it. So I distracted my cat and tried again to let Kitty in. Again Conrad tried to attack. He hissed this time, too.

Three more attempts having the same result, I finally shut the door, leaving KB outside. Conrad flounced off, triumphant, and I returned to my tea.

A moment later the squeegee noise started again. KB had taken himself around the house and was now knocking at the back door. I opened to him and he trotted in, looking extremely please with himself, and sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor to clean his paws. Just then Conrad came round the corner, and stopped dead, apparently astonished to find his rival back in the house. There was a little bit of surly grumbling from both of them, but they appear to have made peace for now.

Why can't they all get along?

Pretty cat!

Music for a New Semester

2012-01-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

The spring semester starts today! It's grey and soggy, but not nearly as cold as a day in January ought to be. I want some snow to brighten things up!

I thought I'd share with you a musical group which I just discovered. They're called The Staves and they are three sisters from England. I'm not really sure how to classify their music -- definitely influenced by folk music, but that's not all they sing. Their voices are lovely and their harmonies are incredible.

I'm going to try to make this semester as sweet and smooth as their harmonies!

So far the day has not been auspicious. I woke up late, tripped and fell sprawling trying to cross my own bedroom, and just now Conrad presented me with a hairball, which I suppose I need to clean up out of the carpet. Here's hoping the rest of the day - and the year - are better than this!

Random on a Wednesday

2012-01-11T13:26:00.001-05:00

1. I had to go to traffic court this morning. (For speeding. I was guilty, in case you wonder.)

2. I took knitting, as I figured I might be there a while.

3. I was there a while.

4. They wouldn't let me knit.

5. This made my morning considerably less productive and less tolerable than it could otherwise have been.

6. So when the judge (I think he was a judge, everyone called him "Your Honour") completely mispronounced my first name, I was perhaps a little less tolerant than I could have been.

7. At least I only got sent to traffic school.

8. I bought "All Wound Up" by Steph Pearl-McPhee (otherwise known as The Yarn Harlot) to cheer myself up.

9. It worked.

10. I also bought a little calendar-book in which to record all the books I read (and possibly movies I watch) this year. I used to keep lists when I was younger and it's so interesting to look back and see what phase of reading I was in. I've finished four books already since the 1st.

11. My collection of 70% off rescue amaryllises has grown to three. Two Red Lions and a Minerva. I'll put pictures up when they start blooming!

12. I really wish I could show you my current knitting project because I'm a little in love with it. But it's secret test-knitting so I can't. Sorry.

Vests for Kate

2012-01-09T09:31:00.000-05:00

One of the things I did while I was home last week was finish up two vests for my sister. They were last year's Christmas gift, so they're woefully overdue her. I've had the main construction done since January -- all they needed were buttons and buttonholes (and Mum's machine does automatic buttonholes, which is why I waited and brought them home. Mine ceased working zig-zag stitches a long time ago, so it just sits there quietly chewing up your fabric.)

Buttons from the home stash.

Well, and they needed a little alteration, too. She changed shape since last year! Fortunately this summer I'd had her try them on, so I knew the maroon one needed taking in at the sides and the green needed extra room in the bustline. We did another fitting last week, just to tweak things.

Don't ask me why they needed such different alterations - they were supposedly the same size with the same finished measurements. But whatever.

I think if you look really, really closely you can see the triangular piece I inserted in the side seam under the armhole...

Anyway, I finished them up about 1 o'clock the morning I had to leave, and I'm really pleased with how they turned out! I got pictures from home yesterday so now I can blog about them. Kate says the green one is her favourite and I think I agree :-) There is also a skirt which matches the green vest, but I could not for the life of me find the zip for it so I left it unfinished. My sister is capable of inserting her own zippers ;-P

She's also getting awfully grown up!

I'm also going to take this opportunity to brag on Kate a little bit -- look what she just finished knitting! I think it turned out gorgeous!

Socks for Me

2012-01-06T11:00:00.010-05:00

Over Christmas break I finally got a chance to knit something for myself! I've been so busy with things for the shop that I haven't made myself anything in quite a while. So I decided my first Christmas project would be socks for myself :-)

I've had this yarn kicking around for about a year. It's KnitPicks undyed sock yarn, which I dyed with RIT dye. I think it was just "purple" and nothing else but I can't remember. It's been a year!

Mittens in background by my mum. Also, this is what happens when you let your sister who is a dancer take pictures of socks - she badgers you into ballet positions. I think this is "fifth relevé" but you would have to ask Kate!

For a change I used someone else's pattern, too. It's Zokni by "mintyfresh" on Ravelry. This is the first time I've done a short-rows heel and I can't quite decide if I like it. It fits well and looks good, but it seems a little... flimsy? I don't know.

The lace pattern drove me crazy. I usually memorise charts after just a few repeats but it took me a sock and a half to get this one completely memorised! Weird. But it's really pretty and I like the way it looks, so I guess it's worth it.

They only took me four days, start to finish. I began the first one on the airplane, Christmas Sunday morning, and worked in the last end on Wednesday afternoon. Of course this was a holiday week so I had lots of time to sit around knitting while I talked with family (or sat in the car while we drove somewhere!)

I've finished one other project but it's a gift and I don't want to blog it until it's gone to its recipient! So maybe I'll talk about something other than knitting for the next few days ;-)

Knitting on a Jet Plane

2012-01-05T10:54:00.001-05:00

It does happen.

It's even, well, allowed. On this morning's flight to Charlotte, I was seated next to an overly-perfumed and made-up woman and her teenage daughter (ditto). They slept most of the flight. I sewed buttons onto a baby sweater and knitted. As we were making ready to land, I got out my bag and began stowing the knitting away. This involved shifting everything in my bag. As I was rearranging the sack of clementines and shoving in the knitting, the woman gestured to my bag and said "I can't believe they let you carry those on board!" in shocked tones.

I thought she was referring to the fruit, so I told her, no, food was allowed as long as it wasn't packed in water.

"Oh, no," she said, "I meant those!" and pointed to my knitting needles. (They were aluminum straights, but they're size fives. Not miniscule by any means.)

No, I said, they're perfectly legal.

"But it would be so easy to..." She made a motion as if to stab someone.

Well, I said, you'd probably actually do more damage with a sharpened pencil. Or a toothpick. Security is fine with it, I said. (Besides, I thought, anyone who takes the trouble to knit lace is not going to risk ruining it by doing something ridiculous like stabbing another passenger!)

She turned away with a sigh and a shake of her head, and said nothing more to me. I shook my head, too. I sew buttons on baby sweaters and I knit lace. Clearly I'm a hardened criminal who oughtn't to be allowed to have even semi-sharp objects.

Look. Lace and non-dangerous needles!

Hopefully my seat-mates on the next flight will be more enlightened. But even if they're not, I'm going to knit anyway. And then I'm going to drive home and hug my cat!

New Year's Dress

2012-01-01T23:00:00.001-05:00

(I had a strong urge to title this post "Did you see my party dress?" but then I thought better of it...)

I didn't end up wearing this dress for Christmas Eve (though it was nearly finished in time) as I thought it was a little too dressy for church services. But it did make its appearance at the New Year's Eve party we attended at our friends' house. It was a little too dressy for that as well, but oh well!

Pattern: McCall's 6027, view B but without the skirt godets. Fabric: white poly "lining" fabric, lined with a white-on-white figured calico. Black lace trim.

The size I cut out was enormous on me. So I took in a lot of the seams, but didn't measure exactly and didn't try on again. As a result it's a tiny bit snug on me. But since I'm supposed to be trying to slim a bit that should get better quickly, and in the meantime it works fine. I wore it with a scarf last night, partly to hide the tugging and partly for a splash of colour.

I love the tiny sleeves!

I did have wine but the liquid in the glass here is actually Coke ;-)

The skirt is full and twirly. It hit me just at the knees, so the dress feels a bit retro and definitely still modest, but it's short enough to not look out of place with modern clothes, either. The lace is whipstitched to the hem of the underskirt.

Last night I wore this with my red pashmina scarf, the belt from this summer's silk bridesmaid dress, a 5-strand necklace, and black lace tights. I think it would be fun with a red belt or sash, as well!

I'm really pleased with how this dress came out -- it's almost exactly as I'd imagined it. I can see this being a go-to party dress for many seasons to come.

What's in a name?

2011-12-28T10:00:00.001-05:00

I've had a few people recently ask me what my blog name means, or why I chose "glanalaw". So I thought it might be interesting to do a post explaining the name!

When I first set up my blog I knew I wanted it to reflect both my love of God, my love of singing, and my love of Wales. I am partly Welsh and for years I've been fascinated with the country, the music, and especially the language (which is exceedingly difficult to learn, as I found!) In high school I spent several years trying to teach myself Welsh with the help of a Rosetta Stone program and a couple of grammar books, and one of my favourite opera singers is Welsh.

I wanted to come up with a name that would reflect "pure song" or "pure music" -- as my singing is done for the glory of God. After some research I chose "glanalaw". "Glan" is an adjective meaning "pure", "clear", or "untarnished". "Alaw" means "tune", "melody", and (interestingly) "water-lily". So the literal meaning is "clear/untarnished melody", which I think is a good reflection of what I wanted to convey!

When I first set up the blog I didn't think "glanalaw" was a real word - I thought it was my own hybrid. But today I got curious and decided to google it. Apparently there is a town or area in Wales called Glanalaw.

There is also a lovely little church called Capel Glanalaw in Patagonia, which had a large number of Welsh settlers.

Capel Glanalaw

There's also an ancient standing stone or menhir called Glan-Alaw, or Bod Deiniol, in Anglesey. I can't find anywhere which translates "Bod Deiniol", but "bod" is supposed to mean "being" or "wight" (like Tolkein's barrow-wights?). Deiniol is a given name, the Welsh form of Daniel. I'm not sure why the same menhir should be called "Daniel's Wight" and "Pure Melody", but there it is. Fascinating!

View of the standing stone, borrowed from this website.

Bod Deiniol/Glan-Alaw is in the middle of a field, and I found a note which said it is on private property but visitors are allowed when there are no crops or hay in the field!

Another view of Bod Deiniol, from here.

I don't know if anyone else will be as interested in this information as I am, but I thought it was fun to see that I hadn't actually made the word up, and discover some of its history!

Glad Tidings

2011-12-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

Happiest Christmas to all of you, my friends! After a long day of traveling I'm finally with my family for the holiday, and I'm enjoying it so much.

I'll just leave you with this video: Bryn Terfel, reading the Christmas story. It doesn't get much better than this -- a most beautiful voice, reading these most beautiful words with such feeling.

Light a Candle

2011-12-24T18:38:00.000-05:00

There are so many things I want to write about, this Christmas. About peace, especially. About being light to the world. About joy and beauty and love. About concepts so big I can't even put them into words.

Mostly, about the phrase I came across in a book I read recently. "Light a candle for Christmas Eve." In the book this is in the context of Christmas during World War I - when there was a spontaneous, unofficial cease-fire in the trenches, and may lit candles to celebrate the birth of Christ, oblivious to their personal safety.

I haven't been able to get the words out of my head, and I think they have a wider application than a cease-fire almost a century ago. As I go to services tonight, and tomorrow on Christmas morning -- as I light the Christ candle at the centre of the Advent wreath -- I will think about this. Light a candle -- not just for Christmas Eve, but for every day. Light a candle -- and share the Light with the world.

As the last lines of this gorgeous Spanish carol proclaim: God is born -- God is here!

I may have left this a little late...

2011-12-23T22:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Christmas Adam!

(It's a joke. It's the day before Christmas Eve... and Adam came before Eve... )

So about a week ago I decided I really wanted a new holiday dress. Maybe not specifically for Christmas, but one that I could wear maybe for a New Year's Eve party, or something along those lines. I wanted white with black trim. Classic, but feminine and a little frilly, just for a change.

I dug out McCall's 6027, which I bought on sale for a dollar, and some white figured calico. Bought black lace on sale. Then did nothing with it.

I'm making view b (the one with sleeves) and adding a bit of length to the skirt, but taking out the godets.

Last night it occurred to me that Christmas was really soon, and I should maybe start sewing. So today I got out all the supplies, and cut out and sewed up what was supposed to be the lining (a lovely, silky polyester. It really is a "lining" fabric, but it's not the nasty kind!)

Then I started looking at my calico, comparing it with the lining, and realized I'd rather have the plain white as the outside of my dress. The calico is just a little creamy, which doesn't look as well on me as pure white. So we're having a mid-project change of plans. I'm going to turn the "lining" into the fashion fabric, and put the white-on-white calico as the lining. That way, I'll get little shadows of the print, but it won't be so "busy".

The lace will be stitched onto the skirt of the underdress. I can't decide though whether I want to have it hang down below the outer skirt, or whether the lace should hang to the same length as the outer skirt, so it'll just show when the dress is in motion. Thoughts? Opinions? I'm going to have lace around the neckline and probably trimming the sleeves, so maybe it should show at the hem for balance. Or maybe not.

(The belt is from the bridesmaid dress I made this summer. It works so well, I figured why make a new one?)

I was also thrilled to discover that when I cut out the size I usually make, I had to make really deep seam allowances in order for it not to be hugely too large! Yay!

The problem of course being that tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I wanted to wear the dress for the evening services. So I'll be doing a lot of sewing tomorrow....

Gratuitous Extra Music for Advent

2011-12-22T17:37:00.001-05:00

I was going to have a nicely-written and thoughtful post about Christmas today, but I accidentally slept until noon and I have quite a lot to do before flying to PA on Sunday morning, so I'll just give you some more music and a photo of Sunday's Advent wreath, instead.

I know it looks like the centre candle is burning, but it's just a reflection.

This is "What Sweeter Music". The setting is by John Rutter, the words by Robert Herrick, dating from the 17th century.

(In case you hadn't noticed, I really love English choral music!)

