See you soon!

Will be busy the next few days moving stuff over and next week the big truck comes from storage....fun times!

Not the best picture, but the fence is no longer there. It used to be a model home (yay upgrades and fully furnished).  More to come!

PS. Thanks so much for your kind and cheerful comments on Belle.  Each day gets better.

R.I.P. our Belle

Hard to believe she was ever this small.


And grew this big!  Sadly, some pictures are in storage, luckily I have these.


Sometimes she looked like she was angry, but she was a loving dog. She grew up with my kids and protected the house.


She didn't mind Sapphire hanging out with her...



Her favorite thing to do was sleep.


and sleep...


Hang out with the family...oh and eat.  That girl loved to eat!!! You couldn't leave any cupboard door, etc. open.  If she could sniff food, she'd find it. ;)



She was from prize winning parents.  She had an underbite and was missing teeth. She wasn't show quality and if we hadn't found her, who knows what would have happened.

You made it 4 very long days across the US, you went from a very hot climate to such a comfortable one. One that you could take walks and watch the crows taunt you everyday.  You were literally 4 days away from having a huge backyard to roam free in again.

RIP our Belle....you will be missed.....  :(

Ten on Tuesday

This week: 10 Headlines from the Year You were born


1. President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas

2. Cuban Missle Crisis

3. Pope John XXII dies

4. Very first Doctor Who episode broadcast

5. 250,000 march in DC for civil rights

6. Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald

7. Hitchcock movie "The Birds" premieres

8. "The Great Escape" movie premieres

9. Alcatraz prison off the coast of CA closed

10. AT&T introduces the touch tone phone

As you can see, it was a very interesting year!

Ruckled Tannenbaum

Another hat knit in one of my favorite green colorways.


My hat model is back! ;)

This colorway does look a bit different in each light, but it's green with smudges of brown in it.  Definately reminds me of a tree.

Gotta love that red hair!


Interesting swirling decreases...heck interesting hat :)

The tuck stitch is pretty cool to knit.  Much easier than 16 stitch cables I tell you! this isn't for me, but I'll be knitting my own soon.

Ruckle Hat by Jennifer Dassau
Published in  Fall 2011 Knitcircus Magazine
US 8 16" circ and dpns
Madelinetosh 80/10/10 (MCN) Worsted in Tannebaum (limited colorway thanks to some destashes I got enough for a cowl for me to match my Crooked Tannenbaum)

No mods really.  I did mess up the crown decreases a bit and ended up with an extra stitch. Guess I can't knit in public and do 2 things at the same time to my knitting LOL!  I fixed it and you can hardly see.

Check out Knitcircus Magazine.  All the patterns in each issue for one low price. 


Love this picture of her!  (she'll kill me if she sees this too ;)

High Altitude Cooking

Living a mile higher than I used to, I know there needs to be adjustment in some cooking.  Stuff needs to boil longer, etc.  But figuring it out is a process of trial and error.

Enter my long saga with recreating the whoopie pies of my youth and early marriage.

It was mixing up ok.


They were looking ok, not as thick as I like, but getting there..


Something I can't pinpoint yet, but they are more crumbly than they used to be.  I did find my original recipe, but still not sure what it is...



However, when all was said and done, they weren't too bad.  I did add a bit more baking soda and powder, so hoping the next batch in my new home will be even better.

They were still good ;)

Enter my used to be awesome peanut butter fudge....
Z-0, AZ - 2

First batch looks good....if you want to eat it with a spoon...


2nd batch....?? what happened....

um...er...not supposed to look like this when it's all mixed up.


Or this...it was going so good and I smiled and thought yes....ha...the fates...I did something wrong again.  I've never had it look like this before though...

So...trial and error it'll be.  I'm going to make sure I don't double the batches until I've come up with the right mix.  In about a week I'll be cooking on a gas stove for the first time in years....more trial and error ;)

PS.  If any of my readers has a good, tried and true whoopie pie recipe, please share...I need to compare it with mine, something is...well...just missing and I can't figure it out.  My father in law and I will be forever grateful! :)

Hats for Sailors!

Shanti's mom, Lynne, organized this project last year.  Since I'm almost a Navy mom, I'm a little partial to them ;)  I knit 2 hats and hoping to knit more this year. (1 done, one OTN so far)  Here's a letter from Lynne asking for help again this year. If you have some superwash wool with no project in mind, consider knitting a hat or two or more :)  They get to wear these hats on their off time on the ship, where it can get a little cold. 


It's that time of year again. Last year at about this time I launched a project to provide a hat for each of the sailor's on my daughter's ship, the USS Decatur. It was an amazing success in that we provided not only a hat for each of the Decatur's sailors, but also for three Coast Guard Cutters guarding Iraq's only remaining oil terminal, and the international troops that staffed that terminal ... British, Australian AND Iraqi military personnel. Talk about extending a friendly hand. Last year's hat project brought hats from all over the country, and from England and Singapore.



This year one of our knitters, Sandra Berglund, took on the project and created a Ravelry group called Hats for Sailors. We were hoping to collect enough hats over the year to cover the heads of at least one more ship. So far we've collected only 64 hats and will need a lot more to meet our goal. Soooooo, I'm coming back to the tried and true knitters from last year ... asking you once again to warm up your knitting needles and start making hats for sailors once again.



