St. Patrick's Day!

Great day today. Got up this morning and made a trip to Costco. I love Costco. It was a stocking day. Had to get Tide,Downy, and dish detergent. Also two 18 pound bags of charcoal. It was our first visit since January. So far no crochet or knitting but I did pay a visit to A C Moore picked up two balls of Berant baby sport yarn, it was on sale and a set of 10.5 29" circular knitting needle's. Still reading In the Company of My Sistahs, by Angie Daniels. In honor of St. Patrick's Day we cooked Corned Beef ,Cabbage, and green potatoes. Found the recipe for the green potatoes on YouTube. My Sister and two of her daughter's and son came over to eat. My nephew did not like the green potatoes but everyone else did. We had a great time. Happy St. Patrick's Day and happy crafting.

Quick Midweek Post

It is Wednesday and hump day two days until the weekend. Last night I went to my third night of Zumba it is not my thing. One I can't dance and just can't seem to catch onto the steps. The only good thing I can say is at least my heart rate was up and I was moving. I hate exercise! I really wish it was not necessary. The class did not start until 6:30 so to make sure I went to the class and not home. I sat in my car and reading a book until time for the class to start. The latest read In the Company of My Sistahs, by Angie Daniels. I really need to get started on my Charles Dickens it is his birthday. I have Hard Times on my Kindle and A Tale of Two Cities in paperback. Spent sometime at lunch yesterday working a Beth's Little Star afghan. My friend Anglea's afghan is coming along, on Monday I got to see how much she had done since Saturday. It looked great. I need to check in with her tomorrow. No Crochet so far today. It has been almost two weeks since I have spent anytime knitting.

Happy Friday

Friday is the best day of the week. I love and live for Friday. Love Friday because it leads into the weekend. This means any time tomorrow if the phone rings I don't have to answer, there is no need for me to smile or do things that I don't want to do. My crochet projects are going well and I have a good start on another Beth's Little Star Afghan. The yarn is from Red Heart I think it has been discontinued it is TLC baby color Giggle. I love the colors and hate the fact that you can't find the color anymore. I brought 4 skeins years ago when Hobby Lobby had it on sale. Happy National Crochet Month

Working On My National Crochet Month Goals!

Seven day in to National Crochet Month. So far things are going great. A huge difference from last year. So far I have on complete Beth's Little Star Afghan, and three starter afghans. Six Hot Hats and two that I need to weave the ends and add the drawstring bow. This is very exciting ! If I keep going at this rate it is a possibility for me to surpass last years crochet projects in just one month. Finished reading A Meeting in the Ladies' Room, by Anita Doreen Diggs. Started reading In the Company of My Sistahs, by Angie Daniels this is my the first time reading a book from this author. Signed up to do two nights of Zumba starting this week and lasting until April 7 . This week I attended on Monday and Tuesday. It was tough but a great way to get your heart rate up. I can't dance and very uncoordinated so I had a hard time keeping up with the steps. So far so good on the no Pepsi or Coke for Lent. Crochet on because it is National Crochet Month, start a new project or pull out a UFO to finish.

Pretending I Can Cook

Today was my day to pretend I can cook or at least follow a recipe. Olive Garden is one of my favorite restaurants. The never-ending soup and salad happens to be my favorite item to order on the menu. My favorite soup Zuppa Tuscana. So today I tried to re-create the soup. A friend from work gave me a recipe so I used that and a recipe from youtube. I feel like the soup turned out pretty good. Spent the weekend crocheting hot hats and reading. Watching Desperate House Wives, and blogging. Once again March is National Crochet month, so take some time to crochet.

Happy weekend!

Oh my I am so glad it is Friday! Happy for the weekend. I have just finished 2 Hot Hats since I came home from work. In honor of National Crochet Month my goal is to crochet as much as I possibly can. So I started off with Hot Hats and plan to crochet a few potholders. The Hot Hat are so easy and quick. We are in for a chilly and rainy weekend. If is was up to me I would not go out of the house. Tomorrow I will go out because I my friend as a going away birthday party for her son. He leaves on Monday for basic training he joined the Army. I am looking forward to the party but I hate getting out in the rain. After the party I will need to make a trip to the grocery store. I want to recreate the Zuppa Tuscan soup at Olive Garden I have a recipe from a friend at work, I am not sure if I will use that recipe or one from Youtube. I will update you on Sunday night about the soup. Still reading A Meeting in the Ladies' Room, by Anita Doreen Diggs it is a great read. Happy National Crochet Month.

