all buttoned up.

Bounced

Ann scooped me on the party photos (as well she should have). The top one is hers, too,-- Sam opening a vintage KISS record from our friend, Beth. We are suckers for the drama.

And there it is, really: dramatics. There is the brooding four year-old, the sensitive five year-old, the emotionally tipsy nine year-old, and the baby (which is heart-on-your-sleeve kind of stuff). It is entertaining and funny and hard and most of all, exhausting. It is showing (the tiredness) and during the last few months it has, at times, taken over. I love Alicia's Habit from yesterday "Some days I wish everything could just stay done". Oh, I'm with you, A, a thousand times with you.

The Dredges of February

I emptied out my camera today for the first time in a month. I am coming out of the tiny, messy cave of this month with a head full of resolve and pending action items. We have nowhere to go but up.

I have been missing some of my people-- they are doing their own cave dwelling this winter and we are all wrapped up in the business of living. In these days it's enough to make it through counting on minimal damage done (P.S. I am ready for Spring). Meanwhile, there are sweet, kind people who remind me that there is GREAT good in this world. And sometimes that good lands right on my doorstep when I need it the most.

Minefield

Truly is at the pull out phase. If you were to come over right now you would have to step over a trail of mismatched shoes, overturned books, and bagged beans and tins. She moves from glove and hat bin to the kitchen drawers with speed and precision. We have always done bare bones child proofing and this sort of mess only lasts for a moment. It is her work and it makes her so happy. Besides, I tell myself, Sam had to contend with exposed wiring and crumbling plaster. See how spoiled you are, little girl? Baseboards!

I have been going deep into public school schematics and politics as it relates to our district and our small part of it. It is distressing. They need to adult proof some of this crap. And because I have been spending a lot of time reading and going to meetings I have needed projects that I do not get too attached to (otherwise, I sit staring at the piles helplessly and accomplishing nothing). I thought maybe a I should tackle some school auction quilts. You are allowed to say that this is a terrible idea. So, I am amassing ideas and piles and thinking how to accomplish more than one without becoming lost in the details. Christina's Tanagram Quilt looms large in my mind, but I also have some other ideas I'm trying to flesh out that would be good to do with the above 8 set. Any advice in this arena is appreciated. I'll let you know how things are coming together as I start to get students involved. I think my biggest concern is the quilting end of things and if I can manage that on my own. Also the children. I'm no dummy.

I leave you with this:

Happy Weekend.

The First One

Truly turned one last week. I know.

Sam's first year took ten. I'm glad that I was blogging during Augie and Manny's because there was some good stuff in there that I've totally forgotten already. This child's first year has felt like small wonders all lined up. Starting with my pregnancy there were a thousand things that might have gone wrong. But mostly they didn't and the important stuff stayed intact. I try not to take any of that intact stuff for granted. She brings out the sweetest and the best in her brothers, with no signs of flagging. She smiles so much. And more than any of her brothers, she is at once thrilled and terrified by life. This probably just makes her more like her mother than anyone else.

I made her an Apple Cake (Smitten Kitchen) for a tiny party we had on Sunday. I'm trying to instill a love of fruit desserts in her early.

(polaroid by Ann McGarry, of course)

This New Year

We have begun the new year with sun. We also began the new year, as we do most years, with donuts (Portzelky). I asked for permission to skip last year as I was pretty close to delivering Tru, and had decided to repaint the interior of the house and remodel the basement. Donuts skipped. This year we got back on track with the friends and the deep fried dough.

I am hoping to spend this year learning a couple of new things and more importantly, getting better at stuff I already (sort of) know how to do. I am, thankfully, becoming more focused with age, even as there are more things (children mostly) to distract me. I wonder how much of that focus comes as I surrender to parts of my life that are mostly unchanging: the day-to-day things, the less sleep than I'd like, the near constant needs of small children.

It is not a bad place to be, really. Happy, Good, New Year, everyone.

Winterizing

I did nearly no baking this year (a little for the neighbors, a little for guests) but I did stop and make these for a Mariko's Not Necessarily Cookie Specific Cookie Party. They are Lamington Cupcakes and come from The Craft of Baking, a book that usually gets a work out at my house this time of year.

