Another Hat Post :)

So it's been a few months since I've crocheted anything, BUT I did promise a hat to my sister and another one to a friend of mine's baby girl. Fortunately, there was an ever-so-looming deadline, so I got into high gear. Both hats were finished on the last day of my sister's stay, but nonetheless I think they turned out great, I think :)))

My sister's autumn hat is embellished with a 10-petal flower. I had no time to sew on a pearl bead into its middle, but I think that would add it a little something extra.

My friend's daughter got this pink little number with a "snowball"-flower:

I hope you liked these :)

My sister's BORSCH

My sister stayed with us for 4 weeks, and kept talking about making a borsch pretty much the whole time she was here. Personally, I LOVE borsch soup, only it takes about 1 hour to make it (though actually it is pretty simple). Since we were busy almost every day, we kept putting it off. Finally, this past Thursday (her last day in Canada), she did make it for us!!!

So, here's the promised to you a while ago, the much anticipated recipe of the BORSCH as we make it :))) We'll call it a Belarusian borsch as a Russian recipe usually includes an addition of cabbage.
(Note: wikipedia calls it Borscht)

A dollop of sour cream makes this a perfect lunch meal!

Nursery Closet project 2011

My daughter's room has been finished for a while now; however, there was one thing left - her closet doors. They are quite wide and tall as well = expensive to replace... But they really were an eyesore and totally didn't flow with the rest of the room.

A while back we were at Home Depot I forget for what, but while I was waiting for hubby to get his stuff, I noticed this Martha Stewart raised wallpaper stand. I was intrigued! Turns out all you really need to install them is glue. So... I bought a container of ready-to-use wallpaper glue and a roll of wallpaper.

Many weeks later, I got my sister to help glue them onto the nursery closet doors :)

Our supplies:

Before and after:

The pattern:

Now we just have to decide whether or not to paint it...

Liza's Birthday

My little sister turned 23 years old on July 5th. That's right, 23! I know to some of you it doesn't seem like a lot... Or why it would be a big deal since it's not a round age, or that important milestone that allows you to drive, drink legally at bars, rent a luxury car, etc. But to me it was. Why, you ask? Because last time I was with her for her birthday was in 2005 when she turned 17. That's right, it has been 6 years...

So, we decided to make a cake, rather than buy one! And we did just that... well, sort of. We did do a cream cheese icing from scratch, but our marble cake came from a box (oh, well). The thing is, we did search for an easy recipe - and we did have almost all of the ingredient needed. But every recipe we found called for either milk, or sour cream, and we had neither... So finally, we just turned to the marble cake mix. And what's wrong with that anyways? After some oil + water + eggs, it turned out great (we added  blueberries and shaved coconut for a little twist)!

And we're back!

Wow, I haven't blogged for almost two weeks now! Some of you might wonder why. Others know :)
It is because my little sister Liza (well, she's not so little anymore) has come for a 4-week visit! I'm ecstatic!!! She arrived on the 30th of June and we've been pretty busy - you know, Canada Day (her first here, my 13th!), the weekend, and her birthday on the 5th.

So, Canada Day (for those who don't know, it's on July 1st) - we decided it'll be fun to go downtown during the day since we had the Royal couple Will & Kate visiting our Nation's capital. We were determined to get a glimpse. Of course, people said we were crazy to try and go downtown since they were projecting 600,000 people to be there for the Royals, but we weren't as crazy as some of the people that got to the Parliament at 5:30 am to stake out their spots. Anyways, of course we ended up in a huge crowd of people, but we weren't as far back, could've been worse :) AND we did get a small glimpse of what we came for (my Canon got a more zoomed in glimpse, he-he):

After our "brush" with royalty and a serious sunburn on our shoulders we went home to eat and relax a little bit. Later that evening, we decided to go back for fireworks. I've seen the Canada Day fireworks time and time before and I love them! And since the Royals were in town, I figured they would be even better... They lasted 15 minutes and they were GREAT! Check out this video I shot:

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did :)