How is it April ... and why do I miss my knitting class?

As of tomorrow ... it's APRIL people!  When did this happen?  And why does it seem like 2010 is FLYING by already?  Maybe the fact that i wasn't working in 2009 factors into the "this year feels like forever" category.

So as I mentioned, I've been knitting along like a good little knitter (contrary to said knitting teacher's opinions ... ) and I'm really enjoying it.  I love some of the yarns ... and well, that has lead me to purchase some pastel-like yarn with which I have no inkling of what to make.  My poor goddaughter, Norah will most likely be gifted these little creations, because let's face it - who else can pull off multi-colored pastel items like nobody's business but a 6 month old adorable little girl?

I think I pulled about 6 different possibilites ... but here again - I find myself hindering myself.  I refuse to buy a knitting pattern when I know there are so many cute ones out there available for free ... but I have neither the time nor the patience to sift through them to see if I can find exactly what I want.

Then what I want has to be something with instructions I can understand since I don't have another class till next Tuesday.  (Easter break and all that ... )

As to my hat ... The band looks fabulous.  I have started and ripped out and restarted the actual hat part about 4 times now and I'm just thinking that I will have to get it ready to restart once again for Tuesday night.  This activity should amuse my husband because the ripping out part usually happens right next to him while we're watching TV and he doesn't realize it until I start re-rolling the yarn.  The poor boy.

Easter on the other hand .... is SUNDAY! (I feel like a monster truck commercial ... Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY ... )  Totally came up on me unexpectedly and well ... we're joint-hosting again with my parents (I do the majority of the cooking and they insist on providing the food ... which works for me) ... so it'll be a busy Friday - Sunday morning. 

Two weeks later, we're having a 50th anniversary party for my parents - nothing huge, but sill around 20 - 25 people and I want to make sure it's special, memorable and perfect for them.  Note to self ... get on top of that project!    

I did try and find a slew of pictures to make an album for them with ... but no such luck.  Not really a lot of photos of the two of them together throughout the early years.  I think my sister is making a photo-collage disc ... so we'll see what that winds up to be.  Maybe it'll be a post-party gift to them with all the pictures I can make sure get taken at the actual party.  (Yeah, that sounds like a better idea!)

That's it for my little update right now.  I'm off to make meatloaf & mashed potatoes for dinner.  Hopefully it'll be done in time! :)

Long time, no blog ...

It kinda stinks that I can automatically tell that I haven't blogged in 18 days.  Made my husband yell at me.  (Not yell yell ... just "What do you mean you haven't blogged?" yell.  (Thanks honey.  You're supposed to remind me BEFORE that long passes!)

So what have I been up to since March 1st? Trying to re-acclimate myself to being a working girl.  I have been forgetting that I don't have as much time as I used to to get things done ... and that I have a daily obligation to do work at work.  (Strange concept, huh?)  So besides discovering that my new boss is a secret paper hoarder that I am having weekly interventions with ... I also signed up for a knitting class and have been working away on that quilt I keep talking about.  Oh ... yeah - and we can't forget I've actually been having a pretty busy social life too.  (Well, busy for my standards.)

The knitting ...

I've been wanting to take a knitting class for well over a year now.  I blame my cousin, Lynn for this.  She has been knitting for a couple of years now - and brings these beautiful projects to work on when she visits from Massachusetts for the occasional weekend.  Enabler, I say.  So one weekend, we went to my local yarn store where I found the most beautiful multi-color merino wool yarn.  It had purples, maroons, blues ... just such a pretty blend ... so I got it.  

I made my very first scarf.  Love the scarf.  Get compliments on it constantly. I had (so I thought) the basics down.  I kept an eye out for the newsletter for the shop, and they had some beginner classes.  WAY too out of my price range.  Just couldn't justify the cost for 3 "beginner" classes anyway.  So ... I waited.  And waited.  Then .... just as I started my job, I get the flyer for our local school district's Adult Ed courses.  I hemmed and hawed about it for over a week, then signed up just a few days before the first class.  8 weeks ... 1 night per week ... $30.  I couldn't go wrong!  So now, Tuesdays are my knitting nights with two other ladies and the sweet older woman that teaches.  The same sweet, older woman that looked at the other beginner knitter watching her cast on, and said "You'll be a good knitter." and then looked at me casting on and said "You'll be okay."  Talk about a motivator!  

My name is Beverly and I like to prove people wrong.   

What am I knitting, you ask?  I decided to be ambitious and try to make this beautiful hat from a free pattern I found online here ... isn't it pretty?    So after much nightly amusement of hearing me muffle my cursing on my end of the couch ... I am now just about half-way through the little braid-looking band on the bottom of the hat.  How the heck I'm supposed to make the top of the hat, I have no idea ... but I'll muddle through with some actual cursing and figure it all out.  And by George, it'll be the best damn hat in the class! ;)








The quilt ... 

For whatever reason, it's feeling like this quilt is taking forever.  A few miscalculations on the amount of borders & backing I needed wasted some time as I tried going back to the store thinking that they'd have it in stock, then having to go online and re-order.  Thankfully my friends' mom isn't in an all-fire rush to get it!  (Maybe that's the real reason I don't have a fire under me to finish it?)  Hopefully it'll be worth the wait when I give it to her.  (I'm crazily aiming for the 28th when I'm going down to visit my friend.)


And that, my lovely blog readers, is what I've been up to!  What about you?  Been doing anything fun?

Happy Birthday Honey

I love this picture.  This picture inspired me for so many little things in my wedding.  Truth be told ... this picture has inspired me for a lot of little things throughout my life.  It's my grandparents - Ann & Emil on their honeymoon in Atlantic City.   

Today is my grandmother's birthday.  She would've been 99.  Maybe it's silly to say that ... but its something that I think about every year since she's been gone.  Honey (that's what we called her) taught us all so much.  Such an amazing woman.  

I love you and miss you every day ... and so much more than I could've ever imagined. 
I thank you for teaching me what you have ... and for guiding me as I know you are.
You'll always be with me.  Always.

I love you, Honey.