Saturday, February 28, 2009

Come mom sit here next to me...

Ven mami sientate aqui conmigo...

Sock disaster...










I knitted like crazy to finish the second part of the foot for my Cat Bordhi sock class on Sunday. I chose the lace increase or foot expansion like she called it. It was a total disaster, not only did I place my lace increases in the wrong place but the fabric bunches up as I increase. When trying on my sock I can see that I actually don't need any increases at all if I want the sock to fit snug. So I think I am going to rip it and continue the foot without any increases and turn the heel like I always do with a short row heel which is really easy. I just don't see the point on complicating myself when the short row heel worked so well for me in the past and it is so easy. I do want to try Cat's Spring Thaw Sock published in Knitter's in the Summer 2008 issue (white socks on the bottom left). I haven't completely given up on her techniques, quite the contrary, I have gotten more interested on them and I am very likely to buy her book and try more things from it. It just seems like these lace increases are too open for my foot and I don't need as many stitches in that area as other people might. I am not sure I will go to the class tomorrow as it makes no sense for me to continue knitting on this disaster sock, all I want to do is rip it and that will give me no time to get the foot ready for tomorrow. We will see.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Coraline...


Last Saturday I went with R to the movies to watch Coraline. I was curious to watch it because of the "knitting" content of the movie. The sweaters Coraline wears in the movie are actual miniature sweaters created by a miniature sweater designer/artist . (open the upper drawer of the dresser to watch how she makes the tiny sweaters).

The movie is cute but it has some weird stuff in it and definitively some anti-christian concepts such as the "soul of children" been confined in a parallel world because the witch took the children's eyes? Weird... The witch looks to the outside world through the eyes of a doll that looks just like the girl she is planning to kidnap. Any girl would carry a doll of herself everywhere right? That is the trick. Through the doll the witch can sneak at the girl's life and if she seems unhappy she becomes the perfect prey. She would build a parallel world were everything is happy just the way the girl wants it. Then she asks the girl to voluntary sew buttons in place of her eyes so she can stay in the other world forever. I take it that this is how the kids that are trapped actually died... I don't know. I give the movie a C- maybe a C+. It could have been at least a B+ if the plot made more sense. There is also an scene were the two fat ladies perform an act practically naked, I thought this scene was not very tasteful considering the audience of the movie and also unnecessary. 










Anyways, the pattern for the stars sweater is available in the Coraline website. I offered R to make one for her but she wanted me to make a doll of her instead. Which is also a little creepy to me specially in the context of the movie, but I said OK just because I can make a doll out of that context right? and R just wanted to have a doll like herself which is the concept of the American Girl doll, so why not? I had purchased the materials to make the Lula doll from the Lucinda Guy Book "And so to bed" which is one of my favorite knitting books. So I am using her pattern and using the materials I had, really I am just making the Lula doll with brown hair... LOL. It is an incredible fast and fun project and I can't wait to finish it. Except that I am supposed to finish a sock for my sock class on Sunday... So, I had to negotiate with R to let me knit on my sock as well. She is very exited about getting her doll done. 

Here is a random picture of the handsomest boys in the neighborhood. Just because.

-Click on picture to enlarge-
 

Monday, February 23, 2009

Bread machine goodness

I have been wanting to post about my Christmas present. It was this bread machine. It is a Kenmore unit. I absolutely love it! It has a setting for Gluten Free. For the first time we are able to make GF bread big enough for sandwiches. This one in the picture is actually a cinnamon bread mix. I use the mixes from Bob's Red Mill. I specially love their Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix. It is truly wonderful. 

I am amazed on how easy it is to make bread with these machines. I just put the liquids first, then the mix and the yeast in the center, close it and press a button. About two and a half hours later; voila! wonderful smell of homemade bread  all over the house! mmm.... 


Esto fue mi regalo de Navidad. Una máquina de hacer pan. Me encanta. Es super fácil de usar. Solamente se ponen los líquidos primero, luego los ingredientes secos y por último la levadura. Se tapa y se apreta un botón. A las dos horas el pan está listo y toda la casa se llena del delicioso olor... Mmmm Por primera vez tenemos un pan que es grande, para sandwich y que es rico y libre de Gluten. Utilizo un mix que viene listo de la marca "El Molino Rojo de Bob." La máquina combina los ingredientes, amasa la masa y hornea el pan. Muy feo?








Sunday, February 22, 2009

Me? A recipe? / Yo con recetas? de cuando aca?

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not exactly known for my love of cooking, however, once in a very blue moon an invention works really well. That is what happened today! This is what I made:

First I made brown rice with Quinoa. I used TSURU MAI a brand of California Brown Rice. It is a bit pricey but it is worth it. I had a cup of Quinoa on the top of the rice and cook like you would normally cook your rice. I personally don't like my rice mushy so I only use enough water to cover the rice about 2 cm max. so the grains stay loose. 

If you don't know what Quinoa is, it is a grain like little circles that is consider the MOST nutritious grain of all. It gives my rice a nutty flavor/texture that I love. I get mine at Trader Joe's. 


