September | 2008 | little cumulus

Archive for September, 2008

wheeeee!

Published September 30, 2008 family , food , seasons 2 Comments
Tags: food, lizzy, seasons

Thanks for stopping by yesterday, everyone! We had a record-breaking day: 64 hits! That makes me really happy, and I just want to tell you that I appreciate your readership so very much. So thank you!

Recipes are now up for Pepper-Crusted Roast Beef Tenderloin, Shredded Pork Soft Tacos, Szechwan Slaw, BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Moroccan-Style Chickpea Soup, and Sesame Noodle Salad with Chicken. More to come — keep the suggestions coming! And if you have any favorite recipes or foods you think the girls would enjoy, I would looooove to hear about it.

There’s a million and one things on my to-do list today, but topping that list is a hike with Lizzy in the canyon. The fall colors are in full swing, and I am itching to be out in them — even at the expense of (gasp!) cleaning the house.

Warm weather, I’m going to miss you.

food for girls

Published September 29, 2008 family , food , orders of business 1 Comment
Tags: food, lizzy, sorority

YAY, food! I added a new page today that will keep track of everything I’m feeding the sorority girls; you can access it via the tabbed link on the banner at the top of the page. I would like to post recipes for at least one dish per week, and this is where you come in!

We’re heading into week six of this new gig, and for all the weeks past, I want YOU to tell me which recipes you’d most like to see. I don’t think I’ll be able to post all of them, but I will try. And here’s an added bonus: if you are a first-time commentator, I’ll post whichever recipe you’re most curious about, no questions asked. More than anything, I’m curious to see who’s out there!

One year ago:

My, how things do change.

time for a little…halloweenie?

Published September 27, 2008 crafty , food , seasons 2 Comments
Tags: halloween

Thanks to Martha Stewart’s obsession with all things Halloween, I’ve been thinking about Halloween a lot lately. I’m normally not a huge holiday decorator because I’m afraid of things looking cluttered or tacky, but I do want to start making holidays a little more fun around our house.

I know there are a lot of cute ideas for baby halloween costumes out there; see, for example, Anne’s Halloweenie from last year, which came to mind the second I started writing this post (hence the title), Martha’s spider baby and mama web, and Hollywood’s King Kong and Chrystler Building, which has to be one of my favorite things EVER, but I don’t think I quite have the motivation to make it happen.

Tonight I found instructions for making a ladybug costume for a crawling baby, and I really hope Lizzy doesn’t start walking before Halloween, because I REALLY want to make it for her!

If anyone has any other clever ideas, please do share!

Something else that’s making me quiver with excitement: Martha’s marshmallow bones and blood-red hot chocolate. I can hardly wait to make it for the sorority girls!

{Photos via Make Baby Stuff and Martha Stewart}

gnome season

Published September 24, 2008 crafty , family , seasons 1 Comment
Tags: clothes, lizzy

It was really, really cold this morning. Bone-chilling, slipper-wearing, tea-sipping, give-me-the-down-comforter-NOW-ing kind of cold. Lizzy and I like to go for walks in the mornings, so I was really excited to bust out this sweet little gnome hat that Kim knit for Lizzy last year (and to which I have yet to add the finishing tassel). However, well, as you can see…

…it didn’t go so well. Maybe next year I will get to have a little gnome — that is, if it still fits her 99th percentile noggin!

the leaves are changing

Published September 22, 2008 food , seasons Leave a Comment
Tags: food, seasons

It appears that summer is about to exit stage left, and all over blogland, people with a knack for words are paying tribute to the changing of the guard. Read one of my favorites: “An open letter to autumn” over at Scout.

I’m starting to get itchy for cool-weather activities — sewing (a tempting project is at The Purl Bee this week), herbal tea-drinking, and making autumny dinners for the girls. I keep trying to make myself cook with the fast-fading trophies of high summer, but sometimes it ends up as a slightly awkward (though tasty) seasonal crossover; last night Richard and I had ham and mashed potatoes with grilled market veggies. Maybe it’s time to stop resisting.

With the onset of every winter, it’s hard for me to remember that yes! warmth does come again! Especially with the winters here being what they are, Autumn always feels like a little bit of a leap of faith.

hi!

Published September 20, 2008 family , orders of business 2 Comments
Tags: growing up fast, lizzy, mama moments

So glad you made it! I’ve been wanting to switch from Blogger for a while, and finally had the uninterrupted 2 1/2 hours tonight to make it happen. Yay, WordPress! I also changed my name…it feels a little more comfy than the old one.

