Cookie Experiment

So today I am going to try 3 new cookie recipes... I hope they come out yummy (they better)

First that looks yummy:
Martha Stewart's "Cranberry Noel's"

Then, I really wanted to make some Gingerbread cookies (because I've never done it). I chose Paula Deen's recipe from the Food Network site

Then Finally I chose this one for Gingersnaps. (no stock image I can show you)
I don't know how many cookies it will yield, but assuming it's 24, then these low fat, vegan coolies are only 53 calories a piece. These are for my boss who made a deal with her husband that, they could eat everything they want on Thanksgiving & Christmas, if they stick to Vegan only between then. I know she misses some of her favorite foods with this deal, and I wanted to give her a sugary treat that she can enjoy guilt free.

Married

I am officially a Webster now. This last week has been so busy it's been really hard to keep track of what day it is.

Friday - we got married by the Silver Surfer (well really the Sacramento Marriage Commissioner). Repeated our vows before his parents and brother, my parents and youngest brother, then were officially hitched. The recorders office had a cute little archway with about 20 seats. This was easily the least stressful part of the week goes. He now wears a little black clay ring that I made for him, and I wear one that was inherited from my grandmother. It's beautiful and full of so much history and love.

Then on Halloween, it was time for our party. Overall it went ok. There were some timing issues that caused me to not get as much time with my new husband as I wanted, and nosey people constantly peeking behind the curtain managed to knock over my cake (how irritating). But we had enough chairs, enough parking & enough food, so everyone still had a good time.

That night I said goodbye to my parents who were leaving California the next day, back home to Michigan. It was nice to visit as I haven't seen them for 3 years. I miss them so much already that I'm having trouble being as happy as I could be. It's amazing how it takes only seconds of thinking of them to break out into tears again. Scott has a wonderfully large family that all welcome me in so easily and I love them just as much. But it's just not the same as having my own family close to me.

Our Sunday started out with a trip to Disneyland. We made it in time to see the Halloween fireworks, (which were totally awesome) and take some pictures of the last night for Halloween decorations. Monday was a beautiful lounge day, bought some legos from Downtown Disney, ate a nice lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and spent the rest of the day watching movies and just enjoying a day to ourselves with no schedule or plans. Tuesday was back to Disneyland. Able to see some of the decorations for Christmas (a little bit early for this to be complete yet) and had a wonderful time with my friend Josh & his Fiancee Johnna.

We came home Wednesday to a decorated apartment - balloons & streamers everywhere (thanks Mike & Ellen), many of which will stay up for a while because their kind of nice.

All in all, it's been a crazy but wonderful week, though I'm glad to be home and able to return to routine.

Crazy week.

Well, I have less than a week to still be single. As Scott words it - my parents arrival starts the countdown clock. They arrived yesterday, just in time for my youngest nieces 4th birthday. The 3 kids are already really crazy, but add their best friends 2 more - out of control - children everywhere.

Poor little Gene, I had no idea there was so much spasticity in his legs (they are permanently curled under him, no stretching possible).

Today mom comes to join me and meet the morning knitting group and then I think we'll go to Ikea, since she's never been to one. After that - time to so do some serious shopping. (food for party)

Catching up

Last weeks Saturday with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was a really fun morning. She's very entertaining and a good teacher. Learned a new way to stitch an ssk. The wording went something like "in first stitch as if to knit, dig around to back loop of next stitch, then pull yarn through." I think I might try to make a video of it. It lies down nicely, slants nicely and is faster than slip slip knit.

Last week I was surfing ebay searching for a swift. Found lots of the 2 varieties I'm used to seeing a lot of - the big umbrella type, then the wooden cross/table top kind. Then I found the "Kay Yarn Reel Winder". Hadn't seen this particular version before. put in my bid, and 26.00 (with shipping) later I have myself a yarn swift. I love it. Here's a picture in mid process.

Then when not in use, it folds up really nice and compact... takes up less room than my Knit Picks ball winder

I know, I know

I know I haven't posted much in a while. Keeping myself very busy these days, what with the planning of a wedding & all. But look at the super cute little kid picture I got from Scott's mom for our picture wall.

She tells me he used to love having his picture taken, and you can see it here - but now he really hates it.

My little garden has about had it for the season. We've decided not to plant this breed of tomato again too - almost candy sweet. But I found a really cool shop to maybe help us make a better garden next year.