After that I chopped one huge potato in 1 inch squares and fried it as if they were french fries. (picture not provided due to embarrassment of showing my ugly skillet.

Then, in another skillet I fried about a cup and half of bell peppers of different colors cut in strips let them cook a little and add 1 pound of hamburger meat and about 10 grape size tomatoes cut in half. I had salt and pepper and garlic powder. I continue until cooked.  Finally I added a boxed of pre-washed chopped organic spinach, mixed, covered it and turned off the stove. (this will cook the spinach just enough). 
 

I served the meat over rice and put the potatoes on the top. For the final touch added ketchup to taste. Oh my gosh it was soooo good! 

Now if I could only get R to try it...



 List of Ingredients:
1  big potato
3 cups of brown rice
1 cup of Quinoa
1 pound of hamburger meat
5 oz of organic spinach
10 grape size organic tomatoes
1- 1/2 cup of bell peppers
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
ketchup

 

R's birthday / El cumpleaños de R

We got this scooter for R birthday. She loves it. I have driven the scooter too and I am amazed on how fast it can go! 

Le regalamos esta moto a R para su compleaños. Cumplió 9 años el pasado 10 de Febrero. No sabía manejar, este video fue hace días, pero ya la bandida aprendió a tener equilibrio y pone los pies arriba. Yo he manejado la moto y es increible cuan rápido puede ir, se sopla!

Tambien le hicimos una fiestecita en la casa. 







Friday, February 13, 2009

Baby update






As you can see I found the camera cable so  I am out of control posting, making up for lost time... LOL

Ian is almost 10 months. here are some pics. Time is flying so fast, he is getting handsomer and handsomer each day. He has really started to babble, his crawling is getting faster and better, he makes funny noises to "scare" us. He is getting really cute. Still no interest in solids (sad face), I really need him to start eating solids so he can have dinner and be fuller and night and hopefully let me sleep longer... The poor guy has about 6 teeth wanting to come out in the upper front, so he continues to be Mr. Drool

Little things that make me happy...

A pajama sale at the Children's Place. These were only $3,99 each! 

A boric acid free contact lenses multipurpose formula. Which I had been looking for for months. Boric acid, aluminum and thimerosal (mercury) are things they put in stuff as preservative but are toxic for humans. I have started using my contacts more because Ian keeps taking off my glasses but I did not want to put boric acid preserved liquid in my eyes. When I went to see my eye doctor last month she gave a sample of this one. To my surprised it was boric acid free! 


I have also tried different natural moisturizers. I constantly scratch my nose because of my allergies and that area is extremely dry. I have tried many natural moisturizers, some very expensive, but only this one penetrates and hydrates my skin even in my really dry nose. I use it all over my body. It is called Miracle II. Here in town I can only find it at the Apple Tree. They also have the Miracle water which is great to stabilize your body's PH. This bottle is only $12 or so. It lasts a long time if you save it only for your face.


Abused mothers?

I have to admit that sometimes I feel abused. Not only it is exhausting to take good care of a baby but mine at least, tortures me at times. He slaps me on the face, yanks my glasses off my face, scratches me, twists a tender part of my breast without mercy, bites it too!, hits me with his head really hard, and the worst torture, keeps me from sleeping longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time. Yes, I do feel abused at times, and there are those moments in every mother's life when you just need to retreat, put the baby in the crib and let him cry so you can go and have a cup of tea, read a paragraph or two of a good book, or knit a few rows so you don't loose it. Lately I have been having one of those moments at least once a day.

I wonder if other moms feel the same way or I am just not keeping up because of my age...

I don't mean to complain but it sure is hard when you don't have any support system. Being from a Latino culture I sure miss having my family around these days, if nothing else just to have somebody to complain to... LOL 

My husband's family is... how can I put it... in Spanish we have a saying that describes them very well: "Brillan por su ausencia" (They standout for their absence). We only see his mom frequently and only for the past couple of years. 

My parents are divorced but they come and visit as often as they can. They fly all the way from Costa Rica at least once a year if they can afford it and call on the phone often. They both came to visit and help us when Ian was born. Actually my dad paid for mom to come and then he and his wife came shortly after. They provided tremendous emotional support during those days we weren't sure how bad Ian's birth defects were. I am so thankful for that! 

When they call they want to know details about the children, how are they doing, what are they doing new... etc... They call asking for pictures and are involved in our lives even from the distance. I feel that I took my family for granted when I lived there. I miss them. I miss how knit together families are in my country, how much everyone care for each other... I miss my culture...


Well, I left the baby cry for a while now and I have vented, so back to work!


Friday, February 06, 2009

I haven't post in a while, in part because I have been really tired... Ian has started waking up really early (5:00 a.m., sometimes even 3:00 a.m.) it really kills me! I am not a morning person, and early morning is my precious sleeping time... I try to nap during the day but I don't like to leave R alone, plus she also needs to spend time with mommy. 

I also had some issues with our router. It was open, meaning without a password, and I tried to secure it again but ended up totally messing it up instead. Now my router works but my wireless network doesn't, so James  and I fighting over the connection when he is home. 

Hopefully this weekend I can fix it...