My First Blog Party

I am very excited to attend my first Blog Party tomorrow in Western Springs! I can't wait to meet some fellow bloggers and hopefully get some tips and ideas for my blog and Etsy shop. For now, I am only partially ready. Here is my swapping item.

Still lots to finish and I am at work now so I can't work on it. Tomorrow morning will have to do. ;-)

I finished on time!

I am so excited! I got to knit again! It was a little speed-knitting but I just enjoyed it so much. My friend Anne's baby girl had a one year birthday and I wanted to give her something thoughtful. I know how much Anne likes hand made hats so I knitted her one. I thought of it only 3 days prior to the party and so I had to do it quickly. But I finished. And now I am thinking about my Etsy.com store... Should I include knitted hats? What do you think?

I knitted more but I don't have the pictures of my creations! What a shame. Well, what do you think? Would these sell on Etsy? (No matter what, I am working on some baby leg warmers for my store right now ;-))

Feel free to feel bad for me ...

Yes, it has come down to this in my craft room...

So now I am in the process of cleaning, de-cluttering, and organizing my creative place. Wish me luck, this will take a while ;-)

is it time?

When I woke up this morning and looked outside my window... I thought to myself "you must be kidding me"! It's snowing again?! I am very much over it! I want spring! I want to be able to go outside with the kids, wearing just a light jacket, rain boots, and my gardening gloves! Yes, I have been dreaming about my garden lately. Should I start seeds? What should I do new in my garden this year? Here are some pictures from my garden so far:

 And this year, the only vision I have so far is a small fairy garden by my pond. Looking for inspiration:

one can only dream, right?

crepes

And I am back in my kitchen making breakfast. I love making meals that are fast, easy, and delicious. These crepes are my family's favorite - and here is how they come together:

1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of melted butter
3 teaspoons of powdered sugar

The easiest way is just to toss

all of these ingredients into 

a Magic Bullet or a blender 

and mix them. 

I put a little bit of butter on a frying pan, melt it over medium heat, and then slowly pour a small amount of mixture onto the pan. You can play with the amount of batter you pour - I make small crepes for the kids and bigger for the grown ups.

Feel free to make your morning colorful by adding fun things to your creation:

white chocolate chips

chocolate chips

sprinkles

blueberries

etc.

and here is the final product!

I top it with some pure Maple Syrup and whip cream I make from organic heavy whipping cream by placing it into Magic Bullet and mixing it till it becomes thick. I love to fresh fruit. here are two of my favorite combinations: the above pictured bananas; or raspberries (if you make the crepes with white chocolate chips). YUMMY! 

25 things you don't know about me

I always enjoy reading the article in US Magazine that has the same title. So here I am trying to see if I can come up with 25 things that you don't know about me. Trust me, they won't be any big secrets... Wow, can I even come up with that many?


1. All you need is LOVE
2. I love quotes
3. I am an Etsy.com fanatic...
4. If I could I would cover my walls with family photos I took - every single inch of them!
5. I really want to write a children's picture book
6. I hope to adopt a child one day!!!
7. I love people.
8. Daisies are my favorite flowers
9. Tulips are next
10. I believe cooking makes you confident
11. When my mood drops, dancing with my kids will bring it up everytime!
12. I still can't get enough of The Beatles
13. I am not good at taking naps
14. I can't do Yoga - too many things on my mind
15. I would pay someone to help me with #14
16. I don't know how to simplify my life... just can't do it
17. I want to put a cook book together
18. I believe that genuinely kind words of advice can turn someone's life around
19. I love learning from my friends' stories - happy or sad
20. I want to live in Italy
21. But Colorado would do for now!
22. Smile is contagious
23. I always feel inspired after listening to a good song or watching a good movie
24. I saw Pride and Prejudice (2005) like 17 times and I will go watch it with you right now if you would ask me to
25. I had the perfect engagement

and I have to add #26... imagine that.
26. There is nothing more important in life than having a family!

what will happen here today?

I finally found some time to sit down in my craft room and work. I really only have about an hour at a time so I have to make it work. Who knows what will happen here today...

 

the pantry project

I spent only couple of hours organizing my pantry so it wasn't so bad. Here are some pictures before:

I already took some things out before taking the pictures but you have a rough idea that this needed to be dealt with. First I decided to line the shelves with a plastic liner intended for kitchen cabinets. I purchased mine in IKEA.

Then I divided my food into groups and decided which shelf to place them on. I have shelves that contain: kitchen appliances

Then I have the "baking shelf" 

the snacks

the "sweet tooth" pull out shelf

container shelf with pasta and rice and similar products 

and finally the can and bottles shelf. 

I still have one shelf open right now for any future need. 

This was fun!

organizing my pantry

after a year in my new kitchen, I am finally seeing things that don't work as well (and also I see things that only a genius could have come up with ;-) and so here i am trying to get inspired by some internet articles about how to make the best out of my pantry space. it is a bit difficult if you have narrow, deep shelves. here are some images that are inspirational to me.

I particularly like the lazy susans but i am not sure if i can fit it into my pantry. And the best idea ever? The can shelving could be very useful to me.

credit to: http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2010/12/getting-inspired-to-organize.html

It is always useful to have your containers and shelves labeled. In that case your other half cannot make an excuse that the reason they didn't put the things back was they didn't know where it goes ;-)

I also like the see through containers - you can get so many of them in the Container store. And I am off to go shopping!

french toast for breakfast

One thing about our breakfast menu? It can never be the same. We like variety during the week. We make cereal and porridge at least once or twice a week, but the rest is usually something different, more yummy.

One of my kids' favorite! 

FRENCH TOAST

you will need:

... desired amount of slices of bread (american)

... egg (1 egg per about 3 slices)

... 1/4 cup of milk

... cinnamon

... 1 tbs of butter

... maple syrup 

... bananas

break an egg onto a deep plate and mix in milk. stir it using a fork. sprinkle cinnamon and mix it in. take a slice of bread and dip it in the egg mixture covering both sides. then place the bread on the warmed up pen (hopefully your butter is nicely melted by now) and bake it on both sides until light brown. put it on a plate and pour maple syrup over it. finally, cut slices of banana and bon appetit! if you are making a bigger amount, get a deep ceramic dish ready next to your stove and place the bread in it after you bake it. make sure to cover it and it will keep warm for a while.

second chance at growing my first "second" avocado plant

so this is my first attempt to try to grow an avocado from a seed. It started out great - one out of two seeds sprouted almost immediately. First it cracked open and then a small root peek out of the shell. Within a month the root got pretty long and I was waiting for the small plant. But it wasn't coming and so i wanted to check on it. As I lifted the seed up, one of the toothpicks fell out and the potential avocado plant came crashing down to the ground, cracking in half...only never to live again.
And so after a few days of hope, I gave up because the only thing that happened was something white starting to grow on my tiny plant, I threw the first one away and started 2 new seeds in its place. I made fresh guacamole, washed the seeds and stabbed them through with the toothpikcs so that they can nicely hold up on the glass. After only few days I see a crack! i hope it is what I think it is because it seems to be a bit fast. But then, Maybe it feels sorry for me and therefor it's trying to hurry ;-) I will have to take pictures ;-)

wondering

I have been wondering about life perspective lately. you know when you were little kids you saw certain things in certain way and then you became teenagers and you saw those things differently. And then you became young adults and your view on the same thing changed again. Now you are an actual adult and you look back and you just can't believe in how many different ways you saw this thing. And it's a bit funny how clear it looks now and how much you can't understand that you didn't see it this way but instead you saw it through some fog or dark glasses. I am not sure if this makes you cry or laugh or maybe both. Sometimes it makes you sad because it feels like you just wasted so many years of your life.. and then it makes you laugh because... well you don't even know why it makes you laugh. But you know for sure that you wish you would have seen this thing for what it really is this whole time. I guess it's called life experience...

the christmas tree that was outside

My daughter started snuffling one day last week. The next day it turned into more snuffles, and it was followed by red watery eyes and dripping nose. When finally third day her whole face swelled up and had red blotches all over. By that time i knew she wasn't getting sick. everything looked more like allergies. Now the only I had to do was figure out the reason for her allergy. This was first time she showed any symptoms close to this. What changed in our surroundings? The only that came to mind was our real... gorgeous... christmas tree. I googled christmas tree allergies and sure enough - it looked like I got it right. because we were just about to leave for a 3 day trip to a waterpark, we decided to wait with the tree distraction. After 2 days, her face cleared up and she was no longer looking like she was crying for many hours straight... And it is now with a sad heart that i have to say that we had to move our poor tree out of our house and it has a new residence - on our porch. We were all oh so sad but B is good now and can breath freely. As much as I am sad about it being out there... I was pleasantly surprised about the tree view tonight! it made my evening!!!

These are my radishes sometime at the beginning of September. I have never planted anything this late in the season so I am very anxious to see what the outcome will be. This is usually the time when I get a bit tired of taking care of my garden and I might be forgetting to water it. Oh boy I wish that will not happen. I had the seeds for a while so I wasn't expecting anything to come up but here they are.

turn that TV off

just thought I would share this article with all of you. I hate TV for my kids and I am always looking for TV free activities and I LOVED this article. I have been doing many of these activities already but it is always good to brush up on this and find some new tips. Happy TV free moments to all of you! 

http://www.parents.com/fun/activities/rainy-day/tv-free-activities/

classic for Halloween

here is a classic art project that is the easiest and the most fun for the kids as they can do most of it with only a little assistance from us.

what you will need:

orange construction paper

markers

glue

feathers

balls

you can also use other supplies such as glitter, crayons, buttons, etc... We are going to hang ours in the window therefor we made a pretty light pumpkin with no glitter as that tends to sprinkle all over the place. 

motor skills practice 

out of the orange construction paper, cut the shape of a pumpkin and give it to your child. Tell him that the pumpkin needs a face and he can make it however he/she wishes. Then give him all the other supplies and let him work the magic (with some assistance from you). I ended up with lots of glue for the eyes and nose ... and a huge smile - what else is here to ask for?

scarecrow

the best season of them all is here and we are off to farms with pumpkin patches, hay rides, and spooky stuff... also time to decorate the home with some fun fall projects. Here is the first one

what you need:

scissors
construction paper
markers
glue
optional decorating objects such as - glitter, feathers, stickers, foam letters, etc.

your child will practice using glue and markers (also good for developing motor skills) as well as naming shapes and possibly learn a new letter

cut shapes out of the construction paper - square for body, rectangles for arms and legs, circle for head, and triangle for the hat. you can use this to practice shapes - ask you child to find certain shape for certain part of the scarecrow's body. glue them all together into a person and have your child draw the face. Then you can decorate it with anything you choose. We used letter S for "scarecrow". I was making one at the same time so T was copying my actions. He did it all by himself. I think his is so much better than mine.

toilet paper people

what you will need:

toilet paper roll
foam or construction paper
pipe cleaners
glue
markers
scissors

let your child decorate the toilet paper roll as a body (we used markers but feel free to use anything else such as paint etc.), then make holes on the sides for arms and legs. Pull pipe cleaners through and cut them if needed to adjust length. Last cut out a circle for head out of the foam or constr. paper. before you glue it on the body, decorate as a face. Have fun!