SuperbOwl

I really prefer owls over football. 

I especially find crocheted owls to be suburb!  This little guy is part of my 2014 Mood Blanket (that still hasn't been touched since February 2014).  Free pattern can be found HERE.

We don't really watch sports, unless it's the Super Bowl, or the Olympics.  I know we are in the minority, but I gotta say, as a non-sports watcher, I'm often SO HAPPY that Jonathan is also not into watching sports on TV all weekend.  We are able to get so many other things done!

We do always watch the Super Bowl.  Mostly because I say we need to watch it, and that's because I wanna make Super Bowl food and use that time to crochet (and watch out the commercials) <----did anyone have a favorite commercial?  I found many companies using millions of dollars in ad time to come up with the "oddest" thing they could as their way of being remembered by the end of the night.  I always enjoy what Budweiser does, the Snickers one with The Brady Bunch was funny, and the #withdad Nissan one and #girlpower ones just made me all weepy!  I've always enjoyed Katy Perry and found the Halftime Show to be very entertaining.  Plus all the special effects and quick costume changes always make this theatre nerd giddy!  And as a theatre nerd - hello amazing Idina Menzel singing the National Anthem!  Seriously, she can do NO WRONG as far as I'm concerned.  End of story.  Don't try and tell me otherwise, because you will not convince me, or win!

It was just the two of us (and the dogs) so we didn't make a ton of food.  We had these INCREDIBLE Chicken Nachos that I thought were going to end up being a snack, but were definitely enough food for just the 2 of us as dinner (we did have a late lunch too).  They looked so amazing as soon as Jonathan brought them in, I didn't even think to photograph them!  I was too busy cramming them in my face and keeping the dogs away from said face.  Seriously, they're amazing.  I just love Ree and her blog!

And for dessert were had these little beauties:

I've always been a big fan of No Bake Cookies, so when I saw this recipe on Maybe Matilda last week, I knew they were a MUST for the Super Bowl!

  

Next time I make them, yes! these will definitely be made again, I'm going to try just using 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with maybe a little less than 1/2 cup of peanut butter.  It was almost too over-powering for the yummy Oat mixture to have such a thick band of chocolate on top.  Jonathan agreed, and I feel like that's saying something because I didn't think it was possible for him to have TOO much chocolate!  It was probably also a combination of the fact that we used dark chocolate chips vs. semi-sweet and the only pan I had to use was like 11" x 6" instead of 9" x 9"..... SOMEDAY I'll have my own kitchen again (and equipment for cooking and baking!)

By the 3rd quarter I was ready for a snack:

Living in Western NY Bison Chip Dip and STBC are pretty much a way of life - and both are always so yummy!!  Helles (Where the Helles Summer?) is their new Spring Lager.  Tastes an awful lot like Bud Light, which I'm okay with.  I'm just not sure how frequently I'd pay craft beer prices for something I could get for much cheaper by purchasing Bud Light.  We'll see, this was only #2 out of my six-pack so I have 4x left for Helles to convince me it's worth it!

Speaking of Western New York, we got hit with snow last night and this morning.  We live about 70 southwest of Buffalo, NY so we missed the CRAZY November storm.  We're also 400+ miles west of New York City, so we weren't close to being hit by Juno last week.  In all honestly, this winter has not been that terrible "snow-wise" - not compared to what I remember growing up.  Jon and I constantly talk about how badly we want a big snow storm or blizzard - the kind that keeps you stuck in doors in your jammies all day!  Didn't quite get this, but this morning was a bit closer to what I remember from my childhood!

Here's the view out the kitchen window as of 7:50ish this morning!  Probably close to 15" of snow came down starting at 5 p.m. through the overnight.  Our driveway is approximately 1/4 mile long and it took Jonathan over an hour to slow-blow the bare minimum width for me to get to work this morning!  Only about 6 school districts in the county closed today, so many were digging out and on their way to work & school (as is life in these parts 6 months out of the year).  Roads were decently plowed (for the most part) - all came down to what Mom and I often refer to as "winter roads".  Always thankful for how WELL my Jeep drives in the winter!

Out the backdoor, you could also see how much snow had accumulated up on the top of the garden gate.

Our metal roof collects a LOT of snow and ice in the winter.  This shot is looking out one of the living room windows.  I was sitting near this window during the Super Bowl last night, and a lot of snow and ice from the roof right above here came sliding down at one point and crashed to the ground scaring the bejezus out of me and the pups!

And, speaking of the pups - here's what Copper and Osa thought about watching football

such sweet dups :-)

Jonathan and I also both passed out before the game was over.  Woke up having missed the Patriots final Touch Down but did get to see what I'm certain will be remembered as one of the worst plays made in a Super Bowl and the "end-zone brawl".  As soon as it was all over, we switched back to Netflix for some of our favorite documentaries on castles in England.  Like I said, we don't care too much one way or the other!

I did do some crocheting.  Not a lot, so there really wasn't much to photograph and share.  I didn't even start crocheting until the 2nd half of the game because I was SO COLD!! Couldn't figure out why having a fire wasn't warming up the room, and me in return.  By the time we went to bed around 11 p.m. our bedroom was an ice box.  Turns out our gas was out and Lord only knows how long we'd been sitting around without heat.  I'm guessing mid afternoon cause it had been cold upstairs around 2, but we had a window open knocking down some ice so I didn't think much of it.  I didn't do any laundry that required warm or hot water so I didn't notice it then.  Even when I was washing my face at 11, I must have been too sleepy to realize that there wasn't really any hot water (probably just the little bit that was left in the hot water tank that was luke warm at best).  Jonathan trudged out into the snow to reset....whatever it is that has to be reset when that happens, and we warmed up quickly once the furnace kicked back on!  #superhusbandtotherescue!

Happy Whistlepig Day to you all!  We will be watching "Groundhog's Day" just as soon as I get home from my Board Meeting tonight.  and hopefully it'll be warm enough to crochet!  Today is one of Jonathan's favorite holidays, and this is definitely one of his favorite movies :-)

Up tomorrow - successes and pitfalls of January Goals and my February Goals!

an UPDATE and a REMINDER

It's been a bit of a slow process as I learn how to post and share recipes, but I did add three more today on my lunch break!  Be sure to keep checking back to the RECIPES tab on the top of the page - I hope you'll find something fun to make.

Also, don't forget that you have until 11:59 p.m. TONIGHT to enter for a chance to win my "Irish Pride Cowl"!
You actually have 4 chances to win, so make sure you've done all that you can to improve your chances - and pass it on to someone you know :-)

Cooking with Crafty Holly Louise

In an attempt to make the recipes that I share a bit easier for everyone to locate, you’ll see that I’ve added a RECIPES tab to the top of my blog.  I hope that you’ll be patient with me as I figure out the best way to share my favorite recipes with you (both old and new).  Please feel free to leave me a comment if you have any tips/suggestions – I’m always open to good ideas!

I’m starting out my “official” recipe-sharing with yesterday’s dinner; which we enjoyed with good friends.  I’ll apologize right now for the lack of pictures in this cooking post.  My itty-bitty kitchen was still “pre-scrub down” when I was prepping, and by the time the soup was ready, I was too hungry to think to take a “final product” shot!

Using my crockpot during the week always seems [in theory] like such a great way to make dinner on a week night, until I remember that it requires either morning prep before work, or evening prep the night before (and enough room in my fridge for my crockpot sleeve overnight)!  This basically means that my crockpot rarely gets used, and if it does, it’s on the weekend.

Anyway – I love creamy potato soup!  This recipe was easily made Gluten-free, and very easily adjusted to accommodate a vegetarian friend!  This was my first time using this recipe, so I really have no idea how differently it would taste with chicken stock and cream of chicken soup.  Honestly, it tasted so good the way I made it last night that I really have no desire to try!  I love that this is now a vegetarian meal – bacon’s a vegetable right?

The one thing that I will try next time is using some milk and cornstarch to thicken it up instead of cream cheese.  I think it’ll be just as tasty without the full-fat cream cheese (required to melt properly), and a bit less rich.  I’m going to put cheese on top of my bowl in the end regardless, so adding that much to the soup as well just doesn’t seem necessary in my book!  I’ll try to remember to do an update the next time I make this soup with the cream cheese substitution, and let you all know how it works out!

Crock-Pot Potato Soup

1 30 oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns
5¼ cups chicken or vegetable stock (or three 14 oz. cans)
1 can cream of chicken (or mushroom) soup
½ cup onion, chopped
1 T garlic powder
1 T dry dill
¼ tsp. each salt and black pepper
1 pkg cream cheese (not fat free, it won’t melt)

Combine everything in Crock-Pot, except cream cheese.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.  About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted.  Dish soup, and top with shredded Cheddar and crispy bacon.

(Recipe adapted from Cara of http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/)

Click here for a printable recipe.

Did everyone watch the Oscar’s last night?  We “watched”, but a napped halfway through, and definitely didn’t make it till the end of the evening (5 a.m. comes waaaay too quickly at my house!)  I haven’t seen any of the movies that were nominated (other than Brave), so I really watch the same way we watch the Super Bowl – not because we’re football fans, but because it’s the Super Bowl, so you watch!

Of course, there HAD to be Oscar crocheting!  I just got a new mill-ends of cotton yarn on Saturday that was screaming “Make pot-holders and matching dish cloths out of me!!, please”  So I followed orders:

Who did you think was best dressed?  Of what I saw of the Red Carpet, Kerry Washington’s dress was my favorite!

Don’t forget about my GIVE-AWAY and all the ways that you can enter to win!  Spread the word too – you have until Thursday, February 28^th at 11:59 p.m. to enter for a chance at being “most-fashionable” this St. Patrick’s Day!!

Super Bowl Sunday!

