What wasn't there something else here......

I removed the post from yesterday if you read it then you know the one I am talking about. I thought about it and decided that even though I needed to rant that much it wasn't something that I should have posted to everyone and their brother. :) Needless to say if you didn't read it - I had a SUPER bad day on Friday. Main highlight was that I have somehow forgotten the pin number for my debit card. Which has set off this huge cleaning spree because I know it is here somewhere... But where exactly in the many piles of my stuff is the question. SO not much in the way of knitting done in the past two days. But progress on cleaning which is a big plus for me.

Off to watch Amazing Grace and on of the Love's Enduring movies before they are due back tomorrow.

QOW review

Ok so Amy said 'Ha!' in response to my answer....my friends know me well. To further clarify - I never said there would be just one container, just that that was what I was thinking would fit into one. I have three under the bed containers that I can clear out stuff from and but more yarny goodness into them. My DH never looks under the bed so he'll never know how much I truely have unless he looks at purchases to projects ratio. Plus Amy is a bad influence - there is a dollar bin at Michael's that I never knew about......this gives me a reason to enter the store now. Ours is in the rundown store building and I don't really like going in there much but they did have a better stamp selection than Joann's the one time I was in there. Hmmmmm..........

Well let's finish the music portion too while I am at it. Not that I am much more awake than I was last night/this morning when I typed it up. Let's see the best way to do this would be soundtracks I think vs. trying to name people/bands. Grease, Footloose, Cocktail, Caddy Shack....notice they are all from the 80's? Yeah me too. Umm well my parents listened to pretty much everything so I grew up that way and do now too. Oldies - Chantilly Lace is one of my all time faves; Pop - Madonna, New Kids on the Block; Country - Garth brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Roseanne Cash, Johnny Cash; and many more that I can't seem to think about right now. I remember buying the cassette tapes at the gas stations for the trips we'd take and listening to them over and over again. Like Crusin' Classics brought to you by Shell gas station -"Listen to the music" Doobie Brothers, "It's so easy" Linda Ronstadt, "Ventura Highway" America, "Could it be I'm falling in love" The Spinners, "Can't fight this feeling" REO Speedwagon, "The heat is on" Glenn Fry, "Wake me up before you go-go" Wham!, "Kiss is on my list" Hall & Oats, "September" Earth, Wind & Fire, & "Footloose" Kenny Loggins. Oh oh Wang Chung! Love that song. Ok thats all for now. Back when I am more awake :)

Music

Well it's one of those nights again where I am having trouble sleeping. Ugh I'm tired and know it but just can't sleep yet. So I decided to rearrange my playlist.com music and post it at the bottom of my blog. Hopefully it works. *crosses fingers* These are some of my favorite songs/artists. With a few missing because hey I can't remember to put everyone on there. :) Some of the artists are international and their music is not available locally - Poets of the Fall and Hanna Pakarinen are Finnish if I remember right. POTF can be ordered through Amazon, but i haven't gotten around to it yet. And Hanna is available through her website - which is in Finnish. Go figure. lol

Some of my faves that I forgot are Neil Diamond, um man my mind just blanked.....doh! Well I'm sure once I wake up tomorrow I will post more on this topic.....errrr make that later today!

QOW # 3

Question of the week is: What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

For me it is what I can safely fit in my house without being yelled at by DH for having more crap in the house. LOL If you know me you know this is true - I am a pack rat. I have things from elementary school still - from when I went. My excuse is that I plan to scrapbook them someday. But that is another space taker here.....all my scrapbooking supplies. I think the last time I really did anything with my stuff was to make a gift for my one of the kids teachers about 2 years ago.

So I guess that means if I rid myself of the extras that are not used anymore....... >.>
<.<
I'd have more room for my stash! I think we just motivated me to clean house! LOL

Seriously, the perfect amount would be having enough for your current projects, what you need for at least 3 more and then some odds and ends thrown in. Place all that in clear containers to see what you have and you are set. And in all seriousness I think I am cleaning house of old stuff. it needs to go and I don't/can't/won't use it.

