last week, this week....

~we've eaten quiche

~we've been hit by the cold/virus bug, drinking lots of tea with lemon and honey and taking cold medicines, my workout routine is also lacking now-really I should be in bed now but I can't sleep.

~we've been admiring the beauty of plants, forget clothes shopping- I'd rather go shopping at the plant nursery.


~we took enough cough syrup and a supply of cough drops in order to visit with a dear friend who was visiting in the area (from the Midwest), we had lunch at a great vegetarian restaurant (I told her to load up on elderberry syrup and vitamin C after our visit :) she's headed back home today.

I'd better go get some sleep, the kids on spring break this week and when these colds subside maybe we'll get to something a bit adventurous.
hope you are having a good week!

a little owl family

Finally finished up this little owl family. Fun to knit, but lots of little parts that needed to be whipstitched on. I found that if I got the small parts knitted first (the wings, feet, eyes- which I only did this with the smallest owl) then I could add them to the body right away, instead of being done with the body and then impatiently knitting the small parts (because really I wanted to see the owl come together quickly:)
Right now they are perched on my dresser, but I'm sure not for long!

the pattern for the owls can be found in knitsimple-Holiday 2010.

Mrs. Horse and friends

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just the facts....

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~one of my children has been in her p.j.'s for almost two days straight, only was she now convinced to get dressed to go out and get ice cream with her dad and sister.

~our little kitty is being very adventurous, not so long ago he hid himself in a kitchen drawer one morning after I had dropped the girls off at school. I was on the verge of tears. I had looked almost everywhere in the house-until I pulled open a kitchen drawer and found him (he was just lying there-looking completely unfazed).

~I'm still drinking my morning decaf, and its past three in the afternoon.

~I need to catch up on my garden reading.

~ I have knitting needles sticking out my hair at this moment
(probably should be reading instead of knitting, huh?)

~I made soup for lunch today, so we could have it again for dinner.

~I'm hoping for an early bedtime, for everybody.


Happy Monday!

into the forest

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today we hiked into the forest. It was a little chilly, but a clear beautiful day. I'm so glad we decided to go out instead of sucumbing to the oh so popular after lunch nap~









lots of people were out on the trails, so glad that we were out there too, taking in God's beautiful creation.

dishcloths and orchids

I was asked to be a volunteer driver and parent assistant for a field trip today. Grades K-5 of the girls school went to see a play at the local community college.
Just as we were rushing out of the door I grabbed some yarn (the colorway is fiesta) and some size nine double pointed knitting needles and stuffed them into my purse. I just wanted to knit something, something that was not going to need any attention to detail. Since the theater was dark I knew that I was going to make something super simple and do whatever stitches that came to my head. Now mind you the dishcloth came out wonky (increasing and decreasing stitches with no rhyme or reason will do this to a project) but a little crochet edging decreased the wonkiness factor a bit-plus it's just going to be a rag to wash the dishes! It was nice to have something small to work on during the play.

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For Valentines day I received an orchid-truly to make me happy for any occasion just give me a plant of some kind. I'm so excited that my collection is now up to four orchids.

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I am going to try to attend a community garden meeting tonight that is being held at the library. A big pot of beans are cooking on the stove and to tell the truth I'm here blogging to avoid making dinner-but soon my ears will be met with famous "I'm hungry", so for me (after I push publish post) it's back to the "chopping board".
Happy Tuesday!

making Valentines

The weekends go fast don't they? After church yesterday we had some people over for lunch (which included jerk chicken). After sunset my husband went out to get a few things and I requested ice cream (didn't I just say something about healthy snacks?)
Well I ate a bowl of rocky road last night as I surfed the web, then I knitted a little and finally went to bed. This morning the girls were telling me that we needed to go to the store today to pick up their Valentine cards for their school parties tomorrow, but I suggested that we make some cards instead. I have a stash of stuff, paper wise, that needs to be put to use- so today we did some cutting, gluing, and a little stamping~

making cards, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

cut-out, originally uploaded by *nichole*
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making cards, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

making cards, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

now we just need to add candy to the cards, wonder if I have a stash of that around? (does extra dark chocolate count, I don't know since its full of anti-oxidants and all:)

snack time

~today's after school snack

~my snack of choice lately, dates and slivered almonds

We try to eat relatively healthy snacks, but of course there are times we eat a cookie or two. Anyway my snack of choice lately has been dates with slivered almonds. Dates are so sweet, sticky, really they are natures own caramels. Just a few of them help subdue that sweet tooth of mine-they are full of good stuff too. Here are a list of snacks that make there way on our table after school and on the weekends~

*chips and salsa
*apples with nut butter or cheese
*bananas with nut butter
*crackers
*granola
*cut-up pieces of pineapple
*oranges
*toast with some spread
*popcorn popped in coconut oil and topped with a little butter and brewer's yeast

snacks of course should quell those hunger pains, but shouldn't fill us up.
I notice that the higher quality of the snack the more satisfied I feel (which really is the case with most of the food we eat).

Have a great weekend, and have some great snacks!

this and that~

I am

~working on knitting up an owl family, two more to go


~painting on a big yellow canvas (more on that later:)


~liking the blues on this recently thrifted vase


~glad we saw a rainbow today


this weekend also included church, ordering pizza Saturday night, attending a birthday party (for a classmate of my youngest daughter), vacuuming, with Sunday evening being topped off by a deep, deep cleaning of the upstairs bathroom-yeah. I love seeing the shiny chrome on the hot and cold water knobs-again.

in the garden cowl, three ways

this cowl is something I worked on a lot during the girls weekly piano lessons. all it is really is a couple of rounds of stockinette stitch with some rounds of seed stitch thrown in.

