It's starting to all make sense.....

I keep questioning why it is that I only have posts to share, typically on Mondays with my "weekend recap" or Fridays discussing what I want to do over the weekend.  Last night/this morning it finally hit me - there just isn't enough time on week nights for me to craft enough to actually SHARE the following day!  I mean, I'm fairly certain that you would all stop reading my blog if each day there was a picture of some small about of crocheting, or half finished project posted with some detailed description of what I did....that's what the diary I've never been good about keeping is for right?

Anyway, this is the reason that I can't post "craft things" during the week.  Last night I left work on time and was in SUCH a mood to crochet.  My 45 min commute home, took almost an hour, thanks to a disabled car taking out one lane and backing up traffic for the last 2 miles.  No, an additional almost 15 min doesn't sound like a lot, but it does become discouraging when you're sitting there in your car alone thinking about all you wanted to be doing at home!  Once home, changed and after eating dinner, it was after 7.  I was still ready to go with one of my many crochet projects.  I probably didn't crochet for more than an hour though before my couch pillows looked all too inviting....and that was that.  My head never left those pillows again until it was time to go to bed!  As I was getting ready for work this morning, I looked longingly at my yarn on the couch and thought, "I can't wait until it's the weekend when I have more time for you!"

What I did think would be fun this afternoon, was answering these questions from Rachel's blog.  Reminds me of the days of hotmail accounts where you would be on a mass mailing of friends you'd read their answers, fill in your own answers and then send it to another big group of friends:

1. Since I admitted my celebrity crushes, past and present . . . go ahead and name one (or two, or three) of yours. Male or female. Heaven knows I have plenty of each.

Rachel, your answer to this one was my favorite of ALL your answers.  I believe my answer reads about the same:  Zach from Saved by the Bell. Lance Bass Justin Timberlake from N’Sync. Jonathan Taylor Thomas in his Home Improvement/Lion King days.

2. What’s your favorite book?

"Reflections and Dreams" by Nora Roberts.  silly yes, but it was the first Nora Roberts book I ever read and it's about a ballet dancer!  I love fluff books 1. because little thinking is involved, and 2.  fluff reading reminds me of summer time when only fluff books should be legal on the beach/at the pool.

3. What are your 5 favorite TV shows?

Currently: "Grey's Anatomy", "Glee", "Suburagatory",  "Modern Family", "Smash", "30 Rock"

Always:  "So You Think You Can Dance", "The West Wing", "Friends", "Frasier", "I Love Lucy"

4. Guilty pleasure?

extra-buttery popcorn, like soggy with butter

5. Any goals you’re currently working on?

being better with housework like cooking dinner, the dishes, picking up through out the week, etc.

6. A trend or style you've wanted to try, but been scared to?

cut my hair to a bob

7. A skill you’d love to learn?

I'd love to be a better knitter - maybe the ski9ll to learn is how to fix mistakes when knitting so I'm not so scared to try something!

8. If you had a day to yourself with unlimited money to spend and no obligations, what would you do?

I feel as though I should have an answer of helping people, etc but honestly, as I girl on a budget I would shop until the money was gone!  clothes, shoes, beauty products, yarn, fabric, the list goes on.....compulsive shopping would be my 2nd guilty pleasure by the way

9. A person (living or dead) you’d love to meet?

10. If you weren’t doing the career you’re doing now (being a stay-at-home mom counts as a career), what would you want to be doing instead?

Well, if I'd stuck with what I'd gone to school for, I'd likely be a waitress or barista at Starbucks.  For those of you who didn't know, I went to college for musical theatre, but moved home after college for financial reasons.  I started dating Jonathan the end of that summer, moved to DC with him 5 months late, and well, the rest is history I guess ;-)

My "dream job" is to be a stay at home mom!

11. What are the names you want/wanted to give your kids until your meanie-pants spouse vetoed them?

Sorry to have crossed out 2 questions but I've likely put more time into this than I should, and my late lunch break is over so it's time to get back to work!

HAPPY LEAP DAY!

Work(s) in Progress

After a very busy weekend, I'm left with a very sore back and many incomplete projects!

