Finally Back on

We've been significantly absent online lately - our internet was being wonky and we were moving at negative speeds.

Now that it seems to be working again, I need to gather my thoughts and figure out what to talk about.

So, I didn't fall off the edge of the earth, but now I don't know what to talk about... (he he - my family would never believe that!)

This is ALL I Got Done Today

Here are the squares I did for my mystery crochet along hosted at Bernat.com.  You get a clue every week and don't know what the entire thing is going to look like until you join it all together.  I'm hoping this will help with my pattern reading ability.  Good news is that they really look like everyone else's that was posting on the forum.  I'm using Sun Drift as my main color and then I also needed to use 3 of my other 4 colors for this block.  The blue is Cadet.  The pink is Mauve Glove.  The green is Celadon.  I also have a yellowish color that is Butter.

Ok, not the ONLY thing I accomplished today, but close.

I also finished two contracting appointments.  I did three appointments yesterday and I'm hoping to get in four of them tomorrow.  Then, I need to take the paperwork to Dad, so he can turn it in to the office and submit his invoice to get paid, so I get paid.  Dad is the contractor and I'm his subcontractor.

Yarn Along February 15, 2012

It's that time of week to once again join up with Ginny at Small Things for her Yarn Along - where I admire what everyone else has accomplished and I hide behind my pitiful attempts at accomplishing something.

Here's what I'm up to:

Green yarn is a crocheted apiary puff from Ravelry - way to use up all the little bits and bobs, figured out that if you use worsted weight instead of the SOCK YARN!!!!!!! they will never be 3" across - so, I'm just going for it.  It'll be warm however it turns out.

Blue yarn is a very soft acrylic - Satin by Bernat.  I'm using my Tunisian hook to work on a Mobius twist shawl for my sister.  Frogged the whole thing yesterday and started over.  Tempted to frog it again, because the yarn is thicker than the pattern called for and I'm not sure if I'm happy with how it's turning out.  It's not as open as the picture in the pattern, so it will be warmer than I really wanted it to be.

As for reading, I'm following the pattern that is on cover of the Tunisian Crochet book - it's a good basic book that I borrowed from the library and I don't think I can renew it - someone else has it on hold.  (Might have to get photocopies of the patterns I like.)

I just got The Beekeepers Apprentice from the library and I'm hoping it will be good.  I've been on a Sherlock Holmes kick lately.

And, I'm reading the US Catholic Catechism for Adults for my Catechist training on Saturday - this book is so easy to understand.  It's laid out that each chapter starts with a profile of a saint, then goes into theology, then discussion questions and a prayer.

Tew Wuv

(if you don't get the reference.... The Princess Bride....BEST. MOVIE. EVER.  - except for maybe Lord of The Rings)

or True Love is....

Coming home from a late night judging forensics to find homemade chocolate muffins with homemade caramel waiting for you.

Having Bob buy me special coffee and an ice cream snack.

Having K get all excited about her Valentine's card on the table that she had to share it with everyone.

Having Fixit ask if she can hug you because the muffins look so yummy.

Having Bug ask if she can stay home (No!) because she loves me.

The simple things

Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real (Feb 9, 2012)

It's been awhile since I've joined up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for their Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real.

Here's my Pretty:  the beautiful couple's rosary that I won from Melanie at The Rosary Chick  Isn't it amazing!  I won it from her blogiversary - I think.  She made it in our wedding colors of burgandy and green.  The best part?  My husband sat with the family while we were doing our decade of the rosary the other night.  We don't do it every night, yet, but we do get it in at least 4 days a week.

Here is my Funny:   Bug was on picture duty and figured out she could take pictures of herself.  Wish I hadn't deleted all those pictures of the floor and her toes...

On to the Happy:  Big wooden rainbows make me happy.  They obviously make the girls happy, too!

 

Now, here is some Real, as in Real tasty, Real fun, and Real satisfying:  This past weekend, we made our first batch of homemade sausage - sweet Italian, and we smoked the Canadian bacon that had been curing for a week in the fridge.  Oh my, this could become addictive

Yarn Along February 8, 2012

Nothing much to report here this week.  I'm following along with the Yarn Along again this week. (Even though not much going on the hook)

I'm still plugging along on the same afghan.  Had lots of things taking up time  - check out my posts on sausage making.  Yummy.  And I'm still reading the sausage making book, but also reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

On the other hand, here is something that is worth a whole post, but I'll give you a tidbit of it.

