October 7 and just now getting the outdoor stuff up.  I'd love to get a cool witch that, when you pass by her, comes up out of the ground and starts talking to you!  lol  Maybe I'll catch it on clearance.  There's a skeleton like that too.  I think they go from 2' tall to 5'.  I definitely think I'll go back and get another pumpkin to add color in the corner by the step.  There's a white ghost there, but ya can't see it during the day very well.  We finally planted our new shrubs too.  They're so little but they'll grow in nicely.  I can't tell you how much better I feel having some of the landscaping finished up - it's been a year and a half since we tore the nasty huge bushes out of there.  It looked horrible for a long time.  Our poor neighbors.  What lit a fire under me to get my husband and myself out there?  I'm having a piano tuner come on Wednesday and I wanted it to look nicer than it did.  lol  Eventually where the two scarecrow ppl are, we'd like a concrete patio, but that'll be awhile. 

Ok, well, I'm off to enjoy the last of my Sunday. 

Olympic Committee FAIL!

Birthdays and Baseball and All Sorts More

Monday, Aug 27 we went to the Twins game.  Great seats and perfect weather but we lost.  :-(  It was dd's birthday though, so we had a good time anyway.  She and I get rowdy at games.  Or I guess it's me who gets rowdy and she has fun watching.  lol 

Last Thursday I started Grayson's Baby Sophisticate @ MOA - today, one week later, I finally finished it up.  I had to restart the collar three times.  (My own fault ea. time.)   The pattern's wonderful though a little on the small side.  I sewed the buttons on tonight and here it is:

Back to working on other UFOs.  I started the 60 Quick Baby Knits pattern, Hooded Pullover.  I spent $45! on the yarn, but it's SO beautiful.  It's Cascade 220 Superwash Paints in Clover.  I just love the yarn.  Truth be told, if I'd have known how expensive it would've been, I wouldn't have bought the yarn.  I just got talking and talking to the friendly employee there (I always forget her name) and before I knew it she was handing me a receipt for $14.50/hank.  Oi.  Anyway, I'd better get back to work.

Memory Lane

Wow, here's a quick jaunt down memory lane.  It seems I've been trying to get some artistic sensibilities out of my system for quite some time.  This is a wreath - I call it a Victorian Rose Wreath - that I made for my mom's room back in 1994.  My dh just found it while he was going through some things in the basement.  (Funny how so many creative things end up in the basement.)  I also made some neat things, I forget what they were called, out of yardsticks (free from Hom Furniture) and that twisted, wrinkled paper that you have to wet to unroll.  I'd throw a bunch of dried flowers and ribbon along with it.  Dang, wish I had a pic of that.  It hung above my mom's bed for years.  Oh well, here's the wreath. 

The Day After...

Well!  I survived almost an entire day at the MOA!  (Mall of America)  My son and his friend bought all-you-can-ride wristbands for the amusement park and went at it.  I chose the first day of the Minnesota State Fair in hopes of a thinner crowd where we were.  It seems to have worked.  Usually just walking into that mall sucks the soul right out of me, yesterday - not so much as a headache.  :-)  We met up and talked on the phone to make sure all was well and safe with them.  Otherwise I was on my own.  It was so lovely to be able to stop whenever I wanted and for how long I chose.  No aching plantar fascia ;-) and I just sat and knitted and listened to a) a job interview (she got it) at Caribou and b) a job review (she was doing a good job) at Barnes & Noble a few hours later.

I started a Baby Sophisticate for Grayson while there.  It was a good time.  On the way home we stopped at Amanda's place to visit my grandbabies.  Jackson's so funny.  He kisses and loves on the baby so much.  Then he took my phone and looked at pictures and pretended to talk.  So then I got talking with Amanda and Zach and wasn't paying much attention to J over yonder.  All of a sudden I hear on the speaker phone setting on MY phone...MY husband!  Jackson had not only called his gramps but put him on speaker phone!  I can't do that when I try.  lol  He's a sweet little kid.  His brother is too, but only being two weeks old, a bit boring.  ;-)

The night before yesterday I finished up a Lark sweater I'd been putting off for a month. It's for the boys. I still haven't washed/dried it...when I use acrylic, that washing and drying constitutes blocking. But it's still turned out nicely. I have trouble with sewing down the placket and sleeves evenly. Grrr. I'll just keep practicing.



