This will be the last post...

...on this blog.

Alas, I have been mulling over this decision for quite a while now, and it is done.  I have decided to close this blog in order to start fresh with a blog that is not simply about weaving, but about life in general.  One of the main reasons I've created a new blog is that I started this blog to document my weaving.  And now that life has twisted around and weaving is not as big a part of it as I would hope, I just have other things I would like to blog about.  And then, I'm an over achiever and it really bothers me to have a weaving blog that rarely talks about weaving.  So, this is the last post on this blog.

But, I can't leave you without a teaser...  I do have a project on my loom right now, and I will be blogging about it on my new blog soon.  So, I'd love it if you wanted to drop by and check out the new site: Courting Contentment.  Hope to see you there!

Life Goes On

I haven't blogged since September.  I just want to get that out in the open so that I can't fool myself into thinking it hasn't really been that long.  It's been FOREVER!  I know.  I think about blogging a lot.  But, it just never seems to happen that I just sit down and type out the posts I plan in my head over and over.  So, somehow, half a year later, one day I decide to sit down and actually type.  It took me a while to get here though.  I've been sitting at the computer for over half an hour, just killing time.  Watching a couple of movie trailers, catching up on the latest randomness on Facebook, trying not to think about work.

I'm feeling a little melancholy today.  This is the first time I've been home alone in what feels like forever.  And there's just something about it.  For a while, you love it, and then without you really noticing the loneliness creeps into you.  And it's been oh so long since I've been lonely.  It's really quite hard to deal with when you've forgotten how wonderful it can be.  So, here I am, lonely and melancholy, and the rain is kind of spitting down outside.  But at least it's over 70 degrees here in Florida; I'm pretty sure I'd be in even more of a rut if I was somewhere colder.

The fall is a very busy time for me.  I teach high school, and in addition to that, in the fall, I am the assistant marching band director and color guard coach.  So, between mid-July and the beginning of December, work took up a major amount of time in my life.  And then the holidays, etc.  So, since September I have made (wait for it) TWO scarves.  I know, it's a pity.  I didn't even weave at all during my three week Christmas break.  In my defense, however, we were out of town for more than half of it.  But still.  I miss my loom, and I would really like to start a project any day now. 

But first, I need you to mourn with me.  I found out a few weeks ago that my favorite yarn company is closing their business at the end of this month.  Since I started weaving, my absolute favorite yarns have come from Conjoined Creations.  They make absolutely stunning hand-dyed yarns that are a dream to work with.  Though I understand completely that life takes different turns and things often change, I am very sad that they are closing.  If you are reading this and you do some type of fiber arts craft, I would encourage you to check out the final sales they have going on.  So, since they are closing, I have had to take a deep breath and make the last order I will ever make from them.  Here's what I've got.

 Above is the yarn I got for Christmas (before I heard the devastating news).

 This was my last order from them.  I am grateful that their final sale started before I made my last order because that allowed me to purchase much more than I can usually afford.  Also, thank you to everyone who gave me money for Christmas... this is where a lot of it went.

And so, this is my entire stash of Conjoined Creations.  I had just a few half-skeins left from previous projects.  Thankfully, this stash will last me quite a while, but when I run out, oh sad day, I will probably cry.

Well, though I still need to update you with some pictures of the whole 2 scarves I've made, I'm going to enjoy my loneliness and try not to bake something else in the meantime.  (I've been doing a lot of baking.  And by "a lot" I mean "AAAAA LLLOOOOOOTTTTTTT!"

Happy Saturday!

World RECORD... Well, Maybe Not

So, GUESS what I did yesterday?!?!?!  I made FOUR brand new (to me) Pinterest recipes!!!  That's gotta be some type of record, right?!  But seriously, it was pretty awesome!  So I had to tell you all because I was so excited!

So here's the story.  We had a church picnic to go to tonight, and of course, it was pot luck.  And it just so happened that they split up what people were supposed to bring by last names.  So by the last name rule, I was supposed to bring a side dish (not a dessert).  If you know me at all, then you would very well know that if you ask me to bring a dessert, I will be on Pinterest and in the kitchen for hours just narrowing down the list of recipes to make.  However, when you put me on side dish duty... I get on Pinterest for about 4 hours and still can't find anything I want to make and bring.  Boo.  So, in looking at pin after pin of delicious food on Pinterest Friday night and Saturday morning, I just could not help myself.  So...

For lunch, we had Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps!  Yum yum!  So, click on the picture for the original recipe.  Of course, we changed some things around because we're kind of picky eaters.  So we took out the peppers, changed up some of the spices and added salsa.  They were pretty darn delicious!  (Note: the picture is from Pinterest.)

 Next up, those wonderful sounding Bread Machine English Muffins I mentioned yesterday.  #1: One of the easiest pieces of baking I have ever done.  Seriously, throw it all in the bread maker, let it sit, smoosh it out, fry it up.  Done.  I am sold.  #2: They are bigger than regular English muffins (the batch made 10 large ones) and just as delicious!  LOVE them!  #3: And since they're so easy, I can make them whenever I want.  They don't even use a ton of ingredients.  Seriously, SOOOOOO easy!!!!  Once again, click on the pic for the recipe; pic is from Pinterest.

Then, on to the baked ziti that is sitting in the freezer right now.  With such crazy weeks, I've been in the habit of making one big meal on Saturday that we can fix during the week and have a lot of left overs for lunches.  So, this week, the baked ziti got picked.  I can't yet tell you how it turned out because we haven't eaten it.  But, I'll let you know.  Same deal as before, click pic for recipe, pic is from Pinterest.

Lastly, for dessert, I served up some Apple Fritters!  They were pretty good, however, this is actually the first time that I have deep fried something, so they weren't perfect.  The only thing that ruined them for me was how the house reeked of oil after I was finished making them.  I don't know if that was a chef error or just something that happened.  But they were really good.  Thomas came up wth the great idea too, to just bake them as muffins.  That would be easy, and I am like obsessed with muffins, so AWESOME!!!!  Can you guess what I'm going to say next?!  Click the pic for the yummy recipe, this photo is also from Pinterest.

So, I had a fabulous Pinterest Party for one yesterday!  And, I get to enjoy the spoils all week!  Ha ha ha!!!  (Triumphant laugh)  Now time for some Doctor Who!!!!!!!  Allons-y!!!

What is this place???

Well, hello! I believe this all may look familiar from a different life.  I feel like its been a lifetime since I last blogged.  (And it probably has.  I honestly don't even remember when I blogged last or what the post would have been about.)  But, here I am with a pretty brief update on my busy boring life.

July - FLEW by between vacation in Atlanta with my family and two weeks of band camp.

August - School started, so yeah, I don't even remember if I had ANY free time in August.

September - And now, September is at a close and I can't even believe I've survived the last two months!  I was doing the budget today, and I just couldn't believe some of the things I was entering into the checkbook happened only 20 days ago!  September has felt like a lifetime.  And October will be just as busy!  (If not more)

Being a teacher is more work than I EVER could have imagined.  The amount of things we are expected to do is absolutely insane!  I am constantly playing a never ending game of catch-up.  And unfortunately, if there's one thing I absolutely hate, its an unfinished to-do list.  And since mine grows every day, it is NEVER done!  Mer.

Anyway, through all of the craziness, I have managed to squeeze in the tiniest bit of weaving.  One project that took me hours and hours and hours over weeks and weeks is still not finished, so I'm going to skip over that one.  But, I do have some (horrible) pics of two scarves I just sent off this morning to their new owners!  (Yay!  A completed project!)

 This one is for my aunt, and its very similar to one of my last projects, but it has the knot tied into it.  Its made out of a green silk/bamboo yarn and a varigated nylon.  Love it!  It's so soft and shiny.

And this one is for her friend.  Its all silk/bamboo yarn.  Brown with coral stripes and a couple of twists put in it.  These are actually the two first pieces that I have made to order, so I was (am) a little nervous about them, but I think they turned out pretty well.

Well, the one thing I have NOT stopped doing in all of the craziness is BAKING!!!  I just cannot get enough baking!  In fact, right now, the kitchen is calling my name.  I found a recipe on Pinterest this morning for homemade bread machine English muffins.  Now, tell me what part of that title does not sound amazing?!  Because seriously, how do you get better than homemade (aka: more delicious and cheaper than store bought), bread machine (minimal effort for me) and English muffins (breakfast made for a week)!!!!!!!!  Hopefully, I won't fall off the face of the Earth again, and I'll be able to blog and let you know how they turn out!

Happy weekend!

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!)

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!!!

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!!!