Happy Halloween!

It is very cold here, so I had to create a last minute layering system for Cinderella that gives the appearance of bare skin. I think we have a good solution... I'll post pictures of the kids later.
We had some excellent pumpkin carving yesterday....



The zig zag mouths are Miss E's trademark. We just let her draw whatever she wanted on the pumpkins, and then I did my best to cut it out...



They are a motley crew...



The spouse's is the one with the bulging eye gourd and the square mouth.... sort of like a Borg.

Halloween is a comin'

Cinderella is in the DVD player and there is blue satin everywhere.... Halloween costumes are in progress.

Cider Making

We traveled to the farm last week for some cider making.





These are just some of the apples.



And the cider press... which I had the unfortunate experience of running my finger through when I was 4.



The apples are washed before being thrown in the grinding mechanism.





The cranking is the hard part. Usually the newest people "get" to do most of the cranking because they don't know what they are getting into and haven't "enjoyed" all the aches and pains the day after cider making.




And then the cider comes out...



bugs, debris, and other mystery items are filtered out as it is poured into jugs...



We made a total of 30 gallons.

Mister e's Birthday

The birthdays of the E's are three weeks apart. So things get a bit busy around here. After the fairy cake, I needed something a bit easier to execute. So Mister e had a caterpillar for his First Birthday.

I made a big batch of Seven Minute Frosting because it is so light and fluffy and has a beautiful sheen. It also takes color well.


The caterpillar sections were baked in my glass mixing bowls and then carved to fit one another.


Then I started to tint the frosting a little bit green and frosted the head and tail.


Adding some more green, I then frosted the next sections...


Finally I added more green and frosted the middle and added chocolate stick legs and miniature oreo spots.

After all the spun sugar challenges, I wasn't up to creating legs or anything else.



Mister e thought it was very good and ate the entire head.

Estate Sale Goodies

I love a good estate sale, and there was a packed one about 6 blocks from our house. AND it had reasonable prices on EVERYTHING! Here are some of the highlights!

This lovely wastebasket for Miss E's room...


These refrigerator dishes with lids. I love to use these in my studio for holding things.


A couple of mid-50's issues of Redbook...


A pink chenille bedspread with silver "yarns" woven through it.

All the stains came out, so it was installed immediately on Miss E's bed... who is thrilled to have more pink in her room.

This is a double sided baby blanket...

It looked like they had dusted the house with it, but after a few trips through the washing machine, everything came out and it is soft and beautiful. So Mister e gets a little something too.

We went back two more times for other goodies. There was so much stuff! It was hard not to just back the car up and start loading!

Goodies and Projects

I love to knit in the fall. I don't know why... but it must be more pleasant to hold wool yarns in the cooler weather. I've been working on a luscious wrap for myself out of mohair/angora from the girls at Camano Made.



Of course, I was running out of yarn, so I desperately emailed them hoping they had more and... they did!!! When my package arrived, these goodies also came:



... three balls of beautiful novelty yarns and some samples of other yarns they spin. The front one is incredible! It is a robins egg blue wool twisted with a rust colored chenille. The combination looks so modern... I'm going to have to think about that one.

And then Fabric Depot was having it's monthly 40% off fabric sale. I couldn't miss that! So Miss E and I went and picked out some new fabrics.



The dark yellow one is from Heather Ross's new collection. It will be a button down shirt for Mister e. The others will eventually be skirts and dresses for Miss E.... hopefully in a timely manner.

Backpack with legs

Miss E started Kindergarten on Monday. She is thrilled to pieces and loves it. The school requested a full-size backpack as one of her supplies. Since she is such a little thing, she is all backpack...



She is so proud to wear it and tote it back and forth to school.

Squirrel Update

I checked on the box at 7pm, and the box was empty. The spouse saw the mother squirrel several hours earlier and heard some peeping at about the same time. We are assuming the two are reunited, since I couldn't find the little guy anywhere.

New Pyjamas for Miss E

Since it is fall and Miss E has outgrown much of her clothing, we thought we would make some new pyjamas. Here she is with the daunting task of selecting a fabric:



She finally decided on this pink (big surprise there) and purple Valorie Wells print that I bought a couple of years ago.



We added some purple trim to finish it off.

Squirrel 911

This little guy fell out of his tree early this morning...



Apparently the spouse and offspring heard some peeping this morning, and he was mis-identified as a bird. Around lunch time, we heard the peeping again, and I went out to take a look and found this little guy on the patio under the cedar tree- tired and dehydrated. We brought him in, gave him 1/2 cc of water, and warmed him up on a heating pad. He rested for a bit while I made a call to the Audubon Society and checked the web for some squirrel tips. Since he is a red squirrel and non-native he is not eligible for rehab. We were advised to put him in a box in the tree from which he fell and hope the mother squirrel comes back for him. So we installed a box in the tree, gave him 1cc of water, and I tucked him in my shirt and climbed up the ladder. When he was in my shirt, he burrowed in and got all comfy... boy those nails are sharp! He peeped a bit when I put him in the box. We will check in the morning. If he is still in the box, then we will finish raising him and release him when he is older. We are estimating that he is 6 weeks old and still nursing.

