how is your memory?

Handmade gifts are a favorite of mine.  I love to get them and I love to make them. Before Anika arrived, I spent a lot of time doing non-mommy things: yoga, getting massages, going out for coffee, shopping, knitting, sewing... now I spend a lot of time doing mommy things: washing bottles, making baby food, laying down with her while she sleeps - I can hear you groaning and muttering to yourself, "I thought she had a college degree and could read and understand parenting books".  Well, I can read.  And I have a pile of books littering the living room on sleep training... but simply put, I am ignoring all of the advice given to me in said books.  So my point: since I lay in bed with her for a few hours a day, I have mucho timeo to come up with projects and flip through sewing/knitting books (very quietly of course!).  This is one of those projects - a memory game for Leif!

What a great idea!

Emilie and Mikael emailed me some lovely pictures of their family (who all love at least 5 hours away, and not one family member lives in their resident state of Iowa) and Leif's favorite toys and I went to town.  I unfortunately cannot take credit for the memory game idea, it is a project from Alicia Paulson.  But I can take credit for the fabric zipper bag that hold the pieces.  This was my first time sewing in a zipper - I had to use a few YouTube videos to get it straight in my head.  Yippee!  I heart the Internet. 

Leif just turned 3 and memory is not the easiest of games especially when I made 36 pieces - hell, I don't think I would get very far with his game.  So Emilie, in all her mommy wisdom, set up the game with all of the the pictures facing up.  Brilliant!  As far as I know, he LOVES his game and plays it daily, perhaps hourly... Emilie, don't burst my bubble of joy.

knitting knight

Last night was a very successful knitting night. Not only did I get a few inches closer to the top of the hat I am working on, I learned quite a bit about my Third Eye and the 6th chakra. You see, I have been going to acupuncture weekly for a year. Oh yes. A year. Lately, when Jodie places a needle in the middle of my forehead, it fells like she is hitting cardboard which stretches across my left eye. It hurts going in, it aches when I am relaxing on the table, it hurts when the needle is taken out AND it still hurts today - 2 days after the treatment.

So while I was knitting a lavender cable knit hat, Tanya taught me all about my chakras.

The Third Eye is exactly as it sounds - your intuition, wisdom and clear sight.
Signs that your Third Eye is out of balance - passive aggressiveness, flighty, preoccupied

My internet researched course of action for today - drink mint tea, burn saffron incense and practice forward bends, headstands and shavasana. We will see about the headstand...

Knitting is on Tuesdays - anyone can join in...

apple pie delight

One fine day, as I was driving home from Chicago, I passed an apple orchard. This particular orchard was run by very smart folks. Folks who advertise many, many miles before the actual orchard. I thought that I had passed it by and I was rather sad and then suddenly, a TURN HERE sign appeared. Oh my! So I turned, tasted many kinds of apples, and left with 40 pounds of them. Do you know how many apples it takes to fill two 20 pound bags? Many, many apples.

Kevin and I dried some, ate some and I decided to get ahead of the game and bake some for Thanksgiving. My first attempt was sloppy. I did not create actual pies, I wanted to bake smaller versions that would be east to freeze and easier to transport ti Wisconsin. So I baked 1/2 pies. Not good. First, I had way too much crust and not enough pie. Second, 1/2 pie size likes to break apart if you do not have something strong under it at ALL TIMES. And third, they were not very cute.

So on Sunday, I made much smaller, cuter, "hand apple pies". They turned out just lovely.

Here is the crust recipe from my mother. I LOVE this crust and I love to make this crust...

3 cups white flour
1/2 pound of lard, thoroughly cut in

Mix together in a small bowl with a fork
1 egg
5 TBLS water
1 TBLS white vinegar

Cut into flour mixture, refrigerate (rolls better with chilled). Last chilled for 2 weeks.

I went a little less traditional with the filling:

6 apples (about 8 cups), peeled and sliced

Mix together and coat apples
2/3 cup sugar
3 TBLS white flour
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Add to mixture once apples are thoroughly coated
1 1/2 TBLS brandy
1 tsp vanilla

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, lower temp to 350 and bake for 35-45 minutes more.

I brushed the tops with eggwhite and sprinkled sugar on top - they looked a little boring. HINT: Don't be shy with the eggwhite.

I saw my parents today and gave them some pie. We met for lunch and we all headed to The Pebble Spa for a family acupuncture session. They had quit smoking when Adam and I were in High School, but they started again when Adam dropped a bomb on them by telling them on the phone that he was getting married to a woman they had never met and who he had only known for a few months. I am surprised that smoking is the only thing they did. I might have done worse.

The quit smoking campaign started when my dad twisted his back and was in severe pain - I suggested he see Jodie, my acupuncturist, and he did. After his first treatment (which eased his back pain so much that he cancelled his cortisone shot appointment), he was convinced she did something to make his cigarettes taste like crap (his words, not mine). Now this is not a bad thing, just an unexpected side effect. It took a few more visits for my dad to ask her to help him quit smoking. Within 3 days of the no-smoking treatment, he had quit. My mother saw her today and I think she has quit already!

What a lovely start of the week - a house full of apple pies and and healthier, happier parents!

knit monkey

A little background: my friend Jo, taught me how to knit one snowy February. She taught me how to cast on, knit, purl, change colors and finish a hat. And all of this was done on a round needle. All of this. Since then, about 4 years ago, I have added the I cord, cable knit and casting off. You can create some kick ass hats with all of these skills. Kick ass. I have only knit one thing that was not on a round needle. Jo made me do it. We started a sweater for Ruby, but have not finished.

I do not have pattern reading skills, nor do I really want to read a pattern. Reading a pattern because that means I am not a natural and I need assistance. Learning curves, schmurning curves. I want to be perfect right away. I think knitting should be intuitive.


I wanted to make something special for E and MJ's bambino/a. I asked myself, "which animal seems the most gender neutral?". My scientific answers: a rabbit - girl, a dog - boy, an elephant - boy, a giraffe - boy, but a monkey? A monkey could be for a girl or boy! Shizam! I knew what I must knit. But knitting a monkey is not like knitting a hat. There are legs and arms and ears and a tail to consider. Not intuitive things to knit.

I had to find the right button eyes and bent bamboo needle and stuffing. Do you know what size bag stuffing comes in? JUMBO. I can make 40-50 monkeys with the amount of stuffing I have left over! I do not plan on making even 4 more monkeys. There are too many hours involved to create just one monkey.

I was not motivated to learn to read the pattern, so I avoided it for a long time. In fact, I did not accomplish more than the body (step one) in 6 months. And to top it off, I made parts of it up. Not a good plan. I had to knit the head multiple times - I am talking more than 3. Oh yes.

But now that I have conquered the basic pattern, I am a knitting fool. I have been working on a monkey for a few nights now. While Kevin and I are watching a movie, I have been knitting body parts. The kitties loved when I sewed up the seams and the yarn wagged in their faces. In fact, Dolemite loved the knitting so much, we stole pieces of the monkey when I was not looking. I gave up trying to keep them from him and I turned one bad head attempt (yes, I still had to knit multiple monkey heads for the second monkey) into a mouse. He LOVES it. It is light enough for him to toss around the room by himself and chase. Shiva has tried to play with it, but when she gets too close, he pounces on her.

Next project: a pink, green and brown mousey for her.

piggy pinata

When I was little, my daddio made pinatas. He made them for Adam's birthday (not mine). We would have a beach party for Adam and the mess of the exploding pinata stayed at the beach. Also it rained on my birthday - every year - no! once it snowed - and good times do not equal breaking a pinata in the rain. July is a much better month than October for pinatas - my mother liked to keep a clean, tidy house :)

I always wanted my dad to make pinatas. Always. I have no idea why I love them so much. Maybe it is the beauty of the pinata and the suprise of what is inside. Who knows. All I know is that I begged my dad to make them all of the time.

So G and I made a pinata for Caid's first birthday. It started out as a donkey and as we saw what it looked like at stage 3 (see below) we realized we had a pig not a donkey. So we went with it. I think I understand why my daddio did not want to make these all of the time (I asked at every holiday). It takes some time. Understatement of the year! Check out our process...

Stage 1 - the balloons - we had to fill each of the long balloons with water before we could blow them up. We are getting old.
















Stage 2 - the goo - we mixed flour and water until a lovely paste emerged. Dipped the Sunday New York Times in the goo and wrapped the lovely shape (remember we were making a donkey). We did this twice and let it dry for a few days...
















Stage 3 - cutting and stuffing - we cut a hole in the piggy's side with a Dremel tool and filled him with goodies: cars for the boys and candy for the adults. Do not worry, the cars were small but for 12 months and older and I checked the toy recall list. They were not on it.
















Stage 4 - many squares of paper - after he was sufficiently stuffed, we added many layers of tissue paper. The piggy started to take shape.
















Stage 5 - finishing touches - when he was all papered up, we had a fluffy blob with legs. All he needed was a trim and some accessories: eyes, snout, ears and tail. Wholla - a beautiful piggy pinata! Hopefully we did not make it too strong - Caid is only a year today! Happy Birthday Caid!!