Thursday, February 7, 2013

On the Mend

Good Morning friends!

I think I'm finally on the mend here in the Queen hospital! Hubby and I are both still coughing a bit, but I'm told that the cough will likely be around for awhile so we'll just have to deal with the annoying thing. I'm still tired very easily, but with some long nights sleep, that seems to be improving too. I even went to my knitting group on Tuesday morning and had a lovely time with two ladies that I haven't seen in over a year. They won't be back for a month because they are off to Hawaii for 3 1/2 weeks. I wish I could hide in their knitting bag and go along. Away from the snow, fog and rain. Sounds good to me.

Tomorrow night is the Valentine Dinner at church. We have two professional chefs in our church who have volunteered to do the cooking. It should be wonderful. Fabrice is from France and like an adopted son to us. Hubby baptized him and then performed the wedding for him and his lovely wife Heather. We are like their adopted parents and it thrills us no end to see them becoming more involved in church functions. They met as pen pals in High School creative writing class. Isn't that romantic? She was here in Spokane and he was in the south of France. He later went to Paris and became a chef but true love was too much for them and he moved here and married Heather, golly, it's been about 8 years now I think. Time flies. They have the cutest baby named Julian and he is our grandson for all intents and purposes. Anyway, Fabrice will be taking over my kitchen tomorrow to do a bunch of prep work for the dinner. It should be lots of fun!

I have some finished projects to show you, so with no further ado, here we go!

I finished my scarf! I do like the pattern very much, but the obvious striping hasn't grown on me, so I think it will go into my gift basket for when I need a quick gift for someone. Meanwhile, I bought myself some new yarn as you'll see in a later picture.

My valentine heart dishcloths are finished for my two sets of yearly dishcloths. I've begun another one of the lacey hearts for me, just because I really like it! I'm allowed aren't I? The lacey one only takes about 2 hours, the solid one took days. And that, my friends, is the difference between size 3 and size 6 needles! The lace pattern took more concentration and counting too, but still was much faster.


I decided to make a loaf of bread yesterday, but had a hard time getting it to rise because of the chill in the air. I took it to the basement and set it on the gas stove right over the pilot light and look what happened!

It was delicious for dinner along with real butter and homemade mushroom soup. Yummm!

This is my new yarn! I very rarely splurge on yarn from a "real" yarn store. I usally buy Michaels or JoAnn's yarn and sometimes Hobby Lobby. My wonderful Mother-in-Love sent me money for my birthday and looky what I got. It's an 85% Merino/15% Mulberry silk blend. I plan to make another scarf for myself with it. I had enough money left over to buy some precious little sheep stitch markers that I've been eyeing for a long time now. I have the plastic circle ones that work just fine. A whole box for $2.95, but just look a those sheep. And it was birthday money! I didn't have to take anything out of the grocery budget to buy them!

One skein was exactly what the pattern called for, so I got out my trusty scale and ball winder and wound two 51 gram balls with it so I'll know exactly when to stop and begin making the decreasing side.

Aren't these little guys cute?

And now, I need to get busy. Tonight is Bible study here and we're having a video with popcorn. We usually go out to dinner before study, but tonight we're doing a finger food potluck. I'm making my infamous barbeque sausages, (cut up sausage, put it in the crockpot with barbeque sauce! So easy!) But I'm also going to try out a new recipe and make apple struedel too so I need to get busy on that.

Thank you for all of the comments about the wood stove. The store came out to measure, but we haven't heard back from them on an actual price, which will be the deciding factor. It was an overwhelming majority vote of yes, get the stove so now we'll see what happens. I'll keep you all updated on it.

Now, I need to get off the computer and get busy. Have a wonderfully blessed day everyone. I wish we could all spend a day together and really share with each other. Since that's fairly improbable, hug someone that's not expecting it, you'll be amazed at the response. Everyone needs a kind touch now and then.

Blessings,

Betsy


13 comments:

  1. Love the scarf and that bread looks so delicious! How dare you eat carbs when I can't have any! Hee-hee. I really love to bake bread. Your new yarn looks great...such pretty blues.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Betsy, glad you are feeling better, hope the cough soon goes. The Valentine dinner sounds as if it will be a great occasion and what a romantic story too.
    Those heart cloths are just perfect and I can almost smell the freshly baked bread.
    I agree about a random hug or a RAK or just a smile can make someone's day, mine included. I'm sending you a hug right this minute. There, now you are smiling.
    Carol xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the self striping scarf, I really do. It will make a fantastic gift, also loving that sweet story, those two were meant to be together. You can never go wrong with Cascade yarn, and oh my those stitch markers!
    Hugs to you,
    Meredith

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm having trouble commenting, so I I hope you don't get multiples from me. The scarf turned out really nice. Very pretty.

    The bread looks so yummy -- just like the kind my mother used to bake.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Glad to see you will be leaving the Queens Hospital in good health soon :) I had the crud about a month ago and am still coughing so I think your Dr. may know what he/she is talking about.
    Thanks for visiting me again. I love hearing from new soon to be old friends.
    I did not know we lived in the same State, just opposite sides. That was fun to discover.
    I too do a lot of knitting. If you have not visited my blog http://knittingfortanzania.blogspot.com/ maybe you would like to. I sell what I sell in an attempt to help build a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo aka Zaire. I am giving some thought to going back there in July. I need to make my mind up soon though so I can apply for the necessary visa and see if I need to be stuck in the arm again.
    Love the knitting projects. The heart clothes are very cute. Enjoy the beautiful yarn too. I often use Cascade for my knitting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a fun, busy, story filled post! Love your shawl! And the story of how those two met.. yes, very romantic.. I bet it's fun to listen to his French accent! I'm glad you're recovering from that virus.. ugh! Hope to see you in town soon.. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ahhhh, you are sounding more like your busy self, Betsy! So glad you are feeling better. Your latest projects are all beautiful. You inspire me to quit typing and get busy stitching =)
    xx,
    Gracie

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Betsy - you had a lovely chat with us now haven't you???

    - such lovely things happening - love the birthday pressie - and yes, so understand why it was okay to have those cute woolly lamb stitch counters - sooo cute and it was pressie money so perfectly okay!

    God graciously gives us the desires of our hearts - sometimes, as well as our needs always.

    I love the dishcloths too and agree with you on the stripes wonder if softer colours would have been better. But some folks like bold patterns out there.

    Enjoy your French chef - delightful story, love Shaz in Oz.x

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm glad you guys are doing better...Neal's coming down with something, I think it's what I had :( see you tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Goodness! You sure do keep busy. What a wonderful love story Fabrice and Heather have to tell. The scarf and heart cloths are so pretty. I've never seen a yarn scale before ... and I'm the only yarn ball winder around here. Ha! There's nothing much that beats a homemade loaf of bread with a hearty soup. Have a great rest of the week. Tammy

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hope you feel better....your bread..oh how lovely it is!! I have not made bread for ages...maybe it is time to make a loaf or two.
    You have inspired me!
    xoxox

    ReplyDelete
  12. Glad to hear you are further along on your road to recovery...those long lasting coughs can be annoying though :-(
    Love your heart themed dishcloths...someday, someday I hope to learn how to knit and crochet.
    Have fun at your special meal!
    Blessings, Aimee

    ReplyDelete