Stupendous September Sunrise Sky

Yesterday morning my husband text me from work and said, "Go outside and check out the sunrise," and he included  this picture:

Then, I replied to him with this picture:

Although we were only few miles and a few minutes apart; our view of the sky was a bit different, but both still spectacular. I truly love autumn!

...And the Emmy Goes To....

Well, I wish, but I am apart of the winning team......

Scott Paul shown here with one of my favorite people, Owen, is the winner of the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy for his video "Tri for Inclusion 2014", which you can view here.  

Paul has called this recognition "a tribute to the beauty of the experience." We agree and especially appreciate the children and young adults who participate in this event - and the families who support them - they teach us that together we can find ways to include everyone!

Sedulously Getting Through September

Progression on my shawl is going SLOWLY!! I started it THREE times with the lace yarn I had in my stash and finally decided to go buy fingering yarn and give it one last shot. Well, it is working out better, but I'm not sure I will have it completed for the October 10th wedding. We'll see and so will you when I finally post a picture.

My cousin invited me to read The Magic Art of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, and although I consider myself a very neat person, Marie's book lit a fire in me that is still burning.

This is just one of the FOUR car loads of stuff I was able to donate to the church for their rummage sale!

Cleaning out my closet and draws has resulted in keeping only the items that truly bring me "joy" to quote Marie and that I really do wear and use. I did not take pictures of all my drawers and the entire closet, but you get the idea...

I must've given away 20-30 pair of shoes that I never wear because they KILL my feet!

Going through clothes is the easiest task in tidying up, it gets more difficult as you go along. The second task was to go through my books; hardest of all were the cookbooks I've collected over the years. I only kept those that I refer to often or I consider "hall of frame" books and the children's cookbooks I am keeping on hand for my granddaughter. Next I approached the storage area of our basement.  Oh my, the stuff I was holding onto was ridiculous...

Seriously, most of this stuff hadn't seen the light of day for years! 

I was able to donate a car-load of stuff along with boxes of books and I trashed the stuff I didn't think was fit to pass along.Maybe there will be a time when I will regret getting rid of something, but as my son has often asked me, "How much did you pay for that? Did you get your money's worth out of it? So, if you need it again can you afford to buy a new one?"  Indeed I got my money's worth out of all the items I donated, so let someone else enjoy them now. 

And I am left with  a much more organized space.

Today I will attempt to organize all of my papers. All of us hold on to papers, which are not necessary to save. It is hard to know what to get rid of and what to keep, but using Marie's method of sorting, I am confident I can tackle this task. Next will be the sentimental stuff, like boxes of photos I have, which are doubles of pictures I have in scrapbooks. That will be the hardest task of all. However, I am so over storing "stuff" that I am willing to throw away most anything!  

Getting my Groove Back

I have mentioned in past posts that I seemed to have lost my knitting MoJo this summer. Well, folks I think it may have returned. I found a shawl I really like and with a wedding coming up next month I thought I'd give it a shot.

It is Versallies by Dominique Trad. I am knitting mine in a silvery grey since the dress I plan on wearing is a dark navy blue. I started knitting it using the needles required, but just didn't like the tension of the stitches, so I took it apart and have restarted using smaller needles and knitting the larger size (the pattern is written for a small or large shawl). I am holding my breath hoping when it is complete that it is large enough; I truly don't want something so long that it would take away from my dress, but I want it to be long enough to keep the chill off my sleeveless arms. We will soon find out!

I promise to post a picture whether it works out in my favor or not....it is only knitting!

Fall Colors of Alaska

Our daughter lives in Alaska and for the past few weeks has already been enjoying fall colors.  She says the colors seem to be more vibrant this year; yesterday she shared what she sees from her yard. They are so pretty, I thought I would share with you.

I love autumn!

Making Ghee

For the past month I have given up wheat and dairy. Well, almost all dairy, I can't seem to give up that little bit of cream in my coffee!! This morning I used almond milk/creamer in my coffee and it just did not cut it. However, I digress from my topic of 'making ghee.'

Ghee is a byproduct of butter; it is a step beyond clarified butter in that all the milk solids are removed from butter making it non-dairy. I have been buying it, but it is a bit costly, so I ventured out to make my own.

I melted a pound of butter and using a low-medium heat I allowed the butter to come to a slow boil and cooked it down until it started to get brown on top. This took a couple of hours to achieve.

I thought I was doing really well, and then got side-tracked by guests who had come to help me move some furniture......

The picture you see is TOO BROWN!

Ghee should look golden like (primally inspired) this ...

NOT amber like this!

I BURNT the butter.

So, it is back to the drawing board for me. Luckily, I only wasted $3; a jar of ghee is about $9, so even making it twice I'm still ahead of the game.

I think I will try the crockpot instructions from Primally Inspired next time to achieve the golden product you see in their picture above.