Another Deadly Sin

These should probably be illegal because they are too good...or at least restricted for the month of December only, when all food bans are lifted.

Need:

1 Package of Oreo cookies (can be any kind, I prefer double stuffed)
1 6 oz package of Cream Cheese
Any large chocolate bar (I use Hersheys)

Smash all of the cookies (I use a plastic bag and a rolling pin).
Put into a bowl.
Soften the cream cheese in the microwave. Add to the bowl and mix them all together.
Get a pan and put wax paper on it. Roll the mixture into balls and place it on the tray.
Put in fridge for about 2 hours.
Melt the chocolate in a ziploc bag in the microwave. I usually do it for 20 seconds, check, then put it back in. Once melted cut a hole in the side and drizzle all over the balls.
Place back into the fridge for cooling. Make sure you keep them cooled, you wouldnt want them to melt and be ruined.
ENJOY!

Mmmmm. I must give kudos to my friend Michelle from my March board who shared these with me. They are too too yummy, and the great thing is that Curtis doesn't like cream cheese so he leaves them alone! I am drooling just thinking about them sitting in my fridge right now. I think I'll have another when Toby goes to bed...

A few pics from this week...Toby being cute as usual and the second, we'd made a tent between the couch and the armchair and he had a blast crawing through again and again and again and again...but he was quiet, safe, and happy, what more can a mother ask for?

Short Rows Success!

I started a pair of longies last night with the intent to learn short rows. I've seen lots of knitters agonizing over these so I was fairly apprehensive and did quite a bit of research. I finally found a free pattern that tells you where to put them and a great tutorial on making short rows and eliminating the holes that are usually created. I made my first attempt tonight and was thrilled at how easy they really are. The knitting isn't perfect, but I know exactly what I did wrong, and out of 3 sets of short rows, the last one was dead on, no holes.

Sorry, no pics yet. I have about 5" of the body done, so 6 more to go, then the legs...it will probably be a few days before the unveiling. I'm using Nashua Wooly Stripes in Fiesta. I acclimated this lovely yarn a few months back at the big semi annual sale at Bella Filati. They had tons of different yarns bagged together for a discounted price and I liked the orange so I jumped on it. I have TONS, so expect to see lots of orange/ red in the future, lol.

Short Rows Tutorial

Same Knit Different Day: Yarn Over Short Rows

I'm posting this basically so I have it saved for my reference later tonight when I'm agonizing over these! I think I understand the concept, and I've used short rows (without knowing that's what they were) in socks, so I think I can do it, the only question left being, where should I insert them.

Off to do more research....

And to figure out how to make up my own gusset...

A Matching Set

I have been a busy bee this weekend. :)

First up is something I sewed, not knitted. It's a little sundress, size medium but it's supposed to be about 13-16 lbs. The back straps are buttoned on and have 2 buttonholes so you can adjust the length of the straps, then there are two buttons on the back...I have to point those out because I think I found the cutest buttons for the job! The hem isn't quite finished, I have to handstitch it in place and I don't think I'm going to get to it tonight. I also have enough fabric left to make a matching bonnet (another new pattern), so that's my next sewing project.


And here is the finished longies, hat, and booties set.

Here is a closeup of the booties. While they are cute, I'm not sure how functional they'll be. The straps don't seem to want to stay on the buttons (probably should have bought bigger buttons). So while they're cute, I'm not sure I'll make them again.

And the matching hat. This I LOVE. I was supposed to use 10.5 needles (circular and dpn), but the largest dpn I have is 8 and I tend to knit loose so I decided to try it with my 8's. The width around is fine but I should have added a little length to the hat to make up for the smaller needles. I have a little of this yarn left so I think I'm going to try the hat again, just slightly longer this time. The ribbon/ eyelet row I added myself; in the original pattern, there were two roses for embellishment, but I thought this yarn is busy enough on it's own, so the monotone ribbon seemed a nice touch. My husband thought I should have gone pink (the camera flash sort of took out the hot pink highlights) but I'm really happy with the black ribbon.

Happy knitting and sewing,

Chel

Hummers!!!

Not the sort you find on the roads...more of a backyard variety.

About a month ago we bought and hung a hummingbird feeder. That same day, we had hummingbirds on it. Since then, it's had a pretty steady stream of visitors. With Curtis working from the house, we decided to move the feeder so he could see it from his desk in our bedroom. I had been out grocery shopping this afternoon, and when I got home Curtis was all excited...he'd been watching 4 hummingbirds fighting over the feeder the whole time I'd been gone!

