FO Spooky Day

Happy Spooky Day!

Sure, that photo of my little devil is 6 years old, but I still adore it...

Now lookie here... another finished object, just in time for FO Friday! I finished the Bulky Open Work Scarf last night (destined to be a Christmas gift)...



I used one skein of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand Dyed in the Field Mouse colorway - the entire skein... I'll admit that I had to cut off a piece of my cast on tail to make it through the bind off! Guess I should've left out that last 8 row repeat?!?! I do still need to weave in the ends and block it, as you can not see the really cool crochet-like open pattern in these pics, but they will do for now. I have a couple more of these scarves on my planned Christmas Knitting list, so speak up if you like (or don't) it... you never know what's on the list for you!

Mail Call! I received my first place prize from Emily for Dish Rag Tag: The Sequel!

My team (Deuces Wild) finished first and we each received a small project bag (made by Emily's mom), a set of adorable sour cherry stitch markers and a matching tape measure (adorned with an antique button from Emily's Great Gran's box) - you can click the above photo to enlarge for detail. Thank you Emily - for being crazy enough to host the tag a second time and for an amazing prize package!

Since I didn't get Tut's birthday photos downloaded in time for Dogs on Thursday this week, I'll wait to post them next week, but in the meantime, you can have a little teaser...

Yes, my boy loves his sheep... and was playing a bit of keep-away with his little sister.

I'll leave you with some Friday Fill-Ins...

1. My favorite food seasoning is Pampered Chef's Rosemary Herb.

2. Bon Jovi is music to my ears.

3. Lucky is Jimme Johnson (please... not 3 years in a row!).

4. Animal Welfare & Rescue is something I take very seriously.

5. Many people have found me on Facebook this week (find me on MySpace too!).

6. Kleenex, mini Babybel Cheese, snack size bags of chips, Advil, a dog bed, dog treats.... (need I go on? I went to BJ's during lunch break yesterday) was the last thing I bought at the store.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to doing nothing (we don't get any trick or treaters at our house), tomorrow my plans include going to CT to meet up with Teri & Brenda for the WVU vs UCONN football game (so happy to see Teri more than once this year!) and Sunday, I want to get some cleaning & organizing done at home (read: purge!)!

Deuces Wild Scores 1st Place!

OMG... WE WON! Team Deuces Wild won the Dish Rag Tag: The Sequel! Yes, that's my team's box arriving first in Emily's mailbox!!! Our team really kicked butt with a lot of very dedicated members! After being on the 4th place team last year (Lucky 13), and being nudged out of a "medal finish" due to the order that the mail man put the boxes in her mailbox, this was an extra special win! I can't wait to see who's box arrives next at Emily's... go dish raggers, go!

The race is on!

Dish Rag Tag: The Sequel, that is! I received the Deuces Wild box from Robin in NJ yesterday afternoon... knit my little heart out during the first hour of the new 90210 (haven't decided if this is too juvenille yet, but boy does it bring back memories!), then Big Brother... and got the little box racing off to Martha in VT at 8:15 am this morning!

If you participated last year, but not this... well, there are a few changes. One of which is the boxes are much smaller, you only send 1 ball of cotton and there is an official pattern this year (which is a great - thanks Emily, I've stashed this one in my file for future use). Here's what I found in my box from Robin...

Inside I found a beautiful blue color dish rag, a skein of lime stripes for me to knit with, the official pattern & instruction sheets, a mini Hula kit, some chocolates (gone before the photo!) and the coolest hair barrett/clip from Jak Random Art & Designs, a friend of Robin's.

She recyles old records into unique jewelry! As you can see in the photo above, Robin read up on my love of dogs and rescue organizations.... this barrett features Honecomb, a pit bull and proceeds go to Earth Angels Canine Rescue! COOL. Be sure to check out her etsy shop linked above. Thank you Robin - that was the best!!!!!!

After my excitement over the hair clip settled, I then opened another box that arrived yesterday from Jillian over at Wee Ones (there will be a review of her awesome products coming soon... stay tuned!). It was my custom ordered Sophie needles (and a few sets of stitch markers... after all, I can't make her just send me one thing all the way from Hawaii now, can I?)!

I still haven't opened up the markers yet, but I knew exactly what the first thing I would knit with Miss Sophie's needles was going to be (and I got to use Zeus & Lola stitch markers)...

Here is the dish rag Robin knit for me next to the one I knit for Martha and a close up of the lovely stitch pattern...

Hopefully Martha gets the box tomorrow... it looks like Deuces Wild are currently tied for first place... woo hoo!

I just adore my new Sophie needles... they are a lot smaller (wee ones!) than my original Zeus, Lola & Tut ones... but so cool and so light on the hands. I think I might have to commission Jillian to make me 3 more pairs...

The 4 kids... now all mortalized in the knitting world...

Let's Go Deuces Wild... the race is on.........

Lazy Doggy Thursday

Can you believe another Dogs on Thursday has snuck up on us? Just where is all this time going?!?! Are days weeks are flying by, or is it just me??!! It seems like Halloween was only yesterday.... I'm normally just about done with my Christmas shopping by now, but this year I feel so unorganized and disconnected. I'm not even sure I'm going to put our tree up this year... partly because I just don't have the time, partly because it doesn't feel like holiday season and partly, well just because I'm so disconnected with this whole weekend of hell lingering on (thank you to those of you "in the know" for your kind thoughts & advice - I appologize to anyone else, who just gets to read my bitching & moaning here).

So, in light of my have-way-too-much-to-do and not-enough-time-in-the-month stressed out lifestyle lately, I give to you some very lazy doggy pictures... as I've noticed I've managed to snap quite a few in the past week (read: beware, picture heavy post)!

Sophie, Lola & Teutul sharing the couch...

My sleepy baby boy, Zeus...

You want me to wake up??!!

The incredible shrinking Teutul...

Sophie & Lola share the bed...

Hey, would you quit that snoring already?

(yes, little Sophie does snore... loudly)

The ultimate lazy cuteness... Sophie!

Enjoy your doggy Thursday... and here's to accomplishing all that holiday shopping, cooking, baking, card writing, decorating, fussing, mussing, bitching, moaning and whatever else it is you do............ and btw, for those of you (mostly my family, friends are usually more kind, hee hee) that think I'm a bit too chatty sometimes, well check this out! Yes, that's right... I actually WON something for being chatty! I won Emily's surprise award in the Dish Rag Tag - how friggin cool!

Woo Hoo... its Friday!

TGIF! Or more like, tgif and we don't have an overly full weekend that will keep us running non-stop from Thursday to Monday like last week. That means I might actually have a minute to vacuum up the tumbleweeds dog hair that's taken over the house. woo hoo!

So... for some final "catch up" blogging from the past week... and I appologize in advance for the lack of knitting content (yes, yes... I do knit... I just haven't photoed any WIP's lately).

We ended up heading up to the Hopkinton Fair on Monday. I have no interest at all in the may or may not be safe rides or the overpriced, play for a piece of crap games, but had a blast wandering around the exhibits and seeing all of the animals! We (the big kids) even played in the little petting zoo ring for a bit. I forgot to bring the camera, but did use my phone to snap this couldn't-resist shot...

How friggin adorable are these sleepy guys? They totally reminded me of 2 of my own children... see?

For the multi-crafty bunch out there, I wanted to share this awesome how-to that I found over on Ericka's blog. Have I not mentioned my love for all things autumn? I also love roses (what girl doesn't? although my favorite flower is the gerber daisy). So, take 1 part autumn & 1 part roses, mix 'em up and what do you get? The coolest roses made from maple leaves! Ericka is going to make them for her wedding, which just so happens to be taking place on my birthday! (side note: anyone who wants to be so crafty as to make me maple roses for my birthday, please know that I would adore them)

Dish Rag Tag update for the non-particpants... the official winners are Team Hip-Knit-Tised! Congratulations to them! My team's (Lucky 13) box arrived to Emily yesterday, as I'm sure others did as well. We're still anxiously awaiting the announcement of who placed 2nd and 3rd. The wonderful Joanne of A Knitter's Garden provided the beautiful hand made row counters for the 3rd place finishers.... check them out (you'll need to scroll down to the Aug 10th post on Emily's blog) and if you like, she has some available at her shop!

I decided to check on my Ravelry status this morning...

You signed up on July 22, 2007
You are #19564 on the list.
8035 people are ahead of you in line.
11775 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far

So I'm still waiting to find out just what all this fuss is about.

