Affection

Ah, Valentine's Day. It get's a bad rap for all the commercialization and cheap sappy romance, but I prefer to think of it as a day to celebrate affection in all it's forms--to appreciate moms and dads, daughters and sons, dear friends and neighbors, husbands and wives and sweethearts...to set aside the daily frustrations involved in relating to other human beings, and focus instead on the pure joy of loving one another. 

And besides, when else do we get a free license to indulge our fondness for pink, and tutus, and pink tutus?

Or chocolate, and hearts, and chocolate hearts? (Recipe here--yum!)

 

Or getting out the paper and glue and scissors to create little love notes to send to our dear ones far away?  (A great way to make use of all the lovely watercolor paintings being created by the two-year-old of the house!)

 

Or stuffing little satchels full of cookies to deliver to neighbors on a rainy Sunday afternoon?

 

Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day, and plenty of time to bask in the affection of your loved ones!

 

Beginnings

I've decided to try my hand at a Shalom cardigan--free pattern here. My first attempt at a sweater! Generally I stick to smaller creations like hats and socks and mittens. But this pattern just looked so lovely and simple, and my favorite old sweater has become so raggedy, that I had to give it a try. So far it has been a joy to knit. The yarn is Cascade 128 Peruvian wool.

 

I've also been trying out some patchwork--loving the log cabin square! I've never done any quilting, so have been reading library books on the subject and practicing with small pieces. This is a little seat cushion, made from garage sale scraps, to brighten up a very inexpensive but impersonal Ikea children's chair and table set for my daughter. 

We've had such a warm January...already the daffodils and wood hyacinths are popping up through the mud. And we've had robins in our compost pile all month. Seems that Spring is showing up early this year!

Winter garden update, and a birthday crown

This weekend we added another layer to our front yard garden boxes. I shared the making of these boxes on this post and promised updates, so here's the latest.

 

Our first batch of chicken manure compost was ready to go, so we spread it on top of the dried leaves in the boxes. We're hoping that the plentiful worms in the compost will get to work breaking down those leaves to lighten up our heavy soil. We checked under the leaves and found most of the sod to be broken down. We didn't use any newspaper or cardboard to smother it like we have in the past, so we'll see if the grass pokes through this spring. We have a number of neighborhood cats who like to use raised beds as litter boxes, so we cover them with bird netting. We just staple it to scrap wood and lay it over the top. This works pretty well to deter them (and other city wildlife such as possums and raccoons).

 

Since we moved this compost out of our holding bin, we were able to move our next batch of compost to this bin and can now start another. The chickens were really happy about this project. 

We broke down the Christmas tree in the corner there and spread the branches beneath our blueberry bushes. We've done this every year and they seem to like it. It creates a nice mulch, and helps to acidify the soil. 

And a birthday crown! We have a little friend turning two next week, and I was inspired by this tutorial to make him his own special crown for his special day. Such a fun project!

Tea and Hospitality

 We really enjoy tea at our house, so our daughter was delighted to find a tea set just her size under the Christmas tree this year. It has been so fun to see her sense of hospitality grow as she pours and serves (imaginary) tea to her little friends (and adult-sized friends as well). I found the (Moroccan?) tea pot at a the little Episcopal thrift store down the street. It has an inscription in what appears to be Arabic on the bottom--makes it feel a bit exotic, like it has exciting stories from far away lands to share with the drinkers of it's tea. And the little white mugs were also a thrift store find--rather breakable, but such a perfect size for an almost two year old and her teddies. The little friends in this photo were all very special Christmas gifts.

"Amish Girl" is a sweet handmade doll from Theo's Character Dolls in Maine, a gift from my husband's Aunt.

The little teddy in the overstuffed chair (a gift from our neighbors) is wearing a sweater knit by a very sweet Aunty, and the teddy on the right is from my grandfather--made in the style of the first teddies. My grandfather tells me he still has one of the originals given to him as a young child--over 80 years old. Very treasured friends indeed!

This morning we visited friends who treated us to a delicious home-cooked lunch, and then this afternoon we brought a batch of enchiladas to a family with a brand new baby. Hospitality is so nourishing for our souls--I'm grateful to have the opportunity to both give and receive this great blessing, and to include my daughter in the process.  To share our lives, our time, our work, food, and compassion with other human beings seems a small and simple thing. But maybe these small acts and attitudes, when added up, have the power to heal our communities on a grand scale.

A wonderful mentor friend of mine has shared a lovely story of hospitality in Kenya on The Africa Fund blog.We can learn so much about taking time to tend to one another from other cultures. May we all remember to slow down and reach out in this coming year.

Our Granola

We eat a lot of granola year round, but these cold winter mornings are a perfect time for hearty breakfasts (and lunches, and snacks). I've seen several blog posts with yummy granola recipes, so I wanted to share ours. It's a modification of a recipe from my mother-in-law. We make it every week or so, and I love it because it's tasty, not the least bit fussy, and adapts well to whatever ingredients we have on hand. It is very simple, but a little spice or special dried fruit will make it fancy enough for a neighborly gift.

Our Granola
(Makes enough to fill a 2 quart mason jar, with a little left over for snacking on)

5 cups rolled oats (or other grain)
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix above ingredients, then add:
1/2 cup water or apple juice
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil

Mix well and spread on two cookie sheets. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every twenty minutes. Add raisins, cranberries, or other dried fruit after the baked granola has cooled.
You can be creative with the nuts and seeds--adding whatever sounds good. I sometimes sprinkle with cinnamon, too.
You may need to experiment with oven temp and cooking time till you achieve a nice golden brown color.
 

More Hand-Made Gifts

One of my first projects since being bitten by the sewing bug was to make a few potholders from Amanda Blake Soule's book Handmade Home. They are so sweet and pretty, fairly quick and easy (though I still find it challenging to sew a circle!), and small enough to use up little fabric scraps found at garage sales this summer. I liked making them so much that they turned into gifts for several family members this year.

A Letter-Writing Satchel

Now that the new year is here and Christmas surprises no longer need to be kept secret, I have a few hand-made gifts to share. The first is a little letter-writing satchel for my husband made from wool and canvas fabric found at a fabulous place called SCRAP. We've been trying to write more letters lately, and there always seems to be a frustrated search for pen, paper, envelope, and stamp prior to the endeavor. So I sewed up this simple satchel to contain all the necessary supplies and make the whole undertaking a little more peaceful and pleasant. And it worked! We wrote all our thank you's the day after Christmas and found it so satisfying. It helped to have fun and pretty and kooky cards that I also found at Scrap for 5 cents a piece. And Dan really likes it, too.

 

I made a few envelopes from old calendars and magazine pages to include in the satchel: