Wolf's Den

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Dante's Spirit- Hand dyed silk scarves, Handcrafted beadwork, and more.. All Unique/OOAK.

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Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!





Yes, we've done an en croute style challenge before- 4 years ago. Back then, I made a Salmon En Croute for Mark, and a Tilapia En Croute for me. This time around, I went with the ol' stand by - Beef Wellington, since we'd never made it before.

( MORE! )

So if you follow me on Twitter, you'll have seen my mention of a raccoon that decided to help itself to the birdseed a few nights ago (around 10pm) and how Caena was so not impressed.

Well, it decided that it enjoyed being told to get off my roof SO MUCH, that it came back last night. At 330am. Yeah. I scared it off. It came BACK at 430 am.



"Oh hai there, I'mma just gonna help myself, k? thankx!"
(Yes, the feeder was swinging. It had just let go of it and it had been 3/4 FULL.)

Yeah. No. Not ok. Git off my porch. It's 330 in the damn morning! Quit ringing the wind chimes every 5 minutes and waking me up!



"So, umm, ok, no feeders then. Welp, I'll just clean up the seed I spilled then, in the hopes you'll go back inside and turn the lights off. No? That don't work either?"

NO, that doesn't work either. I threw a couple empty woodpecker feeders at it. It just looked at me and silently mocked my poor aim when I'm half asleep and haven't bothered with putting my glasses on. I swear it was laughing at me. Then it climbed down and left.

I took the feeder down.

30 minutes later, it came back. And promptly left again when it saw the free food buffet was gone.

For the record? That deer/squirrel/raccoon/wildlife repellent stuff? So does not work.

I realized after listing my latest cuff, that I haven't done a recent new items post. So here we go!



'Green Leaves'
Handmade Kumihimo cuff
7.5" long x 2" wide

Fits wrists 7.5" to 9"





'Tiger Burning Bright'
Handmade Kumihimo and beadwork cuff
7" long x 2" wide

Fits wrists 6.5" to 8.5"




'Fire and Ice'
Handmade Kumihimo bracelet
5" long x .5" wide

Fits wrists 5.5" to 7"




'Desert Sagebrush'
Handmade Kumihimo cuff
6.5"long x 2" wide

Fits wrists 6.5" to 8.75"

I have 6 other cuffs in progress- well, 4 cuffs and 2 bracelets- and one kumihimo necklace in the works. So I'll be busy for the next week or so.}:) Stay tuned!

The Center In The Square is a lovely facility in downtown Roanoke, Va. There's a science museum, a new butterfly habitat, Mill Mountain Theater, new rooftop gardens, a history museum, dance center, arts, and more. It's finishing up a multi year complete removation and reopens fully towards the end of this month.

If you live in the area, they need volunteers! Most especially for the Tank Team!



This is the main centerpiece, a 5500 gallon saltwater aquarium. It'll have 250 fish, living rock, 150 live soft and rocky corals, a few starfish that hitchhiked in on the rock from the ocean and is quite awesome to see. The glass is roughly 2.5-3" thick. Yes, glass, not acrylic.

One of the people Mark works for/with is a volunteer there and we got to see the tanks up close as they were adding fish.

( Onward to the fish! )

Sneak peek of what I'm currently working on