I Like To Do Crafty Things

Friday Musings #8 & 9

2012-03-09T15:20:00.000-05:00

I realized I never did a Friday musings post last week. That's because I peaced out of work early to head to the wedding rehearsal. This has to be one of the most popular birthday weeks EVER. Not only do I know people with birthday's on March 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8^th (I've done a lot of celebrating this week people!), two of my friends had babies this week! One on the 3^rd and the other on the 7^th. I AM SO BEHIND IN MY KNITTING.

I'm going home to my parent's house tomorrow to look at venues for my 10-year high school reunion. I know I will be watching TV with my mom (she records lots of ABC Family and Hallmark movies for us to watch) so hopefully I can get some quality knitting time in then! Well, I'm off to eat some birthday cake because - oh yeah, it's my boss's 50^th birthday TODAY.

The Best Sweater I've Ever Made

2012-03-08T09:04:00.002-05:00

The design for this sweater comes from Knitting on Top of the World. (Yes, this is the ONE thing I've made from that book) As I said in yesterday's post, I'm a big anglophile. And who doesn't love argyle?? When I heard that my friend Kim was having a boy, I knew I had to make this sweater. She was definitely going to have a preppy kid, and what's more preppy than little argyle designs on the elbows??

I had knitted with 2 colors of yarn before, but this was my first time knitting with 3. It is pretty time consuming. When you're knitting with multiple colors, the strings intertwine so after each row you have to go back and untangle them. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn and picked colors that matched what was in the book.

It took me a few months to make, but I LOVE the design. The braid on the collar is just TOO cute. The book also had fun ideas on how to use a baby sweater when it no longer fits the baby - put it on a stuffed animal, or wear it as a hat (you just tie the arms together at the top).

Wednesday Review: Knitting on Top of the World

2012-03-07T14:32:00.000-05:00

Knitting on Top of the World: The Global Guide to Traditions,Techniques and Design by Nicky Epstein is a very large hardcover book with amazing designs.

What I like:

· The book is divided into different parts of the world - Windswept Isles, Old World, Mediterranean, Far East, and the New World. Each section begins with an overview of that area, giving a short history of knitting, what influenced popular patterns, colors, and designs in that part of the world.

· The design projects in each section tell you which country it's from and what kind of experienced knitter you need to be to complete the pattern (novice, skilled, or master).

· Each design has great photos that look like they came out of a Vogue magazine. The patterns are pretty easy to read and the graphs are in color which is very helpful.

· There's a good variety of projects - cardigans, shawls, mittens (one's called "Princess Bride Mittens" how can I NOT make these!?!), caps, camisoles, capes, socks, bags, and even a stuffed animal.

· Many of the patterns have flair like pearls or metallic yarn weaved in which look pretty cool.

· Because I'm an anglophile, of course my favorite section is the "Windswept Isles." It's full of fair Isle, aran, and argyle patterns. LOVE.

· The last section is dedicated to abbreviations, a glossary, and techniques. Always helpful to have this in a book!

What I don't like:

· Some of the designs are just plain weird. I don't know if it’s because the designs are foreign and I'm just not used to them, or if some of them are just too artsy-fartsy.

I would knit probably 85% of this book. Most of the designs are breathtaking. So far I've only made one thing from it, but it is by far the coolest thing I've ever knitted. Check back tomorrow to read all about it ;)

Baby Shower Cakes!

2012-03-06T11:47:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was my friend Kim's son's 2^nd birthday. This week we'll look back at his baby shower! (I can't believe that was TWO YEARS ago!!) I was expecting 20-30 people for the shower so I made 2 cakes. I bought the Wilton stork and the baby carriage cake pans. (LOVE THEM)

I thought it'd be a pain to decorate, but it was fun - almost like a color by number. I wasn't too creative with the colors - just copied the picture that came with the pans.

Unfortunately we had a blizzard the day of the shower so only 7 people ended up coming. Luckily I love cake so had no problem eating all the left over!

All I Want Is You, Will You Be My Bride

2012-03-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

The wedding was AWESOME. I laughed, I cried, I danced like a crazy person with my best friends. It was a fabulous time. The weather ended up being beautiful so we even got to take pictures outside! Susan made the wonderful wedding cake. (3 words: Cookie dough frosting) I made the heart cookies again, this time saying "Mr. and Mrs. Edmond." I dyed the dough blue and green to match the wedding colors.

I also made un-dyed cookies that said "I DO" and decorated them to look like wedding dresses.

Apparently I didn't take pictures of the baked cookies. So hopefully someone will post them on facebook or the photographers got some. I also made mini cupcakes. My friend sent me a link on how to modify a box cake mix to make it taste better. I used the same modifications for the chocolate and the yellow cake and they sure were delicious!!

Next I made my favorite frosting (made with almond extract YUM) and dyed half green and half blue. Then I whipped out my newly acquired Disco Dust and WENT TO TOWN.

I also put Disco Dust on the sugar cookies I iced to look like wedding dresses. (Pictures to come soon... hopefully). You really can't have enough sparkle!!

Bridal Shower Desserts Part 2

2012-03-01T10:56:00.002-05:00

The Message in a Cookie cutter may be one of the best things I ever purchased. It's fitting that the first time I used it was for Sara's bridal shower as she is the one who told me about them.

The set comes with 3 cookie cutter shapes - rectangle, star, and heart. Each cutter has a track you can put letters on to personalize your message. The kit comes with a few words (Happy, Birthday, Congratulations, etc) and a lot of individual letters. You just pick out your message; slide it into the tracks, and walla! Awesome cookie!

I just saw that they have this for Christmas cookies as well. I NEED TO BUY THEM IMMEDIATELY.

Wednesday Review: Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach

2012-02-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

To continue with the wedding theme this week, I am reviewing Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach by Toba Garrett. Like the subtitle says, Garrett focuses a lot of the book's content on the professional cake designer: the steps to take when working with a client, how to write up a contract etc.

What I like:

· Chapter 1: Designing the Cake lays a great foundation of cake knowledge. It covers color, texture, theme, shape, and décor.

· Chapters 2-11 showcase different theme ideas like romantic, textured, seasonal, and floral designs.

· Each chapter opens up with a hypothetical couple - a little background on who they are, what kind of cake theme and taste they're looking for and how the cake designer developed that into 2-3 sketches. Then Garrett shows you how to make each of the cakes.

