A Quickie!!!

I promise, I have actually been writing something a bit more substantial...something with more actual news in it!  (Anke...most of all for you!  As I KNOW you read this!!)  However, since it's almost midnight, and I'm seeing it for the 3rd night in a row, I am going to make this post short and sweet with two crafty items in them!

I recently helped my dear friend Marly Bird (check her out, has AMAZING work, plus I'm incredibly lucky that she's one of my bestest friends) with a piece for her classes she is teaching at XRX Books/Knitters Stitches events!  I worked up the piece for her crochet stitch sampler class.  This was a labor intensive (albeit they were basic stitches, just lots of them) project that I CRAMMED into 3 weeks.  My dear boyfriend (yes Anke, more news on that later) was very supportive, and understanding during the Super Bowl as we are cheering for teams, I'm making food and taking time otherwise, as well as the weeks that followed, so did the pieces to make...THIS...

ISN'T IT AWESOME???  I worked my *ahem* booty off on it, and while I as the perfectionist totally see wonky parts I have to say I loved doing it!  If you know your basic stitches in crochet, you can TOTALLY do this too.

I also recently cranked out this bad boy for a friend who has SO patiently (like, since I started really getting into this) waited for a hat...and thankfully I can say I've finally delivered!  I still owe her a scarf, and I swear it will be done, but in the mean time, here is Victoria's Newsboy hat!

She loved the Christmas Red color, and since I have plenty of the same yarn left over, her scarf will eventually be made of the same yarn.

Up next: finishing a couple more newsboy hats for a friend of a friend's kiddo who is about to lose all her gorgeous hair due to chemo, to go with the fun multi-colored beanie I made already.  Bonus for me, my friend who asked me to make them for HER friend (confused yet?), is paying me in trade, and she is a massage therapist!!!  BOOYAH!  I can't wait to trade!!

Once the hats are done, I have FIVE baby blankets I am doing between now and the beginning of August.  FIVE!!!!  I started one tonight because it's kind of a rush order (Rachel, be glad I love you and this stitch is easy!!) but lets just say while I'm trying to be creative and fun, I also know my limits and am trying to keep it as easy on myself as possible at the same time.  Yay for well written patterns with simple stitches and easy finishing touches.

After all, between now and the beginning of August, I have quite a bit going on!  Need to finish putting my boyfriend's graduation present together, then there's graduation, my sister in law's birthday, MY birthday, as well as packing up my house because I'm moving, and helping The Boy pack up his house, as he's moving too!  (Not in together, he's moving about 2.5 hours south of where I am going...but we knew this, again, other blog entry for this information!!)  This summer is going to be action packed...I can just see it now.  Working on baby blankets while packing, unpacking, and celebrating!  Don't be surprised if you see me with a hook and yarn in my hands allll summer!

OH!!!  In my next post, I PROMISE to finally post pictures of the absolutely AWESOME scarf that my cousin Anke made me in Germany!!!  I am so excited to show it off!!  (I've had it for WAY too long to just now be showing it off, but hey, I promise...next posting!!!)

I'm a Pinja!!

So, chances are these days, if I've seen you around, or we have had a conversation of any kind (electronic or live) I have raved about the website Pinterest.

I full on admit.  I'm obsessed.  I have sent out a ton of invites to the site, I have (as of the writing of this blog entry) 36 different Boards, 1191 pins, and 229 likes.  (If you know Pinterest at all, you will understand this, for the rest of you, hang tight.)

I got started on this a while ago, and never really got the hang of it at first.  Then, during one of my oh so fun afternoons of funemployment, I forced myself to start exploring more of the site.  Well.  There went about 4 hours of my life before I knew it.  (In a good way, I assure you.)

I'm obsessed.  I have always been a Facebook addict (though I'm getting better, trust me, it may not seem like it, but I am), and go through phases with Twitter (mostly with a few certain people in the yarn world), but Pinterest has recently become a bigger time suck than any of the others combined.

For those of you not familiar with Pinterest, let me give you a bare bones rundown.

Common Pinterest terms:

"Pin" - Picture (with corresponding website link) of item you don't want to lose track of.
"Board" - Place to organize Pins
"Like" - Much like the Facebook "like", this one will simply save the item in your likes, doesn't mean you've saved it in any category or on any of your boards.
"Follow" - Your friends might already be on Pinterest, you can follow what they pin, and it shows up when you log in.  You can easily browse through to see if there are common interests ad

Seriously, that's it.  Terminology is simple and basic, much like a standard bulletin board.  In fact, honestly, that's what you can equivocate this to: A Digital Bulletin Board.

If you want more details (because lets face it, I just want to show you what I've been up to instead of tell you how to run your account, however I am more than happy to give you lessons one on one if you would like), Mashable.com has a great article about the basics of the site, complete with a Beginner's Guide.  You can find that article here. In fact, in doing a bit of digging, Mashable actually has some great articles about Pinterest in general, check them out here.  Also, if you get yourself an account, make sure you look me up!  :)

ON TO THE FUN STUFF!!!!

As I have said, I am a full on Pinterest addict, and I listed my stats above.  Of the many boards that I have with my account, I have quite a few crafty boards, and quite a few food related.  I used to just have one food one with recipes I'd love to try, but it got so full, I couldn't find things easily, so (another beautiful thing about the site) I simply created more boards to make it easier to find.  Appetizers, Drinks, Entrees, Crock Pot, Desserts...you name it.

I have a few favorite things on there myself.  One is my board that has all my funnies on it, if I ever need a giggle, that's where I go.  Plus, my love for all things Mason Jar.  I don't know what it is about something so basic and simple, but I adore those things.  They are all over my house.  So, that board has all kinds of ideas for using them on it as well.

A small list of the recipes I've tried already:

Roasted Sweet Potatoes (big hit at Thanksgiving)
Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies (The Boy raved about these, I wasn't as much of a fan)
Ham and Cheese Crescents (Would have been great if I didn't leave them in the oven a skosh too long)
Mini Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes (HUGE hit at girls night)
Buckeye Bark (easiest thing in the world, big hit at Christmas, and is quickly becoming a go-to for something easy to take to parties for a dessert)

This weekend is action packed (as is par for the course for me most weekends it seems, right?),  and The Boy and I are going to a dinner party tomorrow night.  Sadly, running all over hither and yon for other things before our party, doesn't leave one much time.  So, tonight I will be making these: Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites  (Update: they were a piece of cake, and the only way they would have been easier would have been having more freezer space).  As well as my traditional Pretzel Magic (thank you SIL Maggy for that recipe). (Update: both were HUGE hits at the party, and at the office on Monday when I had too many leftovers of the Pretzel Magic to safely leave in my own house.)

I know that there will be many more recipes tried, and hopefully more crafty ideas attempted.  :)

If you are already on Pinterest, please find me and follow me!  If you're not on Pinterest, hopefully I've piqued your interest to start pinning!