WEEK 14 OF YOP 12

 

Hey there!  Glad you dropped by today.  I wanted to show you what's goin' on around here.

TA-DA!  Introducing my latest FO!

My finished Gnome.  It is the first gnome I have made but will not be my last.  I chose not to put arms on him.  His beard was made with two alpaca lace yarns held together.  I wanted the beard to have more of a 'fur' look.  I found the bell for his hat in my notions box and just had to add it.  The arms did get made but I did not like the looks of them when I placed them on him.  He joins the gnome my daughter made for me last year.

They are only a little over 6 inches tall.  Even my husband said the new gnome was cute.  That, my friends, is high praise.

There was a hope I would have more than one finish this week.  But life got in the way.  Although, I did get close.

To The Point is very close to being completed.  Hopefully it will get all the love and completion it deserves today.  This is my first time using Knit Picks Brava worsted weight yarn.  It is an easy yarn to use.  I am hoping after giving it a wash it will soften up a bit.  I am so used to making this shawl with Caron Simply Soft that any other yarn seems a bit stiff to me.  I do think this yarn will hold up quite well to many washing, though.  That is a big plus for a shawl going to people undergoing all types of medical procedures.

Then there are these:

The RCR socks are still being worked on...........sort of.  See the bright little yellow dot on each one?  That is where I was last Sunday.  The one on the left only got 2-3 rows added.  The one on the right traveled with me to an all day EWTN family conference yesterday.  Sitting and listening to speakers for 6 hours makes for some great knitting time.  There was a lady sitting behind me crocheting what looked like an afghan.  She knew it was going to be a long day too LOL.

My BFF asked me to help her this week with her dog, Lily.  Lily had to have surgery on her back leg for a torn meniscus and CCL.  Poor Lily did not do well with all the medications and stress that went with surgery.  Her tummy was not a happy camper for 3 days after the surgery.  So, I spent a few hours each day helping my BFF clean the little darling up and giving my BFF time to take a shower and eat.  As of last night, Lily sounded like she was doing so much better.

Sweet Lily

This is also the same BFF who asked me to resurrect her Thanksgiving Cactus.  I worked on it quite a bit this week too.  Take a look at it now!

What a difference a nice 'haircut' and proper water and light can make.  I am waiting for some new growth to show up before I send it back 'home'.

I cooked up some steaks for us a few nights ago.  With the sun setting earlier each day, it gets pretty dark in our backyard by about 6:30.  Our son has been such a help while living here.  He installed the strings of lights we have had for a while.  What a difference it makes!

Look how bright it is.  No problem cooking after the sun goes down.  The lights can be set to several different colors too.  Hubby suggested doing that while I cooked.  Told him the white was best while cooking meat so I could see the 'true' color of the food LOL.

That about covers my week.  There was a haircut for me...finally, as well as grocery shopping, laundry, and house cleaning.  I did pull my sourdough starter out of the fridge.  It had been in there for about 5 months.  I started feeding it and within 2 days it was super active again.  So, on Monday I made a loaf of sourdough bread.

It turned out so well.  I use my pullman pan to bake it in.  Once I made this loaf I put the starter back in the fridge to keep me from needing to feed it daily.  I pulled it out this morning and will feed it twice today in hopes I can make another loaf tomorrow morning.

Okay, that really does cover my week.  How was yours?

Until Next Time.......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 13 OF YOP 12

 

Here I am once again, ready to regale you with wonderous tales of my past week of craftiness and life.

There are no FO's this week.  I mainly worked on the RCR socks for hubby.

The heels are done and now it is just knitting the foot.  Perfect mindless knitting.

I did cast on a new project last night.

Another 'To The Point' shawl for our prayer shawl ministry at church.  

