Cozy Living

And We're Off...

(photo from our September 2006 Yosemite trip)

We won't be around for a week and a half...we're off to one of the most beautiful places in the world: Yosemite!  I love the fields of grasses, the vistas of blue rock, the crisp fall air, just about everything about it makes me happy.  Some of my favorite memories in high school are from our church's annual youth trip to Yosemite, where we would spend several hours alone in silence in the nature around us, reflecting on creation.  We're now taking advantage of our last year without anyone in elementary school by heading out for a nice fall trip up north. (as much as I love it, Yosemite is a crowded mess in the summertime.)

We'll be in nearby Bass Lake for some of the week, camping in the park for part of the week (aaahhhh...I love cooking over the campfire), then we head over to San Francisco for the weekend, where Greg has a work event and the boys and I will toodle around on our own for a few days.

I am so looking forward to spending my days in pure beauty with my family.  And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this time my dear husband will be enjoying it all with us, instead of writhing in the little country hospital passing a kidney stone for five days...oh yes, our last trip was quite idyllic...ahem.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!  If you're looking for some new tidbits from our house, check out the archives.  I didn't actually tell anyone about this blog until I'd been writing for a few months, so those early posts have never really seen the light of day.  It's definitely an encouragement to me to see the improvement in my writing and photography in the months past.  I'm excited to share our photos and stories with you all when  we get back.

On the First Day of (handmade) Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me...

[I've found myself looking for more tangible ways to express my love to my family and friends, especially for this Christmas season.  I am determined right now to begin fashioning what I'm calling my Handmade Christmas.  My goal is to make all of my gifts this year.  If you'll follow along with me, I might share an idea or two that you hadn't thought of, and I look forward to some comments with wonderful handmade Christmas present ideas from you, too.  Hopefully we'll all be ready to celebrate together when we have a cozy little stash of homemade gifts waiting under our trees for our loved ones in December.]

On the first day of handmade Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree!  But as there's a shortage of partridges around here (as well as pear trees), I'll settle for a stamped bird on a handmade Christmas card.  Since I started stamping three years ago I haven't bought a store bought card for anything.  I love creating the design, choosing the colors, and even making and remaking the card until it looks just right.  For Christmas, I try to keep my ideas very basic, because I just don't want to spend hours and hours stamping cards for my whole Christmas list.  Here are some of my ideas for this year, created for my yearly Christmas Card Stamping Class, so that there will be plenty of ideas for everyone.

...the traditional red and green above, and the more elegant cream and gold with organdy ribbon below.

Red and aqua, inspired by Selena & Sara's swap.  That butterfly card is one of my favorite recent creations.

more red and green, with a bit of a vintage olive twist, and another favorite color combo, red white and black, below.

I love navy and light blue and white, too.  The middle card was my card two years ago, and is still one of my simple favorites.

Here's the card I would love to do for this year, along with the simplified version that I will most likely end up with.  That's okay, often simpler is better, in card-making and in life.

All of the stamps and paper shown were purchased from Stampin' Up! (email me if you need a source) and most can be done by even the newest stamper.  Most designs are mine, but several are from my wonderful stamping club...thank you Bridget, Marni, Rebecca, Tandra, Alora, Jeanne, Gigi, Cindy & Tina for your inspiration and your beautiful designs! If you've never stamped, your necessities to purchase are: extra smooth (but not glossy) white or cream cardstock for stamping on, a paper trimmer, a few inkpads and coordinating cardstock colors, and a few image stamps and a few sentiment (word) stamps.  I also like to add ribbon and rhinestones to lots of my designs.  I generally start with the main image I want to use and a color scheme, and start experimenting until I like what I have.  If you have any questions about specific cards, send me an email @ cozyliving@cox.net and I'll help you as much as I can.  

I so enjoy making my own cards, especially for Christmas.  Come back for the second day of (handmade) Christmas soon...

A Few of My Favorite Things...day 5

...my Lisa Leonard necklace.  worn almost daily.  i've recently added her september special bird necklace to my measly jewelry box, just to give this baby a bit of a rest now and then.  her work is beautiful. do you have a favorite jeweler or artist to share?

The Last of the Summer Beach Nights and a Photography Tip.

 

I know it seems a little strange (and I hope not too cruel) to be sharing the last of our beach nights with you on the second day of fall, but then again, there are some of us yearning for a bit of the fall crispness that other parts of the country are enjoying while we southern californians go through the typical September heat waves.  But for all of us, there is a changing of seasons happening, subtle though it may be.  For us, it means the end of our weekly beach nights.  It means a bit of a nip in the air after dinner on the sand, enough of a chill for me to bring out the sweatpants and last year's knitted winter hats and realize they're a bit small these days.  

It means no more cousins romping together in the waves, no more excuses for Aunt Krissy to concoct another last minute creative dinner idea like the gorgeous one below.  

The end of summer here means no more watching my dad fish from the shore through the misty haze of a beachy evening.  

The end of summer means less running around barefoot, and a bit of fall sweater shopping, even if it's only wishful thinking for now.  Summer has always been my favorite season.  Then again, I certainly do love the rolling green hills above our house in Spring.  And Winter is full of excitement with so many birthdays in our house and a few days of rain here and there for puddle jumping.  

Oh, but Fall is here!  And I do so love taking the boys to the pumpkin patch to explore the hay maze.  And of course, December is my favorite month...full of excitement and "tactivities," as my nephew would say.  Okay, so I don't mind too much the moving forward of life.  There's a wonderful rhythm to the year, isn't there?  Just when we're almost tired of the sameness of a season, we're given something new to enjoy.  I hope you're enjoying your fall, wherever you are.

P.S. I'd like to share my favorite photography tip from my Creative Photography Retreat, for those of you with SLR cameras.  You probably already know how to do this, but just in case it's new to you as it was to me, here it is.  When you're shooting into a place that's either extremely light (like shooting into the sun so your subject is backlit) or extremely dark (like shooting someone standing in front of a large dark archway or something) you can adjust your camera to capture the features of the subject instead of the features of the background.  If you want your subject's face properly exposed, set your camera on one of the 'sort of' automatic modes, like P or TV (shutter speed priority) or AV (aperture priority) on my Canon.  Move close in to your subject and fill your shot with their face, so that there's none of the dark or light background in your viewfinder.  Press the shutter button halfway down and look inside your viewfinder to get the aperture (f stop) and the shutter speed recommended for their face.  Remember those numbers, then change your camera's mode to M (manual) and set your aperture and shutter speed to the settings the camera recommended.  Move back and reframe your shot and take it with the new manual settings.  Your subject's face should be properly exposed so you can capture those moments exactly how you want to.  Here are some example shots:

Tyler, without adjusting the camera to manual settings (in this case, I actually like the first photo better, but at least you'll see what I mean with the difference it makes.)

The same shot a few moments later, after I moved in close, filled my screen with his face, pressed the shutter button halfway to get a recommended exposure, moved back and changed to manual mode, putting in the recommended exposure for his face:

 

Sometimes you want the backlit look of a silhouette, like in this shot from the boys' party last month, where I wanted to capture the location more than the individual kids:

 

...but when you want the features of someone's face to stand out, try the technique and see what you think.  Here's another example from our last beach night using this technique, which blew out the background, but that wasn't the focus of my photo, so I didn't care.

I'm not sure how many of you are really interested in more photo tips, so if you like these tips, please leave a comment to let me know and I'll add some more photo tips in upcoming posts.  If you're interested in tips for better point and shoot photos, throw a comment in there, too, as I have used a point and shoot (and still do sometimes) up until about a year ago.  I love photography although I do not proclaim to be an expert, but I am happy to share any knowledge I do have if anyone out there is actually interested.

Neither Here Nor There...

Happy first day of Autumn!  Fall doesn't really start for us for several weeks (if not months) but I'm celebrating nonetheless.  I love the crispness of fall, the bite in the air, the chance to build a fire in the fireplace and snuggle up under a quilt with the ones you love.  I love decorating my dining table with pumpkins and gourds, and knowing that in a few months our extended family will all gather here to lift up thanks for our many blessings.  

