Tina in Wonderland

moving the blog

2010-01-01T20:17:00.001-06:00

I'm starting a new blog at wordpress, due to being tired of dealing with blogger glitches. My new location is:
http://tinainwonderland.wordpress.com/

Myy writer's site is now at:
http://tinadchayes.wordpress.com/

Uh oh

2009-12-29T14:24:00.000-06:00

I had to change my blog template because the one I'd been using apparently went berserk. So, lucky me, now I get to add 'Fix Blog' to my To Do list. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season, despite the little glitches.

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-20T12:55:00.004-06:00

I'm definitely not posting much this month, since it's NaNo Time!

NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month. Writers from around the globe peck furiously away at their keyboards until they've written a 50,ooo word novel. I've participated the past three years and 'won' the past two. It's sort of like a competition against yourself, to see if you can do it, but when you hit 50k, the NaNo site turnes your stat bar from blue to green and you get a winner .gif to put on your website and brag about.

Anyway, that's were I am during November. Clacking away in front of the ole word processor. I've had problems lately due to a personal loss, so I'm trying to get back into finishing this project to help keep my mind off of things. Might help, might not. We'll see.

Paid and Published!

2009-09-29T10:02:00.003-05:00

I got some wonderful news over the weekend. The editor at Page Forty-Seven liked my short story "A Day at the Flea Market", so she accepted it for publication!! AND she gave me a nice paycheck to sweeten the deal. Woo Hoo!

Here is the link to my story on their online anthology:
A Day at the Flea Market
Stop on by and check it out. You can even leave a comment there, if you like.

Ostrich and Camel Races

2009-07-20T21:19:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday, I went to Ellis Park raceway with Barry and Tyler. When I heard there was going to be Ostrich and Camel races, how ever could I turn it down? Of course, we stayed for four horse races, and I came out ahead by $1 for the day. I don't think I did too bad, and I had fun.

The exotic races were just for fun and lasted way less than a quarter mile around the track. The camels all came to a dead stop a few yards from the finish line, where they stood looking proud of themselves as the crowd 'Ahhh'ed and cheered. Above, you see them all taking a break BEFORE crossing the finsh, which is the white thing to the right. The jockey on #2 looks like he's falling off, but actually he was sliding back and forth, trying his dangdest to get his camel to move.

The Ostrich races were my favorite, and hilarious! They actually had jockeys riding these poor birds, but the cool thing was every rider had been thrown off by the time the birds got done crossing the finish line. When they were loading them back up into their transport, the Renegade Bird above escaped and ran back toward the starting gate. Then he stopped to stare into his crowd of admirers and I got the picture above. Next, his buddies saw what was going on and decided to go and join him. See the picture below. You couldn't hear any announcements by then, because everyone was laughing their asses off, including me. The ostriches stole a good fifteen minutes of showtime, pretty remarkable for the showoffs considering their 'race' only lasted about 10 seconds.

The New Harry Potter Movie

2009-07-15T20:45:00.002-05:00

I saw the new Harry Potter Movie, the Half-Blood Prince, today with two of the kids. It kicked ass and we loved it. A cool thing was there were people there of all ages there, childless unembarrassed adults even. :) I think this one conforms most closely to the actual book, and it had really nice visual effects and comedic parts.

It'll be interesting, as always, to see what sort of HP inspired knitting patterns pop up. Anyway, the movie just opened today and I highly recommend seeing it.

Maizy's Birthday Video

2009-07-09T10:55:00.005-05:00

Click on the above to see a video of Maizy ripping into her presents on her 9th birthday, which was on June 30th but I'm just now figuring out how to upload. :) The charm necklace she's wearing was another of her gifts.

I love getting stuff in the mail

2009-07-08T13:59:00.003-05:00

I get a big kick from getting packages in the mail, even stuff I pick out and pay for myself. :) The maillady left this in my mailbox a few days ago: Sock Innovation book, two skeins of KnitPicks Essential in Pumpkin (which were on sale!) and a darning egg. Okay, so I have absolutely no idea how to use it, but it was cute and I guess I can figure it out the next time I have a holey sock. I'm gonna make a summer shrug from the yarn, as soon as I finish the yoga socks I'm working on now.

View from the Zoo

2009-07-01T21:05:00.010-05:00

One of my favorite places to go is the zoo. I LOVE animals and Mesker Zoo in Evansville, IN is so much fun. My family and I went yesterday so I thought I'd post some 'View from the Zoo' pics.

Above is Donna the Hippo. She just celebrated her 58th birthday!!

The Jaguar is behind glass (explains the blurs) in a huge room. He can walk outside through the door behind his butt, where he has a waterfall and two pools of water to play in, plus a huge yard. This is a beautiful animal.

This Zebra stands just almost close enough for people to touch. There's another one in the far right corner, but you can't really see him.

I'm not sure what the heck these things are, but they're part of the new Amazonia exibit. They look kinda like a beaver, but more humpy.

I love peacocks and they are running loose all over the zoo. There is nothing prettier than seeing them roosting in trees with their long tails trailing down from the branches. If you look closely at this guy, his head is bent over his back preening.

Ordered a Knitting book, etc

2009-06-30T23:11:00.003-05:00

The closest LYS didn't have any orange sock yarn, so I indulged myself by ordering some from KnitPicks. While on the site, I had to be responsible and see what else was on sale, of course. They have a new item listed, a wooden darning egg, which I thought would come in handy for fixing holey socks, 'cuz I'm not excited to throw anything I make in the trash. (Plus, I've had some damn moths munching on a coulple, and I hope they choked on 'em! Yeah, I'm mean when it comes to moths). And a book I've been planning to buy, Sock Innovation by the one and only Queen of Socks Cookie A , is 40% off! Clicked that sucker right into my shopping cart, oh yes I did.

We went to the zoo this afternoon, so I'll have some cool pics to post soon.

Maizy, Pesci, and the market bag

2009-06-25T20:15:00.003-05:00

I just finished knitting this 'To Market' Bag today, and I think Maizy (Boston on the right) and Pesci (bunny on the left) want to see if I've bought anything for them yet. LOL

Uggh

2009-06-21T21:02:00.002-05:00

Reasons it's not a good idea to keep unfinished knitting projects beside the bed:

1. Kids, dogs, husband, birds, or the bunny could get into them an accidentally make the needles slip out and cause a great portion of stitches to unravel
2. Moths or something could actually eat the expensive wool yarn, the part already knitted up. They seem to leave the skeins intact
3. If I have more than two things started, I generally loose interest in favor of some fun new pattern.
4. I don't need to have UFOs!

I bet you've guessed the reason for the Ugggh, huh. My monkey sock liked an inch being ready to bind off the toes, then it went into UFO storage by the bed. BAD, bad, bad idea. UGGH. On my quest to finish all the old stuff I'd started, I pulled out the monkey, only to find somebody from Reason 1 had fiddled with the needles and a third of stitches are dropped and unraveling. Something from Reason 1 or 2 also chewed a damn hole in the side of the nearly finished sock. It's Rippit time, though Miller Time would make me feel better.

When I looked at the lace piece I was working on, which shame on me, I haven't picked up in months 'cuz I got busy with other stuff, I don't know what the heck happened to it. It looks like it's dissentigrating on the needle. No hope for that one, either. RIPPIT

On a brighter note, I'm having fun figuring out Ravelry, and now I only have one UFO, after I frog the above mentioned ones, so I have less on my To Do list. :O)

Ravelry

2009-06-19T21:48:00.003-05:00

I joined Ravelry last night and am still trying to figure out how to get around over there. I've already downloaded a pattern for the 'To Market' bag.

I've gotta get some more pictures posted on here, and I think I'm going to redecorate this blog page while I'm at it. Who know what I'll come up with. :O)

Pesci

2009-03-19T10:32:00.004-05:00

Meet the newest addition to the Hayes family, Pesci the Mini Lop Bunny. We named him after the famous Joe Pesci, 'cuz they're both so cute and petite, yet macho. Kinda?

In the picture of Maizy and Einstein with Pesci, Maizy is irritated that I'm making her pose with a lowly rabbit. (Okay, she's a a teensy bit stuckup, but don't let her know I said that! LOL) She actually loves the bunny and treats him like a puppy, licking his face and hopping around in a play bow. I'll try to sneak up on her with the camera the next time they're playing.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T19:59:00.002-05:00

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

I made Irish Potato candy to celebrate, and I plan to drink a bit of Guinness tonight. Don't forget about the 'Wearing O' the Green', or I'll give you a great big cyber pinch!

Anybody else a Mob Wars addict, the cool game you can play on facebook? I'm lovin' it myself, so email me if you play and want to join mobs. If not, forgetaboutit.

Spring is on its way

2009-03-05T10:14:00.004-06:00

Spring must be on its way, since the sun is shining and the weather is a 'warm' and comfortable 55 degrees outside. I went to town this morning without a jacket. I'm looking forward to saying goodbye and good riddance to winter this year.

We finally got a new vacuum cleaner, since they don't usually last more than a year in our house, if that. We bought one of those yellow Dysons and that sucker really works! Plus, it has a 5-year warrenty so it should be worth the price. I'm hoping it will stand up to the stuff my kids and husband track in, not to mention the dog hair and birdseed.

And for my buddies at Dogs on Thursday, here's a picture of Capone wearing a bowler hat (which he borrowed from Mr. Potato Head). Ain't he cute and snazzy?

Schatzie Memorial Candle

2009-02-26T14:47:00.003-06:00

This came today and really touched my heart. My friend Sue sent this beautiful 'Furry Angel Memorial' candle in honor of my Schatzie, my German Shepherd girl who passed away recently.

Capone chillin'

2009-02-26T10:13:00.004-06:00

For Dog on Thursday, I thought I'd post this picture of Capone looking cool in his pink shades.

Computer problems

2009-02-21T08:40:00.002-06:00

I was offline from last Monday until yesterday afternoon, due to a computer problem. When our neighbors were cutting down a tree in their yard damaged by a recent ice storm, we got a power surge through the phone lines. Our phones had no dial tone and sounded dead. So, we waited for four days until the AT&T guy came and said there was some sort of problem in the house, then left without coming in, because he said he'd have to wait for another work order. Gee, thanks for that, we thought.

Anyway, since we are on dial-up, our modem was fried. Thankfully, the hard drive and monitor were saved by our surge protector. Our computer guy switched the part out yesterday, so now I'm back up and a-runnin'.

Maizy all Dolled Up

2009-02-12T09:36:00.002-06:00

I bet this made you either smile or do a double-take!

My daughter Brittany dressed Maizy up and took this cute picture,

which I thought would be perfect for Dogs on Thursday.

Hectic...

2009-02-11T23:40:00.002-06:00

Things have been pretty dang hectic around here all year, for one reason or another.

Kentucky was hit by a terrible ice and snow storm, the likes of which noone can remember ever seeing in the state's recorded history. Two weeks and some still have no power. We were without electricity for a week, no phone or cell signal for five days. We brought in a kerosene heater that kept us warm, and heated up a mean pan of beans for supper. The National Guard actually stopped by our home twice to check on us, a surprise since we live out in the boon docks. I've never seen anything like this ice storm, and hope it doesn't happen to this severity again.

Before that, we all had a bug that kept us sick in bed for a week. At least we were feeling good when the storm hit.

Sorry about being away so long, but it was kinda unavoidable. Rest assured I should be back blogging at least once a week from now on. Kick my butt if I don't!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T19:38:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to wish everybody a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Wednesday Morning

2008-11-12T10:49:00.003-06:00

So far this year's NaNoWriMo is going better than expected. My group of writing buddies from theNextBigWriter make it a whole lot more fun than last year, since they're going thru the sleepless nights and caffiene overload right along with me. The goal is to write a first draft of a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. As of last night, my word count is 19,387. Not too shabby, huh? I want to break 25k by this Friday, so wish me luck.

In other fun news, this picture that I entered in the Halloween Costume Picture Contest on the Dogs on Thursday site WON!

Maizy & Einstein are ecstatic! (Okay, they're sorta fuller of themselves than usual, but you didn't hear that from me)

Rock the Vote

2008-11-04T12:42:00.002-06:00

Vote

If you don't vote, then you have NO right to complain the next four years.

I voted for Obama!

View from our front porch

2008-11-03T18:11:00.002-06:00

Here's a picture Brittany took showing the great fall view from our front porch. This is such a pretty time of year.

Don't forget to go out and vote, since I think it's gonna be a close one. I'm voting for Obama.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-30T10:55:00.002-05:00

Or should I say, HOWL-O-WEEN !!!

Mwaa haaa haaaaa

Funny YouTube Video of My Dogs Flossing Their Teeth

2008-10-23T09:49:00.003-05:00

Want to see a ridiculously funny YouTube video my kids made?
Just Click Here.

The clip features Einstein and Capone, some dental floss, filmed by some bored kids. :)

Just saw a GREAT horror movie

2008-10-22T21:26:00.005-05:00

If you want to see a freakin' great horror flick, you have GOT to rent 'Strangers' starring Liv Tyler. It's psychological horror rather than paranormal, and the suspense/thriller action is at level 10 throughout almost the whole movie. If that's not reason enough to wet your pants watching it, it's based on a true story from an incident that happened in 2005.

I just watched it and I'm still nervous! Freakin' great movie. Loved it!

Fun Stuff

2008-10-22T16:08:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd mention a few fun things that have my attention right now.

My writing friends from TNBW invited me to join facebook, so I did. Its a fun place to put more useless information about myself, buddies, and family. So click away if you want to see it or join.

I'm a big Shakespeare fan and my 13-year-old son is studying some his plays this year during homeschool. Since he complained that some of the wording was hard for him to understand, I found this great website, No Fear Shakespeare. You can read the plays online, with the text translated into modern English on one side of the screen. I have him read one Act at a time in his book, then let him get online to reread it, making it easier for him to get the most out of the story. So if you like Shakespeare but find reading it intimidating, this site is for you.

With NaNoWriMo time coming up in about eight days, I thought I'd make a desktop/wallpaper thingie to use during November. Plain and simple, but I like it.
Feel free to use it, if you like. Just let me know so I can brag about it!

NaNo Count Down

2008-10-16T13:38:00.007-05:00

I just can't wait until NaNoWriMo kicks off! I've got a bunch of writing buddies this year, mostly from 'TheNextBigWriter.com', where I spend a huge chuck of my time.

Rian invited me to joint FaceBook yesterday, which I did. Now I'm trying to figure out how to ue it!

Nearly NaNo time

2008-10-14T12:01:00.003-05:00

It's almost NaNoWriMo time again. For those of you not familiar with the term, it's short for 'National Novel Writing Month'. Those participating try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, ending at midnight on November 30th. Grueling, yes, but also a lot of fun and rewarding, if we can get through the whole mnth without being committed to an institution for driving ourselves crazy! LOL This is my third year and I'm looking forward to it. The goal is to get the word count in and finish the rough draft of your novel, the revision and corrections are made the following month.

Let me know if any of y'all are participating!

It's a Boy

2008-10-08T16:05:00.006-05:00

No, I didn't just lose my mind and pop out a 4th kid! Calm down, already.

The Senegal parrot we recently bought is a Boy! After we got the results back, we named him Winston, since he looks so dignified. He has an orange vest pattern, a dark head (that could look a bit like a bowler hat, if you squint a bit), and green legs. I sorta think he resembles a little Leprechaun!

My son helped with the DNA testing kit and we're studying DNA now in homeschool. I thought some of y'all might like to see how easy it is to test the genomes today. Avian Biotech furnishes the kits free of charge, then we pay $20 when we send it back to them. It's simply a card we fill out, then we cut one of the bird's toenails just short enough to bleed a little, which we put on the card. Here's a picture of the little card lying on the form and brochure they sent.
And here is the certificate saying that he's a boy. The name/id line isn't filled out yet, since we waited on naming him until we knew for sure what gender he was. (Um, actually this pic is in Black and White, 'cuz I must have pushed some button on my new camera that made it turn out like that.)

We've only had Winston for 3-1/2 weeks, but he has came a LONG way. He lets me handle him now and carry him around. For any of you non-bird people out there who don't know, parrot bites hurt like HELL! For real! My six-foot tough-guy husband has said many times he'd rather get bit by a dog than a bird. It feels like having a strong man pinching the crap out of your finger with a sharpened pair of pliers. OUCH! Yep, it can bruise or bleed. So, you can imagine how thankful I am to have him just about over that stage. He prefers sitting on my shoulder but will step up now and is really showing his sweet side.

Oh, and he talks! It sounds sort of like an old lady talking on the phone: Hi...what?....Really?...maybe....

Plus, he's making me look a bit insane. I'm trying to get him to say 'whoop-tee-doo', 'cuz I thought that would be funny. I'm afraid someone is gonna walk in a throw a net over me, sitting there saying 'Whoop-tee-doo!!' a couple hundred times in a row. If they don't take me away, I'll post again soon!

Ike's aftermath in Kentucky and the Bird Fair

2008-09-18T17:55:00.003-05:00

I felt bad enough for all the people who had to suffer through the hurricane, the damage, and evacuations in Florida and Texas. After seeing the after effects that stretched all the way to Kentucky, I simply can't imagine how bad things must have been further south. The winds here were in excess of 70 mph, hundreds of miles from the coast, for goodness sake!

We live in western Kentucky and Ike blew down telephone and light poles, knocking out electricity in literally thousands of homes here. We were without power for a day and a half, but I'm not even going to gripe about it because I think there are still some peoplein the dark now. An old TV antenna tower blew over and bent to the ground, which is okay because the husband had been planning to get rid of it anyway. Our patio table blew into the bricks and smashed, and we have huge limbs all over the place. We're all fine, thrilled to have the lights on again, and glad not to be hurt.

On a happier note, look what followed us home from the Bird Fair we went to last weekend in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

We're hoping this parrot will play nice with our 10-year-old Green Cheek Conure. The new one is 2-year-old Senegal parrot that was looking for a permanent home, so here he is! He is very sweet but hadn't had very much attention before he came to us. He is making great progress and after only 5 days , he/she takes food from our hand, let's us pet his head and back, and will step up on a stick. I haven't been bit for about two days, so my fingers are in one piece as I type. LOL We ordered a DNA test to find out whether the parrot is a boy or a girl, so I'll let y'all know how that turns out.

Happy Birthday, Baby Einstein

2008-09-11T17:21:00.010-05:00

Today is our Boston puppy's 1st birthday, and Einstein had a really fun day. I still can't believe it's been a whole year since he was born, since it seems like just yesterday. Plus, he still has that adorable little puppy dog face, as you can see.

Above left is a picture of Tiny Einie when he was just one week old. Look at his teeny pink feet and itty bitty ears! To the right is our Lil Einstein at one year old.

He's had a day of extra attention (as if he isn't already used to getting his little butt kissed) with treats and new toys. His favorite presents were the blue Kong Wubba and a stuffed toy that is made to look like a roadkill squirrel!

Pow Wow and Grandparents Day

2008-09-07T21:00:00.004-05:00

My weekend was busy but fun.

Saturday we went to the 21st annual Trail of Tears Pow Wow in Hopkinsville, KY. The park is on one of the actual campsites the Cherokee used during their forced march in 1838. Talented dancers, beautiful regalia, the scent of authentic fry bread, and the haunting music of the drum, flute, and singers makes this a special event.

Today is Grandparents Day, so if you didn't call your grandmama, go running to the phone and do it now! The kids and I visited with my grandparents this morning then stopped by my folk's house. It was fun and my grandparents enjoy having a day in their honor.

Our first week back to homeschool has gone really well, and I'm just about back in the swing of the school schedule.

Happy Labor Day

2008-08-31T21:26:00.002-05:00

It'll be Labor Day in a few short hours, so everybody have a good one!

I'm going to Luke's Flea Market in Greenville, KY in the morning to do some treasure hunting. Vendors come from all over the country on Labor Day so you never know what you'll find there. They have a little bit of everything from farm animals to houseplants, collectibles to antiques, and a bunch of 'What the heck is that thing' type items. I sure hope they have Lemon Shake-ups tomorrow.

I've spent most of this weekend getting stuff ready for our homeschool, which starts this coming Wednesday. Since my girls are now college age, Tyler will be my only student this year. It'll be easier for me, teaching everything on one grade level instead of three different ones, though I'm not sure how excited he's going to be about having 100% of my attention focused on him. This will be my tenth year as a Homeschooling mom, and I still enjoy it.

This years subjects include the following: English (reading, writing, literature, vocabulary, etc), Math, Science, Spanish, History, Geography, Civics, and The Arts & Culture.

Our Finch Aviary

2008-08-26T17:47:00.007-05:00

Setting up a finch aviary has been our summer project. The whole family LOVES it. It is so peaceful in our sitting room now, watching the birds play or listening to them sing as I read. I thought y'all might like seeing some pictures. We have one canary and one pair each of zebra, owl, spice, and Lady Gouldian finches.

You can tell the birds aren't big fans of the camera, huh? When they see us trying to take pictures, they fly into a huddle in the far corner, like in the picture to the right. Any other time, they are flying around, playing.

Holiday World

2008-08-23T22:57:00.002-05:00

We just spent a fun-filled day at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. Our older two daughters didn't want to go, so Barry and I took our son Tyler and my neice and nephew Chanler and Trevor, ages 13, 8, and 9.

Everybody acted fine all day, even my husband! LOL Of course, there was the goofy nonsense the last half hour on the way back home, but that's to be expected.

They have great rides, a water park, and get this, FREE ALL YOU CAN DRINK COKES ALL DAY!!! Yes, something in America is actually free!!

Maizy is in this week's Dogs On Thursday Spotlight!

2008-08-13T20:51:00.003-05:00

Natalie emailed me today to ask if I'd like for Maizy to be this week's spotlight on Dogs On Thursday. Well, heck yeah! Maizy and I are thrilled and honored. (Okay, Maizy has a slight case of the 'Big Head' going on right now, but don't tell her I said that!)

Above is a quick picture of my little Maizy Mae, the little black and white pumpkin who stole my heart, my little sweat pea, our pookie-wookie little poochie! (Um, you probably get the picture by now. I love her to pieces and she knows it)

Look out. I'm back!

2008-08-05T20:32:00.002-05:00

I guess y'all have noticed that I've been absent for the past four months, but I'm back now and ready to start bloggin' again. I was a bit ill, nothing life-threatening, just bad enough to keep me from having any fun. I'm feeling much better now, so look out. I might just blog you silly!

What has everybody been doing this summer? I've mainly been reading so I can recommend some good books.
Duma Key by Stephen King
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz
The Chocolate Mouse Trap by JoAnna Carl
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (which I think will hit the Best Seller list real soon. Way Cool!)

The kids, husband, and all the dogs are doing fine. We set up an aviary in our sitting room recently and have a small "Shakespearian Finch Flock" where all the little birds are named after characters from Shakespeare's plays. I think it is just beautiful, so peaceful to watch them and listen to them sing. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Happy St Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T12:29:00.002-05:00

Top of the morning to ya!

(Watch out . . . .Gotcha! I'm reaching out through the monitor to pinch those of you who forgot to dress for the 'Wearing of the green' today. Didn't think I could see you, huh!)

Here's a fun St Patrick's Day site full of all things Irish, like beer facts, recipes, and the like.

Well, I'm off to put my Guinness in the fridge. Watch out of the leprechauns, look for some
four-leaf clovers, dance a jig maybe, and have a

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

A great day was had by me!

