I CAN SEE THE WEEKEND

Isn't it amazing?  After being retired for 4.5 years, I still look forward to the weekend.  You would think everyday was a weekend day for us retired folks.  Nope, we still have obligations during the week that need taking care of.  Not to mention, 90% of my friends are still working so, the weekend is the only time we get to spend time with them.

Once again, we got our day started pretty quickly.  My main goal is to have most of my errands/chores done by noon each day.  Almost made it happen that way today.

Started the day by taking my car to get the air in the tires checked.  After leaving there, I took the car to get it washed and all spiffed up, as hubby is going to drive it to Las Vegas Sunday.  Once I got home, I decided to attach my dash mat to the dash.  Our dashes boards have a habit of splitting here because of the sun and heat.  With a dash mat, we do not have that issue.  I cleaned out the glove box and the arm rest box.  I wanted to make sure everything was all nice for hubby.  Then we both went to the grocery store as they had whole briskets on for $1.88/lb.  We love brisket and hubby does a fantastic job doing it on his smoker.  I got the house plants watered, my antique clock wound and had lunch.  As soon as lunch was over I made 2 loaves of banana bread.

My house smells so yummy!  These loaves were made with rice flour so they are gluten free.  Instead of refined sugar I used coconut sugar.  I am sending one of these with hubby to give to the people who are housing him while he is up there.

Things are all done for the day until dinner time.  (Pork chops with sweet potatoes and spinach salad)  I will pick up some knitting and work on it for the next couple of hours.  Don't tell anyone but, I cast on another project yesterday.  If you want to see what I have on my needles, stop by on Sunday when I will show off everything I have going on.

After dinner the knitting will be back in my hands while we watch a little evening TV.

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

Q & A

Howdy.  As promised, today I will answer the questions which have appeared in my comments over the past several posts.  There will also be daily living 'talk' after the Q&A.

The photo of my 'cool' Grandma (MiMi) boots brought out 2 questions by Elaine and Becki

What is the brand of the boots?  They are Rock and Candy brand.  

Where did you purchase the boots?  It was 3 years ago at a store called Encore Shoe Dept.

Most of my shoes have memory foam beds to help with my RA in my feet.  These do not have anything like that at all but for some reason, they are still super comfy to wear.  Now I wish I had purchased the brown ones like the black ones.

Becki also asked if I had any more Baby Yoda's on tap to make.  The simple answer is NO!  I was approached last night and asked if I had thought about making and selling them on Etsy.  No can do..........there is a license issue with that.  Baby Yoda can be made and given away but no selling of the item can be done.  The Mandalorian folks would not be very happy.

Becki also wanted to know how big Baby Yoda # 2 was.  The first one was about 4 inches tall and the second one was almost 6 inches tall.  Quite a difference in the two and the only difference was the yarn I used for the head and body.  I used the same size hook on both of them.

That is all of the questions I saw.  If I missed anyone's question, let me know in the comments.

Now, on to 'real' life.

Yesterday I had a list a mile long to complete.  Most of it was running errands.  Hubby and I took off around 10:30 and went to our church to deliver a letter and donation given to us by a friend.  After that we hit; CVS, Trader Joe's, Sam's Club, Our Grand's High School for gift cards and finally our Grand's house to pick up the Trivia Belt we won last week.  Then we were off to Texas Road house to meet up with a few of my cousins for dinner.

Sorry, the photo is so dark.  We tried to stand under the light to make it better.  I am on the far right.  From left to right is: Becky (she lives in Hawaii), Nancy (she lives in Colorado until winter and then lives about a mile from me), Kelvin (He lives in Minnesota until winter and then lives about 3 miles from me.  He is looking to live here permanently though)  It was so good to get together.  There were 26 of us cousins and we are now down to 24.  I am hoping we can get a cousin reunion together before we loose anymore cousins.

Here is the whole gang that descended on Texas Roadhouse last night.  

