We Survived the Tie Dye Party!

Yesterday was Gillian's 8th birthday party.


The kids all had a fabulous time!

Gillian really wanted a pinata, so we figured out a way to hang it in the garage. It had some cones on it, and after it broke the kids each grabbed one. Ryan immediately put his on for a hat.


The kids had a really good time dyeing the shirts, and they're so proud of what they made!



(I'm not putting pictures of the other two girls because I don't have their parents' permission.)

It turned out to be really awesome that only two other kids came, because I don't know if I could've handled more then four kids doing tie dye at once. LOL!

Here are the shirts that the kids did, plus one of mine (the blue one at the top):


Here's Gillian in one of her shirts:




The part that wasn't cool was that only 2 girls showed up out of the 9 that we invited. People around here don't understand "R.S.V.P" apparently, which does NOT mean "call if you're going to come but ignore if you're not." Then again, it could also be that the kids didn't pass the invitations on to their parents.

Isabel gave Gillian a huge set of sidewalk chalk, and this morning Gillian made this on the chalk board (it's wet wet *wet* outside):


Pretty good job, huh?

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A few posts ago I put some pictures of the Amaryllis, and it turns out it's *not* an Amaryllis, it's a Hippeastrum. I put some of the pollen on the stamens, and it's looking like we're going to get seeds! I'm so excited.

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I finished my Monkey socks with about 4 yards total left from both balls, so it was a little tense toward the end. :-) They're on my feet so I'll try to get some decent pictures in the next day or so.

I hope all of you have had as good a weekend as we have!

I'm thrilled with myself

I love figuring out things, and I'm pretty proud of myself for my latest project.

It's a decal of a drawing I did of a yarn ball with needles!

(And yes, I really did clean only the area where I put the decal, not the whole window--it's raining outside and I figure the rain will wash off the window for me. LOL!)

Here's a close up:


I got vinyl in black, white, and silver, and if it holds up well then I might attempt to sell them. The vinyl I got is supposed to last for 5-6 years in outside exposure, so it should stay looking nice for a while.

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I've had more customer quilts to do lately so I haven't been doing as much knitting as I normally do. I'm closing in on the toes of my Monkey socks, which is good. I'm also getting very low on yarn which is not so good, but I'm trying not to panic. If all else fails I'll just buy another ball and do the toes in a different color or something. It'll all work out!

I also have two other knitting projects going that I can't blog about (yet), but hopefully I'll be able to show them soon.

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I hope you're all having a great week!

Amazing shawl

I got an amazing package in the mail on Friday:

(Not the cat, the shawl!!)



Isn't that absolutely stunning?

It's from Nurhanne, the wonderful person behind Yarn Over. A while back I signed up for the Pay It Forward challenge on her blog, and this is what she sent me!

I'm almost done with the items I'm sending to my three Pay it Forward people, I'm just waiting on one thing to come in the mail to finish it up.

Isn't that an amazing shawl? I'm just flabbergasted.

Thank you, Nurhanne!!!

Alpaca Farm tour

This morning the kids and I went to a local alpaca farm, Broken Arrow Alpacas, and had a great time!

The kids got to pet some brand-new (10-day old) Great Pyrenees puppies:

And feed and pet some alpacas.






What beautiful animals!




After petting the alpacas and puppies, they showed us the bags full of sheared fiber and the roving and yarn that was for sale. I think we (the Tulsa Handspinners) bought more than half of what they had, and one of the other members (thanks Karin!) talked me into taking half of Rosie's fiber from the next shearing, which will probably be in the next few weeks. (I'm not sure which animal is Rosie but I don't think I got a picture of her.) Rosie is one of the white alpacas.

I bought three 1.75 ounce balls of fawn roving, and they threw in a bag of the fiber from the neck and shoulders. It's *so* soft!

Now I want to go spin. :-)

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

It's been busy around here!

The last 24 hours or so have been quite busy around here, getting ready for a new refrigerator!

I know, you're thinking that we're crazy to be so excited about a new fridge, but the old one was 18 years old (I bought it when my parents moved out) and it's been moved many times. The ice maker had died once and the fridge motor was running almost continuously, so I think this new fridge is going to make a huge difference in our energy consumption.

Here's a pic of the old one:

The towel taped to the counter is because there's some really, really sharp tile there and I didn't want to scar the brand new fridge. We'll be putting some wood there to keep the new one in good condition.

Here's the new fridge:


It's HUGE! 22.9 cubic feet. So far it's fabulous! We went for the freezer on the bottom and the french doors (obviously) and I think it's going to be really, really nice.

Here's DD, wanting to be the first to put stuff in the new fridge:


I'm tired. Moving food (and refrigerators) around and cleaning to get ready has made me tired, so I'm going to bed.

I hope you're all having a great week!