Have your cake and eat it too!

I'm a doer.

I like doing things for other people.

Its just in my nature. 

Unfortunately sometimes I get busy doing and agree to do to much.

Case and point: This weekend.

Gawain's coworker was taking donations for an auction this weekend.  I agreed to bake a cake for it.  Its an auction right?  It has to be fancy! (um that was my stipulation, not the coworkers).

Yes, you are correct!  I did in fact make a triple layer keylime coconut cake with key lime frosting in between the layers and swiss meringue buttercream frosting on the outside with sprinkled toasted coconut  and a key lime on top. (yes those are the key limes I got from Lee's Market)

Yummy right?

We were so sad to see that go out the door.  We couldn't really eat it anyway with our competition going on.

Froggy's best friend was also having his birthday this weekend.  His mommy asked if I could make the cake, to which I promptly agreed and also offered to make cupcakes for.

Again, a doer.  

All of this wouldn't have been such a big deal if they weren't all needed on the same day (Saturday) and if I didn't have some weird ear infection/cold/sinus infection with which I was feeling more like dying over and not so much like baking.

As you can see it turned out ok in the end.

(I guess I actually just really like baking when it comes down to it, and since we can't have any good stuff with this competition, I haven't been able to bake as much as I'd like)

Thank you for my cake, but seriously, do I have to wear this stupid hat!?!?!?

The price is right!

In an effort to help us Gawain win the Biggest Loser competition , I have been trying to buy more veggies and fruits. Just 5 servings is an easy one point. Actually we really like veggies and fruits any way, and tried to eat plenty before the competition. I'm sure you know that they aren't exactly cheap.

Enter Lee's Market.

A couple of months ago we were at a party and some friends told us about this market where all of the produce is really, really cheap. Like they had bought 2 avocados for like a dollar. Dude! I had just bought one avocado that day for like 2 dollars! They said that it was in White Center and I should check it out.

Ok, I have a confession to make. I am TOTALLY TERRIFIED of White Center.

Yes, it is basically only 2 blocks from my house, but seriously, it is like one of the ghettos of Seattle. You only have to say "White Center" and people you are talking to are like "Ohhh...." like "Oh dear I can't believe you are still alive." Like seriously, in the first couple of months that we lived here, our car was broken into 3 times, the second time, the stereo and speakers were stolen and the third time the starter was destroyed in an effort to start and steal the car. The main drag of white center has at least 3 porno shops, which like to display the nativity scene at Christmas time and there is just overall general seedy-ness. I hate to stereotype, but, there you go.

ANYWAY, I decided since times are tough and money is tight I would overcome my fear and go to this Lee's market and check out the produce.

Pictured below is a typical trip to the market. Please guess how much I spent.

Go on, guess!

Can you believe everything pictured above (except the dog) was only $9.10???? I'm serious! I can barely believe it myself!

It works like so:

Already bagged things are $1.25. Anything not bagged is either 3 for a $1 or 2 for $1 or some insanely cheap amount per lb. In fact, I go in there so often, sometimes the nice lady behind the counter just lets me have stuff for free (like a single jalapeno pepper or a tiny little thing of ginger). There is a catch, in that they don't always have the same things (like for a while they had a giant bag of romaine hearts for $1.25, haven't seen that in a while) but if you aren't picky they have lots of stuff to enjoy. The best thing we've found twice now is a bag of about 50 key limes for $1.25. at the store 1 lb (about 30 limes) is 4.99, and it takes 22 limes to make our favorite dessert. The quality is actually suprisingly good for the price you are paying. I see them outside pulling off the bad bits of lettuce and bok choy and just putting the good stuff in bags. They may be smoking while they are doing it, but hey, I wash it all of when I get home anyway, right?

Here's to hoping you have something as equally awesome in a ghetto neighborhood close to you!

Knitting projects 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11

So as you can tell, I've been a busy little bee knitting. There has been an onslaught of babys, and requests for things, so unfortunately the Professor and Gawain have been keeping eachother busy while I've been knitting as fast as I can. Here are the finished products:

A meathead hat for a precious baby boy, embellished with a cool wooden button



Another meathead hat for another precious baby, not embellished this time



Meathead hat #3 for a baby girl, embellished with a crocheted pink flower



A luxurious baby blanket for the above button baby boy



My attempt to make my 25 year old sister a skull and crossbones hat like the Professor's.....



Obviously size 6 needles were perfect for a new hat for the Professor, not so perfect for a hat for my sister....



There, size 8 needles worked much better.....

The story of a boy and a girl

******WARNING!: THIS IS A BONAFIED OOEY GOOEY MUSHY LOVEY DOVEY POST! IF SUCH THINGS MAKE YOUR STOMACH TURN PLEASE LEAVE, I DO NOT LIKE CLEANING UP VOMIT!**********

Boy meets girl



Girl becomes crazy stalker-like obsessed over boy



Boy leaves on 2 year mission



Girl tries to forget boy, but just can't



Boy comes home to find girl engaged to someone else (hey, he told me not to wait!)



Girl and "other man" break up(Not because of boy, but it could have been....)



Boy woos girl



Girl didn't really need to be wooed, but is wooed right away



Boy proposes to girl



Girl is estatic! All her dreams are coming true!



Boy and girl are married(married!)



Boy and girl live happily ever after.....



The end!(or the beginning?)



Happy fifth wedding anniversary Gawain!
I hate to say it this way, but you are my dream come true
I love you!
(Hey, I said at the beginning, if you didn't like the mush, then head for the hills!)

*note: Our anniversary was actually Feb 21...sorry Gawain...I couldn't find all of the pictures I wanted!

Knitting Projects #3, 4, & 5

So I've been busy trying to complete the baby blanket I was commissioned to knit.  Here it is finally!:

The cute recipient enjoying his blankie

Since that "big" project was done, I had an explosion of little projects that I wanted to do, and so I knitted up this hat while I was watching the premier of season 5 for Lost.

I liked it but decided two strands of this yarn were too bulky and one strand made the hat too thin (it's made with one and I can see the little Professor's head peaking through the holes).  I decided to get different yarn and try it with the recommended two strands.  I also knit it in the round this time, instead of on the recommended straight needles and then sewing up a seam (which i completely loathe doing).  This is how it turned out:

Very awesome, I think, not because I knitted it, just because it's a really easy project that turns out totally awesome.  Took only about an hour to do.  Too bad the Professor lost it in the grocery store the very next day :o(

Dear Mommy, I'm sorry I lost my hat.  I just get too hot sometimes.  Please make me another one. Love the Professor

Knitting Project #1 and 2

In my quest to see if I can beat my project count from last year, I thought I'd keep track of it here.  Here are my first two projects, and you guessed it, they are baby hats!

This hat is a fusion of this pattern and this pattern.  Of course for the Professor!

This hat is for a very prego lady at church, who is due I think tomorrow, but only looks like she is about 5 months pregnant.  Whatever, I doubt her baby will be 9 lbs like the Professor was....

Knit knit knit

So Martha says (you know, Martha Stewart) that in 2007 an average of 21 projects were knitted by people that, you know, knit.  As I read this, I was wondering if I had completed 21 projects in one year.  Even though they were mostly hats, I came to realize that I think I had done 21 projects last year, including knitting hats for every single one of the babies in my birthing class:

(yeah that ugly hat in the middle, I don't know who knitted that but it wasn't me)

That counts for 9 projects.  I've also made 3 hats for the Professor

One hat for Gawain's boss's daughter

2 blankets for wedding presents

2 baby blankets, a scarf for a secret santa gift, 9 other baby hats I don't have pictures of, one hat someone paid me to knit them and a sweater and a pair of fingerless gloves for Gawain. As far as I can count, I think the total is 30 projects!  The thing is, I just love to knit, especially for other people, so its easy to crank out the projects in no time.  This year is shaping up the same.  So far I've knitted a hat for the Professor, another baby hat for a shower this week, and I'm working on a baby blanket that someone commissioned me to knit.  It may be hard to beat but I'll have to see if I can do atleast 30 projects again this year.  Thanks Gawain for letting me knit all of the time!

Just because everyone else is doing it means I must do it too!

With all the "green"ness going on lately, Gawain and I have been trying to step it up a notch. We have been trying to be better about separating our trash better, recycling what can be recycled, composting what can be composted, and really only throwing away the Professor's diapers (which I know isn't that great, but we're working on that). We have seriously considered using gDiapers, and most likely will once the Professor isn't going through 5 billion diapers a day (we also have to make sure they will flush in our toilet that doesn't have a very good flushing capacity...Isabel please bring one of Baboo's over next time you are in the neighborhood). When purchasing a new car, we got one that claims good gas mileage and is a ULEV. Gawain takes the bus to work, and if its possible, I try and walk to the store and only run errands in the car when I have a long list so I don't use the car too excessively.

We are trying to do our part to minimize our "carbon butt print".

The latest thing that I have fallen in with is reusable grocery bags. I used to see people using them in the grocery store, at Target, at Babies-R-Us, and think "oh that's nice, but they're too small for my purposes! And more expensive than free." If I was only getting a couple of things, I would usually just say "oh I don't need a bag" and try and be good to the environment that way.

Enter having a baby.

The first couple of weeks after the Professor was born, people from our church were nice enough to bring us meals. One of those meals was brought to us in a fancy Trader Joe's reusable grocery bag.

Ok, first of all, this was a lot cooler than any of the other reusable bags I'd seen thus far. I mean seriously look at it:

By happy chance, this same family brought us dinner again, in another cool bag. I decided I would go pick up some bags, so I tried to return the former bag. She was nice enough to just let me have both!

Let me tell you. These new bags are super convenient! A lot fits in them, they are stronger than paper, bigger than plastic, and they have long enough straps that you can swing them over your shoulder if you need too. I ended up going to Trader Joe's, saw the awesome beach one, and asked how much it was.

$.99.

Really???? A buck to have a more awesome bag than plastic??? So I don't have this happening???

I have now been using the bags everytime I go anywhere. They are very awesome, and I feel good about helping the environment. Really, a couple bucks to not have a billion plastic bags running around is the least I could do!

You rock mommy!!!

***** I do know and realize that disposable diapers are awful for the environment. Like I said I'm working on that, and hopefully we will have a solution soon. Didn't want anyone to think I'm a hypocrite!*******

Tagged!!

So Marie was so kind to consider Gawain and I to be tagged. The deal is we write 7 things about us that everyone may or may not know. Here I go:

1. I am officially the biggest band geek you know. I started in 6th grade and stayed with it through 12th grade. I can play the trumpet, trombone, baritone, euphonium, and piano. My senior year of high school, I played in the marching band, jazz band, two concert bands, and was an assistant drum major and elected band president. oye.

2. My sister and I used to be obsessed with stealing bathroom signs. This also lumped over into stealing any sign my friends and I could steal when we went to Vegas one time in college. I have since curbed that obsession.

3. I have really really really really really long arms. Its almost embarrassing! They were even measured once. From finger tip to fingertip I have a 6 foot long arm span. I can also do a "rubber girl" impression with my very long arms (think Ace Ventura when he is running through the woods after being shot with African tribal darts and his arms are going numb)(start at 45 sec to see full fledged rubber arm action, and yes I can do that)

4. I have met Dale Chihuly on multiple occasions. He is very nice, but shy. I have also nannied his son on a couple of occasions. He is very bratty and whiny.

5. My favorite job I've ever had was working as a server at Joe's Crab Shack. I had to dance every 30 min (not like a stripper, like doing the Cotton Eyed Joe and the Macarana). It was the most funnest job in the world!!!!!

6. Gawain and I got to go to Vancouver, BC and see U2 perform for their Vertigo tour. My ticket won us the chance to go into the "bomb shelter", or the inner part of the pit to be right next to the stage. It was literally the fence in front of the stage, a crazy couple from Miami, and then us. I am now in love with The Edge.

7. Although I deny that I ever did it on purpose, everyone around me (meaning my sister) swears that when we were little, I used to swing on a see saw on our swing set and call her over and try to hit her on purpose. I think she was just stupid and would walk in front of me when I was swinging. Either way, she got hit on more than one occasion from my swinging on the see saw.

There you have it! Please don't think less of me!