Thursday, September 27, 2018

I Like/Love #20 and Giveaway Winners

First of all, thank you to all who left such kind, thoughtful comments on my blog-iversary post for the giveaway. Here are the winners of the five prizes as chosen by Rafflecopter:
1. Five times 2 = 10 2.5" strips of Alpine Jingle by Island Batik: Nancy A. in America
2. Fifth published pattern of mine in Modern Patchwork magazine Sept/Oct issue: Miriam in America
3. 5-item bundle of Captiva plus pattern: Michele T. in Canada
4. Five fat quarters of Wonderlust by Benartex: Dione in Australia
5. 1.25 total yards of Acorn Park by Connecting Threads: Kathy E. in America
Winners have been emailed for addresses!

Second of all, I suddenly have become a no-reply-blogger on blogger blogs with embedded comments. I have spent a couple of hours trying to fix, using the link on my own blog, here, using more recent 'fixes', and even though my profile is blogger, not Google+, and I have checked the 'show my email' box in my profile, I am still a no-reply. If anyone out there know what has happened, and perhaps how to fix it, please let me know in the comments box. I seem to be okay on my phone however. So bizarre. All right grumpiness out, on with the good. I also tried the sign out on my iPhone, went on the laptop, signed out, then signed back in on the laptop. Nope. My comment disappears into the ether; the Google box stays grey.

1. I love dogs, big dogs especially. Pibbles and Rotties are two of the top big breeds I love. Ergo, I love this photo, taken by Lindsay who writes a terrific food blog, Pinch of Yum:
She actually saw that a few weeks ago, in St. Paul, MN. Bahaha! I like that she has recently become the mama of a baby girl.


2. I like Pinch of Yum. I've made lots of her recipes. You can find some of my favourite recipes under the tab above, "Yoga Posts and Recipe Links".

3a. I love Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups. Not-so-guilty pleasure: I eat one pretty much every day.
A like within a like within a like! That stack of fat quarters, plus a half yard of  yoga fabric, I certainly do like!

3b. I like this Chocolate Blueberry wine from Sunnybrook Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. I love wine, red especially, but the grape kind, not the other fruits kind, so visiting this winery on my most recent trip to the area with Brianne and Brady was as a favour to Dayna. She wanted me to pick her up some Bosc pear wine (sold out, not available until Christmas) drat. We stopped also for Brianne, who likes a sweeter wine (she loves ice wines) so she bought a pear ice wine. I decided to give this blueberry one a try when the host said it was a drier wine, and I was most pleasantly surprised. Mind you, why would I not be? I like chocolate anything, well, not chocolate-covered ants, but otherwise, I'm there!

4. I am in love with this new app, Picture This. My friend Kathi told me there was one out there, didn't know what exactly, so I "searched it up," as Brady says, and found this one which I've used a lot already. I've learned a lot already too! It's an identifier for plants.
5. I like this field of cabbages where I walk along the Greenway, that I spied on September 16.

6. I also love seeing transports, aka semi-trucks, aka tractor/trailers go by this time of year, their trailers the size that they use to haul oranges in Florida, but here in Essex County, they're laden with tomatoes, headed for the canning factory in Leamington. (I also loved seeing on our way home from Niagara Falls, a transport that had "GRAPES" on the side of its trailer, from a winery somewhere on the escarpment.)

7. I love tea. My favourite is Yorkshire tea, but my sister sent me these two that my mum had in her house:


I'm glad they brought back the original Tazo tea; Mum and I complained at length to each other that they ruined it a few years ago when they redid the blend. She was so happy to learn they'd gone back to the original, as was I when she told me, and I tasted the new/old blend! Now it's a bittersweet memory when I drink it...

8. I like this brave little tree, a sumac, already spouting forth all kinds of new growth after they went through and trimmed back the Greenway about 10 days ago.