· SO MANY RECIPES. TWELVE different kinds of cake! They all sound delicious. There are also recipes for marzipan, gum paste, a ton of buttercreams, royal icing, ganache, pastillage (I don't even know what this is), curd, and jam! oh my gosh I am really hungry all of a sudden.

· At the end of the recipe chapter it tells you the best pairings of cake, filling, icing, and fondant.

· Also includes templates you can xerox.

What I don't like:

· All the cakes use Fondant. Granted, it's not the only thing they use. As I said before there are about a bajillion different icing recipes in the back of the book. And frequently multiple kinds are used in the decorations, but it'd be nice to see a cake without fondant as well.

· Chapter 12 is all about setting up a cake design business. Whether it's best to work from home or rent office space, what equipment you will need to buy, what you need to do legally to establish a business, how to network. Etc. Not very useful for me.

I think my favorite part of this book is the recipes. I need to see if I can make modified versions of the cakes because obviously I won't need a whole wedding cake (unless somebody wants me to make theirs??) I think I'll try one for a holiday or birthday coming up soon. There was a really cool fall looking one so maybe for Thanksgiving!

Bridal Shower Desserts Part 1

2012-02-28T16:17:00.002-05:00

There are only FOUR days until Sara & Scotty's wedding!!!! SO EXCITING. I thought we'd reminisce about Sara's bridal shower this week. We had a red themed shower so all of the desserts were red. I made red velvet cupcakes, red sugar cookies (look for a post on those Thursday!), my standby iced bridal sugar cookies, and raspberry mousse cups.

I have 3 of Wilton's dessert shells candy molds. Each of the molds makes 3 shells. I also have 2 accent candy molds. The shells were a little bit of a pain to make, if oxygen gets in it'll turn your chocolate a weird chalky color. And some of them broke when I took the mold apart. But that's not a huge deal; you just melt down the broken bits and use them again! Once I got the hang of it, it was much quicker and I didn't break as many.

I looked up a raspberry mousse recipe online. Next time I will strain all the seeds out. I'm not a fan of raspberry seeds and there were A LOT. I filled each shell, refrigerated for about 30 minutes then topped them with the accent candies. This is also a great dessert if you have friends on a gluten free diet!

Shamrock Gift Bags

2012-02-27T13:18:00.001-05:00

I couldn't find St. Patrick's Day themed gift bags anywhere. Even Target didn't have much in their dollar bins! I ended up buying up their green supply of mini Easter baskets and then a few blue ones as well.

I bought green sparkly shamrock foam stickers at Michaels and put them on the baskets to make my own gift bags. I also bought large foam shamrocks and used them as a thank you note.

Next year I'll have to look at party stores and online!

Friday Musings #8

2012-02-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

Today was supposed to be beautiful and a high of 70. So why is it thunder storming and cold? BOOOOO. Good thing I have my William and Mary scarf to keep warm!

I feel like this has been the slowest Friday ever. The kind where you feel like you have been working for hours. Then you look at the clock and realize it's been 3 minutes. I keep checking my email and twitter hoping for something exciting. Nope. Nothing.

This weekend I'm making St. Patrick's Day goody bags for the Young Life volunteer leaders. Hopefully target will have some cute stuff because I came out empty handed at Wal-Mart. I bet I can kill at least an hour looking for St. Patrick's Day crafts on Pinterest….

Scarves - Because it's February

2012-02-23T11:42:00.001-05:00

It's February. It's also 65 degrees outside. Mother Nature what are you doing to me!?! I'm so confused. *sobbing*

As I've said in previous posts, in the first 10 years of my knitting life I really only made scarves. Scarves from one ball of yarn. One Christmas my sister and I decided to knit Harry Potter scarves as presents. Watch out - here comes TWO colors!

This is from my sister's Harry Potter themed 18th birthday party.

She was Hermione (of course) and I was... random Gryffindor #1 :(

Also, if you haven't already heard J.K. Rowling has announced she's writing a NEW BOOK. THE WHOLE WORLD REJOICES. It's supposed to be a book for adults (yay!) and not about wizards (boo!). I'm sure it will be amazing - that woman has some serious creative juices flowing around in her brain.

I repeated the Hogwarts-esque scarf pattern for my own alma mater. TRIBE PRIDE! Too bad they're pretty horrible at football and I never went to games to actually wear it. Maybe homecoming this year??

Wednesday Review: 20 to Make - Sugar Animals

2012-02-23T09:51:00.002-05:00

This week's Wednesday Review is coming to you *gasp* on Thursday. I meant to go home Tuesday night and pick a book to review but Mardi Gras celebrations got in the way.

Oops! ON TO THE REVIEW!

Search Press's 20 to Make series covers a variety of crafts including glass painted projects, jewelry making, wedding favors, and knitted items. I own 2 in the series and they both have to do with dessert decorating (shocker!). Frances McNaughton, the author of Sugar Animals, is a demonstrator for the British Sugarcraft Guild. HOW DO I JOIN!?!?! She's made sugarcraft props for a variety of movies as well including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Chocolat. It's always fun to read British books when they talk about "colouring" their "sugarpaste." I NEED TO MOVE TO THE UK ASAP.

What I Like:

· Great pictures. Each animal has its own 2 page spread. One side shows the individual parts you will need to make. Each part is numbered with corresponding instructions to make assembly very easy. The other side of the spread shows the animal fully assembled in some sort of cute pose.

· There is a tutorial section in the beginning highlighting the basic shapes you will need to master to make each animal. It also tells you the tools you will need and how to best join the shapes to create your masterpiece.

· Some of the designs are ADORABLE! My favorites are the panda, hippo, kangaroo, tiger, koala, lion, monkey, and zebra.

What I don't like:

· I'm not as big of a fan of the lizard, snake, camel, or seal designs.

· There's no recipe for sugarpaste included. Not that it isn't easy enough to type into Google and find 30 different recipes, but I always appreciate when I can get all the information from one source.

This book is a great resource if you want to make decorative animals for cakes/cupcakes. You could even make them with clay for figurines or ornaments!

Weddings on the Mind

2012-02-21T11:21:00.000-05:00

Two of my best friends - Sara & Scotty - are getting married next week. I cannot WAIT for the wedding! For the reception a bunch of people are pitching in to make desserts. I may have gone a little crazy in the baking section of Michael's last night. Since I have weddings on my mind I thought I'd go back to the first (and only other) wedding I've been in. My friend Meaghan got married in August of 2010. For her bridal shower my sister Chelsea came up to help me decorate sugar cookies.

