Fifth Birthday!

Doll cakes are a tradition... My grandmother was a master cake maker, and baker. (She had weekly standing orders for dozens of rolls:  Not uncommon to see her kitchen filled with 20-40 dozen rolls rising. But I digress...)  As the only grandchild for 18 years, my early birthday cakes were often barbie knock-off dolls planted in richly decorated cakes.  Back then, she shaped the cakes, and bought real dolls.  That was the '50's, and even when my daughter had her early birthdays, grandma was the go-to source in the '80's.
My daughter couldn't wait to try her hand... and with the help of correctly shaped pan, and all sizes of top-only dolls, she created a beauty!
It was really impressive.  I wish I could have caught the look my granddaughter had on her face when she first saw it.  It's one thing to see it in progress:

 But pretty impressive when finished.

There were two parties, and at the first one, no one dared to ask for cake!  Funny... it was just a curiosity.  The second party was only 4 and 5 year olds, and there was much speculation as to what the rest of the doll looked like, and "is it really cake" was thoroughly discussed.
They couldn't wait to cut into it, which was a good thing.  I'd hate to throw it all away!
The chocolate cupcakes were a huge hit and disappeared without discussion.

It was all "princesses and pink"!

 And the boys loved it!

 And the girls got to kiss the frog.  Lipstick is always a winner!

Fun in Bergen

Pizza at "Dumpster Pizza".

Then a climb on the Norwegian Constitution. (Celebrating 200 years this year.)

And then ANOTHER birthday party:

Juju hits her target!

Ah!! Another HAPPY Birthday.

Another year of knitting ahead... Time to count up:  (Thank you, Ravelry, for keeping tabs on me.)

8 pairs of socks; two on needles now.

18 other projects:  2 little girl pullovers, 1 sweater for me, 1 pullover for Halvard, 1 poncho, 1 vest, 1 shawl, hats, mittens, a necklace....

And how many Ken-Ken's did I complete?  Many hours there, too!

Recently I finished these in (hopefully) a 5 year old size.  They were such fun.  Nice and thick for little feet in water-proof boots.  And they match (kind of) Mommy's socks.  I don't do many socks two-at-a-time because they aren't as portable as one, but this time, without a pattern, I knew they wouldn't be the same if I didn't do them at the same time.

Notice the heel:  I followed Charlene Schurch's toe up pattern which confusingly referred to making the heel upside-down.  It worked, and probably only would bother a knitter.  Anyone else ever try that?

The heel flap is on the bottom of the foot.

In other news, I "fixed" my Dahlia sweater to suit me... Although I was ecstatic that it came off my needles in a shape that I could wear, I grew to regret the ends being too short.  See my Ravelry pictures to describe how it is a rectangle with arms in the middle.  The short ends of the rectangle are bound off;  it is knitted from the center out to the short ends.  Those ends needed a few more inches, and after years of wishing and pulling on them, I unraveled the seed stitch, and voilà!

Hangs nicely.  Hopefully I won't add 4 more inches in a few years... but I'll let you know!

A repeat...

In case you missed the big "two year" celebration, I'll redirect you to a previous blog.

If you didn't miss it but are just SOOOO taken by my grandchild and you can't get enough, I'll redirect you BACK to my previous blog, which now has MORE pictures in the slide show.

By the way, the weather has been behaving itself!  Sun and no rain for 3 days!!!  (Not NM sun, for sure, but Norway sun.  Teehee...)

More about knitting tomorrow!

Previous Birthday Blog

Weather in Norway

Meteogram, next 48 hours

*Nedbørssøylene viser maks- og minverdier for nedbør per time. 

This is just SAD!  The chart doesn't even go over 20ºC...

We are just laughing it off, in fact, at this moment it's quite bright out, like there's sun somewhere, but the cloud cover is shrouding the mountains.  I'm SOOOO glad I'm not a tourist here for the day! LOL

Sorry about the pasted chart above spilling over into other columns, but you get the idea.

Today we had a mini birthday party for our 2 year old.  The puddles under the swings was VERY popular, as was the splash at the bottom of the slide!

We kept the cupcakes under foil and everyone was cheery as if the sun was shining.

Startitis Again

I'm super happy with my new Skew socks.
They look crazy good with my birks:

I'm super duper happy with my birthday gifts:

Thanks, P & K!
With taxes and concert behind me, life is Gooo-oood!

The Birthday of the Year!

In my defense:  There WAS a party.  It was in Spain! My little one-year-old granddaughter looked gorgeous, and you will be agog of the decorations!  This is in response to me being a cold-hearted "packer" and giving some unpopular advice.

C had some woeful comments on Friday June 11.  A combination of trying to do EVERYTHING at once, and leaving an entire life behind. Yes, H was looking for his driver's license.  I was in the next room and I wonder why I didn't hear a thing!?  After he left, I got up and was shocked to see wall to wall clothing on the floor.  And yes, my immediate reaction was...
What was she thinking?  I thought she was going to be conservative
about clothing.  I thought I would help by at least folding the
clothing, and then I decided I may as well make piles of everyone's
stuff, and then I thought I would let C put it back into the suitcase
and pack.  I saw how hard it is for C to decide on what to take for
Juju and I gave some advice, yet there was NO coercion, and I felt like it was C's decision in the end. (OK. Maybe I got a little vocal about the birthday dress.)  There were lots of clothing with tags still on them.  And about
half went back into the suitcase.  Juju will NOT be naked this year!
Of course, we are going to see things to buy too!   A
pile was made to leave here, and hope they still fit in a year. A pile
was made for M's little girl (England).  And a pile of used, get
rid of.  Unfortunately, the "birthday" dress is huge!  I tell you,
huge! for a little girl. Yards of material! It fits, but will certainly fit next year
too.  I told her I would buy another "etsy" $45 hand-made dress next year if it
didn't fit, and to be fair, I didn't know (until I read her blog) that
the rosettes were for us big people;  a beautiful touch, that only
Celina would think of.  It broke my heart when I read about it.  Of
course, her friends were/are wild (see comments), and mad at me for being so... heartless.
 They'll see that we'll have a party of all parties with decorations,
balloons, Mickey Mouse ears! and gosh... fancy dresses!  Aunt Torill arrived with a dress because she felt bad about the situation as reported by C.  And I'm surprised that her friends back in Bergen didn't send a "care package."

  And the cake!  We haven't even gotten to the confetti cake with whipped sugar icing (that I haven't made for probably 27 years).
You be the judge.  Here are some pictures! (Click to see all 24 photos!)

1st Birthday Celebration