TriScents

About a month ago I signed up to get a Renuzit TriScents air freshener. When I received my package I was so excited that I snapped a photo of it. Then I immediately plugged it in.
After a few minutes we could smell it. We have a living room and dining room combo and that's where I plugged it in. I figured it's the largest room where we do the most and it is the room you walk into. And the best way to "change" your house is to add smell! Not to mention it really freshens up the whole house. sometimes at night I can smell it up in the hallway. It's lovely! I got the Morning Meadow scents. Each time the scent changes I find myself going "whoa! that smells good". I would recommend anyone who likes their house to smell good to get one! I keep meaning to buy another one for upstairs. You can go to the website and print a coupon and get your own starter kit. Also on that site are some "transforming tips" from Tanya Meme. (I got a print out version in my package) It has some wonderful ideas and hints for changing your house to look (and smell) the way you want! Go check it out!

just call me Ginny

I saw this quiz on another blog and thought I'd try it out. since I really love the HP series, I wanted to see what would happen! what fun!

Your result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Harry Potter

Your perfect HP man is Harry Potter.

You like a guy who's not afraid to fight evil when evil picks a fight. There's a lot to say for bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, even if it does come with a prejudice against people who don't fit into his conception of "good guy" and a penchant for hurling objects across rooms when he gets angry. But in fairness, for an orphan who's spent the better part of his life being hunted by the most evil wizard in existence, he's turned out pretty well. Just be prepared to name your kids after everyone he's ever lost, because he's got a bit of an obsession about the past.

Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy

Click around!

Have you seen it? Blog the recession? Motherhood Uncensored has started a movement. It's all about us clicking through the RSS reader to the blog, no obligation whatsoever. You don't have to leave a comment just Click around a bit! But she's said it much better and I'm Quoting from her site.
"The premise is simple. If you read blogs, then for the month of August, make the "pledge" to click through from your feed reader. No obligation to leave a hilarious comment or send a long stalkerish email (although both, within reason, are always lovely). Just click through to the blog (not on ads unless you are so led) and if you're feeling generous, click around to their older posts."

Don't take my word for it go check out the Blog the Recession post over at Motherhood Uncensored. It's a brilliant idea! Plus there's prizes! so why not join?

Now on this blog you know I do Pay Per Post and Social Spark and aside from those posts I don't get paid for blogging here. I just love to talk to ya'll (all 4 of you LOL).
But did you know my other blog MommaCrafter I get paid for you just visiting? (Go a head help a gal out click on over there!)

moving?

If you're thinking of moving to Raleigh, you can use this site for a Raleigh home inspector. If you live in Raleigh you could also check out the site for landscaping, or home improvement. Their certified experts meet all state and local requirements. So you won't have to worry about using the services from Click Smart. The site even links to pool and spa providers! Now is the time to think about vacationing in your back yard. and the best way to do that is with a pool or even better a spa! It’s a handy tool when moving or living in Raleigh, NC. Remember when you need a home inspector in Raleigh ClickSmart it the site to use!

Thinking Christmas

So it's time to start thinking about Christmas.And what you're going to make for your family. I have a pattern I've uploaded to Ravelry that I think may help. I actually made a couple last year as gifts. I didn't stuff them though, they were the gifts, I think (hope) that my BIL and my sister's BF like them. Actually my sister's BF called me and said he liked it (he got the broncos one btw) They make great gifts, to be used over and over. you could also "stuff" it with things for your giftee. For example if it's for a child, you could put some crayons, colored pencils, paper, coloring book, paint, smock etc. If it was for a hunter you could fill it with small hunting stuff, a knife, ear plugs etc. If it were for a mom to be, some bath stuff, chamomile tea. etc. If it's for a new baby some onsies, wipes, diapers, a changing pad etc.

You get the picture right? stockings are the way to go! If you knit why not check out my pattern??

A new cuppa

After reading Apron Thrift Girl's post about cold brewed coffee I decided I should try it out. Luckily she posted a link to the ghetto version. So I didn't have to go and buy a new coffee pot to try it out! I chose some old cups i had laying around. It turned out really good. the coffee is really smooth and flavorful. I'm still working on the best water to coffee essence ratio. I like a good strong cup of coffee. I snapped a photo of my first cup of coffee, and on accident the flash was closed. The photo that resulted is really cool.
Anyways if you're out to find a new way to make coffee that's not acidic this is the way to go!

A walk with me

Walking through my garden is so fun lately. I took all these photos yesterday but didn't have time to upload them to flickr. Since it's raining today I thought I'd share the progress with ya'll.
I'm so excited to see my cucumbers growing! This one is my biggest so far. there's a bunch of little ones and I just can't wait for them to get to the eating point!
I'm also pumped for my beans. The ones I planted this year are of the bush type. So they don't climb as high as the pole variety. Supposedly they taste a bit better. we'll see when they're fully done growing. I have some that look purple like in the photo and others that are green. I'm wondering where the purple comes in.. oh well we'll see soon enough.
I have many many tomato plants in my garden this year. I'm so thankful to my Aunt-in-law for gifting me some of her extra seedlings. Some of them are called burpee Big boy and they're shaped more like tomato shaped. The others are called Big mamma (i think) and they are more Roma shaped. The photo is them up close. I took a photo of the "wall of tomatoes" LOL I had to tie up the pvc stuff b/c the plants were getting heavy and leaning over. Next year I plan on planting every other square or so.. This year was defiantly a trial run. I plan on doing things a bit different next year. Starting with a few more walking areas, and a smaller planting area etc.
On the other end of my garden I have another "fence" for growing other tomatoes also cukes and zucchini. I snapped a photo of the Roma tomatoes I planted. I actually got one that ripened the other day. So I ate it in a salad also from the garden. It was super sweet and YUMMY! I just love tomatoes.
I also snapped a photo of the golden tomatoes planted next to the Romas. you can see the Romas in the background.
I also planted peppers that are growing well. If you'd like to see more photos of my garden I have a garden set over at flickr. You're welcome to check them out.
I'm so excited about my garden, I wasn't expecting much when I planted everything. I was going to be happy with what ever grew. But now I'm just super duper excited. I'm planning on canning some of the extra stuff that grows. There's great info on canning here and more info here. I know there's more out there. but those are ones I've been to lately.
If you have some good recipes or good sites and you'd like to share just leave me a comment!

mostly pix today

I'm going to update you with my project 365 photos.

July 15th I was working on the sock pattern I'm writing. Here's the pattern up close and personal. Pretty huh? I've finished and sent off the pattern to my sister to be tested. soon then I'll have it ready for sale over at Ravelry.


July 16th beady and I played outside. She played in the small pool jumping and splashing and having a grand old time.



July 17th I found a lone lettuce plant. a stray seed must have taken root. I'm letting it grow though b/c it's not hurting anything.


Friday July 18th I got a small package in the mail from renuzit. I'd signed up hoping to do a pay per post but I didn't get it in time. Oh well... the house smells wonderful!



Friday night the Bub came home from camp. She had tons of fun. I didn't get to take a photo of her sunny self until Saturday the 19th. She's such a goofball. We had a surprise for her when she came home. We took the girls to see Wall-E. it was a pretty cute movie.


Sunday the 20th we spent most of the day rearranging our guest room. We bought a new bookshelf to combine 3 small ones into one. and we also got a curtain for over the closet b/c the door was broken. We also picked up a small desk for my DH's school stuff. the room looks roomier now! In case you're wondering it's the only room in the house that my DH's allowed to decorate. that's why it's covered in sports stuff. it not only serves as our guest room and computer room but all the video game systems are in there also.

This past week I've been able to harvest some lettuce from my garden. Monday the 21st I snapped a photo of some of the leaves I gathered for a salad. I planted a gourmet salad mix and one of the type of lettuce tastes kinda nutty with a sharp spicy flavor afterwards. It really adds something to a salad.

Today I received a package in the mail that I've been waiting for. It's a tea order from stash. I'm excited to get drinking! they also a sample of some Lemon Blossom iced tea. YUM!

Ok so I've caught you up for the week.
how was your week?

It's so Quiet.

I know I have a lot of photos like this but this one is slightly different. these are new sheets! why you ask? b/c we got a new (bigger) bed! I'm sooo excited. We've moved from a queen sized bed to a king. YIPPIE! I've been wanting a king for a while.
If you look really closely at the ground near the kiddie pool you can see some sponge balls I made for the girls to play with. They loved them. Ok so back to my bed, you can't really tell it's so big but sleeping in it I can tell. I can't believe that we waited so long to upgrade! There is so much more room. (which is helpful when you sleep with a bed hog) I can say that b/c my DH doesn't read this. LOL
Today the Bub went off to camp for a week. She was so excited to go this morning she ran on the bus and forgot to say goodbye. then she quickly ran off the bus said good bye and ran back on. what a nut! It was a quiet day, I'll say that much. We do miss her though! To keep busy I started the community knitting project my LYS is doing. Everyone can choose what they want to make either the children's log cabin blanket where they would do 3 squares. or the Adult patchwork blanket where they can pick some yarn and a pattern and go to town with one or 2 squares. it's pretty cool!

How've you been?

We got back from our trip to WI on Monday morning. And I was excited to see that my garden had grown since I was gone. It won't be too long before we get some great veg from it.
Sunday, before we left we went strawberry picking. (you can see pix in my WI trip set at flikr) I was excited b/c we got to bring home some berries. I wanted to make some jam. when I get to make it, it's not really jam. Jam tends to have lots of chunks and I have this aversion to chunky jam. So I puree the berries until smooth and then can them. It turned out really yummy. And it gives us a reason to eat toast!
This week was probably a horrible week. all b/c the Internet was down. (at least in our neck of the woods) it was killer. To pass the time I made bubbles. it's really easy to make and rather cheap. Here' s the recipe

Bubbles:
4 cups water
2 tablespoons dish soap
2 tablespoons oil
mix them all together and using a wand blow bubbles! FUN for everyone!

I also got to read some books I picked up at the library while waiting for the bub's story time to be finished. It's always fun to read younger books b/c you can finish them in one day or so. I got the Ella Enchanted book b/c the girls love the movie so much I figured it would be fun to read the book. I haven't started it yet though since the Internet is working now I thought I'd catch up on my emails, blogs etc.
so sorry it's been so long BTW.

Breakfast anyone?

Yum Yum, I made breakfast this morning. I'm a member of Knit 'n Bake over at Ravelry. I happened upon a post about scones and it made me flash back to Thanksgiving 2 years ago. My family got together at a cabin(used loosely) up in MD. Well my Aunt made these Delicious scones that everyone gobbled up. and I forgot to get the recipe from her... So anyways while reading the above mentioned forum I started getting hungry. I put it off till this morning where I whipped up some scones. I smooshed a few recipes (found at allrecipes) together and made my own scone recipe up. So I decided to share it with you! In fact I'm eating one right now. (they're great as a snack too!)

Cranberry Nut Scones

Ingredients
1 C all purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick of butter
1/2 C chopped pecans
2/3 C dried cranberries

Directions
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. cream butter, sugar, sour cream and egg.
3. add vanilla, baking powder, soda, salt cinnamon and flours. Don't over mix
4. add pecans and cranberries until they are just mixed in.
5. it should be a clumpy mess dump it out on a floured surface.
6. pat into about an 8 inch circle 3/4 inch thick
7. cut into 8 pieces and place pieces on baking sheet 1 inch apart.
8. sprinkle tops with sugar
9. bake 15-18 min until golden brown.
10 enjoy!


if you make these LMK!

Procrastinate much?

So I'm almost done with my last Christmas present. I'd started them a while ago and never got around to finishing them.
I figured since I'll bee seeing my family for the 4th, bringing the finished pair of mittens should be joyous for my brother.
LOL seriously it makes me laugh. it's Christmas in July.
Giggle giggle giggle.

Breathe in deeply

Smell that? I've been waiting for a day like today to wash the sheets! I even had the girls take their sheets off their bed to wash them. Though I did forget to do mine, so I just changed them instead. I was worried about rain, but it held off till this evening. There's just something about sheets on a line drying. The whole backyard smelled wonderful! If you don't know what I'm talking about go wash your sheets and hang them outside to dry.... experience it.

A Fun Birthday Gift.

Sunday we had 2 birthday parties to go to. One was for our neighbor's son who was turning 3. He loves spider man and all kinds of super heroes so we got him some fun little figures to play with. The other party was for friends of ours youngest son, who turned 1. Since he has 4 older brothers (and one older sister) I figured that he probably has everything a 1 year old could want. So Friday I got out my sewing machine and fabric and started thinking.. If I were a baby boy, who was just turning 1 what would I want? The answer that popped into my mind was "Something soft, fun, bright, and from out of this world." using some ideas from some finger puppets I made for my nephew, and watching Ghost Busters for research, I came up with Radar.
He's an Mutant Alien. His species is Not Octo (as in not an octopus) He was born 6-22-08. Radar has 6 legs, 3 teeth, one eye, and a mop of hair on top. He's big enough to fill the Bead's (my 3 year old) arms. Sorry I didn't measure him before I packaged him. What do you think? Good enough for a 1 year old?
I started him Saturday afternoon and then finished him in the wee hours of Sunday morning b/c we had a baseball game that we went to on Saturday. And with the construction on the way home we didn't get home till 12. There's always construction here in PA. (rolling eyes). I did get to watch a fun original Star Trek at 1 AM.
When the girls got up the next morning they wanted to play with him, hug him and kiss him. They had to do each of them before I put him in the gift bag. So I think he passed the kid test!
When the Bub flipped him over she got all excited and said "He has a tag like you bought him from a store!" LOL the things that kids say. anyways we had to leave before they opened the presents so I'm unsure of if he liked the present or not. And you know me, I'm a worrier. So I'm a tad worried if they liked Radar or not.
if you'd like some more photos go to my Flickr photostream.
I'm pondering if I make a few more Aliens, if they would sell on etsy. What do you think?

it consumes everything.

It was hot last week and the girls spent most of their time in the pool. My DH got in with them one day. They were having fun trying to squirt me with their toys. I liked this photo and thought I would share.
Last week i was concerned with getting my garden going. I know I'm a little late but I figured I should at least try. I was able to pick up some transplants but some I tried from seed. we'll see how it goes through the summer. I'm excited as I love fresh veggies. I'm also planning on canning some of the surplus and also sharing some with people who will need it. I planted red onions, garlic 4 types of tomatoes. some cucumbers, zucchini, beans, 4-5 different types of peppers, some basil, lavender, rosemary, thyme, pumpkins and watermelons, I'm sure there's some I forgot. we'll see when I harvest.
Being in the garden so much I've only been able to knit at night. My progress on my Death by Socks is going. Not as fast as I'd hoped but going. I'm still alive so I'm happy, I'm actually doing the heel flaps now. I hope to finish soon. The foot is all ST st so it should go faster. I'm really liking the pattern. though I think it would show up much better in a solid, but this yarn is what I got gauge in so I'm sticking with it. Lucky for me starting Friday and Saturday it rained. The 2 Advantages of the rain are 1 I don't have to water the garden, and 2 I get to knit almost all the time!
Though it's been dreary at times the sun comes out and we go out to play. Of course the bead finds the puddles to jump in. This one just happens to be in the pool cover, but I thought I'd snap a photo before telling her to stop b/c it's not safe to play there. shortly after it started to rain again so we came in. Fun fun!

This weekend

My bag is finally dry, so of course I had the girls wear them again. this one is the Bub, the bag shrunk considerably! I'll have to take a normal photo of the bag, looking like a bag not a hat... LOL
Saturday Night we went to a Pirates game for our family night. it was HOT!!! I don't know if I mentioned it but I don't like to sweat. esp if I'm just sitting there watching a baseball game. OK you got me I was knitting socks for Death by Socks. (like sock wars but on a smaller scale and a different, more clear pattern). It started Saturday so I took my knitting with me to the game and knit knit knit, and drank some water. I've decided I must be a slow knitter b/c I've only got about 3 inches on the socks done... sigh. Oh well it's fun.
Sunday Night we had another game to go to. This time it was with our church and a AA Baseball game, The Altoona Curve. After the game they had fireworks. They were great, and I got to use the fireworks setting on my camera. Much fun was had by all!

My first Social Spark

Remember just yesterday I was talking about Social Spark? Well today is my first post for SocialSpark! It was that quick that I was approved and able to take an opportunity.
So in other words I'm going to be paid for this post! It's that simple. One reason I like SocialSpark is because I can pick the opportunity's I would like to post about and there's other opportunities too, not to mention you may even be able to increase the traffic to your blog.
Another reason I'm all for this b/c with me staying home now I like to try and earn some extra cash for spending when we go out as a family or to support my knitting obsession!
When you think about it, this is a simple way to earn some money while staying home or on the side. You have control and Social spark has a Code of Ethics. Things they require in each paid post:
-100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure
-100% Transparency
-100% Real Opinions
-100% Search Engine Friendly
So you're not going to be posting secretly, when people read your posts they know it's a Social Spark post. That's important that they're not trying to be sneaky!
I'm just trying to get the word out for those of you who don't mind writing a post or two to earn some money. The site is really a social type of thing. At the site you can add friends to your profile and if you'd like to "hire" someone to post about your business you can create an advertiser's profile also.
If you'd like to earn some money using your blog, why not go and check it out?

Where's the freakin AC?

