Squatter Kitty Rights??

Apparently Frisco has learned about Squatters Rights.





Do they apply to the feline persuasion??

Goodies, blessings and frustrations

Oh where to begin! Just before the holiday weekend I received a package from my swap pal in the Knitters Coffee Swap! Look at the goodies! Delicious cookies, Swiss chocolate *I have been so good - I left it home over the holiday weekend so that I wouldn't have to share it I didn't eat it all at once* A great calender filled with pictures of Switzerland sceneries *I'll take to work in my office so that I have something to daydream about when it gets stressfull* heehee



And look at this yarn! I just love the gorgeous blue! Thank you so much Andrea for a great package!



I had to work on Wednesday, so I did not set out for the folks house till early Thursday morning. It was a bitch to get up that early on a day that I knew I didn't need to get to work, but at least someone else was working that day and made my drive a tad more enjoyable. I could drive while that was the view out of my car window :)



After stopping at the Starbucks just at the end of my street I hit the road. It was about 6:45 AM. The drive was rather pleasant and not much traffic *now that's something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving morning* and I pulled into my parents' driveway at 10:15 AM. I pray, pray, pray that the NJ Turnpike people don't compare distance to time stamps or I'm in trouble! Somehow with my foot to the floor driving like Maria Andretti I shaved almost an hour off my drive time. I swear I was going with the flow of traffic! *whistles innocently*

My youngest niece gets sooooooooooo into the holidays and decorating. She's 8. She set the dining room table all by herself!


Mom made way too much food that evening. We had traditional Italian wedding soup, a turkey AND ham, oddles of different veggies dishes, fruit, desserts, and coffee and she was thinking of making PASTA! No matter how long my folks have lived in this country they still feel the need to turn every holiday meal into a 7 course Italian holiday meal! Needless to say I was send home with half a ham (I took the ham bone so that I can make 15 bean soup *yummy*) AND half a turkey breast! Anyone know any good recipies to use leftover turkey or ham???



Yup, that's me working on those fairy squares at the Thanksgiving table. Italians traditionally sit around after the main meal is finished talking and digesting before the dessert course starts *laugh* So, why waiste time?? I pulled out my knitting back and get to it! 3 more squares were completed this weekend!! For a grand total of 9 squares completed!! Just 7 more to go before I can put them together and have it start looking like an afghan!



While I was doing this I got to listen to my mother calling me crazy over and over again. My mom doesn't really understand hobbies. Strange considering she used to crochet and sew. And my mother wonderings why I don't share more things with her. It's a shame really, I had planned on having a heart-to-heart mother daughter talk with her this weekend about Mr. X and that whole situation. Yeah, that didn't happen after this.

While my mom was cleaning out some things she came across my baby blanket! She crocheted this one for me. When I was a little older she had taken the squares apart and turned it into a shawl, which is how it currently it. I had thought about taking back apart and turning in back into a baby blanket, but I don't think I can match up that yellow yarn.



She also found this granny square dress that my Nonna had crocheted for me when I was a wee little thing. I was really suprised the still had these things. There are some spots on the dress that I'm not sure how to get out. I'm thinking of getting a nice size shadow bow and putting both of these items into it so that I can hang them on a wall in my house.



Here's an update photo of my sister's Soft Waves ripple. I'm at the halfway mark!

My Weekend

My weekend started off with a package delivery on Friday! I was so excited to see another package from my Secret Pal!! I couldn't believe how fast it got here considering I had only gotten an email from her that morning!


Look at the dreamy goodies that were inside!! That is a box of Italian Torrone candy!! And look at that GORGEOUS alpaca silk yarn color!! That is soooooooooooooooo my color!! Thank you Secret Pal!!



This weekend my Mr. X came down to visit. It was a nice, lazy weekend for the two of us. It was really nice having him down. There's still a lot to work on with this whole situation, but we are slowly getting through it. One day at a time, I just have to keep reminding myself of that. Anyway, on Saturday I took him to the American Visual Arts Museum in Baltimore. We enjoyed ourselves and the art work very much.



Knitting update will have to come later :)

Fairies, and Kitties and Boo-boos... Oh My!!