That is glaze, not ganache and the cake part is more cake donut than cake. The crumb is very fine and bright white and as a not lover of cakes, I really love these. The recipe makes 12 largish ones and when I do it again, I may borrow smaller cupcake trays and try to make more small ones instead. They are rolled in toasted coconut and the few leftover were fine on the counter for a day or two.

We headed to my parent's house in B.C. to see the hundreds of cousins (not quite) and play in the snow that we woke up to the first morning after we arrived. We drove home just before Christmas to spend it here with our friends and various hi-jinks. The boys received more things that they needed than wanted (maybe) but it turned out just right in the end. The last couple of months I felt like I had acquired so many things (!!) for them but when they were all wrapped and under the tree I realized that I just have a lot of children and not really a lot of things for each.

I've finished a total of nine of Alicia's ornaments this year-- I sew them in bed at night getting the baby down. I have two more half finished that I packed away for next year. If you find yourself wanting to get into handwork and needing guidance and a beautiful finished project, I can't recommend her kits highly enough. I followed the directions and got exactly what was promised. They are sold out now, but I'm hopeful she'll release them again the the fall, so stick them on that list in the back of your head.

This was, by my counts, a banner year for making. I didn't think I would get very much done but I made a fairly ambitious list anyway, and then plowed right through it during nap times and a couple of weekend afternoons. I am always surprised at how much I can get through if I just put my head down and do it.

Printz

Last month I started ordering prints of my photos to do a side-by-side comparison of some of the most popular online ordering sites. You all were so helpful with your recommendations and with card sending season upon us, I wanted to make sure I was making the best choice for us. I ordered from MPIX, Snapfish and my old favourite, AdoramaPix. Here was my criteria: I wanted the best possible looking print and the one that most closely resembled what came out of my camera. That means: no cropping, no colour correction/filters, and something like a matte finish. I wasn't worried about photo books or other products: just prints. I ordered the same prints on the same night from all three suppliers. It was actually four orders, because I requested both the budget and the e-surface prints from MPIX.

Here's the deal: MPIX and Snapfish both come out with near constant promotions making their prints the cheapest. I will tell you that I was pretty shocked that between these two, I preferred Snapfish for print quality. I will probably use them again if I'm ordering in large quantities for Christmas cards or whatever. In the end, AdoramaPix still has my heart. I could opt for no cropping, their uploader is much improved from the last time I used them, and their print price (without promotion) is slightly cheaper than full price prints elsewhere. I also chose their Lustre paper, which I'm pretty happy with. More importantly, when placed side by side, the colours and tones from Adorama were the most true to what I had taken. This is especially true when it came to Augie and Manny's skin tones. Mpix had them looking a little grey and snapfish upped the contrast in a significant way.

Here's the thing: I'm a average-to-fair picture taker, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of having the photos printed and hopefully put into books, I want them looking the way I took them (however flawed). It might be different if I only took photos of people's faces or groups of people in a commemorative way-- then I don't think it would be so important. But so many of my pictures are of the mundane and everyday variety, and I'd like to think that what makes them worth taking, is what also makes them worth printing. Or that's what I tell my hard drive, anyway.

So. Now to start getting these bad boys in albums that are neither non-corosive or toxic or made from animal parts (is that a thing?), and that will not require a home equity loan with which to purchase. Mo' photos, mo' problems, is what I always say.

I do, I really do.

*(For film photos I would still drive out to Blue Moon in St. John's, and I know lots of my people use Citizens in town for both film and digital.)

An Open Letter to Chicken: Puff Pastry

I know you are off doing your thing, with the jet setting and the home teaching and the potion mixing, and I realized I missed you and started to make a list of things we needed to address next time. But you know, I'll forget a lot of it and we won't have enough time anyway.

Last time we had dinner we got onto puff pastry and so I bought some at Fred Meyer and decided to try a Spanish custard thing for Paul's birthday. It worked, but there was something lacking on the pastry end and so I made more custard and tried making plain old danishes, just in case the dessert table fell short. They were much better and much faster. I cut the pastry into squares, cut a 1/2 inch line around the perimeter, topped them with a little custard, sliced peaches, and whipped egg white. I put them in the oven and watched them until they had puffed accordingly.

