There Is Snow

My, oh my. I haven't posted since November. I've been very busy with work, trainings, fulfilling knitting requests, getting ready for Christmas, and clearing snow. We've had well over 40 inches already.

We drove to KS the Saturday before Christmas and returned to the cottage on Christmas Day to icy snow blocking the driveway. It was a team effort to clear a way in. Here is me doing my part.

Leftovers a New Way

Still wondering what to do with all that leftover turkey and stuffing? These are unique and yummy!

Turkey and Stuffing Burgers
1 1/2 cups leftover roast turkey
4 cups leftover cooked stuffing
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 450. Grease jelly-roll pan. In food processor with knife blade attached, pulse turkey until chopped. In large bowl, combine turkey, stuffing and eggs until well mixed. Form into 8 mounds. Place them 2 inches apart on pan and flatten mounds. Roast 20 minutes, without turning over.

The Perfect Toddler Sweater

Okay, so it isn't perfect, but I combined 2 patterns to make the right sweater for my coworker's little boy. She was sweet enough to post about it. CLICK HERE to take a look at her darling boy in his holiday sweater.

Winter Wonderland

I am beginning to really understand the meaning of "snow belt." I haven't gotten the snow blower out yet, but probably will need to very soon.

Give Him a Chance

Last weekend we went to Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana while Rodney and Carmina were looking at houses in Kansas. We got to see a baby calf being born. Ember and Cheyanne were mesmerized, and a little grossed out. When the calf came out, he didn't move for awhile and the grown-ups in the room were a bit worried until he raised his head and we breathed a sigh of relief. He kept trying to get up while the mama was licking him off. The girls got a kick out of this:

Classic Toys

My nieces visited recently for our 3-night Slumber Party Weekend. We visited the Kalamazoo Valley Museum which is FREE!! They currently have a toy exhibit where I learned that Mr. Pototohead use to be just plastic parts that you could put into a real potato (or other fruit or veggie). Who knew? Here is a clip of a toy that Ember enjoyed:

Crafty Chica

My new favorite magazine is called Craft: transforming traditional crafts. The newest issue had the idea of making postcards from cereal boxes. Genius! I have been trying to write to my nieces and get them to write back to me, and this will be a fun way to do that!

Last week I started full-time at the school district. It is actually 2 different part-time jobs, but they agreed that makes me full-time! I also found out that my brother, sister-in-law and my beloved nieces are moving to Kansas. So, now I have less time off and have to travel 5 times the distance to see them. I am glad that my brother has a job but I am very sad that my nieces will be so far away. Here we are on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

This One Needs a Home

The other day when I was raking leaves I was approached by this sweet little tabby cat. He/she was meowing and meowing pitifully so I stuck some leftover ham in my food processor for him and he gobbled it up. He's been around ever since and I can't keep him. Although I've always lived with cats, I know I am allergic and really don't want cat hair around here. Can anyone take a cat?

The Circus Was in Town

Wow! Kristin guessed the mystery picture right away! It is the top of a circus tent. We got to watch the elephant raise the circus tent this summer. I'll try to post a few more pics later.

Sarah is Creepy

I was cleaning up the vegetable garden beds yesterday and turned up a salamander. It freaked me out when she skittered out from the dirt and I ran and grabbed the pet box to put her in. I bought some wax worms at the pet store. I hope she lives until Friday so my nieces can see her and then set her free.

I named her Sarah, after Sarah Palin, because I find them both to be quite creepy. The human Sarah winks and says things like, "C'mon now, Joe." This is as she is in the middle of a debate and hoping to be the next VP. The Sarah in my box has beady little eyes and slithers around. Ugh. I'm trying to find at least one nice thing to say about each of them.

Looks Like Paper Folding

I found this strange and beautiful flower in the garden. I think it was part of a wildflower mix that my Mom planted in the spring. For some reason I think it is called a "paper flower." Does anyone know?

