Recycle Bin

Cleaning out my phone of a few recent shots.


Sitting on the sidewalk in the sun, waiting to pick up Drew.


Spinach smoothie.  Breakfast.


Lots and lots of walking.  And a little running.


Microwave potato chips.  Thanks, Emma!


My new ring.  10x bigger than I thought when I ordered it.  Love it.

Lonely as a cloud

By some freak of nature, I actually won a book this summer. Kids' Crafternoon Sewing, part of a craft series for kids, thanks to a giveaway on Floating Ink. Pretty exciting stuff!



It's a colorful, fun book full of great beginner projects and ideas. Hopefully it will inspire Sadie to try out her nifty sewing machine someday.



Or the boys, if they so desire. It's just easier to think of in a far-off, dreamy sort of way. Everything is possible in the future. Just don't ask me to teach anyone to sew TODAY. I can barely wrap my brain around tonight's math homework.

I did give the cloud pillow a whirl. Just looked fun to me. Whimsical and weird enough.



I like to use 100% wool stuffing rather than the poly-fill stuff for some projects. It feels a thousand times better. I buy mine from a Mennonite farm in PA. Over the phone (how quaint!) but they are reasonable and shipping is quick. (Earl Woolen Mill: 717-859-2241)

It looks like what clouds are made of.

Sew, a needle pulling thread

This summer I became the owner of a brand new sewing machine. Brought to me by birthday money and Craigslist. During a hasty exchange at a random gas station, a woman about my age took my cash and handed over the box. She told me with a look of mild disgust that the machine had been a birthday present to her. Her birthday loss, my birthday gain.

A few days ago, I finally got the chance to try it out. It's a Singer, like my old machine and a pretty basic model but definitely an improvement. It's smooth and quiet and has a few more options. I can't believe the difference it makes.

My first project was simple, basically just sewing pieces of elastic. The tutorial found here. (thanks for the inspiration, Shannon!) I was reminded of this idea while going through Sadie's old clothes. Old tights become knee-high socks. Simply by cutting and sewing elastic at the top.





A couple weeks before my Craigslist find, I dug through debris at a nearby estate sale to uncover a beauty of another sort. No one else in the family currently sees its potential. I'm hoping Sadie will someday will agree with me. Because it's for her.

I showed it to her today.

Not the reaction I was hoping for.



First she attempted to poke out her eye.



Next, she sampled the antique thread.



It's missing a needle but supposedly it really works. I hope she gets some use out of it someday.

Dont worry, be happy now

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
G. K. Chesterton

I'm feeling less than thankful at the moment. Really kind of sick to my stomach over some bad news today. Not earth-shattering-someone's-dying kind of news, just car-trouble-money-stressfulness. An ideal time to focus on other things. And hope that it helps.

Around noon today, the sun poked out. I assumed it was fleeting and ran to get my camera.



Trying to keep ahead of Sadie's ravenous wailing (if I let her she would eat every food item in the house, perishable and non) and frantic signs for "MORE, MORE!", I snapped a few pictures of my favorite flower. Who cares if they're a little brown around the edges? They manage a cheerfulness I could never achieve.



After getting Adam settled at the table with food, the sun was still around so I snapped a few more pictures of my latest knitting obsession. The boy hat. So far, so good. And the yarn (Malabrigo) is just right.



I'm looking forward to making a couple of these, maybe even three if I can stretch 2 skeins that far.

Even though I'm still getting the occasional tomato out of my own garden, it was nice to get 3 gorgeous, ripe ones all at once, along with some peppers, from a friend of Keith's.



Salsa came to mind and I tried this recipe, via Smitten Kitchen. It was perfect.


(A food photographer I am not)

Because we somehow had an excess of milk (that never happens), I made some yogurt today. It's really just a few minutes of stirring and keeping it warm for a few hours after that. Believe me, it tastes a lot better than it looks here.



Drew was supposed to have his first soccer practice on Wednesday but it was canceled and rescheduled twice since then because of rain. It is several miles away and I wouldn't even have attempted it myself without a car but Keith was home today and decided he could do it. By bike. With all the boys. He is braver than I.


I'm glad I recently finished my custom safety flag for our bike trailer.



Sadie and I hung out at home and listened to her cry for a couple hours. Idyllic. Like in the movies.

But I did manage to get a photo of her boots in the three seconds that she wore them.



Now I'm sitting here trying not to bite my nails as it gets darker and darker and the boys aren't home yet. Back to square one.

Refreshment

I didn't have a great camera yesterday but I still want to mention one of the ways we tried to beat the heat.

I saw a recipe for Watermelon Granitas on Pioneer Woman and with a watermelon sitting in the fridge, the timing was just right.



