Taking a little break

from all the domesticity going on around here today. Cooking, cleaning, knitting, and washing. Sitting on the stove in a big blue granite pot is 2 gallons of vegetable soup soon to marry up with a pan of crispy cornbread. i love the fact that it makes so much. I put lots of it in the freeze for times when I don't want to cook or the MOTH needs a little snack. I'm thinking maybe I should take some with me to Virginia for the birthin'. That would be good to have after aday with a busy toddler and a newborn.

I am knitting so fast right now that when I quit my fingers twitch. I am almost finished with the socks/booties for Max. They are made from yarn left over from a pair of socks I knit for myself. Maybe we will model our look alike footwear after he gets here.

I made blueberry muffins from my wonderful

Eating Well cookbook last night. I've wanted a blueberry muffin for a while now. On Day One of my diet we happened by our daughter's house and she was making said muffins. From a cookbook by the Barefoot Contessa. Of course, it being Day One and all, I was as fired up as a new church convert and refused to eat one. But those little purple-speckled dudes have haunted me ever since. So I found a recipe in my cookbook and went to work. I got a little suspicious when I realized that the strusel for the top was put together with 1 T. of Canola oil. What self-respecting strusel is held together with a dab of veggie oil? Well, the diet kind, of course. Not to be discouraged, I added extra vanilla in the hopes it would make up for the lack of butter. Not really. The rest f the recipe was o.k. and after they were baked and sampled, I have to say that they won't be on the "keeper" list of recipes. Still, if you eat just the middle out of one, you kinda feel like you had a blueberry muffin.

Well, after 3 days, I have finally decided that the 3 loads of laundry lurking just beyond my peripheral vision as I sit in my living room is not going to fold itself. Sigh...guess I will just have to go and fold the hateful stuff. I guess Pollyanna would say, "Just be glad you have stuff to fold."

I'm still here

but there is mega knitting going on, leaving little time to blog. I am working on a project that floundered a few months ago due to a poorly written pattern. I've completely switched gears and am bound and determined to finish it this week. Therefore, it is my constant companion. Getting unmired on that, has got me all hot and ready to knit some more. Got a cute little pair of booties going for the babe that will be here in a matter of days and a mind full of ideas for other things too. Not to mention a yarn order with yummy stuff and a couple of kits that should fill my mailbox any day. Ooh I just love to get a package by post. But who doesn't?

On the diet front-I am doing really well so far. And today while out shopping with my daughter, she said she could tell I had lost some. Yahoo! I've been really good so far. I cheated tonight and it was President Obama's fault. Hey he might as well get used to being blamed for everything from earthquakes to diet cheaters huh? It really was his fault tho. The MOTH and I were watching the AirForce One special on the National Geographic channel and at the end they showed the new president on the plane for the first time. He was ordering his dinner-a cheeseburger and fries. It sounded so good the way he was telling the steward how he wanted it. It had been hours since I had eaten a large chef salad and I really wasn't hungry but it sounded really good to the MOTH too and he looked at me and said, Man that makes me hungry for a cheeseburger, wanna go get one?" It was 9 o'clock at night but suddenly that sounded like the best idea in the world. So off we set two middle agers eating like kids way too late. Let's just see how we sleep after eating like that so late. If we have tummy trouble we can blame that on Obama too. LOL

Yippee, Skippee I got snow!

Oh yes! Finally some snow! It was a huge one, but there was enough to glitter up the landscape and slow things down just a bit. I have had a cruddy, cruddy cold and was so stopped up and not so great feeling, but I thought some fresh air might do me some good. Besides, I am like a 6 year old when it comes to the white stuff. You have to hog tie me to keep me out of it. In fact, a few years ago, a day in the snow landed me in the hospital and when I left I was sporting a mega cast to my thigh which was my constant companion for the next several months. But if I had had a sled yesterday I would have been out there all alone with my dog yipping and yelling like a 50 year old kid. Well, maybe not, because I did feel awful, but the air did make me feel better for a while so I walked around and took some pictures of all the ordinary things I see everyday that look so pretty with their sparkling new cover. Even looking at the pictures, I can feel the quite that snow brings to everything.

Jasper of course, was beside himself with excitement and played and chased a toy like a crazy man. In the picture, he is running so fast that his normally very curled tail is straight out. You can also tell he is a boy (eh, eh maybe they should make some kind of sports underwear for the active dog) He would purposely bury his toy just so he could put his face deep into the snow and come up with a white snuffle . I wish I could say that I am content now that I have had a little winter weather, but alas and alack! (love that phrase) . It just left me wanting more. Besides, I didn't get the full benefit of this one
since I was under the weather. Nope, the next time, I just might take myself a little slide down the hill on the sled.

My daughter got the graphic

up for me that represents the award my friend Kelly gave me. I know Kelly from a forum we both frequent and she is a real sweetheart. As we have gotten to know each other we discovered that we had both lived in the same town years ago and so we just made a nice little connection. Thanks Kelly for the award!

