Happy December

This month I decided to visit teach a little differently. Yay for cookies!

So stoked!

We recently moved and so I'm in a new singles ward. I've been trying to not explode my personality on them, but just give them little by little. Now they get a dose of my crocheting geekiness. I'm teaching crocheting for our Relief Society meeting this week. And I'm so excited!

And the winner is...

The red is supposed to be a smile but it just looks grim.

This weekend my ward had a Halloween party. Part of said party was a cupcake decorating contest which, of course, I couldn't pass up. I spent 2 1/2 hours decorating cupcakes for what? TO WIN!
That's right after cutting licorice(we couldn't find string licorice in black), frosting (totally homemade), and making eyes for 2 1/2 hours I was the winner!

Bread!

For those of you who thought I could only bake cookies and brownies, THINK AGAIN!
Is there anything better than fresh bread. I doubt it.

Homemade Carmel DeLites

About a year and a half ago, shortly after Girl Scout Cookie sale season, my brother in law and I decided that Carmel DeLites (aka Samoas) are the best of their cookies. The problem is that they never last very far between sale seasons. So after doing some serious googling, I stumbled upon a recipe for them. And since then it has been my goal every summer to actually try this recipe. After two summers, I finally just plopped myself in the kitchen and tried it. Here are the results:




Now, before you decide that these are the best looking cookies you've ever seen and you need to run to the kitchen to try them yourself, I have a few words of wisdom. While these cookies are delicious, they are also labor intensive. So unless you have some serious time or are trying to impress someone who loves these cookies. Save them for a rainy day when you're feeling like something REALLY special is in order.
P.S. I made them for a baking competition at work. So we'll see how they go over!

I have the beginnings of a great knitter

Thanks to a great friend, I am finally on the path of learning to knit. For those of you that are sadly shaking your head, assured of the superiority of crocheting, fear not. I'm still with you. But I feel that my yarning skills should be rounded out by a good solid knowledge of both sides of this fence. And there are plenty of things you can do with needles that you can't with hooks. And so I begin my journey. Please don't look closely at the stitches; I can assure you they are not very good. But I figure it's a start!

Random Name? I don't think so!

You may find the name of this blog intriguing until you realize that it has nothing to do with sleep, lack of sleep or dreams (although I have some interesting dreams I'd rather not tell, and I think you probably prefer it that way). So let me explain.
You know how when you're a kid, your parents and/or grandparents sing songs to you with your name in it. Well, Linda isn't usually songwriters first thought for a song. So really the only song with my name in it is "Linda" (of course, songs about people always have to have their name in the title- examples: "Hey There, Delilah," "Michelle," you get the idea) by Jim Reeves.

When I go to sleep
I never count sheep
I count all the charms about Linda.

Is the name coming together for you? So basically, this is a running tally of the charms of me, Linda. Please don't think me full of myself. I just think other people may share some of my interests, albeit most of my interests wouldn't be your first guess of pastimes for a 20 year old, but that's the fun of this. You get to see how strange and, according to my grandma, old-lady-ish I really am.

Enjoy!