The Crocheting Hummel?

No this post is not launching an effort to find a crocheting figurine (if you're new to this blog and are not quite sure what it is I'm talking about, check out my first ever post here). But tonight, I'm here to put the spotlight on another "yarn-craft" that is near and dear to me!

Although knitting is my favorite fiber-art (and probably the one that comes most naturally to me) in the past couple years I have been discovering the delights of crochet. I taught myself crochet because I had a conviction that I shouldn't work in a yarn shop without at least a cursory knowledge of the craft. I had customers coming in with crochet questions and I was embarrassed to admit that I couldn't answer them!

I'm beginning to discover that with the recent resurgence of knitting to pop culture, that sadly, crocheting has been somewhat "poo-pooed" among yarn-loving circles. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, crocheting began to be associated with scratchy, funky-colored kitschy tissue box covers (and the like). And I believe that crocheting has (and always has had) much more potential than that!

After doing a little searching on the internet, I've discovered that there are websites (like this one) devoted to connecting people to "crochet-friendly" yarn shops, because the honest truth is that many a crocheter has entered a yarn shop only to be looked down upon by snobby knitters.

Well, I'm here to declare that this knitter has plenty of room in her crafting heart (and project bag) for crocheting. And to back up my words, I'd like to share photos of my most recent project fresh off the "hook" today.

My "chic-hippie skirt". (Pattern source: Hooked on Crochet by Candi Jensen):

I Have Officially Arrived in the Blogging World

When I was in high-school, my circle of friends and I tried to get as creative as possible with "getting" each other's front yards. What I mean is that we were way too creative to toilet paper each other's yards. No, no. Our friendly visits to each other's homes after dark involved plastic utensils implanted into lawns, police caution tape strung around tree trunks and wrapping oranges in saran wrap and suspending them in the branches! I remember desperately wanting them to "get" my yard because it was almost a status symbol! It meant that my friends loved me enough to creatively leave their mark in my yard.

Well, ten years later I find myself searching for my affirmation in the world of blogging similar to my high school desire of being the object of my friend's creativity.

And I am happy to say that I have "arrived". Margo (a college friend whom I have been able to keep in touch with in recent months thanks to blogging) "tagged" me. So here's the low-down on being "tagged":

The rules:

1. Post these rules before you give the facts.
2. List one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog for the rules.

So here goes... My middle name is JOY

J- Well, how could I describe myself without mentioning my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? I'm so thankful for my relationship with Him and for the undeserved gifts He's given me!

O- For better or for worse, I tend to be an "open-book". One of my greatest strengths and weaknesses is that I wear my heart on my sleeve. On the positive side, my openness about myself and my struggles makes me easy to approach for people needing a listening ear. On the negative side, I can open myself to a lot of criticism and advice from the whole world. And advice and criticism isn't bad as long as I remember that it is God I must please and not people.

Y- I have always viewed my "young appearance" as somewhat of a thorn in my side. I am still mistaken to be a teenager at times, and I've often lamented this and felt that it must be difficult for people to take me seriously. But recently, I believe I've entered the point in my life where I can appreciate this. (My whole life I've been told that one day I'll like hearing that I "look so much younger" than I am.)

Okay so, three letters in my middle name, that means three people must be "tagged". I think I shall pick on three of my cousins who have been blogging for even a shorter length of time than I have:

Katie, Grace and Natalie, congratulations, you've just been "tagged".

Living My Life Vicariously Through My Loved Ones...

I have no problem recognizing when the lives of others may be more exciting than my own. So when those near and dear to me get to experience adventures without me, I've decided that it's only right for me to blog about them. Especially when such loved ones don't have blogs of their own to do justice to the memories of their adventures.


So please humor me as I narrate two adventures that people whom I love have recently had.


