Instagraming a Hat.

So in the last few days my son turned 1 and I turned 32. But since I'm still in a cake hangover from all of that celebrating how about simple Wordless Wed Instagram style:

All the wordy details on this hat are in this post.  The yarn is Destination Yarn in the colorway Ireland and the pattern is Cecily.

Ireland Hat.

So you guys I am super excited about my new Destination Yarn Hat:

The pattern is the Cecily Hat.  I cast in the Ireland colorway while I was at the trunk show at Yarn Cravin'

The plan was to have it done by St. Patrick's day - Ireland for St. Pats?  Love it.  However  My mom mocked me for this knit a lace hat in two weeks plan so for a bit there I was on a mission to get it done.  Even with the nice weather the knitting was always with me:

And then they predicted it would be 70 and sunny in Cleveland on St. Pat's - not exactly wool hat weather.  So I didn't finish it on time:

It's done now!

Then of course I had the issue of blocking.  I've blocked alot of lace but never a hat.  I crowdsourced Ravelry and Twitter and the consensus was that for a lace hat the best plan was to block it over a plate:

Or, you know, a plate with two bowls stacked on top of it:

I forgot just how much lace can stretch!  I seriously could have kept going with this hat but decided that plate + 2 bowls was plenty big and slouchy enough.

I love this hat.

I love the way the lace pattern looks in this yarn:

I love the simple purl band to separate the ribbing from the pattern stitches:

I love how easy the pattern was to read and how clear the charts were.  And how the decrease chart at the top works all of the lines of the pattern together:

I love that it's big and slouchy and light weight.  I have a feeling it will keep me warm but not too warm - awesome for when I'm schlepping two kids around somewhere.

And I especially love that it used less than half a skein of Destination Yarn:

So.  Now the question remains.  What do I do with 57 grams of sockyarn?  Hmmmmmmm.....

Wordless Wed - Reading

Just a couple of pictures of my children reading because I"m testing out some new features for the blog...  Lots of big changes coming but it's going to be a step by step process to get there!   The first big change is that I'm no longer at a blogspot address.  Life in Cleveland now resides at:

www.lifeincleveland.com

Yay!  The next thing you'll probably notice is a change in the comments.  I am trying out comment luv to make it easier for people to log in from different sites.  Also it allows for leaving a link to your latest post which will be fun.  Anyways it's a test...we'll shall see...  On to the pics!

20 Questions for Three

So I saw on Pintrest this list of questions that you're supposed to ask your kid on every birthday starting with 3.  That way you can see how their answers change over the years and get a feel for what they are like. There's even an etsy site with a printable .pdf for scrapbooking if that's your thing.  I don't scrapbook but I do have this here blog....

I'm not totally sure we'll actually do this every year because well... life happens.  And I didn't do it
actually on her birthday this year, either.... but!  Here's her answers at 3.  I'm hoping you find them as amusing as I did.  I especially like her response to #20.

1. What is your favorite color? Red 'cause I have red hair, Pink and Green.
2. What is your favorite toy?  My princesses
3. What is your favorite fruit? Sweet and juicy.
4. What is your favorite tv show? Ariel.  And the dress one mommy likes.
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Grilled cheese.
6. What is your favorite outfit? Cinderella shirt and fancy skirt.
7. What is your favorite game? Candyland
8. What is your favorite snack?  The ones at the family room.
9. What is your favorite animal? Flamingos
10. What is your favorite song? The N ked dance*

11. What is your favorite book? The little books (meaning her box of princess books)
12. Who is your best friend? Ashlyn
13. What is your favorite cereal? The Fancy Cereal
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with Desmond
15. What is your favorite drink? Black Leow Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmastime
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My kitties and My Nigh Night
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles with Nutella
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Belle Cake, spaghetti and meatballs like the puppies

My brother helping her blow out candles in her Belle Cake.  Thanks to my mom for making it for her

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Cinderella

You know what?  I kindof want to be Cinderella when I grow up, too.  I could have guessed all of the answers except for flamingos.  That one threw me.  Then, of course, she spent the rest of the day interviewing all of her kitties.  "What's your favorite color, Main Kitty?"

