n o d d y b o o m

party of two

Marley was invited to an "all girls" birthday party today.  That meant, Griffin and I needed to find something else to do for those few hours she was gone (dad was working today).  Griff decided we needed to bake our own cake (seeing as how we were missing out on party cake), so we did.

I stuck the knitting in there for scale.  It is the "baby cake" recipe in this "Birthday Cakes" book.  Quite moist and yummy (could it be the 3 large eggs in it?) and just the right size for a small party of two with a couple of bites left over for dad and sister, (though, amazingly, she turned it down since she'd already had her fill of sweets).  Griffin did all the work making the cake batter and frosting.  Then I totally over-filled the pans and got to watch all the batter explode out of them, as they baked, and drip down the sides and onto the bottom of my oven in a big gloppy mess.  Quite exciting.  The cake still came out great, though.  I just cut off the incredibly crooked tops (and dipped them in frosting and ate them) and stacked and frosted the two 6-inch layers and rained sprinkles on top of them.  No complaints (I'm leaving the oven for another day).

Angharad made me a small cake like this for my birthday once and I loved it and then I begged her for the recipe and then I lost it (though I'm pretty sure she posted it on her blog somewhere, I just can't think where), so I was really happy to discover this one, because I think that is really such a sweet gift, to bake someone a cake.  And a small one like this, they can either keep entirely for themselves or share with an intimate group.  Plus, it's a lot easier to transport than a large cake. Plus, it's just so darn cute. 

a little knitting and some shoppe news

Yesterday, on a whim, the kids and I headed to theyarn shop in the early evening.  Marley has been asking to go to the yarn shop for days, now.  (She has also asked for me to make her some yarn, which I will of course, but that's not quite the same experience as going to the shop and touching everything, admiring all the colors and textures and just being surrounded by it all.  Love that).  So we went. 

It was closed. 

The kids were devastated.  Tears, people.  Buckets. "But Mommeeeee, I brought my bag to put my yarn in and everything!! - sob, sob..."  Not to worry.  I quickly found another yarn store that was open past 6:30 at night.  Phew!  Within 15 minutes we had purchased 3 skeins of bulky, single ply yarn and a set of needles (two skeins and the needles for Marley and one skein for Griffin who wants to start finger knitting).  The next morning Marley came bounding in my room at 6am, needles in hand, shoving the new yarn at me.  I had barely rubbed the crust out of my eyes before I found myself casting on. 

She's quite obsessed, at the moment.

I know, I know.  I'm bragging.  I can't help it.  I can't tell you how fun it was for me to sit in the den today and knit with my daughter (poor Griffin in the other room begging for someone to please come and help him set up the train tracks).  Just two more rows, dear!  (No sign of any interest in finger knitting since the purchase of the yarn. Ahem).  By the way, Marley's knitting Blue sky bulky, 50% alpaca, 50% wool on size 13 needles.  She should probably go up to a 15, but I wasn't sure if the larger needles would be too cumbersome for her little hands to handle.

So, I have signed up to participate in this month's Photo Trade Contest.  I am really excited, but also a little bit nervous because it means I have a deadline and I have to think of an idea that goes along with a theme that has already been decided and already I am beginning to over think this and question my abilities and so on, but I am still excited because, despite all that, I like challenging myself in this way and it has been ages since I've participated in anything like this and well, that's it, I suppose.

I have also finished making the five bunnies.  Five whole bunnies will go in the shoppe this coming Monday morning sometime between 9:30 and noon.  They are quite sweet and lovely, if I do say so.  All of them, with their hand-spun, hand-knit sweaters that they are swimming in. Here is a peek. 

I will post more photos later in the week.

Have a lovely evening, everyone!

friday, keeping it simple

We are kind of loaded up around here with an overwhelming amount of things to do/accomplish and an equally overwhelming amount of events to attend (recitals, school plays, parent/teacher conferences, etc.) as we approach summer.  Lovely things.  Important things, but the inordinate amount of them is a bit frazzling.
 
To counter that, I am trying to focus my awareness on the beauty of simplicity and I am making a concerted effort to find that simplicity in the whirlwind of everything going on around me, as a child might (you could take a child to the Grand Canyon and they will delight in the lady bug they find on the road). 

So...the beauty of simple foods and simple meals, had together.  The joy found in the simple, everyday things that surround me, in spite of or amidst the chaos busy-ness that also surrounds me.  Focusing on these things (and remembering to breathe) is helping me to maintain composure, at the moment.

p.s.  so excited to find  The Photo Trade contest through Creature Comforts.

wednesday - eating

Before:

After:

Thumbprint cookies made from rolled oats, ground almonds, spelt flour, sea salt, maple syrup, strawberry jam and walnut oil (all organic).

Recipe from "The Tassajara Recipe Book".  Yum.   I made these yesterday.  They didn't last the afternoon.

