Creative Blog

I love finding out about other people who love being a mom, are creative, crafty, and love to cook and bake.  While checking out my Facebook page, I came across a blog that I have book marked for future reference.  It's called "Becoming Martha".  Here's a link:  www.becomingmartha.com

There are some great craft and gift ideas (all photos curtesy of Becoming Martha):

and some very yummy looking recipes:

This website inspired me to get out some of my unfinished projects and get busy creating!

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable."  -Robert Henri

Knitting Day

I stayed home from work today.  So did my husband.  Since the kiddos had the day off because of the cold, we all stayed home.  It was a very lazy day.  I haven't had a day like this is months.  I haven't even gotten out of my pajamas.  I took a nap, made homemade bread, watched a movie and finished two knitting projects.

I made fingerless mittens by casting on 24 stitches and following a knit one, purl one pattern.  The hat I made using my favorite yarn.....Spud & Chloe, Outer, Super Bulky.  I made this hat last winter for my daughter in dark gray.  After the established rows (knit one, purl one), the pattern is a repeat of four rows, using knits, purls and yarn overs.  I got the free pattern from Knitty.com.  The pattern name is Shroom.  Here's a link to the pattern:  www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter09/PATTshroom.php

Now I will have something warm to wear to work tomorrow!

"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the trouble spirit and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either."  -Elizabeth Zimmerman

Winter Reading

One of my least favorite chores is doing laundry.  With a family of five, I have many, many loads of laundry to do.  So, to occupy my time while I waited for things to wash and dry, I sat next to my dryer and read the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune paper.  One of my favorite sections in the Sunday paper is Variety, and more specifically, the Books Section.  Today they shared the "Club Book" selections and I have marked a few events on my calendar which I hope to attend.

Club Book "is a free, non-profit writers series that brings notable writers to suburban libraries."  Here are the authors who will be taking part in this series:  Amy Thielen, Julie Kramer, J. Courtney Sullivan, Elizabeth Berg, P.S. Duffy, Nikki Giovanni, Dave Zirin, Brian Freeman, Peter Geye, Amy Greene and Amanda Coplin.  They are a diverse group of authors and they will be in a variety of locations.  The one I am most interested in seeing is Julie Kramer.  She wrote "Stalking Susan", "Missing Mark", "Silencing Sam", "Killing Kate", and "Shunning Sarah".  Her new book is "Delivering Death".  She's a Minnesota mystery/crime writer who won a Minnesota Book Award for "Stalking Susan".  She will be in Woodbury on February 11th.  Something to look forward to in these cold winter months!

To find out all of the appearance details for Julie Kramer and the other authors, here is the link to the Star Tribune website.  www.startribune.com/entertainment/books  Click on "Club Book Brings in Berg, Sullivan and others".  Now, back to doing laundry!!!

"You cannot open a book without learning something."  -Confucius

Winter Fun

I know that I have posted about Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove, MN before but it deserves another mention.  It is a fantastic place to go to celebrate and embrace our Minnesota winters.  They have a bunny ski hill, a snowboard terrain park, tubing hills and cross country ski trails.  We were there today with some friends to go tubing.  Here's a picture of my daughter, her friend and me coming down the hill.

All smiles at the bottom of the hill!

While I went tubing with the kiddos, my friend made her way over to to the snowboard terrain park to take pictures of my son.  He and his friends are here EVERY DAY!  It's a fantastic way for them to spend their days OUTSIDE and away from the video games.

In the next couple of weeks, my daughter and I are going to check out the cross country ski trails.  We can rent equipment right on site.  You can also rent snowboard equipment and down hill skis.  Here is a link to their website for all of the details about this great outdoor recreation get away!
www.threeriversparks.org/parks/elm-creek-park.aspx

"While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best."  -Tom Allen

DIY Arm Knitting - 30 Minute Inifinity Scarf - Great Cold Weekend Project

I found the perfect indoor project for my daughter and I to do on this cold, cold weekend.  Check out this You Tube video for ARM KNITTING - no knitting needles required!  I'm envisioning another little girl knitting knitting party at my house sometime soon!



"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."  -Pablo Picasso

Semi-Homemade Pot Pie

It has been so cold these last few days that comfort food has been on my dinner menu.  Tonight I made a semi-homemade chicken pot pie.  It took about 10 minutes to put together and about an hour to cook.  My family liked how it made the house smell.....very warm and cozy!

This is a super simple recipe that can utilize any left over chicken or turkey.  I used pre-cooked, packaged chicken.

I pressed a pie crust into a deep dish glass pie pan.

To the chicken, I added a can of mixed vegetables - you could also use frozen vegetables.

Next, I mixed in a can of cream of chicken soup.  Cream of celery soup would work too.

Then it's spice time.....I added pepper, poultry seasoning, chervil leaves, salt and a bit of garlic powder.  I mixed it well then poured it into the prepared pie shell.

I added a pie shell on top and cut slits to let the steam out.

I put it in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes then upped it to 400 degrees for 15 more minutes.

It was very good by the warm spoonful!

There was one spoonful left for me to take to work tomorrow!

"Come gather at our table."  -Unknown

The Polar Dash - A New New Year's Day Tradition

My daughter and I started a New Year's tradition today by running in the Polar Dash 5K in St. Paul, MN.

When the race started at 11:30am this morning, it was -8 degrees!  We were prepared by wearing lots of layers.  I'm so proud of my daughter.  She is 11 years old and this was her first 5K.  She did awesome - only asking to walk once when she said her stomach hurt because she was so hungry.  But she was all smiles as we ran toward the finish line.

Here we are with our finishers' medals!

We ran with another mother/daughter team and a teenage daughter of a friend of ours.  Here we all are at the finish line.

It was well worth the cold to have such a special day with my daughter!  I am looking forward to more races to run together in the future.  My daughter is already talking about the Get Lucky 7K in March in Minneapolis, MN.  Guess where we'll be tomorrow night......training at the YMCA!