Lots of Energy

 

I had a glorious nights sleep last night.  When I woke up, I had a lot of energy.  That is a good thing as I did not do hardly anything this weekend.

Well, that is not exactly true.  I did do a few things this past weekend.  After

all, I had a teenager staying with me for most of it.  Teenagers have lots of energy and love to 'do' things.  So, this weekend Josie and I did life skills training.

First off, she and I went to the At Home store.  This can be a very dangerous store to go to if you like to browse items for your home.  Even if you don't need anything, this store will tempt you with so many fun decorating things.  Luckily, I only needed a pot to plant the white Thanksgiving cactus shoots my daughter gave to me about 2 months ago.  I have had them rooting in a jar of water and their roots were nice and big so it was time to plant them.  Of, course while there, we did manage to peruse the entire store, just in case we needed something we didn't know about.

I escaped that store with only a pot for my cactus and then the next stop was Josie's choice of Barnes and Nobel.  This kid loves to read.  I am glad to see her always with a book or two in her backpack in case she has time to slip in a page or two while waiting somewhere.  She found two books that had been on her booklist for over a year.  I, on the other hand, did not find one book that grabbed me.  That is ok, as I still have 3 audio books to complete in the next two weeks.

Once we got back home, we ate lunch and then headed outside to do some repotting of plants.

I repotted my newest orchid in a pot I used to have another orchid in.  I hope it lasts longer than the last one did.  It is sad to see a plant die when you have gone to great pains to treat it well.

Then we put the Thanksgiving cactus in it's new pot.

Is that not just the cutest pot you have ever seen?  Who would have thought a giant cup and saucer would be so cute as a planter?  It is sitting in the same window as my red/pink Thanksgiving cactus.

This think has been in full bloom since December and does not show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.  I love looking at it when I am in my craft room.  It brings me great joy to see it happy and blooming.

Once we were done with that, Josie asked me to show her how to do a couple of 'life skills' she thought she might need in the future.  I love it when she thinks about things she will need when she moves out on her own.

First thing on her list was how to sew on a button by hand.  I should have taken a photo of the needle she chose to sew with.  It was a 2-3 inch long needle I use to sew very thick fabric with.  I let her got with it.  But it was pretty funny watching her work with that huge thing.

Then she wanted to refresh her memory on how to sew on a sewing machine.  Her other Grandmother showed her how to use one several years ago.  So this was more or less just working with her and she actually made something this time.

She is sewing a face mask for school.  They are still requiring face masks there and they can only be solid colors.  She like black ones as they go with her uniform quite well.  She did a pretty good job on sewing this up.  It did take her an hour to make one but that is ok.  She is learning and that is what is important.

For dinner last night, we threw some burgers on the grill and her parents came over and joined us for dinner and then took her home with them.  It was so nice to have us all together for a meal again.  It has been way too long.

Since I woke up with so much energy today, I decided to tackle all the chores I have postponed for a while.  There were 3 loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away.  The guest room got finished with it's declutter and the photo printer got moved out of there and put into it's new permanent placement.  I went through everything in our fridge and dumped all expired items and made sure any leftovers from this weekend are available and will be used up.  I still need to prep for our last adult education class which is tonight from our church.  That will take up most of my afternoon.  Then I can relax for the rest of the day.

So, what did you do with any energy you might have had today?

Until next time..................................................

YOP Week 39 and Much More

 

Here I am again.  Time for me to update my blog and regale you with stories of craftiness as well as life in general.  So grab you favorite beverage, sit back and read on.

CRAFTING

I have finishes again this week.

The garter stitch dishcloth got completed on Tuesday.  I am in love with this yarn I am using.  It is sugar wheel cotton from Hobby Lobby.  It is so soft and stays that way even after washing and using.  The yarn is DK weight so a bit smaller than the Sugar and Cream I normally use for dishcloths.  I am able to get between 5-7 dishcloths from a skein, depending on the pattern I use.

The ripple lapghan was completed on Tuesday also.  Sorry for the less than stellar photo but it was early morning and hardly any natural light.  I was able to use up 8 of my remnant skeins of yarn.  If you look very closely, you can see where one color ran out and I started using another color that was just a few shades off. This was a great project for using up those partial skeins.  I have many more partials skeins so am planning on another project to use them up also.  

Once those two projects were completed I cast on a pair of socks.

This is my favorite pattern, "Car Socks" that I use for 90% of my socks.  It is basically a plain vanilla sock but I love the heel she does on this.  The yarn is Harmony Sock yarn from Brazen Stitchery in the colorway Margaritaville.  It will have a contrasting heel and toe.  This will be the first time I have ever done a contrasting heel/toe so am watching YouTube to see how it is done.  Who knew there were so many different ways to do contrasting heels and toes!

Not wanting to have only one new project, I also started another cross stitch.

This is another cross stitch my daughter had purchased and gave to me to work on.  I remember now why cross stitch is so slow going. It does not make a good TV viewing project.  Most of my crafting is done in the evenings when hubby and I are watching TV.  Guess I will just need to find a bit of time during the day to sit and work on this as well as my Madonna and Child cross stitch I started some time ago.

In all honesty, I have not picked up my knitting nor my cross stitch in a couple of days.  My RA decided to flare up a bit on Friday and Saturday and really messed with my hands and wrists.  It is so much better today though.  So, I will be working on these projects again.

LIFE

This past week I was on dog duty for three days.  All of my kids have dogs and all of their dogs have such unique personalities.  Just like kids do.  This week Thor and I hung out for a few days.  He has graduated from being kenneled when his humans are gone, to having full reign of the house.  He has never destroyed anything, even as a puppy.  Even so, he still needs a bit of human contact in the 11 hours while his humans are out of the house.  I went down and spent about 4 hours each day with him.

He wanted a selfie taken!  He is quite the character, isn't he?

I always ask my daughter in law if there is anything I can do for her while I am there.  Normally it is just doing dishes for her.  This time I got to make some pans of Cheesy Mostaccioli for her.  She and my son were preparing to head up north with friends for the weekend.  They were responsible for Saturday nights dinner.

It was nice to be able to do something for her.  Plus, we got the privilege of having our grand daughter overnight on Saturday night.  Shhhhh, she is still sleeping.  

I have big plans for her and I today.  We need to go and look for a decorative pot to plant my white Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus in,.  My daughter gave me a cutting from hers.  It has been rooted in a glass of water and is now ready to plant in dirt.  I also need to repot one of my orchids into a bigger pot.  I have the pot for that but just need to get it done.  Then I bought some material for more face masks.  I know the face mask mandate has been lifted here in Arizona but.........................99% of all stores are still asking that you continue to wear your mask.  Grand Daughter also asked if I could make her a couple more black masks for her to wear to school.  She is back to full time in person learning.  That should keep us plenty busy for today.

While we are busy with all those fun activities, hubby is going to be doing a zoom class on the Shroud of Turin.  It is being made available to our entire church congregation.  He does this presentation every year on Palm Sunday to help prepare us for Holy Week.  Last night he gave a 'reader's digest" version to Josie.  She was totally fascinated by it.  I think that means he will be a hit today with the people who decide to tune in for his presentation.

This coming week looks nice and calm.  I am hoping to get back to finishing up my decluttering of the house.  I only have 1 closet and 2 rooms left to work on.  I would love to get it done so hubby and I could start on the Arizona room declutter.  That room is going to take a bit of time.  Once that is done, it will be the 2 sheds in our back yard that will need attention.  Those may need to wait until this coming fall/winter.  We are already starting to get up to the 90's and that makes it just a bit too warm to be working outside for any length of time.   I am so not ready for the heat to hit yet.  I was hoping to make it through April in the 70's and 80's.  Not thinking that is going to happen.  (Sigh)

Time to get this day started.  I hope you had a wonderful week and this coming week will be a great one for you too.

Until next time..........................Happy Crafting and Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

WEEK 38 AND OTHER STUFF

 

Here we are again.  It is so nice to have you here.  I have quite a bit to talk about today, so let's get going.

