Sweet Day

Don't you miss the 'old' type of Valentine cards?  They were so much more romantic than the ones you see today.  I do hope you are having a good day,  whether you have a 'valentine' or not.  Make this day special just because you yourself are special.

I finally got my car washed today.  I have been wanting to do that for over 2 weeks.  Everytime I get ready to go to the car wash, the forecast calls for rain.  The next week is supposed to be sunny and lovely.  I was also lucky that hubby decided to take his car to the car wash and then called to tell me there was no waiting.  Yup, my car is now all spic and span.  (Do they even make spic N span cleaner anymore?)

OOPS, I digress.  

So far today I have gotten a load of laundry washed, dried, folded and waiting to be put away.  My house plants have been watered and my mantle clock wound up.  I made a grocery list and sent the husband off to the store.  This gives me a bit of time to work on the shawl again.  I have about 16 rows left and I will be done.  The yarn I have left, does not look like it will make it that many rows, which is fine.  This shawl is HUGE already, but I want to use all the yarn I can.  This is stash yarn I am trying to use up.  (There is a lot of that type of yarn)  I already have another pattern ready to go for another prayer shawl when this one is done.  I am not going to make it a priority though.  I will just put it in my bag to take to the prayer shawl meetings and work on it there.  Remember, the commissioned projects are next up on my needles/hooks.

Tonight, Hubby is going to grill up a couple of nice steaks for us.  I will make baked potatoes and a lovely green salad to go with it.  There are still some of my 'from scratch' brownies for dessert.  I have a bottle of wine chilling for the occasion too. Hopefully we can find a good movie to watch to put a perfect end to a lovely day.

Do you have any sweet plans for today/tonight?  

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

Still Knitting

We had our going away pot luck at the Prayer Shawl group this morning.  Oh my, there was so much yummy food there.  Hopefully, I can get some of the recipes this time.  Last time we had a pot luck with this group, I asked for recipes and was willing to make a cookbook but only received 1 recipe from the 15 women there.  

While I was gone, Hubby cleaned half of the house.  He will finish the other half tomorrow.  What a great guy.  When I got home, I put all the cleaning rags and other towels in the washer.  They should be done shortly.

I am getting tired of looking at my Raspberry Field Shawl.  Even though I know I have not really been working on it for that long.  It feels like forever!

There are 44 more rows to go or until my yarn runs out.................which ever comes first.  Once this is done, I will work on my commissioned projects.  I want them out of the way ASAP so I can move on to more 'fun' things.  I can do about 4-6 rows an hour which means I still have about 8-10 hours left on this blessed thing. (sigh)

OK, I am done gritching.  That is taking knitting time away.

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

SUNNY AND GLORIOUS

What a glorious day it is here in Arizona.  The north part of the state is digging out from the snow they got over the past two days.  Here in the Phoenix area, we are having bright sunshine and 55F right now.  A perfect day to go for a little jaunt around the neighborhood.

 I had to wake up the Grand Dog so he could accompany me on the walk.  He needs to walk to expound some of that puppy energy he still has.

We saw some different flora today.  I am about 4 miles away from my home.  My son's home is in an HOA so I was not too sure if I would get to see too many different species.  Luckily, I did find a few different things, although, not as varied as in my neighborhood.

Oleandar getting ready to bloom.  This is one plant which will keep their flowers all summer long.  No matter how hot it gets here.  They come in white, pink and red.  All parts of this plant are toxic.  If ingested it can kill.  If burned, the smoke is toxic and can kill you too.  These are prevalent everywhere because they are such a hardy plant.  They are very pretty when in full bloom.  

Petunias!  Ours bloom quite well during the winter here.  Love the colors of these.  There are some in my neighborhood but they are either red or white.  I like the stripes on these.

This is Eremophila.  I had never heard of this plant before.  It is native to Australia's mainland.  It is drought resistant so perfect for our desert climate.  These also come in many colors. (pink, red, purple and salmon)

Flowering rosemary.  I so wanted to squish the leaves to experience the smell.  I resisted since it was not my property I was on.

And, what would be a walk in Arizona without running into a bougainvillea plant.  They are so beautiful.  Too bad they are such a dirty plant.  I am forever pulling the dead blossoms out of my swimming pool.  We don't even have one of these in our yard.  The closest one is almost a block away from us.

That wraps up today's botany lesson.

I wanted to show you what I did last night while hubby was teaching a class at church.

I made 15 flour tortillas.  YUM!  Hubby was pleasantly surprised when he came home and saw these all cooked up and ready for a late night dinner.  I also made (from scratch) my spelt flour brownies. Those are going to my pot luck brunch tomorrow.  One of the ladies in the prayer shawl group is going home and will not be returning next winter.  We will miss her.  SO, what do we do?  We EAT!

Tonight is trivia night.  Not sure how many people will be attending.  My daughter already bowed out.  She managed to break her pinky toe and the break is also dislocated. She is in a bit of pain and looking for a podiatrist to see her ASAP.  It took her primary care doctor 2 days to get back to her about her xray!!!!!  

My cousin will not be there.  The Grand is not feeling the best so she is iffy also.  Hubby and I may need to hold our own tonight.

OK, I have about 90 minutes before I need to go and pick up the grand from school.  Time to go and work on a shawl I would like to have done by tomorrow's party.

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

FLORA WALK

Yesterday afternoon it was beautiful here.  A nice temp of 72F with a light breeze blowing in.  A perfect day for a little walk to look at the flora blooming around my homestead.  Many of the blogs I follow are having the worst weather imaginable.  There is snow, tornadoes, copious amounts of rain, hail, high damaging winds and even ice storms.  My hope is in showing these photos, you will know that spring is coming with much better weather.

Let's see what is blooming around my neighborhood.

My first stop on my walk was just a half a block away from my home.  The photo on the right is the buds and the ones on the left are the actual flower of the orchid tree.  It will bloom for about a month and then be nothing other than green leaves the rest of the year.  It never looses it leaves, even in the winter.

This is a sweet acacia tree.  The photo at the top of the page is a close up of the little yellow fuzz balls on the tree.  Those yellow fuzz balls carry the strongest odor every.  It is a pungent sweet smell.  As soon as these trees are done blooming the citrus trees take over.  So our air here is filled with sweet smells from now until the end of March.

I am not 100% sure but I do think this is an evergreen pear tree.  It blooms for about a week or two and then is just a green tree the rest of the year.  It is such a gorgeous tree when in bloom.  It does offer lovely shade after the blooming is complete.  If anyone knows, for sure, what this tree is, I am happy to have you let me know.  

Although, this is not a blooming plant of any kind, I thought you would like to know, not all palm trees are 50-60 feet tall.  This is a dwarf palm.  Well, it is several dwarf palms planted close together.  This will be about as tall as it will get.  They are quite expensive and are quite susceptible to frost bite when they are young.

These are wild flowers.  There used to be many homes in the neighborhood that spread these seeds all over and it was so pretty this time of year.

Imagine waking up each morning to see this in your front yard.  Yes, this is a front yard in a home about 4 blocks from me.  I love seeing this kind of nature in the neighborhood.  The blooms will last for over a month and then die out.  The nasty part is, they turn brown and do not 'blow' away once dead.  They need to be pulled or hoed out of the yard.  But never fear, when they die, they spread their seeds all over the yard again and will germinate for the next year.

Yellow is the biggest color here in the spring time.  This is a Feathery Cassia.  It makes a lovely color spot in a yard and is quite hardy and drought resistant.  Notice once again, the yellow color of the blossoms.

Then there are the rebels.  On top is my neighbor's lantana and on the bottom is my lantana.  This plant comes in so many colors.  Yes, it comes in yellow too (lemon verbena) but I wanted purple (my favorite color).  This stuff grows like crazy and we have to trim it back every 3-4 months.  Right now it is growing over it's 15 foot by 3 foot planter and is creeping into our driveway.  We will wait until we are sure there will be no more frosts and then trim it back.  Probably around the 1st of March.

And finally, my pet peeve.  The photo on the left is the alley behind the houses at the end of our alley.  That is pig weed, rag weed and several other nasty weeds.  As soon as the rains stop that will all dry up and become a huge fire hazard.  It is the property owners responsibility to keep the alley clear of debris.  The photo on the right is the area behind our house and the house next door to us.  Notice what 5 minutes every couple of months can do.  All it takes is some basic weed killer sprayed out there and "POOF", it is all nice and clean.  We also spray the neighbor behind as she is disabled and has a hard time doing many things in her yard.

It has been raining since last night and it very soggy out today.  I will not be doing a walk outside today but will use my teeter instead.  Tomorrow I should be able to walk outside again and this time, I will be at my son's house a few miles away.  His dog and I will do a little tour of their neighborhood to see what they have blooming over there.

For the rest of today, I will be finishing up laundry for the week and working on the prayer shawl (after I finish my teeter time).  There is also a dishwasher to empty (again) and another 15 minutes of decluttering to do somewhere in the house.  What are you up to today?

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

GOING, GOING, GONE!

This is one of the favorite times of the month.  Today is Big Brother, Big Sister day.   This is the day when I rid my home of things that are no longer necessary in my life.  I may not have tons of things to put on the curb, but there are always things out there.

Today, BBBS is being gifted a kitchen trash bag of my clothes that have not been worn in 2 years.  There are also plastic lock n lock storage containers going away as well as a couple of knick knack items and last but not least, cookbooks!

The cookbook declutter was a last minute idea thanks to Sam.  She is going through her cookbooks and is making food from them to see if she wants to keep them or not.  I pulled all of my cookbooks and loose leaf recipe books off the shelf this morning.

These are all the cookbooks I own.  It may not seem like many to most of you yet, I find I hardly ever use them.  I obtain most of my recipes from Skinnytaste or from Pinterest.  That is how I have 2 loose leaf notebooks with recipes in it.  One of these days I will get those two books organized according to type of food, but not today.

I threw away copious amounts of duplicate recipes.  You see, I have my mom's 'special' recipe books and she loved to print out recipes and stick them in there.  She had 4 of the same recipes for fruitcake as well as hummingbird cake.  Not to mention all her duplicates of candy recipes.  (She loved to bake!)

When I finished I had a small pile to donate.

There is another cookbook under the Better Homes and Garden book.  It feels good to have those gone.  I now have room on the cookbook shelf for other items that need to be visible.  I can hardly believe that I used to have enough cookbooks to fill up 24 inch long shelves.  I am not down to 12 inches of cookbooks.  I did find two books that I had forgotten I had.  I have been perusing them most of the morning getting ideas for meals over the next couple of weeks.

Other than that, I plan on taking a little walk today.  It is supposed to start raining tonight and all day tomorrow so won't be walking outside tomorrow.   I want to knit some more on the shawl also.  Hubby and I have Bible class tonight.  Luckily I did study yesterday so am kind of prepared for that.

May you all have a great day today.

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

UPDATE WEEK 32

 

Welcome back.  So glad you took a few minutes out of your day to discover what is going on in my little part of the world.

There are finishes this week.  First finish ......................................................................

 Two dishcloths have been completed.  These are for my daughter to give as a wedding gift to a co worker.  She asked me to make 12 of them.  There are now 3 completed and waiting for the others to join them.  Dishcloths are my palette cleansing knit when I do not see projects coming off my needles very fast.

The other finish is..................................................................................................................

A hat for my local Grand Daughter.  She is working as a back stage tech for the school's play.  This means she helps with all the scene changes while the lights are off.  She was concerned her blonde hair would 'glow' and asked for a hat to help cover it up.  I stayed up until 2 in the morning finishing the hat so she would have it for Friday's performance.  Guess what.........................she didn't wear it!  She said it fit and she really loves the hat but...........no reason given as to why it did not go on her head that night.  KIDS!

The pattern for the hat is free from the Lion Brand website.  It is called..........................

I really enjoyed making the hat and the best part is there is no ribbing!  Now, if you are not a seed stitch fan, then you may not want to make this hat.  BUT............there are only 2 sections with seed stitch and those are only 6 rows.  That is not too bad.  It is made with 2 strands of a light DK held together.  If I make this again, I will only use one strand as I felt the fabric was a bit too stiff.  Of course, I did not use the recommended yarn for this but did find a decent substitute.  If I had used the recommended yarn it would have cost me $85 to make this hat.  Sorry, but not for a teen who changes her mind as often as the wind changes direction.  My cost was $7.  I could have chosen an even better substitute for the original yarn but, it did not come in the color black.  

The only other project I worked on this week was the Raspberry Fields Shawl.

I now have 4 of the 5 colors added on the shawl.  The last color to be added is quite close to the dusty purple already in the shawl.  I am hoping there is just enough difference you will be able to see it.  Once completed, this shawl will be donated to the Prayer Shawl ministry.  Speaking of which, I did go back to the Prayer Shawl group this week and totally enjoyed it.  I figured it was time to pull myself out of my pity party and live the life I have been given.  It was wonderful to be back.  My plan is to attend the meetings each week and become an active member again.

In other news..............................Normal life has been happening around the house.  Cleaning, laundry, groceries, bread making, menu planning, and decluttering.  

Today I have already transplanted my orchids into their bigger pots.

They look so happy to be in the bigger pots.  

Next up on the list is to make another loaf of bread.  While that is in the bread machine, I will empty the dishwasher and refill it, put the clothes away from yesterday's laundry, go through my closet and get rid of a bunch of clothes I no longer wear and then make out the menus for next week.  Hubby is teaching a class at church this morning so I have plenty of time to get all that done before he comes home.  It also gives me time to listen to my audio book without earbuds.

I need to figure out what to take for a going away brunch on Thursday.  One of our prayer shawl ladies is moving back home and said she will not be coming back next winter.  I will miss her.  She is a dear lady and so easy to talk to.  Do any of you have any ideas on what to make for the pot luck brunch?  Please leave your ideas in the comments.

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

SHORT NIGHT

It was a short night of sleep, last night.  Bedtime was 2AM this morning and I woke up at 7AM.  Yup a very short night.  Yet, I feel quite well rested.  At the moment.

The reason I was so 'late' going to bed was because of this:

The local Grand Daughter requested a slouch hat to wear as she is working backstage at her school's play.  Since she has light blonde hair, she is easy to spot in the dark, while she is doing scenery changes.  She is hoping this will help make her a bit less noticeable.  I will let you know if it works.  Hubby and I are going to the play tonight.   Tune in Sunday and I will give you the pattern info on this.  The hat took exactly 12 hours to make which included breaks for dinner, phone calls and bathroom breaks.

I did make it to the Prayer Shawl group yesterday.  It was so nice to get back there.  I really had missed the ladies there.  After the group was over, I headed to Hobby Lobby to get the yarn for the above hat.  Never fails, I find a project and I do not have the yarn for it.  Lucky for me, Hobby Lobby has ALL their yarn on sale for 30% off.  I was a good girl though, I only bought what I needed and nothing more.

Today will be a pretty quiet day.  There are plants to water, an orchid to transplant, my antique clock to wind, and of course, some knitting to do.  There could me a power nap in there somewhere so I do not fall asleep at the play tonight.

Do you have any special plans for today?

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