Lent Me Your Ear!

So I can tell you about my grandkids! I know, I know. Lent has nothing to do with grandkids, but today is the start of Lent, and the first blog post after my most recent trip to see the girls, so it is what it is. Let me tell you about tiny fingers...

...that fall asleep to my knitting.

Let me tell you about a little Peanut that likes to curl up with Pop Pop to read and play magazine games!

Let me tell you about a love between Pop Pop and that newest Sweet Pea!

Let me tell you how smart that toddler-turned-little-kid is getting to be...finding all the silly stuff on that page. (You don't sleep at the basketball game! That's silly, Pop Pop!)

We had so much fun visiting the girls, and we all cried when it was time to come home. But when I opened my Kindle at the office the next day, 

...it was like they were still right here with me! Thank you Mork and Mindy for not minding that we love to visit frequently, and thank you for giving us two beautiful reasons to keep those visits high on our priority list! We love you!

So thankful (once again) for the ways technology keeps us together, even across hundreds of miles. If I give up anything for Lent this year, it won't be social media (I might miss a picture!) or technology, that's for sure! Maybe sugar...? Nahhhh. Probably not. lol!

Thanks for stopping by to hear about my beautiful granddaughters! I'm not sure if you're planning to give anything up for Lent, but I hope you won't be giving up your visits to the Pretty blog...or your knitting! I won't be giving up knitting either. Look! I've already cast on another project!

May we all Knit in Good Health, during Lent and beyond, friends!

Busy Week!

Like many Grammas in late November, I am having a very busy week! There has been knitting, for sure, but there has also been time with Mork, Mindy and Peanut,

and even time with our newest addition, to be born early next year, meet Sweet Pea!

Did you notice in the first picture that Peanut is wearing a hand knit?

Mindy is, too, but I haven't gotten a front-facing shot of her in that lovely scarf...yet! There is still week left, so I may well have a shot of that for you soon! For now, I'll just show you a shot of my latest knit in Jingle:

Flap mittens with fingers for Peanut! She was so excited when she saw the first one, but isn't trying them on "until there is twooooo mittens, Gramma!" What a sweetheart!

Yes, it's been a busy week, and these next two days will be even busier, but I've got Grampa Joe's cookies in my new biscotti jar, from ITALY (thank you, Italian cousins!!!), 

and K-cups for my Keurig, so I think I'm gonna make it!

What have you been busy with this week? Entering a contest, perhaps? Cooking? Knitting? Whatever it is, thanks for taking time out to stop by. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and may you Knit in Good Health all through the holiday season!

Some Big News!

Ok, since I've teased it, let's start with this:

That's right, Mork and Mindy are expecting another Pretty Baby! Bonus, it's a girl, and Peanut has already dubbed her "Princess Pants," so let the pink (and purple and teal and yellow) knitting commence! Actually, it already has...and here's a sampling of the latest:

Peanut socks, Princess Pants booties, Christmas socks, Brickless shawl, yarn for a baby blanket and crocheted butterflies.

::Wow! That's a lot of yarning, Pretty!::

Why, yes. Yes, it is! But I recently had many down hours of car travel, so my needles (and hooks) were pretty busy! You see, we visited last week, and we all did lot of fun things...like going to their local Zoo! And while it wasn't her first time to feed the giraffes (her fave, by the way),

and it wasn't her first time to feed the birds,

or the other animals,

this was the first time she has agreed to ride the merry-go-round! She was a little nervous at first, but eventually she got the hang of it, and really had fun!

We also went to play at the mall..."Lookit 'dis, Gramma!"

Wow! What else can you do? Oh! I see, you can play on the slip and slide!

That makes a girl hungry, doesn't it?

Then there were the barbie dolls...

...walks to the playground...

...and the knitting...

...and the modeling of socks and sweaters...

Man! What a fun trip! Thank you to Mork and Mindy, for having us in your home, and for continuing to make sure that we faraway grandparents can still be such a big part of your lives. You really don't know how much that means to us. We love you all, as much as we love cupcakes (and that's a LOT)! maybe even more!

Thanks for stopping by to share in the adventures, dear friends. 

Knit in Good Health!

Let it go, Pretty...

