This week's SBQ

I never do these when I first get them and then things happen and sometimes I forget. I'd like to start doing them each week, so I'll start this week and see how 2008 goes.

This weeks question:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

Kind of. I got 2 "felted bunny kits" along with the felting block to make them. The kits were from two different friends who had found the perfect "T" gift. Then they discovered they'd both found the perfect gift, they decided to send them both to me and not be responsible for the consequences of having 2 bunnies in close proximity. LOL! That's the closest I came to stitching-related gifts this year.

This is not about Christmas

I take time out of the season to say that I accomplished something tonight. For those of you who read this and are part of the Ravelry community, you may understand the significance of what I'm about to say. You see, I've been trying to get my stash all organized on Ravelry. If for no other reason then so I can see it. I store most of my yarn in these really pretty hamper-like things, which is great, but you can't look at your yarn when it's all in that. Now, I don't have everything listed, but I have all the really good stuff pretty much listed and with pictures on Ravelry. I'm so excited! I know I'm missing some things, but the bulk is there. I'm going to try and pick up the rest this week. So, if you're a part of Ravelry, feel free to browse.

In stitching news, I started a new project on Christmas Day. I knew I would. It's a small item, so I might actually finish it, plus it's a bunny. It's from Trilogy and called "Happy Bunny Bunny Day". I decided to do it 1 over 1 in the hopes it will be small enough to make a cute pin. We'll see how it looks when it's done. Not much to show, but I'll try to take a picture this weekend to give you an update. What I really need to stitch on is a super-secret item that I need to get done by some point in January. I'll probably work on that some tomorrow. Plus I need to get with Judy and get her ornament started for her prize. Once I know which one I'm going to do, I'll let you all know too. I really just want to spend the rest of the week stitching and maybe knitting, but it hasn't happened so far. I only got in 2 or 3 hours on Christmas day and an hour tonight. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Our office is closed so I really don't have to work until at least the 2nd, maybe even the 3rd! There should be some quality time available in all that somewhere to do what I want to do!

And the winner is...

Judy with "Frostless the Snowman". To be fair we put all the names in a hat and drew one. There were some really good entries for names. Have to admit that I loved "Sonny", "Rocky" and of course "Mr. Dazzle FSU (pronounced Fisu). "Gumbeaux"got a laugh as well.

Thanks for all who participated. I'll post the prize as soon as I make sure Judy doesn't have what I plan on stitching.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Day!

Contest deadline extended

Mainly because I'm obviously crazy if I thought I'd have time to pick the winner today. I'm making food for our open house tonight between Candlelight Services at church. So, you have until tomorrow to submit your ideas. Let' s say by 4PM eastern time.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's an official contest and more decorating

Ok, it's official, "Name the Snowman" is a real contest. I'll tell you that the winner will be getting a hand-made ornament of my choosing and if I were you I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the contest. So, you have until Christmas Eve morning at 9 AM to post a comment with your suggestion or suggestions. I will then put all the names in a hat and have my mother choose the winning name. That seems fair. This means that multiple suggestions gives you multiple chances to win. I'll post the winner's name Christmas Eve and will send you an email as well.

Ok, that's out of the way, now for pictures of decorations. Yesterday mom and I must have thought we had all the time in the world because we decided to head outside and cut some branches from one of the magnolia trees and use them on a table in the Family room. The idea was simple, but we got a little carried away with our cutting and ended up with lots of branches and leaves, much more then we needed for this.It doesn't really show up that well, but some of the leaves I painted silver, so in person it looks much better. (To the left is the snowman who shall be named later.) To the right of this table is the fireplace.
I liked this picture, even though it's kind of dark, because you can sort of see the lights.

You may be wondering what we did with the left over magnolia branches, since as you can see I didn't use all that many. Well wonder no more...There it hangs in all it's glory. I added in some boxwood, since mine needed to be trimmed a bit anyway, and of course painted some silver. Decided it would look wonderful hanging outside the Sun Porch. You can see my father inside enjoying a good book while I did work. Must be nice to be retired.

I actually managed to send out almost all of my Christmas cards this evening. I have a couple that didn't go out. I ran out of cards with just a couple to go. That's just my luck. Went shopping for most of the food I'll need for Christmas Eve. We still haven't decided on what to have Christmas Day. I'm leaning toward either a pork loin or standing rib roast. I'm going to take a stroll through some recipes and then decide what might be the easiest.

Tonight more cookie baking ensued. I need to get up early and start back at it in the morning, plus do any prep work for Christmas Eve. I almost forgot that mom and I have tickets to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" in Jacksonville Sunday night. I can't imagine having a show that close to Christmas, but it's part of our series, so we're going. That means Sunday I won't get any cooking done. But I'm sure I'll enjoy the play!

A Snowman in Florida

That's right, we have a snowman right here in north Florida! He may not look like any snowman you've ever seen, but just remember, he's going to be different since he's a southern boy/snowman.
He's all decked out and ready to have a good time with some bear friends. (On a whole other note I realize that on some level it's kind of sad that I have no children and that many bears. Plus there's some you can't see scattered around. So, yeah, I like bears...and rabbits...and the occasional penguin.)

Mom says he needs a name. I've been trying to think of something really interesting, but I'm tired so nothing is coming to mind. Feel free to make suggestions. If I choose your name, I'll send you a surprise (but it will take a little while to get it to you because first I have to make it so bear with me. No pun intended...I really am tired.)

He's sitting in the rocking chair my grandpa B. gave me right before he died. I was just a little girl, but he wanted me to have it. The chair was his mothers and she rocked all her children, then he got it and rocked his kids and me. I had to have the seat rewoven several years ago and was lucky to find a man here that could recreate the original fairly closely.

Today was a lot of clean-up work. Going through a room and picking up things, sweeping and dusting one last time. I have some pictures of the lighted pieces on my piano. I realize that in the real London these three pieces would not be this close, but work with me here, this is pretend.
Tonight was the children's play/musical at church. They did a fantastic job. My friend's daughter L. had a huge part, in fact, she was one of the main characters. She did a great job. She's only in the 1st grade and she had a lot of lines to memorize. I was very proud of her and all the kids. No pictures, since I completely forgot my camera.

Tomorrow I have to finish those small details and then put together the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I keep trying to talk my family into having pizza on Christmas Day so I can stitch and knit all day, but I don't think they're buying it. Oh well, at least if we do turkey there'll be leftovers and some good soup at some point!

What a weekend!

Seriously I had a really great weekend. It was busy, but there was some fun thrown in so it was worth it.

Friday evening mom & I went shopping for a few things we needed, nothing spectacular, but I managed to find some goodies to finish up my gifts for some friends here in town. Just in time too. Now I have to put everything together and hope they enjoy the combination of handmade and cool bought things.

Saturday I got up early and headed over to KnitWitz for class with Annie Modesitt. What a wonderful teacher. You can see pictures over on Yarnfinder's blog (or as we know her Kathe). I'm in a couple of pictures for the Universal Mitered bag class, but all you can see is my back or the top of my head. I love the project, but even more I love how Annie talked about making patterns your own. She shared some cool tips and tricks and encouraged us to take what we learned and put it in our "toolbox" to take out later. I like when that's the attitude of the teacher. For some reason I totally didn't get that I needed yarn that would felt. If you've taken a look at my Ravelry stuff lately (for those on Ravelry I'm GirlWithNeedles, and if you knit and you aren't on Ravelry or signed up to get on, what are you waiting for???) you can see I have some felting yarn. And that's not all of it. I have great scraps that would have worked for something this small. But that was not to be. I guess the yarn fairies wanted me to purchase more yarn. The colors I chose are kind of interesting, see...That color on the left, that's kind of more orange then I would normally like, but I was so drawn to the multi yarn above it that I thought it would work. It's actually kind of more like a coral color in a way. But still, not my normal color choice.

Saturday when I got home it was time to start cleaning the windows on the sun porch. That room is wonderful, and I love it, especially this time of year, but cleaning those windows isn't all that fun. Luckily it doesn't involve a ladder. The decision was also made to not put up the 9 ft. tree this year. It's getting late in the season and it's a bear to put up, so no big tree. Oh well. I also did some work on the mantle decorations. That carried on into Sunday before it was done. No pictures yet though, there's still stuff in the way so I can't get a good picture. Soon, I promise.

It's late and I'm tired...

but I thought I'd let everyone know that my dad's eye surgery/zapping went well today. He said this evening that he seems to be able to see better. Tomorrow we'll let the Dr. take a look and make sure it's all ok.

Decorating continued today. I can see the end in sight. Lots of little things to finish up, plus the BIG tree. (9 1/2 ft. is big in my book.)

Finally got around to signing up for an Annie Modesitt class that's this Sat. I decided on the Modular knitting class. I really wanted to take the cables and lace class, but it's in the middle of the day on Friday and I just can't do that. I think I'll be happy with the one I chose though. I have started a modular knitting sweater, but it's majorly stalled so I'm hoping this might help things along. The class is Sat. morning so it's another Sat. of getting up earlier then I normally do on a Sat. At least this week it's for something I want to do, not something I have to do.

That's it. Maybe, just maybe tomorrow I'll finish something up in the decorating department and have some pictures to share. Keep your fingers crossed, I know I've got mine crossed!

Feels like a Wednesday!

Well, it is Wednesday, but still...

Actually it probably wasn't all that bad, it was just another busy day. Between having to go do some major grocery shopping and still working on decorating and then getting ready for my weekly Wed. night meeting for church, well it all ran together and I'm surprised I got as much done as I did. (Of course my friend Bill said when I spoke to him at some point this afternoon that people like he and I find things to do when we don't have anything to do. Which is of course, why I knit and stitch and do things like that, so I'll always have something to do.)

Sorry though, no pictures today. I worked on things, but didn't actually finish anything to the point of being able to take a picture. Started work this afternoon on the mantel decorations. I'm adding in some stuff so I'll change it some from last year. Ok, so that's kind of what I do every year, I add something and take something else out.

I also came to the realization that I am not a minimalist. I'm probably far from it. Not that I can't appreciate the idea and even the look to some extent, but if given my way I like things to be a bit ornate so to speak. I think this shows up more at Christmas then any other time. I like lots of lights and ornaments and the more glitter the better! I'm sure a few of you already figured that out from the pictures, but in case there was any doubt.

Finally, tomorrow I may actually get to turn the heel on the pair of socks that's been traveling around with me for the last month. Daddy has his eye procedure in the morning, so I'm off to bed to get some sleep. It's another busy day tomorrow.

Random Tuesday

Maybe not too random, but there are a few things I need to post about so I can get a little caught up with my blogging so this is my attempt.

1. I should have planned better and had a cute little something made for Andy & Christina's new baby when she arrived last Tuesday. It's not like I didn't know the baby was coming, nor had I not thought about it. For some reason though that hadn't actually translated into an actual item made. Since I made Cheri's baby a sweater set when she was born I felt that I should do something similar. Here's what I have so far.Quick picture taken on the sun porch this afternoon. I'm using a skein of Yarn Bee I had in my stash. I love the way the colors are looking, so perfect for a baby girl, plus it's really soft and not too heavy, which is perfect for FL weather. I started it last Thursday night and just have 13 more rows on the left side to complete then I can stitch it together. I think I'll try to make a cute little hat and maybe some booties if I have enough yarn.

2. My dad has to go Thursday to have his lens implants "fixed". He had cataract surgery in '04 and apparently the membrane that holds the lens in can get thick and cause some blurriness in vision. It's easily corrected with a little "zap" from the laser. The eye surgeon said he wanted to do it before he left for Christmas on the 23rd. Thursday fits that schedule. Sounds very easy, no drops, no eye patch, no special food or lack there-of.

3. I finished stitching another ornament! YEAH!It's called "No Square Santas". Sorry it's kind of blurry. I didn't like the one with flash and this is what happens when you take a picture with no flash and no tripod.

4. Speaking of tripods, I want one for Christmas. I'm hoping that's what I'll get. Actually I think if I could decide on one I could just get my mom to get it for me for Christmas. I don't want a huge one, I want one that folds up small and isn't heavy. Especially since it's for my digital camera. I think my friend Ann told me about one, but I can't remember what it was. Any suggestions are welcome.

5. Decorating continues. Today mom decided she had to put the tree up that she "lost". It's on the wall that leads out of our kitchen/eat-in/family room (it's all one huge room so it's hard to call it just one thing) and into the sun porch.I tried to take one without flash, but it was way too blurry. I'm going to try again with the ladder to stabilize my camera. You just have to see the way the lolly-pops glow. Yep, it's kind of got a kitchen/candy theme going.

I've been working putting out my collection of lighted houses. I have some pictures, but honestly it's still changing. But, I'll give you a preview of the finished product.This is actually just a portion, there's more on top of my piano and to the sides. And, this has changed somewhat. But you get the idea. I love putting these up. It's fun to "build a town". These are all somewhat based on Dicken's stories, or at least are meant to be from that era. My favorite accessory type piece of all time is the flower cart you can see at the front of the square area. I love that it's named "Doolittle Flowers"! Ok, so it's not exactly Dicken's but hey, that's just perfect.

6. I haven't been keeping my reading info on the side up to date. I just finished books 4 & 5 in the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson and now I'm reading a book called "The Sign of the Book" by John Dunning. This is the 4th in a series and I've read one of the others. I need to find the first 3 and read them in order. I enjoyed the other in the series that I read and when I found this one for about $5 in hardback I couldn't pass it up. I'm looking forward to a few releases coming up in '08 of some new favorite authors.

Well that about does it. Must get some sleep so I can return to the trenches for another day.

Cubie info update

I've received a few comments concerning the infamous "cubie" or as it's really called "All Year Squared". Let me see if I can answer some of the questions.

