whitney210’s blog

and I'm waiting for my hubby to return from a month long trip. So I am pondering my new red highlights!!! I got them today, and although it seems like a HUGE difference to me, I am told that they are very subtle. I will now add some pictures for your paroozle, now keep in mind that I am very tired so the deranged look in my eyes is to be expected!

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After many a frustrated do-over, and lots and lots of donations to Amanda the Relay for Life Blanket is finally sewn together (you can notice my orangish square on the left end second row from the top)! The theme of this blanket is survivorship to celebrate Amanda's husband being 10 years cancer free!!!!! After some pretty purple border added by Amanda, this blanket will be sold in a silent auction at this Friday's Relay for Life in Winchester VA.

Time is running out for you to donate to Amanda's team.... their theme this year is "Harry Potter" of course!!! So to give them a hand go to Amanda's personal donation page by clicking here---------->Give Amanda your $$$$!

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So I have been spending a lot of time on the internet in the days following my husband's departure for Wyoming.... Time that could have probably been better spent cleaning, knitting, or maybe exercising (gasp!) Oh well... I have decided to include my internet travels and the general chaos that fills my head on my blog.... More for my entertainment but hopefully someone in cyberland will also find it interesting.

So far my blog has included a lot of information on my knitting and reading interests, which are big parts of my life, but I think I'm going to expand a little. Maybe include politics, technology, my kiddo, and other interests.... Hopefully I can inspire some more conversations... Time will tell!!

    So it's been two weeks since my latest knitting group fix and in a fit of nap time boredom I began looking through the pictures on my phone and discovered some great pictures of my favorite knitting ladies! Soooo due to Amanda's ummmmmm 25th??? birthday as well as other birthday's in the group we celebrated with a brownie, coffee, guacamole fiesta! You can see us all here taking pictures of everyone else taking pictures!! Maybe we should have planned for pictures better.... do notice that no knitting was sacrificed for the the festivities!

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So with the parties behind us we moved on to some more conventional knitting activities...well maybe....With mine usually large ball of hand painted sock yarn and Katie packing some beautiful ribbon yarn, Amanda's ball winder got a little more than it bargained for.  You can see the ribbon yarn looking innocent enough on the swift and then after close to an hour of MacGyver like techniques with a toilet paper roll, some tape, and the yarn's label Gillian and Amanda finally gave up their valiant efforts in exchange for a ziploc bag.  You can see Amanda looking as if she's ready to cry and throw her once loved ball winder out of the window!!!      Oh how I miss those girls!!!

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Sooo...once again my husband has been called away on work for a month... which gives me a month of very long nights to fill since insomnia seems to set in whenever he leaves. My predicament has become what to do with said long nights....

So far I have decided to start a rather long project. The adorable little "smock top" pictured below was in this month's edition of knit.1 and I picked up some pretty Classic Elite bamboo yarn in cream so I will be starting that, but time will tell how long that will take. Also I want to get some gift knitting done so that when the birthday, Christmas, baby rush that inevitably comes in September through January I won't have the sense of getting nothing at all done. I ALSO picked up Atonement (the book) at the library and we joined Netflix right before he left. So hopefully all of this will release some of the nightime stress...

Atonement

Ian Mcewan

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So what do uneducated political discussions, unreasonable expectations, unanswered text messages, frustrating one line emails, and general girl on girl combat have in common?   Apparently dishcloths!!

In need of some instant gratification and a break from my apparently drama filled life I have recently become addicted to dishcloths!! I guess it's a good addition to my newly found fondness of cotton yarn!

I have, in the past, tried to make my life free of stressful drama, but another math equation that I have come to realize is... women = drama. I know it is almost sexist for me to say but I also think that it is very true. My most stressful moments in the last weeks have been due to one girl (in one way or another) trying to sabotage another. Be it one friend not directly airing their troubles to the other friend in question or even one mother trying to discretely belittle the parenting skills of another.

Unfortunately I have myself been known to fall to the temptation of gossip (shocking I know), but I was recently shocked about how much of my beloved gossip is actually not true!! I can only hope that this fact will deter me from future gossip airing, but I know that I will fall again. I think that the act of gossip and general cat-y-ness must be a sort of stress release for us girls. I hope that someday we can do it in a less harmful manner.

So back to my new addiction... here are a few pictures of my latest attempt to rid myself of drama...

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So I've never been able to get over the confusion of Lily's Sugar n' Cream or Pisgah's Peaches & Creme. I've recently began knitting with them both and I can't find a difference.  I love how the 100% cotton knits up, but both of these yarns seems to knit up the same. I have been able to find more colors I like with the Sugar n' Cream.    

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had any insight on this... is there a difference or can you knit with them inter-changeably?!

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So the prime concert season has kicked off with the Paramore and Jimmy Eat World concert on Saturday night.
Jimmy Eat World was awesome!! This is the first time we have seen them live and we definitely weren't disappointed! They don't talk much... they just play, which is a good thing to Stephen he likes it when bands cram as much good music into a set as possible. 

Unfortunately Paramore's band drama has affected their performance. This is the second time we've seen them and the music was still pretty good, but it was very uncomfortable to watch them together. I felt like I was watching The Hills or Laguna Beach or some other high school based BS set to decent music. I guess deep down they are just a bunch of kids trying to play grown up band... I was very heart broken : (

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So I finally finished my baby gifts in time for two more pregnancy announcements.... will it ever end!!!! At least I have a bit before I have to think about those gifts. I love these baby booties, I found the pattern in my SnB calender. This is the second pair I have made and they are very quick and easy... I may start a bootie surplus for baby shower emergencies!!

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So I picked up first book in the "The Looking Glass Wars" series by Frank Beddor. I know they are a young adult aged book but 1. I loved the Harry Potter series and 2. I love all things Alice!! I've already finished the book that I picked up today! It really is an interesting take on the story. To quote the website...

"The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges the world’s Carrollian Wonderland assumptions of tea parties, dormice and a curious little blonde girl to reveal an epic, cross dimensional saga of love, murder, betrayal, revenge and the endless war for Imagination. Meet the heroic, passionate, monstrous, vengeful denizens of this parallel world as they battle each other with AD-52’s and orb generators, navigate the Crystal Continuum, bet on jabberwock fights and slip each other the poisonous pink mushroom. Finally, someone got it right. This ain’t no fairytale.

Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, was forced to flee through the Pool of Tears after a bloody palace coup staged by the murderous Redd shattered her world. Lost and alone in Victorian London, Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author to whom she tells the surreal, violent, heartbreaking story of her young life only to see it published as the nonsensical children’s sojourn Alice in Wonderland. Alyss had trusted Lewis Carroll to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere would find her and bring her home."

If you enjoy science fiction, Alice in Wonderland related things, or simply a quick and interesting read I really do suggest picking it up... I can't wait to read the second one!!

The Looking Glass Wars

Frank Beddor