Sleet and Prayers

So...we have sleet. In Georgia. And I'm 30+ minutes away from home. Im' not excited about that. Not at all. I keep hoping that they will cut us loose before 4th block and call this a snow day before the roads ice over. Let's all send out a prayer. :D And if they do keep us all day, I'm soo going to skip the faculty meeting. It's been sleeting in Columbus where I live for hours now. And it hasn't gotten any warmer outside, only colder. So I'm thinking I may drive slow and slide home. :P

For the Mason Dixon Ladies

ETA: SCORE! I won. :D Yay. *happy dance* And Ma, we rock. :P

I am a sheep. Baaa. I also love contests. So this is the reason for my posting. I am entering my recipe box, the one we use and the one that sits on top of my fridge.

My mom started this for me when I was in high school. She was going to give it to me for my birthday or something but she got caught or ran out of time or something. So she started it and I finished it. :D So this is a two person project and I've used it for various things since we finished but since I have my own house, I use it for holding recipes. :D

This is the front view.


Open and not at all cleaned up!



And a back view.

You can tell I was a little bubblegum pop, teeny bopper back then. I love it and I have kept it cleaned off since I've been using it. :D


And now for the recipe. This is one from his Mema and it's sinfully easy!

1-2-3 Tuna Pie Serves 6

Needed:
1 frozen pie crust
6 1/2 oz. can tuna in OIL, drained
1 lb. can Mixed Vegs (veg-all), drained
10 1/2 oz. can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

Do:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
Turn pie shell out on wax paper.
Combine tuna, veg-all, and soup in mixing bowl.
Put mixture in pie tin.
Slit crust in several places, place over tuna mixture.
Do NOT seal edge.
Place pie tin on baking sheet.
Bake 15-20 minutes, until crust is golden.



This is yummy, yummy, yummy! Sorry Ma for not sharing any of our families recipes. Truth be told, none of them are written down. :P

Christmas nears :D

So we will hit our first Christmas event Saturday. We'll be motoring down to his Dad's house to do that side of Christmas. Then we'll come back Sunday, do our own little Christmas, he'll work Monday, we'll then drive back down to Americus for Christmas Eve and Christmas with his moms, and then back on Christmas day for him to work day after Christmas. Whew. I guess while we're in the area, we should go by my Dad's etc. but I haven't gotten them one single thing for Christmas. Crap. That also leaves his grandparents in Macon and my mama in Valdosta. Whoa. No IDEA how we're going to manage all this. Stupid job. I can go just whenever, but he can't manage to get off. But we're not bitter, we won't go there.

Ahhem.

More pictures of the Christmas nature.

This is a pic of the angel and the two lady ornaments we found in the stuff his mom ditched on us this year.





This cool little ornament is another that we found in the box o' crap. I love it!


Is this not the sweetest thing? I love it very much and it's at the front center of the tree this year.




And this little one has sisters, but they are so fragile that I left them packed up. I think they were his Mema Joyce's and then his mom's and now they are ours!



And isn't she sweet? I found her too. I like her painted face and hair.


And these are some new additions to our collection o' junk. The hippo is a candle, how cool? I got it, along with tons of others, for $2 at the goodwill store! And then the little snowman is something that was packed in with the mom stuff the sent us. It is china and so dainty! I love it. Then there's the yellow bird. Do you love it?! It was $1.01 at the goodwill. It was cast in 1945 (so says the pencil inside of him. I just love these three guys. :D

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So here's the state of the craft:
I'm crankin' stuff out like a machine over here!

These are some things I've been knitting:
Camo Scarf for my little brother-


And a Mason-Dixon Scribble Scarf going to a teacher at school-


And the snail I mentioned-


A Fun Fur tree I made to give as SnB swap tonight-


And to prove that I still knit- WIPS

Branching out-


Some socks in progress-

That's 2 pair! The lighter of the two purples is some yarn I dyed for myself. It was the end of the cone that was all warped etc. SO I got to keep it! :D

And now for some of the cuteness that is my house at Christmas:

The cactus of 52+ blooms. :D We think it's dying.

And the cutest tree on Earth!!!


