She's Little But Tough!

Margaret carrying semi-dry, heavy quilts and a comforter. She made her way from the laundromat doors to the truck intact..
So funny!

Gluten Free Breads..in my opinion part two.

We use the Carol Fenster book, "Cooking Free" for the gluten free recipes. The blueberry muffins, chocolate cupcakes and the regular sandwich bread are tasty. You can get it on Amazon.com.

The recipe for almond bread is here at my niece's blog.

Gluten Free Breads..in my opinion.

We have found that instead of baking a loaf of g-f bread in a loaf pan...they turn out with a little more body if you use three 3 x 5 pans. Then I cut them long ways to resemble a larger piece of bread.

The bread in the back is the regular g-f bread while the bread in the front is almond bread. We slice this bread width-wise for little sandwiches.

Make basil butter (a little basil and a little butter), spread it on the little pieces of almond bread, then put a simple chicken salad dollop (we use canned g-f chicken and reg. mayonnaise-Hellmann's or Kirkland) and make a little sandwich. Quite tasty.

With Margaret being the only true gluten free eater here, I freeze the bread and she takes out what is needed-as needed.

The Little Sweater Has A Home

National Pie Day

It is National Pie Day. All of you gals at the Tuesday Talker's Club be ready for some Pumpkin Pie. As most of you know I ventured into the world of a different pie a week for a year and blogged about it. It started out as a 'let's learn how to make pies really well' with my daughter. Well, after 52 weeks of pies and blog posts, we know a little bit more about pies. We also know what kinds we love and those we don't love. I learned to cook with coconut flakes, yuk. But a lot of pies call for coconut and my husband really likes coconut, so I made pies with coconut. I got a lot of feedback from pie eaters at the church we attended. Pies that were voiced the most were: Coconut Cream Pie, Snow Pie, Sawdust Pie,Tar Heel Pie, Beekeeper's Pie and Blue Bramble Pie. My all time favorite is Rhubarb Pie. I would love to make a gooseberry pie this year, but the gooseberries are so expensive. I entered my pies in contests. Coconut Cream, Apple, Blue Bramble and Sawdust Pies. Blue Bramble received honorable mention and Sawdust received champion at the county fair. I entered the Coconut Cream in a church fund raiser and came in second in the cream pies division. They auctioned off the top pies for charity. My husband bid and won my pie for $40.00. I told him I would make him a pie anytime he wanted....he said something sweet, like "It's for charity Honey" and we left. What makes this funny is that the pies that won high awards were made with coconut...so I didn't even taste the pies that won.

So, I guess I said all of that to say this, if you want to see my pie posts, just click HERE or click Year of the Pie on the sidebar.

If you are making a pie today I would love to know what kind. Leave a comment!

~Until Next Time~

The Little Sweater is Finished!

A Trip To Indy!

Today was the day we chose to hit the circuit in Indianapolis.

Stop #1

This is my sister (one of them). She and I used to have a LINE down the center of our room.

Stop #2The ceiling lights at Trader Joe's always make me happy.

Stop #3

Stop #4

Stop #5....I love their Sweet Tea.

Two other stops didn't warrant a photo.

Homeward Bound.

I Can't Wait to Show You!

I am knitting a 'little person' sweater....from the top. It is so fun and cute. It is not a step by step pattern, but the guidelines found in Barbara G. Walker's book. With these guidelines I can make any sized sweater. I am really excited about this.
This first sweater is still under my 'practice mode' but will be given to a little person as soon as I can finish it and wash and block it. I honestly don't know if it will fit, so I am knitting at the speed of lightening, just in case it does. I have a feeling, if it does fit...it won't fit for too long.

I think it is cute.

Adding the left arm with a matching stripe.

The ribbing at the bottom. See how the right column of the knit rib are off a little bit? I have read to correct that, when coming in to do a knit stitch from the two rib purl....just knit into the back of that first stitch. Has anyone else read that? I keep forgetting to try it. If I remember, I shall do it on the sleeve cuffs.

Until next time....

I am currently knitting from Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top. This book has been around for a long time, but I have just started reading it recently. I have made a little 'practice ' sweater to understand how it works. Now I am doing a 'real' one for a little person. Not having the little person near me I can only hope it fits. We shall see. Oh, do you remember the Baby Surprise Jackets? There is the PRACTICE one up in the corner. I am all about practice.

Margaret has been busy hand stitching a chemise for her Civil War attire. It is coming along swimmingly. The crocheted blanket is the handiwork of my sister G.

Margaret's Salve

This is the salve that my daughter, Margaret, makes. I love it. It comes in a 4 oz. tin and it sells for $8.00 a tin. Shipping is $4.95.
It contains: comfrey, plantain, yarrow, vitamin E oil, olive oil, coconut oil, beeswax. It lasts quite while. Visit my Etsy shop to buy. You won't be disappointed.

One of my latest projects is the stole from Elann.com. I am knitting mine in Cascades solid sock yarn. My daughter was kind enough to take time out of her hand sewing to hold a small portion of the stole to show its pattern. The color is Cerulean. I thought it would be a nice bright color. The pattern is easy, but if I drop one of the yarn overs from the previous row....I am in for it because I am not good at fixing yarn over errors.

Another thing I have been working on is practicing the concept of a top down sweater. Barbara G. Walker has a book called Knitting From The Top, that I have found most wonderful. Below is a practice yoke.

Below is the ribbing of a little hat that I am trying to write the pattern out for. I had a thought about a hat and knit one up and gave it away never dreaming of putting it on paper. So I decided to do another one and document the pattern in case I wanted to sell it.

Until Next Time. Stay warm. It is 15° here. The wind is howling.