The lengths you go to....

to install undercabinet lighting!

You will love me!

Trust me, just click this.

So what's happening in there?

Spring Bag

I have been hauling around a spring bag that's too big for some days, and I needed something different. I remembered the fabric bundle and pattern I bought at the quilt show a few months ago and last night I made this:
See the blue bead closure? I took it right off a bracelet I had in my jewelry box! You can be a little desperate at midnight.
It only took about 3 hours, I think I started around 9:00. The rest of the fabric from that bundle will be made up into a yoga mat bag, maybe tonight!

A good present!

Background part one: There's a little "craft exchange" thing going around on Facebook where you make something for the first five friends to sign up under your name. I haven't made my five things, in fact it nearly slipped my mind in the craziness of the kitchen. Good thing you have a year to do it!

Background part two: I have a friend I met online more than a dozen years ago and who I've met in person many times. We were writing partners for a while on AOL, we share a lot of similarities in our lives, and we generally crack each other up. She is a talented watercolor artist.

Background part three: I took this picture in NH a few months ago and put it up on my Facebook page. It is not a downhill trail, but a little cut into and back out of the woods and looks like a fairytale forest, I just loved it, it was magical in there.

You've probably figured it out; my friend took the photograph from my page and did a painting of it!!




Look at that! I may have to buy a red ski jacket now! Is this not the best gift!!?? It is about 12 inches square and I can't wait to get it framed.

It is BEAUTIFUL and I have to tell you, it never even crossed my mind that she would do a painting for her exchange, that just seems like too much! My son brought the package in the house and I was puzzled at first, having forgotten about the exchange, and then when I saw the protective boards I got a little shaky, wondering aloud if she'd done a painting for me, no no, did she send me a painting? When I opened it, I burst into tears. Really, tears. What a thoughtful present, what a beautiful treasure.

I am so unaware

I was watching a movie last night and thinking to myself, "Wow, Kate Hudson looks like kind of like Goldie Hawn...."

Duh

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen . . . more than THREE HOURS of incredible music - - 3 backup singers, 6 musicians with everything from a giant bass to a harmonica, and it was one of the BEST NIGHTS OF MY LIFE! Go stream some Leonard this morning!

Trees!

This is such a gorgeous time of year, and part of the reason is the particular shade of green that lasts for about a week before deepening. Spring green. DD thought it looked as if the trees were colored with a green highlighter. I should have photographed it last week because it's been raining for days and days and is already deeper, but I took a few yesterday.

For comparison, I took this picture about two weeks ago when things were just starting. I actually don't know why I took it, there might have been a bird that I missed or something.
Not the same spot, but just look at the differences! Green and black after a rain.

Where's the house?

WOOOOOOOOO FREAKIN' HOOOOOOOOOOO!

I am going to see LEONARD COHEN in a few weeks and I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Thank you DH for not only buying the tickets but for agreeing to go (he's not the biggest fan!). So here you go, stream some of his music at this link.

Here's a clip of a documentary about him, which I also love...

Happy Easter!

A good picture for this day - my orchid! This plant has bloomed every year since 2005, making this its 5th bloom. I don't know anything at all about orchids and am always completely surprised and thrilled when it shows signs of blooming again!

You might think this is an expensive nursery specimen - nope! Home Depot! When I was planning a 25th anniversary dinner for my mom and stepfather, I noticed a display of blooming orchids and stopped to look at them. I didn't have any idea how to care for them or choose one. Another woman was also looking at them and said that she couldn't believe the quality, she was a hobbyist and these were amazingly good orchids for Home Depot, and she was buying three of them. $20 fit my budget for a table display so I asked her to select one for me and now wish I had bought more. (None of the others I've bought since then have bloomed again, and only one is still alive a few years later.)
After it blooms I cut the stems back a bit, put it outside for the summer, and then in my bathroom for the winter until I see new stems and buds. It's lovely and lasts for months.

Angel Food Cake

DS2 inspired me to make an Angel Food cake by his description of how really good it was and how interesting it was to make. Let's be clear - he didn't find it interesting, he found it a little bit of a pain in the butt, but I thought it sounded fun. I don't make cakes from scratch - I made one, 23 years ago, in our first house - but I'm kind of ashamed of that, so I thought I'd try.

His cooking teacher used Alton Brown's recipe so I did too. I had to buy a pan, as a matter of fact, and cake flour, but it was SO worth it. DD is happy because she loves Angel Food cake, and this, well, this tastes dramatically better than the store-bought one.

Batter looks delicious, doesn't it? Thank goodness for electric mixers. DS2 did the folding and I did the sifting on this tricky part - he had the experience.

This looks like a lamp but it's the cake, cooling upside down on a wine bottle, to set the structure so it doesn't crush itself on the cake plate.
And the cake.
Everyone loved it with lemon curd, which really just made it perfect. I have to make another one this week for DD when she comes home. It was fun, and with the 12 egg yolks that were left over I made a whole lot of french toast for the freezer. Which will also make her happy, now that I think about it.

