Yummy breakfast that is practically dessert!

I am trying to eat lower carb foods-- which means finding alternatives to my standard bowl of cereal for breakfast. I am really not a breakfast person. I'm not a big fan of fried eggs, waffles, sausages, bacon, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, etc. etc. Many of those aren't low carb anyway so that's okay!

So breakfasts since I've started this style of eating have consisted of cottage cheese with a handful or two of berries, deviled eggs, salad, raw almonds, scrambled eggs with lots of spinach, mushrooms and pepper jack cheese, and ummm......that's about it. A lot of that didn't seem very "breakfasty" though I don't mind it too much. But here's the "dessert for breakfast" concoction that I tried this morning and it was so delicious:

1/3 cup flaxseed meal
boiling water
real whipped cream
3 drops of stevia (natural sweetener)
a spoonful of triple berry mix (from Costco)

Pour the boiling water over the flaxseed meal to the consistency you like (it thickens). Add the berry mix and stevia and let the berries defrost for a minute or 2 in the hot cereal. Stir in some whipped cream. So yummy, full of fiber and low carb too!

Flying Ant Invasion

I went out to the garage to finish up this quilt yesterday and realized I had a problem.


Flying ants were invading my whole garage! They were crawling all over the carpet, on my sewing desk, the ironing board, buzzing around the light fixture! Yuck!! I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed some more. When I finally gave up and started sewing I kept having one land on my hand or crawl on the quilt. It was so annoying that it actually struck me as funny.
But even though I'm complaining, actually, I am truly thankful that I have a space to sew and make a creative mess in. Really. Even if that space is a windowless garage that also contains a chest freezer, tubs of out of season clothes and Christmas decor, the electric piano (the garage makes a nice sound proof practice room for times when the baby is asleep) AND 500 flying ants. I'm just counting my blessings-- it could be black widows.

Thrifty summer shorts

I made some shorts for Leif using a free pattern and free fabric. The fabric was a hand-me-down shirt given to Taylor that wasn't seeing much use. (My boys like the idea of collar shirts but never seem to wear them)

I know I could have picked up some summer shorts from Once Upon a Child and only paid 3 or 4 dollars......but hey, there's no creativity in that! And really, there is something so fun in making clothes for toddlers. Probably because they can make anything look cute.
I made some pants using this same pattern with some nubby navy linen from a free shirt I brought home for Joel (Joel didn't like the color, nor the fact that it was linen- he's just not a linen type guy). Well, the end product reminded me slightly of Russian peasant child pants-- but that's NOT why I'm refraining from showing you a picture. I just didn't happen to take a picture! I actually think Leif makes a cute Russian peasant child..... But since I don't have a picture of the peasant pants, I'll end with this.

Have you ever worked with quilt basting spray? I just finished and my fingers are now sticking to the keys as I type. Stick. Stick. Stick! That's after washing my hands twice with soap! While I was still working on getting the quilt layers put together, the button pulled off the spray can because it was sticking to my finger.... and now my feet are sticking to the kitchen floor even though I put newspaper down to protect the floor from overspray.....sheesh! I don't know if I should be allowed around this stuff. :-)

Sewing as an antidepressent

To keep myself from being immersed in self pity and sadness, I've been sewing and cleaning alot. Here is my latest completed quilt project and I'm all ready half done with another! Last time I made a baby quilt for a friend's baby, I didn't finish it until her baby was 2 years old. It helps that this onc is machine quilted.
I like the look of pieced backs, which turned out perfect because while sewing this, I misplaced some blocks, had to make more, then found the original blocks in my messy sewing area! I was able to use those extra blocks on the back. :-)

A Taylor post

Taylor's tricks:
Taylor's photo:
Taylor's homemade key lime pie:He made it all by himself, from scratch, complete with beaten egg whites and a homemade crust. Taylor thought it was ugly, but it tasted delicious. Don't you think that's all that matters when it comes to dessert?

Little seamster

I've been sewing everyday lately and I guess Leif 's been taking it all in. Just now as I was on the computer, the kids told me to go take a peek at Leif. There he was at the sewing machine putting pieces of fabric under the foot and moving various levers. He spent at least 20 minutes in there readjusting the fabric and pressing buttons on the machine! What a cutie. I like that better than when he decided to throw all my bobbins across the room, and then ate my chocolate stash and drooled chocolate all over the chair. You couldn't imagine him doing that could you?