Purple Kappa

Hixson's Floral Barn

Hixon's Floral Barn is located about a mile up the street from me. I drive or walk by it all the time. They often have a sign outside advertising all sorts of different exhibits, but for some reason I've never stopped inside. The giant freaky Raggedy Ann in the window was a bit of a deterrent

A friend of mine told me about the Easter Egg exhibit they have every year. I'd just been telling Ivy about look-inside Easter eggs and she was intrigued, so we decided to meet our friends there today. The place doesn't look very large from the outside, so I'd figured we'd be there for maybe 10 minutes but it was so close why not check it out.

What a surprise! The place is absolutely amazing. Not really a flower shop as I'd been under the impression--they do sell and deliver flowers, as well as teaching floral design, but there is so much more. The place stretches back, and there are all of these little rooms filled with treasures.

Antiques from Japan

A giant tanuki statue. He didn't have giant testicles though--that's where they hold their magic powers, and most of the pictures I've seen of tanuki statues in Japan are very well endowed.

A vintage bag dispenser with rather worn out bags to carry your potential purchases around the store

A 1950's window display from Halle's Brothers, a local defunct department store chain.

There was so much more--a case full of old china dolls and Madame Alexander dolls, vintage cards, advent calendars, Christmas ornaments, supplies for floral arrangements. I can't wait to check it out for the different holidays, can't believe it took me so long to visit the store.

Corned Beef Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a sort of savory Japanese pancake. It usually has grated yam, flour, egg, cabbage and water. You can add other things such as bacon, bean sprouts, green onion or shrimp. The yam is different from American yams, it's a starchy root vegetable called nagaimo in Japanese. The okonomiyaki is cooked on a griddle, then topped with any combination of finely shredded seaweed, bonito flakes, tonkatsu sauce (a sweet/salty brown sauce), mayonaise and pickled ginger. If you live near a Japanese grocery store, sometimes you can buy an Okonomiyaki set, which has packets of nagaimo powder, seaweed, bonito flakes and sometimes dried shrimp.

I've been mulling over the idea of a potato pancake with corned beef, and thought the addition of grated cabbage would make more like okonomiyaki. I used two grated potatoes, about a cup of cabbage, and a leftover chunk of corned beef--maybe half a pound. One egg, and a cup of flour, then enough water to make it sort of pancake consistency--maybe a cup? (my recipes are never precise). Put a thin layer of hot oil on the griddle, and pour a ladleful of batter. I just let it brown on one side and then flipped it, but checking a recipe online I should have put a lid on it and let it steam cook before flipping.

I ate it with Japanese mayonaise. It was pretty good, but I think it would have been better with only one potato. And I omitted all the other toppings, I think they might have been a good addition, especially the pickled ginger.

Now I'm hungry for more!

Failure

I made a good faith effort, really I did. Chestnut was put out on the adoption floor last Saturday and every day I would check the APL website and every day other puppies were getting adopted while he continued to sit all alone in his kennel. So after talking it over with Brian, I gathered up all the money I'd been tucking away for a big fabric shopping spree and maybe some new books and headed down with two very happy girls to pick him up.

Now that he's here I'm feeling a mixture of elation and just a little bit of oh-my-god-what-have-I-done. He continues to improve using his misshapen back leg. It's not really a club foot, it's not twisted or bent. He has an extra toe and the foot itself has an odd shape, but he walks on the pad and puts weight on it. He still tends to bunny hop with the back legs but it doesn't slow him down. He's been getting along well with foster dog Mork but I've been limiting their time together because I'm concerned the activity might be too much for Mork who's supposed to be resting while he recovers from heartworm.

So, we are failed foster parents. But not really, because I'd like to keep fostering other animals if needed. And I guess I'm not going to be having much time for sewing anyway while I'm getting this little guy properly trained 8-)

Porch Theatre

This is a doorway theatre I made quite a while ago for Miranda, after seeing a similar one at Magic Cabin. It's just strips of cloth, with wooden dowels at the very top edge and at the top and bottom of the window.

The sign says "Free puppet show" with an arrow pointing towards the porch. She wanted me to walk around the neighborhood with the sign, this was our compromise

Bad Habits

This is Mork. Chestnut the puppy went back to the APL last week and is now available for adoption (and it's taking every bit of willpower for me not to try and figure out a way for us to adopt him). But now we have Mork staying with us for a month. He's a 2 year old boxer with heartworm. He's almost completed his treatment and just needs to rest and take it easy for the next four weeks--something we aren't having any trouble providing for him. We probably should be discouraging him from getting on furniture, but he looks so comfortable

Sugar Bush

Sunday we went out to the Metroparks to learn about the history of maple sugar, something I've wanted to do for ages. Except no one was really interested in going on the actual tour around the Sugar Bush, so instead we just sort of explored everything on our own.

Metal buckets hanging on the trees to collect sap

A little shelter. If we'd gone of the tour we'd probably know what exactly it was used for. Possibly because the sap needs to boil for hours to make syrup?

Tasting maple syrup on a little pancacke