Apples

Ok... so last week was my pumpkin adventure and this week was applesauce. I made about 3 quarts of applesauce in the crockpot... no sugar added..... just cut up the apples... cored and peeled.... added 3/4 cup water with some lemon juice in it.... and in about 5 hours I had wonderful applesauce!!! Yum!!

It was a much more productive week then it has been......... lots of projects worked on.... 3 more microwave potholder bowls... couple of tater sacks... a bunch of bibs..burps and wipes and some pinwheel blocks for a special quilt for an ill swapper on flickr....... I also got all of my October swap stuff out in the mail and the burp of the month and potholder of the months have been mailed also!

I'm down to about 10 rows on the toe of my sock and that set will be complete!! that's my third pair!! Next I want to try a set of fingerless mitts.... something simple for work.... it gets really cold in there sometimes and my hands get realllly cold! There are sooooooooooo many out there to choose from!!

Christmas 2011 is moving right along and is on schedule for a thanksgiving finish....... progress was made today and a few things will be finished up this week and posted on flickr next weekend. I did post a few things out there today if you want to see........

The weather here has been fantastic! Cool in the mornings.... 80's in the afternoon... bright and sunny!!! Rain moving in on wednesday but it'll be ok.... we've been dry about 10 days now so it's time........

guess that's about it for now..........have a safe and productive week

Lish

Pumpkins

so this week I learned to make pumpkin from pumpkins. there seems to be a shortage on canned pumpkin again this year so I decided to take the regular big ol' pumpkin that hubby brought home and turn it into pumpkin stuff for pies. Not too bad at all.

I had to get out my very old.... very long bladed knife from years ago to whack thru the pumpkin. My ginsu knives weren't long enough....... so once I got into the lil bugger I took out the seeds and stringy crap... I was going to save the seeds to toast but it was rather yukky trying to get the stringy stuff off of them so I just chucked them! lol

I lined my cookie sheets with foil... cut the pumpkin into big chunks and put them in the oven for about 90 minutes or so......... then it was just a matter of pulling off the rind.......throwing the pumpkin flesh into the food processor and pureeing it.... it then went into ziplock baggies .... 2 healthy cups in each one.... and into the freezer! voila!! I have 4 quarts of ready to use pumpkin. not bad at all and not much work involved really. I have another pumpkin that will fall to the same fate this weekend hubby likes to make pumpkin pies and rolls and stuff so he's a happy camper too! double score!!!

This weekend along with the pumpkin I plan on making some crockpot applesauce. We'll head to a local orchard tomorrow and get apples and saturday I'll cut... peel and core them... throw them in the crockpot and let time and heat make me some applesauce! lol depending on how much I make... some of the apple sauce will get stuff added to it and become a jar or two of applebutter... another thing that makes the hubster happy! I'll freeze some of the apple sauce the same way I did the pumpkins....... it'll be nice this winter to have some yummy applesauce... no sugar added....... just a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg........

I've been working on my binding pile... I just have one thing left on it now........the final sock is now at the toe stage........and I have about 10 more yoyo's for my tree wall hanging to do.... things are moving along..... I also did a few more of the microwave bowl potholders and plan to cut another dozen this weekend......

The weather has finally turned fallish......... cold in the mornings with a gorgeous sky filled with bright sparkly stars.... and bright sunny afternoons. But I know that soon it will be winter as I follow Mr Orion across the sky....... soon he'll be gone and I wont see him again til spring. but on the good side... November 6th we get our hour back!!! Daylight savings time will end and I get an extra hour to play! wooohoooo!!

My entire christmas list is planned and about 1/4 of it is completed...... 1/4 of it will be ready in december and the other half will be done for thanksgiving.... so that's on track and moving along......

I haven't worked on the Farmers Daughter Sampler for a few weeks.... I need to do up a few more blocks to keep on track with that....... and I have two more UFO's ready for quilting........

I'm putting pics on flickr ( www.flickr.com/sewwunderful ) as I do things and there are a few things I can't post yet......

I've got my October potholders... burps...bibs and bitty blocks all ready to be packaged up for mailing... that's on this weekends list.... I can't see how the postoffice is going broke.... I spend a small fortune each month in postage!! lol

ok... enough for now.... I'll let you know how the applesauce comes out

Lish

NO! I'm not dead!!

Man... I can't believe how long it's been! I last noticed I skipped two weeks and all of a sudden I skipped two months! yikes!!

I promise I'll get back into the swing of things again and post on a more regular basis.

