Goodie Bag

Posted in She's Crafty by

Look what I got in the mail today! I had been looking for some time for bag that I could use for my knitting projects when I travel when I came across persnickety knits on Etsy. Can you say fabu!? Its the perfect size for medium projects like gloves, hats, wraps, or scarves. Throw in your knitting and tools and you´re ready to go out the door. No muss, no fuss: beats a Ziploc any day! Its so cute, I think that it could double as a clutch. Its got a ton of pockets to keep my stuff organized, an elastic loop to keep my needles in order, and little hook to hold my yarn, scissors, or stitch counter. Now I won’t be fumbling with everything in the car or on the plane. I love it so much, I might have to get another one in the larger size for big projects . . .

I also got a new pair of earrings from Sulu Designs. Behold the Ice Cube Earrings:

Planters Complete

Posted in Homey Goodness by

A few weekends back, Shawn and I built the planter boxes for the front porch. I put in a few plants when we got them finished, but they needed to be filled in a little more. So, this weekend we went back to Brennan’s and picked out some more plants to fill’em up. I decided to go with a purple, white, and yellow theme, since some of the plants in the yard have something similar going on. I think that they look good now, and will be fantastic once they have a chance to fill in a little.
We also got a little bench and a couple of chairs for the porch, so we have a place to sip some tea and admire the flowers. So, I think that the front porch is pretty much done. Now I need to move on to the back!

Grey Garden Slippers

Posted in She's Crafty by

Mom requested a while back for me to knit her a pair of slippers, like the ones our neighbor used to make for us. After a bit of searching on Raverly, I was able to find a pattern that looked like the ones I remembered. I decided to use this lovely grey wool blend, I thought that it looked cozy and would feel good on the ol’ tootsies. I then decided to add some pom poms to dress them up a bit. I made them in a cream color, since I had some left over from another project, plus I thought it would look rich against the grey. The pattern was easy peasy. I could see making these again, it would be fun to see the color combos I could come up with next time!

Memorial Weekend Midwest Tour

Posted in Travel by

Hope that you all had a good Memorial Weekend. Our was a lot of fun, tons of things – and miles- packed into it.

Shawn and I packed up the car and headed down to my parents house on Thursday night, so that we could get a good start for our drive to Indiana to meet our friends from Columbus for our camping trip. Loading all of our camping gear and Walter in to the back of the Rover was an exercise in spatial relationships. All those hours spent playing Tetris came in handy. Off we went on Friday morning, arriving to the campsite around 3 PM (EST) it was about a 5 hour drive, including 2 stops. Not too bad. Camping was a good time, hanging out with good friends, watching the dogs play (another couple brought their yellow lab, Hoover) cooking out and making s’mores, not to mention a few frosty beverages. Very fun and entertaining. We stayed for two nights and then packed up and headed back to my parents on Sunday.

We hung out there and relaxed with the family, returning on Monday afternoon. All in all, a great weekend. . . but I sure was happy to sleep in our own bed last night!

Loving Spinach

Posted in What's Cookin' by

I went to the Dane County Farmer’s Market last Saturday and everyone was selling spinach. I’ve had a recipe that I’ve been wanting to try for a while now, so I bought a large bunch to try it out. It was so good, I wanted to share it with you.

Ricotta Pasta with Fresh Spinach
(Serves four.)

12 oz. pasta, any kind you like 12 oz. fressh spinach, wash, large stems removed
2 tb. butter 1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 c. part-skim ricotta cheese 1 tsp. minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (Optional additions: ramps, herbs, hot pepper flakes)

1. Cook pasta according to directions and drain, reserve 1/2 cup of hot pasta water. Transfer pasta to serving container, toss with 1 tb. of butter and cover.
2. I mixing bowl, combine ricotta with reserved pasta water and stir until well blended. Stir into pasta with the Parmesan, season with salt and pepper.
3. Using same pot that the pasta was cooked in, add remaining butter and garlic and sautee until garlic is a light golden brown. Add spinach, mixing occasionally until it has wilted down. (Add any additional ingredients at this time.)
4. Transfer spinach to pasta and combine.

