I owe you one

Ok, so I've been very absent from my blog for the last, oh, month and a half. Sorry. I don't think it does us much good to dwell on this, so how 'bout an update? Here's what I've been doing. See that cute little bird camera pouch? Crocheted and stitched by yours truly. I'm most pleased with myself for using a leaf pattern that I found as a template, or rather inspiration? for this cute little bird that I came up with. I was also pleased that I was able to use up the very last bits of this brown wool to make a functional camera pouch. This came together in an evening. I'm thinking I might make more and add them to my Etsy shop. Thoughts?

Here's the other side. I was happy to find buttons we were no longer using that worked well for this project.

I also did a bit of knitting. Here are the pants (or longies) I made for Simon. They're wool so once they are properly lanolized (coated with lanolin), then they act as a great breathable, natural diaper cover. They're actually really lovely to knit. The pattern is so easy I don't even have to look at my hands, which makes it a great project for my Stitch & Chat group or watching TV. And they're so cute. Dan asked how many balls of yarn it would take to make a pair big enough for him. When asked he said he didn't want a pair, but I don't believe him.


A little more knitting. Here is a hat I knit using the owl motif from this pattern. I'm not super-happy with how the top turned out. It ends up being a little pointy if you don't have it pulled down all the way which, on Simon, makes it look like this:

For some reason, Simon's really enamored with this hat and he's always pulling it on his head if he can get a hold of it. I have since put some super-cute orange buttons for eyes on all of the owls. When I get a picture of it, I'll try to remember to put one up here.

I made my first batch of homemade whole wheat bread. It was kind of out of necessity. Dan had left for work. The kids were napping, it was cold outside and we were out of bread. But I had yeast and whole wheat bread flour and my KitchenAid (I heart you, KitchenAid). And thank you, KitchenAid for your whole wheat bread recipe! So easy. So delicious. Rose beautifully. Look at all that deliciousness!

Mmmmmm... fresh baked bread. Soooooooo good.


Of course, there were some birthdays. This cake was for our dear friends' 5 year-old son. We're still not sure if he was impressed that his name was in the place of Hot Wheels or disappointed that it didn't actually say "Hot Wheels." Let's hope he just looks back on it in about 5 or so years and thinks it's all kinds of awesome.

And here's the cake that I made for my supervisor's birthday. It was a chocolate cake with peanut butter pudding between the layers, and then peanut butter icing and chocolate peanut butter icing. Soooooo delish! There was another cake I made that was strategically omitted. It looked good except for the scary eyes on Princess Aurora. But they really ruin the whole thing. I don't want you to see it. In fact, at the party, when it came time to bring out the cake and light the candle and all, I asked if I could put the candle in her face. The mommy didn't mind. Hahaha.

I have also been trying my hand (eye?) at some more still life photography. Zoe and I made some lemonade and had some lemons sitting on the table afterward. They looked so right together with the tulips, they were begging to have their picture taken: "We promise, no sour expressions." (oh, was that just really bad? hahaha. deal with it. I'm back. Puns and all.)