8-15-2015 Mary Poppins

Today DH & I headed back over to Prospect Park

to attend a production of the play

"Mary Poppins"

with our dear friend John 

starring as Mary Poppin's sidekick, Bert.

May I just say, he was AWESOME!!!!

You knocked it out of the park, friend!

I knew you had an amazing voice,

but who knew you had such

tap dancing skills?!?!?

8-14-2015 Pip Gets a Top Hat

Remember "Freckles" the Pip?

He now has a Top Hat

to which I need to add a Chicago Bears logo!

8-13-2015 Street Party

My youngest GS at a recent street party...

Our new neighborhood used to have a street party

once a year in the summer.

As the neighborhood grew to 3 blocks

it became a neighborhood outdoor movie night

once a month during the summer months.

Now, we don't do anything.

People are just too busy

and don't want to go to all the work.

8-12-2015 Exploring

Today DH & I went exploring

Prospect Park

and it's 100+ year old pavilion...

it had 3 walking trails

designated "easy, medium, and difficult"

and a beautiful pond!

It was the setting for the play "Mary Poppins"

we are going to see this coming weekend.

Yesterday, the girls and I

explored a nearby park...

they loved running across the bridges!

And, I wanted a pix of my DD 

in her cute LuLaRoe sailboat skirt!

8-11-2015 Raindrops

Tried knitting two different 

"Raindrops" stitch patterns the other day...

just to learn some new techniques.

8-10-2015 Matching LuLaRoes

Ready to face another week of

babysitting the GDs (ages 3 and 1)...

today they are sporting their matching

LuLaRoe dresses.

Just another day at the park.

8-9-2015 Art Show and Library Book Sale

...at Lake Geneva...

Took a pix of this silly hotdog

squirting catsup on his head

and texted it to the grand babies...

thought they might get a kick out of it! 

A much needed weekend get-away!

Thank you sooooo much, dear husband!

8-8-2015 Time for a Weekend Road Trip

Usually,

it is me tagging along with my husband

at a woodworking show

or a knife show,

but this weekend 

the tables were reversed

and it was he tagging along with me

as I attended the midwest yarn convention.

I came away with a few goodies...

...some "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock"

sock yarn from the "Big Bang Yarn Collection"

and some new shawl pins,

an abacus

and some new hexagonal wooden knitting needles!

8-7-2015 Quinoa Crust for Pizza

I recently saw on FaceBook

a video recipe for a gluten free

Quinoa Pizza Crust

and thought I would give it a try!

Soak 3/4 c. quinoa in water for 8 hours.

Drain and rinse Quinoa.

 Put Quinoa in food processor (I used my Vita-Mix blender).

and add 1/4 c. water...

 add 1 tsp. baking powder...

 add 1/4 tsp. salt...

 Now blend at medium speed for 2 minutes...

 until it is a pasty consistency...

Next, spread it into a 9 inch round cake pan

that has been buttered,

and has an 11" round circle of parchment paper pressed in the bottom

and butter the top of the parchment paper as well...

 Spread quinoa dough with a spatula to the edges of the pan...

 Bake at 425*F for 15 minutes...

 Remove from oven,

and using the edge of the parchment paper,

pull the dough out of the cake pan,

flip it over back into the cake pan (which now has no paper in it)

and bake another 10 minutes in the cake pan...

Now, flip the crust OUT of the cake pan

and ONTO a pizza sheet...

 and start adding your sauce and toppings...

Bake another 10-15 minutes at 425*F

(until the cheeses melt and start to brown).

Remove from oven. Cut. Eat.

(I forgot to take a pix of the finished pizza!)

The pizza crust got mixed reviews...

I absolutely LOVED it 

and will be making all of MY pizzas with this crust!

My DH absolutely HATED it

and picked off all his toppings,

ate them,

and threw the crust in the garbage.

So, there ya go!

Maybe I will try some other GF crusts and see

if I can find one that we can BOTH enjoy?!?!?

8-6-2015 OLPR ~ Knit One, Pray Too Retreat

Spent a relaxing day at OLPR

for a "Knit One, Pray Too" retreat.

I took knitting friends Nancy and Lynn with me.

It was a perfect day!

8-5-2015 Cheetalicious Jamberries

I usually put these fun Jamberry Nail Wraps

on my hands,

but today for some reason,

I decided to try them on my feet!

(I have 'yoga toes'...

those of you who do yoga

know what I'm talking about!)

It was a bit of a learning curve,

but was actually easier putting them on my feet

than trying to put them

on my hands

because I had two hands to work with

when putting them on my feet.

I see more pedicures in my future!

8-4-2015 Open to Foot Traffic

 Remember the trail bridge that got washed away

during a recent flood?

(See post from 7-8-2015)

Well, the brush and tree trunks have been cleared away...

and the bed of the bridge has been jack-hammered into

smaller pieces and moved to the edge of the stream...

and it is now open to foot traffic only.

It made me think about

how in life,

when one has experienced some trauma

one is more fragile and less able

to handle the normal load

expected,

and it takes time to rebuild

and get your strength back.

Along the trail

DH & I found some wild grapes and beautiful berries.

8-3-2015 Adaptation

The pattern for this doll

is one of those few patterns that

drives me nuts!

Nothing works out as written

and I have to rip out or knit it over

using my own adaptations.

These cuffs for the coat 

are supposed to fit all the way around the arm

and have some overlap for buttons

(think cuffs on a dress shirt 

with room for cuff links)...

but when knitted as the pattern states

they can't even wrap around the arm once.

 So, I did some adaptation

and re-knit the cuffs,

making them at least twice as long,

and now they wrap around the arm

with a bit of overlap.

Perfect!

So many things in life require adaptation...

it is rare when things turn out

as they should

or

as we expect.

8-2-2015 It's an Ice Cream Kind of Day

8-1-2015 Prunings

It's only in the mid 80's this morning

so I got out and pruned the trees in the front yard

as there were quite a few branches starting to hang low.

DH was kind enough to load the prunings onto his truck

and haul them away to the QC compost center.

Thanks, Sweetie!

It made me think about what things 

I need to prune from my life.