It was a Really Big Surprise!

But that was mostly because it wasn't his birthday!  We thought we'd really make it a surprise and celebrate his birthday at the beach because that's his favorite place.  But we can't go to the beach on his real birthday because we arrive at the airport at midnight the Friday before his Sunday birthday and that isn't a long weekend.  So, we just cheated a little on the date!

There was cake and there were presents . . . .

There were party favors - the little bugs wind up and run around.  The dragonflies and butterfly flap their wings.  The ladybug flips over and, on the table, it just stopped and the wheels spun and DH thought that was incredibly funny.  Then I tried running it on the floor and discovered that it runs around in a little circle, flips ALL the way over and then runs around in another little circle.  It's cute either way.

This was the table decoration - I told DH he didn't get it, I do.  Wish this was a better picture because the two tone orange and yellow are so much prettier in person.

Perfect for a card from That Other Girl . . . 

This one played the theme from the pink panther . . . 

Perfect for the guy who thinks he's son of  George Hamilton . . .

And from Casey (the dog) who sleeps with DH on the couch every single evening between suppertime and bedtime . . . .

I hope it was a good birthday . . . 

Flowers

Still no frost down here in Georgia.  The mums and obedient plant are still blooming and I still have tomatoes ripening on the vine.

This is my night blooming cereus - if this doesn't get knocked off, it will be lovely when it opens.  These guys are so fragrant that the nieghbors 3 or 4 houses down can smell them when they bloom.

And I still have several buds on my favorite red Passion Flower.  Can't wait for these to open!

We still have tomatoes ripening on the vine . . . the vine isn't looking very pretty these days, but there are both red and green tomatoes.  The red ones are delicious!

My mini roses are blooming - there is this yellow one and another that is yellow with orange edges . . . those pics were too blurry to post.  The big red rose is also blooming, but those pics were also too blurry.  I really need a new camera.

And one of my favorite fall flowers is the toad lily.  My plant is about 12 years old and so has many spikes and each and every one of them is covered with these little orchid looking flowers.  They always bloom for me in October and I just love them!

Halloween Decorations!

Last Sunday we decorated for Halloween.  We don't do nearly as much as we used to, but youngest child still likes things dressed up for this holiday.

It's a big deal in our neighborhood.  The neighbors all do a lot - used to be even more, but some of the neighbors have gotten older and quit doing haunted houses, etc.  There are still house parties here and there.  There is still one guy in the neighborhood who sets up a grill in his driveway and makes hot dogs for all comers.  Another house gives away light up necklaces.  And it's a big social occasion for everyone.

Some of our decorations are as old as the children and most all of them are more than 10 years old.  I did have to replace most of the little pumpkins we hang in the trees and bushes a few years ago, but some are still older than my youngest who is 15.

I really love these ghosts - you can make them with white kitchen garbage bags, balloons and black markers. Some of these were bought and others hand made.

This is my favorite pumpkin - he's terracotta and holds a candle.  He's pretty new - only about 3 years old.  

And there have to be knitted decorations for every holiday - a few pumpkins (double duty for Thanksgiving) and some ghosties.

This is Sally.  We got her when That Other Girl was fairly young and she's the one who named her Sally (who knows why).  She has lived in this corner of the kitchen year round for several years now.

And then there are these little stuffed guys - they are Casey's decorations.  She likes them a lot!  

Now I need to tat some spiders or something for the windows!

Tatting Tea Tuesday - Finally!

I finally have something to show for Tatting Tea Tuesday!  This has taken me much longer than it should have because I seemed to have so darned many knitting deadlines and didn't get to work on it!  This is a Spinning Wheel Glass Mat by Mary Konior using Anika's HDT.  I love the colors of this thread!  I went back to this easy pattern because I almost always have success with it and I was having no success with so many other things.

This is my next project - a necklace for myself.  I am almost using Crazy Mom's Count to Four pattern (found here), but not quite.  I wanted mine smaller and I don't want beads.  I have a special something I want to hang from this . . . more on that later.  I do hope to finish this quickly because I want to make more glass mats using both the Spinning Wheel pattern and Anne Bruvold's Dragon wing pattern.

I've had the little floss bobbins on the ring for a while - as you can see, most of them are full.  (I really need to start using those little bits up, don't I?)  So I bought some more of the bobbins and I bought myself a new bobbin winder.  I've found that I can put the hanks of HDT that I get from most sellers on my yarn swift and then wind them onto the bobbin from that.  It makes it so much quicker than winding by hand and trying to keep the hank from tangling.

I found this Krenik thread on sale for half price in one of the yarn shops I visited the other day.  I thought it would be lovely to tat some Christmas Decorations out of it -either by itself or together with another thread.  Half of these are supposed to be for Dena, but she has to tell me which ones she wants.

And this is a very special present I bought myself.  Tatterldy was giving away a David Reed Smith shuttle on her blog but I figured I had little chance of winning it (and I was right) so I just ordered one for myself!  It's bubinga wood and so is the crochet hook.  I have some more of Anika's HDT wound on it already and I'm going to make a Dragon Wing Doily with it.  Soooooo pretty!  The Count to Four necklace is meant to hold the crochet hook but I'll use some kind of metal jump ring to attach it.  

Knitting Catch Up

I started a second block for the Marilyn Blanket.  I like the blue and green together.  

And my Tina's Sweater is coming along nicely.  It's about 11 1/2 from the bottom edge now.  The pattern calls for 15 inches from the lower edge to the armhole so that means I'm getting there.  I love this yarn - cannot begin to say how much I love it.  It knits so nicely and feels lovely both in the knitting and when knitted.  It's Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL sport.  I will be buying more of this, someday for something.

I finished winding all the Madeline Tosh Merino Light into balls.  I know that the folks at Madeline Tosh say that the tangled hank issues have been solved but I don't think I'll ever risk buying this yarn again anyway.  Some of these balls took hours (plural) to wind and I just don't like any yarn enough to deal with that.  I'm such a lovely sister that I wound Dena's into balls for her too because I know she wouldn't have had the patience to deal with it and would have tossed the tangled heap into the back of her yarn room and never gotten it out for the knit along.  These will be two Sothia shawls.

A friend called on Friday and asked if I wanted to go visit two yarn shops - one I had never been to and the other I hadn't been to since it moved.  The first one was great - found these four hanks of  Mountain Colors River Twist on sale by one get one free.  Since I've always liked this yarn, I bought them.  I'm going to make an Elizabeth Zimmermann Rib Warmer Vest for myself out of this - maybe.

This is for a very special Christmas Present and I cannot say more than that - except that it won't be tatted.

I have given all the Ishbel's I've made away so I'm thinking it might be time to make another.  Maybe this will be for me?

I've got these two lovely yarns - both beautiful colors and both very soft.  I just don't know which to knit first!

I think I can toss this in between knitting on the list of Knit Along things I'm working on with Dena because I'm pretty far ahead of her.  We are working on the Marilyn Blanket and the Tina's Sweater now.  We have the Pine & Ivy shawl using the Blue Heron Chesapeake, the Sothia Shawls using the Madeline Tosh, the 22 Leaves Shawl using the quiviut, and the Allspice Vest using as yet unidentified yarn already in the Knit Along Queue . . . oh yeah, and the Cambridge shawl which Dena started and I didn't.  

Ok, maybe I just better keep on working on the queue . . . no ishbel for now.