Today's mail...........

Today's mail brought two wonderful photos.
First, grandson Luke's high school graduation photo.
Luke is #3 grandson -- 2 older, 4 younger.
He can't possibly be that old --- but what a handsome young man he is.










Also, a Christmas photo from Lego Land in California. All decked out for the holidays, musician daughter Steph and her good friend Bill took a minute to have a photo taken between playing their lovely music.
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And this photo of grandson. Colin, #5 grandson, who is in Louisiana with his Dad, Mom and 3 brothers volunteering their time to help rehab houses. I am so proud of them all -- hope DD won't mind I "borrowed" this photo from her Facebook page :-)

Fun and GAMES..............

I received the below from my brother, Don, in Indiana.
Any of you who are familiar with Cribbage know what a great hand this is.
The best hand you can get is a score of 29 -- this hand scores 28 -- if the queen were any of the jacks it would have been a perfect 29 hand.

Glad you were playing against Mike instead of me, Don. LOL -- good for you.

Concert.....................

With the holidays fast approaching, there is a lot of activity going on and some fresh snow too. Last night was the Christmas Concert for 3 of the grandsons. Second, fourth and sixth grades.

Wishing you all peace, love, and joy.

And Snow

Today brought some snow -- I usually have old sheets on the laundry room floor so the dogs don't drag in lots of mud -- that means washing the sheets frequently -- and Polly, our wonderful black lab, has discovered that sheets just from the dryer are warm and cozy and just waits to have one draped over her.

Two Give-Aways

1. Friend, Kerry, has a nice give-away posted on her blog. Click here to sign up: Kerry's Give-Away and to check out all her wonderful things go to: Kerry's Blog.

2. Another give-away is a great beading book-- The Lone Beader has this give away sign up posted HERE. I was fortunate to win one of the books in The Lone Beader's drawings and it is great.

Another one I couldn't resist posting..........

With all the extra holiday goodies that will be consumed in the coming weeks, just had to post this thought:

Days gone by ... Rug Hooking ...

I don't know how I got on "By-gone Days Road" today --- oh, yes, I do remember. I was looking at Maggie's BLOG and saw a link to rug hooking -- that reminded me of all the fun I had hooking rugs a few years ago -- and of all the wonderful Hooking Friends I made and still have. I wish there were more hours to a day -- don't we all? -- there are so many things I would still like to be working on -- may just have to pick up the 2-3 UFO rugs and work on them again. Most of the hooked items I made were given away and I don't have photos -- or at least digital photos -- but here are a couple photos that I do have --

Holiday Lights....Lincoln Park Zoo

Holiday Zoo Lights -- be sure to click on the arrows for more photos. Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL.

LINCOLN PARK ZOO LIGHTS

Birthday Bracelet......

Today's mail brought a wonderful bracelet made for my birthday by friend Lynn in California. I just love it, Lynn, and my very favorite colors too -- thank you so very much -- I treasure it and our friendship. [I have posted two photos in an attempt to show the beautiful colors] Click photos to enlarge

Oh my gosh.....

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it is almost a month since I posted here on my blog. The time has flown by -- Thanksgiving has come and gone (and a wonderful one it was too) -- several birthdays have been celebrated and youngest grandson celebrates his birthday on the 11th. Then it will be Christmas -- and in case I don't get back here until after the first of the year, thank you all for your visits and the comments you have left and emails sent to me -- I truly appreciate hearing from you all and am sending my best wishes for a wonderful Christmas for each of you and your families -- I will do better here after the first of the year. In the meantime, here's a picture of Polly and Munchkin -- that was the day before the lab, Polly, found a tiny opening in the zipper, pulled out all the foam rubber padding and shredded it into tiny bits -- well, it did make a cute photo :-)

Bag almost finished....

Here is the bag -- I'm not sure I like the size of the I-cord for the "strap" so will experiment with smaller size DPN's and see if I like that better. The solid blue yarn felted beautifully but the multi not as well -- but it looks pretty good anyway. Fun to do.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Went to JoAnn Fabric this morning and picked up some nice wool on sale to make a couple more bags with. The yarn is quite pretty.

Experimenting with some wonderful wool.....

Just having some fun with some beautiful wool --- will post progress in the days to come. This is such lovely yarn.

Fall Colors....

It is a rainy, dark, day -- but even that can't take away the beauty of the Fall colors. Before all the leaves fall, wanted to get at least a couple photos of the fall colors -- these are just standing in the front in the drizzle --but how pretty it is :-)

Favorite LYS not really so "local".......

My favorite LYS is really not so "local" -- Most of you know I make trips to the "city" a couple times a month -- I usually go 1/2 to 1 hour early because my destination is close to my favorite LYS -- albeit, "local" in this case is over 40 miles away. Matters not -- a trip to Sister Arts Studio is always a delight. These pictures were just taken with my phone, but wanted to share my favorite place with you. You will see some of Rebecca Danger's delightful monsters in the window (see previous post) -- and if you look closely, you will see Donna in one of the photos. If any of you are in the Chicago area, be sure to look up Donna and Sister Arts Studio

Alberta the Happy Little Monster

Alberta, the happy little monster is finished. She is my first little monster (of the knitted variety, LOL). She "sits" about 8 inches tall and was made from a pattern by Rebecca Danger called Albert the Absent Minded Monster -- but with the pinks in mine I named her Alberta. You can find Rebecca's fun patterns on her blog by clicking HERE.

Here is the link to Rebecca's ETSY SHOP.

Ouch & Getting Ready to head South ~~~~~

ALBERTA ~ The Happy Little Monster
Ouch, I'm getting squashed under here -- is it really necessary to do this just to hold my mouth on -- my eyes are popping out with the pressure -- well, tomorrow I should be able to appear here all done -- it is rather embarrassing this way :-)

GETTING READY TO HEAD SOUTH ~~~~~


Yesterday the birds took over the spruce in the back yard --there were hundreds of them in there -- getting ready for their trip south. This is the first time ever I have seen them in that tree going crazy. There were Cedar Waxwings, Robins, Cardinals, Chickadees and a few others. Mostly you can see the Cedar Waxwings in this photo -- but if you look close at the upper right you can see a Cardinal. They were all so lovely.

Another Super Fall Day

Today I met up with DD, DSIL and 4 DGS at our local Pumpkin Farm. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and if you check out the slide show, you will see all the fun things we were able to do in one afternoon. One of the most fun things was standing "face to face" with a beautiful giraffe and having him eat oh so gently from our hands. What a thrill. But best of all was sharing a lovely afternoon with family. To see the slide show, click the VIEW ALL IMAGES button below.

How about a ride on a camel?

Fun fall afternoon .....

Silky soft Alpaca toy -- and a skein of alpaca yarn. This will be the first time I have knit anything with yarn from an animal I have "met" in person. Thank you, Primrose She is a sweetie.


Grandson Drew and I had a fun afternoon checking out the local Alpaca Farms. It was a gorgeous afternoon -- sunny, cool and VERY windy. These are wonderful animals and we had such a great time visiting with all the people there. We had fun walking KING ELROND. He is just a little over a year old) on a leash. If you click on his name you will find photos of him before he was sheared. What a lovely fluff ball. The sound the Alpacas make is so soft and gentle coming from a fairly large animal. I fell in love --- now I want to learn how to card and spin and all those good things.

About Alpacas

Lifespan: 15-25 years

Adult size: 4-5 feet at the head, 30-38 inches at the shoulder, weighing 105-185 pounds

Reproduction: Gestation of 11 months -- single cria, weighing 10-17 pounds
Spinning the fur into "yarn"

Free pattern for Crocheted Swirling Bag

Here's a fun bag to crochet. Knitting Daily kindly shared this pattern.Crocheted Swirling Bag, As Seen on Episode 311 - Knitting Daily

Shared via AddThis

Over the weekend.............

Over the weekend I was able to knit up a couple watch caps. They both are nice and warm and softStarted yet another -- this also in greens/browns -- don't know why I keep picking up this color combination to work with

Enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon.........

Here's our 6 year old Pug, Munchkin, enjoying our beautiful fall afternoon.

Hats, hats, and more hats.....

"Free standing" hats aren't very attractive, but pretend there is a head in each one and you will get the idea :-)

Click HERE for a slide show of a few more hats/caps.

Sequins, Beads and Bags

I was just admiring a lovely sequined purse on Maggie R's blog. CLICK HERE. Seeing the photo reminded me that I hadn't posted a photo of a lovely bead/sequin coin purse DD brough me from Cape Cod -- so here it is :-) -- isn't it lovely?

2 quick caps....

The two youngest grandsons are here for a few days. Friday we went to Hobby Lobby -- each with a discount coupon in hand -- the boys each picked out a skein of yarn for a new hat -- so that night I quick crocheted them their hats -- good thing too, as when we went to leave for a flea market early Saturday morning it was really "cold" and they both donned their new hats. This pic is of them at 7 AM Saturday, still in pj's -- trying on the hats.

Ah, peace at last....

Well. the new roof is on -- just a bit of trim and clean up and then that will be finished. We had a very heavy rain yesterday and all was dry. Whew -- what a relief.
Below a portion of the back of the house with tons of vents.
I also finished up the third pair (cranberry red ones) of crocheted sock/slippers. Started a tweedy blue pair too. Then it will be on to something elseBelow is a picture of how they look on. As I mentioned, they are very comfy :-

Noisy next few days...........

Today begins the re-roofing process. First all the old has to come off (see photo). It is very noisy in the house with 5 men and tools up on the roof. Then there will be the hammering when the new roof gets put on. Oh, my poor head LOL.