Happy 2010!

Happy New Year, everyone!

2010! It's going to be a big year for us. I had really wanted to squeeze in one final blog entry for 2009, but the usual things got in the way....I fully blame pregnancy for that! But I do have a few new photos to share and lots of updates to chatter on about.

D and I experienced our first ever Christmas alone here in Bethlehem. It was was restful, pleasant, and very quiet. A pretty blanket of snow covered the town just in time for Christmas Eve.

The Saturday before, the doorbell rang and a large basket filled with delicious cheeses, sausages, bacon, exotic salt, olive oil and Christmas pudding surprised us on the front porch...a present from D's parents in case our stomachs got sad and lonely. We missed seeing our families and friends, but this year we didn't think that at 34 weeks my back would have done too well on an 8 hour car trip.

We had holiday lunch at the Hotel Bethlehem, roasted Cornish hens for dinner and opened some gifts. D got me a new sewing machine! I picked it out, so it wasn't a surprise, but it's fantastic and I can't wait to try out the quilting functions. It puts my old machine to shame...I never realized what bad condition it was in until I used the new one. Over the years, bits and pieces had gotten chipped, bent, and broken off during moves and I'd just learned to sew with wonky tension. The new machine purrs like a happy kitty.

A few days before Christmas, we got a new car. I was sad to say goodbye to the old big blue car, but it was starting to need lots of repairs and we just didn't think we could keep up with the unpredictability of things going kaput, especially in the winter and after JJ arrives. Here is our shiny new car:


Our nursery is also coming together... she has more furniture and gear than D and I, the lucky girl. The due date is Feb 18, but it's possible she'll arrive sooner, as early as 37 weeks instead of 40...

Not surprisingly, I am feeling even huger these days. My weight seems to have plateaued even though my profile keeps getting bigger. I can no longer see my shoes or do up my boots. When I feel JJ move now it feels like an elephant crashing around doing somersaults, and is more groan-inducing than cute-fluttery sensations.


Knitwise, I made this bunny hat with some leftover worsted weight Misti Pima Cotton (free pattern right here)

I have also been working on the Woodland Shawl for about a month now...it's taking forever and I'm not even halfway done! Pretty though, huh?


Stay tuned for pictures of...homemade croissants!! (and a workout like you won't believe)

Bib-o-rama

Bibs! In anticipation of lots of drooling, spilling and spitting up, I sewed up a whole bunch of little bibs, modeled here by Mr. Bear.

The bib pattern is a free one from Chickpea Sewing Studio, and you can find it right here. There isn't as wide a fabric selection around these parts, but I did manage to find some prints that I liked at Joann's. The pattern recommends making the backing piece with flannel, terrycloth or something a little bit thicker for absorbency, but since I didn't have any, I made the backing with muslin, and sandwiched a piece of cut-up bed sheet (leftover from this project) in between to lessen the seepage factor.

If you look closely, there are mini Gatsbys marching across the bib...

It's been so long since I've done any sewing, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it until I started these projects last week, so I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll. There's that quilt I started way back when that is mostly stitched up, but lacking a border, backing and the actual quilting part. That will be next. And I've got some curtains to make for the bathroom, which I have procrastinated on until now (fabric which I bought in September)

Duh, I cut the print out upside down and of course put it at the top of the pile to photograph.

We had a quiet Halloween weekend and gave out candy on Friday night (the city decided that trick-or-treating should intuitively NOT be on the 31st).

Gatsby and I spend a lot of time together these days, and he sat on the couch helping me take pictures of the bibs. He is looking very healthy as usual, and has been in a major showing-off mode for our guest...racing up and down the stairs, roughing with the catnip toys, and being a generally quite rambunctious.

Beef Liver Pate

Check out my pretty liver pate, made with the other half portion of grass fed beef liver:

The recipe was really simple, and quite tasty - I have unintentionally been on an Emeril kick lately...somehow all his recipes keep popping up whatever I search for. His calls for chicken livers, which I think would be smoother, sweeter and lighter-tasting. Nonetheless, D gave a thumbs up for this version. I made him eat it on crackers with lunch which he (politely acted as if he) enjoyed.


The recipe made enough for three small ramekins, so I froze two of them. Apparently they freeze really well, but who knows when I will want to dig these out from the ice box again.

Gatsby seemed to be curious about the liver, and was making it a challenge for D to eat his lunch. That, or he was still mad at us for going on vacation without him, and in need of some cuddles at the most inconvenient times...

Honeycomb Socks

If I were out in the wild hunting some deer or game, then these socks would totally complete the outfit.

Unfortunately, I have no intention of taking up hunting.

Needles: US2 dpns
Pattern: honeycomb stitch
Yarn: Sorry, I threw out the label! 50/50 acrylic wool

What do you think? You can't really tell that the colours are much more mottled than the picture shows, but they're a blend of gray-brown-cream. When I bought this yarn, I was hoping it would give me more of a subtle striping effect, but instead it gave me this hunter's camouflage effect. I can't say I love them, but they're fine....at least the yarn is really soft.

