10 Ways to Enjoy a Rainy Monday

1. Sleep In, and lounge in bed for a bit even after you're technically awake (Thank you C., for being this kind of girl).

2. Keep a stack of books and a blanket on the couch for near continuous reading sessions.

3. French Fry Nachos- I am happy to have come up with this one on a spur of the moment attempt to make my fry-lovin' daughter happy but somewhat nutritionally satisfied as well (Cut russet potatoes into fries, toss with oil and a hint of truffle oil and bake at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. Add cubed cooked chicken, old bay seasoning, and some grated cheese and bake 10 minutes more). Yum and yum.

4. Bake peanut butter cookies. (This is my favorite recipe, even without the cookie sandwich bonus).

5. Convince sweet husband to make you a mocha to enjoy during the quiet of naptime. Oh naptime, how I love you every day.

6. Play with fabric and yarn for some inside color and texture.

7. Stay pajama-ed all morning.

8. Do something guaranteed to make the kidlet laugh until she's gasping.

9. Clean up the room you're going to spend the most time in so that it feels nice and orderly.

10. Burn a favorite candle. Mine is this one, because it makes my house smell like Anthropologie.

Inspired- Sewing Books

A few weeks ago I went ahead and ordered Handmade Beginnings- a new sewing book centered around babies by Anna Maria Horner. It's due to arrive sometime in March, but I found myself with a lengthening list of sewing books to try.





So today, when I found myself in a bookstore that happened to stock all these sewing books I'd been dreaming about but unable to flip through, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on three new inspiration overloads.

Sew Liberated was the only one I didn't already know about, and it snagged my attention with a camera case pattern.

Sweet Nothings is probably the one I'm most excited about, simply because I have nothing else like it. It will call for all manner of new fabrics- stretch laces and silks, but the techniques and shapes are completely new to me.

I (Love) Patchwork is the one I will most likely use the most. I knew there was one pattern I couldn't live without (a stuffed lamb), but flipping through it showed me a wealth of gift-able ideas which was especially nice since the loved ones in my lives have to be tired of receiving the same old things from me.

I'm excited to go ahead and dive into these books and see what comes next!

Daydreaming a New Wardrobe

It quickly became a dangerous combination for me to have some spending money and a DVD of Mad Men from the library. Perhaps never in my life have I longed so desperately to make myself cute dresses, and yet experience tells me for the next 3 months (and still about 6 more after) anything fitted will make me feel like a whale.

So I went to JoAnn fabrics and got a few maternity-possibly and post-pregnancy styles in order to flex my garment sewing muscles. New Look is maybe my favorite of commercial patterns and runs the truest to my general size. This New Look 6784 is one of the ones that could potentially work in a knit and woven material. This long knit dress pattern is another one I'm testing as a potential Valentine date candidate.

When, if, when I'm normal again, you might see something more like this or this or this. Swoon.

The only problem is finding some adult-appropriate fabrics amid all the new gray guitars and pink ladybugs that have taken over my fabric supply. Hence, the rapidly depleting spending money.

Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

A week ago the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Cooks Illustrated (not the one pictured) appeared mysteriously in my mailbox. Not one to question good fortune, I shrugged my shoulders about its origin and set about dog-earing pages and creating menus.

First up was a Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Since I consider myself more formidable in baking than cooking I tend to be hard to please, and this recipe-- while quite good-- didn't make it into my super-selective personal cookbook.

But secondly on the roster was the Chicago-style deep dish pizza- thick flaky crust, melty layer of mozzarella, and thick tomato sauce top that won me over forever. We eat deep dish pizza, homemade and restaurant, with regularity, but I haven't had pizza like this since we roadtripped to Chicago oh so many years ago. I have to say, for those looking for a good deep dish recipe, this one is worth the price of the magazine.

Happily, I found the source of my mysterious luck in a sweet benefactress who arranged to keep 'em coming all year long. Yay for a 30th birthday!

Processing

A weekend of worrisome news, a camera crew invasion, and toddler throw up. It wasn't exactly relaxing, but I was surrounded by people I love.

I also got to finish a new project, read 50 more pages of Les Mis, and eat a big bowl of cookie dough ice cream with chocolate vermicellis (something I've resolved to never be without).

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of my C from the holidays- backlit with a blue Texas sky and laughing. It was taken on the last day I really saw my dad acting like himself. We're all processing, but there's something to be said about having this conversation over and over:

"Where's G-Dad?"

"He's in Heaven, baby."

"Is G-Dad sick?"

"No, never again."

Playing House

Book Review: Made From Scratch

Though I am committed to reading Les Miserables, every now and then I need a book that is quick, fun, and current. Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life didn't even make me feel guilty for devoting reading time elsewhere since it was a non-fiction book from the library (meaning I had to read it now, now, now so as not to incur late fines).

This one was third or so in a trend of homestead/simple living sort of books that I've been working through in the last few years. While not my favorite (still Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), this book broadened from simple gardening, chickens, cooking, localized eating into raising angora rabbits for shearing into roving, keeping and training sled and pack dogs (not exactly practical here in Texas), beekeeping, and learning to play acoustic instruments for entertainment.

It encouraged me to rethink my plan for skipping the garden this summer (due to the newborn we're expecting in planting season) but that was about all. Everything else sounded like a whole lot of work and some significant cost up front. I was happy to read aloud to Brian a bit from the book where the author declares that she will call for a national holiday if ever she makes a meal she grew herself while wearing clothes she made herself. Done and done. (p.s. where's my national holiday?)