ice lantern

The arctic has sunsets to take your breath away, but catch them quickly,  because in the blinking of an eye they are gone.  

a straggling beam from tonight's sunset illuminates a sea ice lantern.  

A little light house for the seals.

Magical.

blue green smoothies

 

1 banana + 1 cup frozen tundra blueberries+ 1 cup plain yogurt + 3 cups kale=

1 happy smoothie drinkin' tot.

Whirled Peas--Christmas Ornament Giveaway

I've already confessed how I have a new obsession for needle felting.

 and I just can't stop myself from making a bazillion of these felted pea-in-the-pod ornaments. (I got the idea from this awesome blog)

They are everything I love... quirky, whimsical, natural, made from all biodegradable materials, and they remind me that inside every dried up seed pod is a little kernel of life, just waiting for spring to return.

 and, naturally, they lend themselves to all kinds of puns.

But really, the world could use a little more peas during the holidays. Don't you think? 

If you you need some whirled peas to deck your halls, leave me a comment below--tell me what you will do to bring more peace (or peas) into the world in 2012.

I will randomly select a winner on December 1st. 

mini-mukluk making marathon.

My sewing room is in defcom four disaster mode as I attempt to throw together as many things as I can for the Thanksgiving craft fair.  Saturday I sewed fabric bags, Sunday--Christmas skirts and appliqued onesies, and Yesterday... 5 pairs of mini-muks. I wasn't counting on getting that many made, but Sadie took a 2 1/2 hour nap (!) That almost never happens.  I am loving the magic mukluks with the stars, as well as the soft organic cotton mukluks for wee babes.  It is a nice way to use up some small pieces of the fabric I got from spoonflower. I am really making my sewing machine work hard this year!

winter fruit salad

Do you see what I see?  That would be the Bering Sea... starting to freeze.  

Well, there's no crying about it this year.  All those frozen tears would just add to the ice up.

Nope.

Today we are celebrating the chilly temps and the waning daylight  with this beautiful winter fruit salad, courtesy of the goodness that came in our CSA box this week.

To make it:

Start with 2 cups of water in a sauce pan, add 1/4 cup cane  sugar

1/2 vanilla bean

2 star anise

zested citrus rind of your choice.

(normally I would make a honey infusion with 1/2 cup of honey, but since honey is still on the semi-nos list for Sadie we did the simple syrup.)

Bring to a boil, 

reduce heat and simmer.

While that is simmering, 

cut up 1 1/2 cups of dried fruit of your choice. I used dates and pears, because that's what we had.

Turn heat off on simple syrup. 

Add dried fruit.  

while it softens, 

cut up about 4 cups of seasonal fruit.

I used:

1 pear

1 granny smith apple,

1 persimmon

and 1 pomegranate

Pour  the now cool(ish) dried fruit/s.syrup solution over your diced fruit mix

Top with plain yogurt if you wish.

Serve to a delighted 16-month old.

Enjoy as you watch the sun begin its rapid descent towards the horizon 

at 2 pm.

sweet 16

 

What's popular amongst 16-month-olds in this household?

Murray (the teddy bear)

meow-meows

music

meat. 

and Sadie says this word with such gusto when she gobbles up aforementioned food, that I fear she will never be a vegetarian...

but with Loren as a dad, maybe that's a good thing.

Rain Drop Plop a book that Sadie asks us to read constantly by saying, "pla pla plop."

keys.

going bye-bye

vacuuming (esp. if it involves vacuuming Cash)

hats. 

She finally keeps them on her head. Yay!

Fish... or as Sadie calls them, very clearly... "shit"

Art.

Eating crayons

choo-choos

toots... be warned.  I think this kid can make herself toot on demand.

Then she points at the dogs and says, "toot."  

and...

"Say-sie"

Why is it so darned cute when your kid starts saying their own name?

Maybe it is to help compensate for the social awkwardness of her piscean pronunciation.

Thanksgiving dinner triage-HELP!

