Thank you...

First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your kind words and thoughts with the loss of my son's grandpap (my ex's father). And even if you just read my blog yesterday but didn't leave a comment, but maybe just said a small prayer...thank you. You are all the best.

Okay....now onto...ready for this....my First MEME....
Did I spell that right? I see these in others blogs all the time but have never done one. This meme in particular interested me......So feel honored to be part (if you so choose) of the first folk-n-fancy meme. By the way, I googled meme and a picture of a siringe going into a brain was one of the things that came up.....I'm only going to hope that a "blog" meme is different.

Anyway, here goes...(don't know if I'm typing this correct...but what the heck...it's my blog anyway...I really doubt the "blog police" will send me a citation)

DESCRIBE "ME" IN ONE WORD....I'm not fishing for compliments (okay, so I am....hey, we're all friends here. May as well be honest with each other) Seriously tho....when you think of ME, (LUCY) what one word comes to mind. (in English, please....I don't do other languages).

Okay...that's it...get to work. My list of blogs I read may be shorter after tomorrow...just remember that. Okay, I'm kidding.....I love yinz all.....you can be honest (not too honest tho)

That's all folks....talk to ya tomorrow!

Nothing to say of importance...

Hey guys...I'm sorta pooped today and I really have nothing of interest to tell you about. I came home from work, cut my back yard and weed-wacked before the rains, so I'm happy about that. And since I went to bed late last night, I'm turning in early today.
My son's grandpap passed away today (my ex's dad) so I'm sorta keeping an eye on my son's moods. It's really the closest relative he's had that passed away. With my mom, he was too little to remember much and my dad passed before my son was born and my son didn't really have too much contact with my brother who passed away about 5 years ago. So, needless to say my son is taking this a little hard. My ex is an only child and very very close to his parents. If his parents did anything, they did it with my ex and my son...movies, out to eat, shopping, etc.... Unfortunately, without going into any details, they weren't very fond of me at all due in part to the divorce. And being we live in a small town, it had a little "Hatfield-McCoy" thing going on that actually stretched back to the depression days before I was even in existence. (for you youngsters, Hatfield-McCoys were two feudin' families) My ex's parents probably would NOT have picked me to marry their only son, to say the least. So I hadn't had any contact with them for about 6 years even tho they live about 5 miles away. I don't even know if they ever knew that I'm not on bad terms with their son (aka, my ex). Heck, Sweetie Man and I practically moved my ex entirely into his new house, which I'm sure they knew nothing about. But that was 6 years ago and this is today....and life goes on. So, I offered my condolences to my ex and told him that if he needed anything to please call. And being I believe that we should pray for those who are our enemies or those who arent' real fond of us.....I will pray for my ex's family and the soul of his father. May he rest in peace.
Life is too short to hate...

Burnt popcorn and other good stuff..

Does anyone out there like burnt popcorn? I love it!!! So does Ed! I actually try not to take the popcorn out of the microwave till I smell it burning. And burnt popcorn on the stove is even better! Just thought I would ask that cause that is what I'm eating now.
Okay...news on the scooter. I'm hating it right now. My wrist hurts from yesterday so I wrapped it. I couldn't get the kickstand down on it today when it accidentally went up.....I got frustrated....had a meltdown.....called my son on the phone and cried about it (he of course thought I was having a scooter breakdown) then came in the house and had a cup of chamomile tea and sat on my porch. Now I feel better. Reading everyone's comments to me on my blog helped me feel better too...so thank you. And a note to Rebecca....it will be a Monarch tatoo!
I'm not typing long cause my wrist is still hurting a bit, but I did want to show you a pic of the cool purse sweetie man got for me. He knew I had been wanting one with a place to put pics on the front. He found them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (guess they fell in the "Beyond" area). It will definately carry some yarn projects on vacation...


I put pics of my family on the front and in the back I used my new GemMagic Tool to put that cool butterfly design on the back. Neat eh? Sweetie man loves gadgets and sent away for the GemMagic kit. He's a sucker for those mags that come in the mail selling everything from wrinkle cream to doggie strollers. Gotta love him! This kit is really neater than I thought it would be. You can put all sorts of metal gems and such on anything and everything. I'm thinking felted items here, guys! So lets see what I can come up with.
Well, that's it for tonight. Thanks again for all of your wonderful comments....yinz guys are the best! Till tomorrow and over the hump day......tootle-lu!

