What I did this week...

 At first I thought I was just being extremely lazy... then I thought I was suffering from something even worse and much more sinister than laziness...

I've also been mixing some delicious cocktails inspired by watching Jeeves and Wooster... but it's not a good idea to add rum to your sloth... you end up with a drunk sloth... which, if I could draw, would be a very funny picture indeed.  I'm not sure why I feel slothful though, because I have So Many Projects.  Here, just to show a few:

Not sure what the flowers will be for, but they're cute :D

I had to use up the Baileys frosting :)

Bacon, Cheddar and Broccoli quiche

The cake was just boxed yellow cake with chocolate chips, but I had to have something to put the Baileys frosting on... Here 's the quiche recipe for those of you that might like to try it (really the filling could contain any number of delicious things, I just picked three things I liked:

You win this time, Crochet...

I am a knitter.  I like to knit.  I DO NOT like to crochet.  I own crochet hooks, but they've mainly been used to finish knitting projects, when I can't find a tapestry needle.  I do know how to crochet... at least, I know some of the basics.  I just don't really enjoy crochet because I always hold the yarn too tight, or I go through the wrong loop, or something.  But for certain things, you just can't use knitting... so I once again gave crochet a chance.

I saw this: How to Crochet a Heart and decided that I could make some pretty cute stuff with hearts.  Normally, I'm not a "heart person."  By that I mean that I've never been particularly attracted to the design... but sometimes I just get in a mood for something and I can't get enough of it.  And with Valentine's day coming, I thought I might make some garlands and such for my Widgetorium.

I did find that the yarn I used made the holes in the center too big, so I adjusted the pattern (which made it easier and faster to make).  This is a great way to use those little balls of yarn you might have sitting around.  Here is the pattern (with picture guides for the stitches).

Crochet Heart Pattern

Supplies:

• crochet hook (you might need to play with size, based on your yarn, I used a size F)
• 1 1/2 yards of Yarn (I used red heart acrylic yarn, it takes about 50" but I rounded up. The amount/size/finished product will be slightly different, depending on what you use)

All stitches are worked into the first chain.

Cast on.

Chain (Ch) 4

Work 2 Triple Crochet (tr) into the first chain

 Work 2 Double Crochet (dc) into the first ch

ch 1
1 tr into first ch
ch 1
2 dc into first ch
2 tr into first ch
ch 3

slip stitch into first ch and fasten off

Pull the two ends tight

 Flatten out the heart and you're done!

Hopefully the pictures and instructions made sense, I figured out how to do it from this video.  From there, you can make all kinds of things with these.  Here is one example:

Things I did Yesterday

Rather than a usual post, I'm going to just tell you all what I did yesterday... mainly because I'm pretty excited about what happened and what I did.

I had some errands to run, and I was also on the look out for some buttons (I need to fix a sweater that I've had for a while, but I don't have enough buttons for it), so I decided to stop by our local SPCA thrift store.  I wasn't really convinced that they'd have what I needed, but it was worth a stop, since I was out anyway.

I should also mention that I've been looking for a 6 quart food storage container, because I want to make Artisan Bread in 5 min.  Since I couldn't find any 6 quart containers in any of the stores near me, I ordered them online.  They also had a deal to include the Danish Dough Whisk for $9.  I decided that $9 was too much to spend on a one-use item, even if I would be using it often.

While I was wandering around at the thrift store, I found their prices were really good.  They have deals everyday, it seems... when I was there, the clothes were buy 1 get 1 free.  I didn't need any clothing, but it was nice to know that I could get really inexpensive clothing that could be altered, if I have the time.  While wandering, I didn't find any buttons... but I did find this:

And the price? $1!  Yup, got myself a really good Danish Dough Whisk for $1!  And when I went to the counter to pay for it, I asked if they had any buttons... the helpful man behind the counter said that I was in luck, because a girl had asked them to save buttons for her, but she hadn't come by to pick them up even after they called her.  So I could have them.  All of them for $10!

I had fun sorting them last night :)

 So, $11 later I'm the proud owner of a Danish Dough Whisk, and a bunch of exciting buttons!

Later in the day, I saw a recipe for Soft Pretzel Bites (from one of the blogs I follow), and I figured I may as well try it out.  I'd also stopped at Trader Joes and picked up some much needed dairy products for baking scones/cinnamon rolls/etc.  So after I got home, I started baking... and kept baking until I had this:

Cinnamon Rolls, Cranberry Scones,and Pretzel bites/rolls

I altered the recipe for the scones a little, I substituted 1/4 cup of vanilla soy protein powder for 1/4 of the whole wheat flour from the original recipe.  So the new measurements are: 1 1/2 cup All purpose flour, 1/4 cup Whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup vanilla Soy protein powder.  I also used whole milk instead of cream.  They taste really good.  Slightly sweet, slightly vanilla, and very delicious.  I originally had a lot more of the soft pretzels, but they got eaten before I had a chance to photograph them... I'll have to post about the pretzel rolls later, since they're a story in themselves.

Also, here's the current progress on the socks (I'll do a full post when they're done):

2 socks at once! No second sock syndrome for me!

Apologies, Technical Difficulties, and More!

It's been a while.  Actually, quite a while since I last posted.  I am sorry, but I was at least upfront and honest that I am lazy.

In other news, I completely forgot to bring my camera home with me after a delightful trip to my parent's house (for their birthdays, which happen in the same week in October) and so am unable to put up those delightful pictures you're all used to.  Luckily, I have a few pictures on my computer that can be used until I get my camera back over Thanksgiving.

Also, I went on a cookbook hunt recently, and procured a few rather inexpensive books from Amazon.com.  As I'm sure most of you know, I love old things.  So in addition to the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, I also got The First American Cookbook: A facsimile of "American Cookery," 1796 by Amelia Simmons.  It's fascinating!  I was reading last night "To Dress a Turtle."  I didn't even know that American's ate turtle!  And I am also amazed by just how much housewives had to know about anatomy!  It is written in an older font, which means that some of those letters that look like "f" are actually "s"... but it's definitely worth the $3.50 I paid for it.

On to the Birthday Gifts!
I made some rather silly things for my parents this year.  For my Dad, since he has a new Droid phone, I made the adorable little icon into an adorable little stuffed critter.

You know you want one of your very own!

That's florescent green swimsuit fabric, a little bamboo fiber fill for the antenna, arms and legs, and those tiny polyester beads filled the body.  I was really careful at first and didn't spill hardly any of the beads (though they stick like crazy to everything) but near the end of filling this little guy, I managed to spray little white beads everywhere!  I'm still finding them, every once in a while, but a swiffer and vacuum combo seemed to get most of the pesky things.
The pattern I made up entirely.  It took some "advanced math" to figure out how to make the rounded shape, but I got some assistance here.  Though, I did kind of end up just cutting until the paper shape looked right to me... and I did a lot of reshaping/folding under/top stitching by hand after it was sewn together.  At first the white strip in the middle was too wide, so after filling as much as I could, I stitched him closed and then folded the whole white strip thinner and stitched all the way around by hand. It made him pleasantly plump, I think.

For Mom, I knitted a dozen flowers using this pattern.  They turned out great!  That's them but with just the flowers on the wood skewers I used for the stems.  I then knitted a bunch of stems (pun intended).  Hopefully, when I have the camera back, I can get a better picture.  They were super quick to put together, and I usually completed one or two while watching a couple episodes of whatever cartoon I was watching at the time.
I also made a "villain" to be the rival of the Android... but unfortunately, I didn't download the pictures of him to my computer before I left my camera at my parent's house.  Oh well, you'll all have to wait and see him later.

(Cites: Amazon.com,  XWiki: To Sew a Sphere, Andrew Craig Williams Blog)