Fantastic Foto Friday

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Foto Friday. First, I'm going to flashback to late August when the warm winds were running through my hair, the sun was beating down on my head and I was lazily lounging on the beach with this view...



I can't believe that summer is gone already. ONLY seven months until its back again. If only I could find that Sugar Daddy who would wisk me away to St. Johns every Winter.

Anywho, next up is a flash forward to my backyard foliage as its starting to show its true colors.



I know that the colors in the photo aren't so vibrant but what you can't see is the pouring rain that we still have and me huddled under the deck umbrella to take the picture. BTW, as I was taking Thing 1 and 2 to school this morning, the song "It's Raining Men" came on the radio and I can't get it outta my head. Ponder with me for a moment what it would be like if it really did rain men. (((((hmmmmm))))

Okay, sorry to keep wandering off. My bro still hasn't coughed up the action shots that Thing 1 took during the graduation and pinning ceremony. Mine need to be lightened up and his are much better. In the meantime, here are some fam and museum pictures. Mom and Dad with the grandkids (As usual, Thing 1 thinks its cool NOT to smile in pictures).



Here's my brother and nephew with the Muse family (without King Thing, he was out of town).




I wish you could read his firefighter t-shirt that I gave him. It has 10 things that sound dirty when you're firefighter. Pretty damn funny stuff. And thanks for the comment about his cuteness, Lolly. He's actually a male model and photographer in his spare time. Here's one of his self portraits and modeling shots.



We think he's a cutie too but we try not to tell him he's good looking to his face because we don't want to inflate his ego - LOL!

At the museum last week, I even found a ball of yarn!



Its called something like a memory ball (shame I can't recall what its proper name). Native americans would tie beads onto their handspun yarn to mark significant events in their lives like rites of passage, marriage, death of family members, weddings, etc. I thought it was a neat concept. I may even make my own memory ball.

****Zira update**** The Monkey diva departed Singapore (after a long weekend in Bangkok) and her visit with Emy. Emy knows how to show a monkey a good time. Singapore is quite beautiful. Thanks again for being such a wonderful host! Zira's now winging her way to Tempe, Arizona where she'll spend some time where its nice and warm with Illanna. Illanna said "its cooling off below 100 degrees." Wow! Our temps have been nearly half that over the last few days. I'm so jealous.

I was so busy last week that I forgot to mention that I had a spinning session with Carrie. She had a beautiful Ashford Wheel and (gasp) a Celtic Knot Golding spindle. We played for nearly two hours and I forgot to take pictures. I hope that she'll plan to join our spinning group in the future.

Speaking of spinning, our little knitting and spinning group met last night and had a good ole time gabbing and playing with fiber (yup, forgot to take pictures). Everyone was flashing their loot from the Fiber Festival. So much beautiful fiber crack. I'm so glad that I didn't go. I'd be dead broke if I had.

And some knitting shots. This is a photo of the sample tote that I'm making to put up in Michaels (its blocking on a Nestle Cocoa box).



Its the Booga Bag in miniature form made with some salmon colored Cascade 220 (can you say stash bustin'?) and Moda Dea Cache.

Finally, what I've been working on. A Knitted Babe doll!!!



Her name is Finola because I made her out of my handspun Finnsheep singles - nyuck, nyuck, nyuck. Her specs:

* Pattern: "Knitted Babes" using handspun Finnsheep singles (thus the reason why it biased slightly after knitting)
* The Finn was tea stained after I knit her to give her more of a flesh tone.
* Hair is Manos
* Eyes and mouth are needle felted (eyelashes are bits of eyelash yarn stitched on)
* The sweater is a modification of the "Bubbles Cardigan" pattern in the book. I made it into a bolero and added ruffled sleeves. The yarn is some leftover Koigu and Lorna's Laces. The pin was made from a blown glass bead and a toothpick
* The tiny tote bag was a swatch sample that I'd felted for a friend and it just so happened to work for her.

She still needs some pants and I'm going to glam her with some accesories over the weekend. If I'm lucky, I'll have some students on Sunday to take the Knitted Babes workshop. Keep your fingers crossed.

I also scored a beautiful blue tweed sweater that I'm reaping for some serious yardage of yarn. But I'll save that and more for next week. Have a great weekend!