Happy 3rd Birthday...plus 21 days

Taking a break from slacking, err....being otherwise busy, to finally share some pics from the Tot's 3rd birthday. Aside from him coming down with an illness about half way through the day, it was a good day. The cake baking and decorating was less stressful, the gift opening and candle blowing out was actually performed by the Tot, and the mess at the end was slightly less messy. Oh, yeah - there was the one glitch where I discovered that the reason the chocolate cake tasted just a little off was because apparently the oil that I used (at my mom's house) was oil that she had already used to make french fries. Oops. She really should keep that in a separate place - or in something other than the original bottle. While I am all for reusing, I do not recommend this particular application. Although nobody said they had an odd craving for ketchup with their cake, so it was all good.

This was the happy child during his birthday lunch of chocolate milk and toast with jelly, still wearing his jammies. If I let him, he would probably indulge in this behavior every day.




The cake - he wanted a train and rather than do any of the actual train cake designs out there, I created the scene with tracks and used a vintage wooden train candle holder that my mom pulled out of her endless supply of vintage goodies.







And, yes, he did receive a hand knit sweater which I will have to blog at a future date as he has thus far refused to model it for proper photographing.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Ah, Fall!

Thanks to some cool weather and blogless Erin's request for some pumpkin colored yarn...I came out of my knitting slump! When I turned to my stash I found that I had lots of pumpkin colored yarn, as well as some green and brown (although not the right gauge for Erin). I found a simple pumpkin pattern on ravelry and now I have my first Autumn decoration of the year.



Finn holding it to give you an idea of size...



I only got one quick shot of the lone pumpkin before my assistant lay claim to the squash and would not allow me to continue, so I guess he likes it despite the look he's giving me in the photo. My yarn was bulky, which worked just fine for the chunky pumpkin, though the pattern did call for worsted. If I make more of these for myself, I'll probably do them in different sizes and try some light green and/or cream to make them more Fall and less Halloween-y. Now...I just may cast on my gray yarn and have another go at that sweater.

knitting?

I think I know what that is...something about using needles with yarn to make loops. Oh, yes - I did some of that a few months ago and was well on my way to a soft and beautiful, knit cardigan for myself to wear this fall. I had even made a gauge swatch or two for the project (that's a big deal, here). And then I realized it was not going to be for me to wear at all unless frumpy is "in" or I gained lots of weight. I DO love doughnuts and ice cream, but I wasn't gonna go there. So after ignoring it and all other yarn in my bag for a long while, I got up the courage to deconstruct.



And this is where I am now. Unraveled, having second thoughts about continuing the project (darn you, new, enticing patterns attempting to steer me from my path). And I'm afraid it will take some cool weather to bring back the knitting mojo. Which means it probably won't be finished in time for me to wear this Fall.

New Favorite Jammies

I know we all like to hang out in our jammies every now and then, but I think my latest sewing project has put the Tot over the edge with his own desire to lounge. Well...he'd actually like to wear them in the sand box and all over town, but I've drawn the line.



These whipped up rather quickly using only supplies I had in my stash. I sort of winged it on the top and the result is a rather large neck opening, but he doesn't seem to mind. I was going to make the bottoms short, but kept them long because the try-on for size revealed how cute they are full length. The light fabric makes these the perfect summer jammies. (Albeit flammable for any safety freaks out there.)



I must say...it makes me so happy that he seems to love these over the store-bought jammies with the toddler-enticing, drum-playing dinosaurs on them.

Oh...and the vintage child's hanger in he first photo was my father's.

Are we gonna die?

Wow! Just shy of having a two month lapse here on the blog. Sometimes life just gets in the way. And this is going to be photo-less (!!!).

A few weeks back, Cara shared this recipe she had come across for Brown Butter Ice Cream. She was hoping someone with an ice cream maker would make some for her. I love to make and eat ice cream and am no stranger to butter, browned or otherwise, so I jumped at the idea. Okay, I initially jumped and then after several occasions of having all the ingredients but never having the time or forethought to do the cooking part, I finally got my act together and made it last Friday. I figured I would make it first for myself to test and then again for Cara.

The results: A good custard recipe with the nutty aroma and flavor of brown butter. It turned out nice and thick. R and I each had a small bowl and after a couple spoonfuls, the words "Are we gonna die?" were uttered in all seriousness. Sadly, it was not, "Are we gonna die from eating a whole batch of butter ice cream in one sitting because it is so good?" It was, "Are we gonna die because I can already feel a 1/4" layer of butter on the roof of my mouth and can only imagine how my arteries are going to look if I take one more bite."

If you like to eat butter by the spoonful, this recipe is for you! Otherwise, I caution against getting your hopes up for this one. We just couldn't stomach the grease. Maybe I did it wrong since the author of that article seems pretty confident in it's yumminess.

Afterthoughts: I'm wondering if you could get the brown butter flavor without the greasy mouth by pouring off most of the melted butter before adding it to the mix and just using primarily the browned bits. Seems a bit wasteful, but so is contaminating an otherwise good batch of ice cream.

Also, I initially thought that the 1/2 cup of butter in the recipe was a reasonable amount, but in the end this seemed to make much less than your average homemade ice cream recipe and so turned out to be a lot of butter per serving (provided you can actually eat a normal size serving, which I doubt).

I considered using the remaining ice cream on top of waffles on Sunday morning, but we just couldn't do it. I would offer up the remaining ice cream to anyone who wants to try it, but we both dumped our half eaten bowlfuls back into the main batch. If you don't mind our saliva, come on over.

Since I'm not sure I can bring myself to make this again, I'm willing to lend you my ice cream maker, Cara. I think I'm going to keep my brown butter far away from my ice cream for now.

the model

Ask and you shall receive...







And I was so pleased to get these vintage shoes from my mom's stash. These would have been one of my brother's from the 60's...well worn, but so much nicer than the crap they sell today. I even got another, less worn pair in a larger size for future use.



Now, I'm going to try not to stare at these photos all day because I'm supposed to be packing, but darn, isn't he cute!?

Dapper Dan

Well, he's not a Dan, but I must say that Finn looked quite dapper when I stuck this on him for his cousin's wedding last month. However, he does share his middle name with his great grandfather who was named Dan and he ALWAYS wore bow-ties. Still no sewing machine (getting it back in working order this weekend!), so I stitched this up by hand.



Yep, that's the seersucker from the fabric fair extravaganza. Just the touch needed to finish off his linen suit.