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When we were planning Bumblebee’s Cocomelon birthday party, one of the options for large banners really caught my eye. We chose a different banner for the party, but I couldn’t get the other one out of my head. I knew it would be pretty easy to create a crocheted blanket inspired by that banner, so I set out to do just that.

I started by making a rainbow chevron blanket. The chevron, or zigzag, blanket is a pattern nearly as old as crochet itself (the way I understand it), and almost every designer has their own take on it. The one I’ve always had the most success with is the version by Jayda in Stitches on YouTube. I followed her pattern exactly, except that I changed the colors and added 2 repeats to what she does on her tutorial. I wanted a decent size, so I chose to do 16 rows of each color. Because it’s a double-crochet blanket, that gave me about 8 inches per color, and my blanket ended up being about 40×48 – perfect for a toddler! My favorite border for a chevron blanket is a simple, one-row single crochet border. I love the design of the chevrons so much that I don’t want my border to detract from the blanket itself, so every time I make one of these blankets that’s the border I use. For this blanket, I chose white.

When it came time to make the Cocomelon logo, I referred to Google images for the inspiration. Rather than giving a specific pattern, I’m going to describe my method instead; if you want to make this, I hope it’s easy enough to follow. If not, feel free to leave questions in the comments and I’ll try to answer them.

I went back to Jayda to get started, making a solid granny square (10 rows around) for the main portion of my watermelon logo. When I finished making that, it was time for the green stripes. I finished the square off by making an eleventh round, but this time using single crochet stitches. I also did 3 single crochets in each corner instead of the standard sharp corner to get the rounded look I wanted. Then I lined the square with a row of white single crochets. I made 2 single crochets into each of the corner stitches from the row before.

When my square was done, it was time to figure out the watermelon stripes. I started with dark green. My square was 44 stitches on each side, so to get that “round” shape to the melon, I did 7 sc, 7 hdc, 16 dc, 7 hdc, 7 sc. I repeated this pattern for 3 rows of dark green and then 3 more rows of light green.

The top ended up having 46 stitches once I incorporated the corner stitches, so I divided that up into the 9 sections of the logo. The two on either end were technically continuations of the dark green side, so I did 4 stitches for each of those. That left me with exactly 6 stitches available for each of the other stripes. I used the method of joining as you go for these stripes (as seen in this video – again, thanks to Jayda in Stitches). I didn’t count my rows, but each one is about 3 inches tall. The edge stripes start decreasing about halfway up – decrease on the outside edge (3), crochet 3 rows, decrease on outside edge (2), crochet 1 row, decrease (1), crochet 1 row. The rows in the middle of the melon are only decreased at the top, either on the last row or second-to-last row of each stripe (again, I wasn’t super careful here, hence the variation). The main thing is to end each stripe with 4 stitches at the top instead of 6. This pulls it in a bit at the top and bottom to round it out a little.

After finishing all of that, I realized that I needed a bit more of the light green at the top and bottom on each side, so I took a moment to add those in – 1 sc, enough dcs to “feel” right, and another sc.

For the pink nubby thing at the top of the cocomelon, I started my yarn a few stitches in and single crocheted across the top, stopping the same number of stitches from the other side. I did a single crochet decrease on both sides in every row, and worked until I had just 4 stitches left.

To make the antennae, I attached my dark purple yarn and chained up (16 for one of them and 11 for the other). Then I slip-stitched back down and fastened off.

The blue circles at the top of the antennae were made separately. If you’ve every made a crochet hat, you’ll know how to do this. Work 8 DC into a magic circle. For the second round, work 2DC into each stitch. Round 3: *2DC, 1DC* all the way around. One of the circles was 2 rounds and the other one is 3 rounds. Set these aside.

For Cocomelon’s eyes, here’s the pattern (make 2 of these using black yarn):

Chain 5.

R1: 2 SC in first stitch. SC in next 2. 5 SC in last chain. SC in next 2 (bottom of chain). 3 SC in last chain. Total of 14 stitches.

R2: 2 SC in first stitch. SC in next 4. 2 SC in each of the next 3. SC in next 4. 2 SC in each of the next 2. Total of 20 stitches.

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Sew the eyes onto the face, referring to a picture for placement. For the nose and mouth, use surface slip stitches to add them using black yarn. Use the same method but with white yarn for making the “shine” in the upper right corner.

Now you get to put the whole thing together! Starting anywhere you like, single crochet around the entire Cocomelon in white. When you get to the top of the antennae, place your blue circles there and continue single crocheting around them, joining them to the antennae. Put the bigger circle at the top of the longer antenna. I recommend increasing your circles during this phase (*2SC in first st, 1 SC in next 2* around for the bigger one; follow round 3 above except using SC stitches for the smaller one). I didn’t do this, and my circles were a bit tricky to flatten out when I sewed them onto the blanket. When you’ve finished your final border, sew your (giant!) applique onto the blanket in whatever position you’d like. There are about a million ends on this project, but the good news is that you don’t have to weave in any of them! Just make sure they’re tucked underneath your applique as you sew and you’ll be good to go.

My Cocomelon didn’t turn out perfectly. It’s a bit wobbly and more square than rectangular, but it’s close enough to get the job done. And most importantly, Bumblebee loves it!

If you make this, please tag me on Instagram (@ladybugdaydreams) so I can see!

Blessings,

I have a recipe to share with you today. It’s so delicious, though probably not the healthiest thing in the world. It’s not that it’s full of “bad” things, but because of the cream cheese, butter, and pasta it has a lot of fat and carbs. You could counterbalance that by using a low fat cream cheese, butter substitute (or just lessen the amount of butter) and low-carb pasta (or skip the pasta altogether and serve with spaghetti squash or other “noodled” vegetables). You could also skip the “bed” entirely and just eat this sauce as its own dish (it’s definitely thick enough to pull that off) with a side salad or other choice of vegetables.

I originally found the idea for this recipe on AllRecipes.com. My version uses all the same ingredients, but I’ve modified the cooking method to make it easier to cook well. It’s not necessarily easier, per se, but whole chicken breasts can be tricky to cook well in the oven. The original recipe called for making the sauce separately, then pouring it over the chicken and baking it altogether. It could be because I have kids, or maybe because I get pretty frustrated when my chicken takes too long to cook, but I like to chop the chicken up and cook the small pieces. This saves the trouble of cutting them up for the kids later when you’re ready to serve. Also, baking chicken breasts can be hit or miss. Just a couple of minutes too long and your chicken is suddenly unpalatable due to dryness. So I’ve combatted those issues by cutting up the chicken in advance and cooking it in a skillet (you can add oil if you want, but I normally don’t need to) and then adding the sauce ingredients and cooking everything in one skillet. The other benefit of making it this way is that it’s just a one pot meal (excluding the pasta, but that’s an easy pan to wash later).

Let’s get to the recipe!

Angel Chicken

(serves 6-8)

1-1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, cubed
1 packet dry Italian dressing (find it on the salad dressing aisle)
8 oz cream cheese, cubed
2 cans Golden Mushroom soup
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
hot cooked pasta

Cook chicken. Sprinkle dressing mix over chicken and mix well. Add cream cheese and soup. Mix until cheese melts. Stir in butter and melt. Serve over pasta.

What’s your favorite chicken recipe? Pasta recipe?

Blessings,

We’ve been eating a lot of soup for lunch recently, and I wanted tomato soup one day. Problem was, I didn’t have any canned tomato soup. I did, however, have lots of canned tomato products and boxes of broth, plus some veggies in the fridge. So I came up with this recipe.

I’ve made tomato soup in the past, but only blended recipes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t careful enough that day and ended up covered in hot soup. Not fun, and not something I wanted to repeat, so I left the vegetables intact – and in fact embraced that aspect by including diced tomatoes as well as the sauces. This aspect is where the soup got its name. When I served it, my husband said, “It’s like tomato soup, plus.”

I hope if you try it, you like it. 

Tomato Plus Soup 

1 medium onion, chopped 

2 carrots, peeled and sliced 

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)

2 cans (6 oz each) tomato paste 

1 box (32 oz) vegetable broth 

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon dried parsley

2-3 teaspoons sugar, to taste (this keeps it from tasting like spaghetti sauce)

Saute the veggies in a bit of oil until the onion begins to soften, about 3-5 minutes. Add in the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Let soup cook 15 minutes or more to give the herbs time to soften. Serve with your favorite grilled cheese sandwich!

Blessings,

I posted about the Ruby dress I designed and made last week, but I hadn’t yet written out the pattern. Well, now I have, so I wanted to post it here so other people can have the opportunity to make this cute little dress!

Full disclosure: I tried to find people to test knit for me and didn’t get any takers, so this pattern hasn’t seen anyone’s eyes but mine until now. If there are any mistakes (which I don’t think there are, but you never know), please feel free to let me know so I can adjust them.

