mango-ginger coffee cake

This morning the Little Pea and I attended a lovely brunch for new mamas organized by our dear friend Nicole (a.k.a. Mrs. Love Party). We realized that there were a few of us with relatively new babies who could use a support group (ourselves most of all), so Nicole thoughtfully got a brunch together at her house.

I made this coffee cake, improvised because I had some over-ripe mangoes in the kitchen that needed to find their purpose in life. They served well - the coffee cake was scrumptious, and I just had to share the recipe (with a nod to Joy of Cooking for the basics)!

mango-ginger coffee cake

Bring your ingredients to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan.

Sift together:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Combine and beat well:
1 cup plain yogurt (I used whole)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp almond extract

Fruit topping:
1/3 cup candied ginger, chopped well
1 1/2 cups mango, cut into small chunks (about 2 ripe mangoes)

Streusel:
2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp butter
5 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Blend these ingredients until they crumble. Mix in:
1/3 cup almonds, chopped (optional)

Add the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture. Mix gently until just smooth. Pour into the pan and distribute the fruit mixture gently over the dough. Sprinkle the streusel over the top. Bake about 20-30 minutes.

Don't try to make this the day before (though you could certainly chop up your ingredients ahead of time if you want to) - this coffee cake is best served fresh. This was great served with a brunch frittata, fruit and hot tea (with entertainment provided by half a dozen squirmy babies). If there is any coffee cake left over, you can warm it up later for dessert with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

new things to share

There is this amazing cosmic balance. At work, just as I am really beginning to believe that things have lightened for a while, a side project suddenly makes everything so weighty and emotional. If this lesson hasn't smacked me on the nose enough times yet this year, here it is again: treasure every moment on earth. We're here to be loving and kind, and everything we do, and everyone we touch, are what make us who we are. It's a lesson I'm grateful for, even though I wanted to stay in the lightness a bit longer. Hm, I think there's a Kundera book on this subject...

Anyway... new things to tell. First, a new blog. Another one! Crikey. But this will be different: the class I'm taking this semester requires us to keep a journal with responses to our weekly readings. I love reading journals - my most favorite professors always assigned them in college. Anyhow, this professor suggested we use a blog as our journaling tool. Mine's called Reading is good medicine, in case you should care to stop by and weigh in on the making of modern health care, or whatever else pops up, as I doubt I'll be able to stick to just one kind of reading-response.

I think it's rather telling that while I have yet to read even one page of the assigned book, I have spent several hours on the layout and design of the assigned blog. But most of you probably don't find that very surprising, because I know you do the same thing (right?).

Finally, I must share this beautiful little thing with you:


from happy owl glassworks

A prize from Bugheart! She is the most incredibly lavishly generous friend. I am always surprised and a bit sheepish opening her beautiful packages. This one was an unexpected thrill in the mail yesterday - I haven't stopped wearing it yet (except to take the photo).

The part that really made me smile, though, was the tag:



I recently said that her wonderful little gift tags kill the suspense... so this tag did no such thing. I really love all her gift tags with their sweet drawings (even the highly informative ones), but this one made me laugh and laugh. That monster is so damn cute, too.

Thank you, dear Bugheart!

See you all at school! It seems wrong for summer to be "over" when it's still 100 degrees outside, but I'm not complaining.

spoiled rotten

Sorry it's been so quiet around these parts lately. I have an explanation, but it's long-winded and boring... but I have missed you. I have been peeking in on all your blogs and crafty projects and wishing I had more time - always wanting more time to make, and talk with everyone about making.

Part of what I was doing while I wasn't blogging was having my 32nd birthday. Wheee! I am 32, and I've had the same haircut, job, cat, and pair of black birkenstocks since I left grad school... that was about 6 years ago. I've been wearing the same pair of jeans and black Gap T-shirt since high school... let's not talk about how long ago that was.

I am a far more committed and radical left-winger since I was 18. I remember back then, older people telling me that I was young and idealistic, and that I'd get more conservative as I got older. What baloney. I get more informed, more crafty, and more political every year.

The best things that have happened to me in the last decade... meeting and falling in love with HWWLLB, who I still can't believe is willing to put up with me... leaving grad school for my current job... and learning to knit. I have Bugheart to thank for that last one. She forced me to learn to knit so that she'd have a stitch & bitch buddy. She is the most loyal (and long-suffering) friend that anyone could have. Last weekend she took the bus down from DC so that we could go hiking in the mountains. I'll spare you the gory stories of all the various delayed and grueling forms of transportation that she endured to get here and back, or at least save them for another day.

What I want to show you are the amazing prizes that she made me. She is the queen mama felter.


a zippered pouch for my knitting tools




nesting bowls

...and no prize from Bugheart comes without her adorable tags:


they kind of kill the suspense when you're opening the package, but they're worth it.

