DAY 30.......The End

It has finally arrived.  The last day of November and the last day I will post for this month.  It has been an experience to find something to talk about each day.  This is the second year  have done this challenge.  I do not know if I will do it again next year or not.  November is the month hubby and I always do some traveling, there is Thanksgiving happening, this year there was family things going on that needed attention, we are busy at our church with preparations for people preparing to become members of our church.....in other words...it is one of the busiest months for this lady.  Yet, I managed to post everyday.  

So here is my last post for this years challenge.

It was so good to be back home.  We watched one of the recorded Hallmark Movies last night and I worked on the Advent scarf.

I have completed 2 days of clues and still am behind 5 days.  If I can get 2 days done each day, I will eventually be caught up.  So far, I have learned how to: make a bobble increase, read charts, and make a lifted knot stitch.  It is so much fun.  I did not want to put it down last night.  But my bed beckoned me and I listened to it's siren call.

Today we need to hit up the grocery store.  We try to make sure our food supply is very low when we leave on a trip.  We are also on teenager pick up duty at 3.  Then this evening we go to the church to set up for tomorrow's day of prayer.  Hopefully that will not take too long.  Then it is dinner time and bed as we will be up at Dark o'thirty Saturday morning for the day of prayer.  There will be Mass Saturday afternoon then off to take the teen to a birthday party and we will hang out with the other parents while the kids have some fun.  Then a sleepover with the teen.  Sunday will be busy as well.  I have signed up for an Advent course for ladies at our church and it starts Sunday morning at 8:15!  Then of course there are menus to be made, groceries to be purchased (again), a blog to write and more Christmas decoration boxes to be gone through to finish up the house.  Not to mention, there is knitting to be done!  I have that Advent scarf to try and catch up on and there is another KAL I am joining on the 1st of December. This is one way to keep my fingers out of the cookie jar.  

That about sums up my next couple of days for you.  I hope you have a wonderful day and upcoming weekend.

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

Day 29

This post is coming to you from my home sweet home.  So nice to be back in my own digs.  The drive home was pretty easy.  Hubby did the driving and I did knitting.  Win, Win if you ask me.

We have not unpacked yet and have been home 5 hours.  We are both just totally worn out. Unpacking will happen before we go to bed as I need to do laundry tomorrow.  Our weekend is booked again so we either do stuff tomorrow or on Monday.  I vote for tomorrow so holiday cooking/baking can start next week.

For dinner tonight we opted for some Mexican fast food.  Tomorrow we get back to eating real food again.  While I was waiting in the drive through lane I saw this:

I guess if you have the money to buy a Tesla, you do not need to pay for a license plate.  Normally they at least have a temporary paper plate on the back or in the back window.  Nothing anywhere on this beauty.

Time to go and start back working on my Advent Scarf KAL.  I am only 5 days behind.  Fingers crossed I do not get too stuck on some of these new to me stitches.

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

Day 28

It is still the 28th where I am.  Phew.  Wasn't sure I would make it today.  It was a great day too.  We started off nice and slow with a lovely breakfast at the local restaurant.

I carry my own tea bags with me since I drink Decaf.  This was the largest cup of hot water ever.  It was 12 ounces.  That is unheard of when asking for a cup of hot water.  Why yes, that is cream in my tea.  Don't you put cream in yours?  I was introduced to drinking tea like this when I lived in Pennsylvania.  It is the only way I drink now.

We visited hubby's mom today for a little while.  She is doing OK but still wants to go home and doesn't understand why she can't just leave her facility and go home to live.  It is sad and things are being done to see if we can get her back home but she is not a patient person.

After the visit we headed to our friends home for a nice quiet evening of laughter, knitting and dinner.  Before we landed on them we needed to find a grocery store as I wanted some root beer for the evening.  Our friend gave us directions to the store closest to their place.  Since I was driving it is always a chance I will not find it.  Guess what?

I found it!  Even found my favorite diet root beer and picked up a Christmas Cactus plant for our friends.

The Mister has a wonderful green thumb. I am sure the plant will thrive and grow for years to come.

We are now back in our hotel room and ready to go to bed so we can get up and out of here early tomorrow.  We loose an hour heading back home so we want to beat rush hour.

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

Day 27

Welcome to my little blog.  Only 3 days left on NaBloPoMo 2018.  It has been fun but......Traveling during this challenge is super challenging.  Lucky for me, my phone has a mobile hotspot on it that is free with my phone carrier.  It is much faster than the hotel's 'free' wifi.  

Today was the last day of the bingo tournament.  We will be here for another day yet to visit family and friends.  It has been a very nice trip and we have enjoyed the time away.  As always, I am looking forward to getting back to my home and my bed.

So what do you do when you get to the bingo tournament early?

Pull out your socks and work on them for a little while.  The Advent Scarf has too many 'new' to me stitches.  I will wait until I get home to work on it again.  It looks like I could easily mess it up if I do not give it my full attention.  Reading knitting charts is not my forte and it seems the written instructions have a few boo boos so I need to do charts this time.  EEK!  I may need to go to my LYS to have a bit of help if needed.

Anyway, hubby and I are back in our room and it is still early.  Not even 7pm yet.  We are just so tired out and I have a bit of a sore throat and nasal congestion.  We are hoping with a bit of rest and relaxation tonight will put me back into good health.

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

Day 26

Phew, I wasn't sure I would make it tonight.  It is only 8:37PM here so I did make it before midnight.

Hubby and I started our Bingo tournament today.  It was nice to meet new people.  We did not win anything but that is ok.  We came to just enjoy some time away from everything.  I got to work on my advent scarf a little tiny it today and also my socks.  Not enough to warrant a photo though.

What did warrant a photo was the vie outside our hotel  window.

I know.....this looks a lot like the photos I took last year when we were here.

Look at this Teddy Bear tree.

Is it not the cutest thing?  Kids were loving it.

Not much else here

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

YOP WEEK 22 & DAY 25

We are getting ready to leave in a couple of hours.  Thought it would be best to update now as it will be late tonight before I have a moment to get on the laptop again.

I got a little done this week in the knitting department.

As you can see, the socks are still on the needles, darn it.  I only got one pattern repeat done on this sock and 8 rows of pattern on the other.  Each pattern repeat is 15 rows.

The advent scarf 2018 KAL has been started also.

Days 1 & 2 clues are out but this lady has not taken the time to sit down and work them.  It is a good thing too, as day 1 clues were written and charted with a little mistake in them.  Not being an advanced knitter, I would have knitted according to the way the pattern was  and just thought I had done something wrong.  The plan is for me to work on this during the 5 hour road trip today.  Hopefully I will be able to get through day 1 during that time.  I don't want to be too far behind the rest of the group.

Day 25 and since it is such an early time for me to be posting, there is not much to tell.  We got our suitcases packed and the dogs food is all packaged up so it is easy for the dog sitter to just open and feed.

I don't know how many of you follow my blog.  If you don't than you do not see my daily writings and photos.  So, I will leave you with a little look at the beginnings of our Christmas decorating.

Entryway

Tree (duh)

A few nativities on the mantle. (A work in progress)

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

Day 24

Wow, I can not believe I have made it 24 days in a row.  The next 5 days will be tricky as I will be in a hotel with super slow WiFi.  I managed to do it last year, though.  Fingers crossed for this time too.

I am trying so hard to get my Christmas up before we leave but alas..........I will need to finish it up when we come home.  Time is running out.  There are 2-3 more storage boxes I need brought in from our shed and I am not able to get to them in a small amount of time.  Things need to be moved and rearranged.  It will wait.  This did get done today:

There are still a few more items needed for the mantle, as stated above.  Hubby made me stop so I could eat lunch.  I still need to; get the dogs' food bagged for the sitter, clean out the fridge, run the dishwasher, empty said dishwasher, pack clothes for trip, get snacks packed for road trip, print out day 2 of advent scarf pattern, and clean the bathrooms.  We will get all this done before 3:30 when we leave for Mass.  After Mass we will go out to dinner and then come home and watch a Hallmark Christmas movie.  A good way to relax.

There is something packed and ready to go:

My knitting is ready.  The bag in front is my socks and the back bag is the advent scarf KAL I am doing.  Now you know what is super important for a trip away from home.  Not like there aren't any yarn shops where we are.  Actually, there is one about 2 miles away from our hotel!  I have been there a couple of times.  What a lovely shop it is.  "Sin City Knits" is the name of it.

Time to go and attack the fridge.

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

Day 23

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.  There was so much food and all of it was wonderful.  We even brought home leftovers for dinner tonight.  It's a good thing too as we have been on the go since 7 this morning.  No, we did not go Black Friday shopping.  We have been busy getting Christmas decorations up.  Hubby handles the outside and I do the inside.  He is done.................not so much me.

I got the front entryway done

I still want to wrap some little LED lights through the flowers so it will light up.

