Sugar over load

So I finally made my own marshmallows. I've been wanting to do it since I saw Martha do it. Now, mine didn't come out perfect but they are pretty good. I used the recipe that Craft posted. I messed up a little bit though. I didn't pay attention when it said "put 1/2 cup water" because at the top it say that you will need "1 cup of water". Always pay attention when you are making something new. The turned out, but I think they are a little too moist. Also, having a clean kitchen with all the right tools would be good.

You will notice that you can not see my kitchen in the photograph. Yes... well let's just say that we are not being good about our chores around here right now. The only chore we seem to get right is giving the kitties all the attention in the world.

Well, hopefully the sugar buzz will end here soon and I'll get some sleep.

Holidays?

We would like to know where Santie Paws is at? Is he going to leave treats and catnip? Perhaps a new kitty bed? We have been "good" this year, well some of the time.

The kitties seem to think that if they sit by the tree, something will happen. Each evening as I surf the web Miss Siren sits under it and watches me. I keep having dreams about tall perches for cats. Humm I wonder why?

I hope everyone has a good holiday season. I won't be writing much (shocker!) because well i'm working a lot and there really isn't much to say about that.

Food!!!

Insert 19 century orphans singing "Food, Glorious Food" here.


I do love a good breakfast. And now that Pop NE is doing brunch on Sundays, well I'm a happy camper.
What we have here is the egg sandwich on rye with potatoes. It was pretty tasty. Though i would have liked the eggs scrambled rather than sunny side up.

This is the Banana's Fosters french toast (i think) with pecans on top. It was very sweet and tasty. Almost too much to eat. So it was lunch too.

Now going out for food is great. Honestly if I could have someone else cook for me all the time, well I would. But it is nice to try your hand at a new thing some times too.

This something new is Spicy Butternut Squash Soup. It turned out pretty well. I think I might try to grow some butternut squash next year in the garden. There was only one thing not quiet right with the soup. I put too much cycane pepper in it. I think maybe with a little more cream or even sour cream it will be good for lunch next week.
I have also started the Thanksgiving desert cooking. The oven will be taken over by a bird tomorrow. So that makes now really the only other time to do any of the things that need to be put in the oven. These are Pumpkin cookies. It was a good simple recipe. Pretty much shorting, brown sugar and pumpkin. These were made out of the pumpkins that i grew. It really something special to cook with something that you have grown.

There is a down side to all this cooking though. This down side is the reason that i would gladly never cook.

What is it? It is the dishes that making food creates. Just after you get the kitchen clean, you turn around and there are all these dirty dishes to deal with. :(
Well on this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many things, friends, family, good employees, and a dish washer to do all these dishes in.

kitties and computers

Lately, somebody has been stealing my computer. I'm not going to say who (Siren)
She keeps crawling on my lap and onto my computer every night lately. I wonder if it's because the computer is warm? It is really cute though.

I've been working more on my log cabin blanket. I'm down to one skein each of the colors. I'm pretty sure that there will be enough of the center color to edge the whole thing. It might even be done for Thanksgiving. Something nice to cuttle in on my day off.

clothing makes the sale?

People often say, " The clothes make the man" (or woman). And I'm pretty sure that clothes help make the sale. When you work in an area of town where most of your customers are wearing suits, button up shirts and kackies, or even uniforms I think this applies even more. Now, how do I convince others of this?

Lead by example. That I can do. But to lead don't folks need to fallow?

Now, if only I could knit faster. Then I could lead in fabulous hand knits. I'm thinking about making hand knit version of my Target dress. It's chunky to bulky yarn, with a cowl neck and A line. I'm pretty sure I could knit it all in the round with maybe a fake seem to give it a little more shape. Not sure.

When I start i'll post some pictures and see what you all think.

Fall???

The weather seems to think that it's not going to be uber chilly right now.
I am only marginally ok with that. Ups and downs in the weather make my UC
go more than a bit wonky.

That said, Saturday was really nice.
Crafty Planet had their party for the new book One Yard Wonders. As written by
our own Crafty Planet crew. It is written, designed (super important to me) and laid out well.

Here is the cover


Now I'm not sure what in the book i'm going to use this fabric for. Maybe a skirt?



Now this. This will be a hand bag and maybe 2 project bags.


And this, this needs to be something hug able.


Now, I was not bad and didn't spend money I didn't have. I saved a few spiff
checks just for this. Because really, when you go to a store that is having a
party, it's just bad form not to buy something.



Oh, and just in care you were worried. Here's some yarn. I think this could make
a pretty lacy something. Not sure what, but I got 2 balls so I'm sure I can think of something.

Halloween '09

I can't remember if i showed off the owl socks her yet.
So, here they are.
It was pretty much just a basic ribbed sock with the owl cable.


They fit pretty well. The second sock is a little tight in the heal. It still made it
on to my foot though. So that's a win.



And here we have my Halloween costume. It was steampunk shop-keep.
I already had the skirt, but as i have gotten a bit hippy, i need to add some
fabric to it.


So it turned out nice. I made the top too. I think i need to work on my sewing
skills. It turned out well, but i would have liked it to be a bit more, professional looking.

We had a good night. Went out for dinner with friends. The Wilde Roast Cafe
is pretty tasty. I think the breakfast is a bit better than the dinner.

And now, now there is too much candy in the house. I got some just in case
our friends didn't want to go out to dinner. Well we forgot to set it out.
Now it is in the kitchen, tonting me. But looking at my chin in those photos,
I'm really going to have to stay away from it. Or get that neck-work-out
infomercial thing. :P

Now, get out there and enjoy the sun all you Minneapolins. It might not be
back for a long time.

Day trip'in

If you have wandered over to Stumbling over Chaos, you might have seen that there was snow happening the other day.



Here we have proof. The flowers survived and there are some pumpkins hiding behind there. So, the snow was pretty. But it was not welcome. The fact that i'm on vacation and didn't have to worry about the snow at the store, now that was welcomed.

So I decided yesterday to take a little day trip to Stillwater, MN. It was great to see some water, yellow leaves and the only snow was melting snow.


Main St Stillwater is pretty cute. I think the next time family comes up we are
going to have to take them here. The Ms. Pacman window art is from a food
place. It looked tasty, I didn't stop to eat.


I did stop to look at yarn though :)
This is Darn.Knit(Anyway) a nice new shop. They have yarn, fabric and art.
They have been looking for local (mn or maybe wi since it's right across the
river) artists. It was nice talking to Carly about the shop and about a camera
for the shop ;) Even on vacation I talk cameras.

There was some yarn bought (i'll show you in another post) and they were
super cool and gave me a reusable shopping bag with their logo on it.
It's a very cute bag and it will get a lot of work.

So, if you are feeling like a day trip. Stillwater is just about 30hr to 45min away.

I know I'll be going back.

fall update

So here is a little "What's going on around the Iki house"
Well, we have been cleaning. We have been rearranging the bed room (HT did that) and we have been getting the yard ready for after "The Fall".


The pumpkins turned out well. Not as many as I thought there would be. Though there are a few that will be good for baking. 3 for baking 4 for carving, not bad for a first try. There are still a lot of tomatos on the vines. I don't think they are going to turn red any time soon. I'm going to have to try out fryin' them up I think.


We think these are Spaghetti squash. There are about 6 of them in total. Not sure what to do with them really. We also had 2 acorn squash. They were made last Wednesday for dinner. Turned out pretty tasty. The peppers that were living next to all this squash just started making peppers. Sadly they too will not get much bigger before the frost comes.


I've decided to take the blanket I was making out of squares and scrap it. I saw MomRKnits working on a 10 stitch shawl and thought "By, the Log Cabin would be an easy thing to work on". So, the squares will be made into pillows or something. It's coming along well. It's Knitpicks Wool of the Andies on size 8us needles. I'm going to save aside the center yarn for the edging. It's the discontinued Mainline. I really love the cotton wool mixture. It will make a nice soft edge.


The guest room (aka Grimlock's room) has gotten a work out this Sept. Our friends Mr & Mrs Toons came up for a lovely wedding (still have to get our gift in the mail as we forgot to bring it.) And HT's Mom and Dad came up the next weekend. It's nice to host people in the house. I just wish I could take more time off to spend with them all.
Well I'm off to drink some more tea (got a bit of a chest cold). Remember, the best way to warm the house on a cold day, is to bake something, cook something, or put some kitty treats on your lap and have more hidden in your pockets.

Halloween is coming

I'm thinking of steampunking it out for Halloween this year.
Here are some good places to find things if you are thinking of doing the same.
There is Scoundrelle's Keep. She is local, cool and that's where the picture is
from. Such awesome stuff.
We found Steampunk Emporium at work. It seems to have a lot of nice things
for men. One of my emps really likes the men's bathing suits. :)
If you are thinking about designing your costume but need guidance,
there is this page.
I've personally purchased from Art of Adornment. They were super helpful when
I couldn't get pay-pal to behave. I love the top hat I got from them.

I'm going to start sewing tonight. I'll post some in-progress pics eventually.

Hello Blog, it's been a few days hasn't it.

So here's what i've been up to. Went to a wedding in Hastings MN.
It was pretty out there and my friends were really pretty and
the photographer was a friend too.



He's really getting good at it.

Had friends in town from KC. They will be coming back for Thanks Giving.
Why? Because our house is the coolest.

It was a busy but fun weekend. I'm super tired today though.
Had crazy dreams all night. Dreams where i'm not in control in anyway.
Dreams where people are treating me badly. Dreams where Ht does not
love me.

So, no more of those because you really can't sleep well when you are
having bad dreams. I would love to have some flying ones though.

