Christmas Decorations

I felt like I over-decorated a bit last year, so this year I kept it simple.

Dining Room

Living Room

View from the Kitchen Sink

Spotted the other day while washing dishes.

Thanksgiving Dinner

11,111 Giveaway Winner

And the winner is:

Maria in Australia

Congratulations. Please email me with your address and a little surprise will make its way to you.

11,111

This morning when I logged on the counter on my blog showed 11,111 visitors. I thought this needs to be celebrated.
If you would like to receive a surprise gift from me, leave a comment on this post before December 1.

Monday, Monday

The sun is shining, the cats are happy and three loads of laundry are fluttering merrily in the breeze.
Our stash enhancement trip to W-S on Saturday was not as successful as I hoped it would be. Neither one of the two fabric stores had what I was looking for. I did find a very nice Winter themed fabric at our HobbyLobby, the other fabric is for a special project.

I did get some yarn for ongoing and future projects and I also bought some books at the book sale for the library.


It was a rather warm day and I came home exhausted and with a headache.
I hope the weather will stay nice this week and I can get all the laundry done and maybe work a little in the garden.

My Latest Project

I am currently knitting the Lacy Prairie Shawl from Folk Shawls. I got a lot of it done during the bazaar.

The storm is still on here, it is cold, windy and raining buckets. Our telephone line got knocked out sometime yesterday and it is still not working and the internet connection comes and goes. Del has a job interview today in Greensboro, he applied for a supervisor position within the DMV.
Brownie and Mamacat have been staying in the mudroom and basement since yesterday morning and neither one of them is inclined to go outside. I feed the two boys in the dry part of the carport and they are obviously staying in the shed together. There is a big box with blankets in the potting shed.

Last night something weird happened. Around 8.30 pm somebody knocked on our front door and after checking carefully who was outside Del opened it to a police officer standing on the front porch. He said they received a 911 hang up from this location and asked if everything was okay and if he could come in just to make sure. He came in and looked around, using his little flashlight apologized for the disturbance and left. I wonder what happened, maybe it was a glitch in the telephone line due to the weather.

I think I must bake some more brownies today. ;-)

Stormy Weather

We are getting hit by the remnants of storm Ida and it is way too nasty to go out if you don't have to. So we postponed our stash enhancement trip to Saturday, after the visit to the book sale of the library. Our power went out for about half an hour this morning and it showed us how much we depend on electricity. It was too dark in the house to read or knit, the sump pump was getting ready to overflow and if it would have lasted for a long time our turkey would have thawed and gone bad because we can't cook without power either. Yikes.
I was in an experimenting mood last night and this was our dinner. Baked acorn squash stuffed with onions and peppers, mashed potatoes, orange chocolate brownies, pomegranate seeds and a little leftover cream. Yum, yum.

Rainy Day

Outside - cold and wet.

Inside - warm and cozy, bread dough rising and brownies cooling.

Church Bazaar

Well, it was an interesting experience. ;) I did not expect to sell much and I did not, if I had a dollar for each time someone told me how cute the baby booties are and how talented I am, I would have a lot of money. But as it is I do have a bit more money than I had before. The times being what they are a lot of people were looking but not many were buying. At least the pancake breakfast and the hotdog lunch were successful fundraisers for the church.
This was my table (Del said it looked like a humble cottage amidst skyscrapers).

And I bought these two items. A quilt block pin, made by the same lady as the one I bought a while ago at a yard sale (they are both signed and dated on the back, one was made in 1993 the other one in 1994) and a vintage, hand pieced pillow cover, made by a lady's Aunt Mary. She died in 1980 in her early 80s so I guess the 30s fabrics in this piece are actually from the 30s. When I bought the pin she asked me if I liked quilty things and when I said that I am a quilter she offered me the pillow cover, she wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it.


Now that my cold is finally over I am busy reclaiming my household and catching up on things. I did however read more in the past 3 weeks than I did all year long. :) Del has Wednesday off and we will be going to Winston Salem to do some stash enhancement (mostly yarn and a little bit of fabric for a special project).

I am off to hang the first load of laundry then it is cleaning and tidying time.

Have a great week y'all!

Happy Birthday Del!

His gift and his cake.



Pattern for the hat.
Recipe for the cake.

Catching Up

I caught Del's cold and it knocked me out good. First it visited my sinuses making my head feel like it is going to explode, then it settled in my chest, stayed there for two weeks and some bits and pieces of it are still there, I have a lingering nasty cough.
So instead of doing all the usual things I spent the last two weeks with a lot of reading, a little bit of knitting (Del's birthday present) and very little housework and cooking.
Del is on vacation this week and we plan to get the garden cleaned up and I need to catch up on laundry (provided it won't be raining again).
I got everything ready for the church bazaar on Saturday, we will be setting up on Friday and then go in early on Saturday because Del will be helping with the pancake breakfast. I missed church for 4 weeks in a row (first Del was sick, then me and we are not in the habit of sharing our germs with everybody) and I really miss it.

