I saw this cute and cleverly costumed couple while out at lunch with my daughter Chynna. I took this with my cell phone and dude, sorry I cut your head out of the picture. I was focusing on the shirts. Best. Costume. Ever.
I will be spending the rest of this day working on something Halloweeny. Either my cross stitch or my ghostie socks. What the heck, probably both.
However you intend to celebrate (or not celebrate) have a fabulous day!
I’m happy to say that the new camera cord fixed the problem of not being able to download pictures without removing the SD card and placing it in the laptop. Doable but annoying. I’m grateful that this camera that I seem determined to hang on to rather than buy a new one has decided to allow me to do so. Yes, I could get a comparable one. And I can even get it in purple. But I don’t want to. I love this little camera, it’s nice and takes good pictures without me having to fiddle with a lot of crap. I’m not accomplished with the camera like my dear friend Meli (HI MELI!!), so easy is a good thing for me.
I happy that I finally finished what was supposed to be a quick hat, but took a bit longer than I wanted because I had to hunt down, give up on hunting down and then go purchase sz 9 dpns. Why did I not already have that size? I must have at one time because I found three in that size and that brand comes in packs of five. Perhaps I should stop using and then losing them as hairsticks 😉
I’m happy that I went and had a fabulous time at Knit Night last night, I did most of the hat finishing there. I handed each lady one of the candy corn stitch markers that I made and down the most lovely pumpkin spice late ever. Our Libi shared a slice of pumpkin pie cheese cake. YUM! I miss Borders terribly but Barnes and Noble is purt near as good. Cafe? Check. Books? Check. Magazines? Check. Comfy chairs in a corner? Um, not so much. I do just fine at the tables and it’s often easier for me to have a little table in front of me for many knitting projects but some of our ladies do better in the comfy chairs. We alternate our knit nights between B&N and the mall which has a nice little comfy spot with comfy chairs and chairs with tables. And really, how can you go wrong with comfy chairs? The nearby food court is kind of a bonus as well. Too bad the mall closes an hour earlier than B&N.
Here is my normal view when I’m on my computer. Yes, Keaton is draped over my arm.
The yarn I was waiting for has arrived! I ordered a few more colors in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (love, love them) that I wanted to check against the paint chips before I decided on the final colors for The Scarf.
I compared the new colors with the paint chips. I swapped out the Snickerdoodle for the Almond. That was an easy decision, I must have ordered the Snickerdoodle back when Almond was either discontinued or out of stock. I kept Caution instead of using Tumeric. I decided on Amber Heather instead of Pumpkin. Everything was all arranged in a bin and off I went:
I spent some more time with the Harry Potter 3 scarf:
The alien head scarf hasn’t been photographed recently so here is an update:
I decided not to do the heads all the way down the scarf, I’ll just have two on each end.
And three more scarves that are currently on the needles, but not getting much attention at the moment:
I asked Ditch to choose a favorite. She said she’ll get back to me after several hours of careful consideration and thoughtful study.
On the 15th, we went to Witches Night Out in Gardner Village with Wendy, her DH and DDs. Our girls looked like this: 
We saw great costumes like this:
This is Chynna getting hugged by the big skeleton.
And we braved this to get fudge at Sweet Aftons:
It was totally worth it. We had a nice time, as always, at Witch’s Night Out even though it was a little odd to have the menfolk along. Maybe next year we can do it without them and have a real girl’s night out. There were tons of great costumes and every year I go I wish I had dressed up a little more. I keep vowing that I will either find or make a witch hat that fits and will stay on my head. We had a dinner of yummy soup and chili in fabulous bread bowls with scones for dessert. After getting fudge and caramel apples at the candy store I decided that I’d absorbed enough of the general splendor and went home. The place was crazy crowded and even though for the last few years Gardner Village advertised that this event should be for 18+ (there kid festivities during the day all during the month of October), we were dodging numerous stroller and little kids. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind little kids, especially all dressed up in their Halloween finery, but it really would have been nice to have a whole lot less of them around that evening. I wish more people had paid attention, just sayin’ .
I made more stitch markers with some beads that I found online at the Oriental Trading Company and added a few beads to the charm bracelet that I made. I’ve got a bit to learn about making charms and discovered that I need a slightly different type of fliers.
Chynna made some lovely looking nachos with those Halloween tortilla chips I found a while back.
Do not fear that this will turn into a cooking blog. I rarely cook 🙂
You just can’t beat really cute Halloween stitching accessories 🙂
I’ve been thinking of my dear best friends, Wendy and Elizabeth while I’ve cross stitched for the last two days. They are both cross stitchers who tend to finish many more projects than I do. It doesn’t seem to matter what hobby I take up, I don’t finish things. I seem to be content to just work on stuff.
I didn’t take a picture before I started stitching so I used Paint (dang, I miss my Paint Shop Pro, that’s probably one of the things I lost when my back hard drive died) to show what the piece looked like before. I’m a slow stitcher, but I’m pleased with my progress.
Last night, I thought about all the fabulous patterns that I’m probably never going to do and I was sad. I have a boat load of specialty fibers and hand dyed fabrics. Neither of my daughters are interested in knitting or cross stitch, so I’ll have to hope for grandchildren to pass the crafts on to. I thought about how I should get rid of, donate, or sell (I have $$$$ tied up in all the stash I’ve collected) most of my cross stitch stuff and that made me even more sad. I love to cross stitch. In fact, two-ish years ago just before I hit my “I must knit” stage I was in an “I must cross stitch” stage. It did the same thing for me that knitting has done. It was calming, soothing and did quite a lot to keep the yappy dog in my brain at bay when playing video games no longer did the trick. It is a hobby I love and I have so many wonderful projects to work on. My favorites are the Halloween projects which I rarely seem to finish by Halloween but adored working on during the month of October.
I think I’m going to set aside a day that I do certain things, Tuesdays are for spinning, Wednesdays are for cross stitching, etc. I should probably leave one day that I do whatever the heck I want. Then again, will adding a measure of discipline to my hobbies make them more satisfactory or add an equal measure of tedium? Do I simply need more variety? Heaven knows, I need more discipline. Ick.
There are so many things I want to do, spin, knit, crochet, cross stitch, dye, read (oh so many book are languishing in my stash), write in my journal (holy cow, do I need to set a day for that too?) that I often end up doing nothing, or spending hours playing on my computer (Ravelry, I’m looking at you) because I can’t settle on which one to settle down with.
Speaking of never finishing things, never say never! I did finish the peachy crochet blanket that will go into my Future Grandchildren stash. I made it *almost* all the way around the edge with single crochet border with the yarn ending a couple of inches from the finish line. I shrugged, tied it off and told myself not to worry about it. Amazingly enough, I haven’t 🙂
P.S. I know Comic Sans gets a lot of flak from The U. S. Dept. of They, but I think it’s cute and I’m excited that I figured out how to change the font on my blog 🙂
I’ve been itching to make some Halloween stitch markers for several weeks now, ever since I went to Gardner Village with my dear friend, Marji. There is an adorable bead store up there that I would swear had some really cute Halloween beads. In another store up there I bought this really cute bracelet that I seem to remember was made out of some of those beads. I decided I wanted to make some stitch markers out of the same kinds of beads but didn’t get them while I was up there. It’s a bit of a drive for me so I thought, no biggie, I’ll just hop over to Robert’s Michael’s um, Jo-Ann’s, crap.. Hobby Lobby, holy cow seriously? No Halloween beads anywhere in these stores?
Yesterday, I put my foot down begged my daughter to go to Gardner Village with me but oh nooooo, she wanted to stay home and do homework. How did I end up with a responsible child? Had I not been present at her birth I might have some serious questions about her origins. She did agree, bless her heart, to go to a local bead store here in Orem called The Bead Fairy. The cuteness! Beads were obtained. Stitch marker construction then commenced after dinner and cookies.
I became increasingly dissatisfied with my stitch marker efforts and quit, hoping that the beading fairies would come in the night and fix them. Hey, it worked with tole painting.
I took a look at my stitch markers this morning, make a few more and then decided that maybe they needed a little more time to marinate before I would really come to love them. While I was waiting, I made a bracelet out of the same beads and a few more that I have in my bead stash.
Many, many moons ago I knitted a Kitty Pi. I finally tossed it into the washer and felted it. So far no cats have deigned to hang out in it long enough for me to catch a picture, but I think 2 out of 3 of the cats have given it a try. I’ll post a picture when I manage to catch one of them in it.
I’ve started listening to podcasts! Wow, I feel like a real part of the Knitting Scene of the 20th Century. I have knitting ebooks, patterns that are only .pdf files and not taking up shelf space, and I hang out in Ravelry. Currently I am listening to KnitPurlGurl. She has a few reviews during each podcast that I’ve liked listening to. I might be in danger of having her opening song stuck in my head.
While listening to the podcasts, I got a lot of crocheting on this peachy colored blanket that I had intended to make for my sister when she had her second child. A boy arrived and I decided that this yarn wasn’t for a boy so I put it aside. This blanket will now go in the For Future Grandchildren Box. One more skein of yarn on this puppy and I’m done 🙂 This is made from Lion Brand Homespun Baby. I don’t remember the color name, I bought it years ago and the ball bands are long gone. It’s a plain granny square made with a size I hook. It goes really fast and I’m hoping to finish it tonight.
I listened to General Conference with my family and enjoyed the talks.
Earlier in the week, I found really cute Halloween chips that I just had to have!
I put pumpkins on my porch.
This is going to be my month of decluttering. David and I both spent some time on Sunday getting rid of stuff we no longer need. It felt great! More decluttering to follow! Remember, knitting gets rid of stash. Stash can be clutter. So, knitting equals decluttering!
I got some of the Halloween decorations out and will start distributing them throughout the house this week. This is one of my favorites. It’s just a block of wood, painted orange and stuff added to make it look pumpkin-ish. I was going to make some of my own, once, and even had my dad cut some large blocks of wood for me, but my usual laziness in the crafting area decreed this was never going to happen. I got rid of the wood years later.
Does dreaming about knitting dishcloths mean I’m spending too much time looking at all the cute dishcloth patterns out there? If I didn’t have a bit of Halloween knitting that I really want to do and a bunch of Christmas (eeeek – I said it) knitting to do I would spend all my time knitting as many of these dishcloths as I possibly could. I may even have to knit a few of the baby bibs to put into the Future Grandchildren stash.
David and I went on a lovely drive on Saturday up the canyon. The colors and scenery were beautiful. I didn’t take my camera so no pictures 🙁 I should go on another quickie drive up there to get some shots.
How can something look so cute, smell so fabulous and taste so awful? Candy corn is a decoration at my house. Looks cute! Tastes nasty! Looks cute! Tastes nasty!
My camera currently won’t connect to my computer. Bleh. At least I can take the SD card out and pop it directly into my laptop, but what a pain.
My wonderful Explorer is gone forever and I’ve come to terms with that. Why should it matter that I no longer have a certain car? After all, I’ve gone through more than a few cars in my lifetime. When I still lived with my parents I drove a red Ford Bronco that was a lot of fun. My Dad still has it, or did a few months ago. My first car that was mine, belonging to me and no one else was an adorable red Pontiac Sunbird with a sunroof. It was given to me by my father after a small motor scooter accident left me without a vehicle and no funds to buy a new one. The next car was a blue Pontiac Sunbird that wasn’t anywhere near as cute, but was functional and had 4 doors that I quickly learned to appreciate. There were a couple of others throughout the years and they are also gone. I don’t really miss them. Cars are necessary evils and often seem to be a lot of trouble. But see, I love to drive. Love, love, love, love to drive. I love the sound of the wind whipping through the windows. I love the feel of the movement. I love the sound and the feel of the engine humming (or roaring) around my body. Being able to get into a car and go anywhere I please has always given me this exhilarating sense of freedom. I felt I had control over my life if I weren’t stuck at home dependent on someone else to get me places. I can get these things with any car that I own, so why was the Explorer special? What makes it so much more special than my Mustang convertible that as I car I love far more than I did the Explorer? Seriously, it’s just a hunk of metal with wheels and bits of fabric attached.
The Explorer was the first car that I shopped or and paid for by myself. It wasn’t given to me or loaned to me by a parent and it wasn’t purchased in conjunction with or by a husband. I obtained it by myself. Even though I was still married, I was supporting myself, by myself. It was one of my great leaps of independence. I didn’t give it up and move on to something more suitable. It was perfect for my family’s needs and was a perfect car for my teenagers to drive. It was reliable, safe and since getting a new engine put in, I kept it well maintained. It was taken from me in what looked like an innocuous accident. Someone wasn’t paying attention and I lost my car.
The body shop (hello Martin’s Collision in Orem, UT – I’m looking at you) pulled what I think is a sneaky move and a fast one and wouldn’t tell me the one thing I needed to know. Was it drivable? Could I just get the worst bits of the rear part fixed and have a drivable but ugly car? They gave me and the insurance company a long detailed list of the body damage but wouldn’t tell me if the car was drivable. Did it have wheel or axel damage? Did it only need a simple alignment? I kept asking but I kept getting hemmed at and hawed at and mumbled excuses about what the the insurance company would or wouldn’t approve. They called the insurance company for everything else but not on this one thing. I was too upset and freaked out at the time to insist or stand my ground. Now that it’s all over I know what I should have done and should have insisted on so that I could make an informed decision. But back then? I just wasn’t able to. The mechanic offered to buy the car from me for a little more than what the salvage company offered me and now probably is going to make a lot of money on my misfortune. Yes, the mechanic that works for the body shop that wouldn’t give me the information that I wanted. At least I was able to get a salvage title on the car with relatively little hassle. The mechanic wanted it to have a clean title because then he could get more money for the car, but guess what buddy? That’s illegal. If a car it totaled by the insurance company you have to get a salvage title for it before selling it and the car has to be inspected before it can get a ‘rebuilt vehicle’ title. At the end I was finally able to tell the people at Martin’s Collision that I wasn’t happy with how things went down while the strategically placed cute girls at the counter smiled and nodded and spouted their excuses. No, I won’t be going back there if ever, God forbid, I should have to take a car in for body work. Btw, if any of you should find yourselves in a similar position – remember to ask the body shop how much the storage fee is for the car while it’s sitting there waiting for the insurance company to approve the work. Yes, there was a storage fee for each day the car had to sit there. Oh don’t worry, I was told, we charge that to the insurance company. Um yeah, but guys? You do know that the insurance companies pass that savings on to us, right?
Thankfully, all that is over and we are moving on. What is going to happen next? I have no idea. I’ve given up control over that and it was a really hard thing to do. I’ve learned many things and really hope I don’t ever have to apply that knowledge.
Danica and Betsey in the Explorer. This was Danica’s first time learning to drive. Chynna also started learning to drive in this car and I had every expectation that Joshua would do the same in just over a year.