that's a wrap!

have you seen this?

 

The Bina Wrap

http://www.binabrianca.com/

I first ran across it on pinterest. i saw this pin,

 http://pinterest.com/pin/145381894192022158/.

which led me to this tute

http://pinterest.com/pin/145381894192019874/

i was totally intrigued. so i decided to research the original product, which i started this post off with. there are so many ways to wear this wrap. i loved the idea and the concept. so i went to my stash to see what knit fabric i had. i don't have many. i have a winter white that is a medium weight, a wonderful soft teal that is a light weight and a soft blue that is also a medium weight. i felt all would be versatile with my wardrobe and so i began looking at the tutes available to make my own.
i chose the winter white knit fabric. i decided that i liked the idea of having two side seams to help with the support and shaping of the fabric. the tricky part was trying to figure out just how much fabric to use.  the tute above gives the guidance of three time the width of your hips. but then i discovered this tute


http://pinterest.com/pin/145381894192257870/

and she said she didn't feel you needed that much in the back. so i adjusted the width of the back. i ended up with a back panel that measured 48 inches and two front panels that were 24 inches. i made my armholes 13 inches wide. after all i began to realize that this was not an exact science sort of garment. i ended up trying a couple of the styles out of the wrap. did i take pictures? uh ho ho ho, uh no. i don't think so. but i will share some of my discoveries with  you.

 discovery #1:  the back needs to be wide because of the way you wrap this....wrap(embarrassed grin) around yourself.
discovery #2: you need a light weight knit. it is amazing how fast this garment gets heavy with the fabric bunched up on your shoulders and around your neck.
  discovery #3: even though the armholes might look big, they need to be at least big enough to slip over your head and to be able to dangle off one shoulder (for the tunic).
discovery #4:  that you can decide which length to make it, but it's a bit easier to achieve the looks with the garment on the longer side than shorter.
and discovery #5: the most interesting aspect of this wrap, that i wish i had noticed before i even began this experiment. this wrap is better suited to a thinner person.
it was one of those head slapping durh! moments. i suddenly noticed the very obvious. the one thing that all the tutes and the website itself has in common, all the models are THIN. i am probably best described as....curvy or rubenesque. or let say i would prefer to be described that way. i am, nor have i ever been, thin or svelte.
i was playing around with my medium weight winter white knit wrap. i was bunching here and placing my left arm there, and every time i looked in the mirror i suddenly had added an extra 5 to 20 pounds of wrinkle to my curvy self. yeah not really the effect i was looking for. i then decided maybe i had too much yardage. i decided to try the soft blue medium weight knit fabric. it was a smaller piece and a little bit lighter. on this piece i was feeling daring and just decided to cut the slits in the fabric for the arm holes as opposed to seaming. this second attempt was when i learned the reason for the large back panel. and no matter how much yardage i had or didn't have this was just not the garment for me. so i folded up my knit fabric and decided that's a wrap!

Cheers!

June Package Pals

in may i saw this blog post on the craft blog. having never joined anything like this before, i decided to give it a try. luckily jamie, was giving us the month of june to put the package together. my pal assigned to me was nicole from sew much sunshine blog. she's a lovely crafter. you should check out her shower curtain, now there's something you don't get to say everyday. and you should check out her tute for the customized outdoor bench cushion. very cool. of course i was a goof and didn't get a pic of the package i sent her. oh no, that would make way too much sense. but i can show off the wonderful package nicole sent me. 

look at all those amazing goodies. it was such a lovely monday surprise. i just hope she enjoys the package i sent her as much. one funny thing about the package i sent her, was i included a blank journal as well. i guess it just means that great crafting minds think alike.

