Month: October 2006
Thanks, Secret Pal!!!
Whee! Today I got a special birthday package from my secret pal. I excercized incredible restraint and did not allow myself to open it until the house was clean and the boys were in bed (I didn’t want them tearing in to everything too!).
Everything was wrapped up so pretty, as you can see! She sent me two skeins of Patons SWS in my favorite colorway, Natural Earth (I was going to buy myself a couple more skeins of this, how did you know?), a bar of wonderfully scented soap (“Oakmoss”) that I can’t wait to use, a set of gorgeous stitch markers, and the funniest gag gift… I laughed so hard when I opened up my “wine snob” voodoo doll! Awesome! I might have to take that to work with me tomorrow, LOL! (Luckily, they seem to be few and far between these days, but once in a while one comes in and just makes me crazy!)
Thank you so much for extending my birthday one more day! You’re the sweetest!
Oh, Possum!
So last night I heard some scratching around at ceiling-level. Something was moving around in the rain gutter. I thought it was probably a squirrel, but when I turned on the outside light, you have no idea how freaked out I was to see this possum come crawling down the screen. I can’t believe I didn’t scream!
Birthday Girl!
That would be me! (And my friend Heidi, too!) Although the day did not start great (J. was up a number of times during the night with fake boo-boos, sigh…), it has certainly gotten better.
Thank you all for your birthday wishes! I really appreciate them 🙂 My husband totally spoiled me and gave me a gorgeous strand of red pearls (I love my black pearls and these are so pretty and a little more casual), a gift certificate to Victoria’s Secret (they have skull and crossbones underwear, woot!) and we’re going to see How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes next Sunday! It’s been so long since I’ve been in the city! Well, we were there in April for D.’s high school reunion, but we weren’t really walking around at all. I think prior to that the last time was when I was pregnant with N.
I also decided to use up some Amazon credits that I have and earlier this week I bought for myself Scarf Style and Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Embellishments. Plus, I bought the new(ish) G. Love CD and the new(ish) Regina Spektor CD. I can’t wait for everything to arrive!
I think we’re getting pizza tonight and I have a bottle of Carmenère that I plan on cracking open. I plan to do a little knitting (I’ve finished all my gift knitting that I had going so as soon as everything is recieved I will post photos), and right now I’m doing a quick drop-stitch scarf out of Patons SWS (“natural earth”) for me, and a cell-phone case for DH (he doesn’t like me calling it a “cozy!”). Then I resolve to finish up my feather & fan shawl so I can wear it before Thanksgiving. After that… all bets are off! I’ll be looking for something different to try — maybe some fingerless gloves? Or maybe I’ll suck it up and give socks a try. I am feeling up for a challenge, so if anyone has a suggestion, let me know!
OK, I am off to buy myself a big ole slice of chocolate cake. Because it ain’t a birthday if there’s no chocolate!
Rhinebeck Haul
To say that the Sheep & Wool Festival was insantity might be an understatement. The boys and I had fun, but admittedly it was difficult with the two of them. Luckily there was a ton of “family fun” kind of stuff so Jake and I had a deal. I could look at a yarn building, then we’d do something for him like look at the sheep and alpacas, visit the petting zoo, go on the bouncy slide, watch the juggler, etc. It worked out pretty well.
I did get to meet Jaya, which was really great! The boys were very antsy so I didn’t get to talk to her much and I didn’t want to hold her up from shopping. I hope she and her friend had fun and didn’t spend too much money!
I came away with quite the loot bag as you can see. I splurged on some yarn from Briar Rose Fibers. They had such gorgeous yarn and everyone at the booth was as nice as can be! I wanted to walk away with two of everything. I see myself ordering from them again in the future. I kind of feel like I should have bought one more skein of Collette, but… I’ll make due. I also bought some felting needles (been wanting to try needle felting a design on a felted bag), the Noni unfurling rose pattern, two grab bags of random skeins/hanks of yarn, and two skeins of yarn that was made from recycled silk saris. The colors are just amazing! Some of this was intended to be gifted but… it might take some willpower to give it away! There were so many things to see there and I know I missed a lot. There’s always next year!
Tomorrow: NY Food & Wine Expo!
Knitter’s Tea Swap — I was spoiled!
