Happy Hanukkah!!

Source: Style at Home

Hanukkah is known as The Festival of Lights and is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 B.C. Olive oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, which was required to burn throughout the night every night. The story goes that there was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle.

Source: Getty Image

There is a custom of eating foods fried in olive oil to commemorate the miracle of a small flask of oil keeping the flame in the Temple lit for eight days. Traditional foods include potato pancakes, known as latkes and jam-filled doughnuts, called sufganiyot. Other Hanukkah traditions are Hanukkah gelt (chocolate money) and the dreidle game.  Dreidles are four-sided spinning tops that children play with and each side is imprinted with a Hebrew letter.

Happy Hanukkah!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you are all having a wonderful day spending time with family and friends, eating delicious foods and scrumptious desserts. I know we will and we are really looking forward to it. I will be missing my family and friends up North and will be wishing that I could be spending today with them. My Mom will not be joining us this year. She will be with my sister, her family and then with my brother and his girlfriend's family. 

I am so thankful for my husband who makes me proud of the man and Army Officer that he is. He has accomplished so much this past year and now we are celebrating this wonderful holiday in Canada. We had the honor of celebrating Canada's Thanksgiving last month with our next door neighbors, their family and friends. So, we get to enjoy another Turkey and all the fixings today.


He is supportive, romantic, giving, thoughtful, makes me a better person, loves me unconditionally and always makes me laugh. He always encourages me to excel at all my craft's and this year it has been knitting and photography. 

I also wish all of our troops serving our Country and their families a very Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for keeping Americans and our country safe. Thank you to the Military families who stand by their side and support what they do.


I am thankful for my Mom who has taught me so much about being the woman I am today, about life, love and happiness. More importantly, to wait for the right man to come along, how to be a good wife, daughter, sibling and friend. Thank you for being in my life! I am also very thankful to have a wonderful sister and brother. I just so love and treasure you both. I am thankful for our nephews G and M...both a gift. Thank you for being the sweet, loving boys that you are and always putting smiles on our faces. We love you both very much. We can't wait to see you next week.


Also, thank you to all my blogging friends out there, old and new, who have been supportive since I started blogging 2 years ago this October. You have all been so kind with your encouraging and funny comments and I have really enjoyed reading your blogs, learning from and getting to know you.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Recently I started using Bloglovin' to read all the blogs I follow and I'm really enjoying it. It lets me scroll through posts with a thumbnail and snippet, so that I can easily pick out the ones that interest me the most, and don't have to scroll through entire posts.

As I click on the link it takes me to their actual blog. I just love how easy it is to view everyone's beautiful creations that each blogger has worked so hard on. As you go to their blog, their page will get a hit, which I'm sure anyone with a blog out there appreciates! 


To start following my blog on Bloglovin', click on the link below.
Follow my blog with Bloglovin'

Have a great day!!

Photography and Photoshop Classes

I have been a busy girl lately. I have been taking photography classes at the local college. I wanted to better understand my camera and take better pictures. In class we learned about the "Holy Trinity" (ISO, Shutter and f.stop), composition, Rule of Thirds, Golden Mean, etc. I definitely noticed a difference in my pictures from one week to the next. I will keep you posted on my upcoming classes and what I've learned.

Here are some examples of photos that I took about a month ago:

The beginning of October we had an outdoor photo shoot. It was very cloudy out and started to drizzle, but, when you learn how to operate your camera with the manual settings it makes a world of difference. Don't get me wrong, I love the auto settings on my camera and have appreciated the beautiful shots they have given me. I just know that I will be able to do more with all of the new found knowledge I now have.

I am really enjoying the Adobe Photoshop class that I'm currently taking. I am learning so many different things within the software for the editing process. There is so much to learn, but, with a lot of practice and patience I'm sure my pictures will have an amazing end result. E, thank you for being so supportive of my hobbies and interests!!!  I love you!!

Have a great day!!

Knitting and Loving it!!

I have always wanted to learn how to knit. My Grandmother used to make my sister and I sweaters with cute matching hats. I started taking knitting classes at Wool Tyme here in Kingston at the end of summer and  I look forward to them every week.

I started out learning a Garter Stich or "g st" where you knit every row.

Photo source: Knit Picks

I then learned how to do a Stocking/Stockinette Stich or "st st" which is a combination of a knitted row followed by a purl row.

Photo Source: Knit Picks

Next, was a K2, P2 rib or 2x2 rib. This is a combination of knitting 2 stitches and purling 2 stitches.

Photo Source: Knit Picks

A checkerboard pattern is a combination of several K2, P2 rows follwed by an equal number of P2, K2 rows.

Photo Source: Cyber Seams

I then learned a making a dish cloth in a diamond pattern. The materials I used is 1 ball/skein of Sugar 'n Cream yarn and 1 pair of size 8mm US knitting needles (2 balls/skeins make 3 dish cloths). Here is how my first project came out.

Then I was ready to make my first hat/toque for E. I used a pattern from my instructor and used bamboo circular needles and knitted in the round for the very first time. It seemed intimidating, but, after a few rows, it made life simpler.

To avoid sewing seams, you can work in rounds using circular needles or double-pointed needles. To work in rounds, cast your stitches on one end of the needle the same as you would on a straight needle. Check to make sure that the cast-on lays flat and smooth and is not twisted. I added a stitch marker to the end of the needle to mark the beginning of the round and work the first round according to your pattern instructions.

As I got to the top of the hat it became very taut, so, I switched to double pointed needles. First, you evenly distribute your cast-on over three or four needles, keeping one needle out to knit with. Make sure the cast-on lays flat and smooth and no stitches are twisted. The needles either form a triangle (if you cast on to three needles) or a square (if you cast on to four needles). With the empty needle, knit all stitches on the first needle. When that needle is empty, use it to knit the stitches on the next needle. Continue to knit the stitches from each double-point onto an empty needle, working the stitches as instructed in the pattern.
 
I'm really happy with how this came out and I can't wait to see it on E. 

I am currently using the same yarn to make him a matching scarf also on circular needles, but, I'm not knitting in the round for this project.

I already have requests to make hats/scarfs for my family. I will post pictures when I complete those too.

I'm linking up with these parties.

Have a great weekend!!