Knitting and sewing. And painting.

Wow. I can't believe it's almost the end of January. I have been loving my days. It's been snowy and cold and I've been very busy knitting, sewing and painting!! A lot. I always like to get started on my Christmas knitting in the days right after Christmas...and this year I got going on mittens. I like to have several pair in my stash. I even knit a red pair for Cub's bus driver for Valentine's Day. And for the record I don't need to look at the pattern anymore and I can knit a pair in 2 hours and 10 minutes without a potty break.

Look at this!!!! A hot water bottle cover. Who woulda thunk? I had seen one knit in cashmere on Restoration Hardware's website when I was looking around at Christmas time for $119! ....and I saw another one in my Country Living issue knit in alpaca on a farm in upstate New York fpr $68. So of course the Treatgirl decided she must need one and googled "free hot water bottle patterns" and found one for herself. I tweeked it a little bit and just used some Lions Brand yarn I had in my stash. That was the easy part. I didn't even know where to find the hot water bottle!!! Just in case you need one....they have them at Walmart for  $4.87.

Chip went to Nashville a week ago and and that also set off a flurry of sewing and painting. It all started with a new rug by my front door......Which lead to painting the office. And then the dining room. Which meant the front hall, powder room and upstairs hallway. And CindyLou's bedroom.  I did that all on my own. HE'S GONNA HELP me with the stairways, kitchen and great room. Hopefully by February 14th!! That's my deadline. :) And if I wasn't painting walls....I was painting on my ceramics. I making the cutest little things ever. NO pictures yet.....maybe later this week. Wheh. Then it was sewing new pillows. I had been around to TJMaxx and Marshall's several times and didn't find anything that spoke to me....But the down pillow inserts I had were perfectly fine. So I just got some fabric and made them myself.

And another set for the love seat....See my pretty snowman tree in the background?

Which lead to a new cover for the window seat in my kitchen.

 And if I wasn't painting or sewing I was knitting these adorable little hearts. I had forgotten all about them until a friend stopped over for a quick little lesson the day I was painting my dining room. It was a wonderful break and I was happy she inspired me. Click HERE for the pattern. Chip is away again all next week.......It's on to the kiddos bathroom re-do! And maybe a little more painting and knitting :)

It Took Me a While.....

 Happy New Year!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone is happy and heatlhy! The last few weeks have been a blur and I've been wanting to share so much....it's just life has gotten in the way. And my new phone..... Santa brought me the Samsung Galaxy and I know I'm going to love it some day.....but I'm still learning and it's getting frustrating. Anyhoo....I took these pictures of our Soul Sister Christmas party and it's taken me this long to figure out how get them off of my phone and into the computer. Yikes!!! Our annual Christmas get together was actually in January this year........so I'm not as late as it really seems. One of our sisters was very sick so we post-poned it until January 2nd. Which was sooooo nice. We met at our traditional little restaurant....

 ...We played the guess-the-waiters-name game. I was there early and he introduced himself to me and I still didn't remember it!! So I got to play too :) Here I am with MarzipanMom.

Of course we had our ornament exchange. Always homemade for less than $10.

Here are the sisters with a little extra treat I knitted for everyone....

Coffee cup cozies!! They all loved them.....Can you believe I didn't make one for myself??? I might have to do that.

And of course we conned our waiter into taking our group shot too. This year the day after the party I ran into my local Walgreens to buy my 6th tree just for all of my precious Soul Sister ornaments. I tried to sneak it in, but Chip noticed. Oh well....I don't care. It is perfect!!! And I already know what I'm making for 2013! Hope your holidays were happy!!!!! Bundle up and keep warm!

Merry Christmas to Me!!!

Aren't they THE. CUTEST. COUPLE EEEEVVVVER???? They make me soooooo happy! I have embarked on a new craftiness venue and I'm so excited about it...Ceramics! It started when I was trying to find the christmas tree with all of multi-colored lights on the tips that my mom made when I was a little girl. Come to find out she gave it away...I saw some at a craft show over the summer....but they were pretty pricey. A friend at the gym told me about a ceramics shop in a nearby town...in the meantime, I remembered my mother-in-law had made a tree like the one I was looking for.....So I turned my attention to a  Mr. and Mrs. Claus that I has seen on ebay.

I called the ceramics shop a week ago Wednesday to see if they happed to have them, and they did! Helen, the owner of the shop, asked if I wanted them done for THIS Christmas? Well, duh...Of course! She said she didn't think even she could get them done in time....Well, that's all I needed to hear! There are classes on Wednesday nights and Saturdays......I ran right down there that night and got started. I painted and painted...I brought them home and worked on them for hours....Went back last Saturday for hours, painted more hours at home and finished them up last Wednesday....Ms. Helen does the faces for you and sprays the protective coat.....But all in all, I am just thrilled with my first project. I'm hooked!!!! Ms. Helen declared that I was her best new student she ever had.  I can see a lot more ceramics in my future. It's like when I was little and loved to color....and the results are much quicker than knitting :)

While I was waiting for Ms. Helen to work on the faces and spray Mr. and Mrs. Claus I made a few other little treasures. Look how sweet this ornament is....

And Santa's little boot, too!

There are shelves full of things beckoning to be painted....I just need more shelves in my house to hold everything I want to make!

I've also been very busy doing a few other little things that have made me happy this Christmas season....

