Pinterest

I'd been hearing people talking about Pinterest and just let it fly over my head, like I usually do when new social media-type sites pop up. But when a close friend started using it and gushing about how much she liked it I decided I should try it out. I'm still pretty new to the site but I really like it so far. I'm mostly using it for recipe and house ideas, but I think the longer I'm on I'll find more things to pin. Some of the things are really simple, for example:

I think I found this under organization and it occurred to me- rolling bath towels! Such a neat idea. They look nicer and I don't think they will drag other towels out with them.

I've also found things like a weekly cleaning calendar (not that I delude myself that I will actually follow it!) cookie recipes, bookshelf ideas, cute outfits, etc. If you haven;t checked it out yet you can browse around before joining. Try it out!

Car Trouble

This past weekend was my Webs meetup with a bunch of people from the HPKCHC. It was a great time! I think there was around 20 of us there, and it was fun to shop in Webs, as always :) However, on my way home that night I had some car trouble that derailed my timetable. Nothing too serious, but I didn't get home until 3:30am Tuesday morning, and that threw me off for a day or two. So while there has been some knitting and a bit of cooking, I haven't been blogging!

Here's what I've been working on:

Yeah, my finger got in the way :) I was worried about the lighting and not paying attention! This is going to be a simple baby blanket to keep around- lots of the people I know who are pregnant aren't finding out what they are having, so I'm making a couple gender specific things to have to give for after the baby is born.

These are my stripey socks with afterthought heel. I'm still really new to sock knitting, and this sock looks a little big even though I swatched and did some math. Live and learn! I hope to start the second one tonight :)

A Little Bit of Everything

This post is going to be all over the place, so we'll start with knitting! I have been doing a good amount of knitting. Still plugging away on my shawl design, I'm 31 points out of 48 and once I hit 39 I start decreasing, so definitely doable by the end of the month. I finished a baby hat for my friends expecting in July a few days ago, but here's a photo:

I think it turned out really cute! Perfect for either a little boy or a little girl. I have a small ball of yarn left so I may try to get a pair of baby socks out of the same yarn. We'll see!

The other item I worked on is kind of odd... I didn't really use a pattern and... wait for it... its crochet. I know, those of you who know me well just fell on the floor. Its not that I don't crochet, per say, but I'm just really bad at it :) Anyway, I made this bath pouf and it turned out pretty well! I have a few adjustments I think I will try next time, but overall I was pretty proud of myself.

If they turn out well and wear well I may start selling them in my Etsy shop (that has yet to be used for anything but a place holder!)

I'm also still working away on my stripey socks, but I haven;t been working too hard because I want to save them for my little roadtrip coming up! More on that later :)

Next up is some food! The hubs and I made dinner together last night, which was "make your own pizza" night! It was fun and we can't help but have a little competition :)

My "California bbq chicken" pizza is on the left, while the hubs "crazy meat concoction" is on the right. His pizza ended up becoming a calzone as he had too many ingredients and not enough crust ;) I tried to take a photo of a slice of my pizza but for some reason it turned out really horrible. Here it is anyway!

I can;t speak for the hub's ingredients because, honestly, he had a lot of them and I think he put more on than what I saw! But my pizza consisted of a light spreading of bbq sauce, broccoli, spinach, chopped chicken patties, Parmesan cheese, black olives, mozzarella cheese, and pizza seasonings. After it baked I added some sliced of avocado. Yum!

I highly recommend this kind of thing for a date night! We had a blast in the kitchen and its much cheaper than going out for a nice meal or going to a movie.

Lastly, we got our bikes out this week! Back a few weeks ago we pulled them out when it was really nice, but since then the weather has gone back to being 40 and rainy :( But this week I was determined (I have not been doing so hot in my biggest loser competition at work) so we pulled them out and went for a cold 2 mile ride. It was nice, but I can't wait for the weather to get nicer again!

Still knitting

Even though I've been talking about books and food, I'm still knitting! In fact I'm really enjoying the freedom of not fitting things into classes or having large looming projects that have deadlines. Don't worry, I'm still signing up for the HPKCHC for May! By then I'll be craving the structure and inspiration :)

The main thing I've been working on is my shawl design. It now has a pattern page! The pattern isn't available yet; the pattern itself is done but I'm waiting on photos, which means I need to finish knitting it to take photos! It really doesn't take that long, and I've been trying to do at least one repeat a day (more on a day like today when I don't have to work).

The next thing I'm working on is a gift. The first of many in fact! This is a hat for some good friends who will be welcoming a new addition to their family this July. I started a simple hat out of some random mystery yarn I had in my stash.

This is a little more blue than its showing up in the photo, so I think it will be perfect since they don't know what they are having. This is the first baby item of many, so watch for more!

The last thing I'm working on (yes, last!) is a sock. This is a plain vanilla toe up sock done out of Knit Picks Felici in the Marsh colorway with size 1.5 needles.

This has been my take along knitting if we go in the car or out to dinner or whatever. The toe is a little narrower than I planned on, but I knit so stinkin tight that I had to go up to 80 stitches for my sock! Crazy. But at least its coming along and the toe fits ok when its on my foot.

What makes my mornings

I really love having a nice big warm cup of coffee in the morning, like I'm sure many of you do too. Our staple is the Folgers Black Silk coffee... its nice and dark (which the hubs likes) but smooth enough for me to drink it too! When we splurge and buy "nicer" coffee our go to is the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Columbia blend. We first visited a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf when we were in California a few years ago and I love that I can order it through Amazon! We've actually been thinking about trying out their subscription program with the coffee, but I need to do a little researching first.

All this to say, I have found a new favorite creamer for my coffee. I always take cream and sugar or flavored creamer in my coffee, and I like trying out new flavors. I love when fall and winter come around because they put out all the yummy Holiday blends! My old favorite used to be pumpkin spice, but recently I found something that has overtaken it:

I love ice cream, and I love Coldstone's ice cream, so when I saw this I knew I had to try it. It really does taste like their Sweet Cream ice cream! If you are a flavored creamer lover like me, you should really try it out. I saw it at my local Wegmans and Walmart, so I think it should be available in most areas.