Cupcakes!

We have been eating lots of cupcakes around here lately. Most trips to downtown Chicago involve a trip to Sprinkles and there is a new cupcake place called Crumbs that we haven't tried yet.

There is also a cupcake truck (Flirty Cupcakes) in the city that travels to the suburbs on the weekends. They have some delicious cupcakes too.

Anyway, last time Steve was at Sprinkles, he picked up cupcakes and a couple of cupcake mixes. Today I baked the banana cupcakes. I tried piping the frosting for the first time. I used a ziplock bag and it worked really well. No mess, (well not much) no fuss, and looks great.

I'll let you know how they taste.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Knitting Contest

The Skacel yarn company is running knitting contest to celebrate 20 years of making Trekking sock yarns. So each month, January to June, there is a new pattern using their yarn. Each pattern is a mystery, one clue per week is given out and at the end of the month, you have a new pair of socks or fingerless gloves. There are prizes given out each week and month and a grand prize of $1,000.00 spending spree in the Skacel warehouse at the end of the contest.

These are the January socks. (Click on the pictures to make them larger) The first clue was for the toes, the second for the foot, the third for the heel and the final clue for the leg and ribbing. A portion of the cost of the yarn was donated to ovarian cancer research.

February's project was fingerless gloves. I'm not a big fan of fingerless gloves, so I've decided to turn these into mittens with a flap. The flap is finished, I just need to sew them on and then I'll have a pair of mittens and will be able to use my iPhone and keep my hands warm too.

The project for March is a pair of socks in pretty tropical colors. These are top down, in a chevron pattern and I'll post pictures of them when they are finished.

Better late than never

Sorry for the delay in getting these pictures posted. I took bad photos and waited until I could get a copy of the lovely ones that April took. Didn't she do a great job?

Cards for men is the theme of the month. You can click on the pictures for a larger view if you like.

First up, a bicycle by a tree. I'm really loving the different trees on the Cricut cartridges and have used several of them in projects. This one is from the Serenade cartridge and the bicycle is from Just Because Cards.

Next we have a truck full of gifts. The truck is from Just Because Cards and the gifts are from Doodlecharms. I love the little tags.

Make A Wish - the letters are from Country Life. I really like the old fashioned alphabet on this one. The candle is from Straight from the Nest and the gift is from Doodlecharms.

For the golfer in your life. The golf bag is from Celebrate with Flourish, and the letters are from Plantin Schoolbook. I used the shadow version of the letters to give them a little more weight.

And finally, Catch You Later! The fish and pole are from Simply Charmed and the words are from Just Because Cards.

The paper I used this month is the Twig line from Little Yellow Bicycle. The colors are perfect for cards for guys.

Hope to see you in class!