Sugar Bunny Boulevard

Eye Candy Friday

My Black Seeded Simpson leaf lettuce is just gorgeous right now - I can hardly believe I will get to eat something this pretty.  The various green colors in the garden are fun but this is a very pale green lettuce and it really brightens things up when there aren't many flowers yet.  (I can't wait for the okra flowers!)  And of course I know how good those wilted leaf lettuce salads are.  I've been cheating and making them all through the past year with red tipped leaf lettuce from the store but there's nothing like one from THIS lettuce.  Grown in my own garden.  Oh the heavenly delicate leaves.  I have had two very delicious cherry tomatoes - both on different days - while standing in the garden.  Why bother taking them in if there's only one?  My garden is small.  For my entertainment I suppose.  And is very satisfying to live with the illusion (or delusion) that I could possibly keep a big garden and have so many meals from it every year as we did from my mom's garden when I was growing up.  Oh the beans and tomatoes - we ate them all year.  I have planted quite a bit of okra for such a tiny garden and hope it makes well.  This garden is something that draws outside the lines for me.  There are no straight lines - everything is sort of free form - lettuce fills in small spaces and circles one of my tomato plants.  Okra grows with the sunflowers.  I have also planted okra sunflowers and zinnias with the morning glories along the fence.  One space has a tiny experimental potato crop.  That will be fun to watch if they don't get eaten by bugs.  The squash still has me holding my breath.  It looks much better than last year but time will still tell.  I probably won't trust that I'll have any squash until I'm eating it.

And I wanted this to be quick.  I always WANT things to be quick but they rarely are.  Why is that??  :)

My Hufflepuff sock #2 is in the home stretch - I hoped to get a little closer to the toe tonight but it is nearly midnight and I don't think that'll happen. 

At some point this weekend there will be a marriage of pattern and yarn for my Sockapalooza pal's socks.  They're having a very short courtship so let's hope they like each other.  Wedding photos some time this weekend.

Daily Square Report:

Did I say Daily?  How about the Wednesday-Thursday-Friday Square Report?!  We got just a little each day and I was so wiped out from VBS that I didn't open any of it until this evening.  And a very nice lot it is!  Today we're adding 120 squares, 1 lapghan, and 6 yarn needles to the count!  YAY!!  We've started getting yarn needles!!  hehe  I'm so happy.  :)

I know I haven't put up an official wish list but I think I'll be putting one together this weekend.  I've come to realize that we'll need more yarn than my original estimate for seaming and that it won't all come from one source.  Even though I am getting some donations from stores (did you know you have to write and submit a grant proposal at least 30 days in advance to get more than $50 of stuff donated by Wal Mart?), it won't all come from one place.  SO... a wish list will be posted.  And I will be tracking those items received in my sidebar along with squares.

With the squares we're adding today our total received is 2047 and we still need only 193 to reach our goal!!  WooHoo!!  And I won't be sorting for another MONTH YET!!  My gosh.  I wonder how many we'll receive.  It's a fun thing to experience, huh?  And we're over 2000.  I remember when we had 14 squares.  Amazing.  Just amazing.

Today's squares and yarn needles and lapghan were received from the following people: 

• Cheryl - El Dorado, KS (donated squares and a lovely lapghan! look for a picture of it on Saturday's post)
• James - Sacramento, CA
• Tracy and Emily (age 10) - Cary, NC (awww... same age as Suzannah - was this Emily's first charity knitting?)
• Iris - Peachtree City, GA
• Ariel - Ontario, CA
• Marko - Temple, TX (Hi Marko - do you know Alice? are you in the Lone Star Knitters Yahoo Group?!)
• Prioscilla - Bethel, CT
• Brandy - Winona, MN (for www.lovesmanycloths.com)
• Lynn - Saint Cloud, MN (for many years I thought this was a mythical town - long time PHC listener am I)
• Julie - Kettering, OH
• Wendy - Attica, MI

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!  I can't wait to start showing pictures of a seamed afghan - just gotta get some of this sock knitting out of the way first!  Oh gosh, and I'm knitting store samples for my future classes at Michael's right now too.  I do so much knitting that doesn't seem to really count!! 

Take good care of every little thing and have a happy fun safe weekend!!  XOXOXOX

Eye Candy Friday, Comfort Shawl and Afghan Stats!

Since no ECF is complete with baby pictures, here's what we've got.  A pair of cheesy pictures and sweet smiles.  They were each saying "cheese!"

The Comfort Shawl is finished and blocked and here's a quickie photo - I'll tell more about this shawl soon when I can take the proper photo.

Afghan stats!  Yes!  But not stats from this afghan project.... how about a few details from the project that inspired "Rebuilding Greensburg - Block by Block".... the Hokie Healing afghan project.

• Hokie Healing was created as a project to make afghans to provide comfort and healing to the families of victims of the shooting that occured on the Virginia Tech campus earlier this year.
• Hokie Healing was created by one lady*, Gina Bonomo, who is the owner of Mosaic Yarns in Blacksburg, Virginia - the home of Virginia Tech. (*and supported by many others)
• To date the Hokie Healing project has collected 8298 squares!
• The first 32 afghans for Hokie Healing are for the families of the 32 people killed (I think they were all students but I'm not completely sure).  Obviously they have more squares than needed to make just 32 afghans so they will continue seaming squares until they have used them all up - giving the afghans to injured people, then others who were in the classrooms and witnessed the events of that terrible day.  You can see photos of those 32 afghans on display at the VT campus on her blog post here.
• Hokie Healing had a seaming event in June - you can see pictures here and some news video here (why aren't there any news channels in Wichita that even care about the Greensburg afghan project??) showing their seaming event.
• There were over 100 people at the Hokie Healing seaming party.
• The people... over 100 of them... seamed for seven hours straight.
• The people.... over 100 of them... seamed 20 afghans in that time.
• Oh.
• No.
• We need a lot of people to help seam 40-50 afghans in one day.  A LOT OF PEOPLE.
• We need at least 200 people or more!  I hope there's not something else going on in El Dorado that day because I'll be recruiting high school kids, ladies from the hospital auxiliary, every knitter in the state of Kansas, plus Kansas City and major cities of Oklahoma!  OH MY GOSH we need a lot of people.  The pastors.  Their wives.  Their children.  High school kids.  I already said that but OH - maybe I need to contact the 4H people in our county.  The Home-Ec teacher at the high school (if they even call it that any more - I don't even know).  I have to get a lot of help.  OH, I can call the Community College and see if anyone there will help - OH, I know someone in my knitting meetup group who works at the Community College!  That's a good thing.  Okay, it's very very good to know some of these stats so that I can be well prepared for the seaming event.  Hopefully I can get in touch with Gina and get some more specific information from her to help our seaming event be as efficient as possible. 

Whew.  Got a little excited there, or maybe nervous.  This morning I was at the post office mailing something to Suzannah for her birthday (will not be there on time and does not contain the desired cell phone - I'm a terrible mother)... when at another window I heard a lady discussing the patterns she's mailing and how they don't qualify as Media Mail, blah blah blah.  Patterns?  What kind of patterns?  I don't care (well, actually I am curious now that I think about it).  She can probably seam afghan squares!  So I waited outside the post office and attacked this lady when she came out.  heh  I told her as fast as I possibly could about the afghan project and seaming and we need 200 people and blah blah blah and she was so cool and excited about it!  She has an eBay store and said she would link to the Rebuilding Greensburg project from her eBay store front and tell all her sewing friends!  Yay!  So anyway, I'm all about getting enough people to come help seam afghans now.  I wonder who I'll attack next?  heh

Daily Square Report - Thursday and Friday Combined:

Today we're adding 103 squares!  Yippee!!!  That makes 1837 received and 403 still needed!  WooHoo!!  But we have MORE than SQUARES!  We have Other Stuff Too!!  I've told you before that Fridays are FUN DAYS for afghan mail - my surprise today was a delightful box of good stuff from Jackie in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Jackie sent not only squares, but also 1 scarf that I LOVE and want to make one just like it for my son, 1 precious pink hooded baby cardigan, 10 winter hats in sizes ranging from child to adult, and 9 sweet little hats ranging from preemie to infant size.  What a fun package!  And all of the other packages were very generous!  I know I shouldn't do this but I'm getting kinda nervous about this project now - wanting to be sure that it all comes together as smoothly and efficiently as possible.  Some things I just can't control but I'm still very psyched up about it and thinking about details of the project constantly.  I'm always thinking "What's the next step?".

One thing I'm thinking about is seaming yarn.  The yarn company I contacted will not be donating the requested yarn for seaming.  So I need to decide how to handle that.  I don't know yet exactly how much yarn I need.  That will be determined more by how many squares we end up with!  And I need to decide whether I will accept random donations of yarn from people (y'all have already been offering)... or should I try to somehow get the money to buy all one kind of yarn?  Blah blah blah.  Oh life is tough when this is the worst thing going on, right?  Well, I'm just trying to get SO MANY PEOPLE to help with this and I don't want to get to a critical moment and realize I don't have enough seaming yarn or it looks like barf because we used random colors or who knows what.  I'm going to have to pull together probably every plastic yarn needle in the city of Wichita to do this thing too.  You probably wouldn't find 100 yarn needles if you bought every one from every Wal Mart and Michael's and Hobby Lobby in a five county area!  I have a lot to think about!  Not every person comes complete with their own Chibi and scissors.  I might just have to do a fund raiser.  Raffle?  Donations with prizes?  I need ideas. 

Any and all suggestions brainstorms and ideas are WELCOME!!  I will be chatting with my knitting group about this subject on Saturday morning at Panera, for SURE!