And the greatest stocking yet made by man-

Status

Jeesh. Whirlwind would not even begin to describe my life. Hither, tither, and yon I have been. Or at least it feels like that. I did little of nothing all weekend, but boy howdy do I feel like I climbed Everest. We cleaned the house, I mean CLEANED the house this weekend. After Sunday, you can't tell any difference. We spent all day Sunday in house, piddling, crafting, watching movies.

I've been sewing and knitting. And dyeing. I dyed up three more skeins of yarn for the shop, one though, is short so I get to keep it. :D It's a beautiful mix of greens. I started with a school theme in mind, blue and gold, but it was more fun to keep dumping them in at the same time and see what came out of it! I was also a bit impatient. I could have let the yellow strike and then the blue after the yellow exhausted, but who DOES that? :P

Not me.

And I think I've broken the curse of the ugly stocking. I've made a new stocking for myself for the last three years running. And they all come out ugly. So. This year, with my handy new machine, I ziped one up in patchwork. SO cute. I'll have to get pictures up. I'm in such a Christmas mood today. I've been listening to Yahoo! Music's Christmas stations. It's postplanning today, no kids!!! Can you tell I'm in a great mood? I would to a hula if it weren't so blasted cold in my room. I am not keen on the heater becuase of all the candy(paper) in the heater. Afraid I'll set this place ablaze. Not sure that's a bad thing, but you know, I'll wait for a day with kids to do it so we can all go home! :P Just kidding.

OH, I've knit a snail. It has to be the cutest thing EVA. I used the top part of the Nautie pattern from Knitty and made his little shell. Then I freehanded the body. I'm so proud. And no, I can't share a pattern. I just kinda did it. I increased when it seemed like a good idea, I decreased when it looked right, I made i-cord when it felt like the thing to do. I guess I can finally say that I am a true knitter cause I pulled that entire snail out of the air. It's for the boy who has said on multiple occasions that he's a snail. I don't know why, but he is a 26 yo kid at heart. Really. He just up and says he's a snail sometimes when we're playing around and then makes this noise like he's slithering. Eww. Then we were huddled under the covers, in cave darkness, one cold day and he was suddenly a "bat snail." So after I finish sewing him up, I've got to make some bat wings too. :D

Oh and my mom's husband's name is Donald. Naturally, we all give him ducks for Christmas. Dave just got this the other day when he was saying something about Donald's duck. He's slow I swear. But I'm going to sew him a duck. I've made this pattern out of thin air too. So I'm now a real sewer (is that a word?) too. I saw one online that I liked and it's from a Japanese craft book. It would cost $30+ to buy and ship from Japan, so I am guessing how this thing goes together. I made one out of paper first, and then some scrap, and next will come some bright yellow fabric I didn't even know I had. :D Yay for being a packrat.
For your info, I am NOT procrastinating grading papers. I'm being informative. :P

Sneaky

I've just put up one more skein in the shop. Catch it while you can!

The Update Is Up

We've updated. Faster than expected, so it's now up there. We didn't expect to have it up until 9, but I'm a fast little bunny.

Speaking of bunny, there is a skein called Bunny Nose. :D

Holy Crappola

I am amazed. :D I (by me I mean the shop, whateva...:p) am in the Holiday Shopping Guide for Lime 'n Violet. :D YAY. That's so cool. And I love The Black Apple. Her illustrations are so pretty. And I love lots and lots of those yarn shops. hehehehe

And a side note. I'm watching tv so this is why I'm off on this. What is up(!) with the Aero Garden thing? It looks like it would make some icky, fake veggies. I have seen them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and just shake my head in wonder. And the next question is WHO has that much counter space? I mean really. Kitchen counters are worth their weight in gold. Never a kitchen built has had enough counter space. Never.

And another thing. I am sick of ghetto little girls with nasty attitudes. Head snappin', lip smackin', nasty nasty comments. I ask them to sit down and be quiet. You'd thought I called them some name or something. No, just sit down, shut your mouth, get to work. This is after I've asked them at least 20 times to do their work. I mean jebbus. I'm just really sick of working with kids who don't care, who won't ever be more than they are today because they just don't have the drive or anything near a goal.

GROWL.

And boy are they gonna be angry when they fail in a week and a half. :P

About that Update

You know, life is a funny thing. Well, in recent months, not so funny haha, but funny all the same. I know that we all talked that game about an update on the 30th, but it's the 30th. I only have 2 skiens preped at this moment. We had a cone issue, but got it fixed. Now I'm winding my little heart out at home when I get home from work. Maybe we can shoot for next weekend, if the weather holds. Last update was killed with rain (no drying!). I have some new dyes, so I'm going to try and NOT dye any oranges this time. There are still a few oranges in the shop, so orange isn't the color of the moment. :D

In knitting news, I've finished a ton!! of projects. I have finished the scribble scarf from MDK (finally), a camo scarf for my brother for Christmas (UGLY!!! Boys are weird), and other things that I can't remember. I think I've finished a new pair of socks since I've posted FOs.

I've had ADD like whoa of late because I don't want to knit anything. I want to knit EVERYTHING. :P I've started the branching out lace scarf with some yummy yarn that is a mystery to me. I got it in with a number of packages when I was swapping and sending gifts to friends and getting gifts from friends. I have NO idea who gave it to me, who dyed it, what the type of wool...nada. But boy it's pretty.

I'm knitting another pair of socks (purple, what else?) from Francis Patrick Sales on EBAY. I heart this yarn. I accidentally ordered sport weight and I don't like it as much as I like the sock/shawl fingering weight from them. I'm using up the purple because I have a skien of "bluebell" that I want to design some socks for it. I have been looking at lace patterns to try. Nothing has blown me down so far.

In the cone issue I had, I made some short skiens and dyed them up for myself. Bet you can't guess what color? Purples. I used some Dylon and used a base purple. I added navy to it for a darker, some pink for a redviolet, and mixed my own for a purpley pinky bluey. :P Those may be the next on the needles. I know, I have a problem with purples. I have lived in purple rooms in my lifetime. :D

Thanksgiving was nice, spent time with my family. My boy had to work Black Friday and the Saturday afterwards. He was not happy. 4am is not a wake-up time. It's a bedtime. :P I was very proud of myself though, I didn't eat myself sick. I ate until I was full and then stopped. I loved my aunt's chocolate poundcake. MMMM.

I think that's all I can dump from my brain at this point.

Chum Cha Chum Chum Chum.....

That's right, we at The Fuzzy Peach are going to be featured on Lime N Violet's Daily Chum Blog!

*happy muppet dance*

I love me some Lime N Violet, so this couldn't be cooler. Well, maybe if LnV bought a skien a piece, that would rock. But really. COOL.

So go check out the chum, it's full of great stuff and now, us! Well, not right now. But sometime soon.
And, if you've been waiting to buy, go quick because tons o' people read that thing, so if they likes, it may be gone.

Life Takes Visa

Or Vodka. Which is it?

Things have been harried as of late. Last week was homecoming from Hades. My kids have lost their minds. And it's taking them a long time this week to find them and get them back in their heads again. Jeesh. Feels like the first week of school all over again.

But I'm living and breathing and working through it. Or rather, they are working through it. Quizes abound, holding them accountable for everything I've said. :D I'm evil, or so my kids think.

Had a kid tell me that if I didn't write up so many kids I'd be teacher of the month (teachers vote for this award). I looked at him with my eyebrow cocked and said "Does it look like I care?"

No was the obvious answer there. :P

I've been knitting like whoooa lately. I've finished a pair of socks in plain st. st. feets with 3x3 rib legs. Now I'm past the heel on a pair on a pair of double eyelet rib socks from WendyKnits! I've only been working on those a week. Talk about speed, baby! :) I'm happy with the yarn I used, doesn't make the pattern stand out, but it is beautiful to me. Like Darla to Spanky. It's spinning bunny in paintbox from Ebay. Love! It is wool tencel. mmmmm So soft and shiney.

I've been a little miffed with Blogger of late. I've tried 5 times to post to a blog I belong to for Sock A Month and it won't let me. Not even just text. Grump.

