Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Do you have a loreali Gilmore?

I have a little one. My aunt linda. As a child i always wished that she was my mom. She is just so cuddly, and always had cool crafts. She is the kind of aunt that would do out of no where fun stuff. Once while spending the day at her home in the country my sister, aunt lindas two daughters, aunt linda and I went outside to lay on a blanket and eat popcorn ( which she put in rolled up newspaper) It was soo very dark outside and we were fun scared, just before we were about to go in (due to freddy kruger movies) aunt linda told us to look up. That is when i saw the most wonderful meteor shower i had ever seen in my life. To this day i have never had a moment where i felt so small yet so big at the same time. Tell me about your lorali gilmore that has given to your life.

As for the show. As you can tell it had an impact on me. I think we can all agree that logan is going down a very slick slop and i think that rory is going to have to team up with his dad to plan his future. He just cant do it for himself. I cant wait to see laynes babies. Goodness knows what they will name them. Did you all see the little lore and luke moment outside the baby shower, i love it. i just cant wait to see what else they are gonna do.
thanks all
mandie

Monday, February 26, 2007

i just cant get the color to show



I'm attempting to show you the pics of the Gilmore girls shawl i'm working on and i just cant seem to get the colors to show right. This is a wonderful orange and lime green color wool. I got from jojoland yarns, i found this on ebay but you can order directly from their web site. this is amazing yarn. i had to wind two balls together to get the right thickness for the shawl but i am soooo loving this project. The pattern is on a past post it is the "cozy" shawl from www.knitty.com . I havent made alot of head way with it since i really do only work on it during gilmore girls. at 8 i start and at 9 it is back in its bag. i'm starting on ball number three. so six skeins total so far. I think i may have to order more.


The next pic is of a crochet blanket i'm working on. I just love the way this feels. I'm using lion brand Jiffy. I like how soft it is and the fact it is machine washable sold me on this yarn. I'm doing this in a deep purple, a tan, hunter green and cream layers. I should be done with this by next week.


On an entirely different subject. I have been selling a few of my items here and there and a friend of mine told me that i need a company name. This was of great debate with my friends. I had them giving me all kinds of ideas. Well i have settled on two that i need to choose from.


#1---- 5 Flare


#2---- Mandies2Happy




Please tell me what you think. I know the mandies2happy thing seems kinda expected but it really did take someone else suggesting it for me to go "oh yeah, i like that". silly me.


I have submitted my projects to a consignment company on the net and I have a few local leads. So let me know what you all think of the names, i can use all the help i can get.


thanks


mandie

Sunday, February 25, 2007

pardon the pause

Sorry i havent been keeping up on the page as much as i would like to. My son just keeps getting this flu that is going around and today was no different. It seems he gets it, gets over it, and gets it again the next week. He is resting with a nice dose of meds and his fever is finally going down so mommy had time to write. I'll be posting a few new pics tonight of the gg shawl i've been working on and a crochet blanket (number two, the first one was torn out) the has really come a long way. I'm also working on a pair of fingerless gloves for a my friend Jags of www.jagsfunkyfibers.com (link at the top of the page). Who by the way will be posting some new yarns to her page later in the week so keep checking back. as i said before, it is recycled yarn from sweaters, it is washed, torn apart, put in hanks and sold for about 2 dollars for 100 yards. Now you cant beat that deal.
So keep an eye out for the cheap yarn on jags and the new pics on here.
REMINDER:
if anyone is working on the part two of the free yarn contest please post a coment and let me know other wise I may be tempeted to break into the stash i set aside for the contest. I just love the yarn i put in there and i'm not sure how much longer i can wait. lol.
thanks
mandie

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

I got my smileys yarn, yeeeaaaahhhhh

On my blog i have a list of my favorite places to buy yarn. One of which is smileys yarn. They have a 40 dollar min. order. well my friend jeni and I decided to go halves on a order. we each went to the site and picked out our 20 dollars of yarn. Well it came today. Jen went with mostly the dollar sale section ( she is new to knitting and is still building her stash). I decided to go with yarns that i havent worked with before. I am just in love with this circus yarn ( and it's only 1 dollar) it comes in great colors and it feels like prima cotton but with out the price tag. I really suggest next time you need a bulk order to go to this site and check it out. they have a great selection. new patterns here i come. so of course i have pics to show you. so here they are.


last nights show

First of all, my grandmother surgery went very well. she is coming home today. she has some pins in her arm and she is sore but other than that she is fine.

