Boxing’s been good to me, Howard…

 ;)

So after the hustle and bustle of a quadruple birthday weekend (2 parties for Aurelia and a bit of time shoehorned in for myself and Patrick since we were surrounded by family – 2 wikkid yummy gift baskets from Dan, lots of pampering goodies from my Mil and gorgeous roses from Jamie and Kevin) we have settled back into the rhythm of everyday life.

But my favorite part of the whole weekend – and trust me fitting all those people comfortably into my little 780sq ft house for an enjoyable and fun 3 hours is a close second(for reference: this kitchen is bigger than my whole house) – hold on, I’ll get to it.

Friday nights we have pizza. fact.

But we have also decided to make this the year we pay down our debt and pizza night looked like a looming casualty till we remembered that we have a friggin pizza stone in our oven ALL the time and we can make our own, even easier when you buy the dough ready-made from the grocery store.

Patrick spent the day at work Friday excitedly telling everyone and anyone who would listen, and many who would not, that when he got home I would make him pizza, good pizza, the best pizza. I lurve him. And so I did. On Sunday night after all the revelers had gone home and we had settled the kids in bed for the night we decided to have pizza again because it had been So good.

This was my favorite part of the weekend Pizza from the West-Si-eeeeeed

Toots

The girl with the red magic shoes…

 ;)

7 years, 3 hours and 49 minutes

Happy birthday beautiful girl – you’re still the best birthday present I ever had.

Mama loves you

To the swayed back screened in front porch…

 ;)

The party with school friends was today. 4 little girls and me, Patrick and Saeb were at a party for one of her school friends.

I kept them busy to keep them from being crazy. First we took pictures of everyone, we painted suncatchers, decorated our own cupcakes (one to eat and one to take home), and each made a mini scrapbook of the party – hence the picture taking – ( I got the kits at Michael’s for a buck during their big after holiday sale).

Much fun was had, great gifts were opened and the girls all went home happy and smiling.

Tomorrow is the family party and the birthday girl will get an outfit that matches the one I made for her doll, as well as her first dictionary – she’s so much like her father, and a couple of these.

Hope you’re all staying warm.

Toots

You drive down to the lake, then you turn back around…

 

Its the little things, really.

We had a great time on Saturday with Debbie and Jon – we’ll do it again fer sure. ( thanks for the little goodies! Pat likes to use his as an excuse for improper behavior – read to the bottom)

Sunday went swimmingly, too. We spent the afternoon at my youngest bil’s place and Kate and I got to knit for a couple hours. I got her started on her first pair of socks – Jaywalkers! She’s So excited, YAY! We’ll have to do that again too even if I do have to walk up all those stairs – sheesh.

I’ve been working away like mad to get some things done for Aurelia’s birthday. She has two parties this weekend, friends on Saturday and family on Sunday. She’ll be officially 7 next Tuesday at 6:38am. Oh, yeah I remember exactly what that clock said when the pain ended

So I’m sewing up an outfit for her and a matching one for her American Girl doll – little plaid skirts and blue jackets, matching jammies – Saebra will have a set too – and maybe by Tuesday I’ll have the girl and her doll a pair of matching socks, we’ll see.

I’m also working on a pinwheel sweater for her but she knows about it and I’m on NO deadline for it.

I also got a nice little fabric boost this weekend. My Mom works at an assisted living home as the…well, the cruise director. She can be very entertaining. Anyhoo, she found a couple quarter yards of vintage waverly fabric and thought of me. I lurve my Mom.

Not much more time for blogging this week. Lots of sewing and knitting to get done. Hopefully I’ll pop in on Sunday night with birthday pics. Have a great week my little chickadees!

Toots

I know this much is true…

Yesterday was the boy‘s birthday. He doesn’t know how old he is. Seriously (he’s 33).

He says, ” The last time it mattered was 25.” because…”its the last time you get a break on your insurance. After that nothing interesting happens till 59 1/2 years old.”

So we had chicken pot pie and some crazy chocolate eclair dessert that I’m not sure I would ever make again, so no recipe, but he liked it just fine.

As a joint birthday gift we are going out to dinner with friends tonight so I made myself a new jewelry set. Yeah for gifts to me

I have a few ideas swimming around in my head, knitting, sewing, crochet, and I’ll try to post about them soon. Good news on the Rosehips. They were accepted!! I’ll let you know when you can buy the pattern. Yipeee!

Toots

Its a daily grind, waiting to unwind…

This was our dessert tonight.

Can you put the following pics in order to get to the yummy gooey fudgy goodness?

If you’d like to enjoy this scrumptious chocolate mess follow the recipe.

Nana’s Hot Fudge Cake (circa 1930′s)

1 cup All Purpose Flour                2 tbs vegetable oil

3/4 cup sugar                                1 tsp vanilla

2 tbs baking cocoa(powder)         1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder                       4 tbs baking cocoa(powder)

1/4 tsp salt                                    1 3/4 cups boiling water

1/2 cup milk

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, 2tbs cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, oil and vanilla until smooth (note: this is a thick batter). Spread into an ungreased 9×9 baking pan. Combine brown sugar and remaining 4 tbs of cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all, DO NOT STIR – trust me.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40minutes.

Serve warm. Especially good with vanilla or coffee ice cream. Mmmm

Toots

My brother kicked his feet to sleep…

Ok. I can’t give away any details because I have submitted this for publication. I submitted it to Webs, I used their lovely Berkshire yarn, so we’ll see if they pick it up. If not then I’ll offer it to you here. Based on the pattern from my Peruvia mitts, that I wear ALL the time, I present:

Rosehips in Winter

Toots

In my mind’s eye…

We had friends over for dinner tonight – Yay!

Goulash, salad, garlic bread and the simplest dessert – Jell-o poke cake.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had this before on my life but when we decided to invite our friends over I started thinking about what I could make, sweets wise, with what I already had in the house. I had stuff to make cake and I had jell-o. Simple choice, really.

Wanna make one? Bake a cake, poke some holes in the top and pour hot jell-o all over it, chill and cover in whipped cream. I’m totally making this again. It might become my “thing”. Maybe. I’ll have to make one for my sister to try. She’ll let me know if it can be my thing or not. She’s good like that.

Right now Patrick is making popcorn and I’ve paused the movie we’re watching while he does. This way he doesn’t miss too much but really its because I need a break from this one. We’re watching Donnie Darko. I’m Ok with the cast and I love the soundtrack, I’m down with pretty much the whole movie…except for Frank. You all know about my fear of penguins but I also have issues with rabbits. Not bunnies – those are cute – I’m talking about rabbits. Probably goes back to watching the animated version of Watership Down when I was too young. Someday you can ask my Mom about the demonic rabbit figurines that I made her keep in her closet. Gives me the creeps just thinking about them.

* movie done – good view. rabbit issues were semi resolved. the imagery still wicked bothers me though. Its a mad world.

Toots

I will treat you well, my sweet angel, so help me Jesus…

I have fond memories of shouting about a secret at this past year’s Rhinebeck festivities.

The secret was to be found in my friend Melissa‘s new (and first) book; 2-at-a-time Socks.

I was fortunate enough to test knit a pair before publication, though I waited to show pics because it was pre-pub and I didn’t want to give anything away. I took pics when they were in progress, I lurve these little cuffs, but I never took finished sock shots, hmmm. Now I’ll have to go dig them out of Aurelia’s drawer.

So, I knit some socks, I watched my friend shaking with anticipation and worry over the state of her new book and I watched as the book hit the shelves – good little book. I hadn’t had a chance to get my hands on a copy yet, it was a planned gift for myself around birthday time, when much to my surprise a totally awesome and free copy was in my mailbox yesterday! Woot! Yeah for me! Thanks Storey! And there, right next to the index page was a pic of the pattern I test knitted!Woohoo!

If you find yourself in the market for good sock patterns that will keep you interested enough to finish a pair…if you suffer from SSS…if you just like people looking at you like you’ve got a third eye, this is the book to get! Trust me, you’ll love this method – 1 project= 2 socks. you can’t get any better than that!

Congratulations Melissa. This is one beautiful baby.

Toots

Car horns, corners and the gritty…

I can’t believe January is already 1/3 over!

I designed Aurelia’s birthday invites today with a great little drawing she did last weekend. We had fourth Xmas with my Dad, Step-Mom, Debbie, and her Mom, Donna, last Saturday. When the girls were babies I asked Deb if she thought her Mom and Dad would be comfortable with my girls considering them grandparents since Dad and Deb aren’t ever having kids and who knows if either of her brothers ever will. So Grandma and Grandpa B were added into the family mix. I’m really glad I did that both for my kids and for Donna. Charlie passed away last year, they got to know him as part of their family and we have been lucky to see much more of Donna out this way since, besides, who doesn’t love a big family!?!

Anyway, Donna got Aurelia a spirograph and the kid sat transfixed for over an hour making all sorts of colorful circles and then turning those into animals and bugs – thats imagination for ya. (Saeb was just as delighted with her “flatscreen” lite-brite!) I used to just see how many different colors I could use till the whole thing turned brown. Somehwere in there she made this little ladybug with 7 dots. 7! She turns 7 this month, I thought it was just perfect. I’ll show them to her tonight and see what she thinks.

Today I am also ironing yards of flannel to make more cozy nightgowns. I got these two prints at Joanne’s for a buck a yard the week after Christmas! The girls picked them out, brown for Saeb and pink for Re. I’ll see how much yardage I have after the pieces are cut but I should have enough to make matching nighties for their American Girl dolls.

Finally a pic of this awesome sock kit that I won from Stitchy from way back in the fall playing Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo. I probably won’t get around to making them till this summer but They’ll be cool when I do!! hee hee. beer socks hee.

Toots