30 Days of Not Buying Food

After looking at my financial situation, it has become apparent that if I want to get some things completely paid off (like my car), that I need to buckle down and stop spending money.  The extremely outrageous cable bill has already been removed from my list of monthly expenditures in favor of Hulu and Netflix.  Other then gas which is necessary, food is my next highest item on the budget.  There is SO much food in my cupboard right now.  It has been there for a long, long, long time.  My goal for this month is to only buy milk, eggs, and very little else.


Starting Wednesday, I am going to start posting my 'emptying the pantry' recipes. I'm sure some of them will be wonderful and others will be kind of sad.. The good thing is that I do have some meals frozen and my mother is giving me strawberries and some lunch meat before her trip to Vegas... This should be interesting!

Christmas Stockings... again..

Thank goodness for all this knitting!  It keeps me extremely busy and keeps my mind off of the lack of cable television at my house.   Anyway, since last Wednesday, I've almost finished the tops of three Christmas stockings for my nephews.  Hopefully, tomorrow I'll learn how to turn the heal and complete them before next week.

I know that these are stockings, but I love the green stripes so much I want to make a scarf with the extra yarn...  who wants a scarf?

A few weeks ago, I decided to make homemade sugar scrubs to give as Christmas gifts to parent volunteers that help in the library.  They will also make a nice something little (and inexpensive) add on to gifts I give family and friends.  


What started off as a great idea for presents turned into me becoming obsessive about making tons of scrubs.  After starting with citrus mint, I found a vanilla brown sugar scrub recipe that is beyond amazing.  It has been in the teacher bathroom for a little over two weeks and is gone.  It seems to be a huge success.  Most of all, I have used entirely too much of it and it was supposed to be gifts... I'll just have to make more.. I think I will do that right now.. :)


Recipe: Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn

Citrus Mint Sugar Scrub

 Speaking of Christmas stockings, and presents, here is my brand new Christmas tree.  Usually, I run to Lowes or a local parking lot selling trees, but this is the first holiday season that my roommate has lived here and she's deathly allergic to pine trees.  My wonderful mother brought over an artificial tree today while I was at work! :) It is perfect, was very easy to set up, and fits my room nicely.  Someday, a real tree will litter my living room with needles, but this year I'm very happy with this artificial one. :)

 <--I took this from my sister, I think? 

Christmas stockings and 'My So Called Life'

It's been such a long time since I've blogged!  This is mostly because I haven't finished anything.  The wine colored cardigan sweater just needs the sleeves and finishing work done and I'll be able to wear it.  Although knitting this has taken a very long time, it has been such a fun project.  The faux cable twists look really pretty and the yarn is such a great color.  Hopefully I can post the finish product soon.


Last Friday, Knit1 opened their store for a wonderful Black Friday event.  All yarn was 20% off.  They offered wine, food, and open for people to knit.  I ended up buying quite a bit of yarn, probably too much! Luckily, most of the yarn has a project to go with it.  


At tonight's knitting class, Margaret gave me the Christmas stocking pattern.  I have four stockings to make. They will be gifts though, so I'm just going to focus and try to get them done as quickly as possible.  I ended up purchasing the Addi Turbo needles (16" size 9) because the size 6 that I'm using for my sweater are SOOO incredibly amazing.  I never knew that the needles could make such a difference in how much fun knitting is, but these making the yarn glide very smoothly. Yes, I am completely aware of how dorky this makes me seem. :)


Anyway, pictures of all my still unfinished products will make their way onto this blog sometime very soon in the future. 

Baby Mila.... haha

Cardigan sweater!

Although a new post has been a long time coming, I have been knitting like crazy.  A few weeks ago, I started knitting my first cardigan sweater!  It's a marroon/purple color with cable ribbing along the bottom.  The back and front left are almost done.  A slight mis-measurement will force me to tear out a few rows on the back to make the arm holes a bit bigger.  However, it looks very pretty at the moment and I can't wait to finish and wear it.  Hopefully it looks nice and not like a bulky grandma sweater! 

The beginning of the back.

