Pumpkin Sunrise

Thank goodness it snowed a couple of weeks ago so that I had the color white.  This photo challenge made me realize that this year my autumn colors were predominantly yellow and red. The above photo is my driveway and the snow arrived way before we mowed up (we do not rake here) all of the leaves.  My husband likes to wait for them all to drop and do the mowing one time.  I do not blame him.  I am glad I don't have to rake. I love this white pine that is in our side yard.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's photos this week!!

This week for the yarn along I think I am doing the same knitting and reading as last week.  For knitting I have finished one leg warmer and am on the second one.  My goal is to have it finished before the kids are home for Thanksgiving....the race is on!  The pattern is quite easy once you decide which needles to use.  My husband's sweater  is chugging along.  I can honestly say I have barely worked two or three rows because of the leg warmers.  I am hoping that seeing it in the photo will spur me to pick it up.  I am two-three inches into the body.  The purple cowl  is a knit for me that I started a week or two ago.  Just something quick and easy.  Again, I have been mainly focusing my knitting efforts on the leg warmers. I continue to read The Physick book of Deliverance Dane.   Which is a very compelling read!  I have been drawn into the mystery and I love how I am getting a history lesson into the Salem witch trials.  The book has been flowing along for me and I do lov

I have decided to embrace happiness, there I said it now may it become true.  I sometimes find myself wasting time by doing stuff that does not increase my happiness factor.  I tend to be a worrier.  Sometimes I just pick something anything and just worry myself into a snit.  Yesterday I woke up and vowed to fill my thoughts with endless happy ideas so I would not waste any part of my day. So what is a good way to fill a mind with happiness? Why thinking of a new knitting project!  I really love my traveling woman shawl and my noble cowl .  I wear these so much since the weather turned cooler. Right now I am leaning towards another triangular shawl in fingering weight.  I am just not sure if I should do a repeat of what I love or branch out and choose a new pattern. My other fun activity was loading up a new ipod touch (for my soon-to-be-birthday on Sunday).  I am still in the process of deciding what to keep and what to delete from the old ipod touch.  I think over the next

This weekend contained: -getting ready for Thanksgiving and finishing up the holiday shopping for my extended family. -knitting on a leg warmer and wishing it was the second one and I was done... -switching from the itty bitty circular wooden needles to my tried and true DPNs.... -feeling like I betrayed my loyal metal double pointed needles...I will never ever give you up again. -laundry (even though I have way less, I still have it!) -knitting with friends at a local coffee shop and laughing more than knitting. -forgetting to walk before dinner...we finally got it right on Sunday! -having a very long streak of "good hair days", I'm thinking it is because it is fall and my hair is happy. Joining Amanda at the habit of being

Joining Amanda at Soulemama .

To me Autumn usually means brown but I was surprised to find evidence of it very close to this week's challenge.  After all of the bright colors from the previous challenges I found brown to be comforting.  Of course, I have loads of brown on my property since I am surrounded by woods.      I would not mind one little bit if fall would linger on.  It is one of my favorite seasons (besides winter).  I enjoy the crisp air and the dark nights.  More time for knitting. Only the oak tress are holding onto their last bit of leaves.  Just like that the colors are finished! I have blogged about this tree stump before and it never stops to fascinate me with all of the fungi that is growing on it.  When we first had to cut the tree down because of severe damage, I thought the stump was an eyesore.  Now....I just think it is such a great example of nature's beauty.

This is the centerpiece on my coffee table.  My mother made the pumpkins so many years ago and I love when September arrives and I display them.  I keep them out until I decorate the house for Christmas.  Yes do you see a tv remote tucked in that basket.  I thought it would be a good place to keep it. The kids will be coming home for Thanksgiving break and we will be celebrating Christmas (!) with my side of the family during the break.  I feel like I have too much to do to prepare and yet when I write my list it really isn't that much to do.  So maybe it is the excitement that has me feeling a little edgy. One of the things I most enjoy about the holiday season is that we have for years spaced out our Christmas gift exchanging.  In October we exchange gifts with my husband's parents.  It is difficult to get into the holiday season in October but because of commercialism the stores have some holiday items out for setting the mood. November is when we exchange for my f

This week I have been focusing on the legwarmers that I started a couple of weeks ago.  I usually knit with double pointed needles and I decided to try out the itty bitty circular needles for a change.  Especially since there is straight tube knitting.  So far they are okay.  I am not madly in love with them but I do not hate them.  What I like is that I am on circular needles.  What I do not like is that they are wood and I always prefer metal-I think stitches slide around better.  What makes my evaluation confusing is that the yarn I am using  reynolds-wash-day-wool  is very splitty to knit with.  I love this yarn because of its softness and its durability.  Wash Day wool wears like iron!! For reading this week I am still on the same book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane  and so far I am liking it a lot.  At the very beginning, on the first page, the author was talking about a character cooking lentils then eating the cooked peas (this stuck in my mind).....I thought peas

Well maybe this isn't really a simple pleasure to most of you, but it is to me.  Over the weekend I was thinking about my two projects left on the needles and how both of them are not for me.  I also know that I have at least three more knitting gifts to make before Christmas if I feel up to it.  So what do I do?  I dream of something for me!  I wanted a super easy cowl that is in worsted weight which would knit up quickly in case I do get motivated to knit for others.   Ahem. The yarn is Ultra Alpaca by Berroco  that I picked up in Pittsburgh around two years ago.  I was going to make flip mittens out of it but I changed my mind.  The pattern that I am following loosely is the Purl Ridge  scarf by Stephen West.  My ravelry page is here .

This weekend contained: -watching the movie Iron Man  and finding out I like superheros! -sharing a dinner with good friends while laughing and talking about our kids and our animals. -enjoying the time change Sunday morning and leisurely getting ready for church. -being a little sad that in a few weeks the after dinner walk with Frodo will have to be before dinner or not at all because of the darkness. -savoring a meal made by my husband-it feels like a vacation for me every time he cooks! -chatting with both kids and looking forward to Thanksgiving vacation. -only having two knitting projects and daydreaming about what should be my next project. -a walk around the property with Frodo, snapping photos of all the fallen leaves and bare trees.  Only our oaks are holding on to their leaves. -just being happy being. Joining Amanda at the habit of being .

I managed to uncover some purple in my yard but it required me to think a little.  Autumn usually means to me yellow, orange and red.  Imagine my surprise to find that purple is a fall color-honest!! This photo above is one of my wild dogwood trees.   We planted this weigela bush in our front garden for its beautiful pink flowers in the spring.  Little did I know that I would discover purple leaves in the fall, thank you little shrub of mine. This is a shawl that I knitted this summer and has been my "go to" shawl to wear during the chilly mornings.  It is wool and it is warm.  It is wonderful. Looking forward to seeing everyone else's purple themed photos.