Pinterest Success

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I really like pinterest.  I find so many fun knitting ideas there.  And recipes.  Lots of recipes.

I got the idea about how to decorate make my Halloween cupcakes from pinterest.

 

These turned out great except no one told me (and I had no clue) that  approximately 24 hours after I placed the M&Ms on the icing, the M&Ms would turn very dull and become gritty.  Gross.  So I was quickly replacing M&Ms which just was not much fun.  Next time – icing eyes!

Then the other night, I found a great recipe.  I love Mexican food + eggs.  So this was a Mexican baked casserole.  I also like finding great meatless recipes, and this is one as well.   It’s called “Mexican Baked Eggs“.  I made a couple of minor modifications.  I used one jalapeno pepper instead of two, and I removed all the seeds.  It called for chipotle chili powder as well which I’d never used before.  I like the flavor of it a lot.  It was a little hot though.  If Davey would have been brave enough to try it, I would have cut the powder back some.  There was not much of a chance of that though.  I also sauteed some diced potatoes and put that at the bottom of the dish.

This turned out great and I will make it again for sure. It was a dish that David didn’t mind having as a leftover – always a plus too.

Then there is the recipe that is just plain old sinful.  No way around it.  I don’t know what possessed me to make it, but it may be one of the best desserts I’ve ever made.  David describes the pie as having a glow around it which continuously beckons him.

It’s called Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Chips.

Some of the ingredients include peanut butter (obviously!), whipped cream, cream cheese and powdered sugar.  That actually is the vast majority of the ingredients.  I confess that I did not make the homemade crust.  The recipe for that included more sugar and butter.  Next time.

I will make this again when we have enough guests so that I can be sure that most of it will be consumed when they are here.  Otherwise it is irresistible.

So while I’ve been writing about recipes, Davey has been playing away!  He’s immersed in a scenario which I think involves a snake attacking a camp.

Sculptures and Humidifiers

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So this is not the greatest of pictures, but there are three things in it that I like very much.

The first of course is Davey.  Self-explanatory.

The second is the humidifier you can kinda see in the background. Since we moved here, we’ve enjoyed dry air.  However, it is really dry.  Now that the cold winter has hit, we were waking up with painful and sniffy noses, and headaches for me.  Everyone has told us “you have to run humidifiers”.  So I got us fixed up.  I put one in Davey’s bedroom and in ours.  We could still use one downstairs, and we will do that soon.  But having moisture in the air when you sleep is miraculous.  We are all feeling the difference already.

The third is the line of blocks on the floor.  Davey was creating a “love sculpture” for me.  It has to be a very long line because he has lots of “words of love” to say.  It is very sweet.  He also made me a shorter one to take to school with me.

Then today, he sent David to school with this sculpture:

 

This sculpture also had a specific purpose.  Davey was very excited about “Derby with Dad” day at prek today.  The dads go and they race Derby cars I think.  It’s getting ready to take place in just a few minutes.  So Davey wanted to help David be on time and he said, “Daddy when the propellers start spinning” that is when you need to leave RMCAD to come to Derby Day.”  So David took it with him to school. Such an imagination.   I love it.

I finished the Quaker Ridge Shawlette

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The beading of the shawl is finally done.  Whew.  That took a long long time. I finally sat down and knocked the rest of it out.  I am not sure I want to do quite that large of a beaded bind-off again, but I really love the result.  This photograph makes this look more pink than it actually is.  I took this photo outside with no flash.

I took this one inside with no flash, and the light was really pretty good.

 

The color is actually somewhere in between the two.  Helpful huh.

I have to say one more time how nice Madeline Tosh Pashmina is to knit with.   It was a treat!

This is probably the truest to the color.  Anyway, I love the ruffle!

 

Yay for finished projects!

Birthdays, Halloween, Soccer and Expressions

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Last week was a big week for us.  First we had David’s birthday.

David has been rediscovering his love for superheroes.

