Lazy relaxing + yogurt and ice cream...

I am terrible at relaxing. I run my mind too far and wide even as I sit thinking—don't do anything. I like the idea of relaxing, and I do manage to lay on the sofa to watch some terrible something when my day has been too long and there is nothing else left in me to stay upright. But even that gets to me. 

I just sat down with this exciting plate of vanilla ice cream, plain yogurt, sliced banana and toaster waffle. I took out the book I am supposedly reading and started alternating between sweet and sour bites and detangling the words that make up a page of the story I am trying to feel enthralled in. I'm not caught. My thoughts drift away to the pretty plate, the perfection of ice cream and yogurt —something I learned from my great aunts in Utica New York—and the fact my computer is only ten feet away, fully charged and I could even write a silly post about nothing. 

A silly post wins.

 Right now the little ones are at some national women's soccer league game with their godfather. My fifteen-year-old is in his room doing his own version of nothing and my husband is still working. 

A quiet house to my self. Remarkable!

I think I will get out my knitting and try to find some cold, wet, British movie that captures my imagination. Any suggestions?

    

                                                                                     ~ Marica

This Sunday . . .

I made two kinds of cake . . .

Gluten and dairy free coconut lemon . . .

As well as I managed to covered my kitchen in a hurricane of coconut . . .

To make this a raw coconut cake for a baby shower . . .

I finished and gave a not yet born baby a hat, so so small . . .

And a woolen soaker . . .

I adore knitting for babies . . . 

I noticed huge changes on the lilac bush out front of our house . . .

 And I watched this eight-year-old girl, sitting on a table being eight-years-old 

like there never was an eight-year-old before . . .

                                                               Happy Sunday to you all  ~ Marica

A gift for that tiny baby . . .

Finally finished, and given to my brother for his sweet new baby . . . 

 I used this pattern: Down Under Diaper Cover Pattern. It is so simple and was 

my favorite cover for my youngest son . . . more about that in this post.

As well as two hats . . . of extremely different sorts . . .

And one thick blanket to lay on the floor because babies need to be able to roll around a bit . . . 

Packaged up an passed on . . . 

Actually one of the things I miss most about having babies . . . Aside from snuggling them all day, and holding them all night, and carrying them month in and month out, and smelling their fuzzy heads, and looking at their tiny toes, and trying to remember them so I won't forget once they get so big . . .  is making things for them. 

                         ~ Marica

Knitting and things orange . . .

Do you ever have an after-the-fact realization that, once you've seen it, you are surprised you never noticed it before? I had such a moment the other evening while buying, probably an unnecessary yet still needed, new round knitting needle. I tend to tuck my knitting needles into bags with a few spools of yarn, running off to the park, or the beach, or the who-knows-where I think they might prove handy to bide my otherwise lovely time, but fill in the edges of feeling useful. I think most of the people who tend to knit or crochet, love the yarn and the experience, but also love the feeling of having something to do when they are just sitting and waiting, or chatting, or watching a movie, or something where not too much visible forward productivity is happening. Anyway, with all that chatter finished, I was at the fabric store late in the evening and found the perfect yarn for a project I had high on my list for making. The yarn's package said it took size nine, American needles, so being that I often can't find which needles I am looking for at which exact moment, I decided a new pair would not hurt my projects likeliness of actually being executed . . . But nines looked so big, and as my eyes stretched across the sizing options, I decided sixes were my perfect match. Well, as I picked them up I also realized I always pick sixes, or perhaps sevens. They are the size needles that feel right in my fingers and look right to my eyes. Even thicker yarn tends to work best for me with this size needle. 

I am a relatively loose knitter, so maybe this is why. Anyway, I have probably bought this same size needle eighty-percent of my needle-buying career. Does anyone else have a favorite knitting needle size? Maybe everyone loves size sixes . . . 

I had a similar thing happen when I was a teenager. I always disliked orange, I never could understand how someone's eyes could view it as pretty. To me it was a road construction color, orange cones and orange vests . . . I still don't like that shade of it, it is so extreme and flat, but at the time I didn't even like winter squash orange. Then slowly, creeping-up-on-me-ish, when I was put to make a color choice, I'd pick orange. I don't know where it started. I think of a blanket I was given in particular where the orange-ness was so warm and complete, perhaps that had its influence. 

     

                       I guess that it is called learning about yourself . . . hmm . . . ~ Marica

So much yarn . . .

No, this is not a photo in a yarn store. It is actually due to a most wonderful phone call I received a couple of weeks ago. My very close friend had come into some yarn and was in need of placing abundant amounts in a good home. Well need I explain how welcoming my home is to such a large supply of wool and silk, cotton and silk rayon blends. 

I headed over to her house with a small backpack, unsure of how much yarn she was really talking. On the phone she had excitedly explained a pick-up-truck and van full of yarn, but I had know idea she really meant a pick-up and a van load of yarn. As I stepped through the gate into her yard I saw a blanket laid out with neatly piled bunches and rows and rows of yarn. I was entirely satisfied, it never occurring to me that there would be more. As I looked through what was laid out she said she had to show me some more over on the path-walk . . . and the front porch  . . . and the back . . . Oh my gosh, she had an entire yarn store sitting in her front yard! Needless to say my backpack was of small use. I ended up with two large boxes filled with the most beautiful yarn. 

I have loads of ideas and and have only scraped the surface of the projects I want to start.

 What perfect timing as we are gaining way into fall and with the holidays coming upon us so quickly. It always takes cold weather for my fingers to itch to knit. Well I better get a-knitting!

                                                                          ~Marica

A Small Gift

A quick gift for my daughter's friend . . .

In a brie box to make it more fun . . .

                                                                                                                         ~Marica