holy crap, what is this ... paper?

The Effers are back today. New Dare is up. Dare 174. Find it here. And yes, it's been awhile. But the Dare girls have been busy. And our beloved Tina had a baby! But yeah, I haven't done any real paper/photo/glue business in quite awhile. I knew it was getting bad when Jamaica told me on Twitter that I needed to put down my knitting needles and do something with my pics from NYC already. I was shocked at how good it felt to bust out my page last night. Like, whew! I missed that. I kind of needed that. So here's my Dare. Dare 174. I'm back at it. It feels good.

hello sweetness

As I was looking around online for Hello Kitty party ideas last month, I came across Bakerella's Hello Kitty cake pops. Seriously cute. And I knew I had to try to make some. I am definitely not an expert dipper or candy maker, but we had lots of fun making these.

I used lemon cake inside and Wilton white candy melts on the outside, along with the Wilton pink heart sprinkles for the bows and small yellow circle sprinkles for the noses. I wasn't exactly sure how I'd display them (because they're pretty top-heavy!) So I used a H.K. box container from Target's Dollar Spot, put a styrofoam block inside and then covered that with tulle. A whole box of kitties!

The birthday girl was seriously into these sweet treats.

They were so extremely delicious. I wish we had more left over from the party. (We'll just have to make them again.)  ;)

And then, I fell in love with Bakerella's ice cream cone cake pops. They're just too amazingly cute and tiny. So I had to make these, too.

I used cherry sours on top and the cake inside was chocolate. The tiny 'kid cones' are from Target.

These were a hit with the kids, especially when they'd try to figure out if they were going to be eating ice cream or cake. It was so much fun to watch them take their first bite. Tricky, tricky!

So, yes – that was my first adventure with cake pops. I did practice before the party to hone my candy dipping skills, and that was probably smart. I also prepped the actual cake balls a week ahead and froze them in plastic containers, so all I had to do the night before the party was dip and decorate them. A couple of things I learned: Cake balls turn out better if you trim off the darker edges off the sides and top of the 9x13 cake before you crumble it into a bowl. And, the Wilton Food Writers I used for H.K's eyes kind of sucked for this project. The candy coating was too slick for them to write on. (Next time I'd definitely try these instead.) But, cake pops (Bakerella style) were definitely super fun and if you haven't made them before, you really really should. Yum.

hello four

Over the weekend, we celebrated this smiley little girl's birthday. We had two parties (which is just a little bit more manageable for us ... one for the kiddos, one for family.) Looking at these photos makes me realize how much older she's starting to look. It's totally surreal. She's four!

Everything in our house was pink. Lots and lots of pink. Because, like Lola says, pink is perfect for parties.

There was also lots of Hello Kitty. And you've gotta admit ... Hello Kitty is all kinds of fun.

My apologies to the moms of the kids I fed all of this sugar to. I somehow wound up making a cake, cupcakes, and Bakerella-style cake pops. I couldn't stop myself. It was so bad and so decadent that I almost forgot to put out the bowl of fruit ... the one and only healthy thing I had to offer. 

This girl is pure sweetness.

And I'm sort of a sucker for her charming ways. (The hugs are totally worth all of the time I spent on those sweet treats.)

But yeah, like I said, we had two parties this weekend. So we're kind of tired out. (More about those cake pops tomorrow!)

hello party

So, obviously a little girl's birthday party calls for cute invites. My creative mother-in-law suggested this ribbon idea after Lotus settled on Hello Kitty this year, and these were super fun to make. I hand-cut the faces out (okay, the whiskers were not the easiest to navigate around) but I think they look pretty sweet.

I didn't actually tie the ribbon into bows, but glued it down (kind of in a loop) and then wrapped another shorter piece around the middle and glued it down to make the 'knot.'

And the rest of the weekend party prep is in full swing around here. Pink decorations, more pink decorations, and pink decorations with pink decorations on top, per Lo's request. I'm giving Bakerella's cake pops a try (omg, check out the Hello Kitty ones.) We'll see how it all turns out!

the tide is high and I'm moving on ...

Today, I bring you ... dum dum dum-dumm ... my Tidepool Sweater. From Weekend Knits by Wenlan Chia.

Like I mentioned a couple of days ago, this sweater started out as six hanks of Twinkle Soft Chunky, in icy blue and kelly green. I spent two and a half days knitting it and here's how it turned out.

(Ummm ... brrrr.)

Taa-daa! Blue and green super chunky horizontal stripes may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I truly do love this sweater. And finishing it in a weekend motivated me to knit more sweaters. Especially in this gauge ... they go pretty fast.

birthday girl

My little sidekick is four years old today and we're making cupcakes to celebrate, since we're a little bit snowed-in. (We might even be eating cupcakes for breakfast.)

