Finished Christmas Blog Remodeling

Hi everyone. I just finished my blog's Christmas decorating. I have Christmas carols that play automatically when you visit. If the music bothers you, you can scroll down the column on your right to the music player and mute it. If the music is extremely irksome to you, let me know and if I get too many complaints I'll switch the music player to manual. Thanks for visiting!

Two on Tuesdays 29 November 2011

Two things that make me happy:

Reading on my Kindle.

and

Crocheting love into gifts for family and friends.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (28 November 2011)

Crocheted dishcloths seem to be a favorite of many people. Here's a pattern for 3 designs. They make a great last minute gift for Christmas too.

A Thanksgiving Prayer by Linus

May you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving Day.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern

Here's a pretty afghan pattern that is nice for both Christmas and year round. Hope you enjoy it.

Took a Break from the Afghan I'm Making

I had to take a break on the afghan I'm making. I needed a color change and I wasn't getting that on a single color afghan. I decided to make a hat for a quick change of pace.

The pattern is here if anyone is interested in. I didn't intentionally use the same color as is in the pattern. I do think mine came out pretty close to the modeled one.

Here's the picture of mine:

This is the 3rd time I've used this pattern. I tend to get "stuck" on a pattern and make it a few times before I move on to something else. I have made at least a thousand round ripples (ok, maybe not quite that many), granny squares afghans, slippers and now wave ripple afghans. I think it's time to move on to a different pattern for a few projects.

Wave 'Ghan for Son and DIL

My DIL requested an afghan made out of one color for Christmas this year. So here's a look at the one I'm making for them:

My DIL wanted it to be one color, and it needed to match another afghan I've made for them. I'm sorry the picture is kind of blurry; I had a really cheap camera at the time and was pretty new to digital when  I took this picture.

Guess I better get busy with it. Thanks for stopping in.

ps--They never read my blog so they won't see the picture of it.

VA Disability

Here's my boys and me a looooong time ago!

I finally did it. I had an appointment at the VA hospital to increase my disability rating. I've been listening to my one VA doctor for several years encourage me to do it but I just didn't have the energy to do it. My one condition is currently rated at 10 % but I have all the symptoms plus more than what the 60% rating is. The VA disability system seems to be similar to what I've heard about the Social Security Disability Program--deny, deny, deny and then after an appeal or 2 you get it. How frustrating and I think they like people like me who throw in the towel after the 1st time and don't appeal such as I've done in the past. This time I'm going for it.

Two on Tuesdays

I saw on Debi's blog that she is going to post 2 things that make her happy. I thought that was such a great idea and I'm going to copy her idea too. Here are 2 things that make me happy:

My chihuahuas-- Nellie Belle and Opi

The 2nd thing that makes me happy is chocolate (imagine that)!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (14 November 2011)

I love, love, love crocheted slippers. Here's an interesting pattern for some. These might make a nice Christmas gift for someone on your list. Thanks for visiting!

Started Slipper Marathon 2011~

Every year, I crochet many pairs of these slippers to give out at Christmas time. Here are the first ones I finished making for this Christmas:

This pair is for a man

This is going with the Serene Seas Afghan I recently finished.

If you're interested, here's a link for the pattern.

Happy Crocheting....

Serene Seas Afghan

Afghan is totally done! A quick wash and a trip to the post office to send it to a special person as a surprise. I used this pattern. The pattern is quick and easy and by varying colors and width of "stripes" you have many, many looks to choose from. Thanks for stopping in and looking. I'm off to the dentist in 5 minutes. Y'all have a nice day.

This picture shows the colors pretty much as they are.

Finally, I'm here...

I'm sorry that I haven't been visiting many of your blogs lately. I still feel kind of under the weather although all my medical tests are coming out normal. Insomnia and horrible dreams when I do sleep wake me up several times a night. Tomorrow, I'm having my root canal finished and then I have to make an appointment to have a permanent filling put in. Anyway, that's enough of the not so nice news and on to something better.

We harvested our potatoes. Didn't get many I think because I had used some of the small, gourmet potatoes that had eyes on them to plant. Hubby didn't want to pile our tires higher and fill them in with more dirt; so........... we had a small harvest of small potatoes. I plan on steaming some of them one day next week as a side dish with supper.  Below is a picture of our small harvest and no, the darker ones are not souvenirs from Opi and Nellie Belle! The "meat" of the darker ones is actually a beautiful purple color. If you're wondering what tires have to do with potatoes, we plant potatoes in tires and stack additional ones on top as the plants grow and add more soil.

On to crocheting : I'm weaving the ends in on the latest afghan I'm working on. I'm only going to show you the colors and not post a picture until it is totally finished. I'm going to call it "Serene Seas."

Hope everyone is doing well and are staying warm....

Rose in Bloom Dishcloth

Still not feeling tip-top so I haven't been here too much lately. I have been working on an afghan that is a little over 1/2 finished. Hope to have a picture of it before too long to show you. Anyway, I took a break from the afghan and made this dishcloth when I was waiting at the doctor's office. I think it is cute enough to use as a small doily under a flower pot or something similar. I used a free pattern from Maggie Weldon called Rose in Bloom Crochet Dishcloth. The yarn I used is Peaches & Creme Orange Sherbet. Thanks for stopping in and looking. Hugs...

.Monday's Link to Free Pattern (24 October 2011)

Here's a pattern for a quick angel decoration to make for Christmas. Enjoy!

"Autumn Review" Afghan is Finished

Today I finished an afghan and I didn't even have to hide the unwoven ends in before taking a picture because it was a completely finished project!   I'm calling it Autumn Review. Here's a look at it:

The dark green stripes look brown in the picture but they are honest and truly green. The other colors are pretty close. I used the pattern/tutorial from Attic24. I crocheted a sequence of 3 rows of 3 colors until it was about the length I wanted and I ended with the same color I started with (green).

Tomorrow I'm having a root canal on my abscessed tooth. I hope to be feeling back to par by the weekend. Take care everyone and thanks for looking.

ps--I've already started the next afghan. I ended up having to squeeze in another one before Christmas.

I've Been Out of Commission Again!

Been down hard with an inner ear infection and abscessed tooth. Hope to be almost back to my "normal" state in a few days. Have to go to dentist Thursday for the third time and I'll be having a root canal on the abscessed tooth done. When it rains it pours.....sigh....

WIP Wednesday 12 October 2011

I actually have 2 things I'm working on. Last week I posted pictures of an afghan I'm making for a Christmas present. It's about 1/2 way done. Since I showed you a picture of it last week, I decided not to bore you with another one but rather to show you the scrap 'ghan I'm working on when I get the urge to use a different color. This 'ghan is wider than the other one so I'll be working on it and using up scraps for quite a bit of time to come. OK, here's the progress on the scrap 'ghan:

Click this button to see what some other folks are up to:

Have a great a creative day....

WIP Wednesday (05 October 2011)

This afghan will be a Christmas present for a dear friend of ours. He has been a true friend to us so I wanted to make him something special.

Click the button below to see what other's are making.




Take care...

Polka Dot Afghan Is Finished

I know I haven't been here lately. My medications have been switched around and my concentration is off and I sleep a lot more in "shifts." Anyway, I wanted to come on today and share some pictures of the afghan I finished for my brother. Here they are:

This is the pattern I used for the squares.

Thanks for being patient with me and stopping in to visit!  Hugs....

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (03 Oct 2011)

Baby bib

For All You Cat Lovers

I had a few giggles at the bully cat. Hope you enjoy!

Alternative Store for Groceries

DH hasn't been working regularly since late spring so money has been tight. As you all know, the price of groceries has sky-rocketed and continues to rise. I stopped by a salvage grocery store yesterday to see what kind of deals I could find. I found that you could not do a "regular" grocery shopping trip here but you could stock up on some great bargains. Here's a little look at what I bought.

"Nom-noms" for Opi and Nellie Belle's Sunday dinner. They were 50 cents each.

"Fancy' coffee $2.99 each.

Hubby's favorite-- a special yesterday at 2 for 99 cents

$1.59!

Only 39 cents!

25 cents each for these

Starbucks decaf for only $3.09

Pepsi and Coke products were 20 cents per can

Everything was in date. Some of the packaging was slightly damaged. I checked to make sure that if a can was dented, that the seal wasn't involved. The soda cans needed to be wiped off before I put them in the fridge because there was a little stickiness to them--probably opened cans slopped their contents on the good cans. You can probably tell that we're big coffee drinkers! I'm supposed to drink decaf but I will use the flavored coffee and mix it with my plain decaf. One thing I have learned not to buy at stores like this one is taco shells. I had bought a box that looked pristine--no damage or signs of being overly handled. Unfortunately, most of the shells were broken.

Hope that you have luck looking for bargains too.

Hugs, 

Sharon

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (29 August 2011)

Photo courtesy of Garnstudio

I've been into squares lately and when I saw this pattern I just knew I had to share it with you. I love the use of color in the sample shown and the border is very pretty imho. Check it out!

Happy National Dog Day!

Happy National Dog Day from mine to yours!

