documenting a pregnancy, in style

I saw this on Highchair Critics this morn. It's so sweet. Makes me want another tiny baby already! But I think we will be waiting a bit. You know, since we've just started to feel like real people again.

Super busy weekend with lots going on this week, but I'll be back shortly with more to post.

pretty triangley jewelry

I happened upon these pretties from spinthread on etsy the other day. They are quite marvelous. Have they already made the rounds on the blogs? Probably. I'm never first with the etsy finds. But aren't they good?











I bet they would be good baby entertainment if I had one for myself. Tempting.

the daily routine, 6 months

Here's how I generally find Dashiell when he's woken up from his nap:



And that's after at least 10 minutes of talking to himself.

Then we go into the living room and I feed him. (No pictures of this, for obvious reasons).



And then he scoots around the floor, playing with my iPhone, the remote control, and various other favorites. He's very interested in crawling these days.





Sitting he's already mastered. Isn't he a good poser?



I think I might be really posting these photos because I love his rainbow tshirt and new orange fuzzi bunz. It's more satisfying than I anticipated to dress him. I'll admit that.

Peach jam that you don't want to miss

I AM going to post the white bean soup recipe, promise. But first, because summer is waning and peaches won't be with us much longer, I think you need to know about this jam. I made it two weeks ago and I wasn't expecting anything special. It's just peach jam after all. JUST PEACH JAM!? HA! How foolish I was.

It's so deceptively simple that you're not going to believe me until you make it yourself. The key is in how you cook it, so pay attention to that part.



Old Fashioned Peach Jam

4 c sliced peaches (I left the skin on)
4 c sugar
1 T lemon juice

Obviously you could use more peaches and sugar to make more jam, as long as you follow the same ratio. And actually, I think you could skimp on the sugar. It is a particularly sweet jam. Or preserves. Can someone please explain the difference between jam and preserves? To me they are one in the same.

Okay, now. To prepare:

In a heavy bottomed pan/pot (I used my short all clad stock pot), bring all ingredients to a simmer and cook over low heat until peach slices are translucent. This is the key. It seems like they are never going to turn, but they will. It took at least an hour when I made my first batch. Then, and only then, turn the heat up and boil the jam (stirring v. frequently to avoid burning) until both peaches and syrup fall off your wooden spoon as one unit. And then you're done! You can process jam in small jars for gifts or dump it all into a big jar and stick in the fridge so you don't have to share one drop.

I've been enjoying ours on pretty much everything, including spoons. But it seems to be particularly delicious on leftover toasted ciabatta. Note: you must be sure that every square cm is first covered in butter BEFORE applying jam. This will guarantee maximum enjoyment.

Recipe was the fruit of a quick google search that lead me to Cooks.com. I chose it because it seemed the least fussy (no peeling and mashing and marinating the peaches), and it turned out to be revelatory.

blabla kids

I am so in love with these little guys from blabla kids. Dashiell has one (clearly it's Dashiell's, not mine), and I wish we had ten. (you can see our lion in the crib). Prompted by a shout out on twitter from @blablakids, I remembered that I've been meaning to do a post on them for so long. Here it is.

They make dolls and mobiles and puppets and rattles and even a cute little line of clothes. Next time I'm in Atlanta, I will be stopping by their shop. Hopefully in November when Dashiell and I are planning to visit Judah and Laura in Athens. With a pit stop at Farm Burger, of course. They are rumored to make a mean quinoa burger.



Here are some of my favorites, very boy themed of course:



And I thought I was obsessed with their mobiles, but actually it turns out that I desire equally their entire line of birdie rattles. WE BADLY NEED A KNIT FRENCH SPARROW RATTLE AND ALSO A BLUE JAY WEARING A SCARFFFFFF.



I nearly didn't post my favorite mobiles, but then I could not resist. They are too excellent.



That was dangerous, spending so much time on their site, salivating over their wares. I had to close it quickly because I was about to start adding things to my cart, all willy-nilly like. Perhaps when we go to Atlanta I will deserve a treat.

Months 3 - 6, on the iphone

It's amazing seeing how fast and how much our little guy has changed since February. And I mistakenly thought he was cute when he was born! NOW he's cute. (for comparison, you can see the first three months here.)



He celebrated his 6 month birthday on Tuesday with a momentous feat. He slept, for the very first time, from 7 pm all the way through until 6 am. It was wild. And we woke up like 5 times anyway because we couldn't figure out what was going on. Now he's back to his old tricks... waking up once, sometime between 1 and 4 to have a little snack. But at least we know he can do it. I cannot tell you how drastically my quality of life improved once he started sleeping better. I am like a real, functioning human all of a sudden. Hallelujah.

TTFN.

