July - Doing Stuff

I'll start off with this cake.  Amy, the new Educator in our office, celebrated her birthday last week.  Since I have become the official office cake baker, I "created"  this for her (with a little help from pinterest!)  She likes peanut butter, chocolate and cheesecake -- so, here is my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cake:

 It's two layers of chocolate cake, with a layer of peanut butter cheesecake between.  Then I frosted it with peanut butter icing and drizzled on a chocolate ganache.  I couldn't stay for the party, but Amber took a picture of the inside and e-mailed it to me:

 Last year, Clay helped Alejandro with his 4-H rocket project.  This year, our friend did it all himself, but we were invited to the launch last Sunday.

Launching his big rocket:

 Clay and Iveth supervising:

 The second launch of his small rocket:

So proud of him!

I'm still knitting away on the big blanket for Jeannine.  I had hoped to finish it before the race.  Then, I had hoped to finish it before the fair.  I'm still not done.  Clay did some fancy math to help me know how long it would take to complete, and I just might be done by 2014.  Really, I think I'll be done in the next couple of weeks, if I can find some more yarn, which they no longer carry at WM.  Ugh -- a wasted trip to WM, aka Purgatory. Pictures soon.

I did make 30+ crocheted flower dishcloths for convention.  This is an easy pattern to work while watching TV, and you can find it here, at the Whiskers & Wool blog.  I cranked out about 3 of these in an evening, and they were a nice diversion from the endless blanket!

I got to help Joceyln and Marina with their 4-H needle craft projects.  Aren't they cute?  And the hats are cute, too!  I made each of them the flower embellishment (they were only supposed to work in single crochet this first year.)  In return, their mama, Theresa, made me a big plate of delicious enchiladas.

The Andersons are on vacation this week, and since I had a box full of Altoids tins in my craft closet and a quart of Mod Podge calling my name, I made them some fun things for the drive (once again, thanks, pinterest!):

For this license plate game, I found a printable here, then reduced it to fit in the tin and laminated it.  I sent the boys a dry-erase marker, so they can use this game over again.  

Tic-Tac-Toe, with magnets on the buttons:

 I was going to do a fishing game and an art box with the other two, but ran out of time.  Instead, I put their names on top, a little satin lining inside and dubbed them "Treasure Boxes."  Maybe they will find some tiny shells on the beach to keep.

And here is the newest addition to our family:

Meet Annie, the cutest little kitten, who was orphaned under our porch (thus, her name).  She is sweet and friendly, and we all love her, even Clay:

 But Zoe is not impressed. (She even looks like she's sticking her tongue out a little, doesn't she?)

July has been eventful -- my car's been in the shop again, a couple of weddings, lunch/group therapy at Stream Cliff with the HS girls, coffee in the park with the BFFs and a bout of heat sickness (from two hours at the mobile pantry this week.  But, we served 174 families, so it was worth it -- no fever, I only had to spend a day on the couch with a bad case of the woozies and a gallon of water!)  Next week -- the fair!  Hopefully, I'll blog again tomorrow with my book report -- only two months late!

Peace.