So I Married an Axe Murderer

Obviously, I didn't actually marry an axe-murderer, but we did catch this funny Mike Myers movie last night at the Regal Arbor cinema (a fun artsy theatre near our house). They've been doing a "retro rewind" series each Wednesday for a few weeks. Judging by the attendance last night and when we saw "Dr. No" about a month ago, it's not super-successful (but then again, how many people do they normally get at 7pm movies on Wednesday nights?)

My movie-watching-experience was enhanced primarily because there were other people there to laugh at all the jokes, including a few people (like me) who laughed *before* the jokes. I'd totally forgotten about Michael Richards cameo (he played Kramer, and his role in this movie is quite Kramer-esque).

They did trivia before the film and Matt won a free Chick-Fil-A breakfast sandwich for knowing that Charlie's dad (Mike Myers plays Charlie & his dad) didn't like KFC. Matt even answered the question with a quote from the film, done in character. Yes, this proves that my husband has an amazing memory for trivia! He gave it to me (thanks, dear) so maybe I'll head that way tomorrow morning. Mmmm... Chicken Biscuit...

In two weeks, we'll be back at the Arbor for "Better off Dead." If you're in the Austin area, hope to see you there!

Fantasy Smackdown 2008

I think I came up with the best Fantasy Football team name ever: "The Deadliest Catch."

I came up with it after Matt took "Mythbusters" (which is my favorite show). I'm actually rather pleased now that he did, so I could come up with something even better. The smackdown starts soon!

I'm looking forward to games later this year - I have to imagine that teams with names such names as "The Dundies" (that's Steve in the Elitist league) or "Green Eggs and Ham" (that's a colleague's husband in the work league - cute name but not very tough) won't be able to come close to "The Deadliest Catch."

(though, bonus points go to Steve for coming up with the cool Office-related name of the year)

Advice to Quilt Shops

I've had a few days off from work and have spent them catching up on sleep, doing a little house-cleaning (a very little!) and finishing some quilt projects. Finishing one of those projects required me to buy some fabric (I needed some purple fabric for binding -- and purple is a color I just don't have much of in my stash!). So, yesterday, I visited a local quilt shop, and my experience there reminded me that I've intended to write up some advice to quilt shops.

I worked at a quilt shop one summer during college (ran the shop a few days each week including quite a bit of time when I was there solo), have visited tons of shops (even in other countries!), been to International Quilt Market in Houston twice, and my mom is a professional quilter. When I think about my favorite shops as well as the shopping disasters, here are a few other things I'd suggest:

• Remember that a customer's appearance or age and knowledge or likelihood to buy a lot are independent factors. Just because I'm young does not mean I'm clueless.
  
• Remember that not everybody likes the same fabrics you do. You may totally love batiks, but it's nice if you can offer a little something else for those days when I want variety. If you're in a larger city and want to specialize in one type of fabric, that's fine -- but be prepared to send me to another shop to get what I want (accurate directions help!)
  
• It's nice when you have a chair or sofa where the non-quilters can sit, but it's also OK for them to browse if they prefer. Basically, have a chair available, but don't go up to my husband and joke with him that he needs to use it. He actually is helping me pick out fabrics and I may buy more because he's with me!
  
• It's great when you label display quilts with a pattern or book. And, this may just be me, but I also think it's fun to see a quilt done in a different color-way than the pattern or book (though if you kit it up really differently, give me a color photo so I can remember how you did it).
  
• Treat people kindly. If I hear you gossiping about the customer who just left (for her hairstyle, fabric choices, or relationships), I'll presume you're going to gossip about me, too -- and this may lead me to not coming back.
  
• Give yourself enough space for cutting fabric. Even if your shop is tiny, remember that 99% of all you sell crosses over that counter, so it's probably worth the investment in another 9 square feet for a decent cutting surface. This space can also double as a place for me to set out my bolts to decide what to buy. If your shop is especially large, multiple cutting stations are great -- so customers don't have to wait as long (as I did yesterday... waiting about 15 minutes to get a clerk to come cut my fabrics!).
  
• Not everybody loves your shop pet (especially if it's a cat or anything else that's more prone to causing allergies than a goldfish).
  
