Mini-Vacation!!!!!

Our flight leaves at 7 o'clock this morning, July 26 and we will return on July 29th. I am looking forward to the resting by the pool and getting some sun (while heavily sunscreened, of course)!

Rogue Snapdragons

These are photos of my "rogue" snapdragons. The second photo shows my flower pot that sits outside our front door. Several years ago I planted snapdragons and I am thinking that I never pulled them up when they dried out, and then they went to seed. Last year and this year, all snapdragons are strictly volunteer.

As you can see the whole basket is full of snapdragons and they have also sprouted up on the ground around the basket, too (never mind the sickly looking lupines that are in amongst the snapdragons).

The close-up photo I took just because I love the colors of this particular snapdragon. The photo really doesn't do it justice... maybe I'll take a class someday.

The rest of the photos just represent the rogue snapdragons that have sprouted up all around....

The Spoils!

Yesterday I went to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair. It was a bit overwhelming to think about ahead of time, but not so bad once I made it there. This is pretty much what I bought. One of the yarns I only put one hank in the photo, but really I purchased two. I think if you click on the photo you can see the yarn in a more close-up way.

There really were so many yarns and other things to look at. I went armed with a list of projects I would like to make and the type and yardage of yarn I would need to make them. I didn't want to just buy yarn with no project in mind, since I already have way too much yarn in my stash.


Some places that I purchased from:

Happy Hands Yarn

Samantha in Stitches

Frontier Fiber Mill

Briar Rose Fibers

jwrayco

Whirlwind Ranch

I have a lot of scarves and a few hats and maybe a pair of mittens planned for this yarn. A lot of it will be for Christmas gifts, but some of it will be for me.

A word of caution for anyone who plans to go to such an event....if you can, just take cash with you. I say this because I had a completely embarrassing event that was really no fault of my own. I decided to use my debit card yesterday for exactly three purchases. Internet friends, I just got paid yesterday and my check is direct deposit, I have plenty of money in my account, I swear to you! Well, most of the booths have those little *chick, chick* machines...the old-school credit card carbon copier things. Anyway, they make the impression of your card and then later they HAND ENTER (sometimes via phone, I think) all of your information. Anyway, one of the places called me this morning and my debit card was denied! I am still mortified! I just gave them the debit card from my husband's account instead and that went through fine! I have no idea at all what happened! I checked my account and one of the other booths went through...and based on what they tell me my account balance vs. the available balance is I can tell that the other booth put through their debit, too....the only thing I can think of is that whatever system the second booth used put some sort of hold on my account! And it was only a $11 purchase...which caused my third purchase to be denied! Like I said, embarrassing! My husband said, "Honey, obviously, if you were some sort of bad character that was trying to pull a fast one, you would not have given them your real phone number...don't worry about it." I can't help it, and I'm sure you know what I mean. I will bring my budget in cash from now on, never fear!

ETA: The debit card mystery has been solved. Apparently, one of the vendors that I used my card to purchase from (NOT listed above, and NOT the one that called me) seemed suspicious to the company that monitors card activity....or maybe they had a complaint in the past...whatever. So, they shut my card down to protect me and allegedly called me with a courtesy call to let me know (they did not...or no message, anyway and I didn't speak to anyone). So finally on Monday, I called them and ended up deciding to close down the old debit card number and get a completely new one, just in case. I doubt there was anything wrong with the not-named vendor, but better safe than sorry. Plus, my old card was worn...it had no signature strip left on the back, so I just went for the new one. Of course, then there was other drama when I walked into my bank and they informed me that if I wanted to take cash out of my checking account I needed to have a check (I don't carry my checkbook with me.... do you?) to get money out...which I wouldn't have minded so much except that they then told me that would give me a temporary check and only charge me a $1 for it! I said, "No, thank you." When the manager said, "We can waive the fee for ONE TIME ONLY, " I said, "No thank you." I won't even mention the part about how when I said, "I don't carry my checkbook with me...." the manager somewhat snottily replied, "Well you're just going to have to start carrying your checkbook." Yeah, no.

If I seem a bit irritated, it's because I still am. I am still irritated to the point that I am considering changing banks which would be a hassle and a half! I bet I won't need that checkbook if I go in to close my account! Interestingly, my friend's husband went into their bank to get cash the other day and they gave him a "courtesy" check...no questions asked or comments made. End rant!

I can't wait to get started on my projects with my new yarn!

Broadway in Chicago.... Mary Poppins!

Living, really, not that far from the city (in this case, it is Chicago), one thing I often forget to take advantage of are the wonderful, live theater performances.


On Wednesday, it was my friend's birthday and she decided she wanted to see Mary Poppins. I was lucky enough to get invited along.

We were a few minutes late....there is some unbelievable traffic to get into the city, especially on a rainy day. Even missing the first few minutes, the show was great! We had a wonderful time.

The set was awesome! It was almost like a giant doll house at some points. They also did some very cool magical stuff! I'm not sure how they set it up for Mary Poppins to be able to draw all of those objects out of her valise. It really was amazing!

I am so delighted that I went to see Mary Poppins. Should the opportunity arise in your area, I highly recommend seeing the show.

Craftiness...A Knit Hat

This is my most recently completed knit project. A hat, obviously. It is nicely modeled here by a small watermelon! Too bad I need to eat the watermelon and that it will eventually go bad, because it is the perfect size to model hats! This pattern, I found via Ravelry. It worked up really quickly and was fairly simple. I used 12" circular needles, and I did not need to transition down to dpn's, so it was wonderful!

Craft it Forward!

Because it is summer (and I am a teacher), I actually feel like I have the time to do this!

Over on Permission to Unwind, Marie is participating in a Craft it Forward "event," and I agreed to keep it going.

Here's how it happens:

1) The first three people to comment on this post will receive something from me...something handmade and crafty. I'm not really sure what it will be, but I promise it will be something nice!

2) In return for receiving a crafty gift from me, you have to agree to do the same thing for three other people...and they do the same for three others and it keeps going and going.... Hopefully if you have a blog, you will be able to post about this and then suck some others in as well :-)

3) I'll try to mail your little craft gift sooner rather than later, but I guess it depends on what I get up to with my craftiness! Make sure that I can contact you via your blog or else leave me an e-mail address to be able to contact you if you would like to participate.