Thursday, January 29, 2009

vegan banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Bread board made out of an old school desk.

courtesy of How it all Vegan.

2 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup dry sweetener
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups rolled oat flakes
1 tsp cinnamon (or a ton if you're like me and over-love cinnamon)
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a food processor or small bowl, mix together the bananas, applesauce, sweetener, and vanilla. In a large bowl, stir together flour, oat flakes, cinammon, and baking soda. Add the banana mixture and mix together well. Add chocolate chips. Scoop spoon sized portions onto lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes. Makes 6 large or 12 small cookies.

*my mixture seemed dry, so i added a bit of soy milk until it was a bit more wet. This made them turn out a bit bread like, but still super yummy that they got eaten in 2 days. Also mine made 24 cookies?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

shake it, shake shake it.

I got my daily dose this morning and was happily surprised with their download offer! I know it's not the real thing, but at 7am i was having fun! Watch demo here. Download here.

Monday, January 26, 2009

lay and love.

I love my bedroom these days. Our place is quite small, so we have to come up with decorating ideas that don't crowd. There are so many things i can't ever throw away, that we have to work around it all, but i'm no hoarder, and luckily these are all precious things. I love birds, and i tend to buy anything in bird form, so you'll see them all over our place, but one evening i was walking home and found this fallen branch and had to make it work. You can imagine my husbands face when i walked through the door with it. So i thought, what better place then with the birds? and deer of course ;-) and i feel like it tied the whole room together, and made it pretty cozy.

I worked so hard on my day off to organize this place. I've been putting off so much work because of cramped space. You can see by example A:

Transformed to this:

I think it came along nicely, and makes for inspiring times. I'm still having a hard time moving over to the sewing machine from the knitting, but i still have so many projects on the go and they are so easy on the these winter nights. I finished a hat, neck warmer and fingerless mitts for two wonderful ladies birthdays and was delighted with the turn-out! no more winter melt-downs.


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

winter melt down

It's been an incredibly busy week of knitting to the point of a melt down. That's right. My first melt down from knitting. But it's safe to say that it wasn't because i was making something that i loved, or that i was creating something i was really excited of seeing the ending to, but that I was getting some orders done and they were kicking my ass. But in the end i was happy with the turn out, even if the friend wasn't %100 about how the colour came out (that he chose) for the hat. Everything finished how i wanted it to and i was happy with the end result. Here are wrist warmers, one with thumb holes, one without and the hat and of course I had to make some cupcakes to make it all smoothed over. Vegan green tea cupcakes with lemon icing.

We also got back from a trip to the Okanagan to visit the parents and had a wonderful time that was way too short. I'm always reminded when I'm there, of how creative and talented my husband's family is and also of how giving. When talking about looking for a wooden box for my knitting, my father-in-law was quick to mention that he had just the thing.
I absolutely love it! and it will be so nice to keep my skeins from rolling around on the floor when knitting. I think i'll be taking a little break to get some sewing projects started, but when i do pick up the kneedles again it will be to do some of my own warmers and hats and there will be no more melt downs.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Owls are not what they seem




It's been a busy week of knitting, but I found some time to create this little guy. I didn't follow a pattern as I'm sure most can tell! But I think he turned out quite cute. He was inspired by the current foggy days we've had almost every day this week, which have created a romantically haunting atmosphere. Everything gets so quiet and peaceful, but eerie at the same time.

My new book arrived today, and i've already got tons of projects ideas swimming in my head. Now if i can just knit as fast as possible to get this order done! We've got a road trip to the Okanagan ahead of us, so i think i'll have plenty of time to get most of it completed. As they say at the Lion's Den Cafe here, "have a creative day".

