Anniversary roses

The roses my husband got me for our anniversary. I have a weakness for sunset-colored roses.

Three times as strong as the rope that you buy domestically

I got hemp yarn:



Isn't it purdy? It's Hemp for Knitting's allhemp3.

Unfortunately, it has to go back. It's not pure white, which is what my mom wanted for her jacket. And thinking about it, I think it's a bit too rustic for Mom's tastes, anyway. Maybe I'll keep a skein to play around with, but the rest are going back (there are 11).

Instead, I think I'll order some Elann.com Lara (a sportsweight, mercerized cotton) for my mom's jacket. The weight and color are right, and it's inexpensive. I'd still love to do bamboo or soysilk, but I just can't afford it right now, esp. if Mom ends up not being crazy about it. I know she likes cotton, so I don't think I can go wrong with that...

Kudos to Kpixie, though. I ordered this yarn at around noon last Saturday. An hour later, it was shipped to me, and it came this morning! How's that for awesome service?

Eye candy cupcake Wednesday

What better way to celebrate eye-candy Wednesday than with a plate of cupcakes?



You can read the whole story behind the cupcakes here.

For those curious, I used this cupcake recipe, which had a pleasing texture but was very bland. I "frosted" these with whipped cream that I whipped, and overwhipped because of the heat, and filled these (using the cone method such as described here) with fresh strawberries. A few hours before filling, I diced the berries and sprinkled them with sugar, letting them macerate in the fridge.

As I've said, though, the cupcakes were disappointing -- too bland, and the strawberry filling didn't help the "lid" to stay on. But I had some uniced ones left over that we just spread Betty Crocker chocolate icing on, and that worked a bit better. And the strawberry burst in the middle was very refreshing and nice.