I want to be a nerd more than ever now.
And eat toothpaste for dinner.

So thanksgiving.
This was a "first" thanksgiving for Mark and me. We cooked our first dinner. Roasted our first turkey, made our first stuffing. bourboned our first yam. Busted our first under sink pipes from abusing the garbage disposal. Robin made her first pie crust from scratch (and the pie too). Tyler set his first table (2 coffee cups, both piled two plates and a bowl - wonderfully consistent at each setting). First sit-down good conversation with Luke.

I began listening to Brenda Dayne's Cast-On just last week (yes, my head has been under a legal-study, yoga escaping, backtrack to GED attainment, ROCK). Listening to Episode 1.5 "Snow Day" the day before Thanksgiving left me with a warm fuzzy magic all through the waking up Thanksgiving morning, to the setting of the meal at the table:

"One of the things I miss most about the Thanksgiving holiday in the US is the unified hush that seems to come over the entire country. I love the quiet stillness of it, first thing in the morning, when you notice the absence of early traffic sounds. Lights come on in the neighbor's houses, and you know they're making coffee, and wondering what time they should think about getting the bird into the oven. Or they're grabbing a quick breakfast, packing the kids into the car, and hitting the road for the long drive to . . ."

Wow. the podcast is beautiful to listen to and the transcript is still wonderful to read and save. Her writing is powerful, beautiful and soft.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been about huge family dinners at my sister-in-law's Nancy's house, with 30 or so people showing up. Arlo Guthrie's Alices Restaurant usually plays each year, Nancy wraps bacon around water chestnuts and fries them, Johnny cooks at least two turkeys (with more bacon and water chestnuts mixed in the stuffing), Robin gets to play with cousins she rarely sees and misses, and I'm always given the job of making the traditional green bean casserole.

This year there was no green bean casserole. It was fresh green beans, snapped in the kitchen while Robin and I talked about family history. They were steamed and mixed with dried cranberries soaked in butter. Yams were cooked with butter, bourbon and pecans, not Marshmallows. The mashed potatoes were chunky yet smooth, mixed with even more Butter. I am such a Whole Foods/Trader Joes type of girl. Nancy's very much Costco and Vons. I'm a dreamer - cooking slow and low. She's a giver - big and generous all the way.

But this year she just wanted to skip the cooking for 30, and go to her sister-in-law's house instead. We missed each other, the cousins missed each other.

Even though the "little" dinner Mark and I cooked was lovely. Next year Nancy and I decided that we wanted the big Thanksgiving at her house again.

Nancy's After-Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwiches:

Ingredients listed as they should be layered for one sandwich:

First Slice of soft wheat bread (Supermarket "wheat")
Spread thin layer of mayonnaise
Thinkly sliced sweet pickles (sliced vertically)
Strips of leftover turkey
thin layer of stuffing (but not too thin)
a few slices of black olives (supermarket kind, not specialty olives)
thin layer of cranberry sauce
closing layer of 2nd slice of soft wheat bread.

I tried this for the first time last Sunday; after watching these made every year now since 2001. My niece, Miranda, offered me half when she could only finish the first half.

No, no no no no no no no. Well. Ok.

Well. actually, nice! Really.

The best turkey sandwich I've ever tasted. Has that innovative, simple, really good thing going like the scrambling eggs into top ramen, tuna and peas in our Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or Melted Sharp Cheddar on apple pie.

Arthur's variation: use the leftover Pillsbury Grands flaky biscuits instead of
bread and add a thin layer of mashed potatoes.

oN and On.

Disclaiming this blog now.
I have way too many WIPs, 2 kids, a full study schedule and bla bla bla. this blog was, and is, intended to just put down "show notes" for an intended podcast (good luck to me!).
This blog will tend to be cryptic as I tend to intend to blog things that happen and end up doing this in spits and farts. So I count on readers to creatively complete any sentences I've written incompletely and follow with me on ideas vague and ambiguous.
There.
.
Last week, Robin bought lots of new pencils. We spend 25 minutes at Staples weighing the pros and cons on the different types to pick from and after choosing between the gross dozen of already sharpened golf pencils, cheap dozen disposable mechanical pencils and some nicer mechanical pencils with the slight thicker leads that could be refilled and used with more pleasure, she picked the ladder.
She lost them all the following week through a newly discovered hole in her old backpack.
I bought her a new backpack (ohmagawd, you should see it, it's so pretty - khaki olive green and light rasberry pink, padded straps, a little hole to slip mp3 player ear bud cord through, the works.
I was listening to (addictively) to earlier creativemompodcasts from the past summer and while keeping in the flow of journal-making, sketching and pencils - I thought a roll up pencil case (ala knitting needle case) would be so fun and easy to make; especially from the saved and saved and couldn't throw away, but didn't have any ideal idea to use felted pieces I had in storage. It all came together, problem, solution, another past problem, a better part of the solution and . . . ta da - the roll up pencil case I made for Robin was so easy, came out beautifully and I'm putting these on Christmas lists for other little sketchers and crocheters in the family.