This was a class a couple of years ago at A Stitchers' Gathering in Louisville, KY. The teacher was Betsy Morgan. This is still one of her teaching pieces and I happen to know, since she emailed me and told me, that she's planning on teaching this class in the near future, I just don't know where. If you would like her email address to contact her, either email me at "fsutemb (at) comcast (dot) com" (You know the drill on how to make that work for you).

I hope this helps those of you who have been hunting where you could purchase it. I think contacting Betsy and seeing if you could just purchase it from her would be your best option, unless you are near where she'll be teaching and can check out a class with her.

I Saw Teresa Kissing Santa Claus

Well, I didn't see, I was doing the kissing you see, but more on that later in this post.

So last I typed you heard all about the first part of my little trip to WV, now for the fun parts, the PARTIES!

to get large amounts of ice for a party at a store where there are men in camouflage and trucks.Saturday was the big 50th anniversary party for my aunt & uncle. I could tell you this long story about getting ice for drinks, but I'll leave you with this thought...I will, from now on, ONLY stop (At least if I'm somewhere I consider the south.) I learned my lesson. Those are the places where you can walk in with your cute black jeans, great little top and wonderful boots; purchase your 22 lb. bag of ice and have at least 2 men offer to help you get it into your vehicle and ice chest. Now, one of my cousins says it doesn't hurt if you're driving a truck and have some curves to fill out said cute black jeans and top and smile nicely, but I think that's pretty much beside the point. I'm no model, nor do I have the perfect body, so I don't think it has anything to do with looks. I really think it's more about the whole letting men, act like, well, men. (If you want to think further on this subject of "real men" I refer you to this post about the latest People list of sexiest men, and this post about women, or this one. All written by one of my new favorite authors on her blog, which I also highly recommend as daily reading.)

So, I averted an ice catastrophe and finally made it to the party, which was pretty much in full swing when I arrived. Well, except for the fact that no one had heard from the caterer and no one seemed to have a number for her and some people were a little on the hungry side what with it being 1:30 in the afternoon and they apparently hadn't played Scarlett and had a little snack before going to the party. No fears, the caterer arrived and had everything in order and much eating happened. One of my cousins (technically my 2nd cousin once removed if you want to get really specific) has a beautiful and talented wife who makes cakes for parties and weddings. My aunt had Becky make the cake for the party and it was beautiful as you can see for yourself.What you can't tell is that both layers are in the shape of a heart. (The significance is fairly obvious, but also their last name is "Hart".) What you may not be able to tell is there was a candle in a holder between the layers. Also, it tasted as wonderful as it looked. One layer was chocolate and one was a white cake, both were excellent and moist and downright yummy! Becky can make my wedding cake anytime, well, first I have to get engaged....actually first I should probably have a "boyfriend". But it's not about me, it's about my aunt & uncle.
And here they are right before the cake was cut. Aren't they adorable?!?! As if that wasn't cute enough take a look at this....Yep, they danced together and were just too cute. The band was good and I think all in all everyone had a fantastic time.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. I mainly took some time to sit and talk with cousins that I don't get to see that often. And when I say cousins I mainly mean of the 2nd and further variety. However, my cousin Becky (not of the cake fame but a different Becky) got a picture that I want a copy of and when I get it I may post it. She took a picture of me and my cousins Dennis and Damon. Both are wonderful men and I don't get to see them that often. For those who don't come from huge extended families like I do, I can't imagine not having all these people in my life. Not that I talk to them all the time or see them as much as I'd like, but when we do all get together it's so much fun. Not to mention there's usually food, music and sometimes drink involved! Oh and lots of telling of stories, family stories. Those are the best.This is a picture of all the "Thompson" cousins at the party. (You can click on the picture to hopefully see a little larger version.) Some of the cousin's spouses and significant other's made it in the picture, while others did not, namely my father is missing.

Saturday was a great success so that left the Christmas party on Sunday. Sunday's party was for my uncle Jim's brothers and sisters and their spouses and SO's. Let me first say that my uncle has 11 siblings, of which 10 were in attendance on Sat. while 9 made it on Sunday. That's a fairly large group and they aren't too shy. They like to get together and talk and have a good time, which I think is wonderful. The best part of the night was this...Yep, that's me, kissing the big guy himself, Santa! I bet you all didn't know we were so close. Doesn't he look fantastic? Of course my mother was not to be outdone and this is what the result was...
She's such a crazy woman!
I think she left poor Santa a bit dazed. But then again, he's kind of used to her brand of craziness, so maybe he was just feeling a bit tired.

Santa was there to hand out the presents and help us all with the ornament exchange. As usual he did a fantastic job with giving out things. Kind of a warm up for the big night later this month.

So, that was the trip. We started home Monday morning with snow spitting at us and lots of high winds which caused us to go a little slower then normal and mean we spent the night on the way home. Well, that and I wasn't feeling all that wonderful and was to tired to keep going.

I am so glad we were able to go up for the party. It isn't everyday that someone can celebrate 50 years of marriage and still look at each other the way they do. Sometimes people ask why I'm still single. Most of the time I give them the kind of answer my grandmother would have called "smart", namely, "Because no one ever asked me to marry them." While that's true, there is also the other part of me that acknowledges the fact that I have been holding out for the kind of relationship my parents and my aunt & uncle have. Both haven't always agreed on everything, nor would they tell you that they have had it particularly easy. However, they all have worked hard to keep their relationships what most people today would call "healthy". For them that didn't mean they took vacations alone without their children. In fact, more often then not my aunt and my mother would take us kids on vacation while my uncle and my dad worked. Many a summer we all went on vacation together that way. For them it was about their family and each other and giving time to all of those things. And perhaps that's why I'm still single, because I've never found a man who shares those types of values. Not that I don't think they exist, I'm fairly certain there are still some out there like my father and uncle. Apparently I just haven't met the right one. But it was amazing to celebrate not just 50 years of marriage, but 50 years of their life together, moving around, family and all the things that go into being married.

Decorating skills in demand

Maybe not "in demand", but they sure got used while I was in WV. My aunt Nora took advantage of my arrival to have me finish her decorating. But let's start at the beginning shall we?

The trip up to WV was fairly uneventful. We left early enough and the weather and traffic managed to cooperate, so we made it in one day. I think we managed to leave Cracker Barrel at the airport exit in Jacksonville at 8:45 AM and pulled into my aunts around 7:30-ish maybe. I don't know what time it was, I was driving, it was dark and I was dang tired by that point. All I really wanted to do was sit quietly and maybe have a nice drink. That completes Wednesday's activities.

