New News.......

Made this tray of cookies and cupcakes to take up to M's school yesterday. The colors of the drizzle were chosen very strategically to help announce the big news.......









R&M are expecting!!! I am going to be a GRANDMA!!!! How amazing is that??? Here is how it was announced yesterday... with fun letters being revealed during a class photo when M said "Everyone say - 'Mrs. R is having a baby!'".... So they got fun expressions from all of the class reacting. (Which of course I can't post online...) I think she is puffing baby out a bit in this picture for effect.... but she is definitely starting to show. They couldn't have kept it a secret much longer!!! Need to start thinking about all the baby knitting I will want to do!!!!


Got lots of knitting inspiration this past weekend at Sheri's annual Spring Fling in St. Louis. This is always such a highlight of the year for me. Great knitting; great classes; great food and always amazing friends.. both from years past and brand new!!!








I didn't take many photos and always kick myself for this. (As soon as I figure out how to download from Flickr in usable format I will post more..) I spend most of my time playing Loopy Elf. I even graduated to an official Loopy Elf which is shown by this official Loopy Elf coffee mug that Sheri ordered for me. (ALL of the elves have them). I got to take mine home, but will certainly be bringing it will me whenever I go to St.. Louis to play elf!!





This is the first year that I actually snuck in to one of the classes that were being taught. This is Jared Flood (who is very well known in the knitting world...) and he was teaching how to knit a sweater without a pattern. I totally left that class with the confidence that I could cast on and knit my first sweater. And I plan to as soon as I cross many of the other 'need to knit' items off my list. (Which now includes MANY baby items!!!) He is a great teacher and it was a GREAT class. I just wish I could have taken classes from all of the teachers (Wendy Johnson, The Sanguine Gryphon, and Anne Hanson) that were there. Maybe next year.....







I did watch as Gryphon taught Sheri how to knit backwards. Very interesting concept and I need to see if I can remember how she was doing that.....











K came down for part of the weekend and made Cake Balls for Saturday night. Over 300 of the tasty treats and there were very few left over!!! Yum.










I came home and immediately cast on my first shawl. It is in Dream in Color Starry in the Plum Paisley colorway. My hope is to have it ready to wear to A and CB's wedding in a few weeks. I obviously have some knitting to do......









We are getting very very excited around here. Wedding.. baby.... Life is good.









Until Next time...

Less Than 6 Weeks....

Until the big day! May 22nd we will be celebrating the marriage of our son A to CB. We are so excited to be adding another beautiful daughter in law to our family. We consider ourselves extremely blessed!!!!








On Sunday we drove up to Minneapolis for a bridal shower for Carol, put on by my wonderful sister-in-laws. (And Sue!) Thanks for such a wonderful day!! This picture shows 3 of the 4.... Sure missed you Robin! Thanks to everyone who planned it and who came for showering CB with your love and wonderful gifts!!












It was the first shower that CB has had and it was fun to see the themes of their future home coming through in the colors and items that they have chosen.










In preparation for the wedding, we have been running different experiments. One is trying to find 'the perfect' size cakeball. Yes, these are 4 different sizes! Fortunately for us, Steve volunteered to eat the samples. Just don't know what we would have done without him!!!! Today's experiment involves eating cupcakes. I'm doing the work for this one on my own!!!!




We had a fun Easter weekend with a visit from my parents. All of the kids were around and the house was full of laughter. That always makes me happy. (And it REALLY makes Sophie happy!!) Made Strawberry Cream Cheese French toast for breakfast. Always a hit!






For our main meal on Easter, I decided to cook Prime Rib. I have done it a few other times, but I think this was the best one yet. If you are interested in cooking a prime rib, here is what I did.

You need a good deep pan with a wire rack so air circulates around the meat. I sliced two onions and put them on the bottom of the pan. (Next time I will double the number of onions!) Place the meat fat side up on the rack. I rubbed chili flavored olive oil over the entire thing and then covered it with course sea salt and cracked black pepper. (Next time I would not rub the two ends with salt and pepper.. just the oil. It made those cuts of meat too salty to eat!!) The next step is CRITICAL!!! Insert a GOOD meat thermometer into the center of the meat. (I have a digital one I purchased at a kitchen store that I love!!) Preheat oven to 500 degrees and put meat in for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 225 degrees and cook until the thermometer reads 135 degrees. Remove from oven and cover with foil for 15-20 minutes. Slice and ENJOY!!! We used the onions in the juices as our 'aus jus'. Yum!! As far as time.. We had an 8 pound prime rib. We started it at 10:30 am and we ate at 2:15 or so. Well worth the wait!!!!


Sophie was outside smelling the meat cooking and begged to come in. We let her and even gave her a little taste. Fortunately she is still willing to eat her dry dog food after tasting such yumminess!!!







Until Next Time....