Advent, Week 1

I've been totally inspired by my sister's wonderful Advent posts this year!
So I've decided to mirror her weekly breakdown of Advent activities...here is week 1:

-:- 1. Decorate our Christmas tree -:- This was the first thing we did this season. We got a perfect little Scotch Pine and we love it.

-:- 2. Deck the Halls -:- Probably my favorite thing about decorating our home for the holidays is watching the cats as we drape potential prey over every part of the house. Wilbur gets a very intense look in his eye...prepares himself for the kill...



...and then catches me looking at him through a camera lens and twists his body awkwardly to casually sniff the radiator. Cheek.

-:- 3. Go see the Nutcracker Ballet -:- On our way to the show, Casy asked me why the Nutcracker was such a big deal. By the end of the show, he told me he knew each one of those songs, but didn't know they all came from that ballet! He said Home Alone is the Nutcracker!
We finished the night with some brick oven pizza and the OSU game.

-:- 4. Make our Advent wreath -:- One of my most favorite Christmas traditions.

-:- 5. Start reading the Christmas Carol -:-

-:- 6. Exchange ornaments on St. Nicolas Day -:- Um, in our shoes, with some Christmas candy too. Hello, gingerbread cream-filled Godiva bar. And thank you, husband.

-:- 7. Sponsor a child (or two!) for Christmas through the Salvation Army -:- We went toy shopping this weekend for our girls!

Love, T.

Hobbit Bread

At last Gandalf pushed away his plate and jug - he had eaten two whole loaves (with masses of butter and honey and clotted cream) and drunk at least a quart of mead - and he took out his pipe.

I imagine the bread that Gandalf ate, and all of the other loaves in Middle Earth, were like the one I made last weekend. Full of flax seeds and currants and best eaten with butter and honey.

I will probably post nothing but Advent and Christmas-realted things from now until the 25th! Get ready!

Love, T. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving in a major way.

I try to think about and acknowledge everything I'm grateful for each day
but it's so nice to have a holiday dedicated to giving thanks.

I think there's so much power in collective thanksgiving
and I love the thought of us all sending gratitude out into the world on a single day.

I have so much to be thankful for.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday
and that your days are full of warmth and joy.

Love, T.

Sparkling Sunday

I love gingerbread around this time of year.

I love how it smells when it's baking and I love how warming it is to eat.

I especially love it when it sparkles.

Which is why I love this recipe.

I made this with one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of all-purpose flour.

And only because I didn't have any oranges on hand, I didn't include the orange peel.

It was delicious, but I bet the orange peel would have really knocked it out of the park.

Highly recommended.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

Love, T.

One Down...

Oh, pairs of things.

I love the idea of knitting them,
(they are so cozy, so useful, and so beautiful)
but having to knit two of the same thing...in a row...
is usually more than I can handle.

It's like...you knit something awesome, cast off, start to admire your gorgeous hand-knit item...
and then suddenly you are faced with the reality that you have to knit that thing all over again before it's useful in any way.

And you're all, "Really? Not cool."

And your project's all, "Whatever. You're the one who decided to knit me."

So then you wait 177 million days before starting the second half.

That's how it usually goes for me, anyway.

177 million days...starting now.

---------

On a different note,
this was my first colorwork project and it has absolutely revolutionized my knitting world.

Kind of like this:

Pattern -:- Yarn -:- Inspiration

Love from my Technicolor Knitting World, T.

Time for Bed

I took the day off today and filled my hours with crazy amounts of (much needed) domestic productivity.

Wilbur wasn't much help.

And now it's time for me to follow his lead...good night!

Love, T.

#4. Make Croissants from Scratch

...or, One of Few Reasons I Will Wake Up at 4:30AM

These were such a treat. Not easy, but so worth it in the end.

Recipe

Love, T.

Oklahoma Sky

There's nothing like it.

Love, T.

Elderberry Syrup

Well, I think I've set a record with this extended absence of mine.
And today, for some reason, I have decided to dip my toes back into this space.