2008-03-12T11:00:00.003-05:00

Monday, March 10th was my birthday, and I turned thirty-nine. I had a great day! I either saw or talked to nearly everybody in my family, Barry and the kids took me out to eat a nice dinner at Olive Garden, and absolutely nothing stressful happened. I repeat, absolutely NOTHING stressful happened, how great is that? And, I've started reading my favorite present, the new Duma Key novel by Stephen King, and I'm loving it so far.

Brittany, my 18-year-old, took this picture of me last week. (Just ignore the goofy look on my face. I always look goofy in my pics) I've never posted a pic of myself here, so here I am holding lil Einstein. He just turned 6 months old and gets just way too much attention, 'cuz he's so dang cute!

Happy Early Easter from Capone

2008-03-06T17:58:00.003-06:00

Capone wanted to say "Happy Early Easter" to all his 'Dogs On Thursday' buddies, so, here he is:

I'm a Semi-Finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award!!

2008-01-21T10:03:00.000-06:00

I'm really very happy about this! On January 15th, Amazon posted the excerpts from the 836 semi-finalist, and my novel made the cut! WOO HOO!! That is especially amazing to me since there were well over 5,000 entries. I know I probably won't win the big prizes, since there are so many wonderful writers competing, but I am truely thankful to have made it this far in the competition. It has been a major confidence boost for me, because as an aspiring but as of yet unpublished writer, the only feedback I'm used to getting are the rejection slips the publishing houses pay their evil secretaries to stuff into envelopes right before they use my manuscripts for toilet paper.

You can click on the link above or on the Novel title to go to my entry. I'm in the Romance section and my novel is titled "Nefarious". There is some foul language in the dialogue and a bit of violence, just wanted to warn ya. If you want to read my excerpt-which consists of my first chapter-just click on the 'download for free' button on the upper right part of that screen, then click on view. If you like what you read, please enter a customer review! I would appreciate it!

The excerpt will give you a feel for what the rest is about, and here is a quick synopsis over the entire novel, but remember, Amazon only posts the beginning of the story. The big winner will get published. Anyway, here's my synopsis:

"Harlie Storme is a woman overcoming the emotional scars leftover from her violent and abusive marriage. Their love at first sight romance helping her to regain her lost sense of self worth, this small town girl starts a whirlwind romance with a rock icon who pulls her into his tempestous life of paparazzi, tabloids, and bodyguards, sweeping her into a love so deep and sensual that she will never be the same. But all is not perfect in their new paradise. Determined to have the object of his desire all to himself, a stalker threatens to tear the couple's world apart, becoming more obsessed as their devotion to each other grows stronger. If his identity is not discovered in time, their very lives could be destroyed. "

Dang, I'm Behind!

2008-01-17T22:15:00.000-06:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I've been busy, the holidays were hectic, and now I'm behind on just about everything!

First, I want to post a picture of the cool stuff Ragan sent me for winning a Christmas contest on her blog. [I had loaded this picture yesterday, but Blogger seems to have eaten it! Glad it's fixed now, anyway] I LOVED it!! Thanks so much, Ragan!! (Sorry it took me so dang long to post about it!) I loved the handmade Christmas card, the pretty pearl earrings, the cool yarn I plan to make myself some anklet socks out of, the stitch kit, and those beautiful stitch markers!! Getting your package really brightened up my Holiday!!

Now, to catch up for this week's DOGS ON THURSDAY post, here is a picture of Miss Pixi dressed up in my daughter's Build-a-Bear outfit!! How cute is that pose?

Einstein & Elvis in their winter gear

2007-12-07T13:08:00.000-06:00

Einstein and Elvis said it was too dang cold outside for potty training, so we got them these cute hoodies! How do you like the double raspberries!?

I take them out for potty walks one at a time on leash and they are doing really well on their house training. Yesterday was COLD, freezing temperature and windy, so I had on my insulted coveralls. Elvis did his business quick so he could get back in the warm house. Then out comes Einstein who proved how smart (and stubborn) he is. He figured out that if he sat down right between my feet the wind would stay off of him, and I think he could feel the warmth of the coveralls!! The first time he did it, I didn't think that much about it and started walking again. Then he kept on setting right between my feet every time I stood still and looking up at me with his big eyes like, "What the heck is wrong with you! Dragging me out to pee in this weather!" So after that, I made the husband stop at the Rural King and pick up their warm little hoodies. Today I could tell they were warmer and a lot happier on their potty trot in the yard!

We had to bribe them with a pile of treats, which they are shown eating, to keep them both still for that picture above.

Fun stuff

2007-12-05T08:41:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading a great book. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It's one of the best books I've read in a while. A biographer is hired to write the life story of a famous reclusive fiction writer. The story she uncovers deals with twins, a turn of the century estate, a fire, illusions to a ghost, and mysterious events. Loved it!!

This is a fun site I stumbled on recently. You play a multiple choice game that improves your vocabulary, and, for every word you get right, the sponsors donate rice to feed the starving people in the world. You start with an easy level and work up. There are a bunch of SAT words on there and above. I had my homeschoolers try it out (Grades 12 and 7) and they enjoyed it, too!

Contest Alert! Check out Regan's site for a fun contest! I think it's running until the 9th of December, plus her site is always fun to read!

Woo Hoo! I finished the 2007 NaNoWriMo!!

2007-11-30T18:49:00.000-06:00

Oh, yeah! I'm happy now!

Dogs on Thursday

2007-11-29T19:42:00.000-06:00

I thought this picture was perfect for 'Dogs on Thursday' this week. We got the boys a new tuggy toy last night and they love it, as you can tell. Einstein is on the right with the red collar, and that's Elvis on the left in the blue one. An issue concerning the people in Wyoming came up, so we are still trying to find a nice family for him. Right now we're having a ball with him, so we're not in any hurry. Their sisters are doing great in Washington, blending in perfectly with their new family. Below is a close up of Elvis I took this afternoon.

The last day of NaNoWriMo is tomorrow, and I think I'm actually going to make the 50k word quota this year! Woo Hoo! As many hours as I've put in, I had dang well better!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T10:45:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Above are babies Einstein and Elvis on our teensy little dog couch.

Their sisters went to their new home together in Washington a couple of weeks ago.

Elvis will be going to his home in Wyoming in a few weeks.

And y'all know by now that little Einstein is staying here. Puppies are so much fun,

and we can't stop playing with them!

I your Thanksgiving Day feast ready yet? Ours sure isn't, but it should be by suppertime tonight, hopefully. Tonight it's just me, the husband, and the kids, then tomorrow we're getting together with the rest of my family at my brother's house.

Here is what is on tonight's menu:

Marsala Mushroom Ragout, Stuffing, Glazed Carrots, Corn Pudding,

Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli, Deviled Eggs, Apple-Walnut Cranberry Sauce,

A Vegetable Tray, and sweet tea with fresh lemons.

For dessert, we have Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Squares, and Bourbon Balls.

(My daughter and myself are vegetarians, so I'm not cooking a dead bird! But, trying to be nice to the three 'Meat Eaters' who live here, I did let them buy a few pieces of it for their plates.)

For any Yankees out there, the Bourbon Balls are a traditional Kentucky favorite! Oooh, they are so good! Made 'em last night. The confection is made with pecans soaked in good 'ole Kentucky bourbon, powdered sugar, and margarine, mixed together and formed into little balls, then they are dipped in semi-sweet Ghiradeli (okay, I dknow I spelled it wrong) chocolate! MMMMMMMMMmmmmm.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

NaNoWriMo progress

2007-11-13T22:04:00.000-06:00

NaNoWriMo is eating up my knitting time (eeek, the horror! I haven't finished a knitting project in over a month! ) but I'm having fun with it.

I'm just nearly to the 40% mark. Actually, I am sure what I'm currently working on is a Novella, so I am going to be finished with the body of the book before I hit my 50K word goal. I'm writing in the Mainstream genre for this, books of which are quite often a bit shorter than 50,000 words, so that is fine with me. I am planning to work on a query letter for after I have the book revised, and one of the detailed chapter outlines and a synopsis--I think it would be fair to count these with the word count, and that should round it, hopefully to goal.

I'd love to hear from some of you fellow NaNoers out there!

7 Facts About Me Meme

2007-11-05T08:43:00.001-06:00

Hey, here is another fun Meme! I was tagged by my buddy Vivian, so here goes.

The rules are
1. Link to your tagger, and also post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of you post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog

Hmmm. I can think of plenty of weird things about myself. Where to begin! LOL

1. I'm double jointed. I can bend my finger all the way back to touch my hand and so forth.

2. I'm cursed with being a perfectionist. That does NOT mean I do everything perfectly, but that I try to do everything that I do to the best of my ability, or not at all. It drives me nuts actually. I will either clean a room in the house until it looks like something from a Martha Stewart magazine, or I will skip it completely and feel guilty about it.

3. One of my big dreams in life is to be a published author.

4. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year.

5. We have a mini farm with chickens, 3 ducks, and 2 little goats.

6. I'm a pesco vegetarian, meaning that I eat no meat or dairy at all, but will occasionally eat seafood.

7. When I'm in a bad mood, I love to watch movies, either Horror or really good Comedy. The funny stuff would make me laugh til I'm happy, or watching people get cut up with chainsaws would make me think my life's not so bad after all!

As for tagging, if you're reading this, then TAG, your it!

Book Meme

2007-11-04T17:46:00.000-06:00

I got tagged by Amy for this fun book Meme! The rules are
open the book you're currently reading to page 161 and copy the fifth sentence on the page, then tag 5 bloggers.

I'm reading On Writing by Stephen King. The 5th sentence on page 161 is as follows:
"If you're a plumber who enjoys science fiction, you might well consider a novel about a plumber aboard a starship or on an alien planet."

As for the tagging, if you're reading this and you're interested, post the meme on your blog. Let me know, 'cuz I'd like to read it!

NaNoWriMo kickoff and Dogs on Thursday

2007-11-01T19:16:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of our 7 week old Boston puppies on their first trip outside. I love how the middle two are chewing on leaves! Left to right are Einstein, Emaline, Elvis, and Eva.

And below, I couldn't help myself yesterday! That is my little Einstein up to Halloween mischeif.

Don't you just love his little face?! We're keeping this little guy, and I have pretty much decided to keep his name as Einstein. We give each puppy that is born here kennel nicknames, because I just can't conceive of calling them Puppy 1 and such. This was our "E" litter so they all had names starting with that letter. For the Bostons that will live here at Wonderland, I like to have their names being something that relates to the 20's, since it was the 'Era of the Boston'. Maizy and Gracie were names popular in that era; Pixi means fairy, and we know that fairies were very important to the art of the 20's; and our main man Capone, who doesn't know Al Capone's name? (Trivia bit - did you know that he is the person who invented the first soup kitchen? Yep, in Chicago during the Great Depression! Al had his good points, and a big heart) Einstein will fit in just perfectly with that theme, since Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921.

In other news, NaNoWriMo kicked off today! (Can you hear the starter pistol?) Woo hoo! So far, I have 2, 016 words! I'm trying for 2,000 a day. I figure that I'll have to take 3 days off or my brain will explode, and that will allow for 2 days of coming in below my goal. In other words, 25 days of writing 2,000 words will = the goal of 50k. Lord help anybody who tries to take my coffee away before December!!

Dog Thursday and Einstein

2007-10-25T16:56:00.000-05:00

Guess who is keeping one of the puppies? Yep, me! How in the world could I resist that teensy little face? And he is so sweet! In two weeks, he should be old enough to start basic training and I can't wait. I love watching the little guys learn things. Now I just have to decide whether to keep his nickname or change it. Oh, and the cute little dot on top of his head is called a Haggerty Spot; A Mr. Haggerty was one of the first Boston breeders and early on the spot indicated a dog from one of his litters.

