busy busy

soo a quick update on the Star Knits front:

I've been totally enthralled with our new Wii Fit! we got it on Tuesday and I've been playing it since. I love it. and it totally KICKS my butt! I snapped a photo of my DH trying it out with his snowboarding game. It's pretty cool I'm still not good with the games though.

and on the crafty front. I'm feeling the sewing bug coming on. Like I've been finding myself looking at my fabric and thinking about sewing. I even brought down my sewing machine. But I haven't started on anything.

I've picked up a few more classes starting this past week. Monday afternoon and Tuesday Night I have my crochet classes. I created a crochet sampler block for them. It's a few squares that each week I walk them through the basic stitches and by the end I'll teach them joining and finishing. as they go through the week they're supposed to make extra squares for practice so as they go they're almost at a lap blanket at the end of the class. (it's a 4 week class) The sampler is displayed at the store. I'm pondering an Amigurumi class. but it's still in it's planning stages.
Along with my crochet classes I have Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday night knitting classes. So as you can see I've been really busy. But it's a good busy and I really enjoy it. I've just got to find a sitter for Thursday night.
As for knitting I've finished my sleeves for my cabled sweater. (it's supposed to be a hoodie) So I'm excited to get going on the body of the sweater.
and last but not least
I signed up for Sock Wars IV . It's looking to be better than last year. SO I'm super excited! go ahead and sign up for yourself! it should be fun.

KCS4

I got my package today! it totally made my day. My partner Marisol sent me a wonderful package. look at everything that was inside, she really spoiled me.
She gave me a Page a day calendar from The Yarn Harlot. 2 beautiful skeins of Interlacements sock yarn. It's just lovely. My fave chocolate covered espresso beans and some lovely Biscotti.
a great journal with pockets inside a fun chocolate trivial pursuit game. And the coffee! it just smells delicious! She picked out some Sumatra Blue Batak from Peet's Coffee. I can't wait to try it tomorrow morning. I would try it now but I just made a pot of coffee and I don't want to waste it.
Thank you so much Marisol! The package was wonderful and I love it! I can't wait till you get your package.

History Of Magic (in the kitchen)

For my HP Knitting/Crochet House Cup HOM homework we had to pick a character out of the books and creates something with them in mind. Wednesday I realized I had enough bananas to make lots and lots of banana bread:My family likes to eat bananas but we always have 1 or 2 that turn spotted and no one eats them. so I throw them in my freezer until I have enough to make some banana bread.(freezing them is great but they don’t look pretty, but they’re the best and when you unfreeze them there’s no need to mash them!) So I chose to channel Mrs. Weasly, Thursday Night and bake some banana bread/muffins for my HOM homework. I love Mrs. Weasly as she’s the ultimate mom. always caring for people In the books i mostly see her baking and cooking to feed the ones she loves. I relate to Mrs. Weasly that way. I’m always trying to feed my family and friends. Though for Mrs. W. she’s got to be constantly cooking with the huge family. But i’m sure magic helps a lot. My ultimate faves are the mocha double chocolate chip banana muffins in the front of the photo (texas sized if you please! you can actually see an star plate with one on it.. hot out of the oven yum yum) Just my way of feeding those I love and making out home more “homey” and really very burrow-ish with the cluttered counter.

After Turning in my homework i was asked to share the recipes sooo I did, and I thought I'd share here too. Like when I'm knitting, I've tweaked a few of the recipes and i’ll share the tweeks with you. each of the recipes also freeze well so after they’re cool throw them in a ziplock bag and freeze and unthaw when hungry. (in the microwave for 25-50 seconds and it’s like out of the oven)

Get your ingredients ready!

1st we have a recipe that I love and grew up with it’s from my Grandma’s It’s a banana bread recipe but i just threw it in my muffin stone and made muffins.
ps when i say texas sized muffins i mean the big ones b/c everything is bigger in texas.

Grandma Fran’s Banana Bread
yield: 2 loaves or 4 mini loaves (12 muffins and 2 texas sized muffins)
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour pans.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c Flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c shortening or oil (i use oil)
1/2 c sugar or 1/3 c honey (i use honey)
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 c mashed bananas (3-4 bananas) I use the aforementioned freeze and thaw method so no mashing needed.
1/2 to 1 c chopped nuts (optional) i used walnuts. but it’s good with out nuts too

Mix all ingredients but nuts together alternated bananas with flour and shortening. (i just throw them in my kitchen aid and mix away) until all is moistened. add nuts and mix in. Fill your pans 3/4 the way full bake bread loaves for 1 hour adjust time for smaller loaves and muffins. a toothpick will come out clean when it is done and it looks a nice golden brown on top. cool and enjoy!

The second recipe I found a couple of years ago on the Internet but i don’t remember where and I didn’t have it written down so here you go.

