She Loves to Knit

Oh No...!

I am a blogging slug. I just made that up. Blogging Slug -- means someone too lazy (or busy otherwise) to post to her blog! Like me. Up to my eyeballs in preparing for the youngest daughter's Bat Mitzvah... a mere 3-1/2 weeks away! What have I been doing? Preparing the program, contracting with the caterer for the kids' party in the evening, searching for musical entertainment for the luncheon, tracking RSVPs (and the LACK of them*), ordering things like light-up bracelets and blow-up ukeleles for the evening party, ordering kippot, ordering balloon arrangements for the evening party, scheduling an airbrush tattoo artist for the evening party, ordering goodies for the luncheon centerpieces (no clues here... I know some of you who read this blog and I want it to be a surprise, haha!) Having done this twice before, I also realize that I have SO MUCH MORE to deal with! All of our family are out-of-towners, so I will have to put together hospitality bags. I also need to print up directions so our guests can find their way from temple to the reception, etc. And I want to have some kind of goodies set out for after the service, since not all of the guests are invited to the luncheon. (Don't fret -- I only mean the kiddies who are going to the night party, but not the luncheon. Still, I should have "something" set out for them. Candy bars? Fruit? I don't yet know.)

At least the landscaping of the front and side yards is all done. I just have to get my butt out there to water the gardens a little more frequently. And the painting in the house is all done. I just have to finish hanging the pictures, etc. Those were BIG jobs, and having them behind us is a relief.

Now, it comes down to making hair and manicure appts., making sure everybody has the right clothes for all of the events -- all that sort of stuff. And then re-confirming everything with the photog, the videographer, etc. And in the midst of it all? Working with the Bat Mitzvah girl to make sure she knows her Torah and Haftarah and her speech and all of that!

*This is a mystery to me. Why people can't simply fill in their name on a response card, put it into the pre-addressed and pre-stamped response envelope and stick it in a mailbox? How hard is that? Talk about slugs....

I turned the knitting switch back ON

Don't know quite what did it, but after weeks and weeks and weeks of not a single knitted stitch passing through my fingers, I actually reached over the side of the bed the other night while hubby was watching somethig not terribly interesting to me on t.v., pulled up my favorite knitting bag and began knitting on that pink silk shrug again -- yippee!  That was Sunday night and I knit a little while J-Daughter was on the TKD mat last night, and I plan on taking it with me again tonight!  I may actually finish it before Thanksgiving, ya think?

And then this crossed my path just a few minutes ago...

and the "Hey, that looks cool -- I want to make THAT" juices started to flow and I think, maybe, I'm cured!  Why now, finally?  No clue.  Not at all.  Why does this Wobbly Circles Tote excite me?  Well, for one, it's a PURSE.  (And you know me and purses, bags, totes, all of them, they call to me.)  And two, it's FELTED, which is always fun.  (Okay, it's not ALWAYS fun.  Sometimes it is a disaster.  I have a disaster made out of this very same Montera yarn stuffed way, way, way in the back of my knitting cupboard, but we don't have to speak of it anymore.  Or ever again.)  And three, I've never done intarsia.  (Well, I did like 20 years ago.  That was before I even had kids.  I don't think it counts anymore.)  Of course, I'm like half-a-year late on the KAL.  Or, I WILL be by the time I get to it.  The pattern is from the Spring 2006 Interweave Knits.  Don't I have that somewhere around here?  Hello -- bathroom towel armoire?  Basket 'o knitting mags on the bedroom floor?  Where are you, O '06 IK?

Purses...

Confession: I am a purse slut.  (Have I mentioned that on here before?)  It is so true.  Coach, Dooney & Bourke, Clever Carriage, The Sak, Carlos Falchi, Isabella Fiore... even Louis Vuitton.  My closet has 'em all... and more!  Now, add to the "name" brands a smallish collection of handmade, artistic creations... painted bags, quilted bags, velvet bags, the kind you find at art shows and in little bouiques.  I just love them!

So, I'm sharing with you my latest love... the "Havana" Large Hobo, in coral, from Hayden-Harnett. How did I find this bag?  Perusing some purse/shopping blog or another.  (There are many... PurseBlog and Bag Crazy are but 2.)  Someone somewhere was raving about the beauty of this company's offerings -- their designs, their construction, their materials.  So I took the chance, emailed a few times back and forth before making my purchasing decision, so they knew just what my needs are in a bag (basically BIG, but not GINORMOUS!)  It arrived a few days before our little jaunts to Pennsylvania and Canada, and after traveling around with it at home and away, I can confidently say, "it works!"  It is pretty, stylish, soft (like really, really SOFT), and comfortable to carry.  YAY Hayden-Harnett.  You are my new favorite purse designers!  From Brooklyn, NY.

(I can so see me ordering another one of the very, very same bag in a darker color for fall/winter... chocolate? deep green? this cool black & white tweed they had last year, I think?)

Hyundai Entourage WINS major upset victory!

So much seems to have happened in such a short time, once again, with nary a knitting stitch involved.  Zack left early, early last Sunday morning for 3-1/2 weeks at sleepaway camp.  It's his 3rd summer there, with all the same guys in his cabin, so I'm not terribly worried about him having a good
time.  But, I do miss him. 

It is the same camp where Anna had been for the previous 3 weeks, and where she was going to be
working for the rest of the summer, as one of 2 nannies for the director's kids:  a 4-mo. old and a
2-year old.  A job with the potential for lots of fun, but also a very demanding job.  Anna is GREAT with kids, but not as great dealing with stressful situations and relationships in a calm and straightforward manner, and the work was very demanding.  She just kept getting progressively more frustrated and exhausted with each day.  Without really thinking through it all, she told her employers on Tuesday that she didn't think she was going to make it through the rest of the summer.  Well, within an hour, she was in her car, all packed up and on her way back to Buffalo.

In the meantime, though, Rick and J-Daughter and I had planned a quickie get-away for the 3 of us to Toronto!  We invited her to join us, but Anna declined and stayed at home with the dog while we drove to Toronto on Thursday, saw Blue Man Group (which was AWESOME!), stayed overnight, visited the Hockey Hall of Fame (okay, I got bored after a while, I admit it) and drove home late Friday afternoon.

As for Anna, she has a line on some part-time work, at the adoption agency where she worked in during high school and all last summer, and she's registered for a class for the last summer session at UB. 

And now... The Big News:  After weeks of searching for the perfect used Honda Odyssey (it
doesn't exist) or Toyota Sienna (very, very hard to find, in the model with all the bells and whistles
that I wanted), we bought a brand-new Hyundai Entourage the other night!  With all the bells and whistles!  (Seriously, what do I need a DVD player for?  But it comes with the package that has the leather seats and the moonroof and the upgraded sound system, all of which I DID want.)  My husband
was even sweet enough to take Wednesday and drive down with me to a Toyota dealership in Bradford, PA to check out a used Sienna that looked good online.  Guess what?  It looked like crap and smelled bad.  I knew in 1/8 of a second that I didn't want that car.  At least it wasn't a total waste of time.  It was just nice to be together without work or kids for a few hours, and we had a lovely dinner in a Middle-Eastern cafe in Ellicottville on the way home.

As for the car, it just so happened that my brother-in-law, who is a total car enthusiast, had
told us the day before that the new Hyundai minivan, which they call the Entourage, had recently been released and was receiving rave reviews and excellent predictions.  Better in the most recent safety tests than any other minivan on the market, and priced way less than the Honda or the Toyota for the same "stuff."  I read everything I could find on the internet, and it all seemed to check out.  So, wave to me in my new gold minivan from Northtown Hyundai!  (And forgive me for bragging... I haven't gotten a new car in 10 years, and I totally, totally, totally expected to be buying used.  This was really a surprise.)