CuteKittyPunk

In my repertoire for 2013 I challenged myself to make something from the amigurumi style of crochet.  And I finally did! Wednesday night I started it, Thursday afternoon I spent about an hour on it, and then Friday I finished it up. I was so surprised about how quickly you can make things... (normally I made afghans and they take forever). I don't know why but I thought it would be difficult, but it's not - it's easy peasy! I got this book: Amigurumi Two  but I found it at a book store in the Netherlands so it was in Dutch like this: Superschattige figuurtjes haken. So, it took me a little bit of figuring out just what the heck they were saying... reading a recipe in Dutch is no problem for me, but reading a crochet pattern in Dutch - difficult. I think I got it though. I made the "hot air balloon with teddy" and I know just who to give it to :) I must say, I'm impressed with myself for completing one of my New Year's goals - it feels pret

Name Nerds: this is a new term for me. I didn't know I was one. But I do have a thing for names. Ever since I was a young girl and since I've kept a personal journal, I have been keeping lists of names.  Whenever I hear a name I'm not familiar with I ask the person about their name. What its origins are - what it means.  I have a keen interest in it. I remember going to the temple as a 12 year old girl and remembering unique names of persons I was baptised for and in behalf of... like Dorcas. How could that be a real name.  But since I own a baby name dictionary for world names - I see it's a common name - or at least it used to be. Some names are totally common and popular in the Netherlands that wouldn't work at all in the United States. For example, and this is no joke, this is a real name: Freek (boy). So is Joke  (girl). Of course, they are pronounced differently in Dutch than in English. This is part of the problem with choosing a baby name. A good

I've been kind of happy with Pinterest lately. I think I mentioned this last month in a post . Well, I finally have been trying a few recipes here and there that I pinned. The ones that turn out pretty tasty are usually the dessert recipes. But I've tried a few other more adult - grown up foods that were good as well. Like some French Dip subs for example, but what I really want to share today are two crafts that I did that worked out well and one dessert. Nutella Smores Bars This isn't a recipe I would have gone looking for, that's why it's nice to just subscribe to a few other Pinners who like similar things and then you get some really great suggestions. This one actually came via The Cake Bar. I have been wanting to make it for a while. I even bought real Nutella because it was on sale last month. I was going to go to a Church picknick and then it got cancelled due to sucky Dutch weather.  Well, Mark asked me to make something that he could take on a phot