Cursed Kitchen???

Ya' know, if I didn't know better, I would begin to think some nefarious force has placed a curse on my kitchen!

Last week my microwave (my less-than-4-month-old microwave) died! I mean dead. No lights, no nothing.


This made heating Easter dinner leftovers a royal pain. I am actually a little wary of microwaves and would be happy to not have one. I have lived without a microwave and it can be done. However, I have found that my kids will eat more leftovers when they don’t have to put them in a pot and stir, or wait for something to heat up a half hour in the oven. I hate to throw away food even more than I dislike microwaves. So, now I have to buy a new microwave. The Oster company is honoring our warranty and refunding our money, but that will probably get here months from now…you know how that goes! Not only that, but we got a great deal on that microwave, and it looks like a new one will cost us a good $50 more than what I originally paid.

Then, the blender attachment to my Bosch kitchen machine stopped working (again).


There is a design flaw in the part of the blender that attaches to the drive shaft and it gets stripped, thus making the blender not blend. Well, I am rather partial to smoothies, so I actually use my blender. I have already replaced this part 2-3 times! And I refuse to pay another $15 or so to get another little bit that is just going to break in a few months. So, I will have to buy a new blender.

Are you keeping count?? That's two appliances that need replacing.

Then yesterday, I was being domestic diva (baking bread, making homemade Lara bars, etc.) and the glass bowl to my vintage KitchenAid mixer slipped out of my hands into the sink and broke! Waaaaaah!


This was my grandmother’s mixer and has great sentimental value to me. It is a model 4C which was produced from the early 1960's through the 1970's. The company doesn't even make a glass bowl that fits this mixer anymore. I have looked online and found a metal replacement at the tune of about $50 plus shipping! :-0 To replace it with a glass bowl like the one that comes with it is hard to find and costs even more dough (pun intended.) Although my Bosch kitchen machine is great for kneading bread and mixing really large batches of stuff, we regularly used the KitchenAid for cookie dough, cakes, icing, etc.

And then to top it all off, while I was still trying to hold back the tears over the broken mixer bowl, my kitchen sink suddenly and mysteriously decided to refuse to drain!


It was working fine, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. We have poured chemicals down it, boiling water, and tried a plunger. We even went to the hardware store and bought a plumber's snake. 15 feet of snake later, still no drainage. GAAAAAARRRRRGH!

Score:
Kitchen appliances to be replaced plus a plumber's bill -- 4
My bank account -- 0

Do you think the plumber could be bribed with homemade bread???

Not Trying to Tempt You But...

There is a big fabric sale going on over at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.



20% off EVERYTHING.



Can you resist such cuteness???



There is LOTS to choose from.

Oh, and Fresh Squeezed Fabric is owned and operated by Randi, the blog author of "i have to say..." as well as the brains (and much of the brawn) behind "Sewing Seeds" and the Quilt Along which are both linked in my right hand sidebar. She is a lovely, christian, mom...the kind of person whose business I can whole heartedly recommend.

Bummer!

This weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Wedding, Historical Ball, funeral...all in one weekend. Then Monday was equally busy. I was so looking forward to some down time today and life getting back to "normal." Well, it seems I have managed to catch an unpleasant stomach virus. Not exactly how I planned to spend my day "off." Bummer!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Lately, life feels as if I have lassoed a tornado and I am hanging on, riding it as best as I can! I hope the pace will soon slow down a bit, but for now it leaves me with precious little time to knit, crochet, sew, or blog.

Just wanted to announce that I am alive and well. I'm just busy, busy, busy!

Today's Lunch

Whole wheat sub bun stuffed with avocado, cucumber, tomato and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. Fresh pepper strips and hummus for dipping. YUM!

Wait! Are there a few bites missing from that sandwich??? Well, of course I had to test it before I shared it with y'all!

For Liliana

Liliana wrote: "Tell me, how do the washcloths wear? Could you post a photo of a used one? Is that too weird? But I would like to know how well it lasts with use."

You asked for it. You got it! :-)


This dishcloth has been in heavy rotation in our kitchen for the last year or two. Although it does not look like the cheerful, lime green, striped cloth that I started with...



