Cafe au Lait Mitts

It's fall!  For me, fall = real apple cider, spiced molasses cookies, and knitting.

Remember this photo from a post in February?

I was knitting a birthday gift for a friend who was overseas for a few months.  Guess what!?  I FINISHED IT!!

Did you do the math?  It's taken me almost 8 friggin' months!  Well, to be perfectly fair, she didn't return until the beginning of May and it would have been sort of pointless to give them to her then.

I found the (FREE!) pattern on Ravelry, but if you don't have an account, it's also here.  The silk and bamboo blend yarn I used made them so luxuriously soft.  Seriously, if you don't say "Ooohhhhh" when you slip them on...there's something wrong with you.

The cross-hatch pattern is quite easy when you get the hang of it.  I will admit that I had to restart the whole mitt once or twice due to a few botched stitches.  There's always a learning curve!

I'm so in love with these fingerless mitts, it was hard letting them go.  Perhaps I'll actually take the time to knit another pair for myself....once my other knitting projects are bound off and finished!

Another Quiet Book Page

One more book page down, three more to go!

There is a 'C' and 'D' page to follow this one, and all of the letters are fastened with snaps.  Or...will be fastened with snaps.  I haven't gotten to the sewing of the snaps yet.  Design credit for the boat goes to Especially For...  I was searching for boat inspirations and just loved theirs!

I really hope my sewing machine gets fixed this week....I could have this all done by the end of the month!

Feather Hair Extensions

I'm friggin' loving this trend right now.  I think it's because I like to wear my hair down a lot these days (YAY for the impending autumn!) and feather hair extensions are more casual than feather fascinators.

I had a bunch of feathers, beads and clips kicking around, I decided to make some.

I bought the bright teal feathers on eBay; aren't they fabulous?! 

I slapped these little sale tags on them, and now they're hanging out in Tango, my favourite fashion boutique in Peterborough.  What does the 'H' stand for?  Handmade? Hair? Sure! 

I made sure to keep one :)

Homemade Baby Cookies

I had an epiphany in the baby food aisle in the grocery store the other day.  As I reached out for a box of organic vanilla baby cookies, like I've done many times before, I had this thought: "Hold up...I don't buy cookies.  I make cookies.  I've always made cookies.  WTF?!?  Why am I not making my own baby cookies?"

So I did.  I used the Baby Cereal Cookie recipe from Wholesome Baby Food.  I'm not sure if it's the baby cereal I used or what, but I found myself adding a LOT of oat flour (about a cup) to make the dough the correct consistency to roll out.

I also only baked them for 15 minutes so they would be soft.  Crunchy cookies = more crumbs. 

Unsurprisingly, they're a big hit with the boy!

Rowan's Thank You Cards

For your viewing pleasure: the little note cards I whipped up to say 'Thank You' to everyone who spoiled him (spoiled him R.O.T.T.E.N.) on his birthday.

I wanted his handiwork to be included on the cards somehow, so I printed out a sheet of 'thank you' in different fonts and sizes onto cardstock and had him scribble away.  Okay....I'll admit that I did a little (uhhh... a LOT)  of scribbling as Rowan's version of 'colouring' is stabbing the paper with a crayon.

"Mummy!! Look at my new cell phone!"

 Now that he's one, I'm starting to feel the stress of having too many toys (I know I'm not alone!) in the house.  His birthday haul was too much for his moderately-sized toy box to handle, so it's been divided up and half of it is living in a storage container for a month or two.  This way, when he gets bored of the current toy box residents, I can swap them out for storage container residents.  This seems like a great plan right?  Yeah it did to me too.  And then I remembered that Christmas is 114 days away.

Felt Quiet Book

I had high hopes that I'd be able to get a quiet book (check out my inspirations here and here) done for Rowan's 1st birthday.  A week before the gift was to be given, my sewing machine imploded.  I sunk into a deep, sewing-deprived depression and I avoided everything having to do with the book (even though a lot of it is hand-sewn) until a few days ago.

Here's what I've got going on:

Counting balloons

Felt safari - these little dudes have a jungle scene to live in

Peek-a-boo Bird and pick-your-own Apples

Flowers that spin

I have three more pages half completed and three more to start.  It's been a lot of fun doing all of this hand sewing and re-learning embroidery stitches.  Hopefully I get this done before he turns two!

Happy {Belated} Birthday Rowan!

I know!  This looks bad.  Rowan's first birthday and I can't even get a blog post done on time.  FOR SHAME.  Well, if you want an excuse, I've been very busy.  And Rowan recently started walking, so my busyness has grown at an exponential rate.

FRESH.  August 21, 2010

We celebrated Rowan's birthday up at the family cottage in Muskoka this past weekend.  Originally, I had big plans.  BIG plans for the cake, the decorations, the food and his gift.  Then...catastrophe struck.  I slayed my sewing machine.  I don't want to talk about it....it's too painful.  Not having a sewing machine meant that I couldn't finish his gift.  I was so friggin' BUMMED OUT.

And that's when I said "to hell with it" about my big plans.  Besides, when I'm up at the cottage, the last thing I want is to be stressed out.  We had a great time and no one said "Gee Anne, you know, it's just not the same without a homemade fabric 'Happy Birthday' banner and dog-themed hanging decorations".  I forfeited an elaborate dog cake (Rowan LOVES dogs) for some simple dog cupcakes.  

The '1' candle was a little to much for the cupcake!

Here's how they were built:

Pipe size 18 (Wilton brand sizing) stars in buttercream icing all over the top of the cupcake.  At the bottom, add a swirly mound of icing for the snout.  Retro serving platter optional.

Add a chocolate covered peanut for the nose.

Cut a cube of caramel in half and shape each piece into an ear shape with your fingers. 

The eyes were made of tootsie roll.  I just sliced off a little nubbin and rolled it into a sphere shape with my fingers.

There ya go, zero-stress dog cupcakes!!

I highly doubt that I will be finishing his gift anytime soon.  My little Husq-y is still in the repair shop.  So maybe I'll just share what I've got so far.  Next time.