Red, red and more red!

Lots of red today, from the weekend and from cake baking. On Tuesday I made a red-striped birthday cake, similar to my other yellow fondant cake. I was in a big rush because I baked, iced, covered and decorated the cake in one morning. Phew. It was cutting it a little close. I really wish I hadn't felt lazy the night before, but watching No Reservations just seemed more important. I free-handed it a bit more in this cake, so I've only photographed the nicest sides and hidden the cracks and messy bits from you.

I want to get a little more creative with my decorating. I'm starting to exhaust the flower and dot cut-outs, and need something with a little more wow! to it. I've got some fun baking to do this coming week, which I'm looking forward to. If it turns out, I'll show you in an upcoming post.

Last Saturday Z.Knits took me to my very first OSU football game (thank you Z!!). That morning I had run out to buy a Buckeyes shirt, and I felt pretty cool parading around campus pretending to be a real fan. You have not truly experienced Columbus, Ohio until you attend a Buckeyes game.

Dedicated fans filing into the stadium

Now, I am totally not a sports person, but I have to say that it was tons of fun and just amazing to see live. The sea of red filling the stadium was incredible and the energy pulls you right in. At several points I caught myself actually cheering and whooping! Me! Imagine that.

Check out the funny headwear:

Probably the highlight of the game: eating steamed hotdogs in OSU baggies, and nachoes with fake cheese (D hates this stuff; I love it in the right context)


All the running back and forth had me a little confused, but Z was able to explain what the heck was going on. The marching band was awesome too. All in all, a really fun cultural experience :)

A is for Anniversary and Alana's

D & J looking all cute-like: Photo by Digital Imprints

That's me and D, three years ago! I'd forgotten how much I loved our wedding photos until I dug this one up just now. I was able to identify bokeh in their shots, a word I learned today from Ms. Z's awesome series on the basics of photography. It's really well-written, funny, and she has tons of photos to help you understand the world of f-stops, aperture and depth of field. And she knits real well too! I still don't own a DSLR, but it makes me want one badly. Oops, I'm way off track...

Our anniversary was yesterday, but I wanted to write a quick little something about how fabulous our dinner was at Alana's: IT WAS FABULOUS! It made me wish we'd gone as soon as we moved to Columbus so that we'd have had more opportunities to enjoy her food. It's a warm, inviting, completely unpretentious place where the menu changes daily depending on what's fresh that day. Alana was there, passing around tiny little strawberries filled with goat cheese, drizzled with real balsamic vinegar. D & I waffled over what to order and eventually conceded that we would just have to keep coming back until we tried everything (but later realized this would be impossible, since the menu keeps changing). We ordered the asparagus with over-easy duck egg sprinkled with parmesan, a tomatillo gazpacho with fried soft shell crab, orrecchiete pasta with fresh peas, mint and prosciutto, and spaghetti puttanesca with shrimp and lump crab. Everything was fantastic, and served simply. That duck egg was seriously the most delicious egg I've ever eaten. And the fresh peas! I don't think I've had fresh peas in a restaurant before. The dessert menu was equally hard to choose from, featuring lots of Jeni's ice cream and local Ohio strawberries: we chose the goat's cheese cheesecake with peppered Ohio strawberries, and plum hazelnut crisp with salty caramel ice cream. Mmmm. So, so good. I think it was my most favourite meal in Columbus to date.

Somehow this blog has turned into something of a 'look what I ate today!' venue as well. If you came looking for a knitting post, don't worry, I'll have something to show soon. I started another pair of Pomatomus socks using some lovely Fleece Artist yarn. Seriously the best pattern ever written.

Angoras and Alpacas: Cutest Post Ever

Did you ever wonder where that luxurious angora yarn comes from? Look no further than this fuzzy white blob in the photo. This is a recently groomed English (or possibly Giant) Angora rabbit stil sitting on its brushing stand, having just had a nice blow-out from its owner. So pampered.

This past Sunday Zarafa, Mr. Z, Sonja and I took a little field trip to the Ohio State Rabbit Breeder's Show & Sale, followed by a brief visit to the Buckeye Alpaca Show, all at the Ohio Expo Center (D and J declined to participate in the fuzzy cute fun - I think they felt threatened). Apparently this was the biggest state show, with about 5000 bunnies being exhibited. I have never seen so many rabbits in my life - and such an enormous variety! You realize how completely clueless you can be about something until you see it for yourself. I don't think I've gushed so much about animals. Ever. We had lots of fun to say the least, and the whole thing was made more enjoyable and educational by Mr. Z's rabbit expertise.

