Oh Nuts

This is from the same writing group video chat that I was a part of the other week. For this picture prompt, I have the actual picture that we used, though I don't know where it originally comes from. And the paragraph and a quarter that I wrote for this prompt is something that I liked and might possibly use for something in the future. But I could change my mind by then, I don't know. Anyhow, I wanted to share it with you all, like I did with the last two paragraphs that I wrote. Unknown The old house stood alone surrounded by dying trees and browning grass. No one had lived in it since the owner, a woman by the name of Miss Whitman had passed away several years before. Since she had no living relatives that people could find the house stood alone and forgotten. Until one day when a strange young woman appeared at the office of the only lawyer in town. Placing a small stack of papers on the surprised man’s desk, the young woman informed the lawyer that she was Miss Whi...

Whenever possible I try to include a knit item in with the Christmas present that I give to the sibling that I have for that year. Two years ago I made a scarf for my sister to take with her to school, and last year I gave my other sister a pair of hand warmers that I made. This year my sister's friend T from school joined us for Christmas and was included in the sibling secret Santa and I picked her name. Since T is still in college I wanted to make sure that the presents that I gave her were light and easily transportable. So I decided to make her a hat using pretty yarn that I had found on sale at Jo-ann Fabrics earlier in the year. After finishing the hat, and including a pom-pom on top since my mom and sisters said it finished off the hat, I used the rest of the yarn to make a coordinating ear-warmer/headband. The pattern that I used for the hat is called "Horizontal Rib Hat" and I found it in a knitting book called 'Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders.' For the ...

A couple of months ago three of my siblings re-painted and re-arranged their rooms. Since I have my own room now, the only changes that I have made so far have been to get rid of the bunk bed that was there and replaced it with two single beds, one is for guests or if my sister comes home to visit. I also moved a tall shelf-thing from where it had been at the end of the bunk beds to the corner next to my bed and moving a canvas picture from in between the windows to a different wall. During all of the re-painting and re-arranging of rooms, I had the idea to get a stencil and paint it in between the windows in my room. It took me a while to figure out what type of stencil I wanted to get and what size. The stencil that I ended up with is a set of 3 small-ish size stencils with an owl and flowers on them. After I had bought the stencils they sat in my room because I didn't know if I wanted to paint them all white and then go over them with another color so that they didn't bl...

Well, today is the last day of the #InstaWrimo prep month and I have enjoyed doing it all month and sharing the pictures with everyone here. If I haven't already I apologize if it seems like I am bombarding people with stuff for NaNoWriMo . But that is my "theme" right now since I don't know what else to write about at the moment. Of course, I will try to come up with other topics that aren't just about NaNoWriMo. Anyhow enough with my rambling, because here are the last six pictures as well as the links backs to the intro and days 1-6 , days  7-12 ,  days 13-18 and days 19-24 . Day 25: Theme song for your MC  While I don't have a specific theme for my male MC I think this sums up part of what he goes through in my novel. Day 26: What's in your MC's pocket?  In my MC's pocket is earbuds, a rosary, nail clippers, chapstick, a pen, a small notebook, a St. Anthony medal, and a St. Joseph medal. Day 27: Outli...

Just in case you missed it in my last two posts but here is the link to the post that I did with an explanation of what #InstaWrimo is with days 1 thru 6, and then the posts with days 7 thru 12 and days 13 thru 18 respectively. So here are days 19 thru 24. Day 19: Overheard Dialogue  This is something that I said to my brother while at the aquarium today (the 19th). Me: Anthony look its electric!  Brother: *starts singing the Electric Slide* Day 20: Map (any kind)  This map is of the downtown area in a city near me and  I thought that it would work for my novel. Day 21: Outdoor Setting  While it's not the outdoor setting for my novel, I took these pictures in DC  back  in May when I was there visiting (Yes you get 2 pictures today). Day 22: Seasonal Changes  The trees haven't started changing yet, so I am using a picture that I took last year. Day 23: Mysterious Object  While the obj...

I honestly don't remember exactly when I came up with the idea for this project, but once it showed up it didn't want to leave. Part of how this project came to me is that I had purchased the wood at Michael's for something else that ended up not working with the piece. Since I had already removed the packaging I couldn't return it so I had to think of something else to use it for. The picture I took and used. Again I don't remember how I exactly thought of this but I went with it anyhow. But since we have multiple stencils with the alphabet in different fonts on them I grabbed them out of the draw that they are stored in and then picked the one that I liked the best. After I traced the words onto the wood I plugged in the wood burner that we have and went to work burning the letters. With the wood burner it didn't take that long to do the letters and I like the way that they turned out. Before I actually did the letters I used a heart stencil on the ba...

