Man Doll for Buster

I've made some Purl Girls from Mimi Kirchner's wonderful pattern, but I wanted to develop a man doll to gift to little boys, such as my 1.5yr old son Combustion. I adapted the Purl Girl pattern, which unsurprisingly leads to a doll which is much like Mimi's style but less skillfully executed.

I think this guy turned out pretty cute though, and I'll be making some changes to the pattern and hopefully making a few more for my nephews.

Apple themed birthday cakes

For Violet and Millie's birthday party, we baked two cakes with apple decorations on top. Both were two tier, 8 layers total with filling between layers, frosted with swiss meringue buttercream and decorated with colored fondant cutouts.

First decent French Bread

Some years ago, I wanted to start baking bread. So I got myself a copy of Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhardt, and began trying to bake some french bread. I did not meet with great success.

Having baked quite a bit of bread and having more skill and experience now, I thought I would give it another try. Two weeks ago I did so, and the bread was great!

Mini Harvest - Fall 2012

About a month ago we dug up the potatoes and beets we planted this year, and cut down the basil plants. More recently, we turned over our garden bed and planted some garlic.