The current project is to make hats, scarves and blankets to be added to a crate Another Child Foundation sends each year to help orphaned children and families survive the harsh winter in Romania.  I live in Southern California and need a hat and scarf when it hits 60 degrees – these families and children face temperatures which consistently stay below freezing and below zero!  I can’t really wrap my mind around that. Add to that these children and families do not have access to or cannot afford basic human needs – food, shelter, clothing – and I just cannot even imagine what it must be like to know winter is coming.

I’m no the best/fastest knitter nor the best/fastest crocheter but I did manage to whip up four hats, one scarf, and one set of arm warmers over the last couple of weeks.

The patterns I used are as follows:

Hats:  from Crocheting the Day Away - If you crochet, you should check out this site.  It’s spectacular and she offers a lot of ideas and patterns

Scarf:  from Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs -

Arm Warmers: from The Purl Bee - do yourself a favor and just click the link even if you aren’t interested in the pattern.  It’s a beautiful site and there are lots of project ideas – not just knitting!

The next Craft Hope project is set to be announced next week and I’m eager to find out what I’ll be making next!

Have a lovely week folks!

Participating in Craft Hope projects in one way I am helping others in 2013 as part of my Life List on Go Mighty

A few weeks ago I moved my crafting hoard into it’s designated space and promptly left it sitting there because I was so overwhelmed with just exactly what to do with it all.

Guess what you guys?!?  Bing and Go Mighty are helping make this goal happen for me by gifting me a $100 gift card to the Container Store!  I’m so excited!

Before I can put things in proper storage, I need do figure out what kind of storage I actually need along with what kind of storage is out there. I spent some time the other day beginning to sort my stash and was able to turn this:

Into this:

Not a terrible amount of improvement but it did give me an idea of what I need to help make this space organized, functional and mine.  I have more yarn than I anticipated but I also have paper, felt, fabric, beading and sewing supplies and clearly not enough storage for all of it.

I took myself on a little field trip to my happy place to my local CS just to look around.  Hello pretties:

I’m especially coveting those colorful boxes and the metal wall organizer and know I can put the stacking bins to good use.  I excited to finish the sorting and finally get this space put together so I can properly tap into my creativity.

Thanks Go Mighty and Bing for helping make this happen sooner rather than later.

This post originally appeared as part of my Life List journey on GoMighty. Being part of the Go Mighty community has really changed my every day life for the better. Come join us and help make good things happen.

This cake packs quite a lemon flavor.  The recipe calls for both limoncello and lemon oil which are optional but if you can get your hands on them, I highly recommend using as they add that extra lemon twist. If not, no worries, the cake still has plenty of lemon from the zest and segments from the lemons.

Lemon Meringue Cake Recipe (makes two 8 inch layers)

For the Cake:

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 tbsp limoncello (optional)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp lemon oil (optional)
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 4 large eggs at room temperature plus one egg yolk

Preheat oven to 350.

Zest the lemons, set aside. Then segment the the zested lemons into another bowl removing seeds, set aside. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl, set aside.  In a separate bowl, combine lemon segments, sour cream, whole cream, whole milk, limoncello, vanilla, and lemon oil, set aside. Cream together butter, sugar, and lemon zest.  With mixer running on lowest speed, add eggs and yolk one at a time until just combined. Stop mixer and scrape down sides and bottom. Add dry and wet ingredients alternately beginning and ending with dry.  Pour cakes into prepared cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes until sides pull away from pan and inserted tester comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes then remove and allow cakes to cool completely on rack (or in fridge) before stacking/frosting.

For the lemon curd filling (adapted from Joy the Baker’s Tangerine Lemon Curd recipe)

• 2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
• 5 tbsp sugar
• zest from one lemon
• juice from 3 lemons
• pinch of salt
• one stick butter

Combine ingredients except butter in medium saucepan.  Whisk continuously over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken.  Immediately remove from heat and whisk in butter.  Pour curd through fine mesh strainer using a rubber spatula to push it through. Refrigerate until chilled.  Can be stored in an air tight container for 5-7 days – if it lasts that long).

