Books, Baking and a Bunny!

I've been 2.5 weeks without internet... without Ravelry... without crochet inspiration... with boxes up to my ears... and nary a moment to crochet!!

ACK!

It wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be (fortunately) and I have somehow had the time to read, bake, spend time with overly-fussy-stressed-from-moving children and a even squeeze in a tiny bit of hooky to boot!

I even have evidence of it all! Look:

Reading:

I made it all the way through the book on the top, part way into the book in the middle (sequel to the first) and even managed another chapter in that bottom book. Priorities, people, priorities- Dr.Phil knows his stuff, but fantasy is better than reality, I swear it to you! LOL

Baking:

Blueberry Quick Bread (modified to 1/3 recipe for a loaf instead of a bundt and used mixed berries instead of just blueberries) and what remains (24 hours later!) of the Banana-Pecan Bread (sans nuts). Both come from the New Good Housekeeping Book. I can't recommend that book enough for baking. Every recipe I've used from this thing has worked perfectly!!!

Hooky:

He is a HEAVILY modified of the very popular pattern here, as indicated by his demure size:

He's all lopsided and holey and face-less, but there's just something about him that already makes me wanna love on him!!

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 :)

A compendium of Things to Do with a six-year-old!

So, this summer I get the privilege of entertaining Small Child for the summer, so I decided to come up with a list of activities, both indoor and out, both crafty and not, and we could work our way through those for summer fun outside of swimming which is our go-to activity for her.

And, because I have no better place to keep such a list, and I have enjoyed reading through blogs and getting inspiration from their lists, I decided to share what I've come up with you guys as well!!

Here it is so far:

Making our own loom to weave potholders. Because we have a ton of out-worn/out-grown clothes that are not in good enough condition to donate.

Some of our other t-shirts could well do with some tie dying, fabric painting or general refashioning to hide all the stains... on the Small's t-shirts that is, because as a grown-up I don't constantly spill food on myself anymore.... yah, right... :)

Napkin rings made from recycled tissue rolls or plastic bottles, because I do have vast quantities of yarn, and well, tissue rolls are not hard to come by!

Small Child loves the "excavation" kits we pick up as a special treat, but I think she would like making her own even better!

Waffles on a stick. Need I say more? These fancy ones:

come from Nifty Thrifty Things. I don't think ours will be quite as fancy though!!!

This recipe might actually get Small Child to eat apples. On the other hand, I have no problem eating apples with dip, so I will probably over-indulge... a LOT! They remind me of some of those fancy-pants caramel apples you can buy for like, $10 a pop. Like these:

{Go HERE to find out how to make your own.}

And while we are busy playing with vast quantities of chocolate in the kitchen, we should probably make some of these chocolates.

After the chocolates, we'll need to get outside and burn off the calories. Grass Stain Guru, and Housing a Forest have a ton of ideas for outdoor or self-directed play. I've been following Chasing Cheerios for a very long time. It was one of the first blogs I started to read regularly, and even though it's geared to younger kids, I've gotten some really great ideas there. The three of these should provide at least a dozen or so jumping off points for this summer.

As well, I want to give teaching her how to crochet another try. She didn't have quite the co-ordination needed when I tried about 8 months ago! I think we'll start out simple with some chain-stitch bracelets she can wear and admire. Nothing like instant gratification, especially when learning something new.

Well, that's about all I have worked up so far. It should keep us entertained for a while at least. Maybe I'll make up one of these to keep track of it all:

{from Sassy Sites} 

  

Claire Gets Baking...

Which, like my cooking, has a 50% failure rate.

But, no risk, no gain, so I continue to fart around in the kitchen, trying to master something, anything, edible, and good enough that people may actually want to come back for more.

It's a lofty dream for me.

(PS I also quite regularly try to burn the house down while in the kitchen... you know, just so that hubby has an excuse to feel lucky to be alive....)

This year, I decided to make consumables for Xmas. Things people can actually use or eat. No "holiday" themed gifts, none of those bath sets that people just end up leaving on their bathroom counter as decoration (you know who you are!), no buying things just because I felt obliged to give something.

I managed Banana Bread, Santa Poop/Donkey Drops/Haystacks/No-bakes/Boiled Chocolate Cookies (There are SO MANY names for those cookies, it's insane!!!), Sugar Cookies, and EggNog Cupcakes. I did these things because they are easy, inexpensive and everyone I know likes at least one of them. And I had made them all before, so the chances of having a spectacular failure or burning down my kitchen while making them was slight!

The Banana Bread was AWESOME! Even I couldn't stop eating it, and I am not a BB kinda gal.

The Santa Poop (in the off-season my fam has always called these Donkey Drops), was typical. I always up the cocoa in the recipe, NEVER use peanut butter, and ALWAYS add coconut.

Sugar Cookies are sugar cookies. Kinda hard to screw those up. I ALWAYS double or triple the vanilla called for though!!! And make a vanilla icing for them, none of that royal icing crap... ew. I did the roll-out-before-you-refridgerate thing this year and it works WAY better than trying to roll out a big ball of cold dough, and it chills WAY faster too.

The EggNog cupcakes are my bastardized vanilla cupcake. I LOVE THESE and can easily eat an entire batch to myself. Ya, I love me some nutmegy/cinnamony/eggy/sugary goodness. All I do is substitute eggnog for the milk and eggs in the recipe. (1 egg = 2tbsps)

Sadly, all of these items were consumed before I took pictures. Even more sad was the fact that I... um, I mean, the baby :) was the one doing 80% of the consuming... although, I only gained 4 lbs the whole month, versus 12 the month before, so I am NOT going to complain!

And after writing this post... I want to go make more cookies... bye!