Fall Beading

Today I had to hit the bead store to find something to go with a pendant that has been giving me fits.  I didn't have anything in my bead stash to put with this particular pendant since I am not a fan of browns.  I had to break down and get brown.  So, I was able to hit a sale...love those sales, I admit it.  I won't be bead shopping for some time since I am in the need of getting the beads organized by color into their appropriate bins.  I want to see what I have before I go shopping. 

The top photo is the pendant that I have had trouble finding beads for.  You would think with fall around the corner, this would not be impossible but, it is next to near impossible trying to find the right colors to compliment this pendant.  This is what I came up with in the second photo.  The beads that look purple are deceptive because they are coated Czech druks.  The coating is a metallic copper and it doesn't photograph well at all.  It looks completely different with the coating showing through.  I used copper accents where I could.  The wire is copper colored, the toggles are copper, the jump rings are copper colored. 

As to the frogs in the pool...it turns out there was a family of 4 in the pool and Gary took them down to the creek and dumped them in.  So, they should be happy now, in the creek. 

We get to tear down the filter tonight and put in the new grids.  It is time.  The pressure gauge is pretty high on it right now.  So, that is tonight's fun job.  I am also making a frittata for dinner.  We enjoy them and it is a nice change of pace. 

Now, back to vacuuming my home.  I took a break from that just now to finish the Highlights of Autumn necklace. 

Rain and Bull Frogs

It has been raining here lately which I won't complain about ever again since our drought situation of last year and a slight one this year.  I love the fact that we have it now.  Then there is my other situation that I can't deal with...a frog in my pool.  This is where the hubby comes in, his job is to get rid of said frog.  This frog can't seem to take a hint and just stay out of my pool, no, he comes back all of the time.  We have pitched him over the fence several times and still he comes back.  He seems to think my pool is his home pond.  Think again dude, this is my pool...not yours.  He even has earned a name and brought a friend with him.  His friend isn't a bull frog, just a normal everyday, slimey fellow.  The bull frog has earned the name Mr. Ploppers since he plops into the pool and out of the pool.  Nasty thing! 

I am not a fan of the things at all.  Ick!  They are champion swimmers, I will say that for him.  He has to become sympatico with the net.  That is how I get him out of the pool.  When he sees the net, he doesn't realize he will be air borne in minutes...oh no, we mustn't let him think he will be leaving on a fast moving rush of air...we must surprise him.  Little does he realize that tonight he will be leaving on a different path...via bucket.  Yep, we have the little trip planned for him tonight. 

I grabbed an old pair of socks that I had been working on last year and put down.  I am now making them into tube socks.  Easy knitting, nothing major required, just knitting.  I am still working on that damn shawl and have plans to finish it this weekend.  I am sick of looking at it.  The yarn is getting worse and worse as I knit with it.  Absolutely detest it at this point in time.  Now, I can see why it was on sale.  I would have put it on sale to get rid of it, too. 

I washed clothes this morning and that is about all I want to do.  I want to go sit and knit along on the sock.  I also have plans for more socks after I finish the tube socks.  I have yarn that I saved specifically for me..I painted it into a luscious color way.  I can't wait to create with it.  Mine, mine, mine.  :-) 

A Little Jewelry Making

Today I hit a bead sale.  I had to make a birthday present and since I didn't really want to knit any socks for a present, I decided to update the birthday girl's jewelry collection.  So, I used my bits and pieces to create this necklace for her.  It is called Rocking Roccoco.  Believe it or not, it is very hard to work with reds.  I have no idea why I find it so difficult in necklaces and not yarn.  I love using reds in my yarns...it is so passionate.  This necklace has reds, it has browns, it has astral pink and it has beiges.  I am hoping it will be well received. I know she wears a lot of reds so, I am thinking this will be perfect.  The pendant I created with a hot fix flat back and some E6000.  The pendant came blank and needed that little bit of red to tie it into the necklace. 

I used copper wire and copper accents to make the necklace feel more like an Autumn color palette plus it is something different.  My first pendant wasn't working out and so, I tried another one and that didn't work with the rest of the necklace, it was too plain so, I settled on making this one and I think it came out great. 

