The Best Laid Plans

I had planned on showing some finished pictures of Aidez but after incorrectly calculating stitches once I joined the sleeves and started on the yoke and having to rip it back twice I am finally on the home stretch.  Since the first day of Autumn has come and gone and I don't have a cardigan to show for it yet I thought I would share my knitting bag. 

Please don't judge me...I know it's awful.  I use it for its form and function not necessarily its beauty.  This is an old bag I think I used to tote around baby stuff at one point.  The reason I like it so much is that it is surrounded by pockets on the outside.  An easy way to divvy up my stuff and the kid crap that I am inevitably toting around.  The inside is a large main compartment that is divided by a zippered divider pocket.  It also has a small zippered bag that is attached by a hook.  I have all my various accessorises in the outside pockets and on the inside is where I keep my knitting.  I just got The Knit Kit in the mail so a little reorganizing of my bag was in order.  I had to the knit kit because I was buying some birthday presents and needed a little bump to get my free shipping... right?

All of those notions are packed away inside the little knit kit.  Up at the top of the knit kit you can't really see it but there is a stitch counter.  It has a tape measure, scissors, stitch markers, crochet hook, point protectors, and a needle.  The perfect knitting "first aid kit" I ordered mine off Amazon, best price, and highly recommend it.

The next thing I carry with me in my bag is my mp3 player.  I realize most people have smart phones but alas I have a 'dumb' phone.  It only makes phone calls.  I have music, movies, pod casts, and audio books.

The next little bits I carry around are a pen, my notebook (not seen here), lip gloss, a hair clip, hand sanitizer, a calculator, lotion, eye drops, and the little polka dot flip-flop is a small nail kit.  These all tuck away nicely in the small outside pockets.  I usually have a pack of cards and a couple small toys to keep my kids busy (helps me get more knitting done)

Lastly I have a small knitting project in there.  This isn't my current knitting project it's a small one.  What if I run out of yarn in my current project??  The HORROR!  So in addition to whatever I'm working on I have this little number tucked in the bag.  A small zippered pencil case like you would find in a Trapper Keeper (do they even make those anymore?) holds the directions, extra needles, an extra stitch counter, and cable needle. 

My long term goal would be to either find a replacement bag that has all the same pocket appeal or sew my own.  Until then this little baby is usually close by to assist me, my MacGyver knitting bag.  What do you keep in your bag?

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My lazy tomato sauce

I am about to admit a disturbing truth about myself.....I hate tomatoes. This statement is terrible for a myriad of reasons the least of which being that I am 1/4 Italian. A sacrilege I know and one I have lived with my whole life. With this truth though is the knowledge that while I hate said fruit I also know they are extremely healthy. So in an effort to be healthy I have to hide tomatoes from myself. Yes, much like you would disguise healthy food for your children I find the need to do it to myself. So I faithfully grow tomato plants every summer and have a huge bounty. My kids eat them, I share with neighbors and friends. When those avenues of distribution have been exhausted then I make my lazy tomato sauce base.
Lazy Tomato Sauce
First get together a few pounds of tomatoes, and if you are fortunate to have some fresh basil and oregano handy then cut off some of that as well.

Wash and chop the above ingredients and add in a diced onion.  Throw them all in your crock pot and cook on low for a few hours

Turn off the crock-pot and let the mixture cool a bit. Then put the mixture through a food mill. Glop (when you are doing this with two kids running around you because they don't want the dragon to get them you are glopping, not gently funnelling, glopping) it all into jars, Tupperware, whatever you have and freeze. Now as the temperatures cool and more one-pot soups, stews, chili's, and casseroles make there way into our evening meals I will mix this little lazy sauce in. That way I can reap the summertime nutrients without having to actually "eat" them. Voila!


~Andrea

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My weekend....

Earlier this month Avery celebrated her seventh birthday.  Seven!!  I realize that in seven more years we will be wading thigh deep through teenage parenting.  I swear I was just a twenty-something yesterday with my biggest worry being if my clothes were clean for work and where I would be hanging out with my friends.  Now on my Saturdays I do things like hang a gagillion paper lanterns around my house and make a braid out of yellow streamers that covers the whole upstairs goes out the front door and ends at the curb.

We had a Tangled party A.K.A Rapunzel.  Complete with costumes (a wig for Avery) and enough 6 & 7 year old girls to ensure a princess quorum..

The costume and wig will be making a reappearance at Halloween....the wig was too heavy to wear for the whole party.  Kind of hard to play 'Rapunzel Says' with a 4 1/2 foot braid whipping around the room. 

After spending the whole day as the best mommy ever  :)  doing all Rapunzel party stuff all the time, I decided to take today off so to speak.  A day spent on the sofa.  Well mostly on the sofa...kind of hard to really pull this off with kids that can't reach the top half of the fridge or pantry....but it was close.  I relaxed on the sofa to work on Aidez while my husband watched football.  Now I don't care about football at all.  I know there are a lot of sports fans out there but for me football/baseball/soccer whatever are just a vehicle for me to sit and knit or surf the Internet and read blogs and plan for the holidays and well I'm sure you get it...just relax with myself, some knitting and my laptop.  My husband close by watching "insert sport" and talking with me and my kids playing nearby.

Truly blissful.  And I can feel even more virtuous about my mommy day off when I pull puzzles out for my kids to work on.....good for the brain right?   I love it when they do good things for their little brains and I can sit and knit and watch :).

I have some cooking to share and some tips for what to do with the last of your tomatoes but right now I'm going to soak up the last little bits of my Sunday.
Take care friends ~Andrea

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End of Summer

The end of summer for me is both the pulling the most out of the last days of summer and the push of full steam ahead into autumn.  One more trip to the mountains, one more day at the beach, one last night out with friends way past bedtime playing games and running through the warm summer air.  Well folks we managed to sneak all of that in this last month.  Before all the signs point to summer really being over we have snuck in, one last campfire session...

One more, albeit a lot cooler than usual, afternoon by the water.....

One more "hike" in the woods....

One more craft outside....

One more golden raspberry from the yard...

The hope that we will get one watermelon from our volunteer plant

One more daily harvest of veggies before the frost comes....

One more glimpse of the sunflowers that have grown way over my head

And the sure sign that summer is almost over is the fall cardigan knitting progress.

I have been steadily working away on Aidez.  The house is still warm and the days are still longish but that snap in the air when I'm drinking my morning coffee on the deck and the few trees around me that have had the audacity to change color are all pointing the direction to fall.  How are your end of summer preparations going?

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