Wednesday, December 27, 2006

3 Doggy Christmas...

Can you believe its over already? All that work and preparation and its gone in a flash! Geesh...

Not too much time to blog today, but I did want to share some photos of the kids from Christmas...

Here they are posing as best as I could get them to darn stand still for 2 seconds in front of our tree...

Lola and Zeus (where's Tut?!?!)

LolaZeusTree06


Miss Lola who just can't wait to tear in to the presents...
LolaTree06b

Curious Teutul
TutTree06b

And in case you hadn't heard, Lola wanted to tell everyone that Santa Paws really does come to all good doggies!
Lolasantapaws

King Tut wanted to tell you too, as he shows off his love of the
New England Patriots...
Tutsantapaws

All 3 kids received lots of treats, bones, toys and goodies ... including a stuffed moose and duck which Tut has been zipping around a mile a minute with. Here's Lola making off with her stocking...
LolaStocking06

And Zeus keeping his eye on the moose as Mommy removed the tags...
ZeusXmas06

And finally after a long time opening gifts, the big guy retreated to the couch to try and lay claim on Mommy & Daddy's goody basket!
ZeusXmas06b

That's all til tomorrow ... I plan to post pictures of the absolutely gorgeous sweater that Mom-Sue (Matt's stepmom) made for me, as well as some other fine goodies... Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and here's to a Happy New Year!


Friday, December 22, 2006

Knitter's Christmas Eve

I found this over on Lora's blog and just had to post it here for all of you to read too! Enjoy!

KNITTERS CHRISTMAS EVE

'Twas the night before Christmas and all around me
Was unfinished knitting not under the tree.

The stockings weren't hung by the chimney with care'
Cause the heels and toes had not a stitch there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,but I had not finished the caps for their heads.

Dad was asleep; he was no help at all,
And the sweater for him was six inches too small,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatterI put down my needles to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tripped over my yarn and fell down with a crash.

The tangle of yarn that lay deep as the snow
Reminded me how much I still had to go.

Out on my lawn I heard such a noise,
I thought it would wake both Dad and the boys.

And though I was tired, my brain a bit thick,I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.

But what I heard then left me perplex-ed,
For not a name I heard was what I expected,

"Move, Ashford! Move, Lopi! Move, Addi and Clover!
Move, Reynolds! Move Starmore! Move Froelich
--move overPaton, don't circle 'round; stand in the line.


Come now, you sheep will work out just fine!

I know this is hard; it's just your first year,
I'd hate to go back to eight tiny reindeer."


I peered over the sill; what I saw was amazing,
Eight wooly sheep on my lawn all a-grazing.


And then, in a twinkle, I heard at the door
Santa's feet coming across the porch floor.


I rose from my knees and got back on my feet,
And as I turned 'round St Nick I did meet.


He was dressed all in wool from his head to his toe,
And his clothes were hand knit from above to below.


A bright Fairisle sweater he wore on his back,
And his toys were all stuffed in an Aran knit sack.


His cap was a wonder of bobbles and lace
A beautiful frame for his rosy red face.


The scarf 'round his neck could have stretched for a mile,
And the socks peeking over his boots were Argyle.


The back of his mittens bore an intricate cable.

And suddenly on one I spied a small label,
"S.C." was duplicate stitched on the cuff,
And I asked, "Hey, Nick, did you knit all this stuff?"

He proudly replied, "Ho, ho, ho, yes I did.
I learned how to knit when I was a kid."


He was chubby and plump, a quite well-dressed old man,
And I laughed to myself, for I'd thought up a plan.


I flashed him a grin and jumped up in the air,
And the next thing he knew, he was tied to a chair,


He spoke not a word, but looked in his lap
Where I'd laid my needles and yarn for a cap.


He quickly began knitting, first one cap then two,
For the first time I thought I might really get through.


He put heels in the stockings and toes in some socks.
While I sat back drinking scotch on the rocks.


So quickly like magic his needles they flew
That he was all finished by quarter to two.


