Thinking about December

One unexpected advantage to having almost all of of the nieces and nephews over last weekend was that I was able to get a feel for what kinds of hand-knitted goodies they'd like for Christmas.

Those mitts--one down, one to go!

Of course, the unexpected wrinkle was that they all wanted different colors from what I'd already purchased!  Back to the store went most of that yarn.  Now that I have the knitting planned, I'm starting to plan the rest of the gifts for the season.  And I'm pretty excited about it.

On the Other Side

We're here.  Pretty much intact--we haven't lost power so far.  The kids are getting restless from being cooped up.  I'm no fun because I won't go joyriding or taxi them back and forth to friends' houses--friends who do not have power.

 

The school district's website won't pull up.  That doesn't bode well.

See that bag of yarn?  On one of my many runs to the grocery store over the weekend, I stopped by Michael's to pick up Christmas gift yarn.  After thinking that I just might not make knitted gifts for the nieces and nephews this year, I came to my senses.  I'm staying busy.

And housebreaking a dog during a hurricane?  I can cross that off my bucket list!

Stay well, and stay warm!

Right now

I am listening to four very rowdy boys jump around in the family room while they play video games.  The dog has been crated for her own protection.

I am wishing I were upstairs (or anywhere, for that matter) knitting away at my latest endeavor--with my yarn purchased in Rhinebeck. 

I am already blocking off next year for a return trip!

I am trying not to worry too much about the impending storm.  The kids have that distracting habit of needing to tell us everything on their minds as soon as we tell them we'd like to listen to the news report.  The gas station and the grocery store were crazy today.

 

See that?  I knew that all along!

Third Weekend in October

On the third weekend in October, puppies commit mischief,

 

 

Goodies get packaged up for a Yankee Swap,

 

 

 

and I wonder whether there is such a thing as too many handknits.

I'm catching a bus to Rhinebeck early tomorrow morning.  I fully expect to be in Yarn Overload mode.  I'm so excited!

Happy Fall

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

A Finished Object! And a New Family Member!

Finally--a finished knitted object!  This is the Belfast Hoodie.  It still needs buttons, but it's ready to be worn.  I think I started this last December, and I got sidetracked with other projects.  I definitely put it aside when I started the sleeves.  Sometimes it's hard to get excited about sleeves.

 

And for the really exciting news, meet our newest family member, Honey.

 She came home with us on Sunday.  She is adorable.

She is exhausting!  We're keeping newborn hours around here.

She is keeping us all on our toes.

And we just love her so!

Summer Reading

Summer isn't over yet, but I was inspired by Erin's post to share my summer reading list (so far).  Here's what I've been reading:

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (also saw the movie--very cute)

French Kids Eat Everything by Karen LeBillon

Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

A Long Shadow - Charles Todd

Hurt Machine - Reed Farrel Coleman

On Writing - Stephen King (This is the only Stephen King book I've ever read!!)

The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie

Bowling Avenue - Ann Shayne

Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie

Anne of the Island - Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Uninvited Guest - Sadie Jones

The Dressmaker - Kate Alcott

A Surrey State of Affairs - Ceri Radford

The Expats - Chris Pavone

The Red Book - Deborah Copaken Kogan

A Jane Austen Education - William Deresiewicz

The Lifeboat - Charlotte Rogan

Whew!  I've been having a really good time.  And because I use the library, I have no problem starting a book and then putting it down if I don't enjoy it.  Here are some of those titles:

The Starboard Sea - Amber Dermont
Prague Fatale - Philip Kerr
Trapeze - Simon Mawer
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
The Innocents - Francesca Segal

And I'm off to the library again this afternoon.  Happy reading!

Still July...

I could have called this post, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," but that's not entirely accurate.  It's more like, "The Delicious, the Delightful, and the Disgusting."

Let's move on to the Delicious, shall we?

I borrowed this book from the library.  After making a couple of recipes, I was ready to press "order" on Amazon.  Last week, I ordered it. 

I'm so happy to have my own copy to write notes in.  I've made pasta and pasta sauce, ravioli, pizza (and pizza sauce), pancakes, waffles, homemade pop-tarts, hamburger buns, and the best yellow cake ever from this book.  I am burning through flour, buttermilk, and eggs like nobody's business.

The Delightful:  I am on my last round of the Granny blanket.  I am going to ignore the fifty million ends that remain, because I'm on the last round!

As my title says, it's still July.  Some days, you'd think it was late August.  The children are all done with being nice to each other.  They are tired of looking at each other--and they tattle to me when they do look at each other!  It's tiresome. I know I'm not alone because I can see other moms and kids out and about, and it's the same everywhere.  I've been seeing this in Target lately--which brings me to the Disgusting:

This was the boil on Bobby's arm last Monday.  The doctor drew the ring around it to show me that if the boil gets any larger than that, to bring him back in.  Yesterday Bobby finished his course of antibiotics (from the Target pharmacy), and the boil had not resolved.  We went back in this afternoon.  The examining room was full--Bobby, the doctor, a PA, a student, the girls, and I were all crammed in there watching the doctor slice open the boil with a scalpel.  I was not expecting blood; I was expecting pus.  Bobby was very brave.  The doctor drained it, cleaned it, bandaged it, and sent us back to Target with another prescription to have filled, and told us to come back tomorrow.

So as July comes to a close, I'm optimistic that we can buckle down and really enjoy our last month of summer break.  I plan on taking the kids to the pool as often as we can (once the wound has healed); I'm going to read as many books as I can and cook as many tomatoes as the garden will give me, and we may be adding a new family member next month.  The children are clamoring for a puppy, and we think the time may be right.

Back to Summer

This has been a typical summer week.  There were trips to the library.  As you can see I am still on a mystery binge.

There was crochet.  There was also knitting, but I'm lucky to get in a round or two a day.  It's my TV knitting, and there wasn't a lot of TV this week--at least for me there wasn't.  The kids are up to date on all the Disney/Nickelodeon shows, of course.

I got outside with my garden clippers and brought some pretty blooms inside.  Our hydrangea has finally (after five years) decided to bloom.  Maybe it was the plant-tone...

 Last night, there was homemade spaghetti.  It's worth all the flour mess.

And now, it's time to menu plan for the upcoming week!

What did your summer week look like?

Vacation--in Reverse

I planned so carefully when I packed for our vacation.  I even included the extra rechargeable batteries for the camera.  And then I left the camera on the dining room table!

Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.  And I uploaded everything in reverse date order.  So here's our vacation in reverse.

Washington, D.C. Only 102 degrees.  The Ford's Theater was air-conditioned.

This year's beach souvenirs.  T-shirts from the Piggly Wiggly!

Fireworks in Georgetown, SC

Extended family photo shoot.  This is why I packed the extra batteries.

Moonrise over Litchfield Beach



And we came home with too many fireworks.

We locked them up in Williamsburg.

Driving around DC on a Friday is more fun when it's 105!

So there you have it.  Eight days away.  Good times.  Glad to be home!

New Developments

Turns out that somebody really was having trouble reading things at long distances.  Both of them picked up their new glasses today. You'd have thought it was Christmas the way they were so excited.

And in the sidebar, you may notice my Twitter feed.  I figure it's a way to make "cheater posts" when I can't get to the computer.  I'm megevans2 on there if you want to follow me!

Blog love

One of my newer favorite blogs is the small things blog.  Kate is an adorable young newlywed who has great taste in clothes, accessories, and just about everything girly. She's also a hairstylist, and she loves to share her secrets.  Her blog is full of tutorials and suggestions for products.

I think I found her blog via pinterest back in late November or December.  While my morning routine has defnitely gotten longer (great hair doesn't just happen--it requires some work!), I am pretty thrilled with the results.

Of course, now when we go the pool, I'm all freaked out, thinking "my hair!"  Such is life.

Anyway, one of Kate's greatest tips is about hairspray.  She recommends Kenra Volume Spray 25.  It's nothing short of a miracle spray.  My hair is fine and lifeless. When there is even a chance of humidity, it goes limp.

Here I am around 10 o'clock this morning. 

Not any more.

And at 5:30 this afternoon.  (There was no swimming.)

It is sold at Ulta.  I just purchased my second can (the first one lasted me about 7 months).  It also comes in a handy travel size.

Tomorrow we're off to the eye doctor.  Both girls have been complaining about their eyes.  I imagine that after their pupils are dilated, they're going to want to spend the afternoon in a dark room.  Maybe with some popcorn.  And some escaped zoo animals running across Europe...

Little Squares

It's a quiet Monday.  Our oldest returned from a two-day sleepover/trip to the beach.  Now she is dying of boredom.  I have been indulging a few obsessions, namely reading numerous books at a time, playing multiple games of Words with Friends (and losing quite spectacularly, I might add), and playing around with all these little squares.

Sometime last week I decided to deviate from my plan of a traditional granny square blanket.  I wanted to combine the small squares into larger blocks of four.  Lucy at Attic 24 inspired this change--her blog is full of colorful crochet eye candy!  She also has a tutorial for joining grannies.  I wish I had reviewed her tute before I started joining. 

Here is my square.  I used what I thought I remembered was Lucy's technique.

It's not bad, but look at the next picture.

See how you can see the edges of the squares--how they're all lined up nicely and lying flat?  Much better.  Fortunately for me (because I really don't want to unravel), the squares I've already done are still the same size as this one, and I'm okay with an imperfect look.

So that's what we're up to today.  This week, we'll probably be at the pool again.  We'll certainly be at the library again, and try my hardest to drop back by here again!

More Making

Finishing the Sparkle Plenty quilt felt so good that it led to more Making.  It's been busy around here.

I've been sewing:

A new case for my Kindle.

 and baking:

Molly Wizenburg's Winning Hearts and Minds Cake, or as we know it, Four o'clock Cake.

And there has been some crocheting (I just crack up when people call it "hooking"):

And all of those squares led to some playing around and planning:

A new idea for the grannies--one that will use up more yarn than the original plan.

These last two pictures were taken with my phone.  I have a smartphone now, and while I may not be smart enough to figure out why it randomly makes noises (like the text notification tune when there is no new text), I'm enjoying the heck out of it. And I added the Instagram app, so let's share, shall we?  I'm megevans2.

Sparkle Plenty

Meet Sparkle Plenty.

 It's my latest quilt.  Based on the Sparkle Punch quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.  I started this back in January.  By February, all it lacked was the binding.  And it lingered in the dining room for months.

 I decided that yesterday was as good a day as any to finish a quilt.  And now it's done.  Ready to be added to the fort-making materials.

 When I started quilting, I tried to match it up to how Elizabeth had quilted hers.

 But it morphed into something a little more me.

 It's a large quilt--large enough for an eight-year-old boy to relax on.  Blogger rotated the picture without asking me.

 Here's a close-up of the boy.  Yes, he has a picture of bacon on his shirt.

Now back to our regularly scheduled activities.