Was it cruel of me to dangle that Sheet Swap carrot in front of your nose like that, and then disappear for almost a week? Oh! I had such good intentions, I promise you! I was going to write up one or two posts about selecting vintage sheets, and making beautiful things from them, schedule the posts to be published sometime over the weekend, and spend four days in Ocean City, knowing you were well taken-care of.

I’m afraid it didn’t happen. As usual, I left packing to the last minute, and there was very little time for bloggy thoughts.

Actually, let me rephrase that. There was plenty of time for bloggy thoughts, but very little time to do anything about them.

Last Thursday after school, we hopped in the van and took off down the Garden State Parkway without so much as a tootaloo in your direction (my apologies for that), and spent four nights and days basking in blissful beachitude.  We’ve been back home since Monday night, and I spent my birthday on Tuesday processing photos… It’s not the worst way to turn 41.

Ocean City in May is a tradition for us. The first “Ocean City in May” was actually “Ocean City in March” five years ago, and it was born out of a need to confront and to escape, all in one paradoxical breath, our sadness over a loss we had suffered a few weeks before.

To be honest, I remember very little of that weekend, and we hardly took any photos for me to look back on. What I do remember was how peaceful it felt to be near the ocean, surrounded by the people I love. It was a feeling Neil and I agreed was worth repeating every year. But maybe not in March. March is exceptionally chilly at the shore, and there’s not a whole lot to do, either. And maybe we could stay for more than two days. A single weekend just didn’t feel like enough time.

And so it was that our two-day early-Spring escape from reality evolved into a four-day late-Spring family getaway, now on it’s sixth iteration.

It’s getting harder to take the kids out of school for this, I’ll admit. I’ve always felt a little weird about it, but when we started we had a 1st-grader and a preschooler, and really, what were they going to miss?

Now that the oldest is in 6th grade, there is more at stake when he misses a couple of days. There is more work to make up, and there are schoolwork situations that follow us to the beach, and encroach on our family time.  It’s become less than ideal in that regard.

Despite the extra expense, and the bigger crowds, we may just have to move our vacation to the end of June, after school gets out. It’s an experiment worth considering for next year.

During this trip, the weather was uncharacteristically cooperative, and we had sun and warmth like we couldn’t believe. It didn’t get broody-looking or drizzly until the day we were leaving – such a nice change of pace! We’ve pretty much become experts at getting cold and wet on the boardwalk, but it sure was nice to spend most of the time dry and comfortable.

We look forward to this so much every year, but it’s over in the blink of an eye. At least these days I know to take plenty of photos!

Can you believe it’s almost Memorial Day Weekend? One of my favorite 3-day weekends, ever. Birthdays, Ocean City, Memorial Day… Oh, I just love May!

P.S. There’s still time to sign up for the Vintage Sheet Swap. Click here!

© Lisa Clarke

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Hello! The official signup sheet is ready.  If you want to be a part of the sheet swap, please fill out this form.

In a nutshell this is how the swap will work:

• You will find a cool vintage sheet or pillowcase (or more than one – as many as you like!)
• You will cut up the sheets into three or four pieces as instructed in a future post
• You will put the sheet pieces and pillowcases (plus funds to cover return postage) in an envelope or box and mail them to me
• When I receive them, I will count how many sheet pieces and pillowcases you’ve sent
• I’ll put that same number of different sheet pieces and pillowcases back in your box or envelope and send them back to you
• You will receive the box and jump for joy at all of the new vintage fabrics you have to play with

Sound good?

Sign up here!

More information

• Pinterest board for ideas and info
• Flickr group for the last swap we did
• eBay search for vintage floral sheets
• How to find and choose vintage sheets (coming soon)
• How to properly cut your sheet for swapping (coming soon)

Grab the button for your website

<a href="http://lisaclarke.net/tag/vintage-sheet-swap/"><img src="http://lisaclarke.net/images/vintagesheetswap_125.jpg" alt="Vintage Sheet Swap at Polka Dot Cottage" /></a>

© Lisa Clarke

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A few stripes and a floral found their way back to my house.