So you see why I might be feeling spoiled rotten. She also gave me some Tofutsies sock yarn, in the perfect color. (So perfect I had just bought it myself two weeks before - she is psychic. This way I can make knee-hi's). It was so great to see her, and so incredibly nice of her to come all the way down here for a weekend visit.

So in a tiny and vastly inadequate gesture of appreciation, I am hereby naming Bugheart a...

rockin' girl blogger

Thanks Macoco for tagging me! It's fun to rock.

Some other rocking girl bloggers that y'all should know, if you don't already:

Stacie at Mommy Mosh Pit, who is cooking super-local this summer.
Susanna at G.Love and Her Special Sauce, who also likes to go on long and grueling road trips.
Amisha, whose eyes I love to look through on Heavenly Days, and
Martha Snail at the Glass Doorknob, whose world is magical... and just down the road.

I wish big hugs, a visit from a dear friend, and hours of uninterrupted making for all of you!

(That means you, too)

girlfriends

Slightly belated, I'm here to rave about my Secret Pal from SP round 10... It's Shannon, from Berrytini!

I received a final package from her the other day. Let's take a peek inside:


ooh, pretty box



Holy cow! Look at all this loot! A new teacup, darning needles with a little case, a great felted Booga Bag pattern with beautiful birch needles and all the yarn to make it... oh, the yarn?


please, no staring

Yes, it's Noro Kureyon. Three scrumptious balls of Noro Kureyon, in an amazing colorway. Oh, that other yarn?



Just a little Nashua Vignette in a colorway that I can only guess is meant to match my blog - perfectly! This may call for a bit of scarf design this fall.

Thank you so much Shannon for being such a wonderful Secret Pal! In case you didn't know, besides being a great knitter and maker of adorable stitch-markers, Shannon is a Rollergirl and a kickass mommy. She and her family just moved all the way across the country - I know you Californians will welcome her with open arms!

I also wanted to introduce you to the prolific Seattle knitter I've been spoiling during this round of Secret Pal 10: It's Emily! There is a lot I could tell you about her (and a lot I already have told about her), but I'd like to let this photo shoot of Emily modeling her recently-completed Jewel Cardigan speak for itself. Can you tell why I love her??

And finally, a big smooch and bon voyage to Saun, who is chasing her life-long dream of fashion design and moving to New York City! I am so excited for her, and so inspired by her determination -- and gutsiness. It's not often someone gives up their comfortable, well-paying job and affordable apartment to chase their life's dreams -- I can't wait to read the chronicles of her adventures at FIT. Go Saun!


nik and saun at the going-away bash - that is the smile of a woman whose dreams are coming true

curb the enthusiasm

My horoscope today said " This can be a fantastic day, as long as you can contain your enthusiasm enough to direct it productively." That's exactly how I feel: sort of like a train full of steam (steam=enthusiasm) and moving very quickly... it feels exciting, and productive, but I just hope I don't go off the tracks on the curves ahead.

Hm, maybe the train metaphor isn't quite right. Maybe it's more like a hyperactive puppy with too many toys to choose from... or a bee flitting from flower to flower in a giant field full of things to be pollinated... (can you hear "Flight of the bumblebee" in the background? That's about the right pace).

I am eating lunch just before jumping on a plane to head to Chicago for a conference. This will be my first time there since high school, but I don't think I'll see much of the city beyond the square block where the conference is being held. But I love the feel of big cities. I don't know if I could really be a big-city dweller, but visiting them is so exhilerating.

The city where I live is really a small town that thinks it's a city. We have four or five tall buildings, one or two "wrong side of the tracks" type neighborhoods, and a bus system, which seems to be what it takes to qualify as "city" in many people's minds. But as in a small town, I see the same people on the street downtown, day after day, and most of all, in the arena for which I most love big cities, you really have to go out hunting for "ethnic" food here. If you want really good Thai, Ethiopian, Indian, you need to know someone who knows someone, and you need to venture out into secret shabby suburban strip malls to find the place. In big cities, there seems to be interesting food everywhere, and I always think the prices are much better. So wish me luck in Chicago, I'm hoping to eat something from a country I can't locate on a map.

Also, a big warm fuzzy shout-out to Susanna and Mike who came through town this week! It was such a delight to see these old college-years pals as they whizzed through our big-small-city-town. We ate a lovely outdoor lunch together at a one of the secret ethnic restaurants (sshhh...). Big hugs to you Philly pals!

old and new friends

flame azalea in the rain, nc botanical garden

A more perfect Sunday would be hard to imagine.

Beloved guests arrived at our house like little elves sneaking in during the wee hours of the morning (noisy elves - they'd had champagne at dinner). Everyone slept late, and in the morning HWWLLB made a special breakfast and we drank a big pot of tea. After much lounging, it was time to go have brunch with two lovely Sew Green compatriots, bugheart and shari! This was a visit I have long been anticipating.

