Year's End

We have a cherished New Years Eve tradition of forgetting to count down the last ten seconds of the year. This year we didn't disappoint.

There's something about ringing in the New Year completely by accident- being so caught up in our conversation and our friends and our card game and our drinks that I can't possibly keep an eye on the clock. When I do check the time- usually the microwave or the oven because analog clocks are terrible timekeepers- I'm either ten minutes too early or 30 minutes too late.

So we're sitting at a dining table, sliding playing cards across the holiday tablecloth and trying to remember the rules to a game only one of us has played before. We're two or three drinks in, we've just finished home-cooking one of the best meals we've ever made (carne asada, homemade Ceasar salad, roasted rosemary and thyme potatoes and carrots in case you were wondering) and the heater has made us completely forget that it is currently 26 degrees outside and snow is on the ground. The dogs are blessedly quiet (though that's not an anomaly for Ripley) and the jazz station we've turned on is cranking out the perfect soundtrack for lulling us to sleep through the year change.

One of us chances to look up and all of a sudden we're screaming. It's 11:59 and we are going to miss it. All the carefully prepared champagne (because if not now, when?) and grapes to symbolize our good months and toasting is going to be late and at least two of the four of us are really only awake for this singular reason.

So Mr. E goes to pop the champagne and Oliver is bringing out yet another flight of glassware and I'm hiding under the counter with my back turned because I have a fear of loud noises (or fear of the anticipation of loud noises, whichever sounds cooler) and in the bustle we missed it.

But it doesn't matter.

Because this year is full of anticipation.

Because this year we have goals.

Because this year is the year we enjoy.

And we're off to a pretty good start- snow on the ground, greasy pizza in town, pre-released movies for Oscar-judging and endless card games in a year-end vacation in the mountains of Idyllwild.

My word for this year is enjoy. What's yours?

Thanks

He tiptoed in to our bedroom, and leaned in close.

"Are you happy? I want you to be happy."

My initial reaction, the knee-jerk, from-the-bottom-of-the-gut reaction was "Yes."

And then I thought about all the ways I had shown him I was happy.

Asking to do more dishes.

Endless errand runs on the weekends instead of one-on-one time.

Worrying over handmade Christmas gifts and self-imposed deadlines.

Job training and budgeting.

If this is the season to be thankful, how are we showing others how we feel? How are we communicating gratefulness?

I'm thankful for food- scrumptious, delicious food.

I'm thankful for husbands and mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and in-laws and friends that feel like family, new friendships and old friendships and only-friends-at-work-friendships. I need these people. Everyday.

I'm thankful for dogs who love unconditionally and nephews who love only on the condition that they can play with big Captain America toys at your house.

I'm thankful for health and hearth, a place to rest my steel-toed feeties and the energy to fully enjoy it.

I'm thankful for books. For movies. For Facebook, without which I wouldn't have very interesting conversations.

I'm thankful for job security and the breather of fresh air this gives us.

I pray many times a day, a silent thankyouthankyouthankyou out to the universe for this life and all the wonderful things in it. Personal thankfulness is one thing, but how does my husband know what's in my heart?

These thoughts ran through my head in the split second it took me to snuggle in closer.

"Yes. I'm the happiest."

I'm Tote-ally...Just Gonna Stop There

I made this. And it's probably one of the things I'm most proud of. So proud, in fact, that I kind of don't want to give it away. If only I was more of a Doctor Who fan.

I found this fabric a few weeks ago and seriously debated buying it for pillows in our living room. It was fun, and such a pretty blue, damask until you looked close enough and saw that silly TARDIS- what geek wouldn't love it? Well, this geek, actually. This is not the face of Doctor Who fandom.

Disclaimer: NOT our dog.

So it sat in my cart, calling my name. And then I remembered that giving brings happiness to both parties, so I made that order anyways. I've made a few of these bags before and I'm really happy with the way they turn out. It's such a simple pattern and it has a lot of customizable potential. The cuff is flirty enough to showcase TWO awesome fabrics and although there were no pockets in the pattern- I FREE HANDED THOSE SUCKERS. Yeah, you could say I'm pretty proud.

I ran into some kinks when both pieces of my bag (outside and lining) were cut funny: Spoonflower prints your fabric special, so it wasn't an off-the-bolt kind of thing which messed with my measurements, and Joann's was kind of having an off day at the cutting counter. In the end I just cut a few inches off of my pattern and made a smaller bag- I actually think I like it better smaller. I guess it just means I have to make another one for myself...

The Doctor Who fabric basically chose itself, then the multi-colored chevron was chosen by Mr. E (the color-coordinating master of the house) and I couldn't pass up a fat quarter of London landmark fabric. Especially for the travel-bug bestie of mine. Plus the minty-green inside of one of the pockets was from a homemade napkin at my wedding, so we're all rolled up in symbolism over here. Hopefully that makes up for the fact that I should have totally made this two years ago.

Slam-BAM that thing with a little travelling/Disney-themed cross stitch and you have a Christmas present, my friends. Good gravy I miss being crafty.

Adding my Voice to the Chorus

The story of advent, for me, is one of faith. Faith that that night would come. Faith that a Son would be born. Faith that the star would lead to something .  Faith that no matter what you've gone through or your current situation, it's all about making it to tonight.

I didn't grow up with advent in our home, so the lighting of candles and this period of immersive anticipation was a little lost on me. The only thing we anticipated was going to bed or wrapping those few straggling presents. We watched the movies and we sang the carols, but reflecting on the coming of the King wasn't present.

And that worked for a while. It's easy to get lost in the ways of the world, focusing on the busy-ness and the obligations. It's easy to lose yourself in the spirit of Christmas without ever touching the Spirit.

This year was different. This year was a chorus of voices, perspectives on the season that I had never understood before- studying and exploring scriptures I had never bothered to understand past face value. This is advent. The building of this foundation, this filter to which we can look through and see the true story.

That Mary didn't just bear the Son of God, people must have thought she was nuts. Her excuse was communication with angels? Or Joseph who must have struggled with a few doubts on his cross-country road trip with a very pregnant young wife.

But it's the wise men who mean the most to me. To me, they walked the ultimate walk of faith. They weren't Christians or Jews to believe in a Savior, but their faith brought them the Son of God tucked into a feeding trough in the most humble of beginnings.

That's Christmas. No matter your background or your beliefs, what you've endured or overcome or are still struggling with, it's the belief that your journey has an end worth traveling to get to.

Tonight as I'm struggling to find a talent for the family Christmas Eve Talent Show, or grabbing a few more stocking stuffers, I'll remember that my journey doesn't end here.

On How I Need to Go Off My Life Diet

This season of my life is like chewing with my mouthful. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and we decided- it seemed like a good idea at the time- to take a hefty serving of all the goodies life had to offer. But now I'm stuck with the laborious task of chewing and swallowing and I would like to give some back thankyouverymuch without looking like I'm hiding it discreetly in my napkin, but that's actually what I'm doing.

In this scenario I'm me, my food is various Christmas gifts, work projects and other obligations, while the act of hiding it all is really just prioritizing to Before Christmas and After Christmas. Some things just aren't making the cut.

Does that sounds awful? Because it feels awful. I'm happiest when I'm doing something, but I never seem to think that doing something for myself is very productive. In fact, I read this blog post the other day and nearly cried because inside I'm screaming "THAT'S ME! THAT'S ME!" but attention very quickly turned to the myriad of Christmas ornaments I'm decorating to send to friends and family this year.

Why can't I see myself as a priority? Why is spending time with my husband un-productive unless I'm dragging him to one errand or another until we both plant ourselves in cushions at the end of the day? I feel like I'm on a bad diet- the kind that starves you of the protein that you really  need to stay full and satisfied, so by dinner you're so hungry you binge-eat all the things you were avoiding because you have no self-control anymore.

I need to stop dieting my life.

I need to stop restricting the experiences I'm ingesting because they're too rich: too expensive or too indulgent or take up too much time.

Life is a giant-size pair of mom jeans with an elastic waistband. No matter what I do, it'll always accommodate me. It may get a little tight at times, but it still goes on. It always goes on. It's just up to me to enjoy myself.

LOVED This Weekend

I'm still on the fence with how I feel about holiday blog posts- do I do them? Are they cheesy? Do I need to let the blogosphere know that I celebrated? When it really comes down to it, I'm too busy living in the moment, and I hope you are too.

Living in the moment by celebrating with family. Watching our dog get absolutely round with not-very-sneaky pieces of turkey.

Living in the moment by Black Friday shopping with my husband- someone who looks forward to the dirt-cheap movie prices (and actually affordable tools/electronics/clothing items) all year round. We cleaned out three stores by the time we were done!

Taking all of those extra calories, that impending sense of holiday dread and a wide open space on the couch, and putting them to good use...by sleeping for almost 15 hours on Saturday. Not my finest moment, but I feel great.

