Crafty bits...

look at it...isn't it cute and so so tiny. A little mini pincushion ring. I think i am going to store it away in Avery's sewing box. I just love how tiny it is.

The idea was from and inspired by a blog post i had seen at this blog. It is adorable. I thought that if i tried doing it with a yo-yo instead of cutting a little piece of fabric and then trying to sew it on that it might be something i could possibly make. It worked. And the base of it is one of those little milk/cream carton sealers that you pull to open. What a good way to reuse something. It fits right over your finger, and as a bonus the little plastic piece on the inside keep you from stabbing yourself in the finger every time you use a pin.

i made another bag too, surprise!. I hunted high and low for fabric to use on this one and could not find anything i was happy with...but this little green floral was way at the bottom of one the piles on my fabric shelf, and it spoke to me! Use me it said....so i did.

Headband Happiness

i saw this project a few weeks ago(here) and wanted to give it a try. It seemed like a fun and easy idea. I always wish i could think this stuff up, but it seems i can only follow directions. Yesterday i gave it a try. I think it took me a whole whopping 15 minutes of work. The only thing that is keeping me from making a ton more for Avery and myself is that i am terrified of my sewing machine. In my opinion it is very tempermental and i am always afraid of projects that have much thickness to sew through....it clunks a little. This was made from scraps of a vintage pillowcase. I had some left over from a sheet swap i joined. It is reversible too. I think she loves it. She even planned todays outfit around it.

Fix it and Forget it..Finally

This is the before shot. What a mess...ugly brown walls, stuff everywhere...plaster patches and what you can not see is all the paint swatch splotches everywhere....Believe it or not there is a counter under all that junk

And here is the after. Shiny clean and a new shade of pale sage on the walls. Now i just have to make some curtains. I have been holding on to fabric for it for a few years now. I know i am moving soon but it is good to have it done and looking nice for when we are trying to sell.

I am pretty pleased with it. At first the color was a surprise...Chris picked it out. I just put it up on the walls. 12 hours of painting fun later(i don't really mean that!) we had the end result.

Toothless

I was sad about the first lost tooth, but this is the one i have been waiting for. Is that weird? I really think that toothless gap is adorable. I hope that she looses that other front tooth before the first one starts coming in. Losing teeth is pretty hard for Avery, she gets suddenly sentimental about aging....man i know how she feels!!! Isn't she a riot!?! And it is hard for me....since I am the one that she asks to take it out, and if I am telling the truth it makes me really squeamish. I have to ask her to close her eyes so she does not see the gross out faces i am making while i do it.

Market Dessert

The Saturday Farmer's Market was bursting with yummy fruits and vegetables this week. The hardest part is choosing something that you want to take home, and then once you get it home what are you going to do with it. Most of the time we can just eat it raw, or cook it up for dinner...and I thought that we would just snack on these yummy white nectarines but they just were not soft enough and pretty tart. Sooo...

I cooked the blueberries, also from the market, and the nectarines down with a little sugar, a little water, a little cornstarch to thicken it and the juice of about half a lemon. The nectarines were a pretty white with pink on the inside, but once they were cooked(for 5-7 minutes after they came to a boil) the blueberries stained them a pretty purple. They looked good and tasted even better.

I made up some simple biscuits, whatever kind you like to make, for shortcakes and then piled on the fruit. A little hit of pouring cream and it was perfect!!!!

Special Visitor

This week/weekend my mom came for a visit. The kids are always begging her to come and finally she was able to break away from her work in the middle of the week for a long visit. She was barely through the door before they had plans for her and were listing off all the things they wanted to do with her while she was here. One was cook, kind of my idea, but they enjoy it together. Please ignore the patch on the wall in the picture...the kitchen is getting finished this week...finally.

Mom and Avery made homemade fudgecicles/pudding pops. Mom had written down the recipe and brought it with her because she thought the kids would like it so i picked up the ingredients and they got to work. Avery thought the swirly colors were cool.

I can report that they were a success and passed the kid and parent test. I am not sure where the recipe came from but i think this is how it went

Fudge Pops

1 box instant devils food pudding
2 c. Milk
2 T chocolate syrup
1 c. cool whip

mix the first three until it stiffens. Fold in the cool whip. Spoon into little cups(these are the tiny bathroom size cups) and insert a popsicle stick. Freeze until solid and enjoy.

Portrait of a 3 Year Old, Part Deux

Much like last time...i am a little speechless. It is because i am laughing too hard! This kid cracks me up, every single day. My mom is here visiting for a few days this week and he was gifted with these lovelies! A new accessory. At one point he had to put them on to tell us a story because he said they were his "storytelling dlasses".

I think he has a permanent indent in his head from the goggles. He has had them on for days now. Love him!

Zucchini Madness

I love this book, Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is full of great ideas, information, tips and recipes. In this season of zucchini and having an abundance of them from the farm i remembered that there was a recipe in the book for Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew this one was meant for me to try. They are so delicious and moist. The recipe is on the books website here. I am surprised that there are any left, the kids love them despite containing veggies.

We also went to get this weeks box out at the farm yesterday and it was as usual full of veggies that were familiar and some not so familiar. This week we got salad, cucumbers(slicing and eating), more squash than i have any idea what to do with(squash fritters, bread maybe), potatoes(boiled with butter parsley, garlic and basil), green beans(i like them raw), the prettiest onions ever, basil and the sweetest, cutest baby fairytale eggplants. These i have not ideas for, i am stumped! Any ideas for what to do with eggplant without breading and frying it?

Rainy Day Fun...For Everyone!

