over in the arctic.

a dear friend sent my lovelies this book..and we love love love it. with amazing illustrations and a catchy rhythm this counting book takes you to the Arctic and shares the unique, and really cool animals we have on the tundra, and in our ocean. in the back of the book it has activities that you can do with your kids that relate to the book. one was this: "freeze some black construction paper so you have it ready for the next snowfall. go outside and let some snowflakes fall on the frozen paper. examine them with a magnifying glass."
nice days around here have been few and far between..we've been having storm after storm.. but we finally made it outside this weekend and decided to try this snowflake activity out.

two for tuesday.

i made a cake today.... and a bag.

here's the cake:

i won't lie....the cake ended up being a slight disaster as far as display goes... it completely fell apart and i was piecing it back together with loads of frosting...which isn't so bad... it is not the prettiest thing..but lemme tell you.. it is tasty. the recipe is from here... made with tundra cranberries of course!

here's the bag. 

the bag was far less of a disaster and came together quite well. made with a heavy weight fabric that i am so loving....and a strip of burlap.



it's blizzardy.

i was going to make a cake today... but after walking to the store through a blizzard, there was a sign on the door that said CLOSED, due to weather.

so i walked back home and instead of baking a cake, i shoveled..... see, this is what my house looks like... the snow was completely covering my craft room window, which made it dark and dungeon like...

now that the window is cleared.. i think i'll  pour me some tea and play with burlap.. the cake will have to wait for another day....

dutch baby.

my mama used to make this for us every now and then while growing up..... once i left the nest i didn't have a single bite for many, many years....once i had lovelies of my own, i busted out the recipe and now we enjoy this baby at least once a week. it's simple and delicious and you can jazz it up in so many ways.
there are a few slightly different recipes out there... the one we use is something like this.
i like mine thicker so i usually put it in a 8 inch square pan or a 2 quart baking dish.

 

our topping of choice is usually just tundra blueberries and maple syrup...sometimes we use powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon. this time we had lots of freshies to top it with...bananas, strawberries, and of course some frozen tundra blues. perfection.

featured artist.

i felt little butterflies for a moment... i've never considered myself an artist. 

a pair of hats...

 for a mama and her new babe.

and a trio....

 for a mama and her girls.

carrot bread

i received my first copy of mary jane's farm in the mail... a magazine plump full of organic recipes, up cycling ideas, and great ways to live simpler and healthier lives. as i paged through this gem i came across a carrot bread recipe.  i'm a huge fan of carrot cake...truly love the stuff, but have never tried carrot bread. i had my doubts, thinking it wouldn't be as exciting as carrot CAKE....but i gave it a go...and  i was pleasantly surprised... what a treat! moist and delicious. a slice of this deliciousness and cuppa tea is a perfect way to end the day.... AND use up some wilting carrots in your fridge.

YUM.

instead of the using walnuts, i subbed sliced almonds....it made it a look a little fancy and sooo appetizing. up next from mary jane's farm... SOUP! this issue featured 16 new recipes! i can't wait to try em.