WAHOOOOOO!!!

I just paid off my last student loan!

Sent out the electronic payment about 5 minutes ago!

Happy, happy day for me. It seems like I have been paying these suckers off forever but I am FREE!!!

Thank you to the banks that financed my education when I was a bad credit risk.

Who is this kid?

I swear, every day he grows up more and more. There was a very long time in which I thought he would never grow up but...today, he just looked so much older.

He wants to be older like Hannah so bad!

Someone told us when he was born that he was an old soul and there are days I think that they might be right.

Holy Cow Secret Pal!

Wow, you have out done yourself this time!

There is lace weight turquoise and black yarn, kid mohair, S post its, seed beads in silver and metallic gray and blocking pins with knitting shrinky dinks!


You can see them here!
Plus, it looks like you decopauged (sp?) a nice container to put them in specially for me and.....

The NEW issue of Vogue Knitting! Thank you so much!!!!!!

The Weekend

We have stuck pretty close to home this weekend. Hannah came home with a fever on Friday and has been holding up the couch until this morning.

I woke up yesterday and went out to get the paper and saw this in the neighbors yard. What a fun thing! It was put there by a company called " Flamingo by Night". It was the hubby's 30th birthday.


While Hannah was sleeping the day away, Simon was playing on the swingset and doing the whole, wrap the chains around each other and SPIN!
Hannah has had miraculous recovery and is now dressed in her new Snow White dress this morning. I guess she is feeling better!

Nothing much on the agenda for today. I have some errands to run and that is about it.

Have a good one!

Ruffled Mitts

Hannah has been wanting something to keep her hands warm at school in the morning but still allow her to play on the monkey bars and jump rope....so I present to you the Ruffled Mitts from Earth Heart Designs. The pattern is on December 5 or 6 in the 2005 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar.

Yes, I know the stripes don't match but....after I pulled for quite a while to find just the right spot, I still hadn't found it so they were destined to be mismatched. Also, I am a bit dubious of how long they will actually last as a pair. Hannah has a penchant for losing one glove or mitten!

I started them yesterday morning and finished the first one about 7:45 pm last night as Hannah was going to bed. She asked if I would have the other one done by this morning so she could wear them to school??? Hmm...let's see, a child that WANTS to wear something I have knit for her? Why yes, I will do my best to finish them for you. I went to bed about 9:30 pm and I only had to bind off the last 2/3 of the second one and weave in ends on both mitts which I did this morning after I got up and BEFORE Hannah got up.

You can see the look on her face when she came out to the kitchen and found them on the counter waiting for her to put them on her little hands while still in her pajamas.

As I was driving away from dropping her off at school, I saw her showing them off to her friends. Of course, these are the same friends that have been sending requests via Hannah that they would like a felted water bottle sling just like hers....yeah, good luck girls!

I will teach your Mom to knit!

November 2

Happy 35th Birthday to my brother Matthew! Wow, where has the time gone?????

It is also the 9th anniversary of my first date with my husband, David. I swear it hasn’t been that long but apparently I am wrong!!!

Stitch n Bitch was last night but I didn’t take any photos. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood, as it were.

Illanna was there with her friend, Jen, who is from Boston and her Mom owns a yarn shop!!!!

Kelli joined us and is working on another One Skein Wonder for a gift.

Pam & Melanie came by a little later. Melanie had finished lining a bag for Pam that she made from Lion Brand Landscapes. It is HUGE but will hold a whole lotta yarn.

Mary came with her friend, Mary. Mary Snyder has just finished her HUGE shawl and is going to hand paint it so it will no longer be a butter cream color. She was also working on edging for a sweater. I swear that woman only knits on really TINY needles.

Peggy came too and wants us all to take a knitting road trip. Hmmm…sounds fun……….maybe we can pay someone to drive us around!!! Great suggestions Illanna.

Editor's Note: I forgot to mention that Alison was with us via telephone! She called Illanna during SnB. We miss you Alison!!!

Happy Halloween

Here we are at the first house on your trick or treat evening. Yes, that is David dressed up as Goofy. I am dressed up as the Mom.

The kids trick or treating........
The Haul of candy!!! We went to pick out the junk and there wasn't any...most of the candy was chocolate!!!!!

I think we are going to stash some of this away for awhile.
The kids had a great time. Simon ran so hard to keep up with his big sister! I am surprised they lasted as long as they did...almost 2 hours!

Sewing Machines.....