I've also recently joined the local knitting guild and taken over management of their website http://www.stockinettes.org I'm not super happy with the colors & layout, but it was the first thing I built, still trying to work out something I like better. Even with the color scheme, the site is much improved (and more current) then its been in quite a while.

Tomorrow I'm off to my first non-regular guild event - a class by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot called Grok the Sock. I'm looking forward to it and maybe I'll have some good pics to share after.

Keep on crafting and photo taking - see ya later.

Garden Goodies

This pretty mini-rose is the first flower of the plants second bloom. I was given this plant for Valentines day in sweet little coffee mug. We didn't do a great job of watering it first time around, but enough to keep the leaves alive. So excited to see new blossoms.
My little garden spider has returned with a new net
Did a better job with the camera this time and the spider was still nearby
These are the youngest of the tomato clusters I tend to
And here some of the oldestI pulled another from elsewhere in the plant that looked like it might be getting close to eating. Still wanted to hold on to the plant and could have used a few more days, but I get impatient sometimes. Me <-- girl who doesn't eat tomato's, even tasted it and liked it. Very sweet (but still a tomato)
I'm just very proud of my little garden, but that's not at all obvious, is it?

Ickle Baby Tomatoes

Oh, they're growing up so fast now.
Taken 07/04/2009

Taken 07/02/09

Taken 06/28/2009

Garden Spider

DSCF3787
Originally uploaded by ssplam

I keep wiping out their webs, and they keep rebuilding them. This one is hanging on between the Oregano & the Rosemary. Hopefully the one with stringers to my dill will eat the aphids.

For the photo - much more difficult than I expected. Remember, My camera is just a little point & shoot, with some limited focusing ability. I like my camera but it's not really cut out for this kind of photography I think. Took 20 shots, this is the only one that is in anyway clear. Limited focusing, shaky hands and a breeze - I'm glad I got this one.

Herb Garden - from the outside

I've taken lots of pictures of my plants from my deck point of view. I was looking at them from the ground view today and though it was pretty enough for more pictures... so here we are.

WWKIP 06/20/2009

Time for the second WWKIP that I planned to participate in this year. Last week's was bigger, but this one was still fun. About 12 ladies and a beautiful little doggie. I imagine most people got their fill the previous week, but there were a couple who came today that were unable to make it the last.

We met some people from the "Friends Of Fremont Park" who thanked us for coming and using the park for wholesome as opposed to destructive activities in the park. This park is convenient for us because it's across the street from our regular Sunday meetup at Naked Coffee - beautiful day, beautiful park and lots of fun with needles and fiber in hand

Sweet ickle Tomatoes

Decided to take some pictures of my pretty little grape tomatoes There aren't many fruits, but there are some.. yay Next year I think a bigger pot will yield a better plant

06/13/2009 : WWKIP DAY

Yesterday was the first of 2 World Wide Knit in Public days I planned to be a part of. This one was held at Capitol Park and was registered by my new friend Shiela. Also, her friend at Chickoree Coffee agreed to open just for our group on this day. What a sweet little coffee shop and I'm grateful for their hospitality.
We had about 30 participants throughout the morning. Starting at around 10 am and lasting untli about 2:30. Very wonderful event, met some lovely new poeple and hope that many of them join us at Freemont partk next Saturday.

Garden update

April 25th

I purchased planters and got most of them transferred to their new home. My basic plan is 3 plants per box - I know it's a little crowded, but that's really about the best I can do with the space I have to work

May 25th

This is their current layout around my patio, they got moved around after being home one day and noticing how the sun moves across the porch (in a diagonal manner from that post you see there, to the one behind me. This configuration seems to optimize the sun for each plant.






1 Chive
2 Cilantro
1 Mini Rose (white pot - not in bloom)






1 Fern Dill
1 Peppermint
1 Lemon Basil
1 White Sage (black pot in back)









3 Sweet Basil









1 Tarragon
1 Thyme
1 Oregano





These are newer plants, bought about 2 weeks ago

1 Flat Leaf Parsley
1 space (reserved for seeds to sprout, Curl Parsley)
1 Rosemary







We've also added a tomato to the party. This one is a grape tomato and is on our front porch to hopefully give it more light.

I would place this one as about 2 weeks (in our possession) as well.

