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

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

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

It really did snow!

On Friday in the grand saga of my life, the big question was if we should attempt to drive to Montana to visit our grandbabies.  We decided not to go, which I think was very wise.  The biggest reason however, wasn't because we were being smart at not attempting to drive through the blizzard, but was because hubby was detained at work.  That was very good for us though because look what we woke up to Saturday morning at home where snow was not even forecast!

When it was all over, hubby snowblowed about 9 inches of "flurries" off the driveway and sidewalk!  This wasn't even in the mountains!   There is another winter storm watch posted for tomorrow and Wednesday for just north of us.  (about 10 miles north and to the Canadian border is all)  We'll see how many "flurries" we get then. We've had such a mild winter until now.  That old groundhog was right after all.  Boo!

So, we stayed home and watched movies all day Saturday, snuggled in our cozy house with the fire going full blast.  I completed another blue baby set that I forgot to photograph.  After awhile they all look the same anyway, don't they?  I also started another baby blanket in a new pattern using Bernat "Pipsqueak" yarn.  I have never felt anythig so incredibly soft.  This is definitely going to be for one very special baby.

When we realized that we were going to be home for church yesterday, I came to the realization that I needed to make something for the potluck after services.  I had watched the "Pioneer Woman" on the food network on Saturday morning, so I decided to try out her meatball recipe.  Instead of her barbeque sauce, I just poured a jar of Prego over them and they were a hit!  Here are a few pictures.

First you brown them in a skillet with canola oil in batches of 8 or 9 meatballs, then...

You bake them for about 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

I ended up with 26 meatballs. My huge, enormous, stupid mistake?  I put them in the oven on cookie sheets-with NO SIDES!!!!  Can you guess what happened?  Yep.  Grease from the meatballs is now all over the bottom of the oven and the house filled up with smoke.  Yuck.  Yuck.  Yuck.  I need to wait for a halfway warm day when I can open the windows and clean the oven.  Soon.  Before I bake anything else in it.  I cannot believe I didn't even think about the fact that the grease that comes out of hamburger would have to go somewhere!   Oh well, live and learn and the meatballs were very good.  An ingredient that the Pioneer Woman used in the meatballs that I never would have thought of was milk.  It made them super moist.  Then they're dredged in flour before browning.  I think the recipe is on FoodNetwork.com/pioneer woman.  Not sure if I have that website correct but they did say the recipes from that show were available online.
Today I've vacummed, done laundry, caught up on my Bible reading and played with Chloe.  I have baby hats for the hospital in the washing machine to be delivered tomorrow.  I think I have about 45 hats done for this delivery.  This afternoon I'm going to work on my baby blanket with the wonderfully SOFT yarn.  I've got my chores done and now I can play.  A roast, potatoes, carrots and onions is bubbling away in the crock pot so my wifely chores are complete.  I love to find extra time to play with my yarn.

The skies are blue, blue, blue today so I may take my Chloe-baby for a walk in a little while.  She's been cooped up with no long walk since last Wednesday.  We could both use the exercise.

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Blessings,

Betsy

Snow, Snow, Snow!

Hello and happy Friday to everyone!

It's snowing again and it's NOT a welcome storm.  We were planning to go to Montana to see our grandbabies, (their parents too of course, but that's just a nice cooincidence.   :-))  Now, because of all the snow we're not sure we'll be able to go.  I have the car all packed and Chloe was excited to see her bed being loaded into the car.  Road trip!  She know's we're either going to our daughter's house or our son's house and they both have dogs that she loves to visit with.  They are just like little kids.

Anyway 12-18 inches of snow is possible on the passes this afternoon and evening and again on Sunday when we would be coming home.  I'm waiting on a call back from hubby for a final decision.  I took him to work at 5:00 am this morning and was going to pick him up since his workplace is on our way towards Idaho.  Plan B would be that I still pick him up, but we go out to eat instead of driving 325 miles in a blizzard.  I love my grandbabies, but I personally think it's just plain silly to take our lives in our hands.  My son just called and told me to take a tranquilizer, have Dad drive and I'd be there before I woke up!  Nice plan except I don't take any medicine I don't absolutely have to so I have no tranquilizers on hand!  So I'm not sure what our weekend will have in store now.