Now for gilmore girls. I completly missed dula's hat (I'm sure i am mispelling that). I'm going to have to watch it again. They always have the greatest knits on there. I was so happy to see lore and emily share a real mother daughter moment even if it was alcohol induced. lol. I think lore really needed it. I did feel so bad for her in the morning when reality sunk back in. I guess nice emily can't last forever. Also I can't wait to see where this logan thing is gonna go. I know rory would love him even without all the cash but i dont know how that would effect him. Depending on what dear ol' dad does with the "deal" falling thru this could be the end of them. I really hope not. I like them together. So am i the only one holding my breath for a luke and lore reunion (pardon me as i turn blue, lol). I like how they brought his sister in to put it right in his blind face about lore or i mean the "hen". I think with last nights show they opened alot of doors for the show to be able to end this year or continue. They added a few story lines that can end very fast or drag on. I guess we will have to wait and see.
If you ever go to www.gilmoregirls.org you will see they are holding a bit of a letter writing compaign. it is called the great8mandate. They are trying to convice the network folks that we need another season. but it looks as if alexis ( rory) may be leaving the show on her own. According to the gossip loop that is what is holding the network up on making a final decision.
lets all keep our fingers cross.

Next week we get to see preg. layne take a very strange trip to the hospital on a bed rolling down the center of stars hollow. Looks like a good one.
I'll post some pics of dula's hat as soon as i can find them on the web or take a pic of my tv.
thanks
mandie

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

tonights show

hello all,
I wanted to let you know that i will be posting ( and watching) tongihts show very late. As you read in the last post my grandmother fell. she broke her arm and had to have surgery on it. Well they couldnt do the surgery in our local hospital so she was taken to a bigger hospital about an hour away so i will be there visiting this evening and by the time i get back it will be after gg. So i'll be using the wonderful Tivo to tape the show and watch it asap. Please feel free to leave any show coments on this post for this eveings episode. But for those of you in a different time zone this should work out nicely for you. I'd like to add an i'm sorry for that time difference thing. After i watch an episode the first thing i do is go to the comp to post about it. I forgot that other havent seen that evenings show yet. I will try to wait to post from now on as not to spoil anything for you all.
thanks
mandie

Sunday, February 18, 2007

another gift from the cursed signs.

The "cursed" signs have been moved to the garage but they seem to have struck again. yesterday my grandmother fell while running the vacum. she got caught up in the cords and fell. she laid there for about three hours before my father went to her home. she couldnt get to a phone so we had no idea she had fallen and she lives alone. when he got there he called the ems to come and pick her up for fear she had broken her back (which she did about three years ago falling down a flight of stairs, she was in a halo for 3 months). this time she only broke her arm but it is a really bad break. our local hospital knew they couldnt help her so they sent her to a bigger hospital about an hour away. she will be having surgery or they will put pins thru the skin tomorrow. the doctors dont know what they want to do yet. oh and the car that we had parked next to the garage stopped running so i guess we need to have a sign bon fire. lol. My sister wants to sell them on ebay since she spent so much money on them and sometimes crazy people want a cursed item. so i think that is what she wants to do with them.
on the yarn front
I decided yesterday that i wanted to learn how to crochet since so many edgings on afghans are done in crochet. so i taught myself how to crochet and i must say that i'm not that bad at it or it is really easy. I dont know which one yet. i'm doing a blanket in lion brand "jiffy". I had bought a bunch when it was on sale at jo anns for 1.99. I am also working on a OSU handbag. yes i'm going to try to felt again but this time i'm doing it by hand, which should be an adventure in itself.
talk to you all soon
mandie

Friday, February 16, 2007

my felting disaster









My poor little felting disaster. I need to make a handbag, (which i've done so many times before) with a tiger paw on it. I dont know what i did wrong to make this thing come out soooo bad. I guess it's back to the needles tomorrow. so i started and finished a few projects today. now before you look at the pics please understand that i have a touch of the flu and so does my son so I'm not looking the best in these pics. I got the pattern from www.knitty.com that pattern is called calorimetry here is the link http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTcalorimetry.html




It only took about an hour and a half for one. i changed the amount of cast on on the light pinkish one. i thought the red one was a bit big. please note that the red one is made following the pattern. the other was slightly adjusted. these are great for people who can't wear hats. I am just not a hat person and i usually wear my hair in a pony tail ( since my surgery it bothers my scar if i wear my hair down for too long) so i cant wear hats, that is where this fits in. it will keep my ears warm without messing up my hair.

thanks all,

mandie













Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Lore, Luke and Leg Warmers... trust me, it makes sense.

I will have to stop reading this blog before I watch GG because apparently you watch it much earlier than I do and I saw your post before I saw the episode. I was so far behind that I had no idea what you are talking about though :)

Last night when I saw down to watch GG I cast on my sister's leg warmers (promised to her at Thanksgiving) and I think they are coming along great. Here is what I got done in an hour...

Although to be fair, I may have knit longer... like another two hours longer.

I am glad it isn't working out with Chris, I could never see Lore happy with him. I adore Luke and want to take him home with ME, but I don't see Lore being happy with Luke either. He is too... closed I guess is the word for it. Oh Lore... will we ever find happiness?

so here are some new snow day pics












so here they are. i took these this afternoon. My son micah had such a good time playing in the snow. I on the other hand did not last that long. I went inside right after my pic was taken so i could make hot cocoa. it was all ready for when the boys came in. micah and his dad had fun building a fort in the snow. Micah's poor little checks were so red when he came in. and he got mad at me when i made him wear one of my extra fun fur scarves he said it was "a girl scarf" but it did the job.
I hope you all are coping much better with your winters. We may be allowed to drive tomorrow but as of right now we are still on a level three snow emergancy.
thanks
mandie



Tuesday, February 13, 2007

i can be reached at

mandies2happy@yahoo.com
but please remember to put something about gilmore girls in the subject line or you may get deleted.
thanks
mandie

ok, so that was more sad than i thought

So i thought i would be alot happier about the breakup but i wasnt. I really felt bad for lore. well first off she is an amzing actress, but you could tell how much it pained her to admit that it was not good for them to be together. I think that they had just missed each other at different points in their lives that when they finally had a chance they went for it. also i know that i always have a rebound reletionship so i guess its only right that lore have one. I usually end up meeting the worst men during those rebound times, but i try not to marry them. lol.
then we have poor little chin - chin. i think that it was a fitting funeral for a dog. i like how they added dogs in the crowd.
well i'm hoping to see some gg scarves soon. i hope you are all working hard.
I am still working on the "cozy, gilmore girls" shawl. I want it big enough to wrap around me a couple times. I'll post pics soon.
thanks
mandie

its almost time.

so tonight we get to see how richard is doing after his surgery, we get to meet a new character, and will hopefully see chris go away, far far away, lol. I am writing now just incase my cable goes out before i can write after the show. i have cable internet and if we lose our cable i lose you guys. So pay close attention tonight, i may need you all to fill me in.
the snow is really coming down out there and it is showing no sign of slowing (did you catch the willy wonka reference there?) well hopefully we will talk later.
oh and i received my yarn ball winder and swift in the mail today so i have been winding all of my hanks of yarn , i didnt realize how my hanks i had.
thanks
mandie

i wish is knew how to ski




If you have seen the news today you will know the the eastern U.S has been hit with a wave of snow. Here in my home state of Ohio we have already gotten hit with about 2 inches and it is still coming. here are a few pics of what i woke up to today. oh yeah and school was cancelled so i now have a very grumpy 7 yr old home with me. i'll post a few more pics later tonight so you can see me get slowly snowed in my home. lol. sorry about the sideways pic but as we well know my camera is new and i am still trying to figure out how to work all of the features. lol. the sideways pic is of the street in front of my home. believe it or not but a plow has been by here several times. the other pic is out of a upstairs window looking over the back yarn. yesterday we could see grass out there, now look at it.


