Birthday Prayers

Whenever I help an applicant who has the same birthday as someone I know, I use that occasion to say a quick prayer for my friend or family member. I rarely help people who have the same birthday as me. I figure it should be 1 chance in 365 that I would help someone with my birthday even though I have heard that in any class-size group of people at least two should have the same birthday.
Today, I only helped about 25 applicants and three of them had the same birthday as me. Since our birthday is in two days, I wished them all an early birthday and said a prayer for myself.

Another odd prayer reminder that I use is that whenever I notice the country of origin of my clothing, I say a prayer for that country.

Proskuneo

Last Sunday, our pastor, Dale Jaggers, started a series of sermons called It's All Greek To Me in which he will be taking a look at a different Greek word each week and going through where and how it is used in Scripture. This week's word was Proskuneo.
Proskuneo is translated as worship or kneeling down in the New Testament. In Strong's Concordance it says that it literally means to kiss (as a dog licks his master's hands). I love that picture. It is such an affectionate and intimate image.
Dale said that worship cannot be manufactured of faked. It is the natural outpouring of the heart God is working in. One of the points in his sermon is that worship is an attitude of humility and that our own pride interferes with true worship whether it is because we are trying to impress people by standing up or raising our hands or because we are too embarrassed to stand up or to raise our hands, to allow ourselves to be swept away with the joy of licking our Master's hands. He shared this video:

Wind Your Own Center Pull Skeins

Center Pull Skeins
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

A few months ago I participated in a yarn exchange on swap-bot. My partner sent me some wonderful center-pull skeins of yarn that she had wound herself on a yarn winder. Among them are the orange yarn at about 10 o'clock and the variegated yarn at 6 o'clock. The orange is still intact and I have used about half of the variegated.
The rest of the yarns were wound by me using the wonderful technique I found at Laughing Purple Goldfish using a handmade, economy model yarn winder. I recommend a toilet paper tube, but you can cut down a paper towel tube if you get to one of those first.

Congratulations

We have new president and he has my prayers and best wishes. Whenever a new president is sworn in it gives me a thrill. It isn't perfect but it sure is a wonderful country.
God bless you President Obama and your family. And God bless America.
I wanted to share one of my favorite videos because whether you voted for Barak Obama or not it is good to remember who really is in control:

Crocheted Flowers

These are the flowers that I mentioned earlier. One for each day of January. The bunch at the bottom have pin backs attached and are ready for what ever comes next. They were made using this pattern from crochetroo.
The lone pansy on the right (it looks kind of like a bunny is from Mamachee's pattern.
The large multicolored rose on the right is from Patons. The pattern I have is from a magazine a few years back and I can't find the same one on their site, but they do have a similar one in various sizes. You have to sign in to get to the actual patterns.
In the upper left are some three different flowers from this pattern from Bernat yarns.
This is another site you have to log into to see the pattern.

After making all of those flowers I came up with this pattern. My favorite is the orange one at the top. In case you like them, here is the pattern. Please use this as you want, but do not represent it as your own pattern. If you want to share it, please link to this posting.

Six-Petal Flowers

You need:
Worsted weight yarn in three colors (A, B & C)
"H" hook

Round 1: With color A and using a magic ring chain 2 (does not count as first double crochet); 12 double crochet; slip stitch into first double crochet. Tighten ring. Fasten off color A. (12 stitches)

Round 2: Attach color B in top of any double crochet. Chain 1; 2 single crochet in same stitch; 2 single crochet in each stitch around; slip stitch in first single crochet. Fasten off B. (24 stitches)

Round 3: Attach color C in second single crochet of any 2 single crochet pair. Chain 1; long single crochet (insert hook into same double crochet the round 2 single crochet is made in, yarn over, draw up loop, yarn over, draw yarn through both loops); (half double crochet in next stitch; 3 double crochet in next stitch; half double crochet in next stitch; long single crochet in next stitch) around except that instead of the last long single crochet, work a slip stitch into top of first long single crochet. Six petals made. Fasten off color C. Weave in ends.

Tangle Doodled Sampler

When I first discovered zentangles I started keeping a sheet of paper with various designs I found by looking at other peoples' drawings. It was sloppy and disorganized, but it was helpful.
Then I saw this by tropicalart77 who has some pretty amazing doodles in her collection if you want to look around. This is my version of a zentangle sampler with some of the patterns I like to use and a few I just made up for this exercise.
If you want to learn more about zentangles, check out the zentangle homepage.

