Goodbye 2010

Something I've been wanting for the longest time now has been a crock pot/slow cooker. This Christmas, I got one and love it! I'm probably the last person on earth to own one, but better late than never, I say.

Anyway, lately, southern California has been experiencing a lot of cold nights and days. Not sure what's going on?! I know it's winter, but come on man, it's southern California!
Ugh! Okay, moving on. :-)
To comfort my cold bitter heart and frozen toes, I made some tasty chili in my new crock pot. I followed the recipe that came with my new toy combined with the one on the back of the chili seasoning packet and ta-da!
Yumminess in a bowl on New Year's Eve.

As 2010 comes to a close, I wish I could say it had been a great year, but it was just so-so.
Personally, there were many challenges in my life: ailing parents, hoping for a better job, finding out who is a true friend and who is not, and my car. Unfortunately, I tend to absorb all this dark energy and it really brings me down...lots of depression going on around here.

But never one to be a full-time downer, the bright side is, 2011 will be the beginning of a new decade. I absolutely know who my true friends are and will remain this way for the rest of my life, including the great people I've befriended through blogging. I look forward to greater personal growth and the hope of prosperity in all areas of my life.
This year I won't be making New Year's resolutions because honestly, I don't follow through. I can vow to lose weight only so many times. Who am I trying to kid? I finally caught on to my scheme and I no longer take myself seriously. :-)

Sooo, with that said, I say goodbye 2010, don't let the door hit ya on your way out, and hello 2011!

One thing I am certain of in 2011... new knitting patterns!

BTW, After it stopped raining for 40 days and 40 nights, I finally went to see Black Swan and all I have to say is WOW, this was a GREAT movie. Natalie Portman is amazing in this role, especially in the final scene of the movie. Black Swan is fiction at its finest.
Lastly, this movie left me thinking...
~There are times when life can be a mental game and as human beings we become vulnerable when we start questioning our sanity and lose faith in ourselves.~ (keep believing in yourself)
They don't call the Black Swan a psychological thriller for nothin'. ;-)
ETA: I do not recommed this movie for children.

I hope everyone has a safe and warm New Year's Eve!!

Wordless Wednesday

Ho, Ho, Ho!

May your Christmas be filled with lots of

good food (comfort) and good company (joy) and...

May your new year be filled with

HOPE and HAPPINESS.

I thought I would spread some

holiday cheer with a little bit of humor.

Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël

Late Night Post

Since I'm still wide awake during the wee hours of the night or early morning, whichever way you want to look at it, I thought I would finally post something about... anything.
My Dashing arm warmers are done! Yay! Actually, I finished them a few days ago, but never got around to writing a post.
Here they are, my purple Dashing arm warmers. What is it with me and the color purple? Not sure, but I love it.
If you'd like the knitting stats for this project, please click on the word Dashing and it should take you to my Ravelry page.
FYI, I made a few modifications with the cables. I wanted the cable design to mirror each other, so after almost finishing the second arm warmer and noticed it wasn't turning out that way, I frogged it, started over around the 18th row, and knit it in reverse. If that makes any sense.

On my Christmas things-to-knit list, there are a pair of arm warmers for my niece, just like my purple pair aka Dashing, but in blue to match her cheerleading outfit. A fashionista already. Girl after my own heart.
My nephew on the other hand would like a black hat. That's it.
Black hat. I think I'm going to throw in some color. Solid black is too goth for a little boy, at least in my eyes...unless it has cables. Hmm, cables.
I welcome any suggestions. :-)

What I really want to knit for my nephew is the Ralph Lauren Olympic Reindeer Hat.
Someone at Clever Knits charted the design during the 2010 Winter Olympics and generously shared it with the knitting world. Amazing. And, thank you.

In other really "happening" events in my life (sarcasm, gotta love it), this coming Monday, a dear friend and I are going to see the movie The Black Swan. You don't know how long I've been waiting for the release of this movie. Natalie Portman is an extraordinary actor and the fact it has to do with the performing arts, i.e. ballet, makes it worth the wait. I'm really hoping she wins a Golden Globe for this role.

photo credit

Until the next post. Goodnight friends :-)

First Try

I made myself a pie tonight!
My first attempt at making a pumpkin pie, and it was more or less successful.
Please don't look at the crust too closely. I totally cheated and used the Pillsbury Rolled Refrigerated Pie Crust and it wasn't completely at room temperature like they suggest on the box. So, as I rolled the edges around the pie plate I had to wet my fingers to soften the dough a bit, but it turned out just as tasty.

For the filling, I followed the recipe on the can of Libby's Pure Pumpkin. For some reason it taste like I used too much evaporated milk. Not sure why? I'll be trying another recipe very soon.

Here it is. Happy pie with a wonky crust. :-)

***************************************************

Two days ago, I decided to reknit my green scarf.

Back in April, I knit the scarf in a k1, p1 rib. At first, I loved how it turned out but after a while I wasn't able to wrap it the way I liked, it was too thick for my liking.
This time I reknit the scarf using Jen Reilly's pattern, Super-Fast, Ultra-Cozy Scarf. The scarf turned out much more relaxed. I'm loving it!

Extreme close-up!

***********************************

Here's hoping your baked goods turn out tasty and your knitting turns out lovely. :-)

Holiday Cheer

'Tis the season!
Last year I added a Christmas countdown to my sidebar and this year I decided to do it again. ~~~~~~~~>
I figured a cheery reminder till the big day never hurt anyone. It adds a little stress, yes, but hopefully you thrive under pressure.

I wanted to share a Holiday Sugar Cookie recipe from my 2010 calendar. For the moment, I can only share a snapshot of the yummy delights.

I bought the calendar with the intention of trying out the monthly recipes, but life got in the way. AND, I had every intention of sharing some of the recipes, but... you know the drill.

Actually, I was about to post the recipe but it turned out to be your basic sugar cookie recipe found in most cookie recipe books... and I'm running the risk of overstepping some copyright boundaries. :-)

To help you out with some Christmas treats, here are some websites you can find delicious holiday cookie recipes.

bettycrocker.com

kraftrecipes.com

verybestbaking.com

allrecipes.com

As of now, there are 23 days and 4 hours to go till Christmas!

This makes me feel like the Target lady racing towards the big day.

Ready, Set, Bake!

:-)

Gobble, Gobble!

Here's hoping everyone gets to indulge themselves - eat all your favorite dishes surrounded by the people you love... and maybe hate. :-)


Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thank You

Thank you so much to the sweet bloggers that left kind comments regarding my last post. I'm feeling much better, except for a lingering cough, I think I'm going to live. ;-)

This is what I've been up to since school is out for the week and I can think straight once again.
I'm attempting the Dashing wrist warmers. Since I'm using size 9 needles, they're using up a lot of yarn and turning out a tad too big and for that reason, I decided to bind off at the 75th row. Now I have to figure out the thumb.

Also, as you can see in the picture, I've been looking through my knitting magazines for cute hats and scarves to make. I'm overwhelmed...there are so many to choose from.

I hope everyone is traveling safely tonight or enjoying prepping up a storm for tomorrow's feast. My goal is to make a pumpkin pie tomorrow, but I'm guessing it should be tonight since the turkey will be taking up room in the oven. Hmm, gotta figure that one out fast.
No matter, I have a NY Cheesecake variety box in the freezer ready as backup.

ttfn :-)

101.2

Something is in the air in Room 28. Everyone is coming down with something and it came down on me. I can't seem to shake this fever, which has been lingering for days now.
I wish someone would design a decent A/C system that would keep both attached classrooms equally cool or warm. No such luck.

This assignment is really kicking my butt and because of a few "events" that have happened in the past days, I am worn out. I thought I would share a few tidbits from my "experience" so far.