I've done a little more sewing.  I made a couple of dresses since most of my clothes are wearing out.  I'm known in our circle of friends for wearing dresses almost all the time.  I just find them so much more comfortable than pants.  Warmer too.  You can wrap your legs up in a skirt for warmth and it's kind of like covering them with a blanket.  There's a pocket of air for insulation that isn't there with jeans or pants.  I don't know how much more sewing of clothing I will do though.  Those two plain no-frill dresses cost about $30 each for material, thread etc.  I went to Walmart this morning for a few things and saw a dress that I liked much better for $20!   I think I'll be checking out Walmart first from now on. Not the best quality but I can change my wardrobe a bit more often.

Here's a picture of Mt. Spokane this morning as the storm was moving in.  Isn't it beautiful?

 I thought you might be interested in this console/buffet table I got a few years ago from a thrift store.  I was looking for a piece of furniture for this specific spot, and just as I walked into the store this was being wheeled out from the back room.  It had just been donated from an estate sale that morning.  The guy took one look at my face, didn't even stop, just asked me where my car was and he'd load it up.  I hadn't even taken a close look at it but he said he had shopped enough with his wife to know the look on my face!  Isn't that hilarious?  The great part was I had a coupon for 50% off anything in the store, so I got this beautiful piece of heirloom quality furniture without a scratch on it for $75.00!!!!!

 I love the detailing of the wood on the doors.  I don't know what kind of wood it is but I've never seen anything like it before.  The color is off in the picture below, but you can see the details of the doors.

 And a few pictures of my cactus.  I have never seen it bloom as often as it has this past year or have as many buds.  I just counted 15 buds this morning.  I've never had more than two at a time before.

And I think that's it for today. I 'm going to go to the nursing home for a quick visit before we head for the snowy mountains if that's what hubby decides.  Personally, I'm for dinner out and a quiet weekend.  Everyone thinks we will be gone, so we can sleep in and do next to nothing tomorrow if we want.  I'll let you know next post how it all turned out.

Blessings.

Betsy

Whew! It's Monday!

Hello everyone!  I made it through the weekend in one piece.  I think.  It was the complete whirlwind I had been expecting, but it all turned out very well.

Friday afternoon our college kids arrived.  They were the most polite, curteous teenagers that we've hosted in recent years.  They even made their beds both days!  For some reason I think it's funny when guests make their beds the day they leave.  It's like they believe they're preparing for the next people to stay in that room.  Do they not realize I wash all the bedding between each person who stays here?!  Just a thought that popped into my little mind!

Saturday morning ten ladies from church came to the craft morning, plus the three teenagers.  The boy was the only one who crafted of the teens.  He used my round loom and made a knitted hat in about 3 hours!  The girls were very cordial though and visited with everyone.

Three of our friends then spent the afternoon with us just eating pizza and visiting.  I hadn't seen my young friend from Oklahoma in almost 3 years so it was wonderful to catch up with her.  Their little family wants desperately to move back to the Northwest somewhere to be closer to family, but no job has been found yet.  She stays at home with their 3 & 4 year olds and loves it but misses having family close.  My hubby performed the wedding ceremonies for her and her husband and our other young friends that also visited with us on Saturday afternoon.  We had a wonderful time remembering how much fun we used to have together.  We met with both couples weekly for Bible study as they were all new Christians.  Our own faith grew and was strengthened by studying with them since we were seeing the Bible with the eyes of people who had never read it before.

Saturday evening hubby and I had a nice "date night" at the Spokane symphony.  The featured "soloists" were a brother team that we had seen in Hawaii on several occasions.  It was fantastic.  I couldn't fathom how Hawaiian slack guitar sounds could meld with the symphony orchestra but they did it in a beautiful sound.  We had front row seats and sat directly in front of the harpist!  I spent the evening just watching her hands.  Amazing!

Sunday was just as busy.  Church in the morning, bridal shower in the afternoon and then evening services.  After evening service we went to Arby's for dinner with about 10 other people and had a nice hour or so just visiting and relaxing.  Can you believe Arby's was out of roast beef!?  We had a laugh over that and then ordered chicken, fish or ham!

So----that was my weekend.  Almost no computer time at all.  I did read emails but didn't answer any until late last night.  Since I last posted pictures I've been so busy that not much knitting has been accomplished.  Only two little pictures to show you.

I finished another baby sweater set.  The sweater was almost finished when I last blogged, so it probably shouldn't count!  So really I made two hats, 1 pair of blue socks and one solitary pink sockie.  The other pink sock is on the needles right now.  I must admit I'm tiring of these sets but I still have 3 babies on the way and I'm not sure of the gender of any of them.  I'm making 3 of each color just to be prepared!  Any sets I don't need can always be donated to one of the many charity groups I'm in.  A friend also keeps buying them almost as fast as I've made each set.  She has bought 3 rainbow blankets and 3 sweater sets in the past 6 weeks for new babies in her life.  She pays me well and it helps purchase more yarn so I'm not complaining.  I just need to get busy with more sets before I lose my motivation!

This is a picture of our gray skies this morning.  That's Mt. Spokane in the background!  Ha!  This morning when I woke up it was beautiful.  Covered in fresh snow and blue skies.  Something happened in the past couple of hours.  Clouds have appeared.  Just north of us about 30 miles or so and up to the Canadian border recieved 8 to 14 inches of snow Saturday night, including Mt. Spokane.  We woke up to about 1/8 of an inch yesterday.  By the time church was over everything was melted away and that's just the way I like it.  Snow in the mountains but not here.

I've spent a lot of time at my sewing machine recently sewing bandana's for myself.  After much prayer and study, I have come to the conclusion that I do need to start covering my head for prayer and worship at the minimum as it tells in 1 Corinthians 11.  I just can't find the cultural argument no matter how much I tried.  And believe me I tried.  Remember me?  I'm the one who dyed my hair for the first time about two weeks ago and cut a lot of it off three weeks ago.  I've been fighting this for all I'm worth, but what I've discovered is this.  If we discount this as a cultural thing, what else are we going to deem cultural and thus stop following that Paul and others taught?  It's a slippery slope we find ourselves on.  I'm not trying to be legalistic and I definitely am NOT trying to put my beliefs on anyone else but I have to follow where I believe the Lord is convicting me in my heart. 

Okay, enough preaching.  That's not what this blog is all about, but it is about my life and that's an important part of my heart.  So, I've been sewing and it's been fun.  I haven't sewn much in years but I'm enjoying my time behind the machine.  Do any of you sew?   I used to make all of my daughters clothes and a lot of mine when she was small.  The price of patterns, material and notions became so expensive though that it was less expensive to buy things and so my machine was brought out for repairs or quilting, etc.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and I'll try to be back soon.

Blessings,

Betsy

Good Morning Thursday!

I'm feeling MUCH better!  Still not 100% but other than a lingering cough, dizziness and a bit of a stuffy nose, I'm ready to join the land of the living again.  Until the next bug attacks!

At noon I'm off to get my new haircut highlighted.  I've never, ever put a drop of dye on my hair before but I'm told it will make the gray blend in more.  I'll see how it goes, it may be the first and last time I do it.  My daughter has been trying to convince me to do it, among other people, so I'm up for one time anyway.  I've had the appointment since before I got sick and I'm glad that I don't have to cancel it.  I hate to mess up other people's schedules.

I have a quick tah-dah moment for you. Last night I finally finished the blanket for my friend.  It turned out to be 46 x 56 inches.  I listened to Carol and added another row and I think now it's just about perfect.  I couldn't have done more without a trip to the yarn shop so I'm glad it worked out the way it did.  Here's a picture for you of the completed blanket.  We have snowy skies today so I turned on all the lights to capture the colors a little. Please excuse the glare.

 And a close up of the picot stitch border.  I think it looks good don't you?  The color is bright yellow but it looks cream in the picture.  All of the colors look pretty washed out for some reason.  I'm a horrible photographer!

