Happy Caturday!

Also, Happy Day 15! It’s been such a nice Caturday. We got to sleep in a bit and then enjoy bagels and coffee on the couch. It was lovely. I baked a ham this afternoon. I got it on a whim at the grocery store yesterday. I thought, if I bake it on Saturday it will give us a few meals and sandwiches to get through the next few days until we leave town to visit my family for Christmas. Can I just say yum?! After it came out of the oven and had rested an appropriate amount of time, I sliced a bit just for us to snack on, because it smelled so good and I just couldn’t resist. I carried a little plate into the living room followed by three of the cats. It was funny. They certainly thought they needed some of the ham as well.

Also, also, I made toffee today. I found a recipe on Pinterest (yes, I know…) a couple of weeks ago and it seemed so easy. It is from Two Sisters Crafting. I made a practice batch that weekend. It turned out wonderful. So I made a second batch today.

Treats of the day.

Day 15 tea (Blue Moonstone Designs): Hyley’s Japanese Matcha Tea with Ginger. It is wonderful! It is so pleasant. The ginger present but not overwhelming. I think I may have to find more of this tea.

Day 15 yarn (Felicity yarn Studio): Joyful & Bright is a pale yellow/orange with speckles. Really quite lovely.

Today’s cup was given to me as a Secret Santa gift when I was in Grad School. (We do not need to say how many years ago that was.) It had a coffee scented candle in it. When the candle was used up, I cleaned it out and started using it for actual coffee. It is such a sweet winter scene on it that every year I think I should leave it out and use it throughout winter. But then I decide to just pack it up and save it for next year.

It’s definitely starting to feel more Christmasy. I will feel it more when I’ve posted final grades and can start focusing more on packing for traveling and Christmas.

Ever onward. Thank you for listening. We’ll speak more soon.

Happy Friday everyone! Days 13 and 14 here we come! Last day of finals. Grades are due on Monday. I need to grade the final I gave today and read final drafts of papers for Math History. Even so I do have crafty plans for Saturday. I’m as happy to be at the end of the term as my students. We were all exhausted this morning. To be fair, they were pretty exhausted at the review session last night. They were good sports, though. They came with questions and were good about working through the problems. Hopefully, that will translate to the final exam today. Ok,on to treats!

Tea for days 13 and 14 (courtesy of Blue Moonstone Designs) are Raspberry (day 13) and Strawberry Cheesecake (day 14). I’m currently drinking the Raspberry tea. It reminds me slightly of Black Currant tea, one of favorite teas. The Raspberry is more forward than Black Currant. I’m a little afraid of the the Strawberry Cheesecake tea. I had no idea there was such a thing as these dessert teas. And by dessert tea, I mean tea that is the flavor of a dessert. One of the earlier teas was Lemon Cake. It was very sweet. Too sweet really. But credit where credit is due, it truly smelled like pound cake. It was an unusual experience. But I do think it’s good to try new things once in a while. Right? Right.

Yarn is specklely wonderfulness (from Felicity Yarn Studio)! Day 13 yarn is Skating, a white with multi-colored speckles. Day 14, Sleigh Ride, is white with mostly blue speckles. Both are squishy and beautiful. And into the Tub O’ Yarn they go!

My tea cup is another in my collection from my sister. It is a city scape by Sue Scullard for Dunoon Fine China. I absolutely adore the little geese walking along at the bottom of the cup. This cup has survived at least 5 moves. I have lost the box it originally came in, so I just wrap it up really well at the end of the season.

Ever onward. Thank you for listening. We’ll speak again soon.

Happy Day 11 and 12. It’s a double dose again. Yesterday was a long day. My husband and I both held review sessions for our respective classes that had final exams today. My session ran over and so we didn’t leave campus until after 8pm last night. We got home and I started supper and called my parents. But here we are. I’ve given my second final exam and I’m half way through grading the first one. Just one more review session and final exam to go. In the mean time, we have treats. Two teas! Two skeins of yarn!

Up first is the tea. Day 11 tea, coming to us from Blue Moonstone Designs, is Green Matcha tea. It was quite nice. Day 12 is Blood Orange and Mandarin Scent. (Side note here, I keep wanting to say Orange Blood rather than Blood Orange. There might be something wrong with me.) The package on the orange tea said it was great for iced tea, but I drank it warm. It was quite tasty.

The yarn (Felicity Yarn Studio) is starting to trend towards white with speckles. Day 11 and 12 are All is Calm and All is Bright respectively. Both are white with green speckles. Each is distinct from the other. Still loving the speckles. Day 12 means we’re half way there. Check out the Tub O’ Yarn! Just look at all those speckles! Yummy yummy yummy!

Both cups seen in the tea pictures are cups that have been around for awhile. The penguin cup used to have lid shaped like s stocking cap. It was just cute. But somewhere along the way it got broken. I have cats, things get broken, and sometimes you never quite know who was the culprit. And, of course they just look up at you with those adorable eyes and it’s all better. The red cup was a gift from my sister. So far, it has survived our household.

Ever onward everyone. Thank you for listening. We’ll speak again soon.

Happy Monday everyone! And Happy Day 10. I had a review session for my Math History students last night. I was unable to get to the advent calendars yesterday. So here we are today. I’ve given one final exam. Two to go. One on Wednesday and one on Friday. But, let’s get straight to the treats.

Tea for Day 9 was Gogi Raspberry from Lipton’s. This is the first repeat. I added Splenda instead of honey this time. I wanted it to be a little sweeter. Day 10 tea is Lemon Cake from Red Rose Tea. I’m a little afraid to try this one. It sounds very sweet.

Day 9 yarn is green with blue speckles called Long December. My husband played the song of the same name by the Counting Crows while I opened the package. He’s a cutie. The yarn for Day 10 is a yellow green speckle called Last Christmas. Both are very pretty. Both have gone into the Tub O’ Yarn.

The cup I chose for Day 9 is from a collection of cups from my grandma. In the seventies, she participated with a ladies group that learned china painting. For years, at Christmas, they would each paint a cup and then they were swapped. I don’t know if they drew names or what though. While we do have a lot of Grandma’s work in the from plates and cups and actual paintings, we do not have any of the Christmas cups she painted. Anyhow, this was one of my favorites for years. I think the gnome looking at the tree is just so cute. When Mom broke up the set among my sisters and myself, she made sure we each got at least one that had been our favorite.

The cup I chose for today is a cup from Waechtersbach. In the early 90’s when I moved into my first apartment, my aunt gave a set of two of these with green Christmas trees on them along with some cocoa. I loved the red of the cups. Such a deep and warm red. My dad also always loved those cups. So a few years ago, I found a set for my parents on Etsy. In the process of searching for the Christmas tree mugs I found a variety of cups with the holly and wreaths and Christmas stockings. So I had to get a few more.

Thank you for listening. We’ll speak again tomorrow.

Happy Day 8 everyone! How’s your Caturday? I’ve had a lovely day crafting and relaxing. There has been knitting and embroidery and The Great British Bake Off: The Holiday Edition as well as today’s Vlogmas episodes from my favorite podcasters. I’d share pictures of the crafting, but as these are destined to become Christmas presents and I have been warned about spoilers, that will have to wait. In the meantime, we have today’s treats.

Buddy the Elf. This is the name of today’s yarn. It is another bright green speckle. I’m impressed at the sheer variety of shades and speckles. Each skein has been as beautiful as the first day. Into the great Tub O’ Yarn it goes. My pile is growing.

Chamomile tea today. I’m saving it for later this evening.. It smells lovely though. My parents had Raspberry tea today, much to my Dad’s relief. They’ve had some, let’s say interesting flavors like Lemon Cake and Pumpkin Spice. Non-traditional flavors to say the least. But we have had fun this last week calling each other to discuss the day’s flavors. It is has helped that it seems we have different teas. Sometimes I get a tea they haven’t had yet and vice verse.

Today’s cup is a Mikasa cup given to me by my sister nearly 20 years ago. It’s a lovely size. I can have a generous amount of coffee or tea and yet it is not so big that the beverage gets cold quickly. And it’s a cute image of Santa. There are a lot of happy Christmas memories attached to this cup. In fact, it remains one of my favorites to this day.

I hope you have enjoyed your Caturday. Thank you for listening. We’ll speak again tomorrow.

And because it wouldn’t be Caturday without a cat, here he is:

Happy Day 6! Is everyone having a good day? It’s Thursday, which is lab day for me. My Pre-Calculus students were working on Final Exam review packets. They are tired. They are ready for the end of the term if not the final. I love lab days. I get to interact with the students in a more casual manner than the regular classroom. They get to work collaboratively and I love listening to their discussions. It makes for a nice day. Ok, enough about school, time for treats.

Today’s tea (courtesy of Blue Moonstone Designs) is a new to me brand called Hyley’s. It was a lovely green tea with lemon. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Yarn today (courtesy of Felicity Yarn Studio) is more speckles. (If you haven’t guessed, I chose this calendar because I love speckles.). It called O’ Christmas Tree. I even had a little helper to take some pictures. It has been labeled and tucked into the Tub O’ Yarn.

Of course, the model was worn out after the photo shoot and was forced to take a nap on my knee.

Thank you for listening, we’ll speak again tomorrow.

Happy Day 5 everyone! It’s Wednesday! Woohoo! We’re halfway through! I think we’re going to make it! It’s been a fun week for me in my Math History course. The students are doing presentations. So far we’ve had two looks at the history of Chinese Mathematics. We’ve looked at Euclid and Euler and the Greek Mathematician Thales of Miletus. We’ve seen a slick method for approximating a square root from the Chinese and the development of Euler’s formula and a method for finding the height of a pyramid. It’s been exciting. Yet to come we have on Thales and the Mathematics in Native American Beading. Interestingly, we will see symmetry and proportions from both. It’s going to be a great Friday!

Now on to today’s treats! Tea and yarn!

Yarn today (brought to us by Felicity Yarn Studio) is Grandma got run over by a reindeer. A lovely light green speckle.

Tea today (brought to us by Blue Moonstone Designs) is Red Goji Raspberry by Lipton’s. It was a little tart. Adding my honey stick helped. Mom’s tea today was English Breakfast. I’m enjoying trying these different teas. And I think my parents are having fun too. And that makes me happy.

Yarn has gone into the Tub O’ yarn and I’ve finished my tea. Now, I need to work on some other Christmas crafting.

Thank you for listening, we’ll talk again tomorrow.

Happy Day 4. I hope you have had a lovely Tuesday. We started the day with a little snow. And then just a chilly day. It was quite the long day at work. My husband had a meeting that lasted until nearly 7pm. I informed him we were getting take out on our way home. So…Arby’s to the rescue. I had a lovely Brisket sandwich and he had a turkey BLT. Frankly, I’m already hungry again. But it was tasty and I didn’t have to cook after we got home. Although, I did have to put my sandwich down to go feed the cats. I didn’t pay attention to the time and we were hungry so we pretty much sat down and started eating. I was immediately surrounded by two cats. Each very determined to get at my sandwich. And yes, my cats like people food. But they are not usually so aggressive. That’s when I looked at my watch and realized it was past their supper time. So I got up and fed them supper and then resumed my own supper. Now I get to open my treats for today.

Tea for today, is from Red Rose. It is Blueberry Muffin. When pouring in the hot water, you could totally smell the muffin. I added a little honey. Totally blueberry muffin.

Yarn for today was a lovely light green speckle called Mistletoe.

I’ve also cleaned out a plastic tub and I’m using it to keep my mini-skeins. I think it’ll work. I like being able to see the skeins. They’re pretty and I just want to stare at them. I love having color around me.

Thank you for listening. We’ll talk again soon.

Happy Monday …I mean Day 3! Well, happy Monday too. I hope everyone successfully navigated their Monday.

I am happy to be home. It was a Monday. Which means I had issues writing the words I was actually saying correctly on the board. At least I got a chuckle from my students. By my 2:25 class, my brain was tired and kept telling me it was already Wednesday. I would then correct myself and then repeat that it was Wednesday. Another chuckle. I’m glad I can be there to lighten up a Monday for my students.

Alright, now, to the important stuff. Today’s tea was Green – Spearmint from Wissotzky Tea. It was quite delightful. It was just a hint of spearmint. It was a lovely post-supper beverage. My sister had Lemon Cake tea and my mom had a Twinings Lapsang Souchong tea. My dad was somewhat dubious of the Lemon Cake tea.

The yarn for today is multi-speckle called Mrs. Claus. It is just scrumptious. I love mini-skeins.

One last item for today. I’m including a picture of Leonard laying on the Granny Square blanket he had pulled out of the basket on the floor on the side of the bed. He’s looking up at me as if he has done nothing wrong whatsoever. How can you be unhappy with that little face?

Today’s tea was Mango & Passion Fruit. It was a lovely herbal tea. I enjoyed it this afternoon as part of an afternoon break.

Today”s yarn is a gorgeous blue called Blue Christmas. I know it’s only day 2, but I am really loving the speckled yarn. I’m starting to want to use this for something other than the granny square afghan. May be a light weight scarf? A shawl? Something that really lets the speckles come out.

Also, there was a charming (no pun intended) stitch marker attached to today’s yarn. It is a Christmas tree light bulb charm on a lobster claw clasp. It will make a fun progress marker. In fact I am currently working on a pair of socks in the Holly King color way from Llady Llama Fiber Co. I think I will put it on these. I’m past the placement of the waste yarn for the heel on the second sock on this pair of socks. Love this yarn and I love this color way. I will write more about this WIP in a later post.

Today has been a wonderful Sunday. I’ve gotten to experiment with some ideas for family presents for Christmas. I was inspired by Pinterest. Ahhhhh…. How dangerous is that? But so far it’s going well. I’ve gotten to enjoy crafting today and spending some time feeling more relaxed than I have in a while. Tomorrow of course, is Monday, and the start of the last week of classes for this term. It’s going to be busy. So I do want to get as much done today as possible. But maybe I can use crafting as motivation for getting school work done. I will have pictures after Christmas of today’s crafting.

Happy Day 2. We’ll talk again tomorrow.