Friday, October 31, 2014

...Eagle Scout Project Prep...

...we went to the Church last night to gather the rest of the Backpacks for the Homeless that Scout was collecting for his Eagle Scout Project...
...we had bins in the Narthex...
...and several bags had collected in the Man's office...
...so Scout gathered them all up...
...and loaded them into the car...
...which was crammed full of Backpacks...it's been a great project so far...and Scout is very thankful for all of the filled backpacks...

...he'll meet with his Troop to do the final check and assembly of all the packs...and deliver them to the homeless shelter...so there will be another Eagle Scout post soon...

~Have a lovely day!

...punkin carvin'...

...well...we finally got around to carving our pumpkin last night...
...Scout made quick work of it too...
...we tried it out in the laundry room...we won't leave it outside overnight...after what happened last year...

...but the day after Halloween we'll leave it for the deer...we spoil them so you know...(wink)
...he looks kind of gruesomely friendly out there to greet the Trick-or-Treaters...don't you think?

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

...a little bit of stenciling...

...one of Scout's friends is having a birthday...
...and we always like to have a little bit of something to tuck the iTunes card into...seriously...that is the go-to gift for teens isn't it?...

...so we got this journal sized notebook...
...and used a little bit of nail polish remover to remove the writing on the front...(nail polish remover is handy for so many paint related crafty things...so even though I never 'do' my nails...we keep some around)...
...then we printed a capital M in Times Roman font and cut it out using an exacto knife...we just used regular printer paper...but card stock would probably be better...especially if you're a beginner to stenciling...if you're using thin paper just be sure to make sure there's very little paint on your spouncer...
...and start spouncing away...don't expect full coverage the first time...just spounce lightly and let it dry...
...then repeat...we did three spouncings...(word)...
...my favorite part of any stenciling craft...when you lift the stencil and see the perfect little image beneath...
...now we'll tuck in the gift card and add a birthday card...

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...my neighbor's baby blanket...progress so far...2 stripes...

...I'm thinking I'll omit the peach stripe that I'd sort of planned on...and go directly to pink and make a smaller blanket...mainly because I just wanted a receiving blanket size...and if I add the peach stripe it'll be more of a crib sized blanket...and then there was a problem finding the right shade of light peach...they were all a bit to melon-y for my taste and to go with the yellow and pink I thought it needed to be a really soft light peach...which I couldn't find...

...and if I get the pink stripe done by next Wednesday...I'll have plenty of time to make a little Super Simple One Hour Baby Hat...that just takes an hour anyway...I could theoretically do it the morning of the shower...

...so basically the pattern is:

Seed Stitch Border Baby Blanket

Cast on 117 stitches.

Work in Seed Stitch (K1 P1) across for 12 rows.

Then for the Stockinette Stitch Center:

Row 1: Seed Stitch (K1 P1) - 8 stitches - Knit 101 stitches - Seed Stitch (P1, K1) 8 stitches.

Row 2: Seed Stitch (K1, P1) - 8 stitches - Purl 101 stitches - Seed Stitch (P1, K1) 8 stitches.

First colour change Cream to Yellow at Row 64 - (52 rows Stockinette Stitch).

Then Continuing in pattern Change to pink at Row 128 - (64 rows Yellow).

Work 52 rows in pattern of Pink.

then work 12 rows of Seed Stitch in Pink.

...This pattern is so simple...I can imagine it in all sorts of colour combinations...and I can knit it in the car or the theatre...when watching TV too...(just ignore the fact that I managed to drop a stitch before...haha)...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

...From my back deck...(and on my back deck)...

...first...the gorgeous fall view from my back deck...the colour and the leaves are both waning now...but still pretty...
...second...I got a lot more of the railing painted...it's been warm and clear...gorgeous actually...
...and third...I had company while I was painting...Jack loves the back deck...
...nose in the air to get all the smells...

~Wishing you a lovely fall day!

Monday, October 27, 2014

...Great Niece's Baby Blanket...

...the Baby Shower was over the weekend...so it's probably safe to show you the blankie...
...of course I'm geeky enough to make a pattern before I start...
...then I started knitting...and checked my gauge...it's pretty important that the squares be...well...square...not always that easy to do in stockinette stitch where the horizontal stitches per inch are almost always different from the vertical rows per inch...
...so...I mapped that out too...and made a little chart for when to pick up the stitches along the side...so that they'd be even...
...finished the first square...the rubber band wrapped needle is to keep the stitches from sliding off...
...then picked up the stitches along the side...following the chart above...
...and knit that square from there...
...then...leaving those stitches live...I'll pick them up as I knit the next square...
...I cast on the next colour and started knitting...
...picking up stitches along the cream side per the chart...not exactly every row...
...then I just continued adding squares the same way...it's basically the same way I made the NC State Afghan...and the Appalachian State Afghans too...
...and in no time all the little squares were done...
...for the simple knit border...I just picked up stitches around the edge...
...and knit in garter stitch along each side...increasing one stitch at each row end to make the diagonal for the corner...
...and did that for each side...and the blanket was complete...
...time to wrap it up and send it to Mom for delivery to the shower...
...and since I didn't want the bows to get all squashed in transit...I made a little cardboard collar to protect them...hopefully that worked...

...Hopefully...I'll get to meet the new little miss at Christmas...

~Have a lovely day!

...ps...Mom sent some photos of the shower...so I can share one of her opening the blanket...it's the back side of course...

Saturday, October 25, 2014

...Pumpkin Patch...

....it's that time of year again...
...time to go to the Pumpkin Patch...
...and there it is...the perfect pumpkin...

...do you have the perfect pumpkin yet?...

~Have a lovely Saturday!

Friday, October 24, 2014

...a super neat T-shirt drawer trick...

...how many of you have a teenager with an overstuffed T-shirt drawer?...or maybe you have one yourself...

...Scout wears a T-shirt just about every day...and because his shirt collection continues to grow...we found that there was no longer room in his drawer for all the shirts...

...that is...when they are traditionally folded...you know...
fold in half vertically...
fold the sleeves over
then fold in half horizontally...like they are above...

...then we laid them flat in the drawer...and there just wasn't room for them all...
...but if you take that same fold above...and then fold it in half again...

...you have a shorter packet that you can sort of stand on end in the drawer...and fit a lot more into the drawer...and I mean A LOT MORE...there are now 30...THIRTY...T-shirts neatly folded in that drawer...

...I just thought it was so neat and AWESOME...that I had to share it with you!...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

...Vegan Hickory Nut Tea...

...with all this chilly rainy weather we've been having I was looking for a nice warm drink...

...and I saw this over at A Joyful Chaos...

...and thought it sounded yummy!...

...she says...

"Personally I think it's better than hot chocolate, but maybe that's only because it takes more effort and it was a once a year treat."

...not sure I'll make it more than once a year...but it sure was fun to make it this time...
...first of all...I didn't have any hickory nuts...but a quick internet search told me that pecans are a type of hickory...I did not know that...

The pecan (/pɪˈkɑːn/, /pɪˈkæn/, /ˈpiːkæn/, or /ˈpiːkɑːn/; Carya illinoinensis) is a species of hickory native to Mexico and south central and southeastern United States.[1][2]...wikipedia
...so I toasted some pecans...
...and chopped them up...
...put them in a pot with a cup of water...
...and simmered...
...until reduced by half...
...then I strained it through my reusable coffee filter...
...it was s deep rich caramel colour...
...put it back in the pot...
...added some brown sugar...
...and some unsweetened sunflower milk...it worked well in this recipe...
...poured it into a cute frosty mug...
...and took a sip...it was really so...so good...nutty and rich and deep...really so good...and different...we loved it!

Vegan Hickory Nut Tea

1/2 cup finely chopped hickory nuts (toasted)
1 cup water

Simmer until water has been reduced to about 1/2 cup and it has a nice golden brown color.

Add:

2-3 cups vegan milk - I used unsweetened sunflower milk
Brown sugar to desired sweetness

Heat until hot, but not simmering.

Serve.

~Have a lovely day!