Yarn Along

Good morning Everyone.  I'm joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along again today (thank you Ginny).

After wasting too much time by hopping off onto some dead end knitting bunny trails, I've reined myself in and gotten back to work on some UFO's that really need to be finished.  One of which is Leah's Alpaca Tunic, but the dreaded seaming has slowed me down some on that.  And just as I feared, it looks like I'll have it finished just in time for Spring (or summer?) -- pooh.  Oh well, maybe there will still be a few cool days, so she can wear it a few times, and hopefully it will still fit next winter.  I really need to time my projects better and not take on too many at one time (in the fall), as I never get them all done in time (i.e. at least by Christmas).  Do you have this problem too?  During the hot summer months, when I should be working on Christmas sweaters, socks, toys, etc., I just can't seem to get myself in the proper frame of mind for starting to work on warm woolie things.  Must do better this year. 

Another project meant to be a Christmas gift -- Bluebell Socks.  They look kind of weird here, but they really do look like bluebells once you've got them on and the ribbing is stretched out.  This is lovely yarn (Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine), and I love the bluebell pattern.  It's from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.  This is a great book and has recipes for making socks with dozens of patterns in dozens of sizes.  And I almost forgot, I did finish the mittens (pictured below) I was working on last time I visited Yarn Along, but they're not wonderful.  They turned out really huge, so if I try this pattern again, I'll have to adjust needle sizes to prevent having Man Hand Mittens next time.

So, reading . . . I finished "Mandy" .  It was very sweet and tapped into every little girl's fantasy (at least mine) of having a tiny house somewhere.  I used to make my little playhouses wherever I could -- in the back of my dad's old farm wagon, in a corner of his backyard workshop, or even behind the thick curtain of the giant cannas in our back yard.  Did you love making playhouses too?  I found the description of Mandy's little hideaway so sweet and cosy, and it had a shell room -- dreamy.  I wanted to move right in.

 I'm still reading "The Magic Apple Tree" and liking it very much.  Oh, and I almost forgot about "The Cottage at Bantry Bay" (which I stumbled across on Pinterest {someone please save me}), and also, the new Vogue Knitting and Selina Lake's new book, "Home-Spun Style", just came in the mail -- haven't had a chance to peek inside yet, but they look good.  Okay, just one more --- when I walk or ride my bike, I've been 'reading' MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook : For the Farmgirl in All of Us.

  I'm liking it very much too, and I guess you could say this book taps into a some of our big girl fantasies of having a little patch somewhere off the grid and living a simpler life.  And FYI, the Audible version is less expensive than the book.  Oh, and "Wildwood" (I mentioned a while back) has sort of fallen by the wayside.  I might try to pick it up again when I finish the ones I'm reading now.  I kinda liked it, but had a hard time staying focused on it for some reason.  Hmmmm, do we see a pattern here -- unfinished knits, unfinished books?  I'm working on it -- truly.

Bye for now -- I'm going to hop over to Ginny's to see what everyone's yarning along this week.  And then, I'm going to run into Dallas.  There's a sale at the Woolie Ewe (oh dear).  

Click on the icon below, and it will take you to Yarn Along.

Happy days!

♥ ♥ ♥

G

Eating & Dressing

Good morning Everyone.  Thought I'd drop in for a quick hello and report on my fascinating life ^v^.

For Mardi Gras the other day, I made this chocolate croissant bread pudding, and gosh, it was so good!  So good that I insisted Mr. FC take the leftovers with him out of town, or I would have eaten the whole thing myself.  I changed a couple of things in the recipe (which is here) -- I used about 2 T. agave instead of sugar, whole milk (not half and half), and then I threw in a couple of handfuls of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Oh, and I didn't use the maple syrup either.  I got this idea from Jess who makes chocolate croissants for breakfast by slicing the croissants nearly in half, then smooshing in some chocolate chips and baking for about 10 - 15 minutes (loosely covered with foil) -- soooo good!  Also, there's a really good restaurant out West that serves the best chocolate bread pudding in the whole wide world (my world that is).  The restaurant is "The Grill", and it's tucked away in a little strip mall where you'd never think of going unless you were told about it by someone nice.  It's one of those hidden jewel places that doesn't look like much on the outside but surprises you by being really really good on the inside.  In fact, I'm told the chef was a winner on "Hell's Kitchen" a couple of years ago - not surprising.

Anyway, mine wasn't quite up to The Grill's standards, but still . . . pretty darn good.  I just made a plain custard sauce (no bourbon) b/c I like it better that way.  Sad to say, my custard was a little lumpy, but it tasted just as good (guess I didn't whisk fast enough or temper the eggs correctly or something).

