Well hello out there and now that the Christmas Season is officially here; I mean officially as in 'December'...I had a little difficulty saying Merry Christmas (which is still what I say!) when the Halloween decorations aren't even cold yet! But I digress...Christmas is coming and you know what that means?

Yup! A new Whopper Box!!!



I know; really it's the little things isn't it?



When I named this blog I didn't really anticipate a new Whopper box for the seasons, but so far this is really fun.



Did you hear the one about the Easter Bunny laying a 'Whopper'?

(I just made that up; if you think of a funny answer....post it!)





O.K. so it's full swing into the To Do list that is ALWAYS too long and so to make sure that I share the stress; I find other people to 'help' me finish some tasks and then put the stress back on myself to make it as easy as possible for them to help me. I think that the most recent example of this is me taking the quilts to a lovely lady who lives about an hour away, asking her to complete them in two days, and then driving back to pick them up. And that should be enough to sum that up don't you think? Nope; let's add 'guilt' about leaving the dog alone too
much and so drag her to and from the quilt excursion.



Looks like she's having fun doesn't it?



At least she wasn't asking, if we were there yet? Or complaining about being hungry (she's a lab; they're always hungry!), or thirsty or having to go to the bathroom or 'he's touching me' or 'she's annoying me.'



All in all, a pretty good co-pilot...except for the 'poop 'n scoop' part. eewww



Let's focus on all the things that we add to our list of 'shoulds' (evil word!) Everybody has a different focus and expectations, but I just want to show you the best way that I've multi-tasked in a long time.





Check this out! Knitting whilst getting a pedicure!



Not wasting Christmas prep time and something that's 'good for me' on oh soooo many levels! All that was missing was a soothing beverage...maybe next time.

Knitting Heaven!



I used the Harmony Interchangeable Knitting needles for this project and I L O V E them! I've completed the knitting and blocking and just need to finish up the assembly and embellishment and then that's....ONE off the list.



I have survived the second snow day of the school year; it fell on a Monday after a weekend that was preceeded by a PA day....yeah, my knitting tension is FINE and the twitching should stop after some more wine. Ha ha. (and I say that with as little enthusiasm as possible)...and you know what? The kids were mad as all get out that they had to go to school on Tuesday! But, really, it was for their own good/safety.

And to keep my sanity, I took Chloe and my camera for a walk around our property.





I'm a little disappointed with this first shot; it supposed to show the snow being supported by the tree while looking up under the branch. It looked better in my head, but I think I'll still try to fool around with it on the printer at the Superstore.

















And this next one?

I was going for textural contrasts and an example of white on white.



O.K., I made that 'white on white' part up just now, but the textural thing was really what I tried to capture, like Fiona Ellis in Inspired Cable Knits.
Nature combines different colours and textures without worrying about any rules and it all looks beautiful...so let's try putting unexpected things together and see what happens!



You'll never know if you don't try. See you soon and keep on knitting!



...The kids are home and arguing; so I'm pasting on that smile that says "I love you" and thinking that I'll try to work it that I go out for dinner with my knitters; yup, Life is good.

It's Simple When You Know How...

Well hello again, yarn and fabric fans! We're back and I have some catching up to do!


First, the picture beside us here is of the lovely yarn I was talking about yesterday that I wound to get some quiet time on a Sunday morning. It's called Monarch and it will be socks someday; on Sunday I just needed to wind something soothing.


Second, I called my internet provider, (and now have the number written down at home as well as at the office) and really, the hardest part about fixing the aforementioned problem was describing it to someone who knows a whole lot about computers. Turns out, for some reason the computer thought there was a Broadband option and went looking for it...O.K...right click, delete and BAM we're back in business! It really is cool once someone tells you what to do. :o)


Next, I visited a blog~~~ Girl Gone ThreadWild~~~and she challenged people to post their 'mess'.
Well, I did have a picture here and a nice long explanation about being able to find stuff, and expressed concern about ruining Christmas Surprises, etc. But, while self editing...it disappeared and I don't seem to be able to find an 'undo' button and then there's the 'autosave' feature; so I'm thinkin' that it's not meant for me to show you a picture of my 'mess' just now, but you'll just have to trust me that there is a mess and that I have a wonderful system; hide it plain site and nobody would know the difference! It's a system that works for me.


O.K. now we'll go to the quilts that I completed for my dear friend. The first one is a lap quilt using 'Cats on Parade' fabric line in the Sawtooth Star pattern and I call it "I Love You Too". I gave her bits of the fabric 3 or 4 years ago and told her to wait and see what it turns into. This is something that we often do in our family; especially at Christmas when there just never seems to be enough time to finish all the projects that we (mom and I) want to do. Does anybody else out there have this kind of tradition...please tell me I'm not the only one!
I backed the quilt using a complementary flannelette. It's a lap quilt and I like to keep it cozy. I tried a couple of shots to catch the quilting, but no luck, but there's a star pattern to coordinate with the Sawtooth Star. I would've liked to hand quilt this quilt and the next one, but time wasn't on my side (this time).





***I AM JUST LOVING HAVING PICTURES TO TALK ABOUT!!**





Now, while I was 'organizing'
my space (see photo above and note referring to 'mess') I cam across a kit that I had bought a couple of years ago and thought when I whipped that together it would do well to accompany the lap quilt! I was able to do it. It was a lot of fun and now there's a wall hanging that all the fine women that visit my friend's home can appreciate!


So, last, but not least...yes, I actually do some knitting too! I was hoping that these socks would be for me, but after 4 attempts (which seems to be the magic number for me starting socks) I was NOT going to rip it out when I finally completed one, but it was too small. I would just have to wait until someone presented themselves that would need some socks.
Well someone has, but they don't know it yet and they won't be checking here either; so it's safe to show you some of my progress. See? Pretty and soft socks; hopefully I will finish them and show you how it all turns out.


I have more stuff to show you and now I CAN~~~another day. :o)

And now before I loose anymore pictures I will post. Thank-you

As far a yesterday and the blankie? I did it, worked on a stitch out of my head that I'm quite pleased with AND whipped up a pair of PJ bottoms for my son to wear out of Flannelette Snowboarders...all while watching Cane! I loooove Jimmy Smits.

Off to see Dirty Dancing tomorrow night with the Red Hot Mamas.


You know what? Life is Good.

Grrr

I tried 'a' photo and no luck. It wasn't anything especially exciting, just some gorgeous yarn and my coffe cup; and the story of how this is a way for me to relax on a Sunday morning when the children are too loud!~~~well for me anyway. And luckily I have a place to go hide; wind some wool, sip some coffee and dream.
I was all set to call my internet provider and hopefully get them to walk me through whatever is going on with this @#%&^^%# thing...but the number is at the office...yup, just looked in my address book; no number here. :o(
I really do have a lot of neat pictures to post....SOMEDAY...
But right now I have to get back to my Christmas knitting and just for fun I told my daughter that I would knit her bear a 'blankie' for tomorrow's 'PJ and Bear Day' at school. She found a bunch of her old baby clothes, dressed up her bear, made it a lunch and so I think a blankie is just what is needed to complete the ensemble. And it's going to impress the heck out of her for me to actually get it done before tomorrow, and here's my plan...big needles + a few stitches = a little blankie! Tada.
I'll try to get the number tomorrow or call the Geek Squad or something and get some pictures up here.
Bye for now.

And Blogger Wins

I don't know what's going on, but approximately 12 hours ago, I sat down and composed a positively stimulating post. There were pictures; there was jaunty banter; I shared parts of my soul (I may be a little over dramatic at this last part), but alas (when in Rome) it was not to be.
I have tried again and again throughout this day to post and the best that I can come up with right now (ie. 12 hours later!) is that I'm not meant to show you pictures today; at least not the 5 that I had selected and since my 'text only' test message worked and I want you to know that I am still here...busy sewing and knitting and baking; boy, it was a good post! I decided to try again with different photos.
Nope.
I have DSL, but after I've uploaded my pictures it asks me if I want to 'connect' and then tries to dial up a connection...which it can't and doesn't need to, because I'm already online, but when I cancel then the whole system thinks I'm working offline and I've only gotten back this far, by going in the 'back door' through my emails. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I can figure out this much, but annoyed as all get out that I can't figure out what 'their' problem is; I don't know who 'they' are, but they sure have a problem!
So here I sit, sipping tea, longing for bed, and hoping against hope that when I hit save and then publish that at least it will not all have been for naught! ( I spent some time on the weekend with some English and well educated friends...can you tell?)
I wish I could share some more wonderful insights (AND PICTURES!!!), but I'm really tired; so good night everybody.
Maybe tomorrow I'll try just one picture....or maybe next week.
And PLEASE, if anybody knows what I'm talking about here and can offer some advice, I would love to hear from you.
Thank-you and good luck with your computer.

Testing

I'm having a fight with blogger; this is a test.

Green Cats?

Helloooo out there! Yes, I know it's been too long, but it has also been too busy! Birthdays, work, school, laundry, appointments, knitting, sewing; did I mention laundry?
Aww, the Laundry Lament; does it ever get old? No, even with all our wonderful mechanical achievements the dirty undies still never manage to make it down to the laundry room, into the washer, into the dryer, folded and returned to their rightful place in the top drawer without the genious that is 'mother'.
And now, back to our topic of the day.
I was reading Cotton Picker and she mentioned that her husband (my uncle) would like a "Green Man"...
???
So I go with her link to find, not a martian, but a "Green Man". Knowing my uncle and his interest in past monuments I wasn't completely surprised to find the various faces portrayed. I was TOTALLY psyched to find this puppy though:
I LOVE IT!! I love the greenery, I love the face and I was a French Horn player in High School; so this is way cool!! I see this turning into something crafty~~~
Links are like a box of Chocolates...you're never sure what you're gonna get! (thank-you Forest) I read some of the references for 'The Green Man" and found that they also mentioned a Green Cat; O.K. let's see what a green cat is all about. I went through the whole thing, but the oooo's and awwww's were audible when I came to this photo.

Young Kitten the first time her eyes were opened. I can barely stand the cuteness! I'm assuming it's a girl, because my orange cats are girls; so there. Just look at that face, go on LOOOK!!

O.K. so maybe you're not a cat person so much, you know they do what they want and not so much what you want. They hack up hair balls (some more than others). They bring you unwanted presents from hunting in the field. And then there's the litter box, the cleaning of which only gets done, again, thanks to the genious, that is 'mother'. Well thanks to the wonder of the internet, my next cat (that screaming you hear, is my husband, swearing off cats for ever more) will have to learn this trick!
His name's Panther and if you look closely those tiny back claws are clinging on for dear life! He has that look...you know the one..."I disdain humans. Why can't I just be left alone; do I bother you when you are in the bathroom?...No wait, don't answer that. I disdain humans."

More about Friends

The weekend was another resounding success!! Lots of wine, women and.... song? Well, maybe just the wine and women. (Our hostesses husband was there a lot of the time, but severely outnumbered!)
Anyway, we went shopping!!
First we stopped at this cool nut place called Picards; I have never heard of it, but definatley think that it should become a family outing, at least for my gang!
Then we went to Joseph's winery. I've been visiting friends in this area for years and have heard about this winery, but never taken the time to stop. Make the time people!! We didn't go for a tour, but the layout was spacious and inviting and the staff extremely helpful. So J and I stocked up on a few of our favourites. :o)
D then packed us into her car and took us to The Knitting Habit in Niagara Falls; (just a note here, that we are not all knitters; these are the kind of friends that take you to a yarn store, go in to see what all the fuss is about and then patiently wait in the car for you to finish your foraging) there was a Clearance Sale! They're closing the store to operate solely online; so I got me some Alpaca Cashmere Tweed to make this...
There's a lovely lace insert in the back; I usually don't like to work detail on a back, because, I won't get to notice it, and often it's cables (uncomfortable) or intarsia (too much work), but this just seemed like a nice balance to the simple front.
And there was some lovely Merino Lace from Skacel and while I'm slowly making progress on the Mystery Stole (that's no longer a mystery) I really do enjoy the whole beading thing and think that this yarn will look wonderful with some beads to make this...
It's from the new Vogue and there are beads (you just can't tell) and the yarn isn't quite that flourescent, but a very cheerful choral!
So after helping reduce their inventory (yes, transit knitter I picked something up for you!) we went for lunch. Now, I'm not sure what direction we headed or when, but we drove under the Welland Canal; THAT WAS COOL!! {You know, it honestly doesn't take that much to excite us/me; so why is it so difficult for some people to think of something?} We stopped at a nice restaurant near Brock University and solved a few of the world's problems over lunch. There are very few things that can't be made better while 'doing lunch' with your friends. We skipped dessert (saving room for dinner!) and headed off to another of my requests. A quilt shop in St. Catherine's had been featured in a quilting magazine and I wanted to check it out; so the four (two wannabequilters and two little-to-no-interest-in-fabricites) descended upon Gone To Pieces and it was lovely!! The displays were inviting and the staff, again, pleasant and helpful and so I bought this...

It's a charm pack in a tin and a book to give you an idea of what to do with charm packs! I love charm packs...and now I've got some ideas to actually use them for something besides fanning them and thinking how lovely they are!

Again, friends...they'll look after you, take you to where you want to go and share in your happiness; thank-you my friends. I hope that I can do the same for you.

Friends also share your pain.

I've lit a candle for a special little boy that's fighting a terrible battle, and when the candle isn't burning I ask Carole to watch over him. W and his family, his whole family, are in our prayers.