Dish rag tag

Look what came in the mail today -- dish rag glory. A cute little bag that has a draw string top, stitch markers - which you can barely see and a certificate. I was a member of the Rag-Taggers and we finished second.

If you knit be sure to join this next year. Great fun, fantastic people on my team, lots of goodies. Emily Ivey runs the group and she is so generous - Thanks Emily!! I'll remind everyone next year when sign ups start. Maybe some of you will learn to knit by then.

Enjoy the rest of the day.....

Only a few more hours of vacation left....

Whew!! What a week. Could definitely use another one. It was a great week to be off - we only had one day of rain. So that day we worked inside and painted the living room. The wood stove is in, we have used it for 2 nights now and we are pleased. The house is warm - so warm that by noon I have been opening windows to cool things off and the stove has been off for a couple of hours. After we got it in we realized how bad the walls needed painting - so that was Wednesday's job. I'll take a picture when I get the curtains back up.

The picture below is birthday presents and my knitting. A gift card to the LYS from Sara and her family, a quilted needle case from Kris and her family. I have 3 different fingerless gloves going. They are easy and you don't have to have a lot of concentration - which was great for this week.
The 2 pictures below are just random shots of Tom and our roofing project. I was sort of surprised when he called me for help in the attic. Kind of a shock when you come around the corner and see sky above your head.

My neighbor made me a birthday cake. I have some really nice neighbors. She put 3 candles on it. In her husband's family its a tradition after you are 21 to get 3 candles standing for past, present and future. I am going to have to remember that - so neat.

Last night we got some pretty heavy frost here and supposed to be as cold tonight. Glad we have that wood stove going. The days have been beautiful - sweatshirt weather and sunny. Hope you have had some good Fall days where you are.

Back to work tomorrow. Don't know if you will hear from me this week. Things are always changing at the company I work for. While I was on vacation I got a new boss and there were some procedure changes - which are supposed to make my life better but that remains to be seen. I have heard this before and sometimes that is just not the case.

Enjoy the days - we are already half way through October........

Vacation update

I could get used to this vacation thing. We have been working hard on the roof - Tom got all the old shingles off and we are on to the next phase - going to get supplies to finish. We have great neighbors and have had offers to help, our oldest long-term neighbor brought over some left over shingles which we will need to start a row - I have no idea and his nail gun - which should make the job go faster. Tom is on the roof right now putting tarps down as we are supposed to get some pretty heavy rain. I have been sleeping in and knitting every day - which was a goal for me. I have even knitted a fingerless glove with a thumb in it. From what I have been reading is that the top 2 patterns on ravelry right now are socktoberfest- which is every Wednesday a new set of the directions for a sock is given and Toast and Toasty from a friend to knit with. Two great patterns for fingerless gloves. I am doing both simultaneously - when I get tired of one I go to the next one and I am not disappointed. The directions are easy to follow and so far they have come out perfect.

Jessica and Tyler were over last night while Kris was working. Tyler kept Tom busy working outside and Jessica and I did "girl things."

PRICELESS!! Impromptu birthday party for Grandma. Pumpkin pie with 2 dec0rative candles (no birthday candles were found). They both sang Happy Birthday. Jessica cutting the pie and making sure I got the biggest piece. Tyler learning how to use a can of Reddy Whip. What more could you ask for.

Hope your day is a good one with some PRICELESS things in it.

Perfect Sunday evening

What could be better - watching a movie with Tom, homemade peach pie with vanilla ice cream and knitting!!

No, I did not make the pie. It was left over from the turkey dinner that we had at our church. Boy did they work me!! We were actually short of help so the kitchen was hopping - so for the 2 1/2 hours that we served the dinner "us younger ones" as we are called by the older woman were very busy. The last count was 155 dinners that we served. I will have to say it was excellent this year - and lots of people commented on that fact. What did I learn -- how to make mashed potatoes for 100 people. How tired as I you ask?? Tom was working so I was to feed his horse (Cooper) when I got home. Due to the fact that the light switch was moved up high (due to the horse playing with it - some nights you could see the light going on and off in the barn) its a stretch for me to reach it. I have to stand on my tiptoes and stretch with my arm - I couldn't even do that. I took a bath to soak my tired bones and went to bed - boy did that feel good!!

They also have a country store and one of the members has an apple orchard. They were selling apples for $2.50 for a half bushel. I bought 4 bags. I was planning on making apple sauce and had hoped they would have apples again this year due to the good price. Applesauce is on my list for this week.

Hard to see my knitting but they are both fingerless gloves. One pair I am actually going to make a thumb on - which will be a new experience for me. I am to that point and had actually made a glove the other night but really messed up the thumb so I started over. I will try to get better pictures tomorrow.

We are still working on the wood stove installation and the roof has been started. The wood stove is now to the point where we need to cut the hole in the roof. We are moving along.

