Happy Halloween!

Don't you want some of these candy zits in your trick or treat bag? When I saw these at Target I could not resist putting them in the prize bag. So gross!


I made some zippered pouches


with polka dot lining


and skully pulls.


Plus some stitch markers




Ellen, my co-pilot of FUN, contributed DVD's, yummy yarn, and an additional small zippered pouch. With that, the prize bags were full and ready for Stitch & Witch 2008.


Yum! Severed fingers are quite delightful with a delicate crunch. I prefer to chew off the finger nails first. How do you eat your severed fingers?


Thing 1 & Thing 2 dropped by with the Cat in the Hat & the Fish.


Gnomar was at bat.


The Vikings had pillaged the cookie bowl.


Yeoman Rand & SPIDER GRANNY!

Spider Granny, Spider Granny

She will knock you on your fanny.

Crochets a web with her hook

Don't give her a dirty look!

Watch out, watch out, watch out for Spider Granny!

Faith as Carol Merrill. Let's make a deal for the slippers.


Leah as Ravelry.

We had some celebrities stop by.

Bai Ling stopped by. (Really it's Catherine)


Sarah Palin stopped by and was working the crowds.


The WINNERS!
Best Use of Yarn: Spider Granny
Most Original: Gnomar
Weirdest Super Hero: Hola Gattito el luchador

Here is the easiest, most delicious recipe for the season.

PUMPKIN FLUFF
1 container (16 ounce size) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 box (5 ounce size) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 can (15 ounce size) solid pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice


In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping.

Chill in the refrigerator until serving.
Serve with crisp ginger snaps.

I prefer the Triple Ginger Snaps from Trader Joe's. They have a lot of snap and spice and taste delicious dipped in Pumpkin Fluff. Try it. You cannot go wrong with this recipe.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Whew

BOO!

Just finished the prizes for tonight's Stitch & Witch

I was not kidding when I said my house was a crafting disaster. Check out my new Ott-Lite. It came in the nick of time. We have lots of windows and natural light in the house but when the sun goes down you cannot see a thing. That is no longer a problem with my fab light that I got from Jo-ann's. It's great. I love it and it was a real help in getting things done because I could see! What a concept. Crafting in the dark...who does that?





I have about 2 hours to get my costume ready. Can I do it?

I hope so.

Busy busy

Where have I been? I am getting ready for the West Hollywood Stitch 'n Witch Halloween Party. It is tomorrow night. Yikes! Thursday October 30 from 7-9pm at the Original Farmer's Market. The house is a complete wreck with sewing and crafting supplies everywhere. I am busy making the prizes for the Costume Contest.

Here are last year's winners.

Faith, Denise, and Laurie

Here are last year's prizes.

Totes filled with yarn and other goodies.

There was a Day of the Dead theme.

Good costumes, right?

This year the special costume category is Weirdest Super Hero. Plus Most Original & Best Use of Yarn. I can't wait to see what kind of creative kookiness comes to the party. Everyone has great spirit, as you can see.


********************************************
I am interrupting all this fun for an important service message.

Here is some information from a UCLA Law Teaching Fellow regarding the
question of marriage being taught in California schools, for those who
are or know someone who is concerned about that issue and have seen
the TV ads:

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/10/scare-tactics-children-in-battle-over.php.

*********************************************

Thank you for reading and indulging my political moment there.

Are you ready for Halloween?
What are you going to be this Halloween?
Please share.
Obviously I have a lot to do and have to crack the whip on myself. How fun!
Mwahhahahahamwahahaha

Around the Kitchen

The hubby has been back in the kitchen baking bread. This time it was Italian Bread from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.


This is the biga, which is a pre-ferment for the bread.











The results were delicious.

This bread has a softer crust than the usual French bread loaf. It was fantastic for sandwiches, which happened to be leftover eggplant parmesan from the night before.



The baked eggplant parmesan recipe came from good old Martha Stewart. I made my own sauce and used panko bread crumbs instead of the usual bread crumbs. I love the crunch of panko bread crumbs. I also used very small eggplants not the usual giant purple globes and cut them pretty thin, so they were almost like eggplant chips when they finished baking. Some were a little burnt and I thought I had ruined dinner. Eggplant parmesan takes some time to prepare, especially since I made sauce too so I was a little bummed out with my crunchy eggplant chips. But after baking in the sauce and cheese they perked up and had delicious flavor. Dinner was great with a mixed green salad.

Lunch was darned tootin' fabulous on the fresh bread too.

Other fantastic news is that the hubby is going to be a recipe tester for Peter Reinhart's next book. I won't be able to divulge anything until the book comes out, but the hubby is very excited to be a part of the process of developing and trying the recipes.

Swatches & Stripes

On the knitting front, things have been a little frustrating. I have a queue of projects a mile long, piles of yummy yarn taunting me from every corner and WIP's longing to be finished. I have been swatching for a couple of projects but dang it if the gauges are not quite matching up to pattern.

