Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wishing I Was in Alaska

We've bitched & moaned and barely survived our mini heatwave here in Southern NH... with the past 2 days being a sweltering 98+ degrees with high humidity and plenty of "bad air quality" warnings. Right about now I'd kill for do almost anything to take one of my dream vacations (Alaska & Hawaii top the list for those of you who missed my Virtual Vacation answers)! I just checked weather.com and get this - today's high in Anchorage is a lovely 66 degrees! Fortunately, we are now in the midst of a "cool down" - today's high's are around 88/90 (still high humidity - ick!), then we're supposed to move in to the 70's tomorrow - woo friggin' hoo!! Did I ever mention how much I love fall?! The cool down is an added relief as this is NASCAR weekend at NHIS and we will be up at the track on both Saturday & Sunday (70 degree is a dream for any NASCAR race weekend!).

So Alaska... even though I may not be able to drop everything and run there now, I did receive some wonderful Alaskan treats from my Summer Dishcloth Swap pal, the lovely Martina! I do appologize for taking so long to get this posted, as I received my package last week. Here it is...

dishclothswap

Martina made me 2 beautiful cloths is gorgeous shades of purple and included the sampler booklet that she used the patterns from! She also sent me 2 skeins of Knit Picks Shine in the crocus colorway and a skein of Dale of Norway Stork in a lovely lilac shade (which I can not wait to knit up!!)... and for the super goodies, here's a close up...

dishclothswapB

A small jar of Alaska Tribal wild blueberry jelly, Seattle Chocolate's truffle bar (yum-o!) and the coolest soap ever... Seaside Opus "Soap in a Parka" rosemary lemongrass soap! This is so cool... the soap smells wonderfully amazing and its all wrapped up in wool. I can't wait to use it!!! Martina called it "soap in a sweater" - true! Thank you Martina... everything is absolutely wonderful and very much me!!! I'm now signed up for the 2nd round of the swap and can't wait to see who I get to spoil this time around!

It's not quite FO Friday yet, but my FO from last week is another Duduza Doll, which I dropped off in the growing basket at Joanne's last night (I meant to take a pic of all of them, but forgot... Joanne said she was going to take one to post on her blog this week though!). Here she is (yes, its a she... note the pink beaded hat!)

DuduzaDoll2

And as I taking the photos, Zeus decided she might be good to eat needed to be sent off with a kiss, so I let him pose with her...

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Did that get you saying "awwww??!!!" If not, how's this for an "awww" moment?

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That's my niece Tabitha with Miss Lola at the family cook out we had at Mom & Dad's last Saturday (special note for my friends & family who haven't figured out when something is underlined in my blog text, its a link to a photo or website the lesser experienced blog users, make sure you click all of the links to the names for more pics - I even spent an extra few minutes going thru and putting the links in blue for you this time!). I love the sweetness of the pic on the left and the one of the right was the "doggy, doggy, doggy... hi doggy, doggy" pic. Lola drew the short straw and got to go since we try to only take one at a time to events/outings, sometimes 2 when its the dog park or something, but for visiting family or friends and hoping we get invited back one works well. For those of you thinking we should take all of the children everywhere, have you ever tried taking 3 spazos who weigh in at 65, 90 & 120 pounds??? Yea, I didn't think so... Zeus had just gotten to go for an r-i-d-e earlier in the week too... see???

Zeuscar

Here are some more pics from Saturday...

My nephew, the little heartbreaker Jacob (please ignore the evil empire outfit... his parents thought it would be funny...)

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Tabby & Jake are 2 of my brother's youngest (youngest Benji was home with pain from those darn pieces of white bone pushing thru his gumsas he is teething and not the happiest little camper). This is a picture of the 3 from last Halloween. Tabitha is turning 4 next week and Aunty bought her this beautiful dress, which she promptly had to model...

Tabitha_bdaydress_62307Tabitha_bdaydress_62307b

My brother's oldest/my oldest nephew Matt just turned 20 - and boy does that make Aunty feel old!!! I've got to go and dig up the great pic I have of he & Lola from when she was about a year old and put it up so everyone can compare it to this one...

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Speaking of Lola, my little girl is turning 5 next week (that links to last year's birthday pic)! I just can't believe how fast time is going by (I swear after 30, life goes into instant warp speed...)! She spent most of the day keeping an eye out for dropped food (and yes, she got enough for all 3 dogs plenty!)...

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Back to knitting... I do have several WIP's but nothing that was worthy of a photo. I cast on this tank top Tuesday night and got a couple of rounds worked. I've picked up my alpaca shaped scarf and worked some more rounds on it (no hurry for it, esp when its 98 friggin' degrees!). I did finish the first of my ankle socks, but forgot to photo it... and need to cast on the second one. They've been a slow knit because they're kind of boring, but I will finish the pair. I wound up some yarn the other knit to start my shawl and another pair of socks...

I have done a little bit of stash enhancement this past week, but since a couple of packages just arrived I don't have photos yet. I will say this... to all sock knitters who haven't checked out The Loopy Ewe yet, click below!!!

The Loopy Ewe

This place is wonderful and I have my secret pal (who has yet to reveal herself) to thank for introducing me to them! Loopy is run by some wonderful people and they have a great selection of hand dyed sock yarns. They also run "The Loopy Club" where you get all sorts of fun stuff... with each of your first 5 orders they'll send you a free gift, then you are an official Loopy Groupie which gets you a whole new set of gifts & perks! Also, they keep track of your spending and for every $250 you rack up, they'll give you a $25 credit - nice!

I wanted to thank everyone who's contributed to my ASPCA fundraising efforts thus far (see the banner/link at the top of my blog), including Lisa, Karen, Christy and Dad C. & Sue ... however unless you tell me that you contibuted, I don't know who you are and can't thank you personally (since my counter only shows total $ raised, not who donated)! So far I have $65 in donations that are unaccounted for... was it you? Please do remember that every little bit turns in to something big and I do hope you can contribute if you have not already.

Well, back to wishing it were Friday work for me ... my lunch hour is over! We're heading up to ManchVegas tonight to see Cirque du Soleil Delirium. I love Cirque du Soleil shows - this will be my 4th different one (I think... or is it 5th?). Happy knitting & racing to anyone heading out to NHIS this weekend!

2 comments:

Dianne said...

It looks like everybody had a great time at the picnic.!

I didn't say anything after I contributed $50 to the ASPCA because your general thanks is enough - actually more than enough. I am happy to help in any cause that involves making life better for the creatures we share this earth with. I'm only saying something now so you don't stress about it. You do wonderful things in fostering dogs, and I really enjoy your blog. This was just a way for me to say "thank you" to you, and also help a good cause.

NH Knitting Mama said...

Wow, lots of ground was covered on this post!

Great family pics. AND, Martina sent you some great swag!

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