Tag: homemade

Knitted Pot Holders (i.e. Sometimes I live up to my name…)

I know what you might be thinking…

I don’t get it.  How come this Lauren chick calls herself crafty, and yet I never see her doing any crafts!  What gives?

Life gets busy, you know?  I excuse myself by saying that Crafty is a state of mind rather than a state of being.  We all aspire to be as crafty as we perceive ourselves to be on Pinterest, but sometimes life gets in the way.

And then other times, on the rare occasion that you have a four day weekend and an emotional commitment to watch several hours of football, your fingers start twitching for something to do.  I used to knit (like, a lot), but somehow let it fall by the wayside.  Last weekend, however, I dug out my needles and scraps of yarn and it was just like coffee with an old friend.

I’ve started up again, but simply, by replacing a few grubby old potholders with this little beauty:

photo-4

I once made the mistake of committing to an entire afghan in this pattern, seed, not realizing that it takes twice as long as most other patterns because you have to switch your yarn after each stitch.  That blanket took my entire undergraduate college degree to finish.  But, I’m at it again because, being the perfectionist that I am, it comes out so beautifully and those little tiny bubbles of yarn are going to keep my hand from burning on a fresh loaf of zucchini bread. Plus, you don’t have to count anything.

tumblr_mh94vyVpmm1qmywbko1_500Seed Pattern (Knitting)

  • Cast on an odd number of stitches (I used 35 for this fairly generous-sized hot pad)
  • K1, P1 until the end of the row
  • Repeat
  • That’s it.

Disclaimer: The blanket underneath this work in progress was not made by me, but by my Great-Grandmother Cora.  It was crocheted haphazardly (so she said) using scraps from her yarn basket and was gifted to me when I was about 10.  It’s either been at the end of my bed or on the back of my sofa ever since.

When life gives you lemons, make limemade

Life changes, stress, and too much Starbucks have been keeping me up at night and I’m having a bit of insomnia this week.  Last night I woke up around 2am, answered a few emails, took a bath, and made limeade.

Yes, you heard me right.

Insomnia aside, yesterday was a pretty warm day – skirting 85 at times and there’s nothing quite as refreshing as a delightful glass of fresh lemonade on a warm evening.  However, my inability to waste combined with having procured 30 limes for the Produce photo shoot a couple weeks ago (how can I resist when they are 15 for $1???), resulted in my opting for limemade.

And it was good.

Not to get religious on you here, but this limeade might be what happened on the ninth day of creation.  I’ll never go back to that store bought bottle of sugary yellow chemical water.  Trust me on this…….

 Homemade Limeade

Ingredients:

Limes (lots)

Water

Sugar

Elbow Grease

Directions:

Using a juicer, juice limes with a citrus juicer and add to pitcher.  If you don’t care for pulp, pour the juice through a strainer before it goes into the pitcher.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved (the amount depends on your personal taste.  For 1 C. lime juice, I used 2/3 C. sugar and it was a teensy bit on the tarter side… which for me is perfect).  Add water and stir.  Your juice:water ratio should be approximately 1:2.

Store in the refrigerator, but trust me, it won’t be there long.

P.S. If you find yourself with an overabundance of lemons, the recipe works the same way for making lemonade.