I have be knitting up a storm lately in order to get holiday gifts out of the way. So far... none are done! *Hera help me* But I have several started... one crocheted blanket for my sister, one for Mom & Dad, and a knitted blanket for one of my nieces. I had this crazy fuckin' brilliant idea *HA! brilliant?? Is that another way of calling yourself CRAZY!!* to knit up all these different fairy dishcloth patterns and then stitch them together and make a blanket for my niece. She is very into fairies *just like her aunt*

Anyhoo... I made one square up and from there determined that I needed 48 squares to complete the blanket. 48 Freakin' squares!! What the fuck was I thinking?? I thought... no problem there's plenty of time! That was back at the beginning of October. Now we are in the middle of November and.... here are all the squares I have completed.


Yes, you counted correctly 5 with another on the needles right now! FUCK!! After calmly rethinking my plan *HA! I'm not sure I would know what calm looked like anymore!* I decided I will make one square in each of the 4 patterns in each of the 4 colors. Then jion those squares together as the center of the blanket and then crocket my ass off to complete the blanket around those squares... as if they were the center piece. *Erckle comes back to haunt me.... I meant to do that!*








Of course, as I am furiously knitting and crocketing away on all my holiday gifts.... wouldn't you know it!



My yarn holding finger starts bothering me. It's been bothering me on and off for about a month now, but I think nothing of it till Monday morning. When I woke up my finger was swollen enough that I couldn't get my ring on! That's when I knew it was time to call the doctor. So I did and had an appointment Tuesday morning. I was pricked, prodded, poked and X-rayed. Good news is it's not broken, bad news is it might be arthritis. *I would have preferred it to be broken cause at least that heals and goes away!* So as we wait on the blood results to come back I have to wear the finger brace, use ice and take anti-inflamitories.

So what did I do last night after work.... I went to Curves and did my workout, went home and showered, ate dinner, iced my finger, .... and knit for about two hours *laugh* I have to get these gifts done!

As I sat on the couch knitting away, Frisco curled up in his usual spot behind me and kept me company.

Long Lost Updates

I know, I know... where the hell have I been?? I'm not really sure how time seems to be getting away from me lately, but it is. Ironically thought, at the same time I feel like this school year is going by to freakin' slowly! BUT I won't go into THAT issue right now.

I've been very lackadaisical on my blogging lately cause I seem to be out of town every other weekend in October! You all know I was in GA the first weekend, partying hard with friends I haven't seen in a few years. The weekend after that I was in the Chicago area working on this with Mr. X and two weeks later I was back there again!

I'm still confused *for lack of a better word right now* about what is going on between us. There's a small piece of me that wonders "what the fuck are you doing?" I've never had a problem with walking away from a man that was stupid enough to do me wrong, but for some reason I cannot walk away from this one. I am still in love with this man. There is a larger piece of me that holds on to the notion that there is some sort of divine power at work because lets face it, we live 720 miles apart - it's not like I'm gonna run into him at the local grocery store or anything like that. So why else would we be talking again?

There's another large part of me that thinks this was a HUGE wake-up call for him. And I really do feel that there is definitely a change in him. I certainly see a different side to the man that I originally fell in love with. Not saying that's bad by any means, just a deeper piece of him that is being shared with me. I just don't know yet if it's going to affect his serious commitment issues or not. At least this time I have my eyes open a little more. Do I realize that I could be setting myself up for another heart ache should he run scared again after the baby comes... yeah, I do. I also look at the prospect that we can get through this, our relationship will be so much stronger and that is a good thing. I believe in 2nd chances when the person is making an honest effort to change.

Anyhoo, enough about that. While I was up there though, I did manage to snap a few shots of the blanket I had crocheted for him 2 years ago for his Christmas gift.





Tonight was Stitch 'n Bitch night. The Wednesday night group is getting so large that we practically take over the cafe area at Boarders!



Here's Maura working on lace stole.



And Bri working on her Arwen sweater.




And PhDKnitter working on hers!



Here's an update photo on the baby's blanket. I am at the half way point for the main body of the blanket. The border is knit separately and then stitched on. It's going to be interesting trying to block this thing when I'm finally done!



Here are some WAY-BELATED photos of the 2nd Monica tank for my older niece. We left off the ruffle piece cause she thought it was to babish for middle school. They grow up so fast!




Can you tell she's a ham??





On a more upbeat note, I joined Curves a little over a month ago and on Monday I had my first weight and measurements taken since I've started working out. In one month I lost a total of 14" all together! *does a little happy dance* The biggest shocker to me was losing 3 whole inches in my hips! WooHoo!

I will update you all on the other 2 Christmas afghan gifts soon, I promise!!