After dinner Kelvin, myself and my hubby headed over to Trivia.  I had to deliver the prize belt as well as give the MC his birthday gift of "The Child".  He was so excited to receive it.  He already has a spot for it at his house.  He even posted about it on FB!  Dang, that was easy.  We took second place at trivia last night. It was a good time.

Speaking of the prize belt......when you win first place you need to take the belt home and add something to it that represents your team.  The name of our team is No Cheese Nachos.  Needless to say, this is not an easy team name to make a 'sticker' for.  Or so I thought.  Our Grand asked if she could take the belt home to add our 'bling' to it.  I was thrilled to let her have at it.  Here is what she came up with:

If you are a Star Wars fan, you know Yoda speaks backwards.  Hence our team name backwards.  I think she did quite well with this.  

Unfortunately the Grand was not able to go last night.  She has a nasty cough and decided to stay home and rest as she has a dance at school Saturday night and wants to be able to go to that.  This is a Sadie Hawkins dance where the girls ask the guys.  She finally got up her nerve to ask someone yesterday and he said yes.  She was so excited.

Today should be a fairly quiet day.  Hubby and I both woke up quite early (3:30 and 4:30).  I already have laundry going and he is doing research for his Tuesday night class at church.  He is leaving Sunday for Las Vegas to get some legal stuff done for his mom and to try and get everything ready for her to go back to her home.  (Still not the best idea but her wish)

I think there might be a little nap somewhere in the schedule today.  We have adoration tonight and in order to stay awake for that, we will need a power nap.  We are old folk now LOL.

We are expecting sunshine and 70F temps for the rest of the week.  Sounds like a good time to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and soak in some of that Vitamin D from the sun.

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

DAY OUT

Hubby and I left our house this morning about 9:30 and finally returned about 2.   We did quite a few things during that time.

First item on our list was eye appointments for both of us.  Hubby's eye sight has not changed but his cataracts are growing but not enough for removal.  My eyesight has changed for the better!  This is unusual.  My distance is what has improved. I will take it! 

Second item was taking hubby to get his allergy injections.  He goes twice a week right now.  Pretty soon he will be on maintenance again.  That will mean he only needs to go once every three to four weeks for injections.  That will be nice.

Third item was going to Costco to order new glasses for me.  I am so lucky to have good vision insurance.  I love the frames I have and did not want to purchase new ones.  Lucky for me, my insurance allows enough for frames.  Found out I could get a new pair of frames exactly like what I have now and completely covered by insurance.  That way I will have my new lenses in my new "same" frame.  It was also time to get my sunglass lenses changed too.  It has been 2 years since I have had them updated.  So, all I had to pay for was the 2 sets of progressive lenses.  WOOHOO!

Fourth item was going out to lunch.  We went to our second favorite Mexican restaurant.  It was nice to have a little quiet lunch time with the hubby.  We also ran into the owner of the restaurant (a friend) and was able to chit chat with him for a bit.  In case you were wondering, yes, Mexican food is our favorite.  I even made tacos last night!

We are now home.  Hubby is resting a bit before he needs to get ready to teach a class tonight at church.  Me, I am going to finish this blog and go and make a loaf of bread in the bread machine, knit a bit on hubby's socks and then knit on a new item I started last night.  I KNOW!  Startitis has attacked me badly.  I have several more items I want to cast on RIGHT NOW!  I am trying to hold myself back from starting more items.  Not sure I will be successful.  The struggle is real!

It is a dreary day here.  We had rain this morning.  Now we have fog so thick it leaves a mist on the windshield when driving.  I am not complaining though.  After looking at the news last night, I realize we are fortunate not to have the snow and ice that is hitting so much of the US and Canada right now.

There have been many questions asked in my comment section.  I will be answering those questions in the next couple of days.

