a cutey pair of booties

I love it when friends have babies. It means i get to make all sorts of cute stuff.

I mean, my one friend has a 1.5-year-old and a four-year-old, and they're a hoot and a half (I love Sheldon), but there's nothing quite like newborns.

My T.A. friend and his wife had their baby boy on Thursday night! So Friday afternoon I whipped up some casseroles and brought them over, and I finished up this tiny pair of booties today.

And one of my husband's friends will have another baby boy in about six months! Here's one of those places where and impulse buy from Houseworks can pay off - I bought a bag that had pretty green fabric in it one day, to match something else I already had in my stash, but, lo and behold, it wasn't fabric, but flannel, and there were kiddie animal prints in there too!

Somebody's getting a rag quilt for a baby gift.

Oh, and I'm thinking about writing a book... On top of the three papers and two swap packages I have due next weekend.

i've been gone awhile....

so, here's some stuff i've been working on since august:

wedding afghan #1:

 homemade macaroni and cheese recipe:

wedding afghan #2:

commissioned necklaces:

scarf recplica (crocheted): it's a christmas present for someone, but i'm not telling who!

homemade meatball and cabbage soup recipe:

coca-cola sleep shorts!

crochet owlets (that's a quarter for reference):

mi frist amigurumi! link from zelda (he got sent away in a craft swap and has a happy new home now):

another in a long line of christmas presents - a cutesy fuzzy hat for a friend's daughter:

i've got about a dozen projects in the works right now, and for today, i cleaned the kitchen so i could cook, put on a roast, started the laundry, and i'm in the process of cleaning our bedroom so the laundry clothes can migrate from the hallway, clearing up the hallway for the as-yet-unpacked boxes from the game room, so we can get the old couch out of there, so the boxes can go back in and hopefully be unpacked, so we can move the big green chair in so the new loveseat can come in from my parent's garage.

i'd rather be knitting.

plus side is we had some $ for furniture as a wedding present from my parents. my brother and his wife chose to get a leather sectional couch, but we waited until we saw a store going out of business and we got a new coffee table, 2 matching end tables, a couch, a loveseat, and a dresser and mirror for the same price. it was pretty awesome. the one end table and the mirror is in storage right now, but we managed to find room for the rest. we got rid of the old tables and gave the couch to a very deserving family we know. the old couch from the game room and dresser are on their way to being sold - we might even turn a profit on the little couch.

*sigh* commercial break over. back to work.

CRAZINESS!

marching band is over! I can have my life back!!!!

our last game was friday night, followed by a great day at state festival on saturday (we brought home a 1! first time in 3 years!)

my life officially started back up today, instead of sunday, because mother and i spent ALL DAY sewing fleece sleepers for the preemie project. we also brought along hats and booties to be donated, just in time for those late-october babies... pumpkin hats!!

and little green booties to match (except the picture is muy sucky)... hopefully you get the idea.

to celebrate my first day of having a life again, i cooked supper, albeit at 8:30 pm (future-hubby has to work the night shift for a few days). i made these pear-and-prosciutto cups with croissant dough, brie, and mozzarella... i also made them on sunday, but i used phyllo dough, which by the way i hate. i still don't have the cups right for these... phyllo is too thin and difficult to cook evenly, croissant dough is tasty but too heavy....

amd as a side dish i whipped up a sweet potato casserole, minus marshmallows. we used golden sweet potatoes and mashed them with a little butter, spread ricotta on top and the sprinkled frosted flakes doused in more butter on top. baked it 'til the flakes were crispy, et voila!

i finally uploaded my shrug and a hat i just finished, but now i can't seem to find them on my computer. it's time for bed anyways, before i pass out in front of my computer.
life is good.

i finally finished a project...

... and now on to the next one

This is Ava's baby blanket, and I've been working on it on and off for about 5 months, though truth be told i've been working fairly hardcore for the last week or so to get it done in time to give it to her when we go on vacations.

Here's a basic pattern:
Hook size 5.5mm
Guage isn't important
Yarn is caron simply soft (4) and yarn bee italia (4), makes a lap blanket for an adult or roughly a large baby blanket

Tip: use a hook size .5mm larger for your starting chain!

Starting Chain: multiples of 42 + 15
Row 1: ch 3, dc in first st (counts as first 2 dc). 5 dc (one in each st), dc3tog, 5 dc, 2 dc in each of next 2 st, 11 dc (one in each st), dc3tog, 11 dc, 2dc in next st. Repeat across row, ending with a 5-dc ripple. Always start and end your ripple with a [2-dc] st; you'll have one [2-dc] st on each end, and in the middle you'll have 2 [2-dc]st in-between ripples.

Actually, that's about it. i did three rows of caron simply soft, (do not tie off), tied in the italia yarn and did a row (tie this one off), then went back to the beginning of the row, picked up the caron, slip-stitched through the top, and repeated the pattern across.

Fringe: 4 pieces of caron, 2 of italia. I just pulled 'em through and tied a square knot (i didn't want the normal fringe to come unraveled), picking up the yarn tail from the italia and incorporating into the knot.


and there's some lovely stitching

and all wrapped up for the baby!

i'm so excited to give it to her - i just hope it holds up (it should; i actually knotted everything when i changed yarns or ran out of a skein, so it really shouldn't come undone!) and i hope it gets good, hard use.

now if only i could make a career out of this kind of stuff...