Monday, February 12, 2007

I need help by Wednesday please!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been trying to come up with something to write to put into my senior writing portfolio and have come up with a fabulous idea! (Maybe not to the people reading I might confuse the hell out of them). But it will be an article on...knitting meeting aromatherapy. What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have a candle lit or something scented to help you relax as you knit and purl (or struggle with that stupid pattern that looks so pretty in the picture!)? Has knitting gotten you through a stressful time (i.e. final exams, diagnosis of a disease of a loved one or yourself, death of your goldfish, etc.)? Is there a relaxing yarn of choice?

If anyone reads this and knows of anyone with a knitting blog please link them here if I can get it written up soon that will be great (and of course it will be here!). And if I can get my hands on some of that lavender-scented yarn (can't think of what it is called but I'll find out) I will totally write about it.

Thanks ahead of time!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

New pics. sorry i love my new camera






















I hope you all love looking at pics because i have a feeling we will have alot more of them on here now. lol. On the knitting front, I finished another set of the fingerless gloves, this one was out of the new yarn from jo anns fabrics. soy/wool.






pics posted are:






- a fingerless glove in the works, out of recycled yarn from www.jagsfunkyfibers.com. she sells recycled yarn from sweaters and such. 100 yrds for 2.00. you cant beat that.






-some of the yarn i just got from jags.com, i still dont know what i'm going to make with it.






-My new banana silk yarn (orange,yellow yarn) seen with a new viscose yarn (blue, brown) that feels like silk. i got these from a ebay store called town and country llamas. you can find it at.












- two others are of my fingerless gloves in different patterns.












I'm trying to build up a inventory for the christmas season. I want to do some craft shows. so this is why you think i must have six hands with all the gloves i'm making. lol. Next on the list is some beanies. I like the fast but cute patterns.












On the personal front i registered for college today. I'll be starting on march 18th. I am going to get my associates in business administration, the school is a online school. My sister just graduated from there and it seems to have a really good schedule for me.






well i hope you like the pics. and remember only two days until christoper gets dumped, hehehe.






thanks






mandie

Saturday, February 10, 2007

new camera



















I love tax season. I am a single mom so i did pretty well on my tax returns. I went out yesterday and bought myself a few things and the rest is going to the bills. So on my outing i bought some wonderful yarn from jo ann fabrics. they now carry a soy/wool yarn that is not only affordible, soft but it is cute too. I also finally got some size 50 needles. I have wanted to make a blanket with them. so here are a few pics of the yarn and camera. I'll write more a bit later. updates and all. I hope you are all working on your scarves for part two of our contest. I'm sure that z's momma has already recieved her yarn and you can get some too.



thanks




mandie














Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Lor is sooo gonna leave chris. YEAH!!! yes i'm bias.

So on tonights episode we really got to see that chris has not forgoten how to run off on lor. He has done it for years with rory so now married life hits a little rough patch and he's off again. I had read most of what would happen on www.gilmoregirls.org they have a section full of show spoilers. Don't worry i wont ruin the next couple shows for those of you who don't like to read the spoilers. I am soo happy to see the return of logan. I think he is just great for rory. It was also nice to see emily have a mini break down, she almost seemed human tonight. I don't think they would get rid of richard yet. His character plays such a role with rory's schooling.

Did you all see the adds for next weeks show. It looks like it is over for chris. Pardon me as i giggle (yes i know they are not real people). I give it a month of episodes before we see a reunion for luke.

On a personal front the young man who hit my son's cousin was charged with first degree murder. we still dont know a whole lot.

On the knitting front. I just finish another pair of the fingerless gloves for my sister and started a set for my other sister. I am still hard at work on my Gilmore girls shawl. I want it long enought to wrap around me a bunch, so that means lots of yarn, i am a big girls, lol.
I cant wait for next weeks show. wow it is just getting better and better every week.

Oh and didnt you just love the scarf that lor had on tonight. I think it was crochet.

As far as the first part of the contest, Z's momma will be getting her yarn by friday. I hope you love it. I hope you are all working on part two. I have a box of yarn here waiting to have a name and address put on it for the winner of part two.

thanks
mandie

Sunday, February 4, 2007

on a personal note, Do you believe in a curse?

