A Weekend Away...

Had a free weekend in Ocean City, Maryland and being the stellar photographer that I am, I took this picture at sunrise. Thanks Randy for the use of the condo!

Cool Photo Tool!

I just found the coolest photo tool! A free download of a program tool called GIMP that is just like Photoshop! I've been wanting to put in family photos, but didn't really want to put faces on the blog (although I have about 3 readers and they all know everyone ANYWAY), but safety first right? So I wanted to post a photo with little black boxes over the eyes, like they do in Glamour magazine in their Do's and Don'ts section where they catch people on the street wearing really bad or really good outfits, and then they print them with bars over their eyes to hide the identity!

So I can finally do it and here is the photo from Christmas with the gang wearing their Christmas hats I knitted! Dad, N, J, and R all put on their hats and posed for the camera!

Very, very cool! A definite Do!

Snow And Some Other Stuff

Well we finally got a few inches of snow! Of course around here you get a couple of inches and the whole world goes crazy! We got out of work early, which was fine by me! Here's a little picture of my driveway.

Haven't been up to much in the knitting and crocheting world. After the Christmas rush it's been a little hard to sit down and commit to one thing. I did knit two more earflap hats, one for my brother for his birthday, it matches the ones I made for his kids and my Dad for Christmas. I thought the kids would get a kick out of having the same hat as Dad and Grandpa. I also made one for my friend's son, who I shall call Shaggy at the moment, since I don't use real names here, and because the kid needs a haircut! They came over for the playoff football games last Sunday and we teased him that if his team lost we would get to cut his hair. Of course HIS team won so he got to cut a piece of hair of my friend's head, which is saying a lot since my friend is, ummm, somewhat hair impaired on top. But Shaggy got a kick out of it! I made him a hat to go with his new coat and his favorite colors orange and army green. Here is a picture of him with the hat, permission granted by his Mom(s).

I've been spending time on my crochet website, http://www.crochetville.org/, and talking with the other guys and gals that like to crochet. There are some knitters also. One friend started a thread in the forum asking for folks to make some 12 x 12 squares and send them to her, she wants to make a KING size afghan for her bed in her new home. So she will get all these squares and join them together and have a big "friendship" blanket. I'm not much into the granny square, but decided what the heck, it would be fun to try out some new stitches. So I looked up some patterns and made four for her that I will send out tomorrow. Here's what they look like. Not fabulous, but it was fun trying something new. I did start a small project, I'm knitting my friend at work a sweater for her doggie. I always thought this particular pattern was too cute, but didn't know any itty, bitty dogs. I already had all the yarn in my stash, so I hope to finish it shortly and post a picture of the puppy wearing it. Funniest thing is her dog's name is Olivia, and my cat's name is Olivia. What's the chances of two animals, I mean children, having such a grand name!

Happy New Year 2008!

Happy New Year everyone! I wish everyone of my readers (Hey Mom and Dad!) a happy, safe and healthy New Year. This picture was funnier when I thought it was a squirrel! I mean what's a hamster doing hooked to a tree outside??

I'm not making too many resolutions, but I will try to write at least once a week, and show whatever it is I am working on.

Last year my Dad sent me a prayer that he heard at church for the New Year in 2007. We don't know the author. I saved it, he sent it last January 3rd. I'd like to print it out here, because it really is wonderful. Thanks Dad!
_______________________________________

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine;
But by keeping your face bright, even in shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need
you most, and by making you anxious to be there to help.
God’s love, peace, hope, joy to you for the year ahead.

GOD BLESS OUR NEW YEAR.
__________________________________

Investigating Ghosts in Gettysburg

Friends went armed with digital cameras and anEMF detector (a little machine that detects electromagnetic fields) to Gettysburg, PA. These are the tools that the modern ghosthunter uses to pick up spirits or ghosts that may be lurking around. We looked through all the pictures taken, looking for orbs. An orb is a round spot of light that shows up on the digital camera (or sometimes to the naked eye) . These are thought to be energy spots from spirits or ghosts that are floating around. They took this amazing photo in one of the graveyards.

