Snowflake Hat

Since our temperature has been roaming about the 15 degrees area for the past month,

I decided that my little girl needed a warm hat to wear outside.

I started searching around Pinterest and I found this.
Original Snowflake Hat Pattern

I decided that this would be the perfect hat for me to make.

I grabbed my yarn and crochet hook and started.

 I discovered that there were a few things in the pattern that I didn't want.

I was looking at the picture she had on her blog as well as the pattern.

A few things didn't add up.

The hat wouldn't turn out like the picture, so I modified it.

I am in no way taking credit for this pattern.

There are very few modifications and Simply Sweet deserves all the credit.

After all, it was her pattern to start off with.

Here is how it turned out.

 

 Here is my little model!

She doesn't like having it on unless her jacket is on too.

Here is a better view of the whole hat.    

This is my modified pattern:

Snowflake Hat Crochet Pattern

This should fit a 19-21" head, probably 12-24 months.

Hook - H
Yarn - ww (#4) - I used Red Heart red and white.

R1: hdc 10 into magic circle – join with slip stitch
R2: HDC into first hdc *2 HDC in each hdc* all the way around (20 HDC)
R3: HDC into first hdc from previous round *1 HDC, 2 HDC in next hdc* around (30 HDC)
R4: HDC into first hdc from previous round *1 HDC in next 2, 2 HDC in next hdc* around (40HDC)

R5: HDC into first hdc from previous round *1 HDC in next 3 hdc, 2 HDC in next hdc* around (50HDC)

R6: HDC into first hdc from previous round *1 HDC in next 4 hdc, 2 HDC in next hdc* around (60HDC)
R7-10: HDC around (in red)
*Change Color*
R10-11: HDC around (in white)

*Change Color*
R12: HDC around (in red)
*change color*
R13: HDC around (in white)

*Change Color*
R14-15: HDC around (in red)

Earflaps instructions were found at (http://amray1976.blogspot.com/2011/10/crochet-earflap-hat.html):

For the first ear flap, continue from the last stitch on R15.

sc in next 9 stitches.

(Follow directions below for both ear flaps):

ch 1. hdc in next 14 stitches, turn. -14 sts

ch 1. hdc2tog, hdc in the next 9 stitches. hdc2tog. hdc in the last st., turn. -12 sts

ch 1. hdc2tog, hdc in next 7 stitches. hdc2tog. hdc in last st., turn. -10 sts

ch 1. hdc in each stitch across, turn. -10 sts

ch 1. hdc2tog, hdc in the next 5 stitches. hdc2tog. hdc in the last st., turn. -8 sts

ch 1. hdc in each stitch across, turn -8 sts
ch 1. hdc2tog, hdc in the next 3, hdc2tog. hdc in the last st., turn -6 sts
ch 1. hdc2tog, hdc in next 1, hdc2tog. hdc in the last st., turn. -4sts
ch 1. hdc in each stitch across, pull through and fasten off. -4 sts

2nd flap, (make sure that there are 16 stitches in between each earflap) fold hat in half and sl st in hdc directly across from the last hdc from the other ear flap.

sc around hat in red
sc around hat in white

Snowflake -(still using a h hook)
12 sc in magic circle, sl st into first sc to join
*ch3, skip 1 sc, sc in next sc* - around until you have 6 loops
in all 6 loops - *2sc, ch3, 2sc*
ch3, then in the ch3 from before, *1sc, ch3, 1sc, ch5, 1sc, ch3, 1sc ch3* repeat in each ch3 until 6 have been done.

Attach snowflake to hat.

You can attach it to a clip or you can sew it on.

Create candy-striped strands.

I did a 4 strand braid so that it would be striped.

Start out your braid with your yarn like this:

Make sure that you braid matching colors twice, before switching to next color.

Braid white on the left, then white on the right.

Braid red on the left, then red on the right.

That will create the striped effect on the braid.

Repeat until braid is the length that you want.

Add pom pom to end of braid (optional).

Martinelli's Jello "Shots"

Hello everyone!

I hope that you had a fabulous Christmas and New Year!

I want to share with you one of my favorite New Years Eve recipes.

It is called Cava Gelatin.

I saw Dave Lieberman make it on the Food Network.

The episode is called Elegant Dinner Party.

I have made it three times now.

It is very easy and super fancy!

This is what you will need:

Here is the recipe.

•  1/2 cup ultrafine sugar
• You can find it in your baking section of the grocery store
• 1 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 packages unflavored gelatin (Knox brand is recommended)
• You can find it in your jello section at the grocery store.
• 2 bottles of Martinelli's Spraking Cider
• 1 package of raspberries (optional)

Directions:

1. Place sugar in a bowl.
2. Cover with boiling water and whisk until sugar has dissolved.

     -This is why you use ultrafine sugar. It has smaller granules and will dissolve quickly.

 

 3. Sprinkle gelatin over the solution and whisk lightly to incorporate.

 You can see the different color.

There was already gelatin sticking to my wisk and settling at the bottom of the bowl.

4. Let gelatin mixture cool to room temperature.

    -It took 30 minutes for my mixture to cool to room temp.

5. Pour gelatin mixture into a large pitcher.

6. Pour 2 cups of Martinelli's into a glass.

   -This will not be used in the recipe. So drink it while you're making this. :)

7. Pour the rest of the Martinelli's, on an angle, into the pitcher.

  -You want to hold the pitcher at an angle while you pour the Martinelli's slowly into pitcher.

  -This will minimize the amount of foam that you will have at the top of your mixture.

  - You will still have some foam, but you want to save the carbonation for your jello.

8. Stir gently with the whisk.

   -If you stir too vigorously, it will reduce the amount of carbonation. Stir gently!

9. At an angle, pour into wine glasses or plastic cups.

   -I poured my mixture into 10 - 9 oz. clear plastic cups.

   -You can see in the picture that I wasn't able to fill them to the top.

 

10. Put into refrigerator immediately.

11. Refrigerate until set.

   -The recipe says for at least 2 hours. It took 3 hours for mine to set.

12. Garnish with raspberries.

   -They were out of season so I did not do that.

13. Grab a spoon and enjoy!

 

When this sets in the fridge, bubbles form in the jello, it looks really cool.

When you take a bite out of this, you will be surprised!

It still tastes carbonated and it is fabulous!

If you try it out, let me know.

I'd love to hear how it worked out for you.

Happy 2013!!

Raymond Family Olympics

To celebrate the start of the Olympics, we had one of our own!

All of my in-law's were in town for a week and

we needed a good way to expend some energy in the kids!

I didn't get enough pictures of the events since I was leading the events.

I had the three teenage nieces decorate a banner that said,

"Raymond Family Olympics"

Instead of Olympic rings, we had Olympic hearts!

I made medals for every child that was there.

We cut them out, laminated them, and added red yarn for the necklace.

Click here for the Word file.

All you have to do is change your family name in the document
and print it out on cardstock.

You will need to trace the hearts with a marker once printed.
Here is the order of the colors (From left to right):
Blue - Yellow - Black - Green - Red

We started the evening with a BBQ from grill master Jon (my husband).

Here are the 4 events that we had:

1. Obstacle Course

3 cartwheels or rolls

army crawl under the rope (about 6 feet long)

zig zag aroundthe fruit trees

sprint back to the finish 

Whomever has the fastest time, wins

2. Water balloon toss

Secure 6 paper plates to trees to be used at targets

Every athlete gets 3 balloons and can throw at any target 

Whomever hits the most targets, wins 

3. Team water balloon toss

Everyone gets a partner and a towel

Each athlete grabs one end of the towel

A balloon is placed in the center

On the count of 3, they make the balloon fly in the air

The last team to have a balloon that hasn't popped, wins

4. Archery

Grandpa set this up since we have a bow and arrow for the grandkids

  

 This is one of our athletes receiving his medal

All of our athletes showing off their medals.