Stew

2011-12-21T23:31:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I bought five pounds of sweet potatoes because they were 20 cents a pound... and ever since I've been trying to find creative ways to use them! (So if you have ideas, I'd love to hear!)

Tonight, I poked around on the web and ended up making a stew of sorts -- a conglomeration of several recipes. It turned out to be really tasty so I thought I'd share. It's hearty and just a wee bit spicy; perfect for chilly evenings!

Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1/2 apple, peeled and chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T butter or olive oil
3/4 cup lentils
1/4 tsp each ginger, cumin, curry powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups broth (chicken or veg, your choice)

Saute all the veg and the apple in the butter until onion is translucent and everything else begins to soften. Add in broth, lentils, and seasonings, bring to boil; turn down and simmer until lentils are softened and veg are cooked (about 30 minutes). Should be quite thick but not dry; add in more water/broth if necessary. Adjust seasonings and serve!

2 generous servings

Notes: one of my inspiration recipes said to serve with dollops of plain yoghurt. Another said to purée the soup. So I suppose you could try that! I liked it in chunks, just as it was.

I'm sorry there's no picture but the light was bad by the time I finished cooking, and anyway it's not a very exciting-looking stew. But it tastes excellent!

Contented

2011-12-19T17:34:00.003-05:00

I like my Christmas holiday. It's been especially nice this year because I have a whole week between finishing all my obligations and actually travelling anywhere.

So far it has been full of good music.

Hot tea and peppermint cookies.

A new doily in the shop.

Also things like the antics of Conrad, and staying up half the night reading.

I could get used to this.

(P.S. I'm going to be playing with the layout over the next few days, starting with making the photos bigger. Please let me know what you think! What would make this page clearer, easier to read and to navigate?)

Music for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

2011-12-18T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today I had the privilege of being the soprano soloist for a performance of Saint-Saëns' "Christmas Oratorio" at a local church. It was quite an ambitious work, and the solo work was hard. Lots of high notes, and lots of singing in general. This was one of my favourite numbers from the oratorio - the soprano/tenor/baritone trio. Unfortunately we didn't record the concert, but here's a good version from YouTube. (We sang it in English, though.)

That was a bonus! Here's the official Advent music selection ;-) This one is probably more of a Christmas Eve/Day song, really, but it's so lovely I want to share it (and I have something special planned for Christmas Eve and the day itself!) We sang this anthem at church a few weeks ago and will repeat it at the Christmas Eve services. I'm not sure whether it's the melody or something about the text, but the first time we sang through this I found myself in tears. It is beautiful.

Musings on Music

2011-12-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

I think it's interesting how people tend to assume that "classical" music is beyond the reach of the average citizen, and when they are trying to make it appeal to those who are not trained musicians, they jazz it up or add special effects or something.

Take this video for example.

A friend posted this on Facebook this morning. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it; the idea is really cool, and it's well executed. But then I started thinking, I really think the original -- one cello, no gimmicks - is actually at least as dramatic and exciting as this version. Maybe more.

Maybe that's just me? After all I am a "trained musician" and I did grow up with Bach. But listen to this:

What do you think? I've had this reaction before to "souped-up" classical music. I'm curious whether anyone else thinks the same way!

Finished

2011-12-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry it's been quiet around here this week. I've been a little busy....

...sitting two finals

...finishing a project

...completing a 25-page research paper

...singing an opera

...rehearsing for a Christmas oratorio this weekend

...grading final exams.

I finished all that this afternoon, and celebrated with a trip to the yarn shop (a gorgeous hank of charcoal-grey lace-weight) and a batch of peppermint crinkle cookies. Now I'm going to bed for about a hundred years.

See you when I wake up ;-)

Don't give your cat caffeine, and Advent Music

2011-12-11T23:53:00.000-05:00

I spent this afternoon lazily. I watched Jane Austen movies instead of studying, did some embroidery, and had tea and biscuits.

Conrad had tea, too.

He wasn't supposed to, really. But he likes to sit on the end table in the living room, which is where my tea was, and I guess he was thirsty. Anyway, he'd had a good drink before I caught him at it, and then I figured, well, I'm not going to drink any more of that mug now, he might as well have his fill. And thought nothing more of it.

Approximately an hour later, he went suddenly berserk. He's a high-energy cat anyway, but this was ridiculous. He was tearing about, ricocheting off furniture, bouncing off the walls (literally!) He also spooked at small noises and appeared completely convinced that the furtherance of his life depended on how thoroughly he killed his toy mouse. He's never been so crazy.

The effects lasted about an hour, after which he appeared to come down off his caffeine high and fell asleep sprawled on his back on the sofa with his paws in the air. When I carried him upstairs for bed he tottered about for a moment, and is now sleeping soundly on the ironing board. I'm not sure I could wake him if I tried.

The moral of this story is: don't give your cats caffeine! I suppose I should be grateful it was tea he drank. If he'd had coffee he might have exploded!

~~~~

This is supposed to be an Advent music post, but I had to share the cat story too -- sorry! This week, I have an ancient verse in a fairly modern setting - "I sing of a maiden" set by Patrick Hadley. The words date back to the 1400s or earlier, and I think they're lovely.

I pasted this in from Wikipedia - the original Middle-English text, with a modern "translation" next to it.

I syng of a mayden þat is makeles, kyng of alle kynges to here sone che ches.	I sing of a maiden That is matchless, King of all kings For her son she chose.
He came also stylle þer his moder was as dew in aprylle, þat fallyt on þe gras.	He came as still Where his mother was As dew in April That falls on the grass.
He cam also stylle to his moderes bowr as dew in aprille, þat fallyt on þe flour.	He came as still To his mother's bower As dew in April That falls on the flower.
He cam also stylle þer his moder lay as dew in Aprille, þat fallyt on þe spray.;	He came as still Where his mother lay As dew in April That falls on the spray.
Moder & mayden was neuer non but che – wel may swych a lady Godes moder be.	Mother and maiden There was never, ever one but she; Well may such a lady God's mother be.

Coordination Lacking

2011-12-09T23:49:00.000-05:00

So I think that today's events pretty well sum up my life at the moment...

I woke up later than I should have because I'd spent an hour hitting snooze and ignoring the cat, who was yelling for breakfast. So when I finally got up Conrad was delirious and rushed down the stairs ahead of me to get to the food.

He was in such a hurry that he tripped and fell down the last half-dozen stairs. I almost fell down them myself because I was laughing so hard.

Then later I dropped a large spoonful of (hot) oatmeal on my (bare) foot in an absent-minded moment.

I also tripped on my skirt on the ladder during opera rehearsal and almost crushed Esther who was supposed to be pulling me off said ladder. (No, I don't know whose bright idea it was to dress us in ankle-length skirts and then tell us to perform an opera on a ladder...)

Then on the bus this afternoon the driver started before I had time to sit down, and the hanger of the costumes I took home to alter got caught on a bar, yanked off, and thrown to the ground with a clang. Everybody stared.

Later, the cat fell over in an excess of delight because I was home and petting him.

So yeah. Coordination. We lack it.

A very knitterly post

2011-12-08T19:52:00.001-05:00

So, most of you who knit have probably heard of the Yarn Harlot (otherwise and more politely known as Stephanie McPhee.) Sadly I have never read any of her actual printed books (which probably makes me an outcast in many knitting circles), but I do read her blog faithfully, and it is pretty excellent. She is funny and smart and occasionally poignant, and she writes really well.

This month, she's doing a totally brilliant series on Gifts for Knitters, geared towards non-knitters who know their loved ones who knit would love something useful and cool for Christmas, but haven't the least idea where to start. I have been nodding and saying "yes, that's absolutely right!" each time she puts up a new suggestion (it's one per day, theoretically), and so I thought I would share this treasure-trove of information with the world. Or, the very small portion of the world which reads this blog, anyway.

Here is the link to her blog. Go read, and laugh, and then leave it suggestively open on the computer so that your non-knitting loved ones will maybe take the hint. (And no. She did not pay me to write this post. I just love her blog!)

~~

In other news, I finished a couple of doilies this week and put them up in the shop. They're really quite reasonably priced compared to others which show up on Etsy, though I almost feel bad asking that much for them since they don't take too long to knit, and they're really fun.

I also experimented with crocheted lace this week, and decided it's not worth the trouble. I do like the look of some of it, but it takes far more concentration for me, and is not nearly as quick. Maybe I'll give it another go at some point, but for now, I'm loving these knitted doilies. Expect to see more of them in the near future!

Public Service Announcement

2011-12-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

Dear Jogger who I almost hit this evening,

I understand that you want to get your daily exercise, even on cold, gloomy, rainy evenings. But if you must do so outside, please realize that it is NOT a good idea to don black sweats and a dark cap, and then go jog on an unlit and winding road, relying only on the (faint) reflectors on your running shoes to make you visible. The only reason you are not now flat on your back in the hospital is because I thought the twinkling of your shoes was probably a raccoon's eyes, and swerved. The rest of your person didn't register until I was already passed.

For the sake of those drivers who would rather not become guilty of manslaughter, please invest in some light-coloured exercise gear, or go find a gym that's open past 5.

Sincerely,
A severely shaken driver.

Music for the Second Sunday of Advent

2011-12-04T23:44:00.001-05:00

This morning my church had its "Lessons and Carols" service. It was really lovely, I think! The choir sang five anthems, and we had a brass quintet, a violinist, and an oboist, mostly faculty from my school.

Today's music isn't really related to that, though. It's an anthem which we sang last year at the Union Christmas concert, and I fell in love with it. I was privileged to have a solo in it, but that's not the only reason I like it ;-) The words are an old English carol, and I love the imagery; also, the beautiful setting by John Rutter.

I hope this Sunday has been blessed! (And less full of research papers than mine has been...)

Just off the needles

2011-12-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

A lace doily or mat. (I never know what to call these. "Doily" sound so prim and Victorian, not very appealing to the modern sensibilities... but then, what else would you call it?) First time in a couple years I've worked lace, and it was so satisfying.

It's been starched and now it's blocking. I can't wait to take the pins out.

An opera rant, and more for the shop

2011-12-02T18:20:00.000-05:00

Note: This might get a little boring for anyone who's not an opera nerd like myself... sorry! You can scroll down and look at the pictures of things in the shop, instead ;-)

The last couple weeks I've been deeply involved in my music research project, in which I'm comparing and contrasting the methods of the composers Bellini and Gounod in turning the story of Romeo and Juliet into operas. (Bellini was an Italian, writing in 1830; Gounod, a Frenchman whose opera premiered in 1867). This project led me to watch a film version of the Gounod opera, made about 10 years ago and claiming that "Shakespeare's lovers never looked and sounded so good as in this romantic new film adaption."

Well. I take issue with that statement! Firstly, apparently this director was trying to make a feature-length film, presumably to appeal to a wider audience than opera often draws. When dealing with a 3-hour opera, that means some pretty significant cuts. (The liner notes say that the film is "based on a slightly abridged version of the opera", to which I replied "slightly?!?" in tones of disbelief...) So, about half the opera was missing, and much of the rest had been rearranged to fit the director's vision, or something. (This led to startling choices such as Romeo and Juliet being married *after* Romeo has killed Tybalt...)

Secondly, I realise that opera singers are usually older than the characters they portray (since a lot of operas center around young love, and the singing voice is not really mature until the 30s...) This works on stage, mostly. However, if you're going to do extreme closeups, and have your characters cavorting around the countryside and rushing breathlessly around in excitement, it works better if they don't look closer to 40 than to 20. I couldn't take them seriously!

There was also the bit, when Juliet is waking from her drugged sleep, when Romeo exclaims "Her lips mumured; my trembling fingers felt in hers the warmth of her blood! She looks at me and raises herself!" -- all while standing ten feet away from Juliet, and looking at the sky. He's not touching her. He's not even looking at her. How is he supposed to know she's doing all that? Did the director really think that people would be so stupid as to not be able to read subtitles? Or did she not actually know what his words meant? That was the last straw.

Most of the film seemed to be more about showing off the gorgeous countryside (it was filmed on location at a castle in the Czech Republic) and much less about the plot. The music is gorgeous (with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, it's bound to be, even if they do look too old), but for me at least it wasn't an effective film. And by "wasn't effective" I mean "I sat there fuming at the screen for three quarters of the movie."

~~~~

In other news, I have a few new things in the shop tonight!

Two sets of hand-quilted coasters, one stitched with silver-grey perle cotton and one with a dusky blue.

And a scarf, the colours inspired by Hogwarts' Gryffindor House, but of course you can wear red and gold even if you're not a Harry Potter fan!

Advent Wreath

2011-11-28T11:05:00.004-05:00

For as long as I can remember, my family has set up an Advent wreath every year, lighting a new candle each Sunday of the Advent season until we reach the Christ candle in the centre on Christmas day itself. This Sunday ritual is one of my favourites, so when I realised I'd be spending the entire season of Advent in my own place and not at home, I knew I needed to set up an Advent wreath for myself.

I could have bought one but I didn't like any of the options I could find in my price range, so I decided to devise my own. I knew I wanted something rustic, unpolished. My first thought was to use a grapevine wreath as a base, but all the ones I found were so rigid and densely woven it would have been hard to affix the candle holders. But a trip to Hobby Lobby produced a hank of raffia and a coil of floral wire wrapped in green fibres.

After some experimentation I formed the wreath by braiding the raffia tightly, then twisting and tucking the ends into each other. (Conrad ran off with several strands of raffia during this process; he was convinced the whole procedure was for his benefit!) Then I fashioned candle holders out of the wire, forming "cups" out of coiled wire, then using the ends of the wire to fasten the holders to the raffia wreath. The final step was to wrap the wreath with a length of wide gold ribbon which I had lying around.

Purple or royal blue are the traditional liturgical colours of Advent.

