...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...it's been a while since I've sewn anything...
...but on a really rainy spring day...I got out the leftover material from my Easter dress from two years ago...

...and a very vintage blouse pattern from my Mom's...

...I love to think that my Mom made a blouse from this pattern so many years ago...I'll have to ask her if she remembers it...what colour it was...which style she made...

...she must have made it at Grandma's because the pattern is cut with pinking shears...and as far as I know we never had any pinking shears...

...and...pattern sizes have changed apparently...a 14 used to be bust 34...and now it's 36...

...lots of dart-age...new word...you can use it if you want...

...and my fancy-schmancy turning tool...one of my knittings needles purchased at a little shop in the French Alps...it works perfectly to make sharp little points...

...all finished...about 3 hours...start to finish...

...it's very cute...hard to photograph in it's unfilled state...I'll have to get someone to snap a photo the first time I wear it...

~Have a lovely day!

...Spring Spinach Soup...

...Vegan Potage Crème d'Épinards....over at The Vegan Version...

...it was delicious...

~Have a lovely day!

...Sunday School Bulletin Board - hearts & hands...

...I thought I'd share another Bulletin Board that we did in our Sunday School Class...I team teach the Preschool and 1st Grade Class...

...they loved tracing their hands and feet and cutting out the hearts, smiley faces and money...

~Have a lovely day!

...Prom...

...Scout is off to his first Prom...

~Have a lovely day!

...tuxedo time...

...that's right...it's Prom time (the big day is tomorrow)...and Scout's tux fits perfectly...

~Have a lovely day!

...from my back deck...

...a glimpse of the tiny new green leaves and the haze of soft colours through the forest...

...it really is spring here now...

~Have a lovely day!

...Vegan Tahini/Ginger Salad Dressing...

...I had been trying for some time to replicate the ginger dressing at a restaurant we like...

...and I've finally done it...

...so, of course I'm sharing it with y'all..

Vegan Tahini/Ginger Dressing

1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 Cup Tahini
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/4 teaspoon ground Ginger
1/8 teaspoon stevia powder
1/4 Cup unsweetened Almond Milk
salt and pepper to taste

...just blend it all together and pour it over your salad...

~Have a lovely day!

...Easter Highlights...

...The Easter Bunny left a basket...

...and Scout opened all the goodies...

...then we went to Church...and Scout played French Horn with the Praise Band...

...it was awesome!

~Have a lovely day!

...Hope...finale...

...so at 1:15 AM on Easter morning...I cast off the last stitch...

...and sewed on a sweet little vintage button...

...and hope was finished...

...but before I could wear it...I had to also make a slip...I didn't have a tea length slip...so I just used a piece of ivory satin...cut an A shape skirt...gathered the top onto some 1/4 inch elastic...I didn't even bother with a hem...it's just the selvage edge at the bottom...

...so here's the Easter outfit...

~Have a lovely day!

...Hope...the end is in sight...

...well...obviously I didn't make it back here last night...I snapped a quick photo at Church before the Good Friday service...(that's why you've never seen that bit of carpet before)...

...so...I figure that if I can fit in about 6 hours of knitting...between the regular Saturday loads of laundry...cooking and grocery shopping...I'll have just about 9 3/4 inches of seed stitch...

~Have a lovely and blessed Easter weekend!

...Split Pea Curry Soup...

...on the Hope front...just imagine a couple more inches...hoping to get another 2 inches done tonight after Church...

...in the meantime...

...one of the super great things about a blog is that it keeps all your thrown-together recipes for you...then...you can recreate them later with just a quick search...

...we've been having some really chilly weather...so we needed a nice warming soup...and I was in the mood for some curry...I kinda have to be in the mood for curry...how about you?...

...but I threw some veggies and some split peas in a pot with some spices and veg broth...

...and ended up with some delicious soup...

Throw Together Split Pea Curry Soup

1 1/4 cups dried split peas
2 cups frozen spinach
1 cup carrot sliced in chunks
1 medium onion diced
4 cups veggie broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons Madras Curry Powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

...that's it...I just put it all in a pot and cooked it for about 2 hours...

~Have a lovely day!

ps...I'll try to post another picture of Hope this evening...

...Hope...so far...

...so here we are...I've finished the little cap sleeves and the tie...and joined the casing back to itself...I wanted to get all that done before I attached the new ball of thread...

...basically 9 3/4 inches to go...and three days to get there...

...but since this is a finish-free knit...once you cast off...you're done...

...so I've divided the inches by the amount of time I have left...

~Have a lovely day!

...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...well...I have been knitting every spare moment...I just don't seem to have that many spare moments...

...I went ahead and finished off the little cap sleeves...just because the extra needle there was kinda bothering me...and I've finished the waist casing as well...but you can't see it in this photo...so in theory...I have 9 3/4 inches to get done by Saturday about midnight...so...it's do-able...just not sure it's going to get done...

...in other news about the house...we've had our ductwork cleaned...the workers said they didn't think it had EVER been done and our house is 50 years old...so...EEEUUUUWWW! to that...so now hopefully sneezes will be fewer around our house...

~Have a lovely day!

...3...(THREE)new posts over at The Vegan Version...

...I would say WOW!...but none of these were very difficult...

...so hop over to The Vegan Version and have a look...

...and have a lovely day!

...Vegan Easter Egg Dyeing...

...we found these dye-able plastic Easter Eggs at Wal-Mart (affectioknit-ly known around here as Stuff-Mart...a la Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry)...

...but we were beyond thrilled...finally...Vegan Easter Egg Dyeing...

...so we gathered our necessaries...the box says that the dyes will be pastel shades...and we wanted bolder colours...

...so we mixed a little vinegar and a lot of food colouring...

...and started dipping 'eggs'...

...with pretty traditional results...Scout even made a two coloured one...

...oh...and the funny brown one was supposed to be purple...Scout said it would be really hard to find if you hid it in the leaves...

...and here they are in Scout's Easter Basket that his great grandmother made for him when he was a baby...

~Have a lovely day!

...Majedra...

...TWO posts today...that hardly ever happens...

...so...this is what I wanted the brown rice for...

...when we lived in Balsam Grove, I worked at the local hospital...and the dietician there was a good friend of mine...

...and she gave me this recipe for 'Majedra'...

...I've seen lots of different spellings for similar recipes on the internet...mujeddara, mujedra, majadra, mejadra...I think they're all basically the same...a lot of them have caramelized onions...which sounds nice...

...my friend spelled it Majedra and the recipe she gave me was for 100 servings...so it took a little finagling to get it sized reasonably...but it's super quick and easy to make...

Majedra

3/4 cup brown lentils
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
1 onion diced
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste

...just put everything into a pot and cook the lentils until tender...

...serve over brown rice...and top with diced tomatoes and cucumbers...and a sprinkle of vegan feta...

~Have a lovely day!

...Fluffy Brown Rice...

...I used to have trouble cooking brown rice...(white rice cooks perfectly and quickly using Julia Child's method here)...

...but brown rice wasn't the same...it needed more water and even if I increased the steaming time it was still crunchy...so I would add more water and cook it some more...and basically end up with mush...

...until I saw this method...you basically cook it like pasta in a lot of boiling water...

...and then strain it...

...and voila...perfect tender (done) fluffly brown rice...

~Have a lovely day!

...Youth Group Cookie Baking...

...the Youth Group got together and baked cookies for the Kairos Prison Ministry

...they also decorated a bunch of placemats for the prison ministry as well...

...if I've not said it before...they are AWESOME kids!

~Have a lovely day!

...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...on Thursday...because the Band Concert couldn't wait...

...I did make it through the armholes over the weekend...and now I'm decreasing for the waist...all of the decreases are under the arms and they make a neat little 'V'...

~Have a lovely day!

...Spring Band Concert...

...during the standing ovation after the finale...

...I"ve drawn an arrow to Scout so you can find him...

...and the obligatory video...this is from the finale...

~Have a lovely day!

...the daffies have bloomed...

...it's official...Spring is here!

YAY!

~Have a lovely day!

...Chair Repair...

...we have two recliners in our big room downstairs...

...they sort of 'belong to' the Man and Scout...as they are not very conducive to comfortable knitting...really all they're good for is vegging out in front of the tele...

...anywhoo...Scout managed to break his...not sure how or even when...but he said he thought he remembered a loud pop...

...I chalk it up to his being a big lanky teen and still not knowing his new size and strength...it reminded me of when we lived in North Dakota and one of his friends was over and they were playing in the big room downstairs there...and this big boy came running up the stairs and grabbed the handrail (which was attached by three metal brackets) and just broke the middle bracket...a pretty amazing feat... ...so...the chair was broken and needed to be fixed...

...we unlocked it and slid it off the base...

...then started pulling out the staples holding the cover on...

...a flat blade screwdriver worked best for this...

...ah...there's the break...

...I was actually kinda surprised that the inside of the chair was made of particle board...

...we decided to replace it with something more substantial...good thing I saved all of the scraps from our hardwood floor installation...

...we drilled some holes and started some screws...

...Scout helped hold the new hardwood piece up against the broken particle board piece like a vice...and we screwed them tightly together...this was a little more difficult than it sounds as we were working in such a confined space and we looked like we were playing twister with our arms intertwined bending over the chair...

...but (of course) we were successful and Scout neatly stapled the cover back on...

...and the repair is completely invisible...

~Have a lovely day!