Tote and Birthday Pie

Tomorrow is my father’s 60th birthday and we are heading over to his house later today to celebrate.  My dad is a big pie fan (although he rarely indulges…very healthy eater), so I have been in the kitchen this morning baking away.  I chose Apple Cherry Filling with an Oatmeal topping by Emeril (I’m sure I don’t need to add a last name here…isn’t he pretty much up there with Cher and Madonna?) and a  pie crust by Paula Deen.  If I’m going to eat pie, I like cherry the best but I know dad likes apple so I figured this was a good compromise.  I didn’t have the deep dish pie pan it called for so instead it made two 8 3/4″ pies.  The crust recipe easily covered the two tins with some left over.  Far be it from me to waste crust though…I improvised a lattice top for the birthday pie and just put the rest randomly on top of the other.   I’ll have to let you know how it tastes later but it definitely looks and smells delicious!

Jayne (my stepmother) also had a birthday on the 10th.  She happens to collect flamingos so I incorporated this embroidery design into a tote.  I’m really happy with the way it turned out.  So happy in fact, that I’ll be sharing a tote bag tutorial with you shortly.  There are several good tote tutorials out there but I figure I probably have more knitting readers here than sewing and several of you have commented lately something to the effect “I wish I could sew”…I’m thinking an easy project like this might be a good segue to get some of my knitting friends to dig out their sewing machines.

For dad, I made a blanket with a collage of things that will mean something to him.  For those who don’t know him; an explanation.  He use to restore cars (3 I think) from rusted out pieces of crap to beautiful historical vehicles.  Our last name is Schnellenberger (German…duh) and he worked for a German company that sent him there several times.  He also taught himself to speak German and makes beer.  He’s been a runner for practially my whole life (36 years) and ran a farm (pigs and cattle) in addition to his “real” job when I was a child.  Like a lot of dad’s, he can fix, build, etc. just about anything.  I never know what to get him and I figure everyone needs a throw blanket.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!