He Likes His Fingers

Jackson has really started to show his personality. Lately, he has discovered the magic that is his fingers. A couple of times he has attempted to shove his whole fist into his mouth.









Gosh dang it. He's so adorable!

Know What?

Farenheit 350 is having another giveaway. This time it's a beautiful Strawberry Chocolate Caramel Pecan Log. Visit her blog for a chance to win!

10 Year Project

I don't really make New Years Resolutions. My Defeated Perfectionistic self understands that this would only add to the big pile of 'things that cause me angst'. I do everything I can to NOT willingly add to that pile.....

That being said, I'm always trying to accomplish things that reside in my 'you shouldn't have started that if you weren't going to finish it' pile. I feel that if I balance things in this pile with the 'just bought it yesterday even though I know I have plenty of unfinished projects already' pile, then eventually, I will make progress. I has occurred to me that the flaw in this plan is in finishing one project while buying two new projects. This has generally been my M.O. up until just recently. Mostly driven by financial priorities, I have taken to focusing a little harder on my pile-to-pile ratio.

I usually have to be mentally and emotionally motivated to tackle a 'WIP' (aka-work in progress.) WIP is much more positive than 'UFO' (aka unfinished object.) UFO implies that underneath it all, you really never expect to finish said project. WIP at least leaves the possibility open. I have had projects in the past that I let go for sooooo long that they no longer appealed to me in any way, shape, or form. Maybe 2 or 3 of these went the way of the yard sale or DI, but I really try very hard to finish something before it falls into the 'EW, BLECH, YUKKY' category. I don't deal well with guilt......which brings me to today's project:

A Long Time Ago, and Far, Far Away.......I decided that I wanted to learn to paper piece. This is a quilting technique that enables some seemingly impossible and very precise piecing. I was at one of my favorite quilt shops, Gentler Times, up in Holiday. Sadly, they no longer exist, but 10 years ago, they offered a class that was just what I was looking for. A lovely Mariners Compass combined with a Storm at Sea background. I was in love. I gathered my fabrics and with the help of a friend, (someone had to watch my small children so I could attend the three needed classes), proceeded to learn this new skill. The teacher was experienced and helpful. She explained thoroughly the process and I successfully created the Mariners Compass portion of the quilt. I was so pleased and excited! I had turned out an amazing example of paper-pieced-perfection!! I left the class with the knowledge I had been seeking.

Then, having three small children, I took approximately two more years to put the rest of the quilt together, minus the borders. Project after project came and went. After about 5 years I finally added the borders and marked the quilt for quilting and began to hand quilt. This was the stickler: I got a certain amount of the way and either got too busy, or too distracted by other projects to continue. The quilt lay in a bag for quite some time. Every time I came across it I would say to myself "I really need to finish that!" then I would look realistically at my available time and stick the quilt back into the bag. It wasn't until I finally decided that hand quilting was going to be an impossibility, that I took out the stitching I had already done, and gave it to a friend to machine quilt. It sat in her studio for over a year while we pondered what would be the best type of quilting to enhance the pattern. We finally collaborated and the quilt was quilted!! Yay!! You would think that this incredible milestone would have prompted me to get the thing bound immediately!! Think again. I even had the binding already made and still let another year pass by without lifting a finger. I guess that's just how I roll.

Part of me was just not all that attracted to the colors of the quilt anymore. There goes my emotional motivation. But last fall, I finally managed to slog through and reach way down to come up with the umpf to finish. I put in the last stitch in the binding and thought to myself "There. Good for you. Another project you can cross off your guilt list." Then, having an empty wall between Halloween and Christmas, stuck it up on my wall as a fall quilt. AND COULDN'T STOP STARING AT IT!! It looked so amazing on the wall! The colors became secondary to the pattern. It was mesmerizing. I loved it!

And now I have a new zeal for finishing all my old projects. Anything that is in an unfinished state has elevated from a UFO to a WIP. I will be periodically posting my finished results for you all to see. Here is a pic of the whole quilt. It's wall hanging size (and did I mention how great it looks on my wall?)

Mariners Compass/Storm at Sea

entirely paper pieced

machine quilted by Winnifred

10 years+ in progress

Finished: November 2009

There But For the Grace........

I've been meaning to put up some pictures of Jackson.

Today, especially, I'm feeling so blessed to have him in our family.

He truly is an angel baby.

I read a link from Erin's blog today that made my heart just ache!

And then it made me want to hug him extra hard.

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I love you, Jackson.

Oh my......it's pie!

So, a few moons past, a good friend suggested I join a recipe card exchange. Having a self-diagnosed manic obsession for recipes, I eagerly complied! After all, I was given a full SIX WEEKS to choose, construct, and deliver a mere 20 6X6 scrapbook-style cards. Piece of cake, right? Well, in my typical Defeated Perfectionistic manner, I planned an over-the-top recipe card without actually planning an appropriate recipe. For about eight weeks. Yes, my friend gently reminded me several times to get the cards done and deliver them to her before she left for an extended vacation. And I didn't. I am a master procrastinator, in case you didn't know. I have a rep to live down to.....

In the end, my Friend A left on her trip, (to Israel, lucky girl...), and I eventually threw together a recipe that sounded festive, but in actuality I had never tried, (I swear I don't usually do that....), made a sub-par recipe card x20 that was nowhere near my mental vision, and Friend B, who is Friend A's bestest helper, had to come to my house and fetch my cards so as to include them in the bunch that was by now two weeks late!

I. Am. A. Class. A. Loser.

So, not long after, I received back a lovely stack of cards with some fabulous recipes on them and sadly admitted to myself that I did not deserve to ever be included in a recipe card exchange again.

