Thursday, March 29, 2012

Snow Again?

Good morning friends!

I apologize for my absence yet again, but I've certainly been struggling with illness. I ended up at the doctor over the past weekend for antibiotics and cough medicine. Bronchitis this time around. Now hubby is sick too! What in the world is happening this year? We've never been this sick in 34 years of being married! I'm a bit better, still coughing somewhat, but that will probably last awhile. Hubby is in the midst of it, but still going to work every day-even with a fever. I worry about him very much and pray for a quick return to health.

Snow is forecast for the weekend! That's right, snow! When the majority of the country is having record high temperatures, we're still dealing with snow. I haven't been outside much for the past 9 days, so it hasn't mattered too much to me. :-)

Still trying to figure out the photo issues with blogspot, but since the progress on the baby blanket is VERY slow, there aren't a lot of photos to share with you anyway. I'm sure you don't want to see what I look like these days.

I have about 10 inches of the stranded baby blanket done and it looks fairly good on the front, but the back...where the ends are woven in, looks horrible. Kind of like counted cross stitch. Is it supposed to look like that? I've tried to weave them in neatly, but when there is only one stitch knitted-and you then have 2 ends to weave in, well, it looks messy. Maybe I'm not doing it right but I don't know how else to secure the ends. And there have been hundreds already. I'll just have to tell my daughter not to show anyone the back!!

Thank you for the comments and offers to help. I truly appreciate them, I just haven't felt like being on the computer much. I hope it's warming up for all of you and you are all experiencing better health than we are these days!!

Blessings,

Betsy

Monday, March 19, 2012

Hello Again!

My goodness it's been a long time since I've been here. I'm still trying to figure out the photo "thing." I really can't justifuly paying for a blog, but blogspot seems to want money to have me post pictures. Maybe I'll delete some old ones??? What have some of you done in similar circumstances?

I just returned from almost a week in Portland, Oregon visiting our daughter. She's 13 weeks along with our newest grandchild! We had a wonderful time. She's still pretty sick but seems to be getting a bit better. We went to IKEA and bought a new duvet and cover for our bedroom. I've wanted a nice duvet since we were in Paris a few years ago. They're so nice and squishy and snuggly!

We also bought yarn for a baby blanket I want to make for the new baby. I've never attempted charts but I think I'm going to try it for this blanket. It's a free ravelry pattern with sheep around the borders and the sun and moon. Hopefully it will turn out nice. I wanted my daughter to choose the colors she wanted and now I just need to muster my courage to begin knitting!

Hubby was in Indiana for business last week so on Friday he flew into Portland and had the weekend with our daughter too. We drove home together yesterday and it's a much nicer drive with company. Especially since I got to knit the entire way until it got too dark.

A friend from church that is in the military is being sent to Tokyo for temporaty duty. He leaves next week and he has offered to take Alex a care package. Since it costs around $75 each time I send a small box to him, we are eagerly taking Mike up on the offer. I have a video, book, calendar and some Easter candy for him so far. We don't want to overload our friend down but it's nice to have "free" shipping!

We hae blue sky and temps around 40F today but there is a winter storm watch for tomorrow and tomorrow night. Possible a foot of snow in the mountains and 4-6 inches down here in the valley. Blah!! I'm so ready for spring. Flowers were in bloom in Portland and it was so beautiful.

Well, I need to get my laundry going. Take care and please know that I love knowing you are all out there in blogland. Please leave a comment so I know who is there.

Blessings,

Betsy

Monday, March 5, 2012

Cloudy Monday

Good Morning Friends!

What a lovely Sunday we had in Spokane. I even took Chloe for a 1 1/2 mile walk in the afternoon. I started out with a jacket on, but that quickly became much too heavy to wear. It was a beautiful cloud-less day. This morning, however, is another story. Very dense clouds with the promise of rain in them. The forecast is for 1/2 inch of rain this afternoon and evening. But, at least we were blessed with a nice weekend.

Friday evening hubby and I saw the movie "Courageous" in Deer Park, WA. We both highly recommend it. In fact, we went out Saturday morning and bought the video to send to our son, Alex, in Japan. We both think he would enjoy it and he likes to get English videos! We also had friends over for pizza Saturday evening and we watched it with them since they were unable to go to the viewing Friday night. We laughed and we cried. Alot. The advantage of the DVD is watching the bloopers and the story behind the movie. It is produced, directed and shot mosting by a church, using members as the actors. This is their fourth movie that I'm aware of, and they just get better each time.

