Secret Pals Revealed!

Today's the last day for Secret Pal 5 so last Friday I sent out this last package to my pal Lauren of Life's Just Ducky: Quack Quack!. I don't think she's received the goodies yet but hopefully will very soon.

And my Secret Pal was Paula of pjbknit. Paula was an amazing pal, she pegged me right every time. She sent her last package recently so I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival. I'll show it off as soon as I get it.

Thanks to Rox for hosting Secret Pal 5!

I Can Find Yarn Anywhere

As I said before, I went to the MN State Fair again today. I found this needle felting set and merino roving at the MN made booth in the Empire Commons building. I plan to use this in the future to embellish felted bags. I also watched a woman demonstrate a drop spindle which makes me want to try it out. I aldo have to say you can get THE best blueberry shake in the same building. Mmmmm.

Check out this wall of home spun yarn! So tempting but I resisted.

LOOK at this perfect sheep! I'm fairly sure she's was the winner in the ring today, I didn't watch close enough after she left the ring to see where she came from. Even if she wasn't the winner I think she's pretty.

I took oodles more photos so they may be popping up here occasionally or on my photo blog.

*I've added word verification to my comments due to the spam I've been getting, please don't let this deter you from commenting. I love getting comments and the w.v. is easy so comment away!

Blogging on a Stick

'Tis the time for the great Minnesota get together, the Minnesota State Fair. Rumor has it we have the 2nd largest state fair of all the 50 states. I try to get there a few times while it's going on and managed to get there yesterday with a couple of friends. One of the best parts of the fair is the food. I found the perfect corn dog...at this booth, under the grandstand bridge if any of you are interested. I plan to go again on Tuesday to mosey around, take lots of photos and eat some more. Then Kyle & I will probably head over next weekend for one last hurrah.

Where's the knitting you ask? Today I plan to do a little as soon as I catch up on my blog reading. It's been such a busy week, I haven't picked up the needles much. Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

Mr. Potato Head Night

Tonight we went to the Saints game and they were giving away Mr. Potato Heads! They are the cutest things with Saints jerseys and there's even pig ears on the hat and helmet. There are many interchangable pieces for when he's at bat or in the outfield. Here he his near our ice cream waiting for the game to start, see how we are the only ones in the stands? We wanted to get there early to insure the adoption of a couple spuds.

Play ball!

Since we arrived so early, we also left a little early. The Saints were playing awesome and it looks like they ultimately pulled off a great win of 7-4 over the Kansas City T-Bones. And what goes better with T-Bones than some taters?

Ribbon Box

Last night I went to my local scrapbooking store for a ribbon box workshop. I desperately needed an organizer for my ribbons and this was just the thing. The ribbon spools sit inside and you just dispense them through the holes on either side. Thirty-six spools of ribbon will fit in the box. The project went together nice and fast, maybe something I could make for a gift. Anyone need a ribbon box?

Cool Hunting

Splatgirl & I went cool hunting on Tuesday and managed to hit gold. I've been seeing sculptures from a bridge I go over occasionally and always mean to stop. I was finally riding with someone who didn't mind exploring so we pulled in. This sculpture yard turns out to be that of sculptor Zoran Mojsilov. I managed to snap quite a few photos so they'll be showing up on my photo blog in short order. This particular piece is the one I always spy from the bridge.

We wonder how he moves these heavy rocks around. And look at this! The rocks are 'stitched' together with steel rod.

It appeared that the rock may have been carved with a saw.

Self Portrait Tuesday

I'm finally home and recovered from the weekend. We had a blast, as always, at the track. Here we are working on Saturday in turn 1. Kyle was my captain (see the orange vest?) so I had to do what he said, for the time being at least! The weather was a little cool & breezy but I'd take that any day over sweltering heat. I managed to knit 2 dishcloths, that's all.

This was our view from our corner station on Sunday. Turn 6 & 7 at BIR.

Busy Doing Nothing

I really have nothing exciting to show in the knitting department but I'm allowed to blog about other things right?
I finished up a necklace I've been thinking about for a while. I'm not 100% sure I like it though. I'm not sure about the dangly bits and my clasp isn't effective. I need to work on it a little more. Splatgirl, what do you think?

Casey was kind enough to model it for me.

My yarn diet has been broken...kind of. Tracy says kitchen cotton doesn't count. How could I resist these cool summer colors and $1.99 each? I need some new dishcloths so I plan on whipping some up this weekend while we're away at the moto-races. The names of the colors? Playtime, Summer Splash, Hot Orange, Hot Green. Love it.

