a ball of yarn and a remote control

One month..

...from today is my birthday.

Cake, ice cream and another digit added onto my age.

Oy!

Stay tuned..

Earworm Monday...

Several months ago, Adam introduced me to a song that has stuck in my head for ages.

This video is a bit weird, but the song will stick with you for a while.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Would it not be a scream if somebody re-did the song and changed it to yarn instead of shoes?

Just sayin'.

Stay tuned...

Yay!

Mad Men returns in a few hours!

I Mad Men'd myself a few days ago.

I think it looks just like me.

Stay tuned...

Smile of the Week...

Figuring out what to share this week was easy.

It was all because of these two people.

My parents came up to visit last weekend. 

My weekends are a bit different that most people's.  Instead of the traditional Saturday and Sunday, I get Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  I kinda like having weekdays because I can do things when most people are at work.

On Sunday, we took a little trip and explored more of North Carolina.

This is Chimney Rock, which is about two hours from Charlotte. 

This was taken from the entrance.   The mountain is VERY tall.

This is another pic that I took before we went up the mountain.

Can you see the Hidden Mickey in the clouds?  I know it is just a tiny little whole that looks like his head, but it is still cool.

I am not afraid of heights, but I did get a little worried when I saw this sign..

 

Um.. I was really hoping that there would not be any more rock destruction while I was ON the rock.

Here are some other shots that I took of Chimney Rock as my father and I explored.  (My mom was there, but she did not go as high as we did because she is terrified of heights and preferred to stay a little bit further down.)

 

Look at how tiny everything is from up there.

Here is a flag that flies on top of the mountain.  It is so tiny from down below.  You can actually see it if you look hard at the first pic I posted.

I purposefully took a picture of another tourist, so that they could return the favor.

Here is a pic of my father and me.   Everybody says that we look alike, but neither of us see it.  Do you?

Pardon the camera strap. <sigh>

My mother did join us in a hike to see a nearby waterfall.  The hike was maybe 3/4 of a mile, but it seemed like more.

Along the way, I looked down from the stairs we were descending and saw this guy.

Are his markings not absolutely gorgeous?

The trail was a lot of this..

 

The walk was worth it because the waterfall was gorgeous. 

We spent the night in Boone, NC and enjoyed everything around there.  I was just there earlier in year, but enjoyed it just as much.

I am so thankful to live in such a great state!  This move was one of the better things that I have done in my life.  It is awesome to live in such a beautiful state that has so much to offer.  I have been to the mountains a few times and need to go to the beach now! 

I love quick visits with my parents and living in North Carolina!

What made YOU smile this week?

Stay tuned...

Starstruck...

I am a big soap opera fan. 

For most of my life, I have always watched a soap or two.  Soap Opera Digest has been coming to my house for many years.  There are several soap blogs that I read on a daily basis.

I know my soaps...  even though I am not currently watching anything.  (I quit watching As the World Turns earlier this year after barely missing a day in 7 years.)

For my lunch break, I took the book that I am reading over to Panera Bread to sit and read for a while.

I heard a familiar laugh while I was eating and realized that Marcy Walker was sitting at the table close to me.  She has moved to Charlotte and is working as a youth minister at a nearby church.

In case you can't place her, she played Eden on Santa Barbara and Liza on All My Children. 

Santa Barbara was a favorite of mine for many years, so it was incredibly cool to sit next to Eden Capwell Castillo.  She was basically the main heroine of the show for years.

I was actually going to go up and tell her that I enjoyed watching her, but she was with somebody and was having a really deep conversation.  I did what I felt was right and didn't bug her.

Of course, I wanted to run up and hug her and tell her that I had enjoyed watching her for many hours.

I was good.  I only snapped a picture when she was looking down.

I have had several run-ins with celebrities in my life, but this was my first soap star.

Very cool indeed.

Stay tuned...

Suggestions needed...

I am having a major case of knitter's block.

My scarf is finished and I am almost done with my secret project, but it is not very portable.

Ravelry and I are about to get intimate as I peruse all around to see what fun things are hiding within the site.

I am looking for something to knit that is portable, not necessarily too big and is fairly mindless.  My parents are coming this weekend and we are taking a little road trip.  I want something that I can knit as we ride, but not have to dig around and stare at a pattern the whole time.

Most likely, I will end up starting a sock because they are usually my go to projects.

Before I cast on, does anybody have any fun and exciting ideas for me?  Is there anything you have been knitting that is a lot of fun? 

Stay tuned...

Ten on Tuesday...

Ten Favorite Characters from Television...

Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill.  She was my absolute favorite character through the first few seasons.  She was spunky, fun and would do just about anything to get what she wanted.  The show did a time jump and she has grown up a lot.  She's still Brooke, but I would love to see a bit of the girl from high school every once in a while...

Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood.   Sookie is just fun.  Through the books and the television show, she has really grown to be a favorite character of mine.  I just want to sit down and have some sweet tea with her and chat.

Julia Sugarbaker from Designing Women.  She and her speeches are what made the show so much fun for me.  I am working hard to be able to recite the speech where she talked about her sister Suzanne that ended in "and that is the night that the lights went out in Georgia!"  You could always count on a good speech from Julia whenever things got tough.

Dawson Leary from Dawson's Creek.   I see a lot of myself in Dawson.  He was a dreamer and actually went for those dreams and not letting anything stop him.  The show is over, but I want to think good thoughts of him still doing what he wanted to do.

Felicity Porter from Felicity.  She might have had some moments of indecisiveness and some bad hair days, but watching college through her eyes is what made Felicity one of my favorite shows of all time.  Plus, she was stuck in a yummy love triangle with two boys that both wanted her equally.

Carly Tenney from As the World Turns.  Of all the characters revolving around my former soap, she is the one that I loved to watch.  Maura West, her portrayer, is one of the stronger actresses on that show.  I don't watch it every day any longer, but Carly is probably the one character that I miss the most.

Rickie Vasquez from My So-Called Life.  This is my absolute favorite television show ever, hands down.  Rickie was such a great influence on me and my life because he showed me (a small town boy from Alabama who was figuring out that he was gay) that it was okay to have those feelings. 

Iola Boylin from Mama's Family.  She is my crafting mentor.  Her vacuum cleaner cozies and other "handicrafts" (as she called them) were so much fun.  I want to be as crafty as she is one day!

Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl.  He is just so bad that he is good.  His schemes and just plain badass ways keep me watching.  I cannot wait to see what he does this coming year!

Tobias Bluth from Arrested Development.  He was probably my favorite character from this show that was cancelled far too early.  He was just trying to be a good father, but ended up doing it in hilarious ways.  I miss that show.

Ok.. so this one was hard.  I watch too much television...

Ten on Tuesday

Stay tuned...

Caution: Knitting Ahead!

Sometimes, I forget that this is supposed to be a knitting blog.

I mean, I knit.. but I am not just crazy into it right now.  I read and watch bad tv, plus work and all kinds of other things.

Anyway.. may I present Mabel's Scarf.

 

On New Year's Eve last year, my choir did a short program outside.  My director asked us all to wear fun scarves and it hit me that I, a knitter, did not have a fun scarf to wear.  Gasp!  It saddened me to the point that I started a massive worldwide search for my scarf.

There were lots of hours spent on Ravelry when I finally stumbled up on this scarf. 

The pattern is called Mabel's Scarf and was written by Larissa Brown, who is one of the authors of the book Knitalong.

I think it was the funky design that drew me to the pattern.  Whatever it was, I am glad that it found me.

The biggest dilemma was figuring out what yarn to use.  One day, I was stash diving and found two skeins of Miss Babs Yummy in the Hemlock colorway that I got at SAFF last year. 

That was all she wrote.  I was in love.

I have been working on this scarf for what seems like forever, but it has been fun.   My whole mindset has been one that I could get one more square out.  It's bedtime?  No problem.. one more square.

The only thing is that it is not easy to memorize because of the cool design.  My pattern has been on a magnet board and that thing has gone a lot of places with me.  I'll be happy to not have to take that bulky magnetic thing everywhere I am going.

 

I think that I have something that will be perfect when my director tells us to wear a fun scarf this winter!

Special thanks to Cristi, who served as my photographer and took the pictures with her nifty new camera.

Stay tuned..

Smile of the Week...

This week has been very low key for me and not much has been happening in my world, which accounts for the lack of blogging.

There is one thing that I am thankful for this week (and always) and that is my best friend, Allen.

One night this week was pretty bad for me.  There was nothing really wrong, but just a case of the blahs.  Allen talked me through it and made me feel much better, which he does all the time. 

We have been friends forever and have talked on the phone almost every day for the last I don't want to say how many years.  He knows me better than anybody, so it is always nice to talk to him and have him remind me of things that I had not thought about in a while.  Long late night phone conversations have always been the norm for us, so it was nice to have a few of those this week.

He is always there for me, but it was especially great to have him to dig me out of my funk.

I am thankful for that.

So.. what was YOUR smile of the week?

Stay tuned...