*ok the n ked dance deserves some explanation.  It's this crazy song and dance number we made up to get kids to the tub.  Yes, it involves kids dancing through the house nekkid and also lots of giggling.  Fun for kids of all ages!

Planting a Garden

So this year I'm hopeful that I can actually have a garden.  I used to plant all sorts of things.  But the whole pregnant/newborn cycle of the last 4 summers has totally derailed that.  Also last year we had our yard fenced in which meant that halfway through the growing season we tore everything up.  Before that we knew it was going to happen so we did nothing.   It basically looked like our house was abandoned.

But!  This year will be different!

At least in the back yard where I"m already excited to watch new things bloom:

Our new Cleveland Pare tree for our Cleveland Pair.  My fav detail is the yarn drying in the background.

I'm trying to include my kid in as much of this as possible.  Watching things grow just teaches so may good things - patience, that food comes from the ground not the store, responsibility.  So on either side of their tree we planted a blueberry bush.  One for each kid:

They LOVE blueberries.  And can eat an alarming amount.  This poor bush doesn't know what's coming.

I also let my daughter pick a bunch of flowers from the grocery store:

And the other day we got our seed starting on:

She helped plant all of these.  Even though it involved getting her fingers dirty.  This was, of course, an issue.

 Since then we've been checking every day and finally overnight this happened:

She is So. Excited.

I can't wait to actually put them in the ground with her!

Buried Treasure Everyday Treat

So I'm really excited about this opportunity from COOL WHIP Whipped Topping to talk about everyday treats.  We're big fans of dessert in this household.  I try to have something sweet for us just about every night.  Something about having a little treat after dinner really just finishes the day off right.

Also thanks to a certain series of books my daughter is going through a whole EVERYTHING MUST BE FANCY!!! phase.  And there's nothing fancier than dessert.



HOWEVER. I am awful at baking. (It's possible that I'm actually just terrible at following directions.)  So I'm forever looking for ways to turn simple things into fancy treats that even I - with a 3 year old helper - can't mess up.  COOL WHIP Whipped Topping is perfect for this.  For example:

Hot coco with a spoonful of frozen COOL WHIP.  It both cools it off and makes it extra fancy.

Or:


Strawberries with COOL WHIP.  Probably my favorite dessert ever.

But the reason I was really excited about this opportunity is that it gave me an excuse to try out a recipe I've been wanting to make with my daughter.  This one is straight from my childhood when I thought this was the about the Coolest. Thing. Ever:

Buried Treasure Fancy Treats (because even everyday treats in this house must be FANCY):

What you need:
COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
Package of chocolate pudding
Milk to make the pudding

Step 1:  Make the pudding.

Step 2:  Put some of the pudding at the bottom of a cup.



Step 3:  Put some COOL WHIP Whipped Topping on top of the pudding in the center of the cup.



Step 4:  Hide the COOL WHIP with another layer of pudding.  Be careful to get around the sides so that none of the COOL WHIP shows from the outside.

There's one cup for each member of our family.  She made a point to even make a little one for her brother.  Adorable.

Step 5:  Work really hard to keep the secret

There's a really fancy surprise but I can't tell daddy because it's a secret.  SHHHHH

Step 6:  Almost fall out of your chair giggling with anticipation waiting for daddy to find the COOL WHIP surprise inside.



Step 7:  Find the surprise yourself and get really excited about it.



Step 8:  Enjoy!

Dude.  Whatever this is?  AMAZING.

I think it's safe to say that we'll be doing this again.  I remember making this for company and using wine goblets for the glasses.  I thought that was about the neatest thing in the whole world.  I'll probably try that next time we do this to make our Buried Treasures even more fancy!

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.