Fast Friday

Peace and Happy Roses!

Wicked and I'm a Bit Barky

Exactly 2 weeks before Jesse was born and this is our Easter photo shoot with James and the bunnies. I was huge! My belly was popping out of that maternity shirt.

Exactly one week from today I will be attending Wicked at the Dayton Schuster Center. Be jealous, be very jealous. I haven't been to a show like this since Junior High/High School Muse Machine with Ms. King. I will totally be wearing my Elphalba arm warmers. After that, I'm not sure what to wear. Pretty sure my orange t-shirt that says "Wicked" is not fancy enough for a night out at a musical.

The next night I will be seeing Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. Control those fits of jealousy, k?

Johnny Stinky?

Watched a segment promoting Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton on Fox this morning and the lady newscaster called hatters "a bit barky". She was British. I found it interesting that most people don't know that hatters were a bit crazy from the mercury used in the felting process of making hats...way back when. Not today. We be much smarter and safer these days. *rolls eyes*

Mercury is a huge deal in the environmental industry. My company owns one of a few Lumex machines used in the field to detect mercury vapors. I used to do mercury clean-up jobs...do as in I'd run the Lumex and keep records of the mercury vapor readings.

In 2005, I was at a facility in Dayton, a large car manufacturer, and they had a mercury spill. I was sent out there as an "initiation" into mercury air monitoring. I had one mercury clean-up job under my belt and was sent to do this job by myself with instructions to "Call if you have questions.". My luck ran true that day. A typical air reading for mercury vapors should be under 2 ug/m3. EPA will investigate readings above 0.3 ug/m3. Know what readings I was getting? 100 ug/m3. Yes. Actually the reading said greater than 100.

Jesse is perfectly normal despite my exposure to mercury. Tho I'm still a bit barky.

Peace and Happy Thursday!

I Knew This Day Was Coming

The day when I have no knitting or crochet to show you. I'd like to blame it on the weather, me being sick, my hands hurt, wahahahahahwahahwahah... But truthfully, I just haven't picked up the needles/hooks in a while. I did 160 stitches last night, looked at the pattern, decided I didn't have the attention span to start on the next part of the pattern and called it a night. Last night I was dipping my toe into getting back into crafting. My two weeks of working nights equated to one entire PennyPress puzzle book completely finished and most of my skull bag completed. It was a slow two weeks. I should have gotten five hats and two arm warmers done. Instead I did puzzles, talked on the phone, watched movies....What can I say, 6PM to 6AM is a suck-ass shift.

So, in other news, Jon cleaned the entire house yesterday. I mean, floors mopped, waxed, laundry put away, clothes ironed. It was serious. He had a horrendous headache, yet still managed to be productive. The man was ironing until 2am. This is the same man that until August of last year, could not iron a no-iron cotton shirt. Then I went had surgery, was laid up for a week in August, took a trip to Texas for a week, and somehow the result of all that is now the man can iron. I wished he'd figured it out 10 years ago.

Jesse and James banned me from their room all weekend. I sent pictures of Nerf-gun toting Jesse to my sister and Dad, which I cannot post here cause, well, my kids don't wear clothes on the weekend. Last night though, it was all "MOMMY! Come help us clean our room!" I was allowed in last night.

Whiz got into a fight. Peace loving gay Whiz hooked up with some cat and got himself wounded proving his pussyhood. I came home Saturday to a driveway full of orange and white fur. Upon investigating my sweet Whiz, who had turned into a spitting, biting, growling demon cat, no visible wounds to speak of but he was hurting. So I put him in the bathroom to calm down. Know who got him calmed down and got him purring again? Not me, the person who has bottle-fed, cared for him after his surgeries, loved him to drooling oblivion. No, Jon got him calmed down. Jon who hates cats, went in the bathroom with Whiz and five minutes later announced to me that Whiz was ready for me to check him for injuries. The man is some kind of whisperer. Whiz is fine now, and no abscesses showed up. I dosed him with amoxicillan for a few days and he seems fine.

Saved my rabbits from Puppy. Puppy is like a fox in the henhouse if he gets into their room. During the saving, I busted my knee and elbow falling and ended up crawling to Puppy and tackling her from the ground, prying the rabbit out her mouth and scruffing her to put her in her kennel. Puppy is an utter fail when it comes to "friendly with cats and rabbits". Rabbits are fine. Boomer Man and Joey are still giving me the stink-eye, but Spice is way over it. Guess after 10 years and being blind she recovers quicker. I found her after the attack huddled under the litter box with just a little bit of bunny butt sticking out. Boomer Man escaped Puppy by jumping up on the cage. Joey took the brunt of the attack and besides being mouthed really good by Puppy, no wounds. Ever hear a rabbit death squeal? No? It isn't fun. Like wailing baby on crack. Just goes staight through you. Joey was doing it even though he wasn't dying. After I saved him, he thumped and chittered at me.

It is only Wednesday and all this has happed in the last four days. Crystal said to me (it was something like this) "Is it bad I like hearing about your life cause it makes me feel better about the crazy in my life?" No, Crystal, it isn't bad. My life is actually really calm. Crazier things could happen to me. :D ;)



Peace and It's Just Another Wednesday!

Do These Flaps Make My Butt Look Big?

I read a post recently where the blogger mentioned something about never buying jeans with flaps on the back. I went to Kohls, they were having their "Buy $50 and get $10 Kohls Cash" thing, and got three new pairs of jeans. My four pairs of jeans from last year have been well loved and washed and are ready for their next reincarnation.

So, yeah? Flaps= more butt mass? I got these, which are 545 Levi's, lowrise/bootcut. I also purchased a pair of 526, stomach flattening, which I am currently wearing as I write this blog. Is it a bad thing I didn't wash the jeans before I wore them? Coochie germs????!!! At any rate, they are COMFORTABLE! Love these! They have two buttons, which I have forgotten to button both after every potty break today, and they do in-fact provide some tummy flattening service.

Lame-O post, but I live in my jeans. LOVE jeans, wear jeans all the time, purchase jeans once a year. It's a big deal in my world. I've worn Levi's since my first pair (512's) which was purchased by my then boyfriends mom in thanks for helping her paint. I remember those, they were skinny with tapered leg. EEEK! Nowadays it is boot-cut all the way, and I'll probably wear boot-cut until I die.

My MIL has never worn a pair of jeans...Ever. I find that amazing.

So what is your jean of choice? You a Lee girl? Did you ever wear Jordache? Old Navy? Gap? Or are you like my MIL?

Peace and Happy Butts!

The Rest of the Story

My mom. What can I say? She makes me smile these days. Never thought I'd get to that place...That place where I can accept her for her. I did, though. Put on my big girl britches and grew up. It had to have taken her some stregnth to let me go, to let me be all these years, and I thank her for it.

I question her memory sometimes, but she is spot on with the Rest of the Story continuing from my last post about the horses who've impacted my life so much. I am missing a picture of Norbushka, and have an amazing one of him that won at the county fair. When I find it in the attic, I'll post it.

Here is my mom's email to me this morning:

Hi, I love the post about horses, wanted to tell you more about them. I got Pari when I was 12 years old. Dad bought him from a friend of Randy's for $75. He was 2 years old, gelded but not broken. I didn't know how to ride, just climbed on. He didn't know he was supposed to be ridden and bucked me off. We continued like this for about a year. Finally we both got the idea of what we were supposed to do. I rode bareback all over. Our favorite picnic spot was the horse area at Loud Thunder near Andalusia, Ill. He was a POA, Pony of America, a breed developed by Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce Indians in the Pacific Northwest. I didn't have his sire and dam certificates, so I registered him by his coloration; blanket, striped hooves, mottled nose; with the National Appaloosa Pony registry. He was 14.1 hands high, and we developed a communication I've never had with any other horse. He was cantankerous! His registered name was Paradox Golddust. When we went to Ohio, I gave him and Puff to the Girl Scout camp and their pictures were in the newspaper about a year later with young riders on them.

