Car Seat Canopy

I blinked and a month went by!  It's been kinda busy around here and I have even less free time than when Bowen slept all the time.  He's so sweet and smiley, though; I don't mind seeing him awake.  When he was born my friend Trice made a car seat canopy for us, and it is super convenient.  We already had a BundleMe for warmth, but the seat's accordion shade leaves a little to be desired in terms of cuteness.  Plus, when the fabric canopy is closed it keeps germy stranger fingers out of the baby's face.  Here is the tutorial Trice used, and I finally finished making this argyle/stripe one for my friend Jill who had a baby the same week as me.  (We got a Hobby Lobby last year and I love it!  Cutest fabric.)  I traced the canopy from Trice and the Lazy Sewist in me substituted wide grosgrain ribbon + velcro for the straps instead of making fabric strips and tear-my-hair-out buttonholes.  Sewing rickrack between the layers was probably the hardest part, and you could totally skip that.  Trice and Jill and I are pretty partial to rickrack, though, so that was worth the effort.

The Adam Scott

We've had a cut-up watermelon slowly disappearing in the fridge this week, so I went online to try and find a recipe that didn't involve booze (although that would be tasty) or the word "gazpacho."  It should come as no surprise that I chose an easy recipe (the Lazy Cook) that involves lemons: Watermelon Lemonade.  I didn't even make the lemonade from scratch or strain the watermelon (all that fiber!); I just stuck my immersion blender in the container and combined that with already-made lemonade (concentrate from the freezer section - my fave). 

Steve said I needed to name the drink and while I was working out a tongue-twisting combination of "watermelon" and "lemonade," he came up with The Adam Scott.  Love me some Adam Scott.  (Sorry I lied about the next thing on my Lemon List being Arnold Palmer cupcakes; this is a subtle nod to him!)

Applesauce

My dear mother-in-law, Cherie, has an apple tree from which she makes applesauce every fall.  As is true with a lot of things, her homemade version is better than storebought.  I have never made applesauce myself but on a recent trip to a farmer's market I was inspired by a box of Lodi and Rambo seconds.  Seconds just beg to be "hidden" in sauce; the box was even used for applesauce jars before this.   

I confess I was not interested in making applesauce before because I understood there is need of an apparatus, which places it low on the priority scale for this Lazy Cook.  I did borrow Mom's food mill one year but got busy with other things and never used it, probably because it sounded like a lot of work.  But I like my applesauce chunky so I figured maybe Google would tell me I could skip the food mill.

Google did just that, and of all the recipes I found I liked this one the best.*  Because of the Lodi tartness I substituted a small juice box of apple juice for the water in the bottom of the pan, then went to town on my peeler-corer-slicer.  For some reason I don't see this part as difficult/cumbersome, but what's not to like about making apple-skin ribbons?

So how does one make applesauce anyway?  Chop, cook, pulverize.  I used my hand mixer after letting the apples cook down, but the apples were sliced so thin they just kinda slipped through the blades.  In hindsight I should have used my immersion blender, but at that point I was just ready to eat some applesauce and be done with it.  I got my chunky applesauce; it was even kind of like eating pie filling.  Was happy with the results, would like to do it again when it's cool and crisp outside maybe even with the food mill if I can talk someone into doing it with me so I don't think about how long it's taking.

Oh, and the eggplant in that box pictured above became a gratin, and the plums became another rustic tart.

*That applesauce recipe turned out to be part of a blog written by the wife and daughters of C.J. Mahaney.  It covers everything from parenting to photography and makes me want to hang out with them.

Stitching

I haven't touched a skein of embroidery floss since I made knotted friendship bracelets in gradeschool and I'm not a huge fan of traditional embroidery, but this summer at the Lucketts Fair I met an artist who makes beautifully embroidered pins.  (I just noticed she posted some new ones! I love her story for the Madonna shrine. And the picture here is on her business card - love it!)  Come to find out, there are whole books of contemporary embroidery.  (The concept of "the rest of the bookstore outside the jewelry books & magazines section" has eluded me.)  I got this book along with 10 skeins of floss (still only 37 cents retail), a threader, two hoops, a pack of needles, and a thimble during a Jo-Ann Fabrics binge in December.  (Sometimes I just need a break from jewelry.)  I've had a crush on crewel ever since I saw it featured on a beautiful coverlet in Martha Stewart Living several years ago.  I can't be bothered to find the tear-sheet to scan; I can see it in my head just fine.

For Christmas I got this book (Thanks, Tom & Jen) and brought it with me to the beach.  I have a habit of buying how-to books and never reading them, so I figured I'd take advantage of cabin fever.  I always debate about whether to use practice materials when I'm learning a new techniqe in jewelry, because what if it comes out lovely the first time?  Then I can't sell it.  Nevertheless, I used my least favorite thread color on scrap muslin and embroidered a perfectly cute bird and branch (I know this motif shocks you).  Split stitch, backstitch, French knots, check, check, check.  Then I tried a sampler of little flowers using the actual colors I'd normally choose.  Lazy daisy, star, fly, long-and-short.  And now I have to create something out of these little squares of muslin that I refuse to admit are just practice.

The Lazy Embroiderer...  I shamelessly start my embroidery with a knot at the back instead of trapping the end under stitches as I go.  I have yet to find a good reason not to knot, and will continue to do so until it keeps me up at night, knowing there are knots on the reverse side of my embroidery.  For those purists I've just offended, will you please share how you store your skeins of embroidery floss, other than wrapping around cards made specifically for this?  I can't be bothered to card-wrap, but I think there's a better way to organize than piling.  Mom, stop laughing, that is not as enigmatic as one might hope.

The Lazy Photographer

I have camera envy. I currently use two Canon Powershot point-and-shoot cameras; the A540 stays in the studio and the SD1000 fits in my purse so I can shoot capture photograph Frednecks at a moment's notice. But sometimes I want to have really nice pictures of more important things (like Olivia) and I kind of miss certain things about my 35mm SLR. (Actually I still have it but who uses film any more?) I keep telling myself that it's harder to sneak around with a big camera for candids. People's faces are different when they see you with a big camera vs. a pocket-sized one. They get all nervous and make weird faces like it's picture day in 4th grade. But lately it seems like everyone has a Nikon D-series and takes the most beautiful pictures, so it piqued my curiosity.  Are DSLRs really that much better that point & shoot given the same conditions?

In the automatic mode do you get blurry photos in low-light conditions like this picture? Do you tend to adjust manual settings before you take pictures, or use automatic settings? Do the raw images look awesome, or do you have to fiddle with brightness, contrast, and color? I'd love it if the camera can do things like this automatically, because when my kid is smiling I don't always have time to change settings, and I much prefer natural light over a flash.

Our friend Josh let me play with his Nikon D60 and then pointed out that the Canon DSLRs have live screens (With the Nikons you can't see anything on-screen until after you take a picture.)  So it got me thinking and now I'm considering the Rebel XSi.  And I have a long lens from my 35mm SLR that has the same lens mount as the Canon DSLRs, and The Internet thinks I could use that again.  I guess I need to bring it to Best Buy to play.

Kerry, you can take credit for pushing me over the edge because your camping pictures made me want to be right there at that lake watching the kids play in the water!

I value any info and opinions you care to share, so feel free to comment or email me. anne@annemade-jewelry.com.  And thank you, everyone, for sharing photos on your blogs. I'm nosy and like to see what everyone else is doing.

I love New York

Steve and I just spent several days with his family in upstate New York. His sister Deborah got married on Saturday (!), so Olivia now has 5 aunts and 6 uncles.

Deb & Jeromy

The wedding was really fun, Olivia played quietly during the ceremony,

skipped her nap in favor of dancing at the reception, (YMCA with Aunt Liz here) and generally charmed the socks off the dozens of people she met. As her Great Aunt Barbara said, Olivia got passed around more than a football at a Longhorns game. (She's from Austin.) Sunday night the ladies went to see Julie & Julia (loved it, want to cook) and on Monday Steve's mom (Cherie) watched Livi while we drove around a couple of the of the Finger Lakes.

