Better Late Than Never...

Guess What?!

I got to meet Rudy!

Of course I got to see Robin too. :) They were here at the beach last week.... And they are coming back next month for another visit & we are planning a day of yarn shopping & activities.

I have also been a real slacker! Kathy sent me a wonderful birthday package that I totally forgot to post about! In my defense (and I might be contacting Mr. B's attorney about this if I get in trouble, SNOL) that was one busy week, the week of my birthday. That was the week that our Marine graduated from bootcamp, summer crazy season was still in full force at work, blah blah blah.... That's my story & I'm sticking to it!

So without further adoo....

Kathy sent me some gorgeous spinning fiber, some swiffer sweaters (for some reason the woman got the crazy idea that I actually clean this house! LOL), a totally cute birthday cupcake bag, & a sweet kitty birthday card.

Aren't they sweet? Awwwww.....

The cupcake bag is now living with my spinning wheel. It's perfect! It clips right on there & holds the current fiber that I'm spinning. You should advertise your sockit bags for spinning too Kathy! :)

If you don't have one of Kathy's Sock it Bags yet, you really NEED one! Click on the linky there & get yourself one. You won't be disappointed.

And here is a closeup of the pretty fiber she sent.

Then when I got home today I had another box waiting on me!! Late Birthday prezzies!!! Gotta love those, spreads the love out a little more instead of using it all up on one day. LOL

Jessi sent me an awesome late Birthday box! Here is what was inside...

A cute kitty birthday card, a purple Ravelry project bag, some yummy Sock Yarnista yarn in the Peweter Amethyst colorway, and a sticker that says "Friends pick you up when you fall. Best friends laugh cuz they're the ones who tripped you", ha ha ha!

Here is a closeup of the cute bag, I hope you can see it.

And here is a closeup of the yummy yarn. The photo is a little more brown than it really is, it was starting to get dark by the time I got home...

Thank you so much Kathy & Jessi! You gals are the BEST! I just don't know what I'd do without my bloggy friends.... I'd be very lonely. :)

Stash Enhancement

I've had a good weekend, even though it has seemed way too short. I'm getting ready to make some stitch markers... the hubby is rearranging the kitchen cabinets, I don't know if that is a good thing or not. LOL

Yesterday I visited a new to me yarn shop, A Row of Purls Too. She has another shop that is called A Row of Purls.... I now have a new almost local favorite yarn shop! It took me about 35-40 min to get there from my house. But it was a lot of back country roads so it's a nice drive. And that is no further than traveling down to south Myrtle Beach to get to the AC Moore & Michaels.  It was a nice little shop with a good selection of yarn. She also sells some local fiber batts that a few of her customers make & Ashford spinning wheels. Imagine that! She sells THE ELIZABETH wheel that I want! :)

Of course I couldn't go to visit a yarn shop without purchasing something... so I came away with 2 small purchases, one ball of Super Soft cotton & one ball of  Yarn Cloud bamboo. I had no idea that I could throw bamboo in the washer/dryer! Soooo, we're gonna try some for washcloths & see what happens!

And here is a photo of the great fiber that I got last weekend from Stony Mountain Fibers with Chan. These are all Merino Wool.

And I got one 4 oz. braid of Merino/Silk blend. She had awesome prices so I stocked up! LOL

And finally, this is what I'm spinning at the moment... Cherry Sorbet merino that I purchased from The Lakehouse Loft a while back.

Okay, I'm off to the stitch marker factory! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

My Trip...

Okay, settle in, we've got some photos to share here. I will go ahead & apologize for any mispelled words, seems as if Blogger doesn't have the spellcheck working on the new update, but I like the photo options better!

Lemme see... Last Thursday afternoon I left my house headed across the entire state of NC & half way into VA to see Chan. The drive really wasn't that bad, most of it was highway & seemed to go pretty fast. Once I arrived we had a slight detour to a meeting of Chan's, but it was a good excuse to wear my Lace Cardigan, so I was game. Of course I forgot to get a photo of that one...  Then we had a wonderful dinner, Chan will have to tell you the name of the place, I just remember that it was great South African food. We stayed up late with the Knight & the Girls, chatting & knitting.

On Friday I got to sleep in & play with the girls. I think I'm a bad influence on them. he he

About noon we headed out for our yarn & fiber tour. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We headed to Stony Mountain Fibers first. I got to meet Barbara, the sweet shop owner.

Would you just look at all that fiber, yarn, spinning wheels, etc., etc.! I could have spent the whole weekend in that place! LOL I'll save fiber stash enhancement photos for another post. Believe me, it makes a whole blog post in itself!

I got to try out several wheels, that was a lot of fun! I've only spun on my little Heavenly Handspinning wheel, so it was a real treat to try out some of the fancy name brand wheels.

Do you see that wheel there in the back? That is an Ashford Elizabeth, and I'm in love!! I WILL have one of those some day! It's my new goal in life, to own an Elizabeth of my very own. :)  Thank you so much Barbara for letting me spin on your personal wheel, it made my whole day!

Now we are gonna skip around a bit because my photos don't go along with everything we did.  After Stony Mountain Fibers, we hit a couple of local yarn shops. Again, I didn't take photos of the shops so Chan will have to fill you in on the names if you're interested. The first shop we went to Chan picked up 2 lovely hand carved shawl pins. She gave me one as a birthday prezzie. Isn't it pretty? It's sitting there with my Mermaid Scarf & my new hot chocolate Purple Seashell mug that Chan got for me, another birthday prezzie.

I also picked up this skein of Toufutsies at Stony Mountain Fibers. You also see my newly spun superwash wool that I did while at Chan's, and my new blocking wires, again from Chan. I got all kinds of birthday prezzies while I was there! Woohoo!

At the second yarn shop I scored 3 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, I decided to join in the Colonnade knit along several of you have going. And I know we had some lunch in there somewhere.

Friday night was spent at home with the girls, lots of entertainment there! Gotta love my Sissymonster & little Gretchie. We made some pasta for dinner & we stayed up late again, chatting & knitting. And one hiliarious episode with the ball winder. Should have taken photos of that too but I was too busy crying cause I was laughing so hard. We eventually got our new Berroco yarns balled up & ready to go.

Saturday we spent at home, I slept late again, imagine that! We had lots of quality time with the girls, we got Chan up & spinning again after a few modifications to her Bellus wheel. We cast on for our Colonnades. We made Dorset Buttons...

Chan helped me take new photos of my Mermaid Scarf....

And photos of the absolutely lovely shawl that I won in Grace's contest. Thanks so much Grace, it's beautiful! And I wore it when we went to dinner with the Knight on Saturday night.

We spent plenty of time knitting & spinning, and had dinner with the Knight, we finished up the evening staying up late again. :)

Sunday was the dreaded day of the "trip home". We spent the morning talking & knitting & laughing at the girls in their tutus. Let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing funnier than Sissy running around like a mad woman wearing a tutu!

Do you see little Gretchie down there? She was zooming around too, but she didn't have her tutu on & she was so fast I had a hard time catching her on the camera. LOL

Silly photos I know, but if you didn't laugh at those you just don't know what's funny! :)

And then the final photos (we really did try to get all 4 of us in a photo but one or the other of the girls just didn't want to do it, so I picked the best one of Chan & I), packing up the car, and the long ride home. I had such a wonderful weekend! Thanks so much Chan for having me in your home & entertaining me. Tell the Knight thank you for me too! I can hardly wait till next time!

Whew! Are you still here? LOL

Stay tuned for the fiber stash post coming up soon!

So Little Time....

I have sooooo much to share! But there are a lot of season premieres tonight for favorite shows & I don't want to miss them. LOL (Two & a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, CSI)

I had a wonderful time visiting Chan, the Knight, Sissy & little Gretchie!! I'll beat Chan to the punch & post my absolute favorite photo of the weekend! Stay tuned for more photos, lots more & details of the weekend.

Me & The Girls

Finished!

Finally I have a few finished projects to show you! First up is the finished Mermaid Scarf. I'm really pleased with how it tured out. I am going to try to re-block it & get some better photos when I go to visit Chan next weekend.

Next up I have a photo of my Dish Rag Tag dishcloth. Our team is still in the running so far. :)

Unfortunately that's all I have. I'm now working on spinning up some teal superwash fiber....

So I'll leave you with a great photo of our Marine. It's been almost a week since he left & we are missing him something terrible!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!

A great day...

Have I told you guys lately how great of a boss I have? Capt. Brant took my boys & I fishing today. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. Flat seas, mid 80's temps, nice breeze & a few bites.

Here's our new Marine with his nice sized king mackerel. He released him after the short photo shoot.Here is Brant pulling the hooks out of one of the fish we caught. I caught a small shark & one small king that we kept for dinner tomorrow night & we released the rest. We had a few bites that got away too.

Thanks again Brant, it was a great day. We had a lot of fun & it'll make a nice memory after our Marine leaves next Tuesday for more training.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!