After that I cleaned for until it was time for a late dinner, so it's a good thing I had that cake for fun in the day! Oh yeah, and then at midnight I was in the parking lot of Game Stop so DS2 could pick up his new Nintendo DS the moment it was released. LONG DAY!

SO FUN!

At the quilt show I saw a lot of "redwork," an embroidery style developed during the Victorian era. I bought a few blue and white kitchen towels and decided to look for some free patterns online and make a few. Redwork is always done in just one color. I used to embroider a lot, but not since DD was born, when I picked up other needlework.

Part two of this story is that I have a friend who loves Obama. It's great - she has posters, a calendar, magazine pictures, screen savers - just like someone I know who used to have a shrine to Hanson. (You know who you are) When I came across this image for embroidery, I cracked up...


I decided I had to sacrifice one of my two new towels and embroider this for her. I traced that printed image onto the towel with a washable blue marker used for sewing:

Got to work with this needle and #311 embroidery floss....

and by 2:15 a.m. I had this masterpiece!



Here's a cropped shot. She is going to LOVE this just as soon as she stops laughing! It's even better if you click on it so you can see all the stitches. Now I wonder how many people have made this into a pillow/frame/quilt block/tea towel and mailed it to the White House?

A Textile Day

First of all, this is what it looked like very early this morning. I thought it was beautiful, and that view will change very quickly as the woods turn green again.

Today I went to the......

with a friend. I am not a quilter, I will never be a quilter, and I don't really even like quilts all that much. But I do like my friend, and, you know, there was gonna be fabric there, so I went. Long day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., solid. I have to admit, the art quilts are gorgeous. Talented people out there. I'm not so much into the traditional patterns and colors but I certainly stand in awe of their work.

At any rate, I picked up just a few things. Like this red fabric by Japanese artist Yoshiko Jinzenji. I don't know what it is about this piece that I loved, but I do! It's a very high quality cotton, not a very big piece, and I don't know what I'll do with it. Yet. Really, click on the picture and look how cool it is.

Then there were these two very small hand-marbled cottons. I bought little pieces to make a headband of them, just because the were gorgeous.

Finally, this bundled of coordinated prints will make at least two bags. I really liked the colors and the prints that had been put together by the shop owner (quilters are so good at combining colors and prints) and it was reasonably priced. Just cotton. I have a very cute bag pattern to use with it.It was a fun/long day. Unfortunately, tomorrow I have to drive an hour to the appliance dealer we are using, and I was just there yesterday. Yesterday, when I went to finalize the order, he should have told me that there are 4 shades of black paint for my oven, and I need to pick one. He didn't. Big black mark against him. So tomorrow I have to drive an hour there, walk in for 43 seconds and point to the color chip, and drive back home.

Rats.

Where have I been?

Here, sitting with the kitchen designer. This has been my view for many many hours in the last few weeks....and remember, pictures can be clicked on...His laptop, my bag and sketches, a cup of coffee and my phone.

This is a bird's eye view of the completed plan.

I am thinking about blogging the kitchen on a different blog, so I'll let you know when I figure that out.

Is it cold outside this morning?

Just ask this dove.

Seriously, could it be any more puffed up?

Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy

Ski Pictures

That is a view of Mount Washington, as seen from the top of Bretton Woods The white line going down the mountain is the snowed-in railway. What a beautiful place - half the reason to ski is to be able to outside in such beautiful places.
This is a nice ski trail...
DS2 waiting for us to decide if we are having lunch inside that lodge, or not.

DS1, aka Darth Vader, getting off the lift.
DD and her snowboard.
Ah, this is my favorite little pass through some trees, just a nice safe little run off the trail for a few hundred yards through the woods, then back onto it. So pretty.
I'm not going to name the person who has a little sprig of pine on her binding. How do you get branches stuck in your binding? When you have a little crash :)

Rusty and the Happy Birthday Song

I completely forgot that Rusty would jump in an start singing, and I also forgot that my new phone has a pretty nice video recorder on it. We sang HB a second time so I could film it, but I missed the very beginning because I don't really know how to use my new phone! Someday I am going to do a really good clip of this, especially how he won't sing to anything other than HB, but here you can see his excitement - - believe me, when he hears the very first words, he flies to the table and starts singing. Sometimes he howls.

Sewing Room

As you probably know, I am very happy with my sewing room, or sewing studio if you feel snotty, in the basement. The whole room isn't actually just mine, but it's a very good space and I will photograph it the next time I clean it! In the meantime, I realized that I took these once and meant to post them. These are some things that hang on the walls.....

This framed shadowbox has some vintage notions from my Grandma's sewing basket. No matter what we do they insist on falling down inside of there; apologies for how, um, sliding-down it looks. There are some snaps, bindings, elastic, needles - - all with ridiculously low (by today's standards) prices. I love having them and I love thinking about her when I look at it. I need to make a reminder to take it apart and try to fix it again soon. If you click on the picture, of course, it will get bigger and you can really see what's in there.

