St. Lucia

My grandmother passed away last night.  She was 100 years old and had a fall with injury earlier in the week.  I wasn't trying to be morbid, but with my nursing experience, I couldn't help but dread it may be the beginning of the end for her.  As sad and sorry as I was to hear the news, I know it was a blessing and she is in a better place.  My cousin texted me last night saying, "She is in the arms of Jesus."  I always referred to her as "my sainted Grandma Helen" whenever I'd talk about her to others so in a way it was a little fitting that she slipped away from us on December 13th, St. Lucia Day.

We are attending the St. Paul European Christmas Market today with my mom, sister and her kids.  I'd already thought about baking some St. Lucia buns to take along and have with coffee and cocoa.  I was called in to work in the middle of the previous night so last night I was tired and planning on skipping baking and just knitting in my chair for the evening.  We were updated that Grandma had taken a turn and would probably not make it through the night and got the final word at 8 PM.  I had a good cry and then got up and decided to bake these to keep my mind occupied.  I find baking to be a very reflective activity.  It sounds kind of dumb, but I put the kettle on and got out all my favorite bowls and tools and used my best ingredients to bake something of an edible tribute to her.

These buns have saffron in them to give them their distinctive color.  I bought this little clay pot of saffron in Italy years ago when I backpacked.  It came filled with small paper packets of saffron powder.  I've kept the jar and refilled it over the years.  The lid is held on with waxed linen thread.

I used a recipe found in my sister's latest copy of Viking Magazine.  It calls for 1 tsp of saffron powder which is a lot of saffron.  I had only threads on hand and ground them up into powder.  What a beautiful and potent natural color.  I bought my mortar and pestle while staying at Grandma's house.  On that visit, my sister and her husband (then fiance) and I all drove up to stay with her after I returned from backpacking.  She was still living in her house then and had since moved into an efficiency apartment, then an assisted living, and finally the nursing home.  Little funny things make me think of her on a daily basis.  I make my coffee in a french press every morning and then I take Lopi downstairs to go outside.  Coming back upstairs and smelling that coffee aroma in the house always makes me think of Helen and her kitchen.

The recipe called for plain yogurt which I didn't have in the house so I substituted sour cream.  There was a lot of butter in the dough also so it was a soft and lovely enriched dough.  The color was so bright on a gloomy winter night.  I thought about Grandma while I was baking and of course most of my memories of her are in her kitchen.  I am so thankful we were able to all get together as a family almost a year ago for her 100th birthday.  It's hard to believe she is gone.

Here are my shaped buns waiting for the oven.  The pan on the left has been dressed with an egg wash and cranberries.  You're supposed to use raisins but I didn't have any and my sister hates raisins.  I'll admit I did some reading about St. Lucia and apparently she had her eyes gouged out and some say that is where the shape of these buns comes from.  What a family friendly story!  Others say the shape represents the devil's cat!  I guess I always knew the holiday as the day the oldest girl in Swedish families wears a crown of candles and brings these buns around the to rest of the family in the early morning.  I had no idea there was so much back story!

In any case, the holiday is meant to be the bright spot in the dull and dark winter and again I feel it is so fitting that Helen chose to leave us on this day.  The lights on the tree and in the windows and decorations around the house shone a little brighter yesterday because of her.  I look forward to sharing these with my family today over a cup of coffee or cocoa.  It is a beautiful bright and crisp winter day and she will be heavy in out thoughts today.  God bless you Grandma.

You're An Elf!

My son might be an elf.  Or at least he's so cute he could be one.

Matters are helped by the fact that he's wearing a Norwegian sweater (picked up second hand at a Fretex shop two years ago in Oslo) and his new Fairytale Hat.  I can't remember where I first saw this pattern but I instantly loved it.  The link is to the author's blog and the pattern in Norwegian.  I can speak some Norwegian but I had a hard time following the pattern instructions på norsk.

