Hand Knit Pumpkin Hat

Finished a second pumpkin hat today.  This one should fit my 8 month old grandson, as the first one I made was too small.  The free pattern is on www.simplejill.com.  Very easy and quick to make.  I want to make a bunch of them, but I'm already moving on to another pattern.  LOL

Beautiful Knitted Newborn Dress

Now that I've given this dress to the mommy-to-be I can post about it.  I didn't want to risk ruining the surprise.  Her baby shower was yesterday and I'm proud to say that this dress was a big hit with everyone.  

This is from a paid pattern on Ravelry called Bloom.  The yarn I used is the color Real Red by Caron Simply Soft Light.  This particular pattern covers sizes newborn through size 8, just by changing yarn and needle sizes.  For this one I used fingering yarn with sizes 2 and 3 needles.

I'm hypercritical of my work and can see all the errors I made, but I'm still very happy with how it turned out.  

You can find the pattern here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bloom-9

Managing Finances

My family is doing okay financially in one aspect, but we are also doing poorly in other aspects.

Managing our personal finances falls on my shoulders in our family, and it is my biggest dread and induces so much anxiety in me that I find I put it off until I can't put it off anymore.  I want to take that fear away and make it a manageable process.  I have many things pinned on Pinterest that say they will help me so I'm going to be exploring them to see what makes it all click for me.  I'll share what works for me in later blog posts.

If you have always struggled in this area but are able to manage it better, please share with me what worked for you.  This is not something that has ever come naturally to me and I really don't care for the sentiment I've heard from others that I need to just do it.  That doesn't help me, or anyone, to hear that.  Please leave it in the comments below.  Thanks!

National Black Dog Day

I just discovered that today is National Black Dog Day!  So I decided to share a pic of our beautiful black dog.  This girl is Izzy, a Newfoundland.  She's a total sweetheart with no idea how huge she is.

Do you have any black dogs?  I'd love to see them.  Please feel free to share the pics in the comments.

Counting Backwards To Relaxation

I'm prone to migraines and sometimes the only thing that really helps me to combat them is to lay down, put an ice pack directly on the spot that seems to be hurting the most, and tuning every thing out and make myself relax.  I'm lucky that my kids are older and have no problems keeping themselves entertained quietly with their iPods.  My husband is great about it, too, and encourages me to stop trying to work through the pain and to lay down and relax to help it pass.  

I'd like to say that just relaxing will get rid of my migraines, but nothing really touches them except for prescription meds, which sometimes comes with side effects that makes me wish I hadn't bothered taking them.  The same pill will affect me differently each time, so I have idea if it will bother me or not.  I take them when I need to and hope for the best.

Counting backwards is a way I've found that I can force myself to relax.  I'm very scatterbrained and my mind goes in every direction constantly, and forcing myself to count backwards takes real, concentrated effort for me.  It actually sounds like it's not relaxing if it takes so much effort, but it really is.  It takes me a while to actually count from 99 to 0, but usually by the time I get there, I'm feeling better.  

I woke up with a migraine today and tried to take care of it more conventionally with OTC meds, an ice pack, heating pad, and eating something good and filling.  Nothing was working and I was even getting an upset stomach, possibly from stressing about it, so I decided to take the stronger meds, lay back in the recliner with the ice pack on my forehead, and the heating pad on my belly.  Once I got comfortable, I started counting to myself in my mind and this is some of what it's like for me:

99

98

97

96

95, this ice pack isn't as cold as it could be.  I didn't have it in the freezer long between uses.  I have that extra rice in the cupboard, I should make several of these so I can switch them out and always have a cold one.  I like this shape, like a horseshoe, and it will be easy to copy to make more. STOP.

94

93

92

91

90

89

88

87

86, 1986.  Our 30 year high school reunion is this year and I don't think there have been any concrete plans made for it yet.  I haven't been to a reunion since our 10th and had really wanted to go for our 25th but didn't then wished I had after seeing all the pics that were posted.  I want to make sure some of my old friends will be there so I need to make sure they... STOP.

85

84

83

82, I need to change the cat litter today.  And what was Widebutt wanting earlier? She usually only bites my ankles and tries to trip me when their food is empty, but it was fine.  Maybe she wants her litter changed, too.  STOP.

