Here's another attemp to write a post using everything in a strange but beautiful foreign language of which I sadly do not understand. Hopefully everything will work.

I got up early and decided to spend a liittle time reading. But that put me promptly back to sleep sitting up on the couch. I slept until after 9:00. Not good. Then I got out my sewing machine and stitched the last of GD #1's Christmas present. I managed to get it all done except for the top stitching (quilting) before my machine got sick on me. It kept balling up on the underside every time I tried to sew. Kathleen says it probably needs cleaning because the smallest little thing like a piece of fabric or thread will cause that to happen. So that's at the top of my to do list tomorrow morning. Clean my machine. Hopefully that will take care of the problem. It was very frustrating this morning when I couldn't get my machine to work right. I was so close to having her set done and out of the way. Oh well, tomorrow's a better day I'm sure.

I finished the scarf I've been working on for the last couple days. I washed and soaked it in cold water. Then blocked it. Hubby help me carry the mounting boards into the spare room. It would have fallen apart if I'd tried to do it by myself. It looks very nice. Kinda flattened from rolling it in a towel to extract as much water as possible. But I roughed it up with my fingers and hopefully it will look okay when it's dry. The pattern for it is called Gossamer Shell Scarf. It's very light and open. Very nice. Since it had so many holes in it I thought to use my wires for blocking. I don't know that they made it any easier. In fact they may have required more work than using the pins. But the sides are nice and straight. Now I need to decide tomorrow what I'm going to knit next. There are a couple more scarves in the latest book I bought that I might try. Thing is I've got scarves coming out my ears. I told GD#1 that I'd be happy to give her some scarves that she could use as thank you gifts for her hostesses if she wanted to. She is selling Mary Kay cosmetics now. She's just getting started. I'm hosting a party for her on the 14th of August. Now all I have to do is round up people to come. And I want people to come who might really like the product and buy the skincare line. I really don't want the people to just come for the party and not be interested in purchasing really great skincare products. So I am being selective with prospective guests.

I have knit so much getting ready for Christmas but I'm hoping to get all the gifts made and maybe even wrapped as soon as possible so I won't have to worry about them anymore. The gift I've picked out to make for GD#2 will take a little time but is should turn out to be something really nice for her. Something besides scarves and slippers. I still need to find other things to make for her though as everyone else has multiple gifts. GS will be coming home on leave from the Air Force on the 31st of July. Just a little over a week from now. I haven't seen him since he left back in February. That's 5 months!!! That's a long time!!! Too long. I'm hoping my yarn comes in tomorrow. I'll start the slippers as soon as it gets here. Or maybe I should start on GD#2's gift. I don't know probably one or the other. And I still need to think of what I can do for my GS and my son. Guys are hard to make things for. I have an extra pair of slippers (gray) knitted up in case he says he's wear them. He's the only one in my family that didn't get slippers last year for Christmas. I'm hoping he'll say he'll wear them. But I do need to decide on some guy gifts. Maybe I should go look through patterns again at WalMart. Maybe I'd find something that I could sew for them. I'm thinking like a poncho. GS is being stationed in Alaska when his leave is over so he will need lots of warm things. I could knit him a hat to go with the slippers. And I might even knit him a "sleeve" for his hand to go in when he's using an ice scraper. I imagine he'll probably have lots of times he'll have to scrape the ice off his vehicle. This pattern has an ice scraper sewn into the end of the sleeve. He'll stick his hand in one end and grab the handle of the scraper inside and then scrape away. The sleeve will protect his hand from the ice shavings that come off when scraped.

Well gang it's late so I think I'll bow out for tonight. One of these days I'll have something interesting to write about. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants? Okay I'm going to see now if I remember how to publish this post. I can't read any of the instructions and have no idea what I'm clicking on. Sure wish I knew how to get back to that formatting page and put this thing back into English. Frustrating! Until next time... P.S. I just discovered I can no longer spell check. RATS!

Oops!

Well, okay, so the font didn't change. I thought it had. Good. Something is right on this blog at least.

