Ok, so once I was pretty...

Yesterday was my mom's 87th birthday party. If you are planning on attending any party where old people and family friends will be at gird your loins, my friends. I think we are all guilty of the same thing, we tend to remember people as they were, not thinking they are getting old too. So I was exposed to all mom's old friends, I used to be thinner, have black hair, it was long , I cut it and it is white, with pink, purple and teal now, but it is white, I am 56 years old and I am fat. I know this, I don't need the mouth open gapping look from old Aunt Emma. So I am sitting at a table talking about old times and Mike my son is there, Jonell another family friend , my Godmother and this Barbara who we grew up with her kids. Barbara is a wonderful woman, lots of fun and very nice, she proclaims at the table in a voice that resonated....Oh Jan you were...Were...WEre....WERe...WERE...such a pretty girl. You had such beautiful curly hair (hours of dragging rags around wrapped in my head so I couldn't sleep) Well Mike and I started laughing, key word is you were.....it cracked me up. Then she injects well you still are you have beautiful skin...LOL. Old people are so funny, and man do they love good skin...I guess I have that going for me.
On the other hand my mom lives with this lady that has a down syndrome girl, well woman I think she may be 50ish. Gloria is very good to my mom, she brings her food and her and her daughter go to Panara's as a treat for her daughter. For Christmas, I bought Gloria a gift card so she could take her daughter to lunch, on me, for being so good to mom....I am not bragging it is just part of the reason, I got this beautiful Thank You card and a photo of her daughter in it. I looked at the photo and it makes me smile, and happy. Her daughter whose name escapes me has down syndrome, she is smiling so wide, you can't help but see the joy she must be to be around. She has a cute bandana around her neck and is glowing. I keep the photo in my visor of my car and every so often I look at it and smile at her big grin. I told this to my mom, how it makes me happy and how cute she is. My mom told Gloria this and she came up to me at the party and started crying, she said no one ever told her, that her daughter was pretty. It made me feel bad that we are such a beauty orientated society, that we can't look past the plastic. It made me feel good that maybe because beauty fades and I am so apparantly made aware of that, that I want to look deeper past that in people, whatever it is, it made me happy that I had said that. A simple phrase....to a mother..who knew it would make such an impact. As I grow older I do know that the stones you throw cannot be brought back and you can never tell where they will land.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's 87th birthday. I want to take the time right now as I have with her, to thank her for all of the meanest things a mother can do to a child, she did to me. I want to thank her for forcing us to push in our chairs, clean up after ourselves, put dirty clothes in the hamper. She made us be polite, respect our elders, hold open doors for people, say Thank you, and please. She made us go to school, not that we would have thought there was an alternative? She made us have good work ethics, to finish what we started (Ok so I veered from that plan). She pushed us to share and interact with people.....can you just see how mean she was??? I really didn't realize these life lessons, until my second marriage, my MIL was a nasty beeach, well only after we got married and what is that about, don't you think you would want to scare someone off before the big day???? Hello stupid!!! When she would come to visit, she would make messes all over, leave her chair in the middle of the kitchen after getting away from the table. She left chewed gum on my wood end table, newspaper laying all over and worst of all she left her son with the same training. I was raised as an equal not a maid, I raised me son to share in the housework, we were a team, we worked together so we could play together. After a few visits from MIL dearest, I thanked my mean mom for teaching me how to be an invisible guest, pick up after myself, offer to help.....sometimes we don't realize these life lessons till someone else smacks you in the face with them. So Mom, Happy Birthday and thanks for being so mean!!!

Drive thru snaffu

So I was hankering for a good old Burger King whopper, I was on my way back from some shopping that was on my list of to do's . I go to the drive thru and a young man voice answers, which makes me happy that a recorded voice didn't ask if I wanted a new Mocha latte or other designer coffee when in fact if that was what I wanted I would have ordered it. So I place my order and then go...Oh can I add a Hershey pie on that, I love their hershey pies and being that I haven't been at a BK for years, I figured they were not on the menu. The guy says drive around for your total, so I do.....I drive up to the first window and look in and shake my head a little trying to rationalize what my eyes they are beholding? I was reluctant to hand this guy my money because I was sure the young kid in a uniform was laying on the floor dead and this street person had taken over the drive thru window. Actually I have seen better dressed street people. Here is this scruffy skinny older man with a dirty chuli hat on with a BK cap over no more like sitting on top of that and a dirty jacket that looked like he just pulled it out of the bottom of the Good Will containers on the corner of some shopping mall. The best is yet to come, he says.....well he says something about separate and my mouth is still open because I can't understand him .....at all. I say excuse me??? He hollars back the same thing which I get slurrypie, at once.....???? I again say, I really cannot understand what you are saying, I'm sorry.....Do you want to pay separate or once..??? Well let me see, why don't you ring it all up separate?? No I would like to pay al at once?? He takes his dirty fingers and uses a calculator which is fine, but now I am getting pukey thinking if they put him in the window, what kind of people are working behind the counter and making my food???? Maybe it was there way of getting rid of him??? Do they not have a manager that can address this guy? Not to mention please put people that speak English in the drive thru windows, and if they really want that job, go to school and learn English, it's the way you get ahead in America.....I drove to the next window and then deposited all of it in the garbage, I think I just started a diet.....I am a little sick.

Good Acrylic

Just to set the record straight, I am a natural fiber and yarn shop. I carry one type of acrylic, it is not Red Heart and no I don't carry the "Good" Red Heart. For that you would have to go to the "good" acrylic store like...Michaels??? I don't want to snub anyone but I myself, find it hard to put hours and hours of work into something and have plastic when I am done and as far as babies go, I wouldn't want to put my baby into a plastic bag, because I am too lazy to hand wash something. Mothers are using wool soakers and then to put on an acrylic sweater???? why bother. Take a little acrylic put it outside on the sidewalk and light it with a match....poof, melted, imagine that on your babies skin? Why do you think the helmut liners for the soldiers are made of wool? It doesn't melt, imagine a burn that they have to pull the melted plastic off of when it cools and turns hard....I have felt the wrath of acrylic, it isn't pleasant. Wool is a natural and renewing resource, no sheep are harmed in the process. Wool will eventually go back to the earth, as will cotton, and rayons, but acrylic will be forever plastic as a matter of fact they should have to dispose of it in the recycle bin. The only acrylic I carry was under pressure of this cute little sweater that someone made and is self patterning, but when it's gone it is gone. I want more room for "beautiful yarns". Yarns you want to touch and love to work with. With everything going green, how about knitting green and using Natural fibers!!!! Good fibers, Wool will keep you warm and cool, wool wicks moisture away from you, they even make a new fiber called smart wool....after years of realizing it really works!!! Yeah for the sheeps!!!! So if you are looking for all of that plastic yarn, sorry it's not just 4 ewe, you're looking for....babe....

Knitting Frenzy

So many of you, myself included are working on the ruffled scarf kit. We all know that talking and knitting do not go hand in hand and we all have an easy project that we take to group knitting. I apparantly can't even do that. I cast on 48 stitches and it should be that many all the way through the project....not me. Knitting with straight mohair, I have managed to increase to about 58 or so??? Oh yeah and at that rate, i won't have enough yarn to do half of the kit. I am slowly decreasing and thinking because it is a ruffle that maybe you won't see it so bad, or I can increase in the same spot on the other side. So for those of you that think mindless knitting is just that, guess again. Unless of course you have my mind, which is sometimes mindless. If one side of my scarf looks a little wider, it is an optical illusion, you really cannot use a tape to measure it, I made it bigger on purpose to cover my boobs better....that's it , yeah that's my story and I"m sticking to it.

Ahhhhhh Top o the mornin to you

Happy St. Patricks Day to you all. I am not Irish but who isn't Irish today??? We are having Corned Beef and Cabbage today in the shop, I wanted to do something Green to drink not beer, but decided, there just isn't anything that would be good with Corned beef and cabbage that was green....but beer!!! It is a good mix. I have the window open to let in some fresh aire. I cleaned my oven yesterday a long overdue job, man it sure is easy now, you just push a button and 3 hours later wipe it out....no stinky oven cleaner. It is good to be able to open the window though, it still has a burning stench. I bought myself some tulips the other day, they were so pretty and so Springish I just had to get them and I am so glad I did. I love looking at the inside of flowers, at all of the stuff going on in there. I did some spinning and getting a new skein set up to go....Have a safe Irish day.

Spring is here

Officially they say Spring is here when you see your first Robin, well today was the first day I saw a robin. I have seen, little birds and wood peckers and my favorite cardinals but no robin till today. I don't know if I buy into this but, it would be a good feeling. With Spring in the air so are all of the new yarns coming in. I am also making Yarn Batt-er, to make your own yarns. They are fun and funky batts with add in so you too can do some Art Yarn. I am working on the Passport project and have one in mind, just deciding which way to go with it....hhhhmmm.
My mom is celebrating her 87th birthday this month, so we are having a little party for her at the Senior living that she is at. We are having cake and coffee and all she keeps saying is, "this is going to put you in the poor house" yeah mom I don't think it will be the cake and coffee that will do it??? She will never change. Well off to running with some errands for the shop. Enjoy this beautiful weather.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Help me I'm falling down the Rabbit Hole....I never went to movies as a kid, I think I saw maybe two or three, one being Creature from the black lagoon. I swear the whole neighborhood went and I was the only one that had not seen it. The theater was one of those old Gothic types, the Paradise downtown West Allis, it was creepy enough to begin with let alone see a scary movie. So the movie is playing and I am riveted, the scene where the girl is swimming and the creature goes to grab her ankle??? The kid behind me grabbed my ankle, I stood up screaming for what seemed like 5 minutes, I mean screaming one long loud, almost peed my pants scream. They were shusshing me and trying to get me to sit back down all the while laughing their butts off. It had to be hysterical for them and traumatizing to me. LOL The only time I got to go to the movies was when my mom's friends daughter wanted to go and she had no one to go with so I had to go with her. At the time I really thought she invited me and I was special...later I realized she couldn't go unless someone went with her and dodo bird me was told to go. which to me worked out, I got to see some movies, like Hans Christian Anderson, I never saw Bambi or the rest of the classics, but I did see Alice in Wonderland, and I was smitten....and about a year ago, I rented every different version of Alice to see which was the one I had seen and loved the best. I do believe the one I love most is the one with Whoppee Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat. Well that was until I just saw the new one.....Now what movie has Johnny Depp been in that you didn't like??? He is a fantastic character actor, he fills the part...the only part I was a little put off by was the White Queen, she was a little too...boring??? But the red queen was so cool and the other weird thing was the dumb dance at the end and the music at that point was well.....Tim Burtonish..
So now I am working on Mad Hatter batts to spin.....ohhhhhhh this mind is going down the rabbit hole..

Small Pockets

I know I am a big woman, I know they use yardage to make jeans to fit me, but.....don't cut corners on the front pockets please!!! I bought new jeans and the pockets are the size of a credit card. What that means is if you put anything into them, when you sit down it all comes out?? So the advantage of this is, your pockets never have anything in them and the downside is, it is all on the floor!!! Not to mention the small back pockets on the arse, which make them look like fleas on an elephant??? Either they put all this flashy embroidery on the back pockets or make them itty bitty which makes one look extremely arsy??? I am a fashion mess,,,,all I want is my decent pockets.
On the upside I think Iggy is feeling better and now I have a belly ache.....I think it's the weather...

Sleepy day

Today is overcast, rainy and just good nap weather. These are the kind of days to light a fire in the fireplace, find a blanket, lay on the couch and read a good book or watch a good movie. Well we can dream can't we?? First off I don't have a fireplace, second if I lay down to read a book you can pretty much bet that I will be sleeping shortly. Yesterday I had to go to a funeral, my sister in laws cousin died, 57 years old. A really great guy...so I went to the wake, I walked up to the church and honestly the line went out the door with people waiting to pay their respect. I kind of sidled next to the line to get to my brother and Cheryl, skipping the whole line thing, she won't remember seeing me anyway. When I sat there with my jaw hanging open, I don't think I even know that many people let alone have them come to my funeral???? I told my brother, I'd have a five car funeral and that's if everyone takes their own car....what an honor and tribute to a life to have that many visitors, this was something you normally see at a young persons funeral. He worked at the Harbor commission and was a really nice guy, friendly and fun. His family was so close they all lived within blocks of each other, an old Italian style family. What kind of mark will you leave when you die?? I want people to know I lived...I want to leave a mark and not on someone's forehead, I want to change the world a little, I know it will not be Hollywood style, just to have changed someone's life, a little. Teaching is a great way to do that....sharing what you know. What good is knowing something if you don't share it?? It's like a good recipe, who cares if you are the ONLY one that can make that casserole that everyone loves?? It is an honor that someone would ask for a recipe, no one would ever ask for my recipes, but if they did and I would say, that is MY secret??? I will die with it and only be talked about as "she would never give us her recipe!" Instead think how great it would be if on that recipe card you put your name, every time that dish would be served, and diners would say "oh this is great" your name would be honored, It's Aunt Sally's recipe, it's one of my favorites....That is a life well lived, sharing, don't be stingy with your life...live it.....

Red Rubber Ball

So on my way home from doggy daycare where I dropped off a non diarria pup, it was a little iffy today, the sun was like a huge red rubber ball. I am always fascinated by the sun and moon. It is huge for a moment and then it gets smaller and changes color, I took this photo through the windshield and with my cell phone, so no promise of even one iota of what my eyes saw. Today is my day off, I should clean but cleaning is way overated, instead, I will wash clothes, go to the accountant and then some errands cut short yesterday and then to see Alice in Wonderland.....I love Alice in wonderland, it may have been the only movie I saw as a kid. I love the one when Whoppee is the Cheshire cat....it is wacky and somewhat spooky but let me tell you nothing compares to be to lazy to change the channel when the movie "Hostle" came on....OMG, it was a chopem up, hack em down, cut and blood chainsaw gory movie and i was riveted.....I couldn't stop watching I guess I wondered what the plot would be?? Of course there was none...the acting was terrible, the graphics were just that and then there was a sequel....oh no I took a nap, no sequel. Ehhh I just can't shake the images or demented idea of even making such a movie...AND I watched it.
I am toying with the idea of another traveling scarf, I am getting requests for it so I think this summer I will start one up again, they were so pretty. We can make another journal and start knitting. Well I am off to soak in a hot tub filled with Bella Vita bath bombs, some music and no eyes or teeth trying to steal my washcloth. Enjoy the day, it is going to be a preview of Spring!!!!!!

A Truly Crappy day no joke

It all started innocent..my plans were to pick up my mom and take her for a burger at Fretchs burgers and then run a few errands and go through the park looking for deer. The burger was good, a whole lot of food and my mom had a butter pecan malt. Iggy was in the car waiting for his usual tidbit of leftover food and never too concerned what it is. Then to do some errands, stopped at one place and the line was waaayyyy too long for my liking and decided I would go back tomorrow. "Let's just go to the park" was my suggestion and there were deer laying under trees and relaxing all over basking in the sunshine. Iggy was all of sudden trying to climb out of the car, he was jumping towards the window and acting totally weird....so he went into the back seat and tried to climb the window in the back and then I heard it....he had diarria....all over my car seat....I pulled over asap and took him out while gagging from the stench....he went some more but outside....my mom was stuck in the car but I left everything open. Poor Iggy is all I could think of, he tried to get out, he tried to let me know, he had some belly ache. Then to clean out the car, he pooped on Bradley the pillow that I keep for road trips.....not anymore. So I threw snow on it and hoped to clean it better when I got home. About this time mom is ready to walk home, so I take her home and hope to get home without any more incidents, now I am feeling a little queezy myself...I think it is just I am not the iron stomach I was when I was a mother of a child...so I cleaned up the seat and hopefully it will be nice and clean and not stinky....Iggy went again and I am now cooking rice and boiling hamburger for his dinner....I think my Asian lettuce wraps made him sick....proof my cooking is deadly.

Scattered pieces

I have bags in my living room, suitcase in my bedroom, boxes in the shop. Money in every pocket of every outfit, coffee in hand and making a sigh of relief. Thanks to everyone for another successful Sheep in the City Getaway. We had many many new faces, we had groups of friends that enjoyed the weekend doing what we do best yarning, oh and there was some yawning going on too. We had one casualty to a virus/flu, and many many thanks for Angela stepping up to the plate....Everything went smooth, it was a little too hot for most of us of a certain age, but no one complained. We could have used more chairs...but we took all the chairs the hotel had? We all could have used more sleep, but...SITC comes once a year....sleep tonight. We had tons of wonderful door prizes, most vendors were extremely generous. We had so much fun with the cake walk and the soap opera "As the Wool turns" I think we all had a good belly laugh. Our little mascot was there Sassy, please don't tell Iggy, I can't show him any photos. Although they could become the first couple? The fashion show was wonderful, so many many talented knitters and I only wish I would have had time to talk to each and everyone of you that came. I kind of relate it to the day you got married, well one of the times and you stand around and thank everyone for coming and smile and you are so caught up in the moment that later that week you say "were they there???" Did I do this??? So today I am chilling, running to the bank, trying to straighten out this organized mess, something I am very good at....the mess part. Thanks so very much for all of the help and support of my friends and words of encouragement from so many new faces.