Ciao Chicago

We went to the city today. I love the moment on the expressway when you first see the skyline. Even when I lived in the city I found it really exciting.

We met some dear friends and had a really yummy breakfast. I was too busy chewing and chatting to stop and photograph the food or the restaurant which was all super good. After breakfast we stopped at a park where little g. got to swing next to one of the cutest babies ever. c.

Overshirt

We got a big box of hand-me-downs from g's cousin last week. It's so much fun and it's so thoughtful. Included in this box were eight white undershirts. Little g's been in need of some plain white shirts for summer. Since these are really nice I embroidered a few of them so that she can wear them as outershirts. I'm a novice at embroidery but I think these will work just fine for playing at the park. I based the drawings off ideas from the same book as my last embroidery project. c.

Guppy

Went for an early swim today. She likes the water but it wipes her out.

A pool inspired card. c.

Ripe

Still got summer tomatoes on the brain. I think it's because we now have ripe tomatoes in the stores. I'm not sure if toms are safe to eat yet but we're still sticking to the vine and grape varieties.

Here's a tomato inspired card. c.

Grape tomatoes

I got this wonderful recipe for a tomato salad from my neighbor and I'm obsessing over it because it's so good. It's served on top of fresh mozzarella and it's very simple, light but filling and incredibly delicious.

What you'll need:
3 packages grape tomatoes cut in half
3-4 fresh leaves of basil
1/2 of a medium sized red onion chopped really small
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Italian seasoning (McCormick makes a blend)
Salt & Pepper (I used sea salt because I think it tastes better)
Fresh mozzarella
Serves 6

O.k, so I didn't measure but you'll want to be generous with the oil and balsamic and use the Italian seasoning, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Just mix it all together with the onion and tomatoes and place it on top of 2-3 slices of fresh mozzarella. Yum, Yum, Yum. c.

Snack drawers

I grew up in the day when cookie monster ate cookies by shoving as many in his face as he possibly could. Today's fruit eating cookie monster is a product of our modern day awareness about nutrition but that doesn't necessarily translate into kids that sit around eating fruit all day.

When I was a kid I had a neighbor that had her very own snack drawer in the kitchen. I remember she had huge family packs of snickers, peanut butter cups, gum, hard candy, cookies, you name it, it was shoved in there. I'm not really sure why her parents thought it was a good idea but it seemed like she'd hit some sort of sugar jackpot to the rest of us.

Last night I was watching Cookie Monster on the Colbert Report and got to thinking about my neighbors snack drawer when I had a "you got chocolate in my peanut butter," kind of moment. What we need in this house is a healthy snack drawer for little g. and while we're at it one for me too! g's got a cabinet drawer now with her little snacks and I filled the bottom drawer of the fridge with fruit for my snack attacks. So far so good. I'll let you know how it goes or if I freak in a few days and start shoving cookies down my face (albeit the sugar-free, fat-free, wheat-free, cookie-free cookie). c.

Bowls, bowls, bowls

I'm still focused on my bowl collection. Here's a simple one with some tomatoes. A lion bowl that lives in little g's room. A bowl full of avacados for a Sunday night burrito supper. c.

Still life

We could use a little still life around here this weekend but I doubt we'll get it. We have to whittle away at our to-do list.

I love bowls. I have more than I will ever admit. Some are sitting out and some are waiting for their turn in the rotation. I'm always finding a new bowl I want but I've got a bowl block in place. How many darn bowls do you need anyway?

This is a pretty bowl that sits on my dresser. It's actually a salad bowl, those two openings at the top are for resting the salad servers. This bowl tends to collect stuff which is why it's on that to-do list. c.

Hiya Shortcakes

I'm not a baker. I'm not even a big sweets kind of person, BUT.... I love strawberry shortcake. It's like summer in a bowl. When I was at the grocery store I zipped past a display of strawberries that grabbed hold of my olfactorys and yanked me back over saying, "buy us, buy us." I made a small batch of 4 shortcakes using 1 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbsp butter, 1/4 c. milk, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, cooked for 12 min. at 425. Serve with strawberries and a little scoop of vanilla. c.

