Pretzels

In search of a new baking adventure, I decided to test out my pretzel making skills. No, not the soft pretzels... I've never really liked those. I'm all about the hard and crunchy kind.

After searching a few blogs for recipes, I came across this one here. It called for a beer bath, but I wasn't up for that this time. I also just used a baking spray on the bites instead of the recommended egg wash. And although it doesn't look like it, I did top the pretzels with sea salt. It's been a few days and the grains have crumbled off.

The next time I bake these I want to experiment with nutritional yeast and make cheesy pretzels. We'll see... it was kind of an all day event!

Vegebrate!

Last night we celebrated the fourth annual Vegebration (Vegetarian + Celebration)!

The event marks my anniversary with vegetarianism and is my gentle way of encouraging others to make the commitment as well.

Like always, incredible food was on the menu. Everyone brought delicious dishes to share and enjoy. I was giddily hovering over the table in anticipation.

Even the chickens had a good time knowing none of their buddies were up on the table.

Thanks for making it another incredible meal, friends! (And super special extra thanks to the hosts, Ashley and Joel... and to Taune, for coining the term "vegebration").

Picnic for Two

I really like picnics. Food just tastes better when you eat it while sitting on the ground. Since picnics make me happy, I decided I should pass some happiness over to my soon-to-be wed friends. You can never have too much!

Hopefully they will take many picnics together with their new placemat/utensil/napkin rolls.

I really enjoyed sewing this project. First, because it's always more fun to sew for the ones you love, and second, because it was easy but involved enough to keep me interested. I think I'd even like to make myself a pair...

I looked at a few different rolls before deciding to read through this tutorial. The brown stripe on the outside I added myself to break up that big chunk of tealy blue. I like it.

So did the bride.

Hanging Bits

One of my loveliest friends is getting married this summer. We had her bridal shower tea party this past weekend. My job was to think of some sort of decoration.

My first thoughts went to this link of colorful goodness. The Matron of Honor gave her approval and I spent the night before slicing and sewing paper.

I can't lie, the mobiles looked pretty awesome during the shower. The photos don't capture it.

And I'm just going to pretend that they didn't start dropping one by one as the clock ticked on...

Look, it's me and the bride!

Jars

I love jars! They are so handy and useful... and good for so many things. I love using jars to drink from or to store my favorite bean salad. My sister uses jars of all sizes to keep her knitting needles organized. What do you use jars for?

And I love having a mom with such a super jar collection... who doesn't mind too much when I sneak a few away for a picnic.

Between Child and Adult

I've briefly mentioned this salad before. It deserves the credit for inspiring me to be brave and add fruit to my salads. When my mom and I picked an abundance of blueberries this past weekend and we just happened to have goldfish crackers in the house (part of my welcome home swag), I decided to concoct my version of my co-worker's original.

Ingredients:

Spinach
Sprouts
Red Onion
Blueberries
Feta
Goldfish crackers
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil

It's fun because you are eating a nice and healthy spinach salad which makes you feel like a grown up... and then you find the crunchy cheesy goldfish crackers that make you feel like a kid.

Good combo.

Thank You in a Bag

The cleaners at my school work extremely hard. They are the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at the end of the day. In addition to working so hard, they are also incredibly sweet and kind ladies. It amazes me that they can maintain such positive attitudes! Every morning I'm greeted with a smile.

When I noticed that the ladies carry their belongings in shopping bags, it gave me an idea of how to say "thank you" for all of their efforts this year. The idea began to grow when I realized that I could also turn the situation into a sewing lesson for Ms. Sarah! How perfect!

We got busy on our project of sewing four reversible market bags. It was a process involving a broken sewing machine, absent straight pins, and multiple hours... but it was successful! And I must say that Ms. Sarah's sewing skills are coming along quite nicely... if only we could get her sewing machine to function properly!

My favorite bag is the blue with yellow stripes, but I think they are all fun patterns and colors. Thank you Ikea textiles department.

You wouldn't know it from their smiles here... but the maids were really excited and grateful for their gifts.

I'm looking forward to seeing them again this fall!

Mini Banners

A few housewarming gifts were in order.

Using the same material I used for Julia's banner, I quickly pieced a few triangles together to make two mini banners. You'll just have to excuse the blurriness of the pictures.

In a few short days I'll be home for 5 weeks and the baking, sewing, and crafting will hopefully return to my usual pace. Can't wait.