Early Father's Day

Thank you so much for your comments on my appliqued bags post. I loved reading about the things you've done for your own children, or that your parents did when you were young. I think my small Bears will love their bags and we're looking forward to surprising them tomorrow morning before we leave for our trip. I bought some lollipops yesterday and I plan to slip a couple into each bag as well, which should definitely be a hit.

I'm so ready for vacation, but as the mom, it's not exactly the most restful thing for me. I've been packing all week and checking things off my to-do lists to get everyone ready to go. We have numerous activities planned, but we also have lots of hanging-around time planned too. For most of our trip, we'll be staying in a two-bedroom apartment with kitchen, living room and roof deck; it's really nice and I'm looking forward to the home-away-from-home aspect. I foresee some lazing, easy cooking and drinks...many drinks.

I'm tired. The small Bears have their last swimming lesson of the current session this morning; I will enjoy having a few weeks off from daily pool visits before their other session begins in July. I like taking them and swimming lessons are important, but that under-tree crowd just got worse as the days passed. Evidently, no parent in history ever did anything right. You know, except them. Good grief...I ended up bringing a book containing over 800 pages so I'd have plenty to read while ignoring them. The price you pay for shade.

I'm looking forward to not having any major musical instruments on vacation with us, though the Bear said last night that he wishes to pack his harmonica for the trip. I agreed, wearily. I've been listening, daily, to a seven-year-old boy teaching himself to play "Greensleeves" on our electric piano, almost exclusively choosing to use some type of "brass"-simulation setting. Meanwhile, his sister plays her lap harp, belting out a song she calls "Cola Kameeser." That's "Karma Chameleon" to the rest of us.

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Tonight, we're celebrating Father's Day a couple of days early so that we won't need to take the Bear's gifts on the road with us. I'll be serving one of our family's favorites, Barefoot Contessa's parmesan chicken (I seize any opportunity to channel my inner Ina), accompanied by pasta with garlic and oil and broccoli. There will be pound cake (store-bought) with berries for dessert. Would you like to see what we're giving him for Father's Day? I'm pretty proud of this year's selection of gifts.

I made this counted cross-stitch piece for him, using a pattern I purchased from Subversive Cross-Stitch. Have you ever seen this website? You definitely need to have a look. This website specializes in very funny, sometimes obscene, cross-stitch patterns. The woman behind the company likes the idea of inappropriate sayings made into quaint little samplers. I also see the appeal. The pattern I bought is not obscene, but it is funny. "Genuis At Work," get it? I made this for the Bear because he was recently given his own office at work. He will be moving into it later this summer. I had told him I would make him something special for his office, and I kicked around lots of ideas, such as an afghan in his school colors, a wall-hanging, a decoration for the door...nothing really spoke to me. Then I remembered Subversive Cross-Stitch and showed him the website, and had him help me choose a work-appropriate design. This is the one he wanted. I chose "manly" colors and framed it handsomely in faux walnut. And my darling "Genuis" can enjoy it forever.

He's getting two new t-shirts. He's into funny t-shirts, so I try to find ones that will speak to him. I often buy them, as I did this time, from TeeFury, which is a fun website. They offer one shirt per day, and it's always interesting. They're cheap too, only $10 per shirt. These two were offered at various points during the spring and I grabbed them. Do you recognize the references? Each references one of his favorite movies. The one on the left depicts Jeff Bridges's character Jeff Lebowski, from The Big Lebowski, in a Michael Jordan-esque pose. The name of the design is "Air Lebowski," actually. You can see his bowling bowl, White Russian, bathrobe and shower shoes. The shirt on the right is inspired by the movie The Karate Kid. You might remember the karate tournament scene where someone said "Sweep the leg!" and the kids in skeleton costumes, etc...or, erm, you might not. I've watched both of these movies a lot myself, if you couldn't tell. I've previously given him shirts which reference, among other shows and movies, Napoleon Dynamite, The IT Crowd and Doctor Who. Nerd alert.

And finally, there is candy. It's a tradition in his family to give your father Andes mints, so we've carried that forward. I was surprised not to be able to find the little box anymore, now they only sell a gigantic bag of them, I guess? Indulgence, indeed. He's also getting a Lindt dark chocolate bar with wasabi. I'll take some Andes mints, thanks.

He's a wonderful father. He didn't have it easy at the beginning. He was our son's full caregiver in the early days, when I was too sick to leave the bed. He would bring me the baby to nurse, and he did all the rest. Later, he took similar charge with our newborn daughter (and then-toddler son). He was a pretty remarkable new dad. He works very hard and is a kind, caring, supportive and loving husband and father. He gives both small Bears lots of attention and is very engaged in our part-time homeschooling, especially with the LB and his math. He makes me laugh at least ten times a day, brings me ice cream without being asked, bats nary an eyelash at crafting supplies ordered from foreign countries and always shares his chocolate.

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We'll be leaving for our vacation early in the morning and I think I'll be taking a little break from blogging while we're away. We'll be home in a week and I look forward to sharing highlights of our trip. I hope that Father's Day is a pleasant one with your families.

Appliqued activity bags

About a year ago, I was a regular lurker on Gillian's wonderful blog, Tales from a happy house. I didn't know I could comment on posts without having a blog of my own. I also didn't know how to "follow" blogs so I would bookmark them and check every day for new posts. Eventually, I figured all of this out, and when I started my own blog, Gillian was one of my earliest readers and supporters. Now, she has become a friend and I'm so glad we connected.

You must check out her blog if you aren't already a reader. Gillian is very talented and very crafty and all of her makes are lovely. But I have always been especially drawn to her hand-appliqued items (look here, here and here for some of my particular favorites). She also made travel bags for her children that I loved, and I decided to try my hand at something like them for mine.

These bags are actually meant to be a special surprise. We're leaving for vacation on Saturday and I wanted to give them something fun for the long drive. I made these bags to hold some special treats and activities to help them stay occupied in the car. They saw me working on the bags but they don't know what they're for, and they certainly have no idea what's going in them.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I don't use my children's actual first names on my blog, nor do I use my husband's. It's just a comfort thing for me. I refer to the children by their family nicknames, Little Bear and Girl Bear. But now you have a glimpse of their initials. He's "L" and she's "E." They have beautiful names which suit them well, I promise.

For the actual letter shapes, I turned to the internet. I searched blogs devoted to print and letter-press work and found capital letters I liked. I wanted his to be blocky and masculine but stylish, and hers to be elegant and feminine; the bags can be used beyond our trip, of course. I saved the letter graphics to my computer and used a photo-editing tool to re-size them. Then I chose fabrics. I went with a simple navy with white dots for the LB. For the GB, I used one of my favorite fabrics, Kaffe Fassett's Roman Glass. I wanted hers to be pretty and colorful but not babyish. The bags are simple white cotton tote bags from Hobby Lobby. I used double-sided Heat n Bond iron-on adhesive to affix the letters to the bags. It was really easy to use and very sticky.

One of my favorite aspects of Gillian's applique work is her neat hand-stitching. I don't have a lot of hand-embroidery experience but I wanted to create the same look. After the letters were affixed to the bags, I sewed small, straight stitches all the way around each letter. I chose periwinkle for the GB's loopy fuschia "E" and bright kelly green for the LB's big navy-blue "L."

What's going in these bags? Fun stuff! Each will get a sticker activity book and a small pack of fun crayons (have you seen these interesting Crayola assortments at Target? They're all on a theme, and you get eight special colors for $1; they're great for birthday gifts!). They will also each have a spiral notebook to use as a "journal"; in our travels, we're going to write (or draw, as to our individual abilities) about the things we're seeing and doing. This is one way that I'm trying to take our summer-homeschool-maintenance show on the road. They'll have pencils to use.

