Checking In

Hidey Ho peeps!

Ive been lazy.  Thoughts of creating posts, then by the end of the night I just don’t want to, so I havent.

Tonight Im a bit jumpy thanks to being on the wrong side of ick and taking some real sudafed to help keep my head unclogged.  Sudafed has side-affect for me that makes my heart race and nerves jumpy.  All that keeps me really awake for a good hr then I get to fight the crash.

So as Im on the jumpy side of that noise I have energy to burn so to speak and I have some new finishes to show and other updates to share along with sharing my WIPocalypse and IHSW posts.

Finishes

Hat

The yarn from this is from a scoody (scarf-hood) I made a couple years ago that I just havent worn so I thought to rip that out and create something that I would/might wear or gift to someone who will

I have a scarf that will go with the hat that I will show when its completed.  It has front & back post stitches along with shells and looks pretty and I think complements the hat well.

Sheep

Wisdom is complete!

Im taking a break before starting the next sheep.  All sheep-ed out at the moment.

LHN Neighborhood

I have been working on LHN Neighborhood – total blast from the past.  Looking back though updates, last time I may have touched this is in 2010 so its in dire need of some needle time. 2010

I do have a bit more done than the above pic and have decided to frog the lady currently stitched and just leave them out.  The people have always bothered me and Im just choosing not to stitch them.  Not sure if they will be replaced with other items or just leave the voids.

Ive also have Ladies’ Night by Cricket Collection mostly fully kitted.

I have a 28ct fabric (CS Gothic) that I picked out years ago – for this project, that I have been thinking about going to a 32ct but as of today Im sticking with what Ive got.  1) finding another fabric to go with the ladies is hard. 2) Ive already got it – paid for it, and its in my stash now.  That said, when I finally get around to stitching this, my mind may have been changed again but that’s for then.  Thread is as charted but I may not use Kreinik for the braid, still thinking that over.

Well, that’s all Ive got for now.  Im off to get a few other things completed while the energy is buzzing.

Updates

Its been a nice weekend.  Had stitching with friends, shopping with D and general weekend projects (housework for minions, laundry etc)

IHSW

Yet again my stitch weekend with friends landed on the January IHSW.  I surprised myself by sticking to one project for both days

LHN – Little Sheep Virtues, Wisdom

Before

After

Fiber Frenzy

The first meeting went pretty well.  A couple were working (arguing?) with crochet, one knitter and I was having an argument with the tree in the chart above.  I found my issue hiding in the letters but of course that was after chopped my tree in half finding the worm of my brain ache.

Kitchen Toys

New toy, Vitamix, and we (ok mainly D) has been making smoothies for lunch (I call them juice, he calls them smoothies cause they are so thick).  We’ve also used it to make our own almond milk, although buying it is still cheaper but ours has less chemicals and is organic), and making salad dressing (apple, lemon, oil – yum!).  Cant wait to make tahini, humus, nut butters and soup.

Dehydrator – I have plans tomorrow to get kiwi drying in the dehydrator.   Have some apples that may join the kiwi’s if there is room.

Quiet Weekends

Another nice longish weekend.  Fridays are all mine for the rest of the year and Im relishing in the quiet.
This past Friday had me stitching, doing housework, getting most the weekend shopping done and making chili & cornbread (yum!).  Wonderful relaxing day it was. 

Food
Not much excitement in the food department but while at a friends house this weekend I had Chicken Parmesan.  I do stray from time to time especially if I am having dinner with friends and there is nothing else available.  Hunger wins
This was made with a pre-packaged panko and parmesan mix that you just tossed the chicken in then baked as normal.
My thinking is I could possibly do this with seitan but maybe without the tossing and bake it.  The parmesan would be switched out with a Daiya like cheese Trader Joes has that is more like parmesan than mozzarella but still melts really good.

Stitching
November IHSW fell on a wonderful weekend.  Gathering at a friends for weekend stitching usually lands on this wonderful monthly event so Im actually able to participate instead of jus hoping I will get some time aside for stitching.

Sheep
I started sheep #5 on Wed and have come quite a ways this weekend.  This one seems to be a much faster stitch as there arent a lot of color changes and I can complete whole colors without too much troubles.

Frog!
Found this on a cross stitch FB page and just had to share it – lord it made me laugh so hard!

May IHSW

Great start to this weekend – with a finish for LHN Peace.

I worked on my Ink Circle’s RYO2013 project but have negative stitches and wasn’t able to complete the rip out.  It does not pay to try and keep stitching when your eyes have been flipping the GO TO BED sign for a while

Food

Tonight’s feasting was over Sweet Potato Lasagna by Forks Over Knives. Unfortunately I cant share it as it can only be found in their cookbook

I modified mine a bit, using whole wheat pasta as trying to find lasagna noodles that are a whole grain is next to impossible where I live. I also include broccoli, mushrooms, celery, ACV and turmeric to the mix of veggies and spices. I also went out on a limb and made enough for two lasagna dishes.

Happy to report that this dish is a huge hit! I had barely enough left of one dish for lunch tomorrow and a whole dish for dinner later this week. Perfect

This is NOT a weekday meal. It took me a very long time getting everything cut up, cooked and assembled. I cant see where any time could be saved if everything was cutup and ready to go as the cauliflower and sweet potatoes both are steamed, then put through the food processor (ok that was another change I made but easier to get the sweets eaten), then the noodles are cooked.

The best thing, other than the thumbs up for a good meal, was the 45 min cooking time. Wonderful break for me :oP

I have thoughts of changing this up some more but still working things out.  I would like to make this again, it is very filing and satisfying and would be great for a fall/winter dish but there needs to be some way to speed up the prep time…

Grainy

Stitching update – my IHSW project from this past weekend.

LHN Peace

I think this one is going slower because of all the fiddly-bits (leaves, flowers, fish)

Have you seen the next one?

Courage

Love the purple!

More Food!

Whole-Grain Pancakes

 

1 ½ cups plant-based milk
2/3 cup quick-cooking oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon canola oil

1. In a medium bowl, combine milk and oats. Let stand 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking powder, and salt. Stir oil into oat mixture and add oat mixture to dry ingredients. Stir just until flour mixture is moistened (batter will be lumpy)

3. Spray nonstick 12-inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Making 4 pancakes at a time, pour batter by scant ¼ cups into skillet, spreading batter into 3 ½-inch circles. With a wide spatula, turn pancakes and cook until undersides are golden brown. Transfer pancakes to platter. Cover to keep warm.

4. Repeat as needed with remaining batter.

Recipe from Simple Vegan by Good Housekeeping

Now for my changes

Exchanged the oil for applesauce.  It made the pancakes a bit dense but as it’s a pancake it didn’t make them too bouncy.

I used vanilla Almond milk (mmm)

Big approval from the minions

Im planning on using this recipe on camping trips.  With us moving from meat/dairy, and this not using eggs, its one less item I need to refrigerate.  I had hoped to mix up all the dry and just add the liquids as needed but then I read all the words and found the phrase “let stand”  Bah!  No matter.  Its an easy one to mix up, “let stand” part and all.

Weekend Mash-up

I really need to get back to posting more and hopefully with minion #1’s play season mostly over this will happen.

Health

The family has made another change in diet.  Mainly making a huge turn to whole foods (no not the store but more on that in a bit) – grains, foods, little to no cooking, LOTS of veggies.

D read an article from Harvard on their version of the food guide and it makes more sense than the paid for USDA version.

This combined with other research has us following this plate for dinners with trying to keep with whole foods for the rest of the meals.  Boys are eating more meat than D and I are.

Its amazing how full one can get eating a tangelo, 2oz cheese, 2 slices of Dave’s bread, 1/4 avocado, 2 cups salad (kale, spinach, chard, red onion, red cabbage, carrot slivers) topped with Braggs Sesame Ginger dressing.  Add a link of Adele’s chicken sausage once in a while and

Im looking at ways to add more than just salad as the veggie to the table.  Squash noodles is one but will be tough as D ‘hates’ squash – I am so up to the challenge.

So more recipes will be forthcoming but will be on a much more healthy vibe

IHSW

I really don’t have much to show.  Yes I did pick up a needle and x’s were added to Frank N Boo but not enough to picture.  I need to get this project done, Ive got LHN Love Virtue burning a whole in my project bag!

Fun Weekend

its been a good weekend.  Some of us are still recuperating while others are getting started.  D and I from whatever we had the last couple of weeks – P got on the evil sicky bandwagon, x’s added to projects, a finish, and a new dish to try.

IHSW

I kept my focus on LHN Hope this weekend and got it finished.  Such a fun stitch and a wonderful break from backstitching!

Before

After

And I was able to re-start another project

LHN Holly & Berries

Before

After

I originally started this way back in 2010 and it promptly got lost.  Going through all my WIPs, it was found again and I put it on the schedule to be next after Hope.  Looking at where I started it I was appalled at how little room I left for any finishing!  Thankfully not much had been added so out it all came.  Next I trimmed the piece of fabric down – it was just a bit too big for what I needed.  The piece left should make a good bookmark some day.

