Winner! And Dunkaroo Big Bird

Okay, so the super cool Lime over at Lime Riot had an awesome giveaway recently.

Guess who won.

ME!

You probably guessed that from the title.

Look at all the cool stuff i got! (By the way, i'm stealing her picture because it's so pretty.)

Thanks for the picture, Lime!

I will post my photo of a few of my favorites.

1. The Addi TURBO needles. I'm really excited to increase my knitting speed.
2. BINGO is a big deal in my family. Big deal. And everybody knows the best BINGO cards have B4 and B9. It's just fact. (Okay, maybe that is just me.)
3. Now that i can finally tell people that MY SISTER IS PREGNANT!... that little baby carriage image may just come in handy pretty soon.
4. I love that it was all packaged in lime green tissue paper.


Oh, by the way... Everybody meet Jack. Or as my nieces call him: Dunkaroo Big Bird.

This is my favorite because he looks like a goat.

We don't know if Jack is a boy or girl yet. Also, Jack is my name for the little goat baby. Not my sister's.

A Bigfoot for My BigFoot

Since the newest BigFoot Java opened up a week ago, i was inspired to make a Bigfoot coffee cozy.

He's super cute, right?

Green Bows

I've been working on things everyday, but have i taken the time to photograph any of it? No.

Well, that is, until a few minutes ago.

For St. Patrick's Day, i knit myself a green bow headband. Green bow(tie)s are kind of my thing. Also, saying something is "kind of my thing" is kind of my thing. Then i crocheted a couple for my nieces. When they came over, Poopy was really excited to wear hers. WeeWee, however, was offended that i even made her one.

I wish i liked knitting i-cord more than i do.

That's fine. I'm used to that.

Yesterday, Poopy came home from school and told me a little story about her day. She had worn the headband to school and apparently everybody was asking who'd made it for her. So she told them. "Poopy made it for me. My aunt Poopy."

I can't even tell you how proud i am.

I dread the day she becomes too old for Poopy. (It won't stop me, but it will make me sad.)

Oh, and i almost forgot! She came home with a present for me! She got a prize for being good in class, and she chose this for me. I. Love. It. And her. A lot.

Here's what i've been working on today.

I'm excited to get these things finished and in the new etsy as soon as possible.

Don't you just love teal? I do.

Delicious Drinkage

The past couples days i've just wanted some good drinkage. Don't get me wrong. Water is amazing drinkage. It's perfect, really. To anybody who doesn't like water... you're a doofus. No offense.

Yesterday, i made myself some butterbeer. Most recipes are for 4 servings. Who has two thumbs and likes to figure out what 1/4 of each measurement is? This girl. There was so little of everything, i had to warm it up in a measuring cup. Luckily, we just so happen to have a measuring cup that is basically a tiny saucepan. The saucepan people must have known i would be making butterbeer one day.

Butterbeer should always be served in a stein.

I used the recipe from Pastry Affair, and i totally plan on making her butterbeer cupcakes one of these days. It was delicious. Although... i don't think i'll go with apple cider vinegar next time. Despite hardly using any, it was still pretty obvious that it was in there. But. Still amahzing.

Like my stein? So do i.

Today, i decided to bust out the ol' espresso maker. This thing has always been a pain in my arse. But... i decided to give it another go. And despite my shots having zero crema (yeah, i know words like crema), they came out a hundred times better than they ever have before. And hey, that's good enough for me.

I used some of my mom's Ghirardelli white chocolate powder (shh, don't tell her) and Pioneer Woman's caramel sauce to make my own Mythical Mocha. (If you don't know what that is, i feel sorry that you... for you clearly do not have a BigFoot Java near you and deserve my pity. But for those of you who don't, it's a caramel white mocha.)

And, uh... it is scrumptious.

Oh, look at that. My very own BigFoot tumbler!

And this caramel sauce... This caramel sauce, Francine. Oh, my gosh, this caramel sauce, oh, my gosh.

Thank you, Pioneer Woman. I love you. Too soon? Why do i always do that?

Happy Pi Day! And Snakes Falling Down

I was making pizza yesterday when i realized what a fool i was... I should have waited and made pizza today! When i told my mom of my foolishness (she didn't care), she reminded me we would be going out to dinner tonight, so making pizza last night was okay.

Besides. Leftover homemade pizza for lunch today still counts.

Aside from the pizza pie, i still wanted to make a real pie. A desserty pie. We have a bunch of fuji apples on the table, and i easily could have made an apple pie (the greatest of all desserty pies), but fujis are my favorite. And i didn't want to waste the delicious fruit on a pie. (Not that they would have been wasted, but... they're just so good on their own.)

So, i googled "pi day recipes" for inspiration and found a maple pecan pie recipe from Baking Bites. I remember hearing once as a kid that pecan pie is my aunt's favorite, but i've never had it. I love pecans. I love sugar. And pie crust can be quite tasty. Why have i never tried it? I don't know. When i saw "maple pecan", there was no doubt in my mind that this was the Pi Day pie for 2012.

Who cares that i should be eating healthy foods? Who cares that i actually worked out yesterday and my core is screaming at me today? And who cares that pure maple syrup and pecans are super expensive? Today is for pie. Today is for maple pecan pie.

My mom always makes her pie crust in the Kitchen Aid. So, when i'm forced to make pie crust (pie crust and i do not always get along), i make it in the Kitchen Aid. It's just how we do it. But today, i used my hands. And it was glorious. And the crust stayed together just beautifully. I had no trouble moving the crust to the pie plate. It was just... amazing.

I appreciate you, beautiful pie crust.

Then i toasted the pecans. And i think i want to toast pecans everyday. I want to smell toasted pecans every single day until i die.

When i put the pie together, it just looked... so pretty.

So pretty in the oven.

As i'm typing about this glorious pie, my brothers snakes are just past this wall, being super creepy and disgusting. Every couple minutes, one of them falls. It's loud. Sometimes, when i'm home alone, one of them will fall... And it scares the crap out of me.

And why does he fall? Snakes are strong as hell. Right this second, he is on the ceiling of his cage. How can he keep himself on the ceiling, yet when he's just chilling on his stick, he falls off?

You creep me out, snakeface.

It might look like somebody threw up in a pie crust, but it's still somehow so pretty.

A very successful Pi Day.

Button Rings and Moving Forward

A few weeks ago, i saw a super cute tutorial for button rings over on needles, eggshells, and hairspray..., my pal, apm's blog. ;) At the time, i was reading her blog in bed, and i so wanted to make my own rings that i got straight out of bed and got to it.

It's one of those things that you wouldn't think of on your own, but as soon as you see it, you're like, ...doi.

I ended up making one ring that night. The next day, i made one more, set out a ton of possible combinations, and then i just made 5 more on Saturday. Now i will show you all of my finished rings! Yay! I know you're so excited!

For St. Patrick's Day, doi.

Purple is the best color.

Blue and brown is the best color combination. These aren't opinions, they're fact.

Does this not make you think of ice cream, or something yummy?

As for the "moving forward", i've decided to open a new etsy. Girl Meets Felt is a cute name, people seem to like it, but it's just never felt right. With all of the new techniques i'm learning in different crafts, and my ever-evolving style, i just think it's time for a change. Once i have some new items to post in there, i'll be linking to the new shop. I'm pretty excited about it.

Change is good.

Red Vines Mitts: The Pattern

Since posting my Red Vines Fingerless Mitts on Craftster, i've had a few people ask for a pattern. Which is a huge compliment.

And now i'm super happy to say i've written my first actual pattern and put it in my Ravelry "shop"... which isn't exactly much of a shop yet. But it is available for... download now! (That's the link they gave me, complete with demands to "download now".) If you'd just like to see the Ravelry page, click here.

After that whole, huge ordeal (i could not, for the life of me, figure out how to upload the dang pdf to Ravelry for days... turns out it's super simple), i think i'll post photos of my niece and our projects for the day: collages.

I found out today that Nick is her favorite Jonas.

Check out WeeWee's superior photog skills.

Sweet tat.

Ah, naptime. The best part of the day. No offense, Ween bean.

Oh, and yes. Kevin is my favorite Jonas.