Pay It Forward Gifts

At the beginning of the year, I signed up for a Pay It Forward challenge on Facebook. Here are the first 2 of the 5 handmade gifts I owe to people this year.

Butterfly ornament for Brenda in UT Austin orange (her school).

Zee pillow for the daughter of one of the other participants. I've made 5 of these this year: 2 for my girls, 2 for my nieces, and this one. They whip up pretty quick. I blanket stitched the edges instead of gluing them.

Five on Friday

Five things that made me smile this week:

1. Discovering that my office building still has a functioning mail chute. Bonus: Discovering that the patent for the original mail chute was issued on September 11, 1883.

2. A. receiving the "Potty Bear" at school for making progress in using the potty.

3. Designing, stamping, and finishing my Halloween cards. All in one evening.

4. Finding out that my friend Kim's new book has been released and that several reviewers think it might be a contender for the Newbery Award this year. {fingers crossed}

5. Spending Saturday morning outside in the beautiful weather playing with the girls.

August Birthdays

Wow! That was a crazy summer. It went by faster than a speeding bullet. I accomplished very little crafting, but I have bunches of photos.

Here are a couple from the girls' 3rd birthday at the beginning of August. I bought cake pops for their cake, and then realized I couldn't put candles in them, so we also had doughnuts. Everyone loved the cake pops.

A. above and L. below

My birthday at the end of August was less of an event. I spent the day in Chicago at a professional conference and had dinner at the Cubs game. The whole week was marked with sickness by everyone in the house and included Hurriquake 2011. Exciting in ways we'd rather not have.

Individual Highlights from May

L. walking like a crab in karate. (A in the background.)

L. at a friend's house.

L. in a friend's yard.

Peek-a-boo A.

A. driving

A. strawberry picking.

May Fab Five

My favorite pictures of the girls together from May.

Playing in the water fountain.

Drinking for the fountain.

Water taxi in Baltimore.

Playing "baby".

Post hair-cut princesses.

Bacon Broccoli Salad

I made this for a potluck earlier this week. Since I've been asked for the recipe and had it typed up anyway, I thought I'd share it with you. This was a result of last minute prep. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I looked into my fridge to see what was left from last week's vegetable share and saw a ton of broccoli. Sure, I could have just steamed it, but everything goes better with bacon. This is just a variation on a German Potato Salad recipe.

4 heads of broccoli, cleaned, de-stemmed, and chopped
(or one bag of frozen petite broccoli)

6 slices bacon
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar (I used cider vinegar, because it's what I had)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli; cook until tender but still firm. Drain and cool.
2. Place bacon in a skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside. Reserve 1 TBSP bacon fat.
3. Add the onion to the skillet with the reserved bacon fat. Saute until tender. Add the crumbled bacon back into the skillet.
4. Add the flour, sugar, salt, & pepper to the skillet. Stir until well-combined.
5. Add the water and vinegar to the skillet and cook over medium heat until dressing is thick and bubbly.
6. Stir the cooked broccoli into the dressing. Serve hot or cold.

March Link Love

My favorite links from March:

The William James' quote from Lee continues to resonate for me, especially since my to-do lists have to-do lists. I too am a victim of Distractadon.

Both Lee and my friend Christine got me following the Happiness Project. Here's a thought from Christine.

As a mathematician and a librarian, I've gotten this question a lot.

I'm still interested in Jeremy's budget and financial advice.

I'm salivating over Marie's bread. How can you go wrong with Bacon!?

Getting ready for summer, GovGab did a nice post on Drive America's Byways, and then moved to a new blog site and forgot to migrate the content. Here's a direct link to the Byways program. Routes on the list include Historic Route 66, California's Big Sur Coast Highway, Colorado's Gold Belt Tour Scenic and Historic Byway, Alabama's Coastal Connection, Minnesota's Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway, and the Las Vegas Strip.