Choices / Advice needed! (Edit)

So the Arctic is a no-go. And I'm okay with that.

We're looking into getting a second dachshund - going to the same place from where we got Jackson today to look at his half-brother (a long hair) and his father (!) (a smooth black / tan). The long hair is ours! Coming home on Friday! He is just under a year old, and his name is Chi (rhymes with high or sky)!!

Dan's cousin is getting married this summer. Yesterday while going in to order a bridesmaid dress, Betsy & I found the perfect dress! It's a Marilyn Monroe style dress (like this one, but it doesn't tie at the neck and a little more gathered across the middle - it's black with green stems / two shades of blue flowers all over it.
Poor cell phone photos - the dress is by Luly K (which I can't find any website for)


I want to make a shawl / wrap as the back and shoulders are bare / open and I know we'll be in church and a long car ride so I want something to cover me if I get a chill. However, the wedding is in August, Long Island. Any ideas? These are some I already like:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
and with further poking about, I find that I'm really into Kiri (pdf file link) or MagKnits Trellis Wrap or this Candis wrap thing

Opinions?

April 22 - Vacation is almost over!

Anytime I think of something being over and done with, I think of the old HBO show "Baingames" - I tried googling and didn't find much on it - it was around 1984. Ending with "Braingames is now... Over!" anyway.

I am having difficulty with it being so grey and overcast today. Yuck. Hee - I just asked Dan about Brain Games and that set us off a nostalgia whirlwind. Did you watch "SquareOne? (ooh, I found clips!) and "Cloak & Dagger" has been on our local cable stations lately - I caught a few minutes of it, but I remember watching this at my Gram's house with my cousin and something about it really freaked me out. I should watch it again...)

I finished a dishcloth - it's from Mason-Dixon Knitting - I used Sugar'n Cream in a lime and orange color. The colors are best shown in the kitchen photo - it is like looking at peas and carrots. Jackson is there for a length reference.


I really enjoyed this - quick and satisfying. And perhaps most importantly, successful!

I finished reading prep by Curtis Sittenfeld - really liked it alot. I also saw "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit>" - cute! I want a little rabbit from that movie.

Onward to attempt a set of pedicure socks for a friend's mom who has set me and other friends up several times with manicures and pedicures. OR, I could work with the splurge that I bought myself - some Cherry Tree Hill Suri Alpaca for the Trellis Scarf in the Spring IK.

I think I'll be making some banana bread today / tomorrow....

April 17 - vacation!

Happy Easter!

I used those easter chickies in my placecard settings at Easter dinner which I hosted - see, like this:

I love those little chicks. Bitter with Baggage is highly amusing. I would love to see a series with these little chicks and knitting... (it may not top this though)

Easter dinner was a huge success. I'm lucky that my family and in-laws bring just about everything. We clean house / provided the space, no biggie.

My other springy / Easter craft projects included felting the daffodils:
and my wee bunny


Very much in keeping with Project Spectrum unintentionally.

School's out this week. Yay! At the bookstore in town I bought Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Spider - I mentioned how much my 6th graders liked the book. I noticed a poster for the Spider book and commented on how cute it was. Now, here's a moment when New Englanders are just the best ever. The lady gave me the poster, a teacher discount (15%) and tax exemption (even though I didn't have the tax id number!) Wow. I'll shop there again and drop a mention of my students. Something positive in light of all the negative press that has been in the paper lately.

Pictures!

First off, Project Colorswap - April:

Marji was such an amazing swap partner! This box was heavy! She sent along "The Life of Pi" which I have been wanting to read for a while now. There are orange sherbet jelly beans and yellow / buttered popcorn jellybeans! There are orange milk chocaltes! There are items to encourage and help my sewing - a pin cushion / spool holder / tape measure / fabric / pattern!! (Yes Marji - I will try to make the pattern that you sent - can't wait for the tutorial!). There's a lantern moon bee tape measure! There are two skeins of creamy homespun yarn! There are 4 skeins of Classic Elite Flash in a yellow / orange! There's a homemade apron! WOW! I don't know that I can thank you enough - I love everything in there and I look forward to reading more of your blog!