Do you know how it is when someone comes to visit, and you want to take them some place special, some place with incredible food and service that will please them and make them love you forever and also cause them to make a mental note of your impeccably good taste? That's not quite what happened on Sunday.

I suggested a favorite brunch spot for all the selfless and laudable reasons outlined above, only to be met with a rather surly waiter, a shortage of grits and the Official Most Schlockiest piano lounge music of all time. But despite the lapses in service and having to listen to the entire libretto of Phantom of the Opera played lounge-style, the food was delicious and the company divine. I could spend the rest of my days in terrible restaurants with those two ladies. In fact, if shari and bugheart were to invite me to have dinner tomorrow night at Olden Tymes, Chuck E. Cheese or even Hooters, I'd be there in a flash (I'd have beer though, for sure, plenty of beer).

After our brunch we met up with the menfolk for a relaxing, sunny afternoon of knitting, sipping cold beverages and munching on Locopops. mmmm... Locopops. First I had Mexican Chocolate. The pops were so good the first time that later we went back for another - this time I had Mango Chile. Have you ever had a popsicle that burned your mouth for a while afterwards? A tastier irony would be hard to find. Ah, the sweet, cold burn!

There are few experiences that rival spending time with an old friend. Except maybe making new ones. And eating Locopops. All three at the same time, well... I think I had a contentedness hangover on Monday. Every Sunday should be like that one!

Shari is a new friend for me. I have admired her blog and her photographs for some time, and have wondered if I'd ever get the chance to meet her in person, since she lives just a short skip away from me, right here in central North Carolina. She is as sweet, thoughtful and witty as she seems in writing, and she's also spontaneous and generous and really, a very talented photographer. Great photos pop out of her polaroid the way verbal gaffes pop out of my mouth - all the time, and without warning. I loved spending an afternoon with her and bugheart (another of the most spontaneous and talented people I know), and T and Grub and HWWLLB and Johnny, who are getting reduced billing today but are all wonderful and fascinating in their own rights (one day I will write odes to the menfolks). Thank you to my old friend bugheart for introducing me to a new friend! I feel very lucky today.

p.s.
You may have noticed I didn't take any pictures on Sunday. The official excuse is that my camera batteries died, but the other excuse is that bugheart and shari took oodles of great photos with their unstoppable polaroids, and no further camera-jockeying was really necessary. Get a load of them here and here. This one, taken by shari, really captures the spirit of the pola that reigned on Sunday.

monster weekend

Lots of friends came to our house this weekend:


snakey


j, snakey's designer


sis

And this guy...



...who as of yet has no name.

It was fun to make some sock monsters this weekend. I haven't made any in a while, but on Friday night Sis came over to sew and help me polish off a bottle of Santa Cristina Toscana Sangiovese (which by the way, I recommend highly - yum!). Instead of following her good example and sewing pretty curtains...


lovely!

...I made this gobliney kitty sockmonster. What should I call it? J suggested "Tail Cat," but somehow that doesn't have quite the monster ring to it.


a good lumpy hiney is key with monsters

Saturday J came over and spent the night at our house. We had lots of time for fun stuff like reading books, sewing monsters and making play-doh X-wing fighters. It was great to take a break from grown-up silliness and get down to some serious crafty fun. Why can't weekends last just a little longer?

my mom is the bomb

Do moms go to Awesome School to learn how to be so amazing? How do they know how to do absolutely everything, from stocking their purses with every conceivable item a child might need to installing ceramic tile? My mom can do anything. Here she is with a scraper removing evil paint from my bathroom.

My mom innocently agreed to come spend Saturday at my house helping me repaint the bathroom. She is a whiz with paint and loves home decorating and fixing-upping, so we thought it would be a fun afternoon together. Little did we suspect, the bathroom walls were some tough customers who were not to be underestimated.

The problem:
Brand new paint job (by previous owner) peeling off the walls. More paint comes off every time we take a shower. We eventually figured out that they had painted flat latex paint onto a shiny plaster wall covered in oil-based paint without preparing the surface properly.

The solutions (there were many tried and discarded):

1. Scraping it all off with scrapers. Discarded after we realized it might take the rest of our lives.
2. Sanding it off with a power sander. Discarded from within a fog of toxic dust.
3. Steaming it off with a wallpaper steamer. Yes! More paint had been peeling off with every shower taken - clearly moisure is not this paint's friend.

First we experimented with my compact portable steamer (heretofore used only for blocking) and found that the paint came off like goopy, stringy, icky globs of wallpaper, revealing a smoooth, shiny painted plaster wall beaneath. So we raced out to the rental store (again) and rented a great big wallpaper steamer. Then we spent the rest of the day steaming, scraping, sweating, cursing, steaming and scraping some more.


mom (left) is even stylish while scraping paint. i look like a ragamuffin, but i'm having a good time.

