A Good Day

Hey, everybody~

Today was a chilly January day, with some work outside the house and some work in.

I was away (what felt like most of the day) for a Corvallis Newcomers Board meeting, and then translating the rest of the afternoon while Ella had her friend, Clara, over.

We still had time to take a break for Tea Time (will blog about that soon) and enjoyed some gluten-free ginger cooks that Clara and her mama baked. Yum!

The evening then wound down nicely, with some lap-reading and stair-climbing.

Dash is over his sickness and took care of the kids so much today -- thanks, love!!

I also just wrapped up another craft project that I will show you tomorrow ;)
So until then, sleep well and a Happy Evening to you all~

2013 New Year's Resolutions

Iiiiit's that time of year again.
Time to find a good excuse to "reinvent" myself in away - ha!
As usual, I have a whole list of things I want to accomplish this year.
But first, a review of how 2012's resolutions went:

[x] keep up on the news
[x] get more green plants in the house
[x] get pre-pregnancy body back (and then some)
[ ] read one survival-related book a month
[ ] watch one survival-related movie a month
[x] "beautify" the upstairs (curtains, etc)
[ ] master the cable technique in knitting
[ ] knit something for the baby
[x] wear scarf-shawls more regularly
[x] establish more community
[x] get Ella to sleep on her own (for real)


Yaaay! Not too bad!
But, as I did last year, I feel I should explain the ones that didn't get x'd:

[ ] read one survival-related book a month -- I started somewhat strong on this one...but then it petered out after William arrived. Go figure! Well, at least Dash got me a subscription to Mother Earth News, so that counts for something, right? Assuming I actually find time to read through the issues - zoinks!

[ ] watch one survival-related movie a month -- Dash and I actually had a "Survival Sunday" thing going on where we would watch a (somewhat) survival-related movie Sunday nights. Again, with baby #2 that has pretty much dissipated. A couple of movies over the past year that I recall us watching was "A Boy and His Dog" (questionable~) and "The Post Man".

[ ] master the cable technique in knitting -- how did this one pass me by?? I just need to sit with a friend who knows this and learn it. >_<

[ ] knit something for the baby -- can you believe I missed this one too? For shame! I knitted that wool soaker last last summer, but that can't count. Maybe I'll do (surprise, surprise) legwarmers! Then again, I am so stocked with wool yarn so something I felt might do too!

Besides that, I am pretty pleased and feeling like 2013's goals will definitely happen.
Here goes!!

[ ] read the newspaper(s) daily
[ ] be car-free at least 4 days a week
[ ] get Ella to sleep in her own bed
[ ] try a different church every Sunday
[ ] keep on top of things better (housecleaning, etc)
[ ] blog every day
[ ] make a garden
[ ] floss every night
[ ] get William out of diapers

This list is different from years past in that there is no mention of anything fitness nor knitting related.
Not to say those are going by the wayside, no no!

As the year goes on I will let you know if any of these things come to pass or completely go out the window
For starters, I am going to mark on my calendar with a little red dot every day that I have to use the car. Hopefully, at the end of this month, I will remember to tally them all up and report it here to see how that car-free goal is doing.
And I have posted these goals up on my billboard right in front of me and my laptop.

Well! Until then, g'night and Happy Resolutions~!!

Scootin' in the New Year!

Greetings, all!

Yes, I am back from the dead.
No, really I am so sorry for the long silence, but as you all know...I gave birth to my second child!
A son! His name is William León Dashiell and he was born on April 16, 2012 -- just two weeks after my last post here in March. A whopping 8 lb 15 oz, he's the spitting image of Ella Rose, albeit it larger and a touch blonder~?
Anyway, you can see for yourself below:

Here he is from the summer... Maybe 4 months old?

Yep, so wow -- 8+ months has flown by so quickly!
He's at the crawling and coasting stage right now, and all his other little "milestones" were pretty much in tune with Ella's -- sitting in his 4th month, crawling in his 6th. Except for the teeth, they came in at 8 months, whereas Ella's came in at 9 months. Oh, those teeth...ouch >_<

But anyway! Speaking of coasting, I did a little "crafting" today to aid him in his desire to walk.

It all started with a papasan base:

Found on the side of the road. Score!!

I attached some fabric to the bottom to make it glide smoothly, and then around the top for "grips":

Super quick and dirty...polished version coming soon ;)

Here he is in action!

I think he really likes it!
Back in our old apartment, Ella Rose loved using the base of our papasan to scoot around the carpet on, so this is the William version I guess. We'll see if he'll be walking in his 9th month too from it! :D
As you can tell, he's a pretty verbal little guy. "Mama" and "Dada" are his big ones, though he's been known to say "Pee-pee" too (yaaaay!)

Also! So it's a new year, and here I am writing on the first of January.
Can you guess why that is?
That's right! It's one of my New Year Resolutions!!!
So if all goes well, you should be seeing a post from me every single day. I'll try to do photos, but I will admit, I can see me just popping in for a quick sentence or two as a way to fulfill the daily quota ;)

Until tomorrow, then.
Tata and Happy Scooting!!