Adventure Number One: The Trip to Maine

I appreciate how my parents, Rick and Gail, follow the Biblical mandate to "honor your mother and father" by the ways they respect and love my grandparents. A great example of this is the trip they just took with my grandparents on my mom's side (Mama Ann and Pampa) to Maine. When I was growing up I always knew that Mama Ann grew up in Maine. I've learned tidbits about Maine culture through childrens' books my mom read to me when I was little that were either set in Maine or featured characters who were from Maine like Blueberries for Sal , One Morning in Maine , and Sarah, Plain and Tall. I knew that a lot of the foods Mama Ann made or liked were very "Maine" like pudding with "hard sauce" and I also knew that my mom spent some of her childhood there. So I was just really tickled that my parents took a special trip with Mama Ann and Pampa to visit the places where Mama Ann grew up and visit with extended family there. Among other things I hear that they got to visit some beautiful spots on the coast, eat lobster at an authentic "lobster pound" and see the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin). Here's a few shots they shared with me:

Adventure Number Two: The Alpaca Farm

Darin has been out of town this weekend because he was invited to speak at his parents' church about world missions. This is a trip I orginally intended to make with him, but other responsibilities prevented it. After Darin gave his presentation (which went beautifully, I hear) Darin and his parents went above the call of duty by visiting an alpaca farm that was featured in their local news all to honor me and my love of knitting with alpaca yarn! I was doing some shopping in Target when Darin called me and held his phone up to the alpacas so I could hear them humming! When he told the alpaca farmers that his wife works at a yarn shop, they got so excited, they gave him some yarn samples to bring back for the store!

Check out these pictures from the excursion:

I suppose this is the next best thing to being there!

Are Cupcakes the "New Latte"?

According to MSN's webage yesterday, they are! I have to admit that I find this quite delightful!

Several months ago, my sister's husband, Greg outlined his theory for me that cupcakes actually taste better than cake. When I expressed my confusion, he explained that the physical act of biting into a cupcake provides a taste experience that surpasses that which a piece of cake and a fork can offer. "Compare it to taking a hunk of fresh bread, tearing off a piece and starting to eat it," he elaborated, "would that bread taste as good if you took a fork to it?"

"Well... no!" I thought.

"It's the same idea with cupcakes," he finished.

And I realized I had no argument to make.

About a month after that, I took my relationship with cupcakes to the next level by responding to a request by several customers at Purls who wanted to learn to knit the cupcakes featured in Leigh Radford's popular knitting book, One Skein. So I baked a couple batches of some enticing cupcake recipes from Taste of Home Magazine's Spring 07 issue, packed up my knitting needles and my most "yummy" looking yarn, and obliged them. It proved to be the most fun (and tastey) knitting class I've ever taught!

(Edible mocha and berry-topped cupcakes on left... knitted ones on right!)

So yesterday after browsing around on MSN's cupcake links from their homepage, I realized that cupcake bakeries are cropping up all over the country! I even hear that there's a new one right here in Des Moines (which I plan to visit soon). I was also amazed to see how many cupcake blogs are out there in cyber space. Clearly they are taking our world by storm.

So what do you think? Are cupcakes the "new latte"? I'm a believer. And mark my words, before too long, there will be a cupcake bakery coming to your city too!

Some fun facts about *cupcakes:

• An alternate name for "cupcakes" is "fairy cakes".
• It is belived that cupcakes were created by taking a recipe for pound cake and rather than using a pound of each ingredient, a cup of each ingredient sufficed... thus pioneering the standard in baking of measuring ingredients by volume rather than weight. These little cakes were baked in small cups.
• Hostess first produced their classic cream-filled chocolate cupcake in 1919 using the slogan, "You get a big delight in every bite". The signature white "squiggle" wasn't added until 1950.

*Information obtained from http://www.hostesscakes.com/cupcakes.asp and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupcake .

The Camping Trip

After posting not too long ago about relationships with old friends, it seems appropriate that I share a little now about the new relationships God has seen fit to bless Darin and I with recently!

This past weekend Darin and I took a spontaneous camping trip with two couples that we've become friends with from our church: Matt and Shannon and Joe and Ashley. We've known Matt and Shannon for almost two years now, but only started getting to know them on a more personal level in the last year or so. They volunteer with the Student Ministry at our church just like we do and it's been great to be ministry partners with them. We had the pleaure of meeting Joe and Ashley only three weeks ago. When Darin and I decided that we'd be willing to host an adult home-small group with our church we met Joe and Ashley who were new to the church and we instantly clicked. Darin and I still fancy ourselves newly-weds (we'll be celebrating 4 years in a couple months), but these two couples make us look like veterans (they have been married one year and one month respectively and view my and Darin's ages of 31 and 26 as old. : )

Well, we decided to organize a little camping trip for the six of us (seven if you count Minnie the puppy) and had a blast! Some highlights of the weekend include:

• Borrowing a pop-up camper from some other good friends who were out of town for the weekend (thanks, Joel and Tracy!)
  
