nonstop

It's not that I've been doing nothing.  The days just seem to slip away and when you look back, it appears as though little has been accomplished.  Jesse and I both work full-time, and our evenings are spent preparing meals and spending time with Chloe.  I'm guilty of sometimes giving up on that plan and instead hiding in my room with a book.  Bad wife.

Right now I'm in the midst of helping Chloe make a "Big Sister to be" t-shirt, which I plan to have her start painting tonight.

Here's a photo of the plain t-shirt and the "rough draft" I asked her to create.  I drew the letters and Chloe colored them in and added embellishments to get an idea of what her final project will look like.

Here's a photo of Chloe at the Beaverton Farmers' Market, which we visited this weekend.

And finally, isn't this picture adorable?  It's Chloe at her grandmother's house in Arizona - she must have been about 3 at the time.  Darling.

It's only a week and two days now until the three of us go to the doctor to find out the baby's gender!  I'm getting so excited... it's hard to believe nearly 17 weeks have passed and Chloe will soon know whether to expect a baby sister or a baby brother!  It'll be wonderful to finally put an identity on this mysterious little avocado in my belly.

cupcake oh cupcake

I made some lemon-berry cupcakes for a lovely picnic we attended this past weekend at Laurelhurst Park.  And I can't... stop... thinking... about... them.  The final product was a combination of recipes, and I decided I'd share them here.  I was only able to snap a single photo with my phone before devouring my treats, so here it is:

I began by making a batch of Bakerella's Simple Sprite Cake, using lemon pudding rather than vanilla.  Now, it's usually against my beliefs to use a box of cake mix, but the exhaustion of pregnancy while parenting an 8-year old will make you do crazy things.  If you click the above link, don't feel bad if you get caught in the vortex that is Bakerella.  The woman is some kind of magical wizard in the kitchen and on the web.  Both of the recipes I've tried from her site turned out delicious and the site is very entertaining to browse.

I baked the cupcakes till plump and golden (the recipe yielded about 24 regular sized cupcakes).  As soon as they were out of the oven, I poked copious holes into the top of the warm cupcakes with a fork, then let them cool completely.

I mixed 1 cup of boiling water with 3oz. (I used half of a 6oz. package) of raspberry Jello.  Then, using a spoon, I ladeled the Jello liquid over the cupcakes until they were fairly soaked.  Using all of the liquid, I managed to cover each cupcake entirely with red.

Refrigerate these for an hour to let the Jello solidify.

Then I made a quick, light frosting by thoroughly mixing 1 cup of milk with another small package of lemon pudding.  I then folded in an 8oz. container of Cool Whip, stirring gently until no streaks remained.

I topped each cupcake with a healthy dose of lemony frosting, then garnished each with 2 rasperries and 2 blueberries.

Yum.

patchwork

Wow.  Have any of you ever pre-washed your fabric before beginning a sewing project?  I clearly had not - until Sunday.  And let me tell you, it went horribly, horribly awry.  Turns out I have a friend who knows about 30 tricks to make this process easier, but I didn't know any of them at the time. 

I took a nice, long solo trip to Joanne Fabrics earlier that day to choose fabric for two new sewing ventures.  One, of course, is the ballet-themed messenger bag I'm constructing for the winner of my contest.  The other is a floor-length patchwork skirt for my stepdaughter, Chloe.  I'm still developing the concept for the ballet bag, so I selected 4 different fabrics I think I'll use.  For Chloe's skirt I needed a big array of fun, lively fabrics that would work well together.  Here's what I came up with:

Once I got home, I tossed all of the washable fabrics into the washer.  I don't normally pre-wash, but I did so in this case so that both items will be washable without the risk of color bleed or weird shrinking.

To my aggravated dismay, when I pulled the yardage from the washer, it was one big tangled, unravelling mess.  I spent at least 20 minutes unknotting twisted balls of fabric and snipping long, loose threads with scissors.  Lesson learned.

In the future I may try (1) cutting the edges of all pieces with pinking shears rather than straight blade shears, (2) tucking the fabric inside a pillowcase before washing, (3) enjoying a cocktail before opening the washer [after December, of course].

Once I iron the heck out of the wrinkly bits, I'll be on my way.

nectarine

Despite a recent inability to keep a single train of thought in my head for more than ten minutes, I've managed to spend some time considering how to go about constructing this "ballet" bag.  (I take that back; I've no problem thinking about keeping food in my stomach lately.)  I browsed through ballet and dance-related photographs on Flickr, following gut instinct and noting the images I was most drawn to.  I found that I'm drawn to the fluid lines of movement inherent in these still photos.  I also took notice of the variety of rich fabrics typically used in ballet costumes.

With that said, here are some of the images that captivated me and will likely serve as an inspiration jumping off point for this fun, new project!

photo by Gabriela Camerotti

photo by Liliumnero

photo by rayparnova

photo by tatuchi

photo by rayparnova

See, I forgot what I was going to say next.  Hmm.  Well, this weekend should hold a bit of much-needed sunshine which is sure to get my grand ambitions rolling.  I plan on shopping for a new wardrobe (since none of my pants fit comfortably anymore and my baby belly is starting to balloon), and browsing the fabric stores for materials for this bag.  Hopefully work will be underway this weekend!