Relaxing Monday

Mondays have become a day of relaxing for me. We have started with a weekly playdate at 7:30 a.m. with a friend and her 9-month-old. He takes an early nap at 9, so they come here until around 9 and then he falls asleep on their way home. Once a month I have an appointment at 10:30 so my mother-in-law babysits. We got in the habit of having her babysit on Mondays (when my appointments were more frequent), so she often takes her now even if I don't have an appointment. Today was one of those days. I spent some time shopping at Joanns. And then I met a friend at Kohls to spend our Kohlscash from our purchases last week. I came home for lunch and realized I didn't go to Staples. I need ink cartridges so I can print out all the interesting things I found for celebrating Michaelmas which is Thursday. Since I need to pick Hazel up around 1:30 unless my mother-in-law calls to tell me she got her to nap there (which hardly ever happens) I think I'll run out to Staples right before then.

I am hoping to get a bit more time to sew. I need to finish the three pairs of pants I'm making for Hazel and finish piecing her quilt. I will share the quilt pictures with you on October 19th when I get to be a guest blogger at Sew Happy Geek. It only seems fitting to share the quilt I made from her pattern and with the fabric I won from her blog on her blog. So look for a link that day.

Meanwhile, I was reading my Better Homes and Garden Magazine during lunch. I didn't get too far, but found something I wanted to share with you. You can download FREE pumpkin stencils and for each person who downloads BHG donates $2 up to $5000 to one of five charities (so up to $25,000 total). To do this all you have to do is visit BHG.com/charitystencils and you will have to log in or start an account there. The charities are The Humane Society of the United States, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Rebuilding Together, and March of Dimes. You can download as many as you want once you do the initial one which chooses the charity your $2 click will go to. Again it is FREE to you, so go check it out (even if you don't want the stencil you can always delete it later!).

One other thing to check out is the competition Not Just a Housewife is hosting. She is giving away a $100 Pottery Barn gift card and if she gets enough entries she will get two to giveaway. Go check it out. She is introducing a new website called Hometalk, which looks pretty neat in itself. They have decorators, contractors, gardeners, experts to answer questions for you and lots of giveaways all free!! Go check them out!

Some other interesting Halloween/Autumn Decorations and Activities to check out:

My Computer is My Canvas this freebie

I Heart Crafty Things has an adorable handprint cardinal craft from Tippytoe Crafts.

Tippytoe Crafts has a beautiful fall wreath tutorial.

Tatertots and Jello has several lists and links to Halloween crafts and Pumpkin Projects and Fall Projects.

C.R.A.F.T. has a guest blogger with some adorable small printables for free autumn decorations.

Silly Eagle Books has a great apple tree art project to go with a book. I think I'll be trying this later when we do more with apples.

And Mrs. Happy Homemaker has delicious looking apple nachos. Yum!!
Gotta try these!








Ok, enough time on the internet. Gotta run to Staples and pick up Hazel. Have a great day!!

Saturday Baking and Crafts for Kids

Cookie Plate for the new neighbors

Autumn Maple Cutout Cookies

So today, we have started baking some maple cookies. I searched the internet for some good autumn recipes. We have new neighbors and we thought we would bake something to bring over to meet them. We made the dough for Autumn Maple Cutout Cookies from My Recipes this morning. The dough ended up being very dry and hard to work with. I left in the refrigerator for several hours, so I do not know if this is why. They are tasty, but not my favorite.

 

Fall Weather = Beef Stew Saturday's Cooking

Yesterday while wasting time waiting to pick up our cat, Pumpkin, from the groomers Hazel and I ran into Michaels. They had a bunch of their "impulse items" on sale for 3 for $1. Among them I found some inspiring notecards and small spiral bound binders. I cleaned off my bulletin board and put some of the cards up and then added back a few of my favorite pictures. Now I have some inspiration above my computer. The messages on the notecards are "Dream BIG", "all things are possible", "remember the important things", and "celebrate each day" and one of the journals also adds "count your blessings" (the other is another "remember the important things"). They all have flowers with bees or butterflies and glitter. Thought I would share some of my inspiration with you today.

Today, Hazel and I made beef stew or at least it is cooking in the slow cooker. It was the first time I let her help me chop the vegetables and we had a blast. The first fun task was putting the beef in a plastic bag with the flour and spices and shaking it up. She loved that. Then getting to chop vegetables with a sharp knife (and a lot of help from Mommy) was very exciting. And of course she did her normal jobs like putting everything in for me and washing the green beans. She also got to help open a can today. Lots of fun new jobs for us to play with.

After chopping the celery

Adding the celery

Washing and breaking the green beans

Recipe: Beef Stew
1.5 pounds raw lean stew beef
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large white potato, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 medium carrots (chopped)
2 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 large onion, chopped (I used a sweet onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz. can of Organic Diced Tomatoes, No Salt Added (I love Trader Joe's)
2 cups beef broth
2 cups raw green beans
1 cup frozen peas

1) Put the beef in a large ziplock bag and add the flour, thyme and rosemary. Seal and shake. While shaking put oil in frying pan and heat up.
2) Brown the beef in the oil. Then put in slow cooker. Try to scrape the flavorings that are browned to the bottom in as well.
3) Add potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and garlic in that order. Then put tomatoes on top and pour on the beef broth. Cover and turn onto low. It will need to cook for 8 hours total. Prepare the green beans and measure the peas out and let them defrost next to the slow cooker.
4) After 6 hours add the green beans and peas. You can also give it a stir and check the liquid and see if it is how you like it. I tend to make it more liquidy but tried to cut it down this time.
5) In two more hours, serve with a nice whole grain bread and enjoy!!

Hard to Say Goodbye and Some Other Links I've Been Trying

Simba playing in his younger years

Yesterday, we buried the ashes of our beloved Simba. I first got Simba as a kitten in 1994. He is the first cat I can say was truly just mine. Steve of course adopted him and they loved each other right away, but I had from 1994-2006 alone with him. Yesterday we finally got around to buying a plant in his memory and burying his ashes underneath it. We are also making a stepping stone to honor him to place next to it. It is still curing and then I'll paint it and seal it, so pictures will come at another time. We had to put Simba down at the end of July. He was in too much discomfort to keep him alive anymore.

Simba "helping" sew a quilt

Simba was the best cat I had ever known. He loved to be with people and loved to play. He would greet me when I came home and follow me around and sleep with me every night. When Steve and I decided to start a family we adopted a kitten, so Simba would learn to share our attention before a baby arrived. He accepted Pumpkin pretty quickly. At first he followed her around and would meow at her whenever she did something against my rules. It was rather cute.

Simba and Pumpkin (as a kitten)

Simba and Pumpkin getting some fresh air

Simba at Dawn

Simba was at first afraid of Hazel and kept his distance, but in the end he would let her pet him and would come to cuddle even if she was with us. I think some of it may have been he was too slow to get away anymore and just wanted some love.

When I was beginning to quilt I took a class on watercolor quilts and made this wallhanging depicting my favorite cat doing one of his favorite activities, looking out the window. It hangs over our bed now, so we know Simba is always with us.

Okay, enough of the sad stuff. On a positive note I won a blog contest. Sew Happy Geek had a wonderful contest for her third blog-iversary, and amazingly I won. I am getting one of her patterns and all the fabric to make the quilt top. Now to figure out who to make it for. I can't wait to get the package.

Here are some other blogs/ideas I have been playing with:
1)  From The Enchanted Tree -- Bendy Dolls
2) From Living, Loving, Learning Naturally -- Ice Cream for Breakfast! I tried this recipe this morning using frozen mixed berries instead of the banana. I really liked it. Hazel didn't seem to eat it and Steve did not give me his opinion. We had it over waffles. I personally thought it was a fun way to jazz up the waffles instead of syrup. I used skim milk and couldn't tell.
3) From Poet in the Pantry -- Brownies to Heal the Soul. Haven't tried these yet, but trust Carrie's (and her family's) opinions. She also has a PB Fudge recipe that looks delicious.

How about you--any good ideas to share?

Fun filled crazy day...

My job this week is to try to keep Hazel entertained and quiet during the mornings and early afternoon so Steve can sleep since he is working the overnight shift to help restore power to the people of Massachusetts (and Rhode Island and maybe New York). Last night or this morning I should say Hazel woke me up at 1 a.m. wanting to sleep in my bed and have some milk. Steve woke us up at 2 a.m. coming in. He somehow finished all his work for the night early and was allowed to come home. So this morning after breakfast and play time, Hazel and I took a walk and then ran errands though Steve was up after our walk. Oh, and we went to our local library for story time. After story time we went to the very small weekly Farmer's Market. This summer Hazel discovered corn-on-the-cob and loves it, so we bought some. We also got some peaches (I hope they are better than the ones I have been getting at the grocery stores because I have not been impressed this year with them), apples, cucumbers, kale, honey, and an apple pie for Steve and apple cider donuts. For the most part donuts do not excite me anymore. I think they are ok, but not worth the calories, however I love apple cider donuts. I think this fall I may look into making some. I just googled some recipes to try. I remember making homemade donuts when I was a child as a fun activity, so hopefully we can start a fall tradition.

On our walk this morning Hazel and I collected acorns. Hurricane Irene seems to have forced many down a bit early. Some are on her nature table along with some leaves we collected yesterday on our short walk (and pinecones, shells, rocks, etc.) The rest I'm hoping to use in some fun crafts. So far I have come up with acorn fairies, acorn people, acorn pumpkins, acorn wreath (though this looks like it would be for older kids), and of course just gluing along with fall leaves and pine cones to make a wreath or napkin rings. Do you have any good ideas for acorn crafts?

One of the errands today was a trip to Michaels. I bought some wooden frames and Mod Podge. I bought some small squares of tissue paper awhile ago. I'm going to have Hazel Mod Podge the tissue paper onto the frames and then seal it with another coat. I'm thinking this may be some Christmas presents. We'll see how they turn out.

I'm also looking for some good ways to make clothespin dolls. I found in my supplies a package of different race colored clothespins. Hazel is wanting to use them for fairies or something, so I think I may be doing some of that soon as well. I think the next fairy I want to try though is with wool roving. I bought some more wood beads for the heads.

Well that is where my mind is. Have a great night!

Saturday Baking: Banana Almond Butter Muffins

This morning Hazel and I made some muffins. We had four very ripe bananas to use up so we tried a recipe for peanut butter and banana muffins. However when I went to get the peanut butter all I could find was almond butter, so we went with it. I adapted the recipe from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. Steve and I both liked them. Hazel did not, but they may have been too hot when she tried them. I also found that Steve and I only ate one each and we were basically full unlike some of my other muffins that take two or three to fill us. They are overly moist due to the amount of bananas so I don't recommend paper muffin cups.

Banana Almond Butter Muffins

Course: breakfast PointsPlus™ Value:    6 (Weight Watchers info) Servings:  12 Preparation Time:  15 min Cooking Time:  20 min Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Ingredients

	4 large banana(s), ripe and mashed
	1 cup(s) packed light brown sugar
	1 cup(s) shredded carrots, pureed
	1 item(s) egg white(s)
	1/2 cup(s) almond butter
	1 cup(s) whole wheat flour
	1 tsp baking powder
	1 tsp baking soda
	3/4 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats

Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 350 and spray a muffin pan with cooking spray. I had Hazel use the potato masher to mash the bananas while I pureed the carrots in my little food processor. (I had shredded carrots that needed to be used up but would have used a whole carrot.)
2) Combine banana, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, carrot puree, egg white and almond butter in large bowl. (Hazel loves to pour the measured ingredients in and mix.)
3) Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and baking soda) in plastic bag.
4)Add dry mixture to bowl and mix well. Then add additional 1/2 cup of brown sugar and stir only a couple of times.
5) Spoon into sprayed muffin pan and put in preheated oven 350 for 20 minutes. 

6) Cool on rack.

Sundae Scoop

http://www.talkingdollarsandcents.net/muffin-monday-breakfast-muffins

Happy Weekend! I shared this recipe on Sundae Scoop and Muffin Monday.

Sewing, Serging, and Baking

So last night I decided to make a dress for Hazel. I stayed up late and followed a pattern from Simple Sewing for Baby: 24 Easy Projects for Newborns to Toddlers by Lotta Jansdotter. I lengthened the dress pattern and wish I had Hazel awake to measure it to her. If I use this pattern again I would enlarge it more in width as well as length. This book is definitely on the baby and young toddler side of sizes. However, I'm happy with the outcome of the dress and Hazel wanted to put it on right away when she saw it. She also loved the pocket buddy and having a pocket.

Of course, I stayed up late finishing it so it would be ready for her this morning and I promised Steve I would get up with her this morning. I don't know what I was thinking, but I certainly did not get enough sleep. Well, we got up around 5:20 and made banana muffins for breakfast. I had three very ripe bananas to use up.
Banana Muffins
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oat bran
1/4 c flax seed meal
2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 T brown sugar (I didn't add this but will next time)
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c non-fat milk
1/2 c applesauce (I used mostly carrot applesauce, but either will work)
3 very ripe bananas pureed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a different bowl. Then combine the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mix well. Spoon into sprayed muffin pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Should make 12 muffins.

Enjoy your Saturday!
Carrie