yesterday was my brother’s 27th birthday. we had a great family dinner with some of his friends over to celebrate with us.

i spent much of yesterday making some baked goods for him – a cake and frosting from scratch, dinner rolls, and some chocolate chip cookies (we made some saturday night, but somehow they were gone by yesterday morning!)

here are a few shots from the celebration!

dinner rolls

awesome lego army men

awesome lego army men

legos are big at our house

the whalers are also big at our house

11 more days til my birthday!!!

monday night kevin and i decided to try some different baking. we had seen recipes for dog cookies, and were pretty excited to try them. my dog luv was excited too! she was hanging out in the kitchen most of the time, sniffing around, hoping that we’d drop something. we did let her taste a bit of the dough, and she scarfed it up.

we used a recipe that called for beef bouillon, but all we have here is chicken, so we used that. after we added that in we decided that she may like peanut butter in them too. so we added some peanut butter. let me just say, this did not give off a nice, pleasing aroma in the kitchen like when i’m baking bread!

they are a HUGE hit though! luv is addicted to them, and i gave some to my brother and sister to give to gunnar. they have been a big hit!

i think next time we will add some mint and parsley to help with the doggy breath!

ready to bake

cuttin' cookies

cuttin' cookies

cuttin' cookies

fresh out of the oven!

fresh out of the oven!

so excited!

are those really for me?!

so gentle

maybe if i sit here and look pretty i can have more treats....

my amazing friends naomi and matt are expecting their first child! the adorable baby will be gracing us with his/her presence very soon, and because of that we had a party in honor of the baby! ms. laura and i had a blast preparing for this party, and i think everyone who attended had a great time. i would like to say also how awesome i think it is that they are waiting to find out the sex of the baby. so few people do that these days, and i think its an amazing and wonderful surprise.

i didn’t take all that many photos because i was busy most of the night, but i hope you enjoy some of the prep photos. i made the cake for the party, it was shaped like a baby onesie. when i first cut the cake into the shape, my mom decided that the cake definitely needed a head, so there is a series of photos that show what the cake would look like with a head.

first let me introduce you to matt and naomi!

matt and naomi!

one of naomi's many talents

now onto the cake! (all onesie-head shots taken by kevin, i was making the frosting)

the onesie

elf onesie

flower onesie

ed onesie

kevin onesie

jacob chicken onesie

jack-in-the-box onesie

decorated onesie

we were trying to go with a somewhat green theme party, so for the favors i made bookmarks out of paint samples!

bookmarks

bookmarks

ms. laura, my gorgeous co-hostess

we had sooo much food! deviled eggs, fruit salad, green salad, bagel bites, egg rolls, mini quiche, candy, truffles, cake, lasagna, cookies – i don’t think anyone went home hungry.

yummy food

we asked everyone to bring a baby photo, and we hung them up so people could try and guess who was who.

aww, we were so cute

we also had a little clothesline with baby cutouts on it for people to write a message to the baby.

friends and the baby cutouts

we all worked on a big surprise for naomi – we made onesies with iron ons and sharpies in the basement. she was so annoyed that she couldn’t know what was going on in the basement – until we showed her all the onesies right before she cut the cake.

honey bear!

sherri waiting patiently to iron

aww

so cute

i’ve been dying to show you all the baby blanket i knitted for matt and naomi back in november and december – and now i can show you!

its really a toddler-sized blanket, to be honest

i will leave you with this adorable parting shot of dalila, the big sister!

yes, i AM the big sister

this week has been so full of getting things ready for a party for my friend’s unborn child this weekend that i haven’t been taking many photos.

but last night we used my parent’s new convection oven to make pizza for dinner! this was great for us, because we usually have to wait forever to cook 3 pizzas, and last night we could cook them all at once – and eat dinner all at the same time!

annnnnnnnnnnd i made the dough from scratch! not too shabby, if i do say so myself. i used king arthur brand bread flour, and the dough was so light and delicious! i can’t wait to try it again, and maybe add in some wheat flour and a touch of honey.

3 pizzas cooking together

3 pizzas cooking together

meat lovers pie

veggie lovers pie

cheese haters pie

my amazing sister boot made me a button for my blog!!!

i would love it if we could share buttons. i love to support all my readers and friends!

thanks again to boot for being so amazing….and please, if you need a button or a banner, let her know, i’m she would LOVE to work with you.

so i have been putting in some serious kitchen time this weekend. i have tried quite a few projects in the new mixer.

so to date we’ve made cinnamon raisin bread (3 loaves on saturday night – we have less than 1 loaf left), 2 loaves of french bread (one given away, one with dinner last night), a small batch of soft pretzels (cinnamon-sugar and salt – all are gone), and i just made a cherry pie for my dad for president’s day.

today was a mixer-free day (so far), but still got some baking in.

french bread ready to proof

ready to bake!

fresh outta the oven

boiling the pretzels

boiled pretzels

salted pretzels

cinnamon sugar pretzels

cherry pie

yummy!

yummy!

happy valentine’s day weekend, my pets!!! i can’t even express to you in words how excited i am for the gift i received today! my loving boyfriend went out and got me a 6 quart kitchenaid mixer!!! now most people balk at such things for valentine’s gifts…but not me! i have been asking for this for pretty much every holiday (christmas, hanukkah, valentine’s day, birthday, president’s day, memorial day, 4th of july) for YEARS. and today i am the proud owner of a gorgeous mixer (yet to be named).

