January Days

I have come very close to not reaching my goal of being able to walk every day this year. Some days I can only stand for 4 or 5 minutes at a time, but if I work slowly and methodically the chaos remains at bay and the children still get fed. Every day gets better (or so I keep telling myself).

I pulled these stacks of fabric to make my Punk's Scrappy Trip Quilt. I've decided to call the quilt "Scrap Yard" or perhaps "Junk Yard" since a lot of the memories attached to it are of me broken down and not being able to move! I made it a goal to cut out one strip set every day and I finished these last night. They are sitting in a pile by my machine, awaiting the days that I can slowly piece them together.

I made an effort to make these smashed potatoes that are floating around Pinterest. I've made them before, but always thought they gave too many steps to the process. I've narrowed them down....

First I boiled jacket potatoes until tender, and then distributed them on a greased baking sheet. Mine is covered because it is many years old and looks more ghetto than the world should know about.

Then I laid a clean. folded tea towel over each potato and exerted some aggression in a downward motion.

When all the potatoes were flatter, I drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Then simply bake until GBD. (That is, Golden Brown & Delicious.) We served them with Awesome Sauce.

Awesome Sauce is simply concocted by snipping a large handful of chives or scallions into a tub of sour cream and mixing well (salt to taste). Also excellent as chip dip.

The other day I sorted through crayons while my Pixie coloured next to me....I came up with this rainbow and the idea to make some melty crayon art. If all goes well, I shall share my fail with you soon. I'm thinking about papering the room with multiple dropcloths before this is attempted.

And lastly, some yarn work. This was a long term project that I was hoping to have the patience for:

But I simply don't like look of join-as-you-go crochet. I unraveled the yarn....

And I re-crocheted! I like this much better. There is no pattern or colour scheme, and I need to haunt thrift stores because my stash of yarn is dangerously depleted; but I love the work so much more now. This will also be for my Punk, because her crocheted baby afghan turned up with a huge hole in the center, likely from some young girl's indiscriminate use of forbidden scissors.

Could've been this girl, but I'll never know. Might've been a mouse!