Sunday, January 11, 2009

mousie mousie


I think she turned out okay. My first time, so I don't feel totally moved by her, and I had to alter the pattern a lot to get her to look the way I wanted. The pattern called for tubes turned into circles for feet, so I changed them, and there were no instructions on how to put her all together. So i just went with my gut. I also gave her a scarflette to cover the way the neck attached to the head! All in all, i'm pleased, and when i handed her to my neighbour, she squealed and gave her a big hug. So i'm happy. I have a new batch of hats and wrist warmers to make for a male friend, so I'm really looking forward to seeing which wools he chooses. That and the new simple sewing book I have coming in the mail, should keep me busy til spring!

Friday, January 9, 2009

morning walks.

I love the morning walks to work. They have nothing to do with thinking of work, but drawing inspiration from everything I see. I have so many projects on the go, that come friday (first day off in the week), I can't think of what to start with. I got my new book on knitting toys two days ago, and haven't had time to think about anything else! I decided to start with "mousie mousie" for my upstairs neighbour's little girl. So far, i'm half-way through the body, and it's all looking so foreign! we'll see how the sewing and stuffing turns out, but here are some photos for the lead-up!
This is my first knitted animal, so fingers-crossed it turns out well. I'm also excited about the SEW-U book i got from the library to get me through the weekend while my mouth heals ( a little dentist trip tomorrow morning). As much as I don't look forward to dental work, if it gives me an excuse to put my feet up and knit and sew without feeling obligated to leave the house, i'm down!

Monday, January 5, 2009

your sweater's come undone

I once had someone say that to me, when trying to carry around a giant skein of wool when I was getting the hats done. I guess it would have looked odd to see so much wool draped across someones lap in a coffee shop, but i was in a time crunch!

This all comes about because the local yarn shop here (and when i say local I mean close to my house), is so small and busy that there is rarely anytime for having your wool spun into a ball. The only time you get it done, is if they ask, and if the place is almost empty. Which is strange given the size I usually buy. Example:

I'm wishing that one day, I'll be able to purchase a skein/wool winder! One more addition to the many things I want these days. The photo above is of the next batch of hats I'm working on. I love this brown from Cascade Yarns Ecological wool, but will love it more seeing it on! She's coming along nicely though.

Last night was a great reminder of why I started this blog, to track my crafts, but also my domestic side, which usually shows itself in bold on Sunday's. I think it was the first time my husband and I ever made cookies together. We made chocolate buttery spritz from the Betty Crocker cookbook, while a crockpot full of Turkey and Wild Rice Chili (or goolash as brother-in-law has renamed it) slow cooked into the evening. I made it a little more different from the traditional chili by adding peppers, mushrooms and acorn squash (which absorbed so much of the flavour). The chili was so comforting, but i think we should try for a healthier choice in cookies the next time.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Last day of sleeping in.

I've tried so hard to get stuff done over the holidays, but they are totally not motivating and sleep has been a bigger desire. This is how I roll, when working, I can never sleep in, no matter how hard I try, i'm up at 6:30. The dog starts to follow this routine too and will never let me sleep past 7 on weekends. But now that we've all been on holiday and the weather is so unfriendly outside, she curls up right along with us and makes bed that much more inviting. Even if I wake up at a late hour and encourage her outside (to motivate myself to stay awake), as soon as she gets back inside, she runs straight back into bed and curls up next to my sleeping husband. I write this as tomorrow is back to 6:30am wake ups for a long time to come and not a holiday in sight for 3 months, and that's actually just fine with me. I've got so much wool and material and projects half started that I'm happy to have the time again!

I finally ventured across the street to this hidden (to me) textile clearance house and was happy to discover all the bargains! I got so much material for the knitting bags and now I'm just reading over the Reader's Digest "Complete Guide to Sewing" book that a friend lent me to refresh how to go about these.
I've also ordered this book with the desire to create a really simple doll for girls and boys made with the organic cotton that I've been knitting with. I'm also inspired by an old friend to make some of the other toys. She's crocheted some of the cutest toys possible! I'm also still stock piling everything that I knit, but I'm also waiting for the wool stores to open up after the holidays again.

Looks like life is back to LIVE/WORK/CREATE routine again, now all this snow just needs to melt away!