I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

Yep, I just got back from sunny (but chilly) California. Now I'm leaving for Florida. I got a week at home before I'm off to do another show for the company. I guess they thought I did a good job at the last one.

My finger is healing. I can actually type again (at a real speed). I've been knitting for a couple of weeks. Its awkward, but I just couldn't not knit anymore. I knit the back of a vest on the plane ride to and from CA. I'm working on the fronts (cardigan style) both at the same time. I'm using a self-striping wool/soy yarn and I'm too anal retentive to have the fronts not match up. I'm finding I'm addicted to the striping yarns right now, I think it's the winter doldrums come to call and I need the color in my life. I'm also enjoying the wool/soy blends, they're very silky feeling compared to all wool. I will try to post some update pics when I have a little spare time. Hahaha.

The show in CA was called Natural Foods Expo West. Overwhelming does not even describe it. There must have been well over a thousand companies/vendors represented, maybe 2,000. All with all-natural/organic product. Amazing. I have an all natural/high fructose corn syrup-free household (except for Canada Dry ginger ale and Hershey's chocolate syrup...I can't find an all natural one that actually tastes right in milk) and this show was like going to heaven. I spent my lunch hour mostly in the section of the food vendors, sampling foods, collecting business cards and educating myself. Note to self: "raw" granola/snack bars are not so good. Kashi makes the best frozen pizza I've ever eaten. The roasted vegetable kind is fabulous, now I just have to convince my local grocery store to carry it! I could go on and on about the food, but I won't. Except that I have a guy in CA sending me organic chocolate for eating and baking...and he sent me home with a 5lb bag of organic cane sugar (yep, took it home in my suitcase.) I met some of the nicest people, and discovered some of the most amazing products on this trip. I hope they let me go next year. And I hope it's not 55 and windy again!

I got the chance to work with one of our wonderful demo people at the show (D). She's pregnant and due in May (and about the cutest pregnant woman I've ever seen!). We had great conversations about our different baby experiences, breastfeeding, parenting styles, potty training (her son is Bubba Lou's age). I used the Dr. Sears "Baby Book" a lot because I really liked his and his wife's philosophies and D actually has Dr. Sears and his sons as her pediatricians. One of them actually made a house call on a weekend so she wouldn't have to take her son to the ER. Amazing, although I can't even imagine the bill for that!

I sent my good friend Abbie over at DamselDesigns a birthday present before I left. She posted about the felted bowls I sent her...I'm so happy they are loved. Do you want a big red one for the kitchen? I am contemplating doing up a bunch more (they're quick) and trying my hand at Etsy (okay, okay already). I might even embroider a few, but I like them simple...there's just something so homey about them with out being kitschy. And hey, they're washable.

I'm going to try to post more often after I get back from FL and my life resumes it's "normal" schedule...no promises. I like sleep too much (I refuse to get up before Bubba does), and knitting, and baking. And there's that thing called work I have to contend with.

Keep your fingers crossed for us in the great white north that spring comes quickly and I don't get anymore snow...I can actually see my entire driveway now! The snow in my front yard is still past my knees, though. And it's dirty looking now. It just has to go away. Like Marvin K...will you please go now?

Before the accident

Before my finger-slicing I was on a roll. I was getting so much done I was amazed. Knitting projects were flying off my needles like magic. Pattern by Blue Sky Alpacas, "Cropped Cardigan" Yarn by Rowan, "Cotton Rope"

Top down, no seaming, cast-on to binding-off the sleeves...4 days. Perfect little cardigan for throwing on over a summer dress. That is, if summer ever gets here.

Bubba Lou had a V-Day party at school. I can't do the store-bought card thing, so we made them. Thank you Martha Stewart February edition. We did embellish, though. Everything is better with a little glitter, don't cha think?Fortune Cookie Valentines

Now, Martha shows Hershey Kisses inside these babies, but I don't know how she does it. I put the "fortune" inside and had to bend the wire in half really hard to get the cookie to stay closed. I wonder if she used a heavy-duty florist wire and just didn't say anything to make the rest of us feel inadequate. Well, not me...I had glitter. Everywhere. I'm still sweeping it up. I was using a cookie sheet as a "drip pan" ans Bubba decided to blow the glitter. Yeah, I'm really that stupid sometimes. A 3 year-old and loose glitter, my own fault. But they really are so pretty.

I also finished (with help from Mummie) the Jo Sharp Keyhole Vest. No pictures yet. Sorry. It's really pretty, too. My Mummie picked up the stitches around the arms and neck for me. She loves to do it, and I HATE to do it, so there you go.

Please keep your fingers crossed (and everything else) that I heal quickly, 'cause I'm already dying of boredom and un-finished objects (UFO's). Especially since I can't sew, either. Woe is me.

One last pic. Bubba in her igloo that she and Daddy built.

OOuuuuccchhhhh.

Damn this hurts. Olfa rotary cutting blades are the best. If you ever need to do home surgery, get one. Mine took the tip of my left pointer finger off quite well last night. Yep, explitives hurtled out of my mouth at the speed of light. Upside? No blood on my fabric. Downside? I can't knit until it's healed.

