Best Michael's Trip Ever

Had a date night with the girls tonight. Popover Cafe and Michaels. (BTW, if you find yourself in NYC, Popover Cafe is amazing. Been for brunch and now dinner; both delightful. The regular food isn't as good as the popovers, which are amazing and come with Strawberry or Apple Butter . . . which I may or may not have licked from my knife on a few occasions. The Pomegranate Mimosa is to die for, and I'm not just saying that because I haven't had a drink in a while. But I digress.

After Popovers we "popped" up to Michaels. I had a few things I was going to try to return (a book about Scrapbooking for Babies, a set of pages with stickers and stuff, and a set of extra page inserts). I'll be honest with you . . . I don't scrapbook. I used to, sort of. I have a few big photo albums at my mother's house where I diligently put photos and programs and ticket stubs and all sorts of crap, in chronological order, labeled with names and dates, in just the way that if you knew me, you would not be surprised. But I don't really do that anymore. Someday I may regret it, not having a place to put the little "things" that come with life, but for now, I just don't. So, while these were a great gift, I just won't use them.

Now, I wasn't even sure these came from Michaels, but I thought I'd try to return them and see what I could get for them. The girl was all, "Well you don't have a receipt," and I put on my very sweet, "I knoooooow, these were a giiiiiift." There will be a 20% restocking fee without a receipt, she told me. "Ooooh no proooooooblem," I said, "let's just see what they come to." She gave me a hard time about the book, since they have a strict 14 return policy on books. "Ooooooh, reeeeeealy? Even if it's a giiiiiiift?" (are you annoyed with my voice yet?) Finally I got the girl to just give in and accept the book and everything, and I ended up with $26.10 on a gift card. Score!

So as we're finishing up the return, TO MY HORROR I hear, "Attention Michael's customers, we will be closing in a few minutes. Please bring your purchases to the checkout." OH NO!!!!! HOW LONG WERE WE EATING POPOVERS!?!?! I hear my two friends cry out, "OH NO!" because we had JUST gotten there. Now, I am a busy girl, and don't have time to just jet off to Michaels whenever I feel (I'm exaggerating, but I have felt a little pressed for time lately with all the classes I'm in), so I know this may be my only shot to get the yarn I need for B's birthday present and the candy melts for Super Bowl pops next weekend. But, I'm pretty good when it comes to Michaels. So I trot off down the aisle, straight for Vanna's Choice, where I find the three EXACT colors I had picked out earlier today. I then book it up the side aisle to the baking/candy section, where I find the EXACT melts I need (1 bag of dark chocolate), and not quite the exact frosting pen I need (there was a tube of plain white decorating frosting, but you had to buy the tips to go along with it, and I didn't have time for that; there was a "sparkly" white frosting tube that had a tip attached, so I guess these footballs will be a little flamboyant), and race back up to checkout. My friend Stephanie saw me running back up to aisle, and I wish I had a camera to capture the look on her face, as she saw me with arms full of stuff running up to the checkout. She said later that it sort of looked like "Supermarket Sweep".

I left with about $10 still on the gift card, so really I MADE money going to Michaels tonight. We always talk about who "wins" when we go shopping -- either who gets the best discount deal, who is the most responsible  and only buys what they came for, etc. . . . I totally won tonight.

Birthday gift brainstorm: Day 2

Ok, change of plans. Apparently she doesn't like Stitch as much anymore. I figured as much -- that was definitely a year ago, and when you're only 2, a year ago is literally half a lifetime ago.

Evidently she likes Elmo.

Sigh. Can I rant about Elmo for a minute?


I HATE ELMO!!!!!!!

Ok, I don't actually hate Elmo, I just think Elmo is a little big for his red furry britches. He's just EVERYWHERE! What kid DOESN'T like Elmo?! Seriously! I refuse to add to the noise that is Elmo!

But I guess she also likes Abby Cadabby, which is more tolerable. (plus it helps that her hair is made out of yarn)

So the question is, what do I make?

A hat:

A headband:

A Poncho!

(ok, I don't think I have time for a poncho, but how cute is that!?)

I think I'm going to go with a hat (maybe mittens if it goes quickly). And look what I found:

It's a hat with holes for little girl pigtails!!!

Ok, so what do I need?

Pink, obviously. Maybe a light pink for the "body" and a brighter pink for the hair. And I don't have any purple.

I have a really cool purple Fur that I picked up in the dollar bin at Target. Not good for the bulk of the hair, but might look cool around the trim.

Eyes and Eyelids:

    

Nose and Ribbing (?):

There are little white and yellow flowers around the pig-tails:

[to see the outcome, go here!]

Birthday gift brainstorm

Challenge:

Miss Braelyn will be 2 in February.

To my recollection, she loves Lilo and Stitch (I mean, who doesn't?). Especially Stitch.

How cute would it be to make a Stitch hat with ears, a la

 or 

Knitted Stitches exist, like this one from theknittycat:

But I can't seem to find a hat pattern. Oh well, that's never stopped me before!

What I want:

I want the ears to stick up like this:

   

And I would love Stitch to be chewing on her head, like this:

And I would love to create the "blank confused stare" look on his face, rather than an angry, biting face.

This:

not this:

My sketch:

Basic Pattern:

  

This looks promising, and it made a good note to make the head part a little shorter than normal so you don't teeth in your eyes.

This also looks good, plus the pattern has already been resized for kids (the designer also asks for a donation to the Child Cancer Foundation, which I think is a completely reasonable and honorable charge for a pattern).

I would need to then craft the eyes, nose, teeth, and ears, which I think I can just attach separately.

Yarn Check:

Light Blue, for around the eyes (have).

Blue, for majority (have).


White, for teeth (have).


Black, for eyes (have).


I don't have any Dark, Dark Blue for the nose, but I know Vanna has a great Navy color.


I'm also out of pink, so it wouldn't hurt to pick up some more:


So I only need to get two! That's pretty good I think! Bless you, Ravelry, for allowing me to access my stash online.

Knitting in Action!

On this installment of Knitting in Action, wherein Mollie revels in her ability to knit something worthy of being worn by a human being, we revisit the Baby Boy Curtin Notre Dame Gift Set from July.

Baby James Curtin was born in August, and tagged along to a wedding in December.

(Me and my model)

Socks!

The Groom and Baby James, showing off his jacket

The whole ensemble!

Knitted Storage Containers

Forgive the snagging, but this is amazing.

yodafatkitty may be my new favorite person, in that she had a whole post about knitted storage containers, pattern links included. And she also kept talking about her Starbucks mug. So from the one post, I have deduced that she loves 1) knitting, 2) storage containers, and 3) Starbucks. In short, my favorite person.

Cake Pops!

Attempt #1

"Have a Nice [Birth]Day" Cake Pops

To start . . .

Cake from a box . . . always a good start!

Yellow Candy Melt -- had to add about a tsp of vegetable oil to thin it out a little

I let the sticks dry a little in the balls after dropping a few in the candy.

You can see that some are prettier than others.

The Food Coloring pen did not work too well. I thin maybe it needed a rougher surface, and the oily candy melt was too smooth.

The Gel food coloring tube worked much better, but wouldn't have dried enough to decorate and then transport.

Got them to work in one piece and decorated with the Gel food coloring tube.

A few of my favorite faces . . .

Have a "Holy Shit" Day


Have a Magical Day


Have a "Shit-Eating Grin" Sort of Day


Have a Piratey Day



Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

Stay tuned for the next installment . . . Super Bowl Sunday "I don't care who's playing as long as there is cake" pops.