And the winner is...

Action shot of Gavin choosing the winner...

Congratulations to Emily! She won the random drawing for a perfectly, imperfect gardening apron! Hopefully, Emily will be modeling it while tending to her rose bushes in North Bend. Enjoy! Special thanks to Gavin who administered the drawing, as well as photographing the final product!

I'm rocking a homemade gardening apron- would you like to rock one, too?

It cracks me up how more and more domesticated I am becoming. It's very odd, yet cool in its own right. I think it is good for a person to have some hobbies. Furthermore, it's good for a person to have some skills. I love reading about what I would call a "throwback revolution." Young people are getting interested in small scale enterprise, local food, knitting, and basically living it up- old school. There is something awesome about baking your own bread, knitting your own hat, or watching vegetables grow right in your own yard. These types of simple things give me a strange sense of accomplishment, and really, just make my life more enjoyable.

A few years ago, Adam's mom got a new sewing machine and offered me her old one. I declined, replying, "What would I do with a sewing machine?!?" She laughed and told me that she'd save it for when I changed my mind. A couple of Halloween costumes (aka, hot glue gun disasters) later, I called her and asked for the machine. I have not done much sewing in my life. Before I got the machine, I think I'd only ever sewn scrunchies back in my tween years! I have now made several baby blankets, a slip cover for Gavin's dining room chair, and my favorite project so far- a gardening apron! When I spotted the project in a book that Adam's mom got me, I knew it was for me. First of all, totally useful to have a gardening apron. Second, I didn't need to stress out about sewing it perfectly, because it was just going to get dirty. And third, aprons are just sort of awesome. I love how it turned out! It's got plenty of flaws, but that's ok. Skills take time to develop. I've decided I will make another, in a very cool, lime green zebra print - and offer it up as a giveaway for you!

This really isn't a giveaway style blog, but what the hell! I need to practice my sewing and you want to rock one of these "Made by Jenny" gardening aprons. Why wouldn't you?!? Ok, a few of you may not. But, should you like to enter my little contest- here's how it works: simply comment what is your favorite plant. If you do not know how to comment, it's quite easy. Just hit comment and click the anonymous button if you do not have a google sign in. Just make sure you leave your name in the comment space- so I know who you are! I will select a winner, randomly on April 6th. Good luck!

You know you want one!

Kids

I've been meaning to write a post all week. It's not a lack of material that kept me from posting, as I have several little projects keeping me busy. Yet, it wasn't a lack of time that kept me away either. I just had a really fun week with Gavin and Olivia. We didn't do anything spectacular, mostly just played and cuddled. They're both at really fun ages. Olivia started crawling on Wednesday. She pulled herself up to kneeling on Thursday. On Friday, she started babbling, "Mama!" It's not exactly an official "Mama". Her favorite phrase is, "yayayayaya!" If you say it back to her, she repeats it again, and gets really excited. I finally got her to mimic "mamamamama!" That's my girl! I'm just completely in love with her.

Gavin has changed so much in the last few months- he's a kid now. His language skills seem to advance daily, but it's his logic and how he interprets emotions that continue to surprise me. He offers opinions and is actually pretty helpful. The other day, I was trying to find something and was ranting about, all worked up. He stopped me and said, "Mom, I'm going to give you a hug now. It's okay; you'll find it. Just keep looking." It was so sweet. I felt sort of ridiculous that my three year old basically called me out for throwing a tantrum! He says things all day long that just crack me up. When I scolded Max for doing something, Gavin said, "Mom, that is not very nice. Max is very, really friendly to me. He's my beagle and my buddy." Age 3 has its unpleasant moments, but overall, Gav is becoming a very good friend of mine.

Anyhow, that's about all I have to say tonight. My kids are awesome and this post is for them.

Life with Olivia at 8 months

Eight months have gone by since I first started writing about Livie Lou. She has been keeping us busy over the past month, as she's on the move! She quickly went from rolling to army crawling. Now she scoots herself all over the house. She hasn't figured out the coordination with moving her knees and arms, so she uses her upper body to pull herself around. It's funny how different kids are- Gavin was so hefty that he couldn't lift himself up like that. I don't think Gavin was really crawling until 11 months or so. Olivia has had a fire in her eyes from day one. She is ambitious and seems to feel that rest is overrated. I keep seeing pictures of friends with their newborns. They are all enjoying that really cuddly stage when babies just lay on your chest and snooze. Olivia has never done that! From the get-go, she was quickly nicknamed Little Miss Squirmy by our friends. We are convinced that she is going to be some kind of gymnast. I am a little scared for when she officially moves to crawling- she's going to be speedy!

