Pumpkin Sunrise

Holiday phase two:  Christmas again with our daughter and son in law! the infamous coffee table lucky I have time for knitting on the citron shawl playing with my camera his and her shoes citron that might need a few rows taken out.... I have to tell you, I'm swimming in the details of being hostess.  I have a long list to execute today and I want to get my regular blood work done before the end of the year (today!) since our insurance parameters change a bit next year. As I type, I have a sticky note on my left hand to remind me of this.  A fail safe method of remembering. It's so good to have the house full and yet it's busy.  I find pockets of time to knit and relax and just rest.  I forget what it's like to have family here for a week.  I like the reminder :) Today my sister, brother in law and nephew arrive for Phase Three of my holiday visitors. There's more cleaning, more grocery shopping, more cooking and baking,  and strip

Apparently this is my sixth citron shawl , so says Ravelry.  I love this pattern immensely!  This shawl is my Christmas day cast on with some lovely wool that my sister bought for me on her vacation out west.  The yarn is wonderful to work with!!  I'm planning to make this shawl big and will need to add to the yarn but for now I'm happy with what I'm knitting. I started a new book! Mosquitoland is a YA novel that my son said was pretty good.  Unfortunately my time to read is severely limited this week.  My house is full of family and more family will arrive over the weekend. I finished Commonwealth and did not care for it.  The middle became interesting and I was completely invested.  The ending left me wondering all sorts of things. Overall, lots of people love this book (according to Goodreads) so I find myself thinking that maybe it is me? What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Merry Christmas!  How was your weekend holiday?  I hope peaceful and enjoyable.  I had a wonderful weekend with most of our presents opened yesterday.  Oh hey, I received from Santa a new camera lens.  All of the photos are from the new lens and so far I am loving photography all over again. Saturday I read all day mostly trying to get some serious progress done on Alexander Hamilton.   I'd love to finish by the new year but I'm not.  I don't have the time to read all day every day from here to then.  So maybe by January 15th?  Yep.  Totally doable. Saturday evening we attended the Children's Christmas Eve Mass.  Those little ones look so little and cute.  Pretty dresses for the girls and bow ties and suspenders for a few of the young men. Bow ties remind me of

So I have a lot of Christmas tree decorations and I thought I'd tell you all about them.  As a child, my one grandmother would give her grandchildren a decoration as a present.  Also at my Catholic grade school, we would make ornaments (I think one has survived...). As a young adult, my mother gave me decorations that she made through the years that she had amassed.  I was only too eager to accept and keep.  She then would make me an ornament a year throughout the rest of her life. When she died in 1998, my sister and I divvied up the ornaments between us.  So yes, more of the same oldies but goodies and lots of surprises of what she created.  In 1999, my grandmother died (my mom's mom), and you guessed it.  More of my mother's created decorations! My sister and I kept the tradition my mother started for the grandkids with a gift of  an ornament for each child.  We also gave each other ornaments along the many years. Every holiday I went on, you guessed it

I've been quite pleased with finishing all of the Christmas knitting.  In fact, I even started to focus on some of my selfish knitting (for me, you know).  Then I remembered I wanted to knit a hat for my nephew to give to him over the New Year's weekend.  So technically this isn't "Christmas" knitting.  However, I love having another easy deadline to meet! I am using the wurm pattern once more,  I LOVE to knit this hat pattern up!! As you can see, I'm slogging through Alexander Hamilton, I love this book and thoroughly enjoy reading about this country's history through the eyes of one founding father.  I have high hopes of finishing the book before the end of the year.  I've picked up my reading, trying to read when I even have five minutes to spare.  I'll keep you posted if I finish or not. The Commonwealth novel is almost done!  I thought the beginning was a bit slow but the middle picked up some.  I'm interested to see if the aut

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Hello!  As you can see my family room is slowly getting filled.  Now some of that is mine, but the gaming computer console and the pile of books under the table are not.  Our son arrived on Friday and I've been enjoying his company immensely. Yesterday after some crazy weather, we went to do some shopping and I crossed off another item on my list.  I am so close to being completely finished!  We had dinner out and then came home to watch Elf.  One of my favorite Christmas movies. Today,  I've been reading  Alexander Hamilton barely making a dent.  I want to finish this book by the end of the year.  I vacillate between 'yes I can' and 'nope, no way'.  Every sentence in the book is dripping with information and cannot be read quickly (Or I have a slow reading s