And then, the other day, on Rebekka's lovely blog, I discovered a most wonderfully delicious sandwich.  You might remember that we're a family of homemade pimento cheese lovers, so I just had to try this.

I know it sounds like a bit of an odd combination, but the sweet, salty, crunchy, spicy (little bit of chopped jalapenos) is just perfect heaven in a sandwich.  I've been having one of these for dinner almost every night when Mr. FC is out of town.  And just for the record, yes I am still wanting to lose some weight, so I used Cabot's 75% lower fat cheddar and Hellman's light mayonnaise, and I swear it tastes just as good as the fat version.

And I know I've blathered on about this before, but now that I'm old, I sometimes dither over how I should dress.  Sounds silly, doesn't it, but I really don't want to be the 'mutton dressed as lamb' lady!  It seems like every time Vogue or Elle or whatever style magazine does a feature on dressing for every age, they put the over 50 group in suits with a pencil skirt, panty hose and pumps.  Being sort of an old hippie, this type of clothing has no appeal to me.  At all.  And anyway, wouldn't I look like the perfect idiot wandering around out here in Little Rabbit dressed like I was on my way to lunch with Anna Wintour?  When I look around at others around my age -- like Mia Farrow . . .

Carly Simon . . .

Julie Arkell (love her style) . . .

 among others, -- I see them still dressing a lot like we did when we were young -- jeans, tees, long skirts - a little bohemian I guess you could say.

So thinking along these lines, I saw a book the other day called What I Wore Today which is a sort of journal about what you're wearing.  I thought it might be kind of fun to journal what I'm wearing, so I've been taking photos of myself almost daily and thinking about which things look okay, which don't, etc.  Gee, this sounds really dumb now that I'm putting in down in black and white, but oh well . . . here I am.  Anyhoo . . .  here are a few of my 'what I wore today' photos . . .

(silliness)

I've been on the fence about this sweater b/c of all the stuff going on in front -- where I really don't need any more stuff going on.  But I think I'm beginning to like it okay (now that it's getting too hot to wear it). 

And then, there are overalls . . . a very long time favorite of mine.

Not very flattering but okay for a cleaning/organizing day I suppose?  I can't ever seem to get my feet in the photo, but I'm wearing these old moccasins which I still love, and the shoe goo is still holding up.

And I found this plaid skirt thrifting out west not long ago.

(trying to stand up straight and hold in my tummy ;)

with last year's boots and over the knee socks (awful blurry photo) . . .

Well then, enough about me.  Do you ever find yourself in style dilemma?  Just wondering . . .

Oh, and I found this quote from Kate Spade the other day -- so true, isn't it?

"I think that playing dress-up begins at age five and never truly ends." - Kate Spade

Spring is here for us. We're in a bit of a scramble to get the yard in shape, as it just seems to have sprung (is that why they call it spring?) upon us so quickly -- just the other day it was cold and wintry and I was building fires, and the next day, bam!, it's spring.  The honeysuckle is growing like mad and the Carolina Jasmine is blooming already.  Oh, and I've got a cauliflower ready to cook!

Well, that's all from my patch for now.  Bye Everyone, and have a great week!

♥ ♥ ♥

G

P. S. As you can see, I've been messing around with my layout, and it seems to have gotten huge and loud again . . . oh well. . . maybe I'll figure it out someday.

"Baby Boom", Cabbages, & Cauliflower

It seems that I can hardly knit unless I've got a good movie playing in the background.  Do you do that too?  Lately, I haven't been having any luck with finding good movies, so when that happens, I tend to start dragging out some of my old friend movies.  So anyway, a couple of days ago, it was rainy and cold, and I didn't have anywhere I had to go (yea!), so I started a fire, put a movie in the dvd player, and plopped myself down on the couch for a cosy afternoon of knitting and movies.  The movie I chose from my old stash was "Baby Boom".  I just love this movie and have probably watched 10 dozen times.  One of the things I like about it (aside from the cuteness of Diane K. and the dreaminess of Sam Shepard and a sweet story) is Diane's wardrobe.  Her city clothes are pretty much standard issue 80's big shoulders suits, etc., but her country clothes are the ones I love.  So, being the slightly strange girl that I am, I decided to take photos of the outfits I like as was watching -- is that over the top a little?  Oh well, here are some of them . . .

I love this color combination of the pale robin's egg blue shirt with doe colored knitted (fair isle?) vest and wool jacket.

Cute plaid flannel shirt with the yellow jacket.

Love the fair isle vest here.

Pretty long dress with cosy fair isle socks.

Another fair isle vest and I love the gloves -- what do you call these anyway?  They're not exactly fingerless are they -- maybe half fingerless gloves ^v^?  Anyway, this movie is from the late 80's and the wardrobe doesn't even look all that dated, does it? 

Almost forgot this one (awful photo!).  Isn't this cardi pretty and with the scarf -- love the monochromatic look.

And look what we've got in the 'garden',  cabbages and cauliflowers!

We planted these in September, and I thought they'd be ready to harvest in a couple of months, but no.  Here it is February and they're just teeny tiny little things -- about 3" in diameter.  So maybe by May they'll be done?  Obviously, I'd never tried to grow these before.

Cute, isn't it?

Well, that's all from here today.  Have a great weekend Everyone!

♥ ♥ ♥

G

Oh, p.s. -- forgot to ask -- have you found any movies you love lately?



Birds, a Fox & Yarn Along

(image via Art.com)

We live about 30 miles from "The Bluebird Capital of Texas", but sadly, their population has diminished quite a bit in recent years (like our beautiful fireflies).  However, once in a while I see one, and it's so exciting -- almost like catching a glimpse of a unicorn.  They're just beautiful, aren't they -- that brilliant blue and scarlet throat .  So anyway, when I saw this pretty little teapot with the sweet bluebird on it, I just knew it was meant to come live with me in bluebird territory.

Our everyday dishes have bluebirds too. . . guess I'm a little obsessed.

Can you see him?

Hello Foxy ^v^.  Come for tea?

Don't you miss all the sparkly when the Christmas decorations are put away?  I do, so I've been playing around with lights and sparkle that can stay up year 'round.

More birds . . .  and a fairy.

So anyway, I hesitantly join Yarn Along (thank you Ginny) this week, as my knitting lately has been pretty dismal and not yarning along well at all.  The Chaleur (from last week's Yarn Along) refused to cooperate with me.  I finally got mad at it and put it away -- for now. 

And a ribbed infinity cowl I made (that I really liked) refused to block and insists on drawing up into a wormy looking little thing. 

So, I decided to make some mittens as a Valentine's Day gift (inspired by these).  I wanted to add a little intarsia, but that's not working out very well and they're huge, so I guess I'll finish them and call them prototypes.  At least I can say I've found some yarn I like recently.  I've been loving marled yarns lately (as you can see) and both the blue and brown marl were found at Hobby Lobby the other day.  The brown is 'I Love This Wool'.  It's inexpensive and feels pretty good -- especially good for hard wearing things like mittens.  And the blue is a cotton blend from Bernat.  I think it's called Denim.  It's very soft next to the skin and would probably be nice for kids things.

And reading for this week is the same as last week -- "The Magic Apple Tree" and "Mandy" are sweet charming books and I'm loving both of them.

So, I'm going to hop over to Ginny's and see what good things are going on with all the lovely knitting readers this week.  Bye for now. . .

♥ ♥ ♥

G

At Jessie's House, a New Knitter, and Yarn Along

Good morning Everyone.  As I mentioned in my last post, Chloe has learned to knit (and yes, we think this is exceptional ^v^).  Jess, Chloe, and I stopped in to a new yarn shop after school one afternoon.  As we were all petting the pretty yarns, Chloe said, 'Ooooh, all this yarn makes me want to knit."  Love it! 

Our little knitter -- knitting in her nightgown -- wonder where she gets that trait?

Concentration.

Oops, dropped a stitch.

 I expect Chloe to be joining Yarn Along soon, as she is another knitting reader (or a reading knitter?).

And Jess is working on the most beautiful granny square blanket (in her p. j.'s ^v^)

It reminds me of the Nanny McPhee blanket that we're still a little obsessed with after all these years.  She's found a way to crochet the squares together as she goes -- clever girl.  Maybe she'll do a post about it before long.  I love the way she has all the yarn for her project arranged on this basket (another good find from our thrifting) -- no digging into a bottomless pit of tangly yarn trying to find the next one you want to use.

And aside from all the yarny things, there was cat cuddling . . .

Miss Honey (new kitty) might just be the sweetest, most affectionate little kitty I've ever known (sorry Bubba, but you know I love you), and she adds so much love & joy (as you can see from the photo) to this little home. 

I couldn't resist taking this photo of her with her little head all smooshed into the arm of the chair -- she's just so cute.

Jess has done such a good job of making this little yellow cottage homey and cosy.  It feels so warm and welcoming (just like Jess), and there are cosy corners for everyone -- knitters, crocheters, gamers, computer gazers, painters, readers, and crafters.

This cosy corner gets used a lot by the resident 'tablet' gazer -- so pretty I think.

Well, onto Yarn Along (thank you Ginny). So, I started a new sweater for myself . . .

Chaleur by Julie Hoover (and I actually washed and blocked my swatch this time as the Hourglass Sweater really was a learning experience).  I've gotten off to a slow start as the kbb stitch kind of threw me, but I think I've got it now.  I think.  Doesn't seem too smart to be starting a new sweater when our winter is nearly over (such as it is -- 72 today -- pooh), but I always seem to be too busy in the fall with Christmas knitting to start a sweater for myself (no regrets of course).  I did this last year with my Hourglass Sweater, and ended up putting it away with only a couple of inches left to go as the weather was already getting too warm to wear it.  But, I did eventually get it finished in time to wear this winter.  I'm thinking that might be the way it goes with this one (and Leah's), but . . . oh well.  I think we need to move some place where there are longer/real winters and much shorter/cooler summers.

And my reading this week is all over the place -- as usual.

"Mandy" and "The Magic Apple Tree" were recommended by Jess, and I love them both.  I've been browsing the others and finding lots of good things in all of them.  Well, I'm going to hop over to Ginny's to check out what all of you are reading and knitting, so happy days Everyone!

♥ ♥ ♥

G

P. S. Photos were taken by Jess and me, and I don't remember exactly who took what, so let's just say the better ones were taken by her and the not so good, by me.

Let's See . . . Where Was I?

Hi Everyone.  It's been eons since I checked in here.  I hope all is well with you.  I've been out in West Texas for awhile (had a birthday while I was there -- eep!).  Jess and I did lots of thrift shopping, lots of crocheting (her) and lots of knitting (me), lots of talking and cooking (Jess) and eating (me -- so long South Beach Diet) and lots of other stuff -- that girl of mine never stops!

So thrifting . . . we did good!  There are several good thrift shops there, and we found lots of good little treasures in each one.  Many of which we intended to put in our Etsy shop, but we're having a little trouble turning loose of some of them -- this one for instance . . . .

We found several fair isle sweaters at one place.  Most of them, we intend to cut up (b/c they were too small or holey or something) to make mittens and legwarmers, etc., but this one I just love too much.  It's a little big and makes me look a little poufier than normal, but I don't care.  I just love it!

And then, Jess spotted this chair (she has a great eye for spotting the good stuff) . . .

she very kindly let me have it to replace the chair that used to sit here but was sadly destroyed by an invasion of hooligans when I was out of town once upon a time.  Oh, and there are some more of the sweaters we found sitting in the chair.

(admiring my ancient beat up old boots aka houseshoes ^v^)

And you know how I love wearing long tops or dresses over jeans (hides a multitude of sins {and cookies}) -- we found several good linen tops and dresses -- which is always a good thing. 

Oh, and look at this. . .

Isn't he cute?  He's a string dispenser and the scissors are his glasses when not in use -- so clever!

As if all these little treasures weren't enough, the birthday fairy (aka Me) brought me a new coffee maker and milk frother . . .

I love this Senseo (which I first heard of over at the lovely Attic 24) -- it makes the best coffee ever -- no muss no fuss.  And the milk frother, well . . . pure decadence, but I love it.  I want to give each of these lovely things a little pat of gratitude every morning.   And aside from making wonderful coffee, I can also make tea with the Senseo --- just put a tea bag (or two if you make a giant vat of tea like I do) and you've got an almost instant cup of tea -- lovely.

Good morning most excellent and large cup of coffee.

And I'm afraid there's more decadence ahead . . .

I've been wanting to do this for a few years but just thought it was a little over the top.  It is, but I did it anyway -- it was my birthday after all.  Anyway, we ordered bread and cookies from Poilane's Bakery in Paris.  I know, I know.  They FedEx it out to you the same day it's made.  I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the bread (but I'm not that fond of sourdough bread, so what was I thinking?), but the Punitions (cookies) are very good, and we also got a loaf of yummy raisin bread that I've stashed in the freezer for making bread pudding someday soon.  I doubt I'll ever do this again, but it was kind of fun, and I figured if we can't go to Paris, a little bit of Paris could come to us -- just this once.

And one more thing . . . 

Just look at this beautiful birthday cake Jess made for us.  Son-in-law, K's birthday is just a couple of days before mine so I had to got to share with him.  Isn't it so pretty?!  I had mentioned to Jess that I'd recently read about Alicia's birthday cake and thought it looked so good (we love chocolate cake with white icing), so she made it for us (using her own delicious cake recipe & Alicia's recipe for the frosting).  It was just the best cake ever -- the piece de resistance!  Thank you Little Girl!

Well, this kind of turned into the 'Look At All the Stuff I've Got' post, didn't it?  But, I'll be back soon with more to share about all that's been going on out West -- such as Little Chloe learning to knit (big sister already knows how and has almost finished her first scarf!), Jess making the most gorgeous 'crochet together as you go' granny square blanket, a tree falling on the house, and more. . . . so in the meantime . . .

Have a great week!

♥ ♥ ♥

G