He sprang for his sleigh when I let him go free,
And over his shoulder he looked back at me,
And I heard him exclaim as he sailed past the moon,


"Next year start your knitting sometime around June!"

Author Unknown

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Some weirdo TAGGED me!

HA HA, just kidding Gina ... but she did tag me with this little game of posting 5 weird things about yourself... so here it goes....

1. I have 3 children ... they just so happen to be the 4-legged kind ... dogs. They are very, very, very spoiled children.

2. I talk to my dogs like anyone else would talk to their kids or friends (and yes, they actually do understand and sometimes answer back in their own weird ways!).

3. I also talk to myself... sometimes I just like the answers better than what I get from other people... 'nuff said

4. I have a lovely master bedroom that is currently a massive storage room as we have yet to "move in" to it after almost 6 years in the house ... needless to say its a must do for 2007 as I really need to get the spare room turned in to a computer room/office/yarn room!

5. I have an amazing memory that seems to cause many arguments with the "I told you this" vs. "You never told me that" or "You said this" vs "No I didn't..." Trust me, if you said it or told me, I'll remember and if I don't remember or know, you clearly never said it or told me. :-)

And now its my turn to tag 5 people, although I think some of them may have already been tagged (sorry guys... we all seem to know the same bloggers, lol!)... Heather, Lora, Lis and I'm even going to go out on a limb and try Vickie and Stephanie.... tag, you guys are "it"... share with us your 5 weird things!

Monday, December 18, 2006

December Friggin' 18th??!!

No, it can't possibly be December friggin' 18th already... are you kidding me? I swear the little elves came and just stole the past week and a half from the calendar.

At least I've managed to get all of my out of state Christmas packages mailed off to family & friends and did get all of our Christmas cards out on time this year... I still have everything else left to wrap (with the gifts for tomorrow's office yankee swap and Wednesday's knitting swap taking priority on the list for wrapping this evening) and a tree to decorate. Yes folks, our tree has been up for a bit over a week now, surrounded by many plastic boxes full of ornaments that have yet to make it on the branches. Hopefully that gets fixed this evening, after all I need a place to start piling the packages that are coming in (or ones that I might actually get around to wrapping myself...).

I received my first gift the beginning of last week in the office from one of our wonderful vendors (yes, it actually came addressed to me... all me (my boss got one of her own as well) ... I guess after 3 years I'm starting to rate, huh?). Here's my yummy tower of treats from Wine Country Gift Baskets (sadly no wine included, but beggars can't be choosers, right?) before we dug in to it at the office...


Mmm... cookies, caramels, chocolates, butterscotch candies and more... mmm...

On that note, I better get back to work. It'll be a short week, as we have our holiday office party on Thursday and half day on Friday... not to mention I'll be out and about delivering friggin stinking holiday gifts to our residents again on Wednesday. Thankfully its the last darn property to deliver too, as my back and knees are not loving the cardio from hell (which first included stuffing all the gifts in to plastic bags, then delivering to 1750 apartments).

I promise to be a better blogger after the holidays and to be back with more interesting pictures too!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Days are slipping...

... away fast! I'm still wondering where November went. Things meant to be handknitted gifts for the holidays are quickly turning in to gift cards and baskets... oopsie! Between the hecticness (is that even a word?) of the season and fighting a cold (or allergies or whatever they want to call it this year), knitting time is becoming fewer than I had hoped for.

I have photos for your viewing pleasure...

First up, my amazing loot from
Gina's blog contest... check out this amazing stash of yummy yarns, wonderful magazines and chocolate!

Contest

Thank you again Gina - you really do know how to treat a contest winner! I can't wait to knit up some socks with the Cherry Tree Hill yarn, a scarf with the so cool Be Sweet Magic Mall Ball (yes, I really did type "mall" and had to correct this in edit mode - can you tell where my "gotta get the Christmas shopping done" brain is?) and whatever else pops in to my brian for the rest. I'm really looking for something special for the ball of Schaefer Elaine - any ideas? Don't forget to go check out Gina's latest podcast if you haven't already!

