Blast from the semi-distant past

With all the news about wheat prices going through the roof, and small bakeries feeling the financial pinch, it made me awfully glad that the idea J and I had of opening our own bakery/cafe got delayed for the indeterminate future two years ago when we decided to buy our house in Seattle.

At about this time three years ago, I was getting ready to enter baking and pastry school. Quite by chance, as I was browsing my digital photo files for a pix to use in the previous post, I came across the photos I took of the lovely cakes I made in my advanced cakes class during my third term of school. Let's take a peek, shall we?

The first lovely pink, silver and white concoction was my first teeth-gnashing experience with fondant icing. Painting the stripes on was fun, though.

The next example (right) was my Round 2 with fondant. Went much better as I recall, in spite of the fact that the layers on this "crazy" cake came with sharp angles to smoothly fit the fondant over. FYI, in case you think any of these cakes look tasty, think again. These things were nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty. These cakes were all about the decorating, so we baked our cake layers, used them, scraped off the icing and used them again, and again. Did I mention nasty? The crazy cake was the THIRD incarnation of those cake layers. Once this sucker was graded, I could not wait to get rid of it.

Fortunately, I got to start fresh for this lovely buttercream number (left). (Did I mention we scraped and reused a lot of buttercream frosting, too. Nope, didn't think I had. Again, not tasty. It's all about appearances, people.)

But wait! Ms. Square Cake Layers got tired of her outfit. She needed a makeover...a Chocolate Ganache makeover! What can I say about ganache? How about, "tastes great, is a bitch to pour." Those truffles on tier 1 and 3 were old, recycled ganache, which didn't stop students from another class from eating half of them in the several days the cake sat unattended between classes. Nice!

Ms. Square had one more grading party to go to, and this time she wanted to wear fondant (left). Sigh. But she really did look pretty, didn't she? Too bad that, like her circular forbearer, she was destined for the Dumpster.

Although I wouldn't stick one bite of any of these cakes in my mouth for a million dollars (well, maybe if that million dollars came with a course of antibiotics), I can assure you that some of my work that term was both beautiful and infinitely edible.

Behold...bread!

Spring has sprung!

It's the first full day of spring, and although the weather has been typically Seattle springlike (cool and wet, but not reliably wet, so you never know if you will really need that raincoat when you head out for work in the morning), many happier signs of spring abound.

One of the things I love about spring is the element of change. Every time I take a walk, whether around my garden or around my 'hood, something is blooming, sprouting or opening that wasn't the day before. Never a dull moment.

Even though the weather was bleh on Sunday, we got lots o' planting done at the homestead.

• 30 bareroot coneflowers
• 17 bareroot Nootka roses
• 12 forget-me-nots
• A 4-foot row of edible peas
• A 3-foot row of sweet peas
• 10 bunchberries (groundcover dogwoods)
• 10 Kinnickinnick
• 12 assorted gallon-size perennials from Costco
• 5 Camas (a NW native bulb)
• 1 maidenhair fern
• 1 hosta
• 24 assorted oriental lily bulbs
• 7 assorted dahlia bulbs

Whew!

The weather on Saturday is supposed to be respectable, so I will hopefully get the rest of my ferns (5) and hostas (11) planted, along with my annual fuchsia starts (20), one hellebore and two clematis that are still in their black plastic pots from last year.

Now that I'm starting to plant spring veggies, I need to yank out the last of the fall-winter holdouts. I feel guilty that I didn't eat more kale over the winter, but since it is still in great shape, I have plans to use up about eight cups of the nutritious greens in a fritatta and a turkey chili verde.

I've been entering everything I eat into the free nutrition calculator on Fitday, and it's been very educational to see the results. Given that many foods I eat appear on my menu repeatedly (eggs, sprouted grain bread, turkey breast, broccoli, salad greens, peppers, skim milk, cottage cheese, bananas, apples, avocados, whey protein powder, energy bars, frozen berries, whole grain cereal, nuts, olive oil, yogurt), it's interesting that some days I nearly hit the mark on all of the various important nutrients, and other days I'm way down on a few. Also, some days I seem to hit the 30-40-30 protein-carb-fat ratio effortlessly (within a percentage point or two) and on others I have to struggle to keep the carbs in check.

I figure that once I have a few more weeks of consistent food reportage logged, I can really start tweaking my menus. I'm aiming to have my weight lifting days a bit higher in calories and carbs, and my non-lifting days less on both. Once I start logging one high-mileage walking day on the weekend (for half-marathon training), I can have a higher-carb meal afterwards, too.

