Very Pretty Lace Scarf

I recently splurged on a few new books for my craft book library (more on that later), and among the new purchases was More Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which is truly a beautiful book full of projects that I am dying to make. I decided the first project I would tackle was the Very Pretty Lace Scarf as a birthday gift for a dear friend. It was my first time knitting lace, and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as hard as I'd imagined it would be. I will definitely be trying my hand at it again.

My LYS doesn't carry the recommended yarn, so I decided to pair up Lang Alpaca Superlight with Malabrigo lace for this project. I have to say that while I loved knitting with these two yarns, I'm not sure it was the right choice for this project. The scarf knit up beautifully and is very warm, but it's a lot "poofier" than it would have been had I used the recommended yarn. Still, it turned out very well, and I'm hoping my friend will enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoyed knitting it.

The project is included in the "6 to 8 hour" projects section of the book, but, at least for me, it took much longer than that to complete. I typically knit during my commute, so there was much starting and stopping, and knitting in small spurts of time. It's hard to say exactly how many hours it took to knit up, but I'm pretty sure it was a lot more than 8 hours. I'm thinking that now that I've tried this pattern, the next time I knit it up (and there will be a next time, as I love it so!) it'll go faster.

What project have you recently completed?

S'mores in wintertime

I am a big fan of s'mores, and would eat them year-round if it weren't unreasonable to make a big bonfire every day. My husband, on the other hand, is not at all a fan of s'mores, but loves cupcakes. And so, years ago, I did a search for s'mores cupcakes and came up with a ton of hits.

One recipe I found, used Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes as the base (recipe here) and used a buttercream frosting with marshmallow cream added to it. If you've got a buttercream recipe you love, I would just use that and then add the Marshmallow cream to it. In case you're interested, here's how I make it:

Marshmallow Frosting

You'll need:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups confectioner's sugar

a small amount of vanilla (I never measure, but probably around 1/2 tsp)

1 jar Marshmallow cream (7 oz)

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar until incorporated. Add Marshmallow cream and vanilla. Continue beating until fluffy. Color with food coloring, if desired. This recipe will make enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

After I frost my cupcakes, I add a chocolate square and some graham cracker crumbs for garnish. You could make a graham cracker crumb crust for the cupcakes, too, and I bet that would be delicious.

These have become our standby cake and frosting recipe, making an appearance at every birthday, celebration, and even at our last Thanksgiving dinner. If you're craving some sweets, I'd highly recommend making these. If you do, let me know how they turn out, ok?

Big Boy Quilt

When we moved M to a big boy bed many months ago, it was quite an ordeal. Some kids are thrilled to move from their crib to a big boy bed, but our little guy wanted nothing to do with it, and would have a big melt-down, crying for his crib. The problem was that he'd figured out how to climb out of his crib to get out, so going back to the crib was unsafe and out of the question. To sweeten the deal, I made him a "big boy quilt" for his bed, using all sorts of boy novelty prints.

I used that quilt as you go method from Patchwork Style, which allowed me to do straight line quilting without a walking foot, but was really time consuming. Because this whole transition took place in the winter, I ended up backing it with some orange fleece initially intended for a pumpkin outfit. I have to say that I'm less than crazy with the backing, but it was more for function than anything else. We live in a cold, drafty old house, and I figured the quilt would better keep our little guy warm backed with fleece than if it were backed in the pretty truck cotton print I'd originally picked out.

I wanted to make the quilt a bright, colorful addition to M's room, but sometimes I think it's a little too much. Maybe I should have limited myself to using basics in primary colors (checks, stripes, plaids, dots) for the logs, and limiting the novelty prints for use in the center of each block. But then I watch my little guy closely studying the quilt, proudly identifying everything he sees ("Cars!" "Horseys!" "Fishies!"), and I figure that as long as he likes it, that's all that matters.

Late winter storm hat

We had a forecast for a winter storm here in Seattle earlier this week. While a large part of the surrounding area got a decent amount of snow, we, in Seattle, did not. We got some flurries, sure, but not much more than a light dusting stuck -- which was so disappointing to a toddler who has discovered that he loves snow.

Even without the snow, though, it got cold (for us here in the Puget Sound area, anyway...). And of course, I wanted to make sure my little guy stayed nice and cozy as he played outside in the flurries -- especially since his wool hats knit by Mama seem to constantly be left behind at the park, playdates, and all sorts of places. I search through my stash of yarn, and found that I'm running woefully low on soft worsted weight wool yarn for hats. So I had to go with synthetic, and, judging by the way the hat is getting tossed around, I'm not too bummed about it.

This was my first time making up my own pattern, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out -- except that I knit the color work a little tight. But I guess that has nothing to do with the pattern itself... maybe I just need to relax a little! I've been knitting baby hats for a while now, so I had a good handle on  the dimensions I wanted. If you want a starting point for designing your own baby hats, there's tons of great books out there, but my favorite, by far, is Baby Beanies. After knitting up a couple of the (super adorable!!) patterns in the book, you'll be mixing and matching different design elements to come up with your own hat pattern in no time.

Life moves fast; don't miss it.

Every night, as I get ready for bed, I find myself wondering how time can possibly be flying by so fast every day. Instead of the post-holiday slow down I'd been hoping for, I'm finding our days are fuller than before. We're constantly trying to keep up with it all, and finding ourselves frustrated that we can't do it all.

And when things feel like they're getting too busy, or we have too much to juggle, I find that I need to remind myself that life moves fast and I don't want to miss it. It's become a personal mantra, a reminder that it's ok to be busy, work hard, and have a lot on my plate... but it's not ok to sacrifice quality and the enjoyment of life in order to try to do it all.

So this past Sunday, I found myself taking a break from writing reports and analyzing data to enjoy some priceless moments with M. He's so into art projects these days -- stamping, painting, drawing, "writing", and, now, beading. It's delightful watching him finding such enjoyment in the process of creating something. He's so deliberate in his creating process, and doesn't rush through it at all. The end product is a plus, of course, but his real enjoyment comes from using his hands to touch and make. Our home is overflowing with his artwork these days, little bits that remind us to keep things in perspective.

Life moves fast; don't miss it.

Two and a half months

Wow.

It's been two and a half months since I last posted. How is that possible? Lately, as I am getting ready for bed, I am left wondering where my day has gone. I know that's not a unique feeling; most of my friends complain about the lack of time, too. Still, I'm finding it hard to believe it's been two and a half months since I last visited this space.

Since returning to work, my spare time has become so much more scarce than I'd anticipated. Not that I had that much spare time when I was at home full time with the Monkey, but I did have those precious nap times to get things done: cleaning, laundry, dinner prep, sewing... Now I find myself wanting to spend all the time I can with my guys, which means way less crafting (and cleaning). That, of course, translates to a lot less posting here.

I have been (slowly) working on some larger projects lately, which I will surely share here in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I leave you with this. This is where we spent our Saturday morning, enjoying some much-needed sunny and dry fall weather and some much treasured time together. Yay, fall is here!

Picking the perfect pumpkins

Making "music"

Say 'Cheese!'

Project Home Decor Continues

I am still slowly working down my "to do" list as I try to decorate our home, and it's going way slower than I'd imagined. One of the big items on my list is turning the Monkey's room from a baby's sweet nursery to a toddler's cool transportation themed room.

First up: cool new bedding for his crib.

Did you know you can make your own crib sheets? Yep, you can! Dana's tutorial makes it so so so easy.

I've been eyeing the adorable sets of transportation-themed crib sheets over at Pottery Barn Kids, but they're just a bit too pricey for me. So instead, I cut into some fun cars, trucks, and motorcycle fabric I got at Ikea months ago. And just like that, the Monkey has some cool new fitted sheets for his crib.

Paired with his new Toybox quilt, and I think we're off to a good start in his room. There's still a million other things I want to change up in there, but for now, he's happy with crib bedding that reflects his interests (wait, I meant obsession). And that makes this Mama very happy.

Oh, and don't think I've completely given up on the monthly projects. I'll be back later this week to share!