Here is a pattern for a crochet infinity scarf that I would like to share with you that I made for the winter.  It is a pattern that I made up on my own.  The pattern is so fast and easy to crochet and can be completed in only 2 sittings.


                Start of the Infinity Scarf




       Here is what the scarf looks like laid out straight.

My Weekend Crocheting and NYC

Saturday I spent the day cooking a recipe for Stuffed Shells that I have posted and also crocheting.  I belong to a crochet club in my church where all the members that belong crochet for a sale that takes place every November of each year.  I have belonged now for almost 10 years.  We also crochet or knit for the homeless and for hospitals.  We make baby blankets, baby sweaters, hats, big blankets, scarves, hand warmers and cell phone holders.  This pretty much keeps me busy making things throughout the year!  This weekend I completed a granny square baby blanket.  It is cute and will be big enough for an infant car carrier or for the crib.










Thanks everyone and enjoy.

Julie

For a quick and easy recipe here is a recipe for Stuffed Shells.

STUFFED SHELLS RECIPE

Ingredients:

Stuffed Shells
1 Jar of Italian Sauce (Any sauce you like or you can make your own sauce)
Mozzarella Cheese
Any type of grated Italian cheese




Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the sauce on the bottom of a large pan, add the shells with sauce on top and add to that mozzarella and grated cheese. Cook in oven for 50 to 60 minutes with tin foil on top.





While the shells are cooking you can a make salad. This salad is made with arugula, red onion, cucumbers and tomatoes.

My Bahamas Vacation

 My family and I took a vacation to the Bahamas and I stayed at the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island.   Atlantis is an amazing place to visit .  The weather is usually warm, in the 80's but when we were there it was cold, around 60 degrees Saturday and Sunday, but then on Monday and Tuesday the weather started to get warmer and we were all really happy.  The night we arrived we went to see a Carly Rae Jepsen concert. The concert was fun and a great way to start the vacation.

Then we went looking at the marine habitats at the Atlantis. It is home to more than 50,000 amazing marine animals from 200 different species.

 We stayed at The Reef and went swimming by the pool and relaxed on the beach. They also have water rides and my daughter and husband did that.  The hotel has great restaurants, shopping, nightlife, a casino, a spa and much more to offer everyone. There is so much to do that you have to go to the website to look at everything.

We had a breakfast buffet everyday in the morning that was amazing and at night we ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill and at Virgil's BBQ and the other nights we did a buffet at Mosaic, one of the buffet restaurants.

I am going to share with you a recipe because today is the beginning of Lent.  It will be a quick and easy recipe to make on a Friday evening for dinner.  Please try this recipe and leave comments.

Spaghetti and Clams Recipe

Ingredients:

1 16 oz. package of Spaghetti or Whole Wheat (any brand)
1 6.5 oz. can of Snow's Chopped Clams in Clam Juice
4 garlic cloves - chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
dash of salt

Directions:

In a big sauté pan add olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  In another big pot filled three quarters of the way with water add salt and bring to a boil.  Follow the package directions to cook the spaghetti.  Meanwhile, sauté the oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  When the garlic starts to brown add in the clams with the clam juice and sauté until the pasta is cooked.  Drain the spaghetti and add to the clams.  Mix together and serve with grated cheese.










Thanks everyone and enjoy.

Julie

Today at my crochet club I worked on the finishing touches to the Granny Square Baby Sweater that I have been working on for a long time.  I started working on the sweater making the crocheted squares in June of 2012.  Then after I had finished making the squares I could not decide if I should crochet or sew the squares together.  Well after a lot of thought I figured out that I would sew them together and that took a lot of time and work.  Well I am so happy that I finished it and the funny thing is now that I have finished the sweater I can't decide if I should give it to our Christmas Fair sale at our church or save it for someone in my family!

