The day I was born

Great Internet minds say that on the day I was born the popular song of the day was Moonlight Cocktail.

I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention.

 

Moonlight Cocktail
Glenn Miller & his Orchestra
Words by Kim Gannon
Music by Lucky Roberts
#1 from week of February 28, 1942 to week of May 2, 1942

Couple of jiggers of moonlight and add a star,
Pour in the blue of a June night and one guitar,
Mix in a couple of dreamers and there you are:
Lovers hail the Moonlight Cocktail.

Now add a couple of flowers, a drop of dew,
Stir for a couple of hours 'til dreams come true.
Add to the number of kisses, it's up to you.
Moonlight Cocktail - need a few.

Cool it in the summer breeze
Serve it in the starlight underneath the trees.
You'll discover tricks like these
Are sure to make your Moonlight Cocktail please.

Follow the simple directions and they will bring
Life of another complexion where you'll be king.
You will awake in the morning and start to sing
Moonlight Cocktails are the thing.

(Instrumental interlude)
Follow the simple directions and they will bring
Life of another complexion where you'll be king.
You will awake in the morning and start to sing
Moonlight Cocktails are the thing.

When is Spring?

The calendar says its Spring.  The seasons say its Spring.  The weather isn’t quite so sure.

And why, he wants to know, is it April 5 and we are still listening to March madness?  Our roots are in Connecticut and we are UConn Husky ladies basketball fans.  We are proud of the program, think it’s something that Connecticut can brag about.  Go Huskies……. 37 to 24 at the half with Stanford.

I have been getting antsy about quilting of late.  I know, I know, I was searching for the bottom of the knitting basket.  Well, I was naughty and looked at some quilting sites on the net, and it was all over.  Don’t worry though, the fabric stash is stashed in such a way that I won’t be starting any quilting any time soon.  First we need some warm days so I can do a serious clean up of the ‘studio’.   What studio you ask?  Look out that double door, see it?  It’s there along with enuf yarn to circle the world and then go to the moon at least once, enuf magazines  and books on knitting, machine knitting and quilting to reach the tipity top of the beanstalk.   Wool for rug hooking you say,  Oh, you spied that out there.  You’re good, I thought it was buried so deep it wouldn’t ever be found.  See the dollhouse over there?  OMG there is no way that I will even get this stuff organized in my lifetime, nevermind use it up.

What quilts are getting me excited about quilting again.  Nothing that stretches my ability, just something easy and comfortable to have around the house.  My quilts are like zucchini, getting difficult to give them away.

Quilt 1 would be Cobblestone 1, shown here in scraps, but mine will be done in batik to help get rid of that collection of fabrics.

Quilt 2 would be Disappearing Nine Patch.  This will be a scrappy quilt.  I think I will probably make the blocks of the nine patch 4 or 5 inches so I will have either a 12 or 15 inch block.

Quilt 3 would be Majestic Mountains or some layout of that base block but done square.  Several years ago our quilt group at Royal Coachman Campground in Florida was doing raw edge homespun quilts.  I bought the fabric but never got the gettup and go.  I think, if I can find it, that there is enough fabric to make up this quilt in at least a twin size.

50/26 huskies with 14 minutes to go.  Is it safe to go to bed?  Listening you lose some of the fun of the game.

Ice Out

Actually the ice has been out for a few days now.  All of a sudden it was gone.  One day it was there, almost translucent, with a large crack going from shore to shore.  The next day there was ice from the middle of the lake to the other side, but our side was clear.  By the end of that day the ice had come to visit with us.  Next day, gone, just gone. 

We’ve been visited all winter by grey, black and red squirrels on our deck.  They are fun to watch but are little hogs about the sunflower seed.  They quickly climb up the side of the house and get onto the feeder, sending seeds showering down to the deck for all to share. 

Now that it’s a bit warmer we have a chippy who apparently is out of hibernation.  He/she is alone and is so cute.  Friends a couple of doors down trained a chippy to hand feed.  I seem to recall that went on for four or so years.

We put up a new metal core cotton cloths line last week.  Our clothesline tree came down in the December ice storm.  A younger friend was nice enough to stop by and put the hook in the tree and set the line up on that end.  I had dreams of sheets blowing in the breeze.  Our last line was just Para shoot cord and was put up for the sole purpose of getting the bird stuff away from the squirrels.  That was a joke, the little devils are great high wire walkers.  Anyway, we put a suit cake on the clothsline and pushed it out.  The line is probably 45 feet long.  After a day we had raveled cotton cord on each end.  Someone thought they could chew the line down I guess.  So much for my clothsline. 

