A Titanic Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been weighing heavily on my mind, for so many reasons; baby is soon to be hear(any day now) family is coming to stay, and how will we do tradition in a vegan style!!

My biggest concern is making everything interesting and fun but still sticking with our new way of life. While my husband and i are devoted to this, my family may not be so excited about breaking out of traditional turkey dinners and sides to complement the TURKEY... or ham and pineapples, and tons of dressing made with chicken broth or brisket and rice and gravy... or even one year we had a Turducken.

When i think of this, my mind starts playing Everybody loves raymond... the episode where Deborah tries to start a new tradition by cooking fish, and Marie is appalled by the idea. I dont think my family would ever be so difficult, we are all pretty open minded... but i still would like them to enjoy themselves. So i was thinking maybe a formal setting with a few different dishes to try, but without the main focus of turkey it would be like we were just having a bunch of sides(though each dish we have had for an entire meal at some point)

So my next thought was each dish should be presented separately, and this lead to the idea of a five course dinner... We have been to the marine corps ball plenty of times, and the meals are generally set up in a 3 course fashion, but that is about a fancy as we get, so we looked it up

from the wiki:

In formal dining, a full course dinner can consist of five, seven, eight, ten or twelve courses, and, in its extreme form, has been known to have twenty-one courses. In these more formalized dining events, the courses are carefully planned to complement each other gastronomically. The courses are smaller and spread out over a long evening, up to three, four or five hours, and follow conventions of menu planning that have been established over many years.

Most courses (excluding some light courses such as sorbets) in the most formal full course dinners are usually accompanied by ("paired with") a different wine, liqueur, or other spirit; today, craft beers and sakes are increasingly being integrated into the pairings.

So very intrigued by the twenty one course meal we read on, and found that the more courses a meal has the smaller the serving are, for example on the 21 course meal one course was nuts, another caviar. Wiki also drew out the TEN course meal that was served on the TITANIC: 

of course this was served to the First Class passengers

First Course

• Hors D'Oeuvres
• Oysters

Second Course

• Consommé Olga
• Cream of Barley

Third Course

• Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce, Cucumbers

Fourth Course

• Filet Mignons Lili
• Saute of Chicken, Lyonnaise
• Vegetable Marrow Farci

Fifth Course

• Lamb, Mint Sauce
• Roast Duckling, Apple Sauce
• Sirloin of Beef, Chateau Potatoes
• Green Pea
• Creamed Carrots
• Boiled Rice
• Parmentier & Boiled New Potatoes

Sixth Course

• Punch Romaine

Seventh Course

• Roast Squab & Cress

Eighth Course

• Cold Asparagus Vinaigrette

Ninth Course

• Pate de Foie Gras
• Celery

Tenth Course

• Waldorf Pudding
• Peaches in Chartreuse Jelly
• Chocolate & Vanilla Eclairs
• French Ice Cream

At this point i am hooked, we shall have a full course meal, complete with non alcoholic beverage pairings!! Who can resist that!! Regardless of our meatless situation i believe this to be a thanksgiving to remember... I also put together a menu, that will be set on the table so that our "first class passengers" can have a reference to what they will be enjoying!!

It started as a 5 course menu and evolved into an 8 course meal! we have some very simple things on there and some courses that can easily be made ahead of time. Thanksgiving meals usually take a few days of cooking anyways this one will just mean i wont have to wake up at 2 in the am to put a turkey in the oven!! Though i am planning on making pumpkin donuts the morning of out of our yummy new bread book "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" ... actually it is such an amazing book we are making three other breads in preparation for our Titanic meal, some for bruschetta some for rolls, and some bread pudding(maybe). All in all I CANT WAIT... now if only i can push a baby out before then!!!

Dining Rooms, Not Just For Dining

It all started with the purchase of a new dining table...

We originally went to the furniture store(every one in the county) to look for a bunk bed, but we found this amazing dining room table!! Hubby worked his negotiating magic and got it for way cheap!! SCORE

I have hated this arch since the beginning of time... seriously the moment i walked into our newly bought never before seen house, i thought to myself that arch will have to go... and then i thought that built in cabinet will have to go. We took out one of those things the next week. The other had to wait 2 years.

It was going to be a simple project, pound out the arch and put molding up. But nothing is ever simple in our house NOTHING!! The arches were apparently meant to last through the nuclear holocaust, so i took a few swings at it, and then relinquished the hammer to husband. It is not only concrete and plaster but also wrapped in a metal mesh and reenforced with couple blockes of wood, hammered into the studs with 4 inch nails (if these nails were hand forged it would not have surprised me)

Then, my other half points out that if we nail up some molding now his head would probably hit it... Devastated, thats what i was!!! he must have saw this on my face because he continued for the next two hours pounding out all the plaster and cutting out the metal mesh from the bottom of the header! We are still finding chunks of plaster hiding places!

I was so excited about the color i had original picked out for the hallway wall. I got the little sample cans and painted up some patches expecting to love it, but wound up HATING IT. We went back to the drawing board, and completely changed our paint pallet!!

This is what we wound up with after moulding and paint!!

So the obvious next step would be to paint the dining room (not finish the room upstairs)

We move all of the stuff in here to the basement and the "storage room" and begin prepping the walls, and pulling off moulding... I would post a pic of the blue we painted the walls but i hated it s much that we had to go back and paint it a darker shade.

 AFTER we built in some book shelves of course... the room looked so empty and our OLD book shelves didnt match our NEW table

So after 2 and a half months of building and painting, this is what we got!!

We had to move an outlet, from the left wall, it was going to be half way covered by the cabinet, so we re wired it to the first shelf on the back wall, and now our printer has a new home!

the door is still a work in progress.. and probably will be for quite some time, after about three layers of paint we got down to paint that will NOT submit to the chemicals and sanding and scraping. We did however fix the structural problem of the whole door frame falling out of the wall... locking the door was kind of silly, because turns out all you had to do was yank it really hard and the whole think would fall out :P 

Then there is the bench... i have decided to call the window seat/bench, the banquet!! it sounds so formal that way.

We have not yet ordered the doors for the banquet so we cannon finish it up until those are hung, but we plan on staining the seat the same color as the table top and chairs!!

Now our new fantastic dining room can be used for dining... and sewing... and painting... and joy school,  and storage,  and office space,  and growing herbs, and well anything really, it is so functional!!!

The doors we ordered from Here, and they are beautiful!

And the plans for the bookshelves were drawn up using THIS tutorial

We modified it quite a bit, and wound up building our own cabinet boxes but still a very helpful tutorial!!

My Dream Nursery

What makes my Dream Nursery, so dreamy? The fact that i have one! It only took me three babies to lockdown an actual nursery but by golly i got one, and it is pretty awesome, in my opinion :)  This one came more out of necessity than from a desire to have one. We have a reasonable sized house (perfect IMO hehe) a nice amount of square footage, but the rooms are very segmented, which is pretty common in older houses, cape cods in particular. That means we have no master sweet. We plan on having two rooms and a bathroom morphed into one master suit, but this is pretty far out in our renovation plans. So what we have here is a little tine bedroom next to a little tiny bedroom, and neither have enough room for our bed and a crib... THUS a nursery was created!!

The room had been deemed the Multi-purpose room, and we have used it for just about every purpose we could come up with since moving in: guest room, office, storage room, playroom, back to guest room, sewing room, room that houses a knitting machine, back to play room, then lastly a tool shed/lumber yard(for the dining room project, not yet blogged about) Now the room can lovingly be called a nursery, after 9 months of envisioning it, and planning and gathering furniture, we put it all together in 2, thats right TWO day.

Most of the rooms in this house... well who am i kidding, ALL of the rooms in this house have been beat to h***, we are pretty sure that the previous owners rented out individual rooms, and they didnt do "home improvement" more like "throw on some spackle and a boat load of caulking and call it good" so every room we remodel, we have to sand down the plaster, fix the cracks, patch huge holes, redo base boards and window casings and undo the previous "home improvements". All before we can start painting and it is usually a two week process.  This room was needing to be done fast, so hubbs did a bit of light sanding (with a belt sander) I did a few wall patches (used a whole can of plaster) and then we taped the best we could(over the excessive amounts of caulking) and painted the room green. Unfortunately this was the worst room in the house so it really should have required a month of work... but now that the paint is on and all is said and done it is not to bad!

My plan was to have a functioning nursery, as well as a place for the kids to sit and play quietly while I am busy tending to baby... it sounds like a tall order, but i think we may have accomplished it for the most part, i guess i will see when baby gets here!!

Here are some pictures!!

The view from my Glider.  kids sitting on their home made floor cushions,  playing with puzzles and books. The white quilt was a last minute project i will explain later. Take a look at the quilt hanging on the crib... this quilt was made by my awesome friends, and quilting companions, they each picked out fabric that made them think of me or that they thought i would like(because baby 3 is a surprise) and then they quilted it together... i just love it!! They really went above and beyond with that! Then made a diaper bag to match!!! i know what you are thinking... i need some friends like that :) 

View from the door. The repurposed target bookshelf that we've had for like 5 years,  fits in pretty good to hold some quiet toys and books!!

The aqua Doodle, this is the kids favorite feature! they can play with it only when i get the 'markers' down, and i intend on doing so sparingly... to keep it exciting! Right now if allowed they will play with it for at least an hour

Future big sis and big bro!!

Baby G had to take a picture since i was taking pictures, she did a good job... except i am swollen and ridiculously pregnant, we will just blame it on a bad camera angle :/

Now alls i have to add is a baby!! Then our family will be one child closer to complete, hehe!! More to come on our current series "catching up" join me tomorrow night as i blog about THE DINING ROOM (you are not gonna want to miss that)

So Much, in So Little

            Since my last real post was in june, i have been stuck trying to figure out where to start with my updated post...uhhhh..........hmmmm..... i still am not sure where to start, so i guess we could just catch up on whats been happening. After rivers bday was My Glorious 25th!!! No big deal just the age i have been looking forward to since turning a very inglorious 18, and then a mildly exciting 21. Every one raves about the coming of age birthdays, but really the only change is at one age your can smoke, and the next you can drink... but TWENTY FIVE, that gives you 'street cred'. Some kind of personal satisfaction/confidence accompanies the words "I am 25", like being a quarter century old gives you all the wisdom in the world, i know this isnt so, and it sounds silly now that i have said it, but this is what i have been looking forward to for, well, 25 years, STREET CRED! it was either get all tatted up and start a bad addiction, or turn twenty five. Soooooo incase you guys didnt hear ::clears throat::  I am 25 years of age! thats right old ladies at knitting shops, i have crows feet now you can stop frowning at me when i walk through the doors and head for the marino wool... did you hear that, nay sayers of "already being married at 18/19/20/21", i am no longer "just a baby"... walmart you can stop carding me for white out and duck tape, and Lowes can just let me buy aerosol paint without the disapproving looks, it really is for a side table, i am not some crazy kid looking for a cheap high.

With all this approval of years owned... also comes some cons, i am old enough to buy a time share, and EVERY Time share out there apparently has direct access to my credit report, also credit card offers have seemed to double. Unfortunately an increase in age did not increase my income so i am not really sure how "they" figure i am more willing to submit to these things.

For my birthday Hubby got me the best gift ever, and i mean it(after almost 6 months i am still excited about it)!!! i use them EVERY day. Every time i use them i think of the man in my life that listened to me talk about this for months on end until eventually conceding to never having them, and then remembering how much he loves me and getting them for me anyways... what is this wonder gift you may ask... lets see if you can guess

Like i said before, i use them every day
.......
you have likely seen them on tv
.......
but not in a commercial
.......
they cost more than 50 dollars
......
less than 100
......
they sell it on amazon (not much of a hint there)
.....
i use them in the kitchen
.....
there is no way you can BAKE without them
.....
made out of metal
.....
there is 4 in the set
.....
they fit in my hand
....
they hang on my wall but it also could come with a stand
....
this is all the clues i can come up with
....
did you figure it out yet?
....
....
....
....
....   SPOONS, pewter measuring spoons!!

yup, i saw em on paula dean like forever ago, and fell in love!!! Hubs got me the fleur de lis ones and they are perfect :) such a silly thing for me to set my heart on but let me tell you i hate digging in a drawer for measuring spoons only to find every spoon but the measurement you actually need, of course you can just eye ball things, which is okay with spices and such, but as for baking( especially since i am not a chef) they are indispensable!

So all this excitement was in june and now that i have been 25 for a few months, i think i'll stay this age for a good while. I was actually asked my age a while back and in saying 25, i had to stop and think, "am i really THAT old?" talk about an eclipse of the heart.

