Birthday Yoga and a Card

My friend C's birthday was on Sunday, so I made this card for her:

I was inspired by this post, though I did my own take on it. (But I do love how her bunting can be removed and actually used! Mine is just paper).

To celebrate C's birthday, she had us get together for yoga on Saturday morning. We all took yoga together once a week last school year, but our (fabulous!) instructor had taken the summer off, so this was our first session together this fall. It was so wonderful to be back together and practicing yoga again!

But we didn't get together in our regular location. We had an extra-special spot for C's birthday yoga - the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. We did our yoga right on a work of art!

The beginning of the school year is such a busy time as a teacher. Last week I felt I hardly had time to even sleep. And at first just the thought of getting up and having to actually be somewhere on a Saturday morning exhausted me. I contemplated (briefly) not going, but I am so glad that I did. Though it was C's birthday, she was really the one who gave all of us a present.

To just ::stop:: for a while and be fully present in the moment. To take the time to clear my mind and focus on nothing more than my breath. To feel the sun on my face and the wind against my skin, to not worry about the looooooong to-do lists. To exercise my body. To laugh with friends.

It was a good reminder to slow down, to enjoy this moment instead of concentrating on everything that has to happen next. And it's something I'm trying very hard to keep in mind as another incredibly busy week at school starts up!

Salsa!

Remember this post? I promised I'd share the finished product, and here it is!

The last weekend in August my friend and I spent hours upon hours in the kitchen, peeling, dicing, de-seeding, chopping, slicing, crying (those onions!). And finally we had enough tomatoes, hot peppers, onions, garlic, and cilantro prepared so we could mix up a giant batch of salsa!

I've got a whole bunch of pints and half-pints here. The plan was to keep some and to share some. I love giving homemade gifts, you know?

But then I tasted it. And Oh. Wow. Yum. Yum, yum, yum! Excuse me here for blowing my own horn, but this is the best salsa I have ever tasted. Honestly. The Best. I was just going to have a taste. And then I ate an entire half-pint. In one sitting. (Good thing I didn't open a pint!).

Umm...but I'm going to share. I promise. My family and friends will get some. At least a little. Cause I'm generous like that.

Yummy!!!

The recipe is from this book. And if you have any interest in canning, go and make some as soon as possible!

[And in case you do want to make it, I'll share our little secret: we upped the amount of hot peppers, and even included some of the seeds. Hot salsa is dee-licious!]

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day, to those of you celebrating it! Here in MN it was a rather dreary, blustery sort of day.

The view out my kitchen window, where I spent most of the day.

It threatened to rain all day, and eventually did. I feel bad for anyone who had picnics planned for today. Especially since yesterday looked like this:

Now that would have been good Labor Day weather. Luckily, plans for today in the Kittens household included a lot of canning (yes! again!):

And a lot of baking:

And it was just right weather for those two things!

I will share the results of today's labor soon...

Farmers' Market Flowers

In general, when I go to the Farmers' Market I'm there for the food. But it is often so hard to resist the beautiful flowers! Last weekend when I went, I got this gorgeous bouquet. I saw someone walking with one, and it took my breath away. I knew I just had to take some home with me!

{I absolutely adore chinese lanterns.}

I found that my floral arrangement dried beautifully, so this morning at the market I picked up a similar bouquet to add to the first one. As you can see, more unique plants were in this one! [And there's my sweet girl in the background...]

I took the pink ones out, and put them in a vase on their own (you can just see them there, to the left of my big guy's ear).

Now I have an enormous bunch of flowers! They make me heart-skippy happy (to borrow Lucy's phrase) every time I look at them (and the eucalyptus leaves smell wonderful).

And since they dried so nicely, my fall flowers really should last me through the whole fall.

Welcome, September!

Can You Guess What I Did This Weekend?

It involved a visit to the Farmers' Market...

Lots and lots of tomatoes...

(and quite a bit of mess...)

A number of different veggies, including hot peppers and onions...

And multiple trips out to the compost bin.

That's right; I was canning!

More photos, details, and finished product soon.

Sweater #2

You saw Sweater # 1 and Sweater # 3 in previous posts. Here, finally, is the second sweater I made. Again, it was a pull-over sweater that I had in a pile of clothes to get rid of, because I didn't ever wear it anymore.

before

I started by cutting it down the middle in front again, to make it a cardigan. Then I hand-sewed on a yellow ribbon to tie it with, and I sewed a circle pin from various fabrics and felt. In the middle of the pin is a button (that I actually received on a package from another blogger, and which you've seen before in this post!).

after

The pin is removable if I don't want to wear it, or if I want to switch it out with something else. But I have yet to do that - I absolutely love this sweater!

[As you can see, these are old photos. I know Minnesota has snow most of the year, but even we don't have it in August! It's just taken me awhile to share these with you...]

This is definitely my favorite sweater of the ones I've made, and I wear it a ton! But I have more sweaters planned, so it may have competition soon... ;)

Happy Easter!

An Easter tree...

...and Easter flowers.

Hoping you all had a wonderful day!

St. Patrick's Day Craft

A little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For links to project directions, please click here.

Coffe Cup Cozy

I knit a coffee cup cozy as a gift for a friend of mine. I had leftover yarn from a scarf I had made for him, and I thought it'd be a good way to use it up. (And now he matches - oops!).


I was so pleased with myself, because I made the button hole all by myself, no tutorial or anything. I dropped a few stitches in the middle of a row, and then picked them back up. Then a fellow knitter told me that's not how you do it, and showed me the real way. I can't remember it now, of course. And my bubble was slightly burst. Ah, well. I still think it looks good.


And here it is in action!

Lots and lots of knitting has been happening over here (and much of it has been getting finished!) but I'm feeling the need for a quick, instant gratification type of craft project. I'll let you know how it goes!

Sweater # 3

You may remember sweater # 1 from this post. You haven't seen sweater # 2, because I haven't posted about it...yet. Still need to do the photo shoot (and it's my favorite, too! Soon, soon...)

But on to my third sweater. Here it is, pulled from my to-get-rid-of-because-I-never-wear-it stack of clothes:

Again, I made all the alterations with supplies I already had. I simply cut it down the middle, marked where to sew the ribbon on, and then did the sewing by hand. Since the sweater and ribbon are very fall-ish colors, I decided this would be a good Thanksgiving sweater. So I whipped up a little turkey pin!

I totally forgot to take pictures of the process, but it was very easy. I traced two body shapes by using the bottom of a glass. I hand-drew one feather, and then traced it onto the felt so all the feathers would be about the same. The legs are actually one piece of felt that is connected inside the turkey; I thought it would be more sturdy that way. Everything on the turkey is felt, except for the tiny bead eyes.

To assemble the turkey, I simply sandwiched the feathers and leg piece in between the two body pieces, and glued them together. The head and face are also glued on. The whole thing has a pin back so that I can take it off and wear the sweater for more than one day of the year. (I'm thinking of making another pin to go with the sweater - I've worn it a bunch with just the ribbon as decoration, but I like it with that extra bit of craftiness!).

Here's the Thanksgiving outfit (that ribbon is really a bright orange/white check, it's just not showing up in the photos). And a little closer, to show off my turkey: