Busy Weekend

I had a busy, but wonderful weekend.  It started Friday evening. We met my Mom and Step-Dad for dinner, which I always enjoy.  After dinner, we met two friends for beer and music, all of which were wonderful.  The band was great and played a wide variety of music and the female lead singer had an amazing voice. Jane and Andy are always entertaining.

Saturday, we drove to Cary for the Lazy Daze Street Festival.  All I can say is "Wow!" Rows upon rows of beautiful, unique, hand crafted items.  My heart was doing a little happy dance as I took in all the color, texture and talent.  (It also made me realize that I need to get off my rear end and refresh the house.....it's looking a little blah....Oh, to have an unlimited budget. I would spend so much of it an Anthropologie.......I must stay on topic....) Later, after melting in the heat and humidity, we met up with some friends for lunch and I have to say that it was such a wonderful surprise.

Car Guy and I met Daryl years ago when I was pregnant with my youngest (who turns 15 in December...Yikes!).  He and my husband became great friends.  Daryl is truly a wonderful person.  At the time we met him, he was single, so he'd come to visit and get my husband out of my hair while I dealt with our two small children.  It really was great because they were off doing man stuff and I could spend the day with baby spittle on my shirt and a two year holding onto my leg and just be a crazy semi-new mom without my husband asking questions like: "Why is he crying?" "Can you make him stop?" "Are you going to take a shower today?"  "Why are you tired?  The baby only woke up four times last night..."  In case you're wondering, I was extremely lazy on the week-ends because during the week I had to go into work and act like I had it all together and any woman who is a working mother of two small children does not have it together.....just ask one.

Anyway, the wonderful surprise was Daryl's wife Anne.  We haven't ever spent any time together.  Circumstances just haven't worked in our favor.  When she and Daryl first got together, we had small children, so we didn't go out a lot.  Then, once our children were older, more manageable and traveled better, Daryl and Anne had started their family, so they weren't too keen on driving an hour and a half to visit.  I totally understand, but suffice it to say, I didn't know a thing about Anne.  Honestly, I was a little nervous.  Yes, I'm almost 42 years old and I still get nervous meeting some new people.  But this was important.  You see, Daryl and my husband are close in their own way.  Daryl means the world to my husband.  They understand each other and genuinely like spending time together, so it was important to me that Anne and I get along.  As it turns out, I had nothing to be worried about.  Anne is a wonderfully delightful woman.  She's funny, intelligent, with just the right amount of irreverent humor to appeal to my sarcastic nature. She's a mom and a writer, so she understand the craziness of motherhood and the desire to do something creative and she possibly has one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen.  I am so looking forward to getting to know her better and spending more time with them all.

Yesterday we went to breakfast and then I went to my Mom's and watched "Julie and Julia."  This was a delightful movie that, among other things, showed the importance of butter......Did I miss the bigger picture?

So we had a busy, wonderful weekend. And I managed to drag my tired but contented self to work.....Is it 5:00 yet?  I need a nap.

Killer Bunny and The Deck Won.

Oh I'm having a couple of bad days.  It's all the fault of this cute little bunny.

He lives in our yard, leaving little bunny presents on our back porch.  He's so very cute and doesn't scare very easily, unless Car Guy is mowing the grass.

He was visiting yesterday morning and knocked over a small wooden table on the porch.  I heard the table fall and went to investigate.  I bent over to pick up the table, lost my balance and fell.  When I say I fell, I mean I fell hard, no graceful stumble or slump, but BAM! right into the 6" x 6" post that holds up our deck.  I cracked the right side of my head on the post, leaving a nice goose egg on my head and a cut on my ear, then promptly fell on my left side, thus scraping my ankle and elbow and leaving a gigantic bruise on my left hip.  I think the bunny is trying to kill me, but the deck won by giving me one whopper of a headache that has yet to go away. As I lay there crying, thinking "that will leave a mark" I started laughing because if I had a video camera and that had been filmed, I could make some serious dough on America's Funniest Home Videos.  I'm sure I looked like a human version of a pinball bouncing off that post and right onto the ground.

I haven't said much about my obsession with crocheting.  I've been very busy.  I've sort of completed the Midsummer's Night Shaw by Lisa Naskrant that was in the Summer Issue of Interweave Crochet.  I say sort of, because I have to block it.  I've only got two motifs left in the Temair Throw by Nicky Epstein that is available on LionBrand.com.  Then I'll have to make the tassels and put it together.  I've started the Hooked-On-A-Feeling Shrug by Doris Chan that is in the September Issue of Crochet! Magazine.   While I'm working on these, I've been working on various childrens' hats and scarves that a friend of mine sells in her store - Whew!  I'm tired.  But I find I'm happiest when I creating something and it helps take away the guilt when I'm sitting in front of the TV - at least I'm being productive, right?  The sad thing is that I haven't started gifts for my sister, other sister-in-law, 3 nieces, step mother, aunt, and step mother-in-law.  Once you start making hand crafted items, people want them as gifts.  They start expecting them as gifts, which is really flattering....and time consuming.....and special.

