Are for looking back…
This was the first thing I saw yesterday morning when I out with Sherman in the wee, dark hours. The view stopped me in my tracks and filled me with such wonder. That glowing dogwood will fill my thoughts for many days to come!
I hope that you found things over the weekend that filled you with wonder too!
Happy Monday everyone!
Monday’s are never fun, but when Monday and Tax Day fall on The.Same.Day. Well, that should just be against the law, imo!
Happy Tax-Monday…NOT!
So, rather than dwell on the Monday-est Monday ever – let’s rewind the weekend a bit, shall we?
Friday, I managed to get a good bit of knitting done on my sweater, but it did not get anymore “knit time” during the weekend except for a few brief moments on Sunday. Still – borrowing a great idea from a brilliant blogger – I have visible progress! Woo hoo!
Happy hour was fantastic – martini’s with bleu cheese stuffed olives are simply divine! And, the meatballs were not bad either! Haha!
Saturday, oh Saturday… we wondered if Janoski’s might have asparagus in – but alas, it is still a couple of weeks out. So, back to the task of the day… taming the back yard. It took most of the day, but not as long as either of us imagined… which was a good thing. Steve grilled burgers for dinner (which as also a good thing!) Now, here is where our age factor showed up – by 6PM I was MORE than ready for bed – as was Steve. I wish I was kidding… but sometimes reality bites…and early bedtimes are a must! Haha!
Sunday brought rains and Palm Sunday church was wonderful as was the pedicure after church! Remind me to do that next year the day after “Back Yard Clean Up” because that massage chair… oh yeah! The day rounded out with a jump start on laundry, a wee bit of knitting, and omelets for dinner.
The perfect, and simple, ending to a too short weekend!
How about you? How was your weekend?
The weekend was full of all kinds of selfish pursuits! There was sewing and reading (and not one stitch of knitting! What??? Really, not one single stitch!)
Perhaps the best thing was this lovely little dress for Genevieve!
But, today these words are filling my mind, the absolute truth of them echoing in my head!
“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And, you’re two months back in the middle of March.”
– Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time, 1926
So, silently I welcome April – hoping to not encourage the clouds and wind to blow us back into March!
Notes on a weekend: I do not consider myself a pie baker, but this recipe intrigued me and 8 cups of frozen raspberries from our garden that I had done absolutely nothing with glaring at me every time I opened the freezer. So, out came the raspberries to thaw a bit while I put mixed the pie crust ingredients together on Sunday morning. My raspberry modifications: 4 C raspberries – slightly thawed. 3 Tbsp corn starch (next time I will only use 2 Tbsp), 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla paste, the juice and zest of one lemon. I needed to bake it about 8 minutes longer than the recipe called for.
Oh, and that corned beef… omgosh, it was hands down the best corned beef I have ever made – or eaten! If you have always felt sort of ho-hum about corned beef… try Andrew Z’s recipe. It will turn you into a corned beef fan!!
My quilt top is almost done! As is the back of Deschain – so you know that means I simply had to cast on a new project, lol. This will be the shawl I am donating to and Close to You won the great pattern debate. I wound the yarn while I watched the NCAA selection show (there were cheers for Michigan pulling a #2 seed despite losing the Big Ten Tournament to Michigan State) and the winding continued while we watched the Circus. But, cast on was achieved before I finally turned off the lights and headed to bed.
And, with that – the weekend is just a warm memory and the mundanity of Monday awaits me! How about you? How was your weekend?
Sometimes the best thing about a Monday morning is an in depth review of what you did over the weekend.
We have been in a bit of a “drink slump” on the Friday Happy Hour™ recently so I pulled up my Pinterest Gin Cocktail board and picked a new drink. Why gin? To me nothing says warm weather quite like gin and we are wishing for some of that here. I made this recipe for an Old Tom – it was okay, but we thought it needed a little something. My easy fix was to juice an orange and split that between the two cocktails (my orange, juiced, was roughly 2 ounces) and that was the perfect addition! This cocktail is bright and refreshing – the perfect slump breaker!
Saturday… oh Saturday!
I learned some lessons about my memory, telling time, and how the heck can a yarn vendor be a yarn vendor if they don’t have a SQ* of yarn. My apparently failing memory tells me that Indie Knit and Spin usually started at 10am in their old location, and I remember seeing something about an 11am start on FB, but actually reading the starting times might have been helpful. Why, even reading the FB alert on my phone might have been helpful! Yes, we arrived at 11am only to discover that 11-12 was the “pay preview.” I will leave Steve’s response to this to your imagination – but, let me just say – it was not pretty.
The biggest shock, however, came with the “yarn vendors.” How do they call themselves that if they only have **ONE OR TWO** skeins of yarn in any color????? I saw plenty of yarn I liked, but my intent was not to buy a skein or two of yarn to enhance my already out of control yarn stash! I was on a mission and the only purchase I was going to make would be to fulfill that mission! Imagine my shock when one vendor said to me and I am quoting: “You knit sweaters?” – as if this was a foreign concept! (also, HELLO!! I was wearing a handknit sweater, thank you very much!!) However, I persevered and tried a different tactic – I asked two different vendors if I could place an order for a SQ of yarn in a colorway. Their responses: “Not in that yarn, I don’t stock that yarn.” (Really? Because THAT IS ALMOST ALL THE YARN YOU HAVE IN YOUR BOOTH!!) And “That is a ‘unicorn’ color which means it was a mistake and it cannot be repeated.” – I almost wanted to stay in her booth for the remainder of the day to see how many “mistakes” she sold versus her “planned” colorways… almost. I did not and I really wish them luck with their “yarn hobby.”
There is, however, a silver lining to this disaster of a day, and it came from Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works!! She had 3 skeins of yarn that I thought would work but, I needed one more skein. She did not ask me why I needed another skein – she just started looking through some show kits she had and found a fourth skein! Really, this was the most AWESOME customer service!! Lisa… you win the day (and you got the sale!!) Thank you!! And, no – this yarn is not for this sweater… I figured that having just one sweater on my radar might result in disaster, so I had a backup plan! I will combine this gorgeous yarn with an enormous skein Wollmeise Lace yarn that has been in my stash for ages. I have not swatched yet…but, I have thought about it more than once this weekend! If you are in need of a skein or ten of yarn, I highly recommend Lisa!
All this yarn angst triggered a bout of Day Drinking which Church Brew Works happily obliged! It was the perfect combination of good beer and great food!
Sunday had some bright moments but those moments did not include very much time outdoors – thank you Gale Force Winds, but that equated to some excellent knitting time. There was also some meal planning for the week in an effort to reduce the “what’s for dinner” conversation – and if this prolonged discussion eliminates the daily “what’s for dinner” diatribe – I am all for it. Because that conversation is my least favorite one to have, yet it is the most frequent!!
And, there you have it… after unloading all that I am ready for Monday! How about you?
*SQ = Sweater Quantity
