2015 recap and 2016 resolutions

2015 went by so fast! Like many years, it had its highs and a few big lows. Unfortunately nine weeks after losing my grandpa, my grandma passed away in January. I'm so grateful we got one more Christmas with her after losing my grandpa but it was so hard to lose them so close.

There were a lot of bright spots in the year though. In the spring we finally felt like it might be time to have a third dog again. We had been keeping an eye out at the Welfare League's website to see if it looked like any dogs would fit in with our current crew. While we were looking, we learned about a dog who needed a home from one of our family members. We agreed to meet her and it was love at first sight. Foxy joined our family - a two (now three) year old chihuahua-German shepherd mix. She is everyone's little love puppy and I couldn't imagine not having her here.

I'm still chugging along in year two of my job and I got promoted this year! It's been such a great move for me, both in terms of my career and the amazing people I get to work with. J started Kindergarten; C is in third grade and tested into the gifted program!

We took a leap and bought an RV, which we took to San Diego for what is turning into an annual vacation for us. It was so great having a place to chill, with a kitchen to cook in instead of having to go out for every meal. The boys had a great time hanging with their cousins and riding around on bikes and hanging out at the beach. We took them to the San Diego Zoo for the first time too!

As in years past I also tried to keep up with a goal list, so on to the list:

• Blog three times a month - nope not even close. Things were so hectic and yet so ordinary that I didn't have a lot to say
• Make stockings by Christmas for each member of the family - 50% done. C and J both got to use theirs this year, but I still need to do E's and mine.

• Knit at least three pairs of socks - yep, in under the wire. I finished E's Christmas socks two days before Christmas. Funny enough two of the three pairs were for him this year. But he appreciates them so much.
• Make a shawl/stole - not quite. I'm about 2/3 done with a scarf/stole thing
• Sew an item of clothing - yep. Made four bow ties for the kids in my sister's wedding to wear.
• Make bread - yes!!! After being on my list every year, I made some on Monday! So worth the effort - especially now that I have my kitchen aid
• Make caramels - nope
• Make truffles - nada
• Lose 10 pounds - not even close
• Read at least seven books - blasted through this. I read at least 11; I think it was more but that's all I wrote down
• Learn to play guitar - nope and I think this will end up waiting a few more years
• Learn a new cast on/cast off - no. Most of my knitting was types of things I know how to do.
• Finish office/craft room organization - Almost. I got a new desk that can change heights so I can use it for typing on the computer or sewing, then raise it up if I want to cut fabric. I also got a new (old) file cabinet from my grandparents house when we were cleaning it up. It's super functional and nicer than mine but very 1980s wood and gold finishes. Doesn't match the room. So I sanded it down and am repainting it "Oxford Blue" aka Tardis blue. The handles are painted silver. It's actually sitting in the garage waiting for the last coat of paint. Then my beautiful office/craft room is done!!

So four done, six not and three half done or more. Not too shabby. I wish I had done a little better but c'est la vie. Now onward to 2016. I'm guessing grad school will be a time suck so this is a short but hopefully reasonable list:

• Get accepted into and start grad school
• Sew a skirt for myself
• Lose 10 pounds
• Finish the last two stockings
• Read 8 books (Honeymoon Suite - 4/12/16; Babyland - 4/15/16; Heart of the Matter - 4/19/16)
• Make truffles
• Blog 24 times
• Knit 2 pairs of socks

Happy 2016!

 

 

Christmas 2015

 

Happy Easter!

He is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

Christmastime!

We had quite a busy December around here. Lots of activities and time with the family.

We started out the month by participating in a parade. I haven't been in a parade since high school and my kids have never had this chance before. Lots of fun for us!

That same night we participated in a fundraising walk for Phoenix Childrens Hospital (a cause near and dear to my heart). We walk along one of the major roads with (fake) candles until we get to the hospital and then hold the lights up so the kids stuck in the hospital at Christmastime can see. A few carols are sung and a short concert is held.

Santa visited J's school this year

And we got a chance to go see some pretty lights. (J kept making faces instead of smiling for the picture.) The boys got to go to a petting zoo and have caramel apples while we were there.

We also went to a carnival at my parents' church. In addition to some bouncies and games, they had a snow hill for sledding. This was my kiddos first time sledding (being Arizona kids). Yes, C is sledding in a tshirt and sandals.

