Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you.

(Today is my mom's birthday, in case you hadn't guessed. Just wanted to shout it from the rooftop a bit.)

Ok, today was THE day! I found out that Stitch-N-Pitch was indeed coming to Arizona, and Marion asked to come along! Here we are in the stadium--please don't ask me why the dome was closed when it was in the 80's and breezy outside--I was ANNOYED. Anyhow, M brought some embroidery and I was cranking a Dulaan hat, and the charming redheaded lady next to us agreed to shoot us for the blog. I do so LOVE me them redheads.



There's that short summer haircut I warned you about. I'm still LOVING it. (Personal self-centered note: if you click on the photo, my crooked teeth look a trifle less Austin-Powers-ish and my daughter's bad case of pixil-itis clears right up! Magic on the internets!)


Below is the uber-cool (pardon the lack of umlaut-I'm still a newbie for international puctuation on my very US keyboard) Perpetual Motion Baseball Device. I've no idea what it really is called, but it's my favorite thing at the park. The red thing on top is a base, and there's a bat and ball as well; they're all swinging around and around.



Inside, there are tracks and pulleys and lifts and gongs and all manner of things babseball, and the balls roll around non-stop and things flip and twirl and clang and drop and it's just outrageously great. The area that Marion's looking at has a set of xylophone bars, and when the ball rolls down a certain tube, it hits the end of the blue mallets, which strike the bars and play the well-known notes from, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"!!!




People were knitting, crocheting, cross-stitching, embroidering and needlepointing all around us. Oh, and there was a ballgame going on, too. (Diamondbacks won 3-1)




Scoreboard highlighting two really sweet new LYSs near me. Yay!





These guys weren't at the game, but I haven't told you about them, and I should. We bought them as eggs several weeks ago, in a kit with food and rocks and a plasic dish. I thought they'd be Sea Monkeys, but I WAS WRONG. They started as little eggs the size of pinpoints and now are about 3" long each! They're "Triops", and supposedly date from dinosaur times. They'd flourish in a short stretch of time (a month, give or take) in temporary ponds. They'd eat and lay eggs and die when the water evaporated, but the eggs would hatch in the next rainstorm. They're really quite cool. M gets grossed out when they shed (exoskeletons, ya know), but I think they're pretty interesting. Must go change their water now.




Bye all! Have a great week. Will try hard to get some actual photos of knitting posted soon, but don't hold your breaths. Instead, go look at Kathy's most awsome sweater. Damn, that gal knows her way around them pointy sticks!

Title? We don't need no steenking TITLE!

I think that this is one of the best little web-thingies I've seen.

As is this.

Anone else ever spen a lot of time here? Oh, my long-lost youth.....

It was a busy day--poor Spot went to the dentist for a teeth-cleaning. His breath is immeasurably improved, but he's still pretty unsteady on his pins.

Hubby had a big job today that he fretted about, but it went very well. Hooray!

We got our new bed delivered. He's testing it right now. I could sleep on the sidewalk if I had to, so anything's ok with me, but this one should help his back.

Softball starts this weekend! Stitch-n-Pitch at the Diamondbacks ballpark (can't recall the proper name as the "whatever" corporate ownership changes hourly) on Sunday! Thinking seriously about attending the Shindig in Seattle in June!

Photos and knitting stuff coming soon to a post near you!

(P.S.--Thanks for getting my "Flash" to work, Mr. Computer Guy!!!)

Knowledge

A few things I have learned and/or realized/remembered in the space of the last two weeks.....

Travelling with a gaggle of 4th graders can be quite a lot of fun.

Radishes are really, really yummy.

Never allow a genius to "hot-wire" your dead truck battery.

Even though my redhead is not amused, I am liking my short summer haircut.

The Grand Canyon is a beautiful place; even more so when it snows.





Snails come in many colors and textures. This one needs a name...anyone care to suggest one?

Four-day work-weeks SOOO rule.

Harry Nilsson was right!

Here's why I did not go to work today...

Thursday's such a crazy, lazy day,
Thursday's got it's own peculiar way of saying "hey"
Sometimes thursday almost makes me want to run away
Thursday's such a crazy, lazy day,

Thursday's such a crazy, lazy day,
Let's go have a picnic,
Thursday's such a crazy, lazy day,
Hope it doesn't rain,
When I'm feeling thursday, I go and have a drink,
If thursday was a boat, I bet it'd sink.

I tried on monday, I did it on tuesday,
Wednesday's really not my cup of tea,
Thank heaven it's friday, thank the Lord for the weekend,
But thursday, now that's a crazy, lazy day.

They say monday's child is full of grace,
Tuesday's child is fair of face,
Thursday's child has far to go, and it's no wonder,
When the week becomes a rat-race,
You can bet win, show, or place,
But never bet on thursday 'cause God's not on it's case.