Have a good week everybody... I will be sleeping in tomorrow morning, a good way to start my vacation. Our neighbors are also on vacation this week and they have lots of projects they want to accomplish. We all agreed to one thing though today -- No tractors starting up before 8:00 a.m. Of course they know Tom will have a hard time sticking to that.

Until next time.......

Its almost vacation time!!

I am so excited about this vacation. Its been almost a year since I have had 7 days off in a row. Only 4 more hours of work tomorow morning and I am free!!

Today I decided to take off and get some of my errands done. We buy our meat at a packing/butcher shop in a little township south of where we live. This was the road going there, just me, the road and some beautiful Fall scenes. This is where we buy our beef and pork - they just don't carry chicken. Even though their prices have went up they are still cheaper than the local grocery stores and its definitely more edible. After you have raised your own beef or pork you tend to have real questions about the color of that grocery store meat. This place is actually right in the center of the township. There are only 3 parking spaces and if there are more than 3 shopping at the same time you are stepping on each other. You can actually take the animals you have raised to be processed there and in the front of the store is a small butcher shop.

So first I headed South. Then I came home and went over to church as we are having our turkey dinner tomorrow night. This is probably the biggest fund raiser that the Women's group has for the year. I dropped off my donations, weeded the flower beds there, came back home and then headed North to the local shops. I picked up feed, got gas (lots of gas for $2.87 a gallon), groceries and dropped off some eggs at the LYS. One of the girls who works in the store and I had a conversation about chickens, eggs, food and the economy in general last week and I said I would bring her some "fresh" eggs. I think I have my errands done for most of the week.

So that was my day - what was your day like?? Hope it was a good one. While I'm on vacation I'll try to get in a few extra posts. You can judge our progress on roofing and installing a wood stove. Right now I have a large hole in the ceiling. Boy was that a mess - so bad that I am just not cleaning until its finished. Pick any room in the house and you can write you name on the furniture from all the dust that has been made. I do have a list just to remind me of what I want to accomplish and to remind me what I want Tom to accomplish. He doesn't do lists!!

Don't forget my give away. Leave a comment on any post I make between now and October 31 and you will be entered. I will put all the names in a hat and probably have the Jessica and Tyler draw a name when they are here for trick or treat.

Enjoy the weekend....

Just a clarification

I will draw the name of 1 person who comments between now and October 31, and a knitted something will go to them. My husband pointed out that it sounded like every comment would receive a prize.

I'm still here

I took a little bit of a break here - just enjoying all the good Fall weather we are having and we have lots of things going on. Below is our new wood stove that we picked up the other day. Doesn't sound like much - you just go out and buy one, but then furniture has to be moved in order to install it. It will eventually end up in this corner but we had a grandfather clock that sat there - so I have been moving and rearranging. Plus when my son moved back home after college he brought furniture with him. I think Lib says it best - time to do some decluttering. She has a great blog and I can't think of the name of it but if you go to the side bar on Quilted Simple it is there. She has some really good tips on how to live simple and ways to save money.

I will say though that even if I haven't been posting I have still been reading blogs and seeing what everybody is doing. That's half the fun.


I have hit a wall on the cropped cardigans. Hopefully I will get Kris' blocked by the end of the week and get back some of my energy to work on the one for Sara. I have still been knitting though. Tom is on nights this week so I have had lots of evenings to knit. I am actually working on a pair of fingerless gloves - hopefully I will have pictures later in the week. I took a class on knitting gloves and socks by the magic loop method instead of double points but there is just something about that method that I think is so slow and boring. The first fingerless glove didn't come out well at all with the magic loop - I am actually trying to make a thumb for the first time instead of a slit in the side of the glove. I had knit on double points before -- so I went and got my needles, found an online knitting video and away I went. This is going much better and I actually think using the other method I personally do not get the same tension as with double points. My second sock by magic loop method is so big - it is even to big for the men in this house. So that my plan for this evening - knitting with those 4 little sticks.

Next week is vacation week for Tom and I. It will be a working vacation with lots of things to be done around the house. We have to get the wood stove hooked up, we are replacing our roof and I also have a really long list if we get those 2 things done. Ha!Ha! I will just be happy not to have to get up at 5:00 a.m. every morning to be typing by 6:00 a.m. That is probably what I look forward to the most when we retire, not having to get out of bed in the early morning hours to work.

I'll still be checking in to see how everyone is doing though and who knows I might even get a few posts in.

One more thing - October besides my favorite time of the year is also my birthday month. In honor of my birthday and October I am going to have a give away at the end of the month. Anyone who leaves a comment between now and October 31 will win something knitted by me. I don't know what it will be yet, I have an idea but we will see how I do knitting with those 4 little pointed sticks.

Take care........ Enjoy October..... You all know what comes next!!!