Cheers!

a single sheet

a little while ago, ok two years ago,

i purchased a fat quarter set of vintage sheets.

 i wanted to make a quilt. something simple, light weight and good for spring and summer. maybe a quilt to be used on a picnic or just spread on the grass to look at the stars.

fast forward to two garage sale-ing weekends ago

when i found this twin flat sheet. i'm not sure what it is about linens and me, but whenever i go to a garage sale i am always drawn to them. i found this single solitary sheet and thought well you can never have two many sheets. right? i mean sheets, especially flat sheets can be handy for soooo many things. they can be used to make quick tents, or the walls for forts. they can be used to make a fun and funky skirt, a light and breezy nightie or pajama bottoms. see there are so many uses for sheets.  have i rationalized my crazy preoccupation with sheets yet? (crickets chirping) moving right along.....

i brought home this solitary sheet and put it with it's other brethren in the already packed linen closet. then on sunday i suddenly had an urge to get out the vintage sheet fat quarter set. as soon as i saw them i thought of that sheet, low and behold, a perfect pairing. the colors are great together. 

 i realize my photography skills are somewhat lacking. (crickets chirping) again. ok they're horrible. but you get the idea of these fabrics compatibility.

you might notice that i added a plain ivory fabric, it's the one at the bottom. i used an vintage pillow case and cut it up to match the size blocks i am going to use. i am going to do some vintage embroidery designs on these ivory pieces of fabric. 

 i've picked out these three designs.

and this will be the floss palette. 

all in all not a bad project inspiration from one single bed sheet.

Cheers!

what a saturday

you would think that all saurdays would be lovely wouldn't you? but not all saturdays are created equal. some have you running from the moment your feet hit the floor. other saturdays have you or some other family member with a case of the grumpy bumps or some other ill attitude. then there are saturdays where you find nothing comes together and you wish that you never left the warm confines of your soft bed. but then, then there are saturdays like today.

I woke up remembering that my dh wanted to check to see if a book was still available at a garage sale that we had visited yesterday. i got up, took a shower,

 put on my shirt, that i had finally finished, and my handy, dandy, trusty levi's and went downstairs. i had to remind dh about the book, but once he remembered, he was up and at 'em and we were out the door. we made it back to the sale we had been to the previous day. unfortunately, for us, the book we were wondering about had already been purchased. but we did find a few treasures to bring home. feeling daring and curious we drove by the sign corner. do you all have one of these in your small town? an unofficial street corner that everyone and anyone having a garage sale posts their signs. luckily for us, we do. as i was saying, we drove by the sign corner and saw a couple of new garage sales for the day. off we went. we found one sale outside a church, always a good sign. it wasn't the whole church having the sale just some of the ladies. i was able to find an air bake cookie sheet,

 this fun sign, and an old picture. after we left that sale we noticed signs pointing the way to another sale that would take us quite off the beaten path. now i'm not sure about you and how you feel about garage sales out in the booneys but around here i have discovered that more times than not they lead to disappointment. either the items for sale are;

a. so highly price

b. beyond repair

 or

c. unidentifiable.

but throwing caution to the wind we let the signs guide us. we came upon a road that forked with a final sign that informed us that there were actually two sales. we looked at the one closest to us and thought it looked more like heavy tools. because we were dealing with limited funds, translate to $6.00, and no place to put large heavy tools, we decided to try the other path. it took us to a smallish sale. at first i thought that my hypothesis would be proven true. i did find some shirts for dh , but they were a bit high.

i picked this one up anyways since it is silk and was in beautiful shape. we perused around a bit and then dh noticed a cuisinart ice cream/frozen yogurt maker in a cheerful red color. it look brand new and i didn't think the $20 price tag was asking too much. but as i stated earlier we didn't have that. but all of a sudden i and spotted a vintage stand mixer sitting right next to the cuisinart. woo hoo! i have been wanting a stand mixer. of course i would love a kitchenaide robin's egg blue stand mixer, but the price is too far out of reach for our frugal budget.  me being the vintagey gal that i am thought a vintage stand mixer would fit the bill instead and fit in our small kitchen. this mixer was a mere $5, with the original glass bowl, bread hook and the mixey things ( yeah i know try and keep up with all my technical terminology). unfortunately since we only had $6 and dh's shirt was priced at $3, i wasn't quite sure how i was going to pull this off. of course asking the lady if she would bargain was an option, and one i always practice. but then my dh came to the rescue by remembering he had a $1 in his pocket. (between you and me i think he was holding out on me, but when he saw how i was beginning to suffer at the thought of leaving the mixer behind he decided he would kick in and put me out of my misery.) we approached the lady and we offered our collective grand $7 and she took it. i was thrilled!

so now this sweet machine sits in our kitchen. it assisted me in making the chocolate chip cookies ( i use this recipe) you see in the pic and worked like a dream.

i hope your saturday was one of the good ones. i know mine was.

