LIttle Charlie Foo Foo

I am one humiliating mommy for putting up this picture, but it is so cute!


And here is the rest of the photo reel of my stinkin adorable pup...



How can one resist this adorable face!

Happy Dogs on Thursday, and have a safe and happy New Year!

Raveling

Well, I have been instructed, by my mother dearest, to update my blog, and my Ravelry!

So this morning I updated my Ravelry, and now I will update my blog...
I have completed a lot of projects sense I last updated the Rav. And now that it is after Christmas, I have added all of the pressies that I had sense cast on and then cast off.

The list is as follows: Mom's Shawl. Pattern: Luna Moth Shawl. Yarn: Saphire from Road to China Light. It turned out pretty well for my first real lace project, and I even think she likes it, I have been stressing about whether or not she would sense I got the yarn. Which was ordered from Clementine's Dry Goods.


Jessica's Mitts. Pattern: His and Hers cabled hat and gloves by Lynn Wilson Designs. Yarn: Indigo by Thaki Torino Chunky. These also turned out well, silly me didn't even take a picture of them, but I'm sure the sis will send me a picture soon so y'all can see them. I loved the cables in these, and have sense been wanting to do more cables.

Anderson Family hats. You've seen.

Also Laura's Sweater, cropped cardigan thing. Pattern: A combo of patterns that I combined different elements from. Yarn: Lang Silk Dream in dusty pink. The outcome is that she got it for Christmas, and it was too large, so she is sending it back, and I am sending her her alternate gift, re-knitting it to hopefully fit and be done by her birthday in July... plenty of time!

And now I am working on finishing the last of the hats for the W family. I have completed 3 of 4 and will post more on them when I have finished.

There, everyone is up to date!

Merry Christmas

This Christmas is a little different for me than Christmases past. I opted not to go home this year as the cost of a ticket was slightly more than one months rent... I just couldn't spring for it. So I'm trying to make the most of the holidays alone. I am going to web cam christmas morning with my family, and then later on I will be joining a family from my knitting group for Christmas dinner and activites.

I will probably be fine, I know a lot of people are worrying about me spending Christmas alone, but I have so many people here that love me, and have already made this a special holiday season for me. Thank you to everyone who has been thinking of me, and I am looking forward to this Christmas, and super excited for the next time I get to go home (whenever that will be).

Anyhow I hope that everyone has a very merry Christmas, no matter where they are spending it!

P.S. I'll post some pictures soon!

A Few Finished Objects

For Christmas I decided to make hats for the families that I babysit for. They are easy enough, but they are still personal enough to be a good gift. So I did one style for the girls, and one style for the boys.. all of the hats that have the same main color, but have different color bands in them so everyone has a different color. Here are the hats for the first family:


Here are the boy's hats:

And Here are the girl's hats:


I think they all came out pretty well! And I will be excited to see if they like them when I deliver them this weekend!
Happy Knitting :)

A fabulous visit home!

I got to see my family and friends, and Surprise MR. Jay, then celebrate with my best friend at her reception. I gave my toast, without crying until it was over, although I did get a little choked up.

All in all it was a great trip! Here is the photo real... (until my camera died that is)

More Thanks

So, A long long time ago, in a faraway land I signed up for a pay it forward on my mom's blog.. however, nobody signed up for mine... so do I just not send any hand made items? I guess if anyone wants to they can respond to this post and the first three commenters will be gifted within the next year.
Anyhow, this is the gift that I received in the mail last week!


It is a beautiful shawlett in this awesome greenish yellow color, and it can be worn in 2 ways,(traditionally, wrapped around the shoulders; and scrunched up around my neck in the front, which is way cute with this shorter length shawl) and I love love love it!

Thanks Momma :)

Happy Birthday Mrs...

Today is my best friend Heather's birthday, and she is recently a Mrs. In fact last month I went home to celebrate with her at the reception. (The wedding was in Hawaii, and although I was invited and would have love to have gone, I couldn't go.)

I wish I had a picture to show you from the event, but of course my camera battery died earlier that day at Mr. Jay's surprise party.. darn!



