Got my first Birchbox!

 Birchbox is a company that sends out a box of deluxe beauty samples to you every month, for a very reasonable $10/month subscription. This is my first one, but I am already awaiting August's. So far, I've just tried the coconut nourishing body cream (smells like heaven and stays put) and the Benefit Hello Flawless foundation (perfect shade for my skin and fun for dressing up.) Most of the products seem to be high end/ organic/ cruelty free, which is great. It reminds me of the little samples you get with your purchase at Sephora (or used to get, I should say.) Except you get way more things to try. Love it! So fun and so girly.

A dollar store puzzle and a galette--again

At a recent trip to the dollar store, I saw this 3-D dinosaur puzzle that comes with an actual machine to place inside it that makes it walk. I couldn't believe that something like this existed for $1, so I bought it just as a kind of joke, as in, yeah right, Dollar Store?!

Amazingly, it went together perfectly, with easy-to-follow instructions. And the thing actually walks. It's meant for ages 4 and up, but even I had a hard time with the tiny pieces. Too bad I just got around to making it-- I bought it weeks ago, and now I'm sure the store is out of them. They had cars that you could build and wind-up too, wish I'd gotten those as well...a good rainy day project.

And I can't stop making this cornmeal galette. This one is blueberry and yellow plum. It was yummy. (Very juicy though, as you can see. Thank goodness for parchment paper!)

Plum jam

We made this plum jam the other day from plums we picked off various trees in our neighborhood park and growing on the side of the road. It's good, a bit tart, but I like tart. I burned the first batch, so I watched the second one carefully and cooked it less than the recipe called for. It's the perfect consistency; I love the chunks of purple and yellow plums.

We had some plums leftover, so I used them to make a plum cornmeal galette. It was perfection. I ate the whole thing by myself in just over two days. Not a good few days for the old health, but oh--who can resist? The taste of summer gets me every time.

Find the galette dough recipe here, and a link to the Martha plum jam recipe here. She uses plums and peaches, but I used all plums. I found I needed some extra sugar and maybe two pinches of salt to counteract the added sugar. It was still quite tart, but tasted homemade and not sugary sweet like store bought jam.

Summer fashion!

Just got this Tart jumper and love it! Mine is exactly the same as the one shown, but sleeveless. I can wear it to the farmer's market, dress it up with heels or sleep in it. I think it's timeless.

And I love these cute, glittery sandals from Target, they are surprisingly comfortable.

Lace painted table

Here is my attempt at recreating the lace painted table from my earlier post. Thanks to A Beautiful Mess for directions!

Here is our banged up, heat damaged table. It was always covered with a tablecloth. I know, sad, sad, sad.

Here is the table with some lace draped over it. I found the lace at Joann's for about $5 a yard. I needed three yards to cover this table and three leaves. Our table was 42 inches wide, so I needed lace that was at least that width. This was 43 inches, and that mere inch of 'extra' lace was barely enough to wrap around the edge of the table and tape down. Keep that in mind if you attempt this! Also, a curved table is more difficult to cover than one with straight edges, and the tighter you can make the lace, the better.

Here is the surface after spray painting and letting it all dry for one hour.

I would recommend applying a thin layer of paint, as those parts I attempted to cover more thoroughly just ended up looking a bit blurry, as you can see in this shot. Also, the paint was so thick, it kind of created a weird pattern on the paint when the lace was eventually removed. All in all, I'm happy with it though. It's a definite improvement!

Random notes from parenthood oblivion

I love this idea over at A Beautiful Mess for updating a tired old wood table. All you need is lace and spray paint.

And this is ridiculous but also pretty funny. For crying out loud, eat your cereal, Ryan Gosling.

I'm obsessed with The Skunkboy Blog. Like, obsessed. Katie has inspired me to start wearing actual outfits again and and to care about how my hair looks. Thank you for bringing me back from new motheritis. Now I only wear sweats at home.

