A Day at the Beach

Hello Friends,

Are you enjoying the summer goodness? Most of the U.S. is experiencing very warm or hot temperatures recently. Although the heat can be too much at times just remember how cold you were all winter long and the spring you never had. Go outside and let the warmth sooth your muscles - it does the body good. Drink a lot of water too!

We've been getting some heavy rains late afternoon which is slowly filling up our ponds. A few more good downpours and the pond should be filled back up. J and I were able to take some time to go to one of the beaches nearby. We went to Sanibel Island one of the areas best beach locations and enjoyed the sand and sun. J is the master of finding good treasures in the water and he found a star fish.

We have never found these before while at the beach in Florida. J has found some 5 "leg" star fish in the back waters (mixed salt water and fresh water) but this was a new find! We brought it out of the water to take some photos.

The star fish was still alive and was starting to try to move back to the water...

I took one last photo and we set it free into the water. Sanibel Island is located on the west coast of Florida so this was found on the gulf side of the state. Does anyone know if these have a special name? It looks like it would be called a star fish or sea star as some people call them. We thought it was really neat!

Have a Fabulous Friday!
xoxo Susan

Thunder and Lightning

Hello Friends,

Welcome to all of my new followers! And thank you for all of my followers who have been following for a while :) I have been working on finishing up my granny garden blanket but every time I want to take some photos to share, it starts to get like this...

A summer storm coming on.
You can see the rain falling from the clouds on the left side

I enjoy the rain here in Florida because it is a nice break from the constant sunny days we have here. The sound of the rain is nice and it makes me feel like I must curl up and read a book, or crochet the day away. When the sun is out I usually feel like I should be out and about doing things.

So, since I wasn't able to get some natural light, I had to settling on the lights inside of the house and the camera flash because I really wanted to share my additional rows on the granny garden. Although the blanket is now eight squares by ten squares and sufficient to be a throw blanket, I want to make it ten by ten so it is a little bit bigger. I do look forward to finish this so I can check one more project off my list.


Right now with 8 by 10 circles

I am almost done with the last two rows of circles, then I will just have to doing the outer edge with a connect as you go. One of my friends saw some of my baby hats and sent me an email to see if I could make a custom hat for her daughter's first birthday! I am working on it right now and will share pictures once it is complete. I hope your week is starting off well.
xoxo Susan

Granny Gardening...

Hello Everyone,

Although this is my first week of summer vacation, I have been busy working on research proposals for an upcoming conference this coming academic year. I have been getting some crochet in though, I just haven't been updating you accordingly. Do you remember my granny garden blanket? Well I am expanding the lapghan to a larger blanket. I loved all of the color granny circles turned square when I first started reading blogs back in January. As a born again crocheter I wanted to make all of the great projects everyone had been working on for the last few years so I made several lap afghans to satisfy my desire to try so any of the great patterns all of you out there have been using!

Granny Garden

I also got to the point where I just needed a break from weaving in all those ends and making all of those little circles. This past week I have been making some more circles to add a few more rows to the blanket. I also used the connect-as-you-go technique.

We've also had some excitement in our backyard the last few days. Do you know what this is?

I bet you have an idea now!

 A small alligator has made its way to the backyard pond. This is very common in Florida, but we have not had one lurking around our pond in a few years. With several small children around our street, all of the neighbors were concerned. Fish and Wildlife officers will remove alligators from community or public areas if the alligator is over 4 ft long or if it is at least 18 inches and considered is a danger/nuisance.


Small Alligator in our Backyard

 We did not see the alligator today, so we are not sure if s/he decided to move to another pond or if Fish and Wildlife came and removed it. So that was our backyard excitement this week!

I hope your week has been moving along nicely. As I said, I have been busy crocheting so stop back tomorrow for another project and another post!

Have a fabulous Friday,

xoxo Susan

Flowers Around D.C.

