New Needle Case!

So my knitting needle collection has been getting so large that I just couldn't stand having all these loose needles laying around. I was looking through Etsy and I found these needle cases that people were making. I thought to myself "Self, that seems pretty easy to make, you should try it!" Well I tried it and I'm so please at how it came out! Plus, all of the fabric was leftovers in my stash. Pretty sweet...

Pupusas and old missionaries

So last night a friend of ours from the Spanish Branch came over. We have a deal worked out: She teaches me how to cook Salvadorian food and I talk to her in English so she can practice. We made pupusas this time and they were SOOOO good! Pupusas are just stuffed corn tortillas. After making the corn tortilla dough (masa) you put carnitas (pork), mozzarella cheese, refried beans, and sour cream in the middle, make a ball, press it flat, and then fry. It sounds like a lot, but it actually goes pretty quick. You eat the pupusas with Cortido and salsa. Cortido is cabbage, jalapeno, onion, lemon, vinager, and water. It's AWESOME. You're also supposed to eat it with your hands, so it's way messy.

After Anna Ruth left, some missionaries that used to serve in the spanish branch came back to Kentucky to visit and stopped by. It was really funny seeing them again and not calling them "elder." They brought our friend Emilia with them. They helped baptize her over a year ago and she's just been the most amazing convert. She's going through the temple this saturday and we are all WAY excited! Anyway, that was our thursday night.

"Elder" Strickland, Emilia, and "Elder" Nash

Flashing Gangsta signs.... And no, I'm not pregnant, I'm just that fat.

makin' pupusas

Making pupusas with Anna Ruth

(Shane forgot he was supposed to be speaking english with her!!)

WWI patterned scarf

So my little brother found out that I could knit and asked me to knit him a scarf. I sent him to the local yarn shop to pick out the yarn he wanted me to use. He picked out 100% alpaca wool in sport weight (which is basically just a thin yarn). I really wish the pictures came out better because the yarn has this beautiful sheen to it that the camera just can't pick up. Anyway, the pattern I used was an old WWI scarf pattern. During WWI the red cross sent around this pattern all over the US encouraging women to knit scarves and mittens for the soldiers. It's a very simple pattern, but when knit on really small needles, it comes out really nice. He loved it and even took a goofy "action shot" for me. It took me a week to knit with about 2 hours working on it every day. I'm a slow knitter AND it was small yarn and needles. I'm just glad he liked it and now it's on to the next project!

Story Time

Just being silly with the girls

Goin' digital

So if there are any of you out there that still use the old bunny ears on your TV, you are aware that in 2009 analog television will no longer be available. In 2009 all the stations will be required to broadcast in digital. This means our bunny ear antennas will no longer work. If you're like me and it's just out of the question to pay for cable/satellite, then you will need to buy a converter box to receive the digital broadcasting on your old tube style TV. Once again, the thought of paying for anything to watch TV makes me squirm. The government has decided to provide a coupon program to help people buy the converter boxes. Right now each household can get 2 coupons worth $40 each (only one coupon per converter box). Eligible converter boxes will cost anywhere from $50 - $70, so this is a big chance to save! Just go to the DTV website to apply for a coupon for your family.

Cable guy

So lately I've been getting in a creative mood. I've been pretty impressed with the holiday stuff people were making and I just had to join in. My most recent fascination is knitting. I've been knitting for years now, but I've never moved beyond an extremely basic scarf. I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but I'm slowly making progress. Right now I'm in the process of learning how to do a cable knit (see above picture). So far it seems pretty easy, it's just going to take some practice to really perfect it.


I just recently finished a pair of fingerless gloves from some yarn I got on sale a while back. I didn't have enough yarn to make yet another scarf, and so I thought I'd give this a try. It was a really quick project and I think they turned out really nice. (They're really soft!)

My final project I'm going to show you has nothing to do with knitting but it just came out so dang cute! Every year we give the girls a new ornament to hang on the tree. This year we decided to save some money and have me make them an ornament. Using this tutorial, I made both of the girls these really cute mitten ornaments. I thought they wouldn't really care about them since they didn't have anything to do with princesses, but they loved them! They really liked the fact that I made it special for them. They're so sweet...