Are these not the cutest rabbits you have ever seen??

From Top Left: French Angora (probably), Flemish Giant,

English Angora, Dutch, American Fuzzy Lop,

Jersey Wooly (or young French/Satin Angora)

And then there was this little bunny was just hanging out on the camping chair, chilling. No sign that it was about to make a break for it. I wish Gatsby could behave so well. On our way out from the rabbit show, we passed some vendors selling rabbity goods including rabbit snack sticks, rabbit jerky, rabbit sausage, rabbit pelts and more. It felt a little wrong to be eating the bunny, but I suppose it is a means of sustainability - nothing goes to waste.

Afterward, we stopped by the Alpaca show to see if we could score some luscious yarn. Indeed we did. But first we actually had a look around at the alpacas and chatted with some of their breeders. They are the funniest creatures with their long gangly necks and all. Some of them had the most beautiful multi-coloured coats - I think Zarafa and I were both thinking the same thing "Hmm, which alpaca would give me the most variety in yarn colours?". The Suri alpaca was quite pretty too, in a funny sort of way. Their coats were almost rope-like, and looked like a semi-spun yarn. Up until Sunday, I thought Suri was a brand name. Oh, the ignorance.

Hanging out by the fan: "It's too hot with our coats on"

This is what I bought at the show: 600 yards of soft, squishy lovely alpaca - for $29! I thought it was a pretty good deal. I think I'll save it for winter knitting and make an extra long scarf out of it.

Hope you all had a nice weekend too!

Pottery Week 9 - a Mishmash

Lots of fun things this past week! Viennese chocolates and fancy tea arriving in the mail were a lovely surprise (thanks Hazel and Kevin!) We were FINALLY reimbursed for our lost valet parking key (only 3 months later). I also went to my first jewelry class, which was a bit weird since I was the only new student. I did, however, briefly wield a blow torch, flame some copper, dunk it in some 'pickle' (an acidic solution - thereby annealing it) and practice some stamping without injuring myself. Our first project will be a slot and tab bracelet, which I am supposed to draw for homework. Unsurprisingly, I haven't done it yet.

Today, D and I started the second session of our pottery class. We did a bit more hand building - slabs and pinch pots - and next week we'll be learning how to throw on the the wheel! Very excited for that. Here are a few pictures to entertain you with:

D made these lovely little vases by pinching two bowl-shapes, joining them together and sealing them to form an enclosed oval. He paddled the sides with a wooden stick tool to create the sections. Unfortunately, only one survived the transport to the drying shelf - again reflecting the delicate and frustrating nature of pottery work.

I made a few more slab pots using molds, which I am planning to slip-paint next week:

After class, we had some excellent sandwiches at the Brown Bag Deli in German Village, followed by coffee and sweets at Yosick's Artisan Chocolates and pastry shop. On one side of the shop they had a nice assortment of self-serve traditional bakery goodies including cookies, macaroons, cupcakes, scones, turnovers, biscotti, brownies and more. I had a raspberry lemon friand and D had two mint chocolate truffles (which he said were fantastic) - they make all their chocolates on premises using only Belgian chocolate and adding caramel or honey to sweeten. The owner does all the baking herself as well. Drop by for a coffee and treat!

Then tomorrow, I am going to see a Bunny show at the Ohio Expo Center and possibly an alpaca show too - I am secretly hoping to find to soft angora or alpaca yarn to take home with me.

Bejeweled!

You read that right. One can never have too many hobbies! Zarafa and I decided to sign up for the beginner jewelry class at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center, which I am very, very excited about.

Oh the possibilities!! Do you think I'll be able to make something like this...

Or like this?

Photos borrowed from the Devil's Workshop, a Toronto-based jewelry studio

The CAC is one of the best discoveries we've made in Columbus. I absolutely love the CAC - they offer awesome classes at the most affordable rates ever. Once we move to Bethlehem, there will be no more wallet-friendly art classes (as far as I know). So, I'm trying to take advantage of it while I'm still here in Columbus. And a little break from knitting might not be a bad idea.

Here's the class description: "JEWELRY- Beginner/Intermediate students learn to create unique and complete projects in copper, brass and sterling. Projects are designed to acquaint students with college-level metal working techniques: sawing, stamping, cold joining, soldering and stone setting. A $15 Lab Fee will be collected at the first class. Bring a notebook/felt-tip pen. Advanced students may register for these classes. A minimum of 6 registered students is required"

I really have no idea what to expect since there isn't a student project gallery online. Hopefully I will end up with something wearable and not just a bunch of burns and cuts on my hands. Anyhow, happy Monday - hope your week is off to a good start. A cupcake post is coming next.

