Rat-patootie

That's Maia's silly name for ratatouille. Gotta love 5-year old humor.
Ratatouille was a hit - now I just need a movie called "Broccoli Soup" and "Turkey Sandwich". I used a combination of several recipes but started mostly with this one from epicurious making some significant changes based on the comments. I also looked at Julia Child's ratatouille recipe and a version that was supposed to be like the one in the movie. Here's my summary:

2.5 lbs tomatoes
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
thyme* and herbes de provence*
1 T sugar*
tomato paste*
1 cup chopped parsley
olive oil (I used significantly less than what was called for in the recipe)
2 small eggplant (I think they were the Japanese variety)
salt
2 large onions
3 bell peppers (I used 2 green and one red)
2 medium zucchini (I sliced mine thin, instead of in chunks)
1 other squash (it was green and round, quartered and sliced thin)
black pepper
* added based on comments in recipe

- I made the sauce per the directions in a 5 quart oven safe sauce pan, adding a few different ingredients, and leaving out the basil. My understanding is that basil is not a traditional ingredient in ratatouille.
- Then I tossed the cubed eggplant in salt as directed.
- I cooked the vegetables as directed but with much less oil and only sauteed the squashes briefly. I added the onions, eggplant, and bell peppers to the sauce as each was cooked.
- Instead of cooking longer on the stove, I layered the zucchini and other squash on top of the other vegetables and put a buttered piece of parchment paper (cut to size) on top of it all and put it in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

I could imagine using individual ramekins to cook in the oven and serve and it would look prettier on the plate. I could imagine more eggplant too. I think mine were a little too small.

I'm supposed to start working next week a regular 24-hour per week schedule. I still haven't worked out all the child care details but hopefully it will all come together. I am looking forward to the regular paycheck but I am a little (hehe, understatement) anxious about how "it will all get done". I don't want to give up my cooking adventures, my garden adventures, my trips to the farmer's market. I'd gladly give up some of the more mundane tasks of the week but of course I can't abandon that stuff either. So I decided to start a painting. I know, there's no logic but it will all work itself out. Hopefully. More the on the painting soon. Hopefully. There's that word again.

I have a new name that bird - can't believe we've lived here 6 years and we've never seen this little one. Any guesses out there?

Mommy, you know what's interesting about you?

Wouldn't that make your ears perk up? What? What does Sofia think is interesting about me? Wow, somebody thinks there is something interesting about me. I love the way she started the conversation. She's so interesting to me.

So, what she said was, "Well, you know how when I ask you what your favorite animal is...." and she went on to explain that I always say something about how it's hard to choose and I like cats and dogs and birds... "But," she said, "you are always coming home and talking about how you saw an owl or a hawk or something, and I think your favorite animals are birds." So there you go. The world according to Sofia.

Last weekend was pretty productive. I finished the announcements for baby nephew Sawyer. My sister has them now and she likes them. Yay! I love that gocco - have I told you that before? One thing that doesn't show up well in the photos is that I mixed up the green color with quite a bit of silver ink and so there's a hint of metallic sheen to the color. It's really pretty.

I had planned a Valentine present of pajamas for the whole family but hadn't had time to actually sew, so on Valentine's Day, that's what I did. The pajama bottoms were made using a pattern from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing and some organic cotton flannel from NearSea Naturals. Good pattern, very simple. I decided for our pajamas to put elastic in the back only and use a cotton webbing drawstring for the front side. The flannel is nice and heavy and super soft. These are definitely cold weather pajamas. I bought thermals tops from Royal Apparel to go with the bottoms.
Here I am with the girls (Chris missed the photo shoot) and here's where the project would have benefited from a little better planning and research. I wanted to dye the pajamas somehow - I thought white was too boring and would get dirty and stained too easily (you know how messy Chris can be). I sort of copped out, got impatient and we tie dyed them - except Chris'. He didn't want them dyed. Hmmm. So, now the girls and I have tie dyed pajamas. They're fine. They're just tie dyed. It's not what I had in mind but the problem is that I wasn't sure what I had in mind. I'm sort of wishing I had waited a bit. At least they're just pajamas.

Almost 5?

My baby is almost 5? How could it be? Maia turns 5 on Monday. We have a birthday party planned for Saturday and a trip to the happiest place on earth on her actual birthday. For the party, I bought some shirts (Royal Apparel, organic cotton) thinking our activity would involve decorating the shirts somehow. I wasn't satisfied with any of the ideas that I tried, so I ended up doing a gocco print on them myself and we will give them as party favors.
Instead of the shirt idea, I'll set up a table so our guests can make Valentine's cards and I asked Sofia if she would treat us to a puppet show. There will be 5 little girls plus my two. Ought to be fun.

Summer's Winding Down for Us

After our last visit to the ped rheumy (pediatric rheumatologist), we decided to try decreasing PT (physical therapy) to once a week. When we started all this back in January, it didn't occur to me that driving 15 miles to Agoura twice a week would start to get really old, really fast. The condition was that we would do some type of PT activities at home. So the first week I was rather unorganized which led to Maia not cooperating, me getting frustrated and giving up and doing a yoga video, which wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Then last week I got more organized and purchased a couple of really useful props and we ended up with a 20 minute session that is really all I could hope for...

We did a little competition where we picked up little metal balls with our toes and then there was walking around with a big elastic strap around our feet so that we had to try hard to press our legs apart. Finally, I made a little obstacle course where there was plenty of balancing, bending, and turning. Sofia joined in the fun. Hopefully it will be enough to keep the progress we've made and maybe even make some more.

