It's pretty quiet here in blogland...

'cause momma has a new toy!!! Now if I could just figure out how to work it.




Here are a few playing-with-settings shots:

So, um, if you aren't doing anything feel free to stop by so I can take about 50 bajillion pictures of you doing random things, in different light, and at different speeds. I think my subjects are getting tired of having a camera in their face.

Spring Has Been Thoroughly Welcomed

Easter weekend for us was crammed full of fun activities and I now feel like we have done all we can to let Spring know that she is truly welcome. (of course, maybe she didn't get the memo since its been 35 degrees the last two mornings). We went off with one of the girls' best friends and her mom to see Horton Hears a Who on Saturday morning. I wouldn't usually say going to see a movie is a good way to celebrate a new season, but the story was such a childhood favorite and feeling like a kid again definitely puts a "spring" in your step (sorry, couldn't resist). We had our neighborhood egg hunt along with gorgeous weather...


and got up Easter morning to hunt more eggs and make ourselves sick with Easter basket candy. A little spring cleaning and a lot of cooking ended with a scrumptious meal with the fam, and to top it all off a bunny cake decorating competition. I'm just proud that I remembered to use the bunny cake pan I picked up on a whim back in February, usually that kind of thing gets stashed somewhere and completely forgotten. Some days I'm on top of my game, some days not so much. But then I did give everyone tubes of gel food coloring to decorate with instead of the cake decorating gel that I thought they were, so maybe I shouldn't get too pleased with myself. It was fun to laugh at everyone's green and blue teeth though.

Shutter Sisters Photo Challenge: Get on the Floor

I liked these two pictures that Jay took when we were out playing a few days ago, and they happen to fit the latest Shutter Sisters post perfectly. I'm going to have to go find a Shutter Brothers website if I keep posting his pics though. Well, they are of me...

Spring Traditions, New and Old

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. -Margaret Atwood


The first day of spring makes me truly giddy. So much anticipation focused on tiny little buds, a hardly containable yearning for when the green will return and the warm sun will be felt again. I can appreciate winter, it has its own barren beauty and I am always fascinated by the quiet and peace that comes with a blanket of snow, but it is the magic of renewal, rebirth and an abundance of light that awakens my soul and commences a flurry of foraging nature walks, gardening book perusal and dreams of coaxing things from the earth. This year I wanted to do something for the equinox that really translated all these thoughts into something tangible for the girls, and if these grow like I hope they will, then this will be a yearly tradition...





It really feels like waiting for something to hatch, fun! And yes, I have had eggs for breakfast every day this week.

Of course we have other traditions too, like getting out the egg tree and decorating it with the spring Barbie ornaments sent a couple of years ago by Nana Dee. These ladies in their fancy frocks are always fun:



It was quite chilly today, but a brisk tromp through the yard revealed a great deal of quiet activity. Most impressive is the archway into the back yard, the Lady Banks rose needs a serious haircut, but I just can't bring myself to do it until after it blooms (even though you can hardly walk through the gate), it is COVERED in these:




We have been in this house a year, and with the changing of each season and for all the holidays we have decorated the big picture window. It is quickly becoming another ritual marking of time. We spend a lot of time at this window, relaxing (it has one of the most comfortable seats in the house), reading, bird and squirrel watching, nature watching. It feels right to dress it accordingly as we watch the scene continuously changing through its glass.



Throughout the last growing season I watched patiently to see what was already here in the yard from the previous owners, and there are some great things, but this season I am very much itching to get my hands dirty. Welcome Spring, I've looked forward to your return.

Superhero Photo Challenge: Eyes Closed

Jay took this picture last week when I was crazy sick and he was entertaining the girls outside (or they were entertaining him, not sure). I love it. When I was a kid I liked to swing with my eyes closed too, and I think this picture captures the perfect little smile that goes along with that feeling.

The Shutter Sisters blog is one of my favorite places to visit on the web, they post lots of challenges that make you really think about how you take photos, you can find other entries to this Sunday's challenge in the comments of this post.

Do You Know Quinoa? It's the Supergrain of the Future!

If you made that rhyme then you are TOTALLY saying it wrong. Geez, it's such a task educating you people. You see, I am a Quinoa expert, because I have made it one whole time! Well, and because the box tells me it is pronounced KEEN-WA. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Jay was skipping around the internet and addressed me with a strange "have you ever heard of KEEN-WA" question. My blank expression most likely gave him my answer and he went on to tell me that the Men's Health website had an article about how healthy of a grain it is, that it contains more protein than any other grain. He was intrigued and said he was going to get some to try, I was back to looking at sock animal patterns on my own computer. Well, sure enough, the other day he returned home from work smiling at his success in procuring Quinoa from the local Fresh Market. Then it sat around until I got a wild hair to actually cook some up. I'm thinking this was his evil plan from the beginning. Instead of having rice with my barbeque pineapple chicken I was making, I noticed that the Quinoa box said you can make it in the rice cooker so I threw some in. Then I went for a quick look on Allrecipes.com to see if there were any interesting suggestions for how to use it and wasn't very inspired. All the recipes seemed to pair it with other veggies, so I excavated the veggie drawer and came up with a red pepper, some spinach, baby carrots, and a can of corn. Sneaky Quinoa Pilaf was born:

As mentioned, the Quinoa was cooked in the rice cooker. Came out looking like this, pretty boring, huh?

I started the jazzing up by putting a liberal amount of spinach in the bowl.


I added the hot Quinoa and topped that with a healthy dose of butter and cheese (I had a little Italian 6 cheese blend and a little mozzarella in the fridge, both went in). Butter and cheese make everything better is a motto I live by.

Next went the chopped baby carrots and red pepper, these I steamed in the microwave for four minutes first. Half a can of corn was dumped on top. Isn't it pretty?!

I added some miscellaneous seasonings (garlic, pepper, oregano), sprinkled a little cheese on top of it all and popped it in the oven next to my chicken for about ten minutes.

Voila! Sneaky Quinoa Pilaf and Pineapple Barbque Chicken.

Loved by 4 year olds everywhere! (she really did like it and asked for seconds). The 6 year old was simply horrified.

The Quinoa pamphlet in the box describes it as having a pleasing nutty flavor. Um, not so much. Really it has what Jay and I would describe as an absence of flavor. Not a bad thing, it tastes like whatever you add to it. The only thing we would change about this recipe is to cook the Quinoa in chicken or vegetable broth instead of water, it needed salt and I think the broth would add just the right amount along with some flavor. I was commenting while eating it that it would be very tasty in a risotto type recipe and sure enough there is a "Quinoa Risotto Milanese" recipe right in afore mentioned pamphlet! That will be next week's adventure.

The Great Provider

Let me tell you why I am a rock star today. I made clothing for my children. From like, scratch. That they can wear and stuff! And, hopefully, not even be embarrassed in, because they are the super cutest little skirts EVER! (obviously I have never made a piece of clothing in my life). As another distraction from the quilt I am currently hard at work on, and hopefully to fill the need for a quick project completion, I decided yesterday afternoon to finally whip up a couple of skirts from the pattern that has been lurking on my sewing table since last October. The pattern can be found here on the lovely Grand Revival blog. This pattern is soooo easy (well, once you figure out how to make a ruffle) and I finished both skirts in a few hours. It would have gone faster if not for the whole ruffle learning curve and one could easily be made in an evening. Luckily warm weather (skirt weather) is coming because I definitely see more of these in the girls' future. Except I have a quilt to quilt. Skirts, no. Quilt, yes. Must focus. Hopefully it will be showing up here soon, I'm ready to let this one go live its intended life on the couch and off my sewing machine.

Goes with mandatory pink cow-girl boots... check.

Good twirl factor... check.

I actually made both skirts the same size. Jumbo Shrimp is not at all thrilled that Popcorn Shrimp is catching up to her in height.

Camo Kitty

Whipped up another pointy kitty last Wednesday. This one is for my uncle, who when he saw a picture of all of us with our pointy kitties on our heads from Valentine's day sent an email that only said, "Where's my f***ing pointy kitty", subtle as usual. Mom and I decided that he definitely did need a kitty since they have made Christmas crafts for the whole family many years past and actually enjoy handmade things, so another kitty was born in extremely appropriate camouflage fabric. (Mom came over and motivated me out of my post-flu funk and we did this one in a few hours). Kitties were given out at the family birthday party last night and I think well received. I also managed to let go of the sunflower quilt to pass it on to its intended recipient (it was hard, it looked really nice hanging at the top of my stairs!) and I think it was a big hit too.

32 Is Fine With Me

I had great plans for yesterday, plans to make it a truly perfect day. A perfect day, to me, would involve sleeping late, breakfast in bed, going to the park to play with Jay and crazy giggly girls, some quiet time sewing or reading a book, a nice dinner, a shared bottle of wine... well, the absolutely only thing I did yesterday was turn


I spent the entire weekend with the flu. The I-can't-lift-my-head kind of flu. The this-is-why-they-make-flu-shots kind of flu. It really, really sucked. The girls bopped into my sick quarantine room Sunday morning all excited asking me if I was ready to open my presents. It was pitiful, Jay practically had to help me rip the paper. But all of their gifts were so thoughtful and sweet that they really did help. The flu without gifts would suck even more.

So, after a couple of days feeling like I was one hundred and two, I am now perfectly happy to be 32. Happy and soon to be healthy, and feeling really blessed. Oh, and once I was able to get out of bed without the room spinning there was this:


pinata action and the gift of an absurdly beautiful 73 degree afternoon...

The dress was picked out today because it was "beach party" day at preschool, but it ended up being weather appropriate.

Laundry Detergent Shenanigans

As briefly mentioned in my last post, I made my own laundry detergent a couple of days ago. I had never even thought of such a thing until I read this post by Liesl on disdressed that really piqued my curiosity. I would love to say that I had been searching for weeks, no months, for an easy way to make an environmentally friendly detergent alternative because I am soooo green, but no, my motives are completely self centered. I hate the smell of every laundry detergent I have ever met. I hate how much laundry detergent costs. Up until now I have used the Kirkland brand unscented laundry detergent from Costco and been quite happy with it. But when I read Liesl's post and then read through her very informative links I decided I would give it a try. And it doesn't hurt that it is a lot better for the environment (not entirely benign, but drastically better). The recipe I used is from Modern Cottage:

1. 1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated (comes out to about 2 cups)
   
2. 1 c Borax
   
3. 1 c Washing Soda
   
4. 1/4 c OxyClean
   

Mix it all together into a bumpy, granular mix. Don’t worry about stuff getting correctly dispersed, even if it doesn’t quite look like it does.

Use 1T for a light load

Use 2T for a large or dirty load (It’s true! Only 2 Tablespoons per load!)

The purple thing in the middle is "essential oils" from Michael's. They smell horrible, I wouldn't add them to the cat box, and they were not used. I guess one thing you can't skimp on is essential oils.

I found all the ingredients in the laundry aisle at my local Publix, they were even all together. You know, in that "no one ever uses this crap" section. The OxyClean is not required, but some people think it keeps whites from getting dingy. Also, I plan on running a load every now and then with my regular detergent just to make sure there is no buildup. I mean, there is a reason people buy expensive liquid chemical detergents and a lot of that is the chemicals make them rinse really clean. Plus I still have a big Costco vat. My detergent was super easy to make, I just have a few suggestions:

1. I bought a grater just for grating the Fels Naptha soap and it has medium size grate teeth. I suggest the small, you want the grated soap to be really small so it mixes well with all the really granular and powdery other ingredients.

2. I said I don't like the smell of regular detergents, but this doesn't mean I don't like smells. I just don't want my clothes to smell like super fake spring fresh make me gag smell. However, Fels Naptha soap is stinky. Not an appealing to me in the least way kind of stinky. The Borax and the Washing Soda don't really have a smell, and the OxyClean smells pretty nice, but the soap does not. I do have to point out that after using the homemade detergent the clothes do not actually smell like the detergent, they just smell clean and actually pretty scent free, but next time I will use something else. You really can use any kind of pure soap, like Ivory or Castile, which is supposed to be quite pure and comes in yummy scents like mint or lavendar.

3. Mix it up outside, the Borax and Washing Soda make quite a little cloud when you are pouring them and mixing them.

4. If you are doing a cold wash, run the water on warm or hot while adding the detergent to dissolve the soap then switch to cold. There are plenty of liquid versions out there, but they seem much more involved.


I have done a few batches of clothes in the last few days to test out the detergent, some of my dirtiest items have been: white towels with sticky cheap makeup on them (from the girls' bathroom), a cream sweater that was covered in dirt after the smallest shrimp fell off a swing on the playground, paint on my jeans from an impromptu art session the other afternoon, a couple of dirty rags from cleaning and dusting last week. All items came out clean and sparkl-y, I really have been quite pleased so far. Here is the cost rundown:

Fels Naptha 99 cents
Borax 3.29
Washing Soda 2.29
OxiClean 7.59

This is enough ingredients to make about eight batches of the above recipe.

The Modern Cottage estimates about 5 cents a load, where Tide is about 30 cents a load.

Oh, and an important thing to point out apparently, based on comments left on other blogs, just because these ingredients are better for the environment doesn't mean they aren't still chemical. This concoction is supposed to be 1/16th as chemical as regular detergent, but it still has ingredients that are harmful (as in, you wouldn't want to eat it or bathe with it, just like regular detergent).

I'll report back when I make my next batch with different soap.

Because I Really Needed A New Textile Obsession

This was really a close to perfect weekend, my time was balanced in the just-right proportion between friends, family and crafting, and I even learned something new! But first off, I am still on an Oscar high after watching Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova win an Oscar for their amazing efforts in the movie Once. We watched the movie a couple of months ago and were both completely enamored with its freshness and the awesome soundtrack. We loved it so much that up until last night it really felt like "our" movie, it seemed like not many people had heard of it or watched it, I'm guessing that will change now. But hey, maybe not, who pays attention to which movie wins for best song anyway? I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys a subtle movie where the characters have real chemistry. Oh, but it is important to realize that it's technically a musical, which I really didn't even notice until about five songs in, its THAT enjoyable.

Back to the rest of my weekend, Friday was spent enjoying the company of my closest friends, the main event on Saturday was a double couples wedding shower that was highly entertaining, and Sunday I got to do crafty stuff with mom all day... we whipped up another Pointy Kitty (that's the problem with making them, everyone wants one) and I have to say, I think this is the loveliest one yet. She is really spectacular, with mom's signature bejeweled eyes and heart nose, and some leftover Amy Butler fabric from the quilt I am currently working on. The kitty is for my aunt who helped me pick out the backing fabric for the quilt and who told me several times that she would be happy to take it off my hands if I finished it and decided I didn't want it. Well, that just isn't going to happen, so she gets a matching kitty instead. My crazy uncle wants one too, so there will be another one coming along once the camo fabric I ordered for his arrives. Working together this kitty only took a few hours, and that was including a break for steak and shake cheeseburgers (mmmmmmm) and being randomly distracted by patterns in various quilt books.



Also on Sunday I learned to knit! Mom's crafty visit also came with knitting lessons, which I had been bugging her about for a few weeks. She even bought a book that she is letting me "borrow" which has some good beginning knitting instructions and simple projects, even though she already knows how to do pretty much everything in there. She's awesome. She wanted me to learn Continental knitting and pearling instead of English (who knew there were different ways to knit?!) since it is supposed to be much faster if you can master it, and she is even trying to reteach her own brain to do the Continental method. It was actually a bit more challenging than I thought it would be, especially going back and forth between knitting and pearling since they are pretty much opposite ways of doing the same thing, it made my brain hurt. But in a good way, in a I'm learning something new and using brain cells kind of way. And Jay was very attentive as I would hold up my wonky two inches of knitted rows to show off how awesome I was he would exclaim encouraging things like "that's great! you have already knitted a toe sweater! you ARE awesome!". Thanks honey.

