Evelyn is eleven months old today.  In a month she won’t be considered a baby anymore but will be a toddler.  She still seems so little to me, though.  Her personality is the only thing that has grown by leaps and bounds within the last few months.  She is pretty much running now and loves to chase after the dog and cat.  She can almost say ‘doggy’ and ‘kitty’ and has no problems with ‘mama’ and ‘daddy’.  She also says ‘hi’ and can wave her adorable tiny fingers bye-bye.

She loves to carry around her blue bucket in the crook of her arm, like someone picking berries, and put her toys in it.  Yesterday there was a pair of shoes, a play dollar bill, and a tube of lip gloss in it.  I think she was going shopping.  The other big things that are fun are opening and closing doors, especially while someone else is using the bathroom, repeatedly pushing and pulling in the dining table chairs (really annoying because they screech across the tile), and emptying things- cupboards, drawers, purses, grocery bags, laundry baskets, dog toy bins- everything must be thrown behind her with her right hand and no item shall remain in the receptacle or she pitches a fit.

Evelyn has her quiet moments, too.  She likes to stand at the windows and look out at the world and sit and go through books by herself.  She will sit in her crib for an hour in the mornings just talking to things in her room.  She’s not really into playing together, she is more of an independent girl which is okay, too.  I’m sure I will not be saying the same thing about her independence at three, however.

For now we had better start planning that first birthday party because your first trip around the sun is a big occasion.  No matter how small you are.

Yay!  Evelyn finally got her first tooth yesterday.  She was drinking milk out of my glass and I heard a tiny “clink, clink”  so I ran my finger along her bottom gum and felt the little bumpy ridge.

Its neighbor looks like it’s not far behind. I’m going to miss her gummy smile but I’m sure these little pearlies are going to be just as cute. Now to find a dentist.

I’m not sure if you have seen the new commercial for Allstate insurance but it is awesome.  I can’t find it on youtube but it is of a little neighborhood with people and cars coming and going but it looks like everything is a miniature in a model train setup but it is real.  I did a little research and found out it is filmed using a tilt-shift lens.  Then I found these amazing videos by Keith Loutit, and I was even more blown away.  My favorite in his series is Bathtub IV.

I want one of these lenses sooooo baaaad!  However, this item has been added to the ‘If I win the lottery’ list because of it’s $2000 price tag.  I did find a tutorial on how to make one but I’m not so sure.  Maybe someday.  For now I’ll just admire the work of others who have this wicked cool piece of equipment.

Evelyn is being taken care of today so I have an opportunity to get some work done around the house.  I’m planning on cleaning her bedroom and ours, the bathrooms, and the laundry closet.  We’ll see how far I get before my time is up.  Now I need to avoid getting sucked into a House Hunters International marathon on HGTV.

Because I miss her sweet face, here are some pictures of the butter bean (all 16 pounds of her, no bigger than a minute).

I never found my scissors.  After Evelyn went to bed I searched the entire basement and couldn’t locate them.  I’m sure they will show up when I don’t need them.  In the meantime I bought a new pair so I could work on my project, silhouettes.

I’ve been wanting to do these for a while and the baby is just big enough that she is easily distracted and holds still for longer than a millisecond.  I got Evelyn’s done this morning, standing and hand cutting it out of black card stock all while she played around my legs (carrying her pacifier and a turtle castanet around in a metal mixing bowl).  I’m glad I cut it out rather that making it in photoshop.  It took less effort and It just seems like something you would keep forever rather than something you could print off multiples of.  More special.  Now I need to see if I can get Scott to hold still long enough for his.

My Evelyn and I packed up on this wonderfully sunny day and headed out to my Momma’s.  We ate a little lunch and went out to visit my Aunt Janet.  My mom had brought a caramel apple upside down cake so we had that and some tea all while trying to appease the little crank factory who was over tired and is teething or still has sore ears or both.  Then in complete unexpectedness my aunt gave us pedicures!  So awesome of her.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been if the babe would have stopped fussing and slept so I could have taken a nap, too.  All in all a good day.  But I’m still waiting for a nap.  Almost a year later and I’m still waiting.

