Quote for the week!

"This one's for every one of those fans in the stands who pull for me every week and take all all the bullshit from everybody else..." -- Tony Stewart after winning Indy on Sunday, 7/29/07

And that's why I love him... you'll never hear any other NASCAR driver be so brutally honest and always say what he wants, no matter what the pr people tell him to say....

So... I haven't had a chance to download the Maine Yarn Crawl pics yet, but will get to that later in the week... a few quick updates...

Mom ~ Thank you all for the well wishes and thoughts for my Mom this week. It really means a lot to me and I can't wait for Mom to get back to her computer and catch up on the blog & your comments! She is doing much, much better and feels much, much better. She'll be in the hospital at least thru the end of the week, as they continue to give her antibiotics thru IV and other things to get her healthy and send that nasty infection away. She had a blood transfusion on Sunday. The cat scan showed that things were clearing up nicely yesterday... yet still no definite cause for the infection at this point. More tests today, including the colonoscopy. Tuesday Afternoon Update... Mom is scheduled for surgery tomorrow afternoon to remove part of her colon, which will then be sent out for testing.... please keep her in your thoughts!

Bella ~ I heard from Bella's new Mom and found out they've changed her name to Cotton. It sounds like she sure is keeping them on their toes! They've enrolled her in obedience classes and things are going well thus far. Bella (sorry, hard to get used to Cotton) even climbed Mt. Tecumseh with them last week!

That's all for now... though I did just find out that I won (yea, I couldn't believe it either!) a contest that my Secret Pal 10 host had at the end of the round... can't wait to see what it is! I promise the Maine yarn crawl post very soon! I will leave you in suspense by telling you that our route was The Knitting Experience Cafe then Purl Diva then Ewe & Me and finally, Halcyon where we had our Double Knitting class!

My Mom

Some of you knew Mom was rushed to the hospital late Wednesday night and admitted to ICU (and thank you for all the kind words, emails, calls, concern and prayers)... I wanted to let everyone know that after being moved to another hospital on Thursday afternoon to have a drainage put in for the nasty, nasty infection on her back, she is doing much, much better now! She's in a normal room now and was given the okay to get solid foods as well, however she will probably have to stay in the hospital for another week or so. She's in better spirits than I think she has been in weeks (my what getting rid of pain does!). We're still unclear of the exact cause, but they are thinking it may possibly be an appendix issue now and will do yet more tests in a couple days...... thank you again to everyone keeping Mom in your thoughts & prayers!

On a side note, I did enjoy a wonderful day in Maine with Joanne yesterday (Mom insisted that I had to go and not "sit and stare at her" all day, esp given that she was quite stable and on the road to recovery as of Thursday evening). I'll blog about it later in the week, but it was one of the best days ever... a great friend, 4 yarn stores, a on fire luke warm credit card, an absolutely awesome Double Knitting class and a little "detour" to Massachusetts on the way home (oops!)........ story & photos to come soon!

The more people I meet, the more I like my dogs...

... and other cute dog quotes for your reading pleasure on this hump day!

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. It is the principal difference between a dog and a man." Mark Twain

"Happiness is a warm puppy." Charles Schulz

"The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." Samuel Butler

"If there is no heaven for dogs, then I want to go where they go when I die." Anonymous

I apologize for the lack of knitting content today, but the needles have been moving slower than usual this past week. I did cast on my Booga bag last night (at least I think this one is for me ... this was my first one, made for Mom) while watching Big Brother. Any BB8 fans out there? Are you as hooked as we are?

I'll leave with more blogthings fun for today...

Your Inner Muse is Thalia

You are most like this playful muse of comedy.Life is all about laughter to you, and you're a natural comic.You make people laugh until their sides split.And you're always up for some play time!

What Muse Are You?

My head hurts...

Ever had one of those weeks... and its only Tuesday? I think I need to buy stock in Advil this week. Ugh. Knitting night can't come any sooner, nor can my knitting day to Maine on Friday with the Knitting Queen, Joanne! We're going to take a class at Halcyon and spend way too much money check out some other yarn shops along the way. In the meantime, I'll let you refer back to this post to understand how I am feeling today...

And to liven things up, one of those fun little blogthings...

You Are A Good Friend

You're always willing to listen or lend a shoulder to cry on. You're there through thick and thin. Many people consider you their "best friend"!

What Kind of Friend Are You?

So I gave in...

I said I wouldn't, but I did...

I signed up got on the mungo huge waiting list for Ravelry just now...

Found you!
You signed up on Today
You are #19564 on the list.
13031 people are ahead of you in line.
1 people are behind you in line.
32% of the list has been invited so far

Thirteen thousand people are in front of me in line! Holy smokes batman... and 1 lone person behind me (I'm sure that'll change in about 2 seconds)! This blog will remain my #1 focus though... but it appears many folks can and do blog and use Ravelry... go figure! Just please, please, please don't make me catalog my entire stash... that could take days weeks ... yikes!

And no, I didn't sign up just because I found this on the creator's (who I am so sad that I missed meeting at TKGA show..) blog: This blog is where I write about my little life in Charlestown, Massachussetts with my my sweet husband, Casey, and my Boston Terrier, Bob. If you don’t like pictures of dogs, this may not be the place for you. I can’t seem to stop myself. I don't think I could've said it better myself (the part about the dog pictures, of course)!

To save time, I have finally come to realize what a wonderful, wonderful world Bloglines is (you can click on the button under my profile on the right to instantly subscribe to this blog without having to type in the URL)! I had checked it out before, but was too stubborn to realize how great it was. Yes, I was one of those who randomly clicked on all my favorite blogs a few hundred times a day to see if my knitting pals had updated them... time consuming? Yes! Now with bloglines, I just have to look there and it'll tell me who's got new or updated posts... cool! It does seem to take at least a few hours, sometimes a day before the posts pop up as new for some reason... but its still a huge time saver and a way to never miss a friend's post again!

TGI-friggin-F!

Oh I am so happy its finally Friday! Its been a stressful week of sorts ... work hell crapola stress coupled with lack of sleep makes for nearly no knitting... and one grumpy knitter!

I won't complain too much about the lack of sleep because that was due in part to the loveable Bella, whom I started calling Isabella (short term foster Simon's human sister/our good friends' beautiful 15 1/2 month old daughter). If people actually heard me, I'm sure I would've gotten some is she freaking insane??? looks with my "who's a Bella... is-a-bella..." doggy talk, but alas, I thought it was cute & clever. You see, Miss Bella-bell (my other nickname for the cutie pie) had 2 modes -- GO, GO, GO, GO or CRASH. There's really not much in between with this active pup (after all, she is a pup and a terrier!). It was like having a baby in the house who didn't sleep thru the night... she would decide to wake up each night sometime between the god-awful hours of 2:00 - 3:00 am and decide it was time to pounce and play. Even Zeus would huff at her as if to say "hey little lady, its time to s-l-e-e-p!" Again - not complaining too much because she was an absolute joy and love bug. Was... translating to the great news that Bella went to her forever home last night with Nicole & Ryan in Manchester (they're about 15 minutes away)! We were sad to see her go so soon (I'm not sure which is worse - the ones here for 3 weeks before they go or the ones who stay just a short week... we get attached and love them all), but I am happy to report that she went to a perfect home... they are both young & active and like to jog & hike (oh how I remember those days ... about 10 years ago!) which will be great for Bella!

When we arrived to drop her off, they had already prepared a little basket of toys for her - including a hot pink Bobo just like Lola's (only smaller)! There was also a little rawhide bone in there, which Bella promptly found - and claimed - and after a couple minutes of exploring, she plopped down in the living room and began chewing... and chewing... and ignoring the rest of the world... I went to say goodbye and she could've cared less (how rude!)... I don't even think she realized we left. And I was worried about her going to a home that didn't have any other doggies to play and wrestle with... (although Nicole promised she'd bring her to the doggy park)! Should I pout or just be happy she seemed so content in her new home??!!

So back to that lack of knitting this week... I really don't have anything to show. I worked on my tank some more at Joanne's on Wednesday night, but not enough progress worthy of a photo. Speaking of Joanne, check out the A Knitter's Garden listing in the brand new Knitters' (and other) Travel Guide 2007-2008! She has copies of this fantastic resource book at her shop for sale - only $12! I snagged my copy Wednesday night and am impressed - its much larger than I had expected and now I won't be wasting so much time googling yarn shops when I go on vacation.

As part of the Dog Days of Summer Dishcloth Swap, we've been asked to post our favorite handknit item. Mine is not something that I have made, but rather something that I received as a gift last Christmas from Dad & Mom-Sue (Matt's dad & stepmom). Sue made me this absolutely stunning sweater, using Classic Elite Premiere, which means its not only visually beautiful, its amazingly soft and snuggly too!