Today I'm celebrating Autumn with a new fall bag and some fall clothes from yesterday's trip to Target. Oh yes, I spare no expense.  At least this time I actually tried things on at the store rather than throwing them in the cart and bringing them home to try on... I'm really excited about some sweatery things they had there, like this dress (image courtesy Target.com) which I plan on wearing with leggings.  I am oh so pleased that leggings are still "in," and please don't tell me if I'm wrong about that.

And now here's a random post of unrelated items of interest (or perhaps not of interest, in which case, stop reading and do get on with scrubbing your toilet or whatever it is you need to do.)

-The whole wheat zucchini banana bread is indeed better on the second or third day, just like real banana bread.  I have now tried it in muffin form, and when I made some cream cheese frosting for the top of some of them (the ones without chocolate chips) the boys were thrilled that we were having cupcakes!  Ha, ha, ha, I wonder how much longer I'll be able to fool them into thinking this bread is a cupcake! I'll take it while it lasts.

-The camera I have is a Canon Digital Rebel xTi, and the lens I just got this week is a Canon 50mm 1.4 aperture lens.  Up until now I've been using the kit lens that came with the camera (an 18-55 zoom that only had like a 3.5 or 4 aperture.)  I really miss the zoom feature and the fact that the 50mm seems really close up to me, but I'm hoping to get used to it.  I LOVE the ability to shoot well in low light.  Aahhh.  I do have another little point and shoot that's a Sony Cybershot.  It fits in my pocket and takes video, which is really why I bought it (we don't have a video camera.)  For a long time I traveled with the Cybershot in my purse, but lately have been using my own design of a camera bag...

-Here it is! My most recent SLR camera bag.  This one is with some very fallish Joel Dewberry fabrics, and I'm so excited that I have it done before my Yosemite trip.  I plan on doing another one with this fabric for my shop sometime after we return from our trip.

-a note about handmade: I sometimes get so caught up in trying to be the most efficient and streamlined at my handmade work when I'm planning on selling it, that I lose the creativity in the process.  I had planned on making four or five camera bags together at the same time (sew the pockets for all five, quilt the lining for all five, add the straps to all five, etc.) and it was just so overwhelming to think of how many hours I'd need, that I just wasn't getting it done.  But when I decided to make just my one camera bag above, it was so exciting to see the process through from start to finish without all the assembly line sewing of mass production.  And in the end, my excitement carried me through so quickly that I was able to finish one bag alone just as fast as I would've done if it had been on my "assembly line."  I'm glad to rediscover the joy of making one thing, start to finish.  I think that will be my new mode of operation.

-I have not yet made the promised fairy gardens (if you missed the photos, do check them out!) but my aunt is determined that we will all make some for her birthday party this year.  I'll keep you posted in November.

-Oh, my new lens is functioning perfectly now, despite its problems on day one.  I'm already dreaming of my next one, too...perhaps a wide angle lens?  It's addicting.  I can't wait to take some portraits with my 1.4, though.

-I have joined a fun little swap that Selena and Sara, two of my favorite friends (the former being my first blogging friend, the latter being my best friend of many years in real life!)  It's a red and aqua swap and I'm already excited about what I'm planning to do.  If you want to join the fun, visit them and sign up!

-Martha Stewart is having a blogging contest, so if you're a blogger, be sure to stop by her blog to check it out and perhaps join in!

-I mentioned that I'm thinking of switching to cloth napkins at our house.  We switched from paper towels to dishcloths several months ago and not only do the towels do a better job when they're made of cloth, they also feel better in my hands, and I'm not adding to our weekly trash.  It will be such fun making napkins out of the small scraps I have left from sewing projects gone by.

-Some people have wondered and commented about my farm...I am sorry to say I do not have a farm of my own.  When I mention that our farm is overloaded with some delicious type of produce, I'm referring to our CSA (community supported agriculture) farm, where our weekly baskets of produce come from.  I like the idea that our family has an integral part in keeping a local farm alive and kicking.  However, the boys and I do refer to our measly three or four pockets of dirt in the backyard as our farm.  This despite the fact that I think the grand total of this summer's produce from said farm was three tomatoes, two lame bell peppers and a couple of pear tomatoes.  Sigh. But my little city boys have felt the grit of fresh dirt under their fingernails.  They've dug in the soil and have time and again, as our crops fail, been amazed at what hard work being a farmer is.  So really, our "farm" has been a wonderful thing.

