Friday Favorites

During the week I run across different blogs, books, projects, recipes...you name it.  So, I thought I would share them with you at the end of the week.  The weekend is upon us and what better way to be inspired or motivated or find a little reward for all your hard work this past week.

#1 - I found this wonderful blog on Pinterest when I was looking at one of my pins on cleaning which led me to "a friend of a friend of a friend" sort of scenario.  But it brought me to Jennifer's blog, The Craft Patch  and she has done the greatest thing for all of us.   She routinely tests pins on Pinterest!
They either work or they don't and she does a "show and tell" on each one she tests.  I tried one of her successful ones and she was right!  Not only are they all listed in one section so you don't have to search all over her blog for them but she also has one specifically for recipes. 
I usually clean with vinegar but she had one where you use 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 Dawn detergent so I tried it and I just kicked my cleaning solution up a notch!  Thank you, Jennifer!  Next I'm trying her "approved" grout cleaner.  She also has so much on her blog, sewing, knitting, landscaping, before and afters.....you name it!  Have fun but get a cuppa before you visit as there is so much there you'll be sitting there for awhile!

#2.  I was over visiting Heidi at Apron History    
( can I just say I love her blog and her house!  She is so "neat and clean" in her housekeeping and that is what I am striving for.....only holding onto things I really love or need).  Anyway, I digress, but in one of her posts she mentioned a favorite book by Jane Brockett.  I want that book and all books by her.  There are 3 she has written and here they are!

 Ms. Brocket is from England and you know what an Anglophile I am!  I can't wait to peruse those pages!  Thank you, Heidi!

#3 - New fabric line from Windham Fabrics coming out this month called Storybook Vacation which I can't wait to get my hands on!

Melissa over at Oh How Sweet has sewn a darling little zippered bag using it..........


"Next month, Windham Fabrics is releasing Storybook Vacation by Whistler Studios.  It’s an adorable collection of repro-like prints that are all about the idyllic scenes of a beach vacation.  These prints are so sweet and really allow for some great fussy cutting.  I thought this collection would be perfect for the simple patchwork zipper pouch pattern from Amy Sinibaldi‘s book, Sweetly Stitched Handmades."
Please visit her blog as she has the cutest things with tutorials for many of them.  It just so happens I have Amy's book already.  Now, I just need to get my hands on that fabric! LOL!  Melissa,  you did a gorgeous job on that pouch!

#4 - Recipes to try this week.  I have some blueberries to use up (hopefully they are not spoiled yet) and Alicia Paulson
made this scrumptious looking blueberry custard pie...it looks yummy and it's not even baked yet in that photo!

Also, I'm in the mood for some Italian....food that is! LOL!  Barilla Pasta
has wonderful recipes on it's website and I might even have made this one before as all their recipes are so good!  This is Penne pasta with Italian Sausage.

Those are my Friday Favorites for this week.  I have lots of "favorites" so I don't think I'll run out anytime soon! LOL!  Enjoy!  What are your plans for the Labor Day weekend? 
Happy Trails!

 

I missed Wednesday!

Where did Wednesday go?  I missed it but I got lots done for a day that I missed (blogging that is)! LOL!   There were some sad moments yesterday like when I "frogged"  my sweater...yes, I know....very sad but it's for the best.  I am on such a cleaning and organizing "jag" that it is all that is on my mind.  When I should be paying attention to my knitting I am thinking of what I'm going to do next.  So, I am not going to work on anything too complicated...just some "brain-dead" handwork like crocheting granny squares or something that I can't mess up after hours and hours of work.
So, on my breaks, I looked at this..........I love this one but I have no pale yellow or blue....this is a "planned" granny square blanket using pre-chosen colors...some day

I really like the "classic" granny square too made from scraps which is what I should do as I don't need to be ordering any yarn...or do I?

This one's a charmer...so "cottagy" and every 3rd row is red!

I adore the edging on this one.......gorgeous!

Oh, but look at this one with the green and teal borders......and 4 little squares inside a bigger square....a must have/do.....

Oh, pink!  Love it!  I have never really gone "pink" anything but it screams vintage and oh how I love me some vintage.

and then there's the solid granny squares which I have already done some of these and maybe I should continue on.........

In fact, this is the one from Sandra over at Cherry Heart 
that I was emulating.  She has great tutorials and patterns too.

And last but not least the tutorial for these granny squares is over at The Patchwork Heart  which is another wonderful blog for crocheting. 

Of course, one can't forget Lucy over at Attic 24  who just came out with a new kit with instructions and yarn for about $35.00 not counting shipping and she has other kits available too. 

What do you think?  Is it the looking or the planning or the doing or the finished product you enjoy most?  If you don't crochet are you tempted to learn?  I love it all but my housework gets in the way! LOL!
Happy Trails!

YESTERDAY I:
cleaned up a paper mess that Miss Peeps scattered all over
watered outside
painted 2 coat on South side of shed
cleaned up the house
cleaned the tub
picked,folded, hung and washed a load of laundry
vacuumed kitchen and laundry room
washed kitchen and laundry room floors
put some items in the car for the Thrift  Store
watched the last evening of Live Big Blue on PBS from Monterey Bay!  Wonderful!
made laundry detergent
See....I really did clean my floors....they're very old and splitting in areas and have some permanent discoloring in spots and nails coming up but they must have been good floors to last this long!

 laundry room......

 and look what I discovered in my cleaning...shelf paper I didn't know I had!  Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Adios Amigos!  Later Alligator!  After while crocodile......

Typical Tuesday!

I almost forgot to blog!  I don't have a lot but I'm trying to blog something every day and of course my "progress list"...lol.
Yesterday , I got up early and got all the garbages emptied and relined and the garbage out to the street. I then made a list and went to Walmart.  I didn't have a lot to get just staples ie. coffee, dogfood etc.  I did get some candles though and tart warmers.  I couldn't resist as they had the Fall scents in................

 I'm slowly getting all the linens washed and dried (on the line in the basement).  I just need to wash the mattress pads and I should be ready to put some back on the beds and I'll be back to normal wash schedule.  I do like to clean in the Fall better than Spring.

 I made a homemade pizza Sunday night using my homemade bread dough.  It turned out really good but it could have used some green pepper or something green...I do love my vegetables.

I'm starting to light candles around the house even though it's in the 90's.  The house is closed up for the AC so I just pretend it's cold out...lol!  I usually don't use candles during the summer months.

I finished the body of the Christmas present I was working on and now need to stuff it so meanwhile I need something to pick up and knit on my breaks so I dragged out that WIP I told you about and since this is for me I can show you!  It's my first sweater that I started last Fall and then got caught up in Christmas present making and it got lost in the mayhem.  I'm learning to take notes so I know where I left off etc.  You might remember it.  It's a Mary Maxim pattern with no buttons or button holes but I imagine you could belt it if you wanted to.  I'm using a black tweed yarn that is very soft and I enjoy knitting with it.  I'll let you know what yarn it is..it might be on my Ravelry page but I have more skeins tucked away with labels so not a problem.  I just don't have it in front of me right now.   The collar is done at the top and the sweater part is increasing as I knit downward.  It's supposed to be an "easy" knit for a fist time sweater knitter so I hope they're right!

 YESTERDAY I:
went grocery shopping
put it all away
cleaned both litter boxes
emptied garbages and got it out and back in later
went to the library
did laundry
knitted section #2 of Christmas present
watered plants outside
did some clearing and organizing in the family room and kitchen
changed the sheets on my bed
blogged
and in the evening I joined a couple crochet squares and watched Big Blue Live from Monterey Bay, CA. I highly recommend.....it's wonderful and it's on tonight again and tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. on PBS starring sea otters, whales, seals......awesome!

Happy Trails!

I'm "bookin" it!

I have several categories of reading and am trying to read from each:
1)  a library book
2)  a Kindle book
3)  a printed book I own
4)  an audio book
5)  a magazine and the above have to include at least 1 non-fiction and 1 fiction in any of the categories.

FINISHED:
non-fiction ( a book I own)

I finished a book this week which is saying a lot since 2 of the books I'm reading are huge but not this one...............

This was a collection of newspaper articles Gladys Taber wrote the year she died in 1980.  In fact her last entry was March 11th and she died that month.  I enjoyed this book so much because it was like sitting and having a cup of tea with an old friend and conversing about some of my favorite topics; weather, nature, animals, some cooking...it was great!  I'll be on the lookout for more of her books

PRESENTLY READING:
non-fiction from the library..........the description of this book is lengthy and the praise and awards substantial.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I just started it last night.

non-fiction I own this printed book........have not started it yet.  I read A Country Year by the same author years ago and loved it...we'll see

fiction audio book from the library....Kate Morton is a great author but she writes BIG books!  There are 16 cd's with this audio and I am on #7.....so far very good as was her other book, Forgotten Garden

fiction from the library........another Kate Morton and just as good............but I would not recommend reading 2 of her books at once....I am but I regret it...each should be savored as a "stand-alone" piece of writing.........

Kindle fiction The Innocence of Father Brown  I watch (or used to) the series on PBS and loved it as a good mystery series.  This is the first book in the Father Brown series published in 1911 by G. K. Chesterton.............I'm pretty sure it was free too..............

Magazine - Organic Life.....I canceled this magazine but they sent me another issue anyway.  I just started reading it last night...substance is good but their ads do not apply to me at all....it's more for people who have "ways and means".....I'm retired and on a budget, lol!

 Well, that's  my reading lineup for this week and probably this month unless something happens where I sit a lot which I don't foresee.
Happy Trails!

YOP Week #9

Not a lot of progress on handwork this week but there was progress elsewhere.   Part of the problem is that things got shoved into containers haphazardly getting ready for company and now I have to search for things and not sure where I stashed them! LOL!  It takes longer to "unearth" my supplies, that and Miss Peeps causes me to have to put everything away or she will destroy it!
I did make progress on the secret Christmas present (one of many) and I am now on the second section of unnamed gift........

  I had to take a tutorial on You Tube for joining squares "invisibly" and I found a wonderful one that had 5 different ways to join squares by a young man from Crochet Crowd.  It was excellent...just look for yourself!

  Learning takes time and you go through a lot of tutorials that aren't what you're looking for or aren't very good until you find the right one but this one is on my list now so I can go back to it.  I highly recommend it!  So, I have a few squares to stitch together but each one gets faster...a great t.v. project this week.

You've heard of the "man cave"?  Well, I have a "woman cave" now where I can go to get away from Miss Peeps for a bit and close the door and work "uninterrupted".  It's my middle bedroom which has a hide-a-bed but with the guests gone it is now going to be my crafts room.  I got the closets cleaned out a few weeks back and maybe 1/2 the room but there is more work to be done and I need to organize the rest of my fabrics and yarn and bring it in here when I'm done.  Right now it is residing in my dining room (fabric and sewing) and my guest room (yarns).  Someday Miss Peeps will have learned the rules here but for now God isn't finished with her yet...or me either for that matter! LOL!

I also spotted another WIP that I can't wait to get back to but need to have a "finish" before I drag that one out too.  The fabric on the couch is what I think I will be using for my quilt binding.  I laid it out there to see..I had my quilt in there earlier.  I need to unearth my cutting board and actually get a bigger one.  But things are progressing along with the daily chores and maintenance.

Here's another side of my crafts room but the table that stuff is sitting on will be going to the Thrift Store, I've decided.  So, that area will change.
I hope you had a good week and that the fires are out and the flooding has receded and whatever else anyone might be dealing with.  Be careful out there and have a good week ahead!
Happy Trails!