I’m trying a new way of posting for the Blog.  I read about using Windows Live Writer and that it is easier to use than Blogger.  One of my problems with Blogger is posting photos.  I can’t seem to get them to land where I want.  So now I shall try posting a photo here.  Let’s see what I have to post. 

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Wow, that worked great!  The pink scarf is one I made of my Lexi.  I found the yarn at Webs in the warehouse.  It just jumped out at me, it was Lexi, girly girl.  Told her mom what I was up to and was told to make sure it was long enough.  She also wanted to know if it was a nice bright pink and I assured her that it was.  Well, Lexi says it is too long and itches.  I have it back in my closet now.

The blue gloves are made of either Lopi lite or Webs yarn.  They were made for a friends four year old son.  He loves them.  See, I can do some stuff right!

I am pleased with how my quest to find the bottom of my knitting basket is coming along.  Problem is, spring is upon us and the garden calls.  I’m also getting the itch to piece a quilt, having my eye on something easy like Disappearing nine patch.

Look at my progress losing weight.  I’ve actually noticed that one of my rolls is GONE.  Can life get any better than that?

Technorati Tags: knitting,Webs,Disappearing nine patch,quilting,gardening,squirrels

Spring

I took three shovels full of dog fertilizer out of the garden and look what I found



SPRING
















I delivered a pair of mittens to a mailbox for a little friend. The report back was that he took off the pair he had on and put the new ones on right away. Here they are, finished from the bottom of the knitting basket.

On Days Flying By, Projects Finished, Food and Wildlife

Where in the heck has the time gone? I last posted on January 28th and here it is March 7th. Yikes, someone stole February. I thought when I last posted that I would have my projects finished, or almost so, in a short week or two. So much for thinking.

Getting on with it. I've made a winter wall hanging of our lake. Sue gifted me a fall wall hanging a couple of years ago, and I just thought I should have a winter one too. Can spring and summer be far behind? I have to admit that I've not been getting friendly with my new sewing machine as I should and I am not the pro machine quilter that Sue is, but - well, it's done, just don't turn it over and look at the back Okay?



The fabrics that I choose for this piece are indicative of winter. The water has a snow and ice cover with dog foot prints crossing it. The trees are pines. The inner border is snowflakes and the outer border is frost.







Now it's companion piece done by Sue Strauch, quilter extraordinaire.
















I am so happy to say that I've got the BlueBell sweater almost finished. It's off the needles and ready to have the sleeves inserted. I'm not looking forward to that job. I have just a bit more knitting to finish on it. The lace trim goes around the neck and has to be knitted from each side, kitchenered together at the back and then sewn onto the neck. Almost done, can spring be far off? Here are a couple of photos, the color is actually a lovely dusty lavender but probably won't show up as such.









This was a fun sweater to knit, the anticipation of the finished sweater kept me going. Would I change a few things, you bet! I would short row the shoulder shaping and then do a three needle bind off to eliminate having to fuss with sewing the shoulders together; I think that I would rather pick-up and knit the sleeves from the top down to eliminate having to inset them but I'm not sure about that.
All in all I like what I see and am looking forward to trying it on.


My knitting basket holds all sorts of projects. Some started and put down for lack of interest; some started and put down from frustration; some just on paper with yarn ordered; some ongoing and some finished. I like the finished ones the best, and then the ones that I've not started yet!

I like a challenge. Trying something new will entice me every time. Sometimes I like to knit something simple, something that is a no brainer so-to-speak. Sometimes there is something that just must be knitted, with a time schedule for finishing and all. Whatever the reason, I like to knit. I find it very relaxing and most projects allow me time to let my mind wander. I don't often watch TV; it's on in the background but I am usually not really paying any attention to it.
I just sit, knit and think.

On the subject of food and the D word. I love to eat, I love to look at food, I love to cook food, I love to think about cooking food BUT, I don't love my love handles. That being said, I can also say that I am trying, really trying to lose about forty or fifty pounds. If you look at the meter on the blog you can see that I did manage to lose ten pounds. Then something went wrong.. What you say. Three meals eaten out, a rib roast and some stuffed shells. A bump in the road? I sure hope so.

I have been walking with himself and the dawg, but not faithfully enough. I was supposed to join the Y in Granby, CT and do three days of swimming and other stuff, but a nasty cold got in the way of that. Joining is on the schedule for next week.