A lot of things came up... weekend jaunts with the hubster... wedding gifts to be made.... a sciatic issue.... school...bitty blocks.........my MO and JO separated for awhile... but they are back together sort of ...the usual stuff!

But fall has arrived in Indiana....and I'm ready to get back into my groove! There are some pics on flickr... a new Lazy Girl Purse is due to hit the shelves the first week of November... her name is Candice and she's wonderful! A bit bigger than Margo... she can be a purse or a tote.... she can have a zipper or not and has tall tech pockets to hold nooks and kindles and Ipads! oh my!!

there are new bitty blocks on the flickr site also.........and new christmas projects... have you seen the microwave bowl potholders??? OMG what a great invention! they are definitely gonna be on the stocking stuffer list this year........ you can see them on my flickr site.... I made 10 so far and have more cut out... they are a little bit work intensive... but well worth it!

I'm on my 3rd pair of Knit socks.... I have 20 rows of foot and then the toe and the third pair will be complete! the second pair is on flickr and the bootie socks will be up there soon.......... next on the knit list is a pair of fingerless gloves... I have some really nice and soft and luscious bamboo yarn that I want to use for those... I'll start them as soon as the final sock is done!

I've not made anymore progress on the UFOs... it's still holding at 13 but maybe I can make a dent in that this weekend....... I'm off friday so that gives me an extra day to play... maybe.... lol depends on the weather.

well I guess that's its for now.... I apologize for being missing for so long and I won't let it happen again!!

Have a great week

Lish

End of July?

Time sure is flying by quickly! I can't believe we are at the end of another month! I'm hoping it will also end the horrendous heat waves we've been having here........ nasty stuff! We got rain on Sunday....... all I could think of was scenes from the old westerns where the rain finally fell on the parched earth and the people just stood in it laughing and crying..... I wanted to go stand in it! lol

The frogs are happy again.... they've been singing in my yard since the rain and there was one little peeper on my car monday morning... guess he wanted to hit the road with me... he didn't!

A couple more pics have been posted on flickr...and that will be the end of july projects....... leaving tomorrow for a mini vacay to see my family and hubbys family reunion........ we'll be back sunday nite.....

The second pair of socks is coming along really well....... the first sock is complete thru the gusset decreases and ready to start the foot... the second sock has the heel flap done and the gusset is up next...... this gusset looks much much better than my first one... lol.....pics will come soon.........I want to get some of the foot on them so they actually resemble socks...... lol

I'll be working on dishcloths on the drive also....... I've completed June.... and one July cloth and the second one is halfway complete...that one should get finished on the way out east and then another one started on the way back..... I have several of the large balls of cotton dishcloth yarn.... geeeze they make a lot of cloths! I finished up my 4th pink and grey cloth and still have enough left on the ball to make a small cloth or a couple of coasters........ I think it's gonna take longer than I anticipated to use up all this cotton yarn! hmmmmmm I wonder if I can make socks out of it?

I have a couple things I'm taking with me on the trip to hopefully work on as I find time.... I need 21 big yoyo's for a small wall hanging.....and a couple of large EPP hexies for some needle books.... with any luck I can get the hand work done in the hotel in the evenings..... I tried doing them once while driving and that didn't work too well... lol I'll keep the dishcloth knitting for the moving vehicle parts of the trip lol

I have a new great nephew too! Brayden David.... I've seen pics and he's a real cutie pie.... his quilt is done and will be going back east with me along with some burpers and some goodies for his brother..........hopefully I'll get to see him this trip... if not... i'll see him in December.....

I've been working on bitty blocks and bitty log cabins also this month.... can't post pics of the bitties yet... they are for august but I'll post them when I get back.......

I've got 98% of my golden eggs on angry birds and all of my bananas, melons, and papayas on angry birds rio....... I'm sure I'll get a lot more accomplished now that I'm done with that and waiting for the next installment of angry birds rio to land on my nook! lol

ok... guess for now that's it....... i'll try to update from the road...but internet connections are sometimes iffy too....otherwise I'll see you all when I get back!!

be safe
stay cool and productive

Lish

Moving Right along

This was another good sewing weekend!! Lots of pics posted on flickr and somethings done that can't be posted yet........ I made some toolcaddies that fit over a 5 x 7 acryic dollar store frame... they're nice but if the stuff is too heavy they fall over backwards... they'd be great for pens/ pencils/ notepads, etc .... like a little desk top stationary store... the pockets would even hold stamps.... I made some pillowcases for my son.... one for sweetdreams and one for spicy dreams lol.....I got all my commissioned embroidery work done and delivered......and now have the cuff and 3/4 of a leg done on my sock!! When I finish the leg part, I'll make the second sock up to the same point so I can do the heels at the same time and start the foot part........ that way they'll both get finished at the same time.... this is pair number 2! I tried making a footie sock out of some really thin sock yarn and size 1 needles but that didn't work too well lol.... so i'm back to size 3 needles with the sock yarn... it's self striping stuff and it's really looking pretty cool!

