Life is in the details

Happy 4th of July

I just finished assembling my 4th of July berry tart. This year is the first year that I made it with Sucanat instead of white sugar... we'll have to see how it tastes. The crust and the pastry cream definitely look different. The crust is more granulated looking and the pastry cream is not the pretty yellow that it usually is but instead has more of a caramel color. We're off to our cousin's house in a little bit but I wanted to post to say HI since I've been pretty absent this week and I wanted to wish all my American blog readers a very Happy 4th of July!!

Today has already been a great day... we had a family bike ride and the kids rode farther than they ever have before and they loved it! Ryan could have kept on going for another hour I think. That's how I felt on my bike ride last night. I *did* join the group ride in the early evening and it was at a much slower pace than I'm used to going (and did I mention that this road bike is FAST? Yeah, I might have mentioned it before.) So sometimes it really IS about the bike. I also got a small bit of painting in today.

Last night I finally caught up with my friend from high school and it was so nice to hear her voice and hear how she's been doing and all of the happenings that have gone on and all of the places she's been. And she caught me up on some of the other people I used to be close with. One of which is an artist living in the NY area. And her paintings are very similar to some visions that I've had recently of things I want to paint. It's O'Keefe-like in terms of being close up details of flowers but it's filled with energy and amazing color. So I know I'm going to have to email her and reconnect. I remember that she was always a great artist when we were younger but I never knew whether she pursued it or not. And I'm so glad to see that she has.

Okay I need to get going because we need to skedaddle out of the house to head to our bbq. Enjoy your celebrations today.

where has the time gone?

(completely random from today's post - but another vacation photo)

Okay, I didn't mean to take a little mini-blog break but it seems like I already have. Sorry to have disappeared unexpectedly. You would *expect* this sort of thing when I was on vacation, not upon return. Although there's been laundry, and grocery shopping, and menu planning (which I still haven't posted yet - but boy is it good to be home and cooking good meals again!)

Where have I been? Well I bought a new bike and the night I picked it up from the store I had to go for a ride. Who cares if it was 8:30 at night? I still had a good 45 minutes of good daylight left to enjoy. And it was great. I had to go for a trail ride this morning too. Awesome. And I'm joining a cycling group tomorrow night for a ride after dinner. I can't wait!! Oh if you've already sensed the next "thing" for me... well, me too, and I have to tell you that I felt it coming earlier this week. But it makes sense. The weather's too good to not be enjoying it and since I can't run until I have surgery (the winter discovery) I've had to figure out another way, right? You can't hold a girl like me back like that without a fight. Without a plan B or plan C. So here we are.

I *did* end up getting that bike that I showed a photo of here. It's a Trek 2.3 WSD. It's amazingly light. So much lighter than my 12+ year old mountain bike. Bike technology sure has come along way in the last decade. My first road bike. I'm in love. The speed. Wow! I can go so much faster on this one. This morning I zoomed. Really I did. And I saw a bunny on the trail. (Last night I saw three bunnies and a whole show put on my a troupe of lightening bugs - it was incredible).

What else has been going on? Oh, I found facebook and have been wasting a good amount of time on that. Discovered it over vacation. I reconnected with one of my best friends from high school (although that wasn't from facebook)... she gave me her number via email and I still have to call her. She just had her first baby and I'm just so happy knowing that she's there. Have you ever had that? Where you find a link to your past that you feel has always been with you... someone that you've thought about many times over the years and smiled. Well that's what this person is for me. I should have called her tonight but Mike and I ended up watching a movie we've had from Netflix for the last 2 months. It was a part of our "cleaning/purging" that seems to have been taking place (mostly on Mike's part)... we needed to send it back and so we had to watch it before doing so. But I'm going to call her VERY soon.

