Enjoy it now

She better enjoy her full coat while she has it because Miss Dolly Fuzz Butt is sure going to look diffent in a few days. Yep, let the trimming and trauma begin. This, being her first hair cut is going to be quite an adventure for both of us. It is definately going to take both Tony and I to do the job. I'm going to try the clippers first and I hope they go well. I've clipped rabbits before with scissors and that is a pain and they wind up looking SO choppy. Luckily our clippers are quiet so hopefully she'll do ok.

My mind is already starting to think about my upcoming trip to California. I wasn't excited when I booked my flight, but now that it's getting closer to time, I'm getting more anxious. I'm so happy to get to see my sister for a whole two weeks! I've got to figure out the logistics of it all between now and then. Of course I'll be a big bag of worry by the time it's time to go. I know how I am. I just hope I can make the flight without a trip to the ER this time.

I'm off to bed. Early day tomorrow again. And two more after that. This is one tough week!

Came and Went

This week-end seemed to have came and went like greased lightning! I don't really know where it went. I did spent a huge amount of time re-working my blog design as you can see. What do you think? I like it better. Do you? Finally blogger switched me over to the new format so I can jazz my stuff up and I'm taking advantage of it even though it required a bit of work. It's really user friendly once you get the hang of it. Advice to anyone who is planning on switching over....make sure you copy your HTML template over to a word document so you don't lose all your previous hard work because you will still need all your codes.

My oldest son come down from Jonesboro for a short visit. Actually he didn't come down to visit us really. He came to see a buddy of his who was performing downtown in a concert. He just spent one night here after the concert. I really miss him! He seems to be really doing well up there and I'm proud of him. I hope that he continues to do well and gets his schooling lined out. He is so smart and has such possibilities that his future could be incredible. All in all I think that I raised a really decent human being. That's saying alot considering all that he and I have been through together. Sometimes he has really caused me to wonder, but really and truly, I think that if all the chips were down he would be a person that I could on if I needed help. He loves his momma. He knows that of all the people in the world, all we really have are each other.

Next week is going to be another busy one. Tony has 2 doctors things that I know of.....one is at 6 am! That's going to be a bear. I'm just trying to keep all the ducks in a row around here. I do pretty much the best I can. Low profile, and all that. Seems that is the best operating proceedure right now.

I flubbed up my Jaywalkers and tinked back a few rows and really flubbed up then so I had to completely frog out. GGRRRR!!! I was doing SO well and was so proud of myself. Oh, well. This will be good practice for Sock Madness. I actually made it into the group right under the wire. I don't know if I'll be able to even make a showing in the competition, but at least I'll be IN the competition and make a good effort. That's all that counts. I'm up for the try anyway. Besides, I'm on such a sock mission right now that you say socks and I'm in!

Well, tomorrow is Monday so we'll see how the rest of the week goes. I have a bunch of packages to get off into the mail and I need to give my house a good spit shine. I'm trying to avoid the boys bathroom with every fiber of my being, but I'm afraid that if I avoid it much longer I'll have to call in a Haz Mat team. I really think it's not fair that a 14 and a 16 yr old can't be responsible for the cleaning of their own bathroom. But what do I know? I'm momzilla.

Stopped me in my tracks.......

I read something today that literally resonated deep within me.
"Let no one steal your peace." I have been guilty of letting people do just that from time to time. I have always been someone who wants to be a "pleaser" and the "peacemaker", no matter what the cost was to me. Even if it didn't sit well with me or "stole my own peace".

Just a week or so ago I was watching an Oprah show about something called "The Secret". Have you all heard about that, or did you catch the show? Now talk about being hit between the eyes with the proverbial hammer! OMG! Since watching that show, I've gone to the website and read up on The Secret. Amazing. I have been conciously been keeping the Secret's concepts in the forefront of my brain and actively applying them to my daily thinking. Let me tell you, it REALLY has made a difference in my outlook on things. I feel that there is a real change in my spirit and attitude. That, my friends, is a very good thing!!

I have had a fabulous knitting breakthrough! Magic Loop socks! Who knew that socks could be so easy and what took me so long to jump on that bandwagon. Holy cow! It truly is magic all right. Right now I am working on the fabulous Jaywalker pattern from Knitty. I have become sock obsessed. I have always had a mad crazy love for socks anyway, and wanted to knit so that I could make my own socks but DPN's and I never got along. Now, I am in heaven. I want ALL the sock yarn. I want all the sock patterns.

I love:
Socks That Rock
Lisa Souza
Lorna's Laces
Scout's Swag
Pippi Knee Socks
Mountain Colors Bearfoot
and Etsy!
oh and of course there are masses of fabulous commercial sock yarns out there. Southwest Trading Co. has just come out with a cool one that has crab and ship shell made into the yarn so that the shell chitin provide and antibacterial property to the yarn. How cool is that?

My Tote Swap III bag is finished and should be off in the mail in the next week IF I can find the time between all the appointments we have. We have kept the road pretty hot running to all of Tony's doctor visits etc. I think he only has 3 next week. Only.

Hello Dolly!

Well I finally did it. I found an Angora bunny! She is a beautiful black pedigreed German Satin doe. She was just weaned when I brought her home at 8 weeks and already she was growing the prettiest, thickest coat of wool. She'll be getting her first haircut around the first week of March, at 12 weeks of age, and then approximately every 12 weeks there after. I am going to try to get a white buck as her mate. Her bloodline has quite a variety of color in it, so with a white buck, I should really get some great color variations. I figured since I can't have sheep right now I might as well have bunnies. I have a feeling that it won't be long until I have plenty of angora fiber for my own personal spinning use and I'll be able to sell some of the left over's. That's what I'm hoping anyway. So, meet Miss Dolly........



