Some craftiness and a few links.

I've had a few blog posts in my head but honestly have just been lazy about sitting down and writing them out. Thanks to a bit of accountability from a friend I'm finally taking the time to get these done.

First I wanted to share a craft project I've been working on. To be honest I'm not thrilled with how it's coming out but since it's not a gift (it's for our new baby on the way) I decided to just finish it. The project is a round ripple baby afghan. As you can see in the picture below the middle has "bubbled" a bit. I'm thinking this is because the white yarn is a bit heavier than the varigated. The other thing I'm not happy with is the amount of "curling" on the ripples. The pattern says to alternate between increasing two rows and then doing two rows of not increasing. I found this was causing a lot more curling so I have just started increasing every row and it seems to be working much better. I have about 5 more rounds to go plus one row of edging. Like I said, if this was a gift I would be more picky but it's for our baby and since it will mostly be wrapped around him or tucked around him in the car seat I'm not going to bother pulling it all out.
The second thing I wanted to share were some links to some websites that I really like. I first discovered The Pioneer Woman a couple of years ago. It's a fun blog to follow plus she has sections for cooking, home and garden, photography and even homeschooling, for those that homeschool. An offshoot of the same website is called Tasty Kitchen and is a recipe site where all recipes are user submitted. I love the variety of recipes and also the reviews. Lastly, another cooking site/blog that I've found and really enjoy is FatFree Vegan don't be put off by the vegan part. There are some great recipes on this site. I tend to avoid having a lot of extra soy in our diet so I don't make the recipes calling for tofu and if the recipe calls for soymilk I substitute almond milk (you could also use regular milk but I have to avoid dairy). Just a note: this site is currently under some construction but they do give the link to the old site with all of the recipes.

I hope to have some time later today to do this weeks "The Power of a Woman's Words" post and also share a bit about what's going on in general here at our house.