I put my "Christ candle" in the middle on a glass candle base I already owned, and surrounded it with evergreens clipped from the bushes in the garden.

I like the end result! It's definitely "rustic" (perhaps a little too much so, but it suits me). I don't know whether it will hold up to years of being packed up and re-used, but for this year, I love it. I lit the first candle yesterday for a few hours; it was comforting to be carrying on this familiar ritual.

Music for the First Sunday of Advent

2011-11-27T19:20:00.000-05:00

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent! I love Advent; maybe because it hasn't been secularized by the rest of the world in the same way Christmas has, it's always been a really special time for me. I thought that this year, it could be fun to share some carols and hymns which are suited to the Advent season, before we move into the true Christmas music.

Today, a lovely anthem, "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending."

Enjoy this first week of the Advent season!

More for the shop

2011-11-26T16:37:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving day with family and friends! I wasn't able to travel home to be with family, but I had a good time with my landlords and got to help with the cooking. (I'm really glad I did - I can't imagine Thanksgiving without spending a lot of time in the kitchen!)

I've spent the rest of the weekend doing some finishing work and listing things on Etsy! Yesterday I showed you lots of socks; one pair was just recently completed but the others have been hanging around for a while, waiting for me to get my act together. Today, I have two crocheted afghans and a set of quilted coasters.

First up, a granny square afghan from the stash. I used up most of my scraps in the blue/grey colour range, with the centres of each square in a creamy white surrounded by robin's-egg blue. It's not symmetrical but it all works together!

Then I made a set of quilted coasters, using part of a "fat quarter" of calico. They're backed with muslin, filled with scraps of quilt batting, and quilted with silvery-grey perle cotton. I'm slightly in love.

They come in a set of six, and they're reversible. I like the grey-on-white side at least as much as the striped side! So understated. Find them here in the shop....

And finally, a big, squooshy, delicious ripple afghan, with plump tassels on all its points. This is another stash-buster; I pulled out all the yarns I had in this understated, pink-and-tan colour palate, and supplemented with a couple splashes of brighter colours. I love love love the stripe of turquoise at one end!

I also love how the sunlight gave such sharp definition to this last photograph. You can see every stitch! This one is hard to part with but it is also on Etsy here.

I hope you all have a lovely remainder of your weekend, and a blessed first Sunday of Advent! Maybe next week I will post something which doesn't have to do with Etsy ;-)

A quintet of socks in the shop

2011-11-25T16:25:00.001-05:00

Finally the weather was clear and I was able to photograph my backlog of items for the Etsy shop! Today, a quintet of wool socks:

Check them all out in the shop! And spread the word to your friends who might be looking for hand-crafted Christmas gifts :-)

Bus Stop

2011-11-23T23:12:00.000-05:00

You meet the most interesting people at bus stops. On Monday I went to the library by bus. Coming back, the bus was late, and it was raining. I had my backpack (enormous and heavy) and a tote bag (ditto) and a large red umbrella, and wet boots. There were two gentlemen at the bus stop. Both were smoking, one of them inside the semi-enclosed shelter. Cigarette smoke does not do good things to my lungs, so I stood outside with my umbrella.

Smoking gentleman #1 (the inside one) decides to come out and offer me a seat. It was very good of him, I say, but I'm extremely allergic to smoke, so I'll just stand out here.

He retires. A moment later, he's back to offer to stand outside. So good of you, I say, but even the lingering smoke would trouble me.

He turns away. Then back. "You say you're allergic... what does it do to you?"

I try to explain about deep, hacking coughs, and headaches, but I don't think he gets it. He wanders back into the shelter. I shift my umbrella, set the tote bag down on my foot so it doesn't get wet, and look for the bus.

Smoking gentleman #2: "Is your backpack waterproof? It's all hanging out in the back."

I allow that it is not, in fact, waterproof. A certain amount of shifting about to get the largest possible portion of it under the umbrella.

Gentleman #1 emerges again, comes up to me, and asks, "'scuse me, but what is your race?"

I probably gave him a blank stare for a minute. "Um... I'm American?"

Gentleman #1: "Oh. I just wondered... you look like one of them gypsy women, where they from?"

A further blank stare. "Uh... I believe they're from eastern Europe. And I don't think I'm a gypsy..."

He: "I just wondered. You look like one." He turns away, then back. "I mean, you look nice..."

Me: ......

He wanders back into the shelter. I shift all my bags around again, get water down the back of my neck, and wait for the bus.

Gentleman #2 asks if I'm a student. I say yes. He asks what I do, and when I say "music" he promptly starts suggesting that I join a touring group "like those women who play the violin." I have no idea what he is talking about, but I smile and nod and say that opera is more my speed.

Presently a third gentleman, tall and distinguished and silver-haired, comes up, book in hand. He stands near me. We all four scan the road for the errant bus. I start jigging up and down and singing, partly to keep warm and partly because I rarely go more than a few minutes without singing.

Gentleman #3 turns to me and says, "You're singing. Why are you so happy?"

I wasn't entirely sure how to answer that, as my singing had not been prompted by extreme joy... "I like rain?" I venture.

Then he asks me whether I liked to sing (yes) whether I was classically trained (yes) and what I want to do with it (opera.) Then he seems to run out of questions and subsides.

Finally the bus appears (twenty minutes behind schedule) and we all get in out of the wet. Then the bus driver sings snatches of Christmas songs all the way to the transit center.

I still haven't gotten over being asked if I was a gypsy woman...

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte

2011-11-16T09:40:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you, but I have a weakness for flavoured coffee drinks. Specifically the holiday-themed ones Starbucks comes out with. Their warm, creamy goodness can make the worst day seem better. That is until I look at my bank balance. At upwards of $4.00 a cup, they add up quickly.

So I decided I would try to make my own! I stocked up on canned pumpkin the other week when it was on sale (as well as cooking down a couple of fresh ones), so starting with the pumpkin spice latte seemed like a good idea. I took a quick look at a few other make-your-own recipes floating around the web, but I ended up just coming up with my own. My goal was not only to save money, but also to make it a little more healthy! I'm sure the commercial version is full of sweet syrups. The most expensive item here was the Reddi-whip I used, which cost about half what a single latte at Starbucks would run, and will last for many drinks. (Mine was enough to go with an entire apple pie plus three drinks.) Everything else you probably have in your kitchen already. So, here you go!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

2 cups of milk*

1 T sugar**

2 T (approximate) pumpkin purée (fresh, frozen or canned)

a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice***

1/3 cup strong coffee†

whipped cream

nutmeg

Combine milk, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin in a medium saucepan. (Feel free to adjust the amounts of sugar and spice!) Heat until just barely not boiling. Froth with a whisk or immersion blender. ††

