Whiskers on Wednesday

Sorry I've been away for so long here.... seems as if I picked up the flu bug somewhere along my Christmas travels.

We had a good holiday even though we were exhausted from all the travel. Got to catch up with family & friends that we don't get to see too often. It was good to see them all. I think I got some cute photos of my childhood BFF's sweet kitty babies but I haven't even hooked up my camera since then to see.....


However Hubby Santa got me the Photoshop program that I've been wanting, so here is a photo of Jazzy with the "pet eye" fixed & fancied up with a border. If I felt better I'd mess with my program more, looks like I can do some pretty fancy stuff on it, hopefully soon.
I hope everyone has a great new year!!!!!

Whiskers On Wednesday

SURPRISE! We actually made it for a WoW! I was shocked that Princess Jasmine stayed where she was & let me run to get the camera & take a few shots... I guess she was pretty comfy. LOL

Just to explain the photos... when I leave for work before the Hubby does, the bed doesn't get made properly. Does anyone else have this problem? Anyhoo... when I got home I tossed one of the decorative pillows on the bed (not where it usually is at the head of the bed). Well, evidently Miss Jazzy decided that it looked like a nice, warm, snugly, kitty pillow....

When I came in the bedroom later to put some laundry away, there she was on the pillow like I had put it there just for her. Ha ha! She must have been really cozy, she gave me a dirty look when I used the flash but she didn't run & hide like she usually does when I do that to her. :)

Lots going on!

Hope everyone is doing well & enjoying your holiday season! Doesn't even feel like Christmas here, it was 77 this past weekend! It was cooler today, only got up to about 42, but by Wednesday it is supposed to be back to 65! I've been pouting over everyone's snow photos... Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I've been busy, busy shopping, busy wrapping, busy crafting, busy knitting.... you get the idea....

I have to say that while I've been pretty much a Grinch about the whole thing, shopping, traveling, not enough time, not enough $, etc... my wonderful friends have done a super job of cheering me up & making me feel special & helping me realize what this season is for.... it's not the actual presents or cards, but what they mean, that someone cares & is willing to give of themselves to make me happy.....

First let me show you all the pretty cards that all my wonderful bloggy friends have sent...

Jessi even found one with Jazzy's photo on there! Or it could be Miss Oribel, or possibly the Dashing Henry. LOL

Grace made me a lovely snowflake ornament which went right on the tree. Far enough up that hopefully Jazzy won't find any interest in it. The Hubby has already caught her getting an ornament off the tree to play with! :)

Chan sent me a wonderful box of goodies! A new Pampered Chef Chopper (my old one needed to be retired to the trash can), a book (I'll let you know how that is after the holidays when I actually have some time to read), a new rubber duck (if you remember, my old one is the first thing I threw out in the "Throw Out 50 Things"), some BEAUTIFUL, soft, purple/pink mix spinning fiber, a super cute Christmas card with the girls on it, and a new toy for Jazzy (which she must have enjoyed cause it is now missing under some piece of furniture). It also included some heavenly chocolate that didn't make it into the photo cause the Hubby was eating it at the time of the photos.... LOLSee, here is my Munchkin in her new home, my shower. She seems to be enjoying it in there. :) Thanks for the effort you put into finding me a new ducky Chan! SNOLAnd thank you so much for everything else!!! It is very appreciated, & was very sweet of you to send.

Today when I got home I had a package from Kathy! It included a sweet Christmas card, an ornament with a pattern to knit a cover for it, a new Swiffer Sweater in animal print no less, and a Tootsie Warmer. I was tempted to put the new sweater on my swiffer & sweep the floor (Kathy is making this sweeping WAY too much fun, hopefully the newness will wear off soon! I'm getting the guys too used to a clean floor! SNOL), but instead I popped that Tootsie Warmer in the microwave & now I'm sitting here on the sofa with my feel all warm & toasty, writing about all my goodies!! Thank you so much Kathy! I love everything!!!