Buyers Beware

We all went to the Michiana Relief Sale last weekend. I was disappointed that they didn't have verenike, which is just about the best reason to go to the sale in KS. I did find some peppernuts, though. The girls enjoyed the Children's Auction where they had their own number and could bid all by themselves for the things they wanted. It took lots of guts to raise that number high and they both went home with some new toys with all the proceeds going to MCC.

Mystery Pictures

Here is another mystery picture. I'm thinking this one might be a bit tricky. If nobody guesses it, I have 2 other photos that I can add as clues...

Am I in Trouble?

When my nieces visited recently I was informed by Cheyanne that they would no longer be making pictures for me. It seems that, although I hung their pictures in a prominent location on my fridge, I failed to anticipate that water dripping from ice cube trays being placed in the freezer would drip onto the valuable artwork and ruin it. I offered my sincerest apologies and begged them to reconsider. Ember immediately agreed to resume making pictures for me. Cheyanne wasn't so quick to forgive. She holds onto grievances much longer than her sister and that's okay. I think she'll come around.




Then I remembered the magnetic sleeves that my friend Beky had on her fridge in Lancaster, PA when I visited this summer. I emailed Beky and we arranged a trade: I would knit her a winter hat and she would buy me some of the magnetic sleeves. The sleeves arrived today and I promptly hung some artwork on the fridge.

I also finished up Beky's hat today. Perfect!

Bright Morning Surprise

I woke up for work last Monday, after receiving 10 inches of rain while at Camp Friedenswald for Women's Retreat, to see a full rainbow over the lake. It took me quite by surprise!

And the winner is...

Okay, so the mystery pictures I posted recently are, in fact, a tomato and some pears. Both Christy and Kristin guessed correctly. However, I'm awarding the virtual prize to Kristin this time because Christy posted her comment under the wrong date and she sent her comment approximately 8 times. In fact, I had to actually call her on the phone to tell her that I received the comment the first time and to STOP sending it again! You know I love you, Christy. I am expecting some new pictures soon and I am hoping there are some good mystery pics in there to post. Come back soon!

I've Been Tagged! Are You Next?

I just realized that I was tagged by Angela in on 8/26/08 and have some questions to answer, so here goes:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
Hmmmm...1998? I think I lived part of the year in the little A-frame house in North Newton, KS until I bought my first house all the way across town in Newton. I was working at Youthville as a Placement Coordinator for children in the foster care system. I think that was also the year that Kristin gave birth to Naomi and I became "Auntie Bonita." I'm sure I spent a bit of time doting over that adorable baby.
2. What are 5 things on your to-do list?
Buy a cake for Cheyanne's birthday.
Buy fruit fly traps.
Take some clothes to Goodwill.
Get some warmer clothes out of storage.
Find a place to put all of the full canning jars.
3. What are some snacks you enjoy?
Dark chocolate covered almonds
Popcorn
Luna bars
4. If you were a billionaire, what would you do?
Pay off my credit card.
Hire a financial advisor.
Make sure the kids in my life have money for college.
Pay off any family debts.
Buy the beautiful house next to the cottage.
Set up a foundation to give away a ton of money!
5. What are 3 of your bad habits?
Making snide comments that I wish I wasn't making.
Staying up late, but not near as late as Christy! (Is that a snide comment?)
Waiting until company is coming to clean, and sometimes not even then.
6. What Places Have You Lived?
Markham, IL
North Newton, KS
Newton, KS
Mt. Horeb, WI
Red Wing, MN
Lawrence, MI
7. What are 5 jobs you have had?
Food Service at Bethel
Nanny
Ski Shop Cashier
Placement Coordinator
Early Interventionist
8. What are 5 things many people don't know about you?
I have a thing for office supplies, especially plastic sleeves.
Sometimes I stay in my pajamas all day and change into clean ones at night.
I like to watch dumb, yet creepy, reality shows like Rescue 911 and Forensic Files.
I like to sleep under my fake down comforter, even in the summer (with the A/C on, of course).
I love podcasts, especially from the BBC and NPR.

