S received her first rabbit ever last March. She has been waiting for a rabbit since she was 8. And the day finally arrived. S named him Cumulo Nimbus. I voted for Fuzzy Buns, but she didn’t go along with it.

He is a black buck about 11m old. This is a new big adventure that I am taking on with her. An Angora needs to be groomed at least every week. And it’s not that easy to do a thorough job, which is needed to prevent mats. The up side is that all the constant handling makes him very docile and a dear, dear friend. Just what every young girl desires, a dependent animal to coddle and cherish.

I’ve wanted a wheel forever and ever it seems. Back in 2001, I rented a wheel and took a class. I couldn’t really afford a wheel at the time with a new baby and my husband and I still in college. So I purchased a drop spindle and some fiber. I never could get the spindle working. And every time I started to consider digging it out and giving it another whorl, another move shortly followed and it was lost deeper in boxes, or another baby was born. I finally dug out the spindle last year and spun with it for a little over a year. And I’m still spinning on it today.

Husband gifted me this wheel. I went with a very small low range wheel. The Kromski Prelude.

Here is how it looked when it arrived.

It was somewhat unnerving trying to figure out the finish with absolutely no previous experience. But it turned out lovely.

Haven’t been around in a while. Here’s a picture of my latest project. Rav notes here.

I lost all my starts when it froze one night. I’m so bummed about it. The weather has been really nice since February. So I moved some starts outside to a cold frame. One night it froze and snowed and only one night. It’s really upsetting to lose months of work in one night.

I’ve been making this often. Because it’s so easy and so yummy. I like being able to just throw in a few extra vegetables that look good at the store without much thought. And whenever the eggplant looks nice (which doesn’t happen very often here), I like add it in.

4 cans diced tomatoes                             2 green bell peppers

2 cans tomato sauce                                 4 Tbl. brown sugar

2 cans tomato paste                                  garlic

2 medium onions                                       4 tsp. basil

12 ounces mushrooms                            4 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. salt                                                       1 tsp. black pepper

place everything in the crockpot on low for a full day; or high for a half day.  Add meat before serving if desired.

I originally found this recipe from Finding Joy in my Kitchen.

And my french bread recipe is here. I follow the recipe and don’t braid it, if I’ll be making it into garlic bread.

Rosemary Olive Oil

rinse and dry the rosemary

heat 1 cup olive oil to 1 cup rosemary
put in the food processor for 10 sec
leave in the fridge for 2 days
strain the olive oil

This is a picture of the original colored olive oil next to the Rosemary Olive Oil.

Stir dry ingredients.
Stir in wet ingredients.
Stir in berries.
Pour into greased 9X9 pan. Cook for 40m at 350.
Serve warm.

Here is a link to my ravelry page.

A lot of getting ready for Christmas is going on here. We are making all our own gifts this year. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post about it due to lurking family members.