Happy New Year!

 Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and productive New Year!

Sunday Supper - Bodacious Broccoli Salad

Every year, come December 26th, all I want to eat is broccoli and fresh vegetables.  By the time Christmas day rolls around, I am SO over sugar, butter and carbs in general.

 

So, I bring you Bodacious Broccoli Salad from allrecipes.com.  It tastes much better than it looks in the photo.  I tend to eat nothing but this broccoli salad from Christmas to New Year's.  It really helps with the diabetic coma hangover.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

 Wishing you all a very

Merry

Christmas!

Happy Winter!

 Yes, I am definitely dialing it in but...

Happy First day of Winter!

Sunday Supper - Peanut Butter Fudge

My mother-in-law always made peanut butter fudge for Christmas and my husand LOVED it.  Absolutely LOVED it!  And since she's no longer able to cook, I thought I'd give it a try this year.  

I'll be using this recipe from Casserole Crissy.  I've never made any kind of fudge before so wish me luck.  The recipe looks easy enough.  I should be able to handle it.

Happy baking!

Christmas is how many days away?

 I feel like I'm totally failing Chrismtas this year and I'm not sure why.  I think that it's more like I'm not really enjoying it.  Normally the rush and the hassles and the days and days of pure panic mode get me in the Christmas spirit.  I seem to enjoy the frantic pre-Christmas life.  

But this year, because of the Winterfest booth, I've had to be a little more organized and I've had to get things done in advance instead of doing Every Single Thing on December 23rd.  Yes, normally, I find ways to busilly procrastinate until at least 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve Eve and then PURE TOTAL PANIC kicks in, along with a little Christmas magic and I get it all done.  Yes, I have hemmed, cross stitched and blocked hats and gloves on the car radiator vents on the way to the recipeints' house, but I've always gotten it all done.  And I kinda love that Christmas stress. 

But this year, with the exception of Christmas Eve and Day, I will be working at the Winterfest booth every single night starting tonight and going through January 2nd.  Every. Single. Night.  And by night, I mean I leave home around 1 p.m. every day and get home around midnight.

And because I am NOT a morning person and I have enough trouble leaving the house at 1:00 p.m. every day, I don't accomplish much in the mornings. So, I've had to prepare a little bit in advance this year.

So...

The gifts are bought.  And wrapped.  I've even taken them off the wrapping table and put them under the tree!

The hand-made gifts are made and finished. Gasp!

I've taken the annual tacky Christmas lights tour with Sarah.

The Winterfest booth is stocked.  Maybe not as well stocked as it was on opening weekend, but it's stocked with a decent selection of items.

The cookie dough is made and in the freezer in little balls just waiting to be baked next week.  (Thank you Sarah!)

The rum balls have been made and the kitchen cleaned up.  It never fails to amaze me just how far powdered sugar can fly!

I have either watched or pre-recorded my favorite Christmas movies so I can watch them while I'm having coffee and waking up in the mornings.

And Amazon delivered the last of the packages yesterday. 

Hmm, maybe I'm not done making gifts after all.  Yikes!

And, because I promised myself I wasn't going to kill myself worrying about getting last minute stuff done while dealing with Winterfest every day, there's a very good chance this will be my last post for 2021.  Well, that's not true.  I've written a couple of Sunday Supper posts in advance.  But other than that, this is probably my last post.  So,...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Gift knitting

 So, the gift knitting continues.

Can't show anything more than the pile of  yarn on my desk because these items are pretty obvious what they are once they have a few more rounds.  Even in black and white, it's obvious so ...

Meanwhile,

My friend, Monica, demonstrated her spinning talents at our booth this past weekend.  It was a slow weekend because it rained Friday night, POURED down RAINING Saturday and Sunday was Freezing cold.  I don't know how Monica sat there all night not even wearing a sweater, much less a coat.  As you can see, even the men were bundled up in their hats and heavy coats.  I even had to scrape ice off my windshield when I got out to my car.  Brrr!

But hey - I'm not complaining about the cold.  Well, maybe I am a little.  But it's nice that the weather feels like Christmas time.  😊

Hope your gift knitting is going well and on schedule!

Sunday Supper - Lemon Squares

Yum... Lemon Squares.... 

My cousin's wife always made lemon squares for Christmas and while they may not be a typical Christmas cookie, they scream Christmas to me.

