You say you want a resolution?

Well, you know, we all want cheesecake in the world.

At least I do. And I like this one, Apple Crisp Cheesecake, I found on Inside BruCrew Life.

 

 It has apples, people. And dairy. The graham crackers alone sing the wholesomeness of childhood. Unless the crackers in the upper crust get burnt by the broiler.

 

 True disaster was averted, though, because the crust is thick. By chipping away the uppermost layer, I found all the crumbs underneath gorgeous as gold. A bonus: fewer calories are now present to pester your food journal.

 

 There's so much goodness in this cake it spilleth over.

 

 Now, partake in moderation. You're welcome!

"Destined to become a Christmas Classic"

This was my husband's claim when he handed me the notebook in which he'd written his version of an old Christmas carol.  We'd heard the good and proper version during a concert the night before, an evening attended by an occasionally cranky baby a few seats over and other fidgety children throughout the concert hall.  Many said children were swinging glow-in-the-dark stars meant to be worn as necklaces.  


Obviously, someone with budget money to spare thought these do-hickeys were a great idea to bestow upon the good folk of my community.  And the sight was kinda charming as we looked down on the blue lights from the nosebleed section.  However, when a couple of manic stars are two rows directly in front of you...Well, remember how Fireball looked after his buddy Rudolph's fake nose fell off?

Right, so, punchy with vertigo, THOMY leaned over and sang the first two lines to me.  I, in a similar state of mind, got a case of the giggles.  It's not really that funny, I know, but I want to share his lyrics with you anyway.  If you stay to the end, you'll get a treat.

To the tune "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"

Have yourself another piece of fruitcake;

Let your pants be tight.

From now on the calories will be out of sight.

And have yourself another bowl of Chex Mix;

It'll be OK.

New Year's resolutions are still days away.

Here we are with elastic waists

Filling up our plates once more,

Punch with gin to bring cheer to us.

Don't be querulous--just pour.

Put your prudence off until tomorrow;

Be indulgent now.

I just might have eaten an entire cow.

So have yourself another piece of fruitcake now.

Or, as promised, cheesecake.

Coming up, the overview of its creation and its recipe source.

Headband Hullabaloo

So, as of this past weekend, the Scrapdash blog is five years old. No gifts, please. No streamers or cake are necessary, either. Well, okay, when is cake really ever necessary?
 
Fudgy Brownie Cake with a peanut butter pudding frosting. Mmmm. I should make this again. 

Anyway, to extend this celebratory theme ad nauseum, I have supplied the party hats. For me, that is. And, they're not really hats since I'm not a fan of hat hair. They're headbands.

Nice, wide ones, of which there are three.

One: Santa Fe Headband

I used up the rest of the yarn I bought in Santa Fe three years ago and with which I first made a Kinetic Cowl.

 

Only, I didn't have enough of the yarn left! Tragedy upon tragedy, I know. Luckily I was in a yarn shop when I discovered this and grabbed a ball of black yarn in the same weight. I started over, beginning and ending the cowl with the black.

 

 Ravelry Link for more on this headband.


Two: Quant


On Knitty.com, this headband begins and ends with i-cord ties. I learned from my experience grafting the Santa Fe Headband and I cast on provisionally for Quant, knitting a six-stitch band for three inches before I began increasing for the entrelac pattern. Near the end, I decreased back to six stitches and knit the band for the rest of the length I needed to fit my head.  I grafted the two ends together.



Ravelry Link for my Quant project.


Three: You Did What?!? Headband

Under the category You Knit A Perfectly Good Project Just to Cut It and Knit It Back Together Again?, I file this headband:



…which began life from the cowl pattern Gyre used by my local yarn shop in a class called Steeking with Supervision. Steeking is often used to create a cardigan sweater out of a pullover by cutting (!?!) stitches right up the front. A cowl is a much smaller commitment. A headband is less painful yet. So, as a student in the steeking class, I knit the colorwork pattern in the round, secured the stitches to be cut, and took the plunge.



As you can see at the bottom of the blocking picture, I had already turned under the cut ends and picked up stitches to graft the sides back together. I did this just for the experience, really. No bungee cord involved. No rider on the life insurance needed. But I did down a Pimm's and Lemonade right after the slaughter.

