Breakfast Scarf

When I was new to the work force I was adopted by a mentor.  She was a Special Events manager and was hard to keep up with.  I am eternally grateful that she took me under her wing and feel that my current employer benefited from her efforts.
She used to bring me along to tastings.  She warned me, don't eat everything, you will go into a coma if you do.  The caterer would bring out plate after plate of gorgeous and delicious food.  Not eating everything was a challenge, especially for a poor kid living hand to mouth.  She brought me primarily because she was a vegetarian, and would not taste the meat dishes, but also to share the experience with me as a mentor.  Whatever her reason, I was grateful.  It was certainly the loveliest part of the job.
Frequently she would arrive late to the office with a fast food wrapper in hand.  She loved McDonalds' breakfast sandwiches.  She always got the Egg McMuffin with bacon.  But wait, she was a vegetarian, right? I challenged her on this point once and she helped to clarify for me.  Bacon does not count as meat.
I'm not sure that most vegetarians would agree with her assertion, but I appreciated her logic.  After all, bacon is delicious, and if it were not so then soy products would not be manipulated to imitate it.
So, as I worked on my weekend project I thought of Mary Alice, because in actuality this bacon is not meat.

This pattern was adapted from Twinkie Chan's book of patterns, but if you wanted to buy this scarf you could do so at my Etsy Shop!

Easter Egg Basket Blanket

When I was a little girl Easter was an important holiday.  My father was a minister, and impressed upon us that Easter was far more important even than Christmas to Christians.  We spent a grueling month leading up to Easter, because when you are a minister's kid the liturgical year actually means something, and Lent was my least favorite part of the liturgical year.  Dad always seemed to work more during Lent, which frequently meant that we had to work more, too.  We eagerly anticipated Easter weekend, and on Easter Sunday looked forward to a rousing sing along to our "Jesus Christ Superstar" album and a basket of joy.  In later years it was mostly candy (white chocolate crosses instead of Easter Bunnies, because chocolate gives me migraines and Mom could never stand to watch us eat rabbits). In our youth the basket would contain a lovely Polly Flinders dress for us to wear to church that morning and Wonder Woman Underoos, which we would invariably wear under our Polly Flinders dresses.

Times have changed, though.  Dad is no longer a minister and we don't get Easter baskets anymore.  There was a brief moment this year when I considered decorating eggs, but then determined that this would be an absurd and pointless endeavor.  Instead I made an Easter Egg Basket Blanket (now say that 10 times fast).  following a simple pattern for the eggs and a basket weave pattern for the trim, ultimately the hardest part was adding the grass fringe around the eggs.

This blanket is currently for sale on my Etsy site.