I finally spent the time to learn to knit last year, and over the last 6 months, I have been knitting and crocheting more than I have been sewing.  I’ve been missing my sewing machine though, so I’m sure I will be making some things soon.  I have some home decorating projects in my short-term action plan.  Kimara over at Wee Folk Art posted about this Sky Scarf in December as she had given her granddaughter a knitting Christmas gift of all the yarn to make this sky scarf and they were going to work on it together.  I think it’s a lovely idea to give a gift that is not just “something” but the gift of dedicated time spent together.

The idea behind the Sky Scarf is that you choose a selection of sky colors of yarn (blues, grays, whites, etc.), and you note the color of the sky every day.  You knit two rows of your scarf in the colors of the sky per day.  Theoretically, after a year of knitting, you would have 730 rows of knitting (732 in Leap Year!).  I had also seen the sky scarf making the rounds on Pinterest, but hadn’t really thought about making one for myself.

Then I came across the Conceptual Knitters forum on Ravelry, which was started by Lea Redmond who designed the idea behind the scarf (see also pattern page on Ravelry).  Seeing the works in progress, I got inspired and decided to start one of my own!  Looking through the projects that people had in progress on Ravelry helped me decide on the type of yarn to use, size of needles, design of the scarf, etc.  I love Ravelry!  Not everyone has decided to do the color of the sky every day.  Some people decided to make a weight loss scarf with different colors representing losses/gains/etc.  Others are doing temperature changes because their sky color doesn’t change very often.  Some are adding beads to represent different things like snow or rain.  It is fun to read about all of the different interpretations.

I chose to use Knit Picks Palette in Sky, Blue, White, Silver, Mist and Ash.  Palette is 100% wool in a fingering weight.  I am using two strands of colors per day, so for example, if it’s a light blue sky day with puffy white clouds, I will use Sky and White.  For a snowy, overcast day, I am using Silver and White.  Dark stormy clouds?  Perhaps Silver and Ash, or Blue and Ash, depending on how the sky has changed throughout the day.  It’s been a lot of fun to remember to note down the sky each day.  I’m trying to keep to around the noon-time hour, but I’m not going to stress about it.  Here is my Ravelry project page which I’m keeping updated with my progress.  For Blue, Sky and Silver, I divided the yarn in half, so that I could do two strands of the same color if the day’s weather warranted it.

I started out using size 4 needles which is what the pattern called for.  However, the pattern is for lace weight, and I’m using fingering weight.  It wasn’t turning out too well (I’m a new knitter, so have to learn these things through trial and error!), so I took it out, and am now using a size 7 needle.  It’s working much better!  Lots of people are doing standard garter stitch scarves, but I decided I wanted to try a pattern.  I saw someone was using the Favorite Scarf Ever pattern by Lisa Bruce (SunshineWalks), and as that pattern (Ravelry link) had been in my queue for quite some time, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to try it out.  I had to watch several You Tube videos to figure out all the stitches (there aren’t really very many, I’m just new to them).  The 3-4 times that I started over were good practice for figuring out the pattern.  But now I’m moving along, and I’m so happy with it!  I probably won’t go for a whole year.  That would make a pretty long scarf.  I’ll probably just keep going until it’s a length that I like.  The scarf pattern actually calls for doing it in two halves, and then seaming them in the middle so that the chevron pattern is symmetrical when it’s draped over your neck.  I’m not sure I will do that with this daily weather concept, but we’ll see how it goes as I get further along.  I absolutely love the Favorite Scarf Ever pattern though and am already starting another one in a variegated yarn.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep all my yarn from tangling as I knit the daily rows.  You keep the yarn going and carry it up along the edge in a twist pattern.  So, my scarf has 9 strands coming off of it at all times, even though I’m only knitting with two at a time.  It’s already getting a little out of control.  I’m thinking I need a cloth basket with little partitions for each ball of yarn.  So perhaps my sewing machine WILL get some use this week!

We finally got some snow (about 6in) last Thursday!

I bought Hubby a sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour for Christmas.  He has been having a great time experimenting with all the things that you can do with it!  And I have been enjoying the taste-testing.  We really enjoyed the Classic Sourdough Waffle recipe from KAF (made with no modifications except for using powdered buttermilk).  The kids even loved them!  And they froze well.  (Re-heat on a light setting in your toaster.)

What Hubby has most been working on however is his perfect sourdough bread.  He wanted a crunchy exterior, a nice interior with a good crumb/texture.  He tried the Rustic Sourdough Bread recipe from KAF, and while the kids and I really liked it, he didn’t like the crumb.  It was too “sandwich bread-y”, if you know what I mean.  So, he thinks he finally settled on a favorite recipe.  (Although I’m sure he will keep tweaking it.)  He’s going to share it on his blog in the next few days, but here’s a little teaser….

He had me make it by myself yesterday so he could test the recipe and make sure the instructions were clear.  It is so yummy!!

My boys really enjoy Chinese Checkers, so the hubby and I had an idea to make a board, and instead of using traditional pegs or marbles, I would paint little peg people in different colors.  The rules for Chinese Checkers are pretty simple, and it’s easy for even a 4-5 year old to begin playing with minimal assistance.  We made our first one, and brought it out to Michigan as a gift for my brother-in-law’s family.  I hope they love it!  I have a feeling that the little people may end up being used for many more things than just a Chinese Checkers game.

Hubby made the board with plywood, and used a drill press for the holes.  He made a very nice, elaborate template to line up all the holes accurately.  I think he is going to do a full story on the board/box on his blog.  (UPDATE:  Here’s his post on the nitty-gritty box making!)

Used the template to pre-mark holes with a small nail, then used that hole to line up the drill press

I was in charge of painting little peg people and I did the painting on the board triangles.  We decided on the following color scheme:

Black – Ninjas
White – Snowmen
Red – Pirates
Blue – Princesses
Green – Elves/Archer-types
Brown – Indians

I did about two coats of paint, and two coats of mod podge to seal them.  They are the “little boy” people that you can get at Caseys and they have a 5/8″ bottom diameter.  I used little pots or clothespin doll stands to help stand them upside-down when the bottoms needed to dry. It worked well.  I put the year and family initial on the bottom.

Painting tip for the eyes — don’t use a paint pen.  The eyes bled a bit when I used a paint pen.  When I just used a small tip paintbrush, they turned out much better.

The board is on top of a box that the hubby made, and I sewed up a little felt bag to hold the people inside the box for storage.

This was so fun to make!  Now we need to make one for our boys.  I have asked hubby to use a bit thicker of a piece of plywood, so the holes can be deeper.  It was too easy to knock over the pieces when playing with the depth that he drilled the holes on this version.  Hubby sealed the entire game/box with shellac.

Here are some close-ups of the little people:

Ready for a game!

You can never go wrong with Lego mini-figures!  I gave it a nice press with my steam iron and it looks great.  I need to make some adjustments to the floppy star though.  I should have done it last year, but never found the time.  Needs some sort of reinforcement.  If I were making it again, I’d probably reinforce it with some heavy interfacing.

I have some special plans for these little guys.  I can’t wait to share, but for now, it’s hush hush.  Aren’t the snowmen cute, though??  These are the tiny “boy” peg dolls that are 1-11/16″ tall.  Hubby and I are collaborating on something.  Fun, fun!

You can find the instructions on my blog, here.  After I made the first one for my son’s Montessori class, the other teachers saw it and wanted one too.  By the third one, I had learned a few things.  1) Use brown thread to go around the turkey body,    and 2) A zig zag stitch going around the body and feathers looked better.

Embroidered felt advent calendar

It was so worth all the work! I need to fix the star on top this year though.  It’s gotten a bit floppy over the last few years of use.

Last year, I started making the “Hood tree skirt” from the 2010 Holiday issue of Fat Quarterly, but never got around to finishing it before Christmas.  Well, this weekend I pulled it out, and did all the quilting (Free-motion).  Whew!  It only took about an hour, but my arms/hands were tired!  Now, all that is left is putting on the elastic or ties, and doing the binding.  I thinking I will get it done this year!  Just need to decide on the binding.  Red or green polka dots?  Maybe.

The other project that I didn’t finish before Christmas last year were my holiday-themed place mats.  I finished those earlier this spring, so I’m looking forward to using them for the first time come December.

I like to make a handmade ornament every year to give to various peeps, family, teachers, etc.  Or just for myself.  So, need to think about what I want to make this year.  Last year I made some felt owls that I loved.  The year before I made Elsie Marley’s gingerbread man (Not my gumdrop buttons!).

I’m going to have to peruse my Winter/Christmas craftiness board on Pinterest and see what I might like to make.

Success!

Since finding the Gochujang, I have made a few things from the cookbook.  It’s a great book.  Beautiful photography and a really nice ingredient section in the front to teach you about the various ingredients used in Korean cooking.  There is also a section called “Your starter kit for Korean cooking” which goes through making various base sauces, pastes and stocks.  I was making a beef stir-fry dish a few weeks ago, and needed to make some Sweet Soy Sauce Base and a Seasoned Red Pepper Paste.  Both are good for several months in the refrigerator, so they recommend making a larger batch and saving it.  I have to say that it’s much easier to just have it sitting there and ready.  Makes putting a dish together much quicker!

In any case, while having made several things, I have STILL not made any bibimbap!  Bad Tina!  We have just been so busy that I haven’t had time to prepare all the little vegetable toppings that are included in the dish.  However, I have been experimenting with my Gochujang, and when I saw a recipe for Kimchi Fried Rice on Serious Eats the other day, I decided to adapt it for what we had on hand, including that Seasoned Red Pepper Paste!