If everyday is a gift....

I'LD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE TO RETURN MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I think I may have used that line a few months back to begin a blog once)
Okay, so today wasn't one of my better days. It started out well enough...son gets up for work....son wakes mom up 1/2 hour before she needs to get up so that she can taste the smoothie he made with flaxseed (whatever that is)...mmmm. Son leaves for work only to run back in to say his car wouldn't start and he would be taking the truck. The same truck that mom was to take to be inspected today. Okay...no problem....just change inspection day. Getting ready for work was easy enough...no animals puked or pooped (take that back...the dog did of which the son chose to cover up with newspaper rather than dispose of). Anyway, mom gets into son's car and is determined to start it (dampness was the problem)....and after numerous attempts, along with the roofers next door finding interest in watching a woman try to start a car that wouldn't turn over, mom bows her head and prays to her angel to please help the car start.....and with one more turn of the key...the car magically starts! Mom thanks her angel numerous times and puts the car in gear, backing out of the driveway, only to feel a funny thump...thump....and as luck would have had it...one flat tire!!! (angel giggles!) Should I continue.....it only gets worse....son loses truck keys.....mom can't find son's car keys to give to tire man.....new tire needed because mom drove 3 feet on rim (roofers laughed)....blah...blah...blah!
But...there is a light at the end of this tunnel....we got our scooter all set and ready to take out for practice (still waiting for title) but at least it could be taken in the parking lot nearby. And the cost to put it together the correct way was minimal. So I've taken the liberty of ending my blog with some cool pics of my son on the new scooter (aka: Jalepeno the Scooter).

Oh, yes, I did take a spin on it in the parking lot with my son's encouragement. (he refused to take pictures...girls watching nearby) He had alot more confidence in my scooter ability than I did....but I did manage to make a turn and go at least 25 mph a couple of times. Luckily it started to rain and we had to stop or he would have had me doing wheelies on this thing.
So, till tomorrow and hopefully a much better day.....which it will be I'm sure.....don't let the blog hit ya in the butt...tootles!

It's a Blue June...

Blue is the color for Project Spectrum this month. So, I'm gonna post my trinket box that I'm doing for a CAL group I belong too and it's BLUE!!!!


I just loved this yarn. It's called Fiesta by Red Heart and this is the Country Blue. I bought this yarn at a JoAnns cause I just liked it. I had no idea what I was going to use it for then when the Trinket Box came up....I knew it would just look perfecto. (click on "trinket box" for the pattern)
The postcard is the one I got from Jane at Not Plain Jane Blogspot since she was my postcard swap partner this month.
Her postcard is going in the mail tomorrow so I'll show you a pic of the one I did soon. I love the shades of blue in her card....sorta cornflower blue...my fav! Thanks, Jane...nice job!
In further news....today was yucky. Sorta like Friday. But Saturday on the other hand was nice. Managed to go to our Community Days but not too much I was interested in. I did see one lady and her daughter who did alot of crocheting and was selling it. She did really nice work and most of it was in the crochet cotton. But that was really about it.
We had the most fun at a friends pool party afterward. The food was great and the pool was warm. The weather was perfect for it too. I think I did a little too much jumping around in the pool cause today I'm a little sore. But it was fun!
Sweetie Man has posted again in his blog after being away for the month so go check him out at www.thefunnypeppers.blogspot.com for a couple of pics of Mexico as well as a couple of our Kitchen that I've been promising.
Oh, and as for the scooter....we opted to finish getting it put together at a local cycle service center.....probably better to have someone with some knowledge check out all the nuts and bolts so things don't start flying off of it while going 65 mph down the road.
So that's that for tonight...allergies have been kickin up a bit so I'm going to head onto bed and let my medicine do it's stuff. So, till tomorrow, kiddies!!!!

It's raining...it's pouring...

