Mario Party! Part 1- The Whole Enchilada

Alright. The time has finally come. I have finally finished crocheting each and every panel of my Mario Blanket. They are all crocheted together. All that is left is crocheting a border around it. However, I have been working my buns off on this thing and I don't know when I'll finish the border. I'm so freaking excited to have it "done" that I'm going to be unveiling it.........NOW!

Here it is, in all of its technicolor glory:



ACK!! How awesome is that?!?!? It's so huge, I had to lay it out in my foyer and go upstairs to get a photo. Here's a pic of my birthday boy stretched out on it for a size perspective. My honey is 6'2".



Here's a shot of it on my queen sized bed- its ultimate resting place.



Unfortunately, I did not get it all done by his birthday party. I was working on the last panel and had only this to show for my months of hard work:




Now, this is not all my friends...oh no. The blanket itself tells a story- if you start in the upper left hand corner and go right, then down and left, then down and right, then down and left, then down and right, you'll indeed see that this was a quest for Mario. I have incorporated various scenes from my beloved game and will show pics of the individual panels. I'm way too proud of this baby just to show a bird's eye view. :) However, since that will be a butt load of photos, it will be a separate post (or two).

Going back to my husband's birthday- my sister had a wonderful idea! To go along with the theme of my blanket, she suggested we throw him a Mario Party....complete with a Mario cake. Well, my entire family is artsy/fartsy, and my sister is no exception. She had a WONDERFUL idea for a cake and it turned out BEAUTIFUL!

Here is the artist at work:



She really wanted to have fondant to make it look absolutely smooth and perfect; however, that stuff is expensive as heck....especially for such a large cake....so we used a cream cheese frosting that was supposed to harden "like fondant." Ummm....no. It did not. Darn those lying liars who tell lies. However, it tasted great!

All of the cakes tasted absolutely phenomenal. The first tier had a raspberry cake layer topped with a chocolate cake layer filled with cream cheese frosting and whole raspberries in the center. This depicted the first level of SMB. The second tier was a mango cake filled with raspberry jam in the center and was the water level world of SMB. The third tier was a chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting and whole raspberries in the center. This was the Bowser battle scene. The fourth tier was raspberry cake with raspberry jam in the center. This was the hero's welcome by the princess. All of the cake was iced with the cream cheese frosting. It was absolutely AWESOME!!!





We had so much fun that night- had some friends over and played Wii....and of course some old school Super Mario Bros. I don't know if I'll ever be able to top this crochet project- or at least not for a while. I've got some ideas burbling around and, once my shoulder, neck and finger muscles go back into a relaxed state, I will be back with my yarn and my geeky obsessions. :) I'm going to take a little time off since this project has seriously taken over my life, but I'll be back with some new purses and scarfs in the very near future.

Onto the individual pictures!

PS: A FAQ can be found here.

Just a quick check-in

I have been working almost non-stop on my hubby's Nintendo blanket (now a bedspread....yipes.) I HAVE to finish it! It's been hanging over my head for over a year and I'm alllllllllmost there! I hope to have all the crocheting done by this weekend....I hope I can do it! One of the issues I had with it was that I had to completely re-do all but 1 of the first panels I did last year. 6 panels = 6 days added on. I'm so glad I did, though. The first ones were before I conquered switching colors with Tunisian crochet and before I had the correct colors. Now- its fraking awesome!! Pics to come soon, but I'm serious- I've been putting every spare second, minute, or hour in this thing. How I don't have a raging migraine yet, I don't know, but I'm thankful for it! Ok....back to my work....

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've actually been quite a Valentine's Day Grinch for just about forever. There's just something off putting about being forced to show love to someone with cards, flowers, and candy. I always get nervous around this holiday since I never know what is an appropriate Valentine's day gift. I realize this is ludicrous since I've been married for almost 10 years, so there's not much more impressing I can do for the guy- he already knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. I always feel guilty, too, since my husband usually always has a card and a thoughtful gift...I remember one year he got me the latest Kinsey Milhone mystery (I'm a huge book worm and LOVE Kinsey!)- HARD COVER....and I got him....a tie. Yipes.

Well, last year, we finally came to an agreement on how to make Valentine's Day enjoyable and memorable for us both. We decided that, instead of eating out at a restaurant and spending beaucoup bucks on a meal we'll most likely forget once we get home, we would instead come up with an elaborate meal and cook it together. You have no idea how wonderful this is! I love to cook and have tried, unsuccessfully, many times to get my hubby to join me in the kitchen. I think it's awful romantic....he thinks it's just awful. Well, it was his idea to cook with me and I LOVE IT! He even went through one of my cookbooks and came up with a menu for this evening. Seriously! I am so in love with this man. :)

We just spent the morning making dessert- a chocolate, cheesecake, pecan pie. I'm serious. It has a chocolate ganache on the bottom, a cheesecake middle, and a pecan pie topping. If it tastes half as good as it sounds (and looks!), then I'm sure we'll be making this for years to come. He found the recipe on a freebie mailing from some magazine...I want to say Southern Living or Fatten You Up....one or the other.



We are just about to go to Wegmans and shop for the ingredients for the rest of the meal. He found a grilled tuna (though we'll sear it) white bean salad for the first course and a Greek wet rub for lamb chops with a side of orzo for the main course. I'm super excited! The best thing about eating at home is that we can polish off the bottle of wine (a Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley in CA....high hopes for this one) and not worry about driving home. YAY!

Since we'll be shopping and cooking, it'll give my poor neck and hands a break from all the crocheting I've been doing. As I mentioned earlier, I've been working on my husband's Nintendo blanket. I have an elaborate map all worked out and it will consist of many different panels. Each panel takes about 8-12 hours to complete. I showed you the first panel earlier....I'll show just one more now. This is the latest one I completed and I'm over the moon pleased with how it came out. It is probably the most Nintendo geekiest of all the panels- it's Mario hopping the turtle in world 3-1! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I LOVE IT!



Here's a pic of the back so you can see what I have in store for me when I finally get around to weaving in the ends.



I think I may just give the blanket to him with all the ends out and tell him it's fringe.....hmmm....now there's a thought......

Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to the land of the living!

So, I've been pretty sick these last 2 weeks and have finally pulled through. Thankfully, it ended up NOT being strep so it's a good thing I didn't go to the Urgent Care right away- I'd have been angry with their incompetence yet again only to realize that they weren't the ones being incompetent and that's not fun.

I have been working on a few projects while I was at death's door (what? exagerate?? Moi??) but don't have anything complete as of this post. I have a couple of things allllmost done, but I like sharing pictures of the finished object....the big reveal! I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist sometimes.... When there is something wrong with one of my WIPs, I put it away until I can figure out what the heck it is. It could be because of a color combination that just isn't right or, for a purse, it could be that I haven't quite figured out how to finish it- wrong handles or lining or....something. These are the things that I've been working on lately. My "oopsies."

When I cut my hair in December, I was working on a Princess Toadstool scarf to match the Mario one I made for my husband. I loved it while I was working on it and had maybe 2 or 3 more hours of work, including weaving in ends. However, there was just something "off" about it, so I stopped working on it. I finally figured out what it was! Actually, there was a bunch of stuff wrong with it....the main scarf was doubly wrong....the yarn itself was irking me and the pink was the wrong pink....the flesh color was not the color I had envisioned....the red was the wrong red....even the construction of the scarf was wrong- I really didn't like seeing the "wrong" side of the scarf with all the hidden ends from the tunisian crochet. It did not please me one bit Sam I Am.

So, I found a nearby Walmart that has not downsized it's craft department and they had the right pink for the main scarf and the right flesh color. W00t! I used Vanna's Choice yarn for the first time and must say that I really enjoyed working with it. Didn't enjoy the price, though. I think it's quite a rip off, actually. But, something so petty as money shan't dictate the genius of the artiste! (Said in my snootiest faux French accent). Thankfully, I found some coordinating colors at Joann's where they were on sale...whew! Anyway, I finally figured out how to construct the scarf in a way that will showcase the Princess while hiding the ugly backside and yet still be functional and, well, pretty. :) I'm finishing it up today, so I'll hopefully have some nice pics to showcase very soon.

I've also been working on my husband's Nintendo blanket...I'm so excited about this one! I have quite a few panels complete, but, again, I want to showcase the big reveal when I'm done. Although, I think I'll end up jumping the gun and showing it when all the panels are complete even though the ends aren't weaved in. I think I'll be weaving in ends for quite a while....

Anywho, that's an update for now. I will be finishing up my Princess scarf and will be shooting a tutorial on my scarves this week. Yay! I really do like shooting the videos. Oh, by the way, I haven't forgotten the video tutorial for lining a bag I promised eons ago. It's just that there was so much footage and we kinda got bogged down in the editing. As much as I'd like putting up a 3 hour video, me thinks it wouldn't be all that enjoyable to watch.....

Until next time....

Under and Over the Weather

Ugh. That basically sums up how I feel right now. I am prone to having strep throat- always have been since I was a kid, though not often enough to warrant my tonsils to be removed. Well, I have a sore throat that is progressively getting worse and I'm running a low fever, but there's no tell-tale signs of disgusting white gunk (gross, I know) overtaking my tonsils. Unless that happens, I'm not going to go the Urgent Care clinic since I went there the last time I had strep and their quick test came back negative. They said it might be mono. Idiots, one and all! It was really awkward telling my husband that, too. "Umm...honey...the Dr. said it wasn't strep, even though I could have sworn it was....but...ummm...he said that itcouldbemono. Cough."

Even though he knew I wasn't out puckering up with other guys, there was that momentary questioning look that flickered across his eyes. By day 4, with a temperature of 104, I somehow drove myself to a different clinic 30 minutes away and they were able to accurately diagnose me with what I already knew I had. It was actually the worst bout of strep that I could remember. The antibiotics didn't seem to work and I had a fever of over 100 for 4 more days. I felt, and looked, like the living dead. That was about 2 years ago.

Right now, I'm really hoping it's not strep. But, since I rarely get a sore throat without it being strep, and since whatever is wrong with me is not affecting my nose or eyes (not dripping from either orifice), I'm pretty sure the white gunk is a-comin'. It wouldn't be so bad if the weather was just a little warmer than the inside of my freezer. When is spring going to get here??? Seriously- it's 25 degrees out and I really don't feel like crawling out of bed at all much less dragging my poor bedraggled self out in the arctic cold to an urgent care clinic full of imbeciles. Not that I get whiney when I'm sick or anything, but I don't wanna do it, ma! I don't wanna do it!!!

*Sigh* Well, today is a day that I'm just going to take it easy- drink lots of fluids, and stay curled up while reading. I just started reading Rebecca today. I love reading classics and feel like a dope for never hearing about this book before. It's not often that my sister has read a book that I haven't, but I am thankful that she introduced me to it. So, as I lay on my couch, snuggled up under my blanket (crocheted, natch), wearing my dunce cap, I bid you adieu. Until next time!