Are you participating in Project Three for Camp Loopy? And if so, were you up late last night, finishing the last bit of your project, like me? Time’s UP! I am so happy with the way my blanket turned out, and (like many of you), I’m still stunned that it got finished in one month. I’ll show you photos next week. Remember, the deadline for the project to be done was last night at midnight, and you have until Saturday (the 17th) at midnight to upload your photo to the Loopy Photo Gallery for Project Three. I’ve been having fun, seeing all of your finished photos!

This week’s recipe is a delicious salad that can be served as a meal (just toss in some chicken for protein) or as a side dish. My family loved it, and I hope you do, too. I found this on Pinterest, but it originally came from the Espresso and Cream blog (and check out the Whole Wheat Salt Bagel recipe that she had on there yesterday. Sounds good.).

Fall Chopped Salad

6-8 cups of lettuce (I used a mix of Romaine and Iceburg)
2 medium pears, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans
8 slices cooked/crumbled bacon (I totally forgot to add this in)
4-6 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
Poppy Seed Dressing (I always get Marzetti’s)
Balsamic Vinaigrette (I used Newman’s Own Light Balsamic)

Use your judgement on the ratio of Poppy Seed and Balsamic. I used about twice as much Poppy as the Vinaigrette. The taste of the two mixed together makes this salad even more delicious.

Now that my blanket is done, I’m going back to working on my Lorna’s Laces Devon Socks this weekend. I wore my first pair of hand knit socks of the season yesterday (my favorite pair – knit for me by Knitting Daughter) and I was glad to have them back on my feet. Have you started wearing hand knit socks again, this fall?

Sheri ormaybeIshouldunpacktherestoftheboxesinthebasement
this weekend,instead?Nah.

Look. It’s a rainy day here! We’ve had about three rainy days in the 8 weeks we’ve been here. Usually, it sprinkles for 5 minutes and then stops and the sun comes back out. Today, this is the view out my back window. Perfect day for another cup of coffee and some knitting. If I’m lucky, I’ll hear an owl hooting back in the trees. They usually talk at night, but one afternoon I heard three or four of them going on and on. And one evening, WH and I were taking a walk at dusk and one swooped overhead. I’m sure he was on his way to a meal. It made me glad that our cats are indoor cats! And I don’t think we have rabbits out there. Although, come to think of it, maybe the owls have something to do with that ….

Owls have seeped into my fall decorating, too. I can’t seem to resist a good owl decoration. See?

Owl on a window:

Owl on a shelf:

Owl on a bookcase:

I should stop buying owls now. Instead, I could make an owl sweater, or an owl coffee cozy, or an owl hottie (just because I like the name). Are we friends on Facebook? If so, you might have seen this video I posted a couple of weeks ago. The subject? An owl. Flying right at you. I think I like them better when they’re hooting in the trees.

Sheri whonowneedsthatowlcoffeecozy.

I need to finish my Project Three. I had the idea that crocheting 800 yds. would go a lot faster than knitting it (and since this project coincided with the fact that we had just moved and had lots to do here, I figured that was just as well.) Of course I’m now into 2200 yds. on this project and it’s still not the size I want. Working more on it today.

Saturday I was distracted by all of the photos you have submitted for the Project Three Gallery. It took me awhile to go through and approve them all, but they are fabulous! And more arriving daily.

Yesterday afternoon, I was distracted by this project. Specifically, the Scrabble tiles. The photos were already up. I thought it would be fun to spell out our names, the names of the states we’ve lived in, the names of the streets we’ve lived on, etc. I need to add town names.(Scrabble tiles – available by the bowl full at antique stores and flea markets near you.) It makes a fun family memory wall. However, it does not make for a finished afghan.

Then when I finally thought I could sit down last night and work on it, I was distracted by this one. All evening long. (How can you say no to that face?)

Today I am distracted by work, but tonight …. tonight I will be working on my project. Really. Must be done by Thursday.

Anything distracting you today?

Sheri noMondayUpdatetonightbutmorenextweek!

9/11 taught me:

- to think about, pray more for, and honor those families who daily make sacrifices for our freedom.

- to appreciate the firefighters and policemen who work tirelessly to protect our lives.

- to treasure each day as it comes, because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

For me, it’s not about one day to remember. It’s about the lessons that terrible day taught me and the way that it has changed my outlook, every day of the year.

For ten years now.

I know that it has done the same for many of you. We remember.

Sheri

It’s time to vote for your favorites from our Project Two Photo Gallery! I have been so inspired by your projects and your photos. Camp Loopy’s Project Two was mittens, socks or gloves with cables incorporated into the design. As you can see, we had over 700 entries again for Project Two. Get yourself a cuppa coffee (or the beverage of your choice) and take a few minutes to wander through the gallery. Then send us an email (support@theloopyewe.com) and tell us which one is your favorite. We’ll be awarding a Loopy Gift Certificate to the Reader’s Choice (that’s from your voting!) as well as randomly picking some winners to receive gift certificates, too. Thanks for your help in picking one of the favorites.

