2-3-14

I have been a  busy little bee this weekend.  And, yes, I am counting today as part of the weekend since I had the day off. 

Saturday we got our taxes done.  We're getting a sweet refund, thank goodness!  Then we went out and about and did some window shopping.  After we made it home I worked on clipping coupons and organized those.  Well, Michael organized them.  I worked on planning meals.  Sunday morning, bright and early, we went grocery shopping.  With sales and coupons I saved over $100.  That always makes for a happy Monica.  I got a ton of groceries too!  Why, you ask.  Because I had a plan. 

After a long day at work, I want nothing more than to come home, ring a bell and wait on my servants to bring me my dinner.  Oh wait, I don't have servants.  So, I like to make my own fast food.  You see, to paraphrase a popular line from a Barbara Mandrell song, I was into freezer cooking before freezer cooking was cool.  Yesterday I made chicken and spinach lasagna rollups, chicken pot pie soup, irish beef stew, and navy bean soup.  Today I made chicken and bean burritos, jambalaya, and three batches of turkey spaghetti.  I now have enough put in the freezer for at least 14 meals with leftovers to take for lunch the next day. 

Lasagna Roll ups

  Irish Beef Stew

Navy Bean Soup

Chicken and Bean Burritos

Spaghetti Sauce with Turkey

Sorry, I have no pictures of the jambalaya or the chicken pot pie soup. 

Not only do I have these meals in the freezer, I also have the ingredients to make a creamy garlic pasta and several different varieties of chicken and a pork chop night.  So now, no matter what I am only a few minutes away from an awesome meal, leaving me time for other stuff...like knitting.  It also helps me with portion control and not spending money on awful food choices like Burger King, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Captain D's  Zaxby's, etc.  I have had a chance this weekend to get about a third of the way through one baby blanket and got the yarn for 2 more. 

Michael wants everyone to know that he rolled each of these skeins into balls for me.  My man:  always willing to help.  He swears I work him like a house-elf, but we all know better. 
Tomorrow I have to go back to work so I can make money.  Oh to be a lady of leisure!  Until I make that happen though, I will try to content myself with being a self proclaimed Queen of the Kitchen.   

10-13-13 Post 3 of 3

I have been a knitting fool since the middle of August.  Since then I have finished a lace scarf, a lace shawl and a baby blanket.  The reason for my knitting foolishness is because I realized about that time that I hadn't entered anytrhing into the fair yet and then when I did enter I became a tad ambitious and entered 3 categories:  knitted lace, knitted shawl/stole and knitted scarf.  I only had one thing finished, an infinity scarf that I made at the very beginning of the year.  I had the lace scarf maybe about a quarter of the way done and I didn't even have a pattern for the shawl picked out.  Every spare moment I've had since then has been spent knitting.  I finished knitting the lace scarf on August 29.  Knitting lace requires too much concentration, so I started on the baby blanket and worked on that while we were in Atlanta.  As soon as we got back home  I started on the shawl.  I finished it the last weekend of September, just a couple days before I had to turn it in for judging.

Here I am in a panel at Dragon*Con working on the baby blanket. 

That blanket is finished now, but I haven't taken pictures yet.  The top part is green.  It was such a nice and easy pattern.  It's going to make a very nice gift for someone. 

Here is the infinity scarf I entered in the fair.  It won second place in its category.

This is the lace scarf I entered in the fair.  It won first place in its category.

And this is the lace shawl I entered.  It also won first place in its category.

Now I have knitting fever again.  Since I submitted my fair entries, I've finished the baby blanket above, another infinity scarf and I've already been thinking about what to enter next year. 

2-24-13

I finally managed to finish a knitting project this week.  I say finally, because I've been working on this particular project since July or maybe even earlier.  I don't know why this one took me so long.  It just couldn't keep my attention even though I really like the pattern and yarn.  Now Ijust have to block it and it will be completely completed. 

I pushed myself to finish this week because I have been dying to start something new.  I had found a skein of yard that I had forgotten I had and I had already chosen the pattern.  All I had to do was wind my yarn into a ball so I could work with it.  Sounds simple right?  I've done that dozens of times before with no problems, but this time was just one big problem.  Usually I'll drape the skein over the top of a chair and unwind it off the skein and into a ball.  Easy peasy.  I was watching tv and apparently not paying enough attention.  The next thing I knew, the yarn had fallen off the chair onto the floor and Flash was trotting up to try out the new toy I had just put out for him.  I grabbed the yarn as quickly as I could, but the damage had been done.  The rest of the skein was a gnarled, ragged, knotty mess.  I worked on it for about 2 hours longer without making any visible progress.  Ended up going to bed at 3am.  Woke up and was back at it by 9:30 Saturday morning.  I  won't say how long I actually worked on it, but let's just I didn't end up going to bed until after 4am.  It was a great exercise in patience and remaining calm even though I really wanted to toss the whole mess into the garbage.  It was also an almost perfect illustration of bullheaded stubbornness.  Today, I knit!

And just because, here's a picture of my pup, Flash.