Music To Your Ears

Since I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year, I've done nothing but prepare for that so I apologize for the lack of creativity lately. HOWEVER! I treated myself to the new Emmy Rossum album on iTunes and I've been working my heart out to her beautiful, soothing music.

I first saw Emmy Rossum in the most recent Phantom of the Opera movie and I LOVED her performance and vocals. I was glad to stumble on this album and I wasn't sure of it at first but it grew on me real quick! It's slow, kind of like Enya, but very different and equally beautiful. In an interview about the album, Emmy explains that her album is not layered with hundreds of other voices - all of the vocals you hear are her own voice, layered to harmonize with herself. It's REALLY cool.

So off I go - HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!

INGENIOUS, I know...

(Okay, so my back hallway has NO lighting...I did the best I could with Photoshop!)

Since I grew up in Southern Arizona, the need for winter gear, as well as storing and organizing it has been a long, slow process for me!!! After tripping over, tossing around, and losing the little pieces of warm clothing that are absolutely necessary, I decided to get a hanging canvas shoe storage unit for my back closet for the kids to put their hats and gloves in. It works BEAUTIFULLY! And when I remember to put them away, I can ALWAYS find my favorite gloves that I love and can't live without!

(Notice that I made myself a scarf out of that yummy yarn I posted a while back! I love it!)

Have You Tried These?

I LOVE THESE! I'm a mint-maniac and I'm ecstatic that the fine people at Mars have created this delectable treat. So if you're going to have something sweet, these are only 150 calories, as opposed to:

Snickers Bar - 273 calories
1 c. Skittles - 830 calories
1 c. Breyers Light Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream - 266 calories
1 c. peanut M&M's - 877 calories (I could eat many handfuls in one sitting...)
Twix - 284 calories
Fudge - 472 calories
2.13 oz 3-Musketeers Bar - 260 calories

The one exception: Milky Way Bars at 97 calories

Now are you hungry for something chocolatey? You can thank me later when you're biting into something yummy...who wants to LIVE if you can't have these small pleasures every now and then?!

Single Crochet - Playful Scarf Set

Okay, so TWO things happened here: It was my dear friend Jen's birthday... AND I fell in love with this yarn at our local shop. (How GREAT, huh?!) It honestly didn't take very much time and before evening was over, I had a great gift for Jen! The specialty yarn was kind of pricey, but well worth it!!! I can't tell you how much fun it was watching the beautiful colors change and the scarf take form!!!

(For you Arizona girls, people out here love to get cute scarves this time of year because it won't be long until our eyelids freeze shut and nasal moisture crystallizes.)

I used three 49-yard balls of thick, double-twisted yarn (Muench Yarns - "Big Baby") and a "K" hook. Depending on how wide you want your scarf to be, you might only need two balls of yarn.

The flowers were made by using my previously posted "Loopy Flower" technique - but with a lot less stitching because this yarn is so thick. Then I hand-stitched them onto the gloves. They looked SO cute on Jen!

So here's how to get started:

Make a chain about as wide as you want your scarf to be. I chained 10 times on this one - but the one I'm doing now I only did 8.

Place your hook in the THIRD chain from your hook.

Yarn over, (grab yarn with hook) and pull through first loop.

Yarn over again and pull through next two loops.

End like this.

Start over in the next space until you've gone all the way across.

Chain one...

...flip over and start again, placing your hook in the SECOND loop from your hook (not counting the loop you have on your hook). With this pattern, always use the SECOND loop from your hook when you start a new row.

So there should be a loop on your hook, a single chain (the one you made before you turned), a space between the outermost loop, and the 2nd space over is the one you'll use every time.


When you get to the end of your row, be sure to pay attention to that little corner loop you've got to stitch in. It's easy to miss because it doesn't have as visible an "opening" like the other chains have but you have to get this chain, as well, or your work will look funny.

Can you see where I need to make my stitch?





Do your single crochet in that loop, chain one, and turn. Do this over and over again. If you don't like how your work is turning out, take it out and start over. No big deal!

Here I am again at the end of a row. There is the end row loop I need to pick up and do my last single crochet before I chain one and turn.

This yarn is awesome because the end loops are so much more visible than the bumpy yarns.

So there I am, making that last stitch before I turn. SC (single crochet), ch (chain) 1, turn.

Keep going and going and before you know it, you've got a long piece of something!

When you run out of yarn, here are my instructions for starting a new strand of yarn.

Cooking 101- Abby's Rich Homemade Cocoa

It's a cold, sort of snowy day, and nothing sounds better to me than a rich cup of cocoa! So I made some. (So let's see...that's another 4 laps on the treadmill for me today...)
This cocoa has a little KICK in it, so if you're woman enough, you should definitely try this - and maybe share with a friend!

1 1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. half and half
2 oz. (half of a 4 oz. bar) bittersweet chocolate
2 oz. milk chocolate
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 T. sugar (optional)
A pinch or two of cayenne pepper (NOT optional)
Whipped cream (optional)

In a medium saucepan, heat milk and half and half to almost a simmer. Remove from heat, add chocolate, stirring until melted. Whisk in all other ingredients. Gently reheat, serve immediately.

