Surviving #snomahog

Snomahog? Yes, snomahog! The Mayor of Omaha accidentally dubbed our most recent blizzard after some sort of snow/ city in Nebraska/ porcine creature. Really. I'm not clever enough to make this sort of thing up!

Anyway, my kiddos informed me last week that they were done with snow. All being to young for school, the prospect of a snow day held little appeal. That is until I mentioned that Daddy would stay home all day, that they could stay in their jammies and could pick out new art supplies at Dick Blick to keep them busy during our confinement. Instant attitude improvement!

Now while my kiddos were super pumped about their creative enterprises, I was not so excited. You may recall that I am working on this massive garter stitch blanket and should, therefore, be thrilled at the prospect of being snowed in with knitting to be done. However, I accidentally spilled hot sugar (like 300 F hot sugar) down my hand. I'm not really in any pain, but the bandages make knitting super awkward! 

I am still able to draw so I've been making some patterns on tissue paper for future collages and been playing around  with two-tone pen and ink designs in my sketchbook, too. 

Hope all of you that were snowed in, too had as much fun as we did!!

In the kitchen: brining and baking

If you were two sum up how I have spent my free time this past week, it would only take two words: brining and baking. Or maybe I should say reading about brining  because I've spent significantly more hours learning about the brining process than actually doing brining work.

After reading this lovely post on The Nourished Kitchen about preserving lemons, I knew I had to try it myself. 

The prep work was super basic so it looks like the real challenge will be waiting for the lemons to cure. In the meantime, I'm searching Pinterest for recipes to try when they are ready. 

Now, for the baking news. My whole family loves my modified version of the Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food cook book so much that I always make a double batch. I don't know about you , but I always have this "ahhhhh" moment when bread goes into the oven. I pour myself another cup of coffee and stick it in the microwave...

...only to discover that I forgot to put in the melted dairy-free butter. Yeah. Mom fail. Thankfully it is still yummy and even tastes more bready and less cakey which I like. The only downside is that it doesn't stay moist as long do I think I'll just use about half of what the recipe calls for from now on. 

In other baking related news, I found a stack of 5" wide baskets for 98c at my favorite thrift store! These will be perfect to prove small loaves of sour dough bread in later this week!

To see more pictures of my baking/sketching/knitting adventures, make sure you follow me on Instagram!!

Knitting Koselig

So, this is the forecast I awoke to on Sunday morning. Yeah, I know. Last year, tears would have welled up in my eyes with this sort of forecast. 

Thankfully, one of my friends posted this article on how Norwegians not only survive these seeming endless cold days but actually enjoy them!

"Norwegians have a word, koselig, that means a sense of coziness. It's like the best parts of Christmas without all the stress. People light candles, light fires, drink warm beverages, and sit under fuzzy blankets." 

I can totally get behind this idea!!

My son has been wanting me to knit him a blanket since his older sister has one of her own. I'm using the Super Easy Blanket pattern/formula but with slightly different gauge and yarn (Ravelry link here). 

Hope the endless rows of garter stitch help keep me cozy at least through March!

A little crayon therapy

We spent Independence Day at my husband's grandparents house in Langdon, ND. This quiet little town is the perfect escape for our little ones who are not big fans of fireworks. Also, my Grandparents-in-law are just wonderful people. They've set a great example to the family of how Christians should live and love people, warts and all!

It was really hard to say goodbye to them on this trip because Grandpa's second round of cancer is finally catching up with him, and we don't expect to see him again on this side of eternity. We are filled with a mix of grief for our up-coming loss but also a hope-filled peace that he will soon no longer have to feel the effects of this disease. 

This up and down of emotions has just made me just not want to work on anything I've got "in process" for the moment. I knew that I just needed to work on something so I was thankful that Jane Davies posted this showing her latest pieces using crayons. Given the ages of my children I'm sure you can imaging how many crayons I have!!

I ended up using a combination of crayons, oil pastels and watercolor. The pastels and crayons work as a resist for the watercolor which can created some interesting pooling of color.

The older I get the more I appreciate these times to just experiment and play. They help keep my creative energy up and any negative inner criticism down. Using cheaper materials also takes off the pressure to create masterpieces each time I'm in my studio!

Speaking of tough critics, my four-year-old told me that she thinks I did really well on these pieces. She is not known for holding back negative reviews of my work so positive comments are always appreciated! :-)

Race Report: Odin's Revenge

A few weeks ago my husband and I went to Gothenburg, NE for Odin's Revenge, a self-supported gravel bike race. Note: my husband is the one who races. I merely come along for the fun.

The short course riders leave at 6:45 in the morning so there is no sleeping in on this vacation!

After seeing Travis off, I headed back to the hotel for some breakfast and to attempt some watercolor landscapes and read a bit. 

As you can see, landscapes are nowhere near my strong suit, but it is a genre that I would like to gradually get better at with time.

Trav was done with the race by noon (he got third) so we decided to go explore some gravel roads just the two of us!

I ride a road bike so my husband wanted to check my tire pressure right off the bat. It is very nice to ride with someone who can take care of those things for you!

And he took this lovely selfie to remember our adventure date!