9. I am in awe and in love with still seeing hummingbirds around my feeder, at the end of September! They are gone around mid- to late-August in Alberta, so being a bit more than 11° latitude further south (we're on 42N) now here in southern Ontario, which equates to about 1250 km (770 miles), makes quite a difference in many things, nature and climate-wise.
A bit grainy as I zoomed in and it's through the kitchen window

10. I like knitting. This is a beanie for Brady. I started it on the trip to Niagara Falls.... four times over.🙄
First time: I hadn't left enough yarn to finish casting on 84 stitches. I cast on on one needle.
Second time: I'd read the pattern, and knew I had to do the ribbing first. I checked again that it was a K1P1 ribbing, and saw 'Set up Round' and did that, which was a knit round. Did another row after the set up round, where you PM (place marker)... and when I got half way through, realized wait a minute, where's the ribbing? No! I'd somehow substituted "Set up Round" for the 'Establish Ribbing' round....
Third time: Nearing the end of the 1.5" ribbing I suddenly had my full brain power kick in (this menopause fog is seriously debilitating; I cannot believe I do these kind of things). Why had I casted on 80 stitches and not 84??? Because I measured the yarn needed by guesstimating multiples of 20 of course... never did cast on the other 4 stitches.
Fourth time: So far we're good. Oh. But I couldn't go past the ribbing because I'd only brought the one size of needles with me on the trip! 😖

11. I love love love Brady.
He's the most amazing boy. Obviously I could write post after post after post on him, but I'll finish with two photos:


Grin! He's even wearing the pirate pj shorts I made him, which wasn't planned for this photo!

Yes! He wanted to learn to knit, and I told him the story of goalie Jacques Plante of the Montréal Canadiens whose skills with a set of knitting needles they believe contributed to his incredible hand/eye coordination. He knitted several of the knit stitches in the K1P1 ribbing as we road along. (UPDATE: see the menopausal brain fart there? I didn't, though I only did a quick skim of a proofread.) try 'as we RODE' along. I have always been a most excellent speller, very good at math too, can add up, no could add up/subtract faster than a calculator in my head. Now it's all gone for shite. I see a few other errors in this post too, omissions, like the tea photo, grammar... Sigh.... When we got home, I got him set up on his own knitting, a green scarf for Auntie Dayna's (and mine, grin) sweet dog.

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color where you will find many of us being grateful for a variety of things. It's such a beneficial practice.

Also linking up with Soma at Whims and Fancies for her Wandering Camera linky. Hop over there after LeeAnna's for some more lovely eye candy of photos and stories.

21 comments:

  1. In Victoria we have hummingbirds all year long. In the occasional times in our winter that the sugar water freezes, I have two sets and make sure I am up and have placed unfrozen sugar water outside before the sun comes up and they wake from torpor. I am so grateful for this opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is Blogger up to these days? I hope you find a solution to the no reply thing soon, sorry about that! Brady is such a sweety. I hope you are getting an awesome visit with him. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sandra! I love, love, LOVE that picture of Brady concentrating on knitting. I hope you share his finished scarf with us - tell him I'm looking forward to seeing it on the puppy. It sure looks like you had fun at the Falls. That is a beautiful picture, too. AND that dog, hanging out the window just cracks me up. I love dogs. Congrats to all the winners! That was so nice of you to share the celebration of your fifth year. Happy Thursday to you. ~smile~ Roseanne