You can check on this page if you want to see more pictures of Einstein and his sisters and brother.

Dogs on Thursday

2007-10-18T07:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry I missed out on the last week or so, but I've been way busy. The picture above is of our 5-week-old Boston puppies. Left to right are: Einstein, Eva, Elvis, and Emaline. Aren't they cute!

Here is their first bath, complete with little rubber duckies!

My Satirical Little Rant

2007-10-17T22:04:00.000-05:00

I couldn't help myself on this one. My uncle died one year ago tomorrow and his 'wife' - if you can really call her that, since she moved out of his house and out of the county a full year before he died, refusing to grant him a divorce only because she was after his inheritance - put a sappy Bullsh*t memorial in the paper today. The hussy had two reasons for doing it: 1. to try and make my grandparents think she cares because she has her eyes on their bank account and 2. because she knew how much it would piss off my mom, my cousin, and myself. The poem I just finished that follows says it all. My uncle, whom I loved despite his problems, would have gotten a kick out of it. Here's to you, Tom-Tom.

To My Uncle’s ‘Wife’
by Tina Hayes

You put a memorial in the paper
Since he died one year ago.
But there’s something that I truly think
Its readers ought to know.

He left one lovely daughter,
Though estranged, there was much love,
And a beautiful granddaughter
That you made no mention of.

He fought some demons in his life,
That cannot be denied.
But the worst act that he ever did
Was making you his bride.

You extol upon the virtues
We know you don’t possess.
You claim to “love and miss him”
But you couldn’t have cared much less.

Separated a year before
He passed from here on Earth,
You kept your claws sunk in him,
Seeking all his worth.

You scheme, lie, and manipulate
But his family's not deceived.
Blood ties are the strongest,
We’re the ones bereaved.

You need to stop your dig for gold.
There seems to be a glitch.
We know just what you’re up to,
You sanctimonious bitch.

Weather Underground, Check this out!

2007-10-07T14:01:00.000-05:00

I just found this site and thought it was kind of cool. On the Weather Underground mainpage, type in your zip code or the location you want in the box in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It will bring up your current conditions, show radar for your area, give a 5-day forecast, and if you ever wondered what your latitude and longitude were, well it tells you that, too, right on the upper right. I thought it was pretty interesting.

If you are in to Astronomy, just scroll down toward the bottom of your local page. It tells you the length of daylight, what time you will be able to see the moon, etc. There is a moon chart that shows what the current moon phase is and when the other phases will occur. If you want to go star gazing, just click on 'View Full Star Chart', located under the moon chart. It will take you to a page that you can print out, which shows all the constellations that should be visible in your town tonight!

Want to find out what the weather was like in a certain location on a particular date in history? The 'History' section will do it. Kind of cool to be able to see what the weather was like the day your Great-great-grandpa was born!

This site also has a Trip Planner, so you can plan for the weather conditions that will occur on your next vacation.

Scorpion Pops

2007-10-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

Just in case any of y'all wondered what a Scorpion Pop looked like, well there ya go! We went back yesterday for the last day of the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival, and Tyler had to get one in blueberry flavor! The button came with it, and he sure did like the attention he got wearing it, as a lot of the people working at the boothes we stopped at would say, "You ate a WHAT?!" Who would have guessed a 12-year-old boy would have loved the gross out factor!! LOL Buttons also came with the "Icky Licker" [cricket sucker] and Barry's "Gator Tator" from Monday night. Did I mention how glad I am to be a vegetarian!

We had a heck of a busy week around here. Two trips to the fall festival, dentist appointments, homeschooling, puppies, visitors, and on and on. But most all of it was enjoyable. Friday we got to go a nice banquet for Lantrip's East/West Karate, where Tyler is currently an orange belt.

In knitting news, I'm having fun working on those Monkey socks in my very first Kool-aid dyed yarn. That is a great pattern! The cardigan I'm working on is kinda BORING right now, though. The back is knit first so it is slow going, and row after row of stockinette is just not too interesting. The front has two really pretty sections on it, and there will be a fancy edging added all around the bottom, front, and to the sleeves, but that isn't until after the whole thing is put together. I'm looking forward to starting my lace project for the 'Do Something New KAL' with the mossy sage green yarn I dyed last week.

I hope y'all have a fun weekend!!

West Side Nut Club Fall Festival!!

2007-10-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

The first fun thing that happens around here in October is the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival in Evansville, Indiana. (Click on the link to find out all about it) It is supposed to be the 2nd largest street fair in the country, second only to Mardi Gras, and lasts for a whole week. People are everywhere, they have different types of entertainment passing thru the stage area, parades, carnival type games, and rides. My favorite part is the food! My mouth waters just thinking about it! We went Monday night and plan to go back this Saturday.

Blocks and blocks are lined on each side with food venders selling any kind of food you can imagine. I had a portabella fajita, fried pickle spears with marinara, sliced caramel apples, and a frozen banana with chocolate and cherry sauce. Some of my bunch tried some of the wierd things they had, like my husband had a 'gator tater' which was a baked potato with bar-b-qued alligator meat, cheese, and sour cream on it; I thought it smelled like vomit and was, oh, so glad I'm a vegetarian!! My 12-year-old boy followed his pizza burger with a 'icky licker', which was a sucker with a cricket purposely embedded in the center! They also sold scorpion pops, which I think he's gonna try when we go back Saturday. My girls ate 'normal people food' like vegetarian corndogs and big pretzels. Seriously, the food there is just amazing and they sell nearly anything imaginable.

Yesterday I dyed that lace weight yarn pretty darn close to the mossy green color I was after, and even achieved the sort of mottled effect I was trying for. I'm not such which of the things I tried actually caused it, but it worked, so that is fine with me. It took me about an hour all together. First, I made the worlds strongest coffee and brewed three teabags, poured the strong mess into a bowl, and soaked the yarn for about 10 minutes before nuking it in the microwave for three 2-minute intervals. That made a really nice shade of dark tan. Then I mixed 6 packets of Lemon-lime Kool-aid - which is really neonish, if you know what I mean - and diluted it with a large amount of the coffee I had drained off the yarn, then renuked it a few times. Then I drained it and poured the rest of the coffee tea mixture over the top of it and let it set a few minutes; I think this is how I got the slight varigation. I rinsed it off, but I wanted it a bit darker, so I mixed a little more fresh coffee and tea, to which I added about 2 tablespoons of ground sage, then I soaked the yarn in it and renuked it three more times. I think the sage helped the color deepen, but I'm not sure. After using a mild soap and rinsing it off, I hung it up to dry overnight, and balled it up this morning. The sage made it kind of gritty and took a while to rinse it off, then when I was using the ball winder, I think the rest of the residue came off, since there was a sort of dark green sage dandruff all around it, but I couldn't feel any on the yarn after that. I think it is a pretty nice sagey moss color. I can't wait to see how it knits up, as this will be my first time knitting with lace weight yarn.

Cool Kool-aid yarn!

2007-09-30T16:46:00.000-05:00

For my something new to do in September, I learned how to dye yarn with Kool-aid! It was fun, and I like how it turned out. The pink and green are about the shade I had wanted, but I was actually trying for brown instead of the dark purple; my test color showed up brown on the coffee filter I tested, but the wool liked it purple. You'll also notice some white flecks where the dye missed a spot. My green is sort of brownish in spots where that section accidentally got laid in the drippings of the purple, but the effect after the yarn was balled is pretty nice. The pink was Soarin' Strawberry Lemonade, the green was Switching Secrets, and the purplish part was a combination of Grape, Wild Watermelon Kiwi, and Black Cherry. And if you're wondering, yep, it does smell nice and fruity!

Here is a mini-swatch about 16 stitches wide on size 3 needles. I'm planning to make some 'Monkey' socks out of this yarn. That pattern is soooo cool, it should hide the flaws in the color. Plus, it should knit up way less stripey then, since it be over 60 stitches then instead of 16, which is great since I shooting for varigated! I'm fixing to post about it on the 'Do Something New KAL', so feel free to click on the button in my sidebar to check out more details about how I did it.

I have ahank of lace weight yarn that I want to dye a nice mossy green. Does anybody out there know how, exactly, to get that color with Kool-aid? I'm thinking of mixing two colors of green and maybe throw in a couple teabags??

Thursday

2007-09-27T12:01:00.000-05:00

I thought this picture of the 2 week old puppies might just crack y'all up for Dogs on Thursday!! Their little noses blacken up a bit more each day, their eyes are open, and they weigh a whopping pound-and-a-half each! You can check out my Wonderland Kennels Puppy Page if you'd like to see more cute pictures of little Emaline, Elvis, Eva, and Einstein.

Thanks for all the nice comments on the puppies and dogs! And thanks to all who commented on and/or participated in the Meme from last week. Wasn't that fun! I found out that Crow Calling Woman is also learning to speak Cherokee. Hobbygasa said that after she tagged some of her Norwegian friends, it has really taken off over on her part of the globe! Cool!! Don't forget, she is the nice lady who gave me that awesome winebottle bag pattern she translated for me, which seems to be getting pretty popular here in the states, thanks to her!

Life is Good

2007-09-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

The flu bug is finally trying to leave our house, finally, I think. The kids are still sniffling and coughing, but everyone's fever is gone and we are about to get back to normal around here. A person never realizes how great it feels to be 'okay' until after they have been sick, but right now, I'm appreciating it!
I finished my Pomatomus socks a couple days ago. I call them my Goldfish socks, due to the color, and that's what they remind me of. Knit Picks Palatte in Golden Heather is the yarn I used, and the pattern is from Knitty, written by one of the all time greatest sock designers, Cookie! Seriously, all of her patterns are AWESOME!!

I live in a rural area of Western Kentucky, and it is just really pretty here this time of year, even lately when it has been unseasonably hot. I love living out here in the country where I can go out without having neighbors that can see every move I make. There is nothing like going outside on nice night like this, looking up at the moon and listening to crickets and katydids, smelling the fresh air, and walking around barefoot to feel 'grounded'. It really makes a person appreciate the little things in life and feel their connection to nature.

Thursday

2007-09-20T09:44:00.000-05:00

It was easy for me to figure out which pictures to post this week! Above is Miss Maizy with her four puppies. They are a week old now and have doubled in size, weighing just under a pound each. We keep them in our sitting room off the kitchen, right in the middle of our home. That way, they get used to all the every day sounds and smells, plus they are the constant center of attention for my family! The little boy lying on Maizy's back feet is already my pick for the biggest character, even with his little eyes still shut! The pups are are called Eva, Emaline, Elvis, and Einstein.

That is Daddy Capone relaxing by his favorite sunny window last week.

I've Been Tagged!

2007-09-19T16:52:00.000-05:00

My friend Carol tagged me, so here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post rules
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird
3. Tag 7 people at the end of post and list their names
4. Let them know they were tagged by a comment on their blog
Thanks Carol! This sounds like fun! Hmmm, to narrow it down to just 7 weird things about myself!

1. I'm a pesco vegetarian, which means I eat no meat or dairy, but occasionally will eat seafood.
2. I homeschool 2 of my kids, and the third is now in college.
3. I am a total dog fanatic! I own Wonderland Kennels, where I raise, train, show, and pamper my 10 very special pooches. I seldom go anywhere without one of them. I have literally been around dogs since I was born.
4. My dream in life is to be a published writer someday.
5. I'm also a Genealogy addict, a member of DAR, The Pilgrim society, and a descendant of Charlemagne.
6. I am learning to speak Cherokee.
7. I actually own goats and chickens, which I've turned into pets!

Now to tag 7 very unsuspecting people, Hmmmmm..... (Carol already tagged Pam and Pat or I would have named them, too.)

PUPPIES!!

