Chocolate Insanity

Wow...a chocolate buffet. My friends and I assumed we would not be satisfied with it or think it was worth the $35 but much to our surpise we were surprised and overwhelmed by the amount of choices! The buffet is held every Saturday at Cafe Fleuri and has been for the past 19 years. It's in a 4 star hotel in the Financial District and I was impressed with the customer service and I didn't even stay at the hotel.

Anyway, onto the good stuff. The waiter informed us that there were 125 different chocolate choices. They had a crepe station, an Coldstone-esque ice cream station, countless cakes, cookies, and truffles, fresh doughnuts, fresh cotton candy, three different kinds of hot chocolate.

The good: tremendous amount of chocolate goodies served in manageable pieces so you could try many many options. Not rushed out of there, we lingered for 2+ hours.

The bad: sucky waiter who only refilled my coffee after it was as cold as an iced coffee and then disappeared until we were literally the last people in the dining area held captive because he hadn't given us our check. The crepe station wasn't worthwhile, there is a table with ingredients including white and dark chocolate but they wouldn't let the ingredients sit in the pain long enough to melt anything so the crepe was far from cohesive. The ice cream station used the same ingredients as for the crepes, no candy bits. Could have been more imaginative with that.

Would I go again? Yes, and I've already recommended to a friend.

The Multifaceted Envelope

Ok, so I recently posted about a women using a mailing envelope as, what appeared to be blinder, attached to a baseball hat.

Today, someone has discovered yet another new use for an envelope. Today's envelope is a USPS priority shipipng envelope being worn as a hat. I'm guessing it's the kind with bubble wrap because it is sticking straight up on his head.

I have seen him three times now on two different days...I would love to know the rationale behind wearing an envelope on one's head.

Buttons...and they're straight!

I have been working on this cardigan...the recipient has yet to be determined but I wanted to do this project to figure out if buttons could be added to my cadre of skills. I plan on making this cardigan with Bernat Baby yarn for J's niece.

We ventured to JoAnn Fabrics this weekend to look at buttons since the giant tub of buttons I got from A.C.Moore didn't have any buttons that match this color yarn...it's turquoise but you can't really tell in this picture.

I also did something uncharacteristic....I bought this color yarn (color 17, bright pink if you don't click out) for the hour glass sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I have decided to try and knit with DK weight more...I wore M's sweater that I made him and it's purely delightful. I like his sweater more than any that I've made myself. Hopefully this next one lives up to my standards.

In non knitting news, we picked our M's tux yesterday. It should be nice, we decided to keep it classic and went with a black vest underneath rather than attempting to be matchy matchy with my green sash. There's no way the colors would match so I would just rather keep it classic.

I've been working on my vows and wow, that's hard to do. Trying to find exactly the right words and not sound too trite...difficult.

Oh! In baking news...I made home made cinnamon buns...and when I say home made ladies and gentlemen, I mean I kneaded the dough. And this time I did it right! They turned out great...I would make that recipe again (latest edition of Bon Appetit).

Be Safe, Be Courageous

As we were about to disembark from the bus this morning, my bus driver loudly belts out a line of a song. It was so random that I thought it was possible it was a tic but then I second guessed that when as he opened the doors to let us off he yelled, " Goodbye everybody, have a good day, be safe, be courageous, be intelligent, be brave, be nice, " the list went on and on. Odd but quite amusing :) At least he wasn't reading a book like the other bus driver!

Bluebell....it's okaaaay

As usual, I am mostly happy with the Bluebell but like my other sweater projects, there are things I would change if I did it again. I would once again, make the sleeves longer, they curl up because of the purling rows at the bottom. I would also make it more of an hourglass sweater than it is which I think I've mentioned before. I actually think my next project is going to be the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I strive to make a sweater that is actually flattering when it's completed. I'm leaning more towards patterns that you use DK or sport weight yarn and staying away from the chunky yarn....also the sleeves are bell shaped but I feel they are a little too wide for my taste. My gauge wasn't exact when I started but it was really really close so I think it's how the pattern is written rather than the gauge. I would be tempted to try this again with my yarn of choice...classic elite 150. It has a nicer drape to it than the Nashua Creative Focus Superwash...I'm thinking of washing it in hot even though it says cold to see if it will be more shapely. I'll post a pic of me wearing it...

The Seamless Baby Cardigan is going pretty well. I bought a random tub of buttons yesterday to see if I will be able to sew them on effectively. I also bought yarn to use for J's future neice, this demo project will go to someone at work who just adopted a baby, the sweater is too big for a newborn.

Bluebell Is Swell

Here's the progress so far....this was a really simple pattern. I think it would be perfect for someone who has never made a sweater before EXCEPT for the fact that you have to sew the arm seams together.....If I made this sweater again, I would decrease further for the waist and make it more of an hourglass sweater than it turned out being. The other thing I changed was opting just for the purled sections on the arm rather than adding in the ribbed rows in between followed by another section of purled rows. I wanted something a little bit simpler.

