Happy Thanksgiving!

This is one of the funniest turkey-day pics I've seen....



Hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, friends, food and fun (and fiber if you're so inclined!)...

Ten on Thankful Thursday...

Today's a blend of 'Ten on Tuesday' and Thankful Thursday... (26 min left!)...

10 Things You are Thankful for This Year
1. Healthy family, including my cousin's new baby
2. Budget cuts instead of layoffs at work
3. Ravelry and Bloglines and Flickr
4. Local farmer's markets for local food all year round
5. Bailey
6. My church
7. TiVo
8. L.C., S.B., and L.A.
9. Frequent Flyer miles
10.USA

Bailey says: Sometimes it's nice to be treatedy like Royalty!

Yoga Puppy!!

Sometimes he just makes me smile...

Looky, Looky - I won!!

CoggieTM had a contest for her Ravelry anniversary... and I won one of the prizes!! I was pleasantly surprised when she asked me for my address... and delighted when I got home from a brutal day at work and found a wonderful package waiting for me!



The highlight is the Malabrigo Sock yarn in a gorgeous, teal semi-solid! Also was a great journal and soap... not pictured are the edibles (hmmm... I wonder why?? but yes, that's my wine glass in the corner!!). She included a package of Skittles and some fun gold-rock chocolate. And a button with my Ravelray ravatar... I'll save that for Stitches West! Thanks so much!!

Saturday was a fun mail day, too... I received my second package of mini-balls that I've swapped with others in the Ravelry Blankiemania group. What fun!!



And, my addiction to mini-balls is escalating... see these minis all ready and waiting for the next swaps... half will be off for a December swap and then I think I may host one myself in Jan (and might even start my blankie by then...).


But even without an actual blankie-in-progress, the mini-skeins are a fun distraction to all the chaos of work, and the lack of actual knitting... I'm still amazed that it's almost Thanksgiving and how much I have to knit if I'm going to get all my planned holiday gifts completed. (i.e. not a chance!)

So back at 'em...
Happy Knitting!
- JavaNut

Bailey says: Momma, I'm just going to wait until you're ready to play fetch. Could you hurry, please?

Be Thankful...

After the historic US Presidential election last week and the tensions of the continued war efforts in the Middle East... today is a day to be thankful for those that have served our country.

This year we switch from observing the holiday on a convenient Monday, to the actual date, regardless of the day of the week. From the VA website: The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

On a lighter note, today is also Ten on Tuesday (I haven't done a Monday MeMe in a while so this is a good substitute). I didn't like today's topic, so let's go back a week (my blog, my rules)...

Last week's topic is "Ten things I like to talk about"---

1. Knitting!
2. Other crafy things (collage, altered art, sewing...)
3. Living a life of faith
4. Christmas festivities (events, decor, gifts - all of it!)

5. Traveling (including everyone's favorite horror stories)
6. Savings/cost-cutting (I tend to talk about this better than I actually DO this!)
7. Recipes (again, I talk more than do...)
8. Home decorating
9. Balancing work/life
10. my pup, Bailey

And lest we forget this is a knitting blog, my lasted completion:

Louisa Harding's Piper Purse... my friend E gave me the pattern book for my birthday and immediately pointed this out to me. So... easy to guess who is getting this for Christmas!

Main mods: changed handles to longer i-cord strap (d0ubled) and added a lining w/ 3 pockets on one side.

And meanwhile... YogaPuppy!

Thank a Vet -

JavaNut

Change is hard...

and no, I'm not talking about the election, although I do think Obama has an incredibly hard job ahead. Anyone would considering the national and international challenges these days, and on top of that a public mania that is on a high and will be expecting great things - FAST.

It's been 5 days since we changed our clocks.

At which point, I very happily planned to enjoy my extra hour of sleep. The pup hasn't quite adjusted and still thinks we should be getting up WAY TOO EARLY. Not only that, but he's started to check to see if we should be getting up at about 1:30/2am as well. At that hour, a verbal reminder that it's still 'sleep time' is sufficient for him to go back to sleep, but by 5am (today it was even earlier - 4:30am), he starts to get pretty insistent that it's time to play, eat, pee or at least snuggle in the big chair.

But even with my incessant yawning, I'm long overdue for a Thankful Thursday post! So one day away from a weekend (which is always something to be thankful for), I'm thankful

- that I was able to fill my gas tank for $40
- for a co-worker that recognized my coffee mug that I left in a conference room
- for the 25% discount coupon from the huge used bookstore
- for the many decisions I have to make because it means I have choices
- for the stash of yarn and fabric that provide LOTS of creative projects when I don't want to spend money on new ones

Happy Almost-Friday!
- JavaNut

Bailey says: Momma, isn't this more fun than sleeping?

Make it Count!

Did You???

Where have I been?

For something a little different... I found this fun site that creates a map based on where you've visited... It would be interesting to see what it would look like if I excluded my work travels. ok, maybe not that interesting.

Red is where I've been in the US...



create your own personalized map of the USA

And to take a global view... Countries I've visited are in red.


create your own visited country map

That was fun!

- JavaNut

Bailey says: No more traveling, Momma.

Nuts for November

October was tough. I'm ready for a new month and love the start of cooler weather.

And the goblins are gone... yippee! I love costumes and the excitement of kids at the prospect of trick-or-treating, but I'm not a big fan of Halloween in general. It's a dark holiday and although most of the celebrations and such are in good fun, it's still a bit creepy (and sometimes disturbing!) to magnify things that have nothing edifying about them. Don't get me wrong - I'm not the bah-humbug sort, but I'm far more entertained, encouraged and excited about Christmas decorations and lights down the streets.

I did enjoy my extra hour of sleep last night... it was much needed and I wish there were more where that came from. Seriously - how cool would it be to have an extra hour for more than one day. Just as long as it doesn't change the 'daylight' hours. The downside of that extra hour is trying to get Bailey's walk in before it gets dark!

Still thinking about that extra hour... looking at the clock I realize that no knitting tonight if I want to try to get started on catching up at work. Very few stitches for me this weekend, but at least I can post my progress from the trip to China.

First up is the Piper Purse... just waiting for handles and fabric for a simple lining. This isn't a bag I would have chosen to make (although I love cables!!), but a friend gave me the pattern book for my birthday and immediately pointed this pattern out... So Christmas gift for her is almost done.


This is sock #1 with as much done as I could with the one ball I brought with me. Clearly I should have checked the yardage because the ball only has 137 yards! Fortunately I was able to find a 3rd ball at my LYS (the orig 2 were a gift). The foot is a bit big so I'll frog back to the heel and decrease a bit before knitting the foot... Sock #2 has a cuff and leg - about to do the heel.
This is the first heel I've made that isn't a heel-flap. I don't really like the way the heel flap style fits so tried this after-thought technique... maybe next pair will get a short-row. It will be interesting to compare how they each fit.

sigh. 48 hours until the election will be over... I can't wait! I'm tired of all the campaigns and I've never been so tense about election results. My pastor said it so well this morning, that regardless of which candidate you support, the country will be disappointed because we expect a quick fix to decades of problems....

I've voted already and am ready for the rest of the country to do the same. Make it count!
-JavaNut

Bailey says: Momma, this is how I'm spending my extra hour. OK?