On Christmas Eve we went to church and then came home and put up Luminarias. Our whole neighborhood lines the streets with them - it's an amazing sight to see!

I also finished the boys sweaters as part of of their Christmas gifts

(Pattern is Alec in Cottonish. The one with the tan buttons is a size 5 and the one with the black buttons is size 7 but both have about an extra inch added to the length - I have tall kids)

We had our annual food contest at my mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve. This year we had to make cookies. The twist was they had to include peanut butter and Seagrams whiskey. I only came in third but I was really happy how they turned out. We also had breakfast with the inlaws. I think everybody was really happy with their presents too.

Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas is Coming

(Some of my faves!)

 

Happy 4th of July

 

 

 

 

Tiny Bunnies (part 2)

I finished my bunny nugget set this week - well technically on Sunday. On the Wednesday before Easter I had the idea to knit my nieces, nephews and kids little bunnies for Easter. Just a fun little project using up scrap sock yarn that probably would have been more enjoyable if I had decided more than four days ahead of time (I needed seven total).

By last Friday I had finished these two guys and had almost finished a third one (I talked about them here)

By the end of Friday, I had two more done:

I realized I was running behind by that point so I was pretty attached to my knitting. Unfortunately I had other things to do too, so by Saturday night I was really crunched.

I switched to sort of an assembly line style - first the three remaining bunny bodies, then do all three tails, then all three faces, etc. I actually ended up finishing them at my mom's house shortly before our egg hunt. I was so glad I made it - the only bummer is I never did get a picture of all the bunnies together.

The stragglers:

One last bunny:

Somebody (some bunny?) talk some sense into me if I try to last minute knit like this again!

For more finished objects check out Tami's Amis!

 

Easter brownie bites

I knew I wanted to make a dessert for Easter this year - holidays always seem like a chance to bust out something fun. I had an idea that started forming after I did the cupcakes for C's birthday party. (I wanted the cupcakes to look like grass and dirt so I did chocolate cupcakes and piped buttercream frosting to look like grass.) I realized I could sort of do the same thing for Easter just by adding some embellishments.

I changed it up a little and made brownie bites instead of cupcakes (truthfully I like brownies way better than cake). I found the most amazing recipe for brownies on All Recipes - to turn it into to bites, I just shortened the baking time to 15 minutes.

Then came the fun part. I made a basic buttercream frosting (3/4 cup of sugar beaten with vanilla until smooth, add 2 1/4 cups of powdered sugar a little bit at a time, add 1 tbps of milk to thin it slightly) and added green food dye to give it a pale green color. I piped this onto my brownies using a star tip. Then I added two candy eggs to the top - I used the Hershey's ones for half and the Reese's one for half. If I had to pick, I'd give a slight edge to the Reese's ones; the peanut butter was a really nice contrast.

I'm really excited that they looked as good on the plate as they did in my head plus they are so yummy!

 

Knitted Christmas

This year I ended up knitting a few of my Christmas gifts. I love giving homemade gifts and I wish I had the time to make everything. As it was I barely finished and haven't had much time to talk about them until today.

The first thing I made (and probably my favorite of the items I made) was a hat and scarf set for my niece. My niece is super knit worthy - for her birthday I hinted that I had gotten her something really cool. Her response: "you made me a hat and scarf?!" Unfortunately I hadn't but now I knew what she was getting for Christmas. I picked out some variegated purple/green/grey in Sheepish as my niece loves purple. For the hat I used the Three Tams pattern from an old issue of Knitty (and used white Sheepish for the contrast color). The scarf pattern was Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf.

My niece loved them! She was actually wearing them when I saw her this week, even though it was 75 degrees outside. Like I said, totally knit worthy.

For her little sister, I knitted a stuffed owl. My niece is so into owls so I thought it might be fun to knit her one (plus it would probably go over better than a hat would). I found an adorable giant owl pattern from Purl Bee. The pattern calls for super bulky yarn on Size 15 needles. I used Lion Brand Hometown, which is also a super bulky but recommends size 13 needles. I like the owl but I do wish I had gone with size 11 needles for a denser fabric.

My niece liked it. It's so big she could hardly get her arms around it!

