Archive for August, 2008
Cassie Was Here and Maximum Ride
What’s on my nightstand? Cassie Was Here, by Caroline Hickey. Here is another book that just feels real. These seem so rare nowadays, when every little thing from books and stories to sports and bottled water is jacked up on hype and extreme-isms. I find real refreshing. Cassie was there, but it’s 11-year-old Bree’s story [...]
Weekend Site-Seeing
With the school year about to begin, I am once again visiting Mrs. Laguna’s Web site at Milford Middle School. Mrs. Laguna, a.k.a. Cathy, is my friend and beloved college roommate. She’s one of those highly energetic, creative, and smart teachers that we hope our kids get every year. I enjoy checking out what she [...]
Speaking of Veggies and Hummus…
Are you sure this isn’t a food blog? What does this have to do with Needlework, Reading, Writing, or Life in Alaska? Hmmm…good point. Let me think about that, and I’ll get back to you. —– The hummus demanded bread. So I made Whole Wheat French Bread with Beer. Whole Wheat Sourdough French Bread is [...]
Peas, Glorious Peas!
The garden channel is turned to Snow Peas. I’m giving blanching and freezing a whirl. We’ll see if they turn out to be mush when re-heated. I took Jane’s advice last week and made a dip for my raw veggies, primarily the turnips. I made hummus. The verdict: I like raw turnips as a vehicle [...]
NeedleArts Market, Sept. 14 & 15
The TNNA fall NeedleArts Market is coming right up. It’s a wholesale trade show, so it’s open only to wholesale buyers. It will be my first hotel show. I’m in room 713. To date, all the trade shows I’ve attended have been in convention centers where booths are partitioned off by curtains on metal frames. [...]
Did Someone Say “Challenge”?
If my parents had thought to make eating lima beans a challenge or a contest, I’d probably be a lima bean fan today. Sadly, they did not. Sadly, I am not. But here are a Challenge and a Contest that are way-yonder more appealing than lima beans. To celebrate National Sewing Month in September, Lazy [...]
Small Steps, by Louis Sachar
What’s on my nightstand? Small Steps, by Louis Sachar. This book is billed as the sequel to Holes, but that’s a stretch. Rather, it takes two of the minor characters from Camp Green Lake and tells the story of their lives after they return home. In fact, I would go so far as to say [...]
Weekend Site-Seeing
Today we’re going site-seeing over at KayeWoodTV.com. This site offers videos of quilting and sewing demonstrations. This is where I first “met” Lazy Girl, Joan Hawley. I watched her demonstrate the making of the Chelsea Tote, and I was hooked, on the videos and Lazy Girl patterns. I don’t have the fastest internet connection, so [...]
Good Eats
I get up in the morning, take the dog outside, and select the day’s food from the garden. Today’s menu: salad greens, turnip, beet, broccoli, snow peas, radishes, parsley, strawberries. Seven one-gallon bags of blueberries in the freezer and counting. While I was out collecting berries yesterday, I heard a bunch of coyotes yapping and [...]
Language Arts Project
Materials arrived yesterday afternoon from Evan-Moor Educational Publishers. I’ve taken on a job creating a language arts workbook for a series they are publishing. It started as a puzzle gig, and I’m still kind of looking at it as such. I think it’s easy to blur the line between recreational puzzles and language arts exercises, [...]
, by Ellen Ruppel Shell
, by Elizabeth Strout.