Please excuse the stringy wet hair because I just got out of the shower about 10 minutes before this photo. I realized I needed to take in the shoulders of Hannah's Belle dress for trick or treating tonight and figured it was better to do it this morning and than at 5:30 pm with the kids breathing down my neck to get a move on so we could go out and get CANDY!
I take a whole lotta crap from hubby when I bring out my sewing machine ....I am usually in a hurry and then screw it up so (there is a lot of bad words said after the screw up), I don't sew much at the moment but hopefully, this too will pass in the future.

Hannah & Simon waiting for Mom to finish. Simon kept trying to get on my lap so he could help me by pushing buttons...yeah, that would help. See why I don't sew much????

Pumpkins....and stuff

Rosie & Woody sent this little ghost that sings Jailhouse Rock with Halloween words AND it lights up too. I think the batteries are going to wear out pretty soon or get "lost".

We carved pumpkins last night. The kids are busy drawing their faces!
Simon had no trepidation about putting his hand in his pumpkin but....
Miss Priss was about ready to have a cow when she had to touch the seeds. Hmm..guess she like the idea of a Jack o Lantern but not actually doing any of the work.


And here are the final products.

An Evening with Rosie & Woody

We went out for dinner with Rosie & Woody last night. I can't believe it but it was June the last time we got together, outside of our martini party in September. How can that be?

We saw their babies while we had drinks. Here is Rosie with her lovely bird who is finally getting all of her feathers back.

David & Woody. David is wearing the shirt he wore on our first date 9 YEARS ago come November 2. I haven't seen it in years and it now has a little tear on one of the seams so I don't think it will be around much longer!!!
Rosie & Woody got a new baby named Bella. She is part St. Bernard and something else but a very sweet dog.
This is my kind of cocktail napkin. Pretty much says it all.
And finally, a photo of Rosie & I at the restaurant. Whenever I see her hair I am so tempted to cut all of mine off again...but I have to wait a few more years since I have only been growing mine for 2 years and it is finally reasonable length after all this time!
Thank you Rosie & Woody for a lovely evening yet again.

Kitty & Christmas Knitting

I left my desk chair in my office yesterday and this is what I came back to in my chair.

Damn cat has some nerve!


I have also started knitting my entry for the Christmas Crap Along being hosted by the Knitting Curmudgeon. I will take a photo later today and post it while in progress. I finished about 2/3 yesterday so the knitting will be finished this weekend.

That's all for now folks!!!

Clapotis Revisited

Another couple of weeks, another prayer shawl going out to its recipient tomorrow.

You can see that I make pretty substantial shawls. I am not one to give a piddly little one, I want it to encompass the recipient like a big hug! It is longer than the couch and would easily wrap around me with quite a bit of "elan" after it was around once!

I used about 900 yards of Cotton Ease by Lion Brand and the Clapotis pattern from Knitty.com. I was a little worried about the two colors going together but since the Clap is a parallelogram, it lends itself nicely with the two triangles at either end going in opposite directiosn. It will probably be another year before I make that pattern again, if ever!

Tuesday & Wine

We were cat-sitting our old cat, Elsie, while her owner went to Disneyland and she brought back a Belle bank for Hannah, as seen below, and a light saber for Simon.

Here are the two hams posing for the camera.
Sophie LOVES boxes...and she was in my office playing with this box yesterday.
As you faithful readers know, it is SnB night on Tuesday's. However, it is also Pam's birthday on Thursday. We won't tell you how old she is this year!


We met at the Elephant Bar in Chandler. They had a great happy hour where the drinks and the appetizer's were 1/2 price. The only place they had big enough was out on the patio. The weather was great but the lighting was not!

Here's the birthday girl in the middle with Kelli & Heather.
Illanna brought Zira, who is here for a visit on her world tour. They are posing with Kelli. Zira even has a belly button ring! What a cool Monkey!

For once, there is actually a photo of me on this post and with the birthday girl, no less!

Melanie & Peggy were there too but alas, their photos did not do them justice!

Michelle looked great in her Clapotis and she brought me the 2006 Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar from Costco! Thanks Michelle!
Hmmm...Melanie's birthday is coming up in the next couple of weeks....we might have to hit the Elephant Bar again! Ladies, what do you think?????

8:30 pm Sunday

So, as I was watching Desperate Housewives last night, the doorbell rings around 8:30 pm. Anyone that knows us, knows this is getting pretty late in our house.

I open the door and find this on my doorstep. Hmmm...don't think any of the neighbors left it there so I am wondering who left this on the doorstep.

And here is what is inside....CANDY. I love candy, it is like a food group, especially little snack candy like this that is so easy to eat many pieces before you realize how much you have eaten.
I am going to assume that my Secret Pal dropped it off since she lives in Mesa. However, if it isn't her and the Random Gifter reads my blog, please identify yourself!

