Resolutions

Hey folks - it's time to make resolutions!

I make them every year. Sometimes they stick, and other times they don't.

Last year, my resolution was maintenance, which I wrote about here.

In short, I wanted to maintain what I had - take care of things, whether it meant polishing my shoes or maintaining a friendship. And I think I did pretty well.

This year, with the new baby coming I think I need to go beyond maintenance.

Here's how:

1. Gets things done as soon as possible. When a bill comes up, pay it. When an email comes in, write back (no matter how little I write at least write something).

Basically... when a problem comes along you must whip it. whip it good.

2. Reclaim the garage. I know, I've been talking about this for a year. But it will be important to be able to pack the kids in the car in the safety of the garage, rather than out on the driveway. What do we need to do? Give more away to charity and put up more shelving.

3. Put in hardwood floors in the bedrooms. This is truly important when you consider the amount of spit-up that we are going to have to deal with. Spit-up and carpets don't mix.

4. Plant a vegetable garden. I've pretty much designed the side-yard here. Now we need to implement it.

And an extra one to get my angel wings?

* Contribute to animal causes. Contributing money is fine. But one year, Hubby and I made over a dozen animal beds and contributed them to a shelter that we liked. It would be nice to do that again soon.

What are your resolutions this year? How did last year's go? Will this year's be different?

I'm curious!

Mounted Spool Rack

Here's my new wall-mounted spool rack.

Big thanks to Hubby. I found the spool rack at Jo-Ann's and it originally looked like this.

Basically, it was made of unfinished wood, a few rows larger than the rack below and had a stand. We took off the stand, cut it down to size, and Hubby painted it white.

Then he nailed it to the wall.

It's so convenient - it hangs right in my craft area next to my machine.

And it makes me so happy to look over and see all the pretty thread colors :)

One lucky little girl...

Oh how I wish that they made dollhouses like this when I was a child...

Crazy baby received one amazing dollhouse from her Grandparents (well, they actually bought it for her for her 1st bday, but she was much too young to play with it and actually enjoy it - so it's been sitting in our garage ever since).

It's from Plan Toys and it's called the Chalet Dollhouse. It comes with all the modern, pop furniture that you see here...

Even the door to the kitchen swings open. Pretty amazing!

She's been playing with it ever since...:)

It's that time of year again...

Time to make chocolate-dipped dried fruit as gifts for my work colleagues...

Chocolate? check.

Dried white peaches? check.

Dried apricots? check.

Dried ginger? check.

Dried mango strips? check.

Ready to dip and refrigerate...

Once the chocolate was melted and all the fruit was hand-dipped, the fruit was laid out on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper for baking (it has a non-stick surface).

Then they go into the fridge...

The next day, they are assembled into little clear baggies with decorative stickers...

And the very next day, they were all passed out...to some very happy people. :)

More Christmas decorating

Hubby found these fantastic stocking clips to hang the stockings off the ledges of the fireplace. Now, we didn't have to drill, nail, use glue, etc.

Now, all I need to do is stuff them!

Actually, Crazy baby's and Jamie the Cat's are done...on to do Hubby's.

(With this weird reflection, doesn't it look like we have a coffee table in our fireplace?)

Finally finished decorating the tree. Hubby found a beautiful scalloped white tree skirt (with quilting!) at Target. He also found a wonderful star for the top that lights up.

The ornaments that I found at IKEA recently rounded out the collection (plus, they are unbreakable).
Clothespins and ribbon.

What a simple way to hang all the wonderful cards that people have sent our way!

Christmas is coming and I can't wait.

My mom got Crazy Baby a modern dollhouse (Plan Toys - Chalet dollhouse) when she was one years old and she was just too young for it. Now is the perfect moment. Hopefully, it will provide hours of fun. And since hubby built a toychest (opens in front, not on top), the top of the chest will be the perfect place to display the dollhouse.

Good things: Christmas edition

Hi Folks,

There are a few good things out there that have truly made this Christmas a bit more handy.

First up, this ornament box & organizer that Hubby found for me at Target.

Fabulous! Now all my ornaments will be neatly stacked in two boxes. No more tissue paper and bubble wrap. No need to keep all the original boxes that take up a lot more room.

You've probably seen ads for this: The Scotch paper cutter.

it's amazing - slices and dices up wrapping paper in no time.

Perfectly straight cuts with no tearing.

A wonder tool if you have a lot of wrapping to do.

And you've probably seen ads for this as well: the Scotch pop-up tape dispenser.

Another ingenious invention. Perfectly-sized little pieces of tape just when you need them.

Now if Scotch can only come up with an instrument to hold the bow after you tie the first knot...

Another Christmas good thing? This German candle pyramid.

Needs candles though...

A very special Christmas gift

I just wanted to formally announce here to the blog world (or at least the slice of the world that reads my blog) that Hubby and I are expecting!!

Here's a recent ultrasound pic:
We're about 15 weeks along, and we don't know the sex of the baby yet, but we definitely want to find out.

So, this definitely sets a hard deadline for many around the house projects that have to be done by the early June arrival of baby #2.

Stay tuned for lots of fun household projects and some baby craft projects...its going to be an exciting next 6 months!!

I can tell it's Christmas when...

...The parcels are lined up by the front door waiting for me to take them to the post office

...I've received my custom greeting cards from Apple and I feverishly start to address envelopes

...And the presents start to accumulate under the tree. I still have more to wrap though!

Last weekend Hubby hung the outdoor lights (looks lovely - I shall try and take a pic at night when it's not raining).

This weekend, we hopefully have time to figure out how to hang the stockings that I made from our fireplace...it's not as easy as you think.

This weekend, we went to IKEA to buy a toy chest for Crazy baby - who needs to learn to pick up her toys after playing with them - only problem is that she has no place to put them! So, Hubby and I searched and searched for an attractive, modern option that could work as a toy chest. I think we found one - I just hope it looks good. While we were there, we bought a few more ornaments in acrylic. I was really getting sad at how lopsided our tree looked with all the glass ornaments crowded at the top and the bottom of the tree completely bare (this is so that Crazy baby didn't break the ornaments). So, we opted to get a few cute acrylic ones, and start rearranging - now it doesn't look so bad. I'll show you a pic tomorrow.

This weekend was also Crazy baby's first dental visit. She really liked the dentist (probably because the dentist said that she had beautiful teeth) and let the dentist brush her teeth. The dentist wanted to apply a sticky fluoride gel to her teeth, but Crazy baby would have none of it! We'll try and do this later when she's feeling up to it.

Hubby and I are just getting over a cold (a really, really bad one that kept me from going to work for three days!) so we're slowly ramping back up to join the world of the living. Don't you hate how colds leave you feeling out of touch with the world? I can't wait to feel normal again. Ah, the ability to hear out of both my ears would be such a luxury right now...

O Christmas Tree

For some reason, it's taken me an inordinately long time to post these pics.

We actually put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving day. It's nice to do it earlier in the year so that you can enjoy it for a longer time, don't you think?

This tree is actually a fake, but a rather convincing one. If you notice that there are more ornaments at the top, your eyes are not deceiving you: after Crazy Baby started grabbing some of the glass ornaments and clanging them together, we moved them up.

I've been saving ornaments for a long time. We've never had a large Christmas tree - and Hubby and I have been together for 10 years (although married for 6).

These are some of my favorites:

The white pear is enameled metal and is quite heavy.
I also bought a white apple at the same time.
My ornament collection is largely glass and all of the ornaments are clear, silver, white or gold. No colors.

We also have a mini tree this year, which we've placed in the living room.

This tree is decorated with mini- ornaments. Most of these ornaments are vintage and are of little snowmen, soldiers, Santas, animals and angels.

New pillow for school

Hi Folks,

Crazy Baby requested a pillow for school and I couldn't resist making this cute pillow case for her child-size travel pillow.

She seems pretty happy with it. She held it in her arms when we walked into class and shouted out "I got pillow!" to everyone. All the kids cheered. It was pretty hilarious.

Hubby is at it again...

Yes - the garage still needs organizing.

You all must think we have a 2000 sq ft garage. Obviously, we don't...but sometimes it does feel like boundless disorganization.

The railing leading down into the garage did not have pickets. A bit unsafe for kids, don't you think? And unsteady for adults too. So, Hubby put in pickets (the white pieces of wood). We're thinking of leaving the pickets white, but repainting the railing and steps a brighter orange.

Then, he put in these smaller shelves for storage above our freezer (he had to cut shelves in half to fit them).

Then, he hung up more hooks went up to store awkward objects like strollers.

Then, more shelves and hooks for car and garden supplies.

But, before we start celebrating (yay, us!), then we look at this corner of the garage, and let out a collective sigh. Still a mess. Something to tackle over Christmas break, I guess.

Christmas stockings

Hi Folks,

As you may know, I haven't sewed in a while and I've been really eager to get back into it again.

So, why haven't I? Is it lack of time? Well, maybe - but I always seem to fit in the time for various projects. Lack of space? No, because I have a designated craft area. It's where my craft area is located that might be the problem. My craft area is in a corner of the office (actually it's around a corner) where it's almost impossible to keep an eye on Crazy Baby.

So, I temporarily moved the sewing machine to my dining room table and voila! I instantly started to sew again. Yay! This is just temporary...but when I have a major project to complete, you'll probably find me sewing on the kitchen table.

So, I completed these Christmas stockings for all 4 members of my family, including Jamie the Cat. The one with the "d" is Crazy baby's and the one with the "r" is Hubby's. Obviously, mine is not the one with the cat paw. I got the design idea for these from a website that I can not recall or retrace my steps (why do I always do this??). The ornaments are sewn on (both layers) and the bow and initials are glued on.

I think I like Hubby's the best! I think the the tan, brown, and red best captures mod elegance!

Crazy busy

Omg. What a long weekend so far. And I need to take pictures - and lots of them!

