YOP Week #23

I just realized I have not blogged since YOP Week #22!  But I do have my Christmas shopping done, doctor visits and blood work over until Spring and clean clothes and food made for the week!  I apologize that I have not been "present" in the blogging community this week...heck, I haven't even listened to a podcast!  Shopping, be it in person or online, is exhausting, both mentally and physically but it is a wonderful feeling to give to those you care about.  I also stopped trying to make all those gifts....why put that kind of pressure on myself?  I want to enjoy my Christmas too!  I could do it probably if I spent every moment until Christmas but then I wouldn't have decorated or baked cookies or gotten ready for my little Christmas, and since I spend it alone it is important that I make it special for myself.  So, let the holidays begin!
Be assured, I am still working on the presents but no pressure.....just steady progress.  For the giraffe.....I got the head done and need to sew on.....

The cross stitch is coming along especially since I recently purchased the right type and size of needle.  I'll be working on it this afternoon.......

I went to Hobby Lobby last week while I was in Mountain Home and picked up yarn for the 3rd giraffe and a few other skeins...........

Last night I was wanting to try the scarf pattern that Becki had shown a few YOP weeks ago crocheted in the linen stitch.  So, I grabbed my Lion Brand yarn that was similar to the Red Heart she used and checked the pattern for hook size and away I went!   I chained the required 400 and actually did 2 1/2 rows on it............

but it was a struggle and was not "flowing" like in relaxed crochet mode.  I had to quit as my hands were really hurting from it.  I checked the label and the pattern and realized that the yarn was worsted....not fingering weight like the pattern called for plus I was the using the size E hook (very small) that the pattern DID call for.........duh!  How long have I been doing this?  So......that's what I get for starting a project at the end of the day when I'm tired and not at the top of my game for sure! LOL!  No wonder my hands hurt!  So, I'll be starting over with the appropriate sized hook for the yarn weight and maybe I will go check out Becki's project notes that she recommended but which I did not read because....dontchaknow.....I wanted to "dive right in"!  But I did learn the stitch and with the right tools I think I will definitely enjoy it!  Sometimes I wonder how I am able to survive on my own! LOL!
As for future plans and projects.....you know how I can't seem to stick to my original list....too many bright and shiny objects that catch my eye.  Here are a few in the works...........

This was mentioned by Breathing Life last week on her YOP post and I thought it was such a wonderful idea that I took her up on it.  It started December 1st and I just ordered my yarn and needles but what the hay......it's a wonderful sentiment especially with all that is going on around the world.  I do believe thoughts carry energy and if knitting by people thinking peaceful thoughts will help, I am all for it!  I had several "run-ins" with unhappy humans this week and just the news alone is enough to make one break down in tears so this came at a very good time. We all need a little bolstering at this time of year and a reminder of what this season is all about....peace and love.  So, thank you Breathing Life and Christina Campbell and the wonderful illustrator Lisa Orgler.  This is a free pattern on Ravelry and there is a group on Ravelry also, The Healthy Knitter.  Christina is at The Healthy Knitter and Lisa can be reached at www.lisaorgler.com where she blogs about garden design.  I will be late to the party by the time my supplies arrive but I will enjoy it regardless.
There was also something that caught my eye in an email I got from Deramores and I think it is so cute!  It is a kit with pattern and yarns to make these cars ............

and this playmat..........

I think it's a hoot and it's $28.50 before shipping but look at those chubby little knitted cars!  Too cute!  It is a Deramores exclusive so that is the only place you can get it.....adorable!
There's a striped hat pattern and yarn kit I want too, for myself but the budget is getting strained and I already ordered "stuff" so maybe my birthday in January?   It is this one at Woolyn which TammyG visited last week.  I went over to the link provided and that's when I saw it and fell in love!
Isn't it darling?  I emailed them to see if they had any kits left but if they don't I will try and replicate on my own.....I love it too much to let it go!LOL!  Great idea about the yarn on those cards too.  I have a bunch of those that I use for cross stitch floss.