1. Believe it or not, a marble WILL fit inside a first graders nose.

2. If you have gummy bears, kids will jump through hoops.

3. When the teacher steps on dog poo, the students automatically get extra recess. To quote one of the boys, "You're the best teacher ever!", as I stood there with an icky shoe.

4. You can't let a first grader see you sweat.

5. Never put your child's mental health survey in the hands of stranger. To clarify, a parent expected me to fill out a questionnaire to help a therapist determine her son's level of ADD. I knew the child for less than 9 days. It would have been completely irresponsible and a disservice to the child's mental heath if I had done it.

6. Little kids have BIG hearts.

Pray for my speedy recovery because I can't think straight anymore. :-)

What?!?!?!

I have very few words about last night's Project Runway fiasco. This is worse than the time Jeffrey, the-tatoo-dude won a few seasons ago. Lifetime/Project Runway lost me as a viewer.
I think MichaelK of dlisted.com said it best on his blog when he wrote about Wretchen. Warning: this article is NSFW.

As far as I'm concerned Mondo was and is the clear winner!

That is all.

Through the Eyes of a 6 year old

I've been somewhat busy lately, but not too busy to post, so I'm not sure what my excuse is... this time. :-}
For the past week, I've spent time with a class of 6 and 7 year old students. Before starting this assignment, I was informed there were a few handfuls among the cute bambinos, and there were, but they were manageable... probably the reason I came home exhausted on Friday, but I love it.
Looking at the world through the eyes of a 6 year old is pretty darn fascinating.
The school is located in a neighborhood with a few questionable areas and on several occasions students have shared stories with me about burglaries and violence.
The other day, for one of their writing assignments, the students had to write about, and share, what they want to be when they grow up. Most of the students wanted to be teachers. We also had a doctor in the house, a soldier, we even had the future President of the USA (he wants to make the rules... can't say I blame him), and not surprisingly, there were quite a few police officers among them.
I thought I would share a paper written by one of San Diego's finest and future Police Officers, Officer Alex... in the year 2024, of course.
His paper is a little hard to read (click on pic), but he basically wrote that he wanted to be a police officer so he could have a gun and a telephone. The telephone part made me laugh, but...
Later that day, he shared with me a story about a break-in at his house. He told me they stole his Wii and dvds. I felt horrible for him and his family. No one should ever have to come home and find out their safe place had been invaded by a stranger, especially a child. But, it wasn't until later that I made the connection as to why he wanted to become a police officer. He talked about it and he wrote about it. I call that self-therapy.
The next day he came to school in good spirits and informed me his parents were going to buy him a new Wii. :-)
Though this story was a bit of a downer in the beginning, it has a happy ending with a bit of humor. When I looked at his drawing a little closer, I couldn't help but notice the police officer he drew was catching a thief at the neighborhood donut shop! Yumi donuts!
You gotta love this kid.

Have a safe and happy week. :-)

Happy National Coffee Day!

photo courtesy of Starbucks.com

Need I say more?

Have a great Java Day!

Summer Has Arrived!

Wouldn't you know it, summer weather arrives just in time to welcome the fall season.
And...what better way to commemorate a new season with off weather, than by going to a baseball game, which I happened to be invited to by some dear friends on a Saturday afternoon.
It was a perfect day in perfect company.

You can see our local Little League Champions in the banner displayed at Petco Park's entrance.

We arrived early to grab a some lunch. The ballpark was tranquil, but within the hour the seats were filled with baseball fans.

I spy a diehard Padre fan!

I have to say, I love the design of our ballpark. No matter where you happen to be standing in the ballpark, you can feel a pleasant breeze coming from the bay.

We made our way upstairs to the PCL b&g and had some appetizers. Delish.

Nostalgia displayed throughout PETCO brings back memories to the fans who have been attending the games for decades. I wasn't around when this picture was taken (my mother was only 4yo), but it's great to see history in photos.

After our snacks we made our way to our seats. People watching is one of my favorite "sports".

Boy, it was hotter than a tuna melt in a frying pan on Saturday.
I spied some fans watching the game from the rooftop of the building directly behind the park... probably enjoying fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas. :-)

At this point in the game, Cincinnati was winning, but don't worry we came from behind and scored a few runs, then they scored and it was a tie score, 3-3. On Sunday they slaughtered our team. Oh well.

After a couple of hours sitting in direct sunlight, the thermometer popped out of my brain letting me know I was done, we decided to take a stroll to the Padres store and have a look around.

I spy bobbleheads!

I really need to make myself a scarf just like this one. At $20, it wasn't outrageously priced, but why buy it when I can make it. Right?

Baseball figurine. One of my favorite players is Tony Gwynn...this happens to be his son TG Jr.

As the sun was setting and cast welcomed shadows in the ballpark -cooling the afternoon temperatures - we won the game in the ninth inning.

Many people left early to avoid the crowds or because it wasn't looking good. They should have stayed until the end because we scored. VICTORY!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

A Blanket and a Beret

The Baby Boy Blue blanket is ready for gifting. I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this project, especially since it's going to a cute little fella who turned 5 months last week.
In continuation from the last blanket post and the one before...
The squares were knitted and arranged...

I attached them by crocheting contrasting colors; blue -> for the squares outlined in green and white -> for the green squares outlined in blue. In the end...

the blue color wasn't sitting well with me. I didn't like the break in the outline of the squares. The green squares were randomly placed to make an interesting artsy shape and I thought the blue would add a nice contrast, but the overall color combination and placement didn't give it a flow.

So I did what I do best, I took my scissors to it and cut the blue strips out. Since they were crochet, it was a very easy task of removing and restarting.

And, tada! The finished product.

The deets:
Pattern: Kris Knit Baby Cloths, the sailboat and letters are my own design/pattern. If you are interested, I am more than happy to send them to you.
Yarn: All Vanna's Choice Baby yarn in Sweet Pea, White, and Little Boy Blue.
Needle: US size 9 and crochet hook I
I'm really happy with the blanket. I had to retouch the picture since my surroundings lack appropriate lighting for a perfect photo. Thank goodness for Windows picture gallery.

You know the expression ~> one for you, one for me?
I had to make something for moi.
I made a simple beret with the intention of adding it to my hat collection, but since the start of this post, I've promised it to a friend. It will look nicer on her anyway. :-)

While watching the first episode of Rachel Zoe, I noticed she was wearing a cute multi-colored beret. I sent her several tweets asking where she got it and no answer. Fine. I tweeted Brad about the beret, no answer. Fine. Btw, last episode, she was horrible to Roger, her cute hubby. I kindly sent her yet another tweet informing her to pay attention to her cute hubby or someone who is more loving is going to snatch him up. I wonder if she read it? Doubt it.
Anywhooo, I went ahead and made my own cute beret.
The deets:
Pattern: I have many patterns for slouchy berets, but ultimately it was a trial-by-error project.
Yarn: Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in marble. Love this yarn. Bought it at Walmart on clearance.
Needles: US 10 cir and dpns.

Next up, something beautiful.

Have a great weekend!

9/11

...a day we will never forget.

Photo credit - John Gastaldo/Story credit - SignonSanDiego.com

"The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department unveiled an American flag during a ceremony Friday commemorating the 9/11 attacks. The flag is to travel through all 50 states and arrive in New York in time for next year's 10th anniversary." To read the story in its entirety click here.

The day's events were recorded in print. Headlines conveyed sentiments shared across the nation. I thought I would share the front pages of our local newspaper following 9/11.

September 12, 2001.

September 13, 2001

Peace.

Blogger Blahs

Yup, I have the blogger blahs.
I would say blogger blues, but blue is my favorite color and I don't want to attach such a stigma to it.:-)

I've been working on the baby blanket and I'm almost done. I'm contemplating a white crochet outline on the letter squares, but crocheting the seams might do me in and it's holding me back right now.

