Happy Thanksgiving people!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (that’s me in 1986). I hope you have wonderful quality time with your families and good food to boot. I’m personally thankful for such a sweet supportive husband and family and the sweetest, funniest, most joy filled baby. How can you not melt when you see this:

In other arenas, next weekend I’m doing another craft show with my friend, and I thought in addition to my purses, I’d make some zippered bags. I love these things. I made 5 in a half hour and spent a little more time sewing in the linings by hand. This was totally the perfect project for me since I’ve put my jacket aside for a little while. No new fabric here either. Everything is recycled from my scrap pile, including the zippers which were previously recycled from a fabulous Ebay seller who sold me 200+ zippers plus thread, beads, bits of trim and other notions for $20 which included the shipping.

I was feeling pretty depressed about my jacket not turning out exactly as I’ve envisioned it, so this gave my mind some time to rest and recast the jacket in my mind. It’s crazy to me how emotionally attached we can become to the things we make.

 

It’s a boy!

After a really long labor, we finally got to meet our son, Noah James. He’s beautiful! We’re just so amazed by him. At the moment we’re just coping with the lack of sleep, so I imagine creative time will go by the wayside for a little while. Still, writing is soothing to me, so I may post more than I think I will. For now, this is what Noah thinks about cantaloupe (Nathan will disagree with me on this point, but I will freely interpret this face in such a manner for my own amusement).

 

Moving on…

Tomorrow is my last day as a teacher for a very long time.  This is a weird weird thing for me.  I’ve taught for 7 years now at the same little school.  I’ve seen 2 groups of 6th graders now from day 1 of first grade.  My classroom has been the backdrop for some terrible horrible no good very bad days as well as a place where amazing and joyful, sometimes even healing things have happened.  My kids went from not being able to sing hardly at all to having classrooms full of singing leaders who compose just amazing things and make musical decisions during their music-making.   I went from being someone who was very fluent in my own instrument but scared of my own shadow into becoming someone who really understands the PROCESS of teaching and is comfortable and shockingly funny in front of my students.  Each year I’ve set the bar higher and my students have risen to it–and exceeded it when I’ve gotten out of their way long enough to give them space to do so.  I’ve always told my 6th graders every year in a cheeky way that is not atypical of me that I will miss most of them.  Now, with little exception I think I will miss the vast majority of all of them. 

I will miss the social awkwardness of 6th graders, the complete inhibition of 5th graders, the way that 4th graders really dig into work, ALL of the song material of 3rd grade, the beautiful, bell-like qualities in 2nd graders’ voices, and the hugs, quirkiness, joy, and general sweetness of 1st graders. 

I know what I am gaining in staying home to raise this little one is well worth the sacrifice, but I know that this change will not be without sadness for me.  I’ve worked hard to learn to love my students.  The Lord has changed my heart towards many of them and for that I am truly grateful.  I hope I’ve taught them something in return.  I know they will miss me too.  At any rate, they ARE excited for me and this is what they are looking forward to (this BTW is very eloquently expressed by a 2nd grader):

 

Reading Cave

Valentine’s Day at our house was a quiet occasion…on purpose.  We decided that we didn’t want to battle all of the people out at some restaurant where the staff is probably paid extra to be nice to you and the kitchen staff is rather annoyed that you’re making them work extra hard.

So Nathan got me some beautiful yellow roses (because I think red are boring) and we built a reading cave in our living room. 

As a kid, I loved making little tents in my room with lights and pillows and blankets.  I disappeared in there with a fat stack of books and rarely emerged for the entire day that the structure was up.  We often bemoan the pitiful state of education, and though we haven’t and probably won’t make a final decision for a while as to how to deal with it in relationship to our own kids, one thing Nathan and I both agree needs to happen is that we need to teach our kids to LOVE to read as reading really is the gateway to further education in any subject.  What better way to do so then to build a little blanket fort?  It certainly was a nice way to spend the day with the man I love all stuck in this nice warm cozy den with The Silver Chair, and a couple of books on children I checked out from the library.

I emerged to make us a rack of lamb with some sauteed asparagus and stuffing. 

We decided lamb needs to be a more regular part of our lives. 

We also made smores over our electric stove. 

It was a good day.

 

Way too much cuteness

Sorry for my recent absence.  The past two weeks have been work work work…but not the kind I’m excited about. 

Another member of Sew Mama Sew’s forum suggested recently this book.  After perusing the images of it at this shop (the previous link said that the item is sold out, but I emailed her and said I was interested and she very quickly listed another copy), I decided the clothes looked far too adorable to pass up.  Japanese craft books are pricey, but this is the first book that really looked like I could make everything in it, so I neatly justified the cost, especially since it has 26 patterns!  I’m excited to get going on these projects:

Can you handle all the cuteness of the little purse?  Nathan thinks I’m crazy.

I guess these are all more girly clothes.  There are boys’ clothes in there too (like the little linen suit), I just really loved these.

 

Sewing lesson!

I have been most looking foward to today.  My sister-in-law just bought a machine and today we put together a tote bag from Bend the Rules Sewing which I bought her for Christmas along with a little notions kit I put together.

