I work this weekend but have the next 2 off and lucky for me because my niece Kris is having a baby shower.  Her last name is Knutson which means her husband is a godt Nordman and she is adopting his ways.  They gave us an electric krumkake iron for a wedding gift so I need to reciprocate and do some nice baby knitting for them.  I sewed a pair of viking baby moccasins for them and knit this Modern Cabled Baby Bib for them.  I will round out the gift with a Target gift card and a knit pair of baby booties.  More on those later when I finish them!  I finished this bib with a Paddington button I've had forever and it will go in my theoretical baby stash.  I finished another one for my niece and will use the pictured blue fish button for hers.

Other than my Lopi dog and my husband, this plant is my pride and joy!  It is an umbrella tree and I bought it last spring when it was just a seedling.  Look what it has become!  It will soon be a bona fide TREE!  I have watered it and encouraged it in our downstairs window seat and expanded it's pot as appropriate.  Now it lives in our front door landing and I smile at it everytime I climb the steps. 

I loved having my sister and her kids here two weeks ago but I was amazed at how they literally get into everything and find the tiniest and most obscure things to monkey with.  I was on high alert the entire time.  And that is not in any way speaking ill of my sister's parenting skills or her children.  Children are children.  Lisa even made a point of saying how this house is not child-proof and mentioned the changes in her own home before she had kids.  My sister has always kept a beautiful home but she pointed out that many of her nic nacs had disappeared into storage and that she "used" to have plants.  She did indeed have plants at one time and always teased me that my apartment was a critical care ward for plants because they were alive but only just!  Now that we have our house, I do take great pride in my house plants.  And with all the home improvement projects I have in mind, I have to remind myself to bring things down a peg or two because children tend to destroy things so there is no great rush!

And finally on a culinary note, I read a dieting article the other day and heard about "Eggs In Purgatory".  I'd never heard of such a thing before and read the lovely Nigella Lawson's recipe.  I made a double batch of the recipe because the closest I had was an 800 gram can of crushed tomatoes.  It was delicious but next time I will use half the called for red pepper flakes.  I happened to have half a loaf of home baked french loaf for the toasts.  The next time I see my dad I am going to make this for him!