And being somewhat light, or at least not as heavy/rich as say, triple chocolate brownies, lemon squares are easy to scarf down in quantity so make sure you double, or triple, the recipe.

This particular recipe comes from Betty Crocker.  It's simple, easy and delicious!  Yum!

Happy baking!

Getting There

 Do you have your Christmas Eve Cast On project planned and/or ready yet?

I had to run by the yarn shop to pick up a longer cabled needle for the Winterfest sweater and well... a tiny bit of yarn jumped into my arms.

The yarn is Bamboo Bloom from Universal Yarn and the photo doesn't do it justice.  I'm not normally a fan of thick and thin yarn but this stuff....  The shop has a sample cowl knit from it and, Wow!  It's such a simple project with such gorgeous results.  Simply knit the thin bits and purl the thick.  And this colorway ends up looking like snow covered mountains or ocean waves, depending on the season and your mindset.

I'm hoping this will be my Christmas Eve cast on project.  That's not to say I am not dying to cast it on right this very minute.  Absolutely dying! But, remember how my new, updated Christmas plan/schedule has absolutely no room for any disruptions?  Well, so far it's working.  I'm only behind by one to-do item.  That is far better than expected!  I might actually get everything done this year! 

Famous last words. 

I probably just karma'ed myself into disaster.  Yikes!

Oh, check out those adorable mitten stitchmarkers.  I just love how Yarniverse always puts little surprise thank you gifts in your bag.  Thank you Yarniverse!

Christmas Gift Knitting

The Christmas gift knitting continues so no knitting photos today.  Not even black and white ones.

We had a visit from Jack Frost during Winterfest this past weekend.  Everyone in our booth loves it when the various Christmas charecters stop by for a photo op and to say Merry Christmas.

But back to talking about knitting...

Boy!  I am so far behind on the knitting schedule.  So very, very far behind.  But, I've revamped my calendar, made a detailed plan, and if I don't have a single interruption and I can manage to focus on the knitting rather than the Hallmark Christmas movies, I think I can get it all done.  All it will take is zero interruptions and a small Christmas miracle.

And, since I'm so far behind on gift knitting, I'm even further behind on the Winterfest sweater project.  I'm actually now two full, gallon Zip-lock bags of yarn behind.  Two very, very full gallon bags.  Luckily, that sweater doesn't have a deadline.  Well, actually I guess it does now.  A little boy stopped by the booth this past weekend was quite concerned about when it would be finished.  He wouldn't settle for "a long time from now."  So, I now have the deadline of March, 2022.  And a six year old boss.  😁

Sunday Supper Holiday Edition

It's that time of year.  Cookie baking time.  So, I thought this month's Sunday Supper posts would be Christmas cookie related.

And because everyone who tastes one asks for the recipe, I thought I'd re-share my rum ball recipe.

I'm starting off the month with this recipe because they really should be made a week or so ahead of time.  Not that I know if they are really any better if allowed to sit for a week.  My husband tends to eat them as fast as I can make them.  He tends to eat the ones that are set aside for gifts too.  I pretty much have to make them and deliver them within 24 hours if I want anything to actually deliver.  They really are that good!

Happy rum balling!

On the needles

Besides that Winterfest sweater, I have a few other things on the needles.

There's the Merry Xmas Tree shawl.  The yarn is actually called Merry Xmas Tree and I love the way it is knitting up.  I bought the skein at a fiber festival several years ago and am excited to finally be knitting with it.  The yarn has just a bit of sparkle in it as well as tiny dots of color.  There's no pattern, it's just a heart shaped/triangular shawl with a few eyelet rows thrown in for interest.  I can't wait for it to be finished.  I'm dying to wear it to Winterfest.

And there's a little bit of gift knitting happening.

Can you guess what it is?  I hope the recipient can't.

And so that I'm not closing with a black and white photo...

I'm sorry for the blurr.  It was dark outside and the car was rolling through the line...  

But, have you ever noticed that the stop signs at Chick Fil A have a different font than normal stop signs?  I'd never noticed it before.  Apparently it's a thing.

I hope your Christmas knitting and/or crafting is going smoothly.

Winterfest knitting

 The Winterfest sweater is coming along.  Slowly.  Very, very slowly.

I can't keep up with the stripes on a nightly basis.  Sitting outside at Winterfest, my hands get so cold and stiff I can't knit with any speed at all.  I'd gotten caught up last week and started fresh this past Friday night but...  I now have a gallon ziplock bag crammed full of yarns waiting to be knit into sweater stripes.  

