This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday tradition - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

To play along and see more "moments" check out Soulemama

Wishing you a happy weekend full rest and relaxation.

Full... But ...Good...

"Gratitude is noticing the extraordinary in the ordinary and then taking a nanosecond to feel it" author unknown

I am so excited and looking forward to Friday. If all goes well I will be "graduating" down to two days a week at the Chiropractor! It is amazing how much time I have spent there. I am so excited for this next step as it takes me closer to the day I won't have to go at all. Oh so excited.

This week has been really busy as I have a deadline at work that is coming up but, I've been able to spend some time in the kitchen making these

super yummy and delicious bran muffins. The recipe is on the Red Mill flax seed bag. I do add some crushed pineapple as I like the moisture and sweetness it adds.

and these, my families favorite chocolate chip cookies. I also managed to ((squeeze)) in some knitting time as well and am 2/3 done with the back panel of this project.

and got the squares washed, cut and ironed for my soon to be summer quilt.
Okay gotta go and get ready. Tonight we are going to dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday.

Yes life is full.... but good..... and I am so grateful.

A resolutions update

Like many people January 1st brings resolutions. This year a couple resolutions was and is to reduce waste as a family and cut out all disposable, one time use plastics. We try to support our farmers by buying fresh, clean and local food. We use cloth napkins, no paper plates and ditched the plastic ware among several other changes a while back. We are making a concious effort everyday to reduce, recycle and repurpose and I think overall we have done well.

The biggest challenge and frustration I find thus far is the packaging that our food comes in. The baggies and plastic wrapped Styrofoam food holders, yuck! When I head out to the market I am sure to be armed with my reusable cloth bags but, by the time I am out of the produce and bulk area I can easily end up with several of the plastic bags I am trying to avoid.

In honor of Earth day last week and yet another plastic filled Gyre in the news I whipped up a few more small drawstring bags to use in the produce and bulk area to further aid us in ridding our life of disposable plastics and keeping with the reduce and re-use theme.

I believe that knowledge creates change. What if anything do you do to reduce waste or get rid of plastic?

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday tradition - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.


To play along and see more "moments" check out Soulemama

(I know, another picture of Jack he is always there. Hence, a view from a browndog.)

Here's wishing you very Happy Weekend!
Jen

LOOK

what arrived at my door yesterday! I am so excited to cast on for my next projects with these yummy yarns. If you are not familiar with Knit Picks you might want to check them out. They have beautiful yarns at a great price. I like to knit with cotton for my spring and summer projects because I can't imagine wool on my lap when it's 90 degree's outside, Eew.

I am going to use the red bulky for a soon to be Shalom cardigan but am going to alter a little and add long sleeves. I think it will be perfect for summer. I will be using the grey worsted weight yarn well, what can I say... It will be used to make the musical handy man another Peter Easy sweater vest, since I accidentally felted his last one...Oops, sorry about that. Some how it snuck into the laundry? Thankfully this is a quick knit and using cotton this time I wont have to worry about that happening again. Okay off to roll some yarn.
I would love to hear what knitting project you are working on or have planned for this summer?

Have a great day

a special sunday

Yesterday was our churches 4th annual 5k walk for "Women Empowering Women" and what an awesome day it was, over 800 women walking to help others! I think this quote sums it up perfectly...

"Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work. There is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need" Gillian Anderson


After walking we met the boys back at the house and finished the day Pasta Sunday style where my husband made delicious pizza's to fill our hungry bellies.

spending the day with family and friends ~ check
giving back to the community and helping others ~ check
enjoying and appreciating the everyday blessings in my everyday life ~ check

Everything Bag

Do you ever have days when you feel like you could use an extra hour? That's been me lately. I have been missing the feel of fiber and my knitting needles. So this last week I was able to get back to knitting a little at the end of each day and knitted up a couple quick projects. Yes, happiness!

I made a couple dish cloths and::


another "everything bag" for Shelby as requested. I love that she asked. This bag is so handy. It can be used for groceries, flowers, books, beach stuff, etc and if made with cotton can thrown in the laundry when dirty. I couldn't find the pattern I used before so I made this one up as I went. I used three skeins of sugar and cream. This bag is knit in the round and you really could use any circ needle or yarn you want. No rules, here's what I did.

CO 50 (for bottom) size 10 needle
K 30 rows (or however big you want bottom to be)
BO till last St.
pick up Sts around base to create sides
K a few rows (I did 12)

**Place M ~ K1 ... YO 1 .... to end of row size 13 needle
K2tog next row** repeat these two rows until the bag is approx seven rows less than the size you want

switch back to size 10 needle and K seven rows
BO all sts until the last 6 Sts and make Icord.

Note ~ this bag stretches with weight so keep in mind when making I cord for strap.
Once I cord is to length you want BO and attach to bag.

Done, enjoy your new "everything bag"

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday tradition - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.


To play along and see more "moments" check out SouleMama

Wishing you a weekend full of joy!

enjoying

the quiet that the end of a day brings. I am working on a market bag for Shelby using the sugar and cream cotton from Joann's $1 sale.

some springtime happiness

I am really enjoying these slowly growing longer and warming days. Oh the happiness they bring! The market last week had local strawberries on sale so I made up a batch of jam and the timing couldn't have been any better. We were just finishing the last jar from our 09' batches.

Then there was another batch of Limoncello started. I am looking forward to summertime, always so good!

I was able to get a little knitting time in between work and doctors appointments.

There was also the sewing of "a beach blanket to go" from this book. I whipped the quilt up as a wedding gift for friends who were going to wine country for their honeymoon. I am off to work in the garden as the tomato and squash plants need supports. The garden plants are enjoying the warmth too and are growing like crazy. Here's wishing you a happy and sunshine filled day.

I am

really enjoying these sugar cookies. I saw a post on "a friend to knit with" blog who got the recipe here . Looks like I will be walking an extra lap tonight so I better get going.

Happy Easter

After church we spent the day celebrating with friends at the beach. Here's wishing you a wonderful spring Easter day too!

Goodbye March Hello April

My month of March in pictures one day at a time::

March started off with daily Chiropractor appointments and ended with every other day treatments. I was able to get a lot of reading in and read these books: Farm City , Handmade Home , and Eating Animals. I am so enjoying my library card! There was some baking, sewing and little knitting as well.


I am looking forward to April and all the possibilities it brings.


growing star burst squash::


yellow pear tomatoes::

I am currently reading The $64. Tomato and hoping to get back to more knitting and sewing projects and less Dr. appointments. I have a couple things that I am really hoping to get finished up and ready share the pics. Local strawberries were on sale yesterday so after work tonight Shelby and I will be making jam and I will be starting another batch of Cello. Happy April everyone!