My thoughts had been to cast on Ranunculus this past week.  I did swatch.............many times.  Never did I make gauge.  I tried 4 different needle sizes and nothing worked.  So, I am sitting back and trying to decide how I want to proceed.  I know which needle size made the fabric I loved so will need to adjust as to what pattern size I will make to account for the gauge difference.  That means I need to do math.  Actually, it means I need to do Algebra which was my worst subject in school.  This may delay the casting on of the sweater for a bit.  Or, I may just cast on willy nilly and hope for the best.  Depends on how adventurous I become.

This week I got the clues to make the nose and arms for the gnome.  The nose got made and frogged.  Then I made it again and frogged it again.  It was made the third time and I am still staring at it not liking how it looks.  I may decide to go and buy a small pom pom to attach for the nose.  Somehow, what I knit just does not make me happy.  Or, I may try and crochet a nose for him.  I have not decided if my gnome will have arms or not.  I have mixed feelings about it.  Some of the people in the group have opted not to do the arms.  Yet the ones who have done them are so cute and have posed them to make them adorable.  Hopefully, I will have the gnome completed by next weekend and will post a photo on here.

There were treasures in the mail this week!  I love getting treasures.

Knit Picks had a sale on their Brava yarn.  I couldn't resist.  These are the colors I choose and got three skeins of each color.  All of this will go into my shawls for the ministry at church.  The colors are all so bright and cheery.  Just what people need who are going through a health crisis's.

I finally bit the bullet and purchases the US size 1 (2.25mm) signature needles.  I normally use a US size 1.5 (2.5mm) for socks yet have been wanting to give the next size down a shot.  Some of my fingering yarn seems to be a little bit thicker than others so using a smaller needle will hopefully help keep the sock the size hubby and I like best.

Thursday, hubby took off for California to attend a Catholic conference.  After I dropped him off at the airport, I met up with my BFF for a lovely brunch.  Afterwards, I headed to our outlet mall to do a bit of looking around.  I found exactly what I was looking for.

A Vera Bradley bag big enough to hold my everyday items as well as knitting/crocheting projects.  It is not HUGE but just the right size for me to carry daily.  And the pockets it has *swoon*  There are 6 interior pockets and one exterior pocket.  It is light as a feather when empty and washable if it gets dirty.  The best part.....being from the outlet it was 80% off of the ' normal' price in retail stores.  Yes, it is a discontinued pattern, which makes it even more special for me.  Not everyone will have this one!

One last little update for y'all.

Some of you have asked me to keep you updated on the Thanksgiving Cactus I am 'hopefully' bringing back to life for my BFF.  The top photo was when I brought it home.  The bottom one is from this morning.  It is starting to respond.  I have not watered it since I got it.  The soil was saturated and I was quite afraid of root rot.  Yes, there is still brown dead parts in it.  Those will be trimmed out this week and then hopefully it will look even better by next weekend.  It will get a bit of water this week also. I am quite happy with it's progress.

That covers my week.  How did yours go?

Until Next Time.................................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 12 OF YOP YEAR 12

 Wow!  This week went by so fast.  Let's take look at how my week went.

Monday- This is my normal errand running day.  I made it to 2 grocery stores to get items that were on sale (chicken).  Then there is the vacuum sealing of the meat for freezing.  I stopped off at my BFF's house to measure a patch she needed sewn onto her work jacket and pick up a plant she wants me to revive.

Her's is the one in the middle.  She had hung this outside when it was well over 100F.  Not to mention the soil was soaking wet.  I am letting it adjust to being at my house for a week and then I will start cutting out the dead parts and seeing if it needs to be repotted to save it.  I stuck it between my two Thanksgiving Cactus in hopes it would 'get a hint' as to what it is supposed to look like LOL.

Tuesday - Hubby and I have been invited to several 'estate planning' seminars since retirement.  We finally decided to attend one that was at our local Mom & Pop Italian restaurant.  We got a free meal (Yummy) and actually learned some things about benefits for seniors we did not know.  This is also the day I sewed on the patch to my BFF's work jacket.

It is sewn on through the white border.  I used to sew police patches on uniforms for the department my husband worked for.  It has been years (40) since I have done it.  Lucky for me, it is like riding a bike......You never forget.  Oh, and the 'Fear Free' is for a class my BFF took for her job at the veterinarian's office.

Wednesday - I finally got around to doing some laundry.  This is the day I also baked up some cranberry orange mini bites to have as little sweet snacks.  It was a box mix and the expiration date was nearing.  It was fun to make.  I used my new mini bite bunny pan.

I also used my mini bite bundt pan.  So much fun.

All the little cakes came out as a perfect 2 bite treat.

I finished the body of my gnome today and got it stuffed and waiting for the next clue to come out.  It is a very fun knit but a bit fiddly at times.

Thursday - Barely managed to get a load of laundry done before Josie's dad contacted me to ask me to take him to her swim meet.  Seems Josie and Mom had both of the cars and he was a bit stranded.  Luckily it was a nice day and below 100F!  I stayed for the whole swim meet and totally enjoyed watching all the kids.  Being the lazy person I am, I stopped on the way home to pick up dinner for hubby and myself.  (Our 'room mate' son was still in Colorado)  This is also the day I wound up some Diversity Sock yarn and started making hubby another pair of RCR socks.

This is how far I have gotten on them.  Since the gnome is not taking that much time to work on, I needed another project to keep my hands busy.  This yarn has been in my stash for years.  When I was informed Diversity Yarn was being discontinued, I bought 'stock' in it.  I love the fact you can machine wash and dry it and it does not loose it's memory.  It wears like iron and is so soft on the body too.  The only other non-wool sock yarn that comes close to it is Hobby Lobby's Cozy Toes.

Friday - Hubby and I decided to take it easy for the day.  I did go and pick up our traveling son from the airport shortly after lunch and got to hear all about his week long trip to Colorado.  I finally found a sweater pattern for me.  There will be some design adjustments made to it so it will 'fit' my body better.  Hopefully, the adjustments I made in my head will work in real time.

I have been eyeing this pattern for some time now.  My thought is to make the yoke semi-fitted and then switch to a larger needle and increase the stitches to accommodate my lower body.  (I am kind of pear/round shaped)  I am not going to make it cropped either.  The yarn I am using is Knit Picks Comfy Cotton Color Mist.  It is a light worsted.  Swatching is going to be a must this time.  

Saturday - I took care of all my indoor plants.  Made sure they were all watered and trimmed up those who needed it.  Worked with my hydroponic gardens.  I have dill, mint, thyme, basil, cherry tomatoes and lettuce all growing like crazy.  I am harvesting lettuce daily at the moment.  The tomatoes all have flowers set on them so they should be producing in the next few weeks.  The herbs are getting a little rangy so I do need to do a bit of harvesting on them this coming week.  I will dry them and use them in my cooking.  This is also the day we went to Mass.  Afterwards, we cooked up some chicken and asparagus for a nice relaxing dinner.

That brings us to today!  NFL Football is back so I am sure the guys will be glued to the TV for the day.  This will give me time to do some baking of goodies for the week.  I should be able to do some swatches too.

How was your week?  I will leave you with a photo from last night as we were watching TV.

My precious bookends.  Luna and Enrique need to be near us at all times.  (That's my blue shirt on the right)

Until Next Time..........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS:  Is anyone in the US going to watch the Queen's Funeral?  It starts at 2:30AM here!  I am thinking of recording it.  

WEEK 11 OF YOP 12

 

Hello again.  Thank you for dropping by today.  There has been some hot and heavy knitting going on this week. 

I have an FO!

My 'Shine Like Summer' colorway RCR socks are completed.  They were even worn last night to a family get together.  These socks seemed to fly through being knitting.  I think it was the color of them.  They made me happy the whole time I was working on them.  Big plus, there is enough leftover yarn to make a pair for my daughter too.  She will love them!

Not sure what I will be casting on next.  I am leaning towards doing a sweater for myself.  I have more cotton blended yarn waiting to be knit up.  The issue is the pattern.  I know what I want the sweater to look like, but have not found a pattern to make it happen.  And NO!  There is no way I am going to try and design my own.  Heck, I am lucky to be able to follow directions on patterns.

As you know, I am taking part in the MGKAL (mystery gnome knit along)  The second clue came out on Friday.  Today will be my day to cast on for it.  This week we do the body and stuffing of the little creature.  Since no one has said they are participating in this KAL, I am going to show you the hat I have completed.

It was a very quick knit.  The main thing was making sure I counted rows and stitches.  We have two more weeks of clues.  I will not show any more of this little thing until it is completed and put together.

So, that is the fiber related news for this week.  There were treasured delivered to my house this week.

I want to thank Karen from Pumpkin Sunrise blog, for letting me know the new Hobonichi Techno Weeks planners were available for order.  I love this planner and have used it for the past year.  I ordered my 2023 planner and a couple of accessories.  These planners sell out within days of being offered.  When I went in to order mine, over half of the planners were already sold out.

This year, I decided to go with a plain planner.  I liked the white with the linen stripe on it.  It will be easy to see.  Have no fear, I do have a plastic cover for it so it will stay white all year long.  I also got a page marker as well as a three pack of little notebooks.  The notebooks have 'graph' like grids on the pages which will be nice so my writing does not go off on a slant.  I am now all set for the new year.  

This coming week, it will be quiet around our house.  Our son took off for a work trip in Colorado today.  He will be gone until Friday.  We have gotten use to him being around.  The dogs even love having him here since he pays a lot of attention to them.  

Football begins today.  That is US football (NFL).  My hubby and sons are all huge fans of the game.  I don't mind it but it is not something I 'have' to watch.  Hence, I have recorded several Hallmark movies and this will be the season I will be watching them in another room.  Those movies also make for great knitting/crocheting time.

That sums up my week.  How was yours?

Until Next Time................................Happy Crafting!!!!!!

9-11-2001

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!!!!!

WEEK 10 OF YOP 12

 Another week has passed by.  Did you accomplish everything you hoped for?  Maybe even more?  Me? Feeling pretty good about my past week.

There are no FO's this week.  There is progress on the RCR socks.

The heels are completed and I am now on the never ending foot.  The color being used gives me joy.  So bright and cheerful.  You will never see me wearing yellow because it makes me look quite ill.  Yet, I figured on my feet, no one will notice and the color makes me happy.  I am hoping to have enough leftover from these skeins to make a pair for my daughter too.  She LOVES yellow.

I started my mystery gnome knit a long on Friday.  There will not be photos of it for a while.  I do not want to spoil it if there is anyone else reading this that is also participating.  The interesting part of this KAL is, it is more like a choose your own adventure.  The clues are given for the different 'body' part with options of different textures/colors/sizes to use on that part.  Makes it quite fun.

I received treasures this week too.

This is my journal for next year.  I use more than one journal each year.  WHAT???  I have a journal for my craft projects (that has several years in it), a journal for my daily tasks that also contains my 'want to read' list, a journal for books read (also holds several years) and a journal for my daily thoughts and feelings.  The above journal is for my daily thoughts and feelings.  My daughter bought one like this for me last year and I have loved it.  It has a magnetic closure on the side so 'things' do not drop out.  The brand is 'Flame Tree Note Book'.  I found this one on Amazon.  In fact, I bought 2 of them and gave one to my daughter.  She is a HUGE lover of books and this cover screams her name.

Then I received a gift from my daughter.

Oh my goodness!  Is this not the cutest mug you have ever seen?  My daughter painted it at our local pottery shop.  I am so in love with it.  The mug is super heavy and really big!  Since I don't drink much more than water all summer and hot tea in the winter, I decided to put it to good use.  I put my yarn in it.  It is perfect for holding 50gr of sock yarn.  That way, I can look at it all the time.

I think I will name him Gnorman.  He makes me smile.

I told you about getting a new mailbox last week.  Well, our son installed it for us.

