Growing.....

Amaryllis cam, day 7
Donna Lily is growing fast now!
~~~
Here's the trivia question that was posted at work today. I pondered it for a long while! Let me know what you think: I'll give you the answer tomorrow!
What happens at least once a year but not more than 3 of 4 times.
And I tried the answer: When my kids clean their rooms but it was wrong.

The word of the day is sprout

Amaryllis cam, day 6:

She's growing, the little sprout!
~~ All I could think of all day is how I am craving roasted brussel sprouts. Sprout is the word of the day!

Donna Lily, Icicle and sky, oh my!

Here I am. Will you be able to stand all of this plant talk from me?
Let's hope.
Amaryllis Cam, day 5:

Okay, once again, pay no attention to the poor paint deprived wall in back of the plant. I'd love to sit here and pretend that is the wall covering that we purposely picked out with a plan of country shabby as our theme, but honestly, we'd all know I'd be lying. Perhaps someday we'll get around to painting it. Or not. It matters not to me.
So, Donna Lily is growing up. So fast, don't you think? She is leaning a bit to the right. Political at such a young age. I turned her pot around so that the sun will pull her to the left.
I guess I've been all about enjoying photos lately. Like this one:

An icicle on the corner of my house with the solarize setting. This photo is doing double duty here and on my Photo A Day. Icicles like to form on that corner of the house due to gutter troubles. I know. We need to concentrate on home repairs. Don't nag me!
:)
I've been knitting my little fingers off but I'm not going to show you yet. It's the same baby sweater as seen a couple of days ago and I love love it. Love. And it is monopolizing my attention from almost anything else. Which is good if you are the baby sweater but bad if you have come here looking for diverse knitting.
Go little amaryllis go!
Time for one more?

What a beautifully blue sky we had this afternoon. So cold and crisp and Gorgeous on the eyes!

My Belladonna Lily

Amaryllis cam, Day 3

The picture was taken yesterday but I ignored the blog all day long! Nothing personal! :)
And day 4:

It occurs to me that I assume that everyone knows about amaryllis. (amaryllii?) Right, Claudia?
:)
So, while I'm no expert, I'm here to tell you that if you've never grown one, you should. They are fun AND EASY. Easy being the operative word. Just water and watch. It takes about a week or two for the bulb to spring back to life but once it starts growing, there is no stopping it. Give it a drink of water every couple of days and it will reward you with beauty unlike you have seen. They are cheap enough and around the holidays, readily available. This one was bought on clearance at my local grocery store. But you can get them online at The Amaryllis Bulb Company. I ordered many gifts from them this Christmas and they all were preplanted (which is a plus) and healthy looking. I did not buy one for myself, though, imagine?
I give one to my Dad every year and he just loves to watch it grow. It really is like watching a bit of a miracle. You start to feel that if you sit and stare at it long enough, you'd be able to see the movement of its growth. And my Dad, being retired and not many hobbies around, took great delight (such an understatement) at watching and recording its growth. At one time, he measured it every day and figured out that the average overnight growth spurt was 1 inch. I know. That man needs to get out more. But now you know where I get that eccentric side.
How did we ever get along without the internet, really? How would I have ever known that an amaryllis is really a Belladonna Lily? Guess we can just call her Donna Lily.
Grow on!

like a chicken with it's head cut off ~One of my mother's favorite sayings (she has a million of them!)

Amaryllis cam, day 2:

Go, little amaryllis, go!
Today's frigid day was spent getting up way too early for work, picking up Bethany at school for a weekend home and all that is included in those things. My day was spent running from one end to the other and some shivering in between. Now? Andy's picking up some pizza for Friday dinner and I plan to plant my self on the couch.
Do you think I need to post a Do Not Disturb sign or is it implied?

Green Mountain Spinnery Hat finished just in time for frigid cold

Andy's hat is finished. Again. This time it fits well without the conehead effect, which honestly is not flattering on anyone no matter what they tell you!

Pattern: Green Mountain Spinnery Earflap hat pattern (which I cannot find on the net anywhere. If you want the pattern, I'm sure you can call them!)
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Alpaca Elegance
Needle size: US4
Just in time too as tomorrow's high temperature is forcast at 8F. brr. I did say I wanted winter. Didn't I?
Hat cam:

braid on top of hat (my addition)


I'm sure you want a modeled shot. Here you go!

Monty wearing the ear flap hat. (Monty is a Vermont Teddy Bear)

