Friday, February 19, 2016

If we were having coffee ...

I subscribe to The Perpetual Page-Turner blog and she had a post titled "If we were having coffee together." I thought to myself "What a clever idea." This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share.


  So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice. I've got had Rote Grutz from UptonTea.com in my cup. I chugged it down. One of these days I'll actually take a photo of myself holding a cup of coffee for these posts. ... One day. ... 

If we were having coffee ...  I'd tell you "I didn't forget to blog," with a sheepish look on my face. Work was just as busy as I thought it would be these last six weeks or so. I had been working on a special edition about our new bishop.  The special section grew and grew and eventually went to the max - 32 pages. So many people, parishes and organizations placed congratulatory statements. It was incredible, but not really surprising.  Our new bishop is homegrown and every person I've come across who knows him thinks he's the bee's knees. The paperwork on this issue nearly drove me mad. I might have danced a little when the deadline day arrived.

Now the ordination day has arrived, and we have celebrated. It was a lovely ceremony/ordination Mass. I've been to only one big-deal Mass outside of my diocese. It didn't have the feel the Mass in our Cathedral did. This ordination Mass felt like family gathered, celebrating one of their own. Which is true.

Next issue I'm working on will have coverage from the ordination and installation events.  Once it's been sent to the printer I can breathe a deep breathe and enjoy the calm after the storm.

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you how my knitting broke my heart.  Remember when I was working on the Harvest Cardigan? I was cranking along on the cardigan and was mere inches away from casting off and starting the sleeves when my knitting stabbed me in the heart.

I started my third skein of yarn and knitted a few rows when I noticed the third skein was darker then what was already knit.  I was set to call it a design element and say "I meant to do this." I kept knitting on it.  My hubby would drive to town while I knit away on this project.

See, it didn't look too bad.
 

And then. ... I saw the cardigan in the sunlight and I said "Oh no!  No! No! No!"

The colors don't match at all. Cue the sad music played on violins. I put the cardigan in time out for a while. I needed to ponder my next move. I looked at the labels to verify they all said grey.  They do.  But, ... BUT I had purchased most of this yarn a few years ago.  Then at the end of 2015 I realized I would need more yarn. I compared the skeins side-by-side and they looked the same even though the color lots were different.

I even shared a few pics on an online knit group and one person said the bottom color was no where near grey. Most definitely cornflower blue.


!


I frogged the cardigan. There was no way I was going to finish it and wear it out in public.  The mistake would have mocked me every time I wore it.  Heck, every time I looked at it.   During the Super Bowl I ripped it all back and now have to decide on a new project for this yarn.  A few people said they hoped I didn't *really* frog the whole thing. That something could have been done so the I wouldn't need to reknit the entire cardigan. Oh well. 

Meanwhile I'll need to find new grey yarn to start this cardigan again.  Then I would ask you how your knitting has been treating you? Hopefully better than mine has treated me. I have two other things on the needles. I still have a pair of vanilla socks I'm working on. I'm about six rows from placing the holder for the afterthought heel on the second sock. 



I still have the test knit vest marinating.  I think I'm going to frog the vest in the near future too. No progress has been made on it and I hate having things languish.

 

I guess it's pretty obvious that I haven't touched any of my knitting much since I realized the colors didn't match on the cardigan.

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you I've been spending lots of time in the kitchen.  I learned how to make scones!  I brought some into my office and everyone loved them. I've also figured out lemon curd and clotted cream.  Oh-em-gee is clotted cream good. I can't make it often though. I don't dare!

I'd ask you "Hey good looking, whatcha got cooking?" cause I'm hilarious that way. I have enjoyed the time I've been spending in the kitchen, despite the big clean up afterwards. I've figured out a few other things, too.  Actually, I've been tinkering a lot with low carb cooking, too. Lots of things have changed since I first went on the Atkin's plan about 12 years ago. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you about my most recent reading escapades. I did finish reading "Westing Game" way back when. It is a clever little book. The kind that when it's been finished, you think back and go "wow" the answer was right in front of me and I didn't see it. I love books like this.  It was also fun to have a short book discussion with my son.


Another book my son read in school is "Turtle in Paradise." I checked out the kindle version. Another good book for a young reader.  It felt like it skimmed the surface of what was going on.  Does that make sense?  It would have been nice if it went a little deeper.  Then I had to remind myself that this book is for young readers who like a good story, but aren't necessarily looking for deep meaning.  When I finished the book I wanted a bit more of the story.

I put "Sense and Sensibility" on hold while I read "Giants of the Earth" for the Well-Read mom book club I'm a part of. I know at least one of the club people reads my blog so I feel I can't go too deep into this book. Otherwise, what would I talk about at book club? Right?  I would recommend this book if you are looking for a solid story about the people who immigrated over to the United States and started a new life for themselves and their family on the prairies.

"Artemis Fowl" was relistened to in the car. I felt the need for a comfort story to listen to.  The audiobooks of this series are nice to listen to. The reader does such a fabulous job.

Currently "Icons" is now playing in my car. I've been wanting ot listen to this book for a while.  Now, as I looked the book up on GoodReads for a link, I see there is a second book in this series.  That means one more book I have to keep track of, so my husband and I can hear the audiobook. I'd ask you what books you have been reading. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd let you know that *some* sewing has happened.

I came across a sewing website a while back called "Two Kids and a Blog."  The blog owner decided to start a sewing school group over on Facebook.

Already I'm behind. I made two out of the three quilt squares for January.


I goofed on the log cabin square. Its shy of being 11 " square. I can add a border all around to get it back to 12.


I'd ask you if you've been doing any sewing, if you are a seamstress.

Now I feel the need to come clean. This blog post was written over a few days. There was a lot more to write about than I realized. Well, now that work will calm down (I hope) I won't be coming home wore about and not having enough energy to do much other than the absolute minimum.

Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. My guy getting off work early, and being able to spend some one-on-one time with him.

2. Lunch with some of my work peeps.  They are a hoot to be around and there is usually a ton of laughing going on.

3. Temperatures were in the 30s today.  Awesome!

4. We are one more day closer to spring!

5. A glass of ice cold milk, and oreos.

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