Yesterday I saw a big beautiful cow resting in my neighbors pasture. I got my my camera and zoomed in and saw that it had a cute little baby. A new baby, just born that morning. I’m so tickled to get these photos of it. I want to go and pet it and hug it, but that would be a bad idea I think. 😉
So the calf isn’t a tiny chick or a baby bunny,
I believe cuteness comes in all sizes.
I think it’s an adorable first babe of Spring.
My blogging buddy Renee inspired this post. She mentioned that she didn’t know that Martha made looms.
It occurred to me that she may not be alone on that. I figure I should post some photos of my Martha Stewart loom set to show what I talk about so much in looming.
Here’s all the pieces parts straight out of the case.
Pros:
You can weave or knit oodles of stuff in a lot of different sizes.
It’s fun to put together. (Brings back nostalgic memories of tinker toys. 😉 )
Lion Brand web site has info and patterns for the Martha Stewart looms.
Lion Brand – Martha Stewart has a lots of videos on youtube on how to knit and weave with the looms.
The cast on and the bind off was tricky for me to learn at first, so I was thankful for the videos.
Aggrivations:
The Martha Stewart loom hook isn’t good quality and bends/breaks easily.
I do like the handle of the MS loom hook. I wish they’d put a little more time in the actual quality of the hook part.
Fortunately, I had ordered a Knifty Knitter loom hook and didn’t have to use the MS one for long. The MS hook wire was getting weak and would’ve broken in no time.
I now use a super sturdy loom hook that came with my Kb Afghan Loom, so I am good to go.
Some of the pegs fit loose and I use painter’s tape to hold them in and some of the pegs fit so tight I carefully hammer them in.
There’s not a comfortable way to store the pegs in the plastic case of the loom set, oh I could put the pegs in bags and stuff them stuff in the back, but I don’t like that at all. So I bought a 6 pack of little waters that my Grandson happily helped empty. I soaked off the labels and use them to store my pegs in. The little bottles work like a charm.
I must confess that all-in-all I really enjoy the loom set. In fact I enjoy it so much that I bought a second set. Well, it was on sale and I thought if I had a second set I could put the parts together with my first set and knit or weave some really big stuff. lol Also I can have more than one project going at once. I haven’t used my second set yet, but I have it if I ever take a hankering to use it. 😉
This is all for me at the moment.
The other day I needed a potholder. I went to my dishcloth/potholder drawer and discovered that all my potholders were in the washing machine. It was then I realized that I had only 4 potholders and needed more.
I thought about sewing some up and I may yet, but I needed one sooner than I could pull my fabric and supplies together and make one.
I remembered that back in early winter my Bff had given me a bag of cotton craft loops. They’re sort of a teri-cloth type, but I figured they’d work. I needed a loom though. Thank goodness for my Martha Stewart loom set. I put together a loom that was a big as the loop would stretch and I began happily weaving.
I discovered early on that if I used the normal bind-off that the potholder would be too small. I decided to stitch the edge with cotton yarn and bind it off that way.
On the first potholder, I weaved cotton yarn throughout it and crocheted around the edge, but I really don’t like the way it looks, so the others I just stitched around the outside loops.
I like my new potholders, they’re not pretty and have wonky stitches, but they work and that’s the important thing.
I thanked my Bff for the loops. I enjoyed making several nice size heavy potholders with them and wished that she was here making some too.
I’ve been wanting to try to make a soda-pop cake. It’s not something that was on my to-do list, but something I thought about from time-to-time (especially every-time there’s a certain commercial on)
The recipe’s really simple, but it’s way to big for me and my husband, so I halved it and made an 8 inch cake
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8 inch Soda-pop cake
Put frozen fruit in the bottom of an ungreased 8 inch cake pan
*(You can use fresh or thawed fruit too)
Spoon 2 cups dry cake mix on top of fruit
Pour 1 cup of soda-pop on the cake mix
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until nicely brown and done.
*The reason for the broad baking time is that I used frozen fruit and it took my cake an hour to bake. I suspect if I had of used fresh or thawed fruit that it may have taken less time… but I could be wrong.
If you make this cake with fresh or thawed fruit and it takes less baking time, come back and comment and let me know.
The only thing I would do different with this cake is that I would take a small spoon and dip up some of the soda-pop and dampen all the cake mix so it wouldn’t have dry mix in spots on top.
This recipe is that it tastes a lot better than it looks.
My husband says it’s delicious and I agree.
Also, if a person wanted a smaller cake all you’d half to do is half the measurements, bake it in a smaller pan and watch the baking time carefully until it’s fully cooked.
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My Bff says her son-in-law told her that he recently had some orange crush cake and it was one of the best tasting cakes he’s had.
So, I guess you know what my next cake will be. 😉
Stay tuned…
Have you ever made a soda-pop cake?
What fruit and flavors of soft drink and cake mix did you use?
graphic from picgifs.com
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As I was going through some photos I discovered that I got a really late start on my seeds this year.
The top photo is how my seedlings looked at this time of year last year.
The lower photo is how they look this year.
Yep that’s right, I’m running behind schedule. I got them planted today.
Hopefully it’s better late than never.
I’ll post updates if when my seeds start growing.
A cold front is moving through again, freezing temps and possibly snow. Not very cheery Springtime weather, but oh well, at least on the calender it’s officially Spring…
Joys Of Creating 