Made: Ripple Stitch Afghan

This blanket has been 2 years in the making.  Usually, I lose interest in a project this big a long time before I can finish it.  But this blanket was fun to crochet.  It was meditative to do.  And it used all my half balls of yarn.

Doesn't it look so pretty on my bed?  I love it there.  But now, its on the back of the couch ready to keep my feet warm this lazy Sunday afternoon.  The pattern was very easy and you can find a version of it here.  It was super easy to memorize, and once I got into the flow of it I didn't even need to count or look at the afghan.  I did a lot of this blanket watching movies.

The colors I chose had more to do with what I had on hand, rather than what I wanted.  For most of the yarn,  could tell exactly which project that color came from.  Its a pretty cool timeline of my knitting and crochet history!  I know that people sometime use a random color generator but decided to just crochet at will and see what happens.  It was kind of exciting really because I had no idea what the blanket would look like when I was finished.

All the stripes and the gentle ripples make me really happy.  Hope your Sunday is relaxing!

I love a busy day.

Today the weather was great, so it was a great day to get some errands done!  I love a busy day like I love a list; its so satisfying to get things done and cross them off the list.

1.  On the go breakfast from McDonald's.  I know a lot of people talk about hating McDonald's, but I love their breakfast sandwiches.  If loving them is wrong, I don't want to be right.

2. I needed to look for some teaching tools, so we went to a new educational toy store.  I seriously considered buying the giant piano mat (like from the movie "Big"!)

3.  Needed caffeine.  Got coffee.

4. D needed a haircut.  I got to sit and make fun of him.

5. Groceries.  I actually like grocery shopping.

6. Top it off with photo shoot for the show at the studio.  More to come on that.

There were a few places that I forgot to take pics at:  we got more yarn for a baby sweater I'm knitting, and we went to a music store to get me some new guitar strings.  Now its 11:00 pm and I feel accomplished enough to go to bed.  Good night!

Upcycled hankies

Lovely hand-stitched goodies.

My friend Julie read about a jewelry sale in the newspaper.  A group of women in a church group were selling their old jewelry!  For a crafty gal like me, I couldn't just not go. We went and the sale was small, but there was some fun stuff.  Some costumey stuff that I didn't have many ideas for. What caught my eye were the hand-embroidered hankies and napkins.

There were lots of napkins and hankies that had lost their set, and they were so cheap.  I bought this one for 10 cents.  I loved him!  He's such a cheerful little dude.

Click on the picture to make it bigger.

...So I up-cycled it into some embroidery art for my cross stitch wall!  He's chilling below my Dia de los Muertos cross stitch, and my position on children.  This hankie even inspired to do another cross stitch. 

Recipe: My Favorite Potatoes

 

We're trying to eat healthy in our house.  Trying very hard. But every now and then, I crave french fries.  I need them.  They become the monkey on my back.  But they are so very unhealthy for us, but so tasty that we usually eat more than the surgeon general would recommend.  So I made up a new way of satisfying my french fry crave.  They're baked, so they aren't as bad (so I'm told) but they are still oh so good.

Stephanie's Fake Fried Fries

Ingredients:

4 medium to large potatoes, scrubbed with the skin on

2-3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbsp Lemon Juice

Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cut the potatoes into french fry shapes.  I like the long wedges myself.  In a bowl, toss the potatoes with the EVOO, Lemon juice, Salt and Pepper.

Lay out the fries on a baking sheet in one layer.  Bake on the middle rack for 25 mins.  Flip the potatoes over and bake for another 15-20mins until they are the desired crispness.  I like crunchy fries, so mine took 40 mins.

Eat with ketchup, if you must.

Showtime!

I did it!  I finally got the nerve to get back into musical theatre.  The first show that I did was "Sweet Charity."  That is why I've been MIA lately.  I've been rehearsing and our show ran from December 2-11 2011.  It was stressful at times,  but fun.  I played Nickie, Charity's best friend.

It was a fun show.  And I loved being on stage again.  So I'm in another one!  This is also a comedy: "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: The Musical."

The winter is back!

It snowed today.  Hard for a teacher to complete with the first snow of the season.  It is exciting though, we've been waiting for it.  We've had nice weather for a while, but its November, you know?  Time for snow!  And it came.  But it didn't last.

I can't wait to get out my snow boots!

Invasion of the Bronchitis Baddies (or more appropriately, I'm sick.)

I'm sick.  There is no denying it- which I have been trying to do.  I went to the doctor's office, and its official:  I have bronchitis.  I begged him to make into just a cold.  He said that's not how medicine works.

Why does he make all the big bucks?  Al I wanted was a simple cold; a couple days off; legit naptime, and some homemade soup.  Nope.  Not me.  I like to go big or go home.  When I get sick for the first time in a season, I like to get sick.  I make sure I need anti-biotic medication, and 2 weeks in bed!

I've been told that I'm fairly competitive.  I wonder if my mind thinks that there is some weird competition: who can pile in the most mucous into on lung?  Or how much can my sinuses hold until thy explode?  A neighbour broke 2 ribs from her pneumonia- I think my body wants to beat that by coughing so hard that my sternum breaks!

Other great effects of illness?  Face sores? Check!   Back pain?  You betcha!  Stomach ache from medicine?  Or course!  Fatigue?  Oh my, yes!  I had to take 3 breaks from writing this blog post!  And its not even that good!

Send m some good vibes, I would love to be better.  Like yesterday.

Art of another kind

I spent my weekend on an art of another kind.

On a trip to an out of town flea market, we dug around and found this loom.  It was broken and missing a piece, but we bought it anyways.  The best thing I've found about doing art almost everyday, is that I am always full of ideas on how to make and/or fix things.

To fix this, I made another arm out of a yardstick and some dowels I had left over from making canvasses.  And it worked!    So now I'm using some wool and weaving a scarf out of it.  Wearable art!  I love the colors of this wool, and how its working up in the weaving.

I am still working in my journal, layering away.  Nothing that I think is finished enough to show... Soon though!

Journal: More fun than a barrel of monsters

I bought these really cheap watercolors (you know the dry kind kids use?) at the dollar store for my students, and I had one at home.

I decided to try them out on a bunch of doodles I did in my journal. They were pretty ok, actually!  I like how muted the colors are, it let me use as many colors as I want without it looking really busy.

I am torn for which my favorite monster is... I think I like the flying toast dude the best.  Especially because he has duck feet.

Painting: Heart Hommage

"8"x 8", mixed media on canvas

I found out that I have high blood pressure.  Apparently, I don't handle stress well- but does anybody?

I thought it would be nice for me to paint something that showed my heart that I do care about it; and I hope it won't crap out on me because I've been stressy.  This painting kinda grosses my partner out.  But I like it.  I like that if you look closely, you can see that there is an image of a heart under all the veins and stuff.