This is the swatch for Ingenue by Wendy Bernard in her new book Custom Knits.

Yarn: Cascade 220
Color: turquoise 2433
Needles: Size 9
17 sts/22 rows = 4.25 sts/in.


Needles: Size 8
19 sts/22rows = 4.75 sts/in.

I have the right row gauge but the stitch gauge calls for 4.5 sts/in. I am in between sizes on the pattern so I am going with the larger needles. My extra Options needle tips came in so I can cast on for this.

The swatch is for Dr. G's Memory Vest.

Yarn: Cascade 220
Color: Blue
Needles: Size 8
Swatch: 19sts/24 rows 4.75sts/in

The pattern gauge is 21sts/28rows in cable stitch pattern. I was a little confused by which cable pattern to use as there are 3 charts in the pattern so I chose the tree chart. I need to go down to size 7 needles and give the swatch a try. But I ran out of steam and wanted some instant gratification.

For fast knitting you can always turn to baby hats.

Yarn: Cascade 220 superwash
Colors: green & green
Needles: size 7
All the hats are from Itty-bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson
(from left to right) The Jumping Child (sans child), The Candy Cane, and The Simple
From 2 skeins of Cascade 220 superwash I was able to make four baby hats. This was leftover yarn from a project I did last year. I also think I have worked out the jogless jog in the striped hats. I got this link for the jogless jog from the Brooklyn Tweed Turn a Square pattern.

More babies are coming. 4 to be exact. One baby will live in New York and twins will be living in Portland. Yeah our other good friends are having twins. It was a shock to them too. Cookie and Kiss are getting their first cousin who lives in North Carolina. Yay for hats. They are fun, quick, and satisfying.

The Eyes Have It.

How do two lovebirds spend the night of their anniversary? They go to the L.A. Eyeworks Sale and get spectacles so we can see each other clearly. Last year, we both turned 40 and had to get glasses for the first time in our lives. L.A. Eyeworks makes the most fun glasses and have tremendous prices once a year. If you are going to wear glasses they might as well be fabulous.

I picked this pair up last year.

I call them my Church Lady glasses. I see a matching powder blue outfit, including hat with these pearly specs.

Apparently there is something about blue glasses and me.

These are my blue nerds. I'll wear these for all my science projects.

Then I needed to indulge my cool side

with these retro sunglasses. When you see me wearing these the top will be down and I'll have a red chiffon scarf in my hair blowing in the wind. Catch me if you can.


These are for my alter ego...Cat Woman. These are mondo cat eye glasses.

The hubby got in touch with his inner nerd too.

He got another pair too, which I call the Peter Sellers, but he already took those in to get his prescription.

Originally we wanted to get out of town for the weekend but it just did not work out that way. Instead we stretched the celebrating over the weekend. We had loads of fun at the Sale. It is really more than a sale. It's where a community comes together. The store has a party feel with everyone helping out those around them with opinions and styles. You can spend a good couple of hours discovering and trying on glasses. It's an event and lots of fun.

Saturday night we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants Angelini Osteria. I had the most delicious lobster and peach salad. This was followed by the lasagna verde. Really superb lasagna. Yummy-ness. Then to a new bar, we still don't know the name, and had a drink and hung out for a little while. Today, we went and had Thai massages at the Raven. Here we were walked on with our muscles and bodies being pushed and pulled until those tight muscles were beaten into submission and we were freer versions of our former selves at the end of our session. I anticipate the most deep and restful sleep tonight.


Joe brought me flowers on Friday night. He looked so cute riding up to the house on his bicycle with a basket full of posies. I fell in love with him all over again.

Thank you for all you good wishes.

Nine

The tables were set.
















The guests had arrived.
















Your tie was tied.






















My veil was on.
















You took my hand






















and we got married






















nine years ago today.

I love you with all of my heart.
Happy Anniversary.

I can't get enough

of Cookies and Kisses.


Miss Kiss is hilarious. She makes this snuffle puff noise with her nose that just cracks me up. I caught her in the act. She is a very good sitter upper and one of her favorite things to play with is a big plastic bowl and spoon. She alternates from banging to chewing with both bowl and spoon.


Also Super Nanny like to dress up her head. Here is Kiss with a little bow on her head and chewing on her comb. Adorable.


Master Cookie is a drool monster. Something akin to a St. Bernard.
Both are big into chewing on things but no teeth, not even a bump...yet.


Cookie has his new maple teething ring. This guy does not like to bend at the hips. To sit him up you gotta help him out and put some bend in him otherwise he goes flat. Hopefully he takes to sitting up more easily otherwise there are lots of bean bag chairs in his future.

Toy manufacturer's never cease to amaze me with creative ingenuity.
But really?

Baby's First Bong?!
Come on, people. That's just not right.

OK. OK. It's really not. But look at it.

Also Cookie & Kiss now have their own blog.