Bottles, bottles, bottles.....

Do you purchase water in a plastic bottle?  We use to, and I always felt like it was the wrong thing to do.  We also have the filtered water in pitchers, so thought it might be better to somehow re-use the water bottles.  They, however, did not cooperate.  Some were made too thinly and would melt and wrinkle in the dishwasher.


I found a substitute.  SOBE'S!!  I bought four bottles of Sobe's drinks and had fun drinking them....then put them in the dish washer.  That was great for awhile, but the lids did not hold up.  What to do?

Well, you should have seen me walking about Albertson's carrying the empty Sobe bottle around checking on caps on other items (not taking them off, but holding them up together).  The experience was different - I did find that the bottle caps on Nature's Choice vitamins fit (nice yellow tops that match) and some of the salad dressing tops fit.

So, I have a collection of tops (had to go through a lot of salad dressing!) as every so often one will get lost or break, and the bottles fit nicely in the dish washer and now we don't have to worry about bacteria, mold, mildew nor do we have to worry about the dump filling up with  our plastic bottles!

We Found Him - You Want Him???

I have been distracted the last few days as we have a stray male Border Collie now. Trying to find his home. He is about one year old and cute as a button. Skinny as a rail, not trained so may have been on his own for quite some time. I have been driving around posting notices and photos, driving to the vets in the different towns in the area, etc. I sure hope we can find his owners or someone who wants him as hubby doesn't want him here and I don't want to take him to the shelter as it isn't a no-kill shelter. We are at an impasse right now.
Anyone want a cutie pie?
(ETA:  We found a home for him....hopefully it will work out. He was NOT wanting to go! I keep looking out the window to see if he made his way back. :o(   So sad to see him go, but I think he will fit in nicely when he settles down.

Gifts

The top photo is of some wrist warmers I made for a swap.  I made up my own pattern, so they aren't the best, but they were made with love!  I believe I started out with 27 stitches and worked in the round. I used Purple Mist from Vanna's Choice, and a crochet stitch that makes it look knitted ... it also makes the fabric very thick, which is good, I suppose, if you want warm gloves. For a sweater, however, I would think a larger hook would be in order - as well as a lot of patience.  I believe it is called a split single crochet.  Easy as pie.  I did a crab stitch around the top to give it a more finished look.  The wrists were and still are a problem for me. Crochet doesn't have the stretch that knit has, so I am thinking that some sort of buckle-affair would have been a good thing to add for snugness. Is that a word???

The potholder is the one lots of people make - the Magic Potholder I think it is called by some.  It was smaller than I would have liked, but did like the way the front and back looked so different. It is made from the washable wool.

 

Cookies

I had to delete this post and re-do it as some nasty person left a comment that had http in it, and if you click on it it went to a sex site. It was written in asian type letters. So a caution to everyone - if you see something that has a backlink in a comment, please be sure you know who it is prior to clicking. Also, if you hold your pointer over the comment, on the bottom edge of the window, or the top edge on some PC's the url address will appear and you can tell by what it says that it isn't going to be a normal site. So all who have links on my page, and all who might visit beware. Some dirty minded sicko is invading our territory!


Carmelite Cookie Bars
Dough
2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups butter
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp salt
Filling
32 caramels (1 bag)
3 Tbs cream or milk
3 Tbs butter
1 bag chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Instructions:
Combine dough ingredients using a pastry blender until crumbly. Press 3/4 (or less if that will cover) of the dough onto the bottom of a 9x13 jellyroll pan. Bake for 10 min at 350-no longer as there's a second baking!
Melt caramels with cream & butter. Pour over baked crust. Top caramel with chocolate chips, nuts, and remaining dough. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let cool. Cut into squares and enjoy!

The New Swap: PLAY MISTY FOR ME

The first square is in Purple Mist and Pearl Mist. Nordic Star, free on the web. I thought it was going to curl, but seemed to straighten out. I think I did the rounds a bit different as the corners had too many dc's & chains in them, therefore making them elongated for a larger square. I love these colors together
The second square is Dahlia by Jean Leinhauser. Not as pretty in this combo as it would be if the middle was Pearl or the surrounding stitches.
The third one is Centered Square also by Jean. Bright. Very bright. Not my favorite combo, but definitely eye catching.
Last but not least is one that is based on one of Jean's squares, but it was going to turn out a tad too small, so I added rows on the Tangerine stripes, as well as a contrasting row of bobbles in the middle to make an arrow effect. Then I turned the next row around going opposite from the first to give it the over all effect of pointing in one direction. This is my favorite square! ;o) Not just because it is in "MY" colors for the swap, but because it's so nice a hefty and turned out right! Hah!

Beautiful!

I bought a book called "special techniques & stitches in crochet" edited by Judy Crow (honestly, it isn't capitalized anywhere!). It is one of the House of White Birches books, soft back. I don't know exactly when I bought it but I haven't taken the time to look through it until last night. I ran across an afghan called 'purple heather bobbles' by Donna Jones (again, not capitalized for some reason). The grey is a Berella worsted weight in dark oxford (looks lighter to me than dark). The other colors are Vanna's Choice in Purple Print, Dusty Purple and Purple. To me the Dusty Purple in the book looks pink, but they swear it is the Dusty color!


I have never liked the look of the Purple Print on the skein, but in this afghan I think it is absolutely gorgeous!

MAY YOUR NEW YEAR BE A BLESSING TO YOU AND YOURS!

SNOW! A heavenly gift!

This is our front yard (note the drop off 25' from the house - we live on a hill) after the first snow.

This seemed like an appropriate photo as my offering toward a peace filled heart for 2010. Bless you all.