Punch Club Card

Last night was Punch Club, our monthly stamping/altered art group. The LSS nearest us is now closing at 7:00, so our Plan B was to meet at Ruth's house. Ruth is a fabulous hostess and genuinely enjoys opening her home to others. She had fabulous peach tea (and y'all know I'm all over peach tea!) and many other snacks. The best, in my opinion, was some ladylike sandwiches. She used a small package of cream cheese, whipped it with 1/4 - 1/3 cup of powdered sugar, spread on pumpernickel bread and cut the sandwiches into fourths. Absolutely divine!

Tonja was our teacher this month and while we were all disappointed that she didn't bring her son Jack (he's already going to be turning one year old!), we still loved her just the same. Her project was cards and since I turn into a pumpkin early evening I left before most were finished. I did finish this one and it's so elegant, at least in real life (still working on learning the camera). I think this would make a good sympathy card. (Stamp is Stampin' Up, retired I think)

The other cards we did involved making background paper using shaving cream and ink and another using a spin art like when we were kids! Both were fun, but the spin art had us really laughing. Truly brought out the child in everybody present.

Monday Musings

WHEW - we've just come off a very busy week and weekend. I got a call from mom Tuesday afternoon that they (my cousin and mom) were waiting with my grandmother for an ambulance to come! Grandma had been walking out to the car and fell and knew then that something had happened. It turned out that she broke her hip and her wrist in the fall. So Wednesday morning my cousin Michele and I headed up to OKC to be there for grandma's hip surgery. She did great and is now on the rehab floor - Praise Jesus!

It's funny too how much we enjoyed the trip. Just like when my cousin Danette and I headed to Ft. Smith (and kept calling ourselves Thelma and Louise!), it really is possible to find the joy even in an unpleasant situation. Michele and I never get to spend time alone and this trip gave us that opportunity. I don't think there was a quiet moment at any time during the trip! Good times.

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Saturday morning I planned my first brunch in this house....where I have lived for 12 years! I used to entertain so much when we lived in Oklahoma and it has just never happened here. Through God's Grace my health is MUCH improved now from when we first moved in, so maybe that's the reason. Regardless, I think I just didn't realize just how much I missed having friends over. I made a breakfast casserole, Snickerdoodle Muffins, fruit, and Peach Tea. The funny thing is that I wasn't nervous or anything. I really think there is something about having dear friends over that you just know it's all good.

After we ate off we went to a bead show at a nearby convention center. My word, I just couldn't believe it! Obviously I'd never been to one before and I can see how this could be a very dangerous hobby - financially! There were such beautiful things everywhere you look. I especially fell in love with lampwork beads, but the price was very high. Then I came upon a booth where a woman had some photos of herself making the beads and explained the process to me. At that point I realized that these beads really were worth the high price, though it was not something I could afford. My ever enabling friends were telling me that I could learn to make them myself, but since the process involved open flames I decided it would probably be best for me to just leave this hobby well enough alone - LOL!

One of my friends mentioned an area in Dallas where we could get some of the things we'd seen at a greatly reduced price, so off we went. That store wasn't open to us, so we walked to the end of the little strip mall and went in to a different store. Oh what a grand time we had! This store had a wall of sunglasses for only $3.99! This happens to be something I really enjoy, so I ended up with a couple of pairs. One pair is totally for fun, the next a little less "loud" and then one very normal pair. We stood and took pictures for a while, laughing the entire time. Who knew that sunglass shopping could be so much fun?

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Saturday afternoon Mom, Gary and Michele arrived in town from OKC and of course we went over to see Brooklyn. Well, after a stop at Boston Market for lunch since they don't have that restaurant in OKC! We were lucky enough to get over to their house just in time to visit with Brad (Keith's brother) and Rhonda for a bit before they had to leave to head back to their home.

I love this picture of Loni holding Brooklyn. James and Loni had gotten an above ground pool set up on Friday, so we all got to see Brooklyn's first dip in the pool! She has on a Nemo Little Swimmer and didn't really spend a long time swimming. But she did look quite darling.

And after little girls swim they need to have a bottle. And after a bottle little girls really seem to need a nap! I love this picture of my mom holding Brooklyn. Sweet baby girl just got so tired. Looking at that picture makes me want to kiss her neck again. :)


I think she just had had so much fun entertaining us all afternoon that she finally just passed out. She's gotten to the age where she likes to coo and goo and try to form words. It is so precious.

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Sunday we didn't do much at all, partly because of the picture. We've been doing quite a bit of geocaching in the evenings and at some point Keith got into some poison ivy again. He happens to be insanely allergic to it, so on Friday when his face and neck started swelling up we knew what it must be. We're not sure exactly when he was exposed, but the picture shows one of the many times we were deep into the flora and seeing this shows us that we really aren't too surprised that it happened.

So while Keith lay around dozing and watching sports, I sat watching the last few episodes of Heroes in preparation for tonight's season premiere! I was so excited when my daughter bought the Season One dvd set so that I could finish watching the series - LOL! It's rare that I sit and watch tv and for me to sit as many hours as I did yesterday was rather decadent. I sat and watched tv and worked on the candy corn sock I've been knitting. What an utterly relaxing day.

