3 Day Weekend

I spent my 3 Day Weekend in a very relaxed fashion. Of course I had things that I wanted to get done and things that I needed to get done, but I didn't make myself crazy with expectations and commitments. The sleep was great!

Knitting-wise, I finished the 2nd preemie baby hat for my office manager's grandsons. I decided at the last minute (of course) to knit these for the shower but didn't quite make the deadline of last Thursday. Taylor and Mason are going to look fab sporting these:
Taylor and Mason come from a mixed-marriage - that's right a Seminole married a gator. Taylor is the Seminole, I made sure to clear that up right away...

I did knit a little on my Jill-Walkers but unfortunately there isn't much to show yet...so I'll hope (or maybe you will?) for an interesting picture in the near future.

Stitching-wise, I managed to work on my Just Cross Stitch ornament. It's over one on 32 count and it is just taking a long time. I'm under the 2 month mark til the deadline now - so I'll be giving it a full-on effort very soon.

Scrapbooking-wise, I did some organization - one of those forced organizations that the Yarn Harlot spoke of - when I was looking for my Xyron. Now I didn't need the Xyron, but I knew that I had one and I couldn't rest until it was located. I don't know why these things/moments/obsessions happen. I worked on one page for about 4 hours on Monday (after locating the Xyron). It's still not complete, yes - after 4 hours!! Sigh. Scrapbooking is not one of the more organized, neat and tidy hobbies either. Even with the forced organization, my office looks like a scrapbook store exploded. There's just no getting around that - so as long as I'm feeling creative I'm going to live with the explosion.

Monday night - Memorial Day (thanks to all of those who gave their lives protecting the rights that I enjoy today) - DF Andy and I went to the new Verizon Ampitheater in Alpharetta to see Joe Cocker and The Steve Miller Band. It was a great show, both acts, and the venue is incredibly nice. But I was not prepared for the late hour(s). We got into the car at 11:55pm - we couldn't leave before Steve Miller played The Joker (c'mon!). It was 12:55am by the time I got home. I'm still recovering, but I did enjoy.

Tag!

I was tagged today by Jennie. I met Jennie on Ravelry. Thanks to Ravelry for new friends!

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themself. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 0r 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Clear the cobwebs, here goes. I was living in Ponte Vedra Beach (FL), working in Jacksonville. Citibank Cards had just bought Universal Card from AT&T and I was part of the team working on how the two companies and cultures were going to merge. My team was also in the middle of a major system upgrade in preparation for Y2K. I was doing a lot of work travel for both of these - I spent several weeks in Utah and Kentucky. It was very stressful but exciting. My brother was living in Camarillo, CA and I visited him that summer. Took my Dad to his first pro golf tournament - TPC at Sawgrass. I spent any free time that I had on the beach.

2. What are five things on my to do list for today.

• Shop for and attend a work baby shower
  
• Work on preemie baby hats for the same shower (I like the pressure of deadlines)
  
• Watch Grey's Anatomy Season Finale
• My Cricut will be delivered - need time to play!
• Search the web to see if Moonlight was cancelled
  

3. Snacks I enjoy...

• Chex Mix
• Cheez Its
• Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms
• Reese's PB Cups
• Chips and Salsa/Guacamole (especially with an ice cold beer)
• Taco Dip w/Frito Scoops (tailgating food)
  

4.Things I would do if I were a billionaire...

• Quit my job!!
  
• Buy a condo (on the beach) in St Augustine Beach, FL
• Buy a ski chalet in Lake Tahoe or Park City
• Buy a house in Buckhead with lots of storage and have a room for each of my crafts
• Travel - Germany, Ireland, Australia
  
• Open a trust each for Riley, Melia, Nicholas, Carrie and Danny for their educations
• Start a charity/foundation
• Pay off Vicki's debt
  

5. Places I have lived...

• Merritt Island, FL 1967 - 1985 (18 yrs in the same house while I grew up)
• Tallahassee, FL 1985 - 1992 (various dorms, apartments during school and 3 yrs after graduation)
• Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 1992 - 2000 (apartment and house)
• Georgia - Sandy Springs/Smyrna/Buckhead 2000 - ? (house w/friend, house w/brother, condo by myself)
  