I am slowly working on getting my beads into boxes and it is going to take forever.  I didn't realize I had so many of the things.  Apparently, my niece, Maribeth has a bad bead habit as well.  Oh and my sister blames me for it.  Oh well. 

I am still knitting on that shawl and I am really starting to hate the yarn.  It is so unforgiving since it is mostly cotton with a little bit of wool.  It blows.  My fingers are starting to cramp from working with it.  I can't stand stiff yarns.  I love how well wool stretches and gives, that lovely amazing fiber. 

I went to lunch and shopping with my sister today.  It was fun to get out of the house.  I hit the grocery store on my way home from her house and bought what I needed and I was out of there mucho pronto.  I wanted to beat the rain.  I made it.  I came home and the dogs were so happy to see me.  I love my boys, they are wonderful doggies.  You know how much you are truly loved when your dogs greet you at the door and their tails are wagging and they are squirming to lick and love on you.  Yep, I have to say...dogs are the best. 

One Found Camera

I finally found my camera, the couch had eaten it and I decided after tearing my way around the house that it was the last place I saw it.  So, I stuck my little hand into the couch and yep, there it was.  Damn couch! 
Top photo is a hat out of merino/alpaca, it is gone.  My SIL took it.  It actually fit her nicely.  The second hat is going to be a gift for a friend, and the bottom one is the hat that I knit for my friend's son. 
Currently on the needles, a shawl out of Knit Picks Main Line in Red Velvet Cake, no pictures of it yet.  I bought the yarn on sale a couple of years ago and decided to use it for the shawl.  It is such a pretty color and yes, it does look like red velvet cake. 

I am reading a book about designing shawls.  I want to try my hand at that next.  I also have sock yarn sitting around waiting for me to get crafty with it.  I am doing one thing at a time, I have learned that lesson well.  I no longer try to do two projects at one time.  Too chaotic for me. 

Tonight found me in my pool.  I love cold pool water and well, it did cool down some.  I was able to do my 30 minutes and I killed one water proof watch within 2 minutes of dunking it in the pool on my wrist.  Apparently, the people who sold it to me lied.  It wasn't water proof at all.  So, it went to the trash.  I realized that something was wrong when there was water underneath the bezel.  Okay then.  It killed it dead. 

I am trying to change up my work outs since the end of pool season is almost upon us.  Unless I find a pool that is heated for the winter season.  I do not like hot water so, this is going to be a big challenge.  Unless I go with bike riding and dog walking like I had intended.  I need to do something.  I can walk the boys one at a time and it is 1 mile.  They really like going for walkies on the leash.  I know Ody can use it since he is so damn fat.  Tell me about a Corgi that is skinny and I will tell you that dog has worms.  Mine loves to eat.  We have him on a frozen veggie diet to help combat his over zealous eating habits and he loves them.  I share my bananas with the boys, too.  They love bananas.  All three of them start drooling when I break out a banana.  I also let them lick my yogurt containers when I am done.  That helps out so much with stink.  They don't stink if they have yogurt. 

Today I had to head back to the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner.  Gary made bbq ribs and I needed some items for my side dish.  I decided to try my hand at asparagus with a cashew butter sauce.  Oh my word!  Talk about fantastic...that was so good.  You have to love cashews and we can't seem to get enough of them over here.  It complements the asparagus quite nicely.  I found myself wanting to lick the food processor container.  Yummy!  1/2 cup butter, softened, 1/4 cup of salted roasted cashews, process in your food processor until smooth, cook your asparagus in a cup of chicken broth, until fork tender, remove the woody stems before cooking, then drain the chicken broth and spoon the cashew sauce over the hot asparagus and serve.  We didn't have any left.

Tomorrow is a curry sauce asparagus.  That one involves capers and mayonaisse.  We needed a new jar of capers so, I had to get those when I was at the store.  I can't wait to try that one out.  I am making pork chops with the asparagus and bulgur will be our grain.  I am thinking a lovely rosemary gravy over the bulgur.  I might even skip it since we will have the curry sauce over the asparagus.  I do love to cook and my one thing is that I have to have a well stocked pantry and fridge to do it.  If I am missing items, forget it, we are going out. 

I need to get myself back to work and get the new sock yarns into the shop.  I am really having a hard time getting movtivated this year.  I think with the economy being as awful as it is and then with the heat we have been suffering through this year, it just has worn on me.  I can't seem to get excited about much of anything.  The only thing I want to do these days is stay inside the cool a/c and then go for drives with the top down on my car in the cooler evenings.  It is very nice.  I did find myself driving with the top down this morning with the Judas Priest blaring on my way to the grocery store. I had convertible hair by the time I got to the grocery store and of course, I happen to attract every man in a 10 foot radius with my little car.  I get more dirty looks from wives...trust me, I don't want your hubby, I have enough with the one I have.  I couldn't handle more than one.  Last week it was an old Marine talking to me at the traffic light.  I am nice, I talk to them.  It was just how I was raised.  If someone speaks to you, speak back and always treat them like you want to be treated. 

What The...Hey!

I know it has been ages since I have posted but, so many things have been happening and blogging isn't chief among those things.  I lost my camera and I am tearing my house apart trying to find it.  My wallet was stolen out of my purse and that made me feel completely awful and violated.  I had to cancel credit cards and thankfully, I was able to cancel them before said individual went on a buying spree.  I found out from my bank that those lovely aluminum wallets are targeted by thieves.  Since they can't scan the cards through them, they steal the whole damn thing.  So, I don't have one anymore. 

I also learned that you want a purse with a zipper and a flap if you can find one...something to make their miserable lives even harder.  Why make it easy for the damn thieves? 

I have been knitting like crazy and I even managed to paint yarn for the shop but, since I am without a camera, it makes my life harder.  Where did I put that camera?  I thought it was in one place and no it isn't.  Dang! 

I was thinking life was going to get better since I had found skinny sticks down at the grocery store, come to find out, they do not have room for them.  I had bought 4 bags of the things and when I went back last night...no room for them.  The guy was talking to me about them and when he mentioned things to do with grocery stores, I tuned him out.  Gary was stuck talking to him.  I admit, if it doesn't interest me, I tune it out.  Yep. 

Gary has decided that my bead collection needs to be organized and he is right, I am trying to get them all sorted and separated, talk about a chore.  I have lots of beads.  They make pretty things and those pretty things make great birthday presents.  My sister tells me I am a shopping ho.  Well, okay I can accept that.  I found a new place that sell purses and accessories.  Melinda and I have spent way too much time in that store.  Yesterday was her turn for a new purse.  After perusing the whole store, she finally found the one she wanted and then the search was on for the matching wallet.  Oh boy. 

It has been so damn freaking hot here that it is next to impossible to go outside in the middle of the day, the heat will drop a cow.  So, we have been staying indoors more often than not.  I was talking the dogs for walkies in the morning but, that stopped when the sore throat started.  I am not happy with the amount of ragweed in the air.  The crap is about to do me in this year. 
 
I was asked to make something pretty for a relative.  The first thing that was mentioned was a blanket, oh yeah, can you see me doing that?  You would have to peel my ass off of the ceiling.  I don't do big projects, I get bored so easily.  I am currently working on a shawl for the family reunion, we do a silent auction each year to help out with the cost of the hall rental, etc.  So, this year, I am taking a shawl with me for it.  I may even take a few necklaces to it this year.  I took a necklace and a bracelet last year and raised money from those pieces.  I have to look and see what I have this year to go. 

I am not doing Rice Harvest Festival in Katy this year.  My health wasn't the best when the sign up came to me.  I decided to skip it this year.  I don't want to deal with the stress of it.  It is a huge stress filled weekend.  Not for me right now.  I don't even have the yarn for it.  Someone contacted me for it and wanted to sell me signs and business cards.  I declined since I will not be going. 

I am about to start cleaning out my kitchen cabinets and selling stuff that I haven't used in years.  It is going bye bye.  Why keep it when it hasn't been used?  I have some seriously expensive cake pans that are going to be sold.  If I make a cake now, it has to be sugar free and I have to use spelt flour since regular white flour is so completely awful for me.  I made xyla short bread the other day.  I will say this...they are wonderful if you need a good cleaning out.  I call them the laxative cookies.  With the amount of fiber I eat, this isn't such a bad thing. 

I am making pepper steak tonight with either quinoa or bulgur instead of rice.  Rice is off limits with me.  I can't touch it.  I need to find a Spanish rice recipe and convert it to quinoa.  It should work.  The family recipe of mushroom gravy and steak turns out really well with the quinoa.  The original recipe calls for rice but, if you can't have rice, you need a substitute and the quinoa is my substitute.  I use bulgur on pasta days.  No pasta is allowed in the diet, either.  I miss having lasagna.  I think what I am going to use in place of the noodles is zuchini.  Gary read about that.  I hope it will turn out well.  I love bolognese sauce.  I have found that chicken parm with bulgur works great. 

I know it doesn't sound great but, if you can't have the bad stuff, then you must find a way to have your favorite recipes, with other things.  The one item I draw the line at is lentils.  Oh my God, those are the nastiest things I have ever had besides those icky no calorie or carb noodles.  Your taste buds would have to be completely dead before those things would taste good.  I guess if you smoke and can't taste much of anything anyway, they would be fine. 

Ready for the Weekend

I am taking a break right now from knitting.  I might pick it back up tonight.  Currently on the needles, a hat.  I am at the crown of this particular hat and it is the third one I have done this week.  More hats will follow this one.  The shawl that I started in the middle of the week is resting.  I will pick it up later.  I have found that if I do continuous projects of one variety I get bored really fast.  So with that in mind, I am going to work on hats for a bit then move on to something else.  This will get my hat quota out of the way and someone always needs a hat for winter.  Never fails. 

I have a ribbon yarn coming in that I snagged on sale.  I can't wait to get it.  It is a cotton/nylon blend.  It should be fun to work with.  I have plans for it.  I chose a pale pink mix for it. 
I have yarn sitting on my desk for mitts and mittens.  I have my color combinations worked out and I need to create a new pattern.  My software is on my laptop downstairs.  I will have to sit down and work out my charity mitt pattern for the year.  I have several options that I like.  I just have to work out what I want it to look like.  I haven't retired the original charity pattern, I will still use it.  I just like the idea of a new one. 

I still haven't started to paint the fall line up for the shop.  I am being lazy and I really don't want to start until I have to.  I admit, I have the procrastination gene.  It is rampant in my family. 

I worked on the chapter scrapbook and managed to get it caught up.  So, I am ready for the first meeting.  I just have to get the box tops and soup labels taken care of for my schools.  I am behind on this but, I will sit down one day and work on it.  It is a pain because they want the labels and box tops in stacks of rubber banded 100's.  It is ridiculous. 

It is big points for our chapter if we get them into the schools.  We get a nice big credit for it on our end of the year report card. 

My camera has pictures on it, I just haven't had the time to bring it upstairs since I am in the middle of the hat.  I want to get it finished then take more pictures of it.  So knitting candy Friday is on hold this week. 

I am washing laundry right now.  Yeah, it is supposed to be on Mondays but, my schedule is screwed up right now.  I have no idea what happened other than being lazy.  Yes, I have that in spades right now.  I am firming up nicely with my swimming and my diet.  I have actually noticed improvements on my body.  Okay so, I still have the turkey fat under the arms and the thighs need help and of course, I still have the spare tire around the middle but, the rest of me is looking good.  I am in a smaller size and working to get into the next smaller size.  I can't wait to get back down to the size I was when I met Gary.  Let's face it, if you are happy in your marriage, you get FAT.  We both did.  Gary has lost about 40 or more pounds.  I am behind him at 30 pounds.  He has been at it longer than I have.  I am slowly getting there and I was at a point when I couldn't get past my last weigh in number for about a month.  It was terrible.  I plateaued but, I am starting to lose that number.  Yay!  I got on the scale the other day and I had slipped past that number.  By the way, I still hate that damn scale and I did read that if you have lots of fat...the water in your body is hidden in the fat.  Lovely.  So, if the scale says that you are dehydrated, technically you aren't it is all in your fat.  I never should have bought the fat percentage scale, it is depressing.  I just want to slam it against the wall when it tells me my fat percentage readings and it is just damn wonky because it says a different number each time.  One day it is less fat, the next it is more.  I don't think it knows what it is talking about.  Or it could just be me.  Who knows.  I have some great advice, if you think you need the body fat percentages on your bathroom scale...save yourself some heartache and anger and don't do it!  You don't need that kind of misery! 

