Thank you UPS for being so quick in your delivery. Thank you WEBS for fast, speedy service. How fun is it when you, go on the internet, pick out your colors, call the company on monday am, and have your yarn by tuesday afternoon??? This is the second time I have ordered from WEBS (www.yarn.com) and both times the order has come within a day. This time I was on a cascade 220 kick. I'm anticipating some heavy felting sessions going on. I already have one item ready to go. (pics soon) I also have a 50.00 gift cert. to the LYS in pennsie. Just have to get there. I have a feeling more felting yarn will be purchased. Other than that today is a lazy day for hubby and I. We were going to go to see Superman, but on opening day, a rainy one at that, not a good idea. We slept until 10:30 this am. We were both exhausted from working the weekend and Miss kitty woke us up about 1am crying and puking. Poor kitty, poor me, on hands and knees cleaning up 6 piles of puke. I have to say that oxyclean spray works pretty darn good. Bet hubby is happy we didn't get new carpeting yet. Oy, can you imagine? I want cream colored carpeting for my bedroom, it would have been a crime scene. Alright, have a peaceful day..
I love to cook. Have I mentioned that? This is a salad I made with last night's dinner. This is all that is left from a very large bowl. Hubby ate it all!!!!! Very easy recipe!!!!1-2 bags of cherry tomatoes on the vine(or fresh if you have them)5 ears of fresh corn (or you can use 1-2 cans)2 cucumbers sliced and deseeded1/4 red onion sliced really thin1 avocado cut into chunks (optional)kosher salt and pepper to tasteolive oilrice wine vinegar ( I used the red pepper flake variety)Using a whisk, mix rw vinegar and olive oil together in equal parts to taste. Add tomaotes, onions, cucumbers and salt. Let this mixture sit for about 1/2 hour. Add remaining ingredients, stiring well. Let sit at room temp to marinate, then enjoy!!! I served this last night with italain meatloaf . Wednesday night I served it with foccacia (homemade~ well butoni boxed mix homemade). Today I am going to try baking Madellines. I faithfully watch The Barefoot Contessa. She made coconut madelline's last week, so after I find the pans I need I will try it. Here's a pic of one of the greatest fans of my cooking. She loves it all, especially fish night!!!!! 
Oh summer, how I love it. I have been spending about an hour a day (at least) outside blissfully lost in my gardening. So I wanted to share some pics. One of my favorite annuals are portulaca. This one started from 6 teeny tiny runts that I bought mother's day and kept them in my sunroom. I planted them and after 2 weeks I thought they were done. NOW look at them. My driveway gets full sun and lots of heat. I also deadhead them everyday. 
They are so pretty!! I have been told by my mother that my great-grandmother had a knack for growing these. I guess it was passed on!!! 
This pic of the front shows the enormous rhododendrums that I injured myself pruning. These are only 2 there are 6 more. My planters are growing nicely and the petunia baskets are gorgeous. They smell really pretty. 
OK, so you know Bambi? This is what bambie and Co. do to tomatoe plants. Munch, munch, munch. They also like roses, moonflowers, green peppers, and sometimes Hostas. My poor hubby. He's the veggie gardener. Note how they left the tomatoe, mighty kind of them. Deer are lovely to look at, but they do damage. They ruined our azalea bushes. 
These flowers are perennials and the deer are not fond of them, or the orange ones in the backround. It's all about deer resistant plants here... Now, for something completely different.... some actual knitting content!!!!! Spoil alert!!!! Master gardnener if your reading, stop..... OK ........Gift for baby Keona.........This is the project I have been working on for the next baby due in Sept. I used debbie bliss baby cashmerino and one of her patterns. Hat is supposed to have stalk on it, but I'm not sure yet if I want to add it.... Anybody care to voice an opinion??? 
I am fairly new to the whole gardening thing. Our house has landscaping that was already present when we moved in. Some of it is ready to be replaced (junipers and some of the azaleas). My tech Janet was over for the shower on sun and asked me who dead headed all of my rhododendrums. Um, noone? Now, mastergardnener has mentioned in the past that they needed to be deadheaded. I however, forgot about it. They were quite lovely and large this year despite the ugly leftover dead blooms from last year. So hubby and I were up at 7am on our day off, and I thought, what the heck, let me dead head the rhod. Ha! 3 hours and a very sore back later, I'm still not done. But that's it for today. I conquered 3 small ones and one of the enormously huge ones. Next spring they will be awesome!!!!!! That being said, I need to go ice my back.. I did a nice child's pose (balasana) and supta bandha konasana (reclined bound angle) and some side stretches. We'll see, have to teach tonight....On a completely different note, well, actually it does deal with yoga....Have you ever heard that Alanis Morisette song, Thank you India, etc...well there is this line in that song, The moment I let go of it, was the moment I got more than I could handle... I feel like this is life right now. I have got alot going on, sorry I can't delve into it at the current moment, maybe someday. This again deals with aparigraha. Learning to let go...
Baby Girl Marisella made her appearance at 1:17 am today. She is beautiful. Mom and baby are doing well. I will be visiting tommorrow, but got a pic message from my niece. I'm a "great" Aunt. Well, I am a great Aunt, but now I am a great aunt. Which makes my 36 year old sister a grandmother. Phew, are we getting old? Nah. I can't wait to give her the blanket. I have been busy preparing for the baby shower this weekend. I still have to shop, bake, clean, finish decorating and make the favors, oh and finish baby hat. I have also been gardening my butt off. I was so happy to teach last night because my back has been killing me since sun. I will post pics soon of all the gardening. Happy Birthday to my Hubby. He's the best in the whole wide world.
Holy Mackeral, that took a long time. It just so happens that when learning things, well, knitted things ( I had an easier time with trigonometry) I have to do everything two, three times until I get it right. Am I completely happy with results? eh, um, yeah, for a first baby blanket. You may, or may not notice that the sides (and I tried to even this out for a "tie dye" effect) are a darker shade of yellow. Yes, this dippy chick forgot to check dye lots and several skeins were a different shade. So said baby has not yet been born. She is taking her time, now 9 days late. 
Here's a close up of pattern. It has a diamond shape throughout. The yarn is SO SOFT.... but I will say, probably better off just doing a garter stitch blanket. I used paton's be mine. Now, yesterday, and if Master gardner is reading, please stop, spoiler alert..... Looking for baby blanket number 2 yarn, I had in my cart the same yarn in a different color. I stopped myself. I have a plan for BB#2. Sneak peak soon, I promise. I have until sept. to finish. I'm doing my own pattern... Brave soul that I am. How better to learn new things? I figure it's the quickest way to writing my own pattern. Let me tell you, I searched for hours last night, and did not find any patterns for what I have in mind. One more pic.. check out kitty.. so fricken cute.. Her daddy found her like this.... 
She misses us, so she snuggles into our blankie.
Been busy. Trying to finish baby blanket number one. It's done. I had to change the yarn I use on the border because as usual, I messed up. The snuggle yarn if so fluffy, can't see the stitches or the mitered border design. So I used white worsted. I'm not entirely happy with the results. I have to block then I will post pic and give my final opinion. The baby this blanket is slated for has not yet been born, only because she is running late. She was due on June 1. She will make me a "great aunt", oy. Worse yet my sister will be a grandmother, HA HA!!!!! I have also been planning my youngest sister's (aka master gardner) baby shower. I'm having fun. My step sister just found out she is pregnant. There are 6 of us girls, my mom has 3 daughters and my stepdad has 3 daughters. The two youngest are now pregnant. Me? I'm the oldest out of everyone. As to my situation on that front, no comment. I have also been planting more stuff, perrenials... Delphinium, Hellenium(? I'll check on that name again) and another butterfly bush (bodelia).