Knit Night

Last night I joined the Southeastern Michigan knitting group at the Caribou Coffee in Plymouth. It was a blast. I've never met any of these ladies before but that didn't stop me from heading out and joining them. And I was a good girl and only had water despite SERIOUSLY wanting to buy some coffee to drink. But I didn't need to be up late. It's a great group made up of all different level of knitters and spinners. One lady, Dianne, is a spinner. She'd just completed this BEAUTIFUL shawl/coat. I'm nt exactly sure what to call it. It was a shawl but had arm holes and a little hood. She handspun all the yarn used and the pattern on the back is sooooooooooooooo beautiful! It was castle scene. She found an amazing clasp on eBay that is either pewter or silver, again not sure. But it matched it so well. I am almost done with calorimetry again. I can spell that now but when someone asks me what it is I slaughter saying it. LOL The ladies had never seen the pattern before so I passed it arund and they think it is quite neat. One of the other ladies had finished her own shawl in pink and said now she needed to make a headband to go with it. :) So towards the end we got to talking about spinning. I was on ravelry the other day and came across the group that I joined to destash your yarn. I happened upon some Spunky Eclectic roving for sale. 2 batches of 4 oz. roving in different colors. Very pretty and I bought them! So now I am looking at drop spindles. Which is where last night comes in - Dianne and Sandy were giving me advice on what kind of spindle I should get as a beginner.

It boiled down to I would need to get one that weighs around 1.5 oz. as a beginner. Dianne then was telling me many great places that sell ones that she would trust. Like if (and I'm hoping we will because I am realyl starting to get into this whole thing!) I go to the Wool & Fiber Festival in August and of the vendors there would be good to buy a spindle from &/or wool and roving. There was also the Cyber Fiber Mall - found here http://www.blogger.com/www.cyberfibermall.com/ . That she would trust any of these vendors for spindles. She said not Ashford -they tend to be too heavy. Dianne recommended a few other stores/websites: The Fold, Spinning Loft, & Gemini Fibres. Sandy said she bought her spindles from here - http://www.woollydesigns.com/spindles/producti.htm . I looked at them and they are beautiful and well priced but she is not accepting orders until August. :( I really liked the Stars one but it was a heavier weight than I need as beginner. Oh and top whorl is better for beginners than bottom whorl.

I found many sites on Etsy.com that carry beautiful and simple handmade spindles. The one I am considering right now is Maine Woods Fiber Company ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=50026 ). Mainly because I can buy a bag with 4 1/2 oz. of roving in 3 different colors and 1 plain for practicing. Each color is a seperate batch of roving. Plus you get a spindle and instructions in the drawstring bag all for $23.95 USD. So now I am just debating on getting the Maine Maple Wood Drop Spindle Spinning Kit Biloxi Blues Available in Either Top Whorl or adding it to my wishlist. Dilemma! >.<

Well breakfast time for me and then cleaning because the weight loss challenge will be here later this afternoon. I need to wake up more.....where's my coffee! I ended up not sleeping well last night despite not having any coffee I was up until 1:30 am. ugh!

Oh yeah......

I forgot - all three girls are now knitting! *Does a happy dance*!!!! Taught the middle monkey yesterday and she got the hang of it - sorta. Had some problems with putting the needle into the yarn and then it made a mess to continue. The oldest learned a few weeks ago. But the challenge was the youngest. The left handed one, the only left handed person in the family. Who of course after telling me yesterday morning that she wanted to learn to knit then said but I want to use my right hand. Um well problem is when I tired to teach her continental this morning she automatically used her left hand! So we learned the right way and she is now plugging along. Oh and I noticed that when I watch the screen when I type I don't miss the letters. ;)

Bleh

Its going to be one of those weeks I can already tell. First off my comp keyboard is acting wonky - if you see missing letters in words - this time I promise it's not me misspelling words. My keyboard is randomly not typing letters. Either that or I am not pushing hard enough on them. But seeing as how it had been working up until this past weekend I'm going with it's wonky not me. :D

I have another Colorimetry done and I frogged the first one........ I made one for my oldest daughter to match her scarf that I finished a while back. She even picked out the button for it herself.



Isn't he button pretty? Now ot sew that sucker on and it's done. Done I tell you! Ok so I was feeling a little weird at that moment. ;)

Just cuz........

Amy *made* me do it. Muwahahaha! ;)

Flickr Meme



1. Jennifer, 2. Blue moon, 3. The Waverly Restaurant, 4. Pick me, pick me, pick me...., 5. James Marsters Closing Up Sunday Night, 6. Kahlua + Vodka + Milk, 7. Portofino thru my lens, 8. Chocolate Cake Frosting I, 9. school starts Tuesday, 10. kids at play, 11. llibreria - bookstore - Amsterdam, 12. Angel Puppet Relaxing

The rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? Jennifer
2. What is your favorite food? Blue Moon Ice Cream
3. What high school did you go to? Waverly
4. What is your favorite color? Yellow
5. Who is your celebrity crush? James Marters
6. Favorite drink? Black Russian
7. Dream vacation? Italy
8. Favorite dessert? Death by Chocolate
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Teacher
10. What do you love most in life? Kids
11. One Word to describe you. Books
12. Your flickr name. angelus5

Dangit!

Quick blog before I have to dash out of the house feeling like crap for church. I broke my glasses yesterday. I'm so mad. Stinkin' earpiece broke right in two and they are only about 2 months old now. Got them at the end of April so not even 2 months yet. But now I have to go in and see if they can be fixed. Luckily my script is so small that I have some drugstore readers that I bought ages ago and are my current script for glasses. How'd that work out you ask. Now here is the tricky part - I can see far away just fine so that makes me far sighted right? I can never remember. Well my script is for reading, crafting, sitting at the computer, etc. anything up close. The previous one was .75 - You can't but that in the store. So I bought a 1.00 to have something on hand when I forgot my glasses at home. This was back in 2005 when I was working an hour away from home. And guess what since I had gotten the other glasses (.75 script) in the many times I went back over the years my eyes never changed. So I hadn't been to the doc for my eyes in the past 3 years or so. But I was using the old script until it started giving m headaches. Then I started using the readers and no headaches. So I went to the eye doc and sure enough it had gone up to 1.00 and I got new glasses. And those are the ones I break - the almost $100 pair not the $24.99 pair that is 3 years old. Ugh I give up. Gotta run. Later Jland.

Stitch markers up close

These are the ones I made for myself. I realized they weren't easily seen in the pics taken of calorimetry. So here are some better ones. And a random Happy Bunny Sticker from my keyboard. :)

It's Done!!!!!!!

I finished calorimetry last night and took pics this morning. Now to just figure out which button to use. Help me decide please.....I like all three of them with it! >.<




The other problem with it is that it turned out kinda big. However I'm not frogging it again so I can live with it not being exactly like the directions said it would be. If I do it again I think I will try different yarn and see how it works that way. I was thinking of making these for the girls with the leftover yarn from their scarves. We'll see if that happens.




A Closer look at the colors an how the two skeins went well together. yup I needed two skeins of Noro to make this - well almost 2 - about 1.5 maybe 1.75 to be exact.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Frogging Calorimetry again! Somehow I lost 8 stitches. I don't know how but I did. But I asked someone on Ravelry how they has cast on using Noro and they did long tail method. Which is totally making sense now. Fricking stinking thing! I'll get it right one of these days!!!!

QOW # 2

Question of the week is: As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

Summer vacation for me was being packed up with the grandparents for a week (at least) to their cabin in the UP. For those non-Michigan folk that's the Upper Peninsula. To their cabin in Lake Linden on Rice Lake. Pure heaven to be up there and right on the lake. We'd head into town to the Houghton County Historical Museum there or to the old Mine. Or head to Calumet/Copper Harbor/Laurium area and hit the museum's there. Yeah I know doesn't sound like much fun for most kids. But my great-grandma was from the area so it was a way for me to learn a little about her and how she was raised. Or just hang out in or out of the cabin. Fishing, swimming, playing cards or board games, rowing the boat on the lake, or heading to Lake Superior to brave the cold water there. It was either just me and my younger brother with the grandparents. But sometimes my youngest aunt would come and she would help out when our cousins came up too (other aunt's kids). I remember one time riding a bike with my aunt Kristi (youngest aunt) down the dirt road and a fawn started to chase us. It thought because I had a white shirt on I was mom. It scared the crap out of me.....well I mean I was only 6 or 7 I really didn't know any better at the time. But of course it is all written down in the cabin journals. That is my favorite thing to do now when I get the chance to head up there - read the journals. But since it is a 13, now 14 hour drive from where we live now and with gas prices being they way they are who knows when that will happen again. The girls enjoyed their week up there about 3 years ago and I loved being able to take them there. Now it's not just the one cabin that we have but my Uncle Steve has the lot next door and on the other side of him is my Aunt Pam's cabin. More room and more fun to be almost all of us up there at once. I miss it. :)

There is a little peninsula under the red dot marking Lake Linden - shown closer in the next pic.


The green arrow is pointing to Rice Lake.


This is an aerial view of lake Linden (city) and Torch Lake.



On the knitting front - I frogged Calorimetry and restarted it last night. Am about a quarter of the way done now and hope - with no distractions - to finish it tomorrow sometime.

Pictures

Well I started Calorimetry and after a few fits and starts of froging had it almost half way done. Then realized I'd messed up and couldn't figure out where to tink back to. So it had been frogged once again. But here are some picsa of Becca's scarf and what calorimetry looked like prior to frogging. As well as my handmade stitch markers on calorimetry. Enjoy!




Thought I might post how I made this scarf here in case any one likes the way it looks.
Name: Becca's Scarf
Needle: US 6
Yarn: Red Heart Ltd. Baby Sport Pompadour 6 oz.; 90% Acrylic, 10% Olefin; Sport weight 3 ply
Color: 1952 Rock-A-Bye

1. Cast on 30 stitches.

2. Knit 12 rows in garter stitch.

3. Next row knit 4, purl 22, knit 4.
4. Knit next row.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 for 38 more rows.

5. Knit 5 rows in garter. This will alternate which side the stockinette shows on. if you want them all on the same side knit only 4 rows.

6.Repeat 3 & 4 for 40 rows. Then step 5 for 5 (or 4) rows.

7. Repeat step 6 until desired length. When done with last stockinetter panel finish scarf by knitting 12 rows in garter. Bind off scarf. Weave in ends and block to get scarf to lie flat adn stop curling.

I just have to say.......

Becca's scarf is DONE!!!! well except the weaving in the end and blocking it...... But I am now done knitting it and can move onto another project. I didn't have enough time to really start something today but we are traveling again tomorrow so I'll have at least 2 hours to try and figure out which one to do next. Will try to post pictures tomorrow night after we get back of the finished project. Night Jland!

Computer.....

As I type now my computer is being fixed on the other side of my living room and I am on hubby's spare at my desk. YAY!!!! Hopefully no more LAG for everything. In a little while here I have to head out to get some groceries, come back to grab the middle monkey, take her to her Girl Scout end of year party, then get some more groceries/come home to pack for travel, then get her at 3:45 EST/EDT (still can't remember which we are in!) to then head to Laingsburg for the anniversary party and eventually drive back home tonight. This is when having some of those knit-lites needles would come in handy. Because the last time I tried to knit in the car at night I ended up having to frog about 6 rows after I realized I'd screwed it up.

So my KIP for WWKIP day will be knitting in the car and possibly at the anniversary party later tonight. I plan to finish Becca's scarf on the way up **crosses fingers** and then get started on either Calorimetry or my scarf to go with it in the Noro I bought. Both use US 8 needles so I can only do one at a time as I only have one pair at the moment. But I've discovered that when I have more than on WIP I don't work on them. I have to concentrate on one thing at a time if I want to finish it. Trust me there are a ton of projects I'd love to get started working on but then it will be like some of my cross stitch that is laying around......still there and not done yet. hehe And we can't have that - it's just not right! ;)

Hopefully hubby can get my comp fixed before we have to leave otherwise I continue to steal his until tomorrow. Muwahahaha! But we are heading up to Lansing for a last minute invite to dinner for Father's day bu his parents. They are bribing us with ribs.....mmmmmmmm. Evil that means I can't knit afterward unless I really clean well. Dilemma! But now I need to make some more stitch markers so that I have some of my own for Calorimetry because it requires 2 to make it. Have a great weekend Jland!

Head hurts much......

So last night setting up the stage with props actually meant painting the props indoors......with regular paint. And me being a creative person I painted a LOT of the props (foam surfboards and palm trees). And now feel like I have a hangover - and I wasn't even drinking! I left at 10:45 last night and was still slightly awake because someone bought me a coffee drink (yummy chocolate, coffee, snicker cooler goodness!) that wile I wanted it probably wasn't the best thing to have knowing I was tired and needed sleep. I fell asleep at 12 after reading a while.

So here it is 1:30 EST or is it EDT right now.....can't think. And I have this huge headache and just want to crawl into bed. I think I will soon too but only after having some tea, maybe that will help me feel better. Yum tea......
Eating didn't I felt like I was about to send it all back up but I knew I needed the food. Shoot it is past my lunch time.....I should eat....but I don't know what. Hmm.....eat, tea, and sleep are on my agenda for today. And maybe some knitting soon too. All depends on how I am feeling later. Plus there is the grocery shopping that I really should be doing but I'm not venturing anywhere with this headache.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sorry needed to mentally do that instead of actually screaming out loud like I want to. After trying to not beat my kids all afternoon (joke but seriously wth is up with them not listening!!!) i decided to try and do some non-knitting creativity. So I made some stitch markers......and plan to use them for a secret purpose.
>.>
<.<
No telling who reads my blog other than my SP spoiler these days. So I'll post pics of them once the swap is over. :D I think they turned out rather nice if I do say so myself and hope he/she likes them.

I can't remember if I mentioned it but I have turned into a lobster. I was super sunburned yesterday at the older two girls end of year parties - EEK! The only real good points of yesterday were the:
*Teacher gift for my 2nd grader's teacher - She LOVED everything and was totally surprised.
*We had our weight loss challenge last night (see my link on the side for weight loss blog) and I am down 1.5 lbs this week for a total of 7 lbs since 4/28/08. WOOT!

Gotta run hubby is barking about feeding kids ASAP and then I have worship team practice and we will be setting up new props afterwards. So no more posts until tomorrow........maybe. :)

Question of the Week

Our lovely Hostess Robyn sent me the QOW today. This week's question is:"What's your favorite summertime beverage?"

Hmmmm that's a tough one. I normally drink water during a typical day, summer or not. I try to stay away from other drinks that are filled with empty calories. But I love lemonaide, sun tea (but I sweeten it) and coke zero. So I guess the best/my favorite summertime beverage would have to be an herbal tea as sun tea. That reminds me I have to look at my jars to see if they are useable this year. I'm thinking that washing the plastic rings in the dishwasher isn't such a great idea because after doing that I suddenly have leaks.

I'm also thinking this was for non-alcoholic beverages......although if not - Mike's hard lemonaide for me! Quick easy and simple :)

I'm halfway through the last panel on Becca's scarf and should have it done and need blocking by this weekend sometime. Most likely this and something knit in the lovely Noro I have will be my travel companions for Saturday/Sunday. We are heading to Laingsburg (roughly 30 minutes outside Lansing to the North-East) for Mike's grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary dinner. Then his parents have invited us back to Lansing on Sunday for a father's day dinner with his mom's side of the family. Shoot! Must remember to buy cards when I go shopping on Friday. >.< But we have been debating going to Lansing on Saturday and staying over vs. driving up for each event. Will know more later, but will mean that little blogging will be done this weekend.

A quick thank you to my Secret Pal - I am loving the patterns you have sent me! I had looked on Ravelry and found someone who had made Calorimetry in Noro Silk Garden Chunky - what I have and decided that one skein will be used for that and another for a scarf for me. So now I have a new pattern to try for my scarf -thanks! Hope you have a great Thursday. Kids will be home from alst day of school any minute so it's off to make lunch for me and then make them clean! Muahahahaha! >:-D

In reply....

Because I was bad and just noticed the comment after posting the last post....LOL I have no plans for the Noro at the moment. I saw it on Ravelry and wanted to try it because the colorway I saw 264 was sooooooooo pretty in the scarf someone was making: here- http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Loopitylou/2-weeknights-with-warrick. So I looked online and found out my LYS (The Knitting Den, South Lyon, MI) carried Noro and ventured out there. And as luck would have it I went the day that they were having a sale and got a great deal ($4.99 USD per skein of yarn. WOOT!). So I picked up some colorways I like as I didn't see 264 there and brought them home. I like yarn that is more than one color like the Noro and the others I have posted on Ravelry. The end product is always different and so pretty when you combine the colors into a project. It's like knitting with more than one color but without the hassle of joining the next color ball. :)

Most likely they will become a scarf.....because I really only know how to make those right now or maybe I'll venture into something else like Calorimetry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/calorimetry I thought this looked really neat and want to make them to match the girls scarves once I finish them all.

Ugh

My computer has been acting up a lot lately. My hubby suggested unintsalling and reinstaling windows and formatting the disk drive. This of course requires me to figure out if I have all my internet passwords written down somewhere, transfer files to another disk drive and try to backup those that cannot be transfered easily. I think I have done most of this now. So that means that tonight I might potentially be without a computer. However, this means I get to steal one of hubby's comps to use despite if he likes it or not. >:-D Yes comps - we are a very computer oriented family. If my handy dandy laptop.....thought I was going to say notebook didn't you? LOL....was working I'd use that. But evidently leaving it on, even with being plugged in, 24/7 will make it not work anymore. It is old and if the stinking battery would charge long enough for me to get the thing to recognize the new fan I put in it might work again. My other alternative is to buy a new battery (which it probably needs anyway) or/and a new AC adaptor cord. But outside of that we have 5 computers in the house plus the non-working laptop. 1 is mine, 1 is the kids, 2 are hubbys and the last is a server that he has been working on building to store files on.

On the knitting front - still working on Becca's scarf. And she is getting inpatient to have it finished. Which is odd because it is 80+ degrees here today - no need for a scarf. But the faster I get hers done the faster I can move on to another project. Most likely another scarf. LOL Hey they are quick to work on and will make great Christmas gifts when I get them finished. Plus I am excited to head to my library on Friday. The Klutz Kids Knitting book that comes in a kit with all kids need to learn to knit, the one I saw at borders for $24.99 USD, is waiting for me to pick it up. Some quick simple projects that I can learn and then teach the girls once they get the hang of knitting. Julia so far is the only on knitting.....because she was grounded and had nothing else to do. hehehe But she is just doing a row at a time of garter stitch and has maybe 4 rows done. She was getting frustrated with it because I evidently didn't show her well enough how to slip the finished stitch off the one needle and onto the other. So it looked wrong to her and we had tears because of it. I guess I was moving too fast when I showed her. I think I will knit the next project continental/picker/left handed so I can brush up on the basics and be able to teach the youngest later. Which if I had listened to my father-in-law and made her right handed I'd not have this problem. Honestly I never did anything to make the girls pick which hand to use - I just let them start feeding themselves when they got old enough and the either continued to use that hand, switched constantly, or like Becca used one for eating and the other for writing. But i think she is either using both for eating now or switched to left only. Can't remember, will have to watch her eat dinner. hehe

I'd love to make something that has an Owl in the pattern for my Aunt, the one who knits things for everyone. She loves Owls, has a ton of them decorating her house. I wonder if I can find a scarf pattern for that....and have little owls decorating it. Probably better off getting some fabric and making her a scarf or something that way. Oh Oh I know I have the bag pattern from the back of the SnB book that I could use if I can find the owl fabric and make her a knitting bag. She could use it for traveling - like on the many cruises they take. Now to just figure out the sewing machine.....I have the basics down and have made a few things......that are lumpy and not quite even.....but they are holding up pretty good so far. :) I'll have to post pics of my Care Bear pattern bag that I made. It was a piece of fabric with the pre-patterned panels all on it. So I just had to cut along the lines and sew. That I got great it was the trim that was making it hard for me. But it is done, works well and I love it so cute! Plus I have gotten so many compliments on it and I can proudly say I made it myself. :)

Today is busy: Laundry this morning before leaving to have lunch with the older girls, then their end of year parties that I get to bounce between (oh joy), weight loss challenge her after school, dinner and then Wii Fit exercise at some point in time between. I am so going to bed early and sleeping well tonight!!!! Gotta dash later Jland.

Junk and stuff

SO as you can tell I have been messing around with the background on my blog. :) The templates they provide are great but sometime can be limiting to what you might like them to be. I however just discovered that in the layouts tab you can change the color of background, text, etc. So I picked the layout I like but it was a blah color and changed it up after adding a pic to my header and ta-dah here is the new blog design. :) I'm sure I knew about the changing the color thingy before since this isn't my first blog on here but I totally spaced on it evidently.

Well my batteries were finally charged in the camera so I took some pics of my new yarn from the other day. Jack decided he needed to be in a few.....couldn't be because mom put a plastic bag (read Jack's FAVORITE toy) on the floor. Nope couldn't be that. So here they are and picks of the size 8's that I got for the girls. Julia is using 1 set now to get the hang of the garter stitch. I'm using another to demonstrate with and the last is the one pictured still in package. And yes I remembered finally that I can resize pictures on here so they are not huge like tha last few have been. LOL!



Noro Silk Garden Colorway 6 Lot A


Noro Silk Garden Colorway 3 Lot A


Julia's Yarn





"What's with the light ma?"


Ugh when will the rain end? I don't mind it bringing down the temps because it was hot outside this past week during lunch recess. But if it is still raining later today that means indoor recess, which means headache for me and mean lunch lady for the kids. Plus my whistle is super loud inside. ;) The rain is making me wish we had put a roof on the deck and enclosed it. Then I could be sitting on the deck, knitting and watching the rain fall in nice cool non-A/C air.

**Special note** To my secret pal if you decide to purchase something for me from my Amazon.com wishlist - I am ok with items being used/like new vs. brand spanking new. I figure it's one way to recycle books without actually recycling them. Could be why I love my library so much. ;) And thanks for the comment. Being without power wasn't so bad as it got really hot in the house fast and the girls are soooooo spoiled that all they did was complain. By the time I finished reading and blew out the candles it was so dark in the house that it freaked me out a little. I'm too used to my alarm clock that glows. It's basically a night light for me. :D Not that I need one I just like to see that I am going to fall on the dog when I get up in the middle of the night because she is laying on the floor on my side of the bed. Never Mike's side - always mine. Why???? I don't get it. Anyways. Breakfast time, some knitting then work for now. Maybe another post later if I finish Becca's scarf today. *Crosses fingers*

Blargh!

Yesterday was great up until about 4 pm. That was when Mike’s parent’s called and said a bad storm was heading our way and to get to safety ASAP. Well about the time we got off the phone with them is when the storm started and our power went out. We live in a manufactured mobile home park and with the winds supposed to be up to 60 MPH we seriously thought about getting out of the house. We must have been on the very edge of the storm because all we really got was the thunderstorms. No hail, no high winds, just rain and thunder. But no power until the middle of the night. Once the rain stopped we opened the windows because it was REALLY stuffy in here. My hubby is soooooo spoiled into thinking that he needs the AC running once it hits 60 degrees outside that he was roasting last night. I on the other hand was fine. But the girls were all complaining that it was too hot. They are spoiled too.

The upside is that I almost got Becca’s scarf all finished and had her try it on. She wants it longer of course. Grrrrr. I think I am only going to add two more panels and be done with it. I finished my book I was reading by candle light because I couldn’t sleep yet. That put me to bed at midnight….well after that when I finally fell asleep. And then woke up every time that the cat decided my pillow was the best way into the window. Ugh! So I got little sleep last night to be woken up at 4:30 am to turn on my fan because the power was back on. Then there was no getting back to as deep a sleep as I had been in. But the dreams were interesting. Must have had New Kids on the Block on the brain somewhere when I went to bed last night. LOL!

Bus time gotta run.

New yarn!

So I had gone to Border's yesterday with the girls to get one of their teacher's gift card for the end of year gift. While I was there I looked around the kids section to see what they had in the way of knitting kits. I found Klutz Knitting. It is a kit made by Klutz that comes with a book that has 6 patterns in it, yarn, a pair of size 8 10" wooden needles, a F crochet hook, a tapestry needle, two buttons and a carrying case. Cute - but not for $24.95 USD. Besides I'd still have to buy 2 other pairs of needles, buttons and yarn for the other girls. They all of course have voiced the want to learn how to knit. It all started when my MIL taught the girls finger crocheting. Then they wanted to learn how to crochet. I told them they'd have to wait until I figure that one out first. :) So I got to thinking - I bet I can find the book at the library for those patterns...... Sure enough I did and have it on transfer from another branch as of this morning.

Then I decided to check out my LYS as I had not been there yet since discovering it. I went to The Knitting Den in South Lyon and found some beautiful Noro Slik Garden in colorway 3 (Purple, Blue, Green & Brown) & 6 (Green, Teal/Aqua, Pink) . I bought 2 of each color as they were having a sale that made then only cost me $4.99 USD. WOOT! I bought 3 pairs of single point size 8 9" long bamboo needles for my girls to use when I teach them and point covers. I realized after opening them at home that they were for circular needles - oops! they still fit thought and eventually I hope to have some circular needles too. Julia was with me and picked out her first yarn. Universal Yarn Inc. Classic Worsted Tapestry colorway 7017 Indigo Blues. Very pretty and i'll post pics later once I have charged batteries in my camera. :) But hey as I was shopping I realized that accidently teaching myself to knit left handed will come in handy as my youngest Becca is left handed! Now to just learn left handed purling and she will be all set. ;)

Sanity......

Is totally overrated and I have lost mine (ok ok so it was really gon a LONG time ago but I've had it now). The girls have less than one week left of school to go before vacation and already they are driving me crazy. Not to mention all the crap that has to be done this week because I was suckered into room mom duties for my older two girls classes. ARGH! Julia's class is doing a surprise memory book for the teacher. Great no probs there - my co-roommom organized this whole thing. Then one of the parents in Lily's class piped up and said "what a cute idea! We should do that too since it is the teacher's first year here!" I thought great, yeah no sorry not doing this because I already had other stuff planned and you waited until there was one week left BEFORE their party date and end of school to come up with the idea. They decided to get it done themselves. Sure go for it I think to myself while silently screaming because it is one more thing that I volunteer to help get any stragglers on. UGH! Just say NO. ::bangs head on wall::

I feel like I am PMSing but I know its not that. Its the diet....I am trying to lose weight (and slowly doing it) but man I miss real food and I didn't eat enough today. Because I was bad and skipped breakfast to get a shower when I was called in to sub today. Ok enough venting I smell food.......its dinner time. :)

Oh and on the knitting front. I took Becca's scarf with me yesterday to her end of year picnic party. While I followed her around the school to stations (we were rained out so we came inside) I knit when she was in the same area for 2 stations. One of the teachers came over and talked to me about knitting because she is a knitter too. Then the last station that we were in the gym for some kids came over to me instead of the ladies ruinning the station and asked me "are we knitting here?" LOL I thought it was so cute but I was also impressed that the first grade boy knew what I was doing.

Kids.......are going to kill me!

Well the picnic on Saturday was fine other than the kids pigged out on EVERYTHING they could get their hands on. We left the park and went to Mike's parent's house for him to fix a computer issue. Which of course made us late for the game because dad had to talk about anything and everything under the sun in the little time we really didn't have. Grandma had decided as we were trying to leave that we needed a group shot - then everyone had to go to the bathroom so it took us an half hour longer to leave the park than we'd wanted. Which meant Mike's boss and our friends were waiting outside Lugnuts stadium for us as we had their tickets. Oops.....someone forgot to let us know about the construction right by the stadium so we had to take a detour to where we parked. The game was good - withe the exception of the fat that Mike's work the guys NEVER sit in their own seats. This is the second year we have come to the game and had to sit in other peoples seats who then come back and have to sit somewhere else. The one group got really loud about us sitting in their spot - well hey we had 9 seats that we only got 4 of them so sorry but shut it was my thoughts. I was in the row in front of hubby and kids with my friend Emily. Her hubby had gone to the bathroom to change their son and what happens.......My youngest being cold (I'm not going there they were all told to bring extra pants to change into and didn't) tucked her legs up into her jacket. Then she must have rocked forward on the bench and because her legs and arms were mostly in the jacket proceeded to bash her mouth on the bench back in front of her. UGH! Yup, fat lip. Yup, blood everywhere. Yup, only noticed later the chipped tooth. Yup, bit the inside of her lip but the First Aid (provided by Sparrow Hospital up the street - THANK YOU!!!!) missed when cleaning her up and getting her an ice pack.





It is a little puffy there but was still bleeding a little. Mainly because Lily was holding the ice pack in a way that made all the cold liquid not sit on her lip. She got up the next morning the lip was twice the size, had bleed some more and looked like it was puss filled. So Mike decided he was taking her to the Dr. Of course he decided this on the day we switch insurance through his company. They only thing I knew about it was the in-house plan name that was provided to us, our copay amount, that we were still with the same company and that our out of pockets expenses are now ridiculously high. Luckily the Dr said no infection just a normal body reaction and prescribed a medication that was free through our Meijer pharmacy - yay! You can see the chipped tooth in this one.





But it doesn't end there. We went to a potluck dinner at a friends house and Becca gets in the door says her tummy hurts. She'd said this before we had left. But this time says she thinks she is going to throw up. Sure enough we got her into the bathroom just in time and she threw up 3 times. Ate a bun and some chip with water and then ran around playing like nothing had happened. Of course she still complained that her tummy hurt last night and thsi morning. Iu kept her home from school gave her some kids pepto and made her rest. Oh the joys of kids.

The one nice thing about last night was as we watched pictures of our friends trip to Denver I sat and knit on Becca's scarf for a little bit. One of our other friends came over and looked at it and commented on my stitches being beautiful. I have no clue, I just work the project until it's done. :) But she crochets so we got to talking. She is left handed and tried to hire someone to teach her to knit but all she could manage was to purl. I had somehow managed to teach myself to knit lefthanded when I first started. lol So I thought about it later and if I can teach her how to knit lefthanded maybe she can teach me to purl lefthanded and I can be an ambidexterous knitter. hehehe