Maybe this will be the beginning of a new hobby.

After we finished our shopping, we enjoyed our new Saturday morning ritual – biscuits with sausage and gravy from Dai Due. There seems to be a dearth of good biscuits here in Austin, but I think Dai Due does them real well.

Little Stevie Wonder agrees.

Here’s our platter of goodness, featuring both Dai Due and Kocurek: baguette, cornichons and pearl onions, pate, chutney, rillette, and liverwurst. The pate was my favorite. I can’t wait to try more Kocurek goodies.

Our first stop was Atlanta, where Jeff and Elizabeth kindly let us take over their house for a few days. These guys were our roommates.

Josie:

Marvin:

And here’s Peabody, showing my kind of Christmas spirit:

Unfortunately, despite the fact that Peabody and I have at least a few things in common (a healthy appetite, cat-like reflexes), I am allergic to his kind. So when Jeff and Elizabeth got back into town, Eliza and I checked in to the Decatur Holiday Inn. As you can see, they have pretty high standards there. Some hotels will put anyone in charge of the bar. But at the Decatur Holiday Inn, they equip them with copies of both Bartending for Dummies and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bartending.

Until I encountered guineas at the farmer’s market, I wasn’t actually sure that “guinea” was a real word that you were allowed to say without getting into trouble. Sort of like “chiggers,” those little burrs that stick to your clothes out in the country, “guinea” seemed like a word that–even if it technically acceptable on say, Wikipedia–was probably not something you should just throw around casually.

Michael Pollan writes eloquently in The Omnivore’s Dilemma about the virtues of knowing what it takes to bring a plate of food to the table. And particularly with meat, he makes a good case for getting more in touch with what you’re eating. Chicken isn’t just something that’s available shrink-wrapped or in buckets from KFC. It’s a living, breathing thing that has to die at some point in order for you to be nourished. But all of Pollan’s well-crafted prose on the matter is no match for this face, which speaks for itself.

Yes, the French poultry man at the farmer’s market leaves the heads on his guineas. He also informed me that he particularly enjoys roasting and eating “zee brains,” but I wasn’t quite ready to go there. So I chopped off the head before I stuck this once living thing into my oven. But it wasn’t easy. As you can see, she didn’t look too happy about being turned into dinner.

Ultimately, the guinea turned into a great, if somewhat haunting, meal. Any friend of mine or reader of this blog knows I’m a dedicated carnivore. Maybe staring a meal in the face once in a while is the price I have to pay for the privilege of eating another living creature. On the other hand, maybe this guinea was just particularly pissed because she knew I was not just a carnivore, but a guinea chaser, too.

Jeff Lynne’s take on this issue:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFM0pYyUcY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

After deciding to get a second dog, we needed to find one that would get along with our other little stinker, Jaxon. A rescue organization called Small Chance Rescue couldn’t have been more helpful. They recommended Stevie, part Yorkie and part Chihuahua. He’s pretty great. So far, he and his big (much bigger, actually) sister are getting along swimmingly.

Clemmy is her name, and eating deer poop in her game. She’s a German Shepherd, so she won’t stay these little for long. Her ears are on the way up too, though I think the one-up, one-down look is quite fetching.

I loved stitching this little bird.

Jaxon models the bib.

I decided I needed more stitching instruction and signed up for Rachel Hobson’s hand embroidery class over at Leslie Bonnell’s Stitch Lab. I was one of only four students. Rachel first gave us a thorough lesson on tools of the trade, materials and resources, and methods for transferring patterns. Then she guided us through the stitches shown on my sampler below. We learned the blanket and back stitches (shown on the sun). The french knot (ooo la la!), chain, split, and satin stitches make up the top of the flower. We also practiced the stem and lazy daisy stitches (on the stem and leaves) and the herringbone stitch for the grass.

Rachel’s class was wonderfully fun, but it wasn’t until the next morning that I realized the calming effect stitching has on me. I finished my french knots while waiting in my car for an early meeting to start and instantly became relaxed.

Shortly thereafter, I purchased a couple of iron-on transfer patterns from Sublime Stitching and became totally hooked. The repetitive motion of the needle popping through the fabric, the freedom to choose whatever stitch and color you like, and the instant gratification of creating something beautiful in a couple of hours – I’m now a total junkie.

I decided to strike out on my own and embroider Ben’s band logo on a kitchen towel. I taped it up on the window and traced it with a water soluble pen.

And then I stitched.

And stitched. Here while watching Play It Again, Sam. A pretty awful movie in my opinion.

Here’s a Sublime Stitching pattern for some of Daniel Johnston’s famous Austin artwork.

I love that juicy satin-stitched mouth.

My new creations are all kitchen towels. We now have a few more than our tiny kitchen drawers will allow.

I’m going to move on to napkins now.