• Hiking in beautiful Ledges State Park


• Proudly watching Darin land in the role of "Master of the Grill"


• Making S'mores with Reeces Peanut Butter Cups instead of plain chocolate (you should try it some time!)


• Stumping each other with silly brain-teasers and riddles around the campfire


• Pulling burrs and leaves out of Minnie's fur

The men decided to take the truck with a couple bicycles in the back at one point on Saturday evening to "ride bikes and take in the scenery". Yeah, we didn't believe them either. The ladies and I stuck by the campsite and played with Minnie and had some good "civilized" conversation. After a while, we see the truck pull back up to the site with Joe in the driver's seat, Matt next to him and Darin riding in the back completely DRENCHED! To fully appreciate their apparent "hightlight" of the weekend, view the video below... because I just don't think words will do it justice.




I bet you're wishing that you could get in on Darin and Erika's next camping trip right about now, aren't you?!

While I Was Out

Please pardon me while I dote on my husband and his handiwork again!

While I was gone last weekend on my trip with the girls, it dawned on me on my way out of town that he had said something about his dad coming to stay with him while I was gone. There's really only one reason why my father-in-law ever comes to town without my mother-in-law, and that is to help Darin or his siblings with a home-improvement project.

Darin would have to agree with me when I say that his love for remodeling our house was birthed from memories he has of his father doing numerous home-improvements and home-repairs while he was growing up. Visit Dan's garage and you'll discover a treasure-trove of tools and gadgets. And the only thing he may enjoy more than showing you the tools in his garage is to explain to you the uses of the tools in his garage. It's really rather impossible to shop for Darin, his brother and his dad because what makes them more happy than anything in the world is to get new tools! And I find it about as easy to pick out a new tool for Darin as he would find picking out knitting supplies for me.

Well, I was standing in a chocolate shop in downtown Indianapolis when I spoke with Darin on the phone last weekend and I casually said, "Hey Honey, I just realized that your dad came to work on projects with you and I don't even know what projects you're working on right now!"

"I know!" was his response, and I could hear the twinkle in his eye.

So "what?" you may ask is the result of the efforts of Darin, Dan and their tools while I was gone? Instant fall fun for the backyard:

Bird houses:

And a tire swing!!

Thanks, Honey! I love you! (And thank you to Dan, of course!)

The Annual Girls' Getaway

Lasting frienships are difficult to find in our culture... especially when friends move away from each other. Tara and Kimberly are two such friends in my life. I don't know how to write about this and not come across as sappy, so forgive me if any sap lands on you as you read this! We met in college and through our common relationship with Christ we bonded instantly. The most valued aspect of this friendship is the times we've spent in prayer together. When we've prayed for one another we have been moved to tears on one another's behalf. This is the type of friendship that I have realized many people only ever hope to find. Well, one by one we each graduated, met wonderful men, got married and all of a sudden we were living in three different states!

Over the last three years, the three of us girls have been blessed enough to have an annual trip together. Our husbands just let us scamper off and they entertain themselves at home. (Thanks, Guys!) And it never really matters much where we go... as long as we can get together. This year we met in Indianapolis. And it was a particularly special trip this time around because we had an addition to our group! Kimberly's 6 month-old baby, Lily!

Here is a picture of the four of us at our favorite downtown Indianapolis discovery: Teapots and Treasures, a Christian owned Tea-themed gift and antique shop! Their loose-leaf tea blends are to die for! My favorite was their "Treasures Tea" blend.

Baby Lily is, of course, the recipient of my most recently knitted baby sweater. She was willing to model it for me during the weekend. In these pictures we had just finished lunch: yummy pizza and calzones. ALMOST as good as our favorite college pizza joint, "One Guy From Italy Pizza".

Below are some lyrics from my favorite "friends" song, "More Than You'll Ever Know" by Watermark.

"Something brought you to my mind today.
I thought about the funny ways you make me laugh.
And yet I feel like it's ok to cry with you.
Something about just being with you...
When I leave I feel like I've been near God and that's the way it ought to be.
Cause you've been more than a friend to me. You fight off my enemies.
For you have spoken the truth over my life.
And you'll never know what it means to me just to know you've been on your knees for me.
Oh, you have blessed my lifemore than you'll ever know."