SCENES FROM A PARTY
The Sprout is two!!!
Princess Dress Cake
Mmmmmmm Pink Icing Mmmmmmmmmm
Cousin Love
Best thing about close cousins? Being best friends!
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha
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ON AND OFF THE NEEDLES
This week’s FO Friday is Meg White’s Cabled Hat, a free Ravelry pattern. Turned out right nice as a friend of mine would say.
A quick knit, with just enough fiddliness to keep me interested. I think the yarn is some I picked up at Hobby Lobby a while back, I Love This Yarn 100% wool. Due to our (Mr. Iknead’s and mine) new austerity plan, I’m working toward losing at least a little of my yarn snobbiness. I’m trying as hard as I can to bring Mr. Iknead, a very thrifty (read tightwad) guy over to the dark side, knitting him a pair of soft, warm, merino socks, I think it might be working. The upshot of this plan is that in order for me to be able to stay home, baking and knitting, I have to scale back on some things, like high end sock yarn. Ouch.
I’m still working on the Phloem socks using a happy discovery of two hanks of beautiful Shibui Sock that I found during a stash dive. Hopefully by the next FO Friday, I’ll have them ready to wear. I loves me some Shibui!
BY THE BOOK
Another casualty opportunity to cut back is with my book and audiobook habit. I downgraded my Audible membership and have been using our local library instead. I love the downloadables, both e-books and audios and I’m nearly always at the ten book limit at any given time. One I’m listening to now is Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psy.chiatrist, by Paul R. Linde. Fascinating.
IN THE OVEN
Have butter and eggs sitting out, getting ready to make Sour Cream Pound Cake, a recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, a wedding gift 33 years ago. It’s been well used and well loved, judging from the stains and sticky stuff between the pages and is the first cookbook I grab when thinking about what to have for supper or what to bake when my sweet tooth kicks in. A classic and a favorite.
Check out Tami Amis blog for more FO Friday goodness.
Simplicity is the key to brilliance. Bruce Lee
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ON THE NEEDLES
A couple of WIPs this week, Mr. Iknead’s Simple Skype Socks and a pretty cabled scarf that I started on a whim, both coming along nicely. The second sock has great potential to be a FO Friday project, only lacking the leg and the top cuff. Hope I haven’t jinxed it.
Simple Skype Socks
Cabled Scarf
IN THE OVEN
Today is my mother’s birthday, I’m in the process of making a lemon pound cake to take up to the nursing home for her to share. I’ll post a pic when it’s finished and ready to go. Happy birthday Mom, I love you!
For more WIP happiness, check out Tami Amis blog. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
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THE GRANDS
As promised, here are some pics of Babydiva’s baptism.
Babydiva with her fav cousin, the Papoose.
IN THE OVEN
I finally was able to do a little baking yesterday, something new I lifted from Pinterest – a cream cheese pound cake that was out of this world, really. Although, with three sticks of butter, cream cheese and six eggs, it would be hard for it to be anything but delicious. I took the time to cut a slice to bring to work this morning as a treat with my coffee. Yum.
Amazing cake!
Here’s the original Pinterest post:
Source: elizabethsedibleexperience.blogspot.com via Ali on Pinterest
Technically this is not baking, but I got a sourdough starter going this weekend and I was right about the weather being good starter weather. I think this one is the fastest I’ve had one develop ever. Friday I started with the usual half cup flour and half cup warm water and by yesterday afternoon (Sunday) it was bubbly and had the typical sour smell. It should move into its beery, yeasty smell in the next day or so. Much as I love sourdough, this is my least liked stage. Until it matures, it smells like feet. I have to keep reminding myself that this part doesn’t last long. : )
48 hours old
See how nice and bubbly it is?
A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. Benjamin Franklin
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ON THE NEEDLES
I did it. I frogged the Maidenhair Fern socks, it took me until yesterday to it, but I got it done. I’m thinking Fa Fa Fa socks, a free Ravelry pattern that I saw on someone’s blog last week, I need to go back and look and I will, just not today.
THE GRANDS
I spent most of the day babysitting Babydiva and loving every second. Really, there wasn’t much to do, feed her, play with her, nap with her and it was glorious! She takes a long afternoon nap, so after lunch, she took a nap and so did Bela (Divadog) and I. Don’t know how long it’s been since I took an afternoon nap, I’m usually at work and they generally frown on that sort of thing and on my days off, I’m playing catchup with the things I put off during the work week. I could get used to naps. Here’s a new picture of Babydiva, big smile –
See why yesterday was so fun??
IN THE OVEN
It’s official – I love the silicone pans. Love them an unhealthy amount, I think. I (finally) got around to making the little Apple Cakes I’ve been talking about for at least a week and they turned out amazing. When they were finished baking and cooled a little, I literally just popped them out of the pan. Nothing stuck, they baked evenly and I’m so proud! Here’s one for show.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain
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ON THE NEEDLES
Here is my WIP for this week. I know it doesn’t really look like anything yet but you’ll just have to take my word for it, it’s a Cat Hat for a baby, with little ears. This is in anticipation of the Papoose’s new baby brother or sister, estimated arrival first week on October.
Thanks to Adel’s Knit and Craft 2011 and Ravelry for the free pattern.
