Glow Worm

I found this little caterpillar (well, not so little, he was about the size of my index finger) crawling across our patio floor. Safe travels, my friend.

Bookends and Nightstand

Aaron and I spent a few afternoons together working on these bookends. I cut out the shapes, and did some sanding. He gave advice, put them together, and finished them. They are just lovely.


The toadstool was a copy of a toy I had made some time ago. The shape just seemed to work, so I used it again.

We went back and forth about what to put on the other side and finally settled on a hedgehog. I think he turned out swell. The spikes were a bit hard to saw, but he came together very quickly.

This was the last project to come out of the wood shop. Aaron is down there right now packing things, marking tools to sell, and cleaning up the sawdust. I loved that wood shop.



I should also mention that Aaron made this beautiful nightstand some time ago. What a treasure. (Both the nightstand and the guy. I am one lucky lass!)

gnome home

I made this Gnome Home mushroom puzzle and little gnomey recently. I used a couple of pieces of scrap wood that Aaron had laying around the wood shop. Poplar and mahogany. It turned out pretty good but the door piece got away from me and the base is like half an inch thick. Oh well, it still looks great! I am not sure if it's better to start cutting something like this from the smallest to the largest or the other way around. I think I did this one largest to smallest, which might have been a mistake. I'll just have to make another and try it the opposite way to see what works.

We are off on a wild road trip to Cabela's tomorrow for farm gear, but not before a stop at the farmers market and Southern States for the week's veg. Going to Cabela's seems to be a oft-taken pilgrimage around here. People get excited and plan a whole weekend around it. I must admit, I am a little giddy about it, myself. Who knows what kind of treasures we'll find!

On the needles, on the nightstand: gnomes and goblins

I made this little gnome with some scrap cotton yarn and stuffed him with wool roving that I bought at a local farm. Here is the pattern. He was my first little knitted toy, really, and so much easier than I thought it would be. I will be making many more of these with all of my little scraps. I really want to knit one up in a pretty silvery colored wool to make a Gandalf the Grey.

Early in the morning
When the first cock crowed his warning,
Neat like bees, as sweet and busy,
Laura rose with Lizzie:
Fetched in honey, milked the cows,
Aired and set to rights the house,
Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat,
Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
Next churned butter, whipped up cream,
Fed their poultry, sat and sewed;
Talked as modest maidens should
Lizzie with an open heart,
Laura in an absent dream,
One content, one sick in part;
One warbling for the mere bright day's delight,
One longing for the night.

-Christina Rossetti

I recently read Rossetti's "Goblin Market," a long poem published in the 1860s. It's about two sisters who live a perfectly simple life until goblins attempt to sell them tempting fruit. It's one of those pieces that I somehow missed reading in college and always meant to pick up. It has been cropping up a lot in my research for the gingerbread paper, so I thought now might be a good time to take a look. Boy, is it good. I know that most say it is about feminism, but as I was reading it I couldn't help think about our current food situation in the U.S. (big shocker, huh? I'm always thinking about it). The sisters lead an idyllic life until the merchants tempt them with abundance and exoticism, altering the sisters forever. I think that parallels can be drawn between this and crop subsidies, GMO seeds, federal regulation, certain seed/poison producers, and what has become of the American diet. I always think of Poptarts. They are so cheap to buy and so easy to get...but what do they provide for you, really? Why can't fresh foods be as accessible and affordable as Poptarts?

I was really struck by some similarities between our current food problems and Rossetti's poem.

Their fruits like honey to the throat,
But poison in the blood