you didn't think I'd leave you haging on that cookie recipe, did you?

March 26, 2008 by Lauren in food, glorious food

Easter Sugar Cookies (from the back of the Williams Sonoma box that the cookie cutters came in)

5 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter

6 oz cream cheese (we used a whole pack, so sue us)

2 cups sugar

2 egg yolks

2 Tbs. vanilla extract

Have all ingredients at room temperature.
Sift flour and sugar over a sheet of parchment paper and set aside.
Fit a flat beater to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat the butter on medium for 1 minute. Add cream cheese and continue beating until smooth (about 2 minutes). Add the sugar, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy and yellow, about three minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three additions, beating each addition before adding more. Beat until just combined, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface. Using floured hands, form the dough into a smooth mound and divide into two equal portions. Shape each into a disk and wrap separately with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for three hours or up to 2 days.
Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove 1 dough disk at a time from the refrigerator and let stand for 10 minutes. Place dough on a clean work surface and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.
After rolling and cutting out, place on lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the cookies until lightly golden on the edges. (The box says 16-18 minutes, but it took us Mom about 14 minutes...~~our~~ her cookies were thinner though.
Let cool completely before icing. (We used a buttercream icing from Mark Bitman's How to Cook Everything.) The box says that the recipe should make 8 of each of the four shapes in the box...but we got about 46 cookies out of one the disks of dough.
Gobble, gobble.

You can thank me anytime...

knitted bliss

March 25, 2008 by Lauren in my own family, sometimes I make things

Never, in a million years, did I expect these words to come out of my child's mouth:

"I am obsessed with knitting."

And you know what? He pretty much is. I'm thrilled about this on several levels, not least of which is that the first time or two I tried to teach him were most decidedly unsuccessful. For my dexterity challenged son, this is a huge accomplishment, and I'm proud to say that he has more than risen to it. Given what a lousy teacher his mother is, his feat was even more momentous.

Not wanting to stop there, we decided to teach Ama how to knit too. We spent several lovely hours in front of the fire on a chilly Easter morning just...knitting.

Callum really wanted the whole family to be knitting, but alas, this is as far as Neel got. (And really, why "alas"? He was bitching and moaning the whole way. Much better to keep his hands free to poke the fire.)

Despite the inevitable tangles, I couldn't be happier. It's thrilling to hear him say, "Oh good! We can knit while we watch the basketball game!" And as we were reading The Phantom Toolbooth last night, I looked down to see his hands trying each gesture, his index fingers as needles. It's more than just the knitting really, it's this boy getting his fingers to do the little things he wants them too.

Of course none of this would be possible without the dedicated assistance of our noble friend.

what Easter meant

March 24, 2008 by Lauren in food, glorious food, my own family, this little life of mine

Requisite basket.

Requisite egg-dyeing.

Optional, but totally necessary, cookie baking. Oh my gosh, those cookies are good. Aren't they pretty too? We used a cookie decorating kit that my mom brought along with the egg decorating kit. Both were from Williams-Sonoma, and while short on directions, they were loads of fun. The cookie recipe came on the back of the box of cookie cutters, and can I just say, cream cheese? Oh, delish. We have a tried and true cookie cutter recipe that has seen this family through generations of Christmases and Valentine's Day. This new recipe may have trumped that. It's hard to feel nostalgic for Joy of Cooking's rich roll cookies when there's cream cheese involved.

And then there was dinner. Roasted corn casserole, asparagus with almond-lemon butter and ham with a molasses-coffee glaze. The glaze made it, really. Not too sweet, slightly smoky with a coffee undertone.

Good dinner, good day, good times.

The best Easter present of all was the first-of-spring arrival of our very first nephew! Welcome to the world Baby Kieran Sebastian! We haven't even met him and we're in love with him already.

kissed

March 19, 2008 by Lauren in this little life of mine

We're being kissed by spring today. Here's a little Wordsworth to celebrate:

It is the first mild day of March:

Each sweeter than the day before,

The red-breast sings from the tall larch

That stands beside our door.

There is a blessing in the air,

Which seems a sense of joy to yield

To the bare trees, and the mountains bare,

And grass in the green field.

Seriouly folks, it is lovely out. About seventy five degrees and so breezy. The kind of wind that is blowing all the winter away. Jonquils are nodding, cherry blossoms are blustering. I'm reminded of one of my favorite childhood books called Hamilton Duck's Springtime Story. Callum has it, I think, up in his room. I'll have to find our copy.

This is the kind of weather that makes me want to change all sorts of things in my house and paint every room a bright, sunny yellow. Like this and this. My mom's coming for a visit tomorrow and we're thinking of all sorts of fun things to do, and I wickedly want to add, "paint the dining room" to the list. You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you mom? I've never been totally happy with the color (don't tell Neel), and as the sun is higher in the sky and the air is blowing warm life back into us, it feels dark and heavy in there. (And you know, I totally thought I'd written a post about my secret dislike of the dining room color, but I can't find it anywhere. Clearly this is a simmering-below-the-surface issue for me.)

So as the clouds skuttle across a wind-swept sky and the jonquils and grape hyacinth nod in the breeze (must. get. photos. of. grape. hyacinth. tomorrow.), I want my inner space to reflect the same light. I'm thinking a clear, shining blue. For spring.

However, they are calling for snow on Monday.

our weekend

March 18, 2008 by Lauren in I can tell that we are gonna be friends

In which Mark takes a nap at three o'clock and learns that too much info on the Internet can be dangerous and Neel CAN be pushed too far.

We had some very dear friends make the trek south for a visit this past weekend. (I won't say "old" friends, because I don't want to be reminded of how much older we all are. Although it's kinda fun to remind you how much older you are, Mark. Fred just manages to keep his girlish figure.) We've known each other for a long, long time, and it's such an amazing thing to pick up the threads of friendship over and over again. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Except we're all so much older. And we have kids. How weird is that?

These are, in essence, the people I grew up with. We all knew each other when Neel was in graduate school, and he and I lived in our first apartment together. How many bottles of wine did we drink over those five years? How many trips to Ikea? Mark, remember that time that we stopped in Pottery Barn on the way home from Ikea? Before Pottery Barn was big? And expensive? We each bought a bunch of stuff. I still have the lamps I bought. What did you get?

The drunkest I have ever been was at Mark's apartment (ahh Riverview, how I miss you) when a bunch of us had dinner together and managed to consume five or so bottles of wine. It wasn't until the next day that we realized that Mark, Neel and I were the only ones drinking. Three people + five bottles of wine = one helluva hangover. We started having dinner parties with those guys. It's when I started cooking, really. While Neel was at the lab, I could spend all day getting my apartment ready, going to the farmer's market to get food and flowers, choosing music and cleaning. At dinner we'd sit and talk and eat and drink for hours.

This weekend was a lot like that. More of the same. Mostly. More kids, less wine.

We went to a Chinese Friendship garden...

and a battleship.

We were oddly fascinated with an egg-drop contest. Look how serious those guys look! "And the egg survived!"

We went antiquing and made a great dinner. We compared notes on Project Runway and watched Top Chef. Fred and I talked about sewing (When is your final exam, Freddy?) and Mark and I talked about houses.

The kids played and played. No squabbles, no fights.

Like I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Thanks for a great weekend, guys. We'll get up there soon. Call me when it's warm.

Irish eyes

March 17, 2008 by Lauren in my own family

Neel's mom was Irish (she's the lassie on the right). She immigrated to the US in the early sixties where she met Neel's dad who is Indian. Our family joke is that they fell in love over their united hatred of the British. She was born in 1939 in Southern Ireland and had memories of seeing Nazi ships (and British ships) come into the harbor near where she lived. Neel's granddad, her father, had general store on the border of Southern and Northern Ireland, and she and her brothers and sisters would sneak goods across the border into the north. Her siblings ended up as nurses, a drunk and a priest. How much more Irish can you get?

It's no wonder that we all feel a little greener today. We celebrated yesterday with corned beef and cabbage (not actually an Irish dish) and Guinness (extra stout!), and today, I'll leave you to celebrate with this. A poem by one of my favorites and of the Ireland's greatest.

When You are Old, William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with a love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the shadows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

three bad dogs

March 13, 2008 by Lauren in the pups

They're pretty cute, huh?

Pretty guilty, I'd say.