For those working on Project Three: we’ve been working on the Project Three Gallery this week as well. I knew you all could knit up an 800 yd. project in one month! I’m so proud of you. Remember, all project three’s are to be done by 9/15 (internationals 9/22) and photos are due in by 9/17 (9/24 for international projects). For those of you who completed all three projects by the deadlines (with yarn bought here during each Camp Store week or after, photos uploaded on our Loopy galleries in time), we’ll be sending you your grand prize – a skein of Wollmeise and a pattern! Next week (starting with orders that are placed on Monday, 9/12), we’ll start sending the Wollmeise to project completers who have placed orders during the week (and who have had their Project Three photo approved already). Please note – you do not have to place an additional order to get your prize. We’ll eventually get prizes out to everyone who earned them. We’re simply starting with the easiest ones – ones where we can add the prize into an order that we currently have in-house. Reason 1 – We will be shipping a lot of skeins out, and we thought we’d start with the ones where we’re already sending a box out to that address. Reason 2 – While we have some Wollmeise here for Camp Loopy, we also have a lot of cases of Wollmeise stuck in Customs, fees and duties paid for, but not yet shown up here at Loopy. This has been going on since they were shipped in mid-July. We’re not happy with the post office at the moment. We’re also not happy with the Customs office. But we’re on it and we will get those boxes. It just means that some of you will have a bit of a delay before getting your rightly-earned, highly-coveted skein of Wollmeise. But you’ll get it. I promise. (Did I mention that I’m not happy with the Customs Office and the Post Office right now? Because I’m not.)

Again, you do not have to place an order to get the Wollmeise you have earned. We hope to have the rest of the skeins here and turned back around to you sometime late this month or early next month. The website is keeping track of who we owe yarn to. If you’re wanting to verify that you earned a skein of Wollmeise, check the order note on your August Camp Loopy Project Three Yarn order, once we have approved your project photo.

I wanted to share something that we’ve been having fun with this summer. My friend Monica tempted me one too many times with her Raspberry and Velvet Hot Fudge Sauces, and I finally gave up and ordered this ice cream maker. I love it. You freeze the compartment 24 hours ahead (we just keep ours in the freezer now) and then pour in the recipe and turn it on. In 25-30 minutes, you have 2 quarts of soft-serve ice cream. That plus some of Monica’s wonderful sauces makes a great dessert for family or company. I won’t tell you how many different recipes we’ve tried, but each time, I’m still amazed that we get awesome home-made ice cream in just a half hour (no salt, ice cubes, or hand cranking required.) Here’s the latest recipe we made:

Oreo Cookie Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups milk (it calls for whole milk, but I use 2% and it works just fine)
3 cups heavy cream
1 Tbl. vanilla
1 cup sugar
15-20 Oreos, cut into bite-sized pieces

Mix the sugar into the milk and stir until it is dissolved (about 2-3 minutes). Add the cream and vanilla to the mixture and pour into the maker. Process for the recommended amount of time (usually 25-35 minutes). Add the chopped Oreo pieces during the last two minutes.  Enjoy as soft-serve ice cream, or freeze an hour or two in the freezer to firm it up more.

Pretty soon I’m going to try some of these recipes. (So far I’ve just had fun reading the book from cover to cover.) I’ve been to Jeni’s in person and her Salted Caramel Ice Cream is amazing. I was so happy to find the recipe in the book. She is known for her unique flavors, and even though some combinations sound strange, you try them and you’re hooked. Her main store happens to be in Columbus, OH, where we go for Market each summer (to find more yarn and accessory lines to add to The Loopy Ewe for all of you.) And to eat Jeni’s ice cream, which is a must for most everyone at Market.

What’s your favorite dessert, if you are going to splurge on something? Any plans to do some dessert eating this weekend?

Sheri hopingtofinishupProjectThreethisweekend.
Andmaybedessert.

I want to report in that I have indeed been working on my Project Three blanket. We headed up into the mountains to spend a couple of days with my folks last weekend, and I took that opportunity to steal the blanket from Gracie and work on it away from her. I’ve used up the 800 yards I originally wound up, and have emailed the Elves to send me more this week. I am hoping to crank on it next weekend, to get it done in time!

While in the mountains, we had these amazing Crepes from a little cart on main street in Breckenridge. These are filled with bananas, milk chocolate, and peanut butter. Holy cow, they were delicious.

Also along that street – dogs. Dogs walking with their owners, dogs sitting under tables while their owners ate, and dogs laying in the doors of stores. I told WH that if someone had had a basket of puppies for sale, I would have had to buy one. (Me? Susceptible to cute dogs and thinking I need one? Yes.) Fortunately, no one offered to sell me one and WH breathed a sigh of relief.

Speaking of WH (my hubby), a few of you have asked what he is doing out here in Colorado, since we moved. He sold his business in St. Louis (a graphic design/interior graphics business) and is ramping up his second business (which he also did in St. Louis) – photography. He’ll continue to work with an art gallery there in St. Louis, but will also expand that out here. He’s having a good time taking pictures in beautiful Colorado. Here’s an interesting sequence. While we were sitting there eating those awesome crepes, we noticed something fluttering around the flowers nearby. It moved like a hummingbird (flitting from flower to flower, suspended in mid-air with wings beating), but it didn’t look like a hummingbird. WH got some great pictures of it and then we looked it up online when we got home. It’s called a White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth. See how his feeder tube is all curled up in the first picture and then beginning to extend to the flower in the second picture? That’s him in all his glory in the third picture. (And then he was tired of the photos, because he flew up at WH to protest after the last one!)

I’ll leave you with a couple of flower photos, in case you need to get that moth out of your head. I know some of you don’t like bugs. The flowers out here are just gorgeous and we’re so enjoying the color.

Sheri impatientlywaitingformymailmantobringmeaLoopyEwepackage
Knowthefeeling?