Pour coffee into a large mug; pour milk mixture in and stir. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. This makes one really large serving, or two smallish ones.

~~~~~~

* I used skim milk because that's what was in the house. This would probably be richer (and better) (but less healthy) with whole milk.

** I used white sugar, but I bet it would be even better with brown. I just didn't have any.

*** If you don't have dedicated "pie spice", make your own with tiny pinches of cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and ginger.

† Espresso would be even better. 1 or 2 shots, depending how much caffeine you need and how strong you like the coffee flavour. I only have a French press, so I made do with that, and it tasted fine!

†† Or, walk upstairs to pack your bags for school, leaving your pot of milk to boil merrily and slosh onto the stove. Instant froth!

To make the whole process even easier, try this! I know I won't make enough of these lattes to go through an entire 15-oz can of pumpkin before it spoils in the fridge. So I froze the remainder in an ice cube tray, then transferred them to a freezer bag. One cube is exactly enough pumpkin for a latte, so you have instant perfect portions. Just grab one from the freezer and throw in the pot with the milk; it will thaw and incorporate as the milk heats. (If you're concerned, nuke the pumpkin for 15 seconds before combining.) You could do this with fresh pumpkin purée too.

Poor Conrad

2011-11-15T17:33:00.000-05:00

Conrad went to the vet yesterday, and now, in the words of some famous author whose name I can't recall, he is an ex-gentleman cat. He also got a microchip implanted - useful for if he gets out, and required if I ever take him out of the States.

He took it pretty well, though he spent most of the evening looking like this on a chair:

Later he perked up a little and looked out the window, and now he is chasing his feathers-on-a-stick toy around the kitchen. I think he's feeling better.

By the way, it's incredibly difficult to administer syrupy pain medicine in a syringe to an alert and unhappy cat. I tried wrapping him in a towel, but that only made him mad. Eventually I just dosed his food -- and since he's been acting like I've starved him for weeks, he scarfed down the medicine with no fuss. We'll see how this evening's dose goes...

A Case of the Mondays

2011-11-14T14:16:00.000-05:00

1. To begin with, I'm still sick. We've proceeded to the sandpapered-throat, hoarse coughing stage, accompanied by a voice which has dropped at least a fifth and which is threatening to give out entirely. I probably shouldn't have gone to school today, but I decided to muscle through and go anyway. Which leads me to

2. I locked my keys in the car. Normally I'm extremely careful about that. I collect my things, holding keys firmly in hand the whole time, and I check three times before I actually shut and lock the door. Today, possibly due to 1), my mind was elsewhere. As I pushed the door closed I saw the keys sitting on the seat, winking at me.

3. AAA is really a great convenience. I am glad I am a member.

4. I wish I hadn't needed to find out how convenient they are today.

5. Conrad went to the vet to get neutered today. I'm going to have a sad little kitten after school.

6. We will probably spend the rest of the day feeling miserable together. I don't suppose having company will really help a lot.

7. Owing to my illness over the weekend I have not done a lick of work on my major research project, for which I'm supposed to have an outline and 3 pages of prose by tomorrow morning.

8. I have a feeling they're not going to get done tonight, either.

9. Maybe the good professor will let me reschedule?

10. At least I had a good homemade pumpkin spice latte this morning. Recipe to follow.

Still Sick

2011-11-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

This whatever-it-is feels like flu, only without a fever. In pretty much every other respect it is the same, though.

Thanks to Nyquil I slept almost 16 hours last night, which probably helped. I have spent most of the day lying in bed contemplating my various ailments, which is not very pleasant. However I did not even have the energy to knit (which is how you know I'm really sick.)

Then a friend recommended a remedy. It involves green tea, honey, lemon juice, salt, and a splash of strong liquor (I used rum) and she said "don't skimp on the salt and the rum!" (They are supposed to kill bacteria. It is the most vile-tasting concoction I have ever swallowed in my life, but it seems to have helped. I sat up, watched True Grit, and took out my knitting. (I stocked up on movies at the library this weekend, which turns out to have been a good thing!)

A strange lineup. Suitable for a witch's brew producing vile, unspeakable concoctions.

I do not recommend this brew to anyone with a weak stomach or a strong gag reflex! However it does seem effective.

I am hoping I am well enough to go to school tomorrow. I've got lots to do this week!

Sick

2011-11-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

I've been fighting off a bug for more than a week, but today it finally got me. It's time for boxes of tissues, doses of Nyquil, and a lot of hot tea and pineapple juice.

And bowls of chicken soup. What a good thing I decided to make a big pot of it yesterday!

Now, if you'll excuse me while I tuck myself into bed and sneeze quietly to myself. Conrad has made it clear that he will accompany me.

Autumn Leaves

2011-11-11T17:01:00.000-05:00

A bright, blustery day.

A day of crisp sunshine in which it is impossible to be unhappy, and which dares you to go out of your way and crunch in the fallen leaves.

I may be slightly insane

2011-11-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

A friend posted this link a couple days ago:

http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/tennessee

In case you don't feel like following the link, it's a relay race. A 196-mile relay race. And I'm actually seriously considering signing up.

If you know me at all you know how ridiculous this is. I've done a couple of 5-K races, but usually with reluctance and a great deal of mental swearing. The last one I only did because my sister needed a running partner.

But this looks... well... fun. The thing is, you're running with a team of 11 other runners, and the most anyone runs is 20 miles, broken up into 3 sections. The website also has a detailed training schedule posted, which would help a lot. And the next one in our area isn't until next November. I'd have a whole year!

So, I've decided I'm going to work on the training schedule. Even if I don't end up doing the race itself for some reason - scheduling issues, or not getting a team together - it gives me something to work towards and a definite goal. Also - a nice side effect - it will help me get into better physical shape. The race website recommends that every participant be able to keep up an 11-minute mile pace, so that's another goal. I'm also going to try to do at least two 5-K races between now and then, and work towards running a consistent 11-minute mile pace throughout the race.

Towards that end, I went out running this evening. I gave myself 20 minutes and managed 1.7 miles (according to mapmyrun.com), which works out to an 11:45 pace... not too bad! Of course I don't think I could have gone another step, so we've still got a long way to go :-)

I won't belabour the point on this blog - it's not mainly about exercising - but I'll probably mention it every now and then. I wanted to post about it initially as a motivation factor; if other people know about my goals, then I'm more likely to keep to them!

Butternut-Apple Soup

2011-11-07T11:30:00.000-05:00

I bought a smallish butternut squash last week and then realised I had no idea what to do with it! After an appeal to my facebook friends, I had lots of suggestions. I decided to try soup, and since I had some cooking apples on hand, I threw one of those in as well. Below is the recipe, more or less - I didn't measure anything so amounts are approximate. This was warm and satisfying; the perfect Autumn food in my book!

Butternut-Apple Soup

makes about 4 servings

1/2 a medium-small butternut squash
1 large cooking apple
1 large onion
1 carrot
about 2 T. butter
cumin and curry powder - a sprinkle each
2 peppercorns
1 tsp salt
1 quart water
2 cubes chicken bouillon

Cook onion in butter and salt until soft. Peel and chop the apple, carrot, and squash. (My squash was in about 1"-square pieces; the apple and carrot were roughly diced.) Add to pot with the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil; keep at a low boil/vigourous simmer until all the veggies are soft. Ladle out and put through a blender in batches until smooth. Serve hot. I added a splash of Tabasco sauce to my bowl, but it certainly isn't necessary.

It's such a pretty colour!

Mischief Managed

2011-11-06T15:51:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have a post about the costume I've been hinting about! I'm so glad to have this project finished, but I had a blast making it! If we're friends on Facebook, you've likely seen a few of these pictures, but here are lots more plus all the construction details. At some point I would love to do a "real" photoshoot of this dress; I think it deserves it. For now though all I can manage are some mirror shots and a couple of self-portraits done with my camera's timer :-)

I've wanted to copy Bellatrix Lestrange's costume ever since the trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out. But I never had an excuse to wear it, or I couldn't find a pattern, and with one thing and another it's been nearly five years since that first viewing. But this fall the boys decided they were going to take me trick-or-treating (the first time I've ever been!) and I felt that my sewing skills were finally good enough that I could tackle this project.

A couple still shots of the inspiration costume. I don't know why I'm always drawn to the bad guys when I'm copying costumes! I guess they just get all the cool clothes.

This is the first garment I've ever made entirely without the help of a commercial pattern. I draped the bodice and skirt on Coraline, my dress form, and the sleeves on my own arms. (This is complicated.) A single mock-up of each was enough to work out the kinks, and then I sewed it up. The sleeves are attached to the bodice with lacing cord. There's a section about 4 inches long which is sewn up, but the rest of the sleeve is laced. They come to a point over the back of the hand and are held in place with a loop which goes around the middle finger.

I love the sleeves. Also, my silver spoon ring, which is imitating a snake for the night.

Hand-stitched eyelets and a badly-exposed photograph.

I couldn't find any fabric that reproduced the movie cloth closely enough (black with silver spirals), so I bought plain black broadcloth with the intent to "print" it myself. I bought fabric paint, glitter, and silver metallic embroidery thread also. But in the end I used a metallic silver marker, not originally designed for fabric. It gave me the finest line and the best control. I added the spiral patterning after the dress was put together, since I didn't want to spend time carefully drawing on fabric which would just end up as scraps. The patterning on the skirt ended up a little larger than that of the bodice and sleeves, and I sort of "faded out" about halfway down the skirt. This is not "movie correct" but I think it looks good. Also, I didn't bother hemming the skirt since in the film it looks ragged and worn. I just bunched it up and roughly trimmed the edge.

Two different sizes of silver swirls.

The corset I drafted from my measurements. I made a simple two-layer underbust corset, out of leftover black broadcloth and some reddish-pink cotton I had in my stash. It's boned with plastic cable ties and laces up the back. (That accounts for 16 of the hand-stitched eyelets.) Then, I traced the shape of the base corset and cut out pieces of faux-leather vinyl in random shapes, trying to roughly reproduce the look of Bella's corset from the film. I think the original is probably made of *only* leather, and much heavier, but since the flimsy leather/vinyl was all I had to work with, I felt the base corset was needed.

Bunched-up leather. Sigh.

I stitched the "leather" pieces together using a quadrupled strand of heavy thread and a leather needle. (Pro tip: don't run a leather needle through your fingertip. It hurts much worse than a normal needle!) I overlapped them just slightly and used a modified overcasting stitch, with an "x" thrown in every so often for stability. Then I whip-stitched the leather outer to the fabric corset on the top and sides (but not the bottom, since they didn't quite line up.) The leather ended up bunching and buckling a little as I wore it, but it's a minor enough problem that I don't care to do anything about it ;-)

Of course, to be Bellatrix you don't just need a black dress and a leather corset. I had to try to copy the wild hair! To do this, I plaited my hair into tiny braids - I think about 12 altogether. My hair was slightly damp at the time, and I used a wet-set foaming lotion. Then I coiled them up and pinned them to my head, slept on them, and wore them all the next day. When they came out my hair was tightly crimped. I fluffed it out a little and then backcombed the entire top of my head to give it some volume. I still didn't end up with *quite* the crazy mop Helena Bonham Carter had, but I suspect her hair is naturally a little more textured than mine! I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, anyway. For makeup I used my normal powder foundation, thick eyeliner in a dusky blue, and shades of grey eyeshadow. Then I applied black lipstick and blotted it partially away. I wanted to paint my nails black also, and I toyed with the idea of drawing the "dark mark" on my forearm, but time got away from me. (And anyway I'm not that good an artist!)

(Trying to take a photo of my hair and makeup - Conrad thought I was crazy.)

A snakey earring and some frizzy hair.

All in all, this was a whole lot of fun to make and to wear! But next year? I think I'm going to be Danielle from "Ever After" :-D

I fuzzed out the mundane living-room backdrop. This is much more dramatic ;-P

Fall 'Mums

2011-11-02T13:36:00.000-04:00

A glory of bright chrysanthemums in the autumn sunlight.

Fall Break, part 2

2011-11-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

Officially my Fall Break was two weeks ago, but this past weekend I took a trip to Knoxville to visit two of my very best friends. It was so relaxing -- more so in fact than my "real" fall break, which was spent driving to South Carolina and back to see my brother's graduation.

I got to spend time with Zack and Shannon, who I hadn't seen since August. (That's William, too. He's the one with the lovely fur coat.)

We went to Six Flags and rode roller coasters. Like this one.

(photo pulled from the web, not mine!)

We were giddy with cold and adrenaline, and I think we all felt about ten years old again. Which is nice, every so often.

They fed me meals that looked like this.

Their backyard is full of sunshine and bright leaves, like an autumn fairyscape.

(But Zack is a little large to be an elf.)

Most of all, it was a joy to spend a couple days with people I'm so comfortable with, whose beliefs and ideals are the same as mine, and with whom I feel surrounded in love and friendship. Zack and Shannon, thank you for the beautiful weekend!

One of those weeks

2011-10-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

It's been one of those weeks. You know the feeling. When everything seems to take just a little extra effort... and doesn't seem worth the extra effort. When you hit "snooze" on your alarm... more than once. When you lie in bed wondering whether it would really be such a horrible thing if you just went back to sleep and skipped everything that day. When you seriously consider cutting class (and it's not even because you haven't done the homework.)

For me, this feeling usually only lasts a day. But this whole week has been like this for me. I'm blaming part of it on the weather - it had been cool, crisp, and autumnal, but suddenly on Monday it was 80 and sticky again. Now it's cool and raining and I feel less mentally foggy -- although physically I'm not so great. I actually did skip school and sleep all morning, since when I woke up at 6 this morning my head felt like someone had been thumping it with a small hammer all night long, and an attempt to speak produced a sound only a consumptive frog would have been proud of.

I sound less like a chain-smoking amphibian now and the headache has subsided to a mere distant throb. It's probably time to get dressed, have a strong cup of tea, and tackle the massive project of cleaning my room. (Including a puddle of cat sick. Not my cat's. The host family's cats come upstairs, eat Conrad's food, and puke it up again, always in my room. Kind of them. Did I mention it's been one of those weeks?)

In a more cheerful vein, I've been working on a Halloween costume, which I'm looking forward to showing you! It involves over 50 hand-stitched eyelets, faux leather, and quantities of silver fabric paint, and I can't wait to wear it :-)

Pink Mitts and Dramatic Lighting

2011-10-23T23:19:00.000-04:00

I finished another pair of mitts from Becky's Time on My Hands, this time the "Sun Dial" pattern. These were so quick and easy to knit! The heavier yarn and simple rib (with an easy cable on the thumb) meant these were a good bus project as I didn't have to constantly look at a pattern.

I did make a few changes. The thumbs as knitted were way too long for my hands (which is really odd, because I have long hands! Maybe my thumbs are just short?) so I ended up taking out the last element of the cable pattern (the last 5 rounds, I think). I also decreased two stitches from the thumb as they were rather loose as well. Possibly my gauge was off - I didn't check, but I don't want to say it's the pattern's fault!

They're really comfortable and the yarn I used - a Debbie Bliss merino DK weight - is incredibly soft. I had a guy at school ask me if I could make him a pair - "Only not pink of course!" - so I think the design appeals to guys as well!

I think I said this when I posted about the Morningtide mitts but it's incredibly difficult to take decent pictures of something on your own hands. I need to either find a new photographer or enlist someone as a hand model! But I had fun with this "shoot" anyway. I didn't have a sun dial but I did have copious amounts of dramatic late-afternoon sunlight :-) Also, a Verdi opera score and a turntable with a pink swirl on it.

Also: I promise I knit two of these! I realized as I was posting that for some reason nearly all the photos that turned out well are of the left hand/mitt.

Not really a good picture of the mitts but I like it anyway :)

A Hasty Hat

2011-10-22T21:39:00.000-04:00

I made this hat last week in about three days. I wanted something to wear to David's graduation that had "gold" in it since his platoon's colour was gold. But I don't really wear yellow so I had to get creative.

This used two shades of KnitPicks "Palette" yarn. I don't know exactly which shades anymore since they were from my stash and the ball bands have gone awol. The blue is left over from some socks I knitted back in the summer (which I need to post about, and put up on etsy, but I haven't photographed them yet!)

I did a turned hem at the bottom. The inside of the band is a soft tencel-blend yarn, also from the stash. I knew I didn't have enough of the blue sock yarn to line the ear band and the yellow wasn't soft enough, so I improvised. I made up the stripes and colour work as I went along (I did mention this was a very hasty project, right?)

The whole hat would have benefited from a little more time and thought, especially in the increase/decrease rate, and if I'd had more of the blue yarn I would have made it slightly bigger and drapier. But for the time I put into it I'm fairly pleased with it! (Please excuse the pictures and the state of my hair. I took them myself at a rest stop in North Carolina after I'd been awake for about 13 hours and driving for 4 hours!)

Music for a Rainy Day

2011-10-19T11:17:00.000-04:00

I'm a little bit obsessed with this song right now. It's lovely and soothing.

(If you like this, you can download the album this comes from here: http://noisetrade.com/andrewrippsampler. ("Forever After Love" is my favourite on the album though.)

Socks in the Shop

2011-10-10T13:21:00.000-04:00

I finished another bus project: a pair of cotton-blend hand-knit socks.

A delightful wavy pattern, in cool ocean colours suitable for men or women.

They're listed in my etsy shop. Go check them out!

An Auction, and Robin McKinley

2011-10-08T15:18:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it has ever come up on this blog, but I really enjoy reading. Mostly fiction, and especially fantasy. And, for the last many years, especially the books of Robin McKinley. She's been publishing since before my parents were married, but I first discovered her books in eighth grade when I pulled "Beauty" off the shelf.

I was immediately hooked. I discovered that my mum had a copy of "Rose Daughter" also, and I thought it was fascinating the way the same author could take the same fairy tale and turn it into two completely different books. (Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favourite fairy tales, which probably contributed to my love of McKinley.)

Then I went looking for more. I found and devoured The Blue Sword. (This is still the one I go back to again and again.) I read The Hero and the Crown. I read Spindle's End and wasn't sure if I liked the ending. I got The Outlaws of Sherwood from the library and converted my older brother to (at least some) McKinley novels. I checked out Deerskin and had it vetoed by my mother. (I was still only 15, and while I was resentful at the time I understand now.) I read the short story collections. A few years later, I read Sunshine. I'm glad I waited, because I don't think it's suitable for a young teenager, but it was a fascinating read (and a refreshing look at vampires after the travesty that is the "Twilight" series, which I'd just suffered through.) I loved this one almost more for the tantalizing references to baked goods than for the vampires...

I read Chalice shortly after it was published and fell in love. It's a quieter book than some of the others, more introspective; less of the action which drew me to The Blue Sword, but there is something about the book which draws me in and makes me sorry to be finished reading. If I had to choose a favourite, it might be this one. Or Pegasus, which was dreamy and slow-moving at first, building up subtly to a moment of crisis - and a cliffhanger. I pre-ordered this one and thought I would tear through it, but the writing is such that I read it much more slowly than I usually do, savouring the language and the world-building. I read it again in Italy in the spring, finding it the perfect travelling companion.

And who wouldn't love that gorgeous cover art?

Last summer, I finally read Deerskin. I took it with me for a two-day house-sitting job and couldn't put it down. I didn't enjoy it. At times, I wanted to close the book and forget everything I'd read. It was horrifying, draining. It devastated me. And yet, I am glad I read it. I may never re-read it. But it needed to be read once.

~~~~~

All this is by way of leading up to the main point, which is, I've loved Robin McKinley for about a decade now, and I think I've bought more of her books than I have of any other single novelist. I've been following her blog for several years also and now, there is a chance to do something for her.

Anyone who reads her blog knows that she is a woman of many interests: not only writing, but gardening, animals (especially her own hellhounds), and music. And not just singing and piano playing, but bell-ringing. I don't pretend to know anything much about change-ringing (though I know more now than I did three years ago), but I do know that the bells and towers need upkeep just like any other instrument -- only it's more expensive. Robin's local bells are in need of expensive repairs, and as part of the fund-raising for this, she's holding a sale and auction.

I've left my blog post rather late: I think the sale ends tomorrow. But if you have any interest in fine fantasy writing, change-ringing bell towers, or humorous sketches signed by a famous author, hop on over to the auction page. If, like me, your funds are limited and you can't manage to bid on one of the out-of-print copies, Robin has options for signed and "doodles" copies of her in-print books for a reasonable price, or you can just purchase a signed "doodle" for a flat rate (these are $10 or $15, and a special "bats in the belfry" one for $20.) You can request a subject for the doodle, so they're totally personalized. And it's all for a good cause!

Bats in the belfry. Teehee!

Doodle examples. Entirely Robin McKinley's work, not mine!

