7 things about me you probably don't know...

I rarely share off-topic facts about myself but I always love looking at these lists from blogs I read regularly so when Jane from Maiden Jane (who's general craftiness and amazing sewing skills I admire greatly) gave me these awards I thought I'd take the opportuniy to make one of

these lists.

1. Recently my hubby and I changed the way we eat entirely. All organic, as local as possible and no more factory farm meat (that was a big one). If you want to know why... all you have to do is watch the movie Food Inc. We've enjoyed this change more than we ever could have realized when we started.

2. I love MTV, Bravo, and Food Network reality shows. It's my favorite trashy T.V.

3. Less than six people who know me in real life also know I have a blog.

4. I love Halloween but hate horror movies.

5. My favorite color is teal. Close to Pantone number 3258c

6. I've never been camping (unless you count my backyard)- but want to try it sometime.

7. Starting with my first job in college, if I picked one or two words for each job and assemble them into a mad libs style sentence this would be it.

Overnight dinosaur party selling merchandise by invitation that's voluntarily recycled, then designed and marketed to famous writers.

Someday maybe I'll tell you what all these jobs were. That could be seven things all on it's own.

Thanks Jane for these awards!

When's The Next Cupkins Link Party?

The first cupkins link party was a great start, but Joanne and I would like to do it every month sooo... the next link party is going to be Monday November 8th.

Joanne will be hosting our party this time.

The theme will be:

Thanksgiving

Whether savory or sweet, dinner or dessert- let's see your creative Thanksgiving themed cupcakes or muffins!

And as a teaser here's a link to two of my recipes from last year. Turkey Cupcakes and Corn Muffin' Stuffin.

Hardheaded

In one word that's what I am.

I might be able to fool some people into thinking this was a creative solution to my problem but honestly it was pure hardheadedness.

This all started two nights ago when I decided to knit a project for my Halloween costume (which is still a secret) using the special glow-in-the-dark yarn that I bought last year. I had a very specific look in mind and thought this project was going to be really easy.

First I tried my size ten needles but those weren't producing a knitted look that was big enough.

Next the fifteens. Not even close.

Then both together. Not only was it annoying to knit like that but honestly it didn't even seem to make a difference in the size of the knitting.

I dug up a pair of seventeens- and thought those would work. Sadly they weren't nearly big enough.

At that point I went to the only store open after 8:30 at night that also carried knitting needles. They only had sevens and tens. No use at all.

Determined to knit that night- I stalked around the house in huff looking for imaginary larger needles (while driving hubby crazy).

Typically I don't like using large needles but resigned myself to getting a pair the next day. I really didn't want to buy a pair for just this project but remembered I had a gift certificate for the yarn store near my office. I searched yesterday morning before work (I know I have somewhere) but no luck.

Why at this point I didn't just buy the needles, I don't know. Again I can only chock it up to hardheadedness but I just didn't want to buy needles I wouldn't use again. I finally decided I'd just buy them when I realized that both the knitting store near my office and the other one in town were closed for the evening.

Left with no other alternative (aside from the obvious which would have been to wait until today and buy proper needles) I had to improvise.

With cardboard wrapping paper tubes.

First I tried to make tips on my "needles" by cutting the tubes and taping the ends together into a point. That was totally unsuccessful because the unevenness of the tape made the yarn stick. But I realized these tubes were so large that I didn't need tips at all so I turned them around and used the other end.

The knitting is coming out exactly like I wanted it to, on what hubby has named my size 150 needles.

They are surprisingly easy to use, aside from being ridiculous looking and a bit bulky. But they're getting the job done!

Glassblowing Workshop

Over the weekend I took another glassblowing workshop. And it's official, I want to take a real class.

First I thought one of these workshops might satisfy my desire to work with glass. And when they didn't I thought if I took a few more they might show me that working with glass wasn't as glamorous as I thought it might be. Perhaps the workshops would expose something I really didn't like or would scare me into not wanting to work with dangerous 2,000 degree molten globs.

But these workshops have only had the opposite effect, making me want to learn to work with glass more.

There are lots of reason not to- it's expensive, can be dangerous, the equipment (and even a place to learn) isn't all that readily available.

But those reasons don't really change anything. I think I just have to try a real class. It might not happen until spring (or even next fall) but I really want to learn.

My pumpkin from this weekends workshop.