So this is a start on catching up... i had to devote a whole post to street cred,  and the next post will be mo betta i promise... the next few days will be alot of catching up because there is only a short while till baby 3 will be joining us, so stay tuned!!

The Hiatus

That is what this has been ;) more post soon to come!!

The Boithday Week

This last week was the only week that matters in DD's entire year. She looks forward to her next birthday before her current birthday is over. This years preparations started, in her eyes, last year the week after her 3rd birhtday. We were going to have a princess party, a fairy party, a dino party, a halloween party, a chuckecheese party, a bubble party, and these are only the ones i can remember there were more much more.

Ultimately we decided on an OWL party! Cause hooo doesnt love owls ;)

I did lots of research on the interwebs to find the cutest owl party stuff and came across a blog where i used every thing they used(but i cut alot of corners) behold pictures:

the invite

the first 6 pillows(there were 11 in all) each one had
a pocket with a tootsie roll pop in it!

the first pillow

Then there was the cake...  i had originally seen an owl cake in parents magazine that i was going to use, but then ran across this book Cupcake Cakes in Wegmans, and thought it was such an awesome idea i had to go with it! This was not the cutest cake in the book, and i didnt do to good of a job on it. In hind sight i should have used homade butter cream icing for the white icing, instead i used a tub of icing, and it was not stiff enough to hold up over the cupcakes... i did make the chocolate icing(as per the books recipe) and it was super easy and really tasty so i am kicking my self in the butt for not going all the way and making the white icing too. The cupcakes were devils food cake and it was pretty delish :-d

We had the party at a local park, and i now know i we will never do it at our house again!! Bringing all the stuff to the park was a little bit of work, but oh how fun and easy the rest was. Cleaning up was so simple too! We let the kids play at the play area until everyone arrived and then gathered all of em up to go on a scavenger hunt. That morning(cause i kept putting it off) the husband and i went down the nature train and picked a bunch of leaves, i took pictures of them and put em this collage then taped them onto the front of paper lunch bags. We handed the paper bags out and took the kids down the trail and helped them find the items on the bag.

I was worried about them liking this since they were all about 4-5 years old, but it was AWESOME, they really really liked it!! At the end of the trail Husband was waiting with little favor boxes full of tootsie roll candy (cause its an owl theme hehe).

 Then we headed back for cake!! and pizza and fruit... it was all gone, by the end of the party, we had some hungry little owls!

notice the ballons sitting on the table in front of the cake, they were stuffed with felt Numbers that coincided with bags that had the owl pillows tucked inside. We blew up the ballos and let the kids pick one and pop it, then they got to open their own owl pillow!!

Then of course we opened presents, and then got kicked out of the park for closing time!

The big gift this year was... A BIKE, but not just any bike, a STRIDER bike. we ordered it off the google and payed for expedite shipping... and it still didnt get here on time so the monday after her party she got her bike.

we decided to test it out at the skate park, little guy had to take his bike too!

So thats it for the party let me show you what else we did that week.

FONDUE

 Some hats for some baby showers

And a much needed Recycle Can I am hoping that the pretty blue letters i sprayed on will convince Husband to stop throwing all my recycling into the trash bin on trash day and put it out on recycle day!

Well its been a hoot!! cant wait till next year, and niether can dd... she is already makin plans!

Vinyasa Hatha Dilemma

Today marks the return of my worn down beaten pregnant body, to yoga. Oh how i love love love yoga!

It is a strange thing for me to say that because it wasn't always this way... Highschool and a few years of college was spent on anaerobic exercises and trying to become "as strong as possible" and then killing myself on a treadmill or elliptical for, what seemed to me, absolutely no reason(i hate cardio).  It was one semester after a particularly intense tennis class that i decided to take "a cheat" PE class. What would be easier than YOGA, it's just breathing and silly names,  the hardest thing i could think of about this class was that it was at 8 in the morning(ludicrous). The first class was spent talking about our feeling, and the all importance of breath and oxygen, the negative aspects of judging ourselves and others, and inner peace... and i am pretty sure the teacher, though born and raised in SoCal was buddhist. I almost quit the class, were it not for the need for another PE credit, i guess i had negative energy ;)

Then the real classes started, we were being taught Hatha yoga. Slow and easy and super duper relaxing, it quickly became what i looked forward to every week!! Of course i was much skinnier and more flexible, than i am now after 2 children and lots of sunday dinners, so it came so very easy to me.

