Some Little Treats

I decided to make a few treats for a recent family gathering.

These are snookerdoodle cupcakes with a cinamon frosting topped with a blackberry. Very, very yummy!

These are my brownie recipe cut out with a circular biscuit cutter and then embellished with loops of colored chocolate. The decorations did not turn out like I wanted - I should have used a smaller tip on the decorating bag - Oh, Well....next time I'll know. They tasted just fine! The kids were asking the adults for their chocolate loops so they could have more :o)

A Very Berry T-shirt

It's done! I had tons of stitching time, though not for a very good reason. We had planned on going to our cabin in Kirkwood for a much deserved vacation. Packed up, kids excited, hubby and I excited. We drove there (4 hours) - looked around (cabin had sprung a leak on the top level and totally needs to be gutted) - called insurance - turned around and headed back home (4 hours). Lots of knitting time. Thanks to wonderful in-laws - they asked if we would like to use their condo in Monterey for a couple of days and we said "YES". Repacked and drove 1 1/2 hours to Monterey and tried to relax for a couple of days. It was so nice to be away even though we spent easily half of the time on the phone with insurance (so far they have been very easy to work with-knock on wood). Then drove 1 1/2 hours home. The day after we got back from Monterey, hubby and I drove back to Kirkwood to meet with insurance adjusters and miscellaneous other people who will be taking care of the demo and restoration of our cabin. Again the in-laws came to the rescue and stayed with the kids so they didn't also have to make the trip back to Kirkwood. What would we do without such great family around?!!


Anyway, back to the "T-shirt". I love this pattern!! It is well written, there are no mistakes and it is easy to complete. The construction happens all on it's own - the only seams are the underarm seams - it is knit totally in the round and goes so-so-so quickly.

A close up of the color on the top portion. No matter how many times I photgraphed this, I just could not get an accurate representation of the color. This is very close though.

Here's my cutie wearing it!

She does love a photo shoot....

And of course....the back.

Pattern: Very Berry T-shirt by Lucia Tedesco

Started: 7/18/2009

Finished: 7/28/2009 (this is a record for me!)

Needles: US7

Yarn: Lion Brand Yarn-Wool Ease Worsted Weight

Color: Black #153 Lot: 31037

80% Acrylic, 20% Wool
Yarn: Adriafil - Fluo trends

Color: #27 (multi) Lot: 1

I love, love, love this pattern and have another one planned for dd#3.

Spite and Malice

This is the name of a new card game that my sister-in-law and brother-in-law have taughter me. It is a very fun game and we played it quite a lot at the pool while the kids where having fun. The rules are here: http://www.pagat.com/patience/spitemal.html

The best part......my 11 yo and my 9 yo can now play. It takes two decks for two people, 3 decks for 3 people and so on - a perfectly adaptable game for my crowd!!

I am anxiously awaiting the oldest to come home from music camp so that we can teach her. She has been gone 6 days, we just got to see her last night (it is a 2 1/2 hour trip) to watch a concert and then take her out to dinner. We go pick her up in a week - much too long for me. I was sure that she would want to come home when she saw us, but while it was really evident that she missed us and her siblings, she was completly happy and had made a lot of new friends. After dinner she was ready to go back to camp for more music and festivities. My girl is growing up.

finished & started

The EROS shell for dd#2 is finally done! It was actually completed a week and a half ago but we went on vacations and then had family in town. I am really, really pleased with it. DD#2 loves it and has worn it on several occasions already.

Looks much better on the model than on the floor :o)
I am really proud of how this fits. It is long enough....

The armholes are not too small nor are they too large.....

It also looks good from the back.

Eros Drifter's Shell

Started: 6/16/2009

Finished: 7/18/2009

Needles: US6 & US 7

Yarn: Lion Brand Trellis

Color: Rainbow

The true verdict is now DD#1 wants one in this yarn and this colorway! Cool!

The start of another shirt for DD#2. "Very Berry T-Shirt"

Black Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted Weight

Multi-color yarn: Adiafil-Fluo trends

They both knit up to the same measurements in the swatches which was just slightly larger than called for. A little math and away I go!

On the whole my children are pretty good natured and listen pretty well. There are times when each of them can be very defiant and disrespectful. I was lamenting an extremely frustrating day to a friend of mine. A day where the kids were defiant and I was less than patient and definitely not the kind of mom I strive to be. My friend recommended this book to me as a good tool. It took me considerably more than 10 days to go through it. I found each chapter full of "food for thought". It was not what I had expected at all.

This book was all about causes and effect. It was about modifying parental behaviors and expectations. Not letting any consequences slide, or letting the children be disrepectful, but more about some of the things that lead up to a blow up and how to stay calm in response to said blow ups and poor behaviors. I wound up reading and thinking about each chapter for a few days while I tried to implement some of the helpful tools that I wanted to use. Then I moved on to the next chapter and went back over the previous chapter. I used plenty of highlighter and took copious notes (you would think I was back in school or something!!), but I believe that it has helped our family tremendously. My kids still act up and act out - they are still kids!, but I have better tools in my toolbelt to help me deal with these outburts in a calm manner (I wish I could be calm all the time!). I found this book truly helpful and wanted to pass along this little tip in case anyone else might need it.

finished!.....or is it??

I finally finished my daughter's EROS shell. Isn't is lovely? The picture truly does not do it justice. The colors are much more vibrant and the ribbon bits give it a really interesting texture. My daughter loves it - all that is left is to sew the shoulder seams together. My daughter wants to try it on.......oh, my........the armholes are too snug. So snug infact that the unsewed shoulder seams are not holding together!!

A picture of the too small armholes!! What was I thinking?....is her body the size of a 3 year old?
ripped back to the start of the shoulder shaping

So......this pattern is intended for adults. I did some math (there's the first problem) and figured out my daughter's circumference times stitches per inch to decide how many stitches to cast on. All was well. That part fits fine. Modified the pattern a bit so that I can knit in the round - so much faster for me!! Great, that worked. Measured how long she would like the shirt to be from her armholes to the bottom.....fine! Split the shirt into front and back - Figured out the armhole decreases - just right! Great! I was getting so close. Then, I'm not sure what happened, my measuring tape decided to lie to me!! I measured from her armpit to her neck and got 5 1/4", knit just shy of that put in the shoulder decreases, joined the shirt front and back together to knit in the round for the collar, bound off, put the shoulder seams together with stitch holders and let the daughter try it on.....EEEEEKK!! No dice! This was in the morning. That night at about 10:30 I undid the bindoff and ripped all the way back to the end of the shoulder decreases. I noticed that some of the stitches were slipping down into my work so I decided to catch those with more stitch markers and put the rest back on the needles. Tinked down to where the shoulder decreases started, caught and wove back up the stitches that slipped and had everything ready to knit at 12:30. What a SLOW and painstaking process!! Remeasured daughter from bottom of the armpit to her neck - hmmmm - she now measured 7" - she must have grown this much since the end of June - it could not have been my error!....could it??? Back to the knitting and hopefully it will be completely done soon!!

This and that

11 more squares on the quilt (although most of the other people doing this are done!)

This is a close up of the fabric I used for these squares. I didn't have enough of the blue so I used some of the green again. I love making these - they are soooo fun!
Our family finished another puzzle

And started a new one

This one is going very slowly - I think the pieces are too small for all the kids to work on it. The cousins have been working on it too.

Lots of progress being made on the cross stitch stocking and the knitted shell. They just don't really look all that different than the last photos :o)