I bought a wonderful floss organizer from The Stitchery Magazine which is a catalog of cross stitch projects and accessories. It is totally cool for keeping the floss for a project organized. The product is made by Pako which is in the Netherlands and a non-English speaker wrote the instructions which always makes me laugh. The best sentence was "If the pin does not hold too much yarn, you can as well divide the yarn in the floss organiser"
I have enrolled in a drop spindle spinning class at Twist for the beginning of March. I will learn to spin the yarn. Next I just need to buy some sheep and I am in business. Or maybe an alpaca.
We had snow and freezing rain last night and today. I didn't want to drive on it first thing, so sent an email to my boss and told her I would be in mid morning. I really enjoyed my extra couple of hours at home. I ran the sweeper, did a load of clothes, ironed, cleaned the kitchen while watching old West Wing reruns. That show is absolutely the best show that has ever been on tv. I think I may go to six hour work days. Not. :)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Fiber Study
A few months ago I came up with the idea of having a stitch and "complain" group at work during the lunch hour. I thought about it for quite awhile before I finally got the nerve to put up a sign asking if anyone would be interested in meeting to knit or crochet together. I indicated that if a person didn't know how to do the craft someone would be there to teach them. I was amazed at the reaction of the people on the floor - everyone was very excited, then the word spread to other floors and others expressed an interest too. We had our first meeting last Wednesday in the conference room on my floor. 14 or 15 people showed up, four learned to knit and one learned to crochet. We all had a great time and have decided to meet every Wednesday. Not everyone will turn up every time of course, but this week I know of three more that are planning to come. We talked about doing a joint project where everyone makes just part of the project. Since we work for the school district I came up with the idea of calling the meeting a "Fiber Study".
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Pictures of vacation
Here are a few pictures from the trip. Thought about buying the blue car - NOT - that was a new car for sale at the auction - $226,000. The top picture was taken at the auction - you can see the stage behind us. The next one is the three cousins at the race track.
Vacation
Time to catch up again. We had a wonderful vacation to Arizona last week. Left on Wednesday the 14th. Found out at the airport that traveling with husband is not as easy as thought. His name is on the watch list so it took forever to check in then the CPAP has to be taken apart and checked to be sure it isn't a bomb. GA (My cousin Nancy's husband) picked us up at the airport and took us to their beautiful house in Scottsdale where my brother Gary and his wife Becky were also there. After lunch the guys went to the Russo Steel car show while the gals went shopping. We hit the City North Mall which was too cool. It looked like a main street of a town with little shops. Very expensive little shops. Had to take a picture with my phone of a pair of jeans with lots of bling that cost $280. Thought that cheaper than buying them.
That evening the six of us played a game called Sequence which Dennis and I hadn't played before. It was a lot of fun and now I need to look for one.
On Thursday GA took Gary, Becky, Dennis and I to the Barrett Jackson car auction. That was an experience! I expected quite a few cars, did not expect all the vendors with the cool items of everything you can imagine and tons and tons of cars. We watch this auction on tv each year but that is just the tip of the iceberg. There were over 1,000 cars and every one was beautiful. I took a ton of pictures. In the evening my cousins kids, Greg and Cheri and her husband Doug came for supper. Doug had been at the car show with us and he matched me on taking pictures I think.
Friday morning started out for Dennis and I at 4:30 am with him throwing up. Apparently when the antibiotic says in bold large underlined font to take it with food they really mean it. He was sick most of the day but did manage to go to the gun range in the afternoon. The gals went shopping again. This time we went to a wonderful yarn shop. The owner gave me a bunch of business cards that have a place to keep track of your knitting needles to share back home. I wanted to get a skein of the special yarn that was dyed for that shop but the price they wanted was a bit more than reasonable. I did get a skein of lovely yarn and a book, Becky also got a book. After the yarn shop we drove around Old Town Scottsdale. That is high on the list to visit at length the next time. That evening the kids met us at Rumbi Island Gril and we had supper. It was a neat little place that we don't have here.
Saturday Dennis was better (thank goodness) and we went to the . What a deal. I will not fly to Arizona next time - We will be in the van with the seats stored away. :) This is a 55 acre facility with 1600 booths under tents. You name it - they had it. And the prices were amazing. We had so much fun. After the swap meet we went to the Phoenix NASCAR track. That turned into such a great experience. They were having SCAA car races and they let us go through the tunnel in Gary's truck and we parked and was able to walk all around the pits. It was so cool. After the track the guys dropped us off at the biggest Hobby Lobby I have seen and they went to Cabelas. Cheri came to Hobby Lobby too after dropping Doug off at Cabelas. We shopped then met the guys at Cabelas and a nice customer took a picture of all of us in front of the store. As we drove there we saw the Phoenix stadium where the Cardinals won their playoff game on Sunday.
On Sunday it was sadly time to end a great vacation. The six of us have never spent that much time together and we just had a blast. The hospitality was wonderful and the weather couldn't have been better. Sitting outside knitting in January is just the best. I can see why people snowbird now. GA took us to the airport and as we sat waiting on the plane, they announced they had oversold the plane and needed volunteers to spend another day in the great city. We talked it over and volunteered. We were given food vouchers for the airport, a hotel room at the Residence Inn and two free tickets to fly anywhere in the states. What a deal. We watched the game and then went walking around the area. There was a Chinese mall across the street with a cool grocery store with a live fish market. We saw so many things we had never seen before!
Monday we actually got on the plane and came on home. All good things must come to an end but we went to see the triplets that afternoon and that cheered us up. :) At the swap meet we had t-shirts made for them that had three little girl faces and the words "Yes, we are triplets. I'm -------"
That evening the six of us played a game called Sequence which Dennis and I hadn't played before. It was a lot of fun and now I need to look for one.
On Thursday GA took Gary, Becky, Dennis and I to the Barrett Jackson car auction. That was an experience! I expected quite a few cars, did not expect all the vendors with the cool items of everything you can imagine and tons and tons of cars. We watch this auction on tv each year but that is just the tip of the iceberg. There were over 1,000 cars and every one was beautiful. I took a ton of pictures. In the evening my cousins kids, Greg and Cheri and her husband Doug came for supper. Doug had been at the car show with us and he matched me on taking pictures I think.
Friday morning started out for Dennis and I at 4:30 am with him throwing up. Apparently when the antibiotic says in bold large underlined font to take it with food they really mean it. He was sick most of the day but did manage to go to the gun range in the afternoon. The gals went shopping again. This time we went to a wonderful yarn shop. The owner gave me a bunch of business cards that have a place to keep track of your knitting needles to share back home. I wanted to get a skein of the special yarn that was dyed for that shop but the price they wanted was a bit more than reasonable. I did get a skein of lovely yarn and a book, Becky also got a book. After the yarn shop we drove around Old Town Scottsdale. That is high on the list to visit at length the next time. That evening the kids met us at Rumbi Island Gril and we had supper. It was a neat little place that we don't have here.
Saturday Dennis was better (thank goodness) and we went to the . What a deal. I will not fly to Arizona next time - We will be in the van with the seats stored away. :) This is a 55 acre facility with 1600 booths under tents. You name it - they had it. And the prices were amazing. We had so much fun. After the swap meet we went to the Phoenix NASCAR track. That turned into such a great experience. They were having SCAA car races and they let us go through the tunnel in Gary's truck and we parked and was able to walk all around the pits. It was so cool. After the track the guys dropped us off at the biggest Hobby Lobby I have seen and they went to Cabelas. Cheri came to Hobby Lobby too after dropping Doug off at Cabelas. We shopped then met the guys at Cabelas and a nice customer took a picture of all of us in front of the store. As we drove there we saw the Phoenix stadium where the Cardinals won their playoff game on Sunday.
On Sunday it was sadly time to end a great vacation. The six of us have never spent that much time together and we just had a blast. The hospitality was wonderful and the weather couldn't have been better. Sitting outside knitting in January is just the best. I can see why people snowbird now. GA took us to the airport and as we sat waiting on the plane, they announced they had oversold the plane and needed volunteers to spend another day in the great city. We talked it over and volunteered. We were given food vouchers for the airport, a hotel room at the Residence Inn and two free tickets to fly anywhere in the states. What a deal. We watched the game and then went walking around the area. There was a Chinese mall across the street with a cool grocery store with a live fish market. We saw so many things we had never seen before!
Monday we actually got on the plane and came on home. All good things must come to an end but we went to see the triplets that afternoon and that cheered us up. :) At the swap meet we had t-shirts made for them that had three little girl faces and the words "Yes, we are triplets. I'm -------"
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Happy New Year
Oh my - been a very long time since I have posted. We had a wonderful Christmas - Laura came from Boston, Stacy's family came from Texas. Laura came in on Christmas Day in the evening. Stacy's family came the next day. We went to Jimmy's that night (26th) and had dinner and opened presents. I thing everyone was very happy with their gifts - I know I certainly was. On Saturday James Sr, Stacy, Laura, Jessica and I went shopping for awhile while Dennis and James Jr stayed home. That evening we went back to Jimmys and took pizza, opened stockings and played cards. On Sunday Stacy's family left in time to get home to watch their Cowboys lose big time. Dennis, Laura and I started watching the John Adams miniseries that was on HBO but I bought the dvd from Amazon on sale. It was over 15 hours long but really good. We watched it Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights so we could finish it before Laura left town. On Monday I worked half the day then came home and got Laura and we went shopping at Towne West, Michaels and Tuesday Morning. That evening we went to Carabbes for supper. Tuesday I worked half a day and Laura came up to AMAC and met what few co-workers were working. Then we went to Twist - Laura fell in love with that store as I have. Bought some delightful yarn. After Twist we went to Palette for lunch and then to the Art Museum. The exhibits were great - one was fabric and weavings. After the Art Museum we went to Jimmy's and watched the girls for awhile so they could go look at cars. While there Lily's feeding tube button fell out and I had to put it back in. Not a pleasant experience but she was fine with it and didn't mind at all but of course that was because it was put back in so quickly after falling out so it didn't bother her. That evening we had deer steaks. Wednesday I took Laura to the airport during my lunch break - really hated to see her fly off - she is so far away now. New Years eve was very quiet here except for the fireworks outside - we watched two movies and went to bed. New Year's day Lily's button fell out during her nap and by the time she woke up the hole had started to shut so Jimmy had to take her to the emergency room to have it put back in. She did not enjoy that at all nor did anyone else. Dennis took vacation on Friday so he left on Thursday for deer hunting. I worked Friday and today finally got my house cleaned back up and de-Christmased which is not a word but the decorations are all put away now and my house looks more normal. And that gets things updated. Now I am back to knitting and cross stitching. Knitting a pair of socks for a soldier and cross stitching another Marilyn design.
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