photo friday. eleven. green.

I noticed that a lot of my favorite images of the past week had a strong green presence, so I figured we'd have a green theme this week. My favorite thing about living in the northwest is how green everything is year round. Thank you, rain.

friendship bracelet obsession

 First of all, do you know how hard it is to take a photo of your wrist with a 50mm lens?

It's really, really hard!

Manual focus helps, but I still looked very funny contorting myself into weird shapes

to get my wrist far enough away from my camera.

The kids and I are slightly obsessed with friendship bracelets lately.

Embroidery floss has been flying around here like feathers from a beaten pillow.

The little guy asked for one in cotton twine, like mine.

I told him we were bracelet buddies.

“That's what they'll call us!”

Sweetpea now has four.

She wanted to have the same number as me.

She made one, her Aunt Britt Britt made one, I made two.

Such a blast from the past. 

I made hundreds of these when I was a kid.

Did you?

knit top refashion

 Before: Lands' End Henley                               Inspiration: Anthropologie Buttondown

I bought this top from Lands' End last week. You know how it goes—they were having a sale on swimwear, I needed a new swim top, but I needed $50 worth of items to get free shipping. I'm such a sucker for those free shipping deals. This sleeveless henley was on clearance at the right price, so I grabbed it.

But when it arrived and I tried it on, it didn't hang on me as well as it did the model. Isn't that always the way? I knew I wanted to add some ruching or pintucks at the shoulders, but put it aside until I figured out a definite plan.

A day or so later, I was browsing the sale section on the Anthropologie website and stumbled across that ruched button down (above). Perhaps it helped that it was the exact same color—I was inspired. Thirty minutes later, I had transformed my top and threw it on for a trip to the farmer's market. 

Fun and fast refashion.

photo friday. ten. edits.

 (sooc = straight out of camera)

I'm typically a very conservative photo editor. I strive to get everything just right in camera, and I like that my photos can reflect exactly what I saw that was so important to capture. I like to call it “honest editing.” I'm not creating anything that wasn't there, or hiding flaws in my photography techniques.

Now, some people have other, less conservative editing styles that look really great. I'm not trying to say my way is better than theirs. We all have to find our own styles, and honest editing is mine. I just get a kick out of making my camera capture the exact quality of light, color, and sharpness I see with my eyes.

That being said, it can be fun to punch things up a bit sometimes. Hubs and I went for a long walk after dinner on our last date night. I brought along my other date—my camera. I took some shots as the sun was setting. I really liked the texture of the clouds, but was bummed that the sunset wasn't more colorful. So I took the photos into Lightroom and played with the temperature and color sliders. I could have gone much more colorful, but the clouds started to look artificial, and I wanted to keep them looking realistic. This next sun flare photo is pushing it a little:

But I do love that I was able to amp up that little bit of color on Mt. Hood. You know, I've looked at that mountain almost every day of my life, with the exception of my time away for college and our Army experiences (and really cloudy days—ha ha). I never ever get tired of it, and it always gives me a sense of calm and perspective.

Have a great weekend!

luscious lemon cheesecake

I'm a little excited. :)

I made up my own cheesecake recipe, and it worked.

The first time.

Well, ok, I used quantity suggestions from two different recipes, but neither one of them was lemon.

This cheesecake was good. Even my daughter, Miss “I Don't Like Cheesecake,” loved it.

Raspberries are at the peak of their season here in the northwest, 

and are the perfect accompaniment to this citrusy cheesecake.  

Yum.

Lemon Cheesecake

(printable version)

2 packages graham crackers

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

Four 8oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature (I prefer full-fat)

1 cup sugar

Zest of two lemons*

Juice of two lemons (but don't squeeze them to death)

Pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons flour**

4 Tablespoons sour cream

4 large eggs

You will need a 13x9 baking dish and a larger baking dish or roasting pan that can hold the 13x9.***

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Melt butter; set aside to cool.
• Line a 13x9 baking dish with parchment paper, leaving some parchment hanging over the sides. (I held mine in place with clothespins while I filled the pan.)
• Pulse graham crackers in food processor until they are fine, even crumbs. (You can do this by hand by placing the graham crackers in a ziploc bag and beating them with a rolling pin or similar tool, but it takes longer and the crumbs will be more coarse and uneven.)
• With the food processor running, drizzle melted butter through the feed tube (the hole in the lid that usually has a plunger) and continue to process until thoroughly mixed.
• You can do this in batches if you have a small food processor, like me. Just make sure you split the butter accordingly—if you process half the graham crackers, add half the butter. Then repeat. You can also do this by hand in a mixing bowl if you prefer.
• Press the buttered graham crumbs into the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish lined with parchment paper. (Don't forget this step, or you'll have a heck of a time getting the cheesecake out intact.)

