Monday, March 27, 2017

Plumbing Problems and LOTS of knitting!

I hope everyone had a great week.....mine was great except for some plumbing issues.  Wednesday the 15th (almost 2 weeks ago) I went to Lowe's to purchase a new toilet.....my master bathroom toilet has had a slow leak for a while, but it turned into a big leak when I got my water bill and it was $63!  Yikes.  Anyway, new toilet......so I also asked about having it installed and they said someone would call in a couple of days.  They called and came out on the 20th....started to work and oops, bad news.  My flange was broken and I needed a new one..it had been leaking for a while and was all rusty....he said he could not put on old toilet, could not put on new, and he did not have time or materials to do it Monday...worst news was the price $325 on top of the already paid for fees to purchase toilet and install....BLECH!  So the hole got plugged and covered with rag to wait till Wednesday.



He came back Wednesday and obviously I have no clue what it takes to 'replace a flange'.  I thought he would take off that metal rusty piece, put on new one and viola.....nope....he started to saw into the concrete.....all around the hole



Then he filled in some dirt that had washed away from my slow leak...and resealed it all....new cement and new clean and shiny flange



Now the cleanest thing in my house is my toilet....LOL!!!!



Okay......so, that is probably more than you ever wanted to learn or see about plumbing!  So, on to knitting!

I finished the Wedding Shawl!


I brought both shawls to work to give to Darlene and she took some pictures of me holding it up.



Here is Celestartium that I finished last year:


and then she noticed some loose yarn.....so I think a bead broke or something.


So I fixed it and all is right with the world again (LOL)!  The new bead goes sideways instead of up and down, and you can see where I wove in ends, but it still looks great!




I also finished my March Socks....Yeah!


For April, I think I will do the exclusive colorway from last year:



Now. towards the end of last week the oak pollen really started to get to me...I went home sick from work, and stayed home Friday.  On Saturday I was about the same but just stayed inside all day and knitted and hung out with Antonio....


by staying in and  hanging out, I was able to knit the Decemberist Shawl and I finished on Saturday too!!  I was pretty excited.  Now, Darlene has already made one Decemberist (on size 13 needles) and she did all the research on it....she increased the amount of times to repeat section one and then she decided to make another one on size 17 needles....so I went with size 17 and used almost 5 skeins.  This thing is HUGE!

Here it is in progress:



Here is Jacob (Jaime's oldest son) holding it up for me:


Here it is blocking (yup, almost 8 feet wide and more than 4 feet deep)!


WOW.....3 finished items in a week.....I felt pretty accomplished!

I told you last week that I got my Miss Babs Tour Destination, but the pattern just was not for me.  However, I still wanted to do a knit along with Miss Babs (my way of justifying the tour) so I looked through stash and saw my fabulous Deep Sea Jellyfish in Yummy 2-ply yarn.  I want to make And Then Some, so I got Pewter and Ebony to see which would go best.


I loved the pewter with it so I got busy!



 I am loving where the two colors come together!


I worked a little on my secret project....but not as much as I should have...so I hope to get extra knitting done on it this week before April.

That is all I have!  I hope you all have a fabulous week!




Happy Happy Happy knitting!!!

Monday, March 20, 2017

Diet, Diet, Diet

Hi everyone.  I hope you have had a fabulous week!

I know last week I showed you some of the meals I ate while out of town......so I am sure it is no surprise to you that I gained a bunch of weight (hence this weeks blog title)!   I did not gain weight just last week, but slowly here and there for a while......However, first I will talk about knitting, then jump into food/diet/weight stuff.


I knitted on my secret project, and my skein of yarn is getting smaller....I am past the 50% mark:



I worked on the Wedding Shawl.....


I am really close to finishing this shawl......Yippee!!



and I worked on my socks (both heels done):




Again...the same three things....I hope to finish them soon so I can start showing you other stuff!


Darlene got me the cutest little knitting notions tin.....it has a pink and black sheep tape measure, and a wooden ball yarn needle gauge, and the top has a magnet to hold darning needles...it is just so cute!






Oh, and Linda and Tom Diak just HAD to come out with a new caramel color needle...this time I only bought one needle....I have like 10 interchangeable needle sets and I do not need more, but they keep coming out with the greatest colors ever!


I got size 5's


Now, I got size 5's because the needle is a little yellowish, and yellow is the 3rd color of the rainbow, but I forgot I had pink too....so for this purpose only, I am showing it in the size 6 slot, but in the future, It will be in the size 5 slot....I will figure it out eventually....LOL!



My Miss Babs Knitting Tour 2017 Package arrived!  We are going to The Moon.....here is the pattern.



