New Look in the Bedroom

The different light in the room makes the colors look a bit different. We decided we really needed to upgrade from a queen to a King. Seems we always sleep better away from home when traveling and generally...we have a King when we travel. The previous room was Red and Gold, we're more muted now with gray and tan. The walls are an a shade of off white that is almost a pale gray, carpet is tan and the drapes are a lighter shade of the tan. The room is small and so we've opted for the bed in the corner to free up a little floor space.
Here's a little different look before I put up the tiebacks. Again the light here is a bit different than above. We both feel like we're sleeping better which is nice. It's not a traditional style mattress, it's foam and therefore we don't feel each other getting up and turning over. Highly recommend you look into this if you're in the market for a new mattress or bed.

Put on your Apron

Put on your apron and join me in the kitchen. I make egg casserole in batches typically. At Christmas I make tons of it. I don't bake, I don't make cookies, I make egg casserole. Everyone gets a casserole or 2 or 3 for their families from me on Christmas Eve which they then can cook for Christmas morning brunch. We have a fruit salad and champagne with ours. It's a long standing family tradition.

I also make egg casserole for all home Ohio State Footfall games that are noon games. It makes a great tailgate breakfast/brunch also. There we serve bloody mary's with it. Others in our tailgate group bring fruit salad, and potatoes to go with it.

My daughter made a bunch of this a few years back for her classroom, added fruit salad too. It was part of her lesson plan on table manners. They all learned about setting the table, putting a napkin in your lap, keeping your elbows off the table, not talking with food in your mouth, and not eating until everyone was served. They loved this lesson as the final was them serving each other the brunch she had prepared for them.

My Darling Daughter made another batch of this not too long ago for her teachers. She's in a new city now and so this was new to them. It was a business brunch and her egg casserole was a huge success.

My niece recently facebooked me to ask how to make it. She made it for her dorm in Texas. She's an RA there and made it for her group, and there too it was a huge hit.

6 eggs
6 slices of bread cubed
2 cups milk
1 cup grated sharp cheedar cheese
1 pound cooked sausage.

Combine and beat eggs and milk and cheese, add bread, add cooled cooked and drained sausage. Pour into a greesed baking dish(casserole pan etc.) and leave in fridge over night. Cook at 350 about 45 minutes, until golden brown on top and your knife/toothpick comes out almost clean.

Options:
add onion, spice to your liking, mushrooms, green or red peppers

Serve with breakfast rolls, juice, fruit salad and enjoy!

Meow

This afghan (catghan) was made for my niece's daughter who is now 14 years old; so it's been around awhile. This was her baby ghan, made with good old Red Heart Yarn and crocheted from mostly granny squares. I wanted to put eyes and wiskers on at the time, I remember...but, didn't want anything she might put in her mouth and choke on so it remained a little bland. It needed a little repair. Not bad after all this time and many washings. Still looks pretty good. Definitely a testimony to the durability of Red Heart Yarn....acrylic washable yarn.

Just joined a meme (WIPW), fun idea. This was a work in progress in terms of the repair, so I'm counting it here.

LOVE hand made

Love this funky hand made piece of jewelry my DD got me for Christmas. She bought it at a craft shop in St. Louis. Said she knew I liked funky, and that I always preferred handmade over machine made. I like the uniqueness of handmade, I like knowing it's one of a kind, I like helping artists. So does she. The colors probably would have shown up better had I placed this on a dark background to take the photo. Perhaps I'll do that next time round.
More hand made wonderfulness. This is from my SIL, Julie who makes awesome things. This too was a Christmas Gift. Isn't it cool!

I encourage you all to consider shopping from an artist, from a art booth, art fair, or here on line. Supporting artist local or otherwise is a good investment.

Buckeye Baby Completed

Buckeye Baby got completed...just in time for the baby shower. Hat, booties, and sweater all knitted with Lion Brand Woolease (washable, soft wool). I love working with this yarn such a nice texture. Was thrilled to find the Buckeye Baby Bottle, Bib, and Binky(guess Binky is the "new" name for what we called a pacifier) to add to the Buckeye Theme. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see 2 football buttons to jazz it up. Hope Luke (soon to make his way into the world) enjoys his Buckeye Outfit. Here it was in the works.

Continuing to work on his baby blanket, as we speak. Hoping to get this blanket finished for his birthday. Stage 1 HERE.
And here it is at is progresses, worked on squares and joined these 9 in the car on our weekend jaunt to St. Louis to visit our DD.

The blanket is crocheted in granny squares, 8 inches with lots of shades of blue. The lightest shade you see here, is blue not white. Felt like good headway was made on the car trip, so stage 2 moving right along. Must check my blue stash to see how much more yarn I have and what shades of blue they are in order to move to stage 3. Stay tuned.

On the return trip from St. Louis I worked on edging knitted blocks for a ghan for Faith Mission for Bridge and Beyond. Got them all edged, and ready for joining.

Some Perspective Thinking on this 300th Blog Post

This post marks my 300th post of this blog. Sandy's Space covers knitting, crocheting, family history, family, and well...a variety of "STUFF". It began as only a place to post items I crocheted or knitted for charity, an aid to help me keep track of what was made and sent where. I didn't post all that frequently as it wasn't a particularly user friendly blogging format in those days. It was titled Crocheting and Caring Cause I Can. Notice the 4C's? Look at the url of the blog. Though I've been able to successfully change the title and everything else about the blog over the last several years, I've never been able to change the url. Troublesome, cause I would like to. No one looking at the url of 4ccccs.blogspot.com/ is going to remember know or care what it is. Back in those days I had a yahoo 360 blog, a multiply one after 360 went crazy. Prior to both of those I had an msn spaces blog, and heck before that I had an aol blog. I had several group pages on msn as well. Things change, just like the cell phone's above.

Sadly, the above photo of cell phones is a bit incomplete. It doesn't show our first phone. Our first mobile phone that was in a bag, that one plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car. That was really meant to be used in the car and be less portable. It's like a time line of technology. The phone on the far left is the first one we bought our daughter, it had limited minutes and was only to be used for emergency and so we could call her during her many after school activities back in the day. It was a huge thing for us to do that. It was her birthday gift when she turned 16. Each month, you purchased x amount of minutes. Now people think their kindergartners need cell phones. Or maybe they don't think they "need" them, but they want them. They want them to play games, to have apps, to take pictures. They have no realization that a phone is a tool, not a toy; that it's not cheap. Most, don't even have restrictions on when, or how to use it. And then kids get into trouble because of what they're doing with the phones....maybe not quite that young, but as they get older. Perhaps parents should reverse the time line with regard to cell phones and buy one that does less not more. What child needs a smart phone? What child needs a droid, what child needs the ability to access all that stuff in the adult world 24 x 7? I think, none of them do. Give them a phone you can reach them on when needed. Give them a phone that doesn't allow apps, pictures, texting etc.

We've donated all our previous cell phones, but am glad I took a picture first. The phones are reconditioned and given to women in shelters who've been battered.

Projects in the works:
Close to finishing Opal Ghan (started way back, frogged and restarted and stitches counted HERE
6 or 7 ghans designed and being edge and joined for Bridge and Beyond
Baby blanket in the works seen here

Recently completed projects:
Buckeye Baby (in the works pictured here)
Scarf for homeless pictured here
Recent ghan repaired...post pending
3 Oddball Baby Blankets Mossy Delights pictured Here, and Pumpkin Patch & Sweet Pea HERE