Then I quickly made a baby sweater, hat and socks for a friend who's having her second great-grandchild next month.  She's not much older than I am!  She likes to give these sets whenever she attends a baby shower.

 And one more pair of sockies made late last night.  I'll start another sweater today.

Would you believe I have NO projects on the hook or needles?!  I finished everything before I went to bed last night.  I don't believe this has happend in a long, long time.  I always have something going.

Now, I'm off to get my hair done. Sure hope I don't regret this.  52 years with no dye and now I'm caving in to pressure.  :-)  Have a marvelous weekend everyone.  Stay warm and dry if you're in the cold climate areas and cool if you are blessed to live in a warm place.  Like Hawaii.  My dream home.  I want to move.  Soon.  Before next winter.

Blessings,

Betsy

Sunshine, Beautiful Sunshine!

It's a beautiful day today.  Cold, but sunny and happy out.  I've scrubbed my floors.  I've finished the laundry and now I can blog and crochet the day away if I want to.  Guilt free because my chores are done and the sun is shining!

I wanted to share this photo with all of you. I found this today when I was searching my cedar lined chest for something my son wanted.

This is the first thing I ever crocheted, way back in 1967! I was seven years old and my Grandma taught me to crochet by having me make a ripple blanket for my doll’s bed. She had me crochet every single stitch so I could always say I made it all by myself! I miss her every single day-she was full of wisdom and love, just as a Grandma should be! I keep the blanket in the chest so it can be passed down to my daughter’s children someday.  This project instilled a love of crochet in me that has never wavered over the past 45 years!

I took this picture yesterday off the back deck.  The sun was trying desperately to peek through for about half an hour and then disappeared again and we recieved another round of rain/snow.  This morning everything is icey and frozen.  You can hear cars crunching down the street as they drive by!  An odd sound!  Anyway, I love the dusting of snow on all the mountains.  It looks like someone has sprinkled powdered sugar on them from a flour sifter!

The last two pictures are my small way of decorating for Valentine's Day.  I don't do much but I have a few things out that I'll be showing you.  I found these silk roses on sale at Michaels last week.  Two stems for $3.00.  I thought it was a good deal and I came home and took the flowers off the stems and put them into the big vase on the coffee table.  What do you think?  I'm not a very good decorator, but I do like the way they look.  The little cherub in the top picture was a gift a few years ago from my friend Jenny. 

And that's it for today my friends.  I'm off to find my crochet hook and yarn.  I'm going to take a short break this morning from my baby blankets, (I've made 3 this week), and try to make a candle jar cover to cheer up the kitchen.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a wonderful Monday my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy

It's still Snowing!

Good Morning Everyone!  It's Friday!  Yippee!  And....it's still snowing here in Spokane.  Admittedly, today they are small, teeny tiny flakes but they are still falling from a sky of gray.  We officially have 12 1/2 inches in our backyard according to the snow guage there.  (We choose a flat spot where no drifts form and stick a yardstick in the snow!)  To be fair, we probably actually recieved more snow than what was measured because it was blown around so much.  And here are a few pictures I took this morning while I was out shoveling.

I love the pretty "caps" snow puts on everything when it's freshly fallen.  This it the tub where I plant geraniums in the spring.

 My favorite little tree in the backyard.  Hubby thinks maybe it's dying as it's covered in brown spots.

 Look at the nice cone shape on the fence post!

 And the steps leading off of the deck.  I don't think Chloe will be navigating them for awhile.

Tomorrow is the monthly "craft day" that I have here.  It's usually the third Saturday of the month and ladies come and knit, crochet, embroidery, scrapbook.  Whatever they like to do.  And we visit.  And we eat goodies.  I've been doing this for a few years now.  It's my way of try to bring back the closeness of women in days gone by when there were quilting bees, canning parties, etc.  I think women need that time of bonding and togetherness.  In our busy world it often gets pushed aside.  Does anyone besides me think about the fact that we have all these time saving devices, washers, dryers, microwaves, computers, cell phones...just to name a few?  But we seem to have less time for each other than we ever have.  What in the world are we doing with all that time we've saved with these "time savers?"  Just a thought.

And now, have a lovely weekend and I'll be back again soon.  Stay warm and dry.

Blessings,

Betsy

The Snow Has Arrived!

It has been snowing off and on for two days now.  It hasn't turned out to be the huge storm for Spokane that was forecas,t but it came close.  A town just 30 miles away had 28 inches in 12 hours yesterday!  We ended up with about 6 inches yesterday, and it's been snowing all morning again.  We're told another 3-5 today with a chance for more every day for the next 4 days!  It seems winter has come in all of it's glory!
Here are a few pictures for you.  All taken from the INSIDE of the house in the comfort of my jammies! 

Look at all the snow on the floor of the deck.  We have a cover over it so you can see how much the wind blew inside.

This picture was taken after most of us had shoveled our driveways and walks.  They have all but disappeared again this moring with a fresh round of new snow.  I'll be back outside with the snowblower again this afternoon.

 But, the time inside while it snows hasn't been wasted.  Oh no.  Four new baby hats and....

another baby blanket done and one more started.  I have five babies that I know of coming in this new year.  I like to wait and find out if it's a boy or a girl before adding the last color round the edge in a gender appropriate color.  I find these blankets take me 2-3 days depending on the time I can dedicate to them.

Has winter, (or summer depending on where you live), settled in at your house yet?  We've been so happy to dodge all the big storms this year that I don't feel I can complain.  And the snow is really beautiful, I just worry about people driving on the slick roads.  I'm trying to turn my worries over to God, but I don't always do a very good job of it.  After all, what does all my worrying bring to me?

Well, I'm off to vacuum and dust so I can crochet for awhile with no guilt . :-)  I'll be out with the snowblower in a few hours so I need to get my "inside" work finished this morning.

I'll chat again with you all soon my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy

Finally Snow???

Good Monday morning to everyone!  Well, our weather forecaster is saying snow is on the way and lots of it!  They have predicted this before in the past month or two and it always seems to miss us here in Spokane, although the mountains have plenty for skiing.  Just the way I like it!  I'm going to try to get all my errands done today so I don't have to venture out for the next few days if I feel like snuggling down at home and knitting/crocheting.  The prediction is for 2-4 inches tomorrow and then 12-16 inches on Wednesday!  We shall see if it comes to pass or passes us by again!

We had a wonderful 50th birthday party for our minister's wife on Saturday.  We basically took over a pizza restaurant here in town and stayed for 2 hours!  The staff seemed happy and kept the pizzas coming to the table, hot and fresh!  Lots of fun was had by all and we certainly enjoyed talking to everyone.  I especially enjoyed it after having been cooped up for a few weeks by myself.

Has anyone ever done a Secret Sister/Secret Pal sort of thing?  We do it at our church for a year at a time.  In January we have our "revealing" and then get our new "sister".  Yesterday was the revealing luncheon and I found out my "sister" was the same person I had been gifting all year.  That rarely happens and it was a lot of fun to find out that we had each other.

I finished my CAL with the Lucy group on Ravelry.  I ended up making it twice as big as the pattern because it was baby blanket size and I wanted it for the back of the loveseat.  And here it is, Tah-da! 

The colors aren't quite right in the picture, but you get the general idea. Everytime I make one of these blankets I say never again.  I find weaving all of those ends in after every round very tedious.

Have I ever shown you my yarn closet?  It's a little on the empty side since I gave six big trash bags away.  I keep cards on one shelf so I'm ready for almost any event that is card-worthy!

Carol posted some pictures last week about family furniture that had been in the family for a long time which got me to thinking of two pieces in particular that we own.  This dresser was my husbands as a baby.  It has served each of our children during their baby years and now is the perfect craft dresser.  I keep  my fabric, patterns and odds and ends in it.  The small drawer at the top was perfect for baby socks, etc. and then the drawers get progressively larger.  I keep some of my pattern books on the top.  It sits right next to my sewing machine and yarn closet.  Sorry for the tilted photo.  As I keep telling you, I'm a horrible photographer, but you get the idea.