I wore it when I met Kate Jacobs and she loved it too!

We were also asked to post something that we've seen on a fellow DDSD swap participant's blog that we would like to make. This was fun because it got me scrolling thru some strangers blogs and I came across - woo hoo! - yet another Doggy Mom Knitter's blog, Basset Knitter (omg, how cute is Elsie??!!)! And I'd love to make this cat bed. Yes people, I did just say CAT bed! I can knit for friends' cats too, right?? It looks so soft and squishy ... and definitely looks like a fun knit too... who can't resist a cat bowl? And oh to use up that fun fur that is stuffed somewhere under a bed or maybe inside one of my dogs' beds....

Anyone planning to go see The Harlot at Border's on August 2nd? I missed her last appearance at Webs because we were in Charlotte, but I did catch her there in 2006 and can't wait to see her again. I sent in my registration and am working out the carpool details with Joanne. Sounds like it'll be a fun night, even if it does mean rushing from work to get there... Stephanie is well worth the rush!

Not to bring the mood down, but unless you live under a rock I'm sure you've been hearing about the sad-excuse-for-a-human-being, Michael Vick and his horrendous dogfighting in the news lately. Please take a moment to visit the Humane Society of the US site and tell the NFL to act on this!!!!

Stash Enhancement at TKGA Show!

Yes folks, I did end up spending more than I had planned on at the TKGA Knit & Crochet Show on Saturday, but still had huge restraint! I could have done sooooooooo much more damage... ooh, SO much more! There was a stunning jacket kit that I absolutely adored, but alas the $200 price tag wasn't in my budget. Nor was the $62 skein of some unusual fiber (it wasn't yak but it was something in that unusual category). So I tried to not set my credit card ablaze be good and only purchase things that were out of the ordinary and not something I could readily pick up at my LYS. Here's what I came home with...

See all the unusual fibers there? HA HA - just kidding. That was the goody bag from Coats & Clark that the first 500 pre-registered attendees received. Its not bad and does include a nice skein of Moda Dea washable wool in what I think is a new shade! Now for the real stash...

I purchased 3 kits... one to make super soft (and from what I'm told, amazingly warm) silk mittens, one for a drawstring bag (knitted with beads - also from AffectionKnit but I couldn't find it on their site to link) and finally, an elegant scarf (also with beads). I tried to show you the gorgeous hand dyed yarns that came with these kits in this pic, but it does not do them justice. Also pictured are some Norwegian pewter buttons, a set of size 7 Fiddlesticks (oh my gosh - these needles are amazing... rosewood with coconut at the top and mother of pearl finish on the ends ... not only do they look great, they are fabulous to knit with as I cast on a dishcloth last night just to test them out!), some absolutely amazing (yet extremely affordable!) yarns from Habu and 2 books - One Skein Wonders and The Secret Language of Knitters. Yes, I do already own the One Skein book - and some of you may even know that it is one of my favorite books - but the editor, Judith Durant happened to be at one of the booths signing her book and well... well, if your are one of the people I get to spoil in my current swaps, you just might be getting my previous copy! HA HA. And guess what? In chatting with the lovely Judith, we found out that the second installment, 101 Designer One Skein Wonders is coming out this fall (and I've already pre-ordered my copy thru Amazon)!!! WOO HOO! Use the stash!!! Here are some more photos from the show...

Close up of the goods.... The gorgeous hand dyed from the AffectionKnit kits on the left, the buttons, needles & scarf kit on the right.



 Signed books for the collection...


Mary Beth Temple ... we just sort of happened upon her signing her just-released book and what a hoot she is! If she happens to be near you signing, go check her out (and remind her she shouldn't sit in coffee when wearing a white skirt...)! She blogs too! I started reading the first few pages of the book and so far, 4 paws 2 thumbs up! Think of Mary along the lines of a Yarn Harlot type of comedy... knitting comedy if you will. I can't wait to read on in the book ... and and get this, she's a dog Mommy too!!! :-) I can't believe the number of fellow knitting (and crocheting) dog Mommies I'm meeting thru blogging lately - its amazing (and I'm not referring to "dog owners" - but true dog MOMS - and those of us who are know there is a big difference)!


Here I am with the lovely Judith (thankfully I found this nifty healing brush tool in Photoshop today that helped to remove some of the awful, awful bags under my eyes... boy were these pictures a horrible wake up call today... anyone got some good beauty cream tips/advice??)...

It was a wonderful day spent with friends and family! Sue came up from CT to go to the show with me (while Matt and his Dad worked on the dog's fence... woo hoo! They got a really great start on it too!)... again, loving that healing brush tool!

Sue is really into beautiful lace shawls and boy were there lots of gorgeous ones to drool over!

We bumped in to lots of other friends throughout the day, including Heather who was my enabler at the Habu booth. I really wasn't thinking of buying anything there until she came by and started raving about it... then I had to have a closer look and ended up with this...

The photo of the booth really doesn't do those amazing garmets justice, but hopefully it gives you an idea. The yarns... yummy, yummy yarns... I got 1 tiny (no joke its about the size of maybe half of the palm of my hand) skein of 100% cashmere (the green) and 2 skeins of the silk/mohair blend. These will mostly likely be for feather and fan scarves. The burgundy color cones to the left at 100% merino wool which will probably turn in to some lace shawl or wrap ... and the lilac color is the silk and stainless steel blend (also destined for a lacey shawl of sorts)! Yes folks, silk and stainless steel - how very cool and unique? Matt was even impressed!


We met this lovely sea lady while walking around...

 

Yes, a felted mermaid that is life size - very cool! Joanne said she was at The Knit-In at Loon Mountain, but I have to admit... I missed her there!

These were some of the garmets on display near the entrance...

 

It was an absolutely wonderful day (even if I did have some sore feet aftewards)... and I got to come home to a half-finished fence for the doggies. WOO HOO! I can't wait until its finally finished and ready for use, but we're much closer now. Matt's Dad even offered to come back up after their vacation next month to help some more (thank you Dad & Sue!!!). Maybe that means Sue and I will have to do a little yarn crawl that day... hee hee.

In doggy news, we picked up our newest houseguest, Bella, on Friday evening. What an absolute love bug and energetic pup! If you know dogs, you know that terriers are known for their energy... multiply that by oh, about 100 and you get Miss Bella! Yes folks, she's either in GO-GO-GO mode or she's crashed out completely... there's no in between with this little cutie pie. She immediately fit herself right in to our pack as soon as she came in and has been romping and wrestling with the big dogs non-stop. When she's not wrestling, she's chomping on a bone or playing with a squeaky or some other toy. She loves the marrow bones we have around, as well as the Orbee toys ... and the squeakies and the balls and the Bobos and the ropes... see a trend here? Yes, this lovebug just loves anything and everything ... and shows you nothing but love and affection in return! It looks like she already has an adopter ... and get this... its yet another Nicole who only lives about 10-15 minutes away! I'm going to be stopping by Nicole & Ryan's place tomorrow to do a home visit and then we'll proceed from there if they are interested in adopting. (I swear there is something ironic about me adopting out to fellow Nicole's - Dustee's mom is also a Nicole and only lives about 10 minutes way too!). So here's my dose of cuteness for you from the first few days of Bella in our lives...

She's always smiling...
 

Two peas in a pod... or Daddy's lap anyway!

 

She loved Bobo so much she chewed his ear right off ... oops!
 

Hanging with her foster brothers & sister...

 

Of course I have plenty more pics, but I'll save some for later... plus this post is getting kind of long... are ya still with me? Huh people??? Still out there???

Friday the 13th Cuteness

Some cuteness for those of you having a stressful Friday the 13th...

I can't believe I forgot to post this last week...drumroll... Miss Dottie and her brother Jack, sitting still for a photo!!! Dottie's Mom sent the photos and I totally forgot to share them with all of Dottie's fans out there - sorry!

And look... its another Bobo (see previous post and comments - these fuzzy buddies are really popular... all the it doggies must have one!)

Isn't Dottie just darling? Foster alert... we will be picking up another sweet baby girl tonight and I will have photos to come, but for now check out Bella's Petfinder listing! If you're interested (oh Marlene??? Marlene... this is the terrier for you!), let me know asap as she already has some applications in on her!

I can't leave you without any knitting related content, so ... I give you cauliflower sheep (this is not an endorsement for playing with your food!)...

Happy Friday!! See some of you at the Knit & Crochet show tomorrow?

I'm a Lucky Girl!

Why am I feeling so lucky, you ask? Beacuse my Secret Pal 10 spoiler Megan, rules!!! Let me refresh your memory a bit... in March, this yummy package arrived and then in May this sock-alicious package... you say, well how could a spoiler top that? Here's how... the "Made in Maine" installment arrvied earlier this week!

