Random Roundup

Here is a random collection of images that could warrant their own post, but I'm too lazy to do something that requires that much thought.

I hate to brag, and I hate to photograph food, but I'm going to do both right now.  Saturdays are "homemade pizza/family movie night" around here.  I'm pretty sure we could go toe-to-toe with any of the pizza joints in all of New England and come out the winner.  We're talking homemade dough, homemade sauce, custom made, gourmet pizza.  It's pretty darn good.  Come over some Saturday, and you can see for yourself.
If only the movie selections were as reliably good as the pizza.

Ken found a million board feet of lumber on craigslist this weekend going for a song.  Even better, the man selling it said it was reclaimed American Chestnut.  Even even better, the man let Ken talk him down $100 from his asking price because was willing to take the whole lot.  The stuff is gorgeous.  It's got character, there's tons of it, and it's from a nearly extinct tree.


Only it's not.


Our good friend Andy, who is possibly geekiest/nerdiest person we know, identified it as oak, not chestnut.  But it's still gorgeous, and it'll still make a cradle for the newest baby.  Which Ken only has 3.5 months to complete, so he'd better get crackin'.

Ken's nearly done with the doll beds for our nieces.  Which he's been working on for 3.5 months.  This is why I'm nervous about the aforementioned cradle for the baby.  If he takes this much time on doll beds, it's entirely possible that the newest Donaldson will be 5 by the time his/her(who are we kidding, it's a he) cradle is completed.
He'd better get crackin on those doll beds, too.  And not just because they were meant to be Christmas presents- but also because Lotus' dolls have started squatting.   Once you get doll squatters, it's almost impossible to get them out.

While Ken's been busy being a perfectionist over the doll beds, I slapped together some bedding for them.  And then Lotus got all pouty, so I made a quilt for her dolls, too.  I'm in the middle of writing a whole tutorial on the process, the working title of which is "how to make something that looks like a patchwork quilt for those of us who have never quilted in our entire lives even though our mothers make extraordinary quilts and you really hope they don't read the post about the process because they will wail and gnash their teeth in horror".  You'll be able to find it at The Homemade Year.  Go check out the blog- it's run by a friend of mine and her friend, and the concept behind it is to have an entire year where all the gifts you give are homemade.  There's some great recipes/crafts already up, and the ladies have only been at it since the first of the year!


Mom, don't go read my post about the quilting.  I'm not kidding.


And that's it right now.  We took down the Christmas decorations today, which always makes me wonder where I stored my everyday decorations, because the house looks like a prison when it's back to normal.


A prison or an asylum, it's hard to tell.