My knitting is coming along quite nicely these days. I'm all finished with my sisters set of winter warmer's. I made her a scarf, fingerless mitts, and a calorimetery head warmer out of the new Chrystal Palace Taos yarn. I really like that yarn. It's 100% wool and very soft. It is self striping, but the stripes are very subtle. Nothing like Noro or other familiar self striping yarns. My only complaint about the yarn is that to me it looks like they splice it with Russian joins and where they join the ends, they don't trim it very close and it kind of has little fuzz balls. Other than that, I give it high marks.

My next project has got to be another tote bag for International Tote Exchange III. It was hard picking out a pattern for my assigned partner. I've never had a partner with her special needs before. I'm glad that the hostesses gave me such a unique pal to make for because I'm going to have alot of fun making this bag!

On the home front, things are definately looking up. My DH is going into the hospital on Wednesday for surgery on his lumbar spine. I know, I know, I just heard the collective gasp from you all! But seriously, it isn't as bad as it sounds. His doctor is awesome. He has really cool toys! Tony will get to take a little nap and the doctor will make an itty bitty incision and then he will use this laser inside of his body to carve out that portion of the disk material that has oozed out and is rubbing up against his spinal nerves and causing him all this pain. After the doc gets all that mess cleaned up, he'll put in ONE stitch, slap a bandaid on him, call it good, let him sleep it off for a while and send him on his merry way.

After he has time to recover a bit from that procedure ( about a month or so) the doc will go in agin. This time he'll be going into his cervical spine and doing the same things. The doctor said that these procedure's give Tony and 85% chance of healing these ruptured disks, and becoming pain free. That means that he can avoid the big surgery.........cervical fusion. He does NOT want to go through that at all. He is scared to death of that. More especially after watching what I had to go through all during and after mine. If he has to have major surgery/fusion on his cervical spine, he wants to go to Germany for Cervical Disk Replacement. They have been doing disk replacements over there in Germany for about 20 years whereas here in the U.S., we are still in "trial" and the proceedure has only been approved for the cervical spine by the FDA . Tony has actually spoken to two or three people who have gone to Germany and had the surgery done themselves. If Tony has at least half the success of those guys, than going all the way over there, plus the expense of the surgery out of pocket will be well worth it!

So that's about it for now. Au revoir.

Secret Pal 10 Questionaire

The Questionnaire
1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I really like Cascade 220 and Noro yarns. I am in mad love with Lisa Souza sock yarns! Drool worthy! I like good cotton blends also. I hate stuff like Red Heart acrylic. Not ALL acrylics are bad mind you, some are actually kinda groovy. Froo-Froo frilly and fussy yarns don't really have a place in my stash either (think eyelash or stuff like Eros).

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? Right now they live in a pottery vase. I've been meaning to make myself a needle roll but my machine is in the hospital just now.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I've been knitting for about 2 years now and I'm at about the intermediate level for the most part. I learned to crochet about 30 years ago but got bored with that so I just use it for finishing up on knitting stuff now days.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?Oh boy do I ever! If I could fulfill my wish list from Amazon they would have a really really GOOD sales day. I love books with a passion. Probably even more than I love great yarn if you can imagine that.

5. What's your favorite scent? That is a very tough question! Since I have my own body and bath company and make all my own soaps and lotions and body products, I'm surrounded by many many fragrance oils and essential oils on a regular basis. I'd have to say that I like "fresh" scents. Right now my favorite everyday scent is Pure Grace by Philosophy

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Oh yes I certainly do. I love milk chocolate Dove.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I do spin. I fiddle with making hand made cards. I sew sometimes when the mood strikes. I love home improvement projects.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I like all kinds of music. From Country to Classic Rock. Love Josh Grobin, Norah Jones, Faith Hill, ZZ Top, Ray Boltz, The Gaither's, Celtic music, meditation or yoga type stuff is great for unwinding.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I love the jewel colors....reds, dark greens, russets, browns, black, golds, purples, blues, deep pinks/rose, teals...the beautiful richly saturated colors really sing to me. I am not big into the pastel colors.....baby anything is just too pale for me. I guess the only color I really would NEVER ever buy for myself unless my spouse or sons insisted I make them a toboggan from it is that "Hunter Orange".

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? Married to my best friend. 2 teen age boys age 14 and 16 at home, 2 grown kids out of the nest, 2 beautiful granddaughters. Pets......I have a few.......4 dogs, 1 cat, 3 rabbits (for now on the rabbits).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Ponchos - no....Scarves and shawls - YES.....hats - yes.......mittens.....yes and I have large hands if you are going down that road.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I really don't have a particular favorite, but here lately I'm hung up on socks cuz I LOVE them. I'd love to have socks knit FOR me.

13. What are you knitting right now? I'm finishing up a scarf for my sister.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Absolutely!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I use both straight and circular. I prefer bamboo and plastic. The new Chrystal Palace "Daisy" needles (from 10 down) are fantastic! I also really like the new knit picks needles. As long as the straight needles are 12" or less and the circs have a nice smooth join and they are nice and pointy, I am happy.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? yes, both

17. How old is your oldest UFO? I'm kinda fussy in that I rarely have more than one project going at once. I try to finish something before I start a new project. That means I have a very LONG waiting list.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Oh, I don't know......they all have their good parts.

19. Is there anything that you collect? Turtles, dust bunnies, books.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I really am dying to get Elizabeth Zimmermann's book called "The Opinionated Knitter". I get Interweave Knits and Spin-Off, but I regularly purchase Creative Knitting. That's one of my favorites.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Yes, I really want to learn how to do 2 color knitting......

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I am but I'm not all that speedy yet. I wear a 9 shoe which makes my foot 10". It is average width etc.

23. When is your birthday? Match 11th