Do your days go as planned?

I'm not sure why I plan my weeks anymore. They never work out as envisioned, but that isn't a bad thing. The absolute musts seem to get done but the rest of the list....it seems to just evaporate.

Our younger son is hosting Thanksgiving at his house next week. His culinary expertise is pretty much limited to macaroni and cheese, the kind in the blue box.   I will be borrowing a roaster from my sis-in-law on Sunday and the yet-to-be-purchased turkey will be cooked in it at Billy's house under the watchful eye of my husband. The roaster, originally his mom's, is his specialty. The stuffing and desserts are my thing. Side dishes will be brought by the various relatives coming and we will have a wonderful time. We always do.

Surely my family isn't the only one who seems to wait until company is coming to finish (or maybe begin?) long delayed home projects. One year we painted the house on the eve of Easter. (Happy Easter, c'mon in, just don't lean against the walls!) My sons are carrying on this tradition. I am making tablecloths to cover 8 ft folding banquet tables and today Bill will helping Billy mount a TV on the wall over his fireplace. This has been talked about for over a year.   I no longer get antsy over this last minute activity. Heck, I've been known to plan a party just to get projects done!

Yesterday's flurry of activity included shopping trips and errands outside of the house. It was the first time Grandpa and I took Colton with us. Everything took longer because A) we had to show him the hardware and toy sections of Target (guess who handled which tour); B) we watched him take everything in and therefore walked more slowly; and C) Colton charmed the socks off everyone who paid attention to him.

All that charming must have been tiring work. It sure tired me out. I sat in the recliner singing our favorite songs until Colton zonked out. I thought I would wait just a minute longer before moving him but instead, I fell asleep too. Grandpa has learned how to work my camera and here is his proof.

I must say, if your day isn't going to go as planned, this is certainly a nice way to have it go awry.

Gobble, gobble, don't spill on me!

If our Thanksgiving turkey looks like this, I may have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!  I'm sure Colton wearing this bib will improve the turkey's image at least 100%.

 

What is more rare than this brightly colored bird? I didn't buy ANY fabric or thread to make this! Everything but the ribbon was already in the house. I wasn't convinced the neck opening was large enough to fit around Colton's neck and close with Velcro so I decided to add ribbon ties. The only narrow grosgrain  I had was stark white so I made a trip to Joann's for a spool of tan ribbon. The fabrics used for the turkey were coordinating prints left over from a baby quilt made earlier this year. I tried traditional turkey colors first but it looked drab. I don't like drab!

Speaking of drab, we have heavy fog AGAIN here in SE Michigan. This has been with us off and on since Tuesday. Please someone, take it away, but don't replace it with the snow that I am hearing about in Minnesota. I'm not asking for all that much....just warm weather and a body that looks and moves like this...

How one thing leads to another....

Many crafters have honed their ability to justify buying new craft supplies. I am no different, but I have been trying to use more from my stashes (plural to reflect many craft interests) rather than buying new with each project. In my last post, I showed you photos of Christmas stockings for my son Chuck and his wife Kim. Grandson Colton's stocking is going to feature a different but related design with a blue background rather than red or green. I was ready to begin but decided I didn't care for the blue yarn in my stash. Both the color and texture were off for what I had in mind. That, of course, led to the purchase of a new skein of yarn BUT the good news as I strive to keep my stashes from taking over is that the blue yarn was the ONLY skein I bought!

The decision that the original blue yarn wasn't going to work was made after stores were closed Tuesday night. That fact, coupled with internet browsing, led me to experiment with a free pattern and black yarn to make a fingerless glove. I wasn't interested in the style that has an opening for the thumb and one large opening for the four fingers, I wanted a true glove with fingertips exposed. The pattern I found not only fit this description, it was knitted from the top down. Typically gloves are knitted from the cuff to the fingertip. Many people knit socks from the cuff to the toe, but I prefer toe-up socks. What can I say? I'm a rebel!

I wasn't too far into this project before I could tell I wasn't going to wear this glove indoors when my hands get cold. It is too thick and bulky to suit me, but I persevered so that I could determine if I liked the pattern enough to use it again with a lighter weight yarn.

Yesterday afternoon I finished the glove with only the loose yarn ends (between the fingers) to weave in, but I wasn't planning to do that since I wasn't going to wear the glove. Enter my husband. The one who never wears sweaters that I knit because he always warm. He asked what I was working on. He told me that he always wanted a pair of these. Was I supposed to guess this? He never said a word about them before yesterday.

The glove fit him perfectly except the cuff needed to be lengthened. I undid the bind off, added more yarn and extended the cuff another inch. Here is the glove:

You know how this story is going to end, don't you? The is glove is now half of a completed project. I had enough black yarn for the experimental glove, but not enough for a pair. This means another shopping trip for yarn. The question is, will I be strong enough to ONLY but ONE skein of yarn for the second time in one week?

So many colors...so little time...and even less storage space!

Behind the scenes

I am working on Christmas stockings for Chuck, Kim and Colton. Chuck has a hand knit stocking from his childhood, but I've decided to keep that here for now and give him one suitable for his new role as daddy. I combined designs from two Mary Maxim patterns to make stockings that have different designs on each side. His and Kim's are the same except for background color, Colton's will be a different type of snowman, probably with blue as the background color.

Here is Kim's sock, done except for adding her name.


For those who knit, especially sock knitters, the odd thing about this pattern is that the stocking is knitted flat and seamed when done. I suppose I could knit it as wearable socks are conventionally knit in the round, but I find this method easy when it is time to weave in all those loose ends.

In order to get this pleasant design on the right side of the knitted item

This is what you have on the wrong side. Yikes!

Fortunately, weaving the ends in while watching TV isn't a big problem

Their names will be added soon, done in duplicate stitch which means the names will look like they are knitted into the stocking. Since these stockings have two design sides, I am thinking of adding their first names to one side and Mama and Papa (or Mommy and Daddy) to the others. I'll leave that decision up to them.

If anyone is interested in the pattern, Mary Maxim offers both kits and pattern books here. The yarn used is an acrylic which I find practical for something that is packed away for 11 months of the year without worry of attracting moths. The stockings I made well over 20 years ago still look great and wash well.

How dare they!!!

U-verse has dropped all the Scripps channels from their line up!  No HGTV, no Food Network, no DIY, no Cooking Channel and no GAC (Great American Country, I think). It was all there Thursday night and all gone yesterday.

Scripps blames U-verse, U-verse blames Scripps.  I am tempted to believe the problem is with U-verse since they just did the same thing a few months ago with all of the Hallmark channels.

All of us, no matter what cable service we're using, are paying a lot of money in my humble opinion. Because these channels are part of the basic package, we don't get a rebate on our bills when they are dropped. U-verse commented somewhere that they substituted "similar" programs. I don't think Bravo is similar to the Food Network, nor is TLC like HGTV and besides....both of those channels are already part of our line up.
U-verse is getting a lot of flak over this and I hope they react in a way favorable for their customers.

Rabbit ears and aluminum foil anyone? 

Tell Paula that I miss her, and pass the same along to Holmes on Homes for Bill. If they don't resolve this soon, can anyone tell me where U-verse corporate offices are, and do you want to camp out there with me?

Retailmenot coupon site

I've mentioned this site before, but thought it is worth mentioning again. www.retailmenot.com is a handy source for online discounts codes and printable coupons at many stores. Enter the name of the store and you'll get a list of available coupons and codes.

This morning I did some online shopping at Penney's. The total order came to $104.94 before shipping and taxes. I found three discount codes and tried them all. The first one (4holiday) was for free shipping. Using that code, my purchase total would have been $111.24. The second code (Novsur10) was for 15% off, resulting in a cost of $109.12. The third code (Pumpkin) was good for $10 off a $50 order, $15 off of $75 and $20 off of $100 or more.  Using that code, my total came to $104.94 after shipping and taxes. Without any discounts, the total would have been $127.08. Shipping alone was $15.85.

One more bit of advice that I've found is true at least with Penney's sales, if you get their sale catalogs, shop and compare between catalogs and online prices. You might think a sale price is good no mater what product number you use, but that is not the case. Last year I order a quilt, pillow shams and curtains from Penney's after seeing them in a print catalog. The quilt and pillow shams were the same price whether you searched for them online or used the catalog order number. The curtains, however, were $15 cheaper per pair using the catalog number and the valances were $8 less expensive. Two pair of curtains and three valances (one was to be cut in half and added to each full valance) were $54 cheaper using the catalog numbers than as shown online.

Happy shopping!

Kitchen gadgets

If I am not shopping alone, I am likely to be with either my sister-in-law Beth or with my good friend Joyce. With Beth I might be in a yarn store, with Joyce, a quilt shop. In either case we are drawn to the notion and gadget departments. The same is true with both friends and any store that sells kitchen gadgets. Do any of us need another item? No, but we have to look.

When I am reading a blog and caught up in a posted recipe, craft technique or video clip of just about anything, I have to look there too. Today I read this entry in Blondie's Journal where a baking pan intrigued me. It is available at Sur la Table, a store that is within reasonable driving distance. I should explain that "reasonable driving distance" has a flexible definition. If the item is something I really want, and want it right now, an hour's drive in cold rain might be reasonable. On the other hand, going to Kroger at my corner in beautiful weather to buy something to fix for dinner can be totally out of the question if my cooking muse is on strike. Back on topic, I decided to make note of this pan and list it as a gift suggestion when my family asks for ideas for Christmas.
Yesterday a catalog arrived in my mail from a well know flour company. I have never purchased this brand, I'm not sure it is available in my area, and I had no idea they had a gift catalog. There was an odd little gadget that caught my eye. They called it a pie dam or pie gate. It is used to help a pie or casserole retain its shape after a portion has been cut and served.

Would this be helpful or would it wind up unused in a drawer, probably catching and preventing the drawer from opening?

 

The catalog sold them in a pair for $10.95 with shipping and handling boosting the cost to $17.45.
I can walk away from that but....Sur la Table has this item also! One would cost $5.95 Hmmmm, maybe I do need this?

Are you a gadget gal?