fiddlesticknitting

Break

I'm going to take a blog break for a while. Take care of my real life, get my family to sleep (one Little Miss in particular) and get some things organized. Hopefully during this time I will be more productive knitting and designing-wise and will have some good stuff to show you when I come back. Don't know how long I'll stay away, hopefully not too long. I will be checking my email, but am going to take a break from reading blogs and  raveling.
I  do want to thank all my new readers who found me via knittingpatterncentral.com. I posted Boheme there and wow, I get a lot more traffic now! Awesome!

Take care my pretties and I'll be back when I'm back!

34

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday dear Allegra
Happy Birthday to Me

It's my birthday and I am sick. I think this is the first time EVER that I've been sick on my birthday. I hope this is not foreshadowing a crappy year to come. It's 1am and I am supposed to be up in 6 hrs to throw dinner in the crockpot and work all day. I might have to call in sick if I feel worse, but then that means I probably would have to call in sick for the whole rest of the week and we're actually playing good music this week. I am a wreck that Satya is going to get sick. Her nose is running a bit. I just have to remind myself that she is older and stronger than she was when we both got sick back in Feb (her first cold...RSV). I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer on my own birthday. I'll get over it and hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

Weighing In

I've gotten many compliments on the cake that I made for Satya's birthday party. It is an almond cake with whipped cream and fresh peaches that I found from Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates, a great cookbook. I also made Carrot Cake Cupcakes for the party that were totally yummy and quite healthy.
We went for Satya's 12 month checkup yesterday and here are her stats:
Weight: 23 lbs
Length: 30 in
Her head still falls in the 93rd percentile, but the rest of her has calmed down to the 75th and 80th percentiles. She's doing awesomely, yay!
But it seems that I've gone from raising a one year old to a teenager. This kid is going to sleep between 11:30 and midnight every night lately and is up at 9:30 or 10 in the morning. This morning I had to persistently wake her up at 11am!!! It's nuts! She's in a great mood at midnight but that means mommy gets NO TIME TO HERSELF EVER. I blame the teeth a bit (#4 is finally cutting through!), but she just as so much energy all the time. I miss knitting and reading blogs and well, sleeping, but that's normal. Now that I'm back to work <sigh>, I take my knitting with me and get done whatever I can

One

Happy Birthday Satya. Thank you for choosing me to be your Mommy. I love you and I am looking forward to seeing you grow into the amazing person that you are.  I am the luckiest Mama ever.

A Success!

I am kicking back with a Peach Izze enjoying my success aka Satya's Birthday Party! The food turned out perfectly, we had a nice small group of friends and no baby meltdowns! Check out the other pictures here. After looking at the pictures you might ask yourself, where's the birthday banner? the crown? Yeah, didn't happen. After baking all day yesterday, at 9pm with a crap-a$$ rotary cutter and felt, I decided it wasn't going to happen. Too bad. But I figured this is the only year that I can get away with that, so at least now I am prepared to make an awesome banner and will figure out the perfect crown for her second birthday.
Now I can return to obsessing over my knitting, oh yeah, and maybe get back in shape (violin-wise) to go back to work on Wednesday (in serious denial about that).
Here's another picture from today's festivities: Satya and her new friend, E. Perhaps one of my favorites from the day.....

Down to the Wire......

Anyone have any suggestions for a DIY birthday banner or birthday crown?? I am about to look at my copy of The Creative Family but wondered if anyone else had any good ideas. (Especially ones without sewing. This is not the weekend to try to learn!)

Here's my menu for Satya's big day:

Millet bread (with cumin and onions inside)
my awesome olive tapenade

Strata with prosciutto and tomato (and some other veg, I can't remember right now)
Asparagus and Mushroom quiche (for the vegs)
A granola "bar": diy granola, berries, yogurt
Either salad or crudites

Almond cake with peaches and fresh whipped cream

Some fun drinks

So as you can see, with all the cooking and baking I have to do, I MUST have another project like a birthday banner!!

Labor Day Friday Favorites

Ok, I know it’s not Friday, but I’ve been trying to post this since Friday, so that counts right? Last week was a hard one, Satya finally cut one of her top two teeth, so there were some hard nights. And we’re not done with it yet because the other top tooth is about to cut any minute. Poor thing, this teething process is taking forever. On top of that, I’ve been having insomnia and have been dealing with Lovey’s allergies to my cats. Therefore a lot of vacuuming. The allergies aren’t a new thing, but the intolerance is :) Fun Fun.
Ah, it’s finally September. Thank goodness because August sucked. A lot.  September is my favorite month of the year. A new beginning. Not only is it my birthday month , it’s Satya’s birth month and it’s also the beginning of the Symphony season. It always feels like the beginning of a new school year for me when work starts up again. So things are probably going to be pretty quiet around here for a while. This week is all about getting the house (and us) ready for Satya’s birthday party on Sunday, and ultimately getting us prepared for when the sh*t hits the fan next week when I go back to work. I have so much to do before I go back to work to feel like we’re starting the year fresh, I don’t know how I’m going to do it. Oh yeah, stop reading blogs and raveling for a while. That’ll help.
I do hope to upload the 3rd installment of pictures of yarn for sale later today or tomorrow, and you definitely will see some birthday pictures at the end of the week.

Let’s get on with it, shall we? I have a hodgepodge of things to share with you this week:

* Barack Obama. I never ever talk about politics with anyone. Ever. But I have to tell you how excited I am about this man. Scout beat me to it, so read her post and then come back here. I cried during his speech. I love his voice, I find it very enjoyable to listen to and I stay focused on what he’s saying rather than my usual a.d.d. What excites me the most is that it is very possible that my daughter’s first president (I don’t even plan to tell her about W) will be a black man (and could’ve been a woman),which shows us how far we’ve come, and that there is a lot of hope for the future.

*While watching his speech on Thursday night, I concocted a dinner that I am really happy with . So I’ve decided to share it with you! I don’t really measure out while I’m cooking, so use your best judgement.

Mahi Mahi Pineapple (makes enough for 2 or 3)

Mahi Mahi fillets (2)
Pineapple chunks (I used a large can)
Chopped red pepper (1-2 peppers)
onion
garlic
cilantro
curry powder (I used less than 1 tsp)
brown rice

sauté onion and garlic with olive oil; add red pepper; add pineapple; add curry powder; add cilantro; add mahi mahi (put some salt and pepper on the fillets) and cook until fish is ready. Serve over brown rice.

Enjoy!

*Eric Carle. I’ve been reading many of Carle’s books to Satya lately and I love him. His use of color is amazing.

*I love the Matryoshka dolls pictured above! My dad bought these for Satya in Prague this summer and we just got them. (These ones are cute too!)

*Flickr. With all the problems I had with them last week and getting a new account, I’ve spent more time on Flickr this week and loving it. Yet another time suck, but hey, at least they’re pretty pictures!

* A warm welcome to the newest member of the knitting community!

Hope you all enjoy your day off. I have been  taking the holiday literally and have been laboring over my house all day long:) I’ll be back when I can.