Monday Morning

I tried out my pre-mixed muffin mix yesterday. It did make muffin making easier. There were less things to get out, measure, and put away. Yesterday's flavor: banana. Yummm!

We enjoyed them with fresh, hot coffee from our new coffee press that I bought last week. We have a little electric espresso maker and we enjoy it a lot. But, we've been thinking that it might be nice to just have coffee sometimes. So, last week I set out to get a coffee maker. But, I just couldn't get myself to buy one. It would be one more appliance that someday would end up in a landfill because (unless I don't know about it) you can't recycle them. I couldn't live with that. It already drives me crazy to think that just about everything we see in stores will eventually end up in a landfill. We live in such a world of excess. I love trying to do things with as little as possible, buying used things to give them another life, recycling, etc. So...what to do? Ah Ha! A coffee press! I found one for only $8! If it ever breaks I won't feel so bad about it. I might be able to separate the glass and it can be recycled. There's not much left after that, just a tiny bit of metal and a small plastic handle. I saved a lot of money too! That's always great! And, it's easy to use and the coffee tastes great! :-)

I went to a gathering of knitters on Saturday afternoon. It was a lot of fun, as usual, and I was able to get some advice from a super sock knitter, Lisa, so I can proceed with my two sock projects. (Thanks, Lisa!) I told her that I was feeling like Goldilocks...my Pomatamus sock seemed too small (turns out it's ok), and my "man" socks are seeming way too big (they kinda are). Now, maybe, I'll get them to turn out just right. :-)

I decided not to try the MS4 project. It might be a bit advanced for me right now. Plus, I have so many other things lined up in my mind that I want to make. One of them is the Mermaid Scarf designed by Lisa. I bought the pattern and needles on Saturday and plan to start it this week with yarn that I bought for a lace project that I tried earlier this year. I hope to have better luck with this lace project.

Cooler Weather and Fun in the Kitchen

During the Summer I try to avoid baking as much as possible so I don't heat up the house. Well, the weather has been cooling and I baked some muffins for breakfast last Saturday. Yum! There's nothing like fresh baked bread (of just about any kind...muffins, cakes, bread, cookies, crackers). And, I had an idea...measure out the dry ingredients for muffins into storage containers ahead of time. Then, whenever we want muffins I'll just add the wet ingredients and fruit, and bake. That would make the process a bit quicker and satisfy our morning hunger sooner. So, I bought some new storage containers (reusable and recyclable) this week and today I measured out the dry ingredients so they're ready to go. It'll be fun to try one out this weekend. :-)

I also harvested some Basil today to try freezing into cubes that I'll be able to use over the coming months after the Basil is finished for this year. I harvested a heaping colander full...


Picked off all the good leaves, washed them, washed them again, dried them, and placed them into the food processor...


I added a little bit of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and put it into an ice try...


It was fun and smelled soooooo good! I can't wait to try it to see how well it worked. Fresh Basil is so delicious and we use it a lot during the Summer. I always miss it during the Winter. If it works, this will be great! :-)

Man Socks and a Mystery...

I started knitting my first pair of "man" socks yesterday for my hubby. I'm using some yarn I bought on clearance a few months ago...Moda Dea, Sassy Stripes in a nice combination of dark blues, some brown, and touches of white. I wanted to make my first pair of "man" socks with this less expensive yarn as I work out the sizing for him. Then, I'll progress to a nicer yarn. It's looking like I cast on enough to fit his leg (64 on size 2's). I like how it's looking so far, and so does he. It's a bit thick but they should be nice for wearing around the house on a cold winter day.

I'm still working on my long term projects from time to time. I also sewed curtains for my daughter's room last week. Yesterday I signed up for Mystery Stole 4. I imagine it will be beautiful like the last three. I'm a beginner at lace knitting so I'm not sure how I'll do, but I'm sure I'll learn a lot. I need to go shopping for some yarn and beads so I can get started. The first clue was listed today. Wish me luck!

Buggy Transformed

About a year ago my husband decided that he wanted to get an old VW Bug to fix up. He ended up with this 1965 Bug. It was definitely not pretty but it sure was a good candidate for a project!...



