I thought I'd recap my recent activities with some crappy pictures! We had city wide garage sales this last weekend. Since I'm too much of a pack rat to actually get rid of some stuff, I chose instead to embark on an insane baking biathlon. I baked 24 (count them 24) dozen kringlas. UTTER MADNESS!! I mixed up two double batches of kringla dough in my HUGE metal mixing bowl (one double batch at a time!) and then piled them into another big bowl so I could use the huge bowl for lefse. Meanwhile, I had my two biggest pots on the stove boiling 10 pounds of russet potatoes that I would later cool and rice twice. Keep in mind that this was all happening at about 2300 and would continue until 0500 when I would then shower, change clothes, load my car and then DRIVE 40 miles to get home! I was facing the Point Of No Return where I knew what I was in for and now HAD to continue and finish lest I waste all those ingredients, however many POUNDS of it there was! I just stood there for a moment and laughed to myself like a crazy person at how pathetic and ridiculous my situation was at that moment! In the end I sold the first 16 dozen kringla that I made and baked another 8 dozen at my parents' house. I also mixed up the lefse dough (about 72 pieces worth) and cooked it in their kitchen which was actually kind of nice because I think it is a rare treat to eat lefse hot off the griddle. I was also quite proud of myself that I cooked it all by myself which I have never done in all my life. When I was a little girl, I would stand on a chair in front of the stove with the lefse stick and Mother would roll it out and I would flip. Now that I am older and Mother is just OLD ;) we have switched jobs, but Mom was working that morning so I rolled and flipped myself. It CAN be done if you're not babysitting or watching anything else in the kitchen. You are steadily busy and I always get a sore lower back after rolling/stooping for 3 hours.





Lately for some reason, I've felt the need to do some fabric de-stashing. I've had this lovely blue and white lithograph fabric (about 12 yards of it--MUST HOARD!). I was going to be home where there is a great open space to work on blankies and where Mom's Elna sewing machine is! I backed it with some navy broadcloth and machine quilted it 6 inches apart in lengthwise running stitches. It turned out to be a nice light spring blanket. I am pleased. I was hoping to have some scraps of batting to use for Mari bases...





Did someone say Mari? Normally I would say this is a crappy blurred picture, but it is actually an accurate picture of what my eyeballs were capable of seeing at the time. DeeDee and I worked for almost 8 hours on Temari balls twice this week, pausing only for fluids and PRN bathroom breaks. My mother had some batting leftovers that were too small to use for anything but too big that you wanted to throw them out, so we even did some recycling while we were at it. DeeDee made all from scratch temari this time! She picked her own noisemakers and had a charming idea about putting personalized tokens or charms inside!