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Okay, just a day later than expected, but the wearable wrist pin-cushions have just been uploaded into the shop! I love how these turned out. They look so cute on. I made them almost exactly a year ago and they were all snatched up pretty quickly so grab one if you find one you like. I'm just sayin'...
Happy Wednesday!
xoxo
(sitch= short for situation.) We've got a lot of Children's books around here. There's the basket next to our bed, the basket next to Henrys bed, the books on the bookshelf, the books on the shelf in the closet. Usually at night when we are reading Henry stories, the books mysteriously seem to make their way onto the floor, rarely back to their home in the basket. 
Last week I decided to put the book madness to an end. I made a little book....um..cozy, if you will, made from canvas that goes under Henry's bed pillows and hangs down on each side. There are 2 generous pockets for lots of books, big and small. The letters were iron-on's that were a cinch to make. I was thinking this idea could work if you were to make a longer version that could hang on a wall, with grommets or something on the top that had 3 or 4 pockets on it...something to think about. My main goal before this baby comes is to get Henry's room done. It's quite pathetic at this point and consists only of a bed and train table. Nothing on the walls, no paint, zip. And a quilt. He desperately needs me to make him a cool quilt (although there's been no complaints about the floral duvet he's been sleeping under up until this point.)
We went to my Aunt's house for Easter and had a wonderful time. Dare I say, it was even a bit hot. Henry and Evan stripped down to their diapers and shirts and played on the grass with the hose which seemed to help. Easter in Boston (Brookline to be exact) was always fun because Brookline is primarily Jewish and all the local markets would carry this wonderful food for Passover. Several years ago I found a simple recipe for crushed Matzoh that was covered with chocolate and I think there were nuts involved. Anyway, late Saturday night I decided to make them, but didn't feel like digging out the recipe and after not being able to find it after a 30 second Google search, I decided to go for something else. Upon searching, I found this recipe from David Lebovitz.
I had first come across David last year when I participated in "Sugar High Friday"which he was hosting and was so thrilled to find him again. He's incredibly talented and has lots of wonderful recipes. I started these at about 11 p.m. on Saturday night and they came together rather quickly and were so easy. You actually couldn't tell that there was even a matzo cracker on the bottom. It tasted just like toffee with chocolate. I sprinkled the chocolate with a little bit of kosher salt and then decided to sprinkle some toasted coconut on top. I should have been more prepared and had the coconut pre-toasted because by the time I thought of it, the chocolate had already started to harden so the coconut had a hard time sticking, but it was good anyway. Definitely going to make again- would be good for Christmas, too.
Chris finally has a day off today so he's taken Henry to the 'Mommy & Me" movie and I'm working on pincushions that I'll have in the shop tomorrow (similar to these or there's more pic's on this post if you scroll down) . So I know that no one will care about this like we do, but Chris finally has his first television credit! We saw it last week after Monday's show. Thank goodness for TiVo, those credits go by so fast we surely would have missed it if we couldn't pause it. Very exciting (although Chris totally down-plays it.) But there he was, along with all the others, Story Assistant: Chris Moore. And in case your wondering what that is, or maybe you just don't care, but his job mainly consists of being paired up with a producer, the two of them are paired up with a dancer/celebrity (which usually changes everyday) and they film/record the daily dance rehearsals. What a crack up, huh? He's getting to know everyone very well, and just has nothing but great things to say about them. So if your watching the show tonight or Tuesday, don't blink- or you might miss it!!
xoxo
Hope you have a Spring-filled day with sweet treats, lots of peeps and things that are neat! (that's the pregnancy brain talkin'!)
xoxo
Is everyone just loving this time of year? I am. All the pastels, new blossoms, longer days and evening sunshine. We had some little friends (and some Mama's, too) over earlier this week for some cookie decorating goodness. So fun to connect and get caught up on eachothers lives.
I always wished I could decorate cookies like you see at Williams Sonoma or on Martha. You know, where the frosting is completely smooth, the lines perfectly piped. I'm dreamin'. I've been using this recipe from Martha for years. It makes a lot of cookies (I still have 1/2 the dough in the refrigerator!) I think it's nearly identical to the Easter one that's been posted, but they've halved the ingredients. Either way, it's a keeper.
Have you seen Amy's egg's? I love them. She gives a great tutorial. I wish I had time to make some. It'd be fun to do it in fabric, too. Another great tute can be found here for dying Easter eggs. I'm loving those- the colors are just gorgeous. If you are in the market for making your own peep's, check out my sisters blog, she's got a recipe and instructions. They look delish!
I was looking at last years blog, you know to reflect back and see what we were doing then, to see how much Henry has grown, to see what sweet treat's we were making. We are actually going back to our old stomping ground on Friday morning for another Easter egg hunt. We dug out that very easter basket tonight in preparation for tomorrow and it still has last years tag hanging on it with bunny sticker and all. I think it's going to be tradition and Henry's official Easter basket moving forward.
Have a lovely weekend!
xoxo
Henry: "Mama, is that a gynormous piece of pizza in your belly?"
Mama: "um...what are you saying?
Later that same evening...
Chris: "What's Henry standing next to? Is that his bed or what?"
Me: "It's my gynormous pizza belly" (he said it wasn't obvious enough what the huge black thing was.)
I love lemons. I always have. When I was a kid growing up here in Southern California, I used to walk to the end of our street, Friends Avenue, and pick lemons from the neighbors tree. I'd cut one open, sprinkle it with salt and have a go at it. We used to eat avocado's from our tree like that, too. Just a sprinkle of salt was all they needed. Our local market here has the dreamiest lemon sorbet with little crunchy bits in it. It's such a refreshing, tart, deliciously springy fruit. 
I picked some lemons from a local tree about a month ago but they went bad before I was able to do anything with them. So, today I decided to give it another go. I picked up a handful of lemons at Trader Joe's (along with a few bunches of daffodils) and decided to make some Lemon Curd. It turned out delicious. I found a simple recipe on allrecipes.com. Lemon curd is perfect on scones or toast or in a trifle. I'm even debating on making some homemade angel food cake. It'd be delish on that, too. It's super simple and easy to make. Here you go:
Lemon Curd
3/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 C sugar
3 eggs
1/2 C unsalted butter
Directions:
In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and cook over medium-low heat*. Cook 6-10 minutes, and occasionally whisk until thick enough to hold marks from the whisk (about the consistency of pudding.) Store in the refrigerator.
*If the heat is turned up too high, the eggs will curdle.
It really makes a huge difference when you make this with fresh lemons, so use them if you can. We bottled ours in an old pesto jar and threw some fabric and ribbon on with a tag we printed out. Don't you think they'd make a great hostess gift for Easter?
Thanks so much for all the applique orders. I've just about got them all packed and ready to go. I didn't pre-cut any of them, because well, I just didn't know if they would do well or not and then I didn't want to have a gazillion applique's lying around. So, thank you. If you ordered some, you'll have them in a few days.
Happy Weekend!
xoxo
Thanks so much for all of your great suggestions regarding the last post. A lot of you brought up points that I hadn't really thought about- so thank you for that. I have just uploaded the applique's to the shop. They are sold in sets of 3, 6 or 10. I'd love to here any suggestions of applique's that you'd like to see in the shop (that aren't there now.)
The weekend was good. Except for when I ran out of gas at 8 p.m. and had to carry a 30+ lb nearly 3 year old several blocks to the gas station (all while crying from a bit of a diaper rash situation we are dealing with.) Oh and while carrying my purse and said gas can. The return trip was just as fun as I was trying not to spill the gas everywhere. It got even better when the gas can jammed and the gas wouldn't actually go into the tank, just down my arm and all over pants and shoe's. I had a MacGyver moment and constructed my own funnel out of the construction water bottle box and in the words of Chris, smelled of "eau de petroleum" for days following. All while wearing flip flops. Oh and nearly 8 months pregnant, that's my favorite part. It was so good to see Emily's smiling face waiting for me at the restaurant, because I was seriously on the verge of tears. It was just what I needed. Ivy and Henry played all day yesterday and sang (at the VERY TOP OF THEIR LUNGS) "Jingle Bells" about 800 times. And bubbles. There were lot's of bubbles: I am absolutely loving Yael Naim. She's playing here in LA on Wednesday but sadly it's sold out. Wah. I probably shouldn't go in my delicate condition anyway (LOL!) Plus I still stink of "eau de petroleum". Check her out, she's brilliant:
It's fuzzy, but I do love this picture. They could be brother and sister, these two. Henry misses you already Ivy, but continues to carry the torch by singing "Jingle Bells" all by himself (it's just not as fun though.)
A few posts ago I had talked about working on some new things for my little shop. I've been toying with the idea of selling appliques/iron-on's for a while and was finally able to work on some this week. The thing that I've been debating is selling just the applique or the whole kit and caboodle. I'm leaning towards just the applique's. I mean there's a gazillion people on etsy who sell them on onesies, etc.,. so if that's what you really wanted, you could find it there. Plus, I just don't have the time and I think people tend to feel more empowered when they can do it themselves. I know, it's just ironing it on, but still, it's your own little creation and you get to say you made it! By just selling the applique, it allows you to iron it on to anything you wanted. You wouldn't be limited to a piece of clothing. You could iron it to a book bag, or....whatever. I'm drawing a blank here people. 
