I’m totally in love with Bette Midler today. What a trip. I fear if I too made it big I would act just like her.

Here are three of my favorites:

Please note the Sheik. He’s what really makes this video pop.

This is just classic Bette

Ok she’s legit nutso in this one. It keeps going and going and going. But man, she can sing

I have returned to my career as a knitter (that’s a thing, right?).   I’ll pause here to let the applause die down.  I retired my needles for about a year and a half but I’m finally ready to give it a go again.

My career started January of 07.  I had my senior year Winter Term (DePauw gives the month of Jan for travel, classes, internships, etc) off and was bored out of my mind in Shelbyville.  So, I decided it was time for a new skill and all the girls in the Yellow Vic (senior year house) were giving it a go so why shouldn’t I.  I went to my dear Grandmother’s house for a tutorial and learned a simple stitch.  I was so simple and relaxing.  It took me a while to get the right rhythm, but it was well worth it.  Who better to teach you to knit then your grandma!

I spent that entire month doing nothing but knitting.  I would stay up late in my room watching Degrassi reruns and knitting my scarf.  I tagged along with Mom and Dad on a business meeting to San Antonio and spent the much delayed plane ride knitting next to a large biker man.   No seriously, he was like 12 feet tall with a leather vest and beard and stuff.  I think he enjoyed the gentle click of the needles.

I began extreme knitting when I got back to the Yellow Vic.  All of the girls would sit in the living room watching tv and knit or crochet.  I would knit while sitting on my giant, teal, gym ball.  I’m surprised I didn’t poke my eye out.

In all those winter days of knitting, I never once completed the scarf I was working on.  As a matter of fact, the scarf is currently still on the needles in the truck of my car.  The problem is that I started with like the smallest needles known to man kind.  The stitches on my scarf are minuscule.  Here, I’ll go take a picture of my half completed scarf in my trunk – one sec

I also noted that this picture showcases the bizarre things I keep in my trunk – like a Christmas hat with elf ears, a winter coat, Christmas cds, a bag knitting things, and a tub of old magazines.  Sick, Bess, clean your car.

But I’m not going to lie, my half completed scarf does look pretty awesome.

I have at this point finished some knitting projects.  The first completed project I did was a pair of glomits (half gloves half mittens).  I didn’t go off a pattern, and I totally made it work.  Each hand might not be EXACTLY the same size, but it’s passable.  I would take a picture of those, but I honestly have no idea where they are.  Maybe I’ll clean my trunk tonight and find them.

My first Christmas after college I knitted everyone in the family a Christmas present.  Entry level assistant media planners DO NOT make much money, and I had no friends in Indy besides my brother and sister so I had nothing but time to knit.  So knit I did, and did, and did, and did, and did.  I made everyone a  scarf and carefully choose the right yarn colors and textures from Mass Ave Knit Shop (which is actually located on Virginia Ave so don’t let that fool ya).  On some of them, I think I spent more money on buying nice llama wool than I would had I just bought a scarf.

It was Christmas Eve and I still had one more present to make – Dad’s glomits .  I kept knitting away, furiously working the needles (in my head it’s like that scene from Amadeus where he’s writing and writing).

Start a like the end of min 4 start of min 5

But there is where my GIANT KNITTING FAILURE occurred.

Here is how the one glomit I made Dad turned out.

This picture doesn’t have enough detail, but there was this long point that emerged.  I decided to sew the point up into the wrist area of the glomit to add extra wamth.  It looked completely and utterly ridiculous and kinda like the skirt of a 1950’s house dress.  UGGGG.  I was so done that I didn’t make any mit to the glomit nor did I even attempt to make the second hand.

Since that dreaded day, I haven’t picked up my knitting needles.  I put them away (or in my trunk) for safe keeping.   After a trip to the Greencastle Wal-Mart craft section with my dear Tori, I decided to give it ago again.  Right now I’m working on a blanket.  It’s pretty ambitious, but here’s for trying.  Last night I finally made some progress on it during Gossip Girl.  By writing this, I am asking all of the interweb to hold me accountable and to finish some knitting project.

GODSPEED NEEDLES.

Here’s more photos of my 1st/uncompleted scarf (and creepy trunk)

It’s the start of football season.  WOOOHOOO!!  While I enjoy football alright, as  a Hoosier it is my obligation to LOVE the Colts.  They are the only team I actually watch consistently.  Football season is the start of Fall and I love Fall.  Football requires beer, apple cider, a long sleeve t shirt under my jersey.  It just sets the right tone.  Roomie, Sarah, and neighbor Katie and I are true Colts fans.

We will watch every game in a gear and cheer along and have victory dances.  Even on select occasions, tailgate when someone offers us free tickets (hint hint Dad).  Check out the great seats.

So here’s to the Colts and here’s to their season.  VICTORY!!!

I asked my parents this year if for my birthday/Christmas/Easter/Valentines Day/Earth Day/Half Birthday/Arbor Day/Executive Assitants Day if I could go on a trip.  I’ve been suffering from CRAZY wanderlust of late.  Like when I watch Only You, featuring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr, all I can think about is going to Italy.  Gossip Girl makes me want to visit New York in Fall.  And so on and so on.

Mom and I have decided to officially start planning a trip.  Knowing my mother like I do, I know that if we don’t set a date, it will never happen.  Mom, I know you read this, but let’s be honest, you’re not a planner.  You would rather wait and see if you feel like traveling that weekend.  This is a wonderful quality but makes it a little difficult when I’m planning my vacation days for work.  Yesterday we started making plans.  I call Mom and suggest a culinary trip to the Amalfi Coast.  She suggests Mount Rushmore.

hmmmm.

What is your dream trip?  Right now I’m really into wanting to go to Egypt.  But I think if the Amalfi Coast is out, so it King Tut.  Any suggestions on where I should go next?

I recently recorded my adventures with my Kitchenaid mixer.  I detailed my trials and successes with cupcakes.  Well, now hear about my great trimuph over the rainbow cake.

I love reading good food blogs.  While, they make me quite hungry during the day, they introduce me to new ideas and concepts but are still relatable (most of the time).  While reading Apartment Therapy’s food blog, In the Kitchen, there was a link to another blog.  I know, it’s confusing but follow the logic just a bit longer.  I open the link and low and behold is the most beautiful picture of a cake I had ever seen.  I don’t want to show you the link yet, because I want you to be impressed with my cake instead of the professional blog cake.

The cake was mind blowing.  There are 6 layers with frosting in between each one.  The flavor of the cake was a simple white cake with lemon extract buttercream icing.  So Sunday when I got home for church I started my epic afternoon of baking.  I had a family (cousin, brother, sister, and sister-in-law’s) birthday later that day and I was in charge of cake.  I start baking at like 11.  I Redboxed 17 Again, featuring the ever delightful Zac Efron.  It is a perfect movie to bake to.  After that was done I watched Rushmore, my favorite Wes Anderson flick.  It is also the perfect baking movie.  Ps I love Jason Swartzman.  I mean there’s an entire entry I could dedicate just to him.

Anyway…. I start sifting, mixing, and spatuling.  The 6 layers had to be baked individually and I only have 2 baking dishes.  There were individual bowls of batter placed all around the kitchen.  It was quite the endeaver.

After 3 hours (no joke) my cake and icing were complete.

TADA!!!!!!!

Each layer has been entrenched in food coloring to create a beautiful (if I do say so myself) rainbow of flavor.  I actually cut the icing in about half.  The blog had equal icing to cake ratio.  My family isn’t a big icing person so I halved it and think it totally worked.    The thing that drew me to the cake initially was how, before you cut the cake, you have no idea it’s special.  It appears to be a plain white cake.  Nothing fancy.  But then you cut into it and discover it’s bursting at the layers with personality.  In the original blog, the cake was made for a friend’s going away party.  She made the cake in honor of a friend because her friend might seem “normal” on the outside but inside is screaming with individuality.  If someone made this cake because it reminded them of me, I would feel truly honored.  It also made cutting the cake quite the experience.  There were drumrolls and excitement.

So here I am with my rainbow cake.  If this cake catches on, I’m going to buy up stock in some food coloring company.

Happy birthday to all out there who might be craving a cake.

oh yeah… here’s the link to the original and awe inspiring blog.