New Year's Eve

I know that, statistically speaking, most New Year's resolutions are not kept.  However, as a statistician, I also know that 80 percent of statistics are made up on the spot, and that I only need to be correct 95 percent of the time.  So with that in mind, my resolutions (in no particular order) are:

1.  Figure out how to make seared ahi without blackening it or overcooking it.

2.  Use at least one recipe from every magazine I receive.  I started doing this several months ago with about a 50 percent success rate, so if I just up that by one or two percent, I'll have met my goal.   

3.  Be more organized.  I know, I know, everyone makes this resolution every year, but look I already started!  I downloaded this printable labels from the Better Homes and Gardens website and have been using them all over the house.

 

4.  Laugh more.  I really hope I keep this resolution!

Happy New Year's Everyone! 

The Sixth Day of Christmas

...began with rain on the windows and ended with wind in the trees.  Perfect.  

All the Christmas decorations and the trains are put away.  A clean slate for the new year.

 

The Fourth Day of Christmas

...Felt like a Monday, mainly because I went into work (and got things accomplished!) in the morning.  But I also managed to finally finish some Christmas gifts I've been working on (please, no snide comments, I still have eight days left!).

Flax seed +

Dried lavender +

Fabric =

Lovely Little Yoga Eye Bags!

The Second Day of Christmas

It is the day after Christmas. Sometimes this day seems like a let-down.  There is  nothing left to anticipate, nothing left to prepare, nothing to do, really, except clean up the mess.  However, in this house, and in many others, it is the first day of actual vacation from work, so how should we use the time?

It seems to me that in our modern Western culture, we've forgotten how to celebrate a proper holiday.  In several other cultures, at least one holiday or celebration spans many days.  Christmas, in fact, used to go for twelve days--we even have a song to that effect. But now we just have the "shopping holiday" that runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas (and only that long, if we're lucky).  Christmas has become another manifestation of the busy American culture--spending a lot of money and frantically doing a lot of things, then having one big let down after it's all over.  

So I say we should go back to celebrating all twelve days of Christmas.  In my household, we've decided that one of our Christmas day traditions will be to go sledding (or hiking, it poor snow years).  We did not have a white Christmas at our house yesterday for the first time in years, being stuck in a high pressure system that doesn't seem to end.  But we were able to find snow on Moscow Mountain and a really gnarly sledding run.  It was great!  We also found this pair on the mountain, still dozing when we found them on the quiet Christmas morn.

   
Now to come up with a tradition for today!

'Tis the Season

The Christmas decorations have been up for a couple of weeks now, so I thought I'd get around to showing them off!

The wreath was made by the University of Idaho Forestry Club

Stars in the window!

My mother made this little dove!

I made this ornament over a decade ago.

Wee little teacups dressed in red!

The train comes into Plasticville!

My paperwhite is getting larger!

A little angel made out of thread, also made by my mother.

First Attempts at Root Cellaring

I have been thinking about how I might make a root cellar for some time.  The problem is that our house doesn't have a basement, and I've always been worried the garage might actually freeze.  After deciding that the soda cans stored in the garage only very rarely freeze, I decided to take a chance.  This decision was fueled in part by the overabundance of carrots produced in my garden this year.  I bought a bin and liner from Gardeners.com and lined it with play sand.  The instructions with the bin actually said to use sawdust.  However, I couldn't figure out where I could get sawdust that wouldn't have any treated wood in it, and I had seen another suggestion for "horticultural" sand.  The building supply didn't have any of that, but said play sand would work.  So play sand it was.  If anyone has reason to believe this is not a good idea, please speak now or forever hold your peace (no refusing carrots served in the winter at my house)!

Carrots, layered and buried!

Stored in the garage, against the house.

My husband said I should purchase a second bin to store potatoes if this works out.  Whom am I to argue with that?!?

Short Days

The days now are painfully short.  Maybe not Alaska short, but short nevertheless.  Short enough that I want to sleep all the time.  Then I kick myself for any moments slept during the day because it reduced my exposure to daylight by a non-insignificant amount.  Fortunately I live with a toddler that prevents that from happening very often.  So in the meantime, I've been trying to focus my energy on making the house cozy and bright, to the extent that's even possible.  To that effect, I bought paper white bulbs at the Winter Market on Saturday and began to force them using any receptacles I could find.  It's hard to take pictures, even in the middle of the day due to the low light.  Too dark without the flash, too glaring with it.  But I'm looking forward to floral loveliness in a few weeks!

I've also been knitting like there's no tomorrow--winter always puts me in this mood.  Plus, I am trying to make a lot of Christmas gifts this year.  I've been working on the hat below for about a week, and it feels like I've ripped out more stitches than I've put in.  The pattern is just knit two, purl two on an uneven number of stitches, but if I'm not paying attention (or the light is too bad and I can't see), I tend to loose track of what I'm supposed to be doing next and the pattern gets wonky. 

I'm also making yoga eyebags as gifts.  I'll take more pictures when they're done, but here's what the outside will look like.  I'm going to stuff them with flax seed and lavender from my garden.  These little beauts sell for $15 online...hmmm.   

Well, that's all for now.  I think I'm going to go knit.  Or sleep.