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

MANIC MONDAY

It wasn't really too bad of a Monday............so far.  Yet, it was definitely different for me.  It all actually started last night, about an hour before I normally go to bed.  I got a huge burst of energy and decided to scrub my kitchen counters, sink, and stove.  I also got the dining room table all cleaned off, put all the laundry away and put away all items that were not in their place from the living room.  I do not know what got into me, but it was nice to get up (4:30 am!!!) this morning and all my normal morning 'chores' were all done.  

This morning I got the rest of the Christmas items boxed up and have all 4 of the remaining boxes on the dolly ready to go out to the shed.  That will get done as soon as I finish this post.

Hubby and I met with a solar company this morning too.  We would love to go to solar energy for our home.  Seeing we have well over 300 days of sunshine here, it would make sense to use solar energy to run things in our home.  We now have a week to decide if we want to do it or not.  

OH!  I did finish "The Child/Baby Yoda" last night.  He is much bigger than the one I made for my Grand Daughter.

The recipient should love it though.  I think it is the ears that makes it so darn cute.

I still have a dishwasher to empty today.  There is a pound of ground beef thawing out for dinner.  I have no clue what I am going to make with it yet.  Menus have not been planned yet this week.  Might decide to do that yet today too.

How is your Monday going?  Did you do anything special for MLK day?

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

WEEK 29 OF MY 9TH YEAR

Ahhhh.......another week has blown past us.  I am trying to do more personal blogging during the week so I can do mostly craft blogging on Sunday.  It seems to be working out pretty well.  If you would like to keep up with my personal blogging just hit the follow button button on the right hand side of the page or log my blog name in bloglovin.  That is the site I use to keep track of all the blogs I love and follow.

I did have a finish this week.

The Child/Baby Yoda was completed in a few days time.  My local Grand had requested I make one for her.  She and her dad are huge Mandalorian fans and she loves The Child.  He was pretty fun to make other than sewing it all together.  I have not crocheted much lately and found out it does cramp up my hands a bit.  I think most of the cramping was due to working with very small pieces and trying to hold on to them while crocheting in the round.

The Child accompanied us to Trivia, Wednesday night, and got quite a bit of attention and rave reviews.  The MC of Trivia fell in love with him and begged me to make one for him for his birthday.  Of course his birthday is tomorrow (Monday).  Deciding to make another one took a bit of convincing myself I could do it and have it ready for the next Trivia night.

I started on it Saturday morning and this is as far as I have gotten.  The head and ears are completed.  It really is not too bad, considering I only had about 3 hours total to work on it yesterday.  Why only 3 hours?  Hubby and I took our Grand Daughter and Godson to see "The Rise of Skywalker".  (Yes it was very good!)  That took 5 hours out of our day with pick up, movie and drop off of kiddos.  When we got home, we had just an hour before we needed to get ready for Mass.  After Mass, we went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and then home.  That gave me about 1.5 hours to work on it again before I finally succumbed to sleepiness.

I should be able to complete it this afternoon while doing laundry, watching football playoffs and reading blogs.  I also need to make a card for the guy, to go along with the bday gift.  

Other than those things I only worked on Hubby's socks but you would not be able to tell a difference.  I only got 8 rows added to them.  

Look what I wore yesterday.

You may wonder why this is of importance.  #1. It normally does not get that cold here where I want to wear flannel lined boots.  Since we were out and about most of the morning,yesterday, I was happy to have them on my feet.  #2.  My feet are pretty messed up from my RA.  I was not even sure I would be able to get these back on my feet, much less be comfortable walking in them.  They felt fine all day!  #3.  My Grand and Godson said they were pretty 'cool' shoes for a grandma to be wearing.  Yes, I am the cool old church lady LOL.

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

On the Move

What a glorious day it was today.  Got up at a decent hour and managed to get a few phone calls made about insurance coverage.  

Seems our Primary Care Doctor is no longer going to take our secondary insurance.  LOVELY!  Time to find a new Doctor............again!  She was nice enough to refill my prescriptions for 90 days so, I have time to look.

