Week 12

 

Good morning to all.  I am wearing a smile today because.....................our temperatures for this week are all supposed to be below 100F!  Ok, so there are 2 days of 99, but that is still below 100.  Our night time lows are in the lower 70s until the end of the week when they will dip into the 60's.  I know this means the end of swimming season, but it opens up the window for me to enjoy outside time in the early morning and after sunset.  I am so stoked about this.

But that is not why you are here is it?  Let me show you what little I got done this week, thanks to a nasty virus I have.

I finished the half granny square prayer shawl.  This is using premier's Sweet Roll cake in the colorway...........birthday cake.  I used 2 full skeins for this and now I have 3 more skeins left of this colorway.  I almost did not make it with the 2 skeins.

Can you say yarn chicken?  That is all I had left when I finished the last double crochet and made my bind off.  I crocheted the last half of that row really fast so I wouldn't run out.  LOL Don't you do that too?  When you see you are getting close to running out of yarn, you figure, if you knit/crochet really fast, you will get done before the yarn runs out.  Our minds sure do think funny things sometimes, huh.

I did work on the log cabin this week, but not much.  My head feels like it has cotton in it.  Kleenex has become my new BFF.  There is so much water and hot tea inside of me, I slosh when I walk.  The steroids make me not care as much and I have gotten a TON of housework done that I had been putting off for a few week.  But that takes away from my knitting time.  So this is all I got done on the log cabin.

I finished two sides of black and started on the purple.  Once the purple is done on this one, I will pick up the other square and get it up through the purple too.  I am hoping to get some serious knitting time today. I was asked if the stitch marker marks the center of the square. No, when I start the first green square, that tells me which side is the 'right'.  Once I have joined the next color to the green, I could take out the marker, but it is so easy for me to see as I knit along and if I forget to count my rows, I know which side needs to be up when I join my next color.  Even thought the wrong side shows the joining of colors, I have been know to completely ignore what my knitting is saying.  So the marker stays in until I complete the square.  Thank you Rain, for asking!

I also need to get back into my craft room and continue working on the Christmas ornaments.  In case you missed it, here is the photo of the first "ugly sweater" ornament  I am working on.

They are not hard to do, but, take a lot of concentration and it is very time consuming to get everything sewn on and all the embroidery done.  This is 2 hours of work and the windows, door, wreath, candy canes, and roof, are just laid up there.  There are 18 pieces for this ornament alone that need embellishment and then sewn to the main part.  Lots of little pieces that could get lost if not careful.  That is why it is staying in my craft room on the crafting table.

The other thing I have been working on this week is this:

It is my lovely mirrorless camera my hubby got for me last year.  I have taken some photos with it but have always had it in auto mode.  This week, I have started learning how to use the manual mode for photography.  I am having a blast learning.  I finally learned how to shoot a photo with the background blurred.  That was done yesterday.  I am wanting to get very familiar with my camera so I can take all sorts of photos.  I love landscapes, macros of flowers, panoramic shots, stop action of sports, night time photo, etc.  I have a lot of learning to do.  I have found several bloggers that are excellent on explaining how to set the camera for what you want.  I have lots of lenses for the camera, so I will be able to do all that I have my heart set on.  I am super excited too.

Yesterday, most of my family, went to the celebration of life for my friend Bev.  It was such a nice tribute to her and we got to laugh so much remembering her.  She was quite a character.  I think my daughter summed it up best when she said "Jesus is going to have his hands full with this one".  

I am off to do laundry..............again.  I have some bananas calling my name to make them into banana bread.  There are cantaloupes to cut up and get in the fridge for snacks, blackberries to wash and freeze for smoothies and greens to wash and get prepared for tonight's dinner.  I love working in my kitchen ever since we remodeled it.  I could spend many hours in there.  Preparing healthy meals for me and my hubby is another little hobby I have undertaken in the past 6 weeks.  Our nutritionist said we are her best patients in the fact, we actually do what she suggests!  We have tried new foods, different ways of preparing things and have enjoyed the process and the results very much.

Until next time..............................happy crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!