* Yesterdays high was 57 degrees.  It rained all day.  We opened the windows and turned off the AC.  I actually put another light blanket on my side of the bed.  Craziness for July 30!

* Corrine and I splashed in puddles.  It was great fun.  I considered getting my frog umbrella (you know, to match my rain boots!) and re-enacting the scene fro Singing in the Rain.

* Tomorrow is the 1st of August!  What?

* We ride with the Highland Cruisers.  I know that makes it sounds like we belong to a gang, but it's a group of people who ride their cruiser bikes through the "hood.  We are co-hosting the pre ride party tomorrow night.  I'd like to say that it will kick of the weekend, however I am working all weekend.

Happy Thursday my friends!

It's Wednesday again and that means it is time for the weekly yarn along.  I'm joining with Ginny and everyone to share yarn and books.  It's been slow go on my two at a time toe up socks, but only because I put them aside for a moment to crank out an Aviatrix for the mom of one of C's school friends.  She had a baby on Saturday and really liked the Aviatrix I made for the school fundraiser.  I'm making this one in Paton's Silk Bamboo in the Sapphire colorway. (I should have taken a picture during the day in the sunlight to get a better color picture).  I like the silk bamboo yarn because it is a little on the stretchy side so the baby will be able to wear it a little longer.  C can still wear hers!

*  Holy Hot Tamales Batman!  Summer is here.  It's been in the upper 90's since last weekend.  I missed the 70 degree day last week while I was at work.  Although that day it was very humid so I'd rather have the 90's.  It's a dry heat.
Even the little dog decided to get in on the sprinkler action to cool down!  (which is saying something, Buffett doesn't like the water...)

*  A friend I went to high school with has written a book!  The Kindle edition of Las Hechizadas is currently available for a limited time for $.99!  I've not read it yet, but it's been on my "too read" list since I found out Anne wrote a book.  I'm really excited for her and will purchase the book tonight when we get home from playing in the mountains.  If you do buy the book, please review it on Amazon!

 Another project I started was this woven scarf from VOGUE knitting in an issue that I stashed from eight years ago.  I'm using leftover royal purple Cascade 220 superwash.  There are two garter stitch bands on either end and five 90" strips that are woven together in between.  
 I just started reading The Invention of Wings.  I'm only about eight pages in, so no opinion yet.  I finished reading The Racketeer by John Grisham.  That was certainly a page turner.
Happy Yarn Along Wednesday!

C's sweater vest is finished!  She wanted to wear it the day it was completed.  It's been in the upper 90's.  I said no and packed it into the drawer for this fall.   It's a little big, but it will be nice to wear over shirts for extra warmth outside this fall when coats aren't really needed yet.
This vest is called "vest with splits and optional hood"  the pattern was sent to me by Jodi from practisingsimplicity.  She had a picture of her little boy wearing one and I loved it.  She graciously mailed me a copy of the pattern all the way from Australia!

The yarn is Cascade Superwash DK that has been dyed with Kool-Aid.  We used black cherry, ice blue raspberry, lemonade and strawberry.  And then we mixed some of those colors together to make some interesting combinations.  It was a very easy pattern to follow, although I did mess up the bottom of the back and when I actually followed the directions on the front, I had to rip back to make it match the back.

Dave Ramsey says in his Financial Peace University class that "if you live like no one else now, later you can live and give like no else."  If you follow a budget and pay off all of your debt after you build your wealth, you can tithe to your church or donate to charity.  Donating is the last and final baby step of the seven baby steps.  We are far from baby step seven, but each month in the budget there is a line for donating.  We keep it small right now, usually about $20.00.  In the month of May, there was no extra in the budget for a donation.

My parents and I have season tickets to CU Women's basketball and my tickets were up for renewal in June.  Along with the price of tickets was a service fee and a seat donation.  My dad called the ticket office, yes the seat donation was a requirement in order to renew tickets.  I'm not sure why they didn't just increase the price of the season tickets rather than "require" a $50.00 donation.  I probably wouldn't have grumbled as much over a ticket increase as I did over paying a set donation amount.

I'm currently researching charities for donating to in July.  There are so many worthwhile charities but I think it is really important that my small donation actually be used for good, rather than put towards overhead (which is a need, I do understand that).  I like to check out Charity Navigator.  Each charity is given a star rating and is scored based on financial, accountability and transparency.  It also breaks down the financial and accountability aspects.

* It's a race against time the birds.  We are definitely contenders in this race to see who can get the most cherries.  We picked a huge bowl full on Saturday and I picked another big bowl full of them today.  And as I was picking there were two big birds in the treetop eating away.  The plan is to make sour cherry jam and freeze some for pie.  I'm sure there are other cherry desserts in the works as well.  I love summer.

* Pilot orders pizza for passengers stuck on his airplane when they diverted due to severe thunderstorms.   Yep that was one of Frontier's very own pilots.  He's a great guy and it doesn't surprise me that he did this.  I flew that night, but landed in between storms.  The drive home, however, was treacherous.  The lightening show was beautiful.  The torrential downpour was a little on the scary side.

Happy Thursday Friends.

 *19/52
 *21/52

June 2014
*22/52
 *23/52
 *24/52
 *26/52
And that brings us to the halfway point of the year!  Wait. What?  The year is half over already?

Have a great rest of the weekend!

It's Wednesday again and that means it is time for the weekly yarn along.  I'm joining with Ginny and everyone to share yarn and books.  Now that the Dr. Who Scarf is completed, I can once again have multiple projects on the needles at the same time!

I was in Durango, CO two weeks ago and stopped into Yarn Durango.  I bought sock yarn!  Earlier in June, I was in Portland Oregon and while there I visited a crafting thrift store called The Knittn Kitten.  I bought 36 inch size 0 &1 circular needles figuring if I didn't like knitting socks by the magic loop method, I wasn't out too much money.

Anyhoo, the very nice lady at Yarn Durango printed out a two at a time- magic loop- toe up sock pattern off of Ravelry for me.   (This one!)  It's a customizable pattern...any size yarn and any size needle.  But... I have to do a test swatch!  Yikes!  I've never done that before.  I googled it and then I asked the other mama's in our Tuesday crafting group how to do it.  This is the beginning of my test swatch.  What I have realized from this so far is that I don't like tiny needles and I don't like tiny yarn.  Maybe I'll feel differently after I've made a pair of socks!

Last week I got the Snow Child from the library and was able to finish the last part of the of the book.   I must say that I wasn't all that enamored with the first two parts of the book.  But part three, I loved.  I am intrigued by how the author used a Russian Fairy Tail as the premise of her book.  Now I'm reading The Northwest Angle by William Kent Krueger.  It's a murder mystery that takes place in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.

Photo bomb assistance by Winston

Happy Yarn Along Wednesday!