Two things are amazing me about this project.  One, is how many nine and ten year olds there are visiting our booth.  I'd bet eight out of every ten kids are either nine or ten.  I find that mathmatically weird.

The other thing that amazes me is that I can remember what order I'm supposed to knit each of the little balls of yarn crammed into that ziplock bag, although half the time I have to ask the kids how old they are multiple times.  I can't remember where I parked my car, where I set my phone down, my kids' names (only occasionally,) or what I ate for breakfast but I can remember what order the colors go and even which little ball of the same color goes first, second or third.  It must be a knitter thing.

I'm pleasantly surprised how okay the colorful sweater is looking so far.  I fully expected it to be THE most hideous mess of color but it's not.  It's sort of like those scrap sock yarn blankets where all the wild colors that clash horribly somehow just magically work when put all together.

And in the event I ever participate in another Winterfest or attempt a similar sweater, I think I'll knit the year into the hem for posterity.  Of course, my fingers will need to thaw out enough to knit to the hem...

On a different note, we had a few visitors at our booth Sunday night.

Mr. Peppermint and Miss Candy Cane stopped by.  And admittedly, Mr. Peppermint is not really his name.  I have, of course, forgotten his official name but I do remember that his lady friend is Candy Cane.

This couple is John Dough and Ginny Gingerbread.  And no, Gingerbread is not Ginny's official last name.  I've forgotten it too, but personally, I think Ginny Gingerbread sounds okay so I'm going with it.  

And last but not least,

I have no idea what these folks' names are but they walk past our booth frequently and always give us a smile and a wave.  I call them The Christmas Couple.  The Mister reminds me of Mr. French from Family Affair.  And yes, I'm definitely showing my age with that comment!

And now, now I'm off to knit a few Christmas gifts for family members and then knit a few thousand sweater stripes.

Sunday Supper - Turkey Soup

Got leftover turkey?  Normally we use up our leftover turkey in sandwiches then all the teeny tiny little scrap pieces get tossed into some kind of casserole.  But this year, I thought I'd do something different.

Okay, not all That different.  You know me - I like the tried and true.  But instead of a casserole, I thought I'd give soup a try this year.  I don't think I've ever made turkey soup before.  Chicken soup, yes.  Constantly!  But not turkey soup for some odd reason.  So, this year I'll be trying A Taste of Home's homemade turkey soup.

And to keep you updated, I didn't get very far teaching Hayden to sing Alice's Restaurant. There's always next year and it is a pretty wordy song.  But, hey - there's always Christmas carols.  She definitely knows the word "no" so I think the first song we'll work on will be Noel.  She's already halfway there!  Her parents are going to love me! Ha!

Stripes!

I have either lost my mind completely or had a wonderful, fun idea.  I'm hoping for wonderful and fun.

I have a bunch of, as in, a whole dresser full, of Palette from Knit Picks that I'd like to use up.  Or at least make a noticable dent in.  So I thought I'd knit a striped sweater.

And that's where the craziness kicked in.  I decided to take as many different colored skeins as I could cram into a large container with me to Winterfest.  While the moms are shopping in our booth, the kids can look through the yarn and choose a color.  Then I pull their age in yards off the skein and use that yarn to knit the next color stripe.  

And to make it more fun, I plan to post updates weekly?? Maybe every other week??  I haven't really decided that yet.  We'll just have to see how quickly the sweater progresses.  Since the kids seemed interested in seeing photos of their color choices knit up, I am hoping to post more frequently on Instagram.   

I think letting the kids choose the colors will make a fun and interesting sweater while taking the decision making pressure off me.  I'm going to do my very best to keep the stripes in the order the kids pick out but I may occasionally have to apply a little artistic license.  For example, three kids picked out the same color, one after the other Sunday night.  And one of those kids was 16 and the other two were both 10.  That would have made 36 yards of one color - so I decided to break them up a little.  But other than instances like that, I'm going to do my very best to (1) not influence the kids' color choices, and (2) keep the yarns they choose in the right order.

Wish me luck and a wearable sweater. 😊

Oh, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I'm having a hard time believing it's Thanksgiving already.

Sunday Supper - Chocolate Rum Pie

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and I'm already over pumpkin pie.  Plus, if we're going to have pumpkin soup to start our meal, we'll need a different kind of pie for dessert.

And since I recently stumbled across a mention of rum pie in a very old cookbook... and I have been slightly obsessed with the idea ever since...

I bring you Grandma's Chocolate Rum Pie from Pinch and Swirl.  I can't say the recipe sounds super simple but hey - there's Vitamin A in it.  That makes it a healthy pie! Right??

And maybe the rum will help Hayden pronounce her L's. 😊

Tomorrow

 So, the Winterfest booth isn't looking like much yet.  

But by tomorrow....

Winterfest starts tomorrow night so we have our work cut out for us today.  

If you're local, or feel like traveling for that matter, come experience Winterfest and make sure to stop by our booth in Artisian Alley.  Our booth will have a little bit for everyone.  Besides my knits, we have a paper artist & painter, a fabric artist/sewer, a many talents but mostly baby item maker and a jeweler.  And our booth is right beside the "Cupcake People."  I don't know their actual name but they seem to be fairly famous within the park and everyone just calls them The Cupcake People.

Wish us luck with the set up.  

Let there be light

It's been a very exciting week around here.  Remember our power outage problem this past summer? 

The power company finally got back out here to replace our street light.

Can you call it a "street light" when it lights up a private driveway??

Anyway...

The  power company people showed up and replaced our light.  They apologized for it taking so long for them to get back out here.  Apparently they are very short staffed and we'd been on the schedule four different times but each time, a car had wiped out a power pole somewhere else and that repair job took presedence.  Understandabley.

But it sure is nice to not need a flashlight to get from the car to the door at night.

So, in other words, I did Winterfest admin stuff all weekend and haven't even picked up the knitting needles in three days.  Yikes!

Sunday Supper - Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese

My mouth is watering just thinking about today's Sunday Supper recipe.

Forget the mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.  Let's go with roasted potatoes with bacon and cheese from Natasha's Kitchen.  Personally, I'm not sure there could be a better dish to go with turkey than roasted potatoes with bacon and cheese.  Yum!

In keeping up with Hayden's Alice's Restaurant progress...  It's interesting.  And her parents are ready to kill me.  Hayden has learned Alice's name but.... She leaves out the "L."  To get the effect, just say Alice to yourself, but leave that L out.  Yikes!

So Close

The third and final needlepoint pillow top is SO close to being finished.  Needlepoint wise at least. 

I tried so hard to finish the needlepoint last night but I started yawning every five seconds and my eyes were watering from all that yarning and I just couldn't properly see the wholes in the canvas.  But today...  Today this baby will be finished!

I have mixed emotions about completing this piece.  It's the third and final one and I've really enjoyed the meditative aspect of stitching the larger sections.  I'm also quite excited to scratch it off the crafty to-do list but at the same time, I want to start another. And more importantly, I don't want to have to add "sew pillow backing to the needlepoint pillows" to my craft to-do list.

I really amy going to miss having some needlepoint on standbye when I need a break from knitting.  I may have to go in search of more canvases to buy.  I'm not sure where to start looking though.  I haven't seen needlepoint in stores in, well, a very, very long time.  I'm sure someone out there in craft-land sells them though.  I'm sure Google will help me but if any of you have a favorite needlepoint shop, I'd love to hear about it.

Next week

I am totally panicking!  Winterfest starts next week!  Okay, granted, today is Tuesday of this week and Wiinterfest officially starts on Saturday of next week so there's really almost two weeks but...   Aack!  I'm so not ready! 

I really am freaking out a little bit.  It will be okay though.  An hour or two into the first night of Winterfest and I'll calm down and chill out.  Hopefully not literally - it is an outdoor, night time festival in December!  Another Aack!  But mainly, I just don't like not knowing what to expect.  I've never done anything close to something this size, I'm shy and introverted (I know - based on my ramblings here, who'd have guessed that right? But I am,) the festival runs 26 nights and did I mention it's outdoors, at night, in November and December?  What have I gotten myself into??  Aack!

But as one of the Hallmark Christmas movies said, fear is just another form of excitement.  I'm not afraid, I'm excited.  

Yeah, I'm excited.  That's it.  Excited.

And I will be very, very excited when I finish knitting four more f-bombs and reach my inventory goal.

I've been having trouble meeting my inventory goal with these f-bombs because every time someone sees me knitting them, they want one.  No, that's not correct.  They want five!  They seem to be selling faster than I can knit them.  