The link is here: http://robinmckinleysblog.com/bells/ I'm sure Robin and the bells would appreciate even the purchase of a $10 doodle! Or, if you're not familiar with her books, perhaps a signed copy would be a good way to introduce yourself :-)

Morningtide Mitts

2011-10-03T19:23:00.002-04:00

Back in December I had the pleasure of test-knitting a sweater pattern for Becky Herrick (my version here - and my goodness, I hadn't realized how much my hair has grown since then!) Now, Becky has a new e-book out called Time on My Hands, full of patterns for mittens, gloves, and lots of fingerless mitts. I think they're all lovely designs and I couldn't make up my mind which to start with, so eventually I decided I'd just begin at the beginning.

So these are the "Morningtide" fingerless mitts. Becky arranged the book by hour, associating each pattern with a time of day. These are the ones for 6 AM, although I did not either wear or photograph them quite that early!

The colourwork is quite simple and fairly easy to memorize. I loved how the striped thumb grows out of the main pattern and gives that little bit of contrast. I'm attempting to work through my massive stash, and I'd like to see if I can knit all 9 of these patterns from stash yarn! These mitts used a wool/alpaca/acrylic blend which I bought at Jo-Ann Fabrics at least 6 years ago (the camel-coloured MC), and an unlabeled Shetland wool (green). Both were approximately DK or sportweight, and I used US #2 needles. I made the size small, which is a little bit snug, but I expected that. However I knew the large would be too large, and anyway I didn't think I'd have enough yarn. The smalls fit me well enough, though I may eventually find someone with more slender hands to pass them on to and make myself another pair!

These were one of my traveling projects. I don't knit these projects at home at all - in fact I don't even take them out of the bag. This ensures that I always have something in my bag to work on; there's less likelihood of the knitting being forgotten at home! So these mitts were made on the bus traveling to and from school, and a little bit in class and at work. (I have one professor who doesn't mind my knitting -- in fact she asked me if I could teach her, and joked that I should make mitts for the entire class! This is not as daunting as it seems; there are only three students including me -- and my "work" consists of sitting at a desk in the listening library, making sure no one walks off with equipment and trying to keep myself amused.)

P.S. It's incredibly difficult to photograph your own hands. Thank goodness for the self-timer on my camera!

Edit: Jenny asked about the colourwork and whether the carries on the back caught my fingers. Here's an inside-out photo:

If you look at the diamond motif in the bottom left corner, you can see that I left that longest "float" or carry to its own devices. I think that one is 6 stitches, and I probably should have caught it up. If you look at the diamond up and to the right, you can see that the green yarn is looped around the carry, holding it to the fabric. I tried to find something online demonstrating the catching method I use, but nothing's showing up on a quick look. If anyone is interested, I could attempt a brief photo demonstration, but it's really not difficult to do -- just difficult to explain!

A Long Walk

2011-09-26T11:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday afternoon I went for a long walk - about five miles. Once you get out of the subdivision the area I live in is really pretty, so I took my camera to document. Here are some pictures!

This made me think of Anne Shirley - "why are the roads red?"

Sunset with construction.

He tried to follow me, but I lured him off with some small children and escaped.

(Yesterday I took another long walk - I went to Kentucky. No, really. It's only about 2 miles away! Unfortunately I set out in a light drizzle and when I was about 3 miles out suddenly they announced a severe weather alert over some loudspeaker... I had to rush back in the dark and rain. I saw some fantastic lightning though! Still I think in future I'll not walk that far if there's a storm threatening.)

Grasshopper Brownies

2011-09-24T17:37:00.000-04:00

My friend Lisa had a birthday yesterday and I knew immediately what I wanted to take to her party: grasshopper brownies from one of my favourite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. A dense, fudge-y brownie topped with mint-flavoured white chocolate ganache and bittersweet ganache. I made them once back in January for my English class and everyone loved them, but they're so incredibly rich that I never make them unless I have lots of other people to help me eat them!

I never knew why these were called "grasshopper" brownies, but I posted about them on Facebook and my uncle says that according to Wikipedia "A typical grasshopper cocktail consists of equal parts Crème de menthe, Crème de cacao and fresh cream, shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.")
Then he added, "If I mix one with Kahlua instead of the Creme de menthe, I call it a "Cricket"!" So I guess the "grasshopper" refers to the chocolate-mint (and the Creme de menthe, which I didn't use since I didn't have it.)

I didn't do any step-by step photos other than this one while I was cutting them up - Deb covered that nicely. I did make a few changes, mostly due to the shortcomings of my kitchen at the moment. The recipe says to line the pan with aluminum foil; I didn't have any, so I skipped that step, instead greasing and flouring the pan. The brownies came out just as easily as they did last time when I used the foil. I followed Deb's suggestion and used slightly less cream in the ganaches than the original recipe calls for; I didn't quite cut it in half, but I didn't use the full amount either. I put in probably twice the peppermint extract, because I love peppermint, and I had fun with the green food colouring. (I think it would be fun to make two pans of these at Christmas-time, and tint the white chocolate ganache green in one pan and red in the other!)

Also, I left out the cocoa powder in the brownie batter, since it turned out I was wrongly convinced I had some in my cupboard (and I made these at about 11:30 at night, so running to the store was not really an option.) I added in a wee bit of powdered sugar instead. I had dark brown sugar, not light, and not enough of it, so I used what I had of the dark, then supplemented with a bit of white sugar. Basically, I didn't follow the recipe at all, but it turned out okay anyway!

They always get rave reviews, and they look fancy but they're really easy to make. There's a lot of "put this in the fridge and let it cool for x amount of time", so they're a lengthy process but you can go and do other things in between. I recommend the recipe highly!

Random Wednesday

2011-09-21T11:50:00.000-04:00

1. I'm always slightly disappointed when I wake up to a grey, misty morning - and then it turns out to be hot and sunny later on. I want autumn to be here for real!

2. Part of my graduate assistantship is grading papers for the undergraduate music literature and history classes. I really wish I were allowed to talk about it more, because some of their answers are hilarious! But that's probably breaking confidentiality so I won't share details.

3. Except for this one: six students in my first batch of quizzes thought Gregorian chant was sung in Sanskrit. I'm not even kidding.

4. I ate my lunch at 10:30 this morning. Which means I'll be starving by 5 o'clock dinner at church...

5. Wouldn't it be nice if we really could apparate? That would save all the hassle of trying to find a parking space.

6. Went for a run Monday evening. My legs still have not recovered!

7. In a pinch, double-pointed needles make very nice hair sticks. But I would like to know where all my hairpins have run off to!

Fancy Oatmeal

2011-09-20T12:00:00.001-04:00

I used to hate oatmeal. Despise it. Unfortunately for me (or perhaps fortunately for the building of my character) my family went through a period when oatmeal was about the only thing we could afford for breakfast. I fought it tooth and nail. But my mother was just as stubborn. We had a rule that if you didn't eat a meal, you'd get the same food, cold, for the next meal, and the next, until it was eaten. So I would pick at my oatmeal at breakfast... stare gloomily at the same bowl (now cold) at lunch, and poke at the dismal mess with a spoon at dinner. Sometimes it would make a fourth appearance at breakfast the next morning. I think it took me close to a year to learn to eat it the first time, and I still didn't like it.

But recently I've started actually craving oatmeal. Some mornings it just seems like the right thing to do. I don't understand this, but I don't fight it!

I like it a little dressed up, though. It's fantastic with dried cranberries and chopped nuts, drizzled with maple syrup... but that's a little expensive for an ordinary weekday breakfast. So this is what I do instead:

Fancy Oatmeal

1 cup water

1 cup milk*

dash salt

cinnamon to taste (about 1/2 tsp? I just shake it in until it lightly covers the surface of the milk)

pinch of nutmeg

1 apple, chopped (don't bother to peel)

1-1.5 cups rolled oats

raisins

syrup

Put the milk, water, and spices in a pot and bring almost to the boil. Add apple and oats; cook, stirring every so often, until the liquid is absorbed. Dish out, sprinkle with raisins or other dried fruit, and top with pancake syrup or a sprinkle of brown sugar.

This makes one really large serving or two more reasonable ones, and can easily be doubled or halved. And of course you can make it plainer or add more trimmings!

* You can use all milk or all water, also. I like the slight creaminess that half milk gives :)

What I Did This Weekend

2011-09-18T22:35:00.000-04:00

1. Drove to Jackson on Thursday for a dress rehearsal. (And a fantastic choral concert.)

2. Slept in. Graded papers. Lunch with my best friend's dad, tea with my voice teacher.

3. Performed Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale". (This is the show we did in the spring; we had a repeat performance as part of a conference on the legacy of the King James Version, which is having its 400th anniversary this year.)

I was "Time". My main reflections on the part are that men's dress trousers were not made to fit my body, and I never ever want to wear white "clown" makeup again. (The pocket watch was cool though!)

4. Drove back to Clarksville. (Saturday morning.)

5. Sang downtown for the "Franklin Frolic" with the rest of the Austin Peay opera workshop class.

6. Drove back to Jackson.

7. Final performance of Winter's Tale. Complete with technical difficulties and Mr Anderton, the director, doing hilarious impressions of everything that went wrong afterwards.

8. Did not get nearly enough sleep.

9. Woke up 15 minutes after I was supposed to have left for Clarksville this morning. Still made it to church on time. (Was very glad there were no cops on the road... *shifty eyes*)

10. Took a 3-hour nap. Won't sleep tonight because of it. But it was worth it.

And now, videos from Saturday... if I can get them to imbed! We sang outside in front of the Roxy downtown - it was fun!

"The Girl in 14G"

The "Papagena/Papageno" duet from the end of Mozart's "The Magic Flute", with baritone Walter Canales.

Life Goes On

2011-09-14T11:50:00.000-04:00

I'm still alive, I promise. The semester is finally getting into full swing and I find myself exhausted most of the time. Something about waking up at 6:30 (or earlier) every morning and not getting home at night until around 7 (or later), probably.

I finally got my work assignments - assisting my voice teacher, grading papers for the music history and literature classes, and manning the listening library. At the moment the last is the easiest - because nearly all the time no one is there, and one can sit and do homework or listen to music or, probably, sleep, uninterrupted. I suspect it will make for excellent knitting time. I haven't graded any papers yet but I look forward to it - music history and lit were favourite classes when I took them, so it'll be fun to review. I'm trying to decide if it makes me a nerd to admit that I was slightly disappointed to hear that I don't get to grade the essays, just the multiple-choice sections!

This is the last weekend I have to go to Jackson for a while - we have two performances of The Winter's Tale (enlivened by an opera performance in Clarksville on Saturday afternoon, which means two round trips for me this weekend!) and then I'm DONE. I've been enjoying revisiting the play but I can't tell you how happy I will be to be finished with the driving.

Meanwhile, today I sang "The Girl in 14G" -- the piece I'm performing on Saturday -- for a freshman piano class, to help me get over myself and actually act. (Somehow I'm much more convincing in a practise room alone than I am in front of people... it's frustrating!) I think it went well; anyway they seemed to like it. Nothing like singing a string of high Ds before 10 AM!

I'm afraid this was not a very stimulating post. I hope I'll find something more interesting to write about by next week (and maybe some pictures of socks, too.)

Riding the Bus

2011-09-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Since moving to Clarksville, I've been making use of the public transport system. This is new for me, mostly because I've never lived in a place with an actually accessible transport system. But here, I ride the bus.

I live about a 20-25 minute drive from my school, complete with too many stoplights and people who don't know how to share the road. There is also a shortage of parking at school. So taking the bus is a less-frustrating way to get where I need to go!

It goes like this. I don't actually live on the bus route, so I have to drive a little bit to get there. I like this drive though. It's on windy back roads and it only takes me six minutes. (But I have to pretend it takes twelve because I'm usually late getting out the door.) I park at Wal-Mart, where my bus stop is, and hop on.

The bus takes a winding and circuitous route to the centre of town. It's about a forty minute ride, which is almost twice as much time as driving myself would be. But it's forty minutes I can spend reading, working on homework, or knitting (and answering curious questions about my knitting.) And it's time that I'm not spending being frustrated by traffic! It also saves wear and tear on my car, a good amount of gasoline each week, and I suppose I'm destroying the planet a little less, too.

I don't take the bus every day. Wednesdays I have to be at church downtown, and don't get out of choir rehearsal until after my bus stops running. So I have to drive that day. Tuesdays I have an evening rehearsal at school which means I take the bus to school for the day, then drive back in for rehearsal. And for the next two weeks I'll have to drive on Friday as well, since I have to go straight back to Jackson after my last class. Once that commitment is over, though, I'll only drive two days out of the week.

I like that.

In Defense of Nannies

2011-09-03T12:46:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I came across this blog post, in which the author states that children should be raised entirely by their parents (and especially by the mother); she also condemns the practise of nannying and says it is not something Christian families should consider, or Christian young women do.

As a young, Christian woman myself, who has moreover spent the past summer as a nanny, naturally this caused me to stop and think. Are her claims correct (and more importantly, biblical?) Was I wrong to spend my summer caring for someone else's children? The issue has been bothering me ever since, but I think I've come to a conclusion, so I'm going to inflict my musings on all of you :)

First, let me say what I do agree with "Lady Lydia" about: a child's parents, if at all possible, should be its primary caregivers. I don't believe a mother should, if not financially obliged, leave her child with a nanny or at daycare all day, every day, and not spend any quality time with the child. That's not parenting. (Obviously, if a mother must work to support herself and the child, that's a different matter.)

But hiring someone to watch your child on a part-time basis? I don't see the problem in that. I'm not a mother myself so maybe I don't have enough experience to make such claims, but from my own observations, it's a whole lot easier to do the shopping by oneself, rather than with three active children in tow. If you're a gym sort of person, surely it's more comfortable to go alone. If you have the means to pay someone to help watch your children, why not? It seems little different than paying a babysitter to stay with the kids while you and your husband do out for dinner.

