A Gloomy Friday Post

 I took these pictures the other day when the sun was obviously streaming in, Good thing, because today has been about as gloomy as they come. The weather forecast was for rain, so I should have been prepared. This weekend it is going to turn cold and probably stay that way at least though Thanksgiving. Joy.

 Sorry if I sound a little grumpy. I don't usually like to share my bad moods with you, but sometimes I just can't help it. I was going to do a little reading until I realized that my Kindle battery is dead. It's charging right now so it should be good to go in a little bit. Definitely user error. I knew last night that it was getting low.

 I'm also waiting for the plumber to call me back. Our kitchen sink is stopped up again. I've tried everything I know to fix it and nothing has worked. I guess we will just have to go out for dinner tonight. Darn...

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week. It just sneaks up on me every year. My dad was here for a couple of days on his way to visit family in Tennessee. He will be back Sunday and then all of us will be at his house for Thanksgiving. It will be good to see David and hear all about how his psych rotation is going. From the way he talks on the phone I get the feeling that he's enjoying it. Grace has 10 days of college left. That's really hard to believe. She has decided not to participate in the graduation ceremony. It's so close to Christmas and she doesn't know anyone else graduating. I guess we will just have to celebrate her achievement on our own. Another dinner out perhaps...

Hope you all have a great weekend. I really hope that the sun is out where ever you are and that it shines here tomorrow.
Sally
PS As you can see, George is still with us. He actually seems to be better than ever, crazy cat.

Gobble Gobble

It was my turn to play "hostess" for my monthly stamp club get together. All that really means is that I got to cook dinner and collect the hostess credits at the end of the evening. I decided to go with a Thanksgiving like menu: turkey and stuffing casserole, green beans and sweet potatoes. I made a pecan pie for dessert, but I think everyone enjoyed the Fresh Market rolls and turkey shaped butter best.

As a little party favor goody bag I decided to dip pretzels in  white Ghiradelli melting chocolate and  sprinkle them with cute candy coated sunflower seeds. Very fall like don't you think?

 I packaged them up in little orange bags with these cute little turkey cards that I got for a dollar at Target. I think they were meant to be place cards, but instead of writing names on them I stamped the Gobble Gobble.

 The house smelled so good while I was cooking on Friday. Now I can't wait for the "real" Thanksgiving feast. Ours will be courtesy of The Fresh Market once again and I am perfectly happy to let those nice people do all the work.
Sally

Fall In The Forest

 

. With everything going on over the past 6 weeks or so, not to mention some pretty yucky weekend weather we have not been able to do much hiking this fall. Sunday was a beautiful day here in Louisville, so we decided to take advantage of it and hit the trails. We planned to hike the Tioga Falls National Recreation Trail near Fort Knox but it was apparently closed by order of the commandant due to blasting or some such thing. Needless to say we were a bit bummed, but not deterred so we headed to the Jefferson  County Memorial Forest and after a quick potty break set out on the Purple Heart Trail. It was 2 miles of what I'd call rugged uphill and downhill climbs. Very little flat ground of which I am quite fond of. I huffed and puffed trying to keep up with Alan. At one point I thought I might just sit down on a fallen log and refuse to go any further, but then some other hikers showed up and I didn't want to look like a looser. I will tell you the main reason for all of the photos is that I took a lot of breaks. Since I'm not a quitter, we eventually made it back to the beginning, all downhill at that point thank goodness. We enjoyed a little picnic and tried to take some selfies, but obviously don't quite have the hang of that yet. The leaves were gorgeous, probably a little past peak, since so many of them were on the ground. All and all it was a nice adventure. Hope you had a fun weekend and are looking forward to a great week. 

Sally

Done, Done & Done

 It only took two years to finish this quilt. You may remember when I was making it. I'm sure I showed you numerous pictures, because it was part of a Mystery Block of the Month project that I participated in the year we moved to Louisville. The quilt top took a whole year to make and then for several reasons it took me another 2 years to finish. I think to be honest, I was scared to death of this quilt. It's by far the biggest quilt I've ever made, probably the "fanciest" and I just had no idea what to do with it.

 Thank goodness I was given the name of a lovey quilter who makes her living machine quilting other peoples quilts. I dropped this baby off at her house back in September and picked it up a month later. I think she did a fantastic job. I may have almost cried when she showed it to me. 

I was feeling bad about not doing it myself, but after seeing her handiwork I'm so glad I didn't. 

Some things just really need to be left to the professionals.

I am have no idea just where it's going to go. It's actually a bit too big for my bed and do I really want my dirty dog sleeping on it? I'm sure the perfect location will present itself eventually.

Sally

Adventures In Spinning

 I joined a fiber club. Are you just shocked to hear that?. Blue Moon Fiber Arts is the same company that has the Socks that Rock yarn club that I joined a couple of years ago. The thing about clubs is that you never know what you are going to get. Some months you are pleasantly surprised, and others, not so much. When this fiber showed up at my door in August, I have to admit I thought it was a little too "wild and crazy" for me. I wish I had taken a picture of it be for I spun it. Now that it's all spun up and yarn I am totally in love with it. It's just so darn happy. Not sure what I'm going to make with it just yet, Maybe a cowl or a scarf...

 I was going to call this post "Four Bags Full", but now I only have two and a half bags and that just didn't seem right. My good friends Barb and Jorge sent me these gorgeous bags of wool for my birthday back in September. Since I was in the middle of spinning the rainbow stuff above I had plenty of time to enjoy looking at, touching and smelling each of these little 1 oz bundles of loveliness. I have to admit that I wasn't really sure I'd be able to spin them. The preparation is new to me and very raw in a good way.

 All I needed was a little confidence and to just do it. So fun! I just can't tell you what it's like. The fiber is in such a natural state that it just kind of does it's own thing. 

I'm just going with the flow and so far I think it's working pretty well.

 I'm afraid I might be hooked on Farm Genevieve. My next Blue Moon club order should arrive any day, but it's just going to have to wait it's turn. Right now I'm all about the neutral colors.
Sally

Sugar Crush Crazy

It all started with the purchase of this yarn.

Of course I knew that there was a game called Candy Crush that lots and lots of people who shall remain unnamed have been playing on their phones for quite some time.

I obviously do/did not have time for such nonsense.

Then, the yarn arrived and I decided that I should at least compare the colors to the candies in the game. 

 That was a very bad idea.

All I'm going to say is that both Alan and I have spent way too much time trying to get ahead of each other. I will not tell you what levels we are on (he might be winning) because then you will all know how really far behind the times we truly are.

If you have not yet fallen into the Candy Crush void, take my advise and just stay away from it.

This sock may never get finished...

Sally

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

 Saturday morning Alan got up and ran the Great Pumpkin 10K in the freezing rain. He wants me to make sure and let you know that he beat his previous 10K time by a good 8 minutes. Not a bad feat for a 51 year old man who was diagnosed with prostate cancer last week. I'm not going to go in to all of the ugly details other than to just let you all know that he is doing great. He has the best attitude possible and is ready to just deal with the situation. We are not really looking forward to what the next few months will bring, but the early diagnosis and the fact that Alan is generally in pretty darn good shape bodes well for a positive outcome.

I promise to keep you posted. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. 

Right now, everything is just fine.

Sally

PS Just in case you are wondering, George is doing great. He seems to be pretty much back to normal, at least for the time being. We know he has the heart issue, so who knows.