Two More Sock Kits

Woolgirl puts out some awesome specialty kits. Jen is so clever when it comes to picking themes. The first one I have shown is a Woodstock Kit. It is based on two 'Woodstocks'. Charles Schulz once said that he named Snoopy's little friend after the big concert in the 60's known as Woodstock. So this sock kit had a bit of both. I didn't snap pictures of everything.

The kit included a disc of music from the late 60's and a package of candy that was popular at that time. Then for the little yellow Woodstock theme, there was a pattern created by Lisa Dykstra called Woodstock Socks and a little knitting bag form a place on etsy (I lost my paper so unfortunately, I don't know which shop).

It also included a cute little Woodstock key chain.

and a Woodstock Stitch Marker from wee ones on etsy.

And finally, White Oak Studio TVyarn in a special Woodstock colorway.

The second kit is shown below. It is based on The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard Oz. This one is just in time for Halloween and soooo cute. I labeled everything in the picture below and got more pics of the individual things for this kit. I don't have a close up picture, but there is also a wee ones Stitch Marker that looks like the Witch and some black and green jelly beans.

This yarn is also White Oak Studio TVyarn. The colorway is Wicked Witch of the West.

This kit included the cutest notepads ever. One says "Don't Make me get the Flying Monkeys" and the other says "I'm Melting, I'm Melting". LOL I brought them to work and have been writing notes to myself and other people so they are slowly making their way around the office.

This picture shows an adorable bookmark (and I love to read). It's perfect because I can never find a bookmark when I need one so I have been moving this from book to book since I got the kit. The quote on it is perfect.

This is a close up of some of the other things. There is Hot Chocolate that turns orange, A Wicked Witch PEZ dispenser, a little note card in the shape of the witch and a pen that looks like a broom that says something on the other side. Since I have been writing with this in all of my meetings at work (LOL) I don't have it here at home to look at the saying right now. In the upper left corner you can see a bit of a project bag that was included. You can see it better in the top picture. The material has the witch all over it and it is shaped like a men's shaving kit bag. Very cool.

The picture below is my favorite part. I love this metal tin. I think I am going to put Ibuprofen in it and keep it in my purse.

If you ever get the chance, you should sign up for one of her future kits. I know she is doing a Peanuts Christmas kit and a Peppermint Patty themed kit. A lot of the ones in the near future are already full but if you keep an eye on her blog, you may find other opportunities in the future.

Awesome blog

I just spent about 20 minutes blog hopping...following links from one blog to another to another.....

and I happened upon this blog. You have to visit it. It's VERY clever! Definitely going into my all time favorites.

Update on my kitchen...

I picked out the paint for the Kitchen. I decided on a lime green that matches the wallpaper for the other three walls, white for the trim (the cupboards that will be turned into shelves and the door and window frames) and TURQUOISE for inside the shelves and the ceiling. I hope it looks as good as I imagine it will. I also bought a really cool ceiling fan to replace the VERY dusty piece of crap I have now It's Black and silver and will match the black and silver in the wallpaper. They had another really cool one that was all silver with 3 spotlights but they took halogen bulbs and we try to use fluorescent only to save money and to leave a smaller carbon footprint. So, I settled on the black and silver one. It'll take 2 60w candelabra base bulbs which come in fluorescent which only use 13w of energy to burn (and they last at least 2 years).

Do you know anybody who is interested in buying a diner style table and two sparkly red dinner type chairs? My 'old' kitchen is/was red.

I also bought the purple paint for one of the kids' bedroom and a new ceiling fan for it too. Back when they were little, one of them tossed a stuffed animal across the room to hit the other one and it hit the fan instead. It has been unbalanced every since and is very noisy. No matter what I have tried, I have never been able to balance it, so for $20 I bought another one. Nice and cheap!

Cool Mittens (soooo me!)

I love these mittens. They're from Patternworks. I have a mitten kit for semi-felted mittens from Morehouse Farms. I think I'll add this fringe on with a crochet hook before felting.

Satan in da' hood????

We were sitting around the table tonight having a conversation about ancestors. 'M' said, "Did you know we're related to Adam and Eve?" Which brought us to the topic of Noah and his ark and then 'M' said, "I don't believe in Satan, he doesn't exist." So, 'A' says, "yeah he exists. His name is Ludacris."

LMFAO!!! (this is obviously not funny to you if you have no idea who Ludacris is but I thought it was hilarious!!)

