Tuesday morning (11/29) Michael and I took Mary Jo to the airport  L.  We had a wonderful visit; it’s always like we’ve never been apart when we get back together…it was totally sad to see her go.  On the way home, Michael and I did a big grocery shopping trip and turned our eyes towards the next visitors….THE KIDS ARE COMING…THE KIDS ARE COMING!  Marc and Kate arrive on Thursday morning, so Michael and I came home and got busy.  We got all of the sheets and towels cleaned, and started to make gravy for our Thanksgiving meal (which we will have Saturday night!)  I put a ham bone in the crockpot to get stock to make ham and bean soup for one of our meals.  We also started to make our Christmas food gifts.  We got 4 runs of white trash done and 2 runs of cracker toffee before taking a break. 

I got a bunch of albums loaded on my IPOD so that we could listen to Christmas music for the rest of the year.  We had leftovers for dinner and I wove and knit and we watched TV for the rest of the night.

Michael got in 18 holes of golf on Sunday (11/27) while Mary Jo and I got in a bike ride and visiting with several friends.  Otherwise it was talking and crafting and in general, just being glad we had time to spend together.  In the evening I worked on finishing off some scarves…I got everything done on 2 chenille scarves (click on the picture to make bigger so that you can see the ribbon overlay!):

and one additional ruffled scarf:

Monday (11/28) we went to the Alphabet Museum in the morning, made a quick stop at a very small museum of Mexico, hit a great gallery in Waxhaw and had lunch out.  There was more crafting in the afternoon and evening…but also a bit of sadness because it was Mary Jo’s last night  L.

I did a little cleaning, a little cooking and a little sewing on Friday (11/25) really just marking time until Michael came home (with a SCORTCHING 81 from the golf course) and until I left to pick up MARY JO at the airport!!!!!!!!!!!  Of course it was a fabulous evening and we talked and talked and talked until 12:30 when I finally fell into bed.  The other exciting thing that happened on Friday was that Bob (a friend and woodworker) delivered the ‘scarf rack’ he has been working on for me.  It looks like a ladder for a bunch of Smurfs, the I think it will display many scarves beautifully, but in a small space. 

I will try to remember to take a picture of it (full of scarves) at the craft fair next Sunday afternoon.

Even thought I got to bed very late…I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so at 5:30 I got up and made this outrageous coffeecake for breakfast!  Mary Jo and I crafted all day, until Penny picked her up for church at 3:30.   Penny stayed for dinner once they got home (quiche, rolls, green beans) but left shortly afterwards.  We all left for the symphony and I think Mary Jo was enchanted with the ‘symphony de soleil’!  Incredible dancing and acrobatics, with a full orchestral background.  We got home around 11 and I was feeling pretty punk from the beginnings of a cold, so I spent an hour in the tub: hot water and a hot toddy were just what the doctor ordered…I slept for a solid 6 hours.

Michael went golfing on Wednesday (11/23) and I spent the day in the studio doing a variety of things, mostly working on a new rope basket for my friend Jan.  Judy called me in the afternoon and we went up to the pool for an hour….she swam laps and I walked up and down the length of the pool.  Michael and I decided to go out to Red Lobster for dinner and the food was terrific.  Once home, I got a bit of knitting done before heading to bed.

 

THANKSGIVING!  a fabulous, perfect day!  We got to sleep late, have a relaxing breakfast, then took a long bike ride and got say HAPPY BIRD DAY to many friends.  We both worked downstairs in the morning while watching MEET ME IN ST LOUIS with Judy Garland.  By then it was early afternoon and we headed upstairs where I took a nap and Michael watched MYTH BUSTERS.  Then it was back downstairs to watch BLYTHE SPIRIT on the computer.  Fort Mill Community Playhouse is doing BS as a play in February and Michael wants to try out.  He wants me to try out too…so we watched the movie version.  We finally broke out the puffy things for dinner and finished off the evening watching the original SUPERMAN with Chris Reeve…hard to believe he is gone…he was GORGEOUS…the perfect Superman.