Casey had a friend over to play on Tuesday. Her name is Bella, she's a 12 yr old Weimeraner. She's on the left, Casey's on the right. They played nice but Bella destroyed Casey's blue football which is quite a feat considering she has nubs for teeth cuz she chews on rocks. Please, no jokes about Casey having a girlfriend without teeth, he's very sensitive. ;-)

Nice grass eh? I think it's dormant from the hot weather. The green bits are weeds. I rufuse to water, I think it's a waste of resources.
Have a great weekend ya'll.

1 Month to Go!

Only 1 month until I have to get these lovely sockapal2za's out in the mail. As you can see I've cast on for the 2nd sock and I hope to have it knit up a tad quicker than the 1st. Oh ya, remember all the panicking about the yarn? Well, no need for all that. I had a little Barbie sized ball of Koigu leftover. Maybe I'll knit myself a pair of Alison's ankle socks with the 3rd skein!
These socks may look extra long and that's because they are! My sock pal has 10" feet from toe to heel!

Last night I rented the movie Word Wars, I liked it. It was a bit of nerd overload but who doesn't love a nerd now and then? Splatgirl says the book Word Freak is better though. I have this book in my library so I'll get to it one of these months. Speaking of Scrabble, I have a few Scrabble tile stitch markers that I bought off ebay.

Here they are pictured with the leftover Koigu.
Love them. Anyone up for a game?

Yummy Goodness

Tuesday. While knitting on my sock pal's socks, I started to panic. For those of you who know me in person, you know I never panic, right? So I was panicking because I knew, just knew I was going to run out of Koigu before I was finshed with sock #1 (there's only a teensy bit left). Not good since I only bought 2 hanks. Two hanks! If I had to break into #2 I wouldn't have enough yarn for sock #2. Argh.
So, very calmly last night I was going over the scenario with Kyle. He said "go buy some, you'll be really mad if you wait and there's none left." Looked up the phone # to The Yarnery, the shop where I originally bought the Koigu, in June! and called. Do you have KPPPM in this color and this dye lot? YES! We still have it. Great I'll be right there, how could this great yarn still be there? BTW for you Twin Citians...The Yarnery has the best selection of Koigu in the metro area IMO. FF an hour later. How in the world can I visit The Yarnery and not get ice cream at izzy's? I mean they're practically next door (read: 3.1 miles apart) So I get my usual bubble gum with a cotton candy izzy and go to the register to pay up. They have silicone bracelets!! For a dollar!! And the blue one says cotton candy on it and izzy's! So I buy it and bring it home and find out it GLOWS IN THE DARK! Sweet. Life is Good.

Ham Solo

Last night a few of my co-workers and I went to the Saints game to watch my boss' granddaughter walk out the Saints mascot, Ham Solo (Ron, is this right?). Ham Solo is a pig, a big pig. We missed the big show but made it in in time for the game. It was a perfect night, 72°. I met up with my blogging friend Ron and he took me down to the pig pen. Oh boy does that pig have a lot of costumes.

See Ham Solo? No not the neon pig, the other one, near the umpire.

Fun is Good.

I'm Still on a Yarn Diet

Remember I said if people sent me yarn it didn't count against my 'yarn diet'? Well, the other day I got an email from Tracy saying she wanted to trade me for the Noro Shinano I had. She gave me a few options and I basically told her to surprise me, and that she did!!! She sent me a hank of Twinkletoes and a hank of Briggs & Little wool. Wow what a good trading experience. I'm excited to dive into the new yarn, unfortunately I should be working on my sock pal's socks.
I still have 3 skeins of yarn up for trade.

I had a few errands to run today so I decided to release some books for BookCrossing.com. I had a fun time doing this, I didn't want to get caught so I was very sneaky. I left one at the DMV (before this photo was taken so it isn't shown), a bench, top of a garbage can, and at the ATM. I haven't heard if any of the books have been caught yet, I'm hoping someone with a computer finds at least one.

Tonight I'm going to the Saints game with my office and plan to release Vinegar Hill there.

What's in My Handbag?

