Earthquake? Here in Oklahoma?

Holy Crap !!! Hubby and I were just heading to bed tonight.... when this very loud rumble felt like it was right under our house. The windows began to rattle. I thought that a huge water pipe must have broken.  Hubby thought it was a tornado coming down, and told me to get to the safe room.  It probably only lasted about 25-30 seconds, but I am just not in the mood..... Hope you all are well and safe tonight. I may be up a while catching up on my prayers:)

Glasses and Fleece Glass Cases for Haiti

I have been down for a bit with a bad reaction to an anti-biotic, so blogging has been at the

back of my schedule. Sorry all. Now I need to play catch-up reading everyone's blogs. There should be like an annual recipe book of all the shared recipes from bloggers for each year.

Not sure if any of you follow a food blog - insidebrucrewlife, but recently she has been

collecting glasses to take with her on a mission to Haiti. I had been cutting out hundreds of

sleep beanie hats out of fleece, and there was always this strip of material left that came

out right down the middle. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what I could do with that

piece, and I so hate to waste material.

We had already started buying reading glasses for Inside BruCrew to take on her mission,

and hubby asked me how I wanted to pack them safely for the trip. It just hit, that I could cut

the fleece and line them with cotton scraps. (Of course I was forgetting, the ironing,

pinning, sewing, pinking and turning all of these).

I think we made well over 300 of these glass cases. I think this might be a great project with reading glasses, for the shelters?  Though poor hubby had to help do the pinking on them. Both of our hands had these huge dents. I do really hope her mission goes well. If anyone needs a pattern for these, for your own missions, just let me know.

Baby Granny Afghans

I am still busy cutting fabric, for 2 major projects. (pics coming later, my dining room is a

total disaster, with piles everywhere, and I really hate to have anyone see it like that. My

hands are starting to bother me a bit. Seems like I always worry about carpel when I knit or

crochet, but I never thought cutting fabric would hurt so much.

I found this cute and easy free pattern up on the Red Heart Web Site. HERE. While you

are up there make sure you sign in for one of their 75 years sweepstakes. It's a trip and a

basket of yarn.. Two of my very favorite things.

I have always complained about never winning anything, but not anymore. I was like the

BIGGEST winner over at Bev's. If you haven't visited Bev's then you really must give her

blog a visit. Her Tunisian, crochet and knitting are superb and you can count on her jokes

always cracking me up !! Back in June I won her give-away, a $25 gift certificate to shop

at FiberOptica, the most luscious yarn shop on Etsy. Beautiful hand painted colors. I chose

a skein of Hand Painted Sock Yarn - in Rockin' Rose, a gorgeous color. I wanted to do a

shawl, so I ordered a second skein just in case. You can never run out when it's something

special like hand painted yarn.

A Curious Affair With The Postman

I should have known something strange was up today when I heard our postman honking,

and honking his horn. Here in the country they only honk their horn if there is something

important like a certified letter that needs a signature. I wasn't about to shut down alarms

and such and walk down to the gate, just for some business crap of hubbies.

On our stretch of road our postman has to travel down to the end of our road and then has

to return back past our house to get to one of the main roads. Today, he stopped again on

his return trip and just sat their honking again.

I must admit I was getting a bit peeved, but I managed to get to the gate, just after he had

pulled off and was traveling back into the city. Now I was really ticked, when I looked down

and sort of hidden just inside the gate was a package. Hmm?

We get little pink package slips here in the country, of when to pick packages up, not actual

packages. How very curious?

It was a very plain brown package. Ah a big brown package from one very special young

lady. If you haven't met Miss Pammy Sue, then you should and you can find her, most days

here. Don't leave now! Not until I show you just what was inside this package. Even the

postman must have realized how very special it was.

When I opened it I found the most beautiful pillow you can imagine.. Thank you Pammy, you

are such a dear. It is absolutely perfect !!! I love it so very much. So soft... and the colors...

I had to throw the new bedspread on in the Master bedroom, just to see it in all it's glory!!

Perfect.... One special 'Pammy Pillow'. Ha Ha!! Now that you have seen her gorgeous

crochet work , you can go see lots more over at Scotty's Place.

Starburst Down, Hexagon to Go

Crocheting rounds to each center, then re-pinning to a different color yarn, actually made this project (well actually 2 projects) go pretty fast.

The layout was actually the hardest part for me, with 2 squares just alike, I had to be careful not to get them close together.  Having tons of safety pins left over from my quilting days, really helped. I pinned the longest strips first, and pinned a paper number to each row. Then because I don't have any short-term memory, I drew a map, and finally pictured the layout. 

The border on the starburst is more solid stitches. I wanted more of a frame, then a border. I am still sewing the hexagon afghan together.

I am still in the cutting phase of my sewing projects, so no pics just yet.

