My favorite librarian sent me this link…snappy new knitting website called Twist Collective. Amazing socks people…go look. I mean NOW.

We went to the Lakeside Farmer’s Market yesterday evening. Right around the corner and I didn’t even know it existed. According to the husband it’s new. Oddly one of the things he covers at the paper is the local farmers market scene. There is quite the soap opera going on right now…apparently someone is trying to pass off produce as Virginia Grown when is isn’t. Controversial Cantaloupes and the like. Community journalists round up a lot of wackos in their jobs.

Anyhoo, we ran into our pal Mike. He and his wife retired to run a pepper farm and now sell at several of the local markets. Things were closing down when we got there and he kindly unloaded all his tomatoes. I got 53 pounds for a mere $20. Let that sink in a minute…that’s $0.40 a pound.

So, back on the home-front, what does one do with 53 pounds of tomatoes? Can, if you can. It really isn’t so hard…lots of boiling, but nothing impossible. My goal is to have at least 40 pints of crushed tomatoes put up by this fall. I am doing just part of the batch today. That’s around 23 pounds. We use a lot of tomatoes, so I am not sure this will be enough, but it can’t hurt.

I am following the guidelines here. They are the from the University of Georgia. The do I wish I had was a hand-held blender. The one from my baby food making days is long gone, but it would give a nice texture.

The only big modification I make is the cutting our the cores part. Frankly it takes to long. After I peel the skin I just crush them by hand into my pot, pull out the core and there you go. Messy, but a lot of fun.
For the record 23 pounds = 15 pints.

As a total side note I have been knitting like mad. We’re in a coll snap…highs only to the mid 80’s! I know, but for here that’s down right chilly. I also want to do a sweater for big sis sort of similar to the one Kit Kitrage wears at the beginning of the movie. I am thinking that Cascade Superwash might do the trick.

I love Dover Press…in unhealthy ways. For a while now I’ve subscribed to their free weekly sampler. Great stuff.

McCain and his wife…notice the bullet proof vest.

Anyhoo…they are now offering McCain and Obama paper dolls. I am thinking the girls might need a set. Especially since big sis has been taking such an interest in the election this year. She was pro-Hilary (a girl thing) but now she is pro McCain. She says she doesn’t like Obama because “All he ever talks about is change, and if you are he president you should like America and not want to change it all the time. AND he never says what he is going to change it to.” Her words.

The Obamas, so as not to show any preference to either candidate. All authentic outfits.

It is funny, as a teacher I try pretty hard to keep my opinions to myself. When politics come up I’ll ask questions, or point out a news story, but I really don’t want to preach my point of view. Especially with coaching debate, I really want them to analyze it for themselves, and really just look at stuff from a different point of view. It probably doesn’t hurt that as an army brat my parents were not allowed to be members of political parties of outwardly display preferences in races (folks are often surprised by this…)

But at home?

We’re trying pretty hard to just keep our opinions to ourselves and let her be interested. The husband is a journalist, so a lot of politics get discussed at home. Little-sis has an absolute bias against Doug Wilder since he dominates so much of our dinner conversation. “Doug?? Again???” Her words.

Another fun part of this election is the husband has interviewed both Eric Cantor and Governor Kaine multiple times. They are currently on the VP list for McCain and Obama, respectively. Seems unlikely either will get it, but still adds to the fun.

Oh, once you have your presidential paper dolls, you can sign up for their free weekly sampler which will include new outfits for your dolls. And a poll as to which doll is selling better. This cracks me up.

And to the person that complainedin the comments about my spelling -if ya’ don’t like my spelling, to quote my mother, tough toots! Scoot elsewhere. I can do multivariable calculus, know six programming languages, and knit a sock in a single soccer game. My brain is too full for spelling. And yes, my students constantly point out that I use spelling more, but my brain just doesn’t go there, so there.

You gotta love Japan…this is from the official government website (Ministry of the Environment)

Visiting Japan last summer was so much fun, but one of the problems we ran into over and over was trash disposal. There are no single trash cans, but stacks of bins for recycling. Which is wonderful, but it was the one time my sister and I really couldn’t figure out the pictograms. I had several days where I got chastised by old Japanese ladies about trying to put something in the wrong bin, and wandered around all day with trash in my pockets.

Point being they are very environmentally conscious. I really would love to print this out to frame…I have a lot of Christmas bags I’ve made through the years to try to cut down on paper waste, but this is a much easier soltion.

These are too snappy:

• From the Museum of Childhood a paper toy theater. This reminds me of a Puss in Boots Pantomime book I have from the 1880’s. I cannot wait to do this with the girls.

• And from Big Huge Labs -This reminds me about my fav Pocket Mod, but it lets you use your own photos. If only the two sites could merge…I love their site. Lots of ideas for making toys from Flickr. It has anouther feature that will generate a palete from your photos. Here’s the panda from the SanDiego Zoo two years ago:

Just like my growing collection of old books, I also love journals. I am a journal junkie. I used to try to keep separate ones…work, craft, garden, personal, etc, plus a calendar. No more.

For the past few years I have just done it all in one. My ideal is about 4×7 with over 100 lined pages. I paste in some library card pockets, a calendar and a few sudoku and we are good to go. I go through about 5 a year.

I know, way too much info. The pic above is from a website called ex libris anonymous. Perfecto! They turn old book covers into journals. I had seen these a while back and just re-found the site.

I am really thinking I need to get myself a birthday gift…after all I turn 35 on Thursday.

I spotted this book over on the Something’s Hiding in Here Blog. This is sooo Japanese.

From the Check and Stripes book

When my sister and I visited my brother last summer in Tokyo we definitely noticed we were overly colorful…everyone there in western style clothes was so muted. Navy, cream, lots of linen. The most fascinating thing was that a lot of the teenagers dressed in the traditional yukata when they went out to party. I have a few my grandmother bought when they lived over there…eventually I need to pull them out and do somehting with them.

I bought several Japanese sewing books while there. They are all incredible. The bookstores had huge selections. All of them are about the same size, and range from traditional to western. All for under $15 dollars US!

My favorite thing was that so many of the upscale department stored had sections that specialized in trims: lace and vintage buttons.

This is a total substitute today. I had planned on sewing all day, but Little-Sis was up all night with a stomach bug, which means I was up all night too. I have learned not to cut up things while sleepy.

As I have mentioned I have been trying to find different ways to do math with the girls. The sort of do math at school, but big-sis is pretty quick and sneeky, so she has figured out that she can do everything with her fingers and doesn’t need to memorize anything.

So today as I was downloading Killer Soduku puzzles from the Times Online about Tetsuya Miyamoto. He has developed a new way of motivating kids in math through puzzles (Times Article). Here’s is his official website. You have to love Japan.

I have a thing for old books. The picture above is from Grandfather Stories. It has a great version of the Bremen Town Musicians. When I was little we lived about 35 miles north of Bremen for two years in a town called Osterholz-Scharmbeck…fascinating I know, but it was very cool living so close to a real fairy tale.

My latest favorite are the Harper’s readers from the late 1800’s.

This is from the third reader. The illustrations are amazing, and it is interspersed with science, history, poems, and stories.

Here’s a list of some of the books available in Google Books.  I could spend days on these!

I was looking at college pennants online to get some ideas about font for something I am planning on making the girls.  Over at Antique Athelete I spotted this: