in the works

The weather warmed up. (we lost all of our snow)

 I spent the day in my studio.

Finally created something new. Whew. That felt good. 

Can't wait to get back home after rehearsal and play with these.

Ciao,

Amanda

Greet the morn

It's winter here. Full blown. Because of that.. I won't get up until the sun does. That makes it about 7:30 before I notice the light.

 But this morning, I got up a few minutes before. I was distracted by the pink glow on my way to the bathroom.

My new mantra..

how can you see the sunrise, if you don't get up before the sun?

It's cloudy and dull out now. But I stil have this to look at.l

And look at this bunch of happy! Coming in my mailbox. I'm so excited!

Thanks Tammy!

I have some finger puppets on the work table today.

Have a good one,

Amanda

Super Sock Monkey

Howdy!

We've had a break from the deep freeze today. My sewing room even warmed up enough to finish this guy's costume off!

But earlier in the week, when thinking of what to make as a bday present, it was much too freezing in there to sit at the sewing machine. But I wanted to keep my 3 year promise to make every bday gift. I've done pretty well, only a few bought ones over the years.

While looking around my studio, I found the socks and the pattern almost simultaneously. 

Voila, sitting and hand sewing by the fire it is!

 This pattern was brought to me from England, in a suitcase, on the airplane. Very thoughtful. thanks a bunch. The pattern comes from here.

I drew it out in pink chalk.

 My socks didn't have a red heel, so I sewed on some red felt for the mouth.

Then made jointed arms by using buttons.

Usually, I wouldn't use buttons in case of young children, but this is for a 7 year old.

 my signature on softies.. butt heart.

 My intention was to make a bow tie, scarf or monkey hat (maybe even a blond haired, blue eyed hat like the monkey hats everyone is wearing), but this super hero costume won out.

WHOSH!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Max! 

Hope you enjoy your new friend. Thanks for giving me a reason to make him. He's been waiting for you.

Cheers,

Amanda

Chai tea from scratch

A few days ago, I was lamenting that I couldn't find a good chai tea to buy. Just able to find it in bags. Not at all like the time I was introduced to chai on a cold, rainy May night at the Westwood Sailing Club. It was soooo sweet and delicious. 

I was starting to source where to buy the ingredients around here.

Then Pow... my husband found me this!

From Pete's Frootique in Wolfville! I somehow missed this delight on my quick walk thru town last month.

Look at this!!

 Red peppercorns. Cinnamon bark. Whole Cardamom.

 Boiling on the stove. Someone dropped by and commented on how good it smelled.

 See them all

Here are the directions:

 I prepared it as suggested. I was going to show you the picture in a rustic cup with the milk and such, but more company came and we just had to have it without pictures. 

(Another snow day here today. There was one on Friday. Cool. With my 20 years in Toronto, I think there were only 1 or 2 snow days where school was closed. As a teacher at the time, it was a drag, as sometimes, the drive to work was quite dangerous and stressful. We've had 2 in less than a week. Cool)

Now I have to prepare another batch. Oh chore! NOT. 

My chai craving has been satiated.

Cheers,

Amanda

Snow, snow, everywhere is snow

Continuing on with the weather report in Shelburne...

 Due to snowy and icy conditions..

 School is canceled today.

 Stay home and enjoy the snow.

I don't mind that. But I wish I had more of this...

My socks are done. And I've learned a lesson... check the dye lot, even if you buy the yarn at the same time from the same shelf.

But I love them anyway.

Ciao,

Amanda

Mud. Mud. Everywhere is mud!

Last month, we had a huge drop of snow. I even blogged about it. It was wonderful. It has melted.

Now that snow is replaced with mud.

 Everywhere! 

 Hey, I've been on this earth a time and am not new to mud. We used to play in it as a kid.

 So I've been wondering why I'm so intune to it these days.

 The ground is spongy. Soft. Squishy.  Why does this intrigue me so?

 Then it struck me. In the middle of a step.

 I'm walking on the ground. The earth. The dirt.

 Not the sidewalk. Not the road. Not some man made ground cover. But the earth.

Just like this creature. (what is this creature print by our front door? It's huge!)

Having just moved from living in the middle of a large city for 20 years, I was walking on the earth. 

There's lots of it here in our little piece of nature and town. Often times, there are only sidewalks on one side of the street. You walk on the dirt. 

And after a melted dump of snow or a rain, the earth is soft. And muddy.

But it's all a moot point today. Because today....

 We're having some of this!

What's happening where you are?
Ciao,

Amanda

A Minecraft Birthday Party

My boy turned 9 yesterday! NINE!!!

 

 A Minecraft Party was requested. The easiest way to create one of those is to look for other people's ideas! So I went here and made this board.

The Sunny By Design had some great things.

Here's my ode to Minecraft Party..

Creeper juice. Those little Chubby drinks. Paper torn off and faces put on.

 Torches= twisted pretzel sticks. I could have dipped the ends in red melted chocolate, but time got away from me. The slime balls were to be green jello squares, but that was left home in my fridge.

The zombie boogies were wasabi peas!

Sorry for blurry photo below. I started making little TNT bundles, then decided not to, putting them in a glass instead.
My favourite part of the party was when I exclaimed," there are still lots of fruits and veggies left. If you don't eat them now, I'm putting them in your loot bags!" There was a big woosh to the table and things were being eaten. :}

THe cake was a brownie instead of cake. I wanted to leave the edges un-iced and figured the brownie would be less crumby. The icing was Fluffy Boiled Frosting. It wasn't sweet at all. We made way too much for this cake, so I made meringue puffs and put them in the oven. Left those home too. 

 Here's a new thing I learned, to make meringue, you beat your egg whites, heat the oven to 350, put them in, turn the oven off and leave until the oven cools down. Easy peasy.

 The signs and grass leaves were from a Sizzix dies. The old ones, the big, honkin', thick ones. You can do it in the cuttlebug using a B plate on the bottom and top of the die. Don't use the A plate a t all.

We rented the local arena to let off some party energy.

 We go to the general skate at least once a week. this boy has come a long way in the past few weeks. He even looks like a skater now!

Dad and his boy.

 Everybody sing...... Happy Birthday to you!

 Loot bag time!

And the loot inside. I don't like giving loot bags with a bunch of little things. So I gave hand made creeper cookies that took 2 days and a trip to the local bakery to ice (Thanks Flying Fox), a CD of Minecraft Parodies. I googled that title on You Tube and gave it to my husband to do his magic. And then some other snacky things.

Birthday party's all over! 

(paper characters)

It was a fun one!

Edited May 8: WOW y'all are probably on a reading frenzy for minecraft party ideas.What we wouldn't do for our kids. At this time, I've had close to 10,000 hits on this post. In my world, that's a lot. People have been pinning my creeper juice bottles like crazy. Awesome. But look at my sidebar. Only 13 followers. Makes me feel kinda lonely. Wanna join the party on my blog? Bookmark or follow me to see what else I've been up to. I've made ninja peggies too! You can use those for the next party.

Cheers,

Amanda