Finally, our Sunday tradition- hiking Griffith Park.

This weekend was one of endings and of beginnings, as well. Allow me to wax poetic a bit, here. National Novel Writing Month is over, and I wrote 10,000 words. All on one topic. I don't think I've ever done that. The goal was 50k, but heck, I wrote most of those words in the last few days- and now that I have momentum I'll be damned if I'm going to let the end of the month stop me. This story is going to be written, ya'll.

Finally, there's Voices in the Desert; a collection of writers/bloggers (including myself!) are writing about advent. We're responding to scripture and letting you, our readers, understand what advent means to us in our own words. I'm both excited and nervous to write about that, but mostly anxious- and isn't that the point?

 

Are You my Mother?

I have never known anyone as strong, dedicated, understanding, unselfish, patient, forgiving, helpful, honorable, creative, practical, charismatic and beautiful...

as my mother.

If I can be half the woman she is, I'll know I did something right. 

Mom, I chose one without us crying...or blinking. Apparently that's difficult for us.

Easter Tidings

Easter Sunday we were off to see our brother-in-law and his family. Life moves at a different pace out here where your party is threatened by cows, where Mass is said with grass under your feet, a dog in your arms and the view is spectacular! 

I whipped up some impromptu (and rather un-traditional) Eccles Cakes for the gathering. I figure if you're going to be late, at least bring something tasty! Not the cheapest of recipes, but this family couldn't get enough of them! Every time I turned around someone was chowing down, encouraging others. What an ego-boost.

Eccles Cakes
2 boxes of puff pastry
1 bag of assorted dried fruit (we used an antioxidant mix for fun)
1 beaten egg white (forgot to separate, so it was actual just all egg)
1 tsp of mixed spice (mixed is a fun word for baking: we used varying amounts of fresh nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and allspice)
2 tbsp butter
1 cup of sugar, divided

Oven 425F. Thaw the puff pastry: we didn't and then had to alternately roll it out and warm it up. Made for some wonky sizes.
Melt the butter, add 3/4c sugar, dried fruit and spices until evenly coated. Technically, Eccles cakes use candied fruit peel, but when you're under a time-constraint, ain't nobody got time for that. So technically, this may have been a little scone-like.
Cut the dough into rounds, like biscuits, and spoon the filling into the middle. Add another dough biscuit on top, wet and crease the edges with a fork to make sure they stick together. 
Baste the top with egg white (or a beaten egg because you NEVER remember to separate for breads) and sprinkle sugar on top.
Tradition says to cut three lines on top. I say cut SOMETHING because puff pastry...puffs. And then you get giant biscuit monsters.
Cook for 15 minutes, or until the top and bottom are golden. 

Unfortunately, no pictures of the end result- they were eaten too fast! But it looked like a puff pastry from a store with the sprinkled sugar on top!

Enjoy on a mountaintop, with friends or covet every crumb and wish for more. They were seriously that tasty.

Of course, it wouldn't be Easter without some egg-dying. We may have grown up and out of the hunt of the holiday, but my mom wanted to try a new dye-method. Shaving cream, anyone?

Take Jurassic Park shaving cream- you know, the Newman used to transport dino embryos- because it's all white. Drop on food coloring and swirl. 

 Realize you don't have red. And your teenagers will remind you that you now have green, yellow and blue. Which really gives you green...and green.

 Place egg and roll. You'll need plastic gloves for this one. Or suffer dyed hands.

 Leave the eggs coated for at least four minutes.

 We re-coated a few after the first egg was not nearly "swirly" enough. 

Wipe the shaving cream off- keep the gloves on. 

Enjoy radical looking eggs! They were pretty light in color, but it didn't smear! Perfect for making colored egg-salad. 

LOVED This Weekend

We've deemed this weekend the Weekend of Puppies. It seems like warmer weather sprung puppy fever and our family has taken to it like ducks to water. 

I spy...

We breakfasted at Grandma's to see Miss Caitlin; a black Corgi/Chinese crested/Yorkshire Terrier/etc. Very shy, but very sweet. Ripley may have been a little too much to handle for her, as Ripley chased her nonstop. Apparently my dog is a bit of a bully?

The closest they got without running...

Drove off to see puppy #2: Zoey! A Poodle/King Cavalier Spaniel/Terrier mix and the most boisterous puppy you've ever met. She had no problem playing with my parent Doberman, with Ripley, with toes, with shoelaces...She's all energy. Until she's not. Sleeps like a log just like all little puppies.

