mamasewingcircus.com

This is making it’s way around the internets, but considering most of my friends have small kiddos and shorter rss feed lists than mine, it warranted a reposting.

There’s an interesting article in Slate about how for certain meals, your microwave may be more environmentally friendly than your oven or stove top. I don’t find this groundbreaking, much of this is obvious, but it is interesting to see the numbers.

You may already be familiar with Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. If you aren’t, and you’ve got 7 year olds to read to, check out The Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket has a new book on the shelves these days. This one is more of a performance. He has teamed up with a composer to create a symphony and a murder mystery. The book begins with the composer dying under suspicious circumstances. The remainder of the book offers insight into the ways of the orchestra pit through interviews between the inspector and the orchestra members. Enclosed with every book is a cd of the original performance. I don’t own this treasure, yet, but after having watched the video, here, I need to get it.

Somehow, the cosmos aligned bringing me all sorts of wonderful things on my birthday. Some of those things were presents – a gift certificate for Anthropologie, my favorite store now that thrift stores are inconvenient (kids); a starter sewing kit, which considering I’ve been sewing just about all my life seems like a funny thing for me to get excited about, but who doesn’t love new needles and another measuring tape and something girly to replace the toolbox and cardboard boxes I currently store my supplies in? Some of the things were simply a result of the stars aligning – I ordered Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way because it came highly recommended by two friends. But the one that is going to keep me up all night thinking about my next hundred projects is Boutique Knits: 20 must have accessories.
This is a great book full of pretty, wearable, and – better yet, knitable! – hats, scarves and sweaters. One of the models is even wearing a dress that with the help of one of my japanese patterns should soon be hanging in my closet.

What a happy day.

you wouldn’t know it from looking.

If the sugary awesomeness in that last post didn’t rot your brain, maybe this will work. The band is named Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. The song – Sophisticated Side Ponytail. I love that they look 12.

natalie portman’s shaved head – sophisticated side ponytail from thatgo on Vimeo.

The Internets are alive with great things. Take this site, for instance, where you can make your own super hero. My alter ego, below:

If you enjoyed that, here is a list of other sites your children will love and you will find amusing.

Bloch, the company that made the ballet slippers we all wore to many a dance class, makes baby slippers. Wish I’d have known this months ago. Sylvie would have loved these.

This is turning into a food blog with my recent lack of sewing and continuous eating. But so be it. Girl’s gotta eat.

Our school had a fundraising function Saturday night for parents only, and as part of that I helped prep the food for the event. One of the moms passed along her secret, super easy recipe for salsa fresca that we adapted based on ingredients we had on hand.

SALSA FRESCA
2 med shallots chopped, onions would do
1 habanero minced, jalapeno would do
juice of 1 lime
1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful of cilantro, minced
1 16oz can of diced tomatoes, smushed or pulverized (we used the cuisinart)
salt to taste

Apparently all the water this winter has been pooling in my garden (as opposed to in the state reservoirs) as our kale, broccoli, peas, herbs are outrageous and on the verge of overgrowing our small house, so dinner tonight needed to make a slight dent. I used up a bunch of asparagus that were on their last leg, a bunch of kale, a few potatoes in a soup that even the picky eater (dad) gobbled up.

ASPARAGUS SOUP
(aka “makes your arms really big and your hair curly soup”, serves 2 bowls or 4 cups)
1 tbs butter
1 white part of a leek OR white part of green garlic (we used the latter)
5 small potatoes, boiled
2 cups vegetable broth
1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 bunch kale, chopped roughly
1 cup buttermilk

Boil potatoes until soft. Saute green garlic in butter until glassy. Add potatoes, broth, asparagus, kale and simmer until everything is tender. Blend or puree in cuisinart/blender then place back in pot with 1 cup buttermilk. Bring to desired temperature and salt to taste. Enjoy.

From my little leprechaun –