Candice DeWitt

I meant to post up weekly about my Yellow Bird Food Shed box but… oops. We ate more salads out of box 2, and if I’m being honest box 3 basically went… ignored. Today being Tuesday, I have yet to even dig in to box 4. We’ve been awful at eating at home because of life and stress. Though we’ve also been awful at eating out… honestly, most nights Declan and I more snack than eat real meals.

I finished a thing. A “Sunlight for Sad People” shawl out of some yarn I bought back in February that I meant to turn into a scarf to wear to the cold Columbus Crew spring games. I cast on for something almost immediately after buying it and then screwed it up and it became a whole mess, so I ripped it all out and started fresh. I like this one much better. I decided to add some black to the edge, which I think ends the shawl nicely. I also did increases on the wrong side, as well, to make the ends longer for tying, as I hate how short they can be on triangle shawls. I’d almost say it’s too warm now to wear it, but temps this week have been cool for June so who knows – might get to use it while I hang out on the porch with a drink after the kiddo goes to bed.

Things are quiet around here, otherwise. I’m feeling a bit… panicked about not having as many things done as I had hoped with not having class take up all my time and energy. I mean, yes, this is only June 11th. But there’s 76 days until I start up class again. Yes, I’m ridiculous and have a countdown. Yes, it is making me panic more. I feel like in the month or so that I’ve not been tied to my desk for homework I should have wayyyyy more done. I haven’t canned a single jar of jam yet, nor any macarons or any other delicious baked good. In my mind, I thought I’d get all of this domestic stuff done so I could go into the semester in August feeling like I made the most of my free time. Same goes for my sewing – I have a Wiksten tank lingering on the dress form, several different fabrics meant for dresses and skirts and tanks that I have yet to even cut into. And my knitting has been pretty ADD as I jump from socks to cardigan to shawl and then spend stupid amounts of time looking at patterns and projects that I’ll probably not get to. Also, books. I had a list of books I wanted to read this summer. Probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon, unless I magically get a kid-free evening to really sit and immerse myself in something without interruption.

I HAVE been better on my whole self-care routine that I mentioned back around Mother’s Day. Not great, but better. I went to the gym 2 weeks in a row. Nevermind that I didn’t go today and will probably not go Thursday because of how my schedule is this week. But progress, right? And I’ve been eating better. I also started on working on some other misc things around the house – mostly working on letting go of old projects that I have no desire to revisit/finish, letting go of some sentimental clutter that I’ve held on to because of feeling obligated to and not because I actually wanted to, etc.

I decided to sign us up for the Yellowbird Foodshed box this summer on a kind of last-minute whim. I had heard a few months ago about their boxes but then promptly forgot about it again until early this month when I was in the local juice shop and someone came in to ask about the boxes and verify their pickup date. As soon as I got back to my desk at work I was on the website and signing up so I could get in on the first box.

Last week, that first box arrived, which was quite an exciting way for me to break up my day at work. I opted for the base/medium box, which was $30 – I opted for this version because I knew there was probably no way we’d eat all the produce from the large box.

Each week I receive an email with the intended contents of each box so I can know what i have coming and plan ahead. Here is what my box list looked like:

Box list here

I also chose to add on strawberries and blue potatoes to my box, which meant my cost that week was slightly more.

Over the course of this last week i put my produce to use as follows:

Spring salad mix was made into salads (duh) – For the first salad I fried up some bacon, chopped up one of the apples, threw on some dairy-free cheese, and drizzled the whole thing with a vinaigrette I made with some Olivina oil and vinegar in my pantry. The 2nd one was similar, only I used watermelon and mint from the box with some feta.

Kale was used in a marinated kale salad (dressing was goat cheese, honey, and apple balsamic vinegar from Olivina) and topped it with dried cranberries and pecans. I also took thin slices of the evercrisp apples and made a grown up grilled cheese by sandwiching the apple between slices of muenster cheese.

Oh and asparagus i sliced up and cooked up with scrambled eggs to get some veggies in with my breakfasts.

I haven’t used the watercress yet and i’m afraid now it’ll be bad but i didn’t plan very well for my box this first week. Same with the swiss chard, which looked an awful lot like bok choy. I put my potatoes to use by roasting them in the oven with a little olive oil and they were delicious! And blue/purple on the inside, too!

This week my goal is to better use the contents of my box so nothing goes to waste, so stay tuned for next week’s Yellowbird Food Shed update to see what I actually end up doing with it all!

Mother’s Day has been, for me, a mixed bag of feelings. Historically, I spend the day bouncing around from one emotion to the next, and sit a little too long with my disappointment and become an emotional, moody mess.

That is not going to be me this year.

For too long I’ve spent my “special” day feeling hurt over not being appreciated or celebrated enough by my people. I mean, the whole house would fall apart, both figuratively and literally, without me. Don’t they even care about how easy their lives are because of me? (I’m kidding… a little)

But I had this realization today, after a day out shopping with my own mama, that I’m not being fair to myself here. Yes, I want to feel loved and appreciated for all I do for those around me (and I’d rather it be more than just one time a year, but whatever) – but I don’t do enough for myself to show myself some love. Not in the ways I really need and should, at least.

I don’t mean taking myself out for a pedicure or shopping and splurging on some new clothes. I mean that I am literally neglecting myself lately. For example:

• I’m not working out like I used to (or at all, if I’m being honest) and while life was hectic with college and all, I’m willing to admit that I used it as an excuse to justify not going when, ultimately, the hour-ish that it would take out of my week wasn’t as impactful as I made it out to be. And when I do go to the gym I have to take my kid with me and it’s not the enjoyable experience I used to have going kid-free, and then I use THAT as an excuse to not go, too.
• I am eating trash. And a lot of it. I used to be so good about meal prepping and having healthy foods to eat. And then life got busy and I got lazy and it became easier to hit the drive-thru. Except now I’ve gained 30 of the 20lbs I lost from all my prior hard work (yes, 30), my clothes don’t fit which is depressing, and overall I feel exactly like that whole “you are what you eat” thing. (Gross, friends. I feel GROSS.)

So this Mother’s Day I’m fixing this. You can’t pour from an empty cup, and you can’t expect others to appreciate you when you don’t even appreciate yourself, right? Right.

So tomorrow I’m going to sit down and make a giant list of all the ways I can show myself some more appreciation and love and take care of myself just like I take care of everyone else. First on the list will probably be “stop hating my body and just make peace with it” followed up by “feed my body like I love it” aka stop eating sausage breakfast crunch wraps from Taco Bell even though they’re so freaking good.

I’ve missed this very much. Sitting outside enjoying the lovely weather, knitting, watching the world go by…

Spinning yarn is this magical thing. It’s magical enough, to me anyway, to be able to take something as simple as some fluffy sheep’s wool and add a bit of twist to it to make yarn. But the magic that really gets me is the kind that happens with dyed rovings.

I know how it happens, of course. It’s not actually magic. I understand that the way the fiber is prepped and spun, the way it is plied, etc all contribute to this transformation. But every yarn I make leaves me feeling the same way – this feeling of disbelief that THIS yarn came from THAT fiber. That the colors – gorgeous already in their original form – blended and muddled to become an even more beautiful finished yarn that shifts and flows.

It’s not even the pretty colors, either. I have found many projects from other spinners where the initial braid would have been a hard pass for me. It just would never be something I gravitate toward and buy. But spun up? Totally different story. Which, really, is just a lesson for me to stop turning my nose up at certain things so often and make more of an effort to branch out. Because chances are, there’s really hardly a way for the finished yarn to be anything but amazing at the end of it all.

It’s rare these days that we get to take days off at the same time, but the planets aligned this year and we both had Good Friday off. We wanted to go camping, but the weather was expected to be cold and rainy and, generally, miserable, so a quick change of plans led us to Newport, KY for a quick overnight trip.

We spent a little time on Friday exploring Covington and the river front, which was lovely. When the rain started up again, we ended up heading back across the river to Cincinnati to find a mall where we could hide out from the rain. Instead, we ended up eating dinner at BJ’s Brewhouse, and then venturing into Whole Foods for wine and little bunny cupcakes for dessert before we made our way back to our hotel so Declan could swim in the pool while I knit on the socks I brought with me.

Saturday we did breakfast at Wafflehouse before we headed to the Newport Aquarium. I almost feel like having the Columbus Zoo so close to us has ruined Declan on things like the aquarium. He didn’t seem to care so much about much of any of the exhibits except for the sharks and the shark bridge. I, however, loved seeing some things I haven’t seen before. Especially the moon jellies – I almost wish I had taken my knitting in with me, as I would have just sat there and knit and watched them for hours as they floated so peacefully.

Today I’m home working on a paper for class (well, trying to, anyway). It’s the last week and I am MORE than ready for a break after taking classes for over a year straight. I’m not sure I’m going to know what to do with myself having weekends free to actually relax instead of doing homework.

You can’t have Easter without a carrot cake bunny for dessert. We’ve been out of town most of this weekend, and I’m still working on going through the bazillion photos we took on our little adventure, but we were up bright and early this morning to bake for lunch at Nana’s this afternoon. With help from “Chef Declan,” as he called himself.

Just a quick post to show you how I intended to wear my Mount Pleasant tee – which was over my handmade Hinterland dress! Which means today my outfit – outside of shoes – is completely handmade 🙂

I did, in fact, bind off too tightly on the sleeves and neck so but not so much that’s it’s unbearable so I’m just going to go with it. I’ll make adjustments on my next knit of this pattern, including a few rows of garter stitch before starting the lace edging so it doesn’t curl up quite so easily with wear.

I’m supposed to be doing homework right now, but the lighting in the craft room is too nice to ignore taking photos of my latest finished knit: the Mount Pleasant tee.

I used 2 skeins of Tilting Planet’s Gazelle Sock in the “Tea with Sybil” colorway, which I picked up at a new-to-me LYS, Yarn It & Haberdashery, on my annual yarn shopping weekend with my friends. I didn’t gauge swatch because I like to live dangerously, and I knit the medium (also dangerous, given my measurements are on the edge between medium and large most days). Based on how it fits on my dress form, however, it’ll do just fine.

I did knit extra length on the body, as I worried the cropped shape would sit too close to my boobs and not be a good look on me. That’s about the only modification I made, however.

Knitting this pattern was a complete breeze up until I did the ribbing on the arms and neck. I had trouble getting the right number of stitches picked up for each side and by the time I got to the neckline I just kind of winged it. I also did not bind off those portions as loose as I probably should have so I may have to redo them, but we’ll see once it’s fully dry and I try it on.

I had intentions of wearing this with my olive green Hinterland dress I made a few weeks ago, but the colors of the yarn also look pretty fabulous with a skirt I made out of some Cotton + Steel/Rifle Paper Co fabric so hooray for knits that will coordinate well with some other handmade pieces. I will definitely have to wear it with a tank underneath, if I wear it with the skirt, just because the finished fabric is more see-through than I wanted. I’m OK with it, though – it’ll be perfect for spring/summer.

I definitely have plans to make more of these in some other colors. Maybe even one out of some handspun, though the colors would have to be more muted than I typically spin for socks or scarves. I probably won’t alternate skeins every two rows, either, because it was just a huge hassle and I’m not sure the effect of blending the two together was even that big of a deal with the speckled yarn.