Tuesday's workouts:
Morning: Suhaila Salimpour's Bellydance Fitness Fusion Pilates DVD (40 minutes); Darshan's Bellydance Tribal Fusion NYC DVD (drills section, 30 minutes)
Lunch: 4-mile walk

Tuesday's food overview:
1786 calories (33% protein, 32% carbs, 31% fat, 5% alcohol)

Wednesday's workouts:
Morning: Rachel Brice's Yoga, Isolations and Drills DVD (30-minute workout)
After work: NROWLFW "A" workout with kickboxing warmup
Evening: Bellydance choreography class

Wednesday's food overview:
1842 calories (26% protein, 45% carbs, 29% fat)

One down, five to go

Back on New Year's Eve, I posted about the six fitness-related activities I wanted to try in the next six months.

Victim #1: Snowshoeing.

I wanted to be out of the house on Saturday so I couldn't dwell on my cats' demise. So we rented snowshoes at REI and headed up to Snoqualamie Pass. (That's me with our silly golden retriever.)

Let's just say I know what I'm asking Santa (aka my mother-in-law) for this Christmas.

Fun, fun, fun.

Oh, and it's true what they say: If you can walk, you can snowshoe. Plus, it's kind of cool (in a "oh, I stood up too fast" kind of way) that when you take off your snowshoes after tromping around for a few hours, the loss of that extra foot weight make you feel like you're walking on air.

Hitting my stride

Yesterday began Week 2 of my new workout agenda, and while I still feel a bit of next-day soreness, I am spared the mind-numbing ab pain of Week 1.

This is a "BAB" week, with the "B" workouts on Monday and Wednesday. Here's an overview:

• Deadlift (2 sets of 15 reps)
• Superset: Shoulder press (2 sets of 15) and assisted pull-ups (2 sets of 15)
• Superset: Lunges (2 sets of 15 on each leg) and stability ball crunches (2 sets of 8...although I do more)

What was supposed to be one cheat meal last week turned into a smattering of cheat meals and snacks from Thursday evening through the weekend. I kind of rolled with it, since I was grieving, but I'm firmly back on track now.

Monday's workouts:
Lunchtime: 2-mile walk
After work: NROWLFW Stage 1, Workout B, with a nice little punching bag warmup

Monday's food overview:
2062 calories (21% protein, 42% carbs, 31% fat, 6% alcohol)

Farewell, my furry friends

Simon (March 1993 - March 13, 2008)

Samantha (July 2003 - March 13, 2008)

My household hasn't been the happiest for the past few weeks, as we went about our daily lives while trying to decide the ultimate fate of our two beloved cats. Last Thursday, we took them both to our vet to be euthanized.

Samantha has been sick with hyperthyroidism for a few years. Medicine bought her one more good year, but she's been clearly in a state of decline since late last summer.

Simon's problems came on suddenly and shockingly. It seemed as if one day he was hale and hearty as always, the next he had dropped a significant portion of his body weight. Chronic kidney failure was his diagnosis. Although he took to his new low-protein food (he always was a carb-craver), he hated his medication, and did not like it when we gave him subcutaneous injections of fluid. He hated going the vet so much (for that reason--plus the fact that he was indoors only--we stopped taking him in for shots many years ago) that follow-up appointments would have been torture for him.

So we decided to end it before they had a chance to suffer more than we could tell they already were. The vet prepped each cat with a different type of sedative, since they each had such different temperaments. Then the end came peacefully.

I adopted both cats as tiny shelter kittens when J and I were still just dating. Samantha was a friend to all who crossed our threshold. Simon's highly evolved sense of irrational fear meant that he perceived threats where there were none. So while he was a big loving baby with J and I (with the world's loudest purr), he was known for trapping real estate agents in corners and attacking visiting family in stairwells and hallways.

I don't envy anyone who has had to go through this. Five days later, I miss them and expect to see them in their regular spots. But I feel I made the right decision, and I'm glad they never suffered acutely. Most of all, I'm thankful for the nearly 15 years of memories they left me with. (Damn, here go the waterworks again.)

I know all cat owners think their cats are the best cats ever. Sorry to disappoint you, but mine were the best. Totally.

Rest in peace, my fluffies.

Sowing the seeds of love

The combination of J's whimpering of "when are you going to plant lettuces" AND the fact that I actually meant to plant the first spring veggies last weekend AND a sunny window of opportunity in a day of very changeable weather forced me outside after work (at home today and after getting a pot of beef daube simmering on the stove.

