Blessings Friday: Aloha Time

Yesterday brought me a big surprise. I had just made my blog post and was sitting there thinking a few choice words about the limited time I have on my dying laptop, when the phone rang. It was my brother calling to ask for my Delta frequent flyer card number.

“You’re going to Hawaii,” he announced. “I know you’re going to argue with me and try to talk me out of this, but I have to go to a meeting and don’t have time. Bye.”

Stunned, I called my two sisters and discovered Bill called them, too. We’re all going to Oahu to celebrate my sister Connie’s 50th birthday—and we’re leaving at the beginning of the week.

Hopefully my new computer will have been delivered while I’m gone. No matter, I’ll be back to blogging on February 15.

Today I’m rearranging appointments, digging out my snorkel gear, stuffing my Adventure Bag, and thinking about the fun we’re going to have. Three wild sisters sans husbands let loose on Oahu—aloha Hawaii, here we come!

Gifts for Men: Dragon Golf Towel

Dragons in Asian mythology generally symbolize benevolence. They bring wealth and good fortune and are not malevolent despite their fearsome image. I found an Asian-design cotton fabric at Jo-Ann’s depicting dragons in my search for something masculine that would work for making a couple of golf gifts for men.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

I made two golf towels with the fabric, being careful to keep the dragon intact and centered. I backed it with cotton chenille and inserted a metal grommet in the top right corner for hanging on a golf bag. One side can be used for washing clubs or golf balls, and the other side can be used for drying.

One towel is a birthday gift for one of our neighbors who plays golf with us. He practices Buddhism which utilizes the dragon image. The other towel is simply an I-Love-You gift for my golfing son who studies martial arts which frequently utilizes the dragon symbol.

I used my own tutorial (also listed in the right-hand column of my blog) for these two projects.

Baked Potato Bag

How do you bake your potatoes? I prefer mine baked in the oven, but sometimes it’s convenient to get them done quickly via my microwave oven.

CraftSanity on TV offers a tutorial for making a potato bag for using in the microwave. Since I’m in the midst of making some items to use in a couple of kitchen gift baskets, I thought this would be a fun and definitely different addition. This project was also featured on the One Pretty Thing blog which is where I learned about it.

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Don’t you just love this Alexander Henry fabric I found at Jo-Ann’s—hummingbirds and flowers, what could be better? The bag is interfaced with cotton batting and the lining is simply muslin.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

I made two bags using this fabric—one is for me and the other is for a hostess gift with which I’ll give this bag use instructions card I made. Two other potato bags were made in different fabrics for use in my kitchen gift baskets which I’ll share soon.

Twilight Gifts

Mittens became a new knitting challenge for me when I decided to make a pair like the ones Bella wears in the Twilight movie. I needed a Twilight-themed gift for someone who loves the books and movie series.

The first mitten worked out great which tickled me no end. The second mitten went well until I reached the last little bit—the thumb. Somehow I got distracted and the thumb ended up being a nub. That’s what impatience and not paying attention will do for you.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Not to be thwarted by a mitten, I started over and knit a whole new pair since I have no clue as to how to fix the original thumb nub. This time I managed to get everything knitted properly. The pattern was created and offered free by Marielle Henault of the Subliminal Rabbit blog.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

I also gave t-shirt transfers a try by using a project found at All Things Thrifty blog. This was relatively easy, a simple matter of printing a mirror image of the graphic on transfer paper and carefully cutting it out and ironing on to a white t-shirt.

Pie Weights Box

A plastic bag of ceramic pie weights has been living in one of my kitchen drawers. Every time I open that drawer, I think about the bag breaking and the little ceramic balls rolling all over my kitchen.

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I bought a small unfinished hinged wood box at Jo-Ann’s and fixed it up to hold the pie weights.

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Now I’ve corralled my pie weights, I guess I’d better get busy making an actual pie.

My laptop is dying and has been doing so for months now. I’ve ordered a new computer, but it won’t arrive until the middle of February. It’s rather awkward only getting on my laptop for 10 minutes at a time which makes for some challenging blog posting and reading.

Drinks on the House

When we went on our Caribbean cruise last October, my friend Peggy told me about Baileys Banana Coladas (popularly known as BBCs). Our big plan was to have one while we cruised the islands, but we never got around to actually doing it. Peggy kindly emailed the recipe so I could try it at home.

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Back at home I was telling my friend/neighbor Cindy about BBCs. She surprised me at Christmas with a beautifully decorated basket filled with a bottle of Baileys Original, Baileys with a Hint of Caramel, a bottle of rum, bags of Ghirardelli chocolates—even bananas.

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Other than Peggy’s recipe, I had no idea what concoctions to make with my new bounty. I started looking online, collecting ideas here and there. Then I hit the jackpot at the Baileys web site—lots of different recipes and even desserts are provided. Naturally this meant I needed to make a little Baileys recipe book to hold my new-found collection.

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A miniature cocktail shaker Christmas ornament found on clearance ($1) at Jo-Ann’s seemed meant for me, so I tied it on the recipe book with a ribbon. Now I’m ready for any Baileys occasion.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved (recipe from my friend Peggy)

Here’s Peggy’s BBC recipe for you (click to enlarge for printing)—drinks are on the house.

Knitting Along in 2010

Relaxing is something I’m not very good at doing. From the minute I wake up in the morning to the moment it’s time to go to bed again, I’m busy at some activity or another. Even as I try to go to sleep, my brain is concocting my to-do list for the next day. My husband worries it’s going to be the cause of my demise.

To mediate this, I’m trying a slow-time method to end my day. I’m keeping a knitting project by my favorite chair for the evenings. This allows me to still keep my hands busy but is soothing enough to invoke relaxation. Instead of flitting about from one thing to another, I can sit in our family room with my husband which makes him happy.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

After reading about a year-long Knit-Along (KAL) on the greetingarts blog, I popped over to KrisKnits’ blog to join her monthly dish/wash cloths KAL. You don’t know what the pattern is going to eventually be, but it makes for an easy yet fun knitting project. At the end of the year, I’ll have 12 new cloths to use or give as gifts.

Fortunately I already had what I need for January’s project in my stash. I immediately knit the rows she’s revealed thus far and am now caught up to the group. It’s not too late to join, if you’re interested in this KAL.

Resources

• Greetingarts blog
• KrisKnits blog
• KrisKnits intro to the KAL