Baby Names...a la Ella

As the day of the baby's arrival draws every closer, names are very much on our minds.
We won't be imparting any "final decisions" here until after we meet the new little addition, but I thought I'd share with you some favorites that have come out of Ella's mouth since she first learned she'd be a big sister:

- Baby Diamond
- Alice in Wonderland
- Shiny Ariel
- Ariel Flower
- Melody
- Aurora
- Sunshine
- Yellow Rose

Mind you, as far as she's concerned, it's going to be a girl. End of story.
We'll see~ ;)

Well, until then take care and Happy Baby Names!!

Homemade Yogurt!

Finally.
After two failed attempts (one that made me quite sick, I might add) we finally pulled off making our own yogurt at home.
Behold~!

About one gallon's worth!

If you want to make your own yogurt at home, there are tons of sources online, but the one I referred to was on Soulemama's post here and all the accompanying comments.

But for a simple rundown (sans photos, gomen!!) this is how we did it:

Materials:

- cast iron pot
- big glass jar
- candy thermometer
- milk (2% in our case)
- store-bought plain yogurt (has to have live cultures in it)
- space heater

Directions:

1) clean the big jar and scoop 1 cup of the store-bought yogurt and plop into the bottom of the jar

2) heat the milk over medium heat until it reaches 180 degrees F

3) once milk reaches 180 degrees, remove from heat, and allow to cool down to 110 degrees F

4) pour the heated-then-cooled milk into the jar

5) whisk it around a bit to mix with the store-bought yogurt at the bottom

6) place near the space heater in a way that keeps the heat rather contained (Dash made our table into a kotatsu, so the space heater underneath the heavy blanket made a rather effective incubator)

7) leave there for 8 hours

8) after the 8 hours are up, stick it in the fridge to cool to usual yogurt-eating temperature

9) enjoy!!


Now that we've been successful once, I am confident that this is the way we are gonna go from now on (using the last bit of our homemade batch as the starter yogurt for next time so as to completely eliminate the need to buy store-bought again). It is very cost-effective and you reduce the amount of plastic in your life. That's hitting two birds with one stone!

Maybe I'll take photos next time because it can be very grueling sitting there by the oven with the thermometer in the pot waiting for the mercury to rise up to 180 F -- there are many visual cues to alert you as to when you are nearing the correct temperature. Hopefully I can capture that on camera next time ;)

Well!
Best of luck to all your DIY adventures and Happy Yogurt Making!!

Rapunzel Hair!!

Howdy, all!
So this month has been a tad bit more crafty than I was expecting. What with the growing belly, I haven't been sleeping as well and I'm also really "nesting" oriented right now with funny little things on my To Do List like "wash walls" and "install new carpet"!
But!!
This past weekend, Ella Rose and I worked together on something she's been asking for since Christmas -- her very own Rapunzel hair!
I referenced a couple of sites, to put together a wig that we are all happy with. It looks something like this:

Sitting on her tower (the stairs)

 

Now you can get a sense of the length.
She wouldn't let go of her french toast...

Flowers "woven" throughout!

I really should have taken photos for the steps, but I was really not sure how this would work out...so please see the written out steps below for how we did it:

1) Find something sturdy and long to wrap the yarn around -- in our case, a bench...could be a table or countertop too. It should offer the length that you desire. To reach the floor, we needed her hair to be about 50", which was the exact length of our bench. Score.

2) Tape end of the yarn to one edge of the bench and wrap around and around until you have done so 30  times.

3) Tie off at the far end from the taped end with a little bit of yarn.

4) Cut off at the taped end, and you will have this 100" long bundle of yarn that is tied off in the center (where it's tied off is the "part" of the hair)

5) Repeat this until you have 11 bundles total (this took us 2 whole new skeins and this random skein I had on hand...). Then lay those aside.

6) Take a pair of kids size tights and stick over your child's head nice 'n' snug.

7) Tie a knot on the top of the head using the two legs, then chop off the legs so you just have this little knot on top.

8) Turn cap inside out on the head

9) Get your kiddo to stay pretty still (ha! good one!) as you start at the front of the stockings and sew your first bundle into the cap. I used a darning needle and the yarn used to tie the bundles in the first place to attach with a nice double knot.

10) Continue all the way to the knot on the top of the head.

11) Now pull back aaaaaall that "hair" into a low ponytail (also using a yarn to tie it off, not a real rubber band of anything)

12) Braid!

13) Tie off at the bottom

14) Stick fake flowers in as you like~


And that's just about the gist of it.
I look forward to many a dress-up session with this new wig and some fun times around town.
Look out, cuz Rapunzel's in town! ;)

Well, hope you enjoyed and good luck making your own wigs! With all the different colors of yarn out there and potential lengths of wig, the sky's the limit!
Until then, happy wig-making!!

Recent Artistry

This is something that Ella's taken to doing recently:
drawing faces that actually resemble faces! :)
Her best friend, Clara, is her favorite subject to draw and I thought I'd capture her in the midst of her creativity for your enjoyment~