Ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

My husband is.  At the very least, we will be well caffeinated when we get eaten.

Yes, that really is 17 bags of coffee and we didn't dig very hard to find those, so there might be more.

Teresa

So Foxy!

This is the Stone Cold Fox by Katie Boyette.  It is a free pattern and a quick and easy project.  I made it for Girl Far From Home because the first week of October involves a lot of grade level fun where she is and her class are the Foxy Foxes!  Now she will have a fox stole to wear to the festivities!

Teresa

Jacqui

My Jacqui vest has been finished and blocked for a while but I have no photographer to take pics of it on me, so you get a hanger.  I blocked it longer than it originally was because I thought longer would be more flattering.  I'm suprised at just how much play there was in this yarn - it's still thick and smushy and the vest is a good bit longer than when I knit it!  

Gratuitous sleeping Zuzu shot . . . because I can.

Teresa

Mom's Nails

Mom loves getting a manicure every week.  And Trev loves doing Mom's nails every week.  They create.

They will pick a theme and then the nails are created, by hand, by an artist.

I still remember the first time Mom sat down in Trev's chair.  Panic.  Trev was so new to manicures and the ones that she did were very very plain and simple.  But not any more.

Meet Trev who makes Mom coffee to start off each session.

Then it is off and running with whatever the current theme is.  This time it was the Chinese characters for Good Fortune, Friend, Wealth, Health, and so on.  A different symbol for each nail.

 It usually takes two weeks to get the nails finished because of the detail that goes into the design.

 For the Chinese characters, the first week was the red background and the characters drawn in black.  The second week was to outline each character in gold.

 And then it is usually time to move on to something different.  These two did Doctor Who with a different character or item on each nail.  Who is Doctor Who?  Well, Trev didn't know either but they turned out great.

They use pictures (for Doctor Who and the Chinese symbols  but currently they are doing Halloween.  Cats and bats and haunted houses, ghosts and candy corn.  And enough things for each nail to have a unique item.  Christmas is the same, something different on each nail - stocking, tree, wreath and so on.
And several times a year mom has Trev put a photograph on each nail.  Of mom and dad, each child and grandchild.  Sorry not enough nails for great grandchildren.

Dena

huarizo named ????

Last year after Dai was born (October 15) I saw Polo doing it with Mama Llama Tanna.  Using the gestation calenders that put the baby due between October 5 and November 6.  The earliest date was September 27.  My digital camera is broke and is taped together.  You have to hold it just so, squeeze here and there, to take pictures.  So I ordered a new camera this morning.

I took pictures of Tanna yesterday cause she was looking more round than just getting chubby for winter.  Teresa agreed that it might be more round than chubby.  But the earliest due date was next week.

This morning we did Bountiful Baskets and when we pulled into the drive something was not right.  I told dh that a baby was nursing on Tanna.  He said it was just Augusta who tries to nurse on all the Aunties.  No, this one isn't quite the same color but I don't see Augusta any where else so maybe.

So, Maddie, what is your new llama boy's name going to be.

Alpacas and llamas can successfully cross-breed. If it is a llama mama and an alpaca papa the resulting offspring are called huarizo, which are valued for their unique fleece and gentle dispositions.  The most common hybrid between South American camelids, huarizo tend to be much smaller than llamas, but their fiber is longer.  Pronounced hua·ri·zo. noun \wäˈrē(ˌ)zō  And what will he look like?  More llama or more alpaca?  If the huarizo grows up to more llama-like than alpaca-like, he’ll be a warilla.Or if he is more alpaca-like then he is called a t’aqa.  And yes he is fertile.  And yes Polo is in the front pasture so he can't get Angelique (Augusta's mom) or Tanna pregnant again.  We possibly have a baby due for Christmas (one of Teresa's girls) but I would prefer spring or summer babies.

And now for cuteness.

 A farm in France had a brown alpaca (almost the same color as dad Polo) jump the fence and spend time with her female llamas.  Several cute huarizos resulted.

More cutenes - Mom and Augusta

 My Mom and Augusta

 Augusta's Mom (Angelique) and Augusta
Augusta and LLarry

Dena

More Finished Goods

 Last year, Girl Far From Home spent a lot of time in her dorm room.  She and her roommate watched a lot of Netflix.  They were especially fond of My Little Pony and Shaun the Sheep.  Coats & Clark in England made this lovely little kit with a pattern for a knit Shaun and the yarn to make it.  I think the yarn has since been discontinued and the kit is no longer made.  I had a devil of a time finding one, but I succeeded and had the goods to make two Shauns.  I started on them over the summer and the knitting has been done for a while.  I let the pieces sit in a bag for a long time because I hate sewing things up - I knit the pieces in the round, but they still had to be sewn together.  I finally did that when Girl Far From Home came to visit on Sunday.  They turned out kind of cute.

We discovered that the animal mascot for Girl Far From Home's class is the fox.  Pretty cool since she actually IS a fox.  So I found this pattern in an old magazine and knit it up.  It was a pretty quick knit but the sewing of bits together on it was also a pain.  I changed the legs and feet because the ones in the pattern wouldn't stand up.

Someone needs to keep the fox away from the sheep.

