greenclogs

merry Christmas

Wishing you all peace and joy today and every day. Thank you for being here and sharing this small space with us.

felting, part one

Apparently this is the Christmas of felting. Probably because I'd rather be sitting on the couch with my feet up and knitting than bending over a cutting table (which reminds me that I still need to raise it). 

Since my fingers need to be busy with needles rather than a keyboard, I'll just show you some of what's been on the needles. 

For the record, none of these are for Jeff, much as I would love to do that to him. I have only made elf slippers for children. They still need a non-skid surface on the bottom to prevent slipping everywhere. Pattern from here. Fun to knit and fun to wear. 

the gift of lemons

It's that time of year again. Lemon time. Our tree is covered in hundreds of lemons that are all in varying stages of ripeness. Luckily, they don't have to all be picked at once, so we'll spread out the lemon love through April. There are far too many lemons to just use in every day life, even with giving way as much as we can in the neighborhood citrus exchange, so we use them in all sorts of recipes that we can gift over the holidays. 

First up is limoncello, the gift that keeps on giving. There are recipes all over the web with varying steeping times, but here's the scaled down version of what we're doing. 

Limoncello

1 750ml bottle of vodka - apparently you can use rotgut and some recipes recommend Everclear, but we're going with our standby Smirnoff that is available in the big bottles at Costco.

10 lemons - again, we adjust a bit because our tree lemons can be 2-3 times larger than the ones in the store. 

After steeping: 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar made into a simple syrup (if you want it sweeter then make more syrup - the recipes vary)

Peel the lemons, making sure that you avoid peeling the white pith. Put into a sealable container (we use a half gallon canning jar) and pour the vodka over it. Mix thoroughly and close up. Let sit for 4 days to a month. Again - the recipes vary. We'll let ours sit for about a week. At that point, the peels have lost their color completely and seem to be devoid of their lemony goodness. 

Pour syrup into jar and let sit overnight at room temp. 

The next day, strain the liquid to remove the peels and any other solids. Pour into prepared fancy bottles. We're also pouring some into old school canning jars and adding a bootleg style label for that backwoods hick look. 

Refrigerate/freeze and enjoy. 

a star is born

Sorry for the radio silence after all that posting. Annika just finished the short run of her first play, and we've been pretty overwhelmed by that for the last week. Gunnar took over the sound board at the last practice, so the whole thing has been a family affair. 

The play was Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, set in the 1950's. There were a few young children who wanted to be in the play, but there weren't good parts for little ones. So, the Muses were born. Annika was the Love muse, who introduced and tied together each act along with her compatriots, Tragedy and Comedy. 

Here's a short clip of one of her scenes. I apologize for the terrible lighting - the stage lights went out at performance time and we had to cobble something together at the last minute. 

The video I won't show is the one from Monday night where she forgot her lines, panicked and ran off the stage. Poor baby! I went back there and we talked quietly until she stopped crying and begging to go home. The other kids really built her back up and she went on for her next scene, strong as ever. My girl is one who struggles with doing things that she can't do perfectly so this was such a great lesson for her in making a mistake and moving on. I was one proud mama.

Her feelings about the whole experience? She's ready to try out for a role in Peter Pan. Gunnar is planning on learning lighting and building sets. Me? I see a lot of knitting in my future. Good times for all. 

and then he was old

 

Today is my sweet husband's 40th birthday. I don't talk a lot about Jeff in this space, but today is a special day. 

I'm very lucky that we met on the bus nearly 10 years ago. Every day, I'm thankful for his steady presence, his laughter, his knowledge and his kindness. He's a wonderful husband, a loving father, and a good friend. He puts up with me starting more than I finish. He'll do the dishes without too much complaining. He puts our happiness above his own. He has kept all of his hair (very important to him!). 

For his birthday, we gave him a beginning brewing kit so that he can also have a productive hobby that will consume his brain when he's not working. He loves beer. He loves science. He should love brewing. 

Here's hoping that the next 40 years of his life will be even better than the first 40. Happy birthday Jeff!

take one

We did a quick photo shoot today before Lindsay headed back to school. Luckily, she'll be back briefly next weekend, since I didn't really get what I wanted (and those photos with me in them? ugh). This is my favorite shot of the afternoon. 

I need to do some cleanup in Photoshop, but I think they're pretty cute. I'll keep them. 

