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    Green Theme

    Thursday, 28 August 2008 7:48 P GMT-08

    Your result for What Cupcake flavour are you? quiz...

    Green-Tea Cupcake

    38% Green-Tea

    You are new and fresh. You havent been around long but already you are making loads of friends. Some people can be a bit hesitant towards you at times, but that's only because they dont know you yet!

    Take What Cupcake flavour are you? quiz at HelloQuizzy

     

    This continues the green theme that's developed completely by accident this week, and because I've got nothing else except a whine because it's too hot to think here.  It's almost 9 pm and it's still 86* outside - normally by this time it would be in the 60s - and 80* in the house (which actually feels cool; that's rather frightening!)  It was 100 on the patio at 5 pm today.  The weather guessers say tomorrow should be in the 80s and it should be seasonal Saturday.  Hallelujah!

    There are more finished objects to show.  Maybe tomorrow... 

    Random Greenery

    Wednesday, 27 August 2008 3:47 P GMT-08

    Jade Queen Sunflower (more chartreuse than jade; perhaps that will change as it opens)

    Jade Queen

    Limelight Artemesia

    artemesia

    Limelight Nicotiana (and a frog prince)

    Nicotiana

    Lime Licorice Plant

    Licorice Plant

    Green section of the Roy G. Biv garden, a work in progress. 

    Roy G. Biv

    Category: Home and Garden

    Knitted FO Alert!

    Tuesday, 26 August 2008 3:39 P GMT-08

    For the gift box:

    Hat and scarf

    Hat and scarf set knitted from stash and leftover yarn.  The breen (between brown and olive green) is a mohair blend bought in 1993 or so from I-don't-remember-where.  There were 2 skeins, and I used every last inch of it.

    The lilac and blue are Wendy Peter Pan Velvet Touch; lilac is left over from a chemo hat I knit in 2000 for a co-worker, the blue was going to be a chemo cap for another co-worker who luckily didn't need it.  This makes the softest chemo caps (I'm told); I know I want a sweater of it, but it's so light and soft I might never take it off!

    The pattern for the hat is Janet Szabo's Chemo Toque, free from Patternworks with the purchase of Berocco Chinchilla in 2000.  I've made a couple of modifications for gauge.  Scarf is a basic girl-scout scarf pattern found by browsing.

    Here's close-up (fuzzy, my apologies) of the yarn, lest you wonder why I added blue and lilac!   

    yarn

    Must Have Cardi Revisited

    Monday, 25 August 2008 3:25 P GMT-08

    Must Have Cardi - Green

    This is the beginning of the new, improved Must Have Cardigan.  I love the flecks of color, especially in natural light.  There are bits of red, purple, blue, lilac, orange and perhaps other colors.  It's a bit scratchy, but should soften when washed, and if it doesn't, I'm not planning to wear it next to my skin.

    And did I mention that I've had a skirt for a couple of years that is exactly the darker shade of green?  I couldn't have done that if I'd tried!

    Now I must chart the pattern or find charts already done.  I am so not going to knit from the written directions.  (Don't laugh at me.  It's not that long since I complained on KnitU that some of us just can't follow charts, and it's not fair that we had to convert charts to words.)   

    Arbor (Satur) Day (photo alert! new camera works!)

    Sunday, 24 August 2008 10:54 A GMT-08

    All summer - since April, in fact, I've been working on an arbor for the entrance to the patio.  When we moved here, I planted a Climbing Joseph's Coat rose and didn't realize how much it really likes to climb. 

    (Now that I think about it, I believe there may have been a rickety lattice trellis and gate thing there before.  If so, it was low enough that even I felt close to the roof, and at 5'3" that doesn't happen often!)

    Anyway, as weather permitted, I've painted the pieces (primed and 2 coats of paint), built and measured.  The weather and life have conspired to make it take this long.  First if was too cold to paint until afternoon, but the gardeners and their "mow and blow" stuff would come in the afternoon - it only took one time of getting stuff blown into fresh paint to learn that lesson.  I ran out of paint at inopportune times.  The wind blew when the temperature was right - all reasons that painting took a long time.

    A couple of weeks I was ready to put the thing together and realized that I needed some additional muscle.  Saturday evening Ken and I worked together, built the last sections, and put it up.  He even found a hole in the brick that probably held the old, trellis to the house, so we were able to secure the arbor rather permanently to the house.

    arbor1

    The rose and hibiscus look terrible at the moment.  I had to severely prune the rose; it was climbing through the little trellis and covering the hibiscus (which has never looked like much, but does have pretty blooms - apparently it was damaged by frost before we moved in, and was thought to be dead) weighing it down.  I've fertilized and watered, and will put down new mulch next weekend.  By then the rose will have new leaves, I'm sure.

    arbor2

    There's a bonus too!  Because this is an old house there have been many additions and changes over the years.  There are two cable conduits to the shop from the house which carry electrical, telephone and computer lines.  They are overhead at the entrance to the patio - the new arbor (and the rose, once it gets growing) will hide them!

    arbor3

    Category: Home and Garden

    RIP Must Have Cardigan

    Saturday, 23 August 2008 8:52 A GMT-08

    Remember this?