Today I did most of my shopping at one of our local farmer's markets (we are very lucky to have several in the vicinity).  I am trying to buy most of my produce there and at our local coop, as food prices have increased so dramatically with the increase in gas prices that it no longer makes sense to do anything but support locally grown produce. I always love going there.  There are a couple of stands that are my absolute favorites and I inevitably come home loaded with interesting greens that you don't ever see at the conventional market.  I'm really only half sure of what I brought home this week, because I didn't write it down, but I know most of it can be tossed into salads, blended in soups, or mixed in with stir-fries, and that's good, because that's pretty much what we're eating nowadays. 

monday - weekend highlights

It has been hot, this past couple of days.  A nice glimpse into summer, which we are all quite ready for.  There has been lots of swimming and knitting and playing and, on my part, the eating of jalapenos filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, thrown on the grill.


the highlights:

- blisteringly hot days and shorts and flip flops and swimming pools and the ocean and a mild breeze

- jalapenos filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, thrown on the grill - yum!

- my daughter's newfound love of knitting and her desire to blanket the many children who have very little and need that extra help - partly due to our dear friend Coco and partly also due to this book which she is so fond of

- watching my son start to conquer his fear in the pool and watching the joy emerge on his face, in so doing

- spending the whole afternoon laughing and playing with my sister and little niece (we hardly ever get to do this!)

- pouring over photos of my other sister all dressed up for prom and remembering her sweet self at 3 and 8 and 13 and so on - quite emotional

- watching my dear friend Danielle glow at her wedding shower and meeting all of her truly wonderful friends (you are sooo beautiful!  No one deserves this happiness more than you, sweet friend.  I wish you both all the love and laughter life has to offer.)

- spending much needed time with more dear friends and their littles at the beach, swimming and baking and playing and chatting and eating

- meeting the lovely Anjum and Jihad's beautiful baby girl, Noa and visiting with their family and friends to welcome her and celebrate their new home (she's sooo cute with that perfect little head covered in the softest dark hair, oh goodness!)

- reading this book (the first thing I've been able to get into since The Time Traveler's Wife and I'm zipping through it, yahoo!)

- moving right along in the Suzuki book #1 songs for cello, very exciting

Phew!  Busy.  I  hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!
 

thursday late evening

I have eaten way too many of these.  My stomach is rebelling. 

I am home this evening.  I shouldn't be, but I have opted out of going to the Roxy tonight to see Chris play because I feel a bit under the weather and I don't want to try my luck.  (But I will definitely attend next week, honey.  Promise.)  I'll just make sure to get a nap in ahead of time because he goes on at 11pm and plays for an hour and a half or so and then I have to wait for him to unload all his gear and say "Hi" to all the nice people and I just don't know how I used to stay up so late when I was younger.  But it's a brilliant show, so I'm feeling a wee bit guilty that I'm sitting here in front of my computer with my tea toying with my blog.  Just a wee bit, though.

The kids and I had a lovely time this afternoon sitting on the couch and leafing through these "Toast" catalogs, which I ordered mainly for inspiration but found myself wanting nearly everything inside!  Oh, the teepees that sleep 6 and can seat 15!  And the buckets full of linens and organic cotton pinstriped sheets and the french enamelware and the lovely stainless lunch tins!  I could go on and on.  We spent a good half hour or so perusing.  Seriously.  And then G went outside to cut some roses to decorate our house and we all decided it would be ever so nice to live a bit out of the city near a river and have lots of trees and nature in our backyard so we could spend evenings lounging by the fire reading books and knitting and listening to the frogs and crickets and discussing the intricacies of our lives (oh you lucky people who live in these places).  And all of this just makes me think of summer which is so close.  Sigh.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I think we all are.

wednesday, wip

All ambitions of reading last night went out the window the moment I put on an episode of "Lost, season 3" and started spinning yarn.  That show is so unbelievably addictive.  You can never watch just one episode.  I had to watch two and I would have watched another, but by then it was nearly midnight and I had to go to bed because people wake up at the crack of dawn around here (as they should, I suppose, I just didn't inherit that gene). 

Now I remember why I have avoided putting that show on for so long.  It takes over.  I am once again consumed and can think of (nearly) nothing else.

Except for bunnies.  I am having fun with those.

As soon as my car gets out of the shop, I am off to the Coop to purchase organic Buckwheat.  I have decided that these little bunnies would actually make perfect heating/cooling pads and will therefore be stuffed with buckwheat so they can be heated in the microwave and snuggled up to areas which need a little extra heat (or they can be stuck in the freezer if you need something cool, for a booboo or so on).  I could use one of these guys myself, at the moment.  I woke up with such a kink in my neck, I can hardly move.  Thankfully, I actually need to keep myself sitting straight and tall without craning my neck, to practice the cello properly, so my condition will probably enhance my practice.  Lucky me. 

it is tuesday

I am fiddling with my banner again (isn't it lovely that we can change these things on a whim?) and working on bunnies.  There is one of them, nearly done, and practically swallowed by his little hand-knit sweater, poor dear (his mummy likes to leave lots of "growing room" when she knits them).  He is happy, though, because it keeps him warm and cuddly.  I will have more bunny pictures later in the week when I get the tags sewn on all of them.  They have the cutest cotton (linen) tails.  Tonight I am spinning more yarn for the fourth bunny sweater and then I am hopping into bed.  I have a new book and so far, I'm delighted. Thank you Jenn!

p.s. I am gaga over this fabric I just found!!!

happy+mother's+day

I just want to wish all the mommies in my life a very happy mother's day.  You are, all of you, an incredible inspiration to me.  It nearly brings me to tears if I think about it too much.  I feel so blessed to be a part of all of your lives. 