2007-09-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

Maizy had these beautiful puppies early last Tuesday morning, the first one being born at 1:09 am and the 4th born at 2:44 am!! Mama Maizy and the puppies are all in wonderful health and doing great! Maizy loves being spoon-fed vanilla bean ice cream as a post-partum treat! Click on the picture above if you'd like to learn more about them and see more cute pictures!! It is amazing how much the babies grow everyday. They had their first visit with the vet yesterday, and they are all fat and sassy! They were born in our sitting room, which is where we keep them so they will be used to all the sounds that go on in our home.

Tuesday night I came down with the flu and have been a coughing, wheezy mess ever since, so that is why I haven't posted in a few days. Between taking care of the puppies and homeschooling the kids, my flu medicine has pretty much kept me knocked out. I'm sick but Happy! The husband came down with it first and his lasted just over a week, so I'm hoping to be better in no time.

Wine Bottle Bag / Cozy pattern

2007-09-08T16:32:00.000-05:00

Here is the pattern for the wine bottle bag / cozy! I made a Booga Bag as my first felting project last month, then Tone (AKA Hobbygasa) translated this wonderful pattern into English from Norwegian for me! She is just so nice!! She said it was a free pattern that was very popular with knitters in Norway, and she thought it would be fun to get it started here in the States as well! I LOVE this pattern; it's fun, quick, and has endless possibilities, plus I think it would make a great gift idea.

Wine Bottle Bag / Cozy

Materials:
I used worsted weight wool yarn and used one whole 50-gram ball and just a teensy bit of a second one.
(Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather)

Cast on 7 stitches on three US size #10-1/2 double pointed needles.

Increase every stitch in the first round (14 st total)

Then increase every third stitch, every other round, until you have 42 stitches.

In the next round, increase approximately every 8 stitches so you end with 46 stitches.

Knit approximately 75 rounds, so that the body of the bag measures about 13-1/2 inches, not including the bottom section in the measurement.

Then divide the stitches so that you have 23 stitches on each of two needles and now you're ready to knit the handle. Knit together the two first and two last stitches on the right side rows until you have 7 stitches left. [I did a SSK on the beginning of the round and K2tog at the end, to give the sides more of a slant.] Then knit about 15 more rounds. Do the same for the other side of the handle. Knit together the two sides using the 3 Needle Bind-off, or bind off and sew them together, whichever you prefer.

Felt it in the washing machine until it fits on a standard size wine bottle, then put a nice bottle of wine in it until it has dried completely. Hobbygasa said that sometimes you have to really squeeze it in to make it fit!

You can leave it as it is, or have fun decorating it any way you want!

Don't forget Grandparent's day!

2007-09-07T10:04:00.000-05:00

I wanted to remind everyone that this Sunday, September 9th, is Grandparent's Day!! For my kids' grandparents and great-grandparents, they are going to whip up a batch of cupcakes, I'm going to take a picture of them wearing their aprons and cooking their little hearts out, then this weekend, we'll deliver each of them a plate full of chocolate cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles AND a framed photo of them being made. That way even after the food is all eaten, they will have something nice to look at.

Here is an older picture of Ork. I had meant to snap a new one of him, but it was all rainy yesterday. He was born in Germany, trained in Pennsylvania with his first owners, then came to live with us four years ago. He is as sweet as he is beautiful! He is a Schutzhund II, which means he's highly trained in obedience, tracking, and protection; actually, he is quite amazing to watch! His absolute favorite way to pass time is playing fetch with his tennis balls! We love ya, Orkie!

Wine Bottle Bag is done!!

2007-09-05T13:57:00.002-05:00

I just finished felting my cool new Wine Bottle bag and couldn't wait to post it! Thanks so much Hobbygasa for that great pattern!! It knit up pretty quickly and took barely over one

50 gram skein to make! I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted weight in Amber Heather. The picture above shows it all felted and holding a nice bottle of red wine; it was still damp, because, like I said, I just couldn't wait to post it!

The picture on the right shows how big it was before it went through the washer. I have that nice bottle of Pinot Gregio chillin' right now so I can try out the bag/cozy with it tonight!

I might have to whip up a couple of these for Xmas gifts! I think it looks good like it is, but it would be easy to decorate. I think it would look great sitting on a dining table with maybe a few strands of rafia tied around the middle.

Here is the link to the pattern, just
CLICK ME!

WIP and back to homeschool

2007-09-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

I'm nearly done with the first Pomatomus sock. I really like the design and the way it's turning out. I did have to look up how to 'Purl through the back loop', but once I had that figured out and how to read Chart B, it's been going smoothly. I'm also about halfway through with a cool Wine Bottle Bag/Cozy, shown on the right. Hobbygasa was so nice, she translated the pattern for me from Norwegian to English! I can't wait to see how this knits up!

This is our first week back to Homeschool and things are getting off to a nice start. This year's subjects include English, Math, History, Science, Geography, Civics, Computers, The Arts, Languages, Lessons in Life. Math and algebra are always met by my kids with the least enthusiasm, and I think history is the most interesting.

Great new book

2007-08-30T11:13:00.000-05:00

I got the best book yesterday! I'm in awe of the fantastic socks Pat is always knitting (check out her blog is you want to see some beautifully knitted socks!), and since a lot of them were created from Nancy Bush patterns, I was inspired to get one of the books she had written. Nancy Bush's Folk Socks: The History & Techniques of Handknitted Footwear is not only packed with amazing patterns, it is really an interesting and entertaining read as well. She tells you all about the origins of footwear and takes you on an informative tour through the styles and evolution of stockings in many countries. The section on heel and toe types is something I'm sure I'll be getting some use from, as well as the many how-to tips. I was amazed at all the information this great book has to offer. I am dying to learn color work and want to start with either the Ukrainian Socks (pictured on the cover) or the Greek ones from this book, since both are so gorgeous that I will have to wear them shoe shopping at the mall to have a good excuse to show them off in public!

For 'Dogs on Thursday', I'd like to invite y'all to stop by and check out our cyber puppy shower! Just click on the teddy bear to enjoy the fun and see something cute!

Socks, Dogs, Etc.

2007-08-26T10:21:00.002-05:00

Well, I've had another busy week but I am nearly caught up with all the stuff I'm trying to get finished. I had a technical difficulty on the Do Something New KAL blog, so I spent some time trying to fix that for the past few days.

I finished these Breeze socks for Amanda to earn my August 'A' over at SAM4.

I am nearly done with all the homeschool planning for this year. I just need to do a couple more little things and print some pages out, then we'll be all set to start the first week in September.

One big thing that has came up a bit unexpectedly is that my Boston Terrier, Maizy, has decided to come out of retirement to have one more litter of puppies. In July, we walked in on an accidental tie (our first unplanned mating EVER in the history of our kennel) between her and Capone, which was really shocking to me because she had just been in full heat two months previously and did not appear to be 'in' prior to the tie taking place. So statistically speaking, the chances of her being pregnant were slim, but we confirmed about 10 days ago that she is indeed 'with pups'. They should be due Sept 12. She is in excellent health so everything should be fine. Everything seems to happen for a reason, I guess, even if it was unexpected.

So for my late entry of Dogs on Thursday, here is a picture of the expectant parents. Taken a while back, that is Maizy and Capone with a homemade Agility tunnel.

When Capone figured out that he would get a treat just for running thru a tunnel, you couldn't keep him out of the thing! I would be practicing with Maizy, then Capone would run thru and wait for a cookie!

This is our last week of summer vacation before Homeschool starts back, so I'm going to try to take it easy and maybe find a few fun thing to do.

Thursday Dogs 2 days late and some homeschool links

2007-08-18T07:59:00.000-05:00

Ooops, I should have posted this pic two days ago, but better late than never!

That is Ramses the German Shepherd and Harlan the Bloodhound in our backyard. They are such good buddies, I always love watching them play! Ramses was the first Wonderland dog to earn a CGC (trained only by me up to that point, which I've always been proud of), and Harlan was the first to win at Conformation shows. You will definitely see pictures and hear more tales on these two!

I've been busy working on homeschool planning all week, so I thought I'd post a few helpful links for any other teacher moms out there. XP Math is a great site with online games, worksheets and downloadable ebooks ( I downloaded a 600 + page SAT ebook there, for free!!) OWL stands for Online Writing Lab and has a literal ton of information that can be used in English classes, from parts of speech to tips for writing a term paper. Shadow Poetry is a wonderful tool for educating people of all ages about poetry: they have a handbook of literary terms; bios and poems on over 30 of the great poets; detailed descriptions and examples of nearly all the poetry styles; and articles on any and everything you would to know on the subject of poetry. Everyone probably already has this one marked but I had to mention Wikipedia, which has quick information an every subject known to man.

Holiday World

2007-08-14T10:04:00.000-05:00

We had some fun Sunday at Holiday World theme park in Santa Clause, Indiana. Even though it was 100 degrees and humid, we all had a great time. They have some of the fastest wooden roller coasters in the country there, plus a bunch of other fun rides, and the fountain drinks are free all day long!

I had boring jury duty again this morning. Whoop-te-doo . . . not! I still didn't get picked but got to watch for an enthralling hour and fifteen minutes as people were selected and questioned. There was a happy stampede for the courtroom door when the rest of us got dismissed.

On the knitting front, I should be done with Amanda's Breeze socks by this weekend and I've just started a really cool Oblique scarf set. And my list of things-I-want-to-knit grows by the hour!

I'm also still busy as a cat covering up poop, and will most likely be that way for the next two weeks. I'm in the middle of homeschool lesson plans, making knitting needle cases for the Etsy shop, filling out my Flagon and Trencher genealogical society application, and trying to get some 'spring cleaning' done, as well as every other thing I usually do around here.

Thursday Dogs and my first felted project

2007-08-09T10:16:00.003-05:00

For this week's 'Dogs on Thursday', I have picture here are Pixi & Gracie (l to r). They were born and raised here at Wonderland Kennels and recently turned three. Aren't they cutie pies? Gracie likes the Conformation Ring and is also really good at Obedience, while Pixi is an absolute Agility nut who surprised everyone with how quickly she picked up all the obstacles, especially the weave poles. But all their talent hasn't gone to their heads, as they spend most of their time lounging around the house and playing with the kids.

Above is my favorite picture I ever personally took of the dogs. Here are the girls with their litter mates; Gracie is to the left of the basket and Miss Pixi Poo is the one chewing on the ivy!

I think my first felted project turned out pretty well, and it was so much fun to pull it out of the washer and find that the purse had shrank down to a mere 6 and half inches tall! {I will confess here, that, before I had actually tried this felting stuff, that I had thought the whole process was sort of a waste of time. I used to wonder why folks didn't just knit things the size they wanted in the first place instead of wasting all that extra yarn.} Well, I have now seen the light! People felt because it is fun! And because you end up with a sturdier finished project.

Booga Bag and some Chicks

2007-08-07T10:23:00.000-05:00

My August project for the Do Something New KAL is going to be this Booga Bag I'm working on, since this will be the first thing I've ever felted - unless you count the navy blue wool sweater I got for Xmas when I was like 12 that got ran thru the washer and dryer, but no, let's not count that. This morning, I finished the nearly endless I-cord, which lacked a mere 6 inches being 6 feet long. I am supposing that is long enough and that is where my Pumpkin yarn ran out. Right now, laid flat the bag measures about 12-1/2 inches across and about the same in height, from where the sides connect to the bottom. I can't wait to see how much smaller it gets when felted, and how the stripes will look! I plan to stick it in the washer this afternoon and I'll post pics after it is done.

Here is a picture of the two little chicks that hatched last week. The mama hen that actually sat on these eggs is probably not the one that laid them, since she is a Silky and both chicks look to be pure Barred Rock. Most hens have a habit of laying in communal nests, so that's really not surprising. We'll have to wait til the chicks are grown to see. We moved them from the hen house to this chicken tractor [small, portable coop] so the others wouldn't bother them. Aren't they cute!

