(Un)rainy Days

The skies threatened rain today but did not deliver. I was all set: Matthew was napping, my tea was ready, the sofa was beckoning, and I needed to catch up on some reading. There's nothing like a rainy afternoon to prompt you to open a good book and relax a bit...so I just had to pretend. I'm currently half-way through Barbara Kinglsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I believe that I'm fairly educated about what I eat and feed my family, but this book has really opened my eyes even further. I highly recommend it. It's very eduational, but also humorous (like why you shouldn't name your livestock), and it's point is not to make the reader feel guilty. Some of the statistics are rather gloomy, but there's also optimism. The great thing about what you eat is that the more you eat of it, the more popular it becomes!

While being in the midst of two big projects that I fear will never get finished, I felt like I needed a little pick-me-up. I hadn't done any felting (really, fulling) for a while, had some bulky yarn lying around, and had been dreaming up this project for a while. I used the "Squashy Bag" pattern from One Skein Wonders for the base, but did my own thing in terms of decreases, the top of the bag, and the straps. I'm really happy with the outcome, except that next time I'd like to make a 3-stitch i-cord instead of 4-stitch.

Hmmm, what else have I been up to? I've been watching Sex and the City episodes rented from Netflix, this morning I made some homemade bread, yesterday I made granola, I started knitting a new sweater for Matthew, and I'm continuing to work on my garden. Oh, yes, I also started a little part-time job as a tour guide at the local science museum. It's only 4-8 hours a week, pays well, and is pretty interesting. Another bonus: I don't have to feel guilty about adding to my yarn stash. Yay! In closing, here is a great family picture taken by a good friend a couple of weeks ago. It definitely captures the mischievious stage Matthew's in...