Root Beer Floats

You know what? You know what day it is? And you know what I have photos of?

Nyan nyan nyan

Guess what day it is?

It's Friday! And that means a new theme!

Audio what?

I've got another theme to announce! This time not only am I announcing it the day of, but I also actually have something to write about. So, without further ado...

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.

Announcing a Thing

I'm announcing a new thing.

Yes, a thing. I know, it's so descriptive, but, what else am I going to call it? Anyways, I've always been intrigued by those day of the week tasks. I think it hearkens back to when I used to read Little House on the Prairie and they had washing on Monday, mending on Tuesday, etc. Then it progressed to Finished Objects Friday and WIP Wednesday. I'm just scheduling obsessed. Not that I follow schedules, mind you, but whatever. At any rate, here's the thing:



Okay, I know this is Sunday, but a photo just wasn't going to happen yesterday- I was way too exhausted from standing on my feet for virtually two days straight. Why? Because I was baking these:



Plus about ten million more. You don't even want to know... But you definitely do want to taste!

Falling Leaves Bag

This was my main source of relief from The-Shawl-That-Never-Ends while on vacation. Really, it wasn't that much relief- it was equally boring.

After sampling three different types of market/beach bags, I've come to the conclusion that really, they're all really the same.



The worst part is that I don't actually *use* them. My mom barely uses the one I gifted to her, and my sister took off with the yellow one I made for myself. I'm thinking I'll probably make a few more- not with the pattern for this particular bag, but rather, another everlasting bagstopper. I like the square bottom considerably more.

In other news, I went on a cupcake binge today. Not eating, thankfully (though I did gorge on frosting), but baking. My parents are having their last volleyball that I'll be able to attend this summer, and I wanted to go out with a bang.

That, and I was excited about my recipes. When my mother came home and saw the damage (four different types), she banned me from the kitchen. I'll probably sneak in and make some lemon cookies despite the ban.

I also made a ridiculously delicious dinner on Wednesday. I think I'll probably cook it again some time this week and take a few photos. I need to stop cooking without my camera. Or start leaving my camera in the kitchen. Either way, at least I get fed (too well, unfortunately, by the looks of some of those vacation photos- back to the gym for me...)

We're back!

We're back! And I feel utterly hideous after seeing some of the photos of me in a bathing suit. It's amazing how confident you can feel until you see photographic evidence of weight gain. (Thankfully, it apparently my weight seems to like to hide under clothes)

Ugh. It probably doesn't help my mood that I've been working on the same darn shawl for like a month. I want to be done!

Mister Cockroach

I posted this on Ravelry, but I feel like this needs to be saved for posterity.

We’re at a beach house on vacation, and it’s our last night. We’ve stayed at another house through this company, and it was really clean and well kept. This one? Not so much. We got here before the cleaning crew (a lone man of one) was finished and discovered a dirty diaper under one bed and tons of other garbage littered around the patio. My SO and I didn’t have anything other than sheets until yesterday (supposedly, they were at the cleaners. I suspect otherwise, since we have twin beds and the queens and kings still had their covers).

Tonight just sealed the deal. We just found a four inch long cockroach in our closet. Now, I’m not bug-squeamish. And I’ve seen roaches before (a whole slew of them when we discovered a palm tree was infested before we even got it off the truck). But the antenna on that thing were a good two inches on top of that. SO GROSS.

My dad “rescued” my SO and I by squishing it, then promptly knocking on my sister and her friend’s door and saying in a terrifying voice while holding out the roach “It’s Miiiiiister Cockroach!”.

Thanks dad.

Vacation Knitting!

I'm still in Florida, so I'm not going to write a big long post. Nope, that will happen later.

I always say that. I need to get off my butt and stop procrastinating. I will say that while I've been here, I've made a little friend.



This little guy popped out after a day in Florida. I blame the fact that our neighbors/family friends just got two little cats. It was bad enough when they had one, but now they have three adorable furballs.



Since pets aren't in my future for at least another year or two, and cats are out of the question indefinitely since I'm allergic, I'll have to settle for the knit variety.



You may remember this little guy. Clearly, little cat was based on him, only teeny tiny. I definitely like how the bigger one turned out, but whatever. They're both going to my sister anyways, and she's not very picky!

Um. Oops.

I finished with my summer class and let my blog posting evaporate! I've had a lot day, and plenty of things to talk about, so I'll keep this post short.

I made what may be the most delicious cupcakes ever.



What kind of cupcakes, you ask? Butterbeer cupcakes!

Now I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but these looked too delicious to pass up. Plus, you know me, I like any excuse to bake things. Originally, they were supposed to be for my SO to bring in to work during the HP midnight showing, but with the scarf and cape I made him, these babies got put on the back burner. I didn't want to waste the cream and buttermilk, so I decided I'd make them anyways.

I am so glad I did. Seriously, the *best* cupcakes I've ever made, and from scratch too! I probably could have eaten every one of them, but I tried to have some restraint. I sent some in with my mom to work (where I think I earned the love and affection of six people I've never met), sent some across the street to our friends/neighbors (who just got two new adorable cats that *will* be on this blog soon), and some to Monkey's sister. Who knows if they make it there or not, but I'm hoping.



And you see that plate? That is the most fabulous plate ever. I bought it from Anthropologie, after listening to an episode of Joy the Baker's Podcast in which she talked about her various mix matched plates. I'm telling you people, it took my entire strength to refrain from buying every last octopus themed item there.

The only modifications I did to this recipe was reducing the heavy cream in the ganache to 3/4 cup. Even then, it was still pretty runny. I actually doubled the frosting recipe and had a bit leftover, so I stuck it in the fridge for a rainy day. I also had plenty of ganache leftover, so I think tomorrow I'm going to experiment with butterscotch frappaccinos/iced coffees. Nom.

And on that note, I'm going to leave off. I'm busy, busy, busy getting ready to go on a trip to the beach for the week. Not that I've really done much to pack- I'm still not even sure what knitting I'm going to bring!