It must be almost Christmas...

I've been super busy finishing up some projects, but fun busy. Here's a quilt top for Sofia's doll cradle...

The cradle was a hand-me-down from a friend, which I decoupaged. No pictures of the cradle yet, as I haven't had too many moments to snap pictures of the gifts. And here's an almost finished fairy pagoda for Maia.

I made it from a pattern found here. I started this in early 2008 but had to put it away in the closet for months before I could bear to take it out again - too much satin stitch. It is very cute though and Maia will love it, especially since Santa is bringing some little fairies.

Lastly, there's been some gift bag making to supplement what a friend gave me last year. So far, we haven't used wrapping paper - yay! I'm sure it will remind some people in my family of my Nana, who used to wrap gifts in any old bag she could find, even a trash bag, but hey, I figure it's saving me time and money and makes me feel less wasteful.

We were supposed to leave this afternoon to begin our annual tour of California, also known as visiting our extended families. But, Sofia and Maia both came down with colds and Sofia has a fever and a stomach ache, so we decided to wait until the morning to head south and then north. What would a long car ride to visit family be without the threat of vomit? Ahhh, the holidays!

Merry, merry!

Sweet Birds and Snowflakes

Aren't these sweet? They came from Creative Kismet. She gave me the white one last year for one of her giveaways, and I bought the red one this year so they could keep eachother company. I love little birds on the Christmas tree.


And for a little winter fun, we had a little snowflake making frenzy yesterday , since it was freezing outside. Most were made with cupcake papers but these were made with paper doilies.

A Week of Firsts

I suppose any week could have some firsts, but this one had a few more than normal.

- Sofia lost her first upper tooth, she's a real jack-o-lantern now. One on the top and two on the bottom are missing, and two more are half way in on the bottom.

- The tooth fairy forgot to come for the first (and hopefully last) time. Oh dear. Oops.

- The first illness of the season - Maia had to miss school 2 days this week with a fever.

- We hired our first babysitter! After 6+ years of trading babysitting with friends we finally graduated to a real live paid babysitter. It worked out great. She is the 17 year old daughter of one of Chris' colleagues, and the girls loved her. I figure as long as we don't do it too often, they'll always be excited to have her come. That is if we can afford it!! I handed her $50 at the end of the night. Ouch.

- First frosty morning. We get a limited winter around here, so we really have to savor every frosty moment we get.

I have not a single picture this week, but I am busy working on Christmas cards, a 60th birthday gift, a doll cradle, and a fairy pagoda, so lots coming... I do have a picture that Sofia drew this week. It's an "interpretation" of my Pig painting from a while back. I may be biased but I think it's pretty good.

Thankful, Still

These are certainly uncertain times. The excitement of my last post was quickly drown out by the sheer weirdness of what's going on with our economy. My company has experienced a severe slow down in the due diligence practice area due to the real estate and credit market, so much so that they let four people go. Since I am a casual part time employee, my work load has been cut significantly. In a way, it's been nice to have some time to work on a couple projects, but it makes us want to hang on to that stimulus check we were about to spend on a new mattress...

Still, I have a lot to be thankful for. Here's a short list before I have to get back to my Thanksgiving feast preparations...

My job... slow as it may be, and not exactly what I want to be doing, but very handy in paying the bills.

My husband, who is very smart, very handy, loves his job, and loves his family and who was born on Thanksgiving 39 years ago tomorrow.

Sofia, who amazes me with her stories and illustrations lately.

Sofia's school, where she's doing journalism, yoga, Spanish, and drama.

Maia, who is such a good friend to her sister.

Maia's school, where she's learning her letter sounds, learning to pump on the swing, and making new friends - her favorite new friend? Another Sofia.

My friends, who have been so willing to help out with my kids on the days I have to work later than normal, and who my girls love.

Open enrollment, so that we could switch back to a PPO starting in January and finally take Maia to some real experts in the vascular anomaly field and figure out what's going on with her leg.

Recipes from epicurious.com.

My food buying group that buys monthly from Azure Standard. I'm preparing my first organic turkey this year!