We don't want this to go down like the time I got roses delivered to the lab while I was in Grad School from a Secret Admirer. The florist would not give me any clues and I never was able to figure it out! Please don't keep me in suspense!

Editor's Note: It wasn't Secret Pal and it wasn't my girlfriend that lives around the corner. Please don't leave me in suspense.

33" Inseams!

It has been a quiet weekend at Chez HB.  Kinda sounds like Garrison Keillor: “Well, it’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my home town…..”.  I always loved the ending of his News from Lake Wobegon:  “Where all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average.”

If you have never listened to Garrison Keillor and are from the Midwest, you should.  Lake Wobegon is like every small town with the Catholics and the Lutherans and everything in between with a healthy dose of towns people with interesting foibles.  Of course, I can’t ever remember when he is on here in Phoenix…hmm…makes me wonder if I can get him as a podcast or something!!!!    Ok, Ok..but I digress.

So, back to reality!

I took the kids out yesterday and we went around checking the neighborhood garage sales.  Hannah rode her scooter and Simon rode is “big wheel” and they both did a great job staying out of the road and listening.  This is an especially big achievement for Simon as he is 3….an only recently started listening at all!

I only bought a 5 ingredient cookbook.  Nothing else really interested us but it was a nice morning walking around the neighborhood.

We just hung out and had a relaxing Saturday.

Today we stuck close to home too.  The kids and I went grocery shopping while David did some work on the computer.

This afternoon, Hannah & I headed out on our own.    I really need some jeans that fit.  You ladies out there know what I am talking about!  Ashley summed up my jeans shopping perfectly in her “Curvy Girls Guide To Life” post.  I had a coupon for Lane Bryant and there is one close to my house (about 3 miles) so we went over there on a whim.  My main problem is I have a 33 inch inseam.  The regular pants usually have a 31 inch inseam and the tall pants have a 35 inch inseam.  Hmmm…no mans land.  I know I can get them taken up but $12 is a bit much on top of a $60-75 pair of jeans.  Imagine my surprise when, I see their Supreme Brand have an “extended” length of 33 inch inseam!  Yes, you read that right; they have jeans with my EXACT inseam.  Needless to say, I bought 2 pair with a $25 off each pair plus another $25 off a future $50 purchase.  What is not to love?????

Now, if only the “God’s of Pants” would deign themselves to making some regular pants in a 33 inch inseam I would be in PANTS HEAVEN!

Fall Festival

There were two fall festivals to attend yesterday. One at Hannah's school and one at Simon's preschool. So..we headed to Hannah's first and there was a little petting zoo.

Hannah saw a bunch of her friends and had a nice time seeing the animals too!
There was popcorn and lollipops to be had as well as a hug from Dad after they got their glow in the dark necklaces.
A little fishing in the fish pond and we were ready to head out to the next festival........except...some idiot boxed us in with their van! There was no way on God's green earth we were getting out. I even had the Principal made an announcement but they never came out. Thankfully, the truck in front of us came out after about 10 minutes and we were able to get out!
At the preschool, there were a lot of different activities like face painting, temporary tatoos, gummy fangs....
and sunglasses from the fish pond!
It was a good evening had by all!

On the knitting front, I have a recipient for the shawl. A friend lost her Mother unexpectedly last week so...I guess there was a reason I started it over the weekend.

Off the Vine

David & I went to the Hospice of the Valley, Off the Vine Event last night. It was held outside at the Royal Palms Hotel.

You walked past this really pretty pool & fountain before you stepped down into a sunken courtyard where they had different food stations and a whole lot of wine to taste.

Here is a photo of the backdrop of the event in the courtyard.
And then....I saw these 3 ladies with the $160+ knitted bags that I mentioned about a year ago. We ended up sitting next to them for a few minutes and I asked if I could take a photo of the bags for my blog. Obviously, they said yes.
We were talking and David told them I knit and knit similar bags....one of them suggested I should start carrying my own bags and selling them but.....I have in the past, and when someone asks the price, they are really scared off! However, there were 5 ladies (all friends) who were carrying these bags last night. I guess it is a society thing.
After the dinner snacks there was a live auction of wine and some trips inside the Estrella Room.
And finally, here is a photo of David & I with me wearing a jacket David bought for my birthday about 3 years ago. He is happy that he was able to buy me a piece of clothing that I actually like to wear and do so pretty often! Thanks Honey!

And here is my progress on my Clapotis. I am about 300 yards into it. I got about 15 rows knitted in the car on the way to the Royal Palms last night. I am going to have to supplement the colors I have with a lighter color of turquoise to get about 1000 yards of yarn to finish this prayer shawl. You know me, I rarely keep anything I knit....it is the process which relaxes me and I need an outlet for my knitting because I can't keep it all!