Nesting Dolls, Birthday Weekend, and Other Things

Okay, first up, who wants to order a set of nesting dolls?

Porkchop is an excellent nesting doll painter. For example, here's a set she made recently for friends of friends:


I don't have pictures of these folks, but believe me when I say these likenesses are amazing. Let Porkchop know if you want a set! Email her at porkchoppress (at) gmail (dot) com for pricing and other details. Sets aren't limited to 5 dolls, just so you know.

Birthday Weekend
Along with celebrating the birth of our great nation last weekend, we also celebrated my turning 31! We left Thursday afternoon for Madison, where we stayed with Porkchop's friend Patrick, who is starting the MFA program at the UW this fall. After a late night at the Weary Traveler, I had a hard time waking up for my breakfast date with old friend and former co-worker Darcie (who contributes to the Craftology 101 blog). I wasn't as bright-eyed as I wanted to be, but we still had a great time catching up and enjoying our Marigold breakfast. The next time I see Darcie, she might be living in Denver, which is all sorts of exciting (our breakfast also marked Darcie's last day at our former employer - woot!).

After breakfast, Porkchop and I left for Minneapolis. The day was perfect for driving...sunny skies, low humidity, a cool breeze, and Twilight on CD. Twilight was perfect for driving, but I don't recommend listening or reading it otherwise (Also, guess what's worse than the book...the movie! We watched it last night, and I can't believe how horrible it is!).

Upon arriving in MPLS, we went to Katie and Beth's apartment, which is actually two floors and the size of a house. It was our first time to visit K and B in their new city, and I'm so glad we made it up there. Being around K and B is like having my batteries recharged. We laugh, we talk about things, we have fun doing nothing. During one of our dinners, we talked about how, out of our 9 years of friendship, we only lived around each other for 1.5 of those years. So, those must have been really formative years because we're still good friends.

Anyway...without writing a novel, here's a bullet point summary of what we did:

• Visited farmers' markets!
• Walked around Mill Town. Pictures below are us at some mill ruins and watching a boat go through a lock:

• Ate good food! We enjoyed the following restaurants, all of which focus on organic and locally produced food: Birchwood Cafe, Spoonriver, Seward Community Cafe, and the Craftsman (where K and B treated us to a birthday dinner). We also enjoyed delicious ice cream from Izzy's (mmmm)! At Izzy's:

• On July 4th, we made pesto potato salad for a potluck hosted by K and B's friends. After eating, we walked over to Powderhorn Park and watched the neighborhood firework display. Everyone from the neighborhood watched the fireworks! It was so wholesome and Mayberry-ish, only the neighborhood was really diverse. It seems some people in MPLS think Powderhorn Park is a "rough" neighborhood...these people need to visit our neighborhood in St. Louis, and then we'll see if they still think Powderhorn Park is rough!
• Went to the Mall of America. Hey, everyone does it.
• Helped Katie buy a used 10-speed (actually a 12-speed).
• I finished one of my Facebook Making Things project for a friend who lives in MPLS (actually K and B's friend, and my friend by association). It's the sev(en)circle from the Assemblage blog. I was using stash and scrap yarn, so I made the loops different colors, and I really loved the end result:

I think that's it for MPLS! Super fun times!

Our 10-hour drive home on my birthday wasn't so fun, but fortunately we had Twilight for entertainment.

Porkchop gave me super great gifts! My favorite is my new lunch bag (this is a bad pic):


My tiffin and water bottle fit in it, and it's neoprene so my water bottle doesn't get anything wet. I also received this pack of 5 Envirosax and the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. My first loaf just came out of the oven! It doesn't look like the pictures in the book, but maybe it will still be tasty.

Garden Things
Upon our arrival home, I found a baby melon in the garden!

There are a few more little guys out there, which is very exciting.

We also found that our potato experiment didn't turn out well. St. Louisians will recall the crazy rains we had earlier this summer...these rains broke our potato plants and made them die early. We had hoped for the best, but this is our yield from our garbage can:


Murrr. Another garden lesson for us.

On a happier note, Porkchop came home a bit early on Friday and finished our strawberry and blueberry bed!


So awesome!!

Have a great weekend!