Neither typo nor spam...

would keep my FCS box from arriving. I am so appreciative of Carla's patience with my typo and gmail's idea of what is or isn't spam.

Carla sent such a wonderful box of treasures. The yarns and patterns will be fun to add to my
very small collection. It will be great to plan a use for the yarns. The stitch markers are just lovely and I'm sure will be very useful once I get to something more then k and p.

If the frustration of learning new stitches gets to be too much, she made sure to include a box to Tension Tamer tea. Hope I can get through a project before I finish the box.

The piece that makes this the most treasured swap for me is this shawl. The colors are just brilliant, no photo can do justice. And the yarn feels just luscious. I am amazed that Carla put so much thought and time into balancing the variegated yarns with the pattern. Better yet she sent this to me.

One UFO down

And so many more to go.....

My friend Dee has a wonderfully decedent chocolate business and does alot of vendor shows. I found great fabric collection with chocolates and thought it would be great as an apron for her.

I finished up the last piece and was able to give it to her tonight.

I really like how it came out finally. There are a couple pieces of the directions that I'll change as I start the next one.

Too late to start another piece tonight, but back to the stitching tomorrow. Whose should I start next? That decision will have to wait too.

Giving Life a Second Chance

Yeah, for a second perfect day this weekend. With rain in the forecast, I was wondering if Donor Dash was going to result in a walking shower. But the angels decided we only needed sun and clouds as we walked for organ donation awareness.

As I mentioned before, I don't have any direct personal connection to organ donation. To this point, thankfully I haven't had to make the donation decision or faced waiting for someone else to make one for any of those close to my heart. I just believe the best final thing anyone can do is to give the gift of life to another.


MM decided this week to join me on the walk. We got to the registration site and she was fascinated by all the people there for "our walk." Before we headed down the drive - entertainment abounded. We found Rocky Bluewinkle and the face painting tent. We also enjoyed the music and watching all the teams gather for photos before starting out.








With my pink cat - we headed down for the walk. MM loved seeing the waterfall on the river, along with those enjoying time fishing, and the boat teams warming up for their races.




About 45 minutes later, we crossed the finish line of the 2008 3k Donor Dash. Although I didn't meet my fundraising goal, I'm happy both with the amount I raised and spending a couple of hours with my daughter.


Thanks to all of you who sponsored my walk.

For next year, I hope the whole family will walk out for organ donation awareness. We'll just have to keep LB out of the river.

Needles, Flashes, and Fun

What a way to spend a Saturday. Mom and I headed to Wool Gathering
to participate in Franklin's continuing 1,000 Knitters quest. What a perfect day to drive through the rolling suburbs of Philadelphia.

We arrived and signed in for numbers 75 and 76. I was so pleased with that nice solid number 75.

While we waited we explored the shop. Mom found hemp yarn. She has a pattern for a man's tie which she wants to make for some friends for Christmas. I found three "last of the lot" balls of Yorkshire Tweed 4ply which are planned for my first knit gift. I'll have to keep this mum so the gift isn't let out of the gift bag too soon. Looks like Tina is comfortable with the yarn already.


Then we headed two doors down to a lovely tea and sandwich shop for a delicious lunch. We had a wonderful Lemon Ginger iced tea, sandwiches, and wonderful time to just chat.

Back to Wool Gathering for the purpose of our trip - to meet Franklin and participate in his shoot. Franklin was great and such a wonderfully genuine man. With a hand off of the needles and the gentle questions and conversation, you don't even realize he's taken any photos. It will be wonderful to see what the end brings of this project.



Carol as Franklin's host was keeping everyone in order, calling out the next number in line, and keeping all of us on deck updated on her current knitting. Such the mother hen. It was great to chat with Carol since she and I share friendship in Bridget. Unfortunately family issues kept Bridget from joining us. DAMN those family obligations.

Here's mom doing her time for Franklin. She was too busy being entertained by Carol to take any shots of me.

Well what a great way to spend the day - and many thanks to dh for keeping the kids with their normal Saturday schedule.

Take me out to the ball game --

What a blast. Saturday DH, MM, LB, and my folks heading to Citizen's Bank for the Cubs and Phillies game. This was the kick off for Week of the Young Child so we went as part of a group.

Confession time - we are not Phillies fans. Dad was raised in NE Indiana, thus a Cubs fan. Moving around as a kid, I was raised as a Cubs fan no matter what was actually happening with the local teams. So Dad decided we had to show our Midwest pride - and here we are...










The kids had a blast, though LB barely noticed the game was going on. They both enjoy peanuts, hot dogs, french fries, and ICE CREAM. Now the Phillies helmet bowls were fun.







Even Darth Vader came to cheer on the Cubs, but the Dark Force wasn't enough.
The Cubs lost - but we had fun and enjoyed a game.






Other friends went to today's Phillies v. Cubs game - and they can go to any other Cubs game this season - the Cubs WON!!!

The box is off

Tomorrow I'll head over to the post office at lunchtime and send this off to my swap partner.



I hope mixplate84 enjoys all the packages.

What a gem

Your Gemstone is Topaz

Comforting, considerate, and stable. You are down to earth and grounded.

What Gemstone Are You?

Not my favorite of gemstones, but at least it isn't peridot!

Page 123 meme

Found this meme on a blog I cruised through - of course now I can't find the blog to reference. In my house the hard part of this meme was that most of the closest books in my house don't have 123 pages. With a 5 and 7 year old we are just moving into books with more then 100 pages. SO I based this on my current read...

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 (or more) pages. In the Company of the Courtesan
by Sarah Dunant

2. Open the book to page 123 and find the 5th sentence.
5th sentence is: "God damn it - I, whose job it is to be clever, have let myself be shafted by a vicious old slut."

3. Post the next 3 sentences. "Ittakes me longer to climb back up to the room. When I get there. my face tells the story that my voice can't manage. My lady drops her head."

4. Tag 5 people. Play if you care to... I don't want to pressure anyone.

So much for the nails

Just noticing last week that my nails were growing to a nice length - perhaps a manicure. Yesterday's weather shot that idea.

The 60 degree temps, bright sun, and soft breezes sent me out in the yard to dig up the plant beds. What a wonderful time.

I got to enjoy seeing the bulbs I planted 4 years ago come up more then any prior spring. Right now the daffodils are blooming beautifully. There are a couple of tulips trying to come through - wonder what colors those will be.

I think I may have finally won the annual battle with the hostas. The previous owners thought filling the bed next to the stairs to the alley was smart. The big problem was by about July we would loose at least half of the stairs to the expanding plants.


For the past five years, I have dug up and given away as much as anyone would take. It was beginning to become like the annual bumper crops of zucchini - no one would take any more.

Each year thinking - I'm getting these *&%$^&**($ plants out. The next year - psych - here come the plants again. This early treat of spring got me into the bed early, so I got to digging before even the leaves came up.

Looks like a visit to Greensgrow to chat with Sara about what ground cover will work in the bed is on this weeks errands.

If you are in Philadelphia and interested in gardening with plants that grow well in our zone and urban landscapes - Greensgrow is worth the visit. Transforming a "brown block" in Port Richmond - Greensgrow provides wonderful information, healthy plants, and support for local agriculture. Take a visit to their site for all the history and resources - http://www.greensgrow.org/


Next week - weather permitting I hope to get the last of this tree stump out of my vegetable bed. Need to get Dad to bring the hatchet down for a little surgery.

How many are you?

So I love the fact that I'm a one and only in the US. What are you?

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?