Wednesdays

Wednesdays tend to be my day to caught up on things.  household chores,  odd bits of knitting  and  the always full laundry cupboard

finished off a pair of mitts for our nephew Tanner.   this is the last of the knits for our neices and nephews.


my tree is up and I put on the new ornaments for 2011

The navy and army hats are christmas gifts from Tom and Rose.   the bear was made  by a fellow Motherbear (Marcie Titus)   it is a crocheted miniture version of the bears we sent to children  in Africa who have  HIV

Happy Halloween

Sunday, October 30    11p.m.

We are ready for Halloween.   Candy is  bought .  A huge bag of candy because we get lots of trick or treaters   every year.  

Tonight Kris and I carved pumpkins

Notice he has a power tool for this task. 

This is  his pumpkin;

This is my pumpkin:

Happy Halloween!!

Casting on and binding off

projects are cycling off and on my size 5 and size 7   40 inch circulars.

finished Lauren's mukluks.   working on socks for the guys and mitts for me  and cast on   an orange hat for Kris.  I'm using the WWII watch cap pattern.   

Saw Sherlock Holmes at the community Theater yesterday.   it was fun.

news last week:  Glenn will stay in Charleston for another three months  but the good news is he will be able to come home for Christmas.  

On the nightstand:  the mistress of the Vatican  and   South of Broad by Conroy.   I really enjoy his prose.
Some recently finished projects

                                                                    Trenton's mitts

                                                mukluks for the women's shelter

                                                               mukluks for  Lauren

Tried two new recipes this  month   shirl's apple cake  which is really good .  the dough is so hard that Kris has to stir in the apples and walnuts.   He doesn't mind this.     I also tried a Turkey and  Quinoa  meatloaf that  was great.   

See you all in the funny  papers.

Sunny Day and Mondays

October 3, 2011

The Joy:  Beautiful warm sunny day.   the leaves on the trees are colors only God can make.
The  Challenge:   a nasty cold.

news this past week:

Glenn is nearly set to  head to  New York.   He can hardly wait. 

Ryan  is back from yakima, WA and is training his soldiers. 

Kris and I spent Saturday at the Mpls farmer's market.

I finished a few projects this past week.  and I can only show one of them. Kris' mukluks are done.  the rest are birthday and/or Christmas gifts.  I may not be able to show many of my FOs for a while  most of my projects on the needles are gifts.

Looking forward to   the Motherbear tea on Friday.  

saturday night's all right with me

September 24, 2011

A beautiful fall day  high of 60 degrees and sunny with  a  bright blue sky.   the leaves are are  shaking off the  summer green  and slipping on the vibrant shades of yellow and red

On Thursday,  Kris came home with a  huge bag filled with goodies from General Mills products from the United Way Fund Drive. he also stopped at the farmer's market and picked up  potatoes, squash and flowers 

As  some you know  Ryan will be going to Afghanistan.   A friend  from the Ravelry's Mothers of Soldiers group  posted this photo  last week.   I thought I would share it with you.

tonight my  honey took me to see Contagion.   We enjoyed the story  and  the acting was fantastic.   Glenn strongly recommended the film.  He enjoyed that Minneapolis  was one of the featured cities in the movie.   Matt Damon and  Gwyneth Paltrow's characters  reside  in our metro area.  

Mitts dropping from my needles

September 16, 2011

Another  Friday  night   bringing us closer to winter  so   I'm happily working on fall fingerless mitts and slippers for my family.

I made four pairs so far this month  two for Pine Ridge , one for our nephew and one for Kris..

finished the first  mukluk  for kris

Alas it looks like  Ronald McDonald's foot.   

 It's   Friday night,  Kris is working out and I'm hanging around watching Pride and Prejudice while knitting Christmas gifts.

