On our walk, we met some turkeys. Here is one of them. I call him Turkey. These not-so-little turkeys are often wandering around our neighborhood.

They are sort of the unofficial mascot for this area, as you can see from this t-shirt for sale at Rewind, a local vintage shop.

That’s all.

This is an old friend from high school that I haven’t seen since about junior year of college. We’ve kept in touch through Facebook since then, so I do have an idea of what she might enjoy:

I chose a package of instant chai spiced tea from TeaSource, a local store, and a couple cute items from Tomodachi, a novelty and gift shop at a nearby mall with lots of Hello Kitty-type cute imports.

This is a little lunchbox, with a parade of animals. I love the text: “Clapping march picnic. Have you prepared to go on a picnic? It’s fine! Let’s go out.”

This is called a “food punching template” apparently. The text here reads, “You can make a fun lunch like the one shown in photograph just by using this kit.” My friend has three young kids who are sometimes picky eaters, so I thought they might enjoying creating fun shapes in their food with these little cutters.

The back of this package has instructions for using the cutters:

It reads: “Please push the small parts with toothpick carefully. It is completion if it decorates it with the ham and the cheese. etc.” Heehee!

Now I just have to find a box to fit this in and take it to the post office.

Have you ever done a swap box exchange? This is my first time, but I hope it won’t be the last.

We went out for Chinese food tonight for Kyle’s birthday and this was the fortune I got.

I’m ready for you, enemies!

[Ten points to anyone who recognizes where "I fight with weapons" comes from].

I saw a braided beaded bracelet tutorial by Honestly WTF on Pinterest and immediately had a flashback to all the hours I used to spend braiding friendship bracelets with embroidery floss. I think the last DIY jewelry project I did was the embroidery floss friendship bracelets, so this seemed like a good starter project. I used the last of my Michael’s gift card from Christmas to buy the supplies (seed beads, cotton hemp cord, and buttons), and got to work.

It took me awhile to get the hang of holding the beads in place and braiding at the same time (another third hand could have been useful… or maybe I’m just really uncoordinated). It helped to tape down the end of the bracelet to the table (just like when I used to make friendship bracelets). The hemp cord I was using kept fraying at the ends, which made it really hard to thread the beads on. I finally used a bit of clear nail polish to seal the ends, which solved the problem.

I think I’ll use the green and blue hemp for the next couple bracelets. Maybe I can send a few in a care package I’m sending to my friend… (more on that in the next post).

At 7:45 am in Minneapolis this morning: air temperature is -11, feels like -32 with windchill

It took awhile to get dressed this morning: leggings, knee high socks plus wool socks, leg warmers, jeans over all, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve shirt, a wool sweater, boots, a scarf, hat, gloves, and a down coat with a hood.

It’s winter, even though everything is still brown and bare in Minneapolis.

I’m about halfway done with the rust orange cowl I’m working on for my co-worker. Orange is his favorite color.

Time to join the second yarn cake. I have the day off tomorrow, so hopefully by Tuesday I can bring it to work and see if it’s the correct size, stitch the ends together, and present it to D!

I made this scarf for a colleague who is retiring tomorrow, after nearly 40 years of service to our office.

I can’t even wrap my mind around how long she’s been with us! That’s longer than I’ve been alive. We’ll miss her greatly.

I’ve been teaching her how to knit these past several weeks, so I thought a knitted scarf would be a nice gift.

I used Jen Reilly’s Super-Fast, Ultra-Cozy pattern on Ravelry. I think I cast on 16 sts, to make it slightly wider, and used two skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn in Green Bay to make it extra long. I love this pattern – it’s easy and works up very quickly for last minute gifts, or when you’re in the mood for (near) instant gratification with your knitting.

A pretty new coffee mug to make the morning a little more exciting.

It’s the little things that keep me going!

By Guest Contributor Guante, cross-posted from Why is Guante So Angry?

This piece really isn’t about Michele Bachmann– as I say in the poem, she’s a convenient figurehead.  The problem here is much bigger, of course.  I’ll let the poem speak for itself, but definitely wanted to share some further reading material and ways to plug in:

MINNPOST: “Bullying gay and lesbian kids: How a school district became a suicide contagion area”

A Star Tribune piece about GSAs in the Anoka-Hennepin school district.

A Star Tribune piece about how the neutrality policy is being challenged.

Website for the Southern Poverty Law Center

This page at the MN Activist Project lists a few organizations in the Twin Cities area who do work around LGBTQ rights.  Check them out and get involved.

If anyone knows specific ways that people can plug in, please leave a comment.

I hope it’s as cute as this little girl. I’m about 18 million views late on this one, I know. Jorge and Alexa Narvaez are a father-daughter duo from California, and they recently shot to fame when their video covering the song Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros went viral. I actually first noticed them in that car commercial singing Feliz Navidad, because Alexa was so darn cute.  Their cover of Home is pretty awesome, and Jorge’s story is, too. Enjoy!