pendleton woolen mills

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On our way back to Texas after the holiday, we stopped at THE Pendleton Woolen Mills. We were driving through Pendleton, so it would be silly if we didn’t stop, right?

They sadly don’t do tours on Saturdays, but we still snooped around a bit.

We got a couple presents to ourselves. We decided that we should stop there on our way to Christmas next time, and just get all our gifts there. Especially those awesome slipper socks.

Thanks to my dream come true for taking a little detour, and making all my woolen blanket dreams come true.

mornings

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I am a morning person. I have my grumpy times, but there is just something about mornings that I really like. The day full of possibility. Breakfast. Lots of good things happen in the morning.

Some of my current morning routines:

Go around the house and let the light in. Houseplants need to eat that sunshine. I’m their adopted plant mom, so I have to take care of them.

Try to make the bed. It really doesn’t take that long, and it makes the room look nice and cozy. I had a goal this year to be more aware of those kinds of little tasks.

Each of my individual muscle fibers tie themselves into a double knot while I am sleeping. So I feel much better if I do some yoga, or go for a jog and stretch, before breakfast and getting ready for work.

After five of those mornings, we get to have weekend mornings, which are even better!

cinnamon and raisin buns

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The recipe called these cinnamon and raisin buns, but let’s call things like we see them. These are cinnamon rolls with raisins rolled all up in them.

I have been playing with the bread machine. Its really a genius invention. The dough comes out so soft, like a baby. And yum, ate them with soup for dinner. One of my very favorite meals.

back to basics

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Drawing little faces is one of my favorite things to do. A couple hours spent doodling this evening made me remember why. Once you give them eyes, it’s like they come to life. Like Frosty’s magic hat.

chocolate chip and cherry cookies

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If I am in the middle of a project, and it isn’t going well, I have a tendency to jump into a pit of despair pretty quickly. Yesterday I was on the edge of that pit, but then I thought to myself: hey, you are still good at making cookies. So make cookies is what I did.

Chocolate and cherry is a good combo for Valentine’s day, since cherries are red and feel more festive. I loosely followed this recipe, and without the annoying chilling the dough overnight part. These would be the kind of cookie you could package up and give out for happy heart day presents.

The cherry heart gift tags are a new creation of mine. You can find the kits in my shop!

sourdough/ week two

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This is a Swedish limpa bread made from sourdough starter. It has some rye flour, as well as some different types of seeds, a touch of brown sugar, and a little orange zest. Heartier and darker than traditional sourdough. We ate it as toast for breakfast with butter and jam. Yummy in the tummy.

I was excited to try a rye bread. The internet says that rye sourdough is supposed to be the most healthy type of bread. I was a tad worried about the rising process, since rye breads tend to be more dense, but my little yeast army worked like magic.

The guy just sharpened all our knives, so look at those beautiful slash marks now!

snow(?) day

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This is the amount of snow substance that shuts the city down here. Here are some other snowstorm pictures from Austin. It was pretty chilly though, so I sweatered up and drank lots of tea.

Now today, the forecast is sunny and seventy, so we’ll have to say goodbye to the snow soon!

from the garden: arugula

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We planted some winter veggies a couple months ago. They are still growing away, but we had a mini harvest of arugula! Not quite enough for a whole salad, but we shared some on homemade sourdough toast with cheese for breakfast. You can definitely taste all the love and care in it.

Doubling up on vitamin C here, and getting our greens in! I am a big fan of tomatillo salsa lately.

dessert: banana muffins with chocolate chips and walnuts

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Usually muffins are more of a breakfast or snack food. But the heart wants what it wants. And who said that muffins can’t be dessert. I certainly didn’t say that.

What a happy coincidence that we happened to have 3 old bananas. Before and after pictures:

sewing a shirt

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I am sewing my first shirt! It is a button-up shirt, with a yoke, and sleeves, and everything. I love the idea of sewing some of my own clothes, so I am pumped to start practicing! I am instagramming some of the different stages, if you want to follow along. I got my fingers crossed that it will actually fit once I am finished!