  Everyone had such a good time!

You could make any activity that you have space for.

These are just what we did.

15 Minute Time Limit

Since I was born I have had a fascination with all things computer.

I should have gone to school to be a computer tech.

There was one particular element of the computer that has enchanted me since it was created.

THE INTERNET

I have been "online" since the early '90's.

My father was a computer genius. He knew how to do everything with a computer.

I remember being in High School and using the dial-up connection

my Dad had installed to get into chat rooms.

Chat rooms at 14 years old?? What was I thinking??

I remember one day someone found out I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and felt that they needed to "bible bash" with me and tell me how my religion was wrong. I also remember a lot of perverted men that were online trying to chat with me. I was still in High School. It is crazy to think back on how much time I spent in chat rooms. Doing nothing but talking to complete strangers.

My sister told me a story a year ago that I never knew. Back in my "chat room" days, my Dad would get on the phone (where our dial-up was connected) and he would make a noise so the internet would crash and I wouldn't be online anymore.

I remember getting so annoyed that the internet wasn't working.

Thank goodness for my amazing Dad!

Who knows what would have happened if I could stay online as long as I wanted.

Most of you probably don't remember dial-up, but it was connected to your home phone line.

As long as someone was online, no phone calls could come through.

Once High School was done and I headed off to college, I received a flyer on my windshield advertising this website called "collegeclub.com".

I joined immediately!

I made all of these "friends" and had new groups to join. I believe that I was a member of a "recipe a day" group.

It was a great time for me, or so I thought.

How sad that I had to use the internet to make friends and join groups.

I had friends in college, sure. But I had a lot of online friends.

And for some reason, that felt important to me.

In 1999, I got a job at Nu Skin Enterprises .

I was a switch board operator.

I would answer phone calls that came into the company and transfer them to the receptionist or the employee they were asking for.

We had about 7 phone consoles that we could choose from to sit at.

Only 2 of them had computers that we could use.

I remember ALWAYS wanting to be at the cubicle that had a computer.

I did a lot of mindless internet searching in the 6 years I had that job.

It is now 2012 and I still love being online.

I have a 6 month old daughter that is the love of my life, next to my husband.

Every morning I feed Kyla, lay her on the ground to play with her toys, and get online.

I check my gmail account first.

Then I look at Facebook for a while.

Finally, I open up Pinterest and hang out there for an hour or so.

Then I feed my daughter again and jump online to see what I've missed in the past little while.

Every day I do this.

My computer is always on so I can stay updated on everything.

After I "pin" something that I think is super cool on Pinterest, I refresh my screen 4 or 6 times to see how many people have pinned it themselves.

I get disappointed when no one does.

I constantly refresh my Facebook page so I can make sure I catch EVERYONE'S status updates.

It seems so important to me to know that he ate at Cafe Rio and feels full from too much food.

Or she is tired of being single but is dealing with it.

I HAVE to know if everyone wanted Professor Umbridge dead more then Voldemort

and I need to keep up with all the vintage photo's that everyone uploads through Instagram.

(By the way, I think those are crap. We're not in the 70's anymore and I don't need my pictures looking brown and orange.)

 

WHY do I do this?? I ask myself often lately.

Because I am addicted to the internet.

Honestly, that is not a good thing.

I have wasted HOURS of my life sitting in front of a computer.

Last week, I put my daughter down on the floor to roll around, giving her "tummy time" and I jumped online to stay in the know of everything. A while later, I looked over to see how she was doing and she was up on her knees, looking like she wanted to crawl, then she flopped on her side.

How long has she been doing that without me knowing???

How many things have I missed already in her 6 months of life because I'm too attached to my computer?

I don't want my daughter to think back on her childhood and remember Mommy always on a computer or always texting.

I WANT TO BE A PART OF HER LIFE!!!

Last night a thought came to me.

You need to have a time limit on the computer.

I have a digital timer that I am going to put next to my computer.

Whenever I sit down in front of it, I will start the timer.

15 min is all I am allowing myself.

