July is National Hot Dog Month!

1. Pwease Don't Eat Me, 2. Freshly baked!, 3. Smiling Food Friends Pillow II, 4. Crux Happy Lunch Sandochi Memo, 5. Kawaii Memo Sheets Stationery Paper Happy Smile Cute Japan, 6. Funny Erasers, 7. Cute Japanese Plush On A Chain-Nyan Nyan Nyanko Hot dog, 8. World's Smallest Hot Dog with Mustard Earrings, 9. Mr Hot Dog Bun

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

We all know we eat a lot of hot dogs in the Summer, be it pork, beef, turkey, or tofu! But, would you wear your hot dogs? Super cute plushies, fabric, stationary and jewelry courtesy of the talented guys at flickr!
Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

a Pullip and a Totoro!

Totoro!
Originally uploaded by miss modular

Does it get much better than this?
A lovely pullip doll, in a japanese kimono, wearing a totoro hat - how wonderful!
I have to make a couple of plushies for some swaps I'm in, and I know I want to do at least one totoro, so I was looking for inspiration on the amazing flickr, don't you just love flickr?! When I stumbled across this photo, how talented she, Miss Modular, is indeed.
I wish I could knit one of those myself, how cute they are!
Happy Thursday!

summer days

I hope your summer is treating you well so far! Ours has had a lot of rain so far, but this weekend it held off for us. We had great fun watching fireworks, seeing family, swimming and general summer fun! I wish it was more of lazy summer days, than slightly hectic summer days, but the kid's have camps to go to every day, excursions to the beach are daily requests, also library visits, ice-cream eating, water-balloon filling, you get the picture! I'm holding out hope for a lazy August!

a wonderful surprise -

If you check out the lovely blog called Dorset Hill Beads, here, and read the latest post, which just happens to be the fun 'Theme for Thursday' post, here, you'll understand why I got a lovely surprise in the mail from the owner of Dorset Hill Beads, the lovely Eileen. I won the draw for a surprise gift on a previous 'Theme for Thursday' post, and what a gift it is! Eileen specializes in lampwork beads, and she sent me two absolutely beautiful ones, one as a charm, and one as a button. If that wasn't enough, they came in a cute handmade box with a sweet handmade notebook, how lucky am I? Thanks so much Eileen!

So, go and play the game at her blog, but also check out her lovely Etsy shop, here, where you could get instant -almost- gratification and buy a couple of your own!

Have a wonderful weekend!

my favorite summer recipe -

Berry Madness
Originally uploaded by [ Hungry Hungry is away until July 3rd ]

is...drum roll please.....

Yoghurt Cheese Pie w/ Summer Berries

Ingredients -

1 quart low-fat plain yoghurt (without gelatin)
( - add 1 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract and 1/3 cup of pure maple syrup to yoghurt once it's sat overnight)

1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tblsp pure maple syrup

2-4 cups fresh berries

The yoghurt cheese needs to be prepared the night before -

Line a colander with overlapping paper coffee filters, place it in a bowl, spoon in the yoghurt, and cover with a plate or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 10 hours. After about 3-4 hours, pour out the liquid collected in the bowl to ensure that it doesn't reach the bottom of the colander. The yoghurt will thicken to a consistency similar to that of soft cream cheese. Discard the drippings. Add the pure vanilla extract and maple syrup and mix together.

Prepare the pie crust - In an 8-9 inch pie pan, mix the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and the maple syrup. Stir well and press into the pie pan evenly. Spread the yoghurt cheese over the crust. Top with the fresh fruit, and serve right away. It will keep, covered and refrigerated, for 3 days. Enjoy!

This recipe is so easy to make, and if you get creative with the fruit placement is amazing to look at, and you can kid yourself that it's a healthy dessert, because it's yoghurt and fruit right! I got this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks - "Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home".

Wordless ATC Wednesday -

the lazy days of summer -

I'm probably going to be a bit of a bad blogger for a couple of momths, so I'll just say that now and get it out! I was trying to blog every day, but school is out and we've been at the lovely lake you see above. The kids and I have been at the beach there every day so far, and unless it rains, today will be no exception. So, grab your buckets, shovels and kick boards and meet us there, the waters lovely!

wordless 'ATC' Wednesday -

Okay, not quite wordless! I just discovered a lovely new blog, GardenMama, and she's having a giveaway. It is for beautiful Mama and child aprons, you have until tonight to enter, so link over there quick, from here! Good luck!

the summer wreath -

You may remember the Winter wreath from here. Well I decided it was time for an update, so using the scraps from my latest projects, I have revamped the form, into the Sumer wreath! Isn't it cute? And, much more in keeping with the season.

sweet sakuras

I recently signed up to do a swap, on swap-bot, which includes a handmade sakura pendant. So, of course, I would go to Etsy for a little research and inspiration! Here's what I liked the best, enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend!

Charlotte in Cherry Blossom by MDsparks

Trinity by Marshatoh

Japan Shrine, scrabble tile pendant by LaVieIllustree

meet LazyTcrochet -

This months featured Etsyblogger is Tricia of LazyTcrochet, congrats! Her etsy shop, found here, is a lovely place full of lovely wearable crocheted pieces. It's a place to go when, like me, you love the look of crochet, but cannot do it to save your life! So, you go and buy it from Tricia's shop instead. I'm particularly loving the shawls and wraps right now, as they're the perfect thing for summer nights when the temperature dips a little from the hot days.

Tricia also has, of course, a great blog for you to check out also, right here! It's a wonderful place to visit, so make sure you do! Happy Blogging!

summertime and the living is easy!

Summertime here is all about being in, and beside, our lovely lake! Already my kids are asking if we can start going, but it's barely stopped raining this June, and the temps haven't been warm enough to warm the water yet, pretty soon though! It's a small spring fed lake, with limited motor boat use, and no jet skis allowed, so it makes for a nice peaceful place to while away the hours!

The best thing about going to the lake where we live, is it's only a 10 minute walk, of 2 minute ride, to get there. No huge undertaking to go to the beach for the day, just another stroll. Picnic anyone?

work in progress -

So, I've been working on another bag, and I find the more I work with these Heather Bailey fabrics, the more I love them, such vivid colors and lovely patterns. If you haven't already discovered it, she has a great blog also, where you can get ideas and sneak peeks, great fun, check it out here!

It's another gloomy rain soaked day here in the Northeast, what is it with all the rain? I hope it doesn't do this all Summer. We have such long Winters here, that to lose the pleasure of Spring and Summer to too much rain would just be too much to take! You know it's bad when even the farmers think it's too much! Sunday is the first day of Summer, so fingers crossed for a change in wether patterns!