Yay Secret Pal! I got a box in the mail quite a few days ago, but have not had time to catch my breath since then. My secret pal must be very handy with wax because I got the most beautiful candles! With bunnies on them! I also recieved lovely stitch markers, a note pad with a gardening theme, fiber in fall and plum colors (with sparkles, I love sparkles) and some Columbine seeds ( I have never tried planing Columbine before)
I had emailed my Secret Pal to thank her but probably was not as excited as I could have been. I was having a bad day, and even though her gift made my day much better, I was still thinking about things when I emailed her and I am sorry if I seemed a bit off. :o( :o)

Here is photographic evidence of how wonderful my Secret Pal is!




The red buckets were not included in my secret pal gift box :o)

I feel so very lucky that I got this wonderful, talented person.












I have a Live Journal where I write and "talk" with my friends several times a day. I recently read a post by a friend of a friend who wanted a Firefly type T-shirt with a quote from River. So I set up a Cafee Press store with said quoted shirt here. I have one myself and a few other people have said they will be ordering too. I don't think that they will earn all that much, but you never know. So far three shirts have been ordered. COOL!

On the knitting/spinning front: Still plugging away on Pat's maroon sweater, still spinning the olive green and fall toned wool/mohair blend for the sweater for me, and now I am reclaiming yarn from a cashmire sweater that I bought at the thrift store for $1.50. The sweater is nice and all, but it has lots of cables and bobbles on it and I am not a bobble type of gal. It's 100% cashmire and dyed in a kind of light sky blue. I'm thinking socks for me or a scarf and hat set. My friend Gail thinks that I could get all three (socks, scarf and hat) out of it, but I'm not too sure. As I unravel the sweater I will run the yarn through my yarn meter and see what kind of yardage is there. It's soft (o: and seems to be holding up well to being picked apart.

Here are some photos for you to chew on:

1. Orchid with two flowers open. This one smells like cracked pepper, not for everyone, but really neat looking all the same.
















2. Sharry Baby orchid with flower stalk, about 20-22 flower on the stalk. Sharry Baby smells like chocolate and fresh baked sugar cookies, the whole kitchen smells wonderful!


















3. Phalanopsis orchid with full spray. A recent gift from the hubby (o:
















4. All of the citrus plants inside (weather is getting a bit too dicy outside, too hard to regulate humidity) I have three limes on my key lime tree. It's hard to see, but there are six citrus trees, a coffee plant, an avacado plant, and three small date palm seedlings there. And a big fat stuffed bunny on the back of the chair :o)
















5. One part of Pat's sweater. I have one sleeve and the back done. This is what I have completed so far on the front, only 18 more inches to go before the start of the v-neck.

















6. Some of the completed yarn for my olive/fall colored sweater that I feel like I will never finish. I may need to carry along another solid colored yarn with this, as it may not be heavy enough on its own to make the gague correct. The photo is a bit washed out, the yarn is a deeper olive color and the silk/merino I plied it with is more of a plum color. It is yummy soft and warm!
















7.This is a photo of the sweater I am reclaiming. I finished winding it into two balls and came up with1384.3 total yards of reclaimed yarn. It took me an hour to take the seams apart and 39 minutes to wind it into a ball. If only I could make a sweater that fast!
















The set up, I use a ball winder and my yardage meter both at the same time. Gotta love the ball winder :o)

















I recently went on the Knitty/The Point Cruise to benefit the Gilda's Club with my friend Gail (shown below)
We had a great time! Met up with my Betsy (my husbands bosses wife, photo below) who I did not know would be there. It was great to spend time with her and her friend Tam. We had a super lunch, knit and talked and I bid on and won the Jordana Paige knitting bag that was in the silent auction. It was a good day!

















Not the best photo of Betsy, she is always laughing or talking and it's hard to get a good shot of her :o)