ALOHA FROM HONOLULU, HAWAII

Hello dear friends.  It's been awhile since I last wrote and I really wanted to share with you the "completed" sweater I knit for my grandson. But....as you might know.... it didn't go that way.  I'm still working on it. So instead, this week I will share some photos of my trip last week to Honolulu.

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It's on Waikiki Beach and has everything right there including shops, restaurants and even its own ABC store.

This was our second time to stay at the village and our family really enjoyed the facilities it offers.

My daughter, Heidi, took me to afternoon tea at the Moana Surfrider hotel. It's a beautiful historic old hotel right in the center of Waikiki Beach.

One afternoon I walked to the Ala Moana mall and these ladies were performing a traditional Japanese dance.

We drove up the east side of the island and toured the Tropical Nut Farm. Hawaii produces 80% of the worlds macadamia nuts. It was a fun tour seeing some movie sets from old movies.

I will leave you with some pictures of Waikiki Beach from our hotel room. It was a great time and perfect tropical weather with the trade winds providing natural air conditioning.

There's lots to see on the island of Oahu.  Pearl Harbor is a historic site not to be missed. There's also LOTS of high end shopping* in Waikiki; Bvlgari, Cartier, Rolex, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, on and on.  And there are numerous tours you can take. My favorite one from a couple of years ago was the island tour. It's an all day bus tour that takes you all around the island of Oahu

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of paradise. Honolulu is approximately a five hour fight from the west coast of the United States.  I booked this trip via Costco Travel and it included the flights, room and airport transfers.

Until next time,  ALOHA
Pat

*I'm not a high end shopper..it's fun to see the items in person that you see in the fancy fashion magazines.   But, my heart is at TJ Maxx, haha.

I almost forgot, please remember to stop by Handmade Harbour.

Crochet Flower Blanket and Queen Anne Lace

It's been too long since I last wrote.  It seems that time goes by so so fast these days!  It has been warm down here.  Lilly seems to enjoy the weather no matter how hot or cold it is........

 

Here she is lounging by the pool with her morning coffee.  She is resting after her gecko hunting adventure.

I've been busy knitting a hooded sweater for my grandson.  I don't have it completed so I don't have any picture to share with you.  But, this week I went to my weekly community crochet/knit group.  We are a group of ladies that meet at the community center and knit for various charitable organizations.  It's been such a blessing to meet such nice people and get some great ideas.  

Here is a lovely crocheted flower blanket that my friend, Angela, is making:

Isn't it beautiful?  She made up the pattern (she's extremely talented in that way) and she is making these flower motifs from worsted weight yarn. She's attaching each flower as she goes along.

This is a Queen Anne lace crocheted blanket made by Mira.  Mira's needlework skills are amazing; this blanket was donated to the group half completed and Mira took over this project and finished this beautiful piece.  I love the way the Queen Anne lace panels have been incorporated into the design.  If you're interested in learning the Queen Anne lace pattern, the link can be found here.

Lastly, I will leave you with some pics of my homemade spaghetti sauce.  My husband grew tons of tomatoes in his little garden this year.  I made a simple sauce* with oil, garlic, tomatoes (which were put through a food mill) and some spices.

I hope it will taste OK..............

I would love to hear from you if you wish to leave a comment.  Or better still, sign up to follow my blog.  Lilly, too would like to hear from her friends out there.

Enjoy your week and please remember to stop by Handmade Harbour where you can meet lots of great crafters.  

Lilly sends you her best "meows",

Pat (& Lilly, too!)

*Simple Spaghetti Sauce Recipe:  Put about 2T olive oil in sauce pan, add in 4 minced garlic cloves.  Saute until garlic turn "light" brown.  Add in pureed fresh tomatoes.  (I put my tomatoes through a food mill, but you can skin the tomatoes and blend them in a blender).  I also added a teeny, tiny green pepper, cut up in small pieces.  Add in plenty of salt and pepper.  Simmer for an hour or so, until sauce becomes thick.  Lastly, I chopped a handful of mushrooms and sauteed them in 2 tsp of butter and added them to the sauce before serving.  It makes enough sauce for 8 ounces of paste.  Enjoy!

San Diego Seaport Village

Happy summer!  I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Here's some pictures from my visit to Seaport Village in San Diego from last week.

Isn't this tree amazing?  I love the design of the tree trunk!

Ducks are so much fun to watch and here they are having fun in the water.

Here's Mama Duck and her three little ducklings making their way across the sidewalk.

Here they are again - aren't they the cutest little things?

The duck pond at Seaport Village is so tranquil.

It's located right on the water so you can see the ships coming in and out.

Here's a picture of the Coronado Bridge.

We had a great day in San Diego.  I will leave you with some picture from my garden (actually it's my husband's garden!)

The fig tree that has figs!

Tomatoes which have taken over the whole area.

 

Strawberries from the strawberry patch.

I wish you all a wonderful week.  Please stop by and say "hello".  I'd love to hear from you.  And, remember to stop by Handmade Harbour and meet some great crafters.

Have fun in the sun,
Pat

"Martha's Ripple Blanket" My Version Completed

Hello everyone.  I hope that you are enjoying your summer.  Down here in Southern California we are having a heat wave.  It's been in the high 80's and that's a bit too warm for me.  I sometimes long for the gray, cloudy skies and cooler weather but I shouldn't complain.

This week I finished my version of Martha's Ripple Blanket.  This was such a fun blanket to make.  I found this lovely blanket here on Mrs. Brown Makes.  Here is her tutorial on how to do this beautiful ripple stitch.

I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn which I bought from Deramores.  I originally bought this package of 17 skeins and used 12 skeins for my Grandson's stripey blanket.  I saved 5 skeins of the pink/purple colors and used an additional 5 skeins of white to complete this blanket.

As you can see, it turned out quite large.  It will easily fit a single bed and allow for it to hang over the sides.  It's such a fun pattern to crochet and is easily memorized since it's a repeat of one row.

I made the bobbly edging and I think it added an extra design element to the finished blanket.  (As you can see, each edge of the blanket has a different color for the bobbly edging since I didn't have enough yarn to do it in one color)

I'm a bit sad that it's done since I had such a great time making it.  I am putting it away for now and will probably give it away as a baby gift.  I want to thank Claire at Mrs Brown Makes for creating such a wonderful blanket pattern.  Please visit her blog to see some great ideas.

Lastly, I will leave you with this adorable picture of Lilly.  I had set this "large" basket on the floor and she decided that it would make a good place for her afternoon nap!  I love that cat so much.....

Have a wonderful week and please remember to stop over at Handmade Harbour where you will meet lots of talented crafters.  I'd love to hear your comments and know what you have been creating.  Feel free to comment and/or sign up on my blog. :)

Happy Summer,
Pat

Laguna Beach and Crochet Mandala

It's been a busy weekend here at Lilly My Cat.  My dear husband and I celebrated our 39th anniversary on Saturday, June 21!  We had a lovely dinner with the family and on Sunday we continued the celebration with lunch at the Montage in Laguna Beach.

It was a lovely day with the sun shining bright and no marine layer.  Our children surprised us - they told us to be ready at 12:30PM and they brought us to the Montage.  It's a lovely resort in Laguna Beach right on the ocean.  It has sprawling grounds that also includes a public park.  We had a lovely lunch overlooking the ocean.

When the server asked what we would like to drink, I saw a Pimms cocktail on the menu and had to order it.  I didn't realize that Pimms is available here in the US.  It was very refreshing and not sweet, just right.

It was such a nice time sitting together and reminisicing about our 39 years together.  It really doesn't seem that long but when I look at my picture, I know that I'm old now and no longer 21 years old!

At the end of the lunch the wait staff came by our table and wished us Happy Anniversary and presented us with this lovely apple tart.  It was a wonderful afternoon.

As to my creative craft these past couple of weeks, I'm sure you will remember the stripey blanket that I finished a couple of weeks ago.  Well, after 12 balls of yarn, this was what I had leftover.  I didn't know what to do with it until I ran across a blog post at Attic 24 which inspired me to make a mandala.

Here is the finished product.  It's call Starflower Mandala and the pattern was created by a very talented artist names Zelna.  The pattern can be found here on her website Zooty Owl.  It's a very large mandala with the diameter measuring about 20".  It was fast and fun to make.

In closing, I would love to hear from you if you have any pattern ideas for me.  I want to make a blanket out of cotton yarn.  I haven't bought the yarn yet and I don't have a pattern.  If you know of one, please leave me a comment.

Have a wonderful week and I hope to hear from you soon.

take care,
Pat

P.S.  Please remember to stop by Handmade Harbour to see some great ideas!

Crochet Along As We Go Stripey Blanket - Finished at Last!

 I am so excited to share this post with you.  I have had so much fun making this blanket for my little grandson, that I was a bit sad when I finished it because it was such a joy to make.

Here is my grandson with his finished blanket.  He was so excited to receive this gift from Grandma!

Maybe you remember a few weeks past when I ordered this package of yarn from Deramores, which is my favorite online yarn store.  I received 17 skeins of 100 grams each, in assorted colors.  When you go to Deramores website, you can choose which country you would like for your preference.  Their shipping prices are extremely low ($6.95 to the US for 17 skeins).

I found this fun blanket on Love, Lucie, a wonderful blog that I follow.  The original pattern can be found here as it is a pattern created by Hannah Davis of notyouraveragecrochet.com.

Here's my additional notes to the original pattern:
1.  I used 12 skeins of yarn; 11 for the body of the blanket and 1 for the border
2.  I had a total of 193 working stitches across each row
3.  I crocheted a total of 142 rows
4.  I used a size H crochet hook
5.  For row 8, Catharine Wheel, I skipped "two stitches" instead of 3 stitches, thus eliminating the need to crochet this row loosely as stated.  This worked out perfect.  The only glitch is that you will have to skip "three stitches" one time only in the row.
6.  For row12, Catharine Wheel, I did the following:  With new color, ch 3, turn.  Make 2 dc around the chain below, make 1 dc in the "eye of the wheel below, make 2 dc in chain, 1 dc in sc, repeat. DC at end.
7.  For row 27, Bobble row, I did a hdc in  2 sts instead of 8 sts, and then continued the hdc over 5 sts instead of 8 sts.  I ended the row with 3 hdc.  This way you will have more "bobbles".
8.  I used stitch markers every 32 stitches, with the last group of stitches being 33 stitches.  This helped me tremendously as you will attain straight edges while keeping the stitch count constant.

Now for the fun part of finishing off the blanket and making the border.  I tied the ends of each two pieces of yarn twice.  Then I left the ends hanging and started single crocheting around the entire blanket.  I crocheted a total of six rows for the border: Row 1, sc with 3 sc in each corner; Row 2, sc with 3 sc in each corner; Row 3, sc with 3 sc in each corner; Row 4, sc and decrease* in each corner; Row 5, sc even; Row 6, sc and decrease* in each corner.

*To decrease in each corner, sc three stitches together as follows; sc in first stitch, sc in 2nd stitch but leave loop on hook (you will have two loops on hook), sc in 3rd stitch and leave loop on hook (you will have 3 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through all three loops on hook.

You can see how the corner turns by itself after doing the decrease in each corner.

As you can see, this made a "rolled" edge.  I found this idea at Little Woolie blog, who was the original inspiration for this pattern.  Anyway, as you fold over the edges, you tuck in all the loose strands of yarn and then stitch the edging closed.  I used one complete skein for the edging and ran short of some yarn to stitch it closed.  I used the other blue color in the afghan that blended in quite well.

Here's a photo of the edging after it has been completed.

You can see the finished blanket here - it turned out huge!  It's about 72" long and 54" wide.  The yarn I used is machine washable and tumble dry so it should be hassle free.

I hope you have enjoyed this little foray into my crocheting project.  Until next time, have a great week and don't forget to stop by Handmade Harbour where you will meet lots of gifted crafters!

Have a great week,
Pat

P.S.  I will leave you with a photo of my lovely lily bouquet. I found these flowers at Walmart, of all places!! (Oops, can you see Lilly in the background, on the carpet?)

The Cats of Istanbul

It's been a few weeks since I posted anything on this blog.  I was away on vacation with my family.  This time we ventured to Istanbul, Turkey.  I had never been to Turkey before and it did not disappoint!  I won't bore you with travel photos.  However, I will delight you with these wonderful pictures of the cats of Istanbul.

Istanbul inhabitants love their neighborhood cats and they take very good care of them.

Here is the lovely little white kitty that lived next door to the apartment we rented in the Cihangar district of Istanbul.  Her owner indicated that this little cat is deaf.  It warmed my heart that it had a good home and was loved.

As you can see, there's all colors and kinds of beautiful kitties.

These two kitties found a quiet place to take their cat naps!

As you walk through the neighborhood, you can see the shelters along with food bowls and water bowls that the people set out for their neighborhood cats.  According to the people we spoke with, the people of Istanbul really do love their cats and care for them.

Here's a photo of the neighborhood "cat house" that was at the end of our street.  Don't you love the design?

Here's another lovely little one, watching everyone from her perch.

This little tuxedo cat is beautiful with it's long fur.

During the ten days I spent in the lovely city of Istanbul, I saw many many cats.  And, there was only two that that some medical problem.  It warmed my heart that these lovely, innocent animals are being cared for by their community.

As to my own cat, Lilly, well she is a handful.  At 16 pounds, she keeps me very busy.  She was home alone while we were away and she did get into a little bit of trouble. Her latest activity is to shred paper.  She was so happy when we returned. She purred all night!

I wish each of you the very best and I hope to share with you next week my completed stripey blanket.  Please drop by Handmade Harbour and visit some wonderful blog sites where you will find lots of ideas to inspire you.

take care,
Pat