Archive - 2010

Maintenance

A couple of Important Announcements that I’d appreciate you reading.  I’m not normally that bossy, telling you what to read and all, but these are worth your time.

1.  I changed my blog feed. I would never in a million years do this, but I had no choice.  For now, everything seems to be redirecting correctly and my posts are going out as always.  But there’s an off chance that the internet will reboot itself or something and the old feed will no longer work.  If you notice I haven’t posted in a while, it may be because you  need to resubscribe to my blog.  You can do this by going directly to my blog, where you will find at least 2 links to subscribe.  One is at the very top of the page, on the right.  The other is the very last thing on my sidebar.  Or you can click this link right here:  Subscribe to The Mac and Cheese Chronicles.

2.  What is a feed? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain. If you have more than about 5 blogs that you like to read, you should be subscribing to them.  You do this by looking for something on the blog that says “subscribe to…” and clicking on it.  Then all new posts will be sent to the feed reader of your choice, just like email.  I use Google Reader.  If you only read a couple of blogs, you may also have the choice of having new posts delivered to your email.  You can do that on my blog by following the subscription links described above and you will be given the choice of subscribing by email.

3.  Speaking of email…I now have a very handy contact form.  See over there in my sidebar, the little guy with a slingshot and envelope?  Click him to shoot me an email, if you want to say more than a normal comment will allow.

4.  Which brings me to comments. I now have the ability to respond to your comments both right there with the rest of the comments and send my response to you through email.  Isn’t that cool?

5.  Gravatars – if you don’t have one, get one!  Those are the little pictures that appear next to a comment you leave on someone’s blog.  It can be anything, a picture of yourself or something else that represents you.  Whenever you comment on a blog with gravatars enabled, your little picture will show up.  They are free and easy to create here: Globally Recognized Avatars.  PS – I used to have random little monsters appear in my comments for those without gravatars, but everyone seemed to be getting a frowning monster, so I disabled that feature.

6.  Printer friendly pages.  My posts are now printer friendly!  If my words so move you that you have to print them out and tuck them under your pillow or otherwise save them for posterity, you can now save time and ink by using the printer friendly option.  You can also save a page to a PDF file or share it through email.  First, click on the title of the post.  That will bring you to a page with only that one, single post.  At the end of the post will be a little printer icon.  Click on that to bring up the printer-friendly screen.  You will have the option to cut out paragraphs where I babble on about nothing, you can choose not to have the pictures print, and several other options.  I think this feature will be especially  nice if you want to print out any of the recipes I share.

7.  Streamlined look – I’ve got a new, streamlined look.  Come by and check it out!

Watercoloring

Not too long ago I was inspired by the watercolor journaling posts by Melissa Wiley: Scribbles and Bits (scroll down a bit, the watercoloring is towards the end of the post).  I followed all of her links, including one to a watercolor journaling post by Alice Cantrell.  She, in turn, linked to a great Watercolor Journaling DVD.

Did you follow all that? No?  That’s OK.  The gist of it all is that I’ve always wanted to be an artist, the kind that creates original art, not just follows the directions of someone else’s patterns.  I was completely taken in by the Watercolor Journaling DVD website, especially by the tiny little picture of Mont St. Michel .  In their site header, it’s the second picture in the top row.  Mont St. Michel is one of my most favorite places on earth.  I knew I wanted to paint like that and I felt like I might actually be able to learn.

So I ordered the DVD, watched it and was amazed.  I COULD do this! I watched it again.  I got some supplies and got started.

(Somewhere in this timeline, I’m not sure when, I also picked up the book Watercolors for the Artistically Undiscovered.  Excellent book, and I highly recommend it for anyone, children or adult, who wants to get started quick with watercolors.)

I started drawing and watercoloring anything I could think of. A little bit of nature, stuff sitting out on the counter, whatever.  Here’s just a sampling out of my journal.

This is Bip’s friend Big Fat Mickey and the story of the day we got him.  Click on the picture to read the journaling easier.  Bip’s really name is smudged out to protect the innocent.

This is a map of our block, again with actual names smudged out.  You can see the dry creek behind the house, the park across the street with the black diamond sledding hill and the bluff where the coyotes howl at night.

I haven’t painted much lately.  It’s not time consuming or particularly difficult, but I don’t have all that much energy right now.  I will again soon, and I’ll paint more then.

Awake

So.  I am awake.  Considering the night I had, that is saying quite a bit.

I went to bed with a headache that I’d been having for a day and a half.  I blame the Boy Scouts.  See, I got myself a nice little caffeine addiction back when a nice, cold glass of Coca Cola was the perfect thing to ease my pregnancy nausea.   If I was drinking Coke, you knew I was nauseated.  And since I was nauseated all day, every day until late May, well…you get the point.

So now I need 2 glasses of Coke a day or I’ll get a headache.  I don’t get normal headaches, either.  I get these not-quite-migraine things that are cured by a dose of Extra Strength Excedrin plus one Coke.  Even in my normal, not pregnant and addicted to caffeine state, if I get a headache, it’s that combination of aspirin, aceteminaphin, and caffeine that works.  But I can’t have aspirin while pregnant, so I try to tough out the pain and have 2 Cokes a day.  Purely preventative, of course.

But on Sunday, the moms of Boo’s Boy Scout Troop had a little get together of wine and appetizers.  The only things offered to drink were water and booze, so I drank water.  We’ve got really good tasting water here, right out of the tap, so I wasn’t suffering.  Yet.  But by the time I got home, it was much to late for me to be drinking caffeine, even though I could already feel the headache creeping up.

The next day I tried to shake my headache.  I took a 2 hour nap.  I drank my soda.  I kept otherwise well hydrated with cool and tasty mountain water.  By the end of the day I was hurting.  I went to bed, hoping I’d be better by morning.

I slept like a rock until 3:00 am.  Then I was awake and my head still hurt.  Plus I had a stuffy nose.

My nose has been giving me a hard time for about 3 weeks, when we had built in bookshelves installed.  Which you don’t know about, because I haven’t mentioned it yet.  I think the sawdust bothered my nose, which made me feel like I was right on the edge of a sneeze all day.  Then it started to hurt.  It hurt so badly that I actually googled “my nose hurts on the inside.”  The general wisdom was to swab it with vaseline, which I have to admit helps a lot.  But my nose still seems to go from hurting, to congested as it tries to lubricate itself, to normal and back again.

Last night it was in its super-congested/hurty phase.

So I lay there, wide awake, head pounding, nose congested, mouth open trying to breathe.  I got up and walked around, trying to “reset” myself.    That attracted the cats to my room.  I propped myself up, hoping a change of position would clear my nose.  Nope.  I avoided looking at the clock.  I thought about Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey.  I tried not think about what it was like to know you were about to have your head lopped off.

I got up to blow my nose, which caused the cats to follow me into the bathroom as my personal escorts.  One cat rubbed my legs while I swabbed my nose in the dark.  The other explored the plants around the bathtub.

I went back to bed.  The cat in the bathtub managed to get behind the bathroom door and close it, trapping herself inside.  I watched the two cats paw at each other under the door.  This amused me for about 15 minutes, then I got up to liberate the poor cat.

I lay there some more, now having contractions.  My midwife assures me that with a 5th pregnancy, my uterus is quite crabby and contractions are normal, especially in these final months.  (I think the actual term she used was “irritable uterus”, not “crabby”.)  They were painless, but annoying nonetheless.  Like someone grabbing hold of your arm and squeezing.

Finally, the sun rose.  I heard the 6:30 schoolbus stop, just as I was getting drowsy.   I didn’t hear the 7:30 bus, or Phil’s alarm go off, or him get up.  I did feel him kiss my cheek and I told him I hadn’t slept.  He told me he’d tell the children to be quiet so I could sleep now.

