Happy Birthday to me... EARLY!

So my friend got my birthday wrong, which well benifites me just fine. He was worried my gift was going to be late. and well here it is almost a whole month early! woooo hoooo....




Jack had been asking me questions about this very sewing machine, so i thought he was getting it for me. nope he was asking for Brian. I am not a seamstress by any means. Heck i am not sure if i can sew a straight line. but we are going to find out. :) I know it is not super fancy by any means. But i don't need super fancy. All i need is Hello Kitty!

hope everyone has a great day!

Yesterday...

Yesterday we drove up to Oak Brook and had lunch at Magiano's (yum!) with the family and Gwens new BF and his parents... Lots of laughing and smiles all around and great food. Well worth the trip.


Some of the pics.

Included in the slide show is the progress on my IHS (irish hiking scarf). It is coming along very smoothly and i don't think it is going to need any blocking at all. That is great news if you ask me!

knit tastic!!!!

ok so still chugging at fishies. :) I will not bore you with a picture of each one i get done.

Yesterday Lesa and I went to a new to me LYS, well they moved too. We were their frist customers. yay! But wow their price points are crazy good. Since i am currently living in the world of cash on hand (long story), i did not go as crazy as i wanted too. But i did get 6 skeins of baby alpaca for 36 bucks total!!!! can you squee with me? They are turning into this....


And Irish Hiking scarf for me. I took that pic last night and have added about an inch and a half to it since then. It is soo soft and yummy you just kind of want to curl up and sleep in it.

Since my laptop has been sent to the spa for the week, the moniter on the desktop has become my new model for my inveesible shawl. It is chugging along at a decent place. It has now become my car knitting for when i am riding.



Today we are off to oakbrook to have lunch with Gwen's new bf. Before they get on the plane and head back to GA to finish their training. I wish i wasn't in a world of Cash on hand, i would sooo be hitting the ikea!

have a great safe weekend!

today....

*we lost power last night and jack was late getting up for work.
*my sister has been a pain in my ass wanting me to do all the running so she can see maggie, rather then her come here or meet me.
*maggie has yelled no at me, no less then 27 times.
*my bathtub is clogged up.
*jacks pay check is not here yet from the new contractor.

all of those things officaly mean it is time for me to go window shop with lesa at a new to me LYS!

hope your days are better then my morning.

yes i am alive and wellish

my allergies are kickin' my ass on a daily basis it seems. so i haven't been posting much. mostly i have been sitting on the couch or in my bed reading Harry Potter.... I have jumped on this bandwagon way late. But since saturday i have read books 1, 2 and half way through 3. I will admit i breezed through book 1 bc it was a re-read for me.

In knitting news... the inveesible shawl is still chugging along. even with a small dropped stitch issue. NEVER let your 2 year old help you. ok i didn't let her. but it was a mess still. I have casted on my chevron scarf again. I went to a size 4 needle. And it is still bumpy but at least it doesn't look like a freakin' relief map this time. I think once i hit it with a steam iron i will be ok. I will try and grab some pics of it today.

My parents are still in town so i am splitting the time i have over there. And my sister is currently in town for less then a week. We have also found out that they have added more training on to Gwens MOS. So rather then her be home in January we are looking at April. So we are trying to currently figure out christmas. So I can know if we have to travel to GA or if she is going to come up. I am not sure how much time they get off for the holiday. Last year it was like 2 weeks but she was in a different level of the training.

Everything else i guess is goign great... the bathroom is almost fully remodeled there will be pics soon. My sink is in and the water is run... the drain is not connected yet though. but i have been promised soon. :)

Look, my party setting works....

Well on thursday night us Ho's (our SNB) went out to one of the local bars to bid farewell to our Erin, she is moving like a gabillion hours away. Everyone had a great time, and more then one person was left wondering why there was a group of women in a bar knitting. But that is always fun.. leave them with questions my mom always says.

Anyway we all seemed to find it very funny that my camera has a "party" setting... and wow it works.

First i have the pic that i took with the low light candlelight setting...



And now for the same picture in with the "party" setting....

Thank god for the party setting huh? That is Erin wearing her blanket that she is making for her daughter on her head. For some reason i thought it would make a good hat :)

I will post some knitting stuff tnight, tomarrow or whenever!

for Erin and Lesa!

Here fishy fisy fishy....

Ok on ravelry i had become obsessed with this fishy blanket, as a perfect birthday gift for maggie.... in 24 hours i have bounced back and forth between ordering the book, doing a web version of the pattern, or waiting to see if one of my moms friends has the book stashed.

So I ended up at the LYS buying the book. LOL. I know have 1 of the 40 some fish i will need done.

But today i did manage to read a 64 row chart, and figure out how to make a bobble (both firsts for me), all by myself. I didn't even think about callin' any of the ho's (the girls in our snb) for help. All thought when it came time for the bobble i did think wtf.... i am going to get 5 sts into this one?????



there you go one orange fishy.


and a close up of my very first bobble.

wooo hoooo

I am a ravelry girl now! woot! *does happy little dance around the desk*. Let me tell you kids this place is kewl. I love the organization it lets me do. Yes I can organize my projects on my own.... but what fun is that? let Ravelry organize my wants and needs for me!

In other news... the wireless on the laptop has decided to die. i thought i had it fixed and well i didn't. so now i am dealing with snarky chat tech support. and wanting to stick my fist through the screen.

I have also frogged the chevron scarf. even though i swatched it... apartly i was really relaxed when i did the swatch... bc well it was all bumpy and yucky when i was doing it. So I need to move up a needle size. We will see when that gets casted back on.

Anyway this was a nice deversion from the snarkiness but now i shall get back to that.

Wooo hoooo etsy update....

Ok so i said i would do an etsy update yesterday... I lied! Mostly due to the impromptu trip to Shedd Aquarium. But i did get up this morning and do my little update. There will be more coming in the future i think i have found my marker and such groove again. So please go visit Walnut Ridge Stuidio, and check it out. If you do decided to order anything drop me a note when you purchase let me know you are a blogger, and you will receive a free prezzie! wooo hooo prezzies!

Now on to the Shedd. Maggie has been talking about fish for um forever now it seems. Fish was her first word to be honenst. And since she has found "finding nemo" it is all we talk about. So yesterday morning Jack figured we might as well go into Chicago and visit the Shedd Aquarium. I don't know how in my 30 years of living in NW Indiana I missed going to the aquarium but i did. I think i was just as amazed as maggie was. It was awesome and a great way to spend the day. Since it was a spur of the moment trip I did not have time to get the camera charged. So we don't have as many pictures as I would have liked.

But i did get a couple of good ones :)


Jack and Maggie outside in the line waiting to get in.


I think this is a poison dart frog, but i don't remember. Maggie just kept saying "pretty" to it.


My new fave picture of maggie :)


And last but not least some Nemo's :) they were a huge hit!!!!

Fun time had by all. we did end up doing a butt load of walking but it was nice. we walked from the Shedd down to Buckingham Fountain and Jack and maggie played in the mist before walking down to the Vanburen train station. Just killing time and walking around in the perfect weather.

wooo hooo happy camper dance....

Today i spent the day at the bead store and maggie spent the day with her g'ma and g'pa. fun was had like all!

First we got shipment from my favorite femo artist. She even included some "jerry bear" beads for me. she teases me everytime i hear here that i should be a hippy. um ok. maybe it is because of my habit of listening to neo-hippy music such as Dave Matthews. Needles to say i am soooo excited. And I will be doing an Etsy update tomarrow.


that is just a small amount of the beads i had to sort through and play with this afternoon.

Mom brought maggie down to visit for a bit, while g'pa took his nap. She arrived wearing her brand new onsie.

Yes my mom had a onesie made for maggie that says "KRUK University". For those of you that don't know Kruk is my maiden name. My mom was soo tickled with her self it was cute.

SQUEEEEE

let me just say i loved loved loved being a Secret Pal in SP10. I was lucky enough to spoil miss laura from A Frayed Knot. I wasn't the best SP in the world.. but just means i will improve next time. And i was spoiled by Tracey over at Nottin but Knittin. I recieved my final package today.. and squee squee squee! it had some claudia hand painted, some sock blockers from loopy ewe, sox sticks, yummy candy a small little pouch... some needle holders..... and a magazine... oooo i haven't looked at that yet i should do that now.



Thank you soo much for being so kind Tracey... you made my first SP swap memorable!


question of the day.... have any of you ever knitted with silver or coper wire? i am very intrigued by this!

toe up socks?!?!?

Could some of you tell me why you are all casting on toe up socks? I am serious no less then 5 of you, that i read your blogs, have casted on or recently finished toe up socks. Almost makes me want to give it a second try. I still am unsure though since well it was such a giant pain in my ass the first time! And i am not sure if i can figure out the cast on again. oi!

So HP is out in the theaters.... .but i am waiting to go see it with my sister in about a week or so. She is the one who turned me on to HP anyway. And since i can't see it before everyone i will just wait. LOL. My shawl is going well. I will have pictures to post later. just to early in the morning to think about my camera.

My parents are in town for their annual summer visit. So I will be very busy with them in the following weeks. Or should I say I will let them be very busy chasing maggie. give me more time to knit and read.

I also want to wish a happy birthday to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It is 47 years old today! and since i HAD to read it in highschool i have loved it,and dedicated many many hours to re-reading it. Maybe I will pull it out today. My challenge to you is go, find a book that you love and read it again. Then ofcourse tell me all about it... maybe i can read it and love it too!

Look my laptop is almost inveesible!

LOOK LOOK my laptop is almost missing!!!! wooo hoooo!


I have also casted on my feather pluckin' sock from my piddle loop sock kit! this yarn is soooo yummy i cant even begine to explain it..... Meg from twisted has a fan for life in me!
this is my first pair of socks on 2 circs. jury is still out.. i think i would like it a lot more if i just got some better circs. :)



and for your dose of maggie we have a pic from last night. We went to the local minor league baseball teams game. Maggie got to give the mascot a little kiss! lots of fun had by all.

oh we do love progress don't we? and a couple of other pics

Here is the WIP photos of the inveeeesible (yes i pronounce it like that everytime i say it) shawl.

This is the first photo on 6/25/07. I casted on about a week earlier but hadn't found the groove yet.




6/27/07 the day of the invasion of ducks... and allergy attacks but that is another story for another day. we show some progress.... and i am starting to hit my stride.


This was this morning 7/2/07. Notice we can no longer see my monitor on the laptop. that makes me soooo giggly and happy it is insane! I could never thank my SP 10 pal enough for sending me the Charmed Knits book! it is so awesome any yummy! and i love this shawl!


My new kitchen utensils. My friend Brian sent this on to me when he saw Jack the other day. :D how cute are they? My spaghetti strainer had a smiley... the ice cream scoop has a odd body form and smiley that is hard to see. And my veggie peeler has boobs! Oddly enough the boobs make a good thumb rest! thanks Bri!


Did you think you were getting away with out a maggie pic??? this is how maggie would like to spend her sunday mornings. Sitting on her safari truck, in a diaper reading her toy catalog. That is the way to start the perfect day.