Later I was wandering around online, and oh! there are some really unbelievable mod florals on eBay! I can’t in a million years afford all of those, but I figure if I get all of you to buy them and then we swap… well that’s another story. (Sneaky, I know.)

I’ll put together an official signup sheet in the next few days (I hope!) The official signup sheet is here, and I’ll also outline the rules of how to select and cut up the sheets. For now, though, be on the lookout for fun and funky sheets and/or pillowcases from the 70s or 60′s, or maybe even earlier.  They should be either 100% cotton or (more likely) a 50/50 cotton/poly blend.  A popular brand from that era is Cannon.

And in case your local thrift shop options are lacking but you still want to participate, you can check out the little graphic that I added to the blog’s right sidebar over there –> It lists promising eBay auctions. Please somebody snag that green and orange “power daisy” sheet. It just has to become a Summer skirt, or a really funky set of hankies.

I’ll be back later, when I’ve had a chance to get organized. I’m thinking we should shoot for a swap date in mid-June. Does that sound reasonable?

I’m very excited, you know. This could be just the kick start my sewing machine needs!

© Lisa Clarke

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I’m getting that itch again. The same one I had roughly four years ago. If you were here then, you might know what I’m talking about…

I feel another sheet swap coming on.

What do you think of trading pieces of your pretty vintage sheet finds? And maybe pillowcases, too?  They’re perfect for turning into kitschy home decor, flowery skirts, soft hankies, and more!

We could all take a few weeks to scour our local thrift shops, and then we would cut up and share the spoils with each other, spreading the vintagey wealth a little bit. In the meantime, I could share some posts here meant to help you find good sheets, and giving some ideas of what to do with them once you’ve got them.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather have three or four smaller pieces of different fun prints than one gigantic piece of a single print, and swapping is the best way to do that.  Especially if you live in an area where fabulous linens are scarce.

So… what do you think? I will ask in a more “official” capacity later, but before I do that, I’d like to gauge interest and see if it’s worth doing again! And the verdict is YES! Here is the signup sheet.

P.S. The images from this post were taken during the last sheet swap – these were some of the sheets that were sent in. If you’d like to see what we made with them once they were distributed, check out the flickr group.

© Lisa Clarke

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Oh, I do like this hat. I did not care much for crocheting with paper, but I think the end justifies the means.  And the pattern was fairly easy, too.  I could see myself making another in cotton (and probably in about half the time – cotton would be significantly easier to work with).

My only modification? I worked it in a single color (the pattern is written for three) so that it looked somewhat like straw.

This will be perfect for our beach getaway. It’s exactly what I needed to complete my “incognito movie star” look, too…

Of course, that look really also requires glamorous wide-leg drapey lounge pants. Guess that’s next on my to-make list…

P.S. I might add another row to the brim. Maybe. Got plenty of paper left!

© Lisa Clarke

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…the tough start a new project!

I had a lousy day Friday, from the moment I woke up, until roughly 6pm, which found me hanging out with my sweet family, and sipping a vodka collins at the Stirling Hotel. Things were much better after that.

Leading up to that moment, though, there had been a number of minor irritations that cumulatively turned me into one very crabby camper. So I blew off everything I was supposed to be doing, and sat down to make a suddenly-extremely-important project. One that just a few hours previously, I didn’t even know I wanted. Oh! the not-to-be underestimated instant-gratification wonderfulness of Ravelry downloads and local yarn shops!

This will soon be the Summer Sun Hat by Linda Permann. My collection of Linda patterns continues to grow, despite the hour I spent wandering around Ravelry, trying to expand my horizons a little bit.  There’s just something about her aesthetic that keeps attracting me. Why fight it?

So, I’m crocheting with paper, which is kind of an odd thing, and not particularly kind on the hands.  I don’t have the same stamina with this paper as I have with the pima cotton I’m using on my other current project.  Still, I expect to be ready to start the brim by tomorrow, and before I know it, I’ll be relaxing on an Ocean City beach, in my crocheted sun hat. I can’t wait!

