Busy as a Bee

It's been a while since I last blogged. Eric has been sick and I have been busy getting rid of junk and clutter. I did manage to get John too join in the effort yesterday. It was such a good week that we could not get all the recycling in the bin and had to hold over a little bit to add once the bin was emptied today. Yes the bin was so full we could not pack it down any further and John had to drag it to the street.

My spinning is progressing nicely and I found a way to keep the yarn from sliding around the spindle and I now have smoother yarn which is also thinner. My plying is getting better although I still have trouble when I get to the end, but with practice I am sure it Will get better.

A lot of knitting is also getting done. It is also a good thing that I have plenty of yarn and some fibre for spinning as Eric will be home another week. I think is is entirely possible to get cabin fever in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Yes I reached that point last week and still have a week to go, but at least we are home and not at the hospital like everyone was thinking this morning. So at least there is something positive about today.

I did a very foolish thing today too. I scheduled 2 IEP meetings for Eric for today 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon with a doctors appointment sandwiched in between. Definitely too much for one day when I am so tired.  Just one more week will be my mantra for the week. So yes I will be off the grid for another week. Enjoy your families and have a good week.

Kitchen Disasters A New Contest

We have all had kitchen disasters and some of them are very funny. Take the time when I was about 9 and attempting to cook dinner on my own, so I could get a Girl Scout Cooking badge. Well lets just say I was just awful at fractions at the time and when the recipe called for 3/4 cup of cooking sherry, I thought it meant 3 or 4 cups of sherry. Well you can all see where that one went. Sometimes we just burn the food other times we just use the wrong ingredients as a substitute and disaster strikes.

What this contest is about is your most outrageous cooking disasters of all time. Please keep it clean as this is a family blog. The prize will be either a $25.00 gift certificate to my store or a Medium Flat rate box filled to the brim with yarn, your choice. You have until midnight MST on February 28th to submit your kitchen disasters. Please feel free to post a link to this contest in your blog, The more stories the better.

We will have the usual panel of judges. Good luck and lets hear those stories.

Loop de Loop

Well today was certainly a roller coaster of a day. Eric was up until the wee hours of the morning and I did manage to sleep in until 6:15am. After a bit of fumbling which was suppose to look like work; Eric and I both accomplished a nap. The day was so much better after the nap.

Eric wanted company for a couple of hours so it was naturally time to knit. About 1.5 inches got done on the second half of the poncho. After he was settled into watching some Disney Channel I got down to some serious cleaning. I made a very good start on the empty recycle bin, 3 loads out and 1 bag of trash also managed to find its way out the door.

I also came to an euphony while cleaning. I do not have to follow some will instructions to the T. When my Uncle Harry died he left me his stone and glass egg collection with the instructions that when I die it was suppose to be divided up between my kids, nieces and nephew. So I picked out my favorite eggs from the collection and put them on my newly cleaned desk. The rest of the eggs were divided up equally between my nieces and nephew figuring that Teri would get the ones I put on my desk at a later date. With any luck they will be mailed out tomorrow. I am not kidding when I say the out going mail is over 12 inches high and getting higher.

I also managed to spin almost 1 ounce of fibre tonight and will finish it in the morning; and then it will be time to ply it.  I am just hoping that I can get the full ounce on one drop spindle before it gets too full.  I think I seriously need to find a wpi tool and should start saving up for a spinning wheel.

Well Eric wants some company so it is time to go do some knitting. And look for a new contest in my blog tomorrow. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

It's Official

I think that is really official. I have fallen off the face of the earth. Yes Eric is still sick and no he is not ready for school yet at least 2 more days at home this week. Oh and did I mention Rodeo Break is scheduled for Thursday and Friday of this week. Rodeo is a tradition dating back to I believe the mid 1920's here in Tucson and it is a really big deal. We have a parade, official concert and everything.

Over the weekend I finished 1/2 of a poncho for charity and 1 Project Gratitude scarf. Check out this link if you would like to send a nice warm scarf to one of our wonderful military members overseas. http://www.opgratitude.com/howtohelp.php?page=individual  The first year I made 4 scarfs, last year I made 6 and this year I hope to have 10 finished by October. 

Well the house is quiet now so I will go get some much needed sleep. So enjoy your families and have a great week.

