I can't contain my excitement

Through a series of unfortunate events, I have a dream come true. I am the proud owner of a little shop/condo, in a quaint little 1880's replica village. It has a bunch of little retail shops, and living quarters above them. I have drooled over this little village for many years, thinking it was an ever elusive dream. By a series of fortunate events, I happened to see an ad in the paper by owner and bid on it and it will be mine in October. My head is swirling!!! Now I have the undaunting task of cleaning the crap out of my house...18 years of it. I have to wear a mask with all the dust I am removing....oh excuse me the "Protective coating"
I have boxes all through my house one in each room and garbage bags one for Good will and one for garbage, the boxes are for packing. I have one box packed and now I don't know where to put it? When I look around I don't know what I packed? I need some chocolate!!!

Stonewood Village show

This is how my booth looked last year. It was 90' in the shade and I of course was sweating like a horse. You know when people say "I sweat like a pig?" Pigs don't sweat.?..now horses really sweat and need to be cooled down, I can relate. So now my story goes like this, it is too humid for muffin here to set up and sit in a booth all day. Needless to say I had to cancel the show and stay home, I am grounded. So I am playing beautician and coloring, highlighting and cutting my hair today!! That's one of my favorite boredom pass times. Now for the real story, my sister asked if I was taking mom along to the show today with me? Uhmmm...she said it would be nice so if you have to go to the bathroom or walk around mom can watch your booth.....hhhhhhmmmmmmm. That would be a "NO!!!!!" One time I took her and she was explaining to the people just how expensive my things were....not good. The last, and I mean very last time, because sometimes we never learn. I was at a very elite show, with very wealthy, shoppers. A very nice woman was making a purchase of a turquise neckscarf, but fondling it at the counter. Dear mom says "Isn't that a beautiful color?" Ok that was good....the lady replies "It's my favorite!" As I take the scarf to wrap it up, mom pipes up with a little story....I had a work out suit that color and I told my friends it was my POLISH (that is not what you do to your nails!!! It is a country in Europe!!!!!) workout suit!!!! The lady looked at mom as I was crawling under the table and said "I am Polish!" I gave my mom, one of those...looks...you give a very bad child...kind of like...I am going to KILL you!!! She looks at me with total surprise and says..."Whaaaaaatttt???????"
What did I do?" I kindly told that lady to please excuse my mom, but I just took her out of the HOME, and I couldn't get a sitter. The lady gently nodded and smiled, paid for her scarf and left.... last time she came along!!!

Joeys wanna be!!

My little fur niece, is very standoffish, but.....she loves Joey. So whatever Joey does, she does. If Joey sits on my lap, as soon as she leaves up comes my niece Maggie, and sits just like Joey and lets me touch her and pet her...a rare occurance. So I had to show this photo, as Maggie sets on my lap and gloats over Joey!!! I have another one showing her red collar for proof, but it looked more like I was restraining her. I am off tomorrow so I am going to go make myself a cappacchino and stay up late!!!

New Cargo pants for Toy boy

Beth from Krosha` is the first to make Toy Boy a new pair of pants!!!! Pretty snazzy and they fit pretty darn good.



I went tonight to Wednesday knitting at Krosha` and as always it is a fun group and we passed Ken around and ate Pizza and spinach dip and Beths store cat, Jack, decided to walk on the duct work, the length of the store.


I think he does this all night long and had to show off his mountain lion techniques to the Ladies in the room. Males you know....he had a captive audience and as he tight rope walked the duct work and showed his jumping expertise, you could see the pride on his face. Oh on a side note, I have been absent from blogging due to a broken water heater. Oh yes, yet another disaster on the home front. This was not just a not working water heater but a leaking river one. Why not? So after two days of no hot water I am once again in business and a hot bath was the first thing on my agenda.

Where's Lois???