Cheers!

Ebay selling

being the thrifty vintage kind of gal i am, i buy from ebay quite often. it's actually my go to spot when i think about buying something. years ago i did sell something on ebay and ending up dealing with a not so nice buyer. it sort of put me off of the idea of selling anything. i did have an etsy shop for awhile and it was actually a lovely positive experience. but at the time the boys were smaller and needed more of my attention.  i couldn't devote as much time to driving the etsy business as i would have liked. so it just sits there all forlorn.

lately my dear husband, dh, has decided to work on some vintage singer sewing machines. he would like to fix them up and then sell them. he has been concentrating on 99k's and Spartans. but to start on such a venture takes some capitol. this then lead me to poking around to see what lovely treasures i had that i didn't mind parting with or things i thought would actually sell. i found some of my shoes that have sat in the closet for far too long, not getting any wear. and i took the leap and listed them on ebay. right now i simply have two pairs listed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Minnetonka-Boots-black-lace-up-boho-gypsy-renaissance-sca-reenactment-size-11-/120935488614?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c28511c66#ht_500wt_1416

the first pair i listed were my minnetonka boots. i love them but they are just way too big for me, size 11. i think  i wore them a whole two times. i bought them to go to a renaissance fair. the fair was great, the outfit was terrific, but the boots were just too big. so they just sat being unused. i have felt bad about his for quite a few years now and decided that hopefully someone could get some use out of them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paul-Green-ankle-strap-vintage-boho-gothic-steampunk-3-heel-size-11-EUC-/120935567537?pt=US_Women_s_Shoes&hash=item1c285250b1

these sexy beasts are the other pair i listed. they are such a cute shoe. but there again just waaaaayyyyyy toooo big for me. they are made by paul green. on the shoe they are labeled as an 8.5 but they are actually a size 11. don't ask me what happen with me ending up with two pairs of shoes size 11, when i only wear a size 9.5 to 10 at the biggest. these shoes are so fun and flirty but i never wore them because of the size issue.  there again i;m hoping someone will want them so i can get them out of my closet and maybe even add a bit of coin to our purse.

if you get the chance click on the links and give them a perusal and hey maybe even bid on them. although if you just can't wait to purchase the boots i did a buy it now option on the auction. so feel free to give them a new home.

Cheers!

A sticky tip for sewing

i had decided some time ago that i would like to have a striped bateau neck t-shirt.  i shopped around for awhile and then decided i would be better off sewing one. minor problem, i had not machine sewn any knit fabric before. but i decided that wasn't going to stop me. i found a pattern, new look 6838, that i thought would work and some fabric. i cut out the pattern, and then it just sat there waiting for me to work on it. i even ran across this tip on pinterest about sewing on knit fabric and doing away with wavy seams.

then today i decided to try to work on the shirt. i got out the pattern, the cut fabric, my scissors, my pins, and my lovely featherweight. i am not a very experienced sewer, even though i have sewn for quite a few years. and while i adore my featherweight the needle plate does not have seam allowance marks. so i got out the handy dandy blue painter's tape to make my own seam allowance mark. 

as i started to sew the back seam the edges of the fabric were rolling like crazy. my mum had come to sit with me while i was sewing. she and i got to discussing how knit fabric was notorious for rolling. i mentioned to her the cool tip i had pinned on pinterest. then my mum being the clever and resourceful lady that she is asked why i didn't just try using the painter's tape.

 brilliant! that is exactly what i did, and it worked wonderfully. i simply tore off short pieces of the tape and laid it close to the edge of the fabric on the seam i was preparing to sew.

i also pinned the pieces together below the tape.

i then zipped it up on the sewing machine.

how it looks after it's sewn

then comes the fun part of taking the tape off. since i used a painter's tape, available at most hardware stores in the paint department, it is a low tack and is easy to remove. i simply tore off one side of the stitching.

and then the other side. as you can see the fabric started to curl up.

sometimes when you pull the tape off a wee bit of the tape gets stuck under the stitches. don't worry it's quite easy to remove. so there you have it a sticky tip for sewing knit fabric.

if you give this tip a try let me know how it works for you.

