Erica's Blog

 A quickie scarf and a couple of Barbie capes.  I'm sure the Things are hoping the capes don't sell. 

Yesterday, Miss Claudia stopped by to lend me a couple of hanging displays that would be perfect for the felted bags.  I think I'll use Nana's towel rack for the scarves.  We'll see.  I need to do a practice set-up tonight or tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANA!  Hope you have a great day today.  Special birthday greetings are here.

  THIS is Nana's birthday present.  I'm glad I can finally post a picture of it.  This is from Carol's Autumn Duo pattern.  I have to wonder if Nana knew what I made her b/c she's been talking a lot about a felted bowl in the window of Mrs. Dvorin's shop.  Hope it was just coincidence, and I hope she likes her bowl.  I think it's sort of a cross between an Indian basket and a sea anemone (b/c of the Squiggle around the top).

At 4:45 a.m., I was in the Things' room, having Grandma help me wake up Thing Two so I could give her more cough medicine.  Poor kid.  Hope Grandma doesn't get sick from having her cough on her all night.

At 7:00, hubby and Grandma left for the airport in the cold.  It was clear out, but there was frost on the ground till after 8:30, so Grandma must have been absolutely freezing.  After that, hubby came home briefly to grab some coffee and leftover donuts, then head off to the early children's ministry teachers' service, then go to the Raiders game with Big Mike.  I feel like a dope; I don't even know who they're playing today!

  As you've probably guessed from the fact that I'm posting at 11:00 on a Sunday morning, the Things and I stayed home for jammie day today.  I just couldn't feel good about Thing Two going to Bible class with that cough.  They probably wouldn't have let her in, anyway.  They slept really late, then read and watched movies while I ran the Roomba in their room.  At the moment, they're playing Barbies.  I have three loads of clean laundry on my bed, waiting to be folded, a load in the washer, and one in the dryer.  We ate the last of the cinnamon rolls (Pillsbury reduced fat ones) for breakfast.  Not sure what we'll do about lunch -- maybe popcorn, unless Thing Two is coughing too much. 

I'm almost done blogging for today, then I can go hole up and knit.  Knitting while I listen to new music on the iPod.  Ahhhhh..........

 The other thing I did yesterday was head back to Joann's to buy a little more Bliss and Moonlight Mohair, then later go to Cottage Yarns to finish off my birthday money.  I was hoping they'd have some recycled sari silk yarn, but they didn't.  As you can see, I ended up with two skeins of Kureyon (one already in use!) and three of Silk Garden.  The Kureyon is in a bag (with some Lamb's Pride), but the Silk Garden will be for something for ME.

As for the KnitPicks order I placed on Thursday night, I got several skeins of WOTA in blues, greens, and red.  I also got some Shadow in Vineyard.  I think that's it.  Honestly, I'm having trouble remembering, and I forgot to log in before I placed the order, so I can't check the order status.  Silly me!

SO, now all my birthday money has been spent on knitting books and yarn.  Woo hoo!  So much for my usual clothes-shopping trip. 

 For Christmas last year, hubby got this book.  He's been wanting to try out a new tamale recipe.  We're going to Mark & Gabriele's house for a SAND-gang pot luck next Sunday, and they're having a Mexican theme, so yesterday hubby decided to do a dry run.  Everyone got in on the act, 'cept yours truly (totally stressed out about having enough inventory for the boutique next Saturday).

Chicken mole tamales.  YUMM!  They were fab. 

OK, time to get caught up....

Unbelievably, HUBBY wanted to go shopping on Friday.  The day after Thanksgiving.  "Black Friday."  Shopping.  We got to the stores late -- didn't leave the house till almost 9:00 a.m.  First, we hit Joann's b/c he had to get some stuff for a secret project at work (I could tell you, but then I'd have to shoot you.  I'll tell you about it once it's over; maybe I'll even post pictures.).  He had even cut out coupons from the flyer that had come in the mail.  I scored a couple of skeins of Caron Bliss, plus one of LB Moonlight Mohair with a bit of my bday money.

THEN, we hit the mall, where hubby dropped some money at Spencer's.  Crazy store!  Don't take little kids in there, folks.  You'll have WAY too much to explain.  I do, however, like to go there for Valentine goodies....

Zo.  Tomorrow eez zee birthday. 

When we came home on Sunday, I had a great surprise waiting for me.  As an anniversary/bday gift, Grandma & the Things had weeded in front & back and had planted phlox and pansies for me in purples and whites -- the main colors I have in the garden.  They put in SO much work!  It was really cool.  Now, if I'd already had a nice garden, and she'd replaced something I'd had, this would have been bad.  However, my garden is thrashed, so this was a VERY thoughtful gesture, NOT a controlling one (unlike when N's MIL re-organized the kitchen when she was gone or undecorated then re-decorated her Christmas tree "right").

I feel like dirt and am officially fighting the crud that's going around.  Last Wednesday & Thursday, I had butt monkeys (Surely you MUST know what I mean by this, right?  I don't have to spell it out, do I?).  Thank God for the box of Pepto that Grandma gave me.  If I hadn't eaten half of it on the way up to Squaw, I wouldn't have made it there. 

Allergy-type drive-you-crazy symptoms.  Sore throat off & on.  Monkeys came back briefly yesterday.  Today, I was barely able to wake up all day.  Didn't get up to go to Curves.  Wore exercise clothes so I could work out between dropping off the Things at their respective schools, but didn't get aroudn to doing that till nearly 1:00, after Thing Two & I both decided we didn't feel like taking her to school.