~~~~
I bought a straggly looking forgotten amaryllis on clearance the other day. I thought I'd do a new daily (or so) feature called AMARYLLIS CAM. It has been planted for about a week and I finally see some small progress. Which if you've had amaryllis before means there will be large progress soon!
Amaryllis Cam, day one:

Go, little amaryllis, go!

Red scarf with Panache

herringbone rib scarf for the Red Scarf Project, 2007
Yarn: Knitpicks Panache, colorway Cranberry, a wonderful mix of Alpaca, Cashmere, silk and merino.
Needle Size: US9
Pattern: Herringbone Rib Scarf designed by the wonderfully talented Li of Life's a Stitch. A free pattern that she will share with you if you did not get yours yet. You should. It's a beautiful pattern. And free. For the asking. Leave her a comment and ask nicely. She shares! You will not regret it. This is a beautiful scarf pattern. Fun to knit, gorgeous to behold.
Closeups?

And a good looking back side too (Oh my! I just felt like I was a dating service or a man auctioneer or something. For charity, of course. Come on! ) :)

The color is all wrong. It is in reality a much deeper red. Cranberry describes it perfectly. For some reason it is a bit color shy today. I even braved the 10F degree weather to take an outside photo and it made not one bit of difference. You'd think a wonderful scarf would be in it's glory in cold weather and want to show it's true colors. Nope.
And believe me, the irony of me standing outside in frigid weather with the winter wind blowing through me while I am taking a picture of a scarf and not wearing one is NOT lost on me.

a baby, some soup and giving thanks

Baby knitting. With Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. Is there anything more satisfying? I think not. A girl baby, as you can perhaps figure out. It's been a while since a friend was having a girl baby. I'm excited! I did not get to knit for my children so I have to knit for others. And you know, if I could actually turn back time I would not change that fact of my past. I'm not sure what I would choose, but it would have to be worthy of turning back time. You know?
Soup's on! There is only one thing I like more than eating soup and that is making it!

Mirepoix for Turkey Barley soup. Carrots, celery including the leaves and onion. We need hot soup around here too as the temperature has dipped. 13F degrees right now. I know that is not as cold as some places. Certainly not the coldest we've had but it is the coldest this year. Our mild winter did not prepare us for the skin stinging cold that greeted me this morning. I'm not complaining, really. What I AM doing is making soup. I could eat soup every single day. Did you know that about me? Perhaps not. It's true. Now you know.
I am having a blast with Maryse's Picture a Day. I hope you'll consider joining in. But you'll forgive me if some of the pictures migrate here as well. (mirepoix, for example)
And finally a big huge THANK YOU to Kim for helping me with some blog stuff. HTML is worse than Greek to me. WORSE. She magically put in categories for the blog and fixed some bugs that I had found. Thanks, Girl! You're the BEST!

I may be a Mom but I'm not MY Mom!!