Garnish with whipped cream, and cinnamon sticks or vanilla beans.

Recipe Conversion Charts!

Whatta FIND!!! Well, maybe I'm a little slow in discovering something like this, but I had to share it anyway...

If you're mentally challenged like I am, it's too much work to calculate doubling or tripling a recipe - so here's a GREAT site that does it for you!!! You just enter in the regular amounts, specify if you want the recipe cut in half, doubled, tripled, etc. and it calculates it for you!! (the exclamation marks means that I'm really excited...exclaiming...)

RECIPE ADJUSTER

And now here is a site that has all kinds of measuring charts that can come in real handy - like how much is 8 Tablespoons? I'm an idiot and would probably measure 8 Tablespoons the hard way but the chart would tell you that it's simply 1/2 cup. WOW. What would it be like to be able to do this stuff in my head? Well, who cares...I've got this site!

FOOD CONVERSIONS

Girly Color Block Scarf

Here is my latest creation - BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BUT TIME on my hands to sit and crochet all day!... (not really.)

My cute little girl saw the charcoal scarf I made a few days ago and begged me for one of her own. I swear - all that girl has to do is look at me and I'm weakened. So I spent yesterday making this skinny scarf in her requested colors and she LOVED it. She wore it to school this morning!

I photographed some simple instructions on how to change colors easily and they were too dark and HORRIBLE. So maybe when the sun peeks out, I'll try it again.

More Ribbons

For all of you bow-makers out there, you HAVE to check out this site, "Ribbons and Bows Oh My!" They have all kinds of ribbons, clips, padded headbands, stretchy headbands, etc. I was quite impressed with their pricing, too. Due to the holiday season, they were out of some of the ribbon I wanted (1/4" grossgrain) but there's still so much to choose from. Check it out!

Some Yarn and a Movie...

Ahhhh....what a way to spend a Saturday afternoon! I plugged in one of my favorite movies, Chocolat, grabbed a skein of soft yarn, and stitched my heart out to the beautiful cinematography and music of the movie!

Of course, I got a bit distracted from my stitching, so I didn't finish it when the movie was over. But later that evening, after the kids were put to bed and my cute hubby falling asleep to to football, I listened to my favorite movie soundtrack mix on my headphones and finished my project. SO relaxing and enjoyable!!!

This scarf is done by doing single crochet throughout the whole thing. It works up SO quick and easy and if you're used to crochet, you just do it without thinking and before long you've got a GREAT gift for someone! A scarf should only take 1 to 1 1/2 skeins of yarn, depending on how wide and long it is.

I'm not sure if this will work if you don't have an iTunes account, but here's my iMix: "Abby's Soundtrack Favorites."

How To Download Fonts

One of our cute readers asked me a GREAT question - How exactly do you download the free fonts from the websites in my previous post? Here is how I download my fonts - maybe some of you will find it useful. If anybody knows of an easier way, by all means let us know!!!

(This is for Windows - not Mac. If you have a Mac, then you'll have to ask a Mac user)

1.) Set up a "New Fonts" folder on your C Drive so it's easy to find. You could put it right in the "C" drive or on the desktop - but make sure it's not in another folder.

So go to "My Computer", Double Click (DC) on "C Drive", Go to File, New, New Folder. Name your folder something like Internet Fonts or New Fonts, but since there is already a Fonts file, don't call it that.

2.) Now that your file folder is set up, go to DaFont website and click on the Download button. Click "Open" and a download window will pop up. On the Left-hand side click on "Extract all files." Then your extraction window will pop up, click "Next" - then click on the Browse button to find your New Fonts folder. Click on "C Drive", then "New Fonts" folder. When you have selected THAT destination, then click "Next", then "Finish." Close the window and move on to your next font.

The reason it will take some extra steps is because the files are compressed so you have to extract them before putting them in your folder. If they weren't compressed, the downloading would go much faster.

3.) When you've got all the fonts you want in your New Fonts folder (or you're just tired of downloading and want to move on) then you'll need to INSTALL your new fonts.

Go to My Computer, DC on C Drive, DC on Windows, DC on Fonts file folder. Go to File, Install New Font.

At this point, your computer will pull up a list of all of those fonts you just extracted. When it's done pulling them up, click on "Select All" and then OK.

Your new fonts should all be installed now and ready to use. To make it easier for next time, clean out your "New Fonts" folder so it's empty for future downloads.


Another cute reader, Amy Cowley, gave us another link to great fonts: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/scrapbook/fonts/freescrapbookfonts/

Go to the very bottom and, if you like all of the fonts, click on "Download All." When the install window pops up, click on "Open." You'll get that same install window and click "Extract All Files." Make sure to Browse for your New Fonts folder to put them in. Click Okay or Next or whatever, and follow Step 3 above for getting them installed in your Fonts file.