In hopes that I'm keeping ya'll interested in my blog, I'm tossing in some fun stuff.
I've been seeing this all over the blogging world, what's in my handbag? To start off, my bag is an original seatbelt bag. This is one of three that I own, love them! Then comes the contents. I'll just rattle it all off, along with comments since I'm sure you can pick out the items, they're fairly standard. I have a Listerine Fresh Burst PocketPak, rewetting drops for my eyes ( I wear contacts), MAC Lipglass in the color Greenhouse (which I just noticed is no longer available-boo), a gas receipt (I couldn't even fill the tank since the pump shut off at $50, damn those gas prices), cell phone (Kyle thinks I'm the last person on earth with an old Nokia), keys for work on a Start Seeing Motorcyclists keychain, a fortune from my last meal at my fav Vietnamese restaurant (it reads "If you are afraid to shake the dice, you will never throw a six"),

a nail file in a nifty little case (keeps the lint off), a little Swiss Army knife, a pen from Cycle City in Honolulu (it reads "stolen from Cycle City Honolulu, HI" he he he), my Spy sunglasses, hand lotion (OPI Avojuice Peach Juicie), 4 fake huge diamonds from a wedding we went to last weekend (they were scattered on the tables), a lone penny, nail clipper, my camera condom (usually my camera is in it), Bath & Body Works warm vanilla sugar lip balm, a bubble from a vending machine (it contains a glow-in-the-dark skull ring), duct tape wallet (this holds my license and credit cards), a Transversion envelope pouch which holds cash, change, photos, medical card, insurance card, some brush-ups, B&N member card, Noodles punch card, and a Caribou card. That's what's in my bag.

Busy Beading

As usual these days, I haven't touched my needles. I have been doing plenty of other things though! I made a slew of stitch markers, a few will be for my secret pal and the rest I'm not sure what to do with yet.

I made one more batch of firecrackers and a batch of kinda sorta sours to use up the veggies I got the other day. I still haven't tried anything. Can anyone tell me how long I should wait for it all to be ready? I finished tagging all the jars, realizing the first tags I made had the wrong date listed. Oops.

This is what my desk (read:coffee table) has looked like all weekend. All my bead stuff, my latest book Ursula, Under, computer, TV remote, stack of magazines, sockapal2za sock, and labels for pickles. What a mess. Since I'm a tad OCD this mess is almost driving me crazy. Speaking of messes, I stripped my fridge of all the magnets, photos, junk, etc and reorganized it all. I updated the photos but now I need some new art projects...hint...hint...(this is for my brother). And speaking of my brother, his youngest daughter fell off the monkey bars the other day and broke her arm. She seems to be handling it just fine, when I called last night she was too busy playing to come to the phone. If he updated his blog you could have learned it from him not me. He's thinking of quitting blogging, please tell him not to.

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!

Canning Complete

I completed my canning goal! Making pickles was a lot of fun, and something I've never done before. I followed Alton Brown's recipes, the firecrackers and AB's B & B's. I changed the recipes just a bit and canned in a more traditional manner rather than placing the veggies in a spring top jar as reccomended. I can't wait to dive into these jars. It's reccomended to wait 2 days to 1 week before eating the firecrackers and I'm guessing at least a couple days for the pickles. Splatgirl thinks the firecrackers are going to be HOT HOT HOT.

I purchased 2 bundles of carrots + 1 bin. The carrots on the bundles were a bit bigger so I sliced them in 1/2 where as the carrots in the bin were small enough to place in the jars whole.

I took home a half bushel of cucumbers and used almost all of them in 12 jars. I think I have 6 remaining.

What did I spend at the farmer's market? $11. I can't get over it. A half bushel of cucumbers, 2 bundles carrots, 1 bin carrots, 1 bin hot peppers, a bundle of 4 NICE onions, and a bin of mini potatoes.

Go here to see the rest of the photos, you won't be sorry!

Farmer's Market

Splatgirl & I went to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market this morning because I was in search of a few ingredients for some canning ideas. I hit the jackpot and came home to get straight to work. More later...

Got Heel?

This is still the 1st of my sockapal2za's but I finally turned the heel!! Isn't the yarn gorgeous? It's as soft as Casey's fur.
After surfing through the list of sock pal progress, I'm thinking I should have done something a little fancier than 2x2 ribbing.

On another note, I am not happy with not being able to reply to comments on Blogger. I try my best to track down your emails & blogs so please accept my apology if you don't get a reply to your comment. What do the other Blogger bloggers do?

Are you sure you don't need any of this yarn?

97º, bleh.

August in Minnesota = Hot

Casey says "it's hot hot hot out here".

I know I say this each month but I can't believe August is already here. August brings the MN State Fair, my city festival and parade, (more) hot weather, corn on the cob and farmers markets.

As far as my monthy goals? Of course working on the sockapal2za socks is on the top, I need to do a little house cleaning/purging, I'd like to start a few Christmas gifts and make some refrigerator pickles. After this last weekend, which was SUPER busy, I"m looking forward to a short work week. I randomly took a few days off this summer and this week happens to a shhhhoorrrt one, yay!!