Handsome Prom Man

This is Evan the handsome. To be fair, every man looks good in a tuxedo. I will never get over the way he can tuck me under his armpit. I love it. Six foot three and only 17. What does the future hold? What plans to prosper his future does God have tucked away? I can't wait to see where this one goes.

Knit the "May Gray" Away

It has been raining- (in the California way) for the last two days. I feel gloomy and I am tired. So the backdrop is perfect. I am finishing the Blue Button Beanie tonight. Going nowhere and doing nothing but watch TV and knit, knit, knit. I feel like cocooning for awhile after the hectic weeks of the past. I would take a nap, but it is 4:30 in the afternoon and I may never wake up til Sunday? Every now and then you need some gray skies to justify crawling back under the covers, or staying in your jammies all day. Who did that???

Hold Me Mommy

The three females of the Wenskay Casa. Good thing I was not standing up!

"The party's over, it's time to call it a day..."

Cue music...Does anyone remember that song? The food is gone, the patio is swept, the recyclables sorted and the college grad flew back to Monterey. All grown up and on her own. Wow.

Thanks for the memories...They are all good. The party was a blast. Over 70 photos are posted as an album on facebook. The food turned out well and we had plenty.

Karaoke was the big fun. Don played his sax and Evan did several sets of acoustic guitar with his friend Dominic.

Dancing broke out and we had a big finish with all of the kids in the hot tub with Tom W. holding court with wise advice. Lots of people spent the night and there was a bagel run in the morning. I am still recovering from the fatigue.

Ryan was the guest of the day and the quote of the day was coined by Heather after a stirring rendition of "Old Man Take a Look at Your Life".
She walked away from the performance by Evan and Dom and said - "shockingly good". I am still laughing...

Dish Pan Hands

I am preparing for a graduation party in our backyard tomorrow. The menu is tasty and so pretty. I love the nice array of summer salads. The kitchen prep was washing, chopping, dicing, boiling, cooling, mixing and chilling.

I have in the refrigerator a feast fit for 30-35 hungry people. In order of preparation, we will have:

Baked Beans with Bacon and Brown Sugar
Potato Salad with egg, onion and celery
Spinach Pesto Pea Salad with shaved Parmesan and pine nuts
Greek Orzo Pasta Salad with artichoke hearts, Greek olives, feta cheese, garbanzo beans + more
Sweet Apple Cabbage Slaw
Rice Pasta Mediterranean Salad
2 Luscious Fruit Platters
Caprese Salad Platters
Grilled Chicken Kabobs with 3 sauces; teryaki, peanut satay, ranch

I will photograph the spread tomorrow and post the results. While it lasts...

Brynn Graduates College!!

We are so happy to celebrate Brynn's college graduation. She will make her home in Monterey where she has full time employment at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center. She has received her Bachelor of Arts in Human Communications, with a specialization in Practical and Professional Ethics. Whew! We are so happy for her. It was a lot of hard work.

Ryan has been selected as the "Student of the Year" by the ARC of San Diego. His achievement will be celebrated a a banquet at the San Diego Hilton Resort on Mission Bay, June 5th. It is a big honor. Association for Retarded Citizens is the wonderful organization that provides the day program that Ryan attends. It is a charity worth supporting.

Evan has Junior Prom next Friday. He has been practicing guitar everyday and his band performed at the High School Exhibition Day. He has a 4.0 gpa at the moment and school ends in 3 weeks.

The Wenskay kids are doing well. Praises and joy!

Consumable Gifts

Here is an example of a perfect consumable gift. The cool thing about living in SoCal is almost every plant sold can be planted in the ground and will return to live another life cycle. That is cool.

Meditation Tree Encites Green Prayers

Can you see the bench under the tree? I want to sit beneath this tree until I die. That is a prayer request.
Meditate with me...

Donations Delivered

This is the way I receive yarn and accessories for the upcoming Stash sale for the North Coast Knitters Guild. I get a fun group of ladies together to sort, package and price.

We hold the sale in September, and all are welcome to come shop.

Spring clean your stash now!!!

Court Cut

Here is the handsome young man unveiled from his tresses. Sometimes he reminds me of Johnny Cash. He has a poster of him in his room and I think he is channeling him.

The first cut is the toughest.

It will grow back! I like his hair long, but I wanted him to make a good impression on the judge.

Fresh from the washbowl. Ready to cut.

Charity Auction Donation

Here is the sturdy Tote bag and Beret that I knit and donated to the Encinitas Soroptimist Club.

It was a raffle item at a charity fundraiser. I hope it found a happy home with a hand knit enthusiast.