IN THE OVEN
Yesterday I got my first issue of The Baking Sheet, a King Arthur Flour publication, of recipes, both sweet and savory. One that particularly piques my interest is Coconut Coffeecake. Oops, I forgot about the apple cakes I never got around to doing over the holiday, with the eggs that were in and out of the revolving door (seemingly) of my fridge. Maybe by Saturday, my new silicone pans will be here. I hope so. I’m excited to try them out.
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent of no birds sang there except those that sang best. Henry Van Dyke
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wound about ten miles (at least) of yarn over the past two days. Actually, I had a couple of skeins that were missing in action and in searching for them I became reacquainted with a lot of my stash. So, I got out my handy dandy ball winder and swift and wound and wound and wound. You get the picture. I had several oh my goodness look at this moments, a lot of them really but on the other hand, I had more than a couple of oh my gosh, what was I thinking moments. Especially regarding about eight skeins of Cashmerino in about eight different shades of green. Who knew there were so many shades of avocado? Yuck.
The Brittany Jumper is blocking. YAY! I love the feel of the cotton yarn, which gets softer and softer the more it’s touched but, on the downside, it takes ages to dry, even after running it through the spin cycle a couple of times. I’ve got it under a fan and that speeds things up a bit, but it’s still slow. Take a look, please.
Besides being a yarn windfest, it was also a bakefest. I made a Cream Cheese Blueberry Coffee Cake, a tried and true favorite and also tried something new, a Whole Wheat Fresh Apple Ring. I learned something new with the apple cake. It’s nearly impossible for me to shred fresh apple. It has too much juice or something. I’m sure some baking whiz can do it with one hand tied behind them, but in my world, it ain’t happening. I finally just chopped the apple really fine and called it good, and it was.
A Daddy Update: I’m driving to DeQueen tomorrow after work, he has an appointment at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday with a surgeon, I’m guessing to discuss whether or not surgery is an option. I’m anxious to hear what he has to say. I’ll be glad to get this trip and appointment behind us. This will be the third trip down there since last Sunday.
Still haven’t decided about a new blog, on one hand I enjoy putting my thoughts down on paper (yes, I’m aware that there isn’t paper involved in this blog, but old habits die hard). On the other hand, lately it’s been very difficult to make time just for this one. Do I really want to add another? Could the three kind people who actually read this blog please weigh in? What do you think?
We are shaped by our thoughts. We become what we think. Buddha (563 B.C.-483 B.C.)
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Jumper is cast on ONE LAST TIME. I mean it. This is the absolute last time. If I’m unsuccessful, I’m going to chalk it up to the knitting gods, who obviously don’t want me to knit this and move on. I mean, there are countless yarns and projects that I could be knitting, why do I keep beating my head against this particular wall?
The wireless is working again. Poor Mr. Iknead worked so hard yesterday to get it back up and running; his patience outshines mine pretty much all the time, but I could tell yesterday evening that even his patience was wearing thin. Hats off to you sweetie.
Here’s the obligatory photo, but the subject is anything but.
On Friday, we’re heading north to Fayetteville for Miss Susannah’s first Easter. I need me some Susannah love and chocolate bunnies. Mmmmmm..
I baked a new cake recipe yesterday, devil’s food with a macaroon filling and coconut frosting. Tastes just like an Almond Joy. Ugly as homemade sin, but really good.
Luck is like having a rice dumpling fly into your mouth. Japanese proverb
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in Fayetteville with the Papoose and family. Butter Brickle Cake got made today, it only took two trips to the store to get everything, but it did get made.
Still warm.
I taught Susannah to pattycake today. Beauty and brains!
Mr. Iknead and Susannah.
We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. Arthur O’Shaughnessy
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bake something today, even though Mr. Iknead and I are in Fayetteville visiting the Papoose (Susannah to the uninitiated). This means I must make a trip to the grocery store because Lindsey and Clefton (dear daughter and son in law) don’t bake, so I need to stock them up on flour, sugar, eggs, etc. etc. so I can make a cake.
Since it’s FO Friday, I’m going to post the very, very first sock I ever made, Cookie A’s Monkey. Don’t ask me how long it took me, I know it took me about a week to knit the cuff. I’m still proud of them; they say you always remember your first. ; )
My camera skills weren’t very impressive then, thankfully, they’ve gotten a little better, though not much.
When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt. Henry J. Kaiser (1882-1967)
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01/09/11 dailypost2011
Making a commitment to posting every day this year.
I have three loaves of sourdough bread rising in my kitchen right now, one loaf for me, two loaves to share. UPDATE: Bread tastes incredible, but won’t win any beauty contests. I think the cold today in Arkansas kept it from rising as well as it could. I know I’ve not been as comfortably warm as usual. Temp now 26F, 5:45 p.m. with snow falling.
I also baked a butter brickle cake. The colder and wetter the weather, the more I want to bake. Yum warm cake with coffee. Will have to work tomorrow, but hopefully inclement weather policy will be in effect and I can catch a few more zzz in the morning.
Thought for today: There’s always a bigger picture.
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Knitting, sewing, gardening, and the occasional gluten-free recipe.
A little about knitting and a lot about nothing...
Exploring the world one fiber at a time
Est. 2019
Food Photography & Recipes
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Playin’ with mud after midnight.......
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