 

 

Practice Aviatrix (helmet)


 

This hood on the Lark was done with a Three Needle Bind-Off, which I adore, used on the shoulders as well. The trouble with a 3 Needle on the hood is that it leaves it rather pointy. I'd like to investigate short rows for a hood. Maybe add that to my repertoire. I've already used them on the Aviatrix pattern for a helmet type hat. So cute. It's not worked in the round but back and forth with short rows. I'm just not sure how to apply to a pattern on my own.


So anyway, Blogger just made it impossible to add to this to sign off without signing out and back in first.  ?  I believe I've mentioned how much I loathe Blogger and yet I know not how to do anything else better.  Alas, I am doomed to stay here until such time as I see fit to get a Ph.D. in computer sciences!  That's about what it'll take to understand this stuff.  Grrrr.  Ta-ta for now. 

Day Two of Baby Gray

It was so easy to imagine if you were there with these things roaming around.
I have to say, it was creepy.  Their eyes followed you.

Just inside the front gate.  There was a big guy (dino) looking over the edge of the entrance spitting water at us too.

I guess this is the guy who preceeded T-Rex.  He was much larger, faster, and more dangerous.  Blech.

This pic was taken in honor of my new grandson with a bit of a cone head.  ;-)
Ds too, trying to show how displeased he is to be there. 

Awesomeness right here.  I love the pterodactyl.  To be honest, I didn't read what this is exactly.
But it sure looks like a Pterodactyl.

So on Thursday, the day after Grayson was born, dh and I were going to meet at the hospital (a long way away) after his workday was done.  So I took ds and headed down to the Minnesota Zoo before our annual membership expired and before the Dinosaur exhibit closed.  He, being 13, wasn't thrilled to go, particularly to a baby's exhibit, but too bad!  It was only 75 deg. and we were going to get out and do something different.  It was pretty fun, the exhibit was much shorter than I would've thought and I ran out of room on my SD card right before the T-Rex!  (My favorite)  But I still got some good pics.

We took a tractor up to the farm and there's a nice restaurant there.  Eric was in a much better mood then.  Food seems to have that affect on teenage boys.

The sky was so gorgeous that day.  It was like living in the Rockies.  They were so high and towering.  There were horizontal loose gray clouds floating in front of the big cauliflower-type ones.  It looked like a panorama.  Huge, heavy rain drops started falling on our way out to the car.  We stopped under some shelter for a minute until it stopped.  It smelled so dang good too.  Hot pavement with rain on it.  Childhood.  :-)

Gramps with the new guy Grayson

We got to the hospital and met up with dh.  We spent about 45 min there.  Everyone's doing well. 

Then this morning I woke up to see this on Facebook:

Grayson wearing the hat I knitted him.  He's got matching socks too.
So sweet and content.

A BIG Day

Welcome to the world little Grayson Joseph!  Sadly, I don't have a picture of my dd with him that doesn't show too much skin.  ;-)  More to follow though.  He was born at my daughter's favorite time (yes, she has one.  lol)  7:33 p.m.  It's her favorite because 7 is Joe Mauer's number and 33 is Justin Morneau's.  She's quite the Twins fan. 

Grayson was actually a gray-son.  His little face was almost black looking.  Apparently he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice.  Scary stuff, but all's well.  He pinkened up even before we left.  He's got a lot of dark hair, more than Jackson had.  (I hate to start comparing them.) 

I was at my first piano lesson.  The teacher said we're running out of time, I looked at my watch and it was not quite 7:35. So that's probably right while he was coming out.  Eric came with to the lesson and we called Amanda's phone as we were leaving the lesson.  Zach said "We just had a baby."  He said it sort of full of wonderment.  Calmer than usual.  So we jumped on 694 and headed straight on out there.  He's a beautiful little guy.  His brother was born on 6-6 and this one was born on 8-8.  Both were ten days early.  Amanda's consistent.  

We'll go back down to see them tonight.  Curt's going to meet us there and then we'll, of course, go to dinner.