Snow! Rain! Ice! Wind! When the blows of winter buffet us, we need to find joy in small things like bowls of warm, tasty Jamaican Chicken Curry, compliments of Kim Davis of Slaycation fame. Kim might not love cooking, but sometimes the non-cooks have the one tried-and-true recipe that hits all the notes. This recipe will definitely make it into your regular rotation because it’s delicious, easy and flexible—throw whatever you have on hand into one pot and make the ones you love happy today and tomorrow.

And speaking of Kim Davis and finding joy in good company, we are excited to announce that we will be hosting a Zoom meet-up for our Bootie and Bossy listeners and Slaycation crafters on Friday, April 4 at 7:00 PM EST and 4:00 PM PST. Sign up for our newsletter through our website, bootieandbossy.com and we will send you a link to register. Grab a glass of wine or one of our cocktails and join us for some great conversation with Kim. And did we mention the PRIZES?! There will be some good ones! Mom might even come too (hi, Mom)!

And for our knitting pop-culture moment in this episode, there’s lots to love in the latest Wallace and Gromit feature film, Vengeance Most Fowl. While Gromit, Wallace’s ever-faithful canine companion, finds joy in making things by hand from knitting socks to cultivating his English garden, Wallace is determined to make his life "better" through time-saving inventions like Norbot, the happy, nifty gnome who does everything fast. Besides the knitting references, we love the commentary on modern life that this “simple” stop-motion/Claymation film offers, like the settings Wallace devises to capture the spectrum of available human emotional and moral states: Good, Pleasant, Unassuming, Dull, Boorish, Mildly Annoying, Bit Selfish, Grumpy, Mean Spirited, Really Nasty, Evil

If only we could wear this on a t-shirt to alert everyone to our setting on a given day. Or maybe everyone else could wear it so we would know when to steer clear. Remember, it's not their fault that they woke up on the "Grumpy" setting--it's just the programming. A good project and a nice cup of “Snoozy Choc” might be the answer. Keep finding the joy in cooking and making, and join us on April 4 too--more joy to come!

What could murders, vacations and knitting possibly have to do with one another? Kim Davis, one of the hosts of the podcast Slaycation, connects the dots in this episode. The name “Slaycation” says it all: these are true-crime tales of murders that take place on vacation—more reason, as if we needed it, to stay home and, well, eat, drink and knit. It’s just safer. But in addition to her popular podcast, Kim is a crafter extraordinaire, and we dive deep into her story here. She learned to crochet as a child growing up in Brooklyn—even then she was fascinated by how a piece of yarn could become a fabric with a little deft maneuvering of a hooked piece of wood. Taking classes at a local yarn store introduced her to knitting and brought her skills to a whole new level. Now she teaches those classes and runs workshops.

But the real connection between her twin obsessions with knitting and true crime is in the details. Knitting taught her to see, to pay attention to all the little things because the truth—what really happened on that beach or on that hike in Colorado—always lies in the little stitches that make up the tale. And like true crime, knitting is a bit like a puzzle, particularly when it comes to fixing your mistakes. First you have to see the mistake, and often it's lying there in plain sight, just waiting for you like that little clue, that critical piece of evidence that unravels the whole mystery of who done it. That’s why she calls one of her classes, “Forensic Knitting.”

But beyond the surprising parallels between true crime and crafting, knitting brings her peace of mind, something we could all use right now:

“Knitting is the perfect combination of meditating and peace. It sounds crazy, but when I don’t have knitting, I can feel myself shorting out a little bit, being a little crankier and just missing it . . . it’s just such a great way to disconnect from the chaos of the world . . . to just center yourself and take your mind out of the orbit of insanity but on to what it is that is right in front of you. And I think that’s really important. When I say to people that you need a hobby, it’s not an insult. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself.”

Kim Davis

If only more people understood that the cure to our collective crankiness is more time alone with nice yarn and pointed sticks.

So tune in for a great conversation with Kim Davis and explore the surprising parallels between the world of true crime and knitting because everything really is connected!

What is it about Martha Stewart? If you want a good watch while you are playing with your Christmas yarn and pointed sticks, tune in to the Netflix biopic, Martha. Talk about a phoenix. Launching her own I.P.O. in 1999, she became the first self-made woman billionaire in American history. Five years later, she’s wearing her “Coming Home Poncho” that a fellow inmate crocheted for her as she leaves a federal prison, a.k.a. “Camp Cupcake.” We have watched her rise and fall and rise again, and there’s a lot to admire here. Perhaps Joan Didion said it best in her New Yorker piece: “This is not a story about a woman who made the best of traditional skills. This is a story about a woman who did her own I.P.O. This is the 'woman’s pluck' story, the dust-bowl story, the burying-your-child-on-the-trail story, the I-will-never-go-hungry-again story . . . The dreams and the fears into which Martha Stewart taps are not of “feminine” domesticity but of female power, of the woman who sits down at the table with the men and, still in her apron, walks away with the chips." Joan Didion, The New Yorker, February 21 and 28, 2000.

This is a Martha who is 83, and she’s got an edge—she even drops an occasional f-bomb! But it’s an edge that she has earned, and she’s not going to sand it down or dip it in sugar. And in the midst of the triumphs and the tribulations, she’s learned a few things worth listening to: “If you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog. If you want to be happy for life, plant a garden.” She learns something new every day, and she lives by the dictum that “when you are through changing, you are through.” This is a Martha who is perfectly human, flawed like the rest of us and weathered by experience, but still standing and inspecting her peonies. She makes us think that whatever happens, we'll survive--a message we could use right now.

Speaking of transformation, of taking clown-colors and making them wearable, check out Bootie’s shawl that she over-dyed with Kool-Aid. Her daughter actually wears it on a regular basis! A knitting triumph, but it didn’t start out that way. Between this and Martha’s story, you’ll definitely find some inspiration in this episode, and a healthy snack with Martha’s Lemony White Bean Hummus! Please check out the Show Notes at www.bootieandbossy.com