Now 5 years later i am a full on Vinyasa fan. I love that i sweat without really doing anything.  Then there is feeling soar the next day without ever exerting any energy(i hate cardio did i mention that). Really though the best part is my posture... its amazing, everything looks and feels different after yoga. Unless you dont drink enough water then, well, you feel like poop. I know that my first yoga teacher was a little out there, but now i can honestly say i understand what she was so excited for.

Allow me to expound on my yoga deficiencies...For my first two pregnancies i have been so out of it i couldn't do ANYTHING. For Baby A i was sick THE WHOLE TIME, i think there was one month(around month 7) that i wasnt throwing up daily, so obviously no time for downward dog. For baby B i was sick for only the first 3-4 months and then i used the ever so enduring excuse of chasing around my 15 month old daughter. There was something new in the mix too, my pelvic bone was just way to lose, i would be in ridiculous pain while walking, laying on my side or on my back or even sitting for any amount of time. But i blamed this on my pregnancies being almost on top of each other. So once again sliding into a sedentary life style (luckily my eating habbits were moving towards healthy by this point.

Baby #C... this is where the dilemma comes in. I am no longer "tossing my cookies" so to speak and i am feeling pretty energetic, so i went to my usual Yoga class this morning. It is Vinyasa, but is even leaning a little to the ashtanga side of things. I really felt so awkward doing it being pregnant, even though there were other pregers present. It may have had something to do with me being in terrible shape after a 4 month absence, or it could have been the honey dew sized belly i am now dealing with finding a spot for in some of the poses. Either way it was tough, and my pelvic bone is no better this pregnancy that it was last(in fact it has been painful since the 6 weeks mark). I thought that if i just go and  tough it out, feeling more aligned and having a bit of a core workout would help, but i have been walking funny ever since. So now i have to decide to stick with it and hope it doesnt get worse, move to hatha yoga(where the geriatrics go) and just stay flexible but not really get a work out, or just go swimming to keep the pregnancy weight down (i am determined not to let myself go to far this time) and i HATE swimming, in the worse way possible!

At any rate i did enjoy myself greatly this morning and i will probably go with the husband a few times, cause he finally sees the light in yoga (i couldnt resist), but i shall see if i can actually stick with it!

thats about as enlightened as i get so deal with it ;)

Procrastination is what Anitra's do best!!

Hi my name is Anitra and I have a sever case of, "I'll do it tomorrow's".... sheeewww i am glad i got that off my shoulders! Now that i have admitted to my problem, i can start working on correcting it! But that is a project best suited for tomorrow ;) Any-who, lets talk about the past. these past few weeks have been spent tying up loose ends (OH so many loose ends) and, of course, starting some new things to put off!

Case Number... lets just call it one(to simplify things): The garden! I spent the last bit of winter building a nice looking box, and then didnt fill it till mothers day!  OBSERVE:

Honey Dew

pretty cucumbers all in a row

my Box filled with bug bait*

a view from the tomato cam

* it has been a fair amount of weeks since planting and apparently i am not the only creature in the back yard that likes egg plants, and they have since been destroyed MERCILESSLY. But all is not lost, metaphorically speaking (because they really are all gone) i shall take my revenge, i have made a purchase of organic insect torture--> ORANGE OIL. i shall melt the exoskeleton's of those pesky bugs and let them dehydrate to death, all without damaging what is left of the environment, behold the power of Citrus!

But really the garden has been quite rewarding, no food yet, but it is nice to get out of the house to water it and pull up weeds, or just go sit next to it and ACT like i am doing something, just so i am not in the house!

Case #2: Baby gear! i finally finished the EPIC ruffle binding on the baby blanket. Lets have a look at the evidence:

I didnt put batting in it, and my thinking was because little Paislee is a summer baby, so I didnt want it to be too hot. Though in hind site i should have, so she could have a cushy blanket to roll around on.

Also in the box of goodies a plethora of essential, and then a few more hand made bits of cuteness!