National Crochet Month

March is National Crochet Month. So in honor of National Crochet Month my plan is to crochet as much as I possible can during the month. Tonight I started and finished a Hot Hat. I you love instant gratification crochet a few Hot Hats! You can find the pattern on Ravelry.com . Reading A Meeting in the Ladies' Room, Anita Doreen Diggs. Last Night I finished the Beth's Little Star Afghan. So happy with the way it turned out. Watching American Idol. Its Friday Eve and I am looking forward to the weekend.

Leap Day

It's Leap Day!, I hope everybody had a great Leap Day. My day was filled with lots of hard work. Now I am at home watching American Idol and adding the last round to the Beth's Little Star Afghan I started a few weeks ago. Reading A Meeting in the Ladies Room, Anita Doreen Diggs great read so far. Last night I downloaded Hard Times, Charles Dickens onto my Kindle. The group I belong to on Ravelry The Charles Dickens Group started a read along in honor of Dickens bicentenary. I did not start the first book and will have to go back the and read the first book A Tale of Two Cities. It was so cool to download Hard Times on my Kindle only .99 cents.

Gray and Soggy Monday

No snow or sleet this weekend. Unlike last Sunday it was dry mild weather. Today it was gray cloudy and rainy. Tomorrow promises to be sunny and warm. My plan for last weekend was to meet my friend from work so that I could help her with the baby afghan she's planning to crochet for a friend. I received a call from her on Saturday morning and she could not make it to the library so now we have to reschedule. Our library does not open on Sunday and I am not sure most of the restaurants around here would be happy about two crocheters hanging out most of the afternoon never spotted any crochet or knitting in the mall or restaurants in Asheboro. I know Asheboro has knitter's and crocheter's but I think most are in the closet. Finished reading The Choice, Suzanne Woods Fisher it is base on the life of the Amish. It is part one of the Lancaster County Secrets Series. Great read. Part to and three are out and books a million has both. Pay day on Wednesday so I will pick up part to on Wednesday. Current read A Meeting in the Ladies' Room, Anita Doreen Diggs just started during my afternoon break at work so only on page 3. My first knitted afghan off the needles and now all I need to do is weave the end's. Still working the Beth Little Start crochet afghan. Already added a round since I got home from work.

My Sunday Afternoon

The day started out cold and rainy. My Daughter planned for us to go out to eat to celebrate my birthday which was on the 16th since that is a day through the work week I did not want to go on my birthday. What I did not know to start with was she had invited almost 14 other people! 3 of my very good friends. My Aunts and a few Cousins. We went to Olive Garden. I love Olive Garden. I had the soup and salad. My Cousin Nicole Jones made and decorated a cake for me it was beautiful. She has started a business making cakes, and cookies. She make cakes for birthday's, weddings, and all sort's of event's . The cakes are homemade not from a box. The time spent with family and Friends was great. I am still working on both the knit and crochet baby afghan's. Still reading A Plain & Fancy Christmas, by Cynthia Keller. We had a little snow today so my ride home from Greensboro was a little rough and slow, slide just a Little but it was not bad no damage to me or the car. It took me an over an hour for me to get home normally it's only 30 minutes. What can I say it's North Carolina and it's snow.

Going On To The Next Round

My work on the Beth's Little Star Afghan I started continues to progress. Almost finished with round 16!. The afghan looks great. Added a row to the knitted afghan, watched American Idol. My plan is to spend sometime reading tonight. It is hump day and I am on the downward slide to the weekend.

My First Knit Afghan

Last night I started my first Knit afghan. Over the weekend I brought 5 skeins of Bernat Baby Blanket in Pitter Patter. A very pretty color. It is a chunky soft yarn . Friday night I tried the Beth's Little Star and did not like the way it looked, then tried The Crazy Stitch did not like that either. So last night on Ravelry I did a search and found a few projects using the Bernat Baby Blanket. The project that stood out for me was the diagonal blanket you can find the pattern on plymouthyarn.com it is a free pattern number F 138. You have to use circular needles. Even though I learned to knit in 2007 I have never used circular needles to knit straight or in the round. I have used double pointed needles. So after reading the pattern and what you needed to get started, so I went in search of size 15 24" or larger circular needles. Found them in my bedroom. Took a deep breath and cast on. Went to youtube to find a video to make sure I was going in the right direction. I feel like I am off to a good start. Added two rounds to the Beth's Little Star Afghan. My friend Angela called me tonight to help her with her Beth's Little Star Afghan. Tomorrow at work I will help her and make sure she is off to a good start. The Afghan is knit like a Grandmother Favorite Dishcloth you cast on four and knit two rows after that you knit 2 yarn over and knit to the end of the row. You repeat this row until you have 62 stitches on the needle. Over 40 rows end and so far so good. Getting ready to go to bed an read. Happy Crafting.

