Project Life ~ November 2024

 Can you believe November is over & there is only one month left in 2024?

This month, I crocheted a Cat Christmas tree for my sister, America elected a new president, I sang in the choir during Sunday services, sadly lost my friend Anita’s sweet pup, Tito, moved out of our office building, visited my mom & cooked Thanksgiving dinner, saw Home Free & met Maggie Baugh.

You can click on the photo to enlarge 

No Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake

I'm the first to admit that when it comes to sweet treats, I am not usually a big fan of no-bake items.  I just like my baked goods, well...baked.  

But my sister requested this No Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake for her birthday, and it looked good and was simple enough and I certainly wanted to fulfill her wishes.  Plus, I mean, I totally love peanut butter!!

It's made in 3 parts, the crust, the filling and the topping:

No Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake

For the Crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the Filling:

2 cups heavy cream
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup Reese's Pieces candy

For the Topping:

1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup Reese's Pieces candy
1/2 cup assorted mini chocolate candies


Instructions:

Prepare the Crust:

In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and granulated sugar. Mix until well combined.
Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
Place the crust in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the filling.

Prepare the Filling:

In a large mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In another large bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture until well combined.

Fold in the mini chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces candy.

Pour the filling over the chilled crust and spread evenly.

Add the Topping:

In a medium bowl, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread or pipe the whipped cream over the top of the cheesecake filling.

Sprinkle the mini chocolate chips, Reese's Pieces candy, and assorted mini chocolate candies on top.

Place the cheesecake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight to set.
Remove the sides of the springform pan, slice and serve

Project Life - October 2024

Can you believe October is finished?  I mean we only have 2 more months left in the year.  October was a busy month for me. I made a trip to Rome, GA to get info about next year’s insurance, we bit good bye to our Pandas, we moved out of our office building, I made a trip to the Florida and celebrated my mother’s (and my) birthday with my sister in law, I voted and recreated my week with cat pictures only, I took a trip to Jekyll Island and went to my cousin’s wedding.  Oh yeah, and I started choir rehearsal for the church’s Christmas program…me…singing…who knew?  

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Busy, busy but good !!

 

Chemo Hats & Prayer Shawl

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to finish some WIPs before doing new projects but I didn’t totally stick to that.  I know you are shocked - NOT!

One of my WIPs was a prayer shawl & I did finish it! I really love it. It is made with Lion Brand Scarfie in Ice Gold.

After I was done, I decided I wanted to make at least 5 chemo hats for the Emory Winship Cancer Center.

So, instead of working on other WIPs, I knitted 5 hats.  I admit, I really like how they all came out.  They were all made with Caron Simply Soft yarn.

So…now the WIPs, Prayer Shawls and Cancer Hats are on hold for a bit.  I now want to make a couple of gifts.  I’ve made progress on the WIPs and not exactly as far along as I had hoped but at least I finished 2 and I’m glad I also made this prayer shawl and hats.

Project Life - September 2024

It was an interesting month…I saw Billy Pilgrim again, I had a great trip to the Outer Banks, and uh…oh yea, I had a mini-stroke & a bunch of medical tests.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Project Life - August 2024

I just realized I have never posted my August Project Life pages.  So...here they are

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Livia Soprano's Afghan

I am way, way, way behind the times.  I have never watched "The Sopranos" but recently HBO had a marathon where they showed a full season each day for 7 days (they split the 6th season into 2 days) and while I know I could watch on MAX, I just haven't done it, and I wasn't sure it was my kind of show.

But I must say that I am 100% hooked on it and I currently just started watching Season 5.

Anyway, early on in the series, Tony Soprano's mother, Livia, was often shown at her house or at the retirement community along with her beautiful crochet afghan.

Let me just say...when you are a crocheter or a knitter, you always, always notice hats, scarves, cardigans, afghans and such that you can clearly see where made by someone!

The very first time it was on the screen, I noticed Livia's afghan.  I love the pattern, which appears to be the Sunburst Square, but I totally love the colors too.  I would love to make one to match and know that it would be pretty easy to do but...I'm as I've mentioned, I already have several WIPs, plus I have several PIM (projects in mind), so I don't need to add to the list.  But I totally love it and if I didn't have these other projects already in my queue, I would totally make this!

Chemo Hat 2

I finished my chemo hat.  Due to a unexpected houseguest, I didn't complete by the 7th as planned, but I was able to complete a few days later.

I really liked this yarn, Caron Simply Soft Speckles - the color is just really nice.  The colorway is called Vintage.  I am sure I will use this again for more hats, when I get around to making more.

I like this pattern too - it's called Comfy Beanie.

W.I.P. - A thought

 

 

I don't recall if I mentioned it here before but on January 14th of this year, a very sweet and wonderful lady that I knew passed away.  She also happened to be the owner of my favorite (and in my opinion the best)  yarn shop! 

For sake of privacy, I will not mention her name or any other identifying information about her.

I started going to her shop in the 1980s, when it was a needlepoint and cross stitch store.  Over the years, needlepoint and cross stitch grew less popular and the owner's interest also started shifting more towards knitting, so over time, the shop eventually became a combination of the needle art and yarn until it mostly developed until a yarn shop.

I do miss the needlepoint and cross stitch supplies but always loved the yarn shop.   She had such a beautiful selection and I could always get yarn there, that I couldn't find anywhere else, including my favorite Malabrigo! You also have to remember this was way before the days of the internet where you could order online.

At any rate, every time  you walked into the store, she greeted you with a smile and she was always knitting something.  She was such a talented knitter and like me, loved the color purple, so many of her knitted items had purple in it somewhere (not all but many of them did).

In early January, she contracted shingles.  She was telling people (through Facebook) how awful it was and she was strongly encouraging those that hadn't gotten the vaccine to get it.  Then a couple of days later, her daughter announced that she had passed away from complications brought on from shingles.  I was in complete and utter shock! I still am.  I miss her smiling face and I'm so glad that her daughters decided to keep the yarn shop running.  Not for the customer's benefit, but for their mother's honor because it was such a passion of hers.

At any rate...

I was on Ravelry yesterday and was thinking about her and decided to look at her Ravelry projects and I found that she had 4 Works in Progress (WIP) listed.  It made me rather sad to think she had left so many projects unfinished.  She may have had more that she didn't even have listed. (I told you she liked purple) :) 

A few month's after her passing, her daughter posted this message on Facebook.

 

 

 

I was happy to see she still did Needlepoint, but again, sad that it was left unfinished.  How sweet that her daughter finished it for her.  I'm hoping one of her daughters also finished her knitting projects.

It lead me to thinking about my own WIPs.

 

 

As you can see, it appears that I have 6 of them.  That isn't entirely the case.  The one listed as NAPC Prayer Shawl is more like a place holder.  I haven't actually started that one but I found a pattern I want to use on a prayer shawl so I set up the project to remember the pattern I want to use for the next shawl.  

But still, I have 5 WIPs !! FIVE !!  

Now, the Chemo Cap 2, I just started 2 days ago.  The reason...I have 4 hats completed and when I turn them in, I want to turn in 5 so I decided to start this hat so I would have 5 to turn in (hopefully this weekend).

The NAPC Prayer Shawl 9 was a project I started at my mom's on a visit but decided to set it aside to just visit with mom so I really only have 2 rows done, but still, I have the yarn and I have technically started it.

the NAPC Prayer Shawl 6 is one I started several months ago and honestly, I'm not liking how its turning out.  I sat it aside to kind of think about if I really want to continue this.  I don't know if it is the design or the  yarn I'm not loving, maybe a combination of both.  But I think its about 50-60% done so I most likely will complete it.  It is being made with yarn that was donated to our church.

The Flower Power Blanket.  I actually picked this up about 2 months ago to get back to finishing it.  I really like the pattern and the blanket, but I swear....every time I get it out, the kitty cats decide that is cuddle time.  It's a big project with lots of different colors and skeins of yarn at play, so its not easy to work on when kitties are in your lap.  Plus...kitties are only with me for so long so when they want attention, I give it to them.  They have a higher priority than crochet does.

Now the Around the World Crochet Quilt.  I have several reasons that this hasn't been completed.  This is by far my oldest WIP.  I really, really, really want to finish it but....I'm afraid I will not have enough yarn to complete it and sadly, I can no longer find the colors so I don't think it will be possible to complete it.  I can't even find colors that are close to these!!  I wish I had bought more yarn at the time...However, it has 13 different colors and at the time, I couldn't afford to buy 26 skeins of  yarn.  I thought I would buy one of each color and then go back later and buy more when I needed it.  Unfortunately, the colors were discontinued before I knew it.  I 'might' have enough to finish it, but I doubt it.  Plus, this is a HUGE project. When I work on it, I need to spread out because I'm constantly changing colors.  I started this before I had 2 kitty cats and I wish I had finished it before they came into my life. 

I say all this for one main reason.  I don't want to die with 5 (or 6) WIPs.  A person should only have 1 WIP at a time.  I used to be that person.  I don't know when I developed crafting ADD and started new projects before finishing others, but it is clear that I do that now.

So....here is the plan.

1) Finish chemo cap by September 7th ~ COMPLETED

2) Finish NAPC Prayer Shawl 9 by September 14th - COMPLETED 

3) Finish NAPC Prayer Shawl 6 by September 30th

4) Christmas present (new)  - finish by October 31st

4) Finish Flower Power Blanket by November 30th

5) Work on the Around the World Crochet Blanket and hopefully finish if I can find yarn that kind of matches (if needed). 

As for NAPC Prayer Shawl (the one I haven't started but is a place holder).  I'm putting that off for a bit, since I haven't really actually started it.  I'd like to move it to my queue instead of putting it as a WIP but I can't because the pattern isn't on Ravelry so I have to  make it a WIP so I can  put the pattern link in the notes section.  You can't do that with your queue. This will probably be my first 2025 project.

I am allowing myself to start ONE new project that I am making for a Christmas gift and so I  must start that in October.  It is not very big and is crochet so it shouldn't take me to long to make that. I KNOW I wasn't going to start anything new before finishing my WIPs but since this is a Christmas gift, I do need to give it a priority.

I have 2 things in my queue that I really want to make.  One is a garment and one is an afghan.  I'm itching to start them but those will just need to wait until 2025.  I don't want to do that, but I certainly don't need to start another project until the others are completed. 

I was asked to participate in a dishcloth swap and I really wanted to do that but the deadline is September 30th and since I'm determined to finish my WIPs, then I will simply have to pass on that this year...boo hoo! At least it is an annual thing so I can participate next year.