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?

comments: 249

Mornings, noons, and nights. My girl and I are early risers. Up around 5 a.m. (which is when Andy gets up to go to work), I take my shower by Christmas-tree light, and bring my trusty coffee pot and my fake candle back up to bed on the tray. Then I wait for my lady to wake. When she does, I go in and unwrap her from her swaddle and she smiles at me. Her big huge darling smile. (That's been happening for about a week. Still just can't believe she does that. It's my favorite moment of the day.) She unfolds her tiny arms and reaches up with her fists and down with her tiny toes and stretches everything. She makes her little blustering noises, tiny snorts and snuffles — it's hard to wake up. I say, "Good morning, my dear lady! What are we going to do today?" Then I pick her up and she buries her face in my neck and puts her warm hands on my chest. I kiss her neck where it's warm and soft (well, where isn't it warm and soft) and we linger here, only minutes (before she wiggles and yawps and calls for her breakfast), but for as long as she'll let me. The day begins. These lazy, busy, soft, warm, long, lovely, lovely days at the end of the lovely year with our sweet, funny, silly, snuggly, adorable, adorable, darling girl. I look into her beautiful navy blue eyes and make a wish.

***

Just a minute ago it was "snowing," small almost-flakes that Greta (miracle Posie assistant, who comes three afternoons a week and who has kept everything running like clockwork, running better than when I ran it myself, quite frankly) and I, both of us Midwestern girls, watched from the windows with pure longing. I can see why they call them flurries. Such a pretty and capricious word. The flakes swirled and fell, invisible as they hit the ground. Inside, we are cozy and keeping warm, piled under our various piles of calico, wool, and goosedown. We seem to have so many piles like that here. A pile for every room. We don't do much (well, dear Greta does, but the rest of us don't). Just sit, and snuggle, and drink, and sometimes rock in the rocking chair, maybe make some tea or hot chocolate, maybe watch Downton Abbey, maybe light a firelog or add some wood to one that's already flickering, and then go back to the downy pile. I like to turn all the sounds off and listen to the furnace sometimes. Last night, late last night, I finished The Long Winter. That book was awesome. I can't believe I'd never read it before. The scene where Almanzo and Cap are trying to make it back across the frozen slough with the sixty bushels of wheat and the horses keep falling through the snow? Ouf. The way she described Prince standing in the snow hole with his head down, waiting for Almanzo to help him again almost made me cry. MAN do I love pioneer lit. I still have to tell you about my other books. But I am so lazy.

New Year's Eve. A goodbye to the old year, even as everything here still seems so new. I still haven't really found the words to describe most of how I feel. Part of that is probably just plain old tiredness. I was generally worn out by the holidays when I didn't have a three-month-old baby. Part of it is (still) just plain astonishment. Even when I'm just thinking to myself, hearing my own voice ramble on inside me and not even trying to talk out loud, I'm still just mostly thinking, "I am astonished!" And that feeling looks like a big blue Montana sky.

Part of it is that gratitude just floods me moment to moment, and humbles me speechless. I think in prayers now, and I guess they have a language all their own.

I wish you a very, very happy and fun New Year's Eve, and a really wonderful new year.

Winter Wonder comments: 159

Oh, snow! Thank you, thank you Brother North-wind!!! A million small blessings, falling on my face in the front yard, in the morning light. The most beautiful thing to wake up to.

[Pirouette, and flourish.]

All gone now, but nevermind. It was glorious.

There's a very small, very adorable baby dressed in a pale pink kimono onesie and oatmeal-colored tights lying between my legs under a crocheted blanket here on the chaise lounge. She's looking up out the big windows and talking to herself and kicking me in the stomach, which is one of my favorite things. She has long conversations with me and with herself and with the sky as she kicks and makes funny faces and balls up her fists and shoots out her arms and laughs at little things only she understands. We've been here for hours and hours today, wrapped in quilts and corgi and bottles and cups of tea. Sometimes she suddenly sleeps, or requests her bottle, but mostly we talk, and look, and sometimes I watch Christmas movies and surf Pinterest for ideas for window seats and her big-girl room (extremely fun). The furnace kicks on and goes off again. The sun comes out and disappears. The UPS man comes and goes, causing the poor puppers to lose her mind with anticipation. He often stops at our house, and brings her a treat; when he goes to someone else's (his truck is quite distinctive, so we know the second he turns onto our block) she can hardly believe her ears. We spent the weekend at parties, one ours, one our neighbors' for us, surrounded by friends and families. In the wake of such a long, sad week, it felt good to stick together and stay close to everyone we love. Under the evergreen boughs and the Christmas lights, listening to the old carols, remembering my dad and the ones who aren't here anymore, I held my baby girl in my warm arms and kissed her big pink cheeks and told her all sorts of things I wanted her to know. About good people. About snow. About good things. About joy. About love. Always about love.

