Yes. I had never heard of beer bread until I got the kit as a gift.
Continue reading “Beer bread. Wait, what?”Tri-Color Crochet Scarf
I’ve made a tutorial for this cozy scarf, fringe or no fringe. Below, I will provide written instructions for the experienced and step by step pictorial instructions for beginners…or folks like me who are just visual. You only need to know how to start and do a chain stitch, single crochet and double crochet before starting this tutorial.

I love this scarf because its pattern is very flexible. Colors, length and width can be adjusted to match your style. In this tutorial, I’ll show you what I did and the final measurements of my scarf.

What you’ll need:
3 skeins of yarn in colors of your choice (I used I Love This Yarn!, 5 ounces)
H (5.00mm) and I (5.50mm) crochet hooks
Scissors for cutting yarn
TIP: Start with the color you want to stand out most as it will show up most throughout the scarf. The 2nd color should be the one you want to show up the least. My color order is dark red, navy then cream.

Chain any multiple of 6 plus 5 in COLOR 1 using the I hook. I chained 245. Turn. Switch to your H hook. In the second chain from the hook, single crochet in each chain across. Chain 1 and turn. The single crochet row counts as ROW 1, NOT the chain stitch row.


Crochet 1 single crochet in the first single crochet. *Skip the next single crochet, 1 double crochet in next single crochet, 1 doubled crochet in skipped single crochet, 1 single in each of the next 2 single crochet. Repeat from the * until you reach the end ending with 1 single crochet in last single crochet. Before you pull the last yarn over through the loop to finish your single crochet, prepare to change to COLOR 2. Insert beginning loop of COLOR 2 at the end of the hook. Pull the loop through. Chain 2 and turn. This finishes ROW 2. Leaving a tail of about 2-3 inches, cut COLOR 1 yarn.

Begin ROW 3 by holding the tails of COLOR 1 and COLOR 2 closest to you in the hand holding your scarf. When you insert your hook into a loop in order to begin the next stitch, make sure you catch the tails of yarn. This hides the tails and keeps the edges of your scarf neat and clean. This is especially helpful if you opt not to do fringes. Skip the 1st single crochet, 1 single crochet in the next two double crochet, *skip 1 single crochet, double crochet in the next single crochet, double crochet in the skipped single crochet, single crochet in the next two double crochets. Repeat from the * until the end, ending in 1 double crochet in last single crochet. Before you pull the last yarn over through the loop, do as you did to change to COLOR 2 to change to COLOR 3. Chain 1 and turn.

ROW 4 begins with COLOR 3. 1 single crochet in first double crochet, skip next single crochet, 1 double crochet in next single crochet, 1 double crochet in skipped single crochet, *1 single crochet in next two double crochet, skip 1 single crochet, 1 double crochet in next single crochet, 1 double crochet in skipped single crochet. Repeat from the * to end ending with 1 single crochet in the top of the turning chain. Chain two and turn. For the next two rows of COLOR 3, repeat the pattern for ROW 3 (ROW 2 out of 3 for COLOR 3) and ROW 4 (ROW 3 of 3 for COLOR 3).


ROW 3 and ROW 4 repeat throughout the scarf, alternating the colors as shown. For ROW 20, simply single crochet in 2nd single crochet and in each stitch across. After pulling up the loop that finished the last single crochet, cut the loop in half then pull the yarn through. Leave about a 2-3 inch tail.

To hide the tail, insert your hook through the edge of ROW 19 and ROW 20. Yarn over using the tail and pull all the way through. Insert your hook into 1 side of the second single crochet from edge, yarn over and pull the tail all the way through. Repeat until the tail is completely hidden.

Your finished scarf should look something like this! Your exact length and width may vary depending on your tension, but my end result was about 9″W by 96″L. You could stop here OR you could add a fringe. For this you’ll need:

The same color yarn as before
Scissors
Measuring tape
J (6.50mm) crochet hook. The larger hook makes it easier to grab the yarn for the fringes.
Something that’s 2x plus 1 inch as wide you want your finished fringe to be long.

My finished fringe will be about 6 inches long so I’m using my tablet case as my guide. Wrap the yarn around your object a few times (try not to do it too tightly), then cut towards the top. You should be left with pieces of yarn about twice as wide as you want your fringe to be. That extra inch accounts for two things. The first is here. When you wrap your yarn around it’s going to stretch a bit. I used the cream yarn here just for contrast purposes so you can better see what I’m doing, but I started with COLOR 1.

You need 10 pieces of yarn for each fringe. I like to wrap and cut about 3 times for each color just to get me started. Once you’ve got 10 pieces separated, form a horseshoe. Working with the bottom right of ROW 1, insert your J hook into the edge of ROW 1 and ROW 2 from behind. Hook the closed end of the horseshoe on your hook. Pull through the edge, but not all the way. The loop should be big enough to pull the open end of the horseshoe through. This is part two of what the extra inch accounts for. Tighten the edge just enough as shown.

To do the fringe for COLOR 2, insert your hook in the edge of ROW 3 and ROW 4. There will be a bit of an overlap, but when the fringe of COLOR 3 is inserted on the edge of ROW 5 and ROW 6 it evens up. I suggest going in color order to keep a consistent edge.

Keep going all the way up the edge, doing the same on the other side. You can trim the edge to make them perfectly even, or you can leave it as so for a more organic feel.

A whole new look! I think the fringe makes it look more fun. The new dimensions are about 9″W by 116″L.
Here are the condensed instructions:
I hope this tutorial was very helpful. I tried to be as detailed as I could. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me. Once you’ve finished your scarf I would love to see pictures! Post them to my Facebook page Emerald Lily Craft Studio or tag me on Twitter and Instagram @EmeraldLilyCS.
Purple Wool Jacket
So the super cold weather last week inspired me to make a jacket for the winter. It only took me a couple days to make it and I love it! It’s warm and cozy and can be worn two ways! I think the belt is my favorite. I had a lot of leftover fabric so I’m considering making a matching belt to go with it. Do you have any other ideas of ways I can accessorize this? Please share!
Corn and Potato Chowder
One of my cooking goals is to get a good cookbook and make every recipe in it…
..so for Christmas I got a cookbook…and a nice knife set. 🙂
Original Recipe
- 2 cups peeled, diced Yukon gold potatoes (about 2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen diced onion, red and green bell pepper and celery
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 2 cups milk
- 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
- 1 (11-ounce) can yellow and white whole kernel corn, drained
- 1(10 3/4 ounce) can of cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 to 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
- (extra) 3 cloves minced garlic
I really didn’t know what I wanted to cook for my first recipe so while going through the DVD that came with the cookbook they had a few menu plans set up. I wanted to start with something simple and different than what I normally eat. I’ve had clam chowder in the past (tastes great with parmesan cheese) but never corn chowder. I’ll provide the original recipe, but since I’m trying to cut out as much processed food as I can I made some changes. I’ll make note of those changes as I go.
Let’s get started!

The grocery store I went to didn’t have Yukon gold potatoes so I used russet instead. Bring them to a boil in a Dutch oven until they’re tender. About 10-15 minutes. Drain and set them aside in a large bowl.

I LOVE garlic, so even though the cream of mushroom soup had garlic in it I decided to add more by mincing three garlic cloves and sauteing them in the butter over medium high heat. About a minute or so is good. Just until the garlic starts to brown a bit.

Now instead of buying a package of vegetables I decided to chop my own. After chopping one green and red bell pepper, 1/2 an onion and a bunch of celery stalks (refer to main picture at the top of the post), I discovered that I only needed about 1/2 a green and red bell pepper, 1/4 chopped onion and 1/2 the bunch of celery stalks to get the ten ounces I needed for the recipe. What did I do with the rest? Add it to the recipe? No, of course not. I juiced them later. I will have to work my way up to vegetable juicing to say the least. Anywho…

I chopped up another cup of onion (I used a white onion both times because it’s what I already had on hand) and sauteed it with the other vegetables in the garlic butter and let it simmer. The recipe says 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. I did a little clean up while cooking then proceeded to the next step. I like crunchy vegetables.

Add milk, corn, evaporated milk, cream of mushroom soup, green onions, parsley, hot sauce and potatoes.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for about 15 minutes until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste. Let stand for about 1o minutes. Here I did the rest of my clean up and by the time I was done it was ready.

This was delicious! Something I can definitely see myself cooking again. There are some changes I would make however:
- More garlic. Instead of three cloves of garlic I will use 6 or 7. I had to add garlic powder at the end and I really didn’t want to.
- I got a salt and pepper grinder for Christmas and the salt didn’t bring out the flavor enough. I wound up having to use more in order to bring out the flavor and still it wasn’t quite right. Since you need the iodine anyway I’ll just use up the salt that I have and have two pepper grinders. lol
- I want to add more vegetables like carrots and peas. And maybe a meat. Cubed chicken sounds nice.
- Going with my less processed route, I want to make my own cream of mushroom soup…which calls for chicken stock…which means I’ll be continuing to buy organic for a while.
Hope you enjoy making this as much as I did. It was a lot of fun, especially with my new knife set. Cutting was a breeze.
Related articles
- Chipolte Chicken Corn Chowder (bonespicy.wordpress.com)
- Hello Homemade Cream of Mushroom Chicken! (hellokittyfoodie.wordpress.com)
- Potato and Corn Chowder (simplysophisticatedcooking.wordpress.com)
- Corn and Potato Chowder (cookonawhim.com)
- { Daily Dish } Corn Chicken Chowder (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)
Juicing Tips
So apparently I decided to bring in the new year by juicing. These are some things that I learned:
- A pumello tastes like a less bitter grapefruit.
- Juicing a mango was a bad idea. It turned more into a purée that wound up clogging my juicer.
- Pineapple also clogged my juicer. I’ll have to clean the filter every so often while juicing them. I don’t know what happened this time around because I didn’t run into this problem before. I did use precut pineapple the first time. Maybe that mattered.
I thought I’d share that tidbit with you. Enjoy the first day of your new year!
Later that morning: Will not use these combinations again. lol
Fun with My Juicer!
I got a juicer for Christmas and I’m getting ready to play with it! Sweet!
Continue reading “Fun with My Juicer!”My Perfect Bag
Hello! I decided to make my first official post about my perfect bag. I started drawing sketches for this bag a few months ago, but me being me (refusing to spend money on myself) I have yet to make it. I am currently carrying around this bag with an assortment of these wristlets filled with these purses. I’ve been carrying it for almost a year now and I’d like a change. For Christmas I got a gift card with a note specifically telling me to spend it on myself. So after a few days of pondering I’ve decided to make a new bag specifically tailored to me.

What I carry around.
So first things first. What do I carry around with me (don’t judge my essentials, lol)?
- phone (my connection to the world)
- wallet (self explanatory)
- body spray (smell good refresher)
- lotion (skin has to stay hydrated)
- tablet (my big phone with no texting or minutes and bigger pictures for showing off my crafty side)
- keys (I like driving and getting in to my house)
- sketchbook (lists, ideas, notes, doodling)
- small file folder (gotta keep small papers handy and organized)
- wristlet (holds small knick knacks like pens and chewing gum)
Other things that make their way inside include but are not limited to:
- groceries
- clothes
- laptop
- books
- lunch
- shoes
- water bottle
With that being said, I need storage storage storage so that means pockets pockets pockets. Zippers and key finders and bellows and elastic and big. It has to be big. It also has to double as an overnight bag when I make trips to visit friends out of town.
Now for structure.
We’ve already established that it has to be big. Every purse I’ve ever bought had a zipper and/or magnetic closure that I never used so the likelihood that either would make it in to my bag is slim, though the zipper is more likely than the magnetic closure. It wound up irritating me to snap open every time I needed to get into my bag or my bag was always so full it didn’t stay closed at all. I prefer shoulder straps to cross body straps. I don’t have to worry about slipping it over my head and slipping it on and off my shoulder is quick and easy. A simple rectangle box works for me as far as shape. If I’m going to go crazy with design I’d rather splurge on…
The pretty stuff.
I am a sucker for floral prints. It seems no mater how hard I try I am just drawn to them. I also like chevron and bird silhouettes. I’m kinda hooked on this guy, too. Find something that looks like spring and you’ll pretty much have me down.
And bright colors. Can’t get enough of those. Some of my favorite combinations are red/black/white, yellow/grey, lime/blue/white, hot pink/black, turquoise/coral/cream, black/cream, orange/pink and navy/read/cream. I like to wear purple…even though my favorite color is lime green. Just thought I ‘d throw that in there.
Bows are nice embellishments. One that ties in the front or to the side. I’d also like to sew on some sequins for a little flare. I’ts not something I’d normally go for but since I’m making this as a gift for myself I figure why not. No boring zipper pulls! I’m going to bedazzle mine with beads and ribbon. And what perfect bag would be complete without a monogram? I’d got an idea for a phone pocket that would look nice with my initial on it.
I won’t say I’m big on texture, but it’s definitely something I notice. I like the feel of linen and twill and the heavier weight upholstery fabrics. Playing around with textiles adds a whole new dimension to a bag or anything for that matter. It determines durability and how it’s cared for. Can you wash it? That’s a must. And I’d like to be able to toss it in the washing machine if I can.
I’m super excited about getting started with this. What makes your perfect bag? Are you more concerned with utility than style or would you like a balance of both? Let me know in the comments below!