Olivia is finally sleeping through most of the night. I'm no longer exhausted during the day. There were several months that were just so brutal, I barely remember them. Now, with rested eyes, I love to watch Olivia discovering the world. I know I have said this before, but she is really sweet natured. She is so happy and smiley. Speaking of smiles, she now has two bottom teeth and a third bottom tooth is cutting through. I have yet to capture her new grin on camera, but will post pictures once I do. It's funny because Adam has accused me of "calling tooth" for several months. I just kept assuming that she was teething and that is why she was up all night. Who wants to admit that their baby is really just insane?!? Anyhow, she really is teething now, and oddly enough, she seems calmer. 

Here are a few photos. Enjoy!

Hazy Shade of Winter- a plumbing fail tale

It's March 7th- I am so very tired of winter. I had hoped to keep a positive attitude throughout the remainder of this season, but Mother Nature has pushed me to the limit and beyond. Over the weekend, the temperature warmed to the mid-40s and our two feet of snow began to melt quickly. Then, it began to rain. Suddenly, the ground was just completely overwhelmed with water. The weather channel had issued several flood warnings, but we failed to consider how that might affect us. On Sunday morning, we discovered that our basement had collected 2-3 inches of water. We quickly got to work moving stuff off of the floor. It was a complete mess. We had so much stuff just thrown everywhere- cardboard packaging, tools, etc. The absolute worst part of the mess was a brand new bag of dog food that had the bottom fall out. I cannot even describe how vile wet dog food is after floating around a flooded basement. Man, Adam was so pissed when that bag busted open! It was just so frustrating! Stupidly, we still had cardboard moving boxes sitting directly on the basement floor. They contained all sorts of random memorabilia and items that you have no idea where to put in your house, but don't want to throw away. I had looked at those boxes several times over the last couple weeks, thinking, "I should really move those." Hindsight is 20/20, right? It was disappointing to throw some of our things away- we lost some wedding mementos, including our planner and guest book. But, as I told Adam, it could have been a lot worse. We are still married and have two happy and healthy kids- I'd say we can live without the wedding planner at this point! At the end of the day, what good is having stuff that you just keep in boxes anyway? It actually felt good to purge some of these things that were just taking up space.

It took us an hour or so just to get everything cleaned up so we could start working on trying to get the water out and figuring out what the problem was. After moving everything off the floor and salvaging what we could, Adam went and purchased a pump. It took a few hours for the water to drain, but we were feeling good that it was out. Then, it came back. At that point, we realized that we had a bigger problem. Our drainage system was clearly malfunctioning. We thought we had a sump pump, but in actuality, we have a sump pump hole. This house is so old that it's hard to figure out what's what when it comes to how it is plumbed. The groundwater was overwhelming our regular drain, which appeared to be very clogged. We couldn't figure out how to snake the drain. For that matter, we couldn't even figure out which drain to snake. There is one hole in our basement that holds an old drain pipe made out of terracotta! We had to continue pumping water out every few hours throughout the night because the hardware stores were closed and we couldn't get the tool we needed. Adam woke up super early today, rented a power snake and worked on the drain puzzle for a few hours, before we finally decided to call in the professionals. Enter Rooter Man. The guys from Rooter Man were nice and helped Adam better understand how things were set up. They cleared out giant tree roots that were growing into the drain, in addition to some other nastiness, of which I will spare you the details. So $350 later, things are draining and Adam has a plan to install a sump pump to take care of future excess groundwater. We just finished mopping the floor with bleach and water. It has been a rough couple of days.

After all this, you'd think, "well, winter is almost over." However- did I mention that we got 5-6 inches of snow and 1/4 inch of ice today!?! What's that saying- anything in excess is never a good thing? Shouldn't this count for weather? I am just over it and can no longer sugarcoat it. I don't want to go snowshoeing or build a snowman. I have been a really good sport during a very hard winter. I really hope that the groundhog is correct, and that spring is coming early. I also hope that spring does not include too many torrential downpours- at least until we get that sump pump working. Blech!

