Tag: Pinterest

Knitting

Boho

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WHAT GOES AROUND…..

Wait a second!  How come no one bothered to tell my that my fashion sense has always been something called “Boho“, or that it’s very hip and one can drop megabucks on new stuff that looks just like the old stuff I wore all through high school and most of the stuff I wear now?  My son tells me I’m just an old hippie with an eyeroll when I thank him for the compliment.  Honestly, he says that like it’s a bad thing.  Whatever it is, I still love everything about Boho, even if I’m way past the belly and back baring stuff and am more into floaty and fringey nowadays.  And the jewelry!  And the bags!  And the Pinterest!

All that being said, I plan a fabric stash dive sometime today with the idea of making a patchwork bag.  I have several packs of fat quarters in colors I love, along with some decorator fabric someone passed on to me when their project was finished.  I plan to cut them into random squares/rectangles, then cut the pattern.  My sewing skills are, to put it politely, more than a little sketchy, but then, that’s the idea, it’s handmade, it’s BOHO, man.

PS

Look what I found in my closet!  I think this qualifies, don’t you??!!

Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.  Pablo Picasso

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Knitting

WIP Wednesday 1/30/13

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ON THE NEEDLES

I’m still plugging along on the Phloem Socks but on the home stretch for the second of the pair.  I really love this pattern and so it will probably show up again on the needles at some point.  Hopefully I’ll have it completed tonight, I so want to start the Etched Rio Wrap, I can hardly contain myself.  Jeez Louise!  I ran out to get a quick pic in natural light and it’s windy and cold.  I bet the neighbors across the back think I’m nuts.  This is what I imagine is going through their heads, “She takes pictures of YARN, for heaven’s sake.  WHO does THAT?”

Phloem Socks from Knitty, Spring 2012

IN AND OUT OF THE OVEN

I made Snickerdoodle bread Monday evening as a special request from Mr. Iknead.  My recipe makes two loaves, a good thing since one gets eaten up pretty much as soon as it comes out of the oven.  It’s addictive, this stuff.  Here’s how it goes:

SNICKERDOODLE BREAD

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. butter, softened

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. sour cream

1 pkg. Hershey’s cinnamon chips

TOPPING

3 tbsp. sugar

3 tsp. cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Cream butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon until fluffy.  Add eggs and mix well.

2.  Add vanilla and sour cream and mix well.

3.  Mix flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.  Add to wet ingredients and mix until all combined.

4.  Add cinnamon chips and stir into batter.

5.  Spoon batter into two regular sized loaf pans (about 2/3 full)

6.  Mix 3 tbsp. sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon in a bowl and sprinkle over the batter in each loaf pan.

7.  Bake at 350 until cake tester comes out clean.  Let cool before removing from pan.

Recipe from Kristyn (Lil’ Luna) on Pinterest – Thanks

NOTE:  If you have trouble finding the cinnamon chips, (like me) in the store, there are several recipes online to make them at

home.

Go to Tamis Amis for more great WIPs.

ANSWER TO WHO DOES THAT QUESTION:  Fiber fiends, that’s who! ; )

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.  Mark Twain

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Knitting

Bright, Shiny and New

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SOMETHING REALLY NEAT

Babymama and Babydaddy got me the coolest thing for Christmas, it’s called Q&A A Day, a five year journal that asks a single, simple (or not so simple once it’s thought about) question a day.  Each day a new question with room for five years of answers.  For example:  the January 1 question is “What is your mission?”.  I’m looking forward to answering each question as it comes and reading the previous year’s answers.

ON THE NEEDLES

For this week’s WIP, the Catnip socks are still up.  I’m turning the heel on the second sock and have high hopes for FO Friday this week.  Here’s my progress:

ON THE STOVE

I tried a new recipe this evening, thanks to Pinterest and the blog, the-girl-who-ate-everything.com and it was an out of the ballpark hit, both with me and Mr. Iknead.  Here’s the pic from the original blog:

Easy White Chicken Chili

White Chicken Chili

So good on a cold, damp day!

IN THE OVEN

The last piece of holiday pie (blackberry) is finally gone, thanks to Mr. Iknead.  Now I’m casting around for something to bake, maybe a recipe from King Arthur Flour for Baked Raised Doughnuts.  It won’t happen tomorrow I’m pretty certain, we’re having some electrical work done on our  house so I’m pretty sure we’ll have no electricity most of the day, but the next day for sure.  Off the oven subject but I’m especially excited about the LED undercabinet lighting we’re having installed.  No more dark corners or eyestrain trying to read in the dark.  Exciting, right??

There are two things to aim at in life:  first, to get what you want, and, after that, to enjoy it.  Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.  Logan Pearsall Smith

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Knitting

WIP Wednesday 12/05/12

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ON THE NEEDLES

Mr. Iknead’s first sock continues to grow and it’s close enough to being finished that I need to have him try it on just to make sure it fits perfectly.  Since this is the first time he’s requested any kind of knitting, I want it to fit perfectly and be all he wanted in a sock and then some.  To me, knitting+socks=warmth+love with a little practicality thrown in.  Here’s where I am on the first one –

WIP – Simple Skype Socks for Mr. Iknead, modeled by yours truly  and

a close up of the stitch pattern

WOOHOO!

Yesterday, I blogged about breathlessly waiting for my new Kitchenaid mixer’s arrival; believe it or not, I hit the publish button, my doorbell rang and there stood my UPS guy with an armful of gifts I’d ordered for the fam on line and then he said, “I have a mixer in the truck, I wanted to make sure you were home before I carried it to the door.”  I couldn’t hold my happy dance in check and by the time I’d wound down, I had my new KA.  Here she is in all her glory –

I christened her this afternoon with a recipe from Pinterest, Meili’s Cinnamon Cream Cheese Streusal Coffee Cake.  I think we’re made to be together!   Sugared Pecans are on the schedule for tomorrow, a Christmas tradition in our house.

Check out Tami Ami’s blog for more WIP Wednesday love.

Clear your mind of can’t.  Solon

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Knitting

As promised

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THE GRANDS

As promised, here are some pics of Babydiva’s baptism.

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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.

Sour Cream Pound Case

Amazing cake!

Here’s the original Pinterest post:  

 

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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Knitting

Monday

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ON THE NEEDLES

I finished the seventh of eight triangles on Wingspan and got started on the eighth.  I’m having a little anxiety about running out of yarn but this is normal for me at this point in WIPs.  I’ve promised my languishing sock project that it’s next in line, but I also have a baby hat that’s halfway to the finish line that I’ve made promises to, is it odd that I talk to my projects?  It’s not like I expect them to answer or anything…..

BY THE BOOK

Will finish Song of Susannah, Book VI of the Dark Tower series, with a Lawrence Sanders novel, The First Deadly Sin, next in line.  Mr. Iknead’s father got me hooked on Lawrence Sanders years ago, he passed 20 years ago, but when I go back and revisit books that he and I shared with each other, he feels very close.

IN THE OVEN

Nothing, of course, at this very moment.  I don’t cook really during the week, by the time I get off work, exercise and stop on the way home to visit my mother, it’s close to 7 p.m. and I don’t have the energy.  I make up for it though by cruising recipe websites and checking out cookbooks, with a little bit of Food Network for good measure.  I made a Lemon Blueberry Cake on Saturday.  It tastes good, but has an odd texture.  I’m suspicious that my oven thermostat is off, it’s been taking 10 to 15 minutes longer to cook than the recipes say.  That may be the cause of the texture issue, maybe not quite done in the middle, but nice and brown on the outside.  I think I’ll get a oven thermometer and check it out further in the next few days, now I’m curious.

I ran across this on Pinterest.  I’ve been a little obsessed lately with pot and pan storage – I’m rapidly running out of it and short of buying a new home and designing a house around a kitchen, it’s going to continue to be a challenge.  Here’s what I dream of –

Baking pan drawer so you don't have to get EVERY pan out EVERY time...

Nice, huh?  OK, I’m officially weird, I fantasize about kitchen storage.

You ain’t gonna learn what you don’t wanna know.  Jerry Garcia

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Knitting

Memorial Day

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UPDATES

The blog continues to evolve and I continue to learn.  Now I’m trying different types of titles and think I like shorter, simpler ones.  They seem to work better with the new theme and fonts and feel less contrived and more natural.

IN THE OVEN

I’ve set out the same two eggs a couple of times the past couple of days, each time planning on making these really cute apple cakes I got from Pinterest and every time I get distracted by something or another.  Since I have to go back to work tomorrow, it will be Friday before I get a chance to make them.  On the other hand, my sourdough is rising and I’ll be able to let them bake while I’m getting ready for work in the morning and we’ll have fresh bread tomorrow.

COMING UP

Memorial Day is nearly over and neither Mr. Iknead or I want to go to work tomorrow.  It’s been such a great past four days, we did just what we wanted to do and nothing more.  Real life is calling though and like it or not, we have to answer.

THE GRANDS

Here’s a recent picture of Babydiva (aka Harper).  She’s getting chubbier every time I see her and has started to really smile and coo when we talk to her.  She is a treasure.

Harper Elizabeth

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Knitting

The one where I figured out

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Update

fonts.  Really, though, I have no freakin’ idea about computer code, don’t know what it is, don’t know how to write it and honestly, I don’t want to learn.  So, I bought the WordPress Typekit and it magically worked and now I have fonts.  I like it.

In the Oven

I’m still baking like a crazy woman.  Today, it was Salted Caramel Nutella Brownies, which I pulled from vittlesandbits.blogspot.com, from Pinterest..  They’re the ultimate brownie, chewy, chocolately and the caramel glaze puts them completely over the top.  I was going to post a picture, but they are very gooey and haven’t been photogenic at all today, I think I’ll try heating the knife a bit next on the next try.

By the Book

My current read(s) are The Daughter’s Walk , by Jane Kirkpatrick and I am Forbidden: A Novel, by Anouk Markovits.  Both are somewhat of a departure from my usual reads, I lean more toward nonfiction, but these books just may change my reading habits a little.  These are going to be repeaters, I think.

The Papoose

Here’s Susannah blowing out her  birthday candles last weekend, from a bakery in Fayetteville called Rick’s.  It was as pretty as it was delicious and she got both of them on her first try!

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OK, so the fonts aren’t perfect, but I’m learning.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!  Live the life you’ve imagined.  As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.  Henry David Thoreau

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Knitting

The one where I’m sure that everyone

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is suffering from an overdose of my precious granddaughters, but here’s one I couldn’t not share.

 

How sweet is her tutu?  It was a baby shower gift and of course, I had to reverse engineer it immediately and am planning a run to Hobby Lobby to procure materials for it, for a pearl and twine bracelet I saw on Pinterest, with a quick run down the yarn aisle just to see if anything new is there, then then maybe a basket or three, and don’t forget to look for sheep related doodads and ……………….. you get the picture, don’t you.  Yes, I do love Hobby Lobby, why oh why would you ask?

Mr. Iknead and I are back home from our field trip to DeQueen and thankfully have finished the packing and moving of my mom and dad’s things since their house has been sold and we are to close on 05/02.  Other than a small meltdown Tuesday morning with some tears and sniffling every once in a while, it went very smoothly and wasn’t at all as traumatic as I thought it would be.  I think though that I really started letting go when Daddy died last July, home is supposed to be where your loved ones are and after he passed away, well, it just didn’t feel like home.  We moved my mom here to Little Rock last August so there really hasn’t been anything keeping me rooted to my hometown for quite a while.

I have no new Susannah pictures at the moment, guess I’ll have to check Lindsey’s facebook to get some new ones.  Have I mentioned that she’s talking up a storm and that she repeats everything she hears?  When she says Bebe (that’s what she calls me), I crumble.  Her second birthday is coming up May 15, can’t believe it’s been two years and now we’re looking forward to October for her new brother or sister.  My life is excellent!

The most important question in the world is, “Why is the child crying?”  Alice Walker

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Knitting

The one where I’m becoming infatuated

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with Pinterest.  I finally got my invite last Friday, so I spent time over the weekend just getting familiar with the site, learning how to navigate around and looking at different projects and ideas.  I see a lot of Pinterest in my future.

Here’s one of my WIPs for today – the Debbie Bliss Bunny Booties.  This time around it’s been a lot easier, there’s something to be said for practice.  All told, I’ve probably knitted six booties all together, two practice, two finished but permanently maimed in a nasty scissor encounter and finally, the new, nearly completed pair.  Hopefully by tomorrow evening they’ll have their ears, faces and pompom tails.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Here’s a peek –

Cutest things I’ve seen in a while, without a doubt.  I’m sure they’ll be a hit at the baby shower Saturday.  Can’t wait to see them on baby Harper’s feet!

The Papoose and family will be here tomorrow evening.  One more thing to look forward to.  It seems like a long time between visits, about a month, I need some Susannah love.

Life is good.

There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look.  Henry Matisse

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Knitting

The one where I baked

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and baked and baked this weekend, a total of two pies (one raisin and one pecan) and something new, Cinnamon and Sugar Pull-Apart Bread, which is to die for.  I found the Pull-Apart Bread on the blog iheartfoodandsocanyou.blogspot.com via Pinterest.  This is going to be a repeater, I can tell.

 I’ve just been able to get started with Pinterest the past couple of days.   I like the idea of having a virtual bulletin board for things that resonate with me and I really enjoy seeing what others have going on.  I hope to be able to get more into it as time goes by.

I want to become more savvy with my blog so I bought a couple of books today Teach Yourself WordPress 3 in 10 minutes and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress.  I can only get better, I think.

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.  John R. Wooden

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