OMG - how amazing is Megan?!?!? She sent me a marvelous Bark Harbor tote bag filled to the top with 5 skeins of Maine wool, beautiful stitch markers and Lobster treats for my kids from Bark Harbor! I heart my new knitting tote & the wool! Oh my goodyness, have a closer look...

Presenting 2 gorgeous skeins of 100% wool sock yarn... on the left is beautiful Carlisle Brook Farm wool (which Megan sadly reports is no longer available - can you believe she gave me a skein for her secret stash?? I feel so not worthy, but can't wait to knit it up... if I can stop fondling it long enough!) and on the right is a delicious multi-color wool from End of The World Farm in Fayette, ME. You can also see the amazing stitch markers that Megan made for me.

Here we have 3 skeins of Bartlett Yarn, which I understand is still made in an old fashioned mill in Maine. Love the colors! A hat and mittens may come of some of this...

One of the most touching things of all, she thought about my kids! These extra special Lobster cookies were a present from her dog Zoe, who hand pawed... eh, picked, them from her favorite store and sent to my kids (they gobbled them down too fast to actually take pics of them with their yummies... sorry!).

Thank you Megan aka Ebinla Birks! You have been so thoughtful, you really got to know me and what I like, and I look forward to getting to know you now! SP10 was my first secret swap experience and you sure did make it outstanding! Of course, now I'm hooked on swaps... take a look at my side bar "participation ribbons" and you'll see! I just signed up for Secret Pal 11 - did you?

So... what has everyone been knitting? I've got a gazillion WIP's going... see?

Don't see any knitting? Well that's because nothing is substantial enough for a photo, so those are some of my WIP bags piled up there in my knitting corner! I had to FROG my Cabin Fever tank eariler in the week, as I had realized it was impossible to join those gazillion stitches in the round without twisting I twisted the darn thing somewhere along the way. Kind of a good thing though, as when I pulled it off the needle, I realized it was way too big. So, I recast it on and went down a size (oh knitting goddess, please be kind and don't let me find out in a few week that it is now too small). Its only about an inch of ribbing right now, so photos will wait. I should've finished my headband by now (even with the Coronas!), but I keep tossing it aside for other things. I cast on ankle sock #2... Then, I got an itch for instant gratification, so I cast on and knit this sunflower washcloth over the weekend.

Ah, the joys of dishcloths... cheap, quick and easy!

I also have been getting the itch to "clean sweep" my house and felt like I was having de ja vu reading Criquette's post today. Long lost twins, separated at birth??!! Maybe! I too have recently come to the conclusion, after 32 long years, that I just don't need so much stuff! Not only has it outgrown our home, but my patience as well... and so now comes the wonderful feeling of throwing things away (and purging some to Goodwill, listing some on eBay, etc)! Saturday I decided it was time to clean out the closet in the room which will hopefully become our office/my craft room by fall... 3 bags to Goodwill, 1 bag of eBay goods and 2 1/2 bags of trash later, I give you this...

A closet full of plastic bins and bags of yarn, fiber, beads and other related goods (as well as some winter coats pushed to one side, our pretend-we-have-a-life clothing "dress up clothes" to the other. Its no where near where I want to get that room eventually (think butt loads of shelving, a big book case, table space, etc), but its a start and it gets a lot of my stash out of the living room. Although I will admit, Matt was right... my stash has gotten much bigger than I had thought! What you can't see is 2 huge bins pushed to the left inside the closet... plus I have 3 of the 3-drawer rubber maid plastic do-dads on wheels in the living room still (full of mostly sock yarn, luxury yarn, etc.)... and several bags scattered about! And yes, I am going to be shopping at the Knit & Crochet show this Saturday... keeping in mind my newly adopted "do I really need it" philosophy (wish me luck).

As you know, my Baby Girl turned 5 last week. Here are some photos from our little family "party" (yea, no... it wasn't a party at all... but she did get cake!)...

Did somebody say c-a-k-e??!!

She's really not this dainty!

Birthday portrait with Mommy...

Presents!!! She got a gigantic, hot pink Bobo!

Which Teutul promptly stole...

It's mine... no it's mine!

King Tut manages to get both Bobos...

All the while big brother Zeus just laughs...

And does some birdie "watching" - remember how Daddy got them the longer lead for out front? He can now reach the tree where we hang the feeders (oh smart Daddy...now instead of laying in wait near the stairs and then jumping to make the birdies scatter, he can sneak right up on them even closer...)..

I'm so happy tonight is knitting night! See some of you at Joanne's?