Arm Warmers!

So today I decided to try something new, I've been doing Amis mostly, but since I was making an afghan for my cousin I had some left over yarn. I decided that since I don't know what else to do with gold yarn I'd try arm warmers for Monica. I used a free pattern from Lion's Brand that I adapted to spirals rather then working it up in a flat sheet and then seaming it up. Its a trial run for the pair I want to make for me. They worked up very fast, 2 movies and 1 start of Labyrinth and they were done. I think they would have worked better if I had used smoother yarn (I used a homespun yarn that was very soft but oddly textured) but hey, free arm warmers for Monica from yarn I needed to buy for the blanket anyway.

Babies! They are so adorable, everyone should admire and adore them.

Crochet Critters!

At Arisia(post coming soon) I learned how to crochet. I already knew how to knit from knitting lessons that my mother and I took when I was a kid. But for whatever reason crochet never worked, it always turned into knotted mess. Unfortunately the crochet lessons at Arisia were in the kids section so I had to listen to children while I learned. Oddly enough it was all adults at the learn to crochet lesson, but they still scheduled it in Fast Track which was all kid stuff. The people that were there crocheting did potholders and vests, not the kind of thing I'd find useful. One of the things I don't enjoy about crafting is most of the patterns tend to be useless or kitchy.

However, apparently there is a crochet genre called Amigurumi. Which pretty much translates into cute small creatures. The next day Colin and I went to the craft store and I found a book called Easy Crochet Critters from the Lion Brand yarn company, its 10 patterns of animals with instructions on how to make them. I made several patterns from the book, they all turned out to be pretty easy. Ami's are worked in continuous spirals so you pretty much mark where you start your round but there is no attaching, no turning, just crochet then add on legs, flippers, whatever your animals needs. I found bunches of patterns online, free and not free and a couple adorable books. My newest book (just delivered today!) is called Creepy Cute, review coming after I've tried some patterns.

So far I have done a hippo, elephant, monkey in a top hat and tie, kitty, hello kitty valentine, seal and cthulhu. Cthulhu is my favorite pattern so far. The wings I really needed that picture tutorial because the directions sounded weird but I made them and I think they came out well. I made one with a dark green shirt for Kathy (he looks angry for her because she has to be nice to people). I also want to try even smaller earrings but who knows how they will turn out or when I'll get the time to do them.





I've been really enjoying my new hobby. Although I did bring it to a party and I pulled it out when everyone started watching tv on the computer. I got some VERY weird looks but whatever, I got to work on my crochet kitty until fun TV came on. (PS The Supersizers is a really great show)Its nice to work on something productive and get it all done in one or two nights.

Baby pictures! They haven't gotten things crocheted for them yet because I am worried about them eating the strings. I just need to find other people with animals that can wear crocheted or sewed stuff.

Yukiko got a new leash this weekend. her daddy found it just for her so she could go around the apartment and explore all she wanted. Apparently she wanted no leash this picture was about equal to the amount of time the leash stayed on.



This is Miyo's first snow. Yukiko also has pictures of her first snow but was more interested in exploring, Miyo seemed actually interested in the snow and watched it for awhile.

Dried Goodness

We started using our new dehydrator recently, and it's been a big success. Adrianna discovered that nearly expired fruit can be purchased at Shaw's for very large discounts. This is perfect for dehydrating because it's going to be preserved for quite a while, which means we get our dried fruit for a significant discount.

We tried apples, bananas and kiwi, apples being the most successful of the three. We also tried making an apple-kiwi fruit leather, which also tasted very good.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find the instruction manual for the dehydrator, so I had to look up the time it takes to dehydrate our fruits online.

Finally, we can't have a post without pictures of our babies.

Lemony Vanilla Cupcakes

Our friend Nicole visited on Monday, and to mark the occasion we decided to make more cupcakes. This time Adrianna made some lemony vanilla cupcakes that were absolutely delicious.

We gave most of them to Nicole, but Nicole and I ate several on the spot.

I tried to bring one into work this morning, but it was so good it didn't even make it to the shuttle before it was gone.

Our babies are so cute, I just had to post more images of them.

Cupcakes!

Tonight we attempted vegan cupcakes, margarita flavor. Love the new cupcake book(Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World), it has had some great suggestions, but these were less then awesome. I liked the margarita-ness of the frosting, but the actual cake was a little too boring, it needed something. A certain husband liked them, but so far has liked all cupcakes I've tried.




Gratuitous baby pictures!
Miyo (multicolored) and Yukiko (all white) on new Tigger sleeping bags, made specially by mommy.

First post.

This will be a blog of random. We will post pictures of our baby piggies, projects we are working on, food that we make, sometimes even things we found other places that we thought were interesting. Our hobbies change from time to time so the nature of this blog will change as we try new hobbies.