He gutted it, cleaned it, did a lot of little detail body work, primed, sanded, sanded, primed again, sanded, and did I say, sanded? I can't believe how much sanding and attention to detail he did on the body. Then, he painted it himself! Wow! He installed rubber insulation for sound dampening. After that I helped him install a new headliner. That was a lot of work and it turned out pretty good. Yay! We re-installed all the windows with new rubber. Whew! That was challenging! He installed new carpet, recovered and installed the backseat, installed new front seats, seat belts, new trim, bumpers, etc., etc. He did way more than I could possibly list. He still has a lot of little things to do on it like painting the wheels, get hub caps, install running boards, etc. But, it's so exciting to see it coming together that I can't wait to show it off for him.

After a year of hard work...lots and lots of elbow grease...it's been transformed! This last weekend he started it up and we got to take it for a test run. Wow! It's amazing that this is the same car!



Here's before and after pictures of the engine...



I've got one happy hubby! :-)


I think the transformation is incredible. I also think it's really cool that he got many hours of enjoyment working on it and the end result is a cool little car. It's also a great example of recycling. I love that!

Eye Candy Goes Coastal

The beautiful California coast! One of the many awesome things I love about living in California. I love the beach for so many reasons...the temperature; the fresh clean air; the moisture in the air (I live in the desert); the soft sand under my toes; the water; the way I feel when I'm there; and all the beautiful and amazing things to see...


These are a type of jelly fish that sometimes cover the beaches. When they do they look like litter, until you look more closely. They have a beautiful cobalt blue edge and the clear disk on the top acts like a sail to propel them along through the water. Their tentacles are very short and we've heard that they don't sting.


The colors in these succulent plants are so pretty. It's amazing how they can grow in the side of a rock!


I love the beautiful, bright, orange color of this moss. Wow!


Of course, people watching is always fun too! This is my little nephew on his very first trip to the beach. When his mom sat him down on the sand he immediately started crawling toward the water. He loved it! Smart boy! :-)

It's interesting to me how beaches can be so different...even in one area like Southern California. The sand can be soft or course, white or yellow, rocky or smooth. The water can be crystal clear or kinda muddy, turquoise blue or kinda green. The water can be icey cold or wonderfully warm. Yet, sometimes the similarities are amazing. Like San Diego beaches and Hawaii. The water here is often crystal clear with beautiful colors like Hawaii. The water is a lot warmer in Hawaii but many sights remind us of "home".

Here are a couple of pictures taken from the condo we stayed at in Maui a couple years ago, looking over Napili Bay toward the Island of Molokai. Soooo beautiful! (Click to enlarge)



It's a gorgeous place to visit and I hope to go there many more times. But, in the meantime, it's so great to have a little slice of coastal heaven in our own backyard!

I think it's time for a trip to the beach!

Happy Labor Day!

1...2...3...

Ok...I think I've officially been knitting on these socks toooo much! They require constant counting to be sure I stay on track. I've been counting so much that I'm noticing myself counting the laundry as I take it out of the drier, counting dishes as I put them away, and counting in my sleep. lol I want to keep going though so I can at least finish the first sock. Maybe I'll take a short break between socks so I can break my counting habit. lol :-)

Knit Stuff

I was listening to NPR (National Public Radio) this morning (as usual) and one of their stories talked about a place called "Cafe Press" that sells presidential campaign t-shirts but they mentioned that they have knitting shirts too. I checked it out this morning and they have so much more than I imagined...pages and pages of knitting t-shirts, stickers, bags, etc. Fun! :-)

Blogiversary!

It's been one year since I started my blog. I guess that makes this my blogiversary! I remember finding a couple blogs a few years ago and I loved seeing what other people were working on and the beautiful pictures they'd post. I started finding more and more blogs but I still thought it was a fairly unique kind of thing that only a few people had. Last summer a friend encouraged me to start one. I can't believe how many blogs are out there now. And, I can't believe how much fun I'm having with mine and reading others. I get inspired by seeing the amazing and wonderful things other people are working on. I'm encouraged by seeing so many things that we have in common. I'm motivated to complete projects to post. And, I'm challenged to try bigger and better things. Hooray for blogging! :-)

Back to knitting...


Here's a picture of my Olympic project and the progress I've made. It may not look like a lot but, trust me, it is. This is knit with size one needles so it hasn't been growing very fast. And, it's been challenging. I know I won't be completing a pair of these by the time this Olympic challenge ends. But, I'm happy I decided to participate and challenge myself with these. It's so exciting to see yarn transform into this! That's what makes knitting seem like magic.


Here's an update on my Crescendo Shawl. The last time I posted a picture it was probably only about six inches wide or so. Now it's about 28". It's slow but moving along. I love how it looks complicated but it's really quite simple. It's a great project to work on when I go to a knit gathering. The fairly neutral color should work well with a variety of outfits. I'm knitting it with 100% alpacca so it's really soft.

Garden Update...


Our garden hasn't done well this summer. We had an idea that seemed great...fill an old metal watering trough with good soil for a raised bed garden. It would be tall enough to keep the dog out of it. A nice height to work on. And, most importantly, have excellent soil that was mixed just for growing great things! We didn't realize that the metal sides would heat up so much that the soil would be too hot to grow things. We didn't figure that out for a while. We kept thinking it had something to do with watering or the plants or ??? We kept adjusting the water and fertilized and....nothing. Just spindly little tomato vines, the pea plants only grew about three inches...they made some tiny pea pods but then died. Even the radishes weren't growing and they're usually really easy. Then, one hot afternoon my husband started digging around in the soil and figured it out. The soil was burning hot! We've had a beach umbrella in the trough ever since and it has helped the peppers quite a bit and the tomatoes a little. We're still trying to figure out a solution that will allow us to use the trough because it still seems like a great idea and it looks really cool...except for the beach umbrella. :-)

Other than that, the herbs have done fine and we enjoy them in homemade salad dressings, sauces, and other dishes. And, our fig tree didn't do too bad this year. The figs are small but they're sweet and delicious and we got more this year than ever. This is a picture of some that I picked this morning.

Feeling Rosey

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I did some back to school shopping. Last week we did some bead shopping to make jewelry to go with some of the new outfits. The next day we spent at the kitchen table being creative with beads. It was a lot of fun! The picture above is my new outfit and a necklace I made to go with it.

I love pink but for some reason I don't usually wear it. I've realized that most of my clothes are some shade of blue. I've been trying to be more stylish and break out of my usual clothing routine so I decided to try this on. My daugher thought it looked really nice and enouraged me....uh...well...more like gently forced me, to buy it. I'm glad she did. I've gotten compliments on it and I love the color with my skin. I've been wearing a lot of skirts lately instead of shorts. They're fun to wear and great for hiding knees that aren't as young as they use to be. lol

The necklace is hard to see in the pic but it's the best I could do with the only camera in the house with batteries that didn't need charging. It's made of square wood beads, pink glass ones, some silver accent beads (round and heart shaped), and some shell or stone beads that look like golden mother of pearl. The golden beads were part of a necklace that my grandmother had and wore a lot. It fell apart years ago and I've been trying to figure out something to use them for. The clasp is shaped like a tropical flower. Since it's so pretty, I made the necklace so I can put the clasp in the front and to the side to show it off. It looks really nice.

My Olympic sock project is moving along. Now that I'm finally past the cuff it's actually going well. I don't know why I was having such trouble with what should have been the easiest part. So strange. But, I kept at it, and so far, so good. I hope it keeps going well. I'm not sure I'll be able to finish them in time for the challenge but at least they're finally moving along. :-) I'll try to post some pics soon.

Olympic Progress...

My UFO Olympic sock project seems to have taken some steps backward...then forward...and backward again. I keep making dumb mistakes that cause me to rip out completely and start over. The latest one, last night, was that I had started my cuff, set it down over night, then picked it up and started knitting without really looking at it and ended up knitting backward so it was only connected with one strand at the beginning. Duh! I was so frustrated last night after ripping it out so many times that I was ready to give up on it. I'm feeling better now and ready to try it again. Wish me luck!