Week 2 in review

Second week here, first week of work. I was reminded that life is good:
A green cardigan, a parting gift from BFF Kedria,

Finding a good deal on nude Nine West heels, 

A co-worker who got me this after I mentioned that in the move, I had forgotten my travel mugs in Birmingham:

Finding a Raising Cane's in Boston (super excited about this, even though they are a good 30 mins of driving through crazy Bostonian traffic). They have a fantastic story if you want to read about it (http://www.raisingcanes.com/our-story). The closest one to Birmingham is about 3 hours away.

The Packers and LSU both winning.
I finished part 2 of 4 of potholders while watching the Packers game today. I realized that it takes about 4 hours to make one so I should be able to finish those in time.

And finally cable TV (I've become a junkie), the return of my TV shows, and TGIT (thank god it's Thursday, from ABC with Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder).

Week 1 in review

We survived the 18-hour drive! Since then, I found an outlet mall, a Target, a Trader Joe's, there's a Costco up the street, great people watching spots, and work is about a 10 min commute. I've gotten lost a few times and I'm so thankful for the GPS.
Our balcony has been producing some peppers and our hydrangea had one flower.

I'm currently trying to root it (no, you're not supposed to root from a flowering bud, and yes, you're supposed to check the weather, it dropped in the low 30s overnight the other day - oops!) and if it takes, I will be so thrilled. Yes, it's already sweater and scarf weather and the overnight lows are in the mid 50s, although a warm front is coming up this week.











There was time to celebrate before we gave in to the exhaustion.

And finally a happy - celebrating mom-in-law's birthday two weeks ago in La Crosse.We went to Trempeleau (sp) for dinner on the river. The views and the food were amazing. Happy (belated) birthday Laurie!

 And if you read anything else, check out Kelly's blog post, http://hawkeyegirl.blogspot.com/2014/09/september-is-big-month.html

Madness

Shred Fest happened: run one shredder until it overheats, use the other shredder while the first cools until the second one overheats, take a break, repeat.

Now, onto the pressing question: how to fit all this in one car?

what time is it?

This time (football season):

Crafting lately

Projects: Cowl/Infinity Scarf

Part 1 of 4 potholders (gift for my cousin's wedding, Kelly instructions)

Wordless Wednesday Madness

Tasty Tuesdays

We have tried several recipes lately and they have been delicious:
Jalapeno Dip - if I make it for a party, I have to save some for Tom and this is usually what is left of the party batch (recipe: http://www.simply-gourmet.com/2012/08/183-jalapeno-popper-dip.html)

Pesto Chicken with jalapeno dip topping

Kelly's Surin-Like Coconut Soup (sorry no picture but we absolutely loved it)

Stacy's Beer Can Chicken

America's Test Kitchen Farmhouse Chicken and Corn Chowder, slow cooker

Tasty Tuesday

In this edition of Tasty Tuesday:
for July 4th, I tried a few new recipes but didn't take pictures. I did take this picture, Tom requested this cake, which reminds him of his childhood, so I was much obliged. There was a layer of cheesecake dip in between, the bottom layer was soaked in mango rum, which was also added to the whipped topping.

We had left over frozen berries from a white wine sangria and one Sunday morning I made almond milk berry and mango smoothies. It may or may not have rum in it because it needed something sweet. Since the layers were not of the same density, they create a nice presentation (I could have cleaned the edges but meh, it wasn't a deal breaker) 

Finally last week we started to be more mindful of what we eat and knowing that I was going to have a busy week we had easy prep meals and enjoy seasonal veggies and salads. We also discovered a new Mexican supermarket in our neighborhood, they had really cheap tilapia (in picture below), some fruits/veggies of my childhood (guavas, good looking baby bokchoy), and oddities (prickly pear fruit and leaves).

