friday favorites - pinklepurr

 

My sweet little Pinklepurr, with silky fur and emerald eyes. Her purrs as smooth as dreamland, her cheeks as soft as dandelion wishes. With an agenda to dream her days away, she only loves you, that's all she knows.

 

friday favorites - chocolate chip cookies

Sometimes, it isn't easy being vegan. It can be almost guaranteed that I will never be able to eat any delectable treat found in restaurants, stores, or coffe shops. (Unless it is a vegan restaurant, store, or coffee shop.) I'm the awkward party guest that nobody knows what to feed. And I'm always the girl in the corner eating a plate of carrots and celery at work pot lucks and treat days.

The fact that I stop breathing if I consume anything to do with dairy or anything that touched anything that touched something with dairy in it, really helps. I'm never tempted to un-vegan-ize myself and sneak a forbidden snack. Some of my favorite moments are when my darling husband tells waiters about my allergies, clutching his neck in a death grip and making a choking face as he visually explains to our now wide-eyed server that I will surely die if I eat dairy. (Don't feel too sorry for me though. I wouldn't eat dairy even if I could, for a long list of reasons I won't mention on this blog.)

99% of chocolate chips and 100% of regular chocolate chip cookies have dairy in them. Which means I usually can't eat chocolate chip cookies without risking my very life. Because of this, I have not had a real chocolate chip cookie in years. Years.

I'm telling you this fact to help you realize how incredibly, amazingly, ridiculously exciting these chocolate chip cookies are to me. I got this vegan cookbook for Christmas, "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar". And out of all 100+ recipes, I chose to make the chocolate chip cookies first. I could have made any number of delightfully different and new cookies - and they all sounded positively divine. But no, I found some vegan chocolate chips and chose to make the most boring and basic recipe out of the entire book, "Chocolate Chip Cookies." Because, oh how I have missed them! Does anything taste more like a cookie?

And the crowning glory of the moment was when Timmy and I were eating warm, right out of the oven, chewy chocolate chip cookies. And Timmy ate two of them. And then he looked at me and said,

"Baby! Nobody would ever be able to tell that these are vegan!"

Which is his way of telling me that they were truly delicious.

 

Don't tell Timmy, but I plan to make him vegan yet.

*sneaky smile*

One plate of chocolate chip cookies at a time...

friday favorites - those eyes.

those blue, blue eyes. reflecting the christmas lights on our very first tree.

friday favorites - home

I grew up in a valley, surrounded by thickly wooded forests and meandering streams. My parents built our house out of logs they cut down from our forest - kind of like modern-day pioneers. My daddy can build anything, fix anything. He is strong and smart and full of adventure – my hero. Because of him, I always knew what it felt like to be cherished.

We raised chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigs, goats, and cows. We spent hours petting, feeding, and playing with our livestock. And then we ate them. (This was before we became vegan.)

We had huge gardens full of vegetables and sprawling orchards of fruit. We planted fields of flowers in the springtime. We picked wild berries in the summertime and gathered nuts in the autumn. My mom cooked and baked and canned. She cuddled and loved and read us beautiful stories. She taught us to knit, quilt, make our own clothes, and to love the simple things in life. Gentle and sweet, unwavering and so, so good. Because of her, I learned what makes a woman truly beautiful, inside and out.

My two sisters and I grew up without television. Instead, we ruled the forests together as fairy princesses, with kittens and chicks as subjects, flowers in our hair, and eyes sparkling bright with imagination. We knew every tree, every flower. Hours were spent playing, (often completely naked), in the stream by our house. We tripped down hills, jumped off cliffs, raced through prickles, and climbed tall, tall trees. Because of my darling sisters, I have never known a moment without friends.

Daddy, Mom, and three little girlies made five.

And now, the three little girlies are all grown up. Two happily married with homes of their own, and one a globe-trotting missionary. (I'm the happiest of the happily married, btw.) But no matter where life takes us, I believe our hearts will always call our house in the valley home. No matter where we go, the love and character our parents patiently passed down to their three girlies remains.

And home is still one of my very favorite places to be. Only now, Daddy, Mom, three girlies, and two handsome husbands make seven.

And, with a house full of seven, all  my very favorites are in one happy place.

friday favorites - cranberry muffins

I love cranberries, and I love love cranberry muffins. Vegan cranberry muffins, to be precise. You can love them, too.