Then we went out for Thai food. I had the Green Curry Vegetable Tofu.

My mom is not one to walk out in the middle of a project. She is not even one to go home when it's bedtime if there's still work to be done. People, the woman slept on the futon at our house and got up early to help me scrub all the goopy, stringy, icky globs of paint out of the bathroom, and then prime the walls. She really did.


one tiny corner of a tremendously goopy, stringy, icky mess.

Then she really needed to see how the paint was going to look, so she stuck around after lunch and helped me get the first coat of paint onto the wall. Satisfied with the results, she finally headed home late Sunday afternoon after giving her entire weekend and a wealth of home-improvement expertise to my bathroom walls. She is incredible.

The job is just about done; I caulked the tub tile this morning and we'll finally be able to shower again in our own home tomorrow. Once the place is back in order I'll post an "after" picture. Til then, here's a "before" shot of my peely bathroom wall with a wide selection of paint chips tacked up for comparison:

resolved

What could be more important than friendship?



I am a schizophrenic combination of very social and somewhat introverted. I love people, but I can't be around them too much. I need emotional intimacy with different kinds of people, but I am very hesitant to share much of myself with anyone.

On the other hand, some of my friends are excellent friendship role models.

Some of them are very far away, but they always send emails, letters, updates on how their lives are going, little "I'm thinking of you" packages, funny photos, and invitations to whatever's going on. Even though I don't see them very often, they always seem close by.

Some of them are not so far away, but have incredibly busy lives. School, work, family, volunteer stuff, saving the world... yet, they are never too busy to make a call or send an email to say hey, here's what's happening, come on over on Friday.



Not me. I am terrible at all these things.

I am the sort of friend who has your birthday in my calendar, thinks about you all the time with great affection, but doesn't call. Why don't I call?

I am the sort of friend who will spend weeks making you a present but never send it. Why don't I send it?

Maybe it's a fear thing. Emotional intimacy terrifies me sometimes. But it's so fulfilling! I often find myself diving in headlong, especially with someone new, plumbing the depths of our souls, living through something kind of incredible together... and then never calling. Only answering when called. I am like that guy the girls warned each other about in college. The nice guy who will string you along. He doesn't mean to be mean, he just can't commit...



I am really grateful for my friends who put up with this unreliability from me. On the one hand, if you are sick I will totally cook you some vegetarian chili and cornbread (even if you don't want it). On the other hand, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD don't ask me about my feelings. Opinions, yes. Feelings, verboten!

So on to the New Year's resolution: I resolve to follow the example of you beautiful friendship role models, and be a better friend.

I will send you a card on your birthday. Maybe even call.

I will answer your email.

If you call me, I will call you back. Maybe I will even call you first.

I will remember the Incredibly Major Thing you told me the last time we talked, and I will check in to see how that worked out. And also to see if you need some chili.

If I am very sad or happy, I will share. God help me, I will share my feelings. Sometimes.

I'm starting by writing some long-overdue letters and emails. This has the added incentive of letting me use pretty paper and stickers, which I find motivating. I am also motivated by the fact that since my friends are so kind and responsive, they will probably write me back, which will be really cool.

So thanks to all of you for putting up with me. This is the year that I do better. And sorry about all the times I didn't call you back last year... can I make you some chili?

cloudy paddling

You know it's going to be a good afternoon when it starts out this way. Boats all loaded up and ready to go; PBJ's and Peterson's Field Guide to Birds of North America in your dry bag. The sky was a beautiful steel gray with low clouds like cotton wads all across the horizon.

Some old friends of HWWLLB were in town this weekend. We had long, leisurely breakfasts and late nights with lots of wine, good food and good company. On Sunday afternoon we headed out to the Eno river for two of our favorite activities: paddling and harrassing waterfowl (known to some as "bird watching"). I like cool-weather paddling because it's the only time I'll wear sandals with socks. Wool socks + sport sandals are a great combo, since wool socks stay warm even when wet, plus it makes me feel very nerdy and Germanic (especially when the socks are either black or very colorful).

There were a lot of birds to harrass. As we put in, HWWLLB and I were taking bets on how many Great Blue Herons we would see. He guessed five. I guessed eight. I think we saw at least two dozen. There was one place where we could see nine, all at one time. We also saw dozens of Great White Egrets, a species I had never seen before in North Carolina, although they do winter here (they look a lot like the white phase of the Great Blue Heron, except their feet are black and they aren't as shaggy looking).

I just hate how much we disturb them. It's hard to avoid, since they are very shy birds and don't want to be anywhere near you, so just padding past, even on the other side of the river, really bothers them. They fly off and squawk noisily, sounding like an enormous crow with a cold. Then once you're past they circle back to the fishing spot they had staked out.



