To Frog, or not...

Yea,
I know. I said no new projects until I finished some UFO's. Well, that was way back last fall and I've yet to finish any of those UFOs. My knitting came to a screeching halt. So to freshen it up a little, I just started this:







I, along with 6700 other folks from around the globe, signed up for MS3 (the mystery stole knit-along #3).
It states in plain English that it's probably not the best pattern for beginning lace knitters, but you can't scare me! I bravely signed up even though I've never knit lace, knit with beads, or knit from a chart. It really isn't bad, you just take it one stitch at a time, the problem is that I'm not sure if it looks ok. It looks a little funky to me.
Others have theirs posted on their blogs and they have nice even stitches, well-defined lace..simply beautiful. Mine.. well, before I pinned it for the photos, a dirty handkerchief came to mind. Pinning it made the stitch definition a little better, but I'm just not sure... So, any lace knitters out there? Any suggestions? To frog or not to frog, that is the question. I'm wondering if my gauge is off. I'm using Addi turbo lace needles 3.25mm (US 3). Should I go up to a 4?

Any thoughts?

Good News!

Look Here
(look at the "Document processing section on the bottom right)
It's good news for a change!

Moonbeam, Your mama is China approved - May has made it through the review room!

Don't judge me...

Ok,
I woke this morning, walked into the kitchen, and the carnage!! What were the poodles up to last night? I swear it's disgusting...look away if you must! Seriously this week got away from me in a big way. but thanks to this slightly cheesy, but effective site, I've discovered I can do anything 15 minutes at a time.
Just watch....

the timer is set











After 15 minutes I'm almost, but not quite finished.
Set timer for another 15 minutes...










Voila!!
This is a shiny kitchen including emptied and reloaded dishwasher, hand wased dishes that weren't dishwasher appropriate, scrubbed counter-top and sink, rugs airing out, floor swept and mopped. Quite a turn-around.
I can usually maintain this, but this week has gotten the better of me!










Next!.... It never ends

Moonbeam's Quilt

The quilt...

The yahoo groups were great, excellent as a matter of fact, at exchanging squares. Has anyone else found it a challenge to get them from the people who are in your life - in real life? I think I've received about 5 or 6 from the 50ish letters that were sent. I'll send another one soon, to give them a little encouragement.
I was home earlier in June and gave the fabric pieces that I have so far to my SIL, the amazing Tracy, who has graciously agreed to make the quilt top for me. Here is a picture of the patten she thinks would work well with the many different types of fabric - frankly, I'm a little blown away because it looks terribly complicated. (Click on the picture to see it a little better) What do you guys think?


















Here is a photo of a sample block that she made getting used to the technique. she's really amazing! Moonbeam and I will be so lucky to have this beautiful quilt!

Sunday Bake 3

This week (due to my expanding waistline and gloomy mood) I decided not to indulge my sweet tooth, but instead to make my standard breakfast. It’s easy, takes two minutes to heat up, and sticks with me easily until lunch.

Here it is:
MorningStar Farms sausage, egg whites, spinach and 2% cheese.
Throw together in a 9x13 pan, bake until browned (about 40 min).
I cut it into 8 sections and have one section each day with a piece of toast for the next 8 days (they freeze well)


















Mother's day is not my gig. It still makes me very sad and is a day I spend missing my mom. This year I tried to stay busy and weeded my flower beds. There is a nasty flora predator that grows thick in my yard that goes by the name of bindweed. Is anyone familiar? I hate the stuff, it's too deep to get all the roots without damaging my plants so I pull up as much of the roots as I can - which the master gardeners tell me that I'm just giving it a good pruning. anyway, it was a good way to spend mother's day this year, weeding... pulling out the crap and throwing it away. I know there's a metaphor for my life in this and a lesson to be learned. Since I'm not an eloquent writer, I'll leave it to you to put in your own words. We all have weeds...right?

Sunday Bake 1 & 2

Sundays have become "baking day". I've been in a crazy baking mood lately and my waistline is soon going to show it!
Last Sunday I tried a new recipe for chocolate chili cake that I got out of the newspaper. It calls for New Mexico chili, which I'm not sure exactly what that is, so I used regular chili powder instead... interesting flavor - the texture was great.
I took it to work to mixed reviews. I think the look is all chocolate which makes that first bite a little startling.




Today is raspberry streusel muffins. I got this recipe from a mile-high baking class. We were told to overfill the muffin cup for that bakery-made look. Too bad I don't have a scratch and sniff blog so you can get the full effect of the charred smell of flour, sugar, eggs, and raspberries spilling over the pan onto the heating element below. The house is filled with smoke, but I think the jelly-roll pan quickly placed under the muffin pan has saved a call to the fire department and hopefully saved the tray of muffins!












They came out more like flying saucers than muffins with a flat muffin top. They do taste good, but they don't look too pretty!




Here's the recipe - but realize it's adjusted for baking at altitude.

