Giveaway: I'm Knitting For You

Reblogged from crayons and milk:

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I just want to THANK YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU for all the love, support, and encouragements that I have been receiving!  *Hugs & Kisses*

How this works: 
I will knit one toy for you (choose from the pictures below)

To enter (do all 3):
1.  Follow my blog
2.  Like this post
3.  Comment below for which toy you would like me to knit for you <Ballerina, Chef, or Nurse>

Read more… 122 more words

Happy to highlight the adorable knitting blog, Crayons and Milk - not only is it a source of endless delight and cuteness, the owner was kind enough to like my baby clothes post. There's also a great giveaway contest at the moment where the owner is doing a draw for a hand-knitted toys and they are just gorgeous! I've just started following but I'm definitely excited to see more and will have to try knitting some of those toys if and when I get back into knitting...

Bringing up baby (clothes)

Hello! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been in the midst of a whirlwind for the past few months – I started a fairly demanding new job in February, and on top of my usual activities, I was working on finishing up some more crocheted baby gifts for some of my lovely sisters at church.

I finally managed to sit down, upload and correct photos of my projects, and well, here I am!

Having never made any clothing before, I was quite pleased with this first project, a minty green kimono top that I made for Brayden V. – who was born June 20, the day after my birthday! – and his momma Remmick, who’s an absolute sweetheart.

Quilt trip

I’ve mentioned the incomparable Mrs. Dunwell of Done Well many times before, and readers will know she is quite the quilter (wanted to put something in there about it being a “quilty pleasure” of hers but alas, I cannot claim credit for that fantastic pun since it’s the name of a store in Orleans).

Now, I can’t quilt or sew to save my life, but when I heard she was pregnant, I hit upon a great way to combine my recent crochet obsession with a baby-themed tribute to her mad quilting skillz.

Bundt in the oven (Blueberry-lemon bundt with lemon glaze / Cranberry bundt cake)

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a hoarder. Lots of things in my house that I think are too awesome to throw away, and for my wedding I registered for quite a few things that today seem a bit frivolous. (There are also a few things I regret not putting on my registry, but that’s another story.)

My silicone bundt pan is one of those things about which I’m on the fence, so I’ve been trying to make bundt cake as often as possible in the past few months. Fortunately, it’s a great holiday cake that (usually) looks beautiful and is pretty easy to make, so it really hasn’t been a hardship.

Red (cabbage) alert

I had such ambitions, I did, of posting up every single new recipe I’ve tried and doing a blog post on all my holiday meals. Unfortunately, I haven’t been satisfied with the results, so for now, I’ll have to settle for a quick hit on the product of a recent lingering desire to do something with red cabbage.

A quick preamble: The Husband and I love The Clocktower on Bank Street, especially as we have some sweet Entertainment Book coupons for the place. The Clocktower has the best specials in town: the first time we went there, we had these amazingly huge and surprisingly inexpensive swordfish steaks.

My red cabbage obsession stemmed from the second or third time we went, both getting specials yet again. The funny thing is, it wasn’t even the main dish – it was accompanying a perfectly delicious main of corned beef, I believe. But the braised red cabbage on the side was a revelation.

Up in your grill (Spinach bread grilled cheese)

Being from Malaysia, there’s a lot of stuff I know about food. Malaysians are obsessed with food; ask any of my relatives a simple question like “What’s in this?” and be prepared to listen to a sonnet about the art of food preparation. (My husband still chuckles about the time my Uncle Tony rhapsodized about how the different durian breeds are akin to the many pungent varieties of cheese.)

When I came to North America, though, I found out there were a few things I still had to learn. This post is about two of those things, married together in one afternoon when The Husband and I were having trouble coming up with something to eat for lunch.

I would have tried to take more and better pictures of these, but The Husband was hungry.

One of the things this Malaysian girl learned about is that a grilled cheese sandwich is NOT “two slices of bread put into a toaster oven, face up with cheese slices on them, and then slapped together.” No joke, this is what I did while I was growing up. Still awesome, especially when the cheese bubbles up, browns and crisps, revealing a totally different flavour, but definitely not the same thing.

Second, I learned how to make bread. More specifically, how to make Emeril Lagasse’s spinach bread, since I’ve never tried making any other kind. 

Say hello to my little friends + the best brunch dish ever

You know the saying: “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage.”

This isn’t a thinly veiled pregnancy announcement for me, by the way. But now that lots of people in our circle of friends are married, we’re starting to get a lot of  e-mails with those precious little black-and-white fetal images. This year alone, we’ve heard of four expecting friends – three are due within the next two months, and one is due in February.

And so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to crochet some baby crafts (and test out my new category name! I’m not sure if I love “Fingerwork;” any thoughts? I probably have more fun thinking up F-Word categories than writing the actual blog posts … )

Now, I think my eyes were bigger than my … fingers? Talent? (Is there a crafting equivalent to “eyes bigger than my stomach?”) But I LOVE crochet and I had a lot of fun making these, and I hope the prospective parents and bundles of joy liked them too.

Here's everything all together. The rolls of paper in the booties are to help them keep their shape.