snowing blizzards

still here!

Posted on 8 March 2010 | No responses

It’s been a busy few weeks! We’re deep into potty training country here. Some days Sam is absolutely great about it and others she just could care less. Luckily there are more of the former days otherwise I’d just scrap it and go back to diapers.

We’ve had friends visiting from out of town and have been spending as much time with them as we can. They have a little one who’s Sam’s age and those two are quite the pair.  With the potential onset of spring (I have no idea when it’s actually supposed to be spring here) we’ve been spending as much time outdoors as possible.

From parks to walks to playing in the front yard you name we’ve been doing it.  I still can’t quite get over the feeling that this is too good to be true.  On the rainy days we’ve stayed inside making things like cookies (not to be done again with that much icing for quite a while, if ever)

This weekend we visited a local goat farm where we not only got to see kids (of both the goat and human variety) but also got to see an actual birth!  It was truly amazing to see.  I don’t think that Sam appreciated it as much as I did, but that’s probably to be expected at 2.5yrs old.  I’ve been sqeezing sewing in here and there and have some posts about that forthcoming.  I think the business will continue for another few weeks.  We have family coming to visit this week and then a trip back to the east coast in early April.  I’ll try to post more regularly, I promise!  For now I leave you with this bundle of cuteness:

Food

Posted on 19 February 2010 | No responses

Lately my husband and I have been thinking a lot about food.  He has done some posts here, here and here.  While we were on vacation we read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.  While it is a bit of a manifesto it is also a great book that made us think about the way we consume food.  In it Pollan (among other things) challenges the reader to buy foods at the store that have less then 5 ingredients that have no un-natural and un-pronouncable items.  We decided to take on that challenge and everything has changed for us, the way we eat, cook and most importantly *think* for the better.

Yes it takes longer to shop.  I have to actually spend time thinking and looking at the foods that I want to buy and that can be challenging when shopping with a 2.5 year old in tow.  However it has made me realize just how shitty (excuse my language but it really needs a stronger word then even that one) the state of the food industry is.  There are additives, preservatives, extra vitamins and more in everything.  There are even extra ingredients in low fat milk for crying out loud.  It’s very hard to find a pasta with less then 10-15 ingredients and it took me 2 stores and at least a dozen brands last weekend to find corn tortillas.  It shouldn’t be this hard.

I think the part that makes me the most sad is that the stores that the majority of the American public shops at (Safeway, Stop & Shop, Shaws, Price Chopper, Kroger, etc) are among the worst offenders.  The Safeway by us doesn’t sell organic meat (not that it means all that much), they only sell organic milk in half gallon containers and the vegetable section is smaller then the frozen food section.  I realize that this is one store among hundreds of thousands but I’m willing to bet that there are many more like it.  Whole Foods tries, but in our house their nickname is “whole paycheck” because while the quality is there and the selection is there it costs a lot of money to ship organic produce from all over the world to your local store.  Trader Joe’s also tries.  They are in fact among the better ones but they don’t have many locations in the interior of the country and they also ship their food from all over the world.  I give them kudos for trying to keep the prices reasonable though.

Farmers markets are the absolute best.  The food you get is local, fresh and you can actually meet the people who grow the food you’re buying.  However, it is winter in most of the country and things just don’t grow in the snow.    People need to be educated and educate their children on how to preserve: can, dry, freeze, etc fresh food in the summer for the winter months.  They also need to be educated on how to cook and make fresh food at home.  To me personally this is one of the most important points.  Buying a bag of frozen pasta, veggies and sauce that you re-heat does not make it healthy.  It is filled with crap that no one really knows what it does to your body.  Though by the looks of most of this country I think we can make a wild guess as to what effect it has.  We also need to *eat less* on a daily basis.  I started my weight loss quest a year ago (27lbs ago) by simply feeding my toddler from my plate and not taking seconds.  I would serve my (at that time) regular portion and just give her what she wanted.  It was a great stepping stone and helped me to not feel the pressure of counting calories etc.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the healthiest person out there.  I’m over weight, though that is changing.  I exercise, but probably not enough.  I take my vitamins when I remember but who knows if that actually helps.  I am also trying to show my daughter that cooking at home is important, going to the farmers market is important, caring about your food is important and most of all how to cook that food is important.  It does become challenging when she wants to “help” make dinner and I’m doing something that requires sharp knives and high heat on the stove but we are both (more me then her) learning how to give and take in those situations.

