Chocolate Cupcakes

Big N and I made cupcakes on Thursday evening. He had a blast making them. The kids are slightly confused, trying to figure out who is having a birthday. I obviously do not bake enough if the only time we have baked goods is on a birthday. Little N and I frosted them this evening and she was quite pleased with the frosting.

We used the plain and simple chocolate cupcake recipe with chocolate butter cream frosting from the Cupcake Bakeshop blog. Both kids are counting the minutes to when we get to bite into them.

I cannot follow directions

I have been searching for a vest pattern for my daughter and I thought I hit the jackpot. My friend Karin gave me this great yarn, Lambs Pride Bulky. The pattern called for 1 skein of bulky yarn. I of course started it over the weekend and it's coming along fast. That is until I begun to notice that I had not split out the sleeves and I didn't have a lot of yarn left. I have serious issues when I buy yarn, I'm so scared I'll run out that I always buy one skein extra. Meaning, running low, makes me panicky. It's so unlike me to not end up with a ton of extra yarn.

I finally noticed that I was 25 yards short and I put it down to figure out what I wanted to do. I could (A) pull it out, ball it up and put it back into my stash, or (B) keep going. I opted to keep going, but I modified the pattern just a little to try and save some of the yarn. I cut out one round and then I made the arm holes a little larger by binding off 8 stitches instead of 6. This makes me end up doing the cable twists on the wrong side. That's not so bad and it still looks ok. At least on size 10.5 needles, I should know soon that I need to pull it out.

Baby Girl has opinons

My daughter takes her jammies off when she doesn't agree with her bedtime. For the last few months, we thought we might have outsmarted her. We put a vest on her with the zipper up the back. She has told us that enough is enough. She would still like to the have the option to wake up freezing cold and uncovered, please.

Yarn Therapy and cabled socks

I have way too much stuff going on right now, but during my lunch today I made a stop at my LYS (Local yarn shop, I'm still new to this blogging about knitting stuff). I came across this gorgeous crystal palace yarn in the sock yarn section. It is a bamboo-wool mix and it is incredibly soft to the touch. I am making some baby socks, but I may have to go back and pick up some more for a set of socks for myself.

I'm being brave and combining a few patterns. I've made 4 plain socks, 2 singles and a pair, so cables didn't sound too daunting on a sock.

This is my first attempt at cables. I'm surprisingly happy with the way it is coming out. I might try to bring the cables down the front of the foot. Most babies don't wear shoes, meaning some pretty cables on the socks would be sweet to look at.




I prefer using magic loop on socks as you can see above. However, it's been so long since I've made a sock, I hope I remember how to turn the heel. I can't seem to find anything on what to do with the stitches that are not in the heel. I feel like I should put them on a yard holder, but I'm not sure.

Big N gets a bike for his birthday

Big N got a bike for his birthday! He got right on it. He fell off once going around his corner too fast and jumped right back on.

Last Night

Big N refers to last night all the time. Last night is any point in time that has not occurred today. This could be dinner out, a day at the park, playing, Christmas, last easter, his birthday party last year, his birthday party this year, pretty much any time in the past.

This morning, I made Big N's favorite all time food, pancakes. Big N didn't look too happy about it and I didn't know what to think. It appears he remembered one of my big cooking flops that I had forgotten. I attempted yogurt based pancakes a few weeks ago. I had actually forgotten about the incident, or I successfully blocked it out, but Big N did not. They were awful, completely inedible. I thought it was an opportunity to add some dairy and healthy fats to his diet and the pancakes came out dense, thick and awful. They looked like perfect pancakes and Big N was thrilled until that first bite. He chewed and tried to like them but only ate the promised 3 bites. So, this morning when I made pancakes, he was skeptical. He had a big discussion with Daddy, "Last night, when Mommy made bad pancakes, I didn't like them. Is she making bad pancakes, Daddy?" It took A LOT of coaxing, but after the 1st bite, he ate 4 pancakes. "Mommy made the good recipe! She didn't make the ones from last night!" Yes, last night was a month ago and Big N has the memory of an elephant when it comes to bad pancakes.

The other big last night discussion occurred when we went to eat fast food. I try to avoid the overly processed fast food joints, but it is sometimes unavoidable. And the bright colors and successful marketing schemes appeal to my kids. It is a special occasion in our house to eat out at a fast food joint. We had not been at the one place in over 4 months and I have both kids with me in line, trying to keep them under control. Big N is looking at the toy options and he says loudly, "Last night when we were here, they had a school bus. Where is the school bus?" The woman behind me starts to tsk-tsk. Yes, at times, "last night" can be embarrassing.

Perhaps we should work on a new frame of reference. We're going to work on "last week," but then that wouldn't work if we are at the dentist. "Last week when we brushed our teeth..."