Pumpkin Sunrise

can you see them?  Oh these January days are blissful.  I'm noticing the bits of daylight added each and every day, knowing soon that the after dinner walks are beckoning - can't wait. Yesterday, I was sidetracked by my aging computer.  I decided that the photos on my computer that are backed up to an external hard drive were not safe enough.  So I burned some photos onto CDs and then saved them onto a huge flash drive.  I feel good I've got three safe places.  Of course, there are some on the cloud but that doesn't feel secure enough for me.. Anyways, I love my new camera lens (50mm) and I see the world differently.  The creativity spark is most welcome when I walk around the yard.  Good old Frodo, he loves the walk as well.  We walk, we stop, I snap a photo and he looks at me wondering when we can keep on walking. I'm nearing an entire week of no company. Instead of focusing on my projects I've been cleaning and tidying my house.  I haven'

Both of my projects are growing and I'm pretty thrilled about that.  I love how my citron shawl  is showing off the gradient changes.  Now I have a crazy idea to add another yarn to make this a bit larger when I run out of the gradient.  Any ideas what color you would add? My anisos shawl that I talked about in a guest blog post yesterday is also a delight to knit.  I am past two charts which were the meaty parts of the pattern and now I'm blissfully knitting away on the body which is a mix of garter stitch and stockinette stitch.  I have to pay attention and not watch TV but I feel a bit more relaxed while working on it. My book!  Hey, did you see I started a new book?  I am reading, Norwegian Wood based on high recommendations from both my nephew and my son.  As you well may know, I'm still reading Alexander Hamilton .  One day I will be done.. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

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. Frodo says "hi"  How was your weekend? Our son left on Saturday morning and I promptly cleaned the house.  Ah, it feels so good to be neat and tidy.  January is all about freshness for the brand new year. clean coffee table! I became quite creative in meal planning since I need to go to the grocery store (but didn't).  So I've been diving into the freezer for some forgotten meals to heat up quickly.  Of course there was curry! Yesterday I stayed home, read some, knitted some, listened to podcasts that I am three weeks behind! I've planned out this week what I'd love to accomplish.  In the afternoon, I met up with my friends for some much needed knitting time together. my aunt painted this bottle found on my dad's property :)  Today is th

my sister made the pants and shirt :) I know I'm one of the few who love winter.  Today, we have a dusting of snow that will not turn into rain.  Outside temperatures are chilly and wonderful.  This is what I daydream about during those hot humid days in late August and September.  My RA loves the cold weather and dislikes hot humid weather.  I'm lucky I live in four seasons and can appreciate each season! little tea light my aunt gave me for Christmas!! (I purchased the knit pottery at a festival)  My house is mostly put back together, Christmas decorations are packed away and all that remains is my son's "stuff" in the family room.  I think he is heading back to Penn State tomorrow.  My daughter is back on the west coast and I'm not sure when we will see each other again.  I know it will not be seven months worth or waiting. One of my Christmas gifts is the Fox kit from Posy gets Cozy .  I'm planning to start near the end of January and t

Good morning! My photo today is a bit deceiving... I threw in the Hamilton book but barely read two pages this week.  I'll blame the company that was in my house.  Having both my family here visiting and then my sister and her family visiting gobbled up all of my free time. The citron shawl has made great progress due to its ease in knitting.  This project can be executed while talking and multitasking on most of the rows.  I like that.  My sister and I sat in the front room knitting away (and talking). I'm participating in a yarn along with Girls in Sheep Clothing blog .  They chose Anisos shawl and while this photo above is pristine and beautiful and shows great progress, I stupidly dropped a stitch in a yarn over area and was unable to fix it last night. (I'll blame watching Doctor Who, Series Five with Amy Pond...)  So I ripped all of it out and started over. This knit is NOT for multitasking...Ha! Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams What are you knitti

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. Happy New Year!  The beginning days of January feel fresh and new.  I love how I have a whole entire year to set goals and maybe achieve a few of them.  How was your weekend? My sister arrived on Friday and left on Sunday.  The weekend was a whirlwind of  activity.  We shopped a tiny bit (I bought nothing, I'm tired of buying!).  We had a lunch out and then we started with dinner preparations.  Overall, I had a fun weekend. I forget the work involved with house guests.  The making beds, washing laundry and dishwasher duty.  My daughter and son in law leave on Tuesday and my son leaves sometime at the end of the week.  What a wonderful long visit with everyone. My goals for 2017 are themed around health.  (I probably set this goal every year....)  I received some new coo

Holiday phase two:  Christmas again with our daughter and son in law! the infamous coffee table lucky I have time for knitting on the citron shawl playing with my camera his and her shoes citron that might need a few rows taken out.... I have to tell you, I'm swimming in the details of being hostess.  I have a long list to execute today and I want to get my regular blood work done before the end of the year (today!) since our insurance parameters change a bit next year. As I type, I have a sticky note on my left hand to remind me of this.  A fail safe method of remembering. It's so good to have the house full and yet it's busy.  I find pockets of time to knit and relax and just rest.  I forget what it's like to have family here for a week.  I like the reminder :) Today my sister, brother in law and nephew arrive for Phase Three of my holiday visitors. There's more cleaning, more grocery shopping, more cooking and baking,  and strip

Apparently this is my sixth citron shawl , so says Ravelry.  I love this pattern immensely!  This shawl is my Christmas day cast on with some lovely wool that my sister bought for me on her vacation out west.  The yarn is wonderful to work with!!  I'm planning to make this shawl big and will need to add to the yarn but for now I'm happy with what I'm knitting. I started a new book! Mosquitoland is a YA novel that my son said was pretty good.  Unfortunately my time to read is severely limited this week.  My house is full of family and more family will arrive over the weekend. I finished Commonwealth and did not care for it.  The middle became interesting and I was completely invested.  The ending left me wondering all sorts of things. Overall, lots of people love this book (according to Goodreads) so I find myself thinking that maybe it is me? What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

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. Merry Christmas!  How was your weekend holiday?  I hope peaceful and enjoyable.  I had a wonderful weekend with most of our presents opened yesterday.  Oh hey, I received from Santa a new camera lens.  All of the photos are from the new lens and so far I am loving photography all over again. Saturday I read all day mostly trying to get some serious progress done on Alexander Hamilton.   I'd love to finish by the new year but I'm not.  I don't have the time to read all day every day from here to then.  So maybe by January 15th?  Yep.  Totally doable. Saturday evening we attended the Children's Christmas Eve Mass.  Those little ones look so little and cute.  Pretty dresses for the girls and bow ties and suspenders for a few of the young men. Bow ties remind me of

So I have a lot of Christmas tree decorations and I thought I'd tell you all about them.  As a child, my one grandmother would give her grandchildren a decoration as a present.  Also at my Catholic grade school, we would make ornaments (I think one has survived...). As a young adult, my mother gave me decorations that she made through the years that she had amassed.  I was only too eager to accept and keep.  She then would make me an ornament a year throughout the rest of her life. When she died in 1998, my sister and I divvied up the ornaments between us.  So yes, more of the same oldies but goodies and lots of surprises of what she created.  In 1999, my grandmother died (my mom's mom), and you guessed it.  More of my mother's created decorations! My sister and I kept the tradition my mother started for the grandkids with a gift of  an ornament for each child.  We also gave each other ornaments along the many years. Every holiday I went on, you guessed it

I've been quite pleased with finishing all of the Christmas knitting.  In fact, I even started to focus on some of my selfish knitting (for me, you know).  Then I remembered I wanted to knit a hat for my nephew to give to him over the New Year's weekend.  So technically this isn't "Christmas" knitting.  However, I love having another easy deadline to meet! I am using the wurm pattern once more,  I LOVE to knit this hat pattern up!! As you can see, I'm slogging through Alexander Hamilton, I love this book and thoroughly enjoy reading about this country's history through the eyes of one founding father.  I have high hopes of finishing the book before the end of the year.  I've picked up my reading, trying to read when I even have five minutes to spare.  I'll keep you posted if I finish or not. The Commonwealth novel is almost done!  I thought the beginning was a bit slow but the middle picked up some.  I'm interested to see if the aut