I'm Addicted to Candy Corn!

Now that I've knit one of these cute little candy corns, I'm completely addicted. They're so easy and relatively quick to make. I think I'm going to whip a whole batch for my daughters play kitchen. I found the free pattern on Mochimochi Land by the talented Anna Hrachvoec.

If you've never knit with double pointed needles before, here's a great video to help you get started.

What are you guys knitting right now?

A Hello Kitty Birthday Party

Cake made by the talented Auntie Susan

Well, I survived another birthday party. As much as I love planning and hosting parties, they really do wear me out. Even as I type, I'm still recovering from the event. That said, it was all well worth it. Everyone seemed to have a good time and most importantly, the birthday girl had a good time. Here are some of the details from the party:

Left: Thai boba tea, Right: Hello Kitty Chopsticks, Bottom: Table decorations

I was up till 12:30 the night before the party making this decoration. The next day I woke up with a bunch of tape in my hair. I'm just thankful I didn't use a hot glue gun for the project!

Your eyes do not deceive, this is Hello Kitty Japanese masking tape. I found these little gems in SF Japantown.

Here are the favors we gave out to our guests. Each favor contained a little manju (Japanese dessert). I used the Hello Kitty tape to seal the bags.

Another picture of the favors.

Me & the Birthday Girl

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at how we party.

Rainbow Jello Recipe

When I asked my daughter what she wanted me to make for her class to celebrate her birthday, without hesitation she requested rainbow jello. How could I refuse? I myself had fond memories of having jello at school. My first encounter with jello jigglers was when one mother made green jello shamrocks for the entire class. I was probably in the second grade. I was amazed with how you could hold it with your hands and of course it tasted great. The fact that I can remember it to this day shows the impact it had on me. Because honestly, that's about all I can remember from the second grade, go figure.

Anyways, there's a point to me sharing this. If you're one of those moms making treats for your child's class, it's not in vain. There are children like me who will appreciate your work even if they don't express it. So, I dedicate this rainbow jello to that mom, wherever she may be.

Rainbow Jello Recipe

Ingredients

1 6oz box of Jello in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue (5 boxes total)
Water

Supplies
5 bowls
glass 9 x13 baking dish

Directions:

To make jello add 1 1/4 cup boiling water to one packet of jello. Mix until dissolved.

1. In two separate bowls prepare blue and green jello.

2. Pour blue jello in baking dish, and let cool in fridge. Let set for 15 minutes.

3. Pour green jello gently over blue jello. Return to fridge. Let set for 15 minutes.

4. While jello sets, in two separate bowls prepare yellow and orange jello.

5. After 15 minutes have passed pour yellow jello over green jello. Return to fridge.

6. Prepare red jello.

7. After the yellow jello has set for 15 minutes, pour orange jello over yellow jello. Let set for another 15 minutes.

8. Pour red jello over orange jello. Let set until firm.

* I find this best to make the day before.

* Also, make sure the jello you pour on the set layer is not to hot otherwise it will melt that layer.

There are a lot of different rainbow jello recipes out there so you might want to poke around the internet for other ideas. Just today I came across a great candy corn jello recipe on Craft. Obviously it's not a rainbow but it uses a similar technique.

New Giveaway & Review Pages

You may have noticed I added a few new buttons to the site, "giveaways & reviews". In the past I've posted all giveaways here but I've now set up a separate page for it. So to kick off the new page, I'm giving away one roll of this cute matryoshka packing tape. Click here or on "giveaways" to go to the matryoshka packing tape giveaway.

Sealed With a Spider

I was flipping through the new October issue of Martha Stewart Living and was inspired by the "fine specimens section". I especially liked the idea of the fossil cookies (sorry, couldn't find a picture online). It was basically a cookie pressed with plastic bugs to make a fossil impression. Well, all those bugs got me thinking of those cheap spider rings, you know the ones. And, soon the idea of spider rings turned into spider seals. Here's what I did:

I found this 50 pack of spider rings at the dollar store. I cut off the ring part with a pair of scissors. Regular scissors work fine.

Then I just dripped some red wax from a candle onto the center of the envelope. Pushed the spider into the wax to make sure it would hold. Last, I just let it dry. Easy.

These would make great seals for any Halloween party.

Travel Tips on Bloomize

Clara of Bloomize has a great series going on called "What travels with You?" You can find me over there today sharing about what I bring on my travels. I've been reading the series myself and have learned about some fun products like, Holy Seat Toilet Spray. Even if your vacation season is over, you still might want to head over to her site. Clara has a knack for finding the cutest things online, like Cath Kidston Japanese masking tape. Click here to visit Bloomize.

How To Make Inexpensive Photo Invitations

I'm sure you've seen these kind of invitations before. You upload your picture to a premade format and pay anywhere from $1 - $3 for one photo card. Well, I've got a cheaper way to make these and it doesn't involve a coupon code. Here's what I do:

I design my own invitation in Photoshop (you can use any digital editing programs). I make the measurements the same as I plan on having them printed. This way I don't have to worry about any cropping. Then, I save the file at the highest resolution possible.

Last, I upload these to a drugstore's online photo department. I have them printed just like a regular photo. Then I just pick them up an hour later. It's easy, quick, and cheap to do. The invitations ended up only costing $2.85 for a set of 15.

*If you've never done this before, I recommend having just one invitation printed to make sure it looks just how you want. Then order as many as you wish.

P.S. Give you one guess what the theme of the party is going to be.

Pretty in Pink Child Scarf

My daughter was sick today so it was a lazy Sunday for me. It mostly consisted of watching movies, taking care of a sick child and knitting in-between that. My knitting project was a child scarf that I decided to create on a whim . I enjoy making kid scarves because they knit up quickly due to their size. Also, they're generally more bright and cheerful which just makes them fun. Usually I gravitate towards more neutral colors but when designing for a child, anything goes. I find myself saying,

pink and red? why not

fringe? sure

pockets? they do come in handy

applique? the more the better

And so with that line of thought this scarf was born. Simple knitting pattern below.


Supplies:

US Size 10 1/2 knitting needles
US Size 6 knitting needles

Dark Pink, Light Pink and Red 100% cotton 4-ply yarn

Tapestry needle

Scraps of Fabric

No-sew, iron-on adhesive

Child Scarf Pattern

Using the 10 1/2 needles cast on 12 stitches with all three yarns combined.

Row 1: (k1, p1) all the way across
Row 2: (k1, p1) all the way across

trim red yarn, you will now be knitting with just the pink yarns

continue the the k1, p1 rib stitch to desired length of scarf.

For the last two rows add red yarn again and knit two more rows of k1 p1 rib stitch

Bind off.

Add fringe using all three yarns.

Weave in any loose ends.

Pockets

Using size 6 needles cast on 12 stitches with red yarn only. Leave a long tail that will be used to sew the pocket onto the scarf.

Row 1: Knit across
Row 2: Pearl across
Rows (3-14) repeat rows 1 and 2
Row 15: k2tog, knit across to last two stitches, k2tog
Row 16: Purl across
Row 17: k2tog, knit across to last two stitches, k2tog
Row 18: Purl bind off

Make 2 pockets

Hand stitch both pockets onto scarf .

Adhere fabric scraps to adhesive paper. Place fabric with adhesive on pockets and iron to adhere. There should be directions with your adhesive paper on how to do this.

Hopefully these directions are clear. I'm a little rusty writing patterns and realized I've forgotten some of the jargon. If you have questions, leave them in the comments. I'll do my best to answer questions.

*This scarf was made for a 4 year old child. You might want to increase the width of the scarf by 2 or 4 stitches depending on the size of the child.

Pumpkin Pancake Patches

The other day I thought it would be fun to make some pumpkin shaped pancakes, just because. Then I took it a step further and decided to make them pumpkin flavored. And for the record, I made these in the afternoon. I don't have time to be making fancy pancakes before I take the kids to school. If I serve anything besides cereal for breakfast, it has probably been prepped a day earlier. Well, minus parfaits but I digress. Below I share the recipe along with how I shaped the pancakes. I'm sure there are fancier ways to do this but who really needs to be spending more time making pancakes, not me.

Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

Adapted from Allrecipes

Dry Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
3 T Brown Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 1/2 Cup Milk
1 Egg
2 T Melted Butter
1 T Apple Cider Vinegar

Mix dry and wet ingredients is separate bowls. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.

Set aside 1/2 cup of pancake batter. Add green food coloring to the 1/2 cup of batter. Place in a piping bag or squeeze bottle.

*You can color the rest of the batter orange if you wish. It will already have an slight orange shade to it from the pumpkin puree. Food coloring can make food bitter so use it sparingly.

Set griddle to 300 degrees (may vary depending on griddle). Lightly grease pan.

Pipe the stem onto the griddle making it twice as long as you actually want it to appear.

Pour orange batter on the griddle just how you would for regular pancakes. Just make sure it covers half of the stem. This will prevent the stems from falling off. Once bubbles form at top of pancakes, flip over and cook a little longer.

Serve with warm maple syrup and butter.

Watch your pumpkin pancake patch disappear.

Halloween Craft: Chalkboard Pumpkins

Where has chalkboard paint been all my life?! After using it for this craft project I'm completely hooked. And I can tell you, it's going to take all my crafty restraint not to paint the entire house with it because I love it that much. That said, don't be surprised if there's more chalkboard paint posts in the future because I'm already brainstorming.

As you can guess, I painted a pumpkin with some chalkboard paint. What I like about this project is that you can keep the pumpkin for years to come. Also, children can participate in this craft by drawing on the pumpkin. If they mess up, no problem, just erase and draw again.

Brief "how-to" below:

Supplies:
Craft Pumpkin
Painters Tape
Chalkboard Spray Paint - comes in orange too!

Cover pumpkin stem with painters tape. Spray pumpkin with about three coats of paint. Let dry for 24 hours. Start drawing.

Weekend Retreat

Over the weekend my family and I attended a retreat at Redwood Christian Park in the Santa Cruz mountains. On the grounds is this unique ark shaped building. I thought some of you might enjoy seeing pictures of it. After all, it's not everyday that one comes across a giant ark.

A Grove of Redwoods

Banana Slug

Painting The World with Our Imaginations

It's amazing how just switching from paper to leaves can make painting new again. Both my children loved this project and didn't want to stop painting. They kept gathering leaves, painting, gathering leaves and so on.

I'm always saving various containers for craft projects. I used baby food jars for the water and ice-cream mochi containers for the paint.



For fun we scattered some leaves on the ground. I can't help but think of Gene Wilder singing "Pure Imagination" when I look at these leaves.