What I'm Knitting

My Sister in Law just had her first baby so I knit up this hat/baby booties set for her. Baby hats and booties are one of my favorite things to knit. They're easy to make and require little time commitment (my favorite kind of projects).

The pattern I used for the baby booties is from the book "Knitting Pretty" by Kris Percival. It's one of my favorite patterns.

As for the hat, I used this pattern omitting the eyelets. I thought it needed a little something extra so I added some curly ribbon on top.

My daughter knew I was making something for the baby so she wanted to make something for the baby as well. I suggested she make a card. That's a picture of the card with her trademark "smiley face" which always has a giant belly button underneath the mouth. Cracks me up every time.

Last, I wrapped the gift and used one of Amy Karol's gift tags. Now, if she would just make one that read " I spent all my extra time making this so if you don't like it let me know, I'll buy you something instead". Tell me I'm not the only one that feels this way?

Ohdeedoh: Big Blog Family

Today you can find me over at Ohdeedoh as part of their "Big Blog Family" series. Hope you'll stop by.

How to Make a T-shirt Headband

A while back I saw a tutorial on Instructables on how to make a t-shirt necklace. Best one I've seen so far, in fact. I would link to it but the tutorial has been taken down by the author. Anyhow, the necklace was the inspiration for this headband. Simple directions below.


Supplies:
L or XL t-shirt, preferably cotton jersey
Ruler
rotary cutter

Lay t-shirt flat. Cut one inch strips from the sleeves with the rotary cutter. You should be able to get 8-10 strips out of one shirt.

Stretch the strips until they naturally curl up like the picture above. This also makes the perfect sized headband for the most part.

Place seven or eight loops together. Match up the seams from the shirt.

With an extra t-shirt strip, wind it around all the t-shirt loop seams. Tie in a knot. Tuck the loose ends into the knot you just created.

Should look like this when you're done.

Christmas Crafts with the Cricut

Today you can find me over at Starving Crafter creating Christmas crafts with the Cricut (say that 3 times fast). Included in the post is a tutorial on how to make this spinning ice skater card. Click here, for the post and directions.

Hawaiian Shaved Ice Recipe

Lately the weather has been hot around hear, 95 today to be exact. To cool down I decided to make Hawaiian shaved ice. My husband lived in Hawaii for a year and he often talks about the shaved ice there. Actually, most of his Hawaii memories revolve around food but I digress. I figured there was no reason why we couldn't recreate his favorite shaved ice dessert at home. So I made cones for everyone. Simple directions below.

Hawaiian Shaved Ice Recipe

Ingredients:
Ice
Syrup (any flavor)
Canned Azuki beans ( you can purchase this at most Asian markets)
Condensed milk

To make the shaved ice you can go with the easiest route and use a shaved ice machine. They're actually quite reasonable and with summer coming to an end, I'm sure you can find one on clearance. If you don't own one and have no plans on running out to the store to buy one, a standard blender works well too. The texture will just be a little different, not as fluffy.

1. Fill a cone 1/3 with azuki beans.
2. Fill the rest of the cone with shaved ice.
3. Pour flavored syrup over ice.
4. Drizzle condensed milk over ice. Enjoy

*optional - you can also add ice cream on top of the beans or fresh fruit. Since there are so many options, there's really no wrong way to make shaved ice. Get creative and have fun.

There's also a good tutorial on how to make flavored syrup with Kool-aid packets over at Skip To My Lou.