Busy Easter

I know it's been a while since I posted - we've just been incredibly busy - so now I'm going to do about a dozen posts to catch up. Holy Week was a blur - we even had to cram in 2 funerals too. The Man says that on Easter Sunday at about Noon there is a collective sigh of relief from all the pastors and priests that Lent and Easter are finally over - it is really a busy time.

My last post was the Bunny Cake - so here's the update on that.

The Man-Cub iced

and decorated the cake

- we used the Buttercream Frosting recipe from the Vegan Chef - http://www.veganchef.com/vgnbttrcrm.htm

... it was a lot of fun and is sooo cute...

Bunny Cake

As long as I can remember, my Mom has made a Bunny Cake (usually more than one) for Easter - I think I've almost always been there to partake - but of course this Easter I have to make my own Bunny Cake. I used the recipe for Dulce Sin Leche cupcakes from VCTOTW - without the caramel obviously. The crumbs I've eaten are delicious - but the cake is very tender - even the cake rack for cooling was a bad idea. I did manage to get the pieces cut out and transfered to the board. I'll ice it with the Man-Cub this afternoon and post more pics.

Baby Samuel with his new blankie

My friend had her baby - at home without even a midwife! He's a dark haired little sweety too.

Here's the Man-Cub playing with Samuel's older brother...
He loved this picture and wanted me to post it.

Here he is mid somersault - the first time I saw him do an aerial somersault we were at a water park this past summer and he climbed up to the top of one of those big inflatable slides and instead of jumping and landing on his bottom - he jumped in the air and turned a somersault and then landed on his bottom - it was effortless for him - but scared me - Aw Mom! - he's much braver than I ever was...

Rachel Calof

Another book I just finished - Rachel Calof's Story - Our library has a room set aside for ND history and that's where I found this book. It's her own account of her life as a pioneer in ND at the turn of the last century - translated from the original Yiddish - she was Jewish. It was a good read - and quick - I never even knew that there were any Jewish settlers here.

Before we moved I read quite a few pioneer journals (I like to read old journals) - but this book was different - she wrote this "story" all at once when she was about 65 years old - so it doesn't read like a journal - more like she's just sitting there telling you her life story.

The Iron Giant

We watched the Iron Giant with the Man-Cub last night - it's a great movie - with a super sweet and hopeful ending - I don't know how we've missed it before.

French Toast

There is a longstanding Palm Sunday tradition at our Church - that the Men's club (the Minute-Men - because they can be called into action in a minute - and have no regularly scheduled meetings) - serves a French Toast breakfast. French Toast being very non-vegan - I googled for a vegan recipe - and took my own version - I always like to look just like everyone else - thereby proving that you don't have to give up anything to be vegan -

This is the recipe I used:

http://www.cookingcache.com/vegetar/vegyummiestfrenchtoast.shtml

I used Silk Light Vanilla - as I drank all of my soy nog (thanks Karen) at Christmas. It really was very good - next time I'll cut the cinnamon in half 'though.




My old hand-me-down griddle from Mom...

Longjing Tea

...My sweet sister - went to China and brought back some Dragon Well Tea for me - it immediately became my favorite - I think I like it even better than Earl Grey (Oh My!)...
It's the Man-Cub's favorite too. So when we run out - Karen will just have to trot back over to China and bring us some more. It's a very fragrant green tea with just a hint of smokiness...

...I like smoked teas - but that wasn't always the case - when I was in college, I had a Classics professor who didn't want to drive the 3 miles to the University every day and so he had a handful of us rising seniors come to his house (on Kimberly) for a seminar on Horace - as a treat during a short break his wife - also a Classics prof - would make coffee for us - until one of the other students complained that the caffeine bothered him - so she started making Earl Grey tea instead - and I was happy at this point because I loved Earl Grey tea - several days went by and all was well - then one day - she made Lapsong Souchong instead - and I HATED it - I thought - this is horrible - how could anyone drink this - but drink it I did (one has to be polite) - thinking that tomorrow she would revert back to Earl Grey - but she never did and I had to drink the smoked tea for the rest of the semester. It just goes to show that you really can get used to anything - and no matter what we're having for dinner - we always insist that the Man-Cub eat 2 bites - if you never accustom your taste buds to new things you will never like new things...

This is the tea right out of the bag - it smells wonderful...

The leaves uncurl as it steeps

- but the tea never gets very dark.

The Man-Cub takes his Dragon Well tea with about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar - but it's sweet smoky flavor is just right without it...

Hair Friday - the last installment

Hair Friday comes to an end with March - I probably won't do anything unique enough to post between now and when I get my hair cut - probably May or early June. I love this little "hair doody".

It fit my hair better when it was a little bit shorter - now the "bun" pokes out of the edges a little bit - but it is so handy - all you do is twist your hair up in a chignon - - squeeze the clip and pinch it around the bun - that's it - it lies flat and doesn't pinch or pull -
I'd get one for you - Karen - but I think your hair is too thick...

One sleeve down - one to go...

I finished one sleeve for the Easter Sweater and it's blocking - it was easy and quick. There's no color variation in real life - the sleeve is still a bit damp. I've started the second sleeve and hope to have it finished tonight. Then the front and the collar and I'll be done. Whew!

Not that I'm sentimental or anything - but those blue knitting needles were my first pair - purchased for me by my Mom at the old Roses store in town. I was trying to knit a Dorothy Hamill sweater - but the intarsia was too much for me and after many tears I finally gave up - Mom then gave the yarn to Oveda for some project she was working on - but I've always kept the needles. I'll post another time about the old knitting needles that we found in a trunk up at Nanny's that I actually learned to knit on. I still have them too - they are size 5 and bakelite - pretty precious...

This is the nifty knit in hem - you just pick up stitches from the cast on row and knit them together with the stitch on the needle - it's very smooth looking.

Mini Kites

At our Pack Meeting the theme was WEATHER - and we had scheduled the meteorologist from the local news station to come and talk to the boys about weather, but he let us know Saturday that he wouldn't be able to make it - so we hurried and changed plans. I copied the 20 T/F questions about weather from Baloo's Bugle - then we did the little placard WEATHER opening.

Then we had lots of awards to give out. The Man-Cub got his third Bear Bead - he should be a BEAR by the end of April - Yay!

Then he got the Good Sport Award for being such a good sport at the Pinewood Derby! Check out that smile...

Then for our activity - since we didn't have a guest speaker - we made mini kites.

Instructions at http://www.molokai.com/kites/20kidskites.html - 20 Kids * 20 Kites * 20 Minutes - it was true

...and the kites really worked.

Makin' Grahams

The Man-Cub and I tried our hands at making Graham Crackers - we used the recipe at http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/formulafeeding/ht/grahamcracker.htm. Our only substitution was Agave Nectar for the honey - thanks Karen.

The dough was very stiff.


The little roller from Pampered Chef - very handy. - That's what I used for the potstickers too. http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/01/asian-potstickers-we-went-to-friends.html


They look like graham crackers...


These are fun to make and the results are acceptable - a little chewier than the storebought kind. I'll find another recipe and try again. I used to have a book when we lived in FL with a good graham cracker recipe - I think it was by Jane Brody. Come to think of it - that book had a recipe for marshmallows too. You can see where I'm going with this can't you - s'more's mmmmm...

The Easter Sweater

The back is done and blocking and I'm pretty happy with it. I started the first sleeve last night - the back took almost exactly 3 skeins - so I'm expecting the same of the front and hope to get both sleeves out of another 3 skeins. This is a very easy knit - you could almost read boring here - it's just stockinette - but there are increases and decreases and row counts - and it's just the thing for speed knitting...

Break a leg

The play was a huge success last night - our "tough bunny" stole the show - all the kids wanted to borrow his jacket. He had the cutest lines and said them with so much expression - he got lots of laughs.

And I realized that I never posted any finished photos of the jacket - so here's some detail I hope you can see.


The Man-Cub loves the jacket and says he wants to wear it when it gets warm enough - I'm glad he likes it so well and wish that I had been more careful to get the seams straight, etc. - as I thought it was just a one-nighter. All told I spent about $11 on the jacket. It was a ladies size small black rain jacket - that I got at the second hand store for $8 and then I bought 3 dog collars and cut the buckles off for $1 each. I already had the little grommets from another project. Oh, and I did break 4 sewing needles in the process, but I won't count that.

Hair Friday

This is really from last night - so it's Hair Thursday - The Man-Cub's big production of "Get Hoppin'" was last night so I got sort of dressed up - sort of really dressed up for here - where no one hardly ever dresses up - maybe for the prom. So this is a picture of the up-do - slightly mussed.
And here's a closeup - I should have taken the pics before the play...

First I pull my hair into a pony tail - then I just twirl a section of hair around my fingers and pin with a bobby pin around the base of the pony - and then pin the middle section back to the top/middle - it's pretty easy.
Boy did my head hurt when I took it down 'though. Thanks for the sweater, Mom.

The Canadian Geese are back...

The snow is definitely melting and anytime you go outside you hear the geese honking as they fly overhead - we have four in our backyard now - I think they are the same ones who nested here last year. We give them a pretty wide berth - Jack is fascinated.

Renoir, My Father

I'm reading a really good book right now - title above - it's written by Jean Renoir and it's basically him sitting with his father talking - there are some good b/w photos of some of Renoir's works too. It's just a fascinating look back at the WWI era - lot's of descriptions of household happenings and quite a bit about the world war and the mechanization era too. It's a pretty easy read for a translation - I'm sure it's better in French 'though.

The Easter Project

Of course, I don't have enough to do - so I'm going to try and make a sweater to wear for Easter Sunday. I found a pretty print for a skirt (you can see the material in the corner of the picture)- and then of course could not find anything that I liked to match it. I thought I could probably wear the sweater I made for our Renewal service a few years ago - although it's very dressy (and I still can if I don't get this one finished). So, I bought the material for the skirt - and then, wouldn't you know it - with our limited resources here I couldn't find any yarn to match it either - I was trying to match some of the green - and I wanted cotton of course.


I finally found a mercerized cotton crochet thread that matched well and I bought all 5 skeins that they had - that won't be enough of course - so I asked the clerk to reorder - the rest will be here April 3rd. Then I fooled around with the gauge all weekend - I kntted several swatches with 2 and then 3 threads on different sized needles until I finally got gauge.

I'm making the "nothing but a T" shirt from MagKnits.
http://www.magknits.com/warm05/patterns/shirt.htm
So, I plied the thread together to make a pretty yarn - it has a nice sheen to it and it knits almost like a ribbon.

Wish me luck - I may not have time to post - as every spare minute from now until Easter will either be spent knitting or practicing the organ - I'm playing again on Easter Sunday - Whew!

Scrabble

Scrabble has always been one of my favorite games - I got a set for my 7th birthday from my cousins Susan and Gary - Mom correct me if I'm wrong...

Anyway, the Man-Cub loves Scrabble too and he's getting quite good at it - he also got a Junior Scrabble game for his 6th birthday - and this is the backside or the advanced side of his game board - the only difference being that you only get one point for each letter placed - he still won this game with 77 points.
He had the best words too - quote - hobo - sneeze and pray were all his - they would really have been worth a lot of points on a real Scrabble board.