….maybe.  Ok, I remembered I had an old Photobucket account and it actually had some pictures in it.  So, here’s a shot of something I have been working on lately.  Knitting bags.  Large and small.  The three bottom ones (sock size) all went to Socks for Soldiers (link on left) and the top two have stayed here.  All but one use my own hand woven material.  I am loving these bags and having fun making them.  More will be coming. And I am very attached to the top left one.  I made that out of my very first hand woven cloth.  I wove that as my “first” project using alpaca lace weight (yes….I tend to start projects the hard way)  I had saved the cloth as it was just basically a square.  It worked well with this project)

Pictures from the museum:

This chair was so neat.  You sat in it, held onto the “gyro-thingy” (very technical term) and if you moved it around, it would propel the chair in different directions.

Cass had a wonderful time playing with the huge bubbles:

And they all thoughtthe magnet sand was really cool.

I took loads more pictures, but am just boring you with a few.

My garden is doing well too.  I have beans, peas, and onions about ready to be brought in.

I better wrap this up for now as I hear one of the kiddos starting to stir and I haven’t taken my shower yet.

Chat at ya later.

…but feels like Monday.

Hubby was off for 4 days.  Usually they take Friday thru Monday off.  This time they took Saturday thru Tuesday.  Works for me no matter what as long as he’s home.  We had planned to go camping.  But alas, due to a set of circumstances, we couldn’t go.  In the end, I was very glad we didn’t go.  Seems like the  campsite we would have gone to ended up flooding.  Storms all weekend.  So, we ended up staying close to home.  Saturday we took the kids bowling and pigged out on pizza and nachos.  Sunday, since we hadn’t planned to attend church while camping, we threw caution to the wind and headed to the “big city” to the Science Museum.  It was so much fun.  I couldn’t believe the incredible deal we got as well.  For us to all get in at the “normal” one day pass price it would ave been over $65.00.  The year pass for the family is $60.00.  I asked if they had a military discount, and sure enough we paid $50.00 for the year pass.  Whoot whoot.  Now we can go anytime all year long (even though it’s an hour and a half away).  They have some neat home schooling events too.  Even if we never go again, we still saved more then $15.00.

Monday was a stay at home and chill day.  Tuesday we went to the park, played outside, and just spent time together.  It was fun.  Looking forward to leave time this year.  Hoping we get to go camping, though.  We’ve not gone since last October, and to be honest, that wasn’t a whole lot of fun with the freezing rain, snow, ice, etc.

Not much fibery stuff was done this weekend.  Ok, there was some knitting, but the majority of has been frogged.

I do have pictures to show, but they’ve become a pain to post on my website.  Guess I need to get a photo hosting account somewhere.  Any suggestions?

Oh, and there’s  been an update to the crocheted alphabet letters.  Cass and Chris tested the V and Z and were really excited about doing that.  They want me to create more patterns so they can test them out.  Ahhh if I could only get them to knit now.

Today is Memorial Day in the United States of America.  It is the only day solely designated to honor our Fallen Heroes. It’s a day to reflect and honor those who scarified their lives for our freedom. Traditions include flying the US Flag at half-staff until noon when it is raised to full staff, parades, the president laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and parades.  Another way to continually remember those who gave it all is to make (or renew) a pledge to support those left behind our fallen soldiers.  Supporting our troops is such a vital undertaking.  No matter what your political persuasion, these men and women and their families make such huge sacrifices.  (and yes, I am speaking on my own behalf)

To honor those who paid it all, today, my family is choosing to remember MSG Wilberto Sabalu., 36, of Chicago. He was assigned to the U.S. Military Police School, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.  MSG Sabalu was a friend and formerly stationed with us at Fort Leavenworth.  He was due to come home from his deployment in Afghanistan in June, but came home early due to his death on 6-May-2007.  He was the first MP in his specialized field to die in the line of duty.  He was shot while leaving the facility at the end of his shift.  

It’s been an incredibly long week.  Up at 2:30 several mornings this week due to some work stuff for hubby.  We’ve not had those early mornings for about a month and I started getting used to actually sleeping.  But, again, it was very productive time for me.  I will post pictures this weekend of the flurry of sewing stuff done.  This was not a good week to give up coffee.  I cut back drastically but couldn’t get away from it all together.  Hopefully that will be next week. Wish me luck :o  I will still be doing the decaf thing though

I did get some updates done on my website.  New crochet alphabet patterns are up as well as some new knitting patterns.  Just click the link on the left sidebar marked as Free Patterns to take you there.

More later this weekend as I have a killer headache and need to go take something for it. 

President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country.

On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department — the Department of Defense.  (taken from the DefenseLINK website). 

On this day, I thank all our heros in uniform for your sacrifices and dedication.  I salute you and the military family.  Being a military wife, I know how hard it is to cope from day to day sometimes.  I know what it’s like to see my hubby leave and wonder if he will ever come home.  I know what it’s like to hug my kids while they cry themselves to sleep missing daddy and trying to hold it together for them while I want to cry my eyes out too.  Hang tough, hang tight, and hang on.  We care.

Socks For Soldiers (link on left sidebar) is knitting up some beanies for our soldiers.  I cast on this morning for one and finished it right after lunch (it’s the blue one pictured below).  It was a simple pattern and I felt inspired to do another.  I remembered I had all that cotton boucle out in the garage that the kids and I dyed up a few weeks ago, so I immediately cast on for a second.  You can’t see much of it in the picture, but it’s a very colorful rainbow.

Hope that also counts for my current WIP for our SP10 hostess since she asked us to post our current projects.  Between the beanies and the gloves from a previous post I hope that covers it for me.

The kids and hubby are outside pruning trees and cleaning the BBQ grill and all that wonderful stuff.  I am enjoying some quiet knitting time and also trying to think of the projects I will take camping with us next weekend. 

Tonight we will watch a movie and I will get to spin some of that wonderful Cary “comfort wool”.  I decided to spin it plain white and then dye later.

Hope you all have a great day.

Can you believe it’s Friday already?  The week seemed to fly by at an alarming rate.  But, it is indeed Friday, so that means our “art” day.  Today I was sewing tote bags (more on that maybe next week) and the kids had “free” art.  Jess chose to draw, Cass is still crocheting.  Josh spent about 10 minutes working on a plastic canvas project spelling out the name of the latest girl he “loves” (he’s 13 and worse then I was at his age, I think….every day it’s someone new).  I was able to snap these pictures of Chris and Jac working on their plastic canvas projects.  Chris is plugging away on his slippers I mentioned in a previous post.  Notice the left slipper is done and he’s working on the right one. He hopes to have it done tomorrow to show off here.

Jac is working on a “secret project” that I am not supposed to know what it is, but he’s mentioned all afternoon that it’s a purse…bit shhh it’s a secret.

And look at all this yummy yummy goodness.  It’s 5 pounds of Corriedale lamb roving.  The fleece is from Cary over at Serenity Farms.  I just love her wool.  The fleece was processed over at Zeilinger Wool Co.

As you can see, I had to pull some out right away and begin fondling inspecting it.  Soooo incredible.  Now…do I just dive right in and start spinning and dye later or dye some first and spin later?  Decisions…

And a blast from the past…

I had someone email me yesterday from my old high school.  She was 2 years behind me but we were in the color guard together.  I couldn’t remember her, so I got out my year book and had a wild time looking over the pictures.  Here’s my Senior Picture.

And a recent photo taken on Mother’s Day.

So let’s be honest….has there been a whole lot of change over the last 20 couple of years?  Now your challenge, should you choose to accept it….find your senior picture, post it on your blog and let’s see how much we’ve all changed over the last “few” years.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

I wove the material for this bag 2 weeks ago and got around to sewing it yesterday.  It’s just a really simple tote style bag made out of 5/2 perle cotton as the warp (blues and purples) and hand painted 8/2 cotton as the weft.  I also hand dyed the lining.  I didn’t have enough time yesterday to make a strap, so I “borrowed” one from another of my purses for the day.  I hope to getting around to it today.

I have enough cloth left over for at least one more bag like this…possibly two.  We’ll see what I can get done the rest of this week.

Trying to get a  lot of projects done around here completed.  More house stuff and house cleaning type stuff then anything.  We sucessfully moved Jim’s office to my former “fiber cove” and moved my fiber stuff to the back room to where his office was.  It was great to have my loom at the front of the house in the winter, but will be great to have it in the back room this summer so I can watch the kids playing on the new trampoline (bought Saturday but not yet put together).  I need to organize that room now…hopefully today or tomorrow.  ARGH…too much to do and less time in my days to do it.  Jim used to work a schedule where we would get up at 3:30 am and I would have hours to myself in the morning and get lots accomplished.  His new boss changed the schedule and he goes in much later (sometimes as late as 9:00 am…like a “normal” job even) and while that’s great he’s home more…it’s cutting into my fiber time in a big way.  Oh well….it’s worth having him home more for sure.

