Returning the love

Yarny goodness

Oh my goodness.  I have been wracking my brain as to what I am going to do for my blogiversary in July.  I have a list of dreams and such but nothing concrete.  I wasn't sure if I should act on my list but then I remember my daddy telling me, "You'll never know if you don't ask"... so I have sent out a number of emails - okay, four to be exact - to my favorite places and people to simply ask.

I have been in touch with Sharon, Jo, Sandra and Paula.  I am hoping that one of these beautiful women is able to make my humble little dream come true.  Fingers crossed everyone!

Happies everywhere I turn

My goodness, the universe must have known that I was going to have a difficult week so all the cosmic forces got together and said "Hey, let's give her a break and send a few happies her way, what do ya say?"... Yes, that is the only logical explanation for the inordinate amount of giveaway winning I've done this week - and I am most thankful.

Photo courtesy of Jen Hagan

Now, very quickly, for all of my non Southern readers, a "happy" (the plural is "happies") is simply a little gift.  A little something just to brighten up another person's day.  See?  Okay, good... on to what the universe left me.

Yesterday, I won a sweet giveaway from figknits.  She is an out-of-this-world talented knit and crochet wear designer who writes a very enchanting blog.  In honor of her mama's birthday, she was having a giveaway that included a Mirth t-shirt, crochet hook and some glorious Yarn Place Bamboo yarn in colorway #30.  Isn't it the most gorgeous 250 yards you have ever seen?!  I have no idea what I am going to do with it so if  you have any suggestions for this beautiful DK weight fibre, I would love to hear them.  I was thinking of something for Pokey but I've heard that this bamboo yarn is scrumptiously soft and not 'manly' at all so we'll have to see if I change my mind once it arrives.

Image courtesy of Lynda Grace

I was over the moon to win that one and today, I just learned that I won another giveaway.  This time it was from Lynda Grace: An Hour Away who had gone on a craft closet cleaning frenzy and we all got to benefit from it!  I applaud her vigor at which she attacked her stash.  There was no mercy because there were six groupings... groupings, not just individual items.  Each of these groupings had at least three items in them - and they weren't little things either.  We're talking full cross-stitch pattern books or complete kits!  I won Group 5 which had 4 booklets in it - I promise to take shots of each one when it arrives so you can see all the crafty goodness.

So there you have it - all my happies in one post.  I know that my winnings from Laura over at Needles, Pins and Baking Tins should be arriving from the UK shortly as well.  I am so excited that I can't stand myself.  If there is anything I love more than getting presents in the post, I'm at a loss right now as to what it might be... well, excluding coffee of course.

Tuesday Tunes ~ Unstoppable

For all the fussing and whining I do about Peanut going to school so far away, this song is for her. When times get tough, as much as I would love to simply say "Come home baby and I'll fix it", I know that I will simply say this instead.

First care package production has begun!

I have been picking up a few odds and ends to put in Peanut's first ever college care package over these last few months.  I also want to add at least one item that was specially made so she can have a bit of home with her at all times.  So, if everything works out well, my folks will leave it with her on her first night in her dorm.   When she's all alone and everything is sinking in - perhaps even starting to make her worry a bit - I want  her to be able to open this box and realize that everything is going to be "A-okay".

I can't really write about what I'm putting in the box because Peanut has been known to read about her mama's world but if you happen to hang out at The Corner Cafe, then you have a clue as to what I'm doing... and you if you don't, why not?!?!  For those who are super curious and just really want to know, shoot me an email and I'll let you in on it... just as long as Peanut doesn't find out, we're good.

Okay, so it's a big hint

The only hint that I am going to give is that I will be using my stash yarn that I won a few months ago.  You know the one, from Ester Bitran's Andes collection.  Also, if you could please keep your eyes peeled for some really funky cool snazzy Victorianesque buttons, I'd appreciate it.  They would be fabulous on this project... because I'm planning on a second round with a solid color and those would completely pop!

Alrighty, coffee is in hand, needles are poised and shows are queued... time to toddle on and get started!  It's official ~ the first college care package production has begun!!

A Day In The Life ~ Picture Form

Type in DITL6611 to your favorite search engine
to find more bloggers sharing their day

A group of Ravelrers declared that it would be fun to take a sneak peak into everyone's lives - just for one day, hence the tag of DITL6611 under my header photo.  I agreed that it would be a hoot and opted in, even created the banners for everyone to use... and then I remembered, I'm a boring housewife who knits - I don't do anything fun.  Crikey, what was I going to do?

After a bit of a panic, a cup of coffee and some thought, I came up with a photo journal of my day.  Keep in mind that it is summer, the kids are on holiday and I'm alone with the lazy dogs... at least from the time frame I chose - 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

I hope that y'all get a giggle out of my life because goodness knows, I certainly do!  Off we go, spit spot, to start our day ~

Wakey, wakey... eggs and bakey

I crawl out of bed, totally incoherent...

Drag myself into here so I can face the world...

Meanwhile, Pokey has made me this...

I seem to park it here for a good long while...

The entire time, Ramsay looks like this...

and Buddy looks like this.

Time for Brelunupper ~ what, I wasn't hungry really...

Now, time to sit down and work on my projects!

As soon as I sit, my lap looks like this...

Some grannys and the good Doctor...

Original design shrug while we giggle with Graham...

Then some Top Gear & a trip to Stars Hollow with the circle sweater.

The entire time, Buddy looks like this...

and Ramsay looks like this.

Projects are all tucked away now because...

It's time to say goodbye!

E is for...

Enjoyment.

I love everything about playing with yarn.  The process of creating something beautiful out of a piece of string with nothing but a few simple knots made with a simple stick - ranging in quantity from 1 to 5.  The rhythmic movement is calming and meditative.  The feeling of joy as you watch the item grow from one loop to finished object is irreplaceable.

The only thing better is the joy that you give to others when they receive your knotted string - knowing that each knot was made with love.

This is a series started by An Accidental Knitter .  Click here for more information or to join in the fun.

One Lucky Girl

Our bench.  Our beach.  Our wedding.

There was a moment last night, after the sun had gone down and the camera was safely nestled away, that broke me.  A moment that I'm mortified even occurred.  It honestly brought me to tears in a public place - granted, a dark corner of a vacant area of a public place but still, a public place.

I'm not of the right mind to talk about it now but what I will say is that I have the most magnificent, compassionate, caring, sweet, loving and adoring husband.  I have a man that honestly does love me more than I deserve.  No matter what I am feeling or how I believe that I am looking, he finds me beautiful... and that makes me one lucky girl.

I love you, Pokey.

Sunday Snaps

Oh my goodness, my legs are sore!  Word to the wise, don't wear brand new 'Shape Ups' to a theme park and walk for 5 hours - you'll have blisters (I've got 9!) and you'll be very sore in the morning.  I managed to get in a few shots before the sun went down yesterday.  I hope you enjoy them ~

There were pretty flowers everywhere you turned...

The topiary displays were amazing...

But if you weren't careful, you'd miss the hidden treasures...

So being a lazy joey wasn't allowed...

Nor a sleep swan...

Although a turtle with attitude is always appreciated...

and synchronized mooning swans is a treat...

My love that day was the flamingos... and the feeling was mutual...

Majestic, proud and most importantly - pink!

Then the sun went down and I was forced to stop shooting... Oh well.

Welcome Distraction

Last time we went to BG,
Hobbit was smaller than this!

Today is Pokey's company picnic.  Normally, I don't like to attend these types of things.  It forces me into a situation where I don't know a single soul, except my husband, and I have to mingle with my Disney 'on stage' face plastered on.  It's exhausting really because I am shy by nature.  I combat the shyness by being a bit more extroverted than I find comfortable at times.  My husband is the same way really.  Pokey would prefer to just hang out with us at home and enjoy life quietly.  Today is different.  Today, we actually welcome the distraction.

The good part about living where everyone else vacations is that when companies want to "do something", we've got tons of cool places to go "do something" at... for example, the company picnic is at Busch Gardens.  They will close the park for regular people at 9 p.m. but we get to stay until midnight.  Pretty spiffy,  huh?  We can get in at 6 p.m. and go have supper since they have given us meal vouchers as well, then toddle around and let me get all my photography itches scratched and then.. brace yourself... we're going to secure all our valuables and go act like kids set free in a theme park - which, technically, we are.

I hope to have some wonderful contributions to my "Snaps on Sunday" series tomorrow.  Until then, I hope y'all have wonderful day full of smiles and welcomed distractions too.

That Was Just Odd

I just finished mixing up a meatloaf and putting it in the oven.  I washed up the dishes and set things to dry, all the while thinking how weird it was - no one was having supper with me.  I just fixed an entire meatloaf, which will be accompanied by mac n' cheese and green beans no less, for just me.  I've never made supper for just me before and now I understand why so many single people get takeaway meals.

I went from my parents house to a dorm suite shared by three other girls that had it's own kitchen.  We made community dorm room meals plus we had meal cards for the cafeteria.  After college, I was back home for a spell and Peanut was born.  Then it was just Peanut and me, then home again... do you see the pattern here?  I've never been alone.  I have never had to cook for one.  Granted, Pokey will take leftovers for his work supper and he will be here to sup with me twice a week on his days off but for six weeks, I'll be eating full meals alone.  It's just rather odd.

