cinnamon moons

Wednesday (2/27) started out very nicely with a long talk with Janice in CT.  I spent most of the rest of the day cutting up scraps.  My friend Inez asked me to make her a bread liner and she sent me that fabric, along with a bunch of scraps from other projects she has been doing.  I finished the bread liner (should have taken a picture, her fabric was very nice) and then cut up all remaining fabric into different sized squares.  Nancy H. got a new book of scrap quilts which use squares instead of strips…that’s good because all of my scarps are not built to be cut into strips…I have a lot of oddly shaped pieces…so little by little I’m going to cut them into the size squares this book uses.  I got a call in the afternoon…Michael got the part of Walter in BECKY’s NEW CAR (that’s the part he wanted) and I got the part of Ginger….so we will soon be going to rehearsals 4 nights a week.  I may go less, because my part is small…YAY!!!!! 

We picked up Joanne & Larry at 5 to go to dinner at City Tavern.  Joanne and I each got a different appetizer for our dinners and then shared, while Michael and Larry both got shrimp scampi.  We made a quick trip to Michael’s afterwards and were home by 7:30.  I had made dough before we left for dinner, so I rolled it out (into 3 pieces), brushed it with oil and then sprinkled it with cinnamon/sugar mix:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

then cut into triangles and rolled up like crescents: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had 3 pans that rose overnight in the back of the car, and I baked them off Thursday morning and took most of them to quilting:

 

(Michael took 4 to his golfing buddies)

 

Michael's mittens

Tuesday went by in a flash!  Nancy came to visit in the morning (she is ripping out some quilting that she wasn’t satisfied with…what a yucky job, but made better if you can talk to a friend while you do it!), while I was working on swatches for the sleeves of my entrelac sweater.  After she left I had a quick lunch before Joanne picked me up for Stitch ‘n’ Chat at 1.  I pinned all of my sleeve swatch colors together, and Susie (a fellow knitter) tried on the sweater with the swatches pinned to her sleeve.  Several of us stood back and squinted to get the effect and decided that doing the same pattern of colors on the sleeves would be fine.  I was excited to finally have a direction to start in…now I just have to decide how wide to make my sleeves and I can once again move forward on this project.  I really want it to be ready by next winter…and I have to keep on working on it if that is to happen.  I was home by 3:30 and got to have a nice long chat with my friend Ginny.  She has recently been swept up in Indian cooking and told me about all of the things she is making…it sounds exciting…wish we lived closer so that I could pop over and sample things  J.  Jan and Walt arrived at 6 PM for cheesy potato soup and ‘thwock’ biscuits.  Jan brought a terrific, warm cherry pie for dessert, and we chatted for just a bit after dinner before they headed for home.

Several years ago I made thick, wool mittens for Michael to wear when he was golfing in cold weather.  At one point last December, they slid off of the golf cart….never to be found again  L.  It’s not surprising they weren’t found…they were a heathery olive color and blended right in with the scenery.  Anyway, my honey asked me for a new pair, and we agreed they should be in a non-vegetation color.  I knit like crazy on them, and gave a new pair to him about a month ago.  Now…I’m an experienced knitter who RARELY looks at her work while knitting (keep reading and you'll see why this is not the smartest idea in the book)…consequently the mittens were completed and all of the ends sewn in and finished before I really looked at them…that’s when I noticed that one mitten was perfect…long ribbing snug against his wrist, gradual increase in size up the bottom of his hand, a lovely thumb sticking out and then more straight knitting to almost the ends of his fingers before gently curving at the top.  Then there was the other… long ribbing snug against his wrist, a lovely thumb sticking out, gradual increase in size up the bottom of his hand, and then more straight knitting to almost the ends of his fingers before gently curving at the top.  Notice any difference in those 2 descriptions?!?!?!  One had the thumb where it belonged (after increasing over the bottom of the palm) and one had the thumb right at the top of the ribbing….you know….at the end of his wrist!  Well – he wore them like that for a month…and finally gave them back to me for fixing.  I’ve had to rip out a few things I’ve finished before and let me tell you it is no picnic….I hide the ends REALLY well…so I ended up just cutting off the top of the mitten to get started unraveling.  Finally on Tuesday night I finished putting the bad one back together and here they are:

After that it was off to bed!

new charity hat with cute model!

Michael left for golfing Monday morning (2/25) and came home around 3 frozen to the bone!  It never rained, but it was windy and cold and raw.  I made him hop into the whirlpool tub for a long soak…and served him a hot toddy besides….he was in HEAVEN!