I've come up with 6 girl and 6 boy designs. I'm thinking of selling them in a kit where you would get all 6 (of either gender) or if you wanted to buy the girl and boy ones, there'd be a separate kit for that. 
The ones that I made were applique'd to onesies (for the upcoming arrival of the wee one) and t-shirts for Sir Henry. Although they are iron-on's I sewed along the edges just because I don't like the look of the raw edge. Oh and I'd include buttons. Don't you think I should include the buttons??
People have been asking what I've been making for this upcoming baby and truth be told, your looking at it. I've got zip, zilch, zero. We have no name picked out. I've hardly done any shopping. I just keep telling myself, 'she just needs diapers and a few clothes!' LOL. I've got 8 weeks to pull my head out. More on that later.
Oh and thanks for all the 'curves' advice... I think I know what I'm going to do now...more on that later, too. It's getting too late for this lady : )
xoxo
Whenever I pass the banana's at the market, I always grab a bunch. I don't particularly care for banana's but I'll eat them and I figure if they are in the house, I'm more likely to. So I always buy them and pretty much without fail they always end up looking like this:
Eeewwwww. I usually end up tossing them, but these babies have been sitting around for a week, getting all juicy and so I had no other choice. I had to make banana bread. The banana gods were calling. They couldn't be denied. 
Last Christmas my Mom gave me a mini crumb cake pan and I decided that it'd be the perfect size for little mini banana breads. I ain't gonna lie- they were mmmm mmmmm good! I found some mini-chocolate chips last time I was at the market and I think I'm starting to prefer them over the regular sized ones. They are small and get more evenly distributed, anyway- the choco chips are optional (but don't kid yourself you know you want them!) Here's the recipe:
Banana Bread
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of ground cloves
dash of nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas (approx. 4 bananas)
1/2 bag chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups) optional
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 9x5 loaf pan (or cupcake pan). In bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashes bananas. Add flour, spices, salt & soda. Stir until just combined. Add choco chips. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let bread cool slightly before turning onto wire rack.
**I baked these for about 30 minutes and they were perfect. If you have a pan like this, I would start checking around 25 minutes. Cooking time for cupcakes would probably be around 18-20 minutes if you use a cupcake pan.
On another note: Does anyone out there belong to Curves? I almost joined last month after a rather traumatizing weigh-in at the Dr's office. LOL!! Then I heard that once a year in early March they wave the joining fee (of $150) if you bring in canned goods...or something like that. Anyway, I only recently found out that it's not a regular gym (which I kind of already knew) but that you rotate machines every few minutes and do this cycle for 30 minutes. I'm torn between joining a regular gym and curves. I've definitely got to join something. I gained 65 lbs with my pregnancy with Henry and although I've gained less than 1/2 that with this pregnancy (so far- I'm not holding my breath!!) I really want to have a plan in place so as soon as those 4 post-partum weeks are over I can get my rear in gear! It took 14 months to get those extra pounds off with Henry and I just don't want to have it take that long this time around. It was miserable! Anyway- I'd love to hear any feedback you have! Thanks!!
p.s. Don't you just love that I'm seeking gym advice in the same post as the banana bread! ha ha ha...
xoxo
I did it! My very first EVER quilt block! I'm a few days late (sorry Jennifer!) but I did crank it out this afternoon. I have to say , it was so much easier than I thought it would be. I had actually cut several 2 1/2" strips a few weeks ago, but just got around to sewing them this afternoon. There was no plan for the quilt block. I just started sewing strips of fabric together, cutting them up, re-sewing them, adding some here, adding some there until it made a 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" block. 
I was mostly a stress-case about the back. I mean, I know you don't see the back but I was so happy that it turned out somewhat neat and tidy. It truely was a March Miracle!!
The buttons were a bit of an afterthought. I am still not sure if it's kosher in the whole quilting world, but I wanted to add a little something and I hope it's not too busy. It's for a children's playroom so I hope they like it. I can just see it now, "What's that really hard thing under my bum???....oh it's a button!" Gads! I've already received the fabric swatches for the next quilt block and am excited to get started on that. All of the blocks that have been submitted so far have just been amazing. You can follow the progress and see what everyone else has submitted here. I only realized after the whole thing was put together that I didn't include any of the chenile that Jennifer sent (egads!!) I'm so sorry!!
AND I have to send out the biggest THANK YOU to Today's Creative Blog for featuring my blog yesterday. Kim just said the nicest things, so welcome to everyone who may be visiting for the first time. Welcome, welcome, welcome. She has a ton of great links on her site, so check them out.
Happy Monday!
xoxo