Cooking School & My jewerly

Last night Don and I went to a couple's cooking class at Dierburg's in Edwardsville. I had a blast. I think Don enjoyed it too. There were 9 couples there to cook. There were 3 cook stations 6 receipes which ment 3 groups of 6 making 2 receipes each. It was a bit crowded in the kitchen. The menu was:

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

Strawberry Spinch Salad w/ Maple Almonds & Raspberry Vinaigrette

Chicken Cordon Bleu w/Mushroom Wine Sauce

Fresh Green Beans with Caramelized Onions & Bacon

Toasted Almond Wild Rice

Fresh Lemon Tart with Berries

Everything was very good. The Mushroom Wine Sauce was a litter bitter/dry because of the white wine it was made with. Don and I helped make the Chicken Crodon Bleu w/the wine sauce and the Toasted Almond Wild Rice. The rice dish is soooo easy. You use a box of Uncle Ben's wild rice mix. Chop a medium onion add it to sliced mushrooms in a skillet with a few Tblspns of olive oil. Cook the onions and mushrooms until soft. Toast almonds in oven. When everything is ready mix them all together. Wa La Toasted Almond Wild Rice. Really all of the receipes were pretty easy. I am making the Lemon Tart today for a get together I have tomorrow.

I forgot the camera so I don't have any pictures of last night, but we did sign up for another class next month. This on is a demonstration class and not a participation one. Don didn't like the crowd in the kitchen. I will try to remember the camera so you can have pictures..

Catie's final performance of Beauty and the Beast was pretty good, if Catie says so herself. She told me that they got a standing ovation. The PTO was there to observe the quality of the production to determine if Drama will be put into the budget for next year. Catie is pretty certain that it will be. I sure hope so, Catie had a very good time in Drama Club.

Here is a picture of the bracelet and earrings I just completed. This isn't a real good picture of them. In the sunlight the crystals really sparkle.

I like the dangle earrings to the right. This picture really doesn't show how pretty they are. I need to figure out how to photograph my jewerly so you can see it clearly. Don helped me make the dangle ones. I hammered the circles/ovals flat and he drilled the holes at the ends. After

he messed up on the second pair he told me he didn't want to do it anymore so I had to buy a hole punch on the internet. I didn't want to mess with Don's tools. I might drill a hole in one of my fingers.

New Grandson

Wonderful news, my grandson was born last Saturday, April 17th. He weighed in at 7lbs 4oz. The pictures are kinda small and a bit blurry. They were sent via e-mail and the program my daughter uses is a bit funny. I can download them all at once but they are grouped all together in one file. I can copy and paste them individualy but then they are tiny.

Jessica is in Turkey and I guess if the baby doesn't come before the due date, they like to induce labor on the due date. So Mason was born on his due date.

Bryson is a big brother now and I don't think he quite knows what to think. I talked to Jessica over Skype. (It's a wonderful thing) and I got to see everyone. Bryson was attempting to kiss and hug Mason but like all two yearolds, he hasn't quite gotten the hang of gentle yet. Jessica says that her or Randy have to run interference between Mason and Bryson.

The Garden has been planted. Don, Catie and I planted the seeds and plants in our garden boxes last Sunday. We had bought seeds. Our goal was to start with only seeds. After looking at the instructions on the seed packages (of course we did this just before we were going to plant) we found out that most of my herb seeds needed to be started 8 to 10 weeks before the ground warms. ?! So I hurried to Lowes and bought some herb plants. I wasn't able to find some of the ones I wanted but I did get a majority of them.

Tonight is opening night for Catie's school play. They are doing 'Beauty and the Beast'. Catie is in the chours. She one of the villagers, a fairy, and a cream pitcher. She has a line in the mob scene. Catie is a bit nervous about tonight. They are behind rehursals about 3 weeks. The script and music was delayed getting to them because of the snow storm the east coast had a few months ago.

(Catie is the villager in the red)

I am attempting to make a bed coverlet for Jeni and Jamey's wedding. They are thinking about getting married in August so that gives me approx. 4 months to get it done. I have been having a heck of a time starting it. It starts on double pointed needles and has about 75 rounds. It is cabled. It's called Yiggdrasil. The tree of life. The center is the roots so the cabling doesn't make much sense. But I am at about round 25 and I am starting to see a pattern.

Sheep Festival

The sheep festival in Waterlou, IL was great. I went with a few of my friends from my knitting group. The three ladies are in my knitting group the gentleman is a friend of the redhead. He is a very nice guy.

When we got to the festival there were lots of sheep (as is to be expected). There were boy sheep, girl sheep and baby sheep. There were

even rabbits. Most of them were Angora rabbits. They have long beautiful hair. You shave them like you do sheep and mix the hair with a wool or alpaca then spin it.

There were lots of goodies to look at too. Many colors of wool and roving. Home spun yarn, homemade candles and lotions and spinning wheels. I even saw a demonstration of a spinning wheel type that Ghandi used to spin cotton with.

New to All of This

Hey All.

This is my first attempt at blogging. A friend of mine told me all about her experience with blogging and being that it was a positive one, I decided to start one. So here I go.

I wanted to write about knitting and jewerly making. I have some experience in both but I wouldn't call myself profecent at either one of them. I have finished a couple of knitting projects for my second grandson. The picture above is a Bear Hugs Baby Wrap Cardigan. The pattern comes with the yarn and it also comes with two really cute buttons. See I didn't remember finishing. I did remember starting it.While I was rooting in my excessive stash of yarn I came across a baby sweater that I It was a nice surprise, because I finished it. In the past I knitted mostly afgans and mittens. Accasional hats, stuff like that.

Anyway I have gotten off track. Along with this cardigan, I knitted a thermal blanket. When I knitted it we didn't know if the baby was going to be a boy or girl. So I choose a nutral color, or so I thought. Yep, purple and white. My husband thinks it looks girly. My daughter likes it, and that is the important thing. This blanket was quite a challenge. I had to ask another knitter on my knitting community who had knitted it, how to do the stitch. After a lot of starting and re-starting I got the hang of it.

For my first grandson I made a blanket and a sweater for him. I didn't take a picture of the blanket but I did for the sweater. My daughter and her family lives in a country that pretty much has warm to hot weather all year roung. So I don't know if these items will get a lot of use. But I like making things for them.

I made scarfs and hats for my son and his wife. They live in the pacific north western part of the United States so they will get some use out of them. The picture is a bit blurry. It was sent to me via e-mail.

I am making an afgan/blanket for my second daughter for her wedding. I have until July or August to make it. I think I will make it in time.

Until next week.

Bright Blessings Everyone