I sure am glad I discovered Brava from Knit Picks.  The first few bombs I knit, I was using some horrible, by-the-pound acrylic from the big box craft store.  It was horrible to knit with.  It was stiff, made my hands ache, and it clung to my fingers weirdly so that my gauge was, well, let's just say, not consistent.  But thankfully I gave Brava a try.  It is also worsted acrylic but knits up more like a nice wool.  It looks like wool too.  It doesn't have that flat, solid black tone that many acrylics, specially the cheap ones, have.  And Brava is inexpensive.  Actually, yardage wise, it's within pennies of that horrible by-the-pound skein I bought.  

Ooh!  AND, I just noticed - it's on sale!  I think I'll be stocking up.  Hayden probably needs a few more hats and sweaters.

Sunday Supper - Pumpkin Soup

Before we start talking food, make sure you've changed your clocks.  Daylight Savings ended in the wee hours of this morning.

I thought I'd share a few Thanksgiving ideas for November's Sunday Suppers.  And, since, with the exception of the turkey, Thanksgiving always seems to be centered around pumpkins, I thought I'd share a pumpkin soup recipe today.

This pumpkin soup recipe from Delish.com sounds yummy and super easy to make.  We've never had a Thanksgiving soup course before, but there's always a first time.

Hopefully on the day, I will fill up on healthy pumpkin soup rather than carb-filled stuffing and mashed potatoes.

And don't forget, make sure Alice's Restaurant is playing in the background while you're cooking.  The food always tastes better with Alice's help.

And on an Alice's Restaurant note, Hayden isn't singing the words yet but she does say, "choo choo" when it gets to the, "...just a half a mile from the railroad track..." verse.  In Hayden's world, all trains and train tracks are choo choo's.  She won't sing with me yet, but at least I know she's listening to the words. 😃

The season has begun

 It's that time of year!

I'm playing it everyday for Hayden.  My hope is that by Thanksgiving, she'll know some of the words.

And yes, my family hates me. 😊

Ladybugs

The wintertime ladybugs have arrived. Which is actually pretty appropriate since Hayden was a ladybug for Halloween.

She obviously had a good time and mastered the art of asking for candy.  She leaves out the trick part and just walks around putting her hand out while shouting "Treat!"  

We've created a monster.

An adorable little monster!

Hope your Halloween was as joyous.

Sunday Supper - Ghost Cupcakes

Today's Sunday Supper Halloween treat is super simple.  I figured you'd be busy getting into that costume so I saved the easiest for last.

Ghost cupcakes from Eazy Peazy Mealz. 

Enjoy and,

Happy Halloween!

Halloweens Past

Since I figured you wouldn't want to see more pictures of the same three things I've been knitting over and over and over again for the past four months, I thought I'd share a few photos of Halloween Past.  I only have a few photos here at my mother-in-law's house that I've stumbled across stuffed in strange places.  Why was one of these in with my maternity pantyhose?  And more importantly, why do I still have maternity pantyhose and even more importantly, why did I feel the need to bring them to this house??

In 1982 I was the Jolly Green Giant and my boyfriend was some kind of monster.  I'm not sure which is scarier - the boyfriend, the weird reflection on the portrait in the background or that wallpaper.

In 1983 a few of us from the office dressed up as the Munsters.  The funny part was that giant, tall me was Little Eddie while tiny, petite Liza was Herman.  Good times!

And in 1985, I was a fire fighter.

As you can see, I have always leaned towards super simple, cheap costumes.

I won't be dressing up this year, but I can't wait to see Hayden in her costume.  I hear she's going to be a ladybug.

What about you?  Will you be dressing up?

Back to Knitting

I took a mini break from the Winterfest knitting but I'm back to it now.  Thankfully!

I was feeling a little bit burned out on Winterfest knitting, or more like, I just felt like I needed to knit for me for a day instead of for Winterfest.  So I spent two days needlepointing. Ha!

And then there were a few days with family medical problems.  Nothing serious but...  Actually, it was serious, but nothing a few Epi pens couldn't fix.

And I had my class reunion.  It was a blast!  It was my 41st reunion.  Odd number I know, but our 40th got postponed due to Covid.  Our school was so small (and is no longer in existence) so every person who ever attended, the parents of those students, and every teacher who ever taught there was invited.  I am SO glad I wasn't the one in charge of tracking down all those students who only attended for a year or two 40 - 50 years ago or the numerous teachers who'd moved away, got married, got divorced or whatever other reason made them difficult to find.

The reunion ended up being so much fun!  Many of my old teachers were there, the boy I had a major crush on and hadn't seen since 5th grade was there, as well as most of my classmates and lots of old friends.  The food was awesome and the band was great.  It was a lot of fun.  

But the fun distractions are over.  Hopefully the medical emergencies are over too.  And it's time I refocus on Winterfest knitting.  

...So here I am, eating all the Halloween candy (again!,) watching Hallmark Christmas movies and knitting f-bombs.  Lots and lots of f-bombs.

What have you been up to?

Sunday Supper - Dracula Dentures

 

OMG!  How can a dessert be so cute and so terrifying at the same time?

The moment I saw these Dracula dentures from Delish.com, I knew I had to share the recipe.

You're welcome. 

We're gonna need a bigger tree

 

We're definitely going to need a bigger tree!  

Guess that means I need to pause the mini mitten ornament knitting and go root through our storage units to find the Christmas stuff.  

It's starting to look like we may still be in this house for Christmas anyway so Mike can't complain but so much when I start dragging boxes of Christmas decorations in before Halloween. 

Meanwhile, I'm focusing on knitting mini mittens this week for Winterfest.  Thank goodness for my over abundant Wool of the Andes collection.  My love of buying random colored skeins is coming in handy!

And... Writing this post reminded me of the book, The Mitten.  Nana better be buying a copy for Hayden and adding a pair of mittens for her to the knitting list.  Actually, these ornament mittens might actually fit her. I'll have to check that out.

Sunday Supper - Spider Cupcakes

 

Okay, y'all know I'm not into spiders, but these spider cupcakes from Texanerin Baking were just too cute to pass up.  

I looked at lots of photos of spider cupcakes and some were just a little too realistic. But these ...

I think the family will enjoy these spider cupcakes and I know Hayden will.  She has recently discovered taking Oreo's apart.  Our spiders will be fat and made with whole Oreo's so she can practice her new trick.

I'm also loving that the official recipe for these makes pumpkin cupcakes.  For one, I feel like everything needs to be made with pumpkin during October, and second, pumpkin is healthy, right?  That means we could have pumpkin spider cupcakes as a meal and it would be considered healthy.  Right???

Baskets of Socks

The needles have been busy but that doesn't mean I have anything interesting to show you.  So...

A basket of socks.  Beaded socks for the Winterfest booth.  

Winterfest is quickly approaching.  Just about 30 days to go.  And I'm starting to freak just a little bit.  I've never participated in anything so big before and the nerves are building.  It also means I'm knitting/crafting the same things over and over and over again... So you get a basket of beaded socks.  

But hey - those socks are packaged and tagged and ready to be placed lovingly in the booth.  One less thing on the to-do list.  Only 40,000 more things to go.

It's not all knit, knit, stitch, stitch though. I take occasional moments to hang with Hayden.  She's turning out to be a bit of a tomboy despite her love of pink and unicorns.  She loves collecting sticks and rocks and playing in the mud.  She also likes to walk out to the road (Don't worry - we carry her when we get close) to wave at the cars and trucks going by.  I've been trying to teach her the "Hey truck, please honk your horn" arm movement but she just waves, usually with a stick in her hand.  Many of the trucks honk and wave to her anyway.  I was afraid the honking would scare her, but she just giggles and grins and waves back.  And every time a car passes she says, "Bye."  It's so sweet and so adorable.

And now I have to go knit and stitch some more.

What have you been up to lately?

More mittens

First of all, thank all of you for helping me get over my desire to spend 1,000's of dollars and years of my life on TKGA's Master Knitter Program.  Signing up for it has been on my Someday to-do list for years.  Many, many years.  But I've never been able to make myself commit to doing it.  Now, if I ever find myself in the situation where I need that Master Knitter qualification, I can blame y'all instead of myself for not having it.  😁

I finished the red mittens and even blocked them.  I need real mitten blockers but I don't, or at least I haven't in the past, knit them frequently enough to warrant buying a set. 

Hopefully the photo's angle makes those mittens look so long and thin and my hands aren't actually that weird looking.

It's also a good thing I don't plan to knit more shawls anytime soon.  I have to block everything on my bed these days.  In the past I have always used the dining room table because the family was always happy to eat in the living room but with Hayden and her high chair....  The last time I used the table, I made sure my blocking mats were as far away from her high chair as possible but... Oops.  Spaghetti sure can fly long distances.