I heard my clock radio turn on, then off again 5 minutes later.  (It really turned itself off an hour later.) I didn’t hear the 8:30 school bus.  I woke up at 9:45 and realized I’d been asleep!!! then the next thing I knew it was 10:15.

My head still hurt.

I gave in to the Extra Strength Tylenol, got some breakfast, poured myself a Coke and went back to bed.

It’s now 12:30 and I am awake.  And some days, that’s as good as it gets.

Nutcracker Anxiety

Pumpkin Girl has Nutcracker auditions tomorrow.  She’s a little nervous even though this year she’ll know 2 or 3 other girls with the same audition time.  One of her fellow sheep from last year’s production is in one of her ballet classes.  I heard them discussing which parts they hope to get, who is going to be there and wondering if their cartwheels are good enough to land them the gingersnap roles.

Actually, the whole studio was abuzz with Nutcracker speculations.  The auditions are city-wide, not just for our studio, so it’s anybody’s guess as to who will be cast as what.  Most of the younger girls (Pumpkin’s age) will be cast somewhere, it’s the advanced classes that really have to worry.  Still, it puts one on edge, no matter what your age and skill.

In addition to the natural nervousness that auditions bring, the traveling ballet company is different this year than in years past.  That means different costumes, different roles, different ways of casting the children.  There may not even be any gingersnaps this year, or they may be taken from the pool of children that are slightly older than Pumpkin.  Or maybe the gingersnaps won’t need to do cartwheels.

I’m trying to be a good ballet mom.  I’m trying to emphasize that the most important thing is to have fun.  Go to the audition, pay attention, smile, dance and have fun.  Whatever part you get, it’s a chance to dance on stage with professional dancers, a live philharmonic orchestra and in front of thousands of people.  No matter how long her ballet career is, she will always have this experience to look back on and remember.

(Ask me how I feel in a few years when she’s old enough to compete for the role of Clara! )

So off we’ll go tomorrow, me swinging a bag with knitting, her swinging a bag with ballet shoes, both with visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads.

I hope we have fun.

Heat, Holmes and Hats

The hotter it gets, the less I blog.  The less I blog, the more  I knit.  Feet propped up, cold water within reach, watching HGTV and knitting.  Could be worse.  I’m kind of addicted to “Holmes on Homes.”  (What’s up with all the shady Canadian contractors, eh?)

Philip may be getting annoyed with Mike Holmes and his proper way of doing things because it’s costing him time and money.  We’re having built-in bookshelves put in our music room.  Nine foot beauties that run from one wall to another.  The thing is, they will permanently and forever cover up a heating vent on the floor and will cause an electronic thing to be removed from a corner of the room.

After countless episodes of Mike telling me how things should be done, I was insistent on finding out if we could just close the vent or if it needed to be rerouted or something.  So I made Phil leave messages for our HVAC guy to find out the deal.

Do you have “guys”?  Now that we own a home, we have guys.  HVAC guys, landscape guys, hardscape guys, a wood guy, a drywall guy and now a cabinet guy.  I’m planning on sticking their business cards in a binder labeled “Guys”.

Reminds me of when Bip was a baby and we had this shadow box thing of mini Korean theater masks hanging in the hallway.  We passed by it every time we went into the bedroom.  He liked them a lot and when he started talking, he’d point at them and say, “Heh!  Guys!”

What was I saying?  Oh yeah, the HVAC guy.

So Kevin, the HVAC guy informed us that the easiest and cheapest solution to the soon to be unusable floor vent was to have the cabinet guy just cover it with a piece of sheet metal.  This would be fine and not cause the shelves to heat up and burst into flame, or need to be torn down at a time in the not too distant future to get at the vent and close it off properly.

