This school vacation we decided to pet sit. Nicolette was super excited to bring her classroom pet home, according to her she wanted to play dress up, and want to give Finn a bath.
The ginuea pig is very active in the night as Niegel and I watched TV way into morning during one night. Finn decided to add the after effects of the scary movie, fun night turning light off after the movie.
We have been adding Finns bedding to the compost, and offering him carrots. I am not sure, if I am confident enough to pick and handle him. However he is getting use to me more, since I am the only one taking care of his bedding besides Panduka.
I see he is venturing out from his house to see what is happening around him. He sure loves his carrots, and hey. We gave him a treat of parsley and he sure likes that. The more into the week I notice him playing outside of him home more. My allergies are bit off, but still worth the effort of taking care of Finn.
It is REALLY a fun way to take care of a pet!
I love having headbands and making them for Nicolette.
New prints are so cute, I feel like I have to make them all. I love how this one came out and perfect for spring. I am planing to make few more so she can have them for summer. Few have ask me to make them for their kids and few adults too. This could be a neat gift to give for friends in summer.
Little Nicolette is not too crazy about it, but she was so happy to model it when I was taking pictures. I love how it sits to the side, but possibilities are endless.
My next attempt is to make a smaller band, I felt like this was bit too big for her. More excuses to make few more. I love this print very summery.
This winter break we ventured into Japanese cooking, to stir away from the regular blah. I have been eating alot this winter, which I am not very fond of. I have been missing the gym but more into creating, sewing, and reading.
Japanese cooking seems to be very easy and less time in the kitchen. However, the body really needs to go through the change of raw fish. I always likes soy beans even growing up in Sri Lanka. The most fondest memory I have is eating soy ice cream, which seems to close to my house.
Recently, I have add so much kale to my lunch, and I afraid I might turn my self to green. I still cook meat for the rest of the family members. They cannot totally give up on meat at least few are working on it. This is a something I put together, sticking to the basic Japanese cooking techniques. I used pork instead of beef, I felt it absorbs the sauces well than beef. I add a whole lot of vegetables to keep it more like a one pot meal.
The base is soy sauce, plum sauce, garlic, chillies, honey, rice wine, and sesame oil.
There are few similarities in Japanese cooking and Sri Lankan cooking, and even share few ingredients.
Another day of snow, I wonder if this is the end of it. I do enjoy snow days being under the blankets with my children. This year has been one of those years everyone has been complaining of the unlimited supply of snow we easterners have had. When I look outside it is still so peaceful and I did not feel like going to school.
Partially, I know I was kind of hit hard this semester with the class I have chosen, but at the same time I do love that class too. I love the professor who makes it possible for everyone to do their best and see the best of our work thorough tiring work days. It is a long day but still worth going to school. I truly love all the work she does with every one, I have taken her before and she truly helped me to use my talents to the fullest.
Another snow day, but today I am partially hoping for cancellation. I don’t know why. I do remember, once I took a class that I checked the weather every minute before I left the house, but as I approached school it was no canceled. I want that to happen before I leave the house today.
I can go back to my comfort work zone, as it get quite in the house with afternoon naps, you can get alot done. I know I have been stocking my shop lately, and taking things slowly as I create fun projects.
Well, it is time to fix dinner before school!
Laundry is a such big job in our household, since I went back to work. However, today I really enjoyed doing laundry because, snowing outside made me sit next to iron board to do laundry. Nicolette, is having a bath and I could get few things done during this time. One thing for sure is laundry.
Every window I look outside, all I could see is the snow covered ground and trees like a picture post card.
This year I am serious about knitting. I did not make a stack of fleece scarves from my remnant pile, instead decided to knit few cowls for little one. It goes pretty quick and knitting in the round is one of my favorite way of knitting. There were few skeins of yarn I received last summer from a friend, I did not know what to do then, because they were blends of wool and other fibers.
Few cowls could make little one’s neck warm when she is outside with her friends at school and I know she loves them and lately she is asking me to make a scarf to cover her face. We have been hit hard this year with snow. I remember last year I had to dug my self out, to goto work.
Cowls are easy to make, and not only that you can wear them as hats. However, they will not cover the head entirely but will do the job to some extent. Currently working on number four and so far I have finished three.
The first was using fine yarn with light weight yarn. It was much fun and that cowl keeps the neck pretty warm and so soft to touch. I felt my hands were in a cloud.