And speaking of hairdos, here is a list of 20 great hair tutorials for long-haired gals like myself. I'm having fun with my hair again! Sorry for the enthusiasm, but I feel like I'm waking up from a long nap...

I made this lemon pie with a saltine crust that everyone on NPR raved about. My sister and her boyfriend loved it, but not me so much. Maybe a chocolate filling to go with the salty crust? Not lemon, anyway.

Finally, here is a really cute handmade baby toy that I think would be perfect for my little one.

Salt clay creatures

On a rainy day, Jack and I crafted some of these salt clay creatures. He just loves them. You make the clay and bake it in the oven until totally dry, then cover with paint. We did these a few weeks ago and they are holding up very well, minus one little snake that broke in half. The recipe for the salt clay is below, we used acrylic paint on them (nontoxic, of course.)

Salt Clay:

3/4 cup salt

2 cups flour

3/4 cup water

To make: Mix the dry ingredients together. Then add the water gradually. When the dough forms a ball, knead it well, adding more water if it's too crumbly. Shape it into snakes, roll it out and cut it with cookie cutters, the sky's the limit here. Just make sure no pieces are too thick, as they may not dry thoroughly in the oven. Bake them on a cookie sheet (ungreased) in a 300 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until they are dry and the bottoms get a little brown. Wait for them to cool, then paint!

Superhero cape!

Someone requested a superhero cape. He wanted a green and black cape, the lightning bolt J was required since I made a similar mini cape for his stuffed monkey (now called 'Supermonkey.')

I started by taping some sheets of newspaper together to create a pattern.

I traced this onto green and black material, then sewed the two fabrics together, right sides facing.  I reinforced the insides of the collar, where I later sewed some velcro. He's a little rough with his toys, as most four-year-olds are, and since this is satiny material, I knew it would need some strengthening. I used Steam-A-Seam to iron some cotton fabric on the inside, where it wouldn't show. It worked great.

Then I turned the cape right side out (through the opening I left!) and stitched around the entire perimeter of the cape. Finally, I zig zagged the Superjack logo onto the back!

I like this...

Poached eggs, where have you been all my life?

I'm addicted to poached eggs, ever since I learned how to make them a few weeks ago. If you don't know how to do it, and you love your eggs poached (like I do) here's a very simple, helpful tutorial from Smitten Kitchen.

The yummy, healthy dinner (or breakfast) from these pictures comes together in the time it takes to poach your eggs, which is about four minutes once your water has boiled. I always include some lightly dressed greens, sandwiched between a buttered English muffin and a not-quite-four-minute poached egg.

And the acorn squash is something I just discovered this year. It's sweet and pumpkiny, the skin gets caramelized and chewy in the oven--hello edible skin! In that way, it's better than butternut squash. It roasts up easily, tossed with oil and rock salt in a 400-degree oven for a mere 20 minutes. 

Eureka, CA

Hakka noodles, cookies and a baby

I'm kind of obsessed with Hakka noodles since reading this article in the February issue of Sunset magazine.

It's basically four recipes that you can mix and match: Chinese sesame noodles, chicken and ginger broth, soy-glazed vegetables and pork. I made mine vegetarian, with tofu. The sesame noodles are addictive on their own (I eat them cold out of the fridge) and also good in the ginger broth. And it's great to have lightly sauteed vegetables in the fridge, an easy way to get more veggies into my diet. My four-year-old likes the different combinations and is a tofu monster, so I'm happy he's eating good food.

And on an entirely different and crazy unhealthy note: I finally made the cookies whose recipe I've been making sexy eyes at for months now. Brown butter, nutella-stuffed, sea salt studded chocolate chip cookies. The name is an entire sentence, amazing.

And they are good. And huge. Are they really supposed to be this big? The recipe says it makes 24, I made 28 pretty huge cookies. I put a lot of sea salt on each, they can take it with all the chocolate in them. And nutella. And brown butter. Ugh, my diet starts tomorrow. This picture is pretty bad, but for great photos and the recipe, go here.