This leads me to the other part of why I wanted to post:

Jaimie Oliver gave a great and powerful talk at TED this year.  He is someone who truly cares.  He wants to make a difference and is doing what he can to help.  If everyone in this country just paid a little more attention to what they consumed and made even a few changes to their eating habits I think that we would be well on our way to being a healthier country.  It’s not going to be easy but taking it in small steps and focusing on the kids is where we need to start.  We will also be able to make the corporations that run the food system in this country listen to us if we change our buying habits.  Food choices should not be run by accountants.

I’ll get off my soapbox for now but I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this subject in the future.  Being trained as a chef means that food is very near and dear to my heart and making sure that food is as healthy and tasty as it can be even nearer and dearer to my heart.

spring in Feb?!

Posted on 17 February 2010 | No responses

I suppose that most people who live in this area are used to it but this New Englander is having some trouble processing this development.  Don’t get me wrong I love being able to play outside in just a t-shirt, it just doesn’t feel like February.

We’ve been spending as much time as we can outside, painting, playing, walking.

mystery quilt update

Posted on 4 February 2010 | No responses

Monday I received my last “clue” for the mystery quilt I’ve been making.  I can’t tell you how much I love the final result.  If you remember Sam picked the ladybug fabric and with a little assistance (giving her some fabrics to choose from) she chose the coordinating fabrics. Without further ado here is the finished top:

It’s a little busy but keep in mind it’s also for a kid.  I hope this will be able to grow with her at least until she hits puberty.  At that point all bets are off anyway.  The pattern says it makes a twin sized top so it’s perfect for her.

I can’t wait to show it off at the mystery quilt reveal and find out what other people did.

Block of the Month club!

Posted on 3 February 2010 | No responses

For Christmas I received a block of the month club membership at my LQS for the year.  We meet once a month and are hoping to finish 2 blocks a month.  I missed the first months meeting because we were still in Costa Rica but luckily I didn’t miss anything too detailed.  This Saturday is meeting #2 and I can’t wait.  The pattern we’re doing is On Point.  I can’t comment on the pattern yet (other then I like it) because we haven’t started sewing from it yet.  I have spent a lot of time picking fabric and I’m excited to see what makes the cut in the end and what gets dropped.

The dark brown with the rose colored flowers is my inspiration fabric, the creams and the brown ones next to it are the background fabrics and the colored ones on top are potential fabrics to be used in the blocks.

It’s going to be a fun year, I can tell already!

Christmas Dresses

Posted on 3 February 2010 | No responses

I finally had some sunlight to take pics of 2 dresses I made for Sam for Christmas today!

I used the Indygo Junction Sister Smocks pattern for both dresses.  The pattern was great to follow and simple enough for me to get them done in 24 hours.

For the first dress I used the numbers from Moda’s au.then.tic line.  Having a kid who loves letters and numbers the way she does I knew that this one would be a hit.

For the second dress I let her pick the fabric.  Not surprisingly she chose something near and dear to her heart…Robots!

The fabric is Cogsmo from the Cosmic Cricket line.  It is adorable and has enough color in it to make it accessible for use in a girls dress and not just for boys.

I chose the dress that is normally supposed to have a panel down the front but I omitted it because it felt too busy with all the robots and circuit boards.  I think I made the right decision.

When she opened this gift she just looked at me and grinned.  She was so excited.  It’s fun to watch her pick fabric and then be able to see (and wear) the product.

Dana’s quilt (aka the day my walking foot failed me)

Posted on 3 February 2010 | No responses

As I mentioned previously I made a quilt for my sister Dana as well this year.  I didn’t have time to quilt it before Christmas but the top was done.

The pattern is Romantic Getaway.  Like the quilt for Laura it is a design made for using strip packs.  It was super easy and simple to get together and I just love it.  I’m hoping that she likes it even half as much as I do.

Last week I got down to quilting it I decided to do a grid pattern to it to balance the diamonds.  I was 3 seams into it when for some reason my walking foot stopped walking.  the arm goes up and down but the feet don’t.  I haven’t had time to take it into the local Bernina dealer yet but boy it is frustrating me.  I tried going back to my regular foot and gave up 3 inches into another seam.  It seems that once you have one you can’t go back.  I was so disappointed that is broke, I was on a role and really feeling good about getting it done.  ARGH. I have plenty to keep me busy but it is frustrating to have it sitting there taunting me with it’s incompleteness.

Vacation!

Posted on 24 January 2010 | No responses

After the new year Chris and I were able (thanks to our families) take a 10 day child free vacation.  The last child-free vacation that we had was before Sam was conceived so it was time for us to remember what it was like to be a couple without a munchkin in tow.

We decided upon Costa Rica as our destination and boy did we have a good time.  It was raining for a good portion of our trip, in fact there were a couple of days where it rained like nothing we’d ever seen or experienced before. Even then it was great, in fact that may have been my favorite part of the whole trip.  We traveled around the country a great bit.  We did a day trip to the Arenal Volcano (a massage followed by time in the hot springs for me!), spent 3 days in Tortuguero, spent 3 days in Monteverde (aka the cloud forest) and 3 days in Manuel Antonio.  If I had it to do over again I would lengthen the other parts and shorten and/or omit the Manuel Antonio part, it was too touristy for me.

It was a well needed trip and I’m glad we did it though 10 days was a bit long for being away from Sam.  She handled it very well and only had a few meltdowns.  To be honest most of the time I kept thinking that I couldn’t wait until she was big enough for us to take her there.  Costa Rica really is an amazing country ecologically, it amazes me how diverse the eco-systems in the country are.  To see all (at least the ones I felt were good enough to upload) the pics I took go here.

Christmas part 2

Posted on 22 January 2010 | No responses

My family celebrated Christmas the day after.  We have a large blended family and when you add significant others + 1 kid it gets even more exciting and maybe a bit over stimulating.

This was actually taken Christmas eve as my mom put the finishing touches on Sam’s Christmas dress before we left.

Sewing really does run in my genes.  I think that I’m at least a 4th generation sewer/quilter.

There was some jewelry received though I’ve taken it back until I can investigate that recall I heard about for kids jewelry.

A frosty doll was found at the store and she just loves it.  She has really gotten into it this year and all snowmen have now become “Frosty.”

Sarah and I helped Sam make t-shirts for her aunties the week leading up to Christmas.  It is funny to look at the 3 shirts because each one is so very different.  The aunties (bless them) were excited to receive them and were duly impressed with their hand-made gift.

2 quilt tops were given that day.  Laura’s quilt and a quilt for Dana who was the sister I got to buy for this year.  She got married this fall and since we hadn’t yet gotten them a gift I figured I’d kill 2 birds with one stone this way.

I started quilting it today, but that is a story for another day

We always have snacks during Christmas and this year there was shrimp cocktail on the menu.  Someone was having a hard time resisting the temptation and was summarily banished to the back porch.  She was not at all happy about that fate, though she was given some shrimp later in the day.

The day ended with a friendly (albeit somewhat competitive) game of poker.  Sam even got into the action.

Christmas part 1

Posted on 21 January 2010 | No responses

We spend Christmas eve & day with my in-laws.  A great time was had especially by the 2 little ones.  It’s great to have cousins so close in age (1 year apart), they really are interacting and playing now.  It’s so much fun!

This was the tree after santa arrived.  I heard a saying somewhere that there are 3 stages of Santa in life:

1. believing in Santa
2. not believing in Santa
3. becoming Santa

I have to say that I am loving stage 3 immensely.  It was so much fun to see their faces in the morning, though at 1.5 and 2.5 I’m not sure they totally realized what was going on, just that it was something special.

Not surprisingly Sam made out like a bandit.  Among other items she received wings, a tutu, a crown  _and_ a wand.  She is now a mini Abby Cadabby / figure skater / whatever comes to mind that day.

She also received a camera so she can now take pictures like mommy does.  It is very interesting to see her pictures, not only for what she finds but to literally see things through her eyes.  The world really does look big from ~3ft off the ground.

It will be interesting to see what she does with the camera as she gets older.  In the mean time the tutu and wings are a near daily adornment and I hear that while we were away she ran around the university where my mother works wearing them.  No doubt putting a smile on the face of anyone who saw her.  Gift giving doesn’t get much better.  I hope stage 3 stays this enjoyable for a while.

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