6. What jobs have I had...

• Token fast food job - Long John Silver's
• Token mall job - Ivey's (now Dillard's)
• Space Camp counselor (Kennedy Space Center, FL)
• Several software development jobs - Computer Programmer, Technical Manager, Consultant, Development Manager. My 2nd job out of college was with Interlight Productions in Tallahassee. It was a very creative company - we produced multi-media children's bible stories and we had our own art dept and digital recording studio. I loved the people that I got to interact with - and have never had another job with such creativity. I worked at AT&T Universal Card Services for 8 years and I really loved this job. I had several positions there and worked on several projects for many bosses. The company had a very progressive/modern model of the company structure (i.e. upside down pyramid) and was very successful using this model. I credit the leadership with both preparing me to move on in my career and also for giving me a standard with which to judge success. And my success can be directly traced back to those years.
  

7. Peeps I want to know more about...

• Teresa
• Lain
• Jean
• Heather
• Sharon
• Ingvild
• Trish
• Kimber
• Ann
• Judy

April Recap

At the beginning of April, I listed my goals for the month. I'm almost afraid, but let's look back and see how I did.

1. Finish Chemo Cap for Yarn Harlot (by April 6) Completed April 6
   
2. Finish 2nd Medallion of Medallion Capelet Completed April 14
3. Finish stitching Hands To Work Ornament
4. Finish 2nd sock
5. Complete 3 blocks on Herringbone Block Shawl Completed April 26
6. Dust off Watergarden (Amazon project) and do something on it!
7. Complete 2 bands on Patricia Ann

I have to admit that it was a very optimistic set of goals. Especially since I did end up having the MRI on my ankle and finding out that I was having surgery on April 28. I really lost that last week of the month, and everyone knows that I need the last week of any project/deadline to get something done.

The Herringbone Block Shawl to date

I didn't get my 2nd sock finished in April, but I can Happy Dance now!!!

I know that the stripes are not symmetrical in terms of color, but that's part of the quirkiness of these socks. Yay...my first socks are complete. I'm very, very excited about moving on to a more difficult pattern and one of the lovely yarns that I have purchased since starting these. My next pair are going to be Jill-Walkers. When DF Jean sent me the link....I knew that it had to be them!

I don't believe that I did a SINGLE stitch in April. So the rest of May and June there is going to be some serious stitching going on.

Now...do I dare try to come up with goals for the rest of May?

Getting Back To Normal

I'm getting back to normal after my ankle surgery. Two weeks ago I spent the entire weekend getting myself and my condo ready for post-surgical occupancy - no time for frivolous blogging. A lot of clean up, some cooking and some errand running were required. Not to mention a Vera Bradley purchase inspired by Jean in the "boo hoo me, I have to have surgery and therefore I deserve this new purse and wallet" category.
The surgery went well, I finally feel like I'm on the road to healing. I go back to the Dr next week so I'll have an update on the rest of my treatment then. For now, it's the old RICE principal. I'm trying to keep my foot elevated as much as possible but it makes things like knitting and stitching a little more difficult! In case anyone cares, here's my lovely (and fashionable) boot next to my "normal" leg for perspective.
Keep your fingers crossed that I will be off of the crutches next week - that will be a huge help! Thanks to all of my DF's who have helped me out - Vicki, Andy, Heather, Jean, Cathy.


Cathy brought some lovely cut roses from her garden. They smelled so wonderful (as well as being beautiful). Anytime I or anyone else walked by them the entire room smelled like a rose garden.












Jean, Richard and Oscar sent me some lovely purple flowers. This picture was just taken today and they are over a week old!











Over the weekend I went with BFF Vicki Tag to a Scrapbook Retreat. I've done several multi-crop days, but this one was different as all 12 of us "croppers" stayed at the house. There was cropping going on at all hours of the day and night. I think that I got to bed at 2am and 3am Friday and Saturday (or should I say Saturday and Sunday?).

This is myself, BFF Vicki and DF Jennifer - early in the weekend, so we were very alert and not yet sleep deprived.

Karen (who owns the house) had a wonderful setup. Her large basement had room for 12 of these large tables, a full kitchen, bath and bedroom that slept 4. Vicki, Jennifer, Melissa and I stayed on this level - given that I was on crutches we didn't have much choice. The other 8 ladies stayed upstairs where I believe that there were 2 bedrooms and another bath. Karen had several places for us to display our beautiful pages after finishing them. In this picture, the top 4 are Vicki's and the bottom 4 are mine. I quickly lost steam after that and only ended up completing 8 total pages.