Hmm, come to think of it, they match Gatsby's fur surprisingly well. Maybe I can get them on his little paws.

Gatsby's Outdoor Adventure

Happy Monday!

I haven't done any cat-blogging in a while, so here's a little homemade video to amuse you. Also my very first youtube attempt. We stopped by the pet store today and got him a little harness so he can prowl about and enjoy the lovely weather. Notice the excellent job he does of ripping out the dead grass. The birds were sounding with alarm calls. Now if he would only stop pulling the cord too far and strangling himself...

Good boy!

Weekend Cat Pics

Last weekend Gatsby became a member of The Seniors Club at our local vet clinic (!) I guess 9 isn't that young anymore in cat years. He's mellower, friendlier and lazier...but the gleam in his eye informs us he can still be a feisty beast. And the yowling around meal time has only gotten louder. Ah Gatsby. You lovable pain in the neck.

Here he is in action, running to the fridge at mealtime:

Seeking attention while D tries to work:

Friday night Yuengling...


"Do I look fat to you?"

D and I took a little trip down to Philly and participated in some touristy stuff, and ate a lot of Chinese food...the non take-out kind. It was awesome. On the way home, we also scored some IKEA goods to furnish our little house, so now I'm typing on our new coffee table which I think makes our living room a bit more complete.

More to come later.

The Cat is Mellowing Out

After 8 years of aloof, anti-cuddle, anti-lap behaviour, Gatsby's personality is beginning to change. Occasionally, you will find him seeking a cuddle these days.

Only, he's not fully committed to the full lap cuddle yet... He's started doing this funny half-draping thing on your lap, with his hind legs firmly planted on the couch.

Too funny.

Mini Pink Cake

On Friday and Saturday, we did three more cakes - a 2-tier green and brown (odd) fondant-covered birthday cake, a 3-tier vanilla buttercream wedding cake, and an OSU groom's cake. Unfortunately I forgot my camera both days, so no pictures to show you. The OSU groom's cake was pretty awesome - it was a red velvet cake with oreo buttercream, which made it look quite authentically scarlet and grey on the inside, and the outside was just white buttercream piped with a giant red octagonal 'O', and decorated with the official buckeye and leaves. Cute!

Not so awesome was the fact that I made two cake boo-boos this weekend. My boss was ultra nice about it, but I felt bad about messing up her creations. First, I somehow managed to put too much filling in two tiers of the wedding cake layers, so that mine stood over 5" tall whereas her bottom tier was only 4 inches tall. Oops! I forgot all the tiers are supposed to be the same height. But it wasn't explained to me that the point of digging a little trench was so the top cake layer would sit flush against the second, and that the total height would not exceed 4". Oh well, I hope it didn't look too weird.

Then, the green fondant cake was giving me pain. Beginner's luck seems to happen to me a lot. Remember the first time I worked with fondant? I somehow managed to get it nice and smooth, and no pleats! What's so hard about fondant? Same for my first pottery wheel bowl. Well, the green fondant didn't go very well. I couldn't stop the pleating, and then it tore! We had to rip the whole thing off and start again, and I was too chicken to try it a second time so I asked A to do it while I mixed other fondant colours.

Clearly, I need to practice my fondant skills, and there's nothing like a little embarassing display of incompetence for motivation. So, here's a mini cake to start, one that looks like it belongs at a My Little Pony party.... I cut out a 3" circle from a lemon cake I broke a little while ago, and covered it with buttercream - note to self, buttercream has to be firm. Doing this small-scale cake was much easier, and I knew what went wrong on the weekend. I had rolled it too thin, and the fondant was a little dry, so it didn't want to ease into place. I had a bit of trouble with pleating on this little cake too, but I think it's also because of the fondant being too dry, and the cake underneath being too soft.

Uh oh...pleating and the start of some cracks!

The star is just some strips of fondant pressed together and cut with a cookie cutter. Another thing I learned about fondant this week is that you aren't supposed to get water on it, otherwise it'll start to do weird things like dissolve, and also that you can't put fondant-covered cakes in the fridge or else the humidity will cause the cake to crack or dissolve or something. Who knew? Anyhow, I'll be practicing with fondant some more this week, since I am making a cake for D's lab party tonight and another one for the hospice centre on Thursday. And since it'd been a while since I had any fondant, I wanted to taste my handiwork:

Verdict: Bleh, fondant tastes kind of gross, like eating a chewy dough of sugar. The buttercream definitely helped it taste better.

