Thanksgiving…

We had a simple Thanksgiving… yes we did had all the traditional food. But I add some new recipes and learned a little bit of history that goes along with the dish. I am amazed to see how some recipes have evolved with time.

Kids had a great time. I cooked and baked everything for us. Kids helped me to set the table… I used some the materials I bought from the fabric store to make the centerpiece… and add some decorations I had and this year I bought colorful corn which I have come to love very much for the beautiful color. Girl at the farm stand said they can last for a while I am eager to see that.

My little one was very happy have a second Thanksgiving… I did not cook the whole turkey due to two reasons one we didn’t had the utensils. They were in the storage. So I did butterfly turkey and ½ a turkey. I know sounds crazy. But it was enough for us for three days I mean the leftovers. This was an interesting recipe and had a beautiful history an Irish recipe. Saves time, taste great and if you are intimidate by baking the whole turkey this is the way to go.

Here is our Menu I didn’t had any starters since it was only four of us…

Spat chocked Turkey roasted with Lemon, Sage, and Garlic

Lingucia Sausage stuffing with Mushroom and Caramelized Onions

Sweet Potato Puree with Streusel

Green Beans with Lemon Bread Crumbs and Toasted Almonds

Hazelnut and Fresh Herb Popovers

Cape Cod cranberry Compote

Gravy

Dessert

Pumpkin Cheese Cake with Ginger Snap Crust

Served with Lots and LOVE and gratitude!

So how was your Thanksgiving did you cook or made something unique… or may be a recipe that has been passed down by generations… this is one of my favorite holidays I like to celebrate with my family do you have anything special I love know and hear…

Quote of the Day “pursue old-fashioned hobbies, games, and activities”

Enjoy!

Homemade B’day Gifts…

My daughters best friends B’day is around the corner… I can’t believe how fast they grow up. Finally I was able to get her present together… it was a blanket, book, and homemade crayons. I know she is going to be very happy. We do miss her as she had to move but we are planning to keep the play dates at least once a month.

I enjoy coordinating gifts and activities. So I did some planning first I bought this book which is called Rose’s Garden by Peter H. Reynolds. I do like the quote about this book from late Senator Ted Kennedy
“May this powerful story… plant seeds of hope and service for generations to come.”

I personally love the story very much because it a strong mixture of imagination and determination, what more can you give to a small girl…

Anyway I had to find the coordinating fabric to go with it and this is the blanket I made. I do enjoy making simple gifts at home…

Quote of the day “sing with children”

Enjoy!

Stretchy head bands one more item to add to homemade gifts…

I was inspired by thesleepytimegal.com to create some head bands. I did have so much fun creating this. I did discover the fun of stretchy laces and sequences. Yes, I did go crazy. I guess when you have a girl your creative side oozes out… ha… ha…

She is only 2 years, I love playing dress up with her… she is such a FUN ball.

When I tried the hair bands on her she loved it but still doesn’t get the concept quiet right to keep them on her head. I know she will eventually but it was adorable to watch her putting them on and taking them off her head.

Yes it takes two seconds to make them. I thought it was a great gift for a new baby or one more thing to add on to homemade gifts… and sometimes you can really tie in the theme…

Quote of the day “have loving relationships with your children”

Enjoy!

See and Sew…

I wanted to sew a bag for shopping… this was in my - to do list but never had a chance to actually do it. Finally with the help my dear friend I was able to follow the pattern and sew a bag. I do take that back because I can’t say I exactly followed the patter because I did my version of the bag with two pockets instead of 1 pocket. That was the major and the only change I made to the pattern. I need help with attaching bias binding may be I need to consult my friend to be a pro in my next bag.

I have to say I do love the Waverley Fabric… it is so cute… not the right word, I would say pretty… and very country looking. I saw a cushion made out of this fabric in an antique store and I went nuts because it was really beautiful… got the information and when I was browsing the upholstery fabric section at the craft store this caught my eye and waited till it went on sale for 50% I guess rest is history…

Now that I have my cloth bag, I really don’t where I should take the bag… grocery, library, or farmers market?
What are you creating?

I am taking one at time off from the list… and the list keeping getting long I have no clue how that is happening.

Quote of the day “finish everyday and be done with it”

Enjoy!

Basket weave in knitting…

This is a really easy pattern to work with and the finished product looks great. My son wanted a scarf and I gave it a try with one skein I had it was enough and it was 100% wool. Good thing is it’s from the clearance rack and that makes a big difference.

I loved how it finishes up and the pattern is relatively simple to memorize and work. I read in a recent home journal that picking up the knitting needles is a stress buster during holidays. Just the fact of repeated stitches breaks the trains of everyday worries; Knitting reduces the stress hormones and releases endorphins and makes you happy.
Fun part is you can make gifts to everyone during holiday season and could be inexpensive…

Do you do activities to reduce your stress does it helps you be a calmer and better person to handle some tough situations…
Quote of the day “do something to improve your health everyday”

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip cookies with m & m…

I was able to act silly when my little one ask to buy candy from the checkout register and pretend and use to tell her we do not eat them. She was buying that for a while… then I use to be supper polite and taught her thank you… she loves the word for a while I would practice that… when she would ask me to buy candy with her half verbal and vocal sounds. I would ask super nice to put it back on the shelf (from where it come from). She would do that and I would emphasize my thank you lesson… and she would walk away some days I wanted to buy her the candy… because she was a GREAT and EXCELENT listener.

