Crochet Book

The weather has been great here! not exesively hot like last week... so during the weekend, MG and I, got to go out for walks and pick in some of our favorite stores... one of those a bookstore...

And...............

He bought me ::: The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet !!!!

And I have to say that I LOVE it...
It's a great book, with a lot of pictures... great written instructions for the stitches and great graphic instructions of each stitch too...
And what I like most is that the pictures show the stitches in actual yarn, I don't know, cotton or wool, or something that makes them look appealing... not in that "acrylic-plastic-look" type of yarn that usually a lot of the stitches books for crochet uses... did that make sense??

I don't know if it is that I have had bad luck looking for books but everytime I found that "plastic-look" type of yarn in the pictures and I don't like it at all...

Any way... I loved this book!

I think I'm still sleep, I am having a lot of troubles to think in English... hope that what I wrote make sense.

See you soon!
S.

Tres Leches Cake

Today I want to share with you the recipe of the Tres Leches Cake (3 milk cake) that is a mexican dessert that I love.

What you will need for the cake is :::

* 6 separated eggs
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 cup of flour
* Vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon of baking powder
This is good for a round 9 in pan. But I think that works also for a square 9x9 in.

What you will need for the three milk is :::

* 1 can of condensed milk (the one that is like 14 oz)
* 1 can of evaporated milk (the one that is 12 fl. oz)
* 1 can of regular milk (you can measure this using a can of the other milks)
* a dash of vanilla exctract or brandy

To prepare the cake :::

- Preheat the oven at 400°F (230°C)

- Whip the egg whites until they are white and fluffy.

- Add the sugar in small amounts until you had add all of it and keep whipping.
- Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and continue mixing.
- Add the flour in the same way that you added the sugar.
- Add a dash of vanilla extract and the teaspoon of baking powder.

- Grease (with butter) and flour the pan and put the mixture in it.

- Put your cake in the oven for 30 min (it must be lightly brown). Turn off the oven but don't take the cake immediatly out so it won't deflate.

For the milks mixture :::

- In the blender mix the 3 milks with a dash of vanilla extract or brandy.

Once the cake is completely cold, take it out of the pan and make holes with a fork evenly separated over the surface of your cake so the milk can go in it more easily...

Take a spoon and pour the milks mixture all over your cake again and again until it's all soaked. The cake can take up to 4 cups of milk, maybe a bit more.

You will want to keep it in the fridge, but putting it in the fridge will dry it a little bit, so maybe you can have save some of the milk to put on the cake right before you eat it. Sprinkle powder sugar on top.

*** If you want, you can cut the cake in the horizontal middle before soaking it, and then add the milks to the bottom part, then add a layer of peaches or strawberries or whatever fancy you, and then put back the top part and pour the milks over it.
*** You can also cover it with whipped cream, and that will prevent the cake to lose the milks inside.
*** You can also use a regular "prepared box" to make the cake.

Enjoy this sweet and moist treat!!!
See you soon!
S.

Little Sister Dress - Progress

Remember that I'm knitting the Little Sister Dress???
Well, it's coming out very slow, I'm not that fast knitting and I get tired (a bit) of it because I feel like I'm not making any progress...

So here is a picture of how far I am right now...

I finished the yoke and finally started with the bodice... I'm still increasing, and knitting, knitting, knitting... and since I'm in a break (LOL) I'm making a cake... hope to post the recipe soon!

See you soon!
S.

Baby Vest...

So in the middle of my WIP's I continue doing baby things, and I had been waiting to make this one. It's made with the Bombay Love pattern, that I found on Raverly.

The color doesn't show very well in the picture... we had a cloudy day today, so I couldn't do a lot for the picture.
I like very much the way it turned out... I modified the pattern a little bit.
Is made with 220 Cascade, super wash wool. 3-6 months size.

Yarn Swap!

My Parcel came in the mail today!!!

I was so happy!!! And I coudn't wait to open it! so there I went, and the first thing I saw was a letter!! yei! I love letters!!

And when I took it out! Ooohh!!! it was a marevolous sight with all this delicious things carefully packet and put all together....

I could barely hold my self and contain my excitement!!! and then I took everything out!!!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't this super great!!! I got so many treats and delightful things!!!

 Now I have to decide what I'll do with this fine yarn!

See you soon!
S.

Necklaces

I've had a very nice day so far today!
I sat down for two hours in the morning, right after MG left for work, to make some jewerly...
And I came up with two necklaces, one of them with earrings...

The first one: green turquoise with sterling silver... I made segments of 1 and 2 beads wrapped in wire, and I made what I like to call "Triple Flowers" in a thicker gauge of wire. The design is assymetrical, so the "flowers" are suposed to go on on side of the neck... like this:::

The second necklace is made with the same turquoise beads as the previous one, plus onix tubes and small round coral beads that I had previously wraped in pairs (with thiner wire) , and then arranged them in a wire coil to form a "berry cluster". The earrings are just one of the clusters without the turquoise or the onix.

I am loving them A LOT!!!!


The rest of the day has been great, a walk to the store for some cake ingredients, a delicious lunch and a lot of time by the pool, reading while enjoying the sun at first and then playing in the water with some neighbour kids... The weather has been great! with amazingly blue skies full of white clouds, and SUN!!! it feels so so so good after a week of bad weather and thunderstorms and tornado warnings!!!

See you soon!

Granny Slippers...

I have to say that I LOVE to read blogs... specially craft blogs... I'm kind of "new" at it, just being doing it for a year or so... but I love to jump to one to another and in one of this jumps today I found The Royal Sisters Granny Slippers

I think they are very lovely... and the pattern is available on Etsy... one more thing I want to do!!!

See you soon!
S.

African Flowers Size...

Just to show you the size of the my African Flowers... they are the size of my hand!!

See you soon!

Girl Vest.

Yesterday I wanted a quick project, that didn't require any thinking or counting, that was cute and fast...
I look through the patterns I've saved and found this little shirt/vest for a new-born.

I think is cute... and it was very quick and easy to make!

See you soon!
S.

African Flowers, Progress!

I'm happy with my progress... it's not comming very fast, but that is because I haven't work on it a lot. I like the colors but I'm not completly crazy about them... I feel like I need more shades to complete and combine them... anyway, I just had 4 colors, so I'm doing what I can, LOL.

I decided to make an extra round in all of them in a lighter blue, stash yarn that I bought for the slippers. It's Red Heart Super Saver, so it's a bit scratchy, but not too bad... I haven't decide what I will do with them once I sew them together.

I'm making all the possible combinations with those 4 colors, so I get 6 hexis with the same color for the center flower. So far I've use 3 colors for the center, so I have 18 hexagons...

What should I do with them?

See you soon!
S.

Swap... in progress.

Hello all!!!
I've been enjoying myself in this warm-hot days... I love been able to wear a skirt or a dress... and love been all surounded by color.
I finished my "The Friday Night Kniting Club" book, and couldn't help to buy the sequel... so now I'm enjoying "Knit two", and I'm off to read for a while by the pool!!!
But I wanted to let you know the status of my swap...

I kept thinking in what I could get for my swap partner, and I wanted something that she coudn't get where she lives... so I ended up deciding for one of my favorite yarns... I can't tell you a lot more for now, just in case she is reading, because I want it to be a surprise as much as I can... but I'll take pictures to post here after everything is complete!
I'll go to the mail later to send my package!!!

Have fun!
See you soon!
S.

Books and Movies...

I love, love, love to read...
I love, love, love go to the movies... and then watch them again at home...

I'm reading "The Friday Night Knitting Club", and I'm loving it... I've laughed, and cried, and lived the story every moment... I am on my way to finish it... so sad it's not longer...

I'm super excited because I just learned that the final book of my FAVORITE books serie will come out next year!!! This serie is Earth's Children Books by Jean M. Auel, wich are the story of a prehistoric girl... I can't really tell you what this is about, they are so rich, so full of details and well explained that you get transported to another time and era when you read them... I can't get tired of them... I love to read them and read them again. So far she has 5 published books... and we are in the waiting of the 6th. Here are the titles and the year of publish...

1. The Clan of the Cave Bear, 1980
2. The Valley of Horses, 1982
3. The Mammoth Hunters, 1985
4. The Plains of Passage, 1990
5. The Shelters of Stone, 2002
6. The Land of Painted Caves, 2011

 I can't wait to read "The Land of Painted Caves"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also wanted to talk about movies... I went to "Letters to Juliet" ::: Love it!
It was one of those movies that take me away and make me forget the outside world... it made me dream and laugh and I had a great time!! I guess is totaly a Girl Movie... Who Cares!!

See you soon!

African Flowers...

Last weekend, MG and I, went on a trip to our new town (we'll be moving at the end of July)... so it was a 2.5 hours road-trip and I couldn't let pass the opportunity to crochet on the way...
So African Flowers were appearing from my hook...
I liked them very much... I'm trying to make all possible color combos with my blue + green yarns, (I have 4 colors) so I get to make 6 combinations with the same color for the flower...

I don't know yet what I'm gonna do with them... Blanket? Cushion cover?

Our way back was VERY hot so I was lazy and didn't complete the 6 set for the next color... just the center flowers...

So... hope to keep doing them...

See you soon!

Yarn Swap!

I'm really, really excited because I'll have my first swap ever!!! I got into it through We Love Lucy Raverly Group... where I also got 2 new penpals... so I'm very happy about that too...
I've been thinking in which yarn should I buy for my swap partner... what else should I get for her... and I'm so excited that I can barely content my self...
MG smiles every time I tell him about this, and how I feel like I'm discovering a whole new world that looks so amazing and so my-kind-of-thing... what-I-want-to-do... what-makes-me-happy... and makes-my-day-shine....

YEIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So... we have to wait for a little while, and in a month or so, a bit more, we will have an awsome surprise!!!
Can't wait!!!

See you soon!