Smell that?!

Did you know that coffee needs to breathe? Kinda like wine, but different.

Now, I know this because my brother, Will, was/is a coffee nut and he loves to know all the things that one can possibly know about the stuff he's obsessed with...at that particular time. And he loves coffee, loves it to the point that it's like an art form to him to make a cup.... or a pot in his case!

Now back to my other ramblings.... he told me that if you keep coffee beans contained(and beans they should be because it is WRONG to buy the pre-ground stuff, less flavor:)) they build up some sort of gas that makes the coffee taste funky when made. If you notice on your bag of coffee beans (again BEANS!!!) they have a little valve built into the bag to let the gases out. Now if they go through all that trouble to build it into the bag, why would we pour the beans into an airtight container and assume that they come out tasting the same?!? ....I think I might be a little too into this.....

Try it some time, let your coffee breathe a bit before you grind the beans and I promise it'll make a difference! Again...too into it! Zach and I have had may a crappy cup of funky tasting coffee before we figured out that it was because our beans were getting "gassy" in an airtight container!

Don't get me started on how the beans should be oily....another post for another day;)

Cookie Session with Grammie!!

Grammie is here and I don't know who's more excited, Aubrey or me?!

Aubrey has a constant playmate, but I, I have a helper!!

Pretty sure I win.

It's amazing how Grammie can come in with boundless energy and willingness to play....even if it means playing some random version of freeze-tag(Aubrey yelling 'freeze' at you when your running....that's it. She's not quite sure how to play, but she wants to play none the less!).

Today's project was cookie making/decorating.

Aubrey was in her glory! I think it would be safe to say that Grammie was too

(minus the regular cookie stress).

This is the look of sheer joy that is constantly on her face:)

And yes, she is gazing at Grammie.

She was bouncing off the walls all night--not used to a post cookie/icing sugar rush like that.

I just want to eat her in this shot! I'm loving the fact that I can put her hair in a ponytail:)

I call this, "diabetes on a cookie". Pretty sure it's going to magically disappear.... I don't want to know what this would do to her.... scary (or 'gary, as Aubrey would say).

My little "How To"....

I've had a couple people see this in my little sewing corner and comment on it's handiness. I figured I'd share it with you all so you can have a little handiness in your lives too:)

I was getting so frustrated trying to dig out my bobbins from a random container, and I don't want to even know how many times I filled a bobbin with some thread only to find I already had that color wound! grrrrrr! When I'm sewing little things tend to bug me to no end, winding bobbins, seam ripping.... when I'm in a groove, I want to sew!

Anyway, moving right along to the "how to"--it's super simple. I just took an existing frame that I had laying around from a garage sale, stuck some cork(also from a garage sale!!) where the glass used to be and used pins pushed in at an angle to hold the bobbins in place. I happen to have ones that had pretty colors on them so that made it look a little bit spiffier:)

See?!? Cute, right?

Now they are where I can see them and access them readily! The embroidery floss was there because I didn't have more bobbins at the time and, well, I thought the colors looked too pretty to be in some container:)