I want to share a gift I received from a dear teacher I occasional work with throughout the school year.
She was in no way obligated to give me this awesome bag, but she is such a kindhearted human being and noticed how much I loved it, she generously passed it on to me. Of course at first I couldn't and wouldn't accept it, but she insisted and it now lives happily with me and my mounds of yarn. I love it! It's very roomy, the colors are perfect for fall, but I especially love the words embroidered on the front patch, which at this stage in my life has significant meaning. If you would like to take a look at similar bags, etc. you can go to Natural life and check out their merchandise or click on the link. You'll find many cute things.

I added a couple of buttons to my sidebar; ravelry and etsy. This year, or what's left of it because Christmas is about 109 days away, I want to try to sell my fun hats on etsy. A goal I've had in mind forever, but hesitated till now. I'm trying to live by the words shown on my beautiful bag, Wish It, Dream It, Do it.

One more new thing I recently acquired... a new phone. I've finally caught up with modern technology. I've held back long enough and can I just tell you, this texting stuff is fun.
Apologies for the out of focus pic.

Hopefully everyone had a fun and safe Labor Day weekend.

Until next time,

ttfn. :-)

Knit & Sew

Welcome to the Knit and Sew.
Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Lately, I've become more of a lurker and leaving comments more often than posting.
The latest...
Summer finally arrived this week in San Diego, school is back in session, and I've been doing a little bit this and a little bit of that (knitting and sewing).
Please, don't even ask about the baby blankie because I've put it to the side for a mere moment.
In order to feed that big ol' ego on mine, since I feel like a blankie-slacker, I set my sights on some instant gratification by doing some knitting and sewing. I began by knitting baby hats. Wally world had yarn on clearance and of course I couldn't pass that up, even though I have yarn coming out of my ears.

I knit a very simple knit cap. Starting with a k1, p1 ribbing and stockinette stitch until I reached an appropriate size for a baby's head. The outcome was a soft and cute hat for a baby boy.
Yarn: Bernat Baby Jacquards
Color: Boo Berries. I love this yarn.
Needle: suggested size US 6, but I only had size 5 circulars, and the hat knit up very loose - a size 4 would have been perfect. I have one more hat on the needles that I've been tackling since last night... we'll see how that turns out. I've already frogged it twice.

Next up, some sewing projects, but first...
this is a picture of my Brother CS6000i sewing machine. I loved my sewing machine until it started giving me trouble with the thread tension. Has anyone else experienced this with their machine?
True to form, I opened that baby up and started fiddling around with the screws and settings. Big mistake, but I wasn't about to be defeated by a little ol' machine!
A friend suggested I search Youtube for an instruction video on how to fix sewing machines. The guy is a genius (ok, I exaggerate). I found a video, paid close attention and I DID IT!
As we all know there's always a price to pay when you venture into the unknown and I surely paid for it with my handyman tendencies. Out of the 70 stitches my machine can whip up in a jiff, only 4 work now. Oh and the buttonhole maker doesn't function, but hey the thread tension is perfect. :-)

Luckily, the straight stitch is one that functions just fine and I'm able to continue with my sewing projects.
My little Ravelry Model's mom asked me if I could resize her drawstring bag I made for her years ago to fit a pair of grips. I think that's what they're called.
It turns out grips are protective gear for your hands and worn while swinging around in the parallel bars in gymnastic. I'd just like to brag for a moment and share that my little 7 year old model is fearless when it comes to tumbling, jumping, and balancing on all gymnastics apparatus. And, she beat her personal-best score at one of her competitions and placed top three in another. Everyone is so proud of her including me. :-)

Back to the project...the bag was a good 15" wide. I cut it in half and made one with a flap and one with a drawstring.

To keep it simple, I added a loop (esp. since my buttonhole maker is out of service) with a button perfectly matching the Hello Kitty print to the first bag. It's an additional bag she can use to carry extra gear needed for practice. I think we may have a future Olympic gymnast in the making.

More projects to come later.

It's Monday night and that means Bachelor Pad, my guilty pleasure of good-bad TV.

ttfn