A knitted balloon bunny,  courtesy of a free lion brand pattern!

some wool soakers designed by yours truly 

This one is my favorite, Ruffled Baby Bottoms
pattern to come, as soon as i write it :)

Case #3: Board and Battened living room: It only too a few tantrums and more back pain than it may have been worth but I can finally chalk up a win for house insert my last name!

Heres a Before-ish photo

Carpet removed and holes being patched. There used to be this really ugly built in book case on the side wall, it was so old i think it may have been structurally significant to the house, we took it out the week we bought the house!

After:

new carpet and new blinds... and there is something else different,  I just cant put my finger on it.

a new perspective

a new light fixture(lowes), and some pretty hooks (ikea)

my new window frame!! My favorite feature!

Its the little details that make the biggest difference

a huge upgrade, multi directional air flow!!

Tamper Resistance built right in!!!

Now we have a few more projects going on, the first of which is removing all the carpet in the house and cleaning the floor underneath, on Husbands last trip out of town, some friends came over for what was suppose to be a quick project (i should know better by now, that no project is a quick one) we were going to pull up the spare room and hall way carpet. We wound up pulling up the stair well carpet and the upstairs hall way also, and then discovering the disaster that lay beneath, spent the rest of the day scrubbing what ever this stuff was off of the floor!

Thats all the finished stuff for now and the rest will wait until tomorrow... or maybe the day after that 

....well eventually 

Tea dresses, and panda pancakes!

I have added a new title image(i am sure you noticed) and i know exactly what you are thinking, "I want some piggy shaped pancakes too!!!" well let me assure you they tasted more like pig than they did pancake(and i'm not talking bacon), i had ran out of vanilla, so opted to make them anyways, and they tasted like salt and backing soda. The kids ate them up anyways, River thought they looked like panda's, and though i explained to her that they were in fact pigs she insisted on having panda shaped pancakes.... so her pigs were actually Panda pancakes! We also made an homage to angry birds Pancake:

                                             its so realistic i want to shoot birds at it!!

River was to attend a tea party today, so naturally i had to make her a dress appropriate for such a cordial occasion! As i had mentioned before, I've been wanting to smock up some dresses and skirts, so this morning i hopped to it. I shall provide a quick tutorial on how i made the dress on a machine with a drop in bobbin .  From what i have read you need a machine with a bobbin case to stretch the elastic thread enough, but that is not the case.

FOIST: Pick out some cute, very light weight material. In my case i used some pin stripe seer sucker. Cut the material, chest width times about 3, and start byt making a tiny rolled hem at the top of the dress. If you have a serger, serg the edge and then fold over about a quarter of an inch, and stitch in place. 
THEN:You need some elastic thread... found at joanns. The color of the thread is not so detrimental because it will not be seen.

You can wind it with you regular machine bobbin winder. Then insert it as per you machines directions into the bobbin.

 Now you must tighten the bobbin tension. This is really the tricky part, if you have an older Singer machine you will have to use a penny to turn a dial at the back of you machine, but the newer singer machines have a teensy little screw on the bobbin case itself: the green screw

Use your little screwdriver,  put it in the provided notch and turn it till the spring is tightened almost completely. 

You must also increase the top thread tension to between 7-9, and thread it with coordinating all purpose thread(or whatever thread you have that matches)

NOW: Sew your first smock or shirred line just under the rolled hem, then each subsequent line 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch under the previous. You will need to stretch you material as you sew to get the desired effect.

This is the back side of your fabric:

AFTER you have sewn 4-5 inches of shirring, you can sew the seam up the back, and hem up the bottom. Remember to readjust your bobbin tension.  I used a wide hem.

SLEEVES: you can now add ribbon, for a quick strap or you can make gathered sleeves. I cut four inch strips, and made a small rolled hem along both long sides(again if you have a serger you can do it the easy way)  Then loosened my top tension to 0 and sewed about a quarter inch from the edge each short side of the sleeve. Then you pull the top thread so that the fabric bunches. Put the dress on your little model or guestimate and pin straps to the inside on your dress and sew on the top seam so as to hide you line. 

Finally: let you little lady of society wear her new dress proudly!! Couple it with a stately hat to polish off her tea party look :)

I also made my skirt, but i havent taken pictures of it yet, so it will have to wait for another post. I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!! TTFN