Manic Monday!

We painted up the wild man's bedroom this weekend and finished up all the little touches this morning.  He loves it!  He's even decided that we can take down the bed rail this evening because he's feeling pretty grown up :)  We'll have to see how that turns out!

Anyway, it's been a wild sort of day with crazy weather and no school.  Wild man is so ready to get back to school!  To be honest, we are ready for him to go back, too!

Hubby is off all week and we are already starting on more painting projects to brighten up this dreary old place.  No one has renovated or updated the walls since I was a wee mite!  I highly doubt seventies decor is still in vogue :)  LOL!  The upstairs hallway, the stairwell walls and the living room walls (all paneled) are going to be tackled this week and freshened up with a bright coat of paint.  It took some convincing for my Dad to agree to this change...he invested a lot in that paneling and it has served its time very very well.  Realizing that it is indeed a bit drab in here, he reluctantly, then later, happily agreed as long as we did the work!  The upstairs hall is already done and here are the results:

Very fuzzy before pic :)  Handsome hubby though!

After - WOW!  What a difference!

 Time for some supper for this tired old bird!  Good night all ;)

XXOO

Stormy Friday

Dolomite makes the perfect measuring stick.  He says it's about 10"! :)

Daddy's working hard!

Lots of snow = happy kid!

Dolomite says this snow is WAY too deep for me!

Goat girls - they didn't know what to make of all the swirly snow!

Please disregard the smear - it's hard to take pics in a snowstorm!

This was my Friday, how was yours?

XXOO

Simple Pleasures

Linking up with Dayle of A Collection of This and That to share my simple pleasure for today:

Need I say more??  \~/

XXOO

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again this week for her wonderful yarn along :)  I am in between at the moment trying to decide what project to start next so I'm working on a pair of socks for hubby.  It's my go-to-when-I-have-nothing-else project.  I haven't actually done socks in a couple of years.  Which is how long most of this yarn has been on these needles!!  Anyway, I pick at them from time to time and I'm back at it hoping to get the leg done so I can get to the interesting work of turning a heel!

3x1 Ribbed sock using Zitron Trekking Hand Art in Irland colorway

I have never read Pride and Prejudice before - it didn't seem like anything I would like yet I always felt bad about never having read it.  Since I've been enjoying a lot of British TV lately, including period pieces like Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Theater, I figured I might actually like it.  So I've bravely begun and lo and behold - I like it!  I've only just started and met Miss Elizabeth and Mr Darcy and they are already intriguing me.  It's a refreshing change of pace for me and I hope I enjoy the rest of the story - then maybe I'll go back and finish Wuthering Heights, though I think I'd have to force myself to finish that one :)

My quality control adviser and queen of all she surveys, Sox

All is well in my domain :)

Have a lovely day, my dears!  Stay safe and happy knitting :)

XXOO

Stuff and Things

First things first, my new hair!  Light was wonky so you really can't see the lovely new blonde I'm sporting but the cut came out great!

Rocking the back!

Liking the angle on the front!

Missed Ginny's yarn along this week - totally spaced it.  Here's what my contribution would have been had I been paying attention!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and another hat ;)

In other news, despite the pic above, I've been doing more reading than knitting in the last couple of days.  I find myself in-between projects...not sure what I want to start next.  The hat is just a take along type of thing, something I don't need to really think about.  So while I'm in the process of figuring out what I want to do I decided to take a break for a while.  This is what I'll be doing for the next week or so:

Don't you just love the mixed genres?

I have a finished object to show you!  Yay!  The Tiger Lily Cowl is done!  It was a lot of fun to work on.  The pattern repeats easy to remember and since it was simple knit and purl, it was a pretty quick knit.  I love this yarn, too, it's so incredibly soft and warm.  The picture isn't very good, it's still drying from a quick soak to block out the pattern.  I can't wait to try it on and get some decent shots of it in use!

Almost done and unblocked, of course

Didn't expect the pooling effect but I like it!

Stitch definition and bottom edging - looks ready for some ribbon!

One more pic to leave you with:

The wild man in all his cuteness :)

Stay safe and happy knitting/reading!!!

XXOO

Baking. Baking. Did I mention baking?

I really love baking and cooking - it's one of my favorite things to do.  And, like everyone, I like to think I'm fairly good at it.  I got to put that to the test this week!  I baked cupcakes for a friends shower which we had yesterday morning and that proved to be a huge success :)  My friend had a great time and received many cute and adorable things for her soon to be fifth child and the food practically disappeared!  I got rave reviews on the cupcakes, too - bonus! :)  