...it has given us lots of faithful service. The faded colors are due to the fact that I am sometimes forced to clean my dishcloths with bleach. I just can not seem to get some members of my family to completely grasp the concept of rinsing and hanging a dishcloth after every use. The kids have gotten a lot better about it, but I still occasionally find a cloth that has sat wet for too long. Ick! No one likes a smelly dishcloth!

I will add that for the most part, I am a process knitter/crocheter. In other words, I knit and crochet because I enjoy the act of knitting and crocheting. I am also on a tight budget, making it cost prohibitive to knit many of the projects that I would love to tackle. However, consumable items like socks and dishcloths are great projects for me. Dishcloths are instant gratification. A little cotton, a hook or some needles, a new stitch pattern to try out, a few hours, and I have a finished project. I can work them in fun and funky colors that would be gaudy in a garment. Dishcloths have a very limited lifespan, so everyone can always use more, making them great little gifts too! And don't forget, they aren't just for the kitchen. They are excellent in the shower as well. For another nice gift idea, pair a pretty cloth (call it a "spa cloth") with a bar of fancy soap or some body wash.

As an added bonus, here are a few pics of another cloth, older and soon to be retired.

Busy Hands

Since my BIG project at the moment is the quilt I am working on, I seem to be on a kick of making quick-and-easy-to-finish projects in the knitting and crochet arena. Crocheted dishcloths certainly fit into that category!

This one looks a bit different on each side.





Free Pattern: Crochet Dish Cloth by Coats and Clark

The next two were made using Linda Bohrn's Woven Stitch Dishcloth pattern (also free.)




But wait! There's more!




Free Pattern: Easy Crocheted Dishcloth by Cheri Mancini

Tired of dishcloths??? Well, here's a hat I knit using some handspun that was gifted to me. Lots of lumpy, bumpy character.


And, flip it inside out for a whole different look!


Free Pattern: 2 Hour Hat (and yes, 2 hours is all it took!)

Next time around I will try to show some progress pics of my quilt which is coming along nicely!

Valentines!

I bet we are the only household still making Valentines on February 15th.

It's a pretty messy business.


I know my hubby (who loves order and neatness) will be thrilled when we are done and the coffee table is once again visible.

My 8 year-old's book club meets this afternoon, and she wanted give them hand-made Valentines...all ten of the other girls! It has been a lesson in perseverance for her. There are quite a few hand stitches in each of these little felt pouches. Handmade gifts are fun, but they are also a lot of work.



It saddens me to think that most of the recipients will probably be more excited about the little Hershey bar and the pencil inside the handmade Valentine. But I guess that's okay.

A New Red Cap

A good friend gave me a skein of Manos del Uruguay yarn in a lovely cherry red...just MY color!


I decided to knit it up in fun "slouchy" hat (or beret) using the "Star Crossed Slouchy Beret" pattern available as a free download on Ravelry.

You get the "beret" shaping by blocking the hat on a dinner plate!


Too busy knitting to Windex my bathroom mirror...as can be seen in the following photo!


The pattern has some funky cabling going on...which doesn't show up as well in the yarn I used because it is a "thick-thin" sort of yarn.


Getting good photos of a hat can be a challenge when you are photographing it on your own head. Hint: since you are in front of the camera instead of behind it, use a hand mirror in one hand and hold it behind the camera so you can see the viewer screen.

Neglected...

Ah, Green Monster! Once we were such close friends. We communed daily. What happened to our relationship?

Okay, I know. It is really all my fault. I am the one who wandered away. But you must admit, you are rather raw and so cold! It was easy to lured away by warm, comforting drinks during this bitter wintry season. I was weak. I am sorry. But I would like to renew our ties. Whaddaya' say?


And as for you, Ms. Michaels...


I am not sure if you are really my good friend. After our get together on Tuesday, I limped around the house in much agony for two days. Yeah, I know. Once again, that is all my fault. If I had been working out for the past few months, our visits wouldn't be so painful. Do you remember our glory days?? Remember the times when we felt so strong that we would do Level 1 and Level 2 back-to-back in one day? Good times!

Do you think we could recapture the magic? I hope so.

It is often said that bad company corrupts good morals. I know that is true. I fear I have been running around with the wrong crowd, spending too much time hanging out with empty carbs, coffee, comfort foods and the sofa. Oh, they can be a lot of fun in the moment, but I hate myself later for the way I behave around them. They are a bad lot and I have allowed myself to be led me astray.