HWWLLB and I paddle in our great big green canoe, while our friends paddle zippy little kayaks. Together, we are known as the Birdisturbers. Watch out, waterfowl!

dispatch from week one: vacation 2006

Hello from Vacationland! We're trying a new thing this year. We took off three whole weeks from work with no real plans other than: see friends, camp, and get some rest.

I'd like to report that Week One was a success. We started the week with lots of restful nothing, followed by my 31st birthday (wooooooo, the big three-one!), followed by some more relaxing, and then a weekender to see some friends in Virginia.

In Virginia we camped with friends on the Eastern Shore, alternately roasting in the sun, swimming in the Chesapeake Bay (maybe not the healthiest bay to swim in, but it felt goooood), and chowing down seafood at the greatest gas station/restaurant combo I have ever had the good fortune to patronize. Please please, when you next visit Virginia's Eastern Shore, eat at Stingray's and bring me back some coconut custard pie. At Stingray's they can't even spell unpretentious, and man was it good. I think I'd better crack open a beer right now so I can toast them.

Right, so the friends we were visiting in Virginia: it was Nick & Jess & Violet! Hoorah! Somehow we forgot to take any pictures until after leaving their company on Monday, but that's just because we were having too much fun, even with 100 degree weather and a constipated toddler in tow. Nick & Jess live on the edge of a funny colonial village in Virginia. I have been friends with Nick & Jess for about ten years now, but haven't seen them as much in the last few years. In fact, the last time we saw them, Jess was just a couple of weeks from giving birth to Violet, who is now three years old and my new best friend. I have always loved and admired Nick & Jess as people, as writers, and as incredibly strong and loyal friends, but now I get to admire them as parents, too.

It was such a pleasure to spend a few days with a family that is not only loving and committed, but wide-open and honest with each other. Violet is also the most agreeable and well-behaved three year-old I've ever met. She says "okay" to pretty much anything she's asked to do, eats what she's given and really doesn't seem to be too interested in watching TV. The kid is a wonder, even when she's not quite at her best (like when she reallly needs to take a poo but it won't happen). Hopefully Poo Cat (formerly known as Socks) will help this little episode come to a successful close very soon.

After a weekend of camping with my old friends and their daughter, my new best friend, we took off Monday to see the archaeological excavations at Jamestown, then took the ferry across the James River to Scotland, VA and slooooowly wound our way home along backroads through southside Virginia, into NC.

We came home stinky but refreshed. Today we've been cleaning and reorganizing the house like crazy. Later this week we'll head out for a backpacking trip in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest... but I'll save that for the Dispatch from Week Two.

home again

After several hours on the train, wondering just exactly how many pine trees there are in Virginia, here I am back in Raleigh. It was sad to leave bugheart this morning, in a flurry of craziness and complications as always, I hardly got to say thanks.

I love going to DC. Generally I need to go up once or twice a year for conferences and meetings and suchlike. This spring I went for a conference, and as always stayed at bugheart and grub's. Sadly grub wasn't there this time - grub escaped for a weekend in NYC with friends while bugheart and I visited with each other and with papa bugheart, as I'm sure you all read in yesterday's wonderful guest post, and in my ramblings yesterday on bugheart's blog.

The main thing I love about going there, even more than Teaism and museums and big city life, is the time with dear friends. Do you have someone that you never tire of being with? I feel so lucky to have a friend like Bugheart, even though we live kind of far apart now and I'm not very good about calling on the phone. Every time we get together it's like it's only been an afternoon since the last time we talked.

For those of you who don't know her, Bugheart is an amazing artist, photographer and craftista, which you have probably already deduced from her blog. She is also a really gifted scientist. As a liberal arts major myself, I really admire scientists, even though I don't always get along with them (my idea of hell is to spend an eternity in a locked room with an engineer). But biologists... oh baby. They are holistic thinkers. Big picture people with powers of concentration that allow them to focus on the tiniest of life cycles... biologists are hot stuff. Bugheart is an artist-biologist. She loves to find the itty-bitty details that make whole systems work. For her, I think, beauty is in the tiny mechanisms of living systems, like the cilia that let an insect skate along water on sheer surface tension.

Her photos and her artwork are full of little details, too. If you are ever lucky enough to get a package or a card in the mail from her, it will be full of tiny wonderful things that amaze you and make the whole package a delight (and if you know her for very long, you probably will get a package sooner or later). Bugheart is enormously generous, and she shows her love by showering people with gifts (though sometimes months or even years later than she intends to...). As proof, here are the parting gifts I left DC with this morning:


a vintage red top with embroidered leaves


a sleeveless linen blouse to wear with my fancy work clothes


an olive green top with embroidered flowers


my most recent monday give-away item: a sparkly green brooch


a vintage purse - the perfect size to cram a bunch of junk into


...and my new most prized possession, a bugheart original. the snail bag! be still my heart...

