Archive for the ‘Crafts & Celebrations’ Category

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Kentucky Derby Bunco

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Good cheap fun…that’s what Bunco is!

I blogged about our fabulous wedding party and my retro housewife themed Bunco that turned out to be a blast.

This month’s Bunco theme was the Kentucky Derby so we all donned our fabulous hats and our high heels for a fun time.

I had to borrow a hat from girlfriend so here are some pictures before I got my hat on.

Ethan & Emily think it so cool when mommy dresses up for these events so they wanted to get some pictures with me before I left.

The kids kept touching my dress and smelling me….hmm…I wonder what they are trying to tell me?


Just call me Sandra Lee, as I was running short on time with a ton of appointments and events going on that day.

I found a Suddenly Salad in my pantry and used up what was left in our fridge to make my dish.

This is their classic pasta salad flavor with a few of my own additions- romaine hearts, tomatoes, sliced black olives, and narrow slivers of pepperoni to dust the top.

Despite it being convenience food (bought deeply discounted, of course!), I thought it turned out really good.

This was our lovely hostess, my friend Jessica.

Jessica is also the one who taught me how to knit so I especially love her right now!

She has been to the real Kentucky Derby so she wanted us all to have a taste of the food that we would eat there.

She served us Kentucky Hot Browns, Cheesy Grits, Derby Pie, Mint Juleps & Mimosas.

We all agreed that the food was great, but the Mint Juleps were extremely um…refreshing, but tasted horrible.

Here we all are with our hats on!

We are all wearing our very best summer dresses and it is about fifty degrees outside.

We all wished we were in Kentucky for this shot, but we were enjoying some derby fun in Indiana!

Gotta love a good Bunco theme and this one was GREAT!

 

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Posted in Celebrations | 3 Comments »

Knitting: My First Blanket

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

I know that I am supposed to be working on my first hat, but some happy news from my best friend changed my knitting plans. She found out that she is having her first boy and I couldn’t wait to put my knitting skills to good use and make her a blue baby blanket.

I originally had the intention of knitting my first pattern, but we are planning a visit in a couple of weeks (she lives in St. Louis) and so I need to work a little faster to have it ready in time. Considering how long it takes me to figure out a pattern, the blanket would probably be ready by the time he was thirteen. I figured the simple garter stitch would be the way to go.

I know, it isn’t as impressive, but my girlfriend doesn’t knit so I think she will be impressed with my modest efforts. It is funny though, if you would have asked me last month if I would be able to knit a blanket, I would have laughed. Now I am knitting a blanket and am embarrassed that I am choosing garter stitch. Kind of funny how quickly one can blow their hobbies out of proportion, which is probably why I give up on things so easily…I am always trying to outdo MYSELF.

I wish the colors of the yarn showed up better in this picture- it is blue and has flecks of green through it. The yarn is so soft, but nice and warm for the winter. I hope I can get it done in time for our visit. Three skeins of yarn- one down…two to go!

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Posted in Knitting | 13 Comments »

The Naughty Stitch- The “Amy Purl”

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Requests were made to show you guys how I messed up my knitting. I am not sure if this is genuine interest or an opportunity to laugh at my ridiculousness, but I will pretend like it was to marvel at how inventive I am. Now if this is a real stitch, please tell me. If this resembles something you have seen before and don’t believe that I can get a patent on this fabulousness, please let me know. I was hoping it was unique, but perhaps it is not!

Begin by taking your needle in going up into the top of the stitch and hold ‘er steady.

Don’t panic this is exactly wrong so you are doing great. Now take your yarn (which should be on top and not behind like that old and boring knit stitch) and loop it around on the outside of that knitting needle. Does it feel wrong and inappropriate? It should, especially if you know how to purl the proper way.



Now you are going to take that loop and slip it off on the right needle. You are so wrong! Don’t you feel like you need a shower after this horrible knitting tutorial?

Now you can slip that stitch off the left needle and you have completed the naughty stitch…or the “Amy Purl.”





If you alternate this stitch with a row of this and a row of knitting, it will look like this. That’s right….completely wrong, but completely straight and right-in-your-head.

Do NOT do this stitch if you are not an experienced knitter and can understand just how wrong this is. I don’t want to deter you from the path of the straight and narrow.

Hugs and Kisses,

The Stitchery Satan

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Posted in Knitting | 6 Comments »

What I Got For Mother’s Day

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Ethan brought home this beautiful picture for mommy from school. I adore it because he is giving a toothy grin and he has the sweetest smile. When he was little, he knocked one of his front teeth (tragically stunting the growth in one of his front teeth) and his one front tooth is short and his other is longer. It is one of those things you think you won’t forget as a parent, but you do…I am glad I have a picture of this precious little smile. I will hang on to it when all those perfectly perfect teeth come in. This little picture was accompanied with a potted flower that I just love. Two of my favorite gifts.

What else did I get for Mother’s Day? Oh, don’t hate me too much, this was lots of time and research and just happened to be purchased around Mother’s Day, but is really an investment for my kitchen and meal preparation… Behold, my glorious Cuisinart Multi-Clad Pro Stainless Steel Pot Set. Oh my goodness! Heaven! Total and utter heaven! I love these pots like I love my children and as much as I love my red pot, red coat, and red shoes. Yeah, that kind of love…a deep kind of affection that only one cook to another cook could understand.

My husband has been making so much fun of me as I clean these precious gems. I am all stroking them lovingly (hoping that phrase doesn’t pop up in our keyword phrase searches too often) and just cleaning them like they are the finest china dishes I have ever own. Yeah, I don’t care… say what you must, but I have waited YEARS for these pots.

They are every bit of good as I had hoped. Sturdy, heavy, easy to clean, and beautiful to look at. Yes, I can gaze at my freaky expression on the lids as I take a dishtowel to the corners of my eye and weep at their beauty. I don’t know why my husband is making fun of me? Perhaps jealousy because it is a love that I cannot explain.

Oh, and one of the strangest things that has happened to me is getting a beautiful flower sent to me…by the TiVo company. Say what? Yeah, Tivo was all like, “I hope you can pause for a moment and enjoy your Mother’s Day.” Although you can’t see it, the company stamped their logo on the corner of the flower and sent these to me one morning via Fed Ex. This was perhaps one of the most creative campaigns I have ever seen. I used to work in marketing so I can appreciate a good campaign- can’t imagine how much time and orchestration it took to send these out to mommy bloggers, but very thoughtful and I loved looking at it in my window. What did I appreciate about this campaign? The note was actually handwritten. That means a lot to me because this can be a rarity. I appreciate it when people write notes by hand- it is good form, in my humble mommy opinion!

Not to be outdone by the flower, this entire stack of books came to me from Hachette Book Group. They wanted to send me a, “Mother’s Day Package” with no strings attached. Who in the world would turn down free books? In this stack are:

1. Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
2. Your Best Life Now For Moms by Joel Osteen
3. How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger by Charla Krupp
4. Bobbi Brown Living Beauty by Bobbi Brown
5. Kim Cattrall Sexual Intelligence by Kim Cattrall
6. Sew U Home Stretch: The Built by Wendy Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics by Wendy Mullin & Eviana Hartman
7. Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50 by Michael Cunningham & Connie Briscoe
8. On Becoming Fearless: …in Love, Work, and Life by Arianna Huffington
9. Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach
10. Days: From the Heart of the Home by Susan Branch
11. Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen by Susan Branch
12. Starting Your Day Right: Devotions for Each Morning of the Year by Joyce Meyer
13. Ending Your Day Right: Devotions for Every Evening of the Year by Joyce Meyer
14. I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris
15. Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles by Gloria Feldt and Kathleen Turner

Some of these I already have so I will be giving them away as gifts and for our giveaways on here, but it was just so darn exciting to get all these nice new books. I am hoping we can work through a couple of these on the site since I have enjoyed our past book discussions so much.

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Posted in Gifts | 4 Comments »

Too Much Knitting Confidence

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Guess what? I didn’t know how to purl. This is not the purl stitch, but I will now lovingly refer to this as the, “Amy Purl.”

