Thursday, June 23, 2011

My Cabbage Patch Doll Gets A New Sweater

My Cabbage Patch Doll gets a new sweater.

With that expression I am not sure that she likes it?

But it fits her just fine and has 2 buttons.

The variegated yarn made a pretty pattern.

And there was enough yarn left over to make a scarf with fringes.

I guess she was too warm so the scarf came off, lol.
I'm still having fun knitting. Hope you are having some fun too no matter what you are doing. Hope all is well in your little corner of the world. ♥

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Knitting A Little Bit



 
Hello all you lovely people! Hope this posting finds you all in good spirits and doing well. I have something new going on as you can see. I burned myself out a bit after making another 50 African Flowers (just 119 more to go). I needed to take a break from the same old, same old, if you know what I mean. So.......I found the pattern of the Little Kina knitted doll sweater (Google search) and grabbed up my knitting needles and went to work. I profess to being a better crocheter than knitter. Anyone who knits knows that one stitch on a hook is so much easier than the knitting needle loaded up with many stitches. If you drop a stitch you have a bit of a problem. You don't normally loose stitches with crochet, and the risk of error is so much less. Don't let my pics deceive you, it took me 5 tries before I even made the first (variegated green) sweater. It was ripped apart 5 times and I am sure I looked like a mad woman possessed, fretful and silently cursing my ignorance on learning a new stitch. I had to pull out a couple of my instruction books, study them real good......cast on and never getting further than the 7th row because I had to figure out that "knit in front and back of stitch". Then it dawned on me, a light bulb moment for sure. I am first and foremost a Continental Knitter and I admit we are strange knitters. We do not bring our yarn over the hook with our other hand, but it rides behind our work and we catch it as we go. My purl stitches always looked twisted, but I figured out how to remedy that. Needless to say, when I finished the first sweater I was beaming from ear to ear, and so proud of myself. I immediately cast on stitches for a second one, least I forget what I had just learned. It was so much better the 2nd time around, and the 3rd one was a snap. ♥

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Flower Pots


Sorry I haven't been here lately, but I have been keeping pretty busy. Last week I did manage to plant my flower pots for out on the deck. As the years go by I have cut down drastically on the number of pots I plant. That was because of several reasons, the first being the raccoons. I use to plant around 15 containers and my deck was a whirlwind of every glorious color. I had everything from snapdragons to tiny pansies.


Then came the raccoons to dig in the pots and that went on several years till I got to the point I didn't plant any flowers at all. The first year they tore up the flowers 3 nights in a row and my poor husband tried the final time to repair the damage. I felt it had been the biggest waste of money and time to even bother to fool with them anymore. I just shook my head and told him one might as well throw the &#*@ things in the compost bin.


We live trapped 3 raccoons to be left out down by the river where they could scavenge to their hearts content. I tried everything from sprinkling pepper to moth balls to ward off those critters. They say they do not like powdered lime on their feet, well the little ones were rolling around in it and I think they must have loved it!.........then another reason I cut back on pots is because of the headache in the late fall of tearing the pots apart and storing them. A third was the price of flowers, need I say more. So this year I planted 4 pots and put one in each corner of my deck. I can live with that. It is manageable and they still add a bit of color and I never tire of looking at lovely flowers. I more or less down-sized, and right now, that works for me. ♥                      
        

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Call Me Crazy! I Am Swamped....

 I am still alive and kickin', oh yeah! I planned to make some dolls, and somewhere I got side tracked with my crochet hook and balls of yarn. Dare I even tell all of you what I am back to doing. I will say African Flowers again, and say no more until I have completed a second blanket, similar to the first, but a bit different. I will not torture you with blabbing any more about this since you have heard it all before and it is time to move on to something new....I promised myself I would still make some dolls and I would still do a couple of UFOs and I would find a recipe to share. Am I the only one who seems to find there are not enough hours in the day to do all that I want and need to do? First off I need to transform this........ 
       

to this........all the furniture is stored in the basement since last fall.



and I have these to plant in my flower pots for the decks.

         
I walked around my pathetic looking yard and found these lovelies trying to pretty up the place.....

   
and then these 2 mops were out there running through my flower beds and having a rip-roaring time of it.

   
I am so behind. I blame the weather since it has been cold, wet and just too miserable to be outside working.
We have been running to doctor appointments all last week and today it was 2 more appointments and another in the morning. We did find time today to stop and buy plants and seed for the vegetable garden and my flower pots. My laundry hamper is running over and the vacuum cleaner needs running. Oh hummmm.....


I will end this posting with a recipe for something healthy and tasty. I had this soup years ago and really liked it. A woman I knew worked as a cook at the General Electric Factory kitchen. She made this soup and they sold it in their cafeteria. A pot of it arrived at my mil's house when my fil passed away. There was no recipe and so I looked over what was in my bowl and came up with a similar concoction and it tasted just like the original. Then later I checked the internet and sure enough there was such a soup, and ingredients vary. I will say this is very low in calories and filling. It is kinda a poor man's soup. It works well when trying to clean out the vegetable drawer in the fridge.


CABBAGE PATCH SOUP

1 1/2 pound of ground chuck or round, browned and drained
4-5 carrots, sliced
3 stalks of celery, sliced in small bite size pieces
1 large cooking onion, chopped
1 small can of dark kidney beans
1 large can of chopped tomatoes
1 small or medium head of cabbage, chopped
1-2 cans of water (use the empty kidney bean or tomato can)
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat, make sure it is not in large hunks, break it up and drain. Add all ingredients in a large stew pot and bring to boil, cover, simmer for about 2 hours or until carrots and celery are tender. Stir it about every 1/2 hour to help mix it all well. This makes a lot of servings so if you aren't sure you will like it then I suggest cutting this recipe in half. Tastes great with a crusty bread smeared with butter or margarine and a glass of milk. Enjoy ♥

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