Life is in the Details

December Daily Day 7

A very quick December Daily assembly today.  I had used a plastic photo folder for day 7 that had places for four photos, so it seemed fitting that I use photos of my four kitties.  I scouted down my cats around my house, and tried to get some decent photos of them.  I just added some text from Ali Edwards Holiday Word Art (the original version) and printed them out.  Then for a little extra I just adhered some ribbon.  It was pretty fast, only took me about 45 minutes to assemble in front of the tv. It's good to have a quick day here and there.

I think today will be another quick day, since I'm just going to take some photos of the decorations around the house and use the red circle page as little frames for the photos.

I'm still caught up, but it's getting harder to keep at this everyday.  I'm determined to keep up, but I have some gift knitting that is suffering.  It's not so much the time it takes to do the pages, but all the surfing the net to see everyone's pages is a time drain.  I need to stay focused on the knitting!!  Hopefully I'll get some done today.

December Daily Days 5 & 6

On Sunday I spent the day relaxing for the most part after our craziness on Saturday, getting the tree, decorating and putting together the Lemaxx village.  Saturday night I made some cinnamon buns and Sunday I just popped them in the oven and made some orange glaze for them.  First time with the orange glaze, and they were like an amazing version of my favorite Pillsbury Orange buns!

So here are the pages for Sunday, pretty simple.

Yesterday I went to Philadephia with Sharon to go visit the Loop yarn store and Spool, the fabric store next door.  They reminded me of Purl Soho, with the yarn store and fabric store next door to each other.  Although I think Purl is now combined into one store.    I just bought some of Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter in the Raspberry Jam colorway.  I had wanted that color when I ordered a sweater quantity online, but they were out.  Now I can make some colorwork mittens with the leftover Nest color from the sweater and the Raspberry Jam! I think they'll be a great combo. 

The store was so cute, very colorful! And had some very nice yarn.  I'd love to go back when my paycheck returns!

Here are the pages from yesterday...

I added a little sample of the Yarn I bought to the backside of the transparency.

I also have the back of Day 6 done.  It is part of Day 7.  I stamped an embellishment to count down that we are 18 days until Christmas. I still have to print out the photos for the plastic sleeve folder that I am using for Day 7.  There are 4 slots, so I think I'm going to use a photo of each of my sweet kitties, so that they can make a cameo in the album. But here is the countdown page for now...

Stay tuned for Day 7 either tonight or tomorrow!

December Daily Day 4

Here's my pages from Day 4! It was a very busy day getting the tree, going out to lunch and then searching high and low for Buffalo Snow (and never finding any!)

I am loving using the templates from Designer Digitals.  It's so easy to include lots of photos! I actually bought the 12x12 pack because I had the first two volumes from two years ago when I did an 8x8 book, but I've been modifying them to suit my 6x8 book this year. 

Originally this page was just a transparency with the little green 4, but I peeled the 4 off, put it on the photo layout and used another transparency to make a pocket for the journaling. 

And here's a closeup of the pocket.  I was surprised how easy it was to sew the plastic. I learned that the trick is to just go slow, but I'll definitely be using this trick again!

Day 5 will hopefully get done today as well! I can't believe I'm still on schedule!!

December Daily Days 1, 2, & 3

I caught up today on my December Daily album after spending the past couple days at my Mom's house with a short detour to my Dad's house yesterday.  Busy week, but it made for good photos.  I also finally received the adhesive and the last of the transparencies I needed from Scrapbook.com to finish up the album structure.  I ordered those on Nov. 19th, had I known it would take so long I would have just made the trip to the local scrapbooking store! Live and learn.  So here are the first of my pages and as of today I'm actually not behind! This may be the last time I'm able to say that. Here are the pages thus far...

For the cover page I used an acrylic album from D. Reeves that I bought a few years ago.  It was always meant to be a December Daily album, because I loved Ali Edward's white version of this album she did in 2008. Unfortunately I don't think these albums are made anymore and when I bought it they only had the clear left. It's too bad because the quality of these are just awesome. But I'm glad I had this one and a few others still hiding in my stash. 

Day 1 - Spent the day up at the Lake with Kim and the kids visiting

Day 2 - Drove over to Dad's for lunch from Mom's house

Day 3 - I was home today and noticed the Thanksgiving decor blending with the Christmas. I'm planning to put all the Thanksgiving away tomorrow to put out the rest of the Christmas decorations. The envelope may move somewhere else. It was originally part of Day 2 but didn't work there, so it's floating right now.

I was worried with my tight budget this year I may not do enough to fill these pages, but so far it may be the most exciting year yet!

A year older

Today was my birthday!

I had a great day, Ana took the day off.   We got some sandwiches and went to the park to have lunch.  It was about 70 degrees today, just gorgeous! Eloise got a bit of exercise, and then since Ana said we could do anything I wanted, since it was my birthday, I decided that we were both going to scrapbook! Yes, I forced her, but I swear she enjoyed it!

I haven't scrapped in ages, but I needed to assemble my December Daily Album to be ready to start my December Documentation on the 1st, which is right around the corner.  I got most of it done, I have about 4 more pages to go. It was so fun to go back through all the supplies that I have.  I didn't need to buy a thing for this album, I have still so much Christmas stuff from previous years, so hopefully I'll put a good dent in the stash with this project.

Busy week coming up, lots of cleaning to do before Thanksgiving, but I'm hoping ot get some pictures taken of my "naked" album up on the blog. Maybe that will help encourage me to follow through to finish this year! Last year I didn't even start an album, and the year before I made it up to the 15th! I'm determined to see it through this time. Wish me luck!

Homegrown pizza from the last of the tomatoes...

Over the past few months, since I've been home and have the time, I have been making a lot of homemade pizza, usually every few weeks. And since the tomatoes started to ripen I've been making homemade sauce as well! Since September is now here, and my tomatoes are dwindling, I thought I'd take a few of the remaining stragglers and make some pizza last night.  It was Friday night after all!

I make my pizza dough from this recipe at allrecipes.com. I make it in the bread machine since generally I keep my house at a subarctic temperature, even in Summer because of my super hairy, easily overheated, Eloise, which challenges the rising in "room temperature".

In the bread machine, the dough is kept perfect, so I don't have to worry about drafts or room temp. And I just place the ingredients into the machine like I would with a bread machine recipe. Basically putting the liquids on the bottom, the flour on the top, and the yeast on top of that.  I turn on the dough cycle and go back to knitting for a while.

Last night though I made the sauce right away and then assembled it later when I was ready to eat. I have used this recipe a few times now and my homegrown pizza sauce has come out wonderful.  In months where there are no tomatoes in my garden I use this one.

I cut up the five tomatoes that I had, two were fairly large and three smaller ones. I think that's about enough for one recipe of pizza. I did rinse out some of the seeds, but I'm not neurotic about it.  It would be fine to keep them in, but I prefer less seeds.  It ended up being about 5 cups of chopped tomatoes.

I added the garlic, I cheat and use the garlic in a jar. I'm sure that breaks some foodie rule, but it's so much easier, and my palette is not advanced enough to tell the difference.

I added the tomatoes and fresh oregano.  Unfortunately my basil is pretty much gone, so I had to use dried. With basil I can tell the difference, so it's definitely better with the real thing. I also add a squirt of honey, maybe about a teaspoon, I like a sweet sauce. And just simmer until most of the water is gone.  Then as the recipe says, use an immersion blender to chop up some of the sauce, and leave a little bit chunky.  That's it! It's very easy.

After my dough is finished in the bread machine, I just assemble: roll out the dough; add my sauce; some fresh mozzarella; and a few mushrooms that I had on hand.

YUM!

