A pretty new look, and pancakey goodness for picky eaters...

Like my pretty new blog design? Me too! I checked out Shabby Blogs and found the purtiest new banners and backgrounds. I luuuurve that site.

I almost have a "nesting" urge right now. With my wild ones almost ready to board the bus next week, I feel this urge to become more organized, tidy, and SuperMomish. I hung up this wall organizer thing for the kitchen, and cleaned off the little white board hanging next to it. By the way - a magnetic white board in the kitchen near the door is my best thing ever! I can write myself notes, clip up permission notes... It is like a ToDo list on the wall! And because it is on the wall, it can't get buried under piles of mail, backpacks, dishes, and other goodies that seem to accumulate on my counters.

So in my nesting SuperMom mode, I thought I would share my Most Important Recipe Ever.  The boys call them "Pancakems", but I secretly call them YouDon'tEvenKnowYou'reEatingHealthyVegetablesInYourPancakems.

In the tradition of the Sneaky Chef, these pancakes have pureed veggies and other goodness in them. Excellent books, by the way. This recipe I am sharing I created after being inspired by her concept of putting healthy pureed veggies in "regular" food.  It is a "from scratch" recipe, and my boys love to help make a mess mix them up with me.  I also know that you moms and dad are craaaaazy busy out there, so I also wrote the "quick and dirty" version using pancake mix.  I make a giganto batch of these babies - pancakes reheat nicely, so I can pop a few in the microwave for a snack or breakfast the next few days.  I feel relieved wholesome that I can serve up a hot breakfast every morning - without having to drag out the griddle every time.

YouDon'tEvenKnowYou'reEatingHealthyVegetablesInYourPancakems

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

7 tsp baking powder

2 TB sugar

6 TB butter/margarine (melted)

2 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup pureed sweet potatoes OR two packs (7ish ounces total) of baby sweet potatoes/mixed veggies ORANGE colored

Combine all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Mix together well. Add milk and eggs, butter, and veggies and stir it all up! Scoop about 1/3 cup (use an actual 1/3 cup measuring cup - easier to pour) batter onto hot greased griddle, flip when bubbles look like they want to erupt (you can lift an edge and peek to check too), cook another minute, serve. Yields a ton of pancakes... at least 30ish, more if you make smaller pancakes.

These pancakes are super nice and fluffy :) The veggies keep them moist and give a super subtle flavor (only if you know it's there, if you know what I mean). If I have pureed sweet potatoes on hand, I use those, but lately I have been using the baby food. I suggest either straight up sweet potatoes, or a "orchard" or "farmers" blend baby food - my favorite is Orchard Blend Sweet Potato (it has apple, pear, and peach puree in addition to the sweet potato).  Just make sure it is orangeish.  Otherwise, the pancakes will be a funky color and the jig is up.

You can also use 1.5 cups white flour and 1.5 cups wheat flour if you are feeling extra virtuous - which I often don't. Feel virtuous, that is. It makes the cakes a bit flat and brownish.  However, when once-in-a-blue-moon virtuosity does happen to strike, I may use 2.5 white, .5 wheat, or some other such division of the flours.

The simplest version? Take premixed pancake mix, follow their directions, and add the baby food to it :) 

Good luck! If you try it, let me know :) And if you have any suggestions or other recipes, I would love to hear about them! I need all the help I can get to make my boys eat foods other than pizza, PB&J, and pancakes.  At least the pancakes have some veggies in them...

Aprons, shoes, and liberation!

Are you ready to do the happy dance with me? Are you sure? Ok then - stand up, kick off those shoes, and do a little dance because yours truly has Internet at home again! Yay me! Don't get me wrong - heading to the library with two five-year-old boys in tow is horrifying superfun when trying to check one's email (let alone do something like work on a blog) when all they want to do is play hide-and-seek among the stacks, "help" the librarians by running behind the circulation desk, and rearranging all the books on the carts... what usually happens is we pick out some books, I chase them around the video collection, and I gaze wistfully at the computers, wondering what is happening in BlogLand. 