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats to all the winners! Thanks for hosting the giveaway, Sandra. Brady has a good focus going on while knitting. I kinda look like that too, when I knit. :-) Enjoy your time with B&B!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The dog in the car window, wonderful, so proud looking. Loved my visit to the falls on September 6th. Was there in the seventies, man have things changed. The concentration on Brady’s face is priceless. My son always did a few stitches in my knitting and crocheting project. Hope to meet when next you visit Alberta.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The concentration on Brady's face as he knits is priceless! I hope you're having a great visit :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have been having the same problem only some I could comment on some I couldn't. It showed me only as 'Google Account' and no way could I change it. I commented, clicked 'Publish' and it would disappear. Eventually, after several tries when I had copied my comment so I wouldn't have to keep doing it again, I left a comment and clicked on 'Preview', suddenly my profile was there, although my comment disappeared. I pasted my comment in the box, clicked 'Publish" and it worked. I don't know if it will work for doubt that's how I did it, and I haven't come across another Blogger blog where I haven't been able to blog since, yet :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations ladies! Love your pictures, dog is cute, fabrics pretty, boy concentrated!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Firstly, congratulations to all your winners! Such a fun give away to celebrate your blogaversary. Enjoyed all your likes, a few cracked me up....several made me smile! Esp. Brady's pics!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I always enjoy reading about all of your likes! Dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's sound dangerous! Do I dare try them?! Your picture of Brady at Niagara Falls is precious. I love that he wants to learn to knit, too. Did you see the (I think it was) Finnish ski coach who knit while waiting for his skiers to do their runs in the Olympics?

    ReplyDelete
  11. A knitter in training, how awesome that grandma is teaching him. I hope blogger starts behaving itself pretty soon.

    ReplyDelete
  12. show him a kaffe fasset book on knitting. I enjoyed your likes and want that wine. You are able to only eat one PBcup a day??? kudos!

    so glad you joined us today for all this goodness!
    Oh and you'd like the mastiff that barks at little Milo when we walk by, he looks like the top photo, dark gray, enormous head.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, Brady, such a sweet face! Look at him concentrating on knitting, I love it!! Thanks for sharing this moment of domestic loveliness :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I just had a problem using my phone, tried it again and it worked. Try it, it may ask you to sign in to blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love this post! Have you ever tried Justin's Dark Chocolate PB Cups? My favorite of all time! A little pricey though. My daily go-to chocolate is Ghiradelli 72% (I think it's called Twilight) dark chocolate, 2-3 squares every day. We don't have a Trader Joe's close by, but they sound great, too! (PS - Would you let me know if I've become a noreply at any point? I wonder sometimes.)

    ReplyDelete
  16. as always, lots to say here. I just tried a couple of times to leave a comment on another blog through bloglovin, and it claimed I was a spam account. I am most definitely not a spam account! You know, the hat would have worked ok. Hats are very forgiving. I would just have added in a few more stitches and kept going both times. It would have been ok, and would stretch to fit. How great that Brady wanted to knit. And I am going to a Kaffe Fassett talk in the spring. Spring ? Autumn and winter to get through first

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm with you on the hummers. I was delighted to see one at my feeder this morning. The activity always picks up in August and I've read that's because the babies have fledged so the population has doubled, so to speak. I put my feeder up in April and will leave it through October. Happily, as the weather cools off, I don't need to change it quite as often. I like Pinch of Yum, too. I'll have to look to see if we've made any recipes in common.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I have heard others are having the same problem with blogger. Hope they fix it soon. Love that Dog photo! So sweet and proud at the same time. I loved reading this edition, so many things that we both like/love. I will refrain from listing them here :) The last photo of Brady is incredibly sweet!

    -Soma

    ReplyDelete
  19. Another person near a Trader Joe's. Jealous!!! When we lived in Cleveland, we went to Niagara on the Lake several times, and the wineries thereabouts. I love ice wines as a special treat, like a dessert wine. And NOTL is always gorgeous with its flowers. Thanks for the memories!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Not much better than chocolate and peanut butter, but chocolate wine could outdo that on my list.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love seeing Brady knit! Monkey and Panda both wanted to learn to crochet six months ago, but it didn’t even last one wash cloth.

    ReplyDelete

I wholeheartedly appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment, as they make my day! I answer every one by personal email. :-) Unless... you are a "no-reply" blogger, which can occur for a few reasons. You can get around that by writing out your email within your comment so that I can answer you.