This pic shows off the glorious sewing job that lies ahead x2. I would love to know why the author of the pattern chose to make a seamless sweater pattern but have arms done on straight needles...perplexing. I used the mattress stitch to sew up the arm that I've completed so far which works great for stockinette stitch but I wasn't quite sure how I should have changed it when I got to the purled rows so I just kept doing the mattress stitch since I couldn't figure out how to do the inverse of it which I'm sure is what I was supposed to do. Since I was nearly finished with

the Bluebell, I decided to start this baby cardigan. I'm not using the best yarn for it, but I mostly was trying it as a demo since I've never made buttonholes or sewed on buttons (in fact, M has to sew a button on a jacket for me sometime this weekend). This sweater will be for J's sisters baby who is due to make her grand appearance on July 4th. I am trying to make an effort to get rid of yarn I already own, so at the risk of losing some of the detail of the pattern, I'm forging ahead with this yarn. We'll see how it looks, it's really soft.

In other news, M and I picked up our rings last night. I love mine! I'ts exactly what I was envisioning, it's very delicate and simple and not too bling bling. We do have to make another trip back though because they were nine very small diamonds in the original setting and eigth (as planned) in my new setting but they lost one of the small diamonds but they are willing to replace it, although it was an heirloom...

Tomorrow is my dress fitting...wish me luck!

Edy's Loaded Cookie Dough Loaded With Weird Yucky Fluff

So amidst my second cold of the year, I suffered the malady of severe sore throat. To ease my discomfort I dragged M to the store to buy me some ice cream. After much contemplation we (read: I) decided on the Edy's Loaded Cookie Dough and looked forward to relish each loaded spoon full and soothing my gullet. Initially, I thought it felt squishier than other cookies and then I tasted it. What I tasted tasted 'like it was synthesized in a lab in attempt to resemble ice cream' (that would be a quote from my letter to Edy's, and no I'm not 80). The flavor was like frozen Cool Whip, and the loaded meant Cookie Dough and the tiniest chocolate chips you've ever seen. I then noticed that no where on the container did the phrase 'ice cream' appear. Do you know what I bought? A Frozen Dairy Dessert....can you believe this? Below, the response to my Edy's complaint:


Thank you for your email regarding your purchase of EDY'S Loaded Cookie Dough. We are committed to producing the highest quality products and direct feedback from our customers is very important in maintaining our standards.
Our flavor development team spends many hours creating unique flavor combinations. The team's goal for each flavor is to achieve a delicate balance among all the ingredients to deliver maximum consumer delight. This product is quickly becoming a favorite with many EDY'S customers. However, we are sorry that you found this product to be a disappointment and, consequently, did not enjoy your purchase.
Please watch your mail for a flavor list, coupons, and a gift certificate to replace your purchase. We hope that you will try our products again and that your next purchase will meet, if not exceed, your expectations.

Primarily Voting

Haha....I'm glad you liked the joke. I did my civic duty today for Hillary...while M did not vote. He thinks that Barack and Hillary are too similar to be able to vote for one over the other. I personally think that I haven't seen too many specifics from Barack yet and I feel Hillary is more sincere.

Did you vote?????

Imperfection

Well, it looks like the Pat's arent' perfect after all. Even though we live in Pat's territory, I was secretly rooting for the Giants. It's no fun when the Pats win everything all the time. Of course, I had to also secretly root for the Giants because they knocked the Packers out of the Super Bowl game but they also became the underdog against the Pats.

Everyone here was so sure the Pats were going to win; there was no question. They even had the victory parade planned a week before the game! People were already complaining to the mayor that they weren't going to be able to vote on Super Tuesday because of the congestion caused by the Parade...so it was a little nice to see the Pat's taken down a notch. The other plus is that I didn't have to see another press conference with Tom Brady and his cleft chin. I still don't get the appeal..

For the game our friends and their baby came over...he's getting a tooth and has a sippy cup now. Unfortunately they had to leave as things were getting exciting because E was getting cranky and A was tired. We have much left over snacks because we went out for dinner and ice cream before the game and then somehow thought we would have room for snacks...yeah not so much. Better for our girlish figures I suppose.

Prior to all the footballness yesterday, I finished one sleeve on the Boatneck Bluebell...oddly enough the whole sweater is knit in the round and is seamless but for some reason they chose for you to sew up the arms, of all things. It just seemed strange to me that they decided to make you do that on an otherwise seamless pattern. So that's going to be a big pain in the butt. I'm starting on the other sleeve now...I noticed that I accidentally didn't do one step so I'll have to remember to not do that step on the second sleeve. I'll post a picture soon.