Opi

Nellie Belle

Update on Our Troublesome Neighbor Situation

In this post, I told you about the distress we feel from our one neighbor who literally stalks us with his camera when we're outside. He's taken pictures of me early in the morning when I opened my front door to my son and I was wearing my robe. He calls the police if a car is hanging an inch or 2 over the sidewalk when it is in our drive and well, you've probably read the other post so you know what we've been going through with him the last couple of years. Tonight, our other neighbor called the police on "goofy" because there was a car hanging over goofy's driveway. Of course, by the time the police got there, the car was gone. Anyway, the latest development is that goofy has a camera aimed out of his window, at our house round the clock the last couple of days. We've been advised by the police officer to go to the county attorney. He didn't know for sure if we had any recourse but the county attorney might be able to help us someway. Maybe since the police were called on him, he'll settle down. We'll see; otherwise we may have to take some legal action.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (22 August 2011)

Here's an interesting pattern for slippers. Enjoy everyone!

What Would You Do?

I'm really distressed here. We have some wonderful neighbors. We're friendly with them all.The neighborhood gentleman all hang out together and very often work on home improvement projects together. Oh and let me make it clear, we're not talking about youngsters here because they range in age from almost 50 to 90s. Unfortunately, one neighbor doesn't fit in. He doesn't take care of his home and our property values are affected by it. He takes our pictures and one day he took mine when I answered the door to my son early one  morning and I was in my robe! If a car is parked an inch over the public sidewalk he calls the police. He called the police when his next door neighbor was having a deck built for confirmation a permit had been obtained. He stands across the street and stares in our garage (aka mancave) when the men congregate there. Today he climbed on top of his shed to get a better view over here. It's creepy and I don't know what to do about it. Check out these pictures of him today (yes, I've sunk to his level and started taking pictures):

Ta Da, Slippers Are Done!

I've been using up some of my odds and ends of yarn for the scrap afghan I'm making. The yarn I used in the slippers was a rather large amount of "leftovers" so I made the slippers before delegating the yarn to the scrap 'ghan project. I ended up having to downsize the cuff so that I'd have enough yarn. I think it looks ok and I've done it before so I knew they'd turn out ok. They're off to the "gift drawer." Hope you enjoy.

WIP Wednesday, 17 August 2011

I just started a pair of slipper booties. I needed a break from the bigger projects and canning I've been working on. I just started them so there's not much done yet.

I'm using some leftover yarn from my stash.

If you'd like to see what some other folks are doing, you can click on the following button.

Crocheting--Not Much Going On

I finally wove the ends in on the small afghan I made.

I think the one yarn I used is what is causing the rippling. The purple is a cheap polyester yarn I got a bargain on and I think it's the rippler.

I've been doing a little on my scrap 'ghan. It will be a while before it's finished. It is a nice brainless project.

p.s. I did a count on the tomato sauce  I canned: 8 qts, 12 pts, and 20-- 1/2 pts.

Monday's Link to Free Pattern--15 August 2011

I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it. This is tentatively on my mile long to-do list. Enjoy!

Update on Yesterday's Tomato Sauce...

The tomato sauce I started yesterday I ended up having to finish cooking it down today because it was such a large batch. I mixed the 2 types of tomatoes and the sauce is red now and not the golden yellow color I was afraid it was going to be. I ended up with 6 qts, 4 pts and 1 half pint. I will probably only end up canning a few more jars this summer because the tomatoes aren't yielding very much now. Next year I will probably plant a few more plants and increase my production. I was very fortunate that a friend of my mil was getting rid of some canning jars and gave them to me. I used my entire jar supply that I had on hand. Need to get a few smaller jars next year because I like an assortment of sizes for the tomato sauce.

Hope y'all are having a great day!  Hugs...

It's A Tomatoful Day!

Today I harvested 2 large containers of tomatoes from my garden. I had planned on making sauce out of them tomorrow.

Then, my mil came over and was telling me that where she volunteers, there were 2 boxes of tomatoes that no one was using and were starting to go bad. Of course, I said "I'll take them."

 I brought them home, sorted, cut out bad spots and many ended up in the mulch pile. After I whirled the good tomatoes around in my food processor, I ended up having to start cooking them down in the bottom to my pressure canner PLUS I filled my largest stock pot 1/2 way with more sauce. The weird thing about my freebie tomatoes is the color. The color resembles the color of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Once the 2 pots can be combined into 1 then maybe the color will be a little better. Getting all the tomatoes ready to cook took me almost 2 hours. I don't know why so long....Guess I'm getting slower in my old age. :)  I'm looking forward to using this sauce in my homemade spaghetti sauce this fall.

That's my day today.

Hope everyone is staying cool and having a great week.  Hugs...