Another project I finished was a hat for my aunt. In our family we do an exchange by drawing names and getting something for that person (like secret Santa but not secret). My aunt had seen me working on my niece's hat and joked that she hoped I would get her name so I could make her a hat. Well sure enough I did pick her! I used the Flora hat pattern. Other people who had kntitted the pattern mentioned in their notes that it came out big. So I switched to a size 6 for the body of the hat and a size 4 for the brim.

I tried it on before I gave it to her to make sure it fit and it fit me fine so hopefully it fits her well. I also gave her a bottle of wine to go with her present so I thought I'd have a little fun.

I made a hat for the bottle! The pattern is obviously not the same (I used Susan B Anderson's Santa hat ornament) but the yarn is the same.

My last knitting project for Christmas were gift card holders for the boys' teachers. They were nice, quick knits that added a little bit of personalization to the gift cards. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them away. But trust me, they were cute. I used a mini stocking pattern with leftover scrap acrylic on size 5 needles.

I also had two other non-knitted craft projects for Christmas. In my resolutions post I mentioned the sewing I did last year, with one of the items being heating packs for my FIL. These are so simple - just two pieces of fabric held right side together and sewn most the way around the outside, leaving a couple inches open. Then they are turned right side out and filled with beans. Lastly the opening is sewn shut.

The last project was a couple of ornaments for the babysitter. I made a batch of salt dough and rolled it out into two disks. I then had my boys press their hands into the dough and then poked a couple of holes at the top for the string. Since they were a little big I poked two holes in each to provide more support to the string. After I baked it, I painted the imprints of their hands and sprayed a glossy sealant on them. Then I ran some string through them.

Whew - I think that was all of the crafting fun around here!

For more finished objects, check out Tami's Amis!

 

2013 recap and 2014 resolutions

2013 was a pretty ordinary year but definitely had some high points. We took an epic family road trip at the beginning of the summer with my family. We visited my relatives in Iowa and and also detoured over to Mount Rushmore on the way home. In the process I also got to visit three new states. We also took the boys to San Diego for a long weekend with E's family. Plus E and I took a short vacation just the two of us to Las Vegas.

C finished up kindergarten and started first grade. He played basketball again this summer. He also lost his first tooth and is working on learning to ride a bike without training wheels.

J started preschool this fall and got to perform in his first school program. He's always such a bright, bouncing fun kid.

As with years past, I made a list of resolutions for the year as goals I wanted to accomplish. Just like other years I only made it through about 40% of the list. But that's okay - that's why I have a large list. If I miss on things it still doesn't feel like I completely failed. It also shows where my priorities change. For instance I didn't organize the pantry but I still worked on getting my house in order by fixing up the office somewhat. (I'm still working on some parts of it.

So where did I succeed? Well I finally lost the ten pounds that have been on my list for a few years. In fact I actually ended up losing 19 total. I knit a cardigan, which was done as a test knit. Unfortunately it was a little big to begin with and the aforementioned weight loss made it even bigger.

E and I did get an inground sandbox built for the boys. It's been great for them to play in this time of year, when it is so nice out here. I tried to garden again. It went okay for a while but then it got too hot out. E bought me an indoor garden set so I'm going to try again this year.

I used my sewing machine this year. I tried to practice by sewing a bear shirt for C. It doesn't look that great up close but it is actually shirt shaped and fits the bear so I'd call it a mild success. I also made some heating packs for my FIL. I made him one years ago with a hand stitcher but he really needed a new one. They looked pretty good when I was done. Definitely want to keep practicing though.

I also read more this year, reading five books. It doesn't sound like a lot but it's more than I had been reading in the past. I discovered my local library has a digital library available to subscribers so I've been taking advantage of that. It's super helpful since I can't seem to make it to the library during the week and they are closed on Sunday, leaving me only Saturdays to get there.