A bit addicted??

So, I have this little problem....

I lived outside of Atlanta for 3 years back in 1993. While there, I enjoyed many southern foods and miss things to this day like Fried Okra with Hot Sauce, Red Velvet Cake and many many other things.

One of these many, many other things is Luzianne Decaf Iced Tea. I LOVED the stuff and went many years without it and missed it terribly. One day, a couple of years ago, I was talking to a group of close 'internet' turned 'real-life' friends of mine about how much I loved this stuff, and ever since, two of them who happen to live in the South (Texas and Georgia) have been supplying me with it.

I have a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Pot and need to have a full pitcher of tea on hand at all times. I have even trained my kids how to make it. BUT no one is allowed to drink it since it is so hard to come by. LOL

Well, I just ran out of tea bags again and needed to get some before I drank the rest of my last pitcher. I did an online search and found that I can buy it online at a place called The Cajun Grocer. The shipping is steep at $7 so to make it worth it, I bought three boxes. With $7 I could have bought almost two more boxes at a grocery store, though!! Too bad I can't get free shipping with a certain amount ordered like I can with my coffee. But, if I could it might turn into another situation where I buy $50 at a time in order to save $7. LOL

I've got mail!

I came home to 4 packages, a replacement debit card and a new Lowe's credit card. LOL
One package was wallpaper (a 1970's retro print) for my kitchen. (see below) I am going to do one wall and have to decide what to do with the other walls. I think green would be too much. But. it's all white now and I don't want white. I 'think' I want to paint the ceiling a 'color' and have it darker than the walls (I have high ceilings) but I am not sure what color. My house was built in 1916 so it has a lot of character. I have a pantry off of the kitchen and no cupboards. The previous owner built some cupboards that have no doors They are just a box with 4 holes in it and no doors. I have been seeing these cool looking shelves in kitchens in lieu of cupboards, so I think I want to modify these so that they are shelves instead. I'll just have to buy new dishes so they look good sitting there on exposed shelves. LOL (so what color should I do the walls, ceiling and trim?)

The next package was my new 'skeiner'. I had it hand built by the husband of a raveler named KnittinDeb . If you're interested, you can send her a message on Ravelry. I'm not going to quote the price in case they ever have to change, but it was well worth the price and I had it (freshly built for me) in about a week or so (depends on his project load. I think he is quicker at times but I was happy with the week!!) I'll try to remember to take close up pictures of it's features but you can probably see that there is a knob on one of the arms for you to turn it easily, and it is adjustable if you want to make skeins that are wound smaller than 2 skeins per turn. Also, the arm that slips over the wheel is lined with felt so it won't scratch the wheel (clever man). I love it! I really wanted this because you can take it apart VERY easily to store it flat.

The third package was from an etsy purchase I made at goodwiu . They specialize in 'recycled' goods. This is a vintage clutch that I fell in love with when I happened upon it and it was only $12! Isn't it funky?

and lastly, I finally got my Joe Cool Sock Kit from www.Woolgirl.com (the 'finally' is only because it took me so long to pay for it LOL). I'm a big Peanuts fan so I signed up for all of them that she has scheduled so far. The candy and sunglasses have already been claimed by my youngest (pictured below). The patterns look cool. I have to find out who designed them because I couldn't find it on the pattern anywhere. The yarn is from White Oak Studio. It also included note cards that look to be hand stamped, and a really cute square project bag with a drawstring and a Joe Cool keyring.

and just for laughs, I thought I would include a picture of my baby with her 'George Washington' hair. LOL Somehow they figured out how to do with while in the pool. LOL

Back to Quilting....

So, last weekend, I was looking around for decorating ideas, wallpaper, etc and happened upon some blogs that were based on quilting, sewing and other fabric crafts and I found so many fabrics that I just loved. After "link-hopping", I landed at a site called Pacific Fabrics where I bought the 11 fabric prints below. I only bought a 1/4 yd of each so it cost me less than $3 a piece. I think I might make this quilt I found on one of the blogs. There is just something about it!

They said what?

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria . I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.'

2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'

3. Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.'

4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'

5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.'

6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'

8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'

9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'

Back from vaca

Well, I didn't realize that it had been so long since I posted. I had been doing so good! This post will sure make up for it!

