In which I get carried away...

So. I have made some more things for baby Julia, and since most of you actually know me in the real world, you know that I just got to meet her for the first time! I had a lovely trip and Mom and I spent a few days with S and T and J. We did laundry, ate, watched the baby, held the baby, and did a little shopping.
The bro and sis-in-law are very proud of their little nugget, and she is as cute as can be. After a total of four great-grandchildren on one side, and eight on the other, the charm of a new baby is still fresh for everyone. It's fun. More about why babies are awesome another time. I have lots of reasons. More about the trip another time too.
I've been busy stitching for that sweet girl, so I wanted to share.
A dress. Pattern here. I started this immediately upon finding out she was a she.

A bear hat. Pattern here. I started this a while ago and added the flowers after she was a she, or, you know what I mean.
Booties. Pattern here. I made some modifications. I made 5 of these booties on my plane ride. Easy peasy, zippity do da.

A wool soaker for use with cloth diapers. Pattern here. For info about wool soakers, go here. I started these two weeks ago, ish.Mom helped me pick out the buttons.
A cotton diaper cover. Because it's cute, not functional in the diapering way. Pattern here. I gave this to Trisha at the shower, did I already show it to you? I don't remember.

And because I'm not ashamed to admit design flaws or when things go wrong...
When her toes popped through, they kept saying, "I am a GI-ANT!!"

Been busy

Stay tuned for more details...

Homespun

Homemade things watch: mobile (by me), teddy bear (by G-Aunt Cecelia), quilt (by Mimi), sweet little baby (by brother and sister-in-law).

Now I think the brother is just taunting me.

Introducing...

My brother and his wife welcomed Julia Jean into this world yesterday! I can't wait to meet her in the next couple weeks. (Although I do have to wait, we got a plane ticket for me.)
But she'll be just as precious then (that's how I'm keeping myself from hopping in the car, as difficult as it is) . This is just how it is when you live far away. (I tell myself. I may or may not have cried about this yesterday.)

So, if you go back and read projects on the blog, it is "Julia's mobile," "Julia's room," "Julia's quilt."
Speaking of which, see this for updated pictures of Julia's mobile in Julia's nursery with Julia's quilt that my mom made. :)

I am so proud of Sean and Trisha. They will be amazing parents; they are amazing parents. Trisha just sent me a picture of Sean and Julia sleeping together in the chair and I couldn't help but think how incredibly blessed this little munchkin is. Her life will be filled with love, nurturing, and laughing from a lot of people. She is in for big things.

I love her already and I can't wait to get my hands on her. I'll kiss those cheeks and count her fingers and toes and sniff her head and sing her songs.

Happy Mother's Day

Things I have learned from the mothers in my life (Nanny, Grandmother, Mom and Mom in law) in no particular order:

• People like it when you pay attention to them.
• Even if things are awful, you'll probably feel a bit better if you fix yourself up for the day (hair, make-up, etc.).
• Speak up, because what if no one else does either?
• Sometimes you serve others when they are in your home, sometimes you give them a job to do. Either one is fine, but use both options. Letting others help you is a different kind of hospitality.
• Jesus loves me and everyone else.
  
• It's much better to know you have forgiven than to wish you had.
• You can't un-say anything, especially in an argument.
• Even if you've told someone how much you love them or are proud of them, it can't hurt (too much) to do it again.
• When people come to you for advice. The very first thing you should do is listen.
• It's much better to think you have given too much than to wish you had given more.
• When you do offer advice, offer it humbly and respectfully.
• One of the loveliest things in a family is a husband and wife who respect each other when everyone is watching and when no one is watching.

The house cookie

We found it people. If you come here and I make you cookies, these will be it. If you live near here and spend time in the hospital and I bring you cookies, it'll be these. If you ask me the quickest way for me to make a million dollars, I'll tell you I would sell these cookies. Not kidding. They are outrageously delicious. They are good enough to justify the sheer extravagance of two blog posts in one day. Our niece would say they are "a delicious surprise!" or "a taste explosion in my mouth!" She would be right.
I made chocolate chip cookies the other night because we had all the ingredients, and why not? I made them according to the Joy cookbook, which usually treats me so well, but they flattened right out, they were kind of papery and crispy on the ends. They tasted good, but I could never take them anywhere. They would be a shame to our family.
It has been bothering me all week, so I decided to give it another try, but not before googling "why are my chocolate chip cookies flat?" I didn't follow any of the advice there. Instead I went to the Cook's Illustrated site (remember the amazing magazine my awesome inlaws got us?) and found this recipe.
Perfect indeed.
You brown the butter then mix in the sugar and egg. So you sort of make caramel sauce, then mix it in with the flour and chocolate chips. The dough has a candy-ish texture to it.
I have to admit. This is considerably more labor intensive than any other chocolate cookie I've made, but to me it was worth it. If you have a babe on your hip and kiddos tearing up your house, this may not be the one for you. Unless one of those kids is the next Julia Child or something (in which case, why are you ever in the kitchen?).

I peeked in the oven and said to Nate, "I can't believe I made a cookie that looks like that!"
He took a bite and said, "Wow. This is the house cookie."
Stop what you're doing and make them.

Ok, I'm off to find new ways to wage war against ants. I'm still going to win.

Baby Mobile Reveal

Post edit: see the bottom for updated pictures!

This is my major crochet project that I've been working on the last couple weeks. I gave Trish a sneak peek of the frog on fb, but I didn't want to give anything else away. Hopefully I can get my hands on some more pictures of it in the nursery so we can see the tiny guys in their natural habitat.

When Sean and Trish told me they were pregnant I asked Trisha to think about something they would like me to make them. Both of our families are very crafty and talented at sewing and crocheting. I was glad to make her a blanket or a little hat, but I didn't want to make the baby's 15th or 16th blanket or hat and booty set.
(Sidebar: I'm glad I asked because her mom and sil made her adorable blankets. They both covered both possibilities [1 pink and 1 blue each] and they were amazing! I told Trisha that this sets up the expectation of them trying for the other gender next. I took pics with my mom's camera, but I haven't seen those yet.)

So, I've told my other two pregnant friends (there are only two for now, we'll see how long that lasts) the same thing, to think about what they would like me to make. It takes away some of the surprise, but I don't mind. I still surprised Trish with a diaper cover and a baby washcloth.
Anyways, I had an idea for little animals and embroidery hoops, but it took me a while to visualize exactly what I was doing.

I found some inspiration here which I loved, but this was a little bulkier than I wanted. I wanted them to be floating in thin air more. And I wanted a smaller hanging apparatus, hence the embroidery hoops.

This one gave me even more inspiration. This lady is so creative and she responded to a question I had for her. I asked her about mounting the mobile. I don't think that I did it the same way, but it was nice to have another point of view. She said that she wanted to make the mobile no less interesting from the position of the baby, hence the circles. I was having the same issue when thinking about my mobile, so I really appreciated her ideas. I didn't want it to look as much like planets (I think the gray in her nursery gave me that impression too), not that there's anything wrong with planets, and I don't think hers is supposed to either. It was just a thought that popped into my head that I couldn't get out. (Nate and I love that nursery, though. Did you see the subliminal baby message posters? Love them!! And I loved that dark gray color as well!! [We are not having a baby.])

Anywho, I feel like it is totally my creation, with a little inspirational help from other sources. Nate helped me hang it. And by helped me, I mean he made it happen. He found me in the living room all tangled up in fishing line and nearly in tears. I went for a walk around the neighborhood and when I came back the hoops were hanging together and he was ready to show me how to put the animals and balls on! Isn't he great?!

He taught me how to tie some indestructible knots with fancy invisible fishing line that holds up to 8 lbs!!

I also strung a pompom at the joining point of all the line to hide it. I love pompoms. I want them everywhere. Pompom mobile anyone?


It was a big hit with Trisha's little nephew, the official baby-tester. If S and T's loves balls as much as him (very good chance), then the baby will love it!
(That little guy totally stole my heart. I told Nate, "That's the kind of baby that makes you want to have babies." Nate said, "Aren't they all?" And I said, "No, not really" (lots do, but many don't, you know?). I should add that all the young'uns at the shower were very, very precious and fall into that category.)

So that's it! The animals are waving at the baby, the monkey is upside down, because that's how monkeys roll. The frog is not waving at the baby, because, I don't know, it just didn't seem right.
Like I say, I hope I can add some pictures from the nursery, when they will be in their natural habitat, delighting the baby, matching the decor.

**The following animals are not kid friendly due to pipe-cleaner skeletons: frog, monkey, elephant. The lamb, hippo, and balls may eventually be cut down and used as toys at parents' discretion.**

Musical Monday

This is a bit more lighthearted than last week's Musical Monday. Well, last week's started a discussion of canned eel, so maybe it wasn't as serious as I thought.
If you grew up in my "tribe"* of Christianity, chances are you have heard this song before. BUT you may not have heard this version by Christian artist Keith Green. As I have paid more attention, I see his name pretty often in some of the post-1960 songs we sing in church.
You may think that as the resident musicologist in my family that I'm the only one who finds obscure but interesting musical relics, but this find is from my brother. Turns out A Capella arranged a lot of Green's songs for their group.
I thought it was delightful when I was little, and I think it is delightful now, you may think it's silly, and that's ok too, maybe it is.
I especially like the way Green does the "Woo-hoo-hoo" section at the end with the guitar.
Fair warning, I did not watch the photo montage in this, I only listed to the song to make sure it was the right one.