Monday's a blues day, that goes for tuesday,
Wednesday's just the middle of the week,
Friday's just another payday, the weekend's just another heyday,
But thursday's surreptitiously unique.

That's why I did not go to work today,
Thursday's got it's own peculiar way of saying "hey"
Sometimes thursday almost makes me want to run away,
Thursday's such a crazy, lazy day,

I said thursday's such a crazy, lazy day.

Thanks, Harry.

Mmmm,Friday.....

Our girl has gone 'round the bend over the Fab Four. Tonight, we watched this. It was lovely. Go and watch it, won't you? It'll make you smile. Smiling is good.

Go. Watch. Smile.

Hooray for Friday!

This is a fabulous painting done by my father-in-law. He's quite the talented watercolorist, and when he showed this one to the DH and I, we both "Ooohhed" appreciatively, and he gifted it to us for Christmas! Now it hangs in our kitchen and makes me happy each time I look at it.




Guess who's nose with a tiny speck of heaven-knows-what on it?



Happy weekend all!

Oops!

Don't know how I switched off the comments yesterday.
Now they're on!

I'm chuffed!*

*Thanks to this fab site for letting me be sure I was saying what I wanted to say!


I did a pincushion for the Pincushion Challenge Swap last year--the recipient of my cushion is a lovely lady in the Netherlands named Monique. I fretted and stewed for a bit to try to come up with a pincushion she'd like, and as she collects beautiful china, I wound up with this.....





..which is now a finalist in The Softie Awards Pincushion category!


So what the heck, bop over and vote for it if you like it! (Actually, the voting won't be operable until later this week, but I just couldn't wait to tell you.) Also, enjoy all the super-creative and lovely softies in the Flickr pool--such talent! Such imagination! These are my People!!!!!!


(Happy shriek!)


And here's a new one of himself....

Happy Saint Anniversary!

I thank my my sweet redhead for the title of this post; it's what he said to me this morning.

It's eleven years for us today, (yay, an odd number), and according to this card I gave him a long time ago, this means RAYON! Woo-hoo, PARTY!






















In honor of our special day, here are some flowers for all to share.























We're off to have a lovely dinner at one of our favorite places, a small El Salvadorean restaurant run by a very dear family. Then home for a little crafting in front of the tv time, groaning about how I should NOT have finished that third pupusa. MMMMMM.

Happy happy to all.

Blogger is forcing my hand!!!!

Aaaah! After all the hullabaloo, I don't WANT to make the change to "NEW" Blogger! New and improved is generally an oxymoron, and I've read many comments about it. Now it looks like the BloggerGestapo is coming for my poor little old-fashioned blog. *sniff*

A meme kyped from blackbird (a seriously cool blog)

Housework meme

aprons - y/n? Occasionally. I have one, but wear it infrequently.

baking - as often as possible. See last post for scone link. easy-peasy.

clothesline - y/n? No, but I do hang things on the patio chairs. They dry fast at 115.

donuts - ever made them? No, but does anyone remember Morton's frozen Sugar & Spice donuts? I could cry.

everyday - one homemaking thing you do everyday? Help tidy up a bit somewhere-kitchen apres dinner, or laundry folding when pressed, or bagging trash on Wednesdays.

freezer - do you have a separate deep freezer? No.

garbage disposal - y/n? Yes, and forever it will be yes.

handbook - y/n? Yes, varied and sundry.

ironing - love it or hate it? HATE IT. Husband irons on occasion.

junk drawer - where is it? Bottom drawer in the kitchen. Lots of interesting stuff in there

kitchen - design and decorating? Not really. Awful faux woodblock counters, vinyl on the floor, chickens here and there. Haven't hated it enough to change much in the eight years we've had it.

love - what is your favorite part of homemaking? Cooking a meal that I know everyone loves.

mop - y/n? My husband hints often, but I ignore it.

nylons - wash them by hand or in the washer? The single pair I own has been worn so infrequently that they don't need washing. I'll toss and replace as required.

oven - do you use the window or open it to check? Window. Oven in the house only works in the winter. Summer belongs to the toaster oven that lives on the patio.

pizza - what do you put on yours? Ham, pineapple and black olives.

quiet - what do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? Breathe and sit still.

recipe card box - No. Cut-outs taped in a spiral notebook.

style of house - concrete block--cool in AZ summers.

tablecloths and napkins - y/n? Former rarely, latter more often.

under the kitchen sink - Cleaning supplies, dustpan, trash bag.

vacuum - how many times a week? Once a week.

wash - how many loads do you do a week? Seems like a zillion, likely 5.

xxxes - do you keep a list of things to do and cross them off? On the weekends, and I love Xing things off.

yard - who does what? Me-most planting, trimming. S reminds me to water and he mows, I dump the grass bag into the compost. We take turns filling the bird feeders. The girlie cleans up after the dog, but grudgingly.

zzzs - what is your last homemaking task for the day? Peeking in on the girlie to see if she's asleep and how much she's grown during the day.

