Oh how I hate to see October go . . . *

It's gone, and I was terrible about my giveaway! But, I'll draw this week and send my little basket off to the lucky winner. I did add a pink brush, some pink gloves and a pink scarf.

Let's face it. I'm not the Pioneer Woman or Bakerella. I'm rotten about keeping up with my posts, I'm not going to be writing a book based on this blog, and no sponsors give me marvelous things to give away (like that turquoise LeCreuset dutch oven PW gave away a few weeks ago -- oh, how I hoped to win that! Me and 35,000 of her other fans!)

But I'm going to try to be better in November. I have plans. Plans for soups and blessings.

Peace.

*Why yes, I did steal this directly from Father Dan's homily this weekend. Do you know how much I love that he quotes Johnny Mercer?

So,

I realized that this is the last week of October, and I haven't posted basket pictures for a few weeks. Here we go:



Peace.

Some Happy Things

Race for the Cure in Louisville

At the beginning:

Almost done:

Carly and Paul

Maggie, me and Sarah

My new kitchen light. I have wanted a pendant light over the sink for a while; the old fixture kindly obliged me by fritzing out. (Wow! It's hard to take a picture of a light, especially one by a sunny window!)


Max's fall sweater and hat. I hope he is as cute in this hat as I imagine!

And, another addition to the basket: Living Gloves for the Cure! I don't wear kitchen gloves, do you? Peace.

Antique 4-H'er -- Various Projects

A little of this, a little of that:

Freezer Paper T-shirts

Maybe the most fun you can have with paint and freezer paper. And a Cricut!

Tommy's 6th Birthday Cake - Superhero Squad!

Once again, just not as I had envisioned; this time it's cake decorating on cold medicine. The red building is a little wonky, but we decided to add a little story to the cake, and claim that The Hulk had given the building a little push. The web is chocolate I piped out onto freezer paper; it was a little warm that day, so I had to support it a little with spaghetti.

Griffin's Cupcakes

I didn't make these, but I thought they were extra cute in the cupcake holder I found at Crate and Barrel. I did make the little sign for the top, and Sharon added the army men. Team effort!

Charging Station

One day, Doug (of Love Bus fame) came into school with a load of stuff on his truck to take to a yard sale. He had a 1950's kitchen table and 4 chairs, which I bought immediately (pictures soon!) He threw in an old bread box and a beat up old side table with no bottom in the drawer. I nailed the table back together then replaced the drawer bottom with a piece of Masonite, cutting a hole in the back to let an electrical cord pass through. I sanded, painted, sanded and painted again, then used a pretty piece of scrapbook paper to line the drawer, velcroed in a power strip and now have a place to keep all of our chargers out of sight. Unfortunately, out of mind, as well; I've left the house 4 times now with my phone still in the drawer!

(It looks a little messy, but it works!)

And here's my breast cancer basket addition for today:

Yes, that is another pink cloth. One for your face, one for your dishes! Keep watching!

Peace

One Year

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which

you really stop to look fear in the face.

You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror.

I can take the next thing that comes along."

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

A Knitting Challenge

I started this blog a few years ago when a friend asked me to fix/re-size a hand-knit sweater she had received from her pen pal in Norway. That was a stress-inducing success, thanks to the helpful comments of other knitting bloggers.


Since then, I have fixed all kinds of knitting for lots of knitters. Mostly, that's what I do at Knit Night anymore -- we have our show and tell, I give a little lesson and a pattern, but then it's fix-it time.


I love to tink back and pick up the dropped stitches or make the inadvertently added stitches disappear. Untangling the knits from the purls. Offering the advice I've learned through my own trial and error. And I love hearing a friend's sigh of relief when we get stitches back on the needles, ready to proceed again once the mistake is fixed.


Of course, I'm not always successful -- sometimes there's nothing to be done but rip back. I hate giving that news to a knitter; I try to keep the moment light by recounting the thousands of stitches I ripped out on my Pi Shawl, but I know I have seen tears.


Popular requests at Knit Night are the repair of a beloved piece or recreation of a vintage pattern. Knitters (and non-knitters!) often bring in a piece of work or a faded hand-written pattern and ask if I can fix it or re-create it. That's what happened last Thursday, when my high school friend, Teresa, brought me Christmas stockings her grandmother had knit for Teresa, her siblings and her children. Her grandmother has passed away, but Teresa would like to have a matching stocking for her daughter-in-law. So, because I love both Teresa and a challenge, I am giving it a try. Here are the originals:



In case I'm not around when Teresa adds to her family (and stocking collection) again, I've been writing down everything I'm doing; if I do knit another one for her, I will thank myself then! Luckily, grandma had charted out the Santa; I just worked out the ribbing and name section. I am using worsted weight acrylic yarns (Vanna's Choice and Red Heart) as I could get the right colors and feel, and a bit of angora for the beard that I found at Mass Ave. last week (grandma had specified angora!) I'm no pro at intarsia, but I've gotten through the Santa part ok; my task now is to figure out the heel flap placement. I asked at Mass Ave., and they seemed to think it would be easy: simply join the stocking sides to knit in the round and proceed from there just like a sock. I didn't tell them I'm not much of a sock knitter. But luckily, Linda at Knit Night is, and if I can't get this figured out by the 14th, I know she will be able to.


Since this is a knitting post, here's my first addition to the basket -- a pink circular dishcloth.




Peace.

October - Sharing the Pink

Last year, I did a lot of reading that made me re-think my stand on all things pink. (if you would be even the slightest bit interested, you could read my thoughts on pinking here.)

But I didn't change my stand on all things pink; I do, however, try to be a little more careful about throwing things in my shopping cart just because they are labeled in pink and just because it's October.

I will always love pink. And if a store full of pink products can make just one woman think about her health and take a few minutes to do a self-exam, make a doctor's appointment or schedule a mammogram, then it's worth it, no matter how much (or little) the manufacturers of pink rubber ducks and pink umbrellas and pink-labeled tomato soup give to the cause.

See this basket?

I'm going to put some pink things in it throughout October. If you do something for breast cancer -- do your exam, walk in the Race for the Cure, wear a pink ribbon, anything -- leave a comment, and maybe you'll win the basket. You don't have to be specific; just saying "I did something for breast cancer!" is enough. I'll use a random number generator and pick a winner on November 1. Comment as often as you want throughout the month, and check back, as I plan to post a picture of the basket each time I add something.

I don't have breast cancer, but breast cancer changed my life forever. Love you, mom.

Peace.