I finished off a new charity hat in the morning:

 

 and got to sew on fabric postcards for the rest of the day and most of the night.  We finished up the evening by watching a couple of FRASIERS before bed.

charity hat

Jan and I met at the golf club on Saturday morning (2/23) for a cooking demo.  The menu consisted of a Greek salad with red wine vinaigrette, 2 mini-crab cakes with remoulade sauce, roasted leek & potato soup and bruschetta.  The demonstration was nice and the food was WONDERFUL!!  I was home by 1 PM, in time to print out our theatre resumes and head to Fort Mill to try out for BECKY”S NEW CAR.  I was really ambivalent about trying out…but did anyway.  We’ll see what happens.  There was a lot of talking about pizzas in the script….so we had pizza for dinner J.  Both of us watched out separate shows for the most of the evening, and I finished a knitted charity hat:

 

 

Sunday morning (2/24) Michael left to get in 9 holes (he’s been missing a lot of golf due to the rainy weather we’ve been having) and I got to relax and read the paper.  We headed to the Lake House around 1 PM for Sin, Sex & the Cia, the latest play from our performing arts group.  One of our across the street neighbors was the star and she did a great job.  The play was a really funny farce and we laughed a lot.  We were home by 3:30 and I putzed around in the studio for a bit before heading upstairs to watch a SCIFI flick with my honey, and knitting on another hat.

Friday (2/22) was another rainy, gray day, but I got to spend the afternoon with Nancy, so that was lots of fun.  We couldn’t get together for our regular Tuesday date, so spent Friday afternoon in her kitchen, truly talking about a mile a second about everything that’s been happening with us.  One major topic of conversation was her dehydrator.  I have thought on and off for years about getting one…and she bought one about a month ago.  Since then, she’s been dehydrating EVERYTHING and it is very exciting.  I’m always looking for ways to store food that doesn’t require electricity (like a freezer) and this certainly fits the bill.  She’s been buying up produce when it’s on sale and dehydrating like mad.  I loved seeing everything she’s doing (you know who crazy we all go for something 'new & shiny').

I sewed when I got home and for part of the evening, but you’ll have to wait on pictures.  My Thursday quilt group is having a one-day retreat and I was working on some door prizes.  Some of the people from that group read the blog…so I’ll just take pics to post in a couple of months.  After I finished what I was working on, Michael and I watched a bit of TV before heading for bed.

Elsie & Cookie

Michael left around 10AM for golfing on Wednesday (2/20), and I tried to be productive, but whatever I ate on Tuesday night did NOT agree with me in a big way.  I spent the whole day feeling like someone was twisting and turning and walking on my stomach!  I got a tiny bit of sewing done, and a LOT of sitting around done.  Michael came home clearly unhappy about his performance on the golf course and we spent a quiet evening at home.

Thursday morning (2/21) I was out of the house by 8 AM to hit the grocery store and the chiro office before picking up Jan at 9:20 for quilting.  I can’t speak for Jan, but I certainly got a lot of listening done…and a tiny bit of sewing done  J.  Sometimes people just have important things they want to talk about.  Jan wanted to stop at the BBQ place on the way home to inquire about some shirts her son had ordered at Christmas time, so we decided we might as well have lunch while we were there.  I finally got home around 3 PM and spent the afternoon and most of the evening in the studio….where very surprisingly (because Michael was upstairs the entire time) I had company:

 

Cookie has moved further onto Elsie

shifting postions

settling in again

 

Cookie & Michael, scarf, kid's mittens

Michael and I headed out on errands Tuesday (2/19) morning…first the chiropractor, then to BJ’s for food, and finally ALDI’s before arriving home around 11:30.  I got my last 4 thank you notes done before  Joanne picked me up for knitting at 1PM.  As always, we had a good time and I got home around 3:30, changed clothes and headed to the studio.  I passed Michael watching TV and realized that he is not the only one that loves the quilt I made him:

I finally got all of the ends sewn in on 2 charity projects:

 

 

Jan and Walt came over around 7….Michael and Walt headed out to see SIDE EFFECTS, while Jan and I stayed home and watched TV.

chicken pot pie

Monday morning (2/18) I was up early to get some paperwork done before my volunteer meeting at 10:30.  I had been procrastinating on these thank you notes I had to write for donations to the club, but got 16 of them done before I left.  We had a ton of people at the meeting, which was great, and once I got home I got almost all of the minutes written up (I’m still waiting for a bit of information from someone before I send them out).  I spent a good bit of time once I got home updating our Volunteer home page with minutes from the last 3 years, and also got another thank you note written.