Puff was a Pinto Morgan. he had a big white spot on left side that looked like his stuffing was falling out! I got him when I was 13 and he was a yearling stallion. I learned even more about breaking a horse! We were at a show (he had great confirmation, so I showed in halter till I got him broke) and he literally collapsed. We got him up and in the trailer, took him back to stables and discovered his mouth was swollen. Had to have been a snake bite. He couldn't pee or poop. To keep fluids from backing up in his legs, which would've killed him, mom and I walked him constantly for 3 days. We slept in shifts in the car. He finally pooped, though it was extremelly painful. I watched him lose about 150 lbs during that 3 days. It was an amazinhg recovery the vet said wasn't possible. He later developed a cauliflower growth in his eye, (squamous-cell), had it removed once, it came back, had to remove eye, but my horse was alive. I discovered him in pasture in Texas with hole in chest. Vet said it was 13 inches deep. He had reared and comedown on fencepost or small tree. he survived that, too. his name was H.R. Puf'nstuff. We paid $100 for him.

Black Gold was an 8-mo-old stallion colt when my dad and I found him. Wild as hell. I was pregnant with Ben. Paid $200 for him. He had been sold, the papers transferred, when guy didn't finish paying, so he was repossessed. We got him without papers, which essentially amounts to a stolen horse. Auspicious beginnings, huh? I broke him, too. Taught him to tuck hocks and stop on a dime and give change. He kept getting his hoves caught in ground vines or something, ripped a hoof about 3/4 off twice. kept him penned for months till healed. Got to Ohio and you have to have 8ft fence to keep stud, so gelded him. The next year mares were flashing him and he looked at me with such a questioning, befuddled look! He had white sock on left hind foot which is the King Ranch brand. They breed it in to prevent theft.

Norbushka and Quincy came from a stable in Dallas that was going broke. Paid $500 apiece for them. They had come thru Wayne Newton's sale barn. Purebred. Norbushka was freeze-branded on his neck. We didn't have license on trailer, so I prayed we could get to Dallas and home safe. We saw one cop, God put sun in his eyes just as we passed and he didn't stop us. I think truck plates were expired and of course Mike was drinking. We made it. Beverly Floyd brought them to Ohio. Had no place to put them, Mike found pasture there in Springboro for $25 a month. We had to go pump water from old-fashioned pump twice a day. I was pregnant with Katee then. Kippy Dishman helped me. God has always provided for my horses.

POA's are wonderful. Jesse would love one. Very surefooted. I trail-rode Pari, bareback of course, on steep hills he would slide down on his butt. Showed him in Costume Class, driving racing bike with Carla my dog beside me. had corncob pipe in my mouth, Carla had sunflower in her collar, cut holes in straw hat for Pari's ears and had chicken tied on his back. Would smack his butt and he would shake hands with judge. We won a lot. Well, that's the rest of the story! Hope you like it!

Reminiscing

Another post inspired by Sara of We Love It, Don't We.

Puff, my first horsie love. One-eyed Puff. Loved him!

Okay, so I am a tried and true redneck. Oh, I don't live the life now, and I gleefully snicker in my sleeve when others fess up to their redneck moments. While in the back of my mind, I'm going "Thank gawd, I don't wear that badge any more." Not that I'm ashamed of my up-bringing, there isn't too much to be ashamed of, just not much to brag about. Or so I thought.

Pari, Welsh/Appaloosa Pony, Loved him, so, too! Jesse will get a Welsh pony just like him.