Cheers!

Whew

well it worked! our niece decided to start her own blog. i'm so proud of her. i think she's having fun with it already. she's posted some pix of the lovelies she has made and had a bit of a chat about herself. make sure to have a lovely cuppa when you go and visit her blog. where is it do i hear you asking? well right over here of course........  A Day in the Life of Katie 

Cheers!

a fairy tale....or is it?

years ago there was a beautiful little girl born into this world. she was full of spunk, creativity, giggles and love. lots of love! 

as time passed a brother joined this little girl and then a boy cousin. the three were good friends and compatriots in all things wee children did. they had adventures and fought imaginary foes. they ran around in their own imaginary world and played their own made up games. they even did the more mundane things of a child's life such as learning to ride bikes together, dying easter eggs and trick and treating 

and then as things do, things changed, unfortunately drastically and not in good way.  the three friends were forced to go on solitary adventures. the young brother went on a journey that forever changed him and his out look on life. the young cousin's adventure was a bit tamer but still had him growing up with out the comfort of his fellow compatriots. and the little girl? her adventure had her go through trials and tribulations. she traveled through dark valleys and she strolled along beautiful seashores.  all the while thinking that she had been forgotten by her childhood companions. 

*now with most fairy tales, we need a happy ending and i think this one has one. 

years passed and the little girl grew up to be a wonderful woman. still full of spunk, creativity and love. she had quite a few scars that she carried but she was strong and vibrant and still full of giggles. one day the young woman was able to be reunited with one of her young friends. the cousin. he was older and wiser and still a willing compatriot to all things young people do. 

i know a rather bland fairy tale. it is a brief and washed over version of what happened to our niece, nephew and our oldest boy. we are very lucky that we have been able to reconnect to our niece. she holds a very special place in my heart. can you tell?  

she has been working on crafting many wonderful things. 

from duck (duct) tape accessories

 to friendship bracelets 

and now she has begun on the adventure of quilling. 

i have been suggesting (translate that to lovingly nagging) her to start a blog. hopefully this little post will be the final push....i mean gentle reminder....(grin) to give it a try. when she gets her blog set up i'll let you all know about it and put the link on here.

Cheers!

well hello one and all!


hasn't it just been a long time? a year. wow! who would have thunk it?


to play a bit of catch up...and to just touch on some of the highlights of the year in crafting

in 2011 this wee beauty was able to come and join me in my crafting adventures. she is a 1935 singer 221 featherweight sewing machine. she purrs just like a kitten and can handle anything. she came with all sorts of attachments. frankly the attachments baffle me but are fascinating to play with. 


one of the projects we worked on was the Simplicity 2365 blouse pattern. we even used french seams on the pattern, a first for me. we used a lovely medium blue lawn fabric, that i found at a garage sale, of course. we even tried teaming up on creating a quilt for one of the young ones. it turned out rather wonky. i assure you it had nothing to do with my sewing partner, the 221, just me and my quilting abilities.


last year i also became fascinated with ball jointed dolls and tried my hand at painting a face on a hujoo berry style doll.

i realize in this form she appears a bit creepy. 

but i did have a lot of fun  helping her look like this

I apologize for the funky arm position. 

maybe she was trying to say "it took her this long to finally finish me." i realize the face isn't perfect. in this pic her eye shadow looks quite heavy, but in person, it isn't that strong. 

 my mum even got in the fun and knitted the lovely stripey socks. you can kind of get an idea of her towering height by the fact that she is leaning against my laptop screen, which is about 8.75" tall.

and then for Christmas i decided i wanted to try my hand at making  putz/glitter style houses. i  have never really worked with glitter. i loved the results of glitter but working with it can definitely be an adventure. trying to make sure one doesn't sneeze or that the young ones don't come up and try to explain something to you while using the standard sound effects.

 an over all lights out shot

i decided to color and glitter the bottle brush trees. as you can tell from the lovely pink tree in the left hand corner of the pic.

i even tried my hand with making a semi snow globe-ish type glitter house

complete with a wee deer.

all in all a fun and successful crafting year.

and for the crafts for this year? 

well so far I have tried my hand at making some peg/kokeshi style dolls. i completed one but then sent it to our niece and forgot to get a pic of her. duh! anyway's i'm working on another one and will get a pic of her. i am going to try my hand at making some jewelry using shrinky dinks,  inspired by this necklace and then this bracelet tutorial. i also tried my hand a some wire wrapping. (and yes i realize there is a joke in there somewhere) and followed this tutorial

as you can tell by the last three links i am still having fun with pinterest. it is my go to spot when i want to find inspiration or a yummy new recipe. it's also lovely if your friends or family are using it as an easy way to share things that you find on the net.  not that i'm trying to enable you or anything. heaven's forbid! (grin)

anyway it's been a hoot catching up with all and i am going to try and find a little more time to keep up with you all this year.

Cheers!

interesting or not

it's interesting what we come to realize in our years of life. in my soon to be 44 years of life i have learned and realized that love comes to you when you are not seeking it. that while money can not make you happy, it sure can make things a little easier. and there are some people, in this life, that are not really seen.

here is the background to that last realization. when i was quite small i seemed to have disappeared. my parents, family members and neighbors went on quite an extensive search for me. it even involved getting in vehicles and driving around the nearby streets. i was approximately 18 months old. i have been told that they looked, several times through our very small home, and yet they could not "find" me. after looking everywhere my mum walked into the house and there i sat on the couch drinking a bottle. quiet, safe and i suppose content. they were never able to figure out exactly where i had been or why i hadn't been seen if i was sitting there in plain sight. this same thing happened two other times in my life. once when i was a few months older, a little past the age of two. we had moved to pacific grove, to the house i wrote about in this post. there again i seemed to disappear only to be found later in plain sight. the last time that i am aware this occurred i was a young woman and was fascinated at the fact that i seemed to not be seen even though i was completely visible. i became tickled with the reaction of the person after i walked out of the same room we had both occupied by the only door in and out. they were shocked and surprised and a little startled to become aware of me following them. now i must admit i did not reply to the co-worker calling my name. i didn't think i needed to since they had looked straight into my eyes and i only assumed they had "seen" me. i assumed since they left the room they simply needed me to follow them, plus i was dead curious to see if they had not been aware of my presence. and by their reaction i realized that for what ever reason i was not present, or seen by them.

so why do i bring this up? well as of late i have felt that i am not being seen. or heard for that fact. i tell my children things and they do not hear me. I realize this is actually a very normal thing but it doesn't help. i will talk to my husband and then when i bring up the prior subject he is unaware for what i am talking about. i am for the most part ignored in the morning at my job, which really is probably for the best. and i have blogged, and posted things to facebook, and tweeted only to have the words typed float off into oblivion. i have been so very fortunate to have one loyal commenter, on this blog, the wonderful and knittingly amazing miss amybel. that helps remind me that i have not completely disappeared. this feeling of not being seen had been bothering me until i came to the realization that for what ever reason i was just not one of the people in this life that would get recognition. i found i was suddenly ok with that. that i won't mind not being seen.

and then i joined (?) pinterest. have you heard of this site? i had seen it mentioned on twitter but didn't know much about it. i then decided i wanted to have a visual display of things that i find on the web that interested me or wanted a snapshot of to have as a referral. i found the name and requested an invitation. at first i must admit i was a wee bit perplexed about what to do but found it very intuitive and easy to maneuver. i then found it to be quite fun to go searching for things to pin to my boards. i'm not sure if that is how others do it, but it's how i use it. most days i find it easier to look on the web than craft with the little ones. that way i'm not stopping a creative process to take care of the boys, but simply a visual process, which i find easier to return to. on pinterest you can search other people's board and see what they have pinned. if you like something on their boards then you can either like the item or repin it to one of your boards. from what i have seen there is no limit to how many boards you can create and no limit to how many items are on those boards. in pinning things to my boards i have rediscovered things i have liked, paper dolls, and have a new way to keep them fresh in my mind. it has made me try and bring out things that have bumped around in my noggin, like my vision of a craft room.

so how does belonging to pinterest fit in with not being seen. it doesn't really. it actually negates it. for other people have repinned things that i find interesting. for some reason this always shocks me. pleases me but surprises me. one reason is the fact that i had accepted the whole not being seen thing and the fact that i'm not sure how they find my board when there are so many others. i also find it interesting and fun when someone that has repinned something from me has something else on one of their boards that mirrors another one of my interests.

so i guess i am seen by people on a certain wavelength. which is still fine by me.

cheers!

i realize it's been said a thousand times before, but i really do hope we all have a good and prosperous new year. i know i could use one.

cheers!

merry merrys

 whether you were naughty

or nice

i hope you have a wonderful hoilday season.

cheers!

retro mummy:giveaway

doesn't this fabric just make your synapses sizzle? doesn't it just make you want to start creating something? it does me. head over to retro mummy's blog to check it out.

cheers!

in this house

do you ever have moments when you walk down memory lane? last night i found myself awake at 1:30 in the morn. what to do? i thought i could work on trying to finish up a few gifts, but didn't really want to turn on the lights. so i grabbed my laptop and went for a little jaunt.

in this house i can remember

taffy pulls in the kitchen with my mother and oldest cousin
listening to the radio while i played right below those two front windows on the porch
my father's garden that his boss told him shouldn't be as grand as it was
badminton games played in the street between my mum and her neighbor friend, mary
mary's first husband, shot, being a exceptionally tall man, at least to a wee girl, being very kind to us kids
stubbing my big toes till they bled due to the way i walked (hip dysplasia)
trying to hide my leg braces from my mum in, an oh so clever place of, the closet
eating my lunch of sardines, white bread and ketchup while sitting on the floor at the coffee table in the living room and watching match game after i had come home from kindergarten
playing with my sister and the other neighborhood children in the street
of walking down to the corner house, (a total of two houses away) after waking from my nap to let my mum know i was up and not being afraid or concerned
the hardwood floors in the house
the man next door keeping bees and always having to be quiet when you walked by his fences so as not to disturb them
seeing my first ghost
my mum winning a 10 foot stuffed dog that rode home on the top of our small car and sat in the corner of our bedroom
my mum making the three wise men from old wall paper samples
the back porch catching on fire because of a hot coal from a barbecue and thinking my dad such a brave man because he put out the fire
going for walks in the evening with the whole family

these memories were gathered in a period of about 5 years, from the age of 2 to about 7. amazing what we can remember. what can you remember from one of your childhood homes.

cheers!

popping memories

has everyone gotten all they're holiday shopping done? have you been able to get all the decorating done? i'm actually glad to say that i'm done with both of those things. i, of course, have not, as yet, gotten any presents wrapped and under our wee tree. it's too tempting and too dangerous for the wee folk of the house. they have a hard time keeping their little hands off the ornaments and other holiday decorations. i know if i put presents out now they would be having small fits to open them and see what was inside.

for some reason the other morning i begin to think of past christmases. in particular when we lived in monterey, ca. the area in which we lived and i grew up had a large italian influence. there were many large multi-generational italian families. it was wonderful. around the beginning of december i would start to hear certain school mates talk about cookie night. being 11 years old, i wasn't quite sure what this was, but i was greatly intrigued. i soon learned that many italian mothers and grandmothers would gather together on one night and spend the whole night baking cookies. they literally would bake the entire night. it always sound like such fun, such camaraderie. i imagined these older women dressed in their mourning weaves, yes many of them wore black all the time, with aprons on, mixing and measuring and baking like crazy. all the while exchanging the latest family gossip, nibbling on treats and drinking coffee (or stronger stuff). after preparing all these cookies they would exchange a certain amount with each other and make packages up for the less fortune family members to give as a holiday gift. as i grew up i would still hear of these magical baking nights but never was invited to attend. funny how certain memories just sort of pop in your head.

cheers!

it took me long enough

well i finally finished a project i started some time ago. don't you love when you accomplish something like that? i do.
i started a project in november of 2009. on my old blog, the tink-n-frog i showed this picture:

this pattern was knocking around in my brain and just begged to be drafted out. i got the pattern this far and had even gotten a great deal of the wee creature sewn together before it went into hibernation. i kept running across this project and wanted to finish it. since it was meant for a christmas decoration, i thought this would be the perfect time to complete him. and i'm so glad to show you him today.

our middle son has named this wee fellow Stewart

he's a very clever and dapper fellow. i had originally planned on just having him visit for Christmas, but as long as it took the dear fellow to arrive i think he will probably stay on for some time. of course he will have to be fitted with a change of clothes as the time passes. i mean he would not want to be seen in his christmas vest all year long.

after seeing him, and naming him, the middle wee one has decided that he would like to have his own wee mouse. this of course means that i need to make one for the youngest wee one as well. you know in my free time. (grin)

cheers!

looking back and looking forward

i read a woman's blog this evening in which she wrote about her family making the decision to home school their child. i found that it made me remember when my husband and i made the same decision. only our oldest one wasn't even of the age to start regular school. we had watched and listened to the stories our friend's, whose children attended public schools, would relay. stories of children not getting the assistance they needed. or of homework being sent home in a different language, and the class wasn't a language class.

so we figured that when the time came for our first born to start learning his abc's and 123's we would take the task on ourselves. it became my responsibility, and it turned out to be one i have enjoyed. i enjoyed "seeing" our wee son's gears turning in his growing brain. it was fascinating. i discovered that his way of learning was for me to explain it a couple of times and then to leave the subject alone. i would then return to to the topic a few days later and "ta da!" he would have grasped the concept.

 i loved it when he showed an interest in a certain topic, because then we could investigate that idea in every way possible. through discussion, reading, writing, researching on the internet, talking with people, or maybe even watching a program. i looked at every thing that happened in our day as a way to learn. there was even a time when we, as a small young family, were going through a very hard time.we, our then small son of 5 and myself, were sitting outside one evening, it was dark and the stars were out. i started to pray about our circumstances out loud to God. it wasn't intentional, it was just one of those moments when you just need to seek solace in a higher being and it just tumbles from your mouth. my son looked at me and asked who God was? it wasn't that he had never heard of him or that the concept was foreign in our home, his question was one of someone really wanting an explanation of who this was. and so my moment of fear and doubt turned into a lesson on religion and faith.

now at the age of 16, i still find our oldest son's way of learning thrilling and exciting. most times, now a days, if he gets an idea into his head or becomes curious about something he researches until his heart's content. case in point, i read something in the news about some happening in space. i mentioned it to him and he popped off with all this information about black holes and crab nebulae. it blew my socks off, and it was wonderful.

i am older now and i have two, new young minds to help fill with, hopefully, useful knowledge. these two are definitely different. our middle son does not want any recognition that he got something correct. no pats on the back. the youngest one wants fanfare and applause for simply repeating a right answer his brother already gave. i do worry about our middle boy, though. i feel, often times, the information is not sinking in. i can not "see" his gears turning. i haven't learned his learning style as yet. and that concerns me. but then out of no where, when he doesn't think any of us, older ones, are listening he will inform, or correct his little brother on something. i have heard him say "no it's 'a' ", and the little one responds with "oh, okay".  heaven's forbid i walk in and try to tell the middle one good job for helping out his baby brother. as soon as i make a positive remark, the middle one starts to whine, frown, and tells me to stop. odd little duck. but i just keep moving forward and hoping that one of these days, in some small moment, i will catch the faint hum of tiny gears turning. i feel it's a sound i shall never tire of.

cheers!

16 years ago i gave birth to our oldest son. 

today he is the best teenage guy i have had the honor of being around. 

he is kind, strong, intelligent, funny and a smart aleck

sometimes he can be a big pain in the hiney, but those times are really far and few between.

so to one of the greatest guys i have ever met

Happy Birthday!!

we love you

happy halloween

Spooks
- by Sandra Liatsos

There's a goblin at my window,
A monster by my door.
The pumpkin at my table
Keeps on smiling more and more.
There's a ghost who haunts my bedroom,
A witch whose face is green.
They used to be my family,
Till they dressed for Halloween. 

http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/poems.htm

have a safe, fun and happy halloween.

cheers!

have a cuppa and a wee berry tart

well good afternoon one and all. here i sit (trying to stay alert and awake) after a morning and early afternoon of baking. that and chasing the wack-a-doodles

in one of jaunts around the internet one day i ran across this recipe:

2-2-2 Pastry Recipe

Recipe from Mrs. Jessie-Mae

This recipe makes the wrap and you can add any of your favorite fillings in the wrap. 

Example: strawberries, apricots, pears, apples, meat, etc.

2- 4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)

2 sticks margarine (room temperature)

2 cups all purpose flour

Mix up and roll out into 2 1/2 inch squares. Before putting in filling, place in refrig. and chill for an hour or two. Then when ready to put in filling, put 1-2 teaspoons. Filling and then bring each corner up to meet and mash together. Bake at 350 degrees.and it didn't have for how long on the recipe.

( i baked them for about 16 minutes at the 350 degrees)

(i found it on this website . )

when i saw it i wrote it down in my cooking journal, as i do when i run across an interesting sounding recipe. and yes i do have a cooking journal. it's nothing fancy it's just a blank journal that i quickly jot down recipes in. the wee wack-a-doodles got a hold of it one day and were flipping through the pages and landed on that recipe.  it sparked my creative juices and i remembered that i had some wild blueberries in the freezer. hmmm maybe some wee berry tarts are in order, my creative juices were saying.

i was a wee bit hesitant to try a new recipe, because the new recipes that i had tried as of late had not been real winners. i felt safe in trying a halved version. so i made a 1-1-1 pastry dough. i mixed up a quick blueberry filling with some frozen wild blueberries and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. 


this dough mixes up quickly and  after it chills it's very easy to work with. i rolled it out on a floured surface. even with the slight addition of more flour and my rough handling of the dough, it did not get stiff or hard. it actually became a little more stretchy.  the flavor of the dough after baking is slightly buttery. so it would complement wither sweet or savory fillings. i followed the directions in the recipe and made squares and smooshed the ends together. but while baking the ends sort of separated and some of the filling  tried to make an escape ( i guess you have to watch those wild blueberries, otherwise they are apt to run amok).  i figured the next time i made this recipe i would use my mini muffin pan and make tarts instead of bundles.

so yesterday i was daring and made a full sized batch of the dough and chilled it in the fridge over night. for i had decided that today would be a good day to make tarts with various fillings.

i then created three different fillings. (i wasn't too exact in measurements for these fillings)

mushroom filling 

chopped some mushrooms - about 4 or 5 button or regular

chopped a green onion - i used 1

sauté them in butter - about 2 tablespoons

add a little bit of bread stuffing - about 1/3 of a cup

a few dashes of tabasco sauce

after filling the cups i sprinkled the tops with some grated parmesan cheese.
at the time i took the photo i didn't have any of the mushrooms tarts left. they were a big hit and plus i hadn't made that many of them. the wee wack-a-doodles even liked them.

berry filling

blueberries- i used 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries which are smaller than regular blueberries 

blackberries - about 1/2 cup 

granulated sugar - about 1/2 cup or sweeten to your own tastes

lemon juice - 1/2 -1 teaspoon

cornstarch/flour - i used a table spoon (not a measuring tablespoon, a spoon for eating with) i added one at a time until i had the consistency i liked. which was actually fairly thick.

i also used some wickedly wonderful strawberry jam that i was given.

now to ease your tart making path by learning from my errors, i would strongly suggest that you use a strip of parchment in each muffin cup. place a strip of parchment in the cup, with the ends of the strip sticking above the rim of the cup, before lining with your pastry dough. it makes it far easier and less messy to lift these somewhat dainty tarts out of the pan. of course i didn't remember this clever baking tip until the last five i baked. (durh! who's a dork? im a dork!)

cheers!