The Brilliance of Breakfast Club and Birthdays

Today is a big day for birthdays in my family—Josh, a dear uncle, and an aunt all share the day. Which in my book calls for a serious celebration! And, two of our best friends happen to be in town so we're planning to do our celebrating a favorite local restaurant this evening.


But to start the day, I hosted breakfast club* so that my Des Moines friends could meet my New York friends, and so that everyone could wish Josh a very happy day as he left for work.


We nibbled on Apple Walnut Bread and Zucchini Chocolate Chunk Bread (both of which featured whole grains and just a touch of sugar!), gossiped, and got to know each other. And I reveled in having some of my very favorite people all in the same room.


It is a good day, to be sure, and I am eager to enjoy the holiday weekend. I wish you all some of the happiness, gratitude and love that I'm feeling today and a very relaxing weekend (especially for those of you on the East Coast- stay safe from Earl!).


*Breakfast club is a weekly ritual where 5 of my lady friends meet to share the morning meal before work. We rotate houses and occasionally change it up by going to a restaurant, but it's always a nice moment to check in with friends and start the weekend off right.

Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Club

The lovely thing about most of my weekends since the start of 2010 is that they have began on Friday mornings with a few friends and a little thing we call Breakfast Club (or Hotcakes, depending on our mood). We each take turns hosting and for a little over an hour we catch up—which is just the best idea I think I've heard in ages. It ensures we see each most weeks and it's just heavenly to start the last day of the work week with good food and good friends. And it means that our friend Bethany gets to take lovely food photographs, as is her way, like the one above.

Last Friday I hosted and I made Baked Oatmeal with Bananas and Blueberries (I reconstituted dried wild blueberries) and served it with vanilla yogurt. I had no idea you could even bake oatmeal this way, but it's healthy—oats, flax seeds, nuts, fruit, etc.—and it tastes like dessert. A total win in my book.

The other highlight of my weekend was using my new-to-me Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer (it used to be my grandmother's). I made an Apple Cake on Saturday and then used it to make pizza dough on Sunday. I fully admit to being THRILLED by the new addition to my kitchen and I fully intend to make the most of it!

Baby Quilt: Done and Done! (With a Preview of My Next Project)

After getting home from work early enough to do a Friday night dinner and movie (saw Eat Pray Love, thought the book was way better...more time to understand the motivation for change), the weekend felt blissfully and properly long.


On Saturday we hit the farmers market to check out a potential wedding band, and get some farm fresh goodies, I gave the house a deep clean, and we started on the beginnings of major changes to the lawn in the backyard. Which meant moving a lot of rocks. And Sunday I baked, cooked ahead for the week (black beans, wheat berries to go into a chopped salad for lunches, a big jar of salsa to be used with baked chicken, and two loaves of quick bread for breakfast Friday—two of my best friends will be in town, I'm hosting breakfast club that morning AND it's Josh's bday). We also took a long bike ride and sat on the couch with homemade popcorn and Mad Men.


And...
I finished the baby quilt.

Hooray!
Both because it's a big accomplishment—I proved to myself that a gifted quilted item does not need to take a year of my life to be thoughtful—and it means I get to start on a project for myself.

A few months ago, I picked up four vintage quilt blocks while visiting nyc. I love them and have been thinking of how to use them ever since. Once I painted the guest room/office, I realized that they would be a somewhat bold, but not overwhelming addition, in the form of a quilted wall hanging to serve as a headboard. I spent some time at the fabric store and got an assortment of fabrics to go with them. It might take me some time to settle on exactly how I want to design this, but I love how well it all goes with the wall color.

And that my friends, was my weekend. We packed a lot in, but I also got three lovely nights of sleep and feel ready to start another week.


P.S. Since I've been so interested in balance lately, I'm going to start a new Wednesday series where I profile a crafty person, tell a little about their work and include a tidbit of advice for achieving work/creative work/life balance. If you would like to share, please drop me a line at thingswemake [at] gmail [dot] com.

October Print of the Month: Houses from Flora Douville

This is my tenth purchase in this year's mini print of the month series, which is my commitment to buying a photography or illustration print from an independent artist each month this year.
 
I have been enjoying my 2010 calendar from Flora Douville all year long and I've been dreaming of what I can do with the illustrations when this year is over. But to tide me over until that day comes, I've chosen the Houses Print as my October print of the month. I have had my eye on this one for months now and I kept thinking how great a gift it would make for a new homeowner. And then I decided that since I like it so much, I should have it in my newish house—especially since we've now lived here for almost exactly 6 months (which is just crazy! How is it possible that time has gone by that quickly?!?) and it very much feels like home.

Anyway, hooray for that! I think it's going to go into our living room.


It's been a busy week in the world of my day job—getting an issue shipped out to the printer requires A Lot of reading, so I am looking forward to relaxing this weekend. I'm also hosting breakfast club for dinner tonight, a new monthly ritual where we have our Friday morning meet up for dinner, so we can linger (and laugh) longer. So, the weekend will start off with the good company of my friends and will surely include more work on these vintage blocks.


Enjoy the downtime everyone!