Whale Ears and other Wonderings

Recycle, Reuse, Be Warm!

2012-01-16T17:08:00.001+02:00

We have a cozy, but time-worn (and kid and cat worn) queen size, white duvet/comforter for our bed. Big fluffy thing, like a down comforter.. but you know, not down, so it is washable and not allergy abusing. It’s a sturdy thing, soft, nice weight, smells clean and nice, etc., but It’s ugly. That really shouldn’t matter, because how often do we use it anyway, and it’s not that bad, really… But it has stains and uneven aging/fading, etc. and it bugged me. (What kind of dingbat buys white stuff with kids in the house? oh wait… ) I could replace it, I suppose, but it’s too good to waste. Fortunately, I save stuff. Material scraps, old flannel sheets… and I like to play with the sewing machine. Honor also likes to play with the sewing machine… at least, now she does, as in, she has just recently learned how to use it, and when I started planning a cover for this duvet, she decided to help as well. Here are some photos of her making her first quilt blocks. LINK

I didn’t want to get too much of a headache trying to be precise with the piecing of this project. The fabric scraps were all crazy shaped and random. Also, as this is made with scraps, some of them from recycled clothes, I figure that this case will only hold up for a limited time… material wears out in the wash!… so time invested in nitpicky precision and fussing would be a waste. Besides, simply covering the duvet was only part of my goal with this project. I also wanted to see what I could come up with. What could I construct? A practice piece, if you will.

I decided to recycle the queen-size flat sheet as the ‘back’ of the duvet case, and to make blocks for the front using the fitted sheet, cut up, plus fabrics that coordinated with the dark blue of the sheets.

I measured the duvet cover (as it’s been washed numerous times, I couldn’t go by a standard size) and planned to make the case about 5” bigger all around… for the fluffiness of the duvet, and wiggle room.

I had a 6” square plastic template (which includes seam allowances) in my quilting supplies. I measured the fitted sheet and estimated how many 6” square blocks I’d be able to cut out of it. Then, using a simple quilt design program, Quilt Design Wizard (think: advanced graph paper) I came up with a pattern for the quilt. Basically, using my measurements for the duvet, I found that I needed a 15x15 grid of 6” squares. I had my estimated number of solid blocks of flannel sheeting (from the fitted sheet; dark blue) and I set that up in a pattern that I liked, leaving all the other squares of the pattern blank/white. I printed that out.

Next, I looked through my stash for blue and green coordinating fabrics, plus a bit of fabric with some reddish colors for a bit of contrast. I cut a number of the bigger pieces into solid 6” squares and using colored pencils, I filled these new blocks into my pattern… I came up with this:

The colored squares were solid 6” pieces, all of the squares left blank/white, were to be random piecework using all the fabrics. Many would be made using 4” and 2” squares, cut somewhat precisely using my smaller quilting templates. Some would be pieced in a totally random manner. To make them ‘match’ the size of the 6” solid squares, I just sewed them, then slapped the 6” template on top of it, and trimmed it to size!

btw – the writing at the top of the pattern is by Honor. She objected to it being “Unnamed” and called the quilt “Winter Blossom Scrap Quilt” and wrote under that: “Honor and Mommies masterpiece”

Anyway, I cut all of the solid pieces, then Honor and I made and trimmed all of the needed pieced blocks. With much cat (non-)help, and using this pattern as a guide, I laid all the pieces out on the floor in a way that the colors of the finished blocks looked nice and balanced, and then stacked them carefully by row (one on top of the other from left to right). I stuck a little numbered sticker on each row pile to keep track. (1-15, top to bottom).

Next step was to sew all the blocks in each row together (the vertical join between each block) and then to sew each row together (horizontal lines). I was a bit worried about alignment (as perhaps some of my blocks were not exactly 6” or whatever) so I sewed the rows together from the middle out… ie. I sewed row 7 on top of row 8, then row 9 beneath row 8, etc. Working from the center, to the top and to the bottom. That precautionary measure probably wasn’t necessary, as the rows came together just fine.

The finished top:

The finished top being cat tested:

After putting the blocks together, I felt that the plain blue flannel sheet was terribly boring. Sure, it was for the back, and it won’t be seen much, but it was boring. So, I lay the sheet flat out on the floor, threw down a bunch of leftover blocks at random, and sewed them on with a big zig-zag stitch… patches on a patchwork quilt!

The trickier part was construction because the flat sheet wasn’t square like the blocked top that I wanted to attach it to. Seams, connections, and closure devices were also required. Basically though.. this whole thing is a sack. A pillowcase. How hard can that be?? Not at all!

Putting right sides together, and matching 3 of the edges, I sewed the two long sides of the flat sheet to the sides of the blocked piecework. The blocked top piece was wider than the flat bottom sheet, but that’s ok. To close the bottom of the case, I put the center of the blocked piece, and the center of the flat sheet together, and sewed from the centers of the bottom edge, out to each corner. The top, blocked pieced wraps around to meet the bottom (flat sheet) equally on both side. Tadaaa… three sides of the cover (sack!) were made.

Closing the opening took some thinking, but it turned out to be not difficult, despite the uneven sizes of the back and front. The flat sheet was already hemmed. I simply rolled and hemmed the pieced edge too. To create a way to close the cover, I had to measure again, so I put the cover on the duvet and laid it out flat on the floor with the wrapped-around side edges adjusted evenly from top to bottom, and folded the longer top of the flat sheet over the pieced front. Going across the top opening, using the blocks as a guide, I put safety pins to mark the locations for buttons (on the one piece) and more safety pins to mark the buttonholes (on the other piece. I selected 6-7 mis-matched buttons… more recycling(!)… about 1” diameter, in various colors that match the fabrics. It didn’t have to be sealed, just folded and held closed.

Before sewing the buttons, I also marked the top//left/front corner of the duvet (so I won’t have to worry about fit/measuring – I will just know that the top/left/front goes to the top left opening of the duvet cover).

Also, to keep the duvet from getting tangled up inside the case (although the flannel material keeps it in place fairly well), in two places on each of the 4 sides of the duvet itself, I pinned pieces of soft cord (more recycled bits), about 10” each, to the edge. In matching locations on the INSIDE of the duvet cover, I pinned 8 more pieces of soft cord bits. The idea being to tie the case and cover together, on the inside, in 8 places around the edges, to keep it neatly together when in use.

Ok.. after all that pinning, I took it apart, sewed the strings onto duvet and cover, made the buttonholes and sewed on the buttons.. and it was done.

The back of the cover…

It’s a little dark here (sun went down – flash was too bright, but no flash was too dark!), the main fabric is the same color as the dark blue squares above(!) but I think the patches (in real life/lighting) are whimsical and give a little bit of needed color… it’s definitely not as ‘blah’ as it would have been without the patches.

I still need to trim the little threads here and there, and wash it now that it is all finished… but I might just leave it on the bed for the rest of the week. It’s been chilly here lately!

Ana Ahib Del Monte and Other Recent Stuff.

2012-01-16T11:34:00.001+02:00

We had such a nice lazy and relaxing winter break. Didn’t do much, but it was wonderful family time. Kids are back in school now, and Brad back at work, so I suppose our routine has officially started anew for 2012. Here are some things to catch up on though.

One of the most important things to happen recently is Brian’s birthday… how in the world is he 11yo already?? He is such an amazingly smart and sweet kid…I love our boy!… I can’t believe how fast he is growing! Time really flies! He was born in the year of the dragon, and this year is also the year of the dragon, so he asked for his favorite dragon cake to celebrate.

This is the 3rd time I’ve made this cake for him. I think that the first time I made it, for a shared birthday party with his ‘birthday sister’ Eliza, the dragon looked the best. The second time was pretty good, but I simply had no clue how to make red frosting! This time around, we were lucky it turned into a dragon at all! The cake was incredibly poofy and soft… which meant that it tasted heavenly, but was falling apart right out of the pans! I had also had no luck finding plain white frosting in a can (which best suits my talent level when it comes to baking) so I had to make my first ever homemade cake frosting… it also turned out to taste absolutely scrumptious! Molding all that yummy goodness into dragon form, though, was very difficult!

This guy looks a little rough around the edges, but this was decadent, and taste is what matters – and Brian loved it - so I claim a total success! Especially as it was topped by homemade vanilla ice cream that Brian made for us.

We also had homemade burritos for dinner on Brian’s birthday… his favorite meal.

Honor gave Brian a box full of stuff that already belonged to both of them… including a catnip mouse from the cats!… Brian had a good laugh at the joke.

and we gave him a bunch of books that he’s been asking for. He’s getting tough to shop for, but fortunately there are some series he enjoys, and he likes science & fact books. Honor thought “The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements” was quite a book title!

She’s right, but it still looks like a very interesting book, and when he’s done with it, I plan to read it too!

Best of all though, Brian got the laptop he’s been begging for… begging for, for years and years! :D

As much as they use it for/at school, we thought it was a good time. And, as long as he ‘shares’ with her, Pixie approves …

Pixie also approves of our new dustmop… I’ve had to track it down and take it from her on numerous occasions.

Seriously, what is it about this thing that says ‘prey’? I guess we’ll be ready and defended if our house is ever invaded by long skinny tropical birds…

Also, being back in school means homework, and the best way to have dad check your homework, is while snuggling…

oh.. and about Del Monte. There are several signs in Arabic and English around town that say “Ana Ahib Del Monte” and “I love Del Monte”

And that makes me think of this…

Ninja LOVES to taste whatever I get out of cans. Our cats eat cat food, as it is the healthiest option for them(!), and they only get very small nibbles of people food as treats. When I open a can, Ninja wants to taste .. beans, veggies, corn, whatever. Doesn’t matter, and she doesn’t eat much, a few licks on the can lid usually, but she really wants to know what it is and sample it! I had emptied this can of tomatoes, tapped the juice out, etc. but the little bit that was left… oh! Yum! Ninja really enjoyed it… she had to reach in and dig out the last little drops with her paws!

Not sure if Del Monte would actually hire a ‘spokescat’ for their products, but she has the enthusiasm for the job if they ever do!

Pixie’s Pizza – by Honor

2012-01-02T14:34:00.001+02:00

A poem by Honor

Honor made her poem and picture in Paint, so in case this is difficult to see, I’ll type it:

“What Pixie would like

would be so delightful

but she wouldn’t invite

any of us

she would want some pizza

and not just a taunt

What Pixie would like

would be so delightful, Yes it would!

But she’s not going to invite!”

Anywhere a Cat Can Go - Part2

2011-12-31T02:15:00.001+02:00

A while back I posted a collection of photos of places that we find cats in this house, and today, as I was sorting photos off of the camera, I realized that I have enough cute pics for another post.

Where to find a cat…

You might start with the obvious places, like snuggled someplace comfy,

Or in a warm patch of sun…

But, did you know that cats like a good story with a friend?

Or, you might look on top of bookshelves, that’s always a likely hiding place…

Or you may find them on the sofa, trying to use their Force mind control powers to get you to hand over the Cheez-its…

After fending off Darth Pixie, you may turn around to discover that Ninja has called dibs on your pillow…

If you try to try to move her, she’ll give you, as Honor describes it, ‘those big eyes’… and so she usually gets to keep the pillow…

Pumpkin can often be found on my lap, he knows he’s the baby…

Cats are magical beings and might be found participating in Harry Potter battles.

You might find cats up on top of the kitchen cabinets pretending to be bookends… or… preparing for a high-rise sibling smack down!

In the winter time, warm radiators and other warm spots on the floor (we have hot pipes in certain areas) are places that suck cats right down… almost against their will…

Cats have been known to pose majestically, for no particular reason other than they seem to know how beautiful they are… so look for pedestals upon which cats might be posing themselves in a pretty and mysterious manner…

Of course, sometimes they pose like dorks…

Anywhere there is a craft project under way, there’s a high chance of a cat, or two, or even three, being present in the same location…

Some cats are extremely helpful in the kitchen… Ninja always LOVES to help with veggies brought in from the produce stand. Somebody has to eat the leaves from the broccoli :)

Let’s see…

Where else might we find cats?

Cats love snuggly things, like warm, fuzzy, Christmas socks!

Cats can always be found in Christmas trees… duh!

and in boxes… (especially when there is BUBBLE WRAP!)

Cats might be found, during the holiday season, wrapped up in pretty paper…

And walking along the top of blinds… (why? … I do not know… )

You might even find them trying to hide, camo’ed amongst clever decoys…

You can always wait for awhile… eventually cats MUST nap… they are easy to find when sleeping.

… and if all else fails, just follow your camera bits to their end and you might be surprised at what you discover…

A Box in the Mail

2011-12-30T23:36:00.001+02:00

My sister and her family sent the kids a box of fun prezzies in the mail, which arrived just a couple days after Christmas. I didn’t catch any photos of the kids opening the box from their grandparents on Christmas morning… they were too fast(!)… but I caught them this time! It was like a second holiday here when the kids opened it up! They really enjoyed all of their gifts, even the personalized pillows! :)

Sorry that this one is a little blurry, Brian liked the puzzles very much!

Honor really likes her new buddy too.

Ninja liked all of her gifts as well.

(Technically, they are the same ones you sent to Honor, but Ninja believes that what belongs to Honor, belongs to Ninja!)

Thank you very much, Merry Christmas, and lots of love to you all!!

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T16:06:00.001+02:00

We hope that all of our loved ones and friends had a joyous holiday this year! We’ve had a full, fun, and just plain nice winter break … so far, with more to go!! Kids are off school a while longer and Brad is taking a little more leave (use or lose) … so we have more family-together time coming our way!

Honor had a school concert, they both had holiday tunes assigned in piano class, and the kids and I even had a chance to join in caroling at a local bakery! The folks at Sugar Daddy’s are always festive on holidays!

We managed to get our tree up by a reasonable date, and discovered that this year, Brian is tall enough to handle tinsel wrapping duties on his own! (He’s been trying to take over this job for a few years now!)

Honor discovered that eggnog is quite yummy!

I love my elves!

Honor’s turn to put the topper on the tree!

Holiday prep also meant baking this year. Lots of cookies! We had gingerbread made from dough a friend gave me. Everybody had fun cutting the shapes and playing with the frosting. (Gingerbread with a simple powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice frosting/glaze is so yummy!)

