Hot Weather

Not really envying two of my daughters right now.  They are pregnant.  The heat has to be hard on them and on the babies.  It's been so hot.  And it's staying that way.  It's hard for me to imagine that the temperatures in Idaho are hoovering around 100 degrees.  I expect that type of weather here in Asia but must admit I was usually cold when I lived in Idaho.  I did purchase an air conditioning unit for the month of August but it didn't get this hot.  It's been 100 degrees+ here in Hangzhou.  Fortunately we live on the river and have a nice breeze most of the time.  Today, we were blessed with clear skies.  I could see to the mountains in both directions.  Hangzhou is a beautiful place.  I am told that Macro Polo stated that "Hangzhou was heaven on earth."

One of the great paths in our garden

The gates to our apartment

Playground 

exercise area

 I love the flowers, the streets here are lined with rose bushes.  Every day, Chloe and I, walk in the gardens here at our complex.  It has lovely brick lined paths.  They don't mow here, they use a weed whip to keep the grass short.  There are all types of flowers that line the walk ways.  It's a beautiful place to walk.  The flowers on the left remind me of KC's wedding.  Almost the same color.  I have been chatting with a nice woman from India, she has two wonderful children, a girl and a boy.  The little girl seems quite taken with Chloe.

 We were also greeted today by two golden retrievers.  They were beautiful dogs, very clean and well groomed.  Typical golden retrievers, very curious and full of energy.  I thought one of them was going to pull it's owner right off the ground. Fortunately, they were on leashes not a usual occurrence here. I am constantly afraid that Chloe will get free and run off.  With the traffic here I doubt

she could avoid being hit by a car.  There are a lot of dogs here that roam free so I also worry about her being attacked by them, something that happens when she is with me, when it does occur, I reach down and pick her up!  She loves to smell all the different areas of our daily walk, I like to imagine her thinking "Hmm, Harry must have been by here earlier today" I am not sure why I wonder what my dog is thinking but she sure is amusing.  She makes life so fun!  And she waits patiently every day for her two walks with me.  I am very grateful to have such a good dog!

The skies here are sunny and bright.  I can even see blue in the sky today.  The smog here is usually so great that I usually can't see that far out of my windows.  Although it is still hazy you can see the bridge not far from our apartment building.

And this wonderful picture of our apartment building shows the beautiful blue sky. Our building flows across the sky.  We have 3 balconies and since we are on the 26th floor we have quite the view on beautiful days like today.

We found a Papa John's pizza recently.  finally pizza that tastes like home!  We have already eaten there twice this week.  There is a Pizza Hut here in Hangzhou but it tastes like China.  Papa John's really tastes like American pizza.  McDonald's is just like home expect for their shakes, very thin, watery and artificial tasting. The ice cream is go though.  Kentucky Fried Chicken is better here in China then it was in Rexburg and they recently have begun to serve mashed potatoes!  Such a treat.  Buying groceries is expensive here.  We spend about $500 U.S. on meat, flour, sugar.  Vegetables can be cheap depends on what it is.  We have fruit and vegetable markets right outside the gates of our apartment so it makes it very convenient to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables every day. (A little bit of a pain, to have to do it so often but very fresh) If you go in the morning right after they get their deliveries you have a great selection.

I knit another pair of booties, this time green with peach flower centers and white daises. I have downloaded Saartje's bootees as well as Christine's baby booties to try next.  I am currently working on the Divine Ms M for Elizabeth. I plan to watch some more Call the Midwife and knit for the rest of the day.

Fall Knitting!

 As you can see I have been busy knitting, maybe it's because of the move to Idaho and I know I am going to freeze this winter but wool really does just seem right to me right now!  You can find the link to the free owl pattern here:

 http://daisycottagedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/07/free-owl-hat-crochet-pattern.html

It was fairly easy to crochet, although I haven't done much crocheting so it took some thinking on my part but as you can see I finished it1 ( Well, almost I still need to sew on the buttons for the eyes! But I did purchase them so I should be able to finish it soon!
 So many daughters of friends are having babies, I have been on the hunt for the ultimate baby bootie pattern.  One that will actually stay on their tiny feet and keep their feet warm this winter. These work up quickly! And they turned out way cute! With the ribbon you wind though the eyelets they do stay on!  The free pattern can be found here:

http://baby-projects.livejournal.com/15134.html

 My 16 year old son, Tim loved the owl hat that I made for my new nephew so I looked for a new pattern that could be made man size!  He loves the hat, I made it with Knit picks yarn, their wool of the andes. It should be quite warm for him this winter.  I can't keep the pom poms on so I have to work on it. The free pattern can be found here:

http://zayantemom.blogspot.com/2010/01/almost-pattern-for-earflap-hat.html

I opted to not put the owl face on the hat much to his disappointment!