Now for some photos, because I'm now on vacation and they are funny.
Jackson - in his Old Navy polo (it has a pocket) / new Easter duds.


Jackson, as a drunk frat boy


It's a Double Dog Dare (other Old Navy shirt)


Easter is coming...


No really, I can feel it creeping up on me...


Ack! It's a chickie!

Orange-Yellow

A HUGE box arrived on Tuesday, and it was perfect timing. It was a long day to begin with and my evening commute which maybe takes 30 minutes took 75!! The box came from FiberArts Afloat (Marji) for Project Colorswap - so much orange and yellow goodies, that I cannot start to do it justice without the photo to accompany the posting. Thank you thank you thank you - I love everything in there and expect to be gushing about the items for a while :)

Life is crazy. School is crazy. The state of Connecticut is crazy for requiring video footage (on VHS mind you. Old School New England. The most difficult way possible.) for the next level of teaching license.

Tomorrow is a half-day. Then I'm on vacation for a week! I expect I'll catch up on blogging and knitting and reading.

Speaking of which last night I finished "The Time Traveler's Wife" - so compelling, confusing but only if you let it... I had to stay up while the hubster went to sleep. I enjoyed it alot! Next up I think I'll either read "Teacher Man" or "Prep"

Stay tuned for drunken frat photos of Jackson.

My new favorite phrase

If you don't already read Crazy Aunt Pearl you should. I am now adopting "Funky Shui" to describe all areas of my life. It will be my new phrase. Consider this my copyright tribute / acknowledgement.

Phrases that I am done with:
"Describe the lesson's main objectives, including elaboration the expected scientific concepts and processes. Describe the main learning objectives and the use of resources to support students' learning. Describe how you monitored students' learning and what you found out about their understanding of the lesson's main concepts. Describe the instructional adjustments you made in response to your findings about students learning needs during the lesson."

1 week and 1 day until vacation.

Get the kleenex

Oh how awesome is this?
Put your pictures in a Kodak commercial - the link was found through ljcfyi - I was nearly in tears from my own, but in a good way - makes me want to dig up older photos and scan them, then cover the walls in my house floor to ceiling with photos. I have enough. I bet I could. Please leave a comment or email me if you make your own commercial!

Sigh.
It's been a stinky day.

April 2

I almost can't believe that it's April already. Sheesh. As much as the days may drag, all of a sudden they're gone!

Last weekend I went to New York City with Betsy and stayed with our friend VIK. Pictures will be added later.

We went to The Stoned Crow which was very very cool. In fact we stayed there all night!

On Saturday we ventured to South Street Seaport hoping to maybe check out the Bodies but the line was HUGE. We went shopping and bought shoes (Shocking!) We found Seaport Yarn - excellent place! I behaved very well and only bought a pair of needles and some stitch markers. As we ventured on into the city, we went to the Flatiron Lounge for some girly drinks to toast our good friend Jenny who is getting married!. We were quite pleased with ourselves - not being terribly girly-girl gals, we were quite successful in exercising both X chromosomes :) We went to chinatown for dinner at Joe's Shanghai - holy chickens, it was delish!

As if Saturday was not busy enough, our Sunday was quite full too. We met up with another friend Mike, and saw a fellow high school friend perform a very touching tribute in RiddleLikeLove (with a side of ketchup) - so so good! Elizabeth championed some goodcauses while she was alive.

I also discovered Kinokuniya - it took a little hunting, but I found the craft section (thank goodness for origami - it was my clue that I was close!) So many books had dachshunds in them - I didn't buy any knitting or crochet books. Instead, I picked up two bag books (ISBN4-391-62127-4 & ISBN4-8347-2377-1) and a quilt book(ISBN4-89396-868-8). I also grabbed two very cute Totoro notebooks and a book of postcards.
(In looking for links to the books online, I found this site - how cute are those labels? and I never thought to check out clover's website!)

Knitwise, I'm in the midst of several projects that need fixing, so they all bug me right now.