Now to this years list:

Read five books (Knitting Rules - 1/19/14; Things I Learned from Knitting; I've Got Your Number - 4/15/14; I think I Love You - 4/22/14; The Amazing Thing About the Way it Goes - 5/20/14; The Shopping Swap - 8/9/14; Shopaholic to the Stars - 10/24/14)

Organize the pantry (1/20/14)

Learn to play guitar

Learn a new cast on or cast off

Learn entrelac

Make a crochet project

Sew a needle holder (3/30/14)

Sew an item of clothing

Garden

Practice my frosting piping skills (4/8/14)

Make fresh bread

Make caramels

Make truffles

Lose 23 pounds

Blog at least three times a month

There are some repeats on my list - caramels, truffles and bread seem to be on my cooking "bucket list". 23 pounds is a really specific weight loss number, but it gets me to my goal weight. And if I did 19 in six months I should be able to do 23 in one year. I'm starting to get more comfortable knitting so I really would just like to expand my cast on/off variety. I'm kind of stuck on backwards loop and knitted cast on for the cast on types I know how to do. I can't seem to wrap my brain around it but I'll try again. After entrelac, I need to learn intarsia and then I think it will be a matter of fine tuning my skills, rather than big leaps. Maybe intarsia will be my 2015 resolution!

I kept some of my other goals the same but went more specific. I think that will help me have better luck at finishing. For example instead of blog more I set a specific amount (I pretty epically failed at this one last year). I want to practice my sewing so I set out two sort of specific projects. And I want to finish a whole crocheted project this year instead of the nonspecific "crochet more". Hopefully I can get to at least half this year!

Happy new year!

 

Christmas Baking

I did a lot of baking this Christmas season. As I mentioned I went to a cookie exchange earlier in the month. Basically all of the participants had to bring half a dozen treats and exchange them and then bring an appetizer to share. For my treat I ended up doing mini loaves of chocolate toffee bread - I found a great recipe at Crazy Little Projects that I used. Rather than slicing it and then packaging it, I just decided to give away whole loaves.

For my appetizer I decided to go with a Brie cup. I was inspired by a recipe on Recipe Girl's site but decided to shake it up. I took phyllo cups (in the frozen section at the grocery store) and added a little bit of raspberry jam to the bottom of each cup. Then I added a piece of Brie on the top. I baked them at 375 for about five minutes. As soon as they came out of the oven I topped them with chopped walnuts. They were so delicious but bad blogger that I am, I forgot to take a picture of them.

In addition to the cookie exchange I did my usual Christmas baking. I made peanut butter balls as I usually do but the rest of my baking was very mint-centric. I had fun with the seasonal m&ms and Hershey kisses! For one of my goodies I took a chocolate cookie recipe I've used in the past and added 1/4 teaspoon of mint extract and then mixed in mint m&ms. These were probably my favorites.

Next up were brownie bites with candy cane kisses. I followed this recipe and while it ultimately ended up fine, I had some problems along the way. I have a convection oven and was having a hard time getting the settings right. The were underdone in the center but ended up dry in the end. I think I need to work on my temperature control. I also didn't grease the tin enough on the first batch so they stuck but luckily fixed that on the second (but hey at least I was able to eat the messy batch myself!) The other thing is the candy cane kisses are much softer than the normal ones - it takes a while for them to set but I was prepared for that to happen at least.

Last up were sugar cookies with the rest of the candy cane kisses. I took the sugar cookies and rolled them green colored sugar for a festive look. Like the brownies, the kisses ended up very soft but they ended up setting up okay.

(This was taken pre-kisses)

And for good measure here's a picture of the peanut butter balls!

My favorite!

 

Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas season full of lots of activities and hanging out with our families. I also managed to get all of my Christmas knitting done, just barely - I finished a little hat ornament for my aunt on Christmas Eve morning.

I went to a cookie exchange early in the month and made chocolate toffee loaves to share. I also made raspberry Brie phyllo cups for my appetizer.

My boys participated in a church Christmas program (J's first program)

They visited Santa

J's preschool had a Christmas program too

We made giant gingerbread men at my mom's house

Everybody also got the presents they wanted.

It's been a great month

 

 

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas! We had a very nice Christmas here in Arizona. Our church had an absolutely amazing service filled with songs and focusing on how we can be lights in this world. Very uplifting and a great start to the weekend.

I think the boys both enjoyed Christmas this year. They got to see all of their cousins and I think they enjoyed their presents too! We also had a fudge making contest at my mom's - I won! I made a white chocolate peppermint fudge with chocolate chips. It was delicious. I also made my peanut butter balls, a peanut butter cream cheese ball and s'mores scones for my Christmas baking.

Unfortunately because I was having so much fun I didn't get too many pictures but here is a couple from the weekend.