 I am finally starting a new sewing project…but wasn’t sure I understood the directions…so I cut a piece of denim and am basting it together to make sure I know what I’m doing before I get started on the ‘real’ fabric  J.  I quit working on it around 4 to head upstairs to start dinner.  Bobby Deen had a healthy chicken pot pie on the Dr.Oz show the other day, so I decided I wanted to make it for dinner.  I didn’t have the veggies he called for, so I roasted butternut squash, broccoli and onions, tossed with olive oil, rosemary, thyme and sage.  I layered those in the bottom of a pie pan and sprinkled cooked, cubed chicken on top.  The sauce was just chicken stock with a splash of 1/2 & 1/2 and about 1/4 cup of leftover white wine, thickened with a bit of flour.  The pie crust was made with oil instead of shortening…that really intrigued me, but it worked very well…I was surprised.  It didn’t get very brown, but tasted great.  The house smelled heavenly when it was done…and the pot pie tasted even better. 

 

 

 

Michael wanted to watch a few of ‘his’ shows in the evening, so I headed back to the studio to continue working.

winter wonderland, snow, snow sculpture, Cookie & Elsie, angel appliques

We woke up Sunday morning (2/17) to a Winter Wonderland (view out our back deck): 

 

and since so many of our friends in the northeast sent us pictures of yardsticks in the snow…we decided to do the same:

 

 

I got the sandwich bread baked first thing, and we ran 1/2 a hot loaf over to our neighbors (Inez, just for you I am NOT posting another picture of this bread  J).  Michael and Cookie made a snow sculpture in the backyard:

 

then everyone congregated in the studio (some were less productive than others):

 

Michael worked on his computer for awhile, while I continued to work on my angel appliqués.  By dinnertime they were finished: 

We had a quick dinner and settled down to watch several QUANTUM LEAPS (and to knit) before bed.

pinwheels, Cookie in snow video

Saturday morning (2/16) dawned cold and rainy, but Jan and I headed to the shop hop in Lancaster anyway.  They call it a shop hop, but all of the vendors come to one place….VERY convenient!  I escaped with only a new book, while Jan bought several patterns for new pot holders.  We saw many people there from quilting…and they all had packages as well.  We headed for Mexican for lunch (yum!) and were home by 1 PM.  I worked in the studio in the afternoon and finally finished all of my quilting pinwheels:

 

 

I worked the rest of the afternoon on a new block, an appliquéd angel.  Just before dinner, Michael took Cookie out for her first introduction to snow (if you get this in an email, you may have to go to the website to see the video attached…I don’t think videos get sent in an email):

 

 

She really wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.  We watched TV in the evening, and I put together sandwich bread dough to rise in the fridge overnight before heading to bed.

Being on this anti-inflammatory eating plan (which is going well by the way) and not really finishing any craft projects makes for pretty boring (or non-existent!) blog entries.  I started sewing pinwheels for a Christmas quilt at quilting on Thursday (2/14) and continued to sew on them all day Friday.  Hopefully Saturday’s activities will be more exciting and even have pictures….stay tuned  J.

Tuesday (2/12) was a terrific day.  I spent the morning at Nancy’s house, and of course we had about a million things to talk about, but I actually got a tiny bit of knitting done as well.  I came home and had a quick lunch before Joanne picked me up for knitting.  I spent the afternoon there, talking to several people, before coming home and having a FABULOUS dinner…burgers on the grill!  Michael, Cookie and I headed on over to Jan and Walt’s house before 7.  Michael and Walt headed to the movies, while Jan and I solved all of the problems of the world by the time they came home!

Cookie & Elsie

It was gloomy and rainy on Monday (2/11), so Michael cancelled his golf.  We both spent a lot of time downstairs…him playing a car racing game on the computer, and me doing this and that with my sewing stuff.  Our 2 ‘kids’ were down there too, every 1/2 hour or so they would shift into a different postions (it was adorable to watch):

 

We had a quiet dinner and just watched TV in the evening.

birthday cake, kaulua cake, turnovers, birthday guests

Michael left for golf on Saturday (2/9) and I spent a good bit of time cleaning.  We are having a bunch of people over on Sunday (mostly his golfing buddies) to celebrate his birthday, and I’m baking the cake on Sunday, so wanted to get all of the cleaning out of the way.  Since I still didn’t know what sewing project to start, I spent several hours in the afternoon cleaning the mess-that-is-my-desk!  Here’s the floor before:

 

 and here’s after:

 

 

I also had a HUGE pile on the desk itself….more pics on that once I get it fully cleaned off.  I got some knitting done on some charity mittens while we watched TV after dinner.