Okay, look, I almost did something today that would have officially made me "JUST LIKE MY MOTHER".
I know.
You don't know my mother, but you know yours. All those mothers are probably wonderful people but WE don't want to BE them, do we?
No.
Sure. There's probably a couple of you that wish to be exactly like dear old mom. Good for you. I applaud your mother for being such a wonderful influence. My mother? Sure, wonderful woman. And I don't want to be her.
The offending incident? It was bad.
I was making Derek a sandwich. He wanted turkey and roast beef. Not my cup of tea, but whatever. The turkey was feeling sticky to me. Ick. I smelled it. It did not smell, but it was sticky. Gross. I found myself, without even thinking about it, at the sink rinsing off the meat. OHMYGOD. That is the instant when I realized that my mom is lurking inside. She used to "rinse" hot dogs off and cook them for us. Sticky meat apparently did not mean spoiled to her. Looking back though no one ever did die from eating those sticky hot dogs. I may die just thinking about eating rinsed off sticky meat right now.
I stood there at the sink,watching the water coursing over the turkey with the image of those rinsed off hot dogs and the horror of the turning into Mom thing in my mind and quickly tossed those turkey slices in the trash. ~shudder~!
Roast beef sandwich it was.
~~
Chicken plate update: I plan on glueing (gluing? I'm too lazy to google it. Pick your own acceptable spelling) that puppy back together and hanging it on a wall somewhere, the evidence cleverly hidden. I'm sneaky like that. But I don't rinse meat that should be tossed. We've established that sufficiently, right? Sneaky enough to glue a broken gift together and hang it high on a wall, not sneaky enough to serve salmonella on a platter to the people I love.
~~~
Do you see the little thingy on the right showing my photo a day (Or so)? Click that to see the photos. I love how the photo changes when I add one! (little things amuse. Yeah. Yeah.)
You can join in the Photo a day fun too, you know. Go over and give Maryse a heads up and get your camera cranked up! There are plenty of things around your home that are interesting. There is! Don't make me come over there and show you!

Snowmen in a window

I broke the chicken plate and I am a lemming from way back!

I know. I haven't even walked one mile yet. Why do you think I chose the snail? UPDATE: I walked 1.5 miles! Woot! Still a snail, but a snail that is on my way to 100 miles!
In my defense, I am awaiting healthy lungs after the near bronchitis over the holidays. I know my body and walking with lungs feeling like that is not a good thing. But I have no excuse today. I will walk today and get a mile or 2 on there.
The weather, it is freaking me out. Yesterday it was 72F degrees. That's 22C to the rest of the world. I live in New England people. This would be fine if I were Donna. But I live north of the equator. Where is my snow? Where is my cold? I like the seasons, I do. Today is supposed to be "colder" at 50F degrees. Hrmph.
In other lemming news, I have also joined in on the Picture a Day. I need to figure some more things out for this one, perhaps with some help from my computer guru. Every girl needs one. But you can check out my SPOT here. I will be perpetually behind on the picture count as I am joining in late. And what am I thinking anyway, joining in all this stuff? I am a notoriously bad joiner. I don't follow through. It's a proven fact. But I join anyway. Bah.
And today's picture?

I'm just sick about it. Not the picture itself but the broken state of the chicken plate. SICK. I broke it. I have had the plate for exactly a week. My friend MADE It for me. She painted it from her own thoughts and used her hands to paint it. For me. And I broke it. BROKEN CHICKEN PLATE. I'm sick about it. If you heard a heartbroken scream yesterday echoing across the land, it was me. Did I ever tell you that I break things? I don't mean to. But I do. Alot.Not on purpose. The delicious irony of it all is that I love to drink out of glass, eat off of glass, I love glass things. I break glass things. See? Complicated, aren't I?

A shawl, a chicken, artists and fun fur for kids!

You are my friend you are special
Mr. Rogers

That is my way of saying thank you. Again.

