the warmest spot in the house

just follow the cat...

our bedroom is definitely the warmest spot in the house. noticeably warmer. it's in the back southeast corner of the house and misses a lot of the wind that the rest of the house is subjected to. living next to a farm means lots of space for wind to whip up and land at our front door! we have a VHS player in this room where we all snuggle up and watch old movies. lovely!

this info is very good to know seeing as we're not going to get above 25 degrees over the next 5 days. as for the cat, she's convinced that spot on our bed is the warmest spot in the warmest room and i tend to agree.

handmade holiday goodies: what's under the tree

in one of my 25 days of Christmas photos you see some jars under our tree but what is it?

it's Peppermint Laundry Powder! i took the recipe straight from Soulemama even using the exact same bar soap. i added a tag with the directions for people to make their own. 

when i doubled the recipe i had enough for 7 med size mason jars and had plenty left over for myself.

and it smells so good!

2011 resolutions

1. knit something other than a scarf like maybe a baby hat

2. become apart of some kind of homeschooling group i really need to make this happen. like really.

3. wear makeup daily i don't have a reason really, i'm just curious to see what this will do for me.

4. spend $25 (or more) a month at the farmers market i always want to do this but it doesn't happen often. it's so hard for me to spend money, even on food. but by making it a resolution i'm hoping that it will be easier!

2010 resolutions reviewed....

here's a link to my 2010 resolutions. let's see how i did...

1. learn to knit: Yes! i started off the year slow and frustrated. in fact i though i'd given up until i gave it one last go this fall... something clicked and now i'm really into it. i knit a scarf (below) and am working on more. i'm already a bit of a yarn addict from crocheting and i'm loving these new bamboo needles i recently picked up!  

2. do yoga a few days a week: no, not even close! the kids and i have done it occasionally through out the year but nothing close to a few days a week. it's something i'm still interested in but i'm just really not good at it (yet!)

3. get one paid photography gig: a huge yes! when i first wrote this resolution i had big doubts about it but turns out i had nothing to worry about. i ended up having over 30 paid gigs in 2010!

4. limit internet use: i'm going to have to say no on this one. i made a conscious effort a  few times throughout the year but nothing really stuck. it's something i'm still struggling with. how much is too much? should i cut it off 100% or just cut down a little bit.

new resolutions coming up soon!

handmade holiday goodies: food edition

i didn't so much new with food as gifts this year. i made my holiday granola again in the crock-pot (twice) gosh i love this recipe!

can you tell where i do a lot of shopping? 

then at the last minute i spotted this little gem of a recipe! so at the store i decided that using baking chocolate chips instead of the baking chocolate bars would be the same thing..... wrong! the dark chocolate didn't seem to be effected but the white just wasn't melting correctly. so this was our first batch....

right away i knew something was wrong so i headed back out to the store to try again. this time with the real stuff.... and followed the directions WORD FOR WORD. 

looks much better, and yes it tasted much better too! 

so we set some out for our Christmas day guests to enjoy and had some left over for gifts. i will definitely be doing this again next year! yum! 

the last day of 2010

firstly i should apologize in advance for the photographs on this post (and a few others lately) i sold my camera and will be upgrading this week! very excited about that!! here's a mild documentation of our last day in 2010

 the crazy boy 

 my breakfast

the husband in his usual spot 

making banana bread 

my little helpers 

snow much fun! 

self portrait 

i love days with snow on the ground but warm enough to be coat-less 

how does he do this? this kid never ceases to amaze me! 

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory time!

my view during my (literally) maybe twice a year bath.

all is well