On Saturday I packed up some boxes with my hand knits and some holiday goodies and dropped them off at the post office. 
The boxes are west bound, two are going to my family and friends in Vancouver and another is headed to California to my sister. I was even three days ahead of schedule! This coming Saturday we head to Toronto to spend the holidays with Mr. T's family. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and being back in Canada for a few days. Can you say Swiss Chalet and ketchup chips?!
I received an order for a cake from a friend that I used to work with at my previous job. One of her staff members is due in February and they were celebrating yesterday during a staff meeting. I've made one of these baby cakes before but this time around it's a girl (notice the pink bow?). This is one of my favourite cakes to make because the construction is pretty simple and it's quick to make. I tend to get strange looks when I tell people that I'm making a cake in the shape of a baby and then people are going to cut into it and eat it, however, this is more of a cartoon-y looking baby and not at all realistic. Not like this more life-like baby cake. I'm not sure how I would feel cutting into that. Shudder.
I decided to use mascarpone cheese instead of ricotta since I wanted a really smooth and creamy filling. I really liked the taste and I thought the creaminess of the cheese went well with the pistachio, cinnamon, and orange flavourings that were added. I'm not sure if I'd make cannoli again because of the whole frying thing but other than that, I would say that this was a success.
It's just me and my two lovelies this evening. Homework has been completed, soup has been made for dinner tomorrow, cookies baked for lunches, and knitting resumed. I'm fairisle-ing! Holla!
Yesterday afternoon while Mr. J hung up the xmas lights in the front yard, the littlest and I tried our hand at salt dough ornaments. It wasn't easy. I had to climb a small step-ladder and stand over the rolling pin and put all my weight into flattening the dough. After that small feat, we stuck our freshly cut ornaments into the microwave where they bubbled up really strangely. I will have to go out at some point this week and buy some acrylic paints to finish them up, but just because I don't want all this effort lost. I burnt my fingers on these puppies. She had fun though, and that's what matters.
I managed to get the February Baby Sweater finished in plenty of time. I even found a simple white onesie for under the sweater. Rather than knitting buttonholes and sewing on buttons or even knitting i-cords for closing the sweater, I found a very thin lilac satin ribbon in my craft stash, and I threaded it on a seaming needle and simply wove the ribbon through the stitches in the first increase row in the garter-stitch yoke. I really like how it turned out. 
I love this pattern from French Press. It's as advertised--super quick to knit up and after it's felted it resembles sweet little shoes. These are for a Christmas gift, as is the other pair that I have yet to assemble and the pair that's on my needles right now. I have big plans to make a pair for myself but what with my huge list of things that still need to be knit for the holidays I'm afraid that my little feet will have to stay a bit chilly until the new year (cue violins).
If you don't have a green thumb, this is the plant for you. Heck, even if you have a green thumb this is a cute little cactus to have around. I got the pattern for Connie from here. It took me an evening to crochet and then stuff with fiberfill and lentils at the bottom for added weight. Connie enjoys hanging out with other plants and just looking cute. 
Once upon a time, a knitter bought enough wool for a coveted Hemlock Ring Blanket. The postal carrier brought her that wool one day soon after, and immediately the knitter wound up two giant yarn cakes the size of her head - she did this as to avoid weaving in more ends than necessary as she was a very lazy knitter. The right size of circular needles were purchased, and the blanket was cast on quickly after the children were tucked into bed. To the knitter's amazement, this was one of the most enjoyable knits ever! Despite working full-time, parenting two children, and travelling to another country for a week, she finished the blanket in three short weeks. When cast off, the blanket appeared to be a giant blob of wool and was unrecognizable as a blanket. It needed to be severely blocked in the most desperate way. So the blanket went into a drawer. For eight months, the knitter carefully avoided all conversation about said blanket. She laughed off other knitters who OFFERED to block the blanket. And she went about knitting hundreds of other projects so as to forget about her dear Hemlock. It nearly worked. Then one day she found herself in a dark storage cubby at work that she lovingly referred to as "The Panic Room". Rooting for soup bowls and money jars, she came upon an unopened package of giant foam mats. It was then and there that she knew what she had to do. Five o'clock could not come fast enough. As soon as she returned home, she filled up the kitchen sink with a dash of Eucalan and cold water, soaked the blobby blanket, sopped up all the water in a cushy thick towel, and stretched and pinned that blob to those foam mats. Half an hour was all it took. That made the knitter feel a tad sheepish. (Get it? Sheepish?) And the next day when she woke up, she ran down the stairs and ripped out all the pins, and she swirled and twirled until she nearly chuffed about twenty different kinds of happiness! And the blanket and knitter lived happily ever after.
My sister has her graduation ceremony this evening, so when she asked if I could watch her two youngest, I didn't hesitate to say yes 'cause graduating is pretty special, and it's not as if I get to hang with them all the time since we live an hour apart. Are you like me, and if someone lives an hour away, you think of it always as two hours away? I mean, it takes an hour to drive there and another hour to get home, so that's really two hours. Y'all think like that, right? I admit it's the pessimist in me - everything is always half empty! : ) Anyways, the kids are absorbed by the Wii, so's I might as well be invisible. I did manage to coax the two littlest girls to come upstairs and chop apples for applesauce. They chopped much faster than I could peel. I also caught many apple slices being popped into their mouths. The applesauce smells wonderful. I also chose this quiet time to spray winter boots with stainguard, so the applesauce is overtaking the potent chemical smell in the foyer. Next up, knitting. One purple 80% cashmere, 20% silk cowl . . .
Happy Friday night!