    Must Have Cardi

    It's the beginnings of the Must Have Cardigan.  I love the pattern, and love the color of the yarn.  Together?  Not so much.  It's been frogged, and I'm swatching with some lovely green tweed Irish wool, bought on eBay years ago.  It's a heavier weight yarn, and needs much larger needles.  That's a good thing, because I have less of it and no way to get any more.

    The replacement camera just arrived, so there should be photos tomorrow!

    TGIF

    Friday, 22 August 2008 8:44 A GMT-08

    It's been one of those weeks: long, frustrating for no apparent reason, and just meh.

    On the plus side, I did find a new doctor whose philosophies agree with mine.  The weather has been lovely all week.  Fifty-two of the 62 roses in the front yard have been heavily trimmed and fertilized, so beautiful blooms should burst forth in the next couple of weeks.  

    On the minus side, the replacement camera has not arrived, so no photos today.  (The old camera is playing with me again.)  The weather is predicted to start warming over the weekend, and to continue that trend until Thursday or Friday - getting near 100* again.

    Tomorrow is Saturday.  SuperSlow weight training at 9, then a visit to OSH for new perennials.  That sounds like a good start to the weekend! 

    First things

    posted Friday, 25 July 2008

    Sallee posted this, and it was such fun - different from many other memes.  (It's about all my medicated brain can concentrate on today, too.)  Her answers are so good!
     
    Who was your first prom date?  Steve, the older brother of my steady guy.  Steady was 2 years younger and not eligible for the prom.  Steve was cool, and we dated for a few months after Steady and I broke up.  (Funny, I'd almost forgotten Steady's name: Robert, not Bob.  Never did forget Steve's name...wonder what ever happened to him?)
    Do you still talk to your first love? Nope, but our parents still exchange holiday cards and I keep up with him in a minimal sort of way.  You don't really expect these affairs of the heart to last when you're 5!
    What was your first alcoholic drink? Creme de menthe over crushed ice at my Granny's house when all the adults had cocktails.  I was 12.  (Gag!  I thought I was quite sophisticated at the time.)  It was considered a good thing for a girl to "learn to drink" at home before she started dating.
    What was your first job? Babysitting for Daddy's insurance agent.  Timmy - 4, Terry -2 and Christa -2 weeks.  I was 14, and sat for them until college.
    What was your first car? 1965 Plymouth Belvedere, white over Schlumberger blue.  My Dad's old company car, just like all the other Schlumberger kids.  It was a tank, and it ran - which made it much in demand with my friends.
    ]Who was the first person to text you today?  I'm not much into texting...
    Who is the first person you thought of this morning? Mr. Ken
    Who was your first grade teacher? Can't remember her name, but I remember 2nd grade was Mrs. Tautfest (I told my parents her name was Mrs. Talkfast, and asked how it was possible her name described her so well).  I thought she was so old she was going to die; my mother swears she was about 28, and incredibly elegant.  My mother was 25 or 26 at the time.
    Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane? From Lubbock, TX to Albuquerque, NM to spend the weekend with my first husband.  I was still in college in Lubbock and he was at a convention in Albuquerque.
    Who was your first best friend and are you still friends? First girl best friend was Stephenie, and no, we aren't.  We moved, friendship drifted away.
    What was your first sport played?  Don't make me laugh!  I didn't ever play sports.  Dance classes, band and such were my thing, although I did learn to sort-of play tennis as an adult.
    Where was your first sleepover?  We had a couple of sleepovers in Brownies.
    Who was the first person you talked to this morning?  Mr. Ken
    Whose wedding were you first in? Friends of my parents asked me to be their flowergirl when I was 2.  I'm told I cried "I want my roses, I want my roses" and the bride carried me down the aisle with her!  I looked lovely in my long white dress though.
    What was the first thing you did this morning? Let SparkPlug and LiveWire out.
    What was the first concert you went to? Three Dog Night at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa, on a triple blind date. I'd never heard of Three Dog Night at the time, too into Classical music, but have fond memories of the concert, even though none of us ever dated these guys again. 
    What was your first tattoo or piercing?  One hole in each ear.  Boring.
    What was the first foreign country you went to? Mexico, just across the border from El Paso.
    What was your first run in with the law?  I got a warning for failing to make a left turn from a left turn only lane in El Paso.  I realized it would put me in a bad neighborhood, and saw that it was safe - if illegal - to go straight, so I did.  Right in front of a cop.  Started the ticket, I explained my logic, he made it a warning instead.
    What was your first detention?  Still waiting....I was a good girl!  Like Sallee, I was a teacher's pet, and proud of it.
    What was the first state you lived in? New Mexico
    Who was the first person to break your heart?  Stephenie, the former best friend, because she initially didn't want to be my friend.  Ric, first fiancee, who went on to become a minister (probably for the best, since I became Jewish).
    Who was your first roommate? My sister until college, then Pat, my best friend forever even if we hardly ever talk or see each other.
    Where did you go in your first limo ride? I was a "grooms person" a couple of years ago in Albuquerque, so we went from the hotel to the church and back to the hotel for the reception. When Mr. Ken and I married, we hired a limo for the whole weekend to ferry guests from the school parking lot to our house and such, but we never got to ride in it!  I just remembered my very first limo ride: from the LA airport to the home of my ex-husband's cousin.  She didn't like LA traffic so she sent a limo to pick us up and bring us to the Hollywood Hills where she lived.

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