While She Naps

soft elephant hoop

A new embroidery hoop project.  Sweet little elephant face smiling at you.  Backdrop is a vintage Vera linen napkin stretched across an 8" diameter embroidery hoop. 

little fish with a shiny tail

This little fish with a shiny tail is up in my shop now.  She can either hang from a length of clear fishing wire or sit on a shelf with her tail draped around her.

Cute Yummy Time and a giveaway

I was given a sneak peak at a new book out by Penguin called Cute Yummy Time: 70 Recipes for the Cutest Food You'll Ever Eat by La Carmina.

The recipes are like little projects inspired by food that might be included in a bento box, but geared to be really appealing to kids.

When we opened the package from the publisher my kids sat by the front door turning the pages and asking which recipe we could  make tonight.  So many adorable ideas.  Chickens, monkeys, bunnies and elephants made from all kinds of foods like eggs, pancakes, PB&J, rice and cheese.  I had not ventured beyond cutting sandwiches with cookie cutters a few times so this was new and a lot of fun. 

Roxanne is a big nori eater so we decided to give the Panda Rice a try. 

We are on a bulgar kick around here so I used that instead of brown rice.  We cut the nori into eyes, ears, and a little smile, sprinkled some paprika for rosy cheeks and made this adorable panda.  I served this with snap peas.

Of course Stella had to get in on the cute food action, but she doesn't like seaweed or snap peas (are you sensing a theme here - not so hot on green food right now).  We made her panda with raisins and teddy grahams instead.

Very excited.

They gobbled up all the bulgar, and everything else on the plate, along with some roasted chicken, for dinner.  Fun!

The publisher gave me a copy of Cute Yummy Time just for you.  Just leave me a comment by Monday evening and I'll draw a random winner and send it off to you.  I think you are in for a treat.

sweet little hanging bird

This sweet little hanging bird, all in white with glittered wings, is now listed in my shop.

updating the shop

I cleaned my entire studio space last night.  Ahhhh, waking up to clean desk is so nice.  I made a big pile fabric scraps to donate to Roxanne's kindergarten class for collage-making. I also cleared room off the top of the shelving unit to make space for birds for the book.  I have ten more birds to make and no more room on the dresser (there are nearly 25 on there now). In doing so I came across a few little things that have been waiting patiently to be listed in the shop.  They will all go up this week and I'll post them each here.  The first is this little crow.

We had a lovely Rosh Hashanah.  The challah was amazing and the tsimmes was really too yummy to have in the house.  There is still some honey cake and some apple ice cream left over if you want to come over later for a snack!

getting ready for the new year

(photo of chicken with za'atar baked by Marion from my recipe and appearing in today's Globe online)

Rosh Hashanah begins on Friday evening.  I am hosting the  Friday night meal.  Here is the menu:

Before Dinner:

Round Challah (Charlie bakes the bread from this fascinating book)

Apples (from Dowse Orchard in Sherborn) and Honey (from Land's Sake in Weston)

Dinner:

Chicken with Za'atar (Check out the recipe here -  my friend Marion just started a Kosher chicken cooperative and it was written up in the Boston Globe today.  And she told them about my chicken recipe and now it is up on the Globe's website!  And it says I'm a artist. I'm an artist, people!  It's officially in print.)

Tsimmes 

Roasted Broccoli

After Dinner:

Honey Cake

Homemade Apple Ice Cream

I just took the honey cake out of the oven and seriously the house smells amazing right now.  I'm drooling a bit. 

And I'm sewing a wading bird this morning (and trying to get drool on it). I submitted the drafts of the tools, materials and techniques part of the book to my editor. The manuscript is growing and growing. And the top of the dresser is full of birds. Time to find some more storage space.

Also, have you checked out my sister's blog?  She takes beautiful photos and she is a very ambitous cook.  Take a look at these homemade s'mores!

yes, I am working

Since Roxanne started Kindergarten a week ago I have been working every morning for three hours at a time. I really like the mixture of sewing and writing and I like switching between the two.  I've made over 20 birds and have written the entire front section of the book - the section with all the tools, materials and fundamental techniques for making the birds. And yet I still feel overwhelmed climbing into bed at night. We sleep where I work which means that everything is there in front of me, including the  table of contents which I  am using right now as my to do list. But it's coming together. And the birds look really wonderful gathered on top of the dresser. And I am being stretched as a crafter and as a writer and I love that.

Roxanne is really in to learning about the presidents.  We got her this placemat a while ago and now she sits at breakfast saying, "I think I'm going to put my spoon on Warren Harding!"  And she feeds James Madison bits of granola. Anyway, she  is going to be Abraham Lincoln for Halloween.  I'm thinking we need a top hat, a boy's formal jacket with tails, a white button down shirt and some black pants, a mole, and a beard.  I thought immediately of I Made You a Beard on Etsy.  Sure enough, Erin has agreed  to make a fluffy black beard with no mustache for us.  I can't wait.

first day

Today is Roxanne's first day of Kindergarten.  I feel like this is the beginning of such a long and complex journey through what we hope will be at least a decade and a half of formal schooling. Teachers and homework, gossip and friendships, successes and heartaches, and everything else that comes with being in school. The creeping self-awareness that we might not be the very best at everything we do coupled with the incredible excitement of mastering challenging material.  And today the journey down this path has begun for my first baby, the one who was 4 lbs. and cried and nursed nearly constantly through her first months. The one who never crawled and only wanted to go to the playground when no one else was there. The one who grew into a two-year-old that would cry and scream for over an hour at a time nearly every day.  But after two years of physical therapy and occupational therapy and social coaching is now on an even keel and is ready to show the world all she's got: an amazing memory, a hysterical sense of humor, the vocabulary of an adult, and a knowledge of history (both world and American) that could rival most high schoolers.  We both cried this morning as she lined up to walk in with her class, but I know she is an incredible kid and I think she knows it, too.