Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

Towards the end of my previous post entitled, " If Music be the Food of Love, Play On " , I mentioned about the cupcakes made by Ayana Grace, my eldest daughter. One time at work, I would read her text message asking me where the muffin pans are. Her text message yesterday was to tell me she's going to the grocery store to get some ingredients for the new recipe she was preparing for. Oh, yes, indeed, she's growing up fast in my kitchen laboratory! Real fast that last night, she ventured into another experiment, a result of her stalking the Divas Can Cook YT channel.  She got this Pepperoni Pizza Quesadilla recipe from the Divas Can Cook , a food network (and blog site) that features "old fashioned cooking for the modern super woman". So this was what we had for dinner last night. Late dinner but not too late to celebrate the birthday of my husband who is away at work and won't be home till the weekend. Well, I had two servings myself f...

I promised myself I won't blog about my work. Yes, I made it Rule No. 1 when I got myself hooked in this blogging world. Since writing is my way of relaxing from the hurly-burly of my job, I told myself my blogs will only be about  my hobbies --- cooking, crochet, dogs, plants, (family? maybe...) and personal journeys. I've mentioned that in my notes About this Site and About the Author .  Well, I can't help mentioning how my involvement in a government project has kept me real busy the past weeks (months actually!) almost bringing me to panic mode at times, enough to set me scratching myself all over, that would call for some doses of antihistamine.  Last Friday, we finally celebrated the launching of the project although in reality the real work has just barely begun! And so that day, I had to go home earlier than usual to take that much needed rest. I enjoyed a bit of luxury by sleeping from 7:00 pm till 5:00 am! My first after a long while!  But the...

In my previous post last week, I featured the Retro Neck Band I made during the Christmas holidays last year. It was in keeping with a promise I made almost a year ago to talk about the making of each item I made as part of the holiday marathon 2012. Click here to view post. Today, the Lacy Hair Scrunchies by Emilee Gettle that was featured in Crochet Spot will be the highlight. This, too, was one of the give-away items I made last Christmas which I featured in my post entitled, " Holiday Season Crochet Marathon Part 3 ." It was very easy to make this hair scrunchie. Following the pattern from Crochet Spot, all you have to do is make 1 sc into the hair band / elastic to get started. Then, make 55 repetitive cycles of  "ch 8 - 1 sc" into the elastic ring.   But wait, instead of making a whole bunch of ch 8-1sc 55 times into the elastic band, I actually made alternate cycles of "ch 8 - 1 sc; ch 5 - 1 sc" pattern to cover the whole ring. A...

Happy weekend to all! I had a heavy week so what could be more relaxing than crocheting a new project on a Saturday? I declared this day as a real rest day for me. No marketing, no cooking (except for a very light brunch --- Tuna Chow Fan side dished with cucumber-tomato mix and left-over chicken nuggets) but how could I say no to crochet? It will always be a perfect relaxation for me! And so, in between sleep periods throughout the day, I found myself working on a cowl. I used a combination of two patterns. One pattern was the Unisex Cowl - Neckie Crochet from The Sunroom, The Unisex Cowl - Neckie Crochet  and the other one was the Mobius Infinity Cowl by Michael Sellick. I started working using the Mobius Infinity Cowl pattern by Michael Sellick, from Step 1 until after the first part of Step 3, where the direction to start a mobius says, " Turn the work so it has a permanent 180- degree twist. " Then, instead of making DCs all the way back to the beginning ch...

I joined a holiday season marathon last year.  Who kept me company? My crochet needle, yarn and me! :) Well, it was a crochet marathon featured in my blog post entitled, " Holiday Season Crochet Marathon Part 3. "  In this post, I featured some crochet projects which I gave away as gifts. Among the gifts I gave away was the " Retro Neck Band in Manos Silk Blend ." I found the   4-step pattern for this nice and snug neck band from Ravelry as a free download. Very simple and easy-to-make, this neck band could provide warmth during cold weather. Here is what I made using variegated yarn. I found a stone from an old bracelet and fastened it as button. Here's how the original Retro Neck Band by Ann Linderhjelm   looks like.  Well, what are you waiting for? Why don't you try making one yourself?

I like green, so when I saw this bracelet, I was instantly attracted to its color. The original pattern for this bracelet was made by Tia Davis (click here to view). Photo from www.craftown.com  I've seen and read about Crocodile Stitch from various crochet patterns but haven't crocheted anything of that sort yet. As they say, this kind of stitch could look quite complicated   but then I realized after making two or three stitches in a row, it was not difficult at all! Well, now is the first time to make my very own. Yes, anybody wouldn't ever miss the great semblance of the stitches to crocodile scales, hence the name, Crocodile Stitch.   For my first venture on a project made of crocodile stitches, I used variegated yarn for a bracelet  although crochet literature would tell that the stitch would also make very nice and elegant scarves, shawls, flowers, and many other projects. Name it, the crocodile can make it! Following the tutorial of Tia ...

Look what I found in my crafts archive, two pieces of bookmarks I made last year. I was not into blogging yet when I crocheted these so it's only now that I get to feature them here --- The Peacock Fan Bookmark by Mary DuBois from the Crochet World April 2008 Magazine .   Here are the Peacock Fan Bookmarks I made.     My Peacock Fan Bookmarks side-by-side with the original I hope to make more of these in the coming days. Gift-giving for the holiday season! :) How about you? What patterns of bookmarks have you used? Please do share in the comment box below. I would love that!

I don't know what's with zucchini that I've learned to like and love it the first time I tasted it! The first recipe I tried using zucchini was ratatouille… oh yes, I can still vividly remember, that was shortly after my family and I watched the movie, "Ratatouille". I was so intrigued at why Anton Ego, the critic, "was rocked to the core", that I made efforts to look for recipes so that I could try the dish myself. Well, my very first ratatouille dish was a hit in my family, especially to my husband who had a one-year stint in France, where he had his first taste of it in 2004. He and my eldest daughter, Ayana Grace, liked it.   Their reaction to my first experiment inspired me so much I had to give it another try, this time, as toppings to pasta. Another big hit! From then on, zucchini has been a mainstay in my grocery list (as it's not available in nearest wet market). Having at least one piece in my vegetable bin has made it a regular...