Mini-Moopy

Who knew a sewing machine and a little bit of fabric could make me so happy! Check out the mini moopy my mother and I created for Leah. I haven't touched a sewing machine since home ec class in middle school, hence all the help from my mom. You too can make a cute little mini moopy with the pattern found here.



I also made another stuffed animal, which will make a debute on the blog sometime next week.

Lemony goodness

LEMON BLOSSOMS
This recipe makes 5 dozen mini-cupcakes:

Cupcakes:
18 1/2 oz package yellow cake mix
3 1/2 oz package instant lemon pudding mix
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray miniature muffin tins with cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Turn out onto a tea towel.

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil and water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the glaze while they are still a bit warm. Place on wire racks with wax paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about an hour, before serving.

A few things

A few things you can get done when you are not blogging:

KNIT A HAT


BAKE


LEARN HOW TO SEW (thanks Mom)


VISIT A YARN STORE


More about all of these later...

A Break

Have you ever felt all blogged out? I guess this is what I am feeling right now. I don't know what direction I should be taking this blog thing. I have been going along now for nine months but feel it is getting a bit repetitive. I may decide to take it in a different direction. So, for right now, I will be taking a little break from Forks & Chopsticks.

Having said that, I will still be posting about reading and our book club at The Written Word. See you soon.

Please give her some love!

My sister Chris, mother of seven kids, shattered her wrist while ice skating the other day. If you could all just stop by her blog here and leave her a little encouraging comment I sure would appreciate it. Getting comments makes her day!



By the way Chrissy, you live in HAWAII. Shouldn't you be sitting on the beach instead of ice skating anyway?

Just in time for cooler weather...

Got in some knitting time recently and made this poncho for Leah. I used the Downtown Tot Poncho pattern from Lion Brand and Leah picked out their Color Waves yarn in the Pebble Beach color. This was the easiest poncho pattern I could find. I hope to move on to something a bit more sophisticated for next year's poncho!

Commenting

FROM BLOGGER:

Users who have switched to Blogger in beta will not be able to login to comment on blogs that have not switched. Commenting using the “anonymous” or “other” options will still work. Update (9/12): We have started working on making this possible, however the change is substantial and will take a little while before it is ready.

And this is why I may not have been leaving you comments recently. This stinks!

WTC

During summer vacation from school when I was a little girl, my father would wake me up very early, pack me into his car and bring me to work with him. As we would drive along Route 3 towards Nutley, New Jersey (where he was a police officer) we would enjoy a breathtaking early morning view of New York City. The empire state building, all shiny in the morning light would be directly ahead, with the twin towers further down lower Manhattan to the right. I still remember this view as clear as day. Since I was growing up in "the sticks" as my hometown is called, the city was and is always fascinating to me.

It wasn't until I was a young adult that I actually visited the World Trade Center. I remember viewing the city from the observation area. Joe, my father and I attended an orchid show held at the center. A month before they fell, Joe and I sat in the atrium (which by some miracle is still standing) and ate lunch while looking out over the Hudson river.

When the towers were destroyed, so was the subway system below. Not very long ago, the NY/NJ Port Authority opened up the PATH system again which connects Newark New Jersey to the World Trade Center site. The train station is located about six or so stories below street level and runs the perimeter of the hole which is ground zero. In other words, you are actually inside ground zero as you approach the train station. From the train you can see what a huge area had been destroyed and the efforts of hard working men and women as they work toward rebuilding.

So today, I not only mourn the loss of thousands of lives, but also for the loss of a New York landmark, the twin towers and surrounding buildings that were the World Trade Center. You will forever be in my memory as part of the great city of New York.

Below are a few pictures I took at ground zero while visiting the city this past weekend:

Talking

Leah likes to talk. So much so that she started at the very young age of nine months and never slowed down. Tonight she topped herself.

WARNING for my Dad or any in-laws who may be reading this post. You might want to just skip the rest of it.

Anyway, tonight at dinner the subject of pregnancy came up. Leah, in her 4 1/2 year old infinite wisdom, started talking about babies and where they come from. She then proceeded to tell the story of when I had to go to a doctors appointment with her in tow. As she so eloquently put it, "remember Mommy when you went to the doctor and he checked out your booty with a pair of pliers?" At this point Joe and I were laughing so hard we could barely talk.

For the record, when I went to aforementioned doctor I told her that she had to sit in the chair behind me and not move. As soon as the doctor began his exam, she jumped off the chair, ran right over and watched the whole thing. And now, a year afterwards, she apparently likes to talk about it. Great.

The cool kids

Did you ever have the feeling that some people are so much more intelligent/smart/cool than yourself? Whenever I read posts by Johnny or Kristen or Mrs. Fortune or numerous other bloggers I am blown away by their sheer smartness.

And what about the bloggers who can not only write but make awesome stuff too? I always get excited when checking my bloglines and seeing that Viv or SouleMama or Wee Wonderfuls has a new post. They are like eye candy.

Do you think it makes me cool just by association?

By the way, I moved my book club blog over to wordpress. You can find it here (that is if you want to join the cool bloggers who also read).

An afternoon at the movies

Today was rainy and dreary, so I headed out to the movies with some friends to see Little Miss Sunshine. If you want to get lost in an endearing story about a dysfunctional family on a road trip, then go see this movie. If you just want to laugh a lot, then DEFINITELY see this movie.

Old Same

One day in the 1960s an old woman fainted in a rural Chinese train station. When the police searched her belongings in an effort to identify her, they came across papers with what looked to be a secret code on them. This being the height of the Cultural Revolution, the woman was arrested and detained on suspicion of being a spy. The scholars who came to decipher the code realized almost at once that this was not something related to international intrigue. Rather, it was a written language used solely by women and it had been kept a "secret" from men for a thousand years. - From the acknowledgement section of the book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The book, a work of fiction, is based upon a real written language that existed in a remote area of the southern Hunan provence in China for thousands of years. Nu Shu was created by women, for women, as a way to secretly communicate their thoughts and feelings. In the book the main character Lily forms a lifelong relationship with Snow Flower, who she then considers her an "old same" (similar to a sworn sisterhood or maybe a best friendship between women).

This was the first book selection at my online book club, The Written Word. One of the discussion questions I posted today is the following: Do you think the concept of "old sames" exists today? Do you have an "old same," or are you part of a sworn sisterhood?

For me, I would have to say that I have been fortunate to have two very strong female relationships in my life.

First is my girlfriend Ariel. We have known been friends for almost twenty years now. Unfortunately, we don't reside in the same part of the country anymore and since we have such busy lives we don't communicate half as often as we should. Having said that, each time I hear from her it feels like I just spoke to her yesterday. It is comfortable.

My friend Chau, on the other hand, has only been in my life for about six years, but it might as well be sixty. We met at work and became fast friends. Joe would often work late so it would be Chau and I at the movies, Chau and I going out to dinner (you get the picture). Of course, all that changed when I gave birth to Leah and became a stay-at-home Mom. My relationship with Chau, thankfully, has stayed the same. She has been here with me through thick and thin and always makes me laugh.

So, do any of you have an "old same" out there?

On a side note, if you are interested in participate with my online book club, just stop by The Written Word and send me an e-mail. We will be picking out our next book selection soon, so be sure to check it out!