Holiday Chaos Part 1

I did finish my canal boat blanket after dinner last night. I do still have to weave in the ends on the border and will photo and post when I finish that. But I did use it for my devotional time this morning. Delight!

I was so excited to jump in and work on my Holiday Chaos blanket. These are the colors I chose from Hobby Lobby's I love this yarn, Japanese fields, Linen, Sage Advice, Dark Olive, Grey Beard, Aubergine and Cranberry. I will most likely need more, hopefully on a sale week I can pick some up. I'm using a 5.0 size hook, generally. Some stitches I guess I might need to size up or down.

I am using the beginner stitches that Michelle chose but doing my own draw each day for color, stitch and rows.  I decided each color and stitch would sit out a round so I don't have the same thing back to back. But otherwise I am leaning into whatever is randomly chosen. I am thinking about taking out the Single Crochet and adding something else but we'll see how this first week goes.

For my first day I got Linen, Half Double Crochet, 6 rows. Although when I moved upstairs I couldn't remember the number I drew and thought it was 5- so I have to do one more row of HDC before I move on. 😅 I'm pretty pleased with how its going to far.

My next pull was 4 rows of blueberry stitch in Cranberry. Which is the one I was most excited to try, but a lot of people in the FB group found it really hard and frustrating- so now I'm nervous. 😅

I probably won't share progress everyday but wanted to show you my start! 

How Chance is feeling today. It's pretty gloomy out there- I hear storms maybe in the forecast. 

Could be near 80 today and snow on the weekend?! But honestly that feels pretty on brand for Syracuse weather. 😆

I made a couple recipes from The Taste of Home Soups and Breads cookbook last night! They were delicious and I will be having them for lunch too. Potato Beer Cheese Soup and Pretzel Bites.

That's all for today. 💙

Brunch! Fall Fest and crochet...

This weekend we had a ladies brunch at our church. I did a little cooking demo and brought back a throwback recipe I used to make all the time for princess tea parties and my Bible study when the kids were small. Pumpkin Apple Mini Muffins, they were a hit!

My mom also got to have some quality Phoebe time.

After the brunch Mikayla and I headed to the fall fest at the park in town. It was cute and we hit up the local coffee truck for lattes. Ran into old friends and chatted for a bit.  It was funny listening to Mikayla and a high school classmate lament at how quickly time passes now that they are moms and how fast their little ones are growing!  I also saw a friend of mine and we chatted about cook book club.

We stopped at a booth selling booksish things and we booth got a DIY bookmark which we promptly made when we got back home.  Mikayla's had strawberries and mine had books and coffees on it.

I made the boys pupcakes from Pampered Chef's new Happy Howl-idays gift set. Pretty easy and fun and the boys like them. I also did a video over on my facebook page- Amy's Pampered Kitchen

Afterward we cozied up and watched Harry Potter and worked on my canal boat CAL.

I'm on the final round of the border. Hopefully I can finish tonight and start my holiday chaos blanket. I am just loving the turquoise scallop to finish off the blanket.

This weeks sourdough bake was Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl- so good! Especially topped with freshly made apple butter. We had yesterday with Cider Braised Pork and Mashed Pototoes

 

 

The sky yesterday morning!

I hope you had a delightfully fallish weekend! 💙

Happy Errands

I am having trouble wrapping my head around that it is OCTOBER!

Yesterday I had a half day because of a medical appointment- so I got to run some happy errands before hand.

I popped into the library to pick up our next cousin bookclub book and because I had time to browse I left with a stack!

Including this one that Laura and I were admiring at the bookshop last week! World of Bookish Places, it is full of beautiful color photos of so many bookish destinations. I think it is destined to become part of our personal collections and a travel journal of sorts.

And our next Cookbook Club Book! Taste of Home Soups & Breads - tentatively scheduled for Nov 7 in my cozy kitchen.

I also hit up Hobby Lobby for yarn to start the Holiday Chaos Crochet-along. I'm so excited to start this project! I did end up mixing it up a bit and choosing two different yarns- I mainly went the Classic Christmas pallet. But the Red was too RED for my taste and I grabbed cranberry instead. I also didn't care for cinnamon and picked a grey instead. I like the tweedy sage from Country Christmas one and subbed that for the light sage. I loved the Japanese Fields variegated one and I used that one to make all my other decisions. I'm still debating on my stitches, I think I might just follow the beginner ones Michelle has planned.

I also ran into a friend and another friend's son. So that was an added bonus. 

After my appointments I came home and we went out to dinner to celebrate 28 years of marriage! We also took great delight in the fact we could go out on a Tuesday night! Now that Rhett's no longer working two jobs everyday! We went to Texas Roadhouse and had a lovely and delicious dinner.

Hard to believe 28 years have flown by. 

We are so excited for this new chapter where we get to be Gram and Gramps.

Two new Bible Studies I am excited about coming up- one is the Making Your Home a Haven study. I have been doing this one every fall for years now! I recently started doing it in a Facebook group with friends. That has been a delight.  This year it focuses on The Lord's Prayer which we have been studying in Wednesday night prayer meeting. So I am extra excited about this. It begins Oct 26. 

Following that I will be doing the Advent study from Daily Grace Co. Again I will be setting up a Facebook group to do it in community.

Both of these feel so great for helping to stay grounded and focused as we head into the busyness of the holidays.

Be blessed today my friends. 💙 Talk to you soon.

Sister Coffee Date & SURPRISE PARTY!

 This weekend we had a surprise party for our Mom! 

Because of this Laura and I had a couple days off to prepare. Naturally we had to squeeze in a sister coffee date too.

We went to the cutest little coffee shop filled with delight and whimsy. It was a little pricey but delicious and we enjoyed it.

I always need to take a peek at the sourdough and what people are charging for it.

We both opted for the Toffee Pecan Latte, which was so good. I got a power bowl and Laura a fancy avocado toast.

How cute is this wallpaper!

When we got back in the car Laura was like how would you feel about visiting All My Friends Books? Uh is that even a question? Of course we did!

It was the cutest little shop! We absolutely loved it!

We wandered down the street a little bit to check out the library and a couple other little shops before heading back to Syracuse to shop for the party.

It was such a fun day!

We spent all day Friday together setting up and decorating and prepping our soups for the party.  All the while hoping and praying Mom wouldn't decide to stop by the church for some reason.

Saturday was party time! We got to church early to plug in all the crockpots and finish up getting ready. 

SHAR-cuterie! 

Hannah's amazing dessert bar!

She was a little suspicious but was totally surprised to see her sister and brother, in from Virginia and Pennsylvania.

It was a wonderful party and we felt so blessed by all the people who came to celebrate MOM.