So I have nothing to say. Nothing to post. Nothing, nothing, noth-ing! We were supposed to go to the start of our three day Community Days at the park about a mile from my house BUT it's poopy outside. So, I'm inside blogging to yunz guys, whilst the men put together our new motor scooter. Oh, yes, there will be pictures!!!! It's bigger than a moped but smaller than a motorcycle. It's really sorta cool. Only goes to 65 mph but the gas mileage is 85 miles to the gallon and it hold 1.75 gallons. So being as we mostly run around in town and such, it will be quite a saving for us anyway. Sweetie man is actually the one who wanted it and officially owns it but by the sound of my 19 year old son, you would think it was his. "Houston, we may have a problem!" I probably won't venture onto the thing until the other two family members get a pretty good feel for it. You need to have a motorcycle license for it and both of them have their permits. I may just opt to be a rider behind Ed. We need helmets and the works! It will be fun once everything gets together. (I keep telling myself that!) Hey, I'm getting a tatoo in a few months....why not be a "scooter babe" too! Maybe I could collect all my plastic grocery bags and crochet a nice big cover for it...any patterns out there?
Oh, well, I'm gonna head on out to the porch to watch the "blind lead the blind" on putting this thing together. Wish me luck! Till the 'morrow...scooter babe, signing off!!! "putt..putt...putt...

Hola, mi amigas & amigos...

(soft mexican music playing in the background).....Welcome to the International Hour. Today we are going South of the Border where you will meet the one, the only, the lovely....
SENORITA DISHSOAP!
What do ya think? Cute, no? This is the Simply Shells Dishbottle Dress (click the title for the link) I took it one step further so that it would go in my Hot Pepper Theme Kitchen (which by the way Sweetie Man told me he will be posting pics of in his blog very soon....I'll let ya know when) . I love the colors as it goes with the curtains above my sink. There are so many different styles and patterns for these little dresses and you can even dress up your hand soap bottles. I did this one in the Sugar and Cream cotton and whipped it up very quickly. It's a little tricky around the waist but if when you are doing the pattern and you think about how it is supposed to look, you'll do fine. If not......send me an email and I'll be glad to be of assistance.
Well, that's really all I have to say tonight. My cutie dog, Katie, had her annual vet appointment and $241 later, she's healthy and ready to take on whatever the Summer dishes out for her. (rabies, fleas, heartworm, ....etc...) She was very good at the vet and I was really proud of her.
So, till tomorrow....and FRIDAY (oh, yeah!) Hasta Manana....(mexican music fades out.....)

Somewhere over the rainbow....

....a YARN rainbow, that is!!!! Go Figure! I realized that I never showed a picture of one of my favorite WIP that I actually started probably about the same time I started blogging. It's my colorful Rainbow Waves Afghan. As you know, or maybe your don't, I love colorful things....the more color....the better!!!! This project is only about a third of the way done but it's going to be my favorite afghan. I had originally planned on donating it but I'm fallling in love with the looks of it way too much. I actually think I'm not doing the pattern right but what the heck, it's turning out great. It really is a no brainer! It's all just single crochet except on the first row of each new color, you will insert the hook in the row below, then two rows below, then three rows below then back up again. Really easy and fun. I was thinking that the close up of the afghan could almost be used as a background on a computer screen. I may have to try that one. You may want to also check out the site that this afghan pattern came from....it's called Crafty Council....just click on the words and it will link you on over. There is both knitting and crocheting patterns. (knitting is at the top of the page and crocheting at the bottom)
Well, not much more to say, except the reason I didn't blog yesterday was because my new neighbor and I got to talking about this and that and how to grow herbs and then the pregnant neighbor came over and started talking and before I knew it it was 11 pm and I was ready to hit the hay. I'm just sorta bummed that I'm behind on my blog reading....I love reading everyone's blog and leaving comments....but I'm trying my best, so don't give up on me.
Well, I'm ready to hit the hay again....so, yunz guys...till tomorrow! Tootles!

A fun weekend...

Okay...first and foremost, I want to say a big BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful son on his 19th birthday today! (Monday) I've said it before and I'll say it again....I would go through everything I've gone through in my life just to have him exactly the way he is today! He and the Sweetie Man have been my supports, my cheerleaders, my everything.....they've both stood by me when things look darkest and told me that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope I've done the same for them.
And speaking of Sweetie Man....I hope we gave him a wonderful Father's Day as he deserved it in every way. He will be my son's "official" stepfather in a couple of years when Ed and I marry....but I give him the credit for my son being the great kid he is. He is so wonderful to him and my son respects him so so much. Happy Father's Day, Ed....thank you for being the best Dad ever in our lives! You were so worth the wait!
Now onto our fun Father's Day. We went to the monthly fleatique that is held at a place nearby call Tour Ed Mines. They really give coal mine tours but I've never had the opportunity to go on one. Anyway, here are some of the pics.
First is a small section of what the fleatique looks like on a fabulous early Sunday morning:
Here's the Dad with his cool T-shirt on that he insisted on wearing. (can you read what it says?):