Lady Lydia also seems to be implying that the practise of nannying is completely a modern invention; that the historical record shows nothing but sweet pictures of mothers with their children. Which, if you examine history at all, is not so. The very poorest people, of course, did not employ nannies - but they don't know, either. The wealthy have always had nursemaids, governesses, and other servants to help look after their children, and until very recently most middle-class families would have had at least a nurserymaid as well. Certainly the medieval habit of children almost never even knowing their parents is not ideal. But again, there is a huge body of historical evidence for mothers hiring other women to help feed, clothe, care for, and discipline their children. Again, I am not saying this is the best way to do things, but certainly the idea is not a new one.

In my own experience, I watched two children (one just turned three, the other an infant) three mornings a week in their home all summer. Sometimes their mother was out running errands or working out; other times, she took the opportunity of my presence to do chores or work around the house which would be difficult with children underfoot. She was present, available for her kids, and never did it feel that my presence was undermining discipline or family rules.

One of the objections Lydia raised is that a nanny will teach your children habits, morals or even religion opposed to the family's beliefs. The solution to this seems obvious; screen and interview potential nannies carefully, ask questions; hire someone you know and trust. If rules, methods of discipline, etc. are made clear at the outset, the problem of bad habits is solved, and if one hires a nanny whose morals and beliefs are in line with one's own, there should be no issue.

This brings me to her statement that Christian young women should not be hiring themselves out as nannies. Before I address her main concern, may I say that, if one believes that children of necessity absorb the morals and religion of their nanny, then more Christians ought to be nannies?

My greatest trouble with Lydia's view, though, is the reason she gives that young women should not e nannies. She says "Young women need to marry and have children of their own, rather than desiring to become nannies. They can then be the nanny for their own children. If young women spend too much time raising other people's children, they [can] be discouraged from having their own children. Mothers need to take care of their own children, because they were created for it." This view presents so many problems to me that I hardly know where to start -- and I'm a very conservative woman myself. I'll give the main three:

1). The sole purpose of a woman is not necessarily to marry and bear children. Paul speaks of some being given the gift of singleness (1 Corinthians 7) -- presumably this is not limited just to men!

2). Even if one is intended to marry, what if one has not yet met the man God intends? (I believe this is my own case...) Why should a young woman not be a help to a mother, while learning valuable lessons about child rearing, and doing useful, paid work meanwhile?

3). It seems a huge generalization to assume that every woman who nannies will lose the desire for children of her own. I suppose if the children are wretchedly behaved this might be a deterrent -- but then what is to say that one's own kids will be likewise wretched? I myself am more eager for children after spending a summer watching "my" two grow and learn and explore.

I suppose, then, that I agree with "Lady Lydia" in her most basic point: children are better off with their own mothers as much as possible; a 24/7 nanny is probably not the best idea. But I disagree that every young woman should marry immediately and start having her own children -- again, what if she hasn't met the right man yet? -- and certainly I see nannying more as a good way to learn about child rearing than a deterrent to having children at all.

But I welcome the responses of others. As I said, I'm not a mother myself. Does that make a difference?

Terrible Trip

2011-08-29T13:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I officially moved from Jackson to Clarksville. I'd been in my new room several days already, but this time was official, because this time I brought the cat.

The day started well. It was my last Sunday at my church in Jackson, which I've attended for four years and which has been a home and a family to me. I sang, I saw lots of friends, we worshipped - it was great. Packing went fine, too (except I forgot the tea kettle!) Even getting Conrad into his box was less difficult than usual.

But the trip itself was... awful. Terrible. Well, it could have been worse: we didn't have a wreck and nobody died. But nearly everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

I had a pretty tight schedule to begin with; it's an almost-three hour drive. I left at noon and had to be at the school (20 minutes from my room) at 4, minus the cat, for choir auditions. So I was already stressed, knowing I was in a time crunch.

Then the cat started hyperventilating. He's only ever been in the car to go to the vet, and he's normally okay with it -- a little meowing, but nothing major. This time, though, we got ten minutes down the road and he was completely freaked out. Crying, scratching at the door of the crate, panting. (I've never heard a cat pant before and that freaked me out!) I thought perhaps he was overheated; my AC doesn't work very well and the sun was hot. So I pulled over at a gas station and tried to get him to take a drink. He didn't want water; he got out of his box and hit on the floorboards, under my feet, and cried some more. There was nothing to be done about that, so I put him back in his crate with a struggle and a half-full bowl of water, and we went on. I drove as fast as I legally could, figuring the sooner we arrived the sooner he'd be out of his misery.

At some point in the next hour I took a curve a little fast and my 32 oz. cup of lemonade slushy went over. I made a wild grab for it and narrowly avoided running off the road. It was too late anyway. So there we were, stressed driver, stressed cat, and 30 ounces of lemonade (less slushy now) soaking into the carpets. And the bag of food. And my computer bag. I shifted everything I could and kept driving.

About fifteen minutes later I hit a road block. They were doing some kind of work on the road ahead and a policeman was diverting everyone back the way they'd come. So there I was with a distressed kitten and no road map, blocked from the only route I knew. Attempt to follow the policeman's rough directions failed miserably. A hasty call to my mother produced alternate directions and we were on our way again, at least 15 minutes behind schedule and now seriously frazzled.

Ten minutes later my hubcap fell off. I saw it go... but it was a busy road and no way to stop and get it. Besides, I was late.

We arrived at last... crying cat, me close to tears, and the whole car smelling like weak lemonade. After that I was fully prepared for my choir auditions to be a disaster, but fortunately they went well and I made the choir. That went a long way to salvage my day... but my car is still minus a hubcap and full of lemonade slushy, and I'm pretty sure I'll never get Conrad into his crate again.

Still, it could have been worse. But I'm very glad it wasn't!

Rotary Cutter!

2011-08-21T13:00:00.002-04:00

My birthday was last month and my parents gave me a rotary cutter and mat! I've been wanting one for a long while; especially since I started getting into quilting last year, although I'd thought about them even before that. I'd put it on my birthday wish list and then put it out of my mind.

So when I went home to get my car they surprised me with it! Last weekend while I was house-sitting I brought the rotary supplies, along with a pile of calicos I plan to turn into a baby quilt. I did the preliminary cutting into strips, and it was so easy! The mat has a grid on it; you just square up the fabric along the grid, lay a ruler along the line, and run the wheel along the ruler.

Of course one must be careful with one's fingers, since that wheel which cuts merrily through half a dozen layers of fabric would easily do the same thing to any stray appendages. But with a reasonable amount of caution, it's no more dangerous than using scissors, and FAR quicker. I had the whole stack of strips for a crib quilt cut out in less than an hour (what would have taken me several.) And they are more evenly cut than I ever managed with scissors!

Many thanks to my parents for giving me such a useful toy :)

Empty Shelves

2011-08-19T02:30:00.003-04:00

It's a funny thing. I never feel like a move is truly real until the bookshelves are empty. Maybe it's because I read such a lot, and the books I own are almost like friends. I can pack the clothes and the dishes and the dvds and still feel that life is pretty normal and the move is not really imminent but only something of the distant future... but when I pack away my books I know it will happen, and soon.

My books are all packed. (Seven boxes of them!) Most of the clothes are boxed up, and I've got dishes wrapped in newspaper and old shopping bags finding their ways into their crates. There's still so much more to do, to pack... but the shelves are empty. It must be real.

Conrad has been assisting the packing effort by climbing into boxes, climbing up empty shelves, and sitting on whatever item I was planning to pick up next.

***

Shifting away from the sentimental reflection... I'm moving to Clarksville TN for graduate school. I'll be renting the "bonus room" above the garage from a family who responded, in God's providence, to the craigslist ad I put up when I'd almost lost hope of finding anywhere I could afford to live! It's a little further from campus than I had hoped for, and it's not a huge space, but it is within my budget and it's a workable distance. God knows what he's doing :)

Peanut Butter Pie

2011-08-18T01:22:00.000-04:00

I made a peanut-butter pie this week. Not a normal activity, perhaps, for someone who's about to move house. But then this is not an ordinary pie.

Some of you may have heard that the food-blogger Jennifer Perillo lost her husband last week to a sudden, fatal heart attack. I had only recently begun to follow her blog and was saddened to hear the news.... her post, the night of his death, was devastating. "He's gone. And my heart is shattered in a million pieces."

Just a few days later, Jennifer posted a beautiful piece about her husband. Go read it. She talked about her husband's favourite pie and how she kept meaning to make it for him and putting it off... until it was too late. She asked people to make this pie "for Mikey", and to share it with loved ones, and remember we never know what may happen tomorrow. Last Friday, the day of his memorial service, was officially "a pie for Mikey" day, and thousands made that pie and posted about it.

I couldn't make peanut butter pie last Friday. I was looking for an apartment. But I made it yesterday; made it to remember "Mikey", who I never knew, and to share with my mum and sister, who are helping me move this weekend. I'll serve it to them and I'll hug them extra hard, and I'll eat an extra piece for my little brother at boot camp, who loves peanut butter. I'm so thankful for the family I've been given... and I hope I never take them for granted.

Exhaustion

2011-08-07T00:06:00.000-04:00

I am so profoundly tired. Two of my very best friends were married (to each other!) last night... I was a bridesmaid and sort of acting maid of honor, since Shannon had her brother as her "honor attendant", and he clearly did not perform most of the usual maid of honor duties. I discovered that the problem with being efficient and knowledgeable is that people start figuring that out and asking you about everything. Result: many more mad dashes to find things/take messages/give orders. In high heels. But one bachelorette party, one decorating party, one rehearsal, one rehearsal dinner, one wedding, one reception, and countless trips between church and reception hall, sanctuary and dressing area, up and down numberless flights of stairs in stiletto heels.... they are married. I am so happy for them!

And I am so tired.

Pictures to come eventually (including of my dress, which I made), but I forgot to take my camera and didn't have a moment to take photos anyway, so I'll have to wait for other people's to start appearing on Facebook :)

New Car and Road Trip!

2011-07-31T23:04:00.001-04:00

I have a new friend for you to meet! This is Dominick. He's my new car and let me tell you, we bonded quickly. Well, when you drive 700 miles together in the first two days of your acquaintance, you get to know each other very quickly.

I know, for example, that he gets almost 30 miles to the gallon. That his radio is loud and his windscreen wipers good, but the air conditioning is never truly cold. (Adequate, but never cold.) That his gas tank is supposedly 12 gallons but if you drive until the "check gauges" light comes on, it actually holds 13.

He knows that I sing along with the radio whether I know the words or not. That I nibble on snacks almost constantly on a long trip, to keep myself awake. (Several varieties of bite-sized snacks were kept within reach!) That I can do an 11-hour drive all by myself, but sometimes I need a brief nap in the middle.

Nice to know you, Dominick! Here's to a long and happy relationship.

Conrad thought he would come along with me in my carry-on bag. TSA would've had a field day!

The rest of my trip was lovely! Once I got through security at the airport, anyway. (I didn't take off my insulin pump - I've done this before with no trouble - and the TSA worker didn't inquire about medical devices. So of course it showed up on the scan, and I got the full private-screening-room pat-down and questioning. They were very professional about it, but it was still annoying.) After that though I enjoyed the flight! My seatmate on the first plane was a girl about my age, who read quietly and chatted a little. (The ten-year-old boy behind me, flying for the first time and very vocally excited, was less charming, but I could mostly tune him out.)

I had a layover in Charlotte; I got breakfast at Starbucks and sat and wrote to my brother and watched people. It was a pleasant break. Then on the flight to Detroit I had two seats to myself! Ah, legroom. Those little city-hoppers never have enough of it, so I was glad enough to borrow from the space next to me.

It was lovely to spend a couple days with my family (and a family friend who is staying there for a week or so.) I got to meet for the first time a friend I've known for a year online, and stopped on my way back yesterday to visit a friend I've known for 12 years. And now I'm back, and I'm ready for this week! My best friend is getting married on Friday, so I'll be busy with wedding activities on top of work.... which means you'll probably get more blogging than usual, because I seem to blog more when I have most to do. Someone explain that logic to me....

Goin' Home

2011-07-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I'm going home! It's just for a few days but I'm ridiculously excited about it. I'll be home for my dad's birthday on Friday and my sister's theatre camp performance the same evening... I'll get my own family birthday celebration... I'll get to meet a friend I've never met in person and catch up with a friend I've known for 12 years. I'll get to enjoy cooler temperatures and revel in the beauty that is my home and spend time with my parents and sister.

I have an ulterior motive for going home, though. I'm getting a car! My dad found and bought it for me (I'm paying, though, he's not that rich) and I'm flying home Thursday morning to get my hands on it. I'm pretty ridiculously excited about this, too! I went 3 years of college with pretty much no access to a car. This past year my roommate has been incredibly generous in lending hers, and I've had free rein with it this summer as she's been out of the country, but as I'll be starting grad school and living on my own, having a car is going to be a huge blessing! It's not new and it's not fancy, but it will drive.

This is from March, flying over the Italian Alps.

So I'm leaving Memphis in the wee hours of the morning, arriving in Detroit in the afternoon, and spending a day and a half with my family, driving back on Saturday, since I have to be at church to sing a duet on Sunday morning! I'd appreciate prayers for safe travels (and no problems with security at the airport!) and I will see you all next week -- with pictures of my car!

More Random

2011-07-24T23:41:00.000-04:00

We had a fabulous thunderstorm this evening. The sky grew darker, the wind picked up, and grumbles of thunder heralded the incoming storm. Then it broke over the town with a roar of thunder and spectacular flashes of lightning through curtains of rain.

The best part of the storm was watching Conrad watch the storm. He sat in the windowsill, staring down raindrops and never flinching at the lightning.

I've been running every other day for the past couple weeks, a 1.5 mile loop around campus. (I think I said this already.) The new part is I think I'm starting to like it.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

That quilt I'm making for my best friend's wedding? I finally have the top almost completely pieced. I'll finish that tomorrow.

