Vera Giveaway!!!

If you know me at all, you know that I'm addicted to Vera Bradley handbags. I could never have too many! There is a great giveaway for a black microfiber Vera here:

Go quick! (but don't win, I want to!)

http://discountfabrichandbags.com/blog/vera-bradley-microfiber-tote-giveaway/

(I can't get the stupid hyper link to work, so cut and paste! Blast stupid blogger!)

Where I've been this week...

It doesn't really explain the rest of the gap in my posting, but this has been a busy week. VBS! The kids wish it would last all summer, but us adults can barely make it a week. This was a fun one. Crocodile Dock. The kids' response to the Bible point each day was "Fear Not!". Very appropriate for my life right now!

This year's main set was really great. I loved it. It was the Bayou.




Here's where I spent my week. Chadder's Theater. Chadder's adventure this year was in the Hokeybadjokey Swamp. I won't give anything away, but I'll just say Fraider was my favorite!


Parker was a Crew Leader and I'm so proud to say he did a great job!


Lilli loved it. Here she is with her Crew.

I will say Corey (the crew leader) suffered through the week with all those girls quite well, even though one of them (nope, not mine) was pretty rough on him! Must have been a little crush going on. hmmmmm.....

I'll be back in the next day or two because I've been tagged! For the first time! My internet friend Maire tagged me and I've got to go read up on what I'm supposed to do.

Friday Firsts

I'm playing along with Leah over at Davisbabies.blogspot.com.

We've long since grown out of the regular "firsts". But we can always scrape up something new to try. Lilli is half past bored already this summer and me being the craft-lovin' mom that I am, we decided to try some finger knitting! Got the idea from a tweet believe it or not. If you'd like to teach your young'uns, head over here:

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/07/finger_knittin_good.html?CMP=OTC-5JF307375954

It's a great tutorial complete with pictures. Lilli picked it up in about 30 seconds flat and has turned into the self-proclaimed Finger Knitting Queen.



Tomorrow will be another first of sorts. Katelyn and Parker will both be spending the majority of the holiday working. Bittersweet it is! So happy for the $$ they're making, but it's awfully weird not to have them around. First of many more times I'll have to give them up for work I suppose.

Been Pretty Quiet Around These Here Parts

We have totally slipped into summer mode. We've been hitting the beach as often as we can. We've visited a friend's pool and the Y pool. We've been to 2 free summer movies and plan to go to another one tomorrow. We've been hitting the bookmobile once a week and really love the media specialist onboard. She's great with the kids. I'm slowly getting used to having Katelyn gone 5 days a week and enjoy having dinner at my sister's house on Thursday nights to visit.

In knitting news, I'm crocheting a baby blanket. You see I got this wild idea that crocheting is somehow faster. I don't know about that. I do know that for me (and I know tons of people have dissenting opinions) it's hideously boring and therefore falls to the bottom of the pile quite frequently. I also started an entrelac scarf. This one is the opposite extreme. Made for knitters with ADD. No easy going grove on this one. You are constantly changing it up every couple of rows. Here it is:



I do need to be better about documenting our summer fun. I'll get right on it. Well.... maybe next week.....

Shawl That Jazz

Here is my latest finished object - Shawl That Jazz. Got the idea from the Yarn Harlot herself. She posted one she made and it was love at first sight for me. Mine is with Malibrigo worsted merino. This is probably my favorite thing I've ever knitted. I love it (okay, maybe it's a tie with my Clapotis). Here are a few pics with the only willing model I could aquire.




I'll be updating my neglected Ravelry projects page today. I've been working on lots of fun stuff (and a couple not so fun).

Score! at Old Navy

I love the smell of a sale on a Saturday morning! I heard tale (and many commercials)of $2 tank tops at Old Navy. I also found out that there was a limit of 5. What's a girl to do? This is FL. Tank tops (sorry Stacy and Clinton) are a fashion staple here. I've got me, Katelyn and Lilli to keep cool and 5 just wouldn't do. So I did what any other cheap/reasonable mom would have done in my shoes. I woke 2 kids up early, armed them with very specific instructions, a coupon (15% off total purchase from oldnavyweekly.com) and off we went. Although there were many people there as of 9:30 a.m. there were a lot of tank tops too. We had great sucess including an on sale beach umbrella. We hit up Sam's for just a couple of staples and were home before 10. Here is our loot.