Here's the Dad carrying a cool find of a antique coat rack he got among many other things as the morning progressed:


We found alot of goodies, namely some Kensington Ware which we collect. New Kensington was the headquarters till about 1967, I think. (click on the "Kensington Ware" words and go to the section entitled "History" for more info) Most of it is sorta like a brushed metal that I think just about was made in everything from bowls, pitchers, cups, furniture, etc.....I couldn't even tell you what all. My mom used to work in the offices as an office manager when she was young so I sorta have a special interest in it.
I also got my share of old Nancy Drew books which I collect as well as a Girl Scout Manual from 1933 for $5.00. Also for your enjoyment, I got these goodies for $5.00 in one big basket:
They must have been from an estate sale. Some of the threads look old but are in very good condition. They are all sorts of sizes too....no need to buy threads for awhile. There are also some doilies someone made....some finished, some not.
Then I also found this cool set of plastic knitting needles in a pretty flowered zippered case which the vendor said belonged to his grandmother's mother or something like that. It was $12 but we got him down to $10.00.
So needless to say, it was a good day. We came home, the Sweetie Man made a delicious meal with steaks, corn on the cob, and beans all on the grill and key lime pie for dessert. He loves to cook as you know.....but I cleaned up which his meals are worth the work, believe me. Oh yeah!
I hope your day was as awesome as ours!
Well, gotta go...it's about to storm and I need to shut down for awhile. So, catch ya all tomorrow!

A bookmark surprise....

THANK YOU...THANK YOU....THANK YOU, MOZE!!!! I love my bookmark, which is absolutely beautifully done not to mention the fact that I was so excited it was a butterfly! She also not only sent one book, but TWO!!! And as you can see, some tea from Israel which I will definately try in a new cup I bought specifically for tea that had it's own built in filter. And a really cool postcard in which she described where she lived in relation to the picture. This, by the way, is on my fridge right now. What a wonderful wonderful package, Moze! You are a sweetheart. I have not read either of these books and I am familiar with the author of the "Theory of Relativity." The other looks like a good mystery and being the "Court TV" addict that I am, as well as Ed, we should both enjoy that one.

This is really the first time I've participated in exchanges with yarns and books and such. I love this! It makes you realize how very thoughtful so many people are when they really don't even know you. When I was a little girl, I always wanted a penpal. One time when I was older, I actually found one in a crochet magazine. (this was before computers) I wrote this long letter and was so excited to hear back from her. But as luck would have it, I never did. I was so bummed. Everyone I meet online here and through the swaps are so nice and so worth waiting for all these years of being penpal-less (is that a word?) So, thank you to all of you, for being the best-est, fun-est, computer and swap pals ever!!!

Till Sunday (and don't forget Father's Day!).....tootles!

Twinkle twinkle....

...Little Star.....

and isn't it the cutest thing! Alot of people on a CAL that I am in are doing this star afghan. I'm going to try to make it bigger than the preemie size and go to the baby size and donate it to Project Linus. This is the pink start of it but it is actually going to be in pinks and whites. (left over yarns, if you know what I mean) Everyone is doing different color combos and each one is looking terrific. I'm going to post this pattern in my favorites on the side this weekend in case you are looking for it. Once you get the idea of how the pattern goes , as someone said in the CAL, it's really a "no brainer" and you can make it as big as you want....probably adult size. I just love the shape of it. Sweetie man suggested that the size it is now would make a nice hot pad. I thought that with this being six rows, using a worsted cotton, (Sugar and Cream) and maybe two rows each of red, white, and blue, it would be cute for a 4 of July picnic table. I'm not good with thinking up patterns, but give me an idea or a sample of one thing and I can usually run with it. Anyway, that's my post for today. The weekend is finally here and the weather is beautiful. Been spending alot of time outside just crocheting or reading with the sweetie man. So till tomorrow......happy crocheting/knitting!

Finally finished...