Heather, it is your day today, and you deserve the best. You have done so much with every aspect of your life. I am so glad to have known you for the past 15 years!

I love you, Happy Birthday!

I'm So Behind!

On Blogging that is. I have been very busy with holiday knitting, as well as the traditional holiday things, such as decorating, and getting prezzies ready to be mailed out.

So Now I have to tell you that last week I wasn't able to tell you about Sheila's 3rd Birthday! She is a very healthy girl, and happy to boot! And I am so happy that she has made it to her birthday this year. (there was a moment a few months ago I was horrified that we wouldn't be able to celebrate.) I had a big celebration for her! I thought she shouldn't have three blueberries in one night, blueberries are her treats. So instead of three in one night, I gave her one each night for three nights. And she ate them all! :)

My girl is a very happy hedgie, and I am a very happy lady to have her around! We sure enjoyed being able to celebrate her birthday.. Charlie thought it was very cool too! (He got a peak at what birthdays look like for the pets in my house!)

Thanks is Due

It has been over a week sense I have blogged... and there is good reason- My internet is connected through a data stick that plugs into the usb port in my laptop. Well being myself, I left it plugged into my computer on my ottoman, and one morning when Charlie decided 3am was an ok time to wake up, and I decided it was a great time to keep sleeping (I think I was in the right on this one) anyhow, he got my data stick out of my computer, and used it as a chew toy... it turned into little bits of plastic... thank goodness for having insurance on these things!


So anyhow, onto giving that thanks! As you may have seen on Chan's blog, she whipped up a sweater for Mr. Charlie! And he and I both love it! SO thank you very much! In the box with the sweater, was my pizza kit that I won in her October birthday contest! It is way cool, there is a pizza stone that handles molded into it, a dough kit, and an awesome pizza cutter! I can't wait to use it.. I do love my pizza :)

Happy Thanksgiving

So we do the "what are we thankful for" thing more than once a year..but today is a special day that everyone around the country gathers with their friends and family to be thankful together.

This year I am not spending Thanksgiving with my family, but I am spending it with some friends..and it was very difficult deciding where to go because I had offers all up and down the east coast! I am certainly thankful for having friends and family that care so much about me :-)

You may have noticed I've been posting only about food this week..well that is because growing up, my mom constantly had us in the kitchen watching her cook and helping where we could.. this was to make sure that not only would we be able to help her out while living there but also that we'd be able to cook for ourselves when we didn't live there. When it came to Thanksgiving she would have us do anything we were capable of helping with..."someday you'll have to do a Thanksgiving all by yourself."

Well today is not quite there yet...but I am bringing a mashed potato cauliflower topped with broiled cheesy goodness, and butternut squash soup. In fact I should get started now..

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Mexican Night

I am a huge fan of Mexican Food, and my favorite Mexican Restaurant in CT closed in July :( So I have been trying to make a few dishes of my own to get my Mexican fix.

One of my favorites is enchiladas, so I made Chicken Enchiladas for dinner. Yum! This is more of a weekend meal for me, because I like to let the chicken to cook with the enchilada sauce, and then sit on low for a while to get really saucy and deliciously absorbed with the flavor. Then I roll my tortillas with the chichen, some rice, beans, and cheese.. Just because I like mine to be a bit more filling than your average Enchilada. Sometimes I like to saute bell peppers and onions and put those in it too, but then it is more like a pre-assembled fajita! Either way, then top them with more enchilada sauce, and cheese, and pop them in the oven.... very delicious!

Not Your Traditional Eggplant Parm

This is my spin on Eggplant Parmesan...

These are all very simple ingredients to make it an easy dinner after a day of work. The Eggplant was purchased from Trader Joe's in the freezer section.. It is pre breaded eggplant cutlets. You can bake them fry them or microwave them. I baked them to get the crispiness, and the best flavor. Then I boiled water with a touch of olive oil and a sprinkle of herbs de Provence to cook my pasta in.
After the pasta and the eggplant were cooked, I put the pasta on the plate, covered it with store bought vodka sauce (that I heated briefly on the stove), then topped that with the Eggplant, and a sprinkling of grated soy cheese (a Cheddar, Mozzarella blend), and stuck it under the broiler for just long enough to melt the cheese.

