A Few Things

January 3, 2015Myriam baking, books, chatting, diy, Little Man 1 Comment

Hello Friends! It is a cold, rainy and dreary day. I have been doing some cleaning and organizing in the crafty room. Last post I said that I wanted to do some more sewing this year. Well this is a big part of the problem:

I have managed to clear off most of the items and pretty soon I will have a clear table!! That will definitely help with being able to sew 😉

Yesterday Little Man and I had a fun day. We went for a walk after lunch and then played some games. I got Ticket to Ride for Christmas and he got Forbidden Island. So we decided to try them out. They are both really fun games that require some thinking and planning. Forbidden Island is a teamwork game and we played twice yesterday and were not able to win the game so we are determined to try to beat it sometime this weekend. Little Man is feeling a bit under the weather today so he has just been resting but maybe later this evening or tomorrow.

After dinner we made duct tape wallets. It was a bit tricky and sticky 😉 and took longer than I thought it would but we still had fun and are both very happy with how they turned out. I used a couple different tutorials online because of how Little Man wanted his wallet to look and one had some easier steps than the other one.

Here we are making our duct tape sheets.

Then we cut it down to size and since we made our duct tape sheets big enough we had enough to make the pockets, which Little Man was happy about. He was struggling a bit with the sticky and making his sheet.

Here we are setting up the pockets and I.D. section to be taped.

Here they are all done!

We are super happy with how they turned out, especially for our first time. There are little things that could be better, wrinkles and some crooked tape but overall I think they turned out great. I am super proud of how Little Man’s turned out and he did most of it himself and barely wanted my help. It is a bit sticky but I see us making these again.

On Instagram the other day I came across a reading challenge that is on Bringing Up Burns. It’s called 26 Books to read in 2015. There are 26 prompts that you follow. You don’t have to do them in order and I am not sure if I will or not. But to start I am doing the first one. It is A book you own and haven’t read. I am not lacking in choice.

Some are newer and some have been around for a while. I wanted to make sure I picked one that has been sitting around for a while.

I picked this one up at a library used book sale. I have never read P.D. James before but I have heard good things and I really enjoy mysteries.

So after making donuts this morning for breakfast as requested by Little Man. I go the recipe from here.

I sat down at the table and enjoyed a couple of chapters and a couple donuts. They are really yummy. I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, so I just used regular milk and they came out fine.

Well dinner is almost done so I hope you all have a cozy weekend.

Happy New Years Cheesecake

January 1, 2015Myriam baking, Little Man 1 Comment

Hello Friends! How are you? This post should have been up hours ago but my computer had other ideas and did not want to recognize my iphone that I had my pictures on. After tons of google searches and messing around with my laptop I finally had to uninstall and reinstall Itunes and everything was working. So here I am.

It’s a new year! I almost can’t believe it. I hope everyone had a nice time ringing it in or sleeping in to the new year. Little Man and I stayed up and played Minecraft and then at 11:30 we had cheesecake (recipe to follow) and watched the ball drop. After that we went for a walk around the block to see some of the fireworks and bang on pots and just make some random noise to welcome the new year.

Do any of you have resolutions? I really don’t, I have never been much of a resolution maker. There are some things I am hoping for in this year. Some more sewing, getting some projects off the needles and really taking in the day-to-day more. I have realized how much just flies right by me and I don’t notice or take the time to enjoy it and really treasure it.

So Little Man and I decided last week that New Years Eve dessert would be Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. We were playing a game yesterday that he was training to be a Jedi Master. Along with the light saber training, I told him that to be a true master he had to do some cooking too. So he made bean dip and cheesecake with his master 😉 watching over him.

So we got all our ingredients together.

2 8oz packages of cream cheese, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup chocolate chips, I normally use semi-sweet but Little Man picked dark chocolate

1 crust, store-bought or homemade, ours was a store-bought shortbread crust. Really good, I normally do a graham cracker crust.

Preheat your over to 350 deg F.

In a mixing bowl add your cream cheese and sugar. Mix well. Then add your vanilla and mix.

Add eggs…and mix.

Then you will want to fold in almost all of the chocolate chips, save some to sprinkle on top. Recipe says to mix in a half a cup, I just eyeball it.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into your crust and add the chips on top.

Then very carefully into the oven it will go.

Bake for about 40 minutes depending on your oven. You want the middle to be set. I probably could have taken mine out a minute or two sooner as we got a crack in it.

Then you let it cool for a bit before putting it in the fridge for about 3 hours or overnight.

Here it is all settled and cool and so super yummy and delicious!! I haven’t made this in such a long time. It used to be one of my favorites. I always wanted my mom to make it for me for my birthday.

Little Man did a great job and he was promoted to Jedi Master!

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2015!!!

Another Week Flown by!!

December 17, 2014Myriam advent, chatting, christmas, Little Man 1 Comment

Hello Friends! How are you all? I am doing good. Keeping busy around the house, with work and trying to get ready for Christmas. I can’t believe it will be here next week! December has flown by! I am almost done with my shopping, what about you? Decorating the house is like half done, I know…I am slacking! But I did remember my favorite thing for the season.

