Fall

Fall is finally here. Not that I am tired of summer, but fall is my favorite season so I have to show it some love. I love everything connected with the fall- leaves, spiced ciders, crisp air, jackets, Halloween, and pumpkin patches. When I lived in Bowling Green I would go to Jackson's Orchard every chance I had and I would drink hot cider while walking through the fields of pumpkins. There is a certain calm that comes when walking through a place that represents such a simple way of living (though I am quite aware that these places just put on a show for us city dwellers, but it is an illusion that I enjoy so let's just stick with it.) Fall is also the time of year that I tend to get reminiscent of things in my past. I think it started last weekend when I listened to a bunch of college mixes and it continues today as I dream about walking through a pumpkin patch and drinking cider. Tomorrow morning we leave for Glasgow (Kentucky, y'all) where we are going to celebrate Philip's grandmother's 90th birthday. I get a little dreamy when I think about the possibility of seeing miles of color changing leaves on out trip. I know it is a little early, but a girl can dream.

When we get back I would like to plan a trip to the Lexington Corn Maze, who's in?

Nose to the grindstone

I can't believe how crazy busy things are this week. Last night I got home from the stop at 6:30 and by 9:15 I was passed out in bed (then in typical insomniac fashion I woke up at 4am for an hour.) I don't know what was wrong with me; I just couldn't keep my eyes open one minute longer. It was probably for the better because when I got up this morning I felt great which is good because today is going to be another long day. This afternoon we are supposed to be getting a huge shipment in the shop that I need to price and find space for after I get off my other job. I am quickly realizing that I should have made my last day two weeks ago; juggling a full-time job and the onset of the Fall season at the shop is way too much for me to handle right now. I keep telling myself that it is almost over and I will soon get a break, but with all of the projects I pushed off until after my job ends I am not so sure that break is coming as soon as I would like. This is one of those situations where I just need to put my head down and keep working until everything is done and it will be done.

Weekend wrap-up

I haven't posted in a week so I guess it is time I put something up. This weekend was one of those weekends with so much stuff going on that we had to turn down invitations. Friday night was game night where we had a bunch of friends over to play Rock Band and make characters. Back track, did I mention that Rock Band 2 came in the mail on Friday? We got it all set up, imported the tracks from the first game and spent the night unlocking the tracks on the second game.

Saturday I had to work in the morning so I headed out while Philip ran some errands to help make the day go smoother. In the afternoon, Philip came by the store all dressed up to go to the Chris Squared wedding at the Bell House. I changed into more appropriate attire and we were on our way. Funny thing about Philip, he hates dressing up so when I got into the car he showed me the two polo shirts he brought to change into for the reception and asked which one I preferred. I picked the blue one and he agreed. Then, he decided that if the blue shirt is good enough for the reception, it should be good enough for the wedding while he pulled off his button-up shirt and his undershirt and changed into the blue polo in the parking lot of the store. Meanwhile, I was sitting there laughing because even though I never argued or questioned his decision to change he kept defending it even going so far as to say "You are not my mother." At the reception I was recounting the story to Zabet and Philip chimed in "Yeah when it comes to dressing up I revert to my four-year-old self."

Another funny story from the wedding. SB and Leon brought the kids along to the ceremony. Leon wore a kilt and was swinging C, their youngest around. C kept trying to swing between Leon's legs and Leon kept fighting him off. Long story short, C ended up swinging between his legs after which he proclaims "Daddy I saw your booty" and runs away. Now we all know that Leon stuck with tradition.

The wedding itself was lovely. The ceremony was out in front of the Bell House and lasted under ten minutes. It was the perfect length of a ceremony, beautiful and too short to start getting bored. Both of the Chrises looked amazing and incredibly happy (much different than the stressed out looks we've been seeing all week.) We stayed for the reception and I had half a plate of asparagus and hummus and some of the Baklava that Chris made. After the reception we made plans with Zabet and Patrick to meet back at our place later on for more sweet Rock Band action. The rest of the evening consisted of porch beers and Rock Band and a little visiting with the tired Chrises.

Sunday was my hoop class at Third Street stuff while Philip sat and drank coffee. After the class, I joined him and knit for awhile. Then we went home where we were pretty lazy for the rest of the day. Philip customized characters in Rock Band and I went thru some old party CD's from college (side note to Nieves- Holy crap we make awesome mixes, seven years later and they still make me dance!!) We ended the evening with some Kwachik takeout from Asian Wind, yummy.

The next week is going to be pretty busy between me wrapping up my day job and the new Fall merchandise coming into the store everyday. We have already received two of the new yarn lines we will be carrying and we are expecting 1-2 more this week. We also got a huge shipment of fair trade winter wear last week. I also have four commissioned jobs I am working on right now that all need to be done by the end of this month. Next weekend we are going on a trip out of town so thus continues the September madness. I am looking forward to the downtime that October will bring.

Day off

Today was my last vacation day before the end of my job. I can only cash out 160 hours of vacation pay when I leave so I have been trying to use up all of the extra time. I am still going to lose some of it, but no where near as much as I would have lost a few months ago so I will call it a success. Anyway, my day consisted of sleeping in a bit, taking Astrid on a nice long walk, sitting on the porch knitting and drinking hot cocoa, walking to the Asian market, lunch with Philip, afternoon knitting with the girls, a trip to the library and then a little cooking.

My trip to the Asian market was extremely fruitful; I managed to buy 3 types of seasoned tofu, 4 blocks of plain tofu, some vegan chiken, a giant thing of Miso paste and 2 cans of coconut milk all for $17. Since Philip and I are going to Louisville tonight after he gets off work, we won't get to eat dinner until probably around 7:30 or 8pm. Since we had all that tofu and some Swiss Chard from the CSA I decided to grill it all up for a mini-meal.


The swiss chard was super easy to cook, just heat some oil oil, add some garlic, crushed red pepper, salt and the cut chard and saute for a few minutes. It was so simple and it came out perfect and got the Philip seal of approval. I will definitely be getting some more at the farmers' market this weekend.

That is all for now, we are heading to Louisville where we hope to do some record shopping and dinner at Ramsi's.

Let's Grill!!

Wow, what is it with September? There is so much going on this month I have no idea when we are going to get a chance to sit down and catch our breaths. Friday night we went out to Mellow Mushroom for our friend Patrick's birthday. It was really fun, but crazy hot so as soon as the check was settled Philip and I split. We went over to our friend Shaun's house to help him out with some cleaning. He had a girl friend coming to visit him for the weekend and he wanted to impress her. When we got there he had a small cleaning crew cleaning and organizing his stuff. Philip and I noticed that the walls were bare and he was missing a few things that most girls would notice (things like hand soap and towels in the bathroom) so we made a quick trip to our house, grabbed a few paintings for his walls, a hammer and nails, some soap, a set of matching towels, a scented candle, and a few other things that would make his apartment a little homier. We rushed back to his place, hung the paintings and put the other stuff into place and then we all cleared out so that it looked like Shaun was just spending a quiet night at home waiting for her arrival.

After redecorating Shaun's place we went back home and got into our pajamas and Philip set up Rock Band. I noticed a message on my phone (which I left at home for the night) from Chris saying she, boy Chris, Zabet and Patrick decided to go to Marikka's to have a drink before calling it a night, perfect timing since Philip and I weren't ready to call it a night. I called back to see if they were still thee, which they were, and then Philip and I jumped out of our pj's and back into normal clothes and headed over to the bar. We stayed at Marikka's for a couple of hours and then Philip and Patrick decided they wanted to play Rock Band so we all headed back to the house and "rocked out" for the rest of the night.

Yesterday morning I could barely peel myself out of bed, but since Sarah had to go to Cincinnati for a false alarm and didn't get any sleep I had to get cleaned up and into the shop by 10am (more like 10:15 when I got there, but no one seemed to notice.) Philip came around 4pm to pick me up and we headed to the liquor barn to get some beer for the last minute cookout we planned for last night. We went home and while Philip prepared the grill I made about a million shish kabobs from the CSA produce we got this week. I also made the wheat meat that would become our ribz using the recipe from the Fat Free Vegan Blog and I was really happy with the results.


