I know, no pictures, how boring, but hopefully soon.
Last weekend was great! I went Friday afternoon to pick up some things at the CPA's office and since I had to get there before they closed I decided to take my Eliza tank top with me and stop by KnitWitz and have Kathe help me get things figured out so I could finish the back. It seems my brain wouldn't work right. Well she got me on the right track just in time for me to run to the next stop for the evening....
Olde Green Cupboard - They have a gathering once a month they call Friday Night Lights where you can sign up and quilt or stitch or work on whatever. My friends Melody and Kerrie and I decided we'd like some stitching time. So we signed up and met there and stitched from 6 to midnight. Most everyone else had sewing machines and were working on some fantastic quilts and other projects. Very inspiring. I managed to get some time in on "Deer in the Woods" although I'm not sure you can tell I did anything. I also started the "Quaker Reindeer" ornament from Workbasket that was in the 2006 JCS ornament issue. It's my mom's favorite from that book, so I want to get it stitched so I can get it finished and on the tree this year.
Saturday I met up with some friends and did a bit of knitting and watched a movie. I managed to finish the back of Eliza. I started casting on for the front, but had to take it off because I forgot I am doing a stripe down the front and hadn't cast the white on for that.
Sunday was nice. Only one worship service and then a covered dish supper after, kind of a welcome to the new pastor and his family. Good attendance so we may do this again. Would be nice to have only one service every so often. Sunday afternoon I sat and watched the NASCAR race and cast on the elusive front of Elize. By Sunday night I had the 1st 3 inches in. Worked on it again last night and got another 2 or 2 1/2 inches in. I'm excited, it's going along nicely. I really want to get it finished. Then I can cast on for a new sweater that I got the yarn for this week. It's from the Rowan book Coast and is made with 100% cotton yarn. Very soft, very yummy. Can't wait to start.
Keep looking for pictures. I'll try to get some taken soon.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Contest alert
In case you haven't seen, the lovely Jean is running a contest for the best caption for a picture of her fantastic dog and a certain QB that's been in the news. Run over there and take a look. BaaBaa Knit Stitch
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Long week
...or at least it feels that way. I don't have much to say. I've been busy with work, or at least with answering the phone and talking to a lot of people. Not sure how much actual work I accomplished, what with a set of house plans that I picked up yesterday sitting on my desk without me looking at them.
On a more positive note...my dear Heather and her DH closed on their new place today. I'm very happy for them. (Mainly I'm relieved. I was beginning to be scared we'd have to find H. a new head when hers exploded from all the stress.) She also blogged pictures and more information about the HP movie party, so go take a look at It's Geek to Me.
Tomorrow evening I'm looking forward to some major stitching time. I didn't stitch tonight, but I did work on a design for the crochet class I'm teaching in a couple of weeks. I think I've got one design down and will have to decide on the other 2 by Sunday night. I'm hoping to teach something with the basics, but show people how you can get some interesting texture. The class is called "A Trio of Crocheted Washcloths" or something close to that. At the least the participants will hopefully have a couple of nice small gifts for Christmas, which is coming up much sooner then any of us expect. Can't start too soon on gifts you know...how many do you have done?
On a more positive note...my dear Heather and her DH closed on their new place today. I'm very happy for them. (Mainly I'm relieved. I was beginning to be scared we'd have to find H. a new head when hers exploded from all the stress.) She also blogged pictures and more information about the HP movie party, so go take a look at It's Geek to Me.
Tomorrow evening I'm looking forward to some major stitching time. I didn't stitch tonight, but I did work on a design for the crochet class I'm teaching in a couple of weeks. I think I've got one design down and will have to decide on the other 2 by Sunday night. I'm hoping to teach something with the basics, but show people how you can get some interesting texture. The class is called "A Trio of Crocheted Washcloths" or something close to that. At the least the participants will hopefully have a couple of nice small gifts for Christmas, which is coming up much sooner then any of us expect. Can't start too soon on gifts you know...how many do you have done?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Hogwarts 2nd year
Without further ado I present my 2nd year questionnaire. Now to await my new pal.
Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire
Second Years
1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Gryffindor
2. Shoe size? 7 ½
a. Jitterbug
b. Lorna’s Sock Yarn
c. anything that’s soft and pretty!
4. Would you like to try a new brand of sock yarn? If so, which brand? I’d love to try a new brand of sock yarn. I don’t really care what brand. I’ve either got in my stash or can acquire Panda Sock, Regia, Opal, Tofutsies, Sockotta, ArtYarns sock, and the 2 listed in #3. BTW, I also like hand dyed, hand spun sock yarns that aren't a name brand but are pretty and soft.
And on that note, with a sky that looks like it will rain for days, let the fun begin!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Trying to catch up...
It's not like I was gone on vacation for over a week, it's more like I was gone for 4 days and then the rest of the week just slipped on by. I apologize and will attempt to make it up by posting about a few things to get caught up.
First...I managed to not only finish my sock for the Hogwarts Sock Swap, but I even mailed it out. I'm not positive my pal has received it, even though I sent it by Priority Owl o
n Tues. so I'm reluctant to put a picture up. However, I'm going to anyway.... You can see a glimpse of the socks, with of course the dpn's and in that tiny silver box reside some stitch markers. I decided to try my hand at making them. Hopefully they turned out ok. I liked them. I think I'd try something different though, if I made more. As you can see I included a couple of other goodies, some tea and a shortbread cookie, some chocolate and some "magical bath salts". I also included a bookmark that I'd made, but it didn't make it into the picture.
Second...I got my package from the lovely JennieferW.
This is what it looked like before I opened all the pretty packages tied up in Gryffindor colors.
I would show you what it looked like all opened up, but for some reason I can't seem to upload that picture. So, I'll try to tell you instead...
1 pair of beautiful socks in the best colors in the world!
1 set of fantastic and beautiful stitch markers
1 set of Crystal Palace bamboo dpn's
1 box of Bertie Botts All Flavored beans
pattern and materials to make a HP book scarf. (I hadn't seen this before and it's very cute. Will have to start on it soon.)
a great HP bookmark (which I used while reading this weekend)
All in all, a great package. The socks fit wonderfully. Can't wait for a cool day to wear them, it's been a little to hot around here lately, with heat indexes in and around the 100's for several days last week.
As you may recall when I last posted I was headed to hot-Lanta to visit with friends, stitch, attend a HP movie party and generally have a good time. Let me say that I managed to do all that and more. I arrived without too much delay, although I had started to worry about my luggage, made my way on MARTA to my friend Jill's house and had a great evening catching up with her and our friend Ann who'd driven that evening as well. We did some prep. cooking, since we had to provide lunch on Sat. that evening and Fri. morning. Also Fri. morning we met up with Jean, Judy and Judy's good friend Joan (who was braving our get-together for the first time) at The Whole Nine Yarns. My goal was to purchase yarn for Mystery Stole 3, I purchased some, but ended up letting Jill buy it from me since it wasn't exactly what I wanted and was having buyers remorse. Then it was on to Vicky's for food and stitching. I did manage to stitch, oh and eat, and finished stitching the Pear Ornament which was a kit from last year's exchange and so was in the 2005 JCS Ornament issue.
Jill & I left a little early so we could go back to her place, relax and change before going to Heather & Michael's for the HP movie party. As usual the party was fun and had great food and ended with a trip to see the movie. This year they had it in their soon-to-be loft. No furniture, but we managed. The best part was getting to see the whole place by following clues. Too hard to explain here without pictures and for some reason I didn't take pictures of all that. I did manage to capture pictures of some of the goodies we had to eat that evening...
That's the great chef & friend Andy washing up after putting out some fantastic crumpets with Stilton cheese and other crunch goodness and "devils on thestral back" (which were prunes stuffed with chutney wrapped in bacon and cooked then served on pumpernickel bread...oh wow!) There were other goodies, and as usual we all enjoyed the food. We did manage to play a game, which I was miserable at I might add, which resembled charades but instead of movies or books or other more mundane things we had to act out the side effects from eating one of the Weasley brother's concoctions. Let me just say, it's not easy to act out having a giant squid on your head! (I'm not bitter, but my team lost and we would have won if I could have done a better imitation of said squid on said head.)