I think I need to sew a sundress, too.  It’s funny… four days at the beach always seems to inspire four weeks of thinking about my wardrobe (and what it lacks).  This will be our sixth year heading down there. You’d think by now I’d have all of the clothes I could possibly need!

You’d think it, but you’d be wrong

© Lisa Clarke

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I can tell that summer is on its way just by looking at my coffee table reading. Knitting and Crocheting books are gradually making room for food books and memoirs, or those best-of-both-worlds kind of books: food memoirs.

I suppose I’ve become a bit predictable in recent years, but what can I say? My interests are decidedly seasonal and cyclical.

I could drone on about these, but maybe it would be more fun for you to check out my bookshop! I call it a “bookshop” but really, it’s an amazon affiliate shop, and I do get a small commission from anything purchased there, but there’s no pressure to buy at all. Please just consider it a place to look through all of my favorite books and supplies, most of them annotated with my opinions. If we like the same kinds of things, you might find something to add to your library reserve list, or your wish list.  I keep it fairly up to date, and the first page always reflects what I am Currently Enjoying.  I usually list my six most recently-purchased books, along with whatever I currently have out from the library.  Right now, it’s a pretty long list. I’m in consume-mode, big time.

In case you’re reading this at a later date, and the titles in Currently Enjoying have changed, here are some direct links to the seven books in the photo:

1. Barnheart: a memoir
2. Chicken and Egg
3. The Homemade Pantry
4. Super Natural Every Day
5. The Colette Sewing Handbook
6. Custom Crocheted Sweaters
7. Amazing Crochet Lace

The Homemade Pantry, Super Natural Every Day, The Colette Sewing Handbook, and Custom Crocheted Sweaters are all library books that I’m considering purchasing. The last two books, in particular, are excellent references.  They’re perfect for those of us who like to tweak patterns or even design our own, and I’m pretty sure they need to live on my crafty book shelf.

Have fun looking through my favorites, and then be sure to come back here and tell me what is in your book pile! I would love to add more titles to my library reserve list…

© Lisa Clarke

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Right now, while I am awash in Spring Fever and basking in the glow of the promise of local produce, books like this one exert an exceptional amount of power over me.  I have already decided that I will need to purchase my own copy, and that I will be making our own ketchup, butter, sauerkraut and vanilla extract as soon as possible.  Whether any of these things will actually come to fruition remains to be seen, but at the very least, we’ll have toaster pastries…

Early yesterday afternoon, with a cool wind coming through the window and swirling playfully around the kitchen, I put some Madeleine Peyroux on Pandora, pulled my cherry-covered apron out of the drawer, and whipped up a batch of homemade Pop Tarts for the men in my life.

These men, the big one and the smaller two, love their Pop Tarts. Over the years, I’ve replaced the artificially-flavored brand with Nature’s Path Toaster Pastries. While I have a real hard time replacing our favorite junk foods with fruits and veggies, I find it less hard replacing them with natural alternatives. Would apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon be a better choice than an apple cinnamon Toaster Pastry? Of course, but at least an apple cinnamon toaster pastry is a heck of a lot better than an apple cinnamon Pop Tart. Baby steps.

I figured I could do one better than Nature’s Path and try these homemade pop tarts from the book. I didn’t make the pie crust from scratch because I had a few frozen Trader Joe’s crusts I wanted to use up. For filling, three of my pop tarts used a berry jam from Maine, and the others were a mixture of cinnamon and brown sugar.  So, not entirely homemade, but still a worthwhile endeavor.  (I plan to try these again completely from scratch before long.)

I won’t reproduce the recipe here, but you can watch the author, Alana Chernila, make them in this short video.

As far as our reaction to this first batch? They’re a little dry, but I like them. They really are just like a jam-filled pie crust.

Neil thinks they’d be better with a thinner crust, and I think he’s right. But that’s my fault. I didn’t roll out the crust as thinly as I could have.

