year's end

We are saying goodbye to 2011. Frankly, it was not my favorite year ever and I'm not sorry to see it go. But I did have fun choosing a memory from each month--



January--cupcakes at Dieter's birthday party.


February--a trip to the mountains and real snow.


March--balloons on a downtown walk.


April--a trip to the desert for Ken and the boys. Not my memory, but they are all crazy about the desert and rocks and it pleases me to think to think about that.


May--mother's day presents.


June--summer mantle.


July--a trip to the pool.


August--an abundance of radishes.


September--boys playing in the garden.


October--making cookies for Rainer's birthday.


November--arranging the pie table at thanksgiving.


December--a trip to Carpinteria on the solstice.

I have lots of thoughts about the old year, the new year, and making my resolutions. But that's for a later post. Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! I hope you celebrate it just how you like.

a mama-made kindle pouch

On Christmas day, Faith decided on a whim to order the cheapest Kindle with her Christmas money. We've both been talking lately about wanting to get back into reading (more books, and less time spent on the computer) and the idea of carrying our books with us in an incredibly lightweight little package was so compelling. The little video about it on Amazon captured both of our imaginations. We especially liked the part where the woman is relaxing back on her sofa, reading her lightweight Kindle, feeling at peace knowing that all her books are backed up in the Cloud! Anyway, Faith waited not so patiently and finally her package arrived Thursday night and she very much wanted me to make a little felt pouch for her Kindle.


The first book she bought was 1984 (I love hearing her tell about how every single essay she wrote in high school somehow related back to 1984! It lives in her heart). And she also bought one of the Hunger Games books.

I loved making this little pouch. I somehow fell away from sewing and creating this year, which was a shame, because I so strongly believe in creating over consuming. It felt good to make something, and we were both pleased with how it turned out. Such a simple rectangle, but so satisfying.


The felt is from my small stash of good wool felt, and I lined it with cotton batting for extra protection. I made the little button tab in a print from an old skirt I bought at a rummage sale a few years ago. And the button is vintage, from my friend Carrie. I do hope to do much more creating in 2012 . . .

merry christmas!

We are having a sweet and mellow day, most of us reading our Christmas books or playing with our toys. The boys both received big wooden cranes from Santa and have been having fun figuring out how they work and making deliveries to everyone in the family. We had our traditional Christmas breakfast of quiche and coffee cake and my parents came up to join us. Later, we will go to their house for a delicious dinner.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you are enjoying your day.

on the winter solstice

We had such a nice winter solstice. I feel like today was my true Christmas gift--it was just so natural, everything worked out as I had hoped, everyone was happy. And we were all together.




We started out with such a delicious lunch at Crushcakes in Carpinteria. I had the best huevos rancheros ever! Actually, all the food coming out of the kitchen looked amazing. Faith got a delicious looking salad. Certain of us could not resist a cupcake--Faith and I split one.


After the lunch we went to Carpinteria State Beach to go tidepooling. It was a great day to be there--a minus tide and no crowds--beautiful sunny weather. It was refreshing to be out in nature. The boys adored it.











In the afternoon we colored and listened to Christmas music. For dinner we had soup and biscuits and a big tray of cookies for desert outside by the fire.


The soup was this chicken and rice soup. So simple and yummy. I also made a split pea with barley, and Rainer ate bowl after bowl! I was really surprised and so pleased.


After dinner I set out a huge tray of cookies and we carried it outside with mugs of hot tea.


Ken made a big fire and we sat around. Winter solstice--yay!

By the way, we are taking Rainer in for out-patient surgery in the morning to get his port removed. I'm not a big fan of handing him over for surgery. Hopefully this is is last ever (it should be)! Say a little prayer, please, for all to go well, if you are so inclined. Thank you!

what we've been up to

{gingerbread Dala horse}

I am feeling very Decembery, Christmassy, and relaxed since I declared that I would enjoy this break and promised not to stress out. It's amazing what an attitude adjustment will do. We've mostly just been hanging out and instagraming* about it. Here's what we've been up to:

{spritz}

Breaking out the cookie press was really fun. My mom bought it for me a number of years ago, and I finally got it out and used it. Even the boys were able to squeeze out a few cookies (it takes a great deal of hand strength!).

{the littlest angel}

Carrie sent the kids this vintage copy of The Littlest Angel. It's kind of strange; have you read it? I'm not sure if I entirely "get it." Dieter has taken a liking to it. The "understanding angel" looks like Ben.

{gingerbread}

We approached the gingerbread cookie making as a kid-lead project. We made the dough a day before. Today we rolled and cut to the kids' content. There were gingerbread men and boys, trees, mushrooms, woodland creatures, stars. Gazillions of them.

{gingerbread fox}

The decorating was also child-led. We only decorated about a fourth of the batch. We just kept it mellow.

{december mantle}

{december mantle}

We even put up a little December mantle, something I thought I would not get around to-- I was so overwhelmed this month. But gladly I had a few minutes to make these little vignettes. The Dala horses are instant mood lifters. (I love them so much, Carrie! Thank you!!)

{dinner in}

We also had dinner of just popcorn and snacks one night, and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Rainer really got into this--preparing the snack, setting out a candle and decorations. So sweet, and exactly the sort of thing I want him to enjoy and remember.

*are you on Instragram? Come follow me at Faeriemb.

on break

So here is what I'm thinking-- I got through the week somehow and now here we are on break. I'm exhausted and feel sick. I'm not terribly organized for Christmas, but we have presents, we have a tree (partially decorated), I even have a tin or two of cookies in the freezer. We have a small stack of Christmas DVD's and a ton of Christmas CD's. We have each other. That's really everything we need, no? We can snuggle on the couch, read books to the kids, eat the cookies, listen to the music, look at the tree. I officially promise right now to enjoy it and not to stress. Are you in?

{I love finding the little groupings the children put together in the winter village. That dark complected gnome is one of my very favorite characters in the village. Love him!}

butterfly pasta with kale from 'the family dinner'

I was inspired to try this recipe when I saw it on Marvelous Kiddo and realized that I had the cookbook right on my shelf. I like blogs for just that sort of everyday inspiration. If you don't have the book, the recipe can be found here, on the book's own website. I ended up using only one bunch of kale and added bacon-- it was delicious. Also, I love the sundried tomatoes from Trader Joe's--not the jarred ones, but the dry ones that come in a little pouch--so sweet and flavorful!

What new recipes have you tried lately??

some scenes from the weekend

{from farmer's market}

{eating their veggie tamales}

{at the poppy fountain}

{pretty display of teapots at the coffee shop}

{hot cocoa for the boys}

{at the tree lot}

{at the tree lot}

I've gotten out of the blogging habit lately, but I do like keeping the blog current, so I thought I'd get back into the swing of things by posting some picture heavy, small posts. I've been tired (and stressed!) lately, but we had a little pocket of weekend contentment. On Sunday morning I set out for farmer's market with the boys, with low-to-no expectations for how it was going to go, and it turned out to be sweet, happy, and simple. I've found that the key to a happy farmer's market experience is to go in for 1 or 2 things, tops, and then let it be fun and child-led. My shopping list this week consisted of one item (kale), but I ended up buying some pretty red berries for Christmas decorating as well. After that, I bought the boys tamales and they played in the lovely sunny weather. And we went for coffee and hot cocoa. Dieter got a Christmas tree shortbread and Rainer got a brownie bite. Good times, I am telling you. Later, we picked out a tree. The rest of the weekend was busy and crowded, but I so appreciated that morning with my boys.