I bought the Wilton wedding cookie cutter set. I've used them a few times now and decided that the cake and the dress are the easiest to decorate. The bells are the worst - so I don't use them anymore.

The icing I made for these was just powdered sugar and water mixed together. It doesn't harden like when you use meringue powder, so you can't stack them. For the flowers I added more powdered sugar so it was more of a paste consistency and then I shaped them like play-dough. It's a little tedious decorating them, but if you have somebody to help can be a lot of fun!

Mardi Gras

2012-02-20T15:02:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras! I usually miss this holiday - but I marked it on the calendar early this year so I actually made plans - happy hour followed by the Clarendon Mardi Gras Parade! Luckily I've been in a yellow phase recently so I'll wear one of my many yellow outfits with some purple and green beads.

If I wasn't drowning in the calories I consumed from last week's Valentine's treats, then I would definitely be making this 20 minute King Cake for tomorrow. It looks beautiful and who doesn't love cooking little baby figurines into a cake? Hopefully next year Mardi Gras and Valentine's day won't be so close together.

Friday Musings #7

2012-02-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

Baking a lot this week was fun and delicious but also caused me to gain approximately 800 lbs. It's hard to cut back on the sugar when you've been ingesting it all week. Luckily I'm also training for a half marathon so hopefully I can burn a lot of those excess calories off in my long run this weekend. The half marathon is on St. Patrick's Day. I need to find a cute running outfit. I wanted a green sequined running skirt but they're around $30. I looked in fabric stores and can't find what I want either. My only hope is that target will sell something similar in the little girls section closer to the race. If I can't find that, maybe I'll resort to dressing like this kid:

Beard and all!

BABIES!

2012-02-16T08:47:00.001-05:00

This has been a full week of baking! Last night we had a surprise baby shower for one of the girls in my bible study. It was a blast and fun to see the mom-to-be so surprised! My sister posted the idea of cupcakes that look like babies on my fb wall a few weeks ago and I thought this would be a perfect time to try them out. They were so easy to make!

I dyed butter cream frosting with Wilton's Creamy Peach. After frosting the cupcakes, I stuck pacifiers on top.

Next I drew on faces with black icing.

This week Michael's has a 50% off one item coupon so I used it to buy a 3-in-1 cake caddy that has a cupcake tray. SCORE! Whenever I look at the picture it makes me think of this commercial:

Wednesday Review: More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts

2012-02-15T13:44:00.001-05:00

Time to punch out today's Wednesday Review while I'm still on my sugar high from yesterday. (I think I ate about 239 cupcakes and other sweets and then topped it off with a giant bowl of ice cream and a cocktail...I'm going for HEALTHY here people.) More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson is the follow up to Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, which I don't own and have never seen. So while I can't compare it to the first book I can say that I really enjoy the sequel.

What I like:

· The book is divided by the time it should take to make the gift - 2-4 hours, 4-6, 6-8 and longer.

· When I knit I usually think clothes, but this has other fun things like hot coffee-cup sleeves, ornaments, baskets, bookmarks (not sure I'd ever make a knit bookmark - but good for a beginner)

· Each pattern tells you the exact yarn that was used in the photographs and has a little intro paragraph that elaborates on the gift.

· There is a section on wrapping hand knit gifts - great ideas for using yarn to embellish the wrapped present.

· There is a glossary for techniques and abbreviations as well as a step by step tutorial (with pictures!) for a few of the techniques. I used this to learn the Kitchener Stitch when I was making socks.

What I don't like:

· I think the time sections are if you already know how to make the item. The socks I made using the pattern in the 2-4 hours section took me about 3 to make one sock. This is mostly due to the fact that I had to look up a lot of the stitches. Now that I know what I'm doing it'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to make a pair.

· Like all craft books - it's rare that I like 100% of the ideas in them. This one has a few that I know I'll never make - a plush house, seat covers, and the bookmarks.

I like this book and am excited to time myself when I make something out of it.

Baking Hearts

2012-02-14T10:21:00.003-05:00

I had planned on leisurely baking my valentine's treats this weekend but the weekend got away from me. Instead of baking I saw 2 movies (The Grey and The Vow - the latter I enjoyed much more but also cried a lot more), attended a Valentine's dessert concert, a jewelry party, and ate at PF Changs where my fortune was looking pretty good:

Then it looked less good when my brother got the same one. LAME.

Anyways, it was a fun weekend but my procrastination led to me baking like a mad woman last night. I rushed home from work and started on the whoopie pies. The pan came with recipes for both chocolate and vanilla cake. I made the chocolate first… they did not turn out so well.

This was the first time I'd ever made cake from scratch. The recipe says to stir it until it is just mixed, but I don't think I stirred it enough. The batter was difficult to get into the whoopie molds and I ended up with a lot of ugly peaks in my cakes.

Since I only have 1 whoopie pie pan I had to bake it in two batches. I stirred the batter more before the second batch and they turned out much better. I ended up cutting the top half of the cakes so the ugly side was in the middle. The filling was very easy to make, a little sticky to fill - but I just used the back of a spoon to smooth out the sides. Then I decorated with sprinkles!!

Learning from my mistakes, the vanilla cakes turned out much better. I dyed it pink (yay!) and made sure to mix the batter well.

The batter smoothed out much better for these.

mmmm. Woopie Pie filling.

Next I moved on to the Pie Pops. I love the pre-rolled pie crust Pillsbury makes. It's just so easy to use! One circle made 7 hearts. I placed them on the cookie sheet, placed a rod on top and some canned cherry pie filling. Four cherries were a little too much - the juice squeezed out the sides, so I went down to 3 cherries per pop.

Using the end of one of the rods, I pressed the edges together. I brushed on some egg whites and baked them. At this point it was close to midnight, so I only made 7. I wanted to get more pictures of the step-by-step process, but my phone had died and of course I left the charger at work. I didn't mind too much because I still have my Sony Cyber-shot camera - but when I turned it on this is what I saw:

Looks like it's time for a new camera!!

I'll still have to play around with the pie pops - 4 of the 7 turned out really well. The rod either fell out or broke through the crust on the other 3. But broken or whole, they all tasted pretty good!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Cards & Envelopes

2012-02-13T09:53:00.002-05:00

I don't think I've hand-made valentines since college but I was inspired by my Martha Stewart Living magazine this year. I bought cute valentine card stock from Michaels and printed out templates from Martha Stewart's website to create some fun accordion and garland valentines.

I used an exacto knife and a self healing cutting mat to cut out most of the shapes. (How awesome is a SELF HEALING mat??)

