This weekend has been a variety of celebrating Christopher's 47th birthday, tying up loose ends, snuggling on the sofa knitting, and putting away the last vestiges of Christmas. All of this was fueled, of course, by Banana berry white chocolate pancakes. (Click HERE for the base recipe and instead of apples and cinnamon, on top, I added a whole banana, a handful of fresh berries and tossed in some Ghiradelli white chocolate chips for good measure).
The weekend started early. Thursday I made a trip to Columbus Clay to pick up all the materials needed to set up my own glaze lab. It's pretty exciting to know that the last big step to setting up my own studio is now complete. After two years throwing in my own studio, I can finally do every bit of production here without heading over to my friend, Steve Smith's studio for finishing bits. Tomorrow I'll be out in the kiln shed setting it all up and that is the first time I can say hefting around 50 lb bags of anything sounds like fun.
While in Columbus, I had coffee and lunch at Fox in the Snow Cafe with the incomparable Brandon Fitzwater. I was finally able to gift him with the reversible cable scarf that I made for Christmas. We talked about new and exciting ideas for the studio this spring. It's always a lot of fun to sit down with him and work on new designs. (If you want to knit this warm and textured scarf, the free pattern is right here in my blog!)
Friday, I spent a good chunk of the day working on my closet. Ugh. It's one of those things I do once a year and each year I am amazed at how much stuff I have. While I don't really partake in New Year's Resolutions, I have decided that since I spend the majority of my time in the studio and not at business meetings any more, I can survive with quite happily with a minimalist wardrobe. I ran across the Free Minimalist Wardrobe Workbook from Encircled, printed it out and worked my way through it and my closet with delightful results. Now, I don't have to think about what to wear. I have a tidy assortment of studio clothes and casual clothes.
Saturday was all about birthday celebrations. My sweet husband turned 47. During the week I made 72 cupcakes for him to share with coworkers, mini cheesecakes for at home, and an angel food cake for his actual birthday, post-dinner celebrating. He's a lucky man and knows it. The angel food cake was nearly a total fail. I was stuffed up and didn't smell it cooking, was distracted and didn't hear the timer, and was thankful that before going to bed, Chris realized the cake was still in the oven. WHA?!?!? Yeah. It turns out that if you cook an Angel food cake for 2 hours, it just gets more dense. I cut off the less desirable bits and piped on frosting. It's fine. Learn from me. Just add some berries at plating and look, FANCY!
Sunday has been all about tying up the loose ends, relaxing and knitting. Christmas was all put in the attic. A friend showed up to pick up all the items culled from my closet. She'll distribute them to people who need them in the community. We used up the rest of those luscious berries in the late brunch pancakes then settled in for some social media, tv and knitting.
My friend Victoria, at Terra Cottage Ceramics in Paducah, Kentucky, is putting together a group of women for the march in Washington D.C. in a couple weeks. She put out a facebook call for a pink pussy hat and hardcore knitter that I am, I jumped on it! Christopher was a sport and allowed me to "test the hat out" on him and take his picture. He's always a good sport. <3
And as if that wasn't enough, I posted the presale for the new Dead Sexy Latte Mugs and Chris helped me snap a few extra photos of one in my hands to show proportion.
Now that I've layed it all out, it doesn't seem like nearly as relaxing a weekend as I thought it was! The best part of my life right now is that I absolutely love what I do and my partner in crime, Christopher, makes it even better.
I think it's time to join Ruby Willow Pierce for a catnap so at least I can say I took it easy for a little while.