Back to work! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Ohhhh, yeah

So, I guess we won't be moving to Sweden. Heee. Yet. Chris and I have joked (mostly) over the last 8 years that we're going to move to Sweden. Yes, yes we know, life is not perfect there, but one can dream, right? It feels good. Really good, to have the election over and done. And it feels good to be on the winning team this time. Too bad we have to wait so long before we can actually move on.

But I am truly disappointed with the results on Proposition 8. I feel it is a step backwards and I have not heard one compelling argument in favor of it. It almost always boils down to a religious belief and last time I checked, we live in a democracy not a theocracy. And no, I don't buy the biology argument either. Marriage is not always about procreation. If it were, then we'd have to stop letting post menopausal women get married. I saw a post on flickr that said, "if we were going to "restore traditional marriage" we should reinstate things like dowries, prohibit divorce, and stone people who have babies out of wedlock. You know, just to be thorough." Seriously though, Sofia was in tears one night because someone at school had told her about Prop. 8. She was so distraught that someone might be able to tell her she couldn't get married. Now, why she worries about these things at age 6, I don't know, and she really didn't understand that it had to do with a man and a man or a woman and a woman, but it really struck a note with me.

For now, we are going to continue to try to raise our children to accept people for who they are, and hope that when they are old enough to understand what Proposition 8 actually did, they will reject such inequality. And another thing, I have a message to the woman who pulled up in front of my house and let two very young boys out of her car to tear down and deface my and my neighbors' yard signs for Barack Obama and No on 8. I hope your children will learn to value and defend free speech, to accept people different from themselves, and to respect other people's property, from someone, because they clearly aren't learning it from you.

And since I wouldn't want to leave on a sour note, here's picture of Sofia reading one of her new birthday books to Maia. It is truly a joy to see her reading to her sister. One of the best things in life.

Now, I think we've got some work to do.

Things I'm Loving...

I've been trying to piece together a post for a while. I started working again part time in the summer and I'm still trying to figure out how to fit it all in. The house work has suffered, art and creating time has suffered but being able to afford our life is definitely the big winner here, and for now that is fine. I read on Soule Mama's blog, Ten Things She is Loving and while I can't do 10, I have a few...

The strength of this girl...

literally and figuratively. Give her something to climb. I went out with a friend one evening and came home to find this on the screen. See it as a slide show here. Makes my heart smile.

The sweetness of this girl...

I can't believe I didn't even post about her first day of school. She's doing great. Loves it. Loves when I come pick her up, too.

My honey... and his re-found passion for cycling. I could complain a little about the back to back Wednesday evening and Thursday morning rides, where the kids don't get to see him for a day and a half, but I won't. He's fit and trim and really enjoying pushing himself. So am I.

A change in the weather...

We had our first drizzle this morning. I wouldn't call it rain yet. But after last week's heat wave, this is certainly a welcome change. I added this and another photo to Uncommon Grace's "Autumn is" flickr pool, check it out.

Progress...

I have finished the back, 2 front pieces, and am now working on the first sleeve. I still hope to have it done before I need it this year. I think it's going to become a staple in my wardrobe.

What else?
My neighborhood... Obama signs as far as the eye can see. We have a little progressive refuge in a conservative leaning town.

Halloween costumes that don't need to be made... We have some dress up clothes that we're going to piece together to make a "Little Red Riding Hood" and a "Fairy Princess". As much FUN as it was to make those teddy bear costumes, I just don't have the time this year.

Blue fingernail polish... Sounds a little junior high, I know. But it's about as wild as I get right now.

That's it for now. Happy Autumn!

My little first grader

Sofia started first grade today at a new school, Peace Montessori. She has been a bit out of sorts for the last two weeks or so (*slight understatement*) and she did have a little trouble saying goodbye (i.e. had to peel her off of me and quickly exit) but I'm sure she's fine. Right? She's fine. Her teacher gave all the parents a note with a couple bags of tea. The end of the note said, "rest in the knowledge that your child will be cared for and encouraged in the natural enthusiasm for learning that children of this age possess in such abundance." Yes please.

