Not so marvelous Saturday

So I spent the entire week looking forward to my weekend only to be kicked in the knees by the fact that my Mother spent the day babysitting here at the house. My Mother moved in with me 3 years ago, and I knew but was not prepared for the fact that this would go along with the territory! and I find it hard to deal. Please don't get me wrong I wish no little child ill will because I once was a little child and I gave birth and had a child and my nieces and my nephew where and are still children and I love my child and I love my nieces and nephew, and my cousin . How ever between the ages on 0-12 if I had a choice I would not spend more time than I need to with them. I am not a young child kind of girl and really could put off grandchildren for a very long time. So my Mother had to and as I am writing this is still babysitting my cousin her great-great niece who is 6, my niece who is 10 her granddaughter has finally gone home. I wonder when I will be allowed to become the hermit that I am. Well when I got up this morning I made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some olive oil to use while I tried to dry some of my romas tomatoes and for tomato sauce out of some roma tomatoes. I think they are the last of the tomatoes out of my garden. I forgot to take a before roasting picture of my tomatoes but I am posting and after roasting picture. It is nice to have friends on the Internet. The recipe I was looking for a blogging friend of mine sent it to me after reading one of my post. He blog at www.threemilesinmyshoes.blogspot.com . The recipe is from tom grey and his blog for some reason I could not find the post with the recipe. My possible swap partner dish cloth is going well I am on row 45 only 7 more row until bind off. I watched the funeral mass for Senator Ted Kennedy today it was great and then watched some of the last few minutes at his finally resting place. He was a great person. I wish I could have met him. I am posting a picture of the roasted tomatoes and the sauce I made today.

Swapping

My swap partner received her dish cloth today so I will post a picture. I have signed up for the September swap. I love swapping and the dish cloth swap is the best because I can afford to swap. If you are a member of Ravelry visit and join the dishcloths r us group. You can swap every month. I have a large stash of cotton yarn so full skeins and several partial balls left over from crocheting or knitting other cloths. I need to find a quick easy grocery bag and use all my scrap cotton yarn to make the bag. Today a friend of mine from working invited by to join her and her daughter and 2 ladies her daughter works with to a midweek girls night out next week. We are going to Flying Pig Food and Spirits. I am wishing my life away but I can't wait until next Wednesday. Another friend of mine told me that the pizza was great and a good price. I hope the sale margarita's I am not driving so I think am midweek week margarita will hit the spot. Recast a dishcloth tonight it might turn out to be the cloth I send to my September swap partner.

Last full week in August

This is the last full week in August and in our area both in the City of Asheboro and the County school started today. I still have one niece and a nephew in school and two nieces in college. Summer as almost come to an end summer coming to an end in North Carolina means nothing I am sure we will have hot day well into October. Only four months and 2009 will come to an end. I wonder if my year will end better than last year, I am not holding out much hope that it will end any better the last. I finished up last night and mail today my August dishcloth swap with the dishcloths ar us ravelry group. I will post a picture when my partner receives her cloth. I have lot of roma tomatoes and I need to find something to do with them. I had planned to dry them out in the oven but I can't find recipe I found online last week. So I have a cookbook I brought years ago when I was part of a cookbook book club. Smith & Hawken The Gardeners' Community Cookbook , compiled and written by Victoria Wise. I think I will look for a nice sauce for the romas that I have left in the garden. I might cast on a dishcloth for the September dishcloth swap. It so nice to go out in my backyard and clip off sprigs of rosemary when I need it to cook. We put a Boston butt in the oven on Sunday and I clipped a few sprigs of rosemary to add a little something while the roast cooked. This is Rosie the rosemary.

Summer Flower's

Summer is slowly and hotly winding down. I still have a lot of Roma tomatoes in the garden and both my green and Japanese eggplants and Cheyenne peppers are still producing. I can't make it out to my fig tree's before the bird's and bee's. I guess with the fig's I need to check everyday. Lionbrand podcast was out today and I listened while working on the dish cloth I need to send to my swap partner at dish cloths r us group at Ravelry. Just to relax my plan is to read a few more pages of The Beach Street Knitting Society And Yarn Club, by Gil McNeil. It must be a wonderful and awesome thing to be creative and able to write a book. It seems to me it would be very exciting and satisfying I wish I had this gift. I have no gifts and therefore I spend most of my time at this that are draining and and unsatisfying they add nothing to my life. Reading, knitting, and crochet add to my life time with my family and close friends. Maybe one day I can add to that list. Happy crafting. I need to win the lottery. I need to buy ticket's so that I have a chance to win the lottery.

Lovely weekend.

I love Roma tomatoes! They are great for sauces and wonderful in a salad. I have a lot of them this year in my garden. Next year I will put a few in large container's and see how well the produce. I think I am to lazy for another full out in the ground garden. It is to much work if you have to work 40 hrs per week. When I get home from work I am to tired and depressed to go out and work in the garden and by the time it cools off enough to work in the garden it is almost time to go to bed. A container garden will be easier to maintain. I had to recast they dishcloth for my swap partner over on Ravelry. It is a good thing that we have until the 24th to get our cloths in the mail. I had the day off on Friday spent most of the day trying to clean my bedroom and made great progress. Then went to Books-A-Million and picked up my copy of The Beach Street Knitting Society And Yarn Club, by Gil McNeil first published in Great Britain as Divas Don't Knit in 2007, so far a good read and a very pretty cover. I am watching Merlin and I am ready for True Blood later tonight. The picture I have posted is of the Roma tomatoes in my garden. I have more ready to take off the vine. I hope to slow roast a few in the oven this year to freeze. So that this winter I can use them to make sauce or soup.

August Dishcloth Swap

I had a long day at work today but it was all good because when I checked the mail box today after I arrived home from work I had a package from my August swap partner at Dishcloths ar us on Ravelry. I received a beautiful dishcloth and postcards and a bar of soap. It is so wonderful to receive something besides a bill in the mail. I am still working the dishcloth I plan to send my partner. I love my Slow Cooker! have everything laid out to put in the crock pot tomorrow. I have country-style spareribs the only ingredient I am missing is celery seed. So I think I can to with out it and move on since I have all the other ingredients. This is the second time this week I will use my Slow Cooker. Sometimes I forget how helpful a slow Cooker can be if you work.The recipe I used is from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook Feasting with your Slow Cooker, by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good. The picture I am posting is of the things I received in the mail from my swap partner.

How does my garden grow!

I am a bad blogger. It is August 11th and this is the first post of the month. It is hot here in North Carolina mid 90's so the heat is on. We did get some rain today. I have cast on for the August dishcloth swap for my swap partner over at Ravelry Dishcloths ar us group. I am reading Dropped Dead Stitch, by Maggie Sefton. My mother picked some great looking tomatoes out of the garden today and okra, cucumber's. The picture I am posting are tomatoes from my garden. I think they are German Johnson's.

Dish Cloth Swap part II

My partner in the July dish cloth swap from the dish cloths r us group over on Ravelry received her dishcloths so that mean I can post pictures of the dish cloths I mailed to my partner. I enjoyed the swap with this group and I have signed up for the August swap. I have not spent any time knitting this week. I have an idea of what I want to do for the August swap. I am very please with the fact that tomorrow is Friday and payday! I will have money for a few minutes. Posting a picture of what I sent to my July swap partner.

Dish cloth swap

I received 2 beautiful dish cloths from my swap partner over at ravelry. I participated in the July dishcloth swap in the dishcloth r us group. I have already signed up for the August swap. I love bright colors and Smilingdolphin sent 2 very pretty and bright dishlcoths 1 knit and 1 crochet. I have not heard weather or not the person I mailed to has received her package or not, I hope so it was mailed on Friday. I am posting a picture of the dishcloths I received. It is very nice to come and have something other than bills in the mail. This is just a quick post no time for reading or knitting this weekend I helped my daughter move into her first apartment. I will tell you about that later.

Checking in on Humday.

Well its hum day and the weekend is on the horizon! I had a not to bad Sunday my daughter and I and her friend my second daughter went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I enjoyed the movie but I feel somethings that really needed to be in the movie did not make it to the movie. I would have loved to have Dumbledore come to get Harry at the Dursley's it was one of my favorite parts of the book. There was no Dobby or Kreacher and they are very important to the book to me, nothing about Bill and Fleur's engagement no funeral for Dumbledore. How will they tie all this together in the last movies. Monday was not so good long day at work due to a very important system on the computer not working all day. Tuesday not so bad at work and after work one of my dear friends picked me up at work and we went to David's a new restaurant in Asheboro. It looked great on the outside and inside and has a large variety of food. We both had Steaks and my ribeye was great, so was the steamed vegetables and french fries. It was a nice relaxing evening. Tonight I listened to the President talk about heath care reform and then the Lionbrand podcast and weaved the end to the dishcloth I plan to send to my swap partner on Friday. When my swap partner receives her package I will post a picture. I cut 2 eggplant of my Japanese eggplant and 1 from the green. We had some rain today but I think the long dry spell we and in late June early July did my squash and zucchini in and they are dying. I need to pull the squash and zucchini up and maybe plant the butternut squash I brought last weekend. I am posting another picture of my Japanese eggplant. It is amazing what you get from a tiny purple bloom.

A Wonderful Sunny Day

I did almost nothing today. I did spend sometime staking my tomato's. A few of my tomato cages needed a few stakes added and so did the tomatillo's. So I staked the tomato's and tomatillo's. I did not knit or crochet today . Spent sometime reading the second book in The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society series, by Beth Pattillo. I am posting a picture of the tomato's in my garden. My daughter will be her tomorrow and we are going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Summer Garden

Well we had very good rain yesterday, and like always just when I was about to step out of the door it started to pour. When I got home from work the garden looked much better the rain really helped. Today we put a off brand of Miracle Grow. We have a lot of tomato's on the vine and my Tomatillo's are coming along I need to stake them. I will post a picture. Something happened with the dishcloth I was working on somewhere along the way I lost 3 stitches I had 35 and now only 32. So I have a backup dishcloth to send to my swap partner. I plan to mail off this weekend.

Monday Eve

Quick post to say I am still working on the Dishcloths r us July swap. I spent the day watching t.v. and knitting. I spent time on Ravelry and Crochetville. Work tomorrow and I am ready for Friday already. Great new episode of Trueblood to night. It rained for half a minute around 11:30 and I hope it will start again and continue my garden looks pretty sad. I water yesterday but you just can't substitute for nature by watering your self. I hope the book I ordered will come in by Wednesday I need a good read. I am the proud grower of a great Rosemary bush posting a picture. I had to cut some branches off and tie it up hoping to get the bush to grow up instead of around.

Oh how sweet it is...

Oh how sweet it is because it is the weekend baby! So it is late on Friday night and I don't have to get up and go to work tomorrow. I am almost finished with one of the dish cloths that I plan to send to my swap partner on Ravelry, with the dishcloth r us group, all I have left to do is weave the ends and take a picture so that after my partner has received I can add it to my projects on Ravelry and post a picture on Ravelry and here. I plan to cast on another dishcloth this weekend so that I can send more than one cloth to my partner. You know it is very relaxing to listen to a past lionbrand podcast and blog. I am posting a picture of the eggplant from my garden and I must say what a difference a few days make. On a previous post I have a picture on this eggplant I wish I could get more than one at a time. I think by the end on next week this could happen a few more blooms are on the plant. You can't make a Moussaka with one Japanese eggplant. The are long and slender not like the large eggplant that most of us are use to seeing in the store.

Friday Eve

Well I have made it to Thursday only one more day to make it through and my weekend will start. I am working on a dishcloth for my swap partner over at Ravelry, so far so good. I can't give the details because I have to wait until after the swap. It is a great looking pattern. We have in this part of NC hit a dry spell and we are only getting what seems like a few drops of rain. We need a nice steady slow shower. If we don't get rain by tomorrow I will need to water the garden. Well not much to report tonight. I just wanted to check in for a few minutes. Flower from my yard.

Tuesday Ramble

Well my lovely long weekend ended today when I had to get up and go to work. I wish I had asked for the day off so that I could have watched the Memorial service for Michael Jackson. I should have went to lunch at 1:00 instead of 12:00 today so I could have watched more than just the family traveling to the public memorial service. I must admit to the fact that I cried this evening when I watched the replay of Michael's daughter talk about her daddy and how wonderful he was as a father. I hope someone will air the memorial service all the way through again this weekend. Even though I had a nice long weekend I did not spend that much time knitting. I did finish my sock and as I stated in a previous post I cast on for the second sock. I joined a swap on Ravelry. A dishcloth swap with dishcloth ar us group that I joined sometime ago. I already have several finished dishcloths I can select from to send my swap partner but just in case I don't want to send a dishcloth that I already have done I cast on tonight and I am on row 7. This weekend on the family channel they are airing all the Harry Potter movies. I knew someone would so everyone could prepare for the latest Harry Potter that premiere's on next Wednesday. Since the movie premiere come in the middle of the week I try to get tickets on Friday for Saturday the matinee. Yesterday of course we put chicken on the grill and I made a squash casserole, my first and with the squash from my garden. The picture I am posting is of a squash that made it into the casserole. I have lots of little green tomato's trying to grow on the vine so happy.

Another Great Weekend.

Well my 4th saw great. Spent the day with most of my family. My Mother, Aunt, Cousins and Daughter and her Boyfriend and her friend Gin. We had a cookout the food was great my Daughter made Shrimp and Chicken Kabobs. I got the recipe from WFMY News 2 website in 2006. The kabobs turned out really well. Besides the Kabobs had hamburgers,hot dogs, ribs, and chicken, salad, slaw, macaroni and cheese, an peach cobbler. We had some family members that did not get to come so food was left over. So that means no cooking today. I finished up one sock and cast on for the second. I tried the sock on and it is a little big but it fits okay and it feels good. I forgot to take my camera so no pictures. I think I will need to take a class on circular needles, yes I know I have used double pointed for the sock but for some reason I could not get it on Thursday when I cast on and tried to start a blanket. The blanket was just straight knitting not in the round maybe I cast my stitches on to tight. My plan is to work on the hat I cast on last week and maybe try to cast on the blanket again. Garden talk things are moving along in the garden so far we have had some cucumbers and squash no zucchini yet but the eggplant has started to grow and the tomato's are in bloom. The picture is of the eggplant in the garden.

Seventh Month

It is already the seventh month of the year. I find it hard to believe. Time and the month's pass by so quickly when you have all those things to worry about examples the mortgage, electric, and the natural gas. I am listening to an old YarnCraft podcast while I post because there is nothing on t.v at this time. I plan to add a few more rows to the shaping of my sock. I had planned to start my 4th of July holiday weekend by not working tomorrow our office is closed on Friday, but I did not get my case processed through Monday today. So I will go to work tomorrow and leave at 12:00. I will have to push I only have a few to get done but it get hard when computer systems you depend on to aid you in the process of these cases are down and not working. Oh well such is life! Well happy crafting! I am posting a picture of a fig that is currently growing on one of the fig tree's in my backyard. I love fig's and this year I plan to cook with my figs. In the past my Mother has made preserves and we eat a few if we can get to the figs before the bees. I have notice on Foodnetwork and other places recipes for savory dishes, and fig tart lets. So if I manage this I will tell you. The fig is a strange tree you get fruit but no blooms. The leaves fall off every year in the fall and then in the spring one day the leaves sprout out and then one day out of no where the fig's start to grow. I find it strange because tomato's, squash, okra they all have blooms. People consider tomato's a vegetable but they are really a fruit. Peach trees bloom have a flower but not the fig. Okay I am finished with my ramble.

Shaping the toe

Well while listening to the Yarncraft podcast from Lionbrand tonight I finally started shaping the toe of my almost finished sock. So far so good. I will work on it again tomorrow night. I broke down and cast on a new project last night nothing big, just a hat I got the pattern I think last year in an offer to subscribe to to Vogue Knitting Magazine. You use on skein of Noro/KFI Kureyon. I have a skein on Noro I am not sure what kind I think it is silk garden. I lost the wrapper. The pattern is a simple rip stitch pattern. Just managed the cast on. I plan to cast on a baby afghan tomorrow. It is a free pattern from Lionbrand. I was trying so hard not to start a new project before I finished my socks. Oh well!. Its the last day in June and I hope tomorrow will be my last day of work until next Tuesday. The office is closed on Friday for the 4th and I asked for Thursday and next Monday off. I am trying very hard to get several cases done through Monday so that I can have the two extra days off. I plan to finish and this time I mean finish my sock and cast on and work as many rows and I can of the second sock in the pair over this long holiday weekend. My mother found the first cucumber of the season and I think by the end on the week we will have enough squash for a casserole. The squash casserole maybe a strictly southern thing I am not sure.

Saturday

Well here I am on a Saturday with 18 to 20 somethings in my living room listening to music and playing cards. So I think I have a long night ahead. It is my daughter's friend's and her cousin's. To me this was a long and sad week The death's of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett was very sad. Michael was a very talented singer and Farrah a great actress. I feel both to young to die. I am still reading Death by Cashmere and working on my sock . I have not spent time knitting since Wednesday but I plan to pick up my knitting tomorrow and shape the toe on my sock. I am trying very hard not to start any new projects before I finish the socks but it is very hard. I have the yarn and the circular needles for the baby afghan in the Leisure Arts pattern book The Shop on Blossom Street from the Debbie Macomber book. I want to cast on the baby block afghan. Since I spent some time last Sunday crocheting I want to finish an afghan I started I think in 2006 also. I really need to be strong. No new projects until my socks are done. Happy crafting.