Making Wine

I happen to have a fondness for wine.  Did you know that?



This sign is on one wall in my kitchen.  Good food, Good wine, Good friends.  Yay!

These pictures are on another wall in my kitchen.  I have little wine racks above my cupboards, but sadly, they are empty right now, so I won't be sharing pictures of my empty wine racks.  Because who wants to see those?

Thankfully, there is this cool little place in town that helps me out when my wine racks get empty.  They know me well there.  It is called Wine Creations.  You can learn more about them on their website here.  They assist with all the hard parts of making  your own wine.  My hockey mom's club decided recently that it would be fun to go and do a few batches of wine.  We gathered a few months ago at the store to taste a few different kinds and decide what we wanted to make.  After one red and one white were chosen, we mixed the contents of a kit with a bunch of water in a big bucket.  (you will have to imagine a bunch of water and some other stuff in a big white bucket, since I did not take any pictures of buckets to share with you.)

Then we had to wait a long, long time.  About 8 weeks.  While we were gone, the handy employees did all this magical stuff while our wine fermented.  I'm pretty sure they waved some magic wands and said some magic words to make the magic happen.  Really, they just watch the temperature, allow the fermenting air to escape a few times, and add a few things here and there.  Also, somewhere in the process they transfer the wine from the big white bucket to a carboy, which looks like this:

I don't pay too much attention to all those details since I don't have to worry about it!

Then, after you wait a really really long time, you get to go back and bottle your wine.  This is the fun part.

First, Kerrie demonstrates how to disinfect by squirting some secret disinfecting potion into the bottles.

Next, Jennifer rinses the bottles and lets them drip dry on the drying rack.

The bottles are taken from the drying rack,

and hooked up to the filler machine, where the wine is pumped from the carboy to your bottles.

Each bottle is corked, and foiled in the shrink wrap machine, as demonstrated by the lovely Missy.

They are then labeled and boxed up, ready to take home.  (Do I sound like an episode of How It's Made yet??)

The foils you can choose are very pretty.

Here are some of the other customer's carboys sitting, waiting, and fermenting.

I love seeing this local business take off so well.  Every time we are there, they have a huge number of buckets and carboys brewing. 

So, while we didn't get to stomp grapes like Lucy did, we had a ton of fun, and got to taste several kinds of wine (that's really my favorite part).

Check them out if you are local here, otherwise check if there is somewhere similar wherever you are.  A fun ladies night out!

XOXOX

NH

On To the Next Sport

I wonder what it's like to have kids that don't like sports.

I'm pretty sure last night would have been spent on my couch watching some dumb TV show, instead of at the ball field.

I wouldn't be able to experiment with the camera on how to focus behind the fence that is protecting my life from a speeding baseball that wants to hit my head.

I wouldn't be able to teach Morgan how you can still kinda get cool pictures by focusing either close or far.  (or how to pretend that you intended to focus on the fence instead of the pitcher.)

My kids wouldn't have nearly as many friends as they do today.

They wouldn't have learned so many important life lessons about sportsmanship, competitiveness, and being part of a team.

I wouldn't know that no matter how prepared you think you are to go watch a baseball game, you will probably have to park a mile away, and all the crap you have to carry will be heavy.  And while it was sunny and warm when you got there, you still need the jacket and fleece blanket to wrap up in.  And when you leave your regular glasses in the car and only wear your prescription sunglasses to the game, it's very hard to see who's who when the sun goes down.

I wouldn't be reminded daily how Andy is on the short end of the spectrum, and other boys are on the tall end.  (the boy standing behind him is less than a year older than him.)

I certainly wouldn't have needed a hot chocolate last night to keep my hands warm and icicles from forming off my nose.

And I would have missed this sky.  Because I probably would have been on my couch watching some dumb TV show.

So yeah, having your kids in sports is kinda cool.

XOXOX

NH

Dance Competition Pictures

I don't have much to say lately.  That is why the posts have been scarce.  The weather is nice one day, and rainy the next.  That's pretty common for this time of year.  We have not yet cut the grass, but it kind of needs it.  Hopefully in the next week or so we'll start preparing the gardens for planting.  I can't wait to have all those fresh veggies at our disposal!  When the kids ask for a snack, I can tell them to go pick some peas!

On this day 13 years ago, there was still snow on the ground, and my sister sunburned her shoulders.  How do I know this?  Because it was the day I married my hubby.  What a perfect day it was.  I believe the sunburn was from the horse and carriage ride we took around Canal Park that day.  I was so afraid those seagulls were going to poop on my dress.  They didn't.  :)

I remember walking around the reception after dinner wanting to talk to everyone, and saying, "Hi! My name is Nancy HOOPER!" I stuck out my hand to shake thier's like it was the first time I had met them. I danced the whole night.  I couldn't sit down.  What a perfect day it was, indeed.

Happy anniversary, Nate.  I love you!

And since I shared so many hockey pictures before, I will share some of the pictures from the dance competition a few weeks ago.  Enjoy!

I love watching my baby girl dance...

XOXOX

NH

I made some more stuff!

I love the feeling of completing a project.  Love it.  Because usually shortly after, I get to give it to someone and make them happy.

Here are a few things I've been working on lately...

These are a baby gift for a friend of my sister.  Baby boy should be arriving sometime in May!

This is it, Tricia.  I wasn't going to post this until you received it, but I just couldn't wait.  The stitches are bound off, and the ends are sewn in.  I hope you love it!