Still at Home

I am still at home with a sick boy. Yes this is another iPod blog. I am currently watching Sprout Good Night Show with Eric and hoping that he falls asleep soon.

In honor of my UFO month I finished 8 charity items in my finishing basket. This means that I only have to knit 42 more items to reach my 50 item goal of the year. When the light is better I will take pictures and post them so you can see the work so far. Supriseingly I also picked up Teri's blanket and finished 2 squares today. I don't think it will be done by the 28th of the month,but at this point any progress is good progress. John thinks that I might have it done in time for summer.

Well it looks like Eric is finally settling in for the night. So have a good one and enjoy your families.

Day or Night You Choose

We are in the is it night or day cycle now. Eric's very bad 3 week long cold that migrated to his lungs. Yes we caught it early and the recovery should be faster. After a very long night we both went back to sleep after everyone left and slept until afternoon. I think it did us both some good.

Not a whole lot of house work got done today. But I did manage to run and empty the dishwasher. Run 3 loads of laundry, whats that you, say is it folded? Of course not, my feelings on the subject is that clean laundry is like fine wine. No laundry shall be folded before its time.  Yes I find it more acceptable to wear clean but wrinkly clothes than dirty and wrinkly clothes. Go figure.

My yikes for the day was that I paid $3.10 a gallon for gas for the car. I can't believe how fast it is going up again. Last time I filled up it was $2.80 per gallon.  My spectacular spotting of the day was a little ring tailed bob cat that I spotted on the way home from the grocery store. No I did not have the camera handy. I know it would have been a great photograph.

No spinning got done today, but there was some knitting. Just maybe I will get some spinning done tonight. I also wish to thank the crew of AJ's for cooking dinner. Well it is time to wrap up this blog. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Mona's Danish Bakery

My friend Marge and I revisited Mona's Danish Bakery for lunch today. We had sandwiches for lunch and they were very good. Marge had the hot Turkey sandwich and she said it was made to perfection "with real turkey" not the compressed turkey most places use. She also said that she would order the hot turkey sandwich next time we go there.  I had the cold Roast Beef sandwich with out the cheese. It had just the right amount of horseradish and mayonnaise on a Danish hard roll. This was very much like the sandwiches that Teri and I indulged in when I dropped her off at the University of East Angelia in Norwich.

I would also like to say that the iced tea was wonderful and brewed to perfection. The lemons were cut fresh and when the bowl was empty the next lemon was sliced. Little things like fresh brewed tea and firm lemons say a lot of good things about the staff at Mona's.

The Bakery is a full service bakery, with a  whole line of pastries, cookies, cakes and bread.  Marge said the small fresh fruit tart was very good and a must have again. They have a breakfast, lunch menu and kids menu. The soup is freshly made and changes daily.

Mona's Danish Bakery is located at 4777 E Sunrise Drive Suite 113. It is at the NE corner of Swan and Sunrise. The hours are Monday through Saturday from 7 am to 5 pm. There is take out and casual seating available. You place your order at the counter and they bring it out to your table.

The opinions expressed here are my own and I paid for lunch. I did not ask if I could blog about the wonderful food at Mona's Danish Bakery but since the food was so wonderful I wanted to share my experience with everyone. If asked by the owner I will take down this blog. My hope is that you will try the wonderful food here and bring friends back with you.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy valentine's Day everyone. It was a very mixed day. I did manage to get caught up on sleep. A little more cleaning got done and yes 6 count um 6 bags of trash made it out today. I should clarify that it was half recycle half trash.

John was wonderful and brought dinner home tonight. I am so lucky to have a great husband like John for a husband. Eric on the other hand was having a goof ball day.

Well enjoy your families and have a great evening.

Very Busy

I have been very busy this week trying to get over the cold Eric shared with me,cleaning and running errands. On the cleaning front I now have polished wood on not one but two desk tops. I have organized some more of my yarn and was able to combine two boxes of yarn for charity knitting into to one box. This leaves me more room to bring in more of my stash yarn from the garage. I am also wondering if I will be able to knit 52 items for charity this year? I know one object a week does sound very ambitious.

I have finished more charity knitting and am trying to get more of my UFOs finished. Yes I will even weave in ends this week as my finishing basket is very full. My spinning is coming along nicely. But I do have one question. Is there a very good book about spinning I have the basics down pretty well but want some technical knowledge.

