Huh...

I haven't blogged in over a month. I'm not very good at this...

For My Scrapping Friends

Not many people know this, but I'm a closet scrapbooker. It's not something I tell a lot of people, mostly because I'm not very good at it. But I think I love scrapbooking so much because I LOVE all of the crap you can buy. Who would have thought paper could be that damn cute??
I found this great site, Little Birdie Secrets, via Mighty Girl the other day. I love Little Birdie Secrets because of the great ideas and the tutorials, what a great idea! And when I saw how she organizes her ribbon I had to post about it. Now I don't think I'll be making the awesome ribbon box anytime soon. But I'll definitely be buying myself some trouser hangers:

This is where the super cute picture of ribbon hanging on a trouser hanger should be, but I can't figure out how to load it on my blog. So follow the links above and you'll see how cute they are!

This post could be a drinking game. Everytime you read cute, take a shot!

Birds!

Abbey and I have a thing for birds. You could call it a passion or maybe an even an obsession. We go crazy for anything that have birds on it. And I'm pretty sure she would agree that these little sparrows would be at the top of our list!

I Want To Sew

Lately I've been thinking a lot about textiles and my love for them. Fabric and yarn, two things I've always loved. I'm really enjoying knitting and want to get deeper into the details of designing my own patterns and creating my own yarn. I also want to learn how to sew. I took a sewing class years ago in junior high. It did not go well. But I really feel like it's something I want to get into. I think it's too late for a community education class, hopefully there will be one in January. But with my new found fascination I've discovered two great blogs:

The Philosophy of Lists
You have to check out the Birthday Party Checklist this may be the cutest birthday idea ever. I think this post alone is what made me fall in love with the List Writer.

The Angry Chicken
Amy may be my new craft guru. I love these magnets and this gorgeous tea set and today I discovered that she's written a sewing book. "Bend-The-Rules Sewing" looks just like the kind of book for me. Because anyone who knows me will tell you I don't like to follow rules (it really upsets Abbey). Of course, maybe I should learn how to sew first.

Thank you Ms. Smartypants

"If the Republicans thought I would vote vagina just because I have one, they were wrong and that's pretty much the end of that story. "

I heart Mimi Smartypants.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - VOTE!!!!!!

My Stash

A little over two years ago I inherited a very large stash of yarn. When I say large, I mean bigger than life. When I brought the stash home I filled 19-12 gallon totes. 19 totes of yarn!!! All I could think was what the hell am I going to do with all this yarn?? A year later I sorted again and got it down to 9 totes. I was so proud of myself! But everything was sorted by color, and that sounds great. But when you want to knit a project and need to know what kind of yarn you need all you know is what colors you have. So two years after the yarn took over my house I realized everything should be sorted by weight. So now...what was once 19 totes of yarn that I had no idea what to do with is now 6 totes with tons of projects in mind!

So be prepared, EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW, because you're getting something knit for Christmas!!

Special thanks to Linda Permann,

Priscilla for playing with all the yarn,

And last but not least, Sophie for insisting on sniffing EVERY SINGLE SKEIN OF YARN!

My Garden!

This is May 30th, when we planted the garden. Look at those tiny plants.







And this is today! I'm so proud of my first vegetable garden. I've planted zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, crookneck squash and tomatillos. Not everything turned out as nicely as I had hoped. The peppers and cucumbers haven't been great. The tomatoes are being very slow. And the zucchini aren't going as crazy as I would like. But, for my first veggie garden I would say I'm hot shit!! It's been so much fun watching everything grow and produce fruit. Of all the plants I put in the ground only one died. I will definitely do one next year. Next time, no peppers (what was I thinking?? I don't buy them in the grocery store...why would I plant so many plants??? Duh).

Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread!

The veggie garden is going wild and it's zucchini time! And one of my very favorite things has always been zucchini bread. My grandma would make it every summer. I couldn't find grandma's recipe, but Erch's mom has a great one. I've taken her lovely recipe and adapted it to work for me.

Super Yummy Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups raw, grated zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups + 3 tablespoons* gluten-free flour mix (I used Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Possible Add Ins: nuts, blueberries, cranberries, chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together eggs, oil and sugar. Add zucchini and vanilla and mix thoroughly. In a seperate bowl combine dry ingredients, use a whisk to mix well. Add dry ingredients to sugar and egg mixture. Divide batter between two greased and floured 5"x9" loaf pans. Bake for about 1 hour at 350 (test at 40 minutes!) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes, turn loaf pans out on wire rack and cool completely.
This recipe freezes nicely. I usually wrap the cooled loaf in plastic wrap and then a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil.

*The extra flour is due to the high altitude. If you don't have that problem then stick with the 3 cups of flour.

"Date Night"

Abbey and I went to Tres Hombres for dinner and margaritas. Dinner was good, but the crab enchiladas we ordered were TOO spicey. After dinner we did some shopping then back to my house for beers and laughs on the patio with the boys. Abbey's such a good date.