sunday baking

sour cream sugar cookies, that will change your life, is that the recipe says. well, i was intrigued. i love sugar cookies, in particular cut outs from wegmans with lots of frosting. they are divine. so i thought i would give this recipe a try.

they are good, but they are not life changing good. i will say that i did not frost them, maybe i should have, maybe i will. i ran out of steam, my pregnant body would not let me stand any longer. precious husband said that he liked them fine without frosting. so naked they will remain. maybe its the frosting that makes them life changing, but i will have to wait until i am no longer pregnant to find out.

i did learn one important baking lesson this week. when baking soda loses its power, you end up with flat cookies. precious husband and i were talking about how despite the fact that the cookies i have made over the last few weeks have been good, they have been very flat, which leads to crispy cookies. the only thing that was the same in all the cookies was the baking soda, which led us to believe that it was past its prime. i have this app on my iphone, called still tasty, which tells you the shelf life of stuff. its fantastic. i looked it up and sure enough, baking soda after opened is only good for 6 months. i am quite certain that the baking soda i had been using was older than 6 months. so i bought new baking soda this week, and today's baking adventure produced very fluffy cookies.

who knew?

the beans room..the closet

i don't think this needs much explanation. the bean has an obscene amount of clothing. he takes after his mother and his pappous ( this is the greek word for grandfather, which is what we are calling my dad, just an fyi) . i will say that i have looked far and wide, thanks to the internet, to find clothes for him that are unique, different and donut scream baby.

this day

for some reason, this morning i went into the lucends archives and reread what i wrote in the month of february. i wrote this, on this day last year.

it was hard to read. the pain and sadness we were feeling was palpable. heart ache seeped off every word. those were dark days. i thought that the pain would never subside. i cried most days, and despite being surround by the sun, sand and sea i was very wounded.

i can remember asking precious husband over and over "promise me we will have another baby." i knew even then that another baby would not replace the loss of cooper, nor would it heal my heart or take away the pain. but i needed hope, a reason to put one foot in front of the other.

little did i know at the time i wrote that post, that we would be 2 weeks (or less) away from having a baby, a little brother for cooper. its hard for me to believe sometimes, all that has transpired over the last year or so, the journey i have been on. cooper has been on my mind alot lately, and i feel him watching over us. as i have said many times, the hole that is left in your heart after losing a child, does not completely heal but it does mend.

i cant tell you how excited i am to meet cooper's little brother.

siblings

i am the oldest of 3 children. i am the only girl. there are 3 years between luke and i. and 5 years between sam and i. we are all very different and have taken different life paths. for the most part we get along. sure we have our sibling squabbles, rivalries, and revert to our childhood roles when we are all together, but when it comes down to it we are each other's biggest fan. i think that we are lucky.

my relationship with each brother is very different. one is not better than the other. one is not stronger than the other. each one is just different. there are no favorites, but i am the favorite sister. they have been an enormous support for me over the past year, stepping up to the plate and proving that nothing is more important than family.

in recent months, both brothers have talked to me on separate occasions about blogging. should they start a blog? what platform should they use? what do i write? who do i write to? advertise or not? after their own research on the subject, i am happy to say that they both are now part of the blogging family. their blogs are very different from mine and are very specific to who they are, the path they are on and what they are passionate about.

luke's blog is chronicling his journey to answer the question "what do you do?" as he embarks on the path as small business owner. and sam's blog is about fly fishing, a pastime that he is passionate about and used as the basis of his phd dissertation.

their respective blogs may not be your thing, thats ok. i want to share my siblings with you because i am very proud of both of them and the grownups they have become.

crazy for pizza

i think i have said this before, but precious husband loves pizza. seriously, he would eat it every night if i let him. he never grows tired of it. tuesday is pizza night in our house. precious husband gets his pizza and i get a night off from cooking. b loves pizza as much as precious husband. and he knows what tuesday night is and will steal your pizza if you are not watching.

since our house is still all out of sorts, we had pizza in bed last night, while watching a little tv.

i took a moment to document b's quest for the crust, which ended in victory, as it does every tuesday night.

tuesday tidbits

** currently our house is all out of sorts. nothing is in the right place. our new flooring for the living room finally came a month after we ordered it.

** precious husband is in the process of ripping up the old carpet and preparing to lay the new floor.

** of course nothing is easy.

**and i dont do well when things are out of place.

**i am reading the best book i have read in a long time. " the girl with the dragon tattoo". i cant put it down. must finish.

** read it, you wont be disappointed.

**i designed a new hat pattern based on a knitting stitch called "quilted stockinette."

** it is in the etsy shop. currently working on second hat.

** you should meet my friend athena. she designed a hat for the bean. her post made me teary eyed this morning.

** heather ross has a follow up collection to far far away, coming out this spring.

** i want a yard of each fabric. need to start saving my pennies.

**have a quilt design formulating in my head for my brother.

** and a big happy birthday to sheffy. xo

destashing

since i seem to be in full nesting mode, i decided to go through my yarn stash, believe me i have quite a stash, and have a little sale. some of this yarn is left over from my yarn shop days, some of it i bought thinking i would use it. you know how that is. but i have come to terms with the fact that this yarn is not going to be knit with my hands, and should go to a home where it will be loved and appreciated.

if you are interested in any of this yarn, email me and i will send you an invoice via paypal. i have included all the yarn stats beneath each picture. prices include shipping. sales are on a first come first serve basis. prices are for number of skeins offered as a group, not per skein. happy yarning.

SOLD***manos del uruaguay kettle dyed wool. 138 yards per skein. 14 to 18 stitches to 4 inches. needle size 8-10. color 30. 2 skeins available. retail price $13.00 per skein. your price $15.00

manos del uruaguay kettle dyed wool. 138 yards per skein. 14 to 18 stitches to 4 inches. needle size 8-10. color 14. 2 skeins available. retail price $13.00 per skein. your price $15.00

malabrigo worsted wool yarn. 216 yards. 4-5 stitches to 1 inch. needle size 7-9. color brown. 1 skein available. retail price $10.50 per skein. your price $5.00

SOLD****blue sky alpacas suri merino. 164 yards. 5-6 stitches to 1 inch. needle size 5-7. color 423, 413 and 410. 1 skein of each color available. retails for $16.00 per skein. your price $20.00

SOLD****blue sky alpacas dyed cotton. 150 yards. 4-5 stitches to 1 inch. needle size 7-9. color 627 and 615. 1 skein of each available. retail price $9.50 per skein. your price $10.00

suss yarns old fashioned. 70% merino and 30% cotton. 100 yards. 4-5 stitches to 1 inch. needle size 8-10. color grey. 10 skeins available. retail price $10.50 per skein. your price $40.00.

suss yarn brushed alpaca. 100% alpaca. 50 yards. 3 stitches to 1 inch. needle size 9-11. color ecru. 16 skeins available. retail price $17.50 per skein. your price $75.oo

SOLD***fable handknit pure baby alpaca. 145 yards. 22 stitches to 4 inches. needle size 7. color grey.9 skeins available. your price $ 35.00

SOLD****solstice by classic elite yarns. 70% organic cotton, 30% wool. 100 yards. 4-5 stitches to 1 inch. needle size 7-8. color ecru. retail price $6.00 per skein. your price $10.00.