The weather has been warmish....and is now heading to HOT!! Yesterday was very humid and even the cat who loves her deck didn't want to go out... she sniffed the air... looked at me like it was my fault and went back to her nap pad to sleep.

I picked a zuchinni and 2 more cukes from the garden too!!

I was asked to do an Angel sewing machine cover for the Sewn Spaces Swap. Apparently someone flaked on their obligation... grrrrrrrr...... but the cover is done and it has a little matching pincushion. It'll go out in the mail this week. Also going out in the mail are the August potholders for my sister and nieces potholder of the month.... they are actually early!! I'm going back east next week for a short vacay.... but decided I'd mail them anyway.

I'm posting a pick of my one shape Rainbow swap mini.... I just love this!!! It's on it's way to my partner and I hope she likes it too!

I also completed the Color My Name challenge.... we picked paint chips to match our initials... then matched fabrics to those paint chips and made a project. I did a needlebook/ hexie/yoyo case. It will hold my stuff for hexies and yoyo's when I travel...

It's amazing how much I can get done when I stay away from Angry Birds! lol

A few pics below and more on flickr....

Have a great week

Lish

The MO and the JO have reunited!

Things are much better!!! I'm back on track and getting things done and caught up.... the medical issues have been resolved........my sewing machine is humming and all is right with the world!

The current swaps include needle cases and one shape rainbows......... I had a lot of fun with these and decided I need to make many more needle cases!!! I don't understand why I don't have one.... but I don't... and I just stick my needles in a scrap of whatever I can find........that will change!!

My bitty blocks for july and done.... and I even made 24 3" bitty log cabins for another swap! am I nutz?? yep.........and I love it!

I have the paint chip challenge to try to complete..........and then it's on to august and september bitties...........and august postholders for the sister and niece and yep... it's that wonderful time of the year to start making Christmas Goodies.

25 weeks of christmas has begun!!! If you want to be ready for a stress free holiday season... come join us... groups.yahoo.com/25weeks. Be sure to tell us how you found out about us.... we don't let just anyone in.... The elves and I try to keep our Weekers safe from outside spam and evil as best we can.

I need to find time today or tomorrow to weed the garden.... I'm hoping I'll find some yummy stuff out there too... I might even have a radish or two that is ready to pick and I could really go for a nice cool cucumber salad... yummmmmmmmmmmm .... I might make time to go do that NOW! lol

Pics are posted on the flickr site.............. and hopefully this week I'll get the lighthouse pics posted too. Hubby and I did a mini lighthouse tour last weekend up the Michigan shore line.... wow!!! We went all the way up to White Fish Point at the top of the upper peninsula to the shipwreck museum... definitely worth the drive and we stopped at 6 ( I think) Lighthouses along the way.......... beautiful weather...outstanding scenery.........and a lot of history!

Ok.... til the next time.... safe travels... happy crafting...and wonderful whateveryoudo!

Lish

I really am here!!

It's been a busy...and somewhat stressful 2 weeks........ some family medical issues had my mind all boggled and not focused... but that's working itself out and the brain is coming back to the fold! lol

I have done a few things.... some new Happy Holidays Mats.... I love this mat... it's an Atkinson Design and comes in three sizes and can easily be made into a tree skirt!

My bitty blocks for July are done.... the ones for August are started...and my swap is ready for mailing!! Of course I have 2 new swaps starting this weekend... lol

I haven't done much knitting or other sewing over the last two weeks, so I have a LOT to get caught up on. Going on a mini vacay this weekend with the hubster... going to do a Lake Michigan Lighthouse Tour.......and then starting monday it'll be back to my normal sewing schedule and time to start on Christmas Goodies.... there's just over 26 weeks left til Christmas... so make a note and get started!!

I'll post pics when I get back on monday and thru next week as I complete the many started projects that are laying all over my sewing room... I hate it when I can't stay focused... I do believe that's how UFO's are born! So I need to get them all completed...including the UFO I started but didn't finish ( that'll be #14 for the year) I'm behind on my dishcloths now too.... just one... but July is almost here to techinically I'll be down 3. Perhaps while riding in the truck this weekend I can get at least the second June cloth done..........

I just wanted to check in......first part of getting refocused!

Have a safe and Happy Holiday!!!

Lish