Weekend Update

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I'm still recuperating. Amy has been sick since Thursday night with the dreaded "stomach virus". Since the rest of the family couldn't come till Friday, we didn't have Thanksgiving dinner till Friday night, so she totally missed everything. In order to not spread it around she pretty much isolated herself in her room and we Cloroxed and Lysol'd everything in sight. We are all holding our breath that nobody else comes down with it.

On Thanksgiving Day, N, the almost 2 year old fell into the corner of a coffee table and hit the corner of her mouth and cheek so she looked like a bruised chipmunk! Poor little thing didn't seem to be bothered too much by it, but she looked pitiful.

Even bruised and battered, a girl has to have her necklace and purse!

A girl just can't have too many bags!

Of course we had an appointment for Christmas pictures Saturday morning! Her mom was a little upset about it, but she still looked cute! Saturday was very busy at the photographer's and we waited an hour for our appointment - not easy for a little one, but she did pretty well.

Here she is waiting for our appointment.


"I'm tired of this waiting bear, let's get out of here!"

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of her sister. I thought I did! I'll do better Christmas. B was great keeping little sister posed during the pictures, for the first set. After that N was pretty much through! We were lucky to get a few good poses!

Dancing while watching "Camp Rock".

I was exhausted today. After they left I made myself pick the trashed house up a little and get some laundry started then I crashed on the couch for 2 hours. I'll never get to sleep tonight.!

What Holiday are You?

You Are Thanksgiving

You are a bit of a homebody who enjoys being in the company of people you love. It doesn't take a lot to make you happy. You're enjoying life as it is. You have many blessings in your life, and you are grateful for each one. You believe that life is about what you *do* have. You feel like you have enough of the good stuff. What makes you celebrate: Family, friends, and the changing of the seasons. At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The host of the party On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Spend so much energy preparing that it's a full time job

What Holiday Are You?

Finished Knitting

This past week I concentrated on finishing a couple of projects that were on the needles.



This is the short sweater for my granddaughter (really hard to get a good picture). This pattern was from Knit Simple and sized and designed for Tweens to knit and wear (which is a real ego-buster when you have problem after problem with it!) I had terrible problems with sizing. The yarn my granddaughter picked was bulkier and fuzzier so I swatched (several times) and ended up going down a size and down from size 6 needles to size 3. I still think it is too wide. After the pieces were finished I had a terrible time getting it all to match at the neckline. I ended up ripping back one sleeve and the back and reknitting them till they fit, just ignoring the directions. I think it will be cute if it doesn't swallow her, but needless to say, my next few projects will be using the suggested yarn, and my next sweater will be top down!


This is my other granddaughter's blanket. It is knit on large needles with two strands of yarn and turned out really thick and cushy and should be warm. She loves the knitted blankies she has, but I wanted to knit her one that wasn't too babyish since she will be a grown up 2 year old soon! If I have time I'm going to knit her a doll blanket with the leftover yarn.

As you can see, the blanket was a hit with Onyx while it was on the needles. Everytime I worked on it this is what I dealt with!

This weekend I haven't gotten much new knitting done, but am working on another pair of fingerless mitts, this time in black (very hard to see the pattern!). Yesterday morning a friend and I went to the local farmer's market for a holiday bazaar. I bought a new Christmas centerpiece for my dining room table and a Christmas hairbow and a couple of necklaces for the girls.


There were lots of crocheted items, but not many knitted and I wasn't too impressed with the few I saw. I was hoping to get new ideas, but not so much. One booth was all knitted scarves, very simple pattern and many done in school colors. They seemed to be doing a big business. They had all the local high school colors, plus many of the colleges in the area.

We won't be having our Thanksgiving dinner till Friday since that is when everyone can come. I have my turkey and am getting my recipes out and making my final shopping list. I have some old favorites everyone expects, but always like to try something new, too. Anyone else brine their turkey? I never have but watched a couple of Food Network shows about brining and am thinking about it!

Have a great week!

Redecorating

Do you like my new blog design? Thanks, Amy! My daughter offered to update the look of my blog and I love it.

If you need a blog re-do shoot her an email.

Brunswick Stew

When we first moved to Virginia, Brunswick stew was a new thing to us. In Kentucky we had Burgoo, which I think is pretty much the same thing, but it wasn't as big a fundraiser as Brunswick stew is here in Virginia. Every Saturday during the fall and early winter and sometimes again in the spring, stews are held by churches, civic organizations, and anywhere else a group of people might gather. They are big fundraisers and my family has grown to love it.

Usually the stew is sold ahead of time and just picked up on the day of the stew, although I think they always make some extra for last minute customers. Often the same organization has a bake sale that day too and lots of goodies can be found.

Today was pick up day for stew I had bought ahead of time and so tonight supper was easy - brunswick stew and grilled cheese sandwiches. I buy a lot of stew and keep in the freezer for easy lunches and suppers all winter!

Fingerless Mitts

A couple of years ago I would have said fingerless mitts were the silliest idea I ever heard of. However, last year (our first year in our new office with computer controlled thermostat) I changed my mind. The receptionist and I had freezing hands all winter, and since we both have to type, gloves are not very productive. Also, these are apparently the new hot accessory, so I had to knit some. These were fun & quick. The pattern is Velvet Curtain Cabled Gauntlets and I actually used the suggested yarn, ValleyYarns Stockbridge, from Webs, which is 50% Alpaca, 50% Wool and was great to work with.

Knitted on straight needles and easily sewn together, leaving a thumb hole. I will knit more of these.

This past week the leaves finally peaked here and it was gorgeous. It was short-lived however because we have had some rain and wind and now most of the leaves are off the trees and on our lawn.

This was the burning bush in my front yard about a week ago (sorry for the spots) .

This is from this morning. The burning bush has been reduced to mostly berries and our front yard is covered with leaves.


And more leaves.......

And these two trees at the edge of the woods, which were beautiful burgundy and yellow are sadly fading away.
The leaves falling and the time change (which I hate! - to me we change it in the wrong direction) means winter is coming soon. We haven't had a bad winter in several years here in our part of Virginia, but the weather people say this winter may be much colder. I love that the weather changes, and I like some snow, but don't like being cold, so not sure how I feel about a harder winter. We'll see!