Monday (11/21) was a fun day.  Michael left early for golf and I got dough made for killer pecan sticky buns.  I had a volunteer meeting at 10:30 and then at 11:30 I headed on over to the high school for another bread demo.  I took my roll dough just to demo forming standard rolls and the students had hand outs of all different ways to shape dough.  All 4 groups of students made dough on Friday and they each picked a different way to make the rolls; we had crescents, parker house, clover leaf and a few others.  The dough went back into the fridge to rise and they baked it on Tuesday (the downside of only having a 45 minutes class.) By the time I got home I was ready to hit the loom again and after 3 hours in the afternoon and 3 hours at night, I finally finished weaving the new scarves.

Tuesday morning I spent visiting with Nancy and starting to put ribbon through my scarves.  I came home for a quick sandwich and headed off to knitting.  I didn’t get very much accomplished at knitting….we were all too busy talking about Thanksgiving and what was going to be happening.  When I got home I finally finished putting ribbon through my second scarf and got them washed and dried.  Michael came home from going to the movies (I think it was the movie about J. Edgar Hoover) and after our leftover ham dinner, we just relaxed for the rest of the night.

Sunday (11/20) was another wonderful crafting day.  Michael and I had a relaxing breakfast in front of the fire, then he took off to buy a few things and go golf club shopping and I continued to weave and knit and sew.  We had leftovers for dinner, and moved my loom up to the living room so that I could continue to weave while we watched TV….by the time we went to bed, I had had a very productive day…4 more scarves completed:

 and a second rope tote (already sold!) and 3 more scarves:

And I’m over 1/2 way done on my woven scarves.

Saturday (11/19) was a pretty relaxing day.  Michael made a quick trip to the grocery store in the morning, then put together FOUR POUNDS (remember this….it will be significant later) of potatoes/carrots.  I got to craft for most of the day (sewing, knitting, weaving), stopping only to put together herb rolls and get the ham in the oven for dinner.  Phil and Gale and Jan and Walt came at 6 and we had a wonderful dinner.  I was glad that Michael made so many potatoes/carrots, because I knew we would have leftover ham and then we could just reheat everything for another dinner.  Well, as I was putting away the leftovers…the potatoes/carrots fit in a 6 ounce container…with room to spare!  People really LOVED them!  Anyway, it was a wonderful day and a great dinner with lots of conversation.  Everyone left around 8:30 and Michael and I read and knit the rest of the evening.

Thursday morning (11/16) Jan picked up Willa and me at 8:30 to head to the official grand opening of Joann’s!!!!!  It was totally cool, we had lots of good coupons and even got a $10 gift cert for being in the first 100 customers.  We were there for 2 hours and then headed off to quilting.  It was a small group (many of them were still at Joann’s) but I got a bit of knitting done before we headed home.  Michael and I headed up to square dancing at 4:30 and it was such an aerobic event for 2 hours that when we got home neither one of us felt like eating dinner.  So we just noshed a bit and then separated, me to continue weaving and Michael to continue watching TV.

I spent Friday morning getting ham and bean soup into the crockpot and doing a lot of paper/money work to get out ducks in a row to order name tags for square dancing.  I am treasurer of our club and have been getting checks and cash for several weeks and luckily it all balanced and I got my deposit ready before Barrie showed up.  Barrie is one of my clinic knitters and she is finishing up a beautiful entrelac shawl for her mom for Christmas.  She is one of my beginning knitting students and this is her first project.  I truly don’t know any other knitter who would have even attempted this as a beginner, but there was never any doubt in my mind that she could accomplish it….she took to knitting like a duck to water (what is it with the ducks on my mind today?)  Anyway, the shawl is almost finished and if I remember I am going to take a picture of her modeling it….because both the shawl and Barrie are beautiful!  We had a great visit talking and knitting and when she finally left, I got just a few things done around the house before Michael got home from a horrible round of golf.  I guess there was a group right behind them on the tees who just made their whole round a misery, so he consoled himself with watching golf on TV.  Bob picked me up at 6 for a practice session with the band…and when I got home close to 10 I was too tired to do anything else!

Wednesday was a fabulous day…I spent the day in my studio  J.  I sewed a bit, warped a bit, knit a bit and in general had a fabulous time while Michael was out scoring an 84 on the golf course!  We went up to square dancing at 4:30 and Linda was THRILLED with the rope tote.  She wrote me a check and put it with her things…and hour later she came over and said “I’m not sure I want to give it away, it is so pretty!”  I said “well, I’m making a second one…I’ll let you know when it is done!”  We were so exhausted when we came home from the dance that neither one of us wanted dinner….we just dropped on the couch for the rest of the night!

Tuesday morning (11/15) Nancy came for a visit and I continued to work on the rope tote.  I finished it at 1 PM…just in time for show and tell at Stitch & Chat:

I will take it to square dancing on Wednesday to see if Linda likes it…I told her to bring a blank check!!

I also did the finishing on the 2 newest woven scarves…they feel DREAMY!!!  If I don’t sell them at the craft fair on Dec 4^th, a woman at Stitch & Chat wants them!

I was home by 3:30 and Jackie came over for help on a sweater.  She wants to hire me to help her make her first sweater…so we checked out her gauge and talked over what she should be doing.  After she left, Michael and I got cleaned up and were ready when Joanne and Larry picked us up at 5:30 for dinner.  We had a wonderful time at Ruby Tuesday’s for a couple of hours, then came home and relaxed in front of the TV.

Monday morning (12/14) I made pancakes for breakfast and they were awesome!  Nice and thick and light, just the way I like them.  Michael cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast and I headed down to the studio to work on the rope tote.  I was down there all day (except for making up roll dough in the afternoon) and the tote was 1/2 way done by dinner.  We had soup and new rolls (they were supposed to be like that brown bread loaves they serve at Outback) and Michael said they were excellent!  He left shortly afterwards to go to a meeting at a community theatre, and I continued to work on the tote.  By bedtime it was almost done.

Friday morning (11/11) was the ‘soft opening’ of Joann’s Fabrics near where I live….FINALLY…after 5 years of waiting, there is a Joann’s store near me.  Jan and I were there at 9 and we met TONS of people from SCCL and Thursday quilting who were also there!  We mostly just walked around and checkout everything they had…it is a GREAT store and I’m sure I’ll be utilizing it a lot for notions and zippers and such.  I had a chance to do a bit of weaving when I got home, then a few people showed up for knitting clinic.  Del had called to say she had a problem with her afghan, so I told her to come…Barrie came with her entrelac shawl (and it looks beautiful, the knitted fringe is done as well and she will be sewing it own soon!) and Jackie came to get advice on making a sweater.  Jeri stopped by to pick up some yarn and a book, Lois came by to talk to Jackie about going to Joann’s and Jan stopped by to say hi!  It was a very lively afternoon.  Michael and I had a quick dinner and I knit while we watched TV in the evening.

Saturday morning (11/12) I headed off early to Hobby Lobby.  Friends had told me that they had some yarn I was looking for, and I also found fabric for a rope tote bag that someone ordered from me for a Christmas present.  I was home by 10:30 and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon weaving.  Michael played horseshoes in the morning, and watched golf in the afternoon.  Before dinner I had finally finished the 2 scarves on my loom and had cut them off.  I still have to do finishing on them, so no picture until they are totally done!  I’ve been trying to knit every minute that I’m in the car, or watching TV and got the ends sewn in on 4 additional scarves: 

These scarves are all the rage down here!