A few weekends ago, Mark and I made oatmeal glazed cookies.  This was after he helped me carry in the antique aluminum topped table that spent nearly two years hanging out in the garage.  Anyway, we made WAY too many cookies, but used my pyrex mixing bowls and had a wonderful time. :)

This weekend, Mark and I took Mila for a walk and this is what it looked like.  The fall colors are outstanding and the views are very pretty from the top of the hill.  Mila loved the puddles and was a muddy mess after two hours of walking.  

Footy pajamas and magic blankets

This blog post has nothing at all to do with knitting.. It has to do with being cold.  Claire and I were sitting here freezing and decided that it was silly to complain about something and not try to fix it.  Two long very hot showers later we are sitting wrapped in 'magic' blankets and drinking a nice glass of Relax.

You may be asking yourself right now, 'What is a magic blanket?'.  Magic blankets are soft enough for baby but big enough for me (courtesy of E.Claire Smith's personal dictionary).  They are really like being wrapped in a cloud.  I was getting warm and I mistakingly thought that the house was getting hot, but then got up to do a few things and got cold again.. These are like electric blankets without the electricity or fire hazard.

Claire took the relax and watch tv to the extreme and put on her penguin footy pajamas.. I'm sure these are comfortable.  More then that they are a large mixture of cute and funny.  I'm not sure how she isn't burning up wearing that and having a magic blanket on her.

Mittens, cowl, and blanket, oh my!

This weekend, Mark and I drove to Meadville for the first birthday party of our friends' daughter.  They have a really cute house with a large yard that is bordered by the woods.  They really have the 'American dream' kind of life with their adorable baby, house, and golden retriever! :) 


Although we were busy most of the weekend hanging out and having fun with a bunch of their college friends, I did manage to squeeze in a bit of time to work on knitting the cowl I started this week.  My grandma bought this really pretty yarn at the beginning of the summer.  It sat in my yarn cupboard just waiting for the right project.  

Berroco 'Memoirs' (wool and mohair)
Color: 7706
Dye Lot: 36

Earlier in the week, I finished my left mitten and have everything except the thumb on the right one finished.  I really love making them! I started on the right mitten on Wednesday and got everything except the thumb by Friday!  They're really quick to make.  Next time, I'll decrease the rows in the hand by two to make it a little shorter. 

Dexter wanted to fight the mitten..

My sister Jill thinks that mittens are a pain and that you can't type on your phone or push buttons.  It gets so incredibly cold here in western PA that mittens make a lot of sense.  She may get a pair and will have to wear them and then realize how warm they keep your fingers.

Jill better like whatever I want to give her... There is a very small chance of me making gloves.

After this cowl, I am focussing hardcore on the blanket for Tim's new baby who will be here around November.  I do need to decide on a project to begin at my knitting classes... I'm not sure what to do.. I may want to make a cardigan or learn how to cable or color work.. who knows!

Pretty picture from summer:

Canada.. We had so much fun!!! 

I lost my cat & shouldn't knit a sweater.....

Today was one of those days where you lose things that you shouldn't.  I lost my cat for a few hours. Luckily, upon returning to my house, he was chilling out in a bush.  I was thrilled and he was tired and smelled funny.  All is now well...

Once Dexter was safe inside the house, Jill, my roommate Claire and I all started eating Chinese food. I have finished one mitten (except the thumb) and stated that now I wanted to knit a sweater.  They both gasped and exclaimed that my sweater would look dumb and bulky.   Now, I must knit an awesome sweater just to prove them wrong.. I think this is possible. If I choose a 'non' granny yarn and a great pattern, I should be able to knit an amazing cardigan.  However, once this cardigan is knitted, they will not be allowed to borrow it... (this is an official statement that can be referred to at the moment Jill and Claire decide they love my knitted cardigan. )




Anyway, here is some art work that I did about a month ago at Jill's house.  It is three boards with pages of books glued and a tree with birds painted on it.  I think it looks pretty awesome in my house.  If you ask Jill, she will tell you that this is the best painting she has ever seen (yes, I may have trained her to say this.).  Anyway, it may not be the best thing ever, but nothing is better then creating something that you can put up on your own wall.. :) 

Awesome Goodwill find:

       Flowered coffee airport.... makes my day.  Let's have a party where coffee will be served... :)