Pirate Sweater

The little Pirate Sweater is finished and fits the little wearer with some room to grow.



It turned out really well... I may have to make a pink and green or pink and black version for Miss E.



The yarns are so soft. It is 100% wool from Ami Ami.



I'm always a little nervous to order yarns online, but they sent me a set of sample cards. Their yarns are just gorgeous!

Cake Challenges Part II

The saga continued after my last post. I continued to "adjust" the wings throughout the afternoon, pulling them back into place every hour or so. 15 minutes before the guests arrived, I was giving them a final adjustment and pulled off the ENTIRE WING!! There laying in my hand was what appeared to be a very sticky, crumpled bug wing... not pretty and definitely not salavagable. So onto....

Wings Version 4- I thought I could whip up another batch of the syrup quickly with no problem, but would also reduce the amount of liquid so it wouldn't take so long. I also turned up the heat to speed things up a bit. When you are running out of time and need things to work... DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE RECIPE. I created a bubbling mass of crystallized sugar that burbled and oozed as if it was alive. And then it prompty fused itself to the pot and took the spoon with it. It was unusable. By this time all the guests had arrived, I was running out of sugar and patience. So onto....

Wings Version 5-
I got out my heavy Calphalon pot and followed the recipe using the correct proportions which used up all my sugar leaving me with no back up. By this time all the guests new I was making wings, so I had to produce something. Everything went well and the result was better than any previous attempt. The heavy pot was key as it prevented the sugar from caramelizing resulting in nearly clear wings. Since things were going to well, I made them extra big...



So what have we learned from this extensive experience...
1. Follow the recipe, NO EXCEPTIONS
2. Use a heavy pot
3. Use a candy thermometer
4. If you have to touch it and adjust it, you are doing it wrong

I am going to spend the rest of the day recovering and trying to remove the sugar from my floor and table.

Cake Challenges

The wings were harder than I thought... but I persevered.
The cake baking part went well and I had much assistance from the birthday girl herself.





Since this cake is the skirt of the doll, I baked it in two mixing bowls...



Then the wing project began...

Wings Version 1: melting straight sugar in the pot... which took almost an hour of me standing at the stove stirring and waiting...



and resulted in these strange blobs that sort of look like phelgm...


not very winglike. So onto...
Wings Version 2 which was a different recipe using corn syrup and water along with the sugar. Unfortunately I over did it, and it turned this nasty brown...



Note to self- the hardcrack stage is not necessary. It did make beautiful fiberous glossy strands, so Mom and I spent an hour making hair-like bits all over the kitchen. They tasted terrible!!! Really burnt, and where it dripped on the table it took the paint off! I was going to make do with these and left them on the counter overnight only to find CAT HAIR stuck to them this morning!!!!... so mad!... so onto...
Wings Version 3...
This time I used less corn syrup...



However, I ran out of parchment paper and tried to use wax paper which the wings stuck to and wouldn't come off...



I was just about ready to freak out completely at this point. I tried everything to get them off the paper and no luck. I even tried again buttering the wax paper and they still stuck. So the spouse was dispatched to the store for more parchment paper... and it worked!



The wings are a little soft, so I have to reset them every hour or so.



I even made little things that attach to the skirt to tie in the wing design. If I did this again, I would use less corn syrup... just barely enough to make the long ribbons.
Miss E is thrilled to pieces... so it's a success.... and I'm exhausted.

Are those crickets chirping?

Yes... this blog has been waaaay too quiet. I have tons of flea market scores to photograph and post and a knitting project that is finished. Time seems to get filled with other things. This week is Miss E's 5th birthday so Nana and Papa are here for a few days visiting. It's a VERY exciting time for her.
Now I have to figure out how to make a fairy princess cake with a barbie doll stuck in it with fairy wings. Has anybody done any work with melted sugar? I'm going to need to do some research.

Mister Judy

My sister and I have a childrens' wear business called Mister Judy. We have been burning the midnight oil getting our website built and running. We have turned it on as of this morning: Mister Judy. We are so pleased with the results. We designed and built everything ourselves.

More work in the basement

After a four week break, we are back trying to finish up the studio. We have installed various shelving that is still in the process of being filled. Today we are finishing the trim and trim painting. Our stairwell finally has all its coats of paint with lots (and I mean lots) of touching up.



You can see the spouse's collection of paint-by-numbers at the landing. So good to have one area finished.