Spring Sure Has Sprung!

Well hey, would you look at that... somehow Friday managed to sneak up on us.  Does anyone know where the week flew away too?  Regardless, Spring sure has sprung with authority around here!  We had a couple of days over 80 this week and people flocked to the beaches.  Looks like we'll be back down in the 50's over the weekend and 40's by mid week however.  Personally, I'd be happy with comfy low 70's, thank you very much.  If you're a Facebook friend of mine, you know I posed this question earlier this week, but I'll ask again... if April showers bring May flowers, just what do March flowers bring?

 

This reminds me... what do my fellow Blogger using friends think of this new posting format thingy-ma-bob?  I find it annoying... my picture sizes from Flickr no longer fit correctly and the font size tool is all wrong.  Why must things that aren't broken always be tinkered with (ahem... I'm also talking to you Facebook Timeline, which I've still yet to switch over to)?  Sigh...

Anywho, happy Fiber Arts Friday!  Last Friday I ventured up to the Island (aka my hometown) to meet Mom and take part in the North Shore Yarn Crawl.  Due to budget constraints we only crawled to Coveted Yarn, but we had fun just the same!  My fabulous friend Heather of Mad Color Fiber Arts (formerly Sereknity Yarn & Fiber) was on hand, as was the wonderful Leslie Wind (if you're in need of shawl pins, check her out). 

Mad Color Fiber Arts

I didn't go crazy (reminder... I'm on a strict yarn diet budget over here), but the sales were wonderful!  I grabbed a few skeins of Cascade Pacific for the Faux Entrelac Blanket, some Cubics circulars to try and uber cheap Ella Rae Classic Heathers in a pretty will-look-fab-with-jeans grey for this cute little shawl that I feel in love with.  Apparently Sake liked the yarn as well...

I guess I set the bag down a little too close to Sake's crate and while I was out the next day, she tried (really hard!) to get that yarn inside her crate.  We've since had a little talk about how yarn is not a doggy toy and if she wants me to knit for her, she just has to woof!  The Lapdogs all agreed... just in case she happens to get adopted by a knitter,  we needed to teach her this cardinal rule. 

Of course, both Sake and the yarn are just fine... I actually can't believe she is still with us.  What is wrong with people... why has no one scooped up my beautiful little girl?  She has the most amazing personality!  I'd selfishly love to see her go to someone we know, but whomever gives her the perfect forever home is fine by me. 

For all you knitters who love to get your geek on and only stop by on Fiber Arts Friday, hop back and check out my Knits For Nerds review.  Enjoy your weekend...

Snow, Dogs, Sick and more SNOW...

Greetings from sickville and Happy Yappy Thursday. Teutul's been keeping an eye on all the snow...

As mentioned a few posts back, for those of you who might not have been following Operation Bring Charlie Home, he is Home! There is a great video from CNN here - Operation Baghdad Pups that is a must watch and so perfect for a Dogs on Thursday post. Enjoy! Sophie was very intrigued by the video and thinks all doggies need to find a loving home (and a nice blankie wouldn't hurt)...

So yes, I'm still sick. I'm no where near as bad as I was over the weekend (feeling like my ass was kicked by a mac truck), but I'm still sinusy and coughing.... and tired. I've been really worn out and going to bed quite early. As a result, no knitting has taken place in over a week! Zeus thinks Mommy should just stay home from work and hang out on the couch...

I had taken last Friday off to venture West with Joanne. We had great plans to hit the Peterboro Basket tent sale, stop by her friend's mill for a tour and check out a yarn shop in Keene. Sadly, we didn't make it to any of those stops thanks to the daily dumping of crappy white stuff snow and me being sick. Instead we opted for a short trip to Hub Mills, which turned out to be not so much on the short side. I think we left Joanne's around 10:00 am and I didn't get home until almost 5:00 pm. The driving was slow going with the snow, plus we had a little unexpected detour, then we stopped for dog food and I stopped to buy out CVS' cough medicine aisle on the way home. Despite being sick, it was fun! We both scored some good deals at Hub - Joanne found some beautiful chunky yarn for her vest (which I wouldn't doubt is done by now), among other things. I found yarn for a felted bag (gift for a friend), knitted bunny (birthday gift), socks and more. Of course, our timing was slighly off as they were starting their winter sale on Tuesday - 20% off all yarn and sample sweaters! Oh well... better luck hitting the sale next time, right?

So back to that wretched white stuff that just won't end. Just what the hell is it with all the snow this winter??!! Neverending is beginning to sound like an understatement, as it seems to fall on a daily basis lately. I never even saw snow in the forcast for yesterday, yet we got another 4" or so overnight. Enough to have to snowblow the driveway and clean off the cars before work... but the assanine town/state decided they didn't need to plow, so the roads were a sloshy mess this morning. Oh the joys of New England winters! Lola has smartly settled in for a long winter's nap once again...

Enjoy the rest of your day... and oh yea, we're supposed to get hit with another storm tomorrow night. They're saying "about 3 - 7 inches, but we really don't know yet..." Oh the joys... but at least I think I finally got a half way decent shot with Miss Sophie...

Please remember to grab my new button (over on my sidebar or scroll down a post or two) if you haven't already!

Keeping One Eye Paw On You!

Yes, that's just what Sophie's doing here with Tut... keeping one eye paw on him. I'm not sure what her train of thought was, but it was a cute kodak moment nontheless...

Since today is Dogs on Thursday, I figured I'd share some of my 1001 cute pics of the kids. They've been spending a lot of time cuddling with blankies and each other lately...