Yep, that's right folks, one of the first WIP that I posted on this blog is finally finished. If you have been reading my blog since January, you would have seen this thing almost done. I started it so that it would be done in time for the Steelers trip to the Super Bowl. BUT...little did I know that everything in Pittsburgh that was yellow or black was sold out. So when I ran out of yellow yarn, lo and behold I could not get it. AND, when I tried to order it online, I got it about two months later due to some snafu in the order. But now it is done....okay, in time for sweetie man for Father's Day, how's that sound? I just sorta draped it over a table to give you an idea on the colors. It really is just your basic ripple...but it was my first ripple and was so easy that I started thinking about all the color combo's this would look good in. Being as I'm in a red, white, and blue mood (happy Flag Day, by the way!), I think that would make an awesome ripple afghan. This was really nice to work on now too on the porch since the evenings are still a bit cool and it covered my legs while I worked on it.
So that's it for now.....I'm sorta wiped out since I worked in the yard and cleaned out my cellar a bit (okay...that's "basement" for you non-Pittsburghers). So, I'm gonna head up to bed and probably just read some. So till tomorrow......nite all!

For all yunz guys....

I scored a 88% on the "How Pittsburgh are you?" Quizie! What about you?

And unless you are from Pittsburgh, I would bet yunz guys didn't score as high as I did! I was just thinking about how different we all talk even in cities we are close too. I mean, people can usually tell I'm from Pittsburgh as I am sure they can tell where you are from by the way you talk. I'm not talking so much about an accent but the words we use.
For instance, it wasn't until the last couple years that I realized "slippy" wasn't a word in the sense of "hey, it's slippy on the sidewalk." And "redd-up"....I mean really, everyone doesn't "redd-up" the house. There is even a billboard in downtown Pittsburgh in which the Mayor asks people to "redd-up" Pittsburgh for the All-Star Baseball Game in July. It gotta be a word...for goodness sake, the Mayor uses it!!! I was born "redding-up"! Did ya "redd-up" your room....did ya "redd-up" the table? I can't believe we only use it here!
And it wasn't until I took this quiz that I realized that everyone doesn't "run the sweeper"? To me "vacuum" was something that sucked up air.
And doesn't everyone go down the "cellar" to "warsh" the clothes? Sweetie man teases me quite a bit because I call everything a "cupboard".....no closets in my house...no, sireee!
And need I go into the difference between "pop" (aka, pepsi, coke, etc..) and soda?
Alright, alright.....so I talk funny. I love Pittsburgh-eez....I love being from this area....and I love the language, if that's what you want to call it. It's a great town, with great people....and where else can you say in the middle of November....."how 'bout them Stillers?" Till, tomorrow, yunz guys.....

TA-DA.....WELCOME TO THE MOUNTAIN HERITAGE ARTS AND CRAFTS FESTIVAL IN LOVELY WEST VIRGINIA!!!!

Okay, so I wasn't the spokeperson for the festival but I could have been cause I would have said it was definately worth getting up at 5:30 am and driving 4 hours! It was a beautiful drive with wonderful company (sweetie man, of course) and a beautiful day weather-wise. Once we got there, we started our trek through the many well-organized tents that were set up.
The great thing about this was that the crafters were set up in each tent depending on what they did...for instance, food sellers were in one tent, textiles in another, etc... It made it much easier when looking for a vendor that you remember seeing but couldn't remember where.

This button manequin was too cute to resist taking a pic of.

It wasn't for sale, but really, what a cool idea for those left over buttons...and that manequin in your attic.

Oh, and the wine vendors were all of course grouped together letting you taste their beverages.....as you can see sweetie man lined up for the testing.
We managed to get through most of the tents, but we did have to rest a bit and listen to the non-stop bluegrass music while sitting on bails of hay amist the chairs.
And no festival day is complete without the visit to the Porta-Johns...which we had to take a pic of for the fun of it!
Sweetie man (aka my personal chef) managed to have loads of fun in the food tents buying lots of dips and mixes and different types of honey and butter spreads...including, pepper honey and hot pepper spread (you see a theme here?)
I, of course, found the one and only yarn vendor.....and did I hit it big. Lots of wools at great prices along with some terrific patterns. I was a happy camper!!

So, friends, that was our day in the state of West Virginia. We've been to a few craft shows to say the least, but this was one of the largest and best. They do this again in September so you may want to check it out (see a couple of posts ago for the website).
And before I go, whether you love football and/or our wonderful Steelers, take a moment and say a quick prayer for the Steeler Quarterback BIG BEN, who was in a bad motorcycle accident in Pittsburgh today. They say he'll recover but not without a lot of fixin' up! We love ya, Ben! Get well soon! Till tomorrow, yunz, guys!

