bread and buttons

moments

Just a few moments in recent days.

We've been loving this chicken rosemary stew with dumplings (via soulemama).

I love that, when asked, he tries to brush the ponies hair as best he can. It's not really his strong point.

The kids built a fort in my son's room and my daughter had a sleep over in it. I didn't cry.

These lemon bars have been made twice in one week. I am stopping now. Now. now. now. now....

I have a crush on this desk.

I am trying to finish some new spring placemats.

And I think these black apple freebies will be my daughters Valentines this year, taped to a pencil for her classmates. Not sure what my son is going to want to do about Valentines.

We are in the midst of a busy week and I probably won't be back here til next week so happy weekend friends.

a book on Tuesday (14)

Today's book on Tuesday is Let's Go Home: The Wonderful Things About a House by Cynthia Rylant.

This was another book we accrued over the holidays and it is a very sweet one. I love Cynthia Rylant's meandering prose and the pictures by Wendy Anderson Halperin are charming. We also have on our shelves, When The Relatives Came and I just adore the slow pace and subtle observations of that book.

This particular book takes you on a journey through one house, through the rooms and through the seasons. There are lots of familiar things for my kids in here, and lots of detail in the pictures that we like to talk about.

My daughter has started reading more independently now and loves the Annie and Snowball books also by Cynthia Rylant.

wooden coasters

The kids and I had a go at making our own wooden coasters. I got the idea here at design sponge. The ones they made are just a little more fancy.

The kids love this kind of activity. I got them to draw out their design directly onto the wood in light pencil and then they painted it in. We decided on a color palette before beginning otherwise they tend put every color in. After making these I thought we should have just stuck to red and white and made some valentine's decorations. Oh well, next time.

My son got his first set of acrylic paints for his birthday last year and they are perfect for projects like this one.

I bought the wood slices on Etsy, here. Next step is to polish them and I think we'll use beeswax polish because it is so easy with little ones.

I am having fun working my way through my pintrest board of kids' craft activities. And I bought The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas from my local art shop because Angry Chicken recommended it ages ago and I remembered the post. It is really good, (our has a different cover) the activities are just about the perfect size and time and a cool way or kids to try out lots of techniques.

concentration

She loves embroidery. Just the one stitch, repeated in many different colors.

The dressing gown is from Cambridge Baby.

She would love this necklace.

I'd like to make these for valentine's day.

I want yards and yards of this and in pink too.

Happy weekend friends.

 

fabric acorns, a tutorial

A sweet and simple tutorial...if a little out of season.

You will need:

acorn caps, fabric scraps, stuffing, hot glue gun, circle template, needle, thread and scissors

1. Trace the circle template onto fabric and cut out.

2. Hand stitch around the perimeter of the circle, do not cut thread.

3. Pull end of thread to cinch stitches together, make a bowl shape with the fabric circle. Fill with stuffing.

4. Pull thread tight. Sew a couple of stitches to close the open end. Secure thread and cut.

5. Put a blob of glue in acorn top and ease in the sewn end of the acorn bottom.

Fin.

I made a bunch of these before, but a friend liked them so much I gave them to her so I needed to build up a new stash.

If you have a go I'd love to see which colorways you choose. I am thinking pink, for next time! Leave a comment with a link to your creations on this post for all to see. I'll leave a permanent link to this tutorial on my free patterns page.

Hope you have fun making these.

what all the gumpy old ladies are wearing this season

I knit my daughter a new shawl but she doesn't like it. She says it is itchy. I got the idea for knitting a small shawl long enough to tie round the back from this post at Posie gets Cozy. I love the name, heartwarmer. I used a couple of balls of sock yarn I had lying around and knit them into a triangle measuring 50" wide at the top and 30" from the top to the bottom point.

It looks so cute on...like a little old lady. But she gets grumpy like a little old lady when I suggest she should wear it.

So now it is mine, and frankly a little too small.

And kind of itchy.

a book on Tuesday (13)

Today's book on Tuesday is Natural History, The Ultimate Visual Guide to Everything on Earth by DK Smithsonian.

This was one of my mum's present to me this Christmas but really it is one for the whole family. Its 600 pages are stuffed full of wonderful photographs and snippets of information. The big, bright and well produced pictures make it perfect for the kids and I often find them just flipping through it.

The book is split into sections on minerals, rocks and fossils, microscopic life, plants, fungi and the largest section is animals which is split into subsections such as birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. Occasionally, a subject is selected for further investigation and it has a whole page with close-up photos and detailed information. See the Ruppell's Vulture page above for an example.

The book lives next to our cabinet of curiosities when it is not being used, which is not so often. It is a great book for just dipping into and learning a bite size piece of information. To quote Andy, "There is something wondrous on every page."

For example, now I know Rhinoceroses are in the family of odd-toed ungulates. Good to know, just in case.

the snow fell, so did a tear

Winter arrived here at long last and the kids are delighted. It was beautiful to see the garden all covered in white before any soul had stepped out into it. It reminded me of the poem Footprints by Shirley Hughes:

Footprints

We went out, and in the night

All the world had turned to white.

Snowy garden, snowy hedge,

Ice along the window ledge.

And all around the garden seat

A tiny bird with tiny feet

Had left his footprints in the snow

As he went hopping to and fro.

The poem comes from Rhymes For Annie Rose by Shirley Hughes. An all time favorite of ours now sadly out of print.

My son had his first sleepover this weekend and, I am a little embarrassed to admit, I shed a silent tear at bedtime. It was not just that I missed having him here but more the realization of how quickly this time with them passes. A curious delight and melancholia that this may well be the best time in my life. I know there will be other adventures, joys and challenges but this time is so wonderful. How does one reconcile these things? The passing of time, the continual change and growth. It is a struggle sometimes.

this moment

Inspired by Soulemama.

Have a great weekend friends, we've got some long overdue snow arriving!

eta: There are a few comments asking about the quilt, I blogged about it here. We love it as it is very soft and good for cuddling up under to review the latest Lego magazine.

two new lunches

Andy has been living like a king recently as I have been making him a cooked lunch each day. He mostly works from home so we use lunch time to chit chat and that is always more fun over something yummy.

The top picture is Barefoot Contessa's Roasted Eggplant Caponata. It makes quite a lot and the first day we had it with toasted pita chips. The second day we had it on homemade bread with feta cheese then grilled it. Delicious.

The next dish was thrown together with fridge sweepings, (it was the day before grocery shopping and I wanted to clear out the fridge) but turned out so super yummy I decided to share the recipe. I am sure you could add in any vegetables you had on hand and it would be great.

3 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup each chopped celery, tomato and cucumber

1/4 cup chopped cilantro and parsley

for the dressing:

a good amount of olive oil, juice of one lemon, a teaspoon of mustard (I used Colman's), a tablespoon of mirin, one clove of garlic smooshed in pestle and mortar with a teaspoon or so of Maldon salt, plus a little ground pepper. Whisk it all together.

Mix vegetables and chopped herbs with quinoa and pour dressing over, mix together.

It was so good. So good. I loved the bright lemony flavor. This one is a keeper in part because I get to use quinoa which otherwise I am a little indifferent towards.

Have you got any good lunchtime recipes to share? I'd love to hear them.