Bye for now.

Saturday again

As promised, here are the flowers.
Lovely lavender outside my office.






















And the baking; chocolate chunk scones and
lemon cranberry poppy scones (not shown, Thank YOU, Blogger).
Link to super-easy and ultra-adaptable scone
recipe courtesy of Beth--go visit her VERRY
cool blog! Then go whip up some scones!














M's creative "Apple pie with Red Frosting"
Yum.













Next up is Miss Melfi.






My in-laws have had greyhounds before, and decided that it was
time for another. She is a sweet girl who hops up and down when she
gets visitors. She's trying to teach our stodgy Spot how to play. She is
dark brindle with ears and feet the color and texture of mink.



And lastly but so-not-leastly, Mom hummingbird is back outside my
office. I think that she's the same gal as last year. She picked a different
tree for the nest, and is a bit higher up this time. I'm hoping to get a peek
into the nest again, if I can do so without disturbing her. She let me look
last year, and those babies were things of beauty. Yay!













A small toot of my own horn: I've entered a number of my creations in
The Softie Awards. If you have some time, cruise on over to the Flickr site and
look at all the love and care and creativity there. It's rampant with
delightful art!

Happy rest of your weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present.....

Bakul!




This is what I've been wrapped up in for the last week or so. She was an entirely seat-of-the-pants affair, and I can hardly believe myself how much fun she was to assemble. It was all trial and error (or should that be smoke and mirrors?), and I am pretty darn pleased with the way she turned out.

I got to work on my embroidery skills a bit, and really got into the needle felting. I can see lots of possibilities for more fun in that arena!















There are a couple of other photos of her on my Flickr site, but I think these, taken late last night on my back patio, really show her off in the most flattering way. If the Hindi baby-name website I found is to be believed, her name means "sweet-smelling flower". Nice.
(Blogger's spell-check suggested I meant to name her "Bagel".)

Here is a "before" shot:

A lovely find at Goodwill, snagged at their "half-price-Saturdays" sales. I didn't really know what it was destined for, but when I pulled it out of the washer, I stuck my hand into one of the shoulders, and there she was. Larissa's "recycle-along" came at just the right time for me!





There is other news to tell, but methinks to leave you wanting more, so just know that next time, I'll tell you about flowers, chocolate, a birdie who's returned, and a new long-legged lady who has happily joined our family!

I hereby decree this weekend to be underway--go thou and enjoyest!

Ten Things with "R"

The delightful Ms. Martina meme'd this one a while ago, and she was kind enough to send me a letter with which to play. I received "R". Here then, are ten things of significance to or about me brought to you by the letter "R".

1. R is the first letter of my former-married name, a name I loved having, but gave back when requested to do so. I am very happy with my maiden name; so much so, in fact, that I kept it, even when I re-married. My dear husband assured me he did not mind. His last name also begins with "R"!

2. Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus: I tried out for their Clown College three times after high school. The said no, no, and no--their loss.

3. Reading: might as well write breathing.

4. Recycle: I am ridiculously proud of the fact that we recycle easily twice what we throw away, but I wish we could do more. And of course, I love recycling for craft goodies, too. My little solenoid robot came out of our electric lawnmower, and his hat is a champagne cork wire. (Photo to be inserted later as Blogger is being snippy as I haven't leapt aboard the beta bandwagon. Harrumph.)

5. R is also the first letter of my sister's name. She decided quite some time ago (for reasons never well-explained) that she did not want to be part of our family any longer. I miss her terribly.

6. Redheads: I've always wanted to be one, but at least I'm lucky enough to have married one and have two-brothers-in-law and the planet's finest mother-in-law who are.

7. Ripple: No, not the wine, the Grateful Dead tune. I'm a Deadhead, something I shared with my brother-in-law Tim, and still find joy in to this day.

8. Roam: Dad was in the military, and we traveled extensively. I'm happy to have a home with roots, but still love to travel anywhere and everywhere. Just wish I had more time to do so.

9. Rain: Something we get too little of and really revel in when we get it here in the desert. The monsoons are truly wonderful when we get them.

10. Raptors: The first birds I really fell for. They led me to others, and now I'm hooked. I love birding, from peering up at the light poles on the freeway as I drive to work to poking around far away places like ancient cities outside of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Thanks, Martina! If anyone wants a letter, let me know!

I'm in-between knitting projects, and I'm trying really hard to get a project done for Larissa's Recycle-Along. It's a something made from a felted sweater (or three), and joining the "-Along" is just the impetus I was hoping for.

My softball team lost last night. Now we have a break for two weeks, but it gives me time to strengthen my arm and hit the batting cages a few times before the next match. I'm still really having a blast playing, and I hope to keep improving!

Enough for now. Hope everyone's well.