There is now a link on her blog to an English version but that takes you to her Ravelry page and the download comes up again på norsk.  Somewhere I found an English version and used that but I still had a couple areas of confusion because I think some of the pattern instructions were unclear/lost in translation.  I looked at a few pictures of other Ravelers' projects and was able to figure it out.

This is basically a dickey with a pointy hood on it.  My only modification for the next one (and believe me, he's going to wear these until he's about 25) is to make the dickey flaps longer so they can't ride up.  I used up the very last of the gray wool/silk/angora yarn I got at the State Fair a few years ago.

And don't let those Christmas-Card-Caliber gorgeous photos fool you.  This was the second attempt photo shoot.  The first time around was before his afternoon nap and meal AND we broke the zipper on his second hand coat.  Now I'll have to replace the zipper but I'm kind of glad it happened or I wouldn't have thought to put the sweater on him as a contingency plan.  He napped and I served him some homemade comfort food macaroni and cheese for lunch and we even opened our advent calendars for a taste of chocolate before heading out for take two.

I think you'll agree the sweater pictures are far better.  I've learned to give up on a family shot and be thankful if you catch a few moments of him being cute by himself.

Then you add a dog and you're just asking for trouble.  Our family photo for the Christmas card is from this summer and M is restrained in a stroller so he can't get away.  These are pretty funny though and I don't mind at all that my cracks are showing.  There is no such thing as a perfect mom and I am living proof of that!

Pre Holiday Jitters

This is my childhood toy box.  It is one sturdy unit made entirely of wood.  I think my uncle Brad might have made it but I remember watching my mom soak and apply the kitten decals.  You don't see decals anymore but she had a small collection of them.  This was saved in the basement of my childhood home and delivered to me by my parents when we moved into this house.  We lived here 5 years before we had M and I didn't really know what to do with it so it sat in our basement.  Then I had the brilliant idea to put it in our landing behind the front door and store all the winter knits in it.  It looked great and solved all kinds of organizational problems and protected our wall from the doorknob....but people kept sitting on it to put their shoes and boots on.  It is sturdy but I was always afraid it would crack or get ruined.

I found this bona fide wooden bench at Saver's and paid $24 for it.  It was after we got our new vehicle so I was even able to haul it myself!  I felt so rugged and outdoorsy!  This was no doubt some one's high school shop project but I'm so glad I found it!  It is strong and the seat is reinforced.  Now all the mittens and hats live here and the toy box is in the living room housing toys as nature intended.  That wall hanging is a prayer rug my mother brought me from Turkey.  Marek can't access this area of the house so I decided to put my wooden bowl of Grandpa Maynerd's ornaments down here.  This way I can see them every day and I think they look rather striking if I say so myself.

I had the bright idea to put a battery powered string of LED lights inside the bowl and I feel like a domestic goddess!  We had Dave's parents and two of his sisters over for dinner last weekend so the Halloween decorations came down.  I fished out my turkey figurines and left the generic fall decorations up.  Normally when I take Halloween down, I immediately launch into Christmas with some Turkeys thrown in for good measure.  It makes practical sense if you think about it because you already have the boxes out to put stuff away, you might as well get Christmas out.  Anyhoo, I set out the bowl of ornaments because I thought it was such a great idea and it scratched at my holiday itch.  Tonight or tomorrow I will put up the tree and any decorations I can get away with out of The Boy's reach.  We've had snow already a few times so it's totally legal.

Speaking of that dinner, I made a pumpkin roll cake for dessert and realized I didn't have a long and narrow serving dish to put it on.  In the end I used my long IKEA sardine serving tray!  Like I said, domestic goddess!  ;)

My holly plant has red berries on it at the moment!  It does this a couple times a year.  I don't know if that is normal or if the poor thing is confused about the seasons.  You can see a bit of our fleeting snow in the background.