Thanks everyone for the yarn swap suggestions.  I think I’ll probably just find some local hand spun yarns.  There are a few new local yarn shops that have popped up and I need an excuse to check them out.

In other unrelated news I’m losing my mind.  My house is so unorganized.  I’m working on a paper project and I can’t find my stapler or my tiny sharp-point scissors.  I found my exacto-knife set but I’m not very good with it and usually end up slipping and cutting myself.  These particular scissors have been sitting in a cubby downstairs on some papers from a project I did last March.  I remember seeing them last week when I tried to organize these cubbies.  I don’t think I moved them. I don’t remember even touching them and everything else that was by them hasn’t moved.  I just don’t know.  I guess I’ll work on something else until they turn up.  I don’t even know where to start looking for the stapler.  It will probably end up being in a bathroom drawer or someplace equally random.  Sigh.  I just need, like, four days with no distractions (i.e. baby, dog, husband, internet) and I think I could get things sorted.

I frequent the knitting site Ravelry and have signed up for an international yarn swap.  I got my swap partner yesterday and she is from Norway.  This is cool because I’ve been there before and this is where some of my family comes from.  It’s not so cool because I’m supposed to send her yarn that is representative of my country or area.  What do I send to someone where knitting was probably invented and is surrounded by sheep?  I would like to send her some super soft buffalo yarn but it is too expensive.  I have a 35.00 budget and enough buffalo yarn for a pair of socks would at minimum cost 60.00, and we are supposed to include some treats and trinkets, so that isn’t going to happen (unless someone who spins buffalo yarn is reading this and is willing to cut me a deal).

What would you send?  Yarn made from soy? Milk (I know, right? Casein yarn is so soft!)?  Maybe just some merino or alpaca?  Or just send some locally spun wool yarn?

I ♥ mornings

So this year has been a little lacking in the get-up-and-go department.  Oh, I have big plans but I just haven’t had the energy to get anything accomplished this past weekend.  On New Year’s Day my friend Lindsey came by.

She baked an awesome pear and cranberry cobbler and brought me this cute book, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids. She had bought me the original SCMG cookbook for adults last year and I absolutely love it and I can’t wait to give this one a try.

I’m really excited about it, especially the banana split pancakes, cinnamon toast soldiers with mostly mcintosh sauce, miraculous mile-high strawberry fudge ice-cream pie, peanut butter-pretzel bonbons, and the holy moly! strawberry jam roly-poly (as seen above).  They all look so delicious.  Not sure where to start!

I did manage to make some spicy goat cheese spread for her visit.  I love this stuff- I continued to eat it the entire weekend.

Spicy Goat Cheese Spread

A log of plain goat cheese (I used a large one)

2 heads of garlic

A can of diced green chilies

Roasted red peppers (usually in a jar) diced, about 1/2 a cup

Chili oil, about 2 Tbsp

Olive oil for drizzling

Crusty bread or crackers

Cut the tops off the heads of garlic (don’t remove skin), place cut side up in a muffin tin and drissle with olive oil.  Cover tightly with foil and roast in a 350 oven for about 30 min, until the cloves inside are slightly caramel in color and are soft.  Cool until easily handled and pull out each clove with a fork and mash slightly.  I like eating large cloves of garlic so its up to you how fine you want them.

In a small bowl mix together the can of green chilies, diced red pepper, chili oil and garlic. Place your goat cheese in a shallow baking dish or glass pie plate.  I like to cut mine into discs and spread them out so they all get melty.  You can leave it as a whole log but sometimes the center will still be cool.  Spoon the peppers and oil mixture over the cheese and bake until warm and melty, about 15 min. Serve with slices of crusty bread or light crackers.

Hope you enjoy and have a good Monday!