The Final Gardening/Yardwork Update in 2011: How My Resolution Worked Out

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Laura

As some of you may remember, back in April, I resolved to do at least a half hour of yardwork per day, every week through October.  I did this very consistently through August but then had way too many other things to do in September and October.  November and December saw a big push again, namely because I had a gigantic pile of mulch that I had to get off of our driveway before the snow came.  So I basically did 3+ hours of yardwork a week for almost six months.  Here’s what I have to show for all my hard work.

Along with the mulch rings around the trees in our front yard, I also maintained our rock garden and swiss chard patch (which is still growing!),

ripped out a whole section of grass between our driveway and sidewalk and mulched it,

dug out a patch of old, over-grown azaleas (which is when I “roared”!),

and dug a perennial/garden bed that’s about 35 feet long.

This is a slightly outdated picture – I got about 6 more feet of bed dug out before I ran out of mulch and good weather.

You may be wondering where all the plants are.  Good question.  This year, I decided that I was just going to demolish in preparation for building.  I didn’t have time to figure out what plants I want to put into our new garden.  So we have vast expanses of mulch with not much growing in them, ready to be planted in the spring.  One of my goals for January is to map out our new gardens.  We know we want to plant rhubarb and dwarf apple trees.

Does anyone have any favorite perennials (preferably edible) to recommend?

I’m glad I made that resolution on the spur of the moment back in April.  It motivated me to get out into the garden and get some projects done that have been languishing for several years.  Ellie and I had fun working outside together and I’m sure it will be more fun next year when she can use the tools that her grandpa bought her for her birthday!

Finally, our garden:  it just keeps on giving!

purple carrots, golden carrots, and arugula!

I can’t take any credit for the garden – all that credit is due to Nik and his hard work this summer on the garden.

It was a good year for our yard and I’m looking forward to the spring when I get to fill up those expanses of brown with green!  In the meantime, I’m going to rest my hands, dream as I page through seed catalogs, and enjoy my time indoors.  April will be here before we know it!

Posted in gardening | 2 Comments

December Sewing: Joanna and Vic’s Blessing Book

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Laura

We hosted a co-ed baby shower for our friends, Joanna and Vic, back in the middle of November.  The shower was  a really fun team effort.

Sharla made amazingly beautiful cupcakes.

Elaine brought delicious pumpkin dip with apples.

I made spicy walnut pesto dip.

Julie brought apple cider from the farmers’ market, which we mulled.

Oh but wait, this is supposed to be about sewing right? 🙂

During the shower, everyone wrote blessings for Vic and Joanna for them to read as they enter the wonderful, but sometimes difficult, adventure of parenthood.  I made the book but didn’t have time to sew the cover for them like I’d planned.  (I did manage to at least sew their present – cloth wipes which I never even blogged about.)  So they told me to keep it and give it to them once I’d finished it.

[Then Dad came back from England, Thanksgiving happened, it got buried under other projects, I forgot about it, I sewed for who knows how many hours for Christmas, and here we are, six weeks later.  On Monday, I was cleaning my sewing room, restoring order to the madness and unearthed it.]

Two days ago, I finally had the time to finish their book for them – just in time for the baby to come next month!

Here’s the cover (Joanna prefers purple over pink):

And I love the pattern that the sewing made on the inside of the cover.

I think this may be my new go-to design when making cards to give to people!

We love you, Vic and Joanna and we can’t wait to meet your little girl!

Posted in friends, sewing | 2 Comments

Handmade Christmas 2011: The Checkers Cuddling Quilt for Noah, Selah, Jonas, and Ezra

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Laura

As a joint present for my niece and nephews, Noah, Selah, Jonas, and Ezra, I made them a checkerboard quilt with checkers (loosely based on this tutorial).  I used a pair of my old pajama pants as well as three of Nik’s old flannel shirts.  I also already had the white fabric and the batting.  So for this project, I only had to buy the navy blue and red solids.  Score one for having a big fabric stash!  The quilt is 60″ by 60″.

The front of the quilt:

The back of the quilt:

For the quilting, I chose to outline each block as well as do some dense straight-line quilting in the border.