One hour of work (and one hour of worrying that gusts of wind would blow my precious seeds away) allowed me to sow:

• Cabbage ("Ruby Ball" and "Derby Day")
• Broccoli ("Small Miracle")
• Swiss chard ("Rainbow")
• Wild Arugula
• Spinach ("Teton")
• Endive (frisee)
• Wild garden mustards
• Cilantro
• Lettuce (a mix)

All seed (except the cilantro) was from Territorial Seeds. While I drool over many seed catalogs, I trust Territorial the most, since their research gardens are, like my garden, in the Pacific Northwest, west of the Cascade Mountains (albeit in Oregon's Willamette Valley, which does have slightly warmer summers than Seattle).

Since this year I am trying to garden according to the phases of the moon and other astrological signs (sounds kooky, I know, but I think there is actually something to it), I have to grab my planting windows when I can, which can be hard this time of year when said windows may be filled with soaking rain. Today was one of the best days of the month for planting, period, and it was in the right moon phase for planting crops that grow mostly above ground. So, whew, I'm glad I managed to get it done!

Kickin' my own butt

I started a new weight lifting routine yesterday, courtesy of my new bible, The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess.

You wouldn't think that a workout with only five exercises could leave a person whimpering the next day, yet begging for more. But I'm telling you it can.

The premise of the workout plan is that you work all the muscles in your body three days a week (alternating days). You won't find a bicep curl, calf raise or tricep extension in the bunch. Instead, you do big moves that work multiple muscles.

Here's an overview of the "A" workout from Stage 1:

• Squat (2 sets of 15 reps)
• Superset: Pushups (2 sets of 15 reps) and bent barbell row (2 sets of 15)
• Superset: Lunges (2 sets of 15) and a wicked stability ball ab exercise (2 sets of 8)

Oh, how my abs and chest are complaining this morning. In a good way, of course.

The book offers 6 months of workouts, changing things every several weeks to keep the muscles guessing. I'm also following the nutrition guidance in the book, since building a better body has perhaps more to do with good nutrition than it does with exercise.

Although I'm at a weight I am OK with, I want to build muscle and reduce body fat. I took a big leap of faith yesterday and had J photograph me in a bikini, front, side and back views. Much better than it would have been 48 pounds ago, but there is still work to be done. And having a series of photographs as a visual tracker will be valuable.

Monday's workouts:
Morning: Rachel Brice's Tribal Fusion - Yoga Isolations & Drills for Bellydance (30 minute practice)
After work: NROWLFW Stage 1, Workout A

Monday's food overview (aiming for 30% protein, 40% carbs, 30% fat):
2126 calories (26% protein, 38% carbs, 32% fat, 4% alcohol)

Tuesday's workouts:
Morning: Disc 1 of Sacred Bellydance (90 minutes)
Noon: 4-mile brisk walk

Tuesday's food overview:
1888 calories (31% protein, 26% carbs. 32% fat, 11% alcohol)
Should not have had that pre-dinner cocktail...

I want chickens, yes I do

J and I took a drive to the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe to pick-up our pre-ordered plants from the Snohomish County Conservation District's annual native plant sale (which is has a better selection than the one in my own county). We picked up 25 Nootka roses, 30 coneflowers, five Pacific rhododendrons, 10 kinnickinnick, 10 bunchberry (aka groundcover dogwood) and six ferns. Then, as if that wasn't enough, we paid for five camas bulbs, five native lupine, two evergreen huckleberries and five fir trees (all of these are small plant starts, mind).

And THEN, as if all THAT wasn't enough, we stopped at Flowerworld and bought two conifers (for the large pots on our newly finished front entry porch), a cute lime green conifer for a pot on the back patio (because it needs frost protection), 12 English daisies, 12 forget-me-nots and 24 fuchsia starts. Then we stopped at Molbaks and bought pansies and "feet" for the aforementioned front porch pots.

Where I will put all of these plants, I do not know. Arrgghhh!

But back to the title of this post. Immediately after the native plant sale pick-up, we stopped at a farm supply store next to the fairgrounds to buy some metal fence posts so we can rein in our raspberry bed. I was in no way prepared for the dozens of adorable tiny chicks. A whole room full of huge galvanized metal tubs, outfitted with bedding, heat lamps and water dishes, and filled with adorable baby chicks! Did I say ADORABLE?

Now, J and I a planning to build a small chicken coop at some point, but were hesitant about where we would get the chicks (reputable mail-order businesses require a minimum of a 25-chick order, or 22 more chicks than we need). Now we have that part figured out. So I am dreaming of the day when we can have our own Buff Orpington (above) and Barred Rock (below). And all the fresh eggs we can eat. Yum.


