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...

WIP Wednesday (10 August 2011)

I'm just about finished with this afghan. This is the one I made the center from some squares that came with some yarn I picked up at a thrift store or yard sale. I only have the ends to weave in. I'm not sure why the edging is "ruffly." I made it a little different by putting 2 rounds of sc before I did the shells--I won't do that next time. All the yarn I used was leftovers from other projects.

To see some other crafty things, click on the button at the bottom of this post. Have a great week!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (08 August 2011)

Here are some cute slippers to crochet that look like cows! Wish these were in adult sizes. I have a friend who is crazy about cows and I would love to make them for her. Enjoy!

Remember to Check Out Free Reads for Your Kindle

If you go to this page you can find many free books for your kindle. Just thought I'd post this again for those of you who'd like to find some inexpensive reads. I read the reviews before I download because some of the books aren't very good my cup-of-tea.

WIP Wednesday--Even More Tomato Sauce (03 August 2011)

I'm making tomato sauce again. I usually get 2 pints and about 5, 1/2 pints. Seems like a lot of work for such a small quantity but the taste is so much better and since no salt is used, it's low sodium too. Here's a glimpse of what I've got going this morning.

To see what other folks are up to, click on the button below. Hope everyone is staying cool and having a great week.

Monday's Link to Crochet Pattern (01 August 2011)

Here's another dishcloth pattern. This one is designed by the Crochet Dude. Enjoy!



Search Amazon.com for crochet dude

WIP Wednesday--Or What's Going on in Sharon's World

My crochet ADD has kicked in this past week and I'm working on 3 crochet projects. My polka dot 'ghan is being sewn together, very sloooowly but no pictures of it until it's done. I'm also working on a scrappy wave afghan:

I got a bit carried away with the width:

That's okay because it will be extra snuggable (is that a word????).

I had some granny squares in my stash that were included in a bag of yarn I got at either a thrift store or yard sale so I used them as the beginning of a lapghan. I think I'll just keep on going with this one until it's an afghan. The pastels are so pretty.

I'm also making some tomato sauce out of tomatoes from my garden. It smells so good! No pictures because I've already posted some pictures on my blog of tomato sauce and you may be getting tired of it.

To see what other crafty people in blogland are doing, click on the button at the bottom of this post.

Hope everyone is having a productive and enjoyable week.

Stay cool!

Free Books for Kindle

I've found a couple spots that list free books available for Kindles. I thought I'd share the sites with you because most of us are feeling the pinch of high costs now a days and look for good deals on everything. Here they are:

• eReaderIQ
• Hunt 4 Freebies

Of course, none of the best sellers are there but most of the available books have reviews available that you can read to see if the freebies are your cup o' tea.

Happy reading!

Search Amazon.com for kindle

Today I Froze Cowpeas

For some reason, I keep wanting to call these peas "cowslip" when they are actually "cowpeas," Some folks call them "purple peas" and that's what I first learned to call them.

Cowslip? I bet you're thinking I'm going weird and freezing bovine lingerie! Nope. these peas are in the black eye pea family. Looks almost the same but the coloring is more pastel with a hint of purple. I haven't eaten any of these in 33 years so growing and preserving has been a trip down memory lane for me. The 1st time I saw these was when I was pregnant with my #1 son back in 1978. I was staying with my former in-laws and my father-in-law restricted my activities because I was in the "family way." However, I was allowed to shell these and shell them I did, bushel after bushel! Anyway, here's a look at how they grow:

The finished product (picture looks kind of green but they're more cream color):

Hope everyone is staying cool. It's time for me to get started on tomato sauce again. I hope to squeeze in some crochet time as the sauce cooks down.  Hugs...

Monday's Link to Crochet Pattern (25 July 2011)

Here's a cute pattern for a ruffled dishcloth. Enjoy!

Today's Canning Adventure--Pickle Relish!

Well, I must say, that when I made my pickle relish today, I was kind of surprised to see the pale color of it. I took a gander at the store-bought stuff in my fridge and noticed that it has food coloring in it. I was wondering about it because pickle relish is largely cucumbers and unless you use mostly the peelings, it is going to be white. I ended up with 4 half-pints and 1 pint. Anyway, here's a picture of my homemade stuff.

Here's the link to the recipe I used: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1936,151168-244193,00.html

The smell is wonderful; hope the taste matches it!

Have a great week. Hugs...

Just a Suggestion...

I just want to make a suggestion. Many of the blogs I read have music or sound effects on them. I like most of them. Sometimes, I'm listening to audio books (multi-tasking) when I'm on my computer--multitasking you know. So, I just want to suggest that you can turn off the music and let your readers manually start it. I ended up doing that with mine after a friend suggested it to me. If you were a teen in the 70s, you might like to play my music player. Thanks...