Oh yeah............

The hot tub deck is finished!!! Check it out! Mr. Man finished it on Saturday. Before you see the final pictures can I just say that he built this entire thing BY HIMSELF! I think I helped him hold one end of the chalk string for a second or something - other than that it was all him. This man continuously amazes me. (Seriously, we HAVE ordered a hot tub cover and it should be here soon - we aren't going to leave the white trash tarp over it forever - REALLY.)

The heel of one sock is finished but there is much more interesting stuff than that going on.

After all that talk about snakes in the last post - look who wanted to be included on the blog! I was pulling up some weeds and this little guy wiggled out - I guess I disturbed his peace and quiet. He was generous enough to hang around while Mr. Man ran inside to get the camera for his "five seconds of fame" shot. (Pinky finger comparison courtesy of Mr. Man)

There are just 10 DAYS LEFT to enter the grand opening contest for Amia Yarn Company! Have you entered?? If not, be sure to email me at theknitwitch@gmail.com to get entered. Click on the button for contest details.

Witch's Brew

Take one toad


Tail of one snake


3 baby bird beaks

Six kitten toes

And a scorpion


Bring to a boil under a full moon and you will get a potion for.........

Yeah, ok - so I know nothing about witch's potions but all of the stuff that we are finding around our new home has me convinced that they must all fit into a potion somehow. That little scorpion was inside the pot that was sitting on top of our stove!! Mr. Man found him this morning. Nice.

And, I have about 1/2 a heel done on the sock. I had to frog the heel yesterday b/c I totally bummed it up so now it is actually being done correctly and working much better now. It's a short row heel and I just forgot my marbles and started doing it in a way that was simply never going to work. It took me getting halfway through it before I finally came to the conclusion of "This isn't right and it's never going to work". I know, my picture taking skills leave much to be desired.



Homemade margaritas and then out for Mexican food later this evening!! Woo hoo!!! I'm looking forward to it - it's the perfect way to end the week. Who's coming????? Cocktails start at 5!

It's not easy being green............

Believe it or not, I actually managed to accomplish some spinning yesterday. You will remember, some time back, that I received a couple of lovely hand dyed rovings from a fellow RN over in Germany? Remember, she was being held captive against her will in order to make my story more interesting? If you don't remember then you simply need to read the blog more often! Here's a recap of the roving if you missed it.

**OMG - I just looked up fellow RN's profile on Rav and today is her birthday!!! Happy Birthday Heather!!!! How nice that I have posted about your roving on your birthday!!**

I started spinning "Kermie" and finished it yesterday. Am I entirely happy with the roving - YES! Am I entirely happy with my spinning - NO! It seems that a brand new spinner may NOT take a 3 month spinning hiatus without dire consequences. This isn't terrible but it is nowhere near as smooth as I would like. Of course, towards the end of the roving I was getting the hang of it better and it was starting to go better. So, I shall begin the next batch shortly lest I lose the "umpf" of spinning this fiber. Here are the two bobbins I spun yesterday. I will be plying them, but not until Thursday probably.



I find merino a little "stitcky" to spin with. Anyone else??? I think it is just because I learned to spin on alpaca and have done most of my spinning with alpaca which tends to slide much more easily through the fingers.

Tomorrow - we have to head to the ATL. Mr. Man has an appointment at the VA and then there is Sam's shopping, visiting my mom for a bit, visiting my dad for a bit and visiting a friend who just had a birthday. So, a busy day ahead tomorrow! Luckily, this time we don't have to leave the house at 4:30AM like we did last Wednesday when we went to Atlanta! UGH.........that was painful.

I will NOT be defeated by kittens!

I walked out of the room (the room that Mr. Man was still in!) for 10 minutes and this is what I came back to:


Obviously, Mr. Man isn't as in tune with the sounds of kittens shredding yarn as I am. So, I spent a majority of my Saturday doing this:


I only had to cut out this one teeny section so overall I would say the operation was a success.



We have had a BUNCH of rain over the past few days - YAY! So the pond is back up and the waterfall is really gushing. I took a video for ya. This is the waterfall and the creek in our yard that feeds our pond. THIS is one of the main reasons we bought this house!! :)

Summer Fun

This week we picked these


and these



and made these



Blackberry and Plum jam! The first batch turned out great but I have to redo the second batch today and add a little more pectin to make it gel better. I cut the sugar on the second batch so I am assuming that is what caused it from gelling quite so well the second time. That first batch was SWEET. Way too sweet for me though not so for Mr. Man who loves the sweet stuff.

Speaking of Mr. Man he made these YUMMY oatmeal cookies the other day.


Ever seen anyone stay out late for a long night of drinking and then pass out by the trashcan in the bathroom? Well, it may kind of look like this:


Here's Leo taking it easy on the weekend.


Oh, and the Small Blue Heron that was "fishing" in our pond yesterday.


We have gotten a BUNCH of contest entries (thanks to everyone who has already entered!) but be sure to enter soon if you haven't done so already. There are some great prizes at stake this time!

4th of July Parade

I know, I'm late with this but here are some pics of the 4th of July parade here in Blue Ridge:

Here's what lead the parade - now I don't feel like I missed out on the Gay Pride Parade this year:


Here's me and Mr. Man waiting for the parade:


And what parade wouldn't be complete with one of THESE in it? Seriously, only in the South would you see this on a float in a parade:


I have a new toy of sorts. My neighbor gave me this to play with:


This in an ancient version - not electronic at all - but it does at least give me an idea about how a knitting machine works. Georgia Mountain Fiber wants to give me a fancy electronic one that is WAY more complicated than this one so I'm a little scared of it.

However, I made this in about 30 seconds:


I can definitely see how learning how to use the fancy thing would be beneficial!

Also - seriously - who wants to come to Blue Ridge, GA and go whitewater rafting on July 27th?? Anyone?? Let me know if you do as we are putting together a little knitting and rafting partay. We are planning to go whitewater rafting down the Ococee at the 1996 Olympic site. The scenery is gorgeous and the ride takes about 3 hours or so (actual rafting time about 2 hours). So, if interested email me at theknitwitch@gmail.com!!

Are you SURE that's a boy?

Oh yeah, I'm SURE even though we caught him doing this last night:


That's right, he lets the kittens nurse on him. I think he likes them, what do you think?

We had a fun and relaxing 4th of July weekend. We went to Pickin in the Park at Horseshoe Bend Park in McCayesville on Thursday night. We were lucky enough to have one of our kids, Ian, join us and he got up there with his mandolin and joined in the festivities. It was kind of funny b/c I think all these guys were thinking "oh, look at the cute youngster that probably got a mandolin for Christmas or something - we should humor him and invite him up to play". Well, he blew the socks off of them and you could see the looks on their faces that they couldn't believe how awesome he was on that thing. The kid has amazing talent. I don't know why I didn't get a movie of him playing!!





Here's some pictures of Mr. Man and I having fun on the swings:


Here's a picture of the beautiful Toccoa River which is located right beside the Pickin in the Park festivities:


On Saturday we went to the 4th of July parade in Blue Ridge. We were expecting some kind of rinky dink thing but it was a really big parade and fun too! Now I don't feel quite so bad that we missed the Gay Pride parade this year! I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.

Here are a couple of shots of the beautiful mountain laurel blooming down by our creek - wow! The pictures don't do it justice but it is so pretty!