I love to make fried rice.  Simple and use up the leftovers in your refrigerator!  I’ll frequently make it for lunch when I have leftover rice in the refrigerator.  I did make a special trip to the grocery store to buy a new jar of Kimchi.  My store only has one brand (I’m happy there’s at least one!) and it’s a mild version.  It works for me.  The seasoned red pepper paste adds plenty of heat.  It’s on my bucket list to try making homemade Kimchi one day.  Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish (usually napa cabbage), and can vary by region and season.  It can also vary greatly in how spicy it is.

I also had a leftover pork chop in the fridge, and some mixed vegetables that had been leftover from dinner the other night.  And of course, we have plenty of eggs for the topping!  Fried rice is definitely best made with one, or even two/three, day old rice.  Since I hadn’t planned on making this fried rice, I didn’t actually have any rice in my refrigerator.  No problem!  I made up a batch of jasmine rice with just a little bit less water than normal, spread it out onto a baking sheet into a single-ish layer, and put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes.  Pulled it out and let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes and I was good to go.  Not ideal, but works in a pinch.

Seasoned Red Pepper Paste, adapted from The Korean Table

The major adaptation with this recipe is that it calls for Korean coarse red pepper flakes.  Although they state in the book that this is a “must-have” and can’t be substituted, I did it anyway because I didn’t think to buy them on my excursion to buy the Gochujang, and there is nowhere around here to buy them.  I substituted normal McCormick’s crushed red pepper, but used less than called for with the Korean flakes.  You can vary the amount you add based on how spicy you want it to be.

1-2 tsp. red pepper flakes
3 Tb. Gochujang
1 Tb. crushed garlic
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger (about half an inch of root)
1 tsp. oyster sauce
1 Tb. low-sodium soy sauce
1 Tb. light brown sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice

Mix together.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 months.

Korean Style Fried Rice
(serves 4)

3 cups dried jasmine rice
4.5 cups of water
2 Tb. vegetable oil
1-2 leftover pork chops, diced small (or other cooked meat that you have on hand)
Any sort of veggies that you have kicking around the fridge
14-oz jar of mild kimchi (or your heat preference)
1 Tb. butter
2 Tb. seasoned red pepper paste (see above)
1 Tb. sesame oil
2 Tb. low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tb. oyster sauce
1-2 eggs per person

1. Prepare rice ahead of time, preferably 1-2 days.  Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

2. Dig through refrigerator for leftovers.  I like leftover pork chops that I dice into about 1/2 inch pieces.  Frozen peas or other veggies.  Some shredded carrots.  Maybe you have some green beans or pea pods.  This time I solely used some leftover frozen mixed veggies (peas, corn and beans) from a previous dinner.

3. Heat large skillet (I use my 12-in cast iron pan), add 1 Tb. oil and heat on medium.  When oil begins to shimmer, add the diced meat and heat for 1-2 minutes.  If the veggies that you are adding are raw (not previously cooked leftovers), then add those first and saute until about 75% cooked.  Then add the meat.

4. Add a little bit more oil if necessary and then the Kimchi, and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.  If the Kimchi is in big pieces, you might want to chop it up a bit beforehand.

5. Add the butter and seasoned red pepper paste, thoroughly incorporate.

6. Add in the veggies if you haven’t done so already.

7. Toss in the rice.  I don’t usually use all of the rice that I cooked as that overloads my pan.  So, just add in as much as your pan will tolerate, and save the rest to add into the leftovers.

8. Break up any rice clumps, and stir well into the Kimchi mixture.

9. Add in the sesame oil, soy sauce and oyster sauce and mix in well.

10. Let sit in the pan for 2-3 minutes to develop a nice, crusty bottom.

11. Serve into individual dishes.

12. Prepare fried eggs.  I like two eggs on top of mine, but you might rather just have one.  You’re just making fried eggs and you want the yolk to still be runny (like sunny-side up eggs).  So, I just heat some oil/butter in a small non-stick skillet, toss in the eggs, flip very briefly, and then place on top of the bowl of rice.

13. Serve with additional seasoned red pepper paste so people can kick up the heat if they want.

I love to mix in my runny egg yolks into the rice.  Mmm….

I received an order from Casey’s Wood Products yesterday.  Amazing how many little wooden things they can fit into a small priority mail box.  Lots of little wooden peg people.  Most of these little ones are the “little boy” size.  I also got some of the big people size, some blocks, and some mini and small clothespins.  I have Christmas present crafting plans!!

The boys got right to work however with my stash this morning before school crafting together a ninja army.

And a ninja flying army.

I don’t have any plans for the big people.  They are just good to have around and I was placing an order anyway.  Likewise on the clothespins, but I’d like to try painting them for some art wire displays.  Now the little boy people were my main motivation for the order.  That I have to keep a secret for the time being, but no worries, I’ll be sharing if it all works out!

Do you need any creative inspiration for your Christmas crafting projects?  Sometimes I think that I have too much inspiration!  Seriously though, I highly recommend Pinterest if you are a visual person (or even if you think you aren’t!).  I was just scrolling through it to find something that I had pinned on my Crafty Ideas board, and I was once again blown away by all the ideas swirling about my head when I saw all those lovely pictures!

And just for fun….the puppy wants to say Hi.  Is he still a puppy when he’s three?  He still acts like one.  Unlike our “old-man dog” who tore his ACL six weeks ago, poor guy.  Trying to keep up with the puppy!

Yes, it’s fall in Maine!  Look at that beautiful color in my backyard.  I especially love that dead tree sticking up above it all.  It’s a favorite place for the crows to hang out, and I have even seen a juvenile bald eagle there once!  It has been busy this fall with the normal start of the school routine, and of course fall sports for the boys.  K started travel soccer this fall and it has kept us busy.  He’s having an awesome time and has improved a lot with the higher caliber of play and coaching.

The girls are doing wonderfully.  We have 1 barred rock and 5 golden comets.  They have been pretty consistently giving us 4-6 eggs per day.  I need to discover some new frittata recipes or something!  Too….many….eggs.  My friends are going to begin to be the lucky recipients of fresh eggs.  K loves hard boiled eggs, but I’ve discovered that you can’t hard-boil the fresh eggs.  Well, I knew that to be true, but I have also proven it several times.  Last time I hard-boiled some, I let them sit for about 10 days before boiling them.  That still wasn’t quite long enough.  The shells are really difficult to remove and you get a mangled egg.  I’m going to try 2 weeks next time.

I made a great kim chi fried rice with fried eggs on top last night for dinner.  I’ll share the recipe this weekend.  The kids don’t like fried rice, but Hubby and I loved it!

My annual Halloween display needs some new additions this year.  J wants to make more ghosts.  I’m not sure what to make though.  Hmm….maybe a floss wrapped bendy doll in the shape of a skeleton?  That might be fun.  Some mini hay bales?  Or maybe these hay bundles?

Of course, the month is getting away from me.  So we’ll see if I end up with time to make anything.  I have a project to make for a fundraiser auction for J’s old school, and of course I haven’t even started on Halloween costumes yet!!  K wants to be a red ninja, and J wants to be Yoshi from Super Mario Bros.  Ninja is not so hard.  Yoshi…..hmm…..more difficult.  I’m thinking this dinosaur tail, plus a hooded fleece cape with some spines down the back.  That’s my project for this weekend.

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything but how super-cool are these mushrooms growing up a tree in the woods behind our house??

Stripey Happiness!

So, I have been working on these fingerless mittens for quite awhile (well it was only a month, but it felt like a long time).  All those stripes of color and ends that I keep forgetting to weave in as I go along!  (No seriously, I did most of them as I went along, I just forgot a few.)  Here is my Ravelry page for it.  I used leftover Knit Picks Wool of the Andes that I have from the hexie cushion that I’m making.  It doesn’t take a lot of yarn to make the mitts.  The pattern is based on Lucy’s mitts from Attic24.

I started off with a chain 34, as Lucy did, but they turned out a little big for me.  Not really in the start of it (I did try them on as I went along), but I have really thin wrists.  I think I would need to modify the pattern if I made another pair to go in a bit at the wrist.

Flat piece - not really straight, but no worries, you don't notice once you seam it up the side!

They are very simple.  Just make a flat piece that is the right length and width.  This is half double crochet (hdc) with Lucy’s bobble-shell edging on the top and bottom.  It would be even simpler using one color of yarn or variegated.  Each color consists of two rows of hdc.  Then, I just used single crochet to join it together along the side.  You could also do it so the seam doesn’t show, but I like the stripe of yellow color.  And you just leave a space for your thumb as you go up the side.

J loved them though and wants a pair of his own!  Not sure he would actually wear them however.  I think he just likes them because they are Mommy’s.

Tina’s Simple Pot Roast

3.5-4 pound beef roast (rump, etc.  something cheap because this long, slow cooking works well for those meats)
1/3 cup flour
3-4 Tb. butter
ground black pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup dry vermouth
4-5 medium yukon gold potatoes, chopped medium
3-4 medium carrots, chopped medium

1. Put your flour on a plate and sprinkle liberally with fresh cracked pepper.  Mix up the flour mixture, and dredge the roast on all sides.

2. Meanwhile, melt the butter on a medium-high heat in your Dutch Oven.  Add in the sliced onion and saute for a few minutes.

3. Add in the roast and brown the roast on all sides, 3-4 minutes per side or so.

4. Mix up the sauce — mushroom soup, vermouth and soup mix.

Sigh, my only picture. Ready to go in the oven.