I'm mowing the lawn

Can't you tell? That's probably what I should've been doing, but did this instead. I haven't had too much time to knit this summer, so I squeezed in about 15 minutes while the girls played on the hammock chair. I had the camera out in case an Oriole showed up but took this picture instead. Shhh, we've had some really nice weather lately. If I didn't know better, I'd say the summers here are *lovely*. But we still have August and September, and October to go when a heat wave might be just around the corner.

Busy Summer

I've been seeing these in our tree over that last three days, and thought I had a new "name that bird". But once I got these pictures today, I realized that we've seen this one before. It's the female or juvenile black headed grosbeak.

I hope to report on some projects soon but so far this summer has been too busy with work (you know, the kind people get paid for). Sofia and Maia are enjoying summer camp and we're still doing swimming lessons a couple days a week. We are finally making some progress on the girls' room and who knows, maybe it will be ready for them to sleep in (together!) by the end of summer.

Flickr Meme

1. Green-underside blue glaucopsyche alexis, 2. Quiche Fromage, 3. Untitled, 4. Let's Get Green! Please take a moment to read..., 5. steve young, 6. Latte @ Loco, 7. Red house in Sweden, 8. How I love thee, creme brulee!, 9. Mother Earth - Unknown Artist, 10. 20070804_IMG_7888, 11. I'M | shy, 12. portrait

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Well, that was a fun waste of time! I had to cheat a little. My flickr name was nowhere to be found so I had to add it in a tag. Also, my highschool is rather obscure, but I did eventually find that picture of the Spring dance performance. In a way, it works, dance was one of my favorite things while I was there. And I just keep chuckling at that picture of Steve Young. hehe. Anyway, fun stuff. Here's how to play:

Go to flickr toys at the above link, answer to each of the questions below and type into Flickr Search. Using only the first page, pick an image. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

Reading

I was tidying up my nightstand this morning, which is usually not so tidy with a stack of magazines, books, knitting projects, tissue, lotion, glass for water, etc., when I got the urge to share a picture (of the tidy version of course!)

I think what you're reading can say a lot about a person. Most of these books are not new, several are family oriented, and I have to admit all could be categorized as "preaching to the choir". So make of it what you will. Here's a brief description:

The first was lent to me by Maia's "Mommy & Me" teacher when I told her I was reluctantly going back to my old job part time. This is the subject of some future post. Yes, I have started working again, no, I'm not completely happy about it, but not because of the working part but because it's my OLD job, the one I never intended to go back to. My friend in a similar situation says I will feel much better when I get that first paycheck. I haven't started this book yet and I doubt it will have too much I can use. We have made every adjustment possible over the past 3 1/2 years and my working has mostly to do with our choice to keep the girls in Montessori school. Oh, and that darn car... the subject of yet another post.

The second was lent to me by a friend over a year ago and I have started it but can't seem to get through it. Maybe it's the yucky subject matter, maybe it's her writing, or maybe it's the dorky title, but it's important so I really should get back to it. It's about being safe, how to help your children listen to their instincts, make good choices, and avoid being taken advantage by long lost Great Uncle So-and-so (or whomever it may be).

Last Child in the Woods was given to me by my mother-in-law, Julie. She read it, enjoyed it (mostly), and said I might enjoy it too. She said we're already doing most of what he suggests, but then again, it's always nice to get some reassurance.

The Creative Family was written by a really neat blogger (Soule Mama) who lives in Portland, Maine. She homeschools her three (soon to be four) children, sews, knits, crafts, gardens, cooks with them, and she takes wonderful pictures to share with the rest of us. I'm sure the book will have some ideas that I can use.

Affluenza was lent by another friend. It's a critical look at our consumer society. Chris and I have suffered from affluenza in the past, but it's amazing what three years of one income will do to cure it!

Grub was co-authored by Anna Lappe, the daughter of the woman who wrote Diet for a Small Planet. It seems to be written for a younger audience, which I don't exactly like, but it has great information about how eating local, organic, fair food can help the planet. And it has recipes, too!

What are you reading?

Name This Bird

Just when we thought we'd seen all the birds this area has to offer, this feathery friend and his buddy showed up last weekend. Chris and his dad spotted them first. Today they came back just long enough to snap this photo through the window. We think we know what it is, do you?

