I like this idea my girl Bev came up with so I tag anyone who has no knitting content to post today to do this meme. Come on. This one is an easy one. What’s your favorite painting? Simply post it and explain why.

My choice is a very sentimental one. Years ago I visited the Guggenheim with my father. He’s been a surgeon for almost 40 years now but he’s also a very talented artist. He can take one look at a piece of art and duplicate it with amazing precision. While we were at the museum he told me to pick something I liked in the store and he would paint it for me. There was something about this Picasso that caught my eye. I just think it’s beautiful.

And here is mine done by my father.

The picture isn’t great but you get the idea. I love it because it was painted just for me. It really is beautiful just like the original. He also did Van Gogh’s Wheat Field With Crows for me too. Here is the original. I love art. I have some really special pieces all over my house you can see here if you would like.  My other favorite piece is the big piece in my dining room that is felted.  It represents the creativity in all of us.

22 shots of espresso

I’m so digging this Welt Fantastic pattern.

Jessie I love the yarn even more as I go along. I just got some birthday money so as soon as you dye some more I want it. M’kay? Oh yeah, and I do think the name Scout’s Demise is perfect.

And guess who got yet more love today? Moi! Look what just arrived in the mail.

Chris sent me some *summery Scout yarn* and dang if it’s not enough to make some sort of a garment. I guess I had better start checking out some patterns. It’s this cotton twist #8462. Thank you so much Chris. Really. I can’t to meet you this fall. We’re going to have such a blast.

One final picture of the day. I watched Carole’s kiddos today while she worked. For those of you who don’t know, her son was born 5 hours after mine. Yes. That would be hours. We met online at a parenting website 7 years ago and the rest was history. See, you can find true love online. Anyhow, her son lost his first top tooth about 2 weeks ago and this morning showed up with the other one gone too. He and my boy are total, toothless wonders and look even more like twins than ever. It’s so funny to look at them. I laugh every time they flashed their teeth. Or lack thereof?

Heeeee. Oh, for anyone who likes IMAX movies we saw the Coral Reef one this morning and it’s very cool. My favorite quote was this:

We do not inherit the earth from our parents….we borrow it from our children.

18 shots of espresso

No knitting in this post. None. Nada. I’ll post a picture of my Welt Fantastics later during Supergirl’s naptime because I’m totally in love with Jessie’s yarn and the pattern and am going to have a really hard time sending these to my Sock Pal.

I have a favor to ask of each of you. I’m used to listening to 12 songs on my previous Mp3 player. I have no clue how to fill up 240 songs on my new Nano. I put all the ones I had and it was only 43 songs. I run 3-4 days a week and that’s when I listen to my music. I like upbeat songs that will keep my butt running up hills and burning off the peanut butter pretzles I’ve consumed from Trader Joes. No slow songs. So tell me. What is your favorite upbeat, shake-your-ass kinda song? To give you an idea of what’s on there right now? Lots of Gwen Stefani and Black Eyed Peas. Hey now! Don’t laugh! It’s great running music. If you want to really be a love, you can just send it to me. That works right? Yeah, I need to catch up here. It’s 2006 baybee and I’m getting there.

Help a sister out. I need 200 songs. I’m counting on you. If each one of you sent me one/two songs I think I’d be all set. I’m off to run and test this bad boy out. I can’t wait.

34 shots of espresso

Wow. I was slightly dissapointed to find my Stitch ‘n’ Bitch girls were the ones to surprise me at the restaurant last night because I was secretly hoping that there were going to be naked men jumping out a birthday cake. Carole kept saying, “It’s not like there are going to be naked men jumping out of a cake or anything so just relax” so you know….I was thinking that maybe it was some reverse psychology or something? Maybe they’ll come jump out of a cake tonight for me? I’m just kidding. SnB girls are way sexier than naked men! So the girls were there and everyone showered me with love and amazing presents. It was truly wonderful. Here are some funny pictures Mona took. As you can tell, we really didn’t have a good time. Look at the birthday love below. The flowers and pictures were here when I got home. My family and friends sure do know how to make a girl feel special. Click on the picture to see the love in more detail.

I have to say, the most special present was from my girl Carole. She gave this to me before we went out and I totally got teary and damn, almost messed up my makeup. How amazing is this? It left me speechless because of the meaning behind it. We both feel that cosmically our mamas are in cahoots together and have worked for 7 years to finally get the two of us living near one another. I know it may sound crazy….but we sure believe it.

Sugarlumps on Etsy made it and I just love it. Go check out her shop.  I now need to get dressed and go pick out my present from my dad and his wife. Am I so excited. One final thank you to everyone. I love you all. Really. I do. Yes, you and you and you.

50 shots of espresso

Is what I decided to do for my Sock Pal. Eyow is such a smarty and she reminded me to look in Sensational Knitted Socks for a stripey pattern and I immediately fell in love with Welt Fantastic. Here is what I have so far. And again….these colors are not right on. I need a better picture in the sun.

Which will eventually look like this.

This beauty is Whoopsy Daisy’s. I found it when I Googled *welt fantastic* and she was nice enough to let me show everyone hers and helped me with the pattern a bit. Isn’t it pretty? I can’t wait to see the pattern unfold with mine.

The other fun part of my day was getting the mail. This is what I found.

A box of chocolates, Pretty Pretty Blue Opal & some jelly beans. Can anyone read the label? Do you know who sent it? Yes. Margene herself was so sweet to think of me and send me some Birthday love. (It’s not until tomorrow) Thank you so much M. It really brightened up my day to get that. Now that I got a picture I can open the chocolates. YUM! I had better not let my girl Carole see this or she’s going to want to steal them. Speaking of Carole……she is kidnapping me in about an hour and taking me somehwere seekrit for birthday cocktails. I’m not allowed to know anything about what we’re doing and you know what? I hate, hate, hate surprises. We have Stitch ‘n’ Bitch tonight too and I can’t wait. Although I’m thinking after a few cocktails I will be knitting impaired. Maybe I should bring ruffles so I don’t trash my welt fantastic.

