birthday fun!

I've blogged a lot about gifts this week, and I have to say that gifts are fun, but this birthday was the best ever not because of gifts, but because of my wonderful friends and family. I'm continually amazed at how lucky I am to be surrounded by people who are so thoughtful. From Groupons for my favorite yogurt ever to handmade birthday cards to candy corn, my life is fun and my heart is full.

So after my birthday dinner at Bella Monia (where I had the MOST amazing meal I've had in months), I spent the evening laughing with good friends and relaxing. What more could I want? ...a breakfast the next morning with more friends! SO much fun! I learned two things about my knitting friends: 1) they are serious gift-givers 2) they are super creative and amazing. I mean, I knew the second part, I guess now I have more illustrations of that.

Like, the "yarn ball surprise". I'm not sure if that's the technical name, but that's what I'm calling it. What is it? It's a giant ball of yarn, with a small-medium gift in the middle and many smaller gifts wrapped into the yarn. You have to unravel it to get to your gifts. How fun is that? Here's a pic of Deb's yarn ball, gifted by Melanie:



Any gift that's as much fun for spectators to see unraveled, as it is to receive (and probably to prepare), is a super-fantastic gift!

outdoor project/my friends are the BEST!

I've blogged about the disaster that IS our yard. Front and back. Disaster. My slogan is "one thing at a time" but man, that's tough! One of the hardest parts is deciding on which project is the next one up. For my birthday, I got two great gifts that make this a little easier - beautiful bulbs and a gift card to Logan Trading Company. Are my friends the best or WHAT?!



So I have my project materials in hand, I'm back to the original problem - which area gets the makeover??

i heart crochet

I am convinced that if you are a crafter, you should only give handmade gifts to other crafters. I mean, sometimes you'll get an appropriate amount of excitement from a non-crafter, but to really appreciate some projects, I think you have to have an idea how much work goes into them. I know that I've had some lackluster responses to things in the past, and it's disappointing.

When I get something that's handmade, I'm COMPLETELY jazzed. To be fair, I get pretty jazzed anytime someone thinks enough of me to give me a gift, so if they took the time to make it...then..yeah.

For my birthday, my friend Meg crocheted a STEELERS trivet for me! This is exciting on three different levels: Steelers, handmade, crochet flower. Love, love, and LOVE! In fact, it's now considered art, not a kitchen accessory.



By the way, this is really, REALLY driving my desire to learn crochet.

adventures in candy making

Gluten-free baking is challenging, so I have taken up candy making. As of last week. I'd been bookmarking truffle and fudge recipes for a few months, and my (first gluten-free) birthday seemed like the perfect time to bust them out. I looked over my collection and decided to go with the dark chocolate and orange cups with toasted coconut and almonds. The really were as easy and delicious as the recipe made them sound! I needed a second dessert, so I decided to use the same principle with white chocolate and peanut butter. Wow. These are a few of my favorite things...and in cup form, they did not disappoint!

I followed the first recipe almost exactly (I used a few more almonds and a little more coconut). The recipe yielded about 9 cups.

For the peanut butter cups, I used 2 cups of white chocolate chips and a few heavy dollops of peanut butter. I hate when people use terms like "dollop" in recipes, but the truth is that you should put in a few tablespoons if you kinda like PB, and more like 4-5 if you love it. I love it.

Make sure to spray your cupcake tin with olive oil before you pour and set. I popped them right out with a toothpick and then stacked them on a plate in the fridge until I was ready to serve them.

They were so good that I'm already plotting my next free-style candy cups. Suggestions are welcome!

intro to sewing/those colors look good on you

My friend Karen came over last week to teach me how to use my sewing machine, and I have to say, she's a GREAT teacher! She explained everything really thoroughly and let me try things out for myself, and made sure to correct me when I was doing something crazy. She also taught me a major rule of sewing: never sew if you are tired and/or angry. I think that applies to knitting as well, but I learned (and continue to learn) that the hard way.

