Morning Muffin comments: 189

Egads, *THANK YOU* for all of the book suggestions! Thank you thank you. That is seriously exciting. I have read a lot of the ones that you suggested (you know me well!), but there were a ton of them I have never heard of that sound awesome. This is thrilling! Thank you!

Were fighting colds here. Blaaaaaah. I've lost my voice and am speaking in whispercroak. Lots of hot tea, hot and sour take-out soup, more blueberry streusel muffins, a hot bath for me. I'm really enjoying these muffins in the morning, I must say. I think this muffinmaking will be my "thing." Like how some people are good at sports and some people are funny and some people have great hair? I'm going to always have muffins in the house. Yeah.

Construction on the window seat is almost finished. It is gorgeous but I won't deny that it's been a loooooong couple of weeks with people coming and going and saws whirring and things banging and the front door opening and closing and people clomping up and down stairs and the dear, poor puppers patrolling (and barking) throughout the day. Doors and drawers go on and in on Monday and then, hallelujah, some quiet. Yes, please. Ready. Then I can obsess about the pillow for the window seat, and the wallpaper (some more).

Miss Amelia P. takes it all in stride and wakes up every morning with the biggest, brightest, most beautiful smile you can imagine. Always happy. Made of sunshine, this girl. Dearest darling! Lights my world. Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Bright Frost comments: 490

It's been cold again this week. Between that and remodeling people here it hasn't been easy to get outside but I'm so anxious for a walk in the woods I can't even tell you. I can't wait! Though I am loving the sun we've been having. I showed it to Amelia the other day from the back door and she flinched and scowled at it, thoroughly appalled! Like, "Ack, what is that??!" True Oregonian!!!

I think I mentioned that I was reading The Palace of the Snow Queen. I like it a lot but it is not light reading, really. Do you have any recommendations for easy, fun, fast reading? I think my choices last summer (spy and pretty heavy mystery novels) were a little too dark. I didn't really make it through anything. I'm looking for something — novels, I think, or maybe even travel non-fiction — that is lighter and funnier and just . . . relaxing and fun to read?

***Forgot — here is the Summer Reading Booklist for kids we (you and I) made a few years ago. The link was broken in the original post — sorry about that!

Ah, remodeling. comments: 187

Oh, it's loud. And messy. It will be worth it, I know. But right now the house is a total mess. Because everything that was in the guest room is now in the other rooms. And the other rooms were full (at least, they were as full as I like them to be). Now they're fuller. One more week and it will be done. It's looking good. I know we'll be happy. But I won't deny that I will be THRILLED when it's finished, in part just because it's finished!

I baked muffins and then froze a bunch of them for my breakfasts. It's amazing that the thawed muffins taste pretty much every bit as good as they did the first day. These are blueberry streusel muffins. They are delicious. Yum. Saved me this week, seriously. They and my little milk frother thing, for tea lattes. I've been quite happily fed.

So many bunnerses! I love them. Possibly more than anything I've ever made. Yes, we will be doing kits! Almost everything is ordered and on its way. I'm hoping the kits will be finished a couple of weeks before Easter, but Easter falls on March 31 this year. That's early. So I can't promise, but we'll definitely try. The bunners above is not wearing Liberty, but the kits will have Liberty. We're thinking you'll have ten different dress fabrics to choose from! Because I couldn't possibly have picked just one. You know how bunnerses multiply. (And yes, there will be yarn included for the capelet, and the felt and pattern for boots, etc.) I'll keep you posted, and thank you so much for your enthusiasm! That made me very, very happy. Thank you.

I love all my little girls, furry and non-furry, so.