Wow, wow, wow! Thank you so much Bobbi for the amazing package I received yesterday: PG Tips, Bengal Spice, and Nutcracker Sweet teas, Double Dutch Chocolate Cappucino, Digestive biscuits, wine gum candies, chocolate filled wafer cookies, dutch chocolates, a pretty kitchen towel, a small press pot (which I have been wanting!), notecards, and two skeins of pretty yarn (Gems Pearl in Baby Aqua and 2nd Time Cotton in Tahiti)… I think I got everything down. You totally spoiled me and certainly made my day. Thank you so very much!
Gloomy
Yep, it’s gloomy outside and I’m kind of in a gloomy mood myself. The listing for our house is up at the end of the month and our realtor suggests that if we relist (and what choice do we have, really?) we should drop the price again. It just sucks. Anyway…
So tomorrow is the NY Sheep & Wool Festival. I know everyone just refers to it as “Rhinebeck” but being that Rhinebeck is only about five minutes away from our house and the fairground is next to the store where I do my grocery shopping, I feel like it makes more sense for me to be a little more specific 😉 Any suggestions for “must sees”? Since it’s my first time going I plan on just milling about and seeing what I see. I am hoping to pick up a few goodies for my SP9 spoilee, as well. Of course, since I’ll have the boys tagging along we’ll see how much they tolerate.
Not Very “Natural Navy”
Almost done with Gift #2. Woo! I’m pleased with it, though kind of bummed that there is next to no blue in the “Natural Navy” colorway of that new Patons SWS yarn. Lots of brown, though. Yup. Lots of brown. Sigh… The whole thing is actually quite pretty; I’m just disappointed because I really did think there would be more blue, but such is life.
The boys are running me ragged today. I can’t even begin to tell you how much mustard they ate between the two of them. Yes. Mustard. Some of you know how they both love to suck it down from the bottle (gross), but at lunch today, well… just watch this. Where they get this mustard gene from, I don’t know. I pretty much only have it on hot dogs an occasionally a turkey sandwich. D. has it even less than that.
Crazy boys.
Apple Picking
Yesterday we finally got over to Greig Farm to pick apples and pumpkins. J. had already gone apple picking on a nursery school field trip, but we’d nearly finished those and besides — I just plain wanted to go! We thought we’d go and pick out a pumpkin first. Unfortunately, this has been a crummy year for pumpkins and there was no pick-your-own, but we chose two small-ish ones that had already been picked. (Later on we did buy two enormous pumpkins to carve at a big box store… I felt a little guilty about it but all the big pumpkins at the farm really were pretty bad).
The apples were all a little past-prime, too. After trying apples from several different trees we finally found one where the apples weren’t wormy, mealy, or totally bruised, and we picked a huge bagful. (I uploaded some photos to Flickr if you’re interested).
After that we went out for lunch and then did some grocery shopping. J. and I made an apple pie when we got home, then he helped put firewood from the woodpile in back into a cart and haul it down to the garage to be stacked. Then we grilled steaks (a last hurrah before having to store the gas grill for the winter), which were just OK. I need to learn that it’s just better to buy beef from my preferred grocery store and not WalMart. Every time we buy steak from WalMart it tastes strange. Anyway! It was nothing a little ketchup couldn’t fix. Then it was on to the apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. It came out so good! J. was very pleased with himself.
This morning I’m doing nothing but trying to keep the house clean, which is quite challenging with my two little monsters tearing about the place. (At 9:30 there is a house showing. I’m not overly optimistic because no one is buying houses at all, but you never know when it’s going to be “the one” so I still have make sure everything is absolutely spotless.) N. is currently napping so as soon as he wakes up everyone is getting in the car and we’re headed to the store for a couple things I forgot yesterday.
Two knitting projects need to be finished up this week. I can’t talk about them until they’re done because they’re gifts and I don’t want to give anything away, so you’ll just have to wait to see photos! Have a good day, everyone!
Favorites – For SP9
List your favorite:
Actor – Robert DeNero
Actress – Scarlett Johansson
Animal – Giraffe
Band – Morphine
Book – The Pill Vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster by Richard Brautigan
Bubble Bath – Don’t really use it.
Candy – M&Ms, Snickers bars, Sour watermelons
Color – Green
Flower – Rose
Food – Authentic Italian or French
Lip Balm – Burt’s Bees
Lotion – “Dreams” by Mary Kay
Movie – Impossible to choose just one! I guess I’ll go with “Waiting for Guffman”
Song – “All Your Way” by Morphine
TV Show – The Office
Vacation Spot – Adirondacks