Stitching up a storm!

There are lots of new babies in my life and on the way which means I've been doing lots of crafting!
I'm pretty new to crochet but I already prefer it to knitting. Since I'm not a master crocheter yet I've enjoyed making these super simple jumbo granny square baby blankets. If you can make a granny square you can make this! No need to join squares, which I haven't attempted yet, just keep going around and around until the blanket is the size you want it.
I'm trying to expand my horizons with crochet. It's easier on my fingers and faster (for me) than knitting. To that end I found and joined a site called Ravelry. I highly recommend it for fellow stitchers! It's a social network and database for knitting and crochet meaning it's very awesome!. They have a huge searchable database of patterns that is very easy to use. You can search projects by age, gender, difficulty, cost (many are free), format (online, pdf, book etc.), and product (clothing, toy, craft...). Then you can create a library of patterns you like and a to-do list. The social part comes in because you can share which pattern you are working on, and update your progress. Then you can share a review and photo of your finished product that other users will see when they view the pattern. All very cool stuff, and did I mention the site is free!

Mr also bought me this book. I haven't tried anything from it yet but it's a collection of crochet stitches wonderfully organized with a large color photo of each stitch. I'm looking forward to using it to jazz up simple patterns, especially sweaters/cardigans once I figure out how the basics of those.


On to sewing!
I made this super cute baby carrier using this pattern by Jan Andrea I found on Pinterest. It's so easy I think even a beginner sewer could manage it. At any rate, I used some heavy weight "home decor" fabric from Walmart at something like $8/yd. The pattern used about 1 1/2 yds so for about $12 and an hour of effort, I had this handy cutey! Baby carriers usually sell for $25 minimum so I think this is a pretty great deal, plus I got to choose my own pretty fabric. I only made a very basic carrier but now that I know it's so fast, easy, and cheap, I can definitely see myself customizing future "luxury models" but maybe only after I've gotten to test drive this one so see what would be useful. Sure, the carriers online with retractable hoods, padded straps, and zipper pockets look cool, but how much of that will I really use? Only time will tell!
Anyway, if you sew and need a gift for a friend with a baby, I recommend this. I recently learned from friends that expecting moms end up with more baby blankets than they know what to do with so this seems like a practical, cute, and easy alternative for a gift made with love.
I also made a shopping cart cover with this pattern. Another quick and easy project. Way cuter and cheaper than a store bought cover. I bought my fleece on sale for $6 but even at it's normal $10/yd this project works up well below the usual $30 for a store bought cover. I haven't test driven it yet so any picture of the final product outside a cart just looks like a blob but I did customize the pattern by adding a pocket that the whole thing folds neatly into and I had enough fabric left over for a separate matching pouch. Maybe I'll go back and add some sort of closure to it and use it for toys and snacks.

Making Christmas!

We've been busy making lots of sweet treats for the holidays! In an attempt to save some money this holdiday season in preparation for the arrival of our little one, we decided to make tubs of homemade goodies.
You might remember the marshmallows we made last year. They were so good & easy that we made two batches this year. The first batch was mint like last year but we scaled back from 1 1/2 tbsp of peppermint extract to just 3/4 tbsp. The results were a huge improvement! The second batch was vanilla for which I kept the original recommended 1 1/2 tbsp and, again, I think this is a little too much.
Paula Deen's Marshmallow Recipe

Next I made caramels. First and LAST time! They were delicious but a pain in the butt! I used this recipe from Taste of Home. Here's why I won't be making them again even though they were heavenly:

1. They took FOREVER! My aching preggo back stood at the stove for 2 hours before the caramel finally reached hard ball stage. It seemed the more I stirred, the more the molten sugar refused to get any hotter but if I paused in stirring it threatened to boil over and/or burn to the bottom. Maybe my stove just stinks. 
2. They took forever! Then I foolishly thought they would be firm enough to hold their own shape once cut. No such luck.After the caramel cooled I cut it up and piled it into my gift tubs. The next day I returned to find a giant gooey blob. So... cut again and the Mr and I spent the better part of an hour cutting little wax paper squares and individually wrapping each little caramel. 
3. They are pricey. Obviously this is also true of the marshmallows we made but the marshmallows have the virtues of being quick, easy, and infinitely better than store bought. Of these qualities, the caramels were only marginally better than store bought and so in my opinion, not worth the time and expense. 

The last item in our holiday goody bins were gingersnaps made with Mr's grandmother's recipe. They rock! Everyone we watched open a bin immediately went for one of the cookies first. 

It's a Girl?

As promised we're revealing the sex of little Rabbit. Well... sort of!
We didn't actually find out the sex at the ultrasound but we've searched the web for old wives tales to test out. Here are the results:

Cranberry Sauce

Growing up I hated cranberry sauce. Why? Because we always had that canned jelly stuff, gross. Now that I'm older I love cranberry! Cranberry juice, dried cranberries alone as a snack or baked into granola, bread, cookies, cereal... you name it! Two years ago I made cranberry sauce for the first time using Paula Deen's cranberry-clementine sauce recipe. It was so much better than the canned stuff but super powerful, I could only eat a little. My mom loved it though so I've made it every holiday since.
This year I branched out and I think I've perfected my own recipe. It has a much more mild taste than Paula's recipe which I found way too tart.


Orange Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
2 large oranges
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp anise seed
Directions:
In a small sauce pan add cranberries, the juice of one orange including pulp (at least 1/2 cup) plus water to equal 1 cup of liquid, sugar, anise, and 1/2 tsp orange zest. Bring to a boil at medium heat then reduce heat to low. Let simmer until the berries have burst and the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, peel the other orange and cut segments into 1" pieces. Remove sauce from heat, stir in the orange chunks and allow to chill before serving.

That's all! Easy, right? I don't know why more people don't make their own cranberry sauce, especially since its best made at least a day ahead of time to allow it to chill.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and enjoy!

19 Weeks!

Holy cow! Where has the time gone? Sorry to have not posted in so long!
In my defense, the past few weeks have been pretty busy. Yesterday the Mr, got home from school to find me asleep in bed, where he kindly left me until dinner was ready at 5. I feel like one spoiled gal!

Anyhoo, since my last post I've had both a midwife appointment and *drum-roll please!* ...our first sonogram! I think a picture says a thousand words so here you go:

Our little Rabbit is as cute as pie!

Lunch

Jealous? Don't be! Just make your own!

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe time! Mr. & I finally have a weekend to ourselves and we are preparing in case we need to bunker down for the upcoming "Frankenstorm" (the weather folks are saying that a cold front from the west is going to collide with hurricane Sandy from the east to bring us snow all next week). So of course cookies are a must. Hey, oatmeal and dried fruit are healthy right???
Here's the recipe based on Food Network Magazine's Mix & Match chocolate chip cookies.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients: 1/2 c softened butter or margarine
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I was going to try 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 almond extract but didn't have the almond on hand)
1 c flour
1 c oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix ins: 3/4 c chocolate chips
1/3 c chopped dried cherries

Directions 
Beat butter and sugars until fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together remaining ingredients up to mix ins then beat this dry mixture into the wet.
Stir in mix ins until combined.
Refrigerate batter for about 30 minutes until it's cold and a little more firm.
Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.