Purple Shawl

Here's another shawl! This one I sort of just made up as I went along using rows of double crochet and double crochet chain one.  Once you make a few triangle shaped shawls they all sort of follow the same formula.

I used Lion Brand Homespun in Purple Haze with a "L" hook.  

Blockette picked the yarn out.  She has such good taste in yarn.  Well, most of the time.  Her first choice is always neon pink but I think that's just a 7yr old thing.

I thought that I'd be good with just 2 skeins of yarn.  Nope.  I needed 3 and a half to finish the shawl like I wanted to.  Of course they didn't carry Purple Haze at Michaels so I had to make the haul to Joann Fabrics where I bought the original 2 skeins.  I got the last one in the store in the dye lot I needed.  What luck!

I just love how soft and fuzzy this shawl turned out!  It's maybe not the best shawl for the summer, but come November someone is going to enjoy cuddling up in it.

Black Bean Cookies

Here is the story of when I actually tell my daughter the truth, and she doesn't believe me.

You see, for the longest time she hated black beans.  Because I'm a mean mom I would make them all the time and make her eat them.  I did this enough that now she likes them.  But before that happened I'd tell her that EVERYTHING had black beans in it.  Especially dessert.  (See?  Super mean mom!)  So when I told her that these Chocolate Brownie Cookies from Eliza's Edibles had black beans in them she thought I was yanking her chain.

Unlike these chickpea cookies, you could not taste the beans. 

Also, I've noticed that desserts with legumes can have an unusual texture. I made one key change to the recipe from Eliza's Edibles that masked the tell tale bean-i-ness.  OATS!  Oats totally save the day.  The texture of the oats covers up anything that might be confused for a bean.  Awesome!

Here's my adaptation of Eliza's Edibles' Secretly Healthy Black Bean Brownie Cookies
1 1/2 c cooked black beans (or use 1 can salt free black beans)
2 T milk
1 1/2 T peanut butter
2 T olive oil
1 t vanilla
3 T whole wheat flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/2c + 1 T sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 c old fashioned oats
1/3 c dark chocolate chips plus extra for topping

Preheat oven to 375.  In food processor, blend beans until they get clumpy.  Add milk, peanut butter, oil and vanilla.  Blend and blend and blend until very very smooth, making sure to scrape the sides.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Add this to the bean mixture in 3-4 parts, scraping down the sides and blending smooth after each addition.  Pulse in the oats.  Your dough should be very light and fluffy at this time and fully pureed.  Do not over mix at this point or your oats will turn into oat flour.  Stir in chips by hand.  Using a small scoop place on parchment lined cookie sheets.  Gently flatten cookies with moistened fingertips.  (These cookies spread very little.) Gently press 3 or so chips into the top of the dough.  Bake for 10 min. Cool on sheet for 3 min, then cool on rack.  Store covered in fridge.

Another T-shirt surgery

Here's another shirt that was too large for me that I cut down to size.

 Our church does crop walk in the fall, so I left this shirt on the less fitted side.  That way I can wear a long sleeve shirt underneath if it's chilly outside.

If you notice, I made the shirt considerably wider at the bottom.  As I'm a shorty short pants this shirt goes way down over my bum.  Since my bum is considerably wider than my mid section, I allowed extra width to accommodate the junk in my trunk. The shirt now fits comfortably over my behind.  As an added bonus the sleeves are not so wide that you can see the side of my bra when I move my arm.  Yay!

May Reads

Not much happened in the world of reading over the month of May. 

 I did too much catching up on TV and crafting to do reading.  

The only things I read were the graphic novels: Walking dead book 5  and book 6

This is going to have to change over the summer or my brain will congeal.

Last Day of Second Grade

Green T-shirt Makeover

Here is my boring green shirt. ZZZZZZzzzzz.

I found it on clearance at JoAnn Fabric of all places.  It had some weird sort of stain on the front. While I managed to remove the stain, I've had this shirt for almost a year and NEVER worn it. 

Aside from being boring, the shirt was just a tad too short.  It sat right at the waistband of my jeans.  Every time I raised my arms you could see my belly and all it's lovely stretchy stretch marks.

No thanks. 

Something had to be done. 

Mrblocko had this shirt that he bought from our vacation in Oregon many many moons ago.  He has since lost quite a bit of weight so the shirt is too big for him.  The shirt also has some unattractive sweat stains in the armpits.  So instead of pitching that shirt, I hacked it up!

Here's the finished product:

I used the bottom of the gray shirt where it was already hemmed to lengthen the green shirt. I stitched over the existing hem stitching on the green shirt to attach the gray band.

And here it is on:

Ta da!  No more peek-a-boo belly.

Yay!

Robe for Blockette

We are trying to teach Blockette to be modest.  This has involved her wearing a robe when she comes out of the shower instead of making a nakid dash from the bathroom to her bedroom. 

Wouldn't you know it but the kid outgrew the durn thing?  The nerve of the child.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a robe this time of year?

IMPOSSIBLE!!!!

Because apparently kids only wear robes when it's cold out.  Sigh.

So I tried to find some free instructions for making a robe online.  I came up with this and this.  Except it wasn't exactly what I wanted.  Then I realized what I wanted was a smaller version of a rob I had bought back in the late 80's.  It's so old that I got it from Pier One Imports back when they sold clothing.  Anyone else but me remember that?

So I traced the robe and scaled it down a bit, but not too much because I didn't want to have to make another robe next year. 

My bestie was even nice enough to let me go shopping in her fabric stash.  I found this nice purple lightweight paisley stuff.  It worked perfectly.

Please excuse the weird photo.  Apparently we must twirl when I'm photographing clothing.

Blockette says she feels like she is wearing a kimono, in a good way.  She's actually not too far off.  It's really a lot like a summer kimono called a yukata.