May 23, 2002. This will be the last World of Julie update for a week or so. A copy of my birth certificate arrived in the nick of time today, and so tomorrow we are off to Canada! I'm so excited. We're going to Nova Scotia. However, I have many fun new things for you to see. If you pace yourself, you might be able to make all this last a week.
Three good new cat photos. About a month ago, I got these great great great embroidered cat toys from Valerie Coates.
Don't you love these?? You should all run out and buy an embroidered cat (or dog) toy from this woman. I really can't recommend them enough. I was going to save them until May 10 (the anniversary of when we got the cats) but Theo literally ripped open the package and pulled the toys out. Plus, I'm pretty sure they didn't have May 10 highlighted in their calendars, so I think it's ok. Anyway, they love these toys. (You'll notice, in fact, that these toys have cat hair all over them...that's from constant cat play.) I thought I had taken photos of both cats, but somehow I only ended up with pictures of Peatie, so that's what you get. New cat photos start here.
Also updated: the Crafty Craft Crafts page now has photos of our groovy sewing machine.
And the Knitting page shows you what I'll be knitting next, and answers to Theresa's questions.
So that's it until June 3, at least. Have a good Memorial Day from your pal Julie!
May 20, 2002. I'm just made granola, courtesy of Erica Mulherin (I'm making the Sundance Granola). It smells absolutely divine. I doubled the recipe, figuring we could take it on our camping trip to Canada next week. I used a bit more cinnamon than the recipe called for (I really like cinnamon). For my dried fruits, I am doing a mix of dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries and raisins (figured I'd make it slightly gourmet so it would be special Vacation Granola). Oh, and I left out the molasses, because I completely forgot about until 40 seconds before it was all supposed to come out of the oven.
When I was growing up, my mom used to make granola all the time, and the best part was how great the whole house smelled when she was doing it. People who are trying to sell their house should have granola baking during open houses.
As a special bonus for you, here are two photos of me when I was more overtly Granola.
My coworker Scott keeps saying he doesn't read World of Julie because I never mention him, so, there, I just did.
May 19, 2002. I had a lot of fun at the Maine Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival yesterday. I somehow thought it would be a lot bigger, but it was still fun. I had no idea sheep were so loud. There were a lot of spinners there; I don't think I've actually ever seen anyone spinning before, and of course now I'm obsessed with it. I made Dave check out the spinning wheel construction, in case he is suddenly struck with the desire to make me a wooden spinning wheel. I almost bought a really nice alpaca/wool blend yarn, but decided I didn't need it right now, and that I could just go to the alpaca farm (which isn't far) and get some yarn there when I do want to make an alpaca sweater. There were many beautiful quilts, and also a lot of people selling felted hats and things, and that was very interesting to see. There was also a woman making cashmere and silk scarves through some fancy felting process (I forget what it was called) where she essentially throws cashmere yarn onto a silk scarf, wets it all, and the cashmere adheres to the silk. They were very pretty.
I didn't buy anything, but I came away very inspired to do more knitting and maybe to try spinning.