Here is my toe sweater:


Mom showing off with her "real" project and fancy needles:


I have gotten better as I've progressed I think, another day of practice and on to knitting a real scarf...

So, (and this is where I hang my head kind of sheepishly) I have already made a trip to Michael's this morning and ended up in the yarn aisle. I really did not go in there for yarn. I went there to see if they had any essential oils for the laundry detergent I am making today (that's a whole different post) and just wanted to take a little peek at the yarn. They actually did have some Lion Suede which is called for in the scarf I want to do when I finish practicing with the thirty year old donation yarn I am currently using. Then I got some boucle for a shawl, BUT THAT IS IT. I'm not buying ANY more until those two projects are finished. And I put back a knitting book that had jumped into my cart. And a pack of assorted needles. There was a smidge of self control shown. I think I will be ok as long as I ABSOLUTELY do not, under any circumstances, step into the yarn shop up at Magical Threads in Dahlonega. That place made me want to buy yarn before I even knew how to knit. Must. Stay. Away.

Possibly Too Much Time On My Hands

On most cold mornings this winter I have fouind Lyla in her favorite spot:


Isn't she clever? If I were a cat I would sleep all morning right in front of the heat vent too. However, I always look at her and think how nice it would be if she had a little cat mat to lie on instead of the wood floor. Sure, I could throw down a dish towel and see if she even seemed to care, but what fun would that be? Yesterday while the girls were home from school for President's day and driving me crazy I decided to whip up a little mat for her (the shrimp are learning that while mom is using her sewing machine she will only fulfill about one out of fifty of their constant demands). It was also a chance to get in some free motion quilting practice before starting back in on the quilt I am currently working on. And um, of course the mat had to match the place mats I made a while back. Here is that mat in use, actually by Lyla's sister Lola, who all the sudden has decided that's a really good spot too, hmmmm:




And the placemats, made with the same Alexander Henry fabric with the pattern out of Amy Butler's In Stitches:


Sure, I may have issues, but what have you done for your cat today?

Mom's Sunflower Quilt

I finished a quilt! Ahhh, it's so gratifying, even if its just a small wall hanging. I started this on a whim one evening when I was tired of just petting my batik collection and decided to actually CUT INTO some of it (gasp!). The pattern was a purchase from the Birch Creek Quilts booth at the AQS show in Nashville last year and I have to say it was super easy. I forget how much fun machine applique is, especially for whipping something up to go on the wall. I cut out all the pieces in about an hour one evening and then it sat on my design wall for a while. Then, a few weeks ago my dear sainted mother went and bought the Bernina embroidery machine that she had been agonizing over for 2 years and GAVE ME her Bernina 1260. So, of course I became a sewing fiend and the closest victim was the sunflower hanging on my design wall. Gotta say, MY new Bernina sews like an absolute dream and I look forward to many, many projects with it. This quilt will be going to my mom for her birthday as the first quilt I finished on her machine (um, mine).

One new thing I tried on this quilt was using press and seal (you know, the stuff that is like sticky saran wrap) to trace the quilting design on and then pressing it on to the quilt and quilting over it. It worked quite well for the little bit of quilting in the corners needed on this quilt, but I can't imagine using it for a large area, I would think your needle would get pretty sticky after a while. I used a pin to get under the press and seal to pull it off and it came off quite easily and did not pull my stitches (there are some pictures in the set below).

And then, since it is going to my mom, I had to add LOTS of Swarovski crystals (I ordered mine from Creative Crystal, they have great prices if you need a lot). The sample quilt at the Nashville show was heavily bejeweled also, which probably is what drew me to it in the first place.

Ok, so any family or friends that wander this way... shhh! It's a secret!

Here are pics:

Super Hero Photo Challenge

From the Shutter Sisters challenge... some of my favorite shots shooting into the sun:


In the fall it seems like you can't get away from the sun in your lens...




And some summer sun and clouds in St. Louis: