A tank and a onesie.

Ive been doing a little bit of simple embroidery lately. I made this tank for my friend who is a knitting fanatic. The ball of yarn with knitting needles (all in black, I wanted to keep it simple) is right smack in between where the shoulder blades would hit when wearing the tank. This stitching was a bit tricky since the tank was stretchy and ribbed.


And then I made this lavender and light pink prissy poodle one a white onesie for my friends little girl. Yes, I know, the pictures all stink. Sorry! I took them practically in the dark and at the last minute, serves me right. Both these patterns are from Sublime Stitching. Jenny Hart rocks.

A much needed new spinning seat

So i have this great spinning chair, but its ancient and the fabric is quite outdated (in a not so cool way either). It was about time i give it a makeover. Part makeover i suppose, since i only recovered the seat. Paint is next. I'm thinking maybe a hot pink?..

Here is before:

And here's the seat after:


And now if i could just find time in my day to start spinning again. Maybe the new seat will inspire me, we shall see..!

Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

Oh my gosh this was so good, and other than waiting for the sweet potatoes to cook up, really easy to make. I made two of these pies, one for our Easter block party, and the other for a picnic outing at the Arboretum with friends. I cheated this time and used store bought crust (the refrigerated kind), though I really should have been less lazy and made it myself- probably would do a graham crust or something with a bit more flavor than Dough Boy's. But it was fine nonetheless. And you could make this with Whiskey instead, or no alcohol if you prefer. The alcohol cooks off though and even the little ones liked it.

So here's the RECIPE (I adapted it from a similar recipe in a magazine and I don't know which one, oops!):
3-4 large sweet potatoes- peeled and cubed (the smaller the faster they cook!)
1/3 cup butter (best at room temp to combine nicely with the other ingredients)
1/3 cup sugar
2 lightly beaten eggs
2/3 cup half and half
2 oz bourbon (optional)
1.5 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
2 pie crusts

Cook sweet potatoes in salted water. Bring them to a simmer and then continue cooking ~ another 5 or so minutes until soft. Drain and mash them. Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Slowly add eggs, vanilla, salt and bourbon. Mix until well combined. Add sweet potatoes, nutmeg and cinnamon until blended. Pour into pie crusts and bake for ~45 min. I like to cover the edges of the crust with foil for the first half of baking so they don't burn. Best eaten cooled with whipped cream if you like.

Enjoy!

My baby is half a year old! :)

G turned 6 months old yesterday. He's such a happy, content baby and we are having so much fun watching him grow (so fast!). He has his two bottom teeth in already and can sit on his own. Here's a few pics of my sweet boy.

Alot of Pasta!

Its pasta time! Scott and I make it together (with the help of our good 'ol Kitchen Aid mixer), and by the end of the night our entire kitchen is SWIMMING in pasta. We really need to invest in hanging drying racks. Pasta covers all counter space, kitchen table, bar... EVERYTHING. I should take a pic of the kitchen next time, ha. We like to make a TON of it and dry and freeze some. This go around we made regular angel hair pasta, sausage ravioli and spinach linguine (pictured- the flour keeps it from sticking and helps it to soften when cooked). Most of what we made was for my dad for his birthday :).

Whats for dinner? Menu.

Ah, the meal plan. It's been a while since I've actually "planned" a weeks worth of meals for us. Usually i just throw something together based on what we have in the kitchen at that moment, but there's something exciting in the anticipation of knowing what's ahead to cook. Lame, yes. lol.

So here it is:

Monday: Shrimp Tacos, Guacamole, baked corn chips
Tuesday: Beef Satay, Summer Rolls, Peanut dipping sauce, white rice
Wednesday: Steamed Salmon in Banana Leaves, Roasted Beets, baked Yucca fries
Thursday: Steelhead Trout, Artichokes, Quinoa
Friday: Tossed Salad, Pizza

Hi Mom!!

I had to post this pic. Look at those cutie cheeks, lol! G is 4 months here :)

Lemonape, or so I call it.

Mmm this drink is so good! We love making lemonade this way! Instead of sugar, you use grapes, which makes the lemonade so much healthier for you. Basically you blend a few cups of grapes with about a half of a lemon and a cup of ice, and thats it. We have a super high speed blender so we can actually put all the ingredients in whole without having to peel or take out seeds. I made these today a little bit slushy just for variation (and so i could stick an umbrella in it, lol) but normally I make it smooth like a juice or how regular lemonade is.

Picnic Placemats

I almost forgot to post about this! For the holidays, I made picnic placemats for my sister-in-law and her husband. While still living in CA, they often would go on long bike rides along the beach, winery hopping, and the like. Now that they are living in Chicago, we're pretty sure they'll do alot of riding to the lake and local parks once the weather warms a bit. Now they have a handy place to eat on their lap wherever they choose to stop :) . The pattern is from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing and isn't this just the most perfect fabric for these placemats?!

A simple salad

Salads are so fun and easy to make! Tonight we had a chopped salad topped with honey-mustard soy chicken. This was my first go at honey-mustard dressing, not too bad. Scott loves mustard, I dont, so this really was for him. I'd have done a bbq-ranch, but I added enough sweet honey to dilute the sharp mustard taste. Overall, I'd make this one again.

Special delivery

First of all, I love packages. Seriously. I think I like getting a package sometimes even more than finding out whats inside. Yes, I know, kind of strange.

So heres what we got today. My MIL sent us all of Scott's baby blankets that people made him from when he was as wee-bitty as G. How sweet are they! S immediately recognized the top, green plaid one. I think that one is my favorite.

Ill be making G his very own blanket shortly. Some oh-so-soft minky is already on its way in a nice big brown box, actually. I bought way too much fabric on our trip back home for the holidays to cart it back in the car... nice huh!

Molcajete!

Guacamole is so much more fun when made in a molcajete, I am convinced!

Of course you still have the same amount of prep work without one, but the smashing and combining with the tejolote is much more fun. And I think it looks cool too :)

And eh, your not supposed to "clean" it with any kind of soap... woops.. These things really should come with directions..