Movies with Accents

 

^{(For some reason my photos of movies won't display-replaced with trees)}

I have a particularly strong love of what my friend Ana calls "Movies with Accents".  These are generally Jane Austen movies, but can also venture into any period movie.  I love the formality of the relationships, how everyone calls each other Mr. and Miss and are always dressed up.  I would not like to live this way at all mind you, I would say my favorite way of dressing is anything soft and comfortable, think sweatpants, but I do think it makes for a beautiful movie.

Ana is not a fan. Her favorite movies are what I like to call "Teenage Boy Movies", with slapstick comedy and definitely no accents. My favorite movie of all time is The Sound of Music, hers is Serial Mom! She loved Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I can't even imagine!

Anyway, each time Ana watches a movie with accents, she assumes that the leading man's name is Mr. Darcy, regardless of the plot of the movie. I could be watching Cold Mountain set during the Civil War and Ana will think that Jude Law is Mr. Darcy.  Yesterday I was watching the BBC version of Sense and Sensibility, and again of course Mr. Edward Ferrars is Mr. Darcy.  At least we're with the same author this time!  So Ana said she wished she had a cheat sheet to keep all these people straight! 

So I made one! It can be downloaded here. I included my three favorite Jane Austen movies, along with Little Women and Beatrix Potter since Ana also seems to think that Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen started land trusts in England (rather than Beatrix Potter).  And Laurie from Little Women  is also, of course, MR. DARCY!

If you have a person in your life who can't seem to keep these characters straight maybe it will help you as well! Now I can just print this out the next time Ana is convinced that Charles "Pa" Ingalls is Mr. Darcy!

Leisurely Labor Day

This is basically how I spent most of today and all of yesterday, a very relaxing couple days enjoying the yard and the perfectly beautiful weather. It's finally cooling down a bit from the hottest Summer I can ever remember, just weeks and weeks of 90+ degree weather. The air conditioning is finally taking a break, after months of record electric bills. So happy that Fall is on it's way. 

So I did a bit of knitting on my Icelandic Mittens that have been languishing with my current sewing interest.  The pattern is from Folk Mittens and I'm using Jager Farm Icelandic Wool.  The yarn was one of only a couple purchases I made at last year's Rhinebeck Festival.  It was my first time there, and I was so overwhelmed by everything! I saw this yarn shortly after arriving and didn't buy it right away because I thought I should browse first and then go back if I really wanted something.  Well that was not an effective plan because that place is so enormous, and by the end I was just dead tired. But I just couldn't leave without that Icelandic Wool, so l found my way back to their booth and bought a skein of each of the natural colors.

Being Icelandic Wool, I thought I just had to make Icelandic colorwork mittens. Turns out there aren't too many patterns around for authentic colorwork mittens from Iceland.   I finally found the pattern in Folk Mittens and with a few modifications, I love how they are turning out!

The rest of the afternoon I spent perusing the latest Martha magazine. It has some awesome tips for organization. There is a full two page spread of Martha's own kitchen drawers and the types of organizers she uses. They are, of course, impeccable.  I hope that she had to straighten them at least a bit before the photo shoot, or at least has a junk drawer in her kitchen that they didn't photograph! I took a baby step in my own kitchen utensil drawer shortly after,  removing the screwdrivers and tape measures that collect in there when I am too lazy to return them to the garage. It's a start!

Finally I took some photos of my latest sewing project.  I finished this during Sunday's outside time at the picnic table. It's my first quilted project. It was a kit that I bought from The Fat Quarter Shop in the Spring, hoping to finish by the Fourth of July, since it has the right color scheme.  Well that did not happen.  But it's all finished now! 

It's a table runner, and while it's a little small for my table, I just love it and it gave me some confidence to try a bit harder quilt the next time around. 

However, 30 seconds after I put the table pads back, and then put the runner on top temporarily, waiting for the table cloth to come out of the dryer, this guy arrived.

And two minutes later when I looked over from the living room...

Oh dear. It appears that Sammy likes it. Hopefully it washes easily. 

Happy Labor Day all! Hope your weekend was as wonderful as mine! Now bring on the Autumn!

Lake Time...

Yesterday was a perfect day to spend at the lake! The weather was stellar! 