I Don't have to Go to Work For 15 Minutes

A few days ago, I found myself ready to go to work about fifteen minutes before I needed to leave. The night before, just as I was getting ready for bed, I had this urge to crochet something, but I am trying to be good so I made myself go to bed anyway.
That unscratched itch and a little free time produced this:
This is only about one and a quarter inches across. I wore it to work and when I came home I had to make these, too:

They are about twice as big as the first one.
At the beginning on the year I was toying with the idea of working on one type of project for each month of the year so that by the time Christmas comes around I will have a stash of already made items to choose from instead of a bunch of craft supplies, but I hadn't really come up with a plan. Well, it turns out that this is flower month. I now have fifteen flowers made and plan to make sixteen more -- one for each day of the month. They are not all this same pattern and they may not all end up being brooches, but they will be there for me to use when the time comes.

From My Grandma's Recipe Box Zine

Several years ago when my Grandma had to move into a care facility, I got custody of her recipe boxes. My Grandma was a good cook and it is interesting to read her recipes because many of them have notes about how she liked it, how she modified it, when she made it and other interesting bits.
For this last Christmas I pulled out some that I remembered her making or that she had written something interesting on, made photocopies of them and assembled them into zines. The inside front cover has a photocopy of the photo in the upper left corner (I am the girl in red) and the inside back cover has a photocopy of the top of her recipe box.
Later, my sister-in-law asked if I had a copy of Grandma's hot chicken salad. I looked the both boxes (one is about 4 times bigger than a regular recipe box) and couldn't find anything. A little later, Kathy found her own copy of the recipe and sent me a copy of it. Here it is:

Hot Chicken Salad

2 cups diced chicken breast
2 tablespoons lemon juice
____________
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 teaspoon grated onion
1 cup sliced water chestnuts
_____________
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
buttered bread crumbs

Mix chicken and lemon juice. In separate bowl, mix next six ingredients well. Fold in chicken and don't over mix.
Put in greased casserole. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Sprinkle buttered bread crumbs over all.
Bake at 450 degrees fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until crumbs are brown and crisp.

Serves 4-6

Giveaway at Cuteable

Cuteable is having a giveaway. They will mail the package to anywhere in the world. To enter you just have to leave a comment here.
You can see some of the other goodies that will be in it by clicking over to their homepage.

Stethoscope

One of the things I hope to do with this blog is learn new things. So, let's see if this works:

Kitten with a ball of yarn

Kitten with a ball of yarn
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

When I was making the surprise balls for Christmas, I was trying to think of things to put in the middle and this seemed like something Nick would like, but just as I finished I thought "hacky sack" which is an even better idea.
So now this little cutie is mine. All mine (lowers head, shifts eyes, rubs hands together and laughs creepily).
You can make one of your very own, if you would like. With longer ears and a shorter tail I think it would make a cute bunny. Or with long floppy ears you could have a puppy.
One small change I made was for the tail:
Ch 12. Sl st in little bump on the back of the 2nd ch from hook and in little bumps of remaining chains.
It is a very small difference, but it gives a more finished look.

Duck Tacos

New Year's Eve our family watched fireworks at Legoland. Legoland uses lego time to welcome the new year, which is much more family friendly, and six hours earlier, than the more traditional midnight.
Afterward, we went to Sammy's Wood Fired Pizza for dinner. We had never eaten them before and it was a little more upscale than I had expected for a pizza place, but there were plenty of families (and one interesting table with about 10 lovely young women -- all with heavy eye makeup and in very nice, very short skirts -- and one man) and the wait was not too long so we stayed.
After the waiter told us about the "Artesian" pizzas (probably like the artisan pizzas, but the dough is mixed with a special water?), Ken ordered the Mini Duck Tacos tapas to share and we each ordered our own entree.
The Mini Duck Tacos are the most wonderful thing I have eaten up to this point in my life and I have not forgotten about chocolate as I am saying this. I am a better person for having eaten them. Luckily, Nick would not try them, because then I would have had to prove that I was a better person. It is the perfect combination of flavors. And I don't (didn't?) like duck. Later, our waiter told us it is the most popular item among the employees.
Nick ordered a kid's cheese pizza and halfway through it he said we had to come back again because it was the best pizza he had ever eaten. He finished it all which is unusual for him.
I had the "Fresh Beets, Toasted Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Organic Arugula Salad." The only ingredient not in the name is the pomegranate dressing. It was also very good, but it is not Duck Tacos.