Minty Yum

Im sure I wasn't the first to make these cookies......I know for a fact Im not but I thought I would share something that is new to us this holiday. I found Andes mint chips at the store last week and decided to make my usual chocolate chip cookie substituting those for chocolate chips. And let me just tell ya. These are some darn good cookies! In fact they are so good that husband packed them into bags and hid them so he wouldn't eat them. He hid them so well we now cant find them. So I made another batch today. We went to a different store today and they didn't carry the Andes mint chips. After the initial panic I realized that I could buy the little mint candy bars and chop them up. So we did.

It seemed a bit mintier then last time so we added 1/3 package of chocolate chips.

It was not a mistake.

So good.

Kinda like a Frango mint....if you can remember those....if you can't then imagine a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha in a cookie. Then after all that imagining go make yourself some!

And Again With The Holiday Gifts......

I was talking with a good friend last night lamenting the economy and how its hitting our Christmas's this year. We touched on the fact that we both posses an alarming amount of craft supplies but haven't really figured out something to make for the kids this year. I started looking around the web and found a few ideas.....

• I love how my mind wanders when looking at this purse.....it could be such a great toy! And what kind of felt or knitted creatures live inside?? Im intrigued and am anxious to explore this more.

• How fun would this kite be to make?!!! Its a perfect working with a man project too! Imagine all the cool paper and magazine pictures I could use for this.....

• And a fave for my girls has always been washcloth puppets. This pattern is fantastic and simple and the possibilities are absolutely endless!

• Im also a huge fan of the Felt Food. I made my littlest a birthday cake for her birthday last year and its been a huge huge hit. Just don't make the mistake I made and give yourself plenty of time for a big project like that. A few great free patterns online are

cut up veggies

candy canes

sandwich and chips

cookies

Now to just decide what to make first.......

Holiday Gift Knitting

I thought I had decided that gift knitting just wasn't going to happen this year with all the time Im spending at the girl's schools......but then I saw this post on Yarn Harlot. I have noticed this pattern on ravelry and had earmarked it for some selfish knitting in the future(its knitting and cute shoes combined! Thats like crack for me) but had no idea how quick they would be to make.......

Searching the house for wool now........

Julefest

Winter, vikings, fire....what can be better?!

Happy Halloween!

The littlest Musketeer

We are going to ignore how long its been and press on to more important Halloween stuff.

Our littlest wanted to be a Pink Musketeer. So there has been much sewing going on with lots of help from an amazing Grandma(thanks Mom!) and the end result was a very very pleased Pink Musketeer

Here she is strutting her stuff at preschool.

I so love that her teachers were both Max.

I do believe she has captured the Musketeer spirit well.

Now to finish her sister's....

Casting on....,

Warmth for Washington caught my eye today and I can't wait to participate. Iv been looking for a local cause and this is right up my alley. Something quick and small to drag around with me to all the school meetings and such. Now off to cast on something warm and cozy.

Firsts

Last week was hell. Fiona had such a hard time going back to school, at a new school, in a new town, with new kids. It was just everything catching up with us I guess. The move, the lazy summer ending abruptly for them, and not soon enough for me. But I was thrown. Really thrown. Fiona is my child that is fine with joining in! Makes friends everywhere she goes and never cares to be left without parents in a new situation. This is the kid that told me to leave already at co-op at 2. And suddenly she is anxiety ridden. Afraid all the children hate her and never wants to go to school again.
I was going to write that last week was the hardest week Iv ever had as a mother. But then I stopped and thought of that statement. And realized that I have thought that before, many times before. There was when Fiona was a tiny infant with colic and cried for about 9 months, 9 months that I didn't sleep and worried I never would again....but I did and its all a vague memory now. Or when I was potty training Fiona when Elliot was only a few months old, spending my days sitting on the bathroom floor reading potty books to Fiona while nursing Elliot. That seemed endless....but she did get potty trained, and it didn't really take as long as it seemed to take! I could go on and on about thrush, broken toes, 3rd degree burns, and the common flue. But the point is that things change constantly with children. And there is light at the end of those excruciating tunnels.....eventually.
Today dawned with a smiling 1st grader who went to school without complaint. And ran off to class with a little smile on her face. And this Mama breathes a deep sigh of relief and hopes we have passed that milestone in the road.

as of September 8th

7!

My biggest little is now 7.

Unbelieveable.

In which I link a lot and reveal my strange thought process

I had some old cotton, the really over washed creamy feeling kind that my grandmother gave me. It had been embroidered by someone in her family, a sister or her mother or Auntie Mod. She wasn't sure who anymore. It was most likely used as a small table cloth or tea towel.

Its worn and a little shabby but I needed to use it for something. Optimally something I could see everyday :)
Then I was reading this delightful blog and saw how she has her flour kept in a canning pot. Genius. I have been searching for something to keep my flour in. The canisters you can buy are never big enough for the amount of flour I use to bake bread(and once again I am going to say buy this bread book. You will not be sorry). So its either keep refilling the canister or keep it in the bag, which will inevitably get a hole in it. Then I started thinking about flour sacks. Why in the world did they start packaging flour in paper?! And I knew; this is how I would use that sweet creamy hand embroidered cloth.
A seam up the side and one for the bottom and I had my own little flour sack to line my canning pot.



Finally a place for the flour.

I hate to say it but Thanks Again Martha.

Once again Martha's crack team of crafty-foodie-super-wonders have created a recipe that I know will inevitably become a family tradition. We will leave my opinions and Martha rant at that.
It was hot.
We saw this recipe in the new Martha my mom lent me. We had a honey dew. We used milk instead of cream tho and skipped the pistachios. But darn those popsicles were good!
The girls can't get enough.