I was thinking  this week  how much has changed in the last 10 yrs.   Ten yrs ago   we had  a teen ager and near teenager in the house and a dog and a cat.  Two boys playing football and hockey.  We consumed 8  gallons of milk every week. drove 22,000 miles  a year, milk was more expensive   per  gallon than gas.  Now it's just the two of us  we use up 1 gallon of milk a week  drive 10,000 miles a year  and Gasoline is more Expensive than Milk..  Strange how things change.  Life  is calmer and quieter and I haven't seen the inside of hockey rink in   7 years  or sat in the  high school football stand in 6 years.   

Take me out to the Ball Game

August  26, 2011

Kris worked very hard on a work project this week.   TPTB  decided to reward him with two tickets to the Twins Game.   Very  good seats  with passes for the champions club.   Awesome food,  great service,
a wonderful time was had by all.    Twins lost.  

I started a new project.  Fall is coming and we must put vegetable hats on the babies.

other events this week   include a short visit to the Mercy"Spa"   I've removed the work hospital from my vocabulary and am  replacing it with the word Spa.    Doesn't it sound so much better to say spa  than hospital.   Yeah ,  I think so too.  

Glenn's home

Glenn got home  and we've been bumming around with him.   He's been reading and sleeping in late.
My Mom and Dad came to visit  on Tuesday afternoon.   Supper at Outback during a major rainstorm.
Wednesday we went to the Mn History Center  and for a stroll along  Minnehaha Falls

Mom  and Dad

Glenn

Kris and I at the Falls
We took the scenic tour home    then   home for  homemade Chicken Enchiladas.  

Thursday  Mom , Dad, Glenn and I went shopping.  The guys went off to Borders to snag a deal at Border's. Mom and I found cute sweaters for Fall at Christopher& Banks  and  CJ Banks.
Lunch at Dickie's.    Then   Kris, Glenn and Dad went to the Twins game.   Mom and I went to dinner and to see the Help. 

Mom and Dad headed home on Friday.    Glenn leaves tomorrow.   We will miss him  so much.

Finishing up projects

it's been a week of finishing up projects.

the lace shawl is done

the muklukks for  the women's shelter are done.

my odd ball short socks are done:

I did have to frog two projects this week  my smoke scarf and a bleck and white scarf  which is tricky to knit. 

Lace

Saturday  July 30, 2011

Knitting is a joy for me,  I've done pretty well learning new things   however lace has present more of a challeng than I expected.    I'm working on  an "easy" rated shawl  pattern  I downloaded from Ravelry. 
I'm really glad I used really good workhorse  yarn for  this project because  I think I've knit and ripped back  and reknit almost every row.   This is how far I have gotten

I found a new yarn for scarves.   Garter  stitch pattern very simple knitting.   Soothing after the rigors of lace knitting.   I think it knits up rather pretty

Kris and I went to see Cowboys and Aliens.   Alien ships,  cowboys,  James Bond and Indiana Jones.   What more can one ask from a summer movie?   Pure Fun!

TGIF

Friday July,29, 2011

The heatwave continues.  I've been hanging at home working on knitting projects.

the blaze scarf is done.    and so are the Pine Ridge Reservation  dishcloths

I'm working on a lace shawlette.    I'm through the first 17  rows .  There has been  frogging.
I keep wondering why I felt the need  to knit this project in dark yarn.   I'm hoping   it'll get better as I work on it.    

Requiem for a Kitty

Sunday   July 17

Our cat Milo  passed away in the night.   He was 18.  He joined our  family in 1993  Glenn  was 7 and Ryan was 4.   I was still in my twenties.  He was witness to our boys growing up and all the changes in our lives over the last 18 years.  

Goodbye dear ham stealer, tail catcher, mouser.   We will miss our morning face  pats and goodnight  snuggles.     Rest  in peace dear friend.

Harry Potter 7 pt 2 and a mismatched pair

July 15, 2011

Today  we  went on a date.   Dinner at a Mexican place and   went to see Harry Potter Seven  part 2
We loved the movie.   I think it was the best one.

I finished a couple of books this week  The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Clayton Waite. How women have changed and stayed the same!  We all seek to reinvent ourselves at every  age of our lives. Of course I always had more options than these characters.   I can't help but be grateful to my mother's generation of women who wanted more for themselves and their daughters.