I have started, and saved more half-finished posts than ever before, including:

• Christmas gifts (now that I've gifted all of them)
• Inaugural/Valentine’s crocheting
• Custom Orders
• Baby Blankets
• PINK

It would probably make the most sense for me to FINISH the posts I’ve started before writing something new.  Yet here I am writing and posting about my Super Bowl crocheting instead!

Anyone who knows us knows that Jonathan and I are not “football people” (we’re more, West Wing, Downton Abby, Harry Potter, Disney World people!)  For those of you who don’t know us personally, my lack of discussion regarding, basically all sports should have been your first clue J

On that note, we do typically watch the Super Bowl every year.  Mostly for the commercials and Halftime Show.  Usually by kickoff we’ve selected which of the teams we plan to root for as well (it’s been a looooooooooooooong time since the Bills made it to the Super Bowl so each year we pick our favorite of the “last two standing”)

This year Jonathan and I were both rooting for Baltimore (yea Ravens!!)  My Uncle Warren lived in Baltimore for ~35 years and I used to visit with my family each spring.  Jonathan and I also just marked our 8^th Anniversary of living in DC – just one hour away (depending on the traffic!) from Baltimore. Add into the mix that Jonathan is current student teaching in Columbia, Maryland; about halfway between DC and Baltimore.  From the sounds of it last week, he’s in the middle of “Ravens country” and everyone was very excited for their team to be in the Super Bowl.  It goes without saying that Jonathan wore purple to work both Friday and today.

To me, the Super Bowl also means two other things:

Fun foods that we usually don’t eat

It’s time to pick my “Super Bowl craft”

First, the food.  I found this recipe online quite a few weeks ago, and thankfully cauliflower seems to have good staying power in the fridge (at least this cauliflower did!), cause it’s taken us a few weeks more to make it!  I’ve even seen a few FB friends making something similar since I originally found the recipe.  No, it’s not the same as wings, but it was sooooooooooo yummy on its own that I definitely did NOT care.    You really can’t go wrong with anything covered in Frank’s and blue cheese, right?  Jonathan even declared (through my Instagram-filtered FB uploaded picture) that “he would only be eating vegetables in buffalo wing form from now on.”  I’m [fairly] certain he was joking ;-) Definitely will be making this again!

For the crafting, I had planned to start a new “Super Bowl project” for the night – I was thinking of a new pattern that would be great for custom orders/ETSY.  I picked up my current order to just work on for a bit before kickoff….then, once I realized that I was crocheting purple, I felt that I would be jinxing things to put it down!  Here’s my progress as of this morning:

I realized last night that I can’t crochet as quickly during the Super Bowl as I can during other TV – you actually want to watch the commercials!!  Even if we’re using our Roku or watching a movie, it doesn’t require me to look at the screen as frequently as football and Super Bowl commercials!

Speaking of Super Bowl commercials – what was everyone’s favorite(s)?  I did not think there were as many good/funny ones as in years past (I still have the Go Daddy one burned onto my retinas…not funny – painfully gross), but did giggle throughout following:

I fell asleep at the end of the 3^rd quarter, waking up with 5:30 left of the 4^th quarter, so I missed this next one last night.  They showed it on the Today show this morning as one of the top 5, and while it seemed little long during the recap, by the end I found it hilarious!!

Leave me a comment if I’m missing a good one, or let me know if you agree!

Lastly, I have to make a quick comment about the power outage….I mean come on, I really thought all GREAT nights included a power outage!!!

If only we had the manpower of the NFL fixing our power outage on August 6, 2011!

NAH, I wouldn't really change that night for the world!

Eating your Colors

I think this is a phrase that we're all heard at one point or another.  You can find articles all over the internet about it as well.

No; the dinner I made this evening doesn't really follow this idea the way it was intended.  But we still ate a color-ful dinner, that was too pretty (and yummy) to not share!

Please note:

RED sweet pepper

ORANGE sweet pepper

YELLOW sweet pepper

GREEN squash (the zucchini in the fridge was getting old and the skin had seen better days, it had to go!)

BLUE cheese (fine, it's Gorgonzola...)

PURPLE uhhhh.... well, my shallot ended up being purple so we'll go with that

WHITE - chopped garlic, Mozzarella cheese and Ranch dressing

Everything was added to a cheesy Gluten Free pizza crust from our freezer (along with some RED pepper flakes mixed with the Ranch, and some fresh ground BLACK pepper on the zucchini), and baked for about 11 minutes at 375

Love/Hate Relationship

I realized yesterday, that I have a love/hate relationship I have with Mondays.

I mean, it's Monday.  I'm sorry, but no one in the right mind is excited that the weekend's over and you have to go back to work right?  I always dread when the weekend is over.  This Monday (yesterday) felt extra hard - I had a wonderful weekend with both Jonathan and our friends, it was cold and rainy, and I started to feel like I was getting sick.  

I hate Mondays.

