mushies | Thespunmonkey's Blog

The Boy wants a cat named Potato.

He says his fingers have knees. Fingerknees.

And that he’s “hot as a monster,” and so sweat he can’t stay under the covers.

He wants to know why Pete didn’t get up and get dressed today. Like he did the other day to come with us to the farmer’s market.

I want to know when I can give him a new home for us and that cat named Potato.

In the meantime, if you’re in the Bay, I’ll be teaching a nuno felting workshop at Urban Fauna Studio on January 23rd. Details HERE. There is no felting experience required, as this is an introductory class. We’ll make a small piece you can either use as fabric to cut and sew, or add a button to and use as a neckwarmer. We’re also thinking about scheduling a class for designing and creating a larger piece, like a scarf or wrap. Please let Jamie or Blas know if you’re interested and we’ll get it on the menu!

And for those of you lovely New Englanders that might be interested, we are going to have a whole weekend of felting mayhem at Knit or Dye in Brattleboro, VT. That’s right…coming back to my beloved wintery wonderland to teach two five-hour workshops, Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14. You can take one or both days, as they are each different and neither requires any previous experience with felting. Saturday will be an Introduction to Nuno Felting and Sunday will be The Nuno Felt Scarf, a design workshop where we create a larger piece. If we get it filled up so I can fly out there, we will also try scheduling a kids’ bead-making workshop and some spinning classes or private lessons. Be in touch if you’re interested!

This post is all over the place, but look what C found:

Gobs of them. Dinner last night and dinner tomorrow night. Some of them were as big as my hand. C definitely has his Mushroom Eyes on lately…every time we are out on a hike we wonder at how we’ve forgotten to bring a satchel and he ends up stripping off a layer of clothing for carrying home the latest find. The other day there was a specimen the size of a serving platter that we still haven’t been able to identify and it’s beginning to stink up the garage. This oyster score was pretty sweet, though.

And there’s been some of this:

Love Is A Candy Heart – handspun single

Yes, I’ve gone and done it…and there will probably be a few more. I couldn’t help myself.

Random enough for you?

Happy Wednesday.

…isn’t that what Lux Interior always warned us about?

So, choose the safer route and just eat stuff out of your own backyard. Like, these rubbery space-alien entrails, for instance:

Really, I thought these mushrooms were quite fascinatingly beautiful…Black Elfin Saddles aka False Morel. This is a photo after boiling (to release potential tummyache-inducing compounds into the water), and before cooking, and the photo doesn’t translate the seaweed-y quality very well, all the infinite, curling folds. They were plucked from the backyard, served with dinner, and the several members of the household who tried them were less than impressed. Not much flavor of their own, but a decent enough vehicle for delivering butter and garlic to your mouth. If I’m risking potential discomfort, though, I want my socks knocked off, so we’ll probably be leaving the rest of these in the ground.

Yesterday, the Boy actually asked for his embroidery and we spent quite a bit of the late morning stitching away. It has never held his attention for so long and while he stitched away, something happened in my own hoop that prompted C to make a comment that, in turn, prompted me to say, “What if we collaborate on _______?” And so we will. I am filled to bursting with a thousand and one ideas for this project that we have already reserved a little corner of Etsy for. It’s one of those why-did-we-not-think-of-this-before kind of ideas, and it promises to be FUN as well as challenging and fulfilling. We will open in February, and that’s all I’m telling you for now.

As for the “real job” hunt, C has some glowing letters of recommendation headed his way and some contacts to pursue. I’ve also put feelers out to a few online friends up and down this coast because, well, you just never know. Someone might say something in a coffee shop or at the park or anywhere, really, or see an ad and pass the information along. We’re throwin’ it out there, Universe, and we’re actually enjoying it. Here is our opportunity to start a brand new life and we have no idea where it’s going to happen. Instead of allowing myself to be terrified of the Unknown, I’ve decided to really get into playing this game…absolutely anything can happen!

Since things didn’t work out on the farm, I am donating every penny of last year’s raffle to an organization that helps the homeless…I had held off because I believe the most important way to be of service is within one’s own community, and I was waiting to become part of a community again, myself. But, since I’m here in the Bay Area for a short while longer, I am part of this community and so I will make my donation here, most likely to the Contra Costa Crisis Center or the Bay Area Rescue Mission or a combination of the two. I’ll contact all of the participants and let you know where your dollars have gone!

Today, we will bake (gluten-free romano crackers), paint, spin and explore the Shell Ridge Open Space (this has become the Boy’s favorite spot, which is awesome, because it’s one of ours, too). Phone calls have been made, messages left, and so we shall fill our day with the riches that surround us. And quiet.