For those who are also Christmas crafting and freaking out a little concerned about the time, I have 1 apron, 2 pj pants, and most of a long sleeve tunic finished. Many, many to go. I made the official list today. Oh, and the advent calendar pockets are embroidered to 10. Busting out the rest of it tomorrow. 

Have a great Monday!

meet Bessie, the bias tape maker

test strip wound

About 10 seconds worth of work. We are pleased. 

We need to shoot a video in the morning - this was too late to get good light with Gunnar's Flip camera. Then you can see how speedy it really is. The best comment in the video we tried to shoot was Annika saying "Mama! This is going to save you so much time!" Smart girl. 

the countdown begins

Christmas crafting begins in earnest tomorrow. Actually, it started today with the cutting of 5 sets of patterns - pajama pants and robes, jumpers, tunics, a boy's dress shirt (with buttons and a collar and cuffs! oh my!) and the pillow pattern. Tomorrow is a fabric cutting day, along with embroidering numbers on advent pockets. Sunday, I'll start to sew. I guess I'd better check the thread supply in the morning and stock up on the necessary colors. 

I'm tackling this year's gift by type of gift, in the hopes that with repetition comes efficiency. How do you organize your gift making so that you're efficient, but are still entertained? I'm hoping all the pretty colors and patterns are enough. Oh, and the use of this nifty tool, which was incredibly inexpensive after the application of the Joann sale price, two coupons and a gift card. Yay! I'm having a hard time not cutting everything into 2" strips just to try it out. So long as it saves me some burned fingers and a lot of time, then I'll be a happy camper. We'll take a video of it in action tomorrow so you all can ooh and aah, like I did when I watched one demonstrated this summer. 

Have a great, and hopefully quiet weekend, friends. 

bested by the pie

It started with the pear pomegranate crisp (inspired by Grace)

and then we swung into action. Food had been prepped over the last couple of days, so today was the dance of bringing it all to the table. 

Jeff basted the ham in honey and orange juice until it was mahogany. 

The dressing was made because dressing doesn't need turkey. Our recipe has sausage and apples and dried cranberries. I made approximately five times as much as we needed. Hello, lunch for the next week. 

Lindsay developed a sudden hankering for deviled eggs, so she found a recipe and made them all herself. People, this is the girl who thinks that if there is no packaged food in the house then there is no food in the house. Maybe there's hope for her after all. 

And we sat down to a feast. We didn't do a fancy table or match all of the dishes. It was just the five of us gathering together as a family and being grateful that above all else, we have each other. 

Oh, and we were grateful for pie. Lots of pie. Lindsay and a friend made these two pies yesterday. She made them from a pumpkin. Not from a can. Not from Costco. I'd think this wasn't even my kid if not for the fact that she asked me to do her laundry for her. But still, major props for making pies that were delicious. 

also in the pie lineup was a sweet potato buttermilk pie. It was light and tangy and delicious. I did add some meyer lemon juice to the filling, which made it quite tangy. I'd probably reduce the amount of juice but not leave it out. It will make a delicious breakfast tomorrow. 

Along with this. Gingerbread, apples, caramel. How could you go wrong? I was napping when Jeff took it out of the oven for me, so by the time I flipped it over, the caramel had soaked into the cake, making all of it gooey and delicious. I'll be making this one again and again and again.

We brought the desserts to a neighbor's house and we had a lovely gathering of friends for pie and cake and play and talk. We weren't able to spend Thanksgiving with family this year, so having this time with people who mean so much to us was really special. Life would be much more empty here without them, and I'm thankful every day to call them our friends. 

At the end, Gunnar had to shove away his dessert plate after six - count them - six pieces of pie. He had been bested by the pie at last. Until next year. 

nearly advent

and I'm just starting the advent calendar. I've amended it some from the original (more simple) but I think it'll be just as pretty. Several bright colors on cream colored felt. Numbers embroidered in grey. 

Today was felt cutting day. Tomorrow I'll embroider numbers while the dinner cooks. Speaking of dinner, the rolls (6 dozen) are made, the sweet potato pie filling and pie crust are in the refrigerator, as is the cranberry sauce. The bread for dressing is cubed. And get this: Lindsay made pie. Two pumpkin pies made from actual pumpkins by her and a friend. I nearly fell over in shock. There's hope for her yet. 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends.