Sweater Week 1

One of my New Years Resolution is to knit my first sweater. Last year my resolution was to knit socks, which I accomplished with quite a bit of success, this year I am graduating to sweaters. I am knitting the Hooded Sweater on the Lion Brand website. The pattern is labeled easy and so far I think I know what I doing. Here is the first 7 inches of the back of the sweater.

Pinata Balls

I made pinata balls for my little cousin as a Christmas present. I got the idea from Not Martha. Here they are drying.

I filled them with little gum ball machine toys, stickers and candy. The little pink tabs say pull me. I think I used too many layers on the top where the string is because on at least one of them the string broke before it opened.


Doug bought me a cookbook for Christmas. It's Around the World in 350 recipes. There are a lot of really good looking recipes in it. It has an African section, European, Asian and Middle Eastern. I'm not digging the rabbit recipes. I'd never cook up Phoebe and have her for dinner. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes.

Doug's Christmas Presents

Two Christmas presents I finished up for Doug this week. He loves Puss & Boots from the movie Shrek and if you didn't know Puss & Boots is getting his own novie.

Puss & Boots latch hook.

Comfy pillow that I made. It's made out of a velvety type material.

Ugly Food

I had two attempts at cooking this weekend and both were a success. The first is a Cheddar Broccoli Meat Loaf. It wasn't pretty, but tasted good. I was supposed to roll it up once I had the cheddar and broccoli on it. The rolling didn't work too well and it ended up kind of ugly.

The next is quick and easy Beef Stroganoff that I've made before. It's basically a box of macarooni and cheese with cream of mushroom soup and a pound of ground beef added. It tastes better than it looks.

The Girls Bracelet

I made this bracelet the other day. I love the beads, I think they are so cute. My favorite one is the one with the big pink hair.

There haven't been any cooking attempts this week. Dad has bought me dinner a couple of times and everything else has been heated up leftovers. I think I'm going to make a meatloaf this weekend. Perhaps I will get around to making my chicken and rice dish.

Michelle Attempts to Cook

Well, my attempts at cooking today weren't too bad, I was 2 of 3.

Tater Tot casserole came out wonderful as always. It's one of the few things that I've never screwed up. Mom requested that I make it for dinner tonight.

The sesame kale was quite another story. First of all, I wasn't aware that kale shrinks when you cook it. My Dad decided to inform me of that after I finished cooking it. There was only a tiny bit for everyone, but that was okay because it tasted like ass and no one wanted it. Dad was the only one that liked to so he ate the little bit that everyone had. He left with the recipe card because I will never be making it again.

The candied pecans were really good. The first pan was a little over done. The recipe said to cook for 45 minutes but I ended up cooking them for only 30 minutes. Jars of candied pecans are my Christmas presents to everyone. I bought a dozen plain mason jars and I think I am going to add a gold ribbon to make them look a little fancier.

I had planned on making a chicken and rice casserole to freeze and eat this week, but I'm too tired from all of the cooking, cleaning and present wrapping, maybe I'll make it tomorrow night.

Eat Your Veggies

My second attempt at cooking last week, Orange Soy Glazed Greenbeans. They were okay, not bad, but not good either. My first attempt at cooking last week was thrown away. Making non-crunchy rice still escapes me. More attempts at cooking will be made today. Wish me luck.

Post #1!!

My first post. WOOT! I feel I should introduce myself first, but I'll save that for later. I bought a paint your pet bowl set at Michael's last night. It was on sale for $4.88 and I had just left Petsmart not finding a pet bowl I liked. I put each of the four cat's names on it. I'm going to wrap it up and give it to them for Christmas.