My Busy Week

2007-08-05T13:55:00.000-05:00

Boy, have I had a busy week - one of those that had me rushing off in a million directions at once, wondering why I couldn't get everything finished. Luckily, I sort of jot down some of the stuff I do and such in my planner, so looking back at the past seven days, I at least feel like I accomplished something.

I'm trying to work on redecorating and trying to focus on one room at a time, starting with the sitting room. On Monday I stripped and refinished the bay and bow windows. Since I had to sand them down with a power sander, I still have a layer of dust over all the furniture. While I had the stain out, I retouched all the bar stools in the kitchen, then I stained the trunk that acts as a coffee table in the sitting room and also houses my kids' homeschooling stuff. Later in the week, I stitched up 4 throw pillows to go on the couch and love seat in the sitting room; I stuffed 3-1/2 of them, then ran out of polyfil. Now they are decorating my dining table until I can finish stuffing the last one. Plus I have two prints I ordered and the frames I shopped all over town to find, also stacked up in the dining room until I can get to them. Oh yeah, and I have two trays to paint and decoupage, one for the sitting room and one of the patio.

Aside from the decorating which may never get finished, I had stupid jury duty on Wednesday. Thank goodness I didn't get picked for the Grand Jury, but I'm call for the next 6 months! Now I think being on an actual jury could be kind of fun, but we live in a teeny little town that is so much like Andy Griffith's Mayberry that it's spooky. Webster County has been mentioned on the Paul Harvey radio show as being one of the few counties in this country that has never convicted anyone of murder . . . nobody has ever really been convicted of much of anything here, which makes it a pretty safe place to live in though not very interesting if one is serving on a jury.

A particular in-law got on my very last nerve but if I got into that, this post would never end. If there are no nosy, intrusive lunatics in your spouse's family, consider yourself oh, so lucky!!!

Friday was fun! We took the kids to Build-a-Bear, out to eat at Turoni's, and shopping at few of our favorite stores. We picked up Book 5 in the Harry Potter series, since I'm trying to read all the books in order before cracking the new one, which my son is reading; so now I'm on chapter 6 of the Order of the Phoenix. I also picked up 'Charmed Stitches' !! Loving it!!

Yesterday was Saturday, so I went treasure hunting at yard sales with Barry and Tyler. I was looking for something in particular to make into end tables, but I had no luck. We found nothing of interest at all. It was nearly hundred degrees and all we seemed to see was old clothes and shoes and broken crap, which Tyler and I made up a funny little song about to aggravate Barry! That part was fun!

My grandpa grows great tomatoes in his garden, so I've got 7 quarts going in the canner as I'm bloggin' right now.

Aside from all the stuff I mentioned, I still need to get some more things done for the Etsy shop, finish up two genealogy applications to a couple of Societies I'm in the process of joining, and start lesson planning for our Homeschool which starts next month. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Okay, I'm calm now. One fun thing I've been working on is the new knit-along I'm hosting, the 'Do Something New KAL'! I've already had a bunch of really nice people join up from all over the place and I'm really excited! I've been working on my first project, which I'll post about tomorrow.

I've also been meaning to get a picture of the two baby chicks our silky hen hatched last week.

Well, I gotta go get the jars out of the canner, 'cuz my buzzer is going off. Did I mention I would really, really, really, really like to have a maid, a vegetarian chef, and a personal assistant!

Dogs on Thursday, GSD girls

2007-08-02T09:07:00.000-05:00

This week I wanted to showcase my German Shepherd girls. This picture was taken a few years ago but I just love it. It took it on our front porch shortly after we moved here; the girls had been playing in the yard and were apparently ready to cool off in the house. That is LaRoux on the porch, her sister Schatzie on the left by the lilies, and LaRoux's daughter Molly with her butt pointed at the camera.

By now, you probably know our kennel is named Wonderland Kennels, and that my user name derived from that, but where, you ask, is Alice? Can't have Wonderland without an Alice, you say. You'd have to look at their registered names to find her, but one is "Wonderland's Alice LaRoux". (Sometimes the spelling of her name confuses people and they try to pronounce it with the 'x' sound, but it is simply "la roo", like in kangaroo.)

My husband and I used to take Schatzie and LaRoux to Obedience classes in Evansville shortly after we got them, Barry partnered with Schatzie and me with LaRoux. They are both quick learners! This is what happened that always miffed Barry. Every time we would work on the recall command in class - where the dog would be on one side of the room and the owner would call it from the other side and the dog is supposed to run to the person calling her- Schatzie would look happy and trot halfway to Barry when he'd call her . . . then pause and come running over to me! Every time, even if I had my back turned and tried to hide! Of course I ate it up and everybody else thought it was funny! What really got him was that any time I'd call her, she'd come straight to me, even if he was trying to lure her the other way! The fact that she minds me so well is great, since one time we were in the park and walking those two; Barry and Schatzie were way ahead of LaRoux and I on the trail because we had stopped to talk to someone. Schatzie's new training collar slipped off!! Barry freaked and was chasing her, which she thought was a game so she was running around having a ball. As soon as they came into view, I called her and she came straight to me, thank goodness.

Our Molly was born right here in Wonderland and we are so proud of her. She was the easiest dog we have ever leash trained, as she never pulls. She likes being shown and loves obedience training.

My final SAM3 entry is done!

2007-07-29T15:16:00.001-05:00

I finished the pair of Breeze anklets this morning. They are pictured below, being modeled by Brittany since I knit them for her.

I'm gonna start a second pair for Amanda this afternoon. Not only do I love this pattern, but looky at how much yarn I had left over! All from one little 50 gram ball of KnitPicks Palette! Thought that was pretty cool.

Not a whole lot else going on around here this weekend. I'm looking forward to kickin' off the Do Something New KAL, which officially starts this coming Wednesday! Should be a ton of fun!

'Dogs on Thursday' with Cowboy Capone

2007-07-26T12:35:00.000-05:00

This is our Capone, all dressed up in his snazzy cowboy outfit. He is our little sweetheart! Just look at those big, brown puppy dog eyes and that adorable face!

When not being picked on by Maizy, his bossy girlfriend, Capone is the constant shadow to my three kids. When we have company, this little Boston Terrier usually steals their hearts. He is more calm than his other canine companions and just has a way of looking at you that makes people want to pick him up and give him a squeeze.

Capone's hobbies include chasing flashlight beams around the room, sleeping on the girls' bunk bed, ripping the stuffing out of cute little toys, fetching balls over and over and over, and pulling on tuggie toys.

If you would like find out more about him, check out Capone's page.

Announcing the Do Something New KAL!!

2007-07-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

I decided to start a new Knit-A-Long. This will be my first time hosting one, but I think it will be a whole lot of fun!

The Do Something New KAL is perfect for all of you who have nice, long To Do lists full of knitting projects you've always wanted to try, especially those involving new styles or methods that you're just itching to learn. The main rules are that your projects must be either knitted or involve knitting in some way and that you have never successfully tried it before. Want to try knitting Continental, spinning or dying yarn, felting, intarsia, making your first pair of socks, Entralac, cables, using some of that weird-looking yarn you have in your stash but you're afraid of, or just want to take a crack at that one pattern that has been on your mind forever? Well, join up and give it a whirl. You even get credit if you mess it up beyond recognition so long as you do try something new and finish it!

It starts August 1st and last until January 31st. At first, I had planned to only do three months, but then I thought this would be fun to have going over the holidays, too, since a lot of us are on knitting overtime then. And it should go thru January because that's when we actually get time to use all those cool new knitting tools and toys we get as gifts!

If I still haven't convinced you to sign up or at least go take a look at the page about it, let me mention that there are going to be prizes! Oh yes, I'm dangling free stuff in front of you! Come on, it'll be fun!

Harry Potter Book Release and Ball

2007-07-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere in Siberia you have to know that early in the wee hours of this morning - 12:01 am to be exact - the last and final book in the Harry Potter series was released. So, I loaded up the van with myself and the five goofy kids pictured above, drove an hour to the Borders in Evansville, and celebrated Pottermania literally all night long. First let me explain the photo: That's Brittany giving her brother Tyler the bunny ears; Amanda is in the black Tinkerbell shirt; Tyler - normally blonde, but he had Brittany spray paint his hair black to go with his costume - has replaced his normally smiley expression with the mean one in an attempt to look more dramatic; my niece Chanler is actually riding the authentic Nimbus 2000 - backwards, no less - which you can see if you look closely at her right hand;and my nephew Trevor decked out in his HP glasses. The wands they were waving at my camera seemed to have made the lighting go bad.

Everybody had a great time, except for the loooooooooooong wait in line. They had costume contests (since Tyler needs to straighten his room and couldn't find his HP glasses, he was Snape. Son, if you're reading this blog, GO CLEAN YOUR ROOM!!), a booth with an excellent and amazing palm reader who also let you try on the sorting hat, a Snape debate, door prizes, and all kinds of stuff. We were in that store from 9 pm until almost nearly 2am. At 11:45, they started lining us up according to the color of the wristband you got at the door. Tyler had reserved a copy and had a silver band and Trevor got a purple one; of course you know that meant I got to go through the freaking line twice . . . oh whoop-tee-doo for me. We did get to pass the time by talking to some really nice people in line, though, so it wasn't that bad. Finally we got our books and free posters, then went to Denny's for a 3am snack, then drove back to the house and got into bed about 5am. A few of the kids were hysterically sleepy in the restaurant, you know when they are laughing hysterically for no appearant reason, but that just made it more interesting. Seriously, we really did have fun! I think it's cool that we got to take part in something I think the kids will always remember. We're all sleepy as hell today, but we're happy!!

In knitting news, I have finished the first of the petal pink Breeze ankle socks!

I'm LOVING this pattern! You have to pay attention while you knit this one, but it's really not hard to do. The one on the left is the right color. I don't know why the right picture turned out orangey, but you can see some of the detail.

Dogs on Thursday, post taken over by Maizy

2007-07-19T10:03:00.000-05:00

I'm Maizy, the pretty little Boston Terrier in the picture above, and I have taken over the posting today! I'm 7-years-old and pretty much rule the roost around here. Yep, I have all five humans wrapped around my little paw, especially my best buddy, Tina. I sleep in her bed, ride on her lap in the car, always get the best treats, and I help her boss her husband around. I have my own little cushion under her computer desk so I can help her with her blogging, and I'm always beside her when she's knitting or making things. The other dogs also think of me as the Queen of Wonderland, so I'm livin' the good life.

I'm awfully smart, as well as pretty! I am a whiz at Agility and Obedience, and I have my first leg towards a Rally title. Agility is the most fun, though, 'cuz I like running and jumping. . . and showing off! I'm even good at the weave poles.

I don't always cooperate. Like on this picture Tina tried to get. There was a stupid butterfly trying to get in the shot(to the left of my head on the chair arm), so I flat out refused to smile, and I closed my eyes to protest! See the indignation on my face!! So there, Queen Maizy shares the spotlight with no mere insect!

If you want to see more about me - and come on now, who wouldn't - you can check out Maizy's Webpage. My buddy signed us up for 'Dogs on Thursday' so I'm sure y'all will be seeing plenty of me and the Wonderland Gang.

Yarn in the Mailbox!

2007-07-16T19:14:00.000-05:00

Look what was waiting in my mailbox this afternoon!! Yes, my maillady has finally came thru for me! Woo Hoo! Can you believe all this yarn only cost 20 bucks, and that was including the shipping and handling! Even though I'm very, very, very impatient when it comes to waiting for package to come, this only took six business days after I placed the order, which is pretty quick - of course, I would have preferred that they instantly beam it to me the second I placed it in my virtual cart, but hey, I guess I have to wait for technology to catch up!

