Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!

This post has nothing to do with Halloween, except that I am sitting here waiting for the trick or treaters.  I've only had 16 so far.  It is miserable out with blowing snow and yuck.

I finished the BFF socks!!!!!  I was getting so sleepy last night but I only had a few more rows to go on the toe so I made myself stay awake and finish.  Whew.  Glad to get a project done.

Yesterday was a good mail day!  I had won a giveaway from A Quilting Life and it was in my mailbox!!!
It is Veranda.  Pretty!!!!
eek!  My hands look scraggly!  I need to start wearing gloves outside!!

I may have already cut into this pack of pretty and started sewing something!  Now I just need to finish it.  I am going out of town for a while.  Think the hubby would mind if I brought my sewing machine? hmmmm... I think I will just have to stick to knitting.  I have no idea yet what project to bring.  I may cast on a very plain sock to work on. And bring the hexipuffs, of course!!  I need to make another pair of the BFF socks but I don't want to have to carry the book around.
I also got a quilt back from the quilter and it just needs binding but I really don't want to carry that around either!!  We will be in a gym most of the time and I need something small.  I can always use another pair of socks or they can be a gift.
Now I am up to 22 trick or treaters.  Just had the cutest little guy with the sweetest grin!!!
Happy Crafting!!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Almost Finished

I have been working on these socks forever!!  I took a break from them this summer to do Camp Loopy and have just started working on them again.
Earlier in the year I had been keeping up with the knit.sock.love.  group over on Ravelry.   I found all I was doing was knitting socks!!  Not that I don't like to knit socks, and I love Cookie A socks, but I wanted to make other things too.  Whew.  Glad I decided to stop.  It was stressing me out.  My crafts should make me happy not stressed!!!!
The yarn I am using is Pool from Sunshine Yarns.  I love her yarn.  Dani dyes great colors and has the best Harry Potter colors ever!  I want them all!!!!!
I only have about an inch of pattern left and then the toe and Yah!! new socks.  I am going to make another pair for a friend of my husbands.  She sends us homemade soap in exchange for my knitting.
I love homemade soap and hubby and I are going to try and make some soon.
Time to head out to the volleyball game.  Hope everyone has a crafty day!!

Friday, October 28, 2011

A Zombie Run

IMAG0180 by The Schneider Family
IMAG0180, a photo by The Schneider Family on Flickr.
So the mess from yesterday turned into this!
This is me with my friend's husband.
I did my first 5k tonight.  It was cold and hilly but it was fun.  I got 12th place.  I am pretty happy with that since it was my first time.
I am not a runner.  I used to hate to run, still sorta do.  Once my trainer asked me if there was any exercise that I didn't like and I said running.  I will only run in the airport to catch a plane or run away from a bear, is what I told her.
Two weeks ago I saw the poster at the gym for this Zombie run.  I thought it looked like fun so I started doing a little running.  Mostly I just wanted to dress up.  Anything to be a bit silly.  I even made a zombie snack.  If you look closely at the picture, I am holding a severed arm.  The arm was laying on the kitchen table last night when my daughter got home from a date.  She came into my room giggling cause there was a bloody arm in the kitchen.
Tomorrow is another fun day, with a Volleyball game and then I am going to a Zumbathon in the afternoon.  One of my friends is putting it on and it is a fund raiser for Breast Cancer.
My legs are now very tired so I am going to climb into bed and knit for awhile.
Happy Crafting!!!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Sneak Peek

A quick little sneak peek of what I am going to be doing tomorrow night!!!

Happy Crafting!!!

Monday, October 24, 2011

FWQAL Week Twelve

I got some more blocks finished and actually photographed.  I should not have been complaining about the lack of light the other day because today the light was almost non-existant!!   At least it is not snowing yet. Thank goodness.  After this coming weekend, I will allow it to snow.

First off, I made
#23 Country Farm
I thought I needed to use some of my darker colors for once.

Yesterday, I finished
#24 Country Path
This one looks so pale next to the last block!
To be really honest, I am getting a bit tired of all these muted colors.  I want Red, Pink, Bright!!!!!!!  But hubby really likes the colors in this quilt so I will continue to make it.  Once I actually sit down to sew, I am okay, but I still crave the bright colors.

