While Mom does some sewing...

Who Wants a Cookie?

Too cold for a walk outside with the dogs, so I made some cookies for them! Of course it was to flurry on my first weekday on my early maternity leave...

Dog Cookies

2 cups Rye Flour
1 1/4 cups Rice Flour
1/2 Tbs Cinnamon
3/4 cups water (plus more if needed)
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

Combine rye flour, rice flour and cinnamon in a working bowl. Combine water and apple sauce. Add the wet to the dry to form a dough. They dough may be a bit dry, add little bits of water as necessary until the dough comes together. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and cut cookies.

With egg wash (1 egg + a little water), brush each cookie. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes I normally just turn off the oven and let the cookies sit to let it crisp up more - Daisey seems to like them better that way.

I tried to take a picture of them enjoying the cookies, but none of them were clear. Boo. They were a little over zealous while eating them. An oven picture was the best I could do.

Happy Halloweenie!

Green is my New Favorite Colour

Well, not really. Finally, after 2 weeks of main colour (4 coats), accent colour (3 coats) and 2 hours of hand painting (x3) the baby's room is finished. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to bother to paint the baby's room, but after some deliberation, I thought that it would be nice. I browsed through the internets and found exactly what I was looking for. Thanks to design dad to pointing me in the right direction.

Before:

Nothing special about the room before. The colors in our house are pretty dark, so it wasn't really 'baby ready' or anything like that.

After (but before the furniture came in):

After again (with furniture this time):

The other wall:

The room is pretty small, so that's pretty much the whole room. I was going to give the baby the bigger room, but I have so much craft stuff, the baby will just have to live in the smaller room until he/she needs the big room. We came to the conclusion that the baby will either grow up loving giraffes or hating them.

On the other side of things, I've completed a pair of baby socks and have started another pair. I'm not sure how many pairs I'm going to end up with, but socks seem to be my project of choice for some reason.

Satisfying the Cravings

I purchase these puff wheat squares on a regular basis from the coffee shop when I'm at work. They are kinda like rice krispie squares, but...different. They are chocolately and gooey. So delicious. I figured it'd be a good idea to make a batch and satisfy the craving instead of paying $2 per square. It probably costs me less than a dollar to make the whole batch. Adapted from The Casual Baker's recipe.

Puffed Wheat Squares

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups puffed wheat

Measure out puffed wheat in a bowl. Lightly grease a 9"x13" baking pan. Set both aside. Combine butter, corn syrup, brown sugar, cocoa and salt in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon (I used a silicone spatula) for 2 minutes before removing from heat. Add vanilla and stir briefly to combine. Pour measured out puffed wheat into the pot and quickly stir to coat evenly. Pour the coated cereal into the greased baking pan and use a damp spoon or hands to press the mixture evenly into the pan. Cool and slice.

Finally, Some Baby Knitting Done

Pattern: Slip On Booties from 50 Baby Booties to Knit
Yarn: Socks that Rock - I forget which colorway (I think pebble beach)
Started: September 26, 2007
Finished: September 27, 2006

I used the left over yarn from here. It was a pretty easy knit, about an hour a night. I do need some practice with the seaming though. I hope to knit a few more items for the baby, even if they are easy booties/socks, but our next big project right now is painting up the baby's room. We did the first coat this morning, and even it it was only about an hour's work, at 25 weeks, I felt pretty tired after. But it's all good. I just took a nap. =)

The Big 5

Happy 5th Birthday to my boy, Milo.

I had always wanted a pug. It got to the point where I finally convinced the husband (bf at the time) to get one. Milo was supposed to be small, like pugs are. Instead we got this giant of a pug, 40 pounds when he's trim, 50+ when he's not.

At first look, Milo looks so menacing. So many people were afraid of him...until they got to know him. They all concede that he's the most gentle dog anyone has ever met. He doesn't like when people put on masks, he doesn't like Yoda on the TV but he does like rotisserie chicken, roast beef and spam.

He's good with kids, good judge of character, and gentle to those who he knows are good people. After 3 years of living with Daisey, he's finally able to protect himself and hold his own. No more getting pushed around by little Daisey, now he's doing some pushing of his own.

So Happy Birthday to Milo. Sorry there's no cake for him this year, Mom just wasn't able to make it with the heavy belly, but we did get to go for a nice walk in the neighborhood and I'll be sure to give him that extra cookie...