Thank goodness for cute models.

This is an afghan that I'm hoping will end up on my couch, but may end up being a gift if needed.  Hopefully not to anyone who reads my blog!  It's still on the needles, and has taken a back seat to the other things above that had deadlines (sorta).

The yarn is so soft and squishy, I can't wait to curl up under it!

Here is the progress I've made on the afghan I mentioned that I was going to start.  I am in love with this project.  I'm learning a bunch, and it's certainly not a boring pattern!  Kinda hard to work on when there are people chatting all around you, but I'm managing so far.

It's going to be sooo pretty when it's done!  One huge flower.  I will keep posting updates as it progresses.  I have quite a way to go yet.  It's already taking so long to get all the way around, I can't imagine how long it will take on those last few rows when there are approximately 2389435648683497 stitches per row. 

I love the color and softness of this yarn, but it's kind of a cheap acrylic.  I'm considering spending a gift certificate that I got for Christmas to the local yarn shop and getting something equally soft and pretty and will last longer without pilling.  If I'm going to spend this kind of time on a project, I think it just might deserve the "good stuff".

Sorry for the dark pictures.  I really want to get back into the photo stuff again.  When it's 9:00 PM though, and you have a little time to write, but no pictures taken of the things you want to write about, you just have to go with it.

XOXOX

NH

Celebration Talent Competition

Before I get into how proud I am of my little dancer, I will just say that if there in anything certain in this world, it is that I will get a migraine on a competition weekend.  No question.  This one kicked my butt and lasted 4 days.  Yippee.  So, that is why it has taken me a bit to get this post out...

Now.  On to the good stuff.

Last weekend, Morgan competed with the other girls at her studio in the Celebration Talent Competition at the DECC auditorium right here in Duluth.  It's so nice when competitions are in your home town.  The girls did awesome, and I'm very proud of all of them.

Her hip hop dance is super fun.  It's called Fuego (which is funny to me because my brother's first car back in the early 80s was a red Fuego.)

It looked exactly like this, though I'm not sure if it was a TURBO or not.  And it didn't have European license plates.  I'm pretty sure I rode in this car a time or two down the Gunflint Trail in fear for my life.  Mom, I'm just kidding.  (Everyone else, no I'm not.)

Sorry for the tangent there.  So the hip hop dance was very cool.  The girls did a few neat tricks, and ended up earning a high gold mark for their dance.  Only platinum is above that, and the judges were pretty stingy with giving those out.

They also performed their jazz dance to One Fine Wire, by Colby Caillat, which they did at the UMD show a few weeks ago.  I love the choreography in this one.  The girls earned a gold for this dance.  Awesome!

On Sunday, they performed their production routine, which was a mix of various jungle themed songs and included all of our competition dancers.  By this time my eyes were crossed and my brain wasn't working properly, so I didn't get a good picture of Morgan in her zebra costume.  They will be performing it at least three more times though, so I'll get some pictures next time.  Plus, they wouldn't let us take any pictures during any of the actual dances, so you were forced to buy the mucho expensivo professional pictures that they took during the performances.  Whatev.

So the only pictures I got on Sunday were during the awards ceremony, from very far away.  The studio won a gold award for this dance also, and then also a showstopper award, for just standing out as an entertaining number to the judges.

I know I've said it before, and I realize that I'm completely biased, but I just love watching my Morgan dance.  I know it is what she is supposed to be doing.  She absolutely loves performing on stage.  This is HER time to shine.  Finally.  After sitting through a painfully long hockey season.  We sure spent a lot of hours in that building this weekend for approximately 10 minutes of performing time, but every second was worth it to see her run out on to the stage and shine.

So, tonight when we went to Savers, I couldn't say no to her.

Four cow coffee mugs for $2.99?  Who could pass that up?  They even have udders!

I love you Morgie Pie, more than you will ever know.  I'm so very, very proud of you!

XOXOX

NH

Instagram photo of the day dump

I am really having fun with this photo of the day thing on Instagram.  Here are some of my postings from the last week or so...

Where I ate breakfast - a shake at my desk.

Stairs - near my office...

A sunset - sometimes you have to get creative when the assignment is a sunset and you are in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Something I do not like - work.  Ick.  Sure wish I didn't have to.

Something orange - road construction season has begun.  While I'm very appreciative of road improvements, it's going to stink to have a major road near my house closed until fall.

Hair - Dis my curly hair. :)

Something I found - I love it when I find this sitting on the table next to me!

We have an incredibly busy weekend ahead of us with a dance competition taking up most of it.  Luckily it's in town.  I plan to bring my knitting and curl up in a corner somewhere and work on my newest project.  I've been wanting to try something lacy for a while, so I chose this:

Photo courtesy of mmario on Ravelry

I think it's gorgeous, and will either keep it as something pretty and snuggly for myself, or save it for the perfect gift when I need one (hopefully for someone who doesn't read my blog).  You start in the center and work your way out, adding more stitches as you go.  I'm really loving it so far, though I'm only on row 23.  We'll see how much I love it when there are 439865759867 stitches per row.  For the record, that's a lot of stitches.  I will keep you updated on the progress as it's coming along. 

So hopefully at the end of the weekend, I'll have some good progress made, and some pictures of a bunch of gorgeous dancers for you all to see.  Hope you are enjoying your Friday evening.  I'm going to go work on row 24.

XOXOX

NH