comments: 164

Outside it's cold, dark, gray, blue, windy, rainy, and wet. Inside we are warm and dry and happy. Andy's mom has been here visiting from Chicago since late Sunday night. Amelia has spent the past two days pretty much completely wrapped in her grandma's loving arms. It's been so nice to have her here.

I can see now from the photos that there has been a lot of tea drinking and napping in quilts and baby-cuddling around here. Ahhhhhhh. Yes, please.

I did make soup. And biscuits. And wrapped a lot of presents. And went out with my niece for Moonstruck chocolate milkshakes. We had a great time at the calendar store. I sewed a bit, and watched some Christmas movies, and tried to write some Christmas cards, though I didn't get too far.

Early this morning I woke up before everyone else. I crept around downstairs and started the coffee maker. I turned on the Christmas tree and let the cat out into the dark. I washed my face and brushed my teeth then made my coffee and took it back to my sofa-nest. I had on my new white nightgown, made out of the softest cotton lawn and trimmed with a pale blue ribbon, the sweetest gift from Andy's mom. The sky was just starting to get light. Tiny dark birds flitted from the branches down to the bird feeders and back up to the branches. I sat and watched my neighbors getting up and going to school and work in the blue-gray half-light. Whispy white smoke came out chimneys across the street. I thought about Amelia going to school in a few years. I got so happy and excited for her. It was a really great morning.

Sugarplums comments: 327

Andy is back at work. The house is so quiet! It's just us girls here. Amelia's sleeping on my lap. I'm watching Gilmore Girls from the beginning. The Bee is looking out the window. Clover's sitting in Andy's spot. Pining. Yesterday was Andy's first day back after being home for over seven weeks. In the morning, I put Amelia down in her crib for what I thought would be just a minute while I got dressed, and she fell asleep. I grabbed the baby monitor and ran down and unloaded the dishwasher. Clover stayed in her room with her while she napped. It's the first time in Clover's entire life that she did not come downstairs with me during the day. I absolutely couldn't believe it. My sweet girl. I finished the kitchen and tidied the house and then went back upstairs. I put my hand on my heart when I saw her, still there, and gave her a behind-the-ears thank-you scratch and a big old kiss right between the eyes, then took her picture. She takes her jobs very seriously. Serious, earnest, dear, good lady.

Thank you for being so generous and lovely in your comments lately. Xoxo. Thank you. You are the nicest people.

I'm thinking about Christmas cookies. We're having a party in a week or so and I need cookies. My (gorgeous) friend Jolie sent me the Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies, which are SUPER GOOD (as are her hilarious videos). So I'll make those. The Swedish Dream cookies also pictured on that plate I got at ScanFair this past weekend, and dayum those are also SO SUPER GOOD. I searched and found a few recipes on-line but I'm not sure which one to use. If you have a good one, let me know. Most call for ammonium bicarbonate (baker's ammonia), so I need to find that. I'll make some regular frosted sugar cookies, and knowing me I'll buy three rolls of Pillsbury. I'll probably make some bar cookies of some sort because those are easy and they make a lot with a little effort. I don't know what else I'm going to make. I am open to suggestions!

I did make a pretty decent curried cod with spinach from this recipe the other night. And a big bowl of Mexican hot cocoa after the child was nestled all snug in her bed. Bliss.

I've been gathering little Christmas presents for Amelia, including the sweet little hand-carved and -painted Dala horse (also from ScanFair). For her actual stocking stuffer I decided to start a silver charm bracelet for her. The one I ordered has twenty-one little links, so I thought we could get her one special charm for every year until she's twenty-one. It's really fun to think about starting entirely new traditions for her. Do you have any special traditions that you do every year? I love stufff like this.

*The mouse is Kathe Kruse; it was a gift so I'm not sure where it's from. And the little fake wood stove is from Plow & Hearth. :)