In spite of little miss "Say-sie"  (guess who says her own name now?) and I pouring over the fanciest of cooking magazines, I am totally uninspired for Thanksgiving dinner this year...and it's coming up fast!  So help a blogger out.  Tell me what will be on your table this year--I need some inspiration soon, because we need to put our CSA order in by Friday.  What's everyone making?  Don't blurk. Leave a comment:)

Needle Felting

Gosh...I keep meaning to post some follow up pictures of the awesome storm we had, but I have been busy and distracted this week, coming up with some new life-schemes.  To make matters worse, I got a miniature needle felting kit in the mail today.  Now all I want to do is make these:

This is what you will all be receiving for Christmas this year.  Sorry.

I'm not even kidding.

starting to get a little frothy

The "real" storm isn't really scheduled to hit here till 6pm, but as you can see--the calm before the storm I posted about yesterday... it's over.  Everything in town is starting to shut down.  People are making a plan to hole up, the critters have all gotten the heck out of dodge....

except for the Ravens.  They are out playing in the wind.  Ravens are probably the skateboarding teenagers of the bird world. 

I think it was Shakespeare who wrote that "Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned."

For the next 48 hours the Bering Sea is going to be that woman.

ETA:  Well, it's 3:15 and the City just announced that everyone on Front St and other areas along the coast are recommended to evacuate by 6pm tonight.  So we are heading over to a friends'.  No more pretty ocean pictures for the blog--but the winds are getting pretty fierce out there.  At this point the only thing to do is hunker down and wait it out. 

batten down the hatches.

The windows are boarded up.  The yard is empty.  There is a contingency plan for the chickens (they will be bedding down in a hay-filled pickup bed {camper covered--of course}.  We will be spending the night at Sadie's godparents' house.  Why all the fun?  On Tuesday night the Seward Peninsula is going to get hit by a very large storm.  Probably one of the largest on record.  The last time one of these hit was the year before we moved to Nome.  That storm flooded Front St., washed boulders from the seawall into buildings, and knocked the back deck off our house.  The city is coming up with an evacuation plan today--but since I am married to Loren--who stalks the NOAA weather channels, we have been getting ready for this bad boy all weekend.  So come hell or high water {possibly both with winds up to 70mph and 9 foot storm surge} we are ready to weather out the storm.

Look how deceptively peaceful it looks today.  The calm before the storm.
Here is the weather statement that NOAA has issued:

finally, a cure for severe postpartum dry eyes

I don't think I've ever posted about this particular topic, but ever since I had Sadie I have been suffering from the worst case of dry eyes you can imagine.  Dry eyes as in cracking and raw at the corners, dry eyes, as in I can't wear my contact lenses for more than 3 hours without them killing me.  Dry eyes as in I-don't-even-make-tears-anymore-which-is-a-big-deal-for-me-cause-I'm-a-huge-crybaby. I was so bugged by this last winter that I went to see an eye doctor, who was not much help.  Basically he told me I would just have to live with it.  Thanks.  I tried using artificial tears for a bit... but I could only put them in when wearing my glasses because they gummed up my contacts so bad, and they would only afford a few short minutes of relief.

LOVING this book right now.

Seriously.  I am SEW happy with this book ;-)

I want to make almost every single project in it.  The instructions are clear and simple, the ideas creative and kid-friendly.  I am using these patterns and ideas for a jumping off point for some of the Christmas gifts I want to make this year. I started with this pattern for basic pocket pants. 

 

...and that inspired me to start burning through some of my knit fabric stash.  Sadie has pretty much outgrown all her pj's, so I made her these:

But the top was just a little to big, so I had to make a second one (they sew up really fast!) to see if I could get a better fit.

I like this one even better. 

Also in the mail this week...my own labels!  I designed them with my high-tech design software picnik (its free, and online!)  and had them printed at Sewnique's etsy shop--for a pretty reasonable price if I do say so.

water color