Thankful for Three Days Off!

Let me start by saying, I am grateful for so many things - but nothing tops my gratitude of having 3 successive work days off from the office! So I'm off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. How wonderful is that?

Getting another job soon is high on my list of priorities right now. Intention: to revamp my resume and start sending it out to the universe (and the Internet). The job hunting process, much as I hate it, really needs to start ASAP.

I also want to get my house in better order (literally) - the place is kind of a mess, particularly the home office room. In addition to our desks and computers, it's sort of a conglomeration of everything we don't know quite what to do with. Everyone seems to grativate to that room and everyone leaves a little bit of "junk" behind. House shoes, books, you name it, it's there. So some decluttering definitely needs to be done.



But not all of this holiday will be spent on all work and no play. There will be yarn play, let me assure you. For anyone who has talked to me lately, you know that I have been gushing about the Knitpicks Sock sampler kit that I got in the mail this week. Purchased with my Mom's birthday money. Thanks Mom!

I love the colors in this kit. They are simply amazing. My favorites. Laura suggested that I get this kit, because the colors are absolutely my favorites, all combined. Now what to make with them? I was thinking about making Charlotte's web, the shawl I've been wanting to do for a long time, but somehow, that just isn't what I feel like making right now with this lovely kit.



I've been dabbling with crochet, dabbling only a bit mind you, but what has most appealed to me is a freeform crochet shawl/cape like thing that is a design by Margaret Hubert. You can sort of see the shawl in the upper right of this pattern booklet! I don't have any other photo of this design and it's not up on Ravelry yet. I showed it to Carol last night and she thought it was really cute and doable at my limited level of crochet ability. I'll definitely "grow" as a crocheter by undertaking this project. Ha!






Here is the first leaf that I crocheted last night to get this cape started.

I'm off now to update the resume, do some errands, and above all, start Thanksgiving dinner.




Here is my Cranberry Relish Recipe:

2 packages of fresh cranberries
6 apples
5 oranges
Small package of peacans
Apple Butter - 2 Tablespoons
3 bags of Holiday Spice Tea - from Lipton or whatever spicy tea you like (you will use this merely for flavoring while boiling)
2 cups of sugar
3 cups of water

Begin by chopping apples and oranges into fairly small pieces while also removing the seeds
Grate some of the orange rind into a small container to add later
Get out your 3 holiday spice teabags
Get your 2 cups of sugar measured and ready

When all is chopped, boil the above ingredients (oranges, orange gratings, apples, sugar, tea bags) in about 3 cups of water until you hear the little cranberries go "pop" and they have a cooked appearance.

Strain the fruit mixture through a strainer to eliminate the excess water/juice.

Add a package of nuts and the 2 Tablespoons of apple butter (I buy Best Choice or whatever brand) to fruit. Mix well. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. Tastes even better the next day. Serve with turkey. This can also be frozen and dethawed for later use.