Teutul & Lola...

My girls, Sophie & Lola...

The baby girl snuggling with her blankies...

My big guy, Zeus, who's so good about posing for Mommy when she's in one of her snap happy camera moods...

For my fellow Dog Warriors and Rescue Angels, please go check out the Art of Tammy Grimmes (of Dogs Deserve Better) on Cafe Press. You can get some great items to show your support. I ordered a couple things with these logos yesterday.

Aren't they awesome??? The Rescue Angel comes in 3 formats - with dog, with cat and with dog & cat. How very cool!

I finally started downloading pics off the camera (again!) and will have some FO's to show you later (I updated Ravelry already), but for now I'll leave you with some of my Christmas goodyness. Don't you just love it when family & friends enable you with fantastic knitterly gift certificates??!!

Blogless friend Karen got me a gift certificate to The Loopy Ewe, which I immediately put to good use and got a pair of sock blockers that I'd been eyeing!

Matt's brother got me a gift certificate to Knit Witts and I was waiting until I needed something, but when they sent out an email about their yarn sale a couple weeks ago, I jumped to use it and was able to get all this (and yes, they send your order to you in a nice, reuseable, zippered plastic bag and since they are in MA, I often get my order the very next day!)...

That's 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky, 2 skeins of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, 1 skein of Rowan Silk Wool DK and 1 skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd... and you know what? It is all attached to a project already, except for the Lorna's Laces... but there's always something to make with that yummy yarn!

Friday the 13th

Finally, the end to a busy and eventful (both good and bad) week... and wouldn't you know it, but we're expecting more friggin' snow on Sunday in the form of a stinking Nor'Easter. ARGH! Urgent message to Miss Mother Nature... what the hell?!?! At this point I'm just hoping we make it out of town without any snow delays at the airport next month!

This is going to be mostly a photo post ... as I have several and I think Gina was trying to give me a gentle reminder that I haven't posted this week via her "Posts? New post soon?" comment left on my blog earlier today (coming from a lady who I know must be very busy playing with her lovely new spinning wheel!). Why yes Gina, I do have posts... just this crazy little thing called not enough hours in a day has come in to play this week. :)

Now, some photos for your viewing pleasure! First up is my haul from the Yarn & Fiber April Fool's sale a couple weeks ago. By the way, did anyone out there pull the fool ticket??? I only pulled a 10%, but hey, that still adds up... esp when you have an enabler helping your around the store and although you went in for only 3 skeins of Noro for the Booga bag, you left with this:

Noro for the Booga bag (2 different ones) and 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky for a felted clutch and bowl from One Skein ...

Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton for the baby bolero (also from One Skein) and some Rowan Tweed & Crystal Palace Fizz to make this felted puppy dog...

Now sales are great, right? Joanne at A Knitter's Garden is having a great April special of BTGO ... not quite BOGO, but instead its buy 2 needles, get 1 free (and you can mix and match DPNs, circs and straights). Since I needed some Addis for the felted clutch & bowl, I went through and figured out some other sizes I need and ta-da....

You can't beat that deal, esp with the Addis! Thanks Joanne!!! :) I picked them up on Wednesday night at knitting guild, for which I finally made it after a 2 week absence and worked on my alpaca shaped scarf.

Still not a whole lot of knitting progress made this week with 101 different things going on. I'm hoping to get back to a little more "normal" (what's that?) of a week now... although its spring cleaning time and boy do I have enough to hire someone else to do for me if I were rich plenty of that to do.

I'm both happy and sad to report that Dustee (be sure to click that for a cute pic!) went to his forever home last night. We were both a little heartbroken when we had to leave him and we do miss him, but we know he is in the perfect home, with the perfect new Mommy & Daddy! He has a doggy sister Kaia, as well as a kitty sibling too. I've been around dogs my entire life and never before have I been so taken, so quickly by such an amazing little creature. He truly is the happiest, most loving, outgoing, amazing little dog you will ever meet. Dustee touched many hearts in the 2 1/2 weeks he was in our household and I know he'll touch many more. We plan to keep in touch and hope to get lots of pictures & updates and visit once in awhile, as well as have some doggy play dates so his step-brothers and sister can see he's doing well. I received an update this morning from Nicole (yes, his new Mom's name is Nicole... think it was meant to be?) which made the heart ache a little less, esp since we were so worried of how attached he'd become to us. Here are some cute photos...

Big smiles...

A Curious Cutie...

Proud Foster Mommy (maybe now its Auntie Nichole?)...

When we arrived home after dropping Dustee off last night, our dogs were a little confused and Lola was a bit heartbroken. She went outside looking for the little guy and cried ... then came back inside and cried at the empty leash some more. Zeus just seemed confused and curious, sniffing around and looking a little sad. On the other hand, Teutul seemed quite pleased with himself that he was once again the baby of the house and could command all of Mommy & Daddy's attention... little stinker! All 3 were quite pleased at this most amazing and delicious looking box of goodies that was so graciously sent home for them (thank you again Nicole & Josh!)...

Here are the curious on lookers, who were threatened just a little reminded not to touch while posing for photos... they're good like that sometimes!

Sometimes I just don't think I'm cut out for this whole fostering thing, but then again I remember that I'm helping to save some amazing doggies lives and also making some really happy families! Dustee was and will always be extra special to us and will hold a special place in our hearts. I don't think any other foster will be as amazing as he is (or at least I hope not ... its a little easier to think of them going to new homes when they're less captivating and amazing!) and we will do some more fostering in the future!

I managed to get another shot of all 4 dogs and will leave you with this...