Monday, October 12, 2009

Fair Time



I got up early on Sat. morning to trek to D's Mom's house in Americus to ride to the fair in Perry, GA. It was an interesting ride.
Early

Later


Latest


The Fair means:


Candy apples.


Cotton candy.


Fried stuff.


Stuff on sticks.


Cat calls.


And meat on the grill.






And we went to the Montgomery Gentry concert that night.



Terrible shots, but a kick ass concert. :D

No, I'm not going to talk about my broken car that I killed today. We're gonna pretend it isn't broken. Instead, we'll leave this post with a pretty picture.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Helping Others

So I'm on it again. I've got my do-gooder cape laced up and ready. The Violet of Lime and Violet needs to escape her current situation and her cheating hubs has taken the money out of their accounts. Like all of it. SO, I'm donating all of the cash I make on Etsy sales. You can visit this blog to see all the fantastic things people are doing to help this woman out.

Also, there's another warming project out there. Warmth For Washington. I'll be knitting for it too.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Blogging

I'm terrible at it, but I do think about it quite often. I take random pictures to share with the blog, but I never remember to come and actually share them! So here is a record of my blog thinking for the past few weeks.
I've been stalking Ysolda it seems. First I cast on for Ishbel [rav link]with the rest of the free world. Here you see D trying to help me knit. If he hadn't been so cute, I'da killed him. He didn't manage to drop any stitches though. Thank god.

Here's a picture of it in progress with, I think, all of chart A done. It mostly looks like a pile of st. st. at this point.

I also made her plum cake because D bought this ginormo thing of plums at Sam's right before we went on vacation. OF course they were "ripe" when we got home. I peeled them and made a cake. I bought a pound of greek yogurt when it only called for like a third cup, so if you know what the heck to do with greek yogurt (not eating it straight...ick), let me know. I guess I could make gyros again and have better tzatziki sauce.
D's been cooking too. He makes strange things sometimes like these honeyed figs.
They smelled divine. Too bad I don't like figs. He ate them with ice cream from a can.

He made green pasta last night while I watched When Harry met Sally for the 1087th time. He got stuck on the "puree spinach" bit because we don't have a food processor and the blender was NOT working well with others. He managed to stick something in the blades while trying to puree. When he snatched the cooking utensil out, he slung spinach all over the kitchen. I put him in time out to boil the noodles while I made nice with the spinach. No more mishaps. It was good even though it kinda looked slime green.

And it seems that I have a new collection in my life (NO MA- no elephants from you unless they are OLD or very cool). We've had the first one for a while. We found it in D's nothermom's house when she passed away. You put the coin in the trunk and pull the tail. He puts the coin in the seat on his back. Very cool.
Then I found the wooden/copper one at an antique place in Warm Springs and I needed him. He looks like an old souvenir from India or something.

And last but not least, I picked up the little elephant planter from a thrift store in town. TOO CUTE! Fez the monk rides in him.

I've also been knitting other shawls than Ishbel. Meet my silk kerchief. This is s'posed to be made with Noro for it's fantastic colors to stripe against each other, but noro is spendy. I am not. I used my own handspun. The blue stripes are from batts purchased from HeartstringsbyDee on Etsy. The orangey yellow bits came from a batt by Funky Carolina. This thing is sooo squishy. Oh and the border yarn was spun from BFL roving dyed by Jenna at UniquelyYoursDesigns.


Up next on the list of stuff I've been up to we have spinning and dyeing. I hung them all up together to dry after a leisurly soak in the tub in many many bubbles.

To round out the yarny arts, I've also been crocheting. This yarn tried it's hardest to work as a lacy baktus scarf, but it ain't happ'nin. I give you the floaty fall scarf instead. I'm starting on my second ball now. :D

I've also been quilting. But don't judge these. I didn't use a ruler the entire time. And I can't sew a straight line to save my life. Ma, go somewhere else. You can scroll down and see Bug's quilt, but then go away. Yours is up next. You'll spoil Christmas.


My pantry had gotten out of hand, so I attacked it. Here is the before shot. No, I haven't finished, so there's no after shot yet.

And now a few out takes from my photo sessions with The Diva himself. I don't know what happens to him when I pull out the camera. I guess it's to make up for YEARS of being too shy for words.



The Merino Kid

Monday, September 07, 2009

I can remember




Today, my grandmother died. She was my last living grandparent, but she hasn't known me for a year or better. She hasn't known my father, my uncle, or any of our other family members. But she knew my Papa John. She remembered that he was dead. That's what she remembered.

And now I remember her. I couldn't bear to visit after the last time when she couldn't remember me or my parents. She wasn't my Grandma anymore. I think I should feel terrible that she died without my saying goodbye to her, but I don't. I think that would be selfish. Good byes are for the living. The dead aren't leaving you forever, you just can't see them anymore, but they're still by your side. I'm not sad she died either. She was in pain and her quality of life had flatlined long ago. She had to be taken from her home shortly after she lost her husband and put in the one place she never wanted to be, a nursing home. But we had no choice at that point, it was too dangerous to leave her alone.

All that aside though, I remember her tonight. The woman she was to me, and the woman I will carry with me until I die. My grandma gave me many gifts over the years. I was her number one granddaughter. But the one gift she gave me that I cherish most is the gift of crochet. She pulled me into her tiny lap, into that awful orange striped recliner chair, and she taught me the basic stitches while my hands were still smaller than hers. She taught me to move the needle and to wrap the yarn so that it wouldn't slip from my fingers, and I still wrap it like she did even though I have all five of my fingers on my hand where she had only four. I can make all of the stitches she taught me still. My hands can remember her.

