45/52

"A portrait of my girls, once a week, every week, in 2016."

Claire: "I'm going to be a bird watcher when I grow up...."

Bridget: Living life to the fullest, always with a big smile on her face...

Joining in with Jodi for the 52 Week Project.

Local Produce Box: Week 19

In this week's box: kale, romaine, onion, potatoes, apples, acorn squash, beets, carrots and apple cider (not shown)

This is what became of this week's produce:

• Kale - salad
• Romaine - salad
• Onion - still in the fridge, but it will get used...
• Potatoes - I made a potato leek soup (leeks were on sale this week...bonus)
• Apples - school/work lunches
• Acorn Squash - nothing yet, but when I have a little more time I'll cook up a big batch
• Beets - roasted
• Carrots - school/work lunches
• Apple Cider - Steve and the girls drank it up rather quickly

I stuck to simple basics this week, nothing fancy or adventurous; sometimes this is just what I need in the kitchen, no muss no fuss...

44/52

"A portrait of my girls, once a week, every week, in 2016."

Queen Amidala and Rey

Joining in with Jodi for the 52 Week Project.

Halloween Crochet Memories...

There is something so familiar and comforting about getting the same holiday decorations out year after year, and this seems especially true for children. My girls love to go down into the storage room, pull down the box we need, and excitedly take out the decorations that they remember so fondly from years past. Last night this happened as we got ready for Halloween, out of the box came these friends.

Wanda the Witch, Casper the Ghost, and Smiling Pumpkin Face - crochet Halloween decorations that I made years ago.

The girls remember exactly where in the house we had put each decoration the year before, they remember the games they played with them....they were so happy to see these friends reemerge for another year....

And I remember how the ghost fit so snugly in Claire's chubby three-year-old hand when she grasped it, and how delicately Bridget handled the witch after I finished it and told her how much work it had been - "it needs to be carried carefully, right Mommy" she said.

So many memories in a bit of Halloween crochet...

Local Produce Box: Week 18

Lots of goodness in this week's box: carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, red potatoes, red onion, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, grapes, green pepper, and annaheim peppers.

The grapes were delicious, although a bit tricky to eat as they were full of seeds; along with the apples they were a nice addition to our school and work lunches.

I do not like eating green pepper raw, so I diced this one up and froze it for later use. As for the annaheim peppers, the note that was included in our box warned that they could be a little hot so I cautiously tried them and was pleasantly surprised; they had a bit of a kick but not too much.....that is until I accidentally ate a seed. Oh. My. Goodness. My lips and mouth were on fire and there was nothing I could do to make it stop but wait for the burning to go away....which took about twenty minutes, I kid you not. Not fun.

I roasted the carrots with cinnamon, garlic powder, salt and olive oil, a slight variation of the Red Roasted Carrots recipe from The Forest Feast, and they were delicious.

I also tried a new recipe: Sweet Potato Chowder from The Forest Feast Gatherings. This was one of the simplest, most delicious soups that I have made, one that I will definitely be making again soon.

I want to apologize for the lack of food pictures lately. With the seasons changing it is dark by the time we eat dinner - not great for photos - and I have been making lots of soups which do not photograph well (by me, they look great in cookbooks, but not when I take pictures of them).

What have you been eating lately?

43/52

"A portrait of my girls, once a week, every week, in 2016"

(In this case portraits; sometimes picking one is too hard and I do love the story captured here.)

A perfect October afternoon spent playing in the leaves: running off the deck and jumping into the pile, laughing, throwing leaves in the air and at each other. The weather does not always cooperate - some years the leaves are too wet to play in - but this year was perfect and you girls had such a great time together playing in the leaves. 

Joining in with Jodi for the 52 Week Project.

Making Mandalas

I have seen quite a few mandalas popping up around Blogland lately and was inspired, obviously, to put my color block blanket aside for a short while and make a mandala of my own. It has been a while since I have made any mandalas (more accurately put, since I became obsessed with making them and ended up with quite the stack) so I was happy to go back to making these beautiful, colorful circles.

I found a beautiful pattern here and set to work using cotton yarn from my stash.

I did not plan out the colors before I began but simply figured it out as I went along; I do really like this three color combination.

When I was finished this colorful mandala, I got out my leftover yarn from my cozy stripe blanket and made a mandala with it; it may just be impossible to stop at one when making mandalas, they are completely addictive.

This is the first mandala that I have made with acrylic yarn (all my others have been made with cotton) which was a nice change.

Again, the colors were completely chosen at random, though I used a few more colors in this one.

My absolute favorite thing about making mandalas is that it provides a great opportunity to experiment with different color combinations on a small scale....that and they are just so darn pretty.

And I'm not done yet. This gorgeous mandala is next on my list.