It is so much bigger than our last one.  I bet our USPS delivery person is happy to have one that closes properly and also isn't being held together with duct tape.  We need to paint the pole it is on as the weather over the past 30 years has made the pole sad looking.  That will be a project for later this year after it cools off.  (We are still hitting 100+ daily)

Most of the week was normal day to day activities of retired people.  We spiced it up a bit by going to a Trivia night at a local sports bar.  We came in third place.  Friday I got to take my cousin to the hospital for a procedure at 4 in the morning.  Then I got to pick him up about one in the afternoon and stayed with him until his friend could come and stay the night with him.  He had to be monitored for 24 hours.  Do you know it is still very dark at 4 in the morning?  Husband and our 2 sons went to a fantasy football party last night and had a great time. I stayed home and watched Hallmark Movies and Mysteries.  Did you know my TV receives programs other than sports?  Amazing!

That takes care of the past week.  All I am wishing for is cooler days.  I realize it will be another month before we get any real change in our daytime highs.  But a girl can always hope, right?

Until Next Time.......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 9 of YOP 12

 

Hi there.  Glad you dropped by.  Let's take a look at what kind of things have been happening since the last time we got together.

There are two finishes this week.

This is # 29

This is #30.  Yes, I have made the 'To the Point' shawl 30 times in the past 5 years.  Number 29 was made from my leftover Simply Soft Caron yarns that was used to make some of these shawls.  The black in #30 is the rest of the leftover black from previous shawls.  Have no fear, I still have plenty of worsted weight acrylic yarn to make many more of these shawls.  

I did cast on some more Rose City Roller socks on Thursday.

The yarn is Cozy Toes in the colorway Shine like Summertime.  These will be for ME this time.  The one of the right is ready for the FLK heel.  I am hoping to have the one on the left to that point by the end of today.  If I am lucky and there is nothing pressing for me to do today, I might even get the heels done today.

I spent two days working on our pantry.  I went through every box, can and bottle checking for expiration dates.  Then, I filled 2 boxes with canned goods as well as mac n cheese and salad dressings that I knew we would never get to before they 'expired'.  The food bank, through our church, will not take anything that is past its expiration date. But, my biggest accomplishment was getting my 'baking shelf' totally organized and labeled.

There are still a few more containers to go into this space.  I just got the last of the containers yesterday and need to wash and dry them before using them.  The powdered sugar will go into one of them and then I have rye flour and pumpernickel flour for two other containers.  This makes it so nice to do my bread making and baking of goodies.  No more having to pull bags and boxes out in hopes of being able to get them back in.  Not to mention, when the husband or  man-child needs some sugar or cocoa powder, they can find it without asking for my help.

This weeks cooking was fun for me.  Having our son live with us has given me the chance to really cook again.  I mean, I do cook for hubby and myself, but now when I cook I am much more mindful of making sure there is a protein, veggie and carb in each dinner I serve.  There is also always a sweet treat hanging around for anyone who needs it.  This week, some of the things I made were; bread, flour tortillas, a pot of pinto beans to go with our red chili pork, two batches of brownies and green chili meatloaf.  I discovered our son is not a bread eater but make flour tortillas and he is in heaven.  I enjoy making them too.  So, we have a steady supply of flour tortillas in our kitchen now.

Speaking of the son living with us.........he got a promotion at work this week.  Not too bad for only being here for 2 weeks.  Actually, the company he works for had him in mind for this position from the time they interviewed him.  They just wanted to see what kind of work ethic he had before promoting him.  After spending 23 years in the US Navy, his work ethic is spot on!  We are all very proud of him and the man he has become.  This is not the same person whom we never thought would graduate from high school because of his behavior and attitude.  

It has been nice to see 3 of our 'children' together again.  Our 4th 'child' owns his own business in Washington state and loves it there.  He has no desire to move here.  So we will just be happy with visits from him when he can break away from work.

My dogs are not happy with me.  I took them to the groomers this week for a pedicure.  Normally I do their nails but lately they both have been refusing to be held by my husband while I do the clipping.  Enrique was so good at the groomer.  He wasn't too bad in the car either.  Luna was a mess.  Just trying to get her harness on took two of us.  She kept trying to bite me. Not normal behavior for her.  Finally got her into the car and to the groomers.  I carried her into the groomers as the pavement was very hot and I didn't want to burn the pads of her feet.  It took two people to control her while they did her nails!  This is not Luna!  She is the sweetest and kindest dog I have ever owned.  We think it is because she is deaf and almost blind.  Therefore, she was scared and not sure what was going on and could not hear or see who was around her cooing soft words to her. I felt bad for her.  She has been a bit out of sorts ever since too.  Poor baby.

Today, our son is doing some honey do's for us.  Lights are being hung in the backyard, a new mail box is being installed and a tray added to our Traeger grill.  That pretty much takes care of all our home improvement projects we had lined up for him to do.  Then we can just enjoy our time with him and look forward to when his family comes to join him.

What's new with you?

Until Next Time.............................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 8 of YEAR 12

 

Welcome to my weekly Sunday update.  This week was a fun week both craft wise and with life in general.

I have another FO this week.

Another 'To the Point' shawl for our church's prayer shawl ministry.  This one kind of gives me a little Halloween feel.  Maybe I should have added a little orange to it to complete the effect.

Of course, I couldn't let my hook get cold for long so I started another shawl (same pattern) a couple of days later.

This one is using up all my bits and dabs of Caron Simply soft I had hanging around.  I have 5 more rows to do and this will be completed.  I see it being finished by the end of today.  Not sure if I will do another one of these this coming week.  I still have plenty of yarn ear marked for this shawl pattern.  Since they do not take long to complete, they are kind of nice to do.  Not to mention, the church's ministry is always happy to receive them.  

There was a little time spent on my small cross stitch project.

I put a bit more of the white on it and then decided it would be easier to do the white if I put the lettering in it and then did the white that goes all the way around it.  I got the 'J' completed and called it good.  Doing white on white is not for the faint of heart.

I also got my yarn and needles ready for the MKAL that starts September 2.

Did you notice I have light and dark DPN sets?  Both sets have the same size needles.  I use the lighter set when working with dark yarn so I can see my stitches.  Of course, the darker set is used for the lighter yarn for the same reason.  Yes, I know there are some needles missing out of the lighter set.  They are in my sock needle case and will be put back before the beginning of the MKAL.

Monday I made a loaf of banana bread in my bread machine.  EPIC FAIL!  I tried substituting apple sauce for the oil and the bread did not completely cook.  I have done this substituting when baking in my oven and it is fine but I guess the bread machine does not like me playing around with tried and true ingredients.

Tuesday I went to the funeral of a much beloved priest.  He was the one that confirmed me into the Catholic Church 23 years ago.  It was amazing how many people were there.  People I had not seen in over 20 years!  This was also the day I bought tickets to our Grand Daughter's play, went to the grocery store, and called a company to get a replacement for a dinner plate that got broken.

Wednesday I got 2 loads of laundry completed, watered all my inside plants, and set up my new counter top oven.

I refuse to use my BIG oven in the summer time.  It heats up my kitchen making it miserable to cook.  I have had a small Breville Smart oven for several years and love it.  But, I want to bake and none of my baking pans will fit into it.  The new oven will fit all of my baking pans and casserole dishes.  Now I can bake my cakes, brownies, cookies etc...without issues.  It is large and takes up a lot of space, but I will happily loose a little counterspace in order to bake again!

Thursday morning I spent running errands and getting a haircut.  After all that was completed I actually got to spend time in the pool.  I love being in the water!  This was also the day I deep cleaned my granite countertops in the kitchen.  They always look so pretty afterwards.  But it is a tedious job so I only do it a couple times a year.  Otherwise, they just get washed down daily (several times a day actually).

Friday was another laundry day.  I also ended up at my Dr office for a rash I developed over night.  I got some medicine for it and it is already almost gone.  I love my Dr office.  They can always get me in on the same day I call if I am 'sick'.  This was the night we went and saw Grand Daughter's play.  It was Bonnie and Clyde the musical.  They had major sound issues so we were able to clearly hear only about half of the play............and we were in the 3rd row!  

Saturday our son that is living with us did some more little jobs around the house for us.  We are almost done with everything we had for him to do.  We went to Mass and when we got home he was cooking dinner for us.  What a treat!

Today I need to make some bread and I also want to do a little baking.  Menu planning is on the 'to do' list also.  Might sit with the man child and see what he would like to eat this next week.  He is an excellent cook!

That wraps another week here in the great state of Arizona.  How was your week?

Until Next Time........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 7 of YOP 12

 

Hey there!  Nice of you to drop by again.  I have things to show you.  Let's get right to it.

I finished hubby's socks on Monday the 8th.

They have already been worn and washed and worn again.  I have enough yarn left to make another pair of RCR for him.  I have put sock making on hold for a bit.  With the MKAL coming up in a few weeks, I wanted to make sure I didn't have anything on the needles since my sock needles are what I will be using for the MKAL.

It was hard for me to decide what I wanted to do while I waited for the first of September.  This is what I choose.

My infamous 'To The Point' prayer shawl.  Having never done one in white, I was kind of excited to try it.  Naturally, I ran out of yarn 4 rows from the end.  I picked up some blue out of my stash to finish it off.  Oh, the white is out of my stash too!

Once that one was completed, I started another one.

This is also from my stash.  Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a lot of acrylic yarn in my stash.  What a great way to use it up, right?

I got some treasures in the mail this week!

My fix-it tools!  This is not what I really call them.  My name for them is my Ah S**t tools.  I lost one this week and while trying to find where it went, hubby told me to go to Amazon and order another one.  Well, they sold them in a 6 pack!  As soon as I pressed the order button, I found the lost one.  At least, now I will not panic the next time my tool falls into the crack of my chair!

We have adjusted well to having another person living with us.  In fact, it has been nice having our youngest back here again.  This weekend, he has helped us with some projects that are hard for us 'old' folks to do.

#1  He installed my weather station that I received from my husband for Christmas.  Parts of it needed to be attached to the roof.  Hubby is not allowed on the roof, so this waited for a 'young' person to do it.  It still needs a bit of adjustment for the wind gauge is not high enough.  But for now......I am happy it is up.

I would have loved to have been a meteorologist.  My issue was passing science.  Not my best subject in school.  Except the section on meteorology.  I aced that one. This sets right next to where I knit.  And yes, at 10am it was 91F outside.  Welcome to living in the desert in the summer.

#2 He also replaced our Ring doorbell with a Blink doorbell.  We have Blink cameras around the outside of our house and decided to go with the same doorbell instead of the other brand we have had for a couple of years.

#3 The last job he did for us was replace the door knob and dead bolt on our front door.  It now matches the door knobs in the rest of the house.  It is hard for me to turn a normal door knob, so we have replaced all of them with lever door knobs.  No problems for me now!

There are a few more little things we will have him do for us yet.  We will spread them out over a few weekends.  That way, he will have time to enjoy his days off too.

We are smoking a brisket today.  I will make flour tortillas to go with it too.  Hopefully there will be some leftovers so our son can take it for his lunches this week.  I sent my husband to the store last week for one item and he found a brisket on sale!  The meat cutter there is so nice.  He cut the brisket into 3 sections and trimmed quite a bit of the excess fat off of it.  So, now you know how we ended up with a brisket for today.  Note to self....husband always finds the best unadvertised deals!

I was able to get into our pool a couple of times this past week.  Our weather is so unpredictable with the monsoons.  Today looks to be a good day for the pool too.  So if you can't find me, look in the backyard.  I will be the one floating around with a big straw hat on and an adult beverage in my hand.

Until Next Time..............................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!