We also made other cookie varieties. Chocolate & Peanut butter no-bake cookies, Ginger Spice Cookies (Honor made these pretty much by herself… I had to help stir the batter when it got heavy, and I operate the oven), Chocolate Crinkles (I used dark chocolate powder and instead of espresso powder, I ground up some Peppermint Twist coffee – from the Flying Bean Coffee company – and added that.. Yum!) and Anise Borrachio cookies…. my favorites because they are so light and delicate, yet delicious!

Plenty of cookies for us to eat for breakfast on Christmas morning… wait! …hey!… who said you kids could have cookies for breakfast??!!

(I meant!… plenty for us to enjoy AND give away! :D !)

As our tradition, I always get everyone new PJ’s for Christmas. This year Honor wanted footies! I had found a website with patterns that the kids liked, but I was iffy about the shipping to our APO address, so I went with reliable Land’s End … and these Pj’s are NICE! Soft, warm, and well-made! Brian was not thrilled with the pattern on his, but as long as they are comfy (they are), he’s ok with it. I happen to think that, like his dad, this is an awesome color combo on him… it makes his hair look like gold!

Honor in an elf hat… it goes well with her jammies! Meanwhile, Pixie contemplates a leap into the tree from a higher vantage point…

The cats liked to help open gifts because it involves crinkly PAPER!

The cats eventually discovered the simple stuffed rat-thing toy that I had made for them. A soft toy with cat nip. Brad had wrapped it and hid it under the tree. Ninja found it.

Pixie thought Ninja should share…

Brad got the game he wanted (and is having to keep telling Brian ‘No’ about it, because Brian wants it too!)

Brian did get the one he really wanted…

Honor seemed to be tickled with everything she opened, even though the majority of our presents were needed things, like bigger sized school clothes!

Brian got the cats (Pixie in particular, it’s her favorite toy!) a tentacled rubber light-up ball… of course, the cats played in the boxes instead! I saw Pixie running around with the toy today though, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing her run around in the dark of night with this colorful, flashing light too! (until she wears the battery down… kids and their electronics!)

The kids still play Wizard101, and being the crafty geek mom that I am, I decided to create something from the game for the kids. Obviously, Brian is too old to want a doll, but he’s such a nice kid(!) and he always, sweetly, indulges his mom and her crafty whims. I’m glad he does so because I don’t think I am going to change anytime soon, and will probably continue to create odd things whenever I am inspired to do so…

I made them both ragdoll ‘interpretations’ of their in game avatar wizards. I’ll do another post on them later, to share details of how I made them, in case there are other crafty geek moms out there who want to make their own. I used a very nice/easy pattern and will share what I found online, plus what I did to alter it.

Grandma and Grandpa sent the grandcats a box of static-y packing peanuts to play in!!

They also threw in a bunch of nice stuff in for the grandkids :) We got the box on Christmas Eve as the staff at the mailroom were working overtime to get packages in from the airport and delivered for us folks here at post.

Oh… and if anyone is feeling worn out and frazzled after all of the holiday hustle and bustle, our cats have some recommendations for stress relief:

One – play with your new toys until your eyes glow!

Two – Take over the comfy chair and snuggle with a friend

…or…

go for the sofa and cuddle on a soft blanket with a couple friends to watch a favorite movie.

and for those really tough days…

Three – talk mom into a reeeelaaaaaaxing head massage ;)

Happy Holidays everyone!!! Hope you are enjoying yourself and are surrounded by those you love!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Ninja

2011-12-17T18:08:00.001+02:00

There are some folks who can hang fresh herbs in their kitchens to dry… then there are folks with cats…

Sharing my Toys

2011-12-16T16:20:00.001+02:00

I have a crafty daughter! We always have fun crafting together, but it’s getting to be even more fun now that’s she’s big enough to be more independent with some of the tools.

Here she is, helping me put together blocks for a ‘throw together’ patchwork duvet cover. This is a true recycling project, using old flannel sheets and fabric scraps!

We’ll have more photos later of this project.

Honor also found a kids’ sewing project for a sock doll and is working on that too.

Important lesson #1 – thread the needle!

Working hard on her doll

So far…

We’ll have photos of this too, as she goes along :)

Tom Puts Jerry Balgarorp and Viewed With Cynicism

2011-12-12T08:41:00.001+02:00

Ok, so it’s not like many kids’ coloring books are shining examples of good grammar and proper spelling, and following a story line or otherwise making any sense page to page is also a rare occurrence(!), but some books are truly humorous in their collection of errors. Throw in a foreign language and things get even more fun. Honor filled up a sticker chart in class and won a prize from the prize bin. She chose a cute little Tom & Jerry coloring book… and we found that the English translations of the Arabic text were hilarious! It was as if this book was made in China by a printer who knew neither language!

and

and my favorite:

Again, I don’t expect big things from coloring books, and I think it incredibly nice that the teacher provides these little incentives/gifts, probably little things she has to pay for out of pocket, so I wouldn’t want her to take a lot from her salary to do this. I’m not complaining about the gift at all! Honor picked it for the coloring, not the reading… But these are funny!

A few more (no photos)

“Tom plays tennis with Jerry reel.” (almost right! Almost matching the Arabic. Why the random ‘reel’??)

“Tom Jerry slap blow” (Arabic – Jerry hits Tom hard)

“Tom Jerry knows to be quiet” (Tom tells Jerry that we will be quiet)

“Tom and Jerry in violent battle” (They got this one right – the only one!)

“Tom and Jerry ithian for battle (Tom and Jerry prepare for battle)

The Altar of Kibble

2011-12-11T12:02:00.001+02:00

I have posted before, about the little things I find from my kids that totally make my day. They either decorate the house and/or leave their toys posed in ways that make me giggle – They Decorate my Life – or they leave me little notes or toys as presents. I used to always find toys on my bedstand or on my pillow. I still do, but not as often. They express their affection in other ways as they’ve grown older, but I will never forget the ‘offerings’ or love notes! – Look Under Pellow.

Apparently though, human kids aren’t the only ones to submit offerings to the mom who provides love and food.

Not just one, but TWO, of their favorite toys in the whole world. Yes, desperate fur creatures who ask so sweetly, I will keep your kibble bowl stocked.

And your belly …. which you also offer up whenever you want love … I’ll rub that too!

Why?

Because you are the baby… it may sound silly… but we both know it. (Pumpkin.. totally busted being a baby….)

and here are a few more cute photos, just in case you aren’t feeling warm and fuzzy enough yet…

Pixie – always so pretty.

Ninja showing off her pink toes.

Sisters – can be so sweet… when they aren’t picking on each other.