I have treasures coming.....I got so many ideas from you all last week!  I ordered the Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball color Feng Shui to make a scarf for my daughter for next Christmas.....from the talented crocheting from MrsMcD918....I loved hers!  I've decided I'm not late on Christmas presents...I'm just early for next year! LOL!
Happy Trails!

YOP Week #22

 I have a finish!!!!  Don't faint!   But in all fairness, I do work on some big projects....the Giant Granny Square blanket is finished!  Ta Da!
 This is the best I can do for a picture as you can see Miss Peeps has already claimed it and I must admit I used it last night as it is getting cold down here! Brrr....and it's a damp cold which goes right through you. 
 As you can see it is folded in half in the picture so it is pretty large.

 She was literally sitting there with her eyes closed.....I think we're all in hibernation mode around here.

The edging is 4 rows and I had to concentrate on it but I really like how it turned out.......it really takes the blanket "up a notch" as Emeril would say.  I will be putting a border on all my blankets from now on.

Santa's Workshop is in full swing now...........a giraffe body is finished and starting on the head.........

The bright yellow is the true color although I like the pale yellow in the photo but kids like bright colors so there you go..........

I am using Susan B. Anderson's pattern from her book and Craftsy Class.....The Not So Tiny Giraffe.
I am using acrylic I had on hand and that yarn does not stretch!  Plus, it makes my hands sore after working with it for awhile but I must forge ahead!  It's soft but doesn't have much give.
Here's the one I made for Sam last year...........

This one's for Grayson and now Uriah wants one too so I have my work cut out for me!

I was keeping up with my Cozy Memory blanket until Santa's Workshop opened...now it's on hold until after Christmas.
I did have an acquisition last week but haven't done anything with it yet...........some of you saw it in a previous post.  I want to make a crocheted linen stitch scarf or scarves like Becki made and showed in her post a few weeks ago.  LOVE that scarf but I need to know how you combined those 2 yarns, Becki?  Did you use 2 throughout or just one at a time but switched?  I may have to order the Red Heart as I loved yours in those colors so much!  These yarns below are Lion's Brand and not sure which to combine. 
Are you making presents this year and if so what?  The Knitting Pipeline Ravelry Group has several years worth of threads on Handmade gifts and it's not all knitting or handwork, some are crafts and soap and all kinds of things.  You should check it out as there are some really cool ideas and gifts on that thread.   

 I hope you had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it and got there safely and back home again!
Happy Trails!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

 I hope you have a wonderful one!

Happy Trails!

Thanksgiving Eve!

I am going to my neighbor's house for Thanksgiving.  She kindly invited me and I accepted.   It has been years since I have spent Thanksgiving with anyone else.  I hope I don't forget my manners!  You can develop some bad habits when you spend as much time alone as I do! LOL!

 I told her I would bring my families 24 Hour Salad which has been a Thanksgiving staple for generations.  It's from The Better Homes and Garden's cookbook from years ago but I'm sure it's still around somewhere on the internet if it's not in the cookbook anymore.  I found it and here's the link to the recipe Basically you drain pineapple, cherries and oranges.   You make a custard over a double boiler with egg yolks, vinegar, sugar, butter,salt and some pineapple juice.  Then you let that cool and mix the custard, miniature marshmallows fruit and real whipped whipping cream and there you have it!  I used to use Queen Anne pitted cherries but I can't find them down here in AR.

I'm waiting for the custard to cool as I write this.
I am also experimenting (this has nothing to do with cooking!) using gray water leftover from my bath to store water to water my plants with.  The only problem I foresee is that my hot water is softened.  So, we shall see how the plants take to it.  I also throw in water leftover from taking my pills.  Since I pay for water and it is a finite resource, I thought I would try and conserve it as much as possible.  I may have to save more containers than this.  I'm storing them on the porch.

