Thimbleanna – Page 134 – My little online diary.

Three Layer Chocolate Cake

52 Comments / October 2, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Recipes

Thank you SO much, all of you for all the birdy quilt love. You’re the BEST imaginary friends ever! In return, I’ve made you a chocolate cake.

Ok, not really, but I would make you a chocolate cake if you lived nearby and we could sit and visit and have cake and coffee or your drink of choice. (With Chocolate Cake? It’s milk for me!) I must confess, MeMum made me this yummy cake last weekend. For several of us in the family, it’s our very favorite MeMum special cake.

We were talking the other day and MeMum said she’d just received a magazine that had this same cake recipe in it, except that they used whipping cream in between the layers. That’s weird, I thought, because Brigette just posted a recipe for a cake that uses whipping cream in between the layers when she was trying to save me from the microwave chocolate cake in a cup incident. (Speaking of which, Molly also posted a great chocolate cake recipe during the same incident. I forgot to mention that I tried her cake a few weeks ago and LOVED it — it has oatmeal in it and I’ll eat anything with oatmeal! It’s a great cake for grab-and-go munching – speaking of which (again!), Randi is hosting Lunchtime Favorites for her Recipe Swap today and Molly’s cake would be perfect in a lunchbox too.)

There’s probably some rule about the number of times you can change course in one conversation, so I’ll get back to MeMum’s cake. Er, Brigette’s cake. I looked at Brigette’s recipe, and sure enough, it’s almost the exact same recipe, except for that whipping cream. Frosting between the layers works better for us because our gang isn’t big enough to devour this cake in a day or two (no matter how much we love it!) Anyway, that tears it. If MeMum and Brigette have the same recipe, you know it has to be good!

Three Layer Chocolate Cake

1 c. unsifted unsweetened cocoa
2 c. boiling water
2 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. butter, softened
2 1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. walnuts

In medium bowl, gradually add boiling water to cocoa. Mix with wire whisk until smooth. Cool completely. (Do this several hours before actually making cake — at same time, set eggs out to bring to room temperature.) Sift flour with soda, salt, and baking powder. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease well and lightly flour three 9-inch cake pans. (Put wax paper in the bottom of the pans.)

In mixer, at high speed, cream butter and then add sugar gradually. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat for 5 minutes until light. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 1/4ths, alternately with cocoa mixture in 1/3rds. (Do not overbeat.) Divide into pans — bake 25 – 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then put on cooling racks.

Easy Chocolate Frosting

3/4 stick (6 Tbsp.) butter
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 lb. box confectioner’s sugar (which is approx. 3 3/4 c.)
5 Tbsp. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Cream butter. Mix cocoa and powdered sugar together. Add alternately with milk to the butter. Then add vanilla. Spread on three layer chocolate cake. Garnish with chopped walnuts. (This cake is just as good without the walnuts, so if you don’t like them, leave them out. I have to have it with the walnuts though!)

And while we’re on the subject of chocolate, it’s really cooled off here this week, so I think I’ll go make a cup of hot chocolate, put on my fuzzy slippers and snuggle in for the V.P. debates. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Finished Quilting

74 Comments / September 29, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Quilting

Whew! I finally finished my little bluebird quilt. For some reason this took about 10 times longer than I thought it would — I guess I’m getting slow in my old age.

Two of my very favorite standby quilting techniques are plain, big patchy squares and big toe-grabber stitches. (Called toe-grabbers ’cause they’re so big your big toe could get caught in them while you’re sleeping. Ok, so it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but we still call them that.) So, I combined both of those for this little throw quilt.

Since the quilt pieces are all squares (4″ squares), I like to quilt big circles on them. In this case, I used a smaller bowl (7″ diameter) than I usually do (8 1/2″ diameter), so that could be why the quilting took me so much longer than I expected. Bigger bowls work just fine too. I invert the bowl and use a disappearing pen to trace two interlocking circles at a time. Then I quilt each circle with pearl cotton and a big needle.

Sometimes, by the time I get to the second circle, the ink has disappeared already, so I have to re-draw it — I love that air-soluble ink. After I quilt two circles, then I draw two more, and so on and so forth until the quilt is done.

The only embroidered block in this quilt is the block with the three little birdies and I placed them in the bottom right hand corner. They sort of blend in, so it’s a fun little surprise when your eye finds them.

I used lots of flower prints, a gardening print and a print with little bees on it, because this quilt is for a friend who loves to garden. Maybe it will keep her warm on a chilly evening while she sits in her garden and enjoys the fruits of her labor.

The back of the quilt has a nice cozy flannel. I love to put flannel on the back of throws — it gives them a little more weight and makes them extra cuddly.

And see that clever presentation technique that I’ve learned from all you bloggers out there? I love it! (Oops, I forgot the cute little metal ring tag — I’ll have to work on that!)

So. A finished quilt. That doesn’t happen very often for me, so I’m really excited! Did you finish anything fun this weekend?

XOXO,
Anna

Finished Knitting

35 Comments / September 25, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Knitting

Hey guess what??? I got my little knitting project done, so now we can have a drawing!

But first, you know I must draw it out by telling you that I took the day off yesterday and went to visit TheFirstChild and his amazing SweetiePie. It was SO good to spend the day with SweetiePie and see how wonderfully they’re managing. TheFirstChild is consumed with VERY long days (8 a.m. to midnight) and SweetiePie is taking fabulous care of him and their adorable little apartment. She’s working very long hours too and I’m beyond proud of my little hard workers!

Now, onto the drawing! Things started out very slowly, with only one correct guess from MichelleB, I thought it would be a slam dunk for her. Then a few days later, Miss Jean snuck in there with a correct guess. And, just yesterday, Brigette threw her guesses in too, and one of them was good. Do you know yet?

They’re slippers! (Not that sexy, huh? LOL!) I love me some nice warm fuzzy slippers when winter comes and my old slippers are worn out. The part that I gave you the sneak peek of is a 1 x 1 ribbed cuff and I’m sorry, but I forgot to get a picture of the cuff — it’s concealed under my jeans. Below is a picture of the old slippers, and while I wanted to get away from purple this time, I have to say, I much prefer the way the purple ones look.

It really bugs me that you can see the stitch of the chenille yarn in the new slippers. With the purple slippers, the chenille was so dark that you couldn’t see individual stitches. It looked like a big fuzzy boot, which is just what I wanted. The right side of the slippers is the stockinette side, but I don’t like seeing those stockinette stitches, so I guess I’m technically wearing them inside out. Here’s my wrong side:

The slippers are made from THIS pattern with Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick (in Antique White) and Lion Brand Fun Fur (in Rainbow). I got the biggest kick out of Kristy‘s daughter who studied the sneaky peek picture and correctly guessed the yarn, yarn colors, needle size…everything really, but not the final product LOL! Excellent job R!

One thing I changed about the pattern is that I sew some jiffy grip to the bottom of the slippers. This keeps me from slipping on my tile floors and it also prolongs the life of my slippers.

I wear my slippers every day. When I learned how to knit socks, the teacher told us to never wear our socks without something to protect them. It’s a good rule to follow — I’ve never had a hole in my hand knit socks yet. I have, however worn out three slipper bottoms. And I hate to show such ugliness here, but just to prove it, here’s the bottom of one of the worn out old slippers, with two layers of hole-y jiffy grip.

So, get on with the drawing already??? I had TheManoftheHouse pull a name out of the bowl of three correct guessers, and he chose….

MichelleB

Congratulations Michelle!

And, just ’cause you guys are all so clever and cracked me up, I decided to draw for another Vera Bradley passport holder, just like the first one. So, if you had caterpillar as your suggestion, lost the first drawing (LOL), or ‘caught me on a technicality (a few of you did) I threw your names into the bowl too. (I also included Kristy’s daughter, because analyzing that little sample took a lot of work!) This time TheManoftheHouse (laughing about his contribution to the blog) chose….

TattingChic

Congratulations TattingChic!

Ladies, send me your addresses and I’ll get them off in the mail to you.

And to the rest of you, THANK YOU for a very fun guessing game! I had a great time reading all of your comments. I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. From Jodi I’ve learned that there’s a new blog on the block and she’s having a great quilty giveaway that you’ll probably want to check out!!!

Hummingbirds and Gifts on a Beautiful Weekend

34 Comments / September 22, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Around the House

Boy, you guys are some kinda funny! I’ve had a great time reading all of your thoughts on what I might be knitting. I’m happy to report there’s been at least one correct answer, so there will be a winner. (And if you haven’t expended your three guesses and want to guess more, there’s still time!) Hopefully, I’ll be done with my little caterpillar by the end of the week. (Speaking of which, I saw Jack Hanna in Chicago’s O’Hare airport on my way home on Saturday. He was standing around talking on a cell phone. I started thinking how cool it would be to have Mr. Hanna pose with my caterpillar (which I was working on at the time — and who better to be holding a caterpillar?), but by the time I got up the nerve to ask him, he was gone.)

Did you all have a great weekend? Our weather was PURR-FECT! It was so beautiful, it was hard to stay inside and sew. I wasted enjoyed several hours yesterday watching our hummingbirds enjoy our hummingbird feeder.

They’re fascinating entertainment. I think there were three birds and they came to the feeder on and off all day. They appeared to spend more energy chasing each other away from the feeder than actually eating. It seemed like one bird would just arrive at the feeder, a second would swoop in to protect the territory, and while those two were flying off torturing each other, a third would come and have a few minutes of peace and quiet for drinking.

Here’s one coming in for a landing.

Very rarely, I actually saw a bird stick out its tongue. It has a long skinny tongue that comes out the very end of its beak. I tried and tried to get a picture of that tongue, but it was just too quick. I guess I never thought of a hummingbird as having a tongue, so I was fascinated by that fact! Anyway, it was a really fun way to spend a few hours.

When I arrived home from NJ on Saturday, I had two packages waiting for me! First from Kim, a fun package full of love and hearts. Kim and I occasionally talk paper crafts and she mentioned a fun bottle gift she’d done and offered to send me one. Isn’t it cute, all filled with candy? I love the “Love” tag on the front. Can you see the beautiful earrings that Kim made? And she was so sweet to include an adorable little ditty bag and some extra fabric. I love the way she used the ric rac as a zipper pull — I’m thinking I might have to “borrow” that idea for bags like the goofy bags. How perfect! And the really funny thing is that the ditty bag matches the little needle books that I made for my quilty peeps over a year ago. So now I have a perfect little matching sewing kit! Thank You SOOOOO much Kim — I love, love, love it all!!!

My second package was from Aldana. She e-mailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d like to have a thimble swap. I said yes and she sent me a cool thimble from Spain! Along with some beads that smell heavenly (chocolate-yum!) and a very cute little needle book with a birdie on the front of it. Thank you Aldi — I’m so touched that you would offer to exchange thimbles with me. And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you and I’m on the lookout (it’s a bit of a challenge finding a thimble around here — local peeps, if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears!)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to my caterpillar. There’s a drawing to be done soon!

XOXO,
Anna

Guess What I’m Knitting

71 Comments / September 18, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Chat, Knitting

How’s everybody’s week going? I’m just doing my monthly hang-out-in-a-hotel thing, so I started a new knitting project. Can you tell what it is?

Anybody? It looks kind of goofy and that’s not the greatest picture for you to be able to tell. But I guess that’s sort of the idea. I’m thinking maybe we could have a little Guess What I’m Knitting contest. If you want to play, put your guess in the comments and everyone that has a correct guess will have their name thrown into a pot from which I’ll draw for a prize. (I’m pretty sure there’s something grammatically wrong with that sentence, but you get the idea!)

How ’bout a brand new, only-out-of-the-cellophane-for-this-picture, Vera Bradley wallet/passport holder?

No cheating. Not sure how you’d cheat, but I thought I should say that. I know someone will ask, so how ’bout three guesses per person? I’ll just leave the contest open until I have a finished project to show (which, at the rate I’ve been completing stuff lately, could be February!)

In case you’re not a knitter or don’t follow Little Cotton Rabbits (IS that possible?) I thought I’d repeat, as she said, “an opportunity to spread a little happiness.” If you’d like to take a few minutes out of your day to send a card to a very sick little girl who loves to receive mail, you can get the address and more info HERE. Wouldn’t it be great if this little girl received more cards than the wall in her room could hold?

(Update: Brilliant Brigette noted that the link above is a little confusing about where to send your card. It needs to be sent to the TN address. You can find out more HERE.)

And one last thing. Felicia posted about a book festival she attended recently and one of the attending authors was Billy Collins, a past US poet laureate. Several years ago I convinced two of my coworkers to go hear Billy Collins do a reading at the Library of Congress and we had an amazing time. I LOVE Billy Collins. He’s written MANY awesome poems (and has quite a few books available.) If you have a few minutes, you can check out my FAVORITE poem of his HERE. Oh, and you might need a hanky.

Have a great weekend!

XOXO,
Anna