Project Bag

As I said, I can always use another project bag. :-) This one is made from an old Ikea fabric that I originally bought to make curtains from. The pattern is for a shopping bag but I changed it a lot, I did not feel like sewing piping all around the opening, instead I lined it. And I am quite sure I changed the bottom part too, I did not understand the instructions for it in the pattern. Oh well, it works for me the way it is. ;-)

Miss Maggie

Sewing

The item to make for the SewingRoomSewAlong in February was a tote bag. I do not really carry my sewing around a lot but I can always use another project bag. So I made a simple tote bag with some thin quilt batting for stability. I think I have enough of the cat fabrics to make all items for the sew along with them.
Of course I had a little assistance while sewing.

Happy Birthday!

Our little rascals are 5 months old today!

Then and Now

I swear someone must have sneaked into our house, took the cute little kittens and left these enormous cats behind. Still cute though.

Weekend

This weekend -

- we went to the farmer's market for eggs, sausages, broccoli, kale and popcorn
- we ate green eggs for breakfast

- we watched "The Godfather I - III" while munching popcorn and kale chips
- I knitted yarn remnants into cat blankets
- I added a few rows to my ripple blanket
- I finally tackled that re-organizing project I had on my mind for so long

Before

After

If nothing else it reflects my changing interests. I was thinking about selling my Petty collection but with the current economy being what it is and Ebay fees and postage sky high I opted for putting it into storage instead. One day when we are gone there might be an estate sale and who knows by then it might be worth something. In case anyone would be interested in it now, just send me a message. ;-)

It started snowing last night and this morning we have about 2" on the ground. Geez, just when we thought that we made it through Winter.

And as usual there was this:

Now I am off to clean out the stable the cat boxes and vacuum the tons of dust we seem to have lately. It smells and tastes like plaster dust, we think it comes from our walls after all that blasting and heavy construction machinery going through. I hope our poor old house will settle down again soon.

Have a wonderful start to a new week everybody!

Yarn Along

Good morning friends! Time for another yarn along with Ginny.
I am knitting a new purple cowl. The pattern is a freebie from the yarn company, the yarn is Patons Lace Sequin in Amethyst. I was not sure about the tiny sequins in the yarn but I loved the color so much I bought it anyway. I do not feel them while knitting and they add just a little sparkle. I must say though that I like the wrong side of the pattern a lot more than the right side. Last night one of the kittens managed to quietly chew through the yarn and later I picked up what I thought was a dropped stitch, turned out it must have been something else because I ended up with one stitch too many. Had to un-knit one row (luckily just one) and do something with the extra stitch (it turned out to be a dropped stitch after all I just did not pull it all the way up to the right row). I am still reading 'Under the Tuscan Sun'.

Leo

Weekend

Oh so different from the last one and so not relaxing. It started with a trip to the vet, just the mandatory rabies shots for the little ones. But it still left me with the also mandatory monster headache that seems to be my new stress indicator. Not much happening after that, just trying to get rid of it.

It was extremely cold this weekend so a lot of the things I wanted to do did not happen. I am just not the kind of person who sends her poor husband into the freezing cold attic to bring down some boxes so she can do some rearranging. Instead I sent him to the library to pick up some old James Bond movies. ;-)

While watching some of these I knitted on my new cowl and rippled away on my blanket for a bit. I did not cook the meals I had planned, just simpler versions of them. I am feeling a bit off at the moment, not here and not there, some days all I can see are the not so good things in my life and that always brings me down.

Here is to a better week and a much better weekend (only 5 days to go!).

Happy Monday everyone!

Yarn Along

Another Wednesday is upon us and with it a new yarn along over at Ginny's.
I finished the Lush-ious Swirl Cowl I started last week and also my book. I liked the pattern for the cowl so much that I cast on another one with some re-purposed yarn. The pattern has such a nice rhythm to it. I am starting the next book from the library sale "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes.

Breakfast!

Weekend

I woke up early on Saturday, thanks to lively kittens and heavy rain. I don't like laying in bed when I cannot get back to sleep so I got up, fed the hungry masses and then spent a quiet hour with my knitting. Baked coconut muffins for breakfast, put on the coffee, woke Del and made soft boiled eggs.

The weather was dreary all weekend long, cold, grey and wet. We went out anyway. First to the farmer's market to see if our favorite farmers were there - and they were. They are pretty tough, coming to market no matter the weather as long as they got produce to sell. I bought a huge bag of kale and some swiss chard. I never had swiss chard before. After farmer's market we drove to Winston-Salem for some shopping at my favorite grocery store. We took a different route this time and it was more enjoyable and way less stressful than the usual one. I brought a notepad with me this time to write down prices for things we buy a lot of. I have noticed that at the store where we do most of our shopping the prices keep going up and the quality keeps going down. I don't like the fact that the butter contains "natural flavoring" and that there is a note on the milk container about how "the FDA has found no difference in milk from hormone treated cows or non hormone treated cows". The bottle claims that they do not use 'artificial growth hormones' but who knows. I am planning on moving more and more of my food budget to the healthier version of the things we buy most. It is true what the latest store magazine/coupon book said, if you stick to the store brand and the sale items it is possible to shop at Whole Foods on a budget. But because it is a bit of a trip to get there I will re-organize my shopping so we have to go only every other week.

Saturday lunch was inspired by the Mighty Bowls of Goodness. My version contained quinoa, french lentils, sauteed swiss chard and a piece of salmon.

Sunday lunch was a bit of a disaster. I made Moroccan Chicken Stew in the crock pot. Now you need to know that we use a power strip with a switch in the kitchen to turn the electricity off at the point and avoid anything being on stand-by. I put all the ingredients into the pot and turned it on. When I checked an hour later it was cold. One of us must have turned off the power after getting the last of the coffee out of the coffee maker. Force of habit. Not only was lunch very late for some reason, neither the carrots nor the onions were properly cooked, the chicken was done, but not the vegetables. No idea what happened. I remember making the recipe before and back then it looked and tasted differently too. Oh well, we ate it anyway.

The rest of the weekend was spent with reading, playing games and knitting.  I finished the Lush-ious Swirl Cowl that I started last week and I am almost finished with my book.

I even amused myself with cleaning the cat boxes on Sunday morning. ;-)
And as usual there were sleeping kitties to be watched. It is just so relaxing to see them sleep.

I hope your weekend was a good one.

New Stitch Markers

In honor of my red haired kitties I bought myself some matching stitch markers. Maggie seems to like them.

Yarn Along

Time to join Ginny for another yarn along. I always enjoy seeing what other people are reading and knitting and I have found quite a lot of inspiration that way.

I have just finished last week's book - "Star of the Sea" by Joseph O'Connor and enjoyed it a lot. It is a dark story, set in the time of the famine in Ireland but very well written and it keeps up the suspense all the way to the rather surprising end.

This week I will start reading "The Road from Chapel Hill" by Joanna Catherine Scott. The story takes place in NC during the Civil War. I bought it at the library's used book sale and it sounded interesting. And I am about to start knitting a cowl for myself.

February

February used to be my least favorite month because it can be really wet and dreary back in Vienna. But that changed after I moved here because the weather is so much nicer. Now it is the month when we begin to clean and prepare the garden, make plans for what to plant this year and give the house a good cleaning too.

I did a little decorating yesterday.

Packed my work basket for the new month. I am going to work mainly on my hand stitching projects and hope to finish a few of them. And because I just have to have something on my knitting needles I will start my small purple projects.

And as always I will enjoy watching my kitties sleep. :-)

Have a happy and productive February everyone, no matter what the weather is like in your part of the world!