• In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, flour and sour cream. Mix slowly to avoid incorporating too much air. (You want the cheesecake filling to be dense.)
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
• Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the graham cracker crust evenly, spreading if needed.

• Place the larger baking dish/roasting pan on a rack in the center of your oven.
• Place a clean dishtowel in the center of the larger dish, to keep the 13x9 from sliding and/or scratching.
• Place the cheesecake dish on top of the towel.
• Pour cool water into the larger baking dish/roasting pan until it comes halfway up the side of the cheesecake dish. (This helps the cheesecake to bake evenly.)
• Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the center of the cheesecake just barely jiggles. Start checking at 35 minutes.
• When the cheesecake meets the “barely jiggles” requirement, turn off the oven and open the door slightly, but leave the cheesecake in the oven.
• After 30 minutes, remove the cheesecake, set on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
• Once cool, refrigerate overnight. If that isn't possible, refrigerate at least a few hours.

• To serve, pull entire chilled cheesecake out of the dish using the parchment paper and slice into squares/rectangles/diamonds of desired size.
• Top with fresh berries or other desired garnish.

*The lemons I used were fairly large, about the size of my “average woman” sized fist.

**The flour is just a thickener. If you'd like a gluten-free cheesecake, or just want to leave out the flour, please do so. You may want to use a little less lemon juice (a tablespoon or two). For a gluten-free crust, try finely chopped nuts with butter and sugar!

***I made this cheesecake in bars. If you'd like the traditional round cheesecake in a springform pan, these quantities should work for a 10" round springform pan. I have not tested this. Regardless of shape, you should make sure your cheesecake filling does not come more than 3/4 of the way up the sides of the pan.

clothespin/popsicle stick airplane magnets

 Parents: This is a decorative magnet. This is not a toy. It has tiny parts that are easily broken.

I saw this adorable little wooden airplane on Pinterest last week and knew the kids would love it. The directions on Parents.com looked easy enough. I gathered some clothespins, popsicle/craft sticks and permanent markers and we all sat down.

Note: I do not normally let my children craft with permanent markers, for obvious reasons. I didn't really feel like waiting for paint to dry on this craft, so I took a risk and went for the markers. I lined the table thoroughly with old magazine pages from the recycling bin and supervised carefully. They did great.

I didn't have any craft foam on hand, so I used a utility knife to carefully cut the tail pieces. I used sandpaper to smooth the edges. We colored all the pieces separately and I hot glued them together when we were done.

 I like how I can still use the clothespin to hold papers.

Let me state again: Please do not use this as a toy. It will break within five minutes. At the least, you will have a bummed kid. At worst, your kid could choke on the pieces. 

Fun decoration only!

Here it is holding up my lofty “summer schedule” goal. 

We might accomplish half of the tasks on this schedule each day. 

Mom fail.

But the airplane magnet?

Total win!

summer camp post at make and takes

Happy Friday everyone!

In case you missed it, I had a guest feature over on Make and Takes today.

Check out my Photo Scavenger Hunt contribution to 

Marie's Summer Camp series.

For those of you who hopped over from Make and Takes, welcome! 

Please make yourself at home and feel free to introduce yourself. :)

And for those of you who expressed concern over my hellish week, thank you.

Today is a thousand times better.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

photo friday. nine point two. success.

I was right. 

I just needed a longer shutter to capture the glint of sun on my white dishes in the morning. 

It did take the tripod, but it was so worth it.

Critiques welcome, as always.

ISO 100

f/16

0.6 secs

Keep in mind that I was just trying to capture the sun flare, 

and not really worried about composition or clearing my distracting background. :)

There is much more material to critique in my previous post.

photo friday. nine. every hour on the hour.

 6am. Washing sheets. It's our first week sans nighttime pull-ups.

 7am. Editing blog photos before the munchkins wake up.

 8am. Breakfast.

 9am. Trucks.

 10am. Wildflowers.

 11am. Fort.

 12pm. Library.

 1pm. Waterfront Park with friends.

 2pm. Waterfront Park with friends. Chatting with Lia.

 3pm. Groceries. The kids were so worn out from the park that they actually behaved.

 4pm. Recharge.

 5pm. Email/Facebook/Google Reader catch-up while kids watch Electric Company from the fort.

 6pm. Dinner prep.

