I'm Sweatin!

I stumbled upon this while browsing in Zeller's the other day. I have been looking for these on dvd for years! I was so excited. I had all of them on VHS but our last VCR bit the dust a few years ago and at the price of a new one we haven't bothered to purchase a new one as they are more expensive than a cheap dvd player and I couldn't see buying one just for the older tapes we had to play. I kept my Simmons tapes, I just couldn't part with them. They'd been good to me and I held out for some hope that we'd transfer our tapes to dvd.

So when I saw them I had to buy them. I found three and I bought them all. On Saturday morning I did it for the first time in years. It was a lot of fun and I actually remembered the moves so I wasn't stumbling around like a goof and it felt really good. I enjoy the music and it almost doesn't feel like you're working out, well until the next day. Yesterday my calves were definitely letting me know I had worked out so it is going to be very beneficial. I plan to alternate doing it every other day and hopefully I can shed some pounds in the process. Lately I've been finding my legs getting really achy and that is generally a sign that I am not moving enough so I'll see if this helps.

I called my MIL as she has one of the tapes and I wanted to know if she wanted them or knew of anyone who did. I hate to see them just tossed out as they are quite good. She's checking with her sister who is currently doing WW as she had been looking for these videos for a bit. I'm glad to share them.

I love these slippers

I found these through my sis and then I queued them up in my Ravelry to make for Christmas gifts. For me, they are the easiest slippers I've made. There isn't any guess work, just follow the pattern and a bit of quick seaming produces nice toasty slippers that stay on the feet!

These ones are made in Vanna's Choice, dusty Blue for my MIL to put in the Christmas basket I am making for her and my FIL. I am making him a pair next in some Bernat Beralla in a nice silver grey.

They can be found here, there is another site but it seems to have disappeared, if you Google Irish Ewe you'll see what I mean. I first got the pattern from them.

However you come across the pattern if you are a knitter these make a really quick knit for a last minute gift and they use very little yarn. They say they can be done in an hour, I must be a slower knitter as I usually do one slipper per evening and that's about 4 hours total knitting time. You also don't have to use anything fancy, you probably have leftovers in your stash to make a few.

Shawl Done!!!

This was a quick and easy knit - 3 days and it's done, actually 2 as I didn't work on it yesterday. I modified the pattern a tad to fit my 7 yo niece and according to the measurements my sis gave me this should go past the toosh and be nice and cozy.

One more Christmas gift down - too many to count left to go...lol!

One of My Christmas Knitting Projects

I am making this shawl for my 7yo niece for Christmas. I found it while searching on Ravelry for Prayer Shawls and I thought it would be so nice and snuggly. Her mom thinks it's a great idea and she can wear it in class during the chilly winter months to keep warm. I found the Coral Gable colour of Homespun quite nice, it's not a flat colour and I think it is knitting up very nicely.

I've named it 'A Hug From Auntie'.... because on Ravelry that's what you do, name your projects, it's so much fun to choose a name. I will have to make it smaller but I have to decide when it's big enough. For the adult version it calls for 9 repeats of the pattern, I'm thinking 5 or 6 might do it.

It's knitting up so quickly I am at about 35% of the way already and I just started it last night. I think even if I was to make the full size adult version I could make it up in a couple of evenings. It only requires 2 balls of Homespun for the adult size. It would make a great last minute gift. I am thinking of making one for my Granny. The more I work with the Homespun the more I like how it feels, it's just so wonderfully soft.

A True Ukranian Perogy

I managed to get my hands on one of these perogy makers. A girl at work brought me one from her mom's stash. I have never used a perogy maker before so this will be a first. I like the idea of it and it does come with a recipe for dough and I think I'm going to give it a whirl. I think I'm going to spend Saturday morning making up the dough and rolling them in the afternoon. The recipe calls for chilling the dough for a couple of hours. Now I will need a new rolling pin as I think a good heavy rolling pin would help with this type of dough. Now for the filling, I am debating between a simple potato and onion or potato and cottage cheese or cheddar cheese. The only filling I haven't made before is the potato and cottage cheese.

I've volunteered to make perogies for Thanksgiving dinner so I thought rather than buy them from our local Ukranian Co-Op that I'd try to make them from scratch again. My problems with making them in the past have been that the amount of filling I can get in makes them a rather flat perogie and I like them to be a little on the plump side. I'll see how this gadget works.

While looking for an image to use I found a website that sells the maker if you are so inclined to give it a go.

My Granny

So far it seems that my Granny is healing up well. Unfortunately her memory is a great concern. We first thought it was because of the morphine but she hasn't been on that for days now and she still is in such a confused state. I am worried that this might be permanent. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

My sis came into town late Wednesday night and spent considerable time with her and I know that was very special to Granny. Between her and I, I think we were the majority of her visitors. For some reason the grandchildren of our family seem more concerned than her own children.

Life has been so hectic and tiring - it would have been nice to have an extra day to recover but I'm trucking along. It's funny how stress affects you. Yesterday I was watching a show in the afternoon and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I finally gave in and had a nice long nap.

I think the reality of the situation finally hit me as in church on Sunday I was extremely teary. Perhaps I held it in, I'm not sure. It did feel good to release some of it.

I'm trying to keep as normal routine as possible. My knitting is keeping me really busy. I had previously thought I could even run a contest as my stash of cloths is running over - but then I have received many requests from family members and I think they have dibbed out almost my entire stash. Maybe sometime this winter once all my holiday knitting is out of the way.

Update

Thanks for the prayers. She is doing great, made it through surgery like a trooper and she's even getting her appetite back. I am ever hopeful that she'll come out of this just fine, thankfully she only needed a pin and not a full hip replacement.

Prayer Request

My 93 year old Granny is undergoing surgery for a broken hip. She has a 50/50 chance of making it through surgery as her heart isn't very strong.

Sister Knitting

Here is a picture of the projects me and my sister were working on together when we visited in August. Mine is the Cobblestone sweater sitting on the chair in the top picture and my sister was knitting this beautiful Liesel in a lovely handpainted Cascade, it knit up so beautifully.

If you look closely in the second picture you will see that we were having a little cocktail as we knit. She made these wonderful Italian cocktails called Campari, very tasty. We also had some pink champagne and of course tea! And the view was perfect a nice view of the ocean, isn't it breathtaking!

Some of our best moments were on these two chairs doing some fun sister knitting!

Fun Meme

I stumbled upon this MeMe and I was at a loss for inspiration so I chose to do it. If you feel like doing it you can comment and I'll pop by and learn a bit more about you - if not you can just learn more about me.
ACCENT: I don't think so, although I guess it's just a general Canadian accent.

BREAKFAST OR NO BREAKFAST: I have been trying to eat breakfast lately. I make a big pot of steel cut oats and then in the morning I can just microwave up a bowl and have a hot and hearty breakfast.

CHORE I DON'T CARE FOR: Vacuuming

DOG OR CAT: I like both – I used to be a cat person and then we got our Oliver, a cute Beagle and I am totally a dog person too!

ESSENTIAL ELECTRONICS: PC, DVR, Cell Phone

FAVORITE COLOGNE: Chanel # 5 and Opium - of which I have never had either.

GOLD OR SILVER: Gold but I like silver too - oh I can't decide!

HANDBAG I CARRY MOST OFTEN: My new Bagallini!

INSOMNIA: Nope, I sleep like a baby!

JOB TITLE: Admin Professional...lol!

KIDS: 2

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: House

MOST ADMIRABLE TRAITS: Honesty and trustoworthy

NAUGHTIEST CHILDHOOD BEHAVIOR: Breaking my eye glasses and saying that it happened by accident. Hey it was hard to wear eyeglasses from age 6 in school.

OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: A few times, nothing major.

PHOBIAS: Heights and bugs

QUOTE: “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” - Mother Theresa

REASON TO SMILE: Great Family

SIBLINGS: 4

TIME I WAKE UP: between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m., usually closer to 7:00 the darker it stays in the morning – I am not a huge early morning person but I don't sleep in really late.

UNUSUAL SKILL OR TALENT: I can write using my feet.

VEGETABLE I REFUSE TO EAT: Egg Plant

WORST HABIT: Eye rubbing

YUMMY STUFF: Hmmmm, anything baked is good. I am a carb-addict!

ZOO ANIMAL I LIKE MOST: Lions – they are so regal!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I got this recipe from the October 2008 Canadian Living and I just had to make them. I am very fond of pumpkin muffins and these are very delicious. It calls for a Maple Cream Cheese Spread to spread on the tops, but instead I used my piping bag and squeezed a little bit of the spread right inside the muffins.

They store at room temperature for 2 days or they can be frozen for up to two weeks.

What I have been doing is packaging them up into single ziploc bags for my DD and her snack is ready to go - kept nice and fresh in the freezer.

1 3/4 c. Flour
3/4 c. Packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
2 eggs
3/4 c. canned pumpkin
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves and nutmeg; mix in 1/4 cup of the walntus.
In separate bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, oil and vanilla; pour over dry ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Spoon into prepared pans. Sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Bake at 375F(190C) until tops are firm to teh touch, about 20 - 25 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool.

Maple Cream Cheese Spread:
half package 80z cream cheese
1 Tbsp. icing sugar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Beat cream cheese until smooth, beat in icing sugar, maple syrup and vanilla until well blended. Serve muffins with spread or use a piping bag inserted about one inch into each muffin and squeeze spread in until the top of muffin starts to crack slightly...enjoy!

More Goodies for my Stash

Here are my newest additions to my stash. The lovely variegated is going to be a February Lady Sweater and this is some gorgeous yarn - Dream in Color Classy, very nice. The colour is named 'Good Luck Jade' and I love the haindpainted look of it, very rich. A bit of a splurge at $21.95/skein but it's worth it for the quality it will bring to this sweater. I daresay it won't be made until January with all my Christmas knitting to tend to, but I'm so excited to start playing around with it and see the colours work up.

The other yarn is from Cascade - another product that is hard to get here. One of our LYS has some colours but the price is $4 more/skein than what I got when I visited Three Bags Full in Vancouver. I have ordered it online for the same price as this but then I also have to pay shipping :(, it would be nice to have access to this store more often, although I'm sure I'd probably buy way to much yarn...lol!

I also bought some point protectors and some Hiya Hiya needles. I generally use Addi but it's getting freakin expensive to buy all the needles I need in the different sizes so I thought I'd give these a try. My sis says they are almost as good so I'll try them and see.