My goal is to teach everyone to knit and love it, or to at least love the hand knits.

Blowing in the Wind

It is hard to appreciate the colors. Lavender, mauve,cream and a touch of cool blue. Light and airy. You can carry it in a small purse for the cool eventide.

Main Knit Libary

Here is the main location of my
beloved knitting books. I want to own
them all. I can spend hours at the bookstore pouring over pages. Wanting more books and more time to read and knit. I want , I want...



You should see my magazine collection. Floor to
ceiling, at least. There is always room for one more.

Knit Cups Christmas Gift

Here are my ceramic cups embossed with yarn. Thank you Heike. Every morning I drink my coffee from them.

They are from the local Starbucks. Someone in the chain of command is a knitter. I just know it...


Can you see the design?

It Worked

I am happy to report that you no longer have the ads featuring pest eradication on the sidebar! Hurray! It worked. Now you have lovely ads about knitting and I especially like to recommend the knitculture site. Nobleknits is also awesome.

I finished my brothers throw and have pinned it into shape for finishing. I love it. I started another shawl for this fall's trunk show. Photos tomorrow. I had a really productive day. I organized all of my knitting books. I also took random patterns that were collected in a tall stack, and matched yarn to pattern from my stash. I placed them together in ziploc bags and now have handy projects in a bag to grab and knit.

I have all the laundry caught up, dishes done and floors swept. I even got some scrap booking projects together for a future time of contemplation and paper creativity. So little time, so many projects...

Don't Ignore The Ads On your Right

I must write about knitting. The ads that run along side of the blog are the income that allow us bloggers to have a free site to post our thoughts. That is why we all encourage you to hit on anything that may interest you. It generates income for me personally and it brings revenue to the advertiser, eventually. The magic of the internet allows the blog site to actually take key words out of the writing and match appropriate advertisers to the content. Amazing technology. Well, my post about my uninvited party guest created an unsavory side bar of businesses suited to the disposal of the party guest I will no longer name. To change the side bar I must focus the content back on knitting.

Knitting, knitting, all things knitting. I have almost finished my brother's throw. It is lovely and will keep him warm in his new home in Richmond, VA. Someplace new to visit. Two more KnitWits have finished their throws and we are going to go to the talented Pauline to have them blocked and assembled. I will photograph it before shipping it east.

I continue to work on Alpaca scarves. I love to feel alpaca yarn. It is so soft. I wore the Alpaca sweater, previously featured in this blog, all day Friday. It shed like an animal on my black shorts!!! Imagine. But, I must say it feels so soft against the skin, that I forgive it.

I have had requests for a custom knit throw for a friend. I need to order the black yarn and start as soon as I get the red one of the needles. Brynn's sweater is at a stand still as I ran into trouble with the decreases at the shoulder. So fickle. So I knit a quick wrap in a muted colorway that everyone loves. Mindless knitting on large needles with laceweight yarn.

I signed up to do a KAL at the Lion Brand blog. Check it out. It is a cool looking shrug designed by the talented Glampyre. How and when will this be knit??? Check her out at her blog.

I am going to do a trunk show in late September in Carlsbad. I have designed new patterns and plan to knit up at least 20 bags to sell with a few other accesories. Wine and cheese and chic handknits! I will skip the craft fair and have a second home show in November, based on the success of the first one. I hope the ads have changed back to pleasant yarn companies...

KBO

Last night my hubby and I watched a wonderful HBO movie called "The Gathering Storm" about Winston Churchill prior to the start of WWII. It was a small film, but oddly moving and compelling.
The political climate of the UK seems much the same today as it was in the prewar late 30's.

Winston, as portrayed by Albert Finney, looks remarkably like Grandpa Roy, padding around the house naked. Vanessa Redgrave, as his wife, evoked memories of her recently deceased daughter, Natasha Richardson. Their voices were clones. The film transported us to the time and place.

Winston was apt to wallow in depression. Painting away the dark times, his studio and easel were his coping tools. He had remarkable self esteem and believed in his profound destiny. He was born to be a great man. He coined a phrase and used it often within his community of family and friends. KBO- keep buggering on!

I like it. It is what we must do now. I will share that the IBM receivables have arrived in the nick of time to stave off doom and gloom. We have kept the wolves at bay for the time being. However, there are now paltry recievables to insure our future status quo. We need a miracle of employment. We need it sooner, than later. A Biblical reversal of Fortune. Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts. We plan to KBO...

Mothers Day Meandering

Happy Mothers Day to all of you that are Mothers, and everyone else that had a Mother. I never think of my own Motherhood on this day of remembrance. My husband and children celebrate me with a day of honey-dos. I appreciate those chores more than jewelry and gifts. Blessed, that's me.