It has been pouring down rain all day long...and any mom knows that that is a recipe for disaster. The kids were bored and starting to get on each others nerves, so i brought out the bean table. We don't use it often so it was worth a good 45 minutes of happy and quiet play together. I even heard them in there pretending to be Jamie Oliver the chef from Jamie at Home. He is Avery's favorite. The girl has good taste. The bucket is just a decent sized rubbermaid full of mini pots and pans and they cook, cook and cook until the fun is over. When we are bored with the beans i also have a bucket of multi shapes and colors of pasta that we can change it out for. It was also enough time for me to have a little mommy rainy day fun. I got a chance to sew up one of the projects we have progressively been working on this week.

I say progressively because the project required me to go and buy some fabric markers and let the kids pick out fabric they liked(which incidentally ended up coordinating). Then we spent a little time a few evenings ago coloring pictures on fabric. The kids did a fantastic job. I was not sure if i was going to get masterpieces or if i was going to get scribble scrabble. I was pleasantly surprised to get beautiful drawings from both of the kids. With all of this we were going to make our own little placemat's like i had seen on a sight called Let's Explore. It is full of great easy ideas to keep the kiddo's busy.

Here is the end result...i cut and sewed them up while they were busy with the beans! Thank goodness for the beans!!! Avery was so excited when they were done to see her masterpiece turned into a little window of time. They will only be this big once and now i have a memento of them that will hopefully last us a lifetime. Avery's is us as a fairy family in a field of sunflowers and Mitchie made a snowman and wrote his name.They were intended to be for eating....but i just cringe a little at letting that happen. So i was relieved when Avery asked if we could hang it on the wall somewhere to enjoy so that we did not get it all dirty with food. That is my girl!!!

Portrait of a 3 Year Old

What more can i say?! This is his new favorite accessory. He even wore it to the hardware store this morning.

Crafty Reads

I just got these books this weekend. I love getting stuff in the mail, but i think i have mentioned that before! I have been looking at all of these for a long time now, but never indulging and buying them for myself. I could wait no longer, so i went ahead and ordered them. I have my first sewing project planned, it is even all cut out and waiting to go. I hope it turns out. I should have pictures of it soon. Until that is made i think i am just going to keep pouring over these and dreaming of more projects to make.

Yummy Market Dinner

I am always shocked by how pretty swiss chard is. The colors...pinks and oranges and red...i just love them. Last night that swiss chard was on the menu. It was one of the items in this weeks CSA box.

The chard leaves were boiled and then pat dry...I added pasta to the same water. While the pasta was cooking i sauteed the chard leaves(chopped), garlic and leeks in olive oil. The swiss chard stalks went into the pasta water, and when it was done it all got drained together. In the meantime i toasted some italian breadcrumbs in olive oil to toss with the pasta when it was done along with some fresh parmesan.

As a side dish i made the fennel salad featured in this weeks CSA newsletter. I really enjoy fennel, and the licorice flavor that it has. Everyone ate it but i think i was the only one that enjoyed it. The kids and Chris did really love the pasta. I am really pleased with the way everyone has been willing to at least try the new things we are getting each week.

Matchy Matchy

We did not forget this past weeks Field Trip...it just was not much to speak about. It was a really hot and humid day so we went to the movies. Avery has been waiting and waiting to see the new Kit movie. While we were there Mitchie and Chris went to see Walle. Avery and Kit both got dressed up for the show. Avery loves the matching clothes. I even made Kit a skirt to match the black floral one i made Avery a week or so ago, and a matching pair of jammie pants.

So, reading is something we are continuing to encourage with Avery. She is doing great but she is the only one that needs to be convinced of that. She has been reading books like this Kit book and many other chapter books, yet she still thinks that it is too hard and she can't do it. Funny since she is the one reading to us and to Mitchie all of the time, and because this is how i find her very often these days.

I did it!

This week i gave these soft toy blocks a try. The tutorial is over on Chasing Bluebirds Blog. She also has a great little Etsy shop where you can buy a set of these blocks for yourself or for any little person in your life that you love. Check it out here. Thanks for the great instructions! They were fun and fast to make and really really cute. And a great way to use up some of my larger fabric scraps.

It took me until the third one to really figure out the corners but i got them!!! These are awesome . You can make them in any size you want. I love them!!

Dare Taken

My mom double dog dared me to make the beet ice cream when she saw me mention it. So, Mom, i took the dare. I did it! Now, i will continue by saying it was purely experimental. I did not know what else to do with my beets and I was pretty sure that it was not going to be kid ice cream.

What were the positives...well, obviously the color. The color was just ridiculous. These pictures can not even come close to doing it justice.I will be honest and say that to me the flavor is not the greatest...but that is because i am not a big beet fan. I have never quite gotten over the canned beets that my mom tried to feed us. BUT, for those of you that think beets taste like little gems this is for you! When you first taste it it was lemony(you add lemon juice at the end) and sweet, then you tasted the beet flavor and then the super creaminess of the creme fraiche came through. Wow..was that "foody" speak or what?!?

However in our house this picture speaks volumes. Mitchie was so there...ready to give it a try. I am proud of him for that. He tasted and then said no thanks because he said "it did not taste very well" . I asked him to please take another bite for the blog and this is what he did.

So there were no beets in this weeks box... there was zucchini(destined for the grill), cucumbers(with hummus and just for a snack), sugar snap peas(gone), fennel(maybe roasted or in salad), scallions, lettuce, swiss chard(perhaps with pasta) and turnips(mashed or au gratin?)

*** I am pleased to say that today i had some real taste testers...adults...and they seemed to enjoy it! They also are all fans of beets. A major requirement to eating beet ice cream. Thanks for being so nice Justine, Rebeca and all the other girls at the market***