I didn't have limes so I used a lemon and it came out great. Watermelon, cut up, then pureed with a little lemon juice and a couple tablespoons of sugar. Freeze it and scrape it up with a fork.

Serve!

Not just a salad with walnuts

Play silks. Not much on my radar before. One of those vague, Waldorfy, peace & love kind of playthings. Something I could not picture my boys ever using.

Even so, I really liked the idea of dyeing them with Koolaid. I've been seeing this online quite a bit, and figured the boys would at least enjoy that process.

I found the most reasonable silks at this site. They come in a wide variety of sizes.














There's a whole ton of tutorials out there. We used vinegar, food coloring and Koolaid, bought specifically for this project (yes, I'm hippie enough to shun the stuff as a food).








It was a fun exploration of color. The boys enjoyed the importance of selecting their own hue, then mixing and measuring. We all enjoyed the results.




















It really is amazing all the ways these little squares of color can be used.












































Although, I'm not entirely sure a blood-red-battlefield-for-Playmobil-soldiers was one play scheme Rudolf Steiner would have endorsed.

This little light

I'm in the habit of heading over to Whipup whenever low on inspiration. Before I know it, I'm frantically bookmarking one idea after another. Tis a literal portal of crafty goodness.

A couple weeks ago, Whipup offered a digital "mini-mag", the Action Pack, full of creative, kid-friendly ideas, accompanied by beautiful photographs and step by step instructions. It has so many activities I know my kids would enjoy. All for $5.

Knowing that I had all the materials available, I was itching to try making our own beeswax candles since I bought it. This weekend, in spite of Ethan's almost constant work on a school project due tomorrow, we found some time to try it out.

I told the boys we were going to make candles and asked each of them, starting with Adam, how they thought we might do this. Good thing I had a voice recorder nearby.

Adam, "Mix the jellyfish(!) and put the candle in it and then put a salt in it and that's it."

Drew, "You get a jar and then a white thing and then a string and then a 'firematch'."

Ethan, " You take one of those white cup thingies and um, have that stick thingy sticking out of it and then pour the wax and then let it dry and then burn the stick in the middle."

Ok then.

I dug up a LARGE brick of beeswax and we began the daunting process of whittling it down to a more manageable size. The grater was tedious but the most reliable tool.

























I think I might need a new one now.

We also grated some small crayon stubs for color although I think this might have been unnecessary, really. They were small enough to melt fairly quickly.

Ethan and I took turns with the melting. I used a double boiler method with a small saucepan and glass bowl, keeping the heat around medium.

We added essential oils for scents. Some choose peppermint, one lavender. Ethan asked if there was a bubble gum flavor.
























Once melted, the wax was poured into little glass containers which we had already prepared with wicks (or white, stick thingies). That's it!

















We were all pretty pleased with our accomplishments.
























Now, for the clean up.

A pack rat goes digital

If you have children, you have learned to ruthlessly discard stacks of "art" on a daily basis. Unless, of course, you prefer your house looking like an episode of Hoarders.

Eighty percent of the projects I'm tripping over are easy enough to part with.

And then there's the occasional charmer. This morning's masterpiece brought to you by Drew:

"Daddy's Brain. Out for a walk."
























There are a lot of possible solutions out there for organizing and displaying the real treasures. (I worked so hard and got them all from the same site)

I've been wanting to try one I first saw here. Genius! Scan in your favorites, combine into one piece to have printed (snapfish or shutterfly, perhaps), frame and hang. AND THROW AWAY THE ORIGINALS!

Here's my work in progress:

This and that, for lack of anything better

I admit I've been a little jealous of all the snowstorms they've been having out East. I love that Big Storm anticipation. Finally, it looks like we're about to get in on some of that snow action.

Probably a crazy fantasy, but I'm hoping to get some extra time for knitting while hibernating.

















(Fiona's Top, size 12 mos, my first attempt at lace. Yarn from stash)
















(Gaptastic Cowl, pattern on ravelry. Yarn: Zealana Eco Marino, elephant skin. Hopeful that I can pull off the cowl look.)


Also. I did it. A whole month of Bumbos. A lesson in perseverance, taught by a pink taskmaster. I really did find it surprising the way a goal forced my hand creatively. So many days I wondered how I could possibly come up with something new for a photo. And somehow, it happened in spite of me.

















Goal for February to be revealed soon!

I should get paid for this

Oh, the grand and laughable ideals I had before having children of my own. One was to play games with them as often as I possibly could. Ha, ha. I did play a lot more when Ethan was little than I ever have with the others but I can't say I enjoyed it much. There are only so many rounds of Candy Land a thinking adult can tolerate.

As Ethan gets older though, the selection is slightly less mind numbing. We have a good number of games that can be pretty fun if I'm willing to make the time commitment.

Sadly, there is always MUCH TO BE DONE. All the endless minutia that grows fangs if left too long. And, of course, facebook and blogs to read, pictures to edit. Down time to be fought for.

Enter Bananagrams. I hadn't planned to buy this game for Christmas but I saw it and remembered some positive reviews, so I grabbed it. Worth every penny.



It's a kind of informal scrabble. Each player works to use up their individual collection of letters before the others. One round can go quickly and the game itself is easily portable, a zippered pouch full of letters. It really is fun and there's the extra bit about it being educational and all. Like learning that "coved" is a word. Who knew? I didn't.

Ethan really enjoys it (when he's not losing) and it even managed to trump videogame time when he had a friend over today. Our less literate children play versions of their own, Drew spelling out his name obsessively and Adam making long lines of letters. Totally normal!

Sadie just watches from her perch and looks cute.

A little creative fresh air

It's been a long time since I did any kind of fun project with the boys. Suddenly these activities must be penciled in months ahead, somehow sandwiched between possible osteogenesis imperfecta and potential whooping cough.

Today we managed to pull it off. Ethan and Drew had the day off and it was a perfect chance to try out something I had bookmarked back in the summer. The walnut boats from this post immediately captured my attention. I had to have them.

Apparently whole walnuts are not readily available. Even at WHOLE foods. Come ON! This past week, I finally struck it rich at Walmart of all places. Apparently they are a seasonal item.













My hoarding tendency served me well with the wax. Plenty of old candles lurk in my basement.

















Ethan was honored to perform the grown up task of playing with fire, dripping hot wax into the shells.

























We decided to get fancy and use pieces of felt, decorated with buttons and glitter for sails. Sadly, we learned a valuable lesson. When it comes to flotation devices, less is more.

One of the felt sails, unencumbered by decorations, worked fine. The others we replaced with paper.

















Ideally, if I had met my target date of the summer months, we could have sailed these somewhere outside and possibly tried racing them. The kitchen sink was not what I had in mind but blue food coloring helped bridge the excitement gap.

Adam and Drew were immensely happy perched on kitchen chairs, getting wet up to their elbows. Heavy winds blew in, epic battles raged, ships sunk, transformed into submarines, sails disintegrated and masts pried loose.

















It's the simple things.

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I'm becoming a grown up. I'm making my own bread. Regularly! If four weeks in a row counts as regularly. Really, I'm getting into a groove and it hasn't been that bad. Usually I do the baking on Sunday, using Farmhouse White Bread recipe and we are set for at least a week with 3 loaves. (We consume lots of sandwiches around here)

No more frantic bread runs to the drugstore where the bread tastes like ground up cardboard.

This recipe really seems to work for me and I'm even able to sneak in a cup or two of wheat flour without anyone noticing.

The biggest key to my success though, has nothing at all to do with yeast amounts or rising times. It is a bread slicer I found that does not turn my loaves into a crooked, crumbly mess. I cannot recommend a good bread knife enough. I am actually able to cut straight, evenly sized pieces of bread. It's a lot more motivating to bake bread when you know you'll actually be able to use it.

Random bits

Woe is me, the good camera has flown the coop for a couple weeks. It's just me, the point-n-shoot and three cranky boys in various states of SICK. Sadly, I only made it fifty days into my 365 daily picture project. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Or rather, it wasn't really fun for long which is why it ended.

All is not complete doom and gloom though. I found some inspiration and energy to try out a tutorial I've had bookmarked for a while. Yes, I'm a bit of a plastic-phobe when it comes to food and as impractical and mildly crazy as it appears, I was drawn to these reusable snack containers.

















Not ideal for all snacks, but it's a start. I also fashioned (that is, folded in half and stitched) a couple bread bags out of old dishtowels for storing fresh, homemade (warm) bread. (Inspired by this post) Warning: gets stale quick! Maybe next time I'll wrap the cloth bags in plastic to keep them fresher? Needs tweaking.

While I mentioned it on facebook, I don't think I ever made it official here on my blog, which is where I'm trying to spend more time now. We are expecting a girl in June! The house is filling up with pink. And various shades thereof.















Also getting excited about all the plastic bottle alternatives I'm finding out there. In the past, I've only been able to find these 8 oz glass bottles, but now they are available in 4 oz as well. And, if you don't check out the price tag, these are fun options, both plastic (free of phthalates and free of bisphenol A) and stainless steel.

I know some people are scared by the possibility of a glass bottle breaking but I've found they are pretty tough. Mine have survived many deliberate hurls to the floor. There are protective covers available though.

On my list to try out soon: This well-reviewed chocolate chip recipe.

Homemade pasta with the help of this book which I just may have to keep out of the library forever. It's that good.