daily yarns 'n more

friday chit~chat and photos

For this post I'm going to put in some pictures that don't really pertain to each other but I wanted to share with you.

On our trip last weekend we stopped for lunch.  We checked on the GPS and saw an A&W up ahead.  Haven't been to an A&W in years.  They did have where you could eat in your cars but we chose to go inside to eat.  There's nothing like having a good old fashioned mug of root beer from A&W.

Ever been to a pork chop feed?  Well, we have been to two of them.  One last year when we went for Grandparents Day and again this year.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy!  Is all I can say.

I heard that they grilled about 900 pork chops.

 

 

Next up, is a great bargain I found the other day over at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Since it's starting to get colder outside this beautiful throw caught my eye.  It was originally $19.99 marked down to $9.99 then 33% was taken off of the marked down price, but it gets better.  I had a 20% coupon which brought the price down even more.  I don't know why I didn't get a few more of them.

Golly gee whiz, do I miss watching hockey.  Dan is the Assistant Coach for his former Varsity High School Hockey team.  He runs the offense and Ryan a former teammate of his runs the Defense.  So the other night Jim and I along with Lauren went to a game.  It was a lot of fun.

There's nothing like seeing that face off close up.

I made this for supper last night.  I found it in my "H" cookbook...Gourmet Pizza.  This was not your run of the mill everyday pizza.  I will definitely make this again.

Oh yeah,

it's

my

birthday

today

and I'm going to enjoy it.

 

Since we have Church services tonight, Jim had a "surprise" birthday for me, and it was a surprise.  It wasn't my birthday yet so I didn't suspect anything.  We have no birthday candles so Jim found the smallest ones he could I guess.  The grand kids always love to sit at the table and help the birthday girl or boy blow out the candles.  Shan beat everyone this year.

I hope your week has been good and you all have a wonderful Friday.

from the past

In Minnesota there is a line of cabins that have long since been abandoned.  It's on a stretch of highway that has a few small lakes.  On our trip last weekend we stopped and I jumped out to snap a few shots.  Usually we just zoom on by and just admire what we just passed.

There is just something about abandoned buildings that just draw you to them.  I'm not sure what it is.  Some people may see just falling down old buildings that are an eyesore.  But, I see beauty in these old buildings and ruins.  It gets me to thinking about what life was like when these old buildings were in their prime of life, and about the people who came to stay in these cabins on the lake.

  

 

  

 

i've got a bug

The knitting bug that is, as if you haven't noticed.  I've been really working the needles lately.  I have this book, Mostly Mittens by Charlene Schurch.  Only I couldn't find it.

So I looked on Amazon for it.  I did find it there only the cheapest one I could find was $63.06.  Yikes!  I was not going to pay that price for a book I already have, and I bought mine years ago for only around $12.00.  I can't even remember where either. 

I love this book and I did start to make a pair of mittens. Jim got me some yarn for Christmas one year.  I guess I was too timid to keep going.  But, not any more.  Aside from socks this is next on my list of things to make.

Okay, back to my book.  So yesterday I looked high and low for my book.  I knew I had put it somewhere.  When I had decided to move my sewing room upstairs, I packed a lot of my books and magazines away.

But, I found it after searching for a bit.  This is the coolest book and like cookbooks I love looking at it.  You can tell by the tape on the left side of the book that it's been read.  It wasn't like that when I got it.  I couldn't believe the price for this book now.  I think I'll hang on to this one.  I think it's a keeper.

felted bag

I did finish the felted project last week, but with going out of town I didn't have time to put the finishing touches on it....like the button and snap to hold the bag closed.

This is how the bag looked after I finished knitting it.

Then it went to this process called felting.  I started out doing it by hand but then I threw it in the washing machine to finish up the job.

  

The finished project.  

  

  

I love it, and can't wait to start on another knitting project.  I am eyeballing up sock patterns to make.  That's next on the agenda. 

30 years later

On our trip to Minnesota we went back to the place where we spent our honeymoon.  Not much has changed.  It's a small quaint town that has lots of history in it.

 

This is the gate that leads into the town.  These gates get closed to keep the town from flooding.

 

Now, take a look at those beautiful homes outside the gate and how high the gate is.  It's sad to think if there were ever a flood those houses would be under water.

  

Anyone can close the gates too, as Jim is checking out.

  

Like I said some things never changed.  I'm not really sure if this road is still in it's original state.  It's not being used any more so this must be how the road used to be.

 

I really remember this corner from 30 years ago.  I thought this building looked neat how it was built.  As we walked around town we went in a couple of the shops and of course I asked a local about a yarn shop.  I should have taken a picture of it, but I did get some yarn and patterns and this is what I made during the trip.

 

We hope to go back and spend some more time in this quaint town.  There is a lot more that I could post about.

sunday bike ride

Yesterday after our Sunday lunch, Jim and I went for a 9.5 mile bike ride.  It really felt good to get out, especially after sitting in the car driving for 2 days.

 

We went on the river trail that we walk Sadie on.  Only this time we went for a much longer time and saw parts of the river trail that we hadn't seen before.  The trail was full of bikers and hikers. 

The bridge over the river is always a favorite spot of mine.  When the river is high it is so beautiful. 

  

  

Taking a rest along the way.  It was pretty warm riding, but the day was really nice and I don't think that we'll be having too many more nice Sundays like this one.  So, who wants to stay indoors?

fall colors

Driving to our daughters house on Thursday we took the back roads.  The colors were beautiful.  But, for a trip that should have been a 7-8 hour drive, took us 12 hours.  We stopped along the way and just took our time getting to our destination.

Here are a few of the colors we spied along the way.  The rolling land in the northwest part of our state is really beautiful this time of year.

Most people think of our state as being flat.  But, not all of it is. 

  

I would love to sit on my front porch in the fall and view these beautiful sights.  Our trip was really nice and I plan to share some of it with you this week.

Have a wonderful Sunday. 

i found some neat books

                     

I found this book over at Borders today while I was looking through the Knitting section.  I thought it looked kind of interesting.  Jim and I are off to Grandparents day up in Minnesota.  So I thought that this would be good reading material.

Another book that looked pretty neat to me was this one and

                        

this one caught my eye too.

                          

I'll be gone for a few days, but I'll be back to post about Grandparents day.

starting to felt

I have been on my feet since my feet hit the floor this morning.  I was out of the house by 7:45 a.m. today.  I helped work in the kitchen for a funeral we had in our Church.  I can't even begin to tell you how many potatoes we sliced for Scalloped Potatoes and Ham.  An awful lot of them that's how many.  The good thing was, the potatoes were already peeled....Whew!  When I got home I laid my tired body down for maybe 10 minutes then it was time to get up to start to felt the bag I made.

  

I started out felting by hand then after about an hour I decided to cave and throw it in the washer.  I like to felt by hand because I not only have more control of the felting process, I love to feel it starting to felt.  I've never made anything other than a hat, scarf, dishcloth so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out when it's dry. 

it's sew cute

 

I received a package in the mail the other day.  I ordered a mirror from Julie over at Jane's Apron.  The perfect size for my purse and it is sooooooooo cute.  Instead of buying tissue paper Julie used old pattern tissue to wrap the mirror in.

  

This pretty much summed it up how everyone felt yesterday afternoon after our busy weekend.