Dear hubby refinished it when our first baby was born.  Furniture just isn't made like this anymore.  Dove-tailed drawers and a nice back on the top to hold things from falling off the back of the dresser.

 This next piece sat on my grandma's back porch all my growing up years.  It's a washstand used to hold the bowl and pitcher on top and the commode behind the door.  It was in awful shape when I got it.  Hubby replaced the top and refinished it. It was missing all of it's hardware so we found some that looked antique and now it's a prized possession.  It in the sitting room off of our bedroom with family photo's an a dresser scarf my mother embroidered when she was 9 years old.  She's been gone 22 years now and I love to have these little memories of her around the house.

 Above the washstand is a picture that a friend of our family painted for us.  It's a beautiful love story that I'll make short here and tell another time.  He grew up in France and paints beautifully.  Our "adopted" daughter is married to him now, they were pen-pals in high school.  She sent him a picture we took of a sunset at the Oregon coast and he recreated it in pastels and sent it to us.  Isn't it beautiful?  Next to it is a lamp friends gave us when we were first married.  They had it for over 45 years so it's pretty old too.  We had to replace the glass cover at the top because it was missing.

Do you have any prized possessions like this that have been passed down through the family?  I know ours aren't worth much by the world's standards but the memories they have for us are priceless.  Please tell me about your memory makers.

Have a wonderful day everyone and I'll be back soon!

Blessings,

Betsy

Good Morning Wednesday!

Good Morning friends! I can't believe I slept until 7:30 a.m. this morning.  That's very unusual of me and I now feel like I have lost part of my day that I can't get back.  I'm feeling a little better every day, but still very tired and sluggish.  So...I've spent my days crocheting.  I joined my first ever CAL, (crochet along) with the Lucy group on Ravelry.  That's ALL I have worked on for two days and this is all I have to show for it.

It is very slow going because I'm ending each round a different color and finishing it as I go so I won't have thousands of ends to weave in when I'm finish.  It's supposed to be baby blanket size when finished, although I had intended to make it larger to use as a throw on the sofa.  However, after some pushing, hubby finally confessed that the colors aren't his preference.  Too bright.  Too Lucyish. The picture doesn't actually show how bright it is.  So, now I've lost my drive to finish it although I will push on.  It's not in my nature to leave a project unfinished.  However, it is destined to remain a baby blanket and will probably go to one of my charity groups.  I'm estimating at least 20 hours in this blanket already and at least that much more to go.  And I was very excited at the start.  However, as I worked on it, could see it's brightness, I didn't think it would fit in our home.

This is a tablecloth I made several years ago.  I've actually crocheted an identical one for my daughter-in-law.  We don't eat on it, but I leave it on the table.  With only Dennis and I, it gets folded back and we eat off of placements!  Then after dinner it get's put back in place and looks nice again!  Nothing has ever been spilled on it and I hope it stays that way.

 Layed out it all it's glory for you to see!  I measured it for you this morning.  Six feet across!  I can't believe it's so big!

 Some of the detail closer up.  The last ring of pineapples, (edging), was finished at the beach a few years ago.  We stopped at our daughters in Portland, OR on our way to the coast and I layed the last ring down on the floor to see how long it was.  It stretched from one end of her apartment to the other.  At least 30 feet!  I was astounded!

Hubby figured out that it took approximately 2000 hours to complete!  I don't think these will be sold on ebay!

A few last pictures I took today. The fist two are the full winter moon I took out of our bedroom window at 4:30 this morning!  (I got up to use the bathroom and couldn't resist).  Bear in mind, they were taken through the glass because it was 12 F outside and I was in my nighty! :-)

 I thought it was eerily beautiful.

 This is Mt. Spokane from my back deck a few minutes ago.  No snow here but the resorts are happy.  It's okay with me if it stays that way.  We've only had 9 inches of snow so far this season.  Very, very unusual but good for the City's snow removal budget!

And now, dear friends, I'm going to go crochet on that lovely little blanket some more.  My energy bursts come and go and I've been told to try to enjoy this quiet time in my life.  I'm trying but I'm not a patient person.

I'll be seeing you all soon!

Blessings,

Betsy