Successful Party!

The graduation/birthday bon fire was a success. Great time was had by everyone who came out, even with a few sprinkles of rain before midnight then a torrential down pour around 4 a.m.
Here's the party girl ready to roll and her beau being the lumberjack for the fire pit.

Party goers starting to arrive and bon fire stoking up!

Jon's big surprise of the evening for Kristen, his friends band came out and played for the party! How kewl is that.

Time to Party!

We're headed out to the property up North on a beautiful Saturday evening to enjoy a Graduation/Birthday/Welcome Home bon fire! It should be a great, great time!

Even with all the activities and people around I'm able to get in some "me" time knitting. A good friend of mines cancer had come back and she's going to need these socks before too much longer so I'm doing the fancy sea shell socks for her. My foot model (Krissy) has an 8.5 size foot and these are big, big on her so I don't think I'll have a problem with them fitting a size 10 foot!

Here is Kris and I ready to go out to lunch with Bryan on Thursday. It was a horrifically hot day so we wore minimal anywhere we went LOL

And here is Medusa doing her Garfield imitation. She is the goofiest cat of all time!

Happy Girls!

My bestfriend finally arrived last night and ALLLLLLLL the girls are happy!

Angel, Bryan, Krissy

Bryan and all the girls! (but me and Medusa!)

Ever see a Blue Zebra

Are these not the kewlest socks ever! I am hoping to do the Knitter's Brewing Company Safari Sock KAL but it looks like I'm going to have a house full, tons of activities going, etc. so probably won't be able to follow along so I started my Safari socks early. I so love the way turning at a certain point develops the zebra pattern. Too kewl or what. Of course, the pattern as well as the color fits Kristen perfectly. If it isn't black and white then it has to be zebra pattern for her!

Might be building an Ark!

The only good thing about the amount of rain we've gotten over the last few days is that it has been warm, somewhat gentle, and has made my roses pop open all at once. Friday evening these were all buds, Saturday afternoon they were all blossoms!

And of course, Sadie Mae is LOVING this weather because she can go out and act like a farm dog. She has had no less than 3 baths this week not including the "wipe downs".

Spring Showers bring Summer Flowers!

Definitely not a joke this year. I've been known to be a bit "whiney" this Spring because it has been so chilly and damp but when my peonies look like a tree rather than a bush and my snow on the mountain hostas are grown 2 foot into the grass already as well as my plantation lilies already twice the size they were last year,,,,yeah I can't complain too much! Here are some shots of my peonies that opened up Sunday for me, Saturday we had a warm night so they popped big time!

Spring had done Krissy well too. LOL She bought some of the Bump-It hair thingies for the "Palen" look so she was playing with them. Like the results.

Shroomers!

Now if you are thinking 70's drugs then YOU ARE old! LOL If you are from the Northern Tier of states you definitely know what a shroomer is! Those of us who can't wait for Spring to hit Michigan so we can go Morel mushroom hunting. More info here. Now keep in mind, mushroom hunting season is complete for the year unless of course you believe in the "farmers tales" or "old wives tales" that say the largest mushrooms are found after June 1. I'm a believer now, check this 13 inch, 1 lb 8 oz Morel Mushroom out! A friend of mine up North and his family are competitive mushroom hunters, in fact his parents come from out of state just to mushroom hunt. Well my friend had held the largest mushroom crown in the family for a good 10 years until this Spring when his Dad found a pretty good whopper and rubbed it in his face. This past Thursday my friend was scouting some downed wood to cut up and get stocked for winter when he came across a patch of fresh Morel's that was in an unscouted area. He decided to look a little more and came across this 13 incher! He thought it was fake and someone was messing with him, possibly video taping the joke on him until he reached down and found it was real at which time he freaked out, started taking pics and then very carefully dug it up roots and all. He is having it mounted and will be in the newspaper on Monday. Everyone is in disbelief and flipping out on it, needless to say "he's the talk of the town!"

My College Graduate!

I am still trying to figure out how just yesterday my baby was born and then all of a sudden today she's a college graduate! How does that happen!?!?!?! All those years just in a blink of an eye or so it seems. But here she is in all her glory!

Some things never change (nor do we want them to), long drive to the commencement exercises, camera in car, Krissy will play!

Krissy's bestfriend from primary school years and to this day, Tasha and her son Devon, were able to join us for graduation and make the day even more sweet! Krissy and Tashie have been through hell and high water together and they are still an awesome team! Thanks Tashie for making it even more of a day to remember. Oh, and for the record, Devon is the BEST 3 year old little boy on the face of this earth. He was a little gentelman the entire afternoon and evening, he didn't even fuss when us "adults" wanted to fuss!

Prepping for the big moment.

Ready and marching to be announced!

Announced and receiving degree!

Proud Mama and her baby girl!

Krissy, I have never been more proud of anyone or anything in my almost 44 years now. You have always been and always will be the light of my life and the apple of my eye. You, my love, are the fruits of my labor and love and you've done yourself and your Mama proud. Go get 'em girl!

Pretty, Pretty Ruby Tuesday!

Krissy knew I was bumming pretty hard the other day with the work load and the "tenant" issues all culminating at once so she knew what would make me smile when I got home. Ruby Tuesday all dressed up in her pretty fru fru neckchief looking like a princess! LOL Isn't she just the kutest and yes, I smiled and laughed A LOT!

But she is still just a dog after all! Here she stole Sadie's big rawhide bone, the thing is bigger than she is, flattened herself out like a pancake puppy and proceeded to chew the end of it! Oh well, we're a family of Tom Boys so I guess that should include the princess puppies as well!

So, what's under the cover......

mmmmmm, I wonder, wonder, wonder what could be under this beautiful patent leather cover! Could it possibly be something that makes a Mother extremely proud! Well take a look inside!

Yes, yes it is! It is Kristen's first (of many I hope) degree. We go to commencement tonight at 7, full gap and gown so watch for more pics of my beautiful college graduate. I am so darned proud of my girl!

Asoxinated...death can be so sweet!

Especially when you get a pair of hand knit socks out of the deal! Death by Socks is so over for me, my assassins weapon arrived yesterday and it is one of the sweetest deaths I've ever experienced! I sent my weapon out to my target on Tuesday so I'm getting better at the game, at least got one kill in! LOL First, a pic of what killed me and then my weapon in gold.

June 10 declared "Strong Woman Day"!

UPDATE: One of my kindred spirits found the following site for "Strong Women", I'm in agreement with her asessment - I do not believe it is a complete list as Leslie is not on it, neither is my daughter, or the other Mavs, but it is a darned good list none the less! Check out Leslie's post here

Fellow Mav Deirdre also posted for Strong Woman day, check it out here

I haven't been on much this past week due to some extremely ugly family and tenant issues that have basically put me through the ringer over the last month and a half so it has me way down. Well guess what, I'm not staying down.
I have a group of online friends that I absolutely adore and a few are going through some #*#!*# #*!*##*& that is as bad as if not worse than what I can even imagine going through and they have always been there to say hey "rotary cutter drive by, lets do it" giving me the strength that I need to persevere! Why is that, because we are Strong Women! We decided that today, because it is a culmination of years worth of #*@!*#!@ for one of us, is in honor of our friend. So every June 10 from this point on will always (even if only to us) be Strong Woman Day!
According to Wikipedia, the definition of a Strong Woman:
Strong woman refers to either a woman performing feats of strength in a show or circus, or a woman who competes in strength athletics. Traditionally, strongwomen have had a special appeal, as women involved in demonstrated feats of strength were exceptions.
I'm thinking we need to write our own definition of what a real strong woman is, a physically strong woman in one thing but a truly strong woman has nothing physical about it.
So, leave me a comment as to what your definition is or what signifies a strong woman to you and we'll create our own definition for our day!
I personally prefer the image below as it sums up who I am, if she only had some yarn in hand as well Rosie the Quilter would be soooooooooo me!

Impending Death!

Death by socks that is! I was just notified that my "She Sells Seashells" socks are done and headed my way! I can't wait. What a great way to die! I'll be sure to show them off when they arrive!

Knittin' Safari KAL! July 1!

check this next Sock Knit a Long! Kristen is so all about zebras so I did the electric blue for her. Aren't these just awesome!

New to me blogs and DBS6 Progress!

I finished up sock 1 for the Death by Sock (DBS) 6 challenge and got the second sock and cuff done on the second sock last night. Then my sinuses took over and that was all she wrote. ARGLE BARGLE anyhoo.

Got a couple of leads on blogs yesterday that I am now "stalking". I had to come up with something clever other than "blogs I'm following" or "sites I'm following" so I have a "Who I'm Stalking" section! Ha.
Banana Frog is just too kewl and klever. Absolutely love the colors and textures she uses. Found this one from a giveaway posted by another blogger.
Although Shimelle is not new to me I neglected to put her blog up as one of my "stalking" blogs. Shimelle is probably one of the most creative of scrapbookers I've ever seen. June has been declared as her "colour challenge month" and if you follow her for this month you'll see why she's the master of colour and scrapbooking.
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And you HAVE to check out what has been going on with the 2nd extreme challenge, Cabana Boy Quilt, on the Death by Quilting blog. Pat has been doing daily recaps of the challenge so hop on over there and check it out. We are having just way, way too much fun over there!
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