Once the timer goes off, I will shut down my computer and do something worthwhile.

I can check back a few hours later, but not all day long!

I DON'T constantly need to be on the computer.

I am not learning anything of great importance by sitting in front of this machine for hours.

There are so many other things I could be doing;

• Cleaning the house
• Doing laundry
• Sewing a new dress of Kyla or myself
• Crocheting a new pattern
• Reading my scriptures
• Playing the piano
• Making an amazing dinner for my hard working husband
• Being a better Mom to my daughter
• Etc, etc, etc.

15 minutes....that is MORE then sufficient.

Birthday Calendar

A few years ago, Jon and I made this for my mother-in-law.

It is a GREAT present for Oma's and Grandma's.

It will help you keep track of the many birthdays in the family!

We bought the main block, wood letters, wood rectangles, stars, and ribbon at Micheal's in Provo.

Here is how we made it.

~We took yellow paint and watered it down slightly so you

could still see the wood grain through the paint.

~We spray painted the block letters with 3 or 4 coats of silver

and two coats of clear glossy spray paint.

~We spray painted the little blocks with 2 coats of silver and

I wrote the abbreviated months with a black Sharpie.

~We used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to the back.

As for the length of the ribbon, it will depend on how many

birthdays you have and how many family members are still having kids.

~Add a picture hanger to the top.

~We wrote the date and names on the stars with a silver paint pen.

~Then attached them to the ribbon with velcro circles in numerical order.

That way, if a new baby is born or someone gets married, you can easily move the stars around.

~Here is a close up look at the stars.

 It took us around 8 hours to finish the entire thing.

But now my mother-in-law will always know who's birthday is just around the corner!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Turnovers with Lemon Glaze

Okay friends, I decided the other day that I wanted to make a yummy dessert. This popped into my head and it was a hit! They are turned out DELICIOUS!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Turnovers with Lemon Glaze

- 2 containers of crescent roll dough (the pre-made kind that when you open the package it pops and scares you!)
- 4 oz Cream Cheese
- 3 TBSP Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 pinches Salt
- Blueberries (you could also use strawberries, raspberries, peaches, etc)

1. Open package of crescent dough and carefully roll triangles out.
2. Use your fingers to stretch the dough into a good triangle shape (be careful to not rip the dough)
3. Whip cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth.
4. Place 1 TBSP of cream cheese mixture onto the bottom crescent triangle and spread evenly across entire surface, but not to the edge of the dough.
Note: Don't place cream cheese mixture on all crescent triangles. Half will be used for the top of the turnover.
5. Put blueberries on cream cheese and press them into the cream cheese mixture.
6. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar onto blueberries.

7. Take the top crescent triangles and place them on top of the bottom crescent triangles.
8. Pinch the sides all around the triangles making sure that no cream cheese is leaking out.
You can use the tip of a fork to pinch the dough together if you want.

 9.  Bake at 350 for 18 min or until golden brown.

10. Let cool for 2-3 min then drizzle with lemon glaze, recipe to follow.

Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 TBSP Lemon Juice
- 1-2 tsp Milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice together (Make sure that you start with 1 TBSP of lemon juice and add more depending upon how much lemon flavor you want).
2. Add milk 1 tsp at a time until you have a thin glaze.
3. Place turnovers onto cooling rack.
4. Use a spoon to drizzle glaze over turnover.

These are best eaten warm. The cream cheese will solidify when it cools down. But if you want to save some for later, then once they are cooled to room temperature, wrap individually in plastic wrap and place in freezer. Reheat in toaster oven for a few min.

I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did!

Barn Cake

Last Friday was our Blue and Gold Banquet for the Scouts in our church group.

Every year we have a cake auction and the proceeds go to the Scouting program.

This year I made a Barn Cake.

I found the idea on Betty Crocker email that I received last year.

It took a long time to put it together, but it was a blast to decorate!

Here is what it looked like.

We took twinkies, covered them in frosting and dipped them into shredded wheat.

That is our hay bales on the left hand side.