Currently...Shopping, Stitching, Pouring and Other Stuff

Hat shopping. I love hats. You can check out my Hats Hats Hats Pinterest page and see that I believe in the bigger and brighter, the better. Through the winter, I probably wear a hat almost every day – nice, bright felt and wool hats, ostensibly because it’s cold, but we know better.  Now – we’ve reached spring hat season, which, of course, kicks off with Easter Sunday.  Then, for me, it’s my sorority’s fashion show luncheon that funds our scholarship fund. It’s ladies who lunch – wearing hats and so much fun.  And then – to the races!  I’m returning to the Virginia Gold Cup this year with my girlfriends, so hat shopping is in a frenzy because now we’re really talking about a Hat (with a capital H, yes.)

Sighing over celebrities who try to act like they are regular folk. Did you hear, Gwyneth Paltrow tried to promote the SNAP program by committing to eating on $29 a week? Yes, read that sentence again. Millionaire actress was going to try to feed herself on food-stamp program budget.  Really? That’s probably what she spends on coffee and a doughnut (because, I’m sure she eats chocolate dipped doughnuts with her coffee, while doing her oh-so-hard job.) She quit by day four.  Message: this is hard, let me stop pretending I’m poor and find an easier cause to uphold.

Picking out my next crochet or knit project. Right now, I’m working on baby blankets for my boom of pregnant friends. I need something for myself, though.  What I’d really like is one of those long long sweaters (dusters, I think they’re called) or maybe a bright summer shawl.  I’m trying not to buy any more yarn and dig through my stash (go ahead and laugh fellow yarn-lovers), but we’ll see. I need something by the time I leave for my sorority convention, because you know I crochet during any long meeting that I can get away with it.

Still researching drivers’ ed. Actually, I haven’t really started other than asking other parents which drivers’ ed their kid is going to because I’m a bit in denial that my kid is old enough to start driving. I took her out and let her drive around the school parking lot the other day. I can’t get her into drivers’ ed soon enough.

Enjoying pineapple vodka and rum.  A couple weeks back we had a luau-themed shindig and had a bunch of pineapples. We could not eat them all and I had to think of something to do with them. So what do you do when life gives you a bunch of pineapples? Slice them, put them in bottles and pour vodka and rum (in separate bottles) over them.  Close, let sit for at least a day, then enjoy in your favorite cocktails.  Keep away from the children.

Enjoying 100,000! Thank you for reading - our little blog has hit over 100,000 views!

Have a good week folks! Keep Piddlin’!

Join the conversation on Facebook & Twitter!

Currently... Counting Down to Spring

I'ts mid-March - anyone notice that? As in - almost SPRING!  Though I've still got some more boot-wearing to get in - all those wet, snowy days really cut down on the cute boot-wearing days - I'm ready to shed my heavy winter coat.

Now, 5 days away from spring, here's what I'm currently up to.

Knitting a headband.  A friend gave me a Knit Wit Kit - a really pretty yarn bowl, a ball of gray, wool yarn and knitting needles for my birthday. I've been nervous about trying it out - there were 3 needles and I've barely learned how to knit with two. So I'm skipping the cabling pattern and going with the basic knit and purl. Note - I had to learn to purl for this project.  It's still cold, especially in the evenings, and I hate being cold, so this will be perfect for the spring.

Baking a red velvet cake in a Bundt pan. Because I don't have any parchment paper and it's impossible to get my red velvet cake out of regular round cake pans without it. This is a first, making this in the Bundt pan, but that's the plan I came up with mid-mixing.  If anyone has any ideas for getting cakes out of pans without parchment paper, let me know, for future reference.  (And buttering and flouring the pan does not work for this cake.)  Or who knows, this Bundt pan thing might be the new plan.

Taking my daughter for her Driver's Permit. Ahh!! Someone pray for me.

Watching out the window for the first signs of spring. Tulips or something pretty outside would be good.


How are you getting ready for spring?

Join the conversation on Facebook: Just Piddlin' with Frances

Piddlin' While Driving

Drop off 1 kid to college campus for camp. Pick up 2 kids from home, drop off to swimming pool for practice. Wait one hour. Pick up 1 kid, drop off to sports camp. Piddle around a little bit. Pick up kid 1 from college campus. Pick up kid 4 from sports camp.

Added up? About 4 1/2 hours of driving and waiting.  Lots of time for piddlin'. But you kinda have to pay attention to the road, too. So crochet is out, reading is out. What's left? Coffee. Yes, thank goodness you can still enjoy coffee and eat snacks.

During the hour wait time, I usually hung out on the adjacent track. Running; and then when the temperature hit 90+ degrees by 9 a.m., walking; and  then after a couple of laps on that hot, black track,  crawling. But I got in a workout.

The drive time?  I could talk to my kids. But some of the time, I was actually by myself or they were sleep or passed out from their grueling day. Had I thought ahead, I would've downloaded an audio book. Of course, I had this idea every morning as I was pouring my coffee, getting ready to walk out the door. Then - ta-da - my discovery of the week! Perhaps, admittedly, I am slow to grab the newest technology and "it" thing.

You can dowload the audio of TED Talks to listen to offline. What? Yes.  And yes, I do know that TED talks verge on the nerd-y side, but it beats drive-time radio. I hate radio ads, weather reports bore me, traffic reports are useless because I'm not usually on the highway and the times I am, I don't know whether I'm going east-bound or west-bound on the inner or outer loop anyway, and listening to the tweets from other radio listeners annoy me. (Side note - whenever TV or radio shows read or scroll tweets it annoys me - I am on Twitter, I can read them for myself if I care, too, thank you.)  It's too much to muddle thru waiting for 1 song every 15 minutes.  Instead, I can listen to random, and sometimes famous, people talk about education and technology and stuff.  I even found one for my son about making a remote control skateboard and how to be a yo-yo expert. 

What about Slacker and Pandora? I like them, too, but sometimes, I'm really not in a musical mood.  So, TED it is.  I downloaded a few talks on my iPad and then hit "play" when I got in the car. And its very simple - no more distraction than tuning your radio, if you are concerned about driving safely. There's even a "play all" option so you don't have to fidget with it at all.  Some of the talks were interesting, thought-provoking. Some made me wonder how this person got chosen as a speaker at all. But it was better than another ad about cheap car insurance.

How? This is how it works on iPad - Select your TED Talk. Under the featured image, there's a "Save" option. You will be offered whichever is available: "Save video for offline viewing" or "Save audio".  They will be saved under "My Talks".

Now, between Bruno Mars on permanent rotation on the iPod and TED downloaded, I can make it through a few more chaffeuring runs.

Keep piddlin' with us on Facebook.