ohmygoodness!

happy girl

help! i can't get this thing outta here!

just barely fits

in honor of my gift, we made some cinnamon raisin bread! i have never made it before, but everyone approves of it in the house, so i imagine i’ll be making it again soon.

so riseth the dough

all rolled out, and nowhere to go

cinnamon and sugar

roll it up!

rollin' rollin' rollin'

proofing

all done!

perfect for breakfast, if it lasts that long...

i left antarctica in 2006 in august. i spent about a week in new zealand and then a friend and i went to tonga for 2 weeks. where is tonga you ask – it is in the south pacific and is an island chain kingdom (yes, i said kingdom) that runs about 500 miles from north to south. it is just south of samoa, and between new zealand and hawaii.

my friend and i did no research before going here, we just knew we wanted to swim with humpback whales (which we did). we learned a lot, met a lot of great people (i still keep in touch with one of the girls i met who was there in the peace corps – facebook is amazing that way!). most of all, we thawed out and had a really great vacation.

while we were there, the king passed away. this closed all the bars for a few days, and when they reopened they were draped in black and the only music allowed to be played were hymns. it was and incredibly interesting time to be there.

i really have no reason to post these photos today, other than the fact that we’re supposed to get a nor’easter with 55mph winds tomorrow, and that makes me feel cold. and these photos make me feel warm. i hope they make you feel warm too!

arriving in tonga - nuku'alofa

warm water, gorgeous days

view from the 'ark gallery'

lunch at the dancing rooster

afternoon snack

the ark gallery

hanging out on the 'orion'

my favorite place to hang out!

a perfect day on the water

standard lunch at our apartment

a reminder of our day on the beach

a reminder of our day on the beach

seriously, way more photos here – whale photos!

yesterday i received some disturbing news (nothing life-threatening, but something that upset me).

to deal with said news, i did this craft that i had read about a long time ago, but finally got around to doing!

i melted crayons and mixed some colors together to make new crayons!

i read about this in a kid’s magazine forever ago, but i decided that even though i’m a mere few weeks from turning 30, why can’t i melt down my crayons that i’m not using and make something new out of them?

the best thing about this (for those of you with kids) is that you just take all your broken up, old crayons and recycle them! since i’m old, and don’t really break my crayons or use them to their full potential, what is pictured here is just an old box of crayons that were in my room unused for the past few years.

this would be a great craft for a birthday party – kids can pick their own color crayons to make! this batch i gave away to the kids up the road – and they immediately started drawing and coloring with them (so that’s a good sign).

what you’d need to make your own crayons:

• old crayons (the more broken up and worn the better – that means less breaking for you and less time peeling the labels off)
• a muffin tin
• cooking spray
• oven (set to 275 degrees)

only the best! crayola!

i wasn’t sure how many crayon bits i’d need to fill one mini-cupcake tin, so i grouped some crayons that i thought would be cool to melt together.

pink and orange

red and pink

this could look neat

baby blues!

next i unwrapped the crayons (i bet kids would really like this part…i had SO much crayon stuck under my thumb nails!)

unwrapping

hopefully it works!

next i took a mini muffin tin sprayed with cooking spray and placed the crayon bits in the tins.

crayons ready to melt

then i placed the muffin tin into the oven which had been preheated to 275. keep them in the oven for about 7-8 minutes, or until they are melted.

hurry up and melt!

while the crayons melted, i cleaned up my mess.

what a mess!

finally it was time to check on my masterpieces!

fresh out of the oven!

before they started to cool, i took a toothpick and swirled some of them, to give a neat marbleized look on the top of the new crayon.

swirly

after letting the crayons cool completely in the muffin tins, i simply turned them upside down and tapped on the bottom. the crayons came right out, and were ready for use!

final result

stay tuned for crayons in different shapes!!!

i awoke this morning to a beautiful softly snow covered day!

it was much nicer today to wake up without a migraine. i had a horrible one yesterday, and felt so bad for my friend clair who was visiting. i was not at all a good hostess as i lay on the couch in pain trying to continue making conversation. i had taken one imitrex to ward off the migraine when i woke up, but it didn’t even touch the pain, so i ended up having to take another one after she left. finally i was feeling somewhat normal again.

we had a great visit though – and my mom’s friend dale was down from vermont visiting as well. we had some fantastic pizza monday night, and then just sat around chatting and knitting. clair was so patient and taught me how to properly purl and how to cable! i’m excited to start a cabling project now! i’m so glad that clair was able to stop on her way north, i love having my friends come and meet my family.

after i started to feel better yesterday kevin and i went to acquire a lemon tree. if you know anything about my house it is that we need absolutely NO more plants in it. but i really wanted a lemon tree – because how cool would it be to just use your own lemons? so we headed over to whole foods (who was having a local food sampling…yum!) and snagged a lemon tree! its teeny now, but will grow bigger (naturally). i can’t wait to use my own fresh lemons!

lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet

but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

when i woke up we had a nice dusting of snow, but more than enough for me to have to shovel the driveway. dad did our driveway so i snapped a few shots of the yard, and took the dog out. then headed up the street to shovel my elderly neighbor’s driveway and sidewalk. it was warm enough that i had to take my hat and gloves off. and as i sit here now i can hear the snow dripping and melting outside.

snowy lights

snowy lights

snowy lights

luv adores the snow

snowy dog nose