I tucked my beautiful stack away in my cookbook closet, bringing it out periodically to peruse, mentally adding some of them into my "need to try" file, wondering if anyone had done the same with my submission: Festive Holiday Wraps, and if they were any good....

Time passed.

A lot of time.

Probably three years.

(Okay, I just reviewed my friends blog posts about her trip and discovered that it was just over a year ago that she went to Israel. Am I trapped in a time warp of some sort? Help me out Wendy--when was this card exchange? I swear it's been at least two years....)

Anyway......I digress. The whole point of this post was this:

I ran into Jacquie B. at Macey's a few weeks ago and we began to talk recipes. She brought up a particular pie she likes to make. She reminded me that it was her contribution to the card exchange. I said that it was on my mental "to try" list. She exhorted me to make it straight away! Said it was something about the paper bag that made all the difference. I said it was now at the top of my mental "to try" list because cooking a pie in a paper bag was intriguing to me. We parted company, I checked out my groceries, making sure to add a large paper bag to my pile of plastic-packaged produce (I'd rather trash a land-fill that cut down a tree...), and I went my merry way!

I included this mysterious pie in my list of Thanksgiving desserts this year. Along with a banana cream, and a lemon truffle pie that I am still tweaking before sharing.

This pie was the across the board favorite!! My kids went bonkers over it! Even Chef Jason said it was the best apple pie he'd ever had!

My conclusion? Though I am officially a cream-pie aficionado, I LOVED THIS PIE!!!! It was delicious, it was beautiful, it was fun to make---what more could you want in a pie? Oh yeah---It was also RIDICULOUSLY EASY!!!!

Check it out:

This is the pie after putting the fabulous butter-laden crumb topping on. So scrumptious!!

This is the pie after baking it in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes. (slow & steamy....I can't WAIT!!)

This is me painstakingly peeling the paper bag from the pie while peeking in pleasure at the perfection in a pan!!

Oh. My. Heck. How fetchingly beautiful is THAT?!?? (fetching in the Gone With the Wind sense of the word). I cried when I unwrapped this baby. It was so gorgeous!!!!

I would have so dearly loved to have eaten a slice right then and there while it was steaming hot, but I have this thing about slicing food before its time so I put it aside until it was time for dessert.

And then it was devoured. And if it wasn't against my religion not to serve pie with this:

.....it would have been amazing even plain. But it is against my religion, so real whipped cream was the garnish of the day.

And it was perfect.

Perfect Apple Pie.

Perfect Apple Pie Topped With Crumb Crust (baked in a brown paper bag).

Thanks Jacquie.

Perfect Apple Pie Topped With Crumb Crust (baked in a brown paper bag)

Filling: 5 cups sliced (not too thin...) apples ( I used FUJI)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

2 Tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix sugar, flour, and spices and toss with peeled, sliced apples. Pour into unbaked pie shell.

Topping: 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 cube butter

Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of pie. Place pie in large brown paper grocery bag from Maceys (support your local business man) and seal. (I made sure it wasn't touching the pie and then I stapled it shut). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes. DO NOT PEEK!!! Bag must be placed in center of the oven-above the heating element.

Serve with real whipped cream. Or not. Either way it's delicious!!!

This Little Piggy.....

Awww........Is there anything cuter than little, tiny baby toes? We count them, we kiss them, we make up poems about them.....

They're just so sweet!! I have been guilty of all sorts of tootsie-tickling. I've been guilty of nibbling & yes, even sucking on the darn things! I can't help it!! They only stay this cute for so long!!

Oh, look! there's two of them!! Even better!! So soft and adorable, double the pleasure, double the fun!!

Wait a minute.......what is that I see? I am familiar with every darling dimple my honey-bun possesses--and that ain't one of them!!!

Can you see it?
Let's take a closer look......
What the?!!? HOLY COW! My precious had one of those mythical "hair got wrapped around the baby's finger/toe" hairs wrapped around his finger/toe!!!!!! Can you see it?!? A HAIR WRAPPED ITSELF AROUND MY BABY'S TOE AND TRIED TO CUT IT OFF!!!!!

I was giving Jackson a bath this morning and noticed through the soap bubbles a piece of lint on his toe. Then I noticed that the lint was tangled up in a piece of hair. So I pulled the lint and hair off and saw that a deep crease remained. I rather FREAKED!! I had just had a conversation about this very subject with a group of friends, about how we had all heard of this happening. One friend even described how someone she knew even had to have their baby's finger AMPUTATED because of a constricting hair that went unnoticed!! Sacre bleu!! After running around the kitchen for 6.7 seconds like a headless chicken, I reverted to take-charge mode. After all, discombobulated-ness gets you nowhere...

I called the pediatrician, got a very quick appointment from a concerned receptionist and rushed to pack the three boys and myself into the van.

To make a long story short, it appears as though I initially removed the entire hair myself. My aimless running around the kitchen and very valid, I thought, freaking out was not entirely warranted. Disaster was not imminent, Jackson's toe is saved, he apparently has another case of thrush, and I'm going to chop off all my hair.....

getting the hang of the vernacular

Conversation between Nicholas and Sidney this morning:

Nick, after putting on his newly acquired red snow boots:

"Sidney, look! (indicating boots) "These are so gross!"

Sidney, looking at his boots and trying to decide in what way the boots are gross:

"Don't you mean 'sick'?"

Nick, thinking a little bit about his verbal blooper:

"Yeah! Sick! These boots are sick!"

Atta boy.....