I started a new cross stitch project that I bought and found on Pinterest.  I just bought the pattern and downloaded it.  I have plenty of 14 count Aida cloth and floss. 

 I also found some bags I had bought at the Dollar Store as school supply holders that fit in a notebook but I thought they would make great little project bags.  I gathered all my supplies for this project and have them "at the ready"!

 I am making this for my son Jim who's birthday is December 15th.  When he was younger he and I would watch Bob Ross the painter on Saturday mornings on PBS.  Jim is very artistic and I thought this present would bring back some great memories for both of us.  The one below was on Pinterest and doesn't look like it will take me too long to do.  I think he will really be surprised.  So will I if I get it done and sent to him before his birthday! LOL!

I've been diligently working on my Giant Granny and I am determined to finish up projects around here be they crochet or cleaning or whatever!  I'm on the 3rd side of the 3rd round of a 4 round border.  This blanket is big now!  At least bigger than I thought but I still love it!

I also added some "stash" when I went to Walmart the other day.  I am wanting to make a crocheted linen stitch scarf like the one Becki from Field of Lilies blog made.  You can see it on the right hand side of my blog as she is one of the blogs I follow.. 

I also finished this book about the little girl raised by monkeys.  This is a true story and she's been on many of the major news outlets and they don't like to be wrong.  It was fascinating and I highly recommend it!

Are you cooking today/tonight/tomorrow?  What are your plans?  I have a turkey breast in the freezer as I really like leftovers and I probably won't have any as I am eating at the neighbors....so......I have another turkey dinner I will be making this week to ensure I get leftovers! LOL!  I hope you are going to have a wonderful day tomorrow with plenty to eat and surrounded by loved ones and don't forget to be grateful!
Happy Trails!

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving to all!

This was on Facebook this morning and I think it sums it up............along with this one..............

I hope you are planning a wonderful holiday with loved ones.  I have been cleaning and clearing and actually making progress!
I have turned my porch into my library........here's a few pics.............these 2 wicker rockers were sprayed with straight cleaning vinegar and then hosed down outside and left to dry.   It worked great!  I washed the one cushion and need to make cushions for the other. The basket under the table is for catalogs that I might be utilizing in the near future.

 I washed all windows and woodwork, dusted the walls and everything in this room because of the drywall dust.  I washed and hung curtains and no, they don't match but I have a neighbor that likes to slink behind my house and be nosy so I have to have curtains up or I feel like I'm living in a fish bowl.   He is not my next door neighbor but he's very interested in what I do.  Go figure! LOL!

I got 2 of those rugs at a sale for $5.00 each and they're like new.  I shampooed the carpet in that room also.  My sons put a new lock on the door and I bought a magnetic curtain rod for the door as it is metal.  The window next to the door has pillowcases with cafe curtain rings and the door has a dresser scarf hung with cafe clips also.  I don't heat or air condition this room although I could but it costs a lot so I don't.  I do have a little heater there that I can use if I plan on being out there for awhile in the winter.  The wood laying on the floor is moulding that I need to put back up and there is painting to do also but that will be another day or year! LOL!

This is an old potting bench and underneath is a barn wood painting I did years ago that hung in my kitchen....it has 2 chickens and on the left is a nail where I hung an egg basket with fake eggs in it.

Aside from being a 'library' it is my 'divide and conquer' room where I can gather it all together and then decide what to sell, keep, and give away.  An odd assortment of furniture to be sure.

The cradle in the left handcorner was made by my step-father and I have an assortment of things that need repairing in it.
 I put an old sewing table in the middle and made it my library table like they actually have at our library with new books that come in or that are featured.  I'm putting books on it that I want to read next or don't want to get lost in the shuffle as they are reference books I will be needing.

 I haven't filled all the shelves up yet but don't worry...I will!  The bookcase at the end is in the shape of a church  and has willow branches on the sides and back.  Many of these pieces need painting too.
I also washed the brick wall on the left which wasn't easy but I did it!
This is my main magazine repository with various knick knacks holding down the fort along with some antique tools that my step father collected.

