Projects

I know I haven't posted any projects for awhile, but I have been working on them. They are just more long term projects. I am almost done making a baby blanket which I think I am going to donate to an organization that helps support parents whose children have to undergo heart surgery. I have also been making some little hats to send along with the blanket, but I can't figure out part of the instructions so I will have to wait until next week when my grandmother is here to finish those. I am also working on a wreath to put up on Isha's door. She received this adorable bouquet of flowers which where made up from rolled up baby clothes and some paper flowers. I saved the paper flowers to use on the wreath. I am almost done with that so hopefully there should be some finished projects on here soon.

I am also in the middle of an amazing book right now so between that and a 14 month old nothing is done yet.

Sesame Orange Shrimp

Lately we have been trying to be good about cooking at home and using some of the food in our freezer and pantry since everything has become even more expensive. I was looking through an old copy of Everyday Food and found this recipe for Sesame Orange Shrimp . It looked good so we thought we would give it a try. The verdict... This stuff is amazing!!!! Jai is still ranting about it. The only thing I added was some cayenne pepper to the batter and some crushed red pepper to the sauce. The only problem w had was that I used Splenda instead of sugar and because of that the sauce didn't want to thicken up, so I just added some sugar and more crushed red pepper flakes to offset the sweetness.

We ate the shrimp over freshly steamed brown rice and had a green salad with some crunchy chow mien noodles and Asian dressing as a side dish and it was as close to gourmet as it gets in the Oberoi house.

I hope that you enjoy this as much as we did.

Breakfast Pizza

Here is a great recipe from the Beyond Burlap cookbook that the Junior League of Boise put out a few years ago. By the way, my name is in the back of this book as a recipe tester. That is the sign of a true Idahoan: your name is in a potato cookbook. I hope you enjoy this recipe. We have made it a few times and our neighbors just called this morning to get the recipe.

Breakfast Pizza

1 can (8 count) cresent rolls (I used 2 because I did mine in a bar pan instead of a pizza pan)

1lb sausage

2 cups of frozen hashbrowns, thawed

5 eggs beaten (I did a couple of extra because of the extra dough)

1/4 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese ( I used cheddar)

press the rolls onto a 14 inch pizza pan and press the perforations together

brown the sausage in a skillet, stirring until crumbly and drain

layer the sausage and potatoes over the rolls

mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper and pour over potatoes

sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Enjoy!!!!

I Did It

I finally got the sewing machine to work and I am glad that I didn't throw it out the window because I think it is my fault that it kept jamming. I think I was threading the needle the wrong way, but in my defense the book that came with the machine is lame and not very helpful.

So here is the finished product...these adorable burp clothes. All of my friends are having babies at a pace that is almost impossible to keep up with so I thought it would be easier to make these instead of trying to make blankets for everyone. These weren't as easy as I thought because the diaper have an uneven edge which maks it hard for beginning sewers to get it right, plus you have to sew three different layers together. These definately have the home made look, but I am hoping that it will get easier the more of them I make.

An Interesting Book

Having grown up in Idaho I was surrounded by the Mormon religion, but out here in Virginia you don't hear about the religion very often and I have only met a handful of Mormons while living here, so this book caught my eye at the library.

It was an interesting book. It is more about Martha Beck's battle to come to terms with her childhood than leaving the Mormon church. I can't remember where she said she got this quote from, but I found it interesting: Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.

She also wrote a book about her son Adam who has Down's Syndrome, called Expecting Adam. It sounds like a good book so I am going to put in on my to-read list on goodreads.com.

On Hold

I am so mad right now. I am trying to make these really cute burp clothes and my sewing machine is acting up. The machine keeps jamming up. It was doing it earlier and I changed the needle, but now it is doing it again. I changed thread so maybe I did something wrong. I have been working up on the third floor and there have been a few times that I wanted to throw the machine out the window!!! So for now all of my sewing projects are on hold. I need some time to cool off and start fresh. In the mean time I am going to start on a birthday project for someone who is close to turning the big 1. Wish me luck in my future sewing endevours because the sewing machines life may depend on it!

Thanks Sara

Sara shared this great website with me and now I am hooked. It is the perfect place for a book junkie like me. I am going to send the link to all the girls in my book club. I think it will be a great place to help me find other interesting books to read. Thanks for sharing!

