Happy Birthday Mom

 It was Mom's 16 1/2 Birthday and we tried to make it a nice one.  We started out at the beauty parlor, although we do that every Tuesday.  And Mindy made her even prettier than she is already.

 Then we headed over to the doctor's office for a weekly poke and prod and all the nurses sang her Happy Birthday.  Then it was off to her favorite restaurant for a bit of a Brunch.

Then we went to see if she won at BiMart (didn't) and then up to White House Yarns for some yarn.  Mom needed red and white and blue to finish up a Christmas gift (so we son't say exactly what it is for).  Gail thought Mom deserved a bag of yarn for a Birthday present - so she gave Mom the yarn.  I also bought yarn and needles but it wasn't my birthday so I didn't get them for free.
A few more errands, a few more presents and then it was home for a nap.
When the guys got home from work we all went out for a Birthday Dinner topped off with a piece of Birthday Cake for Mom.

It isn't everyday that Mom turns 16 1/2 - just every Birthday.

Hope you had a good time mom

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yesterday, today and tomorrow . . . Just keep celebrating cuz you deserve it!

Guess what . . .

I finished the baby blanket and it is gorgeous. I will post pictures when we get home and I can spread it out. Meanwhile I have started something new - guess what it is!

And let me leave you with another of Girl Far From Home's Marilyn posters. This one I had to stand on the dresser and reach as high as I could reach to put up. (Thank goodness for 3M's new Command poster hanging strips!)

First Things First

Marilyn is moved in, Girl will settle in soon.

New Pattern Available!

There is a new pattern available on the upper right side of this blog.  This one is not free - but it only costs a dollar.  This is a pattern that Girl Far From Home designed, knit and wrote up as a birthday present for me.  She's selling it to help with spending money for while she's in college Far From Home.  We've just added it to my Ravelry pattern store in case anyone is interested.  These little fish can be as small as an inch and a half or as big as several inches long depending on the yarn and needles used.  They are knit pretty much in one piece with no seams (which is how I like to knit things!)

Another Knit Along

And this time, it's a Family Affair!

Girl Far From Home is obsessed with Marilyn Monroe - obsessed I tell you!  

So last winter, Dena found this pattern:

It's called Marilyn Monroe Illusion and it's by Steve Plummer of Woolly Thoughts who does a lot of mathematical and optical illusion knitting and then creates patterns for much of what he creates.  When Dena found it she showed me and I bought the pattern.  I didn't show Girl Far From Home right away because I thought it would make a great surprise.  

Then I read a story about a wedding shawl.  The mother of the groom started one half of it and had family members on her side knit on that half.  She talked the sister of the bride into learning to knit and starting the other side and having the bride's family knit on that half.  Then the mother of the groom grafted the two halves together for the bride to wear to the wedding - a handmade gift of love made by both families.  I thought that was a terrific idea and it led to a plan to knit a blanket instead of a wall hanging and having everyone in the family knit a block (or several) - Mom, me, Girl Far From Home, Crazy Celtic Cousin and Aunt Dena.  

I did run the idea by Dena before I bought the yarn . . .

Girl Far From Home goes back to Far From Home this weekend so today we went out and bought the yarn.  She thought about going with Andy Warhol colors but these are what she ended up with.

Purple and lime green

Blue and peach

Blue and lime green

And purple and peach

There is still blue and purple but since both are dark, I'm not sure how well the illusion will show up so we aren't going to knit these two together.  

We think we have enough yarn for 12 Marilyns.  Each one is supposed to be 16" by 16" which would make for a 48" x 60" blanket.

So, Everyone shout out your color choices!

Stash Management, Enhancement and a Fig

These little gems are on sale right now at Target.  Well, they are always available for sale at Target but right now the price is lower than usual.  So I got two more and I think I'm going to go get another two more tomorrow.

They come in pieces in the box.

Takes about 30 minutes to put them together but it's not difficult and doesn't take a lot of strength or tools or construction know how.

Does take a little coordination, but after the first one you learn not to follow the instructions quite exactly and then it requires a little less coordination.

And luckily, they aren't too heavy either.

These are the two sets.  The standing set has the cardboard fake wood backs nailed on and the laying down one doesn't.  One of mine has them and the other doesn't.  If you use the little cloth cube inserts, you don't need a back on the shelf.

These two new ones went in That Other Girl's room so she can organize her stuff.  Maybe I'll be able to walk into her room one day . . . one can dream.

