Easter Egg Dyeing Class

Over the weekend, our local Williams-Sonoma was offering a Easter Egg Dyeing Class for children. I had seen the sign last week when I was driving by. I knew this would interest my little crafty daughter so I signed her up.

 

Each child received the Williams-Sonoma Egg Decorating Kit and 1 dozen eggs. The kit came with everything you need to decorate eggs.

I think my favorite was the wax crayon which created a resist on the egg when you dip it in the dye. She seemed to like that crayon, too. It was like magic seeing the design reveal itself when you dipped it in the dye.

She had a great time decorating the eggs. The lovely ladies at Williams-Sonoma also baked Easter shaped sugar cookies for all the children to snack on after the class. That made the class even better for the children. She loved the cookies so much, I bought the kit so we can make some at home.

She was very proud of her finished eggs. I also decorated a few eggs because I couldn't hold back my crafty self. :-) It was way too much fun to resist.

We still have plenty of supplies in the kit to decorate more eggs. Williams-Sonoma used their own dyes so that we could go home with the dyes for future use. I told her that she could decorate more eggs when we finished eating all the current eggs. I didn't want to be left with dozens of hard boiled eggs since I am the only one that eats them.

{this moment} The 3 Amigos

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Deadlines

Sorry it has been a while since I have checked in. I have a little updating to do. Let's begin where I left off, my darling daughter's birthday.

Melody loves flowers. I surprised her with a bouquet on her birthday when she got home from school. You should have seen the expression of delight on her face. She thanked me every day for a week. :-)

She had a memorable birthday party. Friends and family far and near came to celebrate her special day. She requested a Princess Cake and my local Shop Rite did a fantastic job. The cake is topped with 3 Princess figurines and a Rose Ring that changed color in the sun light. The flavor? It's a vanilla cake with bavarian cream and buttercream frosting.

 

After my darling daughter's birthday party, things got busy. It was one deadline project after the next. Currently, I have 2 more design projects due soon. I am just catching my breath since lots of late nights no longer agree with me any more. I remember the last 2 years staying up all night when I needed to and I could still recover. Now my body is protesting against the abuse and it takes me many days to recover. I am no longer a spring chicken and I am trying to listen to my body more.

Before the new year, I was having some health issues. Since the end of December 2012, I have eliminated gluten and grains from my diet. No more processed foods/products and I am cooking all my meals from scratch. It has been 2 months and I am feeling so much better. My energy level has increased and I no longer have any sugar cravings. I was going to do it for 1 month to see how it would affect me. Since things are going so well, I am going to continue this new way of life.

5 Years Old!

 

Happy Birthday, to my sweet beautiful girl! Remember last year, 2 yrs ago, 3 yrs ago, and 4 yrs ago? Time is just flying by.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Handmade by Melody.

Handmade by me. (Salty Honey Pie using Four & Twenty Blackbirds's recipe)

{this moment} Birthday Party

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Over the Weekend

During the early morning hours while everyone was still asleep, I pulled out a old weaving project. It's a 6 inch Weavette and the yarn is Stonesthrow Farm Vintage IV (53% Cormo/47% young mohair). I am still not sure what it will become and it's fine with me. For now, I am just enjoying a mindless weaving project. I will see how many squares I end up with when I am done weaving.

Another advantage of waking up early is that I get to enjoy one of my favorite breakfasts in peace. A toasted NYC Everything Bagel with whipped cream cheese, tomatoes and lox, sprinkled with sea salt, black pepper and dill. Delicious. Usually, I am busy making everyone their breakfast requests and I am always the last person that gets to eat.

One of the fun things we have discovered after we moved to the suburbs are Garage, Yard and Estate Sales. In NYC, we were use to Stoop Sales since most people don't have yards or garages. The selections here are very different. Most of the garage sales around here are empty nesters or older folks getting their house ready to sell. There are lots of treasures to dig through. In NYC, I rarely ever bought anything since it's usually younger people or people my age getting rid of their things to make space in their tiny apartments or people moving out. Whenever you see moving trucks in NYC, you can be sure that it's either the end of the month, the first of the month or the middle of the month.

I think we went to 6 yard sales over the weekend. Melody's treasures are on the left of the picture above and mine is on the right. See those clogs? She put them on and never took them off. The girl does love shoes! I was happy with my single purchase. One of my neighbors had a box of crocheted doilies, table cloths and runners. She told me that her mother-in-law made them for all the daughter-in-laws in the family. I picked out a very large table runner. It just needs to be washed and blocked.

As you can see, she adores everything she got. The doll has never left her side once. It plays music when you wind it up and the song is starting to grate on our nerves. She plays it in the house, in the car, while eating dinner ...etc. Lol.

What did you do over the weekend?

{this moment} Plié

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Welcoming Fall!

 

My number 1 assistant woke up early to help me bake Pumpkin Doughnuts. I was invited to a knitter's get-together brunch and wanted to bring something sweet. Nothing screams Fall like pumpkin. 

