francis the hedgehog

I introduce to you Francis the Hedgehog:

I made her tonight, inspired by the genius (yet simple enough for someone like me) pattern & tutorial at matsutake. How fun! Hubby and I sat and watched "House" for 2 hours while I dug up my needle, thread & bag of scrap lace and went to work. It's been years since I've sewn, and it really was theraputic. The only problem is that I may be a little hedgehog obsessed now.

Chair,
Hav

babda

During prayer time tonight:

Mommy: Thank you God for...
YaYa: Babda
Mommy: Babda?
YaYa: Babda bi-doo
Mommy: Bob the Builder?
Yaya: (shakes head vigorously) Bob da Bi-doo!!
Mommy: Yes, thank you God for Bob the Builder.

it's in the oven

Oh, have I been in a baking mood the past few days! And to give you an idea of how big of a deal this is, I probably only bake 4 or 5 times a year! So...a run-down of what's been in my oven in the past 48 hours:

• 2 apple cakes
• 1 turkey pot pie
• a pumpkin's worth of spiced pumpkin seeds
• a batch of cranberry white chocolate chip cookies (thanks to my dear friend kelly for the recipe!)

Yum! What a feast of fall flavors! It surely does help my baking that I've been home about half of this week (since I worked the whole sleepless weekend!)

The best thing about the cranberry white chocolate cookies is that the cranberries pop in your mouth when you bite into them! The miniature taste explosions are just wonderful!!

And to top it all off, these creepy creatures have taken up residence in my computer corner:

So even though this day is dreary, I'm soaking up my precious time with YaYa. We're heading to the pet store now to pet some puppies.

Chair,

Hav

monday in pictures

Oh how I love my Mondays!

Spending time with my beautiful girl...
Enjoying the last days of playing outside...

Getting plenty of puppy love...
And watching YaYa help daddy mow for the first time. She always says, "Mow mow daddy, mow mow daddy." Today daddy invited her to help. She was thrilled! She kept looking over at me with a look that said, "Mommy! Aren't you proud of me? I'm helping!"

What a sweet day.

Chair,
Hav

sleepless nights

I don't think a twenty month old is much work anymore.
That's not true. She's a lot of work, but not compared to...
TEN FORTH GRADE GIRLS!!

I work in Children's Ministries at a church (work, as in, it's my full-time job). This weekend was our Fall Mini Camp for 3rd-5th graders. I got the 4th grade girls...all ten of them. I've done this 5 years in a row, but it REALLY whipped me this year. How can 9 and 10-year-olds stay up until 4am, even with me (tired, grumpy, sneezy) reprimanding them every ten minutes? Seriously, I could NOT stay up that late when I was nine. I was the one who would fall asleep while the other girls watched NKOTB videos. And then they froze my underwear. I think I'm too old for this overnight stuff anymore...but maybe I always have been.

Needless to say, I'm excited for a day off tomorrow. My wonderful neighbor lent me her copy of Hello, Cupcake!, and I hope to try my hand at one of these fun creations sometime soon (maybe tomorrow, but the house is a disaster!)

I'm praying for a full night's sleep tonight...to wake up feeling refreshed! May all of you experience that as well.

Chair,
Hav

more felted owls

I am a hypocrite. All I can think about is making a cute little felted owl to perch on a branch in my daughter's room. And while I'm at it, does anyone have a simple recipe for a good bread? This fall weather has me ready to try my hand at baking my first loaf. Thoughts of the scent of freshly baked bread keep swirling through my head. That, along with the image of cutting through the crusty shell into the soft goodness. (Stop it, Hav, this is not helping!)

I made a delicious apple cake tonight from the spoils of yesterday's trip to the orchard. My inspiration came from maya*made, and you can find her post and recipe here. She's absolutely right...doubling the recipe is a must. YaYa & hubby & I gobbled it up. And I wanted to throw in one more picture from the orchard. This one's my fav.
So, about my salutation, "Chair". It all started in middle school with my friends Laura & Elizabeth. We were all in French together, and when we learned that the French for chair is silla, we couldn't resist. Instead of saying "See ya!", we would tell each other "chair!" It became our official sign-off, and so remains mine today. Here's to middle school...awkward bodies, poofy perms & ginormous glasses. I don't miss you at all.

Chair,
Hav

No felted owls

I'm a little intimidated. No, a lot intimidated.
I read other people's blogs, although "stalk" might be a better word.
But this is my first post. After internally blogging all my activities & thoughts for weeks, I decided that they needed to be let out. So here goes...

I will not be talking about handmade felted owls in this blog. Nor will I discuss my favorite artisan bread recipe. (Confession: I have never made a loaf of bread.) No offense if you love &/or make felted owls and bread! I enviously gobble up others' blogs of these subjects, I just have too much going on right now. I guess I lied...I've already spent a paragraph talking about something I wasn't going to talk about. Ah, get used to it!

I took my 20 month old to the apple orchard for the first time today. What fun! She gleefully ran up and down the rows of trees, clutching the first apple that we picked. She wouldn't let go of that thing for anything, even after it got rubbed in the dirt a few times. She finally got tired of her half eaten apple on the drive home.
We stopped for treats on the way home.


Picked up a sugar cookie with sprinkles for YaYa, and carrot cake for my hubby & me.
We had dessert first tonight.

Chair (I'll explain later),
Hav