Bookworm Wednesday (vol.12)

Wow....I hope this really is vol.12!  Haha since I'm posting from my phone I have no idea!  Ha!

I thought I'd share some of my knitting-related fiction books....not surprisingly, I've yet to find some crochet-related fiction - if you know of any, let me know!

Friday Night Knitting Club is about just that: a knitting club that meets on Fridays!  These girls rely on each other in ways that I rely on my friends.  They gab about guys, family drama, and knitting of course!  The best part of this book?  All the knitting & life tips these gals share are for real!  And they're all over the book! 

Knit The Season is another Friday Night Knitting Club book....it picks right up with the same girls dealing with the same issues we all deal with...and there's more tips in this one!  I like that these books can stand by themselves....you don't have to read them in a certain order.  I really adore the fact that the author of the fiction books has put out a real pattern book so you can knit along with the gals in the books!  How cool is that?

Sweater Quest is quite humorous and I literally gobbled it up in about a day.  If you don't knit you may not know about fair isle knitting but it is a form of knitting that creates a gorgeous design in the finished product.  Well Alice Starmore has created some of the *most beautiful* patterns in this style of knitting.  I mean, they're insanely gorgeous!  And as much as I want to try one, it will be many many many moons until I will even contemplate doing it.  Well, back to the book, the author goes on a quest to hunt down the pattern (the books have been discontinued to the point of paying big $$ for them on eBay) and similar yarn colors (again, long ago discontinued....) so that she can make her own Mary Tudor, one of Ms. Starmore's designs.  She has packed the book with lots of information that I never even wanted to know until I got into this book! 

Holy Crap Guys!

Two exciting things with this post:

A - This is my 100th post!  Can't believe I've been chatting at you guys for that many posts!  I'm so unbelievably grateful for all the people I've met via blogging/twitter and you all make me smile on a daily basis!  You should hug yourselves!!!

B - I added my first pieces to Scarlett Key!  They're all just some of my cozies, but it is something!  I'm going to do up some mini-doilies and totes once I get back home so I will be adding more as soon as I can.

I have a busy week coming up too!  I'm going back home at some point.  I miss my bed!  I'm doing some serious purging on my room here at the farm.  I've already set aside two HUGE plastic tubs for the yard sale, and thrown away so much!  I've got a ton of stuff set aside for the recycling cans in town too.  It feels so good to be rid of the excess!  I do have a tiny issue with letting go the super emotional pieces though....like I have gobs and gobs of letters and cards and programs from plays and stuff.  Do you all keep that stuff or are you comfy with just the memories of those special moments?

Pretty Day at the Farm (image heavy)

The front step is where all the cool kids hang out, don't ya know?

Dear SafeLite...

I kept trying to get his attention, but he doesn't like the camera for some reason.....

....so he ends up doing stuff like this.

They do move when the cars start.  I swear!

Machine corner....and daddy's one-eyed tractor ha!

Runt!  And a random yellow kitten.  

They can sleep anywhere!

Anywhere I tell ya!

And usually the kittens sleep with a buddy.

I feel bad for the mommas....any time the lay down they get attacked by kittens.

When they sleep out here, they have to be protected since My (the horse in this area) is blind.

Stall walls are another favorite spot....and the barn aisle....

Fuzzy, aka Queen Sheba, surveying her lands.  She thinks she runs this place!

Old milk jugs, some marigolds, and the old hitching post = front of barn decorating!

Front yard!  And the back yard is even bigger!!!  

Some of my momma's flowers!

And the flowers on the other side of the porch.  Oh yeah, and another kitten.

Horses!  The "mares" as we call this trio....

Wind chimes, a flag, and a horse hanger.  Yep, that will always be home to me.

Dangling my feet off the front porch is a great thing. 

Bookworm Wednesday! (v.11)

 

Random fact of the day....did you know that the actor Ethan Hawke was also an author?  I did!  He actually has a few books out, but this is the only one that I own.  He's actually a pretty good writer!  The Hottest State is a pretty intense love story about William and Sarah who meet randomly and then set off on a whirlwind romance.  What starts out sweet and simple, turns into obsession and an intensity what will do harm to just about anyone involved.

The Doctor's Wife is equally intense and damaging.  It literally starts with a sentence about a woman holding a gun.  Whoa!  What a way to open a book!  When you're the wife of a solitary OB/GYN in a remote place, you end up lonely a lot of the time.  Well, this doctor's wife starts an affair with a rogue artist and it all goes down hill from there!

Whistle Stop is another of my vintage finds.  I love some good vintage (from the 30's, 40's, and 50's) writing!  It follows the Veech family through a summer of turmoil, loves, poverty, and so much more!  It is a really good picture of what life was like for the large families of the days before WWII.  I know how much drama just the three of us kids had growing up, it is hard to imagine having more kids in the same family!  Oh my!  What drama ensues during the high temps of July and August for this family!!!  (another random note: this book was also made into a movie starring Ava Gardner!)

Now....want a picture that is a hint for Scarlett Key?

These late night blog postings are great....

....a great way for me to clear my mind before I go to bed!  ha!

I love crochet.  I really do.  But I want to get my hands back on to my knitting needles and teach myself as much as I have with crochet!  I've been making cup cozies for Scarlett Key, and while I love them, sometimes I look at my little stock pile and think: These bad boys need something else....just something.  I can picture a small crochet flower stitched on the side.  Hopefully that will take care of that issue.  BUT - I want to have a different base pattern to work off of.  I've been looking at crochet cables and front-post doubles and back-post doubles (did ya get that?  They're crochet stitches....) and while I think those will help, I really *LOVE* most of the knitted cup cozies!  What is holding me back?  All I know about knitting is how to knit and purl - and honestly, I do those backward since I learned how to knit by facing my Grandma and not sitting beside her, so I saw the wrong side of what to do.  I figure that since my dad is leaving and it is just my mom and I, I can corner her to teach me because I know she knows how to knit like a mad woman!  I can remember her doing it when I was a kid!  I will need to make a run to Hobby Lobby (thankfully there is one close by here!) to pick up needles since I didn't bring any of mine here this time and I'm not sure that mom has the ones that I need to learn on.  This fact shouldn't shock anyone that knows anything about me, but I have about 30 pairs of needles in sizes from 00 to like 14 or so.  I have collected them from my grandma, ones my brother learned on in high school (he took home ec to be in a class full of girls!  ha!), auctions, and ones that I've bought.  And I can tell you where I got any given pair that you hold up in front of me.  I also found a full set of crochet hooks here (on the farm...) in my stash of stuff I forgot I had!  Oh my!  And I found a ton of fabric in my sewing basket that I forgot I had....and if you follow me on twitter (@prajaline) you will also already know that I realized I have a TON of books!  I found more boxes today....so the final count on books is this: 3 full bookshelves and 10 boxes.  Yep.  I dream of a library in my house one day.  Back to the topic at hand.....I'm going to figure how to knit these dang cute cozies!  At least with knitting I can go to yarn shop in town and get help; the girls in there don't know how to crochet so I turn to my books and YouTube when I need help with stitches.

Other randoms that I dealt with today:
~ My mom's tiny dog is a butthead!  That dog bit me twice today!  TWICE!  And I have the marks to prove it.  Finally Cody figured out what was going on and came to rescue me....that's my 12 pound protector!  haha
~ I managed to get stung by two different bees too! 
~ How did I get stung?  I was over yelling at the bastards that the electric company sent to cut down trees on the edge of the farm.  I think I'm super emotional about that area because that was Winston's spot, and I miss that dog like caaa-razzzy! 
~ Speaking of Winston - Dad is still trying to find a "replacement" for a lack of a better term.  We need a new farm dog.  We went to look at a dog today, and I knew as soon as I saw him that he just isn't the dog for this farm.  Dad has always said that more often than not, our animals just seem to find us, which is totally true.  Pup got thrown out of a truck in front of my sister.  Max showed up via Missy who just walked on to our farm.  Pendleton picked my dad way back when.  Sabol picked my mom so many years ago.  Emma picked my mom when she went to look at the littler.  Bryant picked me when I went to see that litter.  They just seem to find us. 
~ I am voraciously reading anything I can about the season of Project Runway - All Stars!  I'm borderline obsessed.  Not sure why.  haha
~ Tomorrow my big plan is to continue purging items from my old bedroom here at the farm.  YARD SALE here I come!  Mom and I are doing one in September I think.  I'm totally getting rid of so much! 
~ If I could date a tv character I would have a hard time choosing between Owen on Grey's Anatomy, Joey from Friends, and a combined character made of Ted, Marshall, and Barney from How I Met Your Mother.  Oh heck, who am I kidding....I'm a Dr. Christian Troy from Nip/Tuck kind of girl!  haha  Who would you pick?

Alrighty people...I'm going to try and squeeze into bed with Cody and Elroy.  They seem to have finally figured out where their "spots" are - those spots are right in the middle of my bed.  It is important to note that at the farm, I don't have a huge bed like I do at home....I have a twin sized bed.  Here is a picture I took last night....I literally woke up once last night with El's paws KNOTTED in my hair. 

(oh!  and I'm having a heck of a time trying to pick something for B for his FIRST birthday!  any ideas?)

Sunday night stuff.....

I took some time today and made some more cup cozies for Scarlett Key!  My parents went to visit my dad's parents for the day so I had some quite time here on the farm.  So, I turned on AMC (it is mob week!  woohooo!) and kinda tuned out the world for a little while. 

This worked until I got a phone call from my momma.  Her first words to me were, 'Where's your grandfather's grave?'.  I told her, and then I heard that there wasn't a stone at all for my grandma!  Wait!  Whaaaa?  My aunt made this big fuss about having all four kids (my mom, my aunt, and my two uncles) there like three weeks ago to watch them set the stone for my grandma.  I should say that she left voicemails for my mom about it since my mom doesn't answer the phone when she calls.  Afterwards, there was another voicemail about how disappointed she was that mom didn't go and all that jazz.  Whatever.  Anyway.  My mom said there wasn't ANYTHING there marking my grandma's grave....no headstone!  What the f?  Seriously?  I can't believe the lies and pure evil coming from that woman.  And I'm not talking about my mom.

Let me set the scene....

This kinda nervous, kinda shy, doesn't really know what she's doing or where she is going girl walks into a room full of women that are so certain in what they're doing that she almost walks out.  Thankfully, though, someone realizes the nerves and offers help and a smile.  And we all know how welcoming that is!  The nervous girl fills out her paperwork, leaves her stuff and walks out of the building with hope and a prayer.

Yep, I was that girl today when I dropped off my submissions for the fair.  I'm honestly more nervous that my crafty babies are in the hands of someone that I don't know and I'm not sure how they're being handled.  I am fully expecting not to win anything at all so I'm totally not nervous about that part!  On the way there, I looked at mom and said, "Why in the hell am I even entering?  You know that I'm not going to win!"  Her response?  "To be able to say that you've done it."  I love my mom.  :)