With any luck Eric is now asleep and I can get some more sleep too.

IPod Blog

This is going to be a very short blog. The computer crashed or something this
morning,well it's all funny in a bad sort of way. I am typing this with one finger on my pod at a Tucson favorite called Bookman's.

Now on to the good stuff. I found the lost stone from my mothers ring and it is at Abbott Taylor's the jeweler. Errands are getting done at a fast pace. I even got to my class this morning. Talk about the forward thinking of our ancestors,there were concepts about intellectual property way back at Mount Sinai. All I can say is wow.

Sorry for any misspellings they will be fixed when the computer is. Have a great day and enjoy your families.

As promised all the spelling mistakes have been taken care of.

Sunday

I lost a stone in my mothers ring today which left me a little sad. I noticed the stone was gone when the setting got caught in the batt I was working on. Needless to say I will go over the work area with a tooth brush and sweep out every little crevice tomorrow. I need to find Eric's birth stone so I can have it reset.

I think I will take off my rings when spinning from now on.

In the mean time it is time to try to unwind and hope losing the stone was not an omen. Night all.

Spinning

I have added yet another craft to the long list of crafts I already do. Recently I went to the Withers Ranch where I was fortunate enough to have the very wonderful Kathy Withers teach me to spin. Others have tried over the years but Kathy is a darn good teacher.  This is a picture of the first skein that I spun all by myself.  I know its not much but at least it does look like yarn.

Below is a picture of my progression from right to left of the yarn I have spun over the last 2 weeks. I was even brave enough to ply yarn today but had a slight mishap and the yarn broke in the middle, thus I have 2 skeins instead of 1 skein. Yes I did manage to ply about 370 inches of yarn. I think it 370 sound more impressive the the amount would in yards so I am sticking to it.

This is an unsolicited plug for Kathy's ranch and her classes. Kathy has not asked me to do this and I am not getting paid for this. But I feel there is some stuff that you need to know about Kathy and her ranch.

First of all her company is called Unique Designs by Kathy.  Her e-mail is jmarckathy@aol.com her web site link is http://www.uniquedesignsbykathy.com/6928.html ; there you will find her class schedule,a few of Kathy's one of a kind creations and patterns, store hours, ranch tours, home grown fiber and Kathy's yarn. This is where she will be when she is a various shows., if you can't make it to Tucson any time soon.

Kathy will also be at

Stitches West February 17-20, 2011 Santa Clara, CA Booth 14                              

4th Avenue Spring Street Fair April 1-3, 2011

Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta May 26-29, 2011

Pasadena Bead and Design Show July 28-31, 2011 in the Santa Monica Room

Stitches Midwest August 25-28, 2011 Illinois                                                                                              Patagonia Fall Arts Festival October 7-9, 2011

It is also time to Mark Your calendars for the Tucson Spring Shearing Festival on April 9th from 9 am to 3 pm. It will be at the ranch located at The Withers’ Ranch 4010 W Palo Seco in Tucson. the phone number is
(520) 572-3758/401-6117.

I hope to see you there and that you get a chance to take one of Kathy's classes. If not at least you can check out her on line shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/uniquedesignsbykathy



Wednesday

Not a whole lot got done today. Eric was kind enough to share his cold. I still find it amazing that I don't get more of Eric's colds with the sometimes long hours I put in. I did talk to the gentleman for whom I am making the caps for; and the order was cut by one hat so that I have only one hat to go.

My wonderful husband is going to bring dinner home although I am more thirsty and tired then hungry. He defiantly is a keeper. I am hoping that Eric sleeps tonight because I really need the sleep. As I head of to get some juice I would like to to have a great evening and enjoy your families.

A Busy Day Plus a quick recipe for Ambrosia

Today was spent with Eric home sick. Just for the fun of it I added some spinning, knitting, laundry and deep cleaning.  I am planing ahead for tomorrow as a nurse will be here at 8 am to take care of Eric and give my tired joints a rest. I have finished 1 of the 3 hats that need to be done a week from Friday and am contemplating making a few more to give the customer some choice in colors as she did not specify what colors she wanted.

Now for the promised recipe....

Ambrosia for 1

1 fruit cup drained
2 tablespoons of shredded coconut
1/4 cup maraschino cherries drained
1/2 cup of whipped creme

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. It is best to let it sit for a bit but can be eaten right away.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.