I made a triple batch to accommodate all of our guests and ended up with some leftovers (though I am pretty sure that Philip and I will be able to handle them.) The actual prep time for these ribs is less than five minutes and I figured that the ingredients for one batch cost under $1.50 so they are definitely worth trying. If you do decide to make these, don't cook them on the hottest part of the grill because they will char and harden. Also, you want to flip them twice adding extra barbecue sauce in between to get the riblet effect. We all ate and played Rock Band until the wee hours.

This morning Philip and I planned to Third Street Stuff and do the hooping and coffee thing, but we were too tired to get there in time so we decided to do co-op brunch instead. After brunch we laid in bed for a bit in our food comas which is where I would have liked to stay, but I have to work in the shop at noon. Hopefully there will be a decent snb today so I can relax and knit a bit. I am still jealous of Philip who's plans for the day consist of taking a bath with some butter beans and planning a game for Friday. We don't have any plans for tonight so I think that we are just going to grill up all of the leftovers and relax on the porch.

Sick

I woke up this morning with body aches, a soar throat, and congestion so it is possible that I caught Philip's illness. I can't skip work so I took some ARA which will hopefully ward this off so I can be normal for the next few weeks.

Weekend update

Friday was a low-key movie night with some friends which was the perfect end to a slightly hectic week. We watched two movies and then sat around talking for a bit afterward. Philip was totally sick (fever, body aches, froggy throat, snotty nose,) but insisted that we still have people over. Maybe not the best idea, but it was pretty fun.

Yesterday was the big birthday sale at the store and it was spectacular!! For those of you who missed it, there is a smaller sale today, but no additional 10% for saying "happy birthday." After the sale, Philip and I ran to the drug store to get him some meds, food, and soda for his big night of being sick at home on the couch and watching movies. I got ready and went out (gasp!) with Sarah to Chris' bachelorette party. Chris' friends put together a British-style hen party for her which started at the Pub and continued at Southland Lanes where everyone bowled and drank until they turned off our lanes. We had planned on doing some karaoke at the bowling alley, but there was some confusion and weirdness with the alley management so that didn't happen. Chris decided to move the party to Mia's, but I was getting tired and decided to go home and snuggle with my sick boy instead (turns out I was also too tired to snuggle since I immediately passed out when I got into bed.) I should also mention here that about 20 minutes after I got home, Chris came by to get her dog Scout who was hanging out at our place. Seems she decided to go home and eat ice cream with some friends instead of heading downtown to another bar.

Today is going to be a relaxing day. In a bit, Philip and I are going down to Third Street Stuff for my hooping class. He will draw and drink coffee during my class and then I will join him when my class is over. After that, who knows, maybe some painting in the basement. I guess we also need to make a grocery run before the week begins. We have been really good about eating at home lately and I am hoping to keep that up since it is better for our bodies and better for our wallets. I just got another copy of La Dolce Vegan (our original copy is MIA) that was being purged at work so this week we are going to have Phebe's Mushroom Stroganoff which we haven't made in over two years. I love this recipe, it is quick, easy, and delicious.

Philip is up and showered so I think that it is time to start the day. I will try to do 1-2 cooking posts later in the week. There will be no knitting posts for awhile since I am in Christmas knitting mode and I don't want to reveal any surprises. To see my current knitting action you can always check out my Ravelry project page.

Batty batts and a bit of Degrassi

I woke up way too early yesterday, which is becoming the trend with me, so I decided to give my new drum carder a spin. I've had it since Tuesday, but I have been so busy with work and work that I still hadn't even tried it out. I carded 5 batts total out of odds and ends. I am really happy with the way they came out and most importantly, I am really happy with the carder. I have no idea what brand (if any) this carder is, but I really like the speed and the quality of the finished batts. I named the blend on the right peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the one on the left is still unnamed.

Last night we finished the last disc of Degrassi Junior High which means next week we get to move to Degrassi High!! I won't spoil the big ending for those of you that are planning to watch the series (which should be anyone who came of age in the late 80's, early 90's,) but I will say that it was hot. After the show we did some research on Degrassi High to find out which characters are staying and which ones are leaving. Unfortunately, we got side tracked trying to figure out who Amy was (for those wondering she is the girl who was always with Allison, both minor characters.) I should also mention that season three was when they started trying to look like an American show. You see several characters wearing shirts, jerseys, jackets, etc. containing various American teams and schools. They also used American bills in the $20 episode. They still have the heavy Canadian accents, but so do people in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin so that could have been the hope of the producers.