Knitting on a chicken plate. Knitting by me. Chicken plate painted by my friend. I cannot believe I am knitting lace. But with a great pattern like Susan's Forest Canopy Shawl and wonderful yarn such as Brook's Farm Four Play that my Norma brought back to me from a fiber fest, how could I go wrong? Lace and me in the past have not gotten along so well. This shawl is something that I cannot wait to get back to, I love it that much. But it does not take a good picture, that is why I put it on a chicken plate. Not just anything looks good on a chicken plate. The US8 needle that I am using is too short and I don't seem to have another one *ahem* available that I can find so I am making due with the shorter needles. I am finding that I like my stitches so close together in this case. However, it is all clumped up on the needles, looking like a hat. A couple people at work have complimented me on this HAT that I am knitting. Thank you, I say. It's easier than getting that look when I say I am knitting a shawl. You know?
It's right about here that I intended to slip in a picture of the latest pair of Fetching that I knit. They were white with a blue stripe on the bottom edge. I'm all about the stripe lately. Stripe is the new black. But I gifted that pair of fetching without so much as a photo. Imagine?
However, I do have this artist's rendition of them.

Creative license was taken with the cables. The cables were not done in pink but in white. But white is a hard one to pull off in a drawing. Ask any artist.
IMPORTANT STUFF HERE
Okay, here's the important stuff. Mini is collecting hand knit hats to give out to the kids in the cancer floor at Children's Hospital. She's having a contest and everything. Her Dad was diagnosed with espohogial cancer and is winning his war. She wants to honor her Dad's stuggle. Mr. Mini wants to honor children. A better cause you'll never find. Sure, we don't love to knit with fun fur as a rule but kids love fun fur. These kids have cancer and they deserve a wacky hat to don. Won't you knit one? Or 10? Go ahead over to Kate's blog and join in. You might win something. But you will be guaranteed a warm, fuzzy feeling. (fuzzy. Heh) Be sure to leave her your name and email address.
TGIF!

The year is new

With a whole week off from work, you'd think I'd be able to pop into this here internets and keep you a bit more informed. Sorry to leave you hanging.
I was indeed sick all week long, but it's mostly over now. My holistic advisor ordered me to get some myrrh. Thinking I must be Jesus or something, I did just that. In retrospect, I do wish they had the capsules in stock because, people Myrrh tastes BAD. That is such an understatement. It tastes like gasoline. But it worked. My wheezy chest cleared up. I drank that poison, er, myrrh for 3 days. On the 4th, I could not bear to drink another drop. I felt as if it were oozing from my pores. All I could smell or taste was gasoline (myrrh). But the suffering was worth it. Now all I have left is that annoying cough that happens when you are trying to do other things like, you know, talk or sleep. That will pass with time. It happens to me every time. Cuts into my sleep time.
Other than that I can't even remember my vacation time except for endless holiday celebrations. They do tend to go on. I am excited to have the new year here because it means I do not have to wrap another present. Hallelujiah.
New Year's Eve was spent here with friends eating munchies, drinking wine and playing scattergories. We had not had total relaxed fun like that in a long while.
So, here I sit, 2007 still new and fresh and I'm feeling lots of things. Mostly, I'm feeling bad about blogging. Or specifically the NOT blogging. This was the first week that I had specifically thought about giving it up. Lately I always feel bad that I am not leaving comments to my favorites. Feeling bad is not a good place for me. I feel always behind the times. I do believe I have not stopped by to wish most of you a Merry Christmas, never mind a happy new year.
And yet, I cannot imagine my life without blogging. I enjoy the connection that I feel here. I would miss it. Perhaps this week long break was a bit needed. I am going to have to do something about this falling behind thing.
And yet, even though I feel like I've slammed the door to my proverbial house, you keep stopping by and lifting me with your presence and friendship. I thank you for that. It is fun, isn't it? How could I even imagine leaving you? Silly really.
I guess in this time of resolutions, my friendships will be my goal. To nurture. To give back. To cultivate. (You HAVE read the poem I posted on Christmas eve, haven't you?)
Thank you for being here for me, dear readers.
Cripes. I've become all sloppy, haven't I?
How about a picture of knitting then to lighten it up a bit?

Andy's Christmas gift. Hat pattern and yarn (alpaca elegance) from Green Mountain Spinnery. Unfortunately it is about 4 inches too long. It sticks up on the top of his head in an unflattering conehead move. My goal today is to fix the decreases. Perhaps a more tradtitional spiral decrease.
Happy New Year to you! I hope you make time for yourself today!