Photo Garland

   I made this after Christmas but you can make one anytime. This a great use of those Christmas cards you get with photographs of your friends and family. I didn't want to get rid of last year's pictures when this year's arrived in the mail. Instead of sticking them in a box, I made a garland that I could keep up all year long. You could do this with any photos or any cards. I love reusing cards as decorations. Here are pictures of the process. Easy as pie. 

I cut the photo cards and a few other pretty cards into soft cloud shapes with scissors. You'll need a hole punch and some yarn. 

I laid out the shapes on a table in the order I wanted them to hang.

String the yarn through the holes and tie a knot to keep it in place. Space them evenly apart.  This is the garland hanging on a blank spot on our bulletin board. Those sweet faces are my nieces and nephews. 

It looks nice hanging across a painting or with other photos. 

Or hung across the top of a window.

It ended up back on our bulletin board with our photos and art. 

  

Mud Kitchen

   Desmond is trying out a preschool that my friend Danielle runs out of her house called Art and Soul. She has a mud kitchen in her yard and this inspired me to make one for Desmond. There is a wonderful flea market on 9W in Ravena NY, that is a glorious junk shop with aisles and piles of THINGS. This is where I did most of my shopping, except for a couple of dollar store things. I love the idea of reusing old things and giving them new purpose. Here are some pictures I took as I put the kitchen together. I am sure it will evolve over time. I am trying to let go of the order and cleanliness that is my wish for the mud kitchen. First of all, it is not mine per say and second of all it is a MUD kitchen. 

Spidey, the family dog, checking out the kitchen. Sorry Spidey, no food here. 

We have different sized bowls with spouts to practice pouring, a pot, some muffin tins, fun utensils, a funnel, a big bowl for water, plates, cups and forks, knives and spoons. I have since added a couple of strainers, mustard and ketchup squirt bottles, some wooden spoons and a bench for sitting.

I tied a few hooks to twine and made a place to hang things on the fence.

Lookin' good!

Oh! Chalk! 

Desmond jumps right in. We fill the big yellow bowl with water and he tries out the ladle. 

He adds water to a bowl of dirt. "Watcha makin', Desmond?" 

"Bread," he says.

Happy day! Happy mud kitchen!

Irish Soda Bread

   Happy St. Patrick's Day! I got my clover garland up from last year which I still love. When Desmond gets up from his nap, we'll make a leprechaun trap! I filled his head with leprechaun images on youtube before he went to sleep....  And I want to share the very best irish soda bread recipe with you. My mom's. Although I don't know where she got it and she didn't come up with it herself. But it's easy and so delicious. Please make some, you won't regret it! This recipe makes 2 round loaves. Here it is :

4 C flour

2 t salt

1 1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t baking powder

1/3 C sugar

1 3/4 C raisins

2 T caraway seeds

1 3/4 C sour cream

2 eggs

   Sift dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix together. Add in raisins and seeds. In a separate bowl combine sour cream and eggs. Make a hole in the flour and stir in wet ingredients. Mix until moistened and a ball forms. Spilt into two round loaves. Place both on a floured baking sheet not touching. Slash cross on top with sharp knife. Bake at 350* for 45 minutes.

   I usually substitute whole wheat flour in every recipe and honey or maple syrup for sugar but I haven't tried it with this. If you do, will you let me know how it turns out?

.....Made our bread, some rainbow sugar cookies cut into clovers for our traps and set our traps outside! Tomorrow Desmond will find a pair of leprechaun shoes filled with green jelly beans in exchange for the pretty fool's gold and cookies. You can't fool a leprechaun.

My Irish Soda Bread. The raisins that fall off are the best part.

YUM

My attempt at rainbow colored, clover shaped, sugar cookies.

Spray painted tuna cans, leprechaun blankets, cookies and fool's gold.

Desmond adds colorful umbrellas, because, leprechauns love rainbows.

The cookies, comfy beds and fools gold are in place.

When Irish eyes are smiling!

Leprechaun shoes and a note for Desmond.

