Monday, August 29, 2005

Woohoo!

The room is done! Well, not completely, but close enough. We still have some trim to put up, and a little more painting to do....other than that, d-o-n-e.
And, today was my first day in my new office. It was...weird. Weird to have time to catch up on cleaning and stuff without having to scurry off to work.
Taffy wants to be my office mascot (I'm not allowing her in the room, in case I get someone that's allergic to cats comin' in). As I was finishing up with a client this morning, I forgot to close the door all the way, and all of a sudden, there's Taffy. Right in front of my client. Who, thankfully, was not allergic. But she just stood there in between us, looking up at [client] like, "Hi, I'm Taffy. How are you?!"
So, knitting.....none.nada.zero....yet. Hopefully next week I'll be caught up on all the cleaning of the construction mess, and get the garage cleaned of all my "extra" office stuff I don't need here, so I can fit my car inside (*sniff* three freakin' days and I'm pining for my garage, how spoiled am I??), and get back to my knitting.
I went and bought a Palm. I like it so far. It seemed like a better fit for me, because I mainly want it for scheduling clients. Now I just need some games for it :)
We were able to go to the fair on Friday night; we ate soooooo much food, since we were basically cramming multiple visits into one due to the office. We had: pork chop sandwiches, cheesy curly fries, a funnel cake, and a cream puff. Yum!

Friday, August 19, 2005

One more week....

Feel sorry for me. Please. I haven't had the energy to do ANY knitting the past few days, with work being busy, and packing, and then coming home to work on getting my office ready (which is not.yet.done....which freaks.me.out.) because I need to move everything next weekend. I can't believe it.
I really want to buy a PDA soon, but I can't decide between a Palm (Tungsten E2) or an HP IPAQ (RX3115) Pocket PC. Any ideas? Maybe someone has one of these and can give me the 411 on it (good and bad)?
The Stephenson County Fair is next week....hopefully we won't be too exhausted, and can go for at least one day. I wish I had hubby's sweater done, so I could enter it in the craft competition. Next year, I guess.
I finally finished HBP the other day. Loved it!! But with all the unanswered questions in this, it'll seem like forever til Book 7 comes out. I'm now reading "Knit One, Kill Two".
Have a good weekend!

Monday, August 15, 2005

Oh boy


My parents got me the best stuff for my birthday! I told my Mom she could get gift ideas from my Amazon.com list, and she listened! I got "Knitting into the Mystery", "Knitting Without Tears", and "Knit One, Kill Two"; plus Friends Season One, and three, count 'em, three Eddie Izzard live DVDs! I won't need to leave the couch for a week!

My Stitches haul


Here is some yarn I just couldn't pass up...it was so soft! And on sale, even better!!
(Brooks Farm Yarn-"Primero"-Kid Mohair)


Buttons buttons, who's got the buttons....me! The wooden ones are for hubby's cardigan, the others are for.......don't know yet! Just had to bring them home with me!


Here's a closeup of the kitty button


And a closeup of the little bug people buttons


This is my super fantabulous purchase. If you do a lot of cable work, like I do, you need one of these! It's a cable hook ring by Mary Snyder Designs. They're a bit pricey, but when you use it for the first time, you know it's worth every penny. No more fumbling for the hook, or constantly dropping it on the floor....you just slip it back on the ring. And they're very beautiful--sterling silver with your choice of gemstone (they also come without a stone). Mine is peridot, my birthstone; she also had (at Stitches) Lapis, Opal, and Iolite


Here is a front view of the cable hook ring


All my goodies from Stitches. I picked up four balls of Zephyr-two white, two Aegean (upper right), the Primero (center top), a Waterfall Scarf Kit from Koenig Farms for my SP (upper left), a skein of Fiesta La Boheme in "Madrid" for my SP (lower left)(I am trying my best not to keep this for myself, I love the color, and it has a great feel to it...shoulda got some for myself!), a button for my SP (next to Fiesta yarn), and my buttons and cable hook ring.

I know, it doesn't look like much, and some of it isn't even for me, but it was enough for this year. Hopefully next year I can save up $$ ahead of time, and I won't have Secret Pal then, so I can spend all the money on myself! (sigh, greed takes over when you're at Stitches). I wanted to get more yarn, but like I said, the cable ring wasn't cheap, but I knew if I didn't get it right then, I would talk myself out of ordering it online. I think I found the yarn I want to use for my cable sweater, though. I didn't get any at Stitches, I figured I'd just order it when I'm ready to make it. It's Cascade Quatro; I couldn't decide which color I liked the best, they're all so beautiful!

At Stitches Midwest


Lots of great stuff to see at Stitches Midwest


Beautiful sweater coats


Lily Chin...chattin' and knittin' and signin' books

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Ahhh, the memories


Today I got to see my best friend from grade school thru high school, who I haven't seen in almost 10 years. I contacted her through Classmates.com, and at the perfect time, too--she was just getting ready to come visit her parents who live about an hour away from me (she lives in New Jersey). As you can see, she's expecting her first child in a few months (I'm on the left, she's on the right in the photo). It was soooo great to see her again and catch up. I hope this will be the re-starting of our wonderful friendship!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Birthday girl

In honor of my birthday today, here are some photos for you to enjoy!


My Mom, June 1974


Here I am, the bundle of joy!!


Me and Grandma


My Great Grandma and Great Grandpa


Was I a cutie pie or what?!?!


Mmmmm, corn!

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Ah, sisterly love

I got a birthday gift in the mail from my sister Angela yesterday. And all I can say is, she really has a great sense of humor--not the gift, the gift was normal, it was the card. The envelope read: "WARNING** Brad-If you are thinking about opening this, not only can I not guarantee your safety-but I know you wouldn't want the gift-it has nothing to do with tools or manly things!" The card: "So you're another year older. Hey, look on the bright side." Inside: "Okay, there is no bright side, there's a bright light, but you're gonna want to stay away from that." Written inside: "HAHAHAHA! Well I thought it was funny-and you know what I realized also? Is that you could buy a card for me making fun of my age-but really-deep down-you would be making fun of yourself too. Lori-you will always be older than me (and blonde, it's something else for me to fall back on) so the jokes will more than likely never stop. Don't cry, it's your birthday! Angela"
What a comedian! At least my husband doesn't get left out, right?! He knew he was in for it, though, at our wedding. My sisters, giddy because they were together again (Angela lives in Arizona, Amy lives in West Chicago; oh yeah, and they're twins), teased poor Brad all during our portraits...calling him "fresh meat" and other silly things.
....but I'll get her back--I get to tease her about my gift actually getting to me before my birthday. She is forever sending gifts late, and the kicker is she works for the post office!

Friday, August 05, 2005

Another week gone

Geez, it's Friday again?! Gack. Only three more days til my birthday--double gack. I'm sooo done with birthdays. What a pain.
Well, I finished HP5 last night (well, 12:30 this morning), so I'm breaking into Book 6 tonight! Finally!!
And I'm getting a few rows of knitting done every night. I am so ready to be done with this sweater, and unfortunately I still have frogging and re-knitting to do after the sleeves. :P
Have a great weekend.

Only 7 more days til Stitches Midwest!

Monday, August 01, 2005

Secret Pal stuff

Oh boy, I got another package from my secret pal! It had a needle sizer, three balls of yarn (two of a really yummy purple-y yarn, which I'll probably make into a shawl or scarf before the cold weather comes, and a red ribbon yarn, which still hasn't told me what it wants to be yet). Thank you secret pal!

I haven't gotten very far on the sleeves I'm working on, but I haven't had to frog them any more, which is a big plus. I really really really want to start a shawl, but I promised myself I wouldn't buy any yarn until Stitches Midwest, so I have to wait another......11 days. Sigh.

My office is really coming along, which is good considering hubby has exactly four more weeks to finish it!


Here is a photo of the house, right after we moved in. We kept saying how we hated the color of those shutters, but it took us two years to finally take 'em down and re-paint


Our home, with freshly painted shutters


I got some goodies from my secret pal on Friday


Taffy is more excited about the open door than the yarn right next to her