HHHHmmmmmm, Friday I was out running around and had a need for yarn. So I stopped at Kro`sha to get a little fix. Actually I was looking for the book...Mason/Dixon knitting? I ended up spending grocery money. Which by the way means if anyone wants to invite me for dinner, my dance card is empty!!! The book is awesome and seeing as though it is my new addiction....you know how addictions go. Kim Ogle has written a really neat FairIsle mitten pattern, I had to have. So as I was driving to the front of Kro'sha my eyes did an immediate search for the little green Tracker? hhhhmmmmm I don't see it? Could it be? I do hope it's not in the garage getting fixed again? Nope, Lois was not to be seen. Probably a good thing, because she would show me what she is working on and I would need more yarn and on and on...Thank you Lois for not being there!!!!! Irishfest is this weekend and let me tell you it is a big event. My Aunt and Cousin come up from Illionois, every year to spend at least one full day on the Lake. They dress from head to toe in Greenery and drink Guiness and McSogal or something like that? We met them for dinner last night and this is a photo of my Cousin Sue, Aunt Ann, brother Scott, me mum, and sister in law, Cheryl (who I might add, has had a little wine!!!.) I look forward to seeing them each year, and wish it were more often. I finished spinning and plying the Yak, it is drying. I am babysitting this afternoon for the "babies" I am excited!!!!

Classic Cool

Well Toy boy is sporting his new duds. I realize the dress pants and tie are a little out of my league, but the sweater rocks. It fits better than any sweater I have made for myself. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment, most scarves fit but sweaters? Awesome!!! I found shoes and pants for him, although the pants are a unitard!!! Shirt, tie and pants all in one so you will be seeing them often or until he gets another pair of pants. Jeans would be cool. Like Betty said a flannel shirt, jeans and a chainsaw to boot, add a fishing pole, log cabin and call me Mrs!!!!! It is Friday, Thank God for Fridays!!!!! Tomorrow I have an Aunt and Cousin that come from Illinois for Irishfest so we will meet up with them for dinner. Tonight I am going to my sons for dinner and movie, or take out and a movie or a movie!!! and chips?

Toy Boy sweater

Poor Toy boy was feeling a little exposed, so I thought I might knit him a twisted cable sweater. It isn't long enough to cover his John Henry yet, so I had to lower it a little, I don't think it will be that long. Then again knowing my guage, this could be a sweater for the dog. Hopefully this will be another finished project...talk about huge undertakings!!! hahahaha I am using Mountain colors, I forgot which color but it is a wonderful mannish color.

Yak it up!!!

Yes I am spinning Yak, it is a wonderful fiber but reminds me of spinning cotton. It has a very short staple, so, much twist is needed, but not too much to make it stringy. It has been beautiful weather, and I am really enjoying sitting on my roof, soaking up the cool breeze that is causing some to walk by with "Sweaters" on? I wish I could say I was that "cool"? Unfortunately, I am still warm, but close to comfortable. Will this ever end? I am going to strangle "Precious" alias Big Mouth, aka Joey. I can't keep the front door open for fear that someone may by chance decide it is their right to walk their dog down our street!!! Or a squirrel, may sit in the front tree making faces at the dog, knowing full well she can't get out and rip her head off. Then there is little Peter Rabbit, that has to do acrobatics in the front yard while humming nananananananananaaaa. All this and then someone has the nerve to walk past our house with a dog? I have a deadbolt holding the jumping, barking hyena back to keep all trespassers safe, from the bolting wild dog!!! But this barking is driving me insane. So while I am on the roof, and someone walks by, Joey goes ballistic and starts her protective warning and I gently (Like animal trainers say) try to divert her attention, to something more calming...(like a tub full of water) and finally make her go into the house for punishment. Problem is she stares out the screen with this look like...what did I do? I love you mom? Big brown eyes staring and not flinching one bit. Intense...Ok she wins and we start all over again.

Camels anyone?

When I was in high school, I had a very good friend, her name was Linda. Linda and I behaved badly...all the time. We wondered why no one would ask us on dates. I will give you a synopsis of our outrageous behavior. We bought round sunglasses and took turns pretending we were blind and leading each other around.....We pretended to talk a foreign language, of our making......senior year we had an art teacher that found it easier to let us do "our" own thing in the hallway then disrupt his class, so we played on the stairway and found we could drag ourselves up and down the steps without using our legs, because our legs were paralzyed? We put a bugger on the wall to see how long it would be, before someone would touch it? And we would check on it. eeewwww, and we wondered why we didn't have dates? Senior project was to design and fly paper airplanes and see how far they would fly. We built ours out of cardboard and had everyone believing we were going to sit in it and fly off of the roof. Like that happened. We met these guys and told them to pick us up at 8ish by her house, we dressed in a dog and cat costume and I mean real furry ones, and while they were waiting for us, we came down the stairs meowing and barking....they left. Our last hurrah was a long time in the planning. We got our graduation gowns and skipped out of school and went and sat on the camels in front of the Shriners temple on Wisconsin ave. She has the photos, I have got to get them!!! She enlisted in the service and we wrote each other almost daily, she got out on a honorable medical discharge. We hung out the rest of the summer and our lives began to change. I met my first husband and she was dating his friend, it was a fun summer. She got married to the love of her life and began having children and I got married and we kind of went seperate ways. I missed our laughing till our stomachs hurt. We fell into the trap of growing up. With age comes death and as I have gotten older I read the obits, I must confess. I saw a photo of a familiar face and a smile that is inforgettable, in the obits. It was Lindas brother, he was a great guy and lots of fun. My heart sunk, but he must have touched a lot of lives they had a write up about him in about 5 different newspapers. I had to find my friend, and through the obits I found her new last name. I called her, and we couldn't stop talking. We are going to get together next week. I can hardly wait!!!! Meanwhile...Lois is sucking up to Toy boy!!! He's mine Lois....hands off!!! Ok you can touch him. I won't tell you what else she did with him...what happens at Jannys stays at Janny's.

Mosaic scarf

I finished a project!!!! AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWwwwwwaaaaaaa, rays of light come down from the heavens!!!! The mosaic scarf is finished and "Toy Boy" really digs it. The weekend is over..how come they go so fast and the week drags? It kind of is right up there with, ice cubes shrinking down to nothing in the freezer? Socks disappearing in the washer....I have two things that have disappeared on me. Catapulted into the atmosphere, lost in oblivion, not to be found. Snowpants and earrings...now I figure someone may be wearing black zip up snow pants and my silver cross earrings to some ice fishing jamboree. I don't care about the snow pants anymore, I would only be able to pull them up to my knees, so they wouldn't be any help, but the earrings I dearly miss and after years I keep looking for them. My dad and I made them, together when I was in high school. It was my jewelry project and it was a nice silver cross set of earrings and necklace, very plain and simple and gone? Dad helped me cut them out with the coping saw and filing them and polishing. Then when my son enlisted in the Marines and was going off to Boot camp, the only jewelry he could wear was religious, so I sent him off with the cross and I wore the earrings. I took them off and vaguely remember putting them into something....(little box, dish, cup?) that was it, they vanished. Sometimes when I clean....I did say sometimes, I keep thinking I may run into them. They have been gone for over 10 years, I don't think they will be back. I hope who ever has them....is allergic to silver.

New Toy Boy

I read the Yarn Harlot blog, each day. With each day she gives us a glimpse of her wonderful, busy, life with husband Joe and three growing girls. Her traveling and writing and speaking to many many knitters. Then there is the, sock. The traveling sock...the sock that so many knitters and non knitters want to fondle. Some have no idea why they are holding a sock and getting their photos taken and others push to get a chance to hold the sock. I have to say, I am a little envious of the sock. It lays at the feet of Stevie Ray Vaughn...is held by famous actors and knitters and, and...yarn is sent to the Harlot in hopes of being chosen for the next "Sock" . Yarn is begging to be the next to sacrifice it's ply to become the next "Sock". Who would have thought, others would make socks to have their photos taken with the "Sock"? I'm sure sheep are starting to line up at shearing time wondering if they are donating their wool that will someday become ....the "Sock" yarn!!! Well move over "Sock" I have found a rival to the sock....the new, next, "Sock"!! It is the Toy Boy!! Naked Ken!!! Knitters everywhere will want to touch Toy Boy, they will want to knit for Toy Boy....scarves, sweaters, socks. He will be loved by every woman and some men. He won't wear out like the sock (and some men I knew.) He is easy to travel with and he doesn't talk. He doesn't need the remote and never messes with the toilet seat. He won't say he doesn't like the color of his sweater, or it's too tight, too big or too hot. He will be the envy of the "Sock" He will go to knitting parties and drink coffee with us and never complain, he will like it. He will travel and be blogged. So problem is the only Toy Boy I could find has on swimming trunks and a Tshirt, but it beat the Tuxedo Groom Ken, that one scared me. They also don't sell clothes anymore. So this is your chance to get your sweater, scarf, pants or any knitted or crocheted item, blogged. Toy Boy needs clothes!!! The first spread of a nude Burt Reynolds, was in Cosmopolitan, here is Toy Boy in his first centerfold. Have a great Friday!!!

A Northerner

The photo is my livingroom window curtain, which normally lays quite close to the window or window frame. But!!! and I say that with great relief...it is a wonderful northern wind, that actually 5 minutes earlier made the curtains stand straight out into the livingroom. This is great!!! It is cool, I did say Northern wind!!! So I am sitting here, sucking it up!!! I am having a cup of coffee, and relaxing....I am off tomorrow!!!! Welcome long weekend!! Now to watch Greys Anatomy.

Bagged!

I have finished the Mosaic knitting bag. I really, really like Mosaic knitting. There is no yarn to carry along and it doesn't get so messy as fair isle. I am still working on the scarf that I have a photo of earlier, I am a good way through it. I am actually committed to it and have been working on it each evening. Hey who turned the heat on again? Yesterday was soooo nice, I was out on the roof and in the hammock, and I was actually comfortable. This morning it was cool and then "BAM" in comes the heat...let the sweat begin. Remember the candy rocks in the photo? That is all that is left of them....I mean the photo. What can I say they are chocolate.

Childhood Memories

When I was a kid, my grandparents lived in Upper Michigan and we would go visit them, pretty often. This was a long trip for us kids, which meant, my brother 5 years younger and myself. About 45 minutes in real time outside of town was a Magical Place called Treasure City. It was in Fond du lac for local friends. When my dad got off of work, the car would be packed and we would be ready and excited for our weekend. What seemed like a million miles from home we would start looking for these signs on the side of the road. They were like sideways picket signs painted red with white lettering, and said things like..Treasure City 20 miles ahead. The signs were stategically placed and got closer and closer together and believe me we read everyone. Suspense on every sign....World's largest Man eating clams...Treasures from under the sea..Pearls from genuine oysters....Alligators....Baby alligators...... On and on these signs would entice us and our excitement would be uncontrollable. Daddy can we stop? We'll see...Both of us would discuss with great enthusiasm...Man eating clam....eewww how scary is that...Maybe we can see it eat a man? yeah maybe. Alligators, mom can we have an alligator? Daddy can make a cage for it, can't you Daddy? Hey it says Treasure city, only 500 feet ahead daddy slow down...daddy....it's right there hey, dadddddddyyyyyy. Aaawwww you missed the driveway, you can turn around, No I can't turn around with the trailer on, maybe on the way home. With great disappointment we would sit back down and discuss all the cool stuff they would have and how much we would buy and on and on, that would be on our trip home. Well this went on for years, when finally I think I was 12, we got to stop. Maybe it was our years of begging that finally broke their will, but we stopped. It had all of the coolest junk you can imagine, it was a kids dream. Every hokie gimmiky kid thing including Daniel Boone coonskin caps. Shells that when you put them in water they opened and little silk flags came out. Gemstones and shells and seahorses, and real baby alligators. But the most disappointing thing was the clam...the man eating clam. We both scoured the store looking for the clam, is it dinner time for this monster? Are we in time to watch it devour some unsuspecting shopper? Way in the back of the store about 4 feet off of the floor, all lit up was the infamous clam. Dead, dried out and painted bright pink!!! It was big alright, but it didn't open and close and eat humans? It was full of cheap junk for sale, trinkets. We didn't want to look disappointed, it would mean our parents were right about it being a gimmick. We just kind of walked away and looked for some junk to buy with our 50 cents. One of my favorite things was candy rocks. I would eat them and other kids would think I was eating rocks..that's how I planned this. I would put them in my hand and when they would say "Hey look at all of those cool rocks" I would gobble them up...it was a great scam, but after playing with the rocks for a few minutes I ate them all....so much for cool. I still hold a fascination for them.

You know you're a Redneck if.....

