More Krispy Kremes

We met some the Veatch cousins at Krispe Kremes to give our Christmas gifts. Maybe we should have found something further away from the mall (for a Saturday near Christmas!), but there aren't a lot of places to just hang out near where the highway meets the freeway. ...plus, there are doughnuts.


Maddy got a Dsi for Christmas, so it wasn't hard to get the older kids to all gather for a group picture. Completely unstaged.


The little kids were a different story. James, Natalie and Cozy just turned up as little blurs, running back and forth by the doughnut conveyor belt!


The menfolk.



Can I just say that I've been having a very emotional month. I think my total lack of vitamen D is partly to blame. (I miss the sun!) I know it's a cocktail of sun deprivation, stress, and grief, but regardless of the reasons, my anything tolerance is extremely low right now.

So, it made me very happy to pass this quilt on to Becky's family.




It just makes me cry to have it around. I think she would have really liked it.

Maddy's Quilt

This quilt is just slightly overdue. Maddy's birthday was in June. (I did give her a Pokemon toy as a place holder.) When Maddy was visiting us this summer, she chose out some pretty blue and orange fabrics. I never would have quessed that she would like them. So, when I heard she was getting an American Girl doll for Christmas, (Don't worry, she already has it. I'm not spilling anyone's secrets!) I thought I'd better get on the ball and make sure her doll had a place to sleep.

Orange and blue stars.



Cute doll bed we found at Goodwill.


I need to start doing before and after shots of things like this, because the white paint and tufted mattress (so easy to make!) made a shabby doll bed into this beauty!


Happy 9 1/2 th birthday, Maddy!

Distraction

I've been doing all of this sewing...but it hasn't been super fun. Because, as much as I love starting projects, I'm just not as into finishing them. The creative part is fun. The other part is a lot of work.


So, last night I took a break from making quilt binding to peek at a blog or two....and that was the end of productivity.

....unless you call making the most adorable deer potholder ever productive.


When I saw Netties awesome pot holders, I just had to drop what I was doing and make one. Sadly, all of my "peopled" fabric is already destined for something. ...but deer are people too, right? (Dad, feel free to disagree.)

Now Sofia and I are fighting about whether or not it's legal to make something this cute into a pot holder. She wants to frame it. Or at the very least, turn it into a pillow....so I might be forced to make more. :)

Where are my deer scraps from? Something I should be working on.

Thai Tapioca

My husband hasn't been travelling anywhere exotic (Iowa, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania) ...and yet he's managed find some quite exotic recipes during his hum-drum excursions.

This one comes care of my in-laws. YUM! They say you're supposed to eat it warm, but I love it cold - with lots of the coconut cream on it. (I'm trying to think of more things I can put the coconut cream on! So good!)

You might have to visit your local Asian market for some of the ingredients. We finally found baby coconut meat in the frozen section (instead of a can), but had no problem locating tiny, non-instant tapioca pearls. The can of coconut milk...you can probably get anywhere...commisary...Safeway.

So,checklist:
bag of tapioca
can of baby coconut meat (or frozen container - whatever)
can of coconut milk
sugar

Thai Tapioca

Boil 1 quart water (1 qt. = 4 cups)

add 1 cup of tapioca to the boiling water AND stir until they are mostly transparent

add 2/3 to 1 cup of sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves

Remove from heat

Pour into storage container

Add 1/3 can of coconut meat (in our case - thawed coconut) and 1/3 of the coconut water from the can

Store in the fridge! :)

To serve: warm in microwave and top with coconut cream (mix a can of coconut milk with a couple tbsp of sugar and store in frig. Yum.)...and I think we tripled the recipe?

Belated and Elated

Wow. This post has been sitting around, half-finished for about a month now. Oops.

Featuring: Anthony!


Q: What's cooler than getting a fun late birthday present in the mail?


A: Having it contain something edible and gross (to tease your sisters with)!

Everyone loved the "Crickettes"....but no one loved eating them. They were our favorite flavour, but we just couldn't get past the little legs. Thanks, Beth and James!

P.S. The gummie army men were awesome too!

The Horror

No one came to look at my house (still for sale) during all of October and November...and I've been nothing but grateful for that. We have just had too much going on. With Becky passing away, we're just now getting back in the swing of things with school (Not to blame you, Becky - it just threw us all for a loop.), much less house cleaning.

Tuesday broke the streak.

My nine-year old answered the phone around 11am.

I hear, "Yea. Uh-huh. Sure. Ok, see you then."

Me: Who was that?
Annika: Oh, someone is coming to see the house at 5:30.
Me: Dear, please don't answer the phone anymore.

Who makes appointments with 9-year-olds? Not that I wouldn't have let them see the house! ...but if they had asked to stop by in ten minutes, she'd have probably said the same thing...and it took me cleaning from 11 until 5:30 to get the house in buy-me condition.

The horror. I'd rather have been working on this:


...or one my secret Christmas presents - instead of packing them all away!

call me Minnie...

...the Moocher - not the mouse.

I'm a terrible gardener. Actually, I'm decent with plants...as long as they aren't supposed to produce food. Those kind never seem to work out for me. This year we ate 2 green tomatoes out of our garden. That's it. Sad.

....so we mooch. My Dad lets us pick all we want at his house. This year we stole potatoes and beets.




Dad pickled the beets and Mom delivered them (along with some yummy raspberry jam) when she came for the Festival of Trees! How did I get so lucky?


What's the white stuff in the jar on the right? - only what's left of the indian corn my Dad grew, ground, and donated to his non-farming daughter. At least I know how to make corn bread!


If his gardening skills and bee knowledge skip a generation...I guess I'd be ok with that. When I'm old, my kids can deliver the fresh produce. :)