And finally, here is what I've been working on these last 11 months. Baby Adam is here and I'm feeling like myself again. I loved being pregnant, but it feels good to be able to lift heavy things and get some serious exercise, you know what I mean?

Perspective

Amongst the joy of having a new little one in our family, I am constantly reminded of how lucky we are. My last job, working with disabled teens, always made me feel so grateful that my children were healthy, that we'd missed that misfortune at least, for now. But recently, through the network of friends and family (and ubiquitous Facebook) I've heard the tales of three separate, little children who recently, and sometimes suddenly, passed away. 

These lost kids are in my daily thoughts. I carry them with me while I sweep the floor. I think about them when I hold my baby and kiss my older boy to sleep. I can't help but wonder...will that ever happen to us? To me? 

As parents, maybe we all do this. I know my husband says that it's a part of having children, this fear of the worst possible thing happening. Do we have to imagine losing something to really love it? This fear sneaks in at the happiest moments in my kids' lives; I always stop and wonder why I'm thinking such dire thoughts when I should be happy.

How can we come to terms with this fear? The saying that fear is the opposite of love (even Yoda says it) isn't true, I don't think, because fear is tied up with love. I both love and fear my children--fear because I'm kind of terrified of what their existence means to me. My love for them makes me vulnerable. Breakable.

People always say that this is what makes life so beautiful, the temporary quality. Every moment matters, tell your kids you love them because...it could all be over any second. I don't think it's really beautiful though, frankly, I think it sucks.

I don't believe in any kind of afterlife, so there's no consolation there. I envy those with a faith that gives them that hope, it's a beautiful idea. I guess my belief of a universal soul, the exchange of energy, doesn't mean an end, with death, but my belief that once we die we lose our uniqueness (soul) doesn't allow for a lost child that I will see again. Life would have to just go on, without them, irrevocably. 

I have this rule where every time I have a thought of something terrible happening to one of my boys I have to imagine three great things happening to them. I remind myself that not only are these more positive thoughts to have, they are more likely. I remind myself, quietly, not to chase my fears. Yoga helps. Acknowledging the fear and escorting it out is a good strategy too. But the thoughts are no less frequent, and perhaps this is one of the hardest parts of being a parent.

I signed up to take dinner to one of the families of one of the lost children. I wanted them to know that they are being thought of, that a whole community feels some of the loss that they feel so acutely, essentially, that they are not alone. But I suspect that there is also a part of me that wants to see them, like I seek the reassurance that people do recover from things like this. Perhaps I too, could recover. 

For now, I will try my darnedest to live in the moment and enjoy my kids and our life, because no matter what one believes, this is good advice. Maybe the non-permanence teaches us to have more meaningful lives. Maybe tomorrow I'll leave the dishes and play with my son the first time he asks me. 

Bits and bobs

My wee new son is now six weeks old and the craziness that goes along with bringing a baby into the world is starting to calm down; I am trying to take it all in and treasure/survive these early days. Life at home with a four-year-old and a five-week-old (both boys, no less) is loud. It's loud and active and frankly, totally exhausting. But there's just something so wonderful about it all too...

In other news...

I love this hairstyle, so elegant yet breezy.

This is what I want for Valentine's Day, the most gorgeous color ever.

Since having my last C-Section, I've been looking at comfortable and cute underwear that doesn't rub along my sore tummy. These pairs look cute AND comfortable. Wish I'd have thought to buy them before I went into the hospital. I even sewed a pair of my own granny panties, pattern here. I used synthetic jersey, which wasn't as soft as I'd have liked. I'd love them in something really luxurious, like organic bamboo.

I'd like to have this for dinner tonight and these for dessert, just saying.

I'm working through these TED talks at the moment.

And I love these dishes but really, Anthropologie, three-hundred dollars for a cake stand that won't even stand up?

And this is the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time.