The requirements are the same. All hats must be 100% washable wool ... no synthetics due to the fire danger. You can use any pattern you want, any color you want ... we encourage you to be creative. You can go to the Ravelry's Hats for Sailors group for free patterns. If you haven't registered, do so ... it's free and easy. When you are ready to send your hats, contact Sandra for mailing information. Please remember to attach a little note of encouragement to each of the hats you send.

I am hoping that those of you who have blogs of your own will forward this on to your readers and encourage them to participate in this year's efforts to bring love and warmth to our wonderful sailors.

Thank you all, in advance, for your efforts for this year ... we even have a few fun prizes for some of our knitters.

They need them sent by November 7th!  Thanks!

Ten on Tuesday

This week: 10 things you buy every week! May or may not be groceries.

1. Coffeemate creamer-Hazelnut flavor! I go through a lot lately...umm..er..I need a day job out of the house (well I don't want one, but after the final move to the new house...yeah, gotta get one!

2.  Vegtables - my onions, lettuce, zucchini

3.  Fruits - frozen for smoothies, fresh whatever is in season or I'm in the mood for.

4.  Milk- organic low-fat.  It's the only type of milk that my daughter and I can tolerate.

5.  Bread - usually whole grain or whole wheat pita breads right now

6.  Orange juice - hubby uses is and it's usually the smoothie base for the week

7.  Meat - some kind, it varies

8.  Dinner or lunch - mostly on the weekends. After shopping too worn out to cook LOL!

9. lottery tickets - can only hope huh!

10. Gas- unfortunately, we need it!

Exciting shopper aren't I ;)

For the 3rd year......

I participated in....



I was so happy to be the second one to get tagged (captain is the first one) as we should be closing on our new house in the next week or two (fingers crossed for us, some minor issues going on)


I luff red!! I was so happy to get one in my favorite color!  It's amazing how Emily comes up with these designs. (after the race you can get your own copy of the pattern from Ravelry) I got it off to the PO the next day and it's on it's way to Colorado next.

Look at the cute stitchmarker and mini crochet hook for picking up them dropped stitches!

So far my Dishrag tag record is: 1 total last place finish and a 1st place finish :)  Who knows what place the Lucky 7's will obtain.

Go Team!

Furry Friends...

Belle...sigh....our million dollar dog! Well not really, but close! We thought her ear surgery in December would end the infections, but sadly not. They did for about 4 months but since beginning of July she's had some problems.

So after she got a ear flush last week and having to be sedated, we decided to get a few skin tags cut off her. You see she's pretty old now, 11.5 people years and is a little unsteady on her feet. She gets the skin tags bleeding by falling, slipping, etc....


So, to protect the belly and elbow stitches, we tried wrapping gauze, etc.  Um..no dice...

So I got one of my old t-shirts and that fit the bill!


Although, it made us laugh so much!  She looked like a child turned into a dog with it on. 



True humiliation......

Wordless Wednesday!

Ten on Tuesday

10 Fall/Winter Knits

Awesome topic!  The top few are in order, the rest, so hoping to get to, but..um..as you'll see...

1.  Finish Creature Comfort Cardi 1 repeat done, 4 to go!
 
2.  Finish Dark and Stormy, finally separated the sleeves! Both these were put away due to the move as well as the heat of summer.

3.  Mulled Cider - Will be my first purple sweater! Yay for Dizzy Sheep for great deals on sweater amounts that won't kill the bank.

4.  Ruckle - The coolest hat! About to start my first one in the next day or so. Since it's a gift, I'll be knitting my own soon too!

5.  Litchfield - Love this hat/mitt set! It'll be in this colorway!

6.  Eadon - A perfect use for some Cascade 220 in Bainbridge Heather I have in the stash!

7.  Vodka Gimlet - In yummy Plucky Knitter Merino Lite Penny Loafer.

8.  Cassis - I think this will move up in the queue, I've wanted it for a long time!  Will be in this yummy colorway!

9.  Karren - will be the same colorway as the pattern...red...yum!

10.  Irish Coffee - Not sure if I'll get to this LOL! Not sure on yarn to use yet...will think about that when I get to it.

So, that's it...Do you think I love Babycocktails's patterns or what??  The best scary part is that I have the yarns in the stash to knit these, I've been collecting them for a long time...I'm sure you'll see a shawl or two pop in and of course socks...who knows!

Remember Pom Poms on peds??

Well if you don't, here ya go!



This is quite the cheery, bright yarn and it needed something for a little bling...well sorta ;)


They are pretty comfy and waiting for the cold weather....

Toe pic!


Heel Pic aka Poms in action ;)


Darn if I didn't have to change needle sizes, they'd be more stripey...oh well ;)

Pom Pom Peds by The Purl Bee
Claudia Handpainted Sport in Red Wagon
2.75 mm dpns for cuff, 3.00 circular for heel/foot
Mods: Knit sock 1 with 60 sts as per pattern, a tiny bit loose.  Knit sock 2 with only 56 stitches. Fits much better.

Now here's hoping I finish my handspun socks that I started in May....

Handspun Friday!

What started out as this...


Started looking like this....


and became a plate full of this ;)



Yummy BFL/Silk



A wee bit lumpy singles though...


But you can't tell....

GLBLF July/Aug SAL
Paris When it Sizzles on Polwarth
175 yds of BFL/Silk from GLBLF
sportweight