Orange ya glad to see me?

Howdy there, my handful of readers! Sorry about the lapse. Things have continued to be hectic, and will likely continue in this vein for some time (Halloween pun HEARTILY intended!).

M's school Halloween carnival was Friday night, and it was wonderful. Games, bounce-houses, the teacher's traditional Mystery-Theatre (which Mr. AV man recorded with the help of his friend Mr. Channel 12-guy) and home-made baked goodies at the cakewalk. The silent auction, raffle and carnival en toto raised over $17,000 for the school! Yay us! And it was fun. I'll swipe photos from my FIL soon and you'll see our fairy-girl and her bee-mum.

Saturday night our neighbors had pumpkin-carving party. Here are the results:




Can you see the ghost? SPOOKY!

And since pumpkins were eviscerated, you know there were seeds.....




Bowl o'joy.

Some decorations were applied to the house this evening, and more will befall it on the morrow. This is kind of our house-anniversary--we moved in 8 years ago! Still love this place.

I may be biting off more than I can chew, but I'm taking on a part-time job that I can do in the evenings, at home, after the girlie's abed. I'm going to give it a two-week trial and see how it goes, so it may be quiet around here (as it has been of late), but don't give up on me! There's still crafting going on, and you may get to see evidence of it now and again.

I'll tell you more as we go along.

In the meantime, BOO! to you and yours. Go eat some candy. And make it good, for heaven's sake, don't waste calories on hard candy or Smarties! We're talking CHOCOLATE!!!

Off-day

It was a hectic day at work today. We are really short-handed and having problems finding qualified people to work with us. There were people coming in with complicated problems. I was late leaving work (always a bad thing) and then the worst of all, there was a little bird on the ground just outside the front doors of the office.

It was a little verdin, one of my favorites. It was so tiny and perfect and still. I wasn't sure for a while if it was in shock or dead, but it was so limp and still that I guess if must've crashed hard into the glass doors. I just stood and held it in my hand for a while. It was so delicate, so small and light and beautiful; it's feathers and wings placed just so. It made me wish I had better drawing skills so that I could capture the elegance if it's lines, the absolute perfection of it's form.

There are so many beautiful things all around us and I hate that we (myself included) take them so for granted. I was going to post these last night, but I made one wrong keystroke and the whole thing vaporized. Now that I think about it, I think they were meant to wait until today.

Seth made this birdbath for me years ago, and I still love it. And so do my backyard friends. I present to you:

BIRDS GONE WILD!







And here is the square for Grandma Purl. I really love the stitch.



And at the end of the day, I get to come home to a wonderful man and a splendiferous child and a wacky Welshie, and things get better. And I make omelets and we all chat, and I feel a bit better still. Then I spend time reading "Rascal" to my girlie (God Bless Sterling North) and tuck her into bed and check my e-mail and find three wonderful notes from three wonderful people and to top it all off (in fine run-on sentence style) find delightful comments and questions awaiting me on the blog and all's I can say is, "Thanks everyone."

It's with a big grin that I answer my friends:

soozs: The boxes are done in garter stitch, side-bottom-side and then stitches are picked up on both sides of the bottom to make the 3rd and 4th sides, then single-crocheted up to fuse the sides. The Mason-Dixon book is oh, so holy, and if you can't put your hands on it in the library, let me know. These boxes are addicting, and I may have to bid on them myself to be sure they go to good home.

Barb: Thanks, firstly, for all the nice words! We had a computer guy come in and look over my little laptop a while back, and he recommended Opera as an alternative to Internet Explorer. I have found that it'll post my Blogger photos lickety-split, then I can save as a draft and go back to IE to put in verbiage. Works for me!

Thanks for popping in, folks. You helped re-make my day.

Hiya kids!

Long time, no type. Been busy of late with this and that. Tried to put together a post last weekend and the machine ate it. I'm finding that I can post the photos quite easily using Opera, saving as a draft, and then hopping over to IE for adding the verbage. It's a bit slower than doing it all at once, but hey, I'm not spending any cash!