My favorite hair stylist was in the salon today so I got my haircut.  Boy, did it need it.  We cut it pretty short this time.  I am letting my undercut grow back out and will be going back to my normal pixie cut I have worn off and on for about 20 years.  It is just so easy to care for.  My hair is soooooo thick, I can not let it get long or I get headaches from it.  

After all of that, I had just enough time to come home and grab a banana before I had to go and pick up the Grand from school.  We made a date last week to go and order her letter jacket.  She lettered in swim this year.

Pretty unusual for a freshman, so we are super proud of her.  Unfortunately, the place to order the jacket was on the west side of Phoenix.  It is a 56 mile round trip from my house.  I made it longer than that because of a few missed turns and decided to take a little detour on the way home.  The Grand was fine with the 'road trip'.

One of the places I took her on the way home was here:

Mount Claret Retreat Center is located on the side of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix.  It is a Catholic retreat center and also homes where some of our retired priests live.  It is so peaceful there and the scenery is gorgeous.

I also got lost a couple of times on the way home so it took us 1.5 hours to get home.  That is ok, though,  It gave us plenty of time to talk about things without being interrupted by anything.  

It is nice to be home.  Hubby has steaks marinating.  There will be broccoli with cheese sauce and sweet potatoes to go along with it.  

Tomorrow we are picking up our Grand and our Godson and going to see the new Star Wars movie.  We seldom go to the theater but decided we wanted to see this one on the BIG screen.  Our Grand has seen it but wants to watch it again.  We have quite a few free movie passes so why not use them?  Right?  After the movie we will go to Mass and then come home and relax for the rest of the weekend.

The next 'Baby Yoda' is being started tonight.  Hopefully he will be done by the end of the weekend.  Since I have made him once, the next one should go much quicker.  I now know a few tricks I didn't the first time.  Like putting stitch markers where the eyes and ears go so I do not need to count after things are finished.  

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

Can You Hear Them?

My dogs are barking!!!!   Can you hear them?  Hubby decided we needed to do our Sam's Club and Costco shopping today.  We also stopped at Winco, JoAnn's and Michael's craft stores.  It was only 4 hours of shopping.  My hips, back and feet are not happy campers tonight.  Thank goodness for my NSAID's!  

Once we got home hubby decided it would be fun to put together the rolling cart we bought to put my photo printer on.  Of course, after that is all put together you need to cut up the box and get all the styrofoam broken down to fit into the recycle and trash barrels.   In case you are wondering, Yes, we did get a new printer too.  (The photo printer is not the new one)  We got a great deal on one at Sam's club.  That will get connected tomorrow.

We did manage to sit down for about an hour after that and then headed off for our meeting with our law office.  Each month they have a 'teaching' session for those of us who have used them for our wills and trusts.  We left in plenty of time to make the meeting only to be stopped for almost 10 minutes by a train.  We were only 3 minutes late but late none the less.  I detest being late for any appointment.

Remember 'the child'?  Our Grand LOVED it!  She took it with her to trivia last night and it got passed around to so many people.  They all loved it.  There will be one more made for out Trivia MC.  His birthday is next week and he is a HUGE Mandalorian fan.  I have a week to get it done this time.  

Speaking of Trivia:

Guess who one 1st place last night.  Yup, yours truly.  Hubby and I had help from our daughter and our Grand.  It is so good to have different generations answering questions.  We got $30 in gift certificates and there is the 'belt' we need to add decor to.  The Grand has offered to do the decorating for us.  She is so sweet.

We still have Adoration tonight from 9-10.  I may send the hubby alone this time.  I don't know if my back can take sitting in hard wooden pews for an hour.  Right this moment, I am sitting in my recliner with my feet up and trying to convince myself to start on the next baby Yoda.  I figure, the sooner I start it the sooner it will be done and I can work on "MY" projects.  I have 3 birthday cards to make also.  Wish me luck!

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