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Well, obviously deadlines were made to be broken ;).  I have been knitting on it , and this is not a great picture but just to show you it’s a bit over 1/2 way done.  I wasn’t able to knit on it as much as I had hoped and I made an error on a row and will have to tink back 3 rows to fix it, arrrgh!  That has made me put it aside for a few days but I’m going to tink the rows back this evening and get started on it again.  There will be a few changes to the pattern before I publish it on my website, some things that I weren’t what I was trying to do, but can fix them in the pattern.

I hope you all have had a chance to check out my sister’s blog Eat It Anyway, she has some good recipes and awesome crafts there. (Hey, sis, can I have some pralines now?) hehe.

You've Been Bad

We had our Single Adult Christmas party tonight for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd wards of my Church.  We were told to bring a White Elephant gift.  Now my friends will know where my oldest son got his sense of humor from ;P.  The glass decanter was something that I found and I bought winter stickers to go on it.  I used a craft joke I had seen many years ago that would work with this decanter and bought the mini marshmellows and made the card that I hung on the decanter (you can click on the picture for a larger image).   Hehe, it still makes me laugh :P.

The other gift, yes that is a roll of toilet paper that I discovered you can embroider on.   I got the embroidery idea from this  website ,  found a cute design and walaa, cuteness :).  It’s a very inexpensive way to dress up a bathroom and it got a chuckle or two. :)  Anyway these were what the one that ended up with my gift got.

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 About 2 weeks ago I received a 1 oz sample of Suri Alpaca.  I have not had the pleasure of handling or spinning Suri Alpaca.  The fiber is very silky and drapey as compared to Huacaya Alpaca that has more spring or crimp, both are very soft.  I need to finish the Llama that I have on the wheel so that I can try this out.  I love new fiber experiences. :)  I appologize for not putting this picture up sooner, my life has been a zoo for the last couple of weeks.  I put Ann’s card on the fiber so you can see where this lovely fiber came from or you can click here to go to her website.

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 I have also finished a fleece tied blanket for my grand daughter Leena.  Her birthday was a few days after mine and things and time got away from me.  This was a little bit larger project than I anticiapated (probably because I had not done one before ;P).  But it’s finished and it looks very nice.  The color on the underneath side matches the bow tie on the teddy bears.

I have throughly enjoyed the wonderful 60′s that we’ve had here yesterday and today.  It is like an early spring and so very wonderful.  I will try to hold onto the wamth and sunshine during the upcoming cold winter that is sure to come soon.  But then spring will be just around the corner. :)

The Christmas Nail

We had a Relief Society Enrichment meeting tonight.  For those who are not LDS, the Relief Society is a women’s organazation in the Church.  Tonight was a fun “Enrichment” meeting on keeping Christ in our lives during this upcoming holiday season, we had a skit performed for us by some of the sisters to the “Night Before Christmas” poem changed to be about Christ instead of Santa and then we did a really cool craft, the picture you see entitled ” The Christmas Nail”.  I love these meetings.  I miss the spiritual uplift I get from our Relief Society meeting on Sundays (it’s a class similar to Sunday School, which we also have) as I teach in Primary (children’s classes) during that time, but the children are fun too, and I get my spiritual uplift from Sacrament meeting and preparing the lessons for Primary. :)

With warmer temps coming this week end I plan on taking advantage of the wonderful 60′s while I can before our negative temps arrive in six weeks or so.  Hope you all have a wonderful week end as well.  :)

My Balcony

Ahhh, Spring!!  The birds are singing and it’s beautiful with the trees flowering and leafing out here and yesterday was hot as heck!!  We’ve been in the 50′s and 60′s until Thursday when we hit upper 70′s and yesterday we were mid 80′s,  Sheesh.  This week will be back in the 60′s again, thank goodness because the air conditioning isn’t working yet at the bank I’m working at.  They are still doing repair and rebuild work after the big flood here in Cedar Rapids last year.   Anyway this is a picture of my balcony.  It’s not screened in like my apt in TN but it is so wonderful to have a balcony again.  I have a place to put my plants outside and to sit and spin or knit (when it isn’t raining or way to hot.  I didn’t go out on my balcony in TN when it was way to hot either ;P).  

 My life has been a bit busy this last week.  8 to 5  job and I have to get up at 5:45 (get ready, make lunch, take care of Thor) because I have to leave by 7:15.  I am working down town (about 16 to 17 min from where I live) and there is no parking lot at the bank, only metered parking on the street, so I had to pay for a parking permit to park in a parkade and walk 3 blocks to work.  I really don’t mind the walk (and there is a skywalk that goes from building to building so I won’t get wet if it rains, but it’s a bit of a meandering walk that takes an extra 7 min or so to walk), just hate having to leave 15 or more min earlier :P.  Tons of stuff to learn in the new job (isn’t that always the case? :P) and that leaves me drained when I get home.  Had a couple of evening things I had to attend to this last week and still try to get to bed between 9 and 9:30 pm so I can start all over again at 5:45 am the next morning.  It’ll be much better after I adjust to the new stuff and time period.  Saturdays are busy too with laundry and errands, but I’ll get a routine down, put some fun back in my life and it will all be good. :)

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This is something my sister has been working on.  It’s called silver clay.  I’d never heard of it but they put silver powder (yeah the real stuff!) in clay and she said you have to fire it after you have finished making whatever it is you are going to make with it.  I think she did a wonderful job.   She’s rather crafty too (making things, not sly - sly to me is not a good thing to be, ie decietful, full of trickery :P), guess crafting things runs in my family :).

Oh yeah, to my son who just finished his 4th blanket in the last month!!    PFFFT :P  I’m working on Jade’s afghan, I did some rows today :P.  Should have some evening time to work on it this coming week :).

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This is a frame that I enjoy cutting the pictures out to fit on the mat.  It looks pretty cool and I’ve made a few of them as gifts.  I really need to make me one ;P.  I hope this is large enough to show off the wonderful pictures.

I got the call I was waiting for today, I start work on Monday. :)  I really don’t feel stressed out about this job, not that I think it will be a piece of cake, but I feel at peace with it.

My grand daughter has been asking me all week, when I go to pick her up from school, if I am knitting on her afghan, as she picks it up and cuddles that luciously soft yarn :P.  I guess I should be working on it. :P  With the unpacking and trying to get a job I just haven’t felt like working on a project that required concentration.  I’ve knit two of the soap holders, one as a birthday gift to my previous supervisor and one for my grand daughter (who loved the special custom made Sandalwood/Rose soap and the holder.)  I should be getting that last skein of yarn I purchased last week soon.  I think I will still be about 3 skeins short, but I will keep trying to track them down.