I have 3 quilts at the quilters that I can't wait to get back from her.  She said I should have them by Thanksgiving.  I hope they come next week.  I will be posting the pattern for the table runner here when the quilt comes home.  It was quite easy.

I am also working on a crochet blanket for a christmas present as well as a pair of socks.  Hopefully, I will be posting those soon.

I've been working on genealogy and trying find the documents needed to have my ancestor listed in the DAR.  I found this great free research log to assist me in keeping track of where I have looked and where I need to go next and why! They also have an electronic version which will come in handy as I am going on a fact finding mission to Danville, Illinois after thanksgiving.  I hope to pull original documents for the DAR.

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/images/5/50/Research_Log.pdf

I hope it helps to keep me more organized. I have been hit or miss in recording where I have looked.  Previously, the only time I recorded where I looked is when I found information!  It has caused a lot of duplication on my part in research.  I hope to post my family tree here shortly so soon as I figure out how to put a copy on the blog. I also watch two webinars this week that were very helpful in organizing your family history.  Both can be found on the Legacy Family Tree site here:

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Webinars.asp

The two I watched on Organizing are: FamilyRoots Organizer System by Mary Hill and Organizing for Success by Karen Clifford.  They each contained different approaches to organizing your files. Karen's involved the use of notebooks and Mary's involved the use of color file systems.  Both will work well with my Legacy system.  I think that I will be using both of the systems in my work.  Both have great applications for how my documents are currently organized. I have massive amounts of documents collected not only by me but by my Aunt Ruthie.  The great thing about being interested in genealogy, is the family helps out by passing documents on to you!

I also watched Cracking the case of Natan Brown's parents by marian Pierre-Louis.  An excellent example of working on solving brick walls.  And although she didn't introduce any new strategies I haven't already done or tried.  It was nice to have my research techniques validated!

As you might have guessed I use Legacy software to keep track of my family history but I think the webinars are worthwhile no matter what software you use.  By the way, when my computer arrived from India, Legacy had disappeared from my computer, when I tried to reload it, the computer would lock up.  A big thank you to tech support.  I heard back from them in fifteen minutes and had my computer up and running again.  I have an IMac computer which I love.  So for family history software I run it under VMFusion so I can use the windows software.  I also use VMFusion for my quilting software.  Although Mac has great programs, I just haven't found a good replacement for them in apple technology.  I have all the family history software because I help people do their family history so I try to be knowledgable about the various programs available.

Last but not least today, an update on Chloe and Tim.  We were watching our new favorite show Terra Nova and Chloe came attacked Tim, in her own fun loving way.  Whenever he lays on the floor to watch Tim, Chloe thinks its an invitation for LOVE!

Stashes and Anniversaries!

I thought I would throw in a few tips from over the years about organizing my stash!

I always kept a bushel basket beside my cutting table and all my scraps would go into the basket (for me a scrap was anything I could not easily cut into anything else with ease. So left over parts of 2" strips etc).  That basket was fair game for my children.  They could use anything in the basket that they wanted.  (All my girls are sewers today because of that basket). I love string quilts so when the basket would get to full, I would randomly grab scraps to make a block, when I had enough blocks I would put them all together to make a quilt. I loved the book Liberated String Quilts! What's great about these is if you have different types of fabric you can have baskets for each type and when you have enough make a quilt.  I used a lot of flannel, cotton and corduroy.

As far as my stash was concerned, the best for me was to organize it by color. My colors would go from light to dark.  It made it very easy if I was designing a quilt for a class at midnight to find what I needed for the quilt.

I have always shopped my stash first then added what I needed from the quilt store! 

But my stash grew because there was always something wonderful coming into the store that I had to have!

I found a great article on the net for working on your To Do List 

http://www.ivillage.com/managing-your-do-list/7-b-309711?nlcid=hh|01-04-2011|

I also found a great recipe I thought that I would share with you for brownies, it's called whatever floats your boat.

1/2 cup of butter melted

1/2 cup of coco

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-2 cups of chocolate chips (or vanilla chips or butterscotch etc)

Combine butter, coco and sugar until the sugar dissolves.  Add eggs one at a time.  Stir until combined, stir in vanilla, flour and salt until just combined (don't over mix) at this point you can add nuts, toffee chips, whatever you like.  Pour into a greased 8" square pan and bake at 350" for 25 minutes.  You can double the recipe for a 9x12 pan and bake 30 minutes.

You can find the recipe and more yummy goodness here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/whatever-floats-your-boat-brownies-32204

My husband had an interesting experience yesterday at work.  A mouse ran up the inside of his pant leg and tried to burrow under his sock!  It was the first time he was wearing his new hand knit 100% wool socks, that I made him for Christmas!

