Purling Oaks

Isn't that the cutest face?

Thanks, Angie, for such cute contest winnings.  The sheepie is just the cutest stuffed toy I've seen in a while.  The yarn is lovely and so soft. 

This place seems like a dream shop to me.  Pottery lessons and yarn in the same place!!!  I'm not good at either but I love to play with them both.  Way back when, before I started my current traveling job career, I took pottery lessons on Wednesday nights.  I have still have most of my chunky fired pottery.........that didn't blow up in the kiln, that is.  Someday, I'm going to play with clay again.  Delicious, squishy, wonderful clay.

DH and I are about to embark (with the help of our general contractor) on the basement redo project as well as the tear-down and redo of our sunroom (aka room with a moat).  It is very exciting but also full of crossing of fingers and toes that no weird things happen during construction, like, say, a geyser springing up in the yard.  Heaven forbid.  That would be just too much of a "design element" to work around, don't you think?  At least, there should be blog material for a while. 

Oh, Cookie, the contractor is wondering where to order that stripper pole.....

Winners and the 300th post

The randomly selected (DH, paper slips, and a tupperware) winners are:  blogless Nicole, Julie, and Stacey!  Congratulations and thank you everyone for your great suggestions.  The redo of the studio is in the preliminary planning stages.  That is code for we are waiting for the general contractor's bid and the check from the insurance company.  I won't be able to avoid blogging about the basement re-do, so you will see, eventually, the final studio with all the suggestions taken to heart.

My 300th post finds me in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and thankful for high-speed Internet access.  All of Wisconsin is lovely and this area is no exception.  It is so green here and the traffic is certainly much lighter than around the southern part of the state.  So, even for a Monday after a week of vacation, I feel pretty good.

Thanks to everyone who reads this weblog and to all of you that comment.  I've been blogging for about one and a half years and it has really enriched my life.  I've found wonderful new friends through blogging and I've even gotten closer to members of my family that read the blog.  Thanks for enriching my life, you guys.

Contest call and vacation time sinks

How did it get to be Sunday all ready?! 

Have you entered the contest yet?  Or two more times?  If you haven't, all you have to do is comment on this post (or other recent post) as an easy way or go back to the contest announcement post if you have tips for making your studio or knitting or crafting area more comfortable and/or organized.  I'm giving away three prizes and you have to enter by midnight tonight to win!  Hurry!

On Thursday, I joined up with my DSIL and DMIL (surprise!) to visit Loose Ends Yarn Shop in Mayville.  It was a lovely drive from Oconomowoc.  We had a lovely visit at the shop.  It is very charming, has lots of great yarn, and is full of creative ideas.  Besides, Michele was very fun to talk with!   I know Anne and I will be back there!  I purchased a charming bag, a cool pin, and some handspun that I'll have to share with you later due to lazy blogger syndrome.

After the funeral in Omro, we spent the night at the cottage in Oshkosh and finished cleaning the basement on Friday morning.  Saturday was a bit lazy as I read a book and plurked.  There was a bit of laundry cleaned and dried, too.  Plurking is fun but I'm am going to have to be careful that it doesn't become a gargantuan timesink!  Gah!

Today will be spent trying to catch up with a few things before I start work again tomorrow.  I'm heading to northwestern Wisconsin tomorrow.  The drive is very nice and I'm looking forward to it as a nice way to start a Monday.  Especially after a vacation.  Have a great day everyone and remember to enter the contest today!

I think cats can read...

Look what my twin, the Marvelously Evil Stacey, sent me!  She's so creative.   I love the stitch markers!  They are very cool (or should I say hot?) and quite seasonal with the "bite me!" and the SOS08 markers.  Here's the whole package with the very clever handmade card and hollyhock seeds.  Thank you, Stacey!  I know exactly where I'm going to start a few this week. 

I think Black Dot can read.  She was VERY interested in Stacey's stitchmarkers.  And here is what she was trying to do to the black marker..........

It was a lovely day on Monday.  We had very low humidity, blue skies, and temperatures right around 80 degrees (F).  I made a bunch of calls and emails for the basement-related reconstruction, read through the great studio re-organization contest entries, and then ran errands and did some shopping in Madison in the afternoon.  When I returned home, I wandered around the yard, camera in hand, primarily to properly blog my Stacey-gift.  The cats were following me and DH as we discussed the chain-sawing of several large trees that fell in the recent storms.  Blue and White Dot were wrestling, as they do regularly, and I was able to capture the fun with the video feature on the little camera.  Watch for the hanks of fur on White Dot's paws.  Fuzzle enters into the video near the end to check out what the boys were up to.

Please enter the CONTEST!

