WIP Wednesday (13 July 2011)

Didn't get a chance to take pictures but I wanted to get this posted before Wednesday was over. Today's WIP is a bit different. I'm canning green beans today. My garden is doing very well this year. We have a small garden but it is going to keep us in green beans for the next year. Of course, there are only 2 of us in the house so it's not too difficult canning enough to last the year. I'll be making pickles and tomato sauce a little later this summer. I need to figure out how to preserve my potatoes. I've heard that it is possible to keep them in a cool, dry place so maybe if that's the case I'll put them in the crawl space.

Still crocheting 2 afghans--one out of squares and one out of scraps. The scrap ghan (done in a ripple-e pattern) gives me a nice break from my "regular" project. I'll just be working on it when I get bored with the squares and that's a frequent occurrence lately. Oh, and the scrap 'ghan I ended up frogging and starting over again. I have learned that I shouldn't always try "winging" a pattern without looking at it. The ends of my rows were kinda squirrely-looking and that's why I frogged it.

Y'all have a great and productive week.  Hugs...

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (11 July 2011)

Here is a small project to work on in this hot weather that many of us have been experiencing. Happy hooking...!

And This Flower Is--

The other day I posted the following picture of a flower and asked if anyone knew what it is. No one guessed so I'm going to let you in on the answer. :)

The flowers are potato plants.

Potatoes were first known to be grown in South America. In one of my college history classes, I learned that when Europeans first introduced potatoes to Europe, they were grown as ornamental plants and it is easy to understand why after seeing the pretty flowers. Go to this page and you can learn some potato trivia.

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Still Receiving Calls from "Card Services"

If you google "card services" you will see that they are scammers and steal identities. I've been battling with them for way over a year to stop calling me. I file complaints with the "Do Not Call Registry" and still get phone calls. Most times I wait out the recorded portion of the message and tell them to cease and desist with the phone calls and take my name off their list. No luck so far. They change their telephone numbers like some folks change their underwear. Yesterday afternoon about 4:12, dh answered and hung up on one of their calls and this time it was from a cell number. Because I didn't get the number, I didn't make a complaint this time but it doesn't matter because they keep calling anyway. I think the "Do Not Call Registry" isn't what it is cracked up to be. A local travel agency has started making phone calls too even though we are on the "Do Not Call Registry." So we pay people with tax dollars to run that agency and I can't help but wonder what they're doing to earn their paychecks. So, I'm finished with my rant for the day. Take care everyone....

A Productive Suzie-Homemaker Day

Today I processed and froze 10 packages of corn. I took it off the cob because I'm not too fond of frozen corn on the cob. To can the beans I used the instructions on this page. My pressure canner isn't big enough to do all the jars at once--I can fit 6 jars in at a time. The green beans were all from the first picking out of our garden. I could hardly believe that last weekend I found a few wannabe green beans and yesterday, I found a bunch of 'em ready to pick! We had some with our supper last night and they were delicious with a bit of butter melted on top of them. I did give some to my mil and still had a bunch left for canning. Here's a few pictures:

This is about 2/3 of what I got.

Ended up with 11 pints after giving some to MIL and having for supper last night

I started out with 20 ears

Ended up with 10 bags

I got the 1st cucumber yesterday too. Seeing it makes me realize that I forgot to cut it up and put it on our chef salads tonight. Drat!!! I planted a smaller size one because it looks like it might make better pickles.

This is some salad greens I'm growing in a pot. Mine doesn't look pretty like some I've seen pictures of.

The lilies in our pond. Several years ago we had purchased a different lily for the pond. It disappeared! We have no idea what happened to it. Our son Justin tore a chunk off his and gave it to us and it is taking over the pond and has gorgeous flowers. It's been probably 6 years or so that we put fish in here. We just got the "feeder fish" that were 8 for a dollar. They are HUGE now and often we are asked "when's the fish fry?" This year we've noticed babies for the first time.

Now, here's a picture and I'd like to see how many of you can guess what type of flower is in it:

On Saturday I'll let you know what it is.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a great week.  Hugs...

A Few Good Samples

Today when dh brought the mail in, he said it was Christmas for me. I had free samples in the mail. Today's included a sample of coffee big enough to make a full pot of coffee, a can of dog food that's a good size for the furbabies to split on Sunday's when they get their "num-num" meal of the week, and a Shout color-catcher. I love my free samples  :-) !

This is one site I get free samples from: http://www.freeflys.com/home .

Y'all have a great week!

WIP Wednesday for 06 Jul 2011 (a day early lol!)

I've been getting bored with the squares I've been working on. Can't seem to get motivated with them. I have 12 of 30 done. Remember them...?

I've started a project to work on when my main project starts to bore me. It's a ripple made out of magic ball yarn. I'm going to give it to dh for his man cave. I just started it today and used one magic ball. It's tucked away now until my crochet ADD kicks in again.

To see what other folks have been up to lately, click on the WIP button below.

 Hope everyone is having a great week. Hugs...

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern

In keeping with the holiday, today's free pattern is for a patriotic looking afghan. It's a graphed pattern and that is something I've wanted to tackle for a long time. One of these days....

Happy Independence Day 2011

Garden Update--

This coming week we should be eating green beans from our garden. Harvesting produce from my garden and putting it on the table to eat is great. So is canning or freezing fruits and veggies to eat over the winter. The following sites are the references I use for preserving my foods.

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/canning-tomato-juice-and-tomato-sauce I like this sauce recipe because you blend the skins in. I do strain the seeds out though. I pressure can mine according to instructions that came with my pressure canner.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html This is the USDA's website and they give very accurate and informative how-to information.

Here's a couple looks at my little garden:

The tomatoes--dh made the cages out of a roll of fencing material.

My potatoes growing in tires. We need to add more dirt and another tire soon. The potatoes will fill the levels of tires so you get more potatoes; easier to harvest than digging too. You can stack up to 4 high. We got some old tires from a tire shop. They have to pay to dispose of them so they were happy to give some to us.

ps--dh is embarrassed because the grass is so tall. Normally he cuts it twice a week but last week he only did it once. Have a great weekend and 4th of July!

DH and His Man Cave--2 WIPs

DH is going through some changes. He's decided to "retire" at the age of 49--I hope it's a temporary thing. Anyway, he, a few buddies and one of our sons have been puttering around in the garage for probably a couple months now making it into a man cave. Here's a few pictures of the status of one of these projects as of today:

Mixing Paint

New Walls

Ooops! Painters Tape Falling Down!

1 of 2 New Ceiling Fans

Son Hard at Work Painting above Garage Door

Son Painting. Really Need to Do Something Where the Opener Connects to Wall.

DH Taking His Turn Painting

The Garage Door Spring Was Painted Too.

Some Trim to Go Somewhere

Our house is an older one--built ca 1959. The attached garage was built in 1969. Up until 2 years ago, there was no way to go from the house to the garage. We got rid of a few closets and built a hallway that led to a new door into the garage.  There was no drywall, nor was there a ceiling in the garage previous to dh's middle-age crisis. With a house this old, there is always something to do but it has good solid "bones" to work with. 

Have a great weekend and enjoy the holiday....

 Search Amazon.com for garage door opener

The Other Day at Walmart...

When I was at Walmart the other day, the cashier told me she was at a meeting for shareholders and they were told that Walmart is bringing back 8,000 new products including fabrics. I hope that means the yarn selection will improve at our local store. This month they are supposed to start remodeling/setting-up for it. We'll see....

New Link Added for Round Afghan

If you look under my blog's header, you will see where to click for various pages I maintain. There is one page for links to free patterns for round(ish) afghans. Under today's date I have posted a new link. If you find any broken links or have a recommendation for a new one please let me know. Thanks!

WIP Wednesday--29 June 2011

Currently I'm making an afghan for a special person. I'm using a variation of the granny square and here's the 2 versions I'm using:

Edited to add the WIP button. Click on the button and see what other crafty folks are working on.




Search Amazon.com for granny square pattern

Little Friend and New Hat

With the permission of my little friend's mom, I'm posting pictures here showing her wearing the hat I made for her. She's really a cutie. Her grandma and I met in Hawaii back in the late 80s and have been friends ever since. It is so great to have long-time friends!

Have You Ever Felt Like This?

Sometimes I feel like this, not necessarily with dh but with some folks I know. Nothing new going on, I just saw this video on fb and thought about a few people in my past that this applied to. It's great to see a strong woman like this one...

Link to Free Crochet Pattern 27 June 2011

Here's a link to a pattern for a floppy brimmed hat made out of granny squares. It's an older pattern but I bet it would be nice in the summer made out of cotton yarn. Enjoy :-)

Granny 'Ghan Reveal

I've posted about this so many times that you're probably tired of it. This should be the last post about it. ;-)

Beautiful Music...

I have to admit that I don't keep up with the latest in music. I usually listen to classic rock music and dh listens to classic country. My friend was telling that she had to buy the CD with the following song on it. Of course, being the stick in the mud I am, I hadn't heard it so I had to find it on Youtube and I LOVE it! Here for your enjoyment--



Search Amazon.com for luther vandross

It's Gonna Be a Polka Dot Afghan

I tried out a different square pattern to make 1 of the afghans I have planned for this year. I'm trying to use up my stash so there's the big reason for my color choice. I'll probably have to pick up more black yarn but at least I'll be using up the reddish/burgundy color that is a mill end. Here's a link to the pattern for the square. At the bottom of the post is the first square I made for this new 'ghan. Other news, I am totally finished with the other granny 'ghan! Tomorrow I'm going to post a picture for you to see.