Home is wherever I'm with you...

It's been awhile since I found a song that expresses exactly what I'm feeling.  I discovered this one today, when I was missing Pete acutely and dreading the coming two weeks without him.

I'd explain how it makes me feel to only be with my brand-new husband on weekends, but I simply can't sort it out.  At least Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros can do it for me.

I am trying to remember that the strings of days full of bitter homesickness and the endless bus rides and train rides and car rides are drawing to a close.  And though I love him for making a leaky blow-up mattress feel like home, I'm so relieved he won't have to do it for much longer.

Home, let me come home

Home is wherever I'm with you

Oh, home, yes, I am home

Home is when I'm alone with you

Alabama Studio Style

When I received a Barnes and Noble gift card as a wedding gift, I knew I wanted to choose books that would improve my somewhat pathetic attempts at cobbling together a home. 
This book is positively intoxicating.  It's a veritable lifestyle guide, filled with sewing techniques, printmaking how-to's, recipes, methods for refurbishing ramshackle chairs, and, well, sheer gorgeousness.  I have poured over it for weeks now.  Though I intend to give all of the homemaking a try, the garment patterns are most exciting to me.  My current project is a dark blue tank dress for Juliana to take with her to Africa.  I'll post pictures as soon as I finish it.

The cotton jersey that is utilized in all the sewing patterns is pretty elusive in my neck of the woods, unfortunately.  Juliana and I took a pilgrimage to a fabric store and bought some before I realized that the author, Natalie Chanin, sells her organic cotton jersey, which is grown, spun, and knit in the USA, on her DIY website.  Everything you need to become a homespun Alabama fashionista can be found there. 

Or, if you'd prefer, you can buy her handsewn couture garments readymade here.  I prefer to oggle the designs and utter a fervent prayer that I can one day make a facsimile of some of these garments.

Room

I tore through this book in less than 24 hours, snatching a few pages whenever I could.  It is the story of 5-year old Jack, who has spent his entire life in an 11x11 foot room with his mother.  "Room" is the whole world to him.  We quickly become aware of what he does not yet comprehend--that his mother was kidnapped a few years before he was born and has been emprisoned in Room ever since.  The horror of their hopeless situation is lost on Jack because his mother shelters him.   I was fascinated by the ingenious ways Ma engages Jack endlessly with her limited resources.  Though it is still a harrowing story, when told through the innocent voice of a child, it also becomes unexpectedly beautiful.

Dye!

I began the egg dyeing process with such optimism.  I decided I was going to do it the hard way--the natural way--and use onion skins instead of food coloring.

My mom found awesome instructions from the kitchn  for  dyeing eggs with onion skins.  Traditionally, Russian people save all their onion skins all Lent long for this express purpose.  I, however, had neither the forsight, nor the appetite for onions to do that.  Also, I am not Russian.  So I devised a plot.  When my mother and I went to Wegmans, I hung around the onions, as an unsuspecting employee of that fine, overpriced establishment culled the loose skins from the shelf.  I sidled up and began begging him to take pity on my skinless state and bestow upon me all the unwanted onion skins he was about to throw out.  He consulted with his manager, which seemed a bit unnecessary to me, and finally granted me a huge bag of the coveted red and yellow skins.

I slaved over the vat of dye, carefully following the directions.  And when they came out, my eggs were not rich shades of mahogany and russet.  They were poopy, boring brown.

Enter the barefoot kitchen witch's instructions for colorful cracked eggs, or Chinese Tea Eggs, which are sold in China the way we sell hotdogs and pretzels on the street here.  In a nutshell, you crack your hardboiled eggs a bunch, then let them sit in a glassful of food coloring and water in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, you peel them and--behold!  They are covered in gorgeous color fissures.

 I also kept some of them whole and marinated them in various shades of food dye overnight.

Crisis averted.  The end.

Prayer of Saint Basil the Great

O God and Lord of Hosts, and Maker of all Creation, Who by the tender compassion of Thy mercy which transcendeth comprehension, didst send down Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the salvation of our race, and by His precious Cross didst tear asunder the handwriting of our sins, and thereby didst triumph over the principalities and powers of darkness: Do Thou Thyself, O Master, Lover of mankind, accept also from us sinners these prayers of thanksgiving and entreaty, and deliver us from every destructive and dark transgression, and from all enemies, both visible and invisible, that seek to do us evil. Nail down our flesh with the fear of Thee, and incline not our hearts unto words or thoughts of evil, but pierce our souls with longing for Thee, so that ever looking to Thee, and being guided by Thy Light as we behold Thee, the unapproachable and everlasting Light, we may send up unceasing praise and thanksgiving unto Thee, the Unoriginate Father, with Thine Only-begotten Son, and Thine All-holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Wheat, Wine, and Oil

The Wheat, Wine, and Oil podcast has been my constant companion in the kitchen over the past few days as I've dyed eggs and generally tried to prepare for Pascha (Easter).

Instead of trying to describe it, I'll let Ancient Faith Radio introduce you.

"Ancient Faith Radio now brings you the Wheat, Wine, and Oil podcast with Martha Condra.  This helpful series of programs follows faith through the market to the kitchen and the family table.  Martha is a freelance recipe developer and food writer for such magazines as Cooking Light and Heath Magazine.  Here's Martha..."

Keep Calm...

In the tumult that was working full time, going to school at night, and planning a wedding, I stumbled upon the "Keep Calm and Carry On" mantra. 

It was originally meant to be used on British WWII motivational posters, but was abandoned before being distributed.  Now you can find it gracing mugs, journals, postcards, posters, desktop wallpaper, etc. 

I typed up my own poster and hung it on my classroom door, and would glance at it whenever my students tried my patience and I needed to be reminded to take a breath. 

Passing teachers remarked on it, and requested one of their own, so I printed them up and distributed them.
It became a bit of a joke in our school, and I kept discovering funny knitting-related spoofs of the poster, like:

"Keep Calm and Cast On" originated on laylock.org, where you can download it for free in a multitude of colors. 

I first discovered Keep Calm and Carry Yarn at Knitty City, a yarn store Pete and I visited after going to the Museum of Natural History in NYC.  They sell brightly colored hand-dyed and screenprinted project bags with the slogan made by JennieGee.  You can also buy them at her etsy store.

When I come across something like that, I usually talk myself out of buying it because I know I could make it myself.  This was the first time I decided to give credit where credit is due and purchase an idea, rather than an object.  The craftsmanship is impecable, and I'm glad I chose to support the artist who came up with this clever twist.  It makes me smile every time I break out my knitting.