Kindercycle!

A couple weekends ago I had the joy of experiencing my first Kindercycle! It was awesome! I WISH I had brought my camera (next time). It was so much fun watching parents eagerly sorting through used items and finding treasures that only moments ago were somebody else's "don't needs". I came with a huge bag of clothes that Serafin has now grown out of--since we are awaiting the arrival of our little boy in October I figured I would see what I could find there. I'm not kidding when I say I found all the clothes I (hope) I'm going to need for at least the first six months of our newborns life. Cute stuff too!

Why spend loads of money on new clothes when your babe is only going to fit into them for a couple of months at a time? A friend came with me and she found a baby bouncy chair that looked practically new. The deal works like this; entry costs you five bucks if you have something to trade ($10 if you don't) and you leave with what ever you want. The event runs for a few hours and as new people arrive new items get added to the tables. I believe the event runs a few times a year. If you're interested in participating in the next swap, check out the website, maybe I will see you there!

www.kindercycle.org/

Greek Easter Bread! Yum!

In honor of my sweet Mom, you taught me well (!) . . .

(to the left is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and I, on the docks of Hotel Bora Bora when I was nine)

Easter was hard for me this year. Not only was it the last time I saw my mom before she died last year, but it was also always one of "her" holidays. Normally I don't even give it a thought because my mom always asks me what we are doing. Of course, since we didn't "traditionally" celebrate the holiday we always used it as an excuse to hang out all together and have a good meal, usually something amazing that my mom would cook.

This year, even though I was sad, I used it as an opportunity to start a new tradition. I decided to make some Greek Easter Bread. It is a long process, not too difficult, but just takes a while. My mom used to love making it for my Dad as there are some foods he gets hankerings for being away from his homeland. I remember helping her when I was younger and then eagerly awaiting the fresh cooked bread to come out of the oven. Now it was Serafin's turn to help and enjoy the outcome!

For those of you who didn't know my mom, she was an AMAZING cook. She actually had taken lessons from Julia Child at one point. Her food was mouthwatering, diverse, and, of course, NOT non-fat. A year before she passed away she asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her how cool it would be to have a compilation of her huge (and very messy) cookbook. I don't know how she knew where things were in that binder of recipes, it was a huge mish-mash of hand written pages and magazine clippings. Somehow though, that Christmas, my mom produced a neatly typed binder of all my favorite recipes. Included were old family dishes, Greek food, and my childhood favorites. It was also prefaced by a sweet letter from my Mom, words that I have read many times since she passed. This cook book is a treasure to have and I am especially grateful that all the wonderful foods that my mom once cooked are not lost forever.

Straight from my mom's cookbook and into our mouths, please enjoy making some Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki). It is most definitely worth the time and effort.

Tsoureki

Makes 4 twists

4-5 lbs white flour, sifted with 1 T. salt

4 yeast cakes or 4 packages dried yeast, dissolved in 1 cup of warm water

10 eggs beaten, with 1 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. allspice

1 1/2 tsp. anise or 3 tsp ouzo

3 egg yolks

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Boil the allspice and anise (ouzo) in 1 cup water and set aside, reserving water. Place 4 lbs of the sifted flour and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the yeast with water, eggs with sugar and mix, but do not knead; add the melted butter and milk, and the reserved liquid from the allspice and anise (ouzo); mix with your hands to blend ingredients thoroughly, adding more flour as needed (you will end up using all the 5 pounds of flour).

Then knead until the dough is smooth. Place dough on a floured board and knead until firm, smooth and not sticky. Brush the dough with melted butter, cover with towels , and set in warm place to rise until double in size. Knead again, brush with butter, and allow to rise until again twice in size. Repeat this process one more time (3 times altogether).

When dough is ready, divide it into 4 balls. Divide each section into 3 small balls and roll out each ball with your hands into a long narrow rope. Take the ropes of dough, press them together at the top and braid them, then press the ends together to form a wreath or leave straight. Brush twists with egg yolks, sprinkle with sesame seeds, place in greased baking pans and bake at 325 degrees (350) until golden brown. (45 minutes plus)

Yum!