See anyone you recognize?

This week it was back to work full time. And just when the weather was "painfully beautiful" - that is the line that my hair stylist Adam used last night. It really was way too nice to be stuck at work, but I couldn't do much outside with this boot anyway...

I think that we're all caught up now.

Purple Rules!

My favorite color is purple. I know, I know...some of you long time friends are saying "Duh" but there are a few newer readers who may not know that yet. I found the Purple Rules group on Ravelry and participated in a recent swap.

The swap was set up as a secret, so we didn't know who our "swapner" was until the surprise package showed up. I was assigned DF Jean. This explains why I haven't been able to blog about it thus far. At first I thought that it was very cool to have Jean, but then reality set in and I realized that Jean does a lot of stash enhancement on her own and I had no way of knowing what she might already have! After some fretting, I did pick out a few yarns for her that I believe were not repeats. I delivered her package in person last Friday before Annie Modesitt's class - literally RIGHT before class started.

My package traveled a long way - all the way from Norway! My swapner is Ingvild and it was a huge delight to get yarn (and chocolate) from out of the country.
Two of the yarns are alpaca and the large skein in the bottom right is Merino Wool - it looks a little bluish-grayish but it is actually purple with a thread of blue/green running through it. Now I have to pick out some new projects to work on! Nothing for winter now - may have to save those til fall comes back (shhhh, it's not welcome yet).

And I can't wait to try the chocolate!

Annie Modesitt Comes to Town

Sorry for the tardy post, but my internet was down until late Sunday. Isn't it amazing how cut off you feel when you can't get to that instant news and information?

Friday I went to The Whole Nine Yarns in Woodstock for a class with Annie Modesitt. The class was for the Universal Mitered Bag. I really enjoyed the class. This may have been the first formal knitting class that I've taken.

In order to learn the techniques, we worked on a small swatch version of the bag - maybe American Girl Doll size. Here's what I was able to accomplish:
Although I haven't done much on my Herringbone Block Shawl/Scarf, learning that technique was similar and really helped me in comprehending the pieces that go together to make this bag. Annie's final version of the bag looks like:
Isn't it wonderful? My colors are drastically different from Annie's, but I'm very excited to see how they come together.
On the drive home from class, I was planning/designing my bag in my head. I'm thinking about using the Tan Heather for the base. With the pink as the accent. And then making most of the diamonds from the Noro. The colors in the Noro are very soft, I really think that it's going to make a beautiful bag.

I've been patiently waiting to start the bag in an attempt to reach at least one April goal. I'm happy to show that I finished my 2nd Medallion for the Medallion Capelet tonight!
I'm waiting to block all 3 together. I hope to cast on the 3rd medallion sometime this week...after I make some progress on another April goal - my Hands To Work ornament.

A Great Day

Sunday was a great day! It started with DF Andy and brunch at American Roadhouse (crunchy french toast with sugar, cinnamon and caramel sauce). We then met up with DF Jean and her DH Richard, and DF Heather for Georgia's largest knit in.

Here we are knitting (no, we are not in an alley, we are in a real neighborhood theater).


DF Cathy arrived just in time to hear/see the Yarn Harlot. There were so many funny things, I cannot possibly remember them all. She did speak at length about the misjudgment that us knitters receive from non-knitters - including "them" thinking that we are old, bored, poor, and lonely. Of course, we know the truth! She also told her story of the 14 km trek from the cabin in the woods to the small general store for beer and toilet paper. I did not find that strange at all, these are necessities in my life!

Stephanie signed books back at Knitch
She looks very awake considering the long day she had already had!




During the knit in, I finished the Chemo Cap and donated to Stephanie - Knitch had a nice arrangement on display.




The dark blue/green hat next to mine is from DF Heather.







While at Knitch we did some shopping. I managed to hold my credit card back, after the damage I did last time...it needed a rest. But I enjoyed looking at the yarns with everyone else.

Cathy, Andy and I went to Zocalo for some noisy but "creative" mexican. The food was fantastic and the beer was cold!

Like I said, a great day! The only downside was the amount of time on my feet, my stupid ankles are paying for it today....