My favorite part of the binding is where I pieced in a small scrap of each of the flannels. (And yes, I hand-sewed all 240 inches of the binding to the back of the quilt.  Love you kiddos!):

I made 26 checkers (12 red, 12 blue, and 2 red/blue) and a matching drawstring bag (from this tutorial) to hold them.

Those are the pockets from two of the shirts!

Grandpa, Ellie, and I had fun trying it out.

And here it is in Eric and Meggan’s house, in its inaugural run!

I even sent along rules for how to play checkers.  I hope this provides the kids with years of fun!  That is, their parents will have to stop using the quilt on their couch long enough to let their kids play with it!

Posted in sewing | 6 Comments

A Roll Recipe (In Case You Need One For New Year’s Dinner)

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Laura

I made these rolls for Christmas dinner.  I wanted fancy rolls to compliment ham and so decided to make these.  The recipe is from Gourmet from a couple years ago and the rolls are oh so delicious!

Orange Pumpkin Cloverleafs
makes 1 dozen (measurements for 2 dozen in parentheses)

2 tsp active dry yeast (1 T plus 1 tsp)
¼ C warm milk (1/2 C)
1 T honey (2 T)

Mix together and let stand for a couple minutes.

2 ¾ C flour (5 ½ C)
1 ½ tsp salt (1 T)
1/3 C pumpkin puree (2/3 C)
1 large egg plus 1 yolk (2 large plus 2 yolks)
½ tsp grated orange zest (1 tsp)
2 T fresh orange juice (1/4 C)
5 T unsalted butter, melted (10 T – that’s one stick plus 2 T)

Stir in until a soft dough forms.  Knead until dough is smooth and feels right, 6-8 minutes.  Put into a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  Allow to rise until doubled, 2 – 2  1/2 hours.  While dough is rising, grease muffin cups with butter.  (Don’t use paper muffin cups.  You want the crispy edges on the rolls!).  When the dough has risen long enough, take out of the bowl and halve.  Here’s where a good knowledge of fractions comes in:  Split each half into six equal pieces.  Divide each sixth into thirds.  Roll each little piece into a ball.  Put three balls in each muffin cup to form the cloverleaf.   Repeat until all the muffin cups are full.  Cover with the damp cloth and let rise again until the rolls have risen above the muffin tin by about an inch or so.

1 T water and 1 egg (2 T water and 2 eggs)

Beat together the egg and water.  Brush the tops of the rolls with egg mixture.  Bake in a 375 oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.  Immediately take out of the pan and allow to cool on a rack.

Notes:

1. These would taste good as big rolls also, although not quite as fun!  So if you’re in a hurry, you don’t have to make them into cloverleafs.

2. These are so rich that they really don’t even need to be served with butter.  Ellie loved them!

3. It’s worth it to double the recipe.  It’s not much harder to make 2 dozen and they freeze really well.  When you’re ready to eat them, wrap the frozen rolls with foil and put in a 350 oven for a few minutes until they’re hot.

Enjoy!

Posted in cooking | 4 Comments

A New Lens and New Socks

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Laura

A fancy new lens* (Nik’s present from his mom) + fun experimenting with that new lens = lots of fun pictures of Ellie, me, and my new socks (my Christmas present from Nik).

*My description of the fancy new lens: You have to stand way back, it makes the background fuzzy, and takes gorgeous pictures inside.  Nk’s description of the new lens: It’s a non-zoom lens, 50 mm with maximum aperture 1:1.8.   You take whichever description is more helpful to you! 🙂

Posted in Ellie, family | 1 Comment

Reading With Mama

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Laura

We love Barnyard Dance!

Stomp your feet!  Clap your hands!  Everybody ready for a barnyard dance!

Posted in books, Ellie | 2 Comments

Handmade Christmas 2011: “Scrap Wrap” for Nikki

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Laura

I made this “Scrap Wrap” for my sister-in-law, Nikki.  Again, I used a variety of fabrics, including the same light gray and black/white wools and black corduroy as in my mom’s scarf.   I also used a raspberry wool sweater, which was my favorite sweater for many years – so much my favorite that I wore holes in it.  So it too has taken on a second life in Nikki’s scarf!

I lined Nikki’s scarf with quilter’s weight flannel (from Joann’s).

As you may have noticed in the pictures of both these scarves, the scarf is actually pieced in three sections: a long middle section and two shorter end sections.  I like how this adds interest to the scarf’s design.  Now I need to make one of these for myself!

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Handmade Christmas 2011: “Scrap Wrap” for Mom

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Laura

I made this “Scrap Wrap” for my mother from the book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects.  I used a variety of fabrics with different textures including two kinds of wool (light gray, black/white herringbone), corduroy (black), quilting weight cotton (plum, stripes), and one of my favorite old sweaters (purple) that wasn’t wearable anymore.  I’m glad my beautiful sweater is having a good second life with my mother!

The combination of textures and colors ended up being just what I had wanted for Mom to wear.  I lined the quilt with cream-colored fleece.

Making this scarf is how I learned how to do foundation piecing (knowledge that I promptly put to use in Ellie and Luke’s color books).  This scarf was really fun to make because I didn’t have to worry about cutting straight lines.  So I just chopped pieces with my scissors and had fun!

Posted in sewing | 3 Comments

Handmade Christmas 2011: Glasses cases for Grandpa and Yiayia

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Laura

For my dad and Nik’s mom (Grandpa and Yiayia), I made cases for them to keep their glasses in.  These cases are easy to make and take very little fabric.  Before next summer, I am planning on making some for my sunglasses so I will hopefully be able to keep a pair around for more than a couple months.

For Yiayia (to match her tote bag):

For Grandpa, because he loves camping with the grandkids:

I used this tutorial and added the Velcro closure to the original design.

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The Year of Books: My Top Four Favorite Books of 2011

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Laura

Here are my absolute favorite books from 2011, as part of my series, “The Year of Books.”  The reviews are what I wrote at the time I read them (edited slightly for the blog). 

Although I’m calling these my favorite books from 2011, the truth is that I loved so many books that it was hard to narrow down my “favorite” to just these four.  I also loved all the other books that I’ve been posting about over the last couple weeks!  But, these books really stick out so here’s my favorites.

1. Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher

This is a fascinating look at how we perceive the world differently because of the languages we speak.  Anyone who is interested in the words that we speak will love this book. My linguistics world was a bit shaken by the book because he contends that several of the “unshakeable truths” of linguistics which I was taught in grad school are actually obviously false.  Over half the book is about our perception of color – and how the color blue is actually more of a cultural construct than an actual color.  Read the book. (Thanks to Julie for recommending it to me in the first place!)  (Perhaps you won’t love it quite as much as I did if you aren’t fascinated by words but it’s still a good read regardless.

2. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

This was an amazing book – superbly written, worth every minute and every word of the 500+ pages.  This book was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize award for general non-fiction, making it the first book that I’ve ever read before it was awarded a Pulitzer.

3. Just My Type: A Book about Fonts by Simon Garfield

If you’re a font nerd like me, you’ll really, really, really like this book. If you don’t care about fonts and use the default font of whatever computer you’re on, you’ll be bored.  But, if you think you’re a font nerd (like I did) and then you read this book, you may discover (as I did) that you know nothing about fonts.  And then, you might discover that there is actually a wide world of sans-serif fonts out there (besides Arial, gross) and you might discover that you like some of them (like Gill Sans, for example).  You might also discover that if your life font is Garamond (like me), that you’re really pretty traditional and French in origin.  And you might also feel a bit sheepish (you baaaaaaad boy) if you’ve ever used any fonts like Mistral, Papyrus, or Lucida Handwriting (guilty, but it was in my early years, I promise!).  In short, a very fun books, if you think about fonts.

4. Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God by David Platt

I admit to fairly cynical thoughts when I saw this slim book on the New Nonfiction shelf at the library. I’ve heard of this author’s book “Radical” and I just figured this was a way to make a quick buck off of that book’s popularity. And perhaps that was part of why it was published so quickly after “Radical”. But, I will say that for such a little book, it has the potential to drastically change the North American church – and potentially to change the way we (meaning Nik and I) live. There’s much to think about in this book. Now I just have to read “Radical” to get the full picture.

Posted in books | 1 Comment