Life has been quite the whirlwind for me these past few months, full of professional and personal challenges, and it shows no signs of slowing!  At least not for another month.  Here are the highlights of what I've been up to.

Original Design

Crochet:  In the most recent NerdWars tournament, I once again fulfilled my own personal challenge of completing all 18 challenges plus a "dissertation" over the three months of the tournament.  However, the most satisfying accomplishment of the past few months has been the creation of my very first original design and pattern!  I created the crochet square pattern that will represent Team Stargate Command in the final NerdWars Scarf pattern (available eventually - still in testing).  The feedback of square testers this past month has been most complimentary, and I am encouraged to possibly create - and document - more original designs.
                                                                                                       

Modified Colors

This has been the number one difference in my crochet since I started playing with NerdWars - the desire and motivation to create my own designs to fit my vision of what the finished product should be.

Tournament 5 begins on Friday, and I can't wait to see what our moderators have in store for us this time!

Cooking:  The most innovative recipe I have come across recently was for homemade granola bars.  I modified the recipe by adding cocoa powder and created dark chocolate almond cranberry bars.  They were a wonderful snack, full of yumminess, and containing NO artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, only ingredients that the average person can pronounce!

It is hard to believe that January has almost passed!  Where does the time go?

Crochet: This month has been a break from my regular Nerd Wars crafting, so I've been on my own to select projects to complete.  I recently created a baby blanket for a friend using some left-over yarn, so it ended up being "baby car seat" sized instead of "crib" or "bed" sized.  It still it turned out pretty cute, I think.  I have also attempted my first pair of gloves.  I have only the fingers left to complete.  By following the directions, they seem a little big on me, so I will probably adapt the pattern in the future for female recipients.

The new Nerd Wars tournament begins Feb. 1, and I will be joining a new team this time: Team Stargate Command!  I am very excited to work with this new team! 

Cooking:  This month I have been following the "blood type" diet, choosing not to eat foods that may interact negatively with my blood type.  This has been challenging only in that my favorite comfort foods are forbidden!  Well I can still have chocolate, but there are no tomatoes, no avocados, no hummus!  No chicken or pork.  And no cinnamon!  I am finding that, well, I'm not sure it was worth giving up tomatoes and cinnamon for a month!  (Those are the two items I miss the most.)

It has, however, pushed me to be a little creative.  For example, I recently obtained a great white chili recipe that calls for the forbidden chicken, so I substituted turkey, and it turned out delicious!  Going forward in February, I think I will continue avoiding wheat and corn, chicken and avocados (mostly), but I need my tomatoes!

Think about it.  If you don't eat tomatoes, you can't have tomato pasta sauce, no ketchup, no salsa, no regular chili.  Many vegetable dishes in restaurants I frequent have tomatoes in them.  All I want is a giant bowl of tomato pasta!  Which I will in February!


white chili