But I'm happy it's Friday. Praise be.

October Update at The Fuzzy Peach

It's October 1st and fall is upon us, even here in Georgia the temperatures are beginning to dip slightly, a welcome respite believe us. Fall also means the creation of warm handcrafted goodies is gearing up and, most importantly, The Fuzzy Peach has UPDATED! 

Yeah some believed it would never happen again, like the dinosaurs :P Yet here we are. Getting quality yarn blanks took a little longer than anticipated, so our September update got pushed. The good news is we have enough to supply a couple of updates so our next one should be on schedule barring any catastrophic events. For any of you who may have been champing at the bit to get some more yarn-y goodness or checking our shop with religious fervor we sincerely apologize for the lag. To make it up to you good people, for the first 24 hours (10-1 7pm - 10-2 7pm EST Daylight Savings) ALL our yarns will be a dollar off. Thats right, consider it more money in your wallet, a treat from the Wendy's dollar menu, or "free" shipping on that second skein. However you slice it, you're saving a little money. You could call this offer semi-exclusive since, unfortunately for us, we won't be indexed into Etsy's search pages for a "few days," so a direct visit to our store is the only way to take advantage of this discount. And as always we encourage you to tell your friends and link us in your journal/blog. 

Also, we like to have fun so for all the game-of-chance fans out there, you can now be part of the Peachy Lottery. How to play- just purchase a skein from the shop and check the ballband when you recieve your order. If you find a multicolored froggy stamp on the reverse, then its 1/2 off any one skein with your next order, yeah thats right, you heard it from the horse's mouth, 1/2 OFF. Go on and play, we haven't crunched the numbers but are pretty confident your odds of winning this lotto are far greater than hitting the Powerball, after all 11 skeins verses 54 numbers, give or take :) Anyway enough about us, follow Elberta (our banner sheep) or click on your favorite yarn to browse our new selection (you know you wanna :)

Etsy Buy Handmade thefuzzypeach

A Letter From My Day

Dear Dr. Angelou, September 13, 2007

My name is L and I am a new teacher. I would like to thank you personally for your inspiration to me. I read your autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings when I was a teenager in high school. The influence of Mrs. Flowers was astoundingly powerful. I was assigned a collage depicting her and I spent hours pouring over magazines, finally settling on the one African American face I could find in a white household, Vivica Fox from a Cosmo ad. I scoured, searching for flower prints and white gloves. Today, as a teacher of English I have made the same assignment. However, my students were less moved by her than I had been.
Speaking of my students, that is the actual reason I write to you today. I have no idea if this letter will make it through your publisher to your actual flesh hands, but I write with hope. It is a thing with wings after all, so maybe I have a chance.

I wanted to tell you of my experience this August and September. I am a first year teacher, I am Caucasian, I teach in an almost entirely African American school system. The community that the school is in is predominantly native sons and also African American by a vast majority. This information is vital to understand the unique situation in which I have found myself. I taught this book to my tenth grade literature class, we read almost the entire novel, cover to cover. We talked about your experiences and the difficulties that faced young black Americans at that time in history. I spent a great deal of time discussing the historical context, taking the words out of my mouth and putting them back in Dentist Lincoln’s, the used-to-be Sherriff’s, and all his ilk. I warned them when difficult things were coming. And we read. Aloud. All of us. As a group, as a community.

Today I have been shouted down as a racist. For teaching black students a book by a black author in hopes to inspire, elevate, and educate their lives.
As an educator, as a fellow human, this pained me greatly. I cried upon hearing that almost all of my kids feel that I am racist. For reading them a novel, for bringing light and literature into their lives. For teaching.

Overall, I suppose I write to you in search of succor. In search of an understanding ear. I don’t necessarily expect any response, but I feel so strongly about this that I am seeking outlet. Today at school I was confronted by two administrators who told me of my kids’ feelings. I felt terribly singled out and unfairly used. And I guess this is going to serve as a great learning experience for me. I have never before felt so aware of the color of skin that I was in, looking into a group of brown faces that hated me, standing whitely at the front of a classroom. Perhaps I should just chalk this up to a learning experience, to knowing better next time. But I can’t because I had the most pure intentions for teaching this novel. I didn’t want to be another teacher teaching the cannon of dead white men with money. I hated that cannon when I was a student, felt it stranglingly exclusive.

As I am still reeling from this experience, I apologize if I meander. I was told not to teach your novel next semester. I’m “putting out fires” so that they do not become “forest fires.” I just wonder what my objective in the classroom is to be from here out. For these reasons, and others too numerous and confusing to name, I felt compelled to write to you today, and I thank you for your time and attention.


Most Respectfully Yours,
L

The Fuzzy Peach is Heating Up

From the good folks at




Hello faithful customers and fans! Never fear, like Count Dracula, we're not dead. Our hiatus and unfortunate update postponement was due in large part to the relocation of our shop, our home, new jobs, and well...life in general. I'm sure ya'll understand. On to what you've been waiting to hear- with the unbearable heat of another Georgia summer slowly giving way, we're gearing up for a large update with some fun discounts, although the date is a little fuzzy at this point (yeah the pun was intended:). Also, we've recently procured some new tools that will greatly speed our dye process (in theory).

In the meantime, there are still a couple of skeins left to be purchased if you can't wait for the next update to get your fix. These listings won't last much longer though and once they're gone, they're gone for good (ok, ok, if they aren't sold you're bound to see them again:) So go forth and purchase!

Still Alive

It's almost midterm. Lord help me! :P I'm still alive. I've had to boys raise their hand at me this week, as though to strike. Two. Not even in my class, I was covereing. I think I wrote up 15 today. Not kidding. Gave out at least 4 zeros for talking during a reading quiz. Why is it that they think they can talk through it (when I say again and again that if you talk, you are cheating, and that gets a zero!) and not get a zero?

In knitting content, I'm chevroning a scarf from my old sock yarn scraps and a sock yarn I bought off Ebay when I first started knitting. I hated it and decided I'd never make socks from it. And I'm making a pair of self-stripey socks from some Sockotta (sp?) from secret pal. It's going to be plain jane. But the chevron rocks! It's so pretty with the melting colors.

And I've joined an S n B here in Col. I've only made it to one meeting because they are on Mondays and Mondays have been rough. It's like my kids forget how to work school over the weekend. :P

I hope to get some yarn with my paycheck at the end of this week and start the Fuzzy Peach back up. I've been itching to dye some more. Maybe I can express some of my issues in yarn colors. Just hope they won't all turn out red and/or black! :P hehehe

Thanks for your kind comments and your support. I'm keeping on at this thing, I've come too far for a bunch of teenage punks to beat me now. I've won against better (and worse!). :D

School Day Blues

Dear Lord,
Please give me strength today. Help me remember why I am here and what my purpose in life is, even if I have to do a few things outside of my normal job. Like stop fights outside my classroom door between two ex-lovers. He a large, rude, illeducated individual with a temper who has already told me to "f" myself when asking him to please pull his pants up. She a larger girl, hard to control physically, streaming tears. Lord help me remember not to strike out at these foolish children as they ruuun to the door to see what's going on and then spill into the hall, moving me physically. Lord, help me not to have a heartattack while screaming at them to sit down, shut up, and get to reading-there-is-a-quiz-when-you-walk-in-tomorrow. Lord. Help them to control their emotions as they come back in my classroom, snapping at each other, an almost start a fight in my room. And Lord, please don't let me see a day like today again for a long time.
Oh, and it's picture day. They are in the halls, being called by homeroom to go to the gym and get snapped. Teaching is futile today. The only class I accomplished even a small thing was first with my nightmare of a tenth grade class.
Lord, give me strength not to snap on my fourth block. And give them the wisdom not to try me today. I wrote two up yesterday, and I'll do the same today if need be.

Actual Knitting Content Ahead

Finished my July pair, nothing special, just k3p1 rib on the leg. My brain needed a rest and an easy project while we worked on getting real jobs and moving. :D Here they are, a prayer knit into every stitch.

