Ridiculously Happy

I was very tickled with myself yesterday. See, a few weeks ago I signed up with Bruster's and they send me an email when they make my favourite flavors of ice cream.


One day last week they made Mint Chocolate Chip (and theirs is the best I've ever had), so I sent Lewis a text message, and he picked up a pint for me. It was waiting for me in the freezer when I got home from work. Nice.


Yesterday I got an email that they had made their White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. This stuff is amazing. White chocolate ice cream with chocolate bark and raspberry swirl. I notice the link right in the email, order online. Okay. A couple of clicks later and I had ordered a pint, paid for it with PayPal and it would be ready for me to pick up at the express window on my way home! Excellent. And super easy. I was so tickled!
I had to remind myself the whole way home to stop, I was afraid I'd zone out and drive straight past the place. But I remembered. And there wasn't anyone in line when I got there, but boy, just wait till the warm weather kicks in. I'll be ordering online, it should be a great time saver.

I was so pleased with this I kept giggling to myself the rest of the way home from Bruster's.

So, if you are lucky enough to live anywhere near a Bruster's and haven't tried them yet, I highly recommend it.

My favourite flavors are- in no particular order- Butter Pecan, Mint Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, Peppermint Stick, Banana Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Crunch with Butterfinger, Peanut Butter and I do love a good old-fashioned root beer float with Bruster's amazing vanilla ice cream.

Meow Towels

This is my first foray into the land of embroidered towels. I was a bit worried about getting all the thread tails secure because the back is exposed and I figure that towels get a lot more wear and tear than pillowcases. I think I did a sufficient job. This pattern is from the brand Tobin and I purchased them from from artscraftsusa.com. I've become a big fan of Tobin's patterns, but they are harder to find. Now, arstcraftsusa has the largest selection of Tobin products that I could find, but I doubt I'll order from them again. Their service was less than stellar. The order trickled in a couple items at a time, over a 6 week period, with no communication or indication of partial orders. There is still one item that I ordered, which I was never charged for, was never sent, but showed up on every packing slip as filled. But, I did placed a large order and I think I bought everything that I want from that store anyway.

Mostly, I used the colors that I had on hand, I only had to order the dark grey to finish the kitties.

Colors used in DMC cotton perle #8:

Black 310

Dark Grey 413

Light Grey 415

Blue 3325
Pink 957
Green 702

Effects of the April Heat Wave

The forsythia and the purple leaf plum are both in full bloom this week. Usually the plum would bloom a little later, after the forsythia blossoms start to fade, but with this April heat wave we had this week everything is blooming!

Little Doe and Bunny Baby Blankets

My cousin Nikki is expecting her first baby next month, so I made these for her baby shower gift. Along with Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book, an all time favourite of mine. That is part of my standard baby shower gift these days, since the old standby baby ear thermometer is too expensive now that the bungalow takes all my money. But back to the bunny and doe.

The mommy-to-be selected sage green and brown as her nursery colors, and bedding with little does all over. So I looked around for baby deer to embroider. I remembered this adorable doe pattern from doe-c-doe's blog. I keep seeing it pop up on flickr, done in pretty pinks, vibrant pastels, bold aquas and corals, vintage gold, and even on a tee shirt. Then I found just the right colors in this Carter's 4 pack of receiving blankets from JCPenney.

Two of the blankets have such bold patterns that I couldn't really embellish them in any way, but the other two were just asking for some stitching. I decided to do the doe on the green blanket because the little doe would be brown and he would show up best on green. Then my friend Heather drew a bunny for me, using the doe as a model so they would co-ordinate. Isn't she talented? I'm only sorry that the bunny doesn't show up better.

I used DMC cotton perle #8, my favourite.

very light brown 435
cream (from my old stock- I think it is supposed to be white)
dark salmon 3328
salmon 760
light old gold 676
ultra dark coffee brown 938