What on this white planet am I going to do with myself?

Oh, did I mention it's raining, sleet and freezing rain today? Ugh. Bubba lou is bouncing off the walls.

Time to go subdue the natives.

Busy As A Bee

For starters, I found a job. I'm now working in the offices of Borlind of Germany, a high-end, natural skin care line from...you guessed it, Germany. The best part is that they gave me the schedule I want so Bubba is now in daycare only 3 days a week. Very nice product, very nice people. They're sending me to Anaheim in March to help out with Expo West, a HUGE natural foods/products show. Should be a lot of fun, a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I've only ever worked a show from the buyer's side of the table.

I've been busy on the knitting front. Everyone I know is having babies! A friend of mine just had her second daughter (her first is one of Natalie's first friends, they're a week apart.) I knit her up the little kimono from "One Skein". And two of the girls I work with now are due any day, so I knit up hats for their impending little ones. Also out of "One Skein". I just love that book, especially when I need a special gift that won't cost me an arm and a leg and knits up in a weekend (or an evening.)

One of the ladies I work with is having a girl, the other is having a boy. Hence the Valentine's color scheme...I just couldn't do blue in February!

I also visted my local yarn store...they sent out a "Superbowl Weekend Sale" email. 40% off ALL LOBSTER POT YARNS!! INCLUDING CASHMERE! For those of you who don't knit, or buy yarn, Lobster Pot is a small, small company in Cape Cod that produces beautiful yarns that are hand-dyed in actual lobster pots. The colors have wonderful New England names like "boiled lobster," "drawn butter," "hydrangea," "cape cod sky." I could go on and on. Anyway, I hit the store at 10 sharp and snagged all the boiled lobster and salt rose cashmere I could afford. Two skeins of each! And one each for Mummie, as well as some seagrass. This yarn is soooo soft, I keep rubbing it on my cheeks. I think the pink is going to become a hat, the red? Any suggestions?

I've also been baking. BubbaLou likes to help. Lick the bowl, that is. Chocolate chip cookies.

Speaking of cookies, one last goodie before I go. Sy got this enormous vase for me just before the holidays. It stands about 2 feet tall and about a foot or 14 inches across. I'd been looking for one that wasn't $250, and my bargain hunter found me one. Too late to fill it with pumpkins, I chose to use all my cookie cutters instead. I collect them, but only the all metal ones. I've got snowflakes, martini glasses, flamingos, camels, almost every animal imaginable, a high-heel shoe, a hand, as well as the classics...heart, bell, tree, snowman, star..anything goes, I love them all. These are one of my favorite things in the "whole wide world," as BubbaLou puts it. They are ultimately destined for a special wall in my kitchen, but until then I just love them in the jar on my table.

If we ever get the walls painted, you'll get to see them in all their glory. I'm actually framing them all , like a giant picture. Who says cookies aren't art? And yes, I do use them. Frequently. Bubba Lou thinks its great fun when I have to dump out the entire vase to get one on the bottom!

Let's Catch Up

Happy New Year from us to you! BubbaLou was so excited to get a crown, hat and two noise-makers. Mama and Daddy were excited that she couldn't blow hard enough to make the noise-makers work! Sy and I actually watched the ball drop with my sister and a friend. We didn't get home until about 1am. I cannot honestly remember the last time I was up that late (by choice.)

Here's a picture of the quilt I did for the holidays. I love it, and think it came out really well for my first quilting attempt, but I will never do it again. Snipping the edges of all of those block nearly did me in. The red you see is the back of the quilt.

On a less happy note, I'm job hunting. The shop I was hired to run has not done the $$ we had anticipated, and the owner cannot afford to cut my paychecks anymore. Yeah, it sucks, but I'm trying to be positive. I have a second interview for an office position today, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

And if anyone who reads this needs yarn, I'll be cleaning out my stash on eBay. Being out of a job and all, I need to generate some $$. I will also be giving up some Hallmark Disney ornaments and some various other "stuff" that, hopefully, someone will just have to have! Give me a few days, but then check out bubbasweepea on eBay!

It's Over!

Finally, December 26th has arrived. Actually, 7:00pm December 25th arrived! My tree was out the door by 8pm, and the rest of the decorations were in their places in the attic by 2pm this afternoon, with the excpetion of the outside stuff. Most of that waits until January thaw. The silver and china is packed away until spring, and my kitchen is back to rights. Aaaaahhhhhh.

Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays and the decorations. We just put them up WAY earlier this season due to a holday cocktail party that never happened. I was soooo tired of sweeping up pine needles...there is something to be said for faux trees.

Naaah, I still couldn't do it. I have a Dyson for a reason.

The holiday was good to us all. BubbaLou especially. The trike was a big hit, as was the Cub Cadet tractor w/ trailer that Poppy brought, and the piano that Nana brought. I know the holidays aren't about the stuff, but damn, Bubba's got it good. She's been circling the island in the kitchen like a shark...she figured out pedalling really quick. Steering, you ask? We're working on it.

Oh, by the way...

I finished my quilt for the living room. I LOVE IT. And for my first attempt at quilting, I think I did a very good job. I will post a pic as soon as I can figure out where the camera went.