Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Fiesta!

My Favorite Guacamole

Layered Dip

Taco Crackers

Cinnamon Crispas

Corn and Bean Salsa

One-Skein Baby Set

It's been baby season around here lately.  Neighbors are having babies.  Friends are having babies or are becoming grandparents to babies.  Friends are adopting babies.  No family babies, but there are friends-of-family babies, to be sure.  That means that there are a lot of little heads and toes to keep warm, which is a good thing because:  I love to knit for babies!

My new favorite baby gift is what I'm calling the "One-Skein Baby Set" (because it uses less than a skein of Plymouth Encore Worsted yarn).  It consists of a pom-pom hat and bootie socks:

For Baby Owen

The hat pattern I use is the Little Boy Blue Ribbed Baby Hat from The Shizknit blog.  I cast on 72 stitches and add a pom-pom.  I follow the rest of the pattern as written.

The little socks are the Encore Worsted Kids' Socks from Plymouth Yarn (infant size).  This is a great first sock project because it is small and quick, and the worsted yarn is easy to work with.  I cast-on onto size 6 DPNs (long-tail cast-on) and knit the rest on size 5 DPNs. 

(There is an error in the pattern for the infant size. Under the TURN HEEL instructions, it should say
“no p1 for infant size” at the end of row 3 and “no k1 for infant size” at the end of row 4.)

For Baby Ezra

Lucky Birthday

Since it's almost the end of March, and my last post was all about Valentine's Day, I thought I better put up something new.   Granted, this is about Sweetpea's St. Patrick's Day themed birthday, which has also passed, but at least I'm in the correct month. 

And the favors I made could be used for any rainbow-themed party:

These were inspired by similar favors I saw on Pinterest.  The pinned version used Rainbow Twizzlers, but since they were impossible to find in my neck of the woods (and I didn't have time to order them), I used Airheads Extreme Sour Candy.

I used my Silhouette SD to make Print-and-Cut labels.  Here is my file on Google Docs.

You will need Silhouette Studio to process the file.

I also made the Cake Batter Snack Mix found on the Cookies and Cups Blog:

It really does taste like cake!  I skipped the little party hats made out of Bugles.

Some simple cupcakes with sugar shamrocks and rainbow sprinkles rounded up the party theme:

Make a wish, my darling Sweetpea!

Hearts and More

I'm gettin' in the mood for Valentine's Day:

 Rice Krispie Treat Kisses

Chocolate Hearts

Pretty Pink Cupcakes

Rosette Pins

(crochet pattern here)

Simple Valentine

Valentine Boxes

Mother Bear Project

If you like to knit or crochet, chances are that you already know about the Mother Bear Project.  This wonderful organization collects handknit and crocheted bears and distributes them to children that have been affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging countries.  Everyone who participates uses one of the four Mother Bear patterns:  flat knitting, knitting-in-the-round, flat crochet, or crochet-in-the-round.  The patterns are for sale for $5 at their website; the $5 going towards the cost of distributing the finished bears.

I recently finished my first Mother Bear using the knit-in-the-round pattern:

Ravelry Notes Here

I think he turned out kind'a cute!  I hope he'll bring lots of happiness and comfort to the child who receives him. 

I have a strange feeling that he's just the first of many more to come.  They are strangely addicting to make....

Easy Cupcakes

When I first took a cake decorating class many moons ago, I had dreams of being my very own

Cake Boss.  Unfortunately, lack of talent and limited time has made me take a much simpler route when it comes to my kids' birthday cakes.  One of my favorite (and easiest) ways of turning out cakes that kids seem to dig is to make cake toppers from Candy Melts.  They are easy to use (just nuke 'em), come in all the favorite colors, and the molds are (mostly) inexpensive.  Purchase some heart and star-shaped molds and you have what you need for most occasions. 

For SugarBear's birthday this year, I found some silicone ice cube trays shaped like Lego Minifigures over at lego.com.  These molds are pricier than most, but they work wonderfully for chocolate!  The boys went crazy for these cupcakes:

Now I just need to find a way to put the eyes and smile on them.  I tried the FoodWriter pens, but they didn't work well.  Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

Make a Wish!

Here are some other little cakes I've done in the past using molded chocolate decorations:

For a USC fan.

Alphabet Candy Mold

I molded a cake-topper using a #9-shaped cake pan. 

(You can find them on ebay.  Search for Wilton number pans.)

I molded this topper in a bowl and used a number candy mold. 

Then I added drop-flowers made of royal icing.

Crafty Friends

I don't mean to brag or drop names, but did you know that I am a close, personal friend of Bee,
of Bee's Hive o' Drama fame?  Please don't be jealous.  But please DO visit her awesome blog, especially if you love paper crafting.  She designs SVG/DXF files for e-cutters, too!

One of the benefits of having crafty friends is that sometimes they make you really nice handmade gifts for your birthday.  This is the nice little surprise that Bee gave me for my recent special day:

A sweet altered notebook for keeping my private thoughts (or maybe my grocery lists- that would make marketing seem more special).

She also made a cute birthday card to go with it:

Thanks so much, Bee.  I am truly blessed by our friendship!