Here's the Bunny boy sprawled out in all his glory with that "aren't I adorable" look on his face. Yeah, he's got it rough along with his sister who's pictured below.
She just wants to know, "what's for dinner, Ma" and she's a happy camper. These two sweeties are more like dogs with the constant companionship they give us.....the boy is all Mommy's and the girlsy is all Dad's. They follow each of us respectively, from room to room and they never hesitate to let us know just what they want and when they want it. If we've been out, they are right at the door waiting to greet us and yes, okay, I admit it, we spoil them, but what's a Mom and Dad to do, I ask you.
I've been contemplating having a contest in the near future to guess the exact time and day on which I'll reach my walking goal of 150 miles. My exercise ticker is at the bottom of this page. I've entered some other knitting related contests and they've been fun. The prize will be fiber related with a few extra goodies thrown in for good measure. I'm figuring I'll open the contest somewhere around the halfway mark of 75 miles so check back from time to time if you're interested in participating.
Look at this bright blue sky photo with our palm tree, sparse though it may be. The sky is clear as a bell with a brilliant sunshine, but a bit too hot for me. I love the autumn with it's own beauty, all the colors that spring forth and the crisp, cool air. I'm ready to see the end of this heat and humidity so I say, "bring it on". That's all for now, though I'm knitting away, I just don't have anything completed yet to show you so I wish you all a wonderful weekend with much happiness and good knitting, as always.
Ahh, yes, my big day which always winds up lasting for at least a week and between my family and friends, they manage to see to it that I get a good bit of celebration in before I can officially say the B day is over. We went to dinner last night at a beautiful restaurant and everything was perfect. This morning began with breakfast and a couple of gifts to open, and tonight 2 of my sweet sons are coming over as well. In addition to all this, I am expecting a big gift that my kids went in on to arrive here any day now so when it comes I'll take a picture of it so you can see it too. My wonderful daughter gave me a timely gift certificate that bought me a new keyboard for my computer (don't ask what I spilled on my original one....coffee..ACK!!) and my daughter-in-law who is just the best, hands down, has a gift certificate waiting for me to get a manicure and pedicure.....all I need to do is make the appointment. Wow, I'm so very blessed by having the most wonderful kids ever and a great husband and Mom....even my brother is taking me to dinner next week. I know I'm bragging way too much so forgive my obvious pride here but I wanted to share how lucky I am. It just doesn't get any better than this, I tell you!
On the knitting front I'm knitting away on my "yet to be completed" projects and making some progress which is a good feeling. Everytime I go into the closet where I have my yarn stashed I see another thing I began and left floundering all by itself! The worst of it is I'm longing to try my hand at one of the sweaters from "The Sweater Workshop" by Jackie Fee! What can I be thinking when it's obvious that I'm already drowning in UFO's so there's no need to be inflicting anymore punishment onto myself with yet one more to complete. I did knit the cute little sampler from her book a few years ago which was a good learning tool. Several key techniques are used as you work your way up this creation and I found it a joy all the way. I used Aurora 8 merino yarn in a cool melon color with peach as the second color. I use the sampler now to cover the tin I put my needles in and it looks pretty cute if I do say so myself. I highly recommend this Sweater Workshop because it covers so many things and the author never assumes that you "already know" this or that. To me, that's what a teaching book should do.
"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." Hecato, Greek Philosopher
This is the lovely skein of yarn I won from participating in Basil & Abner's Pet Charity Drive. It's a handspun 100% wool from Midnight Sky Fibers. I love the colors in this and can't wait to try my hand at something with it. Thanks so much to Rebekah who is Basil & Abner's Mommy and who gave so generously of her time and effort to collect all the blankets, toys, etc. for the abandoned pets at shelters in her area.
I've been busy knitting all of my UFO's and the new project as well, which cannot be named in the event my son or his fiancee just happen to read my blog.....yes, I know that's a long shot, but I don't want to take any chances. :)
My mission (should I choose to accept it, of course) is to finally finish the Aran baby blanket before Christmas gets here. Heaven knows, I should be able to accomplish that and finally have this completed....geez, it's only taken me roughly 2 years!
Yesterday I was treated to the most delicious birthday lunch at a lovely, scenic restaurant with my best bud, Kay! We had such a great time as always, never at a loss for words, heaven forbid.
My birthday isn't until next week but I start celebrating early as all of my friends and family know.....don't you just love birthdays, especially your own.....I know I do! She also gave me this pretty Thomas Kincade mug and some candles to set the mood as I knit and sip my hot tea.....oooh, can't wait till it gets colder because then I can really snug in with some of my larger knit projects and be cool, cool, cool while I sip my tea and knit. Yeah, I know it's a dirty job folks, but somebody's got to do it and I'm volunteering.
So, that's about it for now and I wish all of you dear readers a good week filled with all your favorite things and may you find kindness as you go.
I guess you might say that I'm a few (?) days late with my Saturday sky, so here's a Thursday sky fresh from this morning for you. Our deck lends a perfect view of the sky and the changes are amazing sometimes.
I've been keeping myself busy with working on a new schedule of sorts. I'm getting up about an hour earlier and having my coffee, knitting and/or crocheting, 
having breakfast, then walking on the treadmill and doing some reps with my DH's 5 lb. weights. I'm doing those mainly for my arms which need some toning, to say the least! By the time I'm finished exercising, I'm dripping wet and need to cool down before I get my shower. Then, it's time for lunch and either errands or cleaning, wash, ,projects, etc.
This is quite a bit different from my normal routing in terms of timing. I would get up an hour later, put on the coffee, and log onto the computer. Ahhhhh, there's where my trouble began. I would be so into checking out my favorite sites, email, and blogging that I could and sometimes did lose track of time. 
It would fly by which is why it always amazes me that some bloggers can post every day. Geez, I'm impressed, but I can't seem to spend that much time even though I'd love to. After I drug myself away from the computer, I would finally eat my breakfast, which was sometimes 11:00 a.m. and that's way too late. Then I'd do my exercising and shower so we're talking near 1:00 p.m. till I could begin anything else. It also created a late lunch and then a late dinner.....not a good way to go when trying to lose a significant amount of weight.
I'm pretty physched about this new turn around and what I've realized is that I need to put myself and what I need to do before the rest of the days activities. It's so easy to forget that if we don't take care of ourselves, who else will?
I've been logging onto FlyLady'ssite and I've gotta' say, it can be very inspirational in the sense of her message which is "Finally Loving Yourself" (FLYing) and this is something that we gals don't seem to remember. How can we fully love someone else until we start loving ourselves first. It's the same premise as "don't hide your light under a bushel". Don't keep the love you have for yourself stuffed so far down inside that you can just about find it. I was pleasantly surprised that many of the things she tells her members to do, I've always done as a matter of course, which was a nice feeling, let me tell you. However, I could use help in the perfectionist in me and in finally loving myself. Just some thoughts for you to think about too.
"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute!
What you can do, or dream you can, BEGIN it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
BEGIN, and then the work will be completed."
Goethe
Ahh, yes the frigid blast of cold, clear, clean air is like nothing else for pure invigoration.....the winters put the swing back in my step and I love winters best of all. There's pretty much nothing I don't like about cold weather.... snuggling in next to a roaring fire with a pot of hot tea and my knitting, the wind howling outside, the darkness setting in around 5:30 p.m., the beauty of a winter white blanket of snow at night with the full moon shining on it, it's all good, but I digress!
I need to snap myself back to the present reality of heat indexes of 105 and up, low energy (both my own and the local electricity providers), food gone bad way too soon, can't even consider going anywhere that doesn't have air conditioning, and feeling very sad for those who cannot afford it and are literally unable to tolerate this intense heat and humidity. What can you do to cool off when you're feeling like a piece of bacon on a griddle? It's so much easier to warm up than it is to cool down and I heard on the news a few days ago that more people die from the heat than from the cold, so to me, (which I'm sure you've already noticed), it's not my thing....end of rant as I climb down off my "weather" related soapbox. Bernie kindly stepped in and pointed me to a very helpful site, Thur's. If you need any help this site is a great place to start. Bernie also gave me extra hand holding while I plodded my way through to what you see thus far, but all in all, I think it looks pretty good, what about you?
As for my knitting content, I don't really have all that much but my continuing work on the Aran baby blanket, the Opal socks, and the lap blanket. I need to finish one of those before I pick up yet, another unfinished object (UFO) of mine languishing in a lovely yarn basket in one of my closets. So, this is about it for now and I wish all of you a long cool drink in the a/c with a good book or a great knitting project clicking away on your needles.
"Fame never comes to the loafers and sitters,
Life's full of knots in a shifting disguise;
Fate only picks on the cowards and quitters,
So give 'em both barrels---and aim for the eyes.
Grantland Rice
Here's the Bunny boy sprawled out in all his glory with that "aren't I adorable" look on his face. Yeah, he's got it rough along with his sister who's pictured below.
She just wants to know, "what's for dinner, Ma" and she's a happy camper. These two sweeties are more like dogs with the constant companionship they give us.....the boy is all Mommy's and the girlsy is all Dad's. They follow each of us respectively, from room to room and they never hesitate to let us know just what they want and when they want it. If we've been out, they are right at the door waiting to greet us and yes, okay, I admit it, we spoil them, but what's a Mom and Dad to do, I ask you.
