WEEK 43 OF YEAR 11

 

Hello again.  I hope this past week has treated y'all well.  Most of my spare time was spent working on the Mehujaa shawl.

I knitted 34 rows on the shawl.  That leaves 36 rows to complete by the end of this week.  Then there is the soak and block.  My goal is still to have it 100% done by April 30th.  Since I have dog sitting duty again this week, I am sure it will happen.

May 1 I want to do 31 days of stitch maynia.  I have several cross stitch projects.  Two of them have been started and there are at least 2 more in which I have the cloth all prepped.  Two are BIG projects and 2 are smallish.  At the moment I have one big and one small started.  I am not sure how much I will accomplish in 31 days, but it will be fun to find out.  The biggest challenge is a road trip we are taking the middle of May.  We will be gone for 5 days.  Not sure cross stitch will be the best item to take on the trip.  Has anyone ever taken theirs on a trip?  How did it work out for you?  I do have a pair of socks on the needles that could go on the trip with me.  Any advice?

The rest of my week was spent doing normal household chores.  The only real extra item this week was making dog food for Luna.  It is an all day project. 

While handling the steam water from the dog food, my hand slipped and the hot water landed on my hand.  I didn't think it was too burnt until a few days later when this happened.

It is blistering and peeling daily.  It is still really tender to touch too.  This happened on Monday.  Now you know why my mom did not name me Grace!

I have been harvesting cherry tomatoes daily.  Each day nets 4-8 tomatoes.  Hubby eats them almost as fast as I pick them.  We are discussing getting another hydroponic set up so we can do all tomatoes in one and all herbs/lettuce in the other one.  Not sure if we will or not.  I loved the lettuce we grew and was sad when it finally gave out.  The basil is still going strong and I am cutting it weekly and using in cooking.  I am really enjoying growing our own herbs and veggies. The fact I am not relying on mother nature makes it even better.

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

Frustration and Glee

 

I don't know how many of you use Bloglovin' to help keep track of blogs you follow.  I have been using it for several years and have enjoyed being able to see when one of you bloggers posts a new update.  The past two weeks, Bloglovin' has been down more than it has been up.  After being down for over 5 days, when it came back online, I took screen shots of all the blogs I followed on it.  I then transferred all that information to the side bar of this blog.  Now, I no long need to rely on Bloglovin' to keep me up to date.  I am so glad I did this as Bloglovin' has been down again for over 2 days.  So frustrating. I have signed up with quite a few of the blogs to be notified by email when there is an update.  Unfortunately, not all blogs have this feature.  UGH!

But...................................I have some great news!

I harvested some of my home grown cherry tomatoes today.  They are so yummy.  There are still more on the vines and I noticed there are some brand new babies that just set on in the past couple of days.  I guess we will be having cherry tomatoes for a little while yet.  These babies took forever.  Not sure I will do more cherry tomatoes since it took over 120 days for first harvest.  Now, the herbs and lettuce.......................those babies are quick and produce for a long period of time.  

Today, I spent most of my morning making Luna's dog food.  Between the crockpot, instant pot and microwave I managed to get 23 days of food bagged up for her.  Most of it is in the freezer.  Yes, I love my old lady dog that much.  With the bird flu hitting the chickens, making her food is going to get much more expensive from here on.  She's worth it though.

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

YOP 11 WEEK 42

Hey there!  Glad you could drop by again.  Want to see my progress for the week?

Mehujaa is still the only item I am working on.  As of today, there are 325 stitches on the needles.  It increases by 4 stitches every other row.  I still have 70 more rows to go before I begin the edging.  I have finally memorized the pattern.  That helps move this along a bit quicker.  I timed it yesterday and the knit rows are taking about 20 minutes to do and the purl rows about 15.  That means I still have over 40 hours or work to put into this.  My hopes of completing this by the end of the month are still there.

In other news.........................................

Today is Easter for our family.  Our contribution to Easter dinner is the ham and the bread.  So, yesterday, I made two loaves of bread.

 The loaf on the left is a copy cat recipe of King's Hawaiian Sweet bread.  (I will let you know if it really taste like it or not later).  The loaf on the right is just called Hawaiian sweet bread and is made using pineapple juice.  I did a test loaf of that one earlier this week and everyone agreed it needed to be a bit sweeter.  So I added more honey to it and some vanilla.  Hopefully it will be yummy.  (I will also let you know about that later too.)

In other news.............................................

This past week we had house painters come out and give us an estimate on painting the exterior of our home.  The painting will commence on May 3rd and 4th.  We also had a flooring person come and give us an estimate on the price of laying the last of our tile flooring in our home.  That will be happening the 12th and 13th of May.  I will be so happy when this is all completed and we can finally sit back and enjoy our home.  My dogs will be happy too, when no more strangers are traipsing through the house LOL.

What's new with you?

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

WEEK 41

 

It is that time again for my weekly YOP update.  

Ta-Da.......

The Mehujaa Shawl got all the love this past week.  The little progress keeper is where I was last Sunday.  I have added 108 rows and it has increased from 37 to 253 stitches in a week.  The shawl will increase to 481 stitches by the time I bind off.  My goal is to have this done by the end of April.

Here is the reason I was able to knit so much this past week.

I had Thor duty.  He is such a goof and I just adore him.  My duty with him was Monday through Thursday and then on Friday, I took care of my BFF's two doggos for the day.  It was a dog-gone good week.  It gave me lots of knitting time.

While traveling to my 'job' I had to stop and take some photos of our desert spring blooms.

Our Palo Verde trees are in full bloom.  In about a week those yellow blossoms will fall off and cover our ground to make it look like the yellow brick road.

Did you know bougainvillea's come in different colors?  This one had two colors on one bush.  Very unusual.

This is the color of most of our local bougainvillea's.  This baby is HUGE!  See the 6 trees behind it?  It gives you an idea of how large this bush is.  We will have some type of blooming happening for the next several months.  Even during the heat of our summer there will be certain plants that will bloom to add color to our landscapes.

And now for my final photo...........................................

Last night was Josie's first prom.  I just love this photo.  Her dad (our son) acted as the group's limo/uber driver and came up with this outfit to impress the kids.  They all loved it.  Josie looks all grown up in her formal.  Time has sure flown by while we have been watching this little girl become a gorgeous young lady.  Can you tell how proud her dad is of her?

Here is the whole group that went together.  The young man is Josie's beau.  The other girls are all besties with Josie.  The car belongs to Josie mom's boss who offered it to her for the evening.  Josie's mom was also responsible for the hair on Josie and the girl on the far left.  She is such a wonderful mother to Josie and all of her friends who need a little extra mom love.

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

PS:  Next Sunday is Easter so my update may be delayed until Monday.  We have a very hectic schedule for Holy Week.  May you all have a blessed week and Easter (if you celebrate it)  I would also like to say, 'Chag Pesach Sameach', to some very special people in my life.

PEACE!

Week 40 of YOP 11

 

Hello!  This past week was kind of a bust for me as far as any kind of crafting went.  Let me show you what I did.

The RCR socks.  If you think they look quite a bit like they did last week, look again.  I put a whole 5 rows on them.  LOL  At this rate, they should be completed by sometime in June.

There really was no great desire to do any crafting.  Must have been spring fever.  Mostly I worked on decluttering a bit.  On Friday, I finally decided I HAD to do something craft wise and I was not interested in the socks, or my sweater, or the blanket, or the cross stitch.  I cast on a new project instead.

This is Mehujaa.  I have made it before and it is the most used shawl I own.  I am not going to show you the yarn I am using as I want it to be a surprise as to what this yarn does as I go along.  This is a fun knit.  It has 3 patterned rows with a purl row between each one.  The Stockinette section increases every other round.

The is the one I made last year.  Even though it has a lot of 'lace' in it, the sides are all stockinette and keep my arms warm.  It's pretty big, huh!

That is all for crafting this past week.  Pathetic isn't it. 

During my decluttering, I attacked my closet.  In there, I found all of the shawls and shawlettes I had made for myself, over the past several years.  Of the 15 I found, only 4 of them are ones I ever actually wear.  There are 4 I am going to unravel and combine the yarns together to make a shawl I will wear.  The other 7 will find a home with our Prayer Shawl ministry at Church.  

I also worked in the kitchen this week to get rid of items not being used.  Surprisingly, there were only a few items that left the building.  This is a good sign.  I have finally gotten my kitchen down to where only used and loved items are there.

This coming week is dog sitting week.  Mr Thor does not like to be alone all day long.  I will go and keep him company for a few hours each day and give him lots of love and attention.

What are you working on?  Has spring sprung in you neighborhood?

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

Where Did 'IT' Go?

 

This morning, I realized I have had no desire to knit, cross stitch, crochet or sew.  It's not like this just happened today either.  This has been going on since Sunday.  There is a pair of socks sitting to the right of me.  A cross stitch sampler laying to my left.  Crochet projects are just a room away from where I sit in the evening.  Sewing materials are in the room with the crochet projects. It's not like I don't have anything to work on.

Monday evening I forced myself to pick up the socks and put a few rows on them.  And when I say I forced myself, I truly mean it.  What is going on?  Seldom have I ever gone through this kind of a crafting slump.  The idea of casting on a new project does not even appeal to me.  Someone needs to take my temperature LOL!

What is bringing me joy at the moment is reading, journaling and listening to music.  Another thing bringing me joys is working in the kitchen.  Every few months I go through all our kitchen cabinets and drawers and cull out the things that are not being used or are useful for us.   It is amazing how much 'stuff' I am able to get out of my house each time I do this.  My closet is on the clean out list too.  I have clothes in there that have not been on my body for over 5 years!  They need to go to a new home too.  

So, maybe, it is not that my mojo has left.  Maybe it is the fact it has shifted to doing other things for a little while.  I am sure this decluttering bug will not last too long.  But while it is here I will take advantage of it and move things out of my home!  Could this be what experts call 'spring fever'?

Has spring fever hit you?  What changes happen to you when it hit?

Until next time..............................................

WEEK 39 OF YOP 11

 

Seems I am getting a later than normal start today in writing my YOP blog.  It has been a nice lazy morning that I have been enjoying.  Isn't that the way Sundays are supposed to be?  Lazy?  It is one of the reasons we go to church on Saturday evening.  Not to mention it gives a nice 'end' to the week and sets up the beginning of the next week.  Double win-win.

My knitting this week kind of took a back seat to other things that needed to get completed.  So this is all I have to show for the week.

I finished my third 1/2 sock.  I now have plenty of them but will probably still make more down the road, just because I have so much leftover sock yarn.

Then I worked a bit on my RCR socks.

Once  finished the gusset I decided to put them on magic loop to complete them.  Not thinking I will complete them this week.  There are other things I want to do while our weather is super nice here.  

Speaking of weather......The last 3 days we have been in the 90's here.  While I am not quite ready for the heat to hit, it is a good reminder I need to get some outside stuff completed before it gets so warm I don't want to spend copious amounts of time outside.  Granted, we are expecting rain this coming week and a drop in temperatures, but still, I know the heat is coming and I need to be prepared.  

This past week, I did a lot cleaning up from having company the weekend before.  There were extra towels to wash, 3 sets of bedding to remove from beds (still need to wash those), fridge to rearrange (they always store their cold things in our fridge), and making sure all their items are out of my house (found 2 things that were left behind).

The one thing different I did this past week was going to Bookman's.  It is a used book store where you can trade in your books for credit or cash.  I had quite a few books to trade as well as puzzles.  Naturally, they only took about 10 books but I did receive almost $20 credit for them.  Since Josie's house at school (yes, it is kind of like Hogwart's in a parochial setting.) was having a book drive, I decided to use my credits to get some books for her drive.  The trick was, they were to be for 0-5 yr olds.  I was able to get 7 books for her to take to her school.  It was so much fun looking at all those picture books again.  BTW, Josie's house is St Anne's house.  Each house has their own special t-shirts and colors associated with them too.  See?  Kind of like Harry Potter.

The other thing out of the ordinary I did this week was go clothes shopping.  UGH!  I hate to shop for clothing.  The idea was to find some blouses and pants/skirts for church.  I scored on the blouses but struck out on the bottom part.  All the pants I found were just too heavy for our summers and there were absolutely zero skirts in my size!  I even tried on dresses and found nothing that made me happy.  I spent two days doing this shopping.  I do have 2 pairs of pants I wear to church.  One is a winter pant and I will melt in it this summer.  The other I have worn for the past 3 years and it is starting to show the wear and tear.  I found another pair of pants just like the ones I use now for summer.  Went to try them on (in the same size I have now) and could not even get them past my knees!  Seriously?  I went up 2 sizes and still could not get them on.  Needless to say, I was so angry, I just left the store.  I weigh less now than I did 3 years ago too!  I guess I could make some pants or a skirt.  This may be my best option yet.

Well, that is enough about me.  How about you?  What is on your needles/hooks?  How is your weather?

Until Next Time..................................Happy Crafting & Pray for Peace!!!!!!!!!!!!!