There was a period of time when one could find in every discount retail store a kiosk with a motion activated device that would play clips of the CDs on offer from a certain easy-listening music/relaxation sounds genre label. We blame the regrettable '90s and George Winston in particular.
You would be walking down the aisle headed for the Rubbermaid bins, potting soil, or printer paper and all of a sudden you might hear waves rolling in and out of the ocean onto a beach, the rustling of aspen leaves in a gentle breeze, or frogs peeping in a pond at twilight. After realizing you were not crazy you would go way out of your way to avoid that aisle on all future trips, but if you forgot, as we usually did, and passed by it again you might be surprised by one of those aforementioned sounds or, perhaps one of the many, varied, haunting calls of a loon. Our memory is that that particular CD was titled Loon Magic.
Here at NDL studio we have created, with a little help and enabling, er, encouraging from a Canada-connected friend a little loon magic of our own.
To do so we revived a craft first seen in Canadian Living magazine two decades ago to make a new flock, or as some sources call it, a raft, of peach pit loons. Yes indeed, these little cuties are at their core humble, naked, peach pits.
Ta dah! Incredible, eh?
And, since the original instructions are lost somewhere in our archives of pages torn from magazines we have had a devil of a time finding any guidance for round two of peach pit loon making. So, to get this almost lost art on the Google radar (personified new technology meets old technology in this wording), in other words make it Googleable here is a visual of what is needed to turn a peach pit into a loon. And just to make sure a Google search can find it. Peach pit loon. Peachpit loon. Peachpitloon. (Google may appreciate this effort, but Spellcheck is having a fit.)
And why would one want to make peach pit loons? Well, can you think of even one reason why not?
Thank you to the relatives both American and Canadian for consuming a half bushel of peaches during Canadian American Friendship Days 2015.
Loons are pretty magical. We never fail to be enchanted when we hear them.
The 2015 Bachman's Holiday Ideas House closes today. Here are a few photos to show just how thoroughly the design team carried out the Make it Merry theme.
Have gnomes, will travel.
We wish for you much merriment in your household, and suggest you take some "merry" with you wherever you may go this holiday season.
But when put on babies the cuteness factor takes an exponential leap.
Of course we think this little model is absolutely adorable with or without a hat.
As a matter of fact, we do believe he is The Cutest Baby Ever.
Top Knot Baby Hat
Worsted weight yarn (½ skein for most sizes)
#6 or #7 double point needles, or needle to obtain gauge of
5.5 stitches/inch
Row marker
Wool needle
Cast
on 77 stitches
Knit
for 4 (newborn) to 5 (for bigger
sizes) inches, begin decreases as follows
K9,
K2tog (7 times), then
K8,
K2tog (7 times), then
K7,
K2tog (7 times) and so on until 7 stitches remain.
Knit
these 7 stitches around until needed length for tying top knot is reached.
Cut
yarn leaving tail of several inches, use tail to pull remaining stitches
together, weave in end of yarn.
Tie
knot.
For larger or smaller hats
increase or decrease the number of cast-on stitches in multiples of 7 (63, 70,
77, 84, etc.) Then when you get to the first decrease row add or subtract 1
stitch to the first number on line 3 for each 7 stitches.
63 stitches cast on starts decrease
with K7, K2tog (This is a tiny newborn size.)
70 stitches cast on starts
decrease with K8, K2tog
77 stitches cast on starts
decrease with K9, K2tog
84 stitches cast on starts
decrease with K10, K2tog
Due to a series of alternating fortunate and unfortunate events, it was discovered that NDL has been operating for the last two decades under a serious misconception.
It was a shock to learn that the height we thought we were had changed by minus two inches since 1995. We have always felt that our problem was being too short for our weight and had come to grips with that. Yes, when the inseam that matches the waist size of your off-the-rack pants is dragging a few inches on the ground you can pretend that cuffing is in style whether it is or not, and there is always the chunky sole to help out, but finding out that the extra pant length was due the loss of two inches of spine was a bit of a shock.
Just after the realization that that is why we can barely see over the steering wheel anymore without pulling up to our full dwarfish height, or reach the top kitchen shelf without standing on tiptoes and using a wooden spoon to fish down the object we need came the Most Horrible Thought of All - different height equals different BMI category! Egads! We had just managed to settle into the "normal" range. This terrible setback meant we would now need to deal with the same amount of bulk on an shorter skeleton.
After months of being in denial we finally looked to see just how bad it was. Bad! But then our rationalization defense kicked in and we posed the question -
"Do we need to use our new height for these calculations even if it is not at all our fault that we shrunk?".
We are nothing if not expert at finding the answer we want to hear. So, after sifting through many internet answers that didn't suit us we found the link we were looking for and a new hero.
To paraphrase our hero, Dr. Hirsch - It's not our fault we got shorter. The fat mass hasn't changed (although there may be a bit more of a spare tire effect on a shorter torso) and fat makes estrogen which helps prevent bone loss so maybe we won't get quite as short as we would if we were dangerously thin. He did refer to us as "the poor soul" so we know he feels our pain. He even said we should try to keep our fat. Whoo hoo!
Sadly, we also found in our internet search that Dr. Jules Hirsch died this summer. You can read about his life here. His colleagues said that he had a deep sympathy for patients who struggled with the lifelong effort of maintaining a healthy weight. Thank you Dr. Hirsch.
Gotta go re-hem some slacks and eat a celery stick now.
Specializing in random gardening, sporadic quilting, constant collecting, avid nature appreciation, back fence news, front porch sitting, neighborhood intrigues, and smalltown trend spotting.