First of all, I hosted Thanksgiving. I was so tired and rushed that all I could muster was a picture of the turkey, and it's not a very good one at that.

I should have taken a picture of the chocolate-pecan pie, but I just didn't have it together at the time.

I followed the Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving menu. They use to hand out a booklet in the stores of all the recipes - do they still do this? The recipes are wonderful...

The turkey was flavored with citrus and herbs. I used meyer lemons (cut up and placed inside and squeezed over the top), butter under the skin, lots of salt, pepper, chopped sage and thyme and olive oil and butter on top (smeared everywhere). Because we don't roast the stuffing in the bird, the bird cooks faster. I made the stuffing on the side: chestnuts, hot italian sausage, dried wild mushrooms (reconstituted in chicken broth - keep the broth with the mushroom essence for the stuffing), onion, herbs, salt, pepper, butter, chicken broth and sourdough bread (cubed and left out overnight on a cookie sheet). If anyone is interested in the actual recipe, I can send it to you or post it here. I also made asparagus (roasted in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, herbs and salt and pepper), and mashed potatoes (with yukon golds).

My mom helped me make the gravy from the turkey drippings - I have never done this by myself before. It takes a fair amount of flour to make a good rue! And you have to make sure the flour is really cooked - or else the gravy will taste like...well, like flour. We added some more chicken broth and butter (to thicken) - and stirred and scraped and stirred. it turned out really good!

And I cheated and used Whole Foods canned whole cranberries - but I did add orange zest - which really enhances the flavor.

On Thanksgiving, my Dad and Hubby put up the Christmas tree (pictures are coming!). This is our first Christmas tree. It's a pretty convincing fake and it's pre-strung with lights. Easy to put up and take down. I've been buying ornaments at after-Christmas sales for years...and I finally got to take them out of the boxes! Last year, we bought a tiny tree (last year our family room was in the middle of a major reno - so there was no room for a tree) - and we put it up this year too.

And I finished my Christmas stocking project. Yay! I really like how they turned out. Can't wait for daylight to take pictures. Now I'm working on a fabric ornament garland.

And I completed my Christmas list - I am proud to say that I know what I'd like to get everyone. Will these items be in stock? Can't predict - but at least I have my ideas (and some backup ideas) down on paper.

I went to JoAnn's today and they had a 50% off spool sale. I bought about a dozen spools of thread in a rainbow of colors. That's when I realized that I could really use a wall-mounted spool holder (you know - with all the spokes?). Which means that one of my fabric-covered cork boards will have to move...but I have a plan. As with everything else...I desperately need to take pictures!!

Ok - off to make Crazy baby another pillowcase. She's requested a pillow to take to school when they take naps. So, we got her a travel pillow and now I need to encase it. yes - she's a bit spoiled, but who really likes to sleep without a pillow?

Working on the garage...again

I'll try and post new pictures this coming weekend, but Hubby and I have made real headway on organizing our garage.

Yes - we've been at this organization project a long time. You might remember my proclamation from last year that we were going to park 1 (or possibly two cars) in it by Christmas?

Yeah, fat chance.

But, on the bright side, we're still hopeful and still chipping away at it!

We made a big push the last two weekends to sell objects in the garage that we never use. We sold a changing table (that Crazy baby started to jump off of), an old blender, an air purifier, a down feather bed (double) and gave away our old mattress. All this stuff took up a surprisingly large amount of room. Then Hubby wired a new light fixture (go Hubby for learning electrical wiring from a manual!!), hung up more shelves and hooks. Now, all this stuff that was accumulating on the ground has somewhere to go.

But, two big changes need to happen in order to make this space fully-functional. We need to get rid of this large piece of IKEA furniture that we're using for storage, but it's not particularly space-saving. And Hubby needs to buy or build a storage shed for gardening supplies and tools. The shed would be housed in the side yard (still called the industrial wasteland in our house).

Then, we can finally park both cars! I'll show pics this weekend...

Next up? My Thanksgiving menu...

In praise of: Trader Joes

I can never say enough good things about Trader Joes.

I'm always finding new things there that I like to try.

This time, however, I baked an old standby: overnight self-rising croissants.

They come 8 to a small box and they are the teenies-tiniest things you'd ever laid eyes on.

Put them out on the baking sheet overnight and they explode!!

The ones in the front are filled with chocolate - there are 4 to a box and they grow larger.

They are even more delicious.

I gave them an egg wash and popped them into the over for 15-20 min.

Aren't they beautiful?

It's lovely to serve these warm for guests.
Also decided to bake a TJ's Pumpkin spice bread (I think they only carry this item seasonally - but I would have to check on that). It's so delicious. Crazy baby eats this bread by the fistful.

Doesn't it cook up perfectly? I can't believe that something that tastes this good came out of a box. I have to admit that I also love our convection oven - something about that oven bakes cakes, brownies and other desserts/breads so well - far more evenly than any conventional oven.

And had to serve coffee in these: Any excuse to take them out...