Sat. brought morning, or what passed for it and more food, stitching and general hilarity at Vicky's. We also managed a trip to a frame shop to get some great deals on frames and then
to Abecedarius (hey, it was just across the street and Ann needed some Mill Hill beads and well it was there...) Yes, I found a couple of things that I couldn't do without and yes, most had a bunny on them. That evening we did our exchange of kits for last year's ornament issue. As Heather said on her blog "It's Christmas in July." Having made up my share of kits to give out, I received quite a few myself. I didn't take a picture, I was too busy looking at the magazine to remind myself which one's I was getting. Very happy with them all. Vicky had put up a small tree in her living room and we put the ornaments we managed to stitch on the tree. As you can see some are "finished" and some are "FINISHED", but no matter, they were all beautiful. I couldn't wait to start on another ornament, so I started the "Pear Tree" which I received from Jean. I'm almost finished with it, so I'll post a picture soon. I think everyone enjoys getting them, although I'm not sure how many of us actually stitch them up. For me, it's stash that's easy to go to. In fact, I've had them in the cutest box, but with this year's haul I had to move them to a new, larger box. No complaints though.
Sunday was a lot more lazy day kind of thing, but still there was stitching and eating. We tried to eat up the left-overs, but didn't manage to finish all of them. There are some really great cooks in this group and we had some fantastic food that weekend.
My flight home was uneventful, but it did take me well over an hour to get through security at Hartsfield Int'l Airport. That's the longest line I've ever seen outside of Disney!
Other then work, some stitching and a bit of not feeling all that wonderful, the rest of last week passed along quickly and finally it was time for the final HP book. I didn't go stand in line for mine on Friday night, didn't feel up to it, but managed to get it around 11 Sat. morning and read it all. Finished around 1 AM Sun. morning. Since I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone who hasn't read it, I won't say anything except that I enjoyed it and I'm kind of sad we won't be hearing more from our wizarding friends.
And on that note....until next time...
First...I managed to not only finish my sock for the Hogwarts Sock Swap, but I even mailed it out. I'm not positive my pal has received it, even though I sent it by Priority Owl o
n Tues. so I'm reluctant to put a picture up. However, I'm going to anyway.... You can see a glimpse of the socks, with of course the dpn's and in that tiny silver box reside some stitch markers. I decided to try my hand at making them. Hopefully they turned out ok. I liked them. I think I'd try something different though, if I made more. As you can see I included a couple of other goodies, some tea and a shortbread cookie, some chocolate and some "magical bath salts". I also included a bookmark that I'd made, but it didn't make it into the picture.Second...I got my package from the lovely JennieferW.
This is what it looked like before I opened all the pretty packages tied up in Gryffindor colors.I would show you what it looked like all opened up, but for some reason I can't seem to upload that picture. So, I'll try to tell you instead...
1 pair of beautiful socks in the best colors in the world!
1 set of fantastic and beautiful stitch markers
1 set of Crystal Palace bamboo dpn's
1 box of Bertie Botts All Flavored beans
pattern and materials to make a HP book scarf. (I hadn't seen this before and it's very cute. Will have to start on it soon.)
a great HP bookmark (which I used while reading this weekend)
All in all, a great package. The socks fit wonderfully. Can't wait for a cool day to wear them, it's been a little to hot around here lately, with heat indexes in and around the 100's for several days last week.
As you may recall when I last posted I was headed to hot-Lanta to visit with friends, stitch, attend a HP movie party and generally have a good time. Let me say that I managed to do all that and more. I arrived without too much delay, although I had started to worry about my luggage, made my way on MARTA to my friend Jill's house and had a great evening catching up with her and our friend Ann who'd driven that evening as well. We did some prep. cooking, since we had to provide lunch on Sat. that evening and Fri. morning. Also Fri. morning we met up with Jean, Judy and Judy's good friend Joan (who was braving our get-together for the first time) at The Whole Nine Yarns. My goal was to purchase yarn for Mystery Stole 3, I purchased some, but ended up letting Jill buy it from me since it wasn't exactly what I wanted and was having buyers remorse. Then it was on to Vicky's for food and stitching. I did manage to stitch, oh and eat, and finished stitching the Pear Ornament which was a kit from last year's exchange and so was in the 2005 JCS Ornament issue.
Jill & I left a little early so we could go back to her place, relax and change before going to Heather & Michael's for the HP movie party. As usual the party was fun and had great food and ended with a trip to see the movie. This year they had it in their soon-to-be loft. No furniture, but we managed. The best part was getting to see the whole place by following clues. Too hard to explain here without pictures and for some reason I didn't take pictures of all that. I did manage to capture pictures of some of the goodies we had to eat that evening...
That's the great chef & friend Andy washing up after putting out some fantastic crumpets with Stilton cheese and other crunch goodness and "devils on thestral back" (which were prunes stuffed with chutney wrapped in bacon and cooked then served on pumpernickel bread...oh wow!) There were other goodies, and as usual we all enjoyed the food. We did manage to play a game, which I was miserable at I might add, which resembled charades but instead of movies or books or other more mundane things we had to act out the side effects from eating one of the Weasley brother's concoctions. Let me just say, it's not easy to act out having a giant squid on your head! (I'm not bitter, but my team lost and we would have won if I could have done a better imitation of said squid on said head.)
Sat. brought morning, or what passed for it and more food, stitching and general hilarity at Vicky's. We also managed a trip to a frame shop to get some great deals on frames and then
to Abecedarius (hey, it was just across the street and Ann needed some Mill Hill beads and well it was there...) Yes, I found a couple of things that I couldn't do without and yes, most had a bunny on them. That evening we did our exchange of kits for last year's ornament issue. As Heather said on her blog "It's Christmas in July." Having made up my share of kits to give out, I received quite a few myself. I didn't take a picture, I was too busy looking at the magazine to remind myself which one's I was getting. Very happy with them all. Vicky had put up a small tree in her living room and we put the ornaments we managed to stitch on the tree. As you can see some are "finished" and some are "FINISHED", but no matter, they were all beautiful. I couldn't wait to start on another ornament, so I started the "Pear Tree" which I received from Jean. I'm almost finished with it, so I'll post a picture soon. I think everyone enjoys getting them, although I'm not sure how many of us actually stitch them up. For me, it's stash that's easy to go to. In fact, I've had them in the cutest box, but with this year's haul I had to move them to a new, larger box. No complaints though.Sunday was a lot more lazy day kind of thing, but still there was stitching and eating. We tried to eat up the left-overs, but didn't manage to finish all of them. There are some really great cooks in this group and we had some fantastic food that weekend.
My flight home was uneventful, but it did take me well over an hour to get through security at Hartsfield Int'l Airport. That's the longest line I've ever seen outside of Disney!
Other then work, some stitching and a bit of not feeling all that wonderful, the rest of last week passed along quickly and finally it was time for the final HP book. I didn't go stand in line for mine on Friday night, didn't feel up to it, but managed to get it around 11 Sat. morning and read it all. Finished around 1 AM Sun. morning. Since I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone who hasn't read it, I won't say anything except that I enjoyed it and I'm kind of sad we won't be hearing more from our wizarding friends.
And on that note....until next time...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Another Happy Dance!
Yesterday was fairly productive. I managed to finish my HP socks for the Hogwarts exchange! That's great news for me and my pal. Have to pick up a couple of things today and get the package ready to drop in the mail. When I do I'll take a picture.
The other big thing was I got as many of my ornament kits completed as I can. I am waiting, fairly patiently, for my box from Dreama at Needlecraft Corner to come. It has the last of the NPI silk I need to finish the last few kits. I'll have to take a picture of all of them too. Pretty impressive sight if you ask me. This weekend they'll find new homes when we exchange kits in Atlanta.
In other news...I'm running out of time to get everything done before I leave for Atlanta...scary. So, cutting this short until I have pictures to show everyone.
The other big thing was I got as many of my ornament kits completed as I can. I am waiting, fairly patiently, for my box from Dreama at Needlecraft Corner to come. It has the last of the NPI silk I need to finish the last few kits. I'll have to take a picture of all of them too. Pretty impressive sight if you ask me. This weekend they'll find new homes when we exchange kits in Atlanta.
In other news...I'm running out of time to get everything done before I leave for Atlanta...scary. So, cutting this short until I have pictures to show everyone.
Monday, July 9, 2007
1 Finished, 1 so very close!
Happy dancing at my house tonight! Finished the last of the ornaments for the exchange. Since it's the "surprise" one, they'll be no pictures until after this weekend and the exchange. I will say it's very cute, at least I think so.
I thought I might pull off a double dance, but came up a bit short. Taking mom to the dentist today helped me to almost finish my HP sock for the Hogwart's Sock Exchange. I'm ready to finish the toe, then weave in all my ends. Then it's just getting everything together and in a box...oh and I need my pal's actual address to give to the owl who'll carry it to her.
All in all, a very productive day. Tomorrow I'll be working on getting kits made for the ornament exchange and finishing the sock.
I thought I might pull off a double dance, but came up a bit short. Taking mom to the dentist today helped me to almost finish my HP sock for the Hogwart's Sock Exchange. I'm ready to finish the toe, then weave in all my ends. Then it's just getting everything together and in a box...oh and I need my pal's actual address to give to the owl who'll carry it to her.
All in all, a very productive day. Tomorrow I'll be working on getting kits made for the ornament exchange and finishing the sock.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
I Got My Invitation!
It came this morning, my invitation to join Ravelry! If you don't know what it is, you can find out more at Ravelry where you can put your name on the list to join. They are adding people a few at a time right now to be beta testers. I've had my name on there for awhile. I love the concept of a place for knitters and crocheters to join together and share information on yarn, patterns, needles and all kinds of other things. It's also a way for me to help keep track of what I have. Just a great way to share the love of knitting. Now if someone would just do this for stitching....
That's all for today, busy working on projects. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
That's all for today, busy working on projects. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Catching Up
One of the signs of passing youth
is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings
as we take our place among them. Virginia Woolf
is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings
as we take our place among them. Virginia Woolf
I'm a bit behind with my posting, but there was this holiday yesterday around here that I decided to take and enjoy since it was in the middle of the week.
Tuesday was "Virtual Birthday" with my friends Christine, Joan, Kathy & Michele. Since every time I say this people look at me oddly I'll just explain. We've been friends for several years, some of us for more then 15, although we try not to think about it. We all worked together for "a large telecommunications company in the credit card division before it was sold". At some point we ended up in the Technology area and someone there said something about us having the opposite of a "boy's network or club", so we decided we'd name our nights out "meetings of The Girls Club" or something along those lines. It stuck, as have our friendships. About 3 or 4 years ago, maybe more, we decided that attempting to get together 5 times a year close to each person's birthday was driving us crazy, every has busy schedules and we all don't work together any longer. So, we decided to declare 1 day out of the year our "birthday" and exchange all our presents then. Hence "Virtual Birthday". This year, July 2nd was the default day, mainly because we had let it go so long and felt like it was now or never. We met at Christine's house, watched some TV, hung out, had some dinner which her lovely husband Ron went to pick up for us, then opened presents. The best part is seeing what we all got each other. I think I enj
oy seeing what everyone else gets as much as opening my own presents. I love everything I got again this year.
From left to right you can see the travel size body sprays and the cool pottery piece from Kathy. Then from Joan a great book of knitting stitches and a bag of my favorite tea (Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearl blended with Rooibos Tropica) from Teavana so I can make a cup and sit and read through the patterns, her idea was I'd pick and create a design of my own. Then a Lampe Berge and some oil for it from Christine & Michele. All items I adore.
Started working on kitting my ornaments for the exchange next week. Found I'm short some NPI silk but I think I've gotten it taken care of and will have full kits put together by the time I leave next Thur. evening. Still need to finish the "surprise ornament", so will try to work on that this evening after my meeting at church. I've also been knitting on my HP sock. It's coming along much faster then the first one did, which doesn't really surprise me. I'm hoping to have it done this weekend. I have to make my stitch counters, but that shouldn't take me all that long. If I could get that mailed out before I leave for Atlanta, that would be great. It's a goal at least. And since I have a few things to get done, I guess I'll go work on them!
Tuesday was "Virtual Birthday" with my friends Christine, Joan, Kathy & Michele. Since every time I say this people look at me oddly I'll just explain. We've been friends for several years, some of us for more then 15, although we try not to think about it. We all worked together for "a large telecommunications company in the credit card division before it was sold". At some point we ended up in the Technology area and someone there said something about us having the opposite of a "boy's network or club", so we decided we'd name our nights out "meetings of The Girls Club" or something along those lines. It stuck, as have our friendships. About 3 or 4 years ago, maybe more, we decided that attempting to get together 5 times a year close to each person's birthday was driving us crazy, every has busy schedules and we all don't work together any longer. So, we decided to declare 1 day out of the year our "birthday" and exchange all our presents then. Hence "Virtual Birthday". This year, July 2nd was the default day, mainly because we had let it go so long and felt like it was now or never. We met at Christine's house, watched some TV, hung out, had some dinner which her lovely husband Ron went to pick up for us, then opened presents. The best part is seeing what we all got each other. I think I enj
oy seeing what everyone else gets as much as opening my own presents. I love everything I got again this year.From left to right you can see the travel size body sprays and the cool pottery piece from Kathy. Then from Joan a great book of knitting stitches and a bag of my favorite tea (Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearl blended with Rooibos Tropica) from Teavana so I can make a cup and sit and read through the patterns, her idea was I'd pick and create a design of my own. Then a Lampe Berge and some oil for it from Christine & Michele. All items I adore.
Started working on kitting my ornaments for the exchange next week. Found I'm short some NPI silk but I think I've gotten it taken care of and will have full kits put together by the time I leave next Thur. evening. Still need to finish the "surprise ornament", so will try to work on that this evening after my meeting at church. I've also been knitting on my HP sock. It's coming along much faster then the first one did, which doesn't really surprise me. I'm hoping to have it done this weekend. I have to make my stitch counters, but that shouldn't take me all that long. If I could get that mailed out before I leave for Atlanta, that would be great. It's a goal at least. And since I have a few things to get done, I guess I'll go work on them!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
What some of you have been waiting for
Pictures of the Night Blooming Cereus. Oh, and I found out it's also known as "Queen of the Night" and "Dutchman's Pipe". Now I can totally understand where the "Queen of the Night" name came from, these blooms are fantastic. But can't figure out the other name. However, you want to see pictures....
First a picture I took with flash, you can tell this is where the 3 blooms were together. The flash doesn't let you see the detail so....
Here's just a single bloom. My mom had to hold a flashlight to light it while I took pictures.
A little better detail
A bit fuzzy, but still beautiful
You can barely see that there are 2 other's in this shot.
This is my favorite shot! I had to do a little work in a photo program so you could really see them, but I like the effect.
First a picture I took with flash, you can tell this is where the 3 blooms were together. The flash doesn't let you see the detail so....
Here's just a single bloom. My mom had to hold a flashlight to light it while I took pictures.
A little better detail
A bit fuzzy, but still beautiful
You can barely see that there are 2 other's in this shot.
This is my favorite shot! I had to do a little work in a photo program so you could really see them, but I like the effect.So that's it. We enjoyed them for one night and then they were gone. The fragrance was wonderful. If anyone ever offers you one of these, I suggest you take it. From what I've read they will grow indoors. We keep ours in a pot outside. Have to bring it in when it freezes, but otherwise, it seems to do pretty good on it's own. It's always a treat to see the bloom. Glad this year was so special. Hope you've enjoyed seeing the pictures.
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