Scones and Crochet Fails

Well, I made scones yesterday. But not the ones I had posted the recipe for. These are Raisin Scones. I've posted about these before. This recipe is exactly the same as the one I used. The only difference is that the recipe I used, you have the oven at 425* for 12-15 minutes, instead of 400* for 15 minutes. 

I made some tea to go with it. I bought the Tetley tea a while ago at Meijers. And then last weekend we went to World Market, and I found the Yorkshire Tea. I wanted to try "British Tea". To see if it's any different than tea in the US.  😐 I mean... It's good. But. Meijer brand is all right, too.  I still have my apple tea cozy.  

Speaking of tea cozies, I had been in the mood to crochet one for a while. And I did. But....  I don't even know where my brain is sometimes. First off, you would think I would be able to tell as I was crocheting it, that it wouldn't fit any tea pot anyone has, unless it was a kids play set tea pot! I was supposed to use bulky weight yarn. I only did one strand of worsted weight..

And, it also should have two holes one on each side? 😟I don't even know. I must have been in La La Land...  I guess I will have to just throw this away. It looks more like a preemie cap than a tea pot cozy.

Then there's this. It's supposed to be a keychain purse. Look how small it is! Could I not tell when I was crocheting it, that I was going blind trying to see what I was doing? 😕 I put a bottle of nail polish and an old wine cork next to it so you can see how small it is. I don't know...  I think I need to take a break from crocheting for a while. 😝 At least the sky is blue today. Maybe I can go for a walk.

Rainy Day Plant Post (Again)

I hope you're sitting down for this one... It's another Breaking News story about plants. 😜 I bought this plant a while ago, it's a Jade plant. And one of my favorite plants, if not my favorite.  I used to have one, but it died when we moved. It was in the car and it was a freezing cold night. We stopped at a hotel. I should have brought it in the hotel with me, but we were all exhausted.

Anyway! I repotted it because it was getting too big for the pot it was in. Well, since I took this picture, it is almost too big for this pot. It must like the window I put it in. And the messy table I put it on. 😝 I honestly don't know how I am even keeping my plants alive, let alone they are doing good. I have a couple that aren't doing good, actually. My Calla Lily plant I have upstairs. I think it just needs better light. I don't have a good place to put it. Unless I bring it down here with my other plants. I don't have a good place to put it. This plant is getting too big for it's pot too. I could take a picture of it but this blog is already boring enough. 

These are some purple wildflowers I see all over here. I don't know what they're called. I want to take an up close picture and put it into Leaf Snap. This was down a road near our house a couple miles away.

It's raining and grey skies again today. This is about the third day in a row it's been like this. I am soooooo sick of grey skies. Grey skies and winter and bitter cold. Grey skies and rain. And mud...  Maybe I'll bake today. This was in the news feed this morning when I went on the computer. I've never made "true" Bristish scones, that look like biscuits. They probably say "American biscuits look like scones." And what they call biscuits are cookies for us. Ugh it's too early... 😝 

Okay, I went and got my Calla Lily plant upstairs, and brought it down and took a picture of it - next to my other one, that is doing all right. You can see it is not doing well...  I guess I will keep it in the computer room with my Jade plant and Christmas cactus.   

I also ordered a Life Alert bracelet. So if I ever get a life, I will be notified immediately. 😝

Bee Calm and Carry On

I wasn't going to blog today. But, I've had this card by the computer to send to one of my pen pals. And I got to thinking, "Where did I get that paper at?"  I googled online, I couldn't find anything. I went on Facebook to one of my card making groups, and the only thing I could find in the post about this card was "paper from Big Lots". I don't know if it was this paper, or the other card I posted about. Sigh...  

This is the whole sheet of paper, I was going to try and make a slimline card but it was too big. At least, I think that's what I was going to do. I only made this in 2022. I don't know where the heck I got the paper.  But, I also looked on here to see if I posted about it, and I hadn't. So I thought I would post about this card.

Since I am on about bees... This is another bee card I don't think I ever posted about. It's a trellis card.  I made it with what I have..  I wish I took better notes somewhere. 

This picture is with the card opened a little so you can see, the front "trellis" is open. I don't know if I sent this to someone or what. 

I've been attempting to clean my table off in here. What a mess. Oh, I guess I did post about how messy it is (it was worse than this yesterday..) 

In other breaking news, I never posted about my "new curtains". I might have written about them, but not posted a picture. We finally got some new curtains for the living room; because our animals destroyed the curtains that were in there, getting up on the couch and looking out the window. And by animals, I mean Elsie. Long story short, I said I want some for my sewing room too...   They match better than the ones I had, anyway.  And, the cats have already snagged these up. They lay by the window to get in the sun, and Eri gets in the window sill. Ugh...  This is why we can't have anything nice in this house. They were only cheap Walmart curtains. Oh well. Bee Calm and Carry On, right? 😜

Another Boring Post

I told you in my profile that I'm boring...  I finished one of the chair caddies. I couldn't put my phone in it, because I was taking a picture of it with my phone. So, I went and looked for an old phone to put in there.  I also didn't have a can of pop, or bottle of water. So I put one of my son's cans of La Croix in there. (That stuff gives me heart burn.) One thing I noticed that I did wrong, was the cell phone part is the wrong side of the crochet. So, when I do another one (Note to self*), make sure you are crocheting with the right side out. I always get things backwards, and inside out, and upside down in my brain...

Did you all have a nice Mother's Day? Ours was nice. My husband made me (my favorite) waffles with strawberries and whip cream. And bacon. (I just want waffles... 😁) Then we were going to go for a long boring drive. But, we didn't know where to. Then our son wanted to go, too. So, we ended up going to Target and the "mall" (it's not really a *mall*, it's what I would call a strip mall.) A short boring drive, to Target. 😄 I got a box of tea, and some notecards to make more of these with. Yeah. Big spender... (I think I mentioned before about how much crap I have... So.)  Then we sat in the massage chairs. That hurt. I haven't done that in a while. Then our son asked if we wanted to go out to eat for lunch. So he treated us to a coney island for lunch. (Aw, he took us out for Mother's Day!) Then when we came home my husband cleaned the garage out and organized it.    

 I have more pictures of random things, I could upload. Oh yeah... Hold on.

I baked some cookies last week. They were Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies, from this book. Basically they are peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with peanuts. I tried to find a recipe online, but I don't feel like spending hours trying to find the recipe. I barely had a cup of chocolate chips. And, I don't like nuts in my baked things. But, I was feeling ??? I thought, "I'll just try some". We had some peanuts leftover from when we went to Texas Road House a while ago. So, I cracked them all open and broke them in half and used those. (There wasn't very much.) What a pain. But, when there's "nothing to eat" (aka no junk food)...   

Made three pans, and filled up the whole cookie jar. They tasted good. There's still a few in there. 

When my husband asked if I wanted to go for a boring drive, I said "I guess". He said "Where do you want to go?" I said "The UK".    Later on I said, "I can go to the UK! The Ugly Kitchen".  I hate this old kitchen. (This house is 125 years old and the kitchen is ugly...)  Oh well.  I've had uglier kitchens!  I did take a picture of the garage all cleaned out, but... You probably could care less.  I was thinking this morning, "Now that the garage is cleaned and organized, I could set up tables in there for a garage sale." (Sigh... I would have to clean the tables off, though first..)   

~Well that's all for now~

 

I Bought Another New Pattern

Sigh.... I need intervention. LoL. I was happily crocheting along on my Babysaurus, then I bought the Rocket Ship. Then yesterday someone posted somewhere about this Crochet Chair Caddy.  I love it! I immediately went and got some yellow and green cotton to start the pineapple one. Sigh.... I ran out of the yellow!! UGH!! Now what...  I'll have to go to the store. Or eight different stores. There was no ball band (of course) so I will just have to match it up as best as I can.  So I (naturally, because I only have 10 other projects going right now) started another one. This is how I drive myself nuts. I think I have PAS (Pattern Acquisition Syndrome). (Among other things! Yarn Acquistion Syndrome, Paper Acquisition Syndrome..)  I got three big stacks of crochet magazines/booklets from my Aunt, before she passed away, too. 

