Still Sick, (Sounds like there's an echo here!)

Oh my goodness!  2012 has certainly not started well for me.  First almost three weeks with shingles and now a doozy of a cold.  Hubby had it last week, but was only sick for about four days.  I've been down for the count since Friday...what's that...five days now and no better?  My eyes hurt, my nose hurts.  Bleh!  But enough about that.  I have had valuable crocheting time while I've stayed away from other people.  I started a blanket for my friend in the nursing home.  The plan was to make various size squares in a different color in each round.  It was taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  I got it to about 36 inches by 18 inches and decided, nope.  If I want her to have it in the next week or so I had to change to plan B.   I'll keep that for a future baby blanket.  Now I'm making solid color squares, eight rounds each and joining as I go.  What do you think of my progress?

It's a bit puckered because it hasn't been blocked yet, but for the most part, I like the way it's looking.  If I had to do it again, I would problably make the center of each square a different color to add contrast, but I think she'll like it just fine.  I can't decide if I should just do the four squares to finish out the row or add another entire row.  What do you think?  There will be a border of some sort too, that will add some length and width.  Right now it's about 50 inches by 36 inches.

Tonight is the class hubby and I teach on Financial Peace but I think he'll be going alone.  I don't want to spread this stuff around to others.  We're having our taxes done tomorrow night.  Oh joy of joy!  I always dread that day each year.  It's always so nerve wracking.  No matter how well you try to plan and pay in advance, something new the government is doing always seems to jump out and get us.

Our church youth group is putting on a Valentine's dinner for us on Friday night.  There are over 35 couples attending and it promises to be quite lovely.  They have menus that we choose our entree from and we were told to "dress up".  I certainly hope this nasty virus is gone by then.

Well lovely friends.  On that note I'll leave you for now to go drink a cup of nice hot tea.  I'm sorry my posts have been rather dreary lately.  I can't muster up much enthusiasm these days.  Thank goodness for my yarny projects.  They're keeping me sane while I've been sick so much.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Our granddaughter went back to school yesterday!  Can you believe it?  As sick as she was last week, in school now!  Oh for the resilence of youth!  LOL  Thank you all for your prayers.  The final diagnoses was a nasty virus and pneumonia.

Now I'll leave you with a picture of my faithful companion who is very patient with her Momma.

She loves to sleep right next to me when I'm sick.  She's very much a comfort.

I hope you all have a wonderfully lovely day.

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