Pumpkin Sunrise

Good morning! Thank you all for the lovely comments on my post yesterday :)  I appreciate all of you who take the time to visit this blog.  I am humbled by your loyal reading and commenting.  And yes, even those of you who are silent readers.  I used to be a silent reader for years. Did you know that I was the kid who never stopped talking? The sisters at my Catholic school used to be frustrated with me.  If only they would stop seating me alphabetically (W - last row last seat).  Everyone knows you put the talkers front and center in a classroom.  Make them work for that gabbing, jeez! Because of my love for talking to just about anyone who will listen, this blog space has been a creative outlet for me to express myself.  The best part is I don't have to leave the house :) Ginny wrote a beautiful post last night on new beginnings and life changing.  We all face changes don't we?  Sometimes we seek it and sometimes it seeks us.  The challenge is being open minded

If you haven't knit with beads before, you should put it on your knitting bucket list.  I love this shawl and I loved knitting this pattern .  The beginning of the shawl is good old tried and true garter stitch with a crescent shaping.  Easy peasy and fun! As I mentioned in a previous post, I used the appliance dental floss method of attaching the beads. The easiest ways to attach beading in knitting and crocheting if you ask me.  I'm kind of nutty but I love when the shawl rows take longer and longer to complete. Another crazy thing I love is the "tinkling" sound of the beads hitting the table.  Soft, dainty and oh so decadent. Ravelry notes are here

And just like that, my world is quieter and smaller.  You see, my daughter returned to the west coast on Friday evening.  I reclaimed my house with a flurry of cleaning activities.  Bathrooms tidied, towels and linens washed, dried and folded up. On Saturday, I relaxed and read my books.  When I was tired of reading, I then did some serious knitting.  I separated the sleeves from the body of my sweater.  Progress! My husband and I took daily walks and while the snow is still there, looking dirty and melty, spring is in the air!  Birds are everywhere and the poor robins are congregating near snow-cleared lawn patches trying to find some worms. After Saturday evening Mass, we had a 'big' salad for dinner that was delightful, I find the simplest of meals the most fulfilling.  Sunday was more laundry, eating up leftovers, making a menu plan (sort of), and sketching out my week ahead. my daughter gave my husband this wee little drone for his birthday.....tiny but

Our little town has been diligently digging out of a winter storm.  I measured 25 inches in my back yard (unofficial number of course).  As you know, I'm loving this brief winter visit.  Snow in this magnitude is manageable because I still have electricity! Our daughter leaves today after being here since Sunday night.  We had a great visit even though we were unable to go anywhere for two -  three days.  She loved the snow and pulled out her winter coat and boots that she left here when she moved to California.  Just think by this evening, she'll be back in summertime weather! Luckily, we did get out yesterday to shop and have lunch :) I recently switched from a windows computer to a mac (I bought my son's macbook air).  Over all the switch has been easy but sometimes my brain hurts from trying to figure out how to do things that I could seamlessly do without thinking.  I'm hoping when the learning curve is over, I'll be happy with the swi

Can you see that snow?  I'm in snow heaven!  I measured about 25 inches out there when it was all said and done.  Quite impressive and the best part is that I still have electricity, what a blessing! Alrighty, my knitting is nearly the same.  I am enjoying knitting my top down sweater and since I restarted it, I'm not making grave errors.  Phew!  I have about twelve rows or so until I separate the sleeves from the body. I started a new project yesterday during my snow day.  My poor husband was snow-blowing all day so I started his cowl that he's been asking about since Christmas when I gave one to my son in law.  My husband picked out this madeline tosh merino light while in NYC in a yarn shop. (Knitty City) I continue to read Maeve Binchy's Chestnut Street.   The book is a final collection of her writings before her death and is a series of short stories.  Bite sized reading!  I received Taproot Magazine in the mail this week and that is a savory kind of rea

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. Good morning!  How was your weekend?  Full of snow perhaps?  Mine was delightfully snow filled and a big old fashioned nor'easter is heading our way.   I am not ready.  Usually everyone in my town shops for milk, eggs and bread.  I need to get going on that! On Saturday morning, our son headed back to his apartment and I did the mad dash of cleaning the house for phase two of family visitors.  We attended Saturday night Mass and had a quick 'get your own' dinner once home. Sunday morning was lots of laundry and making sushi (yum) for a packed dinner for my husband who drove to the airport to pick up our daughter!  They arrived around nine p.m. I witnessed some incredible sunrises over the weekend and I wish I could capture the beauty as I see it.  The deer have bee

On Monday we left with our son to spend two nights in New York City.  Last year we visited in March and that time it was 70 degrees.  This time we weren't so lucky with summer time temperatures.  We still had lots of fun. I know some of you live near NYC and I wish I could have set up some visits, but our schedule was jam-packed from the morning until the evening!  One day I'll be there with some blocks of time to spare to making blog friends into real in life friends. On our first full Monday, my fitbit  clocked over 20,000 steps :)  I'm telling you - crazy!!  I'm thrilled I was well enough to do that amount of walking.  The next day I had only 13,000 because I was too tired and my body was sore. We walked all over Central Park and I remembered to take lots of photos.  A park information worker gave us a lovely walkabout trail at the lower half of Central Park.  She was quite helpful! Monday night, we went to the Kinky Boots musical and was thorough

Hello!  As you can see, I've a new knitting project and a new book.  I love beginnings! I finished Britt Marie was Here and loved loved loved it immensely.  The ending was perfection and I love her character growth throughout the book.  She never sacrificed her true personality in fact she embraced herself but also focused on what SHE wanted.  We should all do that in our life. I also finished Small Victories on Sunday night.  Anne Lamott is a fantastic writer about life in general.  She is raw, honest and poignantly funny about her spiritual journey.  I find myself chuckling as I read her essays.  Reading this book coincided with the beginning of Lent and I might try to do that next Lent as well, this faith reading seems appropriate. My knitting!  I started another Pebble Beach shawl with this lovely soft green wool   So far the yellow tones and the white tones are enough to add some bling but not overpowering. Phew.  I was concerned while I was winding the skein up.

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 husband celebrated his birthday this weekend and being the generous person that I am, I made him HIS favorite cake but it's definitely not mine.  German Chocolate cake (mix).  I prefer just plain chocolate with white icing.  He loves that the cake was all about him.  I hope he savors every bite because it will be next year when another one is baked :) I forgot to share the snow drop photo from earlier in the week when the weather was acting like spring.  This morning when I went to 7:30 Mass (yawn) the temperature measured 8 degrees.  Insane.  I believe the weather will be warming up once more but for now, I'm hibernating and waiting. Yesterday, our son arrived for his spring break week and was busy setting up his new computer.  There's nothing like new t

started all over again! I'm still adjusting to the fact that Lent started.  Doesn't it seem like we tucked away the Christmas decorations?  Oh the passage of time goes faster and faster.  I grew up Catholic (and still am) and historically for Lent I would give up something, usually candy and would fail before Easter.   I remember my mother taking Lent seriously.  Very seriously.  She once gave up smoking and lasted about five days.  Those five days were stressful for us kids!  I'm sure those five days were pure agony for her as well.  She switched her intention after five or so days.  I admired her for those five LONG days and she did quit smoking later in life successfully. I guess I could give up something.  The first thought was my "complaining".    I focus on being positive and present in my journal writing daily and here on my blog, but in person I can go on and on about complaints.  So much so that I don't like the way I sound.  Compla

My reading is the same as last week and I'm nearly done reading both books.  I love Britt-Marie and all of her thoughts and reflections.  Britt-Marie is my soul sister with her love of list making!  Backman's writing style is quite refreshing, poignant and funny.  He can be quirky too. As you know, I love anything that Anne Lamott writes, so her Small Victories  book which is essentially a collection of essays about faith and life, makes me want to be a better writer and an observer to my everyday occurrences. My knitting is chugging along.  The shawl is nearing the end and each row is pure bliss.  My top down cardigan has met with some problems.  I had to rip back and fix a crucial step in the construction so while the sweater here looks like there is progress, I am facing a little bit of catch up knitting to match the above photo.  I'm okay with that, mistake finding is humbling :) What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dream