adventures in baking

I made rainbow cupcakes for my birthday! (Yes, I made my own birthday cupcakes, because I REALLY REALLY wanted these, and they were fun. I like baking, just not cooking.)

Dyeing six different colors of batter.

Foil cupcake liners make the insides a surprise.

(Plus they're shiny.)

Carefully dribble each layer on top of the next (in ROYGBIV order, of course.)

Here's a close-up, Mr. Demille.

Fresh out of the oven.

Here's the inside. They came out just perfect, and tasty, too!

My next project is Star Wars cookies for May the Fourth. Get it? May the Fourth be with you!

what's crazier than planning a wedding in 10 days?

What's crazier than planning a wedding in ten days? Deciding you need to make a handknit sweater to wear to the wedding in ten days. The stress of getting married does strange things to one's ability to tell reason from madness.

So Jason and I decided it was time to get married already. We took our happy heinies to the courthouse and got a license, just figuring we'd get married at the courthouse in two weeks, the soonest convenient time, . Then we started talking and dreaming about what we REALLY wanted, and my parents mentioned the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, coincidentally the site of our third date. We checked prices online, and our favorite little garden was only 300 bucks! Booked! But, uh, now we needed to plan a wedding. 1, 2, 3, GO!

I had a dress already, so that was done, but, apparently believing this planning-a-wedding-in-10-days thing didn't sound crazy enough, I decided I NEEDED to wear a handknit sweater. I'd been playing with the idea of a basketweave cardigan in the orange Malabrigo, and fortunately I already had a gauge swatch, so I just cast on the correct-ish number of stitches and went for it.

My mom told me about her friend whose son is a photographer. Sold! Actually, the conversation went something like this.
Mom: "Kathy's son Alex does wedding photography."
Me: "Great. Let's go with that."
Mom: "Are you interested in looking at his portfolio?"
Me: "Nah, I'm sure he's fine. Book him."
Mom: "Don't you at least want to see his pictures?"
Me: "Nah. How many ways can you screw up a wedding? I'm sure he's fine. Book him."
Mom: "Look, I've pulled up his website on the computer. Come look at his portfolio."
Me: "I'm sure he's fine-"
Mom: "Come look at his portfolio!"
Me: "Fine." looks "He's fine. Book him!"

The body of the sweater finished quickly, and I cast on for sleeves. I made nice long cuffs because I have the arms of an orangutan and can never find sleeves long enough. Also, my hands are always cold and I like to have sleeves long enough that I can tuck my hands in them for warmth. I sort of winged it when I got to the sleeve increases. They came out a little wonky at first because I couldn't decide how I wanted them to work with the basketweave pattern, but I got it figured out. They're in the armpit anyway and with this deadline, I wasn't going to kill myself with the details.

My little sister had wanted to perform my wedding ever since she found out that was possible. We poked around and discovered that the state of Georgia really doesn't care who marries you as long as all your paperwork is legal, so we got her ordained as a minister of the Universal Life Church one night. (Confession: she was drooling on a towel after emergency wisdom-teeth-removal surgery, so I actually filled out all the stuff for her. Shhh!) Officiant? Check! And for free!

The sweater body was done; the sleeves were done, and I was running dangerously low on yarn. I put in an emergency order to Eat.Sleep.Knit. for two more skeins. Two days later, the yarn showed up at my door. I love Eat.Sleep.Knit, and the delivery speed further cemented my obsession. Those people are like yarn ninjas!

Jason's only suit was old and ill-fitting, so that had to be replaced. Honestly, this was the most trying part of the whole wedding. Guy clothes are hard to shop for and expensive, and Jason hates to a) try stuff on, and b) spend money. We've always had a backup plan, for if the wedding didn't work out: murder/suicide. That plan got a lot of VERY SERIOUS CONSIDERATION over the agonizing two-day deathmarch of suit shopping. We finally got a very spiffy-looking, not-too-expensive suit, and I finished the yoke of the sweater. Handsome groom? Check!

I ordered a bouquet of daisies from a local flower store, and Mom made reservations at our favorite restaurant for the after-wedding-dinner (I guess you'd call it a reception, but it was just like a dinner with our families.) I finished weaving in the ends of my sweater the night before the wedding, and by some miracle, it came out perfectly. I'd tried it on as I went, and used The Knitter' s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns to help me figure out the sleeve and shoulder decreases, but this sweater came out far more perfectly than anything designed and knit in ten days has any right to. The knitting goddesses were smiling upon me.

The next day, we got married, with a short little ceremony, perfect weather, a beautiful location, and our families. It was exactly what I wanted. Plus, I got this really great husband out of it!

Just add water, and boom! (Nearly) instant wedding!

what I did last Friday (another photo essay)

Ninjabread men! (a photo essay)

PS: Ninjabread men cookie cutters can be found here. Roll-out brownie cookie recipe can be found here. I added mini chocolate chips before baking for extra noms. Also, in picture 2, notice the wine bottle wrapped in plastic? Turns out I don't own a rolling pin. Oops.

snowed in

Atlanta experienced some serious record snow in January, like shutting-down-the-city-for-a-week snow. It was crazy. I was supposed to start my new job that week, but instead I spent that time snowed in with my honey. It was nice. I'd wanted to take a week off between jobs to refresh and regroup but didn't think it financially advisable. Fortunately for me, Mother Nature decided I deserved a break.

I had plenty of time to go through all the pattern books I'd gotten for Christmas.

I think I'm going to be busy for a while.

I made banana bread.

I would include an after shot here, but my sweetie and I inhaled an entire loaf of banana bread in less than 24 hours. We were in full-on hibernation mode. It was wonderful.

Now, that's enough winter for me, thanks. Please to be sending spring now!

damn rabbit hole

Please forgive my long absence. I have fallen down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest. I've been a busy little bunny there. If you want to check me out, I'm LightWading.

PS: I only got sucked into this because of Ysolda, so I thought about blaming her. But really, I think I should be more concerned that my girl-crush on Miss Whimsical Little Knits seems to be edging into obsession territory, with a possibility of stalking. I'm harmless, I promise!

warm and toasty

I get really cold in the winter, miserably cold, all winter long. I've survived so far through a creative mix of layering and whining. I wanted to make myself a nice cuddly winter vest to keep my vulnerable bellular area warm, and Abrazo seemed like a perfect match.
My sweetie bought me the yarn, I swatched it, and then I realized . . .

I got the wrong yarn. It's supposed to be Malabrigo Chunky, not Malabrigo Twist. I can't get anything even close to gauge with the yarn I've got. Crap. I'm trying to decide between scrapping it altogether or forging ahead anyway and making a larger size to compensate for the gauge difference. I'm afraid I'll run out of yarn, though, and a warm winter vest doesn't do any good if it's not long enough to cover my belly button.

Fortunately, I got this in the mail today, a gift from my sweetie. I'll be the first to admit he may have an ulterior motive.

A drool-inducing cookbook that seems to have been written just for me. If I can't cover my belly with warm fuzzy yarn, I'll fill it with warm, tasty noms.