Thursday I slept in. I mean I really slept in. I didn't manage to get out of my nice warm bed until around 11:30 that morning. Just in time for my aunt to return from her hair appointment and a few errands with some makings for a sandwich. That was a nice surprise. After she left again mom and I went downstairs, to where I usually "live" when I visit, to start the decorating we had been tasked with the night before. To my aunt's credit she normally does all her decorating, but this year she needed some help. Our cousin Kathy helped her decorate upstairs and for some reason I didn't manage to get pictures of that. Let me say it is beautiful. Nora's living room is mauve so her tree there is a pretty white tree with pink lights and all pink and mauve and gold. Very pretty. In the dining room there was a lovely arrangement on the table, her big Bethlehem nativity on the sideboard and some trimmings on the china cabinet. Then in her "family room", or as we call it, "the room where we watch t.v." she has one of those fiber-optic trees, that turns colors. Anyway, she has all this red and white, candy-cane stripped ornaments and stuff in there, so the tree was all in red ornaments with about 4 white birds and some red & white stripped ribbon with bows at the top. I kept looking at it, and decided that I knew what I thought it needed....white ornaments. (You'll hear more about this on Friday.)

But, back to downstairs. My aunt basically has 2 houses stacked on top of each other, it's very nice. Downstairs there's a "game room", or more likely a music room since there's a really nice old upright piano and an old pump organ in it. That's where I had to work my decorating magic. The tree was set up, but nothing else. We finally got lights on it that managed to stay working, then of course came the decorations. Like us, Nora has lots of decorations that are just all kinds of lovely Christmas goodness. So that's what I put on this tree. My uncle had stacked some boxes of floor tiles under the tree to elevate it off the floor so we could then put her lighted houses under it. The result was pretty cool.
Sorry for the picture. I was really trying not to use flash, so you get that yellow incandescent look too. But you get the idea.That's a little better looks at the left side of the "village".
Right side look, with a bit of the piano showing.

So, that was my Thursday, and some of my Friday since in putting all this together I figured out she needed some lights and a couple of strips to plug the lights in to. That brings us to Friday when mom, Nora & I headed out to pick up the things needed for decorating (remember the white ornaments I mentioned?) and for her 50th Wedding anniversary party on Saturday.

First, JoAnn's Fabrics. Unlike here, the JoAnn's there is not one of the huge mega-type stores. It's small. But we did manage to find some pretty white ornaments and the strips to plug the houses in to, as well as a couple of multi-light strands for the houses. That was a good stop. Then we went to the dollar store to score some pretty, and less expensive, gift bags and tea lights. Another good stop. Then lunch. Yummy! We went to Bellacinos, it's a franchise, owned by local guys and is excellent. I opted for their house grinder (and for those who don't know that term, it's basically a hot sub). And the scenery in there isn't too bad. (The owners are twins, and as my aunt said, "There's living proof of a God right there walking around, and not just God, but a loving God because he gave us TWO of them to look at!" That's right the owners are basically identical twins and very nice looking men at that.) So, score again for lunch, both for the food and the scenery. Then they dropped me off at Lowe's to try and find these candles, and that's where it started to go wrong, but luckily not terribly wrong.

Let me back up a little. My aunt and our cousin Kathy, mainly Kathy, had made these beautiful centerpieces for the tables for the anniversary party. They were all pretty gold, pink and garnet poinsettias. Lovely. Nora, my aunt, had found these really cool, battery operated (I guess) tall, slim candles to put in the middle of the arrangements. This was good, she bought them somewhere in VA I think at a Ben Franklins. She bought enough, or so she thought. However, they ended up breaking one and needing at least 2 more. So, here we were, hunting these things that all I knew were what they looked like and that I think they were called "candleiers" or something like that. So, back to Lowe's (which BTW is not my uncle Jim's favorite place to shop and he builds cabinets for a living, I think he's jinxed the place for me). Mom and Nora drop me in front of Lowe's while they park the car in front of Sam's Warehouse, which is right beside Lowe's. I'm tasked with going to look for the aforementioned "candleiers", purchasing them if found and then going to Sam's to meet them while they start getting the many food and paper items needed from there. To make a long story short, not only did Lowe's not have said "candleiers", but they barely had any Christmas decorations left at all. It was kind of depressing.

But a trip through Sam's trying out all the food they were handing out helped my mood. Yeah, I know, I'd just eaten a nice lunch, but hey, it was good and they were handing it out and we might have wanted to buy some of it. We did manage to get the stuff we needed from there and headed for our next stop....Wal-Mart.

You see, a few days before Nora had been in the big "Mart" and had spoken to some man about those pesky candle things. He assured her he had them, but that they were in a box up somewhere near the rafters and he didn't have his machine-thing to get up there to get the box down so she could buy them. Now, here's a little thought, if you have something to sell, and you want to sell it, shouldn't you have it somewhere so people can get their grubby little fingers on it and take it to the long lines at the check-out counter to hand over some form of payment??? Is this really too much to ask? But I digress. So, this kind employee said to give him a couple of days and he'd get them down for her. So, we head there thinking we're sure to find them. First, nothing in the Christmas decorations, which for some reason is where these little monsters pretty candles apparently like to live in stores. Then we make our second mistake of the trip to "Wally World", we ask an "associate" for help. They don't know anything. So they finally ask their "manager", who looks to be about 19 and barely able to think (not that all 19 year olds can't think, but this one wasn't looking to swift in my eyes). He said he'd check. Now I'm fairly certain that 1) he had no idea what my aunt was talking about and 2) could have cared less if he found the item for her or not. In no time he was back to say they didn't even have them in stock. Now, somebody's not telling the truth. Either the 1st man who said he could get them if he had his little machine was full of it, or this "manager" was, but either way we walked away with no candles. Well, we did get candles, those kind you are used to seeing, but that run on batteries and one of them was defective when we got it home, but they made it work. The rest of the trip there was spent hunting stuff to make "hammy sammies" as mom and I call them, for the Sunday party. We didn't have any luck finding the right rolls, so thought a stop at Kroger would fix things. It did and it didn't. We found some rolls to use, but they aren't the kind we normally get. Sigh, sometimes I just like to be at home and be able to walk into my favorite grocery store, Publix, and find what I want, or have some nice person ask can they help me find something or order something I want that's not stocked...sigh....

So, that's Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow I should some of the party pictures and a slightly compromising photo of me and the "big guy". Stay tuned!

I'm Back

...but no time to post about the big party. I promise I'll do so at the first available opportunity. Plus I have to share what else I did while I was at my aunt's. (Here's a hint, I was doing it at home too.) Oh, and I have a picture of me and the big guy, Santa somewhere on my camera. Stay tuned.

Getting some Christmas Spirit

My DF Jill is hunting for some Christmas spirit. Not sure where she should look, but maybe seeing some pictures of ornaments that I've finished lately will help her out.

First, the knitted ornaments...The top one is the "funky" one I spoke about in a previous post. The picture is a bit blurry, sorry. The 2nd one I finished last night while watching "Ballykissangle" on DVD. (Sigh, I want to live in a great little Irish village like that, where you get to wear great sweaters way more then you do here.) I think I've decided to take both with me and see which one my aunt thinks I should use for the exchange. These are both from the same pattern found in "Holiday Knits" a beautiful book just to browse through and admire the pictures. I haven't tried other patterns from it, but have a few on my list.

