Just jazz it up a bit

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Recently one of my kids posed an interesting question about my blogging "Did you regret it?" We had a conversation about when things are put out in social media that they linger and are out there for the world to see forever.  Things put out there can follow the individual years from now which could have negative consequences or close doors to opportunities from simply posting or commenting on social media .

 The example I had given was from personal experience. About 2 year ago posts from my blog were printed and used to suggest that I was overwhelmed.  My blog was something I always enjoyed writing and following blogs was a source of creativity and inspiration. Seriously have you ever met a mother that never got tired and looked great all the time. Ahem.

Because of that I took a break from blogging to minimize additional unwanted backlash on my parenting.  It was hard to return and I considered just shutting it down.  My answer to her question was no I didn't regret it I just lost my love for it and could not get back into it.  I had no regrets I put thought into what I wrote and it was my creative outlet. 

At times I have missed it and I would snap a picture with intentions of posting and of course never did. After a this question was asked to me I thought well why not return to it.  I don't have to post everyday just when inspiration strikes share something neat.  Check on my favorite blogs when I need that burst of creativity.
So here I am again. 

• First up is change up change the blog colors/design.  A little blog spring cleaning.  
• I had a yummy salad to post yesterday.
• Just finished reading Labor Day by Joyce Maynard next up is The Gilly Salt Sisters by Tiffany Baker.  If I had a project to go with it they would have been on the yarn along this week  
• Oh and why is the picture on it's side that you have to turn your head to see the books?  Ah well because whatever medium I use to bring in the picture it will NOT rotate.  I gave up trying otherwise I thought I would never post again. 
• Finally got an instagram account to go with my blog thislittlekitchenblog
•  I have feeling I'm going to be really enjoying that. Why did I wait so long?

Yarn Along Wednesday

I have missed my Wednesday Yarn Alongs but the reading and knitting and crocheting never stopped

 I have few books on my night table next to the comfy chair in my library:

Don't Lick the Minivan

The Happiness Hypothesis

100 Snowflakes to Crochet

I Want to Pee Alone

Cook's Illustrated Magazine

 My thought back in December was to crochet snowflakes everyday from the 100 Snowflakes to Crochet I completed 6.  They were enjoyable and easy to make and they are only about 3 rows of crocheting.  So lets see 6 done 94 to go before next Christmas.

 What I keep in my activity bag wherever are these two books.  The Supreme Macaroni Company is the third book in the a trilogy I have been waiting for about 2 years.  It's an easygoing read but I don't love the cover the book it makes it look like a cheesy romance novel.  I picked up the College-Prep Homeschooling at the library and haven't been able to put it down.  Some parts will come in handy for future reference.

I have had these fingerless gloves in the works since last winter I'm thinking its time to finish them, so into the activity bag they go. 

 

 

Glad to be back in the yarn along this week can't wait to see what everyone else has on the needles.





Yarn Along: More Books and The Hundred Year Throw

More books for the yarn along this week :))  Last Wednesday after I posted we went to the library and one of my favorite things now is too look in the "free" box.  You never know what treasures can be found.  Welll I found all these.

 A mish mash of books for me and the kids and for homeschooling.  The blue book is my favorite to look at.

 I know my pictures aren't great but the illustrations intrigued me.  But that's not what I'm reading. I started this book in between everything going on.  So far good.

 Lastly "The Hundred Year Throw" is this crochetted grey soft throw that has made an appearance in previous yarn alongs. I'm having trouble finishing and now I'm going to unravel half of this.  Why?  Because it's boring.  Ever have those type of projects that feel like they go on forever and you never want to finish (like this one)? 

My solution for this  is "The Afghan Making Rule".  It's a rule I made up for myself when I need to make really big afghans or throws to break it up into pieces so I can try different stitches and designs then seam it at the end and I won't get bored doing the same thing. Done.

Furiture painting gone wrong

Today's post is a follow up to Friday's moment of furinture stripping.  Remember this piece of furniture.  Well a friend mailed the last 4 knobs  I needed.  So I put them on took a picture (I apologized for the glare) and started putting all the linens away.  Looks good so far right?

 While opening and closing drawers a piece of paint chipped off.  A friend recommended "glue it back on and touch it up with a little paint".  Good idea but I was wondering why I could see the wood work.  Three layers of paint a coat of primer come off. 

 So I opened the cabinet I knew there was another piece of  paint that was chipped in there and thought what would happened if I kind of peeled it would it come off?   The answer is YES!  So began the peeling of paint by hand.

 Someone found it more fun to do some paint carvings instead...

 Can you hear my head just thumping the table.  Bad bad furniture painting.  Most of the paint peeled like a latex raincoat.  Here's a pile. 

 As of right now this is the progress I'm making.  I have quite a bit peeled away something to do late at night or while dinner cooks. 

Other random stuff::

• I probably won't have any Monday links for a while.  I'm actually trying to follow up on my own links and make some things.
• Way behind on posting at 5 Good Reasons and checking everyone's blogs.  I'll try to be back soon.
• I'm almost done unravelling a throw that I was working on that was way too wide.  On the bright side I really like the yarn and when I do it right it will look great on my bed.
• Bought a new organic shampoo at Trader Joe's. A little treat to me.
• Found this book Knitting America.  Treat for the kids and grown ups about knitting and histrory.
• Found some really cute art work for the walls for the kids.  Hope to hang those today.
• Best of all I have been an organizing maniac.  The kid's play room/library is looking better.

Now off to a rainy and hopefully productive Monday.

A Very Cold Monday

What have we been doing on these very very cold New England days...

Last week when the power the went out I had to scramble to grab flashlights and candles. Just the day before I was about to get rid of votive candles that have moved me with for the past 20 years luckily I didn't. I didn't have enough candle holders so the next best thing were mason jars.

There was lot of yarn rolling this past weekend and browsing these books for inspiration.

Cozing up with a good book, coffee, my computer, pen and paper.

Random::

I don't really have any Monday links but I wanted to pass along this hand me down knit swap at This Cosy Life she has great idea what to do with those outgrown knits and random projects.

Hope you to are having a cozy Monday :)

Yarn Along

I have been seeing the yarn along on the blogs for a while and wanted to participate at least once. I hope I can keep going, I'm usually knitting or crochetting something and reading.

Right now I'm working on a belated Christmas scarf for Jimmy. At least it's still winter and he'll still be able to use it.

Book Finds

Went to a really good book sale tonight. All paperbooks were $1. Organized my list of authors and titles and out I went. Came home with 32 books! It's like finding a great pair of shoes or jeans that fit.

Reading and Freezing Lists

Lists, lists and more lists. Lately my lists have been in disorder... again. Hoping to restore some order today while I do some laundry, follow up on some correspondences, take care of the needs of the little people, work on home projects and you know on and on. The two main items on my my mind the most are books I hope to read and fruits and veggies that I plan on freezing this week. I know two completely unrelated topics but both require my attention.

Luckily I have been doing quite bit of reading during breakfast, while waiting at an activity and before bed (that's only for a few minutes zzz...). I have been on the look out for more books at the thrift stores and getting some good books my friend recommends. Here's what's new to my library.

Back When We Were Grownups By Anne Tyler

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

Paper Daughter by M. Elaine Mar This book looks interesting.

Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
To Kill A Mockingbird (from my birthday) My favorite book growing up.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Leaving Cold Sassy by Olive Ann Burns

I have to admit I have had lots of freezer thoughts lately. With all the produce in my kitchen they are mostly destined for the the freezer to be enjoyed later.

• A friend and I recently disovered that bananas can be frozen. Yes! There 3 spotty bananas just sitting there that won't last another day. So I sliced and placed them on a cook sheet and into the freezer they went. After they froze I put them in bag to be used later for smoothies or if needed a baking recipe


• We have a large quantity of apples waiting for us. So far I have made couple of batches of applesauce and fruit sauce and froze them in containers. The fruit sauce is a mixture of sliced apples, strawberries, some blueberries and raspberries. It can be any any combination I'm thinking for next time maybe apple, peach, and strawberry for another batch. I'm not much of a canner so this is all going to be frozen.


• Apple crisps and apple pies are a family favorite and I had actually considered freezing some pies but just can't wrap my brain around it. I googled something and came across these comments where people just freeze the filling. The individual would use a tin foil pie plate put saran wrap on it, then pour the apple pie filling and freeze. Once it was frozen the pie filling is a solid piece frozen piece and would go into a freezer bag. :)) They stack nicely and don't take up as much room as a pie. I thought brilliant I need to give that a try.


• Well that idea led me to conversation with my friend Lucy (she's my baker buddy) about freezing filling for apple turnovers. We were thinking of freezing small amounts of apple filling for turnovers in muffin tins. Once they are frozen pop them out and put them in bags. We haven't tried this yet but I'm hoping it will work. I don't know if I need to spray the muffin tin or saran wrap it. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to know.


• The last item on my freezing list I just picked up yesterday at my mom's house are green peppers. My brother said that my mom was going to stuff them and freeze them. I immediately thought I've got to try that! This is my plan today steam peppers for 5 minutes and let them cool down. Sometime later today make my turkey burger recipe. Once the turkey burger cool down mash them a little and stuff the peppers. Line the peppers on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they are frozen into the bag they go. A future frozen meal ready.