I started off Saturday morning with a small set back.  I'd totally forgotten that I'd thrown out my last vacuum bag back when my vacuum started to smell like it was burning (after the Christmas tree needles were fully taken care of last month).  Jonathan and I attempted a "quick" trip out to pick up bags for my vacuum, but ended up stopping at Target and Home Depot just to find out that I obviously own a vacuum that takes the least popular style bag on the market!  They were ordered on Amazon yesterday, but needless to say I spent some time on the drive home pouting over not being able to properly vacuum when I started moving big pieces of furniture.  We also added in a quick stop at Ikea while we were out to pick up some new storage boxes that I needed for my yarn stash's new home!  In total I probably put 6-7 hours of work into my apartment project on Saturday.  I have "before" and "during" pictures to share, but want to save them until I have the "FINISHED" set as well!  After our Wegmans run yesterday morning, I was too tired and sore to do much other than tidy up for the work week ahead (along with putting away the groceries and picking up my clothes that were "carpeting" the bedroom floor).

Yesterday afternoon I did some crocheting.  I made decent progress on a blanket, and I made the body for one side of my first PEEP.  I was doing really good and thinking about how many of these adorable little guys I was going to "mass produce" and gift by April 8th.  Around 8:15 I hit a wall.  Didn't crochet a single stitch during the Oscars!  I kept telling myself that this was due to the hours of crocheting I'd already done (started around 3), but no doubt the fact that I was writhing due to back pain contributed to this.  I still made it through the whole show, with only one 15-minute nap where I had to rewind and see what I missed.  Here is my recap on the night:

1. Billy Crystal = very funny (still giggling at the "Chapter 11 Theatre" comment from the opening monologue)
2. Angelina Jolie was really slutting it up.  I did enjoy all my FB friends who commented about "throwing her a sandwich"  I've never been a big Angelina fan, and she did not win me over last night.
3. I really enjoy Meryl Streep and I'm happy that she won.  There were many speeches last night that left me a little misty eyed - people genuinely seemed grateful to have won.
4. They're sound guy should be FIRED!  As someone who's father works for a Professional Stage Hand union, I was pretty disgusted with how loud the orchestration was in the beginning and wanted to throw something at the TV to stop the feedback and interference during the last 2/3 of the show.  I will say that I was happy to hear that I wasn't the only one hearing all that - it went on for so long that I was slightly convinced that someone was wrong with my TV speakers!
5. That being said I really loved the "old Hollywood" movie theatre set and all the scenery and special effects.  Again, because of the hard work my Dad puts in to this line of work, I respect it a great deal.  During my high school years I did a lot of community theatre in WNY, and my mom did a lot of costuming and prop work.  My dad also did sets and sound for my children's theatre group, community theatre shows, and my high school musicals.  Theatre really was a family experience for me growing up!
6. I really want to see "The Artist" while it's still in movie theatres!!!!!  The little tap dancer in me wants to sit there and tap her toes along in the biggest way.  Only problem is I don't want to go see it with all the crowds that will go now just because it won.
7. Sunday night award shows should only happen when Monday is a Federal Holiday.  I know it was only 8:30 on the West Coast, but this morning came waaaay too quickly and I'm crazy tired today!  It's really not one of those shows that you can DVR and watch the next night and think you'll be surprised!

I've added a few tabbed pages to the top of my blog today.  I'm pretty excited with myself for figuring this out.  I know, it's not much, but I'm not uber smart when it comes to understanding even the most basic of "website building".  I'm going to keep adding to these as I have more to share -  I'm planning a "completed projects" tab, my shop "Sweet Bear Creations", and "free patterns" in the distant future.  I'll also try by best to keep up on my reading list as well - according to my Kindle I'm 93% of the way through "Wishes & Stitches" so I should be updating that for sure in the next couple of days.

Sorry that I have no pictures to share today - this is what happens when I take pictures with my camera for quality vs. my phone for convenience :o)

To-do Lists

Does anyone else find that they are more productive with a to-do list vs. "wingin' it"?  Might sound like a silly question to ask, I feel like everyone is probably more productive with some structure and guidelines, but do you always make sure it happens?

I'm pretty good about making to-do lists at work.  Not always since many pieces of my job are repetitive from one week to the next and I get tired of re-writing the same "do's" after a while.  At home, I'm worse.  I typically only write out a list if I'm getting ready to go out of town - something about knowing you're going on vacation (and the rapid decrease of days/hours to get it all done) makes me be more structured & organized.  This, of course, also means that I get more work done.  Is anyone actually surprised that these two things may actually be tied to each other???

On my way into work this morning, I was telling my mom about all the work I wanted to get done in the apartment this weekend, and how I was likely crazy to think I'd actually accomplish it all...

As I sat here eating my lunch, and reading some new blog posts, I got to thinking how posting a to-do here could be a very helpful thing.

1.  I know that I'm more productive with a list to keep me on track

2.  It forces me to make said list, right.now

3.  Sharing it with you holds me accountable to what I tell myself (and you) I'm going to do

So here we go - 

Friday

1. Dinner with my sweet, sweet Jonathan
2. discuss with Jonathan where certain pieces of furniture that I want to move will actually fit, and well look nice
3. devise a plan for the best way to start moving furniture and swapping where things "live" on Saturday

Saturday

1. enjoy a cup of coffee, a little crocheting and catch up on this week's Grey's
2. use my plan for #3 above to start my work around the apartment.  The plan is to move the holiday decorations from our cupboards in the living room to the closest in the guest bedroom (Jon's study).  This closet currently "holds" my crafts.  Holds is a strong word to describe this as many things no longer fit in here.  The crafts are moving out to the living room cupboards (which is ideal as it puts everything much closer to where I craft - the living room/dining room, if sewing/balcony, if nice outside!)  There is a shelving unit in the current craft closet that needs to come out, and go somewhere else (#2 for tonight) and part of the cupboards currently house pantry food and some kitchen appliances so they're going to be moving, but I've got a couple of options on just how that's going to work....To recap - crafts to living room cupboards, holiday decorations and other misc. storage to guest bedroom closet and pantry/kitchen appliances closer to kitchen.
3. Have this project finished or at least under control before I pass out from exhaustion - ideally with enough time to enjoy the evening with my husband and my crocheting

Sunday

1. put together a list of meals for this week while enjoying my coffee (shhhh, I may work on this a bit this afternoon - Pammy Sue, I'm planning to make THIS for sure!! yummy!)
2. Wegmans trip with Jonathan for this week's groceries.  Possible quick stop at Ikea (it's on the way home) to pick up some storage containers
3. home to unpack the groceries, clean the bathroom, pick up anything that's still outta control in the living room/dicing room area
4. Prep lunches for next week (I've been buying Lean Cuisines and the past couple of weeks now and I've had a few that have been GOD AWFUL.  barf! On Wednesday, after I thew away 90% of my lunch I told Jonathan that I was sure I could make things that would be much better than these....he agreed but told me I'd need to actually plan in advance for it so that's the "plan")
5. Watch the Academy Awards.  I plan on making at THESE while I watch!  Are these not the cutest things in the world?  Okay, I guess you've gotta really like Peeps to find these as cute as I do, but OH.MY.GOODNESS.  so cute.  Looking forward to working on a new pattern during a show that doesn't require my eyes and/or attention 100% of the time.

If you're still reading, I apologize for rambling through this post.  I'm really excited for the work I'm planning to do this weekend, and hope that I'm still this excited tomorrow, especially by mid-late day :o)

As soon as I hit PUBLISH I'm writing up a streamlined list for the weekend.  I look forward, not only for the work do be done, but to crossing things off as I go!

TGIF blogging friends - hope that you all have a great weekend!

Promises, Promises

I'm sorry blogging friends - I have nothing interesting to say or update you on today.

This has a great deal to do with the fact that I went to bed at 8:30 last night. 

Keep in my that I worked until 5:30, drove the 45 minutes home, cooked dinner, and well by the time dinner was consumed, I attempted to just "relax" on the couch as Wednesday night prime time started on ABC....

this is why I crochet all the time - I fall asleep if I don't!

Sorry many fun things to crochet, and things I want to do with my blog, and I wasted a perfectly good evening at home.

Oh a happier note, it's almost 70 degrees here in DC today!  I took a quick walk to CVS on my lunch break and it's AMAZING out there!  Totally ready for spring/summer - and it better not decide no be winter come April!  Now I must impatiently count down the days until March 11th (that's when we spring forward, if you hadn't already googled it)  What I'm really ready for with spring/summer and daylight hours on my balcony when I get home on week nights!

Thank GOD tomorrow is Friday!  Yes, it was only a 4 day work week, but I'm sooooooooo ready for the weekend.

sorry for the random post ya'll - 

until tomorrow

Crafty Sundays

This is my 2^nd attempt at today’s post.  The first draft was already half a page long and I’m not sure I’d said anything of any importance, let alone anything that you would find interesting.

