Archives for the month of: February, 2008
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33

February 27, 2008 //
11

Today is David’s birthday. He got a card from his friend and the card said,

“It’s your birthday, and I think it’s great that we’re friends who can grow old together.”

Inside of the card said, “You First!”

I thought that was a fun and cute card.

I didn’t get him a card. But I did give him a gift first thing this morning, the secret project -

Pattern – My own, Red Sox Socks
Yarn Used – Almost 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in red and .5 ball in white
Needles – Option size 2
Gauge – 6.5 sts per inch
Knit – January 31, 08 to February 19, 2008

I knitted this toe up using my usual magic cast on, increased to the amount of stitches needed and switched to red until the heel, which I put the front on another needle to hold the stitches and joined with the white to do the short row heel. After the heel, I picked up the red and knitted the leg and did the 2×2 rib with red and white with red as knit and white as purl. I also knitted both socks at the same time so I can make sure they are the same size.

Since this was a surprise, I had to figure out another way to measure his feet – Socks here I come. I took one of his dress socks and used it as a template for the socks. I was very afraid that they are not going to fit at the cuff because of the carrying yarn in the back, but it was perfect. The socks will go perfect with the 4 tickets at Fenway playing the Yankees.

Happy 33 Babe! And happy three years.
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Let It Snow… Again!

February 22, 2008 //
7

I think this is the third or forth snow storm this year in CT.

Doesn’t that look like an old movie or something? But it’s just the window screen. The way the snow was crusted onto the car make me think of chicken pot pies… Maybe I was hungry.

We went out to dinner at Jalapeño Heaven in Branford. We found this restaurant a couple of years ago when we first adopted Mick. That faithful night, Mick happened to have a very good meal – my Coach purse and David’s Spyder jacket, all in one night (that’s about $600 worth of goods!) In order for us to not drive him back to TN where we adopted him from, we had to go out and drive around, and just calm down. Well, we found the restaurant and had a great meal and when we got home, all the sins were ALMOST forgotten. So this is what we had tonight:


My brother’s Chimichanga


My order of Tamale and Enchilada


David’s enchiladas

Don’t they look yummy? I also had a glass of sangria with dinner. YUM.

So I finally finished the stitch practicing square – I have the stitches memorized and it is such a great stitch that I think I’m going to make a scarf out of it!

Yeah I know… Need better light. Oh well. Until then, back to making the Schaefer scarf swatch!
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Categories Food

Updated New Ceations

February 19, 2008 //
4

Well… Just pictures anyways. I finally remember taking pictures before the sun goes down and here are the pictures for the new stitch markers – true representation of what they look like.

The last set was from before, but the picture didn’t turn out that great back a few posts either so I decided to retake the picture. Due to the lighter colors, it was hard to show the difference. Oh well.

No other news to report… Time to rest my nose.

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New Creations

February 18, 2008 //
4

So I played with the new beads that I acquired the other day -

I really don’t know how to photograph these to make it show better. How do people take such great pictures on things so shiny? I tried it with no flash, but it just doesn’t look good. Any suggestion would be welcomed.

There is a President’s Sale on Artbeads.com so I ordered a bunch of beads to play more. I can’t wait for them to get here!

And here is a very dark picture of a stitch pattern I’ve been practicing -

I really like this stitch pattern. It is the Diagonal Knot Stitch from my “365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar” that I receive from Itchy 2 years ago for Christmas. This pattern gives quite a depth, and the back is pretty as well.

See! It’s pretty :) I’m thinking of using this stitch pattern to make a scarf… Hmmm… Maybe it will be my Smidge along.

Well, I’m gonna go snuggle with my monkey blanket and drink some cocoa and watch some TV, and maybe even knit some… Oh, yeah, and let my nose and the tissues have a party… ::sigh::

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Saturday Adventure

February 17, 2008 //
7

It was COOOOOLD. But I got up, cleaned out my car (too much stuff and dog fur), and off me go to pick up Archiknist for our Saturday Adventure.

We started off by having lunch at Cafe Atlantique. The cafe is very much like a little French bistro that makes excellent crepes and salads. I had a goat cheese crepe with white hot chocolate and Archiknist had a salad of the day with hot chocolate. Yum! If you ever go around there, it would definitely worth your palate and stomach to try it.

