And the Award Goes To...

NJP is steering clear from his counterpart

J.Howe!  For yet another stellar creation.  I came home today to find a surprise in my mailbox...a little pillow with a photo of Nikolas James Pumpkinhead on it!  He's not quite so sure about his twin floating around on the couch but I love it.  I think I am going to move it every once in a while, to a new spot, so he can mimic the real live NJP. 

We Can Also...

...Jump on a bandwagon!

Generally I try to steer clear of things that popular culture tells me to do or like.  I think it was all those books I read as a child that told me women should be independent and fierce...god bless the Little Women.  I swore I would never get a cell phone...and broke down after graduating college.  I swore I would never join Facebook (one boring summer in LA changed that...) and Twitter (enter my hopes for owning a bookstore.)  And most recently I got my first ever TV.  Ugh.

"Hey Girl, I would love to pour a glass of wine and cast on
some dpns with you..."  (Mr. Crawley)

But still, there are main stream things that don't generally interest me and the inner Jo March in me is proud.  Then I started hearing about this show...Downton Abbey.  And I thought...yeah, whatever.  Then Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, and a bunch of other literary geeks like me, started promoting a literary Super Bowl.  Their goal was to try and get more people to watch Downton Abbey than the big game where grown ass men hurl themselves at each other.  I started to get a little more interested.

And then finally, after an email from a friend and a girl's weekend away, I was convinced.  My Downton Abbey Marathon was my last day of this past President's Day weekend.  I totally got swept up in the first season (WAHOO for Netflix watch instant on my fancy new TV!) and stayed up way too late watching it.  (And knitting a toy robot for a good friend...) AND THEN I found out that the second season is available on PBS's website FOR FREE!  Good lord, the nerd in me just about flipped my shit.

Hey Girl, you can jump on my bandwagon...

I've had a lot of work to catch up on since my marathon but I am happy to be on this bandwagon.  Hopefully I will get some time this weekend to watch the exciting second season, in which war comes to the Abbey.

Inspired by something "popular" actually being "cool" I decided to see what else is out there.  Yesterday, my math teaching partner and I decided it was time to teach our kids about fractions and probability.  March Madness also happens to be around the corner.  I knew March Madness had something to do with basketball...and brackets...but that is about it.  So my partner schooled me on all the ins and outs and the inner geek in me cried for joy!  My Jeopardy-loving side beamed at all the trivia...my puzzle-loving-brain gushed at the probabilities, stats, and facts.  Could it be?  Something else the cool kids like is fun??!!  So, we are on!  This year I will be filling out my first ever bracket. (Along with 100 students.) GASP!  I know!


Then I heard about this guy Jeremy Lin...don't even get me started on LinSanity...

how this girl eats vegan

so I'm trying to eat vegan. don't get me wrong, i love a good steak and when placed in front of me i will not say no. but i try to stay away from any meat/dairy during normal meals. my biggest issue with this is that i'm not a creative cook, nor do i like cooking. i've found some really great meals in the Skinny Bitch Cookbook, but sometimes i just want something simple with very few ingredients.
enter The Vegan Stoner. i was introduced to The Vegan Stoner at christmas, when mom got meg and i a copy and continued the howe girls food themed christmas presents. it was love at first sight. all of their recipes are simple and contain less ingredients than any other vegan cookbook i have seen. "so easy a stoner could make it!"
so when i walked out of the gym and into the gorgeous, sunny, non-winter weather, i turned to the Vegan Stoner for my lunch options. (Big props to their site design, which pulls up fast/easily on my droid!)
as i swiped through their recipes, one ingredient stood out to me: vegan sour cream. i had recently bought said ingredient thinking it could top my fajitas, only to realize it wasn't close enough to the real thing to make it worth the calories.  but strawberry soup!! perfect match! so without further ado, here is my strawberry soup....

my only non-vegan ingredient is honey, which i used instead of agave. i'm ok with this as this honey is brought to you by my daddio, and i love my honey bear jar.  

i hope you are enjoying your gorgeous presidents day!!

knitting for friends...

So i have some of the greatest friends ever. not just because they're legit good friends, but because they don't make fun of me for knitting. or for bringing my knitting with me everywhere i go. all the time. when you invite jess, you invite the knitting. which is why it was no surprise when they wanted a piece of the knitting goodness. at the time, i was carting fingerless owl mitts everywhere, so a couple of them asked for a pair. but then i was thrown a monkey wrench. one of the girls asked for a pair of fingerless mitts WITH A CONVERTIBLE FLIP TOP. whoa. challenge accepted.

Matchy, matchy green.

Matchy green!

so first things first, i made the owl mitts that i could probably make in my sleep. picking the colors was kind of a pain, because i couldn't really find any yarn that was bright enough for my liking. but a greens a greens a green (???). anyway. i still have to add the label and weave in all the ends, but they're basically done and i just need to hand them off to my lovely ladies.
so my next task was to make the convertible fingerless mitts. my original idea was to just make another set of owls and add the top. but after really looking at the design, i figured it wouldn't work as well as i wanted and the flap would cover the owl, so that work wasn't necessary. the mitts i choose are kind of loose and scrunchy looking, but plain, so the flap will work perfectly while still being comfy.

the best part about these gloves was that they were super quick to knit up. the only issue was the flap, because i didn't have a pattern for them that matched the glove pattern. but i was able to finagle something to fit, albeit a tad bit too big. my fav part was being able to go through moms button stash and find some really cool brown buttons.
So now i just need to finish the second glove. which should be easier since i already have the patterns. my to-do list keeps getting smaller, and then keeps getting bigger! so right now I'm working on this glove, a scarf that was a Christmas present, a blanket, and a boob hat (Karen's grandbaby cant go boobless!!!). thank goodness the bf got me these cute espresso cups so i can have my daily fix!!

just sip and pretend you're in Rome!

Howe Girls Drink Scotch - Marmie and JJ, that is!

So this Howe girl has decided to do stuff in 2012!  All kinds of stuff, since I was a dismal failure with the 2011 cooking goal.  Let's kick this off by celebrating the spirits of Scotland.

This weekend, JJ and I attended a single malt scotch tasting at E-ville Spirits.  What a fun and educational experience!  There were about 25 in attendance - a bit squished, so we made friends fast!  I believe there were only 5 women out of the bunch.  I have the feeling that this minority will be changing as women continue to increase their appreciation for the brown spirits.  Bust Magazine just had a great article about this in the Dec/Jan issue called "Raising the Bar".

It was enhanced by the incredible knowledge of Jean from Pernod Ricard.  As a former "whiskey ambassador", she brought an incredible amount of knowledge to the tasting in addition to this:

Glenlivet 18, Aberlour 18, Glenlivet 21, Glenlivet 16 nadurra, Longmorn 16, Bowmore 18

JJ is an experience scotch drinker and I am becoming a fan of the "gold watch" myself.  Jean has taught me to add just enough water to a neat whisky to find my own sweet spot.  This varied, for me, from a drop to a splash to a full glunk of water, depending on the specific scotch.

So what did I come home with? 

The absolute winner of the tasting!  A 21 year old Glenlivet that is incredibly yummy with just the slightest addition of pure spring water.  Do you know that the 21 year old designation means that the very youngest of the whisky in this bottle is 21, but there can be much older?  Single malts are really blends of various years to maintain the specific taste.

It was a great experience that I would highly recommend.

Come on now - step away from your Sex in the City fruit drink and boldly order a Glenlivet neat with water on the side the next time you sidle up to a bar!

love,

marmie



CORRECTION: All She Does is Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit

I was very excited to see that Meg liked her etch-a-sketch laptop case. When she first asked me to make one, I wasn't sure what to do so it was a nice little ego boost to hear that. I was even more excited when she left me a voice mail telling me that a friend of hers wanted one as well!! woo hoo!! I was hanging my mission accomplished banner above the kitchen table. Alas, it was not meant to be. Her jiggy little Irish friend really just wanted something to keep his beer cold. In other words...game on.



I still don't consider myself a very accomplished knitter, but I have definitely been liking the challenges it has been giving me. The laptop case alone was a trip, as I didn't have a pattern, just a number of stitches that others had cast on to make cases that size.  It was much harder, as the picture below shows. My main problem was that i didn't have 2 balls of red yarn, so I decided to carry the red behind the entire screen. Had I placed a quick call to mom i would have found out that, no, that was not going to work. Lesson learned.

busted original laptop case

 

Anyways.  When I found out he didn't actually want a laptop case I was kind of bummed. i was also in the early stages of knitting a cable scarf that was taking a while. So I decided to take a "quick" break and knit up a beer coozie. Well, at least I thought it would be quick. After frogging a couple of times and wanting to drink my model, I finally finished the coozie. I will be the first to admit that its not the best and definitely needs some changes to the pattern, but I'm still proud of my lil etch-a-sketch coozie!!

So while I might be "win, win, winning," I'm also "knit, knit, knitting!" (I'm not even going to get into the 4 pairs of mittens I've made this week or the quilt I started!!!)

All She Does is Win, Win, Win, Win, Win

My sister...rocks.  If she were in the Super Bowl of knitting, she just threw the winning touchdown pass and caught it herself to get the touchdown in the last 10 seconds. Or something.  Ok, gimme a break...I'm new at the whole watching sports thingy.

I came home today to find a package waiting at my door.  A lovely creation by j. howe.  I suggest you all get your orders in early cuz this shit is about to blow up.

Etch-A-Sketch Laptop Cover

Made just for me by J.Howe

It fits perfectly next to my Slinky and Magic 8 Ball!

Oh, and back to the Super Bowl for one more second.  (Sorry, only the 2nd one I've seen in the last 8 years!)  I loved the M&M commercial best. Yeah, this one.

what time is the super bowl?

true story- i'm not excited to watch the big game tonight. but i am excited to sit on the couch and knit! so get your needles ready- game time is 6.30!!

go bills!!!