Then sometime after lunch I started thinking about finding the energy to cook dinner when I got home (it was a metro home night, which I always dread).  Then I found the silver lining to "crappy, the weekend's over, it's cold and rainy Monday" - Monday nights mean DWTS and Smash!!!!  The only reality TV shows/competitions that we (and by we I mean I insist on watching and Jonathan either sits in the same room 90% ignoring it, or reads in the other room) watch are DWTS and SYTYCD, but they are the perfect kind of TV show to crochet to in my book:

• Do you hands tend to cramp up if you crochet for too long?  You'll likely set your work down to enjoy the performances on these shows - win!
• Hate all the commercials when watching TV shows in "real time"?  Those commercials are the perfect time to put your head down and really do some crocheting.  Even count, or read a pattern as need be.  I find this the best time for weaving in ends as I go on a larger project too - breaks up the worst part of crocheting - win!
• This is also great, if you're like me and don't sit down and relax until your favorite TV show comes on, and you then find yourself asleep on the couch around 8 p.m. and then wide awake around 2 a.m. because your body mind decides you've gotten all the sleep you usually get, so your good (not)  Since Smash is on from 10-11, I definitely need to keep crocheting during this one or I'm asleep.  My hand was bothering me last night so I stopped crocheting, and right on cue, I fell asleep 10 minutes before the episode was over!  Good thing I've learned to record these shows regardless if I'm watching then in real time - I can always delete as soon as they're over!

3 hours of TV on a Monday night means I always get lots crocheted.  Too bad I forgot to take a picture of my blanket's progress!  I blame this on having to get up and be out the door by 6:20 this morning to go to the MVA's emissions station when it opened at 7 and still be to work at 8:30.  One more reason to dislike any version of the DMV (it's called the MVA in Maryland...)

I do believe I've created a new Monday night tradition over the past 2 weeks:

Veggie Pizza Night!!!

Turned out MUCH better than last week's.  Here's why:

1. I took the time to saute everything separately as you can see above*.  Not only was I able to focus my seasonings per vegetable, but the end result was much prettier :-)  Obviously prettier means tastier!
2. To avoid making them too spicy this week, I added the red pepper flake to the onions while they were sauteing.  I used some "Pizza Pasta" spices that I have in a grinder from Sam's Club on top of the Ranch dressing.

Basically, they were awesome.

* Yes, I know that the plate with the Summer Squash on it is missing my Corelle pattern, but that's only because my Grannie picked that plate up at a local flea market and it's the same size as our "pre-wedding" dishes!

I think that next Monday morning, if I stop and think about the Veggie Pizza, Red Wine, DWTS/Smash and crocheting in my evening's future, I just might be able to get out of bed a little easier........oh not ;-)

Chicken Salad - two ways

On Saturday, Jonathan and I spent a couple of the morning hours sitting on the balcony - enjoying the sunshine, 80 degree weather and each other's company.  After going for a run, Jonathan decided that he wanted chicken salad and lemonade - neither of which I had the supplies on hand to make!  Even though the temperature dropped about 35 degrees from Saturday to Sunday and it hasn't yet stopped raining since Saturday evening, I did go to the grocery store yesterday morning, got out weekly groceries, and the ingredients to make the following as a late lunch:

Jon's is on the right, mine on the left.  Not exactly the summer day we were enjoying when this craving struck, but it was very yummy non-the-less, and I'll most definitely be using these recipes for Chicken Salad* and Lemonade** again in the near future!

*  I did alter this recipe slightly.  I didn't really measure what I was doing (I get that from my Grannie!) but:

1. I had about 3 cups of boiled chicken, shredded so I doubled the recipe.  I don't believe that much Mayo/Miracle Whip is needed and I will definitely add a smaller amount to begin with next time.
2. I had Sweet Pickle relish in my fridge which is basically the same as chopping pickles, but easier ;-)
3. I wasn't in the mood to get out an onion for 4 tsp. so I used Onion Powder (one of my favorite spices)
4. I also added some garlic powder (too hungry lazy to use a garlic clove), and around 1/4 tsp. of Chili Powder.  
5. If you can't tell from the picture, there's just a little bit of shredded Cheddar Cheese on both dishes as well.

Click here for a printable recipe.

**  Of course this one got altered too:

1. I didn't use any mint - sounds icky to me in lemonade
2. I only bought 8 lemons (why bother reading the recipe before going to the store?), I needed to keep one for something else, and 1T went into the chicken salad = I used about 7 1/2 lemons.
3. I did still use the full 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water simple syrup cause I like my lemonade sweet - just like my Sweet Tea :-)  Jonathan hates the taste of Spenda (I can't tell the difference) but I would prefer making with Splenda in the future if I was the only one drinking it - 2 cups of sugar is A LOT for an afternoon of yummy fluids!
4. My pitcher is only 2-quarts.  I added the lemon juice (sans seeds, but avec pulp), 1 cup of simple syrup and enough filtered water to fill my pitcher about 3/4 of the way.  I poured over full glasses of ice thinking the ice would melt and dilute things a bit.  I'd forgotten that it was only 45 degrees yesterday.  The ice took much longer to melt that it look us to drink the lemonade but it was strong, sweet and YUMMY just as it was.  
5. By the end of the night (around 9 when Game of Thrones got put on) I added about 1 1/2 shots of Firefly to 1/4 cup of lemonade (watered down by the afternoon's ice cubes) and 1/2 a can of Sprite and it was quite yummy.  Will try this again in the near future, but hopefully before the lemonade is completely watered down my ice.
6. Also, did not put the ice in the pitcher, I think it's better to keep your drink concentrated in the pitcher and just add ice to glasses as needed.

