the first day

i first started reading blogs about 2 years ago.  wow!  has it been that long?

when i read a good book i like to find out something more about the author.  and when i found the knitting website www.knitty.com , with all of it's great patterns, i realized that at the end of each of the patterns there were short bios of the designers.  some of these designers had "links" to "blogs".  this was a new word for me.  i had heard the word floating around out there but had never "visited" a blog before.

well it was a wonderful find. there were great pictures of beautiful knitted projects.  help and ideas on knitting and yarn.  and life.  i was, to say at the least.....hooked.

so back to those german/american girls. Rebecca knitting magazine is a great magazine with fun patterns that many knitting bloggers knit from and follow religiously.

one of the very first blogs that i started reading was www.mindofwinter.prettyposies.com  if you are a Rebecca Knitting Magazine fan you must check out Julia's post and great photo shoot on her blog dated Sept. 21st.  so cute and imaginative!!!  great job!!!  and great knitting!!!!  and i love those german to english translations!!!

there is no end to what fun things you can do on these blogs!

one of my life dreams is to someday live by the water.  a place by the beach.  doesn't have to be the ocean.  

 i love to vacation at the ocean but i don't think i want to live at the ocean. i'm fairly close to Lake Michigan.  so are my kids.  i love Lake Michigan.  it's beautiful, calm and has lovely sunsets.

the pottery classes that i have been taking this summer and now into the fall are about 2 hours north in a small town called Glenn, Michigan.  travel another 45 minutes and you are at my daughter and son's houses.  this last friday i met my daughter there for another pottery class.

i was about 25 minutes ahead of schedule and so when i pulled into town i thought i would "check out" this little town a bit more.  the pottery studio is on a farm, but i knew it was very close to the shore line.  so i drove down the road in the opposite direction to find the water.  i wanted to see what some of the homes looked like on the water in such a rural area.

there were very long driveways with multiple mailboxes, so i went down a few of these lanes. 

charming!!!!  then i found a lane that again had mutiple mailboxes and a relator For Sale sign.  curious???

i saw this as an open invitation to go for a drive and check it out.  as i made my way i could see small, cute houses line the shore and then there was a "fork" in the road with that For Sale sign pointing to the right and the path became narrow and wooded, kind of over-grown.  my heart raced and i thought for just a moment, "maybe this is some abandon, run-down, unloved, little cottage that is the place of my dreams".  "maybe it is something that you only hear other people talk about, you know the ones, your neighbor "knows" somebody who has a friend that used to have a cottage on Lake Michigan but in the last storm a tree fell through the roof and now they are selling it as is...blah..blah...blah..."

this is the cottage i'm looking for!!! 

the worst house in the best location!  my husband's a contractor.  i began imagining how i could decorate it with wicker furniture and sea side colors,  we would have sunset evening meals on the deck.....we could spend the next few years working on that thing and have the house of our dreams!!!  my car slowing came around the corner and......

well, it looked like Frank, as in Frank Lloyd Wright built it. 

but that's okay, most of the other one around it didn't.  so there's still hope.

and it's okay to just look.........and dream right!!!!

oh it's magic, that's for sure!!!!!

okay....who is the genius that originally figured out the magic loop knitting technique?  i have the pattern book and there is an author's name on the cover but i don't know that  is the person who originally came up with this idea.

you could give me all the yarn in the world, a 40" circular knitting needle, a nice quiet room and a few days off work (okay a whole week off work) and i would never be able to figure out how to make a circumference the size of my ankle with 40" long needles!!!!  wow!!!!  now this is fun and productive.  

 however, my son-in-law, the engineer, could probably figure it out in the time it would take to watch a football game.  he loves this kind of stuff.  my daughter and i took out the ballwinder and swift one day (i knew he would love this) and he had that thing figured out in a minute, even showed me how to use the spinning thingy on top that i didn't know had a real purpose. oh well.

if you haven't figured it out i've been working on socks using the Magic Loop Method. i really never "minded" the dpns.  but this is wonderful.  and it is going to be soooooo great for sleeves, because sleeves i really do hate. 

i did cheat a bit.  i got to the part tonight where you pick up the gusset stitches and i just could not understand what they were saying in the book (i'm sure it's easy tho) and so i slipped the whole thing onto my trusty dpn, which i know and love, got back on track, and then slipped it all back to "the magic" and i was off and running again.  next time i'm at the LYS i will have them give me a little lesson on this part of the pattern.

this really is magic.  glad i never bothered with learning that "oh so cool" Socks Soar on 2 Cirs.  that is soooo yesterday!!!!

there's nothing like coming home to really great mail to make your day.

today i was welcomed home after a somewhat trying day to mail.  i mean real mail.  not bills, not junk, not even the glossy ads that you get excited about when there is nothing else in the mail to get excited about.  there was a PACKAGE in the mail today!!!!!  a real package. with stuff in it.  that someone took the time to pick out for you.

today was my end and reveil of SP5.  and my gal was great.  she turned out to be Nicole of www.nevillen.blogspot.com   a new blog for me.  check her out sometime.  we're not going to talk about the fact that i don't have pixs of the goodies, but let me share with you what was in that box.  BTW, i know that nicole has a Nifty Swift at her house because my goodies were packed in that box!!!!  (only us knitters notice all that stuff).