So of course we grabbed the camera :)

Here you can see two of them going at it - one is at the top of the feeder, and one is between the feeder and the pole. I was inside the house taking this picture, and I couldn't get the shutter speed fast enough to keep them from being a big blur...not to mention I have a lot of nice pictures of the feeder with no birds because I'm not fast enough!

So I went outside to see if I could get a better shutter speed. I definitely could, but of course they got shy when I went outside. I did catch this gal though.

Here I cropped and zoomed in so you can see the hummer better. Isn't she pretty?
I still couldn't get a pic with her not blurred at all, but I was pretty happy with how this came out!


Tonight we had baked potato soup for dinner. It was supposed to be a quick meal, but I must be incredibly slow or something because it took 2 hours :0 Dinner was LATE and Toby was Not Happy, but he did eat well. At least it was really yummy...it would have been sorely disappointing to stand over a hot stove for 2 hours only to have it taste ho-hum. Curtis said he really like it, but he's a smart man and would say that no matter what...still, I think he really did like it :)


It finally cooled off here! Today's high was a mere 92...what a breath of fresh air! It's supposed to stay in the lower 90's all week...I never thought I'd think 90 was a comfortable temperature, but after weeks in the 100's, 90 is fanastic!

Have a great week everyone!

Chel

My Little Cowpoke

Toby's newest favorite game...needless to say, Daddy is his new favorite parent because Mommy won't be doing this any time soon! This morning Curtis had to run into work for a bit, so Toby had to say bye bye to him...did the waterworks start then! It was really a pathetic scene...Toby crying and reaching up to go with him, and Curtis dealing for the first time with Toby really throwing a fit at the thought of him leaving! I guess that's the benefit to him going to work so early, that Toby never sees him leave; he just has the fun of welcoming Daddy home at night. With our new school schedule though, everything is changing. We're all still adjusting!

Pink Pizzazz Longies

I knitted these this week. The pattern is my own, done on size 7 dpn. I allotted 2 balls of yarn to them but they only took one so I still have a ball to make a matching hat and booties :) They are a size newborn/ small. The bottom of the legs is 4" of ribbing, done so that they are totally adjustable in length. I would imagine they could accomodate a skinny baby for quite awhile, since they expand to 9" in length (for the legs, anyway).

Ok, off to knit some matching accessories!

Another Ultrasound!

To catch my readers up (other than close family who already know this)...

At my 18 week ultrasound, the tech saw what she thought was scar tissue in my uterus. They decided to bring me back to ultrasound at my next appointment to see if it had changed at all. That appointment was last Friday. They still saw what they thought was scar tissue, but it was doing some things odd for scar tissue, so my dr sent me up to the Perinatal Counseling group at Duke University. That appointment was today.

What they did find was that it's not scar tissue, but an amniotic band. Apparently this is somewhat rare. Basically, there are these little threads waving around in the amniotic fluid with the baby. By themselves, they really aren't a threat, but if they would happen to wrap around a limb they could cut off circulation or cause some growth problems. At my appointment today, there had been no damage (and damage is fairly rare in this anyway) so for now everything looks good. They are going to keep an eye on her to make sure everything continues to go well, but in the meantime there is nothing I can do except pray that everything keeps going well.

Anyway, here are the pics from today! I didn't expect pics at all, so this was a pleasant suprise!

This is a foot

Here is a hand

For this one, the tech turned on the 3d!!! You can see her face and her puffy little cheeks!

She's still a girl :) That's 3 times now so I think we're safe

And finally, this is my favorite. Here are her feet next to each other.

I was able to see her swallow, and we saw her practicing breathing! The tech told me that it's something they just randomly do, and later on the pg they sometimes do u/s just to check for this breathing motion...so it was cool that we got to see it today. Definitely not something you see everytime! She was sleeping (or trying to) most the time so she was quiet. They took a lot of measurements again, so we really got a good look.

I wish it wasn't such a long drive up there, but Toby did well. He slept the whole way up and of course mom had her stash of cheerios ready to go as soon as I got on the u/s table. Curtis showed up after the u/s but before the dr came in (he had orientation today for school so he came up right after that). I was so happy he was there to hear what the dr said, especially because I would never remember it all!

Well, that's what's new around here!

Chel

Skirtie with Undersoaker

Can I just say I'm pretty darn pleased with myself? I wanted to make a skirtie diaper cover, but couldn't find any patterns, so I went into this one completely blind...and I love the results! I started by knitting a soaker in blue with a ribbed waist and ribbed cuffs. Then, with the pink, I crocheted around just below the waist ribbing so that I could have a row to pick up stitches along. I put those stitches on a circular needle, did 3 rows (?), then k2, inc1 around to give a nice fullness to the skirt (this was the part that I was really unsure about...I had no idea how many I should inc by or where I should do it). Then I straight knitted until I was just longer than the soaker. This is where it got tricky again. I only had one skein of pink and I did not want to have to buy another skein to finish this up with. So I tried to estimate how much yarn I had left, etc. Also, I knew if I did a straight cast off the edges would roll, but at this point yarn was becoming scarce, so I did one row purl, then cast off, hoping that would counteract the roll. It didn't work. BUT, I had a little pile of pink still left, so I pulled out my very rusty crochet hook and attempted a ruffle...I was super pleased with how it came out, and I have very little yarn left. After about half way around I started holding my breath in hopes I had enough to last me, and I did, even if only barely. I only wish I knew how well this looked in action, because I am very happy with the way it looks flat!




Here is the undersoaker, which I knitted first


Here I had about 1.5 inches of pink added on

Here is the completed skirtie!
Here is a close up of the ruffle

The skirt lifted to show the undersoaker

And finally, this is how much pink I had left over (had to include that!)

Cranky and Teething

I think those should officially be added as T's middle names. Tobias M Cranky Teething. He's waking up at night (sometimes more than once) and this morning was raring to go at 6am. I however, was not. Ugh. Of course, he's running around here yawning because he's tired (he's also not napping well the last week or so) and he's being extra naughty because he's cranky and tired (not to mention teething). I must say, I'm getting pretty cranky and tired myself.

Tomorrow is Curtis's first day of grad school. He's excited! It sure will be different getting used to a whole new schedule. We cleaned out our bedroom this weekend and moved a desk in there so he has a nice quiet place to study. We moved out some furniture and the room looks much larger. I guess I should get around to hanging some pictures on the walls soon...it doesn't look like we're getting new furniture for us anytime soon so I might as well try to make it homey.

The weather is very pretty this morning - it's actually in the mid-70! It will be in the 90's by this afternoon, but I took T out for some playtime this morning. Until he decided shaking the hummingbird feeder is fun. Now his head is all sticky from the juice he dumped all over his head. So we came back in to clean up.

I am counting the hours until naptime right now...we both really need it!

Chel

Music Man

Here he is at the piano again...some days he just gets in that "musical mood". It's not a thrilling video, but cute none the less :)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Things are good here...it is very hot (100+) so it will be nice once it cools down a little. We had ribs for dinner tonight...mmmmmm. Curtis's fav! Toby didn't care for them or the potato much, but he was happy with bananas and grapes as a substitute, and Curtis was happy to finsih off the ribs and potatoes.

Have a great Wednesday!

Chel

2 Pairs of Pants in 2 Weeks

I finished my blue longies last night! They look really nice, I'm very happy with them. Now I just need to lanolize them today and then wait the 2 days it takes for them to dry, then they're off to their new home!

Plugging Along

Sometimes I get too impatient. I have a few more inches of knitting on my blue longies, then a waistband and I'm done, but it's those last few inches that keep staring at me. With any luck, I can get them finished today.

I did manage to sew a diaper cover yesterday (it was already cut out and ready to go). The thing is, the pattern was marked newborn/ small and it nearly fits my DS (a healthy size Large). So hummph. Making my own patterns wasn't working, and apparently neither is using someone else's. Back to the drawing board I suppose. But, the good news is that it actually looks good and functional, just not well sized.

I am spreading my name locally on custom knitting...it sure would be nice to get a job or two from that...we definitely could use any and all cash coming our way right now. I guess that means I should put the saltwater taffy away and pick up these longies and get them DONE. But the taffy is so...good....mmmmmmmmm

Off to knit,
Chel

A Beachy Good Time

We took an impromptu trip to Myrtle Beach this week. We left Wednesday morning and came back home today.