Hello Lovelies,

I hope you are having a great week. I had some time to walk around Washington, D.C. today and caught some photos of the beautiful flowers in bloom. At some point I would like to visit during the Cherry Blossom Festival because it looks like a gorgeous site to see. But, for now I will settle for the beauty all around the city as spring moves into  full effect.

There are also a lot of pansies around the flower beds and tree skirts. I will try to snap some photos of those tomorrow. I know this is a short post but I promise to make up for it in the weeks to come. Summer vacation officially started for me yesterday... well just summer vacation for one week from the university. Summer session starts on Monday and I am teaching a class during the 10 week session.

I also have an update on my cardigan but I need to get to sleep, so you will have to wait for tomorrow!!!
Have a lovely day  : )
xoxo Susan

Light House and Working on the Granny Spike

Good Morning,

This is a very busy week of reading and grading for me. Our students graduate Sunday, and grades are due a week from tomorrow. Yesterday was so busy I didn't get to sneak in any crochet time. But, today should be a little better so I should be able to sneak in at least a half hour to finish up one side of the cushion. Thank you to all of you lovely ladies who said such nice things about my granny spike beginnings.

Front and Back of Cushion

Finished Side

I still have a couple rows to add to the one square side and then I will see how it fits. I ran out of the light blue color yarn so I decided to skip it on the one square side. I like the color, but it is quite bright and almost reminds me of Easter, which fits the current time! I figured it would give a nice change from one side to the other.

I also wanted to share some lovely bits of Florida from our weekend trip on the east coast of Florida. There was a lovely lighthouse at the marina we left from and the pelicans were anxiously awaiting fish scraps to eat.

The sunset on the drive home taken from the car window

Next week I have to travel somewhere for a work related task and I can't wait to share photos while I am there. Hopefully I have time to get outside and take some photos while I am there.
Have a fabulous Tuesday. I hope to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather -- well, get outside to work for a little today.
xoxo Susan

Embraceable Wraps - Helping Women Who are Experiencing Cancer

Good Morning Lovelies,

My childhood friend Colleen is visiting me this week, the one who learned to crochet with me when we were around 9 or 10 years old! I couldn't wait to show her my current WIPs as neither of us crocheted for many years and we are both back at it. Her mom taught us both to crochet and we both picked it right up and went to town.

Due to Colleen's arrival, I realized I did not share the Embraceable Wraps info in a timely manner. Embraceable Wraps is an organization consisting of women helping other women. Women who are experience woman cancers are provided with shawls, scarves, hats, and blankets knitted and/or crocheted by other women. I love the idea of women helping other women by showing your love and support through knitting and crocheting! If you are interested in finding out more information, check out their website.

Here is Southwest FL, we are starting a chapter of Embraceable Wraps. This will be the first formal chapter of many more to follow. Are you interested in knitting or crocheting a shawl, scarf, hat, or lap blanket for a woman who is experiencing cancer? If you would like to be included in our email group please send an email to: KnitFL@gmail.com. You do not have to live in Florida or even the USA to help out!

Before I pop out for today, many flowers are in bloom in my garden and I wanted to share some with you. Although we have been experiencing warm temperatures for quite some time now, Spring really is here and the flowers are letting us know.

My hanging plant basket near the front door



Morning Glories are always a delight




And of course a friendly bird strolling around the pond

Well I hope you have a fabulous day. I am trying to squeeze in as much time as possible to work on the Japanese flower blanket, because that deadline is ticking away... I should have some updates for you soon.
xoxo Susan

St. Patrick's Day and Vintage Crochet Books

Good Morning Lovelies,

Today is St. Patrick's Day here in the USA. I need to make sure I put on something green before I leave for work or my mother would not be happy if she knew I did not wear green on St. Patrick's Day. As far as St. Patrick's Day festivities we do not have anything specific planned. We've had our corned beef and cabbage dinners and enjoyed some Irish music over the last two weeks, which always tastes extra good this time of year. This evening I think I will eat some fish and and chips for dinner, a true Irish meal.

I have been working on my Japanese flower cover (white centers) but I am going to hold off showing my progress for another day. It is looking quite nice. I am making this one as a gift and it will be sad seeing it go away. But I know the receivers will enjoy it as much as I do. I won't say who the blanket is for in case they are reading (I do not think they read my blog, but you never know).

The other day I came across another crochet book to add to my small collection. I visit the charity shops looking for old vintage books as I always love reading about the great finds everyone else has in their local charity shops. I was able to get each book for only $1.99!!! If it would have been the dicount day of the color of the price sticker it would have been only $1. Once I tried waiting for a great collection of 10 crochet and knit books and I missed out, so now if I want it, I just pay the full price of $1.99 (which of course is still a great deal).  

The book on the left is not vintage, the copyright is 2005, but the one on the right is 1979. Inside the vintage Complete Guide to Needlework book, someone named Eva wrote a note to someone named Sue (Eva must have given Sue the book as a gift) and indicated the year was 1982. Well, my name is also Sue and 1982 was the year I was born, so I just had to buy this book!! Plus the book had some crochet patterns and techniques I am not familiar with yet, so that was the main reason, but I love those other little things about it too. Hopefully this weekend I will have sometime to try some of the new stitches.  

And to give you some green for St. Patrick's Day today. Last night as J and I returned from our nightly run, we saw a HUGE frog hopping in the neighbor's driveway. Although he isn't looking super green or super huge in the photos. We used to see this large frog last spring, summer, and fall, but we had not seen him over the winter. We are glad to know he is back and survived some cold winter days for Florida. J and I and the neighbors refer to him as "Big Daddy" because he is the largest frog we've seen around the community (and little baby frogs will be coming soon, we see the tadpoles in the water).

Well, I must be off to get ready for work. I hope you enjoy St. Patrick's Day and maybe if you are lucky you will find your pot of gold at the end of a rainbow  ;-)

xoxo Susan

A Sunday in the Sun

Hello and thanks for stopping by!
Today was a perfect Sunday, the way all Sundays should be -- some action packed fun and time to unwind and relax. Although I secretly wanted to finish crocheting my African flower daisy cushion as soon we I woke up, we woke up early and went kayaking in Matlacha, Pine Island FL. The water was a little choppy but we had a great time. We saw a manatee but I wasn't able to snap a photo to share, AND we saw two dolphins playing and hunting for food. We've seen dolphins plenty of times before, and we even saw a hunt before, but today was unlike any other dolphin hunt we have seen. At one point the dolphin jumped in the air to catch a fish. It was like when you see the sharks jump up and eat a seal on the Discover Channel. We couldn't believe it. Of course my little handy dandy camera was not ready for this type of action, but I was able to get some shots and even took a little video of the dolphins.

A shipwreck... I wonder how long the boat has been there?

You can see the second dolpin just above the surface to the left

The dolphins were a nice treat on our kayak adventure. We were tired after our morning trip, so we can home and relaxed for a little while. The little kids down the street were playing in their little kid pool and they brought out the Slip 'n Slide we got one of them for his birthday. They are still little for Slip 'n Slide but J insisted we get it for them once he saw it at the store. Since they are still young, they didn't really understand how to use it, so I showed them how to slip 'n slide! While I was slip n sliding, J made us a nice dinner on the grill: filet mignon, grilled potatoes and cauliflower.   

 After dinner we were relaxing on the lanai, (I was working on my crochet pillow) and a bald eagle stopped by on our neighbor's roof. A perfect ending to the day! He made a weird noise which we thought he was calling his other eagle friends to come by, but we didn't see any additional eagles. Maybe next time.

I hope your weekend was just as lovely. Tomorrow it is back to being inside and working away.

XOXO Susan

Finally Friday

Hello,
Another late posting again -- Sarasota was beautiful. Many of the conference attendees came from the northern snowy parts of the US, and I bet they had a hard time sitting inside listening to research presentations when the pool outside at the hotel was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! I forgot to nap a pic of the pool to share but I did get some ocean views further south of Sarasota in Port Charlotte. 