We stopped in Litlith’s Loom to check out the place. I’ve seen it for awhile now but never stopped in. Rob and his partner had opened the store to cater to the weaving community. They have quite a few classes in weaving, crochet, knitting, and more. The classes are towards the pricey side though. Rob is very friendly and told us his vision for the place. They carry a lot of local art work for sale – there was this beautiful wood weaved star ornaments on a Christmas tree and it was just beautiful. We didn’t purchase anything and went on to a used bookstore and a jewelry store down the street. We were hoping the used bookstore will carry some craft books, but they didn’t. The closest thing they have is Art. Hmmm… Maybe all the craft people knows not to give up their precious books. The jewelry store has a lot of “green” stuff – inner tube remake into purses and wallets, etc. Very interesting and actually stylish! But we were good and we didn’t buy anything there either.

Finally, we arrived to one of our two destinations – Manifest Beads. The store has been there for almost three years and I visited it quite a few times but I haven’t been in for awhile. I signed up the Charming Chunky Bracelet class so I can learn how to make the charms with wires. I also purchased a packet of leaf charms while we were there. We then went to Joann’s and I bought some crystals (40% off + 10% off all purchase coupon!!! How can you beat that!!! Thanks for the tip, Sunflowerfairy!)

What am I going to do with all these? Stitch Markers of course! :)

After I got home, David and I made some sweet potato risotto and a loaf of gluten free bread. I follow this risotto recipe but substitute the butternut squash with sweet potatoes, and the bread came from Gluten-Free Pantry. Now, I bought two cases of this mix from Amazon awhile ago, but so far I have opened two of the mixes that didn’t come with the yeast packet that were suppose to be included. I emailed Gluten Free Pantry before and all they did was send me an email and told me that the yeast is just dry yeast and that I can just go out and buy the yeast pack. No apologies or anything. OK LADY – The whole point of emailing you is so YOU can send me the packets to replace it. It says that it includes it! So where are my yeast packets? That customer service is really gonna get you to places.

Anyways, back to the food. The risotto was so good that I only manage to snap this picture:

The whole pan was FULL! Up to the top (about 3 inches tall) and that’s all that’s left. Yum. And here is the bread:

The loaf pan I used is smaller than it called for, hence the giant top. But was this bread good! Moist, a little dense and it’s just plain delicious. As of this morning, we only have half a loaf left.

That pretty much concluded my Saturday because soon after the food, I passed out from exhaustion – The sinus infection bug has kicked my butt. I literally slept for 11 and 1/2 hours!!! That’s a lot of sleeping time!

Now time to go make some stitch markers!!! :)

Categories friends, good finds

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2008 //
3

To you, and you, and you, and you :)

Isn’t the flower gorgeous? One of my co-worker is leaving the company at the end of this month, so for Valentine’s Day, he gave every female co-worker a single yellow rose for the friendship he made while working at Schick.

I want to give this yellow rose to all of you, my readers, for the friendship we made in this virtual world.

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Categories Holiday

Spiderwick Chronicles and More

February 13, 2008 //
5

Have you seen this trailer yet? The Spiderwick Chronicles is a no-miss movie. My yoga instructor had some of the free screening post cards and gave them out during class yesterday. A free movie that David and I wanted to see since I’ve seen the preview? Why not?! We actually used this as our opportunity to celebrate our Valentine’s Week. Yes, we celebrate it the whole week, and it was David’s idea. :)

The movie was great and the acting was excellent as well. The twin brothers were played by the same actor but he would have you fooled to think there really are two people acting there.

If you like The Chronicles of Narnia, then you would like this movie as well. I’ve never read the books, so I couldn’t compare and tell you any differences, but both David and I really enjoyed this movie.

Speaking of Chronicles of Narnia, the second one is coming out later this year. Can’t wait.

So in other news, I think the package fairy must know that I like getting packages, so she has one sent to me today – From my best friend Itchy. Itchy lives in Hawaii and we haven’t seen each other for over a year now. Hopefully she is moving back to the mainland soon so we can see each other more often.

She sent me a box of tea native of Hawaii, a handmade beeswax candle coconut scent in a coconut shell, a pair of mother of pearl earrings, a Vera Bradley eyeglasses case, and a handmade note of course! :) My Itchy is very crafty! Thanks girlie!

So I think I jinxed us from the previous post about snow – we got one last night, but when I got out this morning, all we got was slush!!!

It poured the whole day so now we have absolutely no snow on the ground. If I didn’t take a picture, you probably wouldn’t believe me either. And this weather only prompted a nice cup of hot cocoa -

It’s the Candy Cane Hot Cocoa mix from InsanKnitty along with her homemade marshmallows in my new mug and spoon/stir from one of my auditors. YUM. I think I won the best drink of the day contest at work if there was one – on content AND mug! Even my boss was impressed.

And lastly, check out Anphoe‘s new outfit!

I took the pictures while at work. Isn’t she adorable? It makes me want to make it for myself! :)
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Categories Food, friends, Holiday, Movie

Thank You My Cocoa Swap Pal!

February 11, 2008 //
6

I came home and found a big box in front of the door, and inside it contained these:

All the presents were nicely wrapped and presented

It’s my Hot Cocoa swap package!!!!

Can you tell she really took care of me? So here is the list of what InsanKnitty put together for me:

  • Homemade cocoa mix
  • Photo travel mug – instead of pictures, she put in a piece of hand knitted stockinette swatch.
  • Mousepad calendar with doggies on them
  • 2 Marshmallow men – my “Beat the Winter Blahs” buddies
  • 2 sets of stitch markers and 1 set of keychains made by InsanKnitty
  • Honey Sticks!
  • Werther’s Original hard candies
  • Homemade Marshmallows – So yummy, already dived in~
  • Cocoa mixes – 2 from Hershey’s Cocoa Reserve (Mayan and Aztec), 4 Candycane Cocoa with real peppermint candycane from Sephen’s, which is the kind David’s mom got me for Christmas and I finished and wanted for me but couldn’t find!!! And a pack of Chocolate Royale by For Giving Souls.
  • 1 package of sticky notes in mug shape
  • 1 package of recipe cards with her homemade cocoa mix recipe on it
  • 1 tube of chocolate cover sunflower seeds
  • A felted mug – that will be my pen holder at work for sure!
  • 2 skeins of yarn – of course yarn!!! Blue one is from NH Knitting Mama and the Orange one is from Glass Hedge Studios.
  • 2 package of Chew Cheez Rolls – she even remembers my puppies!

Here is the close-up of the stitch markers and keychains – although apparently my photo taking skill isn’t really quite to par…

So I want to just give a shout out to InsanKnitty – Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!! I love EVERYTHING! Even David was impressed with the thought you put into putting this package! And here are Mick and Vanilla saying their thank you’s -

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Categories exchange

Winter Wonderland

February 10, 2008 //
6

Winter down in CT has been very mild. Whenever you see the weather man forecasting northeast having big snow storm – substitute that with rain then it would be about correct every single time. To this date, we have no snow on the ground, which suites me just fine (less shoveling and plowing bills!). But up in Vermont, that’s another story.

The view of Killington on Saturday morning

I think while I was there, there must be at least of a foot of snow fallen and even though it looks kinda scary (the snows were coming sideways!) but when it stopped, the time seemed to stopped and everything was on hold so everyone can stop and take a deep breath and taking in the beautiful scenery.

While David was skiing on Saturday, I knitted on for the Moondance for awhile but didn’t make much progress as I discovered a mistake way down and couldn’t live with it so I had to tink back quite a few rows. But on Sunday, I slept in and prepared to visited the LYSs in the area – to see the layout, and maybe pick the brain of the owners for having a yarn shop.

The first shop I went to was the White River Yarns.

The shop has been open just about year and an half and I am surprised that I didn’t know it existed – especially I usually stayed in the Super 8 right down the street whenever we come up this way!

When I first walk in the store, all I can say was “Wow. This place feels inviting.” The lighting was great and the store just has a very nice flow to it.

