crochet, babies, books, and parties

{These are my sisters. I'm the oldest. We fit the birth order bill perfectly. I believe that they are making fun of me here for taking so many photos. In good nature, of course.}

{I couldn't resist snapping a photo during our quiet time. I cherish this time in the dark hours of the morning when Brad and I get into the Word together.}

{Frustrated.}

{Ah. She got it.}

I hosted a baby shower brunch for my friend, Liz, last weekend. It was a small, intimate gathering of only ten. We had some very interesting conversation, ate lots of good food, and enjoyed each others company. I had crocheted her a baby blanket using a pattern I found in this book. It turned out great. 

I will say that I almost ran out of time while making it. I finished it at midnight the night before the shower, washed it that night and blocked it. When I woke up the next morning, it was still damp so I took the hair dryer to it. Ditched that idea pretty quickly and threw it in the dryer instead. Since the brunch started at 10:30am, I didn't have much time in the morning. I hate to admit it, but I pulled the blanket out of the dryer at 10:20am, wrapped it up, and miraculously did this all before Liz arrived. I guess I have to admit that I've always worked better under pressure, although it's pretty stressful while in the process!

I had some amazon cash from swagbucks and my Amazon credit card rewards, so I treated myself to new books. Oh, do I love books. And I love crocheting. And I'm starting to love embroidery. So put the three all together, packaged up in an amazon.com box that arrives at my door? Oh, the love. 

I am really in love with the Erika Knight Simple Crocheting book. The pictures are beautiful. And the neutral colors are extremely pleasing to the eye. This is one of those books that is so much fun to look at because there are so many gorgeous photos. And not to mention some really awesome patterns. This is definitely one of my new favorite crochet books. Another new favorite is the Around the Corner Crochet Borders book. This will be a very valuable resource to me when I'm trying to plan out edgings. 

Honestly, I love all of these new books. I'm getting quite a nice collection of handiwork and crafting books. They've become one of my favorite genres of books to collect. They're full of beautiful, inspiring ideas. 

That picture of the sky up above was a photo I snapped off of our front porch a day last week. As were the fog pics; I took those off of the back deck. Strange weather we've been having {which I think is the norm across the country, actually.} Single digits one day, high 60's the next, and down into the teens again. This has happened several times. But I'll take those few days of mild weather. Right now we have snow on the ground, with more to come today. I'm trying to just go with the rhythm of the season. No use fighting it and wishing for warmer days.

And on these cold days, we've been enjoying many bowls of piping hot soup. I don't believe I could ever duplicate a soup twice. I just sort of throw stuff into the pot and use my nose to decide what I need to add. I can tell by the scent of the food which spices to add and which not to use. I think that's something that comes with time when you cook. It's my favorite way to cook. I don't really like recipes. I'm more likely to just make something up. It definitely makes cooking more of an adventure!

This weekend's agenda includes painting and a party. A small family dinner for Lily's seventh on Sunday evening will conclude the weekend. But until then, we will be painting the master bathroom. It's the only room in our house that hasn't been painted since we built twelve years ago. It's long overdue. I think I might be kind of crazy for painting the weekend of a party {it was totally Brad's idea, I'm just going along with it}, but we're going easy on the food on Sunday. Lily requested hoagies and pizza, and then I'm making some salads and veggies to go along with that. Her cake is the only thing that I'm partially concerned about. She requested a lemon cake, so I found this awesome sounding recipe. Oh yum. Looks time consuming though. But, it will get done. I'm up for the challenge!

Well, dear friends, I hope you have a most blessed day today and a joy-filled weekend. Next week, I hope to share some pics from Lily's little crafting party we had with her friends yesterday. We had a blast.

Blessings!