Girls Night: June

It was K's turn to host Girls (Boys) Night. She had us applique onesies and shirts. Even though it was very new to me, I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I made a cupcake onesie for my husband's cousin's baby. It was part of a gift for her baby blessing.

K and P helped me choose the fabrics and these really fit perfectly. I love how the striped fabric gives the appearance of a fluted paper cup.

I also made Little C a fish shirt with bubbles.

The bubbles are made out of a batik print.

K and P worked on some adorable initialed tees.

Here's a cute onesie for Baby N.

And another for Baby M.

And one for P's new neice Baby K.

I think we all could have kept making more and more of these, but, alas, Little C was pretty upset because it was waaaayy past his bedtime, and he was starting to turn into a pumpkin. Ditto for all the other little ones.

Mommy duties come first, so we put the crafts away and headed home.

I really loved this craft: you get the instant gratification high, you can make something really cute for a child, the possibilities are endless when it comes to designs...I do need to practice the sewing part. I'm still not completely sure how to use my sewing machine.

A special thank you to K for hosting such a nice gathering; We had a wicked storm trample through our area (downed trees, hail, 90 mph winds) and K had been without power for about 24 hours beforehand.

Happy Birthday

K's birthday was last week so I decided to make her a crochet necklace using gold embroidery thread. It was definitely harder to thread the beads on because of the metallic threads, they tend to unravel. Also, the holes in the beads are too small for a needle to pass through, so it takes much longer to thread them on.  I do like the finished product, but it is definitely fragile. I'm probably going to revisit this idea for my Girls Night in July.

It feels good to finish some things since it seems like I have a bunch of unfinished projects going on right now: crochet beach tote, crochet nightgown, tailgate sweater...I also have been thinking about Little C's "Big Boy Blanket" a lot lately. Without fail, as soon as the temperature hits the 90s, I feel compelled to crochet a blanket. I don't get it.

Even though I have made some progress on the beach tote, I don't see myself finishing it this summer. My heart isn't 100% in it. Since I like making wool blankets in the summer, maybe I'll feel an urge to finish the beach tote this winter when it's 30 degrees and snowing. That would make sense in Mommisquare land. Ditto for the "light and airy nightgown."

The tailgate sweater is right on track; I know I will finish it. I've also been trying a new pattern I'm very excited about for potential christmas gifts. Who doesn't start thinking about Christmas when it's hot and humid outside?

Like Slipping on an Old, Comfortable Pair of Earflaps

This is the earflap hat I made for my husband's friend's baby. It's crocheted from this pattern that I use over and over. I made a couple flowers using this pattern. There were supposed to be 5 petals, but I lost count somewhere and my flowers have four instead, which is fine by me.

 

Because I have been knitting so much lately, I really loved making this. Dare I say it? Crochet, how have I missed thee? Let me count the ways... There's just something very comforting about returning to an activity that you know so well, it feels automatic. It can be very Zen-like because your mind doesn't have to think about what your hands are doing. This muscle memory reminds me of playing the piano. After practicing a piece of music, your fingers just know what to do; your mind doesn't think of each individual note anymore. Its's almost like somebody else's hands are flying over the keys.

I hope the gift recipient enjoys this hat as much as I enjoyed making it.

The Essential Cardigan

Another white sweater for Little C. This is--yawn--not that exciting but it is very practical. Even though I'm pretty idealistic most of the time, every now and then fierce practically surges in my veins. Little C. already has his white "Boardwalk Sweater" which he wears often (especially in the supermarket, which is like a subzero freezer), but he didn't have a nice, Sunday best sweater. That's where this "Essential Cardigan" comes in.

I used this straightforward, easy-to-follow pattern. I worked with a yarn I had that was leftover from a throw I made my nephew a couple years ago. It's a soft acrylic. I think acrylics work well for crochet afghans, throws, and hats, but now I think I know why knitters turn their noses up at it. It doesn't flow easily on your needles and it doesn't feel good on your fingers. I even got chafing on my thumb and index finger from it...for real! I never had this problem before when I used it for crochet. Go figure.

Anyway, I better get used to it because I have a lot more acrylic yarn stored away in my stash. That's what I'll be using for awhile, since I'm being so practical and all.

Inspired Distractions

Another creative tear is happening over here.

I wanted to try making one of these crochet necklaces ever since I saw the beautiful ones here. I had all the materials on hand. These beads are actually recycled from a broken bracelet I had languishing in my jewelry box. It's very beachy and perfect for summer. Hooray for something seasonal! These are really fun to make too. I see more of these in my future...

I've also been wanting to try my hand at applique ever since K mentioned the subject--maybe a year ago? K makes really cute hand-painted onesies and shirts but wants to try her hand at applique. I would love to try to make some designs for Little C. but applique seems like a little too much work right now. Then I saw this great idea for a stenciled, kind of faux applique look. I've already sketched a bunch of designs (turtle, rocket, radio tower, atom) but I've started cutting out the turtle first to make sure it looks ok.  In a random coincidence, I was browsing Janie and Jack yesterday and saw that they currently have a collection called Sea Turtles in their stores. Turtles are really trendy right now for one year olds, I guess.

These fun distractions are actually keeping me from finishing this white sweater though. As well as the "light and airy nightgown" and "beach tote" I've started. Oh, and my husband's friend just had a baby girl. You know what that means...another baby hat!

Jalapeno Hell

Today's Public Service Announcement is brought to you by The Learning Things the Hard Way Corporation:

For the past couple weeks, I've been wanting to make a savory dish using Mango, which is currently in season. I was thinking about a chicken entree utilizing mango in some way. I started collecting recipes long before I ever started cooking. I remembered an early recipe for Mango Salsa that I had hand-written in my first cookbook binder. (I don't know the original source for this recipe, however I did a web search and it seems to be from here.)

It seemed perfect. I scanned the ingredient list:

Mango
Red bell pepper
Basil
Red wine vinegar
Lime juice
Sugar
Jalapeno pepper (optional)

I remember looking at the word "optional" when reading. For a split second I considered not using the jalapeno, then I thought, "Nah, I've been liking hot things more as I get older. Plus, I'm a real tough broad and I can handle it."

When I was cutting the infamous jalapeno--uh, sans gloves--I felt pretty brave, thinking only of how the hot pepper would taste. I didn't realize that I would actually be able to feel its heat before the darn thing even got to my mouth. For maybe 1 second I had a mental flash of my mother warning me once to never touch the seeds of a pepper and to use gloves/ utensils when handling one. Then, in the next instant, I told myself that my mother was talking about a scotch bonnet pepper and not a jalapeno. I chortled ignorantly to myself and continued touching that OPTIONAL jalapeno, blissfully unaware of the agony I would feel in the next half hour or so.

It was soon after I had assembled my salsa and refrigerated it for my coveted chicken dinner, that I felt a tingling, burning sensation under my nails. Hmmm. Did I have a splinter under there? Impossible. How could I have splinters under all my nails? Then the tips of my fingers started to burn too. Was it from using cleaning products earlier in the day? No, I didn't use anything I haven't used a million times before. Slowly it began to dawn on me...it was that demonic pepper!

I searched the Web for trusted internet remedies and found a host of people on a website who are as dumb as I am. I'm just grateful that it was only one pepper that I touched. (One person chopped up 40 of them for canning--gloveless. I think she had to go to the hospital for her burns). And I'm also glad that I didn't touch my face, eyes, nose, etc. like a lot of my other fellow dopes.

This recipe is pretty good but it's not exactly worth third-degree burns.

So, here is my advice: 1. Always wear gloves when handling a Jalapeno. 2. Always listen to your mother and when in doubt, call her for clarification. 3. Making a Baking Soda Paste with water seems to provide the most relief for a Jalapeno burn, not that I know from experience or anything...

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

My neighbors are prepping their house for their at-home wedding in a couple weeks; I must have weddings on the brain. This week it seems like I've been subconsciously adhering to the wedding tradition of something old, new, borrowed, and blue.

I decided I wanted to make a baby hat for P. because her NEW son was born just a couple weeks ago and I can't wait to meet him in person.

Here is an OLD pattern for a BLUE baby hat for Baby M.

The yarn is so incredibly soft, like the softest terry cloth you've ever felt. It has an interesting texture to it. I received a skein of it as a gift at christmas time and I've been waiting for somebody to have a boy so I could make a hat out of it. The hat is for next year. It runs large, so hopefully Baby M will have a big head too like Little C., my husband, and me.

I also decided to try my hand at baking something NEW this week because my OLD college friend is coming to visit K's newest baby and we needed something sweet to munch on. I decided to BORROW this recipe for blondies (or congo bars) from Bakerella.

I had a taste yesterday and they are real diet-killers, let me tell you.

On my actual wedding day, by the way, I did adhere to this wedding tradition (I'm sure most brides do). The old and borrowed was my mother's earrings, the new was the dress/ shoes, and the blue was underwear. I was thinking of wearing a blue garter, however, it was about 99 degrees in July and I can only imagine having had to fuss with a sweaty, itchy garter constantly digging into my leg. Maybe that would've made for some interesting pictures though?