elliemoon

MORE CARPAL TUNNEL INDUCING ACTIVITIES

smaller needles, new ideas!! stay tuned.

 

SUNDAY DINNER

gram's lasagna, uncle jimbo, auntie cierra and little mikey::

good company, good food, good times! forget about plating this for a picture, it goes too fast. here's the aftermath::

definitely looking forward to leftovers!!

 

YARD SALE SCORE

this fall we decided to have a yard sale. i know i've mentioned the hoarding tendencies of my parents, but my dad also knows antiques. the following is an example of how those two traits sometimes come together and make magic. i had seen this old trunk down at their house, amidst the rubble, and fell in love with it. turns out he spent a lot of time completely refinishing the outside. when he caught wind of our yard sale, he decided to put up a few tables with us and out came the trunk. i assumed it would have a pretty high price tag. he carefully put it in its spot at the sale and it was the first item to be inquired about. when i heard him tell a woman it was 25 dollars i tried not to panic, held my breath while she debated and as soon as she turned her back on it, i dragged it into the garage and shut the door. done and done. 

as you can see, the inside needed a lot of work. these pictures were taken after an hour of picking and peeling off old wallpaper. from there it went to tiny bits of soapy water and scrapping, scrapping, scrapping::

big b noticed i was getting serious and offered to line the bottom with some cedar planks he had on hand! he also picked up some new sanding discs for the sander. a few blisters later::

then he made a little shelf that i could lift out::

my dream realized! i've always been secretly envious of girls that have those beautiful hope chests passed down to them. both of my grandmothers seemed like hope chest kind of people. i don't know what happened. this trunk makes up for it all! it even came with the original little key! where was this thing in highschool?::

if only it hadn't filled up so fast::

but thats what its for, right??

 

YES WE BRAN

my friend nej and i have know eachother since kindergarten and this is a recipe handed down by her mother, mrs. liias, my second mom through middle school and beyond. i spent loads of time at nej's house as a kid; a magical place where people had their own bedrooms and there was never a lack of tasty treats in the kitchen. mrs. liias was and is a huge foodie and by rights should have her own cooking show. this bran muffin recipe starts off with shredded wheat, my breakfast of choice when i was younger.....aside from the fruity pebbles::

now for the bran buds, not to be confused with rabbit food::

i do a bit of smashing at this point to insure that the muffins are a bit more consistant if that makes any sense. i had a picture of the mashed up results but apparently it was lost in the computer repair. complete directions will be given shortly::

after mixing up the base, there's some alternating between dry ingredients and buttermilk::

now store in the fridge overnight. or for six weeks! yes, you heard me right::

i normally half the recipe but its getting to the point where a full batch is necessary. everyone loves them and they get eaten up too fast. our half batch usually makes about 2 dozen muffins::

everlasting bran muffins, the full recipe::

 crush up 4 large shredded wheat biscuits and 2 cups of bran buds

pour 1 cup boiling water over mixture (the original recipe calls for a 1/2 cup, but when i half the recipe i still use a 1/2 cup....so, i'm just assuming here that i would go up to a full cup to do the whole recipe)

set aside

in another bowl, cream 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar

beat in 4 eggs (one at a time...pay no attention to my photograph, i was in a rush)

add the cereal mix to this mix and mix together

in another bowl sift together 5 cups flour, 5 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt

add the flour mix to the cereal mix alternately with 1 quart of buttermilk

store overnight before making first batch

spray muffin cups with non-stick spray

bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, fiber never tasted so good!

mix will last in the fridge for up to 6 weeks!! as previously stated!

 

LITTLE SNOWFLAKE

just before christmas my friend meghann told me about this special edition pattern mag by the people of crochet today::

there are more than a few great designs in it. i eventually wrapped it up for myself, so that it wouldn't distract me from my holiday list, but noticed straight away that one of my favorite crochet designers had a pattern featured inside!! 

this little snowflake girl is too cute, and perfect for my neice kea, who lives on kaua'i and thus, never gets to play with actual snowflakes! this is one of mia's designs, the rest of which you can find in her etsy shop owlishly. hers was one of the first blogs i ever followed, and it goes by the same name. she is an unbeleivably talented crochet designer. check out elizabeth the rabbit and bess in the cow costume. amazing!! 

as far as the magazine goes, i had thought it was just a christmas holiday issue, but it is still out there for the taking! see that little monkey with the guitar on the cover? he's on the list!

JANUARY TWENTY FIRST

the first snow storm of the season::

a great wintery weekend. and the computer is back!! functioning at high speed. well, more like medium high, but i'll take it! 

LIFE SUPPORT

there comes a time in every computers life when rebooting and whispering prayers, or unplugging and counting to 45, just doesn't cut it anymore. unfortunately for us, that time is now. i will be officially unplugged for the remainder of this week so that our apple can visit the mac shop for exploratory surgery. hopefully it will be nothing a little "spring cleaning" and an external hard drive can't clear up. two years of stored blog photos could be part of the problem.....could be, you hear me big b?

have a lovely week and weekend. see you monday!

A MODELING CLAY KIND OF DAY

in pajamas, of course::

that was owen's masterpiece. i later found this guy propped up next to the popcorn with one hand in the bowl. well played! unfortunately he lost his lower half before i could move him to another spot for owen to find. poor guy.

ANGRY BIRDS, HAPPY BOYS

hurray for these angry bird patterns i purchased on ravelry and tucked away!! they saved christmas this year. i made a set for both of the boys. these birds were designed by karla over at the itsy bitsy spider blog. find her designs on etsy here and ravelry here. she is one talented mama.

the boys were so thrilled. success! i wish i had had time to make all of the birds, but birthdays will be rolling around soon enough. i am so impressed by karla's design capabilities. she amazes me. unfortunately, due to copyright issues, she is no longer able to sell them, (boycott rovio!) but you can still find similar angry bird designs on ravelry if you look around. check out her other designs, like the fairy trees and floyd. floyd is on my list!!

owen and his birds (and monster)::

its love! 

 

AND THE WINNER IS...

actually, make that winners. i decided to randomly generate two numbers last night! survey says::

ELIZABETH

and

JOY

thank you all so much for all of the comments! and thanks for cheering me on these past two years!