Homemade Sparkling Water

We drink a lot of sparkling water. A lot. Especially in the summer when it's hot. I had heard of some folks making their own sparkling water so in an effort to reduce the amount of plastic we bring into the house, I asked Chris to set us up to make our own. So he ordered a CO2 cylinder and regulator, a carbonator cap, and a gas line assembly; all readily available on the internet. The whole set up cost about $160. For now we are using the plastic bottles that we saved from store-bought sparkling water, but maybe eventually we'll move to some other type to avoid the whole leached plastic chemicals issue. It fits neatly under the sink and the CO2 should last a very long time. It's been great so far. Cheers!

Felt Projects

I'm working on two birthday rings and have finished the painting and felt cutting. Now just sewing and gluing left. I'm also tracing templates this time so I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time I make one. Plus now I can give the them to people who want to make their own birthday ring people with pointy hats, capes, collars, etc.


I always have this pile of scraps when I'm done with a felt project and I just can't bring myself to throw it out. I have this little voice in the back of my mind that says, "Packrat!" but ha! this is why I've been saving them...


I've been wanting to make a felt necklace since I first saw something similar in Petra Berger's Feltcraft. This was just a quick 10-minute necklace. I trimmed a couple pieces but mostly just grabbed what I had in the pile. I can see now that the possibilities for patterns and color combinations are endless. I already have several requests from Sofia and Maia.

Quail Family

Look at these lovelies!! I noticed a quail out the window this afternoon and then one baby, then two, then four, then eight, oh my, I couldn't count them all. They were parading around the yard, pecking around for food. So cute and so tiny. The babies mostly stayed under bushes and they spent quite a bit of time under the sage and lavender bushes by the bird feeder. Papa Quail always trailing and standing watch, Mama Quail in the lead. I have to admit I was so giddy I could barely contain myself and even though my girls were excited too, they kept looking at me like I was crazy. There were more than ten babies but I never did get a good count. They sure do move fast. I hope they keep visiting our yard. More pictures here.

Big Changes Coming Our Way

Sofia has several loose teeth and the first is ready to go in the next several days, really just as soon as she gives it a good tug (I have no interest in doing it for her). I have been thinking about the big changes coming for her. Big girl teeth for one. I can't imagine how she is going to change in the next few months, with those big honkin' teeth coming in. No more baby face. First grade for another. I am so happy we kept her at her school for the three year program, the way it was intended. It seems like such a logical time for her to move on to the next phase. She is so clearly not a preschooler anymore. It's all very exciting and a bit bittersweet. I never knew that I'd feel sad about losing teeth.

Oh, and I finished up the tooth fairy fairy this weekend. She is made from wool felt, cotton embroidery floss and wool stuffing. She has a little pocket to hold the tooth for the tooth fairy and just enough space for a Sacagawea dollar. I modified the pattern for these tooth fairy bears to get the basic shape and made up the rest.

Happy Mother's Day

Note Cards Swapped

I received my notecards today - they're beautiful! They're made by (clockwise from upper left) Anastasia, Deborah Crawford, Heather S., Regina, and kate vee & me. Thanks everyone, and thanks Regina for organizing. My contribution was this.

Butterfly Emerges

Wow. What fun we had today. Click here to see our flickr set of the gulf fritillary.

Wrinkles

Watercolor on paper, 7 inch by 7 inch. If you've ever read The Quiltmaker's Journey, you've seen those little pins all over the book. I had to try some myself.

Wedding Poem

My good friend read this poem at our wedding. She recently got married herself (eloped to Santa Barbara in fact) and so I've been working on some gifts: the napkins and this painting. I've had this frame bumping around for a while, originally I think it came from my Nana (my paternal grandma).

I Love Quiche

I made a quiche last night for dinner that was both tasty and well formed. I wish I had taken a picture before we gobbled it up but I did not, so you'll have to look at this one; it was the inspiration for me to find a new recipe. I used the "Madame Quiche's Quiche Au Fromage" recipe from epicurious.com and modified it this way.

First, I used Trader Joe's Frozen Pie Dough, thawed it, shaped it into a 10-inch pie dish, and put it in the freezer again (like the recipe says). I baked the crust, as instructed. I'm sure home-made pastry dough would be better, but this worked out pretty well.