Two seasons at Peebles Island State Park

Last summer, my sister Julie came to visit us before Olivia was born. We weren't able to do too much because I was so pregnant, but we did take her on several outings throughout upstate New York. On my due date, I decided we should go on a nature hike to try and get labor going. We went through my stack of day trip brochures and found one on Peebles Island State Park. It looked like it would be the perfect place for enjoying river views and having a picnic. It's also only about 20 minutes from Albany. The park is situated where the Mohawk River meets the Hudson and the scenery is spectacular. In July, the sun was really hot and the humidity was intense. We found a path down to the river so we could cool off. We discovered that it was actually really shallow, so Julie and Adam walked out quite a ways. Gavin and I watched, while throwing rocks into the water and soaking our feet. It was a great outing, but I had sort of forgotten about it until Adam mentioned it might be a great place for a winter hike.

Over the weekend, we got another foot of snow. This weather is starting to get depressing, but we made the most of it by getting outside. We decided to go check out Peebles Island again and invited our friend Toyin to join us. The views were even more impressive than our previous visit. The trees were heavily coated in fresh snow, which created archways to walk under. We have invited Toyin and her husband to join us out hiking many times this winter, but they have opted to enjoy the comfort of their heated home instead. I don't think Toyin expected it to be so beautiful. She said, "The next time you invite me to go hiking, and I say I'd rather stay in bed, please remind me of this day!" It was only a two hour hike, but I can say with confidence that it made all of our weekends. Sometimes you just have to leave your house to realize what all of the seasons have to offer. We now have two completely different memories of this park. I thought I'd include pictures from both hikes so you can see how much the landscape varies from season to season.

Peebles Island State Park, July 2010

Had to throw in a "big mama" photo- this was 5 days before Olivia was born

Julie and Adam wading in the river

Beautiful summer day

Peebles Island State Park, February 2011

Toyin and Gavin

Toyin making her way through the winter wonderland

Olivia is here! So much has changed since July!

Appreciating winter, while forcing spring

Spring is a little less than a month out and I am getting anxious. While I really do enjoy winters in the northeast, by the end of February I am ready to be warm. I am more than ready to see color outside. We have had snow on the ground for nearly two months. It's no longer that pretty, fluffy snow. That snow has become crusty and covered in filth kicked up by cars and snowplows. I am ready for it to melt completely and for the trees to bloom. As March gets closer, I am beginning to make plans for my gardens. I have been flipping through magazines and drawing up plans. While I was reading last month's issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I came across a couple of ideas. (If you don't subscribe to this mag, it's a great deal at $5.99 for 12 issues- it is packed with great information and not very many ads) Anyhow, one of the ideas was to make bouquets from branches that have berries on them. The other idea was to force branches to bloom inside for an early spring. I decided to try both. I have been using foliage from shrubs to compliment summer bouquets for a while, but hadn't thought to make a "winter bouquet." I really like how mine turned out. It's very simple, but appropriate. I do not have many evergreen plants in my yard. The ones I have planted over the past two years are still too young to take clippings from. My guess is that my Pacific Northwest readers have plenty of excellent shrubs in their yards to create stunning winter bouquets. Still, my bouquet is very New England and makes me happy. *PS- Pottery Barn would probably charge $20 for a similar arrangement.

Meanwhile, I clipped branches from some of my favorite flowering shrubs and trees. The article instructs you to immediately put them in a pail of water. Then, place the branches in the shower and soak them for a few minutes. Then, you wrap the branches in plastic and move the bucket to a cool and dimly lit place (mine are in our fabulously rustic basement) until the buds swell. This step can take a few days to a few weeks. Once the buds are ready to pop, you put the branches in a big vase. We shall see... I am four days into this experiment and see only a couple of buds. I will follow up in a couple of weeks to let you know how it turns out! It's a fun way to get through this transitional period of exhausting winter and welcoming spring. We are going to get out for another winter hike over the weekend. Maybe I'll find some cool branches to bring home...

Cooperstown: A Visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Last weekend we headed over to the town of Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. Adam had it on his list of things to do and we live relatively nearby, so we decided to check it out. Cooperstown is about 90 minutes west of Albany, located at the foothills of the northern Catskill Mountains. It's a small town, population just over 2000. Its slogan is "big city excitement, with small town charm." I don't know about the big city excitement, but it definitely delivers small town charm. The buildings and houses are all beautiful colonials. There is one traffic light through Main Street and all of the shops and cafes are baseball themed. We had lunch at Double Day Cafe, which was actually a pretty good place for a burger and a beer (or a coke, or a glass of milk). After lunch, we walked over to the Hall of Fame. It is a really cool museum, and I'm not even a fan of baseball. After visiting and seeing all the memorabilia, I definitely have a greater appreciation for the tradition of the game. I especially enjoyed seeing the collection of uniforms- I just can't believe they wore knit sweaters originally. I know- leave it to me to pay attention to the clothing instead of the baseball statistics! Hey, just pointing out that there is something for everybody!