 Today is our 28th wedding anniversary.  Seems like only yesterday we were heading to Washington DC to get married! We have lived in 18 homes, 6 states and 2 countries.  Though it all I am so glad that he is the one sharing this journey of life with me.  Back when we have been married 3 years I wrote him a poem and find that it applies even more today then it did then.  Here it is:

"I don't crave mansions of silver or gold,

Or worldly platinum and wealth untold!

For they soon tarnish as they grow old.

A wealth far greater that I cherish,

It rises with me when I perish,

A wealth far greater that I hold,

Each time my husband I behold!

All Bran Muffins

All Bran Muffins Recipe

I have a wonderful recipe to share with you today.  It is a variation of the original recipe featured on the Kellogg’s All Bran box of cereal. My mom use to make these for us when I was a little girl, they are a great source of fiber and delicious to eat!

1-¼ cups flour

½ cup brown sugar

1-tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt  

2 cups of All Bran Cereal

1 ¼ cup milk

1 egg

¼ cup vegetable oil (or ¼ cup applesauce)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Raisins (I used mixed dried fruit like blueberries, cranberries etc)

Nuts

To begin, place the cereal in a bowl, cover with milk and let stand while you assemble the other ingredients.  Combine the rest of the ingredients except the raisins and nuts.  Stir in the cereal mixture.  Once all the mixture is moist add the fruit and nuts.  You’ll notice I didn’t specify amounts on the fruit and that’s because I mix in what looks good to me (most recipes call for 1 cup but I find that sometimes that’s too much fruit) also it greatly depends on what I have on hand.

Place in a greased muffin tin (or use the handy muffin papers to save on washing difficulties)

Bake in an oven preheated 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until the muffins spring back to the touch.

I like using the applesauce because it cuts down on the cholesterol and as we are always looking for ways to cut the fat it’s one of my favorite ways to do so.  Enjoy!

Now for the latest update on our new addition, she continues to wiggle her way into our hearts, particularly Dave’s! She now bounces to the door when he arrives home from work and nothing will satisfy her except he stop to pick her up! 

She also loves lying at Tim’s feet when he is playing “Minecraft “ on the computer.  It’s quite fun to see how he has stepped up to help and train the Chloe’.

Of course I am coming to think of her as the pesky little puppy, she must have attention, and she must have it now!  Seriously, I love cuddling with her on the couch, she keeps me very warm during the cold Indian winter.  Although winter here is not cold compared to Utah standards, it is still quite cold especially when you consider the fact that there is no heat!  Everyone I have asked about it states, "It's only cold for 2 months, it's not worth it to put in heat."  To which I reply, "Tell that to my feet!"  

Because it has been so cold I haven't been in the mood to sew much, however, I have been in the mood to knit and crochet.  I have been able to complete  2 rosey earflap hats, the pattern for which can be found here: 

http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2010/11/rosy-earflap-cap.html 

I loved this pattern it worked up quickly (an hour per cap!) If your looking for a cute last minute Christmas gift this could be your answer!

Because these worked up so quickly I was also able to knit up a pair of socks for Dave in a nice comfortable wool! He will love them and with the marble floors here they will go a long way towards helping keep him warm this winter!

I used yarn from Light Brown Hare which fortunately ships internationally! The yarn knitted up wonderfully! I really enjoyed working with it.  You can find her yarn here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lightbrownhare

Have a great day everyone!

                     Our New Puppy Chloe’

The world’s cutest Lhasa Apso!

As you can see from the pictures we have a new addition to our family!  Chloe' can to our house December 11, 2010.  She was 42 days old at the time.  Dave bought her back from Mumbai, when he was there on business.  She is a Lhasa Apso.  A totally new breed to me, I don't I'd ever had the opportunity to see them before except in pictures.  They are a popular breed here in India and we wanted a dog that would stay small as we live in an apartment and I just couldn't do that to a golden retriever.  In fact, this is the first time since I was 8 years old that I have been without a Golden!  Technically, I still have my golden but she is half a world away living with my daughters as she was too old to make the journey to India.  The vet did not think she would be able to survive the trip.

Gabby

I sure miss her, she is the smartest Golden I have owned and at 50 I owned a few in my life!

Chloe is the smallest puppy.  And for such a small puppy she has quite the ferocious personally!  She wants what she wants now!  But already she loves to just be near us and when we work at the computer she lays on her blanket at our feet.

When Dave arrives home from work these days, the first words out of his mouth are, "Where's my puppy!"  She is definitely Daddy's girl.  She is also very attached to Tim! Hmmm, but then she really just loves to have attention.

Like a baby she eats four times a day.  And not surprisingly she has worms. I am concerned about taking her to the vet as she hasn't had any shots yet and I don't want to expose her to whats out there in the world but we will be doing that next week as soon as she is old enough to have them. We had a pound puppy that we adopted that died of Parvo once and I never want to have that happen again.  Despite the fact that we gave her the shot, it was too late she had already been exposed to the  virus. We are looking forward to many happy years with this pup.