After the red mittens, I cast on a purple and white pair and spent an entire glorious cool, rainy fall day sitting on the very messy covered porch knitting and reading while wrapped in a blanket.  I even brought out, and lit, a fall scented candle.  It was awesome!

And then I watched a Hallmark?? movie and saw this sweater.  I must MUST have this sweater.  I haven't done a Ravelry/Google search for a pattern yet.  I'm trying very hard to stay focused on what I need to knit vs. what I want to knit.  And I really, really want to knit this sweater.  If any of you happen to stumble across a similiar pattern, please hook me up with a link.  I mean, it looks easy enough to design my own but I'd much rather have a pattern to blame if it doesn't look as good on me as it did on her.

Apparently, I'm all about putting the blame on others at the moment. 😏

Oh, and while I'm talking about random things...

Anyone else out there with crepey skin?  This Gold Bond Ultimate Crepe Corrector is some seriously amazing stuff.  It advertises visible difference in 2 days.  It took 3 days for me to see a difference but I could feel the difference in my skin after just one day.  The stuff is freaking amazing!  And I'm not just saying that because I've recently become an Amazon affiliate.  One application a day for a not quite two weeks and my skin has been totally transformed.  If you've got a crepe skin problem, give this lotion a try.

Sunday Supper - Frankenstein Pudding Cups

October's Sunday Suppers will be a little different.  In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd share spooky foods.

Frankenstein Pudding Cups

It doesn't get much easier, or cuter, than these Frankenstein pudding cups from Cooking Mamas.  I can't wait to make these pudding cups for Hayden.  

Okay, let's be honest.  I can't wait to make these pudding cups for Hayden and Nana. 😊

Mittens

I started knitting mittens recently. 

I cannot tell you how long it's been since I knit a pair of mittens.  Mittens with fingers, that is.  Once I discovered fingerless gloves, I never looked back.  But, I'm busy knitting for my Winterfest booth and I figured some people may want their fingers covered so...  Mittens with fingers it is.  

I can't believe how much longer it takes to knit that thumb and those fingers.  Fingerless mitts are SO much faster!

On a different note, I wanted to share a book I recently read with you.

I didn't think I would enjoy Constance, but boy was I wrong!  It's a story about cloning which is not my normal read.  It also takes place in the future, which is really not my kind of read.  But I was gifted a copy of Constance and I'm so glad I read it.  It was fast paced, not too sciencey, there was a little bit of mystery and murder and well, you should just read it yourself and see.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What have you read lately that's out of charector for you?

And hey - my mitten and the book cover coordinate!  That was totally unplanned but I love it when things like that happen.

It might choke Artie

 Any Little Rascals fans out there?

I'm head over heals with the color of these fingerless gloves.  They are knit with City Tweed DK in Artichoke.  And I cannot hear the word "artichoke" without thinking of Stymie's famous line, "It might choke Artie but it ain't gonna choke Stymie!"

Anyway, I'm loving that unusual green.  And the tweed.  What is it about tweed that screams Autumn to me?

And, shhh.... Last year that pumpkin was full of cotton balls so no one has thought to look in it this year.  This year, it contains Tootsie Rolls.  Sometimes you just have to hide your pre-Halloween candy in plain sight.

And because it's been a while...

Hayden looks so big until she goes out and stands beside Paw-Paw's truck.  Her giant neon green ball is casting a witchy glow onto the hubcap.  Apparently Hayden is going to be a soccer player.  She loves to kick her ball all over the yard.  

So, my question for the day is, have any of you done TKGA's Master Knitter program?  I want to take/do the course/program but....  What I really want is to have already completed the program.  I can't quite bring myself to commit that much time and money into something YouTube and a heck of a lot of practice could provide me basically for free.  If you've completed the program, do you feel it was worth it?  What was your experience?  Did you complete the entire program or just a part of the whole?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Little Needles

 I'm out of internet at home so I'm using my phone to write this post. Pardon the typos and/or formatting issues.  And pray for me. The internet doesn't reset until the 4th. Its going to be a long 4 days!

I haven't been excited about the knitting projects I have going on so I've been needlepointing instead.  

I've adjusted to the Lyrica and I'm no longer dizzy or having any problems except, I just cannot make myself care about my responsibilities. I would rather sit and die of boredom than do a single one of my 'need to do's' or ' should do's.'  It's becoming a problem. And I'm blaming the Lyrica rather than my stubborn, 'you can't make me' attitude.