Labor of Love

First and foremost I would like to thank my husband for being such a great cook. I feel blessed that he ENJOYS cooking. I feel blessed that I can count on him to take over making dinner when I need a break from cooking. And, I feel blessed that when it comes to new recipes that he's willing to make them. Happy to say that we're even a team when it comes to cooking/baking.

Another Pinterest recipe. He's usually the cook when trying out new recipes while I'm his sous chef. {But when it comes to Mexican food I'm the boss, lol}

Sriracha  Lime Chicken Chopped Salad ... is a keeper! And what's surprising to me is that I had stayed away from adding any chicken on my salads because I was just not into them but this dish is superb. The lime vinaigrette was ok but I needed it to have something more so I drizzled ranch dressing and it was perfect! The flavor from the red onion, grilled pineapple, lime vinaigrette and the sriracha marinade was just a burst of wonderful flavors and surprisingly it wasn't spicy. Jacob loved it as well. We can't wait to make this dish again!! {look it up on Pinterest so you can get the recipe}

Also, Jacob had to make banana bread so we wouldn't have to throw away all the ripen bananas we had. He knows I like it with lots of brown sugar on the top ... so sweet and delicious! Oh, and here's the bee mug I mentioned several posts back. Isn't it cute?!

And here's my finished blanket. I thought it would look best on our bed. I'm so proud of it! Even Sydna liked it. I guess I need to make her one.

Now that I'm done crocheting this blanket I have more spare time so I'm already browsing to see which winter color hue I'll like best. Also, I'm on my last book from the stack of books I bought several months ago. I need to buy more. I love to read, don't you?!

Riley's Blanket

*Here's a bit of a back story about the darn yarn*

As soon I had found out I was pregnant with Riley I knew I wanted to knit him a blanket but I got so sick in my first trimester that I lost interested in everything I once held dear and what was once important to me.

Once the queasyness diminished and I began to feel better I took a trip to the awesome Michael's craft store and bought several balls of yarn. And so I began knitting but by this time I was in the middle of my second trimester. On the third visit to Michael's (to purchase more yarn) I was disappointed to find out that they had run out of the yarn I was using so knowing that they got new shipments in every Wednesday I headed back the following week and once again the cubby where my favorite color yarn was housed was infact empty. A bit frustrated I hunt down an employee and asked her if there had been an order placed of my favorite color yarn, she looked at her little hand held computer thingy and said, Yes, it's been ordered. So after she had confirmed the order to me I left the store feeling better, content knowing that my favorite color yarn was on order and would arrive within a weeks time. Wednesday came again but I didn't get a chance to go until the following day. So there I go headed directly towards the back where the yarns are stored and down the isle where my favorite color yarn was to be and saw that it was EMPTY!!!  .... Nooooo! I immediately felt my vein on my left temple starting to throb, I was a bit ticked off ... because by this time I was beginning my third trimester and I knew I had little time left to knit.

That one lady worker was full of it! they did however called the other Michaels store that's about 25 minutes away to check if they had any and so I waited ... and waited ... and finally I was told that they too had sold out. I thanked the ladies for doing such a fine job of pissing me off and left the store and vowed to never buy yarn there again (of course I made that vow because I was upset but didn't really mean it ... I will give the yarn department another chance).

So given I had about two months left before I gave birth I searched for the empty yarn wrappers and found the company's website ... YES! I did see a light at the end of the tunnel. I was a bit scared that I would be left with 40 dollars worth of knitted baby blanket halfway done. So I went online and found my favorite color yarn and ordered 3 rolls. I was so elated!!! Now I had to wait about a week and a half for my favorite color yarn to get here.

The days passed and I finally got my favorite color yarn delivered and began knitting right away ... of course I couldn't devote an entire day to knitting because I have a family and house to tend to so I knitted when I could. Because of my limited time alotted and despite my best efforts to finish the blanket in time I was unable to finish it before the babys arrival.

Riley James was born and the blanket was just about done but now I had other priorities ... a little baby boy that took  precedence over a line of yarn. So the unfinished blanket was placed inside a bag and remained there for a few months. Once I got in a sort of a routine after Riley's arrival I took it out and finished it.

Here is the finished product.

The name of my favorite color yarn is called Misty Taupe. I wanted a color that was masculine and a bit dark, nothing baby-ish here.

So it took me about 7 months to finally finish Riley's blanket.

All this time I've been calling what I'm doing knitting but I am wrong. I crochet ... it's where you use the different size hooks as oppose of needles. I'm a goof, oh well.

Anyway, I am not a pro at crocheting by any means. My Mom taught me this pattern and it's the only one I know. I don't even know how to read the instructions on how to crochet. I'm a visual learner so following instructions from a book would be futile.

The cost for this blanket came out to a total of $60 including tax, that's a total of about 9-10 balls of yarn. The yarn was expensive but very soft and it didn't release much lint which is what I was looking for. Didn't want any lint getting in Riley's eyes.

 Here's Riley trying it out ... got himself all wrapped in it.

I must admit, after finishing the blanket I did not use it on him right away. Once I was done I folded it and placed it in a corner of the room. The blanket is a bit big for him right now. I made it big so it could be used whenever we get him a toddler bed. It'll look so nice then.