Wednesday, October 22, 2008

SFTH - On Going Project

A few people have asked if Scarves From The Heart is an ongoing project, and the answer is a definite Yes! We've just added St. Teresa Cancer Center in Stockton, CA to our list of recipients and if the scarves continue to come in at the current rate we should be able to make a donation to one or more of the homeless shelters or missions in the next month or two.

On my needles, scarves; one in purple bamboo in a pattern adapted from a dishcloth pattern called Vineyard. It isn't very far along because ms perfection frogged a whole repeat the other night because the edging should be k3 at both ends and a couple of rows ended with p3. A yellow one in Corntastic yarn in color maize which is a design that's coming straight from my imagination. One that is well over half done in Paton's Decor in manly autumn colors, another of my own pattern creations.

Completed: Neckwarmer, fingerless gloves, and hat for a friend's birthday and also the Mistake Rib scarf in off white Red Heart "Soft".

Still waiting in the wings, dd's Bella Cardigan, the purple scarf in Wool/Llama blend yarn, a pink lace scarf in Sirdar Snuggly.

I've added a couple more epies to my collection, even though I said I wouldn't . . . but they were free! I also received some Begonia cuttings from a fellow in South Carolina which I'm trying to root. Sadly, my cat decided one of them should be liberated from it's pot and removed, not just once, but twice. I've now set it where she can't reach to play with it.

Our oldest son and his family have reached Belgium safely and are residing in a hotel temporarily because no one rents out apartments and houses in the middle of the month. Our 10 year old granddaughter will attend the British school because the international school has no openings in her grade level.

Time to leave to have dinner with friends . . . chat later.

posted by Shelly @ 3:18 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 06, 2008

No excuses, just not enough brain power . . .

Have you ever felt like you had so much information floating around in your head that it's impossible to sort it out and get it blogged? That seems to be the case for me over the past couple of months.

Having said that, I won't bother with excuses, I'll just try to hit the highlights of life in our little abode.

Let's see . . . in late August hubby and I took a day trip to the bay area, Vallejo, Crockett and then down to Fremont. Epiphyllum shopping for me, and enhancing the Disneyland collection at a few antique shops for hubby. We had a great day, the weather was spectacular, had a great lunch, toured the greenhouses of my favorite epi seller and brought home some treasures. This is just one of the new epies I've added to my collection in the past couple of months. This one is "Sunflare" which gets an extra large bloom. XL usually means it can often grow to as much as 10" across. If these flowers attract you like they did me, here's a great place to buy them.


Don grows, chooses, packs and ships all his own plants, and he guarantees them 100%. His plants and cuttings are always very healthy, you can also buy from him on ebay. His seller name is dcravalho and he has 100% feedback. His ebay store name is Epiphyllum World. You won't find a nicer guy to deal with imho, and you can count on quality product.

September 11th brought the "Gathering of Friends" event for St. Joseph's Regional Cancer Center where Scarves From The Heart gave out nearly 50 scarves. Much fewer than we expected to need. A couple of reasons seem to account for the lower number of scarves this year. First, the event didn't seem to attract as many people this year, and second, each attendee wore a name tag that indicated their status as either a survivor or supporter. Last year we were giving scarves out to folks 'assuming' they were all survivors. Here some of the survivors of this year's event choose scarves with the help of family or friends.

Thanks Jeanne and Shelby, oh and you too Dale, for helping out. It was a great event.

On Sept. 17 hubby and I headed to Gilroy, CA for an overnight stay with plans to do some antique store browsing. On the way we stopped at Casa de Fruta where we had a delicious lunch and stretched our legs by browsing the different stores and attractions before making the last leg of the trip. We've found we need more stops to keep from getting stiff as we age. Potty breaks don't hurt either . Gilroy still has a nice selection of antique stores where hubby found a few treasures for his Disneyland collection. We also cruised through the outlets which were very close to our hotel but only went into two, Kaybee Toys where we didn't buy anything, and Osh Kosh B'Gosh where we picked up two adorable outfits for the Oct 5th birthday of granddaughter, Brodie Sky, who was turning 1.
On Saturday morning we headed for a succulent and epi show in San Juan Bautista. It was held in the courtyard of the Jardin de San Juan restaurant, a beautiful location shaded by large trees, many acting as a place for huge pots of epies to hang. Once again, I added to my epi collection. There was also a small street fair that we browsed through, as well as a couple of antique stores, but didn't find much with the word Disneyland on it. By time we finished walking the couple of blocks occupied by the street fair the large toe on my left foot was letting me know that the redness I'd noticed on Friday when I checked my feet (a daily routine for a diabetic) was more than just redness. I would like to have walked around town more, as it's a really nice little town with a lot of historical interest. We'd also planned to lunch at Jardin, but I needed to get off my foot and get my shoe off. So, the sore toe won over my wishes and we decided to head home instead. By time we got home the toe was seriously infected. So on Sunday I soaked it, and doctored it with some hydrogen peroxide, and on Monday got in to see my primary physician early. Now a round of antibiotics and lots of tlc later, it's completely healed.

Tuesday the 30th of September Scarves From The Heart participated in Patient Appreciation Day for Stockton Hematology-Oncology and gave out about 40 scarves, and left another 30 or so in the clinic for patients to choose from. Thanks, Dawn, for your help. We were gifted with a very nice autumn themed centerpiece for participating. They had a raffle for the patients and participants. SFTH donated a Reader's Digest Knitting Kit and 5 free knitting lessons. I don't know who won it yet. There was a lady there who wanted it badly and I hope she won it.

There's always a little time for knitting . . . in addition to scarves, I've finished a crocheted baby blanket which I'm not completely happy with and knit a pair of fingerless gloves and a neck warmer for a friend who also grows epies and shares the same birthday as me. I've begun casting on for a matching hat, but it has been set aside for a couple of days. The neckwarmer still needs a loop and button added.

Currently I have a scarf in the broken rib stitch of off white "Soft" yarn by Red Heart nearly complete. I am using it as a traveling project. Also in progress is a manly scarf of Paton's Decor in an Autumn Varigated. This one is being knitted from each end with plans to connect it in the center. It's a design of my own making and I'm almost done with the detailed portion, then can use it as a traveling project as the other scarf is nearly completed.

I completely frogged the Bella Cardigan from knitty dot com that I started well over two years ago, long before I was confident in my knitting skills. I'm remaking it in the next size larger as it wasn't going to fit dd. I've restarted it, but not much progress with it.

DS #1 and his family will leave for Brussels, Belgium this coming Sunday where he will work for 1 to 3 years. We will miss them, but know we will hear from them often.

Yesterday hubby brought me an early birthday gift . . . a potting bench that we'd seen on Friday at an Orchard Supply Warehouse store in Sacramento. It's a really nice one with a stainless steel top and a small dry sink, a shelf below the work space and two narrower shelves above the work space.

On the 19th of this month my two sisters in law, a neice and I will attend an event at the Hospice House where my mother in law was cared for in her last days. They were amazing with her, and all of our family.
As for blogging, I've decided not to even think about trying harder to come here more often. Each time I try to make commitments Satan seems to make sure I don't succeed at it. So I'll be back when I get back . . . hopefully soon!





































posted by Shelly @ 8:40 PM 3 comments