The tree is completed too:

The next thing to do is set out Nativity sets.  First, I need to get my shelves and mantle cleared off so I have a place to put the Nativities.  Hopefully I will be able to complete this all before tomorrow afternoon.  It all takes time.  Last year we didn't do this until we got back from Las Vegas and I regretted it.  Hence the reason we are hustling this year to complete it all in one weekend.

I have not picked up any yarn since Wednesday.  I thought I would get a little done yesterday but we were way too busy talking to everyone. Plus, there was a baby that needed his Great Aunt Marsha to hold him and feed him and squeeze him!  His sister needed my attention quite a bit too.  Priorities!

Break time is over.......................back to the decorating.

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

Day 22

Today has been a nice slow lazy day for hubby and I.  We will be heading over to our son's home soon for a family and friend gathering.  Before we leave I wanted to stop in here and wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Our contribution to the feast is the turkey (son is cooking it though) and spiced apples.  The apples are in the slow cooker and smell so yummy.  Everyone is bringing something today so we will have plenty of food.

Look at this face:

He knows we are getting ready to leave.  Hubby has his briefcase out and I have my knitting packed and ready to go.  That is a sure sign of the old folks leaving for a while.  I have taken everything out of his reach so there will not be anything chewed up when we get back!  

I want to say................I am so thankful for all the blessings that have been bestowed on me this year.  This blog has afforded me the opportunity to meet some of the finest people all over the world.  It also has allowed me to speak my mind without fear of being ridiculed for my opinions and thoughts.  Thank you blogging community for this.

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

Day 21

Well, hello.  I finally found time to sit down and put fingers to computer to write my blog for the day.  

My alarm went off at 6 this morning.  Yes, I said alarm.  Not something us retired folk are used to hearing anymore.  There was a teenager sleeping in our home and she needed to get up and ready for school.  She was so good about getting up and moving, we were able to drive by her house to drop off her overnight bag on the way to school.  She only had a half day today.  Her Dad was able to pick her up so we were off kid duty.

I got home in time to get ready to head out to my nail appointment.  My plans were to get my nails done and then get my hair cut after that.  Best laid plans and all that stuff.  After my nails hubby called and asked me to head to the other side of town to pick up a part for our pool.  Since I was out already, it made sense.  Besides, it was a 2 hour wait at my hair salon.  

I got the part, delivered it to hubby, made us some lunch and THEN I went to get my hair cut.  There was only a 6 minute wait by this time.  Made me happy.  After arriving home, hubby had our Christmas tree set up and ready for me to decorate it.  (no that has not happened yet)  My phone went off to remind me the dogs had a Vet appointment in 30 minutes.  Out the door I went again.  Luckily, it was just a tech appointment so it only lasted 15 minutes.

Here are our fur babies just before the leashes came out of the drawer.

Totally oblivious as to what was going to happen in a few minutes.

After I came home I went on a mission to complete the puzzle.

DONE!!!!

There will not be another one for a little while.  Too much going on for the next month with 2 KAL's I am in.

Now...............here is a question for you.  Have any of you done this?

I love wearing my handmade socks with my super comfy sandals.  I have severe arthritis in my feet so finding shoes that feel wonderful is next to impossible.  Until I have surgery on my feet, my sandals are my favorite shoes to wear all day.  Plus, how else can I show off my socks.  It's not like it is below freezing here.  So, what do you think?  Fashion faux pas?  Would you do it if your temps ranged from 45 - 70?

Dinner tonight is leftovers.  That means there is going to be some nice knitting time.  All I need to do tonight is make the cinnamon apples for tomorrow's dinner.  Since they cook in the slow cooker, There is not much to do other than peel, slice, spice and turn them on.  WOOHOO!  My kind of cooking!

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

DAY 20

Another day of posting.  I see other bloggers posting daily all year long.  Not thinking I would be able to do that.  I do enjoy doing it for a month but sheesh............365 days in a row?  Nope, not happening.

Yesterday, I wanted to get the heel on my other sock completed.  Here is what happened:

Mission accomplished!  Now on to the foot.  Thank goodness I have made these socks before and can look at the other ones to see how many repeats of the pattern I need before the toe starts.  I should probably mark that down on the pattern this time, huh.

This morning I was looking at the Advent scarf ribbing I had completed last weekend.  I just was not happy with it.  It seemed too loose.  Even though it measured the proper width, it still seemed a bit sloppy.  Pulling out my US size 5 needles, I decided to work it again.  The original size I used was US size 6.  There is only .25mm difference between the two sizes but take a look at the difference in the ribbing.

The bottom fabric has much better stitch definition, right?  The thought of going down to a US size 4 has crossed my mind but, that would make the width quite a bit smaller.  I will stay with the US size 5 (3.75 mm) for now.

The rest of today will see me going to the grocery store to get some breakfast food for the Grand Daughter as she has several sleep overs coming up in the next few weeks.  There is food to be vacuum sealed, a dishwasher to unload and dinner to be cooked.  There will be some down time in there for knitting and puzzle working too.  There still has not been any decluttering done.  That may have to wait until the start of December.

Hubby is out trimming our bushes in the front yard so we can get our Christmas lights out this weekend.  I plan on getting the tree up as well as the Nativity sets.  It will be nice to return from our trip and walk into a decorated home.

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

Day 19

November is over half gone.  This week is Thanksgiving in the USA which means........Christmas is slowly creeping up on us.  This year,  I am not killing myself making gifts.  Nope, we are doing an exchange with the local family and for the out of towners, they put their wish lists on Amazon.  It will be so much easier this year.  Hubby and I do not exchange gifts.  After 43 years of marriage, we feel each day is a gift and enjoy our time with family and friends.

Today is catch up day.  Other than making dinner last night, I did nothing around the house.  So, today, I am doing a couple of loads of laundry and starting a bit of decluttering in my craft room.  Sam does a 15 minute a day declutter and I believe that is something I can actually do each day.  

Yesterday I did work on my socks.  Well actually I worked on 1 sock.  Last time I showed it, this is where I was.

As of this morning, this is my progress:

The heel is completed!  Fingers crossed I can complete the other sock's heel today.  Then I just have the foot to do.  I would love to have these off the needles by the weekend.  They would be perfect for me to take on our trip next week.  Not that I don't have other lovely handmade socks I could take.  But I could cast on another pair to do while traveling.

Hubby is contacting our plumber today to see when he can come out and look at our pool and let us know if he can do it or if we need to call a pool company.  It's always something, huh.

I will be heading out this afternoon to watch the local Grand Daughter's softball game.  She plays all 4 sports at her school and loves it.  Basketball starts after the first of the year and there is soccer in the mix too.  

Dinner is ready to go into the slow cooker.  This is the time of year I love my slow cooker.  Chili's, stews, and soups are so yummy during the colder months.  Plus, with the busy schedule we have for the next few weeks, it is a great way to make sure there is a nutritious meal waiting for us when we get hungry.

Off to change the laundry around.

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

WEEK 21 & DAY 18

It is week 21 of the 8th year of projects.  It has been a busy and productive crafting week.  I finally finished my Rising Tide scarf.

It only took me a month to complete it.  For a scarf, that is about average for me.  

It is the perfect width at 5.5 inches.  Now I wait for me to go somewhere in the early morning hours so I can wear it.  Hmmmm.......guess I need to take my walks earlier in the day.

Since that was off the needles, I picked up my Snoqualmie socks again.

The left one is ready for the heel and the right one is about 15 rows behind it.  I may go ahead and do the heel from the pattern.............jury is still out.  I prefer the FLK yet, don't know if it will work well with this pattern.  Any thoughts on this?

While reading other YOPer's blogs, KAL's (knit alongs) and CAL's (crochet alongs) keep getting talked about.  Never have I participated in one of them.  That has all changed as of yesterday.  I joined the Advent Scarf 2018 KAL.  I am so excited.  The scarf will be based on Japanese knitting stitches.  Something totally new to me.  The ribbing pattern has already been posted and the first part of the pattern will be posted on November 24th.  The designer lives in New Zealand, so actually those of us in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to get the clue on the 23rd.  I started the ribbing yesterday afternoon and completed it in just a couple of hours.

It took me two times to get the first row correct.  After that it was a matter of repeating the row pattern out loud as I knit it.  I have no clue what yarn this is.  I am assuming it is a cotton blend of some sort.  It was clear in the back of my DK stash.  I loved the color of it and thought it would give me the better stitch definition.  The yarn is super easy to work with and not at all split inclined.  I am thinking this might be Cascade Ultra Pima.  It is the main DK yarn I use.  There is no ball band and it was already caked up and there are 4 cakes of it.  Could have been in my stash for several years.  The pattern is both charted and written.  So far, I have enjoyed the 13 rows I did.......even the Knit 3 together. 

There is another KAL that I will probably join in.  It is with one of our YOPers, Domic.  She is going to make a star pillow.  It starts on December 1.

Isn't this just too cute?  I already have the pattern printed out and the yarn is in my stash.  How much fun the KAL's are.  I wish I had done this before.

It is also Day 18 of my daily posting.  Last time we talked, I was getting ready to go to Mass.  We went and delivered the food to the Church's food bank and then went to Mass.  Afterwards we had dinner with family and friends and had such a good time we went to the friend's house and sat around a nice fire outside and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

We didn't get home until after 10 and I had a couple of ticked off puppies.  They wanted to know why dinner was so late.  Trust me......neither of them are starving and under fed.  

To show me how hungry they were they tried eating this:

My needle case!  Luckily, they did not get any of the needles out of it.  That would have meant a trip to the ER vet.

They also decided this would be a tasty morsel:

My knitting notions box.  These items were on my end table.  To get to them, they needed to walk over my yarn bowl, laptop, portable phone and table top fan.  Yup, they were not happy campers.

Yesterday hubby got our water bill and it had increased by $20 for 1 month!  That means trouble.  He checked our pool automatic fill and it was running and completely full as was the pool!  He also found an area over by the pool pump that had standing water.  THAT could be some major trouble if we have a leak there.  All the plumbing is underground and under cool decking.  Fingers crossed it is just a leaky valve on top.  He shut off the water to the pool and will call someone to come and fix the automatic fill.  In the mean time......we pray for an easy solution for all of this.

Today will see me knitting on my socks.  Fingers crossed I can get the heels turned on both socks by the end of the day.  There will also be work done on the puzzle.  Hubby and I will be bagging up our donations for Big Brothers/Big Sisters as they are coming tomorrow for a pick up.

This week is going to be busy.  We have a sleep over planned, Thanksgiving planned for 18 people, DIL is having surgery (the day before Thanksgiving), dogs need to get nails done, and I need a haircut and manicure.  Follow my blog and see if it all happens according to plan.  (Not likely but it might)

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

Day 17

Phew......yesterday wore me out.  Hubby and I went grocery shopping for our weeks worth of food as well as for the Thanksgiving dinner we buy or our church's food bank.  I am so glad he was with me.  He did the church shopping while I did our home's shopping.  It still took us over 1.5 hours to complete it.  Who puts dinner rolls on an end cap of the coffee aisle?  It was stuff like that, that slowed us waaaay down.  Thankfully there were several employees going around asking if you needed help finding anything.  Otherwise, we might still be there lol.  We will drop off the food bank items today when we go to Mass.  We dropped off the family turkey and turkey gravy to our son's home yesterday. 

After our grocery trip, hubby went for a haircut and I started the crockpot for our taquito meat. (chicken)   Then it was time for me to head out to do a little clothes shopping.  I very much dislike clothes shopping!!!  All I really wanted was to get some jeans.  I have been wearing leggings for 2 years.  My jeans I have all shrunk while laying in the closet!  It's true!  I had heard of this happening to my friends and now it has happened to me.  Finally, I found 2 pair of jeans that felt good and were not super expensive.  Being on Weight Watchers, I knew I would not be in this size forever and didn't want to spend beau coup bucks on 'designer' jeans.  Just finding the jeans and 3 tops took me over 2 hours.  By the time I was done shopping I was pretty well done in.  But wait..................there's more.

After returning home and putting my feet up for an hour I got busy and made the taquitos for dinner.  They were sooooo yummy.  I get 99% of my recipes from Skinnytaste. Her recipes are all calculated for WW.  There have only been a couple we have tried that we will never do again.  Pretty good since I have been using her stuff for over 3 years.  I also have all 3 of her cookbooks.  Yup, I am hooked on her.

Shortly after dinner we headed out to our Church's school for the performance of Mary Poppins Jr.  It was so cute.  It was opening night and there were a few technical issues but the kids were so professional and just kept right on performing like nothing was wrong.  Here is a photo of our little actress.

There was some padding added to her to make her look 'plump'.  The roll of Miss Brill was perfect for her too.  It was a bit of comedic relief and she pulled it off fabulously!

By the time we got home it was after 9 and all I wanted to do was grab my knitting and relax for a few whiles.  So, that is exactly what I did!

Today, there is not much on my to do list.  This might just be a sit and do nothing day until it is time to go to Mass.  I have had a headache for 3 days now and would like it to go away.  Hopefully, with some 'down time' it will abate so I can enjoy my evening at Mass and then dinner out with friends and family.

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