The most serious piece of advice I will ever give you is this. If your Mother is alive and you have not made peace with her, do it. The sooner, the better. Your relationship with your Mother ends when you die, not when she does. When I next meet Mom, all of my questions will no longer matter.

I had a complex Mother. She was not a women given over to effusive emotional outbursts. By that, I mean I do not remember her kissing or hugging her children spontaneously. The few people left alive that knew her while she raised her children, are hard pressed to tell tales of overt Mother love. I always wanted more from her than I got. I was a square peg, constantly trying to conform to the round hole.

I remember her today for the things she taught me. Independence. A love of reading, music, art, travel and culture. Respect for this country, voting as a right and a privilege. The freedoms we enjoy by virtue of being born here. Commitment to a cause. How to stretch a dollar, clean a house, sew a garment, cook a decent meal. Keeping up with current affairs, the value of a good education. Life long learning. Saying "yes" to new experiences. Savoring friends as family. Enjoying a glass of good wine when you get the chance. Charity to the less fortunate. How to host a party.

I will ignore her examples of forgiveness, judgment, marriage, religion, childcare, finances, honesty and love. I have been mentored in these disciplines by others. Mothers with out the "M".

Today we miss Don's Mother. For the first time in my life, I did not send a card or flowers to a Mother of mine. Helena was a first class mother-in-law. Even if her first impressions of her future daughter-in-law were unsure, she quickly became my friend. To all of the others- those who parent beyond their immediate family, I raise my glass today. I thank you and my own
Mother for making me the woman and mother I am today. Keep working on me, I am not done yet...

Tune IN, Turn ON, Knit!

Skinnygirl margaritas rock. We had a small get together and made these drinks invented by Bethenny from "Real Housewives of NYC". If you never heard of this show, walk away from the television and save yourself. It is like crack cocaine. I am addicted to these "housewife" shows. Fantasy and ridiculous drama provides trite escapism. I redeem myself by knitting prodigiously throughout. Trash TV makes a project fly! Have a margarita and enjoy May.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I was not sure if I would ever share this story with you.
We had a get together for a few friends this weekend. It has been a long time since we have had more than a couple of couples over for dinner. It was fun and we spent a large portion of the evening outdoors on the patio. As a convenience, we left the patio doors open from late afternoon until all the guests had left and the clean up was complete. It was almost midnight before we locked up for the night.

The next morning we were up bright and early to head to church. The mister discovered that something had been nibbling at our fruit bowl. Actually, feasted on bananas, pears, apples and avocados. I noticed some dog kibble on the floor near the door and near the stove. The dog was whining and clawing at the cupboards. We had to serve communion and took off, knowing we had unwanted guests in the house.

Last night, all was quiet. No sign of rodents. The family went to bed and I was left to catch up my favorite DVR selections and knit in peace. I heard some rustling in the kitchen. Ran in and saw that something had moved the counter around. My hubby came running and found a piece of fruit wedged behind the microwave. OK. We definitely had a rodent. How many? Where. WHY GOD, WHY?

The mister shrugged and went back to bed. After all, a man needs his rest. I sat on the couch with some simple seed stitch keeping me calm and waited for what I knew would come.

From 10 pm until 4 am, I saw that wily rat every 15 minutes. It became accustomed to my presence and would stare at me before disappearing between the microwave and refrigerator. I passed out from exhaustion at 4:30 after extensive rodent research via internet. We had some old poison in the garage and set it out. It quickly disappeared. So, I had seen the enemy and filled it with poison. What else could I do? With the lights blazing, I headed to bed.

This morning, we called Al the exterminator. He came, set traps and drove away. Ten minutes later, we heard the loud snap of a trap. The dog was going wild. I called him back to collect the trapped R-A-T. RIP.

Now we wait for the ratting hour. He set traps all over the kitchen. Just a precaution. We have gone into take-out mode. The expert feels we are done. We had a lone ranger that came to the party. Beware of uninvited guests. Another new experience is under our belt. Never ask the question, "what else could happen?" The answer may surprise you.

Oh My, Cinco de Mayo

I cannot believe I have been incommunicado for so long. I have had plenty of thoughts to share and time to post. Let's just say that April was a long, hard month to endure. We were waiting for May for so many reasons. This little photo shows Cinco de Mayo in Old Town, San Diego. We are celebrating the arrival of May. May 1, Evan turned 17! He survived 16!

We did receive some of those IBM receivables and although they are not caught up, we live to see another day! Keep those positive thoughts coming. April crappy times, bring May happy times.