Do you ever have a Crafty day with friends?  Last winter my friends and I would have Crafty Sunday's (or Saturday's depending on everyone's schedules).  We'd craft and watch terrible TV or Harry Potter for the 100th time and just enjoy each others company with a craft in hand.  This hasn't happened yet this year, but not because we haven't been trying!  Whether out of town, busy or sick, it seems they always get canceled last minute.  I received an email from a group of friends this morning about whether or not we could have a Crafty Sunday next weekend.  My first thought was - every Sunday is Crafty Sunday in my house, so you're more than welcome to join me!

I’m crazy exhausted today so I’m going to blame my rambling on that, and hope that round two goes a bit better.

My Momma came to visit over the weekend and we had lots of fun shopping and crafting.  This is primarily how we spend weekends together – whether in MD or NY, shopping trips and crafty afternoons are always on the top of our “to-do” lists!  #3 would be drinking wine ;-) and of course in the summertime, we must find time for the pool if we’re in MD!

I’ve had quite the sewing bug lately.  This past December I was a bit sad when I got my machine out to sew some Christmas presents and found the thread from the last pair of Christmas pants from the year before still threaded on the machine.  Yes, I know, I was a bit “busy” with the whole wedding planning thing so I shouldn’t really beat myself up too much… I do think it made me want to focus a bit more crafty energy on sewing this year!

Anyway.  My sewing “total” for the weekend is 3 pairs of flannel lounge pants, 2 coasters, and 1 pillow case!  Below are the only pictures of the crafty goodness that I remembered to take….Mom’s matching froggy pants and her pillow case made it all the way back to WNY before I realized that I never took photos!

Here is the “stock” of fabric we purchased at JoAnn’s before it was washed Sunday morning.  There’s enough here for 5 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts and a pillow case, not to mention the fun things to be created out of the left over material!

This one was taken last night after I finished my 3^rd pair of pants in 24 hours.  You may recognize the Holly print from Christmas time – it’s one of the many pairs that I cut out prior to Christmas thinking I’d get them all sewn in the month of December if they were already cut out.  One down, two to go!  I just re-read the blog post linked above and it turns out I never posted the picture of all the other pairs that I cut out that night...whoops!

Here are the coasters from above a little bit closer up.  They’re made the same way as last weekend’s coaster experiment, and are just a couple of 5” square scraps from the froggy pants!  One’s for me, and the other I’m sending to Mom in a “thank you for a fun weekend” package, which I’m hoping to send out tomorrow morning.  The frogs aren't quite as centered as I would have liked, but I think they're still cute - which one do you like best?  I wanna send my Momma the better of the two!

Each day I did do some crocheting as well – I mean, I’m still me after all, but not enough to show anything off just yet. 

Hoping to finish up a small crochet project tonight.  If I’m productive during Glee I’ll be sure to take pictures in the morning and post an update tomorrow.

Isn’t it GREAT to have it day light a little bit earlier and a little bit later each day?!?!  I finally have enough light in the apartment to take a few pictures before work AND I can almost make it home from work at night before it’s dark once more…looking forward to warmer days, flip flops and needing my sun glasses for the drive home once more.

sorry!

First, I’d like to apologize for the fact that the only blogging I do these days is an update of pictures from the past week.  This usually includes a quick paragraph of things I plan to do in the near future, that usually never actually happen!

Second of all, before you see the pictures I’m getting ready to share in this update, please know that when I took the first couple over the weekend, they were meant to just be glimpses to post on Facebook.  I had intended to take nicer quality pictures of each project, but as always my weekends go too quickly and I ran out of time before the time had come once more that I had to go back to work!

First is my status picture from a Saturday of crocheting –

My blanket is coming along slowly.  I've spent lots and lots of time with it, but I'm using an H hook so it's def taking a bit longer to see any major progress!

Sunday morning was spent sewing:

Some springtime Pillow Cases for our couch.  We spend lots of time lounging and relaxing on the couch nights and weekends, and I really like to use our spare bed pillows to get comfy (also, it saves from having to store our pillows for when we have guests spend the night)!  I needed something to replace my Christmas cases and I thought I'd take the opportunity to start getting some spring colors in the apartment once more.  This really is such a fun way to use beautiful material, customize it to the holiday/season and with only the cost of 1 yd of material per case - they're super quick to make too!  I've of course fallen in love with these patterns and now want to go buy some material to make lounge pants :o)

I made a set of coasters for a co-worker's birthday on Tuesday.  This was my first time sewing coasters so I also made one pink one for my desk @ work.  They're all the same on the front and back and just have some batting in the middle.  5" cut squares with a 1/2" seam make the perfect size (to me!) for a coaster.  I'm still trying to master straighter lines on my top stitching, but I'll get there.  These were all made at no cost to me - just scraps from lounge pants & shorts made over the past 18 months.  My co-worker loved them and said that they'd go perfectly in her 2nd bedroom (which coincidentally was in need of coasters as it's a TV room in their house!)