I had every intention of walking about outside and snapping some photos, but we are in the deep freeze.  Just the thought of choosing to be outside in ten degree weather with the winds whipping around had me chilled.  So I walked around the house instead and snapped some photos. Are you ready for the holidays?  I guess I'm almost ready.  I've been procrastinating on the baking something fierce.  My reasoning is that if I wait then I won't have to freeze them.  I love my excuse.   Today my son arrives (yay!) and so we begin phase one of the holiday visitors. Phase two begins when my daughter and son in law arrive December 27th (for a week!).  The days will be busy and my house will be crazy and messy in some ways.  I am determined to soak in all the goodness.  Each year I get better and ignoring the messy tables.   Phase three is when my sister, brother in law and nephew arrive on December 30th.  I am super excited!! Everyday when I prepare dinner, I play Ch

I'm on my last (or second to last) secret knitting project !  I feel like I'm making such great progress in my self imposed goals.  I'm getting giddy with seeing an end to knitting for others. My reading is so so so slow.  I am still on the same two books.  I am loving Hamilton but it's a dense read.  Commonwealth surprisingly got interesting last night.  I can't wait to read more tonight :) Oh I finished all the fair isles here . What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I did it!  I achieved one of my many knitting present goals and these hats are such a delight to look at all together in a row.  I see the light at the end of my gift knitting tunnel.  It's bright and wonderful! All of the yarn is from knit picks palette and was left over from a fair isle project that was many years ago.  I still have yarn left over :)  Maybe some mitts will be  in my far far knitting future. I really don't have a favorite hat, I like them all.  Each one I was wondering if I would like the color combinations and while I was knitting them, I fell in love. I made some minor alterations.  I did all of the decreasing after the fourth chart and I chose a different color for the ribbing to give it more of a major color theme.  I like it that way. Ravelry notes: Red fair isle hat blue fair isle hat green fair isle hat post about the green fair isle hat

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. So excited that we have SNOW.  Just saying..  It's wonderful and quiet outside.  I saw six deer while driving up my road today and it was nice to see that they survived hunting season (phew).  I love them so.  My weekend was super relaxing yesterday and self imposed busy today! Yesterday we had a slow weekend, reading and knitting for me.  Working on my menu plan for when my family is here for many days in a row.  I've changed Christmas Dinner twice now.  I'm a fickle about how much time I want to be in the kitchen (uh, zero minutes so I can knit).  So each meal is getting easier and I think more. this hat is DONE Today was cleaning our main bathroom.  I must say one of the positives of being older is that the bathroom always looks clean when you don't have y

Yesterday I braved the chilly winds and walked around with my camera and of course Frodo.  The air smelled and felt like impending snow but nary a flake fell.  So sad.  However, I'm sure soon there will be snow.  Can you believe we are nearly a third of the way through December?  Oh, I wish I could slow down the days. I find during the holiday preparation, the stresses can get the best of me.  So I thought I'd share how I manage these stresses.  Keep in mind, this is how I've done my holidays for years and I'm sure you have a system that works for you. Tip One: Start early and prioritize exactly what you want done.  I am lucky because I exchange gifts with my husband's family in October and my side of the family in November.  This forces me to shop and wrap and be ready. This significantly lightens my stress of gift buying in December. When the kids were little, I started shopping in October, each weekend focusing on a family group or one of my kids

Well well, I am on my THIRD fair isle hat out of the three I am currently knitting.  The red one is finished and only needs a soaking and blocking spa day.  The blue one is the last one and I am making great strides since I took the above photo while the daylight was out and about. My reading is a little slow.  While I'm enjoying this book, I keep falling asleep at night.  So I should read during the day but the knitting is taking precedent to meet my goals.  I hope after this weekend I'll have more time to read. Oh and I'm still reading Alexander Hamilton and love my history lessons when I do set aside 30 minutes a day. Did you see my finished trees ? What are you knitting and reading this week? joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I am happy to share with you one of my super secret knitting projects.  These little trees were a ton of fun to make and I might have made 33 of them...yep.  I was in a tree knitting frenzy! My husband and I have an odd habit of saving the used corks of wine bottles for no reason at all.  Then every now and then I throw them out.  Over the summer I decided to amass as many as possible.  I remember seeing this pattern and knew that I'd like to use the corks. I decided to use worsted weight wool and loved how they look chunky!!  So adorable in person. Ravelry notes are here

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. We've been doing lots of Christmas shopping over the weekend.  I'm slowly making progress and hope to be done by next weekend (a personal goal).  That gives me a few weeks to leisurely wrap presents and not be in the crowds of last minute shoppers. After last weekend being busy with traveling and seeing family, I enjoyed the slow pace of this weekend.  We dawdled about, taking our time yesterday.  We continue to attend Saturday night Mass and I continue to miss my Sunday pew neighbors. I'm still digesting that we are in the second week of Advent...! Earlier today, we attended a banquet and got all dressed up.  I'm back into my jeans and cardigan wearing outfits and I must say, I'm quite comfy. The tea is waiting for me, I am gonna watch some sh