Two faces of Arizona

View of the mountains just north of the valley

Last weekend my family went camping with a group of people from church. It was pretty warm in the Valley, even for Arizona it has been hot for this time of year. reaching degrees in the mid to high 90's. I was looking forward to getting into some cooler weather up on the Mogollon Rim. Well by the time we got there, just before the sun went down., it was a lot cooler. We were prepared with coats, my sleeping bag was rated for as low as the temperature got, and I was reminded that I really do like warmer weather. Saturday morning it was still cold but as soon as the sun came up it warmed up nicely. After breakfast, while we broke camp, the kids walked to the lake (with adult supervision of course). It was beautiful. I'm glad I went it had been a long time since I had been camping.

Woods Canyon Lake

Favorite

IMG_2637
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

"question of the day" posted in the She knits podcast furm today on Ravelry by mountainpurl was "what is the thing or things that someone you know - friend or family has made that you think is just amazing? " There were several things I thought of. Some bookcases built by my husband and a needlepoint done by my grandmother were a couple of items that stood out. both were labor intensive in different ways.
Then I thought of my favorite object made by me. Its my first wall quilted wall hangingthat involved fabric transfers of family photos and creative use of fabric. I really had a lot of help from the teacher of the class I took in figuring out the square size and cutting of the fabric. The seams are a little wonky and there are loose threads all over the place. It was on of my first quilts and I really treasure this wall hanging.
The center photo is a picture of my Grandfather, grandmother and Uncle Jack. PIctures included on the quilt are of my parent's wedding day
my Uncle Jack in front of a Derigable that he flew in WWII
My dad when he was much younger and had hair ;).

I love this quilt because it is a daily reminder of my heritage and of the sacrifices my ancestors made to be together and build a family.
Is there something you have made that you love despoite its imperfections?

In honor of Labor Day ( a couple of days late)

Greyhound picket line 4/1990
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Ahh. To be young again. I always look forward to the long holiday weekend. I always forget to remeber what Labor day is about.

This pic was taken while my husband and I were visiting my dad who was on the picket line. Dad drove bus for Trailways for over 25 years, until Greyhound took over Trailways in 1987. BEcuase of some labor -law violations the union started a nation-wide strike in March 1990. It took 38 years for the labor dispute to be settled. During this time my dad worked night shift as a security guard at a local mall, got his realtors license, and tried a couple of other different jobs. All while spending some time each week on the picket line.
Driving was the career he loved. He was so happy to go back to work when the stike was finally settled and even happier when the union was able to restore his seniority and unpaid back wages.

I'm so proud of my dad and of how hard he worked to make a good life for me and my family.

I Won!

Everyday Hoodie Kit
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Earlier this month Blue Sky Alpacas had a sweater kit giveaway on their Facebook page. last week I rec'd a message from them that I had won the random number generated drawing. I was so excited
The kit came via fed ex this morning, it included the pattern for the Everyday Hoodie, enough yarn to knit the largest size of the pattern, and a "pretty cheep" project bag with a hummingbird on it.
Even-though I don't need to start another project as soon as I get off the computer I'm going to ball up a skein and get started.

Happy Anniversary!

wedding day 1988
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

22 years ago today I got married to my wonderful DH
DH stands for dear hubby most of the time, On extremely rare occasions the "D' will stand for something else.
He is the perfect match for me. We balance each others personalities out. He is extremely, calm, loving, kinds, and patient. Extremely patient. I'm so glad we found each other when we did, and that we are able to go through this journey of life together.

New Girls in the Coop

IMG_2576
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

My sweet husband brought home some 4 new chicks home the other day. I wasn't real pleased, we still had 4 older chickens. He assured me that the feed store was willing to take in the older chickens and "find them a home". We eat chicken I know where chicken in the store comes from, but haveing taken care of those chickens the last couple of years I know we could never eat these chickens.
This weekend he and the kids took the older chickens to the feed store.....and came home with 3 more chicks. he has convincing me down to a science and his secret weapons are the kids. He has them do recon, announcing as the walk ing the door that "we got chickens mom" "They're so cute". Well the kids are cute and so excited, and the chicks are kind of sute too.How can I get upset at that. He's ruthless
We have:
3 Opringtons - brown eggs
2 Americauna- blue or green eggs
2 Welsummers- dark reddish brown eggs
They are pretty cute especially the Orpintons. Thier legs are so feathery and look like muppet legs
yep he's ruthless to parade so much cute in front of me.

My little Lamb

Critter
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

I'm posting this quite a bit late. Rec'd this fun little critter as part of the Green Critter Swap hosted by Dawn from the Knit Naturally podcast. My Swap Partner was the wonderful Tasha. This little guy came in a package with "all sorts of wonderful" Isn't he cute. My 6yo thought so too. I'm gonna have to arm wrestle her for him.

