Zen, the confederate?

I just want to take a moment to say what a wonderful boyfriend I have. I mean really, how many men out there pay so much attention to a their woman's interests and put thought and effort into surprising their girl with a gift that pertains to her hobbies. Since the week before last he has been having me playing the guessing game about a gift that he had ordered me but of course he was lying about all the hints to throw me off. It was not until Wednesday when I went to go check the mail when I found out what I had gotten. A Kitchen Aid mixer! Yep, I was so stunned when the post office lady handed it over to me she kept telling me I didn't need to sign but I just stood there grinning at the box. I love it, I love it, I love it! This weekend I used it to make some parmesan mashed potatoes with it and some cookies. I made the chocolate crackle cookies from the Martha Stewart cookies book with a few variations. I used egg replacer for the eggs, Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder instead of Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder (What's the difference anyway?), and unsweetened chocolate instead of bittersweet chocolate which a lady at the supermarket said I could use instead. I don't know what they were supposed to taste like but I thought mine were pretty darn good. Paul said he wanted to pick the next cookie for me to bake. I can't wait to see what he picks. I hope it's a good recipe.

This past Friday I got home early at about 1:30 with my Sobe and I was ready to go. I finally got out my spinning kit, good out my how to book and turned on my favorite youtube instructional video on how to spin. I think I'm doing pretty good. I know it's rough but I have tons of roving left and a good bit of patience. I know this thick-thin yarn is what some people like but I can't wait until I get my drafting straight and start putting out that nice even thin yarn. This past week I also made a pencil cup made from a recycled phone book. You can see it in the picture of the Kitchen Aid mixer on the coffee table above as well as my sushi wallet pre-felting. I really need to toss it in the washer. I just need to do it quickly like pulling off a band aid. Soon.

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This past weekend was Civil War weekend at the park by my home. They have it every year and I've wanted to go but never got off my butt to check it out. This year I finally got myself together and walked out there in the cold, windy rain. It was well worth it though. It was quite entertaining though. Not the most accurate with the confederate soldiers outnumbering the union soldiers and the majority of both walking away unharmed but the uniforms and artillery was impressive. The booths were quite interesting with all the demonstrations of candle making, black smiths and knives. I got Paul a confederate hat which was unfortunately made in china but I still wanted to support the cause as well. What I did find quite creepy was one of the collections of dolls at one of the booths which I took a close up of. I know a lot of people like collecting these things but I just find them creepy.