Puppy #3 was with Mr. E's brother- Dani is a Yorkie/Maltese/Pomeranian mix and will stay very very small. She wasn't a fan of Ripley either, but maybe if Ripley could keep her nibbles to herself, they might be friends.

Exhausted, Mr. E and I left a beautiful view (or two...bajillion) and trudged back home through traffic, plopped our butts in bed and vowed never to move again. 

Insert Egg Pun Here (Pun Intended)

I find myself lagging in posting my Pinterest projects. Sure, I make lots of recipes, but I'm also continually impressed with other bloggers' arts and crafts. I might not have kids, but I like to decorate my house too! This may be influenced by my sister-in-law who keeps her decorations for ALL holidays on strict schedule, but her house is always dressed to the nines!

We made a quick run into Home Depot for paint chips (contemplated wearing a disguise so they wouldn't recognize me) and PVC piping. Nothing like His&Hers projects. I grabbed a bunch of pastel colors from the Behr collection because the stripes between the colors are reminiscent of Easter eggs. And Peeps.

At home I sketched a quick egg shape for the kids and set about tracing two eggs on each paint chip. Some of the eggs had a few letters on them from the paint name, but they were hardly noticeable and we weren't going for perfection. There was a slight hiccup when I realized my nieces weren't cutting on the lines, but creating half-dollar size eggs, but they had made so many by that time we just made a whole garland of petite eggs too!

One little helper with the finished project. Used some plain twine to thread through hole-punched tops; just knotted and alternated colors. I love the effect! Definitely will work on my own at home! 

If I Could Give You a Valentine...

NaBloPoMo Feb 2013: Love & Sex



If you could send out valentines this year as you did back in grade school, what type of valentine would you send out to your blogosphere class?
This creates a problem the same way choosing a wedding color was a problem: there are SO MANY beautiful handmade, unique, quirky, sweet combinations you could do that deciding on one is almost impossible.
Some of my personal favorites that I've seen:
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Source: U-createcrafts.com

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V-day Gifts

Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without

This year we're living within our means. We're saving. We're paying off. We're rocking our finances. And we feel pretty good.

Fewer luxuries bought means fixing clothes (thank you, sewing machine) and craft projects using what I already have. It's not always easy--especially in a society that encourages you to buy what you want when you want it-- but it's worth it. We don't have parents to bail us out of our financial blunders. We don't rely on borrowing money from somewhere else to tide us over if we're over budget.

This is scary, ya'll. 

But this is real life. And if we can do it (partly because we have to, mostly because we want to) then you can too!

So what's a girl to do when Valentine's Day is around the corner? I needed something special and romantic, but thrifty and down-to-earth. I know we'll most likely cook dinner together instead of going out, so it isn't the atmosphere that's the problem. But what to give each other?

My husband and I are a little gooey at times...we just never lost that puppy-lovin' PDA. I like to think that we're fortunate to have found another person who acknowledges the reassurance and support of physical touch. We hug, we snuggle and we hold hands. But with colder weather comes jackets and restrictive pockets! We have a hard time keeping our hands warm if we're holding them out in the elements.

So when I came across these pocket warmers, I fell in love. I could do that! 

All I needed was a little felt
some embroidery thread
a needle
scissors
rice
fragrance

I cut two felt hearts out for each warmer- a front and a back. They were roughly the same size, but I didn't restrict myself to using the same pattern for each warmer. Some were squat, others tall.

I laid them together and sewed nice big stitches around the outside. I wasn't overly worried about anything falling out since these aren't going to get a whole lot of rough action. No kids to worry about and they're easy enough to mend.

I left a small opening in the hearts to fill with brown rice (all we had on hand!). At this point I added a little bit of peppermint extract so that the warmers would smell nice too! If you were feeling really romantic, you could add a few drops of your own perfume. Once these are warmed in the microwave your significant other would instantly be reminded of you! (I snuck a few of those in there too)

Finish the hole, tie a knot and you're done!

In this house we the method of giving is almost as good as the gift itself...in that vein I decided to hide 12 of these little guys around the house. You could add love notes or hints to the next one also, but I played it simple by hiding each warmer in a well-used spot by Mr. E. 

It's entirely likely that less than 12 of them will actually be found on Valentine's...this only prolongs the fun! When he least expects it he'll open a drawer or bag to find a little reminder that I'm crazy about him. And that's almost gift enough for me...:)