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Happy Birthday to Michael!!!!!!  Yes, Sunday (2/10) was a GREAT day!  We were up early to open presents…he got some Marvin the Martian golf tees, a new Zentangle book, a 50 year retrospective of The Beach Boys, and a dress watch.  I got his regular birthday layer cake done: 

 a Kaulua chocolate chip bundt cake done:

 

 

and these strawberry jam mini-turnovers (and one larger peach turnover) that I have been DYING to make:

 

 

aren’t they the cutest things?  I’ve had the turnover makers forever…just looking for a chance to use them.  I used my own homemade puff pastry for the first time too!  I also had a bunch that I froze before baking...so now I can whip them out and have a great dessert in no time at all:

 

That took all morning…and cleaning up the kitchen took quite a bit of the afternoon  J.  We had a quick dinner and our guests started arriving at 6 for champagne and birthday desserts (I didn't get pics of all....but most!):

 

Jan & Walt

Joanne & Nancy

Deanna & Jerry

Ralph & Candace

Gloria K & Larry A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think everyone had a good time, and they certainly enjoyed the treats!  Michael and I watched 3 episodes of ‘our’ show (AS TIME GOES BY) before he pronounced it a wonderful birthday and we headed off to bed.

I was up early to get a veggie soup in the crockpot before spending the rest of Friday (2/8) morning at the ob-gyn’s office.  Just a routine visit, but they were running late and it seemed to take FOREVER!

I got home at 11:30, but couldn’t eat my soup because the chickpeas weren’t cooked, so I had a salad instead made of mixed greens, 3 oz of turkey, 1/2 of an avocado, and some pumpkin seeds.  I finally got to my studio at 2, and got absolutely nothing done during the afternoon and evening!  I was trying to decide what project to start…and just couldn’t settle on anything.  I didn’t want to start something just to start something, and then set it aside when it wasn’t something I was interested in…so I basically just putzed around in my sewing studio.  In the evening I finally dragged out 2 drawers of scraps and got a bunch of them cut up for charity quilts (both drawers were overflowing, so that was a good thing), but otherwise it was a wasted day.  On a good note, even though Michael didn’t think he would like the soup…he ended up having 2 bowls of it for dinner!

breast cancer purses, alcohol inks

I picked up Jan close to 9:30 on Thursday (2/7) and we headed off to quilting.  It turned out to be a bust for both of us…Jan left home without the cords to her machine….and no matter what I do, I am struggling with the Christmas flip and sew table runner.  Since jan’s dragonfly one went together so easily, I can only conclude that using various widths for the strips does not work.  It’s going in a corner until I can figure out what to do with it.  On a brighter note, I spent all of the afternoon and a bit of the evening, ending up with this:

and this:

 

 

I had a box lid with these purses in it, and they were mostly done.  I wanted to embroidery the person’s name on each purse that was purchased…but they certainly didn’t seem to go over as well as I had hoped.  I decided to just finished them, and donate them to the cancer walk down here.  So….ONE of the bazillion box lids is empty  J.

 Michael was also downstairs for a bit, finishing up some pictures for another set of notecards:

 

We watched television in the evening and I knit a bit on a child’s mitten pattern that I am not sure I’m happy with.

Michael left for golf on Wednesday (2/6) and I read a good bit in the morning before heading downstairs.  When I worked in an office, empty Xerox boxes were like gold….everyone wanted them.  They have been in decidedly short supply since I retired…but I do have a few.  My friend Mary Jo talked to me awhile ago about how the box lids make excellent containers for projects….and I thought she made a GREAT point…..until I ended up with about a bazillion box lids with projects in them  L.  So I pulled one out on Wednesday and started to work on a project….the rest of the afternoon and evening…stay tuned to find out what it is….

Tuesday (2/5) was a typical fun day!  Nancy came over in the morning and as usual we had about a hundred things to talk about.  At least she got some skeins wound while she was here….me?  I didn’t get anything done  J.  When Nancy left, I called up Jan and we headed to the grocery store to get the rest of the foods I needed to start my anti-inflammatory eating!  I was home by 1:30 and headed up just a bit late to Stitch ‘n’ Chat.  Nancy A happened to bring her IPOD, so we spent a bit of time looking at that.  She has lots of really interesting pictures on it, and she also found a website with a knitting pattern I like.  I got home around 3:30 and read for a bit before leaving at 5:40 to pick up Jan and Walt.  Jan and I made a quick stop at MICHAEL’S for some yarn, while Michael and Walt headed to the theatre to buy our movie tickets.  We saw LES MISERABLES…..oh my….it was my first time….what a stirring and sad story!  And I don’t know who people can actually sing and cry at the same time…but they did!  We were home by 10 and read for about an hour before heading to bed.