Her wedding is 12 days away.

I don't think I'm going to have the quilt finished by her wedding...

One thing I have finally learned this summer: how to clean up after myself and keep a space (particularly the kitchen) tidy all the time. It's only taken me 23 years.

Birthday Supper

2011-07-23T21:04:00.000-04:00

Thursday was my birthday, and only the second one I've spent away from my family. (And the other time, my 18th, I was with my aunt and uncle so it only sort of counted as being away from family!) Probably most people my age have spent several birthdays away from home, but since mine is in mid-summer I've never been at college or anything for the day. I had a surprisingly lovely day, however; I didn't have to go in to work, so I had a leisurely morning followed by a voice lesson, followed by chocolate cheesecake from my lovely teacher :)

I made my own birthday dinner (which I frequently do anyway even at home, since I like to cook!) A friend had posted up the link to this recipe just a few days previously and I thought they looked lovely. So I made salmon croquettes, with mashed red potatoes, garlic bread, and peas. It was a lovely meal, light but filling, and extremely easy to prepare; the best kind!

Then I had a cupcake, since the family I babysit for had brought me birthday cupcakes earlier in the day. (I'm pretty sure the 3-year-old, S. was much more interested in meeting my kitten than in delivering someone else's birthday cupcakes, but that's okay with me! Her little brother L. was glad to see me -- he recognises me now and it's so delightful to see his face light up when he hears my voice!) Then a friend stopped by in the evening to return something he'd borrowed, and stayed to talk -- I always enjoy some adult conversation, since I've spent most of my summer either with children under three, or working by myself in the church music library!

All in all, it was a lovely birthday. Now, I get to go home next week and have a birthday celebration with my family, too! A bit unexpected but I'm so glad :)

Random Wednesday

2011-07-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

I don't have any kind of really coherent post for today... so you get a bunch of random thoughts.

1. I decided to dodge the whole weight loss/clothes that fit dilemma and make an elastic-waisted petticoat. It's petal-pink cotton, hem bound with matching satin ribbon, and I kind of love it. Even if it's not quite as full as I wanted it to be. Time to pull out the starch!

2. My little brother travelled to Parris Island Monday and is a couple days into boot camp. It's really strange to think of him being in the military now... but it's something he wants, he'll be good at it, and I'm so grateful that he and so many others are willing to do this for our country. Makes me a little teary when I think about it!

3. I've been watching a lot of soccer on TV the last couple weeks - caught the end of the women's World Cup, and now I'm watching all the televised matches of the World Football Challenge, which is fun. I played (and refereed) back in high school and I've always had a soft spot for the sport :)

4. All the futbol - and the sewing projects lined up - are great motivation for exercise. I've been running/jogging fairly regularly over the last two weeks. I'm aiming for three times a week, and I'm doing a 1.5 mile loop at the moment. When that gets easy (when I don't have to walk in the middle!) I'll add an extra zigzag to bring it up to two miles. My eventual goal is to be able to run 3 miles without stopping, and I'd like to get down to at least an 8-minute pace.

5. When I was 8 I could run a 7-minute mile. I'm not sure that will ever happen again.

6. But it's worth a try.

7. Oh, and I've lost 1.5 lbs since last week. This is an excellent birthday present!

Dilemma

2011-07-17T18:14:00.000-04:00

I have a question for all those of you who make your own clothes... how do you deal with weight loss? I have a long, long list of projects on my to-do list, but I've been hesitating to start any of them because I'm in the process of losing weight and getting into better shape.

This fitness goal is not really so much because I want to be smaller... although that would be a nice side effect... as for health reasons. I'm a little bit overweight and I have medical conditions that make this a bad thing, so I'm really trying to shed a few pounds. It's slow. (I like food too much and exercise is not my first choice of a good time.) But it is happening, and that's where it affects my sewing.

So... what do you do? Do you just wait to make that new dress or the outfit you're craving? Or do you make it in the size you wear now, and plan to take it in later if you drop some inches? Or do you make it in a smaller size as incentive to exercise? I really don't know what to do here and I'd love some feedback :)

When life hands you lemons

2011-07-15T16:06:00.001-04:00

... you could always collect them and put them in this copious string market bag.

Knitted from dishcloth cotton and a conglomeration of patterns.

Then you can take them out again and cut them into gorgeous slices...

...and make honey-lemon marmalade.

Or try strawberry-lemon. Like summer on toast.

If canning is too much for you, why not try lemon crinkle cookies? Absolutely to die for. Do not make a full batch of these if you are the only one who will be home to eat them, because you will find a mere 36 hours later that you have just devoured the last crumb.

I put about double the amount of lemon zest and juice called for. Try it!

I think lemons are the epitome of summer - bright, tart, refreshing. What would you do with a bag full of them?

David Dancing

2011-07-13T20:35:00.001-04:00

I'm finally getting a chance to post about my little brother's dance recital! It happened actually over a month ago, but I just now got hold of photos, and they're quite good so I didn't want to post something without them :-)

All the blue-shirt photos are from the jazz number.

David's always been a very physical sort of person - a natural soccer player, quick and agile. He took up dance lessons 4 years ago, I think, starting just with tap lessons. Last year he added ballet and this year he took tap, ballet and jazz lessons.

It's been so fun watching him progress in his dancing. The first year he hadn't hit his growth spurt yet. He was the only boy (until this year, he was *always* the only boy!) and as it was his first year they sort of hid him in the back. The next year he was more confident -- and taller! -- and he had a much more prominent role. This year they actually featured him!

I may be biased but I think he cuts a very impressive figure on the stage :-) I'm impressed with his dedication and with his skill -- this year he was in the Advanced Tap class, along with girls who have been dancing since they were six years old. I think he's done well :-) And I can't help thinking of the Biblical David, dancing before the Lord. I think my David does that as well :-)

And now, my (big) little brother is about to enter a new phase of his life. This coming Monday he ships out to boot camp for the Marine Corps. He'll be at Parris Island for the next 13 weeks or so. A very different life from high school and dance classes, but this is the right thing for David and I'm excited to see his growth through these next few weeks.

Ballet number. Can you believe this is only his second year?

I don't have his mailing address yet but when I do I'll be posting it. He won't have any contact with the outside world except through the mail, and I know he'd love to get letters. I realise very few, if any, of my readers know David personally but I think he'd appreciate anything he can get!

Final jazz number for all the high-schoolers.

Yep, that's my little brother :) Here in the tap number.

I can't wait to see what God does in David's life in the next few years. Maybe it will involve dancing!

A Quilt and an Announcement

2011-07-08T17:17:00.001-04:00

I've thought about this move for a long time, and finally made up my mind to go for it. I now have an Etsy shop! It's called Somewhen Designs and I'll be offering up a variety of things -- knitted, sewn, and vintage. My page isn't very lovely yet but I'm working on a pretty layout. Stay tuned!

For now, there's a baby quilt in the shop! Machine-pieced and quilted using high-quality cotton fabrics, a cotton-poly batting, and cotton quilting thread.

There will be other things in the shop soon. I'll try to post about them as I put them up for sale, but do check by in case I miss something :) And spread the word if you like what you see!

Best of all, it's Conrad-approved!

Thrift Store Finds

2011-07-06T21:29:00.001-04:00

This week I've visited several thrift stores -- the big Goodwill in town, a little vintage/antique place downtown, and a book shop. I've found several lovely things!

This used to be a Planters Peanut canister. Now it's for my looseleaf tea!

I loved this cup -- not only is the shape unusual but there are little faces in the gold work. Utterly charming.

It has a wee chip in the rim as you can see in this photo, but it's completely usable still and I've never minded chipped china.

From the book shop (and one from Goodwill) - a stack of lovely books. I paid on average about $4/book, which I think is excellent!

Finally this charming plate, just a few cents from Goodwill. I use so many small luncheon-size plates that I'm always running out, so I've decided to pick up interesting ones when I see them :)

I also snagged a couple of dresses, but I'll be making them over so I'll save them for later posts!

And just for fun -- a few snaps of my best friend and thrifting buddy. She's getting married in August and picked up this veil!

Don't worry - she's going to deconstruct it and make it into something MUCH more graceful and attractive :D (And I did have her permission to post these photos!

Introducing Coraline

2011-06-28T13:35:00.000-04:00

I think I mentioned a couple months ago that I picked up a second-hand dress form at an antique shop? Well, when I bought her she looked like this:

Not so pretty, and the fabric oozed bits of filth whenever I touched it. So I decided to recover her. This ended up being quite a project: I tore off all the old fabric and scrubbed down the plastic pieces underneath. Then I decided it would be easier to clean, and to recover, if I took it completely apart. I wish I'd taken photos of this process! Basically, I unscrewed all the dial mechanisms. The knob at the "neck" of the form unscrews as well and that piece comes off, releasing the tops of the form sections. The waist/hip sections are held to the stand with arch-shaped pieces of metal, which also unscrew. So I was left with eight sections of dress form completely separate from their stand.

I used about a yard and a half of 99-cent polyester-blend fabric from Hancocks to recover. I wasn't quite sure what to use to stick it on (the old fabric had been glued) but since I wasn't certain of what I was doing, I decided to use double-sided duct tape, as being easier to change if something went wrong. I applied it along all the edges of the sections on the inside, and cut the fabric wide enough to wrap around to the back. In retrospect this would have been easier if I'd used something like a jersey knit, with some stretch -- it was hard to get the woven fabric to lie smoothly over lumps and curves -- but it looks all right, I think.

This shows the inside view and the metal U-bends holding the lower pieces on.

The metal pieces holding the lower portion of the form to the stand were originally held in place with little brads - like those paper brads with the "wings", but much sturdier. I tried to use paper brads to reproduce this effect but they weren't nearly strong enough to hold the weight, and kept falling out. I contemplated either trying to find sturdier brads, or using little nuts and bolts, but a friend suggested (and donated) some sturdy wire and a pair of wire clippers, so I ended up using those. Not perfect, but it holds! I reassembled the form, screwing the dials back in through the fabric cover (this also helps hold everything in place) and putting the neck topper back on. She's quite adjustable; the photos are of her smallest size (about a 23" waist and comparable bust and hip measurements); she also dials up to be slightly larger than I am. Height is likewise adjustable, as is length of torso!

So here she is -- this is Coraline. Not perfect, certainly, but for a total of about $30 I'm very pleased!

Weddings!

2011-06-19T14:02:00.000-04:00

I love weddings. Drinks all around!

...wait... wrong movie...

Talking to Lukasz's father and to David, one of the groomsmen.

Anyway, I do love weddings! This weekend I had the pleasure of singing at one, for a young man who attends my parents' church, where I sing anytime I'm home on the weekend. I know him only slightly and I didn't meet the bride until Friday, but it was such fun! They're a lovely, welcoming family and I felt immediately accepted and involved. Laura and Lukasz are just the cutest couple, and it was an honour to sing for them!

I guess this is kind of a sewing post as well since the dress I wore to the wedding is one I made last summer (for another wedding I sang at!) and never posted about. I can't recall offhand which pattern I used for it, but I know it was designed for a knit fabric and I adapted it for a woven one -- a polyester knock-off of silk dupioni. It's lined with cotton leftover from a dress I made several years ago, and it's very comfortable to wear. It doesn't photograph terribly well though since the fabric is quite shiny. It's better when there's no flash!

I love the swish and flow of the skirt, and I got lots of compliments on it (that's always fun!) The funny part was, though, that almost every single woman from our church in Michigan who attended this wedding (in Chattanooga) wore the same shade of blue! And no, we didn't coordinate on purpose :-)

I hope to be back to more regular posts this week, since the summer travelling is all over and I'll be back to my normal work schedule. I'm also hoping to get hold of photos from my brother's dance recital and share some of those!

Just a quick note

2011-06-13T16:35:00.000-04:00

...to say that I'm back from a flying trip home for the weekend to see my brother's dance recital and sing at my old church. Now I'm trying to catch up on sleep and give poor Conrad the attention he's craving since he was left alone all weekend! But I should have some more crafty posts (and maybe some photos from the recital) to put up soon :-)

Buttons and Lace

2011-06-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

This dress is a delightful mixture of the old and the new! The fabric and lace were bought new... the buttons are out of a quart-size jar of vintage ones that I bought at an antique shop. I stitched all the seams by machine and all the buttonholes by hand. I used a new release of a vintage pattern (Vogue 1044).

I am still charmed by the details on this dress, although I would like to adjust the fit of the bodice - I think it is slightly too long in the front (though I only added 1.5" instead of my usual 2"), and so it makes an unflattering "pooch"above the belt if I do not constantly tug it down. I also realised that I need to put another snap on the front placket - it gaps open a little bit. I originally planned to make a different dress with this fabric and so there was not enough to make the extremely full skirt the pattern called for. I like what I ended up with but someday I would like to make this again with its intended skirt.

Tiny gap at the waist.

Not-very-full skirt.

But I love the belt, with its handworked eyelet holes and its vintage brass horseshoe buckle!

And I love the old shell buttons, each one slightly different, buttoned through their hand-stitched buttonholes. (Even if the hand-stitching leaves a great deal to be desired.

I love the pintucks down the front, contrast-stitched in white for greater impact.

I love the white lace at the hemline! The skirt was boring before.

And especially I love the facing of the bodice. I ran out of fabric and had to cut it out of this pretty madras plaid -- and I am so glad I did!

It has a few fitting issues that I should have caught earlier, but I love the bodice of this dress - so sweet and old-fashioned.

"Bonheur"

2011-06-06T10:00:00.001-04:00

I suspect most of you know about this company already, but I LOVE the dresses from Shabby Apple. Problem is the average price is about $80.00 -- far too expensive for my slim budget. Last fall I saw their dress Bonheur and loved it, but $76 was out of my price range. Besides, I thought it bore striking resemblance to a pattern I already had in my collection, Simplicity's "Threads" line 3877.

