This Weekend: In and Around the House

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this weekend was:

- opening all the windows and cleaning out sills and screens to let the lovely breezes into our home

- celebrating the warm weather by having our first grilled dinner on the picnic table

- watching M build me a raised garden bed and planning in my head what I'll be planting there, while I scrubbed down the patio furniture and brought out some house plants to spend the summer on the porch.

- finding the return of chalk rainbows on our driveway

- 2 boys and their cat, enjoying the sun on the front stoop together

- more pickles in the fridge for M following this simple recipe (except using white vinegar and no sugar), and a cake-baking afternoon that was fun for all (until it was time to clean up... and then my helpers were mysteriously missing in action)  The mess is WELL worth it though, when you're baking this:  Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe.

- and of course, heading out to the ice cream truck for our first cones of the season (well - first cones that we bought at the TRUCK anyway...  we're sort of year-round ice cream eaters if you want the truth)

- and finally, logging onto Ravelry to find that the Corinne Cardigan is number 4 right now!  So exciting to see everyone's finished cardigans and works in progress!

And you dear friends: how did you spend your weekend?

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WHEW!!

I just finished the BIGGEST project (literally) I have ever completed in my life!   Unfortunately -

I can't show you what it is until June 1st.  Will you come back on June 1st and see it?  You promise!!?

 -  Ok, it's a date.  :)

(I cannot wait to show you!! - it's killing me)

:: This Moment ::

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.

A single photo  – capturing a moment from the week.   

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you’re inspired to do the same,

leave a link to your ‘moment’ over at SouleMama for all to find and see.

Shalom Knit-Along

Ok, I said I wouldn't be back this week - but here I am.

I decided to join a knit-along yesterday, which is something I have never done before with Linda at Natural Suburbia.   In the past I have always heard about patterns and knit-alongs LONG after the "moment" had passed - but this one I happened to catch right at the beginning.

I will be knitting the Shalom cardigan, which you can find on Meghan's blog for free, and I will be knitting it along with a group of knitters from all over the world.  I queued this simple and lovely pattern in my "to be knit" line up a long time ago and then never started it, so I'm looking forward to knitting it now.   We will each blog about our Shalom's on Wednesdays, and check in on each other for advice, modifications... and just to see each other's progress.

I will be making mine in a softer than butter organic cotton from BlueSky Alpacas, in the color "spearmint".  It's a lovely variegated light blue/green, that I can tell already is going to be darn near impossible to capture in a photograph.

I started last night after the kids were asleep and before I knew it I was on the second repeat of the yoke, so I think this is going to be a quick knit-along!

I thought I would also share a little about the books we've been reading this week too, as part of Ginny's Yarn Along, since that's what I normally do on Wednesday's.    We just got Sarah O'Leary's book "Where You Came From" and we all love it.  It is such a cute story - we love to look at the pictures of Henry and giggle.

And I just got the book "Above All Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times" by Zoe Weil.   I've seen this one on some suggested reading lists and wanted to read it myself.  I ALSO finally started Oh Pioneers, and now I cannot put it down!  I was enrapted in the tale from the first pages.



So that's all for today - and now you probably won't see me back here until Monday.  But I could turn up tomorrow - I never know what I'll do.  I am a mystery unto myself.

Taking a Spring Break

We are taking a bit of a Spring Break together this week.  I'll be back maybe on Friday, but definitely will be here on Monday.  Until then, I'll be enjoying a week at home with the kiddos, doing kiddo stuff.   Modeling clay - mud walks - muffin baking - tents with sheets, etc...  no time for blogging :)

A little sewing... Dish drying mat

Well, I don't have terribly much to show or tell today.  Over the weekend, I had about 15 minutes to tuck away into my room and shut the door and do a little bit of sewing at my machine.    So: this is what I came back out with -

a new dish drying towel to leave beside my sink for "overflow" when washing... cups and big pots and pans...etc.  As you can see - I couldn't be bothered to iron my fabric first... I just started pulling out fabrics and cutting.  Sewn together inside out, flipped right side out, and then I went a bit crazy with the red thread on top...  Oh well.  Amazingly, with very little to NO accurate measuring what-so-ever, it turned out  about 14 x 20 and close enough to a rectangle that I'm not embarassed to have it out there on the counter.

The back is recycled from an XXXL terry cloth robe I was given at the hospital (after delivering G) and never wore.  Before, I had always just thrown an old dish towel beside the sink when I do dishes, but this is much lovelier.  :)  I got the idea a while ago from this post, and then again from seeing my sister's during my visit.    Eventually I said to myself  - "you should probably just make one of these instead of using a dingy old dish cloth"

so i did.

now - i'm going to make another.

A new dinner recipe: Salmon in Parchment

I have always wanted to try to bake fish in parchment, and finally did last week for Wednesday's dinner.   I wish I had tried this sooner, because I loved it!  And it was so easy and quick -

You basically cut up some veggies, (I've seen this basic recipe done with radishes, asparagus (that's what we used this time), with sliced zucchinis, squash, green beans... ) and lay them on the parchment paper.  Then you lay on your fish (we made salmon) and you season it with salt and pepper, and drizzle on a simple dressing (this one used lemon rind and juice, onion, vinegar), wrap them up in their little parchment pouches, and bake in the oven for 11 minutes.

Whalah!  Dinner!  And no clean up  - Super Whalah!!

That's all I've got today for you - but really - go out and buy some Wild Sockeye tonight and have yourself a nice dinner :)

Here's the recipe we used:

http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/lemon-tarragon-salmon-over-asparagus