Fall is here

I have to confess that this past week was pretty stressful.  The supervisor at the office I work at had given her notice a couple weeks ago and Wednesday was her last day.  Honestly, I've been in a bit of denial about it.  I really like her.  And now, of course, none of us is sure who will take her place and what the office will feel like once there is a replacement.  She was the one there when Scott died and she was very understanding.  It's sad that now I worry about having to tell someone new (possibly) about my situation.  What happens if I have a day where I just can't pull myself together?  Anyhow.  Not the point.  Karla and I decided to make her a gift to take to her new office to remember us.  We trolled around pinterest and found some jumping off points of ideas.  This is what we came up with:

We bought a picture frame, took out the glass and glued in cork board.  Then we added a few accoutrements and voila!  Denise (our supervisor) really liked it, so that was cool.  When she opened it she said, how did you know I like red?  Which I don't think we did - but Karla had that ribbon left over from decorating her sister's wedding and it just 'went'!  We forgot to buy push pins to go with it, eh.

This week has been verrrry Fall around these parts!  Trees are starting to turn color a bit, there is a nip in the air and it's October, which all equals Fall.  Last year I had roasted and pureed a pumpkin, which I still have two 2 cup containers in the freezer.  My inlaws are visiting this week so I thought it would be perfect to make some pumpkin bread with cream cheese swirl.  I made these two loaves last night.  I took one to work today and it was gone before lunch!  

I might be the only one, but does anyone else get nervous when they make food to take somewhere?  I do!  I was fretting about this bread because it baked for 1 hour and 18 minutes!  That's a long time.  So I was worried that it turned out dry.  Also worried because the cream cheese filling got all mixed in with the bready dough part and didn't make a nice cream cheese layer.  Then, I alllllllways worry that no matter how careful and clean I make my kitchen there will be dog hair in something I make.  Luckily, so far, so good.  Unless no one is telling me......uggggg.

But anyway.  In other news I actually blocked my first knitting item today!  Of course I always hear of people blocking their work and how it shapes the item and then it is truly "done".  But, have never actually blocked anything.  Blocking is where you gently hand wash/rinse with gentle soap and then lay the item out to dry.  You can stretch it out to get a desired size, shape, or to open up lacy patterns.  In this case I wanted to make sure the square I made is 12 x 12 inches and square.  The cast on edge was rolling and making a general nuisance of itself so I was hoping to fix that.  I used a square of cardboard from my scrapbooking items to get it perfectly 12" square, pinned it to a towel and let air dry.  It's still drying.

Can I just say again how much I love this yarn?  I love it.