For those of you eager to know, my softball team is 4-1. We have two more games before the playoffs. I played catcher last Sunday and actually got a runner out at home! Woot!

Here is my latest round of crafty stuff:

A Mason-Dixon cotton bib for a sweet new baby.





More Mason-Dixon goodness in the form of the felted boxes--
these will be auctioned off at my girlie's school Halloween Carnival.





Here they are nested.






My Recycle Pincushion Challenge entry and
it's inspiration.






Not my doing, but funny nonetheless.


Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend and is readying for Halloween! I have finished my square for Grandma Purl's blanket and am off to block it. I shamelessly utilized the lovely pattern from La Harlot's scarf (see 10/12/06 post) (sorry, not sure how to permalink), and with the green yarn I used, it bears an awfully strong resemblance to this! Perfect for a square from Arizona, methinks. Will post it apres blocking.

I think this (see 06/06/06 post) will be next on my scarf list.....

I have my Pincushion Challenge swap-partner's info and am planning out her pincushion as we speak. I haven't yet introduced myself to her, but I think I will do that sometime this week. She's in the Netherlands and has 3 English Springer Spaniels! This was meant to be!

I'll blabber more at you all later.

Welcome October!

It's been a busy time around here. Work, as usual, keeps getting in the way and I'll happily blame it for my lack of posting.

I've hit my limit for my free Flickr account, and have to figure out if I want to just let them cold-storage my older photos or if I can justify the cost of getting an upgraded account. I like Flickr, don't get me wrong--I just hate to pay for anything. Otherwise I'd have scurried over to Typepad long ago!

Here's a few key snippets of what's up with me:

1. I entered the Pincushion Challenge in the Recycle category (see if you can guess which one is mine). What a blast! On to the Swap!

2. My softball team won it's third straight game tonight! I admit that I had little to do with the victory this evening, but watch out for me next week!

3. Have begun the square for Grandma Purl. I sure do get a kick reading her oh-so-talented and not-just-a-smidgen-sarcastic granddaughter's blog! Doesn't everyone?

4. Today, my MIL handed me a magazine clipping which I really applaud. If anyone has some yarn and a tiny bit of time (as most of you are speedier knitters than I), please go check this out and contribute.

5. I'm also hoping to get a couple of hats done up for KnitYoga's Cancer Charities Craft Fair next month. Better get cracking as they have to cross the pond!

That's my full plate. Looks appetizing to me, and we'll see how much of it gets done!

Information, please

Firstly, I misspelled. Appy-polly-logies.

Molson Golden was a WONDERFUL Canadian beer.
(Most Canadian beers are wonderful, as far as I'm concerned.
Oh, Canada!!! I LOVE YOU!)

My sweetie taught me to put a bottle in the freezer
for about 20 minutes before popping it open to get it
to near-slushy consistency. It's almost like a
beer-Slurpee!

This is a mandatory beverage for consumption in Arizona in
mid-August.

Sadly, we are having trouble finding "Golden", and the Molson Canadian
isn't quite as near perfection, but we have recently begun watching
the carbs here at the Why Not? household, and as such, have
begun a series of freezer-related experiments with Amstel Light.

(A peek at the website tells me why we can't get it here
any longer--either the exportation has stopped or they
have deleted it from the product line And as yet,
I have not seen Molson Ultra here in the sadly-Budweiser-oriented
U. S. of A.--I'm blaming President Skippy.)

Now you know. Go forth and uber-chill that brew!

And Happy Weekend, too!

5 is a delightful odd number

Suse led me to Bec, and as I haven't meme'd in a bit, this looked fun....

5 things I wish were in my freezer:

*A batch of my mom's homemade spaghetti sauce
(with extra garlic, please!)
*A Pepperidge Farm layer cake
*A Molson Goldon, approaching icy-ness
*ice cream sandwiches
*more of the halibut that Seth caught this summer
(I'm greedy, we still have some...)

