simpletruths

Stay-cation

If you've been following this blog for a while you know that, despite being a bit of a shutter bug, Mr. Man and I are rarely in front of the camera at the same time. It's entirely possible that the picture below is the first one we've taken with just the two of us since Valentines dinner - last year.  Before I was even pregnant with my now 9 month old.

We both took some time off of work, to recharge, do some things around the house, have a few meals, finish a few sentences.  We did it up, true stay-cation style.

yea - this guy is my favorite

 

 

 

keeping it local

We've been busy bees around here hopping from one summer activity to the next. One of my favorites so far has been going out to a small local airport, seeing a few REAL Tuskegee Airmen and getting to see some awesome propeller planes up close and personal.

 

 

Little Mr's favorite part of the event was the bouncy house and running into his older cousin while we were there.

  (these two little guys are going to take over the world - as soon as they figure out which shoe goes on which foot.)

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Crafty News:

I'm still working on my next tutorial video 

And don't forget, craft night is this Thursday.  For those of you not in the Bay Area I'll be posting pictures of the craft night fun and a tutorial on the scalloped bracelets that we'll be working on.

Kale chips

("recipe" at the end of the post)

When I'm at home I'm a bit of a muncher (I believe grazer is the current term-in-use).  That being the case I try to have healthy options within availble for easy grabbing, like carrot sticks (we've been getting the tastiest carrots in our CSA box mmmmm), fruit of all kinds, and the most recent addition - Kale chips

Trust me - as healthy as I attempt to eat if any of these aren't around I have no problem diving into the nutella.

 

Little Mr. Isn't into actually eating the kale chips (or the carrot sticks....or most of the fruit...sigh) but he does like to help in the preparation.  Yesterday he saw me taking pictures right before we popped the kale in the oven and he hopped off of the chair (small mommy heart attack) and came back in a flash with his camera.

 

Only one of the Kale pictrues in this post was taken by me..the other two are from Little Mr. - can you tell which is which?

 

 The Kale chip "recipe" is a pretty simple one:

wash and dry some Kale

remove the stem (we didn't this time because we bought prewashed bagged kale - so we'll just eat around the tough parts)

toss with some olive oil

Lay them out on a cookie sheet (one layer)

sprinkle with salt

bake @300 for ~20min

mmmmmmm - crunchy

Toddlervision

About a month ago I came upon a fullt functional, albeit heavy and extremely outdated, digital camera; memory card and everything. My sanity saving idea at the time was to pop in some new batteries and let Little Mr. click to his hearts' content.

That little project spawned what I've been calling Toddlervision.  I'm even set up a tumblr account just for posting his photos. It's called...you guessed it - Toddlervision (http://toddlervision.tumblr.com/).  

Some of the shots are understandably blurry, and I'll admit that the camera is too big for his little hands, but he makes it work. But the clarity in some shots is pretty amazing.  I'll be posting new photos on the tumblr site a couple times a week.  It's a photo-only site so there'll be none of my rambling :)

Here's a little sample of what Toddlervision is all about

"Mommy!! She try to take my camera!"

so much has been going on - I'm pretty excited to share BUT I'm trying to stay focused. Awesome news to come this weekend.

In other news

Today, May 11, was my birthday.

So I baked

something I knew I'd like and could enjoy the rest of the week

cheddar jalapeno scones

From this recipe on smitten kitchen.

she got rice cereal - I got these

Then Mr. Man came home and brought me these

 

yea, good times

 

Happy birthday to me :)

New rings and a clean table

Two of my favorite rings sold a little bit ago and that left my ring selection lacking so I put together 6 more.  Here a some picures of a few.

 

This is one of my new petite blooms

 

 

 

In completely unrelated news, this is my last week of maternity leave.

I know right? Adorable.

 

AND

I am not even responsible for this awesomeness. Mr Man lets me sleep in with Little Ms while he hangs out with our early riser (I used to be a morning person, honest!).  Well, one morning I finally make my way out of the room and I'm greeted with this  beautiful table.  I immediately picture baked goods that can be prepared, pizza dough that can be topped....but the real wonderfulness is just being able to sit down with a plate of food without having to excavate a space.

Cookies!!

I mentioned these delicious oatmeal raisin cookies an earlier post, and I thought I'd share the recipe.  There's a story that goes with this recipe but I'll save that for another post.

 

 Yup, that's Little Mr. - his stirring and pouring techniques are steadily improving. By the time he's 5 he's going to need his own show.

 

Oatmeal Raisin cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (the recipe says margarine...but it was written when margarine was 'all the rage')

 1 1/2 cups sugar (or 1 1/3 cup honey per the recipe)

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

salt*

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3 cups oats

raisins (the recipe says a handful but I'm pretty generous. I probably added close to 2 cups)***

combine butter and sugar; then add eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt (*(the recipe omits the salt but I've made it with and without - <strong>with</strong> is definitely better).Stir in flour. Add oatmeal and raisins.

spoon onto prepared cookie sheet**

Bake @ 350 for 12-15min

**the recipe says spoon onto "a greased cookie sheet," but I'd suggest you buy some parchment paper or silicone sheet.  Also, I like to flatten them with my fingers one I put the scoop on the sheet - I like my oatmeal raisin cookies on the thin side. Plus, since it's all whole wheat flour, making them thin helps to keep them from becoming too...hefty.

***If you don't have raisins but you do have chocolate chips (which I suggest that EVERYONE have around for emergencies) Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are equally delightful.

A few extra raisins to snack on while we patiently wait for our cookies to bake.

 

mmmmmmmmm

 

Homemade Valentines

Alternative title for this post is "crafty mommy goes overboard on valentines for 2 year olds"

At the pre-school Little Mr. goes to they're celebrating Feb 14th as Friendship Day. Instead of going to Target and buying a box of Valentines featuring the ever popular Diego, Dora, or Sponge Bob... we made ours (yay).

I gave the little guy two pieces of white paper, a red marker and some red, pink, and purple crayons and let him go at it.  Meanwhile I folded 10 mini-envelopes.

Together we used the paper scraps to punch out heart and star shaped confetti.  All the fun was tucked into the envelopes and sealed with puffy stickers left over from Christmas crafts.

 

So, why do I say I've gone overboard? Because this was all done for a class of 2 and 3 year olds.

 

Happy Valentines Day!!

 

New life, new year, new goals

This is what's been going on over here...

 

we celebrated a first Christmas

 

getting aquainted

 

checking out the outside world

 

being amazed - or maybe bored...

 

And after they all go to sleep I've been finishing these

 

I'll be back with regular posts soon.  Something new I'm going to be doing this year are occasional how-to posts.

Stay tuned!

 

 

Siblings

<whispering>  see the bear?

Mommy, put blanket on her

 

<whispering again> see the bear?

 

Little Miss was born this past Monday evening after a very short labor.  She met her big brother on Tuesday. They are already quite a pair.

 

Shop Note:

Orders placed at the shop over the weekend were shipped out on Tuesday

 

 

Merry Christmas Eve

 

 

No more room in the freezer

This little lady can arrive any time, as there is, officially, no more room in the freezer. What is it filled with you ask. Well, among the regulars like frozen fruit for smoothies, spinach that I usually end up putting in just about everything and, of course, waffles - I've also been cooking and baking up a storm so we're well stocked up on:

Pumpkin chocolate chip granola bars

Mini crustless quiches

Cinnamon cheesecake bars

Caramelized onions

and won tons galore...

 

 

This is actually my 3rd batch of won tons in the last few weeks - I kept having left over wrappers or filling, so the process never seemed to have an end point.  I actually had filling left over after this batch but I just froze that too.

The recipe I use is actually a combination of a few different ones that I've seen.  Basically in a big bowl I combined chopped cabbage, ground pork or turkey, chopped up shrimp, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, minced fresh ginger, grated carrot, and one egg.

Then the folding begins.

 

 

 

I like this folding technique better.

 

 

mmmmmm....

My first craft table

Good times :)

earrings

 

button scarves and cowls

 

the table

hand drawn cards by morgan

 

my mom helped :)

 

I haven't done enough of these to truly measure my success but I made some money, passed out some cards, met some great people (the coffee cart guys were my favorite), and didn't go into labor.  All-in-all, I'd call that a success.

It was the first time I'd presented and sold things "live" so seeing the reactions and answering questions was really great.  I definitley got the most appreciation from other crafters and artists, and surprisingly,  from the pre-teen set. Who would have thought that 12-year olds would have such wonderful taste in accessories :)

There was plenty that didn't sell so I'll be adding all sorts of fun to the etsy shop over the next several days.

 

string cheese, crab legs and cherries

This is what Big Mr said when in response to the question:

 

If you were on a desert island, what three foods would you want to have with you?

 

What about you?

Pizza Night

This is how we do pizza night!

 

 

 

lovelydesign: making on-the-go baby change kits

via lovelydesign.blogspot.com

I wish I was Sharilyn's friend just so I could be on her short list of people to give these to.
Not that I couldn't make a few for myself; but do I really want to add another thing to my to do list?

It would be pretty awesome to have a few of these on-the-go bags prepped and hanging in the closet by the front door.

I usually have an extra diaper and some wipes somewhere in the backseat of my car (under what has become the mobile coat closet). If we happen to be taking Mr Man's car then all bets are off.  No snacks have been squirrled away in the glove compartment, there's no box of hand wipes under the seat, and neither a bucket nor a shovel are in the trunk for improptu beach excursions.

We're generally working with whatever I happened to stuff into my purse on the way out of the door.

via lovelydesign.blogspot.com

Of course I could put togethera few in a non-homemade pouch...but truly the cuteness is a huge factor in my actually remembering to grab one as I head out the door.  I mean, that and my son

But he comes with his own built-in cuteness factor.

 

I think he likes it

 

A perfectly imperfect hat I recently finished for Little Mr.

 

 

The decreases are a little off, but it's soft and stretchy so he's set through the winter no matter how big his head gets :)

My new favorite kitchen

via whatever

This is not from a magazine- this is an actual kitchen and I'd like for someone to stick this onto the back of my house please...Thank you.

Really.  This family did an amazing kitchen remodel (see their before and after photos here).  And, not that we don't have the space to expand our kitchen, and not that we could save up the money...But all of this just isn't necessary.  It'd be nice, but it's a bit more than we need.

I think what I'd like in our house right now isn't necessarily perfection just - improvement. 

The bigger Little Mr. gets, the more we need to keep an eye on him during his more quite playing times. Loud, banging, obnoxious play is great.  I know where he is and what he's doing - silence, not so much. Not that we don't encourage quite time (everyone needs quite time)...but the kitchen is very cutoff from the living room. 

 

(this is his "Who? Me?" expression)

There is some level of mischief that can be made out of just about anything; especially if you're 2 years old and want to see what happens if you put your little chair on top of the toy chest, then climb up to sit in it...while trying to balance your feet on a beach ball

I'd love to just take the wall down between the kitchen and living room and replace it with an island w/ a built in stove...ooooo and the pot rack.  If we did that, then you could have a pretty clear view of pretty much the entire house.

And until then, I can dream....

Smoothie weather

"I like it"

 

"mmm...I like it Again!"
 

 

Breakfast

We had some buttermilk that needed to be used for something so....

 buttermilk pancakes

Then there was the bucket of pears we picked from the yard

(plus some ginger and a little brown sugar) =

yummy breakfast for everyone

summertime

clothes lines make great props for lunchtime picnic tents

 

chairs work great when you're inside

 

some things just taste better in a fort

 

smoothies :)
  
   

Sure you can have fruit salad any time of year.  But summertime is the only time you can make one with with fresh blueberries (we were out the afternoon I made this particular giant bowl of chopped fruit), peaches, plums and pluots ... mmmmm