Eamonn says they taste better cold. (He never heats up his toaster pastries from a box, so I’m not surprised.)  He also says, “not bad for homemade.” That’s high praise, indeed, and pretty much sums up the attitude around here. They prefer stuff from a box, but if they can’t have it, this homemade stuff will sometimes do…

Homemade versions are never going to taste just like their prepackaged counterparts, and while for some of us that is a Good Thing, it can be a little hard to swallow (so to speak) for those who have a deep attachment to the store-bought version.  They might not even be recognized as the same food!   As if to prove that very point, Aidan just looked up from his homework and said, ”wait, those were Pop Tarts?”

See what I’m up against?

© Lisa Clarke

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Last night I saw Instagram in the Android Market. I did a little jig, because last I’d heard, the Android version didn’t work on tablets, and yet there it was.

Today, I have been Instagramming my little heart out.

I ran around town a lot today

I don’t plan to take this many pictures every day.  It’s the novelty that drove me today.  Besides, my tablet is wi-fi only, so I can’t exactly do this in real time unless there is a free wi-fi connection wherever I happen to be.  (As far as I’m concerned, there are not nearly enough free wi-fi connections in the world…)

My thoughts so far? The Android version seems to be lacking some of the things I’ve seen on iPhone photos. The effects are not as amazing as I was expecting. In fact, if the effects were the only consideration, I’d recommend Vignette over Instagram any day.  Retro Camera, Little Photo, and Pixlr-o-matic are also fun, but Vignette is probably my favorite, effect-wise.

The thing is, it’s hard to beat the social aspect of Instagram, and so many of friends and contacts are already on it.  I think I’ll be playing with this one a lot, and hoping for more features to be released for Android.

You can follow me on Instagram, if you like.  I’m lclarke522 over there.  (If there is some way to link to my account, I would love to know – their website is very minimalist, and it may not even be possible – it appears everything is done through the app.)

© Lisa Clarke

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I have a new project in the works. I didn’t want to show you until I was sure it was actually going to happen. I have a history of sharing grandiose plans that never come to fruition.

Remember the time I said I was going to sew a dress, and knit a shawl to wear together for my nephew’s christening? And then the dress pattern never even got taken out of the package? And the 1/4 finished shawl got stuffed in a knitting bag and dumped in the basement?  And I wore something I bought at Target to the little guy’s baptism? Yeah. Just like that.

So when my brain started percolating with this idea of crocheting a lacey Summer sweater to wear over a hand-sewn sheath dress for an upcoming event, I decided I had better just keep it to myself until I’d made significant progress.

I think being nearly half done with the sweater counts as significant progress, so here it is so far:

I am using Linda‘s Woodblocks Cardigan pattern, which is clearly-written and perfectly understandable, but maybe just a touch complicated for my level of competence so far.  It’s a motif-based, join-as-you-go kind of thing, and I do really love me some motifs. The complications arise in the joining, because frankly, once I’m done with a motif, it starts to look kind of like a pile of knots to me, and it really beats me where I’m supposed to stick my hook when I’m joining a new motif.

At least, that’s how I felt with the first several joins. I’ve since come up with a little trick to help me (stitch markers on the motif corners) and practice has made less un-perfect.  I suspect the top right-hand side of this sweater is going to look a lot nicer than the bottom left-hand side, but I also think nobody is really going to be looking all that closely.

If my mistakes stand out to anyone but me after I’ve blocked the piece, I suppose I can always remove those motifs and re-join them. It probably won’t come to that, though.  I’m not much of a perfectionist about these things.

I’ve got one more normal row like these two to do, and then it gets tricky on row 4 with sleeves and such. I should be done in a few weeks – I seem to be working at a motif-a-day pace.

As for the dress, I want to use the same pattern that I wanted to use for the christening I mentioned earlier, and this time I have actually taken the pattern out of the sleeve and traced my size onto tracing paper.  I may actually get this one done… I have to drag my sewing machine up from the basement first, but I think I can manage that.