CRAFTING

There are several finished items this week.  It felt good to actually accomplish something.

This little cross stitch has been languishing in my WIP pile for 6 months.  After I finished it, I could not decide what to do with it.  It only measures 3" X 4".  Pretty tiny, right?  Then it came to me......make it into a bowl pillow.  I had seen other YOP bloggers do this and thought it would be fun.  I have plenty of material from all the masks I have made.  It was so easy to make.  I gave it to my daughter since she is the one that had originally bought the kit.  She loves it and is going to give it to a special friend.

Next up:

Prayer shawls in the "To the Point" pattern.  These are such a quick crochet project to make.  All three were started and finished since last Sunday.  They are now in the hands of one of the  Prayer Shawl ladies at our church.  Our prayer shawl meetings, at church, were cancelled last year, due to Covid.  Some of the ladies still meet in a private home but I have not attended those meetings.  I still enjoy making shawls for them and they are still mailing them out all around the world to those in need of comfort.

With all those finishes, I needed something more to do.  

I started another dishcloth.  This one will just be in plain garter stitch.  Nothing fancy.  My daughter stopped by my house on Friday and took home 3 cloths with her.  I have replaced 4 cloths in my kitchen and last month gave several cloths to my dearest friend in Las Vegas.  It is time to start building up the cloth stash again.

There seems to be a plethora of worsted weight yarn scraps in my stash.  What to do with them?  How about making a "Ripple Lapghan" for the prayer shawl ministry.  The lapghans are so nice and can be used by anyone.  So, I started this last night while watching some Hallmark Mystery movies.  What a great TV project.  No real brain power needed other than being able to count to 6.  Hopefully, this will use up quite a bit of my leftover worsted yarn.

There was a new puzzle started this week too.

Times Square is the name of it.  So far, I only have the border completed.  The colors in this is the reason I chose it.  It may take me a while to complete it.  The pieces are super small.  But then, there is no rush to do it.

That is all on the crafting front this week.

READING

I finally have started back to listening to audio books.  They are the perfect companion while I workout.

This is the current book I am listening too.  It takes place during the depression and covers areas from Ohio to Kentucky.  I won't tell you much more than that.  It is not a 'heavy' book by any means.  The narrator is excellent and very easy to listen too.  

My go to app for audio books is Overdrive.  It is linked to your local library and all books are free.  You can 'rent' up to 10 books at a time and also put books that are not 'in stock' on a waiting list and you get contacted via email when they are available.  You have 21 days rental on each book starting with the day you rent them.  Hubby has also gotten this app and loves it.  He listens to books while cleaning the house and doing yard work.  The app is very easy to use too.  You can search for books by author or title.  There are filters so you can search by genre too.  Very easy to use.  It is not all audio books either.  In fact, most of the books on there are ebooks.

LIFE

This also happened this week.

My husband let Josie drive his new car!  Our thought is, she needs to be able to drive all sorts of cars, not just the ones in her driveway.  She is actually a pretty good driver for only being at this for a month.  She really liked driving this car with all it's bells and whistles on it.  And yes, this is at night time.  She was not too appreciative of the flash photo....even though she was at a stop sign.  LOL

This coming week we will get our third and final estimate for replacing our guttering.  I will be so happy to finally get that process going.  We don't get that much rain here, but when we do, we get downpours.  With gutters we can decide where the run off goes.

Also, coming this week will be teen/dog duty for myself and hubby.  Josie starts back to 'in person' school this week.  Her dad is traveling on business and her mom works too.  So, we will be doing transportation of the teen and also keeping the dog company a few hours each day so he doesn't get bored.  The dog (Thor) is no longer being put into a kennel when they are gone from home.  He is doing quite well with having the run of the house.  (They also have cameras set up so they can watch him)  Dogs and kids grow up so fast these days LOL.  

I am still taking my BFF to her PT appointments this coming week.  Not sure how much longer that will be happening.  It has been nice to have some alone time with her during the drive.  We get to catch up on all sorts of stuff. 