Felt Letters!

Aren't these cute?!?

Image via Play To Learn

Well, I have a confession. I was all pumped to be making Serafin those felt letters I wrote about in an earlier post. I had the hopes to make some sort of a felt "blackboard" (which I may still make) but then I just simply got lazy and wanted to focus my crafty energy elsewhere--like on those darn dining room chairs I've been slowly re-upholstering! So I decided to make a purchase, . . .

One afternoon I was browsing on Etsy and found this awesome shop!

Play To Learn

She does awesome felt work and her stuff is adorable. I bought Serafin a box full of felt letters and numbers. Even though Serafin doesn't know the difference between an A and B yet, she still loves the colors and they way they feel. Her work has inspired me to learn how to use my sewing machine properly. Other items she makes include felted wall clocks, travel games, kids wall decor and other fun felted items!

Easy Easel for Art Fun!

So the munchkin has been grabbing pens and drawing on anything she can find. This is my attempt to give her something to draw on with the hope (yes, I did say hope) that it may deter her from drawing on other things that are a "no-no".

So easy to make! Just cut off the top, bottom and a middle section of a cardboard box (so it has three corners instead of four), duct tape together in the form of a triangle, tape to something to give it some height, clip up some paper and add some pens held to the easel with yarn so they don't go wandering off. Then have fun creating art! Yay!

Silver, Shimmery, Razzle Dazzle Doo!

I've been so busy lately! We've been getting ready for x-mas and I've got my craft cap on. This is the first year we are having x-mas in our home and we are excited! As a result I have dove into various crafting projects. I've been re-upholstering my dining room chairs, which is coming along but I think it's going to take me quite a lot of time to get through all six. The first one is almost done though, I'm just waiting for the piping to go around the rim! I know I'll get faster as I go.

My latest endeavor was to make a mantle-piece. Out in the garden, waiting for the dogs to pee one afternoon I noticed our cork-skrew plant had bought the dust. Looking at it's beautiful (dead) branches, I decided to immortalize it. So I clipped them off, spray painted, put a layer of spray glue on and then razzle dazzled it with glitter and fairy dust.

Next I had fun spray painting some smooth pebbles during the full moon and watching the light reflect off their shiny surfaces. I'm not a big fan of spray paint (it stinks and can't be good for the environment), but it did the job this time around. I'm open to alternatives if any of you have ideas.

My next tasks were to get some floral foam and stick it in a large terrcotta pot (that I had also spray painted silver), place the branches, add the stones, decorate with strobe balls, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tada!

I love my bread machine!

Just throw the ingredients inside!

Wait a few hours! . . . .

and, . . . .

VOILA!

Home baked, whole wheat flax bread!

Yum!

Quick update, . . . projects are on the way!

I've been feeling very crafty these days. I have been taking on a lot of projects all of which are long and I am in the process of completing. A few things you can look forward to reading about in the upcoming months are, . . .

-Making pure organic lavender oil, I'm finally getting around to straining my lavender oil which has been sitting on my shelves for over a year.

-Re-upholstering: A new and exciting love in my life! My aunt is teaching me how to do my dining room chairs properly. I attempted to do one of them on my own last summer and it didn't last long (particularly in our house with a baby, two dogs and three cats). I am in the process of ripping out the old fabric, old staples and nails and picking new fabric, something I love doing! Here are some possible fabric choices, . . .

-Felt letter idea for the munchkin! I'm making a "blackboard" out of felt and velcro, it may take me a while, I'm only on an uppercase "M" and of course we need to do lowercase as well. Then comes the "blackboard" making.

So, . . . I've got my hands full. With the holidays coming up, things are even more busy. I'm also taking a yoga intensive course in the beginning of December, another deepening into my practice which I still claim has saved my life and my body. Yoga = amazing stuff. On top of it all, I'm missing my mom more than ever, they say all the "firsts" (first christmas, first birthday, . . .) are the hardest. So far it's definitely true, there is nothing easy about the process of grief. That said, I'm incredibly grateful for all I have, have had, and can do in my life. What a lucky chick I am! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!