Sunday morning Jan and I had a meeting in Pineville and stopped for a quick breakfast at IHOP before heading home.  I spent the day in my studio (while Michael was out golfing and came home with an 85!!), cutting strips of fabric and wrapping clothesline for the newest tote.  We had pizza for dinner and settled in to watch TV in the evening.

I was up early Thursday (11/10) to get roll dough made, and raised and formed into rolls before Jan picked me up for quilting…and I took all of the magazines and patterns that I cleared out from my shelves.  Most of the stuff went in a flash!  I brought home very few items to donate to the library.  Jan and Loree and I made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home, so I didn’t get home until 2:30.  At 3, Michael and I headed up to square dancing for 2 hours and had a really good time!  We got home close to 6, had dinner and knit and watched TV the rest of the night.

Tuesday (11/8) was a FABULOUS day!  I wove most of the day, except to take a short break to clean out one of the shelves in my craft bookcase (I now have a ton of patterns to give away at quilting this week…here’s the before:

Michael ran a bunch of errands in the morning, then went to the movies in the afternoon.  We had dinner and watched TV and continued to weave in the evening.

Wednesday Michael left early for golf, and I continued weaving and cleaning out shelves, another before: 

and an after showing both cleaned shelves:

We went up to the square dance at 4:30 and were exhausted by the end at 6:30….we came home…had dinner…and snuggled on the couch.

Friday morning was spent cleaning to get ready for the 30 people arriving for a pot luck dinner at 5:30!!  Michael left for rehearsal before everyone came and I was in the bathroom at 5:15, taking the pins out of my hair when the doorbell rang!  I let the first (early!) guests in, got my hair finished and came out to greet everyone.  They all seemed to have a great time and we left for the theatre around 6:45, joining up with 14 other people!  The play was terrific….and Michael was terrific….after seeing the play I can TOTALLY understand why Michael is exhausted every night when he gets home.

We didn’t really sleep very late on Saturday…I was up by 8 to pull all of my stuff together for the open house, pottery and weaving fair from 10 – 3 on Saturday and 1 – 4 on Sunday.  I got there at 9 and finished setting up the rest of my items.  Here are 2 pics of some set-up:

We had a steady stream of people all day, so that was very good…and again I sold a bunch of stuff… about 8 scarves, one shawl and all but 2 necklaces.  I balanced our accounts at the end and had time to run home and change my clothes before Bob picked me up at 4:30.  I had my debut with REFLECTIONS, the 40’s band I told you about.  As one of my blog readers put it…I’m now a SHFS (smokin’ hot 40’s singer!!) I got to sing MISTY and WHERE OR WHEN.  It was a thrilling experience and one couple and another woman in the audience came up to me after our set and told me I had a beautiful voice and that they really enjoyed hearing me!!!  That was terrific….I got home at 10:15,,,,just 10 minutes before Michael called to say he was heading home from his next-to-the-last performance of the play.

Sunday morning we were moving very slowly…I got the ends sewn in on 2 other scarves that I took to the second day of the fair…and promptly sold!  Michael had his last performance, then came home to pick me up for the cast party.  I didn’t know what to make, and didn’t really have much time or energy, so I ended up taking rolls.  I thought it was kind of a funny thing to take to a cast party (and it was!) but everyone loved them, so that was good.  One of the cast members hosted the party, and they live in a mansion….literally!  the house was HUGE and beautifully decorated (but not fussy) with many amazing details.  I LOVED the house…but am awfully glad I’m not the one who has to clean it  J.  We got home around 10 and just collapsed into bed. 

Monday morning we were up early to drive into Charlotte with Howard and George for our segway tour of Charlotte.  We ended up having the same guide as last year!!  It was lots of fun (just like last year) and afterwards we had a smurfy lunch at the diner across the street.  When we got home around 2, Michael and I collapsed into bed and took a 2 hour nap.  We’ve both been running pretty hard lately and we really needed it.  We spent the evening relaxing and watching TV, although I did get warped up and began weaving on 2 new rayon chenille scarves in blue…I LOVE them!

