Thoughts on Thursday

A thoughtful thought for Thursday.  I am getting worse and worse news everyday about the strike, and now lock out, of the nurses union at Sparrow.  As my mom is a case manager and part of that union at Sparrow, it’s not a good time for our family, especially so close to the holidays.  I have cut myself off from any news sources because they just raise my blood pressure with all of their one sided reporting.  Instead I turned my attention to what makes me feel better at these times, and the answer is family and really good food.  Well, since Kaitlin is coming home either today or tomorrow we have the family part covered, so now we are on to really good food.  I decided to make a really good chocolate fudge pie, which I am calling “Lock Out Pie”.  I’ll admit, I had mildly ulterior motives, I really wanted chocolate and pie sounded good, that and I don’t get to make a pie for Thanksgiving, just potatoes.  So I made two!  Well, I’ve decided to share this deliciously good pie with everyone! 

“Lock Out Pie” aka Delicious Fudge Pie

1 Frozen deep dish pie crust

½ C butter or margarine, softened

¾ C packed brown sugar

3 eggs

1 – 12 oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1 tsp Vanilla

½ C All-Purpose Flour

1 C coarsely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Partially bake crust 5-7 minutes.

In large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Melt chocolate chips in microwave with a dab of butter.  Add melted chocolate and vanilla; mix well.  Stir in flour and walnuts.

Pour mixture into partially baked crust.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until set.  Cool on cooling rack 1 ½ hours. 

WIP...Or Not

I’ve decided to make Wednesday “Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesday”.  I was excited to make today WIP day because I was working on a neck cowl that I had been working on for about 5 days.  I had been making it for myself to see how it worked out, and see if I wanted to make more for Christmas gifts.  I had been all happy to post pictures of it being worked up, and had even taken the pictures!  However, I finished it, and it did not work, at all!  I was very disappointed, and even sulked about it for a while.  It was 5 days of work down the drain!  After setting it aside and going out to have dinner, I decided to rip out the yarn and try something new.  So this is what my 5 days of work has gotten me!

Once that got settled, and out of spite of it not working I decided to work on a different project, Kaitlin’s gift for Christmas.  However, this project didn’t work out either!  I’ve tried 3 different ways so far on how to make this thing (sorry, not giving away what it is since Kaitlin might read this, but we’ll all figure out what it is soon enough) and ripped all of them out.  I have a photo to inspire me on what to do, so hopefully 4^th times the charm!

Hopefully this crafting block that I’ve had today will lift and I’ll be able to get these done!

Coolest Baby Basket Ever!!

A recent thumb injury has slowed down my knitting projects, and at the height of the holiday season!  I decided that while slicing potatoes it would be a really good idea to slice my thumb too.  No worries, everything is ok, no stitches, no loss of fingers or digits.  However, it does make things challenging, but knitting isn’t too affected since I don’t use my thumb that much.

Since I don’t have pictures of recently finished projects to post I’ll post a picture of the baby basket I just finished the other day for Luke’s cousin.  Luke’s cousins Sara is having her first baby! A baby boy named Vaughn.  I really enjoyed making everything in here, and am now ready to not use blue for a very long time!
Not going to lie, I'm pretty damn proud of this basket!  It's probably the coolest thing I've made in a long time!

I have individual photos of everything I made that's in this basket (since both Kaitlin my sister, and Mary my best friend don't live in Michigan I had to e-mail them photos).  However, I figure most people don't want to see 6 individual photos, so I decided to just post the overall picture of everything all put together.  Look for the individual photos on Fridays, which I've decided is going to be Past Project Fridays.

Thoughts on my first blog

To everyone out there (if there are people out there that care to read my blog) this is my first ever blog!  I know, I'm late in the whole technological advancing thing.  I guess the idea I have for this blog is to share with everyone the patterns I make, the things I knit/crochet, and the thoughts I have about everything.  As a knitter I do a bit of everything, the traditional, the more modern, and the wacky (which is usually reserved for my sister or close friends).  I can't wait to see what my blog evolves into!