Welcome Finn!

Today I'm missing my cousin Elizabeth's baby shower.  I had hoped to go but the drive back just wouldn't work.  I hate missing family time!!!  But I sent along a little love in the form of a friendly dragon.

In addition to "That's not my dragon," a touchy-feely board book, part of the same series as the "That's not my monkey" book that went along with Clara's orangutan.

Look at that face!  I used the Norberta pattern from Knitty and it came together fairly quickly using up some Lion Brand Homespun yarn which has a nubby texture to it which made him look even more scaley.

I rounded it out with a onesie that I hand-painted.  I traced the pattern onto the onesie instead of using the freezer-paper stencils like I have in the past.  This way was faster, but there were a lot more opportunities to mess up!  I was very happy with the outcome, though.  The theme of the baby shower is robots so I made another onesie, customized with baby Finn's name.

I am so excited to meet Finn in a couple months!!!  Congratulations, Elizabeth!!

May Flowers

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils.

In my junior year of AP English with Judy Goodpasture, we had to memorize bits of all sorts of poems.  As a result, the first verse of this William Wordsworth poem is permanently etched in my brain alongside snippets of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Whan that aprill with his shoures soote; The droghte of march hath perced to the roote).  

Why am I telling you this?  (Other than to demonstrate what an awesome Jeopardy contestant I would be.)  Because I've been suffering from bloom envy lately.  All over my neighborhood, yards are bursting with flowers. Some in perfectly contained rows. Others looking almost as if they grew up there all on their own.  

So I decided to make some daffodils of my own to brighten up our house. These are made of felt following this tutorial.  They came together quite quickly while we watched a movie. There is something so very happy about daffodils - and these never need to be watered!

Foto Friday

Saturday May 28: Open Water Swim at Boerne Lake

Sunday May 29: Nap Time or Genius at Work

Monday May 30: Happy Anniversary!

Tuesday May 31: Productive Month

Wednesday June 1: Puff the Magic Dragon

Thursday June 2: Starship Aveda

Friday June 3: Twilight

Memorial Day Weekend Swim

We had a very relaxing holiday weekend (so relaxing that getting back to work hit me like a ton of bricks and I'm just now getting around to posting this).  Mike and Veronica (who blogs at http://everybodylovesvd.blogspot.com/) got me triathlon swimming classes for my birthday in April and this Saturday was the culmination - a half mile swim in Boerne Lake north of town!  I was a bit nervous about my first long-distance swim in open water and this was not assuaged when I got in the water and discovered that I couldn't see anything past my fingertips except murky, green water.  As I started swimming, the chop in the water and my own breath created a swirl of bubbles that reminded me of nothing so much as a a reconstruction from one of those "I SURVIVED!!!" shows on TV.  But after about 100 yards, I calmed down, remembered my form and started loving swimming in the lake.  I'm even thinking about competing in a 1 mile open water race in August.

On Memorial Day, Veronica and Mike came over for a cookout.  I saw some meaty chicken drummettes at the grocery store so Geoff grilled those up in Ina Garten's BBQ sauce. 

Memorial Day was Mike and Veronica's first anniversary so they brought the dessert - year old wedding cake!  (It was surprisingly tasty.)

How cute are they?  I love you guys and I know you will have many more years together (but you should go ahead and finish the cake now)!

May Baking Challenge: Cheese Souffle

Would we be afraid of souffles if no one ever told us to be?  I found it to be pretty easy to make - although they will fall if you don't eat them within about 10 minutes. There are only a few basic ingredients and the individual size cooks in 10 minutes. I chose this recipe because it said that the extras could be frozen and then cooked as needed. I like Gruyère, but I wanted a more assertive cheese for the souffle.  The options at Central Market were overwhelming to say the least and I ended up with a 6-year old cheddar because it was "Amy's pick."  It was good, but I couldn't shake the feeling that that I was eating really fluffy scrambled eggs with cheese.  Next time, I think goat cheese and chives would be good.  But first we have to eat the other six that are in the freezer!