Owlishly

Cupcake recipes?

Okay, I'm soliciting- I need a tasty cupcake recipe for my little girl's birthday party.  For some reason cupcakes seem SO much more doable than an entire cake.  Our favorites have always been the carrot muffins with cream cheese frosting from Trader Joe's, but I'm looking to find a recipe that my little boy and I can make together. 

I'm very competent at baking bread, but the sweeter baking stuff & I never really hit it off.  The only thing that I can bake repeatedly with the same results are the mexican wedding cake cookies from Baking Illustrated. Or whatever they're called, I think they actually have a couple of different names. 

Anyway, I'd love suggestions for anything other than chocolate, she's not a fan and sadly, neither am I really.  So what are your favorite cupcake recipes? 

What do you like about your favorite craft books?

I'm wondering. I like when they lay down flat, you know, when they're spiral bound.  That's not the only thing, but it's important to me.  I'd been thinking about this for a couple of days, I don't know why.  My mind just seems drawn to the qualities of a book which make it appealing to me.

I really enjoy the Japanese craft books, though I have absolutely no knowledge of the language.  I like the aesthetic and the sparsity.  I prefer pattern diagrams anyway; for some reason, every time I try reading patterns I usually get lost or end up confusing myself if it's a long round/row.  It's a lot easier for me to find my place when I can just look at a diagram.

If it's a pattern book, I like all the patterns to be at the front of the book, with all the basic stuff at the back. Of course, I don't think it's too much to ask to have illustrations that show left handed directions too, I mean the written directions could be changed to something a little generic like "primary hand" or "hand with hook" instead of always right hand. But maybe that's just me.  I just don't understand why with a craft that is essentially dependent on your handedness, why those directions aren't written for both. 

Colored photographs are definitely a must, at least for the finished item/garment/article.  I like when there are close up images, as well, I don't necessarily need photos of every step of the pattern, unless it's sort of tricky, but I do like to see at least front & back of what I'm going to be making.

Anyway, this is getting pretty wordy & I have some things to work on for my little girl's birthday party on Sunday.  So what do you think- what do you like craft books to have included for them to make the top of your list?

Sickies & a new little boy

Yuck, since Monday we've all been hit with varying degrees of what I'm assuming is a stomach bug. 

I'll definitely spare you the disgusting details, but suffice to say, I'm definitely getting cabin fever.  There were a ton of thing that I'd planned on doing this week, and pretty much haven't been able to get to it.  For example the grape boy pattern.  I don't know how the heck I wrote down what I did for the grape leaf, because it does not correspond at all with what actually happened.  I'm going to have to tackle it when my mind isn't so tired and fuzzy.

I did finish a little boy doll that I'd been working on though.  I decided to make just a plain little boy, and hopefully soon a little girl too.  My little boy wanted a big brother & little sister doll, since he's a big brother & has a little sister :)  I really like him, last night I was talking to my husband about it while he was kind of distracted and told him that I was thinking of naming the pattern after him, to which he replied, "whatever, that's fine".  I told him then maybe not, since I thought this little boy is super cute.  Then he decided it was a perfect name for the doll.  Geez, my husband is not nearly as humble as he should be. Really.  Anyway, here's the newest little guy-

I hope you like him too!

Cinco de Mayo- Free Pattern Day

Hi everyone, for some reason I was composing posts all weekend long, and yet, none of them actually made it to the computer. Anyway, since the weekend always seems to fly by, and Mondays are always extra tiring with trying to reestablish my little one's schedules I'm giving away a free pattern.

It's the Happy Maracas pattern free to 5 people who leave a comment.  On what you ask? Well, I'd like to know how you reestablish your weekday routines after a too short and too busy weekend?  Give me some tips! If less than, or only 5 comments are left, then you all get lucky, otherwise, I'm going to go to a random number generator and choose the 5 that way.  So Happy Cinco de Mayo people, and let's hear what you have to say!

Happy Maracas!

I'd like to introduce you to the Happy Maracas :)  They're super content being shake, shake, shaken all day long- as evident by my having a fairly difficult time convincing my little ones to lend them to me to take pictures!

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My original intent, besides the cultural representation, was to make these for both Cinco de Mayo, and to give to the 4 little girls coming to my daughter's 2nd birthday party later this month.  I wanted something quick & easy, but super fun at the same time.  I was initially going to make them resemble some pairs of maracas that my mom has with flowers painted on them, and then another set that's striped with a beach scene, but I like the happy faces more!

My 5 month old niece likes them too.  Once she got over staring at the face trying to figure it out.  She shook one and heard the noise and seemed convinced that they were more fun to shake and throw than to look at. 

There are 2 different versions suggested in the pattern- one is more maraca-ish, and the other one is more rattle-ish.  Depending on your likes/dislikes you could even make them without any noise mechanism inside, which after a couple of days, I may want to do.

I hope you like them! Now on to finishing my other 2 patterns, the grapes & octopus boys.  I'll put pictures of them up here once the patterns are done, but if you'd like to take a peak at them now you could always saunter over to my flickr photostream! 

*By the way, if you are interested in purchasing them, I've included a link underneath the pattern that *should* take you to my Ravelry store.  I'm not quite sure if it works, but I'll try it out with this post.