Then I had to start a volunteer baking project for a church event on Saturday morning.  I was asked to make about six Blueberry Lemon Curd Coffee Cakes, approx 60 servings total.  The recipes were incredibly easy, yet very time consuming.  I did the Lemon Curd yesterday and prepared the brioche bread base because it needed to chill before rolling out.  This morning I had to do a massive kitchen clean up from the last 3 days of baking before I felt comfortable about rolling out the dough on my counter!  In the interest of saving a little moola, I went with frozen blueberries and didn't thaw them first. ( Makes for some runny business but not too messy).  Then I started rolling and filling the dough.  An easy process, yet again, time consuming...why?  The dough needed time to rest after it had been rolled up.  So I ended up doing three cookie sheets of two logs each.  After baking the first batch I realized my oven temp was a little off so I reduced the temp and that seemed to work just fine for the middle and end batches.  When baked, the logs rise considerably.  I think if I'd had to do rings, it would have taken me all day because I would have only been able to do one ring at a time!  YIKES!  I'm not the best when it comes to waiting for things!  :)

In any case I think everything turned out great and hopefully it will taste great!  Here's the photo evidence:

Brioche dough

Rolled out

Spreading the lemon curd

Frozen blueberries...

Rolling the whole thing up

Resting...

Egg washed, sugared and ready to go in the oven

Finished logs, first batch is a little too brown

Off to rest my poor little head :)  Don't let me kid you, I've enjoyed every minute!  Oh, and the last project I have?  I'm due back at the church on Sunday morning to bake muffins for the morning volunteers.  WHAT was I thinking!!!  I'll be taking a break from all the baking for a little while, to recoup my energy!  

Stay safe and have a lovely weekend!

XXOO

Finished Cupcakes for Baby Shower and Yarn Along

Would you look at the darling baking cups?  They're tulips!

My piping skills are improving :)

Vanilla cupcakes filled with peach puree topped with green tea cream cheese frosting

My take on S'mores - you can barely see the sweet baby themed baking cups

Deep dark chocolate cupcakes topped with marshmallow creme frosting and graham crackers

Both flavors were so much fun to make and put together!  The baby shower is tomorrow, she doesn't read my blog so I'm not concerned the surprise will be spoiled.  I'm very excited to see her reaction!  I just love the look of the marshmallow creme frosting - makes me want to sit 'round the campfire :)

I'm participating in Ginny's yarn along this week - go check her out!  She's doing a give away!  Much progress has been done on the Tiger Lily Cowl.  However with two more baking commitments left this week, I'm not sure when I'll be able to sit down to finish it.  I only have two more rounds to complete, too :(  Pardon the poor lighting and focus in these shots!

Still reading the anthology :)  Almost done the 3rd book!

This will look so pretty after it's blocked!  Can't you tell how squishy it is?  Oh, so soft!

Well, my darlings...I'm pooped!  Off to bed I go :)

Stay safe and happy hump day!

XXOO

What I Woke Up to This Morning

View from my back door as the sun was starting to break through

View just to the right of the one above

The wild man's play set and the barn. 

View of the back hill - just so pretty!

What Not to Do When Assembling Cake

Let's see if you notice what it was I did wrong with this checkerboard cake:

Looking good so far!  Our Un-Superbowl Superbowl cake :)

OH!  LOL!  Total dumbass move - mental note to self, next time double check the layers!!!

The cake itself turned out delicious despite using new pans and not remembering to turn the temp down by 25 degrees because they were coated dark pans.  *sigh*  Not a good baking experience for me today!  The wild man picked the colors.  He's into purple right now ;)

This is what is brightening up my kitchen these days.  I decided to splurge a little and spoil myself with some flower-shop flowers!  There is nothing like a bright happy Gerbera daisy or Calla Lily to make ones day!  It was a luscious experience from start to finish; walking into the brightly lit shop on a dreary day and smelling the earthy flowery scents of Spring,  wanting to sit in a quiet corner all day with a bit of knitting simply inhaling the goodness and rejuvenating my sagging spirit.  Now those precious blooms are giving my dark little kitchen a little spark and hint of what's coming as we head around the last corner of winter.  And did you notice my other little splurge?  Yes!  It's a gorgeous hand bag made of recycled plastic bottles and other recycled materials because if I'm going to spend precious money on something fluffy (other than yarny goodness) it better be friendly!  Take a gander :)

It was the gorgeous Springy colors that got me at first!

Then I read the tag and saw how eco-friendly it was and it was love at first sight :)

I'm plugging away at my Tiger Lily Cowl - pictures will follow shortly.  It took me forever to get started on this project not for any other reason than my own dumbassedness!  LOL, is that even a word?  Well it's certainly appropriate!  I read the pattern and reread it so I would know what to expect and it still took me three cast ons and rip outs and an email to the designer, who very kindly pointed out to me that the pattern was indeed made in the round and not on straight needles and didn't laugh too hard at me, before I was successful!  Now I've completed the first two rounds of six and it's a really fun and easy knit :P  BTW?  When a pattern says "rounds" it really means "knit in the round" - just so you know.  DUH!  I just needed to turn my brain on!

Anyway, lets hope your Superbowl weekend was fun filled and happy!  Stay safe and happy knitting!

XXOO