WIP Sunday

Yes Auburnchick I have finally revived my poor neglected blog :O
I have decided this is the year I finally clean out the wip basket. So 1 project got frogged & I started a new pattern with this yarn, the others I am just resuming work on them. The Adventures in Colorwork shawl which is almost done has been sitting in the basket for 2+ years now. This shawl has a pretty lace border on it but I somehow messed up while working on it. Rather than fixing it right away I got frustrated & tossed it in the basket to be dealt with later. Later has finally arrived so I pulled it out, ripped back to the start of the lace border & have restarted it. It is going well so far.

Here are pics of 3 of my shawls I have going. 1st: Adventures in Colorwork, 2nd: Comfort Shawl, 3rd: Little House Shawl.

Yes I know I am a shawl junkie. They're like crack....once you start you can't stop ;-)
Patterns are: Pierrette, Milk-run-shawl & Little-house-shawl
I will warn you..... the Little House Shawl is gorgeous but the start is a BEAR! It's worked bottom up so you have to cast on 396 stitches. Let me just say 396 purl stitches is really not fun at all. But now that I'm done with the feather & fan section I am loving it. The Milk Run Shawl is super easy since it's all garter stitch. It makes great tv knitting. Pierrette like all Picnicknits patterns is super easy & fun.

Yarn Porn

Saturday was a great mail day here as I recently went on an online yarn shopping spree :-)

sock-aholic sweet in sweet turquoise, sweet lavender & peach cobbler and

 

 

 

wollmeise pure merino superwash  in Erbse

madeline tosh merino light in volga, dream in color smooshy in flamingo pie & shalimar breathless in asilomar

dream in color smooshy in go go grassy

wollmeise pure merino superwash in Lila Ludmilla 

 

 

I've used Wollmeise once before - my boneyard shawl which I blogged about here. I have to say I love her colors. If you search around on ravelry you can find people destashing wollmeise more often these days. I highly recommend trying it. I've also used Shalimar Breathless before - also for a shawl:

And I have to say I LOVE this yarn! It's a blend of  75% Merino wool, 15% Cashmere & 10% Silk. It is super soft & feels heavenly both while you're knitting it & when you wear it.

Nothin' But A Hound Dog

And we have added to the family yet again.....
Hubster knowing I have always wanted a bloodhound decided to get me one for our anniversary. The pups weren't ready to go on our actual anniversary so we had to wait. There were 2 pups left when we went to pick out ours & the fellow told hubby he'd cut him a deal if we would take them both. I was having a hard time picking so we took the deal. :-))  So here are Jasmin & Jasper:

Jasmin & Jasper

oh those ears :-))

Jasmin is the one looking up at the camera

always into something lol

they love hanging out in the craft room

whew! playing is hard work.....we need a nap

and more playing

Jasmin

Jasper

Meet the Girls.....

Meet the newest members of the family aka the girls :-)
Please pardon the mess known as my backyard as these pics were taken while still in construction phase. The chicken coop was built from pallets & fence panels hubby got for free from his work. The only materials we bought were screws & chicken wire. We already had the boards he used for the door into their run leftover from a previous project & the door to the coop was in our basement not being used. We do plan to put a top on their run to keep predators out & to keep them in when there are no humans out there to monitor. They do get to come out of their run if one of us is out there to keep an eye on them. The city just changed the code so we may be getting 5 more *yay* really looking forward to fresh eggs from humanely kept chickens.

Bessie, Lucille, Hattie Mae, Clara & Matilda

Oldest kiddo & Lucille

Lucille trekking across back yard

the girls hanging out in one of my garden boxes

the chicken coop in progress

finished coop & run side view

 

finished coop & run front view

A New Vehicle

Well after a very long time of not blogging - I'm back :-)
Today was a very busy day. Started off with a trip to buy a new car (well new to me anyway). I recently had to sell my Range Rover Classic. She was becoming a money pit that I just couldn't handle anymore :-(
So meet the new baby..... a 2005 Ford Escape

Fun in the Kitchen

Yesterday's fun chore was organizing the cabinets & the recipes. Well not all of the cabinets are done but half of them are. I'm taking everything out, getting rid of what doesn't get used & organizing what's left. I also had these recipe cards that were stuck inside a big box & it drove me crazy that they were like that but I had no other way to keep them until I spotted a small binder that hubby had in the basement, only problem was it wouldn't even hold a third of those cards. Well I just happened to stop at Michaels on Wed & found these lovely little Paula Deen recipe binders on sale. *happy dance* I grabbed 6 of those binders. They come with 8 dividers & 20 sheets of recipe card holders. The recipe cards took up 4 of those binders :O leaving 2 for the small handwritten cards. So here are some pics:

before in their box....

the new binders

inside of the new binders

the sleeves for small recipe cards

the small recipe cards

the recipe cards in the new binders

and some small recipe cards with hand written recipes 

I also managed to get all of my cookbooks organized & in 1 cabinet, the pots & pans cabinet had been done as well as the cabinet above the stove & the 1 above the refrigerator. Next up the cabinet with the dishes in it....it's very scary in that cabinet so I am putting it off as long as possible lol plus the main pantry cabinet also needs a good cleaning. I suspect there are things in the back of the main pantry cabinet that have been in there since when dinosaurs roamed the earth :O
I also recently finished another of the shawls I was working on. That shawl as well as the one I knit for my friend are both on my bed blocking today. Pics will be coming soon :)

No post yesterday - I was too tired. For some reason I could barely keep my eyes open so Zeus & I napped for a few hours. I've gotten some knitting in at work the past 2 nights though as things have been thankfully slow. Now if we can keep on with that through the weekend I will be a happy girl. I have about 10 rows left on the border of my shawl then bind off & pics! I spent what time I was awake yesterday happily wasting time online. Let me introduce you to 1 of my all time favorite sites: http://ana-white.com/. For those of you who love new furniture but don't love the price tag and don't mind breaking a sweat you will love this site. Free plans for building all kinds of things: beds, bookshelves, outdoor sofa, pergola, etc. I have a giant binder with plans for all kinds of things, poor hubby his honey do list is super long ;) This is yet another of my favorites & it's full of ideas & tips for doing things around the home. http://www.familyhandyman.com

I got a little something new for the Wii this week too. Yes this will be my new workout routine. Oldest boy has a birthday tomorrow & I came across this deal while online looking for something for him. I'll be getting started with that once the weather cools off. I am not a fan of Summer, in fact I could go so far as to say I despise Summer, I always have. Perhaps this is due to being an Aries, thus a fire sign, I dunno but I really feel awful pretty much all Summer long. Needless to say I will be happy when Fall finally arrives. Working out with the Wii, hiking, long walks. The kids got this for the Wii as 1 of A's birthday presents. Those 2 love all things football lately so I thought this would be a good thing since they are also all about the Wii. I swear they would play Madden from sun up until midnight or later if I'd let them. Since I've been negligent with the pics lately but I still don't have anything productive to post here's a nice shot of how I spent my afternoon today after the kids & I got back from the grocery store. Yep that's my brat! He has to snuggle just as close as he can get.