Finally! No more cold legs!

Back in August, I made my way to the fancy yarn shop and bought fingering weight yarn (that means skinny for the non-yarn-initiated) and size 2 DPN (skinny double pointed needles) to make Fortuny Baby Leggings for Josie. It took me quite a while to choose a color, not because of the large assortment but because I just wanted the perfect color that would compliment Josie's coloring and would go with her outfits. I ended up with this nice shade of pink rather than a light pink or purple. The pattern itself wasn't difficulty, it just took forever since it was knitting with skinny yarn and skinny needles.


Ideally, these would be perfect to throw on under a dress on a cool autumn evening. This has backfired for two reasons. First, I'm not a big dress person, so I haven't bought Josie many (any) dresses. Second, I made the bottoms too tight. I was afraid Josie's chubby little baby thighs would be too big, but no I just made the ankle parts a little too snug. That's ok, they are still cute and even if Josie doesn't get good use out of them, there are many babies on the way.

It was disgusting

Chris picked up dinner the other night and we all sat down to dinner. At one point I reach to the counter for a biscuit and notice a slimey smear on the counter. Then I look a little closer.

Hugs: EW! There's a slug on the counter!

Chicks: Huh, there is a slug on the counter!

Like I would lie about having a slug on the kitchen counter. It obviously snuck into the house on the back of an advertisement that Chris picked up off of the lawn and then put on the counter. When I say 'obvious' I mean that the slug trail led directly back to the advertisement.

Well, I wasn't about to touch it. Chris seemed more concerned about eating (and I can't blame him, it was a late dinner). So I attempt to ignore the slug in the room. That lasted about five minutes. But when I looked, it was gone! The only place it could have gone was over the edge. I slowly walk around the counter, afraid that if I moved too fast it would jump out at me and slime me a la Slimer.

It took me a second, but I finally found the slug hanging from it's own slime trail like a spider. I, of course, shrieked and backed away. Chris, of course, got up and took a close look. Then he got the camera and took lots of pictures.

Chicks: Cool, you can see it moving.

By 'moving' he meant writhing on the end of it's slime trail as it ever so slowly grew closer to the ground.

Finally, Chris took it outside. But I now have a fear of slugs hanging from trees and me walking into them.

And now I'm hungry

Ah, to be 31. Older but wiser. I totally wore my tiara on my birthday last week, even though it felt a little silly to do laundry in a tiara.

Recently I've become a little obsessed with food blogs. To be more specific, baking blogs. Why don't I just come out and say it, cakes and cookies. Mmmmm. I even happened upon CakeLove at the library and read it. I read a cookbook. Yeah.

Anyway, for my birthday I tried my hand at my grandma's chocolate cake. I always use box mixes for cake, so it was a little weird to sift the flour and melt the chocolate. It looks all fancy with the drippy icing and cake stand, doesn't it? It was all I could do to keep my dad away from it until cake time at Xander's birthday party. It turned out pretty well, just oddly crispy around the edges.


I didn't forget about Xander's cake. I did use a butter cake mix for his and it tasted great. My mom had given a combo gift of a cupcake mold shaped like a penguin so I could make Xander a penguin cake for his birthday. I was a little late getting the icing done, so I used icing bought at the store which was a little thin for decorating. And I didn't want to buy black icing so I used blue. It took me a few minutes to figure out the eyes, but I just popped in a couple of chocolate chips. So here is Xander's blue, juggling penguin that breaks apart into cupcakes.

Just for Filler

I can't find the pictures I want to include in a blog I just wrote, so here's something to fill the time. It's been a while since I've done a 'Guess the Screen Capture', so here is one on long ago cartoons. Do you know what shows these are from? Leave your guess in the comments. I feel like I may have done these before...

1)

2)

3)

When my little pleasures collide

Dr. Horrible

plus

Cake Wrecks

equals

(Dr.) Horrible Sunday Sweets

I was going to make Xander a penguin cupcake cake (you read that right) for his/my birthday but maybe I need my own cake after all.

He laughed all the way home

Chris's mom visited last week and was kind enough to help out with the kids. One day we all piled into Maxxwell the Malibu Maxx and headed out for some errands in town. Things went smoothly and we finished up and headed home when we were stopped in a turn lane waiting for the light.

Just as the light changed, the man in the van next to us signaled for MIL (mother-in-law) to roll down her window. We give each other a look and she does. The man tells us that we have keys hanging from the back of the car.

Huh. I recalled Chris saying he couldn't find his keys for my car after he took my car the day before. So we thank the man, I pull around the corner and pull over.

Yeah, I don't have a keyhole in the back of my car. I always use my fob to open the trunk, so I don't pay much attention. There are definitely not keys hanging from the keyhole in the back of Maxxwell. So I thought 'he didn't say where they were hanging from...' so I look all over the back of the car. I open up the hatchback and look around. I let MIL look around. Nothing.

So maybe they were hanging off the edge of the bumper and slid off. We hop into the car and circle the block, checking for keys that may be in the road. Nothing.

We go home and check the car over again. Nothing.

I call Chris to tell him about this and Chris is like 'I have my keys in my pocket right now.'

By golly, I think I was punked.

All that work for one hour of wear

The Baptismal gown is done! Which is good since the Baptism was this past weekend. Even though Josie only wore it for about an hour, I'm really happy I made it. Not only did I learn some new things about sewing, it's a real boost to my ego that I can make something nice. Oh, it's by no means perfect. I could point out the mistakes. But unless you are better at sewing than me (yeah, Julie and Sarah, you can look away) you won't notice the mistakes.

I added the little flowers to the front for prettiness. I was going to add some more along the bottom seam but due to time I did not. I think it might have been overkill anyway.

The finishing touch was the shoes I found at the neighbor's garage sale. They are pink and cute!

I made cupcakes and Chris bought chocolate icing. I wanted to make little crosses out of sprinkles on each one but that didn't work out. I won't go into how many ways we tried to get it to work. Finally I just used the cupcakes themselves to make a cross.