celebrating her birthday!!!!

that's right. I'm old. getting older. But now Mike and I are the same age - for at least another couple of months!

I'm getting ready to head to Louisiana to see my aunt/uncle and cousins (one of which happens to share my birthday as well!) and am trying to figure out what I need to do and bring before I leave. I am, of course, knitting her something, and have tried 3 different yarns to find the right one for the gift I'm making for her. (MB - if you read this - don't click the link!!). The first attempt was too manly, but I loved the stitch and am going to use it as a scarf. The second, is working, but rather bright, and may be used for a matching parent/sister gift - we'll see. The third I will cast on in the car once we're on our way in this yarn:



It's so soft and yummy! Considering how the yarn for the other two worked out, I may have to try a couple of needle sizes, but it should work out perfectly. I just love the stitch pattern, it's really easy and looks great. I think I'll be making quite a few of these (not that 3 isn't a few...) because I think I want one for myself!

In other news, the baptism went great, and the bonnet, although didn't match her dress at all (antique white vs. White-white) it looked cute for the 2 minutes it was on:


We got to see a lot of Mike's family and not only was there a baptism, but also a birthday for William! Go November Birthdays! and I took lots of cute pictures. I've put them up on my Kodak gallery, and will be sending out links to the family. William has a fascination with keys, and during the baptism, was fixated on opening up a side vestabul door with his parents car keys - it was super cute. I took a series of shots of him trying to unlock the door, as well as shots of the actual baptism that are gone off my camera! I have no idea where they went - but then Mike suggested that I may have been using someone elses camera. This is a possibility as there were a number of camera's being passed around, and I really hope I was - there were some cute pictures on there.

We went to a pot-luck dinner the other night thrown by students from Mike's school, and it was very nice. We brought homemade cranberry sauce that hadn't had time to cool/gel, but it still tasted pretty good and pumpkin tartlets that were a hit! I made another batch last night and have been trying not to eat the entire dish.

I still have not seamed the EZ Sweater, but I have finished knitting it:



It needs to be blocked, and I realized I got so far and then just kinda skipped/skimmed over the directions at the end - I didn't do any of the shaping at the bottom (there are supposed to be some decreases in there somewhere) and I think I was supposed to pick-up the armholes when I picked up the rest of the sweater. *shrug* that's the EZ way I suppose, and I'm happy with how it came out.

Now I'm off to get my hair cut, run some other errands and then it's off to Louisiana to give thanks for my wonderful family!!!

all dressed up for Halloween

This year for Halloween I didn't think I was going to need a costume. Mike and I were going to a party where, as far as I knew, costumes were not required. Then came the email that costumes were "strongly encourage" - 3 days before Halloween!! And then I started to get a bit worried.

I have a few staple costumes that have worked for me in years past, but none that I felt comfortable wearing this year, or I was just plain sick of them. Then while browsing some costumes on the 'net, I came upon one I thought would work - Velma from Scooby-Doo! Pretty easy - maroon skirt orange tights and turtleneck - I already had the glasses, how hard could it be? Well, even in a Clemson loving town, orange is not a color to be easily found. I came up with the idea Wed. and spent most of Thurs. night running from store to store, and finally at 10pm with no tights or turtleneck in sight, gave in to the realization that it was the night before and I had nothing.

I went to sleep hoping I'd dream up something amazing and easy, but nope. Woke up with Nada. So, while getting ready for work, I took one last peruse through my craft room in the hopes that something would inspire me - and realistically, to take note of where my old costumes were. At this point I figured it was going to be an old idea or nothing. As I sorted through the boxes of yarn and needles and fabric, I thought - if only I could do something with all this yarn - I have enough of it, but I don't have time to knit anything.. wouldn't it be great if I could just be .. !!
... but wait!!

what if I....

YES!

I have it!

And with a few tips from some friends at work, I was able to pull together my costume in a few hours when I got home and I went as....



A big ball of yarn!

I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself. It took me an hour or so of fiddling to get the base just right, and then I hand wound the yarn around it to give it the oh-so-real look just the way I envisioned it. Yeah for me!

Mike went as a wind-blown guy - another costume put together last-minute, and I think it turned out pretty well too:



And I quickly learned that when I get pregnant, I may have some maneuverability issues - but at least I won't have to worry about sticking anyone with pointy sticks! Here's me trying to sit in a chair without falling off...



At the party there was also one of my most coveted costumes - Wonder Woman! I've always wanted to dress up as her, but for some reason, never done it:



It was a good time. In what-I've-been-knitting news - I'm almost done with the baby bonnet, and was doing so well on the EZ baby sweater, that I knit about 2 inches too far in the pattern and had to rip back!
The EZ Sweater:



(It's really only coincidental that I've been knitting with so much orange)

Here's the baby bonnet for a certain niece who is about to be baptized:



I'll post more pictures of it once I kitchner the back of it.

I also decided to add a small flower to the sweater for Crystal's baby - she just had her on Wednesday and named her Molly - so here's the flower and sweater for Molly Mack which is on it's way to her now:





Once I get the EZ sweater and bonnet done, I think I'll be starting on some dishcloths and... I'm not sure what else. Perhaps a yoga bag or a sweater for myself. But I'm betting I'll end up working on a few Christmas ideas I've been working on in my head.. we'll see. I do need to plan out some projects and make sure I have the yarn and whatnot put together for the drive to Louisiana for Thanksgiving. Perhaps I need to peruse my que on Ravelry again.