Chilli Cookoff

My company has had some personnel changes and we have a new President. Another co-worker of mine thought it would be a good idea to welcome him to CA with a Chili Cook-off... I am so excited (I hope my chili wins)

Here's my starter recipe "Ultimate Vegetarian Chili" (that I have of course tweaked a bit - tastes so good AND when I tested it for my honey's family - they finished the pot off - perfect)

I hope everyone enjoys this event and I hope the potluck sides portion goes well too.

So excited that I'm up way to early.

Well

I've nearly killed them all a couple of times.

Left them on the porch ledge on a nice calm morning, only to have 3 of them pick up wind later in the day and crash to the ground 2 stories down.

Varying degrees of wilting, the worst on our surprise hot day earlier this week.

Basil bounces back the best, Cilantro the worst.
Chives are even hanging in fairly well.
Mint has been doing nicely and may even need a transplant here shortly.
Sage I'm having trouble keeping at the right soil moisture, the dirt its potted in lets water flow through too fast, overnight water soak helps, but I'm not sure how much is too much.

But so far so good.

How does my garden grow

I have no idea.

I got the brown mug of baby roses for Valentines day - roses died (forgot to water) but the plant still has life in it and I'm trying to be more dilligent.

The rest we bought this past weekend at Costco - 3 Basil, 2 Cilantro, 1 Chive, 1 Mint & 1 Sage... we'll see if I can keep them alive.

Not so sure though - last night when I got home one of the basils was really wilted - watered it lots and it looks ok this morning, so maybe it'll be ok. (picture taken this morning)

Apartment Approvements

Scott says we're old now, because of the things which excite us.

I'm so happy that I finally have a china hutch - you see the china and crystal has been in storage for 7 years now - it finally gets freedom.

We bought it earlier this week and I had it put together, and loaded up before going off to bed that night. The fallout was a big storage corner of boxes, plus the packaging materials all over the place. Lots of trash to be cleaned out, and many other boxes relocated

We also bought (just today) a freezer, the one we have in our fridge was just way to small to be worth much more than an ice machine.

His parents helped us today with truck and muscle to get the freezer in. They also brought us a barbecue - just a little one, but perfect for us here.


We also recently got frames for some posters - his favorite movie:


And just because it's my blog and I can - here's some of my favorite art...
this one needs a home yet: (in case you can't tell - it's Yoda, knitting, fore a sign that reads "Home Sweet It Is")


And these hang in our hallway - pictures of my parents and I when I was still an only child...

CPSIA

Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act
Heard of it?

If you haven't I highly recommend you look into it.

My bear here will lead you to just some information but here is the government website if you're interested.

What it basically says is that anyone who sells products intended for children age 12 or younger must first have those products tested for lead content. This includes everything from clothes to toys. AND the expense is on the retailer. If the product you make or sell has an even slightly remote chance to contain lead (buttons, zippers, snaps included) then it must be tested.

Another example of legislation that is well intended but poorly implemented. I encourage all of you to learn more about this new requirement and help by contacting your congresspeople and senators.

There is some good information at the following places on the topic.
Senator Jim DeMint's Blog : CPSIA Improvement Act
Cool Mom Picks : Help us Save Handmade (they are the source of the cute little bear that's been added to the corner)

2009

so the year started off a bit crummy with that stupid accident that totalled my nearly paid for car.

I now have a newish car - 2007 w/ 30k miles and a new loan to start over on. I was dissapointed that I ended up with the most boring of grey/silver colors - but now that I've realized that the "alarm" button is a pretty good "where's my car button" - and works at least as far away as I can hear the actual horn. So maybe I won't lose it :)

Couple weeks ago my honey finsihed a dialogue with himself that convinced him we should get married - YAY!! I'm so excited. So that means people, if I can get the planning in check the way I want it - things will go down like this...

Halloween - very small ceremony - just us, parents and siblings - plus an officiant of course. (until just a moment ago I thought Halloween was a Friday - but it looks like Saturday - this might effect the plans). Then we were planning to have our big public reception for everyone to attend. What do you think about attending a Halloween Carnival to celebrate with us? Details are fuzzy at just this moment, but anyway - think about saving that day - Halloween - to come and play with us. (and of course come in costume if you want)

Sigh...

Well it's time to shop for a new car.

Was in an accident this most recent Monday and the adjuster chose total my car.

Good news:
not my fault
my old loan is getting paid off
the auto settlement is for more than I think I might have gotten for trade in.

Bad news:
I had only about 3 more months of payments on old car so now I have to start all over again with payments.
I have no idea what I'd like to get.

Oh well, that's life I guess.