Then Halloween.  I didn’t take any pictures the night of Halloween, but I have a couple of the young Jedi.  We took this at his Little Gym Halloween party.

 

 

He had fun with a much more dramatic pose as well:

 

Next came Davey’s birthday.  He turned 5 on Saturday.

He is Mr. Expressions!  It’s a lot of fun to watch him!

 

He gets really excited.

 

 

Davey worked hard to blow out his candle.  Even though there was just one (a big 5), it didn’t quite want to go out!

This year we got a Costco cake.  It was bigger than what we needed, but it was really good with this vanilla mousse filling in the center.  Of course, Davey just removed all the icing from his piece of cake.  He enjoyed it thoroughly.

We had friends to celebrate with us, and Davey had a great time. You can see how hard he’d been playing by the looks of his hair in this picture!

And finally, Davey finished up his 3rd soccer season.

 

He always enjoys the “medal ceremony”! (such a funny little pose!)

 

Beaded Bind-off with Superfloss

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I’ve been working on the Quaker Ridge Shawlette for awhile.  Actually the main knitting has been done for a few weeks, but I am doing the beaded bind-off, and it is pretty much taking me forever.  It’s kinda slow going, but it’s going to be worth it.  I am loving how it looks.

The pattern included links to a couple of good video tutorials on how to do this bind-off.  The Knit Girllls recorded one: Superfloss bind-off.  There’s another one from Nelkin Designs too:  Beaded Bind-off.  When I am trying to learn something new it can be helpful to me to be able to watch a video and also look at a tutorial that consists of narrative and pictures.  This beaded bind-off can actually be done with a very small crochet hook or with Superfloss. I did find a crochet hook tutorial that was pictures and text, but I couldn’t find one that described the superfloss technique.  I was able to figure it out with the video, but I thought I’d share pictures of how I did it – it’s not hard at all.

I had no clue what Superfloss was.  Apparently it’s some kind of heavy duty dental floss.  You can find it about anywhere I think.  Here is what the box looks like.

 

The floss has this a short stiff part, a fuzzy thicker section, and then a long flossy tail. (Maybe I am the only person who has never seen this stuff before?)

 

So I tied a knot at the end of the long tail.  Nothing fancy, I just wanted to make a knot on the end so that the beads wouldn’t fall off.  The action takes place on the other end of floss.

That fuzzy part is a great place to hold the beads until you need them.  It’s like this stuff was made for bead placement rather than teeth flossing.

 

I bought some glass beads at Hobby Lobby.

 

I put a bunch of beads in a little yellow bowl.

 

I mostly picked up the beads and put them on the floss one by one, or you can dig your floss in there and scoop them onto the stiff end as well.  This works fine too. I need almost 500 beads for this ruffled edge.  Egadz! (although I only put on about 15 beads at a time.  Every once in awhile, I pulled out a fresh piece of floss.)

So you use that stiff end of the floss and poke the end through the first stitch on your needle.

 

Then you pull that stitch off the needle.  Hold onto that end of floss and make a U.

 

Next I had to enlist Davey’s help.  He helped me hold the stitch so I could take the picture.  That’s his slightly grimy thumbnail.  (His hand looks so big here!) See that end piece from above?  You stick it through the bead.  So then you have a loop.

 

You’ll have the floss poking through the bead.

 

The floss is going through the stitch as a loop and the end of the loop goes through the bead so that now the bead is going to slide down nicely over the loop. (David helped me with these pictures.)

 

Slide that bead on down and remove the floss.

 

Now take that resulting loop and put it back on the left needle.  I already had one stitch on the right needle (remember this is a bind-off).  I knit the stitch which has the placed bead.  Then per this pattern, I moved both stitches back to the left needle and knitted together through the back of them (again leaving one stitch on the right needle).  Then you just repeat.  And you get a row of beaded stitches that look like this:

 

I hope this is helpful.  I was a little confused by the process when I started.  Part of this was having no clue what superfloss was and how I would use it.  I’d also never beaded anything before so this was a new challenge!  I’ll post pictures of the finished shawlette hopefully very soon!

Super Scary Mochimochi

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Davey and I just finished our Halloween knitting project.  It took us several weeks but was a lot of fun.  I was inspired by my recent purchase of Anna Hrachovec’s new book Super Scary Mochimochi.

I love her books and patterns. I’ve knitted several of her teeny tiny guys too.  So when I saw that she had a new Halloween themed book coming out, I was thrilled.

I looked through the book.  The “Create your own Monster” patterns immediately caught my eye.  She included patterns for different monster bodies and various monster parts including ears, noses, feet, and tails.  You knit the pieces you want and mix and match them to form your own monster.  I decided that this would be very fun for Davey and me.

So I started knitting.  I just made a bunch of random pieces in different colors.  I used Cascade 220.

When I got it them almost all knitted up, I enlisted Davey to tell me how he wanted to put the pieces together.  He was happy to help me.

So we worked together and created four guys.  Their names are still subject to change, but here’s what we have so far.

Meet Cuke (his name is the one who needs the most work).

Cuke has quite the tongue doesn’t he!

Next up is Luigi.  His moustache is a weeeee bit crooked.  It may be that he is a little flustered because his ears do not match.  Davey was for this ear arrangement at first, but then he wished that I’d have made them the same.  Maybe Luigi wishes this too. But – monsters do not have to have matching ears.  It’s a rule.

Next up is Vampire Dude (again – name is still under consideration).

Vampire Dude has batwings for arms.  They are kinda hard to see.  He has quite the fangs, and he has bolts for ears.  He may be a little confused about his identity.

You may have noticed Burt and Curt in the background of the above picture.  Davey insisted that they have matching antennae.

It’s a motley crew.

When I got home from school today, I noticed that Davey had arranged the guys so they could look out the window.  I liked this too.  He’s a thoughtful kid.

I like seeing Davey’s little arm in the picture too..

So welcome Burt, Curt, Cuke, Luigi, and Vampire Dude.  (I don’t know if technically a two-headed monster should be counted as two monsters.)

Minikickers, Fall, Yarn

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We’ve had another busy but good week.

Davey has been going to a weekly soccer camp.  It’s been in addition to playing on his soccer team.  He has really enjoyed it.  It’s just been 45 minutes on Tuesdays, and they play lots of fun games with the soccer ball.

 

He received a certificate at the end, and he enjoyed this “ceremony”.

 

 

 

He also has been having fun playing with his “village”.  He requests yarn from me and then hangs long pieces of it all over his village.

 

 

He’s up here with me right now cutting those long pieces of yarn into short pieces of yarn.  He’s working on his scissor skills.

The trees have been so pretty.  I went for a short walk around the neighborhood the other day after I dropped Davey off at pre-k.  Everything is very golden here.

 

I didn’t get a great picture, but I noticed that the mountains are getting snowy again.

 

And then finally, Davey and I have been working on a knitting project.  It’s Halloween related so I am trying to get it done before Halloween, but there’s not been a lot of knitting time lately.  Here’s a sneak peek.  I can’t wait to finish this!

Cottonwood Farms – Pre-K Field Trip

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Yesterday, we met Davey’s class at a pumpkin patch.  There were farm animals to see, a hay bale maze, a corn maze and of course pumpkins!

Davey posed on a pumpkin for me – kinda.

 

Davey saw the corn maze, and he wanted us to go through it.  “I know we are terrible at corn mazes,” he said, but he wanted to try it out anyway.  We are pretty bad at corn mazes, but we went in with confidence.

 

I don’t know if Davey actually remembers this or if he just remembers the story, but a little while later, he said, “I’m looking for Boy Scouts” (We relied on boy scouts to get us out of our very first corn maze a couple of years ago.  He wasn’t even quite 3, but maybe he remembers this:  “Save Yourselves“!)

It’s not looking too good here either.

 

Fortunately this maze was not nearly as large as the Denver Botanical Gardens maze, and we found our way out.

So we checked everything out.  Measured Davey:

 

And of course I have a fondness for sheep.

 

Davey joined his pre-k friends in the hay bale maze.  He had a great time despite realizing he is fairly allergic to hay.

 

Davey and one of his friends had to check out the friendly big black dog too.

 

We had to go pick a pumpkin of course.

 

Which Davey and David promptly took home and carved.

 

One of Davey’s teachers kindly offered to take a family picture of us.

 

Fun day.

Oh!  “Happy I Love Yarn Day!”

Sunday: Shawlette and a couple of recipes

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Davey and I have been hanging out this weekend.  David had to make a trip to Texas, but he’ll be back this evening.  Today Davey and I worked on putting up the Halloween lights.  Hopefully I can take a good picture in the evening.  We are very excited about Halloween!

I have a Halloween knitting project which is in progress.  I’m looking forward to blogging about it soon!

I’m working on the bind off on my Quaker Ridge Shawlette. This is a Susan B. Anderson pattern, and it’s been really nice to knit.  The slow part is the bind-off.  I’m doing a beaded bind-off.  I’ve never done one before so it was a little tricky at first.  I felt like all thumbs with the little beads.  I’m getting better at it though.  I need to get it finished up (almost 500 stitches to bind off. yikes.).

This is not a great picture.  I’ll take some better ones when it is done.

 

I also wanted to share a couple of really good recipes that I made lately.

One is Pioneer Woman’s “Simple Perfect Enchiladas“.  These are really good.  I used hamburger, but shredded beef would be good too.  I always use Hatch enchilada sauce too.  If you can get it, I highly recommend it.  It seems like some red enchilada sauce is kind of bitter.  Not hatch.

Another positive was that the enchiladas warmed up really well.  We aren’t crazy about leftovers typically, but these were great leftovers.

I also subscribe to allrecipes.com emails.   They had a recipe up yesterday for Spicy Beef Stew. Now this sounded a little weird to me because it called for a jar of marinara sauce and a can of Rotel.  So odd that I just had to try it. However, it all blended in and I couldn’t tell at all that I’d put spaghetti sauce in.  I put it on mashed potatoes.  I confess I made Hungry Jack mashed potatoes.  I had not made instant potatoes probably ever, but I’d read somewhere that they were good.  I always thought instant potatoes tasted weird, but these were really good.  Definitely good to put stew over!  Lots of leftovers on this too.

Ok we need one more extension cord for our lights.  And maybe some frozen yogurt.

As Seen on TV…Press Dough!

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Press Dough!  Davey had seen this commercial a bunch of times on Sprout.  He loves to play with Playdoh, and so the idea of playdoh as real dough that you could bake and eat?  Sounded great to him!

He kept asking me to get it for him, and so I did.  As an added bonus – “if you buy now!”  – we got 2 for the price of one!

So it finally arrived, and Davey was ready to try it out.

I may have not gotten the dough just right.  I refrigerated it for awhile so it would get firm, but it still wasn’t easy to work with.  I’m no expert with cookie cutters; I sometimes find it hard to use them myself.  He liked the flour shaker which the instructions insisted was very important.  We were supposed to liberally sprinkle the molds with flour.

Davey liked playing with it for awhile, but it was kinda hard to get anything to work quite right.  It was kind of a mess.  Davey is definitely not a tidy kid much of the time, but he (like his daddy) does not like a mess.  This was a little messy!

It was his first experience with the “as seen on tv” product.  Not always quite what you think it’s going to be.

I think he’s back to Playdoh.

Koko wanted to check this all out too.  I think she smelled the dough.

 

Koko may be an old girl, but her nose still works like a charm.  I had to get the crooked mouth face.  She’s been doing that forever.