5. Pour over roast, put on the lid and place in preheated 325 F oven.

6. Cook for about 2.5 hours.

7. Prep potatoes and carrots.  (Cut into bigger sized pieces, maybe about an inch.)

8. Add potatoes and carrots after 2.5 hours.  Mix into the sauce so they get covered in the gravy.  Cook for an additional hour (for a total of 3.5 hours).

Yummy carrots from my garden!

9. Feel free to add other vegetables, sometimes I add peas towards the very end, or add in parsnips with the carrots.

10. Serve with biscuits, bread, side dish of peas, etc.

Total comfort food!  The vermouth really makes the gravy.  Don’t leave it out.  If you don’t have any, I have substituted a mix of white wine and sherry before.  But, I usually just try to always keep vermouth in the liquor cabinet, just for this recipe.  I’d say it takes about 10-15 minutes to get the roast in the oven, then another 15 minutes to prep the potatoes/carrots.  The rest of the time is just oven time.  Great result for little investment!

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Exchange sponsored by Le Creuset.

Yummy yarny goodness

It is Stylecraft Special DK that I ordered from Deramores in the UK.  Free shipping and only took a week to get here!  It is acrylic yarn, and such great colors.  I was inspired by all the wonderful color over on Lucy’s blog at Attic24.  Deramores also has a coupon that they advertise on Ravelry for 10% off.  Great service and I was so excited to open the package!

They sell it as a special colour pack – specifically associated with some of Lucy’s past posts.  The colors include the following.

From the top two/left: Shrimp, Aspen.  2nd from top row: Plum, Lipstick, Pomegranate, Lavender.  Third row from top: Spring Green, Meadow, Aster, Saffron, Magenta.  And the bottom row: Clematis, Cloud Blue, Sherbet, Fondant, Wisteria and Turquoise.

I’m going to have to double-check these colors in the daylight.  It’s hard to tell here in my nighttime office!  Funny how that is.  I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to make with it all, but I had some thoughts of a granny stripe blanket or pillow cover.  Then I thought that maybe I’d cover my rectangular ottoman with it.  But then I came across this great little cover for a short round footstool from the Crochet with Raymond blog in a mandala shape, and I’ve decided that I need to make it!  I love it!  Once I make the cover, Hubby is going to make a footstool that will fit it.  I’m thinking a short, round, three or four legged stool.  We’ll see how it all comes out.  I hope to get started with it this weekend.  I’m trying to finish one other project first.

Link to my in-progress Ravelry page:  

Our first double-yolk egg

I love soft boiled eggs!  Flo started laying eggs last week (at about 19 weeks old).  They were pretty tiny at first, but have been getting bigger.  Now, some of the older Golden Comets must have started laying as well, as I found three today (they are 19 weeks old this week).  Unfortunately, there is this tiny little area in the back corner of the coop, and there were two there.  You can’t even see it because the egg laying box is in the way, so when the boys went out to look, they only found one.  I’m going to have to do something to prevent them from laying eggs there.  Might need to block it off.  Use the boxes girls!  It took me a lot of time to paint them!

I measured the two eggs that we got a few days ago, so you could see the size.  They are not yet the size of “large” supermarket eggs.  But they have gotten bigger in the last week.

Eggs after a week are about a "medium" size as compared to the supermarket eggs

Happy Birthday J!

J turned seven in June.  My baby….seven!  J is an avid scientist and engineer.  He loves to build things, take things apart, and conduct mysterious experiments at the kitchen sink.  And he loves Duck Tape.  (Because doesn’t everyone?)  I still find it humorous to remember the time when he was two, and I discovered that he had taken apart our dust buster beyond the ability to ever put it back together again.  To this day, I still don’t have an adequate replacement for that.  I should probably add that to my Christmas list.  I usually give the boys the option to have a birthday party at home or an away location like bowling, swimming, bounce zone place, remote control race track, putt-putt, etc.  J was leaning towards the remote control car race track place (which is super cool), but when I suggested a mad scientist party complete with the diet soda/Mentos experiment that he had recently watched on MythBusters, he was sold!

First, I bought some super cute custom “mad scientist” invitations from Etsy.  I usually try to make my own invitations, but these were so adorable that I decided to focus on other stuff.

Initially, we did “research” into the activities that we might want to conduct by looking through some of J’s kid science experiment books.

* The Everything Kids’ Science Experiments Book

* Everything Kids’ Magical Science Experiments Book

* Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments That Make Science Fun (Steve Spangler Science)

* The Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do

We ended up doing three science activities: 1) suck the egg into a bottle, 2) make your own glow in the dark slime!, and 3) Mentos + Diet Coke = Geyser.  The last one we did outside in the side yard where the dogs couldn’t come over to lick the sticky grass.  Here’s the progress of events.  We had 10 kids, both boys and girls.

1. Arrival, make a mess in the house pulling out all the toys

2. Sit down around the kitchen table, where they had the following science tools:  lab notebook with their name on it, pencil, and eye protection.

Eye protection and lab notebooks ready!

