Nothing like doing things at the last minute!! I wanted to make at least a few cards to enter in the PTI contests that they are running for their yearly anniversary.
So here is my card for the “Blue Ombre” challenge: 
I’m not very happy with it, but at least I have increased my change to win!!
I had great plans to accomplish stuff today… But I did not get much done. I did one load of laundry, had breakfast with the neighbor, ran an errand to Walmart for said neighbor, and some dinner ingredients. And watched multiple Gilmore Girls episodes!! Oh, and I took kitty cat photos!!
Black cats are difficult to take good photos of! They seemed to have a nice snuggly day!
I went out last night to get in the hot tub for my back, and it was raining. A few minutes after I got in the tub I realized that there was actually some lightening. I waited a bit because it seemed dim and far away. After about 10 minutes there was a really big bright one, so I hopped right out and ran in the house! I cleaned up and got into bed, and THEN realized that I forgot to post:( I just could not bring myself to get out and do it, so here is a belated post!
Quite a few years ago, I learned about Circular Sock Machines (CSMs). They are mostly antique machines, many made in the 1800s. Here is one site with info about the machines. Being a knitter, I was very intrigued. I lucked out and there was a meeting nearby, so I got to go and see some machines at work.
Here is a restored machine that is set up for show. 
Here is a machine set up, in the middle of knitting a sock. 
There is at least one company in New Zealand that manufactures new machines (there may be more companies now, I have not researched it in a few years.) I’d love to own a machine, but I just have not been able to justify the thousands of dollars for a restored or new machine, and have not lucked into finding a “gem in the rough” at a yard sale or flea market. But having a machine is on my with list!
There are many posts about Pinterest, here, here, and here to get you started.
I am going to tell you now, I LOVE Pinterest!! I don’t feel envious, jealous, inadequate or any of the other negative things that people say Pinterest makes them feel. I actually almost never search Pinterest directly. I have various blogs that I read and things that I search Google for. When I find an idea, recipe, tutorial, location or product that I love, want, want to know more about, I Pin it to my boards. I love having a picture catalog of resources that I can go back to.
I used to be a person that had a HUGE “favorites” list, but it was hard to find things when I wanted to reference them. I had categories, but the URL, or my attempts at description just did not help enough, and I would be clicking page after page. Now I can skim through my recipes, or card making ideas, or sewing tutorials and find what I need in a few minutes. Some of the things I will probably never do, make or see… but I COULD if I wanted to! And I love having all those resources at my fingertips!
What do you think about Pinterest?!?
I am trying out a blogging “challenge” again! I feel like blogging can be an outlet for me, as well as a way to enter crafting challenges.. But to do that I need to actually blog!! I saw the info on this challenge mid afternoon today, so I did not have much time to think about what topic to choose for the month. After a bit of thought, I decided to take the easy way out and choose the “Too Awesome to Categorize” category. This may be detrimental as it does not give me any framework or structure to help me flesh out posts for this month. But I figure why not live dangerously?!
As it is already past 10 pm, and I have to get up early for work tomorrow, I am going to try to find a fun photo to add to this post (I hate posts without photos!) and then head to bed. I need to use my commute in the am to meditate on some pithy subject matter!!
Here is a photo of my daughter, we took her out tubing on the Susquehanna a few weeks ago. It is the first time I have every seen anyone tube up close, and it made me nervous. 
Today just seemed to slip away from me! I did manage to get a fair amount of laundry done, did some dishes, cleaned the bathroom (except for the floor!!) Also took pizza to my daughter and her friends that were helping her move, and made chili and cornbread for dinner for hubby and me. And watched a large number of Gilmore Girls episodes! Hung out in the hot tub, and now I’m hurrying to get this post in before midnight.
Also started thinking about Christmas. I love to make gifts for people, and to do that you have to do some planning ahead. I especially need to plan ahead for a large portion of hubby’s family, as we go there for the last two weeks of November (for hubby to hunt deer and pheasant). I’d love to have their gifts made and bought and wrapped rather than having to ship them. That is rather a daunting task, we shall see if I accomplish that one!!
After my post last night, I got in the hot tub to try and work on my back spasms. It helped a good bit, but did not eliminate them completely:( They seem to be the worst when I am sitting at my desk, so I did not get to work on getting ahead on my posts today. I am going to do the tub again tonight, and hope that perhaps I’ll be able to do more sitting tomorrow. I’d love to get together a few more posts with some more substance, as well as I’d like to work on the set up of my “home page” for the the 31 days posts so it will be easy for anyone to follow along for the full 31 days.
Hubby and his buddy went out fishing today, as they do most Saturday mornings while the weather is good. There was rain last might, but it was clearing up this morning, so they headed out. They generally go to the Susquehanna river, they put in in Havre De Grace, and fish on the “flats”.
Here is the boat beside the house. 
We used to have a little john boat, so this is definitely a step up in the world! Being near the Chesapeake Bay, we are generally boating in tidal waters, so it is nice to have something a bit larger, and with a nice deep V that can cut through the water if it gets rough quickly. This is the john boat. 
Here is a big catfish in the live well. 
And here he is breaded and ready to be cooked up!! 
We have plenty of catfish in the freezer to last us through the season when it is too cold to fish! I do want to try some recipes other than frying, although frying is very yummy!
A few months back my Mom and Dad were going on a trip to England, and my Mom could not find a hat that she liked to take with her. She wanted a “bucket” style hat, in neutral colors so that it would go with anything, and she could pack it in her luggage without worrying about crushing it. So I decided to come to the rescue by making a hat for her!
I googled “bucket hat pattern”, and a ton of different sites came up. I decided on this pattern by Oliver + S as it had good reviews and looked simple. I did have to enlarge it as it was children’s sizes. It was easy to make larger as there were multiple sizes, so I just used them as a guide for how much bigger to make the pattern.
I was really pleased with how the hat came out, and more importantly, my mom loved it! Here are a few photos! I am even sharing a horrendous selfie of me wearing the hat!
After the success of the hat for my Mom, I decided to make one for the son of a friend. She wanted a hat for him for their trip to California, and he loves Star Wars, so off to the fabric store I went! Here are the results:
Here he is wearing it, it was a bit dark in the room, and he was too busy to stop for a photo op, so the photo is a bit grainy and blurry!
Although it is a bit tedious to sew all the lines on the brim, but I think it really makes the hat. The pattern was really good, the only issue was the final assembly, so I looked up what other people did, and found a tutorial that I liked and did the second hat with her suggestions and it was easier.
Today’s post will not be long. I have been struggling with painful muscle spasms in my back the past several weeks. I have had them off and on for years. I went to a massage therapist last friday, and he did a fabulous job. However he told me that I have a trigger point that is rather large, and has been causing my muscle spasms all these years. So I decided to actually keep up with the therapy to try to permanently alleviate the issues it has caused me. I am so thankful that I made that choice, as the more severe pain started to come back this morning, I only have to manage with it till noon tomorrow, as that is when I have my next appointment. So I a going to try to get some sleep, and home to come back tomorrow afternoon rejuvenated!!
I’ll end with this photo of our crazy pup, Merlin!!
