GREY HIPPO

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Knitting a hippo was even more fun than knitting a pig! (Who would have thought :>) I like to joke about our fat little kitty cat, saying that now there are TWO grey hippos in the house.

BEST SO FARS

When we lived in New York, one of our favorite bodega treats were Tate's chocolate-chip cookies. Oh man, they are good. Go get some. Anyhow, soon after discovering Tate's, we found we weren't alone in our admiration for these delicious morsels. Jeffrey Steingarten, longtime food editor at Vogue, totally agrees! In his hilarious and informative book, It Must've Been Something I Ate, he cites Tate's as being one of the two "finest" chocolate-chip cookies made (the other one is a brand called Kathleen's). "Through a remarkable feat of reverse engineering" he comes very close to copying the prized cookies in his personal recipe for the "best so far" chocolate-chip cookies. We make these cookies constantly. A giant framed copy of the recipe used to hang in our kitchen. I decided to christen our new (old) Braun mixer with a half-batch last night.

KNITTED FRIEND

I am loving my new hobby of knitting and really enjoyed making this adorable pink piggy! You can find the pattern for him and a lot of other cute animals in Itty-Bitty Toys. It is a great book; I am just a beginner and had no problems making it. I also learned to use double pointed needles with this project (which is easier to do than you might think).

KNITTING

I have not posted anything in so long! A lot has happened, including the birth of our first baby; Elizabeth Larkin Heywood, born March 21st (the first day of Spring!) in Berkeley, California. We are so excited to share our world with her. I have taught myself to knit as of late, so here are a few of the projects I have completed for the little bun:



All of these projects I made with patterns from the fantastic book Vintage Knits for Modern Babies.

YIPPEE!

Happy Birthday Erik!

PILLOWS

We have wanted to load our couch up with lots of pillows for awhile, so we finally went to the fabric store! Erik picked out the awesome fabrics and I sewed those buggers up. I think that they help the room look cozier and more inviting.

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

It was my birthday this past Friday. My darling planned a nice evening for me with beautiful gifts and dinner at my new favorite Italian place, Marzano. Next morning we left for a camping trip in Big Sur. It was an amazing weekend! I have never seen a more beautiful place. Some highlights include; lunch at Nepenthe, (you could not imagine a more spectacular view or banana cream pie), walking barefoot through the river by our campsite and relaxing next to it with our books, Pfeiffer Beach with it's purple sand and crashing surf, breakfast at Big Sur Bakery, and waking up in our tent with fresh air streaming in every morning.