Streusel topping:
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c flour 1/2 t cinnamon
2 T cold butter
1/2 c walnuts (optional)

Muffins
4 c flour
1 c sugar
2 T baking powder
1 t baking soda
2 eggs
2 c buttermilk
2/3 c canola oil
1 1/3 c fresh or frozen raspberries

Make streusel topping: place ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until the mixture has a fine cumbly texture. Set aside

Preheat oven to 350

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bow; set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk & oil.

Mix the fruit into the flour mixture so that each piece is lightly coated with flour.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour and gently fold together. The batter should be lumpy but make sure the dry ingredients are throughly moistened. (don't overwork)

Spoon muffin batter into prepared muffin cups to the top of the cup. Sprinkle with streusel topping.

Bake 20-25 min or until the tops are golden brown.

allow to cool before removing from the muffin tins

makes 24 (12 in my case)

Garden tour

Another jaunt around the yard -I'm a little obsessed right now...
the lilacs are blooming and smell wonderful - they're just outside my front door.




































The bed near the street has many xeric plants - these are cotoneaster - a cute little shrub that gets little pink blossoms in the spring and red berries in the fall AND is evergreen. In the back is the greenery from tulips, a tuft of turkish veronica (purply-blue flowering groundcover), and a potentilla - applewood variety (small shrub with white flowers)

My attempt at veggies with elephant garlic as the only specimen so far.




















Leo with his hedgehog toy (sorry, Nic) running through my little backyard, chantacleer pear tree in the background. And, another Iris.




















The volunteer mint that's growing near my birdbath and a few hostas that are just coming up.
A closer, but blurry look at the potentilla.





















I love Spring!

help wanted

I'm having a little trouble placing text around photos...anyone know how to make it easier? Also, any tutorials on how to help my links list - it became a total mess after switching to "new blogger" Anyone?...anyone?... connie?...anyone?

Happy May Day

Having gotten the idea from Buttercup and in honor of May day I thought I'd post a few of the little spring gems that are just starting to bloom around here...


aahhhahahaha..... Just my luck! I try to post photos of some of the flowers in my yard and blogger suddenly won't let me upload any more photos! Hee hee of course they would let me post this one! I really do have others, not just weeds - although the weeds are mighty healthy right now! Cracks me up!!!

Happy May Day!














Update:
I guess blogger isn't going to give me a break - I finally can upload pictures, but they're sideways...oh well.
Here's an Iris that's now in full bloom...













some tiny species tulips....















What's growing in your garden?

Hope springs...

Hope deferred makes the heart sick.-Proverbs

That's the way I've been feeling about the wait lately - sick and hopeless. But then my friend received her referral... Yah hoo. A balm to the sting of only two days of referrals. Then we had a shower for Samantha and little cutie Carly was there. Oh, yummy little girls. renewed hope. This blasted wait in line really does bear incredible fruit.

check out the cuties....


Carly loves ice cream...
















I can't wait to sqeeze this little one...maybe in June!

11 months down... hmmmm

11 months and honestly I’m not sure what to say about it. I find myself shifting from thrilled that 11 months are behind me - meaning that many less in front of me, to crazy thoughts on how the wait may extend even longer than the now expected 24 months to, god forbid, 36 months (hopefully the later is just crazy wait anxiety and will not come to pass!)
Like everyone else waiting in line for CCAA to call our names, the 2 day referral period this month – going from 10/24-10/26 (for those few of you who read this who aren’t involved in the adoption process yourself this means that China matches babies to waiting families monthly on average. This month they only matched two days of LID – log-in dates – The lowest number in Chinese International Adoption history!!
This was a bitter pill. However.. Just after reading the e-mail informing me of the pitifully low number of referral days, I received an altogether different e-mail. One of my single adopty friends who is Chinese received her expedited referral. Oh happy day! Once I saw the referral photo of the most amazingly beautiful girl I’ve seen in some time, the sting was gone, hope renewed.
Yes I’ve been waiting 11 months of what I originally thought was a 10-12 month wait, and yes the referrals this month made me only two days closer to bringing my daughter home, but my friend’s referral made me smile, it gave me joy and it restored a little hope that although it won’t be soon, someday my daughter will be home.

Warning: get your kleenex

...then click on the link....

Families meeting their children in China

This is all I want.
This is why 2 days of referrals is so difficult
This feels further and further away

Sea Shelley's spring break

One of my 5 cutie-patootie nieces came to visit over her spring break. Here's the few pictures I was able to take.
Michelle's spring break here
I lOVE when my nieces come to visit and am so sad when it's time to go. We had a great time skiing - she's really getting good! Then had a few relaxing days at home where we went out for a manicure and pedicure and then hung out at my favorite independent book store. We also went to see "the last Mimsy". Cute flick - she loved it.

Miss you sea shelley!

What a differnce a day makes.

The first picture is leaving church yesterday morning. My friends were walking ahead of me and it was such a fascinating picture. They were in a line with the snow falling heavily and little 3yo Lala carrying her prized balloon.



Today was a much better day. a signature Colorado day with crisp air, bright blue skies and plenty of sunshine. The tulips made it through the storm and frankly, looked quite happy about it.