You get married at a Bass Pro Sporting Good store lobby!!!! Now seriously, I like Bass Pro, I can drop a lot of money there, it's like a yarn store. I can get caught up in the shopping frenzy with Scott and Cheryl just as well as I can get into the same frenzy with my Fiber friends. But really a wedding, in the main entrance, with thousands of strangers gawking in disbelief or wonderment? I personally walked in while Scott and Cheryl were window shopping outside. I wanted to get into the air and proceeded to plop down on one of the couches around the fireplace. I looked around and saw two guys in cowboy hats standing "at ease", I thought that looks weird, and then I saw a few woman all dressed up, feeling a little underdressed for this group, I started looking around a little more and moved from the center couch, which would have put me front and center on the wedding guest list. I moved to the outside window sill, and still trying to figure out why this woman, who let me tell you broke one of my laws of life...SPANDEX
Spandex should be made illegal for two body shapes ....one is mine, and the other is skinny women that look like cricket legs in spandex....I know it is comfortable but ppppuuuullllleeeeeezzzz look in the mirror.
So this woman had on a blue spandex casing with sparkles, and high heels that laced up to her knees...Ok I know I may offend some of you but I am a Birky baby, but I did do a good slutty dress look, back in the "Day". So here I am caught up in this wedding, (wondering where she found my old dress)? I had to, could not restrain myself from a photo op. After all, I was in line with three other wedding guests, and wondering where the heck Scott and Cheryl were? In comes the bride to the humming of the tune..."Here comes the Bride?" me included...what can I say I got caught up in the moment!!! In walks Scott and Cheryl through the door to the left there in the photo. Cheryl not missing a beat decided she would try to become invisible with Scott in tow...not happening. They pulled (dragged) me away from the Wedding and the gathered workers gawking in disbelief at the wedding in their store. Cheryl was pulling at my shirt, as I was scanning the area for the cake...where's the cake? I love wedding cake. I love any cake!!!

Quit lurking and Comment!!

I know there are a few of you that are lurking around out there. Reading and thinking man my life is exciting compared to hers. Leave a comment. For a short time I will take the security letters off to make it easier. The reason for the letters is to confirm you are a real person and not a computer spamming the blog!! It is so cool when someone you don't know or recognize comments. So this is kind of a weird subject but years ago I used to go to this restaurant in West Allis, called the Chalet. They had a good Fish Fry and Pretty darn good food. They also had a waitress that was very much like a typical flu, from Mels diner. She was very friendly and called everyone "Honey" or "What do you kids want?" She was a very nice lady. Now there is a thing called Six degrees of separation, which means we are all connected to one another by 6 or less people. It seems bizarre and you think, "How can someone know me in California, blah blah blah. I didn't write the theory, but the older I get the more it seems to be true. I work with a woman, who's mom has been ailing for some time. We share a small locker room and she works second and I work first so our paths cross at 2:45 when she is coming to work and I am leaving. We have a very nice group in our locker room, there are six of us and we all work in the trades. Well anyway, getting back to the story. The one woman's mother passed away that was ailing. I checked the paper for the notice and before I even got to the name, I saw a photo of the waitress from the Chalet...in the death notices...and it was the woman from my locker rooms mom. I was for a moment excited, I knew her mom!!!! I knew her, she was a fun waitress and, and, and she is my locker room friends mom? Wow....maybe we are all connected by 6 degrees of separation?

Mosaic knitting

I have found Mosaic knitting or slip stitch to be a lot of fun, easy but complicated looking. This is a small bag made with 50% soy and 50% silk. The yarn is called Karaoke, I will be teaching this in Spring at Fiberwood Studio. It is really easy and you are only working with one color at a time so there is no carrying all of those different colors. The color repeat on this was very long so I had to do some progressive knitting. In other words I advanced the colors by myself, not through the process of knitting. I have to wash the bag and block it and then add the handle and finishing touches. But I like it, so much that I am doing a scarf which I will show later. It has cooled off here some and it is a welcome relief. My garden or weed bed is pretty weedy and dry. I have some flowers in pots that I actually have been watering and they are doing well. If you want to get a good laugh read the Harlots blog, she explains her hat head and it is too funny. Her mom says it all!!!

Virgin Photo

I got it...my new camera! It is sleeker and more compact than the old one. That only means I can dig that much longer for it in my knitting bags. Remember those old ones that were the size of a lunch box? Couldn't loose them in a purse!!! How about Polaroids, they were fun, expensive but fun...the excitement peeling back the developing paper only to find another black, blurry photo. I tend to get attached to my camera, it is a big part of how I express myself, but I had no problem packing up the old one and sending it off today!!! Bye bye! So...that leads me to my first photo, Tinker. Now look at the first photo, he looks so cute and cuddly when he doesn't look at the camera. And he is..

But check out the evil face when he looks right at the camera....mean kitty!!! When in fact he is an affection whore. He was first to come out of his cool hiding spot to check out the new camera. I am beat, from the heat and I will do more tomorrow.