These are the two that I store my stash in - at least my yarn stash.  My tatting stash is in the baskets next to these.  My spinning fiber stash is still in plastic boxes which is why I want to buy two more of these to put in my craft room.  They are on sale 20% off at Target - they are already 20% lower at Target than anywhere else.  I get an extra 5% off at Target too, so it would seem to make sense to get them there and get them while they are reduced.  I suspect they are on sale for back to college so I need to hurry.

This is the new Stash Enhancement that came in the mail the other day.  It's the pattern and the yarn to make Tina's Sweater - a sweater Anna Zilboorg designed for Tina of Blue Moon Fiber Arts fame.  You can read how it came about in the Bobble-icious post on the Blue Moon Blog.  You can also see pictures of the finished sweaters.  The yarn is gorgeous - so many shades of blue in one hank and yet not variegated or overly color changing.  I can't wait to start knitting (but I have to finish baby goodies first).

Several years ago, an internet friend that I had given several passion flowers to ordered one I didn't have from Logee's for me.  She arranged for them to ship it directly to me.  When it arrived, it didn't look like any passion flower I'd ever seen - leaf shape was totally wrong and it didn't even look like a vine.  I checked their catalog and discovered that what I had recieved was a Ficus Danny's Delight - a hardy fig tree.  Logee's corrected the error by sending me the passion flower that my friend had ordered, but they didn't want the Fig tree back.  I put it in a pot and over the years have moved it to ever larger pots.  It needs a larger one now.

And today, while watering my plants, I discovered that Danny the Fig tree is bearing fruit.  Well, I knew that he was bearing fruit, but today one of the figs had suddenly gotten a little larger and a lot riper - a beautiful purple.  So I picked it.  There is one more that is ripening but the rest are still hard little green balls.

This is what it looked like when I cut it open.  It was delicious.  I can't wait for the next one to get ripe.  I need to give Danny a bigger pot so he can get bigger and make more yummy fruit next year.

Happy Birthday To Me

 I had a Birthday party and all of you were invited.  I would have mentioned it but I didn't know about it.  We started out by going to several doctor's appointments.  It was that time of year again to go get an annual PAP.  I also went to see my doctor because it has been 7 weeks and there is no healing happening on the broken ankle bone.  So my first gift was a walking boot compliments of my doctor and my husband.  I LOVE it.  It reduced my pain level from 8 to 5.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

After getting the boot hubby and I walked over to Addie's Diner and had lunch.  I could walk without overwhelming, excruciating pain.  Had a lovely lunch, did some more errands and headed home.

 
At home I found that my oldest had shown up and organized a Birthday Party.  We had pizza and we had two types of Mead and a bottle of Absinthe.  We played Wii Golf and let Number 1 Son win. 
Then Number 1 Son ordered Pizza and we got to open presents.  I got an Alice Starmore knitting book, the new Stitch n Bitch knitting book, a set of knitpicks knitting needles, a yarn bell, a card that plays the tequila song (we almost wore that one out) a Wii game and a Birthday Girl Hat (see below)

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I also got a wristband that says Support Our Veterans.

A nice shot of some of my presents cause there were more to come.  Number 2 son (who doesn't try harder) came roaring up in the truck and asked where I wanted my present - in the pasture or in the backyard.  He wouldn't tell me what it was, so I said backyard.  The pasture is full of Maddie's Paca Herd.

It was two Norwegian Blue Ducks. (If you google this try swedish blue but I am of Norwegian heritage and everyone knows that 100 swedes ran through the weeds, all chased by one norwegian).  The one with the black beak is Ba'al and the one with the brown is Shadow.  I am thinking of renaming them Frick and Frack.
My husbands gift to me was a duck house.

And then when it got dark, Number 1 Son had more gifts for me.  He set up a telescope and I got to see, for the very first time in my whole life, saturn and its rings.  He also showed me a binary star and we watched the craters of the moon.  We also identified some of the easier constellations.

And then to top off all his great gifts, Number One Son took me out to lunch on my actual birthday to a mediterranean restuarant where I had dolmas and falafel and shawarma.  I love greek food.  While we were waiting for hubby to finish his doctor's appointment and join us, #1Son took me to the yarn shop and bought me the most gorgeous yarn.  It will become a shawl for me.  Which pattern to chose?

And last but certainly not least I had scheduled not one but two skype sessions to tat with Teresa.  Who, for my birthday, is going to weave all the ends in on my tatting.