My Advent candles. I took this picture this past Saturday so it still only has two candles lit. I am always scrambling days before or on the day of to find the right candles but I always make sure it is set up and ready. I love sitting at the table with my candles lit and just the whole set up. It’s a comforting feeling. Is there anything about this time that you really look forward to?

Last Saturday we also went to our library because they had an activity for kids to decorate gingerbread houses. Little Man had fun working on his and coming up with ideas. I helped a bit with the fence but other than that he pretty much did it on his own.

I also had my work Christmas party Saturday Evening. It didn’t go quite as planned. Both of our bosses called a friend I work with and said they were sick and couldn’t make it, just a couple of hours before it started. They had all the food and supplies for the party so my friend scrambled to get some snacks and salad stuff. My one boss ordered some pizza to be delivered to the hall where we had the party but he only ordered seven pizzas for almost 50 people, so she had to order more. Apart from that it was nice to hang out with some of the ladies outside of work. Have any of you had any Christmas parties already?

Yesterday my mom gave me a bunch of oranges so I decided to make a clove orange today while I was working on dinner.

I forgot to get a picture of it done. I didn’t do a special pattern I just covered it all over with cloves. I will get a picture of it hanging up and all done. My mom used to have one hanging in our hallway for a long time and it smelled so good and lasted a really long time. I hope mine does too.

Tomorrow I am planning on finishing my tree. It has lights and a few ornaments that I have bought and that my grandma sent me. So hopefully I am successful!

I will be back soon, really I will! 🙂

Dinner and some weekend stuff

November 10, 2014Myriam chatting, cooking, Food, Little Man 1 Comment

Hello My Friends! How are you today? It was a typical Monday, I didn’t want to get up and out of bed this morning and it dragged in the normal Monday way. Day one of my changes that I wrote about yesterday was successful! I was a good girl when it came to my eating and my water intake so I am really that happy that I didn’t crash on day one! 🙂

On Friday I tried a new product and decided to share my whole dinner with you guys instead of just the product since it was part of my dinner anyway!

I have made this dish tons of times,It’s a basic meat and gravy dish, I don’t really have a name for it and the only thing I ever really change is what I serve it with. It could be rice, mashed potatoes or Spatzle (a German egg noodle). On Friday we went to a local market that carries quite a few European items and I came across something I haven’t had in a super long time.

The best way to describe these is like a dumpling, my grandma of course makes these homemade but a girl has to get her fix somehow! I have gotten something like this before but the didn’t come in their own little dumpling sacks. In the other stuff I got you mixed the ingredients and then made your own balls and put them in boiling water but with these that’s basically all taken care of! you just toss them into a pot with cold water and salt.

And bring them to a boil.

You can see how they have already puffed up a little in their sacks. Then you turn down the heat and let them simmer for 15 minutes.

While those are cooking, we start the meat.

This is turkey loin cut into 1/4 in slices or so and season with a seasoning that my grandma sends me from Germany. It’s from a well-known chef over there called Herr Schuhbeck. This is the steak and grill seasoning. Then you toss it in a pan over medium high heat.

And cook until the turkey is cooked through, it doesn’t take long. Then we are going to add about 2 Tablespoons of Tomato Paste.

Give it a good stir until the turkey is all covered with it and cooks for a minute in the pan. The we are going to add gravy. This is where I cheat and just use a powdered gravy.

Add a splash of heavy cream or milk, whatever you have on hand and give it another stir.

Once everything is warmed through and nice and thick, the meat and gravy is all done. Now back to the Knodel! This is how they look after the 15 minutes and you are supposed to run them under cold water.

The you free them out of their little sacks and put the on the plate.

Lol, I got a bit rough with the one on top but this is how they look all done.

And here is the final product…

Yummy!! it was so good, and one Knodel would have been enough for me, they are very filling. I will be getting these again. Just a note, these are not something you really want to eat by themselves, they need some kind of sauce or my grandma has also put them in a chicken broth and made a soup. Also really good. So, hope you liked that. If you want to see more, let me know.

Over the weekend, Little Man and I built a Fort in the living room and we really didn’t leave it much. We even slept in it at night.

We played some games.

Memory

Labyrinth, this is one of my favorites.

Also some Battleship and some Rauber Rudi.

I also got some reading done.

That’s Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I am about 3/4 of the way through. It is a book for kids but its a quick read and sometimes you need that. I was at an activity at the library for Little Man and it was laying on the table by me, so i picked it up and started reading it and didn’t want to stop when it was time to go home, so the book came home with me. It’s about a sister and brother that go to spend a couple weeks with their grandfather and find out he is the caretaker of FableHaven, a sanctuary for mystical creatures. And of course when kids start sticking their noses into things, trouble starts. It’s part of a series, i am not sure how many books there are but I do want to read the others at some point…just making my list longer and longer.

If you remember in my first post back to blogland, I mentioned having to take a break from crafting, most of all knitting because of my wrists. It has been since the end of September and it’s like all i can think about but I am behaving!! I have been wearing my wrist guards at night and trying to watch what i do with my hands during the day. I am giving myself until December and then i will very slowly get back to working something. When i was working on Little Man’s socks my hands weren’t bothering me. It was when I went to a project with bigger needles that i started to feel the ache again. So we will see, wish me luck.

I better get off to bed. Have a great day!

Weekending

October 26, 2014Myriam chatting, Little Man Leave a comment

Happy Sunday! The weekend always flies by.

The rest of the week went by smoothly. Hubby is back home from his business travels and we have just been relaxing before the week starts back up again.

Saturday started bright and early(was too early for my liking on a weekend morning, I was a bit grumpy) because Little Man had his soccer tournament.

They lost their first game and then had to wait over and hour before the next game started. But happily by then the sun was out.

Sadly, they lost that game too. Little Man was disappointed. They had beat this team twice before and thought for sure they could do it again. But the other team had learned and Little Man’s team was just not playing at their best. While disappointed, he was not discouraged and said “I am signing up in the Spring”.

After Soccer we did some yard work. The front lawn was covered in leaves and one of my front plant beds needed some tending. I had some help.

I also trimmed my hydrangea and even all brown and dried up I thought it still looked beautiful (they are normally all white) so I brought some in to have in my craft room.

This morning we had breakfast with a friend and then back home to do laundry. I also worked on getting my table cleared in the craft room so i can do some sewing since i am still trying to be good and give my hands and wrists a break from the knitting…its so hard!! i want to knit so badly. But i must behave if i want to get my hands back on the needles. I have considered teaching myself to knit differently. I knit the Continental way so maybe switching could help. We will see, its so hard to break from what you are used to and what my hands could almost do in their sleep!

Joanna, my mom actually ended up doing another batch of yarn and it turned out a much deeper blue, i still haven’t seen it but she is supposed to send me a picture, if not i’ll try and get one next time i see her. I did think about dyeing over it but I am going to leave it, as a memory of my first time. I really didn’t have any specific expectations i was just doing it for fun.

I hope everyone else had a good weekend and has a good start to the week.

Sept. 18, 2010

September 18, 2010Myriam chatting, FO, Little Man 2 Comments

I finally got a picture of Little Man’s hat. Seems like every time i remembered to take the picture it was dreary and gray out. Today I didn’t care.

This is a pattern i won from My Little Hen. It is Betz White’s Reversible Bucket Hat pattern. The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. I have made a hat for myself and also Little Man.

Here is Little Man’s:

I am really happy with how it turned out! I was a bit weary about trying to make a bucket hat myself but i am so glad i did. We love them here and they are perfect protection from the sun for a energetic little man who likes to play outside. I highly recommend the pattern to anyone.

Yesterday I did go to my friend’s show at the gallery.

Here he is performing:

And here is a peak at some of the raw food they were serving: Rohkost essen!!

What you are seeing are some “calamari” which is actually mushroom with flax seed breading. A mango cheesecake and coconut pie both with some kind of nut crust. They were absolutely divine!! Some chocolates are also peeking through at the bottom made from raw cacao and other things i don’t remember. It is all raw and vegan. Yummy!!! They also served some “sushi rolls” made with various raw fillings.

It was a fun night and I tried some new things. Which I usually don’t like to do.

Tomorrow I am going to a Fiber Festival with my mom, woohoo! Woolly Goodness. I will be sure to take some photos 🙂

First Day Of School/Erste Schultag

September 9, 2010Myriam chatting, Little Man 2 Comments

Little Man started first grade yesterday!

Here is my handsome man at his desk. I sure do miss him!

I hope everyone has a wonderful school year!

Another Snow Day!

February 22, 2010Myriam FO, Little Man 4 Comments

Another fun day of snow! I was expecting snow but not like this.

Little Man has wanted to build a snow man for some time but we just didn’t have the right snow for it. Today we did!

The snow was so wet that when we came in our coats and snow pants looked like we had gone swimming. It was all worth it and we warmed ourselves up with some hot cocoa and lunch after all that hard work.

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Olympic progress:

ehh it’s not going as well as I had hoped and there were two days I set aside to make something for hubby’s birthday. I am going to keep working hard but whatever the outcome I will be happy with the outcome because we all know how long it usually takes me to finish a large project. 😉

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Last but not least I still have some FO’s to show off.

Pattern: Drive-Thru turned Mini Cobblestone pullover (both ravelry links)

Dates: I am not even sure anymore but i know i started this last fall sometime-maybe late October and finished it just a few days after my grandma left. So a little over 3 mths! Told you it takes me forever to finish larger projects. Good thing I made it in a larger size.

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Chestnut Heather

Needles: Size 8 circular and double points

Size: 8

Notes: I used the Drive-thru pattern so I wouldn’t have to do any math for the sizing down the Cobblestone pattern. Also I found that the sleeves run a bit tight in the Drive-thru pattern so i cast on 43 sts for the sleeve instead of the 30 I believe it has you cast-on. All in all I am very happy with how it turned out and Little Man really likes it as well, he wore it right away on the day I gave it to him.

So as soon as Little Man showed me he had some wiggly teeth you all know I had to knit him a tooth fairy pillow.