Catching up, organizing, and a contest!

This morning's sock status report:  The fixation footies came with me to Chicago and are a little bit bigger.  I picked up the gusset stitches this morning because the train didn't have the lighting I needed with my eyes and this part-black yarn.  I picked up those stitches even before my morning caffeine.  Crazy.  I know the footies are not SOS08 material but I just wanted to finish them.  I am l looking forward to returning to the Magic FG socks that DO qualify for SOS.  I'll be using Cookie's Short-Row tutorial for the Magic FG sock heels.  Thanks, Cookie.

Today is the first day of vacation for me and the DH.  We had planned to stay around home even before the recent basement-changing events and that's what we are doing, outside of visiting with family in Wisconsin.  I'm looking forward to doing some finishing up and re-organizing.  We've just been so busy lately that things have been overlooked, put-off, and piled up.  Especially with *stuff* formerly located in the basement, now located scattered around the first floor.  Now there this time to get everything in reasonable order and it will make me feel good.  I just need a little time to get a list together of what all needs to be done.  (Too busy and distracted lately, for sure, to not have a list!)   Here are a few of the fun things:

• Knit socks
• Weave!!  I've had the rigid heddle loom set-up (not warped, Stacey,) for the longest time and now I can get the first project going. 
• Try to get a few buttons on the blog and generally spruce it up.
• and if time presents itself, sew and dye some yarn. 

• Oh, YEAH, and have a contest!  I am probably going to pass the 300 posts mark during this vacation.  To celebrate that and solicit some ideas from everyone, here's my plan:

I have an opportunity to redo the area that I call my studio because of the recent basement event (ahem).  I would like you to comment with ideas for me to consider for the new and improved space.  I would like to read about how you organize your stash or craft area.  Comment with ideas you've found that you think are cool or interesting for organizing or decorating the place that you have designated for knitting, weaving, needlecrafts, and/or other creative endeavors.  Book and website references are very welcome, too.  Even if you don't have an idea, comment to be included in the contest.  Comment on this post or any more recent posts with an idea for me until Sunday, July 6th at midnight.  You can submit any number of ideas or just plain comments for the contest, each a separate comment.  I'll count up to three entries per person.  One prize per person.  I'll choose three winners randomly from the comments.  Thanks in advance for all your ideas.  I'm looking forward to reading them.

ETA:  You don't need an idea to comment for the contest! 

Honeysuckle Sunday

The oregano in my herb garden has just loved this weather.  It was waving around, hogging garden space from the rosemary and the chives and the greek oregano.  So, on Sunday, I hacked off about half the plant.   I harvested a big batch......a fills the sink kind of batch.  Since we are still drying things out in the house, I thought the front porch might be a more successful place to dry.  At least they will look "scenic" for a few days.... I have a dehydrator that I usually dry herbs in but this batch would have required ten of them.

Wisconsin isn't exactly the high desert of California, so it is quite likely that this outside drying of herbs thing may be an experiment gone wrong, but it kept me busy while waiting for our insurance adjuster to make his way to us through the flooded highway infrastructure that is Columbia County.  I found Sunday that I have developed a pacing habit and it isn't something I'm happy about.  I did knit but I kept dropping the yarn.  More yoga for me, I see.  That or see if I can find my cute red GoKnit pouch from Scout that hangs on my belt loop in the debris of my studio.

It was an educational visit.  The news from the adjuster is looking better than initially thought but it isn't final.  The relatively little bit of water and icky-stuff combination did a whole lot of damage to a finished basement.  Today, the clean up guys were here again to remove not-so-sanitary paneling (that, frankly, I won't miss too much), insulation, drywall, and woodwork.  They worked hard ---- until 8:30 pm (!) and they will be back tomorrow morning at 7 am (gasp!) for a few more hours of work.  The cats are confined to the bedroom due to all the drywall dust, nails, and debris that they would be bound to venture through if they were roaming the house.

The honeysuckle is getting a lot of blog time but I do love it.

I'm going to be approaching the 300 post milestone soon so watch for a contest announcement soon.

Winners and the *e*

Contest results!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the birthday comment contest! This morning the entrants were formally processed and the random selection pool device was prepared. DH, being an impartial being, removed his glasses and made the random selections of two entrants. His hand looks almost too large for the random selection pool device but he pulled two names out of the hat bowl pool device. Congratulations to Kathy W. and to Angie (not me, the *other* Angie.)! I've sent you both emails and if you will respond with a snail mail address, your yarny prize(s) will be on the way to you soonly.

*e*

I had a number of suggestions regarding *e* or how to include daily exercise and motivation for it. I'll share an quick run-though with you since I think it is interesting and it qualifies as blog material. *g* One suggestion regarding motivation really struck a chord--don't expect exercise to be fun or a joyful experience. Exercise because it is good for you and because doing it will result in a long-term improvement in health. This suggestion makes me think of flossing my teeth. No, not going to do it now, but how I used to feel about flossing. I didn't floss regularly in my early twenties (*gasp*). I didn't understand the need for it, so I wasn't doing it properly or often enough. One dental visit though, I had a great dental hygenist be very direct with me and explained why I should and what would (not could) happen if I didn't. She was thorough and I changed my dental habits for the better after that explanation. (There was no electro-shock therapy or other violence involved. Just good mental persuasion.)

Another suggestion was to not engage in a desired activity, like knitting, until I had completed my daily 30 minutes or whatever of exercise. Another commenter said she ran two miles every couple of days. She didn't like it but rewarded herself with craft activities after her run. One commenter said she included exercise in the things she did in the morning like showering and dressing to make sure exercise got included each day. One commenter included exercise in her day through dance since she enjoyed dancing.

One commenter also made a big impression on me for ways to exercise when she suggested Denise Austin or Kathy Smith pilates dvds. She said she got rid of her four-baby tummy in a year and these exercises were of the low-sweat variety. Another comment was to have an exercise buddy, someone that depended on me to exercise with. That way, the guilt of potentially letting someone down would motivate me to continue to exercise. Guilt in that context is good.

These are all great suggestions and I think they will add to my methods and motivation to include *e* more often in my daily routine. Of course, there is no "switch" to flip and presto I'm fit, but I'll try to blog more about my efforts and maybe you all will be my virtual exercise buddies. How about that?

Guild Meeting

Tonight is the November meeting of the Madison Knitters Guild. Amy Detjen is our guest speaker. This time I'll have my "mindless" knitting with me so I can be one of many people knitting during the meeting. That will be a lot of knitting in one location! Perhaps my knitting will improve by osmosis!? *g*

A nice yarny blob, err, I mean, blog!

Thank you for all the happy birthday messages! It will be a nice extended birthday weekend with another nice meal or two in store and, as DH says, some birthday loot to open. *g* Don't forget to comment on this blog through Sunday at 9 PM Central and you'll be entered into a pool of names for a random selection of two names to win yarny prizes! (Go on, Great Aunt Jane, you should enter, too! Thanks for your encouragement and off-the-blog comments.)

Here's the photo of the fuschia bag in progress I meant to post the other night. I've made a bit more progress but it doesn't really look any different today....still a nice yarny blob. I need to start my research and note-making about how to, um, turn the corner and make the bottom of the bag. Saving my knitting from frogging is one thing, designing is another. Another brand new adventure.

Before I start my laundry, baking, and other tasks, I wanted to share this from the new Garnet Hill catalog that arrived in this week's mail. The catalog was full of knitted, crocheted, or other hand-crafted items. Isn't this scarf cool? And how about this afghan? It reminds me of a cathedral window quilt. Not that I've made one....yet. And really, I don't need to start a crochet project either.

Gardening, Contest, and a warm furry kitty

The weekend flew by and all the important and necessary tasks were accomplished. The camera batteries wimped out needed charging so no photos today. The bills were paid, the laundry was cleaned and put away or re-packed into the ever-ready suitcase. The cats were groomed and loved and given special treats. Blue-kitty spent several hours last night snoozing in the hollow of my neck and left shoulder. Nice & cozy. I hope he does that when we have the really cold weather. *g*

I spent time in the garden both Saturday and Sunday --- tearing out the frosted tomato and pepper plants, putting away the tomato cages, and digging the carrots. The carrots were a cool and generally successful experiment but I don't think I'll plant them again next year. DH is not really fond of carrots. I'll probably make a carrot cake for my birthday then share the rest of the carrots with my Mom. You know, one of the best things about carrot cake is the cream cheese frosting! Yum! I also did a bit of trimming and cleaning in the herb garden. If anyone needs/wants any lamb's ear next year just let me know. Mine spawned numerous little babies that I'll be transplanting or thinning next Spring. I think lamb's ear is an appropriate plant for a knitter or spinner! Don't you think so, too?

Contest! Low work contest! Since my birthday is this week (on Thursday), I'm having a contest. Well, really, no major effort will be required on your part -- outside of a comment (or two). I am going to send out a yarny prize to two randomly-selected persons who comment anytime today through Sunday night at 9 PM Central time. Fun, right! Low stress? Of course! *VBG*

Yes, I'm on the road again. (Willie Nelson, anyone?) I'm going to see if I can strike a balance between blogs and knitting. No, I'm not taking any bets.