Then there’s this electronic thingy mounted into the corner of the room.  The corner which will soon be covered by the bookshelves, of course.  Phil has dismantled it so now it is just a couple of wires hanging down, attached to a tiny little computer looking panel. He says he can just cut the wires, tape the ends, shove them into the hole in the wall and call it a day.  And you know, it’s not that I don’t trust him, but yeah, I don’t trust him.  Why does the Talking Heads song “Burning Down the House” keep running through my head?

So I’m making him at the very least, call a handyman and have him come over and advise.

He’ll probably cut the wires, tape the ends and shove them back into the hole.

So, my whole entire point of this blog post is that it’s been rather hot, so I’ve been propping up my feet, watching HGTV, filling my head with construction horror stories and knitting.  Knitting funny hats for our new baby, to be exact.

Did I tell you we’re having a boy?

Well, arriving as he will, at the end of October, he’ll need a pumpkin hat.  I’ve actually made 2 of them this summer, a newborn size and a toddler size for our friend Sam in DC.  Here they both are, with Bip’s big-boy pumpkin hat for scale.

And since we live in Colorado, he’ll need some sort of hat for the first 8 months of his life, so I made him a Sweet Pea hat.

And a funny stocking cap for Christmas time, so he’ll look like a right jolly ol’ elf.  My model here is Amy, our Bitty Baby.  The hat still needs a ginormous pompom at the end to pull off the look.

So, in review: heat, Holmes, guys!, hats. Questions?

Final Batch

Well, final batch for now.

This little cupcake really isn’t so little, but it’s tasty looking and really cute!

I used good ol’ Red Heart Super Saver white for the cake and Berrocco Plush for the frosting. The pattern is available here for free: Cupcake.  I made some changes to the original pattern, but my notes are downstairs and I’m too lazy to go get them.  If you’re interested, let me know in the comments and I’ll post them. (The cupcake is knit, not crochet.)

Next up is a strawberry ice cream cone!

Another free pattern from the same designer as the cupcake:  Ice Cream Cone. It’s important to note that there is no hook size listed, but I ended up using a G.  If you’re going to make this, I suggest getting the Starbucks sample cup that goes in the base first so you can check the size of the cone as you go.  I had to add more height to my cone to make it fit.   I don’t think I even wrote down what I did exactly, but if you need help, let me know and I’ll walk you through it.

And continuing with our theme of pink  food, here is a frosted donut.  Mmm…donut!

Another free pattern, of course:  Donut. It’s supposed to be a pincushion, but I left off the sprinkles/pins so it can be a toy instead.  Maybe I’ll make myself one for my sewing basket.

One more from the designer of the ice cream cone and cupcake, it’s a Bakewell Tart.

I’d never heard of a Bakewell Tart, but it was too cute not to make.  Here’s the pattern (scroll down past the kitties):  Crochet Bakewell Tart. And click over here to find out all about these little goodies:  Bakewell Tart.  No modifications on this one.  It did have to wait a while to be stuffed while I figured out what to use on the bottom to give it structure.  In the end I used a clean fast-food drink lid, cut down to size.  I also taped over the straw slit so it wouldn’t be an issue later.  Oh wait!  I didn’t use a button for the cherry (?) on top.  Instead I crocheted 4 single crochets in a loop and sewed it to the top before stuffing.

Ok, so that does it for now on my toy food.  Quick, easy and portable plus using cheap yarn makes them affordable and gives you a ton of left-over yarn for the inevitable requests that you make them for friends.   Personally, I love the instant gratification that comes from a finished product after only a couple hours of work.  As opposed to that sock that stares at me accusingly from its’ project bag.

The rest of my craft projects can be found under the category Getting Crafty.  That’ll give you the first part of each post.  To read the whole thing and see the pictures, just click the title of each post.

About the Bear

He was a hairy bear, he was a scary bear.

(Ha! Did you see what I just did?  I described him with adjectives!)

The children and I had been at the park across the street and on our way home I saw that bear investigating our neighbor’s tree.  He was three houses from ours, so he wasn’t exactly between us and safety. Still, he was cause for concern.

We stayed on the park side of the street and as we came directly across from him, I waved and said, “Hi!”.  I was hoping to install a “friends, not food” attitude in him.  Well, he took one look at us and took off behind the house.  Before we reached home, we saw him re-emerge from behind another house about two doors down from ours on the other side.  He crossed the street and disappeared behind those houses.

Once  home, I did a little bear safety research.  Turns out that I did the exact right thing in waving my arms and making noise.  That’s when I found out that bears can open lever-handled doors and get in windows.  But generally, they’ll only do that if they smell food, but not humans.

Tami Nomad asked me what to do if a hairy, scary bear is lurking around your door. Beats me!  There are lots of things to do to make your home less inviting to bears, mainly keeping your garbage out of reach, keeping pet food inside, and cleaning your grill clean.  If they don’t smell it, they won’t bother you.

At least in theory.

More Tasty Treats

I just can’t seem to stop making these tasty treats!  Do you think it counts as my daily dose of fiber?

First up – a lopsided apple.  I don’t know why it’s lopsided, but Bip doesn’t seem to notice and he’s the one who asked me to make it.

And now, some cherry tomatoes on the vine –

These were requested by Pumpkin Girl who eats cherry tomatoes like chips.

Now for the far less healthy food. Like an ice cream sandwich –

Yum!! Ice cream sandwiches are like my most favorite things ever.  Too bad I’m lactose intolerant.

I’m also a fan of chocolate cake.

In real life, this is about the biggest, fattest, tastiest looking piece of cake you could wish for.

These projects came from the book Tasty Crochet.  Love this book!! Out of 33 patterns, I want to make 32 of them, which is pretty rare for any kind of pattern or craft book.  At least for me.  You just need basic crochet skills and there is a small glossary in the back if you’re like me and can’t remember how to double crochet from one project to the next.  The crochet instructions are clear, though a couple of times the assembly instructions made me scratch my head.  But if you look at the picture of the finished project, you can figure out what to do.

Mountain Lions, Coyotes and Bears…

We’ve been living in Colorado for one year now, can you believe it?  It’s a little different, living  in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, especially for someone who grew up near the ocean.

Here are some of the things we’ve learned this year:

1.  Do not leave your trash cans out on the curb the night before pick-up or bears will get into them.

2.  Only mountain newbies forget to drag the trashcans back to the house after trash pick-up and leave them out over night.  Bears will check to make sure they are really empty.

3.  Don’t forget to close your garage door at night, especially if you have a chest freezer full of deer meat.  Bears will get at your freezer and steal your meat.  This happened to a neighbor.

4.  The police are very reluctant to come and assist with the removal of a bear eating deer meat in your tree.

5.  That lovely rubbed-oil lever-handled door knob you just installed in your back door?  Bears can open it to get at the kitty treats inside.  And by kitty treats, I mean the actual cats.  Keep yer backdoor locked, ya flatlander!

6.  The dry creek behind the house is not actually dry and is a great attractor of wildlife.  Like a spotted fawn and it’s mother…

and a raccoon out late at dawn and needing a nap.

7.  Where there are deer, there are mountain lions.

8.  Did I mention the bears? Here’s one at our neighbor’s house a couple of months ago.

9.  The dogs we hear howling at night sometimes are not dogs.  They are coyotes.  They live in the bluff across the street.  This one:

All these wildlife spottings have sparked this daily conversation in our house:

Boo: I’m going to get the mail.

Pumpkin Girl and Bip, without hint of irony, sarcasm or emotion: Don’t get eaten by bears!

That’s love, right there.

—–

This post was brought to you by Mittens the Cat, who wants to remind you to keep your lever-handled doors locked.

Cats are friends, not food.

Copyright The Mac and Cheese Chronicles 2020.  All rights reserved. Images and content may not be used without express permission.