I took the picture in natural light and it seems to have captured the actual colors of the yarn. I especially am impressed with how pretty the top two balls of Golden Heather look, 'cuz those are gonna be socks for little ole me. The two in the middle are Petal and Hyacinth. The skeins on the bottom row are destined to be turned into a Booga Bag; the colors are grass, chestnut, daffodil, cranberry, and pumpkin.

Now I can get started on my July socks for the SAM3.

New Patio Furniture!

2007-07-15T12:29:00.000-05:00

I'm having a pretty nice weekend, even though the mailman still hasn't shown up with my yarn package. We finally bought furniture for our previously empty patio! After making my family absolutely sick of shopping for it, we got this pretty white wicker furniture set (on sale for 25% off! I love a bargain!) with blue and white cushions that are surprisingly comfortable to sit on, and a table with 4 chairs and a funky striped umbrella, which is sitting crooked right now because we have yet to locate our stand. I still have my eye on a really cool chimnea that I want to get before fall, and I want to put some potted plants around, oh and red accent pillows. I'm not sure how well the goldfish pond shows up but there is a little man-made stream that flows down into the water, which I spent half of the morning rearranging the rocks for. Does anybody out there know of a pretty water plant that the ducks won't eat?? Or even an ugly one that tastes bad?? So far, our ducks come and gobble up anything green we stick in there.

Yesterday was really fun! First, we went to the grand opening of Ruby Moon Winery in Henderson, KY. This is the only vinyard in the area so I wanted to check it out. We took a tour of the grounds and happily took part in the wine tasting, no arm twisting necessary. My favorite is their Audubon Red (we bought two bottles), plus I really liked their Elderberry wine, and the Apple was also quite good. I wanted to try their Aububon White, too, but it was temporarily sold out, so I'll have to wait for next time on that one. We were really impressed and are probably gonna be very good customers!

Next we went to Ellis Park to bet on the ponies! After three hours, I still had all the gambling money I had brought with me, plus I was a whopping 20 cents on top!! I thought I did pretty well!

Then we had supper at our favorite place, RiRa's. I had a Golden mojito, we shared an order of mushrooms for an appetizer, and I chowed down on their Irish Vegetable Curry with a pint of Guinness. I was so full my belly was about to burst!

Still waiting . . .

2007-07-12T19:31:00.000-05:00

Nearly a week has gone by and I'm still waiting on that dang mailperson to bring me my box full of yarn! All that watching out the window, tapping my foot, and cussing just has not seemed to help at all. Maybe tomorrow . . .

During the past week I worked on the Askew pattern for that tank top on Knitty. I'm really glad now that I used a cheaper yarn than the Noro silk garden because there is some sort of flaw in the pattern. Last night I excitedly tried it on just find that the front straps were under my armpits! Not working!! I rechecked the pattern but found nothing that I could have screwed up on. So this morning I got back on the net and looked at the pics of it, and A HA! The pattern says to attach the top of the back to the base of the straps, which I did, BUT the picture clearly shows that the back is attached down further, under the top bias stockinette section. So I unstitched and restitched it back together. It fit better but the the way the straps are made they still hit under my pits! Not comfortable or attractive, I'm afraid. Kinda like something Myrtle Erckel would have worn. I made the smaller of my girls' try it on and gave it to her. It hits under her pits, too, but , since she is tiny, it looks better on her, though she doesn't like the way it wears, either . So she can wear it around the house. It was either that or find a way to make it fit my dog! The pattern was really fun to knit, though.

Since my package has still yet to arrive, I started knitting on a dishcloth. I'm trying to use up some of my stash so this was perfect thing to keep me busy. This lacy leaf pattern is really pretty. I think I'll use it again with some solid sage green. Don't ya love the little sheep-topped needles! They are so cute I can't stand it! Those were a Xmas present from Mom & Pops.

CONTEST ALERT!!

Shelley is having contests going right now, ending the night of Friday 13th, so hussle you butts over there and enter. The prizes are some BEAUTIFUL stitch markers!

My Weekend

2007-07-08T15:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a pretty calm weekend around here. I decided to kick back and relax a few days. I'm gonna destress and take it easy for a change.

Yesterday, Barry and I went to one of our favorite restaurants in Evansville, IN, Ri Ra's. It's a cool Irish pub with the works: beautiful woodwork throughout the building, a big variety of delicious food, and the Guiness and spirits are always a-flowin'! Great Irish atmosphere and just the place I needed to pig out and relax. Oh, and they have a kick ass Golden Mojito that is making me thirsty for it as I type this!

My only accomplishment on my weekend 'off' is that I am finally done with the four pairs of Snow Mittens. I used my own pattern on these and made each pair a little different. (The first pair has a tiny imperfection in it, since I had to rip it back about 5 times, but it's not too noticable and hey, I can live with it.) I used Cascade 128 in Ruby and Charcoal; just two hanks of the red and one of the gray make almost all 8 mittens. The pair on the bottom right has red thumbs, you may notice, and that is because I ran out of the gray! Also on that pair, the thumb on one and the top part above the gray stripe on both were knitted in Cascade 220 (which I am lucky as crap to have found in my stash, get this, in the same Ruby color, different dye lot!), I just had to use two strands held together there, since that is the skinnier worsted weight and 128 is chunkier. I'm quite happy with how they turned out! I call them our Snow Mittens because I LOVE playing out in the snow probably more than my kids do and these should keep all of our hands nice and toasty warm and we pummel each other with snowballs. Now that they are all done, I'll just stick 'em in the closet for five or six months until cold weather gets here!

Oh, Mailman. . . . where are you?

2007-07-06T19:37:00.000-05:00

Well, now I will be pestering my mailman until I get my package. Actually, I have a mailman part of the week and a maillady the majority of the time; why, I don't know, that is just how they split their shift, I guess.

I finally made an order from KnitPicks, though I've been looking at their catalog and stuff forever. For twenty bucks I'm getting yarn for a purse, two pairs of those cool Breeze footies from the Summer Knitty, and a pair of socks for myself that I have yet to decide which pattern to use. Woohoo! Can't wait for that dang mailman!

The purse is going to be the ever famous and much lusted after Booga Bag! The pattern and the finished ones I've seen on blogs look SOOOO COOl! Mine is gonna be a mock Noro one (yep, I'm a knitter on a budget). I ordered 5 different colors of KnitPicks' Wool of the Andes - in daffodil, grass, pumpkin, chestnut, and cranberry - and plan to make the stripes by just switching the yarn every so often. This will be the first thing I've felted, so hopefully I won't screw it up!

Happy 4th of July!!

2007-07-04T17:47:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th to everybody out there in Bloggerland! We're going to my Mom & Pops' house tonight for dinner and fireworks. I'm hungry and lookin'
forward to it!

I finished some necklaces today. Those cool donut shaped pendants are everywhere but I didn't want just a plain one, SO I whipped up three out of fimo clay. Detailed with an ivy design, they are hanging on black leather
cords. They were quick and fun to make. Pictured here are the two I put on etsy, and I made an extra one from the copper color that I'm keeping for myself.

And of all things to be knitting today, mittens! See, even this Barred Rock
hen
couldn't believe I was goofy enough to be
knitting wool mittens in July!

Fun Quizzes and Meme

2007-07-03T23:41:00.000-05:00

Following a link from Shelley's page, I just took a couple of fun quizzes which show that I am way too interested in drinking coffee and blogging! Try these out, they are fun!

I'>http://mingle2.com/bb/view/how-addicted-to-coffee-are-you">I am 71% Addicted to Coffee

70%

Mingle² - Online Dating

So, I had to do the Wikipedia Meme, too, since it sounded like fun, so here it is. My birthday is March 10th.
Three events that have happened on that day:
1. in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful phone call.
2. in 1964, Ford produced the first Mustang
3. in 1814 Napolean I of France was defeated at the Battle of Laon
Two people born on my birthday:
1. Chuck Norris
2. Sharon Stone
3. Osama Bin Laden!!
One Holiday on my birthday:
1. Tibetian Uprising Day (Whatever in the heck that is!)

Movie Review

2007-07-01T10:18:00.000-05:00

Since not much was going on here this weekend, I watched a couple of movies.

Freedom Writers with Hillary Swank gets a huge thumbs up. I really liked it. A true story about an awesome teacher and the inspirational methods she used to give hope to her class.

Pan's Labyrinth was . . . interesting. My 19-year-old Amanda - who is more into fantasy stuff like anime and manga - put it on our Blockbuster cue. The whole thing was in Spanish with subtitles (and I went thru the first hour of it waiting for them to change to English, but it didn't happen!) which was different, but no big deal. I enjoyed watching the creatures, like the fairies and the mandrake root, and the three tasks the girl was given were fun to watch. It is a dark movie and not for little kids, but it does have a pretty good story line and plot. I would have liked a slightly cheerier ending, but that probably wouldn't have matched the movie. Overall, it was a good movie.

On the creative front, I've been working on mittens this weekend, of all things to do in July! I had bought the yarn last winter for some snow mittens which I had pictured in my head. I wanted to make the tops, bottom of the cuff, and the entire thumb in dark gray and the rest in red. The gusset is being a pain in my butt!! I have ripped it back three times. I'm knitting this in the round, so on the first try I would bring the new color up from underneath each time it changed, making a nice little twist. It looked nice on the inside, but it sort of had the effect of closing up the inside part of the gusset. Rip, rip, rip. Next I tried absolutely not twisting anything, which, as I had kinda thought would happen, HOLES and weird strings in the back. So after much marathon froggin', I dug out some knitting books, and after studying on the matter, I think that to do this right I would need to either carry the yarn all the way around the mitten (which would waste too much, in my thrifty opinion) or cut the gray yarn on each round and work in the thosuand ends later, which also doesn't seem like a great way of doing it. Anyway, at about 10 pm I fought the urge to throw the stupid thing out into the yard and I just decided to do the gusset in red and the part of the thumb that actually sticks out in gray. Creative compromise, I guess. It should look okay, just not exactly like I had it pictured. I want to make four pairs of these things, so if anyone could enlighten me on a better way to make the whole gusset a different color without all the hassel, please do so!

I have some cool ideas I'm dying to try out for necklaces, so I'm hoping to have some time to work on these this afternoon.

June Footies

2007-06-28T17:32:00.000-05:00

I actually got finished with a pair of socks for the Sock-A-Month 3 knit-a-long, these cute little Sockotta footies.

I was kind of disappointed to find out that a craft show I had been planning to set up at this weekend got canceled. Just my luck, since it was only 25 minutes away and indoors! I had been busy making a whole bunch of extra stuff to take - like a cute baby quilt that I spent last Sunday stitching away on - but fine, I'm trying to look on the positive side. I could use a vacation, or at least a little break, so maybe I can find something fun to do on Saturday . . .

My COOL FIND OF THE MONTH

While I was shopping at the big Firefly summer sale at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store, my husband actually found something I needed! I had been bugging him to take my Mundial scissors in to be sharpened - since they were so dang dull that my thumb went numb for two days after I used them to snip the edges of some blue jean dogs toys I made a few weeks ago - and he found this cool Fiskars Scissor sharpener on sale for about $7. It works great.

Tina's Summer Iced Coffee

2007-06-22T09:23:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share this recipe for iced coffee that I came up with. I love coffee and that energy boost it gives me but I don't particularly like drinking something hot and steamy when it's 90 degrees outside. Since I don't do dairy, I use soy milk in the recipe but cow milk would work just as well if you want to use that and you're not lacto intolerant.

Tina's Summer Iced Coffee

1 fresh brewed cup of coffee

2 to 3 heaping TBSP powdered sugar

1/4 cup of soy milk (or plain milk, of you prefer)

a squirt of chocolate syrup

cinnamon

ice cubes

I brew my coffee for this recipe just a little stronger than usual by using slightly more coffee and slightly less water than I would use for a regular cup of hot java. Also, I put two dashes of cinnamon on top of the coffee grounds before brewing it (that is the only way the stuff will disolve in coffee, whether I'm drinking it hot or cold).

