Update: January 18, 2010

Here is an update on the progress of the Sweet Baboo top down sweater. My Sweet Baboo was feeling shy about having his face shown. But, the sweater is fitting him quite nicely and I'm ready to start the ribbing on the bottom of the body. Then it will be on to the sleeves, which should go relatively fast in comparison. The body has 232 stitches per round, the sleeves, to begin with will have 102 and they will just go down from there. He says he likes it, I hope he does, I think he'll look quite handsome in it when all is said and done.

I have begun some new things with the new year. First of all, I was quite inspired by the movie Julie & Julia as were many people. After watching it the first time I went on line and purchased Mastering the Art of French Cooking - volumes 1 & 2. My first attempt at French cooking was Boeuf A La Bourguignonne, which was featured a lot in the movie and just looked yummy. It was quite the cooking adventure! It took six hours to make and upon finishing it - well it was 10pm and we had already ordered and eaten pizza for dinner. But, we ate it the next night, just like Julia said we could, and that was FABULOUS! I am not known, by any measure, for cooking talent and my Sweet Husband upon taking his first bite exclaimed, "Oh my God that is so good!", which I had to admit made me feel quite proud! I learned a lot from the experience too and I think the next time I make it, yes I will make this dish again, it shouldn't take six hours. It will still take awhile, but not quite that much time. A couple of weeks later I tried Poulet au Porto, which was mentioned in the film, but not really shown. It is roast chicken stepped with Port Wine, cream, and mushrooms. It was also quite yummy. I altered this recipe a bit because Julia calls for you to roast a whole chicken first and there are only two of us having this meal in our house, an entire roast chicken would be a waste. Now, let me be clear, I have NO intention of trying to cook all the recipes in these books, and certainly would not be ambitious enough to try to cook a recipe (or more) a day like the woman in the movie did. But, I am enjoying branching out and trying this new thing. I've never really been one to enjoy cooking a whole lot, and I'm enjoying this. I promise right here and now - I WILL NOT be cooking ANY of the 10 Aspics in the book...YUCK! That's what I think of Aspics -- YUCK! I figure I'll keep trying out Julia's recipes until I stop enjoying it. A recipe every couple of weeks isn't that bad.

The other new thing I'm trying is related to this:
This is fabric for my first ever quilt. I received my first ever sewing machine for Christmas. I have never really been much of a sewer either, really the only things I have created are knit or crochet or occasionally tie-dyed. But, occasionally for knitting I need a sewing machine. And occasionally I have things that need mending. So, I asked for a machine, just a very basic, simple, machine. My Sweet Husband got what was for sale at Costco, which turns out to be the Brother XR-9000. It is a pretty fancy machine! And it came with a bonus quilting table and quilting foot. I really am a novice at using my machine at all so my BKFF Arctic Knitter suggested that taking a quilting class would help me learn my machine. That sounded very reasonable to me and the instructor of the class is a friend I've known for a few years because Winston and her dogs play together. I'm really excited about this class! The class is a beginning sampler class, so every block is different. I'll post pictures as it goes along, the class starts next month. In addition to that, Arctic Knitter is teaching me how to make a kuspuk that I'm sewing on my new sewing machine. I'll have to post pictures of that too.

Other new things on the homefront:
This was Sweet Husband's gift to himself for the New Year (Year of Sweet Husband according to SH). It is a 55" Samsung LED HDTV. It is crazy big! But, I'm surprised at how quickly I've become used to it and how I can't really recall what things looked like before. Weird how that happens isn't it?

Finally, I leave you with this:
Winston smiling with a chewey in his mouth. It is called a Himalayan Chew, it is made from yak's and cow's milk. He loves them! We refer to them as Yak Crack!