Channeling My Inner Martha - The Spice Drawer

Up until today, my spices have been stored in a pull-out cupboard shelf below eye level and another shelf above eye level.  This meant that every time I had to find a particular spice, I had to look at a number of containers individually.  Well, no more!  Today I bought an organizer that fits into a drawer.  I arranged as many spices as would fit in a roughly alphabetical order.   It doesn't hold all the spices, but the rest of them went into the pull-out shelf.  By putting labels on those spices, I should be able to find what I'm looking for quickly and without getting annoyed.

DVD: "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"

I have close to zero interest in heavy metal music, but this documentary was very watchable.  Canadian metal band Anvil has been playing together for 30 years, and although they influenced many other more successful bands, they have not achieved much success themselves.  The movie shows the determination to keep doing the work that you love, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks about you.

My rating:  *** (out of 5)

Book: "The Museum of Innocence"

Turkish author Orhan Pamuk follows the decade long obsession of Kemal with his beautiful distant relative Fusun.  It reminds me a little bit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera because of the subject matter.  In the usual post modernist way, Pamuk himself becomes a character in the novel near the end of the book.

My rating:  ***** (out of 5)

DVD: Coraline

I had missed this movie in theaters, so caught it on DVD.  Probably way too scary for young viewers, it is about childrens wish for different "better" parents while at the same time being  fearful of separation from their real parents.  Beautiful and scary images.

My rating:  **** (out of 5)

Movie: Precious

Just when you think things cannot get worse for teen-age incest victim and mother of two, Precious Jones, they do.  Thanks to a caring teacher and social worker, the movie ends on a (probably unrealistic) hopeful note.  Impressive acting by all.

My rating:  ****

X-mas Cookies

           















Macaroons and Linzer Cookies - Thanks, Martha!

Completed Object: Sheep in this Meadow

Pattern:  Sheep Yoke Baby Cardigan
Yarn:  Rowan Cashsoft

I re-did the rear center sheep using satin stitch rather than duplicate stitch, and I'm reasonably happy with it.  I tried, as the designer and a Facebook friend suggested, to add eyes to that sheep with French knots in the blue yarn.  The French knots were way too big, so I removed them.   I may return to this project in the future and add eyes with embroidery floss and neaten up the other sheep.  But for now, I'm done with it.