Happy New Year!

One of my goals for 2008 is to be more organized! My parents came up yesterday to help me with that. We got my front closet nice and tidy. We pulled my old vacuum out of it and I was going to donate it when Mom said that my brother is moving to his own apartment and needs a vacuum. I'm excited that I can give it a good home!
We also took a look at my stash of yarn.... Mom didn't like that part. I had no idea that my mom use to knit. As we were pulling out patterns to organize them she started saying things like "oh, I did that sweater, it was a fun one to make." or "I loved this pattern! It was so cute!" I asked her why she doesn't knit or sew (mom is amazing at sewing!!!! I'm not so good) anymore. She said she didn't know why she stopped. I would love to learn to sew from her. She use to make us Halloween costumes, clothes, and all kinds of things.
So, I got a great start on my organization goal for 2008. I'm not there yet, but given time I think I can get it under control (I hope!).
Happy New Year!!!!!!

Tuxes and Electric Guitars?

On Friday night my best friend calls me up and says that she is coming up because her sister got her tickets to see the Tran-Siberian Orchestra. She had an extra ticket if I wanted to go. Sure, why not?
Last night I met up with my friend, her sister, and her brother. Her sister works at a radio station and was announcing that for each ticket purchased a dollar was donated to the children's hospital. We went back stage with her, but when we were told that we couldn't see her present, we went to our seats to watch the show like everyone else.
It was a good time. The TSO is not like a normal orchestra. They have crazy lighting, fire, and even some fireworks! It was cool. The first half of the show was a Christmas story and then second half was their most popular songs.
These guys are in AMAZING shape! They would run full out across the stage to play and then run across it the other way to play again. Even the singers were doing that, but they were singing while they were running! It was awesome!
We admit that we were all a little blinded by the end as the lights kept flashing up into the higher seats where we were. Yet, all in all it was a great time (well, it helped that it was all free!).

Knitting Train Wreck

Ahh, the lovely knit on border that is causing me so much grief. I went back to the shop for some more help from the nice young lady who walked me thought what to do yesterday. However, the nice young lady was not there. On Saturday the shop holds a knitting clinic for those in need of help. "Great! Lots of people to help me!" I thought.
I was wrong.
The lady who was in charge of helping was expecting only new knitters and easy problems to come in. Her response to my question and problem was "Oh, you're a real knitter." WHAT?? Her help was to tell me I just need to rip it out and start over since this was WAY beyond what she knew how to do. Then she said that the nice young girl does things that she's never seen before. I did pull out all my work, and I sat there and re-knit back to where I was. However, this time I had to start it on my own and get going by myself because the "Help Lady" had no idea even after reading though my pattern.
All in all, it was worth the stress of learning it yesterday because today I was able to get started and knit it with out help. I think I'll be OK now and I will be ready to join in the KAL for the Victorian Lace Today book! I have my yarn and my needles. Get ready, I smell a train wreck of yarn coming! ^_^

Knitting Crazed

I was so excited last night when I found out that I got into Ravelry! I put up some of my projects and one of them was my pink lace shawl that I started in September! HA HA... I put it down due to the fact that I wasn't able to get the knit on border to go. Posting it last night pushed me to say I do want to finish that project and I SHOULD learn knit on borders. I swallowed my pride and went to the knitting shop today.
Amazingly, I am getting it. The nice lady explained why I was having such problems before and now it is coming along.... well, so I thought. I wanted to take a stitch out to fix something and now it's looking like the whole thing might come apart AGAIN! Stupid shawl....
I tried to fix it, but it looks like I might be making a trip back to the knitting shop for some more help. It's so hard to admit that I need help. This project is GOING to get finished! I will learn to do knit on borders and I want to complete it!
I think I wait until tomorrow before I go back (I was just there 10 minutes ago!). I'm going out to lunch with a friend in a little while so at least I'll be out of the house and away from the shawl of doom!