I hope you have had a wonderful day (and weekend!) and continue to have wonderful days and weekends always.  You are all amazing and you deserve it.

For us, today was a day of family.  We had Grandparents, Aunts, Cousins, Parents, Sisters, Brothers Husbands, Wives and children, all together feasting and playing and watching basketball (go Lakers!).  It was so lovely I am filled with it and can feel my heart humming still.

I took a few pictures today.  I am ever playing with my vintage cameras, as you can see above, but I promise not to only take photos through the viewfinder (all these rounded corners).  I will mix it up.  I'm just so darn excited about it.  I wish I could find a resource for printing some of these.  I tried printing the ballet ones through flickr (and don't get me wrong, I love flickr) but they are very blah.  The paper quality just isn't astounding.  It's not a true matte.  So I must keep searching. 

These were all shot using an Argus 75 as the bottom camera, for those of you who are interested in such things.  It's a sweet little camera and it gives a slightly different picture than my Duaflex III.  That's my Grandmama on the top there, always smiling.  And my little niece right below, who's so quick!  And then Miss Marley, ever growing into such a beautiful thing.  And below that (I'm giving the tour here, haha) is my studio that I love and live in and yet haven't been extremely productive in because life has been unbelievably busy.  So many events and dinners and showers and parties and concerts and the scheduling of summer activities for the kids, etc. lately.  My goodness.  I nearly got sick from lack of sleep, but quickly recovered, thankfully.  But I am booking out time in my schedule to work in my studio this week. I want to finish those linen bunnies that are coming out so cute.  I will make five and then put them in the shoppe.  I am having too much fun knitting their little sweaters.  They all remind me of certain sketches Marley made when she was just a wee bit younger that I have saved and treasure.  There's a certain freedom in children's artwork that I just relish.  A disconnect from perfectionism and a Basquiat-ness that makes me loopy.  In a good way.  I love it.  I am always searching for it and searching to create it, that freedom and connectedness with pure creativity with complete disregard for criticism. 

Anyhoo, more on that later.  I must go.  But before I do, please check out Molly Chicken's latest blog entry.  It's such a nice pattern for a little sewn house and she just makes me roar laughing sometimes.

Also, check out the Peanut Butter sandwich cookie recipe on Black Apple's site.  They look sooo yummy.  I am craving those for some reason.  I must try to find time to cook them.  But I can't take away from my studio time, so we shall see...  Maybe someone else will cook them and bring me some?  Hehe.  And also, Black Apple found the cutest paper muffin cups online!  Very exciting stuff, I tell you.  I personally am excited to make blueberry or strawberry breakfast muffins or something in these pink ones.

simple custard

ricotta custard.  griffin stuck his finger in it before i could get a picture, stinker.

This is an easy one.  And yummy.  You throw all the ingredients into the food processor, pour the resulting custard into little containers and then stick them in the oven (in a water bath).  Sooo much easier than the other custard I tried cooking on the stove and then accidentally (darn doorbell) allowed to boil (never allow custard to boil!) resulting in a curdled mess of 4 ruined New Zealand eggs and 2 cups of organic milk.  And no custard to boot.  Ugh.  Oh, that was dreadful.  But this is a simple, hassle-free custard that's rich and delicious and tastes like cheesecake when it's cold.

I got the original recipe from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, a book I have recommended before and continue to recommend imploringly.  Everything I've tried in this book has been superb, and I've tried quite a few things, which is a lot to say, considering the amount of cookbooks I have that have collected the amount of dust that they have over the years. 

Plus, there are recipes in here for some of the more unique things one sometimes finds at the farmer's market and never knows what to do with, which makes me happy, because then I have something to actually do with the food when I bring it home, besides sit it on the counter and say, "hey kids, look at this".

Here's the recipe - I've tweaked it a tad, but it's more or less something like this:

organic butter and sugar for six ramekins (or other small glass containers for baking)

16 ounces of fresh whole milk ricotta

1 cup creme fraiche

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

(optional fresh grated nutmeg or cinnamon)

Preheat oven to 325º.  Butter and sugar the ramekins.  Blitz ingredients in the food processor until smooth and creamy.  Pour into ramekins, then set in a pan with hot water coming half way up the sides of the containers.  Grate nutmeg or cinnamon over the tops.  Bake until the custards are puffy and beginning to pull away from the sides of the containers, 50-55 minutes.  Serve warm or cold with fresh fruit.