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy was  another story including characters from the Scarlet  Feather, Heart and Soul,and  Evening  Class.   It's  a friendly happy read.

Knits for the first half of the month

dishcloths for home and Pine Ridge Reservation.    Finished a blanket from 8 inch squares for Bundles of Love  the ladies from  Culver's Knit Wits  made the squares and I'm assembling them    here's  blanket number 3:

I'm also working on a pair of footie socks for me.    I didn't have enough yarn  for two socks  and the shop was out of that colorway  so  i found one with a couple of the colors in common.  This sock has the heel in the first  color way and toes from the second.   the second sock  has a heel from the second colorway and will have toes from the first(I'm half done with the second sock)  Mismatched matched socks:

   

Rained most of yesterday and all last night.  Sun showed his face  about 11:00 a.m.    Closing windows  and  turning on the air conditioning.

Lazy Summer Weekend

July 2, 2011

We are foregoing on our usual Independence Day Plans, a visit to Chicago  to watch fireworks on Mom and Dad's deck.  my recent hospital visit  forced us to stay home and rest.  We'll see how much rest I really get.

I'm been good all week  keeping the foot up  and   taking  my pills.   But I'm bored so bored I even finished the dreaded socks  I've been procrastinknitting for two years.   

Last night, we went for supper at Qfanatic and found they had been struck by lightening.  No serious damage but the kitchen didn't have power.    Our friends arrived and  we formed new plans.   We raced between the raindrops to have fish at Billy's.  It was good  but  i really wanted barbecue.   Oh well life isn't perfect..

I used up some partial balls of cotton for dishcloths ( we needed some new ones)

I finished reading Phillipa Gregory's Fallen Skies.   it's a bit depressing  but well written.

Started another of Laura Child's  teashop mysteries and I'm rereading the harry potter  books this  month  in honor of the release of the last harry Potter movie on July  15th.

The really good news  is that my A1C results for  6/6/11  were  two points lower than the one in March. 

Team Over committed or should I be committed?

June 13,2011

Suddenly   baby knitting jumped up two notches this past week.   A friend's daughter is expecting  and the shower in at the end of the month.   I cast on my favorite sweater  the Pure and Simple baby cardigan.   using a bright and cheerful colorway of  Bernat baby stretch yarn.      I'm nearly done with the body.

last Tuesday my mother called to tell me that  a family friend is adopting a newborn. The baby was born early last week.   So of course  such dear friends needed a hand knit baby sweater for the little one. On Wednesday, I set aside all my knitting to cast on the 5 hour baby boy sweater.   I  finished it on Sunday afternoon.

the Culver's Knit wits are having a   KAL ( knit along)  for the Bundles of Love project.   It's the maile sweater.  I have two skeins of koigu that was given to me to be used for charity knitting.   its a red/orange/hot pink  colorway.    this morning I casted on another baby sweater.

I have an insanely long list of WIP right now.  Two scarves for birthday gifts.   two pairs of socks for Kris
a vest for Mom, a sweater for me  and a sweater for hubby.  duffers and a pair of children's slippers.  

When I"m not knitting, I'm  keeping house,   enjoying these cool summer days  because we know the heat will come...  and  having regular date nights with Kris.

this weekend we went to Super 8.  I enjoyed it and  I think our nephews will like it even better than we did.
After the movie , we had supper at Qfanatic  the barbeque place in Champlin on 169  just south of the  bridge over the Mississippi  on 169.   The food there is fantastic.   Kris had brisket sandwich with the vodka barbeque sauce and the baked beans.  I enjoyed pulled pork sandwich and mac and cheese  (which is simply awesome!)

Monday mornings bring laundry chores and cleaning.   I'm going to pull on some sweats and knit for an hour before the rain comes.    Enjoy the day!

Memorial Day weekend

Friday

Mother Bear Project  meet up at All About Yarn.   We knitted and chatted  afterwards enjoyed lunch at Applebee's.

