eat! craft! live!

I blame the baby.

My lack of motivation lately has been epic. EPIC. And for that I apologize. There has been little crafting. Even less cooking. Hardly any eating, for that matter. Next to no blogging. Barely any photo-taking.

But today is beautiful and sunny and warm and I am taking a vacation day to sit at home and catch up on cleaning, crafting, gardening, sleeping and just generally enjoying being alone!

So there's a wee post over here, with some lovely photos (if I do say so myself) and I hope you'll pop over and take a peek!

 

:: photo friday :: I swear I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

30 days of thanks: day 13

What am I thankful for today?

(Actually yesterday - it completely slipped my mind!)

You!

Yes, you, my lovely readers. There aren't many of you, but I like to think you're a select, superior bunch. Thank you for every comment, every email. I appreciate each and every one!

summertime, summertime

Oh, summer. What have I been up to? Clearly not blogging... Mostly because I've been, well, living.

Started off the season with some gorgeous flowers...hyacinths! (Which, if you've been 'round these parts very long, you know are some of my very favorites.)

There were also (and will always be) some whoopie pies. Oh, the deliciousness. My favorites come from the bakery down the street - Borealis Breads. Yum.

There was some music-ing...

And somebody's very first beach trip...

(Well, the first one where she could actually appreciate it, anyway...) Followed by some more beach trips...

And some more... Love that sand!

There were a lot of hot lazy days spent playing with blocks and baby pools.

There was even some sewing! Here, the lovely E is stacking some rings in her beautiful new handmade dress!

And some more sewing... Love that dress pattern!

I gardened. Quite a bit actually. And I had every intention of blogging about my experience, but...well...maybe I'll get around to an end-of-season recap?

We had play dates!

And parties!

And, of course, I just had to sew a party dress to go to some of those parties...

There was swinging and sliding...

I just had to sew another pair of shoes, before E outgrew the pattern...

There's been a lot of jam and jelly making and other preserving. Like whoa. A lot. Here, vanilla peach oolong. There's also been strawberry lime jam, blackberry jelly, maple strawberry smooch, strawberry lemonade concentrate, salsa verde and more on the agenda...

In addition to all that, I dyed yarn all summer for Picnic at the end of August. My first time vending as a yarnie! (I've done craft shows before, but not with the yarn...)

Finally, at the end of it all, when I was feeling a little stressed out by all that was happening, we went on vacation! A week at the lake, even if part of it is spent with no power or running water (thanks, Irene!) is a wondrous thing.

To top off the vacation, my dear father turned 60. Party! And he got to spend the day with his granddaughter. (Among others...) Possibly my favorite moment this summer.

So I may not have been blogging, or commenting on your blogs, or, honestly, even reading them most of the time, but I'm here. I've been checking in and catching up periodically but I feel like an ass commenting on months-old posts often, so I read, and move on. And live. It's been a good summer for us. I hope the same is true for you!

small things

My wonderful husband got me an iPod touch for my birthday a few days ago. And I'm finding it quite useful already as I sit here in the cooling car in the beautiful morning light and wait for my darling girl to wake up. Blogging! From the driveway! Oh, technology...

yarny, bloggy fun

I've set up another blog specifically for yarny news. Whew. Which isn't to say that there won't be yarny news over here still, just that if that's the only reason you tune in, you can head straight over there and ignore all the extraneous baby-related posts over here! It will most likely be updated less frequently than this one (and that's saying something...) and the news will be entirely yarn- and shop-related. My first post is already up, so pop over and check it out, won't you?

Completely unrelated, Lulu has sent another coupon code - get 30% off all calendars until January 9 by entering code SEASON305. So. Y'know. If you want a calendar filled with foodie photos to tickle your eyeballs in 2011, now is a good time to grab one!

baby talk

So I've decided. I have to start blogging about the baby. I know. It only took me a little over five months to come to this conclusion. But it's true. I haven't been able to pursue my crafty hobbies and kitchen endeavors with the gusto I used to. And I'm realizing that if I don't blog about the baby and/or motherhood, I will have very little to say. As I'm sure you've noticed of late. And there's stuff I want to say! I just haven't been saying it because it wasn't about baking, or sewing, or knitting or anything else I usually talk about.

I was (and still am) hesitant to do it, for a few different reasons. Privacy for one, but really that's not even my main concern. It's just that this blog has always been about, well, me...but not me. And this slight change of direction will make it a whole lot more about Me. I'm working on my comfort level with that. Also, I know for a fact there have been people who like this blog specifically because I don't go on and on about kids. I promise I won't go on and on. (Well, maybe just a little.) And I'll still post about food! And knitting! I promise! At least as much as I have been. Heh.

making time

As a new mom, I'm always reading things about how I'm supposed to make time for myself. Take a few hours to go out! Read a book! Get my hair done! Take a walk! See a movie! And while I'm sure there are those for whom that is remotely possible, I'm not one of them. Our circumstances simply won't allow for it, unfortunately, for various reasons. (Don't get me wrong - I adore my daughter. But it's true - I am rarely more than 10 feet away from her and I'm pretty sure the only time I've been further was when she was a few days old and I took a walk around the block.) She is my favorite teeny little super girl, but until recently would not tolerate being put down. For any length of time. (This is where I rave about my wraps and carriers...) Now, at the ripe old age of three months, she will lie contentedly in her crib or on her play mat and entertain herself for varying lengths of time, depending on how hungry and/or well-rested she is.

So now we have a little routine - we wake up at an ungodly hour in the morning. I grumble a bit. We get up and I change her diaper. She, of course, is all smiles. Then I put her in her crib and possibly toss in a load of laundry, maybe eat some cereal. But always, while she babbles to herself, smiles at the wall and throws her stuffed fish around, I take the time to write in a little journal. I don't say anything eloquent and it's little more than a recounting of the previous day's activities. It's rarely more than one small page, sometimes two if it was an especially eventful day. But as a stay-at-home/work-from-home new mama who's used to being a whole lot more "productive" with my days, it is a lifesaver. I started doing it when I ceased being able to tell one day from another and felt like I wasn't "doing" anything useful on a daily basis. And oh, how useful it is to raise this baby of mine! But it's monotonous, repetitive work. Usually thankless and sometimes frustrating, with moments of pure wonder and magic thrown in for good measure. It helps me to write down that these are the things I did today. Whether those things involve cooking a meal, canning some jam, doing loads of diaper laundry, working or just keeping everything together for one more day, they are worth noting. They are worthy.

wow

Wow. It's been so long, I don't even know what to say anymore! How is everybody enjoying October? *ahem* Well, I never intended to be absent from my blog for as long as I have been, so now it's time to play a little catch up! As you may already know, the main reason for my absence was our big move across the country. But we've been in Maine for about a month now, so why the prolonged silence? Many reasons, most of which I'll share with you now. Our life was turned upside down by the move and we still haven't fully recovered. We're staying with some very dear and generous friends, but most of our worldly possessions are in storage and not easily accessible. It's very hard to be productive when you don't have any of your "stuff" you need to be productive! No yarn dyeing, no Etsy shop to look after, no books to read... It's strangely freeing and yet horribly limiting at the same time. And odd to think of the entire material content of our lives being housed in an 8x10 storage unit.

But that in itself probably wouldn't have limited me as much as it has if I weren't nearly 17 weeks pregnant. That's right - we're adding a crafty baby to the crafty household! I won't lie - it's been a tougher road so far than I'd imagined it would be. I've caught several colds, which is very unlike me, and they've been hard to shake. I've also suffered from "morning" (ha, morning, as if it didn't last most of the day) sickness and am still struggling with that, though thankfully not as much as before. Most of all has been the creeping sense of lethargy and a desire to sleep nearly as much as the cats. The wee babe has stolen my knitting mojo, my cooking prowess (and my appetite as well!) and basically my desire to do, well, anything. I'm hoping the little rascal will surrender my motivation soon and I'll be able to get back to normal life!

Despite everything, it is good to be back in the north again. Autumn has been gorgeous and cool and I'm loving the chance to wear all my handknit socks finally!

making the best use of hot weather?

My usual crafty pursuits and cooking adventures have been lacking of late. As such, I feel like I haven't had much to say here! And why have my hobbies been put on hold? It's hot. Really, really hot.

Adding to the suffocating heat from the great outdoors, our oven is terribly inefficient and makes the entire front part of the house into a sweltering chamber of doom this time of year. It's bad enough in the winter, but at least then the AC and the oven aren't fighting each other for world (or duplex, at least) domination! Tonight, for instance, we briefly baked some chicken breasts and sweated through our whole meal. It's an old oven.

So needless to say, there hasn't been a whole lot of cooking going on. And for that I apologize. We've been eating a lot of Jell-O (yes, really) and light sandwiches 'round these parts.

I did however, as you can see above, cook an egg! On our sidewalk. (I wasn't kidding about the heat!) It took a good three hours, but I also set it out in the morning, before the heat of the day had reached its peak. Here, the hottest part of the day is usually late afternoon. I've seen several different numbers, but apparently eggs solidify somewhere between 140°F and 170°F. So. There you have it!

I blame the heat for my lack of knit blogging too... It's not that I haven't been knitting - I have - it's that it's too darn hot to take photos of the finished projects! Because if it's hot enough to cook an egg on my sidewalk, the last thing I want to do is head outdoors in wool socks.

Anybody have any cool cooking and crafting ideas? I sure could use some...maybe I need to get into smoothies...