It's pretty hard to believe that four years ago today, I was holding this tiny newborn on an icy cold Groundhog Day. It really does seems like yesterday and I can remember every detail of the day this little lady entered our family. She's turned into a pretty amazing kid. A quiet, sometimes shy girl who can also be quite bold and definitely knows how to stand on her own. She's smart and hilarious and creative and I thoroughly enjoy spending my days with her.

Happy birthday to my little girl. 

sticks and string

Over the weekend, I attended my first weekend knitting retreat with four of my close girlfriends. We sort of dominated. (And we may or may not have offended a table of ladies nearby while making jokes, laughing too loudly and watching viral videos on Sarah's iPad.)

I belong to a group called Des Moines Metro Knitters. And five of the group's members organized a weekend event, called Sticks and String. We had a majorly good time spending all of those uninterrupted hours stitching away on our various unfinished objects. My friends and I are all mommas to kiddos of various ages, so this abundance of girl time was mucho appreciated.

Meet my friends! Above is Amy and Sarah. They are the ones who actually taught me how to knit! Both of them! True story. They are not only awesome friends and moms who I look up to, but they really know their stuff.

The girl on the far right in this pic is Melissa. She's amazing. She makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. She brought the most radical vintage knitting suitcase thing that I've ever seen and has a stash of really fun old knitting needles. Like these blue ones. That I want.
And this would be me and my friend Nichole. We like to call her NicDowell. She is hilarious, adorable, and was in the army. So don't mess with her. We are all sitting at Perkins in these pics, because that is actually where we used to meet up and knit late at night. Cheap coffee, awesome breakfast potatoes, and they never close. Or kick us out for being unruly. (We missed you, Bower!)

My labor of love for the weekend was a super bulky sweater by Twinkle's Wenlan Chia (from the book Weekend Knits.)

 
I have had my eye on this project for almost two years, and I knew I had to make it now. The kelly green colorway of this yarn was discontinued, but I tracked it down and snagged three skeins before it was gone forever. Whew!

Late, late, late into Saturday night, I was kind of suffering through my sweater knitting and pattern deciphering, but I stuck with it. The next morning, we started off the day with a little yarn + yoga (which was amazing!) And then my spirit was renewed and I was able to finish everything off before it was time to go home. Ahhh. So yeah, I knitted an entire sweater during a weekend retreat. Wanna see? I'll post photos soon.

knit with me

Consider yourself formally invited. Ephemera Stationery Studio, the lovely shop where I teach knitting classes, is offering something new! A Saturday Knitting Workshop just for beginners. (Yes, you ... even if you've never knit a stitch in your life.)

Come hang out with me in the lovely East Village. We will talk and laugh and knit the day away!

Beginning Knitting Workshop

* Saturday, February 12th

* 10 AM - 12 PM, a break for lunch, and then from 1 PM - 3 PM

* $45

This one will go fast. Contact Arin and Karen at Ephemera to register.

shopping for vintage dresses (with help from long distance friends on Twitter}

Last Saturday night, I found myself looking at vintage scooter dresses on Etsy. I wanted to find one dress, and of course I found twenty. Which was quite a predicament. So I enlisted the help of a few girls I know (with vintage dress buying expertise) who could definitely help me out. On Twitter! Instant shopping advice. This was awesome. (Our conversation went something like this.)

 

Thanks to all of my friends' help, I ended up going with this tangerine dress with a geometric pieced skirt. I think it was calling out to my inner graphic design nerd. I just got it in the mail yesterday and haven't had time to figure out the proper accessories, so excuse the odd belt and shoes. And the top is a little big for me but I know a good seamstress and I think it can be fixed. Huge thanks to all my awesome Twitter girls who helped me out in a time of need! {Magics.}

the fairest of them all

Last week, I spotted this 1970s knitting pattern from New Zealand on Renegade Handmade's blog and couldn't believe my eyes. I have never loved two fair isle sweater patterns more ... even the colors are absolute perfection. It was just too cool to be true. So I immediately jumped over to this Etsy shop where it was for sale, sure that it had been snagged by some lucky person, but it was still there!

Except the shop owner was on vacation, so I couldn't actually buy it. So I signed up for the email notification thing so I'd know when the seller returned. And when I got my email a couple of days ago, I quickly jumped over to check again to see if this pattern was still in the shop and it was missing. And I felt so sad! Like it had just slipped through my fingers. So I sent a desperate email to the shop owner and asked if there was any way I could get a photocopy or scanned image of this pattern, in case she hadn't shipped it off to the lucky buyer yet. And then she emailed me back to tell me that the listing had expired while she was on vacation and that she still had the pattern! So I bought it and it's on it's way and I'm so excited! It's mine!

* I know, that was a really long, boring story. But I feel like such a lucky duck. I really really do!

I also scored a bunch of issues of Mon Tricot Knit & Crochet from the 60s and 70s when one of our local yarn shops closes a couple of summers ago. I look through these all of the time, and someday I'll definitely have to show you some of the photos. There are some pretty rad projects inside these pages! (Do you ever knit or crochet from vintage patterns?)