Weed Monster

On our walk today we spotted this nasty weed monster. He wasn't going to let us get by without telling him the password but luckily little g. has a collection of secret codes stored in her brain.

What do you think these nasty weeds drink? Water of course. These clever weed monsters catch rain water in their mouths. We tried holding water in our mouths without much success - luckily we were outside. c.

Casting shadows

Better get out your sunglasses because the sun is really bright today. I snapped this shot of the shadow my computer and chair were casting. The shadow of the chair looks really cool with the shading, almost like a watercolor painting.

I absolutely love, love, love this mermaid shadow puppet I got from this artist. We spent lots of time this morning making the mermaid swim across the wall. c.

Group

We put together a few toy collections inspired by this flickr group. When these toys are laying all over my house it looks like a bunch of clutter but together in a group with a common color they look a lot more interesting.

Mr. Potato Head has a new best friend these days called Rootie Carrot. Looks like Rootie is packing a pistol in this pic but it's just a cellphone circa 1985. c.

Shut me in

We could use some shutters around here with all of the tornado warnings and storms we are having. I just hope the weekend is dry, dry, dry.

A shutter inspired card. c.

Nursing

Today I have to give kudos to my dog. As I watched my 2.5 year old dress a pretend broken foot about 75 times on our poor pooch I thought to myself, she's one heck of a good dog. She has never let us down and never once even remotely showed a lack of patience with anyone. In fact she's been known to be empathetic, care-taking, tirelessly dedicated and always loving. A few moments later I snapped this pic of her dying to eat some of g's cereal. How many food obsessed Labrador Retrievers do you know that will just sit and watch? I feel so lucky to have her in my family. c.

Summer art

This may look like just another bit of fridge art done by a little one but it's not. To us this abstract bit of beach ball interpretation represents the first day of summer camp. More importantly, however, it represents the first time she was ever dropped off on her own. I think we both found it to be two of the strangest hours we've spent since she was born but I think we might just be able to get used to it. c.

Flower fun

We've been busy making paper flowers. I kept to a very basic paper and pattern but I would love to see them done in bolder patterns and colors. They look really nice on top of a wrapped gift or just as a single stem in a little vase. If you have some scraps of card stock laying around and want to make a flower or two you can download my pattern here. c.

Smokey sky

I promise that this is the last sky photo I'm going to post. I realize that I've taken quite a few shots out my back door and posted them here. I had no idea how much attention I actually paid to the sky. This was taken at 8:30 am during a tornado watch or as my daughter kept saying tomato watch. I was doing the breakfast dishes when it turned black outside and the sky went all smokey and quick. I stopped to take this photo (I realize how crazy that was), then my mind raced through a lists of to-do-in-case-of-tornado-plans (note: need to sit and actually think this through for future reference). I was panicking but luckily it moved out as fast and strange as it had moved in. By 11:00 am we were outside headed down the street to play. c.

Papier fleur

Working with some paper scraps I made this simple paper flower. I had some bendy straws laying around and found they make the best stems ever when covered with floral tape. These were so fun and easy to do and would be a great craft project for kids old enough to handle scissors. I'm going to put the pattern I made for these up as a pdf file over the weekend so if anyone else out there wants to make some for themselves feel free. c.

Shrinking

Well, I knit and felted these two bears a while back. I pulled them out of the vault (a.k.a my closet) just yesterday. These were the first items I ever felted and the lesson I learned is that wool does not shrink the same vertically as it does horizontally. Just look how they shortened up and got wider. Oh well, still works for hugging and playing.

I love this store for knitting supplies and inspirations. c.

Blurr

Yesterday was one of those days where she was in perpetual motion. I couldn't get g. to stand or sit still for one moment. This is my attempt at photographing this really pretty dress sent from London.

My white bushes are in full bloom now.

I'm loving this print I got from artist Julie Knoblock. c.

Green scene

This path is behind our house. It's about a mile long walk that we do most days. It's nice to see it full of green now.

A blank card in green.

I'm in love with these really beautiful landscape paintings. c.