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Showing posts from February, 2016

Weekends

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Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. How was your weekend?  Mine was electric (pun definitely intended..)  I enjoyed your comments and your experiences with living the hard life without comforts.  I was humbled by how some of you went weeks!!  Ugh!  Every morning when I wake up I say to my husband "guess what?"  He is sleepy and slightly grumpy in the mornings so he says "what?" muffled and dazed.   I reply "I love my ELECTRICITY." Now you can imagine maybe an eyeroll from him or maybe a nod.  I kid you not.  I know one day I will get over the loss of electricity but it's still real.  We lost four days from Hurricane Sandy. Funny that this last 24 hour jaunt is the nudge we needed to get a generator.  Yes, a generator, finally. I'm too old for the no electricity life.  So t

Basic Comforts

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On Wednesday night during a windy rainy thunderstorm, our electricity went out.  OH MY.  I dug through the junk drawer (I have three in the kitchen) for the flashlights.  Out of four, one worked.  Phew.  Every time the power is out, I am beside myself with anger, disbelief and doubt. Those beautiful woods that surround me also isolate me from multiple sources of power lines.  There is only one and when it goes, well I'm in the dark.  The house is all electric so there is no heat, no water and obviously no electricity.  We were without power for 24 hours.  The frig food was tossed.  According to the internet my freezer food is okay.  I'm going on faith. So as I grumbled, scowled and froze my $## off in my house, I give to you the gratitude list: -for the crewmen who work crazy hours round the clock giving back electricity.  They are angels and I'm grateful (I'm not grateful for the electric company who doesn't hire enough crewmen and made me wait....) -for

Currently on the Needles

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I am on a sleeve!!  Oh the bliss of knowing I am getting close to the end of the sweater knitting.  Some people dislike sleeve knitting but I don't mind at all.  I find it fast and fun.  How about you?  Are you a sleeve lover or hater?  Just wondering. Oh and I finished the baby sweater and posted yesterday all about it.  I love the red buttons too! I wound up my " Ginny yarn " yesterday but have yet to cast on a shawl.  I'm still contemplating which pattern to use.  I've narrowed my selection down to three....I think.  But I just might do one more search on ravelry.  I want crescent top down shaping, no cabling and well, something that looks like fun. I am STILL reading the same two books as last week.  Both are kind of long so I'll blame the books and not my slow reading skills.   Carry On is chugging along with an interesting plot line overall.  I have no idea what is going to happen.  I haven't read reviews or a plot summary and so far I haven

Cotton Candy Baby Sweater Complete

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You can never have too much yarn in your stash nor can you have too many buttons.  I had great fun digging through the button jar, the button box and yet a button container.  Sometimes I wish I had more buttons but today, well, I had plenty to choose from. I love how the red buttons make this sweet little sweater POP with color.  So cheerful.  Now that this cardigan is finished I have one more skein in left and I'm toying with knitting a bonnet to match the sweater.  What do you think?  I really don't want to make booties in cotton....my hands!! Ravelry notes here

Weekends

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Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. my step mom made the crocheted eggs, my sister made the felted eggs My weekend was good! How was yours?  I hope good as well.  Friday found me out in thrift stores with my son, just looking about.  He adopted the first four books in the Outlander series (wow!!) and I found two books that I could not pass up.  I do not need more books... So, of course on Saturday I was in a Barnes and Nobles....Oh, that is a blissful place.  I hopped about from area to area, browsing and reading flaps.  I flipped through some more cookbooks and then perused the magazines.  I did buy two books, Writing with Quiet Hands and The Plant Powered Diet  and two magazines.  (not that I need those either!) We had dinner out and then a quiet evening reading our new books. Today, I went to Mass and laund

Refocus and Regroup

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My mom used to say during sometime in February that she had "the winter pissies".  I love winter and I am enjoying the cold.  However, I think of her often and how she would one day state her doneness with winter, she was quite dramatic about it. After her declaration she seemed happy and content just acknowledging her state of mind.  I work hard at holding onto positive thinking and sometimes it eludes me.  The winter is not causing this (or so I think) but there needs to be an adjustment in my thought processes.  My expectations of others and of myself. So today I pulled out pen and paper.  Writing lists are a clear way to discern my path.  Exercise also helps and yesterday I was out walking and felt so much better after a week of crazy weather that held me indoors for too long.  How about you?  How do you regroup?  How do you refocus?  I'm curious.   Our son is visiting for the second half of his first spring break (he has two of them).  Unfortunately, his

Currently on the Needles

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Well well well.  I am back to my cardigan approaching quickly to the garter stitch edging.  I'm thrilled to be finished with the baby blanket and posted about it yesterday .  Soon, very very soon, I will be making something for me.  But first I want to finish knitting the baby sweater I started earlier this week.  Oh babies, they are speedy projects to knit for :) My reading is the same (and I think I said that last week.....).  I'm slowly sinking into a fast paced novel, Carry On.   I have The Song of the Lark on my kindle but haven't read much this week so far. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Pink Baby Blanket Complete