We really had this escape-business resolved. Good dogs, one and all. Violet and Thea are the worst. Lucy has been so good. She'll even tell us if the other two get out.

Not today. These three broke, and I say that literally, through the bottom panel of our fence into the worst possible, most inaccessible, the world's-a-scary-place place. Damn dogs. So here I am, yelling, yelling, yelling. Down on my knees, peering through the broken fence as they run and frolic in the backyard behind ours. Aside from the fact that I'm still in my jammies, I can't get there from here.

Thea comes back. Back through the breach, and submits to me (and well she should). Violet and Lucy still running and they will not come. The lady in the house whose yard they're so enjoying calls to me from her doorway, "The little one is here, but I don't know where the other one went."

Great.

So I bring Thea in, run to the car (did I mention that I'm in my jammies?) and drive around the block to find both Lucy and Violet trotting down the street towards me. I open the car door and right away Lucy jumps in. Violet seems hesitant but is near enough for me to grab her collar, and in she goes as well.

My mouth was dry, my heart pounding and here they are, wag, wag wag and wreathed in doggie smiles. So much for my restful morning at home.

Can you believe they are still asking to go out?

remiss

March 12, 2008 by Lauren in this little life of mine

Aren't those flowers pretty? They came from a birthday party we attended this weekend, a friend of ours turning sixty. It was a lovely party with dress up and a swing band and dancing. Neel joked that he should have bought me a wrist corsage. Getting ready reminded me of this old "cotton" commercial. Remember those, "The touch, the feel of cotton. The fabric of your life."? In one, a mom and dad are getting all dressed up, ready for a wedding maybe, and the kids are jumping on the bed and admiring their parents. It's sweet. You can somehow tell that the mom and dad don't get dressed up that much, and that it's as exciting for the children of the family to watch as it is for the parents to do it. (Callum liked to see us dressed up, but he was mostly irritated at having to come inside from playing with his friends in order to go out and play with other friends. Whatever.)

It was a fun night. The birthday girl, who is in a band, sang at her own party, and her husband and son gave a really lovely and touching tribute. Still, the bar closed at 10, and by 10:15 we were ready to go. When we went to say good-bye, she handed each of us one of the centerpieces. We didn't realize until we were outside that the vases were glowing with a lovely pink light. I held the beautiful rosy orb on my lap the whole way home.

I realized over the past few days that I haven't been paying attention to things the way I need to for the blog. Not the way I used to, at least. I once read this really sweet book called My Sweet Folly (chick lit, I unabashedly admit it) where the two main characters meet (and of course fall in love) through letters. Folie, the woman, talks about how her whole world revolved around those letters. What she would say in them, how she would write about her life to show her world to this far away man. "This is how I polish the silver..." she would think, thus imbuing her most mundane tasks with thoughts of him.

That's how the blog used to be for me, until I lost my way. I've spent so many ridiculous moments thinking, "Oh, I have nothing to write about..." I'm realizing though that it's just the writing that's so important. The open window, allowing you in. So instead of thinking about what to say, it's enough just to say these things. The simplest parts of our lives, like how I didn't feel like going to yoga last night, that I just wanted to be with my family. That while I like the new spring masthead, I don't love it, and I may make one using a photo of these flowers. And how we had a salad for dinner that we've been making since Callum was a newborn. And after dinner Neel and Callum played jump rope games until the dark and chill sent them inside.

All that, and these flowers, are sometimes enough. I'm paying attention again.

hooray for headbands, and I mean that, really

March 03, 2008 by Lauren in sometimes I make things

You can't imagine what it's taken to get me to this headband-loving place in my life. First I had to get rid of the headaches. Seriously. And this is probably a whole other "before/after" kind of post, one I've been thinking about writing for quite awhile, but, in brief, headbands used to give me headaches, and I had to stop getting headaches in order to be able to wear headbands. There was a whole long twenty three years of non-headband wearing there for me. Sad, but true.

Now that I can wear headbands, and in fact need to wear headbands (thank you hot yoga, my sweat tastes DELICIOUS), I have discovered something very interesting. I must have a really small head. Any headbands I've tried, including the super-tight, intense sport-grip headband, slide up the back of my head. (It's either the smallness of my head - whatever - or the slope of the back of my head. Seriously, can you believe I spend time thinking about these things? You all probably know me well enough by now to make that much perfectly believable. Ahem.)

