How Lucky Am I?

Today I found someone with 9 skeins of Crystal Palace Cotton Flamme yarn (now discontinued) in a beautiful Plum Wine Color that they are being so generous as to give away. How wonderful is a plum wine color for something Tuscan? Weight and yardage were great also and I knew immediately what this yarn wanted to be...the Tuscany shawl.

Tuscany, a pattern from "No Sheep for You", is one of the first things that caught my eye when I started knitting and, as of yet, I've not knit it up. Well, I will be soon as I was selected to be the lucky recipient of this wonderful yarn! Yippee...

Blooms, Blooms EVERYWHERE

While I knew that a few things had some buds on them, as of yesterday evening the garden was still pretty quiet. This morning, however...

WOWZA! It was like God told everything to open up over night. What beautiful flowers to adore this morning. In the pond, I've got 3 buds and one full open deep purple water iris, my guara is blooming like CRAZY...AND...my gladiolas (one anyway) bloomed!! This is my first attempt at glads. I had to try a few as a "tribute" (LOL) to one of my all time fave movies, "Drop Dead Fred". Anyway, it is a lovely pink/peach color. I'm just thrilled about this morning's new blooms!

Add these to the rose that is fully opened and a few of my light purple iris that are still blooming... it's all so pretty!

The Search Is On for New Wheels

That's right. Momma's getting a new set of wheels. Vroom...vroom.

We've got the Explorer for the family (although adding a 3rd child to the mix has us fearing that we may have to next look at a *cringe* mini-van...but not at this time.

With my old Jeep on its very last leg and with no working air-conditioning (this makes it completely undriveable around here in most of the year..too hot), we were looking at needing to get rid of it and getting some different wheels, mainly for me when driving for work. Before we could sell it; however, we'd have to fix it up (including the A/C)and even then we were going to be lucky to get pennies for it.

Then we heard about the expansion of the existing AirCheckTexas Repair and Replacement Assistance Program. {cue singing angels} Praise the Lord! New wheels...here I come....as soon as I figure out what to get.

Photos Updated

Just a note that I replaced the pix of my recent knitting FOs (Baby Roots Cardigan & Fresh Picked Baby Hat) with clearer photos than the phone camera had originally allowed.

My Little Slugger

Although Saturday's game was cancelled due to all the rain, my DH took our little slugger on up to the YMCA for picture day (which wasn't canceled). While the kids were waiting around, one of the parents took a couple pix of our little ballplayers.

Above: Our little slugger. Below: Our little slugger with a few of his teammates, the Cobras, while they wait to get their pictures taken (our DS is the cutie in the middle).

And So It Begins (Part 1)

So before we can really get working on the master bed/bath remodel, we need to be able to have a place to put the stuff we already have in the room (not much) while we renovate (shoot us now). That spurred "Part 1" of our project... cleaning out the garage.

The GOOD news is that we are getting rid of stuff we don't need and are actually doing some of organization stuff/shelves/etc that we'd talked about doing when we first moved in a few years ago. Right now, the garage and driveway are a disaster zone but I've no doubt that by this evening, we'll be well on our way to having a more organized and cleaner garage (which we SHOULD since it is about a 3 car garage...sad to have enough junk to fill it up).

Anyway, break time is over... better get back to it! Sooner we finish the garage, sooner we can move stuff out to the garage and sooner we can get working on our Master Bedroom/Bath and therefore sooner to work on nursery. Whew! Anyone wanna join the fun and madness?

I'm a Test Knitter!

Okay, so I'm a little excited about this. I don't know why but I am. Fun and challenging at the same time... I have the fun honor of being a test knitter for ADHD Knitting. The Baby Roots Cardigan ended up being my first one. Next on the needles on behalf of ADHD Knitting is going to be the Hippie Bolero. While it does take a little more brain power than I oftentimes have when I sit down to knit...what FUN!!

Baby Roots Cardigan Finished!

Even with the hiccups due to errata in the pattern, this was still one of the fastest things I've ever knit and it is so darn cute! Anyway, I've still yet to get and attach the buttons that will complete this cardigan, but couldn't wait to share with you.

I'm very pleased with the end result of this Baby Roots Cardigan. Now I just have to transcribe my notes so that I can send the errata corrections for this size to the designer.

Oh, since I'm posting a couple of pix... the third pix shows the "Fresh Picked Baby Hat" I knit up using some FABULOUS Adriafil Knitcol I'd been given as a gift. Not only do I love how it self-stripes but the colors on this ball were lots of fun!

Baby Roots Cardigan

Using some cotton blend yarn from my stash, I recently cast-on the Baby Roots Cardigan. Knitting it in a unisex color (maize), I'll add boyish or girly buttons once we find out what it needs to be.

It has been a bit of a challenge thus far though as there has been some errata in the pattern. I contacted the designer and she's been helping me figure out some of the errors in stitch numbers but I'm working on figure out some of the others on my own. (x+y)*6+2-1... Man, I should have paid more attention in math as a kid.

Actually, with a few tweeks, I'm moving along nicely enough on this sweater. We'll see how it turns out and how much my math skills help or hurt the process.

Thank you, Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter!

We just returned home after having attended a wonderful service, "Chasing Grace", at our church this morning and then heading down south for a buffet Easter/MIL's Bday luncheon with extended family. It was wonderful seeing everyone and I enjoyed getting to eat a little of this and a lot of that without having to have prepared any of it...or having to clean any of it up!

Kids had fun with selecting whatever they wanted to eat and spending about 1/2 their time there running to the bathroom to go potty.... by themselves. Our DD played Pied Piper to her Uncle Rob for a bit and very much enjoyed eating the ICING from the layers of chocolate cake before finishing off my cheesecake. (It should go without saying that they are STILL bouncing off the walls...)

Hope everyone has/had a blessed Easter holiday.

The Little Lacy Number

After MUCH searching for a cardigan that I could knit up using my recycled yarn I finally found it! The Little Lacy Number is a vintage inspired cardigan that wants to be knit by moi.

Of course, there is a catch... the pattern is in Finnish. I've got, I think, about 50% of it translated thus far and am reaching out to other knitters for help with that last half. I know I'll probably never finish the thing (ask Mom where her sweater is...LOL -unfortunately it is hibernating while waiting to be frogged back to the start so I can do it in a different size) but, OH the anticipation of starting it... hopefully..when I get it translated to English...

Batter Up!

Last Thursday was the first practice for DS's new T-ball team and Saturday (at 8:15 AM!) was his first game. His team colors are red, black, and white and they are the Cobras. I was able to attend the practice but hubby was stuck with taking kiddos to the game Saturday morning as I was heading to Buda with my friend, Naomi, for a wonderful plant swap!

Anyway, the practice was pretty fun to watch, all things considered. They worked on hitting the ball mainly. At the end of practice they were working on hitting the ball and then running the bases. DS hit the ball well but rather than running to first base, as all the parents were yelling for him to do, he ran after his ball. He was quite pleased with himself upon retrieving his ball, picking it up and announcing, "I got it!" Needless to say, we had to do a little work on teaching him the basic idea of the game. Saturday morning, as he was about to head out the door for the game, I inquired what he was going to do. He replied, "Hit the ball, drop the bat and run to first base!" I was tickled to hear later that he did, indeed, do so.

He was a cutie pie all dressed up in his hat, glove and oversized jersey.

I'll admit that dad and I aren't overly enthused about the fact that the days of sleeping in, even just a little, on Saturday have come to an end but are excited about how much our little slugger is enjoying baseball thus far.

ToDo List Whittling Down

Yippee... Thanks to GOBS of help from my parents while they were down for a visit after my nephew's 1st bday party, we were able to get many to-dos checked off the list. Most of these were things that needed doing so OTHER to-do items could begin so while I'm so thrilled to have them done, they DO mean even more work.

Dad got the rolling gate for the driveway fixed so the stupid thing is easier to roll and doesn't fall off when I try and use it. Not only did he adjust the fence, but he rewired the chain link that had gotten messed up. To make it work even better he and my DH removed the overgrown vines and chopped out the trees that weren't only growing all over the side fence but up into a nearby tree. It not only works great but look SO much better.

The guys moved the dog's kennel from the front of the house to around back, opening up the side yard gobs. Mom worked on clearing out the side bed some more for me so we are very close now to being able to do the side flowerbed to mirror the new front flowerbed we put in a couple weeks ago.

Mom and I worked in the kids' closet and sorted out all the clothes that don't fit them any longer and hung up all the kids outfits so they can easily dress themselves. That was a looming chore that I'm so thankful to have done.

The last big project we completed was moving my old office desk out of the way, getting rid of the huge rug and moving my smaller craft desk over to my new office area. I'd been using the entire space for my office and craft/junk space. As we're going to be remodeling the "what will be Master bedroom/bath" (been labeled that since we first moved in), I had to downsize a bit. We got rid of the big leather couch on Freecycle a few weeks ago, moved the credenza to the dining room to be a buffet/storage (which we're loving), and changed out my work desk. I've got less desk surface space now (probably a good thing as I'm unable to pile so much now), but get to finally have my "groovy" side chairs come out of the in-law's attic to use as seating in my new "office space".

Lots got done and there is LOTS to do. We've basically got a bathroom, closet, and master bedroom that needs a complete overhaul. We're working on layout plans now and hope to begin work before much longer.

Thanks, Mom & Dad for ALL your hard work. SOMEDAY you'll get to visit without being worked to death. We love you!

Court's FIRST Birthday

Last Saturday we headed up to Fort Worth to celebrate my nephew's 1st birthday with family and friends. My SIL did a wonderful job with the construction theme for the party. There was yellow caution construction tape everywhere, tools, construction trucks, a dirt cake where the dirt was being moved by construction trucks, hard hats.... she went all out and it was adorable.

It was a wonderful time and I so loved getting to spend some time my brother, sis-in-law, and the birthday boy! Check out my SIL's blog for pix of the event and of the bday boy!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Court! We love you.