We Interrupt This Blog for a...

Proud Mama Moment!!!!

So proud of this wonderful girl who has taken on her very first REAL job. It is paying off too.

Here is her very first major purchase that was made by the sweat of her own brow!


I am just thrilled for her and priviledged that I got to share in the moment. It is such a joy to watch your kids make these "adult" transitions. When I was exhausted when they were toddlers, I wish someone would have told me how fun and exciting this part would be and how fast it would come!

Me and my blurry point and shoot (which I'm happy to have!) wish you and your MacDaddy camera years of fun together. Enjoy the fruits of your labors!

I'm so proud of that girl... sniff, sniff.... Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging....

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Last Saturday was officially WWKIP day. Although this is nothing new for me, (knitting in public that is) it was certainly fun to have a designated spot - Panera at the Fashion Square Mall - for all of us stitchers of all kinds to stage a knit in of sorts. Much to Teri's and my slight disappointment, most of the knitters kind of stuck to their own gang even though there were quite a few groups represented. Oh well, I understand wanting to stay in your comfort zone. I did run into another stamper turned knitter. Funny!

Here are some pics:

This is me and Teri acting that we aren't jealous a bit that Tracey is in Alaska! Sheesh!

And this is before the whole gang got there.

See, it does look kind of clicky, doesn't it.

Oh well, any day with knitting is a good day. I enjoyed talking with Edie and Marley and Teri. Certainly a good experience.

Catch Up!

Yup, I'm a complete and total blog slacker. I'll try to catch you up on the last few months. They were very busy ones.

Katelyn was in a fabulous production of Guys and Dolls. Very well done Circle Theater Company!



Then there was the Masquerade Ball. She looks real happy here, huh? She said it was hard to smile in the mask. hmmmm.....




Then there was the SURPRISE sweet 16 party. Seriously do you know how hard it is to pull one of those off??? It was one of my favorite nights ever. Really. All the stuff leading up to it, not so much. It was all worth it and I hate to say it, but I'd probably do it again.




Then there was Lilli's end of the year program. Here she is doing a fine job portraying the Little Red Hen. Yes, May was a month of drama!



And of course there was the annual showing of the work (here with self-portrait)



Then there was my birthday. It was great. I went to a stamping class, had lunch with friends, went to my LYS and finished Shawl that Jazz (pics coming soon) and topped it all off with dinner with the fam at Mellow Mushroom.



Then our hometown boys - the Orlando Magic - made it to the NBA finals. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the hometown spirit.









Yes, I am disappointed. I think they could have won the game physically, but lost it in the mental game. I think we can definitely make the necessary corrections and be a force to be reckoned with next year. Please stay with us Turk and Gortat!

Okay, that is enough catching up for now. I've got more to talk about, but real life is calling!

All Right Already! I stink at blogging!

I have no excuse except that things got a little bit crazy at the beginning of the year. Here's the Reader's Digest Condensed Version:

*Started school at SCC (local community college)to pursue degree in nursing
*Loved school, doing great, very busy!
*Found out I was a high school drop out (shorter version-California and SCC can't seem to get along)
*Got kicked out of SCC
*Hate SCC and their lack of Customer Relations and stupid non-logical bureaucracy
*Took FL GED
*Still hate SCC, etc...
*Will be waiting on GED results for 8-12 weeks so I can be a high school graduate once again.
*After I get the results back, I'll have to decide just how bad I hate SCC and if I want to go back or go elsewhere that is way more expensive.

I sound bitter, don't I? I'm getting over it a little.


On the knitting front, I've got lots of projects going! I have finally fallen into the black hole that is Ravelry. I could look at patterns for months there. Could be the reason for my serious case of startitis. Currently on the needles and being worked on (the ignore pile is way to big to list) are 2 baby blankets (charity for hospital)and feather and fan shawl made from Euroflax and a Branching Out lace scarf made from Kidlin.

For some reason, blogger won't let me post a pic. What's up with that?
Better a post with no pic than no post at all I suppose...