a weekend away

We traveled this weekend. Stayed warm inside cooking, laughing & reading books. I'm almost finished with a knitting project, update later I promise. On the way home we stopped at a open house jam at chirps & dots place. Wish we could have stayed the whole evening, but 2 toddlers in a house full of instruments is an accident waiting to happen. Still, it was a grounding, great-full & sweet weekend.

snacky treat from my childhood

I found a recipe recently for Peanut Butter Balls, and I flashed back to my childhood. I don't know who started it, maybe juniper, but we would make these treats all the time. A great little snack to take on an afternoon adventure or if you need a little dessert. It only takes a few things from your pantry, no baking and are wonderfully delicious.

1 c. peanut butter or almond butter
1 c. wheat germ
1/2 c. raisins
1.4 c. honey
1.2 c. coconut flakes




mix










Roll into bite size balls & coat with coconut. Vary the recipe & add any nuts, chocolate chips, other dried fruit, ferina or even dried milk powder. My own little version of 'chunks of energy'.

Felix's quilt

finally, it's sooo close I can't wait to tuck Felix in under his big boy quilt. This was my first attempt to make a quilt, and without a lot of help I wouldn't have made it. I had all the fabric, some vintage bark-cloth with all it's nubby texture and a very large repeat which I didn't want to cut up. I added some wood grain fabric, some orange corduroy, hounds-tooth, vintage napkins, denim and some ikea fabric to give it a boost. I thought it would be a nice big boy quilt, to replace the one he received as a baby.
I got some great design advice from Meg, Beth and others from our awesome craft group. And quilting help from the wonderful ladies at this shop ( a treasure!!) . So in the frenzy of pre-Christmas crafting I shoved this baby through my sewing machine but stopped short of adding the trim.
I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, even with the wrinkles, warps and fudges, it's just like a mothers love rite? So now with a rainy weekend forecast, I'm hoping to finish it up while watching the Lion King again.

optimism

Inside again. Trains sprawled, clothes in baskets, books in a pile on our reading chair. It's fine, no surprise, it's January. All of the closets are half-cleaned out, the fridge clean but the fridge door isn't, who cares. What I love about this part of winter is the laziness of it all. Quiet nights of reading, playing music and netflix. Happy not to be running into the studio every time I can make a break for it. The studio is also half organized, but I can find what I need in a pinch ( I think.)













And then there are the plans. For lettuce all year round, they say it's easy. Soup & Salsa ingredients, made from the ground up. I think this is the year, no I'm sure of it. This is the year that I will READ the entire book and not just look at the pictures. This is the year that the soil has been amended enough to produce something, we can take to the table besides garlic.

One great tip I read, see I'm doing it already, is to plant your squash seeds rite into your compost pile! Here are the books I'm looking at... I mean reading rite now:
Organic Kitchen Gardens, 12 Month Gardener, Wisconsin Garden Guide, The Encyclopedia of County Living and Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs and The Farmer's Wife Guide to fabulous fruits & berries. Cross your fingers for me. Have any favorite seed varieties??

learning to skate

It's like a rites of passage here in the frozen north, learning to ice skate. When I learned to skate, on this same pond, my dad would bring a chair to steady us as we learned and mom would bring popcorn in a big ol paper bag. Now they have these great walkers for kids, we had to share them but it was really fun. The warming house had that same smell of hot chocolate, socks & melting ice.







I remembered to bring popcorn.

monday night music

I work on monday nights, home by 9pm usually. Last night I came home to this. How wonderful, the kids were fed & happily playing in the other room. Friends passing through town stopped by for a meal and to play music. Other friends were called to join in. Sometimes ( most of the time) being a guitar makers wife is really really cool.

foxes & cake

It's still winter here, and for me anyway I always want to have the oven on around 2pm. I remember my mom would make us ginger cake on cold winter afternoons. I did the same this week & the boys who were napping and the men in the shop loved it.

While the cake was baking I started this project, not sure where it will lead but there may be chickens dancing with that nicely dressed fox.

















Ginger Cake 350 25 min.
1 stick unsalted butter , cream with
1 cup brown sugar, add
2 eggs, one at a time, add alternately
1/2 c molasses ( or sorghum & honey)
3/4 c hot water
and dry
2 1/3 c total flour (mixed WW & AllP)
1/4 t salt
1 t b. powder
1/4 t b. soda
1 t ginger
1/2 t mace or cardamom
1 t cinn
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t allspice

I made 2 small cakes with this, one for the shop & one for the house. Great with powdered sugar on top.

week in shapes : organic and natural shapes

Final Day

Sorry family stuff kept me from the computer yesterday. Thanks Melissa at tigerlily tinkering and Beth at the end of this row for keeping this week of shapes going.













































thanks everyone, I think I may be away for a bit, family first. I hope to be more present here on my blog this year. I'd like to do a week exploring line, shadow & maybe color too.

cao for now

week in shapes : squares and rectangles

Wednesday, squares & rectangles.
join us :
tigerlily tinkering





once I started looking critically they are literally all over my house ( and everyone elses I bet.)













No I didn't make him do this, but was amazed at his timing on making his own drum set yesterday.














Thursday is ( if you want ) a natural or organic shape
Friday is your favorite one

thanks for tuning in, see you tomorrow.

week of shapes : circles & ellipses

What I am realizing while doing this week of shapes is that repetition of the same shape makes the object or space more dynamic, sculptural even. Perhaps that's why I'm so drawn to pattern & fabric. Here's my offerings for circle day.

this stack of bowls in my kitchen, these get used more than our dishwasher. There's a lovely clang & shift when the rite sized one is pulled out from under & over the others.







Our sideboard in the dining room, a treasured piece. Crossing my fingers it makes it through the child-rearing stage of this house.


please join me in this week of shapes, a conscious look around our everyday to try to notice what shapes our world. ( cheezy it just works!! ) Leave a comment & I'll link to your blog here.
tigerlily tinkering




Thanks to those who are participating, I love seeing your critical eye.

week in shapes, official opening day & rules to play allong

oh yippee, I'm so glad some of you want to join me. Leave me a comment & I'll link to your blog here.

tigerlily tinkering

at the end of this row

Look for shapes that inspire you in & around your home. This means obvious shapes, like a beautiful vase or a piece of furniture. But also look for shape within negative space, how 2 edges relate to each other, (like this photo). While I don't really want to tell you what to look for we can use these jumping off points.








Monday-triangles

Tuesday-circles, ellipses

Wednesday-squares / rectangles

Thursday - a natural or organic shape

Friday - your choice ( well they are all up to you really)

week in shapes

preview

week of shapes

Inspired by these posts, I thought a week of shapes would be good to start off this new year. Since us in the frozen north are inside a lot I feel like the objects around me need to be dynamic & inspiring. I took a little walk around my home, do you want to do it too? Leave a comment & we'll link together for this week of shapes.

2010

it's a fun year to write, 2010, 2010.
in my mid-new years day haze here are my resolutions.

to edit
to forgive



I'll be checking all of your blogs for your resolutions. all my best for this year.





thanks for the great feedback on the last post. It gave me the confidence I needed to wear my shirt with pride last night. I'll keep it up if you will;)