J and me

Yes he is in shorts in that picture

The award winning fudge and my peanut butter balls

And a little treat for me (Opal sock yarn in their Van Gogh color way - this one is Starry Night)

 

2011 Recap

Boy this year sure went fast. I can't believe it's already the last day of the year. It was a pretty good year. E and I celebrated our 10th anniversary with a trip to San Diego. C turned four and J turned two. I also took on some me responsibilities at work; I feel like I'm challenging myself more since I haven't done anything like this before.

Also for this year I made a list of things wanted to accomplish instead of one or two big resolutions. I did okay checking things off the list (15/29). One thing I wanted to do was come up with new dinner ideas so I challenged myself to cook a new dinner each month. I only managed to hit 6 of the 12 months and only managed to find one or two things to make. Another goal involved some baking, which didn't happen either.

I also wanted to expand my knitting skills so the plan was to learn to knit in the round and learn to cable knit. I didn't get a chance to practice cable knitting but someone showed me how to do it, so hopefully that skill will come in the new year. I did check one new skill off when I learned to knit in the round and boy did that open up a whole new world of knitting. I was able to make some pretty cute toys for my nieces and nephew for Christmas. Other skills I learned were picking up stitches, kitchner, three needle bind off, the knitted cast on and the kfb stitch. I also participated in my first knit along.

I definitely plan setting my goals like this in the future. It gave me small, manageable things to do, rather than all or nothing. Happy New Year!

Christmas recipes

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a few desserts and a batch of salsa for Christmas. I wasn't the happiest with how the salsa turned out but it wasn't too bad for my first attempt.

Ingredients

2 cans of tomatoes (I like my salsa really smooth so I used one can crushed and one finely diced.

1 onion, chopped

1-2 jalapeños, diced

1 tbsp chopped garlic

Cilantro (I used a handful or so)

Dash of salt

I would also recommend adding some green chiles and lime juice; I think at was the missing component.

I mixed it up in a bowl and the used my immersion blender to really blend it together.

The next item I made was peppermint bark. Usually I just do candy quick with  the peppermints but this year I added semi sweet chocolate too.

Ingredients:

6 pieces of almond bark (aka white chocolate aka candy quick)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 small bag of starlight mints (candy canes work too)

Line an 8" x 8" pan with wax paper. Crush mints until they are a fine powder and set aside. Melt the chocolate chips over low heat. When fully melted spread into pan. Melt the almond bark and add in most of the mints and stir. Pour over the chocolate in the pan. Sprinkle the remaining mints on top. Refrigerate until set. Break into pieces.

Last but certainly not least were my peanut butter balls (aka buckeyes)

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2-2 cups peanut butter

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

On low-medium heat melt the butter and peanut butter until liquid and well blended. Add in vanilla and stir. Remove from heat and incorporate powdered sugar. Once blended form into little balls (1") and drop the balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Allow them to set in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. Melt the chocolate over low heat. Using a toothpick dip the balls in the melted chocolate. Return them to the fridge when dipped to set up.

I make these every year so in my haste I forgot to get a picture. But trust me these are good! 

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas over the last few days with E's family and my family. We started off by going to the Christmas Eve service at my church. Afterwards we drove through our neighborhood, looking at all of the luminarias lining the streets. Then it was on to my parent's house for some fun. I brought over my treats to share as well as my salsa for the first annual salsa contest (I'll post the recipes in a separate post). 

Yum!

We also exchanged gifts - I think the boys liked what they got.

On Christmas morning, Santa visited our house. Yesterday C was able to put his art supplies from Santa to good use decorating a rocket ship he got from his Aunt and Uncle.

Next we went over to my inlaws' house; they have a wonderful tradition of having a big breakfast together on Christmas morning - bacon, sausage, potatoes, rolls, etc.

We also had to go back over to my parents after that - my cousin, who I haven't seen in a few years, was back in town with his family. 

What a busy couple of days! My boys did pretty well for being on the go constantly and not getting as much sleep as they should have. The knitted gifts went over well. One niece squished and cuddled the ladybug and slept with the blanket that night. The other screamed in excitement when she saw the bear! Yay!

Hopefully things won't be as crazy this week but I'm not holding out hope on that. We have New Years parties as well as a couple of birthdays (including someone turning 2!) Here we go again!