I would love one of those doctor's scales but, I am not parting with about $2000 for one.  No thanks.  I can live without it. 

I really want to have my body back to normal at the next blood work in October.  I really don't like being in the pre-diabetes stage but, it is better than being a full blown diabetic.  It has taken a lot of hard work on my part and a major lifestyle change but, I will tell you this, I no longer crave hamburgers and greasy foods.  I get sick looking at a fat laden burger.  It just sickens me.  I know it sounds really weird but, I drool in the produce department at the grocery store.  All those yummy veggies just look so damn good.  A good ripe juicy peach will have me drooling like mad.  We had some great ones in the fruit bin of the refrigerator.  I had one last night and it was so juicy, the juice was running down my hand. 

I am still collecting figs for my next batch of preserves.  I have to say that tree is going mad with fruit.  I think with the heat we have and all of the sunshine with some rain thrown in here and there that tree is going crazy.  I am sick of figs.  I can't wait to see the end of them fruit producing for the season.  I pulled up my green beans, the heat was killing them and they stopped producing.  The tomatoes are dead in the garden and I need to take the time this weekend to rip out the plants and pull all of the grass out and get it ready for my fall planting.  I am thinking we are going to do broccoli, lettuce, carrots, radishes and kale this year.  I hope it will be a big harvest.  I have one okra plant right now and it is slow going, it still hasn't flowered.  I planted it too late this year.  It is sympatico right now with the last of the cucumbers. 

I do enjoy gardening and producing my own food.  It is very stress relieving and restful.  It is a lot of hard work but, I do enjoy it.  The tall grass has taken it over this year.  I will chop it all out.  It also harbours lizards and geckos which I hate with a purple passion.  Ugh! 

Knitting Candy

Vlad is completely finished and blocked.  The top photo shows the shawl in it's entirety.  The middle photo shows a close up of the stitches and the yarn and the last photo is the hat I am working on for my friend's son. 

The shawl was fun to knit except for the 7 repeats of the body pattern, if you are one of those knitters like myself that gets bored on repetitive patterns, then avoid it.  If you love repetitive patterns, try it out.  The yarn was an absolute dream to work with and I think this is what kept me sane.  It stretched quite nicely as well.  I would definitely use it again.  I have several more skeins of this yarn in different colors.  Who knows they might be used to make simple shawls.  I didn't even use the whole 450 yards of this skein.  I have a pretty huge skein left.  I will be able to make someone something with it.  Who knows, it may become a smaller pair of socks.  The yarn is a lilac blend, not gray as many people think.  It just doesn't photograph well. 

The last photo is the hat that I promised my friend I would make her son.  I decided to give it more of a spiritual motif since he is highly spiritual and this will represent his beliefs quite well.  I love knitting Fair Isle.  There must have been someone in my ancestry who was seriously in love with this form of knitting because I can't seem to get enough of it.  I am using a bulky weight wool from Elann for this hat in Navy and the white portion is not white but, oatmeal and I chose to use Brown Sheep's worsted weight Oatmeal for this one.  I love Brown Sheep wool because you get a lot for a nice price.  It never fails, either.  It is a seriously good wool to work with. 

I am still trying to decide what the next project should be...I have loads of yarn in my stash that needs to be used up and I have many patterns to work with.  My goal, use enough yarn out of the stash to get rid of one plastic bin out of my house.  Next year I will try and get another one out of here.  The stash is out of control. 

I have to find my size 10 dpns to finish the hat and then on to the next project.