Today during nap time I have been burning a bit of nervous energy (good for the WLC which I still need to chat about but I don't think this will be the day).  During today's nap time I opened two days of afghan mail, wrote most of this post, and cut down a tree.  Well, half a tree.  But yes - worked on our backyard make-over.  I need to do a post about my favorite tools:  chibi, bamboo knitting needles, magnetic board for holding lace charts, and my chain saw.  Oh I do love my chain saw.  I did take pictures but the babies are waking up so I'm running out of time!

Today's squares came from the following people:

• Lora - El Dorado, KS
• Erin - El Dorado, KS
• Pat - somewhere in Kansas but I don't think I know the city - thank you for dropping your squares at Heritage Hut, Pat!!  :)
• The "H" Family - Wilmington, NC
• M.K. - Iowa Park, TX
• Barbara - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Monica - Hemet, CA
• Theresa - Zip 97402 (Is that Portland?  I don't have time to look it up!)
• Kirk - Lake Havasu City, AZ
• Jackie - Raleigh, NC
• Ruth Ann - Camino, CA (44 gorgeous squares!!!)

In addition to the great Other Stuff that Jackie sent, I got yet another box from the dear ones at Love's Many Cloths.  This time it was Char in Culver, Oregon, who sent a box of little soaps to go with cloths that we've already received!  Isn't that the sweetest idea!?  And the box smells SO GOOD!  heh

Everybody have a wonderful happy safe summer weekend and I'll see ya back here next time with more squares and hopefully a few bright ideas from my grrls at Panera tomorrow morning.  :)

XOXOX

Eye Candy Friday

Attention Carol of Placerville, California:  There's a message for you at the bottom of this post!

The first night we were in Estes Park (and walked to the Dunraven for dinner) we ooh'd and aah'd over the candy shops on the walk back to our car as we browsed through a few shops along the parkway.  This one, in particular, caught our eye with the beautiful apples in the window on one side of the door and these pretty strawberries on the other side.

I love seeing those well worn wooden spoons hanging up and the pretty copper bowls.  Their specialty seemed to be fudge, candy apples, and English toffee.  My kind of place!  The window displays were definitely eye candy - and check out the name of the shop!  Maybe she'll be ready to hand over the spoons in about 16 years when the babies are out of high school and Jeff and I are ready to retire??!  Hmmmm....!  :)

Another treat for the senses was taking a trip through the animal barns at the Wool Market!  The sweet faces, sheepy smells, baas and bleats, rustling feet and jumpy animals were a treat.  The llama and alpaca didn't really seem to like having their pictures taken but the sheep didn't seem to mind at all.  For some crazy reason I didn't visit the goat barn but I understand that they're supposed to be the most entertaining of all!  Next time I'll spend extra time with them.  hehe

Every time I show Emeline these animal pictures she reaches out to touch the screen like she's petting their heads and squishing their fur, saying "Awwww, sweet thing.... So soft...."  She loves looking at them on a slide show on the computer.  :)

Daily Square Report:

It was a quiet mail day (two packages) so I think it's time to address a few more FAQ's.

My squares aren't "square" - what am I doing wrong?  Don't worry - my squares aren't "square" either when I first finish them!  My theory has always been that gravity isn't kind to anyone and always seems to stretch out the second half of my squares.  I repeat - DO NOT WORRY!  After August 15th gets here I will be washing every single square and shaping them into actual squares before sorting them into afghan packets for seaming.  Gravity has the same effect on all bias garter stitch squares.  Plus blocking covers a multitude of sins - I promise to take pictures to prove it in August.  :)

I just learned about the project - is it too late to start knitting squares?  No!  It's not too late!  Please knit as many squares as you would like until August 1st and get them in the mail by August 10th if you're inside the US, or August 5th if you're outside the US.  We hope to collect MORE than our goal of 2240 squares (40 afghans!) so if you wish to knit or crochet squares please do so!

Today's mail brought three new squares from Marianne in Tulsa, OK and twenty more cloths from Diane in Greenwood, FL for Love's Many Cloths!  WooHoo!  That group has really been awesome.  Marianne, are you coming for the seaming party???  I hope so!  At least one or two other people in the Tulsa area are coming up September 15th!  Yay!!

A shout-out to Carol in Placerville, CA:  Carol, if you read this blog, Jenn of the blog KnitWit Momma in the Sierra Mountains would love to hear from you - apparently knitting pals are rare in your area!

Everybody have a wonderful weekend - I'm trying to get more movies of the babies - maybe this weekend will bring good results.  Anybody have a recommendation for a good free video editing software?  Does such a thing exist (the free kind, I mean!)???

Take good care of every little thing!  XOXOX

Eye Candy Friday

It can be a sad and emotional time when you retire a pair of favorite shoes.