Still, I wouldn’t refuse any “get it done” vibes you might want to send my way

© Lisa Clarke

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I’ve been thinking about this idea for some time: a blog video chat. We could “meet” on a regular basis, and spend an hour talking about whatever it is we creative types like to talk about. We could have specific themes for the hour, or we could just have show-and-tell time.

I’m going to do it. Are you in?

We can use the Hangout feature on Google+. Don’t have a G+ account? All you need to do is get one (they’re free) and then add Polka Dot Cottage to one of your circles. (Find PDC here, and click the “Follow” button.)

You can learn all kinds of handy things about hangouts here

Let’s do this at Noon (EDT) on Friday.  See what local time that is for you, here (put your own time zone in the second drop-down box).

And let’s make it a Show-and-Tell theme. Bring along your latest project(s) and show us what you’ve been up to! I will probably be filling some crochet hook orders while we chat.

The only way to get an invite to this first Polka Dot Cottage hangout is to follow PDC on Google+. This is different than having my personal account in one of your circles, so if we’ve already connected on G+, you’ll still need to follow the PDC page directly. This is the only way I will know to invite you to the chat!

Check your G+ home page, your chat box, or your notification bar. An invitation should appear in at least one of those places, once the hangout has started.

I should say… I’m still learning about this myself, and there may be kinks to work out. In other words, if you don’t get invited to hang out, or you can’t figure out where we are, don’t take it personally. I will do my best to make sure everyone who signs up gets an invitation to join us, but I may make some mistakes this first time.

If this first time goes well, I’ll make it a regular event. Sound like fun? I hope you’ll join me!

© Lisa Clarke

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Back in the Olden Days when I had a dialup BBS, I used to collect and post recipes quite a bit.  I used a little piece of software called Meal Master, which allowed you to keep an electronic database of your recipes, which you could then export to a text file or print. Well, technology marched along, as it often does, and it became difficult to use a DOS-based program in a Windows-based world, so I switched to Master Cook, while still keeping Meal Master around in a DOS window for old time’s sake.

My happy little recipe database days ended two years ago when I got a new computer running Windows 7.  Neither of my programs would run on it.  I didn’t really care too, too much at that point, since I wasn’t feeling all that excited by the kitchen and I had printouts of my tried and true recipes anyway.  But something snapped a few weeks ago, and I suddenly wanted to get organized again.

I did my research. I found an option for trying to run Meal Master through a third party utility, but it only half worked, and it broke before I could get access to the recipes.  I tried to do something with Master Cook, but the consensus on the web was that it doesn’t work on Windows 7 and the company supports it so poorly, it’s not worth even trying.

I decided I needed a modern solution. I signed up for an account at BigOven.com, and so far so good.  Big Oven has a desktop component, a website, and a mobile app, and they can all speak to each other.  That’s a vast improvement right there.  The desktop software even has a way to import Master Cook cookbooks, so I could get all of my old recipes back. Alison, who has a working copy of Master Cook, answered my Facebook plea and exported my Master Cook cookbook into the proper format for me. I imported all of the old favorites (and a whole bunch of recipes that I apparently am only keeping for nostalgia’s sake because looking at them now all I think is “ew”) into Big Oven, and now I am back in business.  Hooray! (And thank you, Alison!)

I’ve started using the meal plan feature, and the shopping list, which is great, although here’s a word to the wise: if your mobile device happens to be a wifi-only tablet and you don’t have 3G access, you’d better print your shopping list before you leave for the store. It’s not saved locally. I learned that the hard way at Whole Foods yesterday. I ended up going from memory, and then driving somewhere that I could get a wifi signal, and checking the list to see what I missed (“yogurt, cilantro, lemon, lime, pepper” became my mantra all the way back to the store).

Last night I was excited to be making an old favorite: Chicken and Pasta in Ginger Sauce.  So excited, in fact, that I forgot to photograph my bowl until I was all finished devouring the contents of it. It’s a bummer, since I like to share pictures of the foods I tell you about.  But no. All I have for you is a couple of scenes from a post-supper kitchen that needed to be cleaned up.

