Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and A Beat

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

                     The Scam: A Fox and O'Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

Today's excerpt pg 208

"The FBI laundered two million dollars in drug money for the Hawaiian mob and the Yakuza," Kate said.

"A key part of the con. We had to do it to draw in a real mobster and create a genuine threat."

"I know, but I still don't like it."

Come join me at Lovely Yarn Escapes or Sweet To Be to enjoy some great sweet recipes or learn some knitting techniques or look at some knitting patterns or see what's up in my knitting world.

Talk About Books- Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays is hosted by Jenn at Books and a Beat, come join us.

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Make a plea for your favorite book.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your answer in a comment on the Books and a Beat Blog (link above) (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

I'll answer this week's question while I partially answer #2 question. I love the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, and I especially love the first book called "Outlander". I first picked it up and read it when it first came out in 1991 when I got it as a Book-of the-Month selection. It's woven it's way through my life and when my oldest girl was a teenager in 10th grade she insisted on reading Mom's books. I shocked her teachers at a local Bookstore celebration of one of Diana Gabaldon's new books. How could I let her read them when she was so young? Well it became a focal point of many discussions on sex to rape- you name it, and she was inspired to study Gaelic afterwards. She loves that time period. Last year my daughter got to meet Diana Gabaldon while she did a year at Oxford studying Medieval Studies. While an inspiration to my daughter the books come so alive the characters are seemly very real company. One delves into another world just as Clair "fell" into another time. I'm considering starting re-reading Outlander as I have the whole first season of the show available for the next few weeks until April 9th on Starz and I haven't seen the whole season since I don't watch TV or have cable. I'm so excited! Outlander overload. Starz- Outlander

And while I want to read Outlander I need to read something new and I want to get my nose into- Catherine Anderson- New Leaf.

Friday Fantasy Knits- Spring Shawl Parade

Today is Fantasy Friday- my most favorite day; not just because it's the end of the week, but because I'm prone to fantasies and dream personally. To me to dream is the first step in doing. If I can dream it, I can possibly do it. And this is with life itself. If I cannot conceive something in a dream first it rarely will come to pass in life also. So I dream. I know the Lord is good and I think he helps me achieve some of my dreams....Of course I'm the one who couldn't have children for over a decade and I dreamed, I hoped, I prayed and God is faithful. I have three children now. Two in College and one home. So for me big or small dreams can come true. 

So today I dream in color and light yarns.....

Friday Fantasy Knits- March 11th, 2016 (Lovely Spring & Summer Shawls)

There might be snow on the ground here in Colorado and 2 days ago was a huge Blizzard, but I still dream of Spring and outside my window I can hear the Robins and Starlings have returned to sing their song. Don't you just love the sound of Spring? So while I try to warm my hands with a cup of tea, I dream of light Spring shawls and wraps and shawlettes to grace my shoulders for the warmer light filled months to come.

Stripy Spring Shawl

Color Affection

Spring Tide

The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief

Spring Grass Shawl

Spring is Sprung Poncho

Annis Crescent Shawl

Spring Maple Shawl

Tan House Brook Shawl

Feel free to share your dream knits for the spring in the comments!
Happy Dreaming & Knitting.

Technique Thursdays

At the end of all projects is the cast off! If you finished your scarf you need to get it off those needles and if you are a beginner, you might be stumped. Casting off is relatively easy, but the first thing I do is always remind myself to be loose. Almost all the time I find I wish I had cast off even looser. The edge of your piece can curl a bit if you don't or pull inward when you want a flat seam for let's say a sweater. So think loose, relaxed thoughts. Just last week I saw a useful trick that I haven't tried yet, but it sounds like it'd work. Knit off using a knitting needle one size up!

Binding Off-
How To Bind Off Tutorial Video

Now that you know how to knit
you can now do these up easily:                      

                                                          Tender Shawl by Lion's Yarn

or a Comfort Shawl by Lion's Yarn

Enjoy your new found passion!

Yarn Along While You Sip Tea and Eat Cinnamon Rolls

It's a very snowy day in Manitou Springs, Colorado today. I can see the snow blowing past the windows, pine trees swaying, the grasses blowing over and the yuccas spikes poking out of snow on the high hillside out my window.  

Emily going off to France with Bear

My son Jon leaves today to go back for college in Maine (his girl left last week for France with my son's old teddy bear- we're expecting pictures of the bear at the Eiffel Tower). That is if  he leaves, the airport is closed now because of this spring blizzard! When he leaves I will hopefully I will see him again when my daughter graduates in May from Middlebury, VT. My daughter stays with family back East and my son is an RA on campus and works for the campus carpenter when on breaks. So I miss them- and just hope for the day when I'll see them again. It was quite a treat for my son and girlfriend to surprise me by just walking in the door after flying in from Boston for his Spring break. I hadn't seen him for over a year. So saying goodbye is hard.

This past week I've been so focused on developing my knitting & baking blog that I've been remiss in getting any substantial reading done and I'm still knitting on Wool & The Gangs Fearless Cardigan.  I can tell when I haven't read as much as I usually do. It's my escape and place to stop and rest. I find peace there and I get a bit jagged feeling when I don't. That and my knitting gives me that inner calm when facing any personal storm. So I'm making that my personal goal for this coming week to make sure I stop and read and knit.

Mosey on over to my Baking Blog Sweet To Be- Amazing Cinnamon Rolls for a comprehensive how-to on baking fantastic Cinnamon Rolls. I worked years assisting cooking classes and I've learned a lot and picked up lots of tips and techniques. I'm a Bake-a-holic and I never bake as much as I'd like because I can't eat it! I'm also sugar sensitive. So I bake and give it to my family who are thin and nothing dents them.

 I do want to try and bake more of Chocolate Covered Katie's creations. She has an amazing site and I would recommend her heartily! She has developed lots of healthy, but wonderful tasting treats that don't smack in your face health food. I mean I am always trying to fool my family who are in the white flour and sugar crowd. Try her recipes out. She gives many options for sweeteners and flours. I would recommend Spelt Flour since that is an Ancient Whole Wheat Grain and it's healthier and not genetically messed with. Also White Whole Wheat is a good substitute for white flour and Chefs recommend only substituting half your white flour in a recipe. Her food tastes so good. 

Chocolate Covered Katie- Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

Teaser Tuesday

Books and a Beat by Jenn is the host for Teaser Tuesday today. 

  

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser today:

The Scam By Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg- pg. 244

"We aren't going down dead. Dey are. Dey gonna die dead."

"Die dead," Boyd repeated. "Is that a Hawaiian thing?"

"Worse kine of dead. Da woman, too."

"Nobody can hide from dem," Alika said. "They'd find you if you jumped in a time-machine to da future, took a spaceship to a-nudder planet, an hid in a-nudder dimension. An den dey would cut out yo guts, string you up wit'dem, an' set you on fire."

"I'd like to see that" Boyd said.