simple pleasures :: day 4

The signs of spring are slowly emerging: a night of rain here, a spot of sunshine there, the small shoots of crocus and snowdrop pushing through the ground. I enjoy all the changes of season, but there is something about the dramatic change from winter to spring that I really love. The way the melting snow gives way to multiple shades of green is beautiful indeed.

simple pleasures :: day 3

Today I have a couple simple pleasures that have made this day lovely. One is this beautiful bouquet from my mama and my sister, and another is that it is my birthday. :)

I'll admit it, I love my birthday. I have never been one of those people that likes to pretend they don't have one. Nope, I love it. And it's not the gift getting that I love (though I do appreciate them, and love how thoughtful everyone is - thank you!), it is the idea of celebrating a day special to you alone. Growing up in a big family made the day extra special because we were able to choose things just for ourselves, everyone ate the dinner we chose, and we were able to pick what kind of cake to have. Just something about the celebration was just so much fun. So even now, I love it. This year it has been a week of "low-level celebrations" as my dad called it. Good food and family on Sunday, the lovely flowers from my mom and sister yesterday, a birthday lunch with my dad today, dinner and cake with my in-laws, a special date night with my hubby tomorrow, and another birthday lunch with my mom, sisters, and aunt on Monday (do I see a food theme here??)! I love getting together with everyone and the visiting that occurs when we see each other. It really is so lovely.

This year I am trying out the list that has been going around blogland lately. 27 things to do before I turn 28. In no particular order:

1. Take a trip to Nashville

2. Buy a good pair of leather boots

3. Write more poetry - working on it

4. Learn to take better photos

5. Eat locally as much as possible - doing well on this

6. Not miss a week of the farmer’s market - we've missed a few, but have been to most

7. Start exercising again

8. Specifically set aside time to spend playing with the boys. Playing games, doing puzzles, drawing, reading, whatever. To not let other things get in front of them.

9. Read at least one real book a month (not how-to books which seem to get most of my time these days)

10. Try new foods rather than sticking to the favorites

11. Play the piano again

12. Plant a garden

13. Go to the beach a lot

14. Take time with E at least once a month to spend by ourselves (out of our house)

15. Make a picnic quilt

16. Learn more sewing techniques

17. Learn more knitting techniques - definitely! two so far!

18. Go to knit club

19. Make nature packs for the family

20. Take more family walks

21. Go up north at least four times - halfway there

22. Sew a purse/ large bag for me

23. Knit a sweater

24. Go to Virginia again

25. Brush up on my French

26. Get back in the habit of making bread each week

27. Fix the vintage sewing machine that is sitting in the basement

simple pleasures :: day 2

Ah, the joy of good food. We love eating well and one of the things we've discovered is that the dishes we enjoy most are the simplest ones. Last night we ate roast pork tenderloin with asparagus and roasted potatoes. Seasoned with minced garlic, rosemary, and majoram it is one of our favorite dishes. The roasted potatoes were simply tossed with an onion, olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and a little rosemary. So delicious.

simple pleasures :: day 1

For one week last year I wrote about the simple daily pleasures in my life. It gave me so much joy to look for the little things that make my life so enjoyable that I want to begin another week this year.

Day One:

The glimpses of sunshine that we are starting to have each day.

For us, and many of you, this winter has been a long, cold, hard one with many many snow-filled days, often too cold to even go outside. Waking up to the sun shining through the window warming the house with its rays really calms me. A welcome break from the dreariness of clouds.

Please join me in writing your own week of simple pleasures. I would love to read what makes your day a little more enjoyable.

making cake

Where have I been you ask? At home, doing little except enjoying the boys and not enjoying more snow. Not crafting or sewing because I seem to have little creative energy at the end of the day. But no worries, I made a cake the color of daffodils.

Technically it was my own birthday cake (though my birthday is not until Thursday), however since I am the only one that attempts from-scratch-cakes that require you to whip egg whites (from this farm, but new chickens) and then fold them into the batter, I made my own. From a family recipe that goes back a few generations (my great-great-aunt).