They learn and adapt new behavior through observation this is a known fact. My older son started to buy candy and share them with her from his pocket money.
So I was practically doomed… she wants the candy… so I did brought home the m&a's and I made some cookies for both of them they were so good but I did not want to eat them…

I guess that was the best snack she woke to after a long battle of weaning her afternoon nap episode. She was happy to munch them down…

Quote of the day “fight hunger”

Enjoy!

Inspirations could be anything…

I got inspired to make cards… due couple of reasons one was I was running out of note cards, I had a list of people I needed to pass thank you notes, and another reason was when I was at the fabric store I picked up some swatches I wanted to use them in a productive way rather adding to trash.
When I was browsing through the EYSY shop I looked at some fabric card ideas and was amazed to find some cool ideas. I am still in the process of designing and creating the cards… but here are some I was able to put together in a jiffy. I am always looking to improve this area. My son was able to help me in this project too.
My list of people I wanted to thank at school was long… I was able to make scarves… but I guess I need some more I don’t think I have the time to make that much.
I love creating cards with fabric, it was amazing to see even very tiny pieces could be put into use in fabric card making… I cannot wait to take my ART classes at campus… I saw some students were participating in an exhibition at campus and had some cool ideas.
Quote of the day “say nice things to people”
Enjoy!

Apple pie with fun decorative cutout…

I know I am late posting some of my baking recipes… we were passing an apple orchard and they were selling apples at the store… I wish I had the camera with me… It was amazing to see all kinds of apples… my son was at school and my little one was sound asleep. I had the luxury to walk around while my husband was in the parking lot…

Inside the store it was divided into two sections one was where they were selling all apples pies and all kinds of items from apple cores to slices and even toddler knitted apple hats…
On the section they have stored the apples and it was freezing cold… bins filled with apples… I learned if you want to extend the shelf value of the apple you need to keep them in the refrigerator… and you can keep it for a long time…

Anyways here is my favorite recipe for a apple pie it was so good I didn’t had the camera to take a picture of the very first pie I baked from the leftover dough I made a small deep dish pie with cut outs… it was cute and yummy with ice cream my son gobble it down as soon as I took it from the oven…
It was very simple but delicious…

Here is my link from the William & Sonoma kitchen…

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/apple-pie.html

Quote of the day “Develop the talents you have inherited”

Enjoy!

Much needed walk…

Free picture collage personalized with Smilebox We had a lot going on I did my finals, and stress… so we all needed to tune in with nature, I know we didn’t dress up or the whole family was present. But this is the closet I could capture of FALL 2010… may be next year it will be better… We enjoyed the last bits of fading the summer of 2010… birds are busy eating and packing up to fly south… change of colors and cold air… was great to feel… Quote of the day “plant evergreen” Enjoy! 

Red Velvet Cake

I am not that crazy about this but my son is. He LOVES it I have no clue… I don’t know what your take on it I do not find it that tasteful. Presentation could be beautiful. I can’t find my round cake pans but the Bundt pan works the same… so it was the baking day… I baked a red velvet Bundt cake it was GREAT I liked this recipe because it calls for vegetable oil instead of butter… I did like the texture but I am not a big fan of cake… but kids are…

Fun part was I had the cake on the stand and placed it on the buffet all of a sudden my daughter was very quiet she was able to climbed on to the chair and reached the buffet and was helping herself to the Bundt cake early in the morning… and frosting was all over her face… not using her hands but her tiny mouth… I have not experienced this with my son when he was a toddler but I do enjoy wiping her frosted face early in the morning…
I was amazed to see the amount food coloring that goes into this cake and the vinegar I have not made anything bazaar…

If you are up to red velvet cake here is the recipe…

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/southern-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html

Quote of the day “look at something and say, yes I can make it better”

Enjoy!

I am thankful and grateful to you…

I started this blog as a creative outlet for me… I have to admit I do enjoy it very much… not only that through this blogging I was able to visit many blogs and find about other talented and creative people. After clicking the next blog tab several times I would crawl back to my blog to make entries… sometimes when I watch other blogs I would get intimidated by its followers and I would simply say to myself oh my gosh those people are talented… and when I am all cozy in my safe heaven I would look at my blog’s subtitle FOLLOWERS and that empty space… and use to think will someone will ever follow my blog…

Yes, there were a lot of questions I would question myself and I would worry about it a lot and some days I thought I wish I have just one follower… I remember numerous times I use to check that empty space first as soon as I log in… after a while it faded… Yes, just like that it faded it never bothered me because I really enjoyed posting what I did with my kids…

If I post something that I did especially with kids I would send an email to our family members and would ask to check on it… and sometimes they would leave a comment and it was such a huge deal to me.

Then I started to leave comments on others blogs… instead of sending e-mails to the family members. I was so happy for the very first time www.thesleepytimegal.com left a message on my comment section. Yes, I literally jumped up and down… I was thrilled… (I really liked her blog because she did a lot of work with her kids… and I loved her blog… and that’s the first site that I started commenting) I have no idea how to explain it or to put that into writing when I received a comment from a person which I have not met (I am sure all of you went through this one point).

And then one day when I was going through my blog I saw ONE follower that made me so proud of myself… and then I saw my second follower I am elated with the fact that other people like my ideas… my craft, my activities I get to do with my kids… I really like my blogging and very GREATFUL to have my followers…

I am very thankful for all of you who leave comments on my blog… It’s going to be almost a year that I started my blog it’s getting close… but at the end of the day what matters is that we all have something in common… as mothers we wants to give the best to our kids, nurture, guide, show the correct path… or simply show them to appreciate what is around us… or enjoy just being with our kids and watching them grow and mature is scary but FUN…

I do enjoy this load of work…

Quote of the day “curiosity inspire creativity”

Enjoy!

Welcome Baby Gift…

I am very happy with my new lens… as you can see… I want to play more but I am waiting till my finals are over so I can really play with my new lens couple of more weeks then I get about three weeks no school. I am so excited to tackle my to- do list… any way this entry is about my new pink and white hat collection for newborns… I have not put them together yet but I decided to give some away for a little girl… this was a little baby who was born to one of the team members at my husband’s work… I was simply elated to assemble my hat collection box… most of all I get to add my pink hats…

I even had the joy of making a card which came out really cute. I liked it so much… little chickadee… I love creating little things for little babies… why not create something beautiful to a beginning of a new life… that’s how I look at it…
So what are you up to…?

Quote of the day “enjoy a special time with your child”

Enjoy!

I do enjoy photography…

While I was walking towards the kitchen I found my camera bag on the living room floor… without much thought I picked it up and place it on the table… after couple of days basically 2 days I took the camera to take pictures to a post on my blog. Those who are blogging know how you look through lenses to capture the moment.

In other words it is the third eye which is not physically located in your body… I did invest on a good camera before I had my little one because I did want quality pictures. I may still not producing quality pictures but I do love my camera.

What I found after placing it on the table picking it off from the floor was devastating… due to the impact the lenses were not working in other words the zooming was jammed… it is easy to type now but I was practically handicapped without my camera. I used my phone camera to take pictures. I am not complaining but writing posts were in halt for a while.
I am in the process of getting a new lens which I am going to be very happy with due to zoning. It does have a larger zone that allows not changing the lenses very often which I love … it is great weekend camera lens you can survive. You can just take this lens and will work on many situations with lighting…

This is a topic I love learning because again it is a skill and an ART…
I did found the culprit for this damage… can you guess… she was too cute… but I did learn my lesson keep my camera bag reach out of children…
So we did decide to take the lens apart now we are stuck because we cannot put it back together… I hope including myself and everyone else learned keep the camera bag reach out of children…

Quote of the Day “redraw your view of the world with visualization”

Enjoy!

Happy B’ Day Aththamma in other words Grandma…

Aththamma is how we (Sri Lankan’s) call grandma; it pronounced like ath-tha-amma… very phonetic but mixed with speech sounds… Challenge yourself and have fun…

My little one works supper hard in coloring I love the pictures she makes. It is big time ART for me and I do collect them… yes; www.Thesleepytimegal.com had this cute idea of making them into thank you cards. Which I loved… I want to create a Birthday card and this was our version of the thank you card turn into B’day card (I will post them soon)… I hope Aththamma enjoys these as much as they did creating them…

I know I did show my collection of knitted hats to Aththamma when she was visiting us… I have no idea what happen after that… well I guess you can say rest is history…

I did gather her some B’day goodies. I am going to let you guess (but you can take a peak)… she is also a quilter perhaps I can say a patch worker… and something in between… she is a very talented lady with a kind heart… most of all she taught me and introduced me to patch working and quilting that I am very thankful to her… which has helped me a lot in creating for my kids, myself and family… I do owe her for that…

However I couldn’t get the thank you cards on this blog may be another time… we will show you our version of thank you/ B’day cards… I did want to show the gift box we did for Aththamma… we had a GREAT time assembling it together…

We wish her a wonderful B’day and may all your wishes come true… even though we are states, countries, and continents apart from each other…

Quote of the day “take advantage of opportunities to expand your friendship base”

Enjoy!

Finding therapy through beading…

Jewelry making was something I stared when I was working fulltime but didn’t get a chance to make a lot as I wanted to. I did taught myself some techniques through books. I have to admit I am getting better at learning through books. I did bought some books that helped be along the way.
I did bought some beads when I see them on clearance and had them in a stash which I have come to discover with LOVE/. Purely the reason I can make use of it now…

Since I have finished the quilts for my daughter and still have some blankets to work. I find myself navigating around my bead box and creating…

I have few ideas that I love to create. Additionally I enjoy mixing media… which I find fun, interesting, and hip. This FALL my goal is to make some necklaces that I could wear or simply be a GIFT for someone special…

Quote of the day “celebrate life's little accomplishments"

Enjoy!