(Photos taken from the fabulous McMurray Hatchery Web site.)

Bellydance goodness

It was with some regret that I let three great bellydance workshops pass me by so far this year, so I was extra excited for today's workshop with Kami Liddle of the Bellydance Superstars. (Photo of Kami below is from the BDSS Web site, fyi.)

About half of the three-hour workshop was movement drills, and I picked up a few bits of very valuable information.

One was the correct muscles to be contracting to tip the pelvis backwards (the gluteus medius, which are, in basic terms, located above the large gluteus maximus muscles but below the lower back). Her attention to good form and posture was excellent, in both example and explanation of why it is so important (so we can all still be dancing when we're 110 years old!).

The other is something she learned from Carolena Nerricio (creator of American Tribal Style Belly Dance (ATS) and director of Fat Chance Belly Dance), which is that it takes eight minutes of drilling a certain movement to create "muscle memory" for that movement. Dancers want muscle memory because once you have it, you can use proper technique while performing without consciously thinking about what muscles to contract. This will definitely change the way I do movement drills at home.

After drills, she taught us an advanced-level combo from a choreography she did for Bellydance Superstars (and one that they are currently performing on tour). I can't say I nailed it perfectly on every run-through, but I kept up pretty darn well. Yay me!

Busy as a bee

Seriously. We saw our first bee of the season in the garden last weekend, and since so few flowers are in bloom right now, it was indeed busy.

The last three weekends have provided enough glimpses of springlike weather (with a strange, glowing orb in the sky and temperatures above bone-chilling) that I pronounce that the 2008 gardening season has officially begun in our small homestead. J and I took a trip to a specialty nursery that stocks more varieties of rhododendrons than most people can imagine. It is a dangerous, dangerous place (it would have been more dangerous if we realized at the time that many, many varieties of Japanese maples were also to be had).

We had planned on buying only a few small rhodies (by small I mean those that max out at about 1’ x 1’ or 2’ x 2’) as evergreen anchor plants in a still-empty bed in the middle of our front yard. Well…we came home with 10. For anyone out there who things rhodies are simply big-leaved foundation shrubs (especially ubiquitous in the Pacific Northwest), the diversity in just those few plants we adopted is astounding. Big leaves, tiny leaves (1” by 1/8”), round paddle-shaped leaves, narrow pointy leaves. Flowers in shades of lemon yellow, sky blue, violet, deep red, cream, white, cotton candy pink and pink fading into white. Lovely. The largest of these will reach 3’ x 3’ over many, many years.

In case you don’t think miracles exist, we arrived home with our plant bounty and immediately put ALL OF THEM into the ground. Unheard of! We also moved three plants to the front yard from their temporary resting places (a Viburnum, a small false cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Snow’) and a small variegated-leaved evergreen shrub whose name I can’t recall...)

It’s amazing how a few hours work can transform a landscape. Especially when the rest of our front yard already has young shrubs and trees in place, along with a lovely-even-in-winter herb border, foxgloves that never figured out it was winter, a winter vegetable patch (mostly kale, chard and beets) and masses of emerging spring bulbs.

My ambitiousness extended to planting four bags of bareroot perennials from Costco, including bleeding heart (Dicentra), maidenhair and cinnamon ferns, trillium and about 20 assorted hostas. I plugged a dozen of the hostas around the rhodies, for a nice contrast of leaf size and shape. I’ll add some deep purple columbine later, along with three hellebores I picked up at Costco last night (I also picked up a bag of 12 variegated-leaf hostas [after swearing up, down and sideways to J that I had actual spots for them] and a flowering pear tree that has a narrow enough mature width for our fenced side yard.).

A lovely line of coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)will flow on the street side of the rhody bed, once we pick them up from a conservation district native plant sale next week.

Indoors, most of my tomato seeds have sprouted (except for holdout Koralik...not sure what it's waiting for) and I hope to see action from my pepper and eggplant seeds any day now. With grow lights glowing from the basement 24-7, I'm sure our neighbors must think we're growing pot. Heh, heh.

Gratuitous dog photo

Yep, this is my golden retriever. Photo taken Sunday, when he was getting in my way as I was trying to take garden photos. He clearly believed that I was only out on the patio to see him and photograph his gorgeousness. Self-centered beast.

I meant to post more tonight, but I have to go watch Lost. Will fulfill intentions tomorrow, for I have many secrets to tell...

(Old-)fashion(ed) obession

Last night J and I watched Sweet Land (excellent, I highly recommend) and this morning I watched the rest of Northanger Abbey off Tivo while I drank my coffee. These two viewings unexpectedly spawned a burning desire to adopt some of the fashions of decades long past.

In Sweet Land, I fell head over heels with young Inge's traveling outfit of circa 1920 deep purple above-ankle-length (wool?) gored skirt and fitted black puff-sleeved jacket. I drooled over her black brimmed hat with the purple and black polka-dotted scarf tied around it. If you want to see the outfit in all its glory, visit the movie's clips page and watch Clip 2. Sigh.

I think the skirt from Folkwear pattern 232 will do nicely. The jacket may be more problematic. But where there's a will, there's a way!

I always yearn for Regency-era fashion a bit whenever I watch a Jane Austen movie, but that familiar pull was especially acute as I watched Northanger Abbey. I particularly fancied the jackets, especially the cute little Spencer jacket in light blue velvet. Fortunately this recreation will be a bit easier, thanks to this pattern from (the aptly named) Sense and Sensibility. For Jane-worthy gowns, I like their "The Lady's Elegant Closet" pattern, as well as Folkwear pattern 215.

An accidental obsession occurred while looking for the Spencer jacket pattern. I stumbled over a little selection of patterns collectively called "Women of the Middle Bustle Era: 1877-1882." I'm especially fond of the elaborately draped skirts that don't actually require a bustle.

Sigh, I think I'm in love.

Thrifty genes

I’ve inherited many traits from my mother. My eye and hair colors. My body type. My extreme nearsightedness (we’re talking blind as a bat, people). My tendency to talk with my hands. And, last but not least, my love of thrift store shopping.

I can’t pinpoint my first thrift store experience, but since my mother and her mother thrifted before I can remember (and probably long before I was born), it was with undoubtedly by the side of one or the other (if not both).

I do have distinct grade-school memories of visiting my grandmother’s home in the San Francisco Bay Area and walking to nearby thrift stores, and taking BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to others. I was always thrilled with my clothing finds, because even at that age, I liked that I had something that no other kid in my class would have.

(Come to think of it, my grandfather was a thrifter, too. About five years ago, my grandmother gave me a partial set of Mikasa china. I finally asked her about its provenance last fall. It turns out my grandfather [who died when I as a child] had pieced together that incomplete collection from thrift stores! Of course, at the time my grandmother was all, “Why do we need more china?”)

Through the years, I continued to thrift store shop with Mom and Grandmother, then with friends in high school and college. One of my first jobs out of college, as a poorly paid reporter at a weekly newspaper in a small western Oregon town, was luckily within two blocks of a decent Goodwill. My editor (a friend who graduated a year ahead of me) and I knew exactly when new shipments came in, and made sure to take a break to hit the racks, unless news was breaking (ha!). One of my best finds was an Anne Klein double breasted suit jacket, which I wore for years.

Then I moved to the Midwest, followed by two years in New Jersey, and I abandoned thrifting altogether (and I was an hour from NYC…what was I thinking?!).

When I took up bellydance with a vengeance four years ago, I started making occasional forays into a Goodwill here, a Value Village there, to look for velvet tops and long, full skirts suitable for class or costuming.

My official return to thrifting was the day after Thanksgiving last year. J had to work; I did not. I was able to go to Goodwill by myself (we use our car very little and tend to group our errands, so he was always with me on previous trips) with the time and space to roam the racks and sift the wheat from the chaff. You know how you can not see a good friend for what feels like forever, and then take up exactly where you left off. Yep, me and thrifting.

My friend Goodwill was especially good to me on my one appointed January thrifting trip (in accordance with my Wardrobe Refashion pledge). For $80 and change (including tax) I got 22 items of clothing:

• Three cute cardigans (pink cotton, red cotton, charcoal merino wool)
• Three hoodies (red velour, olive velour, charcoal knit)
• Two pink striped shirts (Eddie Bauer and American Eagle)
• Green washable suede jacket
• Green Gap zip-front short raincoat
• Summery hip-length, ¾-sleeve jacket in shades of blue and green
• Cozy nubby fleece jacket
• Black ribbed merino wool turtleneck
• Deep red nubby wool Eddie Bauer sweater set
• Striped I.N.C sweater
• Olive green rib-knit V-neck sweater
• Blue cropped sweater perfect for bellydance class
• Crazy striped sweater with bell sleeves
• Burgundy long-sleeved Ann Taylor crew-neck T
• Lime green ribbed boat-neck T
• White button-down shirt with stripes of black stitching
• Red/black brocade button-front vest

Items in italics were a mere 99 cents each (red tags). The others were 30 percent off of their tagged price (blue and green tags). Bold items need some refashioning (just new buttons in one case). I have my February trip planned for the big President's Day sale, when Goodwill has the same 99 cent/30 percent off arrangement going. Good times!

