What summer means to me

We had a summery day here last week (just one!) and I got the urge to make a friendship bracelet. I gave it to Talia. She made one for Alex (surprisingly well with my improvised board) and I ended up making two more for Talia as well. Not to be outdone, Ron wanted to show that he knew how to do it too. Who knew he could do something crafty? He also gave it to Talia who now has 4. She hasn't taken them off yet. Alex didn't like his, I guess. Or maybe he doesn't want to be friends with Talia. I can actually make pretty fancy ones but I won't get into that... just yet anyway. It was the perfect project for a summer day.

The Chloe Quilt

For some reason, this quilt took me forever to complete! It's practically a whole cloth quilt so you would think I could finish it in a snap. I don't know what happened. My machine is really failing me at this point. There is something wrong with the shank and foot. It doesn't raise up that much. I distinctly remember I pulled on it or pushed it up one time and felt a resistance and thought, Uh oh... That was a while ago.

I've been in the market for a new machine for a long long long time. I'm too lazy to figure out when I started talking about it on this blog but let's just say that it's probably been two years or more. I currently have a $200 Singer. Even the one my 13 year old neighbor got at Costco is better than what I have. I just don't know where to start. Singer, Janome, Bernina, Husqvrana, Babylock, Brother, Pfaff-- the list goes on and on. Not to mention that I would love to have a long arm machine someday. I noticed a machine on someone's blog the other day so I called up the Bernina dealer and asked how much it was... $6000! HELLO! So at least I know where to start-- PRICE! I decided I have about $600-$800 to spend on a machine. Using that as a guide I can basically afford the lowest end of the "good" machines. I could get a Bernina that doesn't do anything. I can get a Husqvarna for $1000 if I buy the floor model. I'm thinking about a Babylock since I can afford one that actually does some stuff. Does anyone have any recommendations for a machine in that price range?

My kid just pulled out her own tooth

It was only super wiggly for about 2 days. Tonight she asked for a piece of gauze so she could pull it out. Thinking she would give up in about 1 second, I obliged her. Well... she tugged on it until it came out. I can say only this. The tooth fairy is NOT prepared.

Just a little fabric...

I bought lots of fabric at the Quilt Market in Chicago. Some just caught my eye, some is already intended for projects, some are quilt kits (I have about 6 quilt kits with the most striking fabric and have never actually sewed one up yet...) and I bought one Block of the Month set that I hope I'll actually be able to keep up with. It is so exciting and inspiring (and only the tiniest bit overwhelming) to be around so many amazing quilts on display and so much gorgeous fabric.

For me, the fabric is what really points me in the direction of the project. Since I rarely know what I'm going to do with the fabric I buy it's hard to know how much and exactly what colors I need. What I end up doing is... buying the entire fabric line. I know exactly what I want to use the Wild Bunch fabric for (the second picture on this post which I stole from the site True Up, btw...) and I can't wait to get started. I really have to make one more baby quilt before I can start anything else. Hopefully that will get done soon. The baby is probably 5 months old already! I'll post a collage of some of the quilts I saw at the festival later this week.

I'm going to be ALONE!

I'm off to the International Quilt Festival in Chicago.

By Myself.

No kids!

No husband!

No girlfriends!

No one!

I can't wait! This is absolutely something I want to do alone. I'm so excited. I missed it last year because we were in Amsterdam. I'm leaving in an hour and I still haven't told Talia. I've found it's better to tell her right before a major insult, such as going to the dentist or having a babysitter. Otherwise she'll just freak out from the time I tell her until I'm gone. This way, I'll tell her, she'll freak out, I'll spend a few minutes with her and then I'll leave. Once I'm gone she's fine. So that's that. Catch you later SUCKERS!

San Diego 2009

I always have trouble getting back into blogging after a vacation. I think it's because this blog is more about the minutia of my life-- what we had for dinner, which sewing project I'm working on, how Ron can't clean the kitchen to my satisfaction (to anyone's satisfaction, really), and how the kids won't sleep through the night (btw, this week has been baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad). So I'll just throw a huge collage up here and say we had a great time in San Diego. Our friends came all the way from Amsterdam to stay with us. It is really refreshing to take a vacation with friends. The kids got along GREAT, we cooked many meals together and the sleeping arrangements worked out fine. We finally got to meet little Yonatan-- I made the Hop Skip Jump quilt for him back in December. He is a great baby and so cute! I love having friends who feel like family and I'm sad we only see each other now once a year. We celebrated Pesach with them and also my birthday. We went to Legoland (again), Seaworld, Balboa Park, downtown La Jolla, the beach and the Fisherman's Village. Thank goodness my in-laws have a condo in San Diego. It makes me feel like I have a condo in San Diego. Isn't that nice?

April Fools

Gummi worms on the toothbrush. Classic. Accompanied by giggles, winks, and a cute "Don't forget to brush you teeth tomorrow Daddy!" followed by peels of laughter.

