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. :)

Early Light comments: 152

Baby Santa Lucia. She is Norwegian by birth, Swedish and Italian by adoption. What a little love. She looks like she's fake sleeping in that last photo, and she is. She was up almost all day yesterday. That's only happened once before — usually she is a very reliable napper. She chuckled out loud to herself at one point. I burst out laughing. I think that's the first time that I've really seen her actually laughing. It was quite fleeting — like a big smile that got so big it made a noise and then turned into something else. It was awesome. I hope she does it again today!

*I made her dress from this pattern (it's in French, sorry!), and her shoes were made by a local designer called Little Deer many years ago (I used to carry them in my shop, when I had it, but I don't think she's making them anymore). I made the chevron blanket from this pattern. I don't know why I never put that on Ravelry. I should do that! :)

Winterlikes comments: 207

I like winter. I like wool socks and toasted oatmeal and the rocking chair in front of the fireplace and a warm little baby cheek on my chest. I like beeswax candles that smell like golden honey and glow through the evening. I like gray afternoon skies swollen with rain, and black birds that hop from fence to tree. I like nightlights that go on at dinnertime, and curry dinners that start early and end early, with Mexican hot chocolates at the end of them. I like travel shows about how Christmas is celebrated in other countries. I like piles of tiny wool undershirts and booties that don't fall off and baby blankets stacked in every room. I like tiny white lights that brighten every corner, and electric Swedish candles in every window. I like my pale gray flannel sheets. I like Medieval Christmas carols and a new stack of books about snow (I have this one and this one so far) on my night stand. I really like hours and hours of sitting with the baby in my arms, watching her tummy move up and down as she breathes, watching her rose-colored eyelids flutter as she dreams, feeling her fingers thread themselves through my fingers while she half-sleeps. I like tiny warm baby feet in my hand. I like little handmade stuffed-animals and dolls and little mice that wear sweaters and calico aprons. I like bunnies. I like plain white nightgowns with long sleeves. I like things with peppermint chips in them. I like Pillsbury sugar cookies decorated with buttercream frosting by kids. I like corgis that lean on you when they sleep, and stare longingly at you when they're awake. I like husbands that are great fathers. I like knitting with a baby asleep on my legs. And for the record, I like miracle snow, and if Brother North-wind wanted to send some this way this December, I'd do fifty pirouettes and faint with glee. Not that I want for anything at all, but . . . just saying.

*Her pink sweater and her Christmas dress, halfway done! I finished the stocking yesterday :) Yay!

Thanks Giving comments: 249

This Thanksgiving my heart is aglow with wonder, and a gratitude greater and more humbling than anything I've ever felt. Blessings abound, even in places I'd forgotten to look. As the holiday season comes upon us once again, I wish you and your family a slow, golden-warm, bounty-filled, truly joyous weekend. Thank you for being such a beautiful and important part of my life these past many years. I am sincerely grateful for you, and every single kind word, wish, and prayer you've ever sent our way. Thank you.

With very much love from all of us here,

Alicia, Andy, Amelia, Clover Meadow, and The Bee
Xoxoxo

Sweater Weather comments: 178

These golden days. It has been absolutely thrilling to go out walking together in the neighborhood and the park. We've walked down the road to get breakfast or lunch or coffee in various places every day. It sounds so simple but it feels like more than enough. I got this cute cape this year and I love it.

As you may know, my favorite genre of movies is Christmas movies. I am beyond excited that they have already started playing them on the Hallmark Channel (favorite channel). Some people don't like that they start so early but I do! Nevertheless, it's shocking that Thanksgiving is already the week after next. I'm pretty sure we are hosting it at our house because we usually do but I haven't even given it a thought yet. Since everything takes a lot longer now I should probably start thinking. Perhaps it will be a potluck this year. . . .

Such a very lot to be thankful for. Oh my stars. Sweet girl.

Just Us Girls comments: 259

It's just us girls home today. Nice and quiet. I made chicken stew and chicken stock while my mom and sister held the baby. I think those were the first things I've cooked in weeks and weeks. Something about the kitchen reminded me that I hadn't cooked in a while but now I can't remember what it was. I'm trying to put some of my normal activities back into my days, when I can. Cooking (I honestly haven't needed to at all). Reading at night before bed (just finished Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, which was strange, and strangely readable, and for some weird reason I just couldn't put it down). Need to knit something because knitting is like my multi-vitamin. I shouldn't go without it or I become unbalanced. I literally just cannot decide what to make. That has never happened to me before. Maybe this bonnet. It would be cute with a little bound edge and ties in Liberty lawn. I have the book with the pattern somewhere. We'll see if I can actually find it.

Baa Ram Ewe comments: 82

I feel like my Quill is never-ending. I truly wish I had kept track of how many hours I've spent working on this thing. The tally would be an impressive answer to the question that incredulous, goggle-eyed non-crafty people like to ask crafty people: "How long did it take you to do that?" With this one I'd say [incredulously, and with (bloodshot, half-crazed) goggle eyes] THREE THOUSAND HOURS. And then that'd be the end of that. And probably the end of the friendship, because clearly I don't have time to maintain friendships. Beause of the Quill. Agh.

We went to the sheep show (that's what we call it) over the weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend here. Crisp and clear and early autumn in all ways. I bought more yarn and felt more urgency than ever to finish Quill and start something else. I need to be smarter about how I'm picking my projects. I need to pick things that I can finish while I'm still happy with them. Not things that make me want to stuff them in bags and shove them toward the bottom of the closet when I'm 84% finished. I love the Quill but I cannot seem to memorize that lace edging. I have to stare at the chart the entire time I'm knitting. Not relaxing. Each little pointy thing is twelve rows (with only six rows to memorize, not counting the purl rows). Is that a lot? I'm gonna try again. It's getting colder now. I need this thing around my neck, not in my lap.

Plummy comments: 108

Hello! How are you? We are sleeeeeeepy puppies around here. I can't seem to get up and do anything productive thank goodness. I am having a wonderful day.

One of my dreams came true on Sunday night when the boys played "Tales of Coming News" at Edgefield. I apologize to anyone standing near me because I sang every word as loud as I could (we were standing right next to the speakers). The show was just awesome. It was our fourth year and fifth time seeing the Avett Brothers. The Crystal Ballroom show a couple of years ago (or maybe it was last summer?) was so great, but I have to agree with the people on the fanboards that Sunday night's setlist at Edgefield was epic. I can't say enough about how much I (we) love this band. In thinking about it, this song is probably more of a fans' song than a song that will make you fall in love with the band if you've never heard of them before. (They're repertoire is enormous, so you will find something.) But if you click on the video (and thank you again for sending it to me, Kari, and thank you marysstikal for posting it originally), be warned there's a guy in crowd who in the first few seconds of the video drops the f-bomb about five times in a row at the top of his lungs when he hears the opening notes he is so excited. I completely understand this.

Anyway.

All of those fabrics were from JoAnn's! All on sale, too! Two more new dresses for me. I am desperate for some fall clothes. I almost never buy clothes for myself but lately I want to. I've got new tights but now I need some clothes to go with them.

I love this book. A girl can dream.

I was thinking about fall colors. Stereotypical fall colors — that is, crispy golds and jewel-like reds and shocking oranges — are not really the fall colors I see out my windows. Here, our fall colors are dusky plums and russet reds and heathery grays and blue-ish greens. Not quite as brown and muted as winter's sunless, mossy, piney, muddy colors. But still somewhat dimmer, duller than classic, sassy red, or crackling-bright orange, or blazing yellow. Sunset-lit and smudged. We have these smoky-coated plums on the table. I picked some up off the street the other day while we were out walking in the neighborhood; a tree had dropped an entire branch in the road and there were piles of them all over the place, yellowy-blue, not quite ripe. I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. I put as many as I could fit into my coffee cup to take home. We have a plum tree (two actually) but the plums are nothing like these. (I wish they were like these.) I will take a macro picture of them so we can see them better.

I think I like fall. I think it's the shortest, and, in its own way, the most precious season in the Northwest. I hear a lot of people say that about summertime here, that it's the shortest and most precious season. But for me, the season I yearn for and try to hold on to is definitely fall. (Once the rains start, that's winter.) Andy is a summertime person. He really tries to stretch it out as long as possible. We have brilliant conversations about September:

Me: "That [whatever it is we happen to be talking about] will be in the fall, in September."
Him: "That's not fall, that's still summer."
Me: "September is fall."
Him: "No, it's summer."
Me: "No, it's fall."
Him: "No, it's summer."
Me: "No, it's fall."
Him: "No, it's summer."

I really can't tell you how many times we have had this conversation. We must like it.

He has a point. September sometimes feels as hot as July here. I sit in the hot wind and the fried up grass, holding my tights and my clogs, and hope the temperature will drop like a stone.

Late-Summer Slow comments: 59

The air conditioning was on, and then it was off. We sat in the river almost all day on Friday (the hottest), but by Saturday it was strangely cool and weirdly gray and wanted to rain (though it never really did). I sat in the dining room working and drinking hot chai in a long-sleeved blouse with the breeze blowing through all the windows so insistently that I was cold (and pleasantly confused, and pathetically relieved).

I made pasta with our gorgeous little tomatoes, pasta with olive oil and a little garlic, swirled around with the fresh tomatoes (which were so easy to peel, even raw, without blanching), a handful of basil (also from the garden), and big chunks of fresh mozzarella. Mama mia, that was some good dinner.

I keep forgetting to write out the chocolate cake recipe and the soup recipe! Okay, this week.

I did eat some Indian rice pudding. I could eat rice pudding every day if given the chance. I got mine from a take-out restaurant this weekend, but sometimes I make it.

Alicia's Kheer

4 c. milk
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

(I don't know if this is really a traditional kheer, but I like it.)

Rinse well and then soak basmati rice in cold water for a half an hour. Combine milk, rice, condensed milk, and sugar in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until milk is reduced by half and pudding is thick (or however you like it). Add cardamom, stir, and let cool to room temperature before serving.

I have a sleepy puppers on my lap right now. I wish I could lounge with her (actually, I wish I was that girl on the black pony up there) but we are in full ornament-kit production mode, so it's time for bad Lifetime movies, gallons of iced tea, and several hours of repetitive motion arranging little piles of wool felt. Love it!!!

Summer Sweetness comments: 98

August has a glow. There was twilight birdsong all around us in the field. I cried in the sunset. My sister's visit has been wonderful. The world spins and spins. The flowers. The nights. The years.