Day 14

Hello and welcome.  Today shows promise of being a productive day....finally.  There is a list of to do's to be accomplished.  If completed, I will be proud.

Yesterday started out as a nice quiet day for us retired folk.  I was still pretty 'meh' from the weekend.  Trying to find my mojo was not happening.  So I worked on the puzzle a bit and also did some knitting.  I did finish my scarf.

The last of the bind off happened late last night after I posted my blog.  I really do like the scarf and am hoping to wear it this winter. (If it gets cold enough)

The scarf is about 5.5 inches wide and will not get any wider.  This yarn has way too much acrylic in it to take a blocking.  That is OK.....I am still going to give it a little soak to see if it will soften up a little bit.  

Since that was completed, my socks are getting some love now.

There was only 4 rows added to them last night before I fell asleep while knitting.  I was super tired.  Even though it started out as a quiet day, I got called to teen duty around 6 so had to scramble to get ready to go pick her up and go to her house until the parental units got home.  I didn't return home until after 8:30 and was so hungry.  Made a quick plate of nachos to fill the hole.

This is why they were not able to pick up said teenager.

They finally got a new used car (Jeep).  Their 12 year old truck kept dying while being driven and the dealership could not find anything wrong with it.  They nursed it through for several months but knew it was becoming a danger to drive and ride in.  Being a one car family would not work for them either.  They tried and it just wasn't happening.  I am so happy for them.  

I got something new last week and have yet to show and tell about it.

Muffin tins!!!!!!!!  What?  You're not excited or jumping up and down with glee?  These are very special muffin tins.  This pan will fit into my Breville counter top oven.

I love my Breville and use it almost daily.  I bake bread in it, cookies, casseroles, air fry, toast and anything else you do in a BIG oven.  It also have a convection feature on it.  I have had it for over a year and love it.  The problem is finding items that will fit in it.  It is only 13.5 inches from side to side inside and about 11 inches deep.  The muffin tin is 11.25" X 9".  Perfect fit and makes regular sized muffins/cupcakes.  The best part of the muffin tin....it is made in the USA  (and non stick).  I am planning on making some breakfast muffins today to test it out.  Might do some cupcakes too if time permits.  I can take those to Prayer Shawl tomorrow for the ladies.

Need to make some phone calls and the make menus, grocery list, do some laundry as well as making muffins/cupcakes.

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

Day 13

It is late here.  Well not super late.  It is a little after 9pm.  This has been a bit of a crazy day here.  I just ate dinner about 20 minutes ago.  Not something I normally do.  There was a good reason for it.  If you will be so kind as to stay tuned, I will be more forth coming in tomorrow's post.  Right now, I just want to watch a little TV with my hubby and work on some knitting.  TTYL

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

Day 12

Hey, it got a bit chilly here last night.  I woke up to 48 degrees outside.  We had the bedroom window opened a bit.  Needless to say we were under a comforter this morning.  The house was in the 60's!  I love it!  Hubby.............not so much.

Today is bread making day.  Before I even start the bread I do this.

I lay all the ingredients out on the counter and make sure everything is up to room temperature before I put it together.  This is only the second time I have made this particular recipe.  This is what I end up with.

Gorgeous spelt sandwich bread.  A person only needs one slice of this for a sandwich.  It is quite large and a little on the heavy side. It is soooooo yummy.  My house smells wonderful.  The smell of baking bread is one of my favorite smells.  Too bad there is not an air freshener with that aroma.  I would be their best customer if there were.

Our daughter and her husband dropped by this morning for a little visit.  It was so nice to see them.  Even though we live in the same metroplex, we seldom see each other.  There is an hour drive between us.  

Hubby is off doing a couple of errands for us.  He is getting our water bottles filled for our water cooler.  He also took our pool cleaner in to see why it is not moving.  Fingers crossed it just needs some ball bearings.  

Before our daughter came over today, I managed to watch one of my recorded Hallmark Christmas movies.  During that time, I worked on my scarf.  It is so close to being done.  That makes me want to work on it monogamously so I can free up those needles.

This week's calendar looks pretty quiet.  This means more knitting time and I have other goodies I want to bake up for us.  I should have plenty of time to do this.  There will be muffins, cupcakes, and apple desserts.  Some of this will be frozen.  That way we can have some homemade goodness when we take our trip the end of this month.

Hope your day is going well.

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

Year 8, Week 20 and Day 11

Hello everyone.  Another gorgeous day here in the Phoenix Metroplex.  The sun is shining,  there is a slight breeze and the temp is heading to a high of 73 today.  Loving it!

My knitting did not get a ton of love this week.  There is not a big excuse for it either.  I just didn't pick it up like I normally do.  That being said, I did manage to get my socks up to the third pattern repeat.

One more repeat and the heel gets started.  Since I am going to do the FLK heel, I need to continue the pattern on the front of the sock while starting plain stockinette on the heel for the next inch.  Doing heels is probably my favorite part of a sock.

I got to work on my scarf yesterday while at the retreat.

 

The blue marker shows where I left of last week.  The reason it got worked on at the retreat is...............the signature needles it is on, do not make any noise when working on a project.

That is all the crafting to show for this week.  Now let's see about my:

Happy Veteran's day or Armistice Day, depending on where you live.  It is the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI!  Having children in the military makes us so much more conscious of world events/conflicts.

Yesterday was our all day retreat at church.  Oh Man!  This old lady did just fine until about 8pm last night.  By that time, my body was giving out on me.  We finally arrived home, unpacked and made it to bed by 11.  We did manage to get up early enough to make the 9am Mass.  Now we are watching football and I am getting ready to make a loaf of bread and do some research on the computer.  Other than that, knitting and watching some podcasts, it will be a quiet and restful day.

How is your weekend rounding out?

Until Next Time.............Happy Crafting!!!!!

Day 10

It is super early for me on this Saturday morning.  Especially since we were up late last night with out of town and in town family.  But we need to be at our church by 7 for the retreat.  I wanted to get this out this morning as I know tonight I will be super tired and will just want my pillow and bed.

Yesterday I made a loaf of Spelt Raisin bread.

It is very yummy and will become a regular in our home.  I gave some to my brother in law for his trip home today and I have enough left for our breakfast plus the lady at church and also our breakfast tomorrow morning.  At least I know it won't go bad before we eat it this time.  My house smelled luscious for many hours yesterday, too.

Yesterday was also clock winding day.

This is my circa 1930's Enfield mantle clock.  It is exactly like the clock my grandparents had in their home.  Every time it 'dongs' I get a little flashback to being young, carefree and playing with my cousins at Grandma's house.  I found this little beauty in an antique shop at Snoqualmie Falls, Washington.  I bought it for my 30th birthday.  So, this is a real antique now!  I had to have it repaired this year as it no longer would run.  I am so happy I did. 

That is all for today.  I need to get the food out for the fridge and ready to leave in 15 minutes.  Good thing we only live 5 minutes from our church.   I packed all 3 of my current WIP's.  I couldn't choose just one.  At least I won't be bored.

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

Day 9

It is Friday.......for many of you this is the end of your work week.  For me, it is the start of a busy weekend.  I will enjoy the weekend that is planned and can rest up from it next week.

Last night, I pulled out my 'real' camera and my book, I bought, to get it set up for this weekend.  I just did some basic settings for right now.  I will get into more detail when I start taking macro shots and playing with lighting.  Since I did that, I thought it wise to take it outside for a little test run.

Our Queen palm tree.  It just sprang up one year so we have let it grow.  It is now about 6 feet tall after about 10 years of growing.

Texas Rain Sage bloom.  Hard to see and the wind is really blowing.  Not to mention I did a poor job of focusing on it.

Purple Lantana.  Actually, I think it should be classified as a weed.  A pretty weed but weed non the less.  You can not kill these things.  They do bloom all year round though so that is nice.

As I was walking across the front yard I saw this and found a bit of humor in it.  That feather is sticking straight up.  Usually we find feathers in our pool but seldom stuck in our rocks out front.

Just getting ready to start making my cinnamon raisin spelt bread.  I hope it turns out good.  There is lady we will be with tomorrow who is gluten intolerant and I would love for her to be able to have a nice slice of bread for her breakfast.  Bet my house is going to smell lovely too.

The rest of the day we will be packing our things up for the retreat and taking time to get some extra rest.  The retreat runs from 7am until 10pm.  It is a looooong day for this old lady.  That means on Sunday we will go to Mass and then come home and collapse.  

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

Day 8

Happy Friday Eve.  It has been a super busy day for us today.  Let me fill you in on yesterday first.

My Grandson had his surgery.  The appendix had not burst or leaked but it was imminent.  It was supposed to be a quick in and out and the he would be discharged that afternoon.  The surgery was a quick in and out but (there seems to always be a but) his creatine level was slightly elevated so they wanted to give him some extra fluids to flush his kidneys.  He did go home today and is doing fine.

Bingo, last night was a bust.  Neither of us won.  We did get to watch some ladies win BIG bucks though.  ($25,000!)  It was fun and I will be agreeable to go again.  It was late, though, when I got home. (11:20pm)  When I arrived home, I discovered one of my brother in laws was there to spend the night.  We were expecting him the next day!  SURPRISE!  We stayed up talking until midnight.  My bum is dragging today!

Speaking of today.....................Hubby and I had some shopping to get done for the Retreat at our church this weekend.  We hit just a few stores;

WinCo shopping was for us.  Hubby gets his tea there and I grabbed some items for my party mix I will making in a few weeks.

Our stop at Costco was for us too.  Hubby's Dunkin Donuts coffee was on special as well as a few snacks we needed to grab for a trip we have coming up after Thanksgiving.

Finally, we went to Sam's Club and picked up 3 cases of water, pineapple spears, and potato salad for the retreat.  We were almost done by this time.  Yet, we still needed macaroni salad.  So off we went to:

Got the macaroni salad and we were on our way home.  Only spent 4.5 hours shopping.  Now my bum is really dragging.  My RA is flared up right now too so it was not too much fun for me.  I am glad we got it all completed.  That means we can relax all day tomorrow until 6pm when we go and set up the rooms for the retreat.

BTW, I did find a recipe for cinnamon raisin spelt bread.  Tomorrow will see me making that.  It is not done in the bread machine, but that is ok.  It doesn't take much kneading and if my hands are not cooperating,  I will have hubby work on it.  SHHHHH He doesn't know that yet.

There has not been time for me to get my camera set up.  I do have a point and shoot Canon that takes fabulous photos.  If I do not get the 'big' camera set up tomorrow, the little point and shoot will go with me.  It is super easy to download it too.

Time for me to put my feet up.  There could possibly be a little knitting happening today.  The needles have not been touched for two days.  Can you believe that?  I do take knitting to retreat, so there will be some progress made on Saturday.

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