BG has been following an anti-inflammatory eating plan for over a week with great success.  She has already noticed a difference in her body and I’m ready to sign up!  I have had plantar fasciitis for at least 8 years (sometimes it is REALLY painful and sometimes it is not too bad, but it is ALWAYS there) and that is one thing she noticed….her feet have stopped hurting.  That’s enough incentive for me!  I had a hair appointment on Monday (2/4) around lunchtime, after which I spent over an hour in the grocery store trying to pick up everything I needed.  They didn’t have everything, so on Tuesday I’m going elsewhere so that I’ll be ready to start Wednesday. I spent the rest of the day reading and after leftover Chinese from the freezer for me, and my 7 minute shrimp scampi for Michael, I headed downstairs to do a bit of sewing.

Cookie & Elsie, bread, rolls

On Friday morning (2/1) I tried working on the new quilting pattern I bought with Jan….it wasn’t working out  L.  I will definitely finish one for us, but I don’t think I’ll be making these to sell…which is a shame because they are so cute….but a real pain in the you-know-what to sew.  My 2 faithful companions were SO interested in what I was doing….NOT!

 

I spent Saturday and Sunday reading, other than a small amount of time spent making more sandwich bread: 

yes....that is a loaf of bread and a jug of wine....my 'thou' was watching golf!

 

I swiped 6 ounces of the dough to make 2 rolls for our sloppy joes for dinner…otherwise, I sat in my chair in the living room and read!

Thursday (1/31) was a fairly busy day…Jan picked me up at 8:30 and we headed off to Mary Jo’s.  We both need some fabric to go with our focus fabric for the mystery, and Thursday was the only day we could go.  We had 5 places on a list of places to stop, and we only made it to 2 of them.  Mary Jo’s was first and since we both had lists of what we needed, we thought we’d be in and out quickly….not so  L.  This mystery requires that you have a light-medium-dark to go with your focus fabric.  Jan and I both had our ruby beholders…and the fabric we had pulled from our stash, and the new fabric at Mary Jo’s…it was CRAZY!!  I swear to you, I had a pale blue, very pale that I had bought for my light.  I pick out a dark coral, really going towards rust…and it was ‘reading’ lighter than the blue!!!  Frustrating, as each of the fabrics take different amounts…so I couldn’t suddenly make the blue my medium…I didn’t have enough.  We both spent hours walking around the store trying to find fabric that would work with what we already had.  The mystery teacher had explained that the quilt wouldn’t work until you really had the light-medium-dark separation…so I finally scrapped the blue I had…scraped the desire to use a coral, and picked up a pale yellow and a darker blue.  I also found some black/silver that I think will work with my small purses (Janice reminded me that dressy ones might still sell).  After that, we headed over to SEW MUCH FUN.  They have moved to a new store since we had been there last, and the new store is HUGE!!!!  and FABULOUS!!!  We spent so much time there that neither one of us could wait to eat lunch (we were both starving) so we nixed the Mexican restaurant closer to home, and stopped at SCHLOTZKY’s (right across the street) instead.  I knew I had eaten in one in the past…probably when I visited Chicago, and it was just as good as I remembered…..Jan pointed out some good looking salads, but I said ‘I think what I liked about it last time was the bread’…and I was right.  I got a turkey club on jalapeno cheese bread with chipotle sauce on the side….it was YUMMY!!  We finally got home around 1:30 and I was exhausted.  I took a short nap, then met with Beth to see which purse she wanted (she ended up taking all 4 home so that Bill could weigh in on a decision).  I puttered a bit in my studio, then got showered and dressed and we headed into Charlotte.  Michael likes to see plays where the cast of characters includes people he knows.  He worked with a young man several years ago in INHERIT THE WIND, and Grant was in a production called NEXT TO NORMAL, about a family where the wife is bipolar/schizophrenic.  Most of the ‘dialogue’ was sung…and although I initially didn’t want to go to see the play…I enjoyed it.  It seemed like an honest account of what the wife’s brain was telling her was going on.  The acting was incredible and Michael really enjoyed talking to Grant after the performance.  Grant is a high school senior this year and hopes to study musical theatre in college.  As much as we enjoyed the play…by the time we got home, and stayed up a bit to play with the dog, it was after mid-night when we crawled into bed.  These late nights just kill us....