I showed my mother-in-law this scarf and she had a bit of a confused look on her face. She wanted to know which stitches I had been doing. I explained that this was knitting and purling (I thought she would know that by now) and she had an amused expression on her face. Um….yeah, not so much.

This is the “Amy Purl” which actually looks quite lovely and nice and straight, but is not purling at all. Everything I was doing was completely backwards so now I am learning how to purl correctly. This is a lot harder now that I did an entire scarf the wrong way. It is like trying to reteach my brain and I keep wanting to do things the wrong way.

Instead of our planned hat tutorial, my lesson was on how to purl correctly. I guess I will try hats when I can master the purling. We did talk a lot about all of these crazy pattern techniques, which are so confusing and my head felt like it was spinning after learning all of these abbreviations.

I do want to say though that I am not at all frustrated. Nope, not at all. I am good enough, I am smart enough….

Perhaps, I was a bit too confident in my knitting abilities.

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Posted in Knitting | 12 Comments »

Knitting: Dropped-Stitch Scarf

Friday, May 9th, 2008

This is the last scarf I am sharing for the week. This one was done in about three hours and it is my absolute favorite one so far. Since I am a beginning knitter, I checked out this amazing book called, “Teen Knitting Club,” by Jennifer Wenger. If you are just starting out to knit, I would HIGHLY recommend this book because it has awesome beginner projects and they are actually cool too.

This is their Dropped-Stitch Scarf and it requires size 15 needles and a chunky yarn (I used medium yarn that my mother-in-law had given me from her yarn stash and it looks amazing).

Here is a close-up picture of what the stitches look like. I just love the way the dropped stitches make this scarf look a tad more feminine.

And this is what it looks like on someone. Isn’t it so incredibly awesome looking? I have to say, this is about as proud as I have been with my knitting. I kept looking at it and saying, “I can’t believe I am making stuff.”

Soooooo proud!

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Posted in Knitting | 9 Comments »

Knitting: My Second Scarf

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008


Scarf #2 was finished last night- I am so proud! I alternated knitting and purling in this scarf, after practicing the purling on a separate piece for a couple of days. I did not flip it to each side so the ribbing stands out on both sides. I did drop a stitch, but the sizing of the scarf was a lot more consistent than the first one.

I love the colors in this one, but I had something weird going on with the yarn. I would knit and then find a knot where two pieces of yarn were tied together. This happened twice in this one ball of yarn. Is that typical? I didn’t like that at all- it makes it look like I tied off in two spots on my scarf.

I will need to start my next knitting project for tonight. I would say that I have definitely found a new addiction to keep me busy for the summer!

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Posted in Knitting | 14 Comments »

Knitting: My First Scarf

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

I completed my first scarf last week and I am so proud of it! In the meantime, I just finished up my second scarf today and will have to post some pictures of that too. With this one, I just stuck to the basics and did not attempt any patterns. This crazy yarn camouflaged my numerous mistakes that I had made on it, but did not hide the fact that it was a tad wider on the ends then in the middle. I am still learning though so I will let these errors slip… this time!

This scarf took a couple of weeks, but mainly because I cast on with about 42 stitches and then realized that I was practically making a blanket, not a scarf. My mother-in-law helped me take it apart and put on a more appropriate amount of stitches (about half that) and got me started again. Once I got the hang of it, it became less and less tedious. With each stitch, I started to enjoy doing it a little bit more.

My second scarf, in comparison, took me only about two days. I am gaining speed and am having so much fun learning this new skill! I can’t wait to attempt some other projects for our family!

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Posted in Knitting | 15 Comments »

Knit for a Cause

Monday, April 28th, 2008

I am so enjoying learning how to knit and it has been a wonderful outlet for me in the evenings. I have been practicing and learning each day. Progressively, I am getting a little better, but I am no speed demon and certainly am still in the learning stages.

My mother-in-law gave me a big stack of knitting magazines to help inspire me and my knitting projects. As I was flipping through them, I noticed all of the great charities that were listed that take knitting donations. I had not thought of how learning this skill could benefit others, but now I am thinking about this hobby in a new way. If I can learn how to knit, I can benefit someone else.

Our church has a knitting club and I am a little too embarrassed to go at such an early stage, but it might benefit me to sit with some experienced knitters and let them teach me a thing or two. I have also been calling my poor mother-in-law often to brag about figuring out how to purl, how to cast off, and my daily progression on my scarf. She is so sweet to talk to me and encourage me that I am doing well or just to offer moral support when it takes simple things, like learning to purl, an entire day. Talk about slow!

I wanted to provide some links to organizations that take knitting donations. Please list any organizations that you have worked with/for and if you have had any experience knitting for charity.

These lists provide some added motivation for learning this new skill- what a gift it would be to share my handmade efforts with others.

Cubs for Kids

Interweave Knits Charity Knitting List

The Duulan Project

Newborns in Need

Threads of Love – find a chapter in your area!

SusanB’s Charity Page

Headhuggers Chemo Hats

Bev’s Afghanistan Project Page

“Ray of Hope” UK Charity Knitting

Special Knitting Forces

Stitches from the Heart

Project Linus Baby Blankets

The Daily Knitter Charity Knitting

Red Scarf Project – Norma Knits Blog with info

Guideposts Sweater Project

Afghans for Afghans

Knitting for Veterans

Warm Woolies – Knitting for Orphans and Poverty Stricken Children

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Retro Housewife Bunco

Monday, April 28th, 2008

This month, I got to host our Bunco group, and I was so excited about my retro housewife theme. The best part about this theme was that I could display my apron collection and I could make all my friends wear aprons too.

The downfall with entertaining is that my home is a smaller space. It just means that I have to be a little more purposeful with clearing the home of clutter and finding more inventive ways to display and share all of our good food, but I did my best.

I cleared all of the shoes and coats from our entryway and replaced them with a handful of my favorite aprons from my collection. A couple of the girls said that they didn’t have an apron (I know, *gasp*) so I thought they could borrow one of mine from one of our hooks when they walked in. It also helped to tie in the theme!
I love to look for benches for my house because it makes great instant seating in any room. Even an old and ugly bench can be recovered and made to look more modern with a new fabric or coat of paint. I pulled my benches into a seating arrangement that I thought would make it easy for groups to sit together and would make it easier for people to chat. These are also narrow enough that they make good seating for homes with smaller spaces.

We had a delicious retro supper prepared. I made my favorite Sloppy Joe recipe and I got mini-kaiser rolls to make it easier to eat while we played. These were served with tater tots and Rice Krispie treats for dessert. I could prepare everything ahead of time and just had to throw the tater tots in the oven before everyone arrived. I planned to serve slushies, but everyone brought a beverage to share instead so this made it easier for me.

I love to serve our food on cake stands and the covered ones are great for keeping bread from drying out and they help to create a display. If you are short on space, elevating the food can make more room for lower dishes to rest. If you don’t have cake stands, you can use an inverted bowl and rest a plate on top to create a cute cake stand. Hunt at the thrift stores and you can find elegant china plates and cups or bowls to create cute little cake stands.

Coolers can get in the way when you are trying to entertain and can be difficult to hunt for just the right drink. I plugged one side of our double sink and filled it with ice. I tucked the drinks inside of there and then took a ribbon and looped a bottle opener through the ribbon and around the spout. It made it much easier to drain (just have to unplug the sink) and it also saved on space in my fridge and freezer.

What retro housewife would ever serve her guests dinner on paper plates? We kept our party green and wallet-friendly by using cloth napkins and my favorite white dishes to serve on. I had seven guests so it only equaled one fast load of dishes and everything was cleaned.

Isn’t this scorekeeper so handsome? Ethan got home from grandma and grandpa’s and was immediately intrigued by what all these crazy women were doing. He was so good to help keep score and even got to throw dice a few times with us.

Thank you to all my Bunco Babes who allowed me to live out one of my little fantasies. It was so fun to have a retro night with all of you!

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Posted in Celebrations | 7 Comments »

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