So, I made my own! I used a sturdy-weight cotton and pewter buttons. I've made this dress up a couple times, once with the mandarin collar option and once just the skirt attached to the bodice of another shirt-dress. This time, I lengthened the sleeves slightly and turned the cuffs up only once. I kept the bodice the same length but gave it a waistband (which I did the first time I made this pattern because I forgot to add length, and I loved the way it looked!) I adapted the wrap bodice to mimic the cut of the Shabby Apple dress. It's a mock wrap, attached all the way around, and opens with a side zipper.

I also changed the cut of the neckline to reflect the inspiration dress, and also to be a little more modest than the Simplicity pattern. I drafted pockets like those on the Shabby Apple dress, and made an extra-long sash, since the original wraps twice. All the bodice seams are flat-felled; the skirt was supposed to be French-seamed but I made it in a hurry so the edges are still raw. I need to go back and finish them properly. I think this came out pretty close to the inspiration dress! It's not exact, but the "feel" is the same and it's really fun to wear.

I wanted to do a photo shoot with a similar setting and similar poses to the original, as well. I finished the dress in time to take it to Italy in March, and I really wanted to do a shoot there -- the inspiration dress was photographed in France and it would have been fun to have a European shoot! But we were all much too busy sightseeing to stop and take photos of our clothing. So I only have one decent shot of it, sitting on the edge of a fountain near St. Mark's square in Venice, waiting for the rest of the group to show up so we could go on a gondola ride. No make up and my hair was everywhere -- but it's in Europe! ;-)

For the rest of the photos we went onto campus and tried to find European-looking spots for pictures :-)

This is a great summer dress - light and airy and easy to wear. And it cost me only a third of the Shabby Apple price! I think this is going to be the first in a series of "knock-off dresses" -- there's another Shabby Apple one I've got the perfect fabric for, and I have so many others on my wish-list!

Remake

2011-06-05T16:30:00.000-04:00

My roommate and I have been reading Marissa's "New Dress a Day" blog, and were both inspired to go thrifting and make over something ugly into something cute! Aubrey got two dresses and made several new items and accessories. I started with just one -- this loud, huge linen dress. Probably about a size 2X - it was swimming on me!

Mostly, I loved the border print of this dress, so I wanted to keep the rest simple. I took off the sleeves and cut down the neckline to a V (much more flattering to my face than the high scoop neck). I chopped off the dress right below the stitching of the pintucks, then cut off a band of that to make a waistband. The bodice I took in at the sides to make it fit me more snugly, then I hemmed the armholes and new neckline, added the waistband, and gathered the remaining skirt to fit it.

After trying it on I realised the waistband was a little too wide and the bodice was baggy, so I added a couple darts in the back to fix that. Then it fit fine!

The only thing I should have done differently was preserve the entire length of the back zipper. I just chopped it off along with the skirt of the dress - which means that my zipper now only goes to the top of the waistband, and this dress is VERY hard to get on and off. Eventually I may replace it with a longer zipper, but I can work with it for now, and I've learned a valuable lesson for the next time I do this! There will be a next time - this was fun :)

An Audition Suit

2011-06-05T00:59:00.000-04:00

I finally have pictures of my suit to show you! I bought the pattern and materials for this project at least two years ago, and finished it back in February. I forget why I wanted to make it at first (other than that it's a really cool suit!) but when I pulled it out again last fall I intended it to be worn for graduate school auditions. And it was worn to the one audition I did! But it took me two years to get up the nerve to start sewing, and over three months to get photos once it was finished. Yikes.

This is a Vogue pattern, a two-piece suit. I made it in a heavy cotton (twill, I think), lined, with bound buttonholes and a huge stand-up collar, which can also be worn folded down. Unfortunately the collar doesn't show terribly well in any of these photos, but I think you get an idea. The bodice is very fitted and sculptured; it was tricky to put together but fits wonderfully! My only really problem with the suit is that the fabric attracts *everything* -- hair, lint, dust, random fuzzies. I have to keep a lint roller with me constantly. But that is hardly a drawback with the pattern, and really it's a very minor problem.

My roommate and I held an extensive photo shoot this evening, as we both had several projects we wanted to document. I'll have more photos and dresses up soon! Unfortunately we did not get a lot of shots of this suit and most of the good ones were not full-length. I'd like to get more at some point, but perhaps on a day when the high is not hovering near 100 degrees (!!!!) I've included the last photo because it's the only one that really gives a good idea of the shape of the suit, particularly the peplum; please excuse my odd expression and waving arms. I think I was fixing my hair!

So there you are; my audition suit. I've worn it many times already and I think this will be a staple in my wardrobe for years to come!

A Knit Dress

2011-06-01T21:58:00.000-04:00

Last week I finally found a use for a couple yards of jersey knit fabric that I bought several years ago and have never been able to decide what to do with. I picked up a pattern (McCall 6070) on sale last month and decided it was perfect.

It took about two hours to make up and it is so comfortable. The most difficult part was the elastic, and since it just goes through casings it's a piece of cake. The back ties up - the pattern calls for large beads on the tie ends but I didn't bother on this one. When I make the grey version I have planned, I will add the beads, but for this one I like it plain. The only alteration I made was to add a bit of depth to the bodice front pieces -- the pattern was clearly drafted for someone with a much more insignificant bosom than I possess ;-P

My friend Shannon took the photos after church choir rehearsal tonight. The light wasn't ideal, so I apologise for the slightly blurry focus.

I finished this dress a week ago and I think I've worn it four or five times already. It's been so hot already; this cool, easy dress has been perfect. I definitely will make this pattern again!

More Conrad

2011-05-31T22:27:00.001-04:00

I've got several crafty blog posts *almost* ready to go - waiting on photos, mostly, or in one case, the stitching of seven buttonholes and their attendant buttons, plus whipping down four yards of lace - but in the mean time, let's have some more photos of Conrad!

A long scrap of cotton is the perfect kitten toy.

Sleepy. (Grape stems are good toys, too!)

I love this kitten so much! He is a joy and an endless source of amusement (plus a few scratches.)

Now if I could just train him to stay off the computer keyboard.

A Competition

2011-05-29T17:03:00.000-04:00

With myself, that is.

This summer, since I'm in an apartment, and therefore paying for all my utilities myself, I decided to see how long I can go without turning on the air conditioning. Where I grew up, this would be no problem - we used it maybe three times a summer, and that was usually only because we were having houseguests. Here, though, in Tennessee, it's already been over 90 several days, and it's still May. So this could be challenging. I won't be totally without air conditioning, as I spend my mornings working in conditioned spaces. But I'm not turning it on at home.

It's not as bad as it sounds though. Our bedrooms and the living room have ceiling fans, which move the air around, making it feel cooler even though they don't actually cool anything. We have a big box fan, which we haven't needed to use yet. And there are all sorts of cooling tips: don't run the oven much - and if you must bake, do everything in one day. Keep the blinds or curtains (preferably both) closed when the sun is hot. (I suspect an insulated curtain would be fantastic, but I haven't got one.) Drink lots of cool - but not ice - water, all day, every day. And monitor the temperature; if it drops in the evening, wait until outside is the same temperature or cooler than inside, and then open up all those windows and let the cool air in. Just make sure you are awake early enough in the morning to close them all again before it gets hot!

It also helps to wear natural-fibre clothing - cotton and linen especially - not tight-fitting. And this may be a personal preference but I tend to eat lots of cool things in the summer - fruit, smoothies, salads, sandwiches. Anything that doesn't involve heat to prepare, and is cool on your insides when you eat it.

Well, this turned into less a mention of my own private A/C competition, and more a list of tips to beat the heat... but perhaps it will be useful. I will keep you updated and let you know how long I last! I am aiming to make it through June at least, but I don't know if that will happen. We'll see!

A Quilting Frame

2011-05-28T13:32:00.001-04:00

I have been doing a fair amount of quilting and patchwork lately, and have felt the need of a quilting frame. Last summer I bought a big hoop but it was unweildy and difficult to work with and I almost never used it. So this past week I did some searching online and after some research decided I would make my own out of PVC pipe.

I liked the look of this commercially-offered frame but definitely didn't like the $115.00 price tag. I found instructions here to make a very similar one. I did modify the dimensions slightly, making the frame about 30"x40" instead of the 40" square suggested. I found almost all the materials at Lowes, right down the road, although I did have to order online the Snap Clamps that hold the quilt on the frame. Even so, the materials cost me only $35.00 (including shipping for the snap clamps), and even if I count the hacksaw and blades which I bought to cut the pipes into the cost of material (and I am sure they will be used again for something else) the total cost of the frame is still under $50. Less than half of what the commercially-made one costs!

A terrible photo but shows the construction of the frame.

It's not absolutely perfect - I could probably use a few more clamps to hold the fabric in place, and I may end up cutting it down to a slightly smaller size, maybe 25"x40 or so. But for the time being I'm very pleased with it!

The only drawback is that I have to leave the quilt folded up on top of the frame, instead of decoratively draped, when I'm not working at it, because Conrad thinks hanging layers of fabric are the best toy ever. (Right now he is making great to-do over killing the little calico mouse Shannon made for him, since the quilt is safely out of the way.)

I must get back to work and finish a couple of dresses I'm making on commission. But it's such a lovely day I don't want to be inside sewing! The sun is shining, there's a bit of a breeze, and I hung my washing outside on a rack so it will dry quickly and smell sweet.

Have a lovely Saturday!

~Gillian

Conrad

2011-05-24T23:23:00.000-04:00

I have a new kitten! He was a graduation present from my best friend and her fiancé, and he is absolutely adorable. (He does not like to sit still to have his picture made, though). He's about 10 weeks old - which means he's smaller than my size-eleven shoe, completely unfamiliar with a litter box, and still cries for his mother. He's also currently a flea-bag, but we're working on that.

His name is Conrad, and I adore him.

Graduation

2011-05-22T14:26:00.001-04:00

Clearly God was listening to the stream of prayers coming from West Tennessee this past week, because the weather was perfect -- mid-eighties and sunny, with a breeze to keep it from being too hot. My whole immediate family came (including my older brother, who I wasn't expecting - what a lovely surprise!) and we spent a great weekend together.

I now possess a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance. Graduated magna cum laude and couldn't be happier!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap...

A Makeover

2011-05-20T14:10:00.001-04:00

As I am sure you have noticed, I gave my blog an overhaul, redoing the layout and the colours. Much as I liked the plain, almost spartan colour scheme and layout of the old look, I'm really enjoying the bright, spring green -- and the birds are a subtle reference to the meaning of my blog's title; "glanalaw" is a combination of two Welsh words which means, roughly, "pure melody". Songbirds are the perfect image to go with that idea! I'd appreciate feedback, though; is this readable? Easy on the eye? Do I need to tweak the colours?

I graduate from college tomorrow and start summer work (babysitting three mornings a week, and organizing my church's music library) on Monday. It's hard to believe it's been four years since I first came to Union. Time is funny - in a way it seems that these four years have flown by; in another, they've been the longest years of my life. But some of the best.

I'll stop philosophizing now ;-) Blessed weekend to you all!

Rose

2011-05-19T00:39:00.000-04:00

My friend Shannon brought me a rose today.

It is fat and silky, and it smells of ginger and wide-open fields.

Perfection in a blue mug.

A Biscuit Recipe

2011-05-09T22:10:00.001-04:00

This afternoon as I was rummaging in the fridge for lunch, I came across a take-home box from Ruby Tuesday's that my roommate had left and said was fair game. Most of it looked distasteful -- old green beans, weird broccoli soup -- but there was a single garlic-herb-cheese biscuit which looked edible, so I ate it. It was quite good, but I was immediately seized with a desire to make my own biscuits! So I did, just going "by feel" without a recipe, and they turned out so well that I thought I'd share what I did.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder (approximately; I didn't measure, and I think I used a little less)
about 2 tsp. salt
garlic powder - about 1/2 tsp?*
a sprinkle of dried onions*
6 T butter, margarine or other solid fat
sprinklings of dried herbs - I used parsley
milk
cheddar cheese

Mix the dry ingredients, cut in the fat, add herbs and cheese, and stir in enough milk to make a wet dough. (About 3/4 cup, maybe? Again I didn't measure.) Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for about 10 minutes. Eat them hot!

*You could also probably use fresh garlic and/or onions, finely minced. But this is what I had on hand (and what I suspect the restaurant used!)

Honeysuckle

2011-05-08T13:00:00.017-04:00

The honeysuckle is blooming outside my apartment this week, in huge fragrant banks of cream and yellow. The scent is intoxicating, and stronger than I've ever smelled honeysuckle. I love walking out the door in the morning, or coming back to the apartment after a long day, to be greeted with such a fragrance.

I've spent the weekend sewing in my big chair by the window and enjoying the honeysuckle-scented breeze. Spring is such a lovely time of year!

Comfortable

2011-05-07T22:08:00.000-04:00

We've got my friend's kittens staying with us again for a while. Well, they're not so much kittens anymore, but the name stuck! His sister is still pretty shy, but I think Velcro at least is enjoying his vacation.

Velcro, plus a tiny glimpse of my quilting project!

I Might Have Been A Little Tired

2011-05-04T16:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, after presenting my lecture-recital on the Libby Larsen song cycle I sang on my senior recital, I came home and decided that a nap was in order. It was 5 PM and I had to be at a band concert at 7:30, so I figured I'd get in an hour and a half of sleep -- a decent nap, enough to get me through the evening. So I set the alarm for 6:30 and took a book to bed to read myself to sleep.

Next time I was conscious, it was 9:15. In the morning.

Yes, I slept for sixteen hours. No, I did not hear any of my alarms -- not the one for 6:30 PM, or the ones for 7:00, 7:40, and 8:12 AM. Not once. And I missed the band concert completely.

But I guess I needed sleep?