So, I was taking Minnie for her walk today. (She had to wear her little coat, it was so cold. I wore two pairs of trousers, two shirts, a jacket, two pairs of mittens, a hat and a scarf. I'm aware that it will actually get colder soon. Grumble.) As we were rounding the last corner towards home, I noticed a sign for an estate sale. I never would have seen it if it weren't for Minnie -- she's finally starting to earn her keep! I dropped her off back at home and headed out again, this time with my checkbook.

At first, the sale just made me sad (I haven't been to many like this, where you just wander through the person's house). The bathroom was the first room I walked into, and I felt washed over with the fact that the woman who had lived there was no longer around. Half-used shampoo, recently opened bottles of lotion. It's just so strange.

But then I got down to the basement, where all the 'junk' was, and I quickly got over that! There was a box of Christmas ornaments, in which I found these little birdies. Alicia makes the cutest little things with these kinds of birds, of course -- I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with them yet, but they were only 25 cents a go! You can't go wrong with that!

Then I stumbled upon two boxes with the woman's crafty odds and ends. The above is a pillowcase-in-the-making -- two actually. It's a tube of fabric, two pillowcases long, with the embroidery pattern at both ends. This end is finished, and the other is barely started. Does anybody know how these are meant to be finished at the end? You can see how little fabric there is on the other side of the lacy border -- do you face it with something else?

Hoops of various shapes and sizes! You can never have too many hoops. There was also this unopened embroidery kit: a pretty spring tree and country scene in pastels, floss included. Underneath is a vintage advent calendar. There are two actually, and I got both, because they're so sweet.

An unfinished napkins-and-tablecloth project. It's difficult to leave any hand-stitched items behind, because somebody has put so much time into them. I also found (but didn't photograph) a set of dishtowels printed with a kitschy design (for embroidering), still in the (very old) package with the hand written receipt! They're linen and everything, so I might have to make them and use them.

This is one of my favourite finds! There was a tissue box with sewings odds and ends in it, and this tin was inside, turned face down. I picked it up and turned it over and though, 'Heyyyy, I know that lady!' Just in case you can't read the script on the side, it says A Souvenir of the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II, 1953. Made in England. In general, I don't really care about the royal family, but I love this. But it gets better!

Inside was this Sunbonnet Sue needle book (she had loads of these little felt character kits in her boxes) and a lovely card with a couple of buttons. Nothing was marked with a price, besides the little birds and the three-dollar lidded basket (which I didn't get a good photograph of, but it's what the tin is sitting on above). I was trying to keep a tally on what I would offer for various items, but how can you know? The unopened embroidery kit was marked as having been $7.99 new, but should I offer a dollar? How do you judge the value of a hand embroidered pillowcase? In the end, I told the man (an independent estate sale guy) that the basket was marked $3 and the price of the birds. He rummaged through my other finds and said, 'How about $6.50 for the lot?' Erm -- okay!

So I left feeling very happy indeed. These things are so full of life, and I get to cherish them now that their original owner is gone -- I can't help feeling good about that!

Minnie got a new bed (a $5 cover from the Land's End Outlet -- a monogrammed reject -- filled with layers and layers of extra lofty batting), so Booty got a basket. He likes it.

Minnie, by the way, is at the dog doctor, being spayed (it's a shame about dog overpopulation, 'cause she could've had some cute puppies!). The vet's office has a resident cat, and when we walked in this morning, the cat was sitting by an overturned cup and a puddle at the bottom of the water cooler. A staff member came out a moment later, with a rag to mop up the water, and the little cat started meowing. 'I know!' the girl said to the cat, 'Then why did you tip it over?' And she proceeded to fill another cup from the water cooler and set it on the floor for the cat. So sweet.

Say, how's this for great service:

What? You didn't ask for your boxes to be smashed up? Well, it's complimentary -- not to worry!

Urg. Granted, they only took two or three weeks over the promised six weeks to get here. And I didn't have to pay any extra taxes once they arrived. But that's a pretty shameful state -- there were three or four boxes that had split open or torn at the corners; about half the boxes were quite damaged in some way.

But! I have yet to find any damage to my pretty, pretty things (Shipping Comany: 0, My Careful Packing: 1). Loads of lead type has fallen out of the trays (it's literally 'out of sorts'), but a few hours spent reorganizing that isn't so bad when I was expecting broken bowls and shattered candle holders. I haven't gone through everything yet, but it's better than I thought it would be.

So, all my lovely things are with me again, and what's more -- they seem new and exciting! Hooray!