34 shots of espresso

If you can believe it, it’s actually not sunny right now so the colors aren’t really true to form. They really are a lot more vibrant. But they are done and I’m super happy because they are super cute. Supergirl loves them a super lot. Is that enough super-de-duperness? They fit her perfectly too. Mama-E? I love them. I hope it’s okay that I’m going to give the rest of the yarn to Irishmama who wants to make a pair for her girlie too? I can’t wait to knit with my Scout yarn.

I am now going to cast on for Sockapaloooza! Whoo hoo! Oh wait. I still need a pattern. Why am I having such a hard time with this? I guess I had better go figure that out so I can start them.

One more thing. Guess who won another contest? You got it! I couldn’t believe it when I read it on Yarnmaven’s blog. I’m feeling super lucky. Should I go buy a lottery ticket? How cool is her new tattoo? I think it totally rocks. I love it even more since it was a present for her 50th birthday.

22 shots of espresso

Or should I tell you how I really feel? When I used to teach high school I loved Spring Break. Who wouldn’t!? Now that I’m a mama? It sucks. Especially now that I’m a working mama it doubly sucks. (How’s that grammar from an English teacher?) A whole week with my kids home? It sounds like so much FUN! At least my girl C is helping me today, I’m helping her on Thursday and T. just called and can get off half a day on Friday so I should be all set this week. That just leaves Tuesday & Wednesday for me to figure out what to do with the Scoutlets.

Yesterday was Supergirl’s party and the kids had a blast. I can’t get into some other stuff that happened that ended up giving me one of my stress stomach aches and putting me out of commission for the rest of the night but at least I’m physcially feeling better this morning. (sweet run-on sentence!) The good news of the day is that I won another contest! I think that random name generator loves me. elizagrrl and her shitty kitty had a little contest and I won some yarn and other goodies. Getting that e-mail was a great way to start my day. I needed that for sure.

My goal today is to finish Supergirl’s sock. I think it’s doable. I’m up to the toe decreases. I’m even going to bring Pretty Pretty Purple to the store today so I can wind it and figure out what needles to use.

10 shots of espresso

It was already 50′ this morning when I woke up. It’s such a beautiful morning I had to share it with you.

I have a soccer game in an hour and I can’t wait to play in this weather. Wish me luck. I’m still totally bruised from last weekend and the team we’re playing today is called “Ghetto Girls”.  I am not kidding.  See?  On the knitting front, I’m almost done with Supergirl sock #2 and then I can start on my Sockapaloooza socks. I’m still undecided on what pattern I’m going to use. Today is Supergirl’s birthday party so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to knit today.

Yesterday I almost ripped someone’s hand off for touching my knitting. Let me back up a bit. I was at a bithday party for my friend’s son and I knit the entire time. It was a gymnastics party so I didn’t have to be involved. It was the perfect situation for me to just sit and knit. When it was time for pizza and cake we all moved upstairs to the area where it was all setup and I continued to knit. At one point, one of the helper girls was walking around serving pizza and walked right up to me and TOUCHED MY KNITTING WITH HER GREASY PIZZA HANDS! Holy shit. It seriously took all of my willpower to keep from hitting her hand away and from yelling, “Don’t touch my knitting with your greasy pizza hands!!!” Moral of the story? Don’t touch people’s knitting with greasy pizza hands if you intend to keep your hand attached to your body. Jaysum.

19 shots of espresso

Did you see the news?

I guess it’s my own fault for putting it into the mix of choices. It’s okay. Jessie will just have to make me some more. I think they will be great Sockapaloooza socks even though I wanted the Pretty Pretty Purple all to myself.

I am going to do a different pattern than the Web Socks if I’m using this yarn. This yarn is self striping so I want something that works really well with stripes. Do I dare make another pair of Jaywalkers? What are some other favorite sock patterns for self-striping yarn? Help a sister out!

My feeds appear to be all wonky in Bloglines again so who knows who will even see this. Thanks to Little Purl of the Orient for showing me this fun Flickr Toy!

24 shots of espresso

We’ll call it - Help Scout Pick Her Sockapaloooza Yarn! I have six from which to choose. My Pal said I don’t like crazy colors, but am partial to blues, purples, greens. No acid colors. Handpainted is great, stripes are cool, patterns are awesome. (I’m taking a chance here with posting this but she doesn’t have a blog and I don’t think she has any idea who I am.) Here is what I have.

1. Socks That Rock - Rainforest Jasper (not available tot he public for 3 months!)
2. A Piece Of Vermont - Purple Haze
3. A Piece of Vermont - Unnamed becasue I snatched it so quickly!
4. Cherry Tree Hill - I can’t remember the name!
5. Opal Dreamcatcher - 1232
6. Lisa Souza - Garnet

If you remember I’m pretty sure I’m going with the IK Web Sock. My Pal doesn’t have a blog so I have nothing more than these three sentences. I’m having the hardest time deciding which yarn to use. Please help? If you know of something else that would work even better feel free to leave me a link too.  *** ETA - I could also scrap the Web Sock Pattern  and do a simple stockinette with the Pretty Pretty Purple?  That might match her color taste better?  Tell me what you think***

Which Sock Yarn Should I Use For Sockapaloooza?!
	Rainforest Jasper
	Purple Haze
	Pretty Pretty Purple
	Cherry Tree Hill
	Opal Dream Catcher
	Lisa Souza - Garnet
Free polls from Pollhost.com

21 shots of espresso