 Ravelry info for this insanity.


And now I won't lose quite as much heat out of the top of my head this winter. Hats would be better, I know, but PBTPBTPBT. (A mere five-year-old blog can publish a stuck-out tongue with impunity.)

It's all in the smartitude

Almost three weeks ago, my Smart Car wouldn't start while sitting in the grocery store parking lot.  Packed with groceries.  At night.

After a cab ride home for me--groceries in the trunk--and a tow home for the car,  we discovered an unheavenly truth.  The local Mercedes dealership doesn't work on Smarts. (Mercedes makes Smart Cars.)  Never mind that someone at that dealership told me otherwise when we were thinking about buying the car (from an unrelated car lot, so the misinformation is totally not their fault) way back in January.  

I'm telling you, there was much sighing and rolling of eyes around here.  And phone calls.

Two days later, Triple-A towed the car 200 miles from home to an official Smart Center repair shop.  Thank God for them and for our inherent nervousness which had prompted us to buy the extended warranty for the car.  Both resources paid the majority of the bills.  

The repair itself took less than a day, but we had to wait another week and a half before we could fetch the car.  By that time, I was in the mood for an old fashioned road trip.  I was determined to redeem all our frustration into something fun.

So, on our way home from the repair shop, we visited the Louisburg Cider Mill during their Ciderfest.

I didn't take lots of pictures, but here is how the cider apples are given a bath...

before they take a little ride up a conveyer…

into the cider press house.

As you can see, quite a crowd attended the Ciderfest.  Here in Kansas, we had a long, miserable, record-breaking summer, so folks are ready for fall.  

On the other side of a long walk across a field of parked cars, however, the pumpkin patch lay wide open.

Off in the distance the maples are turning red…finally!  

We passed up several handsome pumpkins…

To adopt this pretty boy.

He's sporting a new shawl I whipped up for my local yarn shop.  I love the shawl's name: Arachnophilia. It's a name apropos for the first cooler-weather holiday, no?

The shawl, a pattern by Jennifer Dassau, is based on the same stitch I used for edging my Occasus square shawl.  Details about my version of Arachnophilia are on its Ravelry project page, but the short of it is it's an easy, fun shawl.

Finally, the best treat we ate at the Ciderfest was a batch of little cider donuts.  The mill's donuts are fried, but I baked a batch of my own using a mini donut tray and this recipe.  They turned out well, I think, though they don't melt in one's mouth like a fried donut.  

If I wanted to add calories, I'd soak them in melted butter and sprinkle sugar over them.  I'm naughty for eating donuts, but I'm not that naughty.  So instead, I soak them in milk.  For the discovery of cider donuts, I'm not so cranky anymore about my car wigging out three weeks ago.  I forgive it.

Weekly Menu Board and Grocery Shopping

I discovered Pinterest awhile back, when it wasn't so cool yet.  As a virtual corkboard for all the ideas you can find online and want to remember later, the site is  getting cooler all the time.  One of the great ideas I pinned there came from the Little Birdie Secrets blog by way of makeandtake.com.  

A dry erase menu board.

Little Birdie Secrets' tutorial is for a 12" x 12" board and uses a vinyl cutting machine to make the letters for the days of the week.  The letters are adhered to the glass, and the paper behind the glass can be changed as desired.  

Alas, while I'm hip and up-to-date for having joined Pinterest, I haven't taken the waters from the vinyl cutting machine project flood.  I don't have a vinyl cutter.

I do, however, have a printer.  And I found document frames (frames made especially for an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper) for half off at my local Michael's store.  I also had a couple sheets of scrapbooking paper that I cut to fit into my printer.  After a bit of desktop publishing magic in a word processing program (like Word or OpenOffice), I had my own wipe off menu board.

I also threw together a board for things we need to add to the weekly shopping list.

By the way, the font I used for the boards is Hill House.  I like its Arts & Crafts/Mission vibe.  We hung both boards on the side of our upper cabinets.

Thanks for the idea, Little Birdie!

I've linked this post up to The DIY Showoff blog.