Over by the ironing board DH hung this cool little bar with hooks - handy, eh? There are a few shears there and applique scissors, some fusible tape, and a print I bought from a student at school. She had photographed the textile room there, and I loved it. It's just taped up to the wall. Don't tell DH. He hates when I tape things.
Rusty has a little hangout on an old sham from my bed, in front of the door. From here he can keep an eye on birds/sqirrels/deer and me at the same time. Looks very alert, doesn't he?

Snowy tree

I took this picture last week when we had a nighttime snowfall. This tree is behind the porch, and partly visible from the kitchen window. I thought it looked kind of cool.

Drumroll please

DH's sweater - finished at last! It seems to fit as planned; he hasn't worn it yet!

Valentine's Day Surprises

I wanted to send the College Students something for Valentine's Day, but didn't think they needed me to buy them any candy or any plastic anythings to store. It was kind of late at night and I was thinking about what would be recycled or recyclable and I had a flash of GENIUS.

I ran around the house looking in all the drawers and nooks for things that were red or pink. And Useful, they had to be Useful. This is what I found:

Red squares of paper for writing notes, black cherry and red raspberry EmergenC packets, Red Bush Tea and Awake Tea, shampoo packets from the Red Roof Inn (can you believe that one?), red Fruit RollUps, half burned red candles, a red velcro thingie for keeping cords together, red pens & pencils, bobbins of red thread, red & pink straws, a pink yoga sticker, a pink bunnie cutout (which will definitely come in handy for Easter), red box of matches, a red "keep this coupon" cause you might need that someday, a red clip, pink post its, red tablet, and finally, red ribbon and pink ribbon. You always need ribbon for something.

I decorated two coffee cans (I am so happy when I find a use for coffee cans) with paper and made labels to glue on them.


I divvied everything up and filled the cans. I didn't have the right boxes so I took them to the post office and the post office man (what do you call that guy?) had something. He liked the cans. So did the recipients!

Coincidence

Today I was in Wegmans grocery store, in the natural food section, to be precise. I noticed the shoes on a lady standing near me, and they were pretty cool, so of course I asked her about them. She loves them, they are made by J-41, and she gave me details on them. I looked them up on Zappos and they are pretty close to this, if not exactly it:


Her pair was vegan. At any rate, we chatted, went our separate ways, and I checked out. In the parking lot I noticed, parked next to my car, an identical car to mine. Parked right next to mine. With Obama/Biden stickers. And a Vermont sticker. I like Obama/Biden and I like Vermont. So guess who was in it? That's right. The shoe lady. We like the same shoes, we like the same car. Coincidence? I think not.

I'll bet she knits.

Regarding the cake....

It's in the microwave. I'll let you know in a few minutes.


Hang on.....


I see it in the pyrex cup; it's climbing up the sides.....


Took it out after three minutes and it fell a little bit so I just popped it back in for 3o....

OMG! I just tipped it out onto a plate and cut it in half - can't taste it yet because it's too hot but it looks DELICIOUS...

Double OMG - it's good! I might have been able to leave it at just those 3 minutes, not sure, but this is GOOD!

Most Dangerous Chocolate Cake in the World

This email has been going around and I thought I'd post the recipe here for everyone's chocolate enjoyment!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world ?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

A friend of mine made it. She says:

I made it today. I have a 1300W microwave so cut the power to 90% and cooked for 2.5 minutes. It was a little dry and tough. 80% next time. I did use chocolate chips and can't imagine it without! (what self-respecting chocoholic wouldn't have chips on hand)It is definitely 2 generous servings. I'm sure it's better with ice cream.

Use a really big mug! I used a 2 C pyrex measuring cup.

Ok so if you try it give us the results! I may try it later today for Alex and his friend who is here.

Tracks

At 3:00 this morning I just happened to be awake and looking out the window when I saw a black animal walking across the front yard. Could have been a skunk but I didn't see a stripe; could have been a porcupine but its head didn't look angled enough. At any rate, this morning I convinced DS2 to go on a little tracking walk.....

I don't know, can you see these tracks? We also followed some other ones (maybe a rabbit) only to find that whatever it was, it spent some time under the patio table! We started off following this set of tracks...

They eventually led us here, to this fall of trees and the muddy/frozen creek right behind them. DS2 crossed the creek and was starting to pick up the tracks again, with me not far behind, when he called to me, "Mom. Stop. Back up. I smell a skunk." I backed up.

Walking back up through the woods to the house.
This is the view you're always happy to see - the house! But notice, it's still up hill.
And still, I might add, uphill even where you are home.
It was fun. On the way back we followed some other tracks to a living tree with a hollow at the base and again could smell a skunk - - Rusty immediately stuck his head into the tree and we both yelled at him to COME OUT before anything disastrous could happen.

I love snow.