As you may have figured out, we spent this past weekend on the road to see Peanut, and bring her some knitted toys. 

Usually when we do this, I blog ahead a bit, so that I won't stress about getting back to work and getting a blog post ready for Wednesday morning. I thought I had done this before we left on Friday, but I checked yesterday, and it turns out that I didn't. That means that this post has been written hastily to get ready to post early today, and the photos are probably not edited and cropped to perfection (she says, as though perfection is something she achieves regularly, which it is NOT), and the text may be choppy or have some errors in it. But sometimes, you just have to Let it Go!, yanno?

So here's a brief synopsis of the fun we had, including our arrival,

walks with Mommy and Daddy (and the dogs)...

...to the playground!

Time on the swings...

She promised not to kick Pop Pop, but this looks a little suspicious...

To add to the fun, Uncle Snake and Aunt Dollface showed up for a day, on their way home from vacation. :) So there were walks and playtime with them, too!

Then more time on the playground,

reading Kindles with Pop Pop, 

and lots of playtime and singing with Elsa and Anna!

It was a great weekend, and I still have not quite recovered. :) But, there is work to be done, and life to be lived, so I'm just gonna Let it Go!, and try not to stress too much about anything. I think Elsa's advice is pretty good in most situations, don't you?

Whatever you might be stressing about, thank you for taking a moment to check out the blog today! Now, Let it Go!, and Knit in Good Health!

Playing With My Food

When I was but 18 or 19, I had a job working as an aide in a 24-hour daycare. The kids in my class were 2 years old, and I loved every minute of it. Often, after the teacher and I had cleaned up the lunch tables and laid everyone down for naptime, I would enjoy my lunch. I mean to say that I would really enjoy my lunch...I would hum as I peeled an orange, and savor every bite of my sandwich, then sigh contentedly as I licked the creme center from the cookies I had packed for dessert. In short, I played with my food as I ate, and I enjoyed every minute of it! 

I still enjoy food, and the making of new things, and the getting a little messy that goes along with playing with food...so it's no surprise that I ended up making these for Valentine's Day:

So yummy, and with Pinterest at my side, so easy and fun! I started with THIS LINK from Pinterest, and I used her recipe for the peanut butter filling. I'm not going to repeat that recipe here, because it's not your only option...you can use a buckeye recipe, a jar of biscoff spread, plain peanut butter, whatever you like, really! I chose to make that buckeye filling, 

and I dumped a spoonful onto some tiny pretzel knots...

Then I topped them with another pretzel, smooshing them down slightly. (At this point, the original recipe tells you to freeze the whole bunch, but I forgot that part. Perhaps that's why I made such a mess, but I'm here to tell you that you can skip that part, if you want...but it's messy!)

Then I melted some chocolate that I had on hand (because everyone who loves playing with their food has melting wafers on hand, right? no? hmmm)...and I dipped each "sandwich" halfway into the melty, chocolatey goodness, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to set the chocolate. (Do not skip the freezing here, or they won't set up and look pretty!)

While that first dip was setting, I also melted some white chocolate wafers (look out! she's getting a little crazy in that kitchen)...because I am adventurous with food, and I like to switch things up like that...and when I took the half-dipped candies out of the freezer, I dipped the other half in the luscious melted white chocolate...

...and added SPRINKLES!!! Because, well, Hello! SPRINKLES!!! And it's Valentine's Day, and why the heck shouldn't I use sprinkles any time I want to? That's right, sprinkles rock! After the sprinkles, back to the freezer to set the white chocolate...and try not to drool.

These are amazing!

Since I was on the sprinkle kick, I also made some jewelry...some sweet, yummy, gooey jewelry (thank you again, Pinterest! Here's THE LINK)...to package up and send to some of my favorite girlies. :) 

(By the way, I didn't have exactly what the project called for on this one, so here's what I did: I knotted together lengths of twizzlers pull-n-peel, then used a drinking straw to cut holes through large marshmallows. Then I "painted" a heart with a very thin powdered sugar glaze, and dipped the hearts in SPRINKLES!, and let them dry for a couple of hours before packaging. Hopefully they won't arrive as broken hearts, or a box of loose sprinkles!)

