Sock Monkey No. 1

At long last, I have finished a project! (Yaaaaay). Here's the first of several (I hope) sock monkeys. I'm going to dress this one up with a tutu and bows and give "her" to Brianna for Christmas.

Happy Knitting Everyone! :D

In the Midst of a Mood Swing...

I am annoyed. I intend to whine. If you're not in the mood for a rant, I suggest you walk away or close your browser now. You know the expression that says, "Bad things come in threes." Well, in my case, it's four (so far). First of all, my car died. The little glorified golfcart known as my red Kia just ground to a halt and stopped.




Shortly after and secondly, the well water pump died. Imagine having company at your house (be they family or not) and the toilets won't flush because there is no (I repeat NO) running water for 36 hours. In a word, it sucked (or more specifically, didn't).

Third, I made a terrible discovery in the mirror. I was scratching my face and I felt something prickly. Have you ever touched a cactus and caught a little spine under your skin? That's what it felt like. Not painful, just there and disconcerting. I made my way to the mirror to pull out the prickle and OH SHIT! it was a mustache hair. I stood there thinking, "No way! I'm too young!" and visions, like the one below, came to mind.

Yesterday afternoon, my son and I went to have our annual eye checkups. Everything was going along fine until the doctor "clucked," shook his head and made a "Hrumph" sound. "Well, Mrs. Soltani, you're going to need bifocals probably next year. For now, get yourself some reading glasses." I thought to myself, "No f***ing way! I'm too young!" This morning, I went to see my family physician and lovely man that he is, he took excellent care of me. As I was waiting for my brand new prescription of P-R-O-Z-A-C to be filled, I tried on some reading glasses and learned that the damned opthamolgist was right.

I really don't mind aging - - I genuinely don't. What I object to - - STRENUOUSLY - - are the side effects, such as reading glasses, a mustache hair on my upper lip, mood swings of apocalyptic proportions and other indignities. Now that I'm older, I like to think of myself as wiser, more experienced, kinder, more patient (except for today) and a several other nice things. What I'm not coping so well with is going from this...

in principle

to this....

End of rant. Thank you for listening/reading. SWAK!

Summer Fun

Here's how my nephew, Tyler, and my daughter, Andie, have been spending a bit of their
time this summer.

Reading........No.

Volunteering.....I think not.

Playing chess......no way.

Ah, here they are.... (Enjoy!)

And who's recording the insanity?!?! My sister! LOLOLOL Have a great weekend everyone!

Bliss (Debbie & Personal)

Over the 4th of July weekend (oh, how I love a three day weekend!), I went to Maryland to visit my sister. On the 3rd, we went to a cookout at my cousin and her fiance's house. There were lots of assorted family members, excellent food, fireworks and a hot tub. I've edited out all but my arm and part of my leg from the photo (for your viewing pleasure), but needless to say, Friday was wonderful! :)

Another pleasure of mine is getting something wonderful on sale. I consider it a coup if I can find something I like and can use at a serious discount. Did I mention that I'm an Ebay addict?

Birki's Dijon (New in Box) = $35.00

Birki's Calais (New in Box) = $24.00

Using KnitMap.com, I found a "new" yarn store that wasn't far from Denise's home, Crazy for Ewe of Leonardtown, Maryland. The owner was incredibly nice, the store was stocked with amazing fiber and names I've only read about, e.g. E. Lavold, Louisa Harding and others, and there was a sale - - - 40% off of....

O-Wool and

Manos del Uruguay.

Given what I saved, I bought a couple of skeins of Debbie Bliss' Donegal Chunky Tweed too.

So, if you're ever in Leonardtown, Maryland, I'd highly recommend visiting Crazy for Ewe! One last thing; I knit yet another beret. My niece, Taylor, liked Briana's and Andie's berets so well that I did one for her over the weekend.