My New Ride

Normally, I wouldn't post about a new car. But first of all, I've been waiting for this vehicle for a long, long time and secondly, there is an interesting story to go with it. I've always wanted a Saab. I've been driving clunkers for longer than I care to think about. I never really cared too much about what color or model I wanted, I just felt that I'd grab one some day if I could find a good deal and when one of the current family clunkers had to be replaced. That day came last week and I was able to find the vehicle shown above, much to my delight.

The interesting part is this. When the book "The Secret" came out. I read it and did my usual thing with getting excited about a concept that was going to be life changing, only to forget about it and go back to my old routine two weeks later. But during the excitement period, I did what the book suggested and made a "vision board" with photos of things I wanted and hoped to accomplish. The vision board got buried in my office with all the other junk in there and I haven't seen it since the book first came out. As I was cleaning my office on Monday, I came across the vision board. On it, there is a photo of the exact car I bought. Same model, same color, same everything. How weird is that?

There is also a photo of the Eiffel Tower on there. So... next stop... Paris.

:-)

Au Revoir

Octa-Monstie

Colin is into "monsties". There is a line of stuffed "monster" toys that he loves. I tried to find them online to put the link here, but I don't know what the official name is. Anyhow, I came up with my own version for him. He seems to like it. I called it "octa-monstie" but his father corrected me and said it's "penta-monstie". Yeah, whatever. :-)

My sister purchased the cutest knitted wrap in Colorado. It is genius in it's style and simplicity. So easily copied. I can't believe I've never seen a pattern like it before. It's a simple stockinette stitch rectangle... but the buttons, and button hole placement make it unique. Once I get my Christmas knitting out of the way, I'm definitely going to play with copying that little number.

A day in the life....

It's not like I don't have anything to do in the evenings. Believe me, I do. But on Wednesday night I got it into my head that I'd do a "Twilight Open House". They work in the cities. People come. I was excited. I had that house looking like something out of a movie. Perfect lighting (it was all adjustable), strategically placed flowers, the works. To tell you the truth, I didn't even really care if the people who came were just nosey neighbors or people who simply wanted to see a beautiful home... lookers. That's ok with me. I just like to talk to people.

So one couple came. They happened to be out walking. I guess we're just not quite ready for Twilight Open Houses here. And it's too bad. Because some houses are just beautiful at night.

Knitting news... slow progress on all projects. But I did finish a new "Monstie" for Colin. Photos to come.

In Memory...

New PJ's

Giorgi looking adorable in his new PJ's.

The New Knitty.com

I'm obsessed. I SO didn't need this right now!

Lots of stuff...

Once again... golf course knitting. Another successful Anne E. Barnes golf tournament to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society. And once again, no one at my hole got a hole in one. One of these days it's going to happen. However, this year, I did get a bit of surprise while sitting in my usual spot. I had a visitor. A four foot long black slithering visitor. Yep. Mr. Black Snake. I have to say I've always enjoyed my day on the golf course. Unfortunately, not so much anymore. I'm already dreading next year. And it's a shame. Now I'll just be terrified that it will happen again.

And, yes, I know they are harmless. But truly, it might as well have been a King Cobra.

Steeler season is upon us. Steeler mania has begun in the family. I'm the odd man out this time of year. It's not that I don't like it, I just can't get into it. I've tried. I'd like nothing more than to be as excited over it as the rest of my family. Including the pint sized members.

I've tried to force myself into jumping on board the big Steeler band wagon. But, honestly, I just don't really feel it. :-( But I do want them to win as long as I don't have to watch!

So plans for Kiawah have been decided. Four weeks from now. Which means I have four weeks to lose 20 lbs. Ugh.

Works in Progress...

Can you say... Attention Deficit Disorder?

(two out of three of my children were diagnosed with it... I wonder why)

Colin's PJ's. Ok... not Colin's PJ's. They are too small for him.

Hmmn...

I know just who to give them to.

They just need the buttons sewn on.

Heavy socks for Colin for Winter.

One sock to go.


Clare's "Bubby"... still waiting for the last skein of yarn...
which probably won't match.
Ugh.



Beaded scarf. I like this project.
Why did I abandon it?


Men's fingerless gloves.
My current passion.
(Shelly's handspun)


Sock for me.

Really, really taking a backseat for the time being.

And... sadly...

there are more.

Happy Birthday Michael!!!!

My baby is 23 today.

Man I'm getting old!

Totally Weird Day

The day starts out normal enough. Get up early, go to work early, the usual...

Then it turns into "remote controlled stuff" day.

At 11:00AM I go to show a house located next to a golf course. I'm driving down the road when I come upon a golf bag attached to a bag cart. It's not on the side of the road. It's in my lane on the middle of the road. I slow down... and the golf bag starts to move over to the side a little. Then back again as I begin to move forward. Somewhere, hidden behind a tree, I'm picturing a teenager (or teenagers) laughing their butt's off. I couldn't help it. I laughed too. It was funny. I love kids with ingenuity and a great imagination.

After that I proceeded to go back to the office. I turn down our street and there are two grown men playing with the largest remote controlled car I've ever seen. They were running it all over the road and into people's yards having the time of their lives. It was a noisy thing. Really, really noisy. As I was getting out of my car, I saw a woman marching down the road toward the men with death rays eminating from her eyes. She gave them a piece of her mind. I don't know what her beef was... maybe a sleeping baby, or something. At any rate, she was a lot less amused about it than I was.

I can't wait to see what the remainder of the day holds.

ADDED LATER: My husband informs me that remote control golf bag carts are not uncommon. He said, while extremely geeky, they are commonly seen on the golf course. Who knew?

Ending up short.... again.

Clare's "Bubby"

I have one full row left to do, and then the top triangle row.... and a ball of yarn left about the size of a golf ball. And we all know that ain't gonna cut it. Ugh. Every time. %)#!@($&*#

The colors in the photo are not really true. They are much softer than this in reality. I guess I better start to hunt for some of the skein bands so I can figure out what to order and pray I can find the same dye lot. I guess I actually could make it smaller, but it's small enough to begin with.

On the yarn shopping front, Cate picked this out here for her annual "Christmas" socks. It's "Jitterbug" and it feels awesome.

And for something REALLY special, I got my handspun 100% Shetland Wool yarn from Shelly yesterday. I wanted this for a pair of men's fingerless gloves. I can't wait to get started on them.

There is something I LOVE about working with yarn that is handspun by someone you know. It makes the project that much more special. Thanks Shelly!

Beaded Scarf

I can't remember the name of the pattern (I'm at work) or the yarn... but here are the photos.

If anyone wants to know either of those things, let me know.

Great yarn, great pattern.

I just got back from the beach with the beach babies and a few days with Cate in Charlottesville.

Great vacation... visited three nice yarn shops. One in Lewes, DE, and two in Charlottesville, VA.

I think that was the motivation I needed to get started again. And I better because, Christmas is coming!

This is funny...because Steel Blue is one of my favorite colors.

you are steelblue #4682B4

Your dominant hues are cyan and blue. You like people and enjoy making friends. You're conservative and like to make sure things make sense before you step into them, especially in relationships. You are curious but respected for your opinions by people who you sometimes wouldn't even suspect. Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it's required of you. You probably don't think the world can change for you and don't want to spend too much effort trying to force it. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Knitting With Beads....

If you haven't tried it yet, do. It's actually very easy. I meant to take a photo of the scarf I'm making with beads last night but I forgot. I'll try to remember this evening. While I don't think I'm addicted, I am enjoying it a lot. I was wondering who I would give it to for Christmas, but I like it so much I may just keep it for myself.

When I started knitting again, years ago, I did so after being motivated by reading a lot of knitting blogs. I kept up with most of them on a daily basis for a long time. Then, as time went on I sort of left them behind, only to visit them once in while. Today, on a whim, I clicked on one of them that I haven't read in a long, long time. The woman has MS. As most of you know, that is one of my pet causes. I had a sister in law die from the ravages of MS and my niece has MS. I always marveled at how upbeat this woman was all the time even though she spent most of her time in bed. She's a sock knitter. Socks, socks, socks. My kind of gal. Her husband had a multitude of health problems as well. I believe he had an amputation due to diabetes. The daughter looks to be a teenager. So the first post I came across this morning was describing how her chemo therapy was going. Chemo? For MS? That didn't make sense to me. So I scrolled down, and down.... She has two types of cancer now and a poor prognosis.

I got to wondering. Why does one family have so much to deal with? I don't know. I guess no one really knows. And even with all this, she writes her blog with humor. Still. I wonder how hard it would be to hold on to the humor.

I don't even know what she looks like. But I know one thing. She sounds like a person you would be lucky to call your friend. Next time I start complaining about something, I hope I remember her.

Colin at age 2

Negative People

Are you a negative person? I have moments of negativity. I think my rant below kind of proves that statement. I think we all have moments of negativity brought on by frustration. But in general, I think my personality is sort of on an even keel. If I had to analyse my personality, I'd say that I'm quiet and more serious natured than silly. But I'm not overly negative by any means.

There are people out there who are negative on a regular basis. They are miserable, hate their lives, and have decided that if they are going to be miserable, then everyone else should be miserable too. They ooze misery from their pores.

When this particular type of poor attitude worms it's way into a group of people, a few things happen. Some buy into the misery. They climb aboard the misery ship. A once semi-normal person who had a decent outlook on life before becoming infected, will begin to exhibit signs of the misery disease. This happens to the vulnerable ones. The easily swayed. These weak minded people really don't stand a chance when a miserable person infiltrates the fold. Negativity begets negativity. If you think it's not contagious, think again. One bad apple can certainly spoil the bunch.

Then you have the strong minded people. These people have no intention of sailing off on that ship. They recognize the danger of that journey and fully intend to keep their feet on dry, positive ground. Unfortunately, these people still have to put up with the infected people until they do in fact, sail away. It's not easy. At all. And these people really never sail away soon enough.

Life is tough and it's getting tougher. Being negative isn't going to help the situation. We can all have little pity parties for ourselves in the privacy of our own .... well.. privacy. But the better person puts on a positive face when meeting the world in spite of the problems.

I'm going to try harder to be positive. I don't ever want to be one of those people.

And the truth is, no matter what the miserable person brings to the table in terms of knowledge, experience, or success, that person is still a cancer to the others who might have been even better had they not been led down the path of pessimism and disillusionment.

Summer Photos

Who has time to knit???

The Little Princess Clare

A Rant

I can't give my money away. Oh, right, I know you'll take it, but the question is... where are all the store clerks? I can't tell you how many times in the last few weeks I have walked in to a store intending to spend money and then walked back out after not being able to find anyone to wait on me.

Admittedly, I'm a tad impatient. But I have to say I gave it a fair shot on every occasion. I walked around. I looked. But no one. So I storm out telling myself they didn't deserve my business in the first place and I'll just go to such and such place to make the purchase. The problem is, I'm so frustrated by this point that I just say.. screw it and go home empty handed.
And believe me, I don't shop unless I need something. I'm not a hobby shopper. So it's doubly frustrating for me. If I'm there in the first place, it's usually desperation time. I've already waited until the very last minute to get what it is I'm there for. So, yes, this thing I have about putting things off until crunch time doesn't help my mental state one little bit when these things happen.

Ok. I know stores are cutting back on help because their revenues aren't the greatest right now. But it's a double edge sword, isn't it? They can't make any money if they don't have anyone there to take it.

I stood in line at the supermarket the other night for an unbelievable amount of time. I was sixth in line, and the line behind me was half way through the store. There was one lane open. I saw people with a few things sit them down and walk out rather than get in that line. I had to stay. We needed the food. But I SO wanted to walk out of there.

In case you haven't guessed, this whole situation is, without a doubt,

driving. me. crazy.

Wait. One last thing... with knitting content.

Is this guy just amazing or what????


brooklyntweedvest