Now on to some knitting updates..... I have a few finished objects to show you!!! Here is the Cascading Leaves Shawl (Ravelry link) that I knit for the Hubby's grandmother for Christmas. I think it turned out beautiful even though I wish it was a little larger. This is my first "shawl". I've done wraps before but not a traditional lace shawl. I really enjoyed knitting it, it was a great pattern. There are a few "operator errors" in there, but I don't think anyone but me would notice them....
Sorry bout the photos, Jazzy & I are home alone tonight & she didn't want to hold the shawl for photos...... so I did the best I could.

And I finished the 2nd Bonsai Tunic (Ravelry link). This one I knit for one of my bosses, Amy. She asked me to knit her one when she saw the one I knit for elann.com. She said that she loved it. :) I think it was supposed to be a gift for someone but now I think she is keeping it herself. LOL

And finally..... let me show you our new Christmas tree!

My firefighter friends will be happy to know that we finally got an artificial tree this year. We used to love having real trees. When we lived in Greensboro we used to ride to the mountains for the day, visit a Christmas tree farm & pick out our own tree on the side of the mountain & have it cut down right there. But since we moved here to the coast.... it's too far to drive to the mountains just for a tree. Pout. And the real ones are getting harder to find here & the ones you do find are just too expensive. So we finally got an artificial tree. I think it's really pretty, & we got one heck of a deal on it since it was the last one that Lowe's had like it. Now I need some new ornaments!

I hope everyone has a good week & if you are traveling for the holidays, be safe!

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NOTE TO SISSY & GRETCHEN

Deer Sizzy & Gwetchie,

Thank you very much for the new toy you sent me for Christmas. I am enjoying it very much. I would enjoy it even more if Mommie would get up off the sofa & find the new hiding place that I found for it. Sometimes she just doesn't get this game, I think she might be a bit slow if you know what I mean. Oh well, she means well. I hope you enjoy the toys I sent for you. I don't know about you, but I thought the sheep were very soft & snugly. Mommie wouldn't let me play with them though..... I tried to help her wrap everything but I wasn't getting near that dang sticky tape!

I hope you get lots of good stuff from Santa this year! I'm sure I will cause I know that I've been good.

You gals are okay for doggies.

Luv, Princess Jasmine

WoW & Surprises

WoW - ATTENTION: BARBARA & MISS ORIBEL

Look! I finally got photos of Jazzy playing with her pillow! Barbara & Miss Oribel sent the catnip pillow to Jasmine a while back as a little present for her. She absolutely loves her pillow, I just haven't been able to capture her playing/cuddling it with the camera. I put it in the microwave for a few seconds every now & then, she loves it even more when I do that. Especially now that it has cooled off a bit & she is looking for anything warm to snuggle up with. I think it's so cute how she always lays her head on it like she is using it as a regular pillow. LOL
I also had a couple packages waiting on me when I got home today! I lourve me some surprise packages!

This one is from Kathy. When I was browsing around her etsy store I saw this Grinchy Green yarn, well that had my name written all over it! LOL! I just had to have it!! The photo doesn't do it justice. After the holidays I'm hoping to get back to some "me" knitting, and this will be at the top of the list!
And along with my purchase Kathy was sweet enough to include lots of extra goodies! A gallon bag of novelty yarns, in the hopes that I'll have time to make up a couple of those super cute Christmas Trees. A cute blank card, a gingerbread man card, candy, and 2 of my very own Swiffer Sweaters! Now, you will just have to take my word for it that these swiffer sweaters work awesome! I tried one out after taking photos but I'm not gonna show you that cause then I'd have to admit just how dirty my floor was! SNOL Thank you sooooo much Kathy! You went above & beyond! BTW.... do you have any novelty yarns left? You didn't have to send me all of it! ha ha

And then I got this lovely Creative Spinning book. A while back Nichole sent me an email about a contest on Vickie Howell's blog, so of course I went on over & entered. And I won a book! I have skimmed through it and it's really pretty & has some great ideas on spinning different kinds of yarns. It has a small section at the front about instructions on spinning, but it's more of an idea book & how many different ways you can spin your own yarn to get very creative handspun yarn. I'm making progress on the holiday knitting! I'm hoping to get the tunic & shawl both done by this weekend. And then I have quite a few dishcloths that I need to get done. I just might get them all finished in time!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Smelly Jellies