And I'm gearing up for a new project!  Weeeeeee!  It's almost as exciting as when you open a new bar of soap!  Marek needs a new winter hat.  His gray bonnet from last year still fits but it needs to be a bit deeper because his forehead and temples are exposed.  I love this elf shaped hat from Drops and I even have the yarn called for in the pattern!  It was purchased 9 years ago in Finland before Dave was even on my radar.  It was so soft and I loved the color so it was purchased as Souvenir Stash.  Never did I imagine that one day I'd be using it to knit a winter bonnet for my son!

Gopher Halloween

Happy Late Halloween!  This post is mainly about football which is unusual because I hate football.  Absolutely hate it.  I realize this is an unpopular opinion around this time of year.  I just feel it takes way too much time.  A one hour game is stretched out into four hours so the corporate swine who profit off the game can sell you Doritos and Pepsi.  They show 90 seconds of play and then 8 minutes of commercials.

However, my husband is a huge Gopher fan and the last two weeks he has been waiting for today's showdown between Minnesota and Penn State.  He has managed to wear Gopher attire every day for the last two weeks (without running out!) and he even went to bed early last night so he could get up early to watch the game with his dad.  In his defense, the team is 8 - 0 which they haven't been since the 1940's so it is historical.  He gave me a Gopher request for the Jack-O-Lantern this year and this is what I came up with.

Marek wore his lamb costume the weekend before, but on the day he wore an outfit that says, "I don't boo, I poo!"  It was cute and I found it amusing.  Here are the two kids watching Sesame Street.

I had a raging migraine all that week but on the day I scraped myself together and went with Dave to his parents' house to show them his outfit and he tried on his costume for them.  Here he is "helping" Grandma with the candy.

Even Lopi came in her costume!

Compulsory photo on the steps.  Note the Gopher regalia.

Here I am looking and feeling my migraine best.

This was an alternate costume idea.  We inherited this hand me down Adidas track suit and he looks like a West German gymnast in it!

Back to today's game.  In short, we won and I have to say it was a thrilling game.  Marek and I tuned in at home and played and colored throughout.  The Boy wore his second hand jersey and I wore one of Dave's Gopher shirts.  I cooked Dave a celebratory chicken dinner tonight and we'll eat leftovers all week.

Dave has dragged me to see Gopher rival trophies at the State Fair over the years like Paul Bunyan's Axe this summer.  Floyd of Rosedale and The Little Brown Jug have been there in the past and next summer we'll see today's Governor's Victory Bell trophy.

In sewing news, I used Joann coupons and got two new bobbin cases for 60% off.  This is the best improvement I've made in a long time.  These cases have attached lids and foam cavities that hold the bobbins in place.  Both the old and new are made by Dritz but my old one was a simple molded plastic tray and I can't tell you how many times I've bumped or slid it off the end of the sewing table.  Bobbins would go flying and rolling everywhere with much swearing and gnashing of teeth.  These new cases are awesome!

And whether you like it or not, the passing of Halloween ushers in the official beginning of The Holiday Season!  Christmas commercials are surfacing, stores are decorated and The Holiday Baking Displays are appearing!!!  I was at HyVee today and saw this one!  Weeeeeee!

Cold Weather Prep

It is starting to get seriously cold around here and we needed something for The Boy to wear in the car.  I know a bulky winter coat is not ideal or advised with a car seat because you can't get the straps safely snug but I was reading that in certain places it is actually illegal.

Enter the car seat poncho!  I found a tutorial on Pattern Shmattern and made this double layer fleece poncho last night.  It is wonderfully heavy and warm and so far he has been able to take steps in it.  The game changed when he got down on the floor to crawl and got himself all tangled up.  Maybe this will encourage him to walk full time!

He is still learning how to find his arms to use them with it on!  Here we are heading out the door to daycare--note the Hospital Hair.

Here he is all buckled in with the poncho draped over everything.  The drape is 23 inches long and fully covers him in the seat with plenty of room to grow.  I am making two more of these this week for friends at work who need them for their granddaughters.

We went to a Halloween party/fundraiser yesterday in our neck of the woods.  The temperature was 42 degrees so thank goodness Marek was dressed as a sheep!  Even in his sherpa lamb suit, he was still cold!  We stayed long enough to eat a hot dog and go a few rounds on the cake walk before we needed to warm this guy up.

I requested and got this Thursday off so we can go visit grandma and grandpa in his costume and be home together for the evening.  Last night I fished out my DVD of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and he didn't even notice but of course I was delighted.  I know he is still too little to go trick or treating or get excited for the holiday, but believe me I have enough excitement for the both of us.  I don't think I've ever grown out of that!  Happy Early Halloween!

More Lake Sewing

Whenever we get together, we bring enough materials and ideas to keep us busy until rapture and of course never have enough time.  We coordinate all this over the phone and even though we discuss it, it is still always a bit of a surprise when we see the project idea in person.  We'd messed around with the quilting technique to make those pencil rolls and thought we'd try making a quilted batting filled table runner out of scraps.  I had all these holiday greenery leftovers and a gorgeous cut of evergreen fabric for backing and decided at the last minute to not use batting and use just the two fabric layers.  Here is the end result and I am just loving it!

I loved it so much that I had to make a Halloween one when I got home!  I had these prints that look like vintage woodblock prints.  Again I just used the two layers of fabric with no interfacing or batting.  Very simple and quick project.  I spent way more time cutting the strips (4x13 inches) than I did piecing and seaming it.  Now I am mentally taking fabric inventory for other combinations I could make.  I also have remaining scraps and backing from both projects and I'm thinking about making a shorter version for my dining table.  I'm imagining a runner maybe wider and shorter than this runner but longer than a placemat to place in the center of the table.  Hmmmm.....

Here it is on the downstairs TV stand.  I was so excited to put up my fall decorations last weekend but I held off on my Halloween door decorations and purple/orange lights for the window--what would the neighbors think?!  We don't spend a lot of time downstairs lately because it is easier to confine and contain The Boy in the upstairs living room.  Downstairs is just wide open and he'd be all over the place and into everything.  You'll notice the decorations downstairs are quite spartan.  Upstairs they are placed and hung high up where he can't get to them!

And of course I couldn't resist making a pair of festive pillow cases for our bed!  I love holiday embellishment and this is just the beginning of the seasonal holidays!  Weeeeeeeee!  Dave mentioned that Marek could take one of these out trick or treating in a few years which I think is so weird!  Kids here trick or treat with pillowcases for a sack which I'd never seen before moving up here.

Once again, this is from the tried and true Magic Pillowcase Tutorial.  I absolutely love this pattern and use it and share it all the time. 

Garden and Naptime Productivity

I had a bunch of zucchinis to use up and burned through one of them frying it seasoned with Kusina Gold.  It was delightful.  I saw Lidia Bastianich make these on her show and they're so easy and tasty.  You cut your zucchinis into thin slices, season with salt and pepper (or in this case with Kusina Gold), dredge them in flour, dip them in beaten egg and then fry them in oil til golden and tender.  While I was at it, I picked and fried two large green tomatoes.  Num num!

Whenever I go back to Iowa for our Girlfriend Get-Togethers, I always pick up more Kusina Gold Greek Seasoning whether I need it or not.  This is made by a Mason City-an and I rave about it all the time and for good reason.  It is DEE-licious!  If you like Cavender's Greek Seasoning (and I do), you will LOVE this.  I had Brenda pick some up for me because before I sat down to write this, I didn't realize she now has internet sales which is AWESOME!  If she could just get a spot in HyVee, that would be perfect!

Our garden has been slow to produce much of anything.  We've had a few cucumbers and the zucchinis are picking up but the tomatoes are not ripening in any hurry.  Dave's parents sent home this clothes basket full of fruit which was processed into quarts and quarts of sauce and marinara. 

We took another parcel of tomatoes from them this weekend and I canned salsa.  This little gadget is worth it's weight in gold and I spent the afternoon stripping with my curtains wide open.  I used this little tool to strip all the leaves off the cilantro.  I'm fussy and used to pick the leaves off before chopping because I don't like stems in my dish.  This thing cut the time in half and I was left with a pile of stems and a lovely floofy pile of cilantro leaves.  It reminds me of a diz for gathering combed wool for spinning.  I wonder if I could use it for that purpose?  Hmmmm....

I love the bright fresh colors of both the salsa and my kitchen tools!  I am also happy to report that I didn't wreck my flat top stove.  I vividly remember our childhood babysitter telling me that you could not use a canner on a flat top stove or it would shatter.  Granted this was in the late 90's and flat tops were still relatively new.  The stove manual said it was OK and I'd discussed this with my mother and sister in law as well as a few friends from work who'd never had issues, but I still held my breath with each pitcher of water added to the canner.

I wanted to share this little tidbit.  This was my favorite thing from the State Fair this year and we are totally going to do it next summer.  There was a living exhibit of Straw Bale Gardening and it bowled me over!  You can plant earlier, you can't over-water it and yet it retains moisture, there is not as much bending and hardly any weeding!  It was amazing and I'm sold!  They had a wire frame arch set up at the fair and it was tall enough that you could walk through it.  I wish I'd known about this in the spring.  Think of the produce we'll have next year!

As usual, this post was brought to you by...NAPS!  Thank goodness for naps!  Here is my first born Lopi and my second born boy watching Dave mow the lawn.  I love these two so very much!

Weekend At the Lake

We are entering fall!  This is always such a welcome and exciting time of year because I just plain get tired of sweating.  I have so many winter items I want to knit but I am still stuck on this black hole of a project that I started when we went to Las Vegas this spring!  It looks like a stole or wide scarf because of the lace ribbing but will in fact be a sleeveless shell that I won't even get to wear until next year.  The length is lost during blocking when it is pinned out to the required width.  I am loving that The Boy is on whole milk because I can sneak some into my teacup!  This was the first cup I'd had in months because the only hot beverage I drink in the heat of summer is coffee.

The Boy and I trekked down to Iowa last weekend to have a Crafty Fun Weekend with my two dear friends at "the lake".  I will admit I was a little nervous traveling solo with him but it went smoothly and we had a great time.  This lovely and homey set up is where we laid our heads for two nights.

I say we laid our heads there because that is about all we did at the camper, besides also eating fabulous meals together.  We always eat really well at our reunions!  We spent almost all our waking hours in the air conditioned Craft Coop sewing and were very productive.  Melissa's daughter was our informal photographer on this trip!

She was also quite the little Mother helping and keeping The Boy occupied.  Here they are in the upper bunk of the camper playing together.  I can remember when she was Marek's age.  Time flies!

One of my favorite projects from the weekend was this fabric pencil roll.  That is the African fabric I bought at Heddy's in Las Vegas and the ribbon was left over from our wedding flowers.

Serenity always enjoys little jobs like sorting zippers or what not and she was eager to put the pencils in the roll.

It will be a little while before he can use it but I made this one for The Boy and it holds chubby crayons.  This one is also finished with wedding ribbon.

Here is Serenity completing another vital job with Marek in the baby jail.  The Craft Coop had this curtained off area they normally use for massages but it was perfect to set up the playpen.  I was a rotten mother and brought my tablet with downloaded Muppet videos for him to watch and he occupied himself and interacted with Serenity.  He actually napped during his afternoon nap time and slept at his bedtime while we burned the midnight oil at the sewing machines.

I couldn't have done it without Melissa and Brenda and especially Serenity.  We had a great time with each other and enjoyed quality sewing time and the weather was perfect.  I can't remember the last time I got to sit down and get something done in the sewing room.  Here is my little roadtrip buddy standing up in his car seat!