 7pm. Finishing dinner. Homemade double decker tacos. Yum.

 8pm. Serious talks with Hubs.

 9pm. Female child finally asleep.

 10pm. Jump start on tomorrow's Reader posts.

11pm. Bedtime for Mama.

(Pitch black outside. One second shutter.)

I didn't even realize my neighbor's boat was parked there until the photo showed up on my lcd. 

I was blown away.

This week has been a chaotic roller coaster of emotions. 

Worst week I've had in a long time.

But even when I can't control the chaos around me,

I can control the settings on my camera.

The photographs I make.

And that tiny little piece of control gives me a tiny little piece of calm.

My camera was my rock this week.

perler beads

We had the Perler beads out today. Well, technically, the Perler beads and the IKEA knockoff beads. This is usually a Sweetpea-only craft, but Little Mister wanted in this time around. He did ok. His patience and attention span are lacking, and he wasn't expecting such a grueling fine-motor test. His poor little fingers kept knocking over previously-placed beads and he was getting frustrated.

Then he discovered the joy of slowly plunging his hand into the bead container, so we took a break from designing and I let him explore for a little while.

After his play break, he decided on a new design—an airplane landing. Um, 'kay, sure. I tried making outlines for him and having him fill in the spaces, but his fingers were knocking over beads (again) and he was getting frustrated (again). So I pretty much just did it for him, so he'd have a finished product instead of a total meltdown. He did add a rainbow-colored control tower all by himself, though.

 He's pretty excited about it. And he's proclaimed it will be a Christmas tree ornament “for always.”

Have you seen these Perler bead bowls? 

Love the fresh perspective.

And this Perler play food set is pretty darn cute.

Have you done anything unusual with these fusible plastic beads?

fishtail. fishbone. herringbone. braid.

Last week, thanks to Design Mom Gabrielle, Sweetpea and I sat on the couch for half an hour watching video hair tutorials one after another on Hairdresser on Fire. We were absolutely enthralled with all the styles we could try. We both currently have long curly hair that gets slightly impossible to deal with in the summer. I'm always looking for new ways to get my hair up and out of the way, beyond the basic ponytail.

Yesterday, Sweetpea became enamored with the fishtail braid tutorial and asked me to try it. I had actually done it on her before, oh, four or five months ago, but she didn't remember. No worries, it's an easy one, so I did it again for her. As I was braiding she said, “But Mom? Will you put two ponytail holders at the end, one on each side, so it actually looks like a fish tail?” That girl. So creative. She slays me.

Go check out the HDOF tutorials. They're awesome. I love the messy side bun.

Do you have long curly hair? What do you do with it in the summer?

turkey meatballs

We were at the beach one day last week and one of the kids showed me a big ball of sand and called it a meatball. I immediately had a craving for meatballs and haven't been able to get it out of my head since. So I pulled out some ground turkey and went searching for my meatball recipe. 

The problem with having a recipe binder like mine, stuffed with magazine pages and recipes written on scrap paper, is that it's really hard to find specific recipes. For the life of me, I could not find that meatball recipe. Off to the internet I went and, as luck would have it, came back with a better one.

It's here: Turkey Meatballs on food.com

Lots of good flavor makers in there. Garlic, onion, oregano. I used fresh oregano and dried basil (instead of parsley, as the recipe suggested) because that's what I had on hand. And I used ground oats (rolled oats thrown in the food processor) instead of bread crumbs, just because that's what I always do. Feels healthier.

I was amazed that the turkey held together with just one egg, but it really did.

As suggested in the comments on the recipe, I baked mine at 350° for 30 minutes instead of pan frying them. Worked beautifully. I ended up with 35 1-1.5 inch meatballs, and they fit just perfectly in a 9x13 dish.

I had picked up some fresh, local green beans earlier in the day, so I made those to go along with the meatballs. For fun, I tossed in some garlic scapes/bulbils that I neglected to cut the first time around. I harvested my little garlic patch yesterday. It was pitiful. I tried it in a new location this year, but it failed big time. All my bulbs were teeny tiny.

We made meatball subs with the fresh meatballs and they were awesome. I forgot to buy mozzarella for them, which was fine by me, but Hubs and the kids wanted cheese, so I “stringed” some string cheese and popped the whole sandwich under the broiler. That's the verb my kids use for what they do to their string cheese. It cracks me up.

We used the leftover meatballs for spaghetti and that was a big hit, too. A few of the commenters on the recipe page suggested using the same recipe for turkey burgers. We'll have to try that next time. Yum. This recipe is a keeper.