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We celebrated our V-day early this year, on Thursday. Partner made a delicious chef’s salad and I made chocolate cake! After eating we spent the evening playing Monopoly and Scrabble- a very nice date night! We enjoyed not worrying about gifts or cards- and created online photo collages for each other instead. How’s that for no waste? With my thesis taking up most of my time, it was fantastic to just spend so much uninterrupted time relaxing and re-connecting.
This is my go-to recipe whenever I want to make choc. cupcakes or cake (scroll down for the recipe). Since my partner couldn’t find any conversation hearts or anything sort of Valentine’s-ey, I used some swedish fish we received in a package. In the second photo, you can see my scrabble hand, our holiday table cloth and a necklace my mom made me when I was in elementary school. I still wear it every year!
Chocolate Cake Recipe – I got this from some company’s packaging at some point…I think
1 & 3/4 C flour
2C sugar3/4C cocoa
1 & 1/2 ts baking powder
1 & 1/2 ts baking soda
1 ts salt
2 eggs
1C milk
1/2C oil
2 ts vanilla
1C boiling water
Combine dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat. (I just do this step by hand). Stir in boiling water. Pour thin batter into greased and floured pan. It specifies 13 by 9 by 2 inch or two 9 inch rounds. I just used a 10 inch or so spring form. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then remove to cool completely.
We found that 22 minutes for cupcakes is perfect in our fan assisted oven and somewhere in the upper 20s was perfect for the cake.
This is the quilt I made as a welcome home present (it was supposed to be the welcome to the world quilt) for this little boy. When they announced a baby was on the way, I couldn’t figure out what to make. Crocheting a blanket didn’t seem like the right thing. Then, I remembered a fantastic quilt we slept under when visiting these friends. A grandparent of one of the parents quilted and the turtle is a reminder of the other parent’s nickname. Their lovely little boy came home yesterday!
I learned a LOT making this quilt.
1. I should have used a walking foot for the machine. Apparently, that would’ve stopped it from bubbling like it did. It looks more like a sleeping bag than a quilt.
2. I may have used too much batting/wadding in the middle layer.
3. Making my own bias binding was not only essential for the size I needed, it was extremely satisfying. I measured the fabric 4 ruler-widths across.
4. I am not sure how to handle and adjust the machine tension if the numbers don’t make sense. According to my manual if there were loops on the back, the tension needed a higher number. What do you do when it’s already at the highest number? Well, for me, the answer is to walk away so the blanket doesn’t receive any negative energy. Then approach it once more, fiddle around, re-thread, rip some stitches out and wait for it to miraculously fix the tension.
5. What I lack in skill, I make up for in LOVE.
Here’s a shot of the cloud material used to back the quilt.