Specs: 2 socks magic loop, US 1s Knitpicks classic needles
Online Supersocke in ??? can't find the ballband since the move, got the yarn from a SP on LiveJournal, thanks Amanda!
Started in June and finished on July 12

Forgive the bad pic, had to tweak the colors to let you see the socks at all. It rains all the time here, or so it would seem.

And, a secrit project for a seekrit pal. This pal doesn't know I have a blog, so I'm safe. Plus, by the time she sees it, she'll know my name. :D

A Stash Bunny!

Bunny outside


Bunny in the stash basket

Le bunny has cedar bits inside him. So you can sit him in your stash and he'll keep the buggies away. I made him with leftover sock yarn bits and I dum dum dummm, crocheted him. :D I've gone over to the dark side, and it's not so dark. I loved making the little guy. I could see my crocheting more stuffies in the future, not so much for the knitting of them. Crochet is forgiving, you can just make it up as you go, sorta. And I just kinda made this guy up. I based him off a lion brand pattern, best bunny, but I don't follow written directions worth a crap. I looked at the pic and made it look like that, even if I didn't so much follow what the words said.

And now I'm on to another pair of socks. This time on 2s. Whoa these babies fly. I'm using the Broadripple pattern from Knitty and some yarn my SP9 sp sent me, thanks TeAntae! I know you meant it to be a scarf, I just couldn't bring myself to not make socks out of it, it's my frist Claudia Handpaints. I lOOOOve this yarn. It's sooo smooshie.

I don't think so

I just read the Yarn Harlot's blog for today and I'm very angry. I wrote both of our Senators as soon as I read the story. You should. If you don't know what I'm talking about go here and read this. http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ I could stroke. I hope this guy gets raped some time in the future and has to describe the event as sex. And I cannot believe this. We have to edit our language because some words are too inflammatory? How can someone be accused of rape and not have this charge read in court? You can't use the word he's accused of...umm...hello!? Next thing murderes are simply going to be, I dunno, disgruntled humans who poke other humans? You know, with sharp pointy things.

So go, speak out, let them hear from you. You can no longer find the Lincoln Nebraska judicial site. It gives you a 404 not found error. Soo, it looks like folks have been hitting Mr. Judge Butthead pretty hard. I wish they'd hit him with something harder, like sense.

I'm it, April 9

Here is something cool, I was tagged by LaurieC

The rules: Go to Wikipedia and type in your birth month and date (mine is Sept 4th), then post 3 events, 2 births and a holiday. Then tag 5 others, I'm not much for tagging, but I pick Mrs. B and anyone else who'd like to play along. :D


Events:
193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans). [Totally thinking of Snape when I read this one!]

1413 - Henry V is crowned King of England. [Love ya Shakespeare and your Historical self! I read Henry IV and V in my Shakes II class]

2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: Baghdad, Iraq falls to American forces. [Thanks Dubya, we're still stuck over there]


Births:
1926 - Hugh Hefner, American editor and publisher, founder of Playboy [Yeah baby!]

1981 - Eric Harris, Columbine High School shooter (d. 1999) [I could have been this nutjob! EEK!]

Holiday:
Day of National Unity- (ეროვნული ერთიანობის დღე), an annual public holiday in Georgia. [Not my GA, but GA all the same :D ]

Back

Yep. Tha's me. I'm back in the world of the connected. We've been online since sometime last week, but I've been in hiding. I guess I'm just spending my time wallowing in this nice new apt. It is a castle man. We have SOOO much more room (we've already filled it up to the brim and have a just purchased coffee table under our bed). Don't ask me how the world we lived in a studio, I can't even begin to tell you. But we're back, unpacked, and settled in.

The boy cooked some yummy salmon tonight, our first real, not a hot dog or sammich meal. :P We have eaten a LOT of Fox's pizza. We can't afford it, but we did it all the same. This not having a job thing and thereby no paycheck and no money thing is for the birds. The ones who aren't afraid to eat out of garbage cans or the gutter. :P

And The Fuzzy Peach is open again, buy it up so I can ruin our new kitchen with the dyes. :D I just can't stand to have white counter tops and a spotless floor!