Baking up a storm

If you have been keeping up with my quest to limit my creative endeavors then you know that we are currently right in the middle of Gardening & Canning season. I talked about my rotating focus here. Im happy to report that the garden is doing well but I'm still a ways out from having anything to can.

What's a girl to do with a little time to spare, a bit of creative energy and a current focus on food? You guessed it bake!!!

I'm absolutely in love with the "Brown Eyed Baker" blog. If you haven't checked it out yet, you MUST...go now! I want to make every one of her cupcakes. My husband and I had a great time making these together. We made the Mojito Cupcakes for my birthday and I made the boys turn of the lights in the kitchen and sing to me while I blew out my candle. I don't think I'll ever grow up :)

I had a ton of frosting left over from the Mojito cupcakes so I found a Margarita Cookie recipe and modified it to accommodate the excess. I couldn't bring myself to throw such yumming frosting away. My son has put in a request for a strawberry Rhubarb Pie, so I better get going. The oven is calling me and perhaps my running shoes too. I'm going to have to burn off all this sugar somehow.

Kristen

Awake

I can hardly believe its been two weeks since my last post. I keep meaning to take time to sit down, but some how sitting down in the summer has been a bit of a challenge. There have been birthday activities and four wheeling adventures not to mention the time I've been spending in the kitchen.

Although I have been keeping busy, in a way it feels like I've been taking a long afternoon nap. The first part of the year has been filled to the brim and I think I needed a bit of a rest. Now that I'm awake agin I feel refreshed and ready to take on the rest of 2012. There are still a plethora of exciting new adventures ahead. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Kristen

Color of July No.1

This week I'm thankful for:

Flea Markets

New recipes

Honey bees in my garden to pollinate the veg

Girls night out

My son back home after 3 weeks

I'm: Overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed, there's no other way to say it. The thing is, I'm not overwhelmed by my full time job, house work, or any of the daily duties that go hand and hand with being a wife and mom. I'm overwhelmed with creativity.

I'm overloaded with every creative idea vying for attention in my brain. I'm maxed out with Pinterest projects, and dogeared magazine pages. The piles of "in progress" projects are popping up in my house like some sort of insane art mole has invaded, but I'm pretty sure flooding my living room isn't going to help me out with this one.

Just the other day, I was scrolling through the notepad on my phone (where I keep all the really important stuff) and found something I had put there at the end of last year. It was an entry entitled "Kristen's Rotating Focus". Apparently I had recognized my impending creative collapse months ago and had come up with a possible fix.

The idea; take the myriad of interest and ideas I have and break them into four categories. Assign those categories, each to a season. Here's the tricky bit, only work on projects in said category during their designated season. Now I remember why I didn't try this, what If I want to knit something in June? How could I possibly limit myself in that way? 

So after six months of creative freedom, where am I? Completely stuck and miserable. Something I love so much, should not be causing me this much grief. I just don't have time for it all. I'm pretty sure someone once told me that limits are a good thing. Trying to follow this plan is going to be a challenge, but I have to bite the built. Below is my rotating schedule and If I come up with a great knitting project in June I'll just have to make a note in my phone so I don't forget it come December. 

Spring-Arts & Crafts

Summer-Gardening & Canning

Fall- Home DIY & Gifts (Christmas being around the corner)

Winter-Knitting & Sewing

The Color of July

I guess Summer has been here for a little while, but it never really feels like summer to me until July. Growing up it was always the month I looked forward to the most, probably because its my birthday month :) Since I have already picked white twice this year for a color focus I decided to go with red, brass and blue. I associate brass with old american memorabilia for some reason so it seemed like a good fit. We'll se if I can find any brass to photograph.

Red- Brass-Blue

The thing I love the most about summer is the sense of adventure. As a kid, summer days were spent in our tree house or chasing lizards through the grass. My sister and I would ride our bikes thru the fairgrounds and explore the mysteries within. Oh to be free for an entire summer. I may still have to work, but I hope to fill this summer with many new adventures. What about you?