I hope you're enjoying your first day of fall, however you spend it.

San Diego City Living

I spend much of my time wishing I could live in the country, preferably with no t.v., lots of dogs, a white farmhouse with a wraparound porch, trees for the boys to climb, and a wonderful farm that magically tends itself.  (Well, as long as it's a dream, I should ask for all I want, right?)

But yesterday the boys and I lived it up in the city...my sister and brother-in-law finally moved into their downtown place, which, oh, just happens to be right above Petco Park in San Diego, my favorite city in the world (yet) where I would wish to live if I had three wishes.  But as my fairy godmother seems to be otherwise occupied, we will instead stay put where we are, and live vicariously through Amy and Rob.

How do I love thee, San Diego? Let me count the ways: we walked everywhere from their place...and it's not too far for little feet.  The sidewalks are clean and wide and boys can run wherever we go.  

There is a free playground right outside Petco Field, along with a miniature baseball diamond perfect for Jake and Tyler to explore with Uncle Rob, while Amy and I unpacked. (We could even spy on the boys from their window...see Jake running to first down there on the right?)

The food in the city is so varied and wonderful, with friendly folks willing to chase you three blocks to bring you a tasty Thai take out dish they forgot...

...and then you get to eat it here, on the rooftop deck with a view of the trainyard, the trolleys, the bay, the Coronado bridge, and the sunset.

And you finish it all up with gourmet gelato (also bought at a little mom and pop down the block) with the city lights twinkling in the background.  Are we all cured of our yearning for country living yet? Sigh.

Fresh Bread is Here Again

Hello, bread.  Welcome back.  We've missed you.  I've missed the yeasty aroma turning our house into a home.  The boys have missed you, too, as evidenced by their cries of, "fresh bread! fresh bread!" when they first smelled you baking and then saw you on the counter.  Mmmm...you're making a welcome return to our home.

Unless you've perused the archives you will not know that my first loaf of bread was only about six months ago.  Now, I'm going to warn you, if you don't have a strong stomach, please avert your eyes, because here she is:

The saddest part is my conversation with myself as I looked at it, which went something like this: "Well, it smelled good, and it is homemade, so I know it might be a bit lumpier than storebought bread.  It doesn't look right, but I did it just like I was supposed to.  Hmmm...Maybe it's supposed to look like this?"  Let me assure you, that, no, homemade bread is not supposed to look like this.  It wasn't long ago, but it's certainly worth seeing, as I can guarantee you've never seen another loaf like it in your life.  But everyone has to start somewhere, right?  And I can just picture those of you non-bread-makers out there seeing my first loaf and thinking, "well if that's how she started, then gosh darn it, I've got to at least be better than her!" And more power to you.  Please, do, make a loaf of your own.  When you get around to making your first edible loaf, it's so, so addicting. (Of course, some of us take longer than others to get there.)  And if you have any confidence left in me after six months of breadmaking since this beauty, you'll find our recipe here, if you're looking for a good whole wheat loaf, which is perfect for cutting into thick slices (I think homemade bread just deserves generous servings, don't you?) and for spreading with butter or jam.  We make it with about 2.5 c. whole wheat flour and .5 c. white bread flour these days.  I'm always looking for ways to up the whole wheat factor.

And a few other little tidbits: -on the counter in the first photo: more zucchini and bananas for making even more whole wheat zucchini banana bread today.  White flowers to take tomorrow as a housewarming gift to my sister in her new downtown digs.  That beautiful striped wood breadboard we bought in Seattle this spring. And the pumpkin butter, an impulse buy at Trader Joe's, just because it seemed like the fall-ish thing to do (although it smells quite spicy, now that I've opened it...hmmm. What shall we do with it?)

