Friday, June 15, 2012

Falling Behind

So, it's summer and I'm still falling behind.  There's something about having nothing that *needs* to get done that really makes you get very little done.  I've been weaving, hanging out with the hubby, watching movies, shopping, working on color guard... And yet, I've been meaning to blog for three days, and I'm just now doing it.  Oh well, I guess, more pics for you today!

First off: here's the green/purple/copper scarf.  (I still haven't taken real pics of it yet, so this is all I've got.)  I like it though.  It's softer than my kitty's fur (which is suuuuper soft.  Lol.)

And here's the sneak peek of the latest project.  (By now, its already finished, just needs to be washed and such.)  It's very similar to the one I made my mom for Christmas, but it's pretty skinny and has a lot more leno lace in it.

And here's my delicious granola!!!  It turned out really great, and I can't stop eating it, so this will probably be a regular recipe at my house.  I just love granola cereal, and it makes me feel pretty good about myself because its pretty good for you.  (Maybe not this version though; there's a LOT of sugar in it!)  I found the recipe on pinterest, and it comes from another blog, delia creates.  You can see the original recipe here!  I followed the recipe but only made a half batch this time.  (I hate to waste my ingredients in case I don't like something the first time I make it.)  Though I love the sweet taste, next time I might try it with a little less sugar so its a little healthier.  But it is DELICIOUS!!!!

Also, we went to the beach the other day and found these while we were walking!!!  Yay!  Conch shells are so rare to find around here, I was totally excited.  These are really cool because they look so old, thick, and worn down!  Yay!

Besides all that loveliness, I had to make a presentation for a training seminar I have to go to all next week for teacher stuff.  Whoever decided that teacher training should be smack in the middle of June was dumb.  It's very un-fun.

Also, I have one of the three songs choreographed for the marching band show!  Uniforms are officially ordered!  And flags are all decided!  Yippee!!!  I'm on a roll!

So even though I have been pretty productive this week, there's still no excuse for my poor blogging habits.  :(  I'm hoping to get a new project warped today, so wish me luck.  I have something totally different planned for this one!

Ending Note: Here's my life motto right now: "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men..." Ephesians 6:7  (Boy is that hard!)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Lazy Sunday

So... this post is a few days over due, and now I have another waiting in line!  But, I'm going to do this in order.

I just love lazy Sunday afternoons and evenings in the summer.  Even with evening church, its lovely to come home, have a snack, and just hang around for the rest of the night.  Here's what Thomas and I did with our lazy Sunday night:
 Slushies and Yahtzee!
We've been playing a LOT of Yahtzee lately, just one of those crazy summer habits!  So usually, slushies in my family mean fresh strawberries and such.  But, being on a budget and sometimes lay shoppers, we did not have any strawberries in the house.  What did we have though?  Strawberry Kool-aid!  Lol.  The reason I'm telling you this whole story is because the strawberry Kool-aid slushies were actually really delicious!  AND, how much cheaper can you really get than one package of Kool-aid, a can of frozen lemonade, ice and sugar?!  Basically, I just had some Kool-aid ice cubes in the freezer, threw those, some regular ice, and a couple spoonfuls of frozen lemonade in the blender, et voila!  However, it was really tart, so I ended up adding a little extra sugar.  They were super cheap, easy, and delicious.  I'm thinking we should have them again, but with another flavor of Kool-aid.

Anyway, that was my wonderful Sunday night!  Tonight I've got a batch of home-made granola in the oven.  Yummy!  And I'm weaving on the latest scarf... but that's an update for tomorrow!!!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Nom Noms

Soooo....  I have been in a horrible quandary the past couple of days.  It's been terrible.  I just don't know what to do.  You see, I have this constant decision to make, and its just so difficult to make the right choice.  You know, the kind of decision where you pro and con it, and then you STILL can't decide.  So, I guess I will share my options on here, and maybe you can help me solve this awful dilemma.  Should I...

Bake or Weave?

He he!  What a terrible life I have right now, right?!  That is my constant, ten times a day decision. So, I can tell you for sure that both win out!  In fact, I think the contest is probably pretty even right now.  Here are some of the finer factors:

Pros for Weaving / Cons for Baking -
  • I have an abundance of yarn, so I can weave about 84 projects before I have to spend any money!
  • I can always choose when to take a break.
  • Its extremely FUN!
  • I have a ton of projects on the brain.
  • Baking is making my beach body not so beach-y.
  • Baking usually takes a large chunk of time all at once.
  • I hate cleaning the kitchen every five minutes.
  • I need more ingredients for all the different pinterest recipes I want to try.
Pros for Baking / Cons for Weaving - 
  • Baking makes DELICIOUS goodies!
  • There are sooooo many recipes I want to try.
  • I'm gonna want dessert anyway, and its cheaper to make it than to go buy it somewhere.
  • Thomas benefits from my yummy treats.
  • For weaving, well, I can't really think of any cons.  :)
Anyway... its probably going to be a few days before you see a finished picture of the green/purple/copper scarf because it needs to be finished with the sewing machine.  And, I'm a little mad at my sewing machine right now, so its been banished to the closet!  However, I do have a new project warped on the loom.  (After a warping process that should have taken half an hour but instead took ONE and a half because I messed it all up.)   So, you'll see sneak peek pics of that soon.

And, on to the baking!  As I mentioned the other day, I made a whipped chocolate fondue dip and cinnamon chips for our bible study dessert party on Monday.  And it was delicious if I do say so myself!  The fondue was one of the easiest recipes I've ever made.  And the cinnamon chips, though more time consuming, were totally worth it!  Here's a pic of the finished dish.  Yum!

 And this morning, I whipped up a batch of cinnamon sugar bagels!  I haven't made these since we moved to Florida, and I've been missing them!  As you can tell from the picture, I still haven't mastered the shaping yet.  They always puff up into big balls rather than ending up looking like bagels!  Yummy!  I can't wait til breakfast.

So, now on to start that new weaving project!!!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Pretty In... Purple!

Here's a pic of the first scarf that I finished the other day.  I got the ends all twisted nicely for the finishing touch.  I decided not to iron it out or anything.  I really like the messy look with this one!
 

And... I had a fabulous hair night when I wore this scarf for the first time, so I thought I'd share that too!
 
(It's really hard to take pictures of the back of your head in the mirror, so they're not the greatest.)  But the pretty purple flower clip was made for me by my good friend Cassie!  Thanks girl.  I miss you!

I spent the morning making cool fondue and cinnamon chips for bible study tonight.  (I'll have to take a picture of that when I get the platter all made up.  It looks delish!)  And then we spent the afternoon at the beach.  So, all in all, I'd say its a pretty good day so far!  I hope you are having an equally lovely day!!!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Done and Done

Well, as you can tell, I didn't get around to the photos that I promised yesterday.  I was a little busy... doing nothing in particular!  Let's see, I made stuffed shells for dinner (YUM YUM), I made willy worm (a dessert that my mom's family made when she was a kid that involves home-made pie crust, cinnamon, sugar, and butter - its delish), I watched "A League of Their Own" and cried of course, I went to Jo-Ann's because I was out of the green bamboo/silk that I needed for the latest project.  Yeah, that was about my day.  I LOVE summer!

So, here is the "sneak peek" of my latest project.
And as you know, I'm not so great at taking photos on the loom, so this was the best I could do.  The two yarns are great: a blend with a fabulous colorway from Conjoined Creations and the green bamboo/silk.  So, I combined the two for a subtle Houndstooth pattern.  It's pretty wide, and I'm planning it for a shorter neck cowl.  We'll see what it looks like after its dried.

And here, the previous project and this one are hanging in the bathroom drying after their first bath!
So, I'm excited about both!

Also, Thomas and I just saw "Snow White and the Huntsman" today.  It was really good considering that the main actor is not great at her job.  It was a really cool take on Snow White where she gets to be a hard core princess who takes on the evil queen in her own right.  I like the stories where the princess gets to have a hand in saving herself, but of course, every princess needs her prince; she doesn't have to be so helpless that he gets to have all the fun defeating the baddies!  (There's a British word for you!)