The last CD in the Chronicles of Narnia awaits, so I must run for now.  “To Narnia and the North”

in our Secret Pal group, we were asked to talk about our knitting place.  Well….I think any place could be my favorite place.  I knit in line waiting at the post office, I knit waiting for a table for dinner, I knit while waiting for a parade, I knit before church service (and as I mentioned yesterday 1 time during Sunday school)  I knit at Army functions.  (Yes, sometimes they can be really boring )  I knit just about anywhere I can.  However, my favorite place to knit is in my knitting chair.  It used to be in my “fiber cove” in the front room of the house.  However, this week, we changed things around and now my fiber cove is in the back of the house so I can watch the kids on the trampoline this summer.  Therefore, my knitting chair is in the living room.  Here’s a picture taken today of me knitting with the kids doing various projects as well.

And here’s what I am knitting.  I am making headway on my gloves.

And I thought this was an interesting project that Chris started today.  He took some plastic canvas and came up with a slipper pattern.  He will now go back and fill in with stitches.

I am off to dye yarn as I have several orders to get out this week.  Hope you all have a great one.

Ok, so not such a clever and catchy title, but I tried.

I was knitting in church during Sunday school not too long ago.  Truthfully, the topic was somewhat boring and I had to do something in order to stay awake.  I pulled out my trusty knitting and worked on some socks.  I was able to follow along just fine.  We came to a verse and I just knew it was ok to be knitting in church.  Psalm 139:13 states ….”you knit me together in my mother’s womb”.  I know Lynne has a blog named after that Psalm.  But it just fit so beautifully that day that I had to mention that even God approved of knitting.  Yesterday in a different Sunday school class (sorry…the other one was just so not me) we came across the verse again.  Having read it many times, I still overlooked one word…the word WOVEN….it just so fits.  And well….there’s always Proverbs 31 talking about spinning too….so it all just ties together so amazingly for me.

Psalm 139:13-16 

13 For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

 15 My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

SP10 GOODNESS

Thank you so much to my Secret Pal.  She let me know a package was on the way.  It took awhile to get here as she’s in Canada (at least that’s where the package are coming from) but it arrived today.  Included in the package  was 365 Knitting Stitches A Year perpetual calendar (which I have wanted for quite awhile now)  yummy feeling cotton yarn (in turquoise), pink and purple “sock” needle point protectors, a note pad and a postcard of what looks to be the absolutely gorgeous Canadian Rockies.  Thanks so much, Pal.

Kiddos

It was an afternoon of outside fun.  My two older boys went outside to “box”.  Of course, only having one pair of boxing gloves makes it tough, but they figured it out.  One wears the right glove, the other wears the left glove.  So, they played around.  I looked out the window to see my two youngers going at it in the same fashion while the two olders took a break.  Imagine the glee of the older boys to see their “baby” sister topple their brother (who is older then she) and gain the upper hand.

Then they both decided to attack the oldest brother.

Chris just wants to be some sort of Ninja when he grows up.

And here is Cass is striking a pose with her newest creation.  It was supposed to be a “fru-fru” poncho, but looks more like it might be a bathing suit coverup.

….perhaps the best yet.  Last year was a no go since hubby totally forgot about it.  Kelly reminded me that when hubby forgets a holiday (like umm…Christmas…but we won’t go there) I tend to really rake out in the end.  But I gotta say, he did really well this year.  I got exactly what I wanted.

First, sugar free chocolate.  What could be better for the person who can’t eat sugar but chocolates made with Splenda.  YUM YUM

Lots of love letters from the children…this one includes mom’s favorite sandals and drinkage of choice…coffee of course.

 Then there was all the wonderful handmade jewlery out of an assortment of beads.

Then there is the handblown glass plaque that says mom and has a purple rose on it.  ALL the kids actually pitched in some money to help grandpa get this (totally amazing…truly).  They all decided on the purple rose since purple is my favorite color.  Very thoughtful.

And the final gift….a way to go to my “happy place” and listen to podcasts, music, bible studies, sermons, etc. while on the go, weaving, doing chores and all that good stuff “mom’s” do.

Yup…an Ipod Nano.  I feel like I joined the electronic generation. :)  It’s gotten lots of use already.  Had to figure it out yesterday, but today I’ve already listened to Joyce Meyer’s daily broadcast while doing laundry and lots of other uplifting songs while moving furniture from room to room and changing things up.  (more about that later..perhaps tomorrow)

I did have to come up with a quick holder and made this before the kids had breakfast this morning.  There will be a different and more user friendly version coming up.  But for now it’s functional and made out of some of my woven fabric.

I will be honest and tell you that I had my doubts it would be a good weekend due to some things that happened on Friday, but it truly did turn out to be the best Mother’s Day ever and a pretty good weekend all in all.

I had a few hard moments through yesterday as I missed my momma something fierce.  I kept dreaming about her Saturday night during the little sleep that I did get so it was hard, but I had great friends help me through it with prayers and support.  Love ya all (and you know who you are

Knitting related pictures tomorrw (I hope)