Heather Bailey to the rescue. She has a great headband tutorial that has, get this... TIES in the back in addition to the elastic. TIES! What a great idea. They were super fast and easy to whip up, and gave me the perfect excuse to A) keep on keepin' on with the sewing thing and B) use the awesome pincushion ring that Megan gave me for Christmas this year. I think it looks like a funky little alien on my finger and I love it.

Almost as soon as I trimmed the threads, I yanked back my bangs with it and headed to yoga for a test run. Can I say that my headband rocked? It rocked. Just tight enough, because of the TIES, I suspect. So perfect that I went straight home and made one for Jean. That's the one you see up there. She was tired of eating her own sweat too. So hooray for headbands. In all sorts of ways. If you know what I mean.

I couldn't have said it better myself...

March 01, 2008 by Lauren in I can tell that we are gonna be friends, food, glorious food

To all my dear friends, please go here for a little treat. And then all I have to ask is, when is the party?

this is not a food blog

February 29, 2008 by Lauren in food, glorious food, this little life of mine

I really don't mean to write about food every night. But last night's dinner was so pretty, I just had to share it with you guys. Caramelized onion and Brie quesadillas with brown buttered corn (from Orangette, see the blogroll) and sliced avocado. It's all pretty straightforward (and tasty!), so I don't think you'll need a recipe, but if you want one give me a holler.

I love taking pictures on my kitchen island. Not the best photographic tableaux by any stretch, but the heart of our home, for sure. While I made this dinner the dogs were scrabbling at the kitchen door, there was homework being done, I chatted with a friend (and with both of our husbands chiming in, we may as well have been on speaker phone), and the butter sizzled away in the background. Thursday night's all right with me. Thursday night's all right, oh yeah.

winter, round here

February 28, 2008 by Lauren in this little life of mine

One of the things I knew I'd miss most about leaving San Diego (land of eternal summer) were the year-round flowers, but you know, a place isn't too bad when you can come home to this during the dark and chill of January and February. This is my Winter Blooming Daphne, and in a few years when we have scratch and sniff blogging, you'll see how divinely it smells. I know it's coming every January, and it's waiting by the front porch for us to come home every evening.

Another midwinter treat is our backyard camellia. The two we have soar as high as our second story windows, and I love them. Camellias are great because they come in so many varieties, some blooming at Thanksgiving, some through these dark and cold days. Really, I'd love a few more. That's a broad hint Neel, garden-man.

A February kiss. Tide-over until Azalea time.

First. Pot Pie. Ever.

February 26, 2008 by Lauren in food, glorious food

I've had this yen to make a pot pie, which I've never made before. It seemed like the perfect Sunday night kind of meal. We should probably have been seated more formally at the dining room table, with all of the accompanying side dishes and water goblets handy, but Neel worked on our taxes all day, and hey the Oscars were on (oh my god, did you see Gary Busey, who I totally thought was Nick Nolte, nearly attack Jennifer Garner?), so we ate in front of the t.v. You would have done the same, admit it.

It's Ellie again. I have to say, I am really liking this cookbook. Haven't met a recipe I didn't like. And I loved what she had to say about pot pie...with phyllo dough, no less. Her thought is no carrots. She uses leeks and celery and green beans and peas (although I was low on peas, so we did more green beans and more leeks). She likes the look of all green without the, dare I say, garish (Am I really talking in all italics today? It seems so coy. And really, that's not particularly my mood.) addition of the carrot. This is a woman whose thinking is right up my alley.

I do not like cooked carrots. No, Dad. I will not try them this time and I will not like them.
I agree with Ellie. The orange of the carrot stands out in a way that doesn't thrill me. I love that Ellie is thinking about how the dish looks as much as about how it tastes, and for me, all that green and creamy white is the way to go.

If it looks a little soupy, at first it was, but it thickened up quite nicely. I added a little more salt and pepper too. And I apologize for the crappy lighting. Now go get the book and make something you crave for dinner.

rice-pillow row

February 25, 2008 by Lauren in sometimes I make things

I've been inching my way back into the Blue Rain Room. Ever so slowly. Despite our damp and chilly weekend, it must be a spring thing. Have I said it before? I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Whine, whine, whine. My friend Marianne, who makes jewelry, makes these beautiful labradorite necklaces and earrings. I have a pair of earrings, and the stones have a beautiful blue-grey iridescence. Labradorite is supposed to help you find your true purpose, and seriously right now those earrings are not enough. I want her to make me a freaking tiara.

Part of me says, just accept it that you're a crafting dabbler. The urge comes and goes. You can put colors together and make some nice things, but as far as any real skill, eh. Would I love to be an Alicia or an Amy? And write books and have a little etsy.com shop? To spend my days thinking about my life and writing about it on this blog and capturing it on film. To write books? Books?!? God, yes. Oh, god yes. But instead I get lazy and knit rectangles of scarves rather than challenging myself to do more. I rush to go to work and cook dinners and watch Project Runway, and I yell about homework and I don't vacuum enough. And I think that if I had a real creative spark, I'd be up in the Blue Rain Room every second I could. I wouldn't just pass through on my way to fold laundry. I'd have genuine ideas of my own instead of shades of copies of everyone else's.

I'm hard on myself, I know. This is where my friend Sarah and I would say, "If I'm not going to be hard on myself, who will?" (Hey buddy! I'll e-mail you back soon, I promise!) But I've been thinking this way a lot lately. Thinking more than doing. In my more rational moments, I realize that I've had a strong creative push at work this fall and winter, and that it's hard to be creative in too many places at once. So, okay. I don't feel okay about it, but I guess I have to be. I'm still trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing here, anyway.

So this weekend I dipped my toe back in the work. I saw these rice pillows over on wisecraft, and I loved them. So of course I stole the idea (totally giving credit, of course, and hey, she posts instructions right there on the blog). I made one as a quick birthday present for a friend who's having a rough month, and after that we were off and running. Back in another life, when I was a labor support doula, I made literal rice socks for all of my clients. I wish I could have sewn these back then. Super-duper easy. Seam, seam, seam, you're done. I have one with lavender, and two without. I'll send one of the unscented ones to my sister-in-law who is on bedrest and due with her first baby in a few weeks. If I had more lavender, I would have made about a million more. As soon as I pick some up, I will. Rice pillows for everyone.

Maybe if I drape one over my own shoulders (2 minutes in the microwave), I'll slow down and relax a bit. It's just the tiniest bit possible that I could go a little easier on myself.

fast-food dinner

February 21, 2008 by Lauren in food, glorious food

La, what busy days these have been. The last two weeks have seen us home very little in the evenings, and despite the fact that two nights a week are taken up with a yoga class that I'm enjoying very much, this is not a pattern that I want to continue for long. Rushing, rushing is not my scene.

Blogging is suffering, knitting is suffering, Project Runway-watching is suffering. Our dinners are suffering too (not to mention my mood!), they're harried and on the run: a learning process all over again.

I'm lucky to know a lot of amazing women (and men) who really care about food and cooking. We think and talk about it a lot. Soon after I got my friend Shoshana The Gluten Free Girl (and a whole post will be written about that book as soon as I buy a copy for myself!), for her birthday, she told me about Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave. We were supposed to be having a meeting, but we spent an hour pouring over recipes instead. Productive, still, ya know? I had to go and buy my own copy right away. I supposed I could have borrowed hers, but I like owning things, and really a cookbook, if you like it, is something you should own. I've made two things from it so far and both have been great. First was "Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta" (page 234 for those of you following along at home). We all went into raptures over that one. A one pot meal. My god.

Then I made this salad.

Chickpea and Spinach Salad with Cumin Dressing (page 132.) The pasta you see there was fine, really. Gorgonzola and walnut with a cheese sauce, but out of a bag from Trader Joe's. Like I said, fine, really. It's how we're doing dinner these busy days. Halfway convenience, halfway homemade. The salad more than made up. Fast and flavorful. Even Callum said he preferred it to the pasta. I'm definitely working it into the rotation.