Magnificent Chicken Dinner

2011-12-05T20:09:00.001+02:00

Tonight’s chicken was proclaimed ‘MAGNIFICENT’ by Brian, so I better write my recipe down so I can repeat it sometime! Sorry, no photos, we were too hungry…

I got my inspiration for this dish from this recipe for Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken, but I didn’t want to broil. I needed the oven at a moderate heat because I wanted to bake sweet potatoes too. I just wrapped those in foil and put them on the top rack at 350F for an hour. Here is what I did with the chicken:

Magnificent Chicken

INGREDIENTS

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I put more)

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I had bone-in with skin)

olive oil,to coat pan

6 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons cider vinegar

several tablespoons flour, to make a thick ‘gravy’-like mixture

sesame seeds

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 350F

Oil a large metal (rectangular) baking pan

Combine all spices and flour and mix well

Add honey and vinegar, stir well

Coat the chicken well and place in a single layer in the pan. I poured the rest of the spice mix over the chicken pieces – there wasn’t much left in the bowl.

Sprinkle the chicken with sesame seeds, cover tightly with foil, and bake for 30-40minutes (These chicken pieces were good sized, so I gave ours 40 minutes). Then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

It was VERY nice! Spicy, sweet, and the meat was juicy and falling off the bone.

In addition to the Magnificent Chicken and sweet potatoes, Honor made steamed broccoli and carrots, and together we made bread. I experimented with the bread too, because my friend ‘G’ had mentioned on Facebook that she’d gone out and bought fresh Arabic bread today. That sounded sooo good, but I didn’t have the car and it was too late to go shopping. I had to come up with something!

So, I made …

PAN BREAD

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm water plus tablespoon yeast, left to proof 10 minutes.
3 cups flour (plus more to reach desired consistency)
a shake of baking powder and salt
a little less than a 1/4 cup of sugar
3/4 cup warm milk
3 tbsp olive oil
and just for fun, I added a tbsp of ground ginger

PREPARATION

Mix all the dry ingredients, add in all the wet. Mix well. Gradually add additional flour until a soft dough is formed. With floured hands, take a ping pong size ball of dough roll it smooth, and flatten as much as possible. I didn’t bother to let the dough rest or rise, so they didn’t flatten too much, approx. pancake thick.

Fry in hot skillet. 3-4 at a time.

I experimented with cooking the breads dry, in a little oil, and with a little butter. The butter and olive oil smoked (I wanted the heat high), but tasted nice. Dry worked just fine, probably because of the oil I had put in the batter. I let each bread cook until it started to brown on one side, then flipped it to do the same on the other. They puffed a little as they cooked.

I thought we might need butter or something to eat on the bread, but these palm-sized, thick-ish rounds were good enough to eat plain, and I almost had to put them off limits until dinner was ready! Mmm!

Honor came in and helped me roll the breads and finish up dinner after her homework was done. Fortunately, by the time we got the bread done, the chicken and other side dishes were done and ready to put on the table, and Brad was walking in the door. These recipes were a hit and I am definitely going to have to make them again!

Food, and Being Thankful for my Helpers!

2011-12-05T12:07:00.001+02:00

So, I hope you didn’t have a stomach bug & fever over Thanksgiving weekend. Honor and I had terrible timing, and we don’t recommend it! Fortunately, it was mild, but as we were cootie-ish and fevery, and we didn’t want to make anyone else sick, we canceled our plans to gather with neighbors for a big holiday meal. Also, fortunately, Brian and Honor are becoming awesome assistants in the kitchen. This can-do attitude saved our meal on Thanksgiving because the fever had just about wiped me out. I’d work a little… sit down … work a little … sit down .. It would have take 2 days for me to finish at the rate I was going… Fortunately, I had a whole cooking team to back me up this year! And it is so wonderful to have a real table in the kitchen as an extra counter/work surface! Good when you just have to sit down too…

Brian made the stuffing. Yes, we cheated and used Stove Top for the bread, but I cooked the giblets to get the stock, and he added apples and cranberries too.

Brad mashed the potatoes… ALL of the potatoes in the house! So, I just made sure to cook up gallons of gravy from the drippings… gotta keep the guys happy.

Brad and Honor had also made the pumpkin pies the night before. They let Pixie lick the bowl! Is it any surprise then, that she was the first one to have (steal) a bite of actual pie? Reeds, even feline ones, like (loooove) their pumpkin pie!

Honor helped with just about everything. She helped me get the turkey going, helped with the stock, she rolled balls of dough for the dinner rolls, and she even made the “sweet potato decadence” dish on her own. We had fresh sweet potatoes this year too!

Here she is, reviewing the menu to make sure we didn’t forget anything.

Brad is smiling, but he was just acting nice for the camera… he was dealing with an ornery cork here… but he won the battle and the wine was good with dinner!

Brian is ready to dig in! Yes, bread is usually the first thing he grabs at any meal! We let him have more than just one roll!

I am thankful to have such a helpful and loving family! Especially now that they are big enough for their help in the kitchen to be a lot of real help! I still don’t let them use our too-tall stove very much, but they’re great teammates everywhere else.

Here are a couple of other dishes Honor has helped with recently. She made taco salads. I made the meat, she helped with the other ingredients and assembly.

I also often put her in charge of the veggies. What’s better than steamed broccoli or steamed carrots? Steamed broccoli AND carrots, with cheddar cheese!

And just last night, after they finished their homework, Brian asked if he could make ice cream. Not, “Mom can I have…” or “Mom will you make..” but “Mom can I make it”. Brian started the recipe, and when Honor finished her homework, he included her in his project. All I had to do was lift the freezer machine down, and later, help them scrape the churn when it was done! They followed the recipe and cleaned up perfectly.

Quilt – Pinning the layers and starting to sew

2011-11-20T12:10:00.001+02:00

I suppose I ought to do a little catching up on my quilt progress. I haven’t been blogging much lately because our internet has been bad, but we have actually been busy with different things. My quilt is progressing. I had finished piecing it in September, and then had to wait a bit for some supplies to come through the mail, but I did get to work on it. Here’s what I’ve done and what I’ve learned along the way.

First, it helps to have a large flat area in which to pancake the layers for pinning. I had my pieced top, a layer of batting, and a bottom layer… not an easy job to get the three aligned and flattened properly. A few extra hands is helpful for this task.. extra paws are not so helpful. I pretty much had to just throw everything out on the floor so they could get their exploration needs sated before I dared start any work on it. I didn’t even try to iron before letting the cats have their turn.

What does this “Get off and stay off!” mean??

Ok… eventually, all the layers went together, pinned with some nice brass (no rust) safety pins, and I gathered up my gear to plan the actual quilting. I rolled up the ends so I could begin sewing in the middle of the quilt. I will work my way out to the edges (to make sure any bulge-y bits can be pushed out from the center as I go).

The next step is to eat the pattern.

…If you’re a cat. If you’re a cat owner, the photo above is just an example to show you why you should have scanned in all of your pattern pieces so you can make copies in case of unplanned ‘incidents’. (yes, I did)

Actually, my next step was to organize all the little motifs I plan to quilt. There are 96 5x5” squares in this quilt and each one will have a different cat motif. Some I found as gifs or jpegs on the internet, some I made from photographs. I used Corel Paint Shop and my Wacom tablet to make line drawings.

Also, I plan on tracing all of the yellow and blue ‘stars’ on the quilt.

Some motif pieces I can cut out and trace directly on the front of the quilt, but tracings on the cat pattern fabric are too difficult to see and sew, so I have been working on the ‘front’ of the quilt when I have a square of the brown fabric, and then flipping the hoop over to work the motifs that go on the cat fabric squares from the ‘back’ of the quilt. In order to line up my motifs properly, because the piecing is on the other side and all I see on the back is the solid fabric!, I baste around the patterned fabric squares with a bright color so I know where my square is supposed to be.

Actually, ‘trace’ is probably not the right word when it comes to transferring these motifs. I trace the outline, and then freehand the details from the drawing… I didn’t use any special paper or tissue… these motifs are printed on plain printer paper.

Don’t forget to taste your erasers. Or, you know, not. I’m finding that a good chalk pencil is handy on the brown fabric in front, and a silver pencil is good on the cream colored backing fabric.

Below is a finished motif. Actual cat used to show scale. I decided to use a blue quilting thread and it shows up nicely on the brown fabric. The sewn motifs do not really show up on the cat pattern squares, on the front, but they show nicely on the back.

Before I started sewing, I laid out all of the motifs and organized them. Some pictures are more detailed than others, some are more cartoonish, some more realistic. Five of them have names that I will embroider (front only) as well. I wanted to make sure I had them spread out in a pleasing manner. I decided to keep the orientation of each motif the same. I numbered the motifs according to row and column, and the stack is kept neat in a baggie with the rest of my supplies.

The fun part…hand quilting. And it is fun. I was worried that 96 motifs, plus all of the stars, might be a bit much, but each one is different and I am having fun with it. I get a lot of encouragement from my family and felines too, not to mention very close supervision…

Sometimes too close

It is fascinating.

and cute.

Besides, as inconvenient, and sometimes painful, as my ‘helpers’ might be at times, they have good input… all quilts should be made with love.

Beef and Cabbage Pie with Civil War Macaroni and Cheese

2011-11-09T20:47:00.001+02:00

This evening, when Brad came home, he found total chaos in the kitchen. The kids and I were in process of making… pretty much everything…

Our main dish was a simple beef and cabbage pie.

1 frozen pie shell

1/2 kg ground beef

olive oil for cooking

onion – medium, diced

garlic – 3-4 cloves minced

carrots - a good handful of then slices

3-4 cups chopped cabbage

salt, pepper, parsley, italian spice mix (oregano, thyme, basil, etc), chili powder

1-2 tbsp dijon mustard

1-2 tbsp bbq sauce

1 cup water

I preheated the frozen pie crust for the base, for about 8 minutes @350F. In a large skillet, I browned the ground beef in the olive oil. As that finished cooking, I tossed in the onions and garlic. Next I added the carrots, and all of the spices. I don’t like most beef and cabbage pie recipes I’ve read because they tend to be boring… most recipes call for salt and pepper! I like spice … go with what you like. Next, I stirred the dijon mustard and bbq into the meat mix and piled as much cabbage as I could fit in the pan and still get the lid on. 3-4 cups is a guess. I cooked it for about 20-30 minutes, until the cabbage reduced quite a bit… removing the lid towards the end so that the water could evaporate.

At some point during the cooking process, I realized that I had a LOT more meat filling than was going to fit in the pie crust, so I quickly made up a batch of simple pizza dough. Some I cut into strips to use as a cover on the pie, and the rest I rolled fast, spread the remainder of the meat down the center, and rolled it up into a loaf.

I cooked the pie for about 10-15 minutes until the top crust looked good. The loaf took longer, and again, I went by the color of the bread (nicely golden) and sound (it had a good thump when tapped). Sorry I can’t be more precise, but I have two excuses. One was I was just making it up as I went, and two, I was busy helping the kids with about three other recipes.

Brian started making some vanilla ice cream, we have a nice Cuisanart 2qt ice cream maker and it does a wonderful job freezing our ice cream recipes. At the same time, he started mixing up the ingredients for his favorite treat in the whole world, Guinness Molasses Bread. Getting the kids to dig through the cabinets, find ingredients, measuring utensils, etc. is part of the whole process of learning to cook, so when Brian looked for the beer, he found that there were only two left in the box. Rather than leave one in there all alone, he decided we should just have two loaves of bread and he took it upon himself to double the recipe. Even better for learning to cook!

In the meantime, Honor, who has started to help me with the dough for the pie, caught sight of this recipe I had pulled out for a side dish: Civil War Macaroni and Cheese I hadn’t even had a chance to check and see if we had the ingredients for it and she decided that this was HER dish! We were missing half the cheddar cheese, so we substituted mozzarella, and we didn’t have bread crumbs, so we crumpled up Ritz crackers. We cheated with step two. Rather than use a separate sauce pan (by this time we were in a hurry) after the mac and milk mixture was ready, we just stirred the cheese and spices into the same pan. We also stirred the chili pepper into the bread crumbs before spreading the crumbs on top (to make sure it was well scattered) and Honor decided that we also needed a sprinkling of parmesan… why not? Parmesan and mozarella go well together. We had the oven at 350F for the pie, so we just put the macaroni in at the same temp and it worked out just fine. It cooked a little longer than the pie, and browned nicely on top.

With all these recipes going on at once, our kitchen table and counter tops were very full! Because I had to hop here and there to help Brian and/or Honor at different times, we had to hand off spoons and stirring implements all over the place… meaning that although each kid picked their own projects, they both helped with everything to make this meal happen.

We managed to get everything done before and for dinner except the bread. I even got most of the dishes done and the kids helped clean up the kitchen too. The beef and cabbage pie was amazingly yummy, and so was the macaroni. The bread is now done, the ice cream is in the freezer… and we are too full to sample either one! There’s always tomorrow for dessert (unless we fill up on leftover pie and mac!)

Not Saffron Rice

2011-11-02T15:14:00.001+02:00

I found a container of Safflower at the store. I didn’t need safflower, but it was there in its cheery round tubular box, and I remembered how safflower was considered a substitute for saffron, and I was then struck by the realization that I’ve never cooked with safflower before, so you know I had to buy it! I wanted to make non-saffron, saffron rice!

I looked at a number of recipes online and got some ideas. Here is what I did, plus notes gleaned from other recipes:

4 cups water

2 tbsp butter (or olive oil, I used butter, even though I usually use the oil because butter sounded good last night)

chicken bullion (for your amount of water, or substitute chicken broth for part of the water – you need 4 cups liquid, flavored chicken!).

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 tsp curry powder or tumeric (tumeric can be bitter, so I went for curry)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1-2 squeezes of lemon (or a 1/2 tsp or so of lemon concentrate)

few dashes of soy sauce (or fish sauce, or 1/4-1/2 tsp of salt, depending on your taste in rice.

3-4 tsps safflower (I used 4 big ‘pinches’. The recipes for saffron rice generally called for about 1/2 tsp of saffron threads, those who talked about using safflower said to use about 8 times as much. Some people also talked of using tumeric and/or cardamon to boost the flavor of ‘non-saffron’ safflower as safflower has very mild flavor.)

2 cups white rice (or basmati, etc. brown rice was not recommended)

Add the water, butter, and all the rest of the spices, bring to a boil. Add the rice and stir. Lower the heat to simmer, cover tightly, and cook for 15 minutes. Then, turn off the flame and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, do not remove the lid, as you finish preparing the rest of your meal and it will continue to steam inside the pot.