Still doing the odd bit of crafting over here. I don't yet have the ideal set up for sewing projects, so I've been playing around with other things. I was so inspired by Blair's leaf garland that I had to make my own:

Made from wool and cotton velvet I had on hand and a few wool flannels I bought specifically for the project (I bought loads extra, and I think I see a purse in their future). I tend to over engineer these things, so it's almost too coordinated, but I really like it. Never mind that I won't be moving until 18 December (oops, did I just say that?), when all the real leaves will be should be covered by snow; it just looks so homey to me.

I've also been planning to cover some magazine files for a while and have finally (mostly) got around to it:

I bought these file folders a while ago, from Paper Source (yum). They don't do matching magazine files, and the coordinating ones are a bit too rich for me ($16), so I decided to buy the matching paper and make my own. A few cheapo wooden files from Ikea ($2.50 each), some rubber cement, and tada! I've still got one more to cover and will have leftover paper, so I might have to find other things to make match-y. Where'd that dog go?

I really like the careful preciseness of working with paper, so I found covering these to be a very satisfying project indeed. If you want to try this yourself (and you should!), make sure you trace the shape of the curved side onto your paper before applying the rubber cement. That way you can make sure you're getting the glue right to the edge, which is important. Put rubber cement on both surfaces for the best bond, and work slowly, one side at a time. Trim the paper around the curve with an X-acto knife after it's glued on, and it'll fit perfectly. And it looks so good!

I've been talking about making gingerbread for. . . almost a year now, if not longer. Maybe since my birthday last year, since that's when I got Nigella's Feast, which includes her recipe for chocolate gingerbread. There's just something about a dense, gingery cake which is so appealing to me. So finally, I got my molasses/treacle and ginger together and gave it a go.

I didn't make Nigella's chocolate version this time, because I wanted to see what plain ginger-bread would taste like. So it's missing that deep, dark loveliness of hers, but I'm still pleased with it. I baked it in a Fire King pan I got the other week for, like, two dollars. The board came from Sainsbury's (I brought it back with me in my suitcase -- I really like it!).

I'll have to spend more time perfecting the recipe. I'd like more than the 4.5 teaspoons of ginger I used -- maybe candied ginger would be a good addition. But it's pretty tasty, and goes very well with tea. The tea in that photo, by the way, is displaying what I would consider to be inbred-royalty levels of weakness. My milk hand must have slipped.

So, I've been playing around with design ideas -- ideas for the book of patterns I'd like to do. I learned many things from making The Crafter's Companion, and one of the big lessons was to think long and hard before deciding to illustrate the instructions. Using photography has its own problems, but at least they're different problems!

I learn and plan by doing, so I've made a little mini tutorial PDF for one of the simplest projects I've ever come up with: the mouse mat cover. It's SO simple that I don't think it really justifies a step-by-step pattern, but if it inspires people, it's worth it! There's no sewing involved, so it's perfect for those non-sewing fabric hoarders out there (I know you exist!). I think it works best with large-scale prints (like my Kaffe Fassett cover), but don't let me tell you what to do!

Download the PDF by right-clicking here and saving it to your computer.

Thank you to everybody who left a comment about Jamal. It's always sad to lose a friend, and that's what Jamal was. I didn't mean to go so long without updating, but I've got two big things going on at the moment, and I've been worried about saying anything.

The first thing has to do with the image above. I'm going to keep quiet for now, but feel free to speculate wildly (or not so wildly -- I don't think you'll have to try too hard). But that's a nice door, eh? Look at the little glass doorknob.

I've been hesitant about the second thing because I didn't want people to think I was 'replacing' Jamal. The truth of it is that I was always planning on adopting a dog once I moved, and along came Minnie:

While I was out last Saturday, my parents went to the dog adoption day at the local pet store. My dad found a couple of dogs he wanted to adopt (he really wants another dog; my mom's not quite sold on the idea), so they brought me back with them. Minnie's 'brief' said something to the effect of her being undesirable because she's a dark dog (shelters are always overloaded with lab mixes here) and an adolescent (most people want puppy-puppies). Of course, I happened to be looking for a young adult black lab cross, so she fit my bill perfectly. She's so sweet that the not-quite-perfect timing didn't really seem to matter. She's the dog for me.

She's half black lab, half German Pointer, and she's actually brown with black points and one white spot on her chest. Somebody else named her Minnie, which I wasn't sold on at first, but she answers to it, so I would've felt mean changing it. She's less Minnie Mouse, more Minnie the Moocher. At only nine months old, she's surprisingly well behaved and mellow, but it's still strange to have a puppy around again. The biting and jumping and apparent lack of understanding when it comes to the English language.

She's got a tough act to follow, always being compared to Jamal. He understood nearly everything you said to him; when he wanted something, you'd just list off the options, and he'd tell you when you got to the correct one. Minnie just stares at you. Do other people not expect their dogs to comprehend human language? Do they not speak to them conversationally? It's weird.