Wait, there's more! I also pulled out the gumpaste kit I got from D's parents last Christmas. Although I didn't mix any gumpaste - I just used some fondant scraps to practice. I had read that fondant cracks when it dries, so it isn't as good for making decorations, but so far it's been about 18 hours and I still don't see any cracks. The flowers were fun to make, although the rose was the most tedious - you have to roll out 15 petals of varying sizes for it. I think the daisies are my favourite.


Last but not least, here's Gatsby at his finest, hogging the couch all afternoon, sunning his back and his belly in a sliver of sun coming through the window.

But I'm comfortable here...

A good Sunday afternoon yawn

Stop taking pictures of me!

Everyday is like Sunday

Gatsby in usual pose

There is something soothing and relaxing about Sundays. A little snoozing, munching and crafting before the start of the week. This morning I'm off to Tasi Cafe again for brunch with the ladies, my current fave place. It really starts to buzz around 11am, so we're heading out a bit earlier than that to grab a table.

When I get home, I'll probably craft a little (clay I think) or read on the couch, with Gatsby attacking my head in his upside-down, odd affectionate way. And speaking of reading, I was tagged by Devon in a book tag. I'm not sure what it's supposed to reveal about me, or if it's just to introduce people to new ideas, but the rules are: Pick a book at least 123 pages long. Open that book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence and post the next three. Then tag five other people to do the same.

I wish it said, 'choose your favourite section from chapter 3'. There are so many great descriptions in The Soul of a Chef (Michael Ruhlman), and pg 123 unfortunately happens to contain some of the shortest sentences with the least profound-ness to them. Sigh. Don't let this put you off reading it. Here goes:

"He began to think about batter, how some batters use carbonation as a leavener, such as beer batters. He didn't like heavy batters, but this idea led him to the idea of soaking the calamari in ginger ale and fresh-grated ginger. The ginger-marinated squid would then be coated in a peppery flour and fried."

I'm tagging Zarafa, Lorah, and bo (Needles and Thread). Hehe. You know you want to be tagged.

Wild spinning action

Quilty Cat

While D was away I had the whole place to myself, so I moved all my sewing things out to the dining room. I forgot to pre-wash all my fabric, so it took some time before I was ready to cut and sew. I did a ton of ironing as well - here is Gatsby sitting on my nicely ironed pile of quilting fabric. What a pain. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share - somehow I let the whole day go by without remembering to take some, and then it was too dark to take any good ones. But it was hard to resist this one:

I like to sit on anything people don't want me to sit on

I've been working on a bunch of different things - coasters, toys, pincushions, real cushions, knitting, beading - and getting very easily distracted by each project so it's hard to finish any one thing. I know I said I'd have projects every day, but the camera situation messed that up. And also the fact that some of the projects are Christmas gifts that won't be a surprise to the recipient if they are reading this blog. Oh well.

This week I also lined up to get my social security number, quite an embarassing experience really. I turned over my documents (passport, application form, etc) to the SSN person and then passed over my driver's license thinking it was my work permit card (forgetting I now had two pieces of Ohio photo ID). Of course, the SSN person just kept saying, "Ma'am, this is not a work permit. You need to talk to Immigration Services and get your work permit". And so I insisted, over and over, that that very card (in fact, the driver's license) was the only thing that I was sent and that it was definitely the work permit. Sigh. At some point I did realize what was going on, but couldn't they have just said "Ma'am, this is a driver's license"?

Thank goodness this is almost the last of the paperwork...I'll be happy when it's all done.

i Heart Toronto

Yikes, the last six days just disappeared! It's been a busy week with visitors, packing and going home to Toronto - I had new project updates to share, and photos too, but unfortunately they are sitting on the computer at home instead of here on the traveling laptop. Over the last week, I had managed to finish the Khaki Jacket (which is now blocking and needs a few buttons), made some little pouches for gifts, bought some new quilting fabric and yarn, and started a baby cardigan for a friend who is due in December.

We are now in Toronto and I am relaxing and enjoying being at home. It's funny - we have only been away for three months, but it feels much longer than that. When we crossed Peace Bridge we both breathed out a sigh of relief, happy to be back in familiar territory. Strangely though, Canadian currency looks surprisingly foreign and monopoly-like. It's crazy what three months will do!

Gatsby is thoroughly enjoying his new surroundings. I would have thought he'd be a little scared, but he is roaming about as if he owns the place, and showing off his cuteness all day long (perhaps in hopes of being fed a few extra times).


On the drive up I started knitting a Debbie Bliss baby cardigan from her Beginner Baby Knits book. I'm using a pale grey cotton and the back and one front panel are done. I figured that babies probably receive a lot of pink, blue and yellow, so a neutral-coloured sweater might be appreciated as a wardrobe option. It's knitting up quickly, so should be finished soon.

This week I am planning to take in as much Toronto as possible: seeing friends and family, visiting our old haunts, eating a lot of Ace Bakery baguette, sushi and Chinese, getting my hair cut, perusing fabric shops and other window shopping. Have a great week and see you back in Columbus!