I had made a chicken vegetable tomato sauce mix to roll into tortillas with black beans and this rice on the side was a very good match. Brian put the rice into his tortilla with the meat. The rest of us ate it plain on the side. It turned out very good! It was not saffron rice as the flavor was milder and the color a little muted, but it was still very good! There was definitely a similarity to the flavor of saffron rice. I think we’ll be making this again, and besides, safflower is supposedly good for you according to www.healthline.com and according to the label! I love the claims on package labels here! Apparently, it can heal our freckles(!) among other things (if we had any freckles) and measles!

“Safflower:

Usage: in all kinds of meals that contains rice.

Benefits: It’s used to heal freckles and pruritus (itches) and as refreshing for azostomia (bad breath). It’s flower is used to calm the pain of period for women. It heals measles. It reduce the rate of cholesterol and stimulates the immunity system. “

Happy Halloween! (aka… Wow, it really is Autumn, isn’t it??!)

2011-11-01T12:17:00.001+02:00

We aren’t having any snow like many folks back in the US, and the temps have been pleasant and mild, but we are definitely feeling the change in season here. There’s a nip in the air that tells us that summer has definitely packed up and left us for awhile. It is rather nice to be able to snuggle in fleece jackets and comfy blankets again. Especially when reading… there’s something nice about burrowing into a cozy blanket with a couple of cat friends and a good book.

Contentment is… snuggly cats!

And no, I can’t believe it is Autumn already, but Fall has definitely fallen, because, surprise, here it is the end of October. How’d that happen? Brad was away for a couple weeks TDY, and we managed to decorate the house while he was gone. We used some of our old costumes on toys to get into the spirit of things.

For their school celebration (before Halloween) Honor chose to wear her leopard costume again. She’s definitely got a lot of use out of it! Brian wanted to be a wraith, or grim reaper. We discussed making a costume, but material is so expensive, esp. compared to the price of simply buying the ready made costume, so we found this one for him at buycostumes.com. We’ve found this online store to be very fast and reliable for costumes and accessories. We couldn’t find a kid or teen costume that he liked so we got this one in adult size (had to belt the waist), so it’s a useful addition to our costume/Halloween stash for future use!

Meow!

Hiissss … pffft!!

Did I mention how it’s getting chilly and we’re enjoying the chance to snuggle in blankets with cats?

Honor has been playing with the camera a lot. I’m finding some odd photos on my camera. Here, she was trying to take a picture of the decorations, but she ended up liking how the flash turned into a ‘magic ball’ instead!

Self-portrait :) (pretty good job too) … it took us awhile to convince her to wash off the cat whiskers.

For the embassy Halloween celebration, Brian wore his Reaper costume again and got a lot of attention from the guards… he’s on a number of cell phones now… and Honor decided to be a character from her favorite movie, Avatar. Nevermind that some people didn’t know who she was … she was *not* a blue tiger ;D !!

Deathly bunny ears

We had a fun time with the trick-or-treat haunted houses … the embassy really does go all out on this event! Thank you volunteers!! :) … and we even went trunk-or-treating as a number of decorated cars were set up in the parking lot for kids to visit. Afterwards, we had dinner in the club (very crowded, I might add, but it was a big success!) and ended our evening with a pasta dinner!

Hope you all had as much fun as we did!

Play! Fetch! NOW!! (Please?)

2011-10-06T20:26:00.001+02:00

I was trying to wash the dishes this afternoon, but, Ninja decided that since I was in the kitchen, just standing at the sink… boring!… I probably would like to do something more fun instead. Like play rat. She kept bringing me her little toy furry rats, and if I wasn’t fast enough, dropping them right into the sink where I was working (or, you know, trying to work). This little cat loves to play fetch and we end up playing several times a day, every day. More if she can talk other people into playing as well.

As she seemed determined to convince me that it HAD to be play time – I gave in. She’s really cute and hard to resist! As I grabbed her rat, I saw the camera and picked that up too. At the start of the video, Ninja is waiting by the door to lead me into the living room, because not only does she like to play, she knows that the living room has the BEST rat fetch play area!

And You Shall Have Some Pie

2011-10-05T11:09:00.001+02:00

The other day I lucked into finding some of the small Egyptian-style limuns at the produce stand. They are a ping-pong or ball-golf ball sized fruit. Harder, thin skin. Tart and yummy. I made a pie with them once in Cairo and was surprised when it tasted like a good, authentic, Key Lime pie. After a bit research, I discovered that these ‘limuns’ and key limes are the SAME variety! How lucky is that?? (here’s a LINK to my post about that discovery).

This week’s pie was not quite as pretty as the first one I ever made as I singed the meringue a little… the recipe said “500F oven for 3-5 minutes” I left it in for 2 and a half! I think my oven is a little off sometimes! No matter… the pie, the crust, the meringue were all verrrry yummy!

Brad and I LOVED the pie. Our maid did too. The kids were less enthused – but that makes sense for a citrus pie. Lemon and lime pies are not usually kid favorites. Brian said “It’s not my favorite, but it’s ok.” Honor didn’t like it. I wish I’d had the camera at the ready because she made a great face! The most surprising pie fans though, were the cats! Just the smell of it had them going crazy. ALL three of them. They usually have different taste in foods, and they usually have very good manners, even when it comes to one of those favorite foods, but not with this pie. I had to eat my pieces standing up, and/or walking around, as the cats circled my ankles like feline sharks, begging and pleading.

I had the last piece today. The cats were asleep and I thought I could grab the dish, sit down, and perhaps enjoy it casually. Was I ever wrong!

“Puh-leeeese can I have a bite?”

btw… I generally do not eat with a plate tucked up under my chin (we’re not going to talk about my eating out of the pan – it was the last piece darn it) … I do have some basic manners and holding the plate up was a strictly defensive move!

And these cats, really, honestly, have better manners too, and do know to wait for treats… but this pie is terribly difficult to resist. They don’t even act this crazy over catnip.

I should have known not to look away to smile at the camera…

I love these girls anyway, even when their manners are forgotten. (Pumpkin was being a good boy… but he was still impatiently begging by my feet…)

The three little kittens they found their mittens,

And they began to cry,

Oh, mother dear, see here, see here,

Our mittens we have found!

Put on your mittens, you silly kittens,

And you shall have some pie.

Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r,

Oh, let us have some pie.

Yes, AFTER I was done with my pie, I let them (finally!) lick the plate… ON THE FLOOR where kitty treats are supposed to be eaten.

The verdict?

Yum!

How cats fill a home…

2011-09-26T11:40:00.001+02:00

Cats fit in tents set up in the living room… even if the tent is small and filled with toys, pillows, blankets and a sleeping child.

Cats fit in places you did not know you needed cats, like on top of doors.

They always fit on snuggly blankets.

They have some of their own spaces

But generally prefer the space you are occupying

Brian keeps telling us that he wants a queen bed at our next home, he is a tall kid, and I can see where he might need the extra room some nights.

They also take over technology. Ninja helps Honor use the mouse.

And Pixie had to ‘help’ me clean out my keyboard (actually, she just reeaallly really wanted the pipe cleaner and didn’t want to wait for me to be finished with it)

Dressing up and Feeling down

2011-09-23T11:48:00.001+02:00

I ordered this little dress, a casual summery thing, because it looked light and comfy, and I liked the cheery colors. As soon as it arrived and I unwrapped it, Honor ran off with it and was the first to wear it. She liked the colors, that she could spin around in it, and how it flowed when she played in it!

Eventually I got it back. We dressed up last weekend to go to a little gathering at our neighbor’s house. Her new baby grandson was being blessed and we were invited, along with all of the ladies from her church and family, to attend.

It was nice to be included for such a special event, and we were going to stay for breakfast after the blessing, but during the service, Brian, who had been fine earlier, as well as the day/week prior(!), turned to me and said that his throat hurt. He had become fevery hot too. So we excused ourselves (it was a huge crowd, so I didn’t feel too bad about leaving) and took him home. Fortunately we had never come close to the baby! We’d been off in our own little corner of the crowded room.

His sore throat turned into a really bad bout of bronchitis and asthma :( Poor kiddo. We may have caught it and kicked it sooner, but at first the doctors thought it was viral (but not strep though) as there was no congestion the first two days. That kicked in the 2nd night, so we finally got him on antibiotics the 3rd day. He missed an entire week of school, including a much anticipated field trip on Thursday to the Dead Sea. Poor guy.

We also had to drag Brian around town to see specialists, as during a chest xray to rule out pneumonia, (he had a very nasty cough and asthma symptoms), it was discovered that his heart is not where we thought it was! After seeing a cardiologist to rule out problems – it was determined that he has what looks to be a simple dextroposition of the heart. We could relax and just treat the illness he was dealing with.

At least he enjoyed hanging out and playing video games all week. His dad gave him the 4th Elder Scrolls PC game to play, Oblivion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion) and he’s loving it. He also did a ton of reading, so that part of his homework from the missed week of school is covered! He finished the novel Saucer, by Stephen Coonts, which was not a typical Coonts novel, it was more young adult than adult, and it read like a fast paced sci-fi action movie. Brian really enjoyed it.

He’s feeling better this weekend fortunately, although unfortunately, he now has to put the game away and get some homework done. He was feeling a bit better toward the end of the week and we went in and got some of his make-up school work so he won’t start next week too far behind. He was also feeling good enough Thursday to have his appetite back, and decided that because he’d missed out on his awesome field trip, he should get to decide dinner. He chose Chinese/Thai delivery, plus homemade brownies (cake brownies) and homemade vanilla ice cream. I thought that was an awesome choice! I didn’t have to cook dinner, nor did I have to cook dessert! Brian made the ice cream, and Honor made the brownies!!

Unfortunately, today I’m the one who is sniffling and sneezing and feeling ill… bleargh… guess that’s what I get for hanging out with a sick kiddo all week. That’s ok though… he’s definitely worth it!!

Two Good Ways to Relax

2011-09-20T14:30:00.001+02:00

One - Just chillin out, as Pumpkin demonstrates so well…

and Two - cooking with the help of a sweet daughter. Honor loves to help.

Our stove is on an obnoxious platform, 4-5”, which makes it higher than what I think safe for the kids to use (I burn myself, so I know they would), but it’s nice to have help with the food prep. Honor likes to make salads, and she is learning to help with bread dough too.

We made a good sized batch of dough, and with half of it we made mini sausage rolls. With the rest, we made fetayer. We didn’t use any specific recipe… just a bunch of spinach, spices, a bit of feta cheese, all rolled up in dough and baked. It is the BEST way to get my kids to devour spinach. Sorry, no photos of the finished rolls… as often happens with my cooking projects, the ‘evidence’ gets eaten before I remember the camera…

Cat News

2011-09-13T21:43:00.001+02:00

Despite the fact that our cats will fuss and wrestle and fight at times, and have they their moments of sibling jealously, they really do love each other. Yea… busted being sweet…

Speaking of being busted… we had an incident with a small Siamese cat peeping in our windows, trying to get inside the house, and yowling at us for attention. Our cats really wanted nothing to do with her, but this little cat was starving, and desperate for someone to love! I don’t ever feed feral cats, but there was something about this one that made me think it had been a pet, but got lost or was abandoned. Our vet supplied a trap and offered to help find her a home.

All I had to bait the trap with was cat kibble. I hoped the Siamese would go for it quickly, but we caught other cats instead. A large adult cat checked it out during the day, but scooted away in fear. It came back when it was dark and got caught. When I opened the cage door, it ran like crazy and did not come back. A small cat (maybe 4-6 months) trapped itself 5-6 times. It was terrified of us, so I think it may be too wild to tame, but it didn’t mind coming back to the scary trap and people in order to get more cereal. I was wondering where our target was, as I released the young cat and reset the trap for the umpteenth time, when I heard a happy, questioning meow behind me. It was the Siamese running up to me, thrilled to have me outside. I started to go inside, hoping it would find the food in the trap, but it had seen the small cat, maybe the larger cat too, and was afraid… it dashed under a ledge. So I stayed outside and talked it into coming over and checking out the trap. It was very clever. It was ok with rubbing against the outside of the cage, but knew not to trust the inside. It stretched in as far as it could, over the trip plate(!), and batted some cereal out, then hopped out to eat. Smart! I gave up trying to get her in the trap that night, put out a bowl of water for her (all the cereal made her very thirsty!) and went in.

Anyway, by morning, she was really hungry. Too hungry to be careful. She’d been crying at us through the bars of an open back window when we woke up, but when we looked out at the trap later, found that she’d gone around to the side and got herself caught. Not a very happy cat! But she wasn’t totally freaking out like the other two had.

I got her to the vet asap and they took her in, bathed her, checked her out and gave her meds. Last I heard, she has a new family! She definitely wanted one! If we had room/ability – and most importantly, if our other cats had liked her (NO! They do NOT like outside cats!) – we would have kept her, she was that cute, but we are very, very happy that she found another family.

She probably would have enjoyed TV time with the kids like our cats do. Ninja demonstrates:

Summer is officially over!

2011-09-07T07:31:00.001+02:00

This has been a wonderful summer! We’ve had a lovely, busy, lazy, productive and play-filled long break, but I think that even the kids were beginning to look forward to a ‘real’ routine again. Just in time, school has started!

Third and sixth grades this year! Brian is officially a middle schooler. They were excited to go… but Ninja *knew* that something no good was up. She’s been crying during the day now after her kids disappear on the bus!

oh… and no worries… we made sure they had all their supplies in order. I had the best box sifters and stuff checker-outers go over it with me the night before the 1st day of school.

Quilt, Chair, and Honor vs Robot

2011-09-05T10:18:00.001+02:00

The kids have completely organized their rooms, they’ve been practicing their homework skills, we’ve been working on getting back to a real schedule, and they’ve been indulging in a few last all day PC game marathons, reading, and watching their favorite DVDs etc. before school starts again. Honor has been going through the movies, Brian has discovered detective shows like CSI and Castle. Summer is almost over.

We’ve been keeping very busy playing lately, and play, for me, means crafts! I’ve been cleaning out my ‘to-do’ repair pile, and I also managed to cover this chair. This crazy shaped (not commercially coverable!) olive drab with fleur de lis (really.) wing chair. Here is a ‘before’ photo, best viewed partially covered with cute cats (aka mom’s ‘helpers’).