Bookmark fun...

Well, I'm back from the fabulous festival in West Virginia, but I'm going to make you wait till tomorrow for the pics. I was rather tired today and did a bunch of nothing but some WIP'sI had then I organized my yarn a bit plus I made this adorable bookmark.

It's a Sock Monkey bookmark and you can find the pattern at http://homepage.mac.com/coxsalida/Personal6.html

I made it in less than an hour. It was just so cute, I couldn't resist. I love anything sock monkey as I know alot of you do. I made a different one for my bookmark exchange which I'll show you when my partner receives it.

So with that I'm going to head on up to bed. Don't forget to check me out tomorrow evening sometime or Tuesday morning and I'll tell you about our fun Saturday. Tootles.

Yummy.....

What better way to describe this yarn from my One Skein Partner than YUMMY....

OMG....I just love it!!!! The colors are tremendous...I couldn't have picked better myself. It's really soft and my Partner said it's enough to make the cable slippers in the One Skein book (which I got!) I am definately going to do that! So....thank you, thank you, thank you, Partner.....Ya done good, girlfriend!!!!!
Next, keeping on a somewhat Project Spectrum theme, I thought I would show you the little yarn bag that I recently made in lovely shades of blue with some colorful butterflies (my favorite of course) thrown it.

AKA Sock Bags, it's what I've been carrying my sock swap project in as you can see from the dpn's sticking out....and which, by the by, is coming along nicely. I'll be taking this on our little day trip tomorrow that Sweetie Man suggested we do to a place called Harper's Ferry WV to the Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festival. It's about 4 hours away from us so we are going to leave at about 6 in the morning. So I'm rather excited. We'll take lots of pics, or at least Sweetie Man will while I browse the booths and listen to bluegrass! (say that 3 times fast!)
So, that's it for tonight...6 am comes mighty early.....depending on when we come on will depend on whether I blog tomorrow.....but be sure to check me out on Sunday though for sure! Enjoy the start of YOUR weekend.....see yunz guys!

Don't worry...

I'm here. I didn't blog last night cause as soon as I came home, sweetie man surprised me and took me out to dinner to one of my favorite places.....Longhorn Steakhouse!!! We ate like fools then came home stuffed. And when you come home stuffed, you really don't feel like doing anything but sitting your butt down and moaning then eventually falling asleep. We did that on the front porch swing....so needless to say, I didn't do much of anything. BUT...never fear...check me out tonight as I've gotta show you a pic of the "delicious" yarn my One Skein Partner sent me...OH YEAH....it is beautiful! Enjoy the day!

The house that Jack built...

Okay, it's not built by Jack but Habitat..for Humanity that is. Remember the house a few blogs back that I took a pic of with the basement walls being placed. Well, this is where it is today...

I just find it very interesting to watch this all come together. And this is only a small house....think of a skyscraper or malls. I mean, Ed and I were so fascinated by the mall that was built near us that was nothing but a giant hill. Now it's a mall and restaurants and a huge Walmart, Lowes, and rumor has it, a Michaels! It's incredible the knowledge that goes into that.
Besides going to work, my day was sorta laid back, which is why you got a picture of the house that is being built. I did do some crocheting, namely my bookmark for the swap, but I can't show you that before my swap partner has it. Now all I got to do is pick a good book for her. And speaking of books, you know the paperback book exchange (see sidebar) I talked about yesterday? Well, I registered about 14 books and this morning I got a request for 3 of them. I sent them out this afternoon and as soon as they receive them, I will get 3 more credits towards books. (1 credit = 1 book) With my initial 3 credits for signing up and posting at least 9 books, that will make a total of 6 credits...or 6 books I can request at no charge. I've already ordered two. Sending out the three books cost me a total of $6.00 but receiving them will cost me nothing. I love this!!! Check it out if you haven't already!
And...one last thing....I neglected to post the two postcards I got for the Project Spectrum Postcard swap for May. The theme color was green.

The dino was from Coleen at Lighting Chick Knits I liked the weaving of papers and the fact that she coated it with a decoupage type varnish so that it wouldn't peel off in the mail. Great idea. The other is from Beth at Beth's Blog It's a photo of the shore area of a lake where she lives. Beth mentioned that the way the sun hit it, it gave off many shades of green....perfect for the May Spectrum. I thought what a great idea it was to merely take a picture of an area you like where you live in the colors for the month needed, and just make a little card. I'm going to try that one.
Well, that's it for tonight...I've been in the mood to read and I'm almost done with my current read (see sidebar) that I've been dragging my feet on. I do tend to read more in the warmer months as I love to sit on the porch or go to the park with Ed and sit and read. So, till tomorrow and one day closer to the weekend....pick up good book and read...it's good for your brain!!!