Kris and I had a very quick supper at Burger King and then went to see Bridesmaids.    It has a couple of  funny moments  but the  bathroom humor really turned me off.  

Saturday

 Doctor's Appointment then Grocery Shopping and lunch out at Alzteca   and a quick run to the post office to remail our kids mail

Sunday

Picked up our flowers for the hanging baskets.     cool and looks like rain all day long.

I finished  the Window pane cardigan from the one skein  wonder for sock yarn book.

 

thomas wolfe was so wrong

You can go home.    I did for about 10 days to visit my parents, celebrate my birthday, visit the botannical garden, and visit family favorite places

Chicago  May 15-26

the chicago botannical garden is a very favorite place to visit.

A trip to Lutz's cafe on Montrose

yummy and artistic.

I came home  on Thursday May 26th  to home that was as clean as I left it.  Travel is fun but  my own bed is wonderful.

Another Year Older

May 13,  2011

My age is a prime number this year.  47 years on this planet.  My sweetie treated me to   supper out at Ruby Tuesday and went to see Jane Eyre.   the boys gave me birthday wishes via  the droid.

A morning at Feed My Starving Children charity.

Tuesday May 11,  2011

A group of  the knit wit charity group met  at FMSC  to help package  meals.   Our group mixed in with the other volunteers.  77 volunteers  prepared 89 boxes of meals .   This will provide 19,000 meals or feed 54 children  for one year.

Here is a link to their site  http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=453

Please read about this wonderful faith based organization.  Donate if you can and  shop at their marketplace.
FMSC  overhead is very low 94 cents of every dollar donated directly benefits hungry children.   All food is packed by volunteers in either Minnesota or Illinois.

It was a very upslifting experience.  

Kevin's Wedding

Kris' younger brother Kevin got married on May 7th.     I'm really not sure who was happier the bride and groom or their kids.   It was a most happy day.   Photos to be shown later on. ( I  think it's appropriate to ask the bride and groom's permission to post photos of their kids on  my blog  and I haven't gotten around to this yet)

Motherbear at Turtle Bread Bakery

May 5, 2011
Dulcie was kind enough to drive our merry band from  Coon  Rapids  to help put the finishing touches on the bears.    Connie, Marcie, Judy, Kim, Linda, Dulcie and  I    sewed on red felt hearts and  Marcie  checked tags.

here is a description of the Mother Bear Project  lifted directed from their website:
The Mother Bear Project is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear. 

http://www.motherbearproject.org/

After we finished up at Turtle  bread  a very lovely cafe whose owners kindly allow the mother bear project to take over  the back room  one morning a month.   Thank you Turtle Bread!

We enjoyed a lunch at  a nearby diner and stopped at Needlework Unlimited to look at yarn. 

Meanwhile back at the Ranch

I'll sum up the last  few days.    I'm feeling much better adn able to resume a lot of my activities.

The  gloomy weather has been a bit  depressing   Good thing  I  decided to knit some  pretty yarn up into a cowl for myself

Seattle Cowl

I went a little nuts when I saw this pattern for felted Roses ( I made 12)

I also finished the tiffany sweater  using the hooded sweater pattern from  60 Quick baby knits book

this sweater will go to bundles of love


My next post will share the joy of going to the Motherbear work day at Turtle Bread.

Unbroken Heart!

Thursday,   April 21, 2011

I've been quiet for about a week mostly because life got very intense around here.   Last Thursday,  the cardiologist told me  I had to have an ablation procedure  soon.    Yesterday, I checked into  Mercy Hospital to take care of my heart.

All sorts of things rise to the surface when  you are told to  have a medical procedure.     Who do you tell?   When  do you tell the children?  or do my parents need to know?  

My first instinct was to have it done and tell no one.   but then reality hit me.  If something went wrong, Kris would have to deal with some very upset and angry loved ones.     It's hard to show your vulnerability to your children  after all we are supposed to be their source of strength.   By letting them enter the adult circle, I showed them I respected and  needed them.  

Life hands you lessons  but some days you get a full syllabus.  