I think that I need to preplan our meals so I can plan the fat and calories out of them. I used to plan our meals for two weeks at a time and it made life much easier. I think that if I do some planning it will also help with the food budget.
We shall see.

We put our bird feeders right outside the dining room slider for the winter. We have been enjoying the daily activity and spending much time raping on the window to scare the squirrels away. We have grey, black, red and flying squirrels. Our bird count varies by the day and the weather. The yellow finches are beginning to color up. We have purple finch, a couple of different woodpeckers, cardinals, bluejays, junko, titmouse, and a couple of more whose name slip my mind right now.



I did say that we are all enjoying the activity didn't I?

Snow Day

It's a Snow Day today. What exactly does that mean to two olde retreads and their pets? It means that we don't go for our morning walk because the roads aren't plowed yet. It means that the activity at the bird feeders is on overload. It means that I check in with my BSS [big sister Sal] because she claims to worry about us when we have weather. I think she just wants to gloat.

Yes, Sal would be gloating because when we decided we were no longer going to be SnowBirds, she and her hubby purchased our Florida home. When I checked in this morning they were headed to Nokomis beach for a walk. I feel so sorry for them, they are missing this nice winter wonderland.

Enuf said on that subject.

In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to try a couple of new things on my next pair of toe up socks. I knew that it was the Zimmerman Sewn Cast Off, but I was unsure of the cast on. It's Judy Becker's Magic Cast On as demonstrated by Cat Brodhi on UTube. I'm not sure when I will be getting to that project, but know that I need some more DK or heavier weight wool socks real soon. As I wear my wool socks I wonder how many days everyone gets out of a washing. I always chuck my cloths into the wash when I change out of them. I wear sweaters several times between washing, as I do with sweatshirts too. It's a downright pain to hand wash socks and watch them dry............which in this house can take anywhere from 2 - 4 days unless I manage to hang them over the hot air register. So, is it ten pair, ten days? or twenty days or what?

I'm not doing as well as I would like on the eating plan. I can't stop thinking about food, and then I want some. Too bad there isn't a patch like there is for smoking. Problem is, there is still some junk food around here and the Yankee in me won't just pitch it in the trash. I am trying, I really am. Today so far, breakfast and lunch amounted to 503 calories. It doesn't look like we are going to get to walk today; it's raining now. The calorie counting program that I am using give a credit to daily calorie count for exercise. I'm not doing loops around our lake roads but at least I am out there, that's more than I could say for myself last week. Cheer me on - please.

Knitting, sewing and otherwise crafting are calling my name. When I finish and post this I think I will sit at the sewing machine and finish that little wall piece. It's a seasonal companion to one a friend gave me. Sue is a very talented machine quilter. She is handicapped by the loss of both legs, so spends her days at her machine. She is the only person I know who wears out high end sewing machines! She lives alone, is a snowbird and someone I greatly admire. I'll post a photo of both pieces next time.

I plodding along on the purple sweater. I've got around 13 inches of 16 done to get to the underarm. Then the three sections part ways and the rows will be shorter. And, the back won't have any lace to fuss with.

Sue, mentioned above, lives in Ossipee, NH and is an annual attendee at the Keepsake Quilting Annual Sale. She got me up there one year and wants me back again this year. The same folks who own Keepsake own Patternworks which is right next door, and also has a sale. We take our MH up to Sue's and camp out in her yard. She and I would be up before the crack of dawn and on the road. Himself and the pets could sleep in. What I do know is that there are deals to be had at Keepsake - deals that I probably should not partake of.

It's Been Forever

It's not that I didn't want to blog, it's just that I never seem to get around to it.

For the New Year I am going to try to keep a bit of a diary of what exactly is going on in my life. Here goes

I am really trying to be aware of what I am putting into my mouth. I am also going to make an attempt to spend more time getting off my butt and less time making excuses. Tomorrow I am going to the Y to see about water exercise. It's a bit of a trip to get there; 22 miles one way. That's what comes of wanting to live in the woods. We've always eaten healthy for our meals, it's the trips to the kitchen in between that is taking me down. It wasn't that long ago that I was as skinny as a rail. That was back when I went to work, took care of the family and watched out for my Dad. Now I move from the computer to knitting, to sewing and back again. It's got to STOP. I've got to move. I WILL.

My hand knitting is keeping me content. I find knitting to be very relaxing and I can get lost in it. I am not much for TV, mostly because I cannot seem to claim the clicker and himself and I don't have the same taste in shows. Even so, I can knit and watch at the same time. My problem with knitting, as with all of my hobbies is that I love a challenge, I love to start. I start, and I start, and I start. I've got to learn to finish one thing before I begin another.