I came up with this recipe in the early days of my marriage after trying a similar recipe from In the Kitchen With Rosie (remember that one? Rosie was Oprah’s cook). It was absolutely delicious, but the preparation was waaaay too time-consuming for my taste.  I don’t remember the original recipe at all now, and the book has long since been donated to some organization or other, but I do remember that I made substitutions that shaved a lot of the extra time and effort from this dish, and I still liked it quite a bit.

Ingredients

• 2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts; halved
• 8 ounces Spaghetti; uncooked
• 1 Chicken bouillon cube
• 1 medium Red bell pepper
• 1 large Leek; white part only, trimmed and cut in 1-inch half-rounds
• 1 tablespoon Olive oil

THE SAUCE

• 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
• 3 teaspoons Ginger; ground
• 1/8 teaspoon Red pepper flakes crushed
• 1 teaspoon Thyme dried
• 2 teaspoons Lime juice
• 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons Soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup White cooking wine
• 2 teaspoons Honey

Directions

• Combine the sauce ingredients, and set aside.
• Put the leek and pepper in a large skillet with a little bit of olive oil. Saute for about 3 minutes, just until the vegetables begin to wilt. Remove vegetables from the skillet and set aside. Add chicken to the skillet (and more olive oil, if necessary), and cook in the vegetable juices until no longer pink. Add the sauce to the skillet. Bring to a boil, and simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes. Prick the chicken with a fork, to let the juices seep in. Add the vegetables back into the skillet and cook for an additional 5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
• While the chicken is simmering, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Dissolve the bouillon cube in the water. Add the spaghetti, and cook to desired doneness. Transfer the pasta to a serving bowl. Arrange the chicken and vegetables and sauce on top, and enjoy!

If you’re a member of BigOven, you can click the recipe image below to add it to your Try Soon list (and you can click here to connect with me over there).

© Lisa Clarke

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I’m having a deliciously lazy weekend.  And as I lay around, flipping through books, I have visions of domesticity dancing in my head. The challenge is to translate those visions into action, once Monday comes.

I read somewhere about Heidi Swanson‘s Millet Muffins. I really thought someone posted it here, in response to my request for breakfast help, but I couldn’t find the comment. Wherever it was that I originally read about them, I was inspired to put Heidi’s Super Natural Every Day cookbook on my library reserve list.  I was able to pick the book up today, and after flipping leisurely through it, I’m considering putting it on my wish list for my permanent collection. For now, though, I’ve just copied a couple of recipes into my database, and marked them “try me!”

Wanting a natural foods cookbook like this is kind of a big deal for someone who grew up refusing any food that wasn’t in the hot dog family…

It’s 7:30 on a rainy Sunday night as I write, and I am almost consumed by the idea of running out to Whole Foods right now and buying muffin ingredients. I barely recognize myself. I am going to brew myself a cup of decaf, put on some lounge pants, and install myself into my favorite spot on the couch with my latest crochet project and wait for the feeling to pass…

Hope your weekend has been lovely!

© Lisa Clarke

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Ready to finish that blanket? If you’ve been following along so far, at this point you should have something that looks  like the image above.

If you missed Part One of this project, where I explained how to get this far, read this post first and then come back here to get the scoop on doing the border.

In all actuality, you could probably stop here if you really wanted to, but I prefer to add a border. It makes the blanket look more complete, and it helps eliminate that wavy-edge.

Choosing Border Colors

There are many techniques you can use to add a border to a blanket, but for this blanket, I wanted to keep the granny square thing going.

Remember how we made each square: a large center main color, one round of an accent color, and then two rounds of two different main colors.

Think about our blanket so far as the large center of a giant granny square. In order to make it fit in with our color rules, we’ll need to add a round of accent color and two rounds of two different main colors, around the entire thing.

Choose your colors carefully. The border won’t be terribly large, but it will have a significant impact. You should use three colors that you really want to stand out, because not only will the whole blanket be surrounded by these colors, but the border will also have the effect of making those colors pop in the center of the blanket as well.

