Here are some photos I snapped over the past couple weeks of Henry. For the most part I know he’s a happy cat, he has food, water, love, and many soft places to sleep. However he has this really weird pose with his top half and head over the edge of the bed… and I can’t tell if he’s relaxed or forlorn. Maybe you guys can lend some insight.

This is where he sits while looking out the window, which he loves to do, so it confuses me that he looks kind of sad.

This is him sleeping… but with the duvet piled up so much you can’t really tell that he’s halfway off the bed.

And here he is sleeping on the heating pad (he loves it when I just put it on low). This one he looked like he was going to fall off the bed!

There is probably no reason to be worried, and I’m not really. It’s just that I could understand this pose while he’s looking out the window (nearly parallel to the bed), but for example, the last one he’s just looking at the floor! Maybe he’s just a weirdo.

Please share a favorite tea snack, especially if it is a treasured recipe!

To be honest, I drink tea all day, every day… so there isn’t one particular thing that I have to have with my tea. However, there are some things that if I’m eating them, I need tea. It’s like Frank Sinatra says, “you can’t have one without the other.”

• Chocolate: I just find it gets too rich and sickly-sweet in my mouth. My boyfriend is a chocoholic, so I often hint towards a cup of tea when he brings out the tin of chocolates.
• Peanut butter: I love peanut butter on toast, so it is a wonderful breakfast combo with my morning tea
• Biscuits: such as HobNobs, McVities Light, Arrowroot, or any other sort of digestive. I love dipping them in tea! My mouth gets too dry if I eat them plain.
• Cookies (different from biscuits): They are also good dipped in tea, but not necessarily vital. Just, enjoyable!
• Morning: In order to wake up, I enjoy tea. It’s not so much the caffeine, since I have it before I sleep too, but I think it is the routine.

If I needed to pick a snack or a recipe, I’ll share my new Pumpkin Spice Loaf (Starbucks style). I searched the internet everywhere, and literally tons of websites claimed that this recipe was “thee” Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Loaf. WRONG. I tried so many recipes, and had tons of wasted ingredients (although my dad enjoyed the baked goods)… until I found a recipe that was pure pumpkin loaf. I added my own mix of spices and, voila! A perfect Starbucks-tasting Pumpkin Spice Loaf… and I’m gonna share it!

Starbucks-style Pumpkin Spice Loaf

Makes 1 loaf

• 1½ c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 5 tsp. pumpkin spice (see recipe below)
• 4 eggs
• 1 c. granulated (white) sugar
• ¼ c. light brown sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. canned pumpkin
• ¾ c. vegetable/cooking oil

Prepare pumpkin spice (makes 8 tsp.) by combining 4 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. allspice and 1 t.sp nutmeg. You can tweak this to your particular tastes later by using more/less of a particular spice.

1. Set the oven to 350 degrees (F); Grease a loaf pan
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin spice; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugars, and vanilla until combined.
4. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Add pumpkin and oil and mix well.
6. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
7. Bake for approximately 90 minutes, check with toothpick; if toothpick doesn’t come out clean, bake for another 10 minutes, and check again; continue this until toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack before slicing and eating.

We’ve still got a few more days left in January to have some tea talk. Make sure to visit the blog if you’d like to join in!

I really enjoy Weekly Topics for a swap. I think it’s a neat way to keep you involved during the “quiet period” between signing up and receiving a package. Here is the Cocoa Swap Question #3:

Marshmallows/Whipped Cream – The big debate: How do you prefer you top your cocoa?  If you like marshmallows, do they need to be the big ones, little ones, homemade, gourmet, flavored?  If it’s whipped cream, is it fresh, the kind in the can, flavored?  Or are you a fluff gal?  Or… do you like your cocoa naked?  Tell us about how you top off your favorite cup of chocolate!

I am whipped cream all the way. In the can… and straight into my mouth. No, but really… canned whipped cream is great on top of hot cocoa. Did any of you have the peppermint whipped cream from Starbucks over the holidays? To. Die. For. If you’re making whipped cream fresh though, you better have some pumpkin pie or strawberry shortcake on hand!

Marshmallows are just more of a “roast over the fire and make s’mores with” kind of treat. They don’t get gooey enough in hot cocoa. Or Marshmallow Alphabet! Did anyone used to do that with their fingers? Mash up marshmallows into goo and then form letters with your fingers?… yeah me neither….

Naked cocoa is fine too, which is how it usually is as I don’t regularly stock whipped cream. But I have a question, what is “fluff”?

This past summer, my sister took a class through the Richmond Weavers & Spinners Guild. The course was taught by Linda Montague, who is the Guild’s representative and also coordinates the fibre arts portion of the Surrey Art Gallery. As I mentioned in my yarn shopping post, my sister Bonnie is taking another course by Linda in Richmond (side-by-side to Vancouver).

Bonnie was flattered to hear everyone wanted to see her project, so I asked her if I could take photos and blog about her sampler project from the summer. Here are some photos and details of what I learned.

It is a 4-shaft loom set for plain weave with twill variations, also known as “The Sampler”.

The yarn is nothing special and kind of itchy, just whatever was available at the class. This wasn’t something they purchased wool for.

But I must say, it makes a neat finished product!

This is her favourite weave, an alternating plain & twill, which she selected for her first project!

This one is my favourite (left) because of the stripey-diagonal goodness. And the one on the far right is a plain weave.

This is my other favourite weave! Probably because I can’t knit that!

This week, Kim has brought up the topic about what to blog about; more specifically, brainstorming ideas and what to do when we can’t think of anything to blog about.

Well, as you may have noticed, I don’t seem to have this problem. I blog nearly daily… and I always try to make it something new, interesting, or unique. I’m trying to cut back on the pointless memes. For example Tuesday Teasers; while it’s interesting to know what other people are reading, picking a random quote from a random page just doesn’t do it for me anymore. However, I really enjoy Friday Fill-Ins, mostly for the final question which talks about weekend plans.

Kim posted some links to websites that have ideas and suggestions about what to blog about. If you’re just starting out blogging, this might be helpful, but to be honest for me, if I don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Kinda like Thumper’s mom’s motto (from Bambi).

I don’t think my problem is the ideas or how often I blog, I think it’s the quality/interest-level of my blog posts. So I’ve decided to become more connected in the blogisphere by 1. Doing sort of an “in the news” / bloglines kind of post every so often; and 2. developing and marketing my blog designing skills and hopefully doing some freelance work.