Pumpkin Sunrise

  Good afternoon! How are you? Finally it is fall like weather and my maple tree has decided to join in the celebrations. Crisp cool air in the mornings and evenings, what could be better? I had to wear a jacket on Saturday morning to watch my grandson play soccer. I loved it. On Thursday I went with my aunt and cousin to drive around the neighborhood we grew up in Pittsburgh. I cannot believe how everything looks so small. The houses, my old school, the streets, the length of the streets. It was so much fun.  On Friday afternoon, I went to a picnic at my school and a friend saved me a seat. Our table was the first to get in line for the food. That was awesome as well! I was thankful it was inside instead of outside like last year. I nearly wilted from the sun and heat. I finished knitting the granddaughter's holiday sweater and I need to sew buttons and do a beauty soak routine. I used maybe 4-8 yards of that extra skein. I see lots of hats being made with the rest.

  Good morning! How are you?  I've been solely knitting my granddaughter's holiday sweater and I decided two nights ago that I do not have enough yarn (yikes). I am pretty sure that the local LYS doesn't have any more this color so I found a skein online and it will arrive some time later this week. I'm hoping I have enough for the second sleeve and will only use the additional skein on the button bands. However, if I do not have enough yarn I will rip out the garter stitch bands and use the alternate skein for that. I am assuming the dye lot will be off. The yarn is discontinued and was made aware of that fact by the LYS owner. I bought enough yardage that the pattern calls for!  So what are you working on this week? 

  Good morning! How are you? After a wonderful cold snap, it's now getting warm again but thankfully not overly warm and the nights are still cool. AND it's September, finally!  Over the weekend, we celebrated our granddaughter's second birthday with family and friends. I enjoyed seeing everyone and of course watching her delight as she opened up her gifts, two years old is a wonderful age! I'm sure she will be in the terrible twos soon, but for right now she is happy and compliant and full of energy and discovery. We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary on Friday! We went out to lunch at a new to us Chinese restaurant. They had a HUGE sakura (cherry blossom) tree in the middle of the eating area. I loved it! The food was fantastic as well. I saw my arthritis doctor and there's a chance I will be adding a medicine to manage symptoms. I guess I'll know in a week or so after some testing results. I'm not happy about it more medicines but I am happy if it se...

  Good morning! How are you doing? I am doing much much better after being unwell for over two weeks. Onward and upward! As I stated earlier, we went up to see our daughter and son in law in the Boston area to help them pack up some boxes for their apartment move. Since we were packing, I didn't take many photos, but here are the ones that I did manage to take. We popped into the Catholic church in Harvard square, I've been in this one before for Mass. We didn't attend Mass this visit because they have no air conditioning (I would die....). This is the church we did attend Mass. I cannot remember the name, but it was pretty!!  Below are all the things I bought every single time I was in a bookstore. I love bookstores immensely. As you know, I try to support independent bookstores and it is a goal that is easily done. Last week I started the cross stitch sampler for the grandbaby to be and it's been slow going. However, I try my best to stitch at least one hour a day if ...

  Good morning! How are you and are you experiencing the hot hot hot weather? Goodness it is hot here and I am ever so grateful to have AC to hide in. I've been busy this week helping with the grandchildren. Even though I am busy I finished a few books. The first one is Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. I picked this book up on a whim and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've reserved the next in the series on Libby. Supposedly that will be available in 11 weeks. I can wait. I also finished The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I enjoyed the content of the book but I really didn't care for her writing style. I know this book is popular among creative people and I can see why. But the book was not for me. I did finish it though. Yesterday I started reading The Great Gatsby  which I have never read. It was not required when I was in high school and I thought I should read it. I picked up a used copy somewhere a few years ago and I have delightful notes scr...

  Good morning! How are you? Thank you so much for the kind words about the christening blanket, I thoroughly enjoyed knitting that project but I am so glad that I am now done with it and can knit other things.  My life has been full since the kids moved into town. My husband and I babysat the grandchildren yesterday late afternoon early evening for a few of hours and we had so much fun. We took a walk, played sidewalk chalk then came in the house and played with the toys. I don't know who was more tired..!  Inside I feel like I am 30 years old but my body says this is not true! We are happy and grateful to be in their lives. Our gardens continue to thrive and mature since my husband has revamped them a few years ago. My sister and our neighbor have helped us by giving flowers from their gardens. We have bought and added our own as well. The challenge is whether or not the deer will eat it or not. Yesterday afternoon I decorated my art journal and my weekly planner for th...

  Good morning! How are you? My family left yesterday morning and yes, they did find a house that is 12 minutes away for us. They are so excited to be moving to the area and we are happy as well. We will get to see the grandchildren more often. My weekend and my past week was busy with grandchildren. We played lots, did sidewalk chalk and took little walks down the street. My grandson is 3 years old and my granddaughter is 19 months old.  Currently I am loving the silence! Yesterday I put away all the toys and baby stuff, cleaned the bedrooms and bathrooms and did a ton of laundry. I did not knit the entire week, however last night I added more inches to the second sleeve.  How was your weekend? (those beautiful daffodils from my front yard got zapped by the extreme cold, I hope the warm weather revives them!) I hope to be catching up with all of you soon!

  Hello! How are you doing and how was your weekend? My weekend was filled with celebrating our grandson's third birthday. I cannot believe he is three. He thoroughly enjoyed the birthday singing and of course the presents. My husband and I had a great time seeing family as well. I am so happy today is a 'boring' day so I can recharge and regroup. My granddaughter wore her sweater on the party day! (I wished I had used bigger buttons...) Even though the visiting was packed with socializing, I managed to seek in some much needed knitting time. I did not finish any projects, but I did add inches to the hat and the baby blanket. After pizza and cake, I'm ready for a BIG salad and lots of healthy foods.  How was your weekend?

  Hello! It's been some time hasn't it? My family is still here visiting but it's nap time and I'm quickly making this post a priority because when my family leaves on Saturday morning I will be putting away Christmas decorations and then I will need to recover physically from that. I hope to be back at this space sometime next week. I'm having a great time with the grandchildren, lots of playing (and crying, ha ha). We went to the museum the other day to look at the dinosaurs and that was a ton of fun. What wasn't fun is that my son arrived with some kind of stomach bug but luckily no one else got it from him. That is the Christmas miracle that warms my heart.  I still have my arthritis flare, I think it will stay with me until they leave and I can completely rest for three days. It's mostly my hands and wrists. It's not from knitting since I am barely knitting. The above project is a hat that is almost finished! I will start decreasing soon. I want it...

  How are you? How are you doing as we lead up to the holidays? I am getting things done bit by bit aided my a very detailed to do list. I finished my granddaughter's hat a week or so ago and forgot to show you! This project was a fun quick easy knit. Below is a photo of my husband's hat that I would love to finish before Christmas. For incentives for me to finish on time, I started placing a marker before I start knitting for the day so I could see my progress. It appears I knit one inch or so a day. As of today I am confident I will meet my goal. Lastly, I restarted a pair of mitts for myself with some lovely wool my daughter gave me for Mother's day. The original pattern I chose was too hard for me to see the stitches to do the cabling and there were mistakes in the pattern that I knew needed to be corrected before knitting. I can do both but I just didn't have the mental bandwidth to do it. The older I get, the harder it is to see dark wool in the evenings even w...

  Around here, Autumn is showing off with beautiful oak leaves. I love them! Yesterday it rained all day and while my hair was a frizzy mess, I enjoyed the drizzle. We are in need of rain. I even took my daily walk in the drizzle, delightful! Over the long weekend we had both kids and the grandkids here, I made a fake Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. It was a lot of work and I was exhausted even with helping hands. I miss the energy and stamina of my youth. On the other hand, I was proud I was able to do what I do! Whenever we have company, my house is turned into a mess. It's a good mess, but when everyone leaves I put away the toys, the chairs, the moved around stuff that happens when we have company. I miss everyone when they leave AND I missed my tidy home that I recapture.  Our grandson and granddaughter play with a splattering of old toys and new. They keep us very busy and we have so much fun playing with them. I am grateful they all traveled here to see us. What blessing...

  Good morning! How are you? I forgot to take a photo yesterday of the little sweater I made for my granddaughter. You know I love fall and winter the most but there is an advantage to having more daylight is spring and summer for photoing my knitting projects. This sweater zipped on and off my needles! I did a lot of car knitting which led me to finish knitting the bulk of the yoke and body of the sweater. Once I got to the sleeves it was all downhill. I do love top/down construction just for that aspect. I knit this pattern last year for her holiday sweater so I decided to make it once more in a bigger size. I'm pleased with how it turned out. What are you working on this week?

  Good morning! How was your weekend? Oh mine was deliciously cold, brr. Sadly there will be another warm up this week but hopefully that warm up will be brief. I've been loving this chilly weather and the colors changing on the leaves.  My sister had a craft show over the weekend and I helped out (moral support really). I thoroughly enjoyed seeing family, friends and meeting some of my sister's friends. I had a good time and of course got a lot of knitting done.  I've been spending lots of time knitting my granddaughter' sweater - I have to dig around and find the perfect buttons today.  I noodled around Ravelry some more looking for a new project to cast on. Maybe a shawl? I just don't know what I want to knit. But I guarantee you I will be knitting something! How was your weekend?

  Hello! How are you? We are having a lovely time with our grandchildren and have one more day with them before it ends. We’ve had dinners out and adventurous walks. The weather has been beautiful and warm.  How was your weekend?

  My weekend was spectacular because we saw our grandkids and spent some quality time with them. Our little granddaughter turned one! She is the sweetest. Our grandson is thoroughly enjoying the terrible twos and is on the brink of being a three year old.  I had a great time, of course the trip caused some aches and pains as it always does. Also the AC in the car was misbehaving and that makes my symptoms worse. But I am once again, home sweet home, enjoying my ordinary boring life.

  Last Thursday, we left with my husband's brother and sister in law to go to Hocking Hills, Ohio to meet up with our son, daughter in law and our grandkids at a lodge rental in the woods until Monday morning. We had so much fun! We did some hiking and ate out at restaurants and did the tiniest bit of shopping. Our grandson loved being outside, collecting rocks and other treasures. Our granddaughter crawls and sits up and loved to make a beeline for an outlet or a cord (who wouldn't??). Our grandson is in the terrible twos stage and had a melt down at least once a day. I wish I could act like that when I am discontent - It would be cathartic and freeing, but kind of alienating to those around me. Being the Grammy, I found it endearing but little too loud. We had nice weather, chilly but mostly dry. I was disappointed in the lack of cell phone reception at the lodge but they had mediocre wifi so I was connected sporadically. Since we both have elderly parents, I want that connec...

  Hello! How are you? My husband and I visited our son and daughter in law in Indiana for most of last week and this past weekend. We spent quality time with our 2 year old grandson and our 7 month old granddaughter. We are both exhausted!! I am amused at how I cannot remember being tired taking care of little ones in my youth, I must have had a ton of energy back then. Also I didn't have an autoimmune disorder that basically sucks the life right out of me. Even though I have physical challenges, I manage to love them up as much as I can. I will be resting and recovering this week. We had great weather while we were there and we ate out almost every day. (no cooking if you know me and my love of that). Our grandson talks up a storm and we have 'conversations' that are delightful. Sometimes I know what we are talking about! We are now home and I am going to 'play catchup' with all of you over the next few days.

  Well hello there! How have you been?  I keep telling you my knitting has been such a solace while I recover and it's been prolific. What a great way to be during the January days. Over the weekend I finished two hats that I originally wanted to knit and complete for Christmas presents but was unable to do so. I made a car hat for our grandson and a cat hat for our granddaughter. I've knit both patterns before and I do love to repeat a pattern.  I am feeling so much better and I feel like myself if that makes any sense.  I'm back to exercising and walking when the weather allows me and that helps me be the best version of myself. What are you working on this week?