Too much time on my hands?

Click the title - see what you get...........

SIBS!!! Read up!

The following letter was waiting for me today after work! Maybe some of you got the same letter, but here it is anyway. We will be driving up to Okoboji that day for the week, so of course I will be making Bill stop in DC first before we trek on. This was such a wonderful surprise!!!!
PLEASE keep me up to date if anyone wants anything out of this list - we'll do our best. I'm still in shock - HOW COOL!

Just for Fun

New 12-Week Commitment

I started a 12-week journey in a new study by Beth Moore last night. If any of you have done one of her workbooks, you know that there is work involved, and lots of it. There are 36 in our group, which has its pros and cons. Too many in the group doesn't lead to much discussion time, but it's good to see that many want to do this study and work. As is typical with this author, the group will dwindle as time goes on because it is time consuming. But I absolutely love all the digging and probing and finding things out for myself that Beth Moore encourages. Hard to fit discussion and an hour video in an hour and fifteen minutes. :) Anyway, if any of you who love to dig and discover, find a group in town doing one of these studies and join in. Beth Moore is a fantastic author and speaker. (check out the Living Proof Ministries link to the left)

p.s. And me being a glutton for punishment signed up for another Beth Moore journey across town starting in September. But that one I get to do with my daughter. How cool is that!

Shawl Update

I was so excited that the medium gray came today that I had to sit for a little bit after work to see how it was going to look. This is the bottom point on the back side of the shawl. There, now I've proven that I CAN DO IT! :) Twenty-four rows and 6 hours into it, not too shabby. Now that a pattern has finally shown up, the rows don't take as long as before. Doesn't look like a lot yet, but just you all wait. You'll see!

p.s. Finally found a way to get a quality photo up of the ultimate goal. :)

I just HAVE to blog....

Here is our oldest granddaughter, Abby, starting off her fall season of soccer with the Bengals (same as spring time). They won, and by such a high margin, I can't even remember! They did so good and have such a neat little team. She really enjoys this - and it's fun watching her play.
And low and behold, Tyler's old roommate Brian (some of you will remember him as the cow on Halloween) stopped over with their new baby Saturday. Here is Brian and Carter, who is two months old. He is such a proud papa - of course we offered to babysit when they need. Talk about a baby that is ALL boy!
Here sits the rest of my knitted dishcloths. Three are done, one needs ends woven in. Carole, I hope you can use these!!!!!

Decided to order the color I tried subbing in the Icelandic Shawl as they had been out when I originally ordered. The blue in the picture of yarn I posted earlier just bothered me. They e-mailed me this weekend saying the medium gray was available now, so I'm on hold till that comes in. Which is fine.

I need to think of something to knit in red, for the women's heart disease awareness. Any ideas on something that would be simple and I could give away?

The weekend was terrific. Along with babies and soccer, we did go to the State Fair and had a riot!!!!! We enjoyed the Nebraska Lottery booth where I got to show that an old lady CAN play Guitar Hero and beat the youngin's once in awhile. I got 2 free scratch off lottery tickets just for playing the way I did! WoooooHOOOOOO We have never really gone alone without small children, and we have to say that evaluating all we did on our drive home, we have one heck of a great time. :)

Hope all of you are doing good.

Simple Updates

It's State Fair time once again, and the weather looks like it will be cooler than normal, maybe rainy (which is fine for the old folk like us). Looking forward to spending a few hours out there later today, check out the scenery. One of the gals in my knitting group has entered one or two things and we want to check out how she did, or if it's even been judged yet.

I have no photos to show, but there are two more dishcloths done (cables on one, jack-o-lantern on the other), the front of the doll/baby dress is finished, and the first 8 rows of the Icelandic shawl is complete as of this morning. The special needles I ordered for the shawl came yesterday, but I ordered a set that is too short so had to re-order the correct ones. Senior moment? Nah, couldn't be that. :) I was hoping to have a dedicated set for this project.

The best part of all this is the shawl. I am so glad that the encouragement came and I took the plunge. Sitting there and working on it keeps my mind focused on the giftee (Abby) and her future. Wonderful prayer time, hopeful wishing time and just plain happy thinking time. It takes an average of a half hour per row right now (this will be lacey) so that means there's been more than 4 hours put into it already. But Bill and I discussed it and when there is someone so precious to be doing it for, the time is nothing. We are both excited to see this project's progress. (Shhh, Season - don't you tell her one thing about this.)

Here's hoping everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

Abby's First Day of FIRST GRADE

Here is Abby proudly showing off the sign her mom made her to show it's really her first day of first grade.

Getting a great hug from little brother during the picture taking time.

Have to have one with the old lady in it...........

And those grandma melting eyes.

Holy mackerel, is he his mother's son or what!

Another update......am I boring you?

Here is the picture of the felted purse I did, still not quite dry on the inside. Probably should have left it in the dryer a tad bit more. Oh, well. I haven't made slits for the handles yet, little afraid to do that. But they say it should work! I'll slit them another day. Here is the beautiful yarns that came in today from New York for the Icelandic Shawl!!!! Aren't they beautiful? I've never worked with high end yarn before so this should be double fun. OK, this means I'm committed! Now to figure out the graphs and junk on the actual pattern. :) We'll give it the old college try for sure.
p.s. Tuesday is Abby's first day of school as a FIRST GRADER @ LCS!!!!! YIKES!

Monday Updates

The felted purse below is one I bought yarn for with Carole on Saturday. I finished it yesterday and put a crocheted cabbage rose on the front for fun. I've never felted anything before, and I actually LIKED it! Purse is too small for me, but it will make a good gift for someone. I did mine in green and brown. It is still drying this morning when I left for work - must be the wool factor in it. Since I know I like this effect I'll have to do more investigating on how to shape after washing. This is so small that I shaped it with a mini-phonebook. :)

This is the 15 year project written about earlier. The yarn should hopefully arrive from New York in the next day or two, and I spent the money to have good needles sent in, too. All in all, it's still around half of what I had envisioned it to cost even counting all the shipping and whatnot. Both my sisters had awesome input on this, even Bill did. So as soon as it all comes in and I get something visible done I'll update you all with the real thing.

This doll/baby project is just a fun one that I found through a friend on Facebook. The woman I met does incredible work and was very inspiring that I could do one, too. If it doesn't go to some grandchild (if there are more) it will look wonderful on my own baby doll that Donna used in a high school play to play the baby Jesus (minus the mustache that got drawn on her). Doing this in yellow, because I had it on hand, so we'll call it lemon meringue.

The LincolnKnitters meeting on Saturday was interesting. Met a lot of addicted women like me, all ages which was so nice to see. There were a couple of sock knitters and they swore they'd get me to try some soon. I just laughed at 'em. :) This group is a chapter of the national group, so if I want to continue on that means joining the TKGA with dues and stuff. Still thinking on that one.

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A SUPER WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Silly Dishcloth #4

Here is #4. Just couldn't wait for the August mid-month pattern to come out today, so just HAD to start one last night. This was from April, diamonds ya know. :) Got the first clue (9 rows) done on the one released today. I have to say, it's looking fancy already!

Going to start actually attending (in person) the Lincoln Knitting Guild, and not just watching everything go by on the internet. Meeting is Saturday at noon and I will even get to learn something new, a technique I've read about, but never knew how to even attempt it. So no pressure here, huh? New group, new people, new technique, all by myself.......... hmmmmmmmmm. Gotta live up to my motto I guess. Try something new every day (if possible).

And I've taken the plunge on a 15 year goal, Lord willing I live that long to finish it. After showing my sister the pattern this week, and just getting the right amount of encouragement AND a price for materials I could NOT pass up, I am now committed to it. I will share once everything arrives and a good start has been made. Just know for me, this is huge. Not just a square dishcloth. More to come on this topic hopefully in September.

Third Dishcloth

OK, everyone. I have a third dishcloth done and I think I've found some people who will take these off my hands. Kind of weird I know, but I just like doing them - I don't necessarily want to keep them. Going toJoann's today and hopefully will find more fall-ish and Halloween colors so I can do bats and jack-o-lanterns for the kids. Hobby Lobby didn't have any of the deep colors I was looking for last weekend. Hopefully today!

Intruducing - The Turtles (not the 60's band)

And who says turtles can't be trained? Here are Bill's three turtles (finally) doing a pyramid. Poor things will probably never have names, but they can sure do some fancy maneuvers.
Bill's just being silly. But they got a clean tank out of all the hard work they did for the camera.

Bonus trick by Luv - when he hangs on, HE HANGS ON!

Our Anniversary

Well, to start off with it's hard to believe we've been married longer than I've been alive - I'm only 29! Right?!? :) Anyway, this is the most gorgeous cake Season brought over this afternoon along with great photos framed of her and their kids - couldn't be better than that.

It was great fun seeing the kids and letting them meet Sky and Blade for the first time. Abby wasn't afraid one bit - Hunter was a little on the cautious side and that's okay.

Bill got a couple of shots of the kids playing with hats while Season and I had a good tug of war playing Guitar Hero.

A lot of fun had by all - thank you so very very much.

Yep, She's Lost It

I had to use up the scraps from the first one!

What Am I Thinking????

With this new freedom around the house, I've gone a little nuts. I joined a dishcloth KAL (knit-a-long) group on Yahoo. Of course me with no patience, went to Walmart after work and bought the stuff to make August's dishcloth, a whopping $1.27 and that will make 2 of these. Sat down and had the first of two designs for August done by dinner time. So here it is - now, who wants it? :) Next design won't come out for 2 weeks. And I didn't wait for the clues to come out daily (5 to 6 rows per day), I had to do the whole thing, right NOW! Patience? What's that?

Can you tell this is a dolphin? Bill guessed it was a beaver - go figure. :)

Playtime at the Zoo

As Bill was getting ready to clean some of the wildlife's habitats, he decided to take Soapy outside and let the critter play. Jack wanted to play SO badly. He did get a smooch in on Soapy's mug though.

p.s. Bill isn't happy the turtles didn't make it onto the blog. :( I don't see him taking their pictures either!

Welcome to the 'Zant Zoo

After getting ready to actually go beat the 100 degree weather and visit the county fair, we decided to take some pix of our zoo. The only thing missing is the tank with 3 unnamed turtles, which we forgot about. So here is your tour folks. Enjoy. (And don't laugh too hard)

Age comes first, so here are Jack & Winnie saying goodbye to us as we are leaving for the county fair. Didn't know how long we'd be and with their age, poor pups have to be in their kennel, right by the A/C.
This frog doesn't have a name, he's just the weirdest thing ever. Looks actually like a big pile of you know what. Here he is trying to balance between the water and the rock parts of his tank.

Next is the White Striped Gecko that Bill adopted. The pet store
didn't think they could sell him because he dropped his tail. As you can see, he is becoming well adjusted and growing a tail back.

Here is Bill with his pride and joy, Soapy. Soapy is a Blue-Tongued Australian Skink. This critter has grown so much in the last three months, I should have recorded it better.
Soapy (Raegan named this one)
As we go up the stairs and into the naturally lit world, we come to the two parakeets, Blade and Sky. These are absolutely beautiful birds and I love 'em. Sky is the blue one (duh) and the noisiest of the two. We sit and make fun of them talking to each other because they sound like an old married couple.
Next we wander outside to the back yard and find the pond full of koi, none of which are named. This photo doesn't do them justice as there are some rather large ones in there, but we couldn't lure them out with food for this shot, just the littler ones.


We only had one water lily out showing off today.

And of course, what's better than a nap on the bank, or anywhere for that matter on a Sunday afternoon.

There you have it, the 'Zant Zoo.

Yep, it's a 'me' project......

Too hot to hit the county fair and the house is so quiet (I miss the little ones), something we haven't experienced for quite a while. So I dug out one of my four trillion projects, one that I started on our April vacation but only got one inch done on it. I've made great progress in the past two evenings and today. I'm not showing you all how much I've done, it's too much pressure to complete it then. But wanted to share the coolness of the pattern and the look. So far I have ..........................done. (Told ya, I'm not telling.) It's been fun to work on a project that isn't for someone else this time. The project photo is not the color I'm using, so look at the swatch of cream/brown that I'm doing it in.

Empty Nesters Again

An update on the household: We are for the moment true empty nesters again, except for Jack and Winnie. And by cracky, they count for something! We have more than enough animals in the house to keep us company. Did you know we have two parakeets now named Sky and Blade? Our 3 turtles remain unnamed and the PacMan frog croaked, so that leaves the 2 lizards, Soapy and Luv, and a few fish in a tank. And of course there's Bill. :) HA!!

County Fair this weekend and it will make a great time to connect with one another again, for free even.

A Small "Yarn"

Leave it to "Lola" to know the heart of a craft-a-holic. And also, isn't Vanna White brilliant to be 50 years old and just NOW start her own line of yarn? I guess there is hope for us yet. :)