Sweet Lila Pearl has gotten a new pair of summer sandals and has left her little pink shoes behind.  She walked miles in these shoes.  I always love my kids little shoes.  They took good care of their sweet baby feet.

As most of you read this I will be driving to Colorado to meet up with Margene and Mim and Imbrium and some more awesome knitters and bloggers at the Estes Park Wool Market.  I wish you could all be there with us.  :)

I've been frantically cleaning the house for two days as well as taking care of babies and opening afghan mail.  There haven't been an impressive number of packages but as always there are beautiful squares (in impressive numbers!) and lovely surprises to tell about.  I won't be able to do another report (including the past two days of squares) until Monday or Tuesday.  It'll be a DOOZY!

Thanks for checking in, thanks for knitting squares, thanks for reading my blog and commenting and everything.  I know I need to respond to a few emails - please forgive me if you're waiting on anything.  I'll be back late late Sunday night so I might not post again until Tuesday.  Nap time just isn't long enough to accomplish the tasks of today's SuperMom.  Guess I've gotta pull together another plan, huh?

Happy Father's Day to my husband and my Dad and all the dads out there and have a great weekend!!  :)

Eye Candy Friday

Happy Friday Afternoon Everybody!!  This is gonna be FAST!  And NOT LONG!  hehe  Babies are ready to get up and a little girl is singing "I'm a Rock and Roll Star" in the bedroom.  hehe

SPINNING!  Here's skein #2 for the Spun Stitches Shawl Knitalong!  WooHoo.... love it.  Kelly wrote that she thought this was 100% merino but there is definitely something else in there - I'm thinking Mohair.  Long.  Hairs.  Gotta be Mo.  I thought it looked a lot like the picture on this package of morning glory seeds!  Hopefully I'll get these planted before I head off to Estes next weekend.

I had a big long detailed thing in my mind about how I've learned so much since I started spinning and blah blah blah.  No time for that right now.  The babies call!

Daily Square Report:

SQUARES!  Awesome square day in the Special Surprise kind of way!  Seems like we always have something extra fun come in on Fridays, huh?  We received 27 squares today bringing the total received to 917 and still need 1323 to reach the new goal of 40 afghans! WooHoo!  Being over 900 is so AWESOME!  Can you believe 900 afghan squares even fit in my house?  It sounds like SO MANY and it really is, but they're thankfully not taking over the world yet.  hehe

Today's mail was only three packages but you know those are sometimes the BEST.  One package was from Mary of Saginaw, MI who said she's visiting her daughter in NY right now and took her square knitting with her.  Daughter must be a knitter too because when Mary ran out of white yarn her daughter had some to help finish the square she was on.  Mary is the sister of "Joanne of Saginaw, MI" who we received a package from yesterday!  I just LOVE reading notes from people saying that the squares were knit by a mother/daughter or sister pair.  How pleasant to share something like that.  Which of course reminds me of Emily's comment on yesterday's post.  hehe  I had QUITE a chuckle when she said that Great Gran called to see how many squares Emily had finished.  Great Gran is in the lead you guys.  Knitting is always a fun competition between those two and with Emily's mother as well.  hehe  Anybody remember when they each made a FBS from yarn dyed with KoolAid?  Okay, so it was fun to get the package from Mary.  OH, she also noted that she (Mary) is 88 years old and Joanne is 72.  I hope Joanne doesn't mind Mary telling her age!

We also got a package from overseas today.  Wow.  I just LOVE GETTING THESE!  The cool stamps, the hand writing even.  Such a special occasion to receive international mail!!  This package came from Bea in Norway.  Bea sent afghan squares (stating that her friend Marion made one of them!) and her note said she has enclosed some "other stuff".  Check out her other stuff.  I nearly cried.  The sweetness.  I've gotta hurry up and HIDE THIS STUFF before Emeline gets up from her nap!!!

Today's squares came from the following people:

Julia - Woodstock, NY
Mary - Saginaw, MI
Bea - Bergen, Norway (I hope I got that right)

Thank you ALL!  Hooray for squares!  Hooray for other stuff too!  Hooray for every person making afghan squares and other stuff for the families of Greensburg!

I've GOT to run.... don't forget that tomorrow is World Wide Knit In Public DAY!  I'll be at Sedgwick County Park at Shelter #5 at some point - hope to see my Panera gals there and meet some new friends too.  :)

I'll be back Monday with a new Square Report - I'm sure it'll be a big day in a squarey way!  XOXOX

Square Candy Friday

Happy Friday Everyone!  It's June!  We have lived in our house for two years if you can believe it.  And Emeline will be 3 years old tomorrow.  It's a special day and she is looking forward to it in a big way.   When she woke up this morning she said "My birthday is coming!  I want a cell phone!"  ha 

Benny now has 33 minutes of time on his driving log.  Hard to believe he has so much since it only takes two minutes to get anywhere in this town.  He drove around in the high school parking lot for a while last night then took me to Blockbuster and home.  This morning he drove me to the church for my afghan mail and then to the doctor's office where Lila Pearl had a follow-up appointment for her ears.  All clear for now - thank goodness.