Because a 120 letter word would be a bit hard to remember how to spell correctly all of the time, there typically aren't any words that long. And no this isn't a crossword puzzle. Instead this is a post on one of my favorite topics: knitting!!!!!! Since I have a lot of yarn sitting around and collecting dust, I wanted to make something with it. After thinking about it and looking at the color options that I have, I decided to make a relatively neutral colored baby blanket. When finished I plan on giving the blanket away, though I don't know to who to give it to yet. The name of this post came about because I am creating my own pattern for this blanket. I love the way that the stockinette stitch looks, but hate how the edges usually curl under when finished, so I am creating a border for the blanket by doing the rib stitch around the edges to keep the blanket from curling under. The way that I am doing the blanket is that it is 120 stitches across, the length is current...

Over a month ago I had gotten several books full of knitting patterns from the library because I wanted to start knitting something again, but needed new ideas. As I was flipping through the books there were some patterns that I wanted to try. A week or two ago I started working on a pattern for an ear-warmer, using the pattern that was in one of the books. Then I decided to also give a pattern for a potholder, that was in one of the other books, a try at the same time. Though I only got as far as casting on the correct number of stitches for the potholder. The reason why I didn't get very far with the potholder pattern is because last week, while I was at Michael's with my two youngest siblings, I came across several balls of this really pretty thick grey variegated yarn and the first idea the popped into my head was to use it and give arm knitting a try. But then I went over to where the knitting needles were hanging and found that they had several pairs of size 19 needles...

Well it's actually only one ball of yarn and I just took a couple pictures to share here. I originally wasn't going to post at all this week, but then I changed my mind.  The idea behind my ball of yarn came off of Pinterest, like the majority of the things that I mention on here. A while ago, as I was scrolling through Pinterest, I came across a pin that showed you how to turn the scraps of yarn into one big ball without having to tie knots. So I saved it and decided to give it a try not to long ago. Well I couldn't figure out how to do it like how it was being shown in the picture, so I gave up and started tying a bunch of knots in the yarn. As I kept going and finding more yarn to add on, the ball ended up turning into what is seen in the pictures. Now that I am pretty much finished with adding yarn I have no idea on what I am going to do with it. I had thought of using it for a blanket, but I don't know if there is enough yarn for that. Not to mention ...

If I am already kind to others and show courage, why do I still need to remember to that? It is one thing to say that we are kind, or that we have courage. But it is another thing to actually live those words out. There are many different ways to show that you have courage or are kind and to actually live them out. When you say that you do those words often do you really know what they mean? Here are the definitions of Kindness and Courage that are found in the American Heritage Dictionary : kind·ness    n. 1.  The quality or state of being kind. 2.  An instance of kind behavior:   Your kindnesses won't be forgotten. cour·age    n. The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.  By reading over the definitions for these words you know have a better understanding of what they actually mean. But how would they be put into pr...

Last week I had written a blog post that I was going to share, but then I changed my mind. I changed my mind on posting it because I didn't think that it was good enough to share. I had started writing another post to share. But I didn't get very far with it because I couldn't think of the right words to say. Why as humans do we have this constant need for perfection? The way that I see it is that has humans we will always have a hard time being completely perfect. Below is the definition of the word perfection from the American Heritage Dictionary  (the definition for perfect can be found here ). Perfection:  n. 1.  The quality or condition of being perfect. 2.  The act or process of perfecting:   Perfection of the invention took years. 3.  A person or thing considered to be perfect. 4.  An instance of excellence. After reading the definitions for the words perfect  and perfection  you can see why people are always saying th...

Awhile ago I had gotten a glass Coca-Cola bottle from Mariano's and had decided to save it for when it snowed out for picture taking. Well it snowed out and filling the bottle with snow wasn't as easy as I thought it would be so I came up with another picture taking idea for it and this is what happened. So with the help of some water and blue and yellow food coloring here are the pictures that I took

Back in November I mentioned that I was going to be making a hat for myself. The pattern that I used can be found here . This time I remembered to take a few in progress pictures while I was making it.  I don't know if anyone else does this, but I find it easier, especially for larger projects like the blanket that I am still working on, to keep track of how many rows that you have to do. The two tops rows were for keeping track of the all the rows of ribbing that I had to do for the bottom of the hat. The row and a half were for when I did hte body of the hat. The finished product