Next my two latest stitched finishes...This was a class I took years ago from JBW Designs. It's canvas work and although you can't really tell it's more fuchsia then red. The back is a piece of fuchsia fabric, that's why I didn't take a picture, it's really plain. This is another of those things that I finished stitching YEARS ago, but never completed the finishing.This is "A Bird's Carol" from the 2006 JCS ornament issue. I stitched this for the exchange I participate in and finally managed to get the finishing done. After some work I think it turned out fairly well. The back is the same fabric as the ruffle.

Well that's it. Still no pictures of the blue & gold tree. Maybe I'll leave you with that before I head to my short vacation.

Finishes, answers and a picture or two

First the answer. Annemiek asked about contacting Betsy Morgan concerning the "All Year Cubed" kit. I actually don't have information for Betsy. I thought I did, but apparently she's moved. There has to be a way to contact her though, since she is still teaching. If I find out anything I'll be sure to post and answer.

Now, on to finishes and pictures. I only have pictures of a finish I managed last week.This is called "Holiday Ornament No.1" from Suzann Miller. It was a class at ASG many years ago. All I remember as far as dates go is that Suzann taught one of the first couple of years. There's the back of the piece. You stitch it as one large square, then when you fold it just the right way and put it together you get this. I think this was one of my first forays into canvas work. It has cording, very long cording I might add because I am the worlds worst cording maker. I either make it too long or too short. Oh well, it works.

Tonight I stitched the cording on to another canvas work ornament from yet another class that I took in the 90's. I don't have a picture of that yet. It's very pretty, now that it's all sewn, stuffed and finished. It's even hanging on the tree.

Last night I finished a knitted ornament. I may take it with me to WV for the ornament exchange on Sunday. I may not. I love it, but it is kind of funky (again no picture yet). So today while I was out I bought some red wool yarn to make a plain ornament and I'll decorate it with floss and maybe some beads. It's at least 1/2 knitted, they take almost no time!

I kept thinking that I must have a pair of US size 5 DPNs somewhere in my stash. That's the size the pattern for the knitted ornaments calls for. The funky one I made worked fine with a pair of size 6's, and I'm doing the red on in a 6, but I'm not convinced it will work well. (I may resort to a little felting/fulling to keep the stuffing from coming out.) Anyway, I went looking tonight in my knitting bag and realized that I was using the size 5's for the 1st practice sock in the new Cat Bordhi sock book. (BTW, if you knit and you knit socks, you should own this book. It's so cool.) So I pull the sock out and figure out I've got less then 10 rows and this sock is finished. That's nothing, why did I stop? It's a baby sock for Pete's sake! So, I finished it. That's 1 pair of baby socks complete. Now I need someone to have a baby boy, since they are navy blue.

That about covers it. I had another nice day. Watched a little football, eat leftovers and even managed to hit a couple of stores, but not until the afternoon. I didn't really buy much either. A few things in the Target $1 bins for my little cousins. Weird.

Hope your day was great

Thanksgiving Day is pretty much over, just a few more minutes left. The day was a good one at our house. As always, we watched the Macy's parade while starting our meal. Well, first we had some breakfast, nothing major, a great bagel w/cream cheese. I love parades, almost any parade, but Thanksgiving Day parades are great because Santa arrives. I love to see Santa in his sleigh. It's a perfect moment.

Dinner wasn't too bad either, if I do say so myself. Mom made her famous Chocolate-Pecan Pie, or as we call it "Patrick Pie" for a friend of mine who really didn't eat deserts until he had that pie. I'm not sure why we decided we didn't want a turkey, but we did. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was only going to be me and my parents. Three people and a big turkey, just not worth it, even for the leftovers and the soup that can be made. Mom and I discussed what we should have and narrowed it down to some sort of seafood or ham. We went with ham, really good Virginia ham. It was wonderful! Plus, I got to try out the temperature probe that came with the new oven. Worked wonderfully. The ham was fantastic. To further make it not your traditional meal, unless you live in the south maybe, I fixed kale and mashed sweet potatoes. The sweet potato recipe is basically how my great-aunt Anne fixed hers. Being the southern lady that she was, she included some sort of "spirit" as she mashed her sweet potatoes. She wasn't too particular, I've seen her put in bourbon, sherry, brandy and maybe even some good JD. I try to carry on that tradition, so this year it was sherry since the only brandy I had on hand was apricot flavored I'll be using for my egg nog.

I had really planned on stitching in the afternoon, or going with mom to a movie. Neither happened. I sat down on the couch and promptly fell asleep. Slept for at least 3 hours. I did manage to stitch on the UFO I've been working on the last few weeks. I'm on the 2nd half of the last band. Need to take a picture of that and the white tree.

That was my day. Nothing too special. But I did manage to think about the things I'm thankful for, and there's a lot. In the interest of time and space I leave you with a short list.

*my family, especially my parents who have always been my biggest cheerleaders, while holding me to a standard

*my friends, you know who you are. I have some amazing friends, smart, talented, funny, full of life, sweet, thoughtful and down right amazing. I'm blessed to have them in my life.

*those who are both far from their families serving to protect and those who serve within our borders. I'm thankful that there are people who willing serve in every branch of service. (But especially the Navy since my nephew is in the Navy. Oh and a shout-out to the Marines. One of the former youth, he's grown now, from our church is now a Marine and just left last week for Japan.)

There's a whole lot more, but you get the idea. But one last one, I'm thankful for those of you who come and read and look through my silly pictures and leave comments. When I started this I never thought I'd have people from the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Canada, Australia and Malaysia visit. Not to mention 37 US states and D.C. To me that's just amazing. I really do thank you all and hope that for those who took time today to celebrate Thanksgiving you had a day full of great memories.

Two more trees done!

So that's three trees down, about 4 more to go. How exciting! Of course that doesn't include various other decorating things that have to be done before completion is declared.

I have gotten a picture of the 2nd tree finished, which is my Garnet & Gold tree.Yes, it's hanging on the wall. I've had this tree for a long time, at least 12 years, maybe more. Each year I bring it out and it's shedding all over the place as I'm putting it up, and each year I think it's going to shed so much it will look like Charlie Brown's tree. Each year it surprises me. Of course I put so many ornaments and decorations on it You can barely see the green tree part anyway, but still.

After the weekend Monday brought decorating madness back. I had brought in 2 boxes from the garage on Friday that were marked "Santas" and "Christmas Santas". We had planned on working in the dining room and that's where we've been putting my mother's Santa collection, or as much of it as possible. So, Monday morning we're unpacking the boxes and mom's pulling things out of her box and saying things like, "Oh look, my Arizona Santa." Or, "Wow, I don't remember this one, isn't it cute?" This goes on for awhile, until I hear, "Well, look what I found."

At this point I need to back up 3 or so years. Picture my mother and me prowling through one of the large craft stores and spying a small, maybe 2 ft, wall tree with a cute basket at the bottom as if the tree were planted in it. We buy it thinking we have a few "kitchen" ornaments and can find some more and put it in the kitchen. We do this, everyone ohhs & ahhs. The next year we find all the ornaments, but no tree. No tree right up until Monday when mom says, "Well, look what I found."

Yep, the missing tree! There it was in the box marked "Christmas Santas". This will not happen again. There is no reason to put it in that box when there are perfectly good boxes with trees that can be marked "kitchen tree". It's ok though, we've found it and we've figured out where to hang it. Just have to get the ornaments down to decorate. But we aren't in the kitchen yet, so for now it's laying waiting.

We have made our way to the living room. It's all clean and the furniture has been moved to allow for some of my Dicken's Village houses to be put up. I may work on that some this afternoon.

I want to thank you all for the kind words about "cubie". The further from the pain of putting it together I get, the more I like looking at this piece. It really is pretty.

Finally, I want to think my Hogwarts Swap year 2 pal. I received my package and it was filled with lots of great stuff. She and I both had some things happen that kept us from getting our packages out on time. Thankfully she's very nice and was ok with my tardiness. (BTW, I mailed it out Monday...without part of it included I might add. Figured that out when I got home from the post office and found some goodies laying there. I'll send the rest the next time I head to the PO. I'm such a bad pal!) But my pal, well take a look at the goodies....
The yarn was dyed by my wonderful pal "Dora Dumbledore". (That's her wizarding name, not her muggle name.) It's beautiful and is called "Mediterrania". (You too can be the proud owner of some of her yarn by visiting her Etsy store. I love the names of the yarns in her store, not to mention the colors.) The socks are perfect and fit perfectly and feel wonderful on! The cute stripped and polka-dot item to you is a sock project bag. I don't have one so this was a special treat. The Udder Cream is for my hands when I stitch and of course the candy is self-explanatory.

(I had this all typed up and ready to post before I left to shop this morning, and completely forgot to hit Publish. I'm a goof!)

Have you ever noticed...

...how very fast weekends go? I mean really. It was Friday, then it was Monday morning and it felt like only one day passed by. I think part of that is I went to the last FSU home football game Saturday, so not a whole lot got accomplished and I wasn't home so the weekend felt short.

Speaking of football. Like a lot of good southern girls I love college football. (Ok, I love most any kind of football, little kids, pro, high school, it's all good.) College football has traditions. Some are really amazing traditions. I don't care what team you root for you have to love the traditions that surround the game. Things like the "Power T", the Mountaineer firing his gun, the Trojan horse, yeah, even the Gator chomp, they're traditions. My alma mater has a few of it's own and one of them involves a guy named Osceola, a horse named Renegade and a flaming spear. Saturday was the last time the young man who has portrayed Osceola rode Renegade. He's graduating either next month or in the spring. Next year a new student will become Osceola. I love that the clothes Osceola wears are the genuine article. Made by the Florida Seminole tribe for the student who portrays our mascot.
Saturday was a noon start, but it was still great. I'm always a little sad after the last home game of the season. This year is no different. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was perfect. We had a cool fly-over after the National Anthem by the Coast Guard.(I actually remembered my camera, with the battery and a flash card so I could take some pictures.) The home team won, giving Bobby Bowden his 300th win at FSU. To celebrate that milestone, we went by the statue and had our picture taken.(That's my friend Selena on the left.) Oh, and actually we didn't realize that Bobby had reached such a milestone, that just sounds better then we were walking back to the car by way of the sod cemetery and decided "hey we're so close to the B.B. statue, let's go check it out!"

This leads me to the fact that the folks at AllState have a T.V. ad that features this statue. It's a funny ad, but I have a problem with it. You can tell it's not taken anywhere near our stadium. Heck, it doesn't even look like our stadium. (And before anyone says anything, I realize that there's a reason for that. Allstate paid to use Bobby Bowden's name and likeness, but didn't pay the university to use our colors or shots at our actual school, which is kind of funny, since they obviously had to pay someone to use the facade of a stadium, so why not pay the university, that's if they could of course, which I'm not sure they could.) So, here's a still shot of the car hitting the statue, since apparently everyone in the country hasn't seen this, and hey, I'm trying to make a point, which is hard without visuals.
At least they got the statue almost exactly the same. That's something I guess.

Enough of that, on to what I actually accomplished this weekend. I did manage to do some knitting on the way over and back from the game. Selena drove, so I knitted.This is what I knitted. I didn't actually finish it, I did that while watching some of the last NASCAR race of the 2007 season. (Another milestone for the year, which my friend Jean is mourning far harder then I am since she's a bigger fan then me. Don't worry Jean, Daytona is only 3 months away.) Anyway, this is another dishcloth from the patterns I get monthly as part of the Dishcloth club Knitwitz has. This has to be my favorite pattern so far. It was very easy, and went really fast. I like it so much I started another in a skein of Peaches & Creme I had picked up on sale somewhere. The new one is variegated and it's turning out so pretty.

Christmas decorating continued, or at least preperations for decorating continued. Today we managed to unpack 2 boxes of Santa Clauses. There's a story that goes with this, but I'll save that for later in the week, maybe tomorrow. This post has gone on way to long as it is without adding that to the mix.

(Isn't it funny how things happen? I was typing this in and got an email from my friend Angie who moved to Texas with her husband a couple of years ago. I miss Angie and her DH Frank. Anyway, she sent me this hilarious email about the differences between football in the north and football in the south. It was funny and scarily, somewhat true.)

Thursday already?

Not sure where the week went. I do know that I accomplished a few things, but don't really feel like it was all that much. And now tomorrow is Friday. Unbelievable.

I'm fairly certain everything is o.k. with my dad. Just to make sure I think I'll call the doctor's office tomorrow, but since we haven't had a frantic call from the good man, I'm not all that worried. (This is the same doctor that called, yes the DOCTOR called, to tell my dad he had to go to the hospital and then told me why when my dad tried to talk him out of it. My dad is nothing if not adverse to being ill.)

Last night I knitted on a small surprise I've been working on. I wish I could say more, but the recipient might actually read this, although I'm not sure she has internet service right now, but better safe then sorry. I've got another evening of knitting that that should be complete and I can get the square where it needs to go. Then I need to work on my sweater and some ornaments. Received an invitation to a holiday party the day after my aunt & uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. The party is at their house and is usually for all my uncles brothers and sisters, he has like 11 I think. Anyway, we'll be there, so I need to have an ornament for the exchange. Thought I'd knit one from stash. No one else will have one and it's kind of free so fits the $5 limit.

Tonight was UFO stitching night. I was good and pulled the sampler from 1995 back out. I now have about 1/2 of the last band complete. I'm estimating that 2 more Thursday nights of 8 - 11 PM t.v. viewing and I'll be ready to do the pulled work on this one. Since next week is Thanksgiving, I might get some extra stitching time and get it finished. That would be wonderful! I've pretty much decided to pull my "Winter Garden Gate" back out and work on it for UFO stitching. It's not as old, but it's fairly close to being completed, plus it is seasonal. Double dipping in a way, but hey, it works.

Finally, I refer you to Deanna Raybourn's blog. Her entry today is just wonderful and I agree totally with her. I'll give you a hint, it's about People's 50 Sexiest Men issue. Really you must go give it a read. Oh and if you don't know who Deanna Raybourn is you should check out her 1st book "Silent in the Grave". I loved it. Have it in hardback and it's one I won't sell at Chamblin's to support my reading habit. It's out in paperback, for those who don't like to wake up to a heavy book falling on your face. (These things happen and I'm not proud of it, but it's life and you learn to deal...mainly by taking your glasses off to read so you don't break them.)

I think that's all the news fit to write. I could tell you about my day yesterday that wasn't all that terrific, but I'm trying to put it behind me. Not to mention I have decided that some people just aren't going to change their minds because that might cause them to have to put forth additional effort, or, heaven forbid, it might mean "conflict" and we just can't have that. So, I will just wait and see and if things don't change I may decide it is time for me to make a change.

Holidays...humph!

Today I decreed that in no uncertain terms would anyone in my family ever "do" anything on a holiday. That's any type of holiday. Even things like Veteran's Day. Apparently there is some "curse of the holiday" associated with my family that I was unaware of until, well today. I'm sure you're wondering what brought on this latest insanity on my part. Even if you aren't I'm going to tell you.

Yesterday started off so nicely. My aunt & uncle had arrived Sun. evening while I was out to dinner with friends before we took in a show. (The Wedding Singer. Highly recommend the stage performance should it be in your area.) My father took them to dinner (it's his brother & SIL so he should take them to dinner). The next morning they left around 9-ish, having not eaten the lovely bagels we'd purchased but I'm ok with that since it means I can have a bagel or 2 now. Rather then go back to sleep - hey, it was a holiday you're supposed to either go somewhere or sleep in - I decided that I needed to do some work on all those ornaments that need finishing. Plus I needed to catch up on some shows I've been recording from TV. All this sounds good. I worked on finishing, even completed one of the pieces that's been stitched for a couple of years at least. (I haven't taken a picture, but one will be taken soon.)

Let me digress from this very interesting tale to inform you that I can't estimate how much actual thread I need to make cording. Invariably I make way more then I need and I haven't figured out how to make it shorter without either cutting it (and I didn't want to do that), or starting over (and I definitely wasn't doing that). So I have this really cute piece with this fairly long cording. I make it work on the tree so I'm not upset, just perplexed.

Back to the Holiday curse...so, I'm doing my thing and at the same time it seems my father decides he should go out to the shed and replace the gas tank on the tractor. By tractor I mean a riding lawn mower that takes attachments, not an actual huge tractor. We own property, but not that much. It seems that when he was through fiddling he was closing the door and tripped over something and hit his head. The good news is he apparently didn't pass out. Nor was he dizzy. He did have a nice little goose egg on his head and managed to mess with it and cause it to bled, but only after he'd eaten lunch. Hey, he was hungry you know. So, off we go to the doctor's office to make sure he doesn't have a concussion, or something worse. Luckily his doctor had a cancellation just as we walked in, so we didn't have to wait long. We love Dr. Goh, he's an amazing doctor who actually takes time with his patients and listens to them. (I think it's because he's a D.O. and they are trained to treat the whole person, but that's just my opinion.) He decided that we needed to be safe, so gave my dad orders to get a CT scan of his brain. That we accomplished today. We'll know what they found, or didn't find, in a day or 2. I'm fairly sure if they saw any bleeding, and that's what they were looking for, they would have told us by now. Dr. Goh thought everything was fine, but better safe then sorry later.

Now, 1 event does not constitute a curse, but several years ago, on a lovely 4th of July, my mother decided that the bleach should not only go in the washing machine with my father's underclothes, but also in her eyes. Sure, she said the bottle slipped into the machine and she hadn't closed it and all the bleach just popped back at her and into her eyes, it was just a silly accident. But I'm beginning to wonder. That day we spent most of the holiday in the emergency room while they washed out her eyes and then put some protective lenses in because she'd burnt them with the bleach. Please note that there is a warning label on those bottles for a reason. Luckily I have been known to wear contacts and had some saline solution so I spent the entire car ride with her head in my lap in the back seat while I pried open her eyelids and squirted the saline solution in them. The ER doctor said that's probably what saved her sight in the eye that took the brunt of the damage. By the time we got there I had managed to bring the PH levels down considerably, one eye was very close to what it should be. (So note to everyone, saline solution isn't just for contacts. It should be in every household in case of eye emergencies. It's what they use at the hospital.)

There have been other incidents, though not as major. Hence my moritorium on work on holidays. The madness has to stop. Not to mention it cuts into my time to do what I want to do.

Ok, rant over. Other then to note that these doctors visits have meant some time spent with my new socks I'm knitting. Yeah, yeah, I'll take pictures of that too.

I did stitch tonight. Worked on a cute ornament. It's a triangular shaped Santa, I think from Bent Creek. One of the many ornament kits I've collected from the exchage I participate in. Should finish it next Tuesday night. (I've re-established Tuesday's as ornament nights after taking a little break.)

No other changes to report on. Boring me.

SBQ

When you have to frog out stitches, do you reuse that thread or do you
start over with a new strand?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2007/11/sbq-recycling/

The answer depends on how much I had to frog, what stitch I frogged and the condition of the fiber after frogging. So, sometimes yes I reuse and other times no. (I think this is the shortest answer I've given to one of these.)

Random notes

1. Thanks for all the nice comments about the tree.

2. Heather, the Swedish Star ornament is not from you. I acquired that one year at our church's Fall Bazaar. I believe that was made by the very dear Mrs. Howard, who has since passed away. (She was a fascinating woman who had been a journalist back when a woman journalist was rare indeed. She always used the Italian pronunciation of my name which is much more lyrical then how most everyone else says is. I miss her very much.)

3. I'm so glad at least 1 other person is going to start decorating. (Mindi I want to see pictures of your decorations too.)

4. I'm not sure why people see my pictures and think I do good finishing work. I do passable finishing work. The cube actually has some problems, like the bottom is kind of rounded. I've apparently overstuffed it. I don't care, there's no way on this side of heaven that I'm taking it apart and changing it in any way. It's done, I figure after some time the batting will settle and the bottom will become less rounded.

5. My family has great stories and they need to be written down. Apparently my mom, her sister and some cousin's gathered at my aunt's house when mom & dad were in WV. Also apparently they got to talking about growing up in a little "town" (and I use that word very loosely) in the same state. Understand, my mother was born in a coal camp and lived in the same house until her father died in WW2. They then moved less then 10 miles to Allen Junction. You won't find it on a map, at least I doubt you will. It's small, but things happened there. Things like people playing pianos and singing songs while houses burned. (Oh yeah, there was alcohol involved with this.) They also have stories about visiting their grandmother's sisters back in VA. These are the stories that need to be written down and I think I should do it. They would make you laugh and cry and then laugh some more. (Don't even get me started about the wake where they laid the dead man on the top of the bar and he raised up during the festivities.)

6. When you want to find something, it will remain hidden. (This is just a given. Probably part of Murphy's Law.)

7. Apparently I make someone smile. (BTW, this is my first blog award. How cool is that?)

Or at least I make Heather smile (which is good since she always makes me smile!) So now I have to give this to 10 other bloggers who make me smile. I have to admit, this was kind of hard. There are a lot of blogs out there that make me smile for any number of reasons, but here goes. In no particular order (as they say on DWTS)...

* Knit Kimber Knit - mainly because she has a dog named Snoopy and she puts up such great Mike Rowe pictures.

* Yarntender - she just rocks and she taught me to knit!

* Knitting for Amazons! - anyone who admits to having a WIP named "The Dead Bride" is ok with me.

* Contemplaing my needle and thread - what finishes, what great stitching!

* What's Up with Wyora? - Mindi's logic is always worth a smile or 2.

* Karoline's Corner - well lately because she's having a little alien of her own and that's just way cool.

* Not A Beginning Knitter Anymore - Ok, she doesn't post often (cough, cough) but when she does watch out.

* How Raven Lit the World - pretty yarn always brings a smile!

* Notes from Carol's Stitching Nest - another occasional poster, but she always has such beautiful finishes that are inspiring.

* Blog A Go-Go - I adored her 1st book and wait anxiously for her 2nd (which should be coming soon!). Until that happens I smile to see "in which" way things will develop on her blog.

That's 10, I didn't duplicate any of Heather's entries, so you should check out her list as well. There's a few on there I get a smile or 2 from on any given day.

8. Have I mentioned that I am a huge Jane Austen fan? I actually kicked around the idea of getting my Master's in English Lit because of the Jane. (I like to think a very horrid spell of mono. derailed my quest, and it probably didn't help, but in all actuality I wanted to make a paycheck so I could pay off my student loans and used the mono. as a handy excuse.) But I digress...Jane Austen is wonderful because when you read her books you either see yourself, or friends and relatives, or all three at the same time. That's why this quiz was interesting to me. If it is to you, then see what it says about you. As for me, it seems that I'm the most like the following character...

Take the Quiz here!

Interesting huh?

9. I found another sign that Christmas is upon us. Publix (that's my favorite grocery store for those in other countries or parts of the U.S.) finally has Egg Nog ice cream in stock, their brand. The yummy goodness came home with me tonight. It's ok, I have it on excellent authority that there is only so much Egg Nog available each year, so you have to drink (and in this case eat) what you can before it becomes extinct again. (This also goes for mincemeat and home made rum balls. The latter can get you in more trouble though so you do have to be a bit careful with them.)

That's it. My random-ness is tired and craves some sleep.

It's not just retailers who do it!

That's right, I've started decorating for Christmas. Now I know that all the major retailers have had their Christmas decorations out for awhile, so I'm actually behind, but still, for many this is early. I have an excuse though...I put up A LOT of decorations. I mean, A LOT. So, this is just a small beginning.I'm giving you several different views, so you get the full effect. This is my newest tree. I started it last year, as some of my friends may remember, so I can put all my handmade ornaments on one tree. There are mainly stitched ornaments on this, but there will be some knitted ones as well and a few other techniques.

All the newest ornaments are on this year and I figured out I have 12 more to do the finishing on.
So, I've got some work to do before Christmas comes. I had planned on having a lovely hand knitted tree skirt. Please note, I haven't even begun said tree skirt, although I purchased the materials last year. If I get my sweater finished any time soon, I'm going to cast on that piece. Then I'll have to work on it some. Probably won't have it for this year though. That's a good idea though, plus the bag of yarn is taking up a lot of room in the sewing room so getting started would be a step in the direction of the bag becoming if not gone, at least smaller.

Stay tuned for more seasonal magic as things progress.

Back aches and the stuff of Mondays

Let me begin by saying that I'm really tired of this weird back ache I've had for a week now. It's actually in my right shoulder blade and it's annoying and well, a pain in the back. (What you thought I'd say something else didn't you?) I have a feeling this is going to require a visit to the D.O. who can then do some sort of magic and adjust something and make it go away. However, the last time I had one of those my blood pressure dropped so low I almost passed out, so I'm not excited about having that done, however the other part of me realizes that the passed out feeling goes away fairly quickly and the lovely no pain part comes along instead. (Hey, I'm nothing if not a realist.)

Enough whining....I passed a lovely weekend, spent mostly knitting. Went both Fri. and Sat. to knit-ins at the ever wonderful KnitWitz. The best part was that Jane was here. Actually she's still in town, but we don't know yet for how much longer. I miss Jane. She deserted us, moved to Seattle, WA. I guess she really should have, since her husband's job moved him there. (There is some debate on this, but we won't get into the details. We love Jane's husband, we just don't love that he moved her CLEAR ACROSS THE COUNTRY!) Anyway, I enjoyed my time knitting with the gang both nights. Got to see a few people I haven't seen in quite a while. (Misha, Corrina, and Kate being the 3 that come to mind first.) There were also some new faces, which is always fun.

Hey, speaking of Kate, I'll try to keep you updated for the opening of her Etsy shop. I have some of her hand dyed yarn and it's lovely. You too should obtain some when it becomes available online.

Nothing new in pictures. I did begin a new pair of socks. Finally going to make my "I Dreamed of Africa" socks. I've loved how these looked for ages and bought yarn for them when KnitWitz got Schaefer Anne in earlier this year. I promise that as soon as I can I'll take a picture of them. (For those of you on Ravelry, I have a picture of the yarn with the pattern on my page, I'm GirlWithNeedles there too!)

The only other news is that the 'rents arrived home safely from their sojourn in WV. They seem to have had a wonderful trip. We hope to head back together the first of Dec. for my aunt & uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. The requisite party will be held and that's just something we don't want to miss if we don't have to. I mean, that's a huge and wonderful event to celebrate. (Plus there will be lots of family and music and food.)

I believe my heating pad is calling my name, or at least my back. Happy Monday (which is now Tuesday, but hey, you get the idea!)

Unbelievable!

My poor, unable to win against an ailing U. of Miami (FL), Seminoles finally put together a complete game and won against the current #2 team, Boston College, in Boston! I wasn't watching, which may have helped (Ann I may have come down with your disease for big games.) I was knitting at the Midnight Knit-in at the ever awesome KnitWitz. I had planned on going no matter what time the game aired. I felt the need to be with my yarn people, they understand my yarn thing. I also admit I didn't think my alma mater could pull out a win this year. Oh me of little faith. Sigh. Now I'll have to watch it on the rerun tomorrow. Still it's exciting, and hopefully they can start playing up to their potential and win some more games.

The only other major news from today was my attempt to organize my stitching patterns and kits. I started, but didn't have the right system, so I'll continue tomorrow. It's totally something I can do while I watch the replay of the game and any other sports action on tomorrow, like the race in TX. Shouldn't actually take me that long now that I know what to do. (At least that's what I keep telling myself, we'll see how long it actually takes.)