Pumpkin Sunrise

This past week I've been fighting a sinus infection and gave up yesterday.  I saw the doctor for some modern medicine and hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.  He said that this year has been a terrible year for airborne illnesses.  Good to know!  I was taking it personally. One day (ONE) I witnessed the sun peeking out to say hello and to prove itself of its existence.  I walked around the yard with Frodo and snapped some much needed photos.  The sun was out for a couple of hours and then the cloudiness returned.  I lingered in the sunshine soaking up the rays like the garter snakes in my backyard.  I can see the attraction to sunbathing in winter. As you know I've been documenting in my daily planner my creative pursuits and have been reflecting on how I spend my time.  One of the biggest changes is how purposeful I am with my time.  My mornings are for the gym, errand running and doing daily chores.  I try my best to keep the afternoons opened when I can

My knitting news feels like non-knitting news but this is all I have this week.  First off, I am nearly done with the body of my Felix sweater - I started the ribbing at babysitting yesterday and soon I'll be casting off and picking up a sleeve.  Delightful! This cardigan has been my babysitting project so I'm working on it once a week.  Ah, the purple sweater .  I'm half way through the second sleeve (yay!).  I'm sure the sleeve will be finished by the end of the week.  Maybe.  I do love this project and I'm excited to finish it and block it.  I know it will 'grow' a wee bit because of the super-wash wool.  I hope the results match my expectations. What are you working on this week?

How was your weekend? We visited our daughter and son in law on Saturday and had a great time together.  They live by a really big prosperous mall which we walked around in.  All I bought was candy, body lotion and two books.  I enjoyed the energy in the mall and the bustle of shoppers. Our drive there was nice, sunny skies and lots of knitting.  I mainly worked on the second sleeve of my purple sweater, I'll be perpetually knitting sleeves since I'm on size four needles!  Thank goodness I love to knit sleeves. Yesterday I didn't get much done around the house, so today will be my Sunday chores.  I'm doing laundry and making my menu plan.  I inventoried all the foods in the kitchen last week and I'm slowly using up freezer food and pantry food.  I might inventory once a month, seems like I forget what we already have in the house frequently. Today is also back to eating big salads for lunch.  I loved eating whatever I wanted over the weekend but I f

Right now I'm sitting in my kitchen with the overhead lights on because it is tipping down rain outside.  Oh my, another dreary day.  This winter seems to be the winter of dreariness.  Lucky for me I like to be indoors and knit away.  I've noticed that the days are getting longer and the light is changing it's angle during the day.  Spring is slowly slowly approaching.  Slowly.  Right now I'm dressed for the gym but the rain is making me wonder if I really want to go outside.  I probably will.  It's good for me. Right now I'm admiring the books I picked up at our local library book sale.  All the Penny books are for my sister in law who is collecting them.  I have all of them on my Kindle and read them on the treadmill, what excellent company to be in when I'm visiting Three Pines!  The top three books are for my mother in law.  That leaves the pile on the right that is all mine.  It was a great sale. Right now I'm thinking about the elderly

I successfully knitted a bear hat and a pair of mittens over the weekend and promptly gifted them to the preschooler.  She was thrilled even though she is battling another cold (preschool!!) and feeling under the weather. I hope I do not catch it. I did a lot of hand washing and using hand sanitizer but I have a compromised immune system due to my autoimmune disease and the medicines I take.  Fingers are triple crossed I have dodged the germs! Anyways, I am done with knitting little hats and mittens for now.  I consider these small projects her PRE- birthday gifts.  What are you working on this week?

My weekend: -no snow - snow - rain - sinking into a really good book - starting and finishing a bear hat - homemade wings - superbowl watching - more knitting - getting all the chores done yesterday - solving another computer issue - writing a mighty list of all the things that need done today -  big salads - loving life right now - hand aches are resolved - completing the food inventory for the menu planning - How was your weekend?

I don't know about you, but January was glorious for me.  The quiet days slipping from one to another supported lots of creative time for me.  I hope February is just as good.  Around here we have no snow and after three days of sunny skies we are back to clouds and dreariness.  Thank you for your compliments on the hat and mittens I made the preschooler.  I started the bear hat last night. I am having some issues with my right thumb hurting (too much knitting on double pointed needles).  I should give the hands a break....should.  But I really want to knit!  The RA doc thinks it's mild OA, I think it's a flare up and it will go away eventually. If you remember last year my RA doctor retired (boo) and now I have a young doctor.  I saw her on Wednesday for a six month recheck, I am slowly forgiving my old doctor for leaving me.  This new one wants to re-diagnose me and so every time I have routine bloodwork every three months done she adds a few other tests. I lo

Last week I delightfully fell down a fabulous rabbit hole of knitting for the preschooler whom I babysit.  Finally I found a pattern that she was so excited about.  When I arrived early in the morning I showed her the cat hat telling her I needed to sew the ears on and then it was hers. She was thrilled!  Over and over she said 'Mrs. Karen, I love my cat hat'.  She wore it for most of the day. Because she loved the hat so much, I whipped up some mittens as well.  Thank you Jane for the mitten pattern recommendation.  Super easy and fun!  When I finished the first mitt, she tried it on and then said 'Mrs. Karen, you did a great job on my mittens'.  (YUP.) Today she thanked me again for her hat and requested that I knit the bear hat that was pictured with the cat hat on the pattern.  Well of course!

On Saturday we had lunch with our son and his girlfriend, it was so nice to see them and spend the afternoon with them.  Hopefully we will have more visits like this until summertime when he moves to where ever he gets a job.  He's been interviewing so it's early days. Yesterday after Mass, grocery run and chores, my friends came over for some much needed knitting time.  I do love being with them immensely!  I worked on the felix sweater  most of the time.  I am loving how fast it is knitting up! Last night I switched to working on my purple sweater .  I ordered some twist shorties from Handsome fibers .  They are generous with their coupons.  Anyways, I just didn't feel like doing the sleeves on dpns so I thought I'd give the twist shorties a try.  This set will work with my other sets by the same company.  I love this style of needle! How was your weekend?

sweater body finished, onto the sleeves! Yesterday I decided to pull out my paints and paint on watercolor paper.  Lately my artwork has been daily sketching with a little bit of paints on drawing paper.  I love the fastness and the ease of mental  low pressure when I do a daily sketch. I pulled out a new paint set that I received from Santa and I sat at the table with high expectations of great artwork about to be produced by me.  Sadly, I made a hot mess of it.  I was disappointed and frustrated. felix cardigan cast on Of course I will not share the picture!  I almost ripped it out of my watercolor sketchbook but then I thought, 'where is the learning if I don't have documentation of my progress?'  You see, I LOVE to flip through notebooks and see my progress.  The progress isn't linear nor is it beautiful but it's there when I show up day after day.  I capture shadows or a blend colors just right. I have my very first sweater (mint green!) that I