In a blender, put about 7 ice cubes, the powdered sugar, milk, a hearty squeeze of chocolate syrup, and your freshly brewed hot coffee. Whiz it up until the ice is gone. Pour into a tall glass and enjoy. Ewww, I love this stuff!

Knitting Needle Rolls

2007-06-17T16:21:00.000-05:00

I've been busy making knitting needle rolls this week. The pretty red one on the left is mine, and already holding my ton of needles. I just love this pretty brocade fabric! I like to make these plenty big so that there is a bunch of extra room for adding needles as time goes on, so the Deluxe size has 47 pockets and the Standard size has 34. The two small ones on the bottom are for double points or crochet hooks and have about 12 pockets each, with each pocket able to hold at least three sets of needles. Three of these are in my Etsy shop and the little red one is on ebay because the inside row of pockets is slightly crooked, and, being the obsessive perfectionist I am, I felt moved to sell it for half price.

The sunburn remedy worked amazingly on the kids! After two treatments the bright red burns had turned into a nice tan on their extra fair skin, and there is no peeling.

No more snakes have been spotted trying to terrorize us in our yard, so hopefully Mr Slimey has moved on.

Pukey pink tongue-twister, and a big "Duh" moment

2007-06-13T23:18:00.000-05:00

My little 8-year-old niece, Chanler, is staying with us for a few days this week while my nephew and my brother are at Boy Scout camp. Everybody is having fun! Actually, she and Tyler had a bit too much fun in the sun today and came in from the pool looking kind of crispy. My home remedy for sunburn is a puree of tomato and buttermilk, applied directly to the burn for half an hour. I know it sounds weird, but it does seem to work. Anyway, while these two were sitting on the kitchen stools with the goop all over their faces and shoulders, smelling like a salad buffet - with me laughing at the sight of them - Chanler said the stuff looked like pink puke. I said "when have you ever seen pink puke?" and we went on back and forth for a while, then discovered the new tongue twister: I puked pink puke. You try saying it five times fast!

That's a picture of the back of my house. I read thru the discription from my "snakes" post and thought a photo might make it sound less confusing. There are stairs going up from the patio to the driveway, and the flower boxes along the top on each side. That's a goldfish pond in front of the patio with a rock garden around it. Yes, that is a chicken in the back yard, and if you look in the big window upstairs, you can see my Boston Terrier, Maizy, watching me take the picture.

I'm finally making progress on my footies. I had made one, finished the toe, then found out it was waaay to small. What the heck! My gauge was just like it said in the pattern, I double checked all the steps, what was wrong with this stupid Sockotta footie!! Then I looked back at the sizing....which was in little girl sizes. DUH! Well fine, then, I just started another using a Sensational Socks recipe substituting a half inch K2, P2 rib for the cuff and leg section.

Have y'all seen the Summer Knitty? They have some great patterns on there this time, including some sock patterns. I have got to try Breeze, Askew, and Sweet Pea . .

and Tangerine Twist. . . and Coupling. Yep, really cool stuff for summer!

Invasion of the Snakes from Hell!!

2007-06-10T14:03:00.001-05:00

Anybody else hate snakes? I'm talking about wild snakes that slither up into your yard just to try to scare you to death or threaten to bite you. I'm really not afraid of snakes, as such . . . I mean, I've petted giant ones at the zoo, and pet ones are fine, if you're into that sort of thing. I don't even freak out walking around in the field or the woods and seeing one wiggle by. I just don't want the damn things in my yard near my kids, my dogs, or my farm animals - plus, I really don't want to get bit, either.

I live in Western Kentucky, home to hundreds of the ugly things including poisonous Copperheads and Cottonmouths (AKA Water Moccosins). Two years ago were overrun with cottonmouths, as my husband found a nest of baby ones, then some huge ones to match. There is a lake right behind our backyard, so I guess that might have attracted 'em, who knows. Last year was much better, we only saw a few of the non-poison types in the driveway.

Then this year, INVASION OF THE SNAKES FROM HELL! First off, a group of rat snakes seem to think the spot in front of our bay window where the bricks have settled and left a gap is a hotel for crawlies. We watched four of them crawl out last month in one hours time! Big ones, too, about 6 six feet long! EEWW! You see, that meant that the were technically living IN our house, between our diningroom wall and the bricks exterior!. We dumped a box of moth balls down in there which seemed to keep them out. Of course our house smelled awful from the moth balls, but it seemed to do the trick.

All had been well for the past couple of weeks, then my daughter Brittany came to me a couple days ago and said, "There's a huge snake in the flowerbox! Go shoot it!" Yes, that is normally how I deal with snakes, by shooting them from a safe distance away. No hoe-chopping for me!

So I run out on the back porch and there, in the patio flower box is a huge, ugly snake, trying to crawl down under the mulch in the corner, leaving most of his big ole self draped around my dalias and petunias! No way could I shoot at him, as the flower box is made of brick and attached to the house. {Danger. Ricochet!} From where we stood on the back porch, I tried to yank him out with a hoe so I could kill him by chopping him up with this sharpened edger thing my husband rigged up after the cottonmouth invasion. We were on the porch so there wasn't any way he could have bit us. Anyway, when Mr. Slimey feels the hoe trying to pull him out, he starts shaking his tail which makes a rattling sound! I think, and hope, that I read somewhere that some snakes will fake the rattlesnake thing as a form of self defense, which works pretty well for them since we nearly pissed ourselves when we hear it! So then we were all freaked out and just wanted to scare him away. My daughter Amanda suggested setting off some firecrackers to scare him off, but the only thing we could find was some old sparklers. So I lit one - very bravely when the snake's head was again stuck underneath the mulch - and dropped it on his back, then jumped back up on the safty of the porch. Oh, I wish I'd had a camera with me then because what happened next would have been the world's coolest funny picture. One of the sparks must have burned him 'cuz up comes his head in the classic horror movie strike pose, bringing him face-to-face with the lit sparkler, which he stared at, trying to figure out what the hell it was. Then, as we watched, the mulch between the plants caught on fire! This caused one of the girls to totally loose it. She started to holler that the house was gonna catch on fire and the snake was gonna kill us all, to hell with it, could we PLEASE go back inside. By the time her little fit was over, the small blaze had fizzled out, but I thought I'd pour some water on it just to be on the safe side. Mr. Slimey had crawled completely under the mulch and dirt when the smoke started, so I figured it would be hard for him poke his head up to bite me at this point. My next idea was to use boiling water, just incase he did try. As you can tell by the picture, about the only thing that accomplished was to kill the two plants closest to the house. Oh, and the little rocks lying on the edge were from when we tried to scare him by throwing rocks at him, which went over like a lead balloon.

The good news is that we haven't seen that slimey bastard since. I guess he told all of his snake buddies that the crazy people would torture them if they got near their flowers.

Boston Birthday Party!

2007-06-09T09:24:00.000-05:00

All four of my Boston Terriers have June birthdays, so we celebrated a few days ago. Maizy's birthday isn't until the 30th, but she pouted so much last year when everyone but her got a present, so this time we gave them all out at the same time. Mine LOVE unwrapping gifts! It is so much fun to watch them ripping 'em open. In the above picture, Maizy is on the left wearing her fancy panties, Capone is carrying the tennis ball, Gracie is in the front and Pixi has her behind to the camera in the back. As you can tell by the mess, they had a ball! (In case you didn't know, Maizy and Capone are the parents of Gracie Mae and Pixi Poo!)

That is Capone with his new doll, which he chose over the big bone! He LOVES this thing! I came up with the design for these cute blue jean toys hoping that the demin would stand up to all his chewing, 'cuz he just goes crazy with his stuffies! Doesn't he look cute?

I'm trying to get my Etsy shop going, so I stitched up two extra sets of dogs toys. They include a doll, a bone, and a heart.

I switched

2007-06-06T10:26:00.000-05:00

Sorry it had been a while since my last posting, but there are two very good reasons for it.

1. I have been busier than a cat covering up poop! With the homeschooling, genealogy, dogs, farm animals, keeping the house clean enough to walk thru and sanitary enough that we don't come down with the plague, and everything else going on around here, I haven't had a spare minute. Since school is out for the summer, I'm hoping to actually have enough time to sit back and enjoy things for a while.

2. I hadn't switched over to the "New and Improved Blogger". Nope, I just hadn't had the heart to bother myself with that until today. Since I had had problems with blogger before, I was afraid that the switch would either screw up my blog or possible mess up my computer in some sinister way. So far so good. I switched it a few minutes ago and the world has yet to end!

Willard Library

2007-01-07T22:01:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to check in real quick and say that I hope everyone is having a very Happy New Year. All those resolutions should be gear by now, huh!

The past couple of days I've been busy working on more genealogy. I love hanging out on the family history floor at Willard Library in Evansville. The building itself is over a hundred years old and the carved woodwork is just beautiful, not to mention the thousands of books on that floor, alone! And the endless rolls of microfilm . . . I could seriously camp out there for like a month and never get bored! Tyler likes to go there with me because he hopes to see the resident ghost - yes, there is supposed to a Lady in Grey haunting this regal Victorian mansion. Check out their website if you're intrigued enough to find out the details. . . Mwahahahaa

I won a prize!! I won the December drawing over at the Knittin'
Mittens KAL, so I'm gonna be buggin' the crap out of my maillady until my prize package gets here! This is my favorite KAL and I've made a ton of mittens since I joined. No cold hands for my family!

Six Weird Things Meme

2006-12-31T09:53:00.000-06:00

Shelley tagged me for the Six Weird Things meme, here it goes. Hhhmmmm, only six of the weirdest things about me, let me narrow it down......

1. Most people think my eating habits are strange, but hey, it works for me. I am what I call a Pesco Ovo vegetarian, which means I do not eat meat of any kind or consume milk, cheese, or any other dairy product. I do eat seafood occasionally. I am sort of a health fanatic and chose this type of diet about 8 years ago.

2. I'm a Dog Fanatic!! We have 10 very special, pampered, trained dogs that my family loves very much. We own Wonderland Kennels and spend a lot of time training our pooches for showing and competition in Conformation, Agility, Schutzhund, and Obedience. If you see me, you will probably see one of my dogs as we take them nearly everywhere.

3. I play with my dead ancestors!!! . . . Okay, don't freak out on me, I am into climbing my family tree, a genealogy junkie! I actually got into this when I was a little kid in second grade, after watching Roots. Seriously, this is what I would call one of my big life-long hobbies. I was accepted as a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution on Dec. 9th, I have an application in progress for the Mayflower Society, and I hope to join more heritage organizations this year. Yes, my name is Tina and I'm a genealoholic! LOL

4. What! There's a chicken and goat in my yard!? Did I mention that I love animals? We have a very small mini-farm and live way out in the country in Kentucky. The farm animals actually have a very nice little pasture and building to sleep in, but the poultry likes to play in our yard, which is actually one of the reasons we got them; along with all the eggs we can eat, they also keep the bug population down. And Minnie Pearl, one of the Pygmy goats, just gets into the yard because she can and she thinks it's funny.

5. I love spooky stuff, like Stephen King books and horror movies. The weirder the better!

6. I try to find the fun and adventure in everyday things, which sometimes annoys people, but hey, I believe you should make the most out of every single day. I love eating new kinds of food at strange little restaurants, I stop in those odd specialty stores that pop up in town, I will make the van come to a screetching stop if I pass a zoo, and I try to amuse myself and the whoever is around me in otherwise boring situations.

Thanks for tagging me Shelley! Now the world nows my weirdness! LOL

I didn't know who to tag, so if you are reading this and you haven't yet participated in this Meme, then, POOF, you are tagged!!

"THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog."