victories great and small

Victory cake!

To be clear: the cake itself was not a victory. It was the first of its kind I have made from scratch, and the icing was good, but the cake came out tough. Not dry, but pseudo-brownie texture with crusty edges. Not great. And not sure where I went wrong.

Yeah, that chocolate pie was better. BUT, the Victory Cake was in celebration of Bryan's victory, in particular: the paper he submitted at the previously mentioned conference won! They sent him home with a stack of books and a check, which was very nice of them. Maybe he will SHARE THAT CHECK WITH HIS SUPPORTIVE WIFE. But, you know, he won it so... whatever. Toby and I are proud of him, regardless.

In the realm of minor victories, here are some knitting updates for you. This t-shirt turned out well, but not as nice as I was expecting, I'll admit it.

I do like that leafy pattern in the middle, though. Here's a picture of the sleeves. Ack, that bumpy neckline!
I love this soft baby alpaca wool that turned into this hat. If it were made from something lighter, it probably would be more slouchy and I could wear it farther into springtime, but I'm okay with the bulk.

SO SOFT. I have been wearing this one a lot, often because I hate the length/cut of my hair is at these days and it makes it easy to hide it/distract from it.

We had a tease of a warm week last week, but now we're back to chilly rain. THIS is the March weather I remember. Spring is moody, but I don't mind it most of the time. It seems in this part of the country (and where I grew up as well) this is one of the first bright signs that spring is coming.Mmmm, forsythia. One day when we have a house of our own I would love to plant this stuff in an unexpected corner and watch it liven the place up every spring.