Bad blogger...no cookie!

I'm a bad blogger. I've hit a major blogging slump. The history of my blogging has been all over the place.

• family and friends
• knitting
• healthy living
• cooking
• crafts
• my faith and beliefs
• gardening

Those are pretty much my main interests. I craft all over the place too. I have a bad case a ADDOS (Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny) and frequently will put down a project to start something new. I was hoping after a year that I would get the hang of it and by now I would have and informative inspirational and witty blog that I would be proud of.

When I told my husband 9 months ago that I had a blog he asked me what was the purpose would the blog serve. For me it is a way to connect with other people and an opportunity to be able to express myself and maybe get a little feedback.

I will continue to blog about activities with family and friends, knitting and crafts, my quest live a healthy lifestyle, stuff I do around the house, and a little of my faith. My faith and beliefs are precious and personal to me and won't be a huge part of my public blog.

I want to be more organized this coming year, take care things that need to get done, and actually finish some projects. Finishing projects that would be a nice change. This week while the kids are home I'm going to examine ways to help accomplish these goals.

A belated Merry Christmas have a safe and happy New Year.

Forest Canopy Shawl (and other knitting content)

I have been absent from the blog. I've mostly been busy recovering from the surgery and trying to catch up with all the things that didn't get done while I was recovering.

The first week of post-op recovery had me finishing this lovely little shawl for my mother-in-law. It is knit in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Oceania colorway. I loved working with the yarn and the pattern was fairly easy to follow even on heavy-duty pain pills

I finished a couple of hats. I really enjoyed knitting Quincy the pattern by Jared Flood from his book Made in Brooklyn I just bought the pattern as a downloadable PDF on Ravelry, I love Ravelry love how it lets me buy a pattern anytime of the day :) yes I'm an impulse shopper I knit this hat in Berroco Peruvia Quick. Its a soft warm hat I love it and since its been chilly (for Arizona), I can actually wear it and not swelter

On the home front my oldest leaves soon to enter the Missionary Training Center in Provo , UT. After being there for a couple of weeks , he will go to the North- Eastern part of the United States where he will be serving an proselytizing mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been a fun kid to raise we've had some really awesome talks lately. I will miss him but I am excited for him to go out into the world to grow in the gospel and in life experiences. He's an awesome young man.

written under the influence of pain pills

I was planning on posting today. My brain is still a little foggy from pain meds I had surgery on Firday (the 13th) to repair an umbilical hernia. Still having some incisional pain form the surgery , but it isn't as bad as the actualy hernia pain was.
Tried knitting a bit on the Forest Canopy Shawl as a Christmas present for my MIL. Made only a couple mistakes while under the influence of pain pills . Should be able to finish the shawl the up today.
Found a great cookbook called Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Its a nice thick book that goes through all the basics of vegetarian and some vegan dishes. I'm excited about the recipes for making my own polenta. There are sections on using different grains, legumes, vegetables, sauces. I hope to get up and cooking soon so I can try some of them. I found the book at my Local library, but know it is availbale aon Amazon.com too.
Need to take a nap now.
Have a great day

another reason why I love Arizona in the Fall

IMG_2128
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Generally there is beautiful warm weather on Halloween night. My children have never had to experience Trick-or-treating in cold snowy weather like I did growing up North.
As a child I remember being slightly sad that I had to wear my heavy winter coat over my costume. Whats the point of dressing up if no one can see your costume?

Its so fun to make fun costumes that the kids can run around in and show all their friends
Happy Halloween

Clue #3

Mystery Sock -09 clue 3
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Myster sock '09 for Socktoberfest. Pattern by Kristen Kapur. Clue #4 was published yesterday, so I am just a little bit behind in the clues.

Why I love Arizona in the Fall

beets
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

...you can plant vegtable gardens! While all my relatives who live up north are cleaning out thier gardens and getting ready for winter, I get to seed my garden and plant vegetables. This year I planted
beets
beans (these haven't sprouted)
Peas
lettuce
carrots
broccoli
brussel sprouts
In my flowerbed at the front of the house I planted petunias, thew grow really well here in the winter, come February they really take off. This is my favorite time of year in AZ. It really makes up for the summer and the 100+ degree weather in early October.

Fall into October

September was a pretty busy, so much so that I've neglected the blog, my knitting and home....in that order.

I have some minor health issues going on but change in diet has helped quite a bit with some of it. I've been volunteering at both daughters school so much, that I wish I was getting paid for the time so I could supplement my hobby allowance.

September was more of a hat month than sock or shawl I completed 2 baby hats, 2 Journey hats a Spring Beret, started Quincy, and finished a Booga Bag for the Chrysalis project at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. If I could have taken the the yardage and energy I used in making these small projects, to finish the bigger projects that I should have finished first. There is just something very satisfying about knitting a hat

Journey Hat

Booga Bag

The Booga Bag took just a couple of days to knit up. Tempe Yarn and Fiber is collecting these toe fill with items for a local women's crises shelter. I appreciate this LYS's efforts to provide opportunities to its customers to participate in local community service.

I'm glad to see October start. The kids have a two week fall break and I'm enjoying doing nothing but staying home and getting somethings done around here

Happy October!