Cherie & Bob's neighbor gave me a bunch of perennials to plant in our flower bed, so it was a good thing we left Riley home this time. (This is the back seat of the car; notice the little face near the top.) Phlox, daisies, Susans, mums, *pink* beebalm, salvia, bleeding hearts, columbine, iris... I started planting them last night after we got home, and then my landscaper friend Rachel came over this morning to give me some professional help. The flower bed is clay covered by weed barrier and then several inches of pea gravel topped with mulch. I could dig all that out, put down good soil, and re-mulch but that sounded like a lot of work so I figured I'd see how well these grow with the conditions we have and the clump of black yummy soil they brought with them from New York. The Lazy Gardener.

The lazy parent (Installment 1 of many)

What are your kids' favorite books? What are *your* favorite children's books?

I apologize to the overachiever-moms reading this, but I think the benefits of reading to infants are marginal if existent. Olivia is no longer a newborn, so now I feel guilty that I am robbing her of brilliance, but I still haven't been reading to her. My friend Val assures me I have not missed the window of opportunity, but yesterday Dr. Robertson -- as part of his list of assignments for 6-month appointments -- said it's time to start reading to Olivia as part of a bedtime routine.

We've had no real bath/bedtime routine as we only bathe her twice a week because of the excema and have deprived her of books thus far. Dr. R said 50% of kids benefit from spacing baths out and the other half benefit from a daily scrubbing, so we're going to try more frequent baths. In the real tub! We didn't drag the baby tub to the mountains, so we just bathed Olivia in the big tub and she did just fine. No more soaking the countertops in the kitchen.

We were given several books as shower gifts (the caterpillar and bear, Pat the Bunny, Goodnight Moon), but in general I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to children's books. I was recently introduced to Mo Willems by Val's son Coulson. I'm not sure why the pigeon stick figures won a Caldecott Honor, but the books are clever and make me chuckle. I want more like those.

So feel free to comment... What are your kids' favorite books? What are your favorite books to read to them over and over?

The lazy cook

I like to eat lasagne, but I don't like to make it. Even with no-boil noodles the mixing/spreading of the ricotta bumps it up over the threshold of Not Worth It. But, earlier this year I found a recipe in Real Simple that substitutes frozen ravioli. Makes sense - flat noodles and ricotta. Here's my version of the recipe:

Cheater's Lasagna
1 jar pasta sauce
1 30-ounce bags frozen large cheese ravioli
1 package Italian sausage patties, cooked and crumbled
1 16-ounce bag shredded mozzarella

1. Don fabulous apron. (Steve gave me this one for Christmas - he is so cool.) Cook sausage if you haven't already. I reserve about a cup and freeze the rest for next time. (Laziness promotes efficiency.)

2. Heat oven to 350° F. Coat a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with cooking spray and pour in enough sauce to coat the bottom.

3. Arrange 12 frozen ravioli on top and scatter ~1/2 cup sausage over them. Top with handful of cheese.

4. Tend to crying baby, if applicable.

5. Cover with another layer of ravioli, sausage, sauce and cheese (the first layer, not the baby). I ended up making an additional layer because I have a tall dish, but that may have contributed to running out of sauce and starting a second jar.

6. Cover with foil and bake 35-40 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes more or until bubbly.

You can make this in advance and keep it in the fridge so it doesn't take as long to bake at dinnertime. In this case, don't forget to remove your apron before you go to the fabric store. Ahem.

Another option from the original recipe is to add a package of frozen spinach. Thaw it before you need it, and squeeze out the juice. Then layer in with the other ingredients.

Succombing

I used to have just one blog and I'd post everything on it. Then I started this one for just pregnancy/baby stuff because some people might not want to hear about baby poop. Now I'm starting to realize that it makes more sense to post just jewelry stuff on my jewelry blog and everything else on this one because, after all, childbearing has stolen my brain and I have little else to talk about. I will try to refrain from blogging about the contents of Olivia's diapers.

So for the sake of searching, here are previous posts from my other blog, by tag:
Trips
Food
House
Riley
Swedophilia
Bird fetish
WebStuff
Lazy Series

Other housekeeping stuff... I added a new slideshow to the sidebar for the newest pictures, called "Olivia Now". I'll try to add new pictures in groups, and then move the previous set to "Olivia Then".

Also, I completed an Interview With Myself, answering questions I had while still pregnant.