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~cowl pulled to the back

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~cowl shoulder to shoulder

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~cowl pulled to the front

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for the last couple of rows I did add some increases so that the cowl would be wider at the bottom than at the top. I don't even know how many increases I actually added, I just added them at whim.
I think my favorite way to wear it is going to be the pulled to the front look.
now I gotta go find something else to keep my needles warm!

kitchen Sunday

I actually did spend some time in the kitchen Sunday, but not so much time on the other things I'd listed (the knitting, the laundry, the reading). I made potato fennel soup, quinoa salad, and gluten-free banana bread~

~rinsing quinoa before cooking


~chop, chop!


~soup simmering


~gluten free banana bread-with a "couple" of chocolate chips thrown in for good measure


It was so nice to come home after picking the girls up from school yesterday and not having to really worry about cooking right away (and it helped even more considering the schoolwork that needed attention). We ate the soup last night for dinner with some sandwiches. More is still in the fridge for my lunch today. The gluten-free banana bread turned out better than I thought it would. I tasted the batter before I placed it in the oven and it did have a pronounced "beany" flavor, but that flavor wasn't so strong after the bread finished baking and rested for awhile. I think it's pretty good and my youngest thinks so too (I suspect this has something to do with the chocolate chips-to her adding chocolate chips to a dish makes it absolutely delicious-note to self, add chocolate chips to tonight's broccoli :)
The gluten-free flour I used was from Bob's Red Mill. We are not a gluten-free family, but I am interested in consuming less gluten-maybe becoming more in terms of "gluten light".
I think I'll try to keep this Sunday cooking going because it definitely makes the start to the week a bit less hectic.
Have a great Tuesday!

soupin' it

soup, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

Made a big pot of white bean and kale minestrone soup this afternoon- a big pot because I want it to last most of the weekend. My oldest daughter has several church activities to participate in tomorrow, then I'm hoping to get some other things done on Sunday (laundry, reading, knitting, cooking). This upcoming Sunday I'm going to try to do a big food prep thing so that during the week we have things to eat on hand. I'm already planning to make another soup-potato fennel-for the week. I'll let you know how the Sunday food prep thing goes. My youngest stayed home from school today (she has a bit of a cough) so we took Chester to the vet for some of his immunizations and then we went to the co-op to stock up on apples, mandarin oranges, and bananas.
I like having fruit around.
Have a great weekend!

in the last couple of days....

we've celebrated my oldest daughter's eleventh birthday~


eaten Indian food for dinner and lunch, had visitors from the Midwest~


and enjoyed the small quiet moments in between~

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

a few glimpses of the day....

~plants by the window


~leftover chai tea from this morning



~my oldest taking a little nap after school


just sharing a few moments from this Tuesday.

I couldn't resist~

he's so sweet~, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

my youngest daughter wrapped Chester up in the blanket so he could get a good nap~
sweetness!
Other things going on, well I'm making chili for dinner tonight (a huge pot so it can last the weekend) and then there is church tommorow. This past week was so busy, so really we just want this weekend to be low key. I think I'll try to get some knitting done in between reading my gardening materials.

Have a great weekend!

let's give a big welcome....

to Chester, the newest member of our family!
My husband went out about a week ago to pick up some meat from a local farmer. While he was there he noticed that she had several cats which were "country cats". We've been wanting to get a pet for a while, but just never took the plunge until now-my husband had pets (a dog and a cat) when he was younger and so did I (we had two dogs-at different times). The girls absolutely love having Chester here. For the last 3 days after school all they want to do is play with him. I have a feeling that Chester is going to be one spoiled cat!

Happy Thursday!

hanging out

~perler beads

~making a star

~basket by the couch

We've been hanging out at home these last couple of days, just relaxing-eating easy meals. Next week we will be back to our regular schedule plus I will be starting Master Gardening classes. The class meets once a week (for about three months) and will cover all aspects of botany, horticulture, and other key aspects of gardening. I'm excited about this class and hopefully can keep up with the weekly reading and class work, but really I think this challenge will be a good one for me. In the meantime we'll enjoy the last few days of just hanging out at home, being lazy, and bringing in the New Year.

Happy New Year!

makin' something for Christmas

Remember this post, about wanting to make small knitted gifts for the family? Well I got around to it and knitted these for the girls~

slippers, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

The pattern is found in Knit Simple.I like to think of them as "peppermint slippers" because of course they are colors of peppermints. For my youngest daughter I used smaller needles and decreased the number of rounds knitted-also a crocheted draw sting was also added so that the fit could be a bit more snug. The girls tell me that the slippers are cozy, which of course makes me happy.

I also did a little sewing for the small pillows on the couch~

patchwork style, my seaming could have been a bit more precise, but I still think they add a colorful touch to the living area.

In the kitchen~

Swedish fruitcake, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

fruitcake-Swedish style, I made this last year-I love it, it's light and not as dense as the traditional fruitcake. I didn't have all the dried fruit that was listed in the recipe, so I just used what dried fruit I had in the cupboard, which included dried cranberries, dried apricots, candied ginger, and raisins.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to all the new possibilities of the New Year.

festive lights

Two days till Christmas! I could ask how did that happen, but really what's the point now, I still need a tree! The girls are out of school and have been getting their fill of the Wii and computer games. Today however, they took a little time out from all that electronic entertainment to do a little crafting with me~

~recycled glass jars and tissue paper


~tissue papers all cut up (into strips and squares) and put through a gluey water bath


~strips of tissue paper placed on jars, overlapping the tissue paper is a good things! Smooth papers down along countour of the glass.


~Allow the tissue paper to dry completely (which most likely will take overnight or longer). For extra shine add a extra coat of Modge Podge, and let jars dry again. Add a small candle or a flamless tea light (which is what I used for these jars) and now you have a festive candle display.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!