We just got home from vacation. The girls went to spend a week at my mom's in Maine and hubby and I went to Hampton Beach NH. We had planned the vacation prior to knowing they were coming home early so we didn't have enough money saved to bring them with us. In the end, it didn't matter because they had a great time with their Grammie and Grampie, and Grammie and Grampie had some helpers for the week.

On the drive up, we stopped at a rest area for a bathroom break and to stretch our legs and the Oscar Mayer Weenie Mobile was there. It's the first time any of us has seen it and were all thrilled to get weenie-whistles.



Aren't they beautiful? I am so happy to have them all back together living under one roof.



While they were in Maine they got to see my sister too. They have a mini farm so they got to experience some of the work involved and even got to milk a goat. 'E' says that it tastes like cow's milk and 'M' says it's DISGUSTING. LOL

We drove all the way up past Bangor to drop them off and then had to drive back down to Hampton NH the next morning. This is what we arrived to. :( It's a good thing we always spend the first night eating Lobster at Little Jack's. It stopped raining so we could walk there.

The rest of the week was great. It rained one other day and we spent that day driving around looking for yarn shops. I was sooo disappointed in them. I only bought TWO skeins of sock yarn!

I bought this one at 'The Yarn Basket' in Portsmouth. It WAS a REALLY nice store, but it's small and pretty new so the selection was pretty small. I have been wanting this one (J Knits Sock Yarn - Cincinnati) for quite awhile so I bought it so as to not have it be a wasted trip. I was really hoping to get some nice lace yarn but their lace selection was very small (so was their sock yarn selection). I think she will really grow it into something nice. I definitely liked the atmosphere in there and she was really nice.

I bought the second one at 'Yarn for Ewe' in Rye, NH. It's SRK On Your Toes by Kertzer Yarns. I've never heard of it before. It has aloe in it and they had it next to a picture of some really comfy looking 'sock monkey' socks with read toes and heels. Of course, they didn't have any of the red so I have to try to buy it online. They just looked like they would be so comfortable to wear around the house this winter.

I am so spoiled by living so close to Webs and also having Creative Fibers right down next to where I work in CT. The stores were both nice but they were just so small and had such a small inventory compared to what I am used to.

When we drove back to the beach after shopping, we saw a FULL double rainbow stretched over the ocean. It was GORGEOUS! This picture doesn't do it justice, and you can only see half of one of them in the picture.

On Thursday, I drove back up to my Mom's to get the kids and we drove back home today. Altogether, I put 1500 miles on my car. YIKES! I had to have spent at least $200 on gas. I'm afraid to look for the real total.

When I got home I had my final Yarn Pirate Booty Club shipment. I dropped it because $30 could be spent elsewhere and I was really only thrilled with about 2 of the 8 shipments I got. I ended up giving away a few of them. I am not sure that i am really thrilled with this one too but it has a lot of my favorite colors so it may grow on me. It's called Neptune.

I also came home to my new Woolgirl Sock Club shipment. The theme is "The Dog Days of Summer''. Everything is so cute AND I was notified that i was the second place winner in the Georgia O'Keefe contest and get to pick out two yarns from Mama Llama. When I get them, I will post a picture. Here is the kit as a whole (there is a cool bag on the bottom of the pile that says Woolgirl Sock Club Dog Days of Summer - everything else is pictured again beneath this picture individually):

The yarn is from MadelineTosh and the color is called Beach Towel. Not my first choice but it's fun looking and it looks great knit up in the pattern below. I'll definitely knit it up in this pattern.

This is the pattern I am going to knit with it. It looks cool.

But, then there was a second pattern that looks interesting. I'll have to pick another great yarn for this one.

Jen always includes some fun things in the swap kits. This one was no exception, right down to the tiny flip flops that my daughter swears are erasers (and Jen's note confirms that!!). There is also a stitch marker, an SPF 15 Cocoa Butter Lip Balm that says Dog Days of Summer on it and also a cute measuring tape that keeps the theme going.

And last but not least, a water bottle with the theme printed on the front. Isn't it cute?

One final thing to tell you about....

When doing a search online for Lime Green eyeliner and eyeshadow, I came across a video on youtube of a girl applying this eye makeup. I have a THING for Lime green and her eyes looked awesome so I asked here where she got her eyeshadow. She told me she bought it on eBay and to do a search for '80 color eyeshadow' and that it came form Japan of all places. I hopped over to eBay and found it right away. I ended up winning an auction and got it for about $3 and then paid about $10 for shipping. Still, not a bad price when you see what i got. Look at all of the colors! I'm going to have FUN!!

I finished a hat

I fell in love with a yarn while up at Webs last week. It was in the warehouse and was priced with a "you can't leave me here" price. So, I bought enough for a hat, scarf and mitten set. I think I may give it to someone for Christmas when I am done. I love the way the hat turned out. On to the scarf next....

Please heed this important WARNING

(hehehehehe SNORT)

I'm in a funk today

God I'm so BLAH today! I am tired and have no reason to be. It's been storming a lot here this week. Maybe it has something to do with it.

We just went to a Flea Market. It's always fun seeing things from your childhood, even if it is just the tea pot your mom had. But, my God, was it a FREAK SHOW! The people in those places are S-C-A-R-Y looking! LOL I did manage to pick up a mirror that can be fixed up for "A" and "E" 's bedroom. They didn't have one and need one to make themselves beautiful before school. The guy gave it to us for free. It needs some fixing up but isn't too bad looking.

After the Flea Market we went to the mall. I picked up 4 uniform shirts for "M". She has to wear light blue this year. "A" needs dark blue but they didn't have any. I won't know what color "E" needs until she is registered for school up here. I have to make an appt to do that this week. I think I'll take a day off to do it. Why the hell not?

We went to the Christmas Tree Shop. I bought three mixers for drinks. One is Pomegranate, one is Mango and the last is just a boring Pina Colada one that sounded good at the time. Maybe I need a drink!

Hubby is about to go buy Steak and Lobsters, corn on the cob and baking potatoes for dinner. Then I think I will knit a bit on my sweater.

I went spinning up at webs yesterday and picked up some Rowan Big Wool on Clearance. It's maroon and yellow and really caught my eye. I think I am going to make myself a scarf, hat and mittens for this winter. The colors should make me happy during the long cold months.

I'm also going to make these two pairs very soon so I have them ready for the cold months. They make me smile. :)






Link to Ladybug Mittens on Ravelry - The chart they had was too tiny and hard to read so I made one in excel. You are welcome to download the picture and use it. You'll need to use a generic mitten pattern of your own. They have these in Latvian Mitten books, etc.
...and here is the link to the yellow mittens on Ravelry and to the actual pattern.

New Mitten Swap Blog is up

http://mittenswapthree.blogspot.com/

I think this might be my last one since it is such a hassle to get some people to follow through on sending packages and I get nothing in return for my efforts. That might sound selfish but the knitting swap world is brutal. In my scrapbooking days the hostess always received little thank you gifts which ALMOST made it worthwhile. LOL But not in the knitting swap world...which really kinda surprises me since knitters seem to be the nicest people on the face of the earth. Hmmmmm

So, anyway, if you want to do it one last time...go on over and join. I'm sitting this round out as a swapper so I can focus on getting everyone to do what they promised to do....grrrrr

What's better than floating in the pool with an icy beverage?

Tastefully Simple has these new Drink Buckets that you just add the alcohol to; Mango Breeze Margarita and Samba Sangria Slush.

The Mango Margarita is AWESOME! We had it on the 4th of July. Last night I tried the Sangria Slush in the Hot Tub and am about to go have a glass in the pool while i read my book.

Relaxing like this is me favorite part of summer. :)

If you haven't tried these, and you drink (of course), find a Demonstrator on the website and help her earn some money. It's a win-win situation. I happen to have a co-worker who sells it. If you live in Western MA and want her name, let me know.

Noni - Seussish Cat in the Hat Bag

This one has been snoozing for a looooooong time. I am trying very hard to keep my promise to myself that I will pick up and finish and old project each time I start a new project so that my WIP's do not continue to grow without resulting in any Finished Objects.

So, alas, I pulled this one out of the bottom of my knitting basket and worked on it until it was done. I hadn't felted in a little while so it was fun to do that again. This is so whimsical and came out just like Noni's sample. I am very pleased with it. I can't help but smile when I look at it. It's such fun! (as I have mentioned before, I live in Dr. Seuss' hometown (Springfield, MA) so I had other motivation to knit this particular pattern. I am sure it will get a lot of comments.)

Feel the Sweat. Own the Energy.

OMG I went to an Aerobics workshop today with Karla from Sudor Taino. She is a Detective with the Hartford CT police Department. She is so motivational, but a bit nuts. LOL

The workshop was three 45 min sessions. The first one was kick boxing which I have never done and had me drenched with sweat by the time I was done. WOW. What a workout! The second one was a Core Workout. Imagine doing squats etc with your pelvis tilted up. We even did squats on our toes and tons of crunches and bicycles. The third session was Dance. Tons of fun! We did some Salsa moves etc. I don't have much rhythm, but somehow with her leading us, I was able to shimmy, and shake my ass like a real pro (a white, rhythmless pro....hehe). Nevertheless, I got quite a workout, sweat about 40 pounds off (I wish) and had a ton of fun.

If you live in the Hartford area, you should look her up. She teaches at a gym in Newington, CT. I know her because my gym at work had her come in and do an hour workshop a couple of weeks ago (that was when I found out that it was possible to sweat from your eyelids....snort). I am so glad I went. It was the best $30 I have ever spent (as good as the $30 monthly fee I pay to belong to the gym at work which has helped me regain my strength and power).

If you don't work out.....now is the time. You just feel amazing. I used to hate to sweat. Now it helps me know that I have pushed all of the negative energy out and replaced it with self confidence and strength.

Today is the day I also decided to get back on the Weight Watcher's Core program too. I have been following it loosely for a few months (since "A" was diagnosed) and decided that I need to get back on track. This month is the year anniversary of the beginning of my weight loss journey. I've gained some weight back since I started at the gym and stopped being careful with my eating. I know some of it is muscle weight, but not all of it is. I still have about 30-40 pounds to get to "my goal".

I earned about 19 points working out today. LOL I'm just going to eat a bit extra at dinner. No more slipping even if I do have the points to spare.

Finally finished my Monkeys...

I cast these on MONTHS ago. I can never focus on one project so it took me forever to finish them. They sat in my knitting bag untouched for a long time after I cast on the second one. I vowed to never succumb to SSS (second sock syndrome) so I would knit on it a little bit now and then but never focused on it for a long period of time. A couple of months ago I talked about them at knitting and decided I had to do the heel and gusset. But after I did those, I put it aside again.

Last week I decided that I needed another completed project in my Ravelry Projects so I picked it up again and knit on it a little bit every day. Well, I finally finished them last night. They are blocking now. It'll be months before it is warm enough to wear socks again, but when that time comes, I am armed with a pair of hand knit ones!

If you look in my stash and queue at Ravelry, you notice a slight obsession with sock patterns and sock yarn.....so why on earth are these only my second pair of completed socks? LOL The first pair went to my mom, so these are my first. They should be quick to knit. I have no idea why I can't seem to focus on them.

2008 Woolgirl Sock Club 2nd installment

I got my sock club package today. It's "Frogging" themed. (Rip-it. Rip-it. Rip-it. :) Everything has to do with Tree Frogs. I'm not crazy about tree frogs but everything is so cute. The yarn colorway is not something I would have picked out for myself but I think they'll be cool knit up and you can't beat GREEN. The pattern is called Froggin' and is designed by Lisa Dykstra. The yarn is Froggin by Dashing Dachs (I got sport weight. We had the choice of fingering or sport for some packages). There was also a couple of little frogs that my kids inherited, a frog pencil that went to "A", a frog lollipop that went to "M" and some other things that are shown in bigger pictures below:

Here is a close up of the yarn. Definitely not something I would have picked up but I LOVE IT. Every one is handpainted and the colors differ. Some have more blue, more orange or more red. I can't tell yet, but mine looks to be pretty even for all colors.

Here is the cutest notebook I have ever seen. It's a key ring!

Then we have a stitch marker made out of clay. The detail is amazing and it is so tiny. Look at my thumbnail for comparison. It is from WeeOnes at http://www.weeones.etsy.com/ . I think these frogs are exclusive but they have some really cute ones. Check them out! (I've made clay stitch markers. These are incredibly small and the designer is hugely talented!)

This is a hand-crafted bamboo 1 inch square stitch gauge with Frog designs etched into it. You can find them at http://www.karatstix.etsy.com/

and finally, a calculator engraved with "Woolgirl 2008 Sock Club" to count stitches when, inevitably, you need to "frog" a project.

I'm so glad I joined this club. I will definitely join again next year!

How Massachusetts are you?

You Are 60% Massachusetts

You're likely a Massachusetts transplant. Big rotaries still scare you, and you probably live outside of 495.

I'm a transplant from CT and have been in MA since 2001. I guess some things run deep even across state lines. LOL

How "Massachusetts" are you?