Getting There

A lesson learned.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I'm happy to report that although it's been warm and rainy all week here in Southern Ontario, it is actually snowing this morning! We'll see how long it lasts.

Our Christmas was nice, although unfortunately we all had a light touch of the stomach flu all week, which meant we couldn't visit with family, which was disappointing.

We had another disappointment, one which taught us a lesson. Regular readers of this blog will know that we love handmade gifts. We try to make them, we try to buy them. And we sell our handmade toys on Etsy. Handmade gifts are, in my opinion, better quality and almost always more special.

However, there are times when it seems that a store-bought gift would fit the bill. This Christmas, for example, we bought a remote control monster truck for Owen. Now, we normally don't buy toys like this, especially ones that require constantly buying new batteries. But our son had been asking for one of these for quite some time now. So we decided to buy it, and felt pleased when we imagined how happy he would be on Christmas morning.

We should have known better, of course. I thought that spending $60 on a toy would mean it would be decent quality...but this thing was total junk. It broke literally within minutes of being taken out of the box--it would go forward but would no longer steer side to side. It's going back to Sears; Owen is understandably upset. All the more so because last year the small remote control truck my sister bought him also broke on Christmas day--it literally fell apart, the wheels fell off and everything. That one was much cheaper though, so I thought we would be safe this time.

We are really disgusted that even a $60 toy can't last a single day, even a single hour without breaking. But lesson learned. We are going to be much more careful about what goes under the tree next year. Every Christmas, we try to squeak through just one or two toys mass-produced in a factory overseas, and every time the item has ended up breaking within a week. (The only exception we have found are the metal Thomas trains, which actually hold up well to extended play. But the important thing to note is they are not plastic.)

It's really sad, because I can imagine how many little children across North America are heartbroken already because their new Christmas toys broke immediately. And all of those broken toys will end up in a landfill, after having served no purpose but to disappoint a child (and to make profit for someone somewhere.) Chris and I both agree that it seems unfair to the children of today. When we were growing up back in the 1980s, toys were much better quality and our Christmas presents could be expected to last.

I don't want to be too negative--we had a lovely Christmas, we ate a lot of good food and laughed a great deal too. I just wanted to share this lesson about consumer goods that we apparently needed to learn one more time!

I was surprised with a handmade gift I was not expecting - Chris made me a maple cutting board with a trough, for carving roast meat. I was so pleased! I have wanted one like this for some time, and this one is so thick and sturdy I imagine it will last forever.

I know I've said this before, but I'm so glad I have a husband who is a woodworker! :)

I also was blessed with two books which I enjoyed from the public library, and wanted to add to my own shelf: The Self Sufficient Gardener and The Art of Simple Food. I'm so happy about both of these books, which I love.

(Please, no one notice the crumbs on that chair...)

Today, it feels like Christmas is really over because Chris is back to work. I'm going to spend the day cleaning and putting things back to rights. Perhaps that doesn't sound like too much fun, but I'm looking forward to it!

Warm holiday wishes to all my readers around the globe...

The Perfect Christmas Cookie.

Only ten days to go until Christmas! I am just getting started on my baking - it has been a difficult few weeks for our family, as the flu really wiped us out for a good while. I think we are all past the worst of it now, though, and I am starting to get back in the mood for holiday things. (At least as well as I can being serverely sleep deprived. Amy has surely taken the prize for my Baby Who Sleeps Less Than I Would Have Thought Humanly Possible. What an accomplishment.)

The first thing I baked was these cookies. It is a recipe my mom made every year when I was growing up. I figured it was time for me to carry on the torch, so I gave them a try this year - and found that they turned out just perfectly! I guess it's hard to go wrong when they contain that much butter...

These cookies absolutely melt in your mouth and have such a delicious flavour. They look pretty, too, and are perfect for gift giving in a festive tin.

This recipe is fairly small - it only made 18 cookies for me, so you might want to double it!

The Perfect Christmas Cookie

1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
candied cherries
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar. (Since I used my homemade brown sugar with the larger organic crystals, it didn't dissolve, but it worked just fine.) Add yolks and vanilla and mix well. Mix in flour with a wooden spoon - it will look a bit crumbly.

Squish and roll bits of dough in your hands to make small balls. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, press them down a little bit and indent the centre of each cookie with your thumb.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool.