Now when you look at a photo like this you first try to debunk it (everyone else will!), meaning what in the area could have caused the phenomenon. A lot of times inside orbs may be dust particles in the air that show up looking much like an orb. But outside you are hard pressed to say one huge piece of dust is floating around the Gettysburg graveyards. You then make sure that you take another picture of two of the same exact spot, most times they will come up with no orb, which is what happened here. The other thing you think of is, was there something on my lens? In this case I would say no, it did not show up in the subsequent pictures of the same spot. Also, if you look closely at the picture, the orb is directly over and BEHIND the headstone. It can't be from the camera. This is the best orb shot he has ever taken, and one of the best I have seen. And yes in the other photos of the battlefields and headstones there were smaller fainter orbs, but nothing like this.

The other point of interest is that they had the EMF detector on. The EMF detector will beep when it detects fluctuations in the magnetic field around it. It detects energy, which is what a spirit, or an orb is. In the house the thing goes pretty crazy because of the outlets, electronics, etc. Outside if you are near powerlines it will beep due to the EMFs from powerlines. But if you are in an area that should have no EMF, or no power, you get nothing. Like we got nothing at the Eastern State Penitentiary because there is no live electricity in the place, and apparently no ghosts either. On the battlefields and graveyards of Gettysburg there is no electricity, the detector would make no noise, but then for a second it would start beeping, and then again be silent. This would seem to confirm small amounts of energy passing by or that they passed through. Ghosts? You decide.

One caveat though, the detector when held up to my head and started beeping and when held to someone else's it did nothing. LOL, I guess that is another investigation all together!

Funny or NOT

Ok, the first funny thing is my dear Mother telling me she got around to reading my GLOB. Say WHAT??! I didn't laugh at first because I didn't know if she was serious, she has a habit of putting her unique spin on book and movie titles, and then I said you mean my BLOG? And she started laughing, I was like, WHEW. But between you and I, I think she WAS serious.

Another funny thing, since I have been in a crocheting mood lately, is this picture I found of a life size GREYHOUND someone crocheted! I don't know that I would have the patience to do something like this, but heck then I would have to crochet a dog bed for each floor to go with the greyhound, and I don't think it's worth it.

What's NOT funny is that I am still hacking away with this cough/cold thing. I'm a mess!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all! Went this past weekend to the Eastern State Peniteniary in Philly. It's an abandoned prison in the middle of central Philly and it's supposed to be haunted! We went to the Terror Behind the Walls haunted house, which is a haunted house inside the walls of the prison, and the next day toured the prison and tried to do some ghostbusting. But that was a bust! I took a ton of pictures, but captured no orbs or crazy mists. I also used the new EMF detector I got to try to locate ghosts, but also came up empty. The EMF (electormagnetic field) detector registers the EMFs in the room. Ghosts use energy to materialize, so it is thought if you get a reading in a place where there shouldn't be any EMFs, then you may have a ghost. We got squat. Here are a couple of pictures, one of the outside of the prison and one inside looking down a cell block. Here is the prison link if you're interested, it's pretty cool! http://www.easternstate.org/

I also finished the shawl/wrap that I was working on. It didn't turn out very well, to me, but someone might like it. I'm thinking about starting a crochet/knit group at my new job to make premie hats and prayer shawls. But, I'll wait a bit, until I fit in a little better with the co-workers. It's a strange job. Gotta go, it's 6:30 PM and I might actually get a trick-or-treater this year!

The Hybrid and Triphid

I bought a new crochet book called Crochet Inspirations that has really cool stitches and motifs, I've been doing sample swatches of different stitches. I decided that I really liked the Peephole Stitch and decided to use up some of my stash to make a wrap/shawl. Of course I get into it and realized I am doing the stitch wrong! So I've got a hybrid stitch going on. The stitch calls for a row of cross-over half double crochets and the a row of singles done in the front loop only. Of course mine are in the back loop, I think I like it my way better! It's also crocheted long ways, which I think looks prettier in the finished product.

