I just wanted to let you know that this...
has turned into this!
I got married and moved far, far away from my home and family. This blog is to show things to my mom and anybody else that might want to see them. I love to make things and it should go without saying that my primary mediums are music, crochet, and pies. Although, I am getting into bread-baking and other cooking projects.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
well shucks...
I had my lessons today and one of my students brought me this.
Names have been blocked to protect the innocent.This certainly warmed my heart. And the sun brightened my day, because boy is it rainy here today. I'm not leaving unless I have to.
Her rendering of our lesson is very accurate. My cello is lighter in color than her violin. I put my end-pin on a little mat so I don't scratch the floor. I wear jeans. And I wear these slippers, without fail. She was much kinder to the cat than he deserves. Guests are a traumatic experience for him, and put a stringed instrument in their hand, he's done, we'll see him tomorrow. She even made him smile, that's so sweet. She got the coloring right on him though, even though she can't have seen him for more than 5 seconds, ever.
Monday, March 7, 2011
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:
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!)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Eat your greens
I feel like I've been posting a lot, but you don't have to read unless you want to.
This latest project is very exciting!
And it is all Nate.
He took advantage of the awesome weather today to do some work outside.
Last weekend Nate picked up some scrap wood from work to start on a project we had been talking about. I went in to Lowe's to get the finishing touches on Friday and he finished it today. I am beyond excited about it. I was cleaning up the house and doing laundry while he was working on it and kept going outside to ask him how it was going.
It went something like this:
Me: Hey, how's it going??
N: It's good
M: It's looking great! I can't wait!!
repeat every 15 minutes until project is done.
Annoying? Nah.
This is the finished product sitting in front of the house. By the sweet daffodil. Do you know what's inside?
Vegetables! In a cold frame! Growing right outside the kitchen! Aren't they cute? Little tiny plants waiting to be eaten!
This is iceberg lettuce. A classic.
This is romaine lettuce.
And this is broccoli!! The broccoli is not very practical for our climate this time of year, but since I found young plants so early in the season we thought we might get a little out of them before they get fried in the oppressive Southern heat. We'll try it again when it cools off in the fall. We're also going to put seeds in here for the rest of our garden.
Ok! I'm off to try a new recipe! Can you guess what's in it?
It is a synonym for smash and it rhymes with posh and mosh.
This latest project is very exciting!
And it is all Nate.
He took advantage of the awesome weather today to do some work outside.
Last weekend Nate picked up some scrap wood from work to start on a project we had been talking about. I went in to Lowe's to get the finishing touches on Friday and he finished it today. I am beyond excited about it. I was cleaning up the house and doing laundry while he was working on it and kept going outside to ask him how it was going.
It went something like this:
Me: Hey, how's it going??
N: It's good
M: It's looking great! I can't wait!!
repeat every 15 minutes until project is done.
Annoying? Nah.
This is the finished product sitting in front of the house. By the sweet daffodil. Do you know what's inside?
Vegetables! In a cold frame! Growing right outside the kitchen! Aren't they cute? Little tiny plants waiting to be eaten!
This is iceberg lettuce. A classic.
This is romaine lettuce.
And this is broccoli!! The broccoli is not very practical for our climate this time of year, but since I found young plants so early in the season we thought we might get a little out of them before they get fried in the oppressive Southern heat. We'll try it again when it cools off in the fall. We're also going to put seeds in here for the rest of our garden.
Ok! I'm off to try a new recipe! Can you guess what's in it? It is a synonym for smash and it rhymes with posh and mosh.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Valentine's Dinner
We decided to have dinner in for Valentine's Day. This is not out of the ordinary for us, but we tried to make it a little fancier than usual and I think we succeeded.
I won't go into all the details, but I'll give you the highlights.
I saw this recipe from the Pioneer Woman and had stuck in my head that we HAD to have pasta. I almost made that (and I'm sure I will one of these days), but I found another recipe in the Joy cookbook for pasta with fresh herbs.
We used chives, oregano (that came from outside and had survived the terrible weather), and lots of fresh basil. You toss the herbs in plenty of olive oil and Parmesan cheese, then throw in the cooked pasta with some of the cooking water. I imagine you can use any pasta. The recipe calls for fettuccine, but Nate doesn't like that so we used whole wheat angel hair. So it was healthy, too! ...
The other highlight.
We got our latest Cook's Illustrated and they had an updated version of the Boston Creme Pie. It's news to me, because I've never made it, that the "traditional" recipe is outdated and produces a gooey pie, with runny creme, and the chocolate on top cracks. So one of their contributors took the recipe and reworked it. Nate saw the recipe and was really excited and said, "Mmm, Boston Creme Pie is one of my FAVORITE desserts." (this was news to me)
So I said, "I'll make it for Valentine's dinner!"
It worked, and it was awesome. I made real pastry cream, like you would have in an eclair from a fancy pastry shop. If you need me I'll be sitting on the kitchen floor eating it out of a bowl with the cat. Or fighting with Nate about who gets to lick the bowl.
The finished product only uses 9 eggs, so its a good thing we had that healthy whole wheat pasta.
I only have a picture of the finished product to share with you. Mom told me that I should take process pictures, but it was too involved. Way to much constant stirring, and medium then low then medium heat, and whisking for 8 minutes straight. It was not possible. But here is the finished product on Grandmother's china.
I took a picture of the table, but our house was such a wreck that night that I cannot share it with you. But I'll tell you that we used our nice dishes!
So here's my first blog giveaway. I'll make one of these for the next family member who visits. Tempting, I know.
What did you do for Valentine's Day?
I won't go into all the details, but I'll give you the highlights.
I saw this recipe from the Pioneer Woman and had stuck in my head that we HAD to have pasta. I almost made that (and I'm sure I will one of these days), but I found another recipe in the Joy cookbook for pasta with fresh herbs.
We used chives, oregano (that came from outside and had survived the terrible weather), and lots of fresh basil. You toss the herbs in plenty of olive oil and Parmesan cheese, then throw in the cooked pasta with some of the cooking water. I imagine you can use any pasta. The recipe calls for fettuccine, but Nate doesn't like that so we used whole wheat angel hair. So it was healthy, too! ...
The other highlight.
We got our latest Cook's Illustrated and they had an updated version of the Boston Creme Pie. It's news to me, because I've never made it, that the "traditional" recipe is outdated and produces a gooey pie, with runny creme, and the chocolate on top cracks. So one of their contributors took the recipe and reworked it. Nate saw the recipe and was really excited and said, "Mmm, Boston Creme Pie is one of my FAVORITE desserts." (this was news to me)
So I said, "I'll make it for Valentine's dinner!"
It worked, and it was awesome. I made real pastry cream, like you would have in an eclair from a fancy pastry shop. If you need me I'll be sitting on the kitchen floor eating it out of a bowl with the cat. Or fighting with Nate about who gets to lick the bowl.
The finished product only uses 9 eggs, so its a good thing we had that healthy whole wheat pasta.
I only have a picture of the finished product to share with you. Mom told me that I should take process pictures, but it was too involved. Way to much constant stirring, and medium then low then medium heat, and whisking for 8 minutes straight. It was not possible. But here is the finished product on Grandmother's china.
I took a picture of the table, but our house was such a wreck that night that I cannot share it with you. But I'll tell you that we used our nice dishes!So here's my first blog giveaway. I'll make one of these for the next family member who visits. Tempting, I know.
What did you do for Valentine's Day?
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
Today is my first Valentine's Day as a Mrs. and my second with my honey. I am making him dinner tonight, and he gave me a sweet card this morning.
I never felt particularly special about Valentine's Day day, but we went on our first (awesome) date a few days after Valentine's Day 2 years ago, so now it just makes me think of our first date, and I think we both knew where things were going after that date.
Our courtship took a lot of work, planning, and organization. That's what happens when you seriously date long-distance. Although we had to be organized and plan everything, but I don't think it never felt forced. It just felt intentional, and I think that's how life should be. It was a good lesson in romance for me. We have the rest of our lives for surprises and spontaneity. I now see the romance in sacrifice, plans, and doing what you intend to do so that you can be with someone you love.
Other than being honest and making serious decisions about being together, it truly took a village to keep this thing going. Since our Valentine's Day celebration is between him and me, I thought I would write a Valentine to some who helped make it all happen.
I never felt particularly special about Valentine's Day day, but we went on our first (awesome) date a few days after Valentine's Day 2 years ago, so now it just makes me think of our first date, and I think we both knew where things were going after that date.
Our courtship took a lot of work, planning, and organization. That's what happens when you seriously date long-distance. Although we had to be organized and plan everything, but I don't think it never felt forced. It just felt intentional, and I think that's how life should be. It was a good lesson in romance for me. We have the rest of our lives for surprises and spontaneity. I now see the romance in sacrifice, plans, and doing what you intend to do so that you can be with someone you love.
Other than being honest and making serious decisions about being together, it truly took a village to keep this thing going. Since our Valentine's Day celebration is between him and me, I thought I would write a Valentine to some who helped make it all happen.
Nate asked me out because he wanted to, but also through the encouragement of his friends. I was flattered to have received their recommendation. David and Laura housed Nate on many of his trips to see me and David performed our wedding ceremony! He did such a great job, even though I interrupted him a lot. Everyone talked and talked about how meaningful his comments were. We love them!
My cousin Sarah and her husband lived about halfway between Nate and I when we were dating. Their home served as a "love nest" and rendezvous point for us on many weekends and we are grateful that they made room for us some weekends even as they made room for their sweet baby boy last year (oh gosh, it was the year before last). We shared a Valentine's dinner with them last year and it was so fun! We love and appreciate them too.
My Aunt and Uncle lived close to Nate while we dated, so they let me stay with them two summers ago so that Nate and I could be closer while we dated. We appreciate them so much, and had a great summer with them. We may not be where we are now if it weren't for them. Here they are with my mom. We love Paul and Mary!
Here are some hearts for you for Valentine's day. Recipe from the Pioneer Woman, and VERY tasty. Homemade ice cream too!
So, there it is! Happy Valentine's Day! We will enjoy it and each other, thanks to our little "village!"
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