In other news, our trip to Oregon has been postponed until the Spring. We were excited to go this fall after I quit my job, but it seems that the only times we can go are two weeks before and one week after Robert and Bambu come here so it seems kinda silly. Instead we are shooting for April which should be fairly warm, well at least not freezing. We are also thinking about taking a train one way and flying the other. Neither of us have seen much of the west (just California, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon) so a train would be a great way to check out the terrain without having to drive. Originally we talked about taking the train there and flying back, but I think it might be more relaxing to fly there and take the train back. We are going to get a small sleeper car so we will have privacy, a place to sleep, and provided meals. Of course, all of this is dependent on how much vacation time Philip will have at that point and how much we have left in our savings since the train ride adds about three days to the trip and costs a whole lot more than flying.

Just when I thought Ravelry couldn't get better

Has anyone noticed the "Search Your Local Libraries" button on the book pattern pages. Press that little button and it will give you a list of the closest libraries carrying that book. Thank you Jess and Casey!!

Hula hoops and grape juice, a weekend recap

It's Wednesday which seems like the perfect time to do a weekend recap. The weekend started pretty slow with me working at the store and Philip working at the hospital on Saturday. Saturday night we went out to Gumbo Ya-yas with his family and his aunt and cousin who were visiting from Canada. I think originally his mom wanted us to go see the new Death Race movie afterwards, but since Death Race 2000 is one of our favorite movies we refused to go and see so crappy action director remake it. From what I can tell from the previews, the new version doesn't have the same message, just a lot of action. Instead we brought the Death Race 2000 dvd with us to watch at his parents' house after dinner. I was a little surprised that no one had seen it before, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Sunday I had the day off from the shop while Philip had to work at the hospital so I was determined to fill my day with fun solo activities. I started in the morning by finishing up some work stuff that I had been procrastinating about. Then, I met Sonya down at Third Street Stuff where she teaches a hooping class from 10-11am on Sundays. I gave her the last five hula hoops from my gypsy days (I kept the two I still use) and I stayed for the class. OMG, that class is so fun!! She teaches it in the lot of Third Street Stuff so there is lots of space to practice. We went over a bunch of techniques and practiced moving the hoops up and down our bodies. The really interesting thing about hula hooping is that it requires a different set of movements for every body part which makes transitioning from one part to another a little tricky. After the class, Philip met me inside for lunch and we made plans for the evening.

I walked around downtown for a bit and then decided to go home and try to get some stuff done so I would be free to have fun when Philip got home. I did the dishes, straightened up and took out the trash and recyclables. Then I was bored with cleaning so I decided to take the grapes I picked at my dad's and make grape juice. The original plan was to make jelly, but I don't love grape jelly and the idea of making 6-8 pints of it doesn't thrill me. Sarah mentioned that fresh grape juice is the best grape juice in the world and since I have several pounds of grapes, that seemed like a plan. For those wondering, the process of grape juice making is a little more complicated than just squeezing some grapes. What you do is you mash a bunch of grapes (1lb of grapes for every 8oz of juice you want) in a large stockpot. Then, you cover with water and bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce it to medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Finally, you need to remove the skins and seeds with a foodmill, strainer, or cheesecloth. I borrowed a foodmill from my dad. Sent the grape through it and then again through a strainer. The process was laborious, messy and only ended up yielding about a quart of grape juice. I spent about 30 minutes cleaning up the grape juice mess and then took a nap with Philip.

After the nap, I made shepherd's pie for dinner and we got ready to meet some friends at Marika's. Unfortunately, Marika's is closed on Sundays so it was Rock Band and beer with friends at our place instead.