I have still been working on my hexipuffs.  They are such fun little things to make.  I did a swap with a Ravelry friend and she send me so many minis!  It was like Christmas!!  I dumped the bag out on my bed and just dug around in them, looking at all the different colors.  The dog decided that would be fun so he tried to dig around in them too.  Nope, not for Scruffy!

Speaking of Scruffy, he is giving me the stare, alternating with the heavy breathing, that means it is dinner time.  Or maybe he just wants me to quit singing the "I've got the moves like Jaggar" song.  Since I only know one phrase of it,  I might be driving him crazy.

Happy Crafting!!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sunday, Sunday

I wish it was a Sunny Sunday.  The light is leaving my little part of the world quickly.  Sasha and I have been talking about improving our picture taking. It is hard when you don't have a bunch of gorgeous outdoors light.

I bought some poster board that I will tape together and try to use for my projects.  I can take it to the room with the most light and try my hand at photography!!!

My oldest daughter was home for a few days and we decided we should make some Halloween decorations.  First off was this little guy who I saw on Pinterest.
I keep telling everyone to drink milk!!  I want to make some more.
Then we tried making some glitter pumpkins.  Of course, I didn't look at any instructions, I just winged it. Messy!!!!  I used spray glue and then sprinkled the glitter on the pumpkin.  All the glue and glitter that landed on the trash bag I was using stuck to the trash bag.  We ended up just making one of these!
This was all glued on there!
When we were buying our supplies, we bought some tulle to make this wreath. We each wanted one so  I bought six yards thinking that would be plenty.  Ummmm,  I had to go back and get six more yards, then ran out again when they were almost covered.  I was able to find a yard of the black tulle in my craft room so I didn't have to make another trip to Joannes.
I think these turned out cute!  It was so windy when I was taking this picture.  My hair was flying around and the tulle and feathers were going crazy.
Notice the sparkly skull.  That was my daughter's favorite part.
Yesterday I was planning on finishing my Farmer's Wife block, but Friday I got a flu shot. Not sure if the flu shot made me feel awful or if I have a cold but yesterday was mostly spend lazing around knitting  hexipuffs.  Today I feel normal again.  Thank goodness!
Time to do a bit of sewing before I go for a run.  Not sure if today will be an outside run (it's 43 degrees out so not cold), or if I will go to the gym.
Happy  Crafting!!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Yummmm..... and Ummmm

This is the yum, pretzels from the smitten kitchen.  You will not be sorry if you make these.  They do take a bit of time, but are so worth it.

Now for the Ummmm....
Fig and Olive Tapenade.  From somewhere.  I think my brain has permanently deleted it!!!
We were invited to a French Wine Tasting Party.  I know nothing about French food.  And I only tasted the iced tea.  Anyways, we were supposed to bring some kind of French appetizer.  Hubby did some searching on the internet and found this.  It wasn't horrible, but really ugly.  It seriously looked like I had put a can of dog food on the plate.  ugh.  Glad there were walnuts to cover it up.
Don't you hate when you have to take food somewhere and it turns up interesting instead of pretty and delicious? Stresses me out.  Next time I think it should be an Italian Wine Tasting cause I love Italian Food sooooooo much.  That is one of the reasons I want to visit Italy.  And the scenery, of course.
Today I have been making some Halloween decorations.  Fun, Fun!!
Happy Crafting!!!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Farmer's Wife QAL Week 11

Hi all!!  Time for some more Farmer's Wife blocks.
This time around I did
#21 Contrary Wife ( what a name for a quilt block)
And since I just might be a Contrary Wife, I made another.
Next was #22. Corn and Beans.  Whew.  This one was  a toughie!!  I felt like I was putting together a puzzle.   I tried to pick colors that represented corn and beans, yellowish and greenish.  Um, I won't be making another one of these!

As you can see, I am still working on where to take my pictures.  As winter gets closer, the light gets so harsh and soon my lawn will be covered with snow.  There was still some frost on there when I took these pictures.
The grass doesn't make a very flat surface for the quilt blocks!!
Have a great week and Happy Crafting!!!