I found these pictures on my phone today from dinner one night last week that I never shared:

Inspiration was this RECIPE.  I made it with turkey bacon, no tomatoes and about 2 cups of sweet corn.  Very yummy.  The only downside I always find to meals like this is that the filling is so yummy that I always try to put too much in my BROWN RICE tortilla shell!

Yes, there was crafty shopping, crocheting and sewing during the weekend as well, I have some photos to share tomorrow, though picture quality is pretty terrible with this dreary rainy weather!

LONG overdue

I’d planned on posted this yesterday, but the day slipped away from me (seriously, I can’t put my HP books down!!)

On Monday night, I made Veggie Pizzas for dinner.  I’d been inspired watching Paula over the weekend, and thought I’d give it a try with what I had in my fridge/freezer.  I started with THESE Udi GF pizza crusts that were in my freezer and sautéed some onion, garlic, zucchini and peppers in olive oil.  My sauce was straight Buttermilk Ranch with some red pepper flakes, and I topped both pizzas with shredded mozzarella, parm and fresh black pepper.  Jon’s has halved cherry tomatoes and mine has chopped mushrooms as well.

They turned our REALLY well; expect that I was a little heavy handed with the red pepper flake!  Sometimes when I’m cooking without a recipe I panic that what I’m making is going to turn out bland and I end up over doing it – with red pepper flake on these pizzas or the salt in my rice last night….oh well.  Jon enjoyed it, we were fed, and nobody has died to date from my cooking so I think I’m doing okay!  I’ve always been a good baker, and I’m great with a recipe to follow – I’m still learning to cook a meal with what we have, and cooking it quickly at the end of the work day.  I look at it as training for being a Mom one day :o)

On to some crocheting.

I picked up a couple of skeins of the new Vanna’s Colors last month while my Mom was in town and opted to start (another, I know) blanket.  Here’s what I have so far:

I apologize for this icky, shaded cell phone photo!  Yikes.  I knew it was bad as I was taking it, but I was running late for work and just couldn’t relocate my photo shoot to another room for better quality.  Lesson learned that with the current sunrise times and location of the sun, my early evening photographs definitely turn out better!  What’s worse is that the “shade” is coming off my dirty windows.  Please don’t judge – reason 503 I hate apartment living would be the fact that our building hasn’t done an exterior window cleaning in the 2 ½ years we’ve lived in the building!  We’re on the 10^th floor so I don’t really care what we could rig up to attempt to clean these through the windows that do open, neither of us are hanging out the windows for the sake of something our building management should be taking care of!

Anyway…..my original plan has been for horizontal stripes, but it seems I chained a few too many and the blanket is actually pretty long horizontally.  “How long?” you ask:

Yup, I’m planning to turn it and have vertical stripes when it’s done!  Not a huge deal, but seriously I’m a tall girl (5’9” with a 34” inseam) and this baby’s long enough to cover my toes and come up past my belly button.  Whoops!  Serves me right for not bothering to COUNT while I was chaining ;-)

At this point I’ve stocked up on enough yarn to finish up my pattern how I’ve planned it out and hope to have it done soon.  I actually started weaving in ends over the weekend – and the only reason was because my Jeep was in the garage getting new brake pads and I’d run out of yarn. 

It’s all crocheted with a hdc, 2 turning ch and my trusty “K” hook so I LOVE how quickly it’s coming together!

Happy Wednesday everyone – what are you working on?

sorry!

First, I’d like to apologize for the fact that the only blogging I do these days is an update of pictures from the past week.  This usually includes a quick paragraph of things I plan to do in the near future, that usually never actually happen!

Second of all, before you see the pictures I’m getting ready to share in this update, please know that when I took the first couple over the weekend, they were meant to just be glimpses to post on Facebook.  I had intended to take nicer quality pictures of each project, but as always my weekends go too quickly and I ran out of time before the time had come once more that I had to go back to work!

First is my status picture from a Saturday of crocheting –

My blanket is coming along slowly.  I've spent lots and lots of time with it, but I'm using an H hook so it's def taking a bit longer to see any major progress!