This oddity has led me to my next adventure.  I'm going to reorganize the inside and outside freezers to accommodate homemade "TV dinners" as it were.  I am going to cook supper for me probably three times a week but then, there will anywhere from four to six servings left alone - sometimes more - so I will package them up and freeze them.  I need to budget in some tupperware containers for this adventure but other than that, I think it will work out really well.  I'll cook when Pokey is off and then sometime mid week.  I'll stock the freezers with the leftovers and wallah, all set for weeks on end really.  Just take my meatloaf that cooking away right now.  I'll have my plate and then there will be roughly three to four full plated meals left.  Those will be packaged up and left to cool before putting in the freezer.  Sunday, I'll make Chicken n' Rice with broccoli so after my plate, there will be about five others to freeze... that's already nine frozen meals!

My food budget should get trimmed down a lot.  I also bought a drainer and dish stand so I can wash the dishes by hand this summer.  With just me, there will never be enough to run the machine.  Things are just so topsy turvy today... it's amazing how odd it seems... at least it is just for a few weeks.  Then my life will be mostly back to normal.

Fiddling Around

I feel the need to redesign... I'll be fiddling around with headers, backgrounds, colors and fonts for a bit so please, bare with me.

Who knows, if you have any suggestions, they just might make it up for the season!

Now What?

Oh my goodness, I feel a little lost.  My house is empty.  No one is here but me.  What am I supposed to do now?  I don't have the three hour after school pick up loop anymore.  I don't have to entertain anyone.  I truly am a bit lost.

My silly, beautiful, wonderful girls - I love you!

My house is usually noisy.  Not the bad "oh my word, I'm gonna kill someone if they don't shush up" noisy but the "full of life" noisy - chattering and giggles and music.  Now it's eerily quiet.  So quiet that I can actually hear the fan that cools off my laptop AND the air blowing from the air conditioning vent.  Ugh, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it six weeks like this.

Do you know that I am still in my pajamas - yes, sad but true fact I'm afraid.  I couldn't think of a reason to get dressed and dirty an outfit just to sit around and stare at four walls, periodically welling up through out the day over my current situation and lack of noises.  I should get dressed.  I will get dressed, if only to help defunkify my mood.

For all the times we mama's joke about how we wish someone would borrow our children for months on end and how much we would love it - it's all a lie.  My heart is broken into three pieces - one for Peanut, one for Hobbit and one for Pokey.  One piece comes and goes each day and I can rely on the fact that it will always return.  One piece will be returning home in less than two months... but one piece, that one single piece is the piece that is hurting the most.  That piece has "left the nest" as it were and I'm missing it terribly.  I cry, even now, when I think about that piece not coming home until Christmas. I miss that piece... very much - so very, very much...

Sorry, I had to take a moment and collect myself.  I can't stand crying.  It gives me a headache, be-speckles my specs and makes my nose stuffy.  I have heard that I would feel better if I just have a good cry but to be honest, have you ever been so sad over something that you fear if you let yourself wallow in it that you won't be able to get out... yeah, well, that's me at the moment.  It's best for me to recollect, dry the face, clean the glasses, blow the nose and move on as it were.

I know soon that I will fall into a routine but today, all I have been able to do is wander around, lost, wondering "now what?".

Soon Ramsay... Soon

He looks how I feel today. The girls went on vacation with my folks today and I've been a puddle off and on all day now. I am always a little lost when then they are gone but this year is different. This year, I will only be bringing one home instead of two... the other will be off at college.

So while Ramsay sits on the sofa looking out the window, looking back at me in wonderment as to when they will return and then back out the window - all I can tell him is "soon Ramsay... soon".  I'm not sure if it is really convincing either one of us because periodically, I'm wiping tears from both of our eyes today.

WWKIP Day 2011

11 June - 19 June

I had honestly forgotten all about this until I was reading Knitty's blog.  I have to either find or create a group.  I love this time of year because it gives me a distraction from my girls being gone.

Click here to go to the official website for all the details.  I hope y'all participate because it truly is great fun.  I know last year, three new knitters were born - I wonder how many will come to life this year?

I Had To Share

Is it wrong that I love this?

New Weekly Feature

I decided that I needed to do something on Tuesdays.  Something that would happen every Tuesday without fail - my initial hope was to get in on an already established routine with some other bloggers (and I still might join in from time to time) but for the past month or so, the topics are ones that I know nothing about which makes it hard to participate fully.  What was I to do - what I always do... make up my own routine and run with it!

Now we will have "Tuesday Tunes".  Mondays are the bane of most people's existence and so Tuesday can't help but be better for most.. why not start it off with some good music?  I may or may not write something about why I chose the song but either way, it'll make your ears happy.

D is for...

Design.

This is part of the knitting trifecta for me.  Design, fibre and fit.  If the design is wrong, the whole thing falls apart.  It is the tray upon which the other two rest, the foundation of the item being created.

Hobbit's Bunny Hat

I  have designed several things, mostly kid hats and dog sweaters.  I stumbled into designing by accident.  The first original design that comes to mind was Hobbit's Bunny Hat.  She wanted a hat the looked like a bunny and I was searching all over the place.  The only things I could find were for newborns - a size that wouldn't work for a her since she was 5 at the time.  So, since there wasn't one out there, I set out to make my own.  It wasn't too terribly difficult and the end result was adorable.  It was quickly followed by Peanut's Bella Beanie, a plea to take her cat to college that resulted in a black cat hat for her.

I branched out, as it were, and designed sweaters for Ramsay.  He was too small for the smallest dog sweater on the market.  I really needed to make him something because it was unusually cold here this past winter.  I got out my pencil, paper and tape measure so I could sketch out what I wanted to make.  This was a first.  I had never sketched anything out before since I had mainly been designing hats.  This would have been my first item that required measurements, decreasing, increasing and general shaping.  My first attempt was alright - plain and simple - but my second had a bit of flair to it because I had grown bolder.

The Cat's Meow

With a few bits and bobs along the way, I am now designing my first shrug.  Sure, I've done wraps and things but this is an honest to goodness sweater.  I have been working on this project for about a month.  I have the pattern all written out and I am just now starting the test knitting phase.  I have the banding done and have begun the underarm shaping.  I hope to get back to it soon - currently I seem to be obsessed with my new trick of creating Granny Squares.

D is definitely for design - delicious, delectable, delightful design.

This is a new series started by An Accidental Knitter that I thought would be fun so every Monday, we'll be learning our ABCs together!  Click here for more information or to join in the fun.

Quiet - What's Up?

So it's been unusually quiet here on the blog.  Not me, but by y'all.  Too many family oriented posts?  Blogger being a booger and causing issues?  What's up?

A dear friend email me, said she was having issues commenting but wanted me she was there.  I appreciated her for that and then I got to wondering if others are having problems as well.

So here's what we'll do ~  If you can comment but just haven't been moved to do so, please hit "Cool".  If you have wanted to comment but are having issues, please hit "Interesting".  I understand not wanting to comment and I take no offense it at all.  I don't always comment - but I do always read - so it's nothing to worry over.  If you have been wanting to write and have been having issues, well then that is something that I need to fix for y'all.

Have a safe and pleasant Memorial Day tomorrow... and take a moment to remember those who have fallen protecting our great nation.

Old Dog, New Trick

Psychedelic Squares

Yesterday afternoon, my mama taught me something new.  It wasn't as difficult as I had originally anticipated.  It actually was quite easy.  The directions I had read numerous times before which all sounded like a foreign language to me with a secret handshake that I had no chance of ever learning were suddenly starting to make sense... I was crocheting!

I have a love of granny squares.  I always have.  My mama made me a bedspread when I was a little girl that was nothing but granny squares and it was perfect.  I held on to it through college and then, somewhere along the way, I no longer possessed it.  I have no idea what happened to it because barring a natural disaster eating it whole, I would have kept it for all eternity.  Over the years, I have attempted to learn crochet and over the years, I have failed.  I would give it an honest go but my knitting brain was not comprehending the crochet word.  I couldn't get my hands to do what my logical brain thought it could figure out... and actually, I still don't know if I could because I was taught the same way I learned to knit - sitting at my mama's feet.

My 1st Granny Squares

There I was, just like so many years before, with instrument and yarn in hand, eager to tackle the project... and I was successful!  I now know how to make a granny square.  I don't know the names of the stitches.  I don't know how to write out the pattern but I can work it.  I can physically manipulate the hook and yarn to create cute little squares... and that makes this old dog very happy.

She Did It!

Yep, my baby girl was graduated tonight.  She did it.  She made it with half of a credit extra and a 3.1 GPA.  My little Peanut is officially a high school graduate and now, a college freshman.  Oh my goodness - can you believe it?  Here are some highlights of tonight's events.  Enjoy!

Taken after a tearful hug with me.

She walked in... he skipped.

She was crying and smiling - so proud of her.

Hobbit, me, Peanut and Pokey - One proud family