'Winter' is here!

So now that it's getting really cold in all places not Houston I've started amping up my knitting. I've started a blanket for one set of friends and a beanie for another friend and I just finished this really fun hood/scarf project. Lately when I see something knit that is an interesting design or form I print out the picture and try to ad-lib a pattern for it. I saw a really chunky scarf with a hood connected and Christine was really excited about the picture so I decided to try it. I made the scarf part a little smaller and used a different stitch, but I think it turned out really neat and more practical than 8 pounds of scarf. Here are some pics of the project laying flat, I'll have to get Christine to model it for me later.

Dalmatians for Anders

Last year for Anders' birthday I attempted to make a chocolate cake with a cream cheese ribbon through it. That resulted in two cake pans with chocolate cake on the top and cream cheese goo severly stuck to the pan. So for Valentine's day I made another attempt at 'Dalmation cupcakes'. The recipe worked out really well. I make my own dark chocolate cake batter and fill the liners about halfway or 2/3rds full. Then I make the cream cheese mixture with semi-sweet chocolate chips and add one cookie scoop of that to each liner. The cipcakes end up looing like chocolate cupcakes from the outside but they have a yummy cream cheese surprise :) I topped Anders' birthday cupcakes off this year with cream cheese icing at his request. This is what thy look like on the inside:

Happy Housewarming Kristine and Loi!

My friend, Kristine and her boyfriend, Loi, recently had a house built here in Houston. It's everything they've ever wanted because they had it built to their specifications and it's amazing! They did a really great job painting and decorating and I can't wait to hang out there all the time! for their housewarming bbq I made some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing! I have just one pic of them right after I finished icing them:



Congratulations Kristine, Loi, and Roxy :)

Surprise Baby Shower

At our company people love a reason to have a party. One of the guys in QA is having a baby soon so some of the women in have decided to throw him a surprise baby shower. For a man. Strange, I know, but I'm always up for a reason to make baby gifts so here is what I came up with for his soon to be baby girl: a knit hat of the softest yellow yarn and pink ribbon, a matching pink and yellow tutu as a photo prop for when they get pictures taken, and a pink onesie from the GAP. Here are some photos of the goodies:

Dallas Tourney

In case you didn't know I love soccer. Love love love soccer. I play as often as humanly possible. So when I was asked by one of my Gilruth teammates to play with her other coed team in a Dallas tournament I said yes immediately. Tournament soccer is especially exciting, higher intensity, and tons of fun. The coed cup was held in Plano, TX right outside of Dallas. We did quite well for a first out of town tournament together (especially considering we got bumped up a division for no reason). We won our first two games, lost the third of the round robin play. That put us in the playoffs and we ended up losing our first playoff game to the team that won our division. Not a bad showing! also exciting: this was my first trip to Dallas, or any Texas city other than Houston for that matter. We got turned around on our way back home and ended up driving past the Grassy Knoll! Very fun! Some pics:

Team Dinner at Saltgrass:


Mark and Nathan showing off their impeccable table manners:


Leslie and Steph at dinner:


Team pic of The Zoo:


Silly pic:

Something Chocolaty

Within my group of friends here in Texas, we all usually go out to diner, happy hour, bars for each others' birthdays. I always make the cake flavor of the birthday boy/girl's choice. So, for Christine's birthday I asked her what she wanted and she said something chocolaty. Since it is also fall and fall means pumpkin I came up with: Chocolate pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes. Quite the mouthful, and sooooo delicious. Here's a shot of some fresh out of the oven last night:



Lucky for my co-workers there were 3 that didn't fit in the big Tupperware I had to bring to dinner so I brought them in this morning for a taste test. Tim says they are the best thing I've ever brought into work (and I've brought in a lot of stuff!). They are made by making a chocolate cookie crust, pumpkin cheesecake mixture, and melting semi-sweet chocolate to swirl in the middle. Baloo is a good helper (dish washer):



Hope Christine likes em! Happy 25th Teeners!

My Favorite Holiday

Well I completely failed at picture taking this Halloween. As it turns out, maneuvering a cape, basket, beverage, AND trying to take pictures is rather difficult. I saw lots of costumes this weekend including the stack of money you could be saving with GEICO (with the song playing), a completely painted yellow Marge and Homer Simpson, Billy Mays (too soon?), swine flu, and one picture of a baby in a Where the Wild Things are onesie like the pj's Max wears. Lots of great ideas out there this year. I was Little Red Riding Hood if you remember and here is the only picture I have where you can see my full costume:



Kristine in the middle was a ketchup bottle (her mustard was taking the picture for us), Roxy is wearing a t-shirt reading 'Professional Heartbreaker", and Christine was Tinkerbell. I'm very proud of Christine and her costume because she made the entire thing by hand! Even the shoes! Very nice, most people thought she bought it :)