                                               

  We've lived in our house for ten years now and I've toyed with the idea of decorating our banister several times...but just never did. Well, this was the year. I got the garland for $5....and the rest of the stuff from the Dollar Tree and snowflaked it out.

 I just love it! I wish I had a plug nearby....I'd wrap some little white twinkle lights in it....but oh well. It's pretty the way it is :)

Remember when I made pickles at my dad's over the summer? After my lesson I sent the pictures to my Aunt Emily, and in return she send me this picture Christmas card from my first Christmas. I c an't believe she still had it 47 years later????  I just had to frame it :)

Here is the craft I put together for Cub's class at his Holiday party at school. Another thing I'll treasure always.

Oh...ANOTHER treasure. I had a little note Cub wrote to Santa 2 years ago....I copied it on the copier and framed it too!

While I was looking around on ebay for the Mr. and Mrs. Claus I wanted to paint....I came across these cutie patooties. i just had to have them...they're vintage and take me back to when I was a little girl.

And I conned the kiddos into painting me these sweet little ornaments. I know they really didn't want to....but they played along. When they dried, of course I slapped some Mod Podge on them and glittered them up! 

I was feeling a little stressed last week when my wrapping and baking wasn't done....but  look at all of these things I was doing? And all of it got done.....I have to keep reminding myself it always does. So in these last few days I hope you're enjoying the season. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Hustle and Bustle

Wow!! It's December and the holidays are in full swing!!! We spent Thanksgiving in New York City and had a fantastic time.....Here is a family photo from the Big Apple. It has been non-stop since we got home....decorating, shopping, crafting and making yummy things in the kitchen. Hope you're all enjoying every minute!!!

Bruuuuuccce!!!

I'm still on cloud 9. THE.MOST.AMAZING.NIGHT. Last Saturday The Boss came back to Pittsburgh. I had already seen him this tour up in Buffalo with my sister....but this concert was just fantastic. We started up in nosebleed heaven with our friends we always go with...They got the seats this time. But hubs came through and scored us all seats in THE FIFTH row! I just was just sooooooooo excited to be so close.

He went down to will call and they had these seats at face value for $98!! .

Here's Clarence's nephew Jake jammin' with Bruce.

I love this man.

The night was flying by....and I kept having to pinch myself at how fantastic the whole thing was.

He's letting the pit play his guitar!

With a few songs left to go, 6 people in the second row got their coats on and left....well.....The Treatgirl bolted right down there. One of Bruce's best friends lives in Pittsburgh...Joe Grushecky. His wife was in the first row right in front of us...Here he's asking her up on the stage to dance with him....For a second I thought he wanted me!!!!!!

A big, huge thank you to Chip for making me so happy :)

Dill Pickles

Hi there! I know you were all sooooo sick of seeing those granny squares...hopefully you won't be seeing these pickles that long!!! :) I've been wanting to make these dill pickles for a very long time. My Great Aunt Emily wrote out my great grandmother's recipe for me at a family reunion in 1994. She made them every summer and always gave a jar of them to my dad for his birthday in July. It turned in a crazy project....I spent days running around trying to find dill....I got some pickles, but not enough. I was nervous to start and kept calling my dad up in Buffalo talking about my dill problem. I had left a message at my aunts...but she never called me back. Here, she doesn't have long distance????? Yikes! But we all determined that it would be best if I drove up to Buffalo for a visit and had a pickle making lesson. So.........I went. I learned they are much easier to make than I thought they would be. First, you need to wash the pickles and let them stand in water overnight. In the morning wipe each one dry with a towel, slice them and pack them in a jar. None of us could determine why we had to dry them....that's just what you do.

You cut up the dill into little pieces and pack that in the jar with the pickles...along with 1/2 of a hot pepper, 1/2 tsp. of alum and a few cloves of garlic.

Here's Aunt Emily (on the right) and her baby sister, Aunt Irene....They had 8 siblings all together. They would help their mother make these pickles for their tavern they ran....to serve along with a sandwich.

Be sure to fit as many pickles as you can into each jar.

To make the brine boil 1 1/2 quarts water, 2 quarts vinegar and 1 cup of salt in a big pot until it just boils. Pour this hot brine over the pickles. Then screw on the caps tightly.

Don't they look pretty????? Let them sit for two weeks and they're done! I was sooooo happy they turned out my very first time....because at the end of my recipe Aunt Emily wrote...."Pam, Don't expect perfection on the first try. Good Luck" Well, I lucked out....they're very good. It was one of my very favorite afternoons of the summer....spending time with my family learning to make these pickles. I am happy to carry on the tradition...hopefully teaching someone else someday too. A big thank you to my dad for driving me around to the farmer's market, picking up the aunts, letting us use your kitchen making us lunch! It was fun :)

Granny Square Update

Ta DAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! It's done! My so happy to show off my Granny Square afghan! You may remember I learned how to make granny squares last fall...click HERE to see. I really got rolling on them this past January. Well, I've just finished sewing them all together and adding an edge to it. I needed to pick a border color to add to all of the squares so that when I sewed them together it looked nice. Cubby picked black for me....I've worked on adding the border to all of the squares several nights a week as I sit at football practice. I'm pleased with the results for my first attempt....Just another wonderful hobby for the crafty Treatgirl to enjoy :)