Why is it that....

All the cute ventage shoes that I find are way to small for me. :(
I would love to wear these.

vintage Pumpkin Oxford Pumps

Aren't they super cute.

Looks like this is going to be a pretty things post.

The Kelifern Black Wedding Dress

I know it says wedding dress, but that's just too pretty.

This is from Scoundrelle's Keep. Maybe I should save up and make something
like this for the halloween this year...

Well that's all we've got for today here at chez iki.
Oh, the kitties handled the vet apt well, and they are healthy.

Trip to the.....

The place that we wont mention until we get back as we don't want to spook anyone.

For the trip, i had to get another carrier. I figured, get a little one for the Siren so that she doesn't pick on her brother when I try to put them in the same one.



Well it would seem that Grimlock likes the small one.


And Siren is quite taken with the big one all to her self.


They do seem to have ideas of their own about all of them.

Umbrellas and organization

So this Friday in Downtown Minneapolis, there were umbrellas popping up all over Hennepin Ave.

This on was supposed to be vertical, but i'm lazy today. So outside my store's front door, an umbrella attached to the garbage can. I was waiting for the city to fine me for there being one there (i'm not responsible for the umbrellas by the way.)


Saturday they showed up on the old Shinders building. Maybe the City did grumble at someone.


Here's a wide shot so you can see it better.
Now, a lot of people thought that this was because Mary Poppins is in town. Sadly no. While investigating the one by my store i saw the Travelers insurance logo on them. So it would seem that the insurance people are trying for some viral marketing.

Since I work downtown, I got Labor Day off. :)
I was inspired by Ms Wendy of Wendy Knits, so i got to organizing and cleaning.
Below is my nice organize entry closet.


Most of the shoe cubes are filled with knitting.



Grimlock decided to help with the organizing.

going to do it.

What is it that I'm going to do? I'm going to take these socks to the
State Fair. Now how can I do that when I ran out of yarn just before the last
two rows. Well I did a gauge swatch before I started. I know that's pretty weird for me. :)

So all I had to do was frog the swatch and finish the toe.
Here you can see the finished socks

The fluffy bit at the top is the left over bit of yarn. There wasn't that much left.
They are blocking right now and next week they will be taken to the fair.

The other thing that I'm going to do, is send off a letter to my Congress people.
I'm trying to give them an idea of all that i've gone through with the insurance companies.

Here's to hoping it helps.

deap breath and pretty things

Sometimes it seems that life like to throw me randome curve balls.
Balls like never truly having a day off with out having to deal with some part of work. Like seeing my depression modeled in how my house look.

So in honer of those curve balls here are some pretty things.
Because pretty things make me smile and help me dauge those curve balls.

I so want this hat

Maybe I should have this posted up some where...


Think i could pull this off?



Oh the spinning that I could do with this.


So that's enough pretty for today.
Here's to winning the lotto so that all the pretty things can be mine. :)

garden update

So, the garden is going pretty well. I think when fall comes we will have a lot of good eats coming out of the garden.

Here we have the eggplant. There are about 6 eggplants on the one plant. It's pretty cool as i've never grown any before.
I love the way you can see the different colors of purple.


There aren't too many watermelons in the garden. I think the pumpkins are taking up most of what the watermelons want in the ground. I'll just have to pick a different spot for them next year.

Oh, and i think the squirrels are trying to sharpen their teeth on this one.
Note the ruff edge at the bottom.

So, if the watermelon is about the size of a hand ball, these pumpkins are about the size... of 2 mainecoon cats. I turn them every now and then to make sure that they aren't roting on any of the sides. Though i did find a slug on one of them after i turned it. It stuck to my hand. :P


My tomatoes are finally starting to turn red. Though i think the pumpkin leaves are taking a lot of their sun. :(


Also I think that I'm to make a tress along the north side of the yard. Just a short one. I would really like to have more sweet peas and morning glories next year. I think I'm also going to make a space for cut flower garden.


Next time, a knitting update.

memories...

So, when I was a kid my family collected the Random House Golden Books.
Some of my favorite books were the ones illustrated by Sheilah Beckett.
She really helped form my idea of beauty, what illustration should look like,
and what I wished i could draw like.

here we have a 2 page spread from Cinderella


Here we have Sleeping Beauty and her Prince... i think when i crop it
i might have oriented it back wards... humm


And 2 of my favorites, Snow White and Rose Red. I loved the way they
thought through their problems and helped to solve the Prince of the
stories problem too.


Now I'm going to share a little secret with you all. You know when people
say "I've thought about my wedding dress since i was a little girl". Well,
I never really have. "Oh that's pretty." is generally my thoughts but there is
no grand plan in my head waiting to be executed.


That said, when we would play pretend, this is what I pretended to look
like.



Sans the glass slippers though. They can't be good for dancing in.

I think I'm going to have to find more illustrations by Sheilah Beckett.