Nothing Says Happy Birthday Like a Perky Potholder

A new pattern for a new year. Happy birthday Pat!

I bought another old metal loom off of ebay and it came with a few bags of "vintage" loops. The price tag on the bags was $.26 cents. As charming as that may be, sometimes old loops make crummy looking potholders.


A couple others for the Pseudo Gourmet bonus potholder offer, while supplies last.

For Bargain Hunters

We're selling last season's custom-designed commemorative bicycle trail T-shirts on ebay -- get 'em while they last! The back says "Bike Me" and "Dundee Township, Fox River Trail, Kane County, IL" while the front sports the Dundee Township Visitor's Center logo. They were designed by designer/photographer/writer Ryan Klos out of the goodness of his heart. We also have 2 orange and 6 gold in large; 2 safety green (pictured), 2 gold and 2 khaki in XXL and a few more mediums in safety green than are listed. As always, operators are not standing by, but you'll get a reasonably speedy reply if you post a question in the comments or send me an email. Bid with confidence, people!

This year's shirts are lovely as well.


The new theme is "Follow the Fox," since it's the Fox River bike trail and it also runs alongside the Fox River. The design was done by local artist Tom Baldoni. He also donated his talent, so thanks Tom!

Like Hotcakes!

I put an ad of sorts in our employee newsletter so as to built upon the Pseudo Gourmet's cult-like following that is fast developing. Do NOT get left behind! Here are two happy customers, Rose and Joe. Joe is using his (FREE!) promotional Perky Potholders to hold his books, because he said, and I quote, "these books are hot!" (Not to imply he stole them, because he didn't.)



Yes, it's official: for a limited time, you get a FREE Perky Potholder with your cookbook order. Or, if you prefer, an official Tupperware orange peeler.


In other news, I started season 1 of Ugly Betty (like it), finished season 1 of Carnivale (awesome) and made some bread (delish). We also watched a couple of movies. Here are my reviews:

W
Eh. It was a little long, but held my interest. I'm not a fan of W., but there are aspects of the film that do humanize him. However, I'm still disgusted that he was ever president or thought he was qualified for the job. The movie pretty much magnifies those reasons with semi substantiated facts that we've all heard about by now. Though I wonder if Colin Powell really did drop the F-bomb in real life. I'd like to think he did.

The Tale of Despereaux
WTF?
I'm not sure how creators can say this was based on the Newbery award-winning book, because it wasn't even close. The movie had its moments visually, but the story, if you can call it that, was a lame-ass disjointed, chaotic mess. In short, I think the animation team was on acid.

Much more entertaining was the annual hysterical society bus tour, which, despite the rain, highlighted Dundee's ancestors who went off to fight in the civil war. Basically, we rode around town in a school bus while one member narrated the tour. Along the way we picked up characters dressed in historical garb who recounted their lives during those trying times. I suppose some day I might consider riding in a bouncy yellow school bus charming, but thus far, not so much. I never liked it as a kid, and I like it even less now, especially since they added the 6-foot-high seat backs. Better is the society's cemetery tour, which entails wandering through the old cemeteries in town and "meeting" various residents of the cemetery (in costume) who are buried there. It's fun and not as creepy as it sounds.

Also, I went kayaking.


This maiden voyage of 2009 did not last long, as soon it began to rain. Lenore came and got me about a 1/2-hour into my paddle, and then the sun came out just as we were pulling back into the driveway. D'oh! Happily, we got in a nice bike ride instead.

P.S.

Springy!



I call this Still Life #47: Buttload of Loops.


Said Loops with Hoops.

Exciting Potholder Developments

First, here is my high school friend Dara and her handsome son, Trent, modeling black and red attire to complement their new Dundee Cardunal* potholder. I liked it so much, I made one for myself.



Black and red were our school colors, so Dara got this bonus bit of fiber art with her cookbook. I'm thinking maybe a Perky Potholder should accompany every cookbook order (Addi's idea really) while supplies last...void where prohibited. Especially since I just ordered a buttload of new potholder loops with some Easter egg money.

*Car-Dun-Al = Carpentersville, Dundee, Algonquin...I think I was in college before I realized how the rest of the world spelled cardinal. Of course, I also thought Hawaii and Alaska were both off the coast of Florida, since that's where they were always depicted on the big classroom maps. It's an honest mistake!

