Finally!

So we finally got the toy bags hung up in Asher's room. Only took us a year! Fun quick project. Peg board from Michael's, sanded and polished with some mineral oil, and beeswax, tree sun and cloud hot glued on, after hanging it on the wall- the sun and cloud covering up the screw head- total time estimated at 20 minutes, not including the run to the store.

February 10

inspired by soul mama my top ten things about February this year. The light, only twice a year is it like this, cutting into the house at a great angle, lighting up thing I don't necessarily want to see (cobwebs, dust, food crumbs) and radiating on things I forgot to notice the last couple of months (hello staghorn and aloe)

A walking boy! Oh the joy that he can enter a room on two feet, I absolutely adore it.

Seedlings! Hooray for gardening and early onions doing the best they can in our cold basement, growing and getting stronger by the day.

New Chickens- we are getting 6 more baby chicks, set to arrive in 6 weeks, adding to our lovely flock and looking forward to more eggs and more fun with Asher as he falls in love with some new animals.

Cold Frames- as the snow melts, we have been able to harvest some spinach to enjoy with afternoon meals.

New Adventures, we are gaining and little momentum in the catering venture, have 20 people enjoying the meals Ben cooks up every week, happy with all of the canning and freezing we did confirming our ideals that you can eat locally year round and help others do it as well. Next big hurdle: the health department, will they help us realize our dream of having a certified kitchen attached to our home? A lot of excitement to come, a lot of work to do, and what seems like not enough time to do it in.

Wood Stove Heat: as the temperatures have been dipping down some more, I am so thankful for the woodstove and our ability to heat our house with the wood that fell as trees were pruned and lost in 2006 and happy with low gas and electric bills!

Anticipation of whats to come, bulbs bursting out of the ground, ramps multiplying from last year. The return of the sun reminds me of all the growing that will be going on in the months to come.

All the moments that I have had a chance to make something. A bit harder to come by than a year ago, but so rewarding.

Someone turning one!!!!! I have spent the whole of this month reminiscing about my pregnancy, how wonderful I felt at full term... the anticipation of the one to be those 10 days past my due date. And celebrating this most magnificent little boy who is everything I expected and so much more. The joy of being a mama is beyond description.

Food of the week

So we had some fun this week making spring rolls and pad thai. So good and a nice belly warmer on a cold day.

Crafty Completion

I would say this is a crafting success, Asher loved playing with his new cookies. They were loads of fun to make.

More of the flood

So here are some pictures in Busey Woods, the boardwalk was built because of times like these and even it wasn't high enough for these water levels. First off on the drive into work, the underpass (?) just south of University on Vine by Schnucks. This place is notorious for flooding, but this day was exceptional.

Heading into Busey Woods, you can see the foot bridge to get into the woodlot, typically there is 16-20 feet between the bridge and the water level. Not so much on this day.

And then our lovely boardwalk, just not standing high enough.

Flood!

Oh how I love the power of water. Yesterday I arrived at work to some massive flooding. It was incredible! The day camp building has 4 feet of water in it. The saline ditch was up 12-16 feet, and all of crystal lake park was covered in water including the road.
Here are the steps behind our maintenance office.
And the bridge to the day camp building.
And the day camp building... so much water. Oh sorry the last two pictures got deleted. I will get more up in a bit as Asher allows.

Other works: A cork board for the kitchen. Ben and I were so excited to take on this endeavor. We had over 200 corks saved up and this is how far we got. We will need 630 corks to fill up the whole board... so it may not be complete for a nother month, but it was a great snow day project on Friday.

I got inspired to try my hand at making some play cookies as well. These will be some chocolate chippers and chocolate chocolate chippers....Yummy!!

Some projects in the works and some complete.
A place mat for the messy boy, in hopes that the table will (fingers crossed) stay cleaner.
And some knitted and felted asparugus. I have been putting off felting for a while, you know filling the whole machine with hot water and then considered felting by hand, but not really a good choice for wanting immediate results, the beer cozy trial was not fun to hand felt. How can I get really hot water and agitation? The kitchen aid. I gave it a shot with hot tap water and it worked alright. But the hot hot water from my tea kettle, a few drops of soap and the 4 speed worked its magic on these asparagus in under 10 minutes! So hooray.

some yumminess this week

We had a great week of eating well. With the food deliveries, Ben actually made more than enough, so we were lucky enough to enjoy the meals. The gnocci were awesome on Tuesday night, the "sauce" was light. fennel, carrot and leak with a good garlic base and olive oil.... so good. We paired it with a Ravenswood Zinfindal and it was fantastic. Pardon the bad photo, again at night, so no sunlight.

On Thursday for lunch we had more falafel. Oh so good. We were impressed with how well they held up all week and heated up nicely in the oven.
Fridays quick lunch took us back to an all time favorite in a pinch quick 10 minute meal or less or Fancy Raman- said like they are a super hero around here. For such a special occasion I took out my rosewood chopsticks, which we don't use often enough.

And with this past christmas we are always reminded of the thoughtfulness of family everyday when we make up our own lattes at home! And of course a chocolate chipper right out to the oven. I made a half batch on a craving on Tuesday, so we had fresh cookies all week every day with a latte... we feel spoiled, aknowledge and embrace it. It is really so wonderful to have all that you need.

My Amazing Husband

Here's some good press that Ben got last week. Things are going incredibly well in catering world and we are really optimistic about its potential. I am so proud that this is my husband and this is what we dream of doing... Hope you are able to read it, click on the individual pictures for larger images.

In anticipation of the food nanny deliveries tomorrow this evening was spent making gnoccis- they are f-bomb good. We used Green Mountain Potates which are just so good and using a few recipes as resources came up with this great one:
2 lbs potatoes, cooked in tact with skin on until just knife tender
Cool, peel and mash
Add about a tsp of Olive oil, salt and pepper to season
Slightly whist 2 eggs, add to potato
Gradually add about 1.25 cups of flour- until it isn't sticky but still has some tackiness to it.
Cut and roll on fork, boil for three minutes!!!

So good! Plus we only needed four pounds to deliver tomorrow and I made 5+, so we have dinner for Tuesday.

Hope you are all well.

Kate

So I did a bit more hair cutting this weekend. I am still adjusting. Feel a bit like mushroom head and need to trim things up a bit more. This is definitely the shortest it has ever been, accept that initial growth thing as a child. Also some fun with picasa filters.

holiday gifts revealed

So, I spent a fair amount of time knitting this past fall resulting in about 20 hand knit felted bottle cozies. They turned out great, I used up a load of scraps from my wool knitpic stash and there are super fun to use and they really work at making you cooler... for sure, I used one at my brothers new years eve party, you know a younger crowd of somewhat preppy people, and holy cow, I felt just so cool! The pattern I made was really easy and I loved using the magic loop and my adi turbo size 7 circulars. I ended up crocheting the bottom and then picking up stiches on my needles and knitting around. They took a bit longer to felt than I anticipate and a few were pretty close to not fitting, but they worked are delivered and at least on outward appearances were somewhat well recieved.

The next mass production give away were what I called my Tree Jingle Jangles. I started with this pattern from the small object steno pad and while I thought the table top tree was great, we just don't have space for table top clutter, I had though about trying an ornament strung, but then it was screaming for a bell, which lead to chains of three of them. They adorned our door this holiday season and were handed out to lots of my favorite people.

And this was a season of some aprons. Asher had my cousins little girl in the holiday exchange so we made her an apron and by we I mean either Asher was on my lap for the duration of the sewing or Ben was solo on child care duty so that I could get sewing done.... so all things were made by all of us in one way or another. The brown aprons were made for my brothers. And my mom got one as well. They turned out great, or so I thought. Abby did mention she already had one, but hopefully she will still get some use out of it. I hope that my family gets use out of them as well.

Hope everyoneis well, the boy has just crawled on my lap and we don't type well together, so I better post this and play.

Well Happy New Year

Sorry I am a bit late, but I am going to start with a holiday wrap up. We did a lot of baking the days leading up to Christmas and now through the wonders of photoshop I can show you several pictures in one.

So here are our baked goods, i made three huge cookie platters and the pear tart is from a catering gig ben had the week before.

Presents lined up awaiting hats...