CAM- City Arts Market Saturday

If you're in Lancaster this weekend you should stop by the Eastern Market for it's opening weekend. This year they are calling it the City Arts Market (CAM) It's everything you love about Eastern Market(food, organic produce, flowers, music) and 50+ vendors(including me) and performers. It's fixin' to be a good time I think, maybe not for the full term pregnant ladies among us, but we'll survive.That's right! Officially full term on Saturday.
That's unbelievable especially considering the amount of scares this baby has given us. I feel pretty good, I'm still up and about doing work and stuff around the house, but my hips are killing me and the pressure on my pelvis is worse than I remember with either of my other pregnancies. We are all really curious to see who has been in there all these many months. M1 wants a sister (she's practical and worries that we'll have to get all new baby stuff) and M2 wants a brother (she thinks that we need more boys in the family so Lorenz isn't completely outnumbered). I'm happy either way. I have always felt like I'd have a boy with every pregnancy and they always turn out to be girls so I guess I'll assume it's a girl since I feel like it's a boy? Whoa that was confusing. Either way we haven't officially decided on any names yet. I really have my heart set on the boy name I've chosen but my girl name changes everyday. Who knows? And Lorenz might be taken off the naming committee because his suggestions are insane- I'm surely not naming my son Duke Leto Atreides. Surely not.

Speaking of Lorenz- HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY Today!!!
(not that you ever read this)
(Haha! On the swing at the Herb and Garden Faire)

In crafty news, I am working on a new little Lumpy project that involves some organic cotton and batiking. Hopefully that will go well, I did all the dyeing yesterday, and today I'll do some wax removal and hopefully some sewing too. I hope these little guys turn out as cute as I envisioned them.
Also, if baby allows(and it better) I'll be heading to Philly to visit the Art Star Craft Bazaar and yet another pregnant pal there. If I feel ambitious Sunday morning maybe I'll whip up some vegan donuts for the prego vegan. I'm hoping to be at the Bazaar early enough to score one of those free goody bags!
ok, that's all for now.
And make sure you stop by CAM on Saturday it should be really fun, I'm sure the rain will hold out!
Bye Bye!

Just an update

I have a million things I want to share, so bare with me for a moment. First here's the progress on the garden so far. It doesn't look to impressive I admit, but there is only so much a pregnant woman can do. I cleaned up all the weed growth, and Lorenz 'installed' my bamboo fencing. I decided to leave one bed open for my new step-dog to have a poop patch. It seems to do the trick. I also cleaned up the wisteria and will hopefully have this new IKEA trellis in place soon because it will start

taking over the yard before we know it.At the front of the house we have a special little memorial Lumpkin garden which I'll post about later this week because it has some exciting features this year.

Moving on to the kitchen,
this morning i was inspired by my huge sack of the most delicious oranges this season, to create a new granola recipe.

Orange Ginger Coconut Granola
(first draft)
Preheat oven to 300' F
6 c. oats
1 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. tasted sesame seeds
1 c. unsweetened medium cut coconut
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt
........
juice and zest of one orange
1/4 c. coconut oil melted
3/4 c. maple syrup
1 t. vanilla extract

mix it all together and pour onto 2 cookie sheets with a rim.
bake at 300'F for 1 hr. or until it's all dried out and golden brown.
Stir once half way through baking.

I think it turned out pretty well. It wasn't terribly sweet and the oranginess was perfect.
I only use coconut oil occasionally, but a less saturated oil would work out just fine too. Give it a try and let me know what you think. In other news, I'm moving closer to finishing my little sleeveless spring knittydirtygirl sweaters. I have postponed my adventures in polymer clay button-making in exchange for a simpler solution. I've discovered the joys of Shrinky-Dinks. M2 looking very "little match girl"I got a variety pack from the local Micheal's store and I've been experimenting with it daily. I think I've settled on a simple little button for the sweaters and
I'll be sure to post the finished beauties soon!
I also want to say (and this is a little bit late) that today is the last day of the Lancaster County Library Book Sale. That means it's half price day! and if you get there late in the day around 3 or 4 they will let you fill a bag for like a $1.00. I love that book sale. M2 and I went on Monday with the rest of the book lovin' kooks in town. We had to park a half a mile away and it was pouring down rain, but we had fun. This was the first year that my youngest was able to entertain herself browsing books for a couple hours. I came away with a few gems including a cutesy little sewing book for M1 and a sweet little May Day 'Operetta' just in time for Mayday. My favorite was the tiny little hardbound Maurice Sendak alphabet book Alligators All Around. Well, I guess that's about it. We're off to have some lunch and take our nap, M2 is four years old and she's just now starting to take naps! I'm training her for when lumpkin3 arrives. Because I plan on napping constantly! I'll leave you with a peek at our lunch- Vegan grilled 'cheese' can be fun, I swear!Vegan grilled 'cheese' w/ FYH jack cheese, pizza sauce for dipping, oranges, blue corn chips, mint tea

YUM! Maybe I'll do my little Lumpkin garden post tomorrow in honor of May Day?
We'll see, have a lovely Wednesday!

Camera Cord Found!!!

all cozy watching Enchanted Saturday night
Evidently I'm nesting. I know this because my new favorite past time is cleaning and not just surface cleaning, I'm talking about mucking out and ridding myself of all worthlessness. It's been an intense process of digging through closets and drawers and boxes in every single room of my house. I'm proud to say that the downstairs is completely clean and organized.
Living Room

Dining Room

The second floor is another story. I'm trying to relocate my small sewing room to a more spacious area of the house and transform it into a playroom for the kids. I've been resistant to the playroom, but there is no way the kids can live in the same room as their toys and not live in a constant mess.

I've also been doing lots of crafting for my own personal enjoyment and those close to me. I'm really into embroidering right now. I stitched on this cute little newborn shirt for our newest babe coming soon.


tiny embroidered Lumpkin
I have a little tip that I found works really well when embroidering names and text. I go to the this website and choose a font and size of my liking (up to 72 pt) and then I type in the text I want and tape my fabric directly over the computer screen to trace.

It's a great light box and you don't ever have to print anything out and waste paper. It's perfect. I highly recommend. I'm working on some little projects for my three favorite babies fresh from the womb.

I've also been doing some personal knitting. I made myself a little belly tank top for these last couple pregnancy months.
I think I'll fashion a little bottom part to it for when I'm back to the 'no-way-I'm-showing-any-belly' days. The picture is really bad, but the wool is so soft and richly colored- I'll have to model it on a later post.

Oh, and check out his great find, an amazing little hat box from the piles at Zenith in Pittsburgh when we went for Easter brunch.
It's the same shape of a Lumpkin!
Oh, I have some plans for that little box, and they do involve embroidery.
More on that to come though.

On the pregnancy front, I've officially went off my rocker with sugar intake and it's time to cut down because the pounds are piling on.
Plump at 28 weeks

Last night I was almost going to go eat a bagel for a snack, but with some advice from my recently pregnant pal I opted for a high-protein low carb alternative. Tofu on a bed of greens and tomatoes.
A lovely bedtime snack.
Sesame Garlic Tofu on Greens w/ Tomatoes

Mmm, I could go for some more of that right now. And I do believe I shall.

Snow Day!

Well, it's not exactly snowing out, but school is most certainly canceled. I am all for it! We are looking forward to watching the snow start to fall, staying cuddled in bed and doing some much needed baking. I go through these baking spurts in my life. In the past month I've baked more than I have in years. Coffee cake, chocolate cake, cookies, granolas, sticky buns and of course the donuts(which aren't exactly baked). I've got a killer sweet tooth that will need to be reined in at some point soon. This chocolate cake recipe was from sweetpepita, you can find it on the YetiLovesSeamonster blog

I substituted rice milk and I used my Martha mini loaf pan to make tiny little cakes. The frosting is just powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla and rice milk. I added the rice milk until it was nice and creamy and I whipped it really well so it was light and fluffy. Mmmmm. So here are a couple of other updates on the home front. First, we went to our ultrasound a couple weeks ago and baby3 is superb and I'm feeling almost normal. It's a little bit strange to be in bed for so long at the beginning of pregnancy and then when I finally get up and start moving around again, I'm huge. Oh don't worry I'll get even bigger, I'm only half way there! They gave us another 3D shot this time, so cute. Baby has been kicking up a storm and we started childbirth classes in the Bradley Method taught here in Lancaster city by Kelly Cassidy a couple weeks ago. It's a refresher for me, and a beginners course for pops. It's really fun and informative. My first birth 8 years ago was a pretty sad home birth attempt/ emergency cesarean. But my second was a very successful almost pain free VBAC delivery. Thats the goal again this time! Bradley is really great because they teach you all sorts of information about what you body is going through, relaxation, prenatal exercises, medical interventions. It makes you feel really well informed and empowered when it comes time to birth that baby.
I tried my hand at dying some roving last week and that was a complete fiasco. I only did a little bit of wool because I have Procion dyes and they work best with plant fibers. I dyed some really beautiful tencel and bamboo in pink/purple, and yellow/green.
I love that stuff, so shiny, soft and silky! The gray yarn is some "black diamond" bamboo roving I spun. It's my favorite of them all. In other fibrous news I also squeezed through a little loop hole in my fabric buying strike and bought a pack of king sized organic sheets on clearance at Target for $30! I've been craving some organic fabric to go with some yarns I bought a while ago, but I'm not buying new fabric, remember? I'll dismantle the sheets, dye them in a variety of colors and see when I can do with them. Luckily the dye is still out from the roving mishap. This is the funniest.
It started out as beautiful light and fluffy wool and then it became a pink mass of sheep dreads. I have no idea what to do with it, does it need to be carded again? I have no means to do that though. Oh, so many silly little projects like this, but I do honestly have about a million ideas these days and I'm actually bringing them to life. I feel so much better about this craft business when I worry less about the business and more about the craft. I'll leave you with some happy family vegan dinner ideas that we've been eating around here lately.
Chili with 'cheese', no-smash guac, fruit salad, 'Red Hot Blues' chips

Miso soup, tofu-veggie rolls, salad, blood oranges

Baked potato, garlic sesame tofu, fruit salad, green salad, carrot apple juice

tofu salad on toast, potato salad, fruit, greens, tomatoes

veggie star pasta soup, 'cheesy bread' w/ pizza sauce, chard, rice milk


Happy Snow Day to All!

Scrappy Lump

Let me just tell you how excited I am about this little Lumpy I made. It is soooo sweet. It's made from scraps from the gnome t-shirts I finished earlier this week. I had all these little triangle scraps left over and I decided to sew them into a tiny patchwork piece. Before I knew it I had made the cutest little Lumpy known to man, and in the process I eliminated a ton of tiny scraps that would otherwise have gone into the landfill or polluted my life here at home. I shall call this my Scrappy Lumpkin. I have such an overabundance of scrap fabric I feel sure these will be showing up from time to time in the shop. The best part is that each one will have to be unique based on the fact that my scrap sizes vary greatly. I love this, because it means I won't have to bore myself making the same thing over and over again. I love coming up with new things, sometimes I just hate reproducing them endlessly. Anyway this little guy is only measures 3" tall and he comes with a tiny quilt/bed, pillow, and it all fits in a 4" snappy tote. Did I mention I'm in love with this?

I really made me feel good to make something new. Ahh, creative release:)
Otherwise, yesterday we lazed around the house. I'm still not driving yet, so it's made getting to the post office and pretty much anywhere a little bit impossible without some assistance. Oooh, we had this happy little lunch yesterday. Numbers & 'Chreese', garlic sesame tofu, fresh apple carrot juice. and 'Ants on a Log'. M2 prefers her's ant free, thanks.
It was VERY well recieved...