We have had almost no rain this summer and it shows. I had a beautiful fern that had been doing so well out by the hot tub, and it was a brown mess! So I got the scissors out and chop chop! I cut all the brown out and put it in a slightly bigger pot. My lovely Mother does this with her plants sometimes, cuts them back to one lonely triphid and they come back like crazy! So here is what it looks like now:


I cut a huge amount off, mostly around the bottom edges, the center seemed to remain greenish. I will post the progress of the triphid in days to come!

One Stroke; Two Stroke

First things first, Happy Birthday to my beautiful Mother! I love you Mom!

Rochelle, my neighbor, and I took a One Stroke painting class this week at Michael's. Bless Rochelle's heart for getting me out of the house and away from my troubles. We took the One Stroke class where we each created a birdhouse. Here's my attempt, not to bad considering that I have tried the One Stroke painting thing before and could never get the hang of it. It was so much better with an instructor to telling you what you are doing wrong! My leaves and stuff aren't perfect (which is a step in the right direction for me, since I usually give up if I can't do something perfectly!), but from far away it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Not to sure what I will do with it, I still need to finish a few things on it, but it was kinda fun. I think we are going to try to take a couple more classes and see what we can do.

Never heard anything about the interview I went to a couple of weeks back. Which is kinda weird since they usually at least send you some kinda rejection letter. Anyway, I have a couple more interviews this week with some agencies, so I'll just focus on those.

I've decided to enter three things in the state fair this year, since I always say I wished I had entered something. They always have a blue ribbon on some kinda ugly crocheted toilet paper cozy, so I'm sure I could win something! I'm entering the crocheted sweater I did for Mom last year, the pink sweater I just did for my niece, and the pink drawstring purse. I have to get them out to the fair Monday or Tuesday, which will be a pain since I have interviews in the afternoon, but hey what else do I have to do???? I'll keep you posted

Attack of the Yarn

Ok, I've been hording yarn. It was on sale is my best excuse. I have no idea how much I have, but I plan to log it all into a spreadsheet so I at least know what is on hand. This picture is about 2/3's of it, and it's all a mess. All the knitting and crochet websites I peruse all say this is the "Year of the Stash" meaning you aren't supposed to buy any more and only use what you have to make something. Wellll, I've tried, and I have made a few things, but it obviously out of control! I did call the local paper and they are going to print my name and email address if anyone wants to start a knitting/crochet club, so we will see if anyone responds.

I am almost finished the little sweater for my niece, I'll probably get it done this weekend. It's cute, but may be to big. She's a tiny little thing!

Perspective From a Greyhound's Nose

I haven't taken pictures of my two greys in a while so I wrestled (or rasseled as my southern Momma would say) with them to get a nice portrait of each from the nose up. Not an easy task when you are working with a greyhound snout! Here is Hans (a.k.a. U Too Handsome on the racing circuit) looking cool as a cucumber. At 7 he takes everthing in stride, and will even model hats and scarves once I'm made them. I don't know about trying a sweater on him, his legs are awfully long! Well, maybe a wrap around number?

And then there is Gigi (a.k.a. Cruizing Electra) who is 4 and still rather skittish. You can tell I had to wrangle her down to get a picture, and she looks pretty freaked out! But they are good puppies and I love 'em.

I stuck gold recently when I got a deal in the mail for a craft book club, one of those where they give you some books for a buck and then you have to buy 2 more in 3 years. Well I couldn't resist and finally got my order today! Here are the 6 (count 'em) books I got for $24.50 which included the shipping and handling! A $125.00 deal! They are awesome and I have already chosen some patterns to make. Look out friends and family!

My lovely neighbor Rochelle gave me a bag full of crochet thread that was her Mother's before she passed away a year or two ago. There were a couple of unfinished items in the bag that her Mom had been working on, I'm sure it was difficult to part with them. I saw a darling little clutch purse in one of the books that I am going to make for Rochelle out of the unfinished items from her Mom's "stash" as we call it in the yarn world. A little something to keep jewelry or something in, and I thought I might add some pretty beads to it also. I'll keep you up to date!

Still working go the sweater for little Toothless, the pattern got confusing so I had to step away to rest and go back with a new perspective. I'm almost half finished!