I am going to try to keep from starting. I will try not to begin any new hobbies, and I will try to have only one project going in any one hobby at a time.

I am knitting a BlueBell sweater right now. It's a pattern from Webs in Northampton. I had a real problem with the pattern when I started knitting it. Well, it wasn't the pattern, it was operator error! We were in Florida, moving our stuff out of our place there and I was trying to knit to relax. The pattern begins with a lace border along the bottom and up the sides. I plum wore the yarn out, casting on, knitting, unknitting, etc. Now things are going along fine.

My knitting basket has some stuff in it that need to be acknowledged. 1. There is one finished child's mitten and another that is at the thumb gusset. I am using the pattern in the knitter's handy book of Patterns I lost my way and need to rip back and start the thumb gusset over. Golly, it's just a little kids mitten, how long can that take? 2. Then there is the pair of Maine Morning Mitts that I just absolutely had to have in a pink/purple run of Noro. That little project is barely off the ground. I should be able to finish the two mitts in a couple of short days. 3. The next project is for sure going on the back burner. I fell in love with the mittens that grumperina posted about here I bought the pattern by Eunny because she writes such awesome directions. I quickly went out and bought some yarn; I watched the UTube video on tubular cast on; I tried, I really tried. It's not happening. It's going to be a project for another day. 4. There is a pair of socks, worn some, but not comfortable. They were my first attempt at toe up. Will I knit toe up again? Probably yes. There is a cast on that I want to try. Problem is, I need to learn how to cast off so I can get my foot in the darn sock. So, these have to have their tops cut off and cast off again - probably will use the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn cast-off that is covered in this article in Knitty: Summer 2006. 5. There is a bag that is ready to grab that has needles and baby yarn and patterns for infant and premie hats. That's just an ongoing project. The last one I knit was actually a helmit with ear flaps. It's so cute. That's about it for what's in the knitting basket. OH, there are other projects, but they are packed away on the unheated summer porch. Any discussion of them will be for another day. The day that I come to terms with everything that's out on that porch!

My chunky knitting machine is sitting here in the dining room. I was going to make mittens on it and that project never really got off the ground. I want to get back to it though.

Sewing, yes, there is sewing too. My machine is set up and on the ready. In fact, there is something under the presser foot. I probably have about 15 minutes of quilting to finish and a binding to put on a small seasonal wall piece. Got to get to that before the season is no longer. Other that that, I have lots of projects ready to go, but only one other one that is actually started. I'll cover that on another day too.

I said that I don't do TV. Well tonight I made an appointment to have ownership of the clicker for a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. It's almost time so I'll say goodnight.

It's Been Forever

I'm back. I gave up on blogging when I got discouraged trying to post photos. No matter what I tried I could not post more than one, and it never ended up where I wanted it to. A problem with my age? Who knows.

I've joined Ravelry and linked my profile there to this blog. I think it would be nice if my blog represented today rather than February 07, don't you? So, I'll try again.

I noticed today when I was viewing Zimmermaniacs that once we get the hang of the BSJ and how it turns into a sweater, we place our stripes where we want them. The first sweater is truly a surprise though. I've made two Baby Surprise and one of the earlier version that was a wrap. Now I've found the Machine Knitting version in MacKnit and am going to attempt it. I've not posted my Zimmerman sweaters, which also include a saddle shoulder for Z who was 5 at the time, but suppose I would do that too. One would think that being retired that I would have lots of time for this stuff.......................

Ask anyone who is retired about what goes on in their day. I've started to use a day book again to attempt to get back some of the hours that I seem to be losing along the way.

I notice that on Tuesday I have plans to take Z for his first cub scout uniform.
This scouting thing is getting DD into remembrance mode. Apparently she has 'scouted' around in her storage boxes and found her GS badges and some have yet to be sewed on and I guess some that are on need attention. Let me put that in my day book!

I'm working on the last few rows of a 3-6 month babe sweater for DD's neighbor who is due to deliver on the 21st. I've already turned over a BSJ which grandaughter A has excitedly given already, much to the surprise of her mom. DD did a short stint of babysitting for a neighbor child. In that A seems to think that Jake is her 'brother', she is somewhat put out by the fact that Grammie is knitting for a yet to be borned babe and has not yet knit a sweater for Jake. Day book again!

enuf, and no photo attempts

pool party

pool party
Originally uploaded by smoorect.