 Here's how they were "wrapped"

I also made Jonathan a pair of red fleece lounge pants for Valentine's Day.  I totally forgot to take a picture after giving them to him last night!  But I will say they were a hit, he'd changed into them within about 45 seconds of opening his gift!

In other news,the next two nights after work are being spent preparing for company this weekend.  My momma is coming to visit Friday night through Monday morning.  This means things like the growing pile of laundry and very messy study need to be dealt with tonight and tomorrow so that she and I can have a good old CRAFTY weekend (plus a couple of shopping trips to give Jonathan a break!)

Lastly – a belated Happy Valentine’s Day to all my fellow bloggers!  I read all your posts about LOVE yesterday, but found myself without enough time in my lunch break to write about my own <3

Jonathan made our first Valentine’s as husband and wife a very special one.  Due to come unforeseeable bumps in the road it is one that I’ll never forget!

Here's the awesome dinner Jonathan made us last night (along with pink tulips from him and his gift (you can kind of see the red fleece peekin' out!))  He was in charge of dinner (Porterhouse, shrimp, asparagus and avocado) and I was in charge of dessert (GF chocolate cake with raspberry frosting and chocolate sauce)  I totally forgot to take a picture of my cake but I'll say this - adding a jar of seedless preserves to white canned frosting makes for AMAZING cake frosting!!!  I only needed about half of it for my 9" cake, so I put the rest back into the jar, and popped it into the fridge for a fun dessert in the near future!

I'd like to point out that those pink tulips are my 2nd flowers of the day (I told you he went all out!).  Sadly the roses which were to be delivered to my office, have yet to arrive....the tulips were purchased in the afternoon (before places would be sold out) to bring home all along - I think he'd want you all to know that. 

My Funny Valentine really is the sweetest of them all <3

THANK YOU!

Gosh I am really feeling the LOVE out there in blog-land!  A big THANK YOU!!  to Debi, Heather, and Little Orphan Skein for awarding me with my first blog award, ever! Three times no less - I gotta say, you really know how to make a girl feel popular!

Now, on to the 7 fun and exciting facts you may not know about me (okay, so I can't guarantee they'll be all that exciting to anyone, other than me!):

Fact 1:  I went to college in NYC for Musical Theatre (yes, I'm a theatre geek, this is why there's Wicked link above...) I now work in Human Resources for a Private Equity Firm in Washington, DC.  I get a lot of "what?!?!"  looks at work when I'm asked where I went to college, etc.

Fact 2:  I learned to downhill ski at age 2, but haven't been for the past decade.  

Fact 3:  I started taking dance classes at age 7.  It took my Grannie this long to get me in classes because when you're really little classes are usually on Saturday mornings.  I always spent Saturdays (and Sundays for that matter) skiing with my parents so I started dancing once classes were on a weekday after school.  The first year I only took tap.  Tap is still my all time favorite (and yes, 42nd Street, Anything Goes, and Thoroughly Modern Millie are a few of my favorite musicals...just to name a few!)

Fact 3b:  By the time I was in high school I started teaching private dancing lessons and doing choreography at my community theatre.  I still find myself "coming up" with choreography and tap steps at the most random of times.  My favorite place to practice what a new rhythm sounds like is the elevator of my building...I have 10 floors of uninterrupted time (as long as I'm in the elevator alone!  I try to avoid this if I'm in the elevator with others in an attempt to dodge the funny looks.....)

Fact 4:  I was teaching my now Sister-in-Law private tap lessons when Jonathan and I first started dating.  I still remember the phone call I got from the house one summer night - I thought it was my now MIL calling about a lesson that I'd missed, it was Jonathan calling to see if I wanted to hang out that weekend <3

Fact 5:  I was 5'7" in 7th grade.  It wasn't until my Senior Year of high school that the guys in my class were finally taller than me!