I also had fun with glitter glue and stickers. I AM PERPETUALLY 5 YEARS OLD.

The bad thing about making your own valentines is finding envelopes to send them in. I thought, hey - why don't I try just making my own? I sacrificed an envelope from a stationary set I have, tore it apart and traced it onto cardstock to make my very own envelopes! Then I used stickers and Disney themed tape to secure them before plopping them in the mail.

For the valentines I didn't have to mail I used an old calendar to make fun bright envelopes.

Thank you to the World Wildlife Fund for some beautiful pictures!!

Friday Musings #6

2012-02-10T10:18:00.001-05:00

I used to dread Sunday nights. It meant that Monday morning was just around the corner. But two things have come into my life that have me wishing Sunday night would come sooner - Once Upon a Time and Downton Abbey. I seriously cannot get enough of these two shows!! This week on Once we get to see Emilie Ravin go from crazy Claire (I miss you Lost!!) to Princess Belle.

And can we all just agree how much we still miss Sheriff Graham?

The new mysterious writer has NOTHING on you.

Then of course there's Downton. The Spanish Flu sweeps through the house this week. If the past few episodes are any indication, we are in for a crazy time! Will Lavinia and Carlisle be drops? (God I hope so!) Will Matthew walk again? What's up with Mr. Bates!?!

Will you two just get together already??

Gah, Sunday night can't come soon enough.

Wedding Shoes!

2012-02-09T11:18:00.000-05:00

Today's blog post comes from one of my best friends Kim. We used to work together and would have knitting/Lost watching parties in our cubicles during lunch. I'm so excited to have her as my first guest blogger!! (Kim is getting married in May and was telling me about these awesome shoes, so I asked her to write about them for me)

The closer to the Big Day I get, the more I realize how every little detail really matters. I realized I needed wedding shoes ASAP for for my first dress fitting in a few days, so I immediately got to work searching on Google and Pinterest for the perfect pair. I realized quickly that I needed shoes that sparkled - I particularly liked the look of a sparkly heal. After some price comparisons, I started to realize this may not be that realistic - at prices ranging from $300 - $1,000 for what I was looking for I was starting to lean towards something much simpler.

I purchased a pair of shoes off Amazon that were white satin to match my dress and had a low heal. I got them, and loved them, but I couldn't get over their lack of sparkle. After some research on types of glue and some inspiration from a coworker's custom made shoes, I headed to Michaels for E6000 glue, beading tweezers, and Swarovski crystals in multiple sizes.

400 stones, 6 hours, and a few terrible headaches later, one shoe is complete, and it is PERFECT!!

Some tips to make life a little easier:

1) From my research, E6000 glue is definitely the best glue for the job, but the fumes can actually be harmful (hence the headaches). Make sure you work in a well ventilated room with open windows, and a mask if you have one handy.

2) You need crystals in multiple sizes (I used 3) to get a close fit and add some texture to the shoe. The smaller crystals work best around the edges to get an even line.

3) Spread the glue using a toothpick or something similar (I used the thin set of tweezers and cleaned them after). Spread the glue in a THIN layer in small areas. The glue is very thick and can harden quickly. If you spread the layer too thick the glue will come around the edges of the crystals and can become a big mess.

4) Be patient! It can take a lot of time and I definitely made a lot of mistakes I needed to fix, but the finished product was well worth it!

Wednesday Review: 1,000 Ideas For Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes

2012-02-08T10:30:00.001-05:00

For this week's Wednesday Review I'll be discussing 1,000 Ideas For Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes by Sandra Salamony and Gina M. Brown. The book is a compilation of photos sent in from various bakeries and creative minds around the world.

What I like:

· This book contains some of the most creatively decorated cakes, cupcakes, and cookies I've ever seen. It's divided into 5 sections - Elegant Entertaining, Baby & Child, Holiday, Just for Fun, and Weddings & Engagements.

· I really enjoy seeing how people in other countries decorate their cakes and cookies. The book includes photos submitted from Japan, Denmark, Australia, and Mexico. The international flare brings a nice diversity to the book.

· There are a few recipes for frosting, fondant, and marzipan included at the end of the book.

· A contributor directory provides email addresses and websites so if you're interested in seeing more or possibly buying treats, you know where to look.

What I don't like:

· It's just pictures - there are no explanations of how to make any of it. This isn't bad in and of itself as it’s a compilation book, but I thought it'd have some instructions. This is one of the pitfalls of ordering books online, I couldn't flip through it first so I was a little misguided in what the book contained.

· Some of the photos look like they're straight from Ace of Cakes and I'll never be able to recreate them. That being said, those particular items are still amazing to look at and maybe one day I will have that kind of skill!

This book is like Pinterest printed out and bound for your perusal. It wasn't what I expected but I still really enjoy it and can glean some great ideas from it - I'll just have to figure out how to make them on my own.

Accio Cauldron Cake!

2012-02-07T11:31:00.000-05:00

If you've been reading this blog you know I love nerdy things and theme parties and especially the combination of the two. That’s why for the last Harry Potter movie I had a big party before we all went out to the midnight showing (yes, in costume!) I made a few things from the Harry Potter Cookbook - Pumpkin Pasties and Harry's favorite dessert - treacle tart. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal theme park in Orlando has these DELICIOUS cauldron cakes.

Yes, that’s me in Diagon Alley. MAGICAL!

I tried to recreate them for the party. I didn't get the feet on the cauldron - but the top looks cool. I made chocolate cupcakes and put a dollop of icing in the middle. Then using melting chocolate wafers, I traced out handles on wax paper and when they hardened, placed them on top of the cupcake for the full "cauldron effect."

I think it’s a bit like the ice cream truck though; it's just not the same if you don't get a cauldron cake straight from Diagon Alley. Hit the jump for more HP food photos!

Love this book! My old roommate gave it to me for Christmas - BEST PRESENT EVER.

Treacle Tart - super sweet and very delicious.

Pumpkin Pasties! I think they'd be cute if I used a mini pumpkin

shaped cookie cutter to vent them - next time!

Disco Dust

2012-02-06T09:28:00.001-05:00

My new baking obsession is Disco Dust. I first heard of it when I came across this site on how to make unicorn poop cookies. Really weird, I know - but they are so pretty! (it all goes back to my love of rainbows)

Disco dust is edible glitter and I want to put it on EVERYTHING. The cheapest I found was at Jester's Discount Cake Supply and I bought more than I probably should have. Henceforth I will never let another cookie/cupcake go unsparkled!!

