happy thanksgiving!

bunks and i trekked home for thanksgiving.  here he is protesting being trapped in his carrying bag.  (just before, he was hopping around inside the bag, trying to dig and stomp his way out.)  "let me out!  let me out!"

jimmy and i joined forces this holiday and we baked an apple crumble together.  jimmy's task was to cut all the apples into 1/4 inch slices while i mixed the filling and topping.  it took forever to bake!  imagine us peering into the oven like little kids, wondering when it would be ready to eat.  hehe.  we then served it up with breyer's peach ice cream.

it was delicious.  treats are always more fun to make when someone else is helping out.  wheeeee!

happy thanksgiving, friends!  12 more days until my acl reconstruction surgery.  =(

wintry biking cap

biking is all the rage these days.  when the temperature is sub-30 degrees, how are peeps supposed to carry on with biking?  with a wool bike helmet liner of course!  my friend steve was lamenting how he was due to purchase a wool bike helmet liner recently.  "what?" i remark.  "there's such a thing?"  i immediately text jimmy, the best resource of all things techy and bikey, and sure enough, he had already bought such a wool bike helmet liner!  (they range from $20-$90!)  the design seemed simple enough: a wool skull cap.  shirley had given me a ton of nice grey wool.  i used only a tiny bit to drum this up!

like the red cross-stitched initials i added on?  i'm always a sucker for monograms, cross-stitching, and personalizations.  i serged the edges of the wool together.  in hindsight, i now realize i can get away with using a regular sewing machine, as hats do not require stretchability from the crown to the base of the hat, but only width-wise, and thus serging the side seams is not necessary.  this would reduce the bulk of the seams.  i just handstitched the bottom ends back.

i tried to hire a model for this hat, but alas, he just would not stay put for the camera...

model:  bunks
pattern:  http://blog.jenmeister.com/2010/08/reversible-cycling-cap.html
camera:  cell-phone

happy bday, melissa!

last sunday was my friend melissa's bday.  i decided to make her banana cake cupcakes for her bday.  they were tasty although quite well done, as my apartment's oven likes to shut itself off after 20 minutes.  thus, baking for 30 minutes can take upwards of 2 hours.  (once the oven shuts off, it does not like to turn back on.  I HATE IT!)

anyhoo, i forgot to take pics of her banana cupcakes.  i made a cream cheese frosting, but with orange zest instead of lemon zest because this dumdum forgot to pick up some lemons before the baking.  i actually quite liked the slight orangey flavor.  since i had so much frosting left, i made some red velvet cupcakes yesterday as a vehicle for enjoying the rest of the frosting.  because my oven is the devil, the bottoms of the cupcakes were quite roasted... see below

happy birthday, mel!

blondies and pb cookies

student council gave out free goodies for our halloween events on nov 1... because at my school, we celebrate halloween the day after.  haahahhaha.  blondies were my contribution:

today i visited my football team and brought them peanut butter cookies.  haven't made these since middle school.  i'm about to sample the burnt ones that i left for myself...  they smelled divine!

bunks, being snuggled by dad.  this pic makes him look huge.  my 2.75 lb bunny.  hehe

i still have yet to fit sewing into my crazy schedule =(