5 things that shouldn't be in my wardrobe:

*The short black lace-up granny boots
that I used to go dancing in back in the 80's
(my redhead calls them my "polio boots")
*many sweaters that never see the light of day in our
overly temperate winters
*holey undies that crack up my 9-year-old girlie
*travel clothes from when Chico's was new and cool
*a pair of simple, low-heeled slides which I think are
really too narrow for my canoe-sized feet

5 things I hate about my car:
(this is tough--I love my old granny truck)

*no airbags
*broken tailgate
*eats batteries--new one like clockwork every year
*nowhere at all to put cups
*the exorbitant fee I must pay to register her
every two years-- $32! (heh-heh)

5 things I should throw out of my pack:

*melted crayons
*gum and mints that I don't like
*multitudinous cash register receipts
*used sticky-notes (mostly doodled on by the girlie)
*old aspirins and allergy pills

5 things that I don't want to admit are in my bathroom:

*hair
*a shower that should be declared by the EPA
to be unsafe for human use
*a Nora Roberts book
*a classic package of Band-Aids which will NEVER
be opened because they're in the tin box that they used
to sell them in when I was a girl
*wet wipes

Is there anyone out there reading this? If so, please consider yourself tagged! To quote from the wonderful Eva Ibbotsen in The Secret Of Platform 13,

"Play up and play the game!"

(Too much information about work and life in general and more photos to come this weekend, if I make it through Friday...)

Well, my passport IS up-to-date...

You Belong in Amsterdam

A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam. Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city).

What European City Do You Belong In?

Good advice, now and always

Can you make it out?
















Look closely....
















Thanks to my redhead for taking and sharing the photos.

Love and peace to all.

The Party's Over...

Here is the doomed sock. The cuff is a bit wonky, I know I goofed up the short-row wraps on the heel, and looking at it now, I can see the little ladders from the placement of my needles. Love the yarn, but the pattern didn't work.







Marion did the honors of removing the needles....



And this is sans heel and foot....



Look! A Rockette-in-training! Naught but the cuff remains...



And here is the delightful yarn, happy to be restored to it's un-socked form, ready and rarin' to meet it's next challenge with me, Novice Sock Gal, at the needles.



With this sweet little face, we bring to a close the first-ever
"Why Not? Frog-Along". Thanks to everyone who participated and left comments--I'll try to track down everybody's work and link to each blog so that you can all enjoy each others unraveling!

Frog-along hops towards a finale....

Welcome jpknits! We're so happy you could join in.

Today's post will have to be a two-parter, as Flick'r can't seem to upload all my frogg-ariffic shots just now.





Know that I, Too, have frogged.

And it feels GOOD!!!

Photos pertinent to said frogging (including the finest handmaiden a knitter could ask for) will be posted ASAP, which will likely be later tonight if I'm not completely toast after my softball game.

Keep up the good work, and report in here when you've met your goal (or Waterloo...) I'll put together an Honor Roll at the end of the festivities.

Peekaboo!

This beautiful logo belongs to The Frog Capital of The World! As they were considerate enough to be hosting their Frog Festival at exactly the time I wanted a Frog-Along, please take a minute to pop in here and see what today's events are.













And now, back to our regularly scheduled blog,
where much frogging is already in progress...




I see you all out there......

I see Susan, who has reaped a large amount of yarn and lost some truly unusual pants (or at least part of pair of truly unusual pants...)

I see Della(all the way over in Dorset!) who has freed some beautiful yarn from a puzzling sock pattern...(mine will follow suit on the morrow).

Go for it, froggers!

And we're off!!!

YAY! The frogging has commenced!

Eva jump-started us (hee-hee) by revving up and re-working some great orange yarn.

