Random Stuff...

Hi there!

I hope you all had a very nice Easter Holiday. Ours was quiet, as usual, but very nice. I tried my hand at making deviled eggs for the first time...let's just say, they didn't taste as good as my friend, Felicia's! She makes THE best deviled eggs. I should have emailed you for your recipe, sweetie. *Ü* (hint, hint, pretty please-take pity on your deviled egg challenged friend) Surprisingly, they tasted better last night than they did on Easter. Go figure. I also made fresh asparagus, which was super duper yummy. I tried the canned stuff last year and let's just say...don't bother with that goop! LOL The weather was rather nice and the girls went out to play with their friends for awhile.

While they were out, I worked on completing a new knitting project. My friend, Nona of Nona's Pearls Purls of Wisdom, has recently started having knit-a-longs. Being that I don't live anywhere near her, I was pleased to see that she offers her patterns for a small fee, for out of towners like me. Well, last week, she asked for test knitters for her April project. The deadline was too tight for me to even think I could do it, but I commented and asked her to keep me in mind for future projects. She was generous enough to let me test her pattern anyway! One of the draws for me on this project is the fact that there are cables. I had never done cables before! She reassured me that I could indeed do it. I discovered I didn't have the size needed in circular needles, but I remembered that the Goodwill had a pretty decent stash of knitting needles that had been donated. So, I went, hoping against hope that they'd have what I needed. And they DID! Whoooheee! And even better, they charged me just 49 cents for them. Double Whoooo heeee!

And here's my version of the Cozy Cabled Hat that she is offering as her April Knit-a-long:

Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. When I tried taking pictures of it, the camera indicated to turn on the flash, but it was totally blowing out the hat when I did that, so I took it without the flash. I'd definitely recommend Nona's patterns if you are a knitter. This was easy to create yet challenging enough to keep you interested in the pattern. Nona's great at answering questions, too! I'm so excited to have learned simple cables! This is the child sized hat, but the girls didn't want to model it for me, darn it.

Here are the girls on Easter Morning, after their little egg hunt in the big room. Most of the photos were of the backs or tops of their heads, LOL Oh well. I was trying to get a cute shot of Amy and Jessica popped into the frame as I took the picture. Love it! Yeah, I should have edited it first, but I didn't.

I received some sweet treats in the mail to help me celebrate the holiday. Thanks, Barb and Jena! You sure do know how to make me smile! There were eggs in those adorable washcloth bunnies, but they got taken out by a couple of girlies who wanted the treats that were inside. The blue one is my Bronco Bunny! The egg in that one was orange. SO cute. And I managed to catch the glittery goodness of Barb's card, yay!!!

Yesterday the girls had the day off from school for a teacher compensation day. The teachers may have gotten a day off, but my girls didn't. (evil giggle) We worked more on getting their room cleaned up. They have shelves in their closet and bins full of junk treasures. We've been going through them and weeding out what they no longer want. They've been doing pretty well, too! But it's a time consuming project. What I was most thrilled with is that we got all the stuff off the floors!

Here's the desk we moved in there a week or so ago. The pillow on the floor is for the dog, who likes to sleep in with them. I even vacuumed that thing off. Kindly disregard the messy bookcase. That's a project for their next day off, which is April 16th. ha ha

Look at those floors! Gloriously CLEAN!!! Sighhhh Are we done? Nope, but it sure looks a heckuvalot better than it did when we started yesterday. And just so you know I'm not the meanest mom on the planet, I took them to McDonald's for lunch if they worked hard for me. That was pretty good incentive, no? LOL

And finally, today, I decided to work on cleaning some of our wood doors. Don't ask me why, there are so many other projects that need doing, but I was sick and tired of seeing how nasty our laundry closet doors looked. So, I got some Murphy's Oil Soap and straight Murphy's Oil and got to work. And I'm gonna show off my hard work. LOL

This is the closet door you see right as you walk in the front door.

I didn't take before shots, and believe me I should have for those slatted doors. Or maybe not, you'd lose respect for me, probably. LOL They are still glossy from the oil, but I'm letting as much soak in as I can before I wipe them down. I'm totally thrilled with how they look. To get in between the slats, I took a spatula and wrapped my cloth around it and used that to get in the little space between the slats. Worked wonderfully, if I do say so myself! And saved my fingers.

With that, I'm going to close for now. Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a great week!