Beginnings: school, running, tomatoes, and some crochet

Rather than thinking that the summer has come to an end, I've accepted this time change as "School begins!"

This year we have a Freshman, 6th and 4th graders.  A friend asked what grade I was in, so... after 12HS + 5BS + 5MS + 18 years teaching... I am in 40th grade. ;)

The morale around the 7-12 wing is on the up-n-up; we have new administration, and so far, the change has been for the better!  We are so hopeful and optimistic!!!!  It feels good to be hopeful again!

I've even started running again!!!!

Mind you, PART of that decision came when I organized my closet two weeks ago, trying EVERY item on.  I parted with quite a bit, but also added a lil' bit due to a Goodwill shopping spree.  SOME of my pants are a bit too snuggy-snug right now, so...... back to running to burn that lil' layer of pudgy-pudge!

 

The face on the picture really says most of it so far;  :\.  I really haven't run a training program for the past two years, so I'm 100% back to square-1.  Many walks, and slow pace... perhaps I'll get back down to my 9:30/mile average that I ran in 2013 for one of my half-marathons.
Baby steps for now...

 Last weekend a small collection of tomatoes were ripe for the picking, and I made up a batch of salsa.  After a week of HEAT and HEAT and more HEAT, mixed with loads of HUMIDITY, our tomatoes started taking off.  (um yah, that heat in a classroom with zero AC this past week ---- UGGGERS!)

Caitlyn and I gathered up what was ripe;  it ended up being a decent ~70 pounds, with lots more out on the plants yet!     Since the heat is still barring down on us, I was NOT interested in having the stove/oven on for much of the weekend in order to reduce these babies down to a sauce, so instead... Vegetable juice was the plan!  We'll save the sauce-making for next weekend with our next ripe pickings; it looks like this heat is finally breaking this week.  Whew!

 
I have a few different varieties out there:  Abe Lincoln, Polish Linguisa, Red Oxheart, Viva Italia (my FAVORITE for sauce), and a few IDK heirlooms that we received as seed from our neighbor two years ago.  We've planted a few of the 'mystery seeds' each year since we've had them;  they make LARGE tomatoes.  I didn't weigh any last year, but I want to believe that this is close to the largest we've had.  There have been two others I've weighed as well:  one was 1 lb 10oz, the other was 1 lb 12 oz.    It doesn't take many of those tomatoes to add up to a lot of juice in a little time.  ;)

 
After the morning of processing, we filled two full cases of quarts of Vegetable juice (tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, parsley, peppers).  We no longer preserve straight tomato juice; we prefer the flavor of the veggie juice.  My in-laws like using the juice in Bloody Marys; I'm not much of a fan, but I LOVE using this juice throughout the year for Chili!

I'm SO thankful for the long holiday weekend;  it's always nice having a slow 4-day week start to the school year;  this year we have TWO 4-day weeks to start since we didn't start until this past Tuesday, Sept. 1.
I've used a bit of the available time to organize a bunch of my recent crochet finishes in order to have them ready for my MIL and some craft fairs she'll be participating in.

 

Lots of 100% USA-grown cotton washcloths;  8" and 10" with a couple 7"x9".

Bath Poufs have been a new addition to my collection: small and large sizes

Hats have also been a new addition this year, in a variety of sizes ranging from youth M to adult S.

A bunch of the frilly yarn was still sitting on my shelves, so I found time to get those made into the frilly scarves, plus I still have some left;  I may just bite the bullet to buckle down and clear this yarn out completely.

However, I really really really am thinking of getting downstairs into the sewing room later today.  It's been a month since I've quilted!  If not even longer!  I've fallen behind in the RSC'15, and I can't let Andee down seeing that we decided to team up in a project together :D  And my Smith Mountain Morning in greens is still sitting, waiting for its 14th hour of progress.

For those in the USA, I hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend!!!  For everyone else, I hope you are enjoying your Sunday afternoon before heading back to the workweek tomorrow.

Happy Sunday!

Crochet washcloths and County Fair Grand Champion

This past week, I've been focusing on some crochet projects with hopes to add a little more variety to my MIL's fall craft sales.  The washcloths have been piling up nicely, seeing the temperatures and humidity have been slowly rising these past few days.

Monday morning, I visited a local Bookstore/Yarn shop, looking for some "Made in the USA" cotton yarn.  JACKPOT!  This Cestari "Old Dominion Collection" yarn caught my eye; the price was reasonable at $8.99/100g hank.  Only two hanks were purchased..... and by the end of the day, both had been crocheted up into some 8" and 10" washcloths.  Therefore, on Tuesday, after eye appointments in the afternoon, I stopped back in to the shop in order to pick up a couple more colors ;)

I primarily used a simple hdc shell stitch pattern [Ravelry link] for most of the washcloths.  But by day four, it was getting old, so I went back to my simple sc/dc alternate pattern.

While searching, this Simple Soap Saver pattern [Ravelry link] also intrigued me, so I gave it a quick whirl.

  

A few other washcloths using Knit Pick's Dishie yarn were also stitched up.

Sometime along the way, the currants and gooseberries were picked and jammed up.

And the past couple of days have been consumed a bit with the County Fair.  Exciting news for Cassie and our Steve -- they earned Grand Champion Cock (Rooster)!  She's tickled pink!

A homemade Christmas

I'm the youngest of my siblings, and I found it fitting to get a sibling picture with them in front of the tree this year with their Christmas present quilts.

Go Packers!  (73 x 96)

Do you work better (more productive) with deadlines?  The final binding stitches for the Green Bay Packer quilt were sewn the night before heading out to my parents for our Christmas celebration.  The pace for completion of this quilt increased after my brother mentioned at our Thanksgiving holiday that he was wanting a new quilt. "No rush," he had said... 

Ask and ye shall receive...

When giving quilts, I don't have any expectations of reactions, regardless of who is the recipient.   It appears that Gma was a bit saddened that the quilt she claimed "dibbs" on as I was posting its progress on Facebook was given to her son instead of her.  

My sister and BIL knew this quilt was a project with their names on it, literally.  "Berquist Beauty" took its time being made throughout the year, and it appears to have been graciously accepted as a quilt for their king-sized bed.

Berquist Beauty (103 x 103)

  

Gma received her own (smaller) homemade items.  

After volunteering to take care of the dishes during the Thanksgiving visit, I was determined to gift her some new towels that actually absorbed water when used to dry dishes :)  LOL

And a couple of crocheted dish cloths to complete out her present.  I used the Dishie yarn from KnitPics;  I'm pretty pleased with this yarn for dish cloths.

Most of Wisconsin was pretty brown on Christmas Day, but Saturday morning (12/27) changed that picture!  A wet, heavy snow started falling Friday night into Saturday morning, dropping about 4 inches.   My parents have a beautiful cozy place nestled back into some woods.  Cliche-sounding, but true!

I'm in the midst of Christmas Break from school right now;  I figured it was time to give my blog another post update.   I've been sewing most of today away, but.... maybe I'll save that post for tomorrow :D   It could happen!  LOL