For this sweater I used a pattern for crocheting from Lion Brand Yarn.  The pattern is Brand New Baby Sweater and Hat, pattern # 10392AD and it calls for Lion Brand Babysoft yarn.  I used instead Sidar Snuggly Magic DK yarn.  The Sidar yarn I used is from Wakefield, England UK.  This is the first time that I have attempted to make a baby sweater, so I am proud that I pushed myself to make something different and more challenging than I usually do.

Granny Square Baby Sweater by Julie's Lifestyle www.julieslifestyle.blogspot.com

Granny Square Baby Sweater by Julie's Lifestyle www.julieslifestyle.blogspot.com

Thanks everyone and enjoy.

Julie

The Snow Blizzard of 2013 Named Nemo

We had a snow storm that started on Friday February 8th and lasted until Saturday February 9, 2013.  The storm was named Nemo.  Here in Brooklyn, New York we got about a foot of snow.  It wasn't as bad as some other areas such as Long Island, New Jersey and CT.  I was able to take just a few pictures of the snow outside of my side yard.  I wanted to share them with you and I hope you enjoy looking at the photo's I took.

MY PROJECTS:

The crochet project I need to finish working on is the girls granny square baby sweater.  It just needs a few finishing touches on it.  I need to figure out what type of closure for the sweater, either a crocheted tie closure, buttons, or a ribbon closure.  It is taking me a while to decide on because I want the sweater to look perfect.

The other project that I am crocheting is an off white baby sweater for our church annual Christmas Fair.  I have made a lot of progress on it but I need to now work on the sleeves.  This is a project that I have never worked on before, so when I work on it I need total quiet and I need to concentrate a lot.  I usually take each step one at a time so that it isn't so overwhelming for me.  It is the first time that I have ever made a baby sweater and same thing goes for the granny square baby sweater.  I am glad that I am pushing myself to do more complicated projects because it is more challenging for me.

The next project that I am working on is a granny square baby blanket that I am working on when I go to my crochet group at my church.  We usually work all year long on different projects for our annual Christmas Fair and for Sister Jean who runs the program who gives out hats and scarves to the homeless and baby blankets to hospitals in our neighborhood.

The next project I want to work on is for myself which is going to be an Infinity Scarf.  I have have found 3 really nice patterns from Ravelry, so I have to decide which one I am going to choose and if I am going to knit or crochet it and the yarn that I am going to use and color.  I really want to work on the Infinity Scarf, but I feel guilty because I know that I have the other projects to finish up with but I might work on it tonight when I meet up with my Ravelry knitting group.  We usually meet each week at Starbucks and we all knit and laugh and have a good time.

The scarf that I am making for myself is a Knitted Infinity Scarf.  I am using 2 strands of yarn for this and I found this simple knitting pattern on Ravelry.  I am really excited that I finally found a pattern that does not look to difficult and I think the results will look pretty because the one yarn I am using has a little bit of sparkle.  The yarn I am using is from Lion Brand/Vanna White Glamour in the color Topaz and the other yarn is Caron in the color Fisherman 3062.  I will update the scarf as the project progresses.

So that is my update so far on everything!






Thanks everyone and enjoy.

Julie

Jersey Shore Update

My husband and I have been vacationing at the Jersey Shore now for the past 15 years and when my daughter was born in 2000 we started taking her on vacation there too.  It has been such a wonderful place to vacation and we really loved going to the beach everyday.  Well we have been wondering what it looked like there due to Hurricane Sandy.  We decided to take a drive there yesterday because we had no major plans on our calendar and we enjoyed the 1 1/2 hour drive there.  We stopped for brunch at IHOP and we all enjoyed that.  We then drove to Long Beach Island where we stay ever year.  Well it is cleaned up really good, but it was so sad to see a lot of homes, stores and restaurants boarded up due to damage from the hurricane.  We then drove to the house we usually stay in for the week and the house is totally damaged and ruined and won't be rented out this summer.  The Jersey Shore will take a long time to be totally repaired and it is really sad.  I'm glad went to see the damage yesterday but we will always have many fond memories of our vacations there.