Pottery Week 8: Finishing Up

This Saturday was our last pottery class for the session, but we will be coming back for the next session and continuing to learn new skills (slabs, glaze effects and perhaps throwing). The kilns had been loaded this week and we were excited to see the results of our first glazing efforts. Our reactions were a mixture of intrigued/appalled. Glazing is a real art in itself, and as a beginner there is no real way to start to understand it unless you play around with it.

D's little pinch pots turned out a nice turquoisy-blue, fairly even. The stripes around the rim have all but disappeared except for the fine black line around the opening. He is quite happy with these pots.

I was surprised by the colours my pots turned out to be - I had forgotten what I applied, and wasn't sure how it would look over top slip paints. They look pretty kindergarten-y, but that's OK (you try making pinch pots for the first time!)

Glazing lessons learned: Although applying too much glaze will result in ugly running, you have to be careful not to apply too little glaze either. See how the blue glaze is barely clinging on? That's too little glaze. D and I were worried about over-doing it, and were a little too light-handed. I think my favourites are the little green shell and the taller mini vase, although the vase could have used a thicker coating of white matte glaze.

My pear pot and first coil pot were bisque-fired this week, so I worked on glazing them today. D didn't get to do any glazing today since his pots were still on the greenware shelf. No photos of those, but I glazed the pear with a yellow-grey glaze that looks like a pale green. The stem was covered in iron oxide to give it a dark colour under the glaze. If the whole thing turns out, I'll tell you how I glazed it. The other pot was dipped in plum glaze with an opalescent colour sponged over top. D spent the rest of class finishing an angular bowl and creating a pitcher-type object using little square cut outs and slabs.

Other than pottery, we saw Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 at the Wexner Center on Friday night, which chronicles the making of a concert grand piano from wood selection all the way to final tuning. Really interesting stuff. Tonight we're going to a neighbour's place for dinner, which means I've got some vegan cupcakes to make this afternoon. Mmm.

Ceramics 101 at the CAC

Here's my first class report: D and I attended our first ceramics class this past Saturday at the Cultural Arts Center in downtown Columbus. It's a beautiful, large, and amazingly clean work space. At 9am, the studio was surprisingly busy - lots of attendees in this section already working on some pretty professional-looking pieces. Hmm. I thought this was beginner...

It turned out we were the only two beginners - everyone else had already taken a class and was registered in the section to use studio time (instead of a traditional membership, I suppose). Our instructor was lovely (and very chatty) and spent part of the morning showing us around the studio, getting us set up with our clay, and having us set forth on wedging (getting the air bubbles out) and making pinch pots to familiarize ourselves with the feel of the clay. We were told that the beginner's course would involve instruction on pinch pots, coiling, and slab work, and eventually throwing on the wheel depending on time and interest.

Admittedly, I thought 8 weeks of pinching, slabbing and coiling sounded like a drag. I was eager to get on the potter's wheel sooner than that. After shaping clay for 3 hours, however, using only my fingers and some texturizing tools, I was starting to understand why we go through this process -you begin to see how clay behaves as you pinch, flatten, stretch, pull, shape and poke it. By the end of class, D and I each made 4-5 little pots that should be leather-hard next Saturday, ready to be decorated some more.

Afterward, we had lunch at Katzinger's Deli in nearby German Village, and on the way out, bought a baguette from their bakery section. And hey! It was pretty darn good! Probably the best we've had in Columbus so far. Nice golden, crisp, chewy crust, and a dense, bubbly slightly chewy inside. After I got home, I toasted a few slices with olive oil and rubbed raw garlic all over them, with a little salt and pepper. Mmm, raw garlic.

The rest of the weekend was nice too, and relaxing. On Saturday night I had dinner at Spagio Cellars with the girls, and on Sunday we walked through the Short North and had a coffee. I almost bought a ridiculous looking gold polka-dotted dress on sale but finally decided I probably wouldn't have anywhere to wear it. We didn't end up going to the Arnold's fitness convention, but I'm not that sad about it. Today I have the day off, so I'll be doing some more baking, and then going to ballet class.

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

If you haven't yet done a little V-day celebrating, the weekend is packed with lots of fun things to do with your significant other/partner/spouse/friend. I pretty much find all my Columbus activities through these Restaurant Widow's Things To Do reports. It's fantastic.

Valentine cookies from marthastewart.com

I would have made these had I been more crafty...