P.S.  I just posted this to flickr and noticed that people are posting week 20!  I need to get my sewing fingers in gear!!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Happy Wednesday

Hope you had a nice weekend.  It was crispy and cold here but very sunny.  Made me want to do some baking!!  (I had started this post on Monday but got busy and was never able to finish!!)
WARNING!!
These are delicious.   Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Not something that a person going to Hawaii in two months should be making and eating.
But I did anyways!!
The cream cheese part in the middle had to be made and frozen for two hours before baking, so these are not a quick bake, but , oh so good. (No calories are transferred to the people who view this picture.)
I finished my reunion cowl a while ago but didn't get a picture of it until now. Please ignore the person in the picture.  I always feel like such a dork modeling things!!

The yarn is MCN Lace by Indigodragonfly.  The picture just can't show the gorgeous colors.  It is mostly grays with little touches of other colors.  It is called "Myopic Chickadee".  Kim comes up with the best names!!!
I finished a few more blocks for the Farmer's Wife QAL but I'm having some troubles getting them photographed well.  I have been taking pictures on my back deck, but the sun is not getting as high in the sky and it is shining through the side rails.  Makes my blocks looked striped. haha  
I will work on that today.
Happy Crafting!!!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

FWQAL Week Ten

I made it into the double digits!!  Yah!
#19 Checkerboard was the first one that I worked on.

And I liked that one so much (and it was easy!!) that I did another one.
Next came #20 Churn Dash
This one was easy too but I only did one.

And then I fixed the one with the wonky seam.
Could you tell it was raining as I took these?  Just a tiny bit of rain, I am not complaining about the rain at all!!  At least it isn't snow!!!  My daughter drove back to school on Sunday and she had a miserable time.  Lots of snow.  And... we had just put her snow tires in the car, but not on them.

Once I am caught up to where I want to be on the Farmer's Wife Quilt, I am planning to start work on Swoon.  I ordered some pretty Terrain from the Intrepid Thread.  It is so pretty!!!
Happy Crafting!!!

Monday, October 3, 2011

FWQAL Week Nine

Happy Monday!!
I started my week off right with a trip to the gym.  I really just wanted to crawl back in bed and take a nap, but the thought of Hawaii and swimming suits got me out the door.
I finished week Nine of the Farmer's Wife Quilt A Long this weekend.

Block 17 Cats and Mice

This block seemed a bit fiddly but that may be because I made it in little bits of time, not all at once.  And I  see by looking at the photo that I have a wonky seam.  That's gonna bug me, I will have to fix it.

Block 18 Century of Progress

Hmmm, what can I say about this block?  While I was making it I thought it was probably the ugliest block known to mankind.  The color choices are not too great.   All put together it doesn't look so bad.  If I still don't like it at the end I won't use it.  But since I am making the King sized quilt I might be happy to have even the ugly ones!!

And this is all 18 of them together.  For some reason I thought I was on Week 10 and couldn't figure out where the other two blocks were.  I did start on the Week 10 blocks yesterday so that must be why I got confused.  Hopefully I can keep working on these and get caught up.

Happy Crafting!!!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

A Fun Surprise

Yesterday I received a surprise in the mail.  I knew I was getting this but I sorta forgot.
A while back I was on the Intrepid Thread blog and Julie was showing the new Terrain fabric.  Gorgeous. I posted a comment and later that day got a email saying that Kate Spain had seen mine and some other comments and she was going to send us a surprise in the mail.  Exciting!
I don't know what I am going to make with it yet.  Terrain is so pretty!!

I have been working on my Bee Keepers Quilt in the evenings.  It is good knitting for when I am tired.
It looks rather like a mess right now.  I really need to weave in those ends before I make too many more!


Do any of you love Pinterest?  I keep seeing some of the greatest ideas over there.  I saw this and thought I would do that at my house.
I don't have as cute of cupcake liners as in the picture but I will have to be on the look out for some now that I have a nice place to store them.
My picture quality today is awful!!  I had to do lots of work to these to make them look even this good.  It is another gloomy fall day.  But, I am very happy that it is not snowing!!!
Happy Crafting!!!