Some nice things. The light is nice today too.

Daffodils

Fog Linen kitchen cloth and Forest Bound mini wallet from Pod.

3191 Quarterly

Rifle Paper Co. note cards from Black Ink

Working on some new spring clothespeg ladies! They will be in my shop soon.

A tiny bouquet of what's available in my garden. (Ha!) I'm really tired of grocery store tulips. So, yes, I'm foraging for dried up twigs and berries in my yard.

Just finished reading A Visit from the Goon Squad. One of those books that gives you a lot to ponder. Well written, I recommend it.

Okay, this was pure fun, finishing up this doll house project! For about a year, the doll house stood in my studio, half moved into, collecting dust and looking a bit pathetic. Recently, my daughter decided she had outgrown her own doll house and gave me all her furniture. Well, this is the result. Now the house looks well lived in. Can you tell how much fun I had putting it all together?

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers!

I think this book, Missed Connections is one of the sweetest, most romantic things I have seen in ages. I bought it for my family for Valentine's Day (okay, it was sort of for me too).

If you live anywhere near Cambridge, MA and you have a sweetheart who loves chocolate, Burdick's is the best place for a box of chocolates, ever. I'm hoping someone remembered to get me a box!

These are my building blocks for almost everything I cook in the winter. Onions, garlic, kosher salt. The day I took the photo, these ingredients turned into spaghetti sauce. Just about every day I find myself chopping up onions and garlic and placing them in with some variation of vegetables, beans or meat in this pot and stirring with this wooden spoon.

But tonight, I am going out to dinner. No cooking for me!

This post from Angela made my day. I love how she is using the twine with the clothespegs! And it reminds me that I need to make some more clothespeg dolls...

I hear we are getting snow tomorrow. My fingers are crossed. I am bored with the mild weather this winter. (I know, I'm sure you think me insane, but it's true...I like cold and snow)

Happy weekend.

A few new things that are making my mornings brighter:

New teapot...from For Life...love.

New tea...finally got around to ordering great loose leaf tea from Upton Imports . My favorites are Bond Street English Breakfast and River Shannon Irish Breakfast. Both make a good, strong morning cup.

New granola recipe. Homemade granola is one of my favorite breakfasts. It's sooo much healthier than store bought and it's really easy to make. After making my tried and true recipe for 2 or 3 years, I came across this one via Orangette. But after making it, I realized it was way too sweet for me. So I tried again, this time cutting out over half the sugar. And guess what? It was just as good. Here's my altered version of the recipe.

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup grade B maple syrup (using grade B is important, it gives a richer flavor)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add olive oil and maple syrup and give a good stir, until all dry ingredients are moistened.

Spread granola in an even layer onto baking pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until granola is golden brown and most of the moisture has evaporated.

Remove from oven and let cool all the way before storing in an airtight container.

Very easy and delicious. And healthy.

New pillows for spring added to my shop. Ikat and Paisley.

Have a nice weekend!

From 2010, my favorite moments. I just finished putting my 2010 photos into a Blurb book, which has become my version of a photo album and a diary. I make one every year now. I feel like having these photos of daily life help me remember the year...since I'm not great at keeping a written journal the photos serve as instant memory joggers and put me right back into the moment the photo was taken, the sounds, the smells, the temperature of the air and what was going on in my world at that particular moment in time.

It's gray here today, and I've been sewing pillows all week. Today was my day to take photos and get everything up on Etsy, but the light is so bad, I'm going to put it off...I'm hoping for sun tomorrow. As for today, I really feel like making a chocolate cake like the one in the photo above.