Monkey Muffins
yield: 12 muffins and 8 texas sized muffins.
preheat oven to 375 F (last night i just used the 350 b/c i didn’t feel like playing)
spray and flour muffin tin

ingredients
1 1/2 c old fashioned oats (i almost never have these i just use the instant plain oatmeal that I have also when i made these last night i ran out of oatmeal so i added 1/4 c of wheat germ)
1 1/4 c whole wheat flout
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 Tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbls) of melted unsalted butter (the real stuff)
3 eggs
2 banana’s mashed (gain the freezer thing but i used 3 bananas b/c that’s how many I had)
3/4 c milk
1/4 c veg oil.
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips (i forgot for my texas muffins b/c i was in muffin mode but they taste wonderful anyways but i remembered for the regular muffins)

Spread oats on baking sheet and toast for 10 min. (i almost always forget this step so it’s not important) Combine flours baking powder and salt in large bowl and stir in oats. In a separate bowl mix together sugar, butter, eggs, bananas, milk and oil until well blended. Add the egg mix to the flour mix and stir until the ingredients are moist and blended. (almost all recipes say this and i think it’s stupid getting 2 bowls dirty and i’m impatient so i just dump everything together and it all turns out fine) Fold in the chocolate chips (see if i followed the recipe i’d remember to do this)
scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins. about 3/4 the way full or if you have a large scoop just one scoop or 1/3 c measuring cup. (I sprinkled mine with some raw sugar for the sparkley top)
bake for 25-30 min until the tops spring back when pressed lightly or a toothpick comes out clean.
let cool for 5 min and then take out of tins. Enjoy! (these are good hot!)

and finally my fave of all fave’s muffins. they’re almost like a dessert but good for bfast! This is a heavily modified recipe from all recipes so i call it my OWN b/c i’ve changed so much.

Mocha Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Yield 12 muffins and 8 texas sized muffins
pre heat oven to 350 F and grease and flour muffin tins

Ingredients
1 c butter or 1/4 c oil and 1 c plain applesauce
1 c sugar
1 egg
3-4 ripe bananas (whatever you have on hand)
4 Tbls instant coffee dissolved in 1Tbls hot water (it’s like a syrup)
2-3 Tbls cocoa powder.
2 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c semis sweet chocolate chips (reserve the 1/2c for on top of muffins)

dump everything into your kitchen aid mixer bowl and mix away add the chocolate chips last. Put into your muffin tin about 3/4 the way full and top with reserved chocolate chips for that bakery look. Bake for 20-25 min. cool and enjoy!

Ok If you have any questions just ask. if not enjoy!

Bling Bling!

I've bee busy! I made some Knitting Bling as Christmas presents for the ladies in my classes. Well they loved them. (they still rave about them!) So i decided to make more and put them up in my etsy store to see if anyone else would like them.
I like them. They brighten the knitting up and make you smile as you slip them to the next needle. Just a little added something!
Go have a look and LMK what you think!

A Magical Creature!

I found a Jobberknoll outside in the cold. Well at first he looked like a regular Blue speckled bird to me but when I referred to my Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (every household should have one you know!) I recognized it at once. I coaxed him inside with some small dirt flys that have been hanging around my potted plants this winter. He’s really sweet and helpful at getting rid of the insects around. It seems he likes the spiders the best! to my pleasure of course.
For those of you who don’t know a Jobberknoll is small blue speckled bird that eats small insects. Normally found in northern Europe and America. It makes no sound until the moment of it’s death then regurgitates one loud scream of everything it’s ever heard backwards. (oh what it will say after leaving this house with the girls jibber jabbering all the time) A Jobberknoll’s feathers are used in truth serums and memeory potions.and the M.O.M. classification is XX-Harmless/may be domesticated. alt text Here, you can see he’s taken up nesting in the Christmas cactus that never blooms. It amazes me that a bird with such a large beak is so quiet. He’s even charmed the pants off our cat, Simba Jeffery: the master of cuddles and spills. Who is more interested in chasing his tail.. I guess it's good I didn't put any catnip inside! you can see more photos of him in my flickr photostream.

I’ve been calling him Hiro b/c he likes to eat the spiders and I was watching Heroes when I "found" him. I've left him nesting in my plant to see how observant my family is... so far neither of the girls have claimed him... LOL

I've turned him in for my Care of Magical Creatures homework for this month. I'm working on my DADA as I type and pondering a charms project too.

an Elephant story

Isn't this the cutest story you've ever seen? I'm researching what my patronus would be for my HP Knitting/Crochet House Cup homework and I was having a hard time figuring it out. So I emailed the proffessor and she helped me figure it out. So right now in this time of my life my patronus is an Elephant. pretty cute... now to figure out what my Homework project should be..... hmmm.

O.W.L.s

In case you haven't noticed I've changed my template a bit... we'll see how this one works out. LMK what you think.

I've been working on my two of my OWLs for my HP knitting/crochet house cup this week or past week...
My first is in transfiguration. I'm making a Villiage St. Market bag. The pattern is available at the LYS with the purchase of yarn. I made one a long time ago as a test knit and my SIL saw it and wants one. Here's where I was on Saturday. I'm much further now. It's a great project.

I've also been working on my Arithmancy OWL. I've signed up to make 20 baby bibs. It's b/c everyone i know seems to be having a baby these days and I like to make my gifts so these are going to be mass produced for gift giving. (also everything seems to be revolving around my HP K/C house cup these days)

This month there are new assignments and I've signed up for Care of magical creatures. So I need to make an amigurumi. I'm excited.. I'm just deciding what to make. There's also DADA and figuring out what our patronus would be... it think there's a few others that I've got to re-look up. It's a great group to join over at ravelry if you're looking for fun ways to tie in knitting with your love of all things harry potter.
anyways that's my commercial.. LOL