-and down below, my boys enjoying our fresh bread on the front porch.  With cloth napkins, which I have decided are our next step in a more wholesome life.  I think I feel some more sewing coming on...

The View from Back Here...

It's here! It's here!  My new birthday lens arrived today!  My faux daughter can attest to the fact that I ripped into that box like a two year old, when I discovered it on my front porch this afternoon.  We laughed about my childlike enthusiasm, but, no, I did not slow down.  I wanted that baby out!  (Are my exclamation points getting across my excitement here?)

I already had plans to do a little sewing this afternoon (some lovely Anna Maria Horner "Garden Party" fabric, and some gorgeous fall Joel Dewberry..yum.) so I didn't get to play much with the lens during the day.  And I'm in denial of the fact that it was giving me error messages repeatedly today.  Yes, on the first day.  No, that is not a good sign.  Yes, I have already contacted customer service.  No, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a replacement before my Yosemite trip next week...crossing my fingers.

The best part about the lens is that it opens up to a really wide (1.4) aperture to capture great photos even in low light.  It is so hard to get good indoor shots of kids (they move!) at night, so I decided this was the lens I needed, even though it doesn't zoom (sigh) and that will take some getting used to.  But it does do some amazing blur in the background of portraits.

So here's my first time gaving it a whirl. Just a little peek into our tonight...

Sara (my faux daughter...I'll explain someday) and the boys in their new airplane command center (read: their closet) wearing their tower control headsets (read: old walkman headphones). You can't see the cockpit control pad (read: old keyboard and joystick.)  They're mapping out where to fly to next.

Were you wondering what I look like?  Here you go.  This is as much face as I can get with the new fixed 50mm lens.  My hair is red today.

This shot of Greg so reminds me of another black and white I took (and developed myself) during our dating days.  I'll have to dig that one up and compare.

on the way home from frozen yogurt...through the front window with no flash!  Now that's what I'm talking about with low light shots!

And this one was taken at 7:30 in our darkish living room.  I did not lighten up the exposure on my computer...love the details I can get with this lens!  On the back of your camera there might be a White Balance adjustment button (mine is labeled WB) which I use to keep the yellowish cast out of indoor photos when I don't want it.  Sometimes I do want it, just to give it the warmth of the moment, as in my favorite photo of the night, the feet/cuddle shot at the top of my post. 

I'll keep you posted about whether I have to send this precious new toy back in for examination, and most importantly, whether I have it to take on my trip next week.  Yosemite and San Francisco, I know you are just begging for us to explore you!

Sorry there's no other crafty news today.  Perhaps soon.

A Few of My Favorite Things...day 4

...playing the piano while the boys spin and dance with all their hearts.

We started this activity way back before Tyler was even born, and Jake would flip and spin and roll around on the floor as I played for him.  As we've been reading the Little House on the Prairie series I've been so jealous of their evenings singing with Pa's fiddle, but have lately realized that this is our own version.  I'll begin playing and the boys will yell out, "adagio!" for me to play slower and they'll dance slower, then "allegro" or "presto" and I'll play as fast as I can while they run and dance with everything they've got, until they fall in heaps onto the floor.  When they get a little older and I have some daily moments to myself, I look forward to re-learning some of my old piano pieces.  I love the quiet of the house filled with the warm tones of classical music.

I began piano lessons in second grade, and continued on with them more or less regularly for the next twelve years.  This piano is my grandmother's, and has brought me moments of peace and calm in the midst of wonderful, crazy, and horrible life moments.  When Jake was an infant and couldn't be consoled, I'd sit down with him and play for him, and he would settle in against my chest, leaning back, mesmerized by the music. At the moment, I can really only remember how to play a few favorite pieces, but I do hope that at least one of my boys will show an interest someday in learning to play.  Wouldn't it be fun to play a duet together with my little boy?  For now, they're playing cacophonous duets of their own...

Some Stitched Stuff

I don't know what it is about September, but once my birthday passes, my mind moves on to Christmas.  I'm dreaming of a crafty Christmas, and it's inspiring me to do some quick projects...just little this and thats for various people and purposes.  

The train tote was a must, as Jake's school doesn't allow backpacks, so that was finished the day before school started last week.  Meg asked about the fabric, but I'm sorry to say I don't know where to find it.  I picked it up at my local fabric shop several months back, after trying (and failing) to convince Jake that maybe he'd like some different kind of fabric, since he had trains on his tote bag last year.  No such luck.  But isn't that brown and white striped handle cute?  And what about that cute "jeans" stretchy handle on the long blue bag...they're both from my new bin of goodness below!  But I digress.  

The blue bag is for Auntie Amy & Uncle Rob, who are getting the keys to their new downtown San Diego loft today!  We're going down on Thursday to "help" them settle in, although with two small boys in tow, I'm not sure how much "help" I'll actually be.  But the best part about their new home is that it's directly above the baseball stadium, which houses a playground and a miniature baseball diamond where kids can play any time they want to!  Way to go, Amy & Rob; you picked the right building.  So the blue bag is some heavyweight fabric I've had around for a while, turned into a tote with a drawstring at the top (also from my new bin of stuff) for the baseball bat and whiffle balls the boys wanted to give them as a housewarming present. 

On the left is a pretty little flowery fabric that reminds me of Little House on the Prairie.  This is exactly the fabric I picture in my head when I read about Ma's poplin dresses with sprays of pink roses on it.  I have no idea if that's historically accurate, but I thought this skirt would make me feel like a prairie girl when I wear it.  Which I haven't.  Because I stink at sewing clothes.  Just ask my mom.  I did give it a good try, following Angry Chicken's 5 minute skirt pattern.  An hour and a half later, I have a skirt that I will never wear.  (at least not until I fix it.) It is in no way the fault of the pattern, it is completely operator error here.  And it may have something to do with the fact that I chose fabric that needed a lining.  And it really needed some eyelet ruffles to peek out below.  But I have not given up on it yet.  I'm just a little mad at it for the time being.

Perhaps because of the above mentioned clothes-sewing disability, I have just finished two naked dolls.  But if you look carefully at Jake's doll in the picture, he's not naked...thinking ahead to the hours of frustration that making doll clothes would bring, I oh-so-cleverly stitched some pants and shirts on with embroidery thread.  There. They're dressed.  And no, they're not dolls (I misspoke a moment ago) they're "guys."  "Camping guys" for adventuring on our upcoming campouts this fall, to be specific.  And wait until you see Tyler's "guy," he's got some wild hair, perfect for my wild baby boy.  I'll do a separate post about them sometime.

But I don't want to leave you without showing you the jackpot I hit at my mom's house the other day.  It went something like this:  "Mom, do you have any handles I could use for Jake's preschool bag?"  Oh, yes, she says, and pulls out this:

A whole large tub of vintage trims and handles and pom pons and other fancy stuff.  After noticing me marveling over it all, my dear mother expressed her dear wish to have this tub out of her house, and sent it home with me.  I'm always hearing about other people getting all kinds of stuff out thrifting, or from their grandmother, and I'm always jealous.  I had no idea there was a whole tub for me, just waiting in my mom's sewing room.  And when I dug in, I found this:

and my favorites, these:

Just look at the old card those orange tapestry straps are wrapped around.  I don't think I'll be able to throw it away when the straps are gone.  I have no idea where this tub will go in my sewing space, but I'll take it, nonetheless. Thank you, Mom.

A Few of My Favorite Things...day 3

...sunset through grasses.

(taken on the TV setting at a long exposure, crouching down behind the grasses where the sunset was hidden.  My new birthday lens should arrive any day!  Can't wait to see what kinds of low light shots I can take with it.)

Whole Wheat Zucchini Banana Bread

We got several zucchini in our CSA basket this week, and although we have been doing all of our produce shopping at the farmer's market or through our CSA, we did pick up some bananas at Trader Joe's earlier this week.  It amazes me sometimes to think back to a year ago and what we were used to eating, as compared to today, when buying a banana at the store is, as I told the boys, "a special treat," and they agreed.  I wish someone at the farmer's market would start growing bananas...but for now, we'll enjoy this delicious recipe with our precious bananas and some of our farm's zucchini overload of the summer.