One night was fajitas, then we had pan-fried fish, then flank steak, and finally chicken enchiladas. Tom did really well about bringing his lunch everyday, while I only ate out once last week.
On Saturday, we settled on pizza. We spent a whole $1 (technically, $1.10) since we had all the ingredients minus pizza sauce. We busted out the bread maker and who knew, yeast in the fridge can keep for a really long time (although it does lose some of its potency, we doubled the amount as a precaution). I'll try to take more pictures of kitchen happenings this week.


 

Crafting lately

Huh, so I'm back to doing monthly updates? I need to fix that.
I've been crafting away and have one Christmas gift almost complete. Yes, it's still July but want to make sure I have plenty of time. I also have another project that I'm doing a trial run before I invest into the supplies.
From one of these projects, I will have a lot of yarn left over, so I decided to make a pouch for my crochet hooks and tapestry needles. I (mostly) followed a pattern (http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/case-crochet-hooks) and finished this in a day after getting a head start at a new craft group on Tuesday. On Thursday, we had another craft night at a yarn store. Yay to meeting some lovely folks.











On Friday, since I still had a yearning for yarn crafts (he he he, that sounds funny to me), I stopped by Hancock Fabrics, which has now become one of my favorite stores, and bought supplies for a baby afghan. One of our close collaborators at Emory just had a baby and this was a perfect win-win. I get to relax and be a hermit over the weekend, her baby gets a blanket. I blame Kelly (and Molly) for my new addiction, and finished this in just about 3 days. I need someone to have a baby girl, there are some cute patterns that I am dying to try. Oooh, I am also getting better at reading patterns (I still have to unravel quite a lot but it's a work in progress).

Finally, these came in the mail. A very nice surprise from my awesome mom-in-law: quilted cases, one for tissue and the other for whatever I fancy. In this case, it will house my yarn scissors or maybe jewelry when I travel. These colors scream me - thank you so much Laurie! 

Crafting lately

First off, Happy Anniversary to an awesome couple: Grandpa and Grandma Gass are celebrating 60 years of marriage. We are sorry that we can't be there to celebrate with you but we are thinking about you!

Second, happy happy birthday to Angie, my BFF in high school. It sucks that we live on different continents (she lives in Australia) and don't get to see each other as often as we would like. Thinking of you and sending you lots of wishes for a fabulous year ahead! 

Here are a few craft updates, or what happens when Tom isn't around and the Brewers are on:
After taking 6 weeks to make the first baby blanket for Carolyn, I decided to tackle one for cousin Valerie, who is expecting a boy. I had dragged Tom to Hancock Fabrics and asked him to choose a yarn color. He picked this variegated blue. Kelly suggested a granny square pattern. I started and finished, or so I thought. I can be a little bit of a perfectionist and there was no doubt that something was wrong. The corners were running away from me and it would not fold into a perfect square. So I panicked and did the best that I could: emailed Kelly and asked her to look at it to figure out what I did wrong. So apparently, I didn't know how to double crochet. Fair enough. So I had to restart the blanket, which is interesting because I had to restart Carolyn's blanket a couple of times too. Maybe one day, I will just make a blanket without having to start over again. Anyways, armed with crochet hook, I started over. It took me right under 4 days.
Here is the final product:

Just to get an idea of the actual colors

Other craft projects:
Kelly's birthday was an awesome event. We had so much fun (see previous post). Since we craft together amongst other things, I decided to craft a gift. Her favorite team are the Iowa Hawkeyes, colors: black and yellow. I brought this flower arrangement in a Hawkeye painted vase (as well as dinner at her favorite restaurant and a gift card to her favorite yarn store):

It can be used for flowers, corks, bottle caps, or whatever the heart fancies.

Melanie's birthday shower was this past Saturday (again, see previous post), and she got a diaper cake (made with diapers and wipes) and a gift card. I also learned to crochet a flower which went on top of the cake.Yes, that is the Brewer's game in the background.

Post-tulle

Pre-tulle

I started another baby blanket with left over yarn. I have to figure out who it will go to. After this, I want to learn a new stitch, and maybe venture into making garments. We'll see.