Pucker up!

I made something delicious a few weeks ago!

...And then promptly forgot to take decent pictures. Whoops. So here's a photo of my bestest friend eating it- not that you can tell what it is!



I whipped up a batch of no bake, raspberry lemonade cheesecake. Except I couldn't find raspberry lemonade anywhere, so I opted for pink lemonade.

Man oh man were these tart. Tart and delicious! I feel like I should make some sort of joke with that, but I'm refraining. Barely.

They were super quick- I probably spent more time looking for the nonexistent raspberry lemonade than actually making these. I can totally see using all sorts of concentrates to make different flavors. I can more than see it- they're on my to do list! I can totally picture orange cheesecake bars- I suspect they would taste like sherbert. Yum.

I'm not a huge fan of graham cracker crust, nor is anyone else I know, so I think I'll wind up using a nilla wafer crust instead. I'm practically drooling at the thought.

On another note: Ravellenic Games are going FAB-U-LOUS. Seriously. I think my sweater is going to take five second total. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it is going rather well!

Bouquet Card

Along with the sinfully delicious cupcakes, I made Monkey's mom a card for her birthday! I was, well, incredibly inspired by Eskimimi's bouquet cards, obviously.



Since I lacked the interest in finding and hot gluing buttons, I opted to add some pattern to give the card a bit of texture. On the inside, I merely attached a cut down blank sheet of paper, like you find in fancy schmancy greeting cards. After scribbling a quick message, it was perfect! Best of all, this was a great use of my scrap-booking scraps.

Bangles galore

I'm so excited about this project. I know a lot of people have been making friendship bracelets since they were little, but it was just nothing I had ever tried before. For a while when I was in middle school, my best friend at the time and I made knotted versions with embroidery thread, but it was nowhere near as "complicated" as this. My mom received all together too many of those kind, as they took about five seconds to finish. When I first started spotting the chevron bracelets on pinterest, I was instantly hooked. I adore the look of tons of bracelets all jumbled together- and I'm not a bracelet kind of girl! However, after suffering through the first set of instructions, I was left with a gnarled mess of embroidery floss. Let's just say, I wasn't pleased.

After a bit of googling, I finally found Zakka Life's tutorial and it became instantly clear where I was messing up. Somehow, I had gotten it into my head that you were supposed to tie each strand together, rather than carrying the outside strand to the inside. When I switched to yarn, it was immediately obvious where I was going wrong. Plus, it went a lot faster.



I absolutely love my bracelet. I made it out of Sugar & Cream/Peaches and Creme yarn, so it's going to stretch out over time (it's already a bit loose). I think when it gets to the point where it's difficult to wear, I'll probably throw it on as an anklet. I switched the knot at the end because unfortunately, I didn't cut enough yarn. Instead of braiding two braids, I braided one, and then triple knotted it so that it's held loosely in the loop (wow, that's a fun one to say). That way, it stays secure while I'm wearing it, but if need be, I can unhook it easily.

I seriously love this. I can tell that soon enough, I'm going to arms absolutely covered in bracelets. I'm resisting the urge right now to run out buy ALL THE YARN. Okay, that may be my normal inclination, but I don't normally rush out for yarn best suited for dishcloths!

Healthy Eating

I had plans- grand plans- for this blog post. Instead, I wound up not having enough time to get anything done, so the photos are pretty horrendous.

I really need to buy grown up dishes.

The first time I tried home-made macaroni and cheese, it was straight from Pioneer Woman's cookbook.

I nearly retched after one bite.

The mustard was disgustingly overpowering, and it was generally an incredibly unapetizing experience. It scared me off macaroni and cheese for quite some time, until I stumbled across this thoughtful little recipe from, oh, year 1870.

With a past like that, how could it be bad?



It wasn't. It was a-maz-ing. Seriously. I nearly gobbled the entire batch up. It had just the perfect amount of mustard powder, and while it was quite saucy, it was absolutely delicious. I've since adapted the recipe to use almost double the cheese (I have a bit of a problem with self restraint), and one and a half time the amount of noodles. It makes delicious leftovers, and I have to fight Monkey over who gets to eat the rest. Since I usually buy my pasta by the bulk, I usually cook it with penne, but tonight I stumbled across a box of good old fashion elbows buried in my cupboard.

Yum, yum! This is totally my new go-to meal when I'm just too tired to cook real food. Seriously. Two bowls of this was my dinner (along with a cupcake and a metric ton of jellybeans). I'm nothing if not the model of healthy living.

Too Kool

After entirely too long of a struggle with my Hideous Yarn of Doom (tm), I finally decided to knit up some Rebecca Danger monsters. I figured that at least they were supposed to be scary.

Then I actually saw the result. I still couldn't take it. I promptly consulted Ravelry and rushed out to buy some Kool Aid. The result was a colorful jacuzzi for my little knitted friends.



I dyed one monster in Black Cherry, one in Grape, and one in Lime. I used the microwave this time, and it was a great deal more frustrating than the stove top. I'm not sure if it was because I was over-dyeing something, or if it was the microwave, but it took quite a bit of zapping to get the dye to absorb. Even then, there was still color remaining the bowl when I had finished.

You'll have to tune in Friday to see how my lime monster turned out!

I love me some oatmeal

A make something Monday that isn't about food? Shocking



This is actually a ridiculously quick and easy project that I was inspired to do after the upteenth attempt to find a random knitting needle, as well as my hesitation to toss out my giant oatmeal container of dooooooom after it had been emptied. Basically, what I did was slap some pretty scrapbook paper and glue on random cylindrical containers and called it a "project".



The big one has my straight and circular needles (the circs mostly contained in their original packaging). I'm planning on eventually figuring out a better system for the circular needles, most likely a sewn over the door organizer, but that can wait until I both figure out how to use a sewing machine and acquire some more circular needles. The smaller container houses my DPNs, as well as my crochet hooks.

After my mom had seen my new storage system, she fished out her own empty cylindrical containers, so I have two more. One has all my odds and ends of yarn (scraps less than a few feet). I use them for stuffing, so they definitely needed to be wrangled into organization. The other container will be used for various knitting goodies such as stitch markers, row counters, and the like.

Super Duper Zucchini Muffins

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm a vegetarian. Okay, that wasn't really a secret. Anyone who's been around me eating already knows that. But what you probably don't know is that I'm a vegetarian who doesn't actually like vegetables (or fruit for that matter).

I mean, it's not like I hate all fruits and veggies. I don't actually hate many of them. In fact, if you give me a plate of them, I'll most likely eat them. They're just not my favorite (that's reserved for carbs. Mmmm carbs).

Zucchini is one of those veggies I'm just not a big fan of. I throw it in a few of the dishes I make when I'm at my parents house, but for the most part, I avoid them. So when I opened my fridge and realized my mom had snuck most of her stash of the veggie in my new apartment (thanks Mom). After a long debate (actually, like a five second wonder if I could mail them back to her), I went to searching for something to cook them in. I found these:



I made Super Duper Zucchini Muffins, and let me tell you, they really were super duper. I skipped the brown sugar and walnuts, and substituted butter for shortening, and they were absolutely divine.



The only problem? i still have like four zucchini sitting my fridge, staring at me.

Pesto with Cream Sauce

Oh, I made something. I made something delicious!

I put the teaser up a few weeks ago, and now I'm finally writing about it. What did I make those many days ago? Well, I made pasta with pesto cream sauce. With the first bite, I thought I had died and gone to Italian heaven. My mother felt the same way.



This was so delicious in fact, I made it again, less than a week later, for my dear friend Veronica. Our original intention was to deviously lure a boy into loving her through delicious food. That plan backfired when her boy didn't show up. That just meant more for us though, and her parents loved it as well. I've got to say, the tomatoes really make it, and I'm someone who really doesn't like tomatoes.

The boy will just have to wait until Christmas break. I'm sure by then, Veronica and I will have plenty of delicious recipes to force feed him.



Have I mentioned I'm in love with these plates? Veronica's mom wants to get rid of them if Veronica doesn't want them. I'm resisting the urge to garbage pick if that happens. When I do finally upgrade to real plates (rather than the plastic Ikea ones I use now. I swear, I'm not really five years old), I intend to buy brilliant white ones, but these are so cute. They remind me of tea parties and MeMe Rose. Anyways, back to the food.

I promise you, it's amazing. Try it. If you're particularly devious, try it twice. And with extra cheese if you're making it for my mother. And for the love of food, do toast the pine nuts.

Monday Monday

What?

Wait, what that?

Oh really, another announcement?! I can't believe it.

If you could imagine a drum roll, that would be great right now.



It's another day in my day of the week planner thing! I love it. I already have my first photos lined up. I'm not going to say exactly what it is, but I will say it involves this girl:



That, and it was delicious. I'm not going to have an event every day of the week, that would be insane, right? Instead, I'm shooting for every day but Tuesday. Why not Tuesday? Because twice a month it's knit night, plus I couldn't think of anything for it. So far you've seen Saturday and Monday, and I gave a hint about another day. I don't want to follow these themes every day, but I figured it would be fun to do when I have the ideas. Plus, it would be a fun way to motivate myself to keep up the creativity.

On another note, guess what I'm still knitting!

If you guessed my shawl-of-death-and-destruction, you were right. Sigh. I'm seriously testing my limits when it comes to resisting startitis.