Where does time go?

I know, there really isn't an answer to that question but I really am not sure where the time has gone between my last blog posts and today. It's been over a month. I'm pretty sure I'm just slack, but it could also be a bit to do with life. So to catch you up I give you the following.

1. I met my DF's Heather, Michael, Jill & Andy in Orlando for a long weekend of fun to celebrate Michael's birthday a bit early.

Andy, Jill, Me, Heather & Michael (Isn't he the brave one?)

He wanted to go to Universal Studios, especially the new Harry Potter portion. Much fun was had by all.

Hogwarts!

There was Butterbeer

And I got to meet the Hogwart's Express conductor!











And there was food.......and drink that was quite lovely everywhere we went.









Of course there was the wonderful pleasure of the company of my friends who all live in the Atlanta area. It was Andy's first visit to Florida. I hope we managed to show her a great time so she'll come back some time.

2. I have been supplementing my stash lately. Not a good sign. I don't have pictures of everything but I did do some damage when I went to Atlanta in July for my birthday.

Top row: ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud to be held with Noro Kureyon Sock for a scarf
Row 2: Rowan Lima for sweater, 2 colors of Cascade Yarns Ultra Pima in a garnet and a gold for a tank top, Ella Rae Bamboo Silk for a little jacket.
Row 3: SWTC Xie in two different colors (a shawl or 2 in the making), The Alpaca Yarn Co. Paca-Peds sock yarn, Noro Sekku 
Bottom: Wollmeise Lace-Garn.

3. Went to Savannah after church just this last weekend to see the fall incarnation of the Gospel Show at The Savannah Theatre. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but if you are going to be visiting Savannah you need to make reservations to see whatever show it going on at this theater, and I don't just say that because I've known the Musical Director/Drummer and his family for years and have become friends with one of the other cast members. It really is a good time. We went in the Spring when they did this show and my parents wanted to go again this fall. There were a few changes, some of the cast was different for a variety of reasons. 

Since it was on a Sunday afternoon we left right after the 9:45 service at church and drove up. Now, we left pretty close to 11AM but because of traffic and the fact I travel with a couple of older, distinguished folk, we made it to the theater about 20 minutes before the show started at 3PM. Seriously, for normal people it's about a 2.5 hour drive. Of course we stopped and had a light lunch and the obligatory bathroom breaks along the way. But I didn't feel bad since Chris pulled into the parking lot and parked as I was parking our vehicle and getting out. Figured they couldn't really start without him so I'm going to put it down to having impeccable timing. 

Sunday evening mom, dad, Chris and I went out to eat. We were staying right at City Market, so we  thought we'd go to Vinny Van Go-Gos for pizza but the wait was at least an hour and mom was hungry. Then we thought we'd walk over to Jazz'd, but along the way we passed a few nice places and a band so in the end we ate at Cafe at City Market.  Food was good and the weather was perfect. There was even a fairly decent band playing at that end of the market outside. Daddy tried to pick up a new girlfriend, but decided to stick with mom at least until next year when their 50 year contract has to be renewed.


Monday was reserved for lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room.  We'd never been, but we had pros to help us navigate the awesomeness that is lunch at this institution. Chris and fellow cast member Sheldon met us there along with two friends of Chris', Angie & Kassandra. Kassandra has just returned from a year long tour of duty in Iraq (you can just barely see her sitting next to Sheldon in the picture below), so we were especially honored to share a lovely meal with her. They are both lovely young women and are both engaged to young men who are serving in the military. We had a fantastic time chatting before we went in to eat and during our meal. Well worth the wait (yes, Sheldon, even if we weren't supposed to wait).  That's just half the table, you should have seen the other half where daddy was "protecting" the fried chicken.

In case you can't tell: friend chicken, mac-n-cheese, biscuit, rutabagas, creamed corn, fried cabbage, cole slaw, cucumbers in vinegar with some pepper and in the middle some candied yams.

Yep, that's bowls of greens, peas, green beans, lima beans, beef stew, and who knows what else.

