Wordless Wednesday – Beautiful Bougainvillea

Wordless Wednesday

I’ve Moved

Please visit my blog at its new location:

http://jayayceeblog.blogspot.com

See you soon … 🙂

Hoppy Easter

from the Easter Buppies!

and Happy Birthday to my MN BIL … we love you bunches!!!

Baby Hats and Big Girl Blankets

Received a baby boy announcement last week from Hubby’s cousin — isn’t he a cutie pie? Had some variegated blue baby yarn and size 4 double pointed needles handy, so just went for it. Turned out pretty cute …

Rolled Brim Baby Hat

I used Bernat Softee Baby Acrylic #3 Light weight in color His Jeans Ombre

Size 4 dpns

Cast on 88 stitches

Join and knit until  it measures 5″ from cast on edge

Decrease Rows:

(I use my cast on tail as my place marker, always keeping the first stitch at the beginning of a needle)

Next row: Knit 9, knit 2 together

Next row: Knit around

Next row: Knit 8, knit 2 together

Next row: Knit around

Next row: Knit 7, knit 2 together

Next row: Knit around

Continue decreasing in this manner until you have completed Knit 1, knit 2 together

Knit one more round

Cut yarn, leaving about 8″ to work with. Using a yarn needle, take each stitch off and close the hole by pulling snugly. Bring yarn through the hole inside the cap and weave in end. Weave in cast on tail. And it’s ready to wear!

And congratulations to my baby sister and her sweetie on the purchase of their house. All that moving and unpacking of boxes is exhausting so I made a Big Stix Afghan and sent it so they could take a nap with it.

I used skeins of Caron One Pound acrylic yarn in Black, Country Rose, Taupe and Off White. I love those Big Stix size 50 knitting needles!

What’s Cookin’ – Double Peanut Butter Cookies

Every now and again when I’ve been exercising regularly and cutting back on the sweets, I lose my mind and make things like Double Chocolate Cream Pie and these Double Peanut Butter Cookies. They are soooooooo good!

Double Peanut Butter Cookies

2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup chunky peanut butter (or smooth if you prefer)

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 10 to 12 oz. bag of peanut butter chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and eggs on medium speed until creamy. Then on low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in peanut butter chips by hand.

I used the Pampered Chef Medium Scoop to make the cookie balls, although you could just roll them with your hands about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2″ in size. Dip the tops of the cookie balls into granulated sugar and place on a cookie sheet a few inches apart. When I was a kid, my Mom would smash them in two directions with a fork, which made that pretty criss-cross design in the top. However, this recipe spreads beautifully on its own so you don’t need to do that. And using the Medium Scoop, I got about 3-1/2 dozen cookies out of this recipe.

Bake approximately 10 minutes or until just turning a light, golden brown. Keep an eye on them so you don’t over bake. Cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks or paper towels.

These cookies are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, the perfect combination. You could substitute chocolate chips or even mini chocolate chips for the peanut butter chips, or use both flavors together.

Ostrich Festival

We went to the 22nd Annual Ostrich Festival at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler, Arizona a few weeks ago. I’ve been having trouble downloading photos off my phone onto the computer until today. It’s one of those simple, annoying solutions — I have to reboot my phone while it’s attached to the computer.

Hubby and I went with YD and her BF and the Granddaughter to the festival. It’s funny, because we kind of thought an Ostrich Festival would have ostriches as far as the eye could see. I think there were six of them — several in a viewing pen and several that they raced. Oh, well. Beyond that, there was the usual great festival fare including food, carnival games and rides. It was fun, we spent way too much money and everyone was exhausted.

Here’s an Ostrich fact sheet, in case you were wondering …

There was a neat little petting zoo and it was definitely spring — lots of cute babies …

An alpaca, which is where some beautiful, soft yarn comes from …

These guys just needed some honk if you’re horny bumper stickers …

We did see an Ostrich Chariot Race …

This may be why they were running …

And no, none of us had an Ostrich Burger. Stuck with my favorite taco fry bread. And for dessert, chocolate and whipped cream covered funnel cake …

Evening carnival rides make everyone a kid again …