Each will also have an MP3 player with headphones to use; they like to listen to their own music, as do we. They're very opinionated about music, which is funny but a bit annoying. The LB likes Kenny Rogers and the GB likes Katy Perry. They told me that they wish Katy and Kenny would have a concert together. Can you imagine? That would be a very interesting concert.

I'm also trying something new: I'm giving them snacks and letting them decide when to serve themselves. I may regret this, but I think it's a good thing for them to learn. I don't usually buy squeezable fruit but they seem great for the car and I found some that are shelf-stable with Greek yogurt in them! I would enjoy eating that myself. They also have fruit leather, Goldfish crackers and Rice Krispie Treats. I have multi-packs of all the foods, so I can replenish as necessary. They're going on eight and five, so it's worth a try, I think.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what they think. There will be lots of other management and entertainment techniques employed, of course; we're bringing audiobooks to play and regular books that I plan to read aloud as the Bear drives (I don't generally do much long-distance driving anymore, which is just fine by me). I'm sure we'll be stopping pretty often.

I'm happy with the bags. Have you ever done any applique-ing? This is a new skill for me. I really enjoyed making these bags and now I'm thinking about all the possibilities: you could applique just about anything, really! In fact, Gillian has done lots of things like tea towels and t-shirts. We have some birthday parties for little friends coming up later this summer and I'm thinking about ways to parlay my new applique skills into unique gifts. I absolutely love to learn a new crafting skill.

52 Weeks of Happy - 23/52

Joining in with Jen at little birdie, here are my four happies for the past week.

I'm working on a new crochet project. This is the first wearable item I've crocheted (aside from hats and scarves). This pattern is the Mina dress by Alicia Paulson. It's for my GB, to wear when it gets cold again (the body of the dress is a wool-blend). I have made more progress since I took this picture during the week; the bodice is now almost finished. The pattern has been a bit challenging for me, but that's a good thing. I enjoyed doing the color-striping in the yoke, using bits of leftover DK yarns; lately, I'm feeling myself drawn toward softer colors.

Few things make me happier than receiving mail from foreign lands. When I was growing up, I variously had penpals in India, Sweden, Korea, Canada, Spain, France and England. Opening the mailbox to find mail addressed to me, especially from another country, was one of the greatest joys of my childhood. Even now, I am thrilled to get deliveries from overseas. This package came from China, though it seems to have been sent in collaboration with the US Postal Service somehow? I'm not sure how that works. I don't know a lot about Chinese mail. But this package contained something very simple and inexpensive which I've been denying myself for a long time, preferring to do things the hard way. It's a yarn-winder, the kind that clamps onto a table, and came to me from China for the low price of $17.99 (including shipping!). Foreign mail and easier yarny living, what more could a girl want?

The summer issue of Interweave Crochet arrived in the mail this week too. I spent a happy hour perusing the patterns with my cuppa. I have to say that I don't love most of the things in this issue; they have a lot of cover-ups and tunics and lacy skirts, all of which are pretty, but I never find myself wanting to wear things like that very often. Have I mentioned that I'm not the girliest person around? Lacy, floaty clothing looks silly on me, I think. But they're pretty to look at and it's always a pleasure to read this magazine. I look forward to the new issue every season.

In non-yarn-related news, I stopped by a yard sale over the weekend where the sellers had a big pile of vintage cookbooks and recipe booklets on a table. They were really fun to browse and I picked up these four to see how much they would charge for them. The sellers told me they were free! They said I could have the whole stack if I wanted them. Well, that was a very nice offer, but I didn't want to be a hog and besides, these four were the most interesting to me. They're really fun to read, and are mostly in beautiful condition. They feed my old-fashioned housewife fantasies. The Rival Crock-Pot and Osterizer blender were appealing to me because I actually own those two products, albeit models about 30 years newer than the ones the books were written for. No matter, recipes are recipes. The Mexican cookery and butter cookie booklets were put out by food companies, to help sell their products, and are quite old - both are from the early 1960's. They both have pretty nice recipes in them too, especially the cookie booklet. I'm so happy with this find.

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Hello and welcome, new readers and followers! I'm so glad you're here. I hope you enjoy your visits to my blog.

Cactus bloom

Roses may say "I love you," but the cactus says  'F*** off.'"
 - Jarod Kintz

I took these photos of blooming cacti around my neighborhood during the first week of June. We don't have any cactus species in our own yard, but they're very common in the area. Many people use them in xeriscaping; they are a low-water plant, very hardy and heat-resistant (obviously) and they produce beautiful, bright flowers in summer. The flowers are surprisingly delicate in some cases, tough and pulpy in others, blooming right alongside primroses, buddleia and wildflowers.

Contrary to popular belief, saguaro cactus does not grow throughout the Southwest. In fact, it doesn't grow within the state of New Mexico at all. It's too cold here in the winter. We have many other varieties, though, some of which I have photographed: cholla, barrel and prickly pear are common species found here. All produce colorful flowers and some also bear fruit. Prickly pears, or nopales in Spanish, are commonly eaten and some bars will make margaritas with juice or puree from the fruit. They're not like regular pears, but they're interesting eating in their own way.

Cactus spines really do hurt, and I've helped my children remove them from their skin. I helped our poor, late dog who walked right into a cactus. Cactus is a really interesting plant. It knows how to stand up for itself. When cacti are blooming, it's a living contradiction right before your eyes - tough but beautiful survivors of this harsh climate.

At the pool

I've been to the local city pool every day this week, for the small Bears' swimming lessons. We'll be back all of next week, and for two more weeks in mid-July. We're very fortunate to live only five minutes from one of the city's nicest outdoor pool complexes. It's on the grounds of a public school. Lessons are very inexpensive, but thorough. The city does a good job maintaining the whole property and hires nice pool employees: all are in their late teens or early twenties, high school or college students, and have always been professional and polite. I really love my neighborhood and our excellent pool is just one of the reasons.

The small Bears are having fun in their lessons, and seem to be learning a lot. The LB goes to the large pool, three feet deep at each end and five feet in the center, and the GB goes in the toddler pool, which is 1.5 feet around the edges and two feet deep in the center. Each is enjoying the lesson, making new buddies and getting to know the teachers. I consider myself lucky that both small Bears have always been "water babies"; from an early age, they loved the water and never balked at getting in. Both started swimming lessons early and have done well with them. Most importantly, they really enjoy their time in the pool.

I spend the thirty-five minute lesson under a big pine tree off to the side of the pool area. Other parents sit there too, and in previous years, I've had some nice conversations with mothers. This year is unfolding to be more of a "keep-to-yourself-Jen" kind of experience, though. Lots of negative, complaining people and some yucky gossip too. People have a lot to say about the way others parent, particularly around the desire, or lack thereof, to "make" their kids swim. Like I said, I haven't encountered much resistance from my own kids around swimming, but I know it's common. I guess it's a pretty hot topic among this crowd and they're pretty sure they're right, on both sides of that argument. Luckily, I have a lot of new library books at the moment, and reading helps me shut it out.

Our days are unfolding in a mostly-peaceful, semi-structured manner. Some mornings after the pool, we might go to the library, pop into the grocery store or fill up the gas tank. We went to the car wash once. This morning, we did the library (to get the small Bears' weekly summer reading prize and have their reading logs stamped; they got cute little stuffed puppies as their prize this week). I'm doing the summer reading program for adults; I have to fill in a space on a card for every hour I spend reading. After ten hours, my card goes into the kitty for a weekly drawing. After the library, we went to the bagel store to buy a baker's dozen for today's (and subsequent days') lunch. I ran into a friend at the bagel store whom I hadn't seen in awhile and it was nice to chat with her. Simple, easy days, stretching out far ahead of me - that's my summer so far.

Tomorrow, the Bear is putting on a barbecue dinner for his father, as an early Father's Day celebration. He is making ribs in the outdoor smoker. I'm going to make broccoli slaw, corn on the cob and sourdough bread, with strawberries and angel-food cake for dessert. We haven't cooked together in awhile, and I'm looking forward to it. We're excited to do something nice for his father too, of course, especially right now because he had a household accident recently and suffered some injuries. He's doing better now and we're glad he wasn't more seriously hurt. As with all the people I love, I enjoy making a nice meal for him, for Father's Day or any day.

Washi tape mini-bunting

I made this pretty, frivolous item a few days ago and really enjoyed myself. I had hoped my small Bears would want to help, but they didn't. They watched me for a little while and wandered off; I think there was action in the street in front of our house that morning, some sort of construction at a neighbor's house. It was a lot more interesting than helping Mommy play with masking tape. But this was a fun little lark for me, and I thought I'd share how I did it.

At the kitchen table (my crafting/sewing workstation), I assembled all of my washi tapes along with a spool of kitchen twine, a sheet of (8.5 by 11 in) cardstock and crafting scissors. I might be developing a bit of a washi tape problem...but it's so pretty. I heart pretty.

I started by cutting a strip off the cardstock sheet, about 1.5 inches wide. Then I cut it into squares, then I cut each square into a triangle by cutting the sides off from the bottom center up to the upper corners, to make my bunting pennants. You could measure more accurately but this worked fine.

Next, I started covering each little pennant with washi tape. This was the most difficult step because I wanted the tape strips to line up nicely, and to be folded neatly along the sides. But it wasn't really hard, just slightly fiddly. I left a flap of tape "unstuck" at the top edge of each pennant.

Front of pennant, note small flap of tape left "unstuck" at top edge

Back of pennant; I didn't bother covering the back, but you can certainly do that if you like.

I made a dozen pennants like this, using most of my colors of washi tape, then I prepared the piece of twine. I cut it to about 2.5 feet long, and knotted the ends with little hanging loops, large enough to slip over the ends of push-pins.

Then I began attaching my pennants to the twine. Remember the little "unstuck" tape flaps at the top of each pennant? I used them to affix the pennants onto the string. I just stuck the extra tape around the string and onto the back of the pennants, to keep them securely attached.

Laziness prevented me from grabbing a ruler or tape measure, but I did want my pennants somewhat equally spaced along the twine. To achieve this, I folded the twine in half, with the end-loops at one end together, and started affixing the pennants at regular intervals all the way along the length of the doubled twine, leaving a space at the other end where it was folded.

Once all the pennants were attached, it was ready to hang. By now, the children had rejoined me in the kitchen and they agreed with me that a good place for it was above our "homeschool cart," as we call it. This is a retired microwave cart (which we found on the street before we were married and refurbished), which has been used as many things over the years, including diaper-supply station, rolling liquor cart and now, school-supply and textbook-storage headquarters! It's a trusty little cart. We hung the bunting underneath the big wall clock we have hanging over the cart.

This wall could really use a paint job

I love the way it looks here. It's a very charming touch in our "homeschool corner.". This space is sort of in between our kitchen and family room, just off the main entry foyer. This is where we have the magnetic calendar I always show in my monthly posts, art and study tools in the bins, pencil cases, time logs, my notes and binders for curriculum and other learning tools on the shelf. The bottom cabinet is handy for other books, paper and so forth. We're only part-time homeschoolers, so we're able to maintain a small space for everything we need; I am sure that full-time homeschoolers could teach me a lot. As our children advance in school, we'll probably need to look at different solutions, but it's working well for now.

The bunting makes this little space cheerful. School is fun and interesting and I think school spaces should be too. I learned that when I was a classroom teacher and I feel that way for homeschooling too. I love our little school cart and I've really enjoyed having the new bunting here; I can see it from the kitchen or the family room and it looks colorful and sweet. Plus it was easy and fun to make. And the more of these I make, the more washi tape I can buy...