Pix of a few items are on my Flickr page. I'll include one or two in this post later...

Tranformation with a capital T

I've become quite enamored with Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, which I checked out from the library but now must actually purchase. I ran my first test projects by raiding my stack of "too baggy but maybe still OK for gardening" T-shirts. I also plucked two nearly new Old Navy Perfect Fit Ts for good measure (I bought them last year while losing weight and they fit me properly for about two nanoseconds before failing to be my perfect fit).

My first guinea pig was a turquoise heather ONPF T, which I transformed into the stegosaurus T (number 33 in the book, "tying game"). All it required was cutting off the sleeves, hem and neck, making one vertical cut all the way up center back, then making a series of 3-inch horizontal cuts 1+ inches apart on both sides of the center cut, then tie a bunch of knots and you're in business.

My pink ONPF T got a different treatment (number 19 in the book, "fermez la ruche"). I started by (again) saying "bye-bye" to sleeves, neck and hem. Then, I stitched new side seams 1" from the existing seam. That extra seam allowance became casings for drawstrings made from the few inches of T I cut from the bottom. Cute! A detail photo of the ruching is on my Flickr page.

When I lived in Belltown and had a P-Patch (community garden) plot, I bought a P-Patch T-shirt because I liked the color and graphics. What I didn't like was that it was a man's-style T. Now that it was even baggier than ever, I never wore it. But now, minus mannish sleeves and too-long hem, plus two new side seams to nip it in, I think I will wear it quite a lot (it's number 14, "classic punk"). I gave a similar treatment to a really baggy white V-neck (keeping the original) neck, but felt it was to utilitarian to bother photographing.

Next up: Let's see how many items of clothing I can make from a super-soft thick brushed cotton long-sleeve T of Js in a great color of red that surprisingly has barely faded (J bought it back when he still tended to wear his shirts and sweaters on the big side; now that he wears sleeker clothing , he's purging his closet). I'm aiming for a little skirt, legwarmers, hat and arm warmers.

I (heart) refashioning

Being out of town last weekend put a crimp in my refashioning activities, but I managed to finish a pair of arm warmers made from a beloved black- and white-striped T-shirt that had an unfortunate stain on the front. I have enough scraps left to make some sort of headband, when I get around to that. My Wardrobe Refashion pledge is really keeping me motivated, I'll tell ya.

I also whipped up a olive green panne velvet skirt that's great over yoga pants for bellydance class, or as one element in a tribal fusion-style costume. The velvet wasn't a color I usually choose (it looked slightly different online), but it looks vibrant against black, and the price was right: $3 for the one yard when the previous owners of denverfabrics.com were clearing out inventory to make way for new owners last fall. I have additional photos on my Flickr page, including some with the skirt layered under similar skirts made of black burnout velvet and gray/silver fishnet. There are also two fuzzy photos of the costume I made for the Fremont Arts Council Winter Solstice Feast (where I bellydanced with burning candles and managed to not spill wax or break the snifters holding the candles...whoo-hoo!).

The skirts are my approximation of the Rosehips skirts made by Rose Harden, formerly of the troupe Ultra Gypsy. I'm a committed DIYer and have no ethical problem copying other people's designs for myself (never to sell!), but I like to give credit, especially when the designer is a one-woman operation.

Back to the books

Even though I've reached a number on the scale that I can totally live with, I've decided it's time to buckle down and really clean up my eating. I don't care if I lose another pound, but I can tell where I have muscle and where I still have excess body fat. I do care about gaining the former and losing the latter.

One important tool that helped me kick almost 50 pounds to the curb last year was The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person. It's not a diet; rather, it works with any eating plan you choose (healthy, please).

Some of the daily assignments made me think "duh, I already know this," but let me tell you, there were many that made me open my eyes and see the light bulb going off over my head. Finally I got it: hunger is NOT an emergency and mindless eating is bad, bad, BAD!

Some things in the book were totally new and revolutionary to me. Others were nothing new, but something about the way they were explained finally broke through my mental barriers. I formed some great, healthy new habits and didn't feel much pain doing it.

However, I've noticed in the last month or so that I'm slipping into that sense of complacency that comes once the weight is lost. That feeling that I don't have to watch what I eat so carefully. Fortunately, this time I was prepared for it. That feeling came around every time I've lost weight in the past, why would this time be any different. What is different, is I've got Dr. Beck's book on my side. I probably won't work through every daily exercise (six weeks worth), but I will review the ones that I know are sticking points.

The only women's fitness magazine I regularly enjoy is Oxygen. While I don't like all the ads for fat-burning supplements and whatnot, Oxygen is heavy on the fitness and nutrition content, light on beauty and fashion (which I get from Vogue, thank you very much). Well, Oxygen wouldn't be Oxygen without regular contributing editor Tosca Reno, who has a small list of books to her name, including two recent books on clean eating. I just added one title, The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook: Great-Tasting Recipes That Keep you Lean, to my personal cookbook library (which I really need to inventory one of these days...).

I started cooking from it last night, preparing the Crock-Pot Porridge. It was nice to have a hot breakfast ready and waiting for me after my morning workout. Adding unsweetened applesauce instead of brown sugar will take a little getting used to, but it was tasty. And totally healthy. Tonight's dinner will be Country Style Beef Soup, which I picked mainly because I can use one of the packages of soup bones from the 100 pounds of grass-fed steer we have in our freezer. Oddly, I've had a hard time finding recipes that call for beef soup bones. I can also use up the rest of the cubed butternut squash in the freezer, as well as one pack of the frozen edamame from Costco and a few of the turnips still braving the cold in my garden.

Really, this is one of the few cookbooks from which I will probably make every single recipe. I'll just have to be a bit sneaky with the tofu recipes (sorry, J!).

Anticipation is making me wait...for spring

I am so ready for spring. And not just because Mother Nature is cackling as she sends temperatures in Seattle plunging again. It’s because I placed my annual spring seed order with Territorial Seeds this week. I can’t wait for them to arrive (My preeeecioussss...).

Of course, in planning my order, I ran smack dab into one of my most tormenting addictions: heirloom winter squash seeds. I thought I had it licked, but I guess my change in location was just a temporary salve.

You see, my previous house (about an hour north of Seattle) was on a half-acre lot. We had a HUGE vegetable garden. With all the space in the world for whatever my little seed-planting soul desired. Couple that with the fact that I think most vegetables are as pretty as they are edible, and you can see how I got led into temptation.

Winter squash wasn’t my only trouble. Summer squash was tough, too. And do you have any idea how many pretty heirloom pole beans there are? Do you? Then there were the lettuces: oak leaf, ruffled leaf, tongue-shaped leaf, butter head, speckled…the list REALLY goes on and on.

One thing about lettuces, pole beans and summer squash is that they don’t take up TOO much room. You can’t say that about winter squash. Boy, can those babies sprawl! So beautiful, too. In fact, almost too beautiful to actually eat… . (Don’t even get J started on this point. Boy, do I still hear about it!)

When we moved to Seattle’s urban core and had only small community garden plots to call our own, sheer space constraints pushed any thoughts of planting winter squash off the table. The space situation isn’t a whole lot better with the veggie plot that takes up most of the plantable area in our current back garden…but there’s a new twist to the plot this year. (Accidental pun alert: story plot…garden plot.)

When we turned our front yard from a sloping lawn to a leveled-off, retaining wall encased garden last year, most of the trees and shrubs we planted were small, to save on $ (since plants do grow, often faster than you know). So we have lots of bare space right now. Space where winter squash vines could quite happily meander.

Yes, when I realized this, I did have to be careful not to hyperventilate.

I felt pretty good, limiting myself to only four varieties of winter squash + one pumpkin, but J made me remove one from my online shopping cart [sniff]. The one I am most excited about, my non-negotiable, is Marina di Chioggia. This squash first crossed my radar years ago, but it became a must-have when I read Barbara Kingsolver’s account of encountering it in its natural habitat (Italy) in “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.”

I’m also pretty pleased with my pumpkin pick, Fairytale. I’ll also be planting some Small Sugar pumpkin seeds I already have.

2008 is going to be my best vegetable garden year ever (well, to date). With a smaller urban yard, and no guerilla gardening to be done this year (digging ditches, removing sod, putting in a side yard where once there was driveway), I can focus on my vegetable babies. Hey, spring! Hurry the heck up, will ya?