Do they care about me? No!

Do they make me a better person? No!

Do my jeans feel tight? Yes!

Something's gotta' change. And it is gonna' start now!

Can You Help???

A little fabric, a simple pattern, an hour or two of your time, and you have a skirt for someone less fortunate than we are.

"Sow the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you."---Hosea 10:12

Sewing Seeds is a ministry that started a few years ago when Randi's daughter was going on a mission trip to Africa. Over 100 handmade skirts were stuffed into her daughter's suitcase and lovingly distributed. Later, a similar project was taken on in Costa Rica. Now, Randi is gathering skirts for the girls in Haiti.

Can you help??

Go to Sewing Seeds for more information. And as always, I can highly recommend Randi's blog "i have to say..."

Quote of the Day

"America needs to wake up and have a big bowl of moral fiber for breakfast!"

--my husband (a really smart guy!)

Under Construction

I am working on changing the "look" of my blog. Please bear with me as I work on this. If anyone has feedback, it would be most appreciated. Oh, and if anyone knows how to get rid of the ugly brown tabs ("home" "about" "contact" "rss") in my header, I would love to know how! They are written into the html of my template and weird things happen every time I try to mess with them.

*Edit--Yay! After much trial and error, the aforementioned ugly brown tabs at the top now are gone.

Dear "Amy"

Dear "Amy",

Thank you for taking time to read my blog. I am thoroughly impressed by the number of older posts you have recently read. You must have stayed up until all hours of the night, glued to your computer, entranced by my riveting posts about motherhood, homemaking and needlework; fascinating stuff, I know. I am sure you read all those older posts because you were kind enough to leave comments in each one of them.

However, since I can not read Chinese, I am unable to fully appreciate your comments. I tried an online translator, but feel certain that the translator was not working properly because its translation of some of the things you wrote made me blush (and I am a married woman!)

Amy, I am sure, unlike those nasty spammers that lurk in cyberspace, that you meant no harm. But since my blog is G-rated, I am now having to spend a lot of time an effort going through each one of your comments and manually deleting them. I am sure this extra work was not your intention. However, we would not want anyone else to use the same translator (which I am sure must be faulty) and be misled by your comments. I know you will understand when I ask that your refrain from making further comments on my blog to prevent any more misunderstandings.

Sincerely yours,

busyHSmom

PS Because of this unfortunate event, I have felt compelled to activate comment moderation on my blog. Please, dear Amy, do not take this personally! I just feel that this is the best way insure that those nasty, evil spammers are kept away from my readers.

Winter's Day Well Spent

Friday night and Saturday brought a little snow and a lot of freezing rain, sleet and ice our way. It made for a very grey, cold, wet day.

OUTSIDE: Brrrrrr!



INSIDE: Simmering chili.



OUTSIDE: Cold!




INSIDE: Corn bread. (To go with the chili, of course!)



OUTSIDE: Lonely swingset.



INSIDE: Monopoly by the fire.




OUTSIDE Not much traffic today!




INSIDE: Warm, spicy chai. (Recipe can be found here.)



OUTSIDE: Ice everywhere.




INSIDE: Plenty of time for knitting. You can read more about my Valentine's scarf here on Ravelry.



I lived in Michigan for 5 years. I remember how stir crazy I could get with months of days like this. I certainly don't miss that! However, in these parts we don't get much "proper" winter weather. A weekend of forced hibernation has been rather nice. It has been quite pleasant, I confess, to have a few days where everything shuts down, and everyone slows down!

Quilt Pics (new and improved)

Thanks to some helpful suggestions in the comments of my last post (thank you, Laura) I have taken some better photos of my fabric.

Here is the binding and the backing.



Now, I just need to get myself a tripod so that my pics aren't so fuzzy. I can't seem to take a shot without shaking the camera. :-P

Quilt Along!

I love to visit the blog "i have to say..." and I am thrilled to tell you that Randi is hosting a quilt-along. Whether you are a novice or an experienced quilter, it's not too late to join! It will be 6 weeks of easy, step-by-step instructions in small, bite-sized do-able chunks. You can read more about it here.

I am thinking of using these fabrics to go into my living room, which has deep, rich, pumpkin walls, an oriental rug with cranberry red, golds and blues, and a sofa with greens, reds, golds and a touch of the pumpkin color.