As you can see when you first walk in, you are greeted with comfy space to sit and knit, and the smile of Lois – well, you couldn’t see Lois, but she is right in the center/back of the store facing the door. The space is not gigantic so you feel overwhelmed, but Lois carried a lot of different yarn, the key – half shelves! It was such a smart way to display double amount of yarn when you don’t have a lot of space!

I expressed my intent immediately after I walked in and Lois welcomed the idea and jumped in immediately and give me pointers after pointers, tips after tips. Time flies when you are having fun – I arrived at 10:30am. Four hours later, David had called and said the race was over due to lightening and to stay at White River Yarns and they are coming back. By 4pm, he finally arrived, and I was still there, chatting away with Lois, and Jamie, who joined us about 3pm. And did I mention that I was going to visit the yarn shopS around town? Well, I only made it to White River, and it was soooo worth it. I can honestly say that I made a couple of friends while visiting and learning (a lot), and knitters are just the best people around the world!

Of course, I couldn’t leave without purchasing some yarn:

The brown one is from MT Laurel Llama Ranch located in Grafton, NH. The yarn is fingering weight of 90% Llama, 10% Merino. A hefty 413 yards in 4 oz. The yarn is super soft and the price is right for the local grown and spun yarn.

The second skein is Wool/Bamboo Sock weight from Ellen’s 1/2 Pint Farm. The work is just absolutely beautiful. She’s got beautiful colorways which you can see the descriptions on her website. She’s having some technical issues so you might not be able to see the pictures. I actually have never seen her work before and I am in just awe of the colorways. Of course, I couldn’t go home without it. She sells them on her website currently and you can call to order or do online shopping. I’m thinking this one will do up a beautiful scarf instead of socks… hmmm… Time to go on Ravelry and do some pattern search!

So this weekend was just a time well spent weekend in VT. The beautiful view, the fresh air, and most importantly, the knowledge shared and friendship made during this trip. I highly recommend you visiting White River Yarns when you travel to, thru or nearby White River Junction, Vermont. It is well worth of your time.

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Categories friends

Random Thoughts

February 5, 2008 //
6

WHAT HAPPENED? ::sigh:: There is always next year for the Patriots!

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So I’ve been busy making stitch markers!!! Here are the two sets I made:

The color is hard to photograph. The beads on the left are provided by Archiknist and the crystals were mine. I am planning to give one set to my cocoa swap pal and one set to Archiknist for being so generous to let me borrow her whole set of jewelry making kit – she just doesn’t know it yet (until she reads my post).

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So I’ve made some progress on The Yarn Wall. First, I got my domain names!!! No website yet, but at least it is search-able and it’s out in the WWW. My friend Adam had given me a lot of pointers on the website stuff and I can’t wait to get to work on it – but not until I have my business plan completed. Also, I’ve been reading “Start Your Own Business” from the Entrepreneur Magazines. Mine is actually an older version (3rd edition) as I had bought it under Adam‘s recommendation exactly 2 years ago when he was just about to quit Schick and work on his online business. (Make sure you check out all three links that I’ve put in here – they are all different!) I did the quiz at the beginning of the book and boy, am I now more ready than ever! I’ve read this book half way through and never finished it for some reason, and now I am re-reading it and are learning some of the things I didn’t remember reading about. So if you ever consider starting your own business, be sure to pick this one up – definitely worth your money.

I also talked to the first Sales Rep for the yarn shop. I’m sure she won’t be the last. She is fun and bubbly and I can’t wait to meet her in person!

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On the knitting front – I’ve been working on a secret project – it is almost done and I won’t be able to post anything about it until it is gifted. Lets just say it’s 50% completed and it should be done soon. I haven’t really worked on anything else though…

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Remember the Linky Love post? (scroll down couple of the posts) Well, it turned out that The Yarn Garden was listed twice so some people were linking them to one place, and some to the others. So you might want to go and check your links in Ravelry – if you clicked on the store and it only shows like 4 or 5 patrons? That’s the wrong link and go back and just delete “in Meriden, Connecticut” and click on the little infinity symbol next to the text box, and it should show up “The Yarn Garden – Meriden, CT”.

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On January 31st, my blog turned TWO! Happy Belated Birthday to Café Eclectic. And thank you all for reading.

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