ORANGE and BRICK RED FELTED WOOL

100 Things and Clutter Fast

100 Things about me:

1. I love condiments.
2. Especially rice vinegar and balsamic vinegars.
3. A little boy wearing a handknit Hat melts my heart
4. I've had a Barbie Knitter since I was 8 years old.
5. My daughter robin has made oodles of Barbie Tube dresses on Barbie knitter
6. We love to shop at Trader Joes and Whole Foods
7. We still call Whole Foods "Mrs. Gooch's" or "The Soup Store"
8. I've been called Boho
9. I grew up alot in Mill Valley, California (it was one year, but a really big year).
10. I've been called a hippy (alot)
11. I've been called a dyke
12. A dyke is a little cutting tool that electricians use
13. I love Northern Europe
14. I fell in love with Brugges, Belgium and stayed there for a week after intending to just pass through it for a day.
15. Gypsies are dark nomads.
16. I wish I was darker
17. I grew up with Heart in the 70s
18. Favorite Heart albums are Little Queen and Dog & Butterfly
19. My sister is Little Queen
20. My sister taught me to crochet
21. I love to fly
22. It's much nicer to swim though
23. I love aiports
24. Have to be careful to take crafting on airplanes
25. I'm sad about America
26. Sad to be American sometimes
27. I like many people from many places with many ideas
28. Many people from many places are not too crazy about many Americans
29. I have Mark
30. Mark has Ty with me
31. I share Robin with them
32. we have a family
33. But Luke came first
34. Luke gave us Ty for name
35. I picked Kai
36. Luke & Tyler Kai
37. My favorite movie is Spirited Away
38. Previous favorite movie for years was Kiki's Delivery Service
39. Current eBay handle is Hals Moving Castle (Howls Moving Castle was already taken)
40. I have nothing to feed No Face
41. Katherine Hepburn was my idol growing up
42. almost as much as Betsey Johnson
43. I had every single one of her Butterick patterns (Betsey's, not Kate's)
44. I wore many appliqued apron dresses, wrap skirts and lace inset tee shirts during the 70s.
45. Then I discovered Deborah Harry
46. I changed a little
47. Favorite 80s bands: SHRIEKBACK, Police, B52s, Bronski Beat. Not Heart. Pretty much if a band kept their hair short or thin in the 80s, I was into them.
48. Favorite 80s game: Trivial Pursuit
49. Pink was my favorite category
50. I still play Junior Trivial Pursuit with Robin and her cousins
51. And watch jeopardy with brother Johnny many nights.
52. It's not fun to watch Jeopardy alone.
53. Robin napped through her first two years in my lap, while Food Network was on t.v.
54. Robin is passionate about cooking.
55. Especially baking. She's going to be a pastry chef when she grows up.
56. The Sheriff on Eureka is too cute.
57. The bald guy who married Charlotte on Sex and the City is cutest.
58. Mark is not bald
59. Mark is not even balding
60. Skinny Mark is very, very cute.
61. I love to dye things
62. and felting too
63. I am very DIY
64. I am very not Di.
65. I wish to be living in UK
66. Queens must survive
67. Princesses dream
68. If a princess knits enough, she will survive enough
69. Red is inflammatory
70. Red patent leather is mean
71. Blue is universal
72. What does that mean?
73. Bitter is universal
74. My closet is pink
75. My bedroom was orange
76. A soft, marbled, earthy, wiped over orange.
77. Tweeds are strong
78. Yucky pink tweeds were only fun for 10 seconds
79. Martha Stewart had to happen
80. Without her, the alternative could only be sad
81. I discovered Nighthawks at the Diner in 1983.
82. I wished I saw Tom Waits perform drunk in a piano bar during the 70s.
83. Did see Tom Waits on stage with Carol Kane in a play Called Demon Wine.
84. I was really young, I didn't get it - but they were so cool to watch performing together. (Waits seemed very sober, and somber).
85. Favorite female performers are Carol Kane, Catherine Keaner, Francis McDormand, Myrna Loy, Audrey Patou, Ani Difranco, Rickie Lee Jones, Eryka Badu, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald.
86. All time favorite song is "I loves you Porgy" as performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
87. Favorite song to Karaoke to: "Fever" by Peggy Lee
88. I lived with Nighthawks at the Diner and Tom in is Wild Years during the 80s.
89. I lived with a Girl at her Volcano
90. I grew up with Ladies of the Canyon and a Tapestry of rich and royal hues.
91. I am 32 flavors and then some
92. Bucheron is my favorite cheese
93. I am not cheap, I just reuse, renew and recyle alot
94. I grew up in Puerto Rico
95. I've lived mostly in Hollywood since I was six
96. Went to at least a dozen different schools during my childhood
97. I like cold, rainy weather. I have to take a walk in my Thompson Green Wellies each time it rains here. Being hot makes me miserable.
98. Naturally, I live in Southern California
99. Would love to change places with Franklin Habit
100. I just want to have something to talk about afterwards in the Locker Room
     

And there you have it, my first go at a 100 things list.

Something tells me this will be done again. and again. Already, I'm working on a "100 things" about the year 2006 to put in the Christmas cards to family this year. I was never a newsletter to the family writer, just a quick Merry Christmas note in the cards I send out. This year I plan to try a 100 things list and hope that maybe, sooner or later, it will catch on and we can exchange them with each other. (Wouldn't that be so cool???)

I've been thinking more about Clutter. Especially after listening to CreativeMom in her Episode 9 podcast on the subject.

Clutter in so many parts of life.

• I've turned to Yoga, meditation and methodical crafts (origami, granny squares) for my cluttered mind;
• a Journal and To Do Lists for my cluttered schedule;
• even noticing a little bit of the cluttered body facing the sunny side of 40s.

And craving alot of moments to kind of go on a "clutter fast." Clear the mind, just sit with friends and be busy doing absolutely nothing.

So look what Robin did:

I couldn't keep my brush paws off either. But I did the tiny parts, the horse hairs and some slight shading; she did the rest. Why did they say this was for ages 8up? I'm 38+ and it was not easy! But well worth it; Robin's excited to tack up it up on her freshly painted, pink walls.

Thinking along these lines, I made myself watch a 2 hour dorky movie with my daughter. Not doing anything else, no crafting or crocheting or anything while we watched the movie. My body was buzzing, my brain was aching to keep up the daily nonstop activity - it was incredible just noticing the ease it began to feel after just 2 hours of no-thinking in watching this movie.

Amazingly refreshed after the two hours, I just felt "reset" and easy-going.

Crafting had become an obsession rather than the calming cure it used to be.

So we went to the Park the next day just to hang out, talk to strangers and not bring any knitting, crocheting or podcast listening. There's a balance thing going on here. Cool.

Going Blank

I've been listening to archived podcasts from Amy at CreativeMomPodcast . In Episodes 7 and 8, she talks alot about journals and journaling. She asked about our favorite journals. What is my favorite journal? The one I just made.

After listening to her explore the world of Moleskines and seeing a few for myself, I just fell for these little journals from Italy. I loved the little flap tabs and elastic bands to keep the book together, lined pages, graph paper pages, sketch paper pages and watercolor books. I wanted All of them, since I like having a lined page for writings, graph paper for fair isle sketches and ideas, Sketch paper for pencil drawings and playing with shading and so on.

So I had to make my own.

Obsessively, I finished it in 36 hours - in between kids, family, visiting nieces, a park trip and a dorky old Hanibal Lechter movie. With little origami breaks to cleanse the prototype-designing pallette.

I was just finishing off the final stitching of the fabric cover on the drive over the park Sunday morning. After pushing the swing with the little one, playing some frisbee and checking out the Merry Go Round (closed for a private party today), I got a chance to break in the my newly made journal and started sketching a leaf on the table.




Click on either picture to enlarge image

So I love this journal. Already I've enjoyed my first sketch and keeping track of podsafe songs I heard and want to download, and mixes to start making for Christmas.

It's a journal I can use, let the kids play with and use, easily add pages or tear out any and change the choice of papers in the future when I make more of these. Or adding little origami made pockets to hold found things, scraps of yarn or even a CD of Robin or Tyler talking, singing, stuff like that. Yes, I designed the slightly larger than 5 by 7 size of this journal so that it would be big enough to contain a pocket sleeve for a full size CD to slip into after the journal is filled and I'm off to work on a new one.

As I also heard about, from creativemompodcast, is another journaler with great ideas as well. In her blog, Heidi gives some really fun ideas with journaling, like adding little ring tabs to the binder with the dates of when the journal starts and ends, or making a table of contents on a nearly finished journal.

So, on this Monday morning, I'm starting to listen to another wonderful archived episode of Amy's ~ Episode 9 of CreativeMomPodcast, and Amy discusses CLUTTER! Another SMALLWORLD moment, since I was just starting to clear out clutter as I finished up the journal project, putting fabrics and projects away I know should wait while I kept a few high-priority projects around. This led me to the storage room where I ended up getting lost in time as I was going through my old files, sketches, paintings.

So I'm really looking forward to listening to the rest of this Clutter Episode tomorrow, early morning, feeling probably yet again "me too," "Me too," "Me Too," as she talks about her Clutter(s).