Sunday, September 13, 2009

Gray ice cream

Hmmm. If you have a blue-green mint ice cream base, and you blend in oreo cookies, the final product is steel gray ice cream. Tastes better than it looks - that's for sure!

After last weekend's trip to Lake Farm Park, we decided to pull out the ice cream maker and plug it in. I mean, what can be easier than an electric ice cream maker? True, it is a two-day process, making the custard base, chilling it and the cooler insert, plus you have to remember to buy cream and/or half-and-half by lunch on Saturday if you are going to get this all done by Sunday dinner. That probably explains why we've made fewer than a dozen quarts of ice cream in the 7 - 8 years we've owned the ice cream maker.

This weekend - more geocaching! Audrey's really gotten into it and it's a great way to get the family outside and walking around, and "justifies" DH's recent purchase of a fancy new GPS unit. The weather's really be perfect the last two weeks though - not too hot, not too cold.

I may have also "saved" $1000 on new window treatments! I tried to order new shades for the great room in natural woven woods. Due to the size of the window, the fact that it has to be broken into 3 sections to accomodate the weight, and the material I chose has a subtle, but noticeable horizontal pattern, it's really hard to find new shades. So much so that the customer service department at the company I tried to order from called me up to ask if I was really, really sure about this. They recommended I think about it some more. Which is incredibly honest of them. They could have taken my money and just let me be unhappy when the shades arrived at my door (custom is non-refundable). So, I cancelled the order. DH asked how long it was going to take to choose something new, and said let's just take the broken one off the window while I decided (a couple of cords had snapped - it's way too heavy) and it has been hanging cock-eyed half-up and down.

I said before we throw them out, I'll try to re-string them.. They are re-strung! $3.80 of drapery cord at Jo-ann's. Now the real test - will the new strings hold. Stay tuned....

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Labor Day laziness

I wish....

We're having a peaceful three-day weekend here at home. No pressure to travel anywhere, which is a blessing. Spent Saturday at Lake Farmpark, and Sunday doing a little geocaching after our picnic lunch. Tomorrow we'll head down to Taste of Cleveland to stuff our faces and see Cowboy Mouth perform. DH reminded me what happened last time we went to see a band we last saw 10 years ago. Should be good though, as long as the weather holds.

I'm plugging away on the front of Eastlake - I picked it up again last week after its summer hiatus. It's the only thing on the needles now - I finished the childs yoke pullover and the Rick socks.

Fair Isle sweater

Pattern: Bernat free pattern (Child's Pullover and Toque)
Needles: US9
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Roasted Coffee and Raspberry

Rick socks

Pattern: Rick
Designer: Cookie A. in Sock Innovation
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino, colorway unknown
Needles: US2

The pooling on these isn't as noticeable as in the photos - something about the way reds and blues get filtered in the camera.

It's been a nice weekend - I hope we have more weather like this!