Happy Birthday Chicken Boys!

My son (on the right) and his cousin were born 5 days apart. I made each of them an Elf Hat for their tiny little newborn heads. Now they are celebrating their first birthday, and again I made them matching hats. We have to make them wear these things while they’re young and can’t say “no” or “hell no” or “mom, no way, I’ll look like a dork!!”

My hats were inspired by this pattern, though my decreases at the top are different (for that distinctive “chicken butt” shape). I crocheted the drumsticks because that was so much easier than knitting. The hats are some inexpensive cotton from JoAnns, because that’s the yarn I could find in this lovely “plucked poultry carcass” colorway.

Beautiful Year

My baby boy is 1 year old today. This time last year, heavy labor was starting and I was 6 hours from pulling my little guy up out of the water of the birth pool and starting my new life.

The Boogedy, as we like to call him, was born at home with two supportive midwives, my rock-solid husband, my helpful sister-in-law, and my concerned and loving best friend. The Boogedy has been a treasure and a delight. How motherhood has changed me is too long to list and more wonderful and fearsome than I might have anticipated.

I have been convinced during this year that no mother has ever been so grateful every day, no father more loving and silly, no baby more beloved, and no family pets more accommodating.

Wow. What an adventure.

I love this photo at 2 days old because it looks like he arrived in the mail, in a crumpled package:

And this photo nearly a week ago reminds me of his dad, a frugal man indeed. See how happy he is to put the pennies in the penny jar?! Saving money is better than eating it…lesson of the month.

Happy Birthday Yitty Guy!

Unfortunate Cookies

I had a group of friends over on Saturday for our monthly Crafty Afternoon. We celebrated Chinese New Year and made fortune cookies with custom messages…

A few of my favorites…

“NO, those pants look great!”

“You knew what I was when you picked me up”

“You’re kind of boring…you should get a hobby”

We used this recipe and these tips, and they turned out just right, but they were tricky! After this photo was taken, we refined our technique and subsequent cookies looked nicer. Then we drizzled them with melted callebaut semi-sweet chocolate. We called these “hand-crafted” and “lace-edged” and “rustic”.

But, definitely the tastiest fortune cookies I’ve had. Happy Year of the Rat!

A little TOO experimental

I love cooking for company. When friends ask what they can bring, I usually say I’ll make the main dishes and sides and they should bring dessert. Last week I had visitors and decided to make a small, simple cake to serve with coffee. I modified this Orange Yogurt Cake recipe to use lemon zest and juice instead of orange. It was delicious! I made it again for different visitors later in the week…again, delicious!So last night, when I went to a friend’s house for dinner (chicken mole and fresh guacamole and tortillas) and mah jong lessons, I decided to get creative and make two modified cakes: cinnamon-chocolate and key lime…

Zach has decided that we are cutting out refined sugar, so I made the cakes with local raw honey.

Unfortunately, I don’t know much about substitutions in baking, and the cakes lacked depth of flavor, and were rather dense and low. I didn’t sub 1:1, thinking the honey would be too sweet. So the flattish cakes were pretty, if unexciting. If you have ideas on substituting honey in baked goods, I’d love to hear!

Brine Octopus

The Brine Octopus is a unique species from the Great Salt Lake here in Utah. I am sending him to my friend KnitSonya, in thanks for her hospitality over the Christmas break. This young male is a rare specimen for her Cabinet of Curiosities!

Brine Octopus’ head is about the size of a walnut. I used some Scottish Campion yarn (now discontinued) that has been in my stash for nigh on 8 years! I used a small (now lost) crochet hook, same one that created Hungry Octopus.

Hungry Octopus

I’ve been a knitter for years; I used to teach beginners classes and private lessons at ImagiKnit when I lived in San Francisco. I’ve never gotten into crochet, prefering the look of knitted clothes. Just last month I started looking at arigurumi creatures and patterns online–finally a reason to crochet! I got lots of inspiration from Roman Sock and made a few of her sweet owlets.  This Octopus is my own first design. He is made of Koigu yarn, with a fairly small hook, though I lost the hook so can’t say for certain. This is his girlfriend.

Itchy Bombs

When I was around 9 years old, I learned that a young man’s affection is a curious thing. A boy in my fourth-grade class crushed one of these seed pods and dropped it down the back of my shirt. It was horribly prickly and my skin turned fiery red and itched like mad. My mom came to school to pick me up and explained gently that sometimes boys don’t know how to express themselves in a nice way, even when they feel nice things. She explained that the boy probably had a crush on me. It didn’t make sense until I hit puberty and could never figure out how to say the right thing to boys.

My mother is a nice person and always looks at situations in the most compassionate ways. She likes children and teenagers and has always urged me to put myself in someone else’s shoes. I hope I can be so gentle and such a good friend to my child as my mother is to me.