So wha'd'ya know.... we've got quite a collection of squares here now!  Here are the girls posing with the square collection (and one pair of socks!) this morning.

How do y'all feel about Lila's good ear report???...

Last photo until later this summer with the big kids.... oh they have grown so much since they got here in October.

Katie will die when she sees this picture of her hair.  How's the next one?.....

Emeline was sad to see them go.  Thankfully she didn't cry until they had left.  She did stand on the steps plaintively saying goodbye... and then finally said, "Katie, where are you going?"  We really don't think she has the "their daddy" concept figured out yet.

Then we opened the mail.  People.  You won't believe what came in the mail today.  We got three packages.  One package had two squares!  One package had four squares!  Those are six incredibly beautiful squares and they get their own picture. (just one picture showing four squares because the four in one package were pretty much alike knit with delicious Patons SWS)

Those six gorgeous squares came from Lea in Kansas City, KS, and Karen in Sweet Home, OR.  Thank you SO MUCH for these beautiful additions to the square collection Lea and Karen!!!

Then there was a box.  A quite sizeable box, I'll say.  I never imagined what would be in the box.  Okay, I did expect squares but I promise you it is still a surprise every day when I go down to the church and there is mail - especially when it's BIG MAIL!  At the top of the box was a letter from Beverlee of Leawood, Kansas stating that several months ago she was with her regular knitting group on Thursday night at Yarn Shop and More in Overland Park, Kansas, when a young lady brought in this box of afghan squares that were made by her grandmother.  She and her mother had found them while cleaning out her grandmother's house and getting ready for an estate sale.  She hoped that the knitting group could seam them and give them to charity or another good cause.  Beverlee says they were very excited to learn of Rebuilding Greensburg - Block by Block and felt like it was a perfect match for these beautiful afghan squares.

And here they are.  There were 190 squares in the box (doesn't look like so many in the picture!) - all crocheted, mostly 6-7" but some (down front) were in the 12-14" range and even had some extra yarn so I might be able to add a little size to the 9-10" ones that might need to be bigger!  Isn't this cool!?  Lovely squares, beautifully made - a wonderful gift from someone in Kansas who we will never meet (on Earth).  But her squares will comfort families in Greensburg.  Beverlee and all the knitters and people at Yarn Shop and More, thank you so very much for keeping these squares until the right time came along.  We're so happy and grateful to receive them for this project.

Today's squares bring the total squares received to a whopping 622 and the number still needed is 498!  WooHoo!!!  We're past the half way point SO FAST!  I hope we just BLOW right past the goal of 1120 and keep on going.  I'm secretly crossing my fingers for 2000+!  But it's a secret.  Don't tell anybody.  I guess the secret part of that is "+".  Who knows what it could possibly be?  Probably not 15,096 (or whatever the Red Scarf Project number was).  But I'm happy.  I'm excited!!  There might really be some work to do on September 15th at the Seaming Saturday!!  :)

So as I said, tomorrow is Emeline's birthday.  Birthday post will probably be Sunday.  Everybody take care - enjoy summer - watch the flowers grow - I hope you're not too wet or too dry.  We have had good rain but that means I haven't been in the garden yet! 

See ya next week with another Square Report.  :)

Eye Candy Friday

Good afternoon everybody!  It's 69F here and still a bit overcast.  Add a little sunshine and we couldn't ask for more.  The weather has been so nice this past week.  At least we've felt a little like we had some springtime rather than rushing from winter to summer without a gradual change.

These pretty flowers are in a hanging basket on my porch.  Where the purple finch nest used to be.  Without giving away the gorey details* I'll just say that I believe a bluejay must have visited the nest when Mommy and Daddy Finch were away and tossed the eggs out of the nest.  So now we have these pretty flowers for the summer.

*yes, there are pictures but I decided not to go there

And I have filled some other baskets on the steps with petunias and a few other things.

We all know that Eye Candy Friday isn't complete without some baby pictures so here ya gooooooo...... Presenting Pudding Face Lila and Pudding Mustache Emeline.  Lila is still in the "what are you doing?" and then "OH!" phase when I'm taking pictures.  hehe

When I asked Emeline if she wanted some pudding she said No.  I said It's Chocolate!  She said Chocolate?  Hmmm....  Then she still didn't want a bite.  Finally when I gave it to her to feed herself she held up the spoon and said "Look Mommy!  Chocolate on a SPOON!"  Too cute.  :)

Daily Square Report:

Picking up squares from the church has become a welcome part of our daily routine.  The babies know the path to the church well, including who has pretty flowers, where the bunny rabbit lives, and where the scary dogs are.  We are also visiting a playground nearby the church and enjoying the visit there.  It's so fun to push the babies in the swings as they whoop and holler.

