WIP Wednesday

Even more baby knitting this week! I feel like I am going to be knitting a lot of baby stuff for the foreseeable future. I know a few more people who are having babies this year and since the hubs and I plan on having kids sometime in the next few years I don't think it's crazy to knit a few things to put away. Plus everything is so small, quick, and mostly portable its hard not to want to keep knitting more!

This week I finished (and gifted) a baby hat to go along with the bibs I finished.

Isn't this adorable!? I LOVE this hat pattern and asked the hubs if it would be strange I made one in a bunch of colors to save for our kids. Good man that he is, he said it was practical :)

I like this pattern so much that I started another one for another baby shower later this month. The colors are off on this photo- the green is much more of a spring green than the pea green color it is turning out in this photo.

I'm brainstorming other small, gender neutral items I could knit up in the next week or so using stash yarn to go with this hat. What are your favorite baby knits?

I'm excited to be reading some non-school stuff this week! In an effort not to lose my mind before graduation, I decided I needed to take a little time for myself and read for fun every so often. I came back to a book I had started a few months ago, The Murder Room.

It's pretty interesting, though not what I was expecting when I first picked it up. I'm reading it on my Nook on a loaded eBook from the library. This is becoming a great way to get new books!

This post is linked up with Ginny's Yarn Along

Menu Monday

This weekend was unexpectedly fun! Saturday I worked and the hubs had drill, but he got out early and we met some friends at the local Greek Diner for dinner. Afterwards we went to another friend's house for a movie night with brownies and ice cream. No photos, but you can be sure it was a good time! Both get-togethers were totally impromptu, but sometimes those are the best kind.

Sunday I stopped over to my parents to use their iron (ours isn't working right) to steam block my gift for the baby shower later that day. Mom thought the cat would have a great time with my scraps:

I'm not sure he had as fun as we did, but he was a good sport about it!

I'm really happy with how my gift for the shower came out. I forgot to take a photo of it all packed up (duh) but I do have a photo of the bibs all nicely steamed:

There was also a little newborn hat I made, but I'll show that on Wednesday with the rest of my knitting :) The mom to be loved the bibs and she looked great for being less than 3 weeks away from her due date!

After I got home from the shower Diesel was being quite the ham. He climbed up behind me on the couch and was resting his head on my shoulder, but when I tried to take a photo he wouldn't cooperate. I did eventually get this shot:

But after this the photo session went down hill quickly ;)

This morning both Diesel and Elliot were waiting outside the bathroom door for me, and Elliot was amusing himself by playing with Diesel's tail. The two of them crack me up!

All in all the weekend was so good that it made starting a new week not so bad! Here's our menu plan:

Monday: My version of Caesar Chicken Chalupas

Tuesday: Homemade pizza using whatever toppings we can find in the fridge

Wednesday: Dinner out with the In-laws!

Thursday: Either fast food or mac and cheese 

Friday: Chicken & Shrimp Jambalaya

I also want to make banana muffins sometime this week as I have three very ripe bananas on my counter. This weekend looks wide open right now, so I might actually make several more meals that what I have above. Guess we will see how it plays out!

Pinterest Finds

This week we are FINALLY starting to see some nice weather. I almost walked to work today, but it was only 30 something when it was time to leave which is still too cold for me!

Diesel (our dog) went into the vet yesterday. I was at school all day, so we planned for my husband to take him and his mom to come along as dog wrangler-helper/second pair of ears in the room. He has had two seizures in the past few months and never had them before, and I knew he was behind on his shots, so it was mostly a check up. They waited forever in the waiting room (an hour AFTER the scheduled appointment time!) and by the time they got done my husband was almost late for work so my mother-in-law brought Diesel back to her house for me to pick up later. He thought he was being pretty cool when I tried to load him up to go home:

Just to be clear, I wasn't driving when this was taken nor did Diesel actually ride on the seat like that! It took us a few minutes but we got him settled in for the car ride home where he whined and moaned the whole time :)

Anyway, I have a lot of recipes coming at you this week from Pinterest. Some are from my recipe box on Kraftrecipes.com. I thought it would make sense just to consolidate into Pinterest, and I started on that earlier this week.

French Toast Casserole- I would use a fruit the hubs would actually eat (aka not blueberries), but how good would this be on a weekend morning?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes- not sure I will make these anytime soon, but the recipe was just too intriguing not to pin.

Cooking ribs has kind of intimidated me, but this recipe for Baby Back Barbecue ribs looks good.

This is one of my favorite things to make for a party. I think I could eat a pan by myself!

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but these Crispy Chicken Roll ups seem like a fun meal for a weeknight.

The next two pins are tried and true favorites- foil pack dinners! One has an asian flair and the other is chicken and mushroom. I love that you can sub things in and out depending on what you have on hand!

This Greek-style couscous salad screams spring to me- it just looks so fresh and healthy.

This pin is so that I can use up the buttermilk sitting in my fridge- overnight buttermilk cinnamon rolls.

WIP Wednesday

I'm excited to show you guys my knitting progress for the past two weeks! Since I took last week off from blogging and I had a bit more time since I wasn't in school, there's a good amount to show you.

I'm currently working on the last bib out of five for a friends baby shower next weekend. 

This one will have a green tie, and will round out the rainbow bib set nicely. I may try to get out a small little something to add to the basket, but if not I think this little set in the basket will make a nice gift.

The other project I'm still working on is the blanket. I'm SO CLOSE to finishing this! Here's a shot of my last border row:

I hope to have it finished and washed this weekend so it can go to its recipient.

I finished a couple of things too! You guys last saw this yellow bib as a WIP.

And I finished up the green bib too.

For knitting so many of these guys, I don't hate the pattern. I may not want to knit one for a while, but I can see myself knitting more sometime in the future! I think it helped knowing I was going to make 5 from the get go and having them color coordinate.

Reading is mostly school stuff, and my currently reading list on Goodreads is getting ridiculous.  I can't wait until the semester finished, half of those books will be read, and I can go back to reading whatever I want!

This post is linked up with Ginny's Yarn Along

Menu Monday

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. Mine was busy but we ended up seeing a lot of family, which was great! We met out-of-town family at a new to us Restaurant in Perry, NY called Hole in the Wall. I was pretty impressed- I didn't expect much from this restaurant in a small town but the restaurant was nice, the staff friendly, and the food was great. If you are heading through that way be sure to stop in!

I ended up taking last week off from blogging, and I didn't even post to let you know. It was my week off of school, and even though I still had to work I didn't realize just how much I needed that break. While there are some positives of being back in school, I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to graduating. I actually started a list of things I want to do but don't have time for so that I can come back to it after graduation. Maybe I will share it in a future post!

At any rate, no matter how busy things get we still need to eat. Here's my plan for the week:

Monday: 

lunch- egg and bacon sandwiches made by the hubs

dinner- roasted asparagus and mushrooms with some leftovers

Tuesday:

packed lunch (assortment)

dinner- mac and cheese

Wednesday: 

lunch- not sure. Maybe greek yogurt with banana and peanut butter?

Dinner: Soup and biscuits (to use up buttermilk)

Thursday:

packed lunch

Dinner- probably eat out

Friday/the weekend:

The hubs will be out of town so I'm thinking I'll make a lot fresh veggie salads. I'm also eyeing these cheesy cauliflower breadsticks and zucchini pizzas. 

What do you guys eat when you are on your own?