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I've had a few questions about the kids' magnetic calendar. We bought the calendar at Target, but it was several years ago, probably about 2008. I don't know whether they carry it anymore, at least I haven't seen it there myself in awhile. It may have been made by Melissa & Doug, who do have a current version; this one has a drop-down piece to store all the extra magnets, making it a lot easier to find them as you put the calendar together. Ours stores them on the back, so you have to flip it over again and again to find your pieces, but it has been great otherwise.

Easy tomato-basil sauce, and that bean salad

We love pasta. I try to be creative about the ways I serve it, but I usually end up coming back to this simple tomato-basil sauce. It's delicious and can be made in minutes, with just a handful of ingredients. It's perfect when you're in a hurry and it's pretty healthy too. It's best with fresh basil, but it also tastes good with dried. I often make it for dinner on Monday, as we adhere to a pretty strict Meatless Monday regimen.

This recipe came from Rachael Ray's very first "30-Minute Meals"-related cookbook, which I bought around 2001. Her TV show had just started and people were telling me how much I looked and sounded like her. How funny! I didn't see much similarity but I enjoyed her style of cooking, at the time. After awhile, it began to seem a bit weird and ill-planned, like she was throwing random ingredients together for her "stoups" and casseroles. I lost interest. But that first cookbook was excellent and I still make a number of recipes from that book, including this sauce.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped or put through press
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
About 10 fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper

Method

Put oil in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Add chopped garlic and cook a couple of minutes. Don't let the garlic begin to turn brown. (Rachael Ray always used to say to cook it "until the garlic speaks," meaning you can hear it bubbling and smell it too; this works, but keep an eye on it). Take the pan off the heat and add the tomatoes, with their juice. Stir to incorporate oil and garlic. Add salt and pepper, if desired. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let it cook about 15 minutes, until it's a little bit reduced and thickened. Tear the basil leaves into small pieces and stir them in just before serving (they will turn black if you let them cook too long in the sauce). Taste for seasoning and serve over hot pasta.

 
This sauce can be taken in a lot of different directions. I've experimented a lot with it over the years; sometimes I might add some crushed red pepper flakes when I cook the garlic. I've also added some anchovy paste at that point; this makes a more adult-style sauce, the beginnings of a puttanesca, really (I'll share my full recipe for that sauce some other time). I have also added a few chopped fresh tomatoes to the canned, just to give a fresher, more summery flavor. This would also be good with other herbs added, if you have them. But I really love it made in this most basic way; it's delicious and easy. We add cheese at the table - either parmesan or pecorino romano, whatever I have on hand.

I've also had a few questions and comments about the cold bean salad I showed in a recent post. I thought I'd offer some more information about that. It's sooo incredibly easy, but bear in mind that it's my own self-invented recipe, so you might wish to play with it yourself and get it right for your own tastes. I liked the way it turned out.

I started with a can of drained, rinsed cannellini (white kidney) beans. Then I added some chopped cucumber and tomato, along with a small (drained) can of sliced black olives and a small (drained) can of mushroom stems and pieces (sliced would also be fine). I tore about ten basil leaves into small pieces and added them. Then I dressed the mixture, pouring the ingredients directly into the bowl. I used about a tablespoon of oil, a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, and a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. I stirred to coat everything, then placed the bowl in the refrigerator for about an hour until serving.

We had this particular salad on Memorial Day with grilled cheeseburgers and potato chips. It was really good - cold and flavorful, with a little zip from the vinegar and pepper, but also sweetness from the veggies and basil. I love to make salads like this in the summer; it's a little like the classic bean salads you might see at picnics, but slightly updated. You can do all sorts of variations using the basic ingredients; sometimes I'll add cooked pasta, sometimes a can of tuna fish or different kinds of olives. You can vary the beans too; this would be great with chickpeas or red kidney beans.