This needed … something. Also, almost cut out of the photo, but look below the 3” thin seat cushion… photo above… right where the back of your leg hits the chair is a barely padded board. I had to do something about that. I had a dark brown throw that matched the sofa covers. I’d tossed it over the chair, but it never stayed on. Because I don’t really know what I am doing, I decided to chop that up and make a cover for the chair rather than invest in yards of new fabric. I figured that if I totally hosed up, I’d feel less guilty about having to toss it all out! For a novice like me, it made it a lot easier to just dive into the project! I had made a more simple cover for a more sanely shaped chair awhile back, but this one was more challenging. Here is the result!

Ok… it’s a bit floppy. More than a bit. But hey, it matches the rest of the saggy floppy old furniture that came in this apartment :p We’re not winning any fashion decor contests with any of this stuff anyway, so what the hey?! Also, it’s brown now, not blah-green with funky florets. I made it baggy on purpose because this chair is used, a lot, and I know how my family sits… Not. Still. … a form fitted cover would rip off in a week. The seat cushion looks popped up a bit because it is. I made a second cushion, measured to fit under the seat, about 2-3” in height, filled with scraps of solid/tough material that won’t compact into nothingness. I am sure it will go down a bit with use, but in the meantime it’s much more comfortable and keeps our legs off that stupid board in the front. I am disappointed with how it looks – but I knew I would be. Didn’t like the chair or the fabric. But I am quite tickled with myself for simply making this thing! It was quite a project to pull together and I feel like I learned a lot from doing it.

Speaking of learning, I am still working on my first quilt and should share some progress. I cut all of my pieces, have put all my blocks together, and even added the border! Now I need to order the fill and backing material and get to the actual quilting process.

I found some mistakes in my piecing, and I think part of it was in the pressing… too much pressing… which may have stretched the fabric in places before I cut. I need to press more gently, I believe, as even with carefully using paper thangles, some pieces were a tiny bit off. A tiny bit here and a tiny bit there, matters. And it might be my machine… sewing in a straight line really isn’t that hard(!), but it seems to pull to one side sometimes and I am only going to re-do a piece so many times before walking off! It’s a rather old machine. I’m not sure, but maybe taking it apart and giving the insides a good clean will help. Anyway, they are very minor issues, meaning, a few places where my angles are not as ‘precise’ as they might have been. I doubt seriously that my kids will care :) They just want the finished quilt, and I am in a hurry to get it put together and see how the process goes, from the piecing to final binding.

Here is my sewing center – a desk where I can leave the machine up and ready to go at all times! (Note: Sewing scissors and seam ripper at the ready… poor things got a workout ;p !)

My quality control inspector, testing for comfort – these pieces passed inspection.

Btw – the little ‘dots’ on the brown, blue and yellow fabric are paw prints and are made to go with the cat print fabric. Keeping in theme, I am thinking of hand quilting with a paw print design. Prints walking around the border at any rate… I’m still deciding the pattern for the main body of the quilt.

The blocks assembled; pre-border. Pixie is modeling, to show scale.

And after the border is added… the border really pulls the whole thing together. I wasn’t so sure I’d like these fabrics, even though the cats are cute. I was out-voted on this one! I like how it’s come out though. Pixie shows up to help model again… and because she always shows up on top of anything I am working on.

I am not the only one being creative. Honor’s current hobby of choice is writing stories on the computer and illustrating them. She’s been using a commercial Storybook software, sometimes, and other times she uses Word and Paint. Her current theme has been some short stories about a robot and his kitten. She found an old RC robot toy of Brian’s to play with, but it really wasn’t working properly, so I got out Brad’s old Robosapien V2. I got this for him 4-6 years ago - kind of as a gag gift, kind of as a ‘toy for dad to entertain the little kids with’ - he hasn’t had much use unfortunately. The lighting in our old place simply was not good enough to encourage him to function properly, and he was put away. With Honor being so fascinated with robots though, I got him down, gave him batteries and powered him up. Then I got the camera, and gave Honor the remote. Here’s how that intro went:

I can see more stories happening… !

One Year Ago – piano lessons

2011-08-30T13:28:00.001+02:00

The kids have been taking piano lessons now for about one year and are still enjoying the classes very much. We’ve even had a few lessons during the summer, although our R&R, their teacher’s vacation, and now ‘Eid has meant many classes were skipped, but here are some of the songs they are learning now.

One of Brian’s newest assignments:

When I asked Brian to play me a song, I thought he’d pick one he was more familiar with, but he chose this one, a song he was only recently assigned. That was fine with me… I like his serious look of concentration as he’s reading the music :)

Honor played several songs for me, and I chose this one to share as she managed to play along without getting distracted, despite the cats having a smack down behind her on the table!

We have also kept busy these past couple weeks finishing up our (late) spring cleaning. The kids have learned that taking a big job and breaking it into smaller pieces makes the work easier, as is enlisting a buddy to help you out a little. Kitties are excellent at sorting through boxes.

Brian did have to lecture Pixie about finishing her work before playing with the toys she found during clean up (she has a marble under her paw).

I’ve been working on several sewing projects, and cooking.

One cookie recipe I made was this one for very easy, and totally delicious, Ginger Spice Cookies. You probably have everything in your cupboard right now. Go make them, you won’t regret it! Of course, me and my inability to follow a recipe means I added more of the spices than the recipe called for, plus a bit of anis powder, and rather than following their ‘drop a teaspoon of batter onto the wax paper to coat with sugar’, I used my method of rolling a small ball of batter in a bowl of sugar… but do whatever you want. It’s a very flexible recipe and yummy!

I also made these:

We called them ‘Chocolatey Bars of Goodness’ and Honor says they taste just like a (forget the brand name) chocolate chip peanut butter cereal bar that I sent to school snack for her last year. I made this up because I had things in my pantry that were in my way and I didn’t know what else to do with them. Specifically, some cocoa puff type cereal the kids haven’t been eating and a jar of marshmallow fluff. The fluff was something given to me, and I have NEVER used it before. I really had no clue what to do with it! Here’s what I came up with:

Melted 250g butter in a small casserole dish (by microwave)

Stirred in the whole (small) jar of marshmallow fluff

I stirred in 1/2 to 1 cup of creamy peanut butter… I didn’t measure, I just added and stirred until it looked creamy and yummy.

Next I added in 3-4 cups of the cereal. Again, I did not measure. I just stirred in as much as I could until I couldn’t add any more and still coat it with the peanut butter-fluff mixture.

Then it went into the fridge to cool off.

It wasn’t super sweet, like the marshmallow & krispy rice cereal bars. Those are good for about the first 4 bites and then get to be ‘too much’ for us. And while they had the chocolate peanut butter taste of a Reese’s candy, it wasn’t solid and heavy and ‘too much’ in that direction either. Like Honor said, it turned out more like a cereal bar (which makes sense, because it is made with cereal… but it looks more like desert than a cereal!).

We are on a long weekend currently. Blessed ‘Eid to all! School starts next week and I think we are actually ready for it. It’s been a very long, very relaxing summer, but it’s time to get back to a routine!