I bought some fabric this weekend to make the pups a series of kerchiefs...and clearly the first one on the list was the Steelers fabric. I was definitely waaaay tired, but I decided to sew them anyway. True to her advice, I had a few threading hiccups and being tired only made troubleshooting *that* much worse. Alas, the kerchiefs are finished and being worn as we speak.

It is RIDICULOUSLY hard to get both dogs in the same photo. I managed one shot before Puggie bolted, and Berger had his eyes closed. Geez. Jose does the same thing.


Puggie up-close. She's not as fond of kerchiefs as Berger is, but she tolerates them. And I'm sure they will grow on her.


Oh, Berg. Ever handsome, ever adorable. Ever hanging out in the kitchen, waiting for food to fall from the counter.

the sweetest Buddy Sir

We gave the Green Dog to Berger in 2008. Every once in a while I would throw a soft toy into the mix and see if he was ready to not destroy it - Green Dog was the first toy to make it. Not only did the toy survive, Berger would sleep with this head on it. He would cradle it like he is in this pic - all the time. As I type, the Green Dog is laying in the floor at my feet...both ears missing, his smile has been stitched up multiple times, his fur is worn from love and faded from washing. How could I possibly throw it out? Brown Dog + Green Dog=Forever.

Abitita shawl=complete

My first (and probably only) knitted Christmas gift is finished! A few weeks ago I posted some photos showing my progress...just before I ripped it all out. The yarn subtly shifts colors as you knit - I started with the dark end and didn't like the look at all. It was a ridiculous amount of work to re-do, but I think it looks much, much better this way!

Here's hoping this little number keeps Abitita warm on those (rare) chilly Puerto Rican nights. The likelier story is that it will keep her warm in chilly, air-conditioned restaurants. Brrrrr!

P.S. If you know Abitita, you have to keep this secret for a few months!

sweet pea art

Me and some of my favorite sweet peas :)

I really enjoyed everything about the New College reunion. I caught up with some of my former classmates, heard about the wonderful and fascinating things they're doing...I got to see the new NC space in Lloyd Hall...I got to meet some of the current students and recent graduates and feed off of their excitement...so much good stuff!

As my friend Corley said, New College taught us that you don't have to choose. The path you choose for your career doesn't have to dictate your interests and hobbies. Corley is an urban planner who lives on a farm and plays in a band. Pretty diverse, and pretty amazing. Once upon a time, I liked to paint. I was never any good at it, but New College taught me that I didn't have to be good at something to try it out. It was really nice to see that no matter how archaic/simplistic, some of my projects were still on display. Please, no laughing.

A welcome gift for Dr. Hall, circa 2002?


One weekend, Margaret let some of the sweet peas into Carmichael and we rolled out some canvas and had a paint-fest. My contribution? A masked snake:


The more artistic sweet peas painted this:


And I had nothing to do with this, but I do love it. We should all think about what goes into the footprint we leave on this earth:


See? I'm a librarian who likes to knit, occasionally paints, grows vegetables, and cares about the environment. You can be whoever you want to be. Thanks, New College.

smells like money

Whenever someone mentions Madeline Tosh yarn, I always say "mmmm, smells like money". Why? Because it's pricey stuff. Pricey, but amazing. I've never bought any, but I saw the Honey Cowl in a magazine and decided that I had to have it. But I didn't seek the yarn out, I just milled the idea around in my head for a few months, until I ran across THE yarn in THE color in a yarn shop. Now that I have it, I can't bring myself to wind it and start the project. Should I make the cowl? Something else?

So I have two skeins, 450 yards (DK)...any alternate pattern suggestions? I want to make sure I do the yarn justice - after all, it does smell like money.

fetching fingerless gloves

I really love fingerless gloves. They are the perfect balance of 80s-tastic and modern sass. I'd been looking for a pattern using sock yarn, when I saw the Fetching Fingerless Gloves as a shop sample at Yarn Tree Studio. It may have taken me a total of 3 hours for the pair. Maybe. And those were mostly mindless hours. I knitted a pair of mittens last year for my niece, and the thumb was such a pain that I had been dreading this pattern. The truth is, from now on, I will try to modify patterns to work the thumb this way. So simple. Now...when will it be cold enough here for me to wear them??