Spring-time Cowl

Posted in She's Crafty by

Another knitting project completed! I purchases some beautiful sock yarn from the local yarn store (LYS) and since I haven’t worked up the courage to try a pair of socks, I decided to use it to make a lightweight cowl/neck warmer for the Spring. I love the cowl/neck warmer idea, sometimes a scarf is too bulky or gets bunchy under a coat. This solves that problem while still keeping you neck covered. Plus using this lighter weight yarn, I feel that it could transition inside as well as out. I found the pattern in the book Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. This was such an easy-peasy project -It’s basically just a knitted tube- something that I worked on in the evenings while watching TV or when we were in the car driving down to see my parents. Done on circular needles, it is just knit, knit, knit until you get the desired length, then bind off and you’re done. I will definitely use this pattern again. I can’t wait to try it with some snuggly yarn for fall/winter!

Busy Bee Weekend

Posted in Homey Goodness by

This weekend was busy, busy, busy! The hubby and I tackled the project of building flower planters for the front porch. I have been searching for forever and a day for the perfect planters to put out front. I was pretty specific in what I wanted, long rectangular boxes that would stand between the columns of the front porch. I didn’t want them to be too high, but wanted them to fit the scale of the house. This proved to be impossible to find. The ones that I found were either too high, too small, too expensive, or too . . .ugly.

So, I decided to get a little DIY and construct exactly what I wanted. I measured out about what I wanted, drew up some simple plans, went over it with my contractor (Shawn) and got to work. And after a trip to Home Depot, two trips to Ace Hardware, and some manual labor from my hubby – I helped as much as I could – I had my planters! It only took a day to build and paint them, so on Sunday we went and bought some plants, soil, etc. and got them filled. I must say that they look great! Going to purchase a few more plants to fill them in some more, but otherwise a vast improvement to the barren porch. Now it looks like someone lives here! We even got two chairs and a small table to put out front, so we can sit out there and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Huzzah! 

**** I need to add a special thank you to my dear hubby, all of his hard work and patience with me as we completed this project does not go unappreciated. Yay for Team Colley!****

Knitting Swap

Posted in Lists, She's Crafty by

I signed up for a knitting envelope swap on Ravelry this month. I thought that it would be fun to send things to people who have also caught the knitting bug, not to mention getting fun stuff in the mail myself! I mailed out my package a couple of weeks ago and just got mine in the mail today! Check out all the cool swag that I got: a cute knitted tapestry bag, some different types of tea, some star stickers, wool wash, some cute crocheted flower appliques, two handmade note cards, and a knitting pattern for a bag and cami. Not to mention a sweet little card from my swappee in California. How nice!

Sheldon Shirts

Posted in Fashion, Geekery by

Tonight is the season finale of The Big Bang Theory. For those who don’t watch the show, it is about two Caltech prodigies in their twenties, one an experimental physicist (Leonard) and the other a theoretical physicist (Sheldon), who live across the hall from an attractive blonde waitress with show-biz aspirations (Penny). Two equally geeky friends of theirs, Howard and Rajesh, are also main characters. It is a funny little show that does quite well at poking fun a geekiness as pop culture. I absolutely love the Star Wars and comic book references. Not to mention the costume designer is genius! I absolutely love the t-shirts Sheldon wears and often find myself thinking “Wear can I find me one of those cool robot tees?” Well, I’ve been answered! Check out this site called Sheldon Shirts.

Denise Kit

Posted in She's Crafty by

Super Duper Yeah! I finally got the call yesterday that my Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle Kit has finally arrived at my local yarn store! I ordered this lovely almost a month ago! For those not in the know, in this amazing little kit (about the size of a hardcover book) you get 10 needle tips from sizes US5 to 15, 6 lengths of cord from 5 to 19” inches, 4 end buttons and 2 connectors. This allows me to create any size/length circular needle I need! You join various lengths of cord to get just the length you want; leave your work on any cord, twist off the knitting tips and twist on the end buttons and your work is safely held until you need it! I can’t wait to start a project on these. Now I just need to go to Ravelry and find a pattern, then it is off to the yarn store. Too bad, I can’t actually use them right away, with my bum thumb and all.