Part of receiving this means I pass it on to other bloggers. I've been thinking about all the blogs I read (lots!) and chose just a few to give out, not because I am being "stingy" but maybe just a little bashful about making acutal contact with some of these folks? I don't know! But I did choose three:

Peach at PeachesandPosh

Tami at Shine'sThyme

Joni at Yummers

These are 3 blogs I read everyday and always feel better for it! All 3 are funny, inspiring and creative.

Hey I got an award and now I gotta try to get the graphics

on my blog. Obviously, the award is not for technical excellance. O.K. I'm gonna try and see if I can do this. "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are extremely charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their award."

Cool! I got the text inserted even tho it is not where I wanted it. Baby steps, baby steps...

Now for the graphic.

Shoot I can't figure it out. Kelly over at belle ame is the blogger who gave me the award and I am just thrilled she thought of me. She has a great blog. Check it out. Now I choose 8 blogs to give this award to. Let's hope I can figure out how to do it! I am stupendously inept with technical stuff.

Every week when I shop for groceries, I nearly always grab myself a bouquet of some sort. I love flowers in the house year round. I grow my own in the Summer but Winter time I treat myself. When I stopped at the store last week, they had bouquets of 20 roses that were just a little past their prime for $5.00! Of course I grabbed some. I have a tray on my coffee table that contains this little tableu of things that make me happy.

Last night grandprincess Hilary spent the night with us. We took her out to dinner which meant Chinese food because that is her favorite. After finishing our meal, we were reading our fortune cookies aloud to each other. The MOTH's said, "You will soon be top of the world." Hilary's ears perked up and she said, "I'm coming with you Grand daddy!" I just love that. If you know of someone in your life soon to be on top of the world, be sure you go with them. It should be the trip of a lifetime.

Another "Hilarity" Today while driving through town, Hilary spotted a "for sale" sign on an empty lot that has a huge old tree growing all alone near the sidewalk. Hilary, puzzled, asked her grandfather, "what are they selling, Granddaddy?' When he told her the land, she was even more puzzled and asked, "How do you tkae the land with you, and does the tree come with it?"

Max's quilt!

I am working on it! The original plan was a quilt with a hoot owl theme, but the more my daughter and I talked about it, the more we liked the idea of a scotty dog theme. For one thing, scotty dog accesories are really easy to find. Also, they are retro and in our family we have a soft spot for scotties as we had one when the kids were growing up.

So Friday while at work at the quilt shop, I picked my fabrics, which I really like-just basic, black, white, red, blue and a touch of a retro aqua-ish green. I've got all the scotties appliqued on and looking at them, i think they need a collar around their necks to break up all the black and to pick up the colors in the background fabric..Whatever I do,it needs to be quick so I can get this to the quilter this week.

Sewing on this I always think of Max and wonder what his little face will look like. Will he look like his sister, his mom, his dad, someone else? I remember when I was pregnant with my girls, it was always their faces that had me the most curious and looking at them for the first time after all the months of "knowing" them by their kicks and squirms, was the most indescribable joy. Little watery blue eyes trying so hard to look at me too as if to say, "Finally I get to see what you look like after alll these months of hearing your voice, and the rhythms of your body."

Being the first boy, he has a heavy responsibility. Having not had one of these in our family, we have no idea what to expect. It seems that the boys we females in the family remember the most are the horrid ones we knew in school or the bully cousin who was always making our lives miserable at family gatherings. But I don't think it has to be that way does it? In a family of women can we tame that naughty streak? Or then, again, maybe you shouldn't try. I think I had the world's best father but to hear his sisters talk at family reunions, he was one of those horrid boys. I kinda think my husband, who is very well behaved now, might have been one of those boys too. Maybe that is just part of their identity when they are young, and with a little admondisment through the years, the most horrid of boys grows up to be the best of fathers and husbands. Max, you've got a load on your shoulders, but I suspect all of us women in the family will be more than willing to cut you a little slack as you grow up.

Not a lot going on around here

that is really blog-worthy. We had a pretty quiet weekend. Spent Saturday in Knoxville. The MOTH received a wine making kit from me for Christmas, so we headed to the city to get some of the supplies not provided in the kit. He is hard to shop for so every year I really use the old brain cells trying to come up with something he will enjoy. I think this is the first year I have ever given him anything that he really likes. Last year's metal detector was only used a couple of times, which was a little disappointing becasue he had always said he wanted one. But this wine making thing seems to have caught his interest. Can't wait to taste the results!

Today was low-key too. Went to do a little shopping at Wally World and just as we walked in the door from that errard, the phone rang. It was our daughter B asking us to meet them for dinner. How can you refuse that? Especially since with daughter B comes the grandprincess Hilary too? Can never see too much of her.

I need to be really productive this coming week. Grandson Max is due in 3 weeks and I am just now starting on his quilt! Yikes but I better make that sewing machine smoke! It (the quilt) is goiong to have a scotty dog theme and done in blue, red, white and black. Really cute and I think relatively quick to make. It is going to be so fun to have another newborn to cuddle and smell little sweet baby smells again.

Herbal berbal

Well, I did something I have wanted to do for a long time. I signed up for an online herb course. I've always been fascinated with healing plants. I think I got it from my Aunt Mac. She grew all kinds of herbs and was always concocting something. Over the years, I have amassed a good collection of books on herbs-craft type, identification type, and medicinal type. I love making all kinds of potions! I have used them successfully to treat minor aches and pains over the years. Right now, I am making up a diaper rash salve we have used for years in anticipation of a new baby in the family. Sometimes my family likes my remdies, like the salve, and other times not so much.

lampshade re-do

This is the lampshade I wanted to cover with feather boas. When I went to purchase the number I needed the store let me down. They only had one in this gold color I wanted. I already had two at home and knew one more wouldn't do it, so I didn't buy it. I decided to just do the bottom but now that I look at it, I think that is enough anyway. Although maybe at the top too? Not sure. I am also mulling over maybe some type of bead fringe at the bottom.

I have the livingroom all aglow tonight with a fire in the fireplace and candles everywhere. Our weather for the last few days has been rainy, rainy, rainy, 'and gloomy. I don't mind the gloom because it makes everything so cozy feeling inside. But man, I wish this rain was snow! I would love to have a big snow. At least when you have all the gloom with the snow you end up with a beautiful landscape with everything covered in that quiet white silence that snow magically brings. With rain all you get is brown, oozy, slimy, nasty mud.

I wish I could be all whiny about the diet that I am on, but unfortunately I can't. It's not anyone special diet. I am just counting calories and fat grams and watching portion size. I am allowed an adequate amount of all of these everyday. I did, however, arm myself with a couple of really good, "healthy lifestyle" type cookbooks and I have to say, so far the eating has been good. The only thing to whine about is having to get on the %&#/ treadmill everyday. Hate it.

Jasper news: he does not like thunder. No surprise there I guess. But it was funny the way he discovered it. As mentioned above, it has rained all day. Mostly just a steady downpour all day and all night. Suddenly late today though there was one very bright flash of lightening followed by a very loud, very long, window rattling clap of thunder. Jasper, resting quietly at my feet jumped straight up in the air and rushed to every door giving them all his very angry dog bark. Eh, eh.

not the best picture,

but here is a shot of the gorgeous glass heart I found yesterday at TJMax. Only 7 bucks. It was the only one. I wish I had 3 more. Yep, that's me ol Greedy Greedystein. Give me something and I want more! But who can blame me? This thing is so pretty. It's about 12" from top to bottom.

I also wanted to show you what I made last night. Homemade beeswax tealight candles! i made 20 or so and tonight have used two of them. Aren't they cute? I don't know why, but I am and always have been attracted to anything that was all natural, herby, or organic. I think I have a crunchy gene. But then again,, I AM a child of the 70's, so maybe it's inevitable.

I happened to have 10 lbs. of raw beeswax lying around the house (what? you don't? And just why not?) and had seen these little sweeties selling at $10.00 for a mere dozen. So like any crunchy middle-aged woman worth her beeswax, er, I mean salt, I made my own. Being a do-it-yourselfer from way back, I even saved all the little tin cups and wick tabs from a bag of cheap paraffin tealights. I had to use a rather fat braided cotton wick, because the thin kind in most tealights wasn't right for the beeswax. I found this out through trial and error. I let them set up for 24 hrs before using and they work like a charm in my aromatherapy scent diffuser. My house is diffused with the scent f lavendar and sandlewood and just a hint of honey. My kids say it smells like I am trying to cover up the scent of a certain "plant material' very popular in the 70's but I promise it's not.

In case you are wondering why I have so much raw beeswax just lying around my house, well, that's another story for another day. Maybe tomorrow?

Hi All!

I wanted to give a head's up to a really cute idea over at InpsireCo As some of you know, I've got stuff for sale there and Amy has up a new issue of her emag "Inspired Friends" . It's always full of really fun, creative, inspiring ideas but this month there is the cutest little paint with water book you can make yourself. My granddaughter Hilary loves a good paint with water book , so I immediately got myself some watercolor paper and watercolor pencils and got busy. I think I am going to put the little pictures in a homemade portfolio type deal and include several new paintbrushes when I present it to her. It's really cute. Y'all should head over and check it out.

Lots of nest feathering today.The family gave me a hefty gift card from TJMax for Christmas (love that store) and I hit that place hard today. Got some gorgeous pillows and linens for one of my guest rooms and have been puttering about in that room this evening fixing up the place. And I found a very unusual and quite lovely large glass heart that I am going from room to room with trying to find just the right spot for. I really want to hang it from a candle chandelier that I have but need to get some chain or fishing line or maybe ribbon to do that. Still thinking.

I have some things I want to photograph before I blog about them and I have a fun project I have been working on-homemade beeswax tealights-(well it's fun to me) that I also want to tell about , but will wait for the camera to show pictures.

The diet is going well, but what kind of loser would I be if after only two day it wasn't going well? Well, if the truth be told, I have screwed up before on day two of a diet, but I won't be sharing that tale of woe.