just in time

One of my favorite things about Christmas growing up was the awesome stockings our mom made us.  I decided I needed to pass the tradition along to Sadie, so I started sewing her a stocking last December, and I just finished it last night.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, considering: 1.) I have never sewed a sequin onto anything in my life, and 2.) Cash came out looking just a little bit like Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo from Southpark.

Still, When I asked Sadie, "Who's that?" and pointed to the dog, she said, "Tash!" So if its good enough for her, its good enough for me.

Hopefully this stocking will be just the beginning of many fun and happy holiday traditions our family celebrates together in the future!

homemade/handmade...goodies/treasures

Just finished up making a batch of this peppermint bark that many of the blogs I follow rave about. I have to say, it's good.  And pretty.

And I couldn't resist sharing these sweet little ornaments my mom made us.

Aren't they awesome? She made them with felted thrift store wool. Sadie loves these.  And its okay for her to love on these ornaments, because they are very unbreakable. 

Also, check out the coffee cup cozies she made out of up-cycled wool sweaters:

Add these to your list of great things you can do with wool from the thrift store!  Thanks for the Christmas treasures mom!

joy!

Just got back from a fun and exciting trip to southeast, then south-central Alaska where we got to:

Catch up with old friends

Meet some new ones!

See trees again!

See my amazing and hard-working sister graduate from her nursing program. *so proud*

Catch up on a year's worth of hugs to my family

See most of Loren's family (we see them more, so not quite so many hugs to catch up on)

Eat lots of yummy food

usher in a period of intense separation anxiety with Sadie, who refuses be more than 3cm away from my person at any given moment now.

And now it is time to snuggle into our own nest for a while.  It was good to come home to a house smelling of Christmas tree and the wagging tails of the pups.  I am also excited to test out my new Christmas pressie from Loren:

I grew up with this book, and I totally guessed what was in package because I recognized the unique hollow sound it makes when you thump on it.  It has a familiar feel, like a favorite pair of jeans. 

(and by the time you're done cooking your way through this bad boy, your favorite pair of jeans probably won't fit anymore!)

I don't know how I've made it so far in my adult life with out this book on my shelf.  Probably because I always just call mom and ask her to look up the recipes for me.  Don't worry mom, I'll still call you!

Thanks for the awesome gift Loren (and Loren's shopping elves:)

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

 

Okay, the spooky ice fog rolling in this afternoon isn't really Christmassy, per se, but it is transforming the Bering Sea into yet another amazing martian landscape. And the weather has felt downright balmy and humid by Nome standards, and that is just fine by me.

AND we got a Christmas tree today! YAY!

Just in time for us to fly out tomorrow to the land of many, many trees. Again, YAY!

 Even though this isn't Sadie's first Christmas, it is her first Christmas tree, and she took her decorating duties very seriously, I assure you.

Look at that game face.  

Reason #2435 why kids are awesome:

They put all the magic back into the holidays.

newbie.

This week my friend Bridgett volunteered to let me take pictures of her almost two-week-old son Timber.  I have been wanting to try and photograph a newborn, and let me tell you...I have a whole new respect for people who do this for a job.  Timber is a very good baby too--but no one wants to be messed with that much!  It was a fun learning experience for me though...and a challenge with the very short, indirect daylight and me trying to shoot without flash. I thought I would post a few of the pictures, just to remind you all how sweet the littlest little ones are.  I love the one of mama and baby snuggling.  Almost makes me want another one ;) Congratulations to Timber and his mom and dad!

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

Foxy Sadie

 The Arctic Fox is a critter whose cuteness is pretty much unparalleled as far as fuzzy white things go.   

 

Still. I think Sadie is trying to give this one a run for its money.

 Is it wrong that I kinda wish my kid always had a tail?

It's funny, because even though this costume is supposed to be a lil' fox, it kind of reminds me of this:

Which would also be another great costume.  I even have a grey fox tail I could switch out the white one with.  You might be wondering why I have so many fox tails.  That is a valid question.  I was wondering the same thing when I cleaned out my sewing room and found three of them. 

Happy Halloween... Get your wild rumpus on:)

How to get your doggie to go "ni-ni" by Sadie

First, you need to get him his purple fleece blanket, and lots of teddy bears.  Boxers love teddy bears.

Then he's probably going to want you to read him a story. 

"Everyone Poops" is his favorite.

Of course, you will need to snuggle him up.

"ni-ni" Cash.

p.s. I wish my kid was this easy to get to sleep.

Happy Monday.

Saturday Sewing: Mini-Mukluks

 With the cold weather settling in, and the temp dipping down into the teens for several weeks now, Sadie has been long overdue for a pair of warmer winter boots, and I have been scouring the online pattern sources looking for something simple, and mukluk-y.  I haven't been so lucky, so I had to make up my own pattern.  I am kind of liking how it came out. 

 

I found this awesome, double-sided minky fabric when I was down in the big city.  I had no idea what it would be good for, but it was 75% off, and so soft and warm, so I bought the rest of the bolt.  Turns out, it sews up into some sweet little muks. Sometimes those impulse purchases do come in handy!

I still have a few tweaks I need to make on this pattern, but I think overall it's a good one. {Really quick and easy to put together, which is the only way I sew these days} In fact, the hardest thing about it was just trying to get Sadie to sit/ stand still long enough so I could take a picture.