who knew?

I was at Big Lots this afternoon looking for some storage containers for a client when I came across a giant collection of yarn. Every skien for only $1 each. It was such a good deal I couldn't resist buying some unusual yarn to play around with. Just a little FYI for all the knitters in the audience.

it's the little things

I've been going to Gator baseball games for years, and the same person records Florida pitchers' strike outs at every game. It has always bothered me that this person does not differentiate between swung and called strikes. Well, today I noticed he/she has apparently learned the difference -- either that or the job has been passed to someone with more baseball knowledge or who is just as picky as I am. Either way, it made my day.

Florida took the series against SEC's top-ranked Georgia this afternoon after splitting the first two games. Bats were on fire both Saturday and Sunday, and everyone was in a good mood -- lots of silly antics by Albert, the announcers, and the left-field hecklers (props to Georgia left fielder Lyle Allen for playing along with the hecklers instead of ignoring them like most left fielders do.) The Georgia players' girlfriends/supporters also decided to make the trip down to Gainesville this weekend and set up a rival heckling squad next to the home hecklers in left field. They haven't had much to cheer about the last two days, but today they brought homemade posters. My favorite: the girl with the "Gators Wear Jean Shorts" sign (which lost points for not using the proper SEC heckling term "jorts.") Ironically, she was the only one of her compatriots clad in -- wait for it -- jean shorts! I apologize for not having my camera out for that one.

garden explosion

The veggies were planted about a month ago and have settled in their new home rather comfortably. I expanded the width of the garden somewhat but got lazy on the lengthwise expansion, so the plants are probably closer together than they ought to be. Usually that's not a problem since a few of them tend to die at some point in the season. I've decided to try a new fertilization method this year, and as a result everything is healthy, green, and growing. Space might be at a premium after all.


These are the tomato plants. I usually grow plum tomatoes since they're small and run up the bamboo stakes nicely. Next to them are the onions, strawberries, cucumbers, and broccoli. I've never grown cucumbers or broccoli before, so I'm interested to see how they turn out.


Green beans are another new addition to the garden. They are Madeleine's favorite treats, so it would be great to be able to grow them myself instead of constantly replenishing our supply at the grocery. All nine plants have small bean pods forming already!


If you look carefully, you can see three small buds on the red pepper plant. I'm growing only red and yellow peppers, deciding to give the Cubanelles a rest for this year. Every pepper plant has several buds -- hopefully they'll all bloom.


The mint has made a big comeback after looking sickly over the winter. Mint grows like a weed and can easily overtake a garden, so I grow it in a pot. The only other herb I grow year-round in a pot is cilantro since it doesn't seem to do well in the extreme heat or cold (it tends to live inside on a windowsill most of the summer.) All the rest of the herbs -- parsley, tarragon, thyme, basil, oregano, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, and chives -- look happy and healthy, with the lone exception of the basil. We had a last cold snap just recently, and the basil I grew all winter did fine while the new stuff I just planted has wilted somewhat. Last year I had so much basil I ate pesto for weeks. Look for recipes using my homegrown veggies and herbs to pop up more often as the summer nears.

tart and tangy

There are many divisive flavorings in the world of food. The one that comes to my mind the quickest is vinegar -- Balsamic vinegar to be exact. I love the tangy taste Balsamic vinegar brings to a meal. Usually it's used for just a hint of flavoring so it doesn't overwhelm a dish.

But one of my favorite recipes uses it as an integral ingredient. I was craving something tangy today that included pasta, so I knew I had to dig this out. I think the recipe is from a cookbook I checked out of the library years ago. It's been altered a bit since then (the original recipe called for an entire stick of butter!) and now it's close to perfect.


Sauteed Shrimp with Buttery Balsamic Vinegar Sauce

1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
dash of both salt and pepper
4 tblsp. butter
1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp. fresh parsley, chopped
2 tblsp. fresh chives, chopped
1/2 tblsp. fresh tarragon, chopped
1 1/2 cups orzo, cooked
lemon wedges for serving

Melt 1 tblsp. butter over med-high heat. (Start cooking the orzo now too in order for everything to finish at once.) Add shrimp and salt and pepper once butter froths. Cook shrimp through, then remove from pan and set aside.

Add remaining butter and melt until browned. Take the pan off of the heat, add the vinegar (it tends to splatter more if you do it while the pan is on the heat) and put back on med-high heat. Scrape up the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook until sauce thickens to about 1/2 cup, 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the shrimp and any accumulated juices to the pan. Add chopped fresh herbs. Serve over orzo or combine everything in a large serving bowl.

a craft revival

Ever since I finally finished organizing the craft room (pics to come soon), I've been unable to stay out of there in the evenings. I think a lot of that has to do with the soothing sounds of baseball analyst chatter emanating from the small TV in the corner. I've had a blast following the players on my fantasy team this year -- no doubt because I have stayed solidly in the top three spots in our league and Tim has yet to come too close to passing me (ha!) If there's no baseball to be found, it's all about Law & Order reruns. I find I work better with some background noise that I can tune in and out of at will.

Anyway, these are a few things I've been working on lately:


Yes, I'm knitting again. What am I knitting? I'm not sure, but it's probably another scarf. I finally balled some of that awesome alpaca yarn my father got in Peru. I started this scarf down in Tampa on the USF campus while waiting for Tim to finish teaching class so we could go to the Rays opening game. I knit a lot in the car that week since it takes forever to get anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. Then I decided it was too wide, so I pulled it out and started over. I'd like to try some new things with knitting, but frankly it's become a relaxing, no-brainer thing to do in the evening, and I'm content with that for now. One of these days I'll have to get together with some knitting friends who can teach me something new.


Here is that pink mum fabric I found at the Kissimmee thrift and three new pillowcases bound for skirt-ness. That blue pillowcase will make a funky skirt, but I'm still not sure what to do with the mum fabric. It's canvas weight, so if I used it to make a skirt it would have little movement. But the fabric is certainly pretty enough to give it a shot. I might make some summer totes with it too. Any ideas?


I'm still putting out alligator push pins for my mother's friends and co-workers. People love these, and I'm hoping to do some magnets to go with them for the next go-round. I've also been experimenting with these:


Desk sets of magnets, push pins, and paperclips. I mostly like the way these turned out, but I'm still brainstorming how to package all of it. The pink fabric push pins were made using button covers -- super easy.

Hopefully you'll see some sewing out of me in the next couple days. I'd like to get through another pillowcase skirt before I start any summer tote bags. But there's still work and the garden to contend with, so we'll see.

my neighbors must love me

This is what I did with my Saturday.

When I bought my house, the only thing that separated my yard from the busy street I live next to was a line of ligustrum bushes. I hate ligustrum because it smells bad and constantly needs to be pruned, but it does provide a nice buffer from the street noise. My father would come over faithfully twice a year to help trim back the bushes. Then we put up a fence (conveniently exiling the ligustrum to the street side) and I have proceeded to ignore it ever since.

Unfortunately, the ligustrum does not like to be forgotten and has been reminding me of its presence this spring by growing over my fence. It has also decided to share the seemingly immortal Virginia creeper vines that live within its branches by allowing them to grow between the cracks of the fence. If there is one thing I hate more than ligustrum, it's Virginia creeper vines. All summer long I am constantly pulling them off of everything -- the house, the fence, other plants. Those suckers are quick.

So this year I decided to kill two birds with one stone: severely trim back the ligustrum to stop it from growing over the fence and pull out the Virginia creeper vines tied up in its branches. I figured if I took care of it now, it'll save me lots of time and energy this summer. I recruited my father to help by promising to haul away anything he cut. The ligustrum was the easy part. Then we hit the palm tree that hadn't been trimmed since I bought the house and a huge mess of various tangled vines, including some with really sharp thorns. We got through the big stuff before we called it a day. I still need to go back and trim the little branches we missed and pull out the Virginia creeper vines -- yuck.

It took another hour after cutting to haul all the branches to the curb and cut them to legal pick-up size. My neighbors must shake their heads every time they pass these giant piles I leave by the curb. I already know the yard trash guys hate me.

More garden pictures and a craft update to come. Maybe I'll even get around to that spring training post...

opening day

I went to see the Tampa Bay Rays home opener against the Seattle Mariners Tuesday. I'd never been to a MLB season opening game before, and it was quite an event. Tim scored amazing tickets only four rows up from the Mariners' dugout, which enabled us to take great pictures. There was a sell-out crowd of over 36,000 at Tropicana Field, arguably one of the strangest places to watch a baseball game. After months of UF baseball and spring training games outside, sitting inside the can-like stadium (although freshly painted in the Rays new light blue/dark blue color scheme) still doesn't feel baseball-y to me. A constant 72 degrees, I can imagine it's a great place to relax on a July or August afternoon, but in April I'm still craving warm sunshine and pretty sunsets. I'm really excited about their new waterfront stadium, which will hopefully break ground this time next year and combine good design, the outdoors, and -- most importantly in Florida -- shade.

Here are some highlights from the game:


The view from our seats. I can't say enough about how close we really were. You could see the expressions on the Seattle players' faces as they came into the dugout. Pretty cool.


The seats were so good that Tim snapped this pic of recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Dick Vitale (who graciously signed autographs before the game's start) without moving from our seats. Apparently Vitale is a Rays regular.


In the most exciting event of the game, the third-base umpire threw out Rays Manager Joe Maddon in the bottom of the seventh inning over the disputed out of B.J. Upton as he slid into third base (he was clearly safe from my view.) After Maddon was thrown out, Rays fans booed the umpire for upwards of an entire extra inning. I was surprised by their anger and tenacity, not to mention some of their colorful language.


While the Rays lost the game 6-5, I was still happy to see one of my fantasy baseball players pitch his first winning game of the season. Erik Bedard's been nursing a minor hip injury, so it was good to see that it didn't seem to bother him during the six innings he pitched.

There are a lot more pictures of the action here, if you are so inclined to view them. I really had a great time and look forward to enjoying a few more games at the Trop this season.

pillow(case) talk

For our last spring training game, Tim and I went to see the Indians play the Astros in Kissimmee. After the game we stopped at the local Salvation Army. I wandered around the linens section looking for a pillowcase to turn into a drawstring laundry bag. During my search I happened upon about 4 yards of canvas-weight mum fabric in shades of pink with a cream background -- all for $1.99. Then I found the perfect flowered pillowcase for only 99 cents!

As we waited in line with our hands full of great finds (Tim found a suit and some bowling shoes, I also scored a darling sun dress) we debated the uses for the fabric I'd found. Tim thought it would make a cute skirt, while I was thinking purses. Then he asked if I was going to turn the pillowcase into a skirt. I vetoed the idea, but in the last couple weeks I thought about how easy a project that would be.

So Monday night I settled into watching the Rays at Yankees game on the craft room TV and whipped up this pillowcase skirt:


It only took 2 hours, including adding a lining and drawstring for the waist. There are some things I don't love about it (the waist is gigantic and the drawstring needs some work) but overall it's really cute. So cute that I wore it the very next day to the Rays' home opener against the Mariners in St. Pete. I got tons of compliments. I am now obsessed with these skirts, and am heading out this afternoon to find more adorable pillowcases. The next time I make one, I'll take step-by-step photos for a quick tutorial.

Also, baseball spring training wrap-up and Rays opening day pictures to come soon, hopefully!