Ok that's a lot of freezer talk and I hope I'm not being too overzealous today. I'm hoping to have a lot of helpers. We'll see how progress goes.

I also want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments about the art studio. We all enjoyed reading them. Thank you :))

Sock Addiction

There has been a lot of sock sewing activity. And I mean a lot. A friend discovered this book Sock Appeal and it's the favorite book this summer. There have been daily sewing sessions and lots of creatures. The older ones taught the younger two how to thread a needle and sew. It's been fun to watch the creation of the new critters that become their favorite lovies to snuggle with.

We had to buy a lot of socks so we went off to the dollar store to stock up. The funny thing is I went with all 5 kids to the store. The owners were very friendly and enjoyed watching my family buy all these socks probably thinking we were were stocking up for the fall. I just didn't have the heart to tell them all these sock were going to be cut up for sewing.

What do the kids with the round scraps from the top of the socks?

We did try the silly bands for a short while but these seem to be way cooler and more original.

This weekend

(A note about this post it was supposed to be up on Monday but due to a fussy computer that would not cooperate I had problems trying to upload pictures so it's a day late. )

What was going around here this weekend?
Went to a library book sale to to look for chapter books. My favorite arguement around here is over the books, which ones belong to which child and whose room they will go into.

These are my favorites.

Can't wait to bake a Lemon Lime Love Cake from The Farmer's Market Guide to Fruit and try some of the fruit smoothies. Makes me more excited for the farmer's markets and csa to open up.

What else I did? Finally finished 2 more red scarves for my stash for the Red Scarf Challenge.

I double crochetted this soft chenille yarn. Hoping to start another one soon if not there is alway next month.

My Hope Chest

"...my hope chest differs from the traditional version. Instead I use a wicker picnic hamper filled with projects that I hope to do in the future. ...Until I can set aside time to sew them, I'm storing the material in my hope chest."

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Simple Abundance

After reading this daily passage I thought to myself hey that sounds like me I have a hope chest. In the past month while cleaning up I decided to put together a basket of upcoming projects I would like to work on next. At one point it was filled with paper printouts of recipes and articles. Filed those away but added a binder. It's a place to add or take things that I have on my mind right now that I could get to some time soon. I didn't want it to be for future long term projects just something to keep me going. Right now it looks like this:

In there right now a recipe binder, cotton yarn to be made into wash clothes or dish clothes and the latest Stitch magazine.

The project I'm eyeing is a potholder made from felted wool. Those sweaters I shrunk a few months are going to come in handy for this future project.

The recipe binder well this I finally put together and tabbed for new recipes that I have not tried yet. All those recipe printouts go in here once they have been finagled (to be allergy friendly) and family tested and approved they go into my cooking or baking binders.

Well that's what's in my hope chest. What I love about this concept anyone can have one. Big or small, wicker or not it's for you to work on in the near future or much later in the future. A typically traditional idea but with a modern twist that hopefully will carry on for generations around here.

Easter Cake & Cookies

Lemon cake decorated with starburst candy. The starburst can softened in the microwave for about 8 seconds. Then roll it out and cut with favorite cookie cutters. For the center we use skittles.

Tried something new with our favorite sugar cookie recipe. Instead of refridgerating the dough for an hour and then cutting them out with cookie cutters I just mixed the dough and dropped it by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. To decorate add a little food coloring to the icing and add sprinkles.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

2/3 cup of dairy free margarine

3/4 cup sugar

Mix: 1 1/2 tablespoons water, 1 1/2tablespoons oil and 1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups flour

Beat the dairy free margarine , sugar, vanilla and baking powder mixture till creamy. Then add in salt and baking powder. Slowly add in flour. This batter can be mixed by hand or with an electric mixer. Cove and chill in the refridgerator for at least one hour. When ready to bake preheat oven 350 degrees. Split the dough in half, roll it out and cut out with cookie cutters. Place cut out dough on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly brown. They may look undercooked but are not. Do not over bake. Remove cookies from cookie sheet, let cool and decorate.

The dough can be chilled overnight. These are great of for any occasion.

Random ::
Since we are on subject of baking a couple of nights a friend and I got to meet Molly the author of A Home Life at a book signing. It was great to hear her speak on how she came up with idea of the book, her philosphy on food and about Delancey. If she is in your area definitely worth seeing her but if not enjoy the book it's a memoir with lots of delicous recipes. Just like the book I left the book signing hungry for good food.