Happy Halloween!!

I just love this day :) It's fall, people get to dress up as weird as they want to, there's bats and skeletons and pumpkins in everyone's yard. And. I get to have my one big tradition with the boy.

The annual pumpkin patch photo shoot :)

Despite being sick, the boy was quite thrilled to go this year and we had a lot of fun! As evidinced by the pictures below :)


This is the "official" halloween shot this year...in other words, the only good one with pumpkins involved, lol.

After we ran around for awhile, he got to pick two rides to go on. The first one was one of those GIANT slides. He wanted to go on it...all alone. I was so proud that he traipsed up there carrying the blanket AND bear and got himself situated and down he came! This is near the bottom of the slide.


Can't see that ear-splitting grin close enough? How about this?


Then, he chose a ride that goes around and around and up in the air. This is the guy running the ride explaining to him that Bear has to be in the seatbelt too so he will be safe :)


He made his own costume yesterday. He wanted to be a ghost, but he refused to BUY a costume. He was adamant that it be a white sheet with holes cut into it. So, he decided where the holes should be and cut them out and this is the result. He's quite pleased with himself :)


I hope you all have a goulishly delightful day and may you not be attacked by zombies :)

Secret Pal 11 package! yay!

So, yesterday, I got my Secret Pal 11 package! Wahoo! It was just great :)

Wanna know what was inside? Of course you do!



I got three skeins of some gorgeous rusty red Knit Picks wool and alpaca Cadena yarn! It's so soft and squishy and I can't WAIT to knit it into something warm and delicious :)

I got a GREAt looking science fiction anthology book, which I can't wait to sit down and read through. It's edited by Orson Scott Card, whom I love, so I expect the stories to all be fantabulous and right up my alley :)

And finally, I got a stuffed animal horse, which is a "Webkinz." Having never heard of this before, it is apparently something where you go online and create a little life for your stuffed animal. I think my son and I should have a blast playing with this cute little thing :)

Thank you again, my fantabulous Secret pal :) I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got my first issue of Interweave Knits last Friday and I was so excited! thanks again for that subscription!

*happy dance*

Awesome news!

Isn't this totally awesome news? I can't wait to listen :)

Rock on, Vickie Howell :D

SP11 contest :)

My SP11 hostess is having a contest and I'm feeling joiner-ish, so I'll play along! Yay :)

My Favorite:

Actor - Jeff Goldblum or Kevin Spacey
Actress - Michelle Rodriguez
Animal - Bengal tiger...or really, cats in general :)
Band - Ani Difranco's older stuff
Book - The Family Tree by Sherri S. Tepper
Bubble Bath - lavender
Candy - swedish fish
Color - orange with green being a VERY close second
Flower - Calla Lily
Food - popcorn specifically, mexican for favorite cuisine
Lip Balm - Jamba Juice orange cream lip balm
Lotion - St. Ives intensive therapy
Movie - The Lost Boys
Song - "Back When I Could Fly" by Trout Fishing in America
TV Show - Currently, so many! Maybe Bones or Kyle XY or Clean Sweep or Good Eats :)
Vacation Spot - Seattle or my bed :D

In which I visit the Frog Pond

I've been knitting away on my FIRST. EVER. SWEATER. and I am so in love with it!

Look at this wonderful shoulder that took shape!


Look at the expanse of back stitches I've accomplished!


Look at this hideous, insidious, evil extra stitch turned ladder down the middle of the back that I ran into last night which made me weep :(


Rip-It! Rip-It! Rip-It!

Look at the sad little ball of yarn after I ripped out the ENTIRE sweater thus far to start over again :(


*sigh*

Off to cast-on again.

PS - All the above pictures? Taken in my lunchroom by my lousy cameraphone! Guess I found THE place to take good pictures with that thing, lol.

Mr. Greenjeans visits Pleasantville

I had a scrumptious weekend...yay!

Saturday, I went to the Knit and Crochet Show with my awesome friend, Roklobster(She's so cool! Yay for getting to hang out with her :) ), and bought a bunch of scrumptious yarn :) Malabrigio was mine! My first skein of yarn with cashmere in it(merino/cashmere blend)...Mine! Loverly wool/silk blend with no tags...a total steal for 4 large balls in a bag...all mine! I also got a HUGE Lion Brand shopping bag with free yarn from Lion Brand and Coats & Clark. Three cheers for free yarn! Even if some of it was NEON FUSCIA! I kid you not.

Besides the amazing yarny goodness at the show, I cast on and started knitting on my VERY FIRST SWEATER ever :D *gleam* I'm using Dark Horse Fantasy yarn in a multi-green colorway. It is just so very cool to be making a sweater :D All weekend, I would put the little 2-inch strip around my shoulders where it will end up and announce to Scot, "Look! I'm wearing my sweater!" :D

This is the whole project as of last night. I did about 6 more rows today at lunch! It's a great, easy pattern and I'm really enjoying knitting it :) The yarn doesn't look nearly as "Camoflage" in real life, lol.


Look! It has shoulders :D (This tickles me to no end). As I had to tell Scot, It's a top-down raglan, so those holes are on purpose, lol.


But, sadly, this one is not. It's NOT a dropped stitch...I think it's just a really big, loose stitch, so I have to figure out how to fix it...maybe move the slack on that stitch along with a crochet hook and share it out with the whole row. I think that's what you're supposed to do :P


Other than knitterly yarny things, Scot and I watched a LOT of Bones episodes, since the 2nd season was finally released and Netflix sent them to us :) I sure love that show...all science geeky and smart and ridiculously funny and just smart. We had lots of groovy home cookin' and took a long bike ride around Alameda.

A few days before, Scot found this street....she calls it Pleasantville :) It was a showroom model block for the Sterling Lumber Company after the war. Returning soldiers would go to that block, look at the model homes and buy the one they wanted. The row of model homes are still there, now occupied like regular houses. But, for this one block of houses (all beautiful, well-maintained craftsmen homes), it's like you've stepped back in time. Walking down the street, everyone says hi to you. Everyone knows everyone else. Scot met a woman who was planting in her garden the day before and talked to her and found out that people don't even lock their house or car doors on that street. Everwhere was big porches, craftsman lines and immaculate tiny little yards.

There was a house for sale on the street (which,the gardening lady told Scot, already had a contingency offer on it) and everyone was already moved out of the house, so we skulked around the sides and the porch and the back yarn and looked inside at all the awesome built-ins and planned what we would do with the house if we were to win the lottery and buy it :) It was tons of fun.

*skulk skulk skulk*

It was really just a delightful weekend :)I hope you all had just as much fun and delight as we did :D