Cold. Snap! comments: 203

Cold! I like it! It feels like winter! There was black bean soup, lasagnas, hot tea and cinnamon rolls, Andy-made risotto, and cupcakes. There was a crackling fire in the fireplace most days, and glowing sunsets, and scarves and gloves, and I took one of my favorite pictures ever of Mt. Hood from the side of Mt. Tabor late Friday afternoon. Our amazing baby girl is three months old. She is such an incredible joy. Her personality is coming through more every day. She is very laid back (almost never cries), very cuddly, "talking" up a storm, smiling all the time, trying to figure out how to laugh (it comes out like a fake cough — so adorable), chewing on her hand, making us laugh with her funny faces and noises throughout the day, still sleeping throughout the night. Oh, girl. I love you so.

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies. I have been sewing bunnies and bunny dresses and bunny boots. I have been tweaking my bunny pattern — changing things by millimeters, trying to get the bunny I want (you'd be surprised at how much very small changes in the pattern entirely change the personality of the bunny). I'm about to start Bunners #4 and I think I've almost got her to my liking. I have been having lots of conversations with Andy and Greta about making bunny kits (and a pattern). To that end, I've been sourcing materials and planning assembly and wondering how much time it will take us to wind a thousand tiny skeins of sport-weight wool yarn for bunny capelets. I've decided that the bunnies should be wearing Liberty peasant dresses. Obviously bunnies would wear Liberty peasant dresses! That only makes sense. More on the bunnies later. Slightly obsessed with the bunnies.

Tomorrow the construction starts on the upstairs cabinets. That will be loud and messy for a week. I'm excited about it but I can't wait until it's finished. I have looked at about five hundred rolls of vintage wallpaper (here and here and here) trying to pick out wallpaper for one wall of the bedroom. I like about a hundred of them. How do you choose, seriously. I don't know. They're quite amazing.

I saw Silver Linings Playbook over the weekend and I LOVED it so much. New favorite movie.

Wonderful Day comments: 241

Such a nice birthday! The weather was absolutely balmy. We went for a long walk around the neighborhood. I tried to make a cake just like this one, but I used  Cloudburst Frosting instead of the two frostings she recommended, and I think hers was much prettier! It tasted great, though. Andy made dinner for me. My mom and sister came for the morning. I got lots of lovely messages and cards and presents (though I can't imagine any better present than Amelia). Thank you for all of your kind wishes!!! It was a wonderful day.

I'm very tired! We had some construction here last week and through most of the weekend. All of the carpet came out of the stairwell and the upstairs landing and the guest room (which will be Amelia's room when she moves out of her nursery). Under the carpet was beautiful hardwood flooring that had been covered for many years. The contractor (Jozo of Euro Masonry) installed all of this gorgeous wainscoting through the stairwell, as well as trim around the stairs. It was a lot of work but he did an amazing job. I love it so much. Everything still needs to be painted (this white that you see is just the primer), and the stair risers need primer and paint. But it feels like this is how the stairwell was truly meant to be, and that feels really good. I love doing good things for this old house. Construction starts next week on the wall of built-ins and the window seat for Amelia's room. I'm really excited about it. I'll take more photos of the hallway once it's painted properly. The light in the house is incredibly dark — the skies are dark, the clouds are dark, the days feel quite dim from morning until night. I have so many little lamps and electric candles on throughout the day, from early morning until we go up at night. Ah, winter.

*Her bonnet is Little Heaume on Ravelry. I need to make an entry for that — sorry! Here is my link!

New Year Start comments: 318

Thank you so much for all of the New Year's greetings! We had a very, nice quiet (embarrassingly quiet; we didn't even stay awake until midnight) new year! I made a pancake. Amelia rocked her new bouncy seat. Our dear friends and neighbors had us for dinner at their lovely house on New Year's Day. I made a bunny (I named her Marjorie) for Amelia (I don't have a pattern for her because I made it up. But maybe I'll write a pattern. I have a few changes in mind, anyway!). I made seafood chowder yesterday in my new stock pot (an awesome Christmas gift from Andy's parents) and it was really good! I find that it's Friday already, and that is startling. My birthday is on Monday. What kind of birthday cake do you think I should I make?