Friday Musings #5

2012-02-03T08:19:00.004-05:00

I'm totes going to make this someday.

Unless you live in a cave, you know its Super Bowl weekend. I'm pumped for it - I've got $20 on pretty decent superbowl squares this year (Patriots 6, Giants 3 and Patriots 1, Giants 7). I'm not sure who I want to win. A good family friend's nephew plays for the Giants, but a lot of my friends are Patriot's fans - so really I'll be happy if either team wins. And le'ts be serious - everybody's a winner because one of my all time favorite duo's playing at the Halftime Show.

I'm totally ready for lots of party rocking, chips & guacamole, and hilarious commercials.

You Can Never Have Too Many Hats

2012-02-02T09:21:00.000-05:00

Since we have 6 more weeks of winter heading our way (thanks a lot Punxsutawney Phil!) I thought I'd share the snow caps I made in college. My friend Kristen knew how to crochet hats and I knew how to knit scarves. We decided to teach each other our skills to stay good and warm in the winter. The first one I made was the brown hat. You can tell because the top is kind of pointy - it looks more like an elf hat when worn.

Because I love bright colors, the next one I made was the rainbow hat. I love yarns that have different colors in them. It's not quite as pointy as the brown hat, but still not perfect.

These next two turned out much better. Not pointy at all! I like the way the green and purple hat turned out with the diagonal stripes. For Christmas that year I made everyone in my family matching scarves and hats - I even added a bobble to the top of the hats! Note to self: start adding bobbles to more things.

Wednesday Review: Hello, Cupcake!

2012-02-01T09:44:00.003-05:00

Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson is definitely one of my favorite decorating books. For those of you who live in DC, it's not affiliated with the Hello Cupcake bakery in Dupont. The book contains amazing pictures and easy to follow instructions on how to make ridiculously awesome cupcakes.

What I like:

· The book starts off with helpful decorating techniques. They boast "no baking skills or fancy equipment required!" which is true as they use Ziploc bags for pretty much everything - to fill the cupcakes papers with batter, to melt chocolate, and to apply frosting. By cutting the corner off the bag, icing can be easily piped on the cupcake. Different sized and angled holes create the same effect as Wilton tips. It's definitely a cheap alternative to pastry bags. Though I usually end up cutting the hole too big or at the wrong angle, so I still prefer the Wilton tips. But I guess practice makes perfect!

· They show how candy (M&M's, taffy, cereal, sprinkles, Runts, and circus peanuts to name a few) can transform your cupcake for ordinary to extraordinary.

· The book describes how to decorate normal cupcakes, mini cupcakes, cupcake pull away cakes, and use other things for shaping your design like Twinkies, mini donuts and donut holes.

· A lot of the designs involve melting chocolate wafers to draw different designs like wings for butterflies or bones for cupcakes that look like fried chicken. Don't worry if you're a terrible artist, the book provides templates that are easy to trace.

This isn't from the book, but a good picture of using melted chocolate

wafers on wax paper to make different designs.

· There are ideas for your typical cupcake worthy days/events such as Easter, 4^th of July, Halloween, Christmas, baby showers, and weddings. And then there are just bizarre ideas like making your cupcakes look like corn on the cob, fried chicken, or billiard balls.

· The book also provides recipes for several cakes and frostings and a sources page for where to buy ingredients and decorating tools.

What I don't like:

· Most of these cupcakes are pretty time consuming to make so you have to either plan in advance or find a friend to help you make them.

· I can't think of an occasion to make cupcakes that look like fried chicken or spaghetti and meatballs.

Obviously over all this is an amazing book and I highly recommend it to the cupcake enthusiast. It not only gives you great specific ideas, but also tips you can use to design your own fun and creative cupcakes. Karen and Alan's website has fun videos and more tips. They also have 2 more books - What's New Cupcake? and their newest (which I just got in the mail this week!!) Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! So look for those in future Wednesday Reviews!

The Butterfly Effect

2012-01-31T10:10:00.000-05:00

For tomorrow's Wednesday Review, I am going to talk about one of my favorite baking books - Hello, Cupcake! I thought as a little preview I'd share the one cupcake I've actually made from the book: Butterflies!!

I made these for a friend's housewarming party. It was in the spring and I wanted something fun so I poured through Hello, Cupcake! until I found these. The butterflies are made with melted down chocolate wafers. I traced a pattern on wax paper with the milk chocolate, and then filled it in with the orange-colored white chocolate, using a toothpick to make the swirls. Once the chocolate hardened, I peeled them off the wax paper, set them on the cupcake (using a mini chocolate chip under each wing to prop them up) and then piped on some more melted chocolate in the middle for the body. To finish it off, I attached the antennas and wala! I present to you - the Monarch Butterfly.

Thank God For YouTube

2012-01-30T13:09:00.002-05:00

I did it!! I finished my *top secret* project this weekend! I went to Michael's to pick up a few supplies for the finishing touches. Did you know there's a Michael's App you can get for you phone? It's amazing! You can access the coupons directly from the app so no more getting to the store and panicking because you realized you forgot to print them out.

I immediately dove into my next project - knitting socks! There are a lot of new knitting techniques involved in knitting socks that I've never done before. I read a few descriptions online and was really having trouble picturing what they were telling me to do. Then it hit me - YouTube! After watching a few videos of a lady with a cool accent knitting them, it was much easier to follow my own pattern.

Yay for technology!

Friday Musings #4

2012-01-27T13:53:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's because I've been enthralled with Downton Abbey the past few weeks, or because the weather has been weirdly warm, or because I bought a bright yellow lace dress yesterday, but I REALLY want to throw a tea party. A fancy tea party where I can wear a hat and said yellow dress; maybe even some gloves.

There are so many fun things you can do with a tea party from invitations to creative treats and morsels. Once the weather gets warmer (and stays warm) I can host it in the sunroom.

Who doesn't love scones and finger sandwiches??

Just need to pick a date now....

My Very First Sweater

2012-01-26T09:37:00.003-05:00

The summer of 2006 I decided it was time to learn how to knit for real. I was going to teach myself how to do all the fancy stuff and how to read patterns. If you're a non-knitter, then you you'll know how I felt when I looked at patterns:

Lace Panel A
Row 1 (RS): K1, yo, k to end - 24 sts at the end of this row.
Row 2: K1, yo, k1, p to last st, k1 - 25 sts at the end of this row.
Row 3: K1, yo, k1, *k2, yo, k2tog; rep from * across to last 3 sts, k3 - 26 sts at the end of this row.
Row 4: Rep Row 2 - 27 sts at the end of this row.
Rows 5-12: Rep Rows 1-4 - 35 sts at the end of Row 12.
Row 13: Rep Row 1 - 36 sts at the end of Row 13.

(taken from a Diagonal Eyelet Baby Blanket pattern)

Mumbo-jumbo right?

I taught myself what the abbreviations meant and practiced a few of the techniques (yarn-overs, decreasing, cables, etc.) and decided I was finally ready to make a sweater! I thought a baby sweater would be best because obviously a smaller sweater would be less work! (wrong) I found a free pattern online and it was easy enough at first. It has you knit the entire thing continuously. (Instead of in pieces and sewing together at the end which is how every other sweater I've made is done). I even had to use double ended knitting needles to knit in the round for the sleeves. I had some holes here and there where I had lost a stitch - but my aunt showed me how to sew them up so they're unnoticeable.

Caron's Simply Soft yarn is the BEST. They have wonderful colors and it is really soft. I still need to add buttons - I was thinking purple flowers or something along those lines. Someday I'll get around to adding those.

Wednesday Review: Handmade Weddings

2012-01-25T08:09:00.000-05:00

Handmade Weddings is a book that has over 50 DIY wedding crafts. They range from invitations and centerpieces, to party favors and ring pillows. The book is well laid out and has excellent pictures, but overall I wasn't thrilled with it.

What I like:

· The book is divided into sections on the kind of wedding you want - "Retro Homespun", "Girly Romantic", and "Organic Minimal" are a few. Each section starts with a color pallet and the crafts take off from there.

· There is a handy guide at the beginning describing which projects you should definitely DIY and which are better to buy/rent/or plan ahead for.

· Each craft has a key for the level of expertise needed, the time it will take to make it, how far in advance from your wedding you should start the craft, if it’s a group or individual activity, and the estimated budget.

· There's a whole section on calligraphy! I love writing things by hand. I generally use calligraphy markers to shortcut the time actual calligraphy takes but I'm glad that there's a step by step tutorial in this book for each letter.

· Some of the crafts - Heart shaped programs that can double as fans is a brilliant idea, cute and I think would be fun to make with your bridesmaids - definitely a craft I can get behind.

What I don't like:

· Most of the crafts - There are a lot of crafts in this book that I think are too kitschy for a wedding: yarn-wrapped bottles, fabric-wrapped favors, paper-link chains, and fabric-scrap hair clips.

Really!?!? I think this is more suited for a toddler's birthday party than a wedding.

Maybe these things just aren't my style and somebody else would love to have them at their wedding - but I find it hard to believe the majority of people would like any of these. I think they could be cute in a shower or even rehearsal setting, but not for the actual wedding.

This book can be a great resource to get ideas but I wouldn't recommend buying it. Borrow it from the library or a friend (me!) who already owns it. You'll probably only like about 5 of the 50 crafts they have to offer and you want to get your money's worth!

Rainbows for a Dreary Day

2012-01-24T09:08:00.002-05:00

The past few days have been rather dreary weather-wise so I think its time for a rainbow post! If you know me, you know I love bright colors - I mean really, I own these shoes:

Rainbows are a great way to cram lots of bright colors into one. A few months ago there was a baking contest at the Church I attend. I entered into the cupcake category. I tried to decide on a cupcake that could clinch the winning spot and went back and forth between zombie cupcakes and tie-dye cupcakes. I wasn't sure how church-appropriate zombie cupcakes were so I went with the tie-dye. My mom had made full-sized tie-dye cake for my brother once, so I figured I should be able to do it with cupcakes. I started with a yellow cake mix, divided it into four and dyed each a different color (red, blue, green, & yellow). Then I spooned each into the cupcake papers.

When all the batter was in the papers, I took a toothpick to swirl it around a bit. It was a process but they came out really well! I decorated with blue and green frosting to compliment the aray of colors beneath.

Sadly I didn't win the competition, which I blame on the fact that I had to cut the cupcakes in fourths for the competition so the cake hardened a little - but they were definitely beautiful!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-23T14:06:00.000-05:00

Good-bye rabbit, hello dragon! Today kicks off the celebrations for the Chinese New Year. I myself am a Rat so I won't get to celebrate again until 2020.

Whether they come from a mysterious blue egg, participate in a Triwizard Tournament, or are voiced by Sean Connery, Dragons are just plain fun! (I may have a little Hagrid in me) In fact, they're the only mythological creature in the Chinese zodiac.

There are a lot of fun things to do for the Chinese New Year - If you're in the DC area, you can head to Chinatown on Sunday 29^th 2-5pm for their Chinese New Year Festival. And then of course there are crafts! Martha Stewart has a template for this fun Chinese Dragon.

There's also Chinese Lanterns. They're festive and very easy to make. All you need is construction paper, tape, and scissors. (of course some glitter glue never hurts either!) If you have your paper facing you in portrait, cute a 1 inch strip off the top for the handle of the lantern. Fold the remaining paper in half and measure another inch on the top of that so you know where to stop cutting. Then you cut even strips across the sheet. I didn't have red construction paper so I just used white and decorated with red. But yellow and orange would be nice too.

Once you've cut all the strips, open it up and tape the 2 long sides to each other and the handle to the top. You can try making different sizes and colors for some fun table décor.

Friday Musings #3

2012-01-20T16:50:00.000-05:00

The Hunger Games comes out March 23rd. (62 days!!!) I'm already trying to decide what to dress up as at the midnight showing. My current idea is Effie Trinket. I always feel like I need to go as a blonde - sorry Katniss. Plus Effie is just fun.

I need to find a dress/pattern and try to make something like this. I will probably try to find something at a Goodwill since 62 days doesn't seem like a long time to learn how to sew. I also already bought these eyelashes:

They're paper lashes that Sephora sells - I bought 2 different kinds - these and ones that look like peacocks. They're amazing and were only $10! If I can get a good enough costume together, I think I'll also dress up like her at Comic-con in July. Hope you all have a great weekend and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Because I Love All Things Harry Potter

2012-01-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

The first adult sweater I ever made was of course, Harry Potter themed. I made it as a Christmas present for my college roommate (also a big HP fan). My Aunt Robin who is a ferocious knitter gave me a bunch of her old patterns and told me which ones would be easiest to make at my skill level. I picked a simple pull-over pattern which has you knit the front, back, and sleeves separately and then sew them all together at the end.

I love you Ron!!!

I bought Red Heart yarn in Maroon and Gold (Yeah Gryffindor!!) and plunged in. Red Heart isn't the softest yarn so you'd definitely need to wear an undershirt. Knitting a present like this is so fun. The whole time I was knitting I kept chuckling to myself thinking of the look on Katie's face when she opened the present to find a Weasley sweater with her initial on it.

I made another one the following Christmas for our other roommate Barb. Again at this time I still didn't know how to knit with 2 colors so I embroidered the letters. The sweaters turned out great. The pattern is kind of a chunky sweater which I think is perfect - looks just like something Mrs. Weasley would make!

Wednesday Review: Martha Stewart Living

2012-01-18T14:22:00.001-05:00

I realize this isn't a book but the February issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived in the mail yesterday and I can't stop looking through it! With sections on Healthy Living, Beauty, Cooking, Homekeeping, and Technology there's a ton of information you can glean from this magazine.

Each issue starts with "Martha's Month" a calendar with "gentle reminders, helpful tips, and important dates" for the month. Feb 1 - "Look through photos to determine which can be framed for Valentine's Day gifts." This is how Martha stays on top of her 'A' game. Though I am surprised that "plan menu for Super Bowl party" is 2 days before the actual Super Bowl. Maybe Martha is a procrastinator deep down inside just like me! She also suggests when to sow and plant seeds for different plants. (Something I would love to get into!) Some of the suggestions on the calendar however are things that will never ever apply to me: "Order baby chicks for the chicken coop."

There are great recipes inside with eye-popping pictures and step by step instructions. They even include detachable recipe cards for some of them. Nutritional information is provided as well which is always a plus for me.

I'm in full Valentine's mode (if you couldn't tell by yesterday's post) so my favorite section is on make-it-yourself Valentines. There are tips and how-to's for accordion cards, garland cards, and plain illustrated cards. A great thing about Martha Stewart is all of the templates are included online and there is also a "Workbook" section in the back for more step by step instructions on crafts found throughout the magazine. I think I will round up all the Victoria's Secret tissue paper I can find to try to make the wall heart from the cover.

Martha is definitely the hostess with the mostest. She has wonderful tips about throwing parties and how to give them that extra "wow-factor." I love this magazine and look forward to seeing it in my mailbox every month!

Woopie Pies & Pops

2012-01-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

I know a lot of single people hate Valentine's Day but I love it. I love the cheesy Valentine's cards, the fact that I can wear red and pink together, that the Arlington Drafthouse shows Princess Bride every year, and all the Valentine's themed crafts and goodies there are to make!

I have recently become obsessed with Williams-Sonoma. Whenever I get a catalogue I find myself flipping through thinking "of course I need a mini pie-maker!" In the last issue I found a whole section of Valentine's treats you can buy.

I WANT THEM ALL…. but Williams-Sonoma is nothing if not expensive. Why spend $50 on 12 heart-shaped woopie pies when I can make them myself??

Yup, I bought the woopie pie pan at Michael's (with a 40% off coupon) last time I was there. I also bought the lollipop rods to try and make the Pie Pops. The pan comes with a recipe for the woopie pies, but I'll be winging the Pie Pops. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Also, I really want to give these out as my Valentines this year

Putting My Money On Red

2012-01-16T13:13:00.004-05:00

I may have lost a lot of money and sleep this weekend but I had the BEST time at Sara's bachelorette party. We spent the weekend in Atlantic City and per usual it involved tons of sparkle, alcohol, and dancing. The theme for the weekend (as thought up by the v. clever MOH - Susan) was "Painting The Town Red Before Sara Is Wed". We even had matching T-shirts!!

I decided to make a banner to decorate the room. I knew I wanted glittery red paper for it so I headed to the scrapbook section in Michael's. It's been a while since I've shopped in the scrapbook section, I forgot how awesome the paper is. Thankfully Valentine's Day is right around the corner so there is no shortage of red sparkly things at Michael's. I think my favorite purchase is the red glitter clothespins.

The supplies.

Final product!

I also made heart shaped sugar cookies decorated to look like bras and panties. This is the first time I've made real royal icing. (I also added 1/4 tsp vanilla extract) Usually I just mix water and powdered sugar because it's easy and I love the way it tastes but it doesn't harden quite as much as I need it to. I was a little worried that adding the meringue powder would change the taste, but it didn't.

I used Wilton decorating tip #4 to outline the cookies. You can see the first one I did I started with 2 circles, but decided that didn't look good - so I went with the general outline for the rest.

I used Wilton tip #2 for the "lace" dots.

Tah-Dah!

Friday Musings #2

2012-01-13T10:59:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday the 13^th! I'm heading to Atlantic City today for a weekend of bachelorette shenanigans. Luckily I'm not driving so I'm hoping to get some quality time in with my *top secret* project. Probably a good 5 hours worth when factoring in traffic. I need to download some good tunes for the ride up. For now I will leave you all with this:

Enjoy the weekend!

This Is Why I Don't Make Blankets Anymore

2012-01-12T09:53:00.000-05:00

My friend in California was having a baby girl so I decided to knit a blanket. (This was before I had discovered the Marshmellow Dress) I bought a few skeins of Bernat Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes - its yarn that is colored so that when you knit your blanket, it automatically has stripes! SO COOL - right?

The pattern I followed had you start from a corner and slowly increase the width until you get to the middle, then you decrease the width - so you're knitting in a diamond shape. The great thing about this blanket is its all knit stitch which I think is easier than having to switch between knit and purl. So I begin - and the blanket is looking pretty cool!

I get to the middle and start decreasing the stitches. I'm diligently working on it for days - knitting, and knitting, and knitting. After a while I start to notice that I've knitted an awful lot and it doesn't seem like my blanket is getting any smaller. I check the pattern again. It looks like I'm doing it right, decreasing every row, just like the pattern says. I'm half way through a row when it hits me like a ton of bricks. Yes - I've been decreasing every row, but I was still doing the increase stitch as well! So basically I was adding back the stitches I was decreasing - keeping it the same width. TRAVESTY. If you're a knitter you've probably had a moment like this. Your stomach sinks to the floor as you try to decide: "do I try to fix it from here on out or do I need to unravel to the original mistake?" I stared at the blanked for a long time before I decided the only option was to unravel. Unraveling is the WORST. And I had to unravel an ENTIRE SKEIN! For those of you unfamiliar with knitting, that is A LOT of yarn.

So I fixed my mistake and finished the blanket (which went a lot quicker once I was knitting it correctly). However it didn't turn out quite as square as I would have liked.

It looks more like a sting ray. But luckily babies don't really care how square their blankets are. It was still soft and warm - just how a blanket should be. After I made this I decided that sweaters were a lot less time consuming and you figure out when you've made a mistake much faster. It was a good learning experience, but I haven't made a blanket since.

Introducing - The Wednesday Review!

2012-01-11T13:15:00.001-05:00

I have close to one bazillion books on various crafting subjects (mostly knitting, and baking) so each Wednesday I will review one of them here for you! There's not actually a review today because I just thought this up this morning - so instead I'll tell you my main sources for books.

1.) Rummage sales. My Aunts are super bargain hunters and they LOVE rummage sales. I've gone with them to a few and have found some pretty awesome stuff. Its true what they say - "One man's junk is another man's treasure." When I go I usually stick to the kitchen goods, holiday décor, and books. I've bought some knitting and embroidery books in the past. I think everything I've bought was printed in the 60's but hey - I like vintage. You can also find yarn, fabric, and craft sets at most rummage sales and everything is under $2 - great for the bargain crafter!

2.) Amazon.com. I've always been a BIG Amazon shopper. Back in the day I bought (and sold!) all of my college text books there. I have the Amazon credit card and recently became an Amazon Prime member - which turns out to be a blessing and a curse. It's amazing what a difference "free" 2-day shipping makes! Now I want to buy EVERYTHING. I rationalize my Prime membership with the fact I can also stream TV and movies for free and Amazon really does have a great selection. When I see a book I want, I make sure to check the price at Amazon first as it's usually 25-50% off.

3.) Crafter's Choice. I know book clubs can get a bad rep, but I love Crafter's Choice. This is probably where I get the majority of my books. When you join you get 4 books for $1 and then you have to buy 2 books within a year. They're generally reasonably priced, but as with all online shopping, S&H prices are a slap in the face. However, CC has great sales. I always wait until they have their 2 for $22, 3 for $33, or 4 for $44 sale with free shipping. Its good for any book up to $35 and they have a TON of craft books, cookbooks, and even novels. They sell combo packs (2 books they bundle because they are on the same subject) that I used to be able to use as 1 of my 4 for $44 books so I was essentially getting 5 or 6 books for $44. It was awesome but sadly they have sinced closed that loophole. The only annoying thing is every month they have featured selections that you have to make sure to DECLINE or they'll send them to you and charge you. But you get an email with an easy link to decline so its not too bad.

Anybody else have a good source for crafting books?

One Ring To Rule Them All

2012-01-10T09:39:00.000-05:00

I am a nerd. I love fantasy and sci-fi and am therefore uber psyched for the new Hobbit movie!!

My whole family loves Lord of the Rings - in fact, my parents took my brother, sister, and me out of school to go to the very first showing the day it was released. I think we saw each movie at least twice in theaters. We own all the extended versions on DVD and may or may not also own this life size cutout:

Another thing I love? THEMED PARTIES! Over the summer a few friends and I got together for the ultimate marathon - all 3 LOTR movies (extended versions!) in one day. Twelve pure hours of Middle Earth geek-awesomeness. it. was. fantastic. One of my friends works for an interior design firm and printed out a giant map of Middle Earth so we could move the characters around as the story progressed.

All our meals were themed around the movie as well. (which basically just means we ate British food all day) For breakfast we had scones and tea. Fruit for second breakfast. A nice stew for dinner. Trail mix for elevensies. And I made this Hobbit Hole cake for dessert!

I used a cupcake for the Hobbit Hole bit and melted down chocolate for the stepping stones and fence. I had to fill in a lot of the gaps with copious amounts of frosting but its delicious so a little more wont hurt anyone. I think the pearl sprinkle finishes it off pretty nicely as the door handle.

I plan on being at the midnight showing of the Hobbit so maybe I'll throw a pre-viewing party and make some more fun Middle-Earth themed foods. Dwarf cupcakes?

A few more photos of the party after the jump.

Here are a few more of the cake and then a close up of the paper dolls we moved around the map. You can see who else decided to come watch with us in the last picture ;)

Next Up

2012-01-09T09:06:00.001-05:00

I made some good progress on the "top-secret" project this weekend. I can't wait to finish it so I can start on something NEW! Next in line on the "to-craft" list will most likely be this:

I found this pattern a few years back but haven't been able to make use of it as the first round of my friend's babies were all boys. Where this may have made a good present for a boy a few centuries back, I just don't think it'd fly today. But now I'm getting this pattern back out of the craft-vault as my friend E is 6 months pregnant with a baby GIRL! I wont have it ready right when the baby is born (unless I have some crazy crafting miracle?) but I'm still excited to try this pattern - I mean, it has PUFFED SLEEVES. Anne would be so proud.

Friday Musings

2012-01-06T08:44:00.001-05:00

I picked up a project last night that I haven't worked on in MONTHS. Not that that means a whole lot, there are other projects I haven't worked on in YEARS. (I have a few half finished sweaters and scrapbooks that got thrown to the wayside when more attractive projects came by) But for this particular *top secret* project, I am giving myself a deadline of March. I'd say I'm about 80% done so hopefully that's realistic. What is it you ask? You'll have to wait until March to find out!!

Blanket for Baby P

2012-01-05T11:23:00.000-05:00

This was one of the first blankets I ever made - not my best work, but I do love block pattern. It was for my roommate at the time to give to her newborn niece.

The block pattern is alternating stockinette and garter stitches. I embroidered the 'P' into the blanket because at the time I didn't know how to knit with 2 different yarns. Speaking of yarn, I used Bernat Baby Coordinates yarn which is very soft and kind of crimped - great for newborn projects! And who doesn't love a good pink/green combo?

Welcome!

2012-01-04T14:09:00.000-05:00

I have been making crafts since pre-school - so obviously I am highly qualified to blog about them. Crafting runs in the family - one of my great aunts was a fashion designer, another aunt is a huge knitter, cross-stitcher, and sewer. She taught me how to knit when I was 10. I started out with mostly squares and scarves. I've since taught myself how to read patterns and can do a pretty mean sweater now. I got a sewing machine for Christmas in 2010 but have yet to use it. Quilting is on the "to-learn" list for 2012. I also love to bake and do fun creative things with cupcakes, pies, and cookies. This blog will be a hodgepodge of all of the above. I can't wait to share with you all and hear back about things you're working on!