Well, that is all the knitting I have.....so on to my food/weight/diet problems....the fact that I love food is probably my biggest problem, but when I came to work on Monday, I was complaining to Darlene about how much weight I gained (this just after she bought me a nutritious lunch of a corn dog).


but I did not do anything about it right away, because I went home and made deer sausage with fried potatoes...okay, the deer sausage is not bad, but those fried potatoes.....not the healthiest thing on the planet!


and then by Wednesday I thought.....I HAVE GOT TO EAT BETTER......so I went grocery shopping (Okay, I picked up my prepaid groceries from Walmart Grocery Pick up) and got Chicken Breasts, Steamed Veggies and Brown Rice with Quinoa....this will be what I eat a lot of for the next few weeks!


I know in the past I showed you all those Hello Fresh Means, and I did really good with the Hello Fresh Boxes, but they got a little pricey and not all of them were per say "Healthy".

Anyway, here was day one.....last Thursday!


It was not as bad as I thought.....but let's see how long it lasts.....

On top of that.....Paige has been having some stomach problems so she is trying a Gluten Free diet...and she is moving in with me in less than a month, so I may have to do a little gluten free stuff (Yikes)!!


I also bought a pair of walking shoes....nos, I am not doing a marathon tomorrow...I will be lucky to walk to the end of my street and back without feeling like I am going to die....but baby steps....



Well, that is all I have.....I hope you all have a fabulous week




Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Daylight Savings Begins

Hi everyone....did you move your clock forward Saturday night?  I did, but did not want to...this is my least favorite time change because I loose an hour of sleep (I like it better when I get an extra hour of sleep grinning).

How was your week?  Mine was great, even though I spent almost all of it at a conference last week....I have TONS to share with you!

Here is a picture on my drive to Grapevine, TX.



My room...I was very comfortable, it was nice!





I also ate too well......I had Shrimp Scampi, then Chicken Fried Ribs (that was a different one to me), and of course a juicy ribeye.....I think I gained 10 lbs!




Well, I paid for all that over eating on Friday and Sunday....I mowed my yard.  Back yard was done on Friday (it was rough because the grass was pretty wet...but it needed it)...and the front yard was done yesterday.



What else did I do?  Oh, well I knitted!

I worked on my socks.....




I worked on Southern Skies





and I worked on my Secret Project


These 3 are pretty much the only 3 things I will be working on in March....I need to get them done!

Oh, and I knit some nunchucks for Antonio....my little Ninja!








I got my Birthday Present from Jaime...I LOVE these new GREEN Dyakcraft Needles!  Thanks Babe!


I also got a new Green Bag set from Darlene....these dogs are so cute!  I am going to use my green needles with my new green bag to make Avix (as soon as I finish these three projects for March)!


I also got my Hard Ass yarn in....I really love this yarn.


Then I got my fixed Magical Wand Progress Keeper....I was really hoping that Melissa from Knitty by Nature would have done something extra for me having paid shipping to ship back the broken one (that broke in less than 24 hours) and while she did give me a coupon code for free shipping, I am pretty sure she gives this coupon code to everyone just to reorder.


That  is really all I have knitting wise.....

I do have a few other things that went on this week......I did have some stitching go loose on my new recliners....so the guys came on Friday to fix it...he actually re-sewed it...it was very interesting to watch him





Oh, while in Grapevine, I went by a German Deli


It was a great little store....I went in and browsed (and may have bought some chocolate and gummies) and I saw so many things I remembered from Germany (and some things I did not remember).

Next door to this German Deli was an Albertson's grocery store....Now, this is important because when at my Dad's birthday partly last weekend, my niece asked me to make her some Jerky I used to always make for her birthday (March 21st).   I of course told her I would....However, we do not have a grocery store that will cut the meat thin enough....but Albertson's does cut the meat thin enough....so I went in and bought all their Beef Round Bottom and had it sliced.

 
Then, I made jerky all weekend....I took all three bags to my parent's house for my sister to be able to pick up from there.


I kept a little for me and Paige... While cooking it, it makes the whole house smell like Jerky......when Paige brought Antonio over on Friday, she walked in the house and said "Awwwwww, the smell of my childhood!"  LOL!

When I went to my mom and dad's house, my mom said she ruined the socks I gave her......nope, not ruined...I just need to fix one heel :)


Well, that is all I have.....I hope you all have a great week....here are some pictures I snagged from a lady in my online knitting group (Lone Star State Knitters)....almost all my pictures are pictures she has shared with us.




Happy Happy Happy Knitting!!!!!