(click photo to enlarge for recipe)

friday favorites (3 days late) - autumn

Autumn is perfectly glorious. I love how it is just so easy to take an amazing photo in autumn, because the trees do all the work. Bursting with color, just waiting for you to notice their beauty. So beautiful and really, there is nothing like the smell of autumn. This past weekend was a joyous celebration of love and autumn.

Friday night came cold and blustery, the perfect kind of evening to stay inside, light the fireplace, and bake a spicy apple pie. I absolutely adore foods that smell like fall, and apple pies are truly autumn, through and through. And nothing beats eating hot-from-the-oven pie in the firelight with a handsome hubby.

Saturday. Bundled up in warm layers, we drove out to Treinen Farm and saw oh SO cute baby kitties and chickens and horses! We had great adventures in the pumpkin patch, and found the perfect pumpkins. And our pumpkin choices really did reflect our very different personalities...

And we went home and carved our pumpkin treasures.

On Sunday we drove out to Devil's Lake State Park after church and frolicked, (yes, frolicked), in forests painted with pure autumn delight. The leaves were breathtaking. And my husband has the bluest blue eyes. Autumn is a good season for him, because his eyes simply dazzle when surrounded by fall colors. We took countless pictures, and pretended we were pioneers on a journey to Oregon. Nothing, nothing can beat bright autumn rambles, mysterious and imaginative, with my Timmy's hand in mine.

And when, at the end, I regretted wearing ballet flats to go hiking, Timmy carried me.

friday favorites - creating treasures

I love to create treasures for those I adore. I love to create something special out of raw materials - to me there is nothing more satisfying. In my mind, I feel like there is absolutely nothing I can not create, if I really put my mind to it. (This confidence does not, however, extend to baking adventures. I can make anything look pretty, but it may not taste good...)

This weekend is my darling husband's birthday. He loves to wear prettily decorated shirts, so I decided to custom make him one.

I bought a pretty, white collared shirt and a packet of iron-on transfer paper. I designed the front, back, and side graphics in a style reminiscent of his very favorite clothing brand, English Laundry.

I then used the iron on transfer paper to transfer the images to the collared shirt. Iron on transfer paper is incredibly easy to use, and really opens up a world of possibilities! (I desperately want a screen printer, Yudu, but until then, iron on transfers work wonders.)

The result? A very happy husband. :)

(shirt design on back)

 

(design on front and cuffs)

friday favorites - Paris

Paris is beautiful everywhere. Every building is ornately carved and adorned with statues, every street is lined with cafes and flower stands... and the Parisians are just so, so beautiful,too. It smells beautiful, sounds beautiful, and feels beautiful. The air is heavy with romance and magic, full of a bright expentancy for beautiful happenings. Even their language is beautiful. "Bonjour!" rolls off your tongue so smoothly, like a musical score.

Tim and I spent four beautiful days in Paris on our honeymoon, surrounded by flowers and French. Notre Dame was just as magnificent as the photos promised, and we picnicked on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower.

In London I felt like a tourist, in Ireland I was a fairy, but in Paris, I was a princess.

P.S. I had been warned that sometimes the French are a tad unfriendly to bright-eyed American tourists. I did not meet ONE unfriendly Parisian. They are perfectly lovely, and beautiful.

friday favorites

I love the color pink, and I am obsessed with raspberry smoothies and hummus. Autumn speaks to my heart, and flip flops make my toes giggle. Pinklepurr is my favorite fuzzy orange kitty who is currently living with my parents (because her fur makes Timmy sneeze). I love picnics in the sunshine, (especially picnics accompanied by cute husbands and peanut butter sandwiches). I love rainy days and operas, reading and traveling. I love creating and designing. My favorite flowers are forget-me-nots, and my favorite place is home. I have absolutely amazing favorite parents, and two favorite sisters.

But my very favorite favorite is my sweet Timmy. Truly, he is my best friend. We have the most marvelous adventures together, and I get tummy tickles when I look into his amazingly blue, blue eyes. Nothing else in the world matters when he is holding my hand. We are SO happy. And want to know the very best part? The Lord is SO happy, too. He brought us together, and constantly blesses our union with big God smiles from heaven.

(isn't he just, SO darling? I love this boy.)