It’s time to get ready to send Tiger Boy back to school. I can’t believe he’ll be a high school sophomore this year. I have a lot of things I want to get done before the new school year starts, including finishing up the robe I began making him last year (I know, I know). Luckily, he’s only grown taller, so back to school shopping will consist of a few pairs of new pants, some paper, new shoes, and a few other things. Thank goodness! Back to school shopping can be expensive.
This weekend, I want to finish the robe (McCall’s pattern 6236), done with a gray flannel from Joann’s fabrics. That way, I’ll be clearing out room for another sewing project – something I haven’t been working on for a year.
I have a bunch of wine tasting notes I’d like to get typed up and share with you. They’re older notes, but they’re still of interest. I found them while organizing my office last weekend. Many of the notes are from tastings at Creekside Cellars, which closed earlier this year when the owners retired. That’s another task I’d like to finish – organizing the office/sewing room. I found this article on decluttering the sewing room by Cynthia Ewer a helpful guide for getting things organized. There are also some good ideas in this article about how to store items in the sewing room. I have to admit, though, that my office, my husband’s office, and the sewing and craft stuff all shares one room, so I’ll have to get super creative to get it all fitting in nice.
I just got the new issue of Wine Enthusiast in the mail, and this month’s issue had a list of the 100 top wine restaurants. There’s one near Seattle in Woodenville that I’d love to visit when we get up that way again – The Herbfarm. They serve a nine course dinner with six paired wines. It seems like it would be an amazing experience. So, I’ve put that on my list of things to do when we travel that way. I think for now, I’ll put Restaurant Taste, in Plymouth, California, on my list of places to go. On Monday nights, they offer a 3 course prix fixe menu, and their selections look great. I was a bit surprised that Purple Cafe & Wine Bar in Seattle didn’t make the list. When we were there in 2012, they had a large selection of tasting flights, and their wine list was very impressive.
If you haven’t hopped over to the Curvy Sewing Collective, I’d recommend it. I’ll have my first article there posted on Monday.
Speaking of blogs and communities, 1 Wine Guy had a lot of things to say about the state of the wine blogging community in a recent post on his blog. I think he has some good points about how the wine blogging community needs to do a better job of coming together and talking about what works and what doesn’t.
In archeological news, it appears that a wine vessel believed to have belonged to Athenian statesman Pericles was unearthed. The cup was not varietal specific (or at least, archeologists didn’t believe it was). As a fan of classics and wine, I found it to be a neat find. It was broken into 12 pieces.
I now turn to you to ask a question. I have seen a ton of crafts out there that are geared for younger kids and for girls when it comes to heading back to school. I’ve been trying to find some neat things to make for a teenage boy – especially since I’ve been doing a lot of crafting for Baby Girl. If you have any ideas or links to share, please post them in the comments section.