The second, was made with only light weight yarn. The light weight yarn was very stretchy to work alone but adds a totally different texture to the pattern and the knitted cowls sits snuggly around her neck, she loves it. It works great on, not so very cold days!
The third cowl pattern, I made it up on my own. I did not have a pattern and had two skeins of alpaca yarn. This is a very soft cowl, which sits around her neck with some room around, but gives her enough warmth on a cold spring day.
Fourth, cowl is in progress, and we would like to use it as soon as its done, during this cold winter vortex. It is a very soft warm yarn and it will definitely keep her warm.
Happy, knitting during the month of February to ALL!
It is so difficult to find a great salad during this cold winter months. However, that been said I had to admit I enjoy having kale as a salad. It is a great source of vitamins and supper healthy.
To dress it up, I had few blood oranges and a half diced avocado. To spice it up I add a left over onion mix. I have develop a new taste towards kale this winter and we will br growing kale this summer in our yard.
Yet, another winter storm engulfed us with gusty wind. I am not in a mood to take Nicolette across town on her sled for donuts. I am sure if I offer that to her, she would drive me nuts around the house until I take her to donuts.
However, it was peaceful outside, watching snow falling gently on the ground. We decided to watch it fall from inside. The fire pit is totally covered and was so beautiful to watch outside.
I am not a big fan of desk calendars; however, when I saw this calendar I could not resist the urge to buy it because, it had so much art. I love it very much and glad I bought it.
February has already crawled upon us, and I am overdue for a new post. Yet, another storm embraces the North East. Having a day off adds, more to our creative list. However, I was adamant to get some rest in between.
It is not fun to battle winter allergies. The dust mites are so high during this time of the year due to dry air. We have been cleaning and dusting throughout this winter as we go along.
However, I curled up with little Nicolette, who is always looking ways to craft with me. We decided to cut some few felt squares, I had purchased previously for another project. She was very excited when I started to cut the hearts.
I made this garland to add to our branch collection from our yard. I had few heart shape candle stick holders, a bag of gummy hearts, I could not resist to enjoy few of these gummy hearts. Few orchid candles, Together, we add a bit of love to our dinning room.
Kitchen towels, you cannot have enough of these no matter what you do. I love to make kitchen towel and give them as gifts to friends.
I was in a mood to make few towels for us. When I saw this print, I knew I had to get it, because it was so cute!
I have not finish the task of actually making them yet! I will soon post the finish project.
Kale salad has been one of the main salads that I enjoy these days.
I add few slices of canned cooked beets, black olives, onions, lime juice, salt and black pepper. It is a refreshing salad with alot of vitamins.
I top it off with a tuna wrap, few chips, and few sweet pickles.
Back to school means more time at work and at school. In other words less time prepping food more time with family as much as possible. How do you keep it together, answer is more planning less shopping. More meals to make at home, this works great because there is always leftover.
Getting protein for a family of three and one vegetarian could be a challenge, because you do have to make sure the vegetarian get some form of protein as well. I am still working on my self getting protein.
Past weekend I was able to gather four bags of meat with marinade for week nights, and hopefully we might consider something light in between these nights, that would accommodate the vegetarian with a healthy protein the entire family can enjoy more to come on this.
This was a fairly simple project, which my teenager was able to help me to assemble it. Meat could be enjoy with bean rice and a salad.
As we ran out of store bought marinate for a one batch of meat. We decided to come up with our own. We will let you know if it is family approved on a later post.
It is a big relief to know dinner is all set for five nights!
My love to the remnant rack at the fabric store never cease to surprise me. I made this scarf out of anti-phil fleece and cost me .75 cents. It keeps my neck warm on a very cold day. Not only that it adds that punch of color.
I have made many neck warmers with remnants. This was unique because it was a very skinny strip of fleece and worked very well with my project. Getting use to my sewing machine with different fabrics could be so much fun! I love this project and might make few more as gifts!
Getting use to my camera and catching Nigel's performances at meets have been my newest discovery. Soon he will be off to start his college life, and I am making sure that I am able to catch all his work.
I know for sure he enjoy his time at meets. Watching his non stop talking, laughs, tension, but still been able to run that all off, is amazing. His resilience towards running, taking part in these meets and keeping it all together is neat.
Least, I could do with all my work is to show up, and look in his eye and say that he can totally do it, and it means a lot to him I know.