I know this sounds strange but i need to ask. Do you believe in a curse or something that is cursed? Let me explain a bit. My little sister jessica married a wonderful man on oct.7 2006. We as a family were a bit stressed because i had just had my surgery but i was doing very well so we had a wonderful time at the wedding. Her best friend Mindy Stahl was in the wedding party. this was ecspecially happy news for jess. Mindy had been dating chad for years and they have three children. long story short jess and mindy had been talking about getting married in the same yr for a long time. Well 06 was the yr. mindy was married in aug. and jess in oct. After the wedding my sister went to a log cabin in amish country for a small honeymoon. While there they bought several signs to hang in there home ie: one for the bedroom that read "kiss me goodnight" and one for mickels (the new husband) "man" room that had pics of beers on it and said some kind of bar logo. here comes the cursed items, the signs.
On november 5th mindy died in a house fire, leaving behind her three babies and her husband of only a month, gage 8, kaylie, 4 and hayden 1.
--Next was jess and mickels cat "baby"
--then mickels grandmother
--then mickels uncle, who died of a heart attack at the age of 42 while shoveling snow
this is where jess and mickel bring the signs to my home to get them out of theres, i didn't believe in a curse so i said ok bring them over.
--then my sons great grandfather on his dads side passed away, vernon
--then a man named larry that i recently helped move into town from a farm house. he is an elderly man, he moved in town so when he did pass on his wife wouldn't be left out in the country alone he died friday only a month after moving her into town
--now this morning we get the call that my son's cousin (again on his fathers side) was murdered last night. He is only 21 years old, his girlfriend was preg. his name is micheal. He was at a party and someone got mad at him and ran him over with their car. the family is at a loss, and i am going to burn a few signs today. let me know, do you believe in a cursed item?

Saturday, February 3, 2007

we have a winner for part 1, lets get a winner for part 2



























here is my gilmore scarf. Z's momma did it. I used Glace by Berroco that i found half price. needles size was 7 us. In z's momma's post she said to use a 2x2 rib but with a ribbon yarn i couldnt do that. I used a long tail cast on. I knit the scarf long ways. I think i cast on 120, i wanted a smaller version of the scarf, but you could cast on until it is the length you desire.

Row 1 -- knit 5 purl 3

row 2 -- purl 5, knit 3


needle size will change depending on the yarn you pick.

My wonderful model in the pic is my dear friend jeni's little girl. Thanks for the help lexi.

So you've seen my twist on the scarf lets see what you folks can do. So make up your own version and start knitting. send me a pic so we can find winner number 2.

thanks

mandie



click here for a closer look at the scarf.









































































Oh canada


Canada was soooo wonderful. It was a great girls day out, no kids, no work, just shopping, eating and hanging out. I did my research online and found a wonderful knitting shop called Knit one Purl one. I will post some pics of the store as soon as i get them back from the lab. This is a pic of the yarn i bought from there. I have been on a hunt for some hand painted yarn that is mocha brown and light pink mixed but this was as close as i could find. My son was just happy i found a lego store. I have not stopped stepping on them and the leggos have only been here a day. lol. all you moms know what i'm talking about.
The folks were so nice and helpful in windsor, the place is so easy to get around and find what you want. I have driven by windsor many times but never spend any time there. After this day trip i will deffinetly be back.
thanks
mandie

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Z's momma needs to get me a shipping addy. You did it!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been working on a pattern suggested by z's momma for the contest. I used a ribbon yarn so i had to change the rib pattern a bit to make it pop. I will post some pics late tomorrow night along with the pattern. A big thanks to z's momma for the help. I will need you to email me with your shipping info so i can get you some goodies out asap. I am leaving for a day trip to canada in the morning so i am sorry the pics wont be up sooner. As soon as i get the pics up you will have a pattern to run with and see what wonderful gg inspired scarves we can get out of this wonderful and fun pattern. did i mention how easy it is too. Remember i'm giving ya'll yarn here. lol. so brain storm now and let your imagination run.
thanks
mandie