:: this moment ::

{this moment} - Is a Friday ritual by the incredible Amanda Soule. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember, (and evidently, here at G+N, many moments involving cute cats). I have adopted this practice on Mondays since I already love to do Five Senses posts on Fridays. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Five Senses Friday

Inspired by the delightful and talented Abby




:: tasting ::

banana oatmeal smoothies

and

carnitas (i ran out of cumin to season the meat, so i added a dash of cinnamon and cardamom to the rub. NOM) with raspberry salsa



:: hearing ::

myself plunk out beatles tunes on the guitar. i can pretty much rock out "all my lovin'" and plonk through "across the universe"

:: seeing ::

classical music in a hysterical light

:: smelling ::

my slow cooker at work for the first time



:: touching ::

an article on design*sponge touched on a topic near and dear to my heart: small measures with ashley :: eating in

mon petit miel :: a drink recipe

Last Saturday, while out for dinner at a French restaurant, I tried a new to me, delicious cocktail. I knew at first sip that I would have to try and recreate it at home. I bought all of the ingredients, and got the mix right on the first go! The mon petit miel is light and refreshing, the perfect cocktail for the onset of warm summery weather.



mon petit miel

1 shot Absolut Ruby Red Vodka
1 shot St Germain
Grapefruit Juice
Honey
Lavender

Rim a lowball glass with honey and lavender. Over ice, pour one shot of Absolut Ruby Red vodka and one shot of St. Germain. Top off with grapefruit juice and stir gently to combine.



Sip. Savor. Enjoy.

:: this moment ::

{this moment} - Is a Friday ritual by the incredible Amanda Soule. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. I have adopted this practice on Mondays since I already love to do Five Senses posts on Fridays. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Nature Can #1

Remember my WIP from the other day? I finished it! One prezzy down, scores to go in 2010!



This is a nature can for my (9...10 year old, crap I've lost track!) nephew. It's quite the earth friendly little project! The can, main fabric, and strap are all made from recycled materials. I will be stuffing the inside with a small moleskin journal, some pencils and/or crayons and a little natural treasure from New England.

Like I mentioned in my last Holiday Handmade Crusade post, because I was so ill around the holidays this year, I did not get to send gifts to my husband's side of the family. I will see all of them this summer in upstate New York, I am going to declare a little "Christmas in July" celebration. I am hoping that a nature can, like the one I've made here, can be put to good use during the summer adventures to be had in the beautiful Adirondacks.

I am making more of these for a niece and two nephews and I need three more empty oatmeal cans...does any one care to make a donation to the cause? I might be able to send a little crafty token of gratitude in return!

Five Senses Friday

Inspired by the delightful and talented Abby




:: tasting ::

Spaghetti Carbonara a la Sister Diane.

:: hearing ::

Catching up on Craftypod episodes, also a la Sister Diane

Hearing this beautiful ditty at the end of an episode of The Unusuals: Window by Good Old War

:: seeing ::

Margie's beautiful May Day baskets, and doily bedecked shed.

my cousin Amy for the first time since Christmas, and the beautiful Ultimate Balanchine program at Boston Ballet.

:: smelling ::

wet, muggy air

:: touching ::

fabric glue and having shiny fingers because of it!

post holiday crafting meltdown - the christmas crafting...begins

I have to confess something awful.

After Christmas last year, I completely lost my Christmas/crafty mojo.

I know...ME! Founder of the Holiday Handmade Crusade!!!

I was so sick around the holidays last year, that I did not even get to finish/send out many presents (especially to Matt's side of the family). This created all of this icky guilt over not finishing projects, which escalated into lack of motivation to finish said projects, which snow balled into a lack of desire to plan anything for Christmas 2010/craft/blog. This also led to me ignoring my Craftastic Christmas Crusader duties for HHC 2010.

Boo to all of that!

So I checked in with my Craftster peeps, (uhh, did I really not put up themes for April OR May???), to let them know that I'm alive, and also that HHC will be a little low-key for the rest of 2010. I do have dreams to make it bigger and better and have more widespread participation, but stuff like that requires PLANNING IN ADVANCE. 2011 baby, I'm dreaming big!



Well, dear friends, it is MAY. Have I finished a gift? Not a single one. But today...I started...with the humble braid that you see above. Let's see if I can bring the lurve back.

xo

:: this moment ::

{this moment} - Is a Friday ritual by the incredible Amanda Soule. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. I think that I may occasionally adopt this practice on Mondays since I already love to do Five Senses posts on Fridays. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.



Okay, so a few words. This is Mr. G+N, Hobbes at his feet, and Cassie asleep in the basket by the window. Total family time cuteness.

Mother's Day

There were gifts to give,



mimosas to drink,



delicious food to eat,





and many, many laughs to be shared!



Happy Mother's Day Mum! I love you!

Today

Today was cold, grey and rainy, so to keep my spirits high...

I put up a new art display!









Baked and cooked, cooked and baked!



I made my mom a Mother's Day gift - more on that tomorrow!

