Happy Birthday to Me!!

Hello everyone....How was your week?  Mine was fabulous....it was my 45th Birthday this past Saturday....It was a great week.

To start the week, I had a great mail package come from Leading Men Fiber Arts.  This is yarn to do my "Birthday Blanket" with, and then the January and February 2017 new colorways. (This is and the Miss Babs knitting tour are excluded from my Yarn diet....LOL!)

Of course then it was time to wind some yarn....I was feeling lazy and I would put 2 hanks of yarn on the swift, wind one off, then the next....it did not save much time, but I got to sit the whole time doing it....LOL!

Here is my progress so far (it is folded)!

Then I had a great mail day the day before my birthday....I bought two special crochet hooks for my blanket (I was not sure about size yet) and some Harry Potter wands for progress keepers.  These are pretty heavy, so I am not sure I will get to use them as progress keepers...we will see.

The very next day, one of the beads came loose and popped off the wand...I contacted the shop and they are going to send me another one once I return the broken one....I hear The Knotty Knit Wits talk so highly about Knitty By Nature Shop, but she did not even offer to pay the shipping to ship the broken one back...so I am out the shipping on this....I thought that was a little unprofessional....Oh well.

I also worked on my February Socks....I was kinda thinking I was not going to finish these on time....then I thought I would have yet another wip sitting around...so I hit the pedal to the metal....Ha, Ha!  Jaime took me to Fredericksburg for some fabulous German Food and then we went to Junction to the RV to stay the night....Sunday morning we had to pick up our meat from the deer processing in Junction and them home...so I had lots of car knitting time.

At one point it got a little dark....now I am not sure you can see what this is in the picture, but I am wearing a glove that has a light on the thumb and the pointer finger.....so it shines on my knitting as I am knitting (a lady at the retreat had these, so I had to get some).  Jaime said these are much better than me using my headlamp in the car :)

Then there was daylight...on the way home, he took me to my favorite truck stop for breakfast....it was yummy....then more knitting!

Now I just need 2 cuffs and I am done!  Yahoo!

Well, that is all I knit on.....Paige posted a fabulous picture of her and Antonio on her FB...I love this picture!

They got me a 3 lb bag of gummy bears and 3 boxes of Dots for my birthday (all my favorites) and the most gorgeous flowers!  Thank you Paige, Chris and Antonio!

My parents framed  4 pieces of artwork for me....this is a little different and special.  I work at a bank called Frost Bank.  When my mother worked, her company was a customer of Frost Bank.  Well, many years ago, she got 4 art drawings from Frost Bank.  My mother showed them to me and I told her how much I loved them....it was a great gift to her from Frost Bank.  Well, my mom took them to have custom mats cut for them and bought frames and framed them all....I just love them!

Well, that is all I have.....I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Welcome Paulette and Welcome Back Sara!

My friend that I met on Ravelry, Paulette aka Mamiepooh, came to visit me last week.  We had a fabulous time....it was if we had been lifelong friends!  Thank you Paulette for such a fabulous 6 days!

Before I jump into my fabulous week with my knitting sisters....I have to share the beautiful necklace that Jaime got me for Valentine's day (the opal heart...the Longhorn one he got me years ago) and the chocolates I got from Paige, Chris and Antonio.

Now on to welcome Paulette and Sara:

She arrived on Thursday, so off to the airport to get her.  I also picked up Sara...she used to live here in TX and I met her thru SNB, but she now likes in the UK and she comes back every year in February for the retreat.

With both ladies acquired, a trip to Tinsmth's wife was called for....here are some pics Sara took.

 

(this is Stupendously Silly Sara)

And here is a pic of Paulette and I:

Now, I did not buy anything at Tinsmith's Wife (aren't you proud of me?)....but Paulette did give me a skein of yarn....she brought some sock yarn called "Pair-fect" to make a perfect pair of matching socks....and I love the colors...they may even be for Jaime (shhhh, do not tell him).

Then home for a little rest....and off to eat dinner with Darlene.....Can you believe we did not get a single picture of all of us at dinner on Thursday evening?  Well, we didn't!  GRRRRRR!

Friday we had a few errands in the morning and then off to the 4th Annual SAFR Spring Retreat.....picture overload at the end of this post.

A very fabulous friend, Tami, made a quilt for Precious...it was going to be a tree skirt, but she did not like it so she turned it into a doggie blanket and Precious LOVES it...Thank You Tami!

We came home Sunday and went to dinner with Jaime.  We went to Outback....we could not decide between Outback and Red Lobster.....we went with Outback in the end and Paulette got both steak and a lobster tail.....I had a rib eye steak....Yumm!

Yesterday was President's Day and we were busy running around some more....we went to the Riverwalk for Paulette to see and ate at The Rainforest Cafe.....I got Antonio Sunday night, so he went with us and loved all those animals!

Paulette also brought me some fabulous Maple Syrup....along with these sweets that are an ice cream cake cone...with taffy-ish mable syrup in it and maple sugar on top to hold in the taffy-ish maple syrup....I need to get a picture of them....but she also brought all of my grandchildren a maple syrup Lollipop....Look at Antonio enjoying his!

As for knitting (and crocheting)....I really only worked on 2 or 3 things this past weekend.  I worked on the Southern Skies shawl for Shyla's wedding...I worked a little on my socks....but I mostly worked on my Fade...since it was very mindless and I wanted to get it done!  I did.....I got it done!  It is not blocked yet and still plenty big!

Lastly, I started my "Birthday Blanket".....I am going to crochet a blanket with the yarn Darlene got me for my birthday (along with a couple contrasting black and gray skeins).  I cannot wait for this blanket to get bigger!

Well Ladies and Gents....that is all I have except for Picture Overload of the Retreat!  Thirty Four Pictures.....Enjoy!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!