I’m going to do a Market Day recap … but I scheduled this post earlier to show you what I’ve got that’s new this month. I have quite a few things!
New ceramics (posted a while back) and these guys:
Wish me luck! I’m sure it will be fun.
wow. I don’t remember the last time I did a giveaway, but I think it’s high time I do another.
What am I giving away? Well, how about a camera case (which can also be used for phones and iPods)?
Gotta love the cute little birdies fabric. One of my favorites!
How do you win, you say? Well … it’s easy. Sort of anyway. 
It really is just the luck of the draw.
TO ENTER:
Thanks for playing, and I will announce a winner on August 1 by using the random integer generator.
Well, there are so many songs I could post, so I’ll give you a treat: you get a few today!
My favorite, of course, is Such Great Heights — and the Iron and Wine cover is Mark’s and my song. But there are a bunch of really great songs.
Enjoy! I know I do. I have a lot of these songs on my iPod.
Love goes to Des Moines local Cara Hall this week and her ironically titled blog, Failed Feminist.
I met Cara last year through Craft Saturday in Des Moines. In her own words, Cara “is a writer in Des Moines, Iowa (which is cooler than you think). And as much as she never expected to, she loves all things Martha. Just try to pry the knitting needles out of her hands. She’s always trying new recipes and DIY projects, and she hopes you’ll try them too. She’s also always working on herself, and there is oh so much work to do.”
I read Cara’s blog for her crafty updates, her dog photos and commentary, but mostly for her recipes. One of my favorites is inside out egg rolls, which is pictured in the screenshot above.
So, check her out. She’s also a fellow Des Moines Register Featured Blogger.
This past weekend I realized I have an awful lot of projects that are WIP, unfinished or just plain sitting around — UFOs (unfinished objects).
So, in effort to finally finish up some of these, I present to you in no particular order (and when I started the project):
I’m sure there’s way more UFOs than what’s on this list, but this is what I’ve got so far. Problem is, I don’t have deadlines for any of these, except maybe the stuff I make for Market Day, but those are rolling deadlines at best. Gifts always have deadlines, so there’s 3 on here I know I can mark off for sure. Mom’s quilt is getting done next month so I can have it ready by September. The birthday mug is going to get done this week. And there’s one more on here that’s going to be a wedding gift for a friend.
Anyway, in an effort to demolish this list, I’m going to present one finished project (or at least progress on something) each week. Obviously, the granny square afghan and other projects (like quilts) take a little time, and some take some funds I don’t have. But I promise (girl scout’s honor) to work on this list as best I can before starting any new projects.
Bad news for my hometown this past weekend. The dam a few towns upstream BROKE.
The Delhi dam was built in the 1920s and created a recreational lake that a lot of people had homes around. My family had a cabin out there for years. I caught my first fish there. But, the lake is now gone.
Sadly, the people on the lake are more concerned about their precious lake being gone than the millions of dollars of damage this caused downstream. From my experience working at the canoe rental in Monticello for four years, I have kind of a bias against the Delhi dam. They would let water out so they could have good levels for holiday weekends, sometimes causing our river to flood out and costing us several canoes.
Anyway … the dam’s broken. And water rushed into my hometown this weekend.
Oh, did I mention? It was the county fair this week. Our county fair is the 2nd biggest fair in the state next to the state fair. Styx and Joan Jett were going to play Saturday night, but everything was cancelled due to the water.
This is a picture of the swine barn, at the bottom of the fairgrounds — which is at the same level as the trackside seating for all the concerts that would have gone on.
Fortunately, I’m pretty sure everybody in my family isn’t really affected by the flooding (directly anyway). I found out about this on Saturday when my friend Kasey called and asked if anybody in Monti needed help moving. I was like “moving what?” “oh, the dam broke, so moving anything.” Crap.
Regardless, I’m not moving to a flood plain. And if I do, I am so getting flood insurance. I just hope that everybody is safe.
UPDATE: Read about it and watch the video of Lake Delhi emptying into the Maquoketa river on CNN.
A week later, but oh well.
Last weekend Mark and I trekked to western Illinois to a beautiful little town called Galena. I’d been there several times before and we were really just looking to find somewhere nice to go and get away from things. It was his birthday on Saturday so we planned a couple of things, but really, we just wanted to chillax.
We stayed at the Captain Harris Guest House in the Honeymoon Cottage. And yes, everybody thought we had just gotten married. But really, it was just the one we found in our price range out of all the Galena B&Bs that had all the things we wanted. A lot of B&Bs didn’t even serve breakfast … which is weird. Are they just considered Beds?
Anyway, the house we chose was apparently the 2nd oldest home in Galena and the oldest continuously lived-in home. The inside had been refurbished in the craftsman style in the ’20s and there were some lovely Frank Lloyd Wright windows. But, we actually stayed in what used to be the pigeon coop. Which, obviously, had also been refurbished and furnished with a fireplace and a hot tub. It was cozy.
We spent a lot of time watching movies, playing games and just hanging out in our room. We didn’t choose Galena because of the stuff to do there. We chose it because it was close to my hometown and I had to find somebody to watch my doggie (ie. dropped him off at “grandma’s”) and I’d been a lot of times, so I knew what the area was going to be like.
Here are some adorable photos.
Our room …
Adorable ribbon embroidered pillow
A view of the parlor in the house
the gorgeous bay window view from the table
here’s a closeup of the label of the fabulous wine that I picked. honestly — I picked it for the label, which is usually a bust. But it was gorgeous. And it had sciencey drawings on it, so it was perfect for Mark’s b-day.
Friday night we ate at what we were hoping would be a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Durty Gurt’s … not so much. It was good, but it wasn’t the dive we were hoping for. It was more like a Friday’s.
Did I mention that there was a classic roadster convention going on that weekend? which worked out nicely. Mark loves cars, but isn’t really into classics — this is kind of where we overlap. I love classic cars.
we spent a good chunk of time playing chicken foot — which is a reallly fun domino game.
Saturday night we ate at Fried Green Tomatoes … which was good, but I wish we would have done Vinny Vanucci’s instead because Fried Green wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary — except for their prices. This is the namesake dish. Yes. There are tomatoes under that cheese.
All in all, it was a pretty great trip. We spent a few hours in the hot tub both days we were there … I went for a run and ran up an epically steep hill … we ate a lot of naughty but delicious foods … finished off 2 bottles of wine … smoked a stogie … and had a great time!
Found this via my friend Cat Rocketship who kindly shared it via google reader.
it’s really exciting when something that you design gets printed … but it’s even more exciting when something you designed not-for-work (for FUN) gets printed!
I received these pretty packages in the mail …
They’re CDs that I designed for my friend Flip’s band The Half Hearts. My friend Kim did the paintings and I created the layout. They had them professionally printed and packaged and sent me a couple for my portfolio. Sooooo exciting! (probably WAY more exciting to them though!)
This song is so not my style, but again, I discovered it on The Current, and am currently in love with it. It’s Neckbrace by Ratatat.
Also, there isn’t really a video for it put out by the band, but I did find this really neat video that somebody put together — which I like because I’m into neat designy things.
Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!
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