to open, or not to open..........what, are you crazy!!!!

I recieved an email from my sp just yesterday, informing me that she had sent me 
a package.  She said it would arrive next week.  
Well, wonder of wonders the post office put me out of my misery and send it early!  
Yea!!!!!!

I looked at it for a moment and then opened it.  I admired the pretty Christmas wrap and 
thought  "I should probably wait for Christmas to open this".  I opened the card and
read that the theme for my gifts was "hand made".  At that point I thought "Wait?  Forget that!" and I ripped into each small pack.  

I admired the lavender bubble bath, and thought thankful thoughts about Sabine for writting 
the english translation on the back.  Way cool!  Can't wait to get into that one.  I loooooove lavender.

I gleefully felt the bigger pack and after ripping it open (very neatly, my father would be proud) 
donned my beautiful new wrist warmers.  Love the sparkle and the color!  Kitty loves them too!

I love the delicate and beautiful hand made stitch markers.  How did she know I was thinking of 
making some?  The cat liked them too.  They are now safely put away, out of kitty reach.

My favorite was the book.  Didn't take exact pictures of it, but I will.  She made me a knitting journal, complete with patterns, advice, and important notes on yarn, needles, sizing and yarn estimates.  She put a lot of work into it, and I am almost hesitant to use it, it's so wonderful!  But use it I shall, and I will think of her everytime.  She even included one of her own sock patterns!!!!  I am definitely going to make those!  And use my new stitch markers to keep track!
There is also a hat pattern and clapotis, with room for notes!!  I make copies of patterns and then loose them.  This is the perfect little book to put in the patterns I use and my notes.  Wonderful *sigh*

Sabine, thank you sooooo much!  It's a wonderful gift and you totally rock!!!!!!
 

day 1 - Peppermint Tea

Today I started my Advent Calendar, the one I recieved from my sp.  
Yes, I know it's late, but I claim illness fogged my brain.  It was sitting right next to my
computer, but it didn't register that the first was time to start! I've never done an Advent
event before.  This just puts me in the spirit of the holiday in a different way.  With working in retail, I tend to focus on the whole sales aspect of it, not the meditative thankful aspects of it.
It's nice to be reminded to sit back and take a bit of a break.  
So I just opened it and welcomed the aroma of peppermint.  Yummm.
Thanks Sabine! 

On the needles:
Well, the red and charcoal bag is done, but for the felting.  Now that means I am 6 knitted 
projects, and one check (niece needs cash for school trip to Canada, hope she knows this means
no present, or that this is her present) down, just 4 more to go.  I think the Balloon Bag will be
too big for the younger niece, so I am making her the larger of these.  It should be just small enough for a gameboy, a couple of games and a lip balm.  That should be perfect.  so far it's not
too big and I should be able to finish it today.  Way cool!  Pics to follow.  I still need to find little patterns for things like caps and beanies.  Just two more projects and my goal of finishing
knitted gifts for the bulk of the family will be reached!
Yea!!!!

WoooHooooo!

 Hey, I won the contest!!!!!!  I actually won something!  Shelby emailed me that I won the drawing for her contest.  Don't know what it is yet, can't wait to see.

10 inches and growing!!!!

ya know, somehow that doesn't sound right :-)
but here in all it's growing glory is Imani's purse.


And here is one for one of the little girls.



The other is a deeper purple.

Now I must say thanks to my sp who sent me the cutest get well card.  I really appreciated it
and it made me feel so much better!  Thanks Sabine!  She actually sent me several cards.  I really like them all!

