Wow. My last post was about the Super Bowl, and here I am now, watching preseason football. I have an excuse for the absence, though. Around February we (my husband and I) decided to seriously pursue the prospect of moving. And as you may know, moving- the planning, the prepping, the packing, the pain- becomes all consuming.
But we survived and are happily living in Austin, TX. Now that we’re more settled in, the crafting bug has bit me again. I didn’t work on much this summer- most of my supplies are still packed away in our storage unit. And I didn’t do much from scratch cooking because produce in the the hothot Texas summer is nothing like the bountiful fruits and veggies of California in the summer. We did get a grill, and barbecued every night for about three weeks straight, though.
A good friend had a beautiful baby girl this summer. I began this blanket this past winter when I knew she was pregnant. I finished it the week after we moved. And just today I stitched the baby’s name into the corner.
The pattern is from Blankets, Hats, and Booties to Knit and Crochet by Kristin Spurkland. I used lightweight organic pima cotton. I’m working on a matching hat, but it’s not turning out the way I’d like right now. Maybe I’ll post it later if it magically fixes itself.
I have done a ton of reading this summer. I’m in the middle of a bunch of books. My latest book club book is Love Wife, by Gish Jen. It’s amazingly good. A white woman and Chinese-America man marry, adopt two asian children and have one birth child. When the husband’s mother dies, she requested that the family sponsor a long-lost relative, in the hopes of her son taking on a Chinese wife. The visitor causes all kinds of strife within a family trying to figure out its identity.
I also read The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. It’s a kid’s book marketed toward fans of Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Event series. So, I’m the target audience. It’s about a group of highly gifted orphans who get drafted into a society to overtake a man who is trying to take over the world. They have to go undercover to a school that he runs where we brainwashes his students into helping him with his mission. Loved it!
My first Austin book club was on Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It’s written in letter format. The correspondence is between a female journalist/writer in England and the inhabitants of the island of Guernsey, which was occupied by Germany during the war. She decided to write their story and becomes part of their close-knit community. It was a quick read, and very sweet.
There were definitely a few more books read this summer, though my brain isn’t remembering what I’ve read recently, besides the three listed here. My book shelves are full of books just waiting to be cracked open, though with school back in session, I’m reading more Newbery Award Winners from the 1960s, than adult fiction, right now.
It’s good to be back.
Someday I’ll own cooling racks (and have enough counter space for them). Between batches of cookies going in and plopping kisses on the peanut butter yumminess, I made a super meaty, super cheesy lasagna for dinner and then to freeze. It was two layers of veggie beef scramble mixed with veggie sausage and mixed with a mushroom sauce and two layers of ricotta and mozzarella, mushrooms, and green peppers mixed with an olive sauce. We had it with a huge salad and have plenty of leftovers!
When all of that kitchen work came to an end, I worked on my current cross-stitch project. Here’s how it’s looking.
On christmas eve, my husband and I started a new family tradition: Port Party! We opened a delicious bottle of Daniel Gehrs Fireside Port that I got two years ago in Los Olivos. The 
Earlier that day I attempted to make an apple crumble pie using t
I worked like a little crochet worker bee on my mom’s present, which isn’t finished yet. It’s my biggest project to date and I’m about a quarter done with it. Here’s a photo of the blanket I’m crocheting for her.
And here’s my sister’s yoga bag. She got it a few days ago, so I can show the whole thing now. I used the same pattern from 
I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the same day I last blogged. We watched the movie on Christmas. I was totally unimpressed with the movie. i LOVED that book. Chris dragged out the Half Blood Prince for me, but I had already started The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. She wrote We Need to Talk About Kevin, a book which still haunts me to this day. The Post-Birthday World is about a woman, Irina, an American expat living in London with her longtime partner Lawrence. On the birthday of a friend she considers what life would be like if she kissed that friend. The book is billed as a story about the choices we made and their good and bad repercussions. I’m only 50 pages in, so we’ll see how it goes. I like her writing style and I was engaged for the short time I spent reading it.
And some mystery gift images. I’m hand-making gifts for my mom, sister, and father. Here are two close-ups of what I’m working on.
I’ve also been baking up a storm, but I keep forgetting to take pictures. Last weekend I made mint chocolate chip cookies and mom’s peanut butter cups. The weekend before that I made sugar cookies. Later today I’m making kiss cookies. I’ve gotten in the habit of baking for Chris’s employees, so I send most to work with him, bring some to work for my colleagues, and we keep some at home. Yum!