After lunch we bid a fond farewell to Sheldon and then Chris, but only after he helped me find the lovely needlepoint store The French Knot I'd heard about that is just around the corner from Mrs. Wilkes. A bit hidden, since it's down an alley, but just beautiful inside. Met the owner, Audrey who is both talented and lovely. Of course I found a little something to purchase and will be heading back there when I travel up that way again. If I lived in the area I'd have their stitch-in nights on my calendar. 


Isn't this just the cutest little ornament. Audrey had it, and the other two in the set, finished a couple of different ways. I'm thinking I'll have to call and order the other two canvases before it's all over. And her fiber wall was a thing of beauty. I should have taken a picture but I'd left my camera at home.

After that I headed to Wild Fibre for a little yarn stash enhancement. Found some beautiful Alchemy yarns for a new scarf and just HAD to purchase a couple of sock yarns. I also ordered a book that they will send me when it arrives.  

4. I do have a long overdue picture of a finished knitted project. The picture isn't that great, because I made it at night at a friends home with my iPhone and not in daylight with my camera. However the model is outstanding and a really good sport. She's my friend Janet and the mobius scarf she's wearing isn't even for her! It's for our friend Joyce who was busy doing something else. Janet loved this so who knows, she might receive one in the future.
 

I'm sure I've missed some things, but I'm going to hope I can do better at blogging and have something else to share another day.

Travel...food...it's all good

So many things to talk about I have no idea where or how to start. Let's see...many of you know that I decided to go to WV with my parents the middle of last month. I'm sure some of you may be wondering how I managed that when I announced I had a job. It's simple, yet complicated. Bottom line, the job seems to have fallen through. Not enough funding. So I'm back to looking and talking to headhunters. Oh the fun.

But it did allow me to drive my parents to WV for my mom's 55th high school reunion and some time with family. We got such a late start on the 15th that we stopped for the night in SC. Then we took our time getting started the next day so that we barely arrived at my aunt's house in time for dinner on Wednesday.

My mom's class joins with the class before and after to have their reunion and for the last several they have had a picnic on Friday and a dinner and dance on Saturday. I love going to the Friday night picnic because it's relaxed and they have so much fun talking about all kinds of things. It's also when some of their old teachers show up.This is my mom on the right and the woman who was her "Home Economics" teacher. I was knitting on a sock when she stopped by where we were sitting and she wanted to know if mom had taught me how to sew and knit. My mother did teach me to sew as a child, but never could teach me to knit, my friend Kathe did that. Mom told her yes to sewing, although I never have sewn as well as she has, but that I am a much better cook then she is. My aunt said her teacher wouldn't believe that since mom was always the "golden child".

Coach D'Antoni stopped by...no not Mike, his father.We asked him if he'd been to NYC to see Mike coach and he said yes, but he missed going to Phoenix...NYC is colder!

The evening was held in the school cafeteria. Mullens High School no longer exists, the building is now a middle school. We had a good time talking and having some really good pork bar-b-que.

This trip I managed to get to visit some places I hadn't been. We took a day and went to Fayetteville, WV. We spent some time shopping in the Ben Franklin there. They had some great fabric. I really wish I'd had my box of ornaments that I need fabric for finishing with me. Then we went looking for a place to eat and found ourselves at Cathedral Cafe. I had a veggie sandwich and tortellini salad that was delicious. My aunt had quiche and mom had a Reuben. We all thought it was excellent and would go back again, next time maybe leave some room for desert. I highly recommend it if you're in the area for Bridge Day or some white-water rafting or visiting one of the really wonderful state parks near there. (Hawks Nest comes to mind.)

We also took a day and went to Lewisburg, WV. Eat lunch at The Stardust Cafe. Amazing food. We really should have left room here for desert since the owner's brother is the Crazy Baker and bakes all the deserts for them. I really would have loved something off the pretty red tray the server brought to show us the desert choices. We walked the main downtown street and checked out most of the shops. I even stopped in O'Shea's All About Beauty where you could get your hair cut and find some really pretty yarn. I managed to leave with just some sock yarn, which I don't have a picture of. We took a look through a few antique shops, but didn't find anything we couldn't live without. Finally I scored a glass of Iced Chai at The Wild Bean. My aunt had told me there was a really interesting Irish Pub there we would check out. Unfortunately they aren't open on Thursday's so we didn't get to try it out. We'll be going back though, because they have Irish Stew, Guinness and something called Chocolate Guinness Cake. When I read this description I knew I'd want to start with desert, "Brought to you by the Irish Pub and the Crazy Baker: A deep chocolate cake infused with the elixir Guinness Stout. The cream cheese frosting has a generous dose of dark Jamaican rum." Now that sounds like something worthy of the numerous calories it has to have. What I'd really like to do is stay at one of the B&B's in Lewisburg and be able to hang out one night when they are having traditional Irish music.

Another first this trip was lunch at King Tut Drive-in in Beckley. This is the first place my aunt ever had pizza. Mom & Nora say it hasn't changed much since they first went there in the '50s.
Mom volunteered to hold up my sock at the sign. Have to say that I've always thought the hot dogs at the Dairy Queen in Hinton were some of the best, but the one I had here surpassed it. Now I want to go back and try the pizza which my aunt says is really good. Oh, and again with desert. For some reason we managed to never save room for it and they have home made pies.

So, that about takes care of the trip. There were other side trips, but nothing major. I did I lot of knitting and reading. All in all, a really good vacation.

Blog Eye Candy

I know, it took me long enough, but finally some pictures.

Let's start with the most recently completed piece of stitching.

Halloween Fairy
by Mirabilia

I made a few changes. First, this is stitched on a hand-dyed fabric in my stash and that meant I had to change one of the orange colors in her dress. I found some beautiful fabric and I'll be making a stand-up box out of her. She should be finished in time to be admired during October.

I don't think I mentioned before, but while we were in WV on vacation, my Mom, Aunt and I went out shopping through some of the antique shops. While this is not an antique it was something that I knew would be very handy to store yarn and would look pretty somewhere in the house. Mom thought it would make a great birthday present. We were both right! It's not where it will end up, but it does look pretty in the corner of the dining room. (And before someone asks, no that's not all of my yarn stash, but the 2nd tier holds all the yarn for my Great American Aran Afghan that I'm working on.)

I do know I mentioned going to Atlanta and spending part of my time stitching with a group of friends there. Well, we do more then stitch...
This was lunch on Saturday, or at least part of lunch. That green stuff is mint pesto left over from the previous evenings Harry Potter part at chez Lott made by the very talented Chef Andy. It was beyond YUM.

We also exchanged our ornament kits.That's what it looks like all lined up before "Santa" hands out the goodies.

There are actually some "ornamentfied" pieces on the tree, but they are hard to pick out. Most of us managed to finish stitching our ornaments and that was good enough to decorate the tree with.

Come back tomorrow for pictures of some of my current knitting WIPS.

Cruise and knitting at sea

Let's start with the fun stuff, like the cruise. Really, I went to knit, no really. Ok, so I went partially to knit. I also went because it sounded like fun.

We left on Monday and got on board early enough to have a late lunch. Have to say that the terminal in Jacksonville isn't exactly the prettiest, but they did a good job of moving us through fairly quickly, at least from what I remember from my previous cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. The cabin was great, larger then I thought since we opted for an inside one and the "not so expensive cabin" at that. Before we left I found out that a friend I used to work with, and whom I have just gotten back in touch with, was going to be on the same cruise. John & I managed to text our way to meeting up before the ship left the harbour and talked for a bit. That wasn't the only time we saw each other, I also managed to get up one morning and meet him for breakfast. For those who know me, this wasn't exactly the easiest, but I got up early that morning to see the sunrise and then went to breakfast. It was a good morning.

But back to knitting and cruising. We had a small group, only 6, but I think we managed to have fun and everyone got started on the lovely design.
That's us. (Thanks John for taking the pictures for us, and you were right, that wasn't a great background.)

Ok, so we spent Tuesday at sea. Being at sea has to be the best in my book. There's so much to do on the ship, plus it's just relaxing to be sailing along. We had at least 1 lesson for the shawl on Monday, and another on Tuesday. I also took some time Tuesday to get a pedicure at the spa. Not exactly the cheapest pedi I've ever had, but it was very nice and it was a treat, plus I had my toes painted to match my outfit, so they were blue! (No I don't have a picture of my outfit that evening or my toe nails, bad planning on my part I know.) I do have this picture...
Yep, that's me under the hat. That hat and the massive amounts of SPF 70 lotion I packed managed to keep me from getting burned. That's a good thing.

Wednesday we docked in Key West. We decided to take the Conch Train. It was a great way to see a lot of the island. I would really like to see the inside of the Hemingway House, but this time just got another shot of the outside.
We dropped in to see "the other KnitWitz" which is really Knit Wits and saw lots of pretty yarn. Yes, I found something I fell in love with, but of course don't have a picture of yet. I'm planning on making one of those lovely open-weave scarfs. We had a great visit there and then headed to find this...
Yep, that's a piece of frozen Key Lime pie dipped in chocolate. So yummy and so worth the calories.

From there we went to Nassau. I've been to the Bahamas 3 other times and have only spent the night in Nassau and really hadn't seen much of the town. Kathe, my friend John and I stood at the front of the ship as we pulled into Nassau. It was so windy, but we enjoyed the view.
I think you can tell from this picture of me and John that the wind was pretty bad.

Not sure I've still seen all that much of Nassau since we mainly walked down to the Straw Market, shopped in some of the jewelry stores and then took a water taxi over to Paradise Island and walked around there some. We did find a nice little hole in the wall place to have conch fritters. No pictures of them, we ate them too fast. I would love to go back and spend some more time exploring.

The next morning I got up early to see the sunrise.The next morning I had breakfast with my friend John. It was a great day to hang out and do some more knitting on the project.

Saturday morning we found ourselves back in Jacksonville. I really had a great time. I hope DF Katha decides to do another one next year.

Where does time go?

Seriously, where does it go? I know they say it goes faster when you get older, but it's getting a bit ridiculous lately. That means I probably have plenty to talk about on the blog and I promise to get to everything over the next few days to a week. But here are the highlights.

Planted some things, like tomatoes and flowers and such.There's been some knitting

and a cruise
Oh and some goodies received in the mail that apparently I only took a picture of this package from DF Jean:
There were 2 packages with yarn goodness from a raffle that I need to get a picture of for a future post.

So, all in all, busy time. Oh, and I'm again looking for a job, but I've had some calls, so that's good news. Hopefully the right job with come along.

But now I have to get ready to go to a "going home celebration", or as some people call it, a funeral. Ms Joy was a wonderful woman of God who it was my great pleasure to know. She and her husband, Paul, have been a great part of our church for several years now during the winters and for the last few years full time. She taught me a lot about how to live and how to survive in the middle of times of trial. I will miss her smile and laugh and her great stories that taught me more then anything. The last few years she's been very sick with her heart and other things. I can't wait to celebrate her life today with her family and friends. Sure there will be tears, but mostly because she won't be around to give us her wisdom and smile each week.

Until tomorrow...

I thought I was packed

...but I was apparently delusional. It turns out I couldn't fit my stuff in the suitcase that I thought I could take. I'm not sure what I was thinking to be honest. The problem is I either have the size you carry on, unless you're me I don't carry on a suitcase if I can keep from it, and especially not now with the RA not under control. Or you have the size that you can put a body in. So, since the former wouldn't hold everything, I had to resort to the latter. It's a bit of overkill, but, if I do purchase anything on any of the trips to various knitting/yarn/stitching/whatever stores, then I've got plenty of room to get it back home.

And yeah, I'm really such a chick that I have that large of a suitcase. And yes, I'll pay the cost to check it. It's worth it to me. Crazy I know, but I'm like that. Just 1 more wake up!

A wake-up call away

All I can say is I'm packed. At least I think I've packed everything I need. I'm sure I've forgotten something. But I have the important stuff. I have my party clothes, something to sleep in and something to wear home. The rest is probably gravy. Now I just have to fall asleep, get up, go to work and then ride to Savannah. Thankfully I don't have to drive. (Yeah for Joyce!)