Now, about those referrals... I think CJ said it best with"donkey balls!" 2 flippin' days! This wait is soooo difficult. M also had a fabulous post on the difficulty of the wait. I sincerely echo her thoughts. This limbo land could really drive someone to the edge. Personally, I'm a fairly spontaneous person. I make a decision and then am very impatient with waiting. I like to dive in and "Just do it". The wait we're experiencing here just leaves me time to worry - while others plan, obsess - while others plan, or ignore it - while others plan.
Last year at this time, I thought I'd be the one getting my referral this month. Now it looks as though it's this time next year... or, god forbid, even later than that.

Happy Easter

The poodles are looking for the Easter bunny - they're going to be sorely disappointed because I don't think he comes out in SNOW!

(Thanks Kitt for the photo advice)


Happy Easter everyone.
We woke here to more snow. It's been dark and gloomy for the last three days with light dusting of snow each morning. But, today it's a regular snowstorm... go figure.
I'm not sure that my once beautiful orangy-red tulips are going to survive. The blossoms on the pear trees in the back are looking a little frosted - just like the lemon-ginger pound cake I made for Easter lunch today.









*note... these photos - except the cake - were taken yesterday. Today there is much more snow but I'm too cold and tired of it to go out and take new photos.

Anne was here!

Tonight I went to The Tattered Cover to hear Anne Lamott. She's my pure, real, hillarious spiritual hero. Funny lady, incredible writer, single mom. Her most recent book is out and she's doing the bookstore tour to promote it. The latest is called Grace (eventually) Thoughts on Faith. I've only read a little from it so far, but it's another thoughtful raucous book of essays where her life & thoughts speak to the deeper truths in everyone. Although I've not had the drug addicted, alcoholic, broken home life that she's lead, I find myself nodding a big "uh huh" to the universal pain, revelations, and views of the holy she describes. Love her! Now even more since I've heard her in person.

For some reason my blogger will not let me do links, italics, bold..anything excpt post a picture. What's going on? Is it because I got a new computer? All you Mac users, I'm new. Is it my Mac? Must I do something different?

Yes the last two weeks have been a challenge. My faithful pc laptop decided early one Tuesday morning to die. A little cough, sputter then the screen was blank. I took it in, "too much to fix to be worth it, Get a new one" was the declaration from the computer guy. Well, being subject to marketing, I bought a Mac. The commercials about security of the new Vista and then taping the camera to the PC's head were the ones to push me over the edge. I must reward such great marketers and buy their product. So far, I've been pleased although I've had little chance to use it. I'm hoping I'll fall in love with it as the guy at the Apple store promised.

Yipee skipee

10 months today... 10 months closer.

I will write more on that when I return... I'm off to the mountains for a little ski weekend with some other single adoptys
The kids are hanging out at Kitt's for the weekend.
Happy St. Paddy's to you all.

news flash

My sister sent me this e-mail and Ithought it responsible to share it with you:

I thought I should pass it along. Check your driver's license. Now you can see anyone's Driver's License on the Internet, including your own!I just searched for mine and there it was..picture and all!!Thanks Homeland Security!Where are our rights?I definitely removed mine. I suggest you do the same.Go to the web site and check it out.Just enter your name, city and state to see if yours is on file. Afteryour license comes on the screen, click the box marked, "Please Remove."This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement.

http://www.license.shorturl.com/

Put a fork in it...

...and call it done. Yep, that's right. I just can't conjur up the excitment for Id0l anymore. I've seen it thru all the previous 5 seasons, planned my schedule around it or made sure the VCR (yes, I still use one of those) was programmed to record (and yes, I know how to program it). I just can't get excited about this year, so I'm done (I really can't believe I'm typing these words).
Tonight, if it weren't for multi-tasking the evening would have been a waste. However, I was able to finally address envelopes to send 100 good wish requests out to non-cyber friends and family.
And, then I did a little knitting on a fair isle hat I started in 2004. ...here's the hat. I started this in 2004 whan the pattern came out and then set it aside. After finishing Sheldon, I was ready to start Norberta (see prev post), but decided I have too many unfinished objects (UFO). So now my idea is to finish a UFO before I can start a new project... So, Fair Isle sampler hat then Norberta, then 2nd sock, then ?
Here's my progress....

This is what it "should" eventually look like.

My picture is a little dark, but the colors are really fun. this is my first 2-color stranded work so I'm learning a few things. Like "throwing" yarn. I learned to knit continental - or holding the yarn in the left hand. When using 2 colors, you hold yarn in both hands, you"pick" up the yarn held in the left and "throw" the yarn held in the right.

Also, with all the color changes, I've learned to "spit-join" the ends. It indeed involves spit and with all the different colors, my DNA is spread throughout the hat. It's quite a process, but saves the HUGE headache it would be to sew in all the ends .

I'll let you know when it's done.

Meet Sheldon

I saw Sheldon on Knitty and fell in love. I started making him on my flight to Hawaii and because he's a quick knit, had him almost completed by the time I returned. The knitting indeed was quick, however, he's a little fiddly to put together, and given my sewing skills are lacking...well, it took a while. but, here he is!

Apparently green turtles are quite popular in Hawaii and they were the subject of many children's books... This one's a cutie with great pictures.

next... Norberta!