FUN DAY

Happy Hump Day! Wednesday's have always made me happy.  Don't ask me why, because I have no idea.  I just like this day of the week and always have.

Since hubby and I did most of our household stuff the last couple of days, today was spent doing other stuff.  For me that means playing with craft stuff.

But let me digress a bit.  Last night, hubby taught a class at church.  While he was gone, I grabbed my new bottle of Awesome and mixed it up with water, 10:1.  I sprayed all my cabinet doors and counter tops.  WOW!  That stuff worked so well.  All the finger prints, spills and other unexplained marks were wiped away.  Love this stuff.  

OK, now on to today.  Hubby did do a couple of errands this morning and while he was gone I got my exercising in.  Then I took the bleach bottle and cut it so as to make the Bunny Easter Basket.  There is still some work to be done on the bottle but I can now start crocheting the cover for the basket although that probably will not happen until this weekend.

After lunch, I kicked back and picked up my Raspberry Fields shawl.  I now have 4 of the five colors introduced on the shawl.

I was thinking of keeping this shawl for my personal use.  After working on it for the past couple of weeks, I have decided it will go to the prayer shawl ministry at church.  The colors are very cheerful and I just think it will brighten an ill person's day.  My plan is to have this shawl done by next week's prayer shawl meeting.  

The other 'big' thing I did today was clean up all the projects I had hiding out under the end table by where I sit.  I kept 3 projects available to grab and work on and I took the other 4 projects back to the craft room until further notice.  This will make hubby so much happier when he goes to vacuum the living room.  

Just 2 minutes ago, I pulled a loaf of bread out of the bread machine.  Is there any better smell in a home than that of home made bread?  I think not.

Tonight is Trivia.  I just got a head count and we will have 4 people tonight.  Hubby, GrandDaughter, Cousin and myself will be there hoping to win again.  I will let y'all know tomorrow.

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

Road Trip? Kind of.

How is your day going?  Did you do anything fun today?  

Today was the day I decided to do all my errand running.  Here is a "quick" look as to where I went.

First item of the day................moving things in the house so hubby could clean the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and hallway.  After that, I booked it out so he could clean in peace.

 When left the house, my first stop was Dollar Tree.  Picked up a bottle of "Awesome".

Several people have told me this is the best all purpose cleaner on the market.  For $1 I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

Next stop was CVS Pharmacy.  I received a text from them that there was a prescription ready for me to pick up.  Turns out it is a topical gel for soreness caused by my RA.  I had them put it back as I got 2 tubes of it a month ago and haven't even opened them yet.  No need to spend $$$ for something I am not really using right now.

From there I headed to Hobby Lobby.  Believe it or not, I really NEEDED to pick up a couple of skeins on yarn.  I have been commissioned to make an Easter basket for our lawyer's son.

This is as close to what the basket will look like as I could find.  The client asked it to be done in Navy and White.  I have her original basket to help with the pattern.  All the yarn was on sale for 30% off at Hobby Lobby.  Win, Win for me!

I hopped back into the car and drove across the street from HL and went to At Home store.  Oh my, this is a very dangerous store to go to.  Since hubby was not with me, it was only half as dangerous as usual.  I was good and only purchased the items on my list.  

I picked up 2 of these planters.  My orchids will be going into these.  We purchased a white one, exactly like this, about 6 months ago and put my white orchid in it.  (The one that is blooming again)  My purple orchid just finished blooming so it will be transplanted in the next few days.  When the orange one is complete, I will transplant it also.  The correct potting soil is already in my home just waiting.

Back into the car and headed to Costco to pick up my new frames.  When I went to pick up my sunglasses last week, I got a nice surprise that my 'regular' glasses were also in.  WOOHOO!  As the tech was adjusting the temple of the glasses the 'arm' cracked.  Blast it!  She popped the lenses out of the new frames and put them into my old frames.  (I ordered the same frame as they have been the best fitting frames in a long time)  They did not have anymore of my frames in stock and had to order them.  I was notified yesterday, the frames were in.  

Here are the new frames.  Each frame color has a different 'swirl' pattern of the colors on them.  They are all purple and blue with clear mixed in.  (This was a no makeup day for me)

From Costco, I headed next door to WinCo.  We were very low on Ice Cream bars.  It is our one sweet we keep on hand.  While there, I picked up some bottled tea for hubby, a couple of Caesar Salad kits, Coffee creamer, Greek yogurt and a red bell pepper.

All that errand running equaled 2.5 hours of time out and about and about 30 miles of stopping and shopping.  Good thing I took the Prius out today.  Such great gas mileage.

I got home just in time for lunch.  I broke open one of the Caesar salad kits and cut up some leftover brisket and an avocado and mixed it all together.  TA DA!  A healthy lunch for the hubby and I.

Hubby teaches a class at church tonight.  While he is gone, I will hop on my teeter and have a go at some exercise.

There are 3 books on my Overdrive audio.  Those will keep me company as I exercise.  

Speaking of Overdrive.  Even though I have a local library, I am also able to borrow from the "big city" library too on the overdrive app.  I was able to go in and request which libraries I wanted to borrow from.  This is an FYI for anyone that has a small town library and would like to use the app.

I started working on my daughter's request this week.  She had asked me to make a dozen pure white dishcloths for a wedding gift.  (Due the end of April)  The Easter basket will get started this week, yet, too.  (Due the end of March)  Other than that, there will not be any other 'new' items being started.  

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

DOUBLE DRAT

Do any of you remember Dick Dastardly from the Wacky Races cartoon?  This was my feeling this morning when trying to check out an audio book.  My friend, Patricia, introduced me to the world of Overdrive.  It is a free service to check out ebooks and audio books from libraries in your area.  I have fallen in love with it.  My main item to check out is audio books.  They are perfect to listen to on my walks, while using my exercise equipment, doing laundry, cleaning house and best of all while knitting and not caring about the TV show that is on!  

This morning, I wanted to put a couple of books on my device, as I was done with all my other ones.  I kept getting this message "there is a block on this library card".  WHAT?  I went online to my local library and guess what?  My library card expired on January 24.  UGH!  Luckily I was able to renew it online but............yes there is always a but..........it takes up to 48 hours for the renewal to take effect.  Double Drat! 

I knew the card needed to be renewed each year.   It is now scheduled on my phone calendar so I can take care of that next year before I run into another wall.  

Good news!  I don't know what happened, but I was able to print to the new printer yesterday from all my devices!  It must have heard hubby say something about it fitting through a window of a tall building LOL.  Neither of us touched if for 24 hours and we think it finally decided to sync up and become the good printer it was reviewed to be.

Since we got all our household chores done yesterday, today is going to be a 'me' day.  It will involve a nice walk, maybe some weight lifting, knitting of course and looking at some recipes to add to our menu planning.

What do your Monday plans look like?  Do you think they will come to fruition?

Hey!  How about those CHIEFS?!!!  Color this family very happy they won.  About time too.

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

WEEK 31 OF YEAR 9

It is Sunday and time for me to once again update my blog.  Even though I update almost everyday, I still look forward to the Sunday updates.  Today's update will include a couple of things from the past week's updates and many new things to look at and talk about.  Let's go!

First up is a finished item

This is the Forest Path Shawl but, it is not a shawl.  This thing is well over 36 inches wide and 48 inches long (it is folded in half in the photo).  Therefore, I turned it into a lapghan.  It will go to the prayer shawl ministry at my church.  So happy to have this off the needles.  It was a great stash buster though.  I used Caron SImply Soft for this.  The yarn was gifted to me a few years ago.  

Another finished piece:

To The Point shawl.  This is my absolute favorite shawl to make for the prayer shawl ministry.  It takes less than 2 days to make this shawl.  Because of the shape of it, it stays very nicely on the shoulders.  I have made this in monotone, two tone, three colors and from the mandala cakes of yarn.  It all works.  

As you all know, I had a bad case of startitis last week.  This week I was focusing on stick- to-it-ness.  I picked one project, already on my needles, and stayed with it for the rest of the week.  Finishing those two projects satisfied my ego enough to not start anything else new.

Here is what I worked on after the I finished the other two projects:

This is Raspberry Field Shawl.  It is going to be LARGE.  There is a total of 5 colors going into this shawl.  It is a lovely and very easy pattern to work.  Garter stitch is the main body with YO's used on each side to increase the width and then there are some K2tg to form the "V" in it.  I am able to watch TV while working on this, which is a big plus.  This has kept my attention quite well and will probably be my next finished project even though it was my last cast on item.  This shawl is going to stay in my possession.

That is all for my crafting this week.  I do have some other things to show you.  Like this:

Did you know Knit Picks puts a free downloadable calendar on their blog each month?  I have been using them for over a year on my phones lock screen.  Then on my home screen I look for something that represents the month we are in.  

Here is this months home screen design.

I use 'Zedge' to find my designs.  I fell in love with this one the minute I saw it.

Hubby and I were given a sweet surprise yesterday morning.  Our son in Texas sent us these:

This is our great grandson, Liam.   He will be 2 in a couple of months.  I am hoping to get a chance to see him when I go down there in April and then again in August.  What a happy little boy.  

While hubby and I were grocery shopping the other day, he asked if I would like to have another plant in the house.  Well, of course I would.  So this lovely came home with us.

Another orchid.  This makes three for me now.  I keep them on the window sill in my kitchen.  They do need a bit of humidity and since the window sill is right above my sink, they get the humidity they need.  I have an LED light directly above them that provides just enough light for them to stay happy. 

Here is the white orchid that had started blooming last week.

It has really opened up this past week and as you can see there are about 5 more buds on this branch.  But wait, there's more!

See where the blue arrow is pointing?  That is another branch coming up and itty bitty nubs are on it that should turn into blossoms also.  I am very excited about all of this.  Never have I been able to keep plants alive for long in my house.  I now have the 3 orchids, a Christmas cactus (it is actually a Thanksgiving cactus because of the leaf shape) and a peace lily.  All of these plants have thrived in the spots I have placed them.  Unfortunately, I have run out of spaces to put anymore plants.  I might be able to squeeze 2 more orchids on my kitchen window sill, but for right now, I will enjoy the ones I have.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday for those of us in the US.  Hubby is a BIG football fan and I do enjoy a good game too.  We will be routing for the Kansas City Chiefs (since I was raised in Kansas).  There is already a brisket in the smoker for our eating pleasure.  With that will be guacamole, sauteed onions, and pasta salad.

I already have laundry going and am getting ready to put in a loaf of bread in the bread machine.  Hopefully, by noon we will be pretty much done with 'daily' chores and I will pick up my knitting.  The Phoenix Open golf tournament is on also.  We love to watch that one since it takes place close to where we live.  It is a perfect day for golf too.  The high today is going to be hovering around 80 and then tomorrow...................down into the 50's.  Welcome to the weather in Arizona in the 'winter'.

I hope all of you are staying warm and healthy!

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

Happy Birthday!

It was 46 years ago today, I gave birth to a son.  He was my first born.  I was very young (20) when I had him and he and I kind of grew up together.  I was very fortunate, he was an extremely happy baby.  Never really fussed unless he was hungry.  Was a big cuddler and made my life so much better.  

This time last year, he and I were headed to Shreveport, LA to celebrate his birthday at a casino there.  We had just watched my brother pass away, the day before, and we needed to celebrate life.  We had a great time there and it really took our minds off the sorrow we were feeling.  He is a great travel companion too.  Very easy going and ready to explore new places.  

I am truly blessed.  Over the course of the years I have given birth to 2 children and have been gifted 2 more children through marriage.  To me, they are all MY children.  From those 4 children I have been blessed with 8 grandchildren and one great grandchild.  It makes me smile just to think of all of them.

In other news, the printer is still being temperamental.  We did finally get it to print one item last night.  Today, I put something in the que for it to print.  I then did a restart on my computer and TA DA, when the restart finished, my item printed.  We still need to figure out what then main issue is so we do not have to restart our systems each time we want to print.  That is on the to do list for next week!

Tune in tomorrow to see my update.  I have quite a bit to show you.  There will be photos of crafts, plants and people.  

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

PS:  Becki, yes my glasses are progressive lenses.  I could never adjust to the lines in                  bifocals.