You can get some goodies too, since today is another exciting installment of the Great Monday Give-Away. What a haul! In exchange for the snail bag I owe bugheart my old Gocco printer, which I am swapping to her since I haven't used it in quite a while. I know she'll get good use out of it.

But of course, these are all material things. It's nice to have remembrances of the people you love, but time together is infinitely better. Thanks Bugheart for making so much time for me this weekend. I hope that all of you (those that slogged through all this sappiness and are still reading) get to spend some time with someone you love soon, too.

If this were a bedtime prayer I would close by saying "...and please bless HWWLLB, and Sis, and Grub, and Bugheart. I'm thankful for tea and for good friends." Good night!

no more bourbon

this is bugheart
making a special appearance
here on ms. pea's blog...



i am holding ms. pea
captive in my apartment
the nation's capitol.
i am forcing her listen
to my father's lectures
on physics
and
the benefits of lactase...
all the while
plying her with bourbon.
for the
aforementioned reasons
so she is unable
to update her blog.

in my family
we have a name
for the person
that rescues you
when you
are buttonholed
by a person,
namely my father...
we call them
the sapper.
this term references
the british term
for one
who clears minefields.

ms. pea
has been
my guest sapper.
thank you
dear ms.pea!

sapping
cannot just
be left to anyone...
it takes
a very special friend
who is willing
to go in and rescue you.

do you find
it difficult
to introduce
your friends
to your parents...
especially when
you are much older?

i feel like those dreams
that you have
when you are a kid...
you know,
those ones
in which you
find yourself naked
in front
of the entire
6th grade class.
that's how i feel
when people meet
my parents.
it's like they have
a window
into me as
a little vulnerable kid.
they hear storeis
about how i would follow
my dad around the house
as a little girl
and tell him what to do
or
that i use to faint
all the time
during choir practice.
those weird stories
you usually don't tell people.
not because you
are particularly
embarassed by them...
but somehow when
your parent is
laughing over it
with your friend
it takes on
an embarassing quality
it never had before.
why does that happen?
is it because
you have some
cool cover
that is getting blown?
seems like
that's not how
you should feel
at 31 years old.
i am so glad
the person
to hear those stories
was f.pea...
i don't mind
her hearing these
embarassing stories
because i know
she will still love me
in the morning.

some of you know
f.pea well...
some of you know
her only through
her lovely blog...
but she really
is an amazing women
and my dearest
and closest of friends
here on the east coast.
she knits a mean
pair of socks

and booty shakes
and sings in
jack white's
fake-o
tennessee accent
like no other...
to name only
a few reasons
why
we are having
a rocking time
here in dc.


xo
and
good night ya'll...
your f.pea
is headed back to nc
tomorrow
and i have
dishes to clean.

what's in your attic?

There is a lot of stuff in my attic. For one, we have a ton of flattened moving boxes. Why did we keep the boxes? I guess to avoid going out to find more boxes when we inevitably move again.

There's also a cat up there. Jackie is pretty reclusive, and spends a lot of her time lounging on a pile of - you guessed it! - flattened moving boxes.

Then you've got the Christmas decorations, HWWLLB's recently established quilting studio, and a few boxes of random stuff like photos, old dishes from Granny Pea, camping stuff, and art supplies.

And then we have the antique store. Well, it could be an antique store. It's actually Bugheart's corner storage space in my attic, but as I opened storage box after train case after hatbox on Sunday trying to photograph everything that was up there, I realized that I could have been making a tidy profit off all this stuff all along. But I didn't because I'm not that kind of friend. Also, I had never gone snooping to see what all was up there.

So what all is up there? Enough to fill a photo set on Flickr, I'll tell you. Vintage cameras, vintage shoes, vintage typewriters, vintage housewares, vintage plastic bags full of unidentifiable vintage items... it's amazing. I'm sure you'll be seeing some of the goodies coming up some time soon on the Great Monday Give-Away, so if you like vintage what-nots, as Bugheart (and I) obviously do, you'll be in heaven.

See, Miss Bugheart is a collector. She collects mostly stuff from the fifties, like traincases, cameras, furniture, and containers of any kind. She loves clothes from the sixties though (the colors suit her amazingly well), like Vested Gentress wrap skirts and cardigans with huge buttons. I love her collections, and I never cease to marvel at how varied they are, and how much use she gets out of them. So three years ago when she moved from a spacious co-op house in Chapel Hill to a tiny (and I mean TINY) apartment in Our Nation's Capitol, she had to store some stuff. As she already has a small army of storage spaces containing various vintage items dotting this great nation's landscape, it only seemed right to offer her a corner of our roomy attic. Thus the antique store was born.

I myself am not a collector. I like to joke that my hobby is throwing away other people's collections. It has always bothered me when people assume that because I like cats, I would like a cat-related dust-catcher to display on my bookshelf, or because I have a Hello Kitty pencil sharpener, of course I will want a Hello Kitty stuffed doll/purse to carry my... um... business cards?

