Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The start of a tunic and a dress

I went to Fabricland today, completely on a whim.

I've been wanting to make some dresses and blouses and ALL Simplicity patterns were on sale for $2.

Yep, $2.

And I'd been drooling over these patterns for the Lisette patterns for awhile now. They're made by the same designer as Oliver + S patterns. So I picked up all 4.


How could I not? They're usually $17. Each. So $8 for four, that's a steal.

I'm planning on working on this one today:


I'm going to make the green dress out of the pink and a tunic out of the blue:


It might be a little difficult to cut patterns and sew today (maybe even longer?)...

I had a little accident yesterday while taking Freyja outside.


I slipped on the deck and sprained my wrist.

It's not too bad, but my fingers are a bit swollen.

Hopefully, it won't slow me down too much :)

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy birthday, Freyja!

It's hard to believe that this cute little puppy...


...turned into this beautiful dog.


But it's true. 

And we got to celebrate her first birthday yesterday!


First, we opened presents...


Which she's really starting to get the hang of...


And even a dog friendly birthday card. Made of rawhide, of course. 


All in all, three presents and a birthday card... could the day have gotten any better?

Of course... there had to be cake.

The bf took the photo, so I apologize for the blurriness

If I don't get a post out tomorrow, have a happy Easter, everyone!





Thursday, April 21, 2011

Who doesn't love getting packages?

I know I sure do.

My mom sent me packages all through college and sends them now, even though I live Ontario.


I've been working very hard in my class, so it's nice to get a few surprises :)

A few weeks ago, I mentioned to my grandma (that's my mom's mom) that I'd like to learn embroidery. I know a little bit about needlepoint/cross stitch after a few projects I worked on when I was young.

(What really inspired me were the new Martha Stewart embroidery kits. If  you haven't seen them, you can check some of them out here; they also carry them at Michael's.)

So she sent me


This amazing book! Really, it's amazing. It's an older copy, but I'm sure the book is still made.

And now I can try to teach myself to crochet too! I've always wanted to learn, but it's way harder than knitting (for me at least)


She also sent me these pillowcases. They have an iron-on Scandinavian-esque design...


And a bag of miscellaneous embroidery thread...


And another Scandinavian design on a flyer.

Now I just have to go out and buy an embroidery needle and a hoop! I'm really excited to get working on this.

If you haven't figured this out by now, I'm Scandinavian: part Norwegian and part Icelandic. That's why I'm so drawn to Scandinavian design.

With a little googling last night, I found this book:


There are a lot of great crafts in this book. And at $16, I think it's a steal. I'm going to have to pick it up over the weekend.

My mom also sent me a quilter's bundle of nautical fabric:


The bf and I are both sailors (it's actually how we met) and we love anything to do with sailing and the ocean.

Each piece is a 1/3 of a yard




I have no clue what I'm going to do with it yet... Any ideas?

And lastly, a gift for Freyja...


It's a pretty special day tomorrow... Freyja's first birthday!


Doesn't she look excited?

And her first Easter is just around the corner too... It's going to be a very busy weekend!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Frittata 101

Every Sunday, we try to make a real breakfast. 

Sometimes, the bf cooks, some times I do.

But last weekend, I wanted to do something different than eggs over easy with bacon and toast, which is pretty typical around here.

So I did a little searching for something new... And decided to make a frittata.

I love eggs, but I'm always nervous about under cooking them and doing something like a frittata or a quiche seemed beyond my abilities, but I gave it a go anyway.

And it's super easy. And reheatable. And versatile.

And just to show you, here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

- 8 large eggs
-1/2 cup milk
-salt & pepper
- whatever you want to put in it: meat, veggies, cheese etc.
-1 tbsp olive oil

Method:


1) Scramble your eggs with a whisk


2) Add milk. I used skim this time, but I used left over half & half last week. Turned out great both times.


3) Add cheese if you want to. I usually use about 1/2 cup, but the bf shredded it right into the bowl for me and I'd estimate this is closer to 3/4 cup.


4) Add whatever seasonings you want. I used about 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp garlic power (not  garlic salt!)

Note: You want to mix the eggs VERY well. Use a whisk to incorporate as much air as you can so your frittata will be very light a fluffy.


5) Heat (on medium) 1 tbsp olive oil in a 12" pan. MAKE SURE it can go in the oven, because you're going to put the whole pan under the broiler at the end.


6) Chop up everything that needs to cook for awhile. I used misc breakfast meats we had on hand and onions. 


7) Toss in pan and cook.



8) Next, chop up any thing that's pre-cooked or doesn't have to cook for very long. I used spinach and mushrooms.


I added the mushrooms when the meat was almost done, just so they'd cook a little bit.


If  you're using spinach, toss it in once everything is done.


It will wilt really, really fast. It only took about 30 seconds.

You're also going to want to turn the broiler on here, so it'll be hot when you put the pan in the oven.


9) Once all the meats/veggies are cooked, toss in the egg/milk/cheese mixture


10) Scramble the mixture. When it's scrambled but still wet (still too raw to eat), even it out and let cook for about two minutes.

The whole point of doing this is to let the bottom set up.


11) Pull the top of the eggs aside with a spatula to check the bottom. It will look more like done scrambled eggs, while the top will still be very wet.

12) Even everything back out and stick the pan under the broiler. You want it about 6 inches away from the broiler. 

Another note: You can top it with more cheese before putting it in the oven if you want to.

13) Broil until top is browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out ALMOST clean. Leaving in the oven until done will result in dry eggs.


14) Let rest for 5 minutes. This will allow the eggs to finish cooking without drying out.


15) Cut into 6-8 slices, serve and enjoy!

Freyja's a little jealous when we make breakfast...


But she's having breakfast with Rocky the Raccoon instead.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

I've been a bad blogger

No, really, I have. My re-found love of my kindle has kept me reading for days...

And lately, I've been reading Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen Mysteries. If you like murder mysteries and an easy read, they might be for you... The main character is a baker (and I'm realizing how lame and ridiculous it seems as I type it) and the author lists recipes in the book, much like the Leslie Meier Lucy Stone Series, if you've read those.

So I've been baking. I made an awesome batch of peanut butter cookies from my favorite cookbook:

And they were gone so quickly, I never had a chance to take a picture.

So, I decided to make my FAVORITE cookies in the whole wide world: ginger molasses cookies.

I was so excited to finally have the ingredients and the bf wanted to help. Somehow, I got distracted... It happens to me a lot when I'm baking. My mom can attest to my many baking fails growing up. But I'd been on such a roll and I don't think I'd messed anything up in at least a year.

But, I only added half the flour needed.

So they looked less like this:

Courtesy of my mom @ Red Gate Farm
And more like this:


They taste fine, but they aren't the cookies I grew up eating.

I think I'll have to give it another go today.

On a better note, the table is DONE!

It looks quite different in different light, so I did one photo with and one without flash:

With flash

Without flash


With Miss Freyja playing fetch in the background

I love the new chairs. Not only are they much more comfortable than the old ones, but I don't feel like my chin is on the table when I'm eating.

And the chairs still need some work done...


Sorry it's so blurry; my camera didn't want to focus (and you can see we really do live in a basement!). But some of the joints need to be re-glued....


And I'd like to recover and re-pad the seats... Maybe something from tonicliving.com?

I haven't decided anything on that front yet.


Freyja seems to feel right at home at the table....


Maybe the salt and pepper shakers are at fault?

And an EVEN BETTER note, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 came out on blu-ray yesterday, so we picked it up at Costco.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a big Harry Potter nerd. 


Lucky for me, it's stormy outside. I'll be on the couch in my sweats for the next few hours dorking out to my favorite guilty pleasure if you need me :)