Cooking: Buttermilk Syrup for Gifting

 

I went to breakfast with some girlfriends this week to celebrate Christmas and exchange some small gifts. What a luxury to go out to breakfast, and especially this time of year! It was so nice to take a breather and talk about lighthearted things before leaping back into juggling kiddos and Christmas to-dos. The annual gift exchange and lunch, which is what we typically do, is one of my favorite events of the season! I came home with some heartfelt and handpicked things to add to the Christmas display and to use all year round.

This year I was giving this fun snowflake-shaped pancake mold and wanted something to go with it. I don't typically do handmade for the Christmas gifts (I save that for the birthday gifts, such as these) but I decided to make some buttermilk syrup to go along with these. I saw a recipe for this syrup in this cookbook and have been thinking about it since. I found some recipes for it online as well so I combined them a bit for this version (click below to read more for recipe).

 

To package the syrup I used these simple canning jars I found when planning Audrey's birthday party this spring. I love the brushed silver lids and they were readily available when I was trying to pull this together in an afternoon.  I cut out circles from some scrapbooking paper to stick on the top of the lids and wrapped the jars with red ribbon. Then I punched out matching tags (using this recently acquired Giga punch) for the pancake molds, loaded everything in a tote and I was off to breakfast!



Click to read more if you are interested in the syrup recipe. If you like butter and sugar then this is the syrup for you!

Crochet: Spa Cloth Gifts

I have a group of girlsfriends with whom I swap birthday gifts. Seems such a rare thing at this age--to give and receive birthday gifts with friends--and so it is so much fun!  There are no spoken rules but the idea is that these aren't expensive but they are girly and fun and sometimes a bit luxurious. Some very minor indulgence you wouldn't buy yourself, not necessarily due to cost, but because it isn't a necessity. We get together for lunch a few times a year near one of the birthdays and the birthday girls goes home with an armful of little luxuries.

Two of these friends share the same birthday and it's in early December, so I make an effort to chose something for them that has nothing to do with Christmas becauase I figure December birthdays are threatened to be overwhelmed by the big holiday this month. For the past few years I have also tried to give something handmade. I have been coming up with something and then duplicating it throughout the year for all the birthdays. Last year I made and gave monogrammed stationery, and the year before that I gave felted flower corsages, and before that some simple crochet scarves like these.

This year I am doing spa cloths. These are cotton washcloths I crocheted in the sedge stitch using this pattern. I love this stitch! It has such a gorgeous texture. I've thought of using it for a children's sweater but haven't yet. Seems the perfect little indulgence for the bath. I am giving two paired with a good bar of soap. So many possibilities here but I went with Burt's Bees Radiance bar. It smells great and I love the natural ingredients. A good all-natural package.

Wrapped the little stack in a natural tissue, tied with yarn and added a tag I punched from some scrapbook paper I had on hand.  I would enjoy receiving something like this (and haven't yet made some cloths for myself--cobbler's children...) so I hope the birthday girls feel the same way!

Oh, and did you notice I seem to be continuing what I'll call my Tess Color Palette, which began with this cut-chenille blanket and this lavender crib bedding? Why not? I think these colors are gorgeous together!

Knitting: Blue Baby Mittens on a String

The landscape has sure changed around here--we're below freezing and covered in snow. Clear blue skies however, so it is gorgeous. The perfect environment for little blue mittens. I found the pattern for these (after seeing them on a linky party, and now I can't find the blog...) on the Spud and Chloe blog and just had to knit them up for my friend Amy's baby, Frankie. He is the cutest thing ever and I hadn't come up with a welcome gift yet and thought these would be perfectly cute, if not perfectly practical! I always lean towards the former and why not?

I do think there is something a bit practical about mittens on a string for babies, however (I added the string, a crocheted chain, after seeing a pair with the same on that linky party; the pattern doesn't include it). I love keeping their little hands covered and the string makes it impossible to lose a mitten. Typically you would thread the string through the arms of a jacket, where they would hang at the ready when not in use, but you could leave it out too. I would use these indoors or outdoors, and they would be so darling in a photo of a bundled-up baby! Maybe with a baby-sized scarflette!

When Amy put these on Frankie (don't worry--I know they have a bit of "frosting" in these photos but trust that they were cleaned and dried before gifting!) he seemed to love just looking at them on his cute little hands. They are a near match for his eye color--such great baby blues. So they also double as a baby toy. And, if all else fails, they would look great draped on the limbs of a Christmas tree.

I made these in 100% cotton, because it seems ideal to use a natural fiber for babies, and it will make them both stretchy and easy to care for. This is Bernat Cottontots in Blue Berry.

Did I mention these "mittens" are actually thumb-less? Thank goodness. It's hard enough getting mittens on a toddler let alone delicate little baby fingers.

I think Tess needs a pair.

Knitting: Looped Scarflette in Scarlet

Before Thanksgiving, and before the series of storms that have covered our world in chilly white, I made a little scarf for Audrey. It's a looped, smallish scarf, so I'm calling it a "Looped Scarflette." It was just the thing to add a bit of warmth on a warm Fall day and now it will be perfect for tucking into coats to keep her neck warm.

This is one of the few knitted items for which I created the pattern, and it was fun, and I think successful. I figured it out based on a darling women's Anthropologie scarf my friend Margie showed me. I love the loops--makes so much sense for a child too--no chance of it falling off on the playground and getting lost.

I used two yarns knitted together: Paton's Classic Wool Roving in Cherry and Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe in Lipstick. I love these two cheery scarlet reds and their subtley different hues and weights knitted together. Both are a blend with wool, which I picked for warmth, and Audrey said "ooohh, cozy!"

I need to work out the pattern in a variety of sizes. This was so much fun I feel a surge of Scarflettes coming on! I want one for myself (I would wear it indoors as an accessory for extra warmth), and need to make one (at least) for Scarlett, and they would make such fun gifts... I love the possibilities of combining yarns.



So one Looped Scarflette down; more to go!

Giving Thanks: A Baby, a Bonnet, a Blessing Day

Every Thanksgiving my family tops the list of things I am grateful for, and so what better way to celebrate the week of Thanksgiving than with a baby blessing? 

Tess was an unexpected blessing this year and it's impossible to imagine our family without her. It was nice to formally acknowledge her arrival by blessing her this past Sunday, surrounding her with family and close friends and invocations for a life filled with the good and important things. Doesn't every baby deserve this kind of welcome?

We served a brunch of strata, spinach salad and cinnamon rolls (on the table with the new Thanksgiving centerpiece).

 

Tess wore a bonnet I finished (just in time) to match the bootees I made. I think she looks beautiful in it and I love the old-fashioned look. I can't get enough of that old-fashioned, Puritan baby look (appropriate for Thanksgiving, no?). This bonnet reminds me of the one I knitted for Scarlett last year. I made up the pattern as I went along. It was an experiment based on the bootees and it certainly isn't perfect--it is a bit big and the shaping along the back of the neck could be improved--but it worked, and it was fun to work it out. And fun that she has a couple things made specifically for her blessing day. I love the crochet ties and plain single crochet rows framing her face.

Click to read more if you are interested in the bonnet pattern and strata recipe.