**ETA, Neat! I tried it and it did work :)

Felt flowers, the thread cape & crocheted trim dress...Finally.

Okey dokey, I've finally gotten a bit of time to get my pictures sorted & cropped, up on flickr, blah, blah, blah.  So here they are- proof that I actually have been making various things :)

The felt flowers that I was going to wear in my hair a la Frida Kahlo, but didn't end up using all of them.  I actually made like six or seven of them, but I couldn't find them all to take the picture.

The dress that I embroidered a tiny bit to add red to the colors already there

and crocheted trim on.

The cape I made out of thread from the Japanese pattern book...I can't remember which one right now, but I'll find it & update someday.

Detail of the cape.

And I think that's it.  I'm finishing up some patterns so they'll be up soon too!

Osito infant hat pattern

I just wanted to let you know that I've put my little infant bear hat crochet pattern that I'd made last fall up as a free pattern.  If you look over at the right sidebar up at the top, you'll notice Pages (I'll probably change that title eventually) and you should be able to click on the link to open up the .pdf of the pattern. 

Just a quick note, I didn't test the pattern.  It seems pretty straightforward and easy peasy, but if anyone does decide to make it and finds something amiss, definitely let me know please!

Fiesta time!

It's done. And matted, and framed.  Now all that's left is giving it to my mom :)

I had to cut the mat myself since the frame was on the longish side and it's a bit wonky, but hopefully that's not noticed too much. It was my first time doing it, so I tried doing it first with some fiskars cutting tool thingy but that wasn't working so well.  I ended up going to Joann's to get a mat cutter, and that worked SO much better.

Last night, I'd finished the embroidery and ended up using pants hangers with the clips to stretch it by hanging it on opposite sides and letting the weight of one hanger pull out the wrinkles after I sprayed it with water. I didn't really want to cut down the fabric either, so what I ended up doing with that was pretty effective in stretching it taut also. I pulled the sides over the back of the frame and sewed it back and forth to stretch the linen across and iron it out.  Then, since that made it pretty messy I used some brown paper from a roll that we have laying around, to glue it to the back of the frame and cover up all the fabric and thread, and general messiness.

Look on for detailed shots, they're kinda dark because for one, I took them at night, and secondly, they're mounted against the dark tan of the back of the frame. Had I had it to do all over again, I would've either gotten thicker linen, or doubled up two pieces of fabric against each other because it was so sheer.

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What do you think? Now I can get back to crocheting!

I'm a colon

I was over reading Eydie's blog, specifically this post about what punctuation mark she is.  I think when I take those quizzes the results can be, and often are hilarious.  Here's what it says about me-

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

So that's it, it's SO me *giggle* only sometimes. I don't know why I'm even posting right now, but I'm feeling chatty about nothing in particular, and need to say something.

Well, I've got to go, my little boy is done drawing the background for my octopus, hopefully it photographs well!

I was tagged...

...a while back *hangs head in shame* and I'm just now getting to it.  A little because I'd forgotten, and a little because when I'd remember I was a) either away from my computer or (mostly) b) I don't know what the heck would be interesting enough about me to write about.

Sorry Val! I'm going to give it a go now if that's okay.  So the rules are as such:
1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself
4. Name 7 of your favorite weblogs
5. Send an e-mail letting those bloggers know they have been tagged

Now, about me-
1. I'm obsessive about know what time it is.  I seriously start to have an anxiety attack if I don't have my watch on.
2. I'm pretty darn pleased about the shape of my toenails. Weird, I know, but I've always been teased by my family about my second to being longer than my big toe.  But of my sisters & mom, mine look the best polished and pretty :)
3. I seriously thought growing up that I'd marry a redhead, specifically Benjamin- the second brother from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (one of my favorite movies).  When that didn't work out I moved on to dating other ones. My first 2 boyfriends had red hair & I was convinced it was in the cards for me. I was SO off.
4. I LOVE musicals, I'll watch any that come my way, and typically, I'll watch them over and over again.  Also, the dancing movies, specifically Fred & Ginger.  When I was little, I couldn't wait to be old enough to take  ballroom lessons, and actually was on the Ballroom Dance Team in college.
5. I hate Little Women, I'm pretty sure that it's because Jo didn't marry Laurie which I was so certain she was supposed to.  Of course my opinion may differ slightly now that I'm no longer 10, but probably not.
6. I'm really particular about scents/aromas I get nauseous super easily & pretty much the only perfume that I can tolerate wearing is Jessica McClintock.   Luckily, it's my favorite too!
7. I am always in awe of people who can cook.  I love to read about the science behind cooking and have tons of cooking reference books (but that may just be the reference librarian in me), but usually I read them because I think they're really interesting, and not to really learn how to actually make a variety of things.

Since it's super late, I'm going to edit tomorrow to finish it up!

Here's my edit- and unfortunately, since I did take so long to get to posting my seven things, I think most of the blogs that I read have already done their 7 things.  So in random order, these are blogs that I check on a regular basis- mostly crafty ones-

SheBrews
Still-Snarky
The Kidney Bean
Imagine
Floresita's Things I've Made
Susie Can Stitch
Roman Sock
MollyChicken

Okay, so that's 8, I know.  But because they've almost all listed their 7 things, I'm not retagging them so I'm just including one more since those are the one's I check almost daily.