D has unfortunately been a little sick the last couple days but still had an appetite to dine out (I never lose my appetite when I am sick. In fact, I think I eat even more). On Thursday night we trekked up the icy sidewalks, past all the crazy valet parking (I swear, I have never seen a city more obsessed with valet parking), and had a cozy, boozy dinner at the Burgundy Room in the Short North. We like the little tapas style dishes and wine flights. Mmm. I guess you want to know what we ate: braised short ribs with shoestring carrots, morrocan meatballs with minted couscous, mixed greens with bacon and goat cheese, and deviled crabcake with collard greens. We capped off the meal with a flight of dessert wines. Double mmm.

As some of you know, I started my part time job last week, which has proved to be a major taker-upper of craft time (my boss is a sweet, comical, elderly man who displays one of the worst control streaks I have ever encountered. Thankfully the job is part time, because there are only so many puns and mnemonics for remembering mundane facts that one can tolerate in a single sitting). Anyhow, the bottom line is that this means less craft time. Fortunately, I did have time to make sure that D and I were signed up for the next ceramics class offered at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center. I did a bunch of research into ceramics classes around town and this seemed like the way to go. They certainly weren't kidding when they told me the classes were popular and urged me to phone in at 8am on Monday to register! I spent a good hour on redial trying to get through. It's probably the best deal for pottery classes that I have ever seen - about $50 for an 8-10 week course.

The grey tweed vest is coming along, but it's not very interesting to look at yet, so I'll wait until there's a bit more progress before I post a photo of it. Hopefully you are all having a better time with crafting than I am.

Orchid Forest

Over the weekend, D and I visited the highly-recommended Franklin Park Conservatory to see the Orchid Forest exhibit (which is on until late February). If you haven't already been, it is really an amazing place and definitely worth going. I wish we'd thought of taking our friends there when they visited. The Orchid Forest exhibit was absolutely stunning, and HUGE!

There were so many varieties of orchids I had never seen before (not that I am an orchid expert in any way - I was just really impressed, is all). There was a beautiful glass sculpture in the centre of the exhibit that looked incredibly familiar...then we realized we had seen the artist's (Dale Chihuly's) work in Toronto, at the Sandra Ainsley Gallery.

Chihuly and his team create the most complicated looking, intricate, delicate structures... amazing sculptures. They have videos showing how they work with ladles of molten glass, spinning and swirling the lava like substances. I think it must be dangerous though...Chihuly wears an eye patch over one eye. Anyhow, check out his site. We had a great time at the Conservatory and afterward had a coffee in the main atrium, which was surprisingly light on a grey gloomy day.

Being in a festive kind of mood, I started the Sweetheart socks from Interweave Holiday knits. The heart-shaped cables are look cute and I like how they really pop out - I'm trying a new (cheap) sock yarn by Berroco that feels really soft. Too bad the yarn is so splitty, it makes it hard to cable without a needle. Plus my needles are so small the whole thing is kind of hard to see. This is the kind of knitting that gives me neck cramps...

Weekend Recap

I know the weekend's not over yet, but I'm probably not doing much today so I feel safe going ahead with this post. I've already listed all the great things that have happened this week, but I left out a few others and also want to show off some of the neato gifts I received from some generous folks (dear friends and family, that's YOU!) I'll just show you one, from D, which is from a local store:

Cute Shinzi Katoh tote bag from Tigertree

And here is my something crafty to share before I ramble on about non-knitty things - the finished Peter Rabbit scarf using the Misty Garden pattern from Scarf Style:

It's exactly one skein of Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit using US 7 needles

The latest news: remember how I was talking about being 30 and unemployed, yada yada, and then I had my first interview on Friday? Under some very surprising circumstances (me thinking I had bombed the interview), I received a phone call at 5:00pm on Friday and was offered the job. How crazy is that? I can't believe I actually found a job before I turned 30 - with 7 hours to spare. It was certainly a wonderful surprise, and very validating. That said, there are significant pros and cons to this job, and I will have to weigh them out carefully. Compared to Toronto (and perhaps Canada), social service work is an extremely undervalued profession, and unbelievably poorly paid. To have a graduate degree and specialized training, and then be paid such a low wage is really depressing, and insulting (I could probably make more at Starbucks). Focusing on the advantages of the job (such as training I'll receive) barely combats the unjustness of the situation. I could rant for hours and hours about this, but I'll stop now since that's not what this blog is about.