Yummy. My very favorite cake.

one l o n g day

Oh some days seem like they will never end. I woke up this very early morning to one little boy who decided that night was going to end at 3 am. We managed to doze off and on until about 7, but after that it was full force crabbiness. Plus it was downpouring all day, so we couldn't even run steam off outside (no appropriate clothing for the little one). Not my sort of day. Then to top it off I pulled a load out of the dryer and there were some mishaps that had occurred overnight. (The dryer had been fixed last night and silly us, we didn't check to make sure that everything was align correctly before throwing the wet load in - big mistake). Some clothes were ruined, but I think I can save this shirt:

Any tips out there how the best way to fix the tear on the collar? I was thinking of replacing the inset with some solid knit, but I don't have a serger, so I'm not sure how easy that would be. Putting a binding over the top was suggested, and I am liking that idea more and more, but again would it be easy with a knit? The other thought I had was replacing the inset with some woven fabric, but would that look weird to have the rest knit? Hmmm. Some help would be much appreciated.

toasty for my sis

As soon as I made the Toast arm warmers for myself, I knew my younger sister would love a pair of the Toasty fingerless gloves. She's a cute girl that dresses with sass, and I knew she could pull these off. I had some light grey yarn that worked perfectly and in a short amount of time I had a pair ready for her.

I had two other gifts at the ready this week; one for my mama's birthday and one just because. A linen-backed eye pillow, filled with organic flax and organic lavender. My brother-in-law and his wife used to live near Whidbey Island, WA and she sent me some wonderful lavender from Sequim. It smelled heavenly and reminded me how much I miss having a pot of lavender in the kitchen, and I hope to have some growing again this spring and summer.

Anyway, I loved making this eye pillow and will definitely be making more. I briefly glanced at an Amy Butler pattern, but really only for an idea of the size, which was about 4x10 inches. I made a little muslin sack which I filled with the flax and lavender mixture (Papa, my sister, and I all held it to our heads multiple times to get the right weight in, so I really have no idea how much I actually put into the sack) and sewed that up. Then I made the patterned cover and simply slid the muslin sack into the patterned one and sewed that up with an edge stitch at each end.

The other gift I had made was for my Grandma. I had planned on making this for a while now, but finally got around to it now. This summer I was going through some things in the basement and inside the cedar chest I found a few yards of her family's tartan. I believe her mother bought it years ago, and apparently no one knew what to do with it. I saw it and immediately envisioned a little throw pillow. It is just a simple little pillow with an envelope style back. Both the tartan and the back are wool fabrics; I just happened to have a dark navy wool that matched the tartan perfectly. I really liked the way it turned out (and if any of my family members would like one, there is plenty of fabric left), though the colors in the photo are not very accurate. Yes, the chair is that ugly bright orange, but the tartan has accents of red and yellow, not purple and light green.

Also, Aunt J, I know I said your things were next on the list, but I forgot about the birthdays coming up. Yours truly are next. :)

we love to paint

Painting tends to be a weekly occurrance at our house. So much so that A received a beautiful painting jar holder and new paintbrush (though he still tends to prefer mine) for his birthday. We mostly paint in the Waldorf tradition, however every once in a while we will pull out the crayola paint box and A will have a go with more than just primary colors. Usually it is solo painting for A, as W still likes to put the paintbrush in his mouth and lick the paint.

I love how the colors flow together and I find it very interesting how much his painting style has changed recently. He used to do the colors willy-nilly plopping every color over each of the others. But now he has more of a purpose when painting. Each brushstroke is thought out and carefully placed. The last time he painted he discovered, with joy, that when he mixed two colors together he could produce a different color. He wanted green and I showed him how to paint blue line, then a yellow on top. He was amazed at the results and quickly experimented with what else mixed well. He also loves to paint personalized pictures for different family members; he even signed a painting for Papa on his birthday. Such fun to see how he changes.

february brings birthdays!

I always have mixed feelings about February. It has a tendency to be such a dreary month. It can be so cold and snowy, days perfect for things like vegetable soup, or warm and slushy, no thaw yet but I have hope. However, it is also our birthday month - Papa's today, my mama's tomorrow, and mine at the very end - which always brings excitement into the house.

We've always had fun celebrating our birthdays close together and it gives a real reason to celebrate the month. Today we are just having a nice quiet family day, with Papa's birthday dinner at the end (not this soup, which was Sunday's lunch, but so good that I had to share). Somehow Papa never seems to get a handmade gift from me for his birthday, but this year I have a plan. I have not been completely pleased with the hat I made him, the yarn I chose stretched out and is not very soft, so I want to knit him a new hat. (Of course it won't be knit in time tonight, but oh well). He is a big outdoorsman, and so I always like to give him things he can use when he is hiking or backpacking, and warm winter gear is always needed.

And happy birthday to my mama! She is out of town, and I don't want to spoil the surprise of what I gave her, so there will be a picture in a few days, after she receives her package.