This is my last week of having fun and playing around (goofing off) with the kids - they go to camp next week for a little bit and then for those two hours that I will get, when I'm not visiting various doctors for some long-needed appointments, I will get cracking on the content for my next Big Picture Scrapbooking class that I'm in the middle of creating. And I'm planning to rock and get it done before the month is out (an not-so-arbitrary deadline that I've created for myself) so I can paint and ride my bike and sew more skirts! I've been going to bed and haven't been able to get to sleep because I have all these ideas... all this creativity running around in my head crashing into each other and not waiting their turn at the 4-way stops. Just rushing ahead). And I like my sleep. I mean REALLY like my sleep. So it's strange to be up and feeling like I wish I was getting this all down so that it doesn't slip away. Even stranger that I haven't been grumpy the next day. It must be the new-bike-high. But I've been laying in bed trying to be all calm and meditative in mostly unsuccessful attempts at trying to lull myself to sleep. I hope that next week when the kids are at camp the creativity rushes in. With a little luck it will all still be there.

and more vacation photos

I've never seen a more naturally beautiful backdrop for a game of  mini-golf.

At the outdoor pool.

The indoor water park... at the lily pad challenge - we did this aLOT! And I loved it too!

At the arcade.

Playing MagiQuest around the hotel.

Look for these coming to a mini-album and/or layout near you soon.

And today our vacation comes to a close and we are driving home. I'm really looking forward to getting back to our bike rides, our garden, our neighborhood pool, our friends, and all of the comforts of home.

more vacation photos

More from the Pez museum

And the Crayola Factory

And dinner

some vacation photos

Part of the incredible indoor water park

In case you can't see what this is let me give you a close up of a detour stop we had to make.

Then it was off to The Crayola Factory where there were tons of art activities for the kids to do. My favorite? An area called Meltdown where there were melted colors to "paint" with.

And the kids loved the Model Magic area too. Jessi loves to paint more than anything and Ryan favors clay/sculpting.

More photos to come. :-)

checking in from the Poconos + kombu

Had to post right away about how excited I was that I found KOMBU!!! We went to a natural food store after dinner (Mike knows how to make me happy - oh, and did I mention that there's a lot of greasy food here? And that yesterday after visiting the Crayola Factory we found a Wegman's and I stocked up on some food so we didn't have to eat the nasty buffets for breakfast and lunch)... and they had kombu! I have looked so many different places by me before, unsuccessfully, and there's this noodle bowl that I've been wanting to make - that I have to now remember where I found the recipe so I can put it on the menu when I get home. So I can't believe I had to come to the Poconos to find kombu!

As for vacation, we had a fun day today and I think we're finally getting used to being away from all of our comforts of home and we rallied for an *almost* complaint-free day. Well at least the good parts overshadowed any bad parts we might have had today and that's cause for celebration. The first few days? Well those are better not spoken of. Trust me.

The indoor water park here is like nothing I've ever seen. I'm too chicken to go on water slides because large drops and basically any ride and me go together like oil and water (minus an emulsifier). But Jessi liked the mid-range ones; Ryan loved the little kid ones. And the MagiQuest game is so neat too - a great multi-day game (if you do the quests in manageable chunks) that give the kids excuses to wield (and flick) magic wands and go around calling themselves Magis. What else? What else? Nothing that I can think of at the moment since I am so full from dinner (and yet the kids are so hungry asking for snacks and cheese that we just picked up at the natural food store.

I finished reading Plenty and From the Ground Up and brought Grace From the Garden along with me as well a bunch of magazines (Yoga Journal, Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrapbooks, Kiwi, Her Sports and Cloth, Paper, Scissors) for nighttime reading material. So far all of these are books I would recommend. Good stuff.

Okay I'm going back to vacation now. I'll post some photos soon.

Have you seen my chard?

Does that sound obscene? Want a taste of my chard sounds way worse. I'm talking about our bright lights swiss chard that is growing magnificently in the garden? Well I know I showed a photo of it in the garden but I picked a little leaf and added it to my salad of mostly baby spinach and arugula - DELICIOUS by the way - and just wanted to share.

(I scheduled this ahead of time since right at this very moment I'm probably at the pool on vacation! Photos to follow soon!)

Chard - ready for your close-up?

I have a crush on my garden greens, really I do. Need to get out more.