Crib bumpers 2.0

So the first set of crib bumpers I made were sad. So sad that I had to make a second set. I used the wrong kind of batting, I cut some of the fabric BEFORE washing it, I improvised on dimensions.

Note to self: sewing is not like cooking in that you can't just get the gist of the project from the instructions and then do whatever you like. Especially when one's sewing skills are barely competent.



But this new set turned out great. Or at least good enough. The sad part is that I didn't have enough of my extraordinarily cool vintage Marimekko triangle fabric for the whole set of bumpers. But I did have a different vintage Marimekko pattern to use for the long sides and do you know what? I kind of like the new combo better. I love it when that happens. And I love that these are nice and neutral, but still patterned enough to be interesting. And the neon ties are pretty fun too. (Though they make taking a good photo really hard!)





It's so satisfying to have such cute little pillows lining Dashiell's crib. But I will not be starting an Etsy business making custom crib bumpers, like I thought for a fleeting second whilst in the middle of the first failed set. Wrangling 170+ inches of fabric and batting and pins is not something I want to be doing on a regular basis.



I used the instructions in Lotta's Simple Sewing for Baby, in case any of you feel like taking this project on yourself. The hilarious part about this whole adventure is that in like a month, I'll have to take them out anyway so the little monkey doesn't use them to climb out of his crib. But for the next baby they'll be all ready to go.

project update: week one

So things are going relatively well. We've had a few oops moments for sure, but overall it's been pretty smooth. Mostly we're trying to work out what the "rules" are. If the goal is to skip commercially packaged stuff, then can we buy things like cheese and bread from the farmer's market? As long as the people selling said items are actually the ones making them?



The reality is that unless I want to spend literally every spare second in the kitchen with the stand mixer and food processor on high alert, we probably will need to supplement our homemade things a bit. Especially because I have work that needs to be tended too and projects other than our urban pioneer life experiment.

But I have been giving it a fair go! In the last week and a half I've made bread 3 times, see?



(Ends stored in these glass containers from Crate & Barrel. Highly recommend them as an alternative to ziplock bags.)

The sandwich bread was good, but the loaves too small for the pans I have. Next time, same recipe but only one loaf so they're not so short. The rustic Italian peasant bread... left something to be desired. BUT I did make croutons using some of it and they were delish. The ciabatta was a wild success. Definitely making it again tomorrow (but must start the sponge today) for leftover soup.

I spent pretty much all day in the kitchen on Sunday making... ready?

Hummus (I will share my recipe eventually because I think I've honed in on a perfect version)



Tuscan white bean soup with kale (Should also share this recipe, because it is delicious)



Peach jam (We have a giant jar in the fridge and a few processed jars on the shelf for later)
Baby food (Pluots!)



Cesaer salad with charmoula tofu (tofu is NOT on the list, but it was a legacy block in the fridge and we couldn't very well let it go bad. But I did make the croutons and the dressing)

Ciabatta sponge

And that's just enough for two dinners and some miscellany. Those pioneer ladies, they really worked hard. So yeah, we're in the process of evaluating our rules. And then last night we had 7 people for dinner. So we ordered pizza. Oops. But we don't have a dishwasher! And while making quinoa burgers sounded good, the amount of clean up sounded bad. I did make a big chopped salad to go along with our pies. So, you know, we split the difference.

Some of you asked what we're using instead of disposables in the kitchen. I will definitely do a post on our alternatives soon.

milka loom

I've died and gone to tea towel heaven.

Joslyn posted a little peek of these beauties from MilkaLOOM this morn and I had to pass them along. AFTER I've ordered mine own, of course. (Sorry hubs! But I could not resist.)



I mean really? Hand woven little triangles in all sorts of perfect color combinations? This towel will most certainly be reserved for petting only. No dish drying at all.

I do have an update on the project, but I don't have time to post it this morn. Too much work at the moment and only so many hours of babysitting! Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. But this is appropriate isn't it? Since it's a non-paper kitchen item? I will say that the quitting of paper has been the easiest part of the project so far. You think it's going to be a pain, but it's seriously a breeze. If I can wash diapers, I can most certainly wash teeny towels for the kitchen.

More soon.

weekend brunch

...To inspire you for the weekend. If you're in LA, you should most definitely consider Gjelina for brunch this weekend. We were there last Sunday and it was so delicious I could barely breathe. I know I've posted on their foods before, but nobody ever tires of delicious food shots, do they?



Lemon ricotta pancakes with chestnut flour. OMG.



Beet salad with avo and orange. I don't know what they do to their beets, but they are amazing.



Poached eggs with polenta and tuscan kale.



And a mostly devoured okra masterpiece that I'm planning to recreate this weekend if all goes well.



Oh, and then there's the cutest baby in the whole world. He was there too.

Hope your weekend includes a delicious meal. I'll be back next week with an update on our project.