Awaiting Spring

        I am anxious for Spring to come swinging back to town. Thinking about my garden and the things I want to do outside. Reminiscing about the magical things that happen when it's warm and things grow....

The chicken who laid this egg must have been in love. 

Our pumpkin vine was in love with our Japanese Maple, reaching up to hold it's hand, I mean branch. 

The hay we laid down over or grass seed started to sprout!

The view out our kitchen window when our sail shade was up over our patio and Desmond's birthday flags were strung up around the shade. Look at those green leaves... yum

Thanksgiving

  Yes, it was a couple of months ago but I wanted to show you something. I got to host Thanksgiving at my house this year. Our usual plans of being on Long Island for Thanksgiving with friends on Thursday and then our traditional second Thanksgiving on Saturday with family were not going to happen due to a wedding in CA and my cousins new baby in Boston! Hello Oliver! So, we had some friends at our house and we all cooked up a storm to create a collective of amazong dishes. That was a typo but I think it is fitting. They weren't just amazing, they were amazong.

  Of course I could not let the opportunity go by without relishing in the table setting. I loved putting out a vintage table cloth and vintage dishes and cloth napkins, along with our fancy glasses my husband and I bought in Venice Italy on our honeymoon. Oo la la! Of course I had to have a chat with Martha (in my mind) and tried out her candle holders made from radishes? no. parsnips? no. What are they called? Ah yes, turnips. They were supposed to be made with a melon baller but mine had disappeared so I used a paring knife which did not work as well as I think the melon baller would have. But it was still a nice touch.

   Then I had my own idea to make place cards by printing out some vintage Thanksgiving greeting cards on parchment style paper and sewing our names with my sewing machine on the cards. I have never tried to write with my sewing machine and I think if I had had some more time to practice and had planned ahead, buying a better thread for contrast, these would have been even better. But as a last minute thought, they were fun to make and the finished product was imperfectly sweet.  I think my first idea was to embroider our names in the paper but I did not have a lot of time so I tried the sewing machine. Not bad!

A simple but pretty place setting.

My place card with a chocolate turkey. Yum.

Even prettier when you held it up to the light....

My husband Joseph at the table.

My little one, Desmond, two socks short of a Risky Business moment....
He doesn't last at the table long.

Food and the Garden

In our new house we have a patch of sun in our backyard that we decided would be a good spot for a vegetable garden. I have never gardened before and this first crop was full of joyful surprises. What a treat it was to have fresh FREE herbs all summer and tomatoes, green beans, funny cucumbers, lettuce, and what are those?! Gooseberries!?

Our best crop was our green beans. They were the gift that kept on giving. Or "geen beans" as Desmond called them. So sweet to watch your little person picking food from the earth and eating it.

Then there was a crop of funny cucumbers, some beans and berries that I had to google because I had no idea what they were. They grew where I planted peppers and I kept waiting for the little lantern like pods to turn into peppers or fall away to reveal a small pepper that would grow big and green. But the pods fell to the ground and then became transparent. Inside the pods were yellow berries. I ate one. It was good. I did not die. I brought them inside and looked them up. Turns out they are Gooseberries. Or they could be Tomatillos. Either way, they are yummy and strange. I felt like I made a new friend. Still have no idea where they came from. But they can come again any time.

This fall after an early snow, we pulled our carrots out of the ground. I planted them in a heap and the sprouts were too delicate to move so I just left them. I did not have high hopes for them at all. When I planted the seeds in the spring I didn't think things would actually grow. So I planted ALL the seeds, thinking maybe a few would take. But they all grew! Next spring, I will spread out the seeds as suggested on the package.

When we pulled our carrots out of the ground, they were cute enough to eat. So we did.

I just wanna pinch their orange cheeks.

Halloween

Desmond's first obsession with a particular TV character is from one episode of the Backyardigans with a giant robot and super heroes. One super hero is called Captain Bubble and he uses bubbles to save the day. This was our guy.

I hope I can make him a costume every year. I hope that he wants one home made. 

Red fleece from Campmor.

Rock on Captain Bubble.

Trick-or-treating with Daddy. Happy Halloween!