And the dog really wishes they would share.

It was really fun to pull out the Tupperware from my childhood and do this for the first time with the girls. They thought it was pretty much magic. And as far as I'm concerned, it was.

Of Sand, and Knitting

It was hot today. I didn't expect that.

So an impromptu afternoon trip to the beach was due.


The girls were more then happy to go off by themselves and cover themselves with sand.


Which gave me an opportunity to do some beach knitting.
This is my new project.

Its a blanket for Fiona(her choice, not sure she needs one but she wants one). This last month I desperately needed some simple knitting. Things were just too much with the move and all for me to handle anything else. So when I found the pile of pink super soft yarn I bought forever ago to make her something or other I decided to just jump in and start knitting. Garter stitch. Lots and lots of garter stitch.
Just what I needed.

Exploring.....

Shooting from the hip in the town closest to our new home.


I kinda want to mail every letter I ever write here.

Clearly Im needing a bit of practice with this whole shooting from the hip thing. Stuff tends to get a wee tipsy.....but Im really liking the new perspective.

And here is a peek at our new backyard. Behind that fence is a large forest that we are itching to explore

Relocating

We have spent August moving. And are still adjusting to it all. Internet has had issues since we have arrived at our new home but I hope to be up and running again very soon :)

We are at the beach.....

And enjoying every bit of summer we can.

Spud & Chloe Love

Today I am packing boxes, and finding about a bazillion unfinished projects in my office so I thought I would pop by to say I really want to sit down in a nice cozy chair by a crackling fire with a glass of wine and listen to the new Cat Stevens and knit this from Spud & Chloe

(they have lots and lots of other super fantastic knitty things so you should go and check it out)
And this has done nothing to help my packing progress but I feel a little better having put this little desire out there.

Summer Time

What is it about this time of year? My girls seem to be growing both physically and mentally right before my eyes. Maybe its because I now have the ability to slow down and watch more these days. I find myself breathing deeper during the day, keeping my eyes trained on these amazing whirling dervishes. And when night falls I find myself unwilling to let them sleep, so enjoyable was our time I hate to let it end. And when they awake they seem to have grown, and changed full of even more amazing quirks.

When Performing in Peter Pan.....

Be prepared to have many of your days and nights full of dance rehearsals. My littlest bunny couldn't be more excited about tomorrow's show.

90*

Its hot. And this is about all we have done lately.

Fences and greens

To say I'v been busy would be a massive understatement. Things have been chicken with its head cut off crazy round here but we have made ourselves set aside time for some garden zen. We had to construct a new fence around the vegetable garden this year after Ziggy ate every strawberry we grew last year. I constructed this "character filled" fence out of odds and ends we had from previous house projects, willow tree cuttings, and for the gate; an old wooden chair that fell apart.

It finally felt completed when we brought home a piece of drift wood from the beach last Sunday and made a latch with it.

We just need to paint it now. I was thinking a nice white but the girls are thinking pink or turquoise so we will see how that turns out.

And thanks to all our unusually hot sunny days things are doing well in there.


I need to get some more plants.....when I get the time.

And I put up a much needed privacy fence


Privacy fence, I love you, zip ties and all.

For a spicy 3-day weekend....

May I suggest black beans? We came across this recipe in a diet book we have been using and are now addicts.
Here is my version of it:
Smoked Black Bean Dip
1/2 cup onion
1/4 cup of chives
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 1/2 cups fresh cooked black beans(recipe to follow)
1/3 cup water
the juice of one whole lime
1 whole chipoltle chile pepper in adobo sauce(with a few spoonfuls of the sauce added if you want an extra kick)
1/4 Teaspoon of kosher salt

• Throw all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. If intended as a spread use less water.
• Enjoy on chicken or fish tacos with crunch cabbage or tortilla chips

I was taught the Brazilian way to make black beans years ago by watching someone else do it. I never had a recipe but have always been pleased with how they come out.

Black Beans
1 bag of black beans
a lot of water
a head of garlic
kosher salt to taste

• Soak black beans overnight in pot
• Add water until it reaches 1/2 and inch above beans and bring to a boil.
  
• Turn to simmer and keep adding water as it depletes for 1 hour
  
• Peel and crush garlic into beans
• Once beans are easily crushed add salt and serve

In which I finish something...almost.

This little lady has been a work in progress since October. She has been a labor of love. At first she was to be a Christmas gift for one of my girls but they saw her eyes and decided she was "weird" so that being out she is destined for the shop. Im not sure about her hair and Im planning to sew a dress or two as well but she is much closer to being done after some deck knitting today.

Hopefully she will be done....soonish?

In which I come up with yet another new project

Someone grew so another inch was needed to be added to a sweater from Christmas


I got a bit creative with the new cuff


Knitting those few rows got me thinking about this.....


An over the head cardigan design? Possibly......

My bestest heels

I LOVE these babies. Seriously. Not only are they totally my style but the comfort is unbelievable. Perfect Mommy heels. I love them so.
If you wish to get your very own you can here.
Now if only Berne Mev would come out with a new line of them that are just slightly different so I could alternate a bit.

A Moebius for Mom.

For Mother's Day I knit an Elizabeth Zimmerman Moebius for my Mom. This is my first completed EZ project and I am smitten. The patter is absolute genius! Knitting the applied I-cord is just amazing. I can't wait to knit more "EZ" patterns.

Pattern: Knitted Moebius from the book Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light in purple

1.5 skeins = 216.0 yards (197.5m)
Needles: size 10 straight needles
Time took to knit: about 4 days