Thursday, October 25, 2007

I love fall!

Busy day of playing, baking, cleaning, knitting and visiting the pumpkin patch!

Miss G had a ball at the pumpkin patch, and so did Little Mister, though it's harder to tell from the pictures, because almost all of them are of the back of his head!! He thought it was hilarious to walk away from me, and if I walked in front of him, he just turned in the other direction! Got a few, though.







In knitting news, I'm doing a some felting projects right now; the sweaters for the kids are temporarily on hold. I'm about 2/3 done with a felted halloween tote for Miss G ("Jack" by Kate Gilbert) . I hate intarsia work, and because it is stockinette stitch, it is all curly and awful looking in its current state, but I have faith that once it's sewn together and felted, it will look cute.
I finished a felted box from Mason Dixon knitting. In the box is the yarn I have bought (from a favorite blogger, the heathen housewife!) online from etsy. This yarn will be (eventually) my first pair of socks.

Today was also a baking day... lovely cool weather for making YUMMY sandwich bread. Here's the recipe, fyi. It's from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking book. I mixed and kneaded it in the kitchenaid, let it rise twice (second time in the pan) and baked it for about 35-40 minutes at 350, covering with foil after the first 20 minutes so the top wouldn't get too dark. Yummy!





100% Whole Wheat
Sandwich bread

3 c (12 oz) wh. wheat flour
3 T sugar
heaping ½ C (1 ¼ oz) potato flakes
¼ C (1 oz) dried milk
1 ¼ t salt
2 ½ t instant yeast
2 T (1 oz) orange juice
1 C lukewarm water
4 T butter, cut into 6 pcs






And finally, a face I can't resist!!

Later!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Those crazy kids...

Naps are nice, but getting up is better!

Birds in their little nests agree!



My little cover girl...








Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Corners of my home




I've been reading the archives of a fun blog by a crafter in Maine, and I've really enjoyed a flickr group she started called "Corners of my home" where she and others post photos of lovely, loved corners of their homes. I've been in a real funk, home-wise, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mess that two children under the age of four (plus two adults and a nine year old) can make. For a little while, I've just thrown up my hands and let the mess go. But as I looked at those lovely little pieces of other people's homes (crafty, vintage, lovely) I was struck with the feeling that I had NO corners that currently inspire me. Which is a problem. So I've finally been motivated to give the house some attention, slowly but surely. And so here are a couple of little corners of my home that at least don't widly irritate me right now! (Okay, that's not the greatest recommendation ever!) It was really rainy today, and I did this in the late afternoon, so the light isn't the greatest.



My bedroom drives me crazy right now because ALL of the children love to play there and make big messes. I make my bed (almost) every day, and it gets unmade, rumpled, crumpled. It's not as though we live in a tiny house that lacks for play room, so WHY do they insist on playing in the one room that is theoretically adult space??! But I do love my pretty little LL Bean end tables and try to create a nice little reading and listening spot there. There would be a basket of knitting on the lower shelf if Little Guy wouldn't, well, eat it or something!



The dining room is one of my favorite rooms visually -- I wish we used it more! But it's one of the fun rooms to decorate... when we decorated for Halloween during family home evening a couple of weeks ago, we found we were out of spider web, so Big Guy went to town creating his own with black yarn, and I think I like it better than the pre-fab stuff!

This corner of the living room is a favorite of mine because of the old wooden icebox, which after many years of hints, outright request and begging, my dear sweet Mom gave to me. It was in my house when I was a small child in Maine, and I remember opening the doors and playing with it when I was tiny. When we moved to St. Thomas it went to live with Nana for many years, then down to Florida with Mom when she left the island. So it is my favorite piece of furniture anyway, and then combine that with the fact that it my yarn storage, and it becomes my absolute favorite! (I have this fairly silly notion that I'm going to keep my stash no bigger than what can go in or on this icebox... we'll see.)



Finally, a few pictures of the kiddos.

Miss G at gymnastics (inside on a rainy day through a window, so please excuse the horrible picture quality!)




Big Guy channeling the spirit of Jack Benny. (Okay, it's very late at night and for some reason I can't get the picture to stand up for me. So forgive the crick in the neck I'm giving you!)



Little Mister.
See you later!


Sunday, October 14, 2007

Playing a little catchup!

Big Guy in flight

Reading in the bathtub?


Little Mister's first birthday... the cake appears to be a hit.

Retail therapy? NOT!


My clapotis is done! Yarn is Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb in Red Rover colorway.


Miss G's first pigtails... nope, she doesn't like them at all! No, sirree!


Here's my cute, drooly, walking boy!


Miss G loved helping Nana with the yardwork!


I've been neglecting this blog terribly, and realized that I just don't have the burning desire to record my thoughts that many bloggers do. So I'm going to try to make this just a photo blog and see if I can be more regular about posting. We'll see!