We did have a lovely dinner on Friday night at Rosendales to celebrate birthdays and job offers (D was offered a great job in Pennsylvania - we will be traveling there to check things out. More on that if we decide to go). Rosendales was by far the best meal we have had in Columbus, and having read Restaurant Widow's review, I was even more excited to go (and predictably, "I don't feel like I'm in Columbus!" did come up several times). The food was absolutely delicious and the service was great too - our waiter helpfully offered us several wine choices after consulting with other staff (the chef or sommelier, maybe?). I had the Ahi tuna starter and 48-hour short ribs, and D had the seafood bisque and pork loin. Dessert was the prettiest part of the whole meal - lemon curd with ginger ice cream in a miniature parfait glass, piped with some sort of marshmallowy meringue that had been toasted somehow as not to melt the ice cream.

We had dinner at Akai Hana which was very good - I think the nicest sushi place I have visited in Columbus. Check out the sushi:


Then we went to Momo2 KTV for karaoke and sang (and shouted) our hearts out the rest of the night. I think a great time was had by all - even those who were initially a little shy were belting it out in no time. The group sang a lovely rendition of Sweet Caroline:

And being the birthday girl, I happily sang my share of cheesy classics: I proudly, and loudly, butchered my favourite, Total Eclipse of the Heart, with J and D.

Other side of my canvas tote!

Columbus Weekend & Chocolatey Vegan Goodies

crazy mural on the side of our building

Our wonderful, wonderful friends drove all the way from Toronto to visit D and I this past weekend (it was great to see you guys!) The weather was absolutely perfect for lots of walking, and we had a fun-filled few days of packed Columbus action. Maybe I can convince them to move here to keep me company. Almost all the photos in this post are courtesy of my uberawesome friend M, who, in addition to being a talented graphic designer/artist/painter, has got some maddeningly great photography skills.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (made with tofu, soymilk and applesauce!!)

Friday I spent the day baking some vegan goodies to keep people well-energized (well-sugared) throughout the weekend. What I love about reading other peoples blogs is not only do you share common interests but you are also introduced to things you may not have tried yourself. And there are many talented knitters/bakers out there. I saw the cookies on the brown sheep's blog and from there, I was able to link to a whole other world of vegan delights. Cookie recipe is linked above - I subbed all-purpose flour because I couldn't find any whole wheat pastry flour, and I also found that it yielded about 70 or so large heaping teaspoon-sizes cookies, not 50 like it claimed. The more the better I guess. We ate them for breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner.

I also found this recipe for yummy chocolate cupcakes made with soymilk that produced moist, chocolatey dense cupcakes. I might start using this recipe even for non-vegans, that's how good they were. Unfortunately I didn't have enough icing sugar to make frosting, so they were not as pretty, but everyone agreed they tasted good plain. My friends are easy to please.

i have holes because jenny used a toothpick to get me out of the pan

We started Saturday at the North Market where T chatted it up with one of the Amish farmers.

walking to the North Market

mozart's bakery

(He had some kooky stories about chickens and frogs in his bed after a flood)

After a quick lunch (where we were serenaded by members of the Columbus Opera), we strolled through Goodale Park...

what's that in the pond?

Then we headed north through Victorian Village and walked all the way to OSU campus.

pretty ducks in the pond by D's office building

While on campus, we went to the William Wegman exhibit at the Wexner Center which was really good - definitely something we will take D's parents to when they visit next weekend. It's free admission and on until early December, so go while you can.

In the evening, we had a dinner at Dragonfly NeoV (delicious vegan cuisine) and went to the Gallery Hop in the Short North. A long but very productive day of tourism.

Sunday started with brunch buffet at Union Cafe, then a trip to the Columbus Zoo and a quick visit to Trader Joe's. The zoo was awesome. My favourites included the discovery aquarium with some of the biggest tropical fish I'd ever seen, including a unicorn fish. This tank was massive, probably about 10 feet tall. We were lucky to see feeding time, where a zookeeper in scuba gear got in the tank and walked around to feed the fish. The tiger and gorilla exhibits were great too, especially the indoor portions with plexiglass walls that let the animals come right up to you. Who knew Columbus had so many places to see? Having visitors is a great way to experience things you may not otherwise try.

i am a magical unicorn fish

N and T made us all a delicious dinner at home...maybe because I whinged about missing Mrs. T's homecooking they had on Friday evening. D.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. You guys are the best cooks ever!

aren't the hosts supposed to cook the dinner? instead they drink purple moon and pumpkin beer

And to leave you with a little knitting, here is Mr. Bear with his finished features, and Mr. Mini Bear too. The yarn is sportweight Misti Alpaca held doubled throughout - I bought two skeins and had enough leftover to make this tiny guy. This is for a friend's birthday, who will receive the little guys in a couple weeks.

i am mr. bear, this is my mini-me

And one last crazy cat picture.

gatsby looking like the devil