What I'm reading

One of my must-read sections in the Sunday New York Times is the Sunday Book Review (runner up to Sunday Style, fyi). Each week, I get, if nothing else, a sort of Cliff's Notes version of books that are interesting, but I know I'll never read. Most weeks yield at least a few candidates for my "To Read" list. On a good week, I'll discover one for my "To Read A.S.A.P." list.

Tom Perrotta's "The Abstinence Teacher" swiftly made that list. Of course, with the NY Times practically hitting me over the head with it (great review plus author articles/interviews in two other sections the same week), how could it not?

If you're not familiar with Mr. Perrotta, he wrote the "Little Children: A Novel," as well as the screenplay for the fabulous movie adaptation. He also wrote the novel "Election," from which the hilarious movie was made. I'm about one-third through "Abstinence" and one of the things I'm enjoying immensely (as I did with "Little Children") is how human his characters are. You may not agree with their opinions, or even their actions, but their humanity shines through. No character is perfect; no character is irredeemable. Each has their hopes, dreams and desires and is trying to live life the best way they can, stumbling a little or a lot along the way. And aren't we all?

Also, Perrotta's characters aren't caricatures. Sometimes, you think you're seeing a caricature, but then you're shown another side, and you realize that, as in life, first impressions aren't always accurate impressions. This depth of characterization is especially effective when dealing with topics as polarizing as the those in "Abstinence": Sex ed vs. abstinence ed; evangelical Christianity vs. everyone else.

I just finished reading another find from Book Review, this time from an ad (yes, sometimes it is OK to judge a book by it's cover). "New Moon" is the second book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Thumbnail series sketch: Teenage girl (Isabella Swan) moves to Forks, Washington to live with her police chief father and falls in love with a teenage vampire (Edward Cullen). Complications ensue. I won't say more about that, because it would involve spoilers.

I'm not an across-the-board fan of the vampire fiction genre. That said, Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" was one of the best books I read last year, and I've recommended it to several people who read and loved it as much as I did. What I enjoy so much about the Twilight books is similar to what I enjoy about Harry Potter: vicariously reliving teen angst through the experiences of intelligent fictional characters who are placed in an environment that is on one hand pure fantasy and on the other hand totally normal.

A movie version of the first book, "Twilight," is in the works. Ironically, the actor cast to play the dreamy teen vamp is Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in two of the HP movies.

Leapin' leopards, part 1

This weekend I finished my first few projects for my Wardrobe Refashion pledge. Two are in the photo at right. The leopard-print fleece jacket is from Butterick retro pattern 4928. I purchased the fabric last fall on sale at fabric.com. I opted to not line the jacket, since the fleece feels so cozy. The fabric cost $14.60, and I still have some sizable scraps left to use on some other small projects (an ear-protecting headband, for example). Thread was the only other cost.

Also pictured are a pair of flat-front denim trousers that I had all-but-finished three months ago. I finally finished hemming them and tacking down the waistband lining. The dark stretch denim was a steal at $1.95 a yard from fabric.com (yes, I do love them very much). Including zipper, thread and bias tape, these cost me maybe $6 to make.

I also finished refashioning a light gray, slightly metallic lightweight sweater set I bought at Goodwill for $5. I shortened the thin straps on the shell by 4 inches, making it look less like a strappy tank, more like a sleeveless square-necked shell. I took in the too-big cardigan along the sleeve and side seams to make it fit a little closer. Photos of that project, along with a front view and pattern envelope view of the leopard jacket are posted on my Flickr page.

Up next: I have a whole slew of Goodwill purchase that have refashioning written all over them. Plus, I just got a book on T-shirt refashioning from the library, so I have many T's that should be looking very different, very soon.

Ready, set...garden!

I bet you didn't know it, but today was the first day of my gardening season. It was the first weekend day of 2008 with no rain, so J and I jumped on the chance to do a little tidying around the old homestead.

It's amazing what a difference plucking up the kazillion tiny weeds that were growing JUST TO SPITE ME and laying down a layer of Zoo Doo can do to make the garden look almost springtime fresh.

We got enough Doo out of the plastic-covered pile on our driveway to actually reclaim a few feet for, you know, parking. I planted the last 240 of the, again, kazillion flower bulbs I bought last fall. Better late than never. They were tiny bulbs so the planting went fast, thank god, because my fingers were half frozen (maybe that was my just punishment for being so neglectful to them).

I trimmed back last year's now-dead top growth on the coreopsis, veronica and echinacea (but not on the foxgloves...I swear those things don't know it's winter). J cut back the canes in the fall raspberry bed and I started cleaning up the strawberry bed...until we called it a day for early cocktail hour. Can't work TOO hard, now.