My heart is now unbroken   beating in sinus rhythm   and  at a reasonable pace.   

Life is good.  Tomorrow will be better.  

Knitting a rainbow and Valkyrie

my mission to knit an infant sweater with sock yarn progresses 
I shared the front of the sweater  on Monday and     here is  the back:

I think the back is prettier than the front.   I'm really enjoying this project.   The yarn has nice stitch definition.

Watched  Valkyrie this  afternoon.   I'm glad I waited  to watch it on netflix.  

Joy: watching the rainbow grow  as I knit the back of the sweater.   Challenge:  none  I can think of.

Yarn balls and bowling

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Knit wits day.    Brought in the five  huge bags of yarn sent to us  from a really kind woman in New York.

She's a fellow Raveller  who posted on one of the main boards  about what to do with  her large stash of acryllic yarn.   I suggested she send it to us.   She agreed that we are quite yarnworthy as a group.

All the yarn plus  the yarn purchased from a cash donation from  one of our knitter's  lawyer.  There were a lot of really happy ladies  leaving this afternoon with yarny goodness in their tote bags. 

Supper was sinmple  I had put a pork roast in the crock pot.   At 9 p.m.  Kris and I drove over to  Sundance bowling alley.

Rainbows and The Postman Rang Twice.

cool and cloudy.   Since our weather seems rather gloomy of late lots of cloudy days.   My rainbow sweater is a very cheerful knit on a cloudy/gloomy  day.

left front and right front of the sweater

At 4 p.m. the post rang twice... ( he knocked actully  but it's a great iconic line I couldn't resist using)  it was a huge box of yarn from a really nice woman on Ravlery  who offered to send  the Culver's Knit Wits  her acryllic stash.   In this box was:   8 skeins of red heart supersaver in a magenta/purple varigated coloway,  8 skeins of beige  simply soft and 8 skeins of   green simply soft.  4 skeins of   white yarn with blue, pink and yellow flecks,  3 skeins of  homespun in grey/black,  3 skeins of a blue/purple/white  red heart supersaver, 9 balls of brown   mystery yarn.   6 skeins of patons in maroon/navy/brown/beige and 6 akeins of patons in brown and there were about 15 skeins  assorted kinds of  acryllic.   It was a huge  donation that the  gifter will not even allow  us to pay for the shipping.  

What a wonderful donation

Upstairs, Downstairs

Sunday, April 10,  20 11

Quiet day at home.    Worked on the  rainbow square sweater.   
Started the book  Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand     ( author of Seabiscuit).   I am enjoying this book a lot.

Spring acts like my cat   in front of closed door.   He can't make up his mind  which side of the door he wants to be on.   Spring has been like this all week   warm and cloudy,  warm and sunny, cool and cloudy, cool and sunny.   It's   spring in the Midwest, no big surprise there

tonight was the premiere of   the new Upstairs, Downstairs  on  Masterpiece Theater.     I'm not sure this is going to make it.   I loved the first one so much.   It  seems strange to see the foyer of 165 Eaton Place without Mr. Hudson opening the door.

Blast from my past and Ryan channels the Beatles

Saturday   April 9, 2011

A complete blast from my past showed up  on Facebook this morning.   My besties in high school and I had a little garage band.   It was a beatle tribute band.    I was "George"   played  lead guitar and sang harmony on most songs and lead on a few.   We had  wonderful times back then  making music in the summer.   We must have driven the neighbors absolutely crazy!!    

that's me at 14   dressed as George (far left)

here's our  band  Imagine

 

The Beatles seem to be the theme of the day.

Ryan acts out a famous beatles song   I am the Walrus

We had  a storm roll through last night  as we were going to bed.   Spring must be here.

Joy:  photos on facebook   Challenge: the hand  is still hurting  but at least I can knit.

 

Tender emotions and tendonitis

Friday   April 8,  2011

A really lovely invitation to Kris' brother's wedding arrived.   We are so happy to accept such a sweet invitation to  their special day.  Is love  lovelier  the second time around??  

Woke up in the middle of the night   in  great pain.   The tendon in my right hand was really hurting.  It's called trigger finger.   crazy name for a condition.   I've never fired a gun in my life and I have trigger finger.
Tylenol and  ibuprofen    did the trick.   milo was quite concerned  he slept by my side  after he heard me get up.      What a sweet kitty.  

Joy: the invitation       Challenge:   handling pain.   I'm really not good with pain.

shutting down the gov't?????

Thursday,   April 7, 2011

As the deadline rides closer to the deadline to finding a budget solution or  have a gov't shut down,   I wonder would this happen if Congress would not get paid if  the gov't had to  shut down?  I'm sure this would never eve r happen.   But these August body of morons  will hang our military that risks their lives  for our nation.      This means both my sons who are serving our nation in uniform would be on half pay until Congress gets off their butts and finalizes a deal to keep our nation  in   business.  All of this is the game play of a bunch of drama llama  who are more interested in scoring points with their party than serving the voters..

Whew    that felt really good to get that off my chest.

joy   the daily show    challenge   not getting snarky on face book over the subject mentioned above.

Micheal Caine and Mitered Squares

Wednesday   April 6, 2011

A visit to the library, picked up  Micheal Caine's Autobiography.    he is such a rascal, a charming one.

I cast on this project earlier in the day

yes that first square is a bit wonky.    I had to frog the first set of squares   metal needles make working with the serenity yarn   difficult.      the pattern is   Windowpane caridgan from the  Sock yarn one skein wonders.

Joy:    reading before bed    challenge:  making mitered squares that look square.  will I ever do this???

Friends with Custard Benefits

Tuesday  April 5, 2011

It was nice to wake up in our bed.  but getting up     at 5 a.m   Yikes!    Vacation is in the rear view window, getting smaller every minute.

It's Tuesday.  Knit wit Day.   I love my knitting peeps.   They make  two sticks and string  into a real party.
I missed our Free Custard day  last week   while I was driving through Georgia.    so  I had to enjoy some today.    Custard, kntting and girlfriends.   how can it get any better??

Going home

April 4, 2011

up early to catch an 8;40 flight.   rental return was incredibly efficient.  Way to Go Enterprise.  Fast service through Sea Tac security  station.   Slept through most of the flight.  Took  the light rail/northstar back home where our friend Beth picked us up. 

milo was  very happy to see us.  Did three loads of laundry.   unpacked suitcases.   made a simple chicken supper.   I'll face the grocery store tomorrow.  

joy:  heading home     challenge  airplane seating  need i say more??

Sunday at the top of the Space needle

We waited until we could have a clear day for viewing from the top of the Space needle.  Today has been the clearest day we have had since we arrived in Seattle/Tacoma area. 

Ryan and kris  looking at downtown  seattle.
strolled over to the pacific science museum.   watched the 3-D movie  Sea Rex.   i fell asleep.


strolled  along the wharf and had  Lunch at the Crab pot.   the guys had burgers and   I had fish tacos.

Supper at the Rock in Lacey.   great pizza.

Said goodbye to Ryan.  sniff sniff.

joy spending the day with our soldier   challenge letting go without tears

Flying High

Saturday  April 2, 2011

Another Rainy day  so we are off to the Museum of Flight.   lots of planes to see and exhibits on WWI and WWII avaition.   The space exhibits were excellent.  

Kris and Ryan  admiring the planes

drove back  to Tacoma for supper at Kubuki   sushi and teryoki.

Joy: being with our son   Challenge:  finding a comfortable place to siet while they looked at all the exhibits.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

Friday,  April 1

Ryan was able to join us after his PT test.   We had a fast lunch and then drove  in the rain to Seattle.

We went to Little knits  and awesome yarn shop in West Settle.
I bought these lovlies

taiyo from noro

Supersocke from online  Wellness II   in  two colorways

We  drove over to the Seattle Center and toured the science Fiction  museum it shares space with a music lab/experience

There was an awesome instrument tower in teh center of the building

Ryan was a little tired in the car