Day 5

Tuesday Farmer's Market shopping list:

• raspberries
• strawberries
• tomatoes
• fennel
• shiitake mushrooms

I did not buy any of these adorable bundles of garlic scapes from Town Farm because I haven't yet used the ones I got in my Town Farm CSA share last week.

Day 4

I left town today. But only to go to nearby Chesterfield for their adorable 4th of July parade. I can't believe I've lived here for 14 years and have never been to this event. It's a sweet, small town parade - not too long and full of lots of homemade floats and costumes. The oddest part was a person in a chicken costume wandering up and down the parade route, hugging everyone. Apparently she is there every year. She is both fascinating and terrifying to 2 year-olds.

Day 3

Strawberry Crumb Bars

Day 2

There was the arrival of Issue 1 of Lucky Peach. There was a fabulous grilled dinner (if I do say so myself). There was ping pong at Adam and Liz's (and I'm just as spazzy at ping pong as I am at every other sport that involves hitting a ball over a net).

Staying Home

I tend to travel a lot in the summer. Work trips mixed in with attempts at vacations and mini-getaways. It means that I miss out on summer at home. This year I'm determined not to do that. I have this idea that I can go the whole of July without leaving Northampton. There are so many good things here and there is nothing I need that I can't find locally. I'm going to enjoy just being here. I'm not going to set any hard and fast rules, because I might decide want to see a movie that's only playing in Amherst, or go berry picking, or go to that cute little 4th of July Parade in a nearby town with friends.

Day 1

Fish Fry Friday! A summer tradition started by my friends Bill and GL last year. An easy relaxing end to the week - a bunch of good friends sitting around unwinding and stuffing ourselves. This week included Traci's very strawberryey Pimm's Cups

Red hearts and pies

There is no reason on earth I should love Valentine's day as much as I do. (Really. It's like this.) I've decided that it has a little bit to do with the fact that I never got over the excitement of elementary school and stuffing construction paper valentines in the handmade (from milk cartons) mailboxes on each of my classmates desks. It also has a lot to do with the fact that I love an excuse to craft and I love gift giving. Apart from Christmas, there aren't any other holidays where you give gifts to lots of people. I can make crafty stuff for Halloween, but I don't (always...) give out gifts. Add to all this the tiny girl in me who secretly still loves hearts and pink (and ribbons and doilies and pretty packages) and come the first couple of weeks of February, I tend to go a little bit nuts.

This year I made lavender sachets using two of my new most favorite crafting supplies: my giant cone of bakers twine (which I ADORE and will last me for the rest of my life) and Stiffy (which I cannot discuss with out hearing a chorus of 'That's What She Saids' in my head). The latter is pretty amazing stuff - paint it on fabric, let it dry and you can cut and applique to your heart's content. No hems or fraying and it makes things, um, nice and stiff.

And, because those weren't enough... I decided to make whoopie pies for the first time in my life. And not just plain old chocolate whoopie pies (not that there's anything wrong with them...), but red velvet ones.

(sorry about the crappy phone picture, but I'd eaten way too much sugar at this point and couldn't be bothered to find my real camera...)

Owls

(Look at me blogging!)

A while back a friend mentioned that her 18 month old had outgrown the hats I made for her last year and they'd lost a few others, so were currently short on hats. I promptly took needles to yarn (because baby hats are cathartic - quick and satisfying). I had some bright pink Classic Elite Duchess (currently on closeout at Webs) and planned to make a basic hat with the little one's current favorite animal embroidered on it. Working on it late one evening, after a glass of wine or two, I had the brilliant idea to try to give it ears. A little short-row shaping and the owl hat was born.

The original pink one is there on the right with the owl embroidered on as planned. When realized Valley Yarn's Northampton Bulky was the perfect yarn for these (both pricewise and yardagewise), the hats quickly became an obsession. They knit up super quickly. I tried embroidering on a face on the dark blue one, but wasn't completely thrilled with how it looked or how long it took. The felt face with button eyes is much easier.

I love how each one takes on its own personality.

I whipped these two up very quickly for my old friend Heidi's daughters.

A coworker asked if I could do a tiger version of it for his son. No problem, the hat can easily be converted to any sort of cat face. But then he asked if I could do his daughter's favorite animal - a zebra.

It was a bit of a challenge figuring out how to make it look horse-like. Anisa suggested the mane (which runs all the way down the backside) and then the rest of it took shape.

I've written up the pattern and included templates for the felt face pieces. There are 4 sizes ranging from toddler to adult. Some wonderful friends have tested it for me (thanks Tina, Robyn, Donna and Melissa!). It's available for $3 on Ravelry at: Owls and Tigers and Zebras, Oh My!

I'm completely obsessed and cannot stop making these. I have a big bag of Northampton Bulky sitting next to me right now (I think I bought almost every color available) and plan to spend much of my Christmas break cranking out owls.