Knit Lit II stories about knitters. (which i don't have and never read the first one either) so that will be a great fall, snuggle on the couch read.  maybe i can have my Eleanor Scarf/Throw done for that one!! 

the cutiest notepad with scrapbooking letters that spell out IMAGINE on the cover, a six pack of scented mini highlighters (may throw a few of these in my purse) and "L" shaped post its.

Nicole told me in her letter that she had just learned to crochet so she made me a dishcloth but i'm calling it a spa washcloth and it is going straight into my bathroom!!!!  and my favorite, a mandarin orange candle, that's in the bathroom too.

and last but not least two skeins of soooo soft, baby blue, supermerino yarn, it is made by Artyarn.  this is a new yarn for me.  it is superwash, which is great for socks.   i think it will be just right for footies.  i've been thinking of trying the pattern that allison from the blue blog has on her site.  and now that i'm so hooked on the magic loop (more about that later) i may be up for always having a pair on the needles.

WOW!!!  was i spoiled or what?!  thanks again Nicole.  that was so fun.  i'll think of you as i enjoy these goodies.

this post may totally ruin my reputation (if i have one) but i ate two McDonald's meals recently and they were pretty good!!!!

the Sausage Biscuits w/ Egg is a sometimes favorite with me if i'm having a busy morning and have to grab something on the go.  this happens maybe 4 times a year and when i do get one they really are not too bad.

recently i was told about the Yogurt and Fruit Parfait.  so i got one in the morning and took it to school for lunch.  it was really good.  and it was only $1.00.  what a great price. 

so if you are ever out on the road and need a quick lunch or a yummy, cheap snack stop in the next McDonald's.  i was pleasantly surprised by the "golden arches".

seems like a very fitting title because that's how my life feels right now. 

bits and pieces of time, thoughts, work, projects, conversations, sleep, reading...

do you ever just feel a bit too busy.  but it's all good stuff.  i guess that's how i feel right now.  no real complaints but just like i'm in a bit of a blender.  could be i'm still dealing with "re-entry" issues of starting back to work after having the summer off and my body has still not...caught up.

i enjoyed a long holiday weekend with my daughter and little grandson in town over labor day.  we made a trip to a little, neigborhood water play area, went to IKEA, took a few walks, and a few naps, and had some knitting time.  it was fun to be together and now the son in law is home safe from China!!!!!!!

i still have no FO on the knitting front but have made good progress on all projects.  the scoop du jour is ready for the button band!!!  i plan to work on that this weekend.  the fit so far looks great.  the turtleneck shrug is on the second sleeve.  then it will be on to the "home stretch"  the turtleneck part and done!!!!  the little one year old baby project was on hold for the weekend (because the baby was here) but as soon as he left it was busy needles all week for that project!  i think i have about 80 rows of knitting to go and then the sewing part.  ( i will be "down to the timeline wire on that one"). 

i have new projects lined up of course!!  i want to learn the magic loop, so i'm going to purchase some addi #1 circs for my Purl sock yarn and have my daughter teach me the next time we are together.  and i have things i would like to start but i have told myself "no casting on till something on the needles is finished".  i must be strong!!

i've finished reading The Birth of Venus. it was good.  i enjoyed spending time back in the 1400"s but would never want to live then.  oh the filth!!  not to mention everything else about that time period.  the book that i'm reading now is a fun, relaxing read.  i have wandered from my book club choices for a few months.

in gardening news this weekend i will remove the plants from the front window boxes and replace those plants with fall foliage and mums.  the summer plants in the planters on the side of the house are still "hanging in there".  they don't get as strong of sun.  but the front ones are "spent".  it will be fun to make the changes.  i love fall decorating.  i will also change the decorations on the front door, and begin to change some of the seasonal decorations inside the house too.  i wrote a few weeks ago about my morning glories and moonflowers.  well they have just been blooming like crazy.  10-15 morning glorying blooms at dawn and 10 moonflower blooms last night and tonight looks like there will be 12.  just beautiful.  i enjoy everyone!

some of you may not know this but in blog land today is Blog Day 2005.  it is the official day to broaden our blog horizons.

there are two ways you can do this, either visit 5 new blogs or list 5 of your favorite blogs on your site for hopefully others to visit.  i'm going to list 5 of my favs.  which is hard to do because i have so many.

here they are in random order:

http://chocolateandzucchini.com  wonderful pixs and stories about food and paris

http://knitandtonic.typepad.com  her knitting and humor is not to be missed

www.libertyandlily.blogspot.com  many times she writes about what really matters

http://soulemama.typepad.com  she writes about mothering from her soul

http://yarnstorm.blogs.com  bringing bright colors and creativity to my screen daily

these are some of my many daily reads....check them out....read the archives.....