Wednesday, April 29, 2009

For you foo.dnet.work fans!

Let me start off by saying I LOVE foo.dnet.work and watch it almost religiously everyday and love most of the chefs/ cooks on there! But this site is absolutely hilarious so I just had to share.

ROFLMBO!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Awesome podcast "discovered"

I'm not sure if discovered is the right word here but it'll do in a pinch. So, while I was happily listening to the last series Alchemy over at Cast On and an ad so to speak for another podcast Craftlit was interjected wherein the reader of the ad invited the listener to come over to her site for a listen. I wasn't very sure I wanted to. She did sound a tad reserved as if the podcast would cater mainly to a "not so hip and current" crowd (whatever that crowd looks like, heh!) so I ignored her. And once again in another episode of the series I heard it again. So, this week, after suffering through a few newer podcasts that hurt my ears and left me wondering "why did I even bother" I gave Heather a try. And boy, am I ever glad I did! Don't judge a book by the cover takes on a whole new meaning for podcasts!

Craftlit , if you're into literature and love books (right now - older books) is a must listen! Heather Ordover makes it so fun to listen in her quiet engaging voice. She has listeners read different chapters (I think it's different chapters as opposed to different books)and she pops in before, sometimes during and after with pointers on what's going on, the implied deeper meaning of the imagery and the theme and all sorts of other good stuff that I haven't a clue about because I've only gotten to Advanced Level English Literature, but it's not so far that you can't catch on. I'm absolutely hooked! I decided to first try the last chapter of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and have been dedicated ever since. She and her team of readers are currently doing The Scarlet Letter and since she's at chapter 3 of 24, I thought I'd backtrack and listen to some of the other books (she has a link in the upper right hand corner of her blog that says library that has the books listed by chapter (marked by beginning and end of book) and sorted by book. Today, I started Turning of the Screw and man, is it entertaining!

So if you haven't already "discovered" her (as I might well be the last person to know about this blog, LOL!) pop over and give her a listen. Educational, fun and supremely interesting to listen to especially while knitting.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Francie socks - DONE!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

I hope you all had a great day whatever you did. It was an uncharacteristically rainy and wet Easter Sunday so aside from church and a short visit to the in-laws, we spent it home together. Not a bad way to spend any day in my books!

Now, may I present to you all my first FO for the year! It would have taken me less time but ran into some snags (I think I talked about this before... having a sense of deja vu here). Anyways, they are done and I am glad. My first FO for 2009.

Pattern: Francie Socks by Rebekkah Kerner (bowerbirdknits)
Needle size: 2
Date started: March 25, 2009
Date completed: April 12, 2009
Yarn used: Nature's Palette sock yarn (the dye stained my fingers pretty bad! Afraid to block now...







And just for the heck of it, here's a pic of part of the our country side adventure. A couple Fridays ago we decided to travel from one end of the island to the other in order to get some grafted/ drawf trees. It was a lovely day and apart from hubby not bothering to call and get directions to the place and us rambling ALOT, we eventually got there and picked up an avacado tree, a tangelo and a lemon tree to add to our lime, golden apple and mango trees. They are not planted in the yard as yet as there's still some work to be done on the house and planting them now can put them in the path of trampling workmen. Such a beautiful sight this! But I can't imagine living up there at all!



Forgot to add that hubby and I went to see Watchmen on Saturday. On many levels it was very good. Others... well I don't want to say that other parts weren't good but rather they didn't gel for me. The most interesting character was Dr. Manhattan (not because of his inability inspite of his "superiority" - to keep his skivvies on. I guess if he's that far advanced then nud.i.ty is not a problem). There was one part in particular that didn't line up with my beliefs but I believe I'm mature enough to see it for what it was - a movie - and move on. I didn't even realise that was Pat.rick Wi.lson as Nit.eOw.l! I really like him! Good entertainment if you're into the comic book movie type of thing (like I am!! Waiting for Tra.nsfor.mers 2!)

Anyways, we have tomorrow off as well so looking forward to that. Continue to enjoy your Easter and God bless!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Busy day in the kitchen

Ah, the wonder that is a new oven. Oh how I don't miss baking in that pint sized countertop convection oven! It was a life saver in the time between our move and our newly acquired 30 inch Ge wall oven but now its time has passed and we are on to bigger and better things. Sighhhhh. Even my breads and cakes have responded positively to being processed in a larger environment. The banana breads have huge domes in the middle, the chocolate cakes rose higher and the white bread I made last night baked up quickly with a nice crust. Pure satisfaction.

The only damper on my day in the kitchen occurred while peering out over the bar into the living room trying to keep up with the shows on foodnetwork. There was a Gia.da At Home marathon on and after that was the Dow.nhome with the Neelys and then I think Big Daddy's House. My grouse is with Big Daddy's House. If you've never seen this show, can you guess what race this man is? Yep. African American. He won the Next Food Net.Work star competition sometime back, and aside from having the penchant for nonstop frying, his recipes look pretty good. Now. Why did they name the show Big Daddy's House. Was there no other name for this show? Srsly. We have Guys Big Bite (He won the first competition), Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Essence of Emeril (when it was showing on FN), there's Rescue Chef etc etc. Why does this guy's show have that ridiculous name? He's tall yes, but that shouldn't factor into anything. And what throws this show over the top and makes me angry at FN's attempt to - I dunno - African Americanize (forgive the new word here) this show is the relentless hiphop that is booming in the background. Sometimes I couldn't even hear what he was saying - too much hiphop booming in the back! Why don't they plug let's say Sa.ndra Le.e's show with this music or Iron Chef America or Bobb.y F.lay's shows with the hiphop? Why don't they outfit B.obby with a giant pair of hoops? This guy's hoops are bigger than my head. Dare I say there's a blatant sterotype being played out here? Gah!

Moving on (for now) I have some knitting updates but they are not significant enough to post as yet. When I have something of substance to show for my efforts I'll post. Till then, have a great week, knitting and otherwise.

Ta!

Thursday, April 02, 2009

A few long awaited pressies...

Firstly, let me apologize for the crapatoid pics. I cannot seem to get this camera understood (maybe because it's not mine) and the seemingly simple task of focusing is beyond me. Don't bother to ask what's up with the shadow around the edges of the pics either. Let's call that art and leave it at that.

What shall I show you first? Ok. First up is the ball winder. My other one had an unfortunate incedent that I will not go into, and so I was forced to purchase another and from knitpi.cks this time. I'm not sure where I got the other one from I'm sure the answer is buried in the blog somewhere. I'm not sure if I'm too impressed with it. Feels a little stiff. Maybe it just needs breaking in...



Next up, the BEADS. I really shouldn't post this pic as the focus is on the background rather than on the beads themselves and the beads are SO beautiful! Can't tell from here tho.



Lastly, the yarn. The Rowan Wool Cotton is beautiful! It's DK weight so it's not that heavy so it will be nice for a night out.



Now, the question is... which project to cast on first.