Don'cha just love these high speed camera's where you can catch the water in mid air?

pool party

pool party
Originally uploaded by smoorect.

It took a few minutes to get used to being in the water, but then this grandchild was in her glory.

My feet

Blogger and I are having issues. I wanted this photo to be in yesterday's post, but alas I am not apparently up to the task. The learning curve for getting photos and words on the same page here is above me. I can knit socks, I can knit lace, I can run a home and raise a family, but I cannot get my blog photos to land where I want! Oh well!

Walkin version 2006

It seems that it's getting more and more difficult getting these two to pose for their 'annual' Walkin photo. This fall Zachary was in some strange kind of mood. He wanted to stoop like an old man.

Knitting in my sleep

I spent a good deal of time last night and this morning machine knitting. Would be great except the machine is in the box and I was in bed.
I don't know if I don't sleep because my mind is so busy, or my mind is keeping me busy when I can't sleep.
What was on my mind this particular time was the question - how do I do the Tuck stitch on the Brother 350 manual machine? Do you have nights like that, times when you just want to 'go at it' and maybe then you would be able to sleep? I know that if I had a craft room that was away from the bedroom I would have been giving it a go instead of just thinking.
Tonight's problem may be the same, considering the machine is still packed away. I have hand knitting to finish and cannot tempt myself. I guess I should get movin on the hand projects so I can solve that problem.

It's just been One of Those Days

Today should have been a great day. It all began quite normally. I woke early, the dawg had taken over my share of the bottom of the bed, and, knowing that it would be a losing battle to try to get her to move - I left.
The coffee perked and didn't spill over the counter. It was not raining. I found the PIN for my debit card. Things were definately looking towards a good day.
The phone rang. It seems that our grandcat died during the night. Well, that sure is not the kind of news you want to hear early in the morning or at all for that matter. This was totally unexpected, he hadn't been sick, he was only three, yadayada. He was just there in the living room for the babes to find, stiff!
Any other problems today were pale by comparison. I had been working on the latest sweater project for our grandaughter, but put that aside when I took my coffee out to the patio. I had my Morehouse Farms merino sock. Opps! is that a free and easy stitch just hanging there about fifteen rows back? Sure nuff it was. Tore that back and picked up the stitches and then it was off for a haircut.
I managed to get out and back without any further problems. Back to the patio, back to the sock. I commented to himself when I got back to where I had discovered the stitch only to discover that I had added a stitch..............you guessed it, about fifteen rows back. Being the anal person I am, I could not be content with a simple knit two together so - it was back to the frog pond. Said sock project is having a time out right now and I am back to working on the sweater.
Notes on the sweater. I didn't trust the pattern directions on the sleeve decreases so did my own thing - had to take out about six inches of that baby too! But that was yesterday.
Guess what, it's raining...........

Walkin ver 2004

Perhaps It's Time

Perhaps it's time to get down to the business of blogging for real. A look back to my earliest posts shows that I tried, and gave up!

As I wander round the net, reading other's blogs, I think of what I want to share. I think, wouldn't it be great if I could post a photo of this, or that? Shouldn't I be linking to my blog when I post a comment?

So, here goes, again!

Surfs Up

 

Florida Sunsets

What I really wanted to do with this sunset was to put it in my Profile. I'm learning, I'm learning! For you folks on the 'other' coast, this is what you miss. Don't tell me about the sunrise, who wants to get up that early? Yes, I know that theyschedule Florida Sunrise later than New England Sunrise, but I still don't want to be up that early. Besides, cocktails and dinner at the beach for Sunset is much nicer than mimosas and dunkin donuts!
Goodnight sun

Who said Blogging was easy?

Here I go again, trying to be a blogger. I'm thinking, what will I post, and who will read my posts. More important, will I even be able to work my way through the maze of learning how to blog??? We shall see.



I can't let the opportunity of posting pictures slip by. Bear with me, don't let me bore you though. If you slip out the door now I will understand - just don't expect me to ever talk with you again. WOW! I did it! It landed in the wrong place this first time and I managed to move it. I'm impressed with me.

This is the 2005 version of Zach and Lexie walkin hand in hand. Lexie who is two is not going to have anything to do with walkin with Zach who is four, who therefore is absolutely sure he is the BOSS.

Now the 2004 version is much better. Lexie had just learned to walk and needed a big brother to hang onto. One thing that I've quickly discovered - adding pictures to a blog when signed on at 28.8 is downright impossible. I guess the 2004 picture will have to wait for now.