She's beautiful!! Great color

This is all very helpful advice, thank you! And yes, I should have slashed the top. The recipe I was following didn't include that in the instructions so I didnt do it and in the end it didn't rise as much as I was expecting.

When you say to add butter or oil to the flour, do you mean in the dough or in the flour used when shaping the loaf before baking?

Brian Adams - Summer of '69

Actual lyrics to start the song: I got my first real six-string, bought it at the five and dime

What I always hear, sung so proudly and nostalgically: I got my first real sex dream down at the five and dime

Yes. I'm not sure about the earliest example, but there was a riot in the ancient city of Pompeii that was so bad that the Roman Senate banned games in Pompeii for 10 years.

You can read more about it and an ancient fresco depicting the event here.

We have the DF64 gen 2 and use it everyday. I absolutely adore it. That being said, we never had the 54, so I'm not sure if the 64 is worth the extra cash. But I've only had good experiences with DF Grinders and will always recommend them.

Thanks for passing that along! I'll definitely pull from that next year. And I would definitely recommend starch!

This snowflake is a modified version of this pattern: https://www.etsy.com/...

I really like her patterns in general. I've also found many textured or 3D snowflake diagrams on Pinterest. Those are often a bit harder to interpret and you may have to take some creative liberty with them.

I have found it so difficult to crochet with hooks that small. This is amazing and really impressive!

To be fair, most houses of that size out here would go for more like 500k. But since it's in a really rural location and is a fixer-upper, it's much cheaper

I've had it for about a year now with no problems. I got it used though so I'm not sure how long it's been running.

Oh wow - been thinking of trying focaccia, this recipe looks really doable!

This ring is 4 inches. I've been trying to find smaller ones but my local craft stores don't carry any.

I don't know enough about beading! But I really like the idea of adding beads to these and I bet it wouldn't be too hard. Maybe that's what I'll try next year!

I read some the comics after watching the Netflix series. I found the series (at least the first season) to be a compelling story about PTSD and the struggles of veterans. Tom Waits' "Hell Broke Luce" in the pilot was particularly telling.

So I started reading Garth Ennis's Punisher Max series from the early 2000s looking for that theme and I got something way different. Sure there are some hints of PTSD, but revenge is undeniably a central theme- though it is often portrayed as a complex emotion that many characters, not just Frank, greatly struggle with. I'll admit that some of the stories about revenge against crime families or Barracuda are a bit flat, but overall the comic is way more nuanced than violence for violence's sake.

The Punisher Max series has a really fantastic over-arching plot line involving the US miltary and Russia that portrays the Punisher as more than just a vigilante. I cannot recommend enough "Mother Russia" and "Man of Stone". Both have fantastic writing and strongly developed characters. "Mother Russia" has an amazing 4-way chess game between The Punisher with Nick Fury, corrupt US generals, the Russian military, and the Man of Stone. These stories and other ones like "Valley Forge, Valley Forge" also grapple with the trauma of major historic events such as the Vietnam war, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and 9/11.

I can't speak to other Punisher comics, but to dismiss the Punisher Max series as just an emo guy shooting people does it a great disservice. There's complexity in the fictional characters and plot that is grounded in very real events and emotions. And it also shows you don't need fancy gadgets or special powers to tell a rich and interesting story.

If you actually want to try to understand the appeal of The Punisher, read Garth Ennis's Punisher Max series. There are places to read it online for free and your local library might have it ditigally.

Thanks! It's alternating single crochet and chain stitch, working single crochets into the chain stitches of the previous row.

Women are the most important thing to do so already due to their circumstances

They stay on the ring as an extra element of decoration. If I don't use a ring, I would starch them when I'm done to keep them flat and in form.

I tried Tunisian crochet a few years ago and haven't picked it back up - this is encouraging me to do so! Lovely work

This looks pretty similar to the recipe I used but the cornmeal is new. Great idea, thanks!

I'll give this a try! Thank you!

The blue in this really works for me. Love it