New Dish

I tried making my own applesauce in one of my slow cookers today.  This recipe is from Skinnytaste.com 

I had Braeburns that needed to be eaten soon and picked up a menagerie of others.

The recipe is very easy.

Directions

Core apples (you can peel before coring if you don’t want to deal with the skin)

Place the apples in the slow cooker.  Add the lemon peel, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks and sugar.

Cook on low for 6 hours.  Stir the apples occasionally, apples will become a yummy applesauce.

After 6 hrs, remove the cinnamon sticks and use an immersion blender to blend everything until smooth or when you feel its done.

Let it cool then place in containers for the refrigerator or freezer.  It will keep for about a week in the fridge.

**My Changes**

I didn’t use cinnamon, D doesn’t like it and I will be using it in baking recipes.

I also used agave instead of the sugar.  I may use less next time and eventually not use any sugar.

The apples in this mix – Granny Smith, Braeburn, Fuji, Jonagold, and Honey Crisp.  Pretty much fill up the slow cooker up with apples.

I also left the skins on.  Less work to do and they blended up very easily.

Verdict – Both kids love it.  Very tasty.  Now I have a much cheaper way to have applesauce.  Beats paying $4+ for 23oz of organic applesauce.  And I know everything that went in!

After blending

I didn’t measure it out before putting it away but I have enough for at least 3-4 cups.  It all depends on how big your slow cooker is and the number of apples used.

Opportunities

Minion 1 is not feeling well and I spied him crashed in the living room.  Loki is never one to leave a warm lap to fend for itself

Not sure if Loki was being a pest that caused the arm to fall and pin him.  Both look very comfy.  (no bodies were woken during the taking of pictures)

February IHSW

Good times planned for the weekend.  Its IHSW and a fun stitch weekend.  A great combination that hopefully gets a good number of x’s added to projects.

Merry and Bright

This project is coming right along.  I added beads, changed the green in the star, the color of the star and the color of the words.  Brownish green and brown just didn’t work for me and the color of fabric I used. 

Here I am - Again

Wow!  Two posts in as many days – what am I thinking?!

I finally got off my tuckus and got pictures of some of what Ive been working on.

Fall Mandala

Still filling in sections   This was my IHSW piece – very late in posting.  Had help working on it as it was a designated stitch n bitch weekend with friends.

Summer Mist Afghan

12 row sections. Its supposed to have 91 rows and Im close but it seems like a small afghan so I may add more. Trying to judge the remaining yarn I have to how much longer I think I can make this and have a nice border.

I have another afghan I started (it’s a fiber addiction!) using Bernat Mosaic in Ninja.  Basic granny square job.  I love how the colors change but the yarn is – well, delicate sort of.  It will (an has) pull a part if Im not watching.  It acts like a homespun, thick and thin.  I may wait to share picks of this project until I have some squares joined.

Thanks for the comments on the amigurumi.  They are both projects that will be waiting a while before I get to them.  Im trying (really, really) hard not to get the yarn for them but do plan on getting the patterns soon.  I would hate to have either be pulled and out of print.

IHSW Update

I had successes this weekend. 

Two finished scarves!  Ends all tucked in and ready to be wrapped for presents.

The one on the right is a dark purple and unfortunately doesn’t want to be photographed.

The hats – those are still being worked out.  I “finished” one but it just isnt shaped nice and I cannot bring myself to show it.

It will be frogged and I will work something else out for the hats.

I did get more yarn for more scarves to be gifted to more nieces.  The pink one was less than a one day project, once I finally got more yarn.  I should be able to get two more hooked this week.

IHSW

I joined in the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend last weekend.  Good choice in weekends as I was pretty much house bound thanks to sinus drainage issues. (darn those walking petri dishes I live with!)

Not able to stitch on any of my cross stitch projects (holes too small for my achy head) I focused on crochet.

I finished my scoodie

It’s a lot longer than I originally planned.  With the ends as long as they are, they wrap around me and Im sure will keep me wonderfully warm this winter.

I also worked on P’s patchwork blanket.  This is a 10x20 square that’s not quite done yet

Loki had to investigate

I also spent time looking for hat ideas for Christmas gifts.  I found a better (easier) hat to hook.

My first one has been started, working on the ribbing.

That’s all for now.  Im hoping the sinus issues leave me soon so I can add some x’s into screaming projects.