And at the very end of the day, Hobbes and I were awarded with some sunshine!



And now, I am sleepy! Good night!

Five Senses Friday

Inspired by the delightful and talented Abby

:: tasting ::



coffee, puffy pancake and NH made maple syrup. NOM.

:: hearing ::

many episodes of This American Life while I clean.

:: seeing ::

my summer wardrobe come out of hibernation!

:: smelling ::



yeast from homemade pizza dough on the rise

:: touching ::

my hands to a yoga mat for the first time in a long time.

Today was a G L O R I O U S day off!

Marché Photo of the Week

This one is for you, Abby!

Oh, high times, hard times
Sometimes the living is sweet
And sometimes there's nothing to eat
But I always land on my feet
So when there's dry times
I wait for high times and then
I put on my best
And I stick out my chest
And I'm off to the races again!

This week's visit to the grocery store was an exercise in creativity to say the least! While making my list, I racked my brain to remember every morsel of food that I had saved in my freezer and my pantry in order to dream up meals that required me to buy as LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.

This my friends, is what $34.55 buys:



This shopping trip has to last me eight days. I plan to make...

B R E A K F A S T

Orange Scones
Puffy Pancake

L U N C H

Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers

D I N N E R

Eggplant Curry
Spinach Walnut Pizza
Asparagus and Bacon Risotto
Red Beans and Rice with Honey Cornbread
Fusilli w/ Sausage and Greens a la Alice Waters
Spaghetti

:::

In other news I've been struggling with some not so fun dance injuries lately. I've been having some pain in the ball of my foot and middle toe. It is not broken (although, the doctor discovered that I have a bone spur on that foot, unrelated to the pain that I'm experiencing right now). I've been instructed to take 1000 mg of Aleve per day and not dance for a week. This is super frustrating since I recently have been easing into ballet classes and my motivation is really high right now! Then, while trying to be a good girl keeping up with some exercise regimen, I re-tweaked my bad shoulder while doing "The Pilates 100." I can't believe I re-injured myself doing such a minimal arm movement, GAH!

The Aleve doesn't seem to be touching the pain, so I have a feeling I'll be calling the doc on Monday to make an appointment with a specialist. Wish me luck!

Mussel Chowder

Last week, we went out to dinner with Matt's mum and I ordered a mussel appetizer as my dinner. It turned out to be enormous, too big to finish, and not wanting to waste all of the delicious leftovers, I brought the bellies home and worked a little leftover magic.

Mussel Chowder
This recipe is very loosely based on the New England Clam Chowder recipe in The Inn Cook Book: Favorite Recipes from New England Country Inns

2 slices of slab bacon chopped
1 onion diced
1 large potato diced
1 cup of corn (I used frozen from last summer)
Salt and Pepper
20-25 leftover steamed mussel bellies, chopped, plus juice
2 cups of water
3 cups of milk

In a large heavy pot, cook the bacon until crisp. Add the onions and saute in the bacon fat until limp. Add the potatoes, corn, salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. If the ingredients stick to the bottom of the pan, add a little water. Add the mussels, the juice and two cups of water and bring to a low boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let the chowder sit on the stove for an hour to "ripen". Add milk, reheat if necessary and serve. Makes about 5 servings.

The results?

I had so many leftover mussels that the chowder turned out a little fishy tasting, yet good. It's right on the fence. If I were to make it again, I would definitely tweak the proportions a little bit, maybe upping the veggies and the bacon. Overall I was quite pleased, and I think this is a clever way to use up leftover steamers of any kind. They may not reheat well on their own, but throw them in a chowder and the results are rather delicious!

EDIT: This tasted MUCH better the next day. It went from good to great! I recommend letting it marinate in the fridge overnight. YUM YUM.

Musicians Turned Artists Turned Musicians

Matt and I went to a pretty cool art show at TT and the Bear's Place in Cambridge on Saturday night. Usually TT's is a music venue. The concept of the show is to showcase work by the musicians and bands that usually perform there. I was very surprised to see a wealth of humor and talent from people that I usually see behind a microphone, instead of a paint brush!

The club was quite dark, so these are the best photos that I could get...

this is what i feel like when i don't have my morning coffee



beautiful shoes, from a larger collection by Daniel O'Halloran.



See the whole piece below, I suggest clicking the picture and viewing it large in Flickr. Just gorgeous!



i love this tattoo artist by our friend Sean



Annie, who is the fiddler in Matt's band, did an AMAZING piece of art depicting different scenes from their U.S. tour last summer. The lighting was so dark, that I could not get any decent photos of it, so I will have to share that with you later. It's outstanding!

Overall the event was lots of fun. My only complaint would be that I wished that the music portion was a little more isolated from the gallery portion, so that people could chat about the art! It's a cool idea for a show, but it might benefit from a different venue. Just my two cents!



P.S. For anyone who is wondering, Mr. G+N and I survived the great Boston Aquapocalypse aka H2OMG. We can now drink water from the tap again, hurray!