Noo has joined and promises some frogging from across the pond! Welcome, Noo! Spiffing to have you here! (I lurve me them Brits...*sigh*)



For those not presently blessed with items waiting for the eve of destruction (which is tonight, coincidentally), we still are more than happy to have you here, cheering us on. Ya'll can have a tremendously valuable and much-sought-after Why Not? Rain Check, redeemable at some undisclosed future time when a hideous eyesore of a project is causing much furrowing of brows and growly "hmmmms..." and fretting and biting of lower lips as you ponder whether or not to rid yourself of said offensive item. When that fateful day dawns (and dawn it will, sister, as you know only too well,) draw upon that hidden reserve of strength, peer upon that horrendous creation, and RIP, BABY, RIP!!!

I'll even send you a real Why Not? Rain Check, iffen you want one....just let me know and email me your snail-mail address!

Heck, I might even do up some Certificates of Verified Frog-ation if you participants would like...the weekend is upon us, and I could likely whip some out...let me know!

Now go take evidentiary photos, pre- and post-, and show 'em off!

P.S. Go visit Siri for her wonderful blog--today, she's featuring two of the cutest tadpoles ever---and they're holding---wait for it--- a FROG!!

Time Warp

Does anyone else remember this?

Ah, wasted youth...whether the arcade took tokens or quarters, I willingly fed them into machine after machine....Space Invaders...Asteroids...and there was one called just plain "Frogs", but here it is.....

The incredibly appropriate game for all of us come this Friday.....

FROGGER!



But down to business....

Ok, here are the newest recruits...Jennifer and

(are you sitting down?)

Kay!

Yes, THAT Kay!

We gotcher real-life, published,co-authoress, hilarious celebrity knitter aboard!

I am a happy woman. Kay is one of the uber-funniest co-authors of both a book and a blog beknownst to humankind. (Her Ann ain't no slouch in the funny department, neither.)(And they're both crazed knitters, so I'm a-lookin' forward to peer in a most-nosy way at what might be frogged from the vicinity of Chez Mason-Dixon.)

Ok, step up, step up...who's next?

Grenouille du jour

Here are the participants of the Frog-Along to date:

(Besides me, that is...)

Mandella, Mindy, Angela, Eva, Emily, Martina, Carrie, and Susan (BTW Susan, the beauty of the three-day fest-o-rippin' is that one has time for NUMEROUS projects to be.....rewound, shall we say? Heh-heh...)

Thanks to all you loverly ladies for coming over to play.

Catch o' the day

Halibut Two Ways

My dear hubby caught a couple of halibut while we were in Alaska last month, and we just got them back in fillet form. Did up half in a yummy teriyaki sauce (Soy Vey from Trader Joe's) and the others done with an Almondine (Almandine?) recipe from my mother-in-law. Both yummy.
And there's more in the freezer!!




My Fisherman's Rib scarf, made with Noro Kujaku in color 5.
(What an inspired name, five...
doesn't it just conjure up images of a dreamy lakeside glen, or nymphs dancing in a forest clearing...)
  

 
  
Actually, I'm calling it my Northern Lights scarf. Firstly because I bought the yarn in Ketchikan at a very nice yarn and bead shop, and secondly, I think the little wrapped bits that make the colored loopies bring to mind the Aurora Borealis, even though I've never seen  those  beauties  in  person.
  

 
We here (that being me, myself, and I) are thrilled to report that a handful of you fab-o knitters have enthusiastically RSVP'd for the Frog-Along! The Blogging committee (see the list of "We", above) will soon make an attempt to show a roster of those delightful participants. If you've not yet signed up, there's plenty of time! Bring the kids! Make it a family event. You know, join in!

C'mon and Frog!

  
 Sorry about the duplication of the last post--let's us blame Blogger.

Thanks to Mandella and Angela for spreading the word! Come one, come all! Bring tadpoles and newts and let's have a jolly frog-in time!

Will try soon to get photos posted of an FO NOT to be frogged and something yummy.

Frog on a blog!

In honor of the socks which I have started and stalled upon,

And in conjunction with the Rayne, Louisiana Frog Festival, (but without their knowledge or consent)

I hereby decree that in this year of 2006, the dates

September 8, 9 and 10 will constitute the

First Annual Why Not? Frog-Along!

Please consider this your invitation to participate!!

* * * * * * * * * * *

The requirements are simple and few, and may be interpreted as loosely as you like.

1. Find an item, knitted, sewn, or otherwise crafted that you either cannot stand, cannot stand to finish, or are somehow dissatisfied or unhappy with.

2. Prior to or on the dates listed above, photograph your doomed item and post to your blog.

3. On the dates posted, FROG IT! (See, three available days, no real pressure)

4. At some time following the frogging, preferably before your wild fervor dies down, photograph the end result and again post.

As I am so lame I can barely post to my own blog, I cannot offer a button, but if someone wants to try to whip one up in the short time provided, run with it!

Please, please, please, PLEASE invite as many froggers to the party as you can! The more the merrier! I love a froggy chorus!

If you participate, please leave me a comment here so that we can all come and pat you on the back for bravery towards previously-intimidating projects.

Go thou, and plan to FROG!

 

Frog on a blog!

 In honor of the socks which I have started and stalled upon,

And in conjunction with the Rayne, Louisiana Frog Festival, (but without their knowledge or consent)

I hereby decree that in this year of 2006, the dates

September 8, 9 and 10 will constitute the

First Annual Why Not? Frog-Along!

Please consider this your invitation to participate!!

* * * * * * * * * * *

The requirements are simple and few, and may be interpreted as loosely as you like.

1. Find an item, knitted, sewn, or otherwise crafted that you either cannot stand, cannot stand to finish, or are somehow dissatisfied or unhappy with.

2. Prior to or on the dates listed above, photograph your doomed item and post to your blog.

3. On the dates posted, FROG IT! (See, three available days, no real pressure)

4. At some time following the frogging, preferably before your wild fervor dies down, photograph the end result and again post.

As I am so lame I can barely post to my own blog, I cannot offer a button, but if someone wants to try to whip one up in the short time provided, run with it!

Please, please, please, PLEASE invite as many froggers to the party as you can! The more the merrier! I love a froggy chorus!

If you participate, please leave me a comment here so that we can all come and pat you on the back for bravery towards previously-intimidating projects.

Go thou, and plan to FROG!

  

Look what I found!

No knitting, but click on it anyhow. Great fun for a Friday night!

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Look! Knitting! Don't faint...

This is a Mason-Dixon dishcloth in action; wielded by yours truly. It does a boffo job gathering crumbs and bits of broccoli from the table, scrubs the stovetop nicely, and can then be flung into the washer. Knit them and send them hither and yon--I am. Also plan to try some of Alison's entrelac--she'll tell you from whence they came iffen you take the time to find them on her blog. (Go. Print. Knit.)




Here it is, resting on it's grubby laurels. I love you, MD dishcloth! I do not shrink from forcing you into dirty situations, be they dribbles of apple cider or coffee grounds splattered across a cutting board. You are a workhorse, and your name is COTTON.




We spent the day doing some tidying-up on the patio. My redhead came into the house after starting the sprinklers out back this evening and said, "There's a blue thing stuck to a piece of cardboard with pins out there." This is his way of asking me why there is something cluttering up the now-tidy patio.

I replied, "It's being punished."

He asked no more questions, but began to cook dinner. Good man.
This will hopefully morph into a very cute birthday gift in the next 48 hours.
Arizona in August is a fabulous place to block wool, people.




And here is something else all in blue to warm your heart. She tried a new school for a week this summer, and decided it was for her. Now she's going there full-time, has already been warmly embraced and made welcome, has already been to the first birthday party for a classmate and is planning a sleep-over with another. We are SOOO happy, I can hardly contain myself. Go Marion!