If it weren't for the sugar and chocolate chips, this could be considered a healthy-ish recipe, but as we made it, it's really a dessert bread.  And I even think I might cut the sugar or syrup a bit more next time, it is so sweet.  But just think, a dessert that tastes delicious (huge hit with our family) and is oh-so-much healthier than the white floury Nestle' cookies that I would have made last year if we were up for a treat.  Out of curiosity, I compared the nutritional info of a mini loaf of this bread to that of two homemade Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies, and this bread has almost 25% fewer calories, 75% less fat, more than 3 times the fiber, and of course, tons more of every type of vitamin and mineral.  And it's still super sweet to satisfy an incurable sweet tooth like mine.  What's not to like?

Linn's Whole Wheat Zucchini Banana Bread

2 eggs, beaten

1 c. unsweetened applesauce

2 t. vanilla

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. maple syrup (I'm sure you could adjust the sugar and leave this out if you don't have any.)

2 c. grated zucchini (this was about 1 medium zucchini for me)

1 1/2 bananas, very ripe and mashed

3 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking powder

3/4 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

3/4 t. salt

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the eggs, vanilla, sugar, syrup, zucchini, and bananas well.  

Add the remaining ingredients and beat or stir until well blended.  

Pour into greased pans (I made 11 mini loaves @ 30 min. in the over per batch, I think it would be about two bigger loaf pans full which would probably need to cook for 45+ minutes.  I'm sure they'd be great as muffins, too!  Just check occasionally with a toothpick.  When it comes out dry, it's ready to come out.)

Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then on a wire rack.

If it's anything like regular banana bread, it will probably taste even better tomorrow if I wrap it up in cellophane overnight, but I just made up the recipe today and wanted to share right away, so the overnight factor remains to be seen!

Enjoy.

And He's Off...

My little Jake is growing up so fast.  I mean, really, when did he stop being a baby?  Today was his first day of preschool, and there were no tears (phew.) He has such a complicated personality...shy but loud, so serious and so funny, cuddly and independent, smart and silly.  So full of contrasts, he is.  I think what I most appreciate about him right now is his thoughtfulness.  All the time and everywhere, he's thinking, examining, figuring out how things work.  The other night he was putting some stickers onto a grid JUST SO, as his brother stuck his own stickers all over the place, not caring if anything lined up or matched.  Aren't kids just so unique? 

We just got a book called People by David Spier which is just full of drawings of millions of different kinds of people, everyone unique.  I don't like preachy books...you know the ones where the author feels the need to slap you in the face with restating over and over the obvious moral of the story?  But this one has really nice artwork and was a great conversation starter for us..."isn't everyone so unique?" I ask them, and "wouldn't the world be so boring if everyone looked the same and liked the same things and acted all the same?"  I love sharing that perspective with them. 

So off my Jakey goes to preschool for a few hours a week, where he'll meet all kinds of unique new little people, and where he'll learn to make new friends, just a little bit on his own and a little bit supported by the wonderful community that is our church's amazing preschool.  It makes me hold on a little tighter to both of my boys when I have them home with me. I'm trying to squeeze every bit out of life together that we can, which reminds me of this quote:

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. 
~Henry David Thoreau 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Flannel: A Sonnet

FLANNEL: A SONNET  by Linn Woodard

Oh, soothing softest, sweetest flannel dear

I stroke upon your fawny fleecy side

To rest a baby’s breast so gently here

A nest so gingerly now you provide

Dear flannel, taking over sewing space

I cannot hate you though you cramp my room

But who else should deserve such ample place

As you, sweet softness, lovely flannel bloom

If I wouldst make just one life’s fabric choice

You know that flannel, it would be my one

Great love for you I sing with joyful voice

With cotton weave I ne’er shall be done

And though I swore I’d never buy one more

Six yards of you has just walked through my door.

Wouldn't my high school English teachers be proud?  Did you notice the perfect Shakespearian sonnet rhyme scheme, the iambic pentameter and even the alliteration?  I will leave you with some pictures of the subject of my poem, which are now available as precious baby blankets and burpcloths in my shop.