Here’s a fuzzy face for your Friday.

We like to feed him treats thru the slats of our shutters when he’s in the backyard.

I like taking pictures of Sammy more than I thought I would. Poor dog!

Happy Weekend!

I have a cold.

Above is another one of the projects I finished for the baby shower. I loved this more than I thought I would and it was a simple project to finished, especially compared to the full crocheted stroller blanket.

The directions for this project were found in the Oct/Nov ‘06 Crochet Today. Ruffled Fleece Blanket

It’s a very generous baby blanket, using a 38″ square cut of fleece.

Simply put, you blanket stitch the edges then use those for the base of your crocheted edge. It was more time consuming to blanket stitch around the outside, since you need to take care to end on an even number. My fingers hurt after the blanket stitching, but it’s worth it when you use the fun fluffy yarn and see your cozy finished project. I am hoping to find a blade for my rotary cutter which will cut out holes so I can start my single crochets on the blanket.

The yarn I used is Patons Melody Quick & Cozy in Pinky Girl. We were only able to find this yarn at our local JoAnn’s.

Besides contacting the magazine for back-issues, I suggest seeking out a local yarn store. I was lucky to find many back issues of Crochet Today at my local yarn store.

Was busy this past week getting projects finished up for the baby shower for my cute Sister-in-Law Tiffany.

Above is the “stroller blanket” I started on the day they found out they were expecting a girl!The stitch was a lot of fun to do, and I spent the better part of past several months’ evenings watching shows with Don and crocheting.

This is the project that reminded me how much I like to crochet and I have continued to keep a crochet project in the van. It gives me something to do while I wait for the boys after school or while they are at TaeKwonDo.

I have a couple other things to share that I finished in time for the baby shower (an accomplishment for me! LOL!), but those will have to wait for later. For now, we’re off to another TaeKwonDo class - translation: 45 minutes of crochet time for me!Happy Friday!

ETA: Here’s some specific info on the blanket:

The pattern came from the Holiday issue of Crochet Today and was also in a previous issue. Soft Stroller Blanket

I opted to extend the size of the blanket by adding additional stitches per the directions.

Basically it’s a stitch called Catherine Wheel. I found this out when I got my copy of Crochet Adorned and was reading the stitch info in the back of the book.

I tried to find instructions or a video for the stitch on-line, but it’s a little hard to come by. Catherine Wheel gets mistaken for a similar stitch, Catherine Diamond, and it doesn’t have the “daisy” look of this one. I recommend contacting Crochet Today for a back issue to get the pattern for this blanket.

I used Red Heart Eco-Ways yarn in Oyster, Lichen and Petal.

Thanks for the compliments and questions! I’ll do better to include specifics when posting crochet projects in the future!

You might think from this photo that Sam didn’t like the rainy weather in So Cal this week, but you’d be wrong.

He likes the rain.

He likes the rain so much that he likes to go out into the rain, run around, and then come back in when he’s had enough.

What he doesn’t like is his towel.

If you’re holding a towel anywhere in his sight, he won’t come in the house. He’ll just stand there in the rain, shake, stare at you, shake, stretch, then try to sneak in.

But he listens, and when I tell him to sit, he’ll sit and let me put the towel over him.

Then he attacks it.

Then he gets the best of it, and settles down to really give it a piece of his mind.

Then he’ll look at the door again so he can go outside and run in the rain.

So goes the life of a Nordic Spitz.

*I wanted to share this even though it’s too late for the contest, we were having blog issues and couldn’t post but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’re all fixed!*

This week the challenge at iheartfaces is family.

We were all gathered on our bed, reading together (okay, I was pretending to sleep and poking the boys), when I looked to my left and saw my three boys. And my heart was happy.

Snuggling together is something we do. Wether we’re watching a show, reading a story, listening to music, or playing video games, we like to snuggle.

Be sure to check out the site!

Need to run a little upload test and decided to share a photo taken a couple months ago of my niece Brooke, Perrin and Sam.

We had a family get together at my Sister-in-Law Jenna’s home, who luckily lives a street crossing away from a playing field.