Eventually I hope to catch you up on what we've been doing these last months, but for now I am following the sound advice of my wonderful in-laws by starting with what has been happening in these parts lately.

This weekend, in addition to reattaching the camera to my hip, I made elderberry syrup.

I've been sick for the past week and a half or so with a lingering cough that just doesn't want to end. The doctor told me it was a virus and that I would have to wait it out, but this kind of cough gets old quick and I am determined to get better.

Elderberry is an anti-viral and is frequently used in the prevention and treatment of colds and flu. You can buy elderberry syrup at health food stores, but it's usually quite expensive...and it's actually super easy to make on your own. So I did. This is the video that taught me how:

I have never tasted medicine so delicious. I've been taking a tablespoon every hour (willingly) and my cough is already lessening. This syrup is definitely a keeper, especially during cold and flu season.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has expressed encouragement in getting through my blogging slump! I appreciated every kind word and intend on visiting this space a bit more often, so I hope you do too!

Love, T.

Pesto (Yum Yum)

I have literally a million things to post about. Literally a million.

Much of that million involves our awesome trip to Oklahoma. (Remember that? And how it seems like yesterday? And now all of a sudden it's almost mid-August? How does this always happen?)

Before I tell you about part II of our Kansas trip, let me interject with a post about food. One of our many delicious dinners in Oklahoma originated from this lovely lady.

Jill made a delicious pesto, adapted from the Pioneer Woman. She substituted almonds for pine nuts and added a little more of this and that to it as she saw fit. She used wheat pasta and added some chicken. It was delicious.

And would you look at that basil?

And would you look at that face?

Kansas, Part II is next...

Love, T.

Kansas, Part 1

On Monday, we visited with Tommy and Loretta at their ranch in Kansas. We also met Jack and Savannah (the dogs) and some geese, who ran after Papa Goose with their little wings out for balance.

It was the best thing.

And their fluffiness made me want to squeeze them.

We started the day exploring the ranch on a few four-wheelers.

First stop? A mystery wall in the middle of the woods.

There are tons of large rocks piled up along a ridge, with built-in peep holes along the way.

Tony told me that when buffalo roamed Kansas, they kept a lot of the vegetation from growing as big as it is today. And without those trees, this site provides a great view of the entire valley below.

It's perfect as a military vantage point. And that's what we think it is.

Even without knowing for sure, though, it was still gorgeous.

I love that lichen.

And then we continued on.

We saw some gorgeous Kansas scenery...

...and stopped for awhile to dip our feet in an icy artesian well.

We saw some cows.

Then went hunting for arrowheads...and I found a scraper! 

Just to clarify, when I say I found a scraper, I mean that Loretta found it.

And then showed me where it was.

Jill taught me this arrowhead-finding technique.
It works really well!

We ended the first part of our day with a delicious lunch, complete with homemade pickles and cookies.
And then we started Part II.

Love, T.

Hello from Oklahoma

Goodness. We've been here visiting family and friends just since Saturday and there's already so much to write about. We're having an amazing time.

This is our longest trip home in awhile and it's so good to visit the people and places that we always hear so much about.

I'll be back soon with more adventures from Oklahoma (and Kansas), so stay tuned!

Love, T.

Reasons Why I Am Grateful For Boys

Last weekend, my brother helped me rediscover climbing trees.

And then my husband helped me get back down.

Love, T.

Get In My Belly!

Remember our first garden? It seems like that garden was from a long time ago in a land far, far away.
We got a good amount of veggies out of that little plot of land, but compared to our garden this year, it was small potatoes (hah).

I mean, look at this beast.

I am in awe. And we love being out there, weeding and discovering little baby vegetables that will eventually have a place on our dinner table.

Last weekend we got our first small harvest. It made me unbearably happy.

And from the looks of things, we will have quite a few larger harvests as the season progresses!

Can. Not. Wait.

Love, T.