• I probably don't want to sign up for your frequent buyer program, give me your email address, nor get your mailing list. Let me say no, then don't hassle me about it. (this is especially true when I'm out of town).
• List your hours and good directions (for both people who know your town and tourists) on your website. (That presumes you have a website. You don't need to be able to sell me fabric on your website, but a static site with hours/directions/class schedule/basic info is cheaper to maintain anyhow.)
• Be able to recommend a good machine-quilter - one with experience and with good equipment (i.e. not just a domestic machine on a rail system). The best machine quilter, of course, is none other than my mom. :) (www.goldenbellsquilting.com)
  

Applique Design

My mom and I shopped for these fabrics while in Illinois on the Cornerstone trip. She apparently has a kit to make something out of the same fabric line. I grabbed just a few fat quarters and freehanded this design (while sitting at a show at Cornerstone). I'm not totally in love with it - debating if it needs anything else to feel complete. It's about 9" square, and I figure we'll make it into a pillow or something to match mom's finished quilt. Right now, I call it "fireworks flowers" because the abstract flowers look a bit like fireworks to me.


The technique I used is needle-turn applique, using basting lines to mark where to turn the fabric (rather than templates -- I'm really not a template kind of person!) I've been trying to get better on sharp points (the above design has lots of them) - I can definitely tell which of the petals I stitched first and which came last. :) I think my next project needs to feature something with inside points (like a daisy, perhaps) because those have always been really hard for me to needle-turn correctly.

Adventures with masa

Twice this week, I have tried new recipes made with masa. I realized that most of my extended family has probably never heard of it (funny that the midwestern US is pretty much covered in corn fields, but masa, a corn derivative, is basically unknown there).

Masa is primarly used to make corn tortillas. Imagine a raw tortilla chip that's been ground up, and then had a little water added and you've basically got masa.

My first adventure with masa this week was to make sopes. Imagine little boats or bowls made from ground up corn and you've basically got a sope. We tried them for the first time last week at Frontera Grill in Chicago. I then managed to make them at home earlier this week. Mine weren't quite as good as those at Frontera (then again, how could they be... our house isn't exactly known as one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country), but they turned out pretty well.

Last night, I tried another new masa-based receipe: huaraches - oval shaped masa cakes. These were definitely more complicated than the sopes, and I'm not sure they turned out as they were supposed to, but they tasted OK. Ours had queso cojita (which is a bit like feta cheese), salsa, and a tiny bit of chorizo (which is a type of loosely ground pork sausage) on top.

We took a great class last fall about how to make tamales. I see that they're offering it again this fall at Central Market. If you're in the Austin area, I'd highly recommend taking it. Their classes are a lot of fun and this particular course is really practical and yields you a bunch of tamales to take home. Tamales are basically a wad of masa wrapped around some filling (beef, pork, or even dessert ingredients like chocolate). The little masa package is then wrapped with a corn husk or banana leaf, and steamed. The result is a moist & flavorful package that you get to unwrap. They're a ton of work, though, so traditionally tamales are made for special events, or as a special event (gather everybody together to do the work).

In Chicago

This blog post comes to you from a coffee shop at a church in the Chicago suburbs. I'm here for a conference - today was a women's leadership event, and the next two days are a general leadership event (which will be viewed by tens of thousands of people world-wide).

I had a nice time today at the Willow Creek Association's Gifted to Lead Conference. This morning, I sat around a table with 2 women from South Africa, a woman from the Chicago area who coordinates international events, two women from Arizona, and a woman from Los Angeles. I ate lunch with a woman from Denmark, then settled in after lunch with a table of other 30-something women (oh, how I wish this conference had been a few months ago so I could have still sat with the 20's!) who were from all over the country. It was nice to sit with these women, from different backgrounds as well as different places, and be inspired together about leadership. It was a nice mix -- not too girly (in fact, not very girly at all - thank you for that!) with times to listen, times for quiet reflection, and times to talk and laugh with others. I found the courage to be vulnerable about a few things, but mostly listened and tried to absorb it all. Like any good event, this one will be fueling my brain for months to come.

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to more of the same -- but on a larger scale. Rather than sitting around tables, we'll be in a large auditorium here (live -- the feed of the event is them simulcast to locations around the country, and tape-delayed to various international sites). But, I know it'll be a simliar mix of people from diverse backgrounds coming together with a common interest -- how the local church is the hope of the world and it's future rests in the hands of leaders. I'm looking forward to a great time at this event, the Leadership Summit.

Tonight, I'm looking forward to picking Matt up from the train (he's been to the Cubs game downtown), and going for dinner together. Maybe we'll get some cheesy italian beef (or something fancier - I'm not picky). Tomorrow & Friday after the seminars conclude, we're considering taking the train into downtown to eat dinner (Frontera Grill, please have space for us!!!) and maybe going to the Chicago Institute of Art.