One Intense Project

Boy, the last four months have not been my friend in terms of projects. Aside from work and travel, I have spent all of my time on just one project.


It's springtime, so I've been growing this:

While it would have been a lot more fun if this bump was the result of 17 weeks of beer-guzzling, instead there is an actual "being" in there!

And that "being" has kicked my ass for the last 2.5 months. But I see the light at the end of the nausea/exhaustion tunnel, and I'm actually giving consideration to sewing something again!

I thought about sewing maternity clothes, but I may ease myself back into it by sewing up a toy or a pair of baby pants. We'll see. I have a 3-day weekend with some rain in the forecast, so perhaps I'll dust off the old Pfaff.

In the meantime, pregnancy has not held Mike back from projects. He's continued work on sinking fence posts in the front yard, and staining planter boxes.

Thank goodness something is getting done around here!

Some of my favorite (and not so) things

I'm still here. Just been working on a big project and have been out of town, so I've had no time to post about the little projects. Someday soon, hopefully!

Til then..

a Favorite
The sun is shining today (and should all week) and I am wearing sandals.

Not a Favorite
The alarm surprised me this morning when it went off, and I really resented it.

a Favorite
My neighbor made breakfast rolls yesterday and sent two over to us. So I had a great breakfast this morning.

Not a Favorite
I have to do laundry when I get home.

a Favorite
I get to go shopping for birthday presents for two little boys this weekend. That means I have an excuse to go into a toy store!

Denver

March was not a great project month for me. The highlight of the month was a trip to Denver for a work conference. The conference took place over three days, and was pretty jam-packed, but my colleague and I flew out a day early to try and see a few sights. We managed to just miss a major storm, and arrived to 14" of fresh snow and sunny blue skies.

After checking into the The Curtis hotel, we trekked down to the civic/cultural district.

Denver Art Museum

 
The Denver Art Museum was far too large for us to explore thoroughly, but from what I did see, my favorite exhibit was "Fox Games".

Denver Art Museum

 

 
We also made it to the Clyfford Still Museum, which was fabulous throughout. It's very easy to make it through the whole museum in a couple of hours (just about my limit on museum tours).

Clyfford Still Museum

Clyfford Still Museum

 There is no shortage of large exterior sculptures in Denver.

Outside the Denver Public Library

"I See What You Mean"

Denver Convention Center

Downtown Denver

 

The old Tivoli Brewery, now a Student Union on the Auraria Campus

Smitten for these recipes

If you haven't already figured it out for yourself, the Smitten Kitchen cookbook is really wonderful. Not only are the recipes delicious, but so are the stories, instructions and photos. I have several cookbooks, and I am always drawn to the ones that have a photo for every recipe.  Sadly, the photos in this post are all iphone photos because I am not a food blogger, and it does not occur to me to take good photos of food. But rest assured, the photos in the book are much, much better, and are right on par with the quality of the recipes.

Eggplant & 3-Cheese Calzone

In addition to the few recipes I tried out right after Christmas, I've tested 6 more in the last couple of months, and all of them were awesome.

• Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns
• Almond Date Breakfast Bars
• Eggplant and 3-Cheese Calzone
• Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos
• Sesame-spiced Turkey Meatballs
• Olive Oil Ricotta Cake with Lemon Glaze

 
The only one that I probably wouldn't make again was the Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns. While tasty (when isn't bread and melted cheese?), they were extremely time-consuming. Also, the last step was to coat the tops in melted butter and I just couldn't do it (I have an aversion to melted butter). Sadly, it's really necessary to making them look appetizing, so I was a little put off by their pasty appearance. In reality, I'd probably just make myself a grilled cheese sandwich next time.


The Eggplant and 3-Cheese Calzone was one of the best! Since I was sick the night we had this, Mike actually made it while I assisted (read the recipe and handed him the tools). It was really flavorful and tasty and not at all difficult (and was the first time I've ever made anything with eggplant). Since we were running late we ended up using store-bought pizza dough, which was the only down-side.
 

Unknown Orange Squash

We made the Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos in January at my dad's house because they don't eat a lot of meat. Another quick and easy dish. We didn't actually use spaghetti squash since we didn't have any, but I don't think it really matters (and to make it really simple - we just used canned black beans). We paired it with the Cabbage / Cucumber Slaw from the book, which I've now made 3-4 times.

Squash Tacos, with Feta, Avocado and the Cabbage/Cucumber Slaw

The Almond Date Breakfast Bars were delicious. My sister Sara made them first and gave me a good tip about buying the pre-diced date pieces. It saves a lot of work as cutting sticky dates is not fun. They have also been a great addition to the granola I make. I didn't have any almond butter on hand so I substituted peanut butter. The only thing I noticed is that they were a little crumbly. Next time I'll do the second "chilling" in the fridge that Deb recommends. I ended up throwing these in a cup with some plain yogurt and eating it at my desk for breakfast. It traveled well and paired perfectly with the yogurt.

The Sesame-spiced Turkey Meatballs are probably my favorite recipe in the book so far. At least, I've made them the most. They are so easy, and incredibly light and flavorful. We just pair them with hummus, pita, feta and chopped cucumber. Sara made them with the recommended Smashed Chickpea salad, which she said was delicious. Her only complaint on the salad was that the recipe didn't make enough, so her suggestion is to double it.

Lastly, the Olive Oil Ricotta cake... so lovely. It's a really simple cake, but as Deb says, it's really flexible. The recipe includes instructions for a Grape Coulis, but I don't tend to keep Concord Grapes on hand, so I went with her "cooking note" alternative: the lemon glaze.
This cake will be made again.

Cheers for a Perfect Day

 
Last Friday we had another one of those perfect ski days. We headed back to Timberline on Mount Hood, and were welcomed with blue skies, fresh snow and very, very few people. I love days like this and it makes the $60 lift ticket worth it. It even snowed very lightly in the afternoon, which made Mike happy.

Papa, you would have enjoyed skiing on this type of day!
 

There was one slight mishap when Mike's snowboard bindings released his board just after we got on the lift and I threatened to make him ride the lift back down to retrieve it. Luckily the lift operators sent it up with a skier and he was saved the embarrassment.

It bears pointing out that the ski lift operators seemed to be in an incredible mood on Friday - all smiles, well wishes and helpfulness. Maybe that's normal...

We called it quits around 4 pm so that we could grab a seat at the Rams Head Bar in the 

Timberline Lodge for some mugs of cocoa.

The lodge is awesome; built in the 30's as a WPA project, and declared a historic landmark in the 70's. For anybody interested in this sort of thing, here is the interactive timeline.

The level of craftmanship and attention to detail is incredible.
I love sitting up on this floor and looking down at the fireplace and cozy couches. And the views out the windows are great on a clear day, provided that snow hasn't reached the second floor and blocked them out!








Finally, no trip east of Portland would be complete without grabbing food and drinks at Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon. So that's just what we did. Cheers for a perfect day.

Forest Animals (A non-mobile mobile)

More baby presents! When you're in your thirties it's pretty much non-stop baby season.

Next month my friends Megan & Trevor will become parents for the first time to a baby boy. I first thought that I'd make them a mobile, but I wanted to do a forest theme and I had already created that in a mobile in various ways (Forest Friends, Festive Forest, Mushroom Mobile), so I decided to interpret it as a wall hanging instead. 

This approach allowed me to be creative and not feel like I was making the same thing twice.
Most of the piece is handsewn flat felt, stuffed with wool for a little dimension. The animal tails, bird eggs and owl body are needle-felted directly to the blue felt background. The whole piece is framed in a purchased bamboo frame without the glass.

You can see that I adapted my raccoon pattern to be a bit more two-dimensional.

In general this piece came out how I imagined, though I thought I'd get more animals into the scene. Alas, I ran out of time. So while I think it's generally well-composed, it does feel a bit "empty" to me. On the plus side, it is for a baby, so I think he'll enjoy looking at the shapes and colors regardless.

I gifted this to Megan at her baby shower last week, and the invite requested that in lieu of cards the guests bring children's books. So I paired this with the book Forest Bright, Forest Night.

Little Sister

Earlier this month in the midst of an East Coast blizzard, my friend Kristin gave birth to her second, beautiful daughter. I imagine that they have spent this last month hunkered down at home, staying warm and getting to know each other as a family of four.

I wanted to welcome baby Harper with a tiny Flutter Sweater. This is the same pattern that I used for my niece Freya's sweater, but much tinier. It's made from a finger weight yarn from Turkey (Ice Yarns) gifted from my mother. I'm really pleased with how the variegated yarn resulted in such nice striping. It's very soft and lightweight - hopefully Harper looks good in earth tones!

I added a little pair of crocheted socks to the package as well - just like the ones I made for my niece, Elle, but again with a lighter weight yarn. These still have a little stretch to them, so I hope they'll fit Harper in the next couple of months.

For Annie, Harper's big sister, I included the book BIG SISTER and LITTLE SISTER.

This book was written by Charlotte Zolotow in 1966, and my big sister Susanna received a copy of it in 1979 when I was born, from our cousins, also a big sister and little sister duo!

It tells a story of how difficult life can be for the big sister who has to look out for little sister, and how trying it can be for a little sister always being looked after! 

As both a big sister and a little sister, I can really relate to the story. In the end of the book, the sisters learn how to take care of each other - and realize how much better off they are for it. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have sisters for my best friends, and I hope that Annie & Harper will be similarly blessed.

Sallie Ford, Finally!

Earlier this month Mike and I went to Eugene for the weekend to catch a duck's basketball game. The team has been iffy this season, but they managed to eek out a win at the last minute. We left with about a minute left on the clock and high-tailed it over to the Lane County Fairgrounds to finally catch Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, playing at the Eugene Microbrew Festival.

  

We've been trying to catch the Portland band for the last year, but they seem to rarely play in Portland. We almost saw them in Seattle last spring, but were overcome with exhaustion at the thought of a start time of 11 pm. Sara and Bobby even saw them in Ohio before us! They must cater to the young, hipster crowd, because there is no way that I'm staying up to catch a concert that starts that late. This time she was scheduled at 8:30 pm - much more my style.

We had to pay to get into the beer festival to see her, which was not a bad deal ($21), but their organization of getting people into the festival was horrid! They've been doing this for 14 years or so, and they had only one computer for credit card purchases and the ATM was broken. We waited in line for 30 minutes, and there were only a dozen people in front of us. I was pretty irritated by the time we got inside (patience is not my virtue), but at least there was beer when we arrived.

We had a little time before Sallie took the stage to sample some excellent beers:
Georgetown's Lucille IPA
Firestone Walker's Union Jack IPA 
Crazy Mountain Amber Ale

My favorite was the Union Jack and Mike preferred the Lucille.












The concert was great, but the best part was watching the UO students get drunk and dance. It was fabulous entertainment, and wonderful reassurance that being in one's thirties isn't so bad after all.

Renfrew #3: Red Cowl

Per my logic on pattern prices, this third Renfrew means that the pattern was free!

After seeing several more Renfrews online, I noticed that some people have been using sweatshirt fleece – and they look comfy!  I went to Rose City Textiles looking for sweatshirt knit but their selection was not great. I perused their sale room and came across this awesome fabric 50% off! It's a performance fleece, and very warm.

It doesn't have as much stretch as jersey so I had to fiddle with the pattern sizing once again. I basically went bigger all around, but tried to keep the shoulders narrower.

Since I liked the look of the wrong side of the fabric (maybe a little more than the right side even), I opted to turn the inside layer of the cowl wrong side out, along with the sleeve bands.

This is the closest I've come to making a winter appropriate top. I only wish that I had added pockets.

Renfrew #1 here

Renfrew #2 here

Share the Love: Canine Companions for Independence

Last week my company held our fourth annual "share the love" party/fundraiser. This year it was to benefit the Canine Companions for Independence. We had a great turnout - which included 7 dogs!

CCI raises and trains dogs to provide a variety of services (pretty much everything except seeing-eye dogs). Check out their website for lots of information and ways to get involved. At the party we had puppy raisers and program graduates (the people who get the dogs after they are trained). One dog helped assist a man in a wheelchair, another assisted a deaf woman, and a third worked with young children in a school. Seeing the dogs and hearing the stories had me considering raising a puppy!

My colleague Mike and I

We had all sorts of decorations to represent both valentines day and the organization. My personal contribution this year was to needle-felt three dogs.

Since CCI uses labradors, it made my life a little easier. The first animal I ever needlefelted was the brown dog above, so at least I already had one done. I did change his eyes to black beads since I think the beads give them a little more "life". The other two dogs came together very quickly since I didn't give them moveable limbs.

My favorite is the yellow lab below - patiently sitting and awaiting instruction.

This dog was the most like the CCI program graduates. All seven dogs just sat so patiently at the party.

I also love the little black puppy, but it's just impossible for me to photograph it well and show off any detail. In real life, it does indeed have detail, and very much looks like an eager puppy.

For scale: about 2" high