And a lovely morning glory in bloom near the water. I love morning glories. My next door neighbor Kathy used to plant morning glories each summer on her deck and I loved how they would open every morning. I found they grow like weeds. I planted some last year and I see many starting to come up this year.

Now, I will be working on my crochet projects this weekend so I should have an update for you on my projects, but I wanted to share with you a project my friend Carolynne is working on. Her very first sweater!! and I love it so much I think I have to make one too. She hasn't completed it yet, but it is the Chevron sweater pattern on raverly (I think it is raverly's most popular sweater pattern). I made her bring it into work so I could photograph it to share with all of you. This is her first piece of clothing she has crocheted for herself. In the past she has made smaller items, she is a baby hat making pro. Don't you just LOVE it! Again, this is a work in progress. She is going to get a fabulous button for a closure at the top. Don't worry, I will provide and update of the final product once she finishes it.

Maybe I will be able to start mine this weekend. I need to make it soon otherwise I won't be able to wear it until I travel somewhere up north or wait for next winter. The current temperature outside is 73 degrees F, and my office at work in always very warm. Maybe I will make it in a cotton?

I hope you have you are able to put your feet up and relax for a while this weekend.

XOXO Susan

Lemon Flower Blossoms

Hello Everyone,
I hope you had a great Thursday. I am quite late on my posting today - you probably thought I was skipping today. My morning was a little too busy to get my posting up before I went to work. After a long day at work I am so glad to have some time to wind down and relax this evening.
I know I have been saying this a lot, but the weather right now in south Florida is simply divine! Every single day I make sure I take some time to enjoy nature around me. I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at flowers, watching butterflies around campus, and feeling the nice warm sun on my skin. So I will share some of it with you...
My lemon tree has blossoms on it right now and they smell so yummy I wish they bloomed all year round. You can see some of the spider web around the plant - there were webs all over it! They all seem to be gone now, hopefully the spiders did not decide to come inside of my house.

 Aside from the lovely plants around our home, we also have some lovely neighbors. We have some seasons neighbors or "snow birds" as many people call them who spend their winters here in Florida USA, but live in Montreal, Canada. One of their sons was visiting this past week and wanted to try blue crab. Blue crab is blue but then turns red while cooking. They sent some over to the last night for us to enjoy. J doesn't eat seafood and I didn't know how to open/eat them! How embarrassing... Luckily we have some other lovely neighbors who showed us how it's done.

 I was also able to sneak out yesterday to get some yummy organic veggies at the farmer's market. The farmer's market was so busy I had to drive around the crowded parking lot to find a place to park. It was well worth it though. I never had such tasty potatoes before. I grilled some chicken, potatoes, and some of J's venison. We had a scrumptious meal!

And for those of you who are getting snow, and even those who aren't here are some sea shells to remind you spring is almost here...

J and I had a jet ski when we first moved to Florida. We used to scoot all over to little islands around Sarasota, Bradenton, St. Pete Beach Florida and collect all kinds of neat sea shells. Although we sold our jet ski when we moved further south to where we are now, we still have these neat shells to remind us that the ocean is not too far away. 

Well the weekend is almost here. I have to go up to Sarasota, Florida to make a presentation at the Eastern Educational Research Association, then I am looking forward to a weekend of crochet bliss!

XOXO Susan 

Forgot to post the Eagle pic

My blog posting this morning was titled the Eagle Soars - which for some people reading, you may have thought about my university's mascot. I meant to provide a photo of the eagle we see in our backyard and I got carried away with the manatee photo and forgot to show you the eagle. Here is the bald eagle:

We look forward to her/his visits each time. There is also a juvenile eagle we see around. Juvenile eagles do not have a white head yet. For thos of you who are not in the USA or may not be familiar with bald eagles, they are a protected bird here. Bald eagles are only found in certain areas within the USA and many people never get to see an eagle in the wild their entire life.