Yesterday evening I made Dak a birthday cake. A wonderful, absolutely beautiful, picture perfect pineapple upside-down cake. Ok, I'm tooting my own horn here but it really was beautiful, the most perfect one I have ever made! Dak and GamerBoy watched me flip it out onto the plate and there wasn't a single problem. Well, there was one small problem... Here is the picture I didn't take.


I forgot to take a picture of it. I didn't use traditional yellow cake mix but I used pineapple cake mix instead and substituted the pineapple juice from the pineapple for the water that it called for. And I filled the little spaces around the rings with crushed pineapple. I had batter left over so I filled cupcake liners and then put a dollop of pineapple and a cherry on each before baking. It was really mist and yummy! And Dak said he liked it so that's what counts.

Something I did take a picture of is some of the coasters I made recently.


The original was the start of a circular afghan but I got side tracked because I liked how it looked and was trying to think of what I could make for Christmas presents. :) So lots of people I know got sets of coasters for Christmas. And now I'm trying to make a set for us.

I'm still working on the new shawl. What? I hadn't mentioned that??? No, I don't think I did. It's the CocoBay Shawl. I made one before (a gray one that I currently have thrown over my shoulders) but I got confused and didn't finish it like the pattern called for. This time I'm going to try and be good and follow the pattern exactly. I'm doing this one is in a teal/pink/white/green variegated with the cluster and ruffle sections in a coordinating pink.


Hopefully I can pull it off this time.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Every one...

We are having a quiet celebration here. No nurse for day shift (next one comes in at 10 pm) so it is just Dak, me, GamerBoy and Princess Junior. Chatty is at her mother's. We've brought Princess Junior her presents and she didn't seem annoyed. Dak was in the kitchen a bit ago, making a special brunch for us. Eggs with maple flavored sausage patties and toast with the strawberry jam I made a few days ago. We did have cinnamon rolls that I had bought for today but we forgot they were for today and ate them yesterday! :) But we have a loaf of banana bread we were gifted with (NO NUTS! YEA!!!) so that is perfectly fine. Thank you for the great brunch, Honey!

One thing I had been working on for Princess Junior was a teddy bear. I had made one before but I really wasn't happy about how it turned out. This one is WAY better, but there is still a problem. Since Princess Junior has a trach we try and be very careful about things that are in her bed. No sparkly or powdery stuff. Nothing that could get loose and go in the trach. These days that eliminates quite a few of the "cool" shirts and outfits out there but I know she'd rather be healthy than stylin'. I love the size of this bear but it is done in double crochet and you can see the stuffing. In some spots I'm afraid that the stuffing might poke through and come out. I am now on a search for a bear of similar size (he's about 12 inches high in the sitting position) that is made in a tighter stitch pattern Maybe a single crochet?? I may try adapting this pattern but it would have the cool ridging. If anyone has a pattern they can suggest or they run across one PLEASE let me know. I think that amigarumi are adorable but Princess Junior needs something bigger.


So Mr. Bear is a "look at" toy. He can't be left in her bed so he'll just watch over her from a shelf. Because of that I stitched his feet together and his paws to his legs to encourage his sitting without falling over. I think he looks cute.

Are we done yet???

Don't get me wrong... I LOVE Christmas. I just don't like the crowds and the rudeness and the commercialism. I would rather spend a quiet holiday at home with family and maybe a friend on occasion. I never was one for big parties and I don't think they had a lot of them when Christmas was just getting started. ;)

Princess Junior was in a nativity on Sunday night. She ended up being an angel. Awwww... Well, we think she is one anyway so that's perfectly fine. But she didn't look like she was a happy angel. :(



Gas prices just about gave us a heart attack yesterday! Dak and I were on our way to run some errands and the sign at the Murphy station said $1.47, just like it had the day before. As we passed it again on our way to another errand it said $3.81!!! I kid you not! We were both speechless, wondering if there was a catastrophic world event that had happened since we left the house. Both sides of the sign read $3.81. We talked about it while we stopped to get a bite to eat. (Great breakfast for two FOR under $8!!!) Speculation ranged from a new employee putting up what should have been $1.38 or $1.83 to an employee playing a joke (I really wondered if we had been thrown back to April!) to the afore mentioned catastrophic world event. When we left the restaurant we glanced over to the station because we were thinking we should probably go to Kroger and fill up before EVERYONE was $2 higher a gallon but to our great relief the signs were back to $1.47. Can you say TWILIGHT ZONE?????

Today we were pleasantly surprised to see the price drop from $1.47 to $1.45 to $1.43. Go Murphy... Go Murphy... Go Murphy...

I'd better get back to working on my current project. It's a test of a pattern for a teddy bear I ran across in my patterns the other day. If it turns out well I'm going to give it to one of Princess Junior's nurses. She is pregnant and due right around Princess Junior's birthday! Then I will make another one for Princess Junior.

If I don't get back here tomorrow or Thursday I hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful and blessed holiday, however and whatever you celebrate!

Breathe... Breathe... Breathe...

It's been a long and interesting week. Chatty is doing ok now. We brought her home yesterday. There are still some things that were brought up that need to be dealt with but we're working on it.

Princess Junior has been assigned her part in the Christmas Nativity. She is going to be a Shepherd. I hope to get a picture or two during the performance.

Gas is back up a bit. Today when we headed out to some appointments the lowest we saw was $1.49.9 and the highest was $1.59.9. This evening we had to stop by Wal-mart and it was still $1.49.9 when we got there but $1.47.9 when we left about 30-40 minutes later. Still around $1.50 a gallon so I'm happy.

Dak and I did the Wal-mart thing to deal with some Christmas gifts since we had to deal with what we needed to get and had to shop for Dak's mom too. We also needed to pick up some Danimals for Princess Junior. We put those in her feeds as a probiotic and since she is on an antibiotic they are even more important right now. We tried to get them at Kroger a few nights ago but there wasn't a single package in the store. No 4-packs, no 8-packs. Same thing last night. Our Kroger is doing some remodeling so there are quite a few refrigerated and freezer cabinets that are empty or nearly so. Makes it interesting to shop, especially when there is something specific you are looking for.

GamerBoy is going to do some holiday baking for me. Nothing fancy, just some sugar cookies. And I made strawberry freezer jam a few nights ago. Tomorrow he will be delivering gifts to the neighbors on either side of us.

Hopefully Dak will be able to help me get the throws and Hannah's Wish t-shirts online tomorrow too!

Dinner at Chez Suzette...

Last night Dak and I went to the home of another family in the special needs parent's support group we go to. It was actually the Christmas get together for the group. We had planned to take Princess Junior too but she had some oxygen issues the night before and it had been windy and snowing earlier in the day so we decided to not take her out in the weather.

My first impression when we walked in the house was WHOA! They had obviously cleared out their living room and had three tables set up with table settings that looked like we were some place with valet parking and a hat check girl. Well, there WAS one of her friends at the door who took our coats when we arrived. Does that count? The room was absolutely gorgeous. We drew from a bowl of little pieces of paper to find out where we would sit. We did have to draw twice because the first draw was a table down stairs. (I forgot to mention that there were two more similar tables downstairs!) My knees wouldn't have made it (Donn confirmed that after his trip down to look around) so we drew again for an upstairs table. I can't remember exactly want the table was called but it had the word red in it and it was RED! It was a table for 4, with a red tablecloth, a red glass hurricane like lamp in the center with a glowing candle inside. There were chargers under the dinner plates. Cloth napkins in silver Christmas tree napkin rings. Beautiful red glass goblets. The silverware was tucked into little red velvet Christmas stockings along with a Christmas prayer and a piece of chocolate (which we were told we could take with us, sans silverware.) We were even seated right next to the burning fireplace. I can't remember how long it's been since I had a meal at a table set like that but it's been a looonngggg time, I'm sure of that. (And I think this table blew that one out of the water! I know that one didn't have CHOCOLATE!)

Everyone brought food to share (I made a cherry cheesecake. Then I made two more this morning.) so there was plenty! And it was great. There was also a white elephant gift exchange. I drew #1 so I didn't have the opportunity at first to trade gifts, that came later. The present I opened was in a very cute snowman bag. It was a Candle set, a small jar candle with a ceramic shade and a matching plate to set it on. And a small Christmas figurine of snowmen, I believe. Then I just watched as everyone else opened and traded or threatened to trade. I had my eye on a couple things. One of the gifts we brought was a wooden framed egg timer. To our surprise it was the first thing stolen! And Lisa cheekily threatened anyone even looking at it enviously, clearly sending the message to not even think about trying to take it from her. At the end of the exchange it came back to me, giving me the opportunity to trade my gift for any of the others. As I mentioned, I had my eye on a few things. A nativity set had been unwrapped towards the end but sitting next to me, another Lisa had her gift "stolen" so she had to open another. Her second gift was an Eggstractor. A nifty little gadget that unpeels hard boiled eggs. That was tempting! In the end I told Lisa that I really love hard boiled eggs and egg salad so I was going to take her Eggstractor! I was very happy with what I ended up with. What did Dak end up with? Bubble bath and bath salts. grin

So many, many thanks to Suzette and the elves that helped her make this a special night for all in attendance. Your giving of yourself and willingness to share your lovely home was a wonderful and humbling gift and will be long remembered.

Yesterday was also Chatty's 17th birthday. The two oldest (Firstborn and Skellyson) picked her up Friday evening and took her out to dinner and then took her to her mom's. She'll come home tonight.

On a sad note... We were going to go to see friends this afternoon. I was looking forward to giving her her Christmas present. It's just killing me that I have it here. But she isn't feeling well and I totally understand her not feeling up to company.

Anyone want a piece of cheesecake?????