I finally was able to give Katie her birthday present, she loved it!  She piled the doll and teddy into the stroller and pushed them around for an hour.  I loved seeing her dress up in her new tutu skirt and putting it on again herself later last night after dinner. 

I loved hearing Keiran's excitement when he saw that I had brought him a "half-birthday" gift.

I loved seeing my sister's growing belly and was so happy that her and Mike were able to steal away a few hours for themselves while Grandma, Poppy and I watched the kids. 

I loved seeing Keiran and Fred doing their regular collecting of shells and rocks from the edge of the water.

I loved hearing Keiran recite The Pledge of Allegiance which he learned over two web chats with my Mom. 

I didn't love, but still chuckled at Keiran and Katie's high pitched screaming and laughing uncontrollably at each other on the swings.

I loved watching Katie barely eat any pizza but then inhale ELEVEN Edy's Dibbs ice cream chunks.

And I loved seeing the whole family (minus this photographer who was watching last week's episode of Mad Men) playing Candyland.  It was a great time!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

 

Cute Little Pants

I'm interrupting my Summer recap for a recent project.  I saw this pattern for little pants a few months ago on Soulemama's blog and just fell in love.  They are from Anna Marie Horner's latest book, Handmade Beginnings, which is filled with adorable and fairly easy patterns, that even someone who has not sewn in years can figure out pretty easily. They are reversible pants! How perfect for any potential baby stains? Adorable and practical!

But at the time I saw them, back in July, I really didn't even consider making them. I was far too preoccupied with my handspun and knitting to even think about it.  Until a couple weekends ago, when I spent a Sunday morning looking at baby things to make for my sister Kim's new baby due at the end of September.  Which then led me to an afternoon of surfing fabric websites, particularly fabric websites with Japanese fabric! I'm completely infatuated with Japanese fabric! I figured I would get some of the adorable fabric, sew a square of it on to a onesie and then trim a burp cloth or something with matching fabric, easy and simple, right?

Wrong. 

Enter my friend Ana with her innocent suggestion, 'Wouldn't it be so much cuter to make matching pants instead?!?'.  Well yes, but how do you make pants?  Is it hard?  I had no idea, I haven't sewn in forever, and I've never made little pants before.  A pair of big paisley pants made from 70s era paisley fabric from my grandmother's closet when I was 13, but then the pattern was me just laying on the fabric and tracing! And that was quite a while ago. But it actually turned out to be a pretty great idea, thanks to this great pattern and no zippers or buttonholes to contend with!

I instantly remembered the reversible pants from the Handmade Beginnings book and I was on the Barnes and Noble website trying to find the closest location that carried the book! My Japanese fabric arrived in the mail, and I matched it up with some cute green dots I found at Pennington Quilt Works. 

 

I have not sewn in a while, and I have not sewn from a pattern  in a long while, but it was very clear and I only had one mishap when I sewed the front legs together.  The little tyke might not like that too much. But I realized it right away, and it was easily fixed.

These pants are truly the cutest article of baby clothing I've ever seen. Wonderful pattern with really just adorable fabric.  A great combination. And when the little pants were all finished, I did sew a piece of matching fabric onto a onesie for a matching outfit! Live and Learn, I should have used some fusible webbing behind the fabric, to avoid the little puckers at the corners.  But the onesies came in a 3 pack, so I'll be trying that again. Maybe. It doesn't look too bad.

I can't wait to see the outfit on the baby.  It's much smaller than it seems in these photos, they're size 0-3 months.   Time to make myself some matching pj pants! My sister and her husband, Mike, are keeping the sex a secret from us, so I hope these are neutral enough. I'm thinking the baby might need a bigger pair of these every few months! Maybe my stepbrother's baby could use a pair too? I'll be known as the Little Pants Lady in my family! Little pants for everyone!! Okay, I think I'm getting ahead of myself!

Off to the lake today to see my sister's first two babes, but first I think I will sew the binding on the patchwork table runner I'm doing. These little pants made me catch a bit of a sewing bug.