Weekend Projects

These two scarves have been sitting around half finished for quite awhile, so I finally finished them up. The green one is a Szechuan Scarf, the yarn and directions came in a Chinese takeout box. I got it at a Christmas party a few years ago in a white elephant gift exchange. The blue one has lots of imperfections due to my beginning knitting skills. Thank goodness for chunky yarn, because it does a great job hiding mistakes.
I have been wanting to make a picture frame out of all the shells we found at Myrtle Beach this summer and today I finally got around to doing it. I had hoped to have an adorable picture of Isha at the beach in it, but due to technical difficulties with the printer I have to post this picture of just the frame.
And finally something I have been wanting to do for awhile now. I have all this left over yarn from other projects and these little flowers are a really easy way to use it up. It took me awhile to find the clips, but now that I know where to find them I think I will make more of these. Especially since almost all of my friends have little girls. I have lots of other ideas about things that I could do with these flowers so I am sure you will see more of them in the future. I have a purse that I felted and I think I am going to make a bunch of white flowers to sew onto it to give it a little personality.
Here is Isha modeling her new hair clip.

By the way...I can't seem to get spell check on blogger to work, so I apologize for all the spelling errors. Has anyone else had this problem?

Not Just For Dog Lovers

I just finished this book and it was a really interesting book. Not only was it a great story about this dog and his owner, but it also had a lot of history and research about the domestication and behavior of wolves and dogs. The other aspect of this book that I enjoyed was reading about the life that Ted Kerasote lives. He is an avid outdoorsmans that has spent his life biking, hiking and skiing in the northwest and around the world. He also keeps his own garden, hunts for his own meat, and lives with no TV. Reading all of his stories really made me homesick for Idaho.

I do have to admit that this book has left me conflicted about some parts of my own life. First, is my relationship with my own dog, Stitch. He used to be my life and I used to turn my nose up at people that said my feelings would change once I had kids. I hate to admit it, but they were right. This makes me feel so guilty. I don't have the time or patience that I used to have for Stitch and it really breaks my heart, because at 11 years old he deserves better. I feel like I should love him more. This has been so hard for me that I even cried last time I took him to the vet's office because I don't feel like a very good dog mom anymore.

Secondly, I wish I had spent more time enjoying the amazing state that I grew up in. I should have done more hiking and camping and spent more time snowboarding. Deep down inside of me I feel like there is a granola in hiding, but in all reality I am kind of a city girl and I need to accept that (the granola must be the one that has me recycling like crazy, using cloth diapers, and breastfeeding). It is hard to come to terms with things like this in our lives, that is, accepting who we are. While Ted Kerasote's life is very inspiring, the chances that I will move to the middle of nowhere and live off the land are very slim and you know what, that is okay! He has inspired me enough to at least get out of the house on the weekends and enjoy some fresh air. Who knows, maybe we will even go on a family camping trip this summer. That ought to be fun with an 18 month old!

I will tell you thought that this book is very sad. Any time you read about a dog you know how the story is going to end. So grab a box of tissues!

I really enjoy reading non-fiction books. Not only do I enjoy reading, but it is great to learn something while you are doing it! So if you can handle a few tears you should definitly read this book.

Old Projects

All of the creating on Heather's blog has me inspired to start creating some fun stuff of my own. I was all gung-ho to start some new projects and then I saw all the unfinished projects I have sitting around the house so I figured I better finish some before I start any new ones.
I love to crochet baby blankets, but now that I have Isha I don't have the time to do it and all my friends are having babies so fast I can't keep up. So I found this cute pattern where you just crochet the edge around a piece of fleece. While it is faster than crocheting a whole blanket it is still time consuming. Most of the work is spacing and poking 350 plus holes in the fleece. The other thing that makes these hard to do is that the yarn is rather small (fingering weight), but the finished project is worth the work.
I started this one about 6 months ago for Isha and the pattern I chose for the edging was miserable to do. The picot stitch was almost impossible with the tiny yarn so I pulled it out and started a new pattern. While this design wasn't as pretty it was much more realistic.

After the blanket I started to make this adorable little purse that I have tried to make before, but couldn't figure out the pattern. I feel like my crocheting skills have imporved so I thought I would try it again. Well the status on the purse is: after four attempts and a call to my grandmother the purse is still a big ball of purple yarn. My grandmother is coming to visit in March so I think I am going to try it agian while she is here to help me. In the mean time I definitely have enough to keep me busy.