For the frosting:

• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup

Fill a saucepan half full of water and bring to a boil.  In bowl of electric mixer, whisk all ingredients together.  Once water boils turn down heat to maintain a gently boil.  Place mixer bowl over boiling water and whisk ingredients constantly until sugar dissolves.  Transfer bowl to mixer and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form and frosting has become white and fluffy.

Layer cakes with lemon curd and frost using the tip of an offset spatula to create a swirled texture for the frosting.  Serve and enjoy!

Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman - I was disappointed in the fact this book is touted as weightloss book when it is really about nutrition and the values of a plant based diet.  this book has been floating around my social media circles for the past year or so and I am glad I finally got around to reading it. Towards the end of 2012, I became more of a starchatarian than a vegetarian which reeked all sorts of havoc on my health, my mood, my weight, my general feelings of happiness…  This book was a good reminder of why I eat an plant based diet and the correct way to do so.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling - this book was recommended to me by a fellow Life Lister.  It was such a fun and funny read.  Mindy has such a great voice and a super smart sense of humor.  She’s not afraid to be herself or even make fun of herself.  I adored her look at the world.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia - I am a sucker for young adult sic-fi/dystopia/romance stories and this book certainly did not disappoint.  I saw a commercial for the movie coming out later this month and learned the film is based on a book.  Well then, I had no choice but to read the book since I’m making Sweets take me to see the movie  It was a super quick read – I finished the book in just about 3 days and loved it enough to download the second book in the series to my Kindle.

All in all, January was a good month – 3/20 and 3/1000 complete!

I’m so excited about this Life LIst Goal.  I usually only bake one cake a year, maybe?  But I want to bake elevtybillion cakes every year.  Baking hard become just one more thing I enjoy doing but never made time for….but NO MORE! That’s what is so great about my LIfe LIst – it has totally changed the way I think about spending my time.  My days have been full of a lot more fun since I got serious about creating and completing life goals.

Cake #1 I made for my husband’s birthday.  I’ve been lucky enough to share the last 6 years of his 37 years with him.  He adds a great deal of fun to my life and he puts up with my crazy  There wasn’t anyone other than he I wanted to bake the first cake of this goal for.

May I present Jerry’s Strawberry Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from Joy the Baker’s Southern Style Strawberry Cake

1 (18.5 ounce) box strawberry cake mix (without pudding)

1 (3 ounce) package Strawberry Jello

1 Tablespoon self rising flour (optional)

4 eggs at room temperature

3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake:

Combine cake mix, Jello, flour (if using) and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the oil and mix until well combined.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the water and mix well.  Divide the batter evenly into two prepared 8-inch round baking pans.  Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and cake sides begin to pull away from sides of pan.

Let cakes cool, still in their pans, on cooling rack for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of each pan to release the cake and let cakes cool completely out of the pans before frosting.  (I let the cakes cool on the racks for 30 minutes and transferred to the refrigerator for another 30 minutes before frosting because I was in a hurry and it worked fine)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese, at room temperature

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar – use more or less depending on your taste

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup shredded coconut

Combine the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Beat until incorporated.  If you’d like a sweeter frosting, add more powdered sugar but I think the cake is really sweet on it’s own so only watched a touch of sweetness for the frosting.

Once the cakes are cool, layer and frost.  Sprinkle shredded coconut on top

Instead, I ‘m committing to actually using the books.  In order to help me do so, I added the goal of cooking one recipe from each section of every cookbook I own.  Cooking and baking always brings me joy and it’s about time, these cookbooks were put to good use.  To keep me accountable, each week I’ll post the recipes I tried here……that means (hopefully) every week, I will have cooked at least one new recipe!

Here’s to good eating!

It hasn’t been a magical cure and these two things together don’t always keep my dark passenger at bay.  Life is hard for everyone, I know. I don’t think I’m special.  I expect days which are hard to get through because the universe has decided to challenge me.  Sometimes though, when things are just fine, I still really struggle to get out of bed and stay out of bed and behave like a productive member of society.

