Part one of my daughter’s 6th golden birthday is here.

When we went to the craft store for all things gold (for the golden birthday party) the gold pipe cleaners were kind of an impulse buy. It’s hard to resist sparkly, fuzzy gold wire. Turns out a bunch of pipe cleaners = room full of decorations in no time. I knew I wanted to do something like  Terri’s awesome wrapped pipe cleaner font project, but I skipped the yarn and spelled out Happy Birthday.  Writing with pipe cleaners is ridiculously easy (though knowing cursive comes in handy for once in your life).

Hanging them on the other hand is more difficult than it seems. There is just a lot to balance. Nothing a spool of thread an lots of tape won’t fix. Taking a photo in front of three sunny windows is also difficult, so you get the child’s eye view of the banner. A golden merry christmas would be very pretty I think, or even better something like this in gold pipe cleaners!

There were a ton of left over pipe cleaners, so I wrapped them around a star cookie cutter and voile! Also, crazy easy. And also would look lovely hanging all over a christmas tree. Seriously, I’m 33 and in love with gold pipe cleaners. I am so rock and roll.

Here is the banner and table on the evening of her party. The pipe cleaners and giant glittery 6 all sparkled in the light. I thought it was pretty magical, I’m pretty sure my big 6 year old did too. Oh, yes and a tiny gold bunting on the cake, because why not?

The littlest in the family is crazy for Ernie these days. He calls him oooo-nee, which is unbearably cute. So what the hell, why not make an ernie shirt? Dana even has a tutorial for one. I didn’t print out her pattern, but I did look at her shirt as I cut out all the felt bits.  She adds a little embroidery, which is a nice touch, but I was feeling lazy, so I just top stitched instead. Now that I think about it my kids don’t have any licensed characters on their clothes,  but the baby, well the baby always get what he wants doesn’t he?

ernie doesn’t mind if you pick your nose

Sorry I disappeared from the internet last week: school holiday, crazy children, broken camera, blah, blah, blah. The camera will be in the shop for a good two weeks, so you are stuck with my dressed-up-to-look-like-a-polaroid camera phone shots for a while. That’s me up there, trying to look all stylish in my cozy new cowl.

It has been a loooong while since I picked up a crochet hook–10 months to be exact. Needless to say I was rusty. There was a lot of ripping out at first, but then the crochet neurons began firing again and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. The cowl pattern is the chunky circle scarf  from people webs.  Not only is the pattern free, but Lindsi talks you through every bit–lots of people had questions about different steps and she answered them all in the comments section. How awesome is that?

Now I’m dreaming of my next crochet project.  I think Cal’s new shawl pattern is definitely on the list. Or I might try my hand at some amigurumi, but I can’t decide elephant or bear/mouse?  Or something totally different. What do you think?

p.s. taking pictures of yourself is hard. Happy Halloween!

Right before kcwc took off this year, we celebrated my daughter’s golden birthday. The theme was gold, because we are original like that. It was a fitting theme, but a little odd–not a lot of golden party games (oh I found one though)–so we went a little crazy with the decorations.

The giant golden 6 idea came from this post for a fringey monogram. The fringey detail is super cool, but it also takes quite a bit of time, so I took a short cut and used wrapping paper–glittery, golden wrapping paper! I drew a huge six on the wall with chalk, taped the wrapping paper over it, and then cut right inside the line I drew.  The whole thing took about 1/2 hour + 1 1/2 rolls of wrapping paper.  It looks wrinkley in the photo, but the paper (and my baseboards and my floor and my hands and my face) was so glittery that I didn’t notice until I took the picture.

The humongous glittery six looked a little plain, if you can believe it, so I added those shooty out lines all around it.  Blazzam! Then with the extra bit of wrapping paper I made a golden paper chain for above the picnic table.  You can see the crazy, glittery texture of the wrapping paper a bit better here.

The actual present was wrapped in golden wrapping paper too of course.  I think it’s a sweater…

Here in the Midwest the weather this fall has been a little ridiculous: hot one day, freezing the next, perfect for a while, and then humid? in fall, really? Dinner planning got rather difficult. I would start something warm and stew-y in the chilly morning and would be sweating while I was eating it in the evening. Not all that pleasant.

But then I made this beautiful slow roasted salmon recipe from Suzanne Goin’s book Sunday Supers at Lucques. Now I adapted it to my let’s hurry up and get dinner on the table attitude because Suzanne’s recipes are all day, three course affairs, but I think the salmon is still super delicious. It’s warm, but light at the same time–just right for when the weather can’t figure out what season it is.

slow roasted salmon

with roasted beet and potato salad

heavily adapted from Sunday Supers at Lucques

for the salmon

• a side of salmon, skin on, about 2 lbs (I used coho salmon and it was a bit cheaper)
• zest of one lemon
• 2 teaspoons minced tarragon
• 1 teaspoons thyme leaves
• 1/4 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
• 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• fresh ground pepper

for the salad

• 1 lb small potatoes
• 1 lb beets (various colors if possible)
• a few sprigs fresh thyme
• salad greens (arugula is nice, but any lettuce is fine)

for the mustard vinaigrette

• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Roast the vegetables first: heat your oven to 400 degrees F and roast the potatoes and beets whole for 30 minutes or until a knife pierces them easily. In a small bowl whisk together all the ingredients for the mustard vinaigrette. When the beets are warm slip off the skin and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Cut the potatoes similarly and pour the vinaigrette over both. Toss carefully as the beets can color everything bright purple!

Right after the vegetables come out of the oven turn it down to 250 degrees F. Mix everything for the salmon (except the salmon) in a small bowl. You should have a thick lemony, herby paste.  Place the salmon, skin side down, on a parchment lined pan. Rub the paste on the salmon.  Put the salmon in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Because we are cooking it so slowly, the salmon will not change color much.  To test if it is done, peek between the flakes with a fork.  If it doesn’t separate into flakes, it’s not ready yet.

When you are ready to serve the salad gently toss the salad greens with the warm potatoes and beets.  Squeeze a bit of lemon over the hot salmon and put everything on the table.