Progress and What's For Breakfast....

All of the knitting and crocheting for the nappy cake is done so it's just about embellishing, wrapping with clear cellophane & packing for the shipping. Once the diaper layers are made you need to "frost" them. After the "frosting" comes the embellishments, my favorite part!!

It kind of looks like a haphazard pile of stuff at this point. This is just a rough final draft.  Items will be added and rearranged and the cellophane wrap topped with an oversized bow will really finish the piece off and contain the mess. 

Now on to my breakfast project this morning.  I have a bunch of aluminum crochet  hooks that I love but my tired old hands like a more ergonomic handle so I only use the Etimo's right now.

So we've all seen the Sculpey, (polymer clay) covered hooks.  I just happen to have some Sculpey in my stash as well as a clay baking dedicated toaster oven, (thrift shop find) and a wonderful Atlas pasta machine, (also a thrift shop find). So this morning I decided to cover some hooks, (before work, I'm an early riser).

In between coffee and my shower I was able to roll out some clay, cover a few hooks & bake them. This is a very simple, fun & fast project. Sure there are some fine tuning steps, like lightly sanding and buffing and of course, making prettier clay cover designs but this was just an experiment as I've never done these before.

After baking at about 200 degrees for about 35 minutes, they were done. I promptly took them out and holding them by the hook end, (watch out they may be a little hot), I rubbed the handles while still warm with waxed paper, (I saw this tip somewhere online and it works well), in order to give them a bit of a finish.

Inspired by my Etimo's, I added a flattened thumb rest area. Oh and because the handle covered the size detail on the hook I put the US size letter in clay on each one. 

Bad photo, but you get the idea. Now to take them for a "test drive" for shape and fit. Then I'm off to the store to purchase more Sculpey in my favorite colors; turquoise & sky blue & teal & cobalt blue and all the blues in between, with a little white in the mix and maybe some other colors as inspiration hits. Ooo, and how about the colors to make leopard print & zebra stripes?

I will definitely be re-visiting this craft and will post some pictures to prove it.

Until then, take time out for fun today and a very special thank you to those of you who read my blog. 

Long Live the King...

CAKE, that is!!

And let the eating begin. Things are starting to look a lot like Mardi Gras around here. Witness the yummy goodness....

I dub thee DELICIOUS!!

This particular cake has a brown sugar, nut and cinnamon filling and it is oh so GOOD!!

The tradition surrounding the King Cake is that you bake a plastic baby in the cake and the person getting the baby has to host the party next year.

Due to choking hazards bakeries now place the baby outside so the purchaser can stick the baby in the cake or not. In this case we didn't. See the little purple toy baby? It is sitting inside the ring.

In keeping with the purple, green & gold of Mardi Gras and since this is a crocheting and knitting blog, I will share a WIP. I am calling it "Purple Prose". It is a rectangular shawl worked in Patons Lace Sequin in  Amethyst, which is a blend of acrylic, mohair & wool.  I'm really enjoying this inexpensive yarn with it's little sequins and nice weight. It is rather itchy however but mohair always is.