Day 21

Oh my.............it was such a busy day for they hubby and myself.  We left the house this morning around 10 and returned around 3.  We did get a lot of stuff done that was on my 'to do' list though.

I got my blood work done..............I was only 2 months behind in that.  It's not that I am afraid of getting the blood drawn.  I don't mind it at all.  The issue is.......the lab is not convenient to go to and I hate to sit there and wait for my turn.  I was fortunate today.  It was only a 15 minute wait and the lady that pulled my blood was quick and efficient.  I was in and out in about 5 minutes.  WOOHOO!

We left there and headed to Best Buy.  You will not hear me say the name of that store too often.  We have had issues with them in the past and try and avoid them at all costs.  But....Hubby needed a bluetooth mouse to go with his new Laptop he got from me for Christmas.  (Yes, I know it is not Christmas yet but the prices were so great right now and I needed him to pick out the one he wanted)  It also saves me from having to wrap it LOL.

From there we went to the bank.  Hubby wanted to get the $$$ for our trip next weekend.  It didn't take him very long in the bank.  I couldn't believe how quickly he was in and out.  Turns out, he did not have his driver's license on him so could not get any $$$.  I got the pleasure of going in the bank and pulling the money out.  Of course, by this time, hubby is a bit nervous about where his DL is at.  I am pretty sure I know where it is and this means he has been driving without it for almost 2 weeks! 

After that, we headed out to return some supplies that my mom had that she could not use.  The place we had to go to was quite a bit away from my 'normal area' that I travel in.  The lady there was so nice and sweet.  It was well worth the drive and my mom now has a $77 credit on her account with them.  WOOHOO.  That was a win win situation.

By this time it is lunch time.  We both are hungry and in an area we seldom go to.  I remember about a great BBQ place in the town we are in and suggest that for lunch.

This held ice cold home made root beer!  It was fantastic.  Hubby and I are still full from lunch.  Tonight's dinner may be tomorrow night's dinner.  While at this establishment, we actually got to talk to the owner.  What a pleasant and kind man.  We might just have to venture into this city again for some more good eats.

I am hoping we are on the downside of our errand running, but, no.........We stop at a special store to pick up a gallon of Worcestershire sauce so I can make my Chex Party Mix and hubby can make more jerky.  We also found the BBQ cleaning brush there that hubby loves along with a big jar of our favorite dill pickles.  Well worth the stop.

Off we went from there to get our water jugs filled with RO water, for our water cooler.  It must have been 'fill your water jugs day'.  There was a lady in front of us that had 40 gallons worth of water jugs and another gentleman that had 15 one gallon water jugs.  Our jugs are 2 gallons and we have 7 of them.  They were all empty too.  As we were finishing up our filling, another couple came in and they had 5 five gallon jugs to fill.  

Next stop..............Petco to pick up the CET chews for our dogs.  Those chews help keep their teeth clean.  It is the one the Vet recommends for our dogs.  I never worry about them splintering or choking my pups.  They get one a week and it seems to help a lot too.

After that.................the last stop was CVS to pick up my RX for my RA.  I have not really been taking it.  Since I started on the Turmeric, I have not had too much issue with my RA.  I decided to go ahead and pick it up as it is close to the end of the year and a new deductible will be hitting us January 1.  I wanted to go through the drive through but................One of our lovely winter visitors was there.  Normally not an issue but after 10 minutes I decided going inside would be quicker.  I asked them if that car was waiting for their RX to be filled and was told no......they were waiting for the pharmacist to come and talk to them.  Really?  Then why did the pharmacy tech that was filling their bottle hustle over to the window and hand them their drugs?  The pharmacist was on the other side of the room and he never did go over to the window to talk to them.  They were still there when I left!  How rude is that?  I expressed my thoughts (very nicely) and was told there was nothing they could do about that.  First semi-rude person I had met all day.

Hubs and I are now home and I am exhausted.  I did get the dishwasher emptied and have been doing a bit more research on healthy treats for the upcoming holidays.  I have gotten a couple of yummy sounding cookie recipes.  Now I am looking for sweet treats.  Not having much luck though.

The mini sweater will be worked on in a little bit while I watch some mindless TV tonight.  Tomorrow hubby has his final post op check up and we need to stop off at Costco and pick up a few supplies.  I am also going to visit my mom tomorrow so I can enjoy Thanksgiving day with the other part of my family.

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

Day 20

Good afternoon.  It has been a beautiful day here.  A gentle breeze and mid 80's for the high today.  I woke up this morning and it was 48 outside.  Love that crisp morning air.  Gets my blood flowing.