Memory loss is a thief in my family. It has stolen from us all, on both sides of the tree. I sit at the bottom, waiting for my turn to be taken. When I forget where my keys are, it bothers me a little that the thief is in my house already, so early. I should have years before I have to bar the door with a chair or a well placed nail. Even so, I hope that I will always remember her, and those like her who have made me the woman I am today. But I know that these are just dreams, and that my thief will one day come for what's his. The things I hope I hide from him are in my hands tonight...those things these people taught me. I hope I never forget to hold my yarn and needle the way Grandma did. I hope I never forget to core a navel orange and squeeze for the juice like Papa John. I hope I never forget how to bait a hook like my Daddy. I hope I never forget what goes into my Mama's biscuits.
At the end of it all, I hope.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Two Months

Seems like two months between posts is about the right amount of time for me to remember to blog. I'm so bad at this. I'll never have a book published- I can't keep followers interested in a semi-dead blog. OH ZOMBIE BLOG.

This is now the ZOMBIE BLOG.

*cackles*

Really, I'm posting for a good cause today. I'm all hopped up on do-gooder juice today and have a few things to mention. All you sewers, knitters, and crocheters, listen up- this one's fer you. I've found out about a charity project called Iraqi Bundles of Love run by a guy whose wife is on my blog roll of things I check compulsively. I'm discounting the skeins I have left in the shop to help finance my packages to the Iraqi Bundles of Love project here It costs around 11 dollars and some change to send each box. I have 5 to send. If I manage to sell all of the items in the shop, I'll pack some more boxes to send with the extra funds. So not a penny will go into my little hands because I'll spend it right back on shipping the boxes that I pull together. If you felt so moved, you could wrap up your own bundle and send it along. Art posted guidelines and says that almost any crafty item from knitters, crocheters, and sewers would be welcomed. Think about living in a land of no LYSes or fabric and craft stores. We could open the world to them with 11 measly bucks. :D

And, closer to home, Nest is taking submissions again until Sept. 1. I know that is like NO time to knit up stuff, but I thought I'd throw that out there too since I'm all do-goody today. :D I've got about 6 hats knit up and am 1 mitten into a pair to send along too. This year, I'm using my own handspun too, so it's exxxxtra love going out to Mainers. How boring am I, nothing but text? I'll have to dig up some pics to drop in here.

Please do think about sending something into these charities because they do good things for people and aren't scams. As an american, I know I have more than enough to keep myself in the plush life, so sharing should be second nature to me. I also know that it hurts to share sometimes, but that little "mine" sting is NOTHING next to the "don't have anything" hole that sits in the heart of some countries. So please do think about sharing some of your stash. You know you'll die before you make up most of it into something to be used anyway. These people need it. We just want this stuff. .

Thanks for checking back in on me. I'll not even try to be crazy and say I'll do better at posting- you and I both know it's a lie. :P

Monday, June 08, 2009

Not dead

Nope, I'm not dead. Have been feeling that way a lot, but I'm still kickin'. I had some major creep bug that stole my voice last week, so you can imagine how much fun teaching was. HA. I typed a lot. Good think I type really fast.

I've been knitting and spinning and crocheting like a fool again too. I spun up about 2 oz into frog hair yesterday, boy is it thin. I plan to spin the other half soon and two ply it. I think it will have nice long color repeats like a certain Japanese yarn that is so hard on my hands, but I make no promises.

I'm making my brother a toy for his birthday based on the Kate pattern from Knitty (ravlink). I started to just make it a rockstar cat, but then I put fangs on him and his ears next, and lo and behold- it looked like a bat. So I'm going to finish out the Kate bodt with arms and legs, but then I'm gonna mod me some bat wings to sew on to his back. I think I'm also going to give him a mohawk and pierce his ear. I also bought some jewlery finding (chain extenders) to attach to him that will make him look like he has a wallet chain going on. Bub will get a kick out of it, or at least I hope he will. I'm using up some handspun for this, but I'm gonna have to use commercial yarn for the wings. I'm thinking black batwings.

I also knit the free pattern by Raynor called Sugar Bunny(ravlink). It was her take on the best bunny by lionbrand except she knit it up. It was a really cute pattern, and would have been great if I could read. I made the feet for the hands and then got so excited I sewed them on. Of course, once I had darned all the ends into the stupid thing is when I realized that I had screwed up. There was no way out either. I used some really pretty handspun to make a shawl to hide the UGLY seam I made when I attached her head. Again, not a pattern flaw so much as a crafter flaw.

I'm also thinking of making a little stuffed dog for a lady who loves dogs and is retiring from my school. I don't know her very well, but it doesn't look hard to make and it will be a sweet thing to do.

I've been spinning a bit more too, and here's the proof.


I've been taking weird pics in the fruit section to show my mom orange lemons.


I've been walking down by the river and really getting irritated by irresponsible people. We picked everything in that pic up from the river bed/bank, even the plastic bag it's held in. This was our second load.

But there were some nice things to see while we were playing riverkeeper.



And one last pretty pic, but not at the river. This is in D's dad's back yard.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Video


P1020045
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty
Crap video, but you can see the snow is really coming down.

P1020051


P1020051
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty

Early Bloom


P1020042
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty

View from driveway


P1020050
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty

Hell hath frozen over


P1020024
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty

mailhouse snow


mailhouse snow
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty
That's not snow on the lense- that's snow still coming down.

SNOW


dave snow day
Originally uploaded by venutian_beauty
Blogger is being weird and won't let me upload photos through them, so I have to do this 1 at a time through Flickr.

But yes, we have had SNOW.

And I get a SNOW DAY!

Party party party