UGH! it's so freaking hot here I can't stand it. So I guess I owe you guys an answer to my photo question what exactly was this photo of? and how did it happen? well some of you were close in your answers.
It's a typical story of motherhood forgetfulness or absentmindedness.
Lately the girls have been at each other, I'm not sure if it's the age, air or the fact that it's summer. So on said day, The bub (the eldest and should know better) was complaining about unloading the dishwasher while she was doing it (it's one of her jobs) Beady (the youngest) was whining and saying she was hungry. So I got out her request (chicken nuggets, go figure) and put them on a plate to microwave them. Then the girls started bickering with each other b/c Beady was helping to unload the dishwasher and must not have been doing it the way Bub wanted it done so they were fighting (yet again) Finally I said "will you both stop it I need some quiet right now" and I put the dish in the microwave set it and walked away. As I cleaned off the table and just picked up the typical floor mess, I thought to myself "that's weird I didn't hear the ding" and "what's that smell" I went back into the kitchen and found that I'd put the dish in the toaster oven and turned the dial instead of putting it in the microwave like I'd thought. so we has spaghetti instead! **In my defense the toaster oven is directly above the microwave and both are white. ** so that photo is actually a yellow kids plate that didn't last long in the toaster oven.
Today it is so super humid and hot! Luckily we set up our pool yesterday.(it was a cheap easy set pool we thought we'd get our money's worth this summer) so today we took a dip. The girls enjoyed it. As did I! It's rather shallow (30 inches) so I simply sat in the pool cooling off. That is when I wasn't walking around the pool on my hands with a girl or two on my back. I think I may need to get new sunscreen b/c even though it's waterproof and I put some on....well let's say I'm a tad red. And that's not talking about my hair.
That's my goal for tomorrow morning, get sunscreen. Pretty pathetic goal huh? Oh well my DH is working (yet again) so we must do something, we may walk to the store down the street. We do have a Pirates game to go to tomorrow night/afternoon. So that should be fun.
I'm sure the girls will want to swim again. I think I may have to get a few chemicals to get the water to perfect pool condition. But I probably won't add them till the night time so it will give it time to do it's thing.
anyways I'm babbling and there's Raveling to do.

Social Spark

SocialSpark is a new way that you can make money on your blog. If you are a stay at home momma like me it's an excellent way to connect and help support the household. I just signed up and you can also. (just click the link to get started) I'm just getting used to the site so some of it is unfamiliar to me. So far it's OK. I was a little annoyed when at first when I tried to get my blog approved, supposedly it (my blog) wasn't able to be searched for in the major search engines, which is weird b/c it truly is. Go ahead Google Star Knits. OK see what I mean, then it said I didn't have enough posts and I almost didn't continue on with it. Then my friend Pam said to try again, so I did and I was approved. So now I've been reserving opportunities. It's similar to Pay Per Post where you have qualified opportunities to choose from but from what I've seen you put the ones you want into a queue and then you are contacted when it's available. It could be that the ones I'm picking are the ones everyone is picking, I'm not sure. LOL But that's the only thing that's bothered me. I like the site and I'm sure you will too! (go sign up!)
If you do sign up here's My profile, add me as a friend. Just a little shameless plug for myself. I'd like to be popular and get my name out there Star Knits.

I'm off to go make some money

this post has been brought to you today by Pay Per Post

Search Game

A lot of people in blogland are doing this flickr pix search and I love photos so I thought I would do it also. If you'd like to do it here's how it goes. The bold italic are the words I put in the search.

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name? Allena
2. What is your favorite food? Bread (homemade of course)
3. What high school did you go to? many but I graduated from Sheboygan South HS
4. What is your favorite color? Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Vin Diesel
6. Favorite drink? Coffee
7. Dream vacation? Cruise
8. Favorite dessert? Chocolate or Brownies
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Coffee and Yarn Store (co) Owner with my sister
10. What do you love most in life? God and Family
11. One word to describe you. Creative
12. Your flickr name. Star Knits

if you'd like to see who's photo's these are here's the links
1. il silenzio che allena la mente, 2. A Loaf of Bread, 3. South HS Band, 4. Verde no Aquarius, 5. Vin Diesel, 6. Coffee and cinnamon, 7. small ship, radiant sky, 8. Chocolate Brownie of Death, 9. The yarn is everywhere., 10. Psalm 42:8, Painting With Light Art*, 11. "Creative Hands" - Mindy, 12. Star Pillow Mock-up 001

Can you Guess?

What is this? can you figure it out? If you do I may have something for you! Go ahead guess.