Here we are at the Getty Center yesterday. We were a little surprised that they've increased the parking fee to $15 but all in all still a very affordable and fun-for-all afternoon. We like to walk up the hill (forgoing the tram) and I'm happy to report that Maia walked the whole way up - something she couldn't have done last summer. We tried to recreate this picture from couple years ago... my, my, my how we've grown. Sofia's going to be taller than me any minute now.
We have a friend turning 5 this week, so I whipped up a peasant skirt and a little head scarf for her. The scarf pattern is from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. I made the top a little less wide and shortened the elastic to fit a child's head. Sofia is modeling for me and it seems to fit her fine. She and Maia have put in several orders for their own scarves and I have a few to make for myself, too.

And last, this bird has been coming around lately. I've seen them before but rarely. Any guesses you birders out there?

Name This Bird

A new bird came flitting through the back yard and was in and out in 30 seconds. So, as usual my pictures are poor, through the window, fully zoomed and cropped. But this is definitely a bird I haven't seen before. I have a general idea, but I haven't pinpointed it. Any guesses?

It has a slight crest that's hard to see in the photo and there is a small branch crossing its face in the photo (not a white streak). Tail feathers spread and showed more rust when he flew off.

Package of Cheer

My birds of change came today - and it couldn't have been better timing. Just what I needed, really. They are each so cool in their own way. I photographed them hanging on a picture mobile, but I think they will eventually find their own special place around the house. Thanks mostly to Regina for creating and organizing this exchange and to everyone who participated.

This painted wood bird is from Amy Lyons at aplcreations.com.

These are paper clay sitting on a cast pewter branch, from Schlovonne (I'm sorry I don't have a link!)

Regina's painted and embellished fabric.

Cotton and felt from Arte da Luluzinha.

Embroidered felt from Affectioknits.

Fly Away Little Birdies

The birdies are on their way to their new homes. That was a fun little diversion. But holy smokes, I have less than two weeks until Maia's birthday and have compiled quite a to-do list for her celebration. First and foremost, I need to finish her birthday ring - she remembered that I said I would and so it must be. Then we have a small fairy party planned and I decided that I wanted to make fairies as party favors - so we're going to try a clothespin doll/fairy scavenger hunt. Maybe a little ambitious for 4-year olds, but should be fun. Then there's a fairy/birthday coloring book in the works. Oh dear, what have I got myself into - all self-imposed of course.


Did I ever post about this birdhouse? I think maybe it got lost in the "back to work" shuffle. Chris and I made this birdhouse following instructions from Sunset magazine. It's supposed to be suitable for Western Bluebirds, which I would love to attract to my yard. I've seen them here a few times but very rarely. But, the exciting news is that the Oak Titmouses, who are around pretty often, have been fluttering about and even in and out of the birdhouse. I'm very excited. I'll try to get a better picture.

Happy Bird for a Happy Day

Here's a happy bird to give away on a happy day. I settled on a slightly different bird for the exchange, but this one is a favorite of the several test birds I made. She is inspired by a bird I got from my grandmother as a child, seen here.

Leave a comment by Friday 5:00 PM PST and I'll pick a random winner. Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, and you don't have to be part of the bird exchange to win the free bird - so please leave a comment.

Mama Bear, Birds, Bathrooms and Books

Over a year ago, we noticed some red splotchy marks on Maia's left leg. And if I had several hours, I'd explain all the stuff we've been doing to figure this problem out... but suffice it to say that I have at least four doctors on my $#!*list of people to send a thanks-for-nothing letter (which I'm pretty sure will never actually happen but anyway...) On Wednesday, after taking her to a new set of doctors, we got confirmation that she has scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that causes excess collagen production in the affected tissues. For Maia, the affected area is her entire leg, and she is experiencing loss of range of motion in her knee, ankle, and foot, skin tightening and discoloration. The treatment involves a couple drugs and physical therapy, and I guess this could go on for a few years. This terrifies me, but at this point I feel like any moment not treating it, is potentially more permanent damage to her leg.

So, I've had my crying day, my angry day, my fearful day. Eventually, I'll settle into focusing all that Mama Bear energy into helping Maia get better. She's such a sweet little trooper and I love her to pieces.

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Birds, birds, birds... After several test birds, I think I finally have my pattern for Regina's swap. Pictures and progress coming soon.

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Um, the bathroom got torn up - I don't know how this happened, but here we are with a stripped down 5 x 8 room with a tub and a couple holes in the floor. We've got some new tile coming and Chris is planning a new cabinet with a sink and some wall units we already bought at Ikea. It'll be nice but like I said, it wasn't exactly on our list of priorities, so I'm not really sure why we're doing it now, but it was possibly the ugliest bathroom on the planet, so I am not complaining.

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Look at this cute book Sofia wrote for us. She's pretty neat.

This Swap is Right Up My Alley...

Why not start the year right by jumping right in to a swap? We're going to make 5 little birdies, send them to Creative Kismet, she'll divvy them up, and send us 5 birds from other participants! I'm picturing a permanent bird tree display in our future.

I'm not sure what I'll be making but here's some inspiration found right in our house:
I made this one using some home dyed refelted (by a friend of a friend) felt. She sits at my desk and at Christmas time on the tree.

I bought this wet felted beauty at the Felt Club XL event one year.

OK, this one's from Starbucks, but it's cute too.

And last, this one came from my Nana, at least I think it did - it reminds me of her anyway, and it was made in Mexico. I've had it in my Coca Cola box display for as long as I remember. I love it's colors, and paintings. So this ought to keep me busy.

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.

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.

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?

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.