It was very good! I love dinners like this because I can make just enough for dinner one night, and lunch the following day.

mmmMonday

Another Croc Pot Recipe that I have found to be very good, is one that I got off of Food Network's website. It is supposed to be slowly cooked in a pot on the stove for 2 hours.. but I just do it in the croc pot... who has 2 hours to cook something like that! I just tossed all the ingredients into the crock pot and several hours later, when I'm home from work... I can eat!

It is White Bean and Turkey Chili.. (I looked for the recipe on their website, but couldn't find it..)
Basically you brown ground turkey with onions, bell pepper, and pablano pepper first, to infuse the turkey with those flavors. Then you add it to the crock pot with 2 cans of cannelini beans, and a can of any other white bean you like. Pour in one box of low sodium chicken broth, and stir it all together... then I leave it to cook on low all day. When you get home stir in one can of chick peas, and let it cook for about 15 minutes longer... add salt and pepper to taste.

It is very good.. you can add more or less spicy peppers to intensify the heat level you are looking for... and the recipe says to add a bit of lime juice when serving.

Very quick, easy, delicious meal!

My Swimming Poodle

Charlie has to swim in the bath tub for his physical therapy... he likes it. Every time I take a shower, he slides the curtain back and puts his chin on the ledge of the tub, looking at me like... are you ok? and when is it my turn?!

So here he is swimming away,


And here he is all wet with crinkled hair,



He won't be swimming for a while though, because, right now I am getting ready to leave to fly home for a few days.... so he won't get his weekend swims this weekend, but thats okay, as long as he is safe and happy, I don't care... Maybe Sheila can convince him its ok, as she has had plenty of "mommy's on vacation" experience, and has always been fine.


Happy Dogs On Thursday! :)

Charlie and The Beach

Every morning we walk past the beach in our route. I love being able to see the sun rise, and the fresh beach air is a great way to start the day.... Charlie loves the walk too. So over the weekend, instead of just walking past the beach, we walked onto the beach and romped around a little before continuing on our way.




I think he likes it! I would have let him go in the water if it weren't so cold, but I don't want my boy to freeze! So we'll save his swimming for the bath tub for now, and we can go back to the beach to go swimming in the summer when the water is warmer... I think he will really enjoy it.


He seemed to really love the sand and the sea grass. He was smelling everything! The tide was out a ways when we went there, and he got a chance to feel the wet sand, and to see all kinds of shells, and smell the sea grass, and frolic around being so happy!

I am so glad that he loves the beach because I love the beach and now I know we can go there a lot, especially when the weather is warm again! (I guess we should make it through the winter first though!)


(not my most flattering shadow, but still a cute image... I'll blame it on the heavy jacket I was wearing)

Happy DoT :)

Munchkin Halloween!

I know, I know, I'm a little late for halloween... but I was over watching the Little's one night last week, and I got to admire not only their awesome costumes, but their super cool pumpkin designs!

Little Ann was dressing up as a Vampire Mistress... Little Dan was being an Astronaut, and Miss OKP was wearing a black cat suit, with G being a witch. I don't know what S was being...but who cares, the kids are cutest anyhow! I didn't get any blog approved photos of them in their costumes, but I did get pictures of their Jack'o lanterns!

Little Dan had this spooky faced punkin (as he calls it):

While Little Ann had this more intricate design of a cat in the moonlight:



Very impressive for little kids... it helps that Little Ann knows her way around the computer and could find designs to be printed... but still they are very clever looking creations.

Charlie On Thursday

Well, Charlie has been home for just about a week now, and he is a great dog! He is jumpy around loud sounds, and barked a few times in the middle of the night our first and second nights, but he has gotten so much better, and last night we slept quite peacefully!

He is a great walker.. staying mostly right next to me, and only running ahead to chase leaves! He is very playful, and other than playing with leaves he likes to try to get my clothes while I'm getting dressed, he tries to catch anything that moves...luckily he and Sheila are on a different schedule!

Here are some of the pictures from our first week together: