You are definitely Jersey. Well done, my friend. You are most likely from this great state, and you fit right in. Odds are, you love being Jersey!
How New Jersey Are You?
I actually would have scored higher if I enjoyed the Jersey shore, but sadly this suburban kid likes the mountains and lakes over the beach.
I spent my sunday afternoon at sns knitting with Sunday and Mary. I was making some progress on the Debbie Bliss baby sweater in the Lily Chin yarn (which btw I am not a huge fan). Anyways, Mary tells me about this knitting detective Miss Marple. The show is from England and is shown on PBS every so often. I thought to myself, hmm knitting makes me happy, English tv will make my English husband happy, so we may actually watch this together. Lo and behold, we enjoyed the show. In fact, the next Miss Marple movie will be July 9th at 9pm on PBS and we are super excited. I tried locating a photo of Miss Marple knitting with no success. But, obviously, the bag she is holding in this picture is a knitting bag.
Other than that, I have officially learned my lesson. Three graduate courses in the summer is too much for me. I am quickly reaching my "I don't care" threshold which happens usually 3/4 of the way through one course. So, I am going to attempt to jump ahead with my papers so that all I will have remaining is readings and weekly journals. On the bright side, I will have six courses done at the beginning of August.
Lastly, DH and I have been looking at houses. We have been motivated by our neighbors who enjoy vacuuming at 10pm, blasting music at 11pm, yelling, stomping feet, and after three times of knocking on their door they have calmed down. Sadly, that is our greatest inspiration to move. We are probably looking at something tiny but affordable. On the other hand, this means that we need to clean up our clutter in the home as well as clean up final home improvement projects. I know that Peony is waiting for her closing and I wish her luck as it is stressful but oh so rewarding.
Well, I am taking a quick five minute break to type this entry and then back to writing chapter summaries for my 8pm class. I am almost done with the first summary but one more to go. Agh! I can read my chapters for class, but I hate writing summaries for the class. This is cute one sent from one of my friends enjoy!
Click on the hyper link below and......
FILL IN YOUR FIRST NAME AT THE PROMPT AND WATCH
WHAT HAPPENS. http://www.chezclodio.com/divers/Hi.html
That begin with "D". Introduced by Michelle on her blog, I went to the source and Stephanie gave me the letter D. I need to list ten things that begin with the letter D.
1. Dogs. (Family dog is Blake, a 15 year old Lab mutt mix)
2. DH=Darling Husband.
3. Dew, as in Mountain Dew. I drink it almost everyday since returning to school and work.
4. Diakito yarn (I hardly see it but I love it!)
5. Dell Computers (DH is a computer tech, therefore we have a few)
6. DVDs (We have more than I thought)
7. Digital Camera (Canon Powershot A75)
8. Dishes (from Crate and Barrel)
9. Dumbbell (We don't use them for exercise, more for decoration and as dustcollector)
10. Dirty Clothes (Need I say more?)
The event! Debbie Bliss at stix-n-stitches in Montclair, NJ. When Sheila first announced Debbie Bliss was coming to the store, I was blown away and knew I would go. Luckily, no finals due this week so I could go.
Well, Debbie spoke in the morning with a wonderful buffet brunch catered by Marc and Eric (who also donated food to Art for PAWS). So, I arrived ten minutes early. I knew people were exicted as two women stood on opposite sides of Glenridge ave. screaming "she'll be here in five minutes". They were yelling across a one way street with no oncoming cars. That's when you know you are in the right place.
I made my cup of coffee, picked a seat, and watched all these people who I know come into the store. There was Karen, Robin, Louise, Margaret, Julsey, faces I see all the time. Well, so I am sitting there, getting all excited, when Louise extends her hand to this woman standing at the table. Now, I have to admit I have never seen Debbie's photo, so as soon as I heard the English accent, well, I knew.
All the voices hushed down and Debbie told us she started her business, how she chooses colors, how the collections are developed, the focus of knitting, and about those adorable baby photos in the books. I thought it was interesting that she was inspired by Carl Sandburg (which I have googled but can't locate) soft sculpture and was located while her artwork was on display. Her artwork at the time was machine made plants handpainted to resemble all the subtle nuances of a plant.
Debbie invited everyone to try on the sweaters she brought and let me tell you everyone did. For a while, we had a fashion show as different people modeled the garments. It was a great time! After the Q&A period, we all broke for food and Debbie signed the books. Debbie was extremely nice and down-to-earth. She signed all the books I bought including the one I purchased a month ago. After things died down, it was just a handful off us left, and Debbie was chilling with Margaret, Remy, Theresa, Patti, Sheila, and I on the sofas. Ok, enough typing go look at lotsa pictures.
Debbie had invited Karen (similar but slightly different, maybe Caron) to try this sweater from Alpaca Silk and it was an "oh and ah" moment. Can you tell in this photo she was in bliss?
I have this book! I have this book! I have this book! It has some beautiful pieces.
Debbie explained how the colors are chosen and how they are picked out to compliment each other.
I didn't catch this woman's name but she was at the event early and happy as all can be. She was ecstatic to be asked to try on one of the sweaters. The details on the cuff are very cool.
Two of the audience members tried on a few of the sweaters so we can see and they were having a blast.
This picture is hard to see (sorry Theresa). It is Theresa demonstrating a pink capelet that is on the cover of one of the books. It is lovely!
Remy showing off a three quarter length sweater. I tried it on as well and it was fabulous!
Julsey modeling one of the sweaters in the new book being released soon. This sweater has to be seen up close because there are lovely details that photos are not capturing.
I know I have a lot of photos but this is a good one. Debbie Bliss in front of the wall with her collection showing us one of her books. The table is filled with samples, sweaters, baby items, and new books!
The sns crew behind the buffet and awesomely delicious Marc and Eric buffet. Can you say curry chicken salad mini sandwiches?
Debbie's demonstrated how the collections are developed and ideas are brought to life.
In England they have this term when a woman wants to have a baby, it is broody. Well, I asked Margaret to pick up the baby sweater that made her feel broody or as Remy says see the dancing baby. This one makes Margaret feel broody!
Debbie knits! I feel so honored to sit and knit with Debbie after the event. We all had some coffee, ate some sandwiches, and danishes.
Remy does it again! Remy posing with Debbie Bliss. Remy will soon become, if she is not already, a local celebrity.
Well, I have been slightly MIA due to a pre-session course that wrapped up last week. In the final week (the classes were everyday after work for 2.5 hours) I had two papers and an oral exam, therefore I have not touched my needles, my poor projects, for two weeks. I was so ecstatic to pick up the needles this afternoon and work on the Debbie Bliss baby theatre jacket.
Oh and Ms. Ella is modeling her new cat bed a basket from Spice It Up. The barbeque basket was won by Kristina and given to my husband as a gift. He was oogling the basket all day. Anyways, I did want to respond to knitykity63's question. I was not one of the artists exhibiting at Art for PAWS, but I helped Wendy and Rosemary at Parlor plan the event. A huge amount of thanks goes to them as they did a tremendous job! Thank you for participating in the event! We did really well and I should be wrapping up all the thank you letters and such shortly.
Now that one class is over, three more have begun. I am being overzealous with this project, but I want to make significant progress with the program. quickly.
Milkshake's mom sent me this photo and I was ecstatic. Another photo of the kids enjoying the kitty pi bed I made back in December. This is an especially abstract photo.
Ok, so, Art for PAWS went very well, thank you to everyone who came out to support the event! We raised almost $3,000 for PAWS Animal Shelter. The event was a blast! The food was amazing, but food from Montclair has a tendency to taste delicious. The wine was delicious. The music was good, a guitarist played some wonderful music for a bit, an Aveda rep was giving massages and waxing for donations, the basket raffle was successful as was the art silent auction. I loved so many pieces (wah-I wanted it all!)! I couldn't believe how generous, supportive, and wonderful everyone was! Julsey stopped by and I met Mr. Peonyknits. Anyways, if you haven't taken a look, scroll down and take a look at some of the pieces at the evnet. Oh, did I mention, how cool Wendy and Rosemary are at Parlor Hair studio? They are amazing!
Art for PAWS went well today. I am a little exhausted so I only posted the photos. We had a ton of dogs on parade at Parlor in their best attire. I will post more details tomorrow.
This piece is of Dixie a recently adopted dog from PAWS. On the bottom right hand side you can see we put a sign with the photo (not painting) with her story.
This piece is by Kathryn Eddy and is a painting based off of a photo of Gerry one of the available dogs at PAWS.
"Gunther" was special to a few people and was a hot piece towards the end of the day. I liked this one as well.
This Chihuahua was a favorite by a few attendees (a few chihuahuas attended as well).
This piece "Pep" was a cool number, I wish I got closer so you can see the details.
Both these dogs will be going home with people, and they are lovely. I loved the french bulldog.
This was a great piece by Lloyd and was definitely one of the more hip abstract numbers. Someone really fell in love with this item and I have to see I really liked it.
These elephants made an impression on a few of the attendees and will be going home with someone.
This beautiful piece was donated by Barbara who does amazing pencil drawing. This piece is called "Feral Cats" and despite being lopsided photo is a stunning piece.
Wendy and Richard, a wonderful couple who was up Friday night setting up the event, Saturday doing more set up and Sunday morning running around town picking/dropping stuff.
