The biggest question is — why do I have so many empty Netflix envelopes? All of the Netflix discs have gotten returned, and I didn’t think we doubled up that many discs when sending them back…Nevertheless, I just uncovered 3 empty envelopes. Weird.

I am so embarassed by my messy studio, that I refuse to show a before picture. It’s that bad.

Frankly, it’s got a ways to go before I can even think about showing an after shot. It’s that bad.

It’s part of the reason why there is zero quilting going on around here (you had noticed that I haven’t talked about quilting in months, right?). My studio is pretty much unusable as anything other than a place to stash stuff. Oh sure, I have to keep a path clear to the bathroom, because it’s the bathroom that Mark and I use, and yes, there is a path clear to my desk, since that’s where my computer lives, but the piles have given birth to piles. I had pretty much lost all of my scissors and seam rippers, and you know it’s bad when you can’t find any of the 10 or more pairs of scissors that you own.

But as I said, I’m supposed to be doing some bookkeeping, so that we can get the taxes done sooner than April 15th.

Which is why my studio urgently needed to be straightened up today.

This pattern makes me think of a Double Wedding Ring quilt.

(The yarn is Socks that Rock in Wild Irishgirlie . The pattern is Slip Jig.

Joe is actually the one that taught us this “recipe” — he learned it at school this fall in FCS.

(That would be Family and Consumer Sciences…)

It’s super simple: gather your ingredients:

• Refrigerated biscuits in a tube (Those are Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits)
• Pizza sauce
• Cheese
• Toppings (we usually use regular pepperoni, but I saw the mini ones at Target and couldn’t resist

Line your baking sheets with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Pop open a can of biscuits and flatten each one as much as you can.

Each mini pizza gets a spoonful of pizza sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.

Top with whatever you like to eat on your pizzas. Make smily faces if you can. Not that your family will notice.

Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes (my oven runs cool, so you  might only need 350).

And then watch them disappear! Seriously. They disappear. Or maybe that’s just at my house with two 12 year old boys…

Will: Can we watch the Simpsons?

Mom: I don’t know, can you?

Will: May we watch the Simpsons?

Mom: <waiting>

Will: Please….

Mom: <snap> <snap> <snap>

Will: STOP TAKING MY PICTURE

(Fun fact: the town motto is Wind Up In Traer)I’m not sure when this particular photo was taken. The Vet’s office is still in that building to the left, but it hasn’t had that sign under the window since I’ve lived here, which is going on 11 years. The sign in the storefront straight ahead tells me that this was taken when it was still the quilt shop — which has been closed for 4 or 5 years. That’s the spot where I first had my quilting machine, lo, these many years ago. (Seriously: it’s been 10 years…)

And we have not seen snow like that in ages. Crazy weather this year. Nice and mild, but weird.

From the back of the postcard:

Traer’s Famed Winding Staircase, Traer, Iowa. Believed to be the only outdoor winding staircase with a catwalk leading to a second-story business, this unique staircase was built in 1894 by Burlington Iron Works, leading to what was once the office of the Traer Star-Clipper, the town’s newspaper.

 

I’ve managed to mail something interesting (at least, I hope my recipients think it’s interesting) every day. I didn’t get yesterday’s mail to the post office until after 8PM, so it wouldn’t have gone out until today, but I’m still counting it as a win.

I’ve been saving some Valentine’s to mail closer to the day, and it occurred to me this morning that the day is nearly here and I’d better get them out, so those will be on their way in tomorrow’s mail.

Ironically, I actually sent several hundred pieces of mail today: today is a professional development day for the teachers, so students were off, but I had to go in to finish stuffing and mailing midterm reports. We send home reports for students who aren’t doing well, so for me, it’s really a pretty depressing job. Some aren’t surprising, but I find myself acting somewhat parental thinking “Doggone it, So-and-So, you need to get yourself together!” as if these are my own kids. I can only imagine how unhappy some of these parents are going to be to get the efforts of my labor…and sadly, some of the parents aren’t even going to care.

I did have a funny mail experience the other day, though, that seemed ironic what with the challenge and all…a student who was doing some work for a teacher needed to mail something. She was mailing a stack of papers in a large manila envelope and had written the address for the recipient, but then she had to ask me where she was supposed to put the return address! I guess I’d better make sure my boys know how to write a letter. I’d hate for them not to know what to do when they want to write a love letter to a girl…

50 pictures and several frozen fingers later (and a trip to Mr. Google to tell me what settings I really needed to get a good shot…) and voila:

f/11.0
ISO 100
1/125 sec
300 mm

Even though they are twins, and people have trouble telling them apart at times, the boys are not identical. Will can roll his tongue, but Joe cannot. I wanted Joe to stick his tongue out at his brother, but he had a better idea: he suggested that he ROLL his eyes, which was an accurate representation of his opinion of the situation…

This cracked me up, and I thought it deserved an actual blog post.

So there you go: if you forget about Joe’s mole, you can check if they can roll their tongues. Will (with the double L’s, which match the L’s in roll) can do it, Joe cannot.

Those are size 14 feet, and that little wad of yarn? That’s the 7 yards left of the 405 yard skein that I started with.

The yarn is Socks that Rock Lightweight in Schwarzwald, a sock club color from last year. The pattern is Blunnie Socks, but modified: I did these toe-up, instead of cuff-down, and I made the legs quite a bit longer than the pattern called for. Mark’s feet are long, but they are narrow, very little meat on them (or on his ankles). But his ankle depth is enough that the cuff-down sock that was narrow enough for his ankles was too tight to go over his heels. He thought I was a bit nuts in wanting to switch and go toe-up, but the proof is in the pudding: I was able to do the narrow ankle, so the socks will stay up, but I used a stretchy bindoff that fits over his heels.

That’s the only finished picture I have of them, the man put them on and won’t take them back off.

Now to decide which socks to work on next…

Today is day 1 of the Month of Letters challenge. I have stacked my deck — I have a bunch of  partially made fabric postcards that I worked on finishing over the weekend, I bought a few cards, and I gathered up some stationery. I have a list and I bought stamps — so I’m all set to write postcards and letters and mail something every day this month.

I have 2 postcards and some other letters going overseas, so it seemed easy and logical to start with those at the beginning of the month, seeing as how they have the farthest to go.

I’m not going to show my postcards until later, though, as I’d like them to be a little bit of a surprise for the recipients. They aren’t spectacular, but they are kind of fun, and hopefully they will bring a bit of brightness to their stacks of mail.

Has anyone else decided to try the challenge out themselves? Anyone else interested in getting a bit of mail from me this month? Post a comment or send me an e-mail! To be clear: I am not asking you to send me anything in return. I mean, it would be nice of you, but it is not “required,” just in case you are hesitating because you think I expect you to be signing up to “swap” with me.

Autumn Leaves by Nikki Van De Car

Needs buttons, but the knitting is all done. The yarn is superwash wool, and is a really pretty handpainted red — it has some pinks and oranges in it, but it does not want to photograph well. It’s like it freaked the camera out.

That sweater is the Puerperium Cardigan. Not that you notice the sweater, due to the extreme cuteness of my newest niece. My brother, sister, and I have 9 kids between us, and I might be biased, but we wound up with an awfully good-looking crew. They are all smart and polite and talented, too.