She's much less vocal than Jamal, but she's got a good, deep bark for her size. It must be the Pointer in her, but when she barks at passers by (which I'm encouraging, as long as she stops when reassured -- I want her to feel protective of our territory), the first sound out of her is a long, 'Barr-oooo!'

It's been fun discovering what makes her Minnie (and therefore what was unique to Jamal and not just a general dog trait). She'll eat a grape (Jamal just played with them), but not a pretzel. She needs to chew, and she loves those Nylabone type things. She steals socks, but isn't interested in playing keep away (which was Jamal's favourite game); she actually drops things when you ask. She really wants to sleep in the bed with me, but when I say, 'No, go lie down on your blanket' (which is actually a nice fluffy pile of blankets -- I'm not mean), she does so. Strange and different, but good.

I took this picture two days ago (excuse the blurriness, please). Jamal hadn't been feeling well, so I spent most of the day lying on the floor with him, while I read a submission on my laptop. That evening, we took him to the vet to see what was wrong, and when we left, Jamal was no longer with us. Spend more time on the floor with your dog. Because you never know.

The vet said he had multiple tumours. A large one in his belly, and many smaller ones in places like his lungs. Who knows how long they'd been there. He seemed fine until Sunday; maybe a little bit slower and quick to tire, but at nearly twelve, that's to be expected for a dog his size. What a trooper.

Poor old dog. We got him when I was thirteen; he was the dog I'd been asking for for years. We saw his litter at the humane society -- they were strays, and the people working there had guessed he was a malamute/golden retriever cross, but I'm pretty sure they didn't predict he'd grow to be 110lbs. He was a naughty puppy, but smart, and he eventually became a very good dog, and still smart.

It's been another one of Those Weeks. Good things, bad things; happy times, sad times; just a lot going on. I'm glad to be busy so I don't have to dwell on losing Jamal, but I wish everything would straighten itself out, all the phone calls could make themselves, and the forms could come pre-signed. But eventually things will settle down, and it will have all been worth it.

This is what I see when I look to my left:

Can it get any cuter than a cat curled up on a cushion on top of a (fake) wood-burning stove? I think not.

Lest you think he's always a peaceful little angel, here's what he looked like a few moments before. That's not annoyance in his eyes, just naughtiness. Ten minutes ago, he was tearing through the house, trying to get me to play with him. The offer of a soft cushion on a warm surface changed his tune.

(The cushion, by the way, was $5 at that Pier 1 outlet. !)

I realized just a little while ago that I haven't posted about craft in an awful long time. Of course, this is because I haven't been doing much crafting with all the moving going on, but I have been working on this:

A stripy crochet blanket -- everybody's making them, you know. I'm making mine with Debbie Bliss Merino DK and Cashmerino DK (some colours are available in one, some in the other), and I'd say it's slow going, but it's just me being slow, really. I get bored after a couple of rows. I'm carrying the project around in one of the little baskets I got from the Pier 1 outlet shop near us -- only $2.50!

I know I said I'd be back with photos of the bread and soup. The soup turned out very well indeed, but the bread was disappointing. It was dark by dinner time, and I'm reluctant to post the artificially-lit photo I took; I'll try again when I reheat the leftovers tomorrow for lunch. For now, here's a photo of the soup in progress!

I've been pleasantly surprised so far by the number of things a person can do to keep occupied in Minnesota. I'm going to make soup this afternoon, so we ran to the co-op earlier today. The Wedge Co-op is in Uptown (Minneapolis); they have very good ginger biscuits:

I'm seriously going to start keeping a biscuit review/score card soon. Ginger biscuits are my favourite sort of biscuit to have with tea; the flavours are perfect together. I brought this 'Triple Ginger' biscuit home with me for serious testing, and it's received very high marks. I think the 'triple' in the name might be going too far (I've had much gingerier biscuits straight from a pack), but if you happen to be in Minneapolis and need something to accompany your tea, this'll do you.

My mom and I have managed to visit a couple of antique/thrift shops over the past two weekends, and I pity the fool who buys Corningware or Pyrex brand new. I've been able to find quite a few matching pieces already; they're so easy to clean up, even when they look really grubby, although the prices seem to imply that this is a little-known secret. Or people just don't bake casseroles these days.

The two pieces above are both Pyrex and my favourite finds. I love the little creamer with the blue/black design, and I found the teacup this morning for 80 cents (why don't keyboards have a cent key? I mean, I know why MINE doesn't -- it's a UK keyboard -- but why don't American ones?). You can't really tell from the picture above, but the teacup design is the same as my mom's bowl in the background (covered with clingfilm as my dough rises), only smaller and inverted. Neat.

Well, stay tuned for another post (possibly today!) with pictures of fresh-baked bread and homemade broccoli cheddar soup. If everything goes to plan.