Place one candied cherry on the top of each cookie. Make icing: mix together icing sugar, almond extract, and enough water to make of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cookies. Try to not eat them all today.

What is everyone else baking lately? Please share!

Hit by the flu.

I guess it's that time of year. A few weeks ago Kira came down with the flu. Then last week, Chris got sick...he got it the worst of all of us, and had to take a day off work to just sleep. Jasper was very sick last weekend too. A few days ago Owen started with the fever and cough and sore throat, and today I find my throat is sore and scratchy, and I feel weak and dizzy...humph. I thought I was going to fight it off, but I guess not. Perhaps it has something to do with getting only about 5 hours of (broken) sleep the last couple of nights.

Amazingly, Amy has not gotten sick...surprising considering the number of kisses she gets on a daily basis!

Last weekend when I was walking quickly into the grocery store an elderly gentlemen took one look at me, made a gesture moving his hands towards the ground and said (with a smile) "Slow down! Slow down!" I didn't respond; it sort of stunned me for a moment, but once I was in the store I got it and started giggling. I must have looked silly speed walking into the store so seriously. I resvoled anew to stop rushing around and start taking on my daily tasks at a gentler pace.

This sickness has certainly forced me to maintain that resolution. The way this flu bug has picked us off one at a time, and then lingered...we have had sickness in the house for weeks now and it's still going. We haven't gone anywhere (other than me to the grocery store and Chris to work), and our homeschool activities have been put on hold...we've all just been basically hibernating here, reading, relaxing, playing video games, making paper snowflakes...actually it's been rather nice, fevers and runny noses aside.

I put some winter and Christmas books into a thrifted basket...I rather like how it looks. (Once the holidays are over, these books will go away until next year.)

My Christmas shopping is done too, which helps me to feel relaxed--although I haven't made any headway on the quilt. I thought I would just try to do the top and give that to Jasper on Christmas morning, but alas! When I went to press the very first seam with the iron, the fabric wrinkled and melted. I guess some of the scraps I had received were polyester. I am not sure if it's a good idea, but I have decided to proceed, and just keep the iron on low...wish me luck. :)

Today we woke up to the very first snow fall--it's the first time the snow has stayed on the ground, anyway. As I was looking out of the window at the lovely snow-covered branches I saw two "V" formations of Canada geese flying due south. I guess winter is truly here...and like every year, now is the time to put on some slippers and spend some quiet, restful time in the house. I'm going to be shutting down our Etsy shop for a holiday break in a few days, too, and I'm looking forward to that.

I do hope though, that we'll be free of this flu bug before Christmas arrives! Has anyone else been hit by the flu?

December already!

I can't believe it is December already!

I remembered at bedtime last night that I needed to get out and tie up the little Advent bags I made last year...it didn't seem real to me that the end of November had come so fast.

(I put something special in one bag each night leading up to Christmas.)

It also doesn't look like the holiday season outside--we had so much rain lately, that yesterday we had quite an impressive flood out behind our house. And so far we have had only an extremely light dusting of snow which didn't last.

But, the calendar does say December 1st. Yikes!

You know, a little while ago I was in the dollar store (buying some Christmas tins to use for giving baked goods to Kira's friends). It was very busy, and I couldn't get over the feeling of almost panic that I sensed there. The feeling that I sense in every store this time of year. Everyone is frantically trying (or so it seems to me) to buy everything they need before it's too late. It is a very unpleasant feeling in the air. I would like to say that I am beyond all that holiday anxiety, but it wouldn't be true. I admit, I feel anxious right now too. I may not buy very many things, but there are so many things I would like to make for Christmas and I know I will get little of it done. It just seems that there are too many things going on in my life--all good things, but still. Sometimes I feel like I have more blessings than I can take!

(Actually, I have been considering lately giving up blogging. I love it, but I just have so much to do, and I seem to be having a harder and harder time, since the baby was born, to find time for it. I haven't made any decisions yet, just thinking about it.)

It's strange, that this time of year, when the darkness and cold should be forcing us to slow down and hibernate, we instead pick up the pace, rush around buying things, baking things, making things. Even for someone like me who is trying to keep our holidays low key--I am not even exchanging gifts with the extended family, and we will only be attending one party this year--I still have a lot to do. I can't tell you about the projects I want to do, of course, for those children of mine who can read.

