Vegan Mofo Day 29 and things I've made

Look tasty? You betcha. Mosetta Stone got me thinking about foods that are naturally vegan - like produce - hence the raw, no recipe, totally vegan post. Fresh picked by yours truly courtesy of some neighbors and the Portland Fruit Tree Project, a non-profit that solicits fruit from fruit tree owners who can't or won't fully harvest their goods. Half of each picking goes to the food bank and half goes to the volunteers. Hence, ten pounds of pears and four of apples. (Full disclosure: This went down a while ago and most of this fruit is long gone.) A fun morning, free fruit for myself and others, and the chance to play with a really cute two year old? Sweet.

Since I actually have access to my pictures, let's see what non-edible projects I've been up to, shall we? I wish I had a picture of the table I painted before I painted it. The camera has been sick lately. Anyway, the table:



Leg detail. Rock!



Plane detail.



Different plane detail.



The whole thing! Picture taken while the clear coat dried. I'm pretty damn proud of it.

Knitting has taken over my brain lately. I made myself a helmet liner as a maiden voyage project (pic below with my washed-out face). For the record, the difference between a helmet liner and a hat in my world is just a matter of thickness and when I wear the thing. For all intents and purposes, they're the same thing.



Finally, the cabled (!) scarf I'm making my brother for Christmas. My first attempt at cables, fyi. Not too shabby!



Shout out to Vegan Knitting for her tips on finding cruelty-free yarn. Word!

Birds and Cubs

The Cubs went down to the Dodgers, and you probably don't care too much. Maybe you do. In any case, I let nine men (plus pinches) break my heart. Again. I am growing equipped to deal with life's disappointments. By the time I'm 30, I should be able to roll with any punches. Having perennial hopes squashed year after year is pretty damn harsh.

Having traded my old trumpet for an old sewing machine (thank you, Craig's list!), I've gone on an alteration rampage. All of my rad-but-gigantic shirts WILL fit, and thus my rather limited wardrobe will get a boost. AND I'm knitting my first hat ever! It looks small, but I think it'll stretch out. There was much craftiness this weekend, although that table I've been meaning to refinish is still unfinished. Or rather, it's half-finished and the project is unfinished.

Flickers have been following me this week. They're one of my favorite birds to watch because they're so sassy and beautiful. I've seen both males and females lately - distinguished by the red shafts on the cheeks, which the females lack. For a while, they were teasing me; I think they know that their call is one of the few I can identify, and therefore decided to hide in trees and let those little "wiki-wikis" loose. They sound a bit like a flinchy turn-tablist scratching an oboe track. Oh, it turns out that the little songbird I saw while hiking Larch Mountain last week was a Townsend's Warbler. The sweet thing was that I was looking down from the peak and got a (sorry...) bird's eye view of the little thing flitting around above the treeline of this colossal old growth forest. So awe-inspiring.

Industry! Science! Technology!

Well, I had a constructive weekend. I was honored to be a part of a task force of four handywomen, bent on adding 100 square feet of garden space to an already charming North Portland home. A 6'x10' bed, two 2'x6' beds and a 20"x6' bed now await planting. The woodwork was only half the job, and I wish I could kipe pictures off of a myspace page to show a) how great the beds look and b) just how much dirt we moved up some pretty obnoxious stairs.

For the illustrated part of the show, I do have photographic evidence of the compost boxes that a proud member of the aforementioned team and I put together. They only took about and hour to an hour and a half apiece. Because of technical difficulties (poor planning in the power tool department) this entire compost bin project was done with hand tools. Old school saws. Hammers. Nails. It was intensely rewarding.



Pictures of Chicago forthcoming. Rant about Sarah Palin ongoing.

Things I've learned in the past week

Cops love to talk.

Saying, "I hope that's a coffee stain" in the world of inpatient drug treatment is apparently a pretty good line.

I can, given enough time, sew a hat. It can, given enough determination, be fairly cool-looking and durable.

Getting paid to chase a Jack Russell terrier around is perhaps the best part of this job. Especially if someone's playing Nick Drake at the time.

Petropolis by Anya Ulinich is damn good, and taking book recommendations from NPR is three for three. I really enjoy her word choice - it's playful and unusual. "...icy acne on the sidewalk..." still sticks out in my head. The characters have already broken my heart with their guilelessness and earnestness and I'm not yet halfway done.