Putting up....

With one child away MLK weekend, I had time to put my first round of bbq sauce.  This is the first time I water bath canned a batch.  One stock pot of sauce resulted in 11 pints ready for the lower pantry shelves.

Next up - jam or marmalade!!!  I have the ingredients for both and just need an afternoon to put it all together and that may come yet this week.

With help from a class at the library, I've started my first sock, twice.... This is just the class sock but some how in less than three inches I managed to add two stitches so a happy ripping we did go.  Start no. 2 and so far all goes well.  I succeeded in creating the heel flap but I was not understanding from the pattern directions or the videos online how to created the heel turn so back to class.  Today with help, I got it!!!!
Now I'll finish the class sock and try the kitchner stitch to close the toe.  If it too causes problems, Wednesday a group of knitters gathers at Zook's and I will join them.


My first up for a pair of socks will come from a skein of Black Bunny Fibers, South Street.  I picked up this skein last year when Carol was doing a book signing at Loop.  Now in Indiana, South Street is a fun remembrance of my time working on Lombard, one block north of South Street.  This will be a simple sock so the colors show to maximum beauty.


As we are all settled in here, Ms. Tina has begun updating her followers on the trauma of relocating and her new location.  She can't have her entourage neglected.  Her major complaint with the move is that her humans get to move about the full house, but she is only given reign over the family bedrooms and sitting room.

Christmas week recap

Our first Christmas in our new house was a family affair.   But how to spend 12 days with the kids and DH in our new town...?  A break in his schedule brought DH home the weekend before Christmas and kept him here until the 10th.  Wow, he has been around for a long time.

We put up the Christmas tree.  Talk about massive levels of frustration when strand after strand didn't glow.   Thanks to those  strands of lights that just wouldn't light full or at all, one tree was only happening. With the help of LB & MM, the tree was up and decorated.  We turned on the new base for tree rotation, and after a couple of hours rotation the lights started going out.  Since the base for my tree broke, we had to get a new and one that rotates would be a bonus.  With added patience of DH (no I'm not inventing this), we found that the lights turned out for half the rotation.  The base is going back to Brylan after Christmas is put away.  The replacement better work or I will totally loose it.

For the first time most of the Christmas village came out of the boxes.  These two sets are in the main living room and dining room.  With 4 different firehouses, we put one in each guest room to serve as a holiday night-light.  I also put other pieces in the breakfast nook, front entry, and guest sitting room.  

I'm already planning some changes to my displays for next year.  Part of the changes I'm sure will involve more "staged" settings, and other trees in the house.  Heck we have more then enough ornaments to decorate trees through out the house.

Thanks to the Eagles Theater & Honeywell Center, we had four days on movies to enjoy.  The kids we really up for seeing The Polar Express and Home Alone.  I wanted to see the original Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Carol (Alistair Sims as Scrooge) on the big screen.  With free popcorn at each showing, we had lots of fun with movies & popcorn all week.  

Along with the movies, DH and the kids spent time at the Y playing basketball, tennis, and hitting the pool during my therapy sessions.  We were so thankful for this high activity time to pull off some of the excess energy that only consecutive days home bring on. 

New Year's Eve brought a return guest from the Thanksgiving holiday.  With an early New Year's celebration with his parents done about 10:30, he enjoyed ringing in the New Year with DH, LB, & MM.  I didn't make it this year.  I was so wiped that by 11:15 I was in bed and snoozed through the end of the year.   

2011 continues our year of firsts here in North Manchester, what a lot to look forward to.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

I gave myself this...

It's a set of Thangles and the fabric for the first block in the Buck A Block club from my LQS!  I joined this project since I have the time.  With all our changes and my 45 second commute, I think starting a quilt top is possible.  Those who know me may wonder at the purple.  The color theme is purple, green and off white, which will be perfect for one of our rooms.  So my first bed size quilt goes for a guest room instead of ours or for family but that's what timing does sometimes.

I don't do the whole New Year's Resolution thing.  After reading this post and with all the changes in our life, I decided it's time to look at where I am and define a purpose to what I'm doing. Part of defining my purpose is to focus on things, people, and what I do.  Our move has blatantly shown that we have too many things and keeping up with all of it takes too much time which directly impacts other things we want to do.  So beyond my new quilt project, my first project of purpose is a strategic purge of things for myself and the family.

Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores will be seeing frequent trips from me.  Of course I'm certain there will be many rounds of "but I really need/love this & that," so I'll keep you updated on where we end up.