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I'm happy to report that the baby blanket is finished and done.  I do love the way it turned out.  The yarn was Lion Ease  cotton and I unearthed the skeins from deep deep stash.  I cannot remember when I bought it or where.  I do know that I paid only two dollars a skein :) As you know, this is for Frodo's groomer who is a god send to us.  She grooms and she does behavioral training as well.  Frodo's last groomer was not his favorite at all and he had high anxiety.  The current groomer retrained him to LOVE being groomed!!   A miracle :) So now that she is expecting her first baby, and a girl I might add, I wanted to do something special.  I also have on the needles a sweet little cardigan that will be done next week, I hope. She is due sometime in April so I have lots and lots of time. Ravelry notes are here

Weekends

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Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Brr -  Baby it's cold outside!  However, I am sitting inside a nice warm house wearing lots of wool which is a knitter's ultimate dream come true.  I have my tea sitting here waiting for me and so I'll recap the weekend. Friday night. we had dinner out and keeping with the lent duties of a Catholic, we had pizza.  Funny how I only eat meat a few times a week and yet the Friday 'no meat' throws me every single time.  We had fun catching up on our week and talking about the kids.  Oh we also were wishing that a person near us would use a tissue instead of sniffing throughout the whole meal.  Sigh.. Saturday was another stay in day.  It was frigid outside and since he is so busy during the week, we loved the excuse to stay home and not go anywhere.  He cooked a c

Unexpected Snowfall

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Brr!  The outside is frightfully, frigidly, delightfully cold --  really really cold.  This cold snap gives me every single excuse to skip the daily walks and hibernate inside my house.  When the wind chill is under 10 degrees my poor little dog suffers and I cannot take that brisk wind either.  Too bad hibernating isn't very healthy, I feel like a slug.  I am continuing my daily yoga ritual so my flexibility is improving, like touch my toes kind of fexibility.  I know in a few days the weather will once again cooperate for the daily walks.  Really spring is just around the corner. This past week we had an unexpected snowfall.  I love waking up and looking outside to 3-4 inches of snow that the forecasters decided to not forecast.  The sunrise with the snowfall was beautiful.  Frodo and I walked around with my camera and snapped photos.  I wish I could capture the elegant silence that goes with snow.  It's pure contentment. I've been working on the baby bl

Currently on the Needles

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Good morning!  Isn't this a fine Wednesday, Ash Wednesday?  I have lots to tell.  First off, my cardigan is making steady progress, I'm nearing to the edging.  Quite exciting, because the sleeves will be a breeze and then, boom, I'll have a sweater!  The baby blanket is growing and hopefully will be finished in two weeks, fingers crossed. I finished Blue Asylum  and it was "okay".  It wasn't the worst book I've read and it wasn't the best book I've read.  The writing style was lovely and that is what kept me reading along, I think.  The plot got weird in the middle then it unweirded itself.  So, if you like weird southern Gothic themed books give it a read. My son bought me the above book, Carry On  for Christmas.  I started this last night and really cannot say much so far.  I do like her writing and I've read some of her other books.  So I hope this is a good one!!  I am still reading Song of the Lark and adore the restful reading it

Weekends

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Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. I'm posting early today because it's the Superbowl.  Now don't think for one single second that I care about the Superbowl, you know, the game itself.  I care about the food we will be sharing with friends who are coming over.  I know I am only interested in the commercials and the half time show, and maybe some other folks do as well.  My husband cares, really cares about the game if it's close, if it's a blowout well then he cares a little less. My weekend was "deer" themed.  Everywhere I turned there was a deer staring at me.  And they are bold!  I was lucky to get some photos while they stared me down, daring me to snap the camera.  Friday night was dinner in because of my husband's crazy work schedule, he wanted to not go anywhere. Satur

Ginny Yarn, Blanket Progress and a Spring Visitor

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Did you know I was one of the lucky ones to buy some of Ginny 's yarn ? Yup.  I'm kind of excited about it.  I've been searching through ravelry looking for THE pattern.  I've got a few in mind but haven't committed to a specific one.  Sometimes the daydreaming and the wondering are enough. I do have it sitting right beside me so I can stare lovingly at it occasionally. Oh the blanket !  It is slowly growing and chugging along.  Every single night I commit one hour to it.  Last week, I tormented myself with "how much do I have to knit before it's 5 feet by 5 feet?".  I loved not knowing and imagining I was close.  Well....I did the math.  Right now it's 4 1/2 feet by 4 1/2 feet and I'm nearing to the beginning of the round. I have to knit two times more around and that is......wait for it......almost 1000 MORE yards.  Yikes!  It's a very sobering number and kind of depressing.  So I agonized and tried to decide, do I want to fr

Currently on the Needles

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This week, I'm reading the same two books.  On the Kindle I'm reading The Song of the Lark and it's a soothing read, nothing stressful and it's quite relaxing to read.  My other book, Blue Asylum  started off with a great beginning but the story line is getting quite weird, and it's weird not in a good way I guess for me.  I will finish it because I want to see what will happen, the writing is perfectly fine. I've been working on the baby blanket these days and I am seeing much progress.  I love big projects that are mindless and I can read my Kindle while knitting this blanket, double the pleasure!! What are you knitting and reading? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams