Yummy Yarn

Well, I got this before the holidays started and made my ADD act up..... :)

I forgot to post this photo of this wonderful yarn that I got at Kathy's Etsy shop GypsyKnits.

The Green/Blue yarn is called Fairy Tree and the Colorful Mix is called Gypsy. They are so much fun I just couldn't resist getting a little Christmas gift for myself! After I finish the red socks I think I'll find a pattern for one of these next. The question is which one to do first??? Maybe the Fairy Tree, Kathy told me to watch out for those fairies when I knit this stuff up, hehe! No, maybe I'll start with the Gypsy, it's so colorful and reminds me of Spring (even though it feels as if we still haven't gotten a Winter here!).... no the Fairy Tree.... no the Gypsy..... no the Fairy Tree..... Ahhhhhh!!!! I'll just have to close my eyes and mix them up and pick one.......... no the Fairy Tree..... no the Gypsy...... Help me out here guys, which one should I go with first? Or should I get another set of Knitpicks out and knit two different pairs at the same time!!!! Ok, maybe that would be overkill.
Back to the red socks, I'll mull this over some more. :)

Etsy Treasury

I finally logged on at the perfect time & got to pick my own treasury!! Everybody go check it out! It is only active for 2 days!!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=21110
If we are lucky it will make it to the front page and give some people some well deserved looksies!! :)

Mystery Theme Swap 2

My new swap season has begun!!

I just joined the Mystery Theme Swap 2. I participated in this one before and had lots of fun. Your partner isn't a mystery but your package theme is! The sign-up closes Jan. 7th. Go check it out!

Mmmmmm.... Watermelon

We now have Watermelon tape measures!! I think these juicy little things are my favorite so far.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!! We did, but now I'll be glad to get back to the normal swing of things. I'll be taking down the decorations this weekend & cleaning up. I do NOT plan on leaving the house unless I absolutely have to! And no shopping, unless it is online!! haha!

I made it to the Etsy front page!

Of course I missed it!!!! But my Peppermint tape measure made it to the front page of Etsy!! WooHoo!! Thanks to Jenn at Made from the Heart! Jenn picked a Treasury on Etsy and included my Peppermint tape measure, evidently the Etsy team picked her Treasury to feature on the front page..... I was wondering when I logged into my Etsy store why the Peppermint had so many hits in such a short time!! He he! WOW is all I can say!! Getting included on the front page generates A LOT of hits!! Thanks so much Jenn!!

The Treasury has already expired unfortunately. :(

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas!!

Peppermints & Spearmints

Here are the latest tape measures.... my good buddy Chan was wanting a peppermint, I took it a step further and made both peppermints and spearmints. Makes me want a candy cane!! :) Hmmm... I'm sure I have a candy cane somewhere around here.....

No luck fishing but still a good day!

Well, we didn't have any luck fishing for tuna today.... but it was still a good day, the weather while a bit chilly was very pretty and the ocean was like glass most of the day. I learned a lot, he showed me how to rig the baits and put it out behind the boat properly, etc... he is very patient, let me do everything myself after he showed me how. He is great with kids, taking them fishing, I see why now. And the best part is that I didn't have to go to work!! Back to that tomorrow... :)

The boss said that he would take me again sometime after Christmas and we'll try for those tuna's again. (I work for a fishing charter/fishing store for those of you who don't know what I really do. I am the web store operator & graphic designer) I think he was pretty disappointed that we didn't catch anything, it would have been my very first tuna. I did get a little wind burn on my face, feels funny to have something similar to sunburn the week before Christmas!

And we did see a lot, and I mean like hundreds, of bottlenose & spotted dolphins today!! They are so pretty to see up close like that. I could almost reach over the side of the boat & touch them. I have seen some before when out fishing but never so many, they were everywhere today. They love chasing the boats and swimming with them. They are too smart to go after our bait so that is good. Of course I forgot my camera so I didn't get any photos of them!! Hey, give me a break, I was up at 4am and on the boat heading out by 5:30am, that is a good excuse for forgetting something!! haha!

If anyone brings one of those huge tunas in to the dock where I work in the next couple of weeks I'll be sure to post some photos.

Even though we didn't catch anything it was a wonderful day on the ocean & much better than any office Christmas party!! I know how much it costs to take one of those boats out fishing, plus the bait, rigs, etc... It was very, VERY, generous of the boss to do that for me. :)

Tuna Fishing!

Well, no knitting content lately.... busy, busy, busy at work and with all the Holiday stuff going on. But I do have some news that I'm pretty excited about!! My boss is taking me tuna fishing tomorrow!! The bad part is that I have to be ready to go at 5am!!!! YUCK, I'm really NOT a morning person. But I've never been fishing for tuna before, if we catch anything it should be fun.
Here is a photo of one of the guys I work with bringing in one of those huge tunas!! Now, can you imagine me hauling one of these giants in? ha ha!! (I'm 5'2" and about 126lbs) I have caught some big king mackerels & wahoos before but the largest was about 60 lbs.... some of these tunas are over 200 lbs!!! I'll post photos if we catch anything, I thought it was really nice of the boss to take me along even if we don't catch anything.... I work for really nice people now. :) How great is it that your boss asks if you want to ditch work for a day to go fishing??!!!

Oreos & Night Lights....

Check out this cute little night light that I got my sister for Christmas! I purchased this from Lisa's etsy store, Lightning Bug Boutique, she has some really cute stuff!! I sure hate to give this one away, you know that my initial is A too, I could use it.... nope, I'll have to give this one to the sis & get myself one after the Holidays.

And we now have Oreo Cookie-like tape measures!! This was Tucky's idea (local knitting buddy), when I showed her the chocolate chip cookie she said "Oh, what about an Oreo cookie, could you make those?" I have enablers guys!! ha ha! Thanks Tucky, this turned out really cute.

I also have some new yarn.... I'll share that later, really, really ought to be in bed now....

50% DONE!

I have a sock!!! A pretty RED sock! FINALLY!!!! Well, after frogging back on the heel of this thing 3 times I finally got the pattern adjusted for my foot & got one of them completed!! It wouldn't have been a difficult pattern if I had "went by the pattern." But no, I had to make knee socks, so I had to start with the larger sock pattern with size 4 needles, go to size 3 needles, then to size 2 needles, finagle a decrease at the ankle in the back, then switch to the smaller pattern for the foot. I made a really simple cabled sock pattern difficult, but I think it came out really nice, I'm happy with it anyway! And since it is MY sock, that is all that matters. Of course the Hubby said it was the most beautiful sock he has ever seen.... sweet isn't he? He humors me. :) Not to worry, I wrote all of my changes down so the 2nd sock should go smoothly.... Here are a couple of photos, I will try to get better ones this weekend in the daylight, I just couldn't wait to show it off though!!

Christmas Meme

I saw this posted on Jessi's blog, I also got it in an email from a friend too.... thought I'd post it here for fun.....

A Christmas Meme

1. Wrapping Paper or Gift Bags? As many bags as possible! Hate trying to choose wrapping paper that I actually like, most of it is aweful! Then I hate wrapping the darn things with it!

2. Real tree or artificial? Real. Even though it was much more fun before we moved to the beach... we used to go to a Christmas tree farm, walk out on the mountain and choose one, then the farm guys would come out with their four-wheeler and cut it down for us. Now it's just a trip to Lowes for the tree..... ho hum.... I can't get the hubbie to drive 6 hours for a tree, I just don't understand what is wrong with him! haha!

3. When do you put up the tree? Try to get it up the weekend after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take down the tree? The day after Christmas.

5. Do you like Egg Nog? Not so much.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Ummmm.... probably Barbies, or maybe that Barbie Supermarket I got one year. I think the best thing about that is the memory of my Dad putting it together! haha! Poor Dad, all he had was girls, I'm sure he got really sick of girley toys. :)

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, although I'd love to have one of those kitty ones like Jessi has!!

8. Hardest person to buy for? A tie between my Dad & my Brother-In-Law

9. Easiest person to buy for? Me, I can always find something nice for myself! haha! Um, probably my hubbie.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I just remembered this.... My Ex-MIL gave me a childs sweater one year, and the most horrible flourscent bright green color.... I'm sure she did this on purpose!! I'm a pretty small person but not so much up top, lets just say I'm no butt, all boobs. What was I going to say about that ugly sweater with the whole family looking on?? Evil woman!!! Grrrr....

11. Mail or email Christmas Cards? Mail, I have to get to work on those....

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Grench that Stole Christmas (cartoon). I might have answered this differently in my email but I can't remember.... I just saw the Grench lately, it was great! I also like the old Rudolph one too.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I have good intentions every year about getting it done early & I usually have one or two by Oct., but it always ends up a mad rush at the end.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I'm sure I've done that before! :)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything in sight!! Especially the Gummys & Rolos that get put in my stocking every year by the Hubby Santa!!

16. Clear lights or colored? Clear.... I like the colored ones but I refuse to go out & buy all new lights!!

17. Favorite Christmas Song? "Mary did You Know", or this one by Vince Gill called "It Won't Be The Same This Year"

18. Travel or Stay at Home? Home on Christmas Eve, travel on Christmas Day... lots of traveling in one day! UGH!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? Nope, but I did read recently that all male Reindeer loose their horns in the fall but the female deer keep thiers through the Winter & don't lose them until Spring.... That means that all of Santa's Reindeer are females!! Who else could get him around the world in one night without getting lost!! haha!

20. Angel or Star on the top of the tree? Angel

21. Open Christmas Eve or Morning? Christmas Eve with the Hubby, Christmas Day with the rest of the family.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The shopping.

23. What’s the corniest family tradition you do or miss doing? I don't think we ever had any corny ones.... just getting the whole family together without someone getting into a fight was a minor miracle! :)

24. What’s the worst thing you’ve seen related to Christmas? People fighting over gifts or when I saw on the news that someone's house was broken into and their presents stolen. :(

25. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees? Homey, so many of my ornaments mean something special, someone gave them to me, or I made them years ago....

26. Gingerbread or Sugar Cookies? Sugar Cookies!!

27. Do you like fruitcake? It has been so long since I had any that I have no idea if I like it or not.

Early Christmas Presents!!

Well, I braved the mobs & went Christmas shopping on Saturday.... no fun there! I ended up with a migrane for my troubles... UGH!

But I did have one good thing happen Saturday, I got my package from Jessi. In the package was some really super cute Frosty Foofoo Drink Stitch Markers, a pretty PURPLE (my fav) row counter bracelet (I'm sure that will get lots of use as just a bracelet, just handy that I can count knitting rows on it too!), a few Christmasy sticky note pads, & a hilarious Grumpy Party Pooper Sheep!! SNOL!!!!!! I can't wait to load him up with poopy!! hehe! Thanks so much Jessi!


Everyone can get some of the cutest stitch markers & row counter bracelets at Jessi's etsy store, go give it a looksie. :)

Anybody want some Strawberry Cheesecake?

Who doesn't love Strawberry Cheesecake?? If you don't.... what's wrong with you?! :P

I Loooooove me some Strawberry Cheesecake!!! Here is one that won't make you gain 10 pounds 2 minutes after you eat it! Well, I hope you don't actually eat this one, might not taste as yummy as the real stuff...... Look, it even has a little graham cracker crust!! ha ha! Can you tell what kind of food has been on my mind here lately? Better to crochet them than to eat them!! snicker...

Measuring with Cookies?

We can measure with this yummy chocolate chip cookie, we just can't eat this one.... at least I wouldn't recommend eating it!! :P

The latest addition to the tape measures... a chocolate chip cookie! Totally fat free & no calories!!

My Stitch Markers are Famous!!

Hey, look at this!!! My stitch markers made it in the new issue of Knit Simple!! Well, I was a little disappointed that they aren't allowed to promote etsy stores at the moment but at least they gave me credit for them, and all of my buddies know where they really come from.... you don't have to order from the Wool Shack. :) WooHoo!! I'm so excited, they look so cute sitting there in the magazine.... of course the real magazine looks better than my scan.... if you click on the small image I think you can enlarge it enough that you can read the little write-up they did for them.

Lemons or Lemonade...

We now have lemon tape measures! Although I don't think we'll be making lemonade, just some tart measuring going on. :PAnd we have a Christmas tree!! I'll have to take a photo after we get all the decorations on. Levi (stepson) came in for the weekend, we got some outside decorations up, the tree with lights on and a few scattered ornaments before the hubby & I ran out of energy.... that seems to happen a lot these days! ha ha! Looking a little like the holidays around here now.... maybe that will get me in the mood to do a little shopping. Ugh, I hate shopping!! Well, not all shopping, I love shopping for yarn & knitting gadgets. But you know what, not a single person on my family Christmas list wants any of that good stuff, what's wrong with these people?!!! :)

And I'd like to send a little "Thank You" to all of my knitting blog buddies for being such good friends & supporting my etsy store.... you guys are all awesome!!

Orange Slice Tape Measure

I've been a little under the weather this week, so I haven't been real good at writing here or checking out my blog buddies sites... sorry guys!

I did get another tape measure done. It is supposed to look like an orange slice. Notice the artistic photo of the oranges where I placed my little tape measure in there.... makes it look more yummy I think. :) I'm planning on doing oranges, lemons, limes, pink grapefruit & anything else I can think of and find the time to do.....