Caramel sauce makes it great. You were right. We ate some that night for dinner and then I put the rest in the fridge for the next day. They are definetely better at room temperature, FYI. The custard recipe is fantastic and I don't think we should skip that step. Steeped cinnamon stick! I ate that for the next two days. Next time I'm getting fancier puff pastry. I know that we should just make our own, yes? I have no time for that. Or maybe I just don't have the patience.

So what else is going on? I'm making tiny clothes which has calmed me down a great deal-- it's no meditation retreat, but it will do. Vintage Cakes? Why wasn't I at that book signing with you? Seriously, how does that woman speak our language so correctly? I just made a plum slump and realized that for me, summer is going to forever taste like that book.

Okay, we are due a dinner soon. Safe trip home--

xo, Frenchie.

Three Small Things

I have managed to sew three small things for Truly during the last week. If everything goes all right and the house is not too much of a disaster, Manny and I will sneak into the basement during T's morning nap and he will draw and glue and I will do something related to sewing or laundry (blech). We have been marginally successful. It helps that the seams are only ever as long as my arm. I traced patterns from a Japanese Craft Book (the NYC kids book everybody seems to have), Anna Maria's Quick Change Trousers, and Shelly's Ayashe blouse.

The little dress fits her now and I made it from a fine wale corduroy remnant and some beautiful cotton Sally let me pick out before she left (there's going to be a lot of clothes coming from Shim remnants). I thought it was the easiest thing I could think of to sew considering that I am quite out of practice. Of course, I picked something that involved some tricky inside-out turning and sewing, but it was fine. She's not much for wearing dresses. They get all twisted up when she's rolling around and refusing to sit or crawl. I don't know if it's because I've dressed three boys, but she wears far fewer traditionally pretty things than I thought she would. She looks right in soft, comfortable things... so what if they are mostly stripes?!

The trousers are too big, but won't be for much longer. The grey came from my Roobios dress and is the sort of fabric I could do with a bolt of. The gingham is from Sally and the reversible side is just an inverse of the two fabrics. I will be making more of these.

I love this blouse pattern and I'm planning several more in different sleeve lengths and sizes. And maybe lengthening it into a dress? That front yoke/neck opening and sleeve draping are exactly my thing in little girls clothes. In fact, when I'm browsing for small tunics or tops I always do a quick calculation in my head: is this more than a 1/2 yard of Liberty? Then I should make it. And also go buy some Liberty (see how that works?). This is double gauze that I've had for a long time-- maybe a remnant from Mariko? Actually-- I think she has a matching shirt? That would be fantastic. This is the 18 month size, which is too large to look right on her, but she wore it today anyway.

I bought some new fabric last month, but really, I should be able to sew for a good long time from my shelves. It's a shame that I'm so terribly wanty over several of the new prints from Liberty's new quilt weight line. That just means I should start cutting out quilts, yes? Manny doesn't have one yet, and Sam is in a new, bigger bed, which probably means a new, bigger quilt. See how easy it is to create unrealistic expectations for myself? DEAD EASY.

Six Months and On (Some Baby)

(Pola by Ann McGarry. Of course.)

We are closer to Truly's seventh month, than her sixth, but you know-- six months is sort of a deal in babyland. She's scooting a little bit. She's drooling almost constantly. Her imaginary teeth are causing a great deal of consternation for both of us. Compared to her brothers she is a near constant smiler, unless you touch her. (Don't touch her.)

Manny likes to sing to her. I could die.

The rest of us are hobbling along, trying to negotiate the chasm of summer. I know that adults tend to romanticize that blissful feeling of nothing to do, but it is my experience that there is really nothing harder for the under 10 set (and their caregivers). We should all be so lucky, right? I know. School starts here the day after labour day, and this year August will be going, too. We are deep into backpack negotiations and end of summer trip planning. We also made the decision to list the bakfiets for sale. We still family bike, but it's looking a bit different these days, with all three boys riding two-wheelers. By the time Truly is happy on the bike, she'll be ready for a seat of her own.

But for now: I'm working my way through a short list of canning, some small sewing, and being the arbiter in the near constant small people conflicts. Truly squirms above it all. She is the only neutral party these days.