Whew! That was harder than I thought. Now I get to tag some of you and you can respond on your blogs if you wish.

Consider yourselves tagged:
Kristin N. E.
Christy S. S.
Beverly B.

A Silly Hat

I made this silly hat with scraps of yarn. The gauge wasn't right, but I'm making adjustments and hope to perfect this fun hat. Maybe I'll make one for me. Is that too weird? My nieces said they won't wear one of these hats because people will make fun of them. Maybe if I start wearing one they will come around.

Looking for Plastic

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Do you know those zippered, clear, plastic bags that bed sheets come in? If anyone has some lying around, I would love to get my hands on them! They work great to keep my knitting projects all packaged up like a kit so I can just grab one and knit. They really feed my need to be organized. If you have some you can part with, let me know and I'll see how I might be able to get them from you. THANKS.

Charlie Bit Me

If you haven't seen this video on Youtube, you must! It has been viewed over 48,000,000 times and it is so funny!!

Click here: Charlie Bit Me

More Mysteries

Here are 2 more mystery photos. I think they will be easier than the sun tea. What do you think they are?

Mystery Solved

The mystery has been solved, although it has unearthed another mystery.

Kristin was sortof right when she thought it might be something with berries, except this one is actually flavored with plums.

Karin put it beautifully when she said it is "a bit like the color of late-afternoon-sunlight-at-the-end-of-summer reflecting on water." That is quite true!

Someone named "Beth" correctly guessed that my mystery picture is...sun tea. The orange object at the top of the picture is the ball holding the loose-leaf tea. Curiously enough, I can't figure out who Beth is. I thought she might be my cousin, Beth, but she denies it. Hmmmmm...

I guess I'm the one left guessing.

The Wedding Singer

I went to my cousin, Luanne's, wedding in Ontario over the weekend. No, I'm not singing in the photo. Until last weekend, all 4 of us women on the Shantz side of the family have been single. Now we're down to 3. At the reception we felt we must tell the story of our pact a few years ago. If any one of us wanted to bring a man to the Shantz Christmas dinner, we would contact the other women so they could each bring a man as a decoy to take the pressure off the "real" boyfriend. Well, Luanne must have felt confident enough with her choice because she surprised a few of us by bringing someone to Christmas dinner. We think she made a good choice. Here we are all dressed up for the wedding.
My nieces REALLY want to be flower girls. Unfortunately for them, my cousin has 6 nieces of her own and the littlest one got to be her flower girl. Cheyanne is trying to set me up with her imaginary friend, Mortimer, so they can fulfill their flower girl dream.

Mystery Picture

This is possibly my favorite thing about summer.
Can anyone figure out what it is?

Another Reason to Knit

Ooooooh, I'm so excited! I just learned how to set up an online store for myself so I can sell my knitting!!!! Now, I don't really have much inventory yet but I do have a store now so I'd better keep knitting. I have plenty of projects on my list for the people I love, but now and then I'm sure I'll have things to post for sale. Check it out and bookmark it for those gift-giving occasions in your life. :) You can find me at:

knitb4sleep.etsy.com

Yesterday was such gorgeous weather that I kept the windows open all day and didn't turn on the A/C. Today, however, it warmed up again and I've been inside most of the day. I did venture out to water some plants.

The "babies" that I was given when I came back from Illinois are also feeling the heat. They do have fur, after all, so they have spent the day on the t.v. because it is the closest spot to the air conditioner.



While we've all been keeping cool, I also whipped up a Nano Sock. I needed something to keep my Ipod in while traveling next week and this is just the thing! You can find the pattern here: http://annypurls.blogspot.com/2005/12/nano-warmer.html



I'm also making some homemade peach ice cream with some juicy peaches I picked up at the market. YUM!

Taking Care of My Flock

When I left Illinois last week, my nieces scrambled to find some "babies" for me to take along. Cheyanne told me that I must take them everywhere I go and "pet them every five minutes." It's a big responsibility. I thought I'd post a picture of what the babies have been up to lately. They enjoy helping me in the garden. I had to put the unicorn in charge of the bunny, though, so he wouldn't nibble anything like his cousins did earlier in the season.

What have I done?

inMany of you probably know that I am not one to do things very spontaneously. I am compelled to consider all of the worst case scenarios and warn others against them. Well, today I realized that those parts of my personality, which probably drive other people crazy, actually work quite well for me. Unfortunately, I threw caution to the wind today and, well, you'll see...
Okay, so I've been knitting a cardigan for myself since last summer. I've finished many other knitting projects in the meantime, but the sweater has taken way to long. I finally decided to knit nothing else until I finished it. I had decided to make one size large than initially planned. Well, after running out of yarn and buying 2 more balls, I barely had enough to bind off and sew it up. Really, I have only scraps of yarn left. I put it on and, it is WAY too big for me. I was so disappointed, and frustrated, that I threw it in the washer (on hot) and let it go. Keep in mind, it was knit with yarn made of merino wool, alpaca, and silk. I thought it would be fine. Afterall, it was much, much too big. Besides, I'd felted a bag recently that took nearly 6 washings to felt. Well, when I took the sweater out of the washer IT HAD FELTED. Now, if someone else had told me they were planning to do this, I would have warned them to check it every 5 minutes so it doesn't felt too much. I wish I had followed my own advice.


I'm still hoping it will make a nice, and very warm, little jacket in the fall.

All Fired Up for Jam

It's jam time! Last year we made 5 batches. This year we got an earlier start and made 9 batches! Strawberry, cherry, raspberry-blueberry, plain blueberry, triple berry, and mulberry. The cherry recipe used blackberry liquor which we had to burn off. This caused a bit of excitement as the flames got MUCH bigger than expected and came way too close to the cookbooks! Watch the video...

Chicago Beam

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We took the train to Chicago again, as a family, to see the sights. The girls thought the giant "bean" was called a "beam." Can you spot me, my mother and father, Carmina, Ember and Cheyanne in the picture with all the people under the bean?

Music in the City

Last week I drove to Illinois and took the Metra to Chicago with friends to see the Pitchfork Music Festival Preview show in Millenium Park. With a cool breeze off Lake Michigan, it was wonderful! Some strange music and some good tunes. Lots of flugelhorns.

Bag Lady

iMy knitter friends here think I am a bag lady. It seems all they see me knitting is felted bags. They think I'll just keep making bigger and bigger bags and that perhaps the next project will be a sleeping bag. Not a bad idea...

Here is the latest one. It is the same patter I made earlier this year, only bigger so perhaps I can use it for my job. The pattern is the Sheep Tote from Fiber Trends.

Bountiful Harvest

I've been wondering around my yard and picking things to eat: Raspberries, snap peas, shell peas,broccoli...and today I picked my first squash of the season. I'm not a big veggie lover, but I do like veggies fresh from the garden. The peas from the pod taste like candy, they are so sweet.

We're Happy Together

We threw a 4th of July party weekend here at the cottage. Besides me, 14 people came and stayed for varying lengths of time. 2 sleeping tents, a shower tent and a porta-potty were hauled in. We grilled, ate s'mores, listened to someone play a guitar by the camp fire, picked cherries, went to the flea market, bought 50 pounds of blueberries, and played hard! Some people went tubing or water skiing. 3 of us women even swam across the lake! Thanks for coming! For those of you who couldn't make it, you're welcome anytime!

Life is Sweet

It is one of our favorite times of the year...when sweet cherries are ready for picking. It only lasts about a week and the trees are weighed down with so many sweet cherries. We picked at Fruit Acres in Coloma, MI. $1.99 per pound for sweet cherries and 75 cents per pound for sour ones. We tasted as many different sweet varieties as we could find and enough sour cherries that it took all afternoon to pit them. Thanks, Mom, for diligently pitting nearly all of them!

