My friend Rebecca made an awesome pie!!!
Because she doesn’t want to blog about it herself, I will blog on her behalf. My friend Rebecca Krautner (picture below with hubster Michael) is a very talented chef, but she recently let a blueberry pie get the best of her.
Rebecca and Michael Krautner
An excerpt of her exasperated email is quoted here:
“The pie that took me 3 rounds of dough, 2 days, 2 dough recipes, 1.5 screaming swear word fits, and 1 bra thrown across the room in anger to make. The pie that got me so worked up after attempt #2 that I had to open a 2nd bottle of wine to finish the calming down process. The pie that I will take (have taken) 4 bites of and then leave the rest for Michael since I don’t really like sweets. The pie that reminded me why I hate baking (the measuring, the crossing of the fingers, the fact that it is lots of work for a product I don’t really want). The pie that still doesn’t look good in this photo b/c the extra sugar hadn’t finished melting away when I took it so it looks more like a blueberry and flour pie.”
However, it looks like it was worth the hard work when you take a look at the beautiful results, good job Rebecca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sure she would also like me to pass on some advice to those of you looking to make a homemade pie crust:
“Word to the wise- Betty Crocker’s pie dough recipe is garbage (but that figures, since she doesn’t actually exist)”
What a beautiful pie!!!
New Stuffed Animals!!
To go along with all the new baby stuff I was making, I had to make a little surprise for Lilly, my almost 2 year old niece who is adjusting to being a big sister! I knitted her a couple animals from Joelle Hoverson’s Last Minute Knitted Gifts.
In the book you choose from three animals; an elephant, bear, or bunny. I have made the elephant a few times before as well as the bear. But it was my first time with the bunny rabbit. These animals knit up fairly quickly and overall they are easy to make. The hardest part is probably sewing the arms on and making sure they are evenly placed!
As far as yarn, the book recommends Blue Sky Alpaca Sportweight and you use it double-stranded. I really like this yarn, it is soft, easy to work with, and the slight color variation looks great, especially on the elephant. But you could probably get away with anything and end up with a slightly larger or smaller animal.
Blue Sky Alpaca Sportweight
Here are the end products – What a cute pair. I named them, Elston the Elephant and Belmont the Bunny, but I don’t know if Lilly will continue to call them that, but then again, I kind of want to keep them for myself (well, my husband Fred wants to keep Belmont for sure!)!!!!
Elston and his role model
Elston - Side View
Best Buds - Belmont and Elston
Fun and Quick Baby Gifts!
It seems like everyone is having babies these days! I am especially excited for the arrival of my soon-to-be-born nephew, it will be #2 for Rog and Al. I want to get a little homemade something for the new baby, but since I should be studying for my anesthesia licensing exam, I didn’t want to get involved in any undertakings that might be overwhelming and too time consuming. So, I put together a couple really cute, handmade baby projects. First is the necktie onesie. Since the new little one is a boy, I wanted to make sure he had something stylish and dressy for the first few months of his life. (pictures to be posted soon)
The second project is quick and easy (and super cute) burp cloths. For these, I picked out a few fun patterned cotton fabrics and then added a reverse side made of a soft bumpy cotton/poly blend. I prewashed all the fabrics in Dreft, so they would be baby ready when they arrived.
Alexander Henry 2-D Zoo in Olive from http://www.theneedleshop.net/
After a little research I decided to make the dimensions about 9.5 in by 17 in.
Pinning and cutting the two fabrics for the burp clothes
And pretty much I pinned the pieces together and used my serger to give a nice clean border.
My serger
I did make one where I serged the fabric pieces right sides together and then turned it inside out and topstiched, but I felt the serged edge looked like a tradition fabric diaper, and liked that look.
Trying out the topstitching...ended up liking the serged edge better
The serged edge (in a green polka dot fabric)
Here are the finished products: soft and cute burp cloths, a necessity for an stylish baby!
Ali Premo: My Knitting & Sewing Projects 