Every year at Christmas, my aunt generously gives me a piece of Christmas-themed Lenox. She has even passed this tradition on to her son and daughter, my cousins, who now also give me (and my lucky sister, also a minimalist), Lenox items. For those of you who have never experienced such opulence, Lenox is a maker of china, I guess, and their products include all sorts of very useful items like candy dishes, teapots, curios, whosits and whatsits. In case you're curious, among my treasures I have this, this and a Santa & Rudolph teapot that I only wish they had up on the website. Well, okay, so I don't have them anymore. This spring I unloaded my Lenox "collection" at a charity yard sale. I'll say this: they fetched a nice sum for the benefiting organization. People will pay a lot of money for collectibles.

Do I feel a little guilty for ditching all my Christmas presents? Um... maybe a little. But I mostly feel good, and lighter, for having rid myself of a "collection." Is this one of those hugely-human categorizable personality traits, like lumpers and splitters? Collectors and throwers-away? Maybe that's why I love Bugheart so much - opposites attract, right? Or maybe I just wish I looked as good as she does in sixties cardigans with giant buttons.

chocolate anonymous

Ms. Pea is out this week performing her civic duty to the state (jury service). In her place we bring you a much-requested commentary from guest columnist Flems.

I can see that many of my chocoholics in arms, "Hello my name is Flems and I am addicted to chocolate," need the savvy that I have learned through trial and error over the years about how to destroy the evidence after a good chocolate binge.

I cannot guarantee this advice because there are many different kinds of chocolate in the world, from single origin bean to Hershey's syrup. I will try to group all this into three main categories of stain removal: Dark Chocolates -- like the kind you get and leave in your purse or pocket too long; Milk Chocolates -- consumed rather quickly but when melted are drippy; and the all too well known chocolate sundae varitials -- that can be used on ice cream or in naughty places in the dark. Once you have established what kind of chocolate stain this is, there are several ways you can deal with the unwelcome remembrance of a fun dinner or comfort snack left too long in the sunlight.

All chocolates from all groups should NEVER be WASHED and DRYED in THE DRYER! Either kiss your clothes goodbye, or know they are going to have a stain and find a nice flower pin to place on top of the stain (if you dropped the chocolate in your lap -- best not to cover with a flower.) At this point you can go to your local dry cleaner and beg them for mercy -- but many will laugh, shake their heads, give you a little "tisk-tisk," and say they will do what they can. You will receive your clothes back in two days with a little card on the hangar featuring a balding cartoon man with his arms outstretched as if to say, "We're sorry, we did all we could -- you're f&*ed."

First and foremost my pets, chocolate is a greasy bean! That shiny beautiful color comes from the natural oils in the plant. The greasier the chocolate bar, the fresher the chocolate. Therefore, against all you may think, water from your glass at dinner will make things worse! It will spread it out into your fabrics and leave a stain that will hurt you every time you see it because you can't comprehend why on earth that little drop of chocolate could have made such a big stain. Seltzer water, on the other hand, is some magical elixir that has emergent grease fighting powers ... bubbles, salt, water ... I don't know, but if you can't find it ... DON'T USE PLAIN WATER. (side note: Water has harsh chemicals and water hardeners and stuff that will ruin your clothes too ... that's why detergents have water softeners in them.)

Second you MUST CONSIDER FABRIC!

75%-100% Silks -- Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and go directly to your local dry cleaner. This means skip the seltzer and let the stain dry where it is. Remember that part about grease? Well this is where you can leave it with confidence and texture will stay the same in your clothes. It will not dry out. I know we all care about mother earth here, but dry cleaners are a necessary evil to keep harmful dry cleaning chemicals away from the hands of teenagers who would otherwise inevitably find a way to get high off these things and force us all to give up red wine, chocolate, and breezy summer silks. We can't have that now can we? These chemicals are not sold on the retail market, and there is nothing that you have at home or in some Mother Jones article for cleaning without chemicals that can work like the dry cleaning stuff can. Enviro-friendly dry cleaners will also use the stuff for spot treatments, so you can take your precious items there and know they are safe for you and future generations.

Wool/Silk Blends -- Delicate and touchy area, because most of them say that the fabric is dry clean only. I made the mistake of reading an article somewhere about how the fashion industry had gone into cahoots with the dry cleaning industry to put "Dry Clean Only" onto all women's clothing and that you could wash pretty much anything. This was not true, and my favorite wool skirt never forgave me for this betrayal of trust, and today hangs solemnly in my closet taunting me to put it on. Needless to say, no amount of steaming, pressing and lord only knows what else will ever put that skirt back into shape, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. On the other hand, what does hold true is that you can "spot treat" a Dry Clean Only wool/poly/silk blend if the area you are cleaning isn't the size of the whole sleeve. Some people will tell you to soak the stained area. I don't think this works, and it ruins your clothes. If you put a nice cotton hankey, folded into quarters, behind the stain, and take a little seltzer and palmolive dish detergent and work in a circular motion with another cotton hankey, you will start to see results. Working a stain from both angles, front and back, always helps release the stain from the fabric. If you need to let the stain "soak" do so by leaving the cotton hankey behind the stain and the soapy area on the stained part overnight. Also I can't stress enough how important the hankey is to the stain removal equation. It keeps the fabric in shape, water from spreading, and other things like dish towels and paper towels can leave bits and pieces when you scrub too hard, or worse -- another stain.

The first category of Dark chocolates are most definitely going to need a little help from some dishwashing soap, but possibly depending upon quantity, milk chocolates can come out with seltzer and some good hard elbow grease. Cheap syrups like Hershey's have sugar and things in them, which can make them harder to get out. Do not be disappointed if you cannot remove the stain from these items 100%. The dry cleaners can finish it off, or you can yourself with some Dry-el stain remover. I love this stuff. It just got out soy sauce out from my BRAND NEW white jacket that I wore out to dinner with my boyfriend for sushi last night. I was flabbergasted (to be honest though, I had pre-treated with a Shout scrubby stain remover thingie).

Hang to dry and steam the garment back into shape. Wait a few days before you wash it or take it to the dry cleaners thinking that you have removed the stain completely (sometimes stains have a shadow residue that comes out later when the fabric is completely dry). At this point, you will need to take the garment to the dry cleaners for stain treatment. Here's the thing though: they need to know about the stain and you have to point it out to get them to treat it.

I hope all this helps! This information parlays into other food items as well: soy sauce, strawberries, and for those of who consume meats, the detritus that comes from the drunken haze of a perfectly cooked filet mignon.

Happy Stain Removing my friends, and I hope you will consume your chocolates more enthusiastically knowing that only you or your dry cleaner will know you had it -- not your weight watcher's circle.

Flems is a Raleigh-based fashionista who served as Johnny Depp's personal stain-removal consultant on the set of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. She still bears the scars. But hey, you don't see a mark on that burgundy velvet suit, do you?

oh oh oh... it's magic!

Here at SnB Raleigh we are ALL ABOUT the Magic Loop. Everyone's doing it. At least, last night everyone was. Well, okay two people. But it's so dang cool.

Flems is doing it with her hot hot Hot Lava cardigan (notice the young yet drool-worthy sleeve):


Saun's doing it with her Socktober socks:


Why am I not doing it? Where's my hot lava? Patience, my pretties... one day I'll let myself buy some more yarn. I love me some Stitch n' Bitch. Nothing could be finer than a glass of Crane Lake merlot ("Hi, I'll have the cheap red, please?"), some cute little baristas and a mellllllow DJ mixin it up with the knitting crew. Did I mention the truffle? Gotta have a truffle. Oh, what a way to get through the mid-week hump. Witness the transformative power of SnB:

Dave is trying to cast on. He has hardly knitted at all yet. See how frustrated? He is only pretending to smile. After a few minutes of successful Knitting With Pals, Dave is so happy! See how he smiles so genuinely?


Friends, you too can be this easily entertained. But listen, even though I know I've now posted the Magic Loop link twice on this here blog, those were only for reference purposes. Don't be thinking you should learn how to do this off the internets. Go down to the LYS or better yet go to Stitch n' Bitch and ask someone to show you how it's done. Part of the magic inherent in the Magic Loop is that it cannot be conveyed by language - only by in-person demonstration. The demonstration is a talisman passed on to you by a sage and carried forever in your knitting bag. Keep it sacred!

swappin' good time!

Thrifty Tip: Shop for clothes in your friends' closets!

Every fall and spring or so, a bunch of friends get together and trade clothes. We started this up in college. I think the first one was on the lawn in front of a dorm where several friends lived, where I recall Mary scandalously trying on clothes right in front of passers-by, and ultimately leaving with a pair of cherry-red pants that I had brought, and that she wore almost daily for quite a while afterwards. I got some Brooks Brothers pinstriped linen dress pants from Jessica, which I still wear quite often.

Last night was the Mother of All Clothes Swaps at Nicole & Les's place - boys included! Finally, HWWLLB got in on the communal goodness. He got rid of a few shirts and brought home something he's intending to rip up and use for a quilt.

Look! A man! And he's swapping clothes!


And Oh My Gawd, Nicole made banana puddin!!! I was in heaven. And I got some new clothes.


So here's how you make one of these swappy-things. Invite over a bunch of friends. Ask them to bring some cute clothes they don't want anymore, and some snacks & drinks. Invite a DJ. Then put all the pants in the pants pile, all the skirts in the skirts pile, all the sweaters in the sweater pile... you following me? Then get to swappin! Somebody has to agree to take the leftovers to the thrift store, and voila! You got yourself a clothes swap!