3. We first demonstrated the egg in a bottle trick.  We used the technique described in the Steve Spangler book which has you put birthday candles in the peeled hard-boiled egg, and then let it rest on the mouth of a bottle (we used a glass milk bottle).  First, we tried one birthday candle and had the kids put down in their lab notebooks what they thought would happen.  (Answer: nothing!)  Then we tried two candles, umm…not too exciting.  Then….we tried three candles!  Voila!  Egg sucked into bottle as the flames from the three candles heat the molecules of air in the bottle, causing the molecules to move farther apart from each other, some of which escape from the bottle.  Flames go out, molecules cool down, move closer together making room for more air molecules, and a partial vacuum is created.  Air molecules from outside the bottle want to come in.  Push egg into bottle  and equilibrium is restored!

Egg in the Bottle Trick

3. Make glow in the dark, neon-colored slime.  The slime was tons of fun to make.  I used the instructions found here, and added some neon food coloring (which matched the cupcakes!) and some glow in the dark paint.  We pre-made the Borax solution and had it sitting in little plastic cups ready for the kids.  Popsicle sticks for stirring.  And some of those plastic Ziploc containers to take it home with them.

J shaking up the borax solution

J's slime test batch. No pictures of the actual slime-making at the party as I was too busy at the time helping the kids.

4. Time for cupcakes!

5. Now outside for the big finale – the Mentos/Diet Coke geyser.  The kids loved it.  I think we ended up doing it three times (the amount of Diet Coke bottles that we had).  I bought the Steve Spangler geyser tubes that allow 8 Mentos to all get dropped in at once, which allows for a taller geyser.  (At the same time, I also ordered some test tubes that I filled with mini M&Ms and Skittles as part of the goodie bags.)

Geyser!

And here’s a little movie of the experiment.  Tons of fun!  Notice the excessive amounts of screeching.  Definitely a sign of good-times.

Definitely one of the most fun birthday parties that I’ve put on for the boys.  Everyone had a great time!

Lobster Shirts 2011

Our annual camping trip this summer was to an amazing place – Acadia National Park.  We are lucky to live so close to a national treasure.  Now, that may sound pretty hokey, LOL, but it really is a beautiful place….even in August when it’s overrun by tourists from all over the world.  To be honest, it didn’t even really feel overrun to me.  I think that might be part of the beauty of it.

In honor of heading to Mt. Desert Island for our camping trip, the boys requested lobster shirts this year.  I picked out bright green shirts, and red paint (of course!) for the lobster.  They turned out excellent!  I was going to go the easy route and find a template online that I would just trace, but it wasn’t as easy as that sounds like it should be.  I did find a nice looking stencil, but it looked funny to me.  What was wrong with it?  Oh yes, the poor lobster only had 3 sets of legs!  I’ve eaten enough of the miniscule meat out of those little legs that I knew that there should be four!  I just ended up freehand drawing my own lobster actually and they turned out great.  I only used two coats of red fabric paint.  I give instructions on how to make a freezer paper stencil in my prior posts from 2008 (bears), 2009 (moose) and 2010 (bald eagle).

In the picture above, the boys are also posing with their Harry Potter magic wands that the Hubby and I made for them.  A post on that later!  They are well-loved.

Early morning at the campsite

We camped at Mount Desert Campground and had a great time.  It’s in a wonderful, central location, and as tent campers, we appreciated the wooden platforms and the fact that they only allow trailers less than 20 feet.  Being located right on Somes Sound didn’t hurt either!  The boys really enjoyed fishing for crabs with hot dogs off their kayak docks.  We had an amazing time hiking up South Bubble (and an even more amazing time hiking down the cliff side!).  J, who just turned 7 in June, was a mountain goat and had more endurance than the rest of us.   The hike up to South Bubble (and Bubble Rock) was not that difficult and appropriate for most ages.  Instead of going back the way we came though, we decided to go down the opposite side facing Jordan Pond.  That was a steep climb down that involved quite a bit of two-handed rock scrambling (I think it’s called the Bubbles Trail).  The boys did a great job!  We then headed north around Jordan Pond, and went back up the Bubble Divide.  Then went straight up rock stairs to the ridge and then back down again before meeting back up with the original South Bubble trail.  Whew!  That one was a doozy!  Total was about 3.5 miles and the kids did great.  (Okay, I’ll admit it…it stretched my limits.)

Can they move bubble rock?! Glaciers are super-cool.

Top of South Bubble looking out over Jordan Pond. J is wearing his bald eagle camping shirt from 2010.

Down the Bubbles Trail

Back up the Bubble Divide. Only picture I took because I was huffing and puffing too much after this.

We also spent an afternoon biking on the carriage trails and did a 5.5 mile loop on the Witch Hole Pond trail.  There is a beautiful stone bridge halfway along where we stopped for some creek playing and a snack.  J just learned to ride his bike without training wheels a few months ago, and he did a great job keeping up.  He still needs to practice his gear shifting though.  Some of the hills were hard for him.