This is the part where Eamonn and I had to compromise. I was very set on using gold as the accent color, but he was equally set on red. Additionally, he didn’t want a three-round border at all, but a one-round border, entirely in red. In the end, we went with my three-round idea, but replaced my gold accent with the red he wanted. Luckily both of us are happy with the results!

Crocheting the Border

If you still have a loose end from the last square you made, then join the AC to that end, and insert your hook into that corresponding space. If all of your ends are already woven in, just make a slip knot and insert your hook into any non-corner space of your choosing.

Border Round 1: By now you are an expert at making a granny square, so I don’t need to tell you the specific stitches. This round is exactly like all of the others we’ve done, except it’s much larger. When you get to a spot where one square has been joined to another, use the gap between the two squares as one of your spaces to 3dc into, as shown above, and then just keep going.

At the end of the first border round, the entire blanket will be surrounded in the accent color. This may not look terrific, and you may wonder if you should have included an AC in the border at all, but don’t worry. The final two border rounds in the MCs will nicely tone down the AC and it will return to being simply a complementary accent.

Switch to MC1 and crochet Border Round 2 in the same manner as Border Round 1.

Switch to MC2, add Border Round 3 in the same manner as the previous two rounds, and your blanket will be complete!

You may wish to block the blanket, but I felt it wasn’t really necessary. If you do want to lightly block it, spread it out on a rubber floor or blocking tiles, pin the edges and corners, and spritz it with water. Let it sit overnight, or until dry.

Of course, the best part of all is sharing the fruits of your labor with a special someone. Especially if he is an experienced practitioner of the art of being cozy!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that it has made some sense!  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask them here.

P.S. You can queue it up on Ravelry, if you are so inclined!

Tutorials like this represent many hours of work. Consider showing your support by purchasing the complete PDF version. Thank you!

Flufy's Granny Square Blanket

Crochet a granny square lap blanket for your favorite kid, or for yourself! If you can do a small handful of basic crochet stitches, you can make this blanket.

Click here for more details

Price: $1.99

© Lisa Clarke

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I finished it.

And a nine-year-old somebody was very happy.

Did you see the post where I showed you how to make granny squares and put them together? Well, sometime in the next few days, I will show you how to make a border. Then you can make your own nine-year-old son (or your niece, or your neighbor, or yourself) happy with a blanket just like Eamonn’s.

Yay!

[edited: Part two is done! View it here. Or go here to get a handy downloadable version.]

P.S. Thanks for all of the great comments lately. Life has been a little busy, so I haven’t had time to reply. I do appreciate them, though, and if you’ve asked a question, I’ll try to answer in the next few days!

© Lisa Clarke

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I’ve started walking again. I am entirely too sedentary during the day, I think, and I know it’s not good for me. So, I’ve started walking again. This weekend, I went out twice.  the first time, I took both boys with me. It ended up being more of a leisurely stroll than a proper walk, as well as an exercise in patience as there was brotherly bickering and the carrying along of branches that were twice as tall as the little person who insisted upon carrying them…

The second time, I learned my lesson and just took one of my offspring along. And my camera. Oh! Spring is just exploding all over this neighborhood!  I love it.  This is such a feel-good time of year for me. There’s something about those first few days of waking up with the windows open that makes me deliriously inspired.

I daydream a lot about sewing projects in the middle of April. Actually working on those projects is another story. What April lacks in action, though, it more than makes up for in daydreaminess. And blossoms.

Oh, by the way, I really have to thank you for all of the breakfast advice. I’ve read every comment, but I still need to digest them (so to speak).  I predict some fun and experimenty mornings on my horizon. Thanks!

© Lisa Clarke

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I want to love green smoothies, really!  My go-to breakfast choice is nearly always abyssmal (coffee and a cookie, anyone?). So, I’ve been experimenting with them for a few weeks.

I started with Heather (Beauty That Moves)’s basic recipe, and I’ve changed it up here and there.  I’ve used soy milk, whole milk, and almond milk.  I’ve done them with maple syrup, with agave nectar, and with no added sweetener.  I’ve done strawberries + bananas, blueberries raspberries + bananas, and strawberries + tropical fruits.  No matter how I switch it up, I nearly always have the same reaction: meh.

I suppose “meh” is an improvement over “blech,” which is what I thought I would think of green smoothies until I had the guts to try one.

The thing is, I expect more from my breakfast than mere adequacy. I think when it comes right down to it, what I expect is solidity. As in solid food. As in, I can’t get past the fact that my breakfast is a drink.

I don’t want to go back to cookies, so I need a good healthy alternative that I can (literally) sink my teeth into.  I am thinking that it would be nice in a muffin format.  Do any of you have a delicious muffin recipe that is also packed with all of the amazing good stuff a body needs to properly start the day? Would you be willing to share?

Thank you in advance for making my mornings happier

© Lisa Clarke

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I have to admit, I am getting a bit of pleasure out of this stage of my tax preparation… Because we have our own businesses, taxes at the Clarke house are not particularly simple.  We need to declare use of part of our home as a home office, and because of that, we need to keep track of everything we spend in the care and maintenance of this house.

I have a handy spreadsheet I’ve created for just such a thing, but I was very VERY bad about keeping it up to date in 2011.  (read: I didn’t do it at all).  So these last few days, I have spent poring over every last business and personal bank and credit card statement we have, and filling in all of those empty spreadsheet cells.  The fuller that spreadsheet gets the more excited I am to identify trends in our spending!

My inner nerd is showing.

Four more months worth of statements to go, and then I will have to resist the temptation to play with statistics, and get started on the actual tax return. Boo. Boring.

The good news is that I have been keeping the 2012 financial spreadsheet up to date since January, so there will be none of this week-long statement-fest next year. I’ll be all prepared. And I can watch the trends as they happen (and hopefully adjust some of the more out-of-control budget items along the way… “Dining Out,” I’m looking at you!)

My love of numbers, but my dislike of boring things makes my relationship with income taxes rather complicated. How about you? Love doing ‘em, hate ‘em, or somewhere in the middle?

© Lisa Clarke

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I sometimes wish I could think my blog posts into being. I’d have written four or five of them in the last week!  I had quite the prolific run on my blog back in 2007 and 2008, and I have moments of wishing for those days back. I still do have so much I could say, but often I don’t.

Over the years I’ve scaled back in part due to time constraints. Other times it’s a pure lack of creativity and a feeling I have nothing worthwhile to share here. And then there are those family things I’d love to talk about, but don’t because my kids are getting older and their privacy has become something I am more conscious of protecting.

Ah, well, I don’t want to over-think this blogging thing. (I just deleted three paragraphs that did just that.)

Let me just say that sometimes, when I want to poke my head in here without it taking All Darn Day, I am just going to dump the contents of my camera here, say hello, and give you a few words about where I’ve been.  I’d rather be here in a mostly visual way, than not be here at all.  Hope you don’t mind hearing from me more in that way…

And on that note, let me tell you briefly where I was last weekend: I was on deviantART, setting up an account, and uploading some of my photos.  I do plan to elaborate on this in a future post (it’s one of those I wrote in my head last week) but for now, feel free to click through, browse the gallery, even order a print or two if you like (with my sincere thanks!).

Ok. I must get back to those beckoning taxes. Oh, April. *sigh*

© Lisa Clarke

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I think maybe the first day back to school/work/etc after a week off, is the perfect time to start doing the taxes.

Having the family around for spring break, not being tied down to a schedule, enjoying the freedom of spontaneous plan-making… it’s all good. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t relish the opportunity to spend a few hours totally alone, with nothing but the sound of the keyboard clacking under my fingers for company.

Sometimes I feel the need for a solo vacation after the family vacation.

So here it is, Monday morning, and while I kind of miss everyone, I also kind of don’t. I am ready to spend the day in my dumpy clothes, sipping coffee and plugging numbers into spreadsheets. It’s oddly relaxing.

Have a nice week! If you need me, I’ll be over in the introvert section, enjoying a little math in my pj’s.

© Lisa Clarke

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