I have started on more mini sweaters.  Actually, I started on them last night.  I already have 2 done and a third one started.  I figured I needed at least 11 more of them for family and friends.  I would like to do twice that many and give them to my Prayer Shawl ladies too.  I will see how it goes.  Since we are taking a road trip next week, I will have some knitting time in the car and I should be able to complete at least 2 on the way up and on the way back.  Now that I have the pattern memorized, I don't need to look at my paper anymore.

I was asked for the pattern link...........................sorry, but the pattern I am using is from a magazine.  However............I did peruse Ravelry and found this one on there.  Very similar to mine.  For next year, I am thinking of doing other little items for trees.  Here is a bunch of mini's for the tree.  I will most definitely start earlier next year too.  

I baked a loaf of bread today.  We are  having this:

For dinner tonight.  I thought some fresh homemade bread would taste mighty good with it.  Hubby got it all in the crockpot for me as I was out visiting my mom when cooking time was supposed to start.

While at my mom's we finished this today.

Yes, I know there is a piece missing.  I found it after I had taken the puzzle apart and put it in the box.  I did add the missing piece to the box.  This is what mom and I do most of the time I go and visit.  We work puzzles together.  It gives us a common interest that she can still participate in.

Tonight, I am going to look through Pinterest.  I am looking for healthy ideas for Christmas/New Years snacks.  I want to make my own but do not want it to be so high in sugar it puts us into diabetic comas LOL.  I will make my normal Chex Mix Party Mix.  But instead of all the fudge, rolo pretzels, rice krispie treats and butterscotch haystacks, I want to find healthier alternatives.  I am sure it will be a challenge but a good learning experience for me.  I may have to email our nutritionist and ask for her assistance on this.  

If any of you have healthy ideas for me................let me know.  I am super excited to try new things this year.

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

YOP WEEK 21/ DAY 19

Time is marching along and it is getting so close to Christmas..........I have some shopping done and some crafting done.  I wish it was all done LOL.  I need to sit down and make out my list of recipients.  That is usually my best way of making sure I have everything covered. I am not making many gifts this year.  Mostly what you have already seen and those really are not gifts but just a little bit of love to be spread around.

I finished the wee sweaters that needed to be sent to Texas.  They were boxed up and shipped out this afternoon.  It should arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Hopefully, they will be met with smiles from everyone.  The black one and the one to the right of it, are for the 2 dogs, Shiloh and Bandit.  Shiloh is a black lab/boxer mix and Bandit is her biological brother who is black and white.  

I now need to get busy and make some more for my other out of town grands so they can get mailed soon also.  After all the out of towners are completed, I will make the ones for the local folks.  I think I will be making sweaters for the next couple of weeks.  I now have 2 of the patterns memorized.  The only one I need to refer to the pattern for is the Cabled sweater.

I did work on my prayer shawl for a few hours on Thursday.  Other than that, no other knitting or crocheting has taken place here.

I was supposed to get with my knitting instructor this coming Tuesday, but he had something come up so that got cancelled again.  I will give him a call after I return from our little mini vacay we are taking after Thanksgiving.

On to my other news.

My daughter called this morning and we had such a lovely chat.  I always have a smile when I get off the phone with her.  We talked about holiday baking/cooking today.  She is making a couple of my recipes for her Christmas open house she is hosting this year.  I am so proud of her and her husband.  They are such loving and caring people.  They are always there when ever someone is in need.  They make my heart sing with joy.

The rest of my day has been spent finishing up the Texas sweaters and getting it mailed off.  I had really planned on getting it out of here long before noon today but..............I really slept in.  I did not get up until after 8 and that is just not like me.  I guess all those days when I only get about 5 hours of sleep, caught up with me.

I have some general housework to do today.  We did big box store shopping on Friday and neither of us have taken the time to completely put it all away.  I will finish that up this afternoon.  Then I will be making my Christmas list and working on my journals and trying to get my meals planned for the next week.

I have managed to keep up with the laundry this past week, so I don't have to rush to do that today.  YIPPEE!!

We normally put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving.  I don't think we will be doing that this year.  I have 3 appointments on Friday, starting at 10 and going until 2. Then I need to get out our suitcases and decide what we are going to take with us to Vegas on Sunday and do any laundry that is needed.  I like to do that a couple of days ahead of the trip.  That way, we are not rushing around at midnight the night before we drive somewhere.  Hubby is a last minute packer and it drives me bonkers.  LOL

Maybe we can start our decorating on Saturday and at least get our tree up.  Then when we get home from Vegas, we can finish up the rest of the house.  This is the only holiday I decorate for and I go all out.  We collect nativity sets.  At one point, we had over 150 of them gracing our home and tree.  I have since, given a few away to family members and only put about 20 out each year.  I do switch them up each year though.  Makes it more interesting that way.  They go into every room of our home, even the bathrooms.  We believe that Jesus is the reason for the season and spread it all over our house, inside and OUTSIDE too.

Ok, need to get busy.  Hubby is watching football so this is my prime time to do a little housekeeping.  

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

Day 18

Got a quick update.  It has been a pretty low key day for me.  I mostly sat an knit on the wee sweaters.  I will have a photo for tomorrow's YOP update.

Today I have this to  show you:

This is Enrique.  He is sound asleep and snoring loudly.  He snores a lot LOL.  This looks so uncomfortable to me.

I did receive a couple of pieces of LuLaRoe in the mail this week'

This is a Maxi skirt and I love the colors in it.  The Maxi is my go to for casual and or semi dressed up.  Add a few accessories and it is very dressy.

Today I got this:

It is a top called an Irma.  I love it since it is longer in the back than the front and covers a lot of real estate.  This will go great with all my black, leggings, pencil skirts and maxi skirt.  I actually won this one which makes it even sweeter.

That is it for today.  I need to finish 2 more little sweaters before noon tomorrow. That's when they need to be at the post office for mailing.

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

Day 17

Went to a funeral this morning.  Spent 5 hours shopping afterwards.  Went to dinner with hubby.  Finally home.

This is me:

Until tomorrow.........Happy Crafting!

Day 16

Another day is coming to a close and I feel like I really didn't do much today.

This morning was Prayer Shawl ministry meeting.  It was so nice to be with the ladies and have some fun together.  I helped another lady learn to knit today too.  She swore she could not knit right handed because she was SOOOOO left handed.  I had to laugh.  I am so very left handed I hardly use my right hand for anything other than to knit with or hold my yarn with I crochet.  I worked with her for about 10 minutes and she was off and running with her yarn and needles.  The best part of this story....................she does not speak English and my Spanish is almost non-existent.  But with the help of one or our bi-lingual ladies, I was able to communicate with her.  I even put my hands over hers and showed her how to move the needles and yarn.  I believe in hand memory and it proved to be true.  Once I released my hands from hers, she was on a roll.  I still think any type of art has a universal language of it's own.

This afternoon, I visited my mom.  She is doing so much better mentally since the Doctor adjusted her medications.  It is a real pleasure to go and see her again.

I have been home for a little while and this is what has been happening:

Sweater #7 is ready for it's last sleeve and then the sewing in of the ends.  I took all the little sweaters out to show my mom and got exactly the response I was looking for.  As soon as she picked them up she put a big grin on her face.  Thinking it was just because she too is a knitter and knew what it took to make these I tried my theory out on my hubby.  I handed him all the little sweaters and as soon as he was holding them up to look at them, he got a smile all over his face too.  These sweaters are happy little creations.  I wish I could make thousands of them to brighten up the entire world.  But alas...................I will be happy to get enough done for all the grands and their significant others or parents.  I would like to get enough done for friends also and for prayer shawl ladies.  

So, if you need me I will be the one buried under a pile of sock yarn bits and pieces.  I will be easy to find though..................I will be smiling.

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

Day 15

Day 15, half way through the month.  I am truly enjoying posting daily.  I want to thank those of you who have commented on my posting also.  

First off, I need to let everyone know, the recipe for Malachi's cookies, is not a published recipe.  If you are interested in the recipe AND are a member of Ravelry, I will send a copy of the recipe to your mailbox there.  Let me know if you want it so I can send it.

Last night's dinner was quite enjoyable.  It was nice to have our daughter here for the meal and we enjoyed talking to her for a little while.  She also gifted me 8 pair of LuLaRoe leggings.  She decided she had too many leggings so cleaned out the ones she would not wear and gave them to me.  I was thrilled to receive them.  She is such a gracious and giving person.

Today, I realized, I did not have anything planned for the day.  I was so excited.  There were 2 loads of laundry that got done, a dishwasher emptied and this:

A lovely loaf of Spelt Flour bread baked in my bread maker.  The cooling rack was made by a dear friend's father.  He has since passed away but I remember him every time I bake something and cool it on one of his racks.

Hubby and I divided up a ham we had and made packages for sandwiches, ham and beans, ham steaks and ham with macaroni and cheese.  We froze it for future use.  What an easy way for me to grab and go for a dinner.

The rest of the day I worked on my little sweaters.  This is what I have completed as of this writing.

They make me smile every time I pick them up and look at them.  These will be shipped to Texas this weekend.  There will be 6 'children' there for Thanksgiving and I want each of them to pick a sweater for their Christmas tree.  I will probably have more than this ready by Saturday, but for now, I am happy that there are enough for the children to choose from.  If more are completed by Saturday, I will be sending those too.  The more the merrier.

That completes my day.  I need to go and cook dinner now as I am getting quite hungry and I am sure hubby is getting that way too.

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