One of Acadia's famous stone bridges

On the touristy end of things, we did the Diver Ed excursion one morning.  It was awesome!  Diver Ed takes you out in his boat where he dives off the side and collects sea creatures which he brings up for the kids to touch in touch tanks.  All with some awesome video equipment and a 60″ LCD on the boat!  The kids loved it, and it was nice to take a ride out into Frenchman’s Bay.  We were lucky to have some pretty amazing weather.

Morning fog on Frenchman's Bay

Sea Star!

We only live two hours away, and can’t wait to go back for some bike riding for a day trip one day this fall.  If we can find time between K playing travel soccer and J doing the local rec soccer program.

We planted Thai Basil in our herb garden this year for the first time.  When we came home from vacation a few days ago, we noticed that it had exploded.  Mmmm…basil.  We also have the standard Italian basil in the garden which we plan to make pesto with, so we said to ourselves, why not make pesto with the Thai Basil too?  All credit for this yummy dish goes to the Hubby who did a little perusing of our cookbook collection and made something up.

Thai Basil Pesto with Grilled Shrimp and Fish

Pesto:

3/4 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
Juice of 3 limes
Hot Peppers (see note)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 in. fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 T. fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 T. sugar
2 cups Thai Basil leaves
1 cup mint leaves

Additional Ingredients:

1 package of buckwheat noodles (Soba)
1 pound of raw shrimp, peeled and deveined with tail removed
1 fish filet (we used haddock, about 3/4 pound)
Some vegetables to add to stir fry (we used leftovers in the fridge – snap peas and cauliflower)
Olive oil, salt and pepper

1. Prepare the pesto sauce.  You really need a big food processor for this.  I suppose you could also use a blender (if your blender is more powerful than mine, LOL!).  Process all the ingredients for the pesto except for the Thai Basil leaves and mint leaves.  It will be pretty liquidy.  Add the basil and mint leaves and process (pulse in 1-second bursts) just a bit until it comes together.  You don’t want to heat/cook the basil because it will turn brown.

2. Boil the Soba according to package directions.

3. Start stir frying your vegetables in some olive oil.  We use our 12-inch cast iron skillet for stir frying because it has more surface area than our wok.  We used whatever we had handy in the refrigerator which was some leftover cauliflower (cut small) and some snap peas from our garden.

4. Meanwhile, drizzle fish and shrimp with olive oil and salt/pepper, and grill.  We used a grill basket on our charcoal grill.  It doesn’t need very long to cook, about 3 minutes per side for the fish and 3-5 minutes for the shrimp.

5. When the vegetables are ready, add in the cooked noodles, mix around, and add one cup of the pesto sauce.  Add more if necessary.

6. Turn out onto a serving platter, add the shrimp and fish on top, and drizzle with more pesto.

We had enough pesto leftover to make another smaller dish.  (It’s still in my fridge.)

NOTE: For the peppers.  You are going to have to use as many peppers as you prefer from a heat standpoint.  We happened to use 2 jalapenos and 1 serrano pepper because that is what we had.  We did not use the seeds or ribs.  It could have been a bit more spicy for us, so next time we will keep the ribs of the jalapeno and see how we like that.  It’s very much a personal preference thing.

Tomatoes growing in our compost bin

We just got home from a week up at Moosehead Lake (unfortunately we didn’t see any moose).  Our garden and chickens did great while we were gone due to the help of a good friend.  This “little” baby in our compost bins though didn’t need any water.  We haven’t taken care of it at all, and look what is going on!  Not sure what it is.  I think it might be a variety of a cherry/grape that we grew last year.  It started sprouting in the compost bin this spring and we just let it go.  It’s amazingly huge.  It’s not even that sunny over there.  I think it’s about 10x as large as the tomatoes that are growing in the square foot garden or the patio containers.  FUN!  I guess we have some good compost.

The completed chicken coop, or "chick mahal" as the Hubby calls it

My in-laws brought us the super-cute metal Welcome sign when they came to visit.  They picked it up in a little gift shop in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Once the chicken coop was completed, we had the big unveil and brought out the chickens!

Amidst all the chicken hub-bub, we also celebrated J’s 7th birthday with a big “mad science” party!  More on that later because it was super-awesome.

And I was finally able to get out strawberry picking and make jam, as I have been wanting to do for three years.  So happy it finally worked out.  I picked 12 pounds of strawberries in about one hour and fifteen minutes, and all for only $18!  That made me two batches of jam, plus 3 pounds to freeze.  I used the instructions from Pickyourown.com to make the jam, using the low sugar method.

Squam Lake

Don’t let those cute toes in the water fool you.  It was frigid!

