It Looks Like Rain Again

We've had a lovely several days now of warm days and sunshine. Yesterday DH worked on finishing the trim after putting linoleum in the hot tub room... I, of course, was the gofer (misspelled on purpose due to link being automatically inserted for goph*r.com.. ughh). During a lull in the action I went out and cut the many sapling trees growing around our huge oak tree... hopefully getting ready for some planting in that bed.

After finishing some of the projects with the knitting, I have several small balls of leftover yarn. The evenings watching tv have been filled with doing small projects for the Barbie collection. A knitted red stripe rug with a crocheted rug in progress.

Barbie Shrug and Lawn Sprinkler...

I've been piddling with the knitting needles in the evening watching television and this is what I came up with. It's a knitted modification of this pattern I found at Perestroika Designs.com. Easy to do and looks cute...

It was one of those days yesterday... We finally decided to have an irrigation system put in for the lawn. (The drought has caused some shifting of the foundation of the house... not good...) The guys came and worked some on Wednesday using shovels and got the major spots that would have to be hand dug.. this was because it was misting rain and too wet for the trencher. Yesterday turned out lovely and they had the trencher going early. Around 10am there was a knock on the door and guess what... gas line hit. The gas company came out and fixed it. Around 4pm we arrived back home from the cardiologist's to find the trencher gone, the workmen gone and the contractor waiting in his pickup to tell us that another gas line had been hit..It seems the lines were only 3 inches or so underground and were supposed to be 18 inches. Anyway, that was fixed by 4:45 or so. Bless his heart... the poor guy said he had been doing this for 12 years, had never hit a line of any kind and now has hit 2 in one day..grin

Firsts

Jo of Daily Stitches has posted a list of her "Firsts" and I thought I would follow along..grin

What was your first knitting project?

I first learned to knit when I was 17 and can remember something about (perhaps) a garter stitch dishcloth, but I don't remember ever using it. As I was married at 16, my mother-in-law taught me all of what I know about knitting, but since she was more of crocheter she didn't hand knit very much. I didn't pick up knitting needles again until a couple of years ago when I decided to try it again and made several simple garter stitch scarves for the grandsons for Christmas.

What was your first sewing project?

In Home Economics of my freshman year of high school, one of our projects was to re-decorate our room. Since our school colors were red and white, I decided to do those colors in my room. The curtains for my room were done in red and white and were my first sewing project. Mom showed me how to put them together and left me to it.. They turned out great. (Very simple curtains..lol)

What was your first quilting project?

I am working on my first quilt right now. It is coming together much better than I had hoped. If a person really wanted to get technical then I suppose the large motif piece of fabric that I bought about 8 years ago and finally tried my hand at quilting around the big fish and pieces of things in that picture (a real disaster!) and finished about 3 years ago would be my first quilting project. But this current one actually had to be pieced, embroidered and quilted...so I am counting this one as it...lol

What was your first crochet project?

I also learned to crochet at the same time I learned to knit, around the age of 17....again taught my mother-in-law. I was totally in love and crocheted constantly...but didn't actually finish a project until I was about 19. Figuring out why my piece was not square or my circles were ruffling (or bowling) was really frustrating and I had no one to ask.. But I just could not stop. It seems that I was truly "hooked". The first thing I finished was a pineapple doily and from then on have not stopped.

Split Rail Fence Quilt Update

I've been quilting the SRF Quilt. The quilting lines are too close together and are flattening the quilt somewhat, but they also give the quilt a look and feel of this perhaps representing a flower farm... with the rows of plowing in the fields. I'm almost a quarter finished with the blocks and then will decide what to do with the borders.
We've spent the last 2 days "tripping"... first to Dallas to the VA on Thursday and then to Bonham to the VA on Friday. Both were uneventful and even pleasant, but it sure makes those lazy mornings with little to do except have breakfast and coffee something to appreciate..grin

Pale Blue Dot

I found this particularly humbling... Written and narrated by Carl Sagan.

glumbert.com - Pale Blue Dot

Friends and Food

Got a phone call last night from a friend in Virginia. She tells me in no uncertain terms that she is tired of seeing that same pic of the car every time she visits here...lol I love it! She raises poodles and tells me she now has a 5 week old chocolate poodle that is gorgeous... I am so envious!


Since DH is diabetic and a total pasta lover (and he can't have it anymore), we are constantly on the lookout for new recipes. He came up with this off the net somewhere and we decided to try it.
This is home made spaghetti sauce over spaghetti squash.

The spaghetti squash is cut in half and placed in a baking dish with cut side down and covered with foil, then baked in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes (depending on the size of the squash) or until tender when punctured with a knife. Then, using a fork and gently sliding it down the length of the squash, you can lift out wonderful short spaghetti. Since I love squash anyway, I loved this. But I did find that as you get into the depth of the "spaghetti", the sweetness of the squash became a little disconcerting against the spiciness of the sauce. So if I were doing it again, there would be smaller portions of the squash and the same portion of the sauce...

It's Been a While...

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. No excuses, but it's been a little busy.

First... for the family who follow my blog... Uncle Richard died last Thursday evening. The funeral will be in Tupelo on Monday. Aunt Thelma seems to be doing ok, but the kids are taking it very hard. The last time we saw them, Richard was so proud of their 50th wedding anniversary that he couldn't seem to stop talking about it..

The newsletter is finally finished.. we got the last info for it on Thursday and put that in, then took it to the printer to find out how much the postage and printing costs would be... which brings up a not so funny thing happened on the way to the printer...

Our new car is not so new anymore... I was driving and was broadsided by a pickup. I will forever more sing the praises of steel reinforcement on the sides of vehicles and side airbags. I walked away with only minor bruises and no glass cuts. Even the seatbelt bruise was minor. The air bags shielded me from both the impact and the glass. DH, however, was injured by a small bead of glass that was probably in my hair...(smiles) He was waiting for me at the print shop and the accident happened only 1 block away from there (I was on my way back with the mailing list on disk). When they saw the fire emergency vehicle go by and I was late getting back, they went up to see and sure enough it was me. Bless his heart, it was a panicked moment for him and a stressful evening in the ER. But all is fine now... just some major soreness and stiffness.