The other exciting development is this new breed of hybrid potholder, which is woven from one loooong piece of flat wool-blend yarn-like stuff on one of my vintage metal looms. The only drawback is, like hybrid cars, these are expensive to make. I can only get 1.5 potholders out of one ball-o-stuff. So there's some careful splicing required and, well, like I said, the materials cost is a bitch. We've got R&D working on it though. In the meantime, Hoops will continue to ruin any attempts I make at documentation by wandering through my photos at inopportune moments.



That's a little better. Lenore gave me FOUR new skeins in my Easter basket. Sweet!


And then, I made this one. Plus three others that I haven't photographed yet. Film at 11.

Random Easter Activity

We celebrated good Friday with style by going out to Rosie O'Hare's for a fish fry with my neighbors Tim and Lucy. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera to document the outing, but I'm pleased to report the meal was most excellent. Rosie's, which has been slowly transitioning from a biker bar to something a bit more upscale, just recently started serving real (as opposed to bar) food. It's a short distance down the street and around the corner, right on the river, so we had a nice window view of the raging Fox while we ate what I hope didn't come out of those waters. Our waitress was very patient as we debated the various potato options (too many choices!). We'll definitely go there again, especially when the weather is nice and we can eat outside with all the spiders and confused Harley riders.

Here's Tim flanked by his iPod speakers. We're going to crank them UP (to 11) as retaliation if Rosie's annual outdoor party gets out of hand like it did last year. Opera anyone?



And this is their new cat, Tora! She's very sweet and appreciated the ping pong ball Hoops sent over by way of welcome.



In other epicurean activity, I made a veritable United Nations of bread in the form of a lovely Latvian sourdough rye, which was shipped off to Baltimore for a certain someone's birthday, and two loaves of Irish soda bread (recipe found in the Pseudo Gourmet, do you have a copy?). One of the soda bread loaves (is it still a loaf if it's round?) provided a bonus face for the face blog. Sweet!





We also put some Peeps to good use.



This is apple bread pudding ordered special from the Measuring Cup for dessert on Sunday. We walked over to Walgreens for jelly beans, but they were totally sold out, so we had to settle for peanut M&Ms and a consolation Starbucks coffee (not pictured).

Here are our Easter eggs! Lenore said she got gypped, because while she was getting fancy and carefully creating two- and three-color eggs, I was in hyper-drive mode and had most of the eggs colored before she could blink. Oops. Luckily there were backup eggs.

Republican Sweep!

Unfortunately, I ran as a democrat. D'oh!

Turnout in dem precincts was a dismal 14%. I think next time I'll run as a Klingon, I'd have a better chance. What am I saying though? Running for office is almost as fun as banging one's head against a dead tree. Only it's more expensive.

I probably won't miss the meetings. Right now I'm just disappointed and kind of mad that 18 years of public service and fighting for the environment was so unceremoniously supplanted by party politics. However, the woman who replaces me is also an environmentalist and an educator, so I think she'll be a great addition to the board and continue to support Open Space.

And of course, now I have more time to make potholders, so there's that.

Speaking of which, behold the potholder collage created by a fellow Rockford College alum and master of the Addiverse. (Click on the collage to see the lifelike detail!)



I made her a Rockford College (purple and yellow) potholder to go with her newly acquired copy of the Pseudo Gourmet, and it appears it's been a life-changing experience. Not that one would expect anything different. Potholder #2 (also pictured) is for her (undoubtedly very patient) partner, known as "the wife," who, I might add, warmed the bench with me from time to time during our freshmen season on the college volleyball team. Boy did that suck. (The benchwarming, not the company.) We both went from starters in high school to scrubs (though she saw more game time than I ever did), so that was a rather rude awakening. As the shortest, youngest and spaciest member of the team, I always seemed to end up with the effing clipboard, which meant I was supposed to "keep stats" during the game. Yeah, whatever. I gotcher stats right here. Let's just say that record keeping took a serious dive in accuracy during the '82 season. I did some of my best doodling though. Masterful even. But I digress. Thanks for the stellar potholder documentation, Addi! I'm thinking future cookbook orders might all include a bonus potholder...while supplies last...void where prohibited...some restrictions may apply...objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

In other PP news, I have exciting developments to report! Stay tuned for the new Perky Potholder hybrid! Also more faces for the face blog. Who's got time for politics?!

Put on a Happy Face

Lenore was out doing her part for my campaign today. She moved a sign over near a polling place, and then tied on this addition to make sure people noticed it. We both like the second one because the balloon seems like it's having such a good time.