Ordinary Time

I realized this morning that it was ten years ago today that we all (well, those who were living at home) went down to Felines and Canines  (extremely highly recommended if you are looking for a new friend) in Chicago to see if we could find a dog.  For those who weren't reading here ten years ago, this was right after we had returned from China with R. and Y. We had left on that adoption trip a week after my father unexpectedly passed away. When we returned home, our Labrador Retriever, Gretel, unexpectedly passed away shortly after our return home. She had not been doing well, but what we didn't know was that at the age of three she had developed cancer through many of her internal organs. We were all reeling for any number of reasons and a new dog was feeling necessary.  I had made an initial trip to the shelter by myself in advance. I was well aware that families with as many children as we had were not always welcomed with open arms. I needed to scope things out in a...

Living in the United States is just a hot mess right now. It's actually terrifying if I allow myself to think about it all too much. To the rest of the world, I'm so sorry. There are good people here, but there are so many other evil ones it can feel hopeless. Some days I have to spend some time hiding away in my studio working on things that are simple but require just enough attention to keep the hamster off his wheel inside my head. Today was one of those days and I have a few more bits done on my English paper piecing project.  It also means that what I really want to write about, because being silent is the same thing as tacit approval, I just don't have the emotional reserves to do so. If I were to try, it would be a very expletive filled post. I'll spare all of us that and share a couple non-expletive filled quotes that I came across this past week in my reading.  The first is from the book Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice, and Observations by Peter Miller. (This is ...

I've written about this probably more than once over the years, but it might be time to revisit it. I'm still managing to keep our weekly grocery budget under $200 for eight people. That's with 90% of our groceries being purchased at Aldi. Not included in that number are trips to Costco, which are probably once every five weeks, an occasional bulk order, and the Chinese market. At Costco I buy paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, olive oil, peanut butter, some seasonings, mayonnaise, honey, and sometimes sun-dried tomatoes. That total is usually around $125. I tend not to buy much food there because often it costs more than at Aldi. The Chinese market I go to every couple of months where I stock up on ingredients that are impossible to find at my regular stores. This total is also around $125. The bulk order happens when I need more wheat or oats and I'll throw some other baking items in as well when I'm ordering. Figure around $150 for that depending on the price o...

I don't have much to share today. Much of my time this past week was spent doing horse related things and not fiber related things. It's such a shame that the hours in a day are not infinite. My pattern drafting class had a week break, which was very good because my business took a lot of time, but also not very good because yesterday I realized I had quite a bit of work I needed to do in order to have my next class be profitable.  This is why I have spent a pretty significant chunk of time trying to understand how to sew a fly zipper. It has always been one of those things that just hasn't made sense in my head, so I did a pretty good job of avoiding fly zips completely. Until now. Because the skirt I am drafting has a fly zipper. I couldn't really move on until I had figured them out.  I am happy... oh, so happy... to be able to share with you my first correctly sewn fly zipper.  I don't even want to say exactly how many hours these two pictures represent. The goo...

Since I read a lot, I'm always on the lookout for new titles to add to my pile of books to read. Because truly, it makes me very uneasy to not have several books waiting for me as I get close to finishing one. Sometimes I will hear about a book, put it on my library hold list, then promptly forget about it. It's always a fun surprise to discover what books have arrived for me.  Such was the case with the book, The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt. No, as much as you might suspect this is yet another book related to the fiber arts, it's not. It's published by the New Directions Publishing Corporation under the Storybook ND label whose tag line is, "the pleasure of reading a great book from cover to cover in an afternoon." An afternoon might be stretching things. I read it in about an hour. Really, it's a short story in book form.  I didn't know this when I put it on hold. It's probably a good thing, because I don't typically enjoy the sho...

Y. spent her birthday making baozi for our joint Lunar New Year and birthday celebration. They were very, very good, and there were even some leftover even after 15 people ate their full. We also had coconut beef curry, a lotus root stir fry, and apple pie for Y.'s birthday dessert.  Not everyone could make it, but most could. As always it was loud and funny and great to have these remarkable human beings around. Is was a very fun way to celebrate a very special child. Happy birthday, Y.!! We love you very much!