WEEK 6 YOP

Happy Sunday everyone.  How is the day treating you so far?  Once again, hubby and I were up at 5am so we could attend 7am Mass.  Now we have the whole day ahead of us to do what we want.  👍

Let's talk about the past weeks crafting pursuits.  I do not have any finished items this week unless you count these.

A couple more face masks for hubby and myself.  

I did start another project this week.

Not much was done on it.  This will be the Madonna and Child counted cross stitch I purchased a couple of months ago.  It is going to be a long term project.  Look at the stitch guide.

There are 31 different colors used in this project as well as beads.  Yup, long term project.

To be truthful, I actually started 2 new projects this week.

The Havana afghan has been started.  I have added extra stitches to it since this is being made to go on a twin bed.  This has been on my wish list for over a year.  I am using one color for the base (navy) and then have 7 other colors to accent it.  It is super addictive to work on.  Instead of doing the crochet border I choose to do the twisted braided fringe.

The yarn being used is "I Love This Yarn" from Hobby Lobby.  It wears so well and is not a scratchy acrylic like many can be.  I had 3.5 skeins in my stash that I am able to use for the blanket.  Unfortunately for me, 80% of my stash is fingering weight yarn.  I tried a swatch with fingering weight and realized it would take me YEARS to complete a blanket the size I wanted.  So, worsted weight is what I choose to use.  Since most of my worsted weight has been used up in prayer shawls, I was forced to purchase yarn for this project.  

I did work on hubby's socks a bit this week.

The needle is where I left off last week.  I need to catch the other sock up to this one.  I did decide to do the Hermiones Everyday pattern.  It makes for good TV watching knitting.

I also got my Wolf Lichen shawlette blocked.

It is now in my closet waiting for a chance to wear it.  

Someone got new glasses this week.

She was so excited.................she can see real good now LOL.  Her dad continues to take her out, a couple times each week, and works on her driving.  He thinks she will be a pretty good driver by the time she gets her license.  

As for my other grandchildren.....................I just informed their parents I was in need of photos of them.  We have not seen any of them since May 2019!  With the way things are going it may be middle of next year before we will be doing any long distance traveling.  This virus needs to take a hike!  

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

ALL DONE

 

We have finished lunch and are now on the downside of our day.  I am happy to say......we have completed our 'to do' list for today.  I might also add..............I finished everything I set out to do this week and then some.  Color me a proud Mimi!

I got started early this morning.  My first order of business was to call the MVD (motor vehicle department) to pay my registration and to order a new license plate.  The trick is, my license plate is a 'choose life' plate and I love it.  The numbers on it have great meaning for me (even though I did not pick them).  I wanted to see if they could replace the plate and give me the same numbers on it.  Ta-Da!  They were able to do that and my new plate will be here in 6-8 weeks.  In the mean time, they gave a paper plate to seal and put on the back of my care.  I will laminate it this afternoon and get it screwed into the plate holder on the back of my car.  That call took me just over an hour.  Crazy, right?  

Besides the phone call, the indoor plants got watered, the antique clock got wound, two loads of laundry got completed, items in the family room got moved for hubby to clean.  Then the fun began.  I headed into my craftroom so hubby could mop floors.

Our A/C guy came out to make sure our unit was working properly.  They do this twice a year.  I was glad they came too.  For some reason the humidity in our house has been running very high (39-54%) while it is only 10-25% outside.  They adjusted the motor a bit and that should help out.  While the service guy was here, the dogs got the pleasure of being locked into the craftroom with me. 

While being locked in the craftroom, I decided to make more face masks.

These are for me.

These are for hubby.  We figure the mask mandate will be lasting for quite a while.  Therefore, we are making sure we have several masks in each of our cars (cause we are good about forgetting to grab one when we leave the house) and I also have several in a Ziploc close to the back door.  In actuality, I kind of enjoy making these now.  They are a fairly quick project.  When I make more than one, I do it in kind of an assembly line fashion.  It seems to go quicker that way.

When hubby came to release the dogs and me from the craftroom, I spotted something and thought "why not".

I have not worked on any counted cross stitch for a while now.  This one is not going to sew itself, right?  So, I got the center of the Aida cloth marked, straightened out the mess of floss that was in the kit with it and am now ready to start working on it this afternoon.  Beside, I only have 5 knit/crochet projects on the go.  

There is another project I really, really, really want to start.

The Havana Afghan!  After seeing the two Maria made, I have been really wanting to make this.  I finally bought the pattern this past Saturday and it is making me nuts.  How nuts, you ask?

All this scribbling is me figuring out how many yards of yarn I will need for either worsted (Aran) of DK weight yarn.  It also is me figuring how much this project is going to cost.  Then there is trying to figure out what colors I am going to use.  So once I got my conversion of meters to yards.................I was off and running with all sorts of ideas.  Then I need to decide if I want to do a border or have fringe for the edges.  The fringe makes me think of the way the Latino culture makes their items. (ie. ponchos, serapes, blankets etc)  I have chosen my colors and now just need to make a short shopping trip to Hobby Lobby to grab the yarn and get the heck out of there.  I was going to order it online and do a curbside pick up but I do not see where they offer that option.  I may make a quick run there yet today...........maybe.............

not sure I want to go out in the heat....................I have plenty of other projects to work on........

do I really NEED another WIP?  Oh my conscious is talking to me.

This is what it feels like right now LOL.

Tonight we are having empanadas with our leftover Picadillo.  It is a quick and easy meal and can be made in the air fryer.  I make a 2 ingredient dough for the crust.  It is made with 1 cup self rising flour and 1 cup of 0% greek yogurt.  I use this dough to make bagels, monkey bread and other dough items.  It is an old Weight Watchers recipe.  It kind of has the flavor of sourdough bread too.

Wow, this post got much longer than I expected.  I won't be posting tomorrow.  Since I completed all my weekly goals, I am going to spend tomorrow working on my crafting project and the same for Sunday.  

Until next time.................happy crafting & stay well!

Day 4

I can not believe it.  This is the fourth day I have been productive.  Actually, I am still doing some stuff but took a break to eat lunch and blog.

My morning started about 6:30.  Don't get any wild ideas that I start working at that time of day.  Silly people!  The first couple of hours are spent doing my morning prayers, devotions and going through my social media.  

First up on my to do list was getting the bathrooms and kitchen/dining room ready for hubby to clean them.  We slacked off last week and did not do our normal cleaning.  The amount of dog hair rolling around my house was crazy.  Hubby was looking forward to cleaning today as we got him a new toy.  I had seen one of these on an infomercial and was very impressed with it.  This one is a bit different than the infomercial as the dirty water goes into a separate place away from the clean water.  He said it was so much easier with this bucket system.  Hooray for making his life a bit easier.

While he was busy doing house work I took off and got our water cooler bottles refilled.  When I got home I got busy with all those piddly little chores I keep putting off.  Both of the light bulbs in our carport burned out.............replaced those.  (let me just say, I am not a fan of climbing ladders but I did it anyway)  The pool automatic fill was not working again so I grabbed my plunger and went into the pool and plunged the snot out of it.  So much dirt, leaves and nasty stuff came out this time.  Hopefully this will fix it for good.  It was wonderful upper back and arm exercise LOL.  (I just might have spent a little time just relaxing in the water too)  The next item was replacing all the air freshener cans in our automatic air fresheners.  My house smells good now!  Once hubby finished his cleaning, I got all the towels in the washer and that is still running.  Hopefully it will get done soon so I can get them dried before our energy savings time goes off at 3.

There were treasures in the mail this week.  No..............not the cleaning bucket.  These were for me!

My sister in law had the greatest wallet!  After she left, I went in search of one like hers.  Looking for a double zipper accordion style wallet in leather was not an easy task.  It took me several days to find one and then I wanted a color that was bright and pretty.  No black wallet for me.  The inside of a purse is already dark.  No need to put a dark wallet in a dark purse!

This is NOT the inside of my wallet.  Just wanted to give you an idea of how much it holds.  And, yes, my Samsung 9S plus fits inside of my wallet too.

Amazing, right?  You can tell it is not my wallet by the $100 bills in it LOL.

So, if you get a new wallet, it just stands to reason you get a new purse.

Ta-Da!  Baggallini is a brand I had used in the past.  The nice thing about them is.................they are super light.  This one only weights 8 ounces.  My shoulders will thank me for that!  They are also washable if needed.

BTW..............I am still getting used to Blogger's new platform.  UGH!  I hate change and this really messes with my mind.  I already looked in Wordpress and that seemed confusing to me too.  I am not a quitter.........I will continue to persevere!

Until next time..................happy crafting & stay well!

PS:  Our covid numbers are going down rapidly!  FINALLY!  Please maintain physical distancing, wear a mask and wash your hands!  Thank you.

Midweek

Do y'all remember the commercial the above meme is from?  It was one of my co-workers favorite Wednesday sayings.

Not much going on here today.  Hubby and I hit the grocery store this afternoon.  Even though it is super hot outside, it was nice and cool in the store and not a lot of people in there (because of the heat).  We were blessed to run into our Godson and Goddaughter!  What a treat for us.  We had not seen them for over a year.  Our Godson is now 6 feet tall and only 15 years old!  Our Goddaughter is pregnant with her second child and attending school to become an nurse.  They grow up so quickly.  

Otherwise, we have taken it kind of easy today.  I did empty the dishwasher and got dinner in the crockpot earlier in the day.  Tonight we are having Picadillo.  So yummy and so many ways to serve it.  Here is the link to the recipe.  The leftovers will be made into Empanadas on Friday night for dinner.

Remember when I showed you the yarn I was going to try and use to make a mosaic lapghan?  Well, the colors looked fantastic together but using fingering weight yarn was not making me happy.  And, this is the year I only make what makes me happy.  I will stick to using worsted weight for that project.  

Have any of you watched Prodigal Son on Fox?  Is it any good?  We are looking for another series to binge watch.  We now have Netflix, Disney +, Hulu, Peacock and Amazon Prime.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  We like crime dramas and medical dramas.  We do not like psycho thrillers, British comedy or slap stick comedy.  We are on our last 2 season of Stargate SG1 and have already watched Stargate Atlantis.  We have also seen qll the Mandalorian, Jack Ryan, and Bosch series until their new ones come out.

That is about all from here.

Until next time...............happy crafting & stay well!

Another Productive Day

Oh my goodness.  Blogger is only going to support the 'old' blogger platform until August 24th!  So, now I am trying very hard to learn the new format.  So if this post looks wacko, please forgive me.

So, today saw me having a second day of productivity.  This is not normal.  The heat makes me want to just sit and do nothing.  But, I am trying very hard to push myself to accomplish something each day.

Here was today's accomplishments..................did a pool check, emptied the dishwasher, sewed labels and medals to 2 prayer shawls, prepped all the veggies for tonight's tacos and watched videos on how to do mosaic crochet and did a mosaic swatch.

That last one was the most fun I have had in a long time.  Take a look at my sample.

It is so much fun.  Not near as hard as I anticipated either.  I would like to make a lapghan using this method.  Because of the heat here, I am wanting to make it out of fingering weight yarn.  Here are the colors I have picked out for part of it.

Hopefully, the colors will not blend into each other too much.  I will know by the 4th row.

I worked on hubby's socks a little bit during our lunch break.  I am liking how the colors in this yarn are changing.  

I am using the Hermiones Everyday Socks pattern.  It is a fun knit but not so complicated a person has to concentrate 100% while working it.

I also finished the blocking on the Wolf Lichen shawl.

I love how the lace sections really opened up with the blocking.  

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day.  Normally I go by myself but hubby has already stated he would like to go with me.  I hope he remembers we shop by a list and not by instinct LOL.  I will make sure he has eaten before we go.  That usually helps with his cravings.

Now I am waiting for one of the prayer shawl people to come by and pick up the 5 prayer shawls I have completed.  It will be nice to get them to where they belong.  

How is your day going?  Is it productive day for you too?

Questions Answered..............Finally

OK, I have been saying I was going to answer all the questions that have popped up on my comments sections.  Today is that day.  Here goes.

Becki wanted to know how I cropped myself out of this photo:

I take most of my photos with my Samsung 9s Plus phone.  That is where I also edit my photos.  There is a little icon to manually crop a photo in the gallery app.  

See the upper row of icons?  It is the one on the far right.  I click on that and select Manual crop and then draw a line around the part of the photo I want to keep.  BAM!  Instantly, I disappear from the photo.  Don't ask me how to do it on any other phone.  I have been a Samsung user for many years.  (I used to have an iPhone but was not happy with their rules)

Next question is from Becki and Sam.  They both wanted my Chicken and Dumplings recipe.  Here is the link to it.  Hopefully the link works for you guys.

The next one is from Stefanie.  She wanted to know if we have to sign up to go to Mass since there is physical distancing.  Well.............yes and no.  When we go into the church, we write our names on a sign in sheet.  Our church holds 1000 people in 'normal' times.  During the physical distancing times they are allowing 250 people at one time in for Mass. If we reach 250 then they will be asked to come to the next service or watch on TV.  So far, we have not gone over 250 at the service we attend.  No, we do not need to sign up before we get there.  Now, remember, our church has 4 services each Sunday.............2 English and 2 Spanish.  Many people are still doing Mass via TV because of age or health issues.

The last question is from Sam & Mary-Anne.  They wanted to know if I figured out what caused the strange sky yesterday.  Yes I did!

Here is what it looked like yesterday morning about 8AM.  It never got any better all day.  We are seeing this strange sky thanks to the Apple Fire in Riverside County California.  Isn't it amazing that the smoke would travel 388 miles?  We still have a bit of it in the air today but not as bad.

So, how has your day been?  I managed to get a loaf of bread made, hard boiled eggs for our chef salad tonight, planned my menus for the next 11 days, have my grocery list made out for this Wednesday (senior discount day at Krogers), have my Wolf Lichen shawl blocking, got my 2021 planner ordered (won't be mailed until September), transferred all my stuff from my old wallet to my new wallet, got the dog's toenails clipped, and got my loose recipes and patterns put in page protectors and filed in appropriate binders.  Not too bad for a Monday, right?

I will leave you with this.

Josie's Dad took her to an empty parking lot today to let her get a feel for driving.  She will be eligible for a permit in 6 months.  He wants her to learn all the does and do nots of driving ASAP.  He said she did quite well for being the first time behind a wheel.

And.........if you are going to drive the Jeep, you need to learn how to fill it with gas too.  Next step is to show her how to check the oil and tire pressure.  He is a great Father!

Until next time................happy crafting & stay well!

Week 5 of Year 10

Well, hello there.  How is your day going?  Mine is doing just fine.  Hubby and I got up at dark o'thirty so we could go to 7am Mass. When we got out of Mass we noticed there is a very weird yellow tinge outside today.  If I was in Kansas, I would be in fear of a tornado coming.  We are not in the midst of a dust storm.  In fact there is not even a hint of a breeze out there.  So strange.

This past week was also a strange one for us.  Hubby's sister was with us until Wednesday.  While she was here, I did not spend much time working on any projects.  However, I did start a new project last Sunday afternoon.

Wolf Lichen

I was hoping to have completed it before I posted my blog.  Alas, I am about 5 rows away from it being completed.  It also needs blocking as there is quite a bit of lace that needs to open up.  It is a fun knit.  It took me quite a while to figure out the chart.

This chart is only for 1/2 of the shawl.  You work it from right to left for the first part of the shawl and then right to left for the second half of the shawl.  I have never encountered a chart like this.  I was so confused.  Lucky for me, I read everyone's project notes and it was explained in there by one person.  Once I got the explanation, I was able to just run with it.

I did not work on any other project this week.  BUT................I did obtain 2 new patterns this week.  I now have Havana Afghan and Indiana Afghan.  The Havana has been on my wish list every since I saw Maria make a couple of them.  The Indiana has some great patterning in it that can be used for more than just an afghan. They both are a style of crochet I have never done and am anxious to give it a try.  

Friday night, the family went to Organ Stop to have our family celebration of our Grand Daughter's 15th birthday.

Don't you love the cow masks?  I made those and they love the fact they all match.  Then there is the weirdo in the back with a tractor mask on.  Hi Hubby!

This was the best place we have been that practiced social distancing and sanitizing.  Their napkin holders are no longer on the table but are sanitized and placed in a cupboard until you are seated.  You are required to wear your mask at all times unless you are seated at your table.  There are hand sanitizing stations throughout the place.   If you want to request any songs to be played by the organist, you need to have an employee write it down for you and give it to the organist. (for his protection)  I was most comfortable there.

Yesterday (August 1) was Josie's actual birthday.  She decided to throw an 80's bday party.  She said the party was so much fun.  There were 4 teen girls and they swam and played games and watched "breakfast club" while swimming in the pool.  Here is a photo of her and her BFF getting ready for the festivities to begin.

Josie is the one in black.  She and her mom have spent the past month getting prepared for this day.  They made cake pops, made party favor boxes filled with fishnet fingerless gloves, neon water cups and popcorn containers.  They had 80's movies lined up to watch and 80's music to be played.   They made a giant rubics cube.

 

There was also a boom box made out of cardboard boxes.  They were so creative.

Hubby and I are kicking back right now.  Trying to recover from the 5am alarm that went off.  We are keeping our eye on the splashdown of SpaceX Dragon Crew.  

My goal for today is to complete the shawl and then read the instructions for the Havana Afghan.  Supposedly, it does well with left over worsted weight yarn.  I have quite a bit of leftovers and would love to use them up.  Fingers crossed my brain will be able to process how it is made.

If you have not joined our YOP group yet, please come on over and join us.  We are a great group of crafters who enjoy talking about our crafts and fun events in our lives.  Here is the link.  

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