Post-Chrsitmas Fun

I had a wonderful Christmas with my family. Christmas eve my brother and his girlfriend came to my parents house for dinner. After dinner my family, my husband, and brother's girlfriend played a few hours worth of Beyond Balderdash. It's a great game that sounds really stupid when it's explained. However, it is side splitting funny! Brother and Girlfriend are both stand-up comedians (I can't make this stuff up!), so dinner was fun and game night with them is always hysterical! We exchanged gifts with Girlfriend and due to weather and lateness, she spent the night with us all.
Christmas morning my mom made a ham and egg casserole for breakfast. Girlfriend stayed thought opening of gifts ("the greed" as my dad calls it), and then went on her merry way to have Christmas with her family later that day. Husband and I exchanged gifts that morning with my family too. Then we headed over to Husband's family's for another gift exchange. He did not like the panda webkinz that I got him, so he re-gift it to me (ha ha, he has no idea what he passed up!). His family always hosts Christmas dinner with my family and his cousins. I got really sick and went home Christmas night with my family.
The day after Christmas mom and I traditionally go shopping. We did, but not as early as usually due to the fact that I was still not feeling well. We did get some great buys!
Last night Husband calls me to say he can't find his key ring (it has all his keys; house, car, work, etc.). He had house key so he had a friend drive him home last night. I came back home today and now we will go get his car and try to find his lost keys. He knows he lost them at work, so we are hoping that they turn up soon!!

VACATION!!!!!

I MADE IT!!!! All the sugar covered little kids wanted to hug me good-bye at the end of the day. It was a great day. Teaching was NOT happening... partying was! As one sage teacher put it "today is about containing the troops". How right she was!
I did get a few gifts from some of the kids. I did a present exchange with a few teachers. One of them got me my own WEBKINZ!!!! HA HA kiddos!!! If you don't know webkniz they are a stuff animal that the kids buy that have an access code to the website. Kids go on here and take care of their new pet. They feed them, play with them and earn money to buy them cool things. It's a virtual pet that you never have to walk or clean up after! My co-worker got me the white bunny! I registered him last night and was playing with it before I went out with some teachers from a school I worked at 2 years ago. They laughed at me and my telling them about webkinz, but they also understood. I like to keep up with what the kids are into so I know what the trends are (past 5th grade, I have no ideas about trends!).
Today my plan is to clean up my house (it looks like a bomb went off), and then mail out the Christmas gifts that need mailing!!! I also have a purse that I need to think about making since I was also asked to do that! So much to do today! After all that, I plan to drive home to my parents house to spend some relaxing time with them.
I wish you all a happy holiday and a wonderful New Year! Love, Rabbit

Holidays are coming!!

I have been so busy this past few weeks! I'm a little slow this year getting my Christmas gifts sent out this year (T- sorry it's going to be really late!!). I did write a few of my Christmas cards the other day, but I haven't sent them yet (I'm out of stamps!!!). I'm such a slacker this year! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... only a few more days of school and then I can get some stuff done!

$1 Bin Fun

So after my manic $1 bin splurge, I had to knit SOMETHING with my cheap purchase. I whipped up two scarfs yesterday from my $1 stash. I also knit another scarf today, but that was with other yarn and was ordered by a teacher at school.
In my $1 bin buys, I got a few skeins of mohair. I really wanted to do something cool with it. I got 5 black and silver ones, and 7 coal colored ones. I looked at some free patterns and found a sweater that used 4 skeins of the two colors. I also needed some ribbon yarn, but that was easy enough to get. Here is the back and the start of the front:
It's not much to look at right now, but I hope it will be cool when I finish it! This is my first pull over sweater. My short cardigan came out so well that I feel like I could tackle a pull over. The pattern said it was "easy". HA HA... so far it is.... I read thought it and some of the directions for the neckline are a little confusing. I'll do the best I can and if I have to rip it out to fix it, then that's what I'll do. My goal is to get the front up to where the shoulder shaping starts tonight.
Today, I also went to ravelry to try and get an account. It looks like I'll be waiting a while.... 7558 people were ahead of me waiting to get on. There were only 3 people behind me. I read about this site on Ysolda's blog. She's from the UK and she is an AMAZING knitter! I love seeing her knitted goods. I hope someday that I can be that creative with my knitting too!

Wedding Day

Yesterday we went to a wedding. It was a nice day for a wedding. The church was so pretty. It was this beautiful old stone with amazing stain glass windows. The pews were old old wood and the organ that played was wonderful to listen to. The theme of their wedding was snow flakes. The runner that the bride walked on had snow flakes on it and she had snowflake earring and scattered in her hair. The wedding party was dressed in a light blue. The ceremony was very nice. Both hubby and I however thought that the pastor was a little condescending. Other than that, it was nicely done. Since the bride is a member of that church, the church ladies put on a punch and cookie reception right after. It was very yummy.
We had a good three hours before the real reception started. Hubby and I came home. I knit up a scarf for my brother's girlfriend as a Christmas gift. Hubby helped me wrap up the wedding gift and off we went for dinner. The dinner was so great! It was buffet style and we sat at the last table to be served. Oh well. It was still good and we had a great time. Our table mates were friendly and easy to talk to so it was comfortable for all.
The bride had really nice favors of little ornaments that were tea light holders. They were all blue with snowflakes on them and a big ribbon that said the date and their names.
I love weddings. They are such a happy event. They looked great and lucky ducks are taking a honeymoon to Jamaica! Lucky!

My 29th Birthday!

Today is my birthday! I had a great day at school. Every class sang to me (not always my kids... other teachers got their classes to sing to me!). One teacher gave me a crown that said "It's my birthday"on it. I wore it with pride all day! I share my birthday with one of the students and so we had a joint party during her class.
I got a lot of nice cards and a few gifts from friends. It was a great day at school!
When I got home I found that my chain maille bracelet kit had come!! I started it, but I didn't get very far before my parents came to take me out to dinner. It was really nice for them to come and take me out. I had a yummy dinner with them and after they came to my house (good thing I picked it up a bit). My dad baked me a cake and we had a piece when we got home. They stayed for a bit and my mom and I made plans for her to come back and help me get organized. They just left a little bit ago. Tomorrow night they are driving down to Erie, P.A. to see my brother preform his stand up routine. Hubby and I are going to a wedding tomorrow. It should be a good time for all!

$1 Bin

So tonight we went out to the craft store so that I could finish a bracelet that I started a while ago, but didn't have all the parts to end it. While we were wandering around the store we found that the yarn aisle had a $1 AISLE!!!! Oh my goodness!!!

I went a little nuts:

I also got the last parts to finish my bracelet. We also stopped at another store and got my brother's Christmas present.

My Boycott

I'm sick of T.V., so starting today I will boycott it. I have other things to do and I don't really want to watch anything anymore. I think I just have it on most night for noise in the house. I'm more interested in reading a book than watching T.V. I'm also getting more knitting orders for Christmas, so I have to get them done and watching T.V. is an avoidance move. I will focus on my books and my crafts for now.

Snowing and Cold!

Ahh, the first snow storm. All the teachers were mad today since most of them thought that it would be a snow day today. No such luck. Oh well.

Here is the finished skull bag and then the purple felted bag that my Nana and I knit together.

Hurry Up and Knit

This morning, I'm all set for my school day except for my knitting. I had a few orders for hats and with my obsessing over the skull bag only one hat was actually completed! I did start it last night and if I hurry it up today I can get it done by tonight.... however, the order called for a matching scarf. I guess that's tomorrow's knitting project. I still have to worry about knitting up my mom's Christmas gift too. I'll see if I can get some of that hat done this morning before I leave for school. It's weird to feel pressure to knit stuff up. I'll try to get it all done asap!

Of Snowing and Skulls

Ah, this morning I got up so much later than I normally do on a Sunday (normally, I get up by 8 a.m., today was 9:45 a.m.! It's late for me!). I had good reason to stay in bed... this is what I saw when I looked out of my window:And this is my back yard:Last night they were saying that we would have a snow storm. We didn't get that much, but the wind was whipping around and that was a little unnerving. I don't like high winds because of the damage that they can cause.

Hubby and I went out last night before all this hoopla to get his friend a wedding gift. We went to two different stores since the wedding is next week, most people already got gifts. So, needless to say their registry was a little picked over. Oh well, we got them a few things that they wanted. We also got ourselves some new sheets; flannel and tee-shirt sheets! Here are the cute tee-shirt sheets that I picked out (poor hubby has to deal with cute little colorful snowflakes!):

Friday night, I knit a LOT of my skull tote bag. Here's what it looked like yesterday morning: The skull pattern is on both sides. I finished the skull part and am now starting the bottom of the bag. I hope to finish today so I can felt it tonight. I also have to finish the hat for a lady at school. Here's how my skull bag looks right now:

I got our Christmas tree up last weekend and yesterday I trimmed it. Today I have to get out my nutcrackers and get them put up. I love this time of year!

Great Birthday Gift!

My birthday is next week, but my hubby's is in January. We sometimes get gifts that will then celebrate both our birthdays at once. This year he found a great thing... Rascal Flatt tickets!
I got up this morning to battle it out and secure tickets for us to go. The concert isn't until January, but it's our birthday gifts to each other! I'm so excited! What a great gift!!!!