Knitting

I jumped on the knitting track again (after about 10 years) this Christmas to make my sister some fingerless gloves and a scarf.

I made two pairs of gloves as a intro back into knitting, watching a lot of videos from KnittingHelp.com

I came up with a pattern based on cording and dropped stiches to make it look a little looser and more crochet-like.

I really like the color of green of this yarn. Hopefully it goes well with a lot of her things!

I followed Posie's advice on water blocking to stretch the scarf out. For a ironing board and saftey pins, it worked about as well as it could have! :) I can really see where a dedicated board would work nicely.

Not sure I could get the best pictures of it, some of the cording is lost in this photo, but you can see in the blocking how the pattern looks :)

Memories

I went through some old photos last year to make Christmas presents for my family. I used MyPublisher.com to make a photo book from pictures on both sides of my parents, going back 2 generations and up till their wedding.

Some of the photos came from my parents, some from my late grandmother, and others from my paternal grandma's mother's (my great grandma) photo albums. Those photos were so old and falling apart that you had to scan each page individually, since the pictures were glued to the pages.

The books turned out really nice, the site is so easy to use and I would highly recommend it for your next project.

Here are some of the photos of me, which I did not include in the gifts, but I loved and had to scan anyway. I have no idea what me and my mom are making in the above photo. Any guesses? What ever it is, there is a lot of it!

Here's my dad and I working on something. Again, not really sure what it was. Maybe a bird house or a crayon box... He's so fashionable in his pearls, don't you think?

This last photo is from Northern Wisconsin where I grew up. This was my first attempt at a business. We lived too far out for a Lemonade stand to be productive, so instead my mom helped me grow Status flowers and other dryable items. We would bunch them together or weave them into flower crowns and sell them at a local town on weekends.
My sister, brother, and I were all homeschooled for parts of our childhood. I learned so much during that time. A lot of lessons I could only know through personal growth and inner retrospection.

Poem on the Poster: From my Garden, Soft and Bright, I picked these Flowers for your Delight, In the Sun that the Flowers Love, I hope you like these flowers of fun.

Apparently poetry was not my strong suit…. Sorry mom.

Get that Latin Feeling...

I work with a wonderful woman named Amalia as a fun side job. I met her through my volunteering at the local Arb classes. Her site has some really wonderful Latin dishes that you can print right off.

Over the past year I've made some of those yummy Latin dishes with her. My favorite is this very simple Black Bean tortilla side dish. It goes with anything and is great for leftovers.

Mix mashed black beans with Queso Blanco cheese till just together. Heat small corn tortillas on a medium heat, then fill with the mixture and grill at a higher heat with olive oil till just browning. (Heating them first makes them less brittle)

The first picture is from a Chili Rellenos that I made with a beef filling and spicy cheese. I'll try to put that recipe up at some point. It was really really yummy also.

Enjoy the last snows of winter! (Hopefully) The husband and I are on a countdown to a vacation to Ireland and Scotland this spring.... 39 days and counting!