The past year, I have started a journey towards a healthier me incorporating a more holistic approach to my health.  The word ‘holistic’ seems to make a lot of people uncomfortable – in particular, it makes people in my family uncomfortable – but for me, it is important that I see the big picture of me rather than just focusing on symptoms.  So the biggest changes I have made have all been related to depression.  I have a new regime using essential oils on a daily basis.  I have taken stock of my eating habits and taken up eating a more balanced and nutrient rich diet.  I try to walk for at least 15 minutes everyday and place my bare feet on the grass.  I have created a bed time routine for myself and drink plenty of water.  I have even begun seeing a chiropractor to rid my body of chronic neck and back pains. All of these things along with my medication have added up to what seems to be a working solution.

But there are still days when something seems to be missing.  It feels like I’ve finished the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle but one piece is missing.  When looking at the puzzle, you can see the whole picture and that one piece doesn’t really make that big of a difference – until you see that it’s missing and then that is all you can see.  The missing piece.  This is how I have been feeling about my health lately.

Today I decided to give acupuncture a try in hopes that it is the missing piece.  After discussing my concerns and the above issues with the practitioner, she inserted needles at 11 different sites on my body, turned off the light, turned on a heat lamp and let me rest for 20 minutes in the quiet.  Probably about 10 minutes in I could feel my inner being completely release.  It felt like everything which has been wound too tightly for too long finally released and tears streamed down my face.  I wanted to believe this was possible; that I could feel this way – could finally feel unstuck – but I had not been able to find the path to lead me there.  It will be a few more treatments before I decide if this has been the missing link in my well being but today was certainly a step in the right direction.

No lie!  I almost chickened out of participating in the craft fair this past weekend.  I tend to be terrified of failure.  Many times in the past, I have cut out at the last minute or have just plain given up rather than risk failing.  Participating in my very first craft fair was certainly risky business in my book.

However, I am so glad that I took a leap of faith in myself.  The day was incredibly fun.  I met some wonderful people and got hugs from a couple of old friends and to top it off, other people liked my items….. and even bought a few of them!

The inventory I didn’t sell will be in my etsy shop at the beginning of December along with a couple of new Stuffed animals!

Cultivate:  to promote or improve the growth of by labor and attention

I’ve been spending a great deal of my time pondering this idea lately – especially when it comes to cultivating myself.  I’ve struggled with the process of improving myself  - it’s something I’ve desperately wanted to do but have seem unable to do to.  I realized what the stumbling block was….I needed a plan.  Funny thing?  I have one! I just sort of forgot about it somehow.  My Life List has been waiting patiently for me for me to once again pay attention to it.

Why is it the things in life that don’t have to do with others seem to get lost in the shuffle?  Maybe it’s because they don’t bark incessantly to be fed…Or call multiple times to make sure I remembered snacks for the game…Or they don’t sit in my way waiting to be washed.  Or more appropriately, I put the “Me” list at the back of the pile and forget about it.

Truth is, I’ve learned that I need to take care of myself in order to properly take care of others.  I’m no use to anyone if I don’t eat well, sleep well, and manage my depression on a daily basis.  So these past few months I’ve made it a point to focus on myself every day.

One thing I discovered was that knitting is good therapy for me.  One stitch at a time, I find my center.  One stitch at a time, I find calm.  One stitch at a time, I remember who I am.  One stitch at a time, I can think about my future.  One stitch at a time, I can plan my day.  One stitch at a time, I remember to put one foot in front of the other.  One stitch at a time, I see what is most important in my life.  One stitch at a time, I cultivate myself.

The fun part about all these one stitch at a times have added up to a bunch of scarves, and stuffed animals.  So many that I have enough to participate in a local craft faire this weekend and finally open an etsy shop!  Both of which are on my life list!  Within the next week, I will be able to cross those two items off my list and that feels so GOOD!