So for a second night in a row I'm going to be boring and write almost nothing so I can try to sleep. I'll post tomorrow when we get to Savannah. Thank goodness for laptops and free wi-fi! And yes, I've already packed my camera so there will be pictures at some point.

Storms and more storms

First let me say that I'm kind of tired of rain. I know we need it. I know we have been in a drought for a long time, but really, is it necessary that we get caught up all at once? For those of you who don't know, we've been dealing with Tropical Storm Fay and her remnants for the last week. Today it rained again and according to the weather people it's all because of Fay. Apparently she has a friend named Gustav and he might want to come for a visit as well. I'm hoping he'll decide to go visit someone else. I can do without another visitor like that.

So, back to the vacation pictures.
We surprised our cousin Toni one day for lunch. She thought she was meeting Nora for their monthly lunch, instead she got a "3 for 1" special! We all splurged and shared a wonderful pizza and had a great time talking and getting caught up. (Toni's grandmother and my grandfather were brother and sister, so she's a cousin on the Graham side.)

We really didn't do too much else that week. On Saturday we went here...This is Marcia Springston-Dillon's gallery. There's a wonderful article on her in the Wonderful West Virginia Magazine (which I've very kindly linked for you). Her gallery is full of lovely items, not just her own, but work from other craftsmen and women. She very kindly let me take some pictures of her shelves and other pieces.
I adore how her items are interspaced with baskets and all kinds of other things. The dulcimer in the top middle shelf isn't for sale, but it was pretty. Very similar to the one I have.

This is an example of the place settings she creates. We all thought it would be wonderful to own a full set. Nora offered to purchase me one if I get married. She believes she's safe with that promise. Oh well....

So, what did we end up getting? Well I finally decided on this baking dish.While mom decided that this sconce would look perfect in the kitchen with the new counter tops. She was right btw.
You can't tell, but the outside of the dish is this lovely shade of gray-green that's just amazing and works wonderfully with the black inside. Marcia is truly talented and I can't wait to make another trip to her gallery the next time we're in WV.

That was Saturday, then on Sunday we gathered for another cousin's 50th wedding anniversary.That's the happy couple, "Bud" and Joann. Bud's another Thompson, his father and my grandmother were brother and sister. (I tell you these things because, well, I'm southern and we always explain how people are related to us.)

Bud and Joann have two daughters, one older then me and one the same age.

That's us. From left to right...Jennifer, me and Kimberly (or as we all call her Kimbo). The party was at a lovely park in Bluefield, VA and we had a wonderful time. It was good to see Kimbo. Seems I only see her about every other year. She's the one that's the same age as me, although she is a bit older I think. Growing up they lived near my grandmother and when I would be in WV for the summer I'd spend quite a bit of time at Bud and Joann's house hanging out with Kimbo. Their house was just up the road from the city pool in Mullens, so we spent many a summer afternoon laying on the top deck ogling watching the hunky lifeguards other swimmers.

That evening we went to hear another of our cousins sing. Calvin sings a most beautiful bass in a quartet, The Gospel Harmony Boys. I grew up listening to gospel music and love to hear the harmonies of a great men's quartet. Even if my sweet cousin wasn't in the group I'd have to say they have some fantastic harmonies. Afterwards Calvin posed with me for a picture.He's definitely a Thompson and loves to joke and cut up. I feel sorry for the poor person who has to stand by him while they are singing. He's one of those people who can sing and clap or snap their fingers off rhythm. I've stood beside him at family reunions when he's pulling that trick and it will catch you off guard every time. Their website tells where they'll be performing so if they are going to be near where you live go hear them and be sure to let Calvin know you read all about him on my blog!

That about covers the vacation. I've got some other things to show you this week. I've neglected showing you a lovely clock that a dear man at our church made for me. Plus I need to take some pictures of my stitching and the knitting I've been doing. Some I can't show yet since it's for Christmas gifts. But I do have some lovelies to show as soon as I get together with DF's Michele, Joan, Christine & Kathy for virtual birthday. I've been saving those pictures until we've exchanged our gifts. They might actually read this blog from time to time and I'd hate to spoil the surprise.