As It Now Stands

Okay, I can continue my blog but I have to turn in circles and dance a jig to do so. This is very frustrating because I did click on English. The problem was that somehow the font on my comments box got changed to a foreign language that presented itself in an open box for each character typed. I wanted to get it back to English so I clicked on English and I got a very pretty but absolutely impossible language to translate. Everything on my end is in that foreign language. So I can't tell what I'm doing. I haven't been able to read comments for quite some time and I just got fed up and decided to see if I could put things right. However, as you now know, I succeeded in making it worse on my end. I can't read any of the instructions on my create blog site. I'm basically doing it by memory. The only drawback is that the elements I used to click on have been moved around on the page so most of the time even my memory isn't enough because things aren't where they used to be. I don't know whether to continue to fix things myself or leave things the heck alone. I have however gone to a different fon't for the text I think. It's different on my end anyway. This is very disheartening to say the least. I think I'll leave things as they are and not play with things anymore. I think that's the best options I have.

Blogger Problems

I see that that did eventually post however I don't know what I clicked on to get it to post. Everything on my end is written in this foreign language. But I can at least work through the problem, I just don't know how to fix the problem. I'm going to see if I can edit this post. Don't know what you'll see on your end. Bear with me as I try to fix this frustrating problem. I am now attempting to edit this note. Let me see if it is going to let me edit. I can't be sure what I clicked on since everything is in this other language. Again I'm going to attempt to edit. It did edit the last time. I just want to check something. I realize this is going to be confusing to anyone other than me but it's something I have to do. So please stay with me.

Well, folks, I have really done it t his time. I was attempting to change the font for my comments and I clicked on English but got a weird Aramaic type font. So I don't know what I'm doing when I try to create a post. I'm just now attempting to see whether I can still post or not. Hopefully this will go through as written. I'm going to post this now and see what happens. Well nothing happened so I'll try again.

Just Another Week Around Here

Hard to believe it's been a week since I last posted my blog. We've stayed quite busy but I can't really tell you much of what we did because I don't think we did a lot. Michael seems to spend an awful lot of time tending his garden. And the tomatoes are producing. We had BLTs for dinner tonight. Our first ripe tomato! And it was delicious!! It was my first BLT in a couple years I believe. But bless his heart he's down there just whispering his little heart out to those jewels of tomatoes. There is nothing quite like a freshly picked, bright red tomato that sets our hearts aflutter. They have so much more flavor than store bought ones. Even the "on the vine" tomatoes that you pay an arm and a leg for can't hold a candle to home grown. I'm glad we tried one more year.

I got only 48 inches done on the charity afghan before I had to take it back to her. I felt bad that I couldn't finish it. Maybe if my attitude had been better early on, but it wasn't. But that just leaves her 20 inches to do on her own. And she was happy. I mean, she had thought that she had to knit the entire afghan by herself until we offered to help her out. But I do wish I had finished the panel I worked on.

I finished the scarf I was working on for my hair stylist's Christmas present. I think she will be really pleased. I used the light blue mohair yarn that came in all that yarn Charlene gave to our group. (I skimmed the good stuff for myself, before taking it down to the group. I know, shame on me, except that I think that's what Charlene intended for me to do. That was my understanding and I know that if it had been me, I would have wanted her to take all the yarn she needed before taking it to group.) Speaking of the group. We're just knitting our little hearts out. We've sort of moved beyond the helmet liners that everyone made for the Marines in Afghanistan. I think we got over 20 made up before people began dropping from the task. I admit I only knitted 1 liner. Others have knitted 2, 3, 4 or more. I felt I was lucky to get even 1 made as my heart wasn't in multiple liners. I mean, when Ani asked me to help with knitting the helmet liners I told her that I would knit one and so I lived up to my promise.

Then I began another scarf (good thing they make wonderful gifts!). I've had a ball of Palette "Iris Lavender" for over a year and I think I've finally found a use for it. The new book of 101 Designs for one-skein projects had a scarf in it that I thought would look really great for that yarn. So when I finished Linda's Christmas scarf I dug out my Palette yarn and went about making yet another scarf. Don't know who this one will be for. It's turning out really pretty although not as pretty as it would have been had I done it with the last of my mohair yarn. Only thing is that the yardage was way off. I'll need another full skein to finish it. According to the book, I should have been able to do the entire scarf using this one skein. I did change the weight and needle size so maybe that's what put it off. I should have had 50 yards left over after finishing the scarf according to their directions. But it isn't expensive yarn so I don't really mind. And I know there's no way a new skein would come from the same die lot as the old skein I've had for so long but I think if there's a difference I'll be able to live with it. LOL. So I broke down and placed a yarn order from KnitPicks. While I really only needed to order that one skein I couldn't resist the temptation to order more yarn for the other projects I've got lined up to knit. But they too are Christmas gifts so I try and justify my behavior with thoughts like "it's not for me!" Oh, I love to knit. Can you tell? LOL!!!