Chickpea and Spinach Salad with Cumin Dressing

1 can chickpeas
2 T parsley
1/4 cup diced red onion
2 T olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 t ground cumin
pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
3 T non fat yogurt
1 T orange juice
1/4 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 teaspoon honey
2 cups lightly packed baby spinach

1 T coarsely chopped fresh mint

1. In a medium bowl combine chickpeas, parsley and onion. In a smaller bowl whisk together oil, lemon juice and zest, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over chickpea mixture and toss to coat

2. In another bowl stir together yogurt, orange juice, zest and honey.

3. Serve chickpea mix over spinach and toss. Top with yogurt and garnish with mint.

flying solo

February 18, 2008 by Lauren in this little life of mine

Well, they're all looking out the back door, but the truth of the matter is that we're all just waiting for Neel and Callum to get home.

While the boys headed up to Neel's parent's for the weekend, I got some much-needed solo time in. I can't say that I was particularly productive by any stretch, but I had a lovely time of it. The perfect combination of solitude and company. Dinner with my friend Jean, a movie with my friend Rebecca. A riveting America's Next Top Model marathon on MTV (now that's the kind of watching I can't do with an eight year old son around!). I did a little dress shopping (no luck), a little cleaning (we'll see how long it lasts once the boys arrive back home), some knitting, some sewing, and a lot of lounging around.

We had thunderstorms last night and all three dogs quaked around me, but I imagine that any minute those tails will start wagging furiously. Time to myself is a luxury anymore, and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated. More than that though, I'm ready for the return of my family.

funny valentine

February 14, 2008 by Lauren in this little life of mine

Happy Valentine's Day! I know I've been MIA lately... feeling a little lost, a little like I needed a break, and then a lot busy, but I've missed my funny little blog.

I dreamed of snow last night, and we woke up to this. Enough of a dusting (in these southern parts) to give us a two-hour school delay. We needed the break, let me tell you. So a leisurely morning here, and the right back at it.

So maybe a little lost and funny-feeling still. Maybe still needing a bit of a break, but I couldn't let Valentine's Day pass without blowing a little kiss to my all my sweetest ones... I'll be back at it soon, I promise.

mark your calendars

January 31, 2008 by Lauren in my own family, the boy, this little life of mine

...For May 4th where Callum will play the role of the Lion in our school's production of The Wizard of Oz.

I've been feeling pretty low the past few days, but this news perked us right up! Callum kept asking if it was a big part and Neel had to dash out and bring home Judy Garland. The Civil War will linger on one night longer.

Oh, and if you head over to npr.org there's a cool article about extreme knitting. Makes me feel like a total slacker for being on such scarf kick these days. Rectangle, rectangle, rectangle. Blah, blah, blah. Sort of how I've been feeling lately. Blah.

I'm going to click my heels together and hope for sunnier skies tomorrow.

hat-tastic

January 29, 2008 by Lauren in sometimes I make things

oh sunday, I love you

January 27, 2008 by Lauren in this little life of mine

Oh, my whole weekend was great, actually. Just one of those normal, run-of-the-mill weekends made up of everyday kind of stuff like Trader Joe's, and karate lessons, and the grocery store, and helping Rebecca pick out an appetizer for her impromptu cocktail party. I must have needed normal, run-of-the-mill because it felt so nice. On Saturday night, we threw a pork tenderloin on the grill and split a bottle of wine in front of disk one of Ken Burns' Civil War , (Neel's birthday present) just a perfect evening. Yesterday I booted Neel and Callum outside and headed up to the Blue Rain Room. That was nice too.

I wised up pretty quickly and plugged this in while I organized my fabric stash. Hello, Daniel Craig.

It's no James Bond, but prettier now. I was hoping that pawing through all the stash would make me feel plump with fabric, but mostly I just want to go to the fabric store. I'm feeling a Valentine's Day apron in my future.

I spent some time trying to tame this...

Into this...

And I'm still not there yet. Ummm, I love chenille. We had some egg tostadas and watched more of the Civil War for dinner last night. By the end of the evening Callum started to tank. He's really stuffy and does pathetic SO well. We went up to bed at the same time, and I told him he could read in my bed for awhile before going to sleep. He said instead, "No, I just want to look at you." Okay. Well. That's relaxing. Here's to a relaxing start to the week.