Next up, some photos from the Holiday Open House at Jenn's (who needs a blog!) in Rockport from this past weekend. Here's the table
Heather and I shared (her stuff on the left, mine on the right)...

table

Closer up of my stuff...

Table 120206

The multi-talented, amazing Jenn's table (again, sad to say she is blogless...)...

JennTable

Tuns of fun and great conversation was had all day and lots of new friends made. Here's the super saleswoman Heather making one of her multiple sales of the day...

HeatherTable

And I can't leave out photos of the 2 most handsome men of the day! First up is Caleb in his new Lapdog Creations hat (I couldn't have hired a better model for my product and will definitely have to use this picture for future promotion!) ...

Caleb

and here's Nathaniel modeling Heather's "sherpa" hat...

Nathaniel

I'll be listing some of the products in my Etsy shop hopefully later this week... included will be these hats that did not sell at the open house.

Hats

Well, the clock is a ticking folks... sorry for the short post but hope you enjoyed the photos! Keep the holiday knitting going......

Monday, December 04, 2006

Yawn... 20 More Shopping Days!

Er... or is that 20 more knitting days? I haven't even had a chance to start my holiday knitting. Anyway, time for a big 'ole Monday YAWN... feel free to join in!

Had a very busy weekend with the Holiday Open House on Saturday. I have several photos to come later in the week... I didn't sell as much as I had hoped, but did learn a lot about what people want (bigger sizes for one!). Heather seemed to do fairly well though - yea! She brought along the hat she just finished up for Jacob too... gorgeous! Can't wait for her to post the pattern.

We went to the Pats game yesterday and they just barely won! Wanna see the view from the nosebleed sections via a tiny little cell phone camera (and no joke - we were 3 rows from the tipty top)?


Not quite as impressive as the view I had in August, huh? At least it wasn't unbearably cold. It was actually fair "warm" earlier in the day with the sun beating down, but the wind did pick up some and it got chilly towards the end. Nothing that an $8 hot chocolate didn't cure... would've been better with some Bailey's, but ah well.

I forgot to report on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show we went to the night after Thanksgiving. In one simple word, amazing! If you haven't seen this show yet, GO! Its well worth the ticket price for one of the best nearly 3 hour long shows you can see ... whether you like Christmas music or not, I think almost anyone would love the show! Complete with amazing guitar solos, pyrotechnics, an amazing light show and superior musicians. My cell phone doesn't take the best photos, but here's a shot of the pyrotechnics...

That's all for now. I'll be back with more photos for your viewing pleasure later in the week ... including my haul from Gina's blog contest and the Holiday Open House. Don't forget to go listen to Gina's newest Podcast "Holiday GiftTastic" if you haven't already! I need to do that myself. Speaking of contest, I haven't had any takers on my "first 5 to post get art" thing. You can still post if you're interested in participating (I'll wait til Wednesday), but remember you have to blog the same thing on your own blog too!

Well, back to holiday shopping (how did we ever get all this crap it all done before the internet??) and then its off to take my honey out to dinner for his birthday tonight. Keep the holiday knitting going kids... 20 more days (no you can't finish Christmas morning!)...

Friday, December 01, 2006

TGIF!

It sure has been an unseasonably WARM week in New Hampshire.. with temps in the mid to high 60's - yes, I said 60's! Unfortunately it looks like our temps are going to take a nose dive after today... just in time for the Holiday Open House tomorrow and Patriots game on Sunday (at least I got some new long undies!).

Had a great time at knitting guild at Joanne's (A Knitter's Garden in Chester) on Wednesday! Some of the
ManchVegas group came down and we had a great - and very loud - time! Gina brought cake and Jackie made some delicious cupcakes to celebrate Ericka & Chris' birthdays. Yummy! Speaking of the amazing Jackie, I finally got to meet her, as well as Lora. This is a fun group - I'm definitely going to have to start trekking up to Manchester more often! Gina brought me the absolutely stunning bag of prizes I won from her blog contest (photos to come next post) - my oh my, what a bag of GOODIES it is!!!!!! Gina really knows how to award a contest winner! I'm looking forward to knitting up some yummy stuff ... AFTER the holidays (I'm still finishing up stuff for the Open House tomorrow and then its holiday gift knitting time... how many hours do we have left Jackie??).