B+

Ron worked on cleaning the kitchen after dinner last night. I had made a yummy meal of walnut-miso noodles from 101cookbooks.com. There was not a ton of clean up but I'm the first to admit I'm a messy cook. The fact that the kids are either trying to help me or bother me while I try to do it doesn't help either. Usually I'll make a three component meal-- soup, salad and bread or salad, main dish, side dish. Tonight I really just made the noodles and a small salad since it seemed like enough. What I'm trying to say is, it wasn't that much to clean up.

Ron had ample time to finish the job, as the kids were in bed. He also had just loaded up his ipod so boredom shouldn't have been a major deterrant. When he came upstairs after "finishing" I asked him to give himself a grade on the job he did. "B+" is what he said. I warned him-- "I don't care so much if it's not done, I just want you to be honest with me." He stood firm and again insisted it was a B+. When I was in high school an A grade started at a 92% therefore making a B+ an 89% instead of an 86. I will, however, use the standard curve by which to judge. And let's not forget that we've had this problem many many times before.

Let's start with the dining room table-- because that's where normal people start the clean up process. They bring the dishes to the sink. I also completely clean the table and the floor because I know I will not go back to it later. Now, I know better than to expect Ron to wipe the table off, clean up the noodles Alex threw all over the floor or the lentils that are scattered in a circle around Talia's seat. Behold, the dining room table was littered with unwiped placemats and a few random dishes. And all those chairs pushed out from the table just makes my skin crawl. That's a total pet peeve for me-- just push the chairs in!

Moving on to the back counter. I don't expect Ron to take the compost out to the bin or even use the special granite cleaner that I love so much. I was even surprised and delighted to see he took some initiative and tried to seal the wine bottle up using a vacuum pump. Of course, he left said vacuum pump and wine out on the counter. Along with an empty dirty bowl, a green plastic bag and empty bag of salad greens, a measuring cup, the salt and pepper grinder, the wine bottle opener, a rag (unused by him of course), a bag of walnuts, a bowl full of sliced scallions, the food processor, and he even left the utensil holder sitting in the middle of the counter instead of pushed out of the way like it normally is.

On to the front counter. Rubber bands and asparagus left sitting right out, not to mention the cups of water. How hard is it to clean a few cups that have held only water? And then the mound of dishes. I should be thankful that he cleaned them at all. Look at that huge pile! There are a lot of reasons why we clean so many of our dishes by hand. Mostly it's a space issue in the dishwasher. It's poorly designed to hold anything but the flattest of plates. Plus, we don't run it that often so we don't put things in that we might need the next day, like a vegetable peeler or something. And Alex always has his hands in there so we never put sharp things in. We also have nice pots and pans and knives and serving dishes that just don't belong in a dishwasher. Despite all those many reasons that would lead you to believe that we simply have a lot of dishes that need to be hand washed, the truth is that Ron didn't unload the dish drying rack from the coutner before he started the dishes. And if I had done that many dishes AND the kids were asleep AND I had just loaded up my ipod you damn better believe I would have stood there and dried them off and put them away.

I'm just saying.

Before and After

Katie's Salad

My friend Katie passed this salad idea along to me and I eat it often. Cut up a tomato (sometimes I use sun dried toms alone or with fresh toms), add a can of chickpeas (rinsed) and an entire avocado. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. This time I added feta because feta makes everything better. You can also consider some lemon juice but I don't think that's necessary. Without the feta I think this salad is really good for you-- even though you are eating an entire avocado! This recipe is so simple and quick. I like to put it in a big bowl. Enjoy.

Find a Comfy Spot and Read

If there was only one thing I could pass on to my children it would be a love of reading. Most reading in our house is done at night, before bed. I'm a big reader myself but my kids probably don't even really know it! We should spend more time reading during the day too. I put some bins of books in the fairy tent. So far Alex has enjoyed spending time in there. This year in school the kids in Talia's class spend a lot of time looking at books themselves. It is the skill she learned in school this year that I'm most happy with-- she will now sit and look through a book even if no one is reading it to her. She is definitely learning how to read but it seems to take a ton of energy. She is so exhausted after concentrating so hard for just a few minutes. This morning she actually read a book to Alex for the first time. It was very cute.

Spring

I know, everyone in the world is posting about spring. I definitely never appreciated the onset of spring more than I do now; with two young kids in Wisconsin. We survived the winter! Even if winter returns and we get a bunch of snow between now and the end of April, the light at the end of the tunnel has made its appearance. The kids have enjoyed being outside and playing with neighbors who, despite living literally across the street from us, we have not seen since October. Today and yesterday when I drove Talia to school I kept having the sensation that I had forgotten something at home... of course! It was the snowsuit, the boots, the hat and mittens!

These pictures are from the spring flower show at Olbrich Gardens. Such a tiny room of flowers on display but just enough to dazzle Talia who wanted to find each different kind. It smelled heavenly and there was a little vegetable garden displayed which put me into a slight panic as I haven't done any planning for mine yet.

Enjoy enjoy enjoy before the weather turns again.

I made that skirt!

Talia's 5th birthday outfit. The skirt is the Bo Peep skirt from Anna Maria Horner's book, "Seams to Me". The pattern is pretty involved for me, I must say. I mistakenly cut two of the panels an inch short and then decided that the whole thing wasn't going to be long enough so I added the bottom hem (and to the top also, and added a drawstring bow). She LOVES it and I LOVE it and we received many compliments. I have to see how it held up after the wash. I hope it doesn't need ironing.

Homemade Gnocchi

Recently I took a cookbook out of the library (Urban Italian). It was mostly filled with meat dishes and other things I won't cook (which is why it's good to take cookbooks out at the library!). I wanted to cook at least one recipe from it so I decided to try my hand at homemade gnocchi. The recipe in the book was simple but it was four pages long with step by step pictures. I bought a potato ricer and got to business. While the dish was quite good, I doubt I'll be making too much homemade gnocchi. It was messy and stressful. Time is really a factor-- you want everything done as calmly but quickly as possible and with my kids fighting over playmobils, well, I was pretty stressed out. It might not be that bad second time around. I know what to expect so perhaps I won't be as stressed. Ron said they tasted like "little pillows of pasta goodness." The tomato sauce was from the book also and was quite good although I think I would put in about half the oil next time...

Five

Today is the day! We made cupcakes together (from scratch with buttercream frosting) and brought them into school. Talia made the cupcake toppers herself. The teachers and classmates really went out of their way to make Talia feel special. I read a story (Pinkalicious) and Alex was so happy to be part of the class for once. Ron had to go into work early today so T will open her gifts tonight with the whole family together.

My baby is turning 5 tomorrow

Quilt for Baby Kaiya

There's a story behind this fabric- I bought it about 3-4 years ago and made a wrap skirt. I didn't prewash the fabric and it shrank. I've been saving it because I just love this fabric combination. Originally I had a different quilt in mind for baby Kaiya but it just didn't feel right. I went back and forth on the idea of using the skirt and I finally took it apart stitch by stitch. The problem was that I didn't have very much of the fabric. I came up with a design that used every inch. Literally. I added the red stripe with the baby's name and appliqued the flowers to make it look more cohesive. I love how this project forced me to be more creative.

The quilt design just about killed me. It's hard to come up with a design when you have two very different motifs in the quilt top. I wanted something angular, like concentric squares but how would that translate to the name stripe, which is not angular at all? I ended up using a meandering design that crossed the borders of the squares and then did some free form boxes in the name stripe. I marked the quilt top with a washable crayola marker again and it washed out fine. That makes me so nervous! Near Kaiya's name I embroidered a little "love, nikki" in red. If you don't know what it is it would be hard to see it. But I know it's there.

Thrifted, $3.99

This bowl is quite big-- definitely enough to serve a small salad for 4. I'm in love with it. My purpose in going to the thrift store was to buy some serving dishes I could bring when we have dinner with friends and then leave them as a hostess gift. The problem is that I have bought three or four new dishes and I've fallen in love with all of them. This one just makes me smile.

Peasant Bread

I made my second batch from the cookbook Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. We ate three loaves from my first batch (it's supposed to be 4 loaves so I'm not sure what happened...) and they were delicious. For my second batch I tried the recipe for European Peasant Bread, which has some rye and whole wheat flour in it. I may have undercooked it slightly, as the crust was a little soft and the inside a little bit gummy. So far we haven't let any of the loaves cool before we ate them, which can also result in a slightly undercooked taste and consistency. It is *really* hard to wait! I have enough dough for two or three more loaves so I'll have a chance to play around with the baking time. Doesn't it look fantastic though? I thoroughly recommend this book!

Talia's New Haircut!

Have I mentioned she also lost her second tooth? With Kindergarten registration coming up and her 5th birthday next week I feel shell-shocked by how quickly this is all happening.

Organized Art Closet

Ahh, the art closet. This is where all the magic happens. We are in this closet at least 5 times a day. It was a mess. I can't believe I let it get so bad. This is a complete makeover. Let's just say I got to know my labelmaker. Very well. I sort of wish I had a "before" picture but I'm kind of glad I don't. I probably wouldn't even show it. I'm taking bets to see how long this can last. I'm guessing less than a month. It took me about 5 hours to organize (and I needed a babysitter to watch the kids).

I've been really sidelined by illness this past week. I have a bilateral ear infection and sinus infection. I can not hear out of my left ear. Well, I hear a ringing sound. Constantly. It also feels like I just stepped off an airplane and my ear is completely stuffed. The rest of me is getting better. I finally broke down and started taking antibiotics, which I don't really believe in for what is really just a bad cold. But whatever. Luckily Ron has been around quite a bit and I haven't been the only child care provider in the house. The kids haven't been sleeping well either but that's another story. I expect to be better by my next post and I'll reveal pictures of Talia's new haircut and our spectacular 5th birthday plans.