This is the pretty box I decoupaged (somebody needs to bring that craft back–it’s so fun) to fit all the notions:

 It was nice to take a back seat and play the role of teacher for the day.  I realize that actually teaching music has forced me to do what I thought was completely unnatural for me (and was definitely at the beginning)–which is to teach and to do so more instinctively.  I still feel like as a musician, my brain is wired to perform and not as much to teach, but perhaps I could teach something else.  Who knows?! 

Here is her bag.  I think it looks great, particularly because it is one of her first projects.

It’ll be perfect for my nephew to cart around his toys in.

 

12 Days of Christmas Cookies, Day 12

Congratulations intrepid blog readers…you have made it to the end of the cookie-a-thon. 

#12 Alfajores

I’m always on the lookout for unusual cookies.  When I was researching my list last year, this was one I came across that was more different than any other cookie I had seen before.  And it should be–it’s Argentinian.  The recipe is from Nick Malgieri’s A Baker’s Tour, which I picked up at Ross one day for $4 (that was a good day).  The cookie itself is odd in that it contains a high proportion of cornstarch which yields a rather tender cookie.  It is flavored with a good bit of lemon zest and cognac of all things.  This in and of itself would be a good cookie, but it gets more interesting.  The cookies, which are rolled and cut are then sandwiched and coated on the outside with dulce de leche.  The sides are then dipped in coconut.  The combination of flavors was so different I thought that they had to be tried.  These were the dark horse of last year’s cookie fest.  First, I must express my love for dulce de leche.

In college, I had a friend whose Dad did a lot of business in Brazil, and he would bring back treats for her from time to time.  The one I always managed to convince her to let me have was arequipe, which is the Brazilian form of dulce de leche.  Many graham crackers were eaten in Brittany’s dorm room with this amazing stuff slathered on.  Thankfully, I found out you didn’t have to go to Brazil to get some of it.  It seems every Latin culture has some version of this delightful milk caramel.  It comes by different names–arequipe, cajeta, dulce de leche–but the idea is the same no matter what you call it.  You simmer sweetened milk to which a tiny bit of baking soda has been added and maybe some flavoring like a cinnamon stick down until it is brown and thick…you can use sweetened condensed milk to save some time, but I find it tastes like the can often.  Last year, I made it from the can per Nick’s instructions (which very much unlike him were rather fussy–involving baking the stuff in a water bath and stirring it at regular intervals and replenishing the water) with the sweetened condensed milk and while the end result was passable, I wanted to try the homemade stuff this year.

So about a week before we assembled the cookies, I made the cajeta.  Cajeta is made with goat’s milk which brings a little bit of tang that tempers the sweetness.  Yes, you have to simmer it for about an hour and a half, but really you don’t have to pay attention to it at all.  I think I overcooked it this time in my effort to get a deep caramel color…it spread kind of weird on the cookies.  No difference, though because they are still wonderfully delicious.

One last invitation from me: add your pictures of your Christmas cookies here.  It’s fun seeing what people make.

Nathan and I are in San Francisco for a couple of days.  He has a science conference here, and I tagged along to eat and shop (which sounds worse on both counts than it actually is).  I imagine I shall write about where we eat and any jiffy fabric places I may come across in the next day or so.  I’m so excited to eat dim sum on Saturday!

 

Cookies are below this post…this is something completely different.

We had the ultrasound yesterday.  It’s so incredible to watch the baby move in real time. 

Here’s baby waving hello:

Here the baby’s chin was lifting up the same way that my nearly 3 month old niece lifts her little chin when you interact with her. 

How incredible that family characteristics are already in place in utero?!  I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

 

Cornelia

Cute pink girly thing #1 for my niece comes in the form of a sock elephant made from this book (which I love–it’s so sweet and easy to do.  This would be a good place for little hands to start sewing).  Why Cornelia?  Why not?  Usually I name all my animal friends with alliterative names (Tilly the Turtle, Bacon the Bear, Jehosphaphat the Jackrabbit [my personal favorite--especially when sweet little first graders try to say it], Phileas Frog etc), but Cornelia insisted on something different.  I feel like she needs a silk jacket or perhaps a tutu, but I’m sure my niece is not concerned about such things being only 3 days old. 

 Here we find our American Elephant in her natural habitat, among some of the many cookbooks in the house and near a spool of quilting thread, which has lately been used to make buckets of yoyos.

In other news, Nathan was here last weekend:

There is so much snow already!  My skiing friends will be excited.

 

Yeah!

I’m an auntie again.  My sweet sister-in-law gave birth to my niece early this morning.  Now my nephew is a big brother.  It’s so cool.  This is the FIRST girl that anyone I know has had (well, actually, I made my first yoyo quilt for a friend who had a girl, but they promptly moved away)–and even better, we’re RELATED!!!!  Boys are great, but if I was being honest, I’ve been kind of hoping for someone to mix it up a little.  I get to make cute pink things (maybe not all pink) and no one can stop me!!!!  I’m so excited.