Celebrating Hypertufa

Last week we had a hypertufa party to celebrate the retirement of one of my coworkers. I'd never heard of hypertufa before, and I wasn't convinced it would turn out, but now I'm hooked! Basically, it is a way to create a molded concrete planter using any mold you wish. I used a child's sand toy, and it turned out pretty cool. I'd like to make a big one if I find the right mold. If you click here you can find the general process that we followed. We didn't use the reinforcing fibers they mention, but maybe we should have.

If you are looking for a fun activity to do with friends, try hypertufa! My planter is now curing on the porch.

Feeling the Love

I am in Xenia, Ohio this weekend for a graduation party. When I lived in Wisconsin the year before I went to grad school, I was a nanny for 3 kids, ages 6, 4, and 4 months. The oldest graduated this year and asked me to come for the celebration. It has been quite an honor to be welcomed back into this family that I haven't seen for many years. The mom and I felt a bond from the moment we met 13 years ago at my interview. Her daughter didn't tell her I was coming and worked together with her dad to make it happen. She was so excited to surprise her mom and it was so fun to be the surprise. I am definitely feeling the love. It's like being at a family reunion with people I haven't seen for a few years, but some of them I've never met until now yet they have welcomed me like family.

It has also been fantastic to be in a city with stores all around. I spent my Saturday morning going to Target, a pet store, Half Price Books and a Salvation Army store. It can't get much better than all this.


Here is a picture of me with the "kids."

If You Know a Knitter Like I Know a Knitter

My coworker, Sue, made this beautiful prayer shawl for me. It was very unexpected. She is the one retiring and I should be knitting something for her. If you know knitters like I do, you may have noticed that they are often looking for people to give their knitting to. It justifies all the time we knitters spend with yarn.

It came with a prayer that, among other things, says:

"When this shawl was made, many prayers were knit into every stitch:
That this shawl would keep you warm,
Make you feel strong,
Help you feel better.
May this shawl malm you when you are upset,
Remind you that we love you even when we are not here,
and help you remember that your guardian angel
is always watching over you."

Very sweet...and soft and cozy and warm! What a gift.

Sometimes The World is Too Big

I called my friend Christy tonight. She wasn't home so I talked to her husband instead. He said she's partying at Kristin's house. Sometimes I feel the world is too big. I wish that everyone I love could live nearby. I want to be partying with Christy and Kristin in Kansas.

But then I wouldn't be here. I would have missed the paddleboat ride with Ember, catching minnows for my nieces, looking for toads, watching turtles run through the grass, playing Outburst Junior with Cheyanne, resurfacing the driveway with the grown-ups in the family, a dip in the lake with the girls, sleeping 3 people in a tiny room, and being reminded of how much my nieces love me:f


I guess Cheyanne wishes the world was a bit smaller too.

Refreshing Chicken Salad

I tried a new chicken salad recipe this week. YUM! It's made with avocados, so it doesn't last very long. Very tasty, though!

Avocado Chicken Salad

1 medium, ripe avocado, peeled and cubed
2 TBSP lemon juice, divided
2 1/2 - 3 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 medium tart apple, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 green onion, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup light mayo
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 tsp ground ginger

In a small bowl, combine avocado with 1 TBSP lemon juice, set aside. In a large bowl, combine the chikcen, grapes, apple, celery, onion (optional), mayo, walnuts, ginger, and remaining lemon juice. Stir in avocado.

Something For Me

I just finished a new felted bag for myself. I love it because it has 4 pockets! The pattern is The Sheep Tote from Fiber Trends. Unfortunately I can't find the tag from the yarn and I can't remember what it is called. I bought the yarn in Alaska 2 years ago and finally knit it up. I think I might make a large one to use for work.