sewing, baking, & crocheting- oh my!

Lots to fill you in on today! Let's start with sewing, shall we? I haven't sewn in a while because I've been crocheting a lot lately. At Joann's over Presidents' Day weekend, Simplicity patterns were 5 for $5- and you know I jumped on that, c'mon! Out of the lot I picked up some Cynthia Rowley patterns and a Leann Marshall pattern. First dress I did was a Cynthia pattern:

front

back

The dress fabric was from a friend (thanks Irene!), the sash fabric was from Gramma McCray and just uses a button at the top to close and there you have my $1 dress. ...Now it just needs to warm up a bit so I can wear it!

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A couple weeks ago, I really had a hankering for a bagel. I got out my handy dandy America's Test Kitchen cookbook and made some everything bagels for the family. They turned out really well; but the thing about bagels is, if you don't eat them the day you bake them, they get pretty rough and tough.
      My preference for bagel preparation is: split, toast and spread on cream cheese or split, toast then butter. So tasty and not that difficult; you just need to boil the bagels before you bake them. Only one more step and take my word for it- so worth it!

one batch made eight bagels

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As a treat for myself, I wanted to crochet a shawl. I had seen the pattern on the Bernat website (it's just called 'Crochet Shawl' if you want to look it up), but I needed some yarn for it... of course, I have bits of this color and that, but I wanted the shawl to all be the same kind of yarn. At Wal-Mart of all places, I found Lion Brand's Amazing yarn in "Strawberry Fields." I fell in love! The yarn is a wool- acrylic blend; so pretty and I couldn't pass it up. I bought three skeins thinking that would be enough, but with four rows left, I ran out! What's a girl to do? Call her Mom, of course! (Especially my Mom! She happened to have several skeins of that same color yarn! Dye lot was different, but you can't tell at all because of how variegated it is.) For Valentine's Day I got the best present a crocheter could ask for!

A box FULL of yarn!

Want to see the finished product?  TA DA!!!

I wore it to church and all the older ladies gave me compliments. It was great. I love how it turned out and I think I'm turning into a shawl person, thanks to Tasha Tudor... although, I don't know if she would've worn a shawl this colorful. I think she'd like it.

I have even more to show and tell, but I'll have to leave it for another day ::sigh:: 
happy crafting <3