Ketchup & Mustard and Fireworks on the 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July everybodee! It is a glorious, sunny day here in West Michigan. We celebrated a bit too much last night with the adult beverages and the fireworks, shhhh, don't tell anyone it was us, but we live to see another day.

The Saint cooked some chorizo and eggs with tortillas for breakfast and we were good to go.

I spent a couple hours weeding this morning before the sun got too hot.

Now I can kick back and enjoy the rest of the holiday, not that I don't enjoy weeding...blogging, knitting and switching back and forth between Food Network and Create. Today they were cooking onion rings in the oven, on America's Test Kitchen and they looked yummy. Got to try those.

While watching the onion rings bake on tv I finished Ketchup & Mustard by adding a bit of fringe on each end. Max kindly modeled for us and of course Sam had to get in a shot or two. They're such hams when I break out the camera!



Got some exciting news yesterday too. Georgeanne took the sparkley bag I made her for the Multi-Tasking 9 to 5 Swap over on Ravelry when she saw Cyndi Lauper in concert, got to meet the artist and Ms. Lauper actually said the bag was cute! eeeee, isn't that cool?! She's also got a little yarn dyeing business and you should see all the pretty yarn...I love the Mardi Gras and Vermont Foliage colorways best, but that's just me, lol.

Tomorrow Rena, Christine and I are heading out for Lansing to stop at several yarn shops, I found 3 that are in close proximity and we'll check those out. Threadbear Fiber Arts, Rae's Yarn Boutique and Woven Art. Should be fun with a stop at P.F. Chang's for lunch.

Hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Play safely!

Wildflower's havin a contest, go see! and a sad story

My friend Wildflower who's a maniac sock knitter is having a contest for her blogiversary. She's got some pretty sweet swag to give away. Go check it out! One of the conditions of entering the contest was that you had to tell a story about some socks you attempted to knit, had knit with difficulty or knit and frogged. Here's my sad, sad story...

Once upon a time there was a pretty pair of socks that AllyB knit with fabulous yarn she won from Scout's Swag, they were named - amazingly enough - Killer Biller Socks.

AllyB so enjoyed knitting them, they looked ever-so-nice on her feets and on the pretty turquoise sock blockers that Rena gave her for Christmas...until...she washed them, in cold water, by hand...when they dried so nice and soft and luxurious she was thinking about how heavenly they would be on her feets again...

until she put them on and found out she was WRONG!!!!

One of the socks had mysteriously become about an inch shorter than the other.

What to do, what to do?

She put them on the blockers and hung them on the office/sewing/quilting/knitting stash room door.

For about a month, they were constantly taunting her...you really shouldn't taunt her, you know.

They're back in the stash looking like this...
where they'll patiently wait until it's their turn on the needles again.

Next time she says she's gonna knit them both at the same time on one looooonnnggg circular needle and there will be no chance of one sock being shorter than the other.

There! Take that you naughty socks, mwa-ha-ha-ha!

the end

back already?!

Yep, now that this little beauty has arrived at it's destination I can show it off...

It's the Flapper Purse from the SnB calendar I have at work, it's on the June 6 page...it turned out pretty cute...what horrible yarn to knit with though...just like one of those plastic kitchen scrubbies running through your fingers, yuk! I certainly wouldn't want to wear anything made with this stuff. But I loved making the i-cord for the handle...go figure.


And check out this vintage button I found in my dear-departed Grama's old box of buttons...

it was a perfect match, I think. The lining, which I didn't get a picture of before I packed it in the box, is a good match for the green with some gold swirls in it.

Maybe Georgeanne will show us a picture of the lining if we ask her real nice?

And in other news...I'm hooked on the crochet again...yesterday Rena came by on her way home from work with a stack of vintage knit & crochet magazines a co-worker had given her.
While leafing through them and having a few laughs with her I found a great pattern in this booklet... and had to give it a quick try, cause anyone who crochets knows you can actually give things a quick try with crochet...and you get sucked in! Sorry socks.
I'm using the yarn that Grace sent me in my Multi-Tasking 9 to 5 swap package over at Ravelry. It's pretty and soft and is working up to the perfect guage...you crochet it in strips then connect them but there isn't enough yarn for the afghan so I'll go til I run out of yarn...I'm thinking I'll end up with a really fun scarf. Sort of reminds me of condiments so that's what it will be called when I'm finished...the Mustard & Ketchup Scarf. Thanks again, Grace for the yarn!

The Saint made it to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and got the truck unloaded. Now he'll stay and help where he can for a few days and make his way back home by Friday. Thanks for all your good thoughts, we really appreciate them.

Have a great day!

the June from Hell

Hey! My life's been hectic...yours?

I'm hoping that the above picture which represents the impending doom of this month will now give way to more time enjoying things like this...


Lots of folks in the Midwest that are dealing with way-more difficult times than we are here. I'm thankful every morning when I get up that we are once-again in a position to be the helpers rather than the victims.

Showers, weddings, graduations, b-ball tournaments, knitting events, getting a $wap package together and Bashin, oh, and working everyday, lol. Didn't even have time last week to post here. Seems like from the middle of May until Bash Day (that's a 14 hour work day for me, thankyouverymuch) it's non-stop - now there's a smidge of time to take a quick breath, catch up on laundry, Swiffing ...ooo, isn't that a pretty green Swiffer? Have to check into one of those... used mine so much that the handle is all bent and woogedy...oh, sorry, getting off track...must be tired from yesterday... the dog hair and blogging.

Really want to say hey to everybody that loyally stops in here to check out my life and projects. I'm truly honored by your steadfast support. Rena, Cheryl, Purl, Grace, Nichole, Bubblesknits, Alana, Darcy, Cass (although Cass is so famous now that I don't hear from her much anymore, LOL) and then there's my new friend Georgeanne, she's been working on a great charity project out there in SanDiego, maybe you could help her out...

Especially like to thank AlisonH for leaving a comment and leading me to read her blog for the first time this morning. Alison, your story about the toucan touched my heart, thank you.

A good bit of knitting has been done here this past week, as amazing as that may seem. Finishing a couple of small projects is so rewarding and motivating. Nothing like a few dish cloths to get your knitting-mo going. Managed to get a few stitches done on this cloth yesterday.

And couldn't resist showing you this little beauty I picked up at City Knitting on Friday night during the Late Night Yarny Party.
This Panda Silk is so soft and shiny, can't wait to knit it up into some luxurious socks.

In addition to being so busy, The Saint has been away for a couple of days celebrating our nephew's ending bachelorhood (wedding next Saturday) and tomorrow he'll be driving a big truck loaded with relief supplies for the families of fellow Teamsters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hopefully he'll be back home on Thursday. If you think of it and could send up a few good thoughts for a safe journey for him I'd really appreciate it. Thanks

contesting...contesting

Hey! Darcy (one of my new Ravelry friends) is having a contest to celebrate her 200th post.

Go leave a comment on her blog and tell her I sent you.

We could all win prizes!

Yay!

It's raining, it's pouring...

Hello all! Thanks for stopping by for a visit. I noticed the other day that I've managed to pass the one year mark blogging. Who'd a thought I'd still have something to say? Certainly not me!

We've had a wacky weekend, weather-wise, here in W Mi. Alternating between periods of sun and severe thunderstorms all weekend. Flash floods and high winds, sheesh!

I saw our grandson play his last game in the Macker for the weekend this morning. They were so disappointed after doing so well yesterday. There's always next year.

I did manage to run out just before the last storm rolled through and get my gerbera daisies, dahlias, basil and parsley planted. Now if the rain just doesn't beat them down I'll be all set.


We're in one of those-trying to be sunny but not quite making it-times right now so I had a chance to run out and pose my last minute swap project. Isn't it pretty and sparkly?



The yarn is Lana Gatto Arianna in the Marigold colorway. It's a braided yarn with shiny gold running through it. Of course, you can click the pics to make them larger. These small size shots don't show you how glittery it looks. I hope my spoilee likes it. Is it looking like a little purse to you?

I got to spend a few hours at City Knitting yesterday and made great progress on my Mardi Gras sock. I may actually get it finished by next weekend. I got a couple more rows done on the thistle stole but that is pretty slow going, two rows forward and 3 backward, gah!

I'm reading Tales of the City my Armistead Maupin. I read his newest book, Michael Tolliver Lives, while on vacation and found it quite interesting so now I'm going back in time and reading his series about San Francisco in the 70s. Very interesting and entertaining.

I really appreciate you all commenting and giving me encouragement. It's nice to know someone is actually reading some of this stuff.

A great week to you all!

tomorrow's Monday again...

Even though I was feeling a bit weary today...see bottom of post for reasons...I managed to cast on 83 stitches and get the first few rows done of the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole.

I think it's going to be pretty. I've gotten started on my second Mardi Gras sock too and I have the heel flap done on my second Eggplant Louet Gems sock.

This is truly amazing since I spent a big part of Saturday at a meeting of the Obama campaign and then hanging out looking for folks who still need to register to vote. Along with a little party we had last night.

As promised last time a few more pics from our little getaway weekend...

I really like this cute little shack, it's a salon on the channel in Fishtown.

You can't miss the 6ft long lure-shaped weather-vane...

it's actually at the top of a telephone pole.

And the old tug boat that's always docked whenever we've been there...

such a fun and interesting place to visit.

We went to our grand-daughter's dance recital last week. She was one of the performers of the Little Old Man Dance their costumes were colorful and they had a fun time.

She's the second from the left. Aren't they cute!?

My son got his tatoo finished yesterday, isn't it amazing? He says the part that looks green now will eventually be blue. It's supposed to ward off the evil spirits while he's riding his mountain bike...I know I'd be scared if I was those spirits...I'm sure I could have taken a better photo but I wasn't really paying attention to details, we were having our annual Fishing Buddies Fish Fry and I had already had a bit of wine, well you know how it is, don't ya? A good time was had by all...