No - wait - know who I have a writing crush on? I absolutely love this woman's writing and will read anything she's written. And you know that this is true since you know she is the author of the vermicomposting book I read recently (remember the book about earthworm castings that I mentioned? and the one about the cut-flower industry - I didn't think I cared one bit about either of these topics but in her hands they were fascinating!). Well now I'm reading an earlier book of hers called From the Ground Up and it's so much better than many books of the same kind that I've read this year. Way better. Tons better. Like I said I have a writing crush on her. I *heart* her writing. Amy Stewart - thank you for your books! You rock!

the finished studio project

As you're reading this I'm probably in the car heading to our vacation destination but I wanted to give you a peek at my new studio.

This is how the corner looked BEFORE the renovation. You've probably seen this photo or something like it before. I've moved those containers into and out of our guest room about a gazillion times thinking that we were going to get someone to install it only to have things delayed... and guest come over to stay.

And here's a look at the NEW studio (see below) as it was recently renovation (just completed on Wednesday). I am so grateful to have such a wonderful space to work in now. I look forward to many creative nights down here!

Here's the left side of the "Creativity Corner" which will be used for painting and art journaling.

And the right side which will be for sewing/quilting/fabric projects and scrapbooking (non-digital - that goes on upstairs in my bedroom):

And here are some more detail shots:

I recently organized my heavy body acrylic tubes (and one little jar that fit) and put them into this stacky-drawer (that's the technical term I think) - the reds/oranges/yellows up top; the greens, blues/violets next; the neutrals, black, white in the bottom:

The rest are at arms length on the shelf right above me... here's the heavy body jars as well as the fluid acrylics (and colored pencils and drawing pens and pencils):

Underneath I have lots of room for my storage bins.

And I have more than half of the shelf space unused at the moment (Mike's first question was how long do I think it will be before I fill it up - think he knows me?? But I hope it takes lots of time to fill this space because I like that there's room, there's breathing space. I like that it's not all filled up. Who knows what other interests come about that will help to keep the rest of these supplies company). What I DO know is that I will love spending time down here having lots of room to spread out and PLAY!!! And I have room to leave works-in-progress out. That's a big things for me since I have little pockets of time and if I have to first drag out my stuff and remember where I was at it will never happen because I'll have used all my time just getting the supplies I need assembled....I'd just as soon not even start in the first place. This is PERFECT! Just as I envisioned it!

the making of blueberry muffins: a pictoral

I made these last week and I used a recipe from one of the King Arthur Flour books... I'm pretty sure it was the Baker's Companion but I used half white whole wheat. We've all been enjoying grabbing ones of these for snack or alongside breakfast for a special treat. (I loved that I didn't have to throw away the fresh blueberries that Jessica asked me to get for her that she forgot about.) And Ryan asked when we can go blueberry picking (we have two bushes in the backyard but I'm pretty sure that the soil isn't acidic enough for them if I'm able to grow other veggies in it. They really deserve a place of their own where they can flourish.... like maybe my next door neighbor Amy's yard. Hers has lots of proper soil for it... azaleas and blue hydrangeas (not like my pink ones). Too bad she pays too much attention to her yard and would likely immediately notice two new bushes if they happened to turn up there say mysteriously overnight. Because otherwise I'd be out there right now planting them.

need help - anything I must see in the Poconos?

We're heading to the Poconos for our upcoming family vacation (soon!!) and I was wondering if there are any recommendations for:

1. family friendly restaurants that actually serve good to great food
2. art supply stores
3. fabric/quilting stores
4. anything else we should see
5. walking trails (that are okay for 3-6 year olds as well as their mama and daddy)

Thanks!!

summer break, bikes, gardens, marital squabbles

I haven't posted because it's officially SUMMER BREAK and I've been out playing with the kids (and forgetting to upload photos and sit down and write here)!

What's been going on? Well a hugely exciting thing for me is that I now have a STUDIO!!! With a huge surface to work on and lots of shelves. I'm not even at 50% capacity on the shelving. Incredible!!! I'll have to post pictures another day because I haven't uploaded them from the camera yet.

I'm also researching new road bikes to get (and wondering if a kick-butt road bike will feel weird and strange and if I should just get a hybrid for the trails rides and for running errands and around with the kids). Just when I think I have the answer (road bike, all the way) I second-guess (but maybe a hybrid would be more practical. Will I really be able to get out there for longer rides in the Fall once Ryan is in preschool all week?). But I'm itching to get one before Fall so I can stop riding Mike's bike (because there's no way I'm taking my 13+ year old mountain bike off the trainer from the basement up the stairs (it weighs more than all four of us put together I think) every time I want to go for a family ride. But there's also the consideration that Ryan needs a new bike and Jessica is close behind. And we need a bike rack that I've been wanting for over a year (although I still haven't gotten a hitch put on). Oh and this post was going to be about my blueberry muffins but the bike-thought seems to have hijacked  over this post.

So here's the bike at the top of my list right now:

And another thing that has been going on is stuff in the garden is really GROWING - except for the veggies and herbs that the bunny/squirrels have gorged themselves on. But the baby bunny was so cute I couldn't yell at it for taking a nibble all five parsley plants and all of the strawberries. How else is s/he going to get big and strong and procreate? Well I wish s/he would have dined elsewhere... but hey, I grow good stuff!

A better view.

I mean come on - that's cuteness!

This is some unidentified squash.. unless it's a cucumber... but I'm pretty sure it's a squash I just wish I would have remembered which one... is it the delicata? the butternut? yellow straighneck? zucchini? sunburst patty pan?  No clue because I didn't remember which of the seedlings I picked up from the seedling tray and forgot to make a marker for it. So stay tuned to the mystery one (and there are other mystery squash around the garden too because I guess I was trying to hurry up that day!)

I guess I didn't remember planting alpine strawberries but that's certainly what these are because I remember starting a few from seed when we lived in our previous house and these cute little berries top out at the size of your fingernail (not my mom's long, manicured ones... my sporty, short ones)

One of the tomatoes in the garden.

Close up:

This Black Krim tomato already has a fruit on it because I didn't grow this one from seed but bought it from the nursery as one of the bunch that was to serve as my "tomato insurance" in case my seedlings didn't make it (good things since many of the ones I grew from seed looked skinny and sick and a bunch of them died soon after covering with mulch and organic fertilizer).

I had a little Bright Lights Swiss Chard leaf in my salad tonight (yes, just one with some arugula because I'm saving the rest for when I get home from vacation that we are going on soon... stir-fried with some garlic and olive oil... or on some pizza. It's hard to decide. They are so pretty. Now whenever Ryan sees any plant with a reddish stem (like some of our strawberry plants) he calls them rainbow chard. To hear him get so excited about it is so much fun too. He'll even do it when we are on walks. He'll just gasp and say, "Mommy, I see some rainbow chard!"

We've been going on bike rides everyday (short ones to help the little man build up his pedalling resistance and get Jessica comfy with her training wheels raised as high as they will go) but we haven't made it to the pool yet. It was a little too cool today for the water - but perfect for a ride!

Mike and I were grunmpy to each other since yesterday morning but it all broke down around noon today when I saw one of the reminders of just why I love this man and why I stick with him even when I feel like taking away his office air-conditioner (the man NEEDS his climate control or else he will melt up there) and chocolate (a must-have) and lacing his dinner with all varieties of mushroom available (he hates knowing that there might be a mushroom in his food - but loves the taste if he doesn't know it's in there). I couldn't help but laugh at the sign that I saw pop up taped to the wall in each of the kids rooms. I will have to post it but let's just say that I've made it one of my missions to introduce Ryan to reading this summer... and Mike has made it his mission to make sure the kids know every player in the Yankees starting line-up. Their name, position, number, and an interesting fact. Know who he started with? Jeter of course. Each week over the summer he's going to introduce a new player. I don't know why this broke the tension for me but it did. So all is well again. Thank goodness.

And soon we are off on our summer vacation. I'm looking forward to getting time just the four of us and lots of time in the water. The previously scheduled blueberry muffin post will come tomorrow. And so will some packing!

making some cookie love for Father's Day

I made those Fudge Drop cookies that I said I would to celebrate Father's Day - and to celebrate my favorite cookie-monster, chocolate-loving dad (of our kids)... and they did NOT disappoint!

Here's how it all went down.
It started with some dark chocolate chips. I could have stopped there and handed it to Mike and he would have been very content indeed. But I'm an overachiever.

Eggs (from the farmer's market - and let me just say that you can totally tell the difference! - The yolks are so bright and yellow - it makes the supermarket yolks pale in comparison!)

chocolate chips + melted butter

I think this was the eggs and sugar. I don't have any white sugar in our house as I rid ourselves of that and now that I've been doing a bit of baking I'm using what we have and hoping for the best.

I used the raw sugar that I had on hand (about half of the sugar called for) with the rest being Sucanat :

Adding the melted chocolate, vanilla, and baking power to the mixer.

The batter with additional chocolate chips thrown in.

These were very yummy!! We all gave it 9 or 10 stars out of a possible 10 and will definitely be making these again (I'll probably add some cinnamon next time... but that's because I'm addicted to cinnamon and feel like every baked good needs a bit of it to get onto my "all time fave" list. Jessi knew I would say this after tasting hers... Mike too. Have I come that predictable? Oh well!).

And I'll recap the blueberry muffins session that we had last week too. And, oh those strawberries are calling my name loud and clear. We all had some with breakfast and packed some for lunch and snack for the kids today (and filled a baggie for Mike to take to his parents) and I still have 3 1/2 buckets to get through - did I mention BIg bucket? - and do something with before they are a big soggy overripe mess.

Happy Father's Day

Today was Mike's day... so we started out at breakfast at IHOP (he agreed that we should probably not do this next year... his belly feels better after eating a breakfast cooked by me)... and opened presents

Then we went strawberry picking at our favorite farm.

I love the wide open space of being out on the farm.

I spotted an egg in the hen house.

The goats loved the grass that we fed them.

Then we headed to Mike's favorite lunch spot.

Then we brought the strawberries home (and on the way home everyone napped except me - good thing too since I was driving) and rested a little bit.

Then it was off to the batting cages.

And then to dinner. Our stomachs are very full after a day of eating out entirely too much. But after all, it's Father's Day... a very good reason to celebrate.

finally!

We made it to the farm to pick strawberries today!!!

More photos to come... but for now I'm trying to go through all of my cookbooks and the web for what to do with our four huge buckets full of ripe spring goodness!!

there will be lots of this in our future....
strawberry crepes
strawberry vinaigrette
strawberry tart
strawberry cupcakes
chocolate covered strawberries
strawberry lemonade
spinach and strawberry salad
pound cake with strawberry and whipped cream

... is there
a better
season?

I think not.

so saddened by this...

I absolutely loved watching this man's show during most weeks of the last 10 years (there was a time period that I missed thrown in there but I recently started up again). I just found out that Tim Russert passed away earlier today and my heart goes out to his family and friends. He was the best in the business and he will be greatly missed.

Digital Scrapbook Page: Must Make More Skirts

Had to do a page about the skirt. Was too excited about it to let it pass.

thinking about water

Water?

Well, more accurately watering. In the garden.

Why? Because I'm tried of standing and watering the plants. This might sound ridiculously lazy but it's not. Read on.

Watering with my hose is

1. a fairly inactive activity. The only muscles being used are the ones in fingers that hold the spray end of the hose and if I use that little latch-thingy I don't even have to exert those muscles. Frankly, I'd rather be biking or working out in my basement
2. it's freakin' hot. We've been hit with a heat wave over the past 5+ days with it feeling like it's about 100... hello - this is the beginning of June. It's not supposed to be this hot.
3. not very efficient. There's lots of water that gets lost to evaporation when using a hose and spray attachment. And my roses and tomato plants don't like getting their leaves wet. So I mostly use the soaker setting and go around to EACH AND EVERY plant and let it sit there for a little. So it's also a really INEFFICIENT use of MY TIME! It's hard to water deep when you are going around like this. Or rather it's hard to do anything else when it takes you over an hour and a half to water.

So I'm looking into drip irrigation which I know nothing about how to put together but I have a feeling I will know how to do in the next month or so. I DO know that it's good for the plants and for deep watering. Here's the first thing that I found: Vegetable Garden Drip Kits from Drip Depot. (I'm thinking of the standard one but it would probably be wise to measure first.) Looks pretty good but maybe too pricey (I'll have to check around to Lowe's/Home Depot/local gardening centers). Anyone ever done this? Feel free to share any thoughts on this as I would love any suggestions.

our little lunch date last Friday

We got away for a lunch date at one of our favorite local restaurants last Friday which was so nice... and so necessary.

And their bread was to. die. for. Seriously I could live on that bread alone. When you're going about your routine where most of it revolves around home (meals included) and your trying to pack as much nutrition in as possible as I am... well whole wheat has been the aim around here. But when I get to go out to a really nice restaurant and they serve bread - REALLY GREAT BREAD with just the right amount of fluffy interior and crispy exterior delicately flavored with olive oil and the perfect amount of salt... well I would just be foolish to turn that down. In fact, I never turn a great piece of bread or a french fry down... not that I come across it very often (good thing I don't travel and eat on the road too much). Record officially broken for longest run-on sentence for that last one.

Friday was pretty much a very-bread-filled-day because in the afternoon I invited my friend Anne and her three little kids over and I promised to teach her how to bake focaccia (I opted for rosemary focaccia) and it turned out delicious! I have no photos from that because between being interrupted about 56 times between the five of our kids playing together, and administering snacks (freshly baked chocolate chip banana bread made just for them), and trying to take Linky out so she wouldn't have any accidents in the house... well let's just say it was a wonder that anything was made.

So I'll just share more photos from our date lunch.

My mouth is salivating just looking at the piece of bread in his hands. That's how good it was!

Shrimp and Grits with Sauteed Spinach. Heavenly. (Mike ordered the crab cakes sandwich in case you were wondering.)

Week of June 9th - Menu Planning

I went food shopping yesterday instead of Sunday (so we could do fun stuff with our visiting out-of-town guests) and so I did menu planning a day later than usual. So here it is for this week (some might be similar to the previous week because if intentions don't become reality for a few of the nights planned then they often get moved to the next week if they still sound appetizing or if the ingredients are still on hand):

• Pasta with Peas, Fresh Sage, & Breadcrumbs (p 44 - Local Flavors)
• Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Potatoes (with Cheddar instead of Swiss and in-nay on the mushrooms due to Mike but I might add them to mine) with Tuscan Chickpea Soup (from the freezer), and steamed ARTICHOKES for Jessi and me - my FAVORITE!!)
• Make your own pizzas - always a hit with the kids. I'm not sure what I'm going to put on mine - but it will likely contain lots of arugula, artichoke, mushrooms, and some roasted garlic - not sure on the cheese yet - I have some ricotta salata but it makes Mike gag so it depends on if he gets me angry on that day or not - LOL! Totally kidding. Okay, slightly kidding.)
• Whole wheat pasta aglio e oil (Italian for garlic and oil) with broccoli
• Chicken with Salsa Verde, brown rice, asparagus

And we're going to bake Fudge Drops for Father's Day.

Digital Scrapbook Page: Passover

Journaling: “Grammy and Grampy called on Monday to see if they could come in this Thursday for the weekend. They were excited to share the photos and stories (and presents!) from their recent trip to China. Saturday happened to be Passover so we invited Uncle EJ to join us (who dazzled Jessi with an invisible science lesson using copper wires and a glass of water). We attended Taste of the World at Jessi’s school on Friday night (and saw an incredible karate demonstration). I invited the kids to help me mix the matzoh ball ingredients, and also to form the mixture into little balls. Ryan thought this was too messy so only wanted to do one. Jessica enjoyed it and helped me with the rest. We ate brisket and gravy (at Mike’s request), rosemary roasted potatoes, charoset (which I everybody ate up and there were NO leftovers!), salad, and matzoh ball soup. We also got a chance to celebrate Grammy’s upcoming birthday together and have our turn to shower her with some gifts! Our new tradition whenever Grampy comes in from now on will be to go to breakfast at IHOP.”

Fonts: Chopin Script (title), Arial Narrow (journaling)

Credits: everything from the ScrapArtist Soho Spring Collaboration from April 2008