I sewed a few things last week. I got GD #1's placemat set half done now. And yesterday I sewed up another apron out of the left over fabric I had from her set. I don't think I'm going to give that one to her. I've already made her apron, it's the black one with hot pink pockets that she requested. So I'll use the last one as a gift for someone else.

I praise God that I have been able to make all these gifts for Christmas. I still have a ways to go before I have them all made but I've certainly made a significant dent in my lengthy list! God is so good. He gives me the talent, the time, and the money to do this. And the really neat thing about it is that he's provided for everything I make. What a great God we have!!!

It's been hot lately but not as hot as we got last year. Of course this year's heat isn't over with yet so we could still match (or top) last year's horrible high. So far 108 is as high as it's gotten this year.

I know this is short and I've done nothing but talk about knitting and sewing. Isn't it wonderful!! I think it's great that I'm so blessed and can share my blessings with you. For so many years I had no way to express myself. Now, thanks to God and my best friend Kathleen, I have things to do. I can be creative and express myself. I can do things that are fun. For the first time in my life I am really enjoying myself. So anyway, just me being me here for you and on that note I'll say goodnight until my next post. Good Night all.

It's Me Again

I finally made it to church yesterday. I missed 5 weeks because of this last bout with pneumonia. I still feel like if I were to cough really hard it would flare up all over again. That's been my history with pneumonia. But maybe aspiration pneumonia is different. I don't know. Anyway it sure felt good to be in church again. I felt extra righteous when I dropped 6 donation envelopes in the plate as it was passed around. I have to confess I was tempted to keep the money for the weeks that I didn't attend. With the added expense of hubby's teeth that was a very real temptation. And unlike one other time I didn't get the green light for keeping my donations so I had no choice but to drop it in the collection plate. But that money belongs to the Lord whether I attend or not. God is certainly due His fair share. (Actually His fair share is 100% of everything I have.) And the one time I did keep the money when I'd been absent the green light was bright and clear. I had no qualms about keeping the money and using it that time.

I had a good day knitting today. The charity afghan I volunteered to help make is coming along quite nicely. I went into the endeavor with the wrong attitude. God gave me this very task to do a little pruning in yours truly. Once I got the chip off my shoulder and realized that it is a privilege to be able to do something for charity, something without getting something back in return, things really began to turn around for me. For several days it seemed that every time I picked up the afghan to try and knit my portion of the piece I almost immediately messed up and couldn't find my way out of the mistake. I had to drive over to Kathleen's 3 times I think so that she could correct my mistakes so I could give it yet another try. But with the new attitude this morning of finding joy in giving without getting anything in return started my day off right. I knit for several hours (5 or 6) and only made one little mistake that I caught almost immediately so there was no major mess to clean up. I made big progress on it. And it was really a blessing to have had the opportunity to work on it. It still seems that it should be going faster but I keep plugging along. I have to take my panel to knitting class tomorrow night and give it back to the woman who initiated the project and she will have to finish it because I doubt I'll get it completely done by tomorrow night. But I will give up several more hours tomorrow. I've decided the entire project was a character building-exercise for me. Hopefully tomorrow will go faster.

I took some time this evening to work on my own project. A scarf for Christmas. And it's coming right on along too. But sad to say that I'm not going to have 3 skeins of mohair left after making this scarf. I had hoped to have 3 full skeins left over from the scarf so that I could use it for a Christmas present for GD (granddaughter) number 2. But I may have to buy yarn for what I thought I'd make her. I just don't know if 2 skeins will be enough to knit the shrug I picked out. Kayla would look so cute in it. And I want so much to think 2 skeins would be enough but I just don't know. Guess I could try and see what happens as I go along. But that would waste the yarn if it weren't enough for the entire piece. More thinking will be required on this note.

I had the Deacons' Meeting tonight at 5:00. I missed last month's meeting but they managed okay without me, lol. I had absolutely nothing to contribute to the agenda and I felt like I should have prepared something to share. But I got wrapped up in that afghan and before I knew it it was 5:00 and I had to hurry. So I just apologized for that. (Seems like I do a lot of apologizing lately.)

