I took our Christmas Tree down this weekend. It's funny how the house suddenly feels a little dull without it's twinkling presence.
Exhibit A (below). A festive little scene of highly satisfying organisation. Historically I've been a throw-all decorations-in-a-big-box-and-worry-about-it-next-December sort of a girl but this year's approach to tree deconstruction was almost as enjoyable as putting the tree up in the first place.
Millie x
I've finished several pair of socks lately that hadn't made their way in front of a camera. Me, the socks and the camera hit the brief Sunday sun yesterday.
These ones are the ever popular 'Monkey' pattern by Cookie A. In fact, both of the patterns shown in the photos below are Cookie A - she's a sock knitting rock star!
This excellent shade of mustard I picked up while on holiday with my friend Laura in Denver, Colorado.
This tropical shade of blue is from Knitsch - it's called 'Days at the Bay'. These ones are off to a good friend in the US for her birthday. She lives in a climate where socks probably only make an outing for about 10 days a year but she's a big traveller and there's nothing better than shoes off, cozy socks on for plane journeys if you ask me.
And I can't quite remember the composition of this yarn but it was some sort of fancy combo from 'Joy of Yarn' in Greytown.
Millie x
I love it when people send me photos of sock monkeys they've sewn themselves. I get so use to seeing the faces of the guys I make but other peoples monkeys have a whole other personality of their own.
I sent a kit to Pauline (Mrs Smythe to her students) a while back and like a good educator she saved it up to use as a reward for a student that deserved it.
She found that student in Lauren who managed to whip this up over the weekend including banana! Cute aye?
In my youth, I was quite the consumer of Rolling Stone magazine. I remember reading many articles where the writer had been given the opportunity to interview some musical god or other only to leave the interview intensely disappointed that their expectations of the person or band had not been met. "Never met your idol" was not an uncommon conclusion.
It's no secret that my living hero is one Martha Stewart and by amazing good fortune Martha was doing a book signing in Beverley Hills on my most recent trip to the US this month. I arrived early and lined up with a host of fancy, surgically enhanced Californian housewives. Waiting patiently in line, Martha's assistants informed us that there would be no posing with Martha, no requests for dedications in the book signing and by absolutely no means shall we have a flash turned on our camera.
I get it. Martha is a busy lady and no lady young or old looks good under a daytime flash. But no dedications? No posing? Oh Martha. I still love you despite your high maintenance behaviour. You're just lucky I wasn't writing for Rolling Stone.
Here I am, in brief conversation with Martha about roses gardens and Russel Crowe.
Millie x
I love cooking classes. No matter how complex or how basic they are, I always learn something new. Gagganeau (a German appliance brand) have sponsored a series of 2-hour cooking classes on a Sunday morning at the City Markets. They've secured a host of Wellington's star chefs and restaurant owners and packaged it up to look like a cooking class while really being a thinly veiled advertisement for their appliances. The approach has worked well for them to date though today's class was more a testament to the lesser known complexities of their product than it's virtues but that's really a whole different story.
The classes to date have been excellent and I've learned how to cure and smoke my own bacon, how to make sushi and today; several ways with eggs.
The instructor, Zelda Haines from Nikau Cafe - which is a bit of a Wellington breakfast institution - taught us her famed sage fried eggs, scrambled eggs (the M.F.K. Fisher way) and proper egg custard. All delightful.
Did you know that eggs cook way before boiling point? The different proteins in an egg cook at between 62 - 78 degrees so no more cracking my eggs into a boiling pan of water or pouring scrambled mixture into a heated pool of butter!
Millie x
Craft 2.0 is but days away and for the first time ever I actually feel prepared for a show. Monkeys are sewn, kits assembled, Perky Nana's procured.
There are so many good reasons to head down to the show on Saturday but if just incase you need another here's a $5 Off voucher that you can use at my stall.
Download Craft 2.0 29_10_11 Voucher
Millie x
Almost 28 months to the date I've finished my lace baby blanket. You know what they say about good thing taking time. heh heh.
Millie x
Apart from my inability to scan accurately (this was my seventh attempt and I still managed to crop a few letters off the left hand side) this will blow up to a readable size if you click on the image.
Katy is not only Christchurch's premier craft columnist she has also been my hand sewing idol for years. Back in 2009 she protected my iPhone, I have two of her much coveted needlebooks and recently I commissioned her to make napkin rings for a friend which were so beautiful that they accidentally ended up staying at my place.
Millie x
I have wondered on several occasions why America has never embraced the meat pie as a takeaway food preference. A meat pie has all the makings of a great American fast food choice - they are served heated, packed full of average quality meat, wrapped up in carbs and complete with 50% of your daily saturated fat requirement. Perhaps our American friends are just already too well served for choices in the dietary abomination category.
I also wonder when I see the glory that is Red Velvet upon bakery shelves all over the US why it is that New Zealand - with our ongoing fasination for cupcakes - has not snatched this pretty combination.
My American friend Marena recently gave me her Grandmother Ruby's Red Velvet cake recipe. I only know one fact about Ruby and that is that her favourite colour is red. This is enough for me to believe that a. she's a lady I would have liked and b. she no doubt provides a quality recipe.
Want to know where the red came from before Hansell's provided red food dye? Beets! Beet juice and cocoa = red cake!
Millie x
