Yes I'm a delinquent blogger....it seemed after Thanksgiving and then my DH's 50th birthday there was no time for knitting or blogging over the past two weeks....so warning....this a heavy laden picture post........

It started with trying to keep party plans a secret from DH, but alas it was not to be.....he found out, but I had a few things up my sleeve that I could keep secret. For instance......His reaction was, Oh my god', when getting the newspaper first thing in the morning. The other was an advertisement in our cities newspaper.

It was an especially busy day this past Saturday, we were running all over getting balloons, food, etc., and without DH's help I don't think I could've have gotten it all done. Thank you D!! We invited approx. 36 people, and had a combination party for my Mom's 70th b-day.






A good time was had by all. It was great catching up with people we haven't seen for years, and of course ended with the blowing out of a lot of candles.....I was very pleased by the cake we ordered from the new Walmart supercentre. It was deeeelicious. The decorating on it was great (autumn flowers) the only problem was that I ordered a white cake, and to our surprise when cutting it open it was chocolate.

I wanted to pass on the recipe that Sheri from Loopy Ewe posted on September 14.....everyone really enjoyed it, and I made it ahead of time which really helped.Italian Shredded Beef

3 lb. rump roast
2 pcks. Good Seasons Italian dressing mix
1 pck. brown gravy mix
1 cup water
BBQ sauce (optional)

Put 1 package Good Seasons mix, gravy mix, and water in crockpot. Add roast.

Cook on low for 8 hours or longer.

Remove meat from cooker and shred (I use 2 forks to pull the meat apart.) Return meat to cooker and add second package of Good Seasons, plus barbeque sauce, if desired. Cook another 1/2 hour. Serves 8-10. Great with Frito-Pea Salad!

With halloween coming up my nephew was enjoying wearing a mask at the party, as well as
DH wolfing down his cake, literally.




















So in the meantime I've managed to tackle some long delayed projects. One was our front door which was needing a makeover, unfortunately I don't have a before picture. It is a six panelled solid cedar door that had a tikki type design on the front which DH routered out and glued in flat panels. I stained the door with four coats of Minwax waterbased stain, colour Spice. Next came four coats of Minwax wipe-on satin polyurethane.....







Noodles is loving the new screen door. Favourite past time is lying in the sun and smelling the fall leaves.










Second thing on the to do list is a vest that I was hoping to finish for DH's birthday, but instead he's going to get it a bit late.....that's okay he got something else to tie him over.

So far this is the right side, and back of the vest. I loved working on this pattern from Elsebeth Lavold. All that's left is to start on the neck and arm edging, and sew together......more pictures and blogging to follow as soon as I have my cup of coffee ......Have a great weekend!!

Welcome to my new back screendoor. How bad is it when I can get excited about something like that? We've lived in this house for 25 years, and it always feels great to replace something like an old aluminium screendoor that had to be the original going back 40 years.

My DH worked for approx. three days with this door as the exterior brickmould had to be taken out and sided with some metal to match the screendoor. Then came fitting all the deadbolts, and the new door handle on the inside metal door. So we were home, but felt like we didn't see each other......because.....

My DD and I went shopping on Saturday and headed to Michael's craft store.....I don't generally do my yarn shopping there, but I came upon something that I had to have and not in just a couple of colours, but several. It's SWS from Patons. SWS stands for Soy Wool Strips. 70% wool/30% soy, approx. 110yds, 2.8 oz, I started a new hat pattern (in colours Natural Geranium and (solid) Natural Berry) that was designed by Danny Ouellette. Danny has a Diamond waffle sock pattern featured in Knitty Fall 2007.

I was up to 2:00am Saturday night figuring out the Travelling Rib hat pattern which has some knitting techniques I've never worked with before. It was not hard, but I was so intriqued with the design that I couldn't put it down. He also has several other patterns for sale on his website and I got another one called Easy Head Hugger Hat.

I've been also slogging along on the vest for my DH's birthday. It's going fast, but I'm trying to knit on it when he's not around. So it's going slow, but the back is just about done....

I've also been sidetracked by getting our indoor fishtank ready for when we bring in our koi and goldfish from the outside pond. Our old indoor tank was too small to house them all over winter so we've had to get a bigger tank. We only have 12 fish, but some of them have doubled in size. So the new tank is ready to go now. We're looking forward to bringing them in and seeing how they've grown. I'll post pictures when we eventually do that.

125 Gallon Oceanic tank,
Eheim Professional II water filter,
Eheim Classic 2213 water filter.


The cats will have some new entertainment watching the fish when they're in here..........


Which brings me to another cute toy for cats....do it yourself homemade bendy straw cat toys from Wendy Knits

Our Anna had a crazy great time with these little triangles!

What a busy summer!! Where has the time gone? I say that now as I'm sitting in my housecoat hacking at the computer. I've been sick with a cold/cough, stuffed up nose, plugged ears. So for a change, this week seems to have gone on forever.

Here's something that's been making me feel better.

After being housebound for the last three days I ventured back to my LYS and exchanged the Ambiance Superwash yarn (picture in last post). I had it sitting on my ironing board and I kept looking at it, and rethinking the navy blue colour. "I've got a fevah, and the only prescription is more heather." (God bless C. Walken). I just couldn't face knitting the navy colour for the next month and a half. In the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits magazine they've got an article about going organic. It mentions that superwash is one of the most chemically treated yarns. I was surprised by that info, and I thought with my doubting the colour, and finding out something like that I was heading back to see Bonnie. Check out Interweave it's a good article. In it's place is Galway Heather, Irish Worsted Knitting Wool, colour brown heather, 18 st/24 row to 10cm/4in., 200 metres. As soon as I got home I started casting on. The pattern is designed by Elsebeth Lavold in her 'Book Nine, The Second Viking Knits Collection'. The name of the pattern I'm knitting is 'Ymer, man's vest'. With my brain fog/head cold I ended up frogging it about six times. I couldn't get my head around reverse stockinette stitch (purl side is right side), and the cables knitted on the purl side..geesh.

While at my lys I couldn't get out of my mind the Flower Scarf, designed by Nicky Epstein. It's in the new Vogueknitting Fall 2007, Silver Anniversary Collector's Issue. I had in my stash a couple balls of Watercolours by Estelle, and searching around Bonnie's store she had more of the same. So I added a couple more balls of the light tan, enough to eventually start on this scarf.

Watercolours is so soft, 50/50 Mohair, Acrylic.

Hold me back.....Bonnie then shows me what she's clearing out of....and of course do you think I could stop?

Sisik by Dalegarn, 30%wool, 30%mohair, 34%acrylic, 6%viscose. I'm thinking something along the lines of a vest maybe for me...we'll see. It feels great, and I'm thinking that's going to be the end of my buying for awhile....I've got to get at the actual knitting now.

I've been feeling guilty about not sharing equal time between both of our pets, so here's Anna and she doesn't care how much yarn I buy just as long as she gets fed, and let out of the house so she can have a roll on the pavement.

Anna is a finicky feline and she loves the guys, doesn't tolerate girls all that much. I met Anna when she was eight weeks old. I was working at a school and it was bring your pet, show and tell day. Well this little girl had this little grey ball of fluff and was throwing her down the playground slide. I couldn't stand the thought of the kitten being treated like that again so that afternoon I adopted her, and we've spoiled her ever since. It was destiny, and I really believe I didn't find Anna, but that she actually found us.

Either way she's been a great old girl for the past 15 years and she's still going strong.









Have a great Labour Day weekend!!!!!