This is just a few of them..  You would think I have every pattern ever published by now. Ugh...   I have too much stuff! I don't know how I acquired so much, or when...  I think when I joined the quilt group. I haven't even sewn in a while. My sewing machine is broken. What am I going to do with all the fabric I have?...Even if I sewed quilts, what would I do with them all? Then there's all my paper stuff.  I seriously do drive myself nuts. I don't want to buy one more thing craft wise. But I am going to have to to finish the pineapple chair caddy.  I need to stop watching videos or seeing things online about a new cute craft thing to do (which I don't have all the tools to make... and would have to buy another new thing to make it...)  It's a never ending pit.  

It's true....

Rocket Toy

 What? A post with no picture? Yup.. I bought a new pattern this morning: Rocket Ship Rag Doll.  I shouldn't, when I just started the dinosaur. But. I started the dinosaur because I wanted to crochet a toy, and I have had that rocket pattern in my favorites for a while. The little boy who I crocheted the preemie hat and booties for, his room is done in rockets. So....  I can if I want. 😝  He is still continuing to gain weight and make progress. So maybe he will be able to come home soon. Maybe I can send the dinosaur to his cousin- they were born only a couple weeks apart. (I can't remember exactly..) What little boy doesn't like dinosaurs? And this pattern, the eyes are crocheted so it won't be a choking hazard.  

I am being lazy today. I haven't even taken a shower yet. Ewww...   My husband is working, so...  I have been looking at old pictures lately from when we lived in Colorado. I kind of want to knit another Tychus hat.  Can definitely use all the hats we can get living in Michigan again..  I wish I could go back to this day And all the "problems" I thought I had then..  😞 And my boys were all little then..    Okay, this picture is relevant.. So I did post a picture. 😉

                                                 Crochet helps with almost everything. 

Babysaurus

I don't know why I wanted to crochet this.. Maybe because at least four people I know have had baby boys? 😄 Our boys loved dinosaurs when they were little. I don't know if I ever crocheted this dinosaur for any of them. I know I did a dragon. Mostly I did bears and Darth Vader and Perry and Spongebob and Gary the Snail.. Anyway!  I had bought two skeins of the Red Heart Speckled, and it has just been sitting there- and I don't know what I bought it for other than I like it. And I thought, "Why not?"  This pattern is called "Babysaurus" and it was designed by Cherie Leck. I cannot find it online anywhere. I think I found her Ravelry page, but no Babysaurus on it. It was published in "Crafting Traditions" (formerly Country Handcrafts), March/April 1996.  I know I've crocheted at least one of these, but it was pre-digital camera and pre- cell phone days..  And I don't think I even took pictures of them, but just gave them to people.   At least I'm crocheting again. 

 

My Afghan Has A Hole In It

😭

One of the animals no doubt.. Probably this one..

Maybe it wasn't him, but he is always "making biscuits" on his blanket I gave him (not the one above). And he probably was doing it on my afghan, too. I don't even know if it's fixable. This is it. It was a lot of work crocheting that! And a million ends to weave in.  Sigh...

Can you see how terrible our couch looks? Ugh... We only got it about five years ago. It broke like the day or next day after we got it. The long ?? part (I have no idea what it's called) where you can put your legs out, but it doesn't have an armrest? That part broke. And it's been breaking more over the years. Every time we moved, my husband would have to do something... (See the 2x4 he put on as a leg?) Yeah. It looks terrible. Not to mention the scratched up armrest from the cats (the one laying on it, so innocent looking..) would climb up. Instead of just jumping on the couch cushion. 

Well. All that to tell you, we are getting a new couch. It actually looks just like our old one did when we first got it. But, the sectional part is on the opposite side. I hope this one doesn't break in five years, too. We're supposed to get it in 2-4 weeks.

I was trying to change the sheets on this bed yesterday, and the cats wouldn't get off. So I just laid down. And I looked at the cats and saw they were both putting their paws out like this. Same paw, it was so cute... I said "Synchronicity Cats"

I'm A Day Late Again..

I'm a day late a lot, lately... Yesterday was 7 years since I adopted Cosmo! He does not look amused, does he? 😄 He's a grumpy looking boy. But I love him. He's really a sweetheart. Spoiled rotten, but a lovebug. He's my buddy.

I haven't felt like crocheting or knitting lately. Or baking. But, I have been doing paper stuff. I saw this on social media, somewhere... It's a card that you add things to. Just take an existing notecard you have, and add the little pockets.. And flap.