I'm pooped, been busy cleaning & shopping this weekend. Have I told you guys how much I hate shopping? I believe I'd rather clean the bathrooms than go shopping if that tells you anything. LOLI've been crafty this weekend too. I made Smelly Jellies! Just one of the great gift ideas that Kathy & I have found on the Tipnut website. I've got cucumber/melon, orange, lemongrass & honey/almond scents. They were soooooo easy! I didn't add everything up to the penny, but I believe that after adding in all the supplies for these they probably cost me somewhere between .50 to .75 cents each. Great deal, and I'll have plenty of little good smelling gifts to give.
And I have a lot of the scents & gelatin leftover to make more later.

FO Update

Just a quick post to show you that I have gotten busy with those last minute Christmas gifts. Still quite a few more to go.... maybe I'll get them all done in time.

The photos aren't great. I can't seem to get home before it starts getting dark now, not too good for photo taking....

This first one is called Tiny Bubbles (Ravelry link), from Harvest Moon Designs.

This one is Thomas (Ravelry link) from Harvest Moon Designs.
And this little mini-cloth, Trees (Ravelry link). This one is a pale green, don't know what happened in the photo!

Throw Out 50 Things

Just a short update.....

1. Rubber Duck
2. 4 books donated to a used book store
3. Raincoat donated to Thrift Store
4. Denim Jacket donated to Thrift Store
5. Sweater donated to Thrift Store
6. Old Tennis Shoes trashed
7. Another used coat trashed, no one should be wearing that fugly thing! LOL

I need to get busy & get rid of some stuff! My list is growing too slowly.

Tomorrow I should have more knitting updates too! Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Thankful for my Friends

This past Thanksgiving I had something to be extremely thankful for.... my friends! My one & only childhood BFF, Beth, still super special to me after all this time (we went to kindergarten together & graduated HS together). And all of my online friends, some new & some who were actually listening when I first started my blog. Each & every one of you are special to me, and I am so thankful for your friendship!

Speaking of friends.... my pal Chan sent me a couple goodies. Sorry the photos aren't too great today, it's chilly & rainy outside, not conducive to good photo taking. She sent me a wheel (I think that's what you call it) of green pencil roving, isn't it pretty!? I put a little piece of it over the card there so you could see how thin it is. It's gonna be super easy to spin that up! She also sent a cute little card that she made, I wish the photo had turned out better on that. And Miss Sissy picked me out a little box for a present, & it has chocolate in it!

Speaking of friends..... my pal Jessi sent me a gift card to Harvest Moon Designs for my birthday. I got lots of great patterns!! And Sue (Harvest Moon Designs) is super sweet. This cloth is the Victorian Labyrinth pattern, I think it came out nice even though I'm not crazy about the color of the yarn. Hopefully my SIL will like it, her kitchen is done in sage green & creams.

And here is another dishcloth that I finished recently. This goes with the Winter set I've been working on, it's a mitten cloth stitched in light blue cotton. Hope everyone is having a good weekend! I'm staying in & knitting, its raining....

Whiskers on Wednesday

Well, I just about forgot it was Wednesday! While blog surfing I found this on Robin's blog, thought it was funny & since Jasmine is hiding from the camera again tonight.... here is my contribution to WoW this week.


Hmmmm.... this could be pretty accurate. LOL

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

New Listings

Just in time for the holidays.... It's been a while since I posted about new listings in my Etsy shop. I've had my usual standards listed like usual. But this weekend I've been trying to get in some sort of holiday mood. Needless to say, my holiday cheer has been a bit lacking. So I made up some cute holiday themed markers....

Cute little mice with their buck teeth & Santa hats on & a piece of cheese tied up with a bow, just what they've been wanting for Christmas! LOL And I just had to include this shot that shows the back, cause these little guys are just as cute from behind!And here we have some silly penguins with Santa hats on. Hmmm.... for some reason most of my critters seem to have funky, crosseyed vision problems or dental problems. Oh well, makes them more endearing if you ask me. Who couldn't love a cute crosseyed penguin? And they're all decked out for the holidays, what could be better?

And a few more standard sets are now available. Pigs, regular Mice, & regular Penguins.

Maybe tomorrow I will make some sheep with Santa hats.....

Whiskers on Wednesday

Dang! I had the photos ready & everything! And I still forgot to save my WoW post last night!

Well, better late than never, especially here lately. Between time just getting away from me & Princess Jasmine running from the camera every time I get it out... our WoW posts have come up missing.

These photos aren't great but they will show you that she does more than just lie around & look pretty. Which she does very well. We had a little fun with a yarn scrap the other night. She enjoyed it for about 30 minutes. I threw it in the trash later that night, I was afraid she would try to eat it or something crazy. Even though if she wanted to eat yarn it is plenty accessible around here. Luckily she seems to ignore it unless I actually give her a snip to play with. Unlike naughty Miss Gretchen. Or.... was it really Miss Sissy & before Mom (Chan) came back in the room she plopped her little sis on the yarn so she'd get blamed???? Hmmmm..... :)

Vampires???

Who doesn't love a good vampire story? LOL

Recently I've gotten hooked on the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris. Here is the description for Book #1: Dead Until Dark

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her "disability" to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

In the different places I've read about them, they have been compared to the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books and the Twilight Books. However I haven't read either of these other series. I can only vouch for the Southern Vampire Series. They are good stories. A lot of fantasy, we are talking vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures here after all. A bit of romance, lots of humor (what's funnier than vampire humor I ask you?), a bit of suspense, and just good ol entertainment. Now I know that Vampire/Romance/Fantasy/Suspense/sometimes Quirky Humor books aren't for everyone. But if you like that sort of story you will really like these! They also have a few racy loves scenes in there too, so if that isn't you thing, be warned. They aren't scary though. I can't do scary, for some reason as I've gotten older (I used to love scary movies & such when I was younger) scary stuff gives me nightmares. And I can tell you that I haven't had one of those nightmares since I've been reading these....

Here are the covers for all the books so far in the series...

For those of you who like reading ebooks, Fictionwise has them HERE. And for those of you who like actual books that you can touch Amazon has them HERE.

Right now I'm on Book #5: Dead as a Doornail. I really enjoyed #1-#4. And stayed up really, really late a couple of nights cause I couldn't put them down. I believe that #9, Dead and Gone, is supposed to be released sometime in the near future. I have also seen something about them being made into a series on HBO, called True Blood. Has anyone seen those yet? I'm gonna have to go check that out & see if I can rent them at Block Buster or something....

Okay, I'll let you go now. I just thought with all the book talk here lately, I'd share with you my current reads that have been keeping me up late. :)

Before & After

I actually have some new homespun yarn to show you. The Pink/Purple fiber is superwash wool. I didn't want the purple in there so I pulled those sections out before I spun it up. I'll do the purple separately another day. The Greens and the Purple Mix fibers are 100% wool. I have a project that I'm planning for those, but I need a bit more before I start. All of it turned out lovely and super soft. I am finally able to spin a sport weight 2 ply. And I've graduated to my 6:1 ratio. Getting better every day at this spinning stuff. Won't be long before I'm able to spin some sock weight yarn!!I also have one small finished knitted object. I'm still working on 2 larger projects that I have to have finished by Christmas, but I just wanted to have something, anything finished. So I knitted up a little snowflake dishcloth. I'm just not crazy about these picture cloths, you can't see the pattern in them really well. Oh well, it's a gift for my Grandmother, she will love them anyway. There are 6 in the set, and I have one done, 5 to go! LOL

I did knit on all of my projects a little this weekend. I think I've finally gotten my knitting mojo back. I haven't wanted to knit on any of them for the past 2 weeks.

And I read a little, I have to stay away from the books or I'll get absolutely nothing else accomplished. Is anyone else like that? Once you pick a good book up you just can't put it down.... one more page, one more chapter, next thing you know you've abandoned all your weekend chores & it's 2am & you have to work tomorrow!

So, I stayed away from the books for the most part & spent most of my weekend cleaning. It wasn't any fun but it REALLY needed to be done! With all the dust bunnies that I killed this weekend, it's no wonder I couldn't breathe in this house the past couple of weeks! :)

Hope everyone had a good or at least productive weekend!