More Zuzu cuteness for you because you know you want it.  This is how she sleeps - on her back.  These two photos happen to be of her sleeping in the car, but she is laying in a bed by my feet sleeping just like that right now.

See what I mean?

Teresa

Finishing things up

This is my week for finishing things that have been languishing or that have just taken too long.  I really do tend to be a monogomous knitter - even when I have four or five projects on the needles.  And I really don't like having more than two projects going at a time.  I do like to have two at a time though because then I can have one challenging one and another that's easy for when I only have short amounts of time or when I have a few glasses of wine (or something).

So, here are the Watermelon Socks for Girl Far From Home - they are on That Other Girl's feet which is why they look a little big.  I think they turned out really cute.  The hardest part was placing the beads randomly - I am too anal to be good at random.

Honey was sad when he found out that our farm truck was totally out of peaches (shouldn't have been a surprise, peaches have been done in Georgia for a while).  So he went out and found these at a store - not saying which one out of pure embarrassment that he actually bought them there.  These suckers are HUGE.  That's my iPhone in the box with them - they barely fit in your hand!  Unfortunately, they don't taste as good as the ones we were getting at the farm truck and they have an odd texture too. 

 So, what to do with them? 

Cut 'em up and plop them in some wine.  Wine tastse good with fruit and the fruit tastes better with wine.

And you know you've been missing the Zuzu cuteness, so here is a little taste for you.

Last Saturday she did nothing but eat and sleep.  She got up at 7:00 and had a big breakfast.  Then she slept until 11:00 when she woke up and told me that she was starving.  I tried to tell her it was too early for lunch, but she insisted so I gave her lunch.  Then she fell asleep again - the kind of sleep where you absolutely cannot wake her, you can stand her up or shake her or squeak her toy and her eyes roll back in her head and she's asleep.  At 2:00 she woke up and told me it was lunch time - I reminded her that she had eaten her lunch at 11:00 and she swore that was breakfast because Dad didn't give her any.  So I fed her again and she went back to that deathly sleep.  At 6:00, both she and Casey were ready for supper so I fed them - and I gave her extra because I knew she was going to be hungry because it had been that kind of day.  

She promptly ate all of her dinner - inhaled it actually - and then proceeded to eat almost all of Casey's dinner.  Her tummy felt like a little basketball.

She came on the 9th of August.

On the 15th and she weighed 2 lbs 5 oz.

On the 5th of September and she weighed 3 lbs 4 oz.

I weighed her this morning and she now weighs 4 lbs 5 oz.

She's growing way too fast - maybe I shouldn't feed her anymore.

Teresa

Next Up: Discworld Socks! (Potential Sabatoge)

I'm here to give you lovely people a preview of Teresa's next knitting project! I was scouting around on Ravelry for a Discworld pattern, and lo and behold, what do I find but these beautiful socks? Sapient pearwood! Just like the chest! And as of this post (hopefully all the people I've promised these socks to will be able to guilt her into it, yesno?), these have placed themselves next on her list!

picture taken from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sapient-pearwood-socks. pattern can be found there as well.

Girl Far From Home

Apparently this will be my Sock of the Month Club for the next year . . . only I get to dye my own yarn.  (Please note, these are NOT my pictures, I borrowed them from Ravelry.)

Teresa

My Watermelons are growing

Very little knitting was done while we were at the beach this last time so these didn't progress hardly at all.  I actually have four projects that are almost done but just need me to do bits that I don't like to do.  I hope to finish them in the next week because I really want to do Diane's Doodad Double Dare and it's due by the end of September.  (I have some other tatting I want to do too, so the knitting must get done so I can play.)

Usually I get a lot of knitting done when we go to the beach.  There is a lot less housework for several reasons - it's a smaller house, hubby does much more, we go out to eat much more, the girls don't need to be driven twelve places a day, etc.  This time I got very little done and here's why:

Cute, isn't she?  But let me tell you, she's a fluffy ball of trouble!

 We took her to the ocean.  If she's going to be our dog, there are a few requirements she must meet.  She must love to ride in the car because I spend an inordinate amount of time there.  She must love to travel with us because these dogs cannot be boarded or left home alone and we try to take them with us whenever possible because babysitting for dogs is expensive.  

She didn't like the ocean or the waves (water was cold, waves were big), but Ma Nature provided a lovely warm tidal pool which was perfect.  That Other Girl and Casey showed her what's what.

 She follows Casey everywhere.  So Casey showed her how to run and chase tennis balls on the beach.

 She tried to dig in the sand, but wasn't doing too well.  She was only really disturbing the surface sand but it was nice and soft, so she rolled around in it instead.  Let me tell you, that fur holds a lot of sand.

Then Dad reclined the back of his chair and she was SURE that he did it so she could reach him for kisses.

 And to get a better angle for kisses, she climbed him.

 And decided it was fun, lots of fun.

King of the Dad!

(Dad's yelling, come get this beast!)

She loves the beach - even likes the ocean now, but when soaked to the skin in the cool ocean, she does get chilled.

So, she lays in a nice hole Casey dug her and warms up.

Casey tried for the entire trip to teach the little bugger to dig holes in the sand herself.
I had begun to think she wasn't going to get it, but . . . she did.

(Ok, so blogger doesn't really support videos on blogs, they just pretend to.)

Teresa