Sunday morning was spent sewing:

Some springtime Pillow Cases for our couch.  We spend lots of time lounging and relaxing on the couch nights and weekends, and I really like to use our spare bed pillows to get comfy (also, it saves from having to store our pillows for when we have guests spend the night)!  I needed something to replace my Christmas cases and I thought I'd take the opportunity to start getting some spring colors in the apartment once more.  This really is such a fun way to use beautiful material, customize it to the holiday/season and with only the cost of 1 yd of material per case - they're super quick to make too!  I've of course fallen in love with these patterns and now want to go buy some material to make lounge pants :o)

I made a set of coasters for a co-worker's birthday on Tuesday.  This was my first time sewing coasters so I also made one pink one for my desk @ work.  They're all the same on the front and back and just have some batting in the middle.  5" cut squares with a 1/2" seam make the perfect size (to me!) for a coaster.  I'm still trying to master straighter lines on my top stitching, but I'll get there.  These were all made at no cost to me - just scraps from lounge pants & shorts made over the past 18 months.  My co-worker loved them and said that they'd go perfectly in her 2nd bedroom (which coincidentally was in need of coasters as it's a TV room in their house!)

 Here's how they were "wrapped"

I also made Jonathan a pair of red fleece lounge pants for Valentine's Day.  I totally forgot to take a picture after giving them to him last night!  But I will say they were a hit, he'd changed into them within about 45 seconds of opening his gift!

In other news,the next two nights after work are being spent preparing for company this weekend.  My momma is coming to visit Friday night through Monday morning.  This means things like the growing pile of laundry and very messy study need to be dealt with tonight and tomorrow so that she and I can have a good old CRAFTY weekend (plus a couple of shopping trips to give Jonathan a break!)

Lastly – a belated Happy Valentine’s Day to all my fellow bloggers!  I read all your posts about LOVE yesterday, but found myself without enough time in my lunch break to write about my own <3

Jonathan made our first Valentine’s as husband and wife a very special one.  Due to come unforeseeable bumps in the road it is one that I’ll never forget!

Here's the awesome dinner Jonathan made us last night (along with pink tulips from him and his gift (you can kind of see the red fleece peekin' out!))  He was in charge of dinner (Porterhouse, shrimp, asparagus and avocado) and I was in charge of dessert (GF chocolate cake with raspberry frosting and chocolate sauce)  I totally forgot to take a picture of my cake but I'll say this - adding a jar of seedless preserves to white canned frosting makes for AMAZING cake frosting!!!  I only needed about half of it for my 9" cake, so I put the rest back into the jar, and popped it into the fridge for a fun dessert in the near future!

I'd like to point out that those pink tulips are my 2nd flowers of the day (I told you he went all out!).  Sadly the roses which were to be delivered to my office, have yet to arrive....the tulips were purchased in the afternoon (before places would be sold out) to bring home all along - I think he'd want you all to know that. 

My Funny Valentine really is the sweetest of them all <3

SUPER Weekend!

They’re never long enough, but what a fun weekend!  I think all this fun is going to equal a very looooooooooong post, so grab a cup of coffee and brace yourselves ;-)

I sadly woke up with a migraine on Saturday morning, and while it slowed me down a bit, it didn’t stop me from crocheting at least a little bit while enjoying my coffee.

I’d planned to venture out and find the closest Hobby Lobby to me this weekend.  I’d only ever been to an actual store once and I just don’t find shopping online the same:

1.       You don’t get to “take in” all the wonderful yarn colors, textures, etc online, or wander the aisles

2.       You have to WAIT for your order to arrive vs. driving straight home to use your purchases

3.       You often pay shipping costs

Jonathan’s comment to me as I was getting ready to leave was, “aren’t you going to pay just as much in gas as you would in shipping?”  ……Even if that were the case, my lack of patience for much of anything, really, made the decision for me J

Off I went and I thoroughly enjoyed Hobby Lobby while trying to not spend TOO much money.  As I sat at a red light waiting to get back out on the main road, I happened to look up and see something that in 7 years of living in the DC area I haven’t been able to easily access – WALMART AND SAM’S CLUB!  I was forced to make a left hand turn at this point, but quickly got across 4 lanes of traffic and turned myself around!  I know there are a lot of bad things said about Walmart, but I’m a girl on a tight budget and I really have take the discount where I can find it.  I only picked up two things (make up and cake mix) quickly in Walmart before walking across the ENORMOUS parking lot to the Sam’s Club.  I picked up some of my favorite things at Sam’s (that I always have to stock up on when I’m back home in WNY) and then stood in line FOREVER.  Seriously – I must have been out of my mind to think either store was a good idea at 2 p.m. the day before the Super Bowl…..

I look forward to future trips where I can justify the drive up to Laurel to go to Hobby Lobby (because I need something at Walmart/Sam’s)!  Besides the drive took less time than I was anticipating….and I’ve already realized something I forgot to get at Hobby Lobby!

The reminder of Saturday was spent picking up a bit and crocheting through the evening.  I’ve fallen in love with my Raspberry blanket and can’t wait to start using it!

 It’s been named, but I’ll be saving that for a bit of a “reveal” later on.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day getting ready for our Super Bowl “party”.  This was the party for those who either aren’t big football fans or their team wasn’t playing but felt they should be doing something.  It was a nice get together (8 total including us) with LOTS of food and have a good time watching the commercials (and the Giants WIN!)  I’ll take any win that isn’t Boston J

I had found recipes from the Brown Eyed Baker for Polenta Pizza (which is perfect for Jonathan as it’s already gluten free) and Stovetop Mac’n Cheese (which is easily made GF). 

The pizza didn’t go all that well, but I’ll definitely be trying again in the future.  I needed to double the printed recipe to have enough crust (I was confused as to whether or not it was already doubled when reading the post/recipe).  I made two separate batches but in doing so ended up with a pizza that was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too salty.  My friends were nice enough to at least try it, but the rest had to be thrown last night.  Oh, I used mushrooms, onions, broccoli and feta cheese for my toppings.

The Mac’n Cheese was quiet wonderful and came together very easily.  I used a little more cheese than the recipe calls for and added about ½ cup crumbled bacon, because really you can never have too much bacon!

For dessert I made cookies from a NEW RECIPE that’s now a new favorite!  I didn’t make these gluten free as Jonathan was concerned that they wouldn’t turn out (have had some bad experiences in the past!)  Seriously though, THEY’RE SO GOOD!!!  Go buy a boxed cake mix, and a tub of Cool Whip and TRY THESE OUT!  My Wegmans did not have regular Cool Whip, only Lite and it really does work just fine.  I added 1 tsp. of lemon extract because I wanted to make sure they were extra lemon-y.  They’ve got a great lemon flavor without it being over powering.  I’ll be making these again, probably pretty soon either with a different flavored cake mix (I’ve been thinking about my favorite Funfetti all day) and/or gluten free. 

I, of course crocheted during the game.  I rarely watch football during the regular season but I always turn on the Super Bowl.  I find it to be a perfect “crafty time”!  Between watching the game and the commercials I didn’t get loads done.

 I’m using Yarn Bee Enchantress(that I bought on Saturday), and am almost out of yarn…I’m a little concerned that I should have purchased a 2^nd skein….at $5.99/skein though I was really hoping that one would be enough!  We’ll see, I may just be able to make it work, but it’s gonna be close!

Thanks to Meg and Laurie I also have THREE new patterns to try out!!  Only problem is that my storage tub of cotton yarn got a little buried in the study this weekend so I might have to wait until things are a little more in order before I can try them out.  Thanks ladies!!!

Debi recognized me with a very nice award today as well (feeling QUITE popular!)  I’ll post a little later about that though…give you all a chance to nap or something – this is, if you’re still reading at this point!

BUSY weekend!

Aren’t 3 day weekends just the best?  Well, they’re the best when you’re not traveling and don’t have any big plans – that’s my opinion!

I spent LOTS of time crocheting over the weekend.  The time I did spend doing “housework” was primarily craft closet organization as yarn is officially taking over our apartment!  It’s not perfect and it definitely no longer all fits in my “craft closet” but it’s better than it was.  I’m going to work hard this year to use what I have first to eliminate some of my stock! 

I did have a small set back on Sunday morning when I lost a filling.  Everyone keeps asking me what I was eating when it happened.  “Nothing,” I say, “I was flossing my teeth and it just fell out.”  Once the initial shock wore off I’ve been fine.  No real pain, thankfully (other than the fact that my gum is a little sore after 48 hours).  It’s just annoying to have to spend so much energy thinking of soft foods to eat, taking smaller bites than I’m used to and working to keep all food on the left side of my mouth.  No joke I’ve spent most meals with my head tilted to the side in hopes that gravity will help me out:o)  I’m headed to the dentist today at 2 so while soft foods will still be in my diet for the next week, at least, by dinner tonight I’ll no longer have to worry about getting food stuck where it doesn’t belong!  Thinking happy thoughts for me that I don’t need another root canal!!!!  PLEASE J

Here’s a belated Christmas/Birthday gift that I started on Sunday afternoon and finished yesterday.  I LOVE the line of Red Heart Shimmer, and 2 strands together is just perfect for this project.  I’ll likely be making more for my site in different colors.

As for my Seaside RR….we all know I had some challenges on Saturday morning.  I am happy to report that I trip to Michaels on Sunday night provided me with a perfect match!  Turns out Loops & Threads in Heather is extremely close (if not completely identical) to the Bernat Berella “4” in Soft Heather!!  I bought 3 skeins to be safe (and will return that which I don’t need in the coming week)

 I’ve only made it around once since starting with the new yarn.  I only picked this up again last night and for a bit this a.m.  The teal stitch marker is where I changed from Bernat to Loops & Threads.  I really can’t tell the different.  Can you?  Maybe I’m slightly color blind and missing it….  PLEASE let me know, I have a pattern adjustment in my head that I could do if need be!

I also started and completed 2 small projects for my shop (well, one still needs the ends woven in and to be blocked, but who’s counting!)  I supposed you’ll all see those pictures once my site is up and running!

Sunday night we went to our friends apartment (conveniently 2 doors down from us!) to watch the Golden Globes.  I wasn’t 100% into watching…they were a bit boring I thought.  Did anyone else notice how bored some of the people looked when they turned the cameras on the audience?  It was a good time to work on my 4” squares for a project that I haven’t shared just yet.  I haven’t shared it because it’s too disorganized at this point to share.

I did make Cake Batter ice cream (gluten free, of course!) for the 2nd time for Sunday and it actually turned out this time!!!  Thanks again for the recipe Megan - turns out the kind of milk used definitely made a difference, at least in my ice cream maker!

Oh!  Debi – your square is in the mail today.  I’ll wait to post a picture until you have it.

That really felt like a LOT of work this weekend!  Sunday into Monday was when most of this was done.  I also watched almost the entire first season West Wing.  I love re-watching my favorite series when spending the day crocheting.  I only have to listen like 50% of the time to know what’s going on – much easier when crocheting!

In case, that wasn’t enough for 3 days, I just have to say how beneficial cleaning can be!  I never did find this pattern that I was looking for in the fall when I needed it.  It randomly showed up when I was organizing yesterday afternoon!  I was THRILLED J  This is probably the #1 reason I need to get my patterns in better order.  They’re just in a million places, a million different ways and I find myself unable to find what I want, or reprinting, again when I am able to find online.  Have no fear.  I’ve had the binders, etc to do this for over a year now….I just need to STOP crocheting long enough to get them in order.  The key is probably to just organize the ones I’m currently using and add to that as I go along.  One step at a time I suppose….

I’ve caught up reading all your blogs, and it sounds like I wasn’t the only one who had a great weekend!  I hope it’s a short work week for all of you as well.  I know I’m ready for the weekend to be here again J

Monday Night Cooking & Crafting

Let's start with the cooking.  Reuben's are a favorite of mine, but are tricky for us to enjoy together as gluten free bread just isn't that great (as I've mentioned before).  I have been hooked on Arby's Reuben sandwiches (yes they do corn beef as well as they do roast beef) for about a month now and wanted to find a way to create a dinner we could both enjoy, so I enlisted some Quinoa pasta and made Reuben Pasta last night:

That's the sauerkraut in the purple strainer in the back.  I didn't have a recipe, I mean there probably is a recipe out there in the world of "interwebs" for Reuben Pasta (or something of the like), but this is what I did, no recipe, no measurements, just freestyle!

I got the pasta in salted boiling water, then heated some extra virgin olive oil in a pan.  I sliced the corn beef thinly and separated the strips to brown (and warm up) in the heated oil.  Once warm, I added the sauerkraut (I didn't use my entire can of sauerkraut - it's really one of those things that is "to taste" depending on how much you loooooooooove sauerkraut).  I added about 1/3-1/2 of the bottle of Thousand Island dressing to the corn beef sauerkraut mixture while it was still on the stove just to make sure everything was heated through.  Once the pasta was drained I added it back to the pot with the corn beef mixture and tossed with about 1/2-3/4 cup shredded swiss cheese.

Once plated I did top with additional swiss (cause you can't have too much cheese!).  We also had apple cider with dinner last night.  We're already on our 3rd gallon of the season, at least - it might be my favorite part of fall!

Dinner was yummy (as were the left overs for lunch about 20 min ago).  Not exactly like having a Reuben but YUMMY!  Next time I think I would use a 2nd pack of corn beef, it did get a little lost in all that pasta!


On to the crafting portion of my evening - I made GREAT progress on the Eggplant Infinity version 2.0:

That's not just the pile of frogged yarn, but the entire Vanna's Choice skein - all crocheted last night!  I love  nights like last night with 2 full hours of Dancing with the Stars!  This means 2 full hours of crocheting (it's how Jonathan got a surprise crochet blanket for Christmas last year, I crocheted like a crazy person for 2 hours every Monday while he was in class!)  I will admit that it's not 100% 2 full hours because the dancer in me has to stop crocheting while they dance to focus (and critique) what's going on!  Tonight I need to make sure I have another skein of this yarn in my stash because I'm out of yarn and the scarf is definitely not done!  It needs to be wrapped and with me on Friday morning when I get to work, so I really hope that I don't lose tonight to crochet and have to go to AC Moore tomorrow night after work - I'll definitely be down to the wire!

Oh!  I'm also using Marie Anne's pattern that's proven over and over again to be a favorite of mine!  If I have enough purple in my stash when I get home tonight, I'd love to make the hat to match for this friend of mine - finishing the scarf tonight/tomorrow night is the only way they're will ever be enough time for both before Friday morning!

Let me backtrack quickly before leaving you today (to go back to my day job) - anyone  watching this season of Dancing with the Stars?  What does everyone thing of this season's contestants?  Most improved this week 1?  And do you think Nancy Grace showed more boob that we all signed up for by the end of her routine?