Stew Update

My stew was freakin' fantastic! It came out perfectly! The only thing I might do different next time is add a bit more potatoes and maybe some stock (since I'm adding extra potatoes). It wasn't very stew-like. It was drier than I had expected. We ate it with a fork, but it was great. The meat was moist and tender, the veggies flavorful. My first total success on my Friday-From-Scratch-Dinners! Thank you, Alton Brown, Cooking God!

I Can Make Yarn!

I went to the Puyallup Fair last week with Charles. He works with me at the shop. We saw all of the animals and all of the stuff they sell on TV. I picked up a drop spindle while I was there for super cheap!
I made this:
It took me about 3 days to do. It's not very big, but I'm quite proud of myself!
Here's a picture of my spindle:
And here's the roving that I picked up to make some more:
The new stuff I bought is a lot more slippery than the roving that came with the spindle. I also saw a woman with a spinning wheel made out of pvc pipes and a wheel chair wheel. Neat!

I also made breakfast this morning. I'm quite proud of myself! It's a layer a hash browns, then some cheese, then a mixture of eggs, ham & green onions topped with more cheese. It came out really well.
Now, I'm working on a stew I got from watching Good Eats. I've already got my meat in the oven. Only 5 more hours to go! I hope it comes out okay. I feel confident because my breakfast came out so well. Today, it a good cooking mojo day! (I hope!)

It's Been a While!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted!
We had a big sale at the shop last week. The 9-9-9 Back Issue Sale. 9th month, 9 days, 9 discounts. It started at 10% off and went up to 90% off on the last day. I think we did pretty good. Rick isn't too happy though. Most people waited until it hit 60% off to start showing up. We were hoping they would start coming in at 40. Then, on the last day, a bunch of people that we've never seen before showed up and grabbed chunks of books. They didn't even really look at them. We also had a few regulars get greedy and buying multiple copies of things "because they were so cheap." If it's so cheap that you're willing to buy 2 copies of an X-Men book, maybe you can buy some of the crap like Spawn that we were hoping to get rid of! We had great sales. Broke records every day even with the huge discounts. It gives us a chance to put in some fresh stock too. I think many people had stopped looking in our back issues previously because it was the same stuff all the time. Like I said, I think it was a success....it may just take a while to convince Rick of that.
We got in a collection of Garbage Pail Kids too. I had Barry whip this up for me:
It used to say "Knittin' Brittany." He did a great job!
Not much else going on. Amy (Barry's sister) is going to have her baby today. She's been having complications so they're going to C-section. We just mailed out her baby stuff today. Just in time!
Hoping you're having fun in the land where ALL chocolate cake is German!

Some Completed Projects

I just wanted to show off some completed projects.
First, I have Amy's (Barry's sister) baby gift.
It's a crocheted stuffed bear, baby hat and blanket. They are all made from baby acrylic yarn. The bear was super hard. The first row of crocheting is always the hardest and this whole thing was made so that it was like doing the first row throughout the whole thing. This bear is truly one of a kind since I won't be making another.














Next is a baby hat, booties and mittens.
These items are for a girl in my knitting group. She quit her day job to dye yarn for a living. Here's her website: A Swell Yarn Shop. This is some of her work. She has a show coming up in late September (or early October) and she needed some knitted samples.

Sick, Sick, Sick

I've been sick these past couple of days. I think I had mild food poisoning Monday from a Mexican microwave meal. Tuesday, I had stomach pains and kidney pains. I thought I had appendicitis. There's a thing where the doctors press on your abdomen in a certain spot and it hurts really bad if you have it. I tried it and it hurt! The earliest they could squeeze me in was 4. By that time, most of the pain had gone and I was feeling better. I figured better safe than sorry though. I just have a minor bladder infection. I think the abdominal pain was left over from having nothing to eat on Monday except ginger ale, saltines, pepto bismol and water. I was so happy that after my appointment, I got Arby's and wolfed down a sandwich. My tummy hurts again. Maybe I should have started out with soup.
The rest of this week, I've just been headache-y, tired and my tummy kind of queasy. I still haven't gotten back my full appetite. I ate 2 pieces of toast for breakfast and I'm stuffed! I did sleep a lot last night though. I went to bed at 8 and got up at 7. I don't have a headache, so it must have helped.
It turns out that Barry was trying to kill me. He filled our water at the hand pump that was at the camp site. We brought the jug home and when I started feeling sick, all I drank was water. Tainted water! I don't really know if the water was tainted, but since I've been drinking real bottled water, I've gotten better.
I've been working on this crazy pair of socks. Eunny Jang's Entrelac Socks. Insanity! First, the socks are made for someone with long, skinny feet. I have short fat feet. The entrelac technique is so complicated, I have no idea how to modify it for size. I'm hoping that a larger needle will widen the sock and maybe I'll just stop a few blocks short on my foot. I hope it'll work. It's taken me 2 days just to do the freaking toe!
Amanda let me borrow her Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs. It's been really fun. I watched a few episodes when they were playing it on TV. It's nice to start at the beginning. Unfortunately, it's subtitles only. I don't mind subtitles so much, it just makes knitting harder! ;D