Speaking of contests and Lora, I found this "art meme" on her blog yesterday and since I can't resist love exchanging "creations," I jumped on board and am now awaiting some lovely art!! :) Here it goes....

"The first 5 people to respond to this post (via the comments section) will get some form of art made by me. The only catch, of course: as with most memes, if you sign up, you have to put this in your own blog as well and send out 5 pieces of art."
Please leave your email and blog addresses with your comments and I will email you to get your mailing addresses. I'm not totally sure what the 5 pieces of art will be at the moment ... could involve yarn, knitting, beads, or anything else creative I can get my mind to think of. It may take me a couple weeks to get you your art, so if you don't mind that...


So, who's the first 5 to comment (remember you have to have a blog and post this same "contest" on your own blog and keep it going)?



Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Holiday Open House

I've been so busy knitting up a storm for the Holiday Shopping Open House at Jenn's (who remains blogless at this time) in Rockport, I haven't had much time to blog... and appologize for that. To tide you over, here is another little fun "quiz" for today (of course you know how TRUE mine is!).
For those of you in the Rockport area (or who don't mind a short road trip to do some amazing one-of-a-kind holiday gift shopping at a lovely Seacoast home), email me if you'd like information on the Open House featuring local crafters and artisans this Saturday, Dec. 2nd from 10:00 - 4:00 in Rockport, MA.

Your Ideal Pet is a Big Dog

You're both energetic, affectionate, and a bit goofy.
And neither of you seem to mind very slobbery kisses!

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Mashed Potatoes...

Found this on Heather's blog... a little post-Turkey Day fun. Hope everyone had a great one!
You Are Mashed Potatoes

Oridnary, comforting, and more than a little predictable
You're the glue that holds everyone together.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Hump Day In New England...

Woo hoo, its hump day! Its been a rainy week thusfar, though warm ... unseasonably warm actually. Yes, its Nov. 15th and the temperature read 59 degrees on my way to work this morning at just 8:15 am. I've actually only had to turn my heat on at home two or three days so far and boy do we New England-ers with friggin' stupid, overpriced electric heat love that! The sun started to peak out this morning... for about 10 minutes and then the rain came back. They say it'll be sunny later on ... New England weather for ya!

So anyway, I'm glad its hump day and the work week is that much closer to being over, but I must admit I was a bit sluggish to get moving this morning. Rainy, dreary days ... but much to my surprise, I bumped in to Bambi (otherwise known as a deer) on the way to work... just as I pulled out of the driveway and down the side street, there was the adorable little guy standing on the side of the road. So sweet ... he gave a glimpse back at me (I swear he winked!) and took off before I could snatch out my camera phone. A short distance further down I had to stop for Mr. Squirrely to cross (yea, so maybe I DID slam on the brakes a little... but at least there was no one behind me!). Then, as I was about to get on the highway (thankfully I only have to go 1 exit on the highway which is quite nice, my drive is mostly back roads), I spotted this out my window (excuse the bad quality pics - we're talking the measly little camera in my cell phone)...

Unfortunately you can't see the gorgeous, vibrant colors of this hot air balloon, but still... what a nice little surprise on my way to work... on a rainy morning (I'm guessing the passengers heard that same forecast about the sun coming out today ... hope they enjoyed their 10 minutes of sunshine in between drizzles... yes, we do love the friggin' ever changing New England weather - but I wouldn't give up New England for too many other places to live!). I usually see the balloons on my way home from work or on weekends in the summer, but hadn't seen this one before. Zeus loves to watch for them to go by the house while he's lounging outside in the summer ... yes, my dog actually stares up in the sky and watches for hot air balloons (say "where's the balloon?" or "where's the birdie?" - he looks up and starts jumping all around looking ... say "where's the snakey?" and he goes hunting, nose down to the grass looking -- don't ask!).

Speaking of the children, remember the photo of Miss Lola and her big stick from a couple posts ago (if not, scroll down!)... well, apparently those lovely big sticks outside aren't to her liking so much. She prefers a size 4 DPN... and yes, I made the trek down to AC Moore with my weekly coupon to pick up another set yesterday.... as I reminded myself "just breath" (at least what I was working on that night only required 4, not the full set of 5).

So, then the radio DJ starts talking about Turkey Day being a week away and what do I do? Pop this in to my CD changer...

barenaked.bmp

Yup, I've dug out my first holiday CD of the season and popped it in! Actually, I didn't have to do much digging, since I just got it a couple weeks ago... have to admit, I've always liked most of the BNL hit songs on the radio, but never really got in to them too much (or even realized half those songs were theirs!).... until we saw them live twice in two months! They did a free pre-race show while we were in Richmond in September and then we wound up with free tickets to their show at the Verizon last month. I have to say, despite a lot of really mellow tunes, they are a lot of fun live - very entertaining. I figured their holiday CD wouldn't disappoint in the entertainment / funny department and after only having listened to the first 1 1/2 tracks, I think I'm right!

So... now time to go home and dig out my other favorite holiday tunes... Trans-Siberian Orchestra being one (we're going to see live them next week too - should be amazing!) and Christina Aguliera's being another one of my favorites...

So the season is upon us ... and boy did it sneak up, eh? Well, back to friggin' holiday knitting... trying really hard to get enough stuff done up for the Holiday Open House at Jenn's on December 2nd (Heather is also doing this one) and realizing why people work on their stock for holiday fairs all year long and not a month prior ... oopsie! Live and learn for next year - that's for sure!

So happy hump day from a currently rainy New England... at least its knitting guild night!

I wanted to end with this mention of the Animals Matter To Me campaign and ask you to please take 2 minutes to visit this ASPCA link and sign your name to this petition (for those of you who aren't blog savy, simply click on the word on petition to link to the ASPCA site and info). Thank you in advance to anyone who is kind hearted enough to do so!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Riverslea Trip... a few days late, a computer short!

I'm a few days late with posting more pics from the Riverslea trip, but that's because ... get this (remember, "if its not one thing, its another!") ... our friggin' useless hunk of junk computer died... for the friggin' 100th time again! But not to dread on that, instead let's get to the good stuff!

When we arrived, Liz and Jeff were out trying to round up a runaway sheep, so we had time to peruse the wonderful gift shop before our tour (and of course we spent plenty of time perusing and shopping after!).

Liz gave us an amazing - and very informative - tour! She started with telling us about the raw fleece process, here's a bag that had just recently been shaven out on the table.

100_2303

From there, it was on to the animals... look at all these adorable guys (and gals)!

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Now don't these guys just look like they are smiling at you? I swear they really are ... just like our dogs do!

100_2307

You may ask how the farm deals with security and keeping the coyote and other predators at bay? Meet the guard llama, who was an absolute doll (and really seemed to want to snuggle up - maybe a bit too much)!

100_2312

Here's Joanne introducing herself to Mr. Handsome (forgive me for not remembering his name).

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Now for what I'm sure most of you are waiting for ... fibers and yarns galore!

100_2324 100_2323

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Isn't it just a fabulous candy store?!?!?!

Here's Liz showing us the amazing sign she uses when she exhibits, which is all hand felted lettering and sheep on a large felted square.

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Miss Joanne found a gorgeous teal-blue piece of felt that matched her shop colors and of course we wouldn't let her leave without it! It will soon become the "A Knitter's Garden at By The Brook Farm" sign - yes, that's right, Joanne has now officially named their farm - congrats!

After we shopped, Liz invited us inside her home to make felted beads - we had a blast! Thank you again to both Liz and Jeff (and Lilly too!) for such hospitality - I'm sure we'll all be back again soon (did someone say felted elves??)!

Wondering what I snagged? Here's my wonderful loot - 2 balls of gorgeous roving (the brownish one has gorgeous pinks, yellows and other colorings going thru it and is an alpaca blend which I will save for when I get a little better at this whole spinning thing), 2 skeins of a handspun, handdyed green yarn and 1 skein of a natural color handspun wool for a winter hat for myself.

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I bought a little more loot that night back at Joanne's too ... some white roving that she recommend I start my spinning career with and a gorgeous skein of a verigated pink handspun, handdyed wool (thinking another winter item - maybe mittens or another hat).

100_2335

Also pictured above is my spindle bag, made by the amazing Heather and the spindle that I got off eBay.

To close today, feast your eyes on my absolutely wonderful 3 Doggy Yarn dyed by Heather, inspired by non other than my 3 children...


3 Doggy Yarn

See any resemblance?

Lola_Yarn Zeus_Yarn

Tut_Yarn

Til next time... get your holiday knit on kids, after all we have less than 2 months!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

TGI-almost-F!

TGI-almost friggin'-F! Will this week ever end?!?!?

At least I have some fun news to report from yesterday's knitting guild trip to
Riverslea Farm ... however I'm going to toy with your brain save those pictures for tomorrow, as I don't have too much time to post today. We had a great time - we got to see the animals, tour of the farm, get a little lesson on the fleece process, see and touch some gorgeous fibers and even make some water felted beads! Liz & Jeff were just amazing (if you're reading, thank you again - and we can't wait to come back!)!

In honor of
Gina's FO Friday (get your head out of the gutter kids... its Finished Object Friday!), I'm a day early with a couple of my most recent fo's! I did manage to finish my first pair of socks before Socktoberfest was over...

finished socks2finished socks

I posted a picture of Nathaniel's finished hat last week, but here's Jenn's little guy himself modeling it ... don't you just want to pinch those cheeks?

nathaniel_closeup

Speaking of cuties, check out these adorable crime fighters... (aka 2 nephews & a niece)

KidsHalloween2006

Of course I can't not post these cute fall shots of my own adorable children... including a super cuddly Zeus with Mommy, aren't we cute? (Note, he's getting that fourth or fifth puppy hood going quite well now that his new knee is really settling in ... I wonder how much more bouncing he's going to be doing once the 2nd one is done... ay, yi, yi!)

100_2275

Zeus the Moose!

Zeus Man

Miss Lola and her stick!

Miss Lola

Nervous Teutul (did someone say "boo?")...

King Tut

Wait until you see their very own "3 Doggy Yarn" designed by the real wonder-woman herself, Miss Heather - photos to come shortly! She did an amazing job with the colorings and I can't wait to knit it up (still not sure what yet ... probably socks and maybe gauntlets or gloves ... feel free to share your ideas, as I have 2 skeins). She also took the time to show me how to spin on my new drop spindle last night, for which I thank her greatly! Of course if I get hooked, I will blame her greatly too, lol - though I think I am already hooked and will be in the hunt for a spinning wheel at some point when my budget can afford it... which could be next to never, so if any family or friends out there who might have a wheel collecting dust or know someone who does and wants to share, you know my number! Here's my lovely teacher (hopefully she doesn't mind me posting - I know she's got the blackmail pic to get me back though!)...

Heather

Make sure you hop on over to Heather's blog and meet the newest addition to her family!

Speaking of the 4 legged, furry children, I thought it was time for the pint sized Angus (who's Mommy needs to start a blog!) to have some time to shine in the spotlight ...

Angus

Angus belongs to the wonderful Joanne who owns A Knitter's Garden in Chester (for which I can not link you to because she has yet to create a website or that blog ... hint hint). I think he was really loving all those nifty smells that we brought back from Riverslea (as were my own children once I got home...)!

We also met the adorable Lilly yesterday, who lives at Riverslea Farm with Liz & Jeff. She's 6 months old and so FULL of puppy energy. Here she is sneaking a peak in to the feeding pen when we were touring.

Lilly

And, as a final teazer for my next post, meet this 1 day old most adorable baby...

1 day Old

Until next time, dream of all those wonderful fibers and animal photos I will be sharing... :)

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