Fact 6:  My Grannie, Mom and I are all exactly 30 years apart in age.  While I'm not sure I'll be ready for kids in 2013, I've always thought it would be really cool to have a daughter who's exactly 30 years younger than me.

Fact 6b:  My mom and I got married 30 years apart from each other as well...

Fact 7:  I'm the fifth generation with the middle name Louise on my Mom's side of the family.  Holly Louise - Susan Louise - Shirley Louise - Ethel Louise - Carrie Louise.  One day, I hope to have a daughter (even if it's not in 2013 to pass this along to)

As far as awarding this to 15 other bloggers, I feel as though this award has made rounds, twice to some of you, so instead of awarding anything to anyone, I'll leave you with a list of my favorite blogs to read each day (in no particular order!):

Megan from Crochet Every Day

Sarah Ashley from Craftiness is Happiness

Debi from Hooks and Yarns

Heather from The Good Life

The Brown Eyed Baker

Rachel from Maybe Matilda

Marie Anne from The Crooked Yarn

Six Sister's Stuff

Pammy Sue from Scotty's Place

Thanks to all my favorite blogs (those listed above and MORE) for keeping me inspired, laughing and giving me great reads on my lunch break!

Happy Monday everyone!  I did lots of crafting over the weekend, but will save that post for lunchtime tomorrow :o)

SUPER Weekend!

They’re never long enough, but what a fun weekend!  I think all this fun is going to equal a very looooooooooong post, so grab a cup of coffee and brace yourselves ;-)

I sadly woke up with a migraine on Saturday morning, and while it slowed me down a bit, it didn’t stop me from crocheting at least a little bit while enjoying my coffee.

I’d planned to venture out and find the closest Hobby Lobby to me this weekend.  I’d only ever been to an actual store once and I just don’t find shopping online the same:

1.       You don’t get to “take in” all the wonderful yarn colors, textures, etc online, or wander the aisles

2.       You have to WAIT for your order to arrive vs. driving straight home to use your purchases

3.       You often pay shipping costs

Jonathan’s comment to me as I was getting ready to leave was, “aren’t you going to pay just as much in gas as you would in shipping?”  ……Even if that were the case, my lack of patience for much of anything, really, made the decision for me J

Off I went and I thoroughly enjoyed Hobby Lobby while trying to not spend TOO much money.  As I sat at a red light waiting to get back out on the main road, I happened to look up and see something that in 7 years of living in the DC area I haven’t been able to easily access – WALMART AND SAM’S CLUB!  I was forced to make a left hand turn at this point, but quickly got across 4 lanes of traffic and turned myself around!  I know there are a lot of bad things said about Walmart, but I’m a girl on a tight budget and I really have take the discount where I can find it.  I only picked up two things (make up and cake mix) quickly in Walmart before walking across the ENORMOUS parking lot to the Sam’s Club.  I picked up some of my favorite things at Sam’s (that I always have to stock up on when I’m back home in WNY) and then stood in line FOREVER.  Seriously – I must have been out of my mind to think either store was a good idea at 2 p.m. the day before the Super Bowl…..

I look forward to future trips where I can justify the drive up to Laurel to go to Hobby Lobby (because I need something at Walmart/Sam’s)!  Besides the drive took less time than I was anticipating….and I’ve already realized something I forgot to get at Hobby Lobby!

The reminder of Saturday was spent picking up a bit and crocheting through the evening.  I’ve fallen in love with my Raspberry blanket and can’t wait to start using it!

 It’s been named, but I’ll be saving that for a bit of a “reveal” later on.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day getting ready for our Super Bowl “party”.  This was the party for those who either aren’t big football fans or their team wasn’t playing but felt they should be doing something.  It was a nice get together (8 total including us) with LOTS of food and have a good time watching the commercials (and the Giants WIN!)  I’ll take any win that isn’t Boston J

I had found recipes from the Brown Eyed Baker for Polenta Pizza (which is perfect for Jonathan as it’s already gluten free) and Stovetop Mac’n Cheese (which is easily made GF). 

The pizza didn’t go all that well, but I’ll definitely be trying again in the future.  I needed to double the printed recipe to have enough crust (I was confused as to whether or not it was already doubled when reading the post/recipe).  I made two separate batches but in doing so ended up with a pizza that was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too salty.  My friends were nice enough to at least try it, but the rest had to be thrown last night.  Oh, I used mushrooms, onions, broccoli and feta cheese for my toppings.

The Mac’n Cheese was quiet wonderful and came together very easily.  I used a little more cheese than the recipe calls for and added about ½ cup crumbled bacon, because really you can never have too much bacon!

For dessert I made cookies from a NEW RECIPE that’s now a new favorite!  I didn’t make these gluten free as Jonathan was concerned that they wouldn’t turn out (have had some bad experiences in the past!)  Seriously though, THEY’RE SO GOOD!!!  Go buy a boxed cake mix, and a tub of Cool Whip and TRY THESE OUT!  My Wegmans did not have regular Cool Whip, only Lite and it really does work just fine.  I added 1 tsp. of lemon extract because I wanted to make sure they were extra lemon-y.  They’ve got a great lemon flavor without it being over powering.  I’ll be making these again, probably pretty soon either with a different flavored cake mix (I’ve been thinking about my favorite Funfetti all day) and/or gluten free. 

I, of course crocheted during the game.  I rarely watch football during the regular season but I always turn on the Super Bowl.  I find it to be a perfect “crafty time”!  Between watching the game and the commercials I didn’t get loads done.

 I’m using Yarn Bee Enchantress(that I bought on Saturday), and am almost out of yarn…I’m a little concerned that I should have purchased a 2^nd skein….at $5.99/skein though I was really hoping that one would be enough!  We’ll see, I may just be able to make it work, but it’s gonna be close!

Thanks to Meg and Laurie I also have THREE new patterns to try out!!  Only problem is that my storage tub of cotton yarn got a little buried in the study this weekend so I might have to wait until things are a little more in order before I can try them out.  Thanks ladies!!!

Debi recognized me with a very nice award today as well (feeling QUITE popular!)  I’ll post a little later about that though…give you all a chance to nap or something – this is, if you’re still reading at this point!

Give-away

Happy Friday everyone!

I came across this blog today, and these potholders  they're so beautiful I just had to share the giveaway with all of you!

I hope you all have a crafty weekend :o)

What's Cookin'?

Mostly a big pot of indecisiveness….

Not sure what my deal is lately but I’ve made zero progress on many projects.  The biggest hurdle that I have yet to clear is a lack decision making and/or a lack of confidence in the decisions I’ve made.

This past weekend I was in a bit of a funk/rut.  I made trips to AC Moore and Michaels and spent some time crocheting, but one of two things happened by Sunday - either the work I did was frogged or I’m still unhappy with color choices and am waiting for some yarn to arrive by mail*.

*”Funny” story – the yarn I’m waiting for wasn’t ordered online, I sent my mom to the local Walmart (don’t have one close to us) to pick up some yarn I’d seen over the holidays that I couldn’t find anywhere else!  It’s being shipped to me today along with some other goodies from wonderful Chautauqua County!

One of my most chronic cases of indecisiveness over the years has been when it’s time for me to make something for myself.  I don’t suffer from a need to give everything I make away, I just can’t make a decision on design, pattern, colors, hook size, etc etc etc….

Perfect example would be that after I bought some Vanna’s Choice in Raspberry on clearance over the weekend I couldn’t decide what to do with it.  I bought them out of the 5 or 6 skeins they had left (plus I knew think I have 2 at home….) I spent most of Saturday with it stuck in my head to make a scarf with this yummy raspberry color. Why a scarf when I have so many skeins, you ask?  No freaking clue.  By Sunday morning I’d frogged my 5^th or 6^th scarf attempt and started a blanket.  It wasn’t until last night that I’d finally settled on my 2^nd color (Vanna’s Baby in Lamb if you’re wondering) and my pattern.

Feeling happy with my choice I had a bit of “steam” left last night to crochet (until I passed out from exhaustion).  I was happily crocheting away while we made our way through Season 3 of West Wing when I came across this:

 F#SH*GHT^%W#&%$#&!!GKLI^#D

I don’t know if you can see it but in the previous row I missed a ch-2.  I’ve made like 5 blankets with this pattern at this point and I don’t ever recall doing this.  I was too mad/tired to frog it last night and fix.  So it’s sitting at home waiting for me tonight.  My hope is that now that I am actually happy with my color and pattern choices that I’ll have more of a desire to pick this up each night after work.

Things like sheer exhaustion from work, 4 industrial size loads of laundry on Monday evening, dental work yesterday that’s made opening my jaw quite painful today AND the current book I’m reading (and find difficult to put down) are also contributing to my lack of crocheting.

I really need to find a better work/life/crochet balance J