A so-so day...

Not too much going on today. Rather quiet. I did manage to sleep in and not in a good way. I overslept but managed to wake up a half hour before I was to be at work. Being as I live about a mile from my work, it did make it. (I'm good at multi-tasking) I'm usually a few minutes late, but my motto is, "when you get to work on time, it sure makes for a long day!" It's actually posted in my office.
Anyway, once the work day was done, I managed to purchase a weed eater since I burned up the other one. I tend to do that with power tools. I also tried to find this squirt bottle my neighbor has that runs on batteries and you don't have to keep pressing the trigger. Is that not the funniest thing...I mean really, how lazy can we get!!! But we just have to have one!
Got some yard work done then I crocheted on the porch a little. When it was too dark to do that, I came in and proceeded to join the Paperback Swap (see sidebar for button) It's really a cool program that someone mentioned in CAL group. I posted 15 books, one being on someone's Wish List. This will give me three credits towards books. One credit equals one book that I can get. No money involved right now. The website is thinking about charging in a year or so to join...maybe $10 a year. But you just swap books. Check it out for all the details if you have alot of books laying around and enjoy reading as I do. Never can find enough time to do it tho. There are all sorts of books...including various crafts. Hey, I'm all for FREE...I wouldn't steer you wrong!
Well, that's it for tonight....hopefully I won't sleep in tomorrow...so till tomorrow...happy whatever!

Just makin friends...

I had a nice evening tonight. A couple of summer's ago we had about 5 empty houses on my street....now they are all full. It's really nice because my neighbor directly next door is very friendly and talky in a funny sorta way. She's fun to listen too. Anyway, she came over and started talking then her son's girlfriend came over, then another neighbor came over and we were all talking and laughing. The best part was that the neighbor that was really new and that I was sorta being shy towards came over and I got to know her and her husband and vice versa. I was really glad to hear that she is quitting smoking being that she is pregnant. It was nice and now I won't be so shy around the neighbors....it was like a girl's night out on my porch.
Okay, enough of that chit chat....I did want to show you the yarn I got when I went to that yarn store and the dpn's.
I thought the yarn was a little expensive. I'm going to look for just the right sock pattern for them that's easy so I can start them after I finish the pair for my swap partner. Also, a few weeks ago, I ordered this book from Amazon.

I found it on Amazon one day and thought it would be a good reference book. It has alot of stitches in it that's for sure. Any of you have this one? Let me know what you think if you do.
Well, that's it for tonight. Didn't get alot done this evening....but sometimes just making friends is worth the clothes waiting another day to be put away. Till tomorrow....tootles!

A quiet Sunday...

Ah...a nice quiet Sunday at home with my guy! He crawled out of bed before me and went downstairs I was assuming to finish setting up his new laptop since his old one died a quiet death. So I sorta turned over in bed and went back to sleep....but when I woke up again, I did so to the smell of bacon...oh, yeah! Before you knew it he was on his way upstairs with a tray of coffee, bacon, and french toast made with nice thick Texas Toast. It don't get no better than that. After six years together.....I am so very lucky to have this wonderful guy. So, he brought up his breakfast too and we finished eating. My son chose to go out to breakfast with a friend of his. Later in the afternoon we sorta just chilled.....him on the computer and me crocheting the edging on a Project Linus afghan.


This is the "boy" version of the "girl" one I did about a month ago (check past blogs) with the red hearts and red trim. These are so incredibly easy. Mark your holes about a half inch up from the edge and a half inch apart. Punch the holes with a 1/16 paper hole punch (yep, it will punch) and do any edging you choose. With this particular edging, I used a G hook, worsted weight yarn and did two single crochets in each hole and then another row of single crochet on top of that. I used about 2 yards of the fleece. Just think of the posssiblities in making a cute little baby blanket in whites or pinks, or blues or even variegated yarns. Some people sell these on the web...just google crocheted fleece blankets and I bet you'll come up with some great ideas.
Well, that's it for tonight. I've been cleaning up my blog a bit and adding some buttons and titles of blogs I read in case you want to check out whose on my list of bloglines.
So, till tomorrow....and the start of a new week....hasta manana!