It was very cute that day with Perrin hanging out with Brooke. He had a fun time playing with her and I think Sammy enjoyed her company, too.

On Monday the 11th we celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary.

We didn’t do anything fancy since our anniversary gift this year was a bed upgrade. Did you know beds are fantastically expensive?

So instead of our usual night out, I made a yummy dinner of Ribeye steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, and chocolate sheet cake.

Which is worth it every time we go to bed.

Besides, Don surprised me with my favorite flowers. How is that not a good day?

I’ve been keeping myself happily busy.

We had such a delightful break with Don off of work for three weeks that I’ve been able to keep the momentum going. During Don’s time home, and the boys’ holiday break, we did a lot of cooking and baking in the kitchen. I don’t know if his siblings would find it surprising that Don’s a rather good cook and gets excited to try new recipes or not, but it’s a treat for me to have some of the meal planning “stress” taken off my shoulders once in a while. Now, this doesn’t happen on what I would consider a regular basis since he does have an erratic working schedule, which is why it tends to happen a lot when he’s on vacation time.

During break he discovered my love for the Pioneer Woman. If you’ve never been to her site, do yourself a favor and go! I’ve done several of her dishes in the past, comparing outcomes with my Sister-in-Law Jenna for the past couple of years, and now with my Sister-in-Law Heather, too. (I have a lot of Sisters-in-Law, which I enjoy; having come from a family of two) Don would either go on-line or pull her cookbook off of the shelf and we’d decide what we’re having for dinner that day. I’d make up the shopping list and he’d go to the grocery store, which I greatly appreciated, then return ready to cook. It was nice to only worry about getting part, if any, of the meal done.

This cooking frenzy led to me getting to a family recipe that I’ve been meaning to make for my Dad for years, which you see in the picture above. Years ago I pilfered the recipe collection my Grandma Arlie (my Dad’s Mom) made many, many years ago. It’s a double ring, hand-typed treasure trove of recipes from her. The recipes are divided into sections and the recipe cards have beautifully yellowed around the edges from age. I believe she typed a set up for each of her five children’s families. (Good gracious, I hope I remembered all my Aunts correctly or it’s off to Genealogy Boot Camp for me) I can’t begin to imagine the time it took. I remember typing on a typewriter.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking thru the recipes and mentally noting the ones I remember her making. She passed away when I was still in Elementary School, so having the recipes reminds me of the happy memories I have of arriving to my Grandparents’ home for family vacations. Grandma’s cookie jar was always full of freshly baked cookies. The kitchen was quaint, with a pull out dishwasher and a delightful collection of glasses with cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry. I loved those glasses.

Out of all the recipes in the collection, there’s been one that stood out in my mind and, honestly, disturbed me.

Sauerkraut Cake.

2/3 cups of sauerkraut.

My Dad’s been insisting that you’d never know there was sauerkraut in the cake, that’d you’d only think it was “just a good chocolate cake!” His words.

I finally made it this year, in the form of cupcakes.

And you know what? It’s just a good chocolate cake!

You’d never know there was sauerkraut in the cake.

And we passed them out, never telling what was in them.

Nobody has died.

I wonder what’ll happen if they read this and realize they were one of the recipients of the sauerkraut cupcakes.

I think I’ll try my Grandma’s Potato Chip Cookie recipe next.

When we decided on Sam’s name I looked all over for any type of Lord of the Rings inspired dog ID tag and found nothing! Then I came across an awesome store on etsy called yabettasupadont. (click on her name to see her etsy shop)

I was excited that I could request a custom dog tag and crossed my fingers that she could make Sammy his own elven brooch!

I was delighted when it arrived today and it went straight on Sam’s collar!

Just compare it with the image here: Elven brooch

Pretty awesome! We even agreed to give tinting the metal green a go and I just love how it turned out!

These tags are nice and light, and she makes them appropriate for the size of your dog.

If you’re looking for something unique for your furry baby, you won’t be disappointed with her work! And I just noticed that right now, for a good cause, she’s got all her pet tags marked 20% off.

I’m excited to take our Samwise around town on his walks and see who notices his tag!