My pillow was featured on the front page of Etsy today. I’ve hit a milestone and am drunk on page views and favorites 🙂 Celebrate with me by doing some jazz hands and smiling your biggest smile! And maybe throw in a maniacal laugh or two 🙂
(It’s the listing in the bottom right-hand corner)
Click here to visit the treasury: http://www.craftcult.com/vault_list.php?list=41197
Gigantic Tintype Camera Makes Almost Life-Size Portraits!
I read this article yesterday and can’t stop looking at the portraits. I’m enthralled! And need to make a trip to San Francisco tout de suite to get one of my own 🙂
My 15-month-old daughter has been in need of a car seat upgrade for a few months now, and a few weeks ago, she received a brand-new rear-to-front-facing heavy-duty cool-as-all-heck car seat. I had my doubts about paying so much. But after hearing several frugal friends sing its praises, I ordered one.
The Britax Marathon. Cue angels singing. I’m serious. Lots and lots of angels.
This may be the nicest thing I’ve ever owned. If you’ve talked with me in the last few weeks, I may have already listed the features for you:
My 3-year-old also received a new car seat: the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1.
While still very nice, its box was plastered with tape, a pain to open, and a pain to put-together. But it’s not the Nautilus’ fault. I opened the Britax first….
For about the last two weeks I’ve been eating black beans, jasmine rice, and a tablespoon or so of Nearly Normal’s Tamari Ginger vinaigrette. And it’s delicious. And addicting.
If you’re not in the Corvallis area, then you can find a ginger vinaigrette at your local grocery store. The Nearly Normal’s vinaigrette does not have any sesame in it, though others I see in the store often do. Amazon also has several, with sesame, that look delicious as well, including this Trader Joe’s one, which is also fat-free! I may have to pick it up the next time I’m in the store.
I’ve started making I-cord wrap bracelets for my Etsy shop. And in looking around at I-cords online, I ran across this lovely little history of the I-Cord and a brief description of how to make one yourself.
http://www.purlbee.com/i-cord-tutorial/
To take a look at my new wrap bracelets, visit the Women’s Bracelets section of my shop by clicking on the photo below:
For Christmas, I received a fabulous Vitamix from Donnie and have been looking for ways to use it more often. So far, it’s mostly been green smoothies. But yesterday I thought I’d give everyone a break and make a good old-fashioned fruit smoothie.
Below is the concoction I came up with. The smoothie was delicious! Unfortunately I have no pictures since I forgot before we drank it all up. So here is a picture of my Vitamix instead 🙂
I placed the ingredients in the Vitamix in the following order (frozen things are supposed to go on top in a VitaMix, whereas for other blenders it’s usually the opposite):
This made 3 tall-glass-with-a-straw servings.
If I had had an orange on hand, I would’ve thrown that in as well…. Wait, I do have an orange. I guess I will just have to make this again today and throw in the orange  🙂
For about the last year, I’ve been adding cocoa powder to my coffee. Only every now and then, for a treat. Instead of adding the cocoa to the hot coffee in my cup, I add it to the grounds. The result is a subtle chocolatey cup of coffee.
Here are the steps I follow:
1. Choose a yummy cocoa powder. I use this delicious dark cocoa powder that my brother and his wife sent from Switzerland. It turns out I’m not a big fan of dark hot chocolate but love it in coffee.
2. For 4 cups of coffee, I use 1-2 tablespoons of powder.
3. Cover all of the cocoa with the coffee grounds. The powder tends to foam and froth in the boiling water, so you might have an overflowing filter if you don’t cover it all up.
4. Brew coffee and enjoy!
(5. Of course, I add creamer. Vanilla and chocolate taste delicious!)
At the end of September–the day after my craft fair–the kids and I flew down to Texas with my mom. On Wednesday, the cousins came over to play. This was Benjamin’s first reunion with the cousins and the big wagon since November, so he was excited to play.
Mia and Wade relaxing on the swing
Tommy bonded with Madeleine while the other kids played outside. In fact, whenever we were around him, he held or played with Madeleine for much of the time. Very sweet 🙂
And Ella got in on the loving action, too.
I’m a punctual person. Or rather, I’m afraid of being late. This usually means I’m early to most places, which I don’t mind. Like when I arrived at my hairdresser’s 25 minutes early on Saturday in case there was football game traffic. (I sat in the car for 15 minutes so that I would appear to be only 10 minutes early once I casually strolled into the waiting area.) And it was worth it. I don’t like to be late.
So on the first day of pre-school last week, as I scrambled to take my shower late (Madeleine slept in that morning past 7 a.m.!) and feed Benji and then her and get out the camera and brush my teeth, I got a brief taste of how horrible school mornings could be if I were always running behind–i.e., if I don’t get up before the kiddos and get my shower in.
This also led me to another revelation:
“If you look at the clock and think, we need to get in the car now so we can leave in 2 minutes, you’re already late. Sorry.”
Because watching a toddler climb into his car seat “by myself!” and strapping in an infant and then going back around to strap in the toddler and handing back sunglasses and verifying that the backpack and diaper bag and pacifier are all where they’re supposed to be takes longer than 2 minutes.
As many of you know, I make my family’s sandwich bread. I bake four loaves a week, two at a time, freezing one and storing the other in a breadbox in our pantry. For a year or so, I had been using an easy bread recipe referred to me by my friend, Kristen, who has a lovely cooking blog.
Then my sister started raving about the bread recipes in the classic, Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads. I quickly fell in love with the Cuban bread, which requires no butter or milk, so as long as I have bread flour and yeast on hand, I can make it! I love the beautiful rounds of bread, crispy crust, and soft chewy inside. It also only takes about 2 hours from start to finish, including one quick rise. So what could I add to make an already fabulous recipe even better?
Chia seeds!
I had heard of them a year ago from a friend who mentioned all the nutritional benefits (omega-3’s, increased energy, weight loss, etc…) and didn’t feel very convinced. I also hadn’t thought about adding them to bread. And then I ran across the seeds on the King Arthur Flour website while I was browsing for yummies. So I picked some up and added 1 tablespoon (and 1 tablespoon of wheat germ since I mostly used white flour). I also add about 1/4 cup more water to account for the increase in dry ingredients.
The results have been consistently DELICIOUS!
(Those little flecks of black are the seeds.)
I don’t have to grind the seeds and they even taste good raw. I can’t attest to any of the health benefits since I’m probably not consuming enough at this point to see a difference. But I do add them to other foods–smoothies and quick breads–when I think of it.
So if you’re in the mood to try something new (and maybe grow a Chia pet in your tummy?), add a bit to your next batch of bread or meal.
Resources:
– Here is a copy of the Cuban bread recipe; I too have never used the optional seeds on top.
– For more info on Chia seeds and they’re purported benefits, look here and here.
Ramblings of a Writer 