This and That

I had pictures for this post, but somewhere along the way I lost them when I "transferred" them to my computer, lol. 

I finally got all of the paraphernalia together to make the Artisan Bread that JudyL has raved about for several months, and literally "threw" a batch of it together with success.  I baked some yesterday which was the day I made it and it is wonderful!  Thank you Judy for spurring me on on this one. If  you have not tried to make this, it is great "peasant" bread and is even good with Jiffy peanut butter on it, lol.  I made Jambalaya and it was really great with that.

I found everything I needed at Amazon for making the bread, even the container to store the dough in.  I did take pictures of the process and the finished bread but they didn't make it here.  Will try again on the next batch.  It was great fun and very free and easy.  If  you are hesitating about trying this, don't, you will love the ease with which it is made and the fun of seeing it "do it's thing".

This is my first attempt at knitting.  Not too shabby I guess, considering.  I know now why I quit when I did though.  It kills my wrists to do this, but I am going to keep on keeping on a little at a time and see what happens.  There is a local knit store that offers free lessons if you buy the yarn there. I will go next Thursday and eventually get better.

Watched Canada beat the US at hockey...what a game....what a great game!  I have enjoyed watching the Olympics this year, they seemed more free of controversy than usual, but I am glad they are over.  Need to do other things.

Also working on cleaning up my sewing room now.  I am horrified at how much fabric I am uncovering stuck in nooks and crannies....what I am really concerned about is knowing what pattern I had in mind when I bought some of it.  One batch I had together complete with yardage and measurements has the crytic note "make the same as blue quilt" attached.  Problem is I don't have a blue quilt, lol.

The picture in my header is one Aud took the second day out on our trip.  Just loved the desolation of the abandoned house. 

Bad Influences

I have decided that JudyL  is not a good influence on me.  First she goes off of the wagon about buying fabric which gave me the ok to buy some fabric today while I was at my Guild Meeting,   (more about that later).

Both of these are very injurious to my health.  On the left is a ball of yarn that I am in the process of winding.  I used to do a lot of knitting in a previous life....and I do remember that you really do need a winder to take away the tediousness of winding yarn, plus it is easy to get the %&**& stuff tied up in knots if you are not careful.  On the right is a picture of a pair of gloves I want to knit and I really need a scarf and hat. On the left is the yarn I am rolling into a ball.  It is really gorgeous and has purple in it of course.

I let another friend convince me to go to a knitting store with her a couple of days ago, and that was the second mistake I have made this week.  I would never have gone to the knitting store if not for JudyL going on and on about how much fun knitting socks is. And since I have cleaned out a closet in my spare quilting room and have found some room it has to be filled up, and quickly.  Therefore I will knit myself a scarf, and I must have several choices of yarn, right?  No socks for me, that yarn is just too tiny. But scarves, for now, they sound wonderful.

Great.  I could buy 4 scarves for what the yarn cost of course, but that is not what we knit for, right? Or quilt for, for that matter.  I think it is so we can sit down and feel like we are being constructive.

But, I digress.  I buy the yarn, buy the needles, a CD so I have a great big picture I can see so I can tell what I am doing, and come home with my purchase.  Now I just need to find the time to teach myself.

I must admit about a month ago this same friend I am not naming convinced me to go to another yarn store here in town (there are only 3 and I now have visited 2 of them, lol, and haven't knitted anything yet) and I also bought enough yarn there and some needles to make a scarf.  However, you have to go to their class that they are going to charge you for to learn how to use this expensive stuff you just bought.  Well, that didn't sit real well with me and I have not been back.  Then I decide to pick up a ball of yarn and another pair of needles (didn't like the bamboo ones from the fancy yarn store) from Hancock's so I can practice and not mess up the good stuff.

I am still digressing here.  I tried knitting with the cheap stuff and couldn't keep the youtube pictures still long enough to follow them, so I put it away.  Now of course I can't find it.  No telling in what clean area I stuffed the sack with the pretty cheap yarn and needles that aren't blunted in.  Okay, no problem, I will just use this new stuff that I bought (pictured above) and look at the CD on my computer which I can stop every few seconds easily enough and practice casting on.  I also bought a book at the expensive store and have no idea where it is.  It had some decent pictures...can I find it....nope.

Ooops!  The yarn is in this long skein that is twisted and I seem to remember that it needs to be wound into a ball.  Wow!  I need a yarn winder!  No problem, I have a couple of hours to kill before I go back for the night guild meeting.  I have to go to both each month because I am the membership chairman. Thank goodness that will be over in another 3 months.

Have any of you priced a yarn winder lately?  The manual one is in the 40 dollar range and the electric one is in the 90 dollar range!  Holy Makerel and all the ships at sea!!! I think I will wind my yarn by hand for a while. 

Just want to thank JudyL and my nameless friend for getting me into another craft, lol.

A Little Quilting Going On

I put this on my design wall 2 months ago, intending to work on it and there it sits, so it is coming down.  I am bored with it and it is going away to be worked on in the monthly meeting of the quilting group I belong to. Pattern is called Chocolate Dip from Charmed, I'm Sure by Lesley Chaisson.

Meanwhile, I have found another collection called Blush that I just adore and the perfect quilt pattern to make it out of.  My friend decided to make hers out of Kaffe but she is not sure of her background yet. Both of them will be gorgeous I think.

Uh Oh!

Aud fell asleep while she was drinking grape juice and playing scrabble on her computer.   So now she have grapejuice all over the quilt that she uses in her chair.  I couldn't get it out.  I didn't even get upset, which even shocked both of us, lol. But it does worry me...how can you go to sleep and spill grape juice all over your computer and not wake up. I think it has to do with her heart, but she swears up and down the medicine she is taking for a bladder infections is the reason.  And her computer is still working, lol.

We Just Had to Go.......

I really don't know where to begin after such a long time away from blogging. My last post was right before Aud and I took our "journey" in September. We drove 5000 miles in 28 days and went from here to Seattle and back. Had a wonderful time, lots of fun and a few harrowing moments here and there. If Aud had not had a couple of health issues rear their heads, we might still be "on the road".

I took lots of pictures which I will not subject you to, ate lots of food that wasn't particularly good, and saw many wonderful places. I believe my favorite was the place where the picture that is my header at the moment was taken. It is looking at the Pacific Ocean and in that particular place all you could see was water and it looked it was just dropping off the edge of the world. So very beautiful.

My girls didn't even say we must be crazy to make this trip, but they did take bets as to whether we would make it all the way to Seattle. I didn't know about the bet until we got back though. As I told them when they informed me of the bet, you don't know me very well, do you.

The first night out Aud fell in the bathroom and I figured we wouldn't make it any further, but she insisted she was ok so on we went. Two days later she opened the car door wrong and the edge of the door dug a hole in her leg. Three weeks into our trip and 3 ER visits later we were told we probably needed to go home and have the leg checked. By then we were in Seattle. So, we loaded up the car and left. It was supposed to snow the day we left Seattle, but we didn't see snow until the following day as we were driving into Butte Montana. From Butte we made it home to OKC in three more days. Lots of stories in this one paragraph.

I am so glad we made the trip, and so is Aud, in spite of the health issues. I am sure a lot of you will think it was insane for a 70 year old and a 93 year old to do something like that, but we had a great adventure. We have lots of good memories associated with that period of time.

After we got home, I took Aud to see her doctor, got her on the proper antibiotic and it took 4 weeks more to get her leg healed up(October). Then I had to take her to therapy for a month (November) to get her arm repaired from her fall in the motel bathroom when we left on our trip. It was almost "frozen". December was just kind of a wash....cold weather....more cold weather....and so on.

January started out with yukky weather and both of us sick with allergies and just general "yuk". Sleeping until 2 and 3 in the afternoon and staying up all night because we couldn't sleep.

February has not been real good for Aud, she is having trouble breathing and is sleeping more and more. I decided I was depressed, told my doctor I was going to quit taking the anti-depressant I had been on...and I did it gradually.....because I was having constant headaches. Well, I am off of them completely, will never take them again, my headaches are gone, I can cry at the drop of a hat about nothing, tear your arm off if you look at me wrong sometimes, and am getting up around 8 am and going to bed between 10 and 12. Life is good! Now, if I can just get my arthritis meds on track so I don't hurt so much maybe I can start doing some quilting again!

So, that covers the last 6 months of my life....will try to post more often. I hope to have some pictures soon of quilting projects.

OK, I am Back

I have procrastinated as long as I can, but my dear friend, JudyL, has shamed me into owning up to the person she is referencing as "her" in her post called "Another Finish - Almost", lol.

I don't have all of the particulars for this year's Cystic Fibrosis Drive as of yet, and since my daughter usually provides me with the links etc. to the current fund raising effort for CF, I will have to build a fire under her to get the current info ASAP.

The latest picture of my CF grandchild....isn't she beautiful? She will be 7 in May.

This is the fourth year we have been able to "raffle" a quilt as a fund raiser. Tickets will cost $5.00 for two and will be available online paid directly to the CF Foundation. I don't remember the particulars right now, as my memory is even worse than last year at this time, lol, but it works very well. There will also be a way to buy tickets via mail.

Thank you Judy for building a fire under me, lol. I promise I will do a great binding job! lol