And because I needed a picture of something relaxing, this is my eldest sister (the one we call the Little General) with my nephew, learning to juggle at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.  What is it about kids and jackets?  My nephew refuses to wear one and I usually have to carry and extra along 'cause I know he will eventually get cold *sigh*  Fortunately on this occassion I had a sweatshirt his sister had left at my house (and what is it about kids not understanding the phrase "get all your things together before your mother gets here to pick you up"?)

whine, whine, whine

well, i came home early today. i went to work and stayed for an hour, before i just told everyone isabel was in charge and left. i have a fever, or what passes for a fever for me, and i am tired. my temp is 96. which in a properly hydrated person is probably about a hundred plus. so i am sitting here feeling crappy and listening to my new favorite song, Anna Molly by incubus (see below) and trying to find tickets on line for the show. I think I am going to bed. waaaaaaaah, i feel sick. whine, whine, whine............
at least i have knitting! got the yarn for the coco bag. will start on that when i wake from my nap.

Incubus!!!!!!!!

I know my neighbors must be tired of this by now. After all, it's 12am and I have listened to this song like 6 times. I love this song!!!!! Okay, 'nuff said.

Incubus - Anna Molly

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happy, happy, joy, joy!

Incubus is playing the 9:30 Club and they have a new album!!!!  yea!!  
the tickets aren't on sale yet.  boooooo!!!  neither is the album.  hisss, boooo!!! 
I feel better today!  yea!!!!!!
just finished watching Aeon Flux.  ya know, i actually liked this movie.  it wasn't too bad.  
going to bed now.  still very sleepy.

2:30am, 2 hours and counting

it's been a rough week.  the store was jamming, i missed my sales target, my team 
basically fell apart at the seams on wednesday morning/tuesday night.  
gotta have a planning session with the new assistants.  folks just don't seem to 
understand volume, or initiative.  i mean, don't get me wrong, they are all good people, but why would someone during thanksgiving week, when the traditional items are pumpkin and apple
pie, make only 60 lbs of pumpkin pie filling (makes about 35 pies) and bake only 70 apple pies
(we had 65 special orders).  my assitant didn't check a darn thing *sigh*.  it's not their fault.
 i gave them too much credit.  in the future, i need to assume nothing.  

anyway.  this week i had over 15 hours of overtime in just 4 days.  i am exhausted.  still.  even after having a day off.  i realized today that i had consumed only 2 cups of water in 3 days, and
not taken my allergy meds, again.  i felt sooooo sick today.  i came home from work and fell
asleep for about 4 hours.  then i woke up and ate some ham.  bad move.  i spent the next 3
hours experiencing the worst nausea.  then the usual end result of a bad bout of nausea
occurred and i spent the next hour just lying there, on the sofa.  i really need to take better care
of myself *sigh*  i drank some water and had a nice warm roll with butter.  i feel better, but i
am still concerned.  ya never know.  i also had a nice cup of ginger raspberry tea.  that probably
did the trick.  yes, i know, you really wanted to hear all about this :-)  the roll was courtesy of
my 12 year old nephew (the one in the picture from about 3 posts ago).  he loves to help cook.  
he made the rolls all by himself, with just some hints from his mom and a few questions for his baker auntie.  they were quite good.

on the knitting front.  i am working on the pattern i chose for my sister, but she wants one to match her hat.  the charcoal and beige will be for my other sister i think.  the other one will get
the coco purse.

my awesomely awesome pal!

My pal Sabine informed me i have a gift in the mail.  She is giving me a year subscription to Interweave Knits!  She knows I love the magazine.  She may not know I haunt the website, drooling and downloading free patterns.  She doesn't know that I was seconds away from buying the winter issue, and I was only prevented from doing so because the chicks who entered the book room at Springwater before me purchased the last copy (darn it , but no worries now!)
Thank you Sabine!!  You rock!

New on my itunes list: Jacues Loussier Trio, Bach: The Brandenburgs
New on the needles: The balloon purse
New on the bookshelf: Folk Bags
Madness in the store.
it's four days before thanksgiving and the store is in full gear.  endcaps being built and cases being moved.  i'm being told there is a definite difference in the department when i am there.  that's nice.  sales are higher when i am there, which is good to know.  i'm off today, but going in to check on the team and to make pie fillings.  my goal is to fill two containers, one with pumpkin and the other with pecan.  i also need to make pizza dough 'cause if promised my pie packing crew pizza.  they are going to be 
packing about four hundred pies tomorrow night.  as many as i can get baked and cooled in 6 hours.  all fruit pies.
we are going to really get hit with the pumpkin pies.  the washington post has voted our pumpkin pie the best in DC.  great news and it means awesome sales.  lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it.  it's so exciting being back in the store.
on the knitting front, i found a pattern for a bag for imani.  it's a pattern i wanted to make for her before and forgot about it as soon as i found it.  i'm wondering if I should do it in the original black and white or in charcoal and red, to match her hat and gloves..........

tired, tired, tired.  and sick too.  actually it's my allergies.  i fell asleep on the sofa and woke up with cat in my face.  she wanted food (fell asleep without feeding her last night) and felt i needed to fix that asap.  unfortunatly as well as neglecting to feed her, i neglected to take my allergy meds, as a result, big headache.  a headache that lasted all day and just seemed to get worse.  so, now i am home and ready to sleep.  but i think i will knit first.
i'm going to start on the girls purses tonight.  i couldn't find a shade of purple to match what i have, so i think it's off to springwater to look for another skein tomorrow.  i need a skein of cascade quatro in purple.  also, i bought some mission falls cotton which i will use to make bath stuff.  still haven't found the pattern i wanted, so i will use the patterns i found.  they are in OneSkein

beautiful isn't he.  this is my nephew.  he is the subject of one of my projects.  he wants a hat in red black green and gold, 
something big enough to cover his locs.  the hats we found at hot topic weren't big enough.  
need to  look for a pattern for him. 

this is the last time......

......I am going to attempt to post today.  
I tried about an hour ago, for the 4th time and the 
browser stopped responding.  
I have defragged and I think I am going to bed.  Watching Inuyasha 
first though!  Anyway, found the perfect purse for 2 little girls and here it is! 

noooooooooooooooo!!!!!

this is the third time i have started a post.  
the last one was excellent and had lots of pictures in it!!!  i lost them both.  totally bummed.  i need a cup of tea *sigh*

mmmmmmmm.........

It's 8:30am and time for breakfast.  
I decided to start the day with my favorite food group, just a little piece.  
So now I must once again say Sabine you rock!!!!!!  
Thank you so much for the chocolates.  They are a great way to start my day :-) 

Dude, what is up with this????!!!!!!

 Okay, for the second week in a row I am finding assorted bees staggering around my apartment.  I have never before had a problem with bees in the house, and I know, they are looking for a warm place to hang, but dude, how are they getting in?????  I do not like bees.  I like honey.  I like flowers.  I do not like bees.  Especially not in my apartment, crawling around on the floor where I am about to step!!!!!  Last summer it was ants.  Now it's bees.  I need a new apartment *sigh*

Sigh

Hey, I just discovered the Compose mode.  Well, how do you like that.  How long have I been doing this :-)

Anyway, I am currently slacking on the project front.  I went shopping and purchased a nice sock yarn for my pal and some nifty cotton for myself.  It's actually not for me because I plan to use it for Christmas gifts for others.  I plan to turn it into a soap sack, face cloth and something else trio that I found a pattern for.  Of course, I don't know where the pattern is (I hope it's not in some book I found in the bookstore and didn't purchase) but I will look for it later.  I'm listening to podcasts, Pointy Sticks to be exact.  Saving Cast-On for later.
Well, now that I have figured out how to post links, here is the link to Sarah's Yarns that I tried to post last time.

I'm feeling a little discombobulated.  It was my first day at my new store and I spent the day working the counter, thus none of my plans for the day could be implemented or even considered.  I wanted to reset the floor, get some new products started, check employee files, get my email transfered and up and running.  Alas, I spent the day asking "whole or sliced" and cutting up bread *sigh*  Tomorrow I am an extra body, so I should be able to set my plans in motion.  New products, more products, files, attendance sheets........  Plus I will be on time.  I have two alarm clocks (I don't sleep that heavy, I just don't want to get up) and both had issues this morning.  The first one I forgot to adjust for daylight savings, so it went off at 3am instead of 4am.  The second one I adjusted the time on, but it was set to snooze for some reason and it never went off.  I don't understand this clock.  So instead of arriving for my first day of work on time, relaxed, breakfasted and with a nice cup of tea in hand, I arrived harried, hungry, and 30 minutes late.  
Fortunately I don't have to sign in yet :-)

Back to projects.
I am still working on the red scarf for my sister-in-law.  I haven't touched the red aran sweater for me.  I haven't finished middle sisters gloves.  I haven't started big brothers scarf, or purchased yarn for it (I think he gets red, just like his wife).
I feel the clock ticking away, like some portent of doom, marking the hours until Christmas eve when I look up to find that I don't have presents for most of my faimily and have to rush out to Borders before they close to buy gift cards (again)......... although........ the Home Depot cards did seem to be pretty popular last year...........
On the project plus side, the shawl is for Mom and it's safely zip-loc'd away, as is baby brothers scarf.  I have decided to use my new silk/wool blend to make Cozy from Knitty (fall '04) for myself.

I think this needs a picture, so I present scenes from the Seattle public library.

I got way cool Treats!!!

My wonderful package just arrived from my pal in Germany! I love it, love it, love it. She sent mohair yarn which I will use to make a yummy scarf for myself.
There's Weleda oils in great frangrances. oooooh and the chocolates. Absolutely divine! White chocolate shells surrounding strawberry cream chocolate filling. The bag had more than in the picture but I opened the package while driving to a friends house and she and her husband decided they had to open the chocolates for me :-) And the advent calandar, can't wait until December to try my teas. It's going to be a long wait, but good things come to those who wait. She also enclosed a wonderful card describing my treats and an adorable scarf pattern. And she's not a secret anymore sooooooo thank you Sabine! You rock!

New Yarn!

Let me just take a moment to sing the praises of Sarah's Yarns. I ordered some in a bit of a fit of spending frenzy (though I controlled myself and bought only one cone) and it just arrived!!!!! I had forgotten I had purchased the ruby red and was suprised to open the box and find red and not purple (must be old age, and the fact that I kept changing the color). Now, I was impressed by the prices (which I think are pretty reasonable) and the speedy delivery (gotta love ups) but most of all by the inclusion of sample cards for the yarns!!! She charges for them on the site, but she sent the whole shebang!! I had issues with the colors displayed on the computer. Some of them were so pale, I couldn't really decide if I liked them or not. Having samples of the yarn in my hot little hands is wonderful! I thank the goddess of podcasts, Brenda Dayne for mentioning her.
I also want to thank my secret pal! She sent me the most wonderful e-card. I liked it so much I sent one to my spoilee. She said she is sending my first package. I am veeeeeery excited about that!
Will post pics later of the yarn and the scarf.

Yippieeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Done, done, done, done, done!!!!! Not too shabby for my first lace project ever, hmmmmm?!? I feel very proud of myself. I can see the mistakes (and yes, I did straighten the blocking), but I think that means I should keep it instead of giving it away :-)
lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it!
I even love the fact that I am sleeping on the sofa because my bed is covered with pins and my room smells like wet wool :-)





And here's the picture of the postcard from my pal! It looks like such beautiful place. Just up my vacation alley, history and beauty in one package. Ahhhhh.......

Postcards from Bavaria!

My pal sent me a postcard from her vacation! I was so suprised and tickled to receive it. I stuck it in my purse and promptly forgot it was there, then opened my purse and it made me smile all over again. I'll scan it and post it when I can find the wires to my scanner :-) Thank you so much! You brightened my day.
((Hugs))