Monday was mine and Philip's anniversary. We were both off work thanks to the holiday so Philip planned a whole day of activities for us to celebrate our day. The plan was to sleep in, but Philip woke up around 9am. He started getting really snuggly so I knew our plan to sleep in was out the door. After a bit we got up, got showered and dressed and hit the co-op for breakfast. Unfortunately, the co-op was closed for Labor Day so we went to plan b which was Dennys. Breakfast was great and very filling. After breakfast we headed over to Michael's to pick up some paints and a canvas for our anniversary project- a painting that we would do together. We found a pre-stretched canvas (we didn't want to spend half our day stretching and gessoing a canvas) and a few tubes of paints. We got home and Philip put the sketch onto the canvas, put in some music, and we started painting.
We painted for a few hours and I showed Philip a few of my hula hoop moves and then we were starting to get tired so we decided to take a nap until it was time to leave for the movie. We saw the Pineapple Express which was really funny and then we headed over to PF Changs for dinner. We split an appetizer, our two favorite entrees (Singapore Street Noodles and Chinese Chicken salad both made with the five spice tofu instead of meat) and a dessert (the banana spring rolls.) Then we went home and tried to finish a crossword puzzle together (we failed, but just barely) and went to sleep. It was the perfect day and probably our best anniversary yet!!

Tonight we are going to work a little more on the painting. As you can see, we have quite a bit left to do. My hope is that if we work on it for a couple of hours a night we might be done by next week. Depending on how the final colors come out, this will either go in the living room or in the studio.

Happy Birthday ReBelle!!

About three and a half years ago, I decided that I was going to make my lifelong dream of owning a store come true. I was living in Virginia at the time and I shared the idea of moving back to Lexington and opening a store with my friend Sarah who was living in Tennessee. A few days later I get a call from Sarah saying we should open the store together. We would combine both of our dreams to make one incredible store called ReBelle (a name Sarah came up with years before this conversation.)

The first step was for both of us to move back to Lexington. I was already in the process of relocating since a series of events earlier in the summer solidified mine and Philip's decision to get the hell out of Norfolk so I was in Lexington by October of that year. Sarah, on the other hand, still had some babies to deliver in order to finish up her CPM certification so she had to move to Texas for a couple of months and then she arrived in Lexington the following February. During all of this time we were planning like crazy, making lists and budgets for our upcoming business venture. Looking back on some of our original plans we were a bit naive and idealistic. We thought that we could make a large percentage of our merchandise ourselves from recycled materials; I was going to hand dye all of the yarn and Sarah was going to make all of the clothes. We spent the summer vending at every festival we could and in the off weeks we were vending at the Artists' Market. I don't miss loading and unloading all of our stuff and sitting in the hot sun on summer Saturdays, but I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything in the world. Vending festivals and talking to our customers really helped us understand what people want and how they want it.

In the meantime we were doing all of the financial stuff for the business which meant dealing with bankers who didn't believe in us. Luckily, we found a bank in Danville that was super small business friendly and believed in our dream. We signed the loan papers on a Friday and by Saturday we had signed the lease and we were ready to start fixing the place up. If you don't remember, you can find the before pictures here.

We only allowed ourselves a month to fix the place up so we were working on the place every night and every weekend. I would get off my day job and go and sand, patch, and paint until 1-2am. Thanks to a ton of help from family and friends we were able to open on Saturday, September 2, 2006.

It has been an amazing two years and I want to thank everyone who has helped make this happen. I also want to give a special thanks to Sarah here. Without you, none of this would have been possible. When I think of all the times I was starting to feel overwhelmed and you pulled me back to center and kept us going, I feel really fortunate to have such an amazing friend and business partner. I look forward to many more years of working together!!

Enough with the mushy stuff, for those wondering, our birthday sale will be on Saturday, September 6 and it is our biggest sale ever. We will have several items marked down 20, 30, and 40% and if that wasn't enough, if you wish us a "happy birthday" at checkout you get an additional 10% your entire purchase including the sale items!! It's just our little way of saying thank you for a spectacular two years.

Happy Anniversary, Philip

Today was mine and Philip's 12 year anniversary (it is also our 4 year wedding anniversary.) It is hard to believe that it has already been 12 years, but thinking back on everything that has happened in those 12 years it becomes hard to believe that we crammed it all in. This past year has been full of changes and challenges, but I think we are ending it stronger and happier than we began so it wasn't all for nothing. I love you, Philip and I look forward to many more adventures together.