Great Day for Reading and Crochet

Spent the day reading and crocheting. Picked up a book at the library yesterday, and started reading last night. The book is A Plain & Fancy Christmas, by Cynthia Keller. I Know a Christmas theme book well what can I say it appealed to me. So far I am enjoying the read it is about the Amish and I love books involving the Amish. Working row 10 on the variegated Beth's Little Star Afghan. Marvelously long week ahead of me and I am trying to prepare. All crafty people craft on!

Cold and Windy Saturday

Well today has been a cold windy day. Also a shocking day just found out not long ago Whitney Huston died she was only 48. She was a tremendous singer and I feel so bad for her family, especially her Daughter. My day started with me getting up and putting to bags of can goods on my front door step , every year the boy scouts leave bags and come back a week later to pick up donations. Did not have a much to give this year and I really feel bad about giving less this year. The for next year is to be better prepared. Went to the library to meet my friend from work she wants to crochet a baby afghan for one of her friends. So I told her I would help her get started on an afghan. We tried some chucky yarn first and a different pattern than what I thought she was going to use. This did not work out well so we went to a pattern I felt it would be easier for a beginner. We used Beth's Little Star Afghan. I am not sure the website is still up for this pattern, but I think you might be able to find on Ravelry. To me this pattern seems easy and you repeat the same stitch's over and over again. In order to prepare on Friday night I practiced getting started and the first few rounds of the afghan. Then I started one today at the same time she did so she could see how to get started read and work the pattern. So now I have 3 Beth's Little Star Afghan started the plan is to finish all three no need to rip them out. Last night finished reading Behind the Seams, by Betty Hechtman. Great book loved the ending. Can't wait for the next in the series.

Quite Sunday

Spent most of the day in bed watching Say Yes To The Dress on TLC great show I love it. I am watching Dateline on ID love the show. I enjoy watching all the shows about murder and other mysteries. After finally getting out of bed sorted my laundry let the cats in and started watching tv. Finished a Red Hot Hat, so far so good on the use up all my cotton scarps and cotton before buying anymore. While searching for all the cotton yarn I found a lot of I love This Cotton! from Hobby Lobby. It is a great cotton for baby washcloths. It is a very soft cotton. Well I have loads more than I realize once I gathered it all together. When I get around to cleaning out my closet something tells me more cotton yarn will be found. Another goal for the year is to get all the stash yarn organized and use as much of it as possible. Next weekend is the annual sheep shearing at Rising Meadow it is free and open to the public, they will have yarn, lamb meat, and roving on sale. You get to see a sheep shearing in person and help if you want. Would love to attend but not sure due to fiances. The yarn sold at Rising Meadow is beautiful, it is always a temptation. The lamb is great and I hate it when I can't buy a leg of lamb. I have some lamb bones and meat that I need to cook. Just not sure what to do with the meat and bones. Maybe lamb stock with the bones and then maybe soup or lamb stew. Posting a picture of Hermes, don't let the sweet look fool you. I have a very hard time keeping off the counter's.

Potholder's

Crocheting potholder's for my Daughter. Using stash and scrap cotton yarn. Still Reading Behind the Seams by Betty Hechtman. Great book and I love all the Tarzana Hookers. Quite Saturday got up went to Greensboro Public Library to return over due books and books on cd. Then made my way to the grocery store and back home. Killed time watching tv and on the internet. I am watching 48 Hours a Mystery. A rainy day but not to cold. This has been a very mild winter in North Carolina. So far no snow or freezing rain. Very happy about this because this means my heat does not come as much. I love snow and watching it snow but still happy about the mild winter. The time I have spent alone has been wonderful. I used a pattern from ASE Knits 'n' Crochets http://asenc.blogspot.com/ Sunflower Potholder/Hotpad . Posting a picture of my version of this potholder added a lot more petals to the potholder.

Cotton Yarn Stash

This weekend I spent time going through my Cotton yarn stash. When you spend a lot of time knitting dish cloths you have a lot of left over yarn. This weekend I spent a lot of time rolling left over yarn into balls. My goal for this year is to not buy any cotton yarn. I think some of my left over yarn can be used to crochet Hot Hats and potholders. Another plan is to knit or crochet grocery bags. Still reading Behind the Seams, by Betty Hechtman. So far a very good read and I am sure I will enjoy it to the very end. So far no knitting, crochet, or reading today. My Daughter was here yesterday for a visit. She wanted to try cooking Chicken Marsala. She loves the Chicken Marsala at Olive Garden. So she brought half the ingredients and we brought half. She found the recipe online. You need to give yourself a lot of preparation time. Chopping and slicing. My Daughter was not pleased with the final product. She did not like the sauce. She felt like the dish had to much Marsala wine. So I told her maybe she should consider reducing the amount of wine. I liked the sauce myself. I hope she will give the recipe another try or find another recipe. Really enjoyed the time spent in the kitchen with my daughter and our time spent together. I crocheted two potholders for my Daughter and forgot to take pictures of the potholders. I have another potholder almost finished. Plan to start another tonight. The potholder are for my Daughter. After the potholders the plan is to crochet as many Hot Hats as I can out of my cotton yarn stash as I can. Yarn stash picture to follow. Happy crafting.

Back to Crochet

Another calm quite weekend alone has come to a close. My Mother is back from visiting her Sister and her Mother, my Niece is here so she can have someone to watch American Idol with. That's me I love American Idol. So far it has been okay I think they need to show a few more of the bad and the crazy people. That part had a lot of entertainment value to me. I finished reading The Wedding Shawl by Sally Goldenbaum. I enjoyed The Wedding Shawl it had a great ending and I was shocked and would have never been able to guess the killer. I started reading Behind the Seams by Betty Hechtman. I am 36 pages into the book and I have missed all the characters. The description of the clothes Adele wears is wonderful. If you are not familiar with with this series of books, they are crochet mysteries, and you should start with the first in the series. Hooked On Murder. If you love a great cozy mystery you will enjoy this series. I enjoy the cozy murder mysteries because I am not a CSI person. I don't want all the gory details. I ripped out my knitting project it was a heart dish cloth what else that is all I seem to knit. Started and finished a crochet project. I crocheted a Hot Hat it is basically a pot holder for pot tops. The Hot Hats are very easy to crochet and can be worked up very quickly and easily. The only problem for me was adding the little tie. The pattern states add the tie on the 5th round, I did not mark my 5th round and I am not sure I weaved the tie in the correct round. It still turned out well and on the next Hat I plan to use a stitch marker to the 5th round. I found out about Hot Hats when I participated in a dishcloth swap a few years ago, the person I swapped with sent two Hot Hats one large and one small she also sent me a copy of the pattern. You can find the pattern on Ravelry. It is from the February 2006 issue of Crochet World. The pattern is for a large and a small Hot Hat. I am trying to prepare myself for my work week ahead. I am already counting down until the weekend. It is so hard to fit everything you want to do in a day. I want to get started on another Hot Hat, and read. Adding a picture of the Hot Hat

So we cooked a standing rib roast

Today my Mother and I cooked a standing rib roast. We put a rub on the roast we got from The Chew. When I watched the episode I did not realize you needed to put the rub on and leave it for at least 12 hours, then cook the roast. So I did the rub today and let it stay on the roast for around 30 minutes. We cooked the roast for 1 1/2 hours and I think maybe we could have cooked it for and hour and forty five minutes. I tried a new rice Lundberg Wild Blend A Gourmet blend of wild & whole grain brown rice. One the package it states to cook for 50 minutes then turn off remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes. I think I should have cooked for another 10 to 15 minutes. I plan to give this another try also. The butternut squash was great and I have another one to cook. The roast was still very good. We also cooked watercress and bok choy. So a great try new recipes day. So far no knitting and very little reading. I am watching All American Muslin it is the season finale, I love the show. Desperate House Wives was great and I recorded Oprah's Next Chapter. So I am off to prepare for a long hard week, but I am ready for the challenge.

It's Saturday Night

Why does the weekend pass by so fast. It is Saturday night and starting to rain. The day has not been half bad. My Mother and I got up and went to Greensboro we met my Daughter at A C Moore looked around did some shopping I brought a holiday knit dishcloths pattern book, it is from Leisure Arts, 11 projects by Katherine Satterfield. My Daughter and Mother brought Christmas Decoration. Then it was off to Super G Mart and international grocery store. It was wonderful. I found the dried mushrooms. The Super G Mart in Greensboro can be found at 4927 W. Market St. Greensboro, NC 27407. I paid a visit this store because I could not find dried mushrooms and any of my local and not local grocery stores. What brought this search on was the fact that my Mother brought a standing rib roast and I watched an episode of The Chew, on this episode the cook a standing prime rib. They used the dried mushrooms to coat the outside of the roast. It looked great and I thought it would be a good idea for the standing rib roast. I don't think it is to much difference between the standing rib and standing prime rib. Dried mushrooms purchased it was off to Olive Garden for lunch. It was a great lunch. After lunch off to Macy's to return two recalled Martha Stewart cast iron pots. I am back at home knitting a dishcloth and of course posting to my blog. I will do a little reading later on tonight.