Thursday (11/3) morning quilting got cancelled, so Nancy and I got to spend some time together.  I got to knit on a new scarf, while she sorted and matched up blocks for her new bed quilt.  After Nancy left, I spent several hours doing paperwork…it never seems to end and I never seen to get on top of it…my desk still looks awful, the pile is just a tiny bit smaller!  At 3:30 Michael and I headed up to square dancing.  We got people checked in and danced in one square, then another couple showed up so we headed for home.  Michael had a quick dinner and left for his pick-up rehearsal, while I packed up the golf cart with a bunch of craft stuff and headed over to Judy’s.  I set up more of my stuff in the display…we talked for awhile, then I headed home to a late dinner and knitting until Michael got home after 10.

Michael left early for golf on Wednesday (11/2) and I got Mexican Chicken soup in the crockpot before heading to the studio.  I know I’ve been blogging about a lot of knitting and weaving…with no pictures to show for it…but that’s because I usually put everything almost done in a pile and leave the ‘finishing details’ until I have a group of things to do…so here are pictures of 5 finished scarves (all already sold): 

 and 4 woven scarves:

I’ve already shown you the first scarf in browns, but wanted you to see the second side by side.  They were both warped the same, then the first was woven with the lightest brown and the second was woven with the medium brown.  Again the 2 pink scarves were warped the same, but one was woven with a solid pink and one was woven with the same thread as the warp thread.

I made 2 pans of cornbread in the afternoon and Jeannie arrived at 4:30 (just after Michael got home from golf with an 86 on a course he had never seen!!!) for my pressure canning lesson.  I ladled hot soup into 4 quart jars, poured in water, popped on the lid and away we went.  While we were waiting for it to start steaming and then to process for 75 minutes, we ate soup and cornbread for dinner and talked and talked and talked and talked!!!  We also set up a time for our next bread class at the high school…that will be the Monday of Thanksgiving week.  It is VERY hard to believe that we will be celebrating our FIFTH Thanksgiving in South Carolina.  It took me the rest of the night to label my scarves and table runners for the open house….a tedious fiddle-y job!

Tuesday morning (11/1)we went for our physicals with Dr. K.  Both of us have high cholesterol, so he wants to see us in 3-6 months to see if we have improved using diet and exercise  L.  After that we headed to BJ’s for a massive shopping trip…it took over an hour to put everything away once we got home.  Phil stopped by to put up a shelf in our laundry room…it looks FABULOUS!!!!!  By then it was close to 4 and I threw together some of my stuff for the craft open house this weekend and headed up to Judy’s to set up.  Once home, we had dinner, then I headed to the studio to get my 2 scarves off the loom.  I was back upstairs by 8 and knit while we watched TV.

HALLOWEEN!! - Monday morning after breakfast, Michael and I handed out flyers in the last pod for the open house craft fair and headed to Harris Teeter for HE washer detergent.  Our new washer was delivered yesterday while I was grocery shopping, and we need high efficiency detergent to run it.  We got a couple of loads done in the morning before Michael left for golf and I left for my bread demo at the high school.

I told you about it….right?  I quilt on Thursdays with a woman whose sister is the home ec teacher at the high school.  She asked if I would do a bread demo…today was the day!!!  I took in artisan bread and we baked up 3 loaves….the kids also mixed up 2 more batches to be baked later this week and next.  I promised the kids I would be back before Thanksgiving with my ‘golden pull apart butter buns’.  It was actually kind of fun and I am looking forward to the next time.  I was home by 2, got mac and cheese in the crockpot for dinner and got to weave for a bit.  Michael got home from golf and was really cold, so he decided to take a soak for a bit.  Dinner was scrumptious and we watched TV the rest of the night…when we were down in the studio I was weaving and when we were upstairs I was knitting…I am determined to catch up on all of my orders!