Month: April 2012

14. see a movie {30 by 30 list}

Katy RLeave a comment

Hooray! We finally saw a movie. Ben and I were brainstorming tonight and as best as we can remember, the last movie we saw in theaters was The King’s Speech (which was a great movie by the way, highly recommend if you haven’t seen it) which we saw in Los Angeles, before we moved and before we had Edie. Yes. We need to get out more. I know.

We ended up doing what we always do, which is waiting until the last minute to decide whether we’re going to try to do a dinner date or a movie date… frantically waffling between should we or shouldn’t we try to go (will Edie wake up while we’re gone, will we get an SOS call like our last dinner date?) and whether or not it’s worth it. Tonight the movie won, and since it was an early (7:10) showing we were *fairly* certain we could make it back before she woke up, even if she did have an early wake-up night. We saw Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which until today I didn’t even know existed (and definitely wouldn’t have picked based on its name but lucky for us Ben reads the synopses of even the ones with horrible titles). But it was cute. And WE SAW A MOVIE! Hooray! I am so excited I think we might just have to see another one… you know… before next year 🙂

One more list item, check! Actually, I have another one that’s done as well but not quite blogged… I made the kids matching outfits for Easter. Cuteness overload! I will hopefully get those photos up soon.

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14. see a movie {30 by 30 list}

19. finish and donate a blanket to project Linus {30 by 30 list}

Katy R, , Leave a comment

This one has been on my to-do list for ages. Since about September of 2008 to be exact. Project Linus is a charity that collects blankets from volunteers (they can be crochet, knit, quilted… pretty much if you can make it they will take it) and distributes them to children in need of some love and comfort. From the Project Linus website :

As Charles Schulz’s Linus character from the PEANUTS® comic strip was comforted by his blanket, Project Linus strives to do the same and more for children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. The blankets our nearly 400 chapter coordinators collect from thousands of “blanketeers” (volunteers) across the United States and then distributed to these children provide love, a sense of security, warmth, and comfort.

When Paul and Amelia were born they spent 2 weeks in the NICU. The first week and a half of that was spent in isolettes, little plastic baby bubbles where they wore only diapers and were hooked up to all sorts of beeping, buzzing, glowing machines. Once they reached a certain size and were able to take their food by mouth rather than tube they were moved into an open crib. When we walked into the NICU to find them in open cribs it was pretty much the happiest moment of my life. They finally looked like they were snuggly and cozy, just as babies are meant to be. Part of it was that they weren’t in their isolettes anymore, but a lot of it was that they were also covered up by beautiful handmade blankets given to them by Project Linus.

Ever since that day I have had blanket making on my to-do list. It made me feel so comforted and loved to know that someone out there took the time and effort to make blankets for my babies. I knew I needed to do the same for someone else who was going through a rough time. Paul and Amelia actually still sleep with their Project Linus blankets every single night.

I started this blanket sometime in 2010 and have had it mostly finished for almost a year now. I was just dragging my feet on weaving in the ends (I don’t like that part) and getting it mailed off, but I’m proud to say it’s on its way as of this morning. Hooray! I finally finished my blanket! Now to make a second one…

projectlinus5

For those curious about the how-to on this blanket… it’s pretty much the easiest crochet project on the planet. All you need to know is chain, single crochet and double crochet. I believe it’s actually this shell stitch pattern from the Project Linus website, but almost all the shell stitch patterns I found were basically the same idea. Three cheers for finishing a project!

One more item checked off my 30 by 30 list, hooray!

19. finish and donate a blanket to project Linus {30 by 30 list}

paul’s baby clothes quilt {sewing projects}

Katy R, , , , 3 Comments

I was digging through my folder of crafty project photos today and realized I never blogged the finished quilt I made for Paul from his old baby clothes. This has been finished for quite a while (almost a year now) but I just never got around to posting it. It’s essentially exactly the same as Amelia’s baby clothes quilt but made of Paul’s clothes (duh).

Paul's baby clothes quilt - quilting projects on Permanent Riot

Paul's baby clothes quilt - quilting projects on Permanent Riot

When I finished it he climbed all over it, inspecting it and pointing out all the squares he liked best. He also told me which of the clothes he remembers
Paul's baby clothes quilt - quilting projects on Permanent Riot

He seems to love his just as much as his sister loves hers

Paul's baby clothes quilt - quilting projects on Permanent Riot

Paul's baby clothes quilt - quilting projects on Permanent Riot

Both of their quilts are made from the clothes they wore during their first year… I can’t believe it’s already almost time to make Edie a quilt (yikes!) time is certainly flying! If you happened to miss Amelia’s quilt post and are wondering how to make one of your very own go and check it out – there are tons of links/explanations on how I made it and all of the tutorials I used. Hooray for baby clothes quilts!

paul’s baby clothes quilt {sewing projects}

Birthday cake … yum! {baking}

Katy R, Leave a comment

Friday was Ben’s birthday and I just cannot let a birthday pass without baking a cake. Unfortunately for me all of my most favorite birthday cakes have two things in common – 1. They are baked on sheet trays and 2. They contain buckets and buckets of butter. These two traits are a problem because 1. Our new house (while super fabulously amazing) has a doll sized oven. Ok… maybe a bit larger than doll sized but it doesn’t hold my sheet trays (boo hoo! I cannot wait until we can put in a massive oven in a few years!) and 2. I am currently not eating any dairy since I’m nursing a baby with a milk protein intolerance.

So what’s a lady to do?

I started searching around on a few of the blogs that I read for a dairy free cake (because it doesn’t have to be *vegan* just dairy free… I can still have eggs) and didn’t find any that tempted me but I DID find this cake which looked simply amazing – Forgiving Martha’s vanilla buttercake with strawberry icing. I had first seen her blog thanks to a facebook post by a friend for her chavocado pudding (and yes, it sounds weird but it is delicious as well!) and knew that she posts a lot of vegan recipes… but this butter cake was anything BUT vegan (hello, butter!) I decided to try it anyway, using earth balance (a butter substitute) and just following the rest of the recipe exactly. The batter actually reminded me a lot of the batter for my favorite sheet tray but I was skeptical as to how it would turn out. Ben suggested we test out the convection setting on our oven (hey, at least if it has to be tiny it’s somewhat fancy) and to my shock and amazement the cake cooked perfectly evenly all the way through. It was also not too dense or too dry… just simply delicious! Mmmmmm.

I tried to make the frosting as well (because it looks SO good) but let’s just say that the earth balance and strawberries did NOT want to mingle. No matter what I tried I couldn’t get an emulsion out of them, just a gloppy mess. Maybe it was my fault and the temperature was off, or maybe it’s just a fact of using a butter substitute but, but that whole batch went straight to the trash can. I decided instead to make a variation on the icing I’d made for Ben’s birthday cupcakes for work earlier in the week (mmm cupcakes). It’s a recipe for vegan chocolate mint cupcakes but I altered it to be an almond icing – substitute almond extract for mint and leave out the food color. This kind mixed up much much better.

I put a layer of icing and a layer of strawberries between the two layers of cake, coated the whole thing in icing and decorated with strawberries.

The effect wasn’t quite exactly the same (no fluffy pinkness in the icing) but still pretty mouth-watering if I do say so myself. Mmmmmmm cake. I’m glad that even with a tiny oven and non-dairy requirement I was still able to make a tasty cake

(photo via instagram… I didn’t have time once it was finished to take a picture with my camera… oops)

Birthday cake … yum! {baking}