I'd like to get back to sewing tomorrow and I might squeeze in a couple hours. I haven't sewed since Thursday or Friday. Thursday I think. I still have two more placemats to make for DIL's Christmas present. Which just goes to remind me when we do our shopping next month to look for that focus fabric for her set. I have the other 2 cut out and ready for sewing as soon as I can find that fabric so I can buy 1/4 yard. I need just that little bit more, 9 inches, and hubby tried to get that fabric for me when he went over last week to see his dentist. But he couldn't find it. The thing is I know it's there. It probably got returned to the shelves and was stuck in an area other than where I suggested he look. Hubby can't find the remote when it's in his lap, either that or he's sitting on it so it was silly of me to ask him to go look at WalMart. It was a full bolt so I'm sure there will be plenty left next month. If not, then I guess DIL's will be a set for 4 instead of 6. But, hey, I think I told you this in my last post. Sorry. It gets to the point that I don't know who I told what to. Good thing I don't lie very often (almost never) or I'd never be able to keep my stories straight.

My book came in that I ordered from KnitPicks and it doesn't have all that many things in it that I'm going to want to try. I'm really disappointed. There were 101 items to knit and crochet and I will probably only make 4 or 5 things. The rest of them are either silly or ugly or beyond my expertise. And some of them I may make just for the fun of it. But I have absolutely no use for things like a teapot cozy or knitted barrette. Seems like someone could come up with more good ideas. I mean some of the things in that book aren't just ugly. They are ridiculous!

It's getting closer and closer to the time my GS (grandson) comes home on leave. I have really missed that little boy. Well, gee, I guess he's not so much a little boy any longer. But I am so proud of him for joining the Air Force. He wanted to be a firefighter and it was smart of him to take advantage of the education he would get in the military. I have his picture all ready to go down to the bulletin board at church. I just need to get his information typed up so they'll know who that handsome young man is in his dress blues. Can't wait for him to come home.

It was hot today but a few degrees cooler than a few days ago. But so far we haven't had the solid week of 110+ degree days we usually get every summer. Of course there's a lot of summer left to reach those highs. Hope we don't have them. Hubby and I just get miserable when it gets that hot. The evaporative cooler doesn't seem to do anything but circulate the air around on days when it gets that hot.

I am anxious to send Ginny (a blogging friend back in Virginia) her apron. I just need to pick up a padded envelope. But she's always sewing things for the kids but never anything for herself so I thought a little surprise in the mailbox might just make her day when it gets there. I just love her and her family. She's faithful to post a blog almost every day. And they're always wonderful. Lots and lots of pictures and great writing. I don't know how she manages to find the time to blog with her 5 children. Sewing too. She's going to go on a trip with a friend this week so there will be days when she doesn't post.

Well, I still hope to get more knitting done before I head to bed. But if I don't end this post I won't have time for it. I've run out of things to talk about tonight anyway. I just wanted to close by encouraging you to find some time alone with our Lord this week. Get out your Bible and read a chapter (or two) in your favorite book or epistle. Close your eyes and think on what you've just read. Does it up build you? Condemn you? Convict you? Bless you? Educate you? I could go on and on. But this is what is meant when we are told to meditate on God's Word. We are to take in nourishment from God's Word and dwell on how it applies to our individual lives. How blessed we are to have a Bible. Many people in this world don't have (or aren't allowed) to own a Bible. Make good use of your copy not just once in a while but every single day. God is so good to us. He takes such good care of us. He promises us things and then goes about bring them to fruition. What a glorious God we have. He asks so little of us. Basically the only thing He requires of us is our love and devotion. We see ourselves as we are. God sees us as we were meant to be. Remember to find the time to talk to Him often throughout your day. I really mean that. Talk to Him. When you're in the shower, talk to Him. When you're driving in your car, talk to Him. There are thousands of times every single day that we could and should talk to Him. We don't have to carry on a long conversation. One or two words is often enough. Just so we keep Him involved in our lives. When I knit and correct a mistake I always say "Thank You, Lord." There are quite literally thousands of bits of time in our day that we can (and should) commune with our God. Think of that. We get to actually speak to our God! And we can be assured that He hears our every utterance. Other gods can't hear or see or bless. Other gods aren't worthy of our time. But our God is worthy. In a million ways He is worthy. Let us praise Him and give Him thanks for all that he does for us. Thank Him for the mere fact that He wants us to communicate with Him. He longs to hear our voices. Be it requests, praise, or thanksgiving; He desires to have that kind of off-the-cuff fellowship with Him. The God of the universe is the God of all universes. And He is our God. Yours and mine. Praise Him now.

I've Been Busy

I know I've been busy but I didn't think I'd been gone that long! Lot's of things have been going on. I finished placemats for both sisters and am now sewing a set for my DIL (daughter-in-law) and I've got the fabric for my GD (granddaughter) all ready to cut out. These placemats are so easy I'm having a ball. Oh, I also got aprons matching their placemats done for them. DIL and GD will not have matching aprons.

Thanks to all 9 of you who chose to comment on my blog. I always feel good when people comment.

A couple months ago my DIL's mother gave me several big lawn bags full of yarn. I culled through and pulled out what I wanted and then I took the rest down to our knitting group's cupboards for other to choose from. There was a bag of Mohair yarn inside. Eight balls of Mohair yarn! But it looked just horrible. I would have guessed that it was older than I am (and I'm older than the hills) and the labels inside the bag were super old-fashioned labels. It looked horrible. There was even a dead wasp in with the balls of yarn. Finally, the other day I decided I'd check out the yarn and I started a scarf to see what happened. All that horrible looking yarn is knitting up into something quite exquisite. The shade of blue is airy and open like spun glass. It is quite possibly the most beautiful scarf I've ever seen. Just goes to show you that looks can be deceiving. I decided before I started knitting it that if it turned out okay I would give the scarf to my hair stylist for Christmas. She will appreciate it and give it a good home. I'm coming down to the home stretch and I'm getting antsy to get it finished. Hopefully by tomorrow. Wish I could post a picture of it. It's very, very nice.

I've not been too healthy the past 3 weeks. I started out with an infected jaw with my face all bloated and swollen. The doctor started me on antibiotics. About 4 days into that I choked taking a Tylenol and aspirated water and Tylenol into my right lung. Gave me aspiration pneumonia and the doctor immediately started me on an additional antibiotic. Which promptly gave me a yeast infection so I was put on yet another antibiotic making three for the total. I didn't do anything but knit for about 2 1/2 weeks. And knit I did! I made a baby afghan, a scarf for Christmas, and 5 pairs of slippers also for Christmas. Like I said, all I did was knit! But now that I'm better I have to squeeze in a few other things. Like cooking, cleaning, etc., etc.

My GS (grand son) will soon be coming home on leave. He'll finish up his firefighter training and then will get to come home on leave in late July/early August. This has really been hard on all of us. On my GS because he'd never been away from home. On my son and DIL because they'd never not had him around and on grandma because she's used to seeing him all the time and has a history as grandkids' babysitter. I can't wait to see him! He will be stationed at Elmendorf AFB in Alaska. He doesn't like cold so he'll need to do some adapting when he gets up there. He's going to come home so different. He left as grandma's little boy. Now he's going to come home all grown up. We're having a big party for him out at the lake when he comes home on leave.

We have been inundated with hummingbirds!! We had to buy another feeder to give them more spaces from which to drink. They're going to drive me to the poor house mixing up their food for the feeders twice a day. I hadn't realized sugar was so expensive until I started buying it for the birds. They go through 5 pounds of sugar in about 2-1/2 days!! But we love to watch them.

I'm so far behind in my reading. I didn't feel like reading while I was sick. I couldn't concentrate. Knitting doesn't take much thought. You just do it. Reading you have to retain it. I've gotten several new books to read. My latest one (it came in today's mail) is, A Better Country: Preparing for Heaven by Dan Schaeffer. The title appealed to me. I can't remember the names of the other books but there are at least 3 others that I just haven't had the time to read. It's difficult for me to read anyway because hubby always has the TV on. There's no quiet place to read. I used to go outside on the deck and read before the heat turned to SCORCHING. I do wish I had a little quiet once in awhile!

I missed two weeks of my knitting group while out with pneumonia. The past Tuesday being my first time back. I was given a couple skeins of yarn for an afghan that is charity work. It will be auctioned off raising money for a good cause. Only thing is, I don't really want to do that. I have other things I'm working on. I don't usually mind but for some reason I just do not (read that: DO NOT) want to do it. I was asked if I'd participate in the making of that afghan while I was out sick and I don't think I was thinking too clearly when I said yes because I have so many other irons in the fire as it is. Any time I spend on that afghan is time away from the things I want to be knitting. After I finish this scarf, I have one more to make, and then I'm going to take the 8 skeins of brown 100% Alpaca yarn that I was given and knit up something. Don't know what. If I weren't so fat I'd knit me a sweater with it. But all my bulges will show in a sweater!
So many things to knit and so little time!!!

I started this with all kinds of new things to write about and they've all but disappeared in my brain. I know they're there somewhere. I just can't locate them right now and it is very, very late and I better get to bed. Until next time...