D.O.N.E.

Hubby has completed all his testing.  We have a diagnosis now.  It is nice to finally know what is going on with him.  It is nothing fatal, but if left unattended could have caused severe medical issues at some point.  Now that we know what it is, we can go on with life and do what is necessary for him to remain healthy for years to come!  PTL!

Since we have been home from the Doctor's office, I have been semi cleaning up 'stuff'.  Seems everything gets dumped either on the kitchen table or the end of the kitchen counter top.  It drives me crazy.  Everything does have a place in our home.  Since there are only 2 of us living here, it isn't hard to point fingers at the offending culprit.  I admit, I am as much at fault as is hubby.

There just might be another puzzle getting ready to be laid out.  Since my hand is still acting up, knitting/crocheting is not my friend right now.  Doing a puzzle will keep me busy.  I also have done a bit of sewing this week.  I will show off my sewing finishes on Sunday....so stayed tuned.

I called my Orthopedic guy and am going in for an injection next week. He offered this to me a few weeks ago and I turned it down thinking the brace would take care of things.  NOPE!  I am so D.O.N.E. with the tingling and numbness in my thumb and first 2 fingers.  It even hurts my hand to wash my hair!  He said it starts working in a few days and if it doesn't, then we know surgery is the only answer.  I am still wearing the brace to bed and that has really messed up my sleeping.  Hitting ones self with a hard brace in the middle of the night, has a tendency to bring a person fully awake.  Yup, it happens at least once a night.

So now you are all up to date on everything.  So:

until next time................happy crafting!!!!!

As Promised

For the past couple of months, I have been asked several questions by my lovely blog readers.  Today is the day I am going to answer all those questions as well as put the recipe for my 'healthy' cookies I have been making for some time now.

First, the questions:

Dee asked if the monsoon dust storms put dust over everything.  Yes they do BUT, the rain that normally follows washes it all away.  Unfortunately, this also means the dust creeps into the house through those minute cracks in doors and windows that the human eye can not detect.  We dust our house twice a week during the monsoon season for this reason.

Stefanie wants to know what goes on at the prayer shawl meetings.  We work on our shawls and lapghans that are to be donated to the cancer ministry at our church.  After they are blessed by our clergy, the items are then mailed to people who have requested them for people diagnosed with cancer and other serious//terminal illnesses.  The requests usually come from family or friends.

Stefanie also asked if the weather in Vegas was just as hot as in Arizona.  Yes BUT, Vegas normally has a bit of a breeze which moves the air.  Arizona looses their breeze from July until September so it is just HOT!

Sam wants to know if I think the 9" circular needles could have contributed to my Carpal Tunnel.  They sure didn't help it.  I held them much tighter than I needed to.  The other issue I had........my knuckles are pretty big from my RA so they were always knocking into each other.  I could only knit with them for about 20 minutes before I had hand cramps.

Sam also asked where I learned Portuguese knitting.  I taught myself using YouTube.

I have had several requests for the cookies recipe so here it is.

Malachi's Cookies (Named for our nutritionist's son who had the idea)

Ingredients:

1/2 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)  (I actually melt mine in the microwave)

1 C coconut palm sugar

1/4 C Agave Syrup/Nectar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 C Spelt flour (You can also use garanzo bean/flava bean flour but it upsets my digestion)

1/2 C milled flax seed

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups oat meal (not the quick cooking type.)  (Use gluten free oats if needed)

1/4 C dried cranberries

1/4 C pepita seeds

1/4 C chopped walnuts

1/4 C dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Combine and beat butter & sugars until creamy.  Add eggs & vanilla and mix well

Add flour, flax seed, baking soda, salt & cinnamon.

Add oats and last 4 ingredients,mix well.

Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let rest for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.  Keep in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

I mix mine with my Kitchen Aid mixer.  The dough gets quite stiff towards the end and my hands can not even begin to stir it and my hand mixer would burn up.  Normally, I double the recipe as they go pretty quickly.

The past couple of days I have been busy catching up on laundry.  I am finally all done and it feels good.  Hubby has one last medical test this Thursday and then we should have some answers as to what is going on with him.  He is so done with doctors by now and I can't blame him.  I have been on 'after school Grand duty' this week as well as 'dog feeding' duty.  All of my 'duties' stop Thursday night.  Friday is looking better and better to me.  I might actually get a day off.

Today, I finally got my journal dated for the remainder of the year as well as getting washi tape in to to decorate it.  There is still some more decorating I want to do but it is not anything that needs to be done today.

I worked on my prayer shawl as well as the Rising Tide scarf.  The US size 3 needles are a little hard on me which is why the prayer shawl with it's size 10 needles was thrown into the mix this week.  Still using Portuguese style knitting though.  So much easier on the hands and wrists!

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

WEEK 9 OF YOP

Let me show you what I have done in the way of crafting this week.

Another row on the Rising Tide scarf is completed.  I thought this would be my last one, yet I have enough yarn to do another round.  I am enjoying this pattern and it is all I am currently working on.  The socks and prayer shawl will get some love shortly, But I really want to finish this so I can soak and block the both of them and get them to my daughter soon.

Let me tell you about my last 4 days.

I arrived home early Thursday morning.  It is always nice to come home.  I am still trying to catch up with my laundry and other household items that need doing.  Once I got home, I unpacked, went to Costco, Sam's and Winco with the hubby, took a 2 hour nap and then went to dinner with our dear friends from Las Vegas.  I was exhausted but so happy to be home.  I messed up my recovering Carpal Tunnel when I yanked my suitcase off the carousel.  I was angry with myself.  I was just starting to do a little knitting again.

Friday, we decided to take the day and spend it with our LV friends.  We took them to Downtown Mesa and showed them around a bit there.  The female friend and I stopped into the LYS in downtown to do a bit of perusing of yarn and accessories.  She found buttons for a sweater she is knitting for her sister 's birthday next week.

The above picture is very similar to the buttons she bought.  Aren't they cute?  The face on her buttons is pure white.  Goes well with the white sweater she is knitting.

I enhanced my stash by 1 skein.

This is super soft and will make a lovely scarf for me.  There is 9% wool in it but I am hoping the 9% alpaca will keep me from breaking out.  If I do, I will gift it to my LV friend.  I am going to make another Rising Tide scarf with it.  The color repeats are quite long in this.

I think it will turn out quite well.  This is why I am working on the current Rising Tide scarf exclusively.  I need those needles.  I have others in that size, but the ones in use are my one pair of Signature Needles I spoiled myself with.  They are the best circular I have used and trust me, I have used every brand out there.  I just can not justify spending $40-$50 dollars on one pair of circulars.  I would love to try their DPN's but a 5 needles set is almost $60.  Too rich for my retired income.

Anyway.............back to my story.  After spending a couple of hours downtown (it is only 2 miles long), we went to lunch in the neighboring college town of Tempe.  We ate at Rula Bula's Irish pub.  For those of you that do not speak Gaelic, It means 'party'.  After lunch we hopped on our light rail public transit and headed to the baseball field.  Our Grand Daughter was singing the National Anthem along with about 50 other people.  We had a great time at the game, even though our team lost.

Saturday, I was able to get a load of laundry done and run some errands.  Then we picked up or LV friends and headed back to Tempe to meet his cousin and have lunch at Loco Patron.  For those of you who do not speak Spanish, that means "crazy boss".  Once again we headed to the baseball field to watch the game.  We lost again.  BOO!

Sunday, hubby and I went to Mass and then headed over to pick up our LV friends.  We once again went to the baseball field.  This time it was because, Hubby and I had purchased suite tickets right next to our teams dugout.  What an experience it was.  We had invited 12 other people to go with us and they all showed up.  It was all you could eat and drink too. What an experience it was.  We were right there at field level.  You could see everything.  The players were up close and we could see what they did in their dugout.  The best part.....We won the game.  Afterwards, we brought our LV friends back to our house for a little R&R.  Later that evening we went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner.  A perfect end to a perfect weekend.  

Our LV friends are leaving this morning to go home.  I am getting ready to take our son to the airport for his buisness trip.  Hubby is heading out to get his allergy injection.  Once we get home, I have about 5 loads of laundry to catch back up on along with some cleaning up of my craft room where I have been throwing things until a 'later' date.

My hand is feeling a bit better.  I did do some knitting last night just to see how it felt.  I used Portuguese and it seemed to be ok for about an hour and then started to complain a bit.  Will do just a bit of knitting each day so I don't become homicidal.  Once it rested for about 2 hours it felt fine again.  

Also, I have been asked to post my 'healthy' cookie recipe.  I will post it on Wednesday's midweek update.  This post is already long enough.

Until next time...........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 8

Hello all.  Happy to have you join me today on my blog.  As most of you know, I am not at home this weekend.  Rather, I am in Texas visiting family.  That doesn't stop a blogger from blogging though.

I have not done one lick of knitting since I left home.  Nope, not one stitch.  Here is a look at my WIP's as they are now.

This is my carry on bag from my flight to Texas.  As you can see, I packed all three of my WIP's.  There were great intentions of working on them furiously while I was talking to the grands.  Nope, haven't even unpacked them.

Don't think I have been just sitting on my bum doing nothing.  There has been progress made on this:

This is  a 2000 piece puzzle.  I worked on it when I was here in April and it is still here.  I am enjoying working on it.  It doesn't hurt my wrist so it can be worked on for hours each day.  There is a frame already bought for it.  That makes me feel good, knowing all the work that is going into this will not be for nought.

Today there is more family coming over for dinner tonight.  Tomorrow is the first day of school for the youngest and Tuesday marks the first day of college for the oldest one here.  I leave on Thursday and have a full weekend planned when I return home.

Until next time..................Happy Crafting!!!!!

Traveling

I am traveling again.  This time I am in Texas to visit my Grands and their parents.

I got up at 2:30 this morning so I could get to the airport by 4AM.  Do you know there is no sunshine at that time of morning?  By the time we took off at 6, the sun was just beginning to rise.  The flight was only a couple of hours long but it was pretty.

We were on top of the clouds all the way.

I just find it fascinating to see the top of the clouds.

When I finally got to my destination airport, I got a message that I needed to take and Uber/Lyft as my Daughter in Law was on her way to the hospital from falling down the stairs and messed up her ankle pretty good.  Nothing is broken but she is in a boot and needs to get a recheck on Monday.

This was my Lyft ride.

Can you say bright yellow?  It is a Fiat 500 and such a cute little car.  There was plenty of leg room in the back seat and pretty comfy of a ride.

I am here for a week and looking forward to some lovely family time.

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

YOP WEEK 7

Happy Sunday.  We are having a little break in our monsoons right now.  They think there might be one more storm yet today and then it will start to dry up for a few days.  Other than the little bit of roof damage we had:

We have been fortunate and just have had a dirty pool to clean up.  The roof is fixed as of Friday, so no worries about any rain escaping into our home.

On the crafting front..............not much has happened since this happened.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  I have good days and bad days right now.  Using circulars is the easiest on my wrist as well as knitting Portuguese style.  That is the reason I have basically only worked on the Rising Tide scarf the past few days.  Knitting lasts for about an hour before I have to put it up.  

Today, I am going to put my socks onto circular needles so I can continue to work on them.  It is much easier for me to knit Portuguese style on circulars than on DPN's.  I am in love with the socks and don't want to put them up for 6 weeks (or more). Only 2 rows were added on one sock before the stinging in my fingers became unbearable.

I am also able to work on the prayer shawl, Forest Path.  I have been itching to cast on another project but am holding off until at least one of these WIP's are done.

I have picked up another 'craft' this week to help pass the time.

I have had these coloring books for over 3 years and decided it was time to pick them up again.  It is quite relaxing to work on them.  There is no right or wrong color to be used.  I really enjoyed working on these.  Being left handed, this does not bother me at all to do for several hours a day.

Did you know, August 13th is National Left Handers Day?  Yup, we have our own day.  Bet you righties are all jealous now, huh.

Menus for the week have been completed as has the grocery shopping.  This lady leaves on Thursday to go and visit her Texas family.  I wanted to make sure we had nutritious meals for the next 4 days.  I kind of fell off the WW wagon last week with our trip to Vegas, so I am trying to get back in the swing of it this week.  It won't be hard to stay true to it while in Texas as they also cook very nutritious meals.  With 5 people in the house, they seldom go out to eat or order fast food.  I am all for that!

Time to go and started on the laundry.  Hubby is glued to the TV watching the PGA Championship.  He used to play golf quite a bit, but alas, he has severe back problems that prohibit him from playing now.  So the next best thing is to watch it.  LOL

Another thing that I found time to do is to update my blog page.  I have used the same theme for almost 8 years.  It was time to freshen things up a bit.  It was quite enjoyable to be a bit creative in another area.  It took me quite a while to come up with something I loved.  If I am not mistaken, it took over 2 hours!  I am a bit picky when it comes to color, themes, fonts, backgrounds, etc.  After all, this is something that say a little bit about me.

Until next time................Happy Crafting!!!!!

Drat

Hello everyone.  Hope your day is going splendidly.  Our day started quite early again.  This time because of my Orthopedic appointment.  The nice thing about being the first one in the Dr's office is you get in and out on time.  I was done with my appointment and back home by 8:15 this morning.  That being said......................I did have to leave the house by 6:15 to navigate the rush hour traffic in the 19 miles I had to drive to get to his office.

As I anticipated, he says I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  UGH!  I have had symptoms off and on for many years.  Seeing I did data entry for over 20 years, I am not surprised.  So we are going to try this for 6 weeks.

I am required to wear the splint while sleeping.  If I feel it helps any other time, I can wear it then.  I am going to try and knit with it later today.  I did pick up my needles last night and knit for about an hour.  I was fine until I worked on the socks.  That small needles are very hard on me, so those may have to wait a while.  I have other projects I can work on though.

We were blessed with another monsoon storm last night.  We had some howling winds and the got drenched with .55 inches of rain in less than an hour's time.  The wind was the worst we have had in several years.  It knocked over one of our iron patio chairs.  Those things are not light.  Later this morning, my hubby found this:

Yup, our roof shingles buckled.  We called our roofer.  He won't be able to do anything for 2 days.  He is a bit busy pulling trees out of peoples roofs.  I can understand that as being a bit more important.  Hubby flipped the shingles back over and we just hope there is no more wind tonight.  They are predicting more storms though. The rain will be fine as we have another layer of shingles under this one so we are protected from any rain seeping through.  Aren't those shingles pretty?  HEEHEE.

I made cookies this morning after the Dr appointment.  It has been months since I made any.  Hubby loves them and they are so much better for him than store bought ones.  There are healthy ingredients in them like; flax seed, pepitas, cranberries, spelt flour, oatmeal, coconut palm sugar etc.  I made a double batch so they should last until I come home from Texas.

Years ago, hubby and I signed up for early voting ballots to be mailed to us.  We got ours in the mail a couple of days ago.  After I publish this, I am going to go on the internet and research the candidates and their positions on some key issues.

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