Check out this amazing couple's rosary that I won from Melanie at The Rosary Chick .  She does amazing work and I feel blessed to have won this personalized rosary.  She put our last name on it and then on each side, which she did in our wedding colors, she added our names.

The best part, my husband sat with us and used the rosary with me while we praying the rosary last night.

Go check out Melanie's shop Trendy Traditions and show her some love.

Here are Pictures from our Meaty Weekend

Fixit manning the meat grinder for sausage

Bug taking her turn at the crank

K adding her oomph - and could I have had a less complimentary picture of myself

Yeah, I didn't mess up the links too much

Drooling?

Absolute yummy Canadian Bacon deliciousness

Super Busy Weekend

Saturday, I drove down to Winneconne - about 70 miles one way - to judge forensics.

I love this time of year.  I have 9 meets scheduled to judge for during February and March. 

I got to judge Prose, Solo Acting Serious, and Demonstration.  During power round, I judged Play Acting.  There were some very polished performances and some people, who unfortunately, didn't care.  Well, when you perform in front of me, effort means a lot, even if I don't like the selection.  If you have the greatest piece and then put no effort forth, you will not get a high score.

After judging, I met my "baby" brother in Oshkosh to take him out to dinner. (I say baby only because he is 14 years younger than me - but probably weighs in about 325 and is 6'1")  He kind of has the Grizzly Adams thing going on right now with the scruffy hair and beard, but we had a really nice visit.

Friday night, to back up a little, K went to the neighbor's and spent the night. Bug went to Grandma and Grandpa's house overnight.  Fixit, Bob, and I went to Burger King and went shopping.  She didn't know what to do with Mom and Dad by herself.

Then, on to Sunday.  Didn't do much besides babysit the smoker.  I was smoking the 3 types of Canadian bacon that had been curing all week.  Bob brought home a wild turkey breast from a friend at work, so we smoked that, too.  We also ground up a 4# pork rump roast that I had cut off the bone and cut into pieces.  From that, we added the spices and ran the meat through the sausage stuffer that Dad is letting us borrow.  We made our our sweet Italian sausage.  Recipe didn't have fennel - it's been added to the cookbook.  We cooked up the extra meat and used that in our spaghetti for lunch.  Very good.  I even did a reasonable job keeping the links even.

This could become addictive - and cheaper than buying brats and other meat.  Only problem, is that the house still smells like smoke, which gives me a headache.  So, even though it is only 25F outside and windy, we had windows open and fans going this morning.  (No, didn't smoke the meat inside, but just bringing it in the house - along with the racks and drip pan from the smoker filled the house with the smell.)  It gave Bug a headache, too.

Courtesy of the kids, I have a ton of pictures. I just need to get them uploaded from the camera and I'll probably do a picture-heavy post later.

By the way -   YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yarn Along - Feb 1, 2011

February already!  HOW did that happen????

Have any of you worked on a knitting/crocheting project that kept putting you to sleep?  I don't mean because it's boring - which could also be the case, but because you keep the house cool and you're buried under ALL this yarn!

This is what I'm working on. 

My sister "destashed" by GIVING me all her yarn and the request that I make an afghan for my brother-in-law.  I'm crocheting with a Q hook (MAN, this sucker is HUGE like, my gauge is 3 stitches to 4 inches!) and three strands of yarn at once in a half double stitch.  It's roughtly 7 ft wide, you know, crochet until it looks long enough.  Right now, 30 rows long.  I wasn't sure how to work in the hunter orange, but I think it works.  I'm doing 10 rows of the light blue, navy blue, and black combo and then I throw in 2 rows of the hunter orange - she gave me 3 skeins, so it's working.

I'm one my 6th skein of black (3 oz), 3 skein of navy blue (7 oz), and the 2nd skein of light blue (16 oz).  I need to about double the number of rows and it'll be done.

It's working up fast with the size, but it's getting heavy, so my thumb hurts from hanging on to that weight.

It's going to be SOOOOO warm, but my brother-in-law is always cold and he's 6'4", so needs a lot of blanket.

As for what I'm reading, I'm reading Home Sausage Making. 

We're going to make Italian Sweet Sausage this weekend and Pork and Apple Sausage.  I think we're going to smoke the Apple Sausage and use the Sweet Sausage is going to be used fresh.

Hope everyone has a good day and I'll be back later to ready everyone else's Yarn Along with Ginny at Small Things .  Fixit and I are headed out the door on a field trip.