Pumpkin Carving

2011 officially rules with the inception of pumpkins into my life beginning a few weeks ago and ending in the bloodiest pumpkin massacre I have seen with my wee eyes since years ago when Salina and I tried to dissect some orange beauties only to find they were rotten, fell apart, or become depictions of our artistic failures. Oh pumpkin vengeance, your seedy ass is mine!

Roasted pumpkin seeds:

cleaned and degutted seedlings tossed with a bit of oil

dash of nutmeg

sprinkle of cinnamon

pinch of salt

little bit of coriander

Roast for 20 minutes at 400 degrees

Crafternoon

This here post will be a list a la Noelle Bonnie

• waking up at 7:30am every morning whether I have to work or not
• Betty Grable sings "Shimmy Like my Sister Kate" better than anyone else.
• drinking hot chai and waiting for two batches of biscuits to rise: one vegan, the other gluten-free. Two friends and their new baby need gluten-free goodies and far be it from me to stop the consumption of treats. I have never baked gluten-free before and don't expect magic from this batch because I am not following any rules or using a special recipe, but I have a good feeling about this.

Did I just unintentionally diverge from the list format? I think I did. In two weekends I'll be in Las Vegas at Cirque du Soleil - how lucky am I? These photos are from a crafternoon I spent last week painting and napping with Devo.

Teacher

Yesterday my mom sent me a wooden pin shaped like an apple. I love being a teacher, and I especially love Fridays because it is an easy day academically for the kids, we went to the library to read Victoria Kann books, played exquisite corpse (drawing), drew pictures of owls, listened to Let it Be, and watched Ponyo.

Self-Portrait

self-description, age 22. Joyful, bird tail peering out from behind skull.

Radish Rug

My favorite snack lately is roasted radishes. I toss them with oil, a pinch of salt, and black pepper, then bake them for about 20 minutes at 300°F. (The greens are my favorite part).

I am making a rag rug with no pattern and with complete disregard for technique, let's see how this turns out.

After a dreamy week and weekend, I've got butterflies fluttering out my eyelids and have been puttering out for a daily nap, and especially looking forward to the rainy season coming up because now I have an excuse to start my annual knitting frenzy. Watch out for fiberous gifts coming your way, friends. Just started working on a multi-colored neck warmer, and need to restock my yarn stash - I only moved with four skeins from Florida, two of which are half used and smell unsurprisingly like plywood and oak splinters. Today I took a field trip to Lake Anza and dove off a cliff into the crisp water below, swam like a dog, lifted myself onto a rock like a turtle, and dried my hairy legs in the sun like a lizard.

I've been thinking about making an account on etsy for a while now to sell postcards and knit things and have (which you can find here) but I haven't added any goods to it yet. Because I haven't made them yet. Motivation, kick in soon.

Watermelon Sugar

Spending the afternoon on the porch with Rosie, taking a break from to-do lists today and getting sticky fingers from sucking on yellow watermelon slices