I got our tickets for this year's Trans-Siberian Orchestra holiday concert and guess what?!?! I managed to get us 3rd row! Cool. I went for the first time last year when Matt got me tickets for my birthday and it was amazing... if you have a chance, go see it! You won't be disappointed... young or old, no matter what kind of music you enjoy... if you love the holidays and amazing musicians, GO!

Apparently our former foster, the loveably Dustee, was also enjoying some of those final lazy, hazy days of summer like Lola the other day. I got some new pics from his Mom this week and couldn't resist sharing this one... so, kick back and relax like Dustee (wow- I can't believe its been so long since Dustee was with us, that we had snow!) this weekend... I'm looking forward to getting some good knitting (and hopefully a little of that house cleaning... ugh) in this weekend.

The Race is On ... Go Lucky 13!

I received the Lucky 13 box for the Dish Rag Tag yesterday afternoon from the lovely Grace (notice her husband's wonderful artwork added to our team's box!).... and inside I found these goodies...

Grace sent 2 yellow skeins of Peaches & Cream (which btw, am I the only one who hadn't yet knit with this? I can only find Sugar & Cream around here...) for the tag skeins, 2 beautiful green skeins of Filatura Luxor DK cotton/acrylic blend for my gift, a knit & crochet Dishcloth pattern book (I might have to ask Mom to do some of the crochet ones for me!) and a lovely petal dishcloth!

Of course, this is a relay and the race is on, so I immediately got home and got to work on a dishcloth for the next tag in line... Ally! Thankfully I have a wonderful man who not only did the grocery shopping, but then fed the dogs and cooked dinner last night so that I could knit, knit, knit! Thank you honey! I was actually going to do the petal dishcloth for Ally as well, however the lovely yellow colors that Grace sent inspired me to do my second sunflower dishcloth and this is what Ally will be receiving...

I finished it up, weaved in my ends and got Ally's box of goodies all packaged up and ready to go just as the season finale of Hell's Kitchen was ending...

The box is now back in the hands of the USPS, as I dropped it off on my way to work this morning.... let's go Lucky 13!!!!!!!!!!!

I also just found out that Karen, who I got to spoil in the Dog Days of Summer dishcloth swap, received her package that I sent ... and I did good, she loves it... yea!!!

Updates on Mom & Bella...

Quick update on my Mom... she was moved to a nursing home for her rehab on Thursday afternoon... and boy is she much happier there! She's no longer confined to a hospital bed or hooked up to anything with wires, iv drips or annoying beeps. She can now wear her own nightgowns, get up to walk around and eat as she pleases (she even requested my cousin bring her a roast beef sandwich & root beer Thursday night for dinner). We visited with her on Saturday and I had printed out copies of everyone's comments for her on my blog posts. She was very touched and amazed to learn that so many *strangers* were thinking about her... of course I told her that when it comes to knitters in the blogging world, no one remains "strangers" for long! Thank you again to everyone who's been thinking about Mom ... it really truly means the world to myself, her and my family. Its amazing what the power of good thoughts, vibes and prayer can do. She has a follow up with her surgeon later this week and then they'll talk about a schedule for radiation to begin in about two weeks.

I also wanted to update everyone on little Cotton, also (formerly?) known as Bella! Of course I can't help but keep calling her Bella... Isabella... Bella-bell... Anywho, her Mom Nicole emailed me this week with some absolutely adorable pictures from the beach. She reports that at 3 weeks in to obedience classs, Bella Cotton knows "sit", "watch me" and "stay" - even if she doesn't perform every time just yet (hey... she is still a puppy, right?). They're working on some other commands as well, which I'm sure she'll pick up with ease. She was such a smart, willing to please - and very attentive - pup when she was here. They were headed off to go camping & canoeing in Maine this week - such the perfect active lifestyle for sweet Bella-Bell! Here's the little beach bum herself...

This one is my favorite shot...

Back to the knitting ... working on my tank top today (I'm in the midst of doing 10 more inches of P1, K3 rib... ay, yi, yi). Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'm hoping the Lucky 13 team dish rag tag box shows up at my post office tomorrow, if not certainly on Tuesday as the amazingly fast Grace received and mailed the box out from NJ on Saturday... wow!