On the rare occasions I sneak (Snuck? Sneaked? Snookened?) out of the house alone by bribing my husband to watch the kiddos explaining I need to get some work done so I don't go insane, I would head to the library, solo, to plop in front of the computer. But there is a time limit, and I don't get to be in my jammies, and they don't allow drinks in the lab...

I don't know about you, but blogging and wasting time on the computer isn't the same if you can't have your comfies on and a snack and drink nearby. So. Happy and liberated, I am in my comfies, drinking a big ole fat cup of coffee, so happy to be talking to you again! Speaking of snacks...

This "cake" is a confection of paper and ribbon. Each "slice" is a box, perfect for gifties and such. Plus it is just plain cute.

My sporadic posts of late have hinted at my activities at the Farmers' Market. I honestly adore working the market. The other vendors are so sweet, the market goers are so nice and friendly, and there is just this sense of camaraderie and fresh yummy goodness in the air. My newest obsession is aprons, and it is so intriguing to talk to my new market friends about fabric and cooking, quilting and traditions...  I have been also making some cards and other little pretties to sell.  Among them are these little shoes. I had seen these little paper shoes from a template by Ellen Hutson. I tweaked and played, changed and altered, and here are a few of my versions of this little shoe.

Here is "Dolly" all dressed up in this vintage inspired apron.  It has a little quote printed on the pocket, and the skirt just kills me! I love mixing fabric...

I keep playing with apron patterns and styles.  The more I sew, the more I learn, and I have made a few patterns of my own. Talking to other women at the market has been so helpful - getting their input on lengths,and pocket preferences, and color combos...

I have about 6 different apron styles that I am currently working with. I need to start some "fall" color influenced aprons. School is starting soon (gasp!) and soon apple picking and pumpkin carving will be the activities of choice. I am picturing oatmeal colored aprons, with skirts of scarlet and muted greens and deep pumpkin orange...

See how chatty I am? I have missed you dearly, honestly and completely! Now I am going to refill my cup and get some reading done :) I am dying to know what the rest of you have been up to!

Have a lovely day,

Wait a minute Mr. Postman! Etsy Treasury...

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know I just loooove making treasuries on Etsy. It feels like winning the lottery, because it can be tricky to get a slot in time. A treasury is basically a gallery of Etsy items made by an Etsy member, the curator. Sometimes these little treasuries become the front page on Etsy, which is pretty cool :) Anywhoo, treasuries are awesome because they offer a snapshot of fabulous handmade goodies on Etsy, a gallery of the creative talent found in the handmade marketplace.

With my new found love of card making, I decided to create a treasury to showcase some of the amazing card makers that are creating on Etsy. Here is my treasury! I think you may recognize some of these artists - I follow quite a few of their blogs!

The "ghosted" images are the alternates, and I usually rearrange the gallery once or twice so that I can give exposure to as many artists as possible. There is such lovely talent out there... You can click on the picture to be taken to the treasury if you like :)

It is Sunday evening, and the kids are quietly playing... so I am stealing a moment to myself! I picked up this little cheesy Pirate Costume Kit, and Johnny is having a blast pretending to find treasure. He is wearing the eye patch, the hook hand thing, and growling "Arrrr!" at me each time I look at him. He cracks me up. Mikey is rearranging all of my wood mounted stamps. Apparently he thinks they belong with his dinosaurs next to my sewing machine...

So what have you got cooking tonight? I have a hankering (yes, I actually said hankering ) to make some Holiday Planners... I try to be organized, and tell myself if I have a pretty organizer, I will be more organized... Plus it gives me an excuse to play with paper. Then I want to list some goodies on eBay tonight, do some blog hopping... I had the boys home twice this week with wee coughs, and as a result I haven't had as much time to make the rounds like I like to :)

Hey, did you notice my new banner? I got it from Shabby Blogs (if you haven't been, you need to - her banners and backgrounds and buttons are darling and FREE!) and tinkered with some backgrounds I had from Shabby Miss Jen (whose designs are darling and very reasonably priced)... I felt the need for a more "autumnal look."

Ok, must go. I need to make sure Johnny doesn't decide that Mikey needs to walk the plank.

100th post! Let's have some tea and chat...

Last night when I was posting my latest card, I realized that my next post would be 100.

Holy Smokes.

Hard to believe that about two years ago, I had no idea what blogs even were, let alone start my own :) I look back at my first post and I think I realize why blogging is so... fun and good. As a scrapbooker, I realize how much blogging is like scrapping. The posts are like the journaling, and a good scrapbook (and blog) should have journaling. A story, some meaning. It doesn't have to be earth shattering, but it should be engaging to someone, even if it's just engaging to the author. But the fabulous thing about blogging is that there are others out there who find what you write and share is engaging too, they "get" you on some level, and that's pretty neat.

To me, this Land of Blog has become like a big ole kitchen, where my sisters (you! yes, you) and I have come to sit for a spell. We gather, we gossip, we share. I wrote about this sisterhood and how even though I don't like the glitz of technology, prefer the patina of yesterday... I love the magic created by the sisters I have met on here. I have gone from posting once or twice a month to once or twice a day. In the kitchen we have our tea, and this card was inspired by the challenge at Moxie Fab :)

Like a good scrapbook, blogging does more than just share words. Pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Of our family, friends, our art. Crafters who create beautiful pieces of art with pieces of paper and ink, artists who can find the best stories in a park bench, divine and saucy characters who bake cupcakes and make me laugh, dreamers and magic makers who inspire me... the list goes on and on. I follow dozens and dozens of blogs, and you all make me smile...

So here is a card for you (yes, you!) who take the time to sit for a spell with me, read my ramblings, and share some time with me. Thank you :)

Ingredients
Papers: Graphic 45, MyMindsEye
Gratitude :)
Ranger ink

A Toast to My Sisters...

Sisterhood. I love my real, live, sibling-type sisters, and I just adore the "sisters" I have found in the art and blogging community. There is something magical about the connections made on Etsy and eBay, BlogLand, and Cyberspace. Being an "old-fashioned" gal myself who loves to live in the past with pretty and shabby trinkets, chippy cupboards, and antique photographs, I never would have thought that I would come to embrace Computerland.


But I have.

I have discovered women who share a passion for olde things, shabby pretties, and artists who appreciate the simple aesthetics of beauty itself. Photographers, graphic designers, cupcake makers, scrapbookers, altered artists, dress makers, collectors... the list, and magic, go on.

Although I love the nostalgia of the small town, where newspapers were black and white, postcards were the rage, and train travel was the only option, I recognize how lonely this existence might have been for the creative soul. Would it have been frustrating, dreaming of paints and Paris, to have to instead dabble in laundry and pluck chickens, darn the socks and pickle the preserves?

I am drawn to these homespun treasures, though. The tablecloth, which had been laundered with care, is made from heavy cotton with a bit of fancy lace edging. Was the lace necessary? No. Did it make cleaning more difficult? Yes. But it brought beauty to the life of the woman who made it, the woman who painstakingly stitched it and loved it. This same woman made pretty labels for her rhubarb raspberry preserves, and took pride in how the deep red fruit dazzled in her cupboard, and took pride serving it to her lady friends at tea. Because her friends appreciated the beauty, too.

This love for beauty and appreciation for loveliness is what brings a lot of us together. Blogs and websites have become our tea table, where we can pull up a chair, ooh and ahh over each other's creations, and gossip a bit over our tea. We decorate our blogs like we would decorate for a tea party - we put out the best linen and make sure there are fresh flowers in the pitcher. We want our guests to feel welcome, and to share the beauty that we have created.