Springtime has hit here.  We slept with the bedroom window opened last night.  How nice to be able to do that again.  Flowers are blooming around town.  The trees are all leafed out.  Citrus trees are getting their blossoms and man, do they smell lovely.  We are in the 70's and 80's during the day and in the 50's at night.  Perfect weather for our spring training baseball teams that are here.

That is all for this Sunday.  I hope your day is full of love and laughter.

Until Next Time........................................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to see what other crafters are doing, join us on Ravelry here!  

A Day Off

 

Hubby and I have been binge watching 'Longmire' on Netflix.  Last night, we only had 4 episodes left to complete the series.  We decided to stay up and finish the series.  It was soooo good.  Unfortunately, that meant we were up until 1:15 this morning.  Was it worth it?  You betcha!

That meant, we did not get up very early this morning.  I crawled out of bed about 7:30 and hubby was about an hour behind me.  My first job of the day was to call a gutter company to get another estimate on the replacing of our destroyed gutters.  I got lucky and was able to get a local small company to come out and give us an estimate today.  That means we now have 2 estimates and will be getting our third one the end of this month.  

After the estimation was done, I looked around and realized, I really did not have anything pressing today.  So, what to do with a day off?  How about go to the post office and mail off a dragon and frog to Texas?  Shoot, that didn't take very long.  So, why not head to JoAnn's and look at patterns to see if there was anything that sparked my interest.  Nope, nothing interesting in the pattern books.  Time to head back home.  But wait, there is a Ross store on the way.  Why not stop and see what they have in the way of spring/summer clothing.  UGH!  Nothing that jumped out at me.  NOW, it was time to go home.

So, now what?  

This, is my happy spot.  I have my latest crochet project, a tall bottle of cool water, my ear buds, dog nail clippers and my laptop.  This is where I spend my time when not on the move with my 'to do' list.

Oh, the dog nail clippers?  The are not ALWAYS in my happy place.  But, today, is doggy pedicure day.

Mr Enrique's nails are done.  I am surprised he is willingly laying next to me.  He does not like to have his nails clipped.

Miss Luna is trying to make me think she is too tired to be bothered with a pedicure.  Hubby will need to hold her for me.  She is such a wiggle worm during pedicures.

The rest of the afternoon is being used to watch my recorded shows I have been ignoring for almost a month.  I would be outside crocheting but the weather is overcast, breezy and a bit too cool for my liking.  Perfect indoor crocheting day.  Dinner tonight is leftovers.  Yup, a real day off!

What are you up to today?  

Until next time.........................................................................

WEEK 37 OF MY YOP

 

It is still dark outside and my house is very quiet.  Hubby and the dogs are still sound asleep.  I have a lovely cup of 'sweet and spicy' tea next to me.  This seems like the perfect time to kick back and update my blog.

CRAFTING

I finally made the decision to frog one of my languishing WIP's.  It was my Kid Silk Haze Shawl.  It just was not 'speaking' to me.  The lace weight alpaca yarn has been put back into my stash.  Someday it will be used to make something very lovely, just not today.  That leaves me with only 1 old WIP.  The jury is still out on what I will do with that............finish it or frog it.

Speaking of frogs.........................

Fred the frog is completed and in a box with his dragon buddy.  They are  ready to be shipped to Texas.  The pattern was pretty easy to follow, although, I did make one slight change.  I made the body and head as one piece.  The instructions called for you to bind off for the body and then pick up stitches for the head.  The way I did it made it much easier.  There are supposed to be 'toes' on his feet and hands but after completing the first set, I was not pleased with the way they looked and opted for a toeless frog.

Other than Mr Fred, I really did not have any interest in knitting or crocheting.  Yet, when I watch TV in the evenings with the hubby, I do not like my hands to be idle.  So.......

Another DW dishcloth was completed.  It was made with some leftover cotton yarn I found laying around.  Not sure if this is Sugar and Cream or some other brand.  Everyone needs a bright red dishcloth, right?

The only other item I worked on this week was the puzzle I started a couple of weeks ago.

This was so much fun to do.  This was my daytime project.  It was perfect for when I was doing laundry or baking.  So much easier to interrupt a puzzle than a knitting project when things need to be taken out of the oven or dryer.  I love puzzles with lots of colors in them.  Unfortunately, most of the other puzzles I have do not have this much 'interest' in them. 

That is all of the crafting that got done this week.  I have absolutely no plans for the coming week as far as knitting or crocheting are concerned.  Nothing is sparking my interest at the moment.  Maybe I will make a prayer shawl or two this next week.  Who knows.

In other areas of my life.....................I recieved some goodies in the mail.

 As you know, my daughter is a Pampered Chef consultant.  She has been having parties lately to help with charities.  Her nephew wanted to have a party to help a charity in his hometown.  It helps people suffering from poverty and homelessness.  Since there is always something in their catalog I think would be fun in my kitchen, I ordered the above items.

Of course you can see the big item is the doughnut pan.  I have a silicone one but am not happy with the way the doughnuts turn out.  Hopefully this pan will be much better.  There are two angled cleaning brushed that my hubby loves when cleaning tight areas like sink faucets and corners of grout.  The blue items are the new 'pan' scrapers.  They are redesigned and actually were a gift from my daughter for being such a good customer LOL.  The scoop is for making cookies.  So many of my recipes call for the cookie to be made into a ball.  I get tired of my hands being all guncked up and this will solve that issue.

I am still shuttling my BFF back and forth to her PT appointments twice a week.  She is doing so much better.  I have a feeling my days as a chauffer are coming to an end pretty soon.  I have also managed to get back into a regular exercise routine.  It has increased my energy level as well as helped with some of my strength issues.  Even after just one week of regular workouts, I can tell a difference in my stamina and strength.  Especially in my legs and lungs.

I did need to go to the Dr this week.  Seems I had an bit of a reaction to my Pfizer vaccine.  I broke out in a rash all around my neck and upper chest.  It was extremely itchy and hot to the touch.  I asked the Dr if it could be related to the vaccine as it showed up 6 days after our second dose.  He thought it probably was but could not say for sure.  This happened to me after my first dose too but only lasted for 2 days.  This time it hung around for 5 days.  He told me to take an antihistamine (Zyrtec) and also gave me an RX for some steroids.  I decided to try the antihistamine first as I really don't like what steroids do to me.  TA-DA!  It cleared up in one day!  I am reporting the reaction to the CDC as well as to our local health department as they are asking for this type of info.  Still, it is much better than having the actual virus!

We started back to Trivia last week.  It has been one year since our last Trivia meet-up.  It is now done electronically and was really so much more fun that way.  Our team came in second place!  I think a lot of that had to do with the fact we had a teenager on our team.  Thanks Josie!  We will go again this week on St Paddy's day.  Wonder if they will be serving green beer?

While most of the USA lost an hour last night, we here in Arizona did not.  We do not observe Daylight Savings Time and that makes me happy.  My only problem is remembering the time difference in other areas when I go to make phone calls.  

If you had to change your clock, how long does it take for your body to readjust to the new time?

Until next time....................................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 36 AND OTHER NEWS

 

Hey there!  Nice to have you visiting today.  The past week was another crazy week for my household.  Let's take a look and see what happened, okay?

CRAFTING:

I have three FO's this week.  Don't get real excited about it though.  It was just my palette cleanser dishcloths.

 A new to me pattern called "copycat dishcloth".  It is made with Sugarwheel Cotton from Hobby Lobby using a size 8 US (5.0mm) needle.  I use a bigger needle than called for as cotton shrinks after washing and drying.  The yarn is so nice to work with.  It is super soft and not rough on my hands like sugar and cream is.  

These two cloths are my DW dishcloth. (Pattern is no longer available)  They are from the same skein of yarn as the above cloth.  I have enough yarn in the skein to make another two or three cloths.  Not too shabby to be getting 5-6 dishcloths from one skein of yarn.  I get the yarn when it is on 30% off so it is only a little over $4.

I decided on a pattern for my grand daughter's frog.  Thanks to Sam, I decided to make "Ribbit" by Susan B Anderson.

I know it kind of looks like a cat at the moment.  Once I get his eyes, mouth and limbs attached, I promise he will look like a frog.  The two bumps on top of his head are his eye sockets.

Here is one leg with foot.  I also need to make toes and attach them to the foot.  He should be completed by the end of today or sometime tomorrow.

Spring Fever has hit me hard!  I am not sure what I will work on after this.  I am really not in the mood to work on any of my WIP's.  There are two WIP's started years before the beginning of this YOP and 1 I started at the beginning of this YOP.  The two 'older' projects are probably going to be heading to the frog pond this week.  I have not touched either of them for over 1-2 years.  I pulled them out the other day and realized I disliked both of them.  The yarn will be used in another project sometime.  The WIP I started this year is a for the prayer shawl group.  I will continue to work on it as it uses up my sock yarn scraps.  I knew it was going to be a work in progress when I started it.

Then, there are the Victorian squares I started making again a month ago.  Those will continue on also.  They are very much like making a dishcloth.  A good palette cleanser.  I also knew, when I started on them, they would be a long term WIP.

That is all for my crafting today.  

IN OTHER NEWS:

Hubby and I got our second dose of the Covid Vaccine.  We received the Pfizer vaccine.  We had been warned that the second dose could produce some side effects.  We were prepared for the worse and this is what happened.

That is my arm at the injection site.  It is the same reaction I had as when I got the first dose.  Other than that, we were just a bit more tired than usual for the next couple of days.  No headache, fever, or body aches.  Hubby didn't even have a mark where his injection was, just a bit of a tender arm for a couple of days.  The most painful side effect was the broken windshield we got on our new car from the drive to the injection site!

Yup, as we were driving the 37 miles to get our shot, an 18 wheeler threw a rock that hit our windshield and left a nice crack in it.  We were not going to worry about it right away but.....The crack started to spread rapidly and is now covering the entire passenger's side of the windshield.  Hubby called the insurance company and we need to wait 5-7 days for the replacement.  WHY?  Because our car is brand new off the assembly line this year and no one has our windshields in stock.  It had to be ordered from a dealership and they had to get it from the factory.  Then once it is installed, another person needs to come out and recalibrate our 'safety' features that are in the windshield.  

But wait, there is more.  We had one of our famous Arizona windy days on Tuesday.  There were steady 40MPH winds with gusts up to 70MPH for well over 12 hours.  The morning after the windy day we woke up to half of our rain gutter being pulled off the back of our house, twisted and sloping into our yard.  Hubby was going to go and attach it back to the house when he discovered it was twisted and would not straighten out.  We have a guttering expert coming out this week to give us an estimate on replacing the 30 year old guttering.  Our insurance covers that too.  On a positive note.............our roof shingles were just fine after the windstorm.

I have been working with my sourdough starter this past week.  I made a loaf of Honey Wheat sourdough bread, sourdough molasses cookies and sourdough blondies.  I will be getting the starter ready again today to make another loaf of bread.   Not sure what kind I will make yet (wheat or white).  Since it takes 24 hours to make a loaf, I have plenty of time to decide, right?  Thank goodness for my sweet friend in Las Vegas.  We both are kind of new to the sourdough craze and do a lot of bouncing ideas off of each other.  We discuss our victories and our failures with the dough.  She has helped me get confident about trying new things with my starter.  What a blessing she is to me.  My hubby thanks her too.  He is loving all the items I am making LOL.

Other than  that, it has been a normal week of laundry and cooking.  I did get a chance to do Josie's hair for 'premier' night at her theater group. ( Instead of doing live performances, they are filming them and then watching them on a premier night.)  I also got to take my BFF to her PT appointment again.  She is doing so well and I think she will be back to her normal routines in just a couple more weeks.  She has handled her shoulder surgery better than anyone else I have known who has gone through this.

Today I will be finishing up this weeks laundry, making menus and a grocery list, working on a puzzle I laid out on Friday and maybe even give our dogs their springtime bath.  SHHHHH, don't tell them though.  It is not their favorite activity.

What is going on in your area?  Has springtime come knocking at your door yet?

Until Next Time.....................................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!