in between

Ugh, what a scummy weekend for a cold! At least I accomplished a few little things: canning four varieties of jam/jelly (pear chai, vanilla apple chamomile, pomegranate, and gingered pear with orange rind), teaching my husband how to drum card, and organizing my living space a little. Today, I'm getting caught up on a few custom orders and then settling down with a mug of tea and a Star Trek Voyager marathon with the hopes of leaving the sniffles behind. Overall, this is the absolute BEST time of the year. Wool is cozy to work with, the weather isn't cold enough to freeze my fiber, soup and homemade bread are on the menu for every lunch, and the cats are extra cuddly.
Yesterday, I ventured out of my 2-3 day bread recipes, and tried a simple white bread. It turned out to be perfect for sandwiches and jellies, yum! Here's the recipe:
4 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 cup powdered milk
3 1/4 T sugar (or honey)
2 t. instant yeast
1 large egg, slightly beaten at room temp.
3 1/4 T butter or oil
1 1/2 cups room temperature water

Mix dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients. Knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour or water depending on dough consistency. (You'll want the dough to be slightly tacky, but not sticky). Allow dough to rise in oiled bowl (be sure to coat dough in some oil) for approximately 2 hours. Punch the dough using all of your pre-holiday frustrations. Give the dough about 20 minutes to recover. Then, divide and shape the dough into two slightly oiled or greased loaf pans. Allow a 30-40 minute rise time. Bake for 35-ish minutes @ 350 degrees. Finished loaves should sound hollow when thumped.

7 things

I was tagged by Maggie on her Little Grey Cat Musings blog, and you know the drill- I'm posting 7 things about myself and then urge fellow bloggers/craftypeople to do the same. Actually, it's been over a year since I've played blog-tag, so the 7 things about myself are different this time around.

1. I used to think that horoscopes were silly, until I had a three month stretch of super-accurate forecasts. Oh, and I really am an an archetypal Aries (unfortunately).
2. My music tastes are stuck in 1995.
3. October has always been my favorite month. It's a month for reading Ray Bradbury, taking cliche pictures of leaves, guzzling apple cider and hot totties, listening to the marching band practice across the street, shivering under extra layers of blankets at night, and wearing scarves.
4. In college, I only switched majors once: from Art to English. My original career plans were to go into illustration, but I'm too self-conscious to share my silly sketches.
5. Trevor (the hubster) really is my best friend. We gossip, sing to our cats, sing about our cats, and cuddle up with bad movies every night.
6. When I was little, I was a crafty entrepreneur. I tried to sell twisty-tie rings and potpourri (dead leaves in sandwich baggies) to everyone. I hoarded my money until I could afford the most awesome stuffed animals- a horse, a lion, and an elephant. I still love to browse stuffed animals and plushies online and in toystores.
7. I don't eat candy. I prefer to eat occasional lumps of brown sugar, straight out of the bag.

Intead of tagging 7 people (I think most of you have already been tagged, right?) I'm requesting that crafty bloggers share a link to their "7 things" post in my comments. If you haven't already done it, go ahead and try it this week!

ps. yarn! this is how a set of my Spacelab batts spun up!

re-settled

Now that the vacation and post-vacation vacation are over, I'm revving up the tempo to complete the goals I set in my previous post. I'm still gloating/glowing over my first handspun and handwoven project, a scarf for my mum. I'm also still buried under a pile of yarns to load into my shop, such as this one (which was spun with a delicious Loop batt as one of the plies):
Remember how I alluded to the "haunted house" where I was vacationing? Well... it was. And the ghost wasn't too fond of me (though the 9 sweet cats living in the house treated me just fine).

I came home to a house with 5 mewing babies that my husband and I rescued just before I vacationed, and they're all growing up super-fast (thanks to their love of kitten formula and foster-cat-mama Greta). They turned 4 weeks old today, and will be finding homes in another few, hint hint. If you live close and would like one, I'd be super thrilled to pass a baby kitty over to a friend.