Almost Easter

When I was a little girl, (albeit, I was never really little, but young), I absolutely loved Easter. Any holiday that gives you a reason to do arts and crafts and be rewarded with a basket full of chocolate was a-ok in my book. I loved yellow chick Peeps. And Cadbury Eggs. Who doesn’t crave the milk chocolate with fun fillings?

I remember one Easter, I was about ten or eleven, when my step-Grandmother, my step-Aunt and my twin step-Cousins came to California for a visit. The six of us took a trip to Cambria and San Simeon to visit Hearst Castle, in the pouring rain mind you. On Easter Saturday we spent the night at a run of the mill motel. My cousins and I immediately changed into our bathing suits and spent hours in the heated pool and pretended to play pool in the rec room. The next morning everyone slept in, yet the “Easter Bunny” tracked us down and managed to hide some very lovely baskets. And matching pink fluffy bunnies. My cousins and I held onto our bunnies once we got the castle. Years later I found out the my Aunt, Grandmother and mom had all fallen asleep early and forget to hide our stashes. Luckily one of them woke up early in the morning and hid our baskets among the cheap motel furniture.

It’s years later and I still love to color my eggs. I’ve always used PAAS kits, they bring out such gorgeous color on such a simple object. This was Scout’s first year at really getting into the “holiday spirit” and she thorougly enjoyed the little wire dipper that comes with the egg kit. She stomped her feet and slapped the counter when the vinegar didn’t dissolve quick enough. She tried squeezing the eggs. And then she learned she had to gently put them into each cup. And say the color she was using. Purple, pink and blue were easy. Green, not so much.

We also braved the early morning crowds and went for a visit to the Los Angeles Zoo. Every year they have arts and crafts for the kids. There’s also a long line for bunny touching. A few children with broken hearts because they can’t take the bunny with them. Others completely disinterested.

She wasn’t up for the cardboard bunny ears either. What did catch her attention were the gorillas walking around, the giraffes stretching their necks for some green vegetation in the nearby trees, and…

Yes, a bubblegum slushie.

Oh, and one picture with Daddy.

Do you see that delicious little blue and white dress with little birdies? I made that! (I know I haven’t spent much time talking about my sewing classes, as a matter of fact I am not taking them this month or next for Jem is now in football. But I have been indeed sewing and one of these days you will see some of the items I’ve completed. One of these days.)

The rest of the night I’ll be working on Scout’s Easter basket and probably sneaking a few peanut butter eggs, (I’ve traded the yellow chick Peeps for them), and some Cadbury Eggs. Of course.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful Easter.

Hat’s Off To Me

Sleeping in on a Saturday morning – there’s nothing better.

Cloudy skies.

The sound of the water dripping from the rain gutters.

Sore throat.

Hot tea with honey.

Package of Sundara in the mail.

Lazy weekend.

Thick socks.

Finished Thorpe.

Made with Woolganic Australian Merino Wool, probably one of the softest wools I’ve ever worked with. Another plus is that it has some of the nicest stitch definition I’ve ever seen.

Saturdays

The Saturdays where we don’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to run errands or go to work we like to sleep in. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you know me well enough to know that I covet my sleep. I worship nap time though I so rarely have a chance. More often than not I find myself busy after carefully rubbing Scout’s nose and quietly wrapping her in a blanket and letting her get her beauty rest. I don’t do the much needed vacuuming when she’s asleep but I do try to do the kind of cleaning that doesn’t allow little sticky hands helping.

And on those Saturdays we usually make a grand breakfast where, afterwards, we can unbutton our jeans and get really lazy. Today was an especially sweet Saturday to say the least. You see, yesterday I cleaned and cooked and cooked and cleaned because I had friends over for little pajama party. And being as OCD as I am everything has to be just right. We cleaned the carpets and the couches. I made homemade guacamole and brownies. I washed all the cups. I thickened the apple butter that I made the day before, (somehow it didn’t thicken over night like I thought it would so I had to keep stirring for two hours to get the right consistency). I even made another batch of strawberry jam. I kept busy. But today, no. Today I was lazy.

And I was able to reap the rewards:

I used this crock pot Apple Butter recipe. It’s super simple and super delicious. I was only able to make 2 pints out of this recipe and the way that we were spreading it on pancakes and toast this morning, well I’ll need to make more. Good thing Autumn is here and with it are the good apples. The only thing I “modified” was to use Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider for regular cider.

The rest of the day was spent ironing and cutting fabric for a new quilt. Not a quilt for me. Not a quilt for anyone I know. It’s a special order on Etsy. I’ve decided that once Christmas is over and done with that I won’t be taking any more special orders or bidding on Alchemy. I’ve over extended myself to support all the projects I want to work on for myself, which seems logical. What’s illogical is that I’m so busy working on everyone else’s stuff that I don’t have time to work on mine.

But I did manage to do something for myself, rather Dalton did it for me:

Ah, the cat life.