Things That Make Me Smile

Happy Sunday everyone! We are finally coming out from the cloud of flu that has been hanging over our house since last Tuesday. I haven't left the house since then...so I think we may go out to a little cafe for lunch and I am oh so excited! Fresh air, someone else cooking for me, mountain views...sounds good to me.

Here are a few of the things that made me smile this week around the web:

I'm always looking for playtime ideas for the cold winter months. I recently filled a large, flat tupperware with about 10 lbs of popcorn seeds and the girls have been going crazy with it. Yes, it can be messy...but fun is sometimes messy! We call it the "seed box". You could also use beans, wheat, or real sand if you're out of your mind :) Here is another idea with oatmeal.

This week I want to make homemade playdough.

I know I have seen Kat's incredible sweaters on Etsy before...but had never seen her website until today. Kind of obsessed. And I want her house. Oh, and her busses. As I type this, I'm listening to this podcast interview with her. Love. It's a beautiful conversation about making art, how "stuff" can take over, traveling light, and more!

I adore this idea. I have many cards and letters from dear friends, but they are all just in a box. Punching holes in them and putting them in a pretty binder sounds like way more fun.

I like to buy sweaters at the thrift store & cut off their arms for leg warmers...but I've always wanted to do something with the part that is left. I think I will try this next time! Circle scarf = happy.

Bella has been obsessed with snow globes for as long as I can remember. Can't wait to make these with her!

Have you seen my "Lovely Spaces" board on Pinterest? I go there when I want to smile. :)

I like to make stuff and feel crafty...although it seems to happen less and less these days. These bracelets look pretty simple and I'm excited to go thrift store!

We have oodles of gaffers tape laying around from all of our hoopmaking...so I was excited to see this idea. Bella has loved making duct tape wallets, so I know she'll love this.

Thank you to everyone who posted recipes and links for bread and muffins! So excited to try them out over the winter. After posting that, I found this great page with tons of bread recipes.

Hope everyone is healthy and enjoying a restful Sunday! xxoo

Baking Up a Storm

I have been spending a lot of time in this here corner of loveliness...it houses my baking corner and my bulk goodies. I have longed for a space like this forever...and oh how grateful I am to finally have it.

There is just something so wonderful about having everything I need right at my fingertips...and yet not cluttering up the kitchen. It's inspiring to see them all on display and  it makes assembling recipes so easy!

And so...we have been baking up a storm...in the snow storms :) We love baking something warm and delicious inside while the snow is falling outside.

Bella is an excellent helper and always offers to help with any baking task...we've been learning a lot about numbers and measuring through this.

I like to call this beauty "My Precious". I LOVE having a full size oven again. Love love love. And it's gas. Which makes me insanely happy. I think I would rather cook over a fire than an electric stove!

Our muffins must always be eaten with hot tea! I recently re-stocked my favorite tea, Rishi's Citron Oolong...so I'm a happy girl. The muffin that we tend to make the most around here is the Delightful Banana Nut Muffins from The Garden of Vegan. It's one of my most requested recipes from from friends and family...so I thought I would post it here!

Delightful Banana Nut Muffins Cookbook: The Garden of Vegan By Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour ½ cup dry sweetener (I like rapadura or turbinado) 1 t baking powder 1 t baking soda ½ t salt ¾ cup ground flax seed ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional) 2 bananas, mashed 1/3 cup olive oil 1 t vanilla extract 2/3 cup soy, rice, or almond milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flax, and walnuts. In a small bowl, combine the bananas, oil, vanilla and soy milk. Pour the liquid ingredients with the dry and mix together gently until “just mixed”. Spoon into a lightly oiled muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

On the day of our big snow, Bella decided that we simply must have a muffin picnic in front of the fire, and so we did! Such sweet memories I have with my girls.

And lastly, my friend Ellen gave me a yummy recipe for Sunflower Seed Cookies...and of course we made them right away! They were SO GOOD. Although, I think it had something to do with the copious amount of sugar in them :) You can always cut back or add alternative sweeteners if you're so inclined. They can also easily be made vegan.

Sunflower Seed Cookies Serves/Makes:   4 dozen

Ingredients: Cream together: 1 cup butter or Earth Balance 1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs or egg substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend in: 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 3 cups oatmeal 1 cup sunflower seeds

Directions: Mix together well. Drop onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 8-9 minutes.

