leafy baby blanket

Another knitting project finished! My friend Katie is expecting her first child at the end of April. I'm not quite ready to brave a baby shower yet, but that's no reason to deprive her little one of a cuddly blanket! This is my second time knitting the Leafy Baby Blanket pattern. I used Cascade Sierra Quattro yarn in the colorway green tea. It's a shame this yarn is discontinued because it's perfect for baby items (all natural cotton-wool blend, very soft, machine washable). I still have enough for one pink and one blue blanket! More details about this project are on my Ravelry page.

The baby shower was scheduled for Sunday, so I met Katie, Laura, and Courtney for lunch and pedicures on Saturday instead. One of my favorite blogs, Thrifty Decor Chick, recently featured a gorgeous little eatery called The Cake Bake Shop and highly recommended it for anyone in the area (read the post here). It looked delicious and girly and wonderful, so my friends and I lunched there on Saturday. I had a caprese sandwich (so good) and a raspberry cheesecake (even better). Between the four of us, we also sampled the apple crisp, bread pudding, and berry pie. Yum!!

Saturday evening, I drove back home for my friend Ben's birthday party. I've been to several of his food-themed birthday parties over the last 6 years including seafood (this year), fish tacos, bourbon tasting, and Chicago-style hot dog (where I met Dan for the first time!).

Sunday, I made a steak and ale pie for dinner. I've been wanting to attempt it since our trip to London two years ago. I followed this recipe except I used a regular (dairy-free) pastry crust on top instead of a Yorkshire pudding batter. Our stuffed Baby Hulk (from our trip to Universal Studios Orlando last year) particularly enjoyed watching me make English mushy peas. They are bright green and involve lots of SMASHING!

Lastly, an update on our backyard birdies: they have slowly discovered that it's more fun to bathe IN the bath rather than NEXT to it and are having little pool parties every afternoon. Yay!