OH MY! So pretty.

I've been feeling a little blah lately.  Don't know why.  Could be hormone swings coupled with the rain, but I think I'm coming out of it.  All because of exploring the internet and blogs.

It started in Ravelry.  I was looking at the new patterns and came across one for a Granny Mandala.  The picture made me smile.  All the bright colors.  I LOVE color.  This pattern led me to the Granny Mandala's blog - which, of course, I had to nose through.  I don't know where Alice lives (I haven't had a chance to nose that deeply)  but she has beautiful pictures of flowers, places and crocheted item.  My happiness quota was increased.  In her blog, she suggested that her viewer/reader go to flicker and look at the photos by Elizabeth Cat.  OH MY! One visit here and my happiness quota went through the roof!  So pretty!  More bright happy colors. More beautiful pictures of flowers. And all of this was so artfully arranged. These pictures led me to Elizabeth's blog, which led me to patterns, ideas, INSPIRATION!

These two blogs led me to so many more that I realize I have a great deal of nosing around to do.  I'm so excited.  There are so many amazing creative people in this world. And they are so open and sharing. I'm so glad.

One question though....do all creative people own cats?  I've seen more pictures of content, pleased, superior cats on this exploration.  And before you ask - Yes, two fat ones.  Smokey and Oreo.  Here's Oreo...

I'll have to search up a good one of Smokey later.

But I digress.  All this surfing led to something...Yea!  Suddenly, I'm not so blah.  Suddenly I want to create.  I want to run to the yarn store and blow a third of my paycheck there....then the craft store and blow a third of my paycheck there...and then the fabric store to finish it all off.  Car Guy (the hubby) doesn't need to eat.  And those pesky adolescent boys that call me Mom can go somewhere else to eat since they ate all the food in our house. Then I can go to the cool basement and create stuff while I watch girly shows and movies on TV. Such a happy place....

Sigh...Oh well....It was a nice dream while it lasted.  Time to get back to work...

Long Time Hippy Chick

I THOUGHT that I would post to my blog once a week.  Just like I thought I'd write in my diary every day when I was a teenager.  As you can guess, that didn't happen either.  I'm not posting my old diary to prove it though.  Some things just shouldn't be revisited.  I just get busy.  Other things take priority. Like my family.  This summer my children have been to the beach with the whole family (all 16 of us - YIKES), been to wrestling camp at ASU and gone to Georgia with their grandmother.  They've been very busy and now, as I look at the calendar, I realize that school will start in two and a half weeks. I am the mother of two high school students....How did this happen?!?!  I mean, I know how it "happened," but how did they grow up so quickly?  Sigh.  I'm sure this is nothing that a vat of chocolate won't help...

Speaking of chocolate - great segue to get away from depressing topics like aging - I went to Asheville last week end to visit my cousins.  We had a wonderful time.  We went to this wonderful shop called Chocolate Fetish. YUMMY!!  My hips and thighs say thank you.....for the whole weekend!  We ate....and ate....and ate...at Tupelo Honey, Mellow Mushroom....All the food was wonderful.  I now have new jiggly parts and the ninja pounds are in hot pursuit. OK.  I"m getting depressed again.....

SHOES!!! Let me tell you about the wonderful shoes I found.  These just aren't normal shoes.  These are trippy, dippy, hippy shoes.  They are WONDERFUL!  I first saw theses shoes when I was in middle school (grab chocolate, eat) oh so many years ago (grab more chocolate and eat more).  I had this teacher that was soo cool.  I showed up to class the first day and there was this young woman in a prairie skirt, peasant blouse and these great shoes.  She didn't look much older than me and I later found out later that it was her first year teaching - You did a great job Renee!  She made such an impact on me that when we were reunited last year by mutual friends, I remembered her vividly....and her shoes.  She recognizes her influence on my fashion sense because I wear prairie skirts and peasant blouses all the time.  So here's my tribute to Renee and all of us trippy dippy hippy chicks....drum role please......

Not the greatest picture, but these shoes make me so happy.  They remind me of a time when life was easier, for me and the world. AND they were only$8.50!  You can't beat that!  I also bought a beautiful purple peasant blouse.  I wear them with my prairie skirt and smile a lot.