For more yummy muffin recipes, check out my food blog, Happy Foody, under the muffin category. If you're a fellow muffin lover, be sure to check out this great article on "How To Make the Best Muffins Ever". It's a goody.

Next I'd like to get into baking homemade bread. I've done it before...but I would especially like to make sourdough and english muffins, along with some crusty, hearty soup breads.

If you have a tried and true recipe...please share it below! Also, please share your all-time favorite muffin recipe so I can stop making the same one over and over :)

Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference Recap

Oh the excitement! Good Vibrations was our very first unschooling conference...and it just happened to be in one of our favorite places in the country, San Diego! We made plans and more plans and at one point it looked like Matt wasn't going to be able to join us due to work conflicts, but he was able to come a few days late and we were able to celebrate life together as a family!

Upon arriving at the hotel, I was reunited with one of my favorite people ever and a dear friend, the fabulous Tiffani. And at her side, hoop master mama Brianna. This was my first time meeting Brianna after hearing about her and "knowing" her on Facebook. We hit it off immediately and the three of us had way too much fun. The entire weekend after that point was a blur of laughter, hooping bliss, poolside margaritas (well, not me obviously... but I lived vicariously), and oh yeah...how could I forget? Unschooling inspiration!

There were so many amazing speakers at this conference...such wisdom from seasoned unschoolers. This room always had my favorite sessions...roundtable is definitely more my style than a classroom setup. Tiffani was leading a discussion on "play" in this photo. And true to her style, she handed out wigs for everyone to wear :)

I thought that I would go to a lot more of the workshops than I did...but we ended up "UNconferencing" a bit :) I had rich, relational experiences with friends just sitting around the pool and talking about our unschooling and real life. We learned so much by watching and soaking up each different family's style of parenting. Every one has different ideas and ideals and how they live it out is so interesting. Much more fun than reading about their lives online :) Matt was able to attend several of the "Dads sessions" and came away feeling more informed and confident in his role as an unschooling dad. It was fun to hear about all the great discussions that they had.

We weren't the only ones making new friends. Within a few minutes of registering, Lucy struck up a friendship with Grace, another little girl at the conference. Every time she saw her, she would exclaim..."FRIEND!!"

Speaking of FRIENDS...we also got to hang out with Mike Hedge after not seeing him since Texas. He was the official photographer for the event...and he did an amazing job! (He has posted nearly 1,000 photos of the conference here). And I finally got to meet a blog friend, Jess, who is currently living in Japan! She brought her mom with her and she and MY mom hit it off and had many long talks/walks while they were there.

Bella reveled in the freedom that came along with being at the conference. She went by herself to sessions that she was interested in and loved being with her new friends in their hotel rooms and around the pool. It was great to see her blossom in so many ways while we were there. She had good conversations with girls who had experienced public school prior to unschooling...so good for her to hear their thoughts first hand.

One of everyone's favorite workshops was the "International Candy Tasting" event! I'm sure you can understand why :)

This was our beach potluck that got moved back to the hotel after a power outage. It affected all of Southern California for 12 hours and caused a sewage spill at the beach (among other problems!) We didn't mind though...what could be better than crowd-sourced food, sunshine, and friends!? We just pressed on...and we all breathed a sigh of relief at 2am when our lights and air conditioners popped back on!

My mom came with us so that I would have extra help...and she and Lucy had lots of fun around the pool and playing dress up! Both girls could not get enough of the water...the common cry from our room was "let's go to the pool!" With every day consisting of sunshine and 80 degrees, we gladly obliged.

The pool area was a constant hooping mecca...there was always some hoop action going on somewhere. So much fun. As a side note, I ran into Baxter and his friend Kara the day we arrived as we all hooped poolside. So random. They were there decompressing from Burning Man...although I'm not sure how relaxing it was with all of us crazy unschoolers running around the hotel! :)

On the last night, Matt, Tiffani, Brianna, and I went to a delish little Mexican joint near Torrey Pines State Beach...and then we headed over for a sunset photo shoot. When we got there, we were reminded not to touch the poop water :)

The light was to die for...and it was a sweet time with my honey.

I love these girls so. We had so many other fun experiences during the weekend...too many to detail here. But they shall live on in our memories!

The day we left, we headed up to Encinitas and played at Moonlight State Beach. Perfect sunshine. Perfect moments. So thankful. We're already dreaming of next year! I leave my heart in California every time I fly away...

*see my iPhone album, the photos featured here, and more!