Another Milestone Birthday

This year was the third in a row that we've celebrated a milestone birthday for one of our grandmas!  First, one of my grandmas turned 80, then the other 90, and Jason's grandma turned 90 this past weekend.  We drove to Iowa to see his family and celebrate. 

Here is Grandma Ripple with some of her grandchildren:

 Here she is with her children:

 And, this is Jason with some of his cousins:

Me and Jason with the birthday girl:

Jason and his dad at his cousin Eric's birthday party Roast:

Ripple

Ripple: The pattern for this crocheted afghan and my new last name in a few months!  We've been working on wedding plans and even made a trip to Wisconsin last week for some planning.  Unfortunatlely, it was cut short by a winter storm so we will be returning in a few weeks for a meeting at the bed & breakfast where we will be married.  This is my next project with the same yarn I used for the granny square afghan.  Somehow, I still have yarn left so I started another one, with a different color pattern! 

Granny Squares!

I started this granny square afghan after taking a crochet class at JoAnn's.  It took a while for me to finish it so I am happy it is finally done.  I have quite a bit of yarn left...I must have really overestimated and I wasn't ready to make this any larger!  So, I'll be working on another crochet project with the leftovers...I'll share pictures soon.  

Hot Chocolate and Food Network

On Friday, we read an article about three top places to get hot chocolate in Chicago. On Saturday morning we happened to pass one, so we stopped to try it...and got a big surprise. They were filming a Food Network show! We agreed to be interviewed for the show and we were also in background shots while they interviewed others. Watch for us on TV sometime this Spring! Here we are with Adam Gertler, the Food Network star who interviewed us.

Handmade Gifts

The last couple of weeks have been great since we spent them visiting with our family and friends for the holidays. We spent some time with Jason's parents before Christmas and then we went to Michigan to visit my family. We're back in Chicago now so I thought I would post pictures of some of the gifts that I made for Christmas this year. Happy New Year!!

Cupcake Bites

I discovered these over the weekend and decided they would be great for my Holiday Party Bake Off at work this week. They are Cupcake Bites by Bakerella (http://www.bakerella.com/cupcake-bites-made-easy/). Although they may look like normal cupcakes here, they are actually made with cake and frosting rolled into balls and then coated in chocolate for the base and top of each cupcake. They are cute and delicious too!

Another adorable baby...

in one of my handmade items. My friend Heidi posted some very cute pictures of her girls on Facebook and I noticed that Cadence was modeling one of my crocheted projects. Very cute!