A few weeks ago I was talking to my mom, and she was reminiscing about some of my childhood. Things we did like, building a raft out of barrels and old plywood to float in the pond. Which didn't work so well, and we ended up swimming back to shore. WE...we...myself, Janne, Chris, Beka, Ben, Zack, Katee. Man, we got into some interesting shit. In Texas, it was just Janne, me, Chris and occasionally Beka who shared the adventures. But it is Texas that Sara of We Love It, Don't We's post reminded me of those wonderful times we shared. Check out her post, see if it resonates with a childhood you had or dream for your children. Her words put it so eloquently, my yearning for the simpler times of my childhood and my wish for my children's childhood. That freedom of the wide-open air, freedom to imagine, to play, to just be is a core yearning in my heart.

Black Gold, Quarter horse. He was a wonderful horse. This is me at my friend's house circa 1995ish, she'd ride Black Gold and I'd ride Quincy between our two houses. It took hours to ride it. And it was awesome.


Texas, where we had horses. We rode them all the time. A trip to the convenience store involved riding in the bucket of the front end loader. Walking to Grandma's with Blossom, our goat who thought she was a dog. Sleeping on the roof (don't ask, it is amazing we made it of our childhood). Marinating a side of deer in the bathtub in milk. Eating brisket. Making hash brownies. Watching Oprah and her devil-worshippers guests (it was the first episode I ever saw of Oprah). Texas, where I was baptised Presbyterian and Baptist. Texas.

Quincy, the first boy I fell in love with. The reason I love Arabians, love to run, love to ride English. He was wonderful. Picture circa, 1996ish and I will never have those abs again.


Every year about this time I get an itch to drive to Texas. I am fighting the urge every week. I look at my work schedule and plan out if I could sneak out of 5 days and go to Texas. Something draws me every year. My dad for sure, my sister...definitely. Now my mom, whom I reconnected with after almost a decade. She's there. I have another sister, who is expecting her second baby, she's there. The pull though is to east Texas, to go to my dad's, sit with him, talk to him, have Janne join us and the three of us connect. Those hours, I measure my peace in those hours we are together.

Thanks for being patient with my lack of posts this week. The ickies were/are kicking my ass and I just want to sleep sleep sleep. Back at it next week! Have a great weekend!

Peace and Happy Memories!

The Skull

Last week I worked 5PM to 3AM all week. I was sickern a dog last week and with two night shifts going and only two people to work them, I had to work all week even being sick. During the shift I do my thing, but then there is a lot of downtime, so I read, do puzzles, knit or crochet. Not last week, I sat there in the same spot, struggling to stay awake (alive) for nine hours. It sucked.

Tuesday I pleaded and asked for forgiveness from my MIL and sent J&J to her house, even though they were coughing and spewing snot, just so I could try to get ahead of the sickies myself. Lovely woman that she is, she took them and I manned it up for the rest of the week and kept them home with me Mon, Wed, Thurs and Friday. Friday, I slept 17 hours straight, thanks to Jon and by Saturday, I finally felt almost human.

Tuesday, Puppy was my little shadow all day. She followed me from room to room and ended up on Jesse's blanket watching me take pictures. I am sure she thinks I'm an odd duck, looking at the floor for long periods of time. On the other hand, she sleeps with her nose in her butt and is perfectly content. We may be a good pair.


This is my skull project. See that blue, brown, tan strand of yarn? That is a lifeline. This skull project is my very first graph knitting project. I ripped this baby back to the lifeline three times. Lifelines are life/sanity savers.

The inside of the skull project looks like a hot mess.

Stitch markers are life saviors too. This project was fun and I can't wait to show you the finished project!

Who loves skulls?!

Peace and Health!

The Haircut

My love affair with crochet started young. This is my baby blanket my mom made me. I literally loved it to pieces. It was a baby granny square blanket, using probably a mixture of acrylic yarn and wool yarn. The center of the squares were felted making me think wool, followed by a popcorn stitch, round of wool and then a round of double crochet(?). The blanket border was a shell pattern that to this day if I see a crochet shell, my thumb itches to rub it. I may have some tactile issues.