The flap folds out and there's a little pocket. And you glue an envelope to the back of the card, for another pocket. And there's a little pocket on the inside cover. I thought it was cute.

And another thing I saw on social media.. I actually traced a sticker I have, and made a little bunny head to put on the front. Edged around everything.

The front and back covers have little pockets. You make these out of index cards. 

And glue the two sides together to create a pocket for the middle. I love it. I made a few, and have a few ready to make.. I have neon colored ones from a card making project our son had to do for school. I was going to do Halloween ones with those. Neon green and orange..

This is another thing I saw on social media. It's actually supposed to be for junk journaling. But, I thought it would work to send happy mail to people, too. It cost $1.25? I think? To mail. I have a couple more of these I'm working on, too. I'm making one for myself, for my junk journal.

There's two little pockets. It's made out of a little paper bag. 

Our son and I went "thrifting", on Saturday. I had actually wanted to go to the dollar store and maybe get a massage in the massage chair at the mall. But he said "I was going to go to thrift stores, do you want to..." "YES".  😁 (He didn't even finish the sentence..) I trained the boy well. I used to go to all kinds of thrift stores and garage sales when he was young, and he loved it. This is one stamp I found that I liked. There were SO many stamps! We went to four different thrift stores. Can you believe I only found one stamp I bought???  LoL.  I have so many stamps, though. 

And a corner punch I bought. 

I used them both, right away. I had been watching You Tube videos, and one I follow was making ATC cards. So... I made an ATC card with the stamp and the punch. Our son was fooling around with it, when we got home. I had punched the very corner of a piece of paper, to see what it looked like. Then he took it, and punched it inside the corner. I was like "Ohhhh, I like that!"   After I made it, I was sitting there thinking, "What could I put with 'hello'?"  What about "Hello summer", because summer is coming... I was thinking about making these into a mini pocket letter. Then I made a flip flop one with a scrap of summer paper I have. I want to add more to that, maybe. Like a solid border? I don't know. The summer and flip flop stamps are from a dollar store stamp I have that I got a long time ago.

  I just love that stamp.. This is the one pictured above, I stamped it to see what it looks like on paper. It came out good, so I just cut it out. 😜    

I didn't think I had anything to blog about today, but I kept finding more pictures..  😄

I just wanted to add, the little preemie baby that I made the hat and booties for is doing well and gaining weight. 😍 He is over four pounds now, out of the incubator, and in a regular bassinet. He is still in the special care nursery, but doing well. 💖

Happy Easter, A Day Late

Yup, a day late and a dollar short. 😏 

It's just the three of us now 😞  I've been struggling to not think about us all not being together so I'm not going to go there. We had ham, cheesy hashbrown casserole, green bean casserole, candied yams, dinner rolls. My husband cooks for Easter, and other holidays. And I do the desserts/extras.

My husband said he wanted pineapple upside down cake for dessert this year, so I made that. This is the recipe I used. I forgot to upload the picture; but I made pickled eggs, too. 

I don't know if I ever posted a picture of my Easter salt and pepper shakers I got this year. And some Easter napkins I got at Meijers (to make cards with actually, not for Easter dinner. 😝 But I figured I would use them.)

I have had this picture waiting to hang it in the kitchen (to try and cover all the holes in that wall ugh.. It didn't even cover it all..) Anyway. The "artwork" (?) is a dirty dishes poem I think I've posted about before:

"Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell; while others may go hungry, we're eating very well. With home health and happiness, I shouldn't want to fuss. And by the stack of evidence God's been very good to us."

I wrote this poem to my husbands' late aunt, years ago. And she printed it out and drew the dirty dishes and leaves and everything on it and sent it to me. It was in a protective sleeve. Well, after moving 800 times it was getting ruined. I thought, "I should put it in a frame and hang it in the kitchen." Duh... So I finally did. Now I just need to fill in the holes and paint that wall. LoL. (It should have been done before we moved in here, so it's not really our responsibility. But it bugs me so bad!) 

Anyway. I was walking out to put something in the mailbox to go out today, and I saw these flowers 😀 I could have sworn they were not there last year. We have tulips and grape hyacinth that come up here in the Spring. So I was happy to see these. The tulips don't have any tulips on them yet. One has a big bulb but it's not opened yet. Coincidentally these are hyacinth, too. According to my Leaf Snap app...  

After we ate Easter dinner yesterday (we always eat early for some reason on Easter), my husband said "Do you want to go for a long boring drive?" We always used to go for long drives, and I would say "Why are we doing this long boring drive? Are we actually going somewhere, or just driving? This is just a waste of gas.. I should have brought my crocheting (or knitting).." I don't know why, but I would bring my crocheting, and it became "Long boring drives". Sometimes we do actually go somewhere. We found a candy store once when the kids were little and that became a thing.. Mostly we just drive and look at things and find new places. 

We went for one yesterday. I didn't actually bring this to work on. I actually started a different pillow. (Sigh...)  I was going to frog this, because it is not going well. I pulled the sides out for the picture. But, they are about two inches ? narrower than the ribbing and it irritates me so bad. But, I was looking at the pillow I had started on our long boring drive, and it is almost the same stitch. Sigh.... I thought, maybe I will just block the hell out of it and figure something out. I got this far on it. So, I actually frogged the other pillow that I just started. 😝 I drive myself nuts. 

I don't know if I ever posted the link for this pillow. The Pillow Cardigan. I hope it enjoyed it's time in the frog pond.🐸  Ugh that makes me want to crochet a frog. I actually have one started somewhere...  Focus, focus, focus.. 😣 

Flowers, Cookies, And Dunes...

Well, get ready for another super boring blog post..  My African Violet keeps getting more flowers on it! 😁 It has more buds, too.

And, I made cookies. 😱 Oatmeal Raisin. I hadn't made those in a long time. I know why, they never turn out good. I tried a thing I saw somewhere, where you form the cookie dough into a tall ?? tower? instead of a ball. Then it will bake up thicker. I don't even know where I saw it, I just spent a half an hour looking.. I don't know how to describe it either. It did help a little. The cookies were just flattening out and getting almost burnt before that.  

~Anyway~

My youngest son and I went to a dune state park last Saturday. I almost didn't want to go. It's two hours away. And two hours back...)  And I knew it would be a lot of walking...  But, I brought a crochet project and a book to read. And I wore my tennis shoes. 😝 These are just a couple/few of the pictures I took. The trail with a view of the lake.

The dunes at the top. I wasn't going to go down. It wasn't super far, but... It's sandy and hard to walk in. And I knew coming back up would be even 40 times harder than going down. 

But I went down. 👀 Not for the view... My son had gone down with Elsie. And I was getting nervous standing up there by myself waiting. (Like going down on the beach waiting would be any different...? I don't know..)  If you can see a black spot down the beach by the water, that's about where he was. Then he disappeared and I started to walk back to go up.  Well I couldn't remember which trail up to go on to get back to where we were! I started to panic. I was walking in the sand which was hard enough. Then I walked back ("I know I didn't go this way that far").  Ugh, I am losing my mind. Then I remembered I took a picture of some logs that were laying on the dune..

This is the picture. See? Taking pictures of everything does help! OMG. I am losing my mind. I was bad before chemo...   Anyway, I saw the logs and went back over to that trail and started to walk up. Just then I saw Eon walking down the trail. ?? He had walked in a big circle, back up another trail and over to the trail we were on. Kid has no fear. (He didn't have his phone with him, even though I told him he should bring it-and I didn't want to get separated in the first place because of that.)  So, it was all good in the end. I just about died going back up the dunes, though. I am still not back to normal/in shape from my surgery. 😟

I'm glad I went, though. We went into town nearby and walked along another (small) lake, and went to a Farmer's Market. We got "natural" treats for the dogs, and Eon got some goat soap (there was a goat there, too)

I think she said it's a Nubian goat? That has to be a lot of work. Not only going to the Farmer's Market and setting up your stall, but bringing a big fence and straw ? hay? (I don't know what goats eat), and your goat! 😐  

We got some lunch (even though it was 3 pm, we hadn't eaten though..) at a food truck, too. 

I finished the crochet project I brought, too. (Four hours of driving, I would guess...) It was just a hat. 

~Well that's all for now~