I did not include a pattern for the flower because I didn’t write one. Any crochet or knit flower (or even a decorative button or felt/silk flower) will do. You could even leave the dress plain, but I think the flower adds a little “something special.”

Here is the pattern.

Ruby

Knit Toddler Dress

Size 12-24 months

Gauge: 18 stitches and 26 rows using larger needles in stockinette = 4 inches

Yarn: Worsted or chunky, whatever you like to get gauge. I used Caron Latte Cakes in the color Strawberry Flambe, which is labeled as a “chunky 5,” but felt reasonably thin (worsted) to me.

Needles: Any to get gauge, plus one set a couple sizes smaller. I used size 8 for the ribbing and size 10 for the rest. Interchangeable circular needles are preferred because of the rapidly increasing skirt. It starts small (a 16” or 20” cord will do) but increases to double its size, so you’ll need up to a 40” cord before you’re done. You’ll also need a cable needle as well as a set of DPNs in the smaller size.

Construction: Dress is knit top down starting with the collar, which is worked in rows. A button is added at the end to close the opening. Then it uses raglan increases for the shoulders. Once the sleeves and body are separated, you’ll knit a couple of inches. Then a garter stitch band is knit, followed by the skirt, which increases rapidly for the open, flowy feel. Cables are knit in the skirt between the wedges of increase.

Using smaller needles, cast on 68. Turn work.

Work 1×1 rib (k1, p1) for 1 inch. Work in rows, not in the round.

Increase round: Place marker and join for working in the round. Increase 4 stitches evenly as you knit one round.

Marker setup: Knit 12 (back left), place marker, knit 12 (left sleeve), place marker, knit 24 (front), place marker, knit 12 (right sleeve), place marker, knit 12 (back right).

Setup round 1: *knit to one stitch before marker, yarn over, knit two, yarn over* Repeat from * to * until one stitch before last marker (8 stitch increase). Be careful not to increase at the beginning of round marker.

Setup round 2: knit around

Repeat these two rounds a total of 8 times. You should have 144 stitches on your needles.

You will now work even (no more increasing) until your yoke measures approximately 5.5 inches from the cast on.

Separate body and sleeves: Knit to first marker. Place all stitches between first and second marker (the sleeve) on hold using waste yarn or a stitch holder. Using backward loop method, cast on 4 stitches. Knit to next marker, then repeat the process of placing sleeve stitches on hold. Knit to beginning of round.

Bodice: Knit every round until work measure approximately 2 inches from the underarm.

Waistband: Work in garter stitch (knit 1 round, purl one round) for 8 rounds, or until your belt measures 1 inch.

Increase for skirt: KFB (knit front and back) into every stitch

Marker setup: Knit 10, place marker, *purl 2, knit 8, purl 2, place marker, knit 20, place marker* Repeat from * to * around. Knit last 10 stitches. This establishes where your cables will go, as well as the increase points of the skirt.

Round 1: Knit to first marker, *purl 2, C6B, purl 2, yarn over, knit to one stitch before next marker, yarn over, knit 1* until last increase marker. Knit the last 10 stitches (being mindful not to increase at the BOR).

C6B: Move three stitches to cable needle, hold in back of work, knit 3 stitches, knit 3 stitches from cable needle.

Rounds 2-3: Work as established, knitting the knits (and YOs) and purling the purls all the way around.

Repeat Rounds 1-3 until your piece measures about 17 inches from the shoulder to the bottom (or 1 inch shorter than what you want the total length to be). You may need to switch to a longer cable as you go.

Switch to smaller needles and work 1×1 rib for 1 inch. Bind off.

Sleeves: Pick up sleeve stitches from waste yarn using DPNs (or magic loop if you prefer) in the smaller size. Knit one round.

Work 1×1 rib for 6 rounds. Bind off. Repeat on other sleeve.

Weave in ends and block your dress. Then find a pretty little girl to put it on and share your pictures with me on Instagram @ladybugdaydreams!

I am working on developing this dress in larger sizes, so stay tuned for that – though it will likely be quite a while. If you’re a knitter who’s interested in helping me out by making this dress in other sizes, contact me and we’ll work something out!

Blessings,

I had to say goodbye to my dad yesterday. He passed away from untreated lung and stomach cancer. It’s still very raw, so I’m not really up for saying anything more.

Michael Edward Olson

April 9, 1956 – January 14, 2020

My csection went great. Much better than my dream the night before, in which everything was going wrong. The anesthesiologist was amazing! And my doc got a cyst removed from a sensitive area while I was already numb, so that’s good.

We got bumped back by almost an hour because there was a 34 weeker delivering at my time. Vaginal, but the NICU team was needed for him/her and they like having them on hand for csections too, so we waited. I haven’t heard yet how that baby is doing, so maybe keep the family in your prayers. 

They had a designated picture taker for us, and he gots of good ones using my iPhone throughout the entire procedure. I got a few minutes of skin to skin in the OR, which was a first for me and I loved it.

I spent  2 hrs in recovery eating ice chips, then got moved up to the mother/baby unit where we’ll be for the rest of our stay. I was a bit dizzy from lack of sleep and quite itchy on my face from the anesthesia, but rest and IV meds took care of those. He’s nursed successfully three times now, by just 13 hours old (as I write this at 2:15 a.m.).

Weight: 7lbs, 4 oz. He’s the exact middle of my kids in this regard.

Length: 19.5 inches

Time: 1:20 pm

Apgar: 9, 9

Blessings,

If you’d asked me a month ago whether or not I thought I’d have an interesting story to tell surrounding the birth of our fourth son, I would have said, “No.” Due to several reasons that I’ve discussed on the blog before, I had a scheduled repeat c-section. I figured it would be just like Small Fry’s birth: show up at the appointed time, get an IV, have a baby via surgery, go home four days later. Easy-peasy.

But sometimes babies have their own agendas.

Yes, the birth was scheduled, both the date and time. And yes, he did arrive on the date scheduled. But the time? Nope. He had his own ideas for that.

I went to bed the night before feeling normal. Like labor wasn’t even going to be an issue. After all, I’d only ever gone into spontaneous labor once, and that was over 12 years ago with Seahawk. I wasn’t even sure I’d know what it felt like anymore if I did go into labor. But God knew that, so He made sure there was no mistaking it when it happened.

Wait, what? You went into labor with a scheduled c-section?

Yes. I woke up at 6:55, about 35 minutes before the alarm was scheduled to ring, with what felt like a tiny little drip flowing over me. I didn’t think too much of it and tried to go back to sleep. But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that that drip was significant. I couldn’t ignore it. So I got up to use the restroom, hoping not to see any blood when I was in there. Fortunately, there wasn’t any. There was, however, a big gush – just like in the movies – as soon as I stepped foot in the bathroom. Yes, my water had broken. There was no mistaking it, despite the fact that this had never happened to me before. How that gush “waited” until I was in the bathroom instead of the bedroom, I don’t know. But I’m glad it did. I’m even more glad that it didn’t gush in the bed.

Now that I knew that my water had broken, I immediately woke Will up, despite the fact that he would’ve been up within 30 minutes anyway. We (well, he) woke the kids up with a sense of urgency, and within half an hour, we’d gotten everyone ready (including packing the overnight bags) and were en route to my mom’s house since the boys were going to spend some time with her while I was in the hospital and Will was going back and forth between staying with me and doing book signings. (Seahawk is technically old enough to babysit, but we don’t like leaving him for more than an hour or two until we can get him into a safe babysitting course.) Once we dropped the boys off, we headed straight for the hospital. We arrived there less than an hour after my water had broken, and a full hour before our scheduled check-in time.

Once I was admitted, they paged my doctor and she came to check on me. She did a vaginal check for dilation, and confirmed that my water had indeed broken. I was at 2 centimeters, but contractions were coming fast and hard, so they called my surgeon to see if she wanted to move the surgery up. Upon hearing that I was in labor, she did want to get baby out as soon as possible. Because none of us knew what my internal scar tissue looked like, we didn’t really want me to labor too much to avoid the risk of uterine abruption. There was a chance that my scar tissue had healed beautifully and wouldn’t cause too much trouble. There was just as good a chance that the tissue would be stretched thin from pregnancy and on the verge of splitting on its own without even taking labor into account. So within about an hour and half of arriving at the hospital, I was in the operating room. The only reason it took even that long was because the rest of the staff forgot to notify anesthesia, who was expecting me at noon, not 9 a.m., so we had to wait for them to arrive. The anesthesia doctors arrived at around 9:35, and by 9:45 we’d begun.

Just like the last time I had a preplanned c-section, the anesthesia was the worst part. I always end up freaking out (internally only) while getting the spinal. The numbing shot just before the spinal hurts like a freak attack, but then it’s all smooth sailing from there. This time around, the doctor pushing all over my back to find the right spot was quite painful, too. Once the spinal was in, it worked very quickly. Within just a minute or two, I needed help getting my legs up onto the operating table so the real fun could begin. Once the spinal was in, they brought Will into the OR. It seemed to me that it took a long time for him to get there; part of me was worried that he wouldn’t make it. But he did, thankfully. The doctors and nurses got me all settled on the operating table, and then pulled up the blue curtain. Dr. S (my surgeon) did the anesthesia test to make sure I was fully numb, and then she got started right away. I couldn’t see the clock from my vantage point, but I think the first incision was probably made right around 10 a.m. Things were going very well. My anesthesiologist was excellent at staying by my side and keeping me informed as to what was going on and being a calming presence. Will was on my other side doing the same.

Dragonfly made his appearance at 10:19 a.m., an hour and 41 minutes before the surgery was originally scheduled to start. He cried immediately, which always makes me cry (happy tears) too. After some of the crazy dreams I’d had while pregnant with him, hearing his first cry was the best sound in the world to me. My doctors pulled the blue curtain down enough to show me his little face, but not enough for me to see my open guts. He looked so small to me! After I got a good glimpse at him, they pulled the curtain back up and invited Will over to the other end of the table to cut the cord. I was glad they offered him this opportunity. When Small Fry was born, he wasn’t give that chance (nor with Munchkin, but that was an emergency situation and therefore understandable), and I remember him mentioning his disappointment later. Once the baby was cleaned up a bit and swaddled, Will was able to bring him over for me to see better. The two of them stayed there for the remainder of the surgery. I couldn’t hold baby during that time – they didn’t offer me the chance, but I probably would have declined anyway because I didn’t feel in that moment that I could have done so safely – but it was nice to be able to touch his face while Will was holding him.

Closing me back up took about half an hour; by 11 a.m., I was back in my room for recovery and bonding. Baby nursed right away; he’s definitely a natural at it. I was in the hospital until around 11 a.m. on Monday, and definitely ready to go home by then. It feels good to be getting back into the swing of things – even if I have to move a little slow still.

Blessings,

Some days, you just want comfort food. Even if it’s June and 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside. But when it’s that hot out, most comfort food isn’t really practical to prepare, especially if you don’t have air conditioning in your home, since a lot of them require baking for a long period of time.

This was the “dilemma” I found myself in earlier this week. Meatloaf sounded amazing, but the last thing I wanted was to turn the oven on for over an hour and heat up the house. (We do have an air conditioner, for the record, but it’s just a window unit. Even though it’s pretty powerful, it struggles to keep up with the oven heat.) So, what’s a girl to do? Come up with an alternative to baking the meatloaf, of course! So that’s just what I did.

I used the same ingredients as my normal meatloaf, but instead of putting it in a loaf pan and baking for an hour (or longer), I shaped the meat mixture into patties and pan fried them in just a touch of oil. When the meat was cooked through, I added the sauce to the top of the patties and let it cook for just another minute or two to set.

The result? These patties were just as good as a traditional meatloaf, and a lot quicker to prepare. I’ll definitely be using this method again, and I hope you’ll try it too!

Image credit

I recently had the pleasure of reading Betting on Hope by Debra Clopton. I saw this one in the available from Book Look Bloggers back in February, and I really wanted to read it, but I had a few other books to finish first. So when I’d done that, I jumped on getting my copy of Betting on Hope.

Maggie Hope is a advice columnist for a newspaper. Tru Monahan is a cowboy, through and through. When Maggie is assigned to interview Tru for the newspaper (not her normal gig, since she’s not a reporter), things go from bad to worse very quickly. Before either of them realize what’s happening, they’ve made a silly bet (Tru suggests he can teach city-girl Maggie to ride a horse; she’s not so sure) and both of their employers insist they follow through. So Maggie moves into the guest house on Tru’s property, he trains her to ride horses, and sparks fly.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple, but what I’ve given you is a fair representation of the book. There are a lot of side characters and interesting back stories which make this book better than my synopsis.

My thoughts?

I liked it. It took me a long time to get through, but that’s not the book’s fault. It’s simply because reading hasn’t been a huge priority in my days lately. The ending was pretty rushed, but I can forgive that. I really enjoyed the side characters; I thought they added a lot to the story. The back stories of the main characters were interesting, and I could understand why they would keep their histories from each other. But I think the story would have been better served if Ms. Clopton had shared a bit more of the circumstances behind those back stories with the reader, especially Tru’s.

Overall rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Blessings,

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Book Look Bloggers in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.