My sons also put in a new ceiling fixture.........love it...........

I washed the French doors inside and out and the all that white woodwork which wasn't white before.

I also took the drapes down and washed them thinking they would fall apart and also worrying that they might be fiberglass.....after they were almost done washing.  It was raining that day so I thought I would hang them in the basement but then I had cleaned the the drapery rod and wall they had been hanging on and thought.....why not hang them right back up?  They were practically dry when I took them out and no, they weren't fiberglass...thank goodness!  So, I hung them up and although they shrunk a bit they looked great!   To think I was thinking I would have to sew new drapes!  I will but not now.  They turned out beautiful!

Well, that's my "deep cleaning" and of course it continues....stay tuned for more!
Happy Trails!

It's Thursday and I have finished some books!

As an aside.......this fall  has been so lengthy and warm that my forsythia started blooming again!

I have finished a bunch of books and in my Good Reads Challenge which was 50 books in 2016 I am at 48!  Next year I'll go big or go home...lol!
This was my Halloween read on my Kindle (on sale) and it was good as she is a powerful writer but it wasn't as good as her first book but maybe that is because it is hard to write a second book when your first one is so good and people's expectations are high.  But she writes like no one else and her uniqueness means I will probably always read whatever she writes.....her stories are intriguing.

AMAZON:  "From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Tale comes a “poetic and mysterious” (Booklist) ghost story that will haunt you to your very core.

Caught up in a moment of boyhood competition, William Bellman recklessly aims his slingshot at a rook resting on a branch, killing the bird instantly. It is a small but cruel act, and is soon forgotten. By the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William seems to have put the whole incident behind him. It was as if he never killed the thing at all. But rooks don’t forget…

Years later, when a stranger mysteriously enters William’s life, his fortunes begin to turn—and the terrible and unforeseen consequences of his past indiscretion take root. In a desperate bid to save the only precious thing he has left, he enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner. Together, they found a decidedly macabre business.

And Bellman & Black is born."

I stopped reading this one to read my Halloween book so I will now be getting back to this absolutely fascinating true story!

 and this one also which I am almost finished with...to be honest after Halloween I sort of forgot aobut my Kindle books.  It's new for me to have books on a tablet so I have to remember! Crazy huh?  That's what old age does to a person! LOL!

 This one is more of a reference book and so I have been carrying it around with me as I do my "deep cleaning".

 I finished this one which wasn't very long but I need to go and find her blog as I used to follow her and really enjoyed her posts.

I also finished this book....are you seeing a theme here?  It's the cleaning I've been doing and still working on and trying to rid myself of so much stuff that has accumulated over a lifetime.

This is a FREE Kindle book on Amazon and although I was familiar with her ideas it was good to have a refresher course and it reminded me of my Aunt Bernice who practically raised me.

 I also finished All Creatures Great and Small and I highly recommend!!!!  It was a joy to read and 400 some pages of joy!  I haven't started the next one yet..........

 Amazon states:  "Contains memoirs of Scottish veterinarian James Herriot's heartwarming and often hilarious stories perfectly depicting the wonderful relationship between man and animal. His wonderful stories make us laugh and cry, as we marvel at the everyday miracles he creates."

Okay, I know this is famous and was on PBS but I just don't "get it"...it is very boring and maybe I'm missing something.  In this case maybe the movie is better than the book.  If anyone can enlighten me as to what is so fantastic about it I am all ears.  I will forge ahead as books have surprised me in the past but so far this one has it's work cut out for it!

Amazon states: "The wellsprings of desire and the impediments to love come brilliantly into focus in Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece-a novel that immerses us in the glittering and seductive world of English aristocracy in the waning days of the empire.

Through the story of Charles Ryder's entanglement with the Flytes, a great Catholic family, Evelyn Waugh charts the passing of the privileged world he knew in his own youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities. At once romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh's early satiric explorations and reveals him to be an elegiac, lyrical novelist of the utmost feeling and lucidity."

I'm still listening to this audio........there are 11 sides in all on tape....very good and funny....really enjoying it.

I finished my O magazine but haven't picked up another and I am also reading a book on "prepping" for disasters of any kind but I forgot to take a picture.  As for watching and listening: I am still loving Knitting Pipeline audio podcasts...I think I'm on about 90 now of over 200 some.  I'm trying to catch up watching The Gilmore Girls before the new season starts on Netflix the 25th of this month and I have watched Inside Number 23 video podcasts and her Vlogtober which was great!  She came to the U.S. and was at Disneyworld on Halloween and shared it all....so neat as she went through the Harry Potter park also at Universal Studios?  Since I will probably never get there it was so awesome to see it!  She's a gem and so talented in knitting and sewing.  

I think that about wraps up my reading this week and last.  Tomorrow I will show you my "porch progress"!  Moving right along!

Happy Trails!  

P.S.  Still trying to catch up with everyone!  I have missed you all!

YOP Week #20

They say it was a DNS 'glitch' and that the DNS (domain name server) got 'corrupted' but I'm not buying it! LOL!  Someone did something to my PC and I'm banking on Microsoft with their auto installs when you're back is turned!  So, I'm back in business now and have access to my own blog which I couldn't get to.  Truth be told.....it happened a few other times but I ignored it and was so busy with other things but then when I couldn't even access my own blog....I had to take action and deal with it.....so that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have been cleaning and clearing like a woman possessed but with an old person's energy level.  Not much handwork as I have been trying to stay focused on getting the porch clean and in order and outside work done before it gets too cold.  This is what happens when you read a cleaning book and learn about a miracle cleaner like Krud Kutter (plus my trusty vinegar!).....I can clean anything now! LOL!
But here's what's on my hook and needles.............only 3 more rounds to go and then the border on my Giant Granny Square!  I am determined to finish things up around here!  Remember when I could do a round in an evening?  Now I can only get 1 side done in an evening!  This is bigger than I thought but I still adore it!

This is about 3 squares bigger than when I took this picture and I have been keeping up with my 3 squares a week on my CMB (Cozy Memory Blanket).  This project is so enjoyable that it's hard not to want to do more than those 3 but I have Christmas and birthday gifts to make also.

My Halloween gift to me arrived!!!!  In a little box filled with goodies..........

So pretty and cute!

and they even send you wool stuffing.........I love wool in all it's many forms........

Speaking of the holidays coming up.  I am curious how many of you knit/crochet or make handmade gifts for people?  I heard a word the other day....'knit worthy' and it made me think of people I have made things for.   I'm not sure all of them are 'knit worthy' so I am re-evaluating who gets my handmade items, if any.  Plus, my handwork is my reward at the end of the day but for most of the year it seems I am making for others.  I don't mind at all but I'm not getting my projects for me done and I'm not sure they really appreciate the time it takes to make their items.  I'm not saying they're not appreciative or grateful, I just don't think they care if it's handmade or bought and I'm not sure they might not like 'bought' better.    I'm curious what your experiences have been and what your take on giving handmade items as gifts is.  Next week I think I will be showing you "a whole lot of cast ons"! LOL!  Why am I always behind?  But still loving my life and the fact that I get to chose what I want to do each day (within my budget that is).  I hope you are all well and survived the political apocalypse.....now the REAL work begins and I pray that our president can search his heart as to what is best for ALL Americans not just a select few.  Time will tell but I will be praying for him and our country. 
As an aside........I just found out that Gwen Ifill died at 61 of cancer.  I had no idea she was even ill.  She will be missed as a caring and intelligent journalist of the finest kind.  Isn't it funny how you can get to know someone and care about them without ever having met them?  Kind of like us bloggers.
Happy Trails!