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One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. - George Santayana

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses. - Joyce Brothers

Fall Into Reading

I have been spending some time today reading a bunch of reading lists! Katrina is hosting another reading challenge and since reading has been my favorite hobby since forever I'm going to join again. If anybody needs book ideas, just click the link above and I think there are links to 146 blogs (as of right now) that have published their fall reading lists!

Fiction

* The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (I have this in my book pile at home and it has been recommended to me by countless people.)

* The Yada Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson (I have been wanting to read this series for quite some time, so the time must be now!)

* The Elevator by Angela Hunt (I just learned of this book from one of the links above. I love books filled with suspense and this sounded like a good one.)

Non-Fiction

* You Matter More Than You Think by Dr. Leslie Parrott (Another book I found from the above links. This is a subject I struggle with anyway, so perhaps this book will be helpful.)

* Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far by Amy Grant (I've always been fond of Amy Grant and I do enjoy biographies, so this seems like a natural for me.)

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Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. - P.J. O'Rourke

Geocaching Find

After dinner last night we headed out for more finds. The first one we thought was beyond easy, but when I went to log it online I noticed that others had some trouble with the clues. Let's just say, so as not to give too much away, that sometimes being a big fan of 80's music is a GOOD thing and will pay off later in life!

The second find brought us to a pretty area with one of the biggest trees I think I've ever seen. As we were wandering around with our gazes securely fastened on the gps a creature jumped out at us! He really about scared the beejeebers out of me....until I saw what it was - LOL! After that I had to go on a quick tangent and chase this toad around to get his picture. At that point I'm not sure which one of us ended up being more scared of the other! Mr. Toad did NOT see this as a Kodak moment. ;)

When I stood up after victoriously snapping this picture I see Keith standing there looking at me like I was a loon. Really though he must surely be used to this sort of thing from me. Course here we were out in front of absolutely everybody and I'm doing this bizarre scrunched over walking thing with a camera plastered to my forehead chasing after a toad. Surely that isn't so strange???

Why Yes I DO Still Knit!

I thought I would show some of the knitting I've been working on lately. I had planned on updating my Ravelry account today with these projects, but our firewall now blocks Ravelry and says it is an "entertainment, dating" site. Oy! (Guess I'll do the updating later tonight!)

Anyway, first up is the green blanket for a friend, knit with Caron Simply Soft yarn. Loving it!

Then a sock that I am beyond thrilled with. I have another sock that needs a mate and was next on the rotation, but then I remembered this Candy Corn Yarn that I had gotten from Girl On the Rocks last year and decided I had better get it done quick while it's still candy corn season! This is the insanely popular Monkey Sock pattern with a twist - I used a picot edge for the first time and am knitting the purls, ala January One. I had a hard time getting gauge with this pattern/yarn and I'm sure it's a result of my death grip tight knitting. Tried it first on size 1 needles and ADORED the way the yarn striped as it looked exactly like candy corn! Unfortunately, no way was gauge obtained. Ditton on the 1.5's. Finally got it with size 2's, but now the yarn pools quite a bit. That's ok though, I'm still in love!

And do you see the metal dpn's I'm using? These are the PERFECT needles for me for this project. Death grip knitting plus ssk's and K2Tog's equals a disaster waiting to happen on bamboo needles!

Chocolatey Goodness

On our way back home this weekend I somehow convinced Keith to stop by the Russell Stover Store in Corsicana. You can't see it in the picture, but behind and to the right of the store is the giant plant where they make the confectionary delights. During business hours they have tours and while I was disappointed to have missed that, perhaps it was from the best. Can you imagine their faces when one of the tour guests - that would be me - had to stop and embrace all that chocolatey goodness?

Lest anyone think that Keith stopped there just for me to visit the store, I'm going to tell the rest of the story. He actually would NOT have stopped and that actually IS for me. He knows that I'm doing really well on my losing weight and even though the saying is "like a kid in a candy store" he knows that an "Elizabeth in a chocolate store" is just asking for diet sabotage. And he would NOT have stopped for himself because even though he enjoys a slice of chocolate cake on occasion he's just not that excited about candy. What he WILL stop for is a geocache. I found one online called "My love for chocolate" or something like that and of course immediately loaded it into the gps. We searched for this cache for a little while before I gave up and said "Really, since we're here anyway we should go inside." What a dastardly plot indeed. ;)

So now today I'm quite popular at work. I bought a case (I kid you not!) of the cutest little tin boxes that have 4 of the Whitman's assorted chocolates inside. This morning I left a tin on the desk of everybody in my area and it was fun hearing their reactions.

I've learned that everybody here loves chocolate. And I've learned that even more than chocolate everybody here loves little tins - LOL! I've also learned that chocolate surprises make people smile a LOT!

Another popular saying is that "diamonds are a girl's best friend (bff?)", but I'm here to tell you that chocolate makes an awfully good second best friend (2bff?).