Carrot scarves and cupcakes

As a way to save money, I've started using the library again. You know, that place that has books you can borrow? I remember having a hard time finding new or hard-to-find titles when I was younger and living in a much smaller town, so I was pleasantly surprised by the public libraries in Sacramento. The on-line search and hold service is frickin' awesome. My latest find:

Twinkie Chan (http://www.twinkiechan.com) makes some adorable crocheted scarves and other accessories. From the few I've made, the patterns are really simple too. After seeing the carrot scarf, I had to make it. But I only had half a skein of orange left, so I made a kiddie-version:

I am working on making the cupcakes (see scarf below), but they seem to turning out smaller than in the picture (too small of crochet hook?). So I've altered the pattern, and am thinking of making a cupcake-banner for the kitchen. The husband will have to deal with the girly-ness of it. Yes, it is pink and yellow. Maybe if I make him the bacon-and-eggs scarf he will be happy?

Back to blogging!

Sorry for the long absence. The combination of starting a new job that I actually like (yay!), trying to get pregnant again (it worked!), and deciding to not continue my pursuit of a graduate degree made it a little difficult to find time to work on the ol' blog. Since it has been a long time, we'll start with some updates:

1. I am about 4 months pregnant, and things seem to be progressing "like normal." I'm even showing just a bit. My husband has been taking pictures of the growing belly, so I will try to post some of those soon. Right now, I just look like I have a wicked beer belly. It jiggles a little too. Just to warn you, many of these future posts will be pregnancy-related, and then baby-related. It was not my intention to write a "mommy blog," so I will try to include as much crafty-goodness as possible, as well as cooking and gardening and home-remodeling.

2. Last June I started my new job as an Environmental Scientist, a job I had spent about a year applying and trying to get an interview for. I hated my last job sooooo much, so the day I got "the phonecall" from my new employer was one of the greatest days. Ever. I don't think I stopped smiling all day. Especially coming right after that awful miscarraige and realizing that my last job was such a dead-end shit-hole. I had to make sure to keep the glee tamped down so that my co-workers wouldn't kill me during those last two weeks.

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Okay, so down to crafting. Over the past several months, I was bitten by the craft-bug (hormone side-effect??), so I need to catch you all up with that. First, I started, and completed, my first knitted sweater. Not a sweater for myself, mind you, but a baby sweater (insert "aww" here). After blocking, it seems like it turned out okay. I am going to ignore all of the imperfections and badly-sewed seams for the time being. It is too big for a newborn, but my due date is mid-July, so it may be perfect for a 5-6 month old this coming-fall/winter. This baby-sweater pattern is from LionBrand.com, and I made it in Lion's Cotton-ease. If you want to know the exact pattern name, just send me a message or comment and I can find it for you.

I also attempted to free-form crochet some baby booties. However, I didn't have a baby around to size them on, so I don't know if they will actually fit a baby. They turned out pretty adorable-looking, though.

Marzipan cupcake experiment

For Easter, I finally tried to make some marzipan animals to top cupcakes. I purchased the pre-made marzipan in the baking aisle at the grocery store and used liquid food coloring to create the colors. Some came out better than others. Below is a turtle:

Bunny heads:


An overhead shot of toadstools, a turtle, and some chocolate-hershey-kiss-boobie cupcakes (after I ran out of marzipan shapes).

And my new cupcake carrier (excitement!):

Personally, I didn't really enjoy working with the marzipan. I forgot to dust my hands with powdered sugar so the marzipan mostly stuck to my fingers, it was hard to get individual pieces (likes ears) to stick to other pieces, and the taste was gross. I guess I am not a huge fan of almond extract. They were a big hit at the barbeque I brought them to, though.

As a side note, has anyone noticed how swollen Val Kilmer has gotten???? I just saw the preview for the SNL skit-that-should-have-stayed-a-skit "movie" MacGruber, and Val Kilmer looks like he has been playing Kathleen Turner in a new bio-pic.

More crafty goodness and gardening (when it was sunny)

In our "backyard" is located a huge fan for our HVAC system, and it does not exactly "go" with our gardening scheme in our very very small yard. Jay got all man-crafty after it was installed and made this trellis-enclosure for it. It is two-sided, sealed, and attached to the fence with just a couple of small screws, in case we need to access it. Then we spent a day de-weeding and covering the ground with white rock. The plants on the outside of the enclosure include some ground cover (creeping jenny), two ornamental kales, geraniums, yellow daisies, and in the green pot is an asparagus fern. In the back corner (far right in the above photo), I planted three different rhizomes, including some larger ferns, and two others that I can't remember at the moment. Hmmm....I remember one is an ornamental tropical-looking leafy plant, and the other starts with A....astiridae? Anyways, it's pink. When they finally emerge, I will put some photos up. It is a little exciting waiting for them to peek out. And yes, gardening can be exciting!


Super-cute ceramic mushrooms for the garden, found at Target.


Close-up of geraniums.




Crafty-goodness:

A while ago I bought two pillow-forms at IKEA to cover at a later date. Procrastination set in, as it does with all of my crafty-intentions, and they sat, untouched, for about six months. In a craze of "I am going to finally finish all of my WIPs!", I made two envelope pillow-cases, using the pattern found on Chez Larsson's craft blog. It is one of the easiest pillow cases to sew: straight lines, some light ironing, and ta da!






Of course, as soon as I finished works-in-progress (eggplant, crocheted rag-rug, pillows), I had to start some new ones! A short list of projects I am now working on:

1. Knit amigurumi lamb
2. Knit amigurumi tomato (to keep the eggplant company)
3. Crocheted chevron baby-blanket
4. Bought a Knit Pick kit to knit flowers/floral motifs
5. Finally rolled my wool skeins into balls to start the owl sweater from Ravelry, then realized I didn't have the correct size of circular needles

Next post: cupcake experimentation

Craft-tacular!

In my last post, I mentioned starting a crocheted rag rug. Well, here it is, all finished! It turned out a little smaller than I had anticipated, but the colors turned out great. The pictures don't really do it justice, so you will either have to see it if you come over or just trust me.

I used a simple circular crochet pattern that has increases each row, keeping it flat. It is the same starting pattern for most amigurumi patterns (row 1: 6sts; row 2: 12sts; row 3: 18sts....etc.). The last three rows, I used a double-thickness of Lion Brand Thick 'n Quick and added a shell pattern.

The dog was occupied with trying to smell underneath the rug. Not sure why....

Also, I finished (yay!) my first knit amigurumi project. I am not a very strong knitter, so I started with an easy pattern: eggplant.

Ta da! EGGPLANT:

Now, what do I do with a knitted eggplant? Ya got me... There are other veggie patterns in the same book (Amigurumi Knits, by Hansi Singh), but I'm not too excited about knitting another vegetable. I suppose they could sit together in a bowl and look clever. Perhaps I could knit up some insects that could be attacking the veggies....there is also a pattern for ants that would be cute.

Musings and Crafts

Musings:

As I am no longer pregnant, I am fighting simultaneous urges to:

• eat as much sushi as I can


• drink lots of alcohol


• lose weight (diet)


• lift heavy items


• run


• smoke various herbs


• sit in front of the irradiator at work


• clean the bathroom with lots of hazardous chemicals


• eat unpasteurized cheese, or soft cheeses

Now, most of these urges, taken together, contradict themselves. So I am left feeling like I need to eat sushi and drink wine with dinner, but that is not exactly diet-friendly. It is frustrating, to say the least. I am getting close to the point where Jay and I can start trying again to get pregnant, so I am torn between just trying to enjoy myself, while I can, and being super-healthy and losing those last 3 pounds before getting pregnant again. I will never be a super-skinny person (it took several years to come to terms with this truth), but I still am self-conscious enough to keep my weight under control. I have family members with health issues (diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer), so I need to keep an eye on what I eat and how much exercise I get.

On another, but only slightly related, point: I am cutting my hair off! Yes, I am finally going back to how I used to keep my hair, and cutting it off. I had my hair short (pixie-ish) since I was about 16, then grew it out for my wedding, at age 26. I cut my hair pretty short in grad school a year ago, and have been trying to grow it out since then. It is a short bob now, but it makes me feel old and like I should be driving a volvo and wearing those stupid Croc shoes. So I made an appointment, and I will be cutting it down to a manageable, cute short cut. By Easter, it should back to its normal shortness.

Crafts:

On a crafty-green note, I spent some time last weekend recycling old t-shirts and cotton fabric I wasn't using. I cut them into long strips, then crocheted them using single-crochet into a flat circle. I used Lion Brand Thick'n Quick to do the outer two layers, but I am not quite finished yet. This picture (below) shows the beginnings:

This upcoming weekend we plan on doing some gardening and eating more sushi. Next weekend (Easter weekend), I have three days off, so I will be getting my hair cut, going to a friends party, and then relaxing for a couple of days. I reallllly need to get out and not think about pregnancies and relax with friends and drink some recreational alcohol. It will be so nice to socialize and be myself (not my work-self) with people I actually like.

TV:

Tonight (Thursday) is TV night, or one of the few nights that there is something good on NBC. The Office, 30 Rock, and (on Lifetime, which I normally never watch) Project Runway. I love The Office for the sweet office romance (who doesn't like sexual tension at work??? I don't know how I would get through the day without it!), 30 Rock for Tina Fey's Liz Lemon (who is weirdly similar to myself), and Project Runway for the lack of drama and real talent. If you aren't watching any of these, then you are really missing out.

Gardening, crafts, and dog (not in that order)

The surviving tulips. Our dog likes to lie in the sun, and I happened to plant these bulbs in one of his favorite areas, in the hopes that, once they started to grow he wouldn't lie there anymore. I was wrong. the ones to the far right (which I tried to crop out) are pretty flat and pitiful. Most of them have done well, though.


I am not sure what this plant is....I have vague recollections from Plant Taxonomy class that the overlapping leaves are in the Iridae family. So it must be related to Irises. Anyways, it is red, the hummingbirds go ape-shit for them, and they grow like crazy. Jay and I have to rip them out of the ground every year, otherwise they take over our entire, very small, patio area.



My favorite plant right now. It is a coral-bark japanese maple. The leaves are coming in right now, so it looks great in the little red pot we found at Green Acres Nursery (off of Folsom Blvd.), which is also one of my favorite nurseries.


Wallace. He is giving me one of his "looks," which he does when he doesn't really like what I am doing. He still doesn't understand posing for the camera, and I haven't figured out a command for that one yet. He may still be pissed about the shock-collar we had to get him. We have really lame f'ing neighbors with nothing better to do than complain to our condo's board if he barks more than twice, during the middle of the day. Really. I hate our neighbors, if you couldn't tell. Not all of them. They know who they are.


In crafting news (news? sure.), while I was recovering from the miscarriage and "scraping" (shudder), I sat on the couch and made little woodland creatures. I used the Sculpey clay that bakes in the oven, and I think they turned out pretty cute.

Two little owls. Super cute.


In the front-left, I have a gnome-like guy I was working on. I haven't finished painting him yet, and I am not sure if I am happy with him. The hat was all wrong, and something about the proportions are off. The guy in the front-right is a fox. I am still painting him too, and he is turning out pretty cute. I made an amigurumi fox (from a pattern from Etsy.com), and I will post that later. It is in the baby-box for when that eventually happens.



Mushrooms. These turned out frickin' awesome. So these are the Before picture, and below, you can see them in all of their Glittery Glory. I forgot how fun glitter was.


These still need some cleaning, and I am going to get the canned air to do that later.