This evening, Lizzy and I were enjoying the warm sunshine and watching people go by, and all of a sudden it hit me: my days of seeing her crawl in the grass are seriously numbered. By the time it’s warm enough to put our bare feet in the grass again, this little one will be walking, skipping, running…and so I feasted my eyes for all it was worth. I love the way her big ole’ cloth-diapered booty sashays from side to side as she crawls. It’s so endearing.

today’s special

Published September 18, 2008 crafty 7 Comments
Tags: crafty, sorority

Hee hee hee!!! This makes me so excited. When I first got hired as the cook at the sorority house, I immediately had this vision of having a big chalkboard on which to write the nightly menu, like a swanky cafe or something. I’ve also had a can of chalkboard spray paint that’s been sitting around, unused, for like three years. At least.

The board I finally bought is not very big, but it can sit on the buffet table without being ostentatious. I just sanded it, gave it two coats of chalkboard paint, and rubbed the entire surface with chalk a few times.

Check out Martha’s awesome chalkboard paint ideas here. R and I definitely want to give the bottom half of the kitchen wall (in our future permanent home, that is) the chalkboard treatment.

Okay. It is time to go make dinner, and L was supposed to be sleeping for the last 20 minutes, but instead, she was screaming. That should make dinner prep a breeze. Wish me luck!

grocery bags i will (hopefully) remember to use

Published September 17, 2008 crafty , sewing 9 Comments
Tags: crafty, green, sewing

I’m working on a theory that goes like this: Pretty things are not essential to sustain life, but they do make it much more enjoyable. Lately, I’ve been applying this theory to one of life’s definite non-essentials: grocery bags.

For a while, I was using bags made from old t-shirts. They are serviceable, but not pretty, and they also tend to confuse grocery store checkers, who usually tilt their heads questioningly when they see what appears to be a pile of rags coming down the conveyor belt. I am also really bad at remembering to put them in the car when I go shopping, and if I do remember to put them in the car, I forget to bring them in the store.

So! Last weekend, on our way to the State Fair, we made a pit stop in Bountiful to visit Kim’s mom, a.k.a. Mama Muffin, who can frequently be found at the heavenly Quilter’s Haven. I picked up some luscious <Anna Maria Horner, Joel Dewberry, and Heather Bailey prints (meanwhile, R and L wandered the shop with great unease, but were such good sports!). Since then, I have been a sewing FOOL.

I made these bags with Spool’s free Grocery Tote pattern. It is so easy, and they would make great gifts! The last bag comes from the scraps left over from my apron project. I wanted that bag to be a little more special, so I added some interior pockets (which took me blasted forever to figure out), thereby upgrading the bag from a grocery tote to a small-ish diaper bag. Wahoo!

R and I recently decided that our apartment could use a little sprucing up. We’ve lived here for a year and will most likely be here for another 6-9 months, so we might as well make it look nice. More projects coming down the pipe!

breakfast and singing

Published September 15, 2008 food 5 Comments
Tags: choir, food

I love slow mornings — the kind where you say things like, “Would you want some waffles?” or “How about some tea?” and where you think to step outside for a few flowers from the yard, just because they would look pretty on the kitchen table, even if some of them might be weeds.

Anyway, we did not have waffles on Friday morning, but we did have Pop-Up Pancakes, a.k.a. the easiest thing ever, and way tasty. No special ingredients, either — just flour, eggs, milk, butter, and salt.

Okay, so about the choir! We’ve only had three rehearsals, but truly, it has already been one of the most wonderful and exciting musical experiences of my life. We already knew that Craig Jessop is a genius, but dudes, The Man Is A Genius. As a conductor, his style is impassioned yet efficient, loving but with high expectations, and so clinically precise. He makes you want to give him the very best you can. He is an amazing teacher — and really, you’d have to be in order to manage 275 singers at once (the size of the choir, at last count).

This semester, the choir is performing a Veteran’s Day concert as well as the Mozart Requiem (we will perform the latter with the USU orchestra). The Veteran’s Day concert will feature lots of patriotic pieces, including an unpublished arrangement of “God of our Fathers” by Mack Wilberg (nyah, nyah!).

It is so fun and invigorating to be singing in a really great choir again. The only thing that makes me sad is that I know we’ll be gone in another year — so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts!