manos cotton stria crocheted flower scarf and belt

WOW, It sounds like a few of you are interested in this pattern. Man, they should be sending me a commission check or something! I got it at my LYS for $15.50, it just came in last week. I have googled and seen it for $13-18 plus shipping. Check your LYS or favorite online retailer. I've not bought many books online other than half.com or amazon, so if you get a good deal somewhere, let me know and I'll post it here too.

Design Source Cotton Collection 2 for Manos Cotton Stria yarn






This is the first 8 sewn together, I really HATE finishing, but this is pretty easy to do. In the last 3 days, I've cranked out four sets of these colorful flowers, and I am going to take a break and actually KNIT something from the Felted Knits book I got from my Secret Pal and maybe start the multidirectional scarf I got as well, and then I'm going to do some flower scarves/belts in hot pink & black. I think they'd look cute.

OK, back to ranting.......
So, I go on a brownie field trip after school. I actually volunteered for one in APRIL that's for a musical show where the girls sit quietly in their seats, not this one, but I thought, what the heck, I'm a tough momma. We head down to the Discovery Center, this VERY COOL center with the Missouri Conservation District to do leaf prints. The instructions said to dress in old clothes as it would be messy for girls and for moms. First of all, the place is at 47th and Troost. For those of you non-KC-area readers, it's the edge of a not-very-nice area of town. We had a blast, made an absolute mess, and had a great time. The kids also made these SO COOL prints, I'm going to mat & frame them and I LOVE THEM, check it out below...
OK, the funny part, besides listening to the two snottier mommas talk about the best way to get there spending as much time possible in the Plaza on the trip and as little time on the actual Troost road, (the rest of us just drove there normally and no one was carjacked or mugged, we locked doors, rolled up windows and the like). NO, only in southern Johnson County do TWO of the moms wear their new fur coats. It did snow here last week, but it was 50 degrees outdoors this afternoon. I was cracking up. One lady at least took hers off and helped with the craft. The other one with some black & white fur jacket kept it on admidst all the paint, the mess and what-not even though it was SMOKING hot in the room. I thought to myself, man, if you have to work that hard to find a place to wear your new fur, you have GOT to get out more often. Even I could swing a dinner out or something better than a brownie paint adventure on Troost, but what the heck. Somehow the song..."Cruella DeVille....Cruella DeVille...." kept going through my head.

My children's masterpieces...They look kind of crappy here, but in person are cool, textured, watercolor-ish things that are amazingly different.


I really wanted to make one too, as they end up printing out on this big hand cranked old fashioned printing press, and it's on watercolor paper and looks like a real piece of art when done, but since the other moms were behaving themselves, I restrained myself. But I think I'm taking the kids back sometime so I can play too.

Yarn Harlot's NEW BOOK!

OK, I just read the review through the knitters review on this one and I'm BUYING IT!!!

, Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much, by the Yarn Harlot, aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, full of fun quotes and funny stories about yarn enhancement, her trials and triumphs and just looks like a BLAST! I can't wait to get mine!

OK, enough of a plug, but I think it's very cool that she was "discovered" because of her blog. It got her articles in various knitting mags and now a little book. YOU GO BLOGGING GIRL! Too freaking cool.

what a day I'm having

Well crap.

Fist the good stuff...I finally made myself sit my butt down and DO SOME FREAKING FINISHING...which I really DO NOT LIKE. I need to have a lady in waiting that brushes my hair, brings me iced tea and sews in all the ends on my knitting. I would have made a great rich old baron's wife back in the day...except I like flushing toilets and the great no-black-plague thing going on in the present day. Plus I probably would have been poor and had to spend my life sewing ends for some other rich biotch. ANYWAY, I got half of one of the flower scarves sewed together and ALL the ends weaved into those little flowers. I have been cranking out the flowers as they go SO FREAKING FAST! I think I'd like to have a ton for my sale in Sept as well as to give my daughter, myself and about 3 little cousins. busy busy busy...

Driving to work, listening to Green Day and Violent Femmes on the radio, head banging and having a good time, hit ALL green lights, NO traffic in my lane on the morning commute, even have some cute guy ask me to go ahead of him in line for my daily diet coke. Good times. I've even got good hair.

Get to work, OH I forgot to say...."and then there were 2". Miss Teresa has given her 2 weeks' notice as she's now got a real job, in sales, making lots of $$ and seeing actual people aboveground. Now it's just little ol' me and my assistant who only drives me crazy about 1/2 the time and the local boss. There's still two owners in FL, but they don't come up too often, so it's not too bad. Getting a little lonely in the dungeon. I am thinking they need to agree to letting me spend more time at home and less time down here, but I've got to come up with a convincing argument for that one. We'll see. It's so freaky, being in a place with 12 offices, about 12 cubicles and a big-ass lobby with four work stations in it and it's just us few people. AND NO SUNLIGHT...that's getting to me a bit.

BACK TO WORK, so our local boss has been talking about our health insurance, they won't talk to him as the controller was the contact set up and he's no longer with us (D-day and all that), so we don't exactly know if we HAVE insurance or not as they didn't send the bill and apparently there was a mix-up of some kind. great. I have more boobie-bumps that we need checking on, and just in case of a freakish accident I'd like to be able to receive medical attention from an actual hospital. I tried to call into the insurance company on the customer service line, just to verify I do have coverage and their system is down. great. I'll try again later. Bossman's not worried, there's a grace period, etc. Call me crazy, but I think I'd like a little verification of my own.

Didn't make it to the knitting group last night as the CF Walk organizational meeting went long. I was joking about my crazy riverman adventure and one of the other ladies had "pig farm duty" as a volunteer. I'm telling you, this race is COOL, too much freaking fun, like no other normal race I've been a part of! She and her hubby were stationed at a pig farm in the country and it was windy, dusty and smelly. Poor thing. I said, but don't you feel good at what you're doing for your son? She made a comment about how she would have smelled so badly even the riverman wouldn't have wanted her. Note to self, make sure to RUN the race next year and DO NOT do the pig farm leg. hah!

I'm off to work carefully so I don't get hurt until I find out about my insurance.... no more headbanging this am....

***update*** Just talked with UHC and we ARE still covered, thank God. Now I can drive on the slick wet roads for my chipotle steak burrito bowl and not worry too much!

Brew to Brew run Pics (knitters on the run)

I promise to post about actual yarn related topics soon! I will also post a link to the cool book that has the pattern for my flower scarf/belts I'm working on as well.

Here's the highlights of our Brew to Brew TEAM JOEY run benefitting Cystic Fibrosis research. Please click the itty bitty pics to see larger versions...

BEFORE the race, it's COLD outside and notice there's NO FREAKING OTHER PEOPLE AROUND???? That is because they already left for the race 15 minutes BEFORE me....hence, the getting lost....



What was my team doing while I was lost and running away from crazy river men? EATING AT MCD'S!!!



The Knitting Virgin herself at the end of the first leg, desperately wishing she would have run a little more and sat on her butt knitting a little less over the last month...The comment on the picture when it came to us this morning was "was lost, but now am found...was blind, but now I see...." smartasses




What's this? ANOTHER KNITTER RUNNING? Phuong, new to the craft, actually RAN her 5 mile leg and doesn't even look the worse for wear!




Here's Hien, showing off the fact that his chest is bigger than mine




Tina, finishing strong




I don't know this guy's name, but he's pretty to look at and he ran for Joey, so we are loving him



Miss Lili doesn't even look like she just ran 4 1/2 miles, does she??? She's going to be coming to our KC knitting group to learn to knit soon!



Jeff, what can I say? He climbed up & down riverbanks with a rope, rowed a boat across a river and STILL made it over some hills...What a stud!




Rich, master of all hills! Look at those legs. woo hoo!




This man started the morning at 5:30am eating pink zingers and drinking old flat beer....hold yourselves back ladies! Seriously cool man, though! Michael Sr. you ROCK!






Micheal, who started this great idea... and also was drinking flat beer at 5:30am, but pairing it with cigarettes and bananas instead of zingers. Michael is the husband of Huyen (new knitter who just learned how last week!).






The team at the end of the race, THANK YOU FOR HELPING MY LITTLE JOEY!!!



Aren't you glad there weren't any more runners???? Sorry for including all the pics here, but I just was so thankful for these great people!! There were about 2000 runners and we all raised a ton of $$$ for research for working to change "CF" from Cystic Fibrosis to "Cure Found"

My little Joey:

Post of NO substance whatsoever, all fluff and fun

This was lifted from MamaCate, who found it on her friend Emma, who got it from her friend Kay, and it goes on and on...It's from Flickr. Click to go spell yourself!

How much am I getting accomplished tonight??? NOTHING, but am having fun checking out all the blogs I am addicted to...

Another quiz, this one I stole from Just One More Row.

You Are From Mercury

You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable - and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You're witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends' ears off, and temper your need to know everything.

What Planet Are You From?

Love,

I survived Brew to Brew 2005

Well, I'm alive. I survived the not-trained-nearly-enough-for relay race Sunday. The hardest part was getting up at 4 freaking thirty in the am, as we were meeting out in Olathe at 5:30. Our race was supposed to start at 6:30am. We pulled into the lot at about 6:30am. Needless to say, Christine did not start with the rest of the crowd. Nope. Instead of waiting 15 more minutes for the 7am start, everyone (sans Christine) decided I could just "catch up". Well, that may have been an option had we been running a regular course on roads with markers, but this one was a seriously challenging race. I did have a map, but apparently they gave me the WRONG map so I was basically screwed. I took off uphill, and saw some cones marking the way at about 6:45 (no time for stretching, so I just jumped in place a few times and headed off--not a good idea). I got to the top of this hill and could actually see a few runners in the distance, but there was an intersection and the bridge split into these two big circular things. I couldn't tell which way to take to get where I was supposed to be. There was NO ONE around, so I made a guess, started off and then some guy in a truck pulled up next to me and told me to take the other way, so I ran back uphill and started over, getting to the bottom, realizing he was FULL OF SHIT (or maybe just misinformed) but STILL, back uphill I went and down the other side. I did see a volunteer there, who told me to take the stairs down 2 flights and go under the bridge and "hop over the concrete wall" (yes, HOP) and run along the levee. I did not actually know what a levee is, I thought it was a bar. (the Levee in KC). I found the wall, climbed over with no hopping as the damn thing was at least 4 1/2 feet tall, and figured the levee was this big hill next to the river with gravel tire tracks going along it. I ran with NO ONE in sight for a very long time. It was through NOT one of the better parts of the city and I ran next to forests and abandoned railroad cars and junkyards, under railroad bridges, and the like with no sign of civilization. Then I get to this gate across the track with barbed wire along the top, and a "no trespassing" sign. I think, huh, WTF? I call my teammates who finally find a runner who just ended and he told me I just have to crawl down the steep hill of rocks and back up again around the sign and keep going. OK. I crawl & climb and almost have some fun, except it's VERY creepy out there all by my lonesome. I see a shadow moving down among the trees by the river. Turns out I was NOT out there all by myself, nope. I had a little friend. He looked like something out of a horror movie and I pretty much decided I was like that lone fat, lame antelope being culled from the herd by the vicious hyennas. I also had been watching the discovery channel the day before with all these specials about how death row killers had escaped and went on rampages while out of prison. Not good. He starts walking in my direction, I basically put on some speed that I didn't think I had, kept trucking along while watching over my shoulder. I don't even like being by myself outdoors in southern Johnson County. I was NOT enjoying my commune with nature and homeless river men.

After I thought I had run at least 10 miles (I guess it was about 3) I started getting lapped by the 7am start fast people. I have to say, runners are nice people. Crazy mother-humpers, but nice people. I must have looked like death warmed over as the comments as these people passed me went from "morning" or "hi" to "hang in there", "you're doing great" and "you're almost done". I made it, actually doing my 4.23 miles in just under an hour, even with the 1/2 mile addition of the wrong turn, so not too terrible. Of course, everyone else on my team ran 9-12 min miles, but I didn't care! I did it! Rich took pictures of everyone at their finish signs, so I will probably have a pic to post later with the before & after looks.

Part-way through the day, I went home, showered, and picked up the kids. We met our group at this VERY COOL party at Liberty Hall catered by the Free State Brewery and ate & drank & all that. Joey was walking along thanking people for running for him. It was confusing quite a few of them, I'm sure. We went on stage to get food and after Joey thanked the guy with the microphone, I explained that Joey has Cystic Fibrosis (the run benefitted the CF Foundation for research) and he asked if Joey'd like to say hello to the crowd. After an introduction, Joey got on there and hammed it up a bit and said a big "THANK YOU" and the crowd was all cheering. I have to admit I had some tears coming down my face. It was touching. All the way back to our seats people were high fiving my kid and a group of guys very near the kegs were chanting "Joey, Joey, Joey". I'm afraid my child was liking the attention.

All in all, it was a VERY cool race, and I think if I started with a crowd or had a map of the right leg of the race, it would have been much less scary. I can't wait to do it again.

Knitting/Crocheting news: I finished three sets of flowers for the flower scarf and need to sit my butt down and sew them together. Finishing is NOT my favorite part of creations.

My secret pal ROCKS!!!

LOOK what came in the mail yesterday right before I left for the knitting meetup???? Click the pics for larger images to oooooh and aaahhhh properly!

Can you believe the haul???? OH I was so excited, it was even wrapped in a pretty purple bag with tissue paper and I should have taken a pic then, but we all know I have the patience of a fruit fly, so it was ripped while I was in the car driving to the knitting meetup. I tried to wait, I really did, but I only made it to the plaza before it was out in my lap! WOOO HOO baby, thank you secret pal!!!

Here's the goods.....the best felting book EVER, I already have about 6 projects picked out to make, burts bees facial kit (man this stuff smells GOOD), a thread cutter pendant which is VERY COOL, this unusual silver pen that has cool jangly charms on the end so I may jangle as I write....a card that has a freaking necklace pendant in it, HOW cool is that? AND AND AND a very unusual scarf pattern for a zigzag modular scarf COMPLETE with the cool handpainted supermerino yarn AND the needles to create it!!! SEE, she ROCKS! Thank you again, I'm a tiny bit intimidated by the scarf pattern, but I can see it's going to possess me much like my so-called scarf did! I'm running by the lys so I can get the yarn wound up and I'll be rocking right along!!!

I just finished my gift to send out, hope my receiver likes her stuff! HOW did I live before secret pals????

I finally made it to a knit night and ate my stomach so full I almost barfed on the way home. Cripes. I have a severe addiction to Chipotle steak burrito bowls. I am unable to stop before the entire thing is in my belly. Then to cancel the spicy flavors out a bit you HAVE to have chocolate afterwards...see where this is going? ANYWAY, yeah for Huyen, new momma of the cutest little girl born only 5 weeks ago! Huyen came out and Camille patiently taught another of my friends to knit. I am just not a knitting teacher. I need to learn to teach, but it terrifies me. weird, I know, but it does.

Wanna see what I did last night and this afternoon? SSSShhhhhh it's not knitting.....I found a pattern in the LYS while shopping for my pal (I KNOW I'm not supposed to get myself stuff, but how long have you known me?) Of course I had to find some goodies. I picked up four skeins of the COOLEST cotton stuff Manos Cotton Stria, in colors that can only be described as yummy. LOOK what I'm making, my long-ago crochet skills came back with ease after the first flower was ripped out and restarted. Again, click pics for larger images:





Do you think a 36 year old woman can pull this off? Can I wear it in public? Do I really care? YES I am wearing it. I'm also going to make more for the sale as I think the teeny-boppers will love this. My daughter is already wanting one. This yarn is so soft it's amazing. I would love a sweater made of the lime green. too cool.

I'm off to reread my felting book and have a citrus facial scrub followed by a marshmallow vanishing creme treatment. Sounds so good! I'm going to like this burts bees thing. I've been addicted to their lip balm for years now!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU secret pal!!!!!!! I love the colors of the supermerino!!!! SO COOL, thanks for picking just the right book too, you did your homework on me well!

How hard could it be to unravel a sweater????

I mean, come on...you see it all the time on cartoons, one little thread, one pull and poof there's a pile of yarn on the floor. I read these little blog posts about rescued sweaters....all this wonderful cashmere yarn, cotton yarn, merino's, etc. that people are getting and reknitting into wonderful things for PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR. I'm thinking what a great idea. I'm poor, I love the idea of recycling, it's a win win situation. I remember coming across an article with all these details of how to unravel a sweater. I was thinking, yeah, right, why should I read this? OH HOLY HELL I can't freaking do it. I thought I'd start in my own closet with two big ass Eddie Bauer hand knit monsters I've had for years. I made a bit of progress on one, got going and then got knotted up, pissed off and got out the scissors and snipped off the neck. yup, you probably are NOT supposed to do this as I ended up with a bigger mess, got all flustered and ended up ripping the thing into parts, throwing it away.

I'm not giving up. I'm going to find that damn article, read a bit and try again. But I'm practicing on a crappy sweater before I tackle a good find. THEN I'm heading out to some flea markets.

I was MS. DOMESTICITY today. Yes, I am the queen of all things crafty, and am super-mom to boot, but somehow I am lacking the gene of cooking. Tonight I amazed myself. I cooked a meal (ok it was just spaghetti but STILL), the kids set the table, they played WITH THE TV OFF and built all this cool crap with legos and magnetics and colored pictures, played school, and GOT ALONG. Both munchkins had baths, brushed teeth and said prayers and are now sleeping soundly ALL WITH NO WHINING WHATSOEVER. FREAKY. I know, I know, most families have this crap every night. I'm a fan of the divide and conquer strategy with my kids. I also have been known to bribe, yell and give the eye on a regular basis.

The only freaky thing now is there's a helicopter overhead and sirens in the air. I've got to go walk the dog outdoors for his nightly pee, but since my dog has BATHROOM ISSUES (aka eats poo and rolls in it if he gets in the yard without a leash) I have to hook him up, head outdoors in the spooky dark and wait till he pees. I think I'll call Russell and catch up on his barbie sale he had last weekend so if some freaky axe murderer comes after me in my backyard he'll be able to call 911.

I did succeed in ripping out the backless tank. I know, I was supposed to try to save it, but I swear it could have fit about 5 of me in there, I wanted to at least frog something in its entirety for reuse.

I'm KNITTING tomorrow night at Starbucks by KU Med center and meeting Phuong and anyone else that's hungry at 6:15 at chipotle next door. mmmmmmmmm chipotle.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmm damn I'm hungry again.

A couple of quotes for the day

I may be a liar, a cheat, a drunk, and a tramp, but I've got principles.
--Joanna Cassidy as the university dean's wife, protesting her innocence, in the film All-American Murder (1992)

Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.
--writer Jane Wagner

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
--actress Elizabeth Taylor

No knitting news, I worked on organizing the stash last night. OK, basically I pulled all the pretty yarns out and put them in piles, realized I have NO FREAKING IDEA what to do with most of them, petted them, admired them, and thought, I need more......yarns with a purpose.....the creativity flowed from my brain....and then I went to bed.

Going shopping this week for a few more goodies for my KRSP3 secret pal. I heard from mine and she sounds great! She's a librarian. Why is it so many of the best knitters & bloggers are librarians? Hmmmm maybe the exposure to all those beautiful books, who knows? I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas, can't wait can't wait can't wait. Good thing I'm patient, huh?

I sold ALL my stuff I listed on eBay except one ugly cross stitch booklet that I didn't think would sell anyway. It was good, I got inspired and have about 3 tubs of crap ready for pics & listing. I'm going to clear out at least one corner of the clutter of my life if it kills me. I just mailed the last of the stuff yesterday. Ahhhhh. Feels good.

Sun's shining, it's freaking COLD still, but it's sunny. Feeling truly schizophrenic musically today, so far on my live 365 free stations this am it's been the dirty martini (swing), motown, bluegrass, country, and beatles. no mupppet music today. Now I'm feeling the need for a little green day..

EVERYONE'S BETTER!

Oh thank God, the only things spewing out of our bodies is an occasional whine (from the kids) or curseword (from yours truly). I'm telling you, right before my son left with my folks, he even had a nosebleed on me. I've had it all last week, and am SO FREAKING GLAD it's over for now.

Beth & I layed around all day Friday feeling icky until about 5pm when we decided we needed out of the house, so we went to see Vin Diesel in the Pacifier. Not a lot of plot, but a happy movie and they had a gratuitous just-for-the-moms-in-the-theater shot of the yummy man in nothing but a towel. Oh oh oh oh oh. It was a good thing. AND the best part is as we are going in the dark looking for a seat, Beth sees two of her very best little girlfriends with one of my favorite moms and we sat by them, then went to Panera's afterwards. We moms sat at a tall table by the door and the three muskateers sat at a booth and were just crack-ups. I had a BLAST. I LOVE this woman, she is from Scotland, but spent her summers in KC area. This is the one that went on the brownie campout in 20 degree weather, where we learned we both went to summer camp at Camp Oakledge all those years ago. We sat and laughed and talked and gossiped and now have a standing date to go have cocktails at her house while the monsters run around outdoors! THAT's a good thing as well.

Did almost no knitting this week, was basically a lump of humanity. I am just dying to get started on something, maybe a buttonhole bag??? who knows?? I'm going to think on it tonight.

We ended up going down to the lake after all and had a great time. Got back today, house is a mess, but don't really care. I am so talented at looking above the clutter (and our clutter factor is very high, so this can be a challenge).

Camille, thanks for the sweet comment, I am looking forward to knitting with you ladies on Wed. night!

What's your reward for reading through another long, rambling post from the Knitting Virgin? DOODIE MAN. I stole the link from KnitFit. I have often been accused of being too into "bathroom humor" but I don't care as this one is too much freaking fun. I will warn you I laughed until my eyes watered. I'm sending it to Mark as he was immediately the one I thought of.

I forgot I was tagged!

