Another Eye Camel Friday!!!!! Yippee!!!

All of a sudden I realized that it actually is Friday. I mean I knew it was Friday, sort of or something, because I knew that tomorrow was Saturday, but I kind of forgot that Friday comes before Saturday. Or should I say I forgot of the concept of what a Friday is? It is the end of the work week (for some people-I still work tomorrow morning)
Enough with my little spiel (that's how it is spelled-I looked it up in the dictionary, but I always thought it was spelled more like shpeel (even though that looked wrong to me, too)) you guys want to see Oliver on an adventure. Well, he had a lot of fun with this one!

Here's Oliver the Camel riding a wire trike (made by Patrik Mattson). Ya'know pack animals just aren't the same these days. They're wanting to use all the new technology out there to get around, too! Next thing you know you'll be seeing them driving truck through the desert! (Hmmm, I wonder if I could set up a photo shoot of that.)

My husband is a better person than me

These past couple of days have been filled with random little things. Cutting down a tree, filling holes in the yard with dirt, preparing a party for my mom's 60th birthday, making food and other stuff.

(I still have to finish those mittens and now have another knitting project to start-a vest for my dad. I found a plain and simple free pattern for it. Now, I need to find the yarn. We don't have any specific yarn stores in the area, but I do want to try and see if any craft stores will have the right kind of yarn for it before I have to buy it online)

At home we have also started putting up pictures in places and such, so I thought of this great idea of putting up baby pics of my husband and myself along with other family member pictures in our walk-in closet-(it used to be my room when I was a kid (up to age 14). As a room it was extremely small, but as a walk-in closet it is a nice size). Anyway, I already have a framed picture of myself at about age 18 months that my grandma used to have, but I needed a picture of Dan. Long story to short I 'm looking through his book of pictures and found a great one, but at the exact same time I realized he is a much better person than me and it started at a very young age.

Age 2
Notice how he listened to his mother and he hasn't touched the cupcakes set in front of him. In fact, not only is he not touching them-he's keeping his hands far away from them.

Age 3
Notice how he is holding that teeny-tiny fork with the cake on it in mid-air and he is smiling. He is patiently waiting to eat his cake until the picture is taken.

Thus, my husband is a much better person than me.

De-quarantined

Well, technically I wasn't quarantined (the doctor just said that I shouldn't be in close contact with teeny babies and pregnant women), but I am now safe to roam the entire earth. Now, to find something to help me get rid of the little red marks that remain over my eye.
I've heard about a product called Maderma or something like that. Does anyone know if it works?

p.s. I have to say that my dad's camera is a really nice one. In fact, I photographed my brother-in-law's wedding and got some gorgeous pictures with it. (of course very few people will ever see those pictures because they are already getting divorced after about a year-crazy, crazy. Is it bad of me to be more upset that I took such beautiful pictures of their wedding that nobody will ever see than the fact that they're getting divorced?--you don't have to say it-I'm a bad, bad person)

Hey! and Shingelles and Eye Camel Friday/Monday

Well, I was so going to post again on Friday because I still have all sorts of cool pictures to show you. (Taken by a Canon Digital Rebel with a Tamron Zoom Lens, Isela) I didn't because I woke up on Friday morning with the left side of my face all swollen and had to go to the doctor. I have Shingelles :( Sad, sad, sad. My face remained swollen through the weekend and I have a rash on my left eyelid. It really looked like Dan had done a number on me. Now, I look much better (although my eye is still a bit swollen). Anyway, since I can only post from work (no internet at home) I had to wait until now to post anything.

So I have an eye camel Monday post for you

Here is Oliver in a bowl made by Zac Spates

Close-ups of kitties

Haystack

Cleopatra

Now for knitting content (because I got to stay home alllllll weekend, for once. Yippee!)-

1. I wound the hanks of cherry blossom sock yarn (I don't have a ball winder or swift or anything, so it takes a lot of time) while watching part of the first season of Bewitched (while we were watching this Dan told me that if I was a witch, he would be perfectly happy for me to use my powers to do things-snap-the house is clean-snap-we're on vacation in the mountains-snap-he doesn't have to go to work anymore---okay that didn't happen and I am not a witch. I guess it is for the best)

2. I also finished the thumb on the blue whale and started the second one. (I was really tempted to start making a pair of knee highs, but was able to restrain myself)

Well, that's the knitting content. I also read two books this weekend. One called Blackbird an autobiography Jennifer Lauck (heartbreaking and warming) and the other The Postcard by Beverly Lewis (about an Amish woman). I'm a sucker for those kind of books. I like to cry and all that with books.

This week in pictures

All right-we're going to start with the ugly

Yep, that's water , and old pipe, our barn floor and manure-The pipe burst somewhere underground and it took us a while to figure out what was going on because it was all under manure in the barn!!!!!!!

Dan broke away part of the cement floor and found where that pipe started in order to tap it off. (Everything was encased in the concrete-at least it was pipe and concrete from the 30's, so it broke away fairly easily) The pipe ended up being a foot and a half underground-it is probably that way outside the barn as well and it is amazing that we haven't had pipes burst down there. Oh well, maybe someday we'll replace everything, but there's too much else to do.

This is the pipe Dan had to cut in order to tap everything off. (We had the water shut off from our cistern, but there isn't a real shut off valve. Water still leaked.)


Now, for the beautiful

Sunday, we had lunch on the deck and it has been wonderful weather for being outside.

The ever so cute Dakota.


And . . . . . . . .

Cherry blossom sock and worsted weight yarn from Sundara! I just got it yesterday in the mail and am very excited to do something with it. I am hoping to make some knee high socks for me and a February baby sweater. I know a bunch of people that are about to have babies and one of them should end up having a girl. Don't worry, I'm still working on the mittens and should finish them, maybe.

P.S. Can you tell that I brought home my dad's fancy camera last night? Mmmmm . . . those some goooood pic's and I'll have more to show you another day.

"Balena the Blue Whale"

When I was little we had a few books that you could read and follow along with on either tape or record-One was called "Balena the Blue Whale" (I think). (We had other ones too, like one about a squirrel hiding acorns, one about a cobbler (a shoemaker-not a fruity, pie-like desert), and one called "Too Much Noise"-oh that one was good, I think I still have the book somewhere, but I am sure the tape is long gone-or wait was that one on a record-it could have been and my parents still have most of the records we had, hmmmmm, I'll have to check it out) Okay back to the subject.
Balena the Blue Whale-a story about a baby blue whale and her adventures-I think there might be poachers and a harpoon involved even-not sure. Anyway, my new blue mitten reminds me of the story.

It still needs a thumb and a partner, but my blue scarf and mitten set is past that halfway point-woohoo!

I've named this picture--blue whale with hot pink geranium.

Even though I have associated these mittens with blue whales (which are attractive in their own way), it does not mean that they are giant mitts. They're just blue and a little bit fish- shaped (I know-whales are mammels, but they are fish-shaped, too), but they make beautiful mittens and go very well with the scarf.

I Finished Some Stuff and Eye Camel Friday

Rebekah is modeling the scarf I have been working on for a month or more. I finished it last night-yippee, yippee, yay! It is nice and soft and now I have started on a pair of mittens to match. (See below next to the scarf!!!)

I also have a wonderfully great picture of mini sweaters and stockings

The black/red/white/gray sweater on the left is the extent of knitting that I finished on the trip to Israel. Although I did seam the peach sweater as well. Considering the giant amounts of time I had on the plane to knit I should probably be reprimanded, but I wasn't feeling so good sometimes. I ended up reading and watching movies instead.

Now, The-Moment-You-Have-All-Been-Waiting -For!!!!!!!
Eye Camel Friday!!!!!!!!! Wooopee Wooohooo
Here's Oliver the Camel!

Oliver is modeling a giant (for him) stocking made from Lion Brand Magic Stripes Sock Yarn. It is all the rage in pack animal circles in Europe and the Middle East, but has just recently come into fashion in the US. You'll soon be seeing them at petting zoos, the circus, and your local county fair this summer!

See you on Monday-or whenever

My Visual DNA

I saw this on Nathania's blog and thought it was neat.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Eye Camel Friday

Okay-so I don't yet belong to Eye Candy Friday, but I do have a little camel keychain made of Olive Wood that I got in Israel-So here it is -------EYE CAMEL FRIDAY!!!!!!

I'll name him Oliver the Camel

He enjoys geraniums
And finally, in B&W

I'm Back

Well, we got back Monday morning from Israel. We were soooooo tired and it is nice to be back. Yesterday I caught up on all of the blogging I had missed. You guys are all so much fun and I like to read what you have to say. I'm not always the best with words (good thing I didn't stay and ESL education major in college and moved onto art instead) and reading everyone else's blogs always makes me want to describe my life better and all that, but that probably won't happen ;o)

My Stetson Man

Today I was reading archives from while I was gone of Pioneer Woman (thanks D for linking to her a while back-I love her blog) and at the end of one of her posts she asked whose mind you would pick to read for 24 hours if you had the chance. I thought about it and right away my husbands mind came to mind. I don't know if you guys have the same kind of thought, but my wonderful Dan is not that verbal. (I am, if you couldn't guess) It's something I love about him and some times I wish that I could stop blabbing on and on about nothing and be more quiet and all.

I wonder things like-why did he ever like me? am i waaaaay to weird? does my pestering about what he's thinking bother him? (well, I know the answer to that-YES!) and much, much more.

All I know is that we had fun on our trip to Israel because we were together. It would have been miserable if one of us had just gone on our own. (oh, is wasn't that bad or anything-once I have pics ready I'll show you. It just didn't start out very well) Our flight was to leave on the 24th a little after 5 pm, but our flight got cancelled because we had no flight crew. Well, we ended up leaving Minneapolis on a different flight a little after 7 instead and missed our connecting flight to Israel by 11 minutes (arghhh, if our 2nd flight from Minneapolis had actually been on time, we would have caught the connection) We got booked onto another flight to Israel that left Newark at 4 in the afternoon the next day. Thankfully, Northwest had to put us up in a hotel and pay for our meals while we were delayed as the situation was entirely their fault, but it was still not fun. I called our emergency contact in Tel Aviv to tell them what happened, so that we would be able to be picked up by someone at the right time. That got all worked out (thank goodness). So anyway we arrived in Tel Aviv a little before 10 am on Monday morning (rather than 3:30 Sunday afternoon) and a taxi brought us to meet our group that had already started the tour a little earlier that morning. We started right in touring and finally got to rest at the hotel later that night.

Like I say-I am so thankful that we were together. I don't know how I could have handled it all if Dan hadn't of been there. I dealt with the details and he dealt with me ;0)

In knitting news (if you're still reading at this point), I did very little on the trip. Oh, yes I had lots of time, but my brain was fried. I made one mini sweater. Yep-that's all. Oh, and I think I am going to rip out the beginning of the myrtle leaf shawl. Somewhere on the trip a big section of the lace slipped off the needles and I have no clue where to start to fix that, so I'll just start over (I only had three repeats done out of forty). This time I'll use metal needles instead-I just can't get the hang of those wood ones. It all goes so slow with them.