They turned out gorgeous and delicious. I used 2 different sizes of doughnut pans. My Quality Control Team (DH & Melody) sampled the fresh doughnuts rolled in cinnamon and sugar and they gave it 2 thumbs ups. The recipe is called Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts. I subbed KA Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour because DH misread the label when he was grocery shopping. But it turned out just as good and healthier, too. Gabby was the lovely hostess and my pumpkin doughnuts paired well with the delicious soup she made. 

 

Here is Kim working on her steek. Karen, Gabby, Stephanie, and I all cheered Kim on to finish her Rhinebeck sweater. Yes, NYS Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY is coming up real soon.

DH, Melody and I were very excited to attend our town's Fall Festival. It's a great way to get to know all the local businesses and services. We ran into her English teacher from school and her Karate Academy had a booth there. She had a lot of fun listening to the live music and walking around. 

 

I have never seen a Tornado Potato before and had to get one before we left the festival. Melody gobbled it up with delight. What's not to like? Fried potato with lots of salt = YUM. 

 

Then we came home and she worked on her chalk art on the driveway. DH and I worked on the house and yard work. It was a lovely weekend. Did you do anything fun this weekend?

{this moment} Melody and Penny, BFF

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{this moment} Summer Block Party Fun

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
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{this moment} Super Hero

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My little graduate.

I know it's been a while since my last post. Look at how big my little one has gotten. 

She is ready for pre-school in the Fall.

From a child's eyes....

this is a celebrity sighting. She adores all the commercials on tv of the talking M & M's. It's also one of her favorite chocolate candies. You can imagine her excitement when she saw this display at our local grocery store. Priceless.

My Little Girl

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Things have been quiet on the blog because of holiday traveling and due to all my dead lines. I have been knitting away at a furious pace and also working on some new and exciting projects. But I had to pop in to wish my little girl a Happy Birthday! Yes, it's that time of year again. Her annual photos with Baby Bobbi Bear and Elijah are a tradition now. This was last year's and this was the year before.

She turns 4 yrs old today. As you can see, she is no longer a toddler. She has grown into a wonderful, charming and caring little girl. The joy that my husband and I feel with having her in our lives can not be put into words.

I am attending Vogue Knitting Live this weekend so I won't be able to celebrate with her. Instead, we celebrated early by bringing in cupcakes to school for her classmates. She got to be queen for the day and it sounded like she had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday, darling!

My little TinkerBell wishes you all a Happy Halloween!

French Press Cowl & Capelet

The French Press Cowl is part of Larissa Brown's KAL Line. The KAL Line is a new line of knitalong-friendly projects that invite knitters to invent and play with embellishments and yarn choices. The idea here is to knit the cowl in a beautiful yarn and then thread anything (cord, ribbon, yarn, or whatever you can think of) through the column of eyelets to scrunch or distort the cowl.

Although the pattern calls for 400 yards of yarn, I found that 1 skein of Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted (210 yards) made a substantial cowl. I haven't come up with anything creative to thread the cowl with yet. But Melody was partial to this purple satin ribbon she found in my closet.

I was surprised to see that this cowl can also be used as a capelet for Melody. This is going to be an adorable and practical Winter accessory for her.

Pattern: French Press Cowl by Larissa Brown
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Yarn: 1 skein of Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in Pagoda

Goodbye, Summer!

Today, the temperature dropped dramatically in NYC. The humidity is gone and it's the first hint of what's to come. It was so cold that Melody's normal attire was not suitable. I had to dig around for something a little warmer for her to wear to school. Plus, I pulled out the Fall shoes I bought her a few weeks ago and her little face lit up. She loves shoes. I swear, she practically bounced out of the house with her dad this morning. Today is also pizza day at school, so that added to her excitement. Oh, to be a kid again!

This Summer, Melody had so much fun at the Jersey Shore. We had our annual vacation in July at Bradley Beach with my friend, Jen, and her two daughters, Veronica and Penny. We were guests at her parent's beach house (Rose and Marc). Melody loves the beach and her best friend is Veronica. So every day, all she wanted to do was to go to the beach with Veronica.

We ate fabulous food at restaurants and Rose's delicious home cooking. Rose always introduces us to new foods every year. This year, it was Padrón Peppers. They are served fried with olive oil and salt. Fantastic!

Here are some pictures from our vacation.

Bike riding in the evening at Bradley Beach on one of the hottest days in July. You can tell by the expression on Melody's face that she was not happy about the weather.

The kids always look forward to going to Point Pleasant's boardwalk. This was the first year that Melody went on the rides at the amusement park.

Penny riding solo and had a blast.

Penny riding the carousel with Grandma Rose and her sister, Veronica.

Amusement park food. It's bad for you, but taste oh so good. We always get this every year: bucket of fried shrimp and a soft-shell crab sandwich.

A typical dinner at the beach house for these 3 princesses. Watching a dvd and eating chicken nuggets. They are living the life.