For the filling, I used 1 1/2 cups whole milk, no cream (didn't have any), 6 eggs, 4 ounces goat cheese, salt and pepper and a little nutmeg. I mixed the filling using a non-electric hand mixer, which resulted in a nice fluffy texture. Before pouring the filling in, I lined the bottom with chopped basil. I baked it at 425 F for 30 minutes, as instructed. The one thing I will do differently next time is cover the rim of the crust with foil while baking the filling - it was a little beyond "golden brown".

I loved it, Chris loved it, Sofia loved it, Maia, well, she ate it. That's about all I can hope for.

Gift Napkins

I'm going to start calling these "Lexi's Eco-Napkins". I love making them for people. These are for a friend who I've know since I was twelve and she was eleven. She eloped recently so I've been working on some gifts for them. I made these using 20 different quarter flats; each one makes two small "everyday" napkins. My family uses them for all our meals and we just throw them in with the regular laundry every week.

Fun Project

I go to a parent-child class with Maia once a week. There is always an art project for the kids to do and this week, Maia was particularly engaged. The flowers are made from coffee filters, diluted food coloring, and pipe cleaners. I think she made about 8 of these. The idea was to get them to use an eye dropper, working on their fine motor skills, to drop the color onto the filter. Then we twisted the middle of the filter, attached a pipe cleaner and voila! A beautiful bouquet.

Caterpillar Updates

The caterpillar metamorphosis is being well documented (I'm a little obsessed). I don't think I ever did this as a kid, so I'm completely fascinated by the whole process. The caterpillar has now started turning into a chrysalis. We've also confirmed that it will be a Gulf Fritillary, which is the same as the butterflies I saw around the vine where I found the caterpillars. Picture updates are being posted at our flickr site.

Just another trip to the mailbox

Maia and I went out to get the mail today and noticed some pretty flowers that had bloomed. Then we saw the lizard by the door. It was a much larger variety than the blue-bellies we normally see in the back yard. This one was about 9 inches long! Then we saw the grasshopper jumping around, on the grass. So I ran and got the camera. I couldn't let all this nature go without some documentation.

All this after our adventure collecting a caterpillar this morning. I had seen a bunch of these caterpillars on my walk yesterday, so I took Maia back there this morning to see them. I brought one home, along with the stem/leaves it was sitting on. This is the one we brought home.Here is his current home - I'm still reading up a little about what it will need. Mainly, plenty of ventilation, plenty of the fresh leaves it was eating, and some moisture. If all goes well it will metamorphose into a beautiful orange butterfly. Then I will be sure to release it in the same place I got it.

Future Bruin Mascot?

The game was, well, less than pretty. But it wasn't for lack of spirit on our part. Sofia decided to put on her bear costume to cheer on the Bruins, but it didn't seem to help. Next year, next year.

Notecard for Swapping

This is my contribution to Regina's Notecard Swap. I was inspired by photos taken by our neighbor of his plum tree blossoms with bees. I first did a quick sketch by hand and then refined it to a simple line drawing. Next I scanned it in to Illustrator and separated it into color layers. Each color layer was then printed in black. I used these to make print gocco screens and then did the printing with the gocco. I was disappointed with the white ink coverage. It didn't show at all on the lighter colored paper. So, after experimenting a little, I found that hand painting with a white Caran D'Ache crayon worked. The cards are printed on DCWV acid-free and lignin-free paper. Other contributions to the swap will be posted here.

Play Imitating Life

Well, it seems that Sofia and Maia are having a heck of a time with their wagon today. It keeps breaking down. They have been trying and trying to fix it, calling the tow truck, and renting other vehicles to drive home from Grandma's. Hopefully they'll have better luck than us.

Cotton Scarf

I took a break from my wool hooded zipper sweater to knit this scarf. I picked up this yarn at a spinner's and weaver's fair a while back. I kept looking at it and putting it down and in the end I couldn't resist - I'm in love with the colors. I didn't have a project in mind for it, but when I saw this at JC Handmade, I thought of this yarn. It's a 1x1 rib (20 stitches) knitted with size 11 needles. The yarn is 100% cotton by Araucania.

