snowed in and makin' stuff

this past week found us trying to get back into our routine. we were supposed to get back on track with school and real meals and schedules. but mother nature had a different plan. instead, we had 2 snow days which allowed us to ease back into real life. it was actually really nice, the slower pace. we did many things around the house and kind of prolonged that holiday attitude for a few more days.

one day we made and canned five jars of marmalade. i found myself with an abundance of oranges and then saw this post, which was so timely. i used instructions right from the box of pectin. it worked wonderfully and everyone loves the marmalade. 

henny is no fool, he eats it marmalade side down....

and what goes better with marmalade than english muffins. D and i whipped these up in the middle of the week. it was our first time making them and i was so surprised to see that you cook them on a griddle. in the end we wished that we rolled them out a bit thicker, but everyone loves them and they do the trick. now i am bound and determined to make english muffins every month or so and keep them on hand in the fridge and freezer. it really wasn't much effort and is so affordable. 
my favorite dinner of the week and possible the past few months was noodles with pesto sauce.

never mind that the noodles were two-day-old leftovers. the pesto sauce was made from a cup of chopped basil from the summer. further strengthening my resolve to "put up" more food was thawing this tiny piece of summer. i made the sauce with the basil, a half block of cream cheese, a clove of purred garlic and salt. heaven. there was about twice as much pesto as necessary but not a single person in our family complained. we all licked our plates, in fact.

finally, on saturday i was blessed with about two and a half hours alone. in that time i managed to make this...
i had set out to make a wrap dress but quit when the math was getting too hard. converting a 2T dress to size 5 was just too much. so i made this up, right out of my own head. it is a copy of a dress that is sold at a cafe near here. i just learned as i went, and it was my first time with button holes. all in all i think it came out great. and bee loves it! she said it's her new annie dress, which is basically the highest compliment she can give.