Galaxy Stitch Scarf

When my friend, Stitch of Love, first posted the beautiful Galaxy Stitch Scarf for her dear Uncle, I knew I wanted to make one.  It was a new stitch for me, although I have been crocheting for many years.

My daughter in law received one I made for her birthday in February in a pattern I made up (can't get the photo to load, so I need to take another one!)  My son, who never asks for anything, said jokingly under his breath, "wish someone would make me a scarf." So, you know I just had to do it!  I made it and then before actually giving it to him, asked if he would like it longer - long story short - it's about 8 feet long.  He wanted to wear it doubled over and through the middle.

This is a beautiful stitch, and I used Caron Simply Soft yarn, so this is really soft and warm.  Happy Birthday, Albert!  A little late, but it is as long as two scarves!

I used this You Tube video from Teresa.  This woman is absolutely the best teacher by far for crocheting, knitting, beginner, intermediate, advanced, left hand and right hand. She is amazing.  If you love crocheting or knitting, please check her out.  A-MA-ZING!!!

Thanks for taking a peek.  God bless!
Donna

Laura Bush ~ An Evening To Remember

My son, Albert, invited me to hear Laura Bush, our gracious former First Lady Lady, at West Hills Community College in Lemoore, California.  This new arena, and campus, is only 5 minutes from their home and was very comfortable.  We had great seats, and honestly saw her up close and personal.

Mrs. Bush has a wonderful sense of humor and looks just as beautiful as she did in the White House.  She spoke of her work, the first National Book Festival, launched at the Library of Congress on the Saturday, just a few days prior to September 11, 2001;  how the events of 9-11-01 changed the everything for President Bush and his presidency, their lives in the White House, our lives as every day citizens of a country that had been brutally violated by terrorism; and the work she is doing in her current role as Honorary Ambassador for the United Nations Literacy Decade.

Mrs. Bush also talked about her work with breast cancer awareness, now including cervical cancer testing and treatment, both here and around the world.

Time to say good evening to one of my favorite First Ladies.  It looks as though she is looking right at us saying, "Good Bye!"

After leaving the program, we met up with Karla and the children and had a yummy dinner.  Thank you, Son, for a wonderful, and very memorable, evening.

Blessings,
Donna

Fresh Zucchini Bread (with no egg yolks)

Mmmm - for me, there's nothing tastier than home made, fresh, sweet bread right out of the oven!  One of my favorites is my own recipe for Zucchini Bread, yolk-less of course! 

Having food allergies means you do a lot of scratch cooking and baking.  We have a few in our household and so I have learned to bake and cook eliminating egg yolks, molds (like mushrooms and any foods that are fermented, which are many), beef (yes, cow!!) and fresh milk.  You can usually get around the kitchen pretty good eliminating the listed foods, until you come to the egg yolks.  It's very difficult to bake fresh cookies, sweet breads, cakes, etc, because the proteins in the yolk help these items in the rising, texture and flavor.

I love to cook, so for me, working around these problems is not a big deal.  But it has been a lot of trial and error, well worth trial and error!  he he he!  I'm listing the recipe below, and hope you will try it.

Zucchini Bread  
3 egg whites                                            3 cups flour**
1 cup oil                                                 1 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar                                           1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla                                            1 tsp salt
4 cups grated zucchini*                           3 tsp cinnamon

*Wash zucchini, DO NOT PEEL, do not seed unless you have giant zucchinis from your garden (you'll know what I mean if you grew them yourself!)  Course grate zucchini and squeeze out excess liquid.
**I use bread flour or King Arthur All Purpose flour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 2 standard bread pans (or 6 mini pans.)
Sift all dry ingredients together in small bowl and set aside.
Beat egg whites, oil, sugar and vanilla together.
Stir in zucchini, now add all dry ingredients and blend well.
Evenly distribute into 2 bread pans, bake for 60 to 75 minutes.  Remove from oven when inserted knife comes out clean (a few crumbs are OK.)  Cool for 10 minutes in pan, turn out on cooling rack.

Serve warm or cool.  Freezes extremely well.

Let me know if you have any questions.  This is great bread and hopefully some of you will try it!


Many blessings,
Donna


**My recipes are published, so please respect my hard work with any I list and don't take credit as your own.

Blooming Flower Pillow

This beautiful pattern in another I found on Attic 24.  Lucy is a marvelous teacher of our happy crochet hooks!  Her patterns are very easy to follow, lots of photos throughout the project, and a grand sense of humor!

Here is my take on the Blooming Flower Cushion (Pillow - for me) to be happily displayed on the children's guest bed, along with the Hexagon Afghan, also one of Lucy's patterns!

I love the way the colors pop on the petals.  I will be sewing the pillow form and stuffing it, attaching the back side, later this week.

Lucy is great at reminding all of us who are in the US to exchange the UK terms with American. I've tried patterns before and become very frustrated and completely wasted time crocheting a pattern and not having it come out correctly because of this.  It's great of Lucy to remind us and give us the various stitches to use.  The back side of the pillow uses the same color variations, only no ruffles, just double crochet throughout the entire back side until the last, joining row. 

This has been another great project to use up left over yarn.  I only have a bit of this left, so I'd better get to crocheting some new projects!

Thank you, Lucy, for another great pattern!
Continued blessings, all!
Donna

 

Grandparents Day with My Wee Ones

Hi Everyone!  It's so nice to be back and writing again online!  I pray you've all been wonderful and busy!  I have been doing a lot of crocheting and hope to post some photos of my latest projects early next week!

On September 9th, my granddaughter, Elise, invited me to school with her to have lunch and a presentation for Grandparents Day.  I was so glad I was able to attend this year.

My son and I went to the school to watch each class sing a song to the grandparents who were able to attend and then eat lunch with them in the grass courtyard area.  Of course, they all sang like Angels (don't we all think our children do?)  Along with Elise, her older brother, Isaac, and younger sister, Leila, dad and I ate Pepperoni Pizza, and I received hand made cards from the kids.

Being a grandparent is high on my list of what I am most grateful for in my life.  To have five wonderful grandchildren is such a blessing.  My daughter has two handsome sons, Ryan who will be 21 in just a few days, and Jeffrey who will be 18 in a couple of short months.  I have been blessed to have all of them relatively close and watch them grow up and spend time with them.  Of course, it's never enough time.

Isaac on the far left, Leila in the middle and Elise standing on my right.  It was a very hot day and thank goodness we found a nice cool tree to sit under.

Thank you for making Grandma feel so special!  I love you all so much!

Thanks for taking a peak at my wee ones!

Many blessings,
Donna