Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Yeah-like I don't know you all have long since forgotten me. But I have a reason. A good solid reason. Well, at least I think it is. The blame entirely falls on the shoulders of my picture hosting site. I have been using Nikon's MyPictureTown.com for some time now. I found the ease of loading pictures onto the blog was so much easier from there. But for way over a month the site has been giving me fits. So today I sat down and restored my computer to a date long before I remembered having the problem. That did nothing to fix my problem. I messed with some internet preference options. Again nothing. So I guess for now I will go back to using blogger to post pictures. Maybe it has gotten easier since I messed with it last.


The trip to Disney is long since over. It has been long enough to forget the bone gripping fatigue you get keeping up with an 8 & 9 year old on vacation in Florida. Long enough to forget the lack of sleep from constantly changing hotels(even tho some of those beds were to die for)!! Long enough to forget how big a fit a tired 9 year old can throw when she gets very very frustrated. But luckily, not to long ago to remember the joy in seeing their faces after almost a year, the excitement of hitting the beaches for the first time this season, the look of wonder in seeing Disney World and Cinderella's castle for the first time, the exhilaration of riding the big roller coasters with them and last but not least of all, the immense love we feel for these granddaughters of ours.


Now the Disney World experience is one most people should experience at least once in their lives. But for us, it will be once and only once. We were not enchanted overall, nor were the girls. Yes, they had a great time. But it wasn't the Disney experience that really did it for them. Plainly and clearly, they just love thrill rides. We could have easily gone to a good 6 Flags and been done with it. Maybe they were just not the right age. Maybe a little younger would have been the perfect time. They didn't care for the crowds that much but they were amazingly patient if they thought the long lines would lead to a heart stopping, jaw dropping, stomach churning joy ride. They never wanted to spend much time or money looking for souveniers and were pretty reasonable about snacks and meals. In contrast though, they loved all 3 beaches we decided to visit. We spent a day each at St Augustine, Daytona and Amelia Island. All 3 were very different experiences and all most enjoyable. Grandma just wishes the beach combing would have been a little bit better while we were there.

Since returning from Florida I have been quite busy with my gardening, knitting and even my quilting. Outside the weather is slowly warming. But at least every few days we get hit with torrential rains that want to flood out the garden. So I am still holding off on putting my tomato, pepper and squash plants in the ground. Someday soon we will turn the corner and start to dry out just a little. On the knitting needles is a cute little cotton sweater that has given me fits. For reals. The pattern is Fifi, found on Ravelry. It is a cropped length, cap sleeved, cabled little fitted tee that has a bit of sex appeal. Yes, even a granny wants a little bit of that. But the pattern is written so badly. At first I thought it was just me. But I promise, seriously, that this is not me. I took a lot of time to carefully go word by word thru the first half of the sweater. It is knit top down, raglan style and I knit all the way past the arm hole divides and into the lower bodice before I totally ripped it all out and started over. If you knit as the pattern reads your cables will not line up at all like the picture. And making sense of where the short rows should go is nearly impossible. And how the short rows are to be accomplished is not all that well thought out. So I decided to take what I learned from what I had tried to knit, look at the picture to get the cable placement right, readjust the short row idea and now I have a gorgeous little number to show off. I went with the pattern recommendation on the yarn and that is one thing that was right on the money. They used Rowan's Calmer. A bit pricey but hands down the best cotton I have ever worked with. I may never want to try anything else after being spoiled by this great fiber. Anyway, hopefully pictures of a finished object will appear next post. Which I intend to be next week......I want to be back on a regular posting schedule pictures or no pictures.

As far as the quilting goes, I have not so much been sewing, but organizing the studio again. I never really got everything unpacked and put away. I had yet to decide on or find bookcases or something to use as a cutting table. But I think that is finally all underway and I will post more on it as it progresses.

But alas, dinner is on the stove. The yard needs some weedeating now that it has slightly dried out from this morning's deluge. And I still have a repeat and a half to finish up with today's knitting quota. So I leave you now and hope to see you again in a week.....But before I go, just a few funnies....

The Girls Clowning Around

The Cows after the Storm