Flamingo Pie Baby Cardigan

Flamingo Pie Baby Cardigan
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Crocheted for a friend haveing a baby this month.
Pattern: Pink Candy Cardigan
Yarn: Dream in color Smooshy
Color: Flamingo Pie

The girls

The girls
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

The DH brought home some "new" chickens. This time we have two Orpingtons ( the light brown and white with feathery legs), and two Americauna. My daughters are in love with the Orpingtons they are sweet and gentle. The Americaunas seem to be the ones with bit of an attitude.

Its always fun to get new chickens.

Where does the time go?

Its been three months of busy and no blogging. Nothing exciting going on just busy. My youngest is sporting a new smile this Summer. My daughters have been participating with the city Summer rec swim team. I love it. They have a good workout in the morning and are mellow for most of the day. I also love it because while we are at team practice, I can get some quality knitting time in. I take cotton and work on dishcloths, mainly because they are "mindless knitting" and they make good housewarming gifts.

At the swim meet today I was working on a garter-stitch diagonal dishcloth and my friends 8 yo daughter was watching me, our conversation went something like this.

Her: What are doing?
Me: I'm knitting a dish cloth
Her: oh
After a couple more minutes of her watching me
Her: I don't get it....
Me: Well I like to use hand knit dishcloths, so I make them to use. They're really great.
Her: No , I mean I don't get what your doing?
Me: I'm knitting
Her: I don't get how it works, can I try?

Clearly there was a breakdown in communication on my part. I took a few minutes and showed her how to make a knit stitch, then she finished the row for me. Her stitches weren't perfect but she got the mechanics of the knit stitch really fast. I didn't have the heart to rip them out. I cast off what had been done and handed her first bit of knitting to my friend her mom.

House-guests

IMG_2345
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Friday night was the school Spring Carnival. There were bounce houses, inflatable slides , a rock climbing wall, raffle prizes and games galore. I volunteered for an hour at he Cosmic Hair Salon, basically spraying kids hair with temporary hair dye...they loved it. My oldest daughter used up 10 game tickets trying to win a goldfish at the fishing pond, while the youngest daughter did it on the first try.
Here are their new pets. They survived Friday night into Saturday afternoon. We went and got them a slightly larger tank with a filter. They seem pretty happy in their new home.

Autumn in Spring

IMG_2319
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

After being on the needles for almost a year, I finally finished Autumn, an entrelac shawl. It wouldn't have taken me that long if I would have just kept at knitting it. but I took several breaks., and ...well you know.

Podcast Swag

HFD water bottle
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

I love to listen to podcasts while I walk, clean house,knit, sew, just about everything. I ordered this from one of my favorite knitting podcasts, The High Fiber Diet. It will be great to take walking , in the car and it fits in my project bags perfectly.

The kids have been out of school on Spring break this week and next. My exercise has suffered greatly so I took the girls on a "forced march" this afternoon. The weather was perfect breezy and the temp was in the 70's. We walked for about 2 miles stopping at the Elementary schools desert garden. I'll take pictures of it later. It has all sorts of cacti, trees and desert plans. Right now the California Poppies are in bloom carpeting the garden in yellow.

When we got back from the walk a package from Cafe Press was on the door step and in it was my new favorite water bottle. Just one more week of Spring break, Yay!

Fortune Friday

Friday nights , especially if the husband is in town, is date night. Date night for us is just getting away for an hour of food and conversation. Usually we go to the food court at the mall eat Panda Express, talk , and watch the teenagers go by. MY favorite part of the meal (besides the conversation) is cracking open the fortune cookies. Tonight's fortunes were........

mine: "you bring out the best in others"

Hubby's : "A partnership shall prove successful for you"

Its been 22 years since we met, and marriage is always a work in progress, but we've been pretty successful so far and intend to continue.

Lovey Dovey

S6301702
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

I love the name of the pattern for this little baby top, Lovey Dovey. I think it came out the right size. I'm concerned that even-though the yarn is a wool/cotton blend, it will be too warm of a garment for an Arizona baby, I intended for this to go to a baby that is due to be born in a couple of weeks, The afternoon temps are up in the 70's, its only going to get warmer. hmmmmm what to do

Happy President's Day

S6301687
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

I love our city zoo. Its big , it tries to give the animals a good environment to live in. Its big. The parking lot can be filled to capacity , but there is still plenty of room to walk around on the zoo grounds. There is a huge variety of animals. Most you can see fairly well with out disrupting them too much. Today the weather was perfect. Warm enough for them to be active, but not too warm.
My only complaint is that the line for the women's restroom is always long. They need just a few more stalls...anything would be an improvement.
I still love our zoo

Olympics Cast-on

IMG_2268
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

I started Love-Dovey during the opening ceremony on 2/12. Its in the Junior Olympics category for the Ravelympics.
Yarn: Spud and Chloe Sweater in Watermelon(pink) and Grass (green) colorways I've enjoyed working with this yarn. My hands usually hurt after working with cotton content yarns. My hand's haven't had a problem so far.
Needle: Size 8 the pattern called for a size 10 I tried a 9 and it was too loose of a gauge
It is blocking tonight. Tomorrow I'll add some embroidery to the skirt of the top.

mmmMalabrigo Bucket hat

mmmMalabrigo Bucket hat
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

Knit for the daughter of a knitting friend, its modeled by my daughter. I'm really happy how the pattern turned out. I knit the brim twice in different yarns and different needles before finding the right yarn with the right needle, thrid time was the charm. Knitting is amazing and satisfying when you find the right combintation.

Off Track

True confessions, as far as my new year's goals are concerned I've follow off track, haven't stayed the course, lost the vision...(what ever phrase you like to use insert here). My excuse is that that my husband was outof town for two weeks in Japan, plus we had quite the weather system go through while he was out of town. my valuable exercise time was taken away by cleaning the yard and minor home maintenance. Basically I'm a wimp and can't keep up my motherly duties, take care of the things my hubby normally does, AND expect to exercise, let alone knit and read. See I'm a whiney wimp.

I did get some knitting done.

Felted clogs for my oldest son. MY frontloading washing machine does felt wool . Next time I need to remeber to turn off the spng cycle. these turned out a little wonky

...and dishcloths also a litttle wonky, but still usable.

Now I need to get back on track with the other goals.

Goals 1st week

Exercise

So far so good on the exercise. Last week I exercised at least 30minutes 4 times then I walked to pick up my youngest from school rather than ride the half mile round trip. For main exercise I dusted off and used the old nordic track ski machine that was purchased 18 years ago. Figured out the Wii Fit, got my self registered and using that also. I am feeling better my attitude and moods are also better, I have more energy during the day and am sleeping better at night.

Knitting

I am pushing through on some unfinished projects. I need to update my projects list on Ravelry to show a more honest picture of how many Works In Progress I really do have. I started with one washcloth and it is my take everywhere knitting because I don't have to think a whole lot when I knit it.

Reading the Book of Mormon by April 12th.....not doing so well on this one.

Goals (cont)

One of my goals this year is to get with and be involved again with the Year Long Gift-a-Long group on Ravelry. The purpose of the group is to set goals early on for knitting/crafting gifts for Holidays, birthdays etc. . The moderators if the group make goal setting and meeting fun. There is a lot of encouragement from other members . There are quarterly Challenges in addition to making and meeting monthly goals. The Quarterly Challenge is geared toward gifts due in November/December. Generally if you complete your goals in the quarterly challenges your name is put in a drawing for a prize...the prizes are awesome (if you are a knitter).

Here is the start of my gift list for 2010
January- 5 Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloths/due December
Felted Clogs/ Jacob/due February
February- 5 Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloths/due December
March- 5 Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloths/due December
spa set mother’s day
April- start quilt for charity raffle

Dishcloths are apart of my quarterly challenge goals. i stared with this group in 2008 and completed a lot of projects for gifts for Christmas and did a lot of charity knitting that year because of the goals I set. 2009 I didn't keep up with the group or make many goals. I look forward to doing well this year.
I have the knitting goals taken care of, for personal goals here is my start:

• workout/go for brisk walk at least 30 minutes 4 times a week
• read chapter of Book of Mormon each day

I have a few friends who are running together in a team relay long distance race called a RAGNAR the run 200 miles in 24 hours. I don't expect to be able to do anything at all like this anytime soon but I would like to be in that kind of shape where I could eventually run something like that. Right now I would be happy not running out of breath after climbing two flights of stairs.

New favorite thing: The Knitted Spoon podcast it combines knitting and vegetarian cooking two of my interests.

New Years Day

We have a sort of tradition for New Years day. If we are in town the hubby likes to drive over to the other side of Phoenix to Glendale and have lunch at Cabela's. Cabela's is an store for fishing, camping, and hunting enthusiasts. They also happen to have a pretty good cafe/grill that the kids and the husband enjoy eating at. I usually just get a drink. This store has a wonderful display of taxidermy wildlife that you have to walk by to get to the cafe. I have a hard time eating lunch with all the animals "looking" at me.

While we were at Cabela's Dave got a state and urban fishing licences so he could take the kids fishing. After we returned home from our excursion to Cabela's a couple of the kids really wanted to go fishing. Dave did some research on the urban lakes in our area and chose to take the kids to the lake at Kiwanis park. It was great the kids had a great time and best of all they didn't catch anything. Can't beat that.

I'm pretty happy with the day. I got a lot of knitting done, finished the dishcloths for my MIL, worked on a scarf for next years red scarf project and didn't have to clean any fish.