Balance?

The question mark you ask? Well Tomorrow morning I have roughly 35 people descending upon my house, a dozen of which are children ages 5 and under. Why? Well my daughter is having her fifth birthday tomorrow. So balance? Well it is being found in the fact that while I am under slept our house is almost all clean everything has been purchased but the ice cream. And I have reinforcements, i.e. family, coming over tonight for the promise of a slice of pizza a cold beer in return for helping me set up pixie hollow in my house. We are making pirate hats for boys and pixie wings for the girls. Lots of stickers, glitter glue, tinker bell pinata, and stuff.

My mother-in-law is staying the weekend so besides all of the party prep we are doing sheet washing, room switching, and guest prep. When company comes my daughter loves to sleep in her Dora tent in the sitting nook of our bedroom. Soooo that's my weekend in a nutshell.

Maybe I should have tried for this whole balance thing after the party :) I'll catch up with you all Sunday or Monday. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Balance: Homemade Granola

I was recently watching something and food was involved. The discussion was regarding the soul nurturing component of food. If food is made with a loving intention then it did far more for a person than sate their hunger. You can taste the intention of the cook through their food. I liked that idea.
With that in mind I made this granola. Cooking for my family brings me comfort...."making dinner" does not. Know what I mean? I love putting food together to feed people when I have the time, no little people whining at me, and good ingredients. Unfortunately most of my cooking as of late has been the 'quick-get-it-on-the-table-everyone-quit-yelling-at-me-I-know-you're-hungry-I-can-only-do-one-thing-at-a-time' variety.

This time those things actually went a little more smoothly and if you had peeked in my window I would have looked like I had it all together, for that moment anyway :)

The long slow cooking of this granola filled my home with comforting smells and after a summer with minimal oven use it a was a nice reminder that autumn is around the corner, my favorite time of year.


The recipe for this delicious granola can be found here....I highly recommend making it. I think next time I'm going to add some flax to it. Great for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The batch I made (which was a half batch of the recipe) is almost gone and even my pickiest eater consumed quite a bit. Hope you had a great day!

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Balance

Things behind the blog have been a bit hectic lately. I have been trying to find some balance. I have noticed a shift in many areas of my life. A feeling of being overwhelmed and not nurturing myself.

I am hoping to shift my focus and attention and find appreciation and gratitude. Maybe try to slow down a little. Quit seeing the half empty and try to see the half full. I think a bit more selfishness on my part is required. Conscious selfishness. Conscious living.

My camera hasn't been touched in the last few weeks with the exception of the picture from the last post. I have recipes to share and projects waiting in the wings but the lack of energy. So I am kicking off 30 days. 30 days to look at the beautiful things in my life and maybe even the not so beautiful. My Days need some balance and I think my spirit needs a little nourishing. Do I sound like an Oprah show? It's just that I never thought I would wake up in my early thirties feeling tired, drained, and a little bit unrecognizable to myself. I think this has been looming on the horizon for awhile and I am just finally admitting it to myself. So here goes 30 days of my life for me to try and really see my life and appreciate all that's good. Hopefully you won't be too bored for the ride.....and yes there will still be knitting thrown in :)

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Seaming

I am not someone who sews very much. It isn't portable. My son cries when I start up my sewing machine. I hate the needles that invariably (no matter how meticulous I am) end up in the carpet. For some reason my husband doesn't want to watch a movie with me and my sewing machine running.

In my head though I am a master seamstress. I have a beautiful sewing room with lovely fabrics neatly stacked about and a wall full of quilts I have made. Ummm, I haven't ever made anything even close to a quilt, not even a quilted potholder, so you can see what a pipe dream this is. Anyway, when I knit I don't want to sew. I only sew Halloween costumes and tote bags and things that are little. When I knit, I want to knit, not sew. Why is it that I chose this as my Christmas knit for my kids? Am I a crazy person.... Yes he is adorable and yes he would look so cute under the Christmas tree. But come one....look at all these pieces. The cute little head is three pieces, the ears are four and then I have to sew on buttons for eyes and embroider the nose, that is just for the head. Thank goodness I started up now because it might take me the next four months just to sew the darn thing.

*most of the pieces for one bear*

I tried early this morning to seam up the first bear (because I have two kids and of course I have to make two bears) and well I didn't get far. The pieces are now sitting in time out in my office hidden away from little eyes until this evening when I am hoping a glass of wine will help me with the seaming....I'll let you know.

Hope your Christmas knitting is coming along better.

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Catch the Wave Afghan

Well I started this blanket a long time ago. Just under a year ago to be a bit more precise.

I have been cleaning out cupboards and closets the last few weeks. Trying to prepare for when school is back in and things get a bit busier around here I guess. Anyway I realized that this blanket has been sitting in a bag in my closet for the last year and I promised it to my daughter last Christmas yikes.

I pulled it out and just kept plugging away until it was done. I used the Lion Brand Homespun yarn that is recommended for it. It is the Catch the wave afghan pattern here (free). Fast and easy to memorise. She just recently watched most of the first Harry Potter movie (we fast-forwarded the scary stuff) and she requested that I make this blanket invisible like the cloak in the movie. Apparently it's quite easy. You just knit it up and then put the invisible stuff on (you can just buy it at the craft store). Who knew? :)

It is surprisingly heavy and quite warm, although one doesn't really need a warm blanket in August but my daughter insists that she be covered up with it at night. Usually either myself or my husband goes down a few hours after the kids have gone to bed and uncovers her as it is really too hot.

Check out those ends.....I had to use some Fray Check for each one just to ensure that it doesn't unravel all over the place.

I have some Christmas knits going but they are being knit at night or in the quiet nap time hours as they are presents for Christmas. Hopefully by this weekend I'll have something to share.

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Christmas in August

So we finished July and I didn't finish my shawl. I'll be honest....I never even started my shawl. Never fear there is a freebie month thrown in and I can finish it then, you'll see why when we get to it. Anyway let's move on to August shall we? For August it is all about Christmas knitting. In The Almanac Ms. Zimmerman is knitting things to do with Christmas. I think this month should be things for Christmas like stockings and such and also maybe some presents that you might want to make for someone else. Wouldn't it be nice to have those Christmas knits all done before the holiday season really gets underway? For presents usually it is something small like mitts and hats. Here is my May post with some mitt pattern links. Here is June with some hat pattern links. Now here are some more links for fun Christmas knits.

Celestine tree topper. Silent Night tree skirt. Lattice stocking. These adorable trio of snowmen. Another stocking. This oven mitt and potholder pattern could be knit in red, white, and green to give as a gift or to spruce up your own holiday kitchen. A holiday caplette for a small child. Holiday napkin rings. A globe ornament. A snowflake ornament. A pointsettia ornament. How about a knitted Father Christmas. I made this advent calendar last year. And last but not least if you are completely stuck for inspiration and don't mind spending a few dollars I highly recommend this book.

If you are stuck for time a tree ornament is always nice. My mother has always tied an ornament for each of us on one present every year. One of those little ornaments won't take much time or even yarn and they can add so much to a gift!

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