So, I just tried to upload a few pictures and it says I've exceeded my limit. Since I know next to nothing about computers, has anyone else experienced this with blogger.com? I guess my days of blogging will be no more if I have to purchase more space. That is definitely not in the budget!

I was going to show you a lace scarf in progress. I bought a merino/silk/tinsel blend at Paradise Fibers on Friday and started it yesterday. It will take some time to complete, because of the lace pattern. As you all know, there are no distractions allowed when kitting lace, so it will have to be worked on when I'm alone.

I also took a picture of a little burial outfit I made last night. Just the sleeves need added. It'a a beautiful lilac color.

And last but not least, was a picture of yet another blue baby sweater and sockies completed and the hat on the needles. I can work on these sets in church, in meetings, chatting with friends. The pattern is pretty much memorized so I always have a set on the needles. Many of the charities I belong to ask for baby sets so I usually have something to send them.

Tonight is dinner at church with the other Elders and wives before our monthly meetings. It's the start of another busy week for me. Next week I'm driving to Portland, OR to spend a few days with our daughter. I'm going to be a Grandma again in September, and I'm supposed to go the the Dr. with her and hear the baby's heartbeat! I'm so excited. Being a Grandma is one of God's greatest blessings.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Blessings,

Betsy

Friday, March 2, 2012

Same Old, Same Old

Hello my friends!

It's Friday morning and it has been just a normal week for me.  Knitting group and nursing home visits.  I managed to finish the cuddly baby blanket and it will have a Tah-dah!  moment soon.  I also finished a baby sweater and will work on a hat and sockies today.  One more set of pink and brown and I think I'll set aside that particular pattern for awhile.

I did take 57 hats and several burial outfits to the hospital on Tuesday morning.  The nurses oohed and aahed over all of it and asked me to please make more of the tiny things for both the burial needs and the micro-preemies that survive.  I think I'll try to work on those next week.

I also started a scarf from a "Pattern with No Name" from Ginny's blog "Small Things".  It's a beautiful simple lace pattern that is supposed to use fingerling weight yarn.  I started it with Caron Simply Soft in the Soft White colorway as that's what I had in the house and I wanted to see the pattern take shape.  I think it's a little too thick though and hope to get to the yarn shop today to find something else.  The scarf is supposed to be for me, but I usually end up giving everything away.

We've had several snow events this week.  I snow-blwed about 6 inches on Wednesday and it snowed some yesterday too.  We've had more snow in the last week than we have all winter!  That darn groundhog!   It's supposed to be near 50 degrees this weekend though and lots of that nasty white stuff will melt away.  Yippee!!!

Tonight hubby and I are going to grab dinner at some fast food place because we're going to see the movie "Courageous".  It's being shown at a sister church about 35 miles north of us at 7:00.  That doesn't leave a lot of time from when hubby gets home to get me and make the drive.  With all the snow we recieved this week, they have even more, so we want to leave lots of time.  Traffic is also very heavy on that highway in the morning/evening for commuters.  Lot's of people work in Spokane, but live in the smaller towns around here.

This is the basket I'm beginning to put together for my secret sister at church for March.  A green basket, shamrock towel, mug and socks.  I'm also going to get her a skein of green yarn since she likes to crochet.  What do you think?
 First thing, excuse the bad pictures.  I'm such a bad photographer, I don't even know why I try!  Today I'm showing you my entry-way.  It's a split-level house, so not much floor space there.  We bought this wall hanging on clearance at the Oregon coast.  I love it and the saying on it.  It's about 3 feet square, so it's pretty big.
 I had to take two pictures closer up so you could read what it says.

 Okay-this picture is really bad.  The lighting is off this morning, another cloudy day and it was the best of the batch!  I picked up the faith, friends and family plaques in Montana and my best friend gave me the cross for my birthday this year.  It has scriptures ingraved on it about worrying.  I'm a worrier and she knows it.  Under these plaques is a table I'll show you sometime.
 And here's my little Chloe baby. still sleeping away this morning!
  No huge plans this weekend.  We have to prepare the hospitality lunch at church on Sunday so I'm off to the grocery store right now.  Then I have knitting group this afternoon with some of the nicest ladies I've met in a long time.  Most are in their 70's and 80's. I've only been going to this group for about a month but I'm really enjoying visiting with them all.

Have a wonderfully blessed weekend and I'll see you all again next week.

Blessings,

Betsy