Shout out to my cousin and her son for reminding me to look this up after witnessing their love of the Maccabeats.

*I read something from Mike Cope (or maybe Patrick Mead), and he referred to different Christian traditions as tribes. I liked it, I'm using it.

Kidding around for the weekend

For those of you who have been somewhat disturbed by my move into the domestic realm, this post might be difficult for you.

If you are even more disturbed by the fact that I am a rural housewife at the moment, then you should definitely just skip this post altogether.

Nate came home on Friday with this:
It is about 3/4 of a gallon of goat's milk.
A former volunteer of Nate's keeps goats now and they had a batch of milk ready. So we bought some. We made goat cheese with it yesterday evening. They make goat cheese all the time at the ranch so Nate was somewhat familiar process, at least familiar enough with it to know that we could handle it. It was pretty simple.
I took some process pics.

We started with the milk:

You need an instant read thermometer:

We heated the milk over medium heat to 180 degrees, stirring the whole time:

for those of you not in the biz, this is called pasteurization :)

After it heats to the prescribed temperature, we take it off the heat, and add the juice of two lemons:

After stirring it for 90 seconds, we added some salt, dissolved it, and let it sit for a few minutes:

We layered four sheets of cheese cloth in a colander over a bowl and ladled the curds and whey into the colander.

Kitty, do you want the leftover whey?
Not interested? Ok, moving on.

We put it in the fridge over night and it looked like this.
I scooped it out of the cheese cloth this afternoon and put it into a bowl.
We got 2 cups of cheese out of the deal. I don't know if this is a normal yield for the amount of milk we had, but it seems like plenty of goat cheese.
(I can't remember exactly which method we used for this, but we looked at these websites. Here, here, here, and here.)
People say to let it age for a bit, just a day or two. When we go to use it I think we will mix in some more seasonings and herbs.
I'll let you know how we eat this, but I'm thinking on salads with beets for me, and something else for Nate (he doesn't like beets, sad for him not for me).

Some things I learned:
Miss Muffet must have had quite a stomach, I've seen curds and whey now, and blech.
Cheesecloth catches more than you think it will.
I thought the kitty would like the whey, I was wrong.

Musical Monday

It's a thing around here now.

I'm listening to this:


I'm listening to a different version, but this one goes into blog easily.

I'm thankful for:
Rostropovich's giant hands
parents who took me to see him and Yo-yo Ma (not at the same time)
Bach
ears
discriminating taste, no small thanks to this guy:

Happy Birthday Dad!

Its not just the Ides of March, but also my dad's birthday!
I got a lot of things from my dad. My sense of humor, a lot of my outward genetic make-up (see pictures of him as a child and pictures of his sister at my age, it's a little weird).
Once, when I was in college my parents came to visit me and wandered around campus while I was in chapel. As I was on my way out of the building to meet them one of my friends (who had never met them) came up to me with a confused look on his face.
"Molly, is your dad here?"
"Yeah, my parents got in late last night. They should be around here somewhere."
"Oh, ok. I just saw them and though, 'That guy has GOT to be Molly's dad.' I mean, I can see it in your mom, too, but wow, your dad!"
I love that story.
I did not inherit his mustache, though, thankfully. And unfortunately not his obsession with, I mean passion for running.

I thought I would tell you a few things about him and tell you a story, because he sure is worth knowing.

he loves dogs, of all kinds, especially big, goofy ones

he wears this on Christmas day (the rest of us often wear pajamas all day, too),
and was excited when my mom found all the pieces of this ensemble, isn't that sweet?

He brings Nannies from the nursing home to their only granddaughter's (lady exclusive) bridal shower,
and subsequently relates EVERYTHING to her because she can't see or hear that well.

And a story:
I need to give you a little back-story, speaking of weddings and bridal things.
For the wedding favors, we decided to make homemade jams, jellies and the like to put around at the place settings. Some of them were complicated and some were a little easier. All three of us worked on it over the course of the summer (me, mom, and dad), but mom and dad did most of them. I was busy undertaking ridiculous projects of my own.
My cousin Sarah came up to hang out a few days before our wedding this summer. I think that she was the first out-of-towner to get there with her sweet baby boy. They stayed at Mom and Dad's until the rest of her family got there and she joined them in a hotel.

So the story:
In the days before the wedding, Dad was in charge of taking things down to the reception site in the mornings before work because the place was close to his office.
One of these days (Thursday? maybe even Friday?) he dropped some things off. The staff had gone ahead and set the tables so he got to look at it. There was a problem, though. One of the ladies asked where the rest of the jellies were, they were about 20-30 short. Sarah and I were busy with place-cards and making sure dog didn't traumatize baby when he got home. He came in, told us, and we all counted in our heads and realized that, yes, we could see how we could be short that much.
So he went down to the fruit room, got the canning stuff and the juice, came into the kitchen and got to work. He canned the rest of the jelly. While that was going on the stove and he was waiting, he went and found the baby and played with him for a while making funny faces and elephant noises, I'm sure. And probably whistling a tune the whole time (probably the Irish Blessing).
Sarah looked in the kitchen from where we were, got real close to me, and said, "You're wedding is in two days [or one, I can't really remember]."
"Yes," I said.
"Your dad is making jelly and taking care of my baby."
"Yes," I chuckled.
"He's not even freaking out a little bit," staring wide-eyed.
"Huh, yeah."
That night, my parents hosted a cook-out for everyone who had gotten in town.
That's how it is. In fact, I've never seen my dad "freak out" in such a way that she was probably referring to, and I've probably seen the best and worst of times, along with the rest of my family. Stressed? Sad? Overwhelmed? Sure, but no drama, no freaking, no worries. Just doing what needs to be done, if possible with a smile on his face and a tune on his lips.
We love him, we're grateful for him, he's such a good example.

Where was I?

I'll tell you where I wasn't: The Ozarks.
Nate and I were skiing with my family last week.
I have been skiing before, most notably in New England, and I am from a beautiful state, but boy oh boy, Colorado is amazing! Or, maybe I should say the Rockies are amazing. We had a great time! Nate did a great job skiing, and the skill came right back to me like everyone said.

It was my first time to Colorado, so I was extra excited about experiencing that for the first time. And I know my family was excited as well. We went with my bro and sister-in-law, their bun in the oven, my parents and my aunt and uncle. My aunt and uncle have been winter vacationing in Steamboat for a long time (they counted up and told me, and I think the number is > 15 years), and they have been trying to include me in this outing for a few years. Our clan officially took over their vacation, and they claim that they were happy about it. All that to say I was so excited to go to this place I had been hearing so much about!

The whole family has been obsessively checking the weather for Steamboat Springs all winter, and the amount of snow they had was outrageous and did not disappoint. It was beautiful all week, and it snowed a lot on our last day of skiing (Thurs.) and the whole 3 hr drive back to the Denver airport (Friday morning), which was a little scary. But everyone made it to and fro, safe, sound and on time (truly amazing, as there were 3 different airlines and flight itineraries for 4 different families).

This is what it looked like west of Denver.

This is what it looked like in Steamboat on the slopes. So beautiful!

This is me skiing, rather, getting ready to.

This is me and Nate on the snowy day.

This is Dad and Brother.


This is me on a break headed down the mountain. It was so, so snowy. It was not cold enough for all that snow to stay frozen when it hit our bodies, so it was hitting us, melting, then freezing again. Needless to say, I was a little deflated here. Getting cold and thinking about the heated tile floors in the condo.

What was that? Did I hear you ask about my head and neck gear? I'm glad you did because crochet has been woefully absent from the blog lately, although it has not been absent from my life.

I made a pointed earflap hat to match the jacket mom and dad got me for skiing. Nate named it "Tree-elf bomber." If I ever open an etsy crochet shop, this will definitely go in it. It truly came from my brain, and I was excited about the spike stitches along the bottom. I also made a cylindrical neck warmer (on the planes on the way to Steamboat). These all fortuitously matched my jacket, even though all the yarn was just from my stash. Cheap and exciting. Here's a close-up of the ensemble.
It was all acrylic yarn (cheap!), but it kept me very warm.

The next two pictures are the hats that I made for Dad and Brother for Christmas. My SIL took this picture of them a couple weeks ago when my parents were visiting them to show me that they used their Christmas presents all the time. (Brother requested the pom-pom.)

This is a shot of the hats in action. There is nothing I don't love about this picture.

I also made this hat for Nate around Christmas time. I guess it was sort of his present. I made it out of Fisherman's wool (he picked out the yarn, and he instantly connected with that), and lined the entire inside with polar-fleece because it was itchy on his head and the double-crochet is pretty open. He has a scarf to match that I finished before we left. I'll see if I can post another/better pic of it. I was pretty proud of the final product.

Upcoming topics:

• gardening (lettuce be excited!)
• crochet (afghans, babies, and mobiles, oh my!)
• sewing (it truly will be a parade of follies, I can't wait to give it a shot. Patterns? We don't need no stinking patterns!)