Things I enjoy this weekend

Today I'm enjoying...
... crocheting heart shaped cup coaster;

... crocheting few more squares for my blanket;

... home brewed coffee;

... tiny chocolate muffins (recipe in the previous post);

.... trying new frosting for my muffins (recipe here - everything that is written about the taste and consistency of this frosting is true - mild, smooth and light as air);

... color pencils - I feel an inexplicable need to draw some nice colorful pictures like in childhood;

... looking trough my notes regarding Valentine's day ideas;

... watching Feature playing with a little pink crochet circle I made for her, she adores such things, and I can actually continue crocheting after she gets piece of what I have - that's a kind of fee;

... weather outside my window - a lot of snow again.

Hope you are finding something enjoyable in your weekends as well!

Birthday girl

This week we had one more important event. Our little girl Feature became 1 year old on the 4th of July.

Yes, she was born on the US independence day (maybe that's why she is so independent :)).
This means that she has been living with us for 10.5 months. We took her as a 1.5 months old crazy kitten.

I boiled some chicken for her, which she enjoyed a lot. And in the evening she had a small cupcake with 1 candle. Also she's got this little noisy guy as a present.

She was a little bit scared of  the candle's flame - she is afraid of fire after burning the ends of her whiskers over our gas stove. She is a very curious girl and prefers to check everything by herself.

Anyway she was happy to eat some cream from the cupcake after that.

Time flies and our girl is a grown up now. We viewed our winter photos recently and realized that she became much thinner in summer. She molts a lot, her ears are almost bald, but it is still very hot for her, that's why she is always lying in a drafts if she can find any around the house. Here is her winter photo to compare the amount of hair.

She likes lying on my crafts box very much, that's why it is always covered with Feature's hair.

She also likes to play with my yarn. I need to pack and hide it really good and safe, unless I want to find my apartment covered with yarn when I come back. I've had such experience few times already. She always helps me to do any kind of house work or crafting. When I clean the apartment she follows me and checking if everything is clean enough. When I knit or crochet she lies nearby and checks if the yarn if good enough, usually by tasting and chewing it. When you make the bed, she also comes to help and checks if anybody had left under the blankets. Well, her help is obviously invaluable.
She is very playful and sometimes unruly, but our lives won't be so fun, exciting and challenging without her. Every day coming home you never know what waits you there :)
♥Happy Birthday Feature!♥
And have a nice day! ;)

Family gathering

Past week was a bit busy and full of events. On Saturday we were visiting my grandparents to celebrate granddad's birthday. It was a fabulous weekend spent with family in the shadowy garden near their lovely house. They live in a small town near Kiev. There are a few small ponds there with a beautiful nature around. The blue building at the opposite side of the pond is an old wooden local church. I like visiting this place, it's always pleasant and relaxing.

Grandma's garden is full of flowers as usual.

She planted a few room flowers for me.

So I have a new blue blooming violet in my little violet collection and a few more flowers, one of them is going to bloom soon.

My grandma grows a lot of useful stuff in her small garden. My favorite are herbs. She provides the whole family with herbs. I love to make different herbal teas and most of all I like to use homegrown herbs for them. Lavender, mint, sage, lemon balm, jasmine - all this comes from grandma's garden. The tea taste is especially good if herbs are prepared by yourself or by kind grandma's hands and it's a great pleasure to drink it during long winter evenings or on breakfast - it gives a lot of energy and good mood.

I am a great fan of spices as well. My favorite one is basil. It is the best seasoning for meat, but I love it so much, that I can add it to any other dishes, except desserts of course. Fortunately, you can also find basil in my grandma's garden. As well as cumin, coriander, parsley, dill, rucola and so on.

The main dish of the day was grilled salmon cooked on a mangal. We prefer meat when the weather is colder and fish is a good choice for summer.

Here is a picture of the previous family gathering, when we cooked meat - Shashlik. Looks smoky and yummy. My father cooks the best meat I've ever tried.

This week was extremely hot and we are all looking forward for divine rain or at least wind.

Hope you are having a great weekend! Will be back soon with more news. See ya.

Weekend in Priluki

This weekend I've visited my mom in my native small town Priluki. We were celebrating her birthday. She made an awesome chocolate cake. We used to bake such cakes when I was a child. It's easy to make and super tasty. I'll share a recipe with you next time.

She has a beautiful blooming Kalanchoe - a present from one of the friends.

Me and mom have been in a kind of crafting activity since last month. We both do few projects at the same time - a sundress and a bolero. It started right after my mom bought a sewing magazine with a bunch of very simple but nice sundress projects. We chose one of those, made a pattern, mom is almost finished with her dress, I still have to make few finishing stitches. The blue polka dot fabric on the photo below is for my dress.

As for boleros, my mom prefers knitting, so she knits her bolero. Here is a picture of work in progress.

As for me, I like crochet more, so my bolero will be crochet.

But I also like knitting, so I have already bought some blue yarn for the next knitted bolero. Looking forward to finish all this and enjoy wearing them.
After all celebrations we usually go walking around the town and always visit our historical area.

We have a few old churches there. Church of the Nativity of the Virgin built in 1618. It is on a reconstruction at the moment. This building stored local archive lately. Now it is a church again.

Savior Transfiguration Cathedral and the Bell Tower. The monument in front of them is a monument to Ioasaph of Belgorod - a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was born in Priluki. This square was recently reconstructed and the monument is new made.

And another newly reconstructed church. We had a local museum in this building during soviet period and now it became a church again.

Nice, isn't it?

Hope you enjoyed my little excursion around the historical area of Priluki.
See you soon. And have a nice day!

Happy Valentine's!

Here is our Valentine's heart shaped breakfast.

I've found this awesome idea on pinterest, it comes from this lovely post - quick, easy and nice. All you need is bread, eggs and a little bit of time.

Happy Valentine's! Wish you all a lot of love, piece and understanding.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
     Have a lovely day!
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

The Comeback

Hi everybody! It's been a while since I last time posted here. Life appeared too busy and a lot of changes have been happened with it. Now it is more stable, so I have time to blog again. Woohoo!
Here is a short story about passed eight month.
In summer I finished my studying and got my Master's Degree in Computer Science - sounds good, doesn't it? :) Last months of studying were very busy and overwhelming - I had to combine writing my diploma with work, searching new apartment, etc. Twenty-four hours in a day were so not enough. The task list was so-so long and growing. But then tasks started completing one by one. The  diploma was finished and successfully submitted. I've got my master's degree, took photos in master's cap and gown - which my mother was waiting for long six years, since I began studying - mission was completed! Shortly after that my boyfriend have got a good job offer. I've got a job offer at the same company few months after that. We were happy to switch to our new job and quit with our previous one - it was too overwhelming, overflowed and over-everything else. We've found a new apartment in good condition and in quite good part of the city not far from work. Here is the view from our fifth floor now.

We finally have real winter here in Ukraine - snowy and frosty (up to -20°C).

Well, life calmed down, I found time for handmade, baking and doing other things, that I couldn't afford doing during that crazy period. We even adopted a cat after all that. Yes, now there are three of us living together - me, V and our little cat-girl. We called her Feature, as a real programmer's cat. Here is a picture of her when we brought her home - little cute fluffy crazy creature. She was 2 months old.

Now she has grown up a little - not so crazy, but still full of energy and playfulness.

I've done some amount of handmade crochet and knitted projects during this time. I'm doing to show you soon, as well as a bunch of recipes.
I'm happy to be in blogland after a long pause and ready to record my life snapshots. See you soon and have a great weekend!