Advanced Civilization

Today we were at our friends' home from 10am to 8pm playing a board game. I'm totally wiped out. I did not realize that: playing for 10 hours - lunch, snack, and dinner + watching Roo navigate 4 other kiddos for 10 hours without her nap = a serious strain on my concentration, endurance, and equanimity. Roo however, took the day like a champ. Such a trooper. Whew.

Here's an old picture, that I never got to post.

Earthy

Leaves and shadows,

and another big knitting project finished.

I've had this yarn in skeins for 10 years, and finally Todd will put it to daily use.

Pals

Roo spent a good hour running loops around the back deck yesterday in the sunshine, screaming happily, Ty pirouetting along the railing above her. Then for a brief moment they both settled down to scan the ravine (squirrels? birds? cookies?) before returning to more vigorous activities.

I think we're all looking forward to spring.

Sailing Away

Today, sunny and 50 degrees. Tomorrow, an ice storm, then a dusting of snow.

Infant Roo never slept well in the cradle, and oh! we tried, but now she loves to climb in and rock herself. I suggested that it was a boat a while back, and she immediately took to the idea; this afternoon she went for a row with her lamb, library books, and a tool kit (just in case?).

Then we played out on the back deck, but those pictures are coming tomorrow, when I am sure I will need a reminder of the sun!

Birds

On our walk today Roo and I saw a red-winged blackbird high in a tree, singing out over his territory. Later, when I was downstairs feeding the cats, I peered out the window and a robin flew out from the nest tucked up underneath the deck. Is it almost spring?

The afternoon sunshine is sticking around for longer. And we're a week and a half away from daylight savings time again.

Lazy

The photos I took today are still in the camera. And the camera is all the way across the room. So here's one that I took a few days ago and didn't get to post because of yellow week.

Ty and the lacy leaf shadows.

Right now I am eating a dish of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I just put Roo to bed, and now I am going to go knit. Good night!

Remembering Laughter

Roo's in the bath, I just finished knitting up her legwarmies, and Todd is downstairs hammering.

We had a fun evening yesterday playing Empire Builder and eating spaghetti and Welsh cakes.

Yellow #5

Since this is the last day of Yellow Week, I looked really hard today to see if I was missing anything. Here's what I found.

This is detail from my favorite of the colored pencil drawings I did before I became pregnant with Roo. This is the last drawing I did before my two-year sabbatical from art. I love the boat.

Yes, I'm drawing again now.

The craft of quilting fascinates me, so I decided to make Roo a crib/lap quilt. I've got my layers basted and ready to go, and I'm going to be hand quilting everything together over the next few months, learning as I go. Wish me luck!

Yellow #4

We really don't seem to have a ton of yellow around here. Maybe I need to address this deficiency.

This is Todd's mancala set. Roo likes it because it is (also) a fish.

I like it because it is cool.

Yellow #3

Is Roo sending me subliminal messages?

Yellow #2

(Roo and) I had a friend over today for the first time, for tea and knitting.

We had fresh teisen lap with our tea.

I'm introducing her to Ravelry, so now she's on the wait-list. Also, on Ravelry this past weekend I was found by my first in-real-life 'friend.'

Yellow #1

house on hill road is hosting a yellow week. Again, I'm unofficially playing along.

I thought I'd start off with some of my art, since I rarely post any on here. This is detail from one of a set of three mixed-media abstracts I did two years ago. They hang in the dining room, so I get to see them at every meal; good thing I like them. They are my first, last, and only foray into abstract art.

So far.

(That's a logarithmic spiral, specifically a Fibonacci spiral, mirrored, in blue. I do nerd art.)

::love::

Happy Valentine's Day!

Roo made valentines on Friday morning, with just the teeniest bit of help. She did the stickers and the coloring, I held the paper steady.

Today we all went on a road trip, had lunch at Exotic Thai, and then spent the afternoon at the Putnam Museum, which Roo loved. Possum skull! Snake skeleton! Taxidermy displays of bison, cheetah, and more! Yes!

What a fun way to celebrate with my two sweethearts!

The 13th

This morning, after making valentines, Roo and I went to the art museum downtown. She looked at the downstairs exhibit with interest, and then poked around while I looked in the galleries upstairs.

I finished these a little bit ago, and wore them during our brief warm-spell. Tonight it's snowing again, just a few inches, but I'm glad the ground is white again.

Dusty

I read that rubber plants like to be dusted every once in a while. Better get right on that.

Legwarmie #1 is finished. Now on to the second!

Recovering

The antibiotics are helping...

Ty, the little one, the stray kitten we found in our backyard just over a year ago. He's all grown-up, Roo's best playmate, and such a gentlemanly kitty.

Sick

Back tomorrow, maybe.

Rain

Today it rained for the first time since (before?) Thanksgiving. Our lovely snow cover has been thinning for a week or two now, but today we're down to bare lawns and the ugly muddy humps at the sides of the driveways. A February thaw, sigh.

But the Seattle girl in me loves the return of the raindrops, and the glossy deck, and the misty trees down towards the creek.

Especially if we get a fresh snowstorm this weekend.

Saturday: Risk

After baking muffins my morning deteriorated into a series of poorly planned maneuvers and pathetic dice luck. Todd schooled me, and it was pretty much my fault.

This made me grumpy, but in the end I was able to concede defeat fairly nicely. Still, it's the last time I'm playing pink for a while.

Routine

While Roo naps I do some little chores, but then I get some quiet time too - and usually I knit. My latest project is a pair of legwarmies for her, made with Dalegarn Baby Ull from the yarn shop over in Galena.

They're a spring green/aqua green stripe that sometimes I really like and sometimes I wonder a little about. Natural light: cute; compact fluorescents: ugh.

Yum!

I finally got around to trying out the master recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and it's pretty spectacular. I've been baking our bread for (6+) years and I've never managed to produce anything like these loaves. Here's the dough resting before baking:

I keep intending to take a picture of the loaf fresh from the oven, but I'm so distracted by eating it that this is the best we've managed. The little heel leftover from dinner that Todd ate for dessert:

And it's not an exaggeration; it took maybe 5 minutes to make the dough, and maybe 1 minute to shape it, and 30 seconds combined to flour the baking sheet, turn on the oven, and pour water in the steam tray.

Perfect crispy crust, delicious soft light interior. I want to try aging the dough more than 2 days to see where the flavor goes, but even the first batch was lovely.

Mad props. Whoo!

Winter

Here's some of my art from late 2006; our back slope at sunset.

It lives in our bedroom on my side of the bed. Drawing like this made me finally appreciate the beauty of Iowa's seasons.

Chore

If there is one chore around the house I am very bad about attending to, it would be the ironing. (Let's not even talk about mopping, because I haven't done that since we moved in.) I'm a terrible procrastinator when it comes to washed and wrinkly shirts, maybe because I don't know how to iron 'correctly,' maybe because I have one of those small table-top ironing boards that aren't terribly useful, maybe because ironing seems especially futile against the reality of entropy. They're just going to get wrinkly again, and sooner rather than later. I keep a collection in the laundry room for a month or two until I finally address them.

Monday's sun inspired me to another attempt. Six shirts back into the rotation.

Also, here's bloom number two in full sunlit splendor.

Looong Day

So just a picture.

Maybe more time tomorrow.

Another FO

Another knitted present has made its way into a new home, so I can share a picture. More Maine Morning Mitts, this time sent off to Lenora mostly just for fun.

I'm finally now getting around to knitting myself a pair, too, but mine are going to be all stripey from using up everyone else's leftover yarn. So mine will be super special that way.