Lately

 Some recent and not so recent highlights...

• Doctor Who Melted Snowman Ornament~ I made it for a swap with my knitting group.
• Preparing for Follow Your Arrow Mystery KAL~ Pattern by Ysolda Teague
• Make-ahead Mason Jar Salads~ Made on Sunday evening... they really do stay fresh right through Friday.
• My Arrow blocking~ what a fun KAL this was!
• The Yarn Harlot~ how surreal it was to meet her. I so recommend her new book. So, so funny!
• The softest socks I've ever knit
• However, these are my favorite socks...
• So why not make some for my sister?
• Willow Cowl~ easy knitting and the color changes are so entertaining.
• Springtime in Virginia~ Pattern by Kirsten Kapur. Not such a springy color... so, maybe "Autumn in South Jersey". Scored the perfect buttons in Mom's old button box.

A rainy day and a little motivation

Yesterday, my sister and I had a great conversation about the motivational theory that you can become more organized and more productive by devoting "just ten minutes" to particular tasks that need attention in your life. Small bite sized pieces can add up and make a huge difference. As a bonus, those ten minutes you devote to a task can often (painlessly) turn into "more minutes" once you get rolling.

Today was a rainy, yucky day that had me feeling more like staying in my pajamas knitting all day than motivating myself to do, well, almost anything else. But, the guilt got the best of me and I eventually marched myself into the kitchen to make something healthy to eat. (There have been far too many carbs in this house over the holidays.)

It was really a day for making soup, but since I had all the ingredients on hand to make a Chick Pea Salad, that is what I devoted my ten minutes to.

Chickpea Salad Ingredients: 1 can chickpeas, 1 cucumber, 1/2 red onion, 2 plumb tomatoes, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 tbs. dried parsley, 2 tsp. chopped garlic, 3 tbs. lemon juice, 2 tsp. olive oil, and 1/8 tsp. salt.

Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Chop the cucumber, onion, tomatoes, and peppers and add to the chickpeas. I usually like to use cucumbers with their seeds, but for this I scooped most of them out. It's your preference.

Next, add the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, oil, and salt. Feel free to use fresh parsley and garlic. (I didn't have any on hand today.) Mix it all together and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour to mix the flavors.

While you wait for it to be ready, get out your yoga mat and do 10 minutes 30 minutes of yoga!

Knitting and Brunch with Friends!

You may remember I've written before that I belong to an awesome knitting group. We have such a mix of people, older, younger, male and female; and yet we are quite a homogeneous group and have a great time together. Two of our members we don't get to see very often because they live about an hour and a half from our meeting place.

These two great guys invited the group to brunch at their home this past Sunday and we had an absolutely wonderful day. We enjoyed so much yummy food, everyone brought an offering to the table.

There were mini blueberry scones. I wish I had eaten another one of these, but I just didn't have room!

Two different kinds of quiche.

The famous Ambler Donuts (that we hear so much about!) cut in bite sized pieces so we could sample them all. I loved the maple cream filled one. I did't try the peanut butter one. I wonder how that one was...

A wonderful fruit salad that everyone wanted the recipe for.We were told that because of the constraints of ingredients on hand, the dressing was an adaptation of the one in the cookbook. We all agreed we wanted the New Jeff Original recipe!

Some Ham Stuffed Rolls with a Maine Honey Champagne Mustard. I guess I didn't to get a photo of these after the basket was opened.

Juices, Coffee, and the most amazing Hot Chocolate made with real milk and large chunks of chocolate that melted in the mug of milk. (Again no photo.)

And then, there was the ever growing leaning tower of waffles! These waffles were the best! They were light and crispy around the edges. Oh so tasty!

Jeff slaved at the waffle iron most of the morning.

We were able to keep the Cook company as the guys have a huge kitchen with a great big table... clearly the hub of their home when entertaining!

After we stuffed ourselves, we retired to the living room (or as Will claims they say in Downton Abbey, "crossed over to the drawing room").

There was much knitting and spinning going on. We also discussed and planned for our next Secret Swap.

A knitter couldn't help but feel the warm and welcome in their home. Everywhere you look there were signs of fiber awesomeness!

Thanks for having us, Will and Jeff! I can't wait for our next outing!

Happy Memorial Day

We took a little ride to New Hope, PA today and met up with our good friends, Chuck and Carol. If you've been a reader of my blog for a while, you might remember that they are from Connecticut, where we're from originally. We normally see each other about four times a year when we visit them or they come to see us in New Jersey.  Recently though, they relocated to Pennsylvania, shortening the distance between us from four hours, to less than two! Yay!


But, getting back to our day in New Hope... We had a really beautiful day, all sunny and bright. We ate lots of good food, browsed all the fun shops and took a short ride up the Delaware River on a ferry boat.


I had a little bit of fun with my camera today, too. Enjoy some of the sights of my day.

Chasing a Chill Away

Yesterday was an amazingly beautiful day, but today... not so much. Early in the day it was overcast with some light sprinkles and although the temperature outside wasn't too bad, inside there was a chill that I couldn't shake. My remedy...

Quiet time alone, some homemade lentil soup and my secret knitting!

Sisters!

My sister, Janet has just discovered that a long time friend of hers has a sister that lives not very far from me. What a coincidence. To make it even more of a coincidence, the friend's sister and I have birthdays within a few day of each other in April. So Janet and her friend took a road trip last weekend to visit us and take us out to celebrate.


We went out to dinner twice while they were here, but the actual celebratory dinner was at a wonderful Cuban restaurant.

The food was delicious... no photo was taken, but I did get a snap of the sangria!

The coffee menu was extensive and the flan was delicious!

Afterwards, back at my house with Janet, I had planned to have a sort of sleepover party and watch a favorite movie from days gone by, but we were just too full and too tired! Next time Janet, you'll have to stay longer!

My weekend last weekend.

I'm a little late reporting on how I spent my weekend last weekend, but that's just how it goes with me. The hubby and I spent a short but wonderful time "back home" in Connecticut.


We left Saturday morning which was Saint Patrick's Day. All week I had intended to crochet a little garland or bunting of shamrocks to decorate my china cabinet in the dining room, but I never found the time. So, four hours in the car was plenty of time to work on it. Better late than never, don't you think?

It was a really quick project and as I often say, it made me smile. I had plenty of time to make a second one to give to my sister who I would be visiting. She needs a bit of whimsy in her life to make her smile, too.

These little shamrocks were so much fun to make, I just kept making them. I decided I'd be a shamrock fairy all day and secretly leave the single shamrocks laying around for people to find. My own mini yarn bombing project!

It was fun but, unfortunately I didn't get any photos of my secret work. I left one with the tip at the restaurant where we ate dinner. This is the family restaurant my husband and I both went to as children, although we didn't know each other back then.

It was great to eat there again. It brought back so many memories and I felt compelled to ordered what I used to order when I was a kid... Spaghetti and Meatballs. A good meal for Saint Patrick's Day, right? Oh, it was so good.


So, back to the shamrocks... I left one in an elevator, one on a table in the hotel lobby, one at an ATM. The next morning I had three left and I gave two to friends that we met for breakfast and left the last for the waitress with her tip. I hope my little shamrocks brought a bit of luck to those who found them, or at least a smile to their faces!


The main reason for our trip north was to watch a family member perform in the musical Hairspray. He played the part that John Travolta played in the movie. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make the trip at first, but everything work out and we were able to. I am SO happy I did't miss it!

He looks just like his mom... I'm sure she'd be proud!

As I said, we met friends on Sunday morning for breakfast. These are the friends that I've spoken of before, Chuck and Carol. I don't think I've ever mentioned though, that they relocated to Pennsylvania in the fall and now live only about an hour and a half from us. Funny that we have to travel all the way to Connecticut to have breakfast with them! Actually, they were up there for a visit with friends and since they have not yet sold their Connecticut house, they were there taking care of some business. They just got an offer on it, so fingers crossed that all goes well with their sale!


I hope you're all enjoying the spring weather if you're in the Northern Hemisphere. If you read my last post, you know I am. Today is supposed to be cooler and rainy, a good day to meet with friends to knit, so I'm off to hop in the shower and get going!