Here are a few pictures I took recently.

Summer's last hurrah.

Fall colors.

A sleeping cat (Mr. Scarface) in my garden.

A birthday card for my mother.

And Miss Kitty helping me make it.

This and That

It seems like it has been raining forever and the temperature has dropped below what is comfortable. Whenever there happens to be a dry day I am feverishly trying to catch up on laundry, running out of hanging space in the garden and ending up with a house full of damp clothes. Oh well. My next major investment is going to be one of those neat wooden drying racks from Lehman's.

Our Sunday School picnic had to be moved from a shelter at the lake to the church hall, but it was still nice, the food was yummy and the company was pleasant. We are still getting to know the people. In this church they are not trying to overwhelm you with friendliness, pulling you into all sort of things (and then dropping you when you don't play by their rules) but rather letting you ease into whatever you feel comfortable getting involved in.

I am still knitting for the church bazaar and I have just finished the last of the hat and scarf sets for the homeless shelter.

Today we had planned to go to a historic farm for the annual corn shucking but Del has a bad cold and the weather is not really ideal for being outside all day. So instead we are mucking around at home.

It seems like we finally beat the fleas with the help of brewer's yeast, added to Miss Kitty's food, thankfully she eats it. I am also putting it into the dry food for the outside cats and they are not so thrilled about it.

I put up some more Fall/Halloween decorations. I covered the wooden boxes with new scrap booking paper and hung my two Halloween quilts. I tried to focus mainly on my handmade stuff this year and just added a few of my favorite pieces.





In case anyone wants to come to our house for Trick-or-Treat, we are handing out small bags of salty snacks and raisins this year rather than sweets.

We had a major computer crash and had to replace the hard disk, sound card and the part where the modem plugs into the computer. Luckily we had some extra money. Why is it, that whenever you pay off one bill something breaks and there goes your extra cash. Sigh.

Here is my menu for the coming week plus a picture of my Italian Bean Soup, I thought it looked really pretty. ;)


Saturday Breakfast: Wholewheat-Cinnamon Pancakes with Orange Syrup and Bacon, Coffee, Orange Juice
Saturday Lunch: Sausages, Baked Beans, Homemade Bread, Caramel Apples (store bought, I never had them before)
Sunday Breakfast: Homemade Muffins, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon
Sunday Lunch: Pan Fried Flounder with Tomato Sauce and Parmesan Spaghetti
Weekend dinners are usually tortilla chips with salsa or cheese dip or sandwiches.

Weekday Breakfasts: Homemade Granola (with dates and nutmeg) with milk, coffee, orange juice

Weekday Dinners:

Monday: Thai Noodles
Tuesday: Bean Burritos
Wednesday: Ham Pizza
Thursday: Baked Pasta with Tuna and Olives
Friday: Carrot Soup with Garlic Bread

Sweets: Orange-Chocolate Brownies, maybe Pumpkin Bread

Other Baking: Two loaves of bread and a batch of granola

What's Cooking?

Monday: Pasta with Tomatoes and Bacon, Green Salad
Tuesday: Baked Potato with Broccoli-Cheese Sauce
Wednesday: Tuna Pizza
Thursday and Friday: Italian Bean Soup with Garlic Bread

Sweets: Chocolate-Spice Brownies and Apple Crisp

Other Baking: Two loaves of Walnut Bread

Fall Decorating

The Last Roses

Monday

The rain has stopped, the sun is shining, laundry is fluttering in the breeze and the Big Fall Cleaning is underway. There is also a lot of knitting being done for the upcoming church bazaar and various birthdays. And in between I am re-downloading and re-installing all kinds of things on the computer which decided to quit a week ago and needed to be set up all over again.
My days are filled right now and there are even some outings in the planning for next month. Lots of festivals happening all around, in honor of apples, pumpkins, corn and other fruits of the field.
Miss Kitty is happy that the sun is shining again and so are all the outside kitties which are getting more territorial as the weather gets cooler, each one of them making sure they'll have a warm sleeping place for Winter. I picked up a huge fleece blanket at the thrift store and cut it into smaller pieces to line the boxes for the cats with. They seem to be quite happy about that.
The garden is ready to be prepared for Winter, we decided not to grow any Fall and Winter vegetables this year, maybe next. It just needs a good cleanup then we will cover all the beds with straw and wait for Spring. ;)
I will be back soon with new fabrics and new projects, till then stay safe and enjoy my favorite season.

Another Shawl

I finished the Wool Peddler's Shawl from the book "Folk Shawls" by Cheryl Oberle.

Finished

I finished my second Sunday Morning Shawl yesterday. I love the ruffles but they take a while to knit and bind off (more than 1000 stitches). I frogged the purple shrug that looked so awful on me and reused the yarn. Love the shawl.