81

80

79

78

77

76

75, I would love to start hosting a monthly if family dinner and have all the kids and grandkids come out once a month to eat and visit.  Everyone is so busy, I don't know I'd they'd even be interested, then I'll be so disappointed if none of them want to come out, and what if I wake up with a killer migraine on the day we are supposed to do it, I'd still want to do it but I'd also be miserable.  STOP

74

And on and on like this until I finally get to zero.  It takes a lot of effort for me to not let my mind wander and worry about things that don't even need worrying about.

Do you have any tips or tricks you use to help you relax?  Please share them in the comments below.  I'd love to try out some new ideas.

I like to have pics in my posts but nobody would want to see me kicked back in my recliner with an ice pack and heating pad!  So, here is a stock image of a 99 to 0 chart to keep you entertained. 😉

Also, I'm usually very good with my grammar, but look at the first paragraph and tell me if lay is the right word.  I'm thinking maybe it should be lie, but the more I say them the dumber they both sound.  Grammar nazis, help me out!

Great New Super Easy Bread Recipe

I love homemade bread and I've always enjoyed making it.  I recently discovered this recipe on another blog and I've made it twice now and we've loved it both times.  The first time I made it I substituted vegetable oil for the coconut oil and the second time I made no substitutions.  Both batches were equally delicious.  

All the mixing and kneading for this bread is taken care of by the stand mixer.  Saves lots of strain on the wrists and hands.

Other than the mixing, several things concerning this recipe is different from any other bread recipe I've used.  First is the addition of two eggs in the dough, and another rising in a slightly warm oven.  I've always had lousy luck getting bread to rise in a timely manner, but this way really works!

Click here to go to their blog to get the recipe.  http://www.humoroushomemaking.com/yeast-bread-4-kitchen-aid-mixer-bread. You won't be disappointed.  Leave me a comment and let me know how it turns out for you.

March's Pin A Day Challenge

Since we are still deep in the throws of Winter here in West Virginia I've decided to embrace the fact that I'll be snowed in fairly often and have decided to challenge myself to tackle one pin per day from my boards on Pinterest.  Since I'm also wanting to get back in the routine of posting on this blog more often, it seemed like a great challenge to share.  

There is a link on the right, in my bio, to my Pinterest page, but here is the link to the actual board I made just for this challenge.  https://www.pinterest.com/maxwellmama/february-pin-a-day-challenge/

I started out by looking on my calendar to see which days I'd have more time to work on projects than others.  On days I'm going to be short on time, I selected easier pins, and the days I'll have more time, I chose the more labor intensive ones.  I also selected pins from the boards I already have and just repinned them to a new board and added the date I plan to tackle it on each description.

Please comment below if you might try to work on some of your pins in March.  

I'm hoping to have many Pinterest wins but I'll post even if it's a fail.

Breaking the Facebook addiction

I've finally had to admit to myself that I have an addiction to Facebook.  I noticed that I was spending countless hours everyday on there and getting nothing meaningful done.  Anything that could be procrastinated, was.  Everything from laundry, dishes, hygiene, and so much more.  And not only that, but I was getting myself too worked up and engrossed in drama on there that didn't involve me.  

I finally overstepped common courtesy and posted an offensive meme on a post that had nothing to do with me and caused a lot of hurt feelings that I don't know if I can ever fully repair.

I removed the Facebook app on all my handheld devices and am only letting myself sign onto it from the desktop or laptop, both of which I don't really care to use.  I considered deactivating my account altogether, and I still might in the future, but I do use Facebook messenger as a main source of contact with several people, so I wanted to maintain access to it.  

It's been just 24 hours since I removed it from this iPad and it's amazing how often I was inclined to tap the icon to open it.  I almost gave myself permission to bring it up in the web browser, but I held out and didn't do it.  I kept myself busy working on neglected projects so that helped.  

I'm not kidding when I say I feel this is a real addiction and a real problem for me.  I'm going to make myself a list of some of the projects I want to work on so that I'll have something to occupy my time whenever boredom strikes and I find myself wanting to log on.  I do have this blog set up with a Facebook page, so I plan to let myself sign onto Facebook once a week to see if anyone has tagged me in anything, and I'll do the blog posts on its page at that time.

There is nothing wrong with Facebook and other forms of social media, but it works best when used in moderation.  Please leave a comment with your experience with using social media.  Are you able to self moderate or do you find you have to force a time out from it?  I'd love to hear how others deal with this.