I've been working on something extra fun behind the scenes lately and I am SO excited to finally share it with you all! For a while now, I've been wishing for one easy-to-use pattern that I could turn into all sorts of animals with some simple changes. And I think I cracked it! I've been making lots of different animals from my pattern, which my kids have been loving. But it's time for me to stop crocheting and share the pattern with you guys, so you can make some cute Cookie Pals of your own! And, to make things even better, Love Crafts has generously offered a giveaway for yarn that the winner can use to make these cuddly animals! 

I know it's only January and that we still have a looong way to go before warm weather comes back to stay on the East Coast, but I'm already dreaming of spring. So what better way to incorporate a bit of sunshine into my winter wardrobe than to design something inspired by the honeybee? I decided to play around with some overlay crochet stitches to create this pattern mimicking a honeycomb design and then turned it into a cowl. So if you see me wearing this beauty and looking a little lost in the clouds, that's just me daydreaming of the days when the blossoms and the bees are in full swing again. 

I was cleaning out my closet the other day and came across the prototype for the Bobble-Wobble Blanket. The final version is worked in stripes of one color at a time, but the original version used color changes to make each bobble a different color. I ended up scrapping that concept because I didn't want to have to choose between carrying yarn (which looked a bit sloppy) and weaving a ton of ends (which makes my soul die a little). But when I found the beginnings of the color change version, I couldn't help but admire how nice it looked with the pops of color. So I did the next best thing and turned it into a new pattern. Behold: the Bobble-Wobble Pillow! 

Maybe I haven't been looking in the right places, but toddler scarves seem to be hard to come by. So when I needed one last year, I decided to just knit one. And it was perfect, all winter long! My 3 year old has been pretty jealous of his older brother's scarf lately, so it only seemed right to make him his own (especially since winter decided to show up early this year). I wanted to keep things super simple and let the yarn do the talking, so I put together this extremely basic knit scarf pattern.

As an adult, birthdays aren't always terribly exciting. But there is one aspect of birthdays that will never cease to thrill me, no matter how many years I accumulate: the excuse to eat CAKE. I love cake. But the problem with baking a cake is that it's a commitment. I mean, you can't just make a single slice, you're left with an entire cake. So cakes don't happen very often around here. That just means that when I finally get a chance to make one, I've got to make it count. This year's model checks all the boxes for my favorite cake elements: amazingly rich, moist chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache, and a creamy peanut butter mousse. Happy birthday to me, indeed! 

I know many of you have moved on to Christmas already. BUT if you're a staunch holiday separatist like me and refuse to let Christmas creep up earlier and earlier into the year (I'm looking at you, Hobby Lobby), I have a fun Thanksgiving pattern for you! It's somewhat last minute, since everything was chaos and I didn't have any time to work on it until this week, but I figured that I would post it anyway since I was making it for my family regardless of the rules of holiday blogging. I'm extra excited about this one because it's not only a decoration but a simple tradition that I'm hoping will help my kids grow their gratitude before Thanksgiving.