I will say though, the quilt I am making for Jasper is simply NOT coming along at all. Day after day I try to find time to work on it, but it doesn't happen...but somehow the kids manage to spend time in my work room even if I don't, and mess it up to the point where I'm going to have to clean it for half an hour before I will be able to do anything. *sigh*

It doesn't help that Amy just cut another tooth. I am just not getting enough sleep. My energy levels are not what they should be, despite all the vitamins I take and the water I drink. I know all the moms out there understand, so I won't complain any more. :)

One project I hope I'll have time for is making some festive garlands to decorate up the house--I'd like to use some fabric scraps I have to make a yo-yo garland or two, like this one I saw here:

I feel so lucky that earlier this year, a friend gave me a big stack of Christmas fabric squares, among other fabric. I know I will be using up these bits for years to come!

Of course, December also means baking. I have a list of things I want to make: Chocolate covered pretzels, like we make every year, candy cane bark, date squares, truffles, sugar cookies, and cherry shortbread. Nothing in the list is too complicated, I should be able to manage it all.

Does anyone have a favourite truffle recipe they'd like to share? I think maybe when I get started on my baking, I'll make the truffles first...I could use a few myself. :)

By the way, for anyone who wants to spend some time reading with a big mug of tea...the Winter edition of Rhythym of the Home is up (our Etsy shop is a sponsor there). For those not familiar with it, it's a quarterly magazine for parents filled with lovely seasonal craft ideas, recipes, interviews, and articles about family life and celebrations. Just throwing that out there!

Handmade Holiday.

So, I have not gotten very far with Jasper's quilt yet...life has been so busy. I really doubt now that I will get it done in time for Christmas. And I don't think I will have time for any other handmade gifts this year either. I know there are moms out there with more children than me, who manage to homeschool and blog and still have time to knit and sew amazing gifts. But I am not one of those.

But I love the idea of handmade gifts for the holidays. So I have been buying a few handmade things this year from Etsy. Can I share?

I already have this doll, made with organic cotton, for Amy. Isn't it sweet? It was made by Andreann, a lovely young mom in Quebec.

For Amy I am also going to be ordering some baby shoes like these, from a homesteader named Annie.

Jasper is in love with horses, especially Spirit (from the movie of the same name), so I am so excited to give him a horse like this one.

You may have noticed the buttons on my sidebar. Those aren't sponsors, just friends of mine whose work I want to share! There is Tonya whose family sells toys, buttons, and decor items made from beautiful birch branches at The Vermont Branch Company. My farming friend Lindsay (someone whom I actually know "in real life!") has an Etsy shop selling her lovely knitted creations, Trinity Fibrecraft. And a new friend is Mary, who is one of eleven siblings who homestead with their parents and sell handmade toys, soap, and much more in their shop, Home 'n Stead. This is where I found the horse that I am getting Jasper. Although it's out of my price range, I can't resist showing you the amazing Little House on the Prairie play set that Mary and her siblings make...isn't it just perfect?

Although we certainly don't have a large budget for Christmas gifts, I feel good about spending money on handmade gifts. I know that I am supporting a hard-working individual, and I also know that handmade gifts are usually the most memorable and the ones that get kept through the years (as opposed to broken quickly).

I do want to try making some new ornaments for the tree this year, but I am also eyeing these tiny wooden ornaments, aren't they beautiful?

Has anyone else found any particularly nice sources for handmade gifts this year? If so, please do tell! I'm not 100% done my shopping yet...

Pumpkin Spice Cake

It is the time of the year for pumpkins. If you have some pumpkin fresh or frozen you need to use up, pumpkin spice cake is a delicious way to do it--one of my favourites, anyway. When I was a girl, I often asked for pumpkin cake instead of chocolate for my birthday! Odd, I know.

I recently made up this recipe, which comes from a very old magazine clipping of my mom's. I'm not sure if it is the recipe she used to make for me, but it was very good, rich, moist and spicy. And I only used canned pumpkin! Some day, I'll have a garden of my own and I'll be able to use my own pumpkins for baking. For now though, canned is all right.

Pumpkin Spice Cake.

4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups of pureed pumpkin (I used more like 2 1/2 cups)
Pecan or walnut halves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

2. With an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in oil and pumpkin and blend well.

3. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

4. Pour into a greased 9 inch tube pan. Bake about 1 hour, or until surface springs back when gently pressed.

5. Cool cake in pan. Remove to a plate, and frost with Cream Cheese Frosting. Decorate with nuts.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3/4 cup cream cheese (6 oz)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 to 3 cups icing sugar

1. In medium bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, beat cheese with vanilla until creamy.

2. Gradually beat in sugar until desired consistency is reached.

3. Spread over cake, making swirls with a knife.

I think this would make a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving. (Our Thanksgiving was done over a month ago, but I know the American one is still coming up!)

Getting started on my boy's quilt.

After taking a week off homeschooling, I feel better. Not only did it give me a bit of a breather, which I really needed, but I trained the boys to put away their own laundry and clean their own room, and Kira to do the laundry. This is a big help, and I feel content.

Another thing I feel happy about: I have finally gotten started on the quilt I wanted to make Jasper for Christmas. I know, I know, I'm starting late...it's just going to be a simple patchwork of squares, but I did want to make it full size (to fit on a twin bed) and I also am not exactly experienced. The only other quilt I made was a doll quilt.   And I guess I made a quilted purse too, although it wasn't very impressive--the seams were all crooked.

Plus, I am planning on embroidering his name over a few squares...and hand quilting the entire thing. Hmmm. Well, it's good to be ambitious, right?

The past few days I have left my cutting mat out on top of the freezer in the back room, and I have been cutting a few squares every time I go in there to do laundry or get something out of storage. At least I am getting started. I will just have to see how far I can get by Christmas.

I was lucky to receive some really cute fabric from a kind reader to help with this project. I really appreciated that because cost is an issue for me--the entire reason I decided to make a quilt to begin with was that we needed more blankets and I wasn't able to spend the money on all-cotton bedding. I did however, decide to buy just one yard of fabric to add in. It was only $5. Jasper really has a thing for horses, and I found this fabric on Etsy that I think he will love. I hope it gets here soon!

I still haven't decided if I will stuff the quilt with sewn-together old cloth diapers, or if I will use two flannel sheets sewn together. I am leaning towards the sheets though, because I don't want to make this project overwhelming for myself.

Is anyone else working on gifts for Christmas right now?

Book Review: Mrs. Sharp's Traditions.

Mrs. Sharp's Traditions: Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort & Joy is a book originally published in 1990 by Sarah Ban Breathnach. Some might recognize her as the author of the bestseller, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. Simple Abundance was written later--Mrs. Sharp's Traditions was her first book.

Writing in the voice of the fictional Victorian homemaker and mother of 12 Victoriana Sharp, Ms. Ban Breathnach takes the reader through the year month by month, and describes in detail the type of customs, crafts and celebrations that families in the late 1800s enjoyed. Short essays on the history of different holidays are included, as well as a special poem for each month. Delightful illustrations from the Victorian era decorate each page.

Although this book may catalogue the traditions of times past, it was written by a modern author with the goal of providing inspiration to modern families. And that is exactly what it does. Not only was this book a joy to read, it gave me many ideas for new traditions I would like to include in our own family holidays. The book also contains many lovely ideas for family traditions and rituals that are carried out all year round--for example, the author details how to plan a weekly Family Night, how to create calming bedtime rituals, and how to make outings in the country memorable for children.

Where holidays are concerned, the book deals with all the ones we are familiar with in North America (including Jewish holidays), as well as several European holidays we may not be familiar with, such as Michaelmas, All Soul's Day, and St. Lucia's Day. The changing of the seasons are also talked about--for example, she includes some nice ideas for making crafts with nature's bounty in the autumn.

This is a wonderful resource for families of young children who would like to add some new rituals and traditions into their life. I highly recommend Mrs. Sharp's Traditions to any mother who would like to make next year's seasonal changes and holidays a little more special and memorable for her children.

Thinking toward Christmas.

Last year Chris and I made most of our children's gifts, and we all agreed it was the best Christmas ever. This year, we would like to make gifts once more. So I am trying to get my act together and get some things started. Last year, I pretty much waited until early December and ended up regretting that!

One reason I haven't done anything yet is that still, my sewing machine has been giving me problems. Maybe I am not mechanically inclined, but I seem to have nothing but difficulties with sewing machines! I thought it had been fixed back in the summer, but it still jammed up, and also had a new clicking sound--the repairman that came to our house and charged me an arm and a leg turned out to be rather unscrupulous, it would seem. This time Chris took the machine to a reputable shop and they gave it a complete overhaul. It now runs perfectly (for the first time ever), and no weird clicking sounds. I am so excited about this!

I have learned my lesson. If I ever have problems with it again, I will not mess around and take it straight to the professionals!

The first thing I want to make is a quilt for my youngest boy, Jasper. We don't have enough bedding in our home and lately when I tried to look for blankets in the store, I was disappointed to find that bedding made of natural fibres is beyond our price range. My boys sweat a lot when they are sleeping; it seems cruel to wrap them in polyester at bedtime! So I thought an all-cotton quilt would be a nice thing to make for either one of them.

I don't have much to spend at all, but I do have a good quantity of fabric that was given me by a friend earlier in the year before she moved. I looked through the bag, and there are a number of fabrics that would be all right for a little boy.

Yes, it's a bit of a loud combination, but as a simple patchwork it might look okay, and besides, it's what I have to work with. :) I was thinking of purchasing maybe one yard of fabric in a horse print to add in, since Jasper adores horses. I think that would make it special for him.

I found a navy flannel sheet I can use for the back. For the filling, I had a weird idea--somebody tell me please if this is crazy. It's necessary for me to do this as inexpensively as possible. I have a lot of cloth prefold diapers from Jasper's baby days that are not being used. They are quite worn and I don't know if they would survive another baby. So I thought it might be possible for me to sew together the cloth diapers to create a nice warm center for the quilt. Is this a bad idea? I am well aware that it would probably look a bit lumpy, but I don't think my boy would mind. Anyhow, my main concern is to keep him warm, more than anything else, since our house is very drafty and cold in the winter.

I have a small quilting project in mind for my eldest, too--but of course I can't say what it is, because she reads my blog!

That's all I have planned for now. But I will continue to look for more ideas. I have placed a button on my right sidebar for Handmade Holiday 2011, which is organized by Tonya of Plain and Joyful Living. If you click on it you will see a list of blogs that will feature posts this holiday season on making handmade gifts.

Is anyone else planning any handmade gifts yet? Please tell me about it!

Thanksgiving Weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all my Canadian friends!

We had a lovely, quiet family weekend.

For the first time, I made an entire traditional Thanksgiving feast all on my own. I had a few tense moments--such as the one where I was already running late and discovered the turkey was still frozen after thawing in the fridge for two days. Or, the moment where I found the apple pie wouldn't fit into the oven at the same time as the roasting pan! But I managed to bring it all together in time. And although the gravy was too bland, it was a pretty good meal, if I may say so myself.

Also for the first time, we used the good china I inherited from my grandmother. Kira made some cute placecards for us--each had a picture on it of something we liked. Mine of course, was a picture of a book!

Amy was just not content in her highchair--she wanted to sit at the table with all of us. She often feels that way, now. She was happy to sit on my lap and taste the squash and potatoes right from my plate.

We also let her taste a bit of the apple pie and whipped cream I made for dessert--and I was pleased to see she loved it!

Please ignore the random counter debris in that picture!

Today we went on a walk to the park to collect some bits to make a nature table--or rather, a nature corner, because I don't have an entire table I could use. It's small and humble, but I like it.

The mini Indian corn, of course we did not find at the park. :)

And I baked the remains of the squash I cooked for supper yesterday. Look how much was still left! It was a squash my parents gave me, and honestly it must have been the biggest butternut squash I'd ever seen in my life.

The squash I baked today will go towards "pumpkin" pie and "pumpkin" bars, the latter of which is an autumn favourite around here.

It felt nice to have a quiet, lazy day today. Tomorrow is back to business. I will have laundry to catch up on, shop business to do, floors to clean, bread to bake, school work to give...but technically this evening is still the long weekend, so after I set the dishwasher going I think I'm going to sit down and cuddle with the ones I love. I've been trying lately to let loose a little more often--it's not something I'm naturally good at. :)