Where have I been???  Why HERE!  I have just returned from the most amazing five days at the Squam Art Workshops (SAW).  To be surrounded by so many creative and lovely people is inspiring and amazing.  Five days of soaking in the crafty atmosphere, hanging out with wonderful people, eating great food, immersing myself in the lovely New Hampshire landscape, and not worrying about anything else!  It was awesome.  I am going to devote a full post to Squam, but for now, let me talk about my pre-Squam preparations.  First on my list was making my first batch of homebrew to bring along to share with my cabin mates!  Hubby has been making beer for a LONG, LONG time.  Longer than he should own up to.

Squirrel and Needle Brown Ale

In honor of my first SAW, I decided to make some beer.  I settled on an English style brown ale.  I am lucky enough to have access to all of Hubby’s equipment and expertise, so the process went smoothly.  We made it about a month ago because it needs about two weeks to ferment in a bucket, and then you bottle it, and it needs another two weeks to carbonate in the bottle.  So, we had it ready in time for me to take to SAW.  All my cabin mates loved it!  Thanks ladies!  Now, I need to make some more.  Hmm…what should I make next?

Hubby wrote up a full-of-detail post over on his blog.  If you are interested in those nitty-gritty beer-making details.  I have to say though that the cabin mates might have liked the homemade cheesecake that I brought a tad bit more than the beer….

Ahhh….Squam….

Back in February, my Saturday crafty group of friends made 10 delivery kits to send to Konbit Sante as part of Craft Hope‘s Project 11.  Craft Hope recently posted an update that showed all the boxes in the Konbit Sante warehouse of the 2,510 delivery kits that were received and will soon be making their way to Haiti to save the lives of mamas and babies.  Check out the amazing-ness of all of those boxes!  I am so proud to have been able to be a part of such an effort.  But, it doesn’t end there!

Craft Hope recently announced Project 12 which is to make handmade bracelets for orphans in Russia.  Then, due to the recent tornadoes in the South, they also announced a Project 13 which is to provide blankets to survivors of the tornadoes.  Join in!  The deadline for both projects is June 15th, and all the details can be found on the Craft Hope website.

Hullloooo!

Well, the chickens are growing by leaps and bounds!  Flo, the barred rock, is 2.5 weeks old, and the 3 golden comets are 1.5 weeks old.  Flo is already getting huge!  Barred rocks are large hens, weighing 7-8 pounds.  Golden comets are only 5-6 pounds, so that probably accounts for the fact that Flo looks three times as large!  We will be getting two more golden comet chicks tomorrow, and that will round out the flock to six. Hopefully the new babies will be as easily integrated with the older ones as the last set.

Whatcha' doin'?

Flo has been trying to fly out of the box that they are currently housed in, so I will be making some changes today before the two new babies arrive.  The box is currently in our big dog crate, so I’m going to pull the box out, and put the chicks straight into the crate.  The crate is nice because it gives a really easy place to hang the brooding lamp (which keeps them warm).  I will be putting up a wall of cardboard around the inside walls of the crate though to keep the mess down, and to prevent them from trying to push through.  Also helps keep away drafts and keep it warm, of course.

Work on the coop begins this weekend!  We have it all planned out, and the hubby just needs to figure out some more exact measurements so he knows how much wood to buy.  It’s going to be about a 4′ x 6′ coop with a 12′ x 6′ attached run.  Roof over the entire thing for shade and to keep snow out of the run.  The coop is going to be raised up 2 feet off the ground so there will be run space underneath as well.  We need to figure out exactly how we are going to protect the bottom from predators.  Some variation of hardware cloth, but we haven’t figure out what exactly.  I think maybe straight down into a trench to protect from digging predators.  We are going to place it here in our cleared garden bed.

Future home of chicken coop

I need to make some important design decisions while the hubby works on the construction details…..like what color to paint it!  That is going to be my job.  You can see all my chicken coop inspiration on Pinterest.

Hello Flo!

Unfortunately, Flo had a sister that didn’t make it.  We picked them up on Thursday and both seemed fine.  But by Saturday, the other one wasn’t doing well at all. She wasn’t walking, and everything that I could find on the net just didn’t seem like what it was.  We lost her Saturday night, and it upset the kids quite a bit.  But they have recovered and are looking forward to three more new chicks (Golden Comets) arriving on Tues/Wed of this week.  None too soon either because Flo is pretty sad without a companion.  We gave her a little stuffed animal to make her feel better and that actually seems to be working really well.

It was not the plan to only get two.  We had our order placed for two barred rocks and two golden comets.  But, the farm store ended up getting  their orders at different times, so the other two golden comets aren’t arriving for another week and a half.  So, I spent this morning calling around and finding someone who had chicks for sale this week so Flo wouldn’t have to be lonely for too long.  Thankfully I found some!  We’ll be picking up three golden comets on Tuesday or Wednesday, and if all goes well, we’ll end up with a total of six.

More on the chicken adventure to come!  Hubby is building a coop/run in the back yard!