Knit with Me tagged me last week, but I forgot. OK, here's the knitting meme stats:

1. Do you knit continental or English? I thought it was called "traditional" but I guess it's English.
2. How long ago did you learn to knit? Last Fall, so I guess about 9 months or so

3. First FO? My schaefer elaine bumpy garter stitch scarf, still wear it with pride

4. Favorite yarn? I was on a major Noro kick, but am loving the cashmerino and schaefer yarns too

5. Favorite pattern? booga bag, as it got me started on this love of all things felted

6. Favorite pattern source? Freebies on the web, blogs, knitty, etc

7. Favorite needles? One pair of rosewood size 11's, I try to make everything on them, but it just never seems to work. I do most of my schaeffer bumpy scarves on them, like buttah

8. Nicest thing you’ve ever knit? my daughter's poncho

9. Most hated project? that damn boob tube out of satans knot yarn. I totally blanked on the actual yarn name, as it was SUCH a bad experience!

Being a mom gets pretty messy.

OK, so far this week, I've had one child barf on my bed, have the poops for 2 days, I got a migraine, and my other child came home last night from school with hives that decided to break out all over her little body, sending us to the er and of course, it came with the barfs. SO, this morning, she's a bit pale, much less itchy, we don't know what caused the allergic reaction, no more barfing, and now I have the poops. cripes. I just wanna crawl under the blankets of a barf-free zone bed and go to sleep.

Off to get the cysts in my right breast sucked out today. The left one is next Wednesday. Doesn't this all sound like so much fun you just can't stand it???? The good thing is they decided the low caffeine crap I've been on these last 2 weeks didn't help, so I'm back on diet coke. I am trying to be healthier and drink more water, but oh my holy hell it's nice to drink the good stuff again. I think it was probably caffeine deprivation that caused the monster migraine the other day. You know, I think those damn migraines are actually small strokes. My left side of my face went numb from my cheekbone to my jawline and the fingers on my left hand went numb for almost an hour. Freaked me out. Apparently the same signs for a major stroke are also normal sympoms of migraines. I give LOTS of respect to those that deal with these puppies on a regular basis, I'm a total wimp and barely survive my one every 6 months or so. Sad thing was, I was laying there wimpering thinking, OH MY GOD, HOW WILL I KNIT WITH ONLY A THUMB ON MY LEFT HAND??? Instead of something like, oh my GOD I can't use my left hand. shows where my priorities are, doesn't it?

My folks are taking my son to the lake for his "spring break" aka weekend, and my daughter and I are supposed to go down tomorrow if we're feeling better. We'll see. If not, we're going to rent girl movies and veg on the couch for 2 days. That kind of sounds like a vacation to me, anyway, but we'll see.

I'm going to READ READ READ and catch up on all my blogs that I follow and MAYBE update my template a bit, maybe not, I'm feeling very lazy.

One other good thing, as my dear Martha would say, is that I have lost 7 pounds in one week. I know, I know, it's got to be 90% water weight, but still, it's nice to be able to breathe in my jeans again. I now have exactly 9 days until I need to be in shape for my stinking 4.16 miles. AND I learned the leg I am scheduled for is "moderately difficult" WTF? I specifically asked for LAZY ASS EASY, but at least I'm not the one going uphill.

Here's wishing us all a weekend with NOTHING spewing out of anyone's bodies in our general vacinity!!

damn migraines

Well, I was all ready to go to the stichin meetup tonight at Starbucks, Dad had volunteered to watch the kiddos and everything, but while waiting in line in the car for kid #1, my eyesight started going a bit wacko. I didn't see any of the psychedelic funky aureas or whatever they're called, so I told myself, no, it's not a sign of the big one coming. Waited patiently. Picked up kid #1, drove to get kid #2, half-way there all the fun disco in my brain stuff started up, I was lucky to get home without running over anyone. I could see as long as I kept moving my head around, how scary is that? took my imitrix I lifed from mom's stash, I only get these puppies about once every few months, so I never end up getting in to see a dr for my own prescript. now it's 8:42 and I'm going to bed. all is calm, all is bright....no round young virgin, ok I'm feeling rather round, but I'm afraid the only virgin part of me is my knitting ventures.

good night. Next week I'm going to eat my chipotle and knit with some ladies dammit. My cousin's coming over as it's spring break and the folks are heading to the lake.

I'm taking the munchkins to the lake for our "spring break" aka the weekend. I am only working in the office 8-10:00am next week and will have my daughter at home the rest of the days. I may teach the child to knit, maybe it will keep her occupied. She's been wanting to learn, but now my head is tired and so am I. good night.

ok, anyone else get those "dear diary" flashbacks from when you were 12 years old? maybe it's just the headache drugs.

Secret pal and Brew to Brew Run

I have to say, it's ALMOST as much fun, if not even a TINY bit MORE fun to shop for a secret pal than it is to shop for me. I am loving it. I'm reading her little blog, checking things out, realizing the poor chic that gets stuck with me gets almost no help here as I barely write on knitting-related subjects except FELTING is my FAVORITE THING EVER now. Anyway, I'm heading over to the knitting shop tomorrow and going to do more browsing aka "my ritual petting of the yarns and sighing."

Here in the dungeon, we have a lovely little one mile loop of sidewalk that goes around a park and school and I've been stomping my little way around it each day trying to get ready for the stinking 4.16 miles I'm running in two weeks. Normally I wouldn't mind a little jog/walk thing, but this one's for cf, the Brew to Brew run, 44 miles from a bar in Westport to the Free State Brewery in Lawrence (HI VICKY). My little group of friends are doing the run for my Team Joey to help raise $$ for Cystic Fibrosis research. Good cause, one I am afraid even I can't back out on. Still no worries, I just asked not to have to do the last few miles as, for those of you non-Kansan bloggers out there, Lawrence is on the top of a big-ass hill. It's not big-ass when you drive it, but it WILL be when you are running up it. So, what do they do, stick me in the middle, where it doesn't matter if I'm walking or jogging??? NO MA'AM, they put me FIRST!!! with everyone WATCHING!!! How sad is that for the relay team of 9 other people to see me starting out the pack in the rear? Cripes. So, I'm thinking my current rate of jogging for .3 miles, yes POINT three miles before I'm out of breath and walking isn't going to cut it. These people run for FUN, sad isn't it? SO, I'm out there yesterday cussing my way around the track two times and as I round the next-to-last bend, I see this man carrying a little girl about 2 yrs old and a bag of groceries and holding the hand of a little boy around 4 yrs old and walking in the cold. I think, man, I'm superficial. I've got a blazer, gas in the tank (ok 1/4 tank but still), food at home, a job, two basically healthy kids, and I should quit my bitching. I got all happy, peaceful, loving of my neighbor and that crap and then I rounded the last bend of the track which has a PIZZA HUT delivery shop back door sending out the smells of pure heaven and I'm trying to get all healthy and after paying extra medical bills have about $50 to make it the rest of the week, so it royally pissed me off again, and I was back to normal, superficial, easily pissy me. :) All is right with the world again.

OK, so apparently everyone in the world is wanting the poncho Martha wore on her way home from prison. I thought, how cool for the woman that created it? She could put out the pattern and be famous, get some recognition or even make a little money. But then I figured you probably can't earn income while in prison, but couldn't the $$ go to her family? Lion Brand is creating a copy of the pattern and will have it out soon, which at first I thought was very cool (as I too loved the poncho) but then it just doesn't seem right. I don't know. I'll probably end up making the damn thing anyway. Two days without chocolate and fast food are making it hard for my little brain to function.

Can't you hear the denim scream from there???

Well crap. I'm back on the eating healthier exercising more bandwagon. And not liking it. Apparently the one or six nights these past few weeks of sitting down late at night watching tv with a cup full of chocolate chips, a large spoon and a jar of peanut butter have not been good for the lower half. I noticed my jeans were getting a bit snug, actually I've had to do some SERIOUS duck walking (crouched down walking around to stretch out jeans) in order to zip or breathe, but somehow I failed to realize just how bad it's gotten until last night. I kept telling myself, hey, I used those jeans in the wash with the felting. You know, hot water, dryer, that can seriously shrink denim. Ok, I've had most of the jeans for over 2 years, but I bought two pair two months ago. Yes, I KNOW Eddie Bauer jeans are pre-shrunk and I KNOW that even if they did shrink a bit, it would probably be BEFORE 2 years has gone by. ANYWAY.

I am taking pics of the mother-lode of craft, cross-stitch, quilting and Christmas craft magazines I'm wanting to list on eBay last night. They weigh too much for my little postage scale, so I get smart. I step on the scale without the mags in hand, then step on with mags. After doing this for 3 sets of 8-10 lb magazine stacks, (I have a SERIOUS amount of craft crap in my basement) I realize, HOLY SHIT, I'm 8 pounds heavier than the last time I got on a scale, which is only 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks. yup. I can pack em on. fast.

I thought, oh, I'll just go anorexic for a week or so, blast off some weight, then get busy. But then I got hungry. I was good, ate my damn bowl of cheerios and 2% milk, drinking my green tea this am, cussing as I go. damn damn damn cheerios....damn damn damn cheerios, etc. Thought, throwing up for a week wouldn't hurt my esophogas too badly, would it? But I really only barf after a night of drinking (it became a habit back in my wild college days as a way to avoid most of the hangovers the morning after), and can't stick my finger down my throat or make myself barf unless I'm just past tipsy. As I probably better not be drunk for the next two weeks, I decided I'd just have to bite the bullet and get healthy the stinking smart way. GOD I MISS MY GOOD OL' METABOLIFE!!!!! I know, I know, it was killing people, but DAMN I had some serious energy and was SKINNY!!!!

Did NO knitting yesterday, did wash the stuff 2 more times. I think my Tina's Tote is done, but next time I'm going to decrease a bit when I add the novelty yarn as that part of the bag is a bit bigger. The Jildo's Dildo case and the fabulous felted hat both need another round or two. I think if I EVER get my own little house, I'm buying a crappy old washing machine JUST for felting. Wouldn't that be cool???

I did go to bowling last night and redeem myself. No little old ladies whooped up on me. I bowled well, and won all four points (3 games plus totals) against a very manly 40-something woman and shot 619 (206.3 avg) WOO HOO for me! I'm sorry, I respect my elders (normally) and I love seeing women over 60 bowl well, but GOD I hate it when they beat me silly. It's just not right. It was getting old. I also read the felted knits book and my last-minute knitted gifts book almost cover to cover and learned a few things. Amazing. Normally I just crank through books for the patterns, but I'm thinking a little reading couldn't hurt in the future. I'm all inspired and have about 8 new projects I want to start. BUT I HAVE TO MAKE A SWEATER at some point. I just have to. Don't know why. Don't really care. Just my innerds are telling me I NEED a soft, sexy sweater knit with my own fingers. We'll see.

Back to work. Today's music of choice is live365 station DeskTopGrass, I know it sounds like something I should be doing while eating brownies, but it's not THAT kind of grass, it's bluegrass. I'm going back & forth between it and my station the Dirty Martini Lounge. Good free internet music. Loving it. I may go 90's or retro 70's later. Helps me ignore the big bowl of Hershey's miniatures & little peanut butter cups bossman put out. mmmmm.

I'm listening to muppet radio, WTF

OK, the weekend had the makings of greatness, but didn't quite get there. Sat. was absolutely gorgeous, we spent all day outdoors, I sat up late knitting swatches, and recycling my washing machine over & over but didn't get the items felted enough yet. All in all, good day.

Sunday dawns (actually pre-dawn) at 4:30am, I feel Joey come crawling into my bed, lays down, then sits up and says "Mommy, my tummy hurts." Yup, you guessed it, in my slow sleepy mode, I say, "honey, do you feel like you have to..." and that's as far as I got before he barfed in my bed. Poor kid, he felt terrible. Have I said the sound or smell of barfing is enough to make me hurl? Either one will do it. Having both in my bed when I'm not quite awake is just not nice. We found a bucket, cleared the kid out, got him cleaned up, on the couch watching tv and I then proceeded to strip the bed, toss bedding in the washing machine WITHOUT gagging myself, quite the accomplishment. THEN I step into dog barf. Yup, the dog that we love more than anything that keeps eating his own poop or anything else that doesn't belong in his tummy apparently got ahold of a turd before I tossed his butt in the bath-tub Sat, and decided to barf it up in the side of the hallway. Nice.

Joey's better today, Beth & I haven't caught anything, I'm pretty sure it's just fun CF stuff. He takes synthetic enzyme pills before eating so he can process food, but the stuff must not be working as every time he tries to eat, he ends up with the poops. He's home with me today. He's feeling better, still having some tummy troubles, but better. He was "working" on the floor in my bedroom while I worked on my computer from home. He created a diarama with flowers, airplane and the sun, very cute. I set up my little live365 radio to muppet central radio. Swear to God, it's all muppets, all the time. Scary thing? I actually enjoyed it and realized he's been watching tv for the last hour and I've been jamming out to "it's not easy being green" from Kermit and some old Muppet Show tunes.

I think I'm truly schitzophrenic in my musical tastes. Put that on a personal ad and see what kinds of freaks apply to date the Knitting Virgin! Maybe not.

Felting update, I only made it through 3 rounds of the washing machine, everything is looking better, but needs a few more rounds. BUT I forgot about the Schaefer epseranza swatch (the ONE swatch I made BEFORE a project) and it had felted into a hard little orange/yellow/green turd-like thing. I used my mighty fingers of steel to pry it apart and decided it felts like a motherXXXXer and will use it for some buttonhole bags but probably only use ONE or TWO cycles.

All right, you know you want to, just like the diet dr. pepper commercial now...."ma na ma na...do do do do do...ma na ma na...do do do do......ma na na na...do do do..do do do..do do do..do do do do do do do dodo do..." Everybody... That Muppet Show was a seriously good show. I'm gonna have to find me some dvds.

What is the Knitting Virgin doing this weekend?

Wild party nights? Party like it's 1999? Nope. I sewed in about a million yarn ends, or more like 15-20. And all this went into the washing machine for probably 4 or 5 washes...we'll see. I have one of those oh-so-gentle on the clothing washing machines, so it always takes lots of cycles. Pictured below is the pre-felted Fabulous Felted Hat, modified Jildo's Dildo bag (got to think of a better name for it before the sale in Sept), my Tina's Tote (first time trying this, we'll have to see how it shapes up, it's only knit on one strand of noro, and that big may turn out to be too thin, but we'll see what happens. I also made some swatches AFTER finishing my projects, ah well. I wanted them to keep for my knitting journal. I am also going to see what happens to the Schaefer Esperanza I got on sale at Knit Wits. It's mohair, alpaca and wool, so it should felt, but I wanted to check first. If it does, I'm making buttonhole bags out of it!

It was FREAKING GORGEOUS outdoors today. I could hardly get my kids to come inside. They spent most of the morning out in the backyard, I read the ENTIRE paper at the table on the porch. Then inside for about an hour, and into the front yard for soccer, basketball, coloring on the driveway with chalk, biking around the driveway (mom was too lazy to go for a bike ride--I mostly sat and knitted and played soccer and blew bubbles), bubbles, digging for rocks, and walking the dog. The dog AGAIN found one little dog turd in the backyard that had not been scooped by our new purple pooper scooper and ROLLED in it. All freaking over him. Cripes. so the dog got a bath too. Kids were asleep tonight within 5 minutes of hitting the bed and I'm not far behind. We're supposed to have one more nice day and then back to cold & cruddy.

Time to re-cycle the washing machine. I get entirely too excited watching my little felted items reshape themselves. I even love the smell of wet wool now.

My little white-trash-size dream house is still there. I feel it IS my house. I want it. I just hope no one else does before we put in an offer. I really really really really REALLY want that damn house. I know it's got some serious sinking of the back side foundation, but if the price is lowered and that's fixed, it should be mine. mine. mine. I tried to talk Mark into wandering around his yard like a crazy Arkansas back-woods hick if someone seems too interested in the house (it's across the street from my friends) but he thinks that may not be best if the person actually ends up becoming his neighbor. We'll see.

Martha's Free!

YEAH! I have such respect for this lady. Not only was she the queen of all things crafty, she's funny, smart, successful, and a bit of a biotch, but she did her time BEFORE waiting for appeal after appeal, just shut up and put up. May you enjoy your time at home now Martha. I can't wait to see the new shows and the new books and the new creations that should be out soon.

I also bet my sad ONE share of MSL Omnimedia or whatever it's called now will rise a few $$ as well. Yes, I'm quite the investor.

Also, I'm totally addicted to this chic's drawings & paintings. She's a bit weird, like me, but the chic cracks me up.

All those years of faking it finally pay off

Don't get me wrong, I love sex. I love all fun stuff, but I've been known to do a Meg Ryan restaurant scene in bed a time or two as I was either done myself & tired, or just would've rather been getting something else done or going to sleep, you know how it is. So, I am now the QUEEN of all FAKING IT. Yup. The big boss-man is unavailable by cell or email (isn't that almost unheard-of these days?) and our favorite client needs a bunch of natural gas pricing models created & sent over for a presentation TODAY. I thought, no problemo, bossman checks in each day, I know he's got all that stuff, no sweat. Yes sweat. He USED to have them all, they are now either saved somewhere I can't access or are gone. So, I call a few smart people I've run into in the vendor world, (those that really want our continued business are always SO helpful) and they proceed to further complicate my life instead of saying, Oh, of course we have that information, let me email it to you ALREADY DONE. nope. They say things like "of course, you know you have to factor in........and don't stop talking. cripes.

I am very good at using my limited knowledge in this field of energy resources to cover the basics, but the deeper questions & calculations are beyond me and THIS client knows his stuff. Somehow, I pulled just enough information out of the thin air and the thick packets of information and even included two pretty charts. I mean, really, where are we without pretty charts? I AM SHE-RAH HEAR ME DO HER WEIRD YODEL THING.....LLLLAAALALALALALALALALLLAAAAA. OK, maybe it's better if I dont' do that.

On the plus side, hair is FABULOUS today. Nowhere to go but the basement, but at least I'm feeling fluffy and my attitude-mojo's back.

I listed more craft crap on ebay last night, and as I'm calculating $$ that will be coming in I did a bit of searching for yarn last night. I'm going to have to control myself, but dammit that's hard.

so far beyond a bad-hair day

This is my hair today. For those of you who don't "get" my sad little primitive version of art, it is a pile of steaming smelly dog poo. Not even the stylish little hair clippy is helping. I tried to draw the clippy, but apparently the bad hair has leached into my creative brain and I am not able to draw anything better.

On a good note, I bought some magazines today, Good Things for organizing, 150 solutions for a clean and clutter-free home. I am LOVING this little mag from the creators of Martha Stewart Living!! I have all these great ideas, just no little home in which to try them yet. The story on my perfect little major-structural-help-needing house I still want is we're "waiting patiently" for a few weeks and then will put in a ridiculously low price and see what happens. I've not waited patiently for anything in my life, so that may be a challenge.

Also picked up the new knit.1 even though I wasn't too impressed with the first one. I do like all the ads & website links & such, so maybe I'll get inspired. I'm planning on browsing through the mags tonight when the kids are in bed.

I can't make the local knitting meeting again, sigh. I wanted to get out amongst the creative ones, but since my mood is much like my hair, a hot bath and candles and wine and magazines will probably be better for me anyway.

blahhhhhh I want my sunshine back.....maybe Sunday say the weather-people.

I don't support the war, but I DO support our troops

A quote from Marty Horn, father of Brian Horn, on the idea for anysoldier.com: "You can't have an army fight something as ugly as this and have bad morale -- anything that improves morale is going to get these folks back home."

Here's a great article from cnn that explains a bit more about this VERY COOL program. AnySoldier.com lets everyone help the troops. Their site is currently getting hit by a LOT of people, so it's a bit spotty getting through, but bookmark it and once it's not on cnn's front page, it'll be easier to get in, check back if you can't get in there, it's a good thing.

www.anysoldier.com

Back during the Gulf War, I was a young sorority girl in Emporia, KS. A few of the girls in my house had boyfriends overseas in the war, and always talked about what a difference it made in the unit when they got letters. We wrote letters to "any soldier that doesn't get mail" and it really made a difference. About 4 guys wrote me for over 6 months. One even stopped by and took me to dinner on his way across the country to his new base in Nevada once he got back to the US. It was very cool. With today's security, you can't just send letters to any soldier, you need an actual name and service #, so this family of a returned soldier have made contacts with thousands of servicemen and servicewomen who will receive packages or mail for their units. They ask for simple things like letters, toys to give Iraqui children, snacks, food, toilet paper, baby wipes (many are on the front lines without running water), etc. Think of being a woman out there, needing extra sanitary supplies. Not good. The family also has pre-packaged boxes of supplies to send and you can just click and donate.

I wanna make this

Tempting by Knitty, but I don't have any yarn. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, 6 skeins, too much $$. I'm thinking I'm going to try to find a substitute. Any ideas? I am going to go looking and googling to see what other knitters have used. Maybe knitpicks would have a cheaper substitute, hmmm. Green, grey, can't decide. I think the ribbing on this sweater should make up for any not-great fitting problems and make a better first sweater.

Watched the last NYPD Blue. So sad, all my shows are gone, ok, almost all my shows. West wing is still there, but it's just not the same. I'm gonna miss my Sipowitz and those other pretty boys.

My daughter's elementary 1-3 grades musical night was tonight. It's such a trip. All those kids so dressed up and nervous. My daughter's best friend had a solo, where she sang this Japanese song all by herself and was awesome! The other "solo's" were kids singing one line to the mike while the rest of the class sang behind them. My daughter's big "solo" was shouting "yeah, yeah" and "oh yeah" at syncopated rhythms with the song going on in the background. She was loud, on time, and I was cracking up as at the end, she did a major hair flip with her hand (where did she learn that?) and gave a grin to the crowd where her little brother said "THAT'S MY SISTER". Cracked me up.

All bosses are gone now, the local boss is out of cell-phone range, which means that all the clients and vendors that NEVER normally call are NOW calling with immediate need-answer stuff. I am working ENTIRELY too hard for me being in charge! Something is wrong with that picture.