Today we had a BUNCH of packages!  Yay!  Just think how many we'll have on Tuesday after having no mail for Saturday and Monday!  WooHoo.... 38 more squares came today!!  Suzannah informed me this morning that I didn't update the sidebar count after yesterday's squares came in so I'll be sure I get that updated in a minute.  The total is now 288 squares received and 832 still needed.

Today's squares came from the following:

Jill - Minneapolis, MN
Marianne - Gardena, CA
Jan - Braggs, OK
Anonymous - Melbourne, FL
Chris - California
Charlene - Houston, TX
Anonymous - Portland, OR
Kathy - Scappoose, OR
Cathy - New Haven, CT

Thank you EVERYBODY!!  These squares are so BEAUTIFUL and we are so grateful to receive them.

 

I'm knitting knitting knitting on the Odessa chemo cap - should be finished any minute now but these crazy squares keep sneaking into my lap and somehow I find myself telling Odessa "just one more row...".  I don't know how those things happen.

Jeff's dad is not better.  His surgery was scheduled for today at noon but was postponed until tomorrow.  His blood oxygen is too low, sodium is too low, heart is weak, has a bad lung... will probably go on a ventilator today.  It's not good.  He has had a good life and he has been a good and generous man.  He loves his wife and children and grandchildren.  I think he feels right with God.  So why is it so hard to think about letting him go?  I have only known him six and a half years.  It shouldn't be so hard.  But it really is.  He adores the children and babies so much and they have brought him a great deal of happiness.  Emeline has been concerned about him and has asked about his broken bones and wants to know where he is.  He is in ICU now and she wouldn't understand about the machines, etc, so the babies won't be visiting him at the hospital.

I'll probably be taking a blog break until after the mail comes again on Tuesday so please have a beautiful and happy and safe holiday weekend!  Hopefully I can get my garden in shape over the next few days.  :)

Eye Candy Friday and "Seaming Saturday" Scheduled

Happy Friday everybody!  I'm going for more pictures and less chat this post.  We'll see if I am capable of "less chat".  :)

Last night we went to visit with some friends in Wichita with every intention of having some burgers and brats then heading down to the Wichita River Festival where the entertainment was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy!  I LOVE BBVD!!  But it didn't matter much.  As much as any of us might enjoy BBVD or the River Festival, we had so much fun visiting with old friends and watching the babies play that we just stayed and stayed.... and never went down for the music.  It was a wonderful evening.  We all stay so busy that we just don't make time for visiting with friends as much as we should.  It's so fun to see them and chat and catch up that I don't know why we don't get together WAY more often.

When I was visiting with my friend Sonia (her house last night) I told her about the Greensburg afghan project.  She said, OH, I have just the thing for you.  She came back with a few afghan squares that she knew she wouldn't be using and gave them to me for the project.  Isn't that awesome?  One of them is this gray and pastel crochet square.  I love the rings in the center - they remind me of arms in an embrace - a group hug.  Just perfect for the project.

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when someone emailed and mentioned that they saw a blurb about the project on knitting.about.com.  Really?!  Cool!  Here's the article:  Rebuilding Greensburg.

Yesterday I was chatting with our pastor about the project and mentioned to him that several people from around Kansas had expressed an interest in coming to help if we have a seaming party.  We had a great discussion about that idea and have set a date for a Seaming Saturday!!  I am SO excited about this!!  The Seaming Saturday for Rebuilding Greensburg - Block by Block is scheduled for September 15, 2007.  If you would like to help seam the afghans for this project we will be thrilled to have you here!!  Bring a car load of your favorite knitters and share the cost of fuel for the trip!    We hope to be seaming from 10:00am to 4:00pm that day and the more help we have the better chance of getting ALL of the afghans FINISHED in one day.  Wouldn't that be AWESOME?!  It might seem a little far off but I promise the day will be here before you know it and it's never too early to start planning with your knitting group for this event!  I know there are a lot of knitters and crocheters within a 2-3hr drive from El Dorado.  I hope you'll all come!  Bring your friends - bring your spouse - bring someone who has nothing else to do.  No knitting or crocheting or sewing experience necessary.  :)

Did someone say something about "less chat"??  How about some pictures?

A little mother/daughter knitting with Suzannah.  Hers on the left and mine on the right.  I got a few skeins of Lamb's Pride (dark purple and dark green above) on clearance at my LYS last weekend to use for making squares (as if I needed the extra yarn).  It was a good excuse to try a "new to me" yarn!  We both love the Lamb's Pride and she agrees that using wool and bamboo needles makes her a better knitter.  :)

Sorry for the lack of baby pictures - I know ECF isn't complete without them.  But little Lila Pearl is STILL not well and they had to take a nap.  Yesterday I took her for her 18mo well baby check and to our surprise her ear is still infected!!  It wouldn't have been a surprise for much longer because she started with a fever yesterday afternoon and had it again this morning when she woke up at 6am.  Poor thing.  Please send healing thoughts her way.  The new stronger antibiotic now tastes BAD.  I hope she'll keep taking it.  He did say that he couldn't hear any heart murmur at all and she's doing very well on the growth chart (staying around the 70th percentile).  I was so glad about that.

Daily Square Update!

We received 12 more squares today from the following people giving us a total of 43 squares to date!  Hooray!!

Sonia - Wichita, KS
Lora - El Dorado, KS  (hand delivered by the dear "Miss L"!)
Nancy - Chicago, IL (2nd package from her!  Wow!)
Anonymous - Topeka, KS

Everybody have a great weekend - I hope your weather is as nice as ours in Kansas!  It's time to plant some more flowers or something.  :)

Eye Candy Friday, FAQs and Contest Winners!

A little bit of blue.

Yesterday a few people mentioned the pretty blue yarn I used for my Seed Square.  I thought I would tell you a little bit about that yarn.  It started with my dear friend Christine who put out the call for afghan squares when her brother was losing a long battle with cancer.  She wanted to comfort him through his last weeks and days with an afghan of blue squares made by the people she drew encouragement and support from in the knitting community.  I dyed this blue yarn and sent a square to her project Comforting Jef.

When I was ready to start my first square for Rebuilding Greensburg - Block by Block this was the yarn I reached for.  I've been saving it for just the right occasion and this was it.

Now all that remains is the tiny ball above.  What will I do with it?  I will use it to make a square for Rebuilding Greensburg.  I hoped to have my second square finished to show today but it hasn't come together yet.  I've had a few emails to read!  Hooray!  I have had three questions come up over and over so here they are with answers:

I don't have any worsted wool but I have acrylic yarn will that be okay?
If it's yarn that you would feel comfortable using in an afghan for yourself or your family it'll be perfect for this project.  The most important thing is that they're 8" squares.

What is the mailing deadline?
At this moment there is not a firm deadline.  I'm anticipating that it will probably be around August 1st but we'll never turn a square away and all squares that are received will be made into afghans for the families of Greensburg.  If your squares are ready please don't wait for the deadline!  We want to begin seaming afghans as soon as we can!

Do you have any color preferences?
There is no color preference. Get wild!  Use something that you HATE and can't bear to look at in your stash!  It will be BEAUTIFUL paired with the other squares.  Feel free to use yarn scraps and make a stripey square with various colors.  It's a simple pattern and I'm encouraging everyone to get as crazy as they want with their colors!

One thing I will be doing with this project is making a care label to be added to each completed afghan stating the fiber content and care instructions.  The label will also say that the squares were collected from people all over the .... where?  So far it's US and Canada.  I won't be surprised to have squares arrive from Europe, Asia and Australia before it's all over.  Hopefully that tag will say the squares have come from all over the World.  Finally the label will state who seamed it.  I will probably seam a few myself but I won't be able to do it all.  The ladies at my church will help and I think the Wichita KIP (Knit In Public) group will be helping as well.  If a knitting group wants to send an afghan that's already seamed please send me your information so that I can personalize the label.  We really want the people who receive these afgans to realize that there are caring individuals around the world who are thinking of them and want to offer comfort in any way they can.

Be sure to include a note with your square(s) for the family that receives the afghan with your square in it.  I haven't decided yet the best way to present those notes to the recipients.  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Let's see.... what else....

What?  A Contest?  Someone wants to know the results of my Comment Contest?  OH!  hehehehe

The original purpose of this contest was to celebrate my 3000th comment!  Yay!  We reached 3000!  I also said that we would do a random drawing of names for people commenting on each post through the past week - you could qualify once per post with a total of seven chances per person in the drawing.

First the 3000th Commenter.  Bright and early Sunday morning the 3000th comment was left by my dear friend Tracy of Wool Windings.  Thank you all for being such wonderful friends and commenters.  I really can't tell you how much you all mean to me and you're all awesome.  Tracy is the lucky winner of a kit to make the Larger Than Life bag including the Interweave Crochet magazine that has the pattern, hand dyed worsted wool yarn, a lovely Brittney birch crochet hook and the bag lining sewn by me.  I think Tracy said that if she won the bag then her daughter would crochet it.  I wonder if her daughters knows she was volunteered for the task?!  heh

Next up.... the random drawing!  And I'm tellin' you - it was RANDOM!  hehe

Emeline:  Look Lila Peril!  A game!

Lila:  Oooooo!
Mommy:  Mix up the pieces Emeline.
Emeline:  I'm making bread Mommy!  I'm making dough!

Emeline and Lila Pearl each draw a name from the bowl....

Names!  Names!  I have the names!

The winners are Kim of Knits With a Silent K and Marina of Stranded on Fair Isle!  Congratulations Kim and Marina!  You have each won a yet-to-be-determined prize which will be mailed as soon as I can get to it but don't look for it too soon.  heh  I promise it won't take a year.  I've emailed you both.  :)

Time for me to run.  I've got babies to supervise.  I've got squares to knit! 

Everyone have a beautiful weekend!!

Eye Candy Friday and A Contest!

Happy Friday Everyone!!!  It's a very good day.  :)

Today is Friday, May 4th.  You can now officially put your winter coats away.  When I was a little girl growing up in Michigan my best friend was Patty Cena.  Today is Patty's birthday!  Yay!  If I'm not mistaken, dear Patty is 40 years old today!  The last I knew - about seven years ago when we had our 15yr class reunion - Patty was a math instructor at Michigan State University.  If anybody out there knows Patty, please tell her Happy Birthday from Laura!  :)

Patty's mother always told Patty that she had to wear her winter coat until her birthday.  Yes there were plenty of times that Patty had to carry that coat because it was WAY too warm to wear it.  But it's the mark I have still used to this day - even though I left Michigan for warmer climes twenty-two years ago - I have always remembered Patty's birthday and her mother's house rule that her children took their winter coats to school until May 4th.  Or wait... was it the 5th?  Maybe it was the 5th.  Don't tell Patty Happy Birthday until tomorrow, okay?  Ohh, today is Carrie Trosper's birthday!!  CARRIE is 40 today!  Happy Birthday out there Carrie, where ever you are!  (how could I forget... maid of honor at my wedding... bff in high school - but her parents didn't have the coat rule)  Surely these girls don't mind me using their maiden names, right?  I know they are using different last names now.

Before I get to the real meat of this post, let's talk about my diet.  I've done badly this week y'all.  I've gained 3 pounds since Monday.  We won't do the math - it's bad.  So I'm taking my own advice and regrouping.  I have identified what I was doing wrong and I'm taking control again today.  Yes it's the middle of the week, and no I don't have to confess my dieting sins to y'all but I'm doing it anyway.  My trouble spots have been these:

• I was not following my menu.  Yeah, the one I couldn't wait to get.
• I was not drinking 64oz of water per day.
• I was not getting to bed by or before midnight, thus not getting enough sleep.

Today is a new day.  I'll let you know how it's going on Monday.

Poor photo compliments of a very overcast day, but you get the idea.

THE REAL MEAT!!  Yay!  I've made six more squares for the Larger Than Life Tote!  Please ignore the elephant in the corner - I'm neglecting my knitting and the guilt is looming large.  But I'm making squares.  Making squares.  Making squares!  I'm teaching a lace knitting class tonight and YES, I have one student.  Every great adventure begins somewhere and this one begins with probably just one student.  I have to finish putting my class materials together today so there probably won't be any knitting or crochet until I get back tonight at 9pm or so.

The Larger Than Life craze has struck EVERYWHERE!  The pattern designer, Cecily Keim, has created a Larger Than Life Crochet-Along blog and I wrote her this morning to join up.  I also asked her a few questions.  I'm making sure there aren't any legal issues with making a kit of yarn for the tote.  I thought about selling yarn kits and including the fabric and zipper and notions needed to complete the tote but before I go to the selling point.... I'm giving away a kit.  With the lining already sewn by me.  The yarn will mostly match the bag I'm making right now and will have a matching lining to this bag.  I'll probably pick up the fabric this weekend.  SO... I should just come right out and say it....

I'M HAVING A CONTEST!!

I'm rapidly approaching the blogging milestone of 3000 comments!!  But I don't want to give away too many hints about when that will happen!!  SO - Starting today - Every person who leaves a comment will be entered into a prize drawing!  The contest lasts until next Friday morning, May 11.  When I get up and print names of the commenters, the contest is officially over and we'll have a fun little name drawing session from the silver mixing bowl with the babies!

There will be at least two prize winners.  Maybe more if I feel very industrious.

• The person who leaves comment #3000 will get a Larger Than Life Tote yarn kit with a zippered lining premade by me!  eta: The kit will include all the yarn needed for the bag, crochet hook, zippered lining made by me and a copy of the Interweave Crochet magazine this pattern is in.
• At least one other prize will be awarded to a commenter selected through the "Emeline pulls a slip of paper from the silver mixing bowl" drawing method.
• I guess it's only fair to offer two drawing prizes so that Lila Pearl can pull a slip of paper from the silver mixing bowl too because if she doesn't get to do something Emeline is doing I'll have a big problem on my hands.

The only rules are that you can comment as often as you like - you don't know how far we are from 3000!  But each person is only eligible for one name drawing per DAY.  That makes seven chances between now and next Friday.

Photos later in the week of what the other prizes are!  YAY!

The center of these blocks makes me think of the SUN!  We haven't seen much sun at all in SEVERAL days, so this has been a nice thing to think about as I make squares.

Everybody have a wonderful weekend!  We're headed to the Y this morning.  :)