pjbknit

More Stuff Again

Belvedere and his dignified look. I was laughing because his tongue was flapping when DH was scratching his back and chest. This is the look I got.

DH had some friends over today to celebrate Memorial Day. He cooked ribs from the Montgomery  Inn in Cinncinnati that we got for Christmas from my brother. He made sweet potato oven fries from our homegrown sweet potatoes. I made a Red, White and Blueberry Trifle. This is a great dessert, and is low fat and relatively healthy.

I had to work today, so I had ribs, sweet potatoes and trifle when I got home. We even have Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce.

In knitting news, I have been working on the Cabled Three-Button Wrap, 1164 that I started oh so long ago and the Sedona cardigan I started last August. They are getting too big to take to work.

Stuff and Etc.

Since I haven't posted in a while, here are puppy pictures. I was trying to get a close up photo of Belvedere, who was not paying attention to me in the first photo, as carpenter bees were hovering around our heads.

Whut?

I started this sweater, Sedona, in Rowan Calmer yarn last August, according to Ravelry. Still plugging away when I feel like it. It is in a really boring stage for a few inches, but it is the last part, since the sleeves are done. The actual color is closer to denim.

I got this kit in the mail for the Freemans Alley mitts. This is for the Bright color. I already had the pattern, oh well. I had been looking at the kits ever since they became available. It is neat to have the small amounts of Koigu yarn.

Dude, look what I got at Big Lots. Yes, indeed, these are made in Vegas, baby. Mega Jackpot size. Love the chips on the label. DH says they are imported from a fun place to a really boring place.  I went in there to get DH some Kashi Go Lean protein bars and came out with the one box they had and lots of other snacks. I have seen them at Sams, hope they still have them there. 

I also went to Target with a handful of coupons, and still spent a lot. Like Big Lots, Target has stuff we can't find anywhere else. They did not have the Food Saver handheld vacuum thingie, for which I had both a manufacturers' coupon and a Target coupon, which would have theoretically made it free.

No more bargain k-cups at Kohl's though. I did not see any Nantucket iced coffee at all. Last time I went,  I found some for $3.59 a box.

 

Knit, Crochet, Plants, Etc.

One of the things is, the Granny Smith apple tree is blooming, later than the other apple trees.

I made a blueberry pound cake from a Cooking Light recipe from 1998. I remembered it all these years. I found some Chobani lemon yogurt and want to try it again.

It has been warm lately, and Belvedere comes in and lies on the cool floor, or near an A/C vent. Here he was tired from gallumping after the UPS truck.

The Bird of Paradise is budding. DH says we need to divide the plant into at least five. We got a truckload of potting soil yesterday. Wonder if he will need the machete?

I think the amaryllis missed the season. These are a some of a collection of Red Lion bulbs in a pot with the Norfolk Island pine, from Christmas presents and after-Xmas sales.

I dug up my fall-planted shallots in order to plant more seeds that are supposed to produce more shallots. We shall see.

I finished Sedona's sleeves to make sure I had enough yarn left for the body. Think I have two skeins left of the Rowan Calmer.

I started a market bag last year in crochet. The single crochet base hurt my hands, so I put it away for months, until I had the idea to pick up stitches around the base and knit the rest of the bag. The yarn is Sugar 'n' Cream.

We have tomato seedlings, plus six more at least this size in the Aerogarden. The short plants are peppers and basil. They are larger and in pots now.

Finally Finished

Well, I finished the Susie Rogers' Reading Mitts. These are made from Ultra Alpaca yarn. It is nice and fuzzy. Too bad it's a little too warm out to wear them now. The ends are even woven in, and the picot hems are done. The flowers are blooming, even the rosemary. Here is the link for the mitt blockers, although the website says they are sold out.

 

 

 A close look at the picots

 

 I could not resist this fabric from Erica's the other day when it was discussed on Plurk

 The "real" pear trees are all blooming, and they smell really strong with several in bloom, kinda similar to the smell of what DH calls the ersatz pears, AKA Bradford. The apples and peaches are blooming, but they are mostly past the photogenic stage.

pear

peach

 

 

Peach butter, Coca-cola, and honey BBQ sauce on a pork loin were my Crock-Pot adventure last weekend. Sorta kinda this recipe

 

 

It Was Spring Yesterday

Today it's cold and blustery. I just noticed that the Bradford pears and the plum trees and an apple tree were in bloom. Looks like white clouds. Of course, the Japanese magnolia is blooming.

 

 

The doggies are playing-this is Belvedere and Baron (Bo was next to me in the flowerbed)  in a moment when they weren't trying to chew on each other. Baron came from the shelter in the next county-he is Lab and Great Pyrenees. Baron was adopted, but did not get along with a 12-yr-old cat in the household. We have been feeding him, and Bo, satin balls to fatten them up a little.

 

 

I had been planning to make gumbo all week, but finally got it in the Crock-Pot today. (No chilies) It has sausage, chicken, shrimp and crab (fake). The okra kinda dissolved, so I might cook it for a shorter time next batch.

 

 

I got to the thumb gusset of the second of the Susie Rogers' Reading Mitts, then put them down to make Cable Curtain Tie Backs for the room-darkening curtains for my office. I also got some of the 3M Command hooks that will not damage the wall. The yarn is Sugar and Cream in Earth Ombre from stash I bought during a market bag phase. (I never finished one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Stuff

Yes, I am on a roll with blog post titles, right?

I sewed a coupon holder, but I think it is too big for my purse, sigh.

 

Here is my first mitt from Susie Rogers' Reading Mitt  pattern-finished with picot hems and all. The second one is at the thumb gusset. The yarn is Ultra Alpaca Lite

In other knitting news, I have new room darkening curtains in my office and need tiebacks. This is Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in Earth Ombre

 

 

A Little More Stuff

It was a cold and mostly gray day today, so Belvedere spent a lot of the day in his bed. There have been a few snowflakes. DH and I went to Target, Books-A-Million, and Martin's clothing store this morning and when we got home around midday and let Belv in, he went straight to bed.

I made Crock-Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup a week or so ago. It was good.

The Valentine's cactus have been blooming in my office. They haven't been blooming at Christmas, and I always forget to put them in darkness, so they bloom when they feel like it.

I went to Burke's Outlet in Jacksonville, AL,  to get a pair of jeans, and I found this top on 95% off clearance for 75 cents. It is a Gloria Vanderbilt cotton/rayon shirt.

I found some Meyer lemons at the grocery store. My tree has not produced its crop of one or two lately. Then I found a recipe in Weight Watchers Magazine for Meyer Lemon Chicken.  The recipe used two of them.

In knitting news, I have finished one of the Susie Rogers' Reading Mitts in the burgundy Ultra Alpaca yarn.

 

Some More Stuff

I went walking last week when it was cooler, and kept having to take my gloves off to mess with my smartphone in its armband, because the WBHM app kept crashing while I was trying to listen to All Things Considered on NPR. The reason I wore the gloves is because I have Raynaud's Syndrome, and it can be painful if my fingers get cold. Anyway, I researched sports gloves that work with touchscreens. I kept finding boring gray and black ones. (I have gray and black ones already, with fingers that are 2 or 3 inches too long.) I also kept finding colorful women's sports gloves at Zappo's. So when I went to the Zappo's site to reset my password, after their hacking incident, I ordered these Manzella gloves that have conductive fabric on the index fingers and thumbs. The fingers fit, too!

 

 After I ordered these, I discovered conductive thread, thanks to a post on Plurk. Then I discovered gloves with the conductve thread knit in, like this Knitty pattern. I now have this thread, and have ordered pink and turquoise too.

 

Then I had to open a Pinterest account to keep up with the links for conductive thread, etc., after my nephew's wife and great-niece both sent me invitations. That and recipes.

I made a New Year's resolution to exercise, so I started off with my new Leslie Sansone DVD, Walk Slim Five Big Miles. (I got it with a $3 off coupon.) So I did a different LS DVD for 5 days in a row, then walked outside on the weekend.  Now my doctor says I have tight hamstrings and irritated tendons behind my knees, sigh.

So I have been knitting on my Susie's Reading Mitts instead of exercising. These are knit in the Reynolds Ultra Alpaca Light that did not want to be boot cuffs.

 

 

Today, there is Chicken Enchilada Soup in the Crock-Pot. I now think I need a 5-quart Crock-Pot because I don't have a stainless steel one, or 5 qt.

 

New Years at Callaway Gardens

I spent the weekend at Callaway Gardens with 24 of my siblings, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. The "old people" were in one villa, and the rowdy people in another. We had Christmas again. I gave out 18 jars of preserves, jam, jelly, etc.

On Friday night, everybody went to the Fantasy in Lights display. We heard there were 8 million light bulbs. No, my pictures did not come out.  On Saturday, the old people went to the Day Butterfly Center, Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel, the Sibley Horticultural Center and Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden to see the Victory Garden and any gift shop along the way.

Those look like real antlers to me

Too bad my photo of my sister and sister-in-law straightening the bows did not turn out

It sounded as though there was a big waterfall behind the chapel, but it turned out to be a small one on big rocks.

Sugar Snap Peas

We still have the Sugar Daddy sugar snap peas on the patio in a container. They are covered at the moment, as we are having a brief cold snap.

They are not ripening as fast as they do in the spring, but the vines are full of baby pea pods and blossoms. They get moved around to catch the sun and are under a patio covered tonight because it is supposed to be in the teens.