Trains to the Rescue

Maia and I don't have too many struggles, but if there's anything, it's food. This morning I said no to something she asked for (this was after two mini bagels and a whole banana for snack) and she went into an extended laying-on-the-floor-whining-and-crying episode. I tried suggesting we play a game, ignore it, left the room, but it was the trains that finally pulled her out of it. And then I thought the light was pretty.

Creative Sketchbook Workshop

I went to a workshop this weekend, made possible by a generous grant from Chuck and Julie (i.e. FIL and MIL). The instructor had us bring a new sketchbook, paint, pens, pencils, ink, magazines, old books, etc. She then showed us her creative sketchbooks and examples of other student work. It's hard to describe exactly what it is - sort of journaling, testing out ideas, playing, creating, painting, stamping. It's very free and loose, and unintimidating. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think I will try to keep it up. It seems like a great way to do something creative without any pressure. And now I have a place to put all those scraps of pretty, cool stuff I have around in piles. All in all it was a very inspiring way to spend a Sunday and I'm so glad I did. Thanks Chuck and Julie. See flickr for larger images.

New View

I decided to take matters into my own hands and dig the hole for the St. Francis pedestal to be put up. I chose a spot where I could see it from the kitchen and my desk. It also faces our outdoor dining area. Chris helped with the concrete mixing when he got back from his bike ride. The hole digging brought me back to my early environmental consulting days of having to hand auger holes to collect soil samples - sometimes to 15 feet. It was jobs like those that really had me wondering why I went to college. Don't miss it a bit. I'm pretty sore today, too. My dad and Katherine made the pedestal as a replica of one my grandfather made in the 40s. They commissioned the St. Francis statues (my sisters and I received them as Christmas gifts this year). I really love it. I love having pretty and peaceful things around the yard, other than the plants. Such a nice gift. More pictures of St. Francis here.

Happy Valentines

They were actually freezing cold while I took their picture. Sofia made it all worth it this morning when she opened her bag with the skirt and shirt. She ran to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Ooooh Mommy, it's so beautiful, thank you Mommy." I had originally planned to put some sort of peace/love symbology (is that a word?) on the t-shirts but then I saw this at Creative Kismet's site, and thought a Valentine Fairy would be better. More pictures here.

What about my most important Valentine? Well, he gets a yummy roast chicken dinner (the girls' favorite lately) with artichokes and chocolate pudding for dessert. I rented a movie too. Oh, yes, and my everlasting love. Smooch!

Chocolate Cake

I'm a relatively inexperienced baker, so I was thrilled that this cake turned out so yummy. Everyone loved it, except Maia, but I'll get to that in a minute. This was the Double Chocolate Layer Cake from epicurious.com. It was delicious, so chocolatey. The only changes I made were that I used 2 9-inch cake pans (plus some cupcakes) and baked the cake at 325 for an hour (started checking at 40 minutes, just to be sure).

The party was fun, very mellow. Just six kids (including my two) and one baby, just free playing, no entertainment. Like I said in my last post, Maia has been planning her birthday cake for months; chocolate with chocolate frosting, raspberries on top, cookies around the outside, and ice cream. Last night after the party she said, "I didn't really like the chocolate, just the good stuff". I said, "Oh? What's the good stuff?" to which she replied, "The cookies and the raspberries." Shrug. Goofy kid. I'm so not offended, everyone else gobbled theirs up!

Happy Birthday Maia!

Maia turns 3 today. Everyone says she looks just her sister, but we see a totally different little person. For one, she has murky green eyes, instead of murky blue eyes like Sofia :). She is so sweet and mostly easy going. She of course has her opinions, especially about food. And a bit of a sweet tooth. She loves playing games like Hi Ho Cherry O and Orchard and Memory. She loves playing dress up with Sofia.

We spent the morning at the LA Zoo and visited the new gorilla habitat, the chimpanzees, snow leopard, lions, giraffes, sea lions, and the bird show. We have a small "trains and tea" party planned for tomorrow. She's been planning her cake since Sofia's birthday: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and raspberries on top, cookies around the bottom and ice cream. I'll do my best.