After visiting the museum, we made our way through a mini-blizzard to check out Glimmerglass State Park for some snowshoeing. It was a further drive than we anticipated, and by the time we arrived, both kids were asleep. Everybody knows- you never wake a sleeping baby and you definitely don't wake a little boy who tends to get carsick. So, we snapped a few pictures and drove home. It was another fun outing through Upstate NY. Cooperstown has their own baseball team that plays at the original Double Day Field- might be a fun thing to check out in the future. Here are some photos, enjoy!

Main Street, Cooperstown, NY

Outside the Hall of Fame

Covered Bridge at Glimmerglass State Park

Life with Olivia at 7 months

Little miss is 7 months old now. Her hair is beginning to come in and we're debating whether she'll be blonde or brunette. We still can't tell what color eyes she has- they are very dark. Sometimes they look green and other times they look blue. Olivia is getting so big and is chattering like crazy. We have taken to calling her our evil genius. She has a way of causing trouble. She likes to pinch at our skin and seems to think it's funny that it hurts. When we try to catch her rolling around on video, she sits still. Yet, when nobody is looking, she'll roll over and destroy the puzzle that Gavin is working on.

She is still not sleeping very well. Some nights are better than others. Just when I think we're turning the corner, she'll have a night where she is up four times. It's frustrating. But, aside from the sleeping issues, she really is an easy baby. She has a playful personality and continues to wear a big grin on her face. Gavin loves to play with her. They have their own little games where he shows her all the toys and she grabs them from him. He can't wait for her to get bigger so she can play in his bedroom. There is something really sweet about witnessing their interactions.

Liv is starting to scoot herself around but isn't crawling. I have a feeling that once she attempts it, she'll get it. I'm starting to think about what we'll need to do to get this place babyproof again. Amazing how time flies. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was writing similar things about Gavin. We moved to Albany when Gavin was 9 months old - crazy to think that not only is he almost 3 1/2, but we have a 7 month old too! Here are a few pictures of our evil genius from the past month.

Hello Chicken- Let me cook you right! Review of Coriander Chicken and Fennel Tostadas

Over the past weekend, I realized that I have been in a serious culinary rut. So, I decided to mix things up and start selecting three new recipes each week. This is not that difficult- you'd gasp if you saw how many magazines I subscribe to. I also have a ridiculous cookbook fetish and the list of food blogs I follow is constantly growing. It's just a matter of stepping outside my comfort zone and executing. Viva! Or whatever...

On Saturday, I selected my three recipes and made out my shopping list. I did not anticipate blogging about any of these recipes, just simply listing the successful ones to the sidebar on the right. However, tonight's recipe was worthy of a blog post. I found the recipe for Coriander Chicken Tostadas with Refried Beans and Grilled Fennel in January's issue of Bon Appetit. We love Mexican food around here so this one caught my attention. I am making an effort to bring more vegetables into our diet and thought this was an interesting use of fennel. The recipe comes from Sue Torres, owner of Suenos restaurant in Manhattan. In the introduction to the recipe, she makes a commentary about how people constantly overcook chicken breasts in fear of salmonella. I am guilty of this, so I decided to follow her instructions and use an instant read thermometer, cooking the chicken to exactly 165 degrees. The result was moist and flavorful chicken. I had respected my chicken by not drying it out! It's amazing how the simplest adjustment to method can take one's cooking up several notches.

Now, to the specifics of the recipe- the flavor combination of the coriander rubbed chicken, the pinto bean puree with cumin and chipotle peppers, and the grilled fennel is subtly addictive. Coriander* really is a lovely seasoning for chicken, as she states in the recipe. It would work nicely in a salad. I really wasn't sure how fennel was going to taste on a tostada, but it had a nice texture and mild sweetness. The meal took me about 45 minutes to prepare, which included me frying up corn tortillas to use for the tostada shells. We served them with shredded iceberg lettuce, cilantro sprigs, and a little sour cream. Adam added a little shredded cheese to his, but they honestly don't need it. I skipped the radishes, but might try them once gardening season rolls around. Anyhow, even if you don't want to try the recipe, click on the link and read her comments about cooking chicken- made a huge difference for me.

*I did not have coriander seeds, only ground coriander. It worked fine, but I suppose was lacking some texture that you'd get using crushed seeds.