We started out at the Outlet Mall...and boy was it hot! Of course, it was the hottest week of the year, but it really kept the crowds down. After the Outlet Mall, we stopped by Barefoot Landing; it's sort of like a boardwalk, except around an inland lake. It was a nice place to stop for an afternoon snack (ice cream!) anyway. Wednesday night we played in the hotel pool. Toby was able to show Daddy everything he learned in swim class, and Daddy showed Toby how to cannonball...Toby got a big kick out of that!

The next day we headed to the beach first thing. Even at 9:30am it was pretty sticky hot, but we stayed for about an hour. Toby played in the sand, Daddy built sandcastles and Toby had a great time tearing them down. I thought he'd be scared of the water and would happily stick to dry land, but that was certainly not the case! We took him wading in at first, and while that was fun, he wanted to go deeper. So Curtis took him in a little deeper so they could play in the waves. Toby had a blast, and even after a break playing in the sand, he decided it was time to go back in! We headed back to the hotel to shower off and change into dry clothes before heading out for lunch.

For lunch we stopped by the Hardrock Cafe. I had never been to one and was so excited to eat in one at last. It ws a lot of fun, and Toby enjoyed it too. Then we toured the shopping there - Broadway at the Beach. Toby finally fell asleep in his stroller, so he hada short nap, then we hit up the Ripley's Aquarium. Toby loved watching all the fishes and sharks and even the huge turtle! They have a moving sidewalk through a tunnel where you can view tons of ocean life...it was really something to see. We returned to the hotel to take a break (we were hoping Toby would nap; he didn't, mama did) then we went back to Broadway to eat dinner. By then it had cooled off quite a bit, so we walked around there again...it was much nicer this time as it was a lot cooler and the breeze off the water was wonderful.

Toby and Curtis in front of the Hardrock Myrtle Beach

Toby drinking his milk at the Hardrock

Toby and Michelle at the Ripley's Aquarium

Toby watching the fish in the tunnel at the aquarium

Daddy and Toby taking a timeout at Broadway at the Beach

And Toby needing a nap. Badly.

This morning we packed up and headed out pretty quick - for one, Toby woke up tired :), and for two, we were all looking foward to getting home. We did make a quick stop for saltwater taffy (is there any way to go to the beach and NOT get taffy?) then skedadled on to NC to pick up the dog at the pet resort. The nice part is that today is Friday so we still have 2 days at home before Curtis goes back to work. We even had enough time this afternoon for both boys to get haircuts (both very badly needed).

It was so nice to get away for a bit. I think we all needed it. Toby's exhausted though - he completely fought sleep tonight (the spider in his bed didn't help at all) but he's finally out of it. The peace and quiet is very nice (especially since at the hotel he wouldn't go to sleep until we turned out the light and went to sleep ourselves!).

Some pics

We had playgroup at one of the mom's farms last week...Toby loved seeing all the animals!



I'm sorry this is a little fuzzy but it's such a great smile! A friend sent us this shirt (and matching embroidered diaper) for Toby last week. There's a monkey on the shirt and diaper - how appropriate is that??!?

Toby's newest thing is eating raw peas at dinner. He's suddenly decided he loves them! A few nights ago, he also figured out there's a hole in the end of this pod. He stuck his finger in it and played for several minutes. He was a riot!

This is at the local playground. We went last week before it got so terribly hot - now it's just too hot to want to go play (well, for me anyway. The heat doesn't seem to bother Toby).

Like I said earlier it is HOT HOT HOT here! It was 102 yesterday and only supposed to get hotter the rest of the week. Blech. Makes you want to just take off for the beach, doesn't it?

Enjoy the pics!

Love,
Chel

Sweater and Hat

I forgot to post these from a week ago. This combo is for one of DH's coworkers who is having a baby later this fall. It's a soy-wool combo, very soft, but it also tends to pull apart as you're working (especially sewing up the seams), so I don't know that I'll buy it again. It's very soft though! The sweater is very easy; I adjusted the hat to knit in the round so no seams there!

Please ignore the mess on my coffeetable. Please.

Green Longies

Pair #1 of the longies are finished! I made these for a friend, and have started a pair of blue ones for her as well. I'm not sure why they looked so skewed in the pic, but they aren't really like that, lol! These are a Medium Long (long in the rise, medium in the waist and inseam). I added an action shot from trying them on my DS, and they are short on him as he is taller than the recipiant. They are knitted from PureWool with size 7 dpn and round needles. They have an elastic waist.