The Strip....

Okay...get your minds out of the gutter...sorry, this is a G-rated post. It's all about the Strip District in downtown Pittsburgh. Saturday morning is a great time to hit the Strip District in Pittsburgh. It's an area in Pittsburgh very close to the main downtown area that is full of cool stores and fun places to go. We went there this morning specifically for the fish market. Here are a couple of pics of the Strip and Wholey's Fish Market.

The pics don't really give you the atmosphere of the strip....you really have to be there. There are people everywhere and lots of music and some street musicians and everything from food to books to kitchen supplies and flowers and t-shirts and all sorts of inside and outside vendors. It's fun to just experience it. We never even really hit everything but we do go to Wholey's Market to get the fish. This is a picture of the fisherman that greets you when you walk in. We bought some lobster tails for one night when the son isn't home and we want a romantic dinner for two.

There are alot of ethnic shops there also as well as alot of outdoor dining places. It's just fun to go there on a Spring like Saturday morning as this was.


Unfortunately I didn't run into any yarn shops but we did get some cool things at a couple of Kitchen and Wine stores. Believe it or not, I do enjoy those stores even tho cooking isn't my favorite pasttime. Sweetie man enjoys them even more being the cook he is.
So if ever you are in Pittsburgh, take a ride to the Strip on a Saturday morning......and tell them, Lucy sent ya (even tho they may look at you sorta weird like!) Till tomorrow....tootle-lu!

I'm almost here...

Well, the main computer is defragging (whatever that does) so I'm still stuck on the old laptop which is running a bit better but still frustrating. Anyway, wanted to tell you a little bit about my first trip to the official yarn shop. I've always gone to a JoAnn's or Michaels or some craft store for my yarn or the internet. Thought I would drag Ed with me to search out the yarn store. We did find it and I am sorry to say that I wasn't really impressed. First off it was really small....really small. And as I am a bit of an organized type of person, I felt the yarn was sorta everywhere and not real well marked. Some of the yarn had prices and others in the same cube thingy you had to look on the chart for the name to find the price...sorta confusing. I think I was annoying the lady there as I wanted to ask her some questions but she sorta talked to me like I was bothering her. For instance, I took in the yarn that Ed brought back from Mexico and wanted her to see what she thought about it. She sorta looked at it, didn't touch it, and said, "you just have to knit it up and see what kind it is." The end!!! No questions like where did you get it...that's interesting with the thread running through it,...nothing! Then being a newby to sock knitting, I asked her where the DK Sport weight was. She took me to this one little cube and said that's it there. Well, being as I thought with all the yarn from ceiling to floor sorta shoved in this room smaller than Kitchen, I figured that there had to be another area. So I was trying to get more info like on the fingering yarn, etc, but if I asked her a repeat question cause I didn't quite understand, she sorta got annoyed. I just said, "okay thanks." I proceeded to ask another question later about wool in sock yarn....she just said, "it's what you want...you can use any yarn you want." I was not impressed to say the least...PLUS...the yarn was so expensive in my opinion. I ended up buying a supposed self striping yarn (I planned to show you a pic but blogger just won't upload it for some reason) tho it said nothing of the sort on the package. And their wall of supplies ended up being a two or three sided spinning thing with mostly needles of which I bought some #1 bamboo dpns. I bought the stuff manly because I felt guilty asking so many questions of her.....but I really really doubt I would go back...not impressed in the least. Ed said he didn't notice her annoyance at me....but it just seemed to me that I was bothering her as she wanted to go back to her knitting and she didn't see me as a high purchasing customer. Really the whole trip was a waste of my time and money and I could have done much much better with knit picks!
Well that's it for the night. Hopefully I'll be working on the main computer tomorrow tho this laptop is getting better. The problem is that I can watch TV and be on the laptop and with the main computer I can't, but it would be alot quicker....and quicker leaves more time for crocheting and knitting...right? RIGHT! Till tomorrow....

Don't panic...

I couldn't blog yesterday because the lap top just would not cooperate, no way, no how, whatsoever...BUT...there is good news....HOPEFULLY (keep your fingers crossed) I get my computer back all fixed....and it only cost me a bag of coffee (will explain later) Sorta sounds like the "trades" from the 1800's! Oh, well, that's it for now...catch me later!!!