Sun, breakfast and the finished Granny Stripe

This morning is fabulous! The SUN is SHINING!

I know to some this may seem like a minor detail, but when you live this far North and don't see too much of the sun between October - Febuary/March, winter sun is something you cherish. I always feel so energized on sunny mornings, like I'm gonna be kicking ass and taking names all day! Lol!

We started off with a walk to the store with the dogs to pick up milk and eggs (shoot, forgot the butter!) and promptly after had a delicious (and surprisingly filling as I'm still not hungry) breakfast. 

(rye bread, butter, scrambled egg, avocado, tomato and salt & pepper)

We have actually been enjoying rather tasty breakfasts lately. I guess it's because we are still on vacation. I wonder if things will change since this is my hubby's last vacation day and kind of mine as well. 

 Apple pie oatmeal recreated from pinterest

 French Breakfast Muffins. These were really good, but only eat them warm! They aren't nearly as good cold :(

Since the sun is shining so nicely, I see photo opportunities everywhere. Kissa is absolutely my favorite model. I bet we have thousands of pictures of her (and she isn't even 4 yet!). 

Isn't she purrrr-ty? The perfect feline profile!

And I swear she was posing for this one!

She was also being a bit naughty and started playing with my avocado experiment. 

Ah, cats!

Since I've been going on about this great sunshine, you have probably guessed that I took some pictures of my Granny Stripe Blanket. Since it's done and all, *wink wink*. 

I really love the colors. The browns were boring to work with, but I think they added their own touch. Since I used all kinds of yarns (everything between 100% cotton, wool or acrylic) I had to work it double stranded to achieve a kind of same thickness and it made this blanket super heavy. If we had a scale, I would weigh it (but alas, we don't and never will!). It's definitely warm! 

I was thinking this is probably technically a lapghan even though I think that is so silly to say or to make!

Today is not only sunny and wonderful, but it's also my mama's birthday. This would have also been Elvis's birthday. And my childhood best friend's mom's birthday. Popular day! I'm making a special meringue cake concoction. Pictures to follow...

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your Sunday! :)

Crochet crazy 2011

Since this is a crochet blog, or started out as one anyway, here is the 2011 finished projects recap! 

(oh my gosh, the pre-Rebel photos!)

January 2011

tortoise from  "Super super cute crochet" by Brigitte Read

Sister-in-law's tortoise pattern from Roman Sock

The phone case of my own design. Yeah, I still don't use a phone case. Even though I made another one!

February 2011

Phone case #2

I started these Circles in a Square back in February, but it took me until JULY to complete the front of it. Then I put it on hold thinking I was going to make the back for it out of an old thrift store sweater. Yeah, good luck with that one! There is NOTHING nice and cheap enough to cut up in this town! I keep looking, but I think in 2012, this project is going to have to get finished  with a granny square back!

And hopefully in time for the friend's February birthday that I started making it for... A year to finish a pillow, not so bad, eh? Lol!

March 2011

What an amazing month! I had my whole family together in one place at one time for the first time in about 2 years. I loved it! 

We got married. 

We went to Japan. 

I didn't get much crocheting done. 

Haha, I was trying to get a wedding shawl done but ended up not liking it OR finishing it. Go figure...

April 2011

The wedding wraplet, almost finished. I shortly after this did finish it and decided to scrap the whole thing. It's in my rather large white-pink-gray yarn collection hoping to one day become a gorgeous ripple or hexagon or granny blanket. 

Dorothea Wraplet from Lion Brand

The sock knitter's acorn that I made for my aunt who is an avid sock knitter.

Pattern from Roman Sock

I had a quick project crocheting some flowers from Attic 24 for the Easter "tree".

May 2011

The first pictures pop up on the blog of my first ever blanket, the blue-green-brown granny stripe. I used the pattern/tutorial from the afore linked Attic 24.

I made my mom a mother's day cupcake. Pattern linked here.

Progress of my blanket about half way through May...

June 2011

Not much crocheting, except for the blanket. And then, I stopped at some point in the summer heat.

And I started a quilt. Which has thus far been mostly sewn by my lovely husband. I think I should tend to this in 2012? It would look lovely on our bed.

July 2011

What a gorgeous flower photo month!!

So in love with the Novita "puro" that it was enough for me to just crochet blocks. I had planned on collecting 2 skeins of each (variegated) color and then sewing them together to make a tapestry or blanket. Ah, WIP still.

The never-ending granny stripe adventure... to be continued in 2012. Hopefully not still in 2013. Hahaha...

The front of the godmother granny square. The pattern is from Attic 24, which I have already linked to somewhere earlier... Have I mentioned Lucy of 24 is great?

August 2011

I started the yellow and orange "creamsicle" pillow. No one wanted it, it's somewhere in a closet. Leave a comment if you are interested! :)

September 2011

Ah, busy month. Moving, Florida, Wedding, School PANIC. 

That's what I remember most.

I did crochet a wreath for our new front door. Or well, I suppose this is a door decoration or something. 

I used the patterns from Lesley Stanfield's great books.

I gave this rose to my mom. It's also from the Lesley Stanfield book.

I also puttered around with other patterns in the books, but for some reason, haven't taken pictures of them all. Ah, I need to make a consistent project with a bunch of flowers, it's kind of a shame they're so time consuming to learn!

September was also the last time I added a row to this blanket. Ah, pinterest in the background. Another new addiction this year.

October 2011

Apparently not much crocheting going on at all in October?! What was I doing? Oh, that's right, other stuff.

Lol!

We did get this crocheted blanket from my husband's grandma. :)

November 2011

Ah yes, the end was the start of the worst part of the year - my mom went to the hospital. It was serious.

Until then though, it was a creative breeze, in all aspects. I was busy making Christmas presents both crochet and paintings. It was also a busy month food and baking wise!

Our Christmas door wreath. I used the Lesley Stanfield pattern. Perhaps, I'll try Attic 24 Lucy's pattern for next year and add some more holly love to this.

I crocheted actually TWO Christmas holiday pillow covers. And I had the sweater to sew them to. However, this project was put on hold because of my mom's condition and being clueless as to using the sewing machine without her. My husband finally ended up sewing the pillow case for the other one I made (no pictures apparently). I still need to add another row of edging and then sew the crochet bit to the sweater bit. Therefore I fear this is a complete in January 2012 project that will be promptly put away in the Christmas box to await next Christmas. Kind of sad.

This was the first completed South Bay Shawlette by Lion Brand that I completed. It went to a special aunt from Cali. :)

December 2011

The other THREE south bay shawlettes. Man, I love this pattern. HIGHLY recommend it!

Trendy mustard yellow for Trendy Spunky Friend. :)

Mauve-y rose for my mama. Love ya!

Dark gray for my friend who requested a dark color. If I had made one for myself, I probably would have chosen this gray. 

Yeah, I think it's been a productive year in crochet alone! 

Wowwee!

Thanks for reading! :)

Easter going-ons

Hi and hope you had a happy Easter! Ours was quiet but nice. I'll get on to that in a minute.

First, I want to share a picture or two of my berry pie that I made on my day of freedom (aka day off from clinical training) last Thursday. My lovely friend came over and we made a ham and potato casserole for lunch followed by this pie.

Such a pretty pink! I got the recipe from here.

Here is how I made it (I never follow recipes exactly) and a quick translation of the recipe.

150g margarine/butter (US folks, that is 1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/2 dl sugar (about 1/2 cup)
2 eggs
2 1/2 dl flour (about 3/4 cup)
3/4 dl oats (about 1/4 cup)
1 tsp baking powder

Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Then add the eggs and beat some more. Mix the dry ingredients together and then add to the egg-butter-sugar mix. Spread into a pie dish. The foil one in the picture was a bit small for this recipe, I ended up having left over dough and filling with which I made little tarts by spreading the leftovers into muffin cups. (also really good and pretty).

Bake in the oven at 200C or 375F for 5-10  minutes so that the crust can set a bit before the filling. 

The filling:

2 dl sour cream (1/2 cup or so)

1 egg

1/2 dl of sugar (a little less than 1/4 cup?)

a pinch of vanilla sugar or a drop of extract, depending on what you use ;)

2-3 dl frozen raspberries (what I used, but you can use really any fruit or berry!)

Mix everything together. Spread on the half-baked pie crust and for looks I dropped some whole raspberries and blueberries on the top. Do whatever your heart desires. 

Bake for about 15min or until the crust is golden and the filling has set. 

Here is a picture of our ham and potato casserole:

Take a bag of frozen hashbrowns or potato pieces like we have in the frozen sections of Finland. This amount seen here was about 1kg (I think the bags are 500g each)...

Add some chopped onion.

Layer some ham pieces (as much as you like, we used a bag of chopped ham that was about 300g *hammy!*) in between layers of potatoes.

Mix 2 dl of cream and 2 dl of milk or 4 dl of cream or milk to an egg (we didn't use one but should have) and add salt and pepper to your liking. 

Pour mixture into casserole dish. Grate some cheese on top and bake for about an hour at 200C or 375F. Tasty delicious and super easy to make. :)

So that covers the food part for this post. lol.

Easter as I said was quiet and sadly we forgot our camera so all the pictures (ok, I only took a couple) are on my dad's camera. Once I get a hold of it, I have some other photos to share, pictures of our garden! I will try to get around to uploading them from his camera this week... We'll see...

Kissa has the best grandma ever! My mom grew some Easter grass (tradition in Finland) especially for her. :) She loved it. Her new hobby is mowing the lawn, lol. 

As for crocheting... I have ended my plight with the wraplet. I am so sick of it, it's better for us both if we take a break from each other. If that break becomes permanent, I might not mind. 

I spent hours (I think) on Ravelry yesterday, favorite-ing every crochet pattern that tickled my fancy. I figure I can always go visit my favorites when I want an idea or a new project. I think Ravelry is one of the most inspiring websites out there, just a collection of patterns and projects and shared with other yarn obsessed folks. If you don't have a Ravelry account and you knit and crochet, get one. I recommend it. 

Anywho, off the tangent we went on, I have given up on the wraplet and am moving on. I feel like I might finally like to start a blanket. I have been keen on granny squares for a while, but sewing in the ends (my crocheting over them is haphazard at best) and joining the squares (I don't really understand joining squares as you go) and then changing the colors in every square seems just too tedious. I have been working on those circles in a square for that pillow (posted about them here) I was going to make for a friend. I ended up running out of time and bought her a gift, but on I trudge now. I will complete this pillow!!! So far I have 16/25 squares. Woohoo!

And now that we've fallen off the topic again, I'll go back. I want to crochet a blanket. Not a granny square blanket. Ripples are pretty but I don't have patience for that at the moment. So I think I might try my hand at GRANNY STRIPES! I got the idea from this blog/website The Purl Bee. I love this blanket. Well not really the colors, but I love how modern and elegant even a granny stripe blanket can look. I found inspiration to make my own. So, the new dream project is a granny stripe blanket/afghan/whatever, out of all the old bits of yarn I have. It's mainly thin wool so we'll see how it goes, but I am going to try to use up all of the blues, greens, browns and some yellow that I have. I was even thinking of throwing a few rows of black in it, kind of like how the Purl Bee uses the lime green. 

New dream project. I could barely sleep last night. Go figure I come up with it when I have a full week of work ahead of me. Lol!

Well that's it for today, thanks for reading! =)