Watch for your package Peanut and Mindy!!! It's a good one!

You know what? Standing up to make all those goodies has really taken it's toll. My feet hurt. I think I may have to sit down for awhile to recover, and look! There's my knitting, just waiting for me...YAY! Perhaps I'll just taste-test one of these peanut-filled goodies first... 

Winter Wardrobe

Lately, I have been contemplating Christmas and all that goes with it. I'm thinking about putting my tree up, and I am already decorating it in my head...getting every ornament in its exactly-right-place. I'm wondering how many more gifts I need to knit before December 25th. I'm drooling over the cookies and candy I will eat create...so much to think about! You know what else I've got floating around up there in my brain? A little conversation I had last year...it went like this:

Mork: Mom, I need an ugly Christmas sweater by tomorrow. Can you knit one?
Me: I will not knit an UGLY sweater (on purpose).
Dollface: What about all those ones in your closet, Mom?
Me: ???
Mork: Well, or like that one you're wearing?
Ba-dum-bump, Ching!

Forgive me if you've heard that already, but it IS still pretty funny! For the record, I did not knit him a sweater, ugly or otherwise. Also for the record, I have not disowned either of them. And just so you know, I am currently re-thinking my winter wardrobe, wondering how many of my festive frocks are, in reality, ugly Christmas Sweaters...sigh!

What do you think? Do they all go? I mean, I love the cheesy sweaters and sweatshirts...yes, I do. I'm keeping them. After all, everything eventually comes around to become fashionable again, right? Eventually? Right?!?

In any case, there will be knitting. I think I even have a sweater's worth of red in my stash, so perhaps I will knit myself a little something more subtle, but still festive. :) But, and I cannot stress this enough, I will never knit an UGLY sweater (on purpose)! Of course, I have knit one or two accidentally, but let's not dwell on that.

Do you have any Christmas Sweater Stories that you'd be willing to share? If your answer is no, maybe it's time for you to start knitting! lol! I crack me up!

Whatever you are knitting this holiday season, I hope that you will Knit in Good Health!

Stripe Therapy

This is the first of a pair of socks I started knitting with broken fingers. I called them Stripe Therapy because they are striped, and because the doctor said that knitting was good physical therapy. He was right! Working with the tiny needles has been really good for increasing the mobility of my fingers as they heal. I still get crampy, and I have to take breaks, but I am almost back to my pre-broken-finger knitting speed...Yay!!! (I have actually knit them both now, but this is the only picture I could find when I started to blog today...bad blogger...lol!) 

Lately, things at the Pretty house have been rough...sometimes life is like that, you know? Anyway, it's nothing we won't get through, but we've been super stressed...so we decided to cope by taking a quick trip to see Peanut. :) We hopped in the car early Friday morning, and on the way, I knit her a sock to match my Stripe Therapy. These little socks are notsomuch physical therapy, but more like emotional therapy I think...and this sock did it's job for many hours in the car.

However, when we got there, I found that the sock did not fit! 

Oh the woe of a sock that won't go 

Over the toe and the heel.

I had knit and knit, but it it just didn't fit- 

I feared losing my sock knitting zeal!

So I did the only natural thing, and I knit another little sock just a little bit bigger. I finished just before we left...

...and it fits! Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!

More emotional stripe therapy on the Sunday car ride home, and I had the second sock ready to mail back to Peanut. Since I had left the first one behind, I told her that she would soon get some mail...Mindy told me that she likes to get the mail, so I think it's a very good plan. :)

I also decided to leave the big socks behind for Mindy, so Peanut and her mommy can have matching tootsies this fall! Sock knitting is so therapeutic that I even cast on another pair immediately when we got home (well, after I unpacked, showered, ate, started some laundry and went through the mail...) Then we fell into bed, and the Pretties dreamed dreams of a curly, blonde Peanut until Monday morning. 

It was a good weekend, and now I am up to my elbows again in work and in stress. Life is just like that sometimes. That's why I have my knitting with me just about 24/7 these days...it's the best anti-anxiety medication ever, and it's my sedative of choice.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope that your days are as stress free as they can be. If they are not, I hope at least that you are Knitting in Good Health!