GEORGIA Socks

Well it's that time of the year again.................college football season! Yea, Go Dawgs! Today we're off to Athens to watch the Bulldogs play Arkansas on Saturday. The days are getting shorter and the nights are starting to cool off enough to keep the windows open. The leaves are changing colors and yes, football is back. Our good friends in Athens offered us their tickets this weekend. To keep in the spirit, I decided to cast on some beautiful Boomerang Fiesta yarn for a pair of Georgia Bulldog socks to keep my feet cozy during the fall and college football season. Have a great weekend and ......................GO DAWGS!!!! (and I hope Tech wins, too, Ben)

YELLOW FLOWERS ON THURSDAY

A few minutes ago the sun was streaming through my kitchen window and I had to take a photo of the flowers by my kitchen sink.

RED FLOWERS FOR WEDNESDAY

BEN'S BIRTHDAY CAKE

Last week was my youngest son's birthday, but since his college football team had a home game he decided to come and celebrate this weekend. I made his favorite chocolate cake with white fluffy icing. I want to share the recipe because it is so easy and so good!

SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup crisco

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares (melted)

Mix all ingredients together. Mix in mixer about 2 minutes. Pour into two 9" cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

WHITE FLUFFY ICING

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup white corn syrup

3 tablespoons water

1/3 cup egg whites (about 2)

Blend sugar, syrup and water in small pan. Boil rapidly until mixture spins a 6 inch thread. When mixtures begins to boil, beat egg whites in mixer until stiff. Pour hot syrup mixture in a thin steady stream into egg whites while beating.

WOODSTOCK FARMER'S MARKET - SEPTEMBER

I remember visiting my grandmother every summer in Mississippi. I don't really remember the heat, but I do remember her making jellies and jams. She had crabapple trees in her front yard and a huge fig tree in the side yard next to the porch. She always had homemade Fig and Crabapple jelly. This morning at the Woodstock Farmer's Market I bought some Crabapple Jelly and Fig Jam from Bettie's Blueberry Jams & Jellies. The market should be open for one more week in downtown Woodstock in the old Methodist church parking lot on Towne Lake Parkway. It's worth a trip..........and they've got okra, too!

NEW LIBRARY DISPLAY

It's time to change out the Children's display case at the library. This month we collected dolls from several co-workers and a "Monkey Wrench" quilt that Lisa made. It turned out cute with several porcelain dolls, a couple of handmade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, an Addy doll and a few hand made dolls.

This was the case from last month. The theme was "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" with all sorts of things that kids might have done during the summer. I brought most of the items from home including maps, vintage camera, toy cars and airplanes, wiffle ball and bat, Braves hat and signed ball, movie ticket stubs, sand pail and shovel, watercolors and a started painting and some of my snow globe collection.

THE JIMMY BUFFET OF TEXAS

LARRY JOE TAYLOR has been called the Jimmy Buffet of Texas. If you like beach music, a little bit country, good ole boy lyrics and just a plain ole good time, you'll LOVE Larry Joe Taylor. This was our third year attending our friends' Bar-b-q and backyard concert in Grapevine, Texas. Larry Joe travels around Texas putting on concerts at festivals, clubs, friends' backyards and on cruises. This year we were treated to smoked brisket and chicken cooked on Charlie's huge smoker below.

Charlie always travels with his tackle box full of spices. Aren't they smart in Texas?

And here is Charlie working on the baked beans. He also prepared a hash brown casserole and cabbage smoked, cored with a stick of butter, jalapenos and garlic inside. No calories, I was assured.

Below is the Beer Butt Chicken. It was smoked for about 4 hours, the brisket for about 12 hours. He made us all drink 1/2 a beer, then he props the other 1/2 under the chicken and the evaporated beer steams the chicken. Yum, yum!

These were interesting chairs. Last year when they were building the new Cowboys Stadium, they ended up selling the old seating. Bob was able to buy a couple of the stadium seats. So cool!

Larry Joe cranking it up.........

We thought we were going to have to call 911 after this guy tries to Limbo!

The grandkids got into the act too!

Everyone had a great time dancing, eating, visiting with old friends and just relaxing and laying back and listening to some great music!

Little Isaac, Bob and Beth's grandson (one of the triplets) was really getting into the rhythm of the music. During a break, the drummer was so nice and let him play the drums.

Here's our crew.........Gregg, me, Larry Joe Taylor, Beth and Bob.

One last photo before we had to leave. Thanks again Beth and Bob for another great concert!!!

WHILE IN TEXAS.............

Last weekend our friends in Dallas had their yearly Larry Joe Taylor concert/bar-b-q in their backyard. We flew out a couple of days early to visit with some family and to go to a Rangers game. They like to do things BIG in Texas. I was in the Tom Thumb parking lot (a grocery store) and this little lady pulls up in this Big A&$ F350 jacked up truck. It completely obliterates the Tom Thumb!

They don't serve cheese fries like they do at Turner Field. In Ranger's Stadium their fries have some herbs and a little cheese and salt.

We saw lots of bling in Texas, this cell phone cover was covered in rhinestones, although they don't sparkle in the photo. Believe me..............

And all FIVE toes had the same artwork!

This is Ranger's Stadium. It's very pretty and reminds me of Coors Field. They told me that last week some parachuters jumped in and one got stuck on one of the flag poles on top of the score sign. Not sure how he got down, that's a LONG drop!

TEXAS ARTIST

This past weekend we were in Dallas visiting friends and family. Our first stop was to visit my husband's aunt and uncle. His aunt, Margaret Fly, is a wonderful and very talented artist who paints mostly oils. She has recently moved into an apartment and has many of her paintings hanging. Below is one of her snow scenes.

She has converted a second bedroom into her studio complete with walkin closet and floor to ceiling windows letting in the most beautiful light. Below is her easel set up with a painting in progress.

This is a long wall in her living room where she hangs many of her favorite paintings. She has some wonderful western landscapes. I love the way she has displayed them together on this wall.

...............MORE SOCKS

Here are my latest socks. The pattern is called "Wiggle Worm" and it's from the Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor. I'm using a Dream in Color Classy worsted weight sock yarn in a color called "Wisterious". It is a superwash Australian merino wool so it can be washed. I'm using size 4 double ended needles. The pattern is an easy to memorize cable pattern. I changed the heel around a little to make it more durable and decided not to continue with the cable pattern on the heel because I thought it would be too bulky. I really like how it is turning out. So far I'm pleased with the Christmas presents I have made so far. I'll be on an airplane on Thursday and hope to get the second sock made at that time.

Here is the finished sock I showed partially finished in the previous post. This rib pattern will be really warm on cold nights this Winter!