Gathering Yarn -- and a Bit of Sewing

Gathering Yarn --

I started out a while back by gathering one skein of each color in my stash, all that was

worsted weight. I came up with the following:

Caron® One Pound: Azure
Caron® One Pound: Cape Cod Blue
Caron® One Pound: Claret  -
Caron® One Pound: Country Rose
Caron® One Pound: Deep Violet
Caron® One Pound: Gold
Caron® One Pound: Lace
Caron® One Pound: Leaf Green
Caron® One Pound: Nutmeg
Caron® One Pound: Peach
Caron® One Pound:  Purple
Caron® One Pound: Rose


ILTY  050 Cranberry
ILTY  080 Royal
ILTY  090 Navy
ILTY 102 Soft Pink
ILTY 130 Dark Olive
ILTY 140 Mid Green
ILTY 150 Toasted Almond
ILTY 160 Brown
ILTY 170 Dark Raspberry
ILTY 180 Forest
ILTY 190 Light Gray
ILTY 200 Grey Mist
ILTY 230 Light Peach
ILTY 280 Periwinkle
ILTY 310 Peacock
ILTY 320 Sea Blue
ILTY 340 Buttercup
ILTY 350 Hot Rose
ILTY         Dark Teal
ILTY 789 Pistache
ILTY 290 Orchid

RHC 0338 Teddy Bear
RHC 0360 Wood Brown
RHC 0737 Pink

RHSS 0254 Pumpkin
RHSS 0256 Carrot
RHSS 0319 Cherry Red
RHSS 0320 Cornmeal
RHSS 0321 Gold
RHSS 0322 Pale Yellow
RHSS 0324 Brt Yellow
RHSS 0327 Light Coral
RHSS 0334 Buff
RHSS 0336 Warm Brown
RHSS 0341 Light Grey
RHSS 0356 Amethyst
RHSS 0358 Lavender
RHSS 0360 Cafe
RHSS 0366 Mint
RHSS 0368 Paddy Green
RHSS 0373 Petal Pink
RHSS 0374 Country Rose
RHSS 0375 Raspberry
RHSS 0376 Burgundy 
RHSS 0378 Claret
RHSS 0380 Windsor Blue
RHSS 0381 Lt Blue
RHSS 0382 Country Blue
RHSS 0385 Royal
RHSS 0387 Soft Navy
RHSS 0388 Teal
RHSS            Dark Teal
RHSS 0389 Hunter Green
RHSS 0390 Hot Red
RHSS 0400 Grey Heather
RHSS 0505 Aruba Sea
RHSS 0512 Turqua
RHSS 0530 Orchid
RHSS 0579 Pale Plum
RHSS 0624 Tea Leaf
RHSS 0633 Dark Sage
RHSS 0656 Real Teal
RHSS 0661 Frosty Green
RHSS 0668 Honeydew
RHSS 0672 Spring Green 
RHSS 0718 Shocking Pink 
RHSS 0722 Pretty ‘n Pink
RHSS 0724 Baby Pink 
RHSS 0774 Light Raspberry
RHSS 0814 Robin Blue
RHSS 0885 Delft Blue 
RHSS 0886 Blue

TLC          Taupe
TLC 2368 Dark Brown
TLC 2673 Medium Thyme 

Then I started out making 4 centers from each color yarn... 2 for a hexagon afghan and 2 for a starburst afghan, that I had seen over at Crochetville forum..

I then pinned 2 centers to each skein of yarn in it's box, making sure each skein had a set of centers pinned to it before, I started crocheting the first row.

I have a sewing project that I am working on right now so I have taken a break from crocheting and knitting. It's a charity, and even though I said I won't get involved with anymore internet charities..... well, this one is more of a hands on.... details tomorrow...

Spring Fling Blanket

A while ago I saw this afghan pattern here at Scotty's Place quite a while ago, where Miss Pammy had done it in such lovely soft colors. I really needed an afghan that could go anywhere and be thrown right onto the ground. Be it a picnic, or an early morning soccer game, I knew this afghan would be washed and washed almost every weekend.

The Spring Fling Afghan is made with Red Heart Super Saver, in Spring Green. The original pattern which you can find here has a plain center. It was too plain for me so I just used a yarn needle and embroidered a center ring of stitches, to give it more color.

These are some beautiful tomatillos, that I had to buy at the grocery store for my Salsa. We planted the purple variety in our garden, but they didn't do as good as the old fashioned green ones.

'Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving', has a recipe for Tomatillo Salsa on page 82. It uses both vinegar and lime juice (probably the new regulations on changing the ph). Needless to say this recipe isn't very good, not at all good with Tostitos. But for some strange reason it is soooo good when it is cooked. We have tried it on chicken (slow cooked), fish (pan-fried)....

This is good Old Catfish fried on a layer of sweet onion, with the Tomatillo Salsa spooned on top. Hubby and grand sons, loved this one, with its absolutely wonderful flavors.