My mom mentioned in the comments in the post below that there is a photo of my sister and I that she keeps in her Bible. It isn't quite the example of a craptastic picture, but it is an example of craptastic hair cuts. Sara of We Love it, Don't we? commented that she'd love to see the homemade haircut pictures.

Well, Sara, here you go! Above is Janne and I and below is Jesse. :D

Please make me smile and tell me Jesse and I look a lot alike. It's in the chin, right?

I've maybe mentioned Jesse's penchant for cutting her own hair...

Peace and Happy Hair!

Pet Peeve and a Confession

I have a pet peeve. Lighting in photographs of products crafters are trying to sell. Dark photos where I have to squint means the photo isn't selling the product. Two clicks ago, I was visiting a crochet/knitter website where she was selling her crocheted hats. It was her individual site, not Etsy, blogspot, wordpress or any of those, but her OWN website. So she knows or paid someone to do a website for her to sell her hats and then put craptastic pictures of the product up. There is also a designer that takes pictures that make me wonder about her pictures sometimes, and I'm even pretty sure she has gone to school for photography.

So, please tell me when my pictures are craptastic, cause come September, most of the items featured each Monday and Tuesday will be for sale on Etsy. Of course between now and then I may make myself a white box and just solve the lighting problem. But sometimes I like to catch pictures of the items in action, so to speak. Constructive criticism is welcome!

I sat with a photographer this weekend and she looked through my two photo albums I did on MyPublisher.com. It was about 700 of my best pictures from 2009. She loved them, said I had a good eye. For a self-taught, read the manual, follow photograph blogs, kinda learning, I was stoked to learn that I am catching some good moments.

Isn't this picture better? Just some lightening and highlighting in Picasa and voila!

This hat is made out of Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends, a bulky 70% acrylic, 30% alpaca yarn. I used the same pattern as the One with the FPDC. I sold that hat for $30 to a friend for her little girl. This hat is sized for a woman and fits snug on the head, covering the tops of the ears.

Peace and Happy Photos!

P.S. It is now February 9, 2010 and my Christmas tree is still up. At what point do I just throw a sheet over it and admit defeat? It is 14 feet tall. I cannot take it down. Jon has to take it down, but it has become that HUGE WHITE ELEPHANT in the room and to keep the peace I've not said a word about the tree since January 15th. Help!

TWO FO's and Snow

Baby girl was up all last night puking. This is her right now, snuggled in the leather chair with her minkee blanket and covered with my bathrobe. Look at those hot cheeks. I think she has the flu. Few good thoughts and prayers for her would be great. She's the calmest sick baby I know.

She slept with me and out of a sound sleep I'd jerk awake hearing her gurgle on puke and she'd still be sleeping. I'd shake her awake and she'd calmly puke in the bowl, let me wipe her face and then snuggled right down to get some more zz's. This morning she asked for medicine and then curled up in the chair to sleep.


Yesterday was snow playing time! She's eating her snot. The FO's are her hat and scarf. I did these two in two days. We attended Grandma's funeral on Saturday and I wanted to make sure the kids stayed warm for the service part at the cemetary.

Pretty pretty pretty. Love this pattern, as you can tell. Her scarf is playing peek-a-boo. The scarf is made out of the leftover yarn from the Sucker Hat. *update: My neice was going to ask me for another hat for another friend, but my MIL ran interference and told her "Don't take advantage of Aunt Sara." So, lesson for my 8 year old neice on manners and easy avoidance of the problem by me. Thanks, MIL!*

Red Heart yarn has a new line of yarn out called Full O' Sheep Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller and is 100% Peruvian Wool which I first heard about on the GoCrochet blog, crochet Designer: Ellen Gormley and couldn't wait to try it out. Gorgeous colors in the line and I've combined the lime green, hot pink and sapphire blue to make Jesse's brim hat. Love this yarn. My favorite wool yarn has previously been Lambs Pride, but it has mohair and can get a bit scratchy. Lambs Pride runs about $7 a skein, whereas Red Heart runs $5. So Red Heart Full O' Sheep is now my favorite go-to wool yarn.

I originally tried knitting a hat with this yarn but the yarn is a one-ply and it broke (casting on requires some significant twisting of the yarn and basically the one-ply has one twist, so untwisting during cast-on caused the yarn to become no-ply and it broke easily during cast on.)

I have cast on a bag project with this yarn, but counteracted the twist problem by using a pattern that called for holding two strands of yarn together. I'll show you this project next week. I'm really excited cause it has a skull. I love skulls.

Check out my 365 Day Picture blog!

Peace and FO's Rock!

Child Tossers

Yes, we do. They are like our own little salad. Just toss 'em around till they cry Cucumber! James and Jesse are doing really really well at their swim lessons. Case in point, Jesse above. Three months ago, this would never had happened, she would have screamed bloody murder and hid under the towels.

Please tell me everyone else tosses their kids in the pool?!

Peace and Happy Swimmers!

Sucker Hat

Remember the hat I made for my niece for Christmas and the hat I made for Ella? Yes, well one was a gift for a family member for a major holiday and the other was for a fellow blogger and we swapped a hat for an apron. So, Even Steven.

My niece runs up to me a few weeks ago and says, "Sara, my friend really liked my hat and she wanted to know if you will make her one." I really wanted to say no, just for this reason (hear me out): if I do it for one friend, how many more requests will I get and then I'm obligated to give the hats away. I didn't say no and I'll bite that bullet if there is one to chew on. On the flip side, I know that if it had been Jesse making the request, I would have happily made hats for all her friends and just called it one of those "obligatory" mom things that I should do for my kid.

I did this hat on my drive to Cleveland two weeks ago. Jon was driving, I was crocheting. It was made using Knit Picks Felici Gelato, which is a 75% superwash merino wool and 25% nylon, fingering weight yarn. I used two strands of yarn held together, since this is a self-striping sock yarn, resulting in a heavy dk weight with a variegated look to the hat.

Peace and Imma Sucker for little redhead girls!

Baby Head Hat

Facebook is great! Jon tells me a newborn's head is about the size of a softball. I was disbelieving so I FBed polled my peeps. Jon was right. *sigh* For the record, my children had big heads at birth. I believe one comment made was "I can't believe she vaginally birthed a head that size with no episiotomy." Yes, TMI, but I feel kinda proud that I did.

Advice I give to first time mommies is "Do the perianal massage and have s-e-x." It worked and saved me untold pain if an episotomy had been done. Ouch.



Newborn hat made for my coworker, who is due in March and had her baby shower at corporate this past Saturday. I knew I couldn't make it and come Friday at 4pm, I had this hat in my purse. It wasn't wrapped and I was panicking a bit. Another coworker took the hat for me to the party and even wrapped it for me. She was a life-saver. With all the stuff happening with Grandma and just life, this little hat got made, but I had to rely on my friend to wrap and deliver it. She's a good lady.

Organic cotton by Lion Brand. This yarn has some bad reviews. Basically saying that the yarn goes to mush after washing and breaks easily. See above on life happening, I didn't wash the hat, I hope it doesn't go to mush. It does break easily if you take a strand and hold it and tug really hard. It did NOT break once in the making of the hat and so, I'm glad I did crochet which is like making knots anyway. I usually love cotton